Parrott does it again, and in defence of Bellingham

0:22Hello and welcome back to the Stadio Podcast. I'm Musaqwonga. I'm Ryan Hunn. Ryan, how are you doing? Doing alright, thanks man. How are you? Not as good as England's Defence, but then again, who is these days? Yes, yes. Not as good as me, I'm about to book a flight to Troy Parrott International Airport. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I probably should also mention, since we're in the business of booking flights, I will be in Morocco for the first few days of January. I just thought it would be nice to go and soak up some of the vibes, actually. so yeah if anyone's around any studio listeners in the vicinity that'd be lovely recommend some some good food spots definitely yes yes we hope everyone's staying safe and well wherever you are first bit of admin very important tickets for our show at the Southbank Centre in London are still available but there aren't a huge amount of tickets left and we are now less than a month away what is it we're about three three and a half weeks away from the show two and a half weeks two and a half weeks away from the show oh my goodness yeah yeah yeah wow two and a half weeks away from the show so if you want to come and see us at the South Bank December the 4th it's a Thursday night it's the first of a run of quarterly shows that we're doing at the South Bank Centre go and buy your tickets come along we'd love to see you there we'll hang around afterwards and say hello the link for the tickets is in the podcast description so make sure you go and buy your tickets and do it quick yes yes because you never know they might be gone put now to avoid disappointments or to at least to see us put now to see us book now to guarantee disappointment yes that's the new tagline bring now to ensure disappointment oh god uh other bits of admin this week we're only doing two shows so if you want to listen to the other show this week it's going to be an 11 we're going to do one of the i think the first 11 that we've done since we've gone out into this big wide world of podcasting on our own to the ether yes yes it's a bit of an amalgamation or a mixture of a few ideas that we've had over the last couple of weeks but we've decided to frame it as the reliable 11 yes an 11 of players that managers always turn to and that they may not be necessarily the 100 to 200 million pound players but managers love them so if you want to listen to that episode and all the other episodes of stadio ad free and in full go and sign up as a stadio member on patreon patreon.com forward slash stadio if you just want the podcast there's a podcast membership there for you works out just less than six quid a month if you sign up for a year if you want to have all the podcasts plus access to the stadio social club discord discord hangouts like we had on saturday night which was lovely with the yes stadio social club family or just extra perks like a membership pack if you sign up for a year advanced notice for ticket sales all this kind of stuff there'll be merch perks and everything you can sign up as a stadio social club member as well patreon.com forward slash stadio 15 off all annual memberships and uh yeah go sign up now so you can listen to the reliable 11 in full and we're going to do a lot more uh conceptual 11s going forward see the reliable 11s can be of current players but as we even is it though this is well i think if because if it's not it's super interesting because immediately i'm thinking of like maybe we could do one current versus one because I think the historical ones are like super fun as well why don't we do one this would be interesting actually because we'll have to decide on it together so we could do one current 11 against one historical 11 the historical 11 is going to be absolutely wild man there's like two names already I was like oh my goodness these players are absolutely well if we if we we're talking ourselves down let's not get into this now look at us let's try and do that let's try and do that if we can't do it we'll just do current players yes all right so anyway today we're going to talk about some of the men's world cup qualifiers from the weekend we're going to talk a little bit about some wsl stuff so there was a barcelona real madrid game there was the nwsl semi-finals there was loads of other stuff going on this weekend and we're also going to talk a little bit about people's obsession with like trying to create jude bellingham beef weird yeah super weird but there is only one place to begin this week.

4:46Where's that? And it's unanimous. We're going to Knoxville, Tennessee because one Knoxville beat Spokane Velocity 2-0 to win the USL 1 National Championship after also finishing the season with the best regular season record as well. And the reason we're starting here is because there was essentially a watch-along going on in the Stadio Social Club Discord because Stadio Social Club member Jeff is a one Knoxville season ticket holder and was at the final and everyone has kind of secretly been rooting for all these USL teams in the last few months following off the back of Vermont Green's success in USL too.

5:31So I feel like... A people's victory. Yeah, there was a lot of support this season for Portland Hearts of Pine in the Stadio Social Club Discord. There's a lot of support for one Knoxville because of Jeff. Vermont Green gets a lot of love in there. So yeah, there you go. Shouts to everyone in Knoxville, Tennessee, enjoying the, I think that's their first USL won national championship. That's awesome. Congrats. I was watching it on YouTube. It was great. Oh man, absolute vibes. And I all caught up on the chat. It looked incredible. Love the photos as well. Absolutely great. But we are going to start actually for the second time in a row.

6:09I joked the other day about Troy Parrott winning the Ballon d 'Or it's looking it's looking pretty like it's looking pretty nailed on now to be honest it's incredible Hungary 2 Ireland 3 in the final seconds it was in the 6 minute of 5 minutes I think there needs to be an award for the Parrott door for the best footballing journey maybe we don't do it this year for the studies it's probably too late and he gets the inaugural award we just say he has it but maybe like for the best footballing journey because there are times when you have like the player of the season but that's not necessarily what you need it's almost like someone that does a certain thing in this case he's had just the greatest week of his professional life and one of the greatest weeks of his entire life by the looks of it um where a player just goes on a hot streak or achieves a potential in a particular way because what he did I mean he was in the post-match interview and he said like you were saying it was the best like the best day of your life or footballing life like just a few days ago and now you've got to know this and even he was in disbelief it's and you know what i loved about it he didn't even caveat it with anything personal or family he was just like this is the best this is it this is it because it's one thing doing it at home against portugal which is pretty incredible really like beating portugal don't get me wrong that was unreal like doing it there where portugal had to win to seal qualification for the world cups they've now done because poor amine got cooked 9-1 but um to do this in hungary after going a goal down in a game that hungary had to win and also a goal that was probably up there for one of the goals of the year with varga's goal it's unreal it's it's just absolutely mind-blowing the resilience of the ireland team spearheaded by parrot and of course it's a team victory no question and also saying all of that this is the interesting thing about football is that um the individual that team support absolutely but there are some moments that only particular players the particular desire could have pulled off and that even the finish for the winner like to control that as he did the timing and the touch most strikers going in like that foul the keeper it's just so good because i was watching the scotland game the other night as well away at greece yeah and scotland can if they win this week at hamden they're through to the to the world cup but coming from 3-0 down against greece to bring it back to 3-2 and there were a load of moments towards the end of the game not two dissimilar situations to Parrot's winner.

8:32The keeper would get a limb here or a defender would get a block here. So you kind of realise how when it's so congested in that box, it can be very, very difficult to have A, the clarity of mind just to do something really, really subtle and also to find the path through. But the thing that's so impressive for me, I think, is the timing of the run and the anticipation. He's off before the balls even landed on the head. And I know that in situations like this, you can always get caught up in the whole thing. But Troy Parrott is, he's only 23. He's been scoring a huge clip in the Dutch League, man.

9:08I don't know, man. This is one of the best footballing things I've seen for a while. How many other strikers score five and two against those two teams? That's the thing. When presented with those chances, and look, this isn't a flash in the pan. He's been doing it in the Dutch League for the last couple of years, scoring a really steady clip. So he's found a place where he's comfortable. He's a really good goal scorer. And maybe he's just now showing us what, you know, his teammates or people around him already knew, you know, his early coaches going, actually the potential was always there. The quality was always there.

9:40And again, we've always said this, when a club is in chaos, as Spurs, you know, Spurs weren't at the best spot, you know, when he was there, good players always fall out in the mix. Good young players always fall out in the mix. They don't quite get the platforms they deserve. And it's always interesting to think, if you look at how Frank is bringing along young players now, Bergvau, someone like a parrot you could imagine getting with his talent, games in and around that, like let's say Carabao games to prove yourself. But anyway, all that being said, he is where he is now. He's got these five goals.

10:12He's created memories that his country will never forget. Let's focus on that to start with. In the ranks of great Irish sporting achievements, this is right up there with some of the best. Absolutely. in terms of yeah a nation going up against like six points from Portugal and Hungary and we know how good like Hungary have been in qualifiers they've got Sabaslai right there they're at home and they were looking ominous they took the lead twice and Ireland just came back on them it's unbelievable that they did this and yeah fingers crossed then like Kiva Kelleher with the long it just the whole there was something about even the goal it was such a kind of like get the hell out of dodge keeper clears the lines no keeper like lumps it forward one last time chaos in the box and the thing about Parrott's finish that's so great is like he watches it onto his boots I felt like the whole thing was relatively calm in terms of a last second last gap well constructed because Kriven Kelleher picks up the ball and he's in that almost like Tony Kroos deep lying midfielder left pocket position clips a ball to the back post onto the head of Liam Scales and it's just a very, very smart cushioned assist down but Parrott's run is so good and he's timed it so well it just falls onto his boot.

11:33For that moment of the game three extremely great touches of football. The Irish are the nice line in cushioned assists the last couple of games. One more, we're going to call it the Irish assist. One more. Was it Scales' header for the goal the other night? I think it was. I think it was, right? It was him. Yeah, it was. Oh my God, yeah, he came around. Oh my goodness, there he is. My guy's just setting it up. And then absolute bedlam after that, and Paragot's book taken shut off, which he will give zero shits about. There is something about, there's certain things that make goals even better, right?

12:07One of them, of course, is in off the bar, but another one is like the celebration where the player just wheels away and just collapses on the terms. Bench is cleared. And everyone just like piles onto them. Was it Baggio in the, I keep talking about this goal, the Czech Republic goal, when he just lies on the turf like he can't believe what he's done and everyone's just like oh my god like there's just something so good about like when a player scores a goal and they just like they have no celebration it's just pure euphoria pure emotion actually i do love a choreograph celebration don't get me wrong but the thing i love even more than that like is that you know it's the marco tardelli like i can't believe i've just done like and the look on his face he does that really cool thing when he zigzags between everyone yeah so that like he gets to like enjoy his own sprint and then he likes okay come on everyone pile on it was just amazing an unbelievable moment and again getting your choice getting out of that group to go to a playoff unreal is incredible by itself by itself yeah yeah yeah and the draw i think takes place on thursday so we'll see who who they get but yeah congratulations to ireland yeah amazing any other European qualification stuff you want to shout out or because we're talking ahead of some games some more games tonight so I mean just in terms of the volume of goals Portugal beating Armenia 9-1 Bruno Financi looked amazing Shara Neves as well Azerbaijan took the lead against France who won 3-1 we shouted out Magnus Agliuc who's a player to watch he was influential in that game Norway beating Italy 4-1 having got a goal down and looking really really strong really strong Oscar Bob and Haaland doing bits there yeah I suppose those are the ones that really really stand out of course and then Spain just cleaning house 4-0 against Georgia before we talk about England let's shout Democratic Republic of Congo who beat Nigeria on penalties unbelievable result incredible achievement that yeah it's incredible quite a strange penalty shootout actually yeah the crowd throwing bottles onto the pitch to the point where people are converting penalties while bottles are flying at them.

14:16And I think the winning penalty was converted with a bottle like near the penalty spot. I'm not being funny, but that is really bad officiating. Really bad, like to the point where that should have been a case of like, like in extreme cases, look, players off the pitch until this stops or like serious sanctions or like crowd control because that was just, at one point, like I think it was, I think a Nigeria player scores and then kicks the ball away from the spot, kicks the bottle away from near the spot going like, yeah, like kind of screw you basically. Absolutely like, I mean, we've seen laser pointers before and shootouts all over the world, which is one thing, but like bottles of like, it's like litre and a half bottles of water, like half full, a landing.

14:57And those things aren't being thrown that far if they can get to that place. So yeah, like really disappointed with the officiating there, but Democratic Republic of Congo doing so well here to beat a Nigeria team that had plenty of talent. And Victor Asimene goes off with some kind of injury fairly early in the game. So he had to watch the whole thing unfold, but they still had enough quality to go through. For a country with Nigeria's quality, it's just not good enough. The Nigeria players had to go up against the FA for late payment. You know, the problems are not... They go beyond the field, actually, their infrastructure and all the rest of the organization.

15:33So yeah, it's a real disappointment for Nigeria. but congratulations to the Democratic Republic of Congo especially with look in terms of countries that are going through it like literally just to give you a contrast of it like they had an appalling landslide in one of the regions just around the same time as this game you know fatal landslide so that is a country that's been going through it for the longest so just amazing they've had something like this they can really rally around and support really exciting should we talk about England? yes let's do it England haven't conceded a competitive goal for over a year.

16:10And yet. Actually, let's stay with that first, because we'll get to the and yet. But I just want to say, this is an incredible achievement. Do you know what's happened here? What's that? It's been far too straightforward. If anything, they've qualified too well. They've qualified too well. Very, very smooth. Not particularly eventful World Cup qualifying campaign. England are extremely good. I think Thomas Tuchel, actually. I'm going to focus on some positives. I'm actually going to praise Thomas Tuchel a little bit because I think he's, like personnel-wise and selection-wise, I think he's handled this World Cup qualifying campaign very well because you've got to see certain players who you probably wouldn't have got a chance to look at.

16:54He's not put out full-strength squads for every single game where he knows he doesn't need them. Some players have been left out of squads even though I think they will be at the World Cup. And yeah, I think that's the thing about England. It's just been fairly straightforward. We know that this side is going to go very, very deep into the competition. And these kind of qualifying campaigns, the potential for slip ups is huge because you're expected to come through top of that group. The fact that they've managed to do it without conceding a goal is something that is kind of wild. I think it's very significant.

17:28It's very significant because, look, so England have played 8-1-8, 4-22 against zero. That is the best. No one's done that. No other nation's done that in qualifying before. So that needs its own conversation. Is that true? Is that a thing? That's the best. I think it's the best qualifying campaign. To have conceded no goals in a World Cup qualifying campaign and to have won every single game, I think that's the first time that's been done. I think it is. Spain could level it this time around. But what is so interesting about this is that the challenges they presented with in this qualifying campaign are precisely those which elite teams face in the World Cup against lesser teams, right?

18:08You look at the World Cup 2010 where Spain won and you can't forget Xavi talking about how incredible Paraguay's defensive system was. There are teams that come up knowing they're going to play you and they will set up to frustrate you for 90 minutes, two hours, and they will go to penalties. and so the teams the way they set up in this qualifying knowing that England had vastly superior resources they set up very very well against them from Andorra to Albania and it's credit to England they found diverse ways to break them down because these people may not like this they might find this a boring group England were never going to get exciting games in this group they may not get exciting games at the World Cup this is going to be the kind of football they end up playing and what's interesting about this is that now we know that Tuchel has his preferred midfield access it looks like it's going to be rice and anderson which is great you've got gordon left you've got saka right or madoweke or you've got rashford the deputize and kane is the nine and then you've got great options at 10 you've got great options at 10 you could have ezzy in there you could have rogers get a bellingham and the thing about bellingham to say we'll come to bellingham in a bit maybe this is a bridge conversation you know when we said that erling hall and when they bought when city bought him and it was like does city need him and i said not yet they don't need Erling Haaland until the quarterfinals England don't need Jude Bellingham until they don't need anyone particularly that's the thing this is it but this is it and this is what's so interesting we'll get to the Bellingham conversation maybe as part of this because I just stay with Tuchel for a moment Ryan and I know you're going to praise Tuchel as well what I loved about Tuchel's post-match was how much he clearly loves coaching this squad yeah like he loves it that is that sounds like a small thing but there have been managers before who have not visibly loved coaching this England squad.

19:53And that's a huge thing. And it feels like the players enjoy it too, actually. Like you look at the players he's brought in. Elliot Anderson is a fixture in the England team. And that was not given a few months ago. That's a genuine innovation. Yeah. So I just think credit to him for the job he's done. a couple of things he'd like to improve there always are but fundamentally really strong Yeah I mean the thing is it was great to see you know Adam Wharton starting a game instead of Elliot Anderson but just come in with Bellingham and Rice around him Yeah yeah That's the thing about this England squad is that it is so stacked that some very very very good players are not going to make the squad for the World Cup and that's not going to be negative about them it's just that there are just so many good players now you've seen through this campaign the amount of rotation that there's been and that's quite a good thing for Tuchel to bring to this England squad you know seeing people like Jarrell Kwanza starting a game in a World Cup qualifier I think it's just really good I think it's just a good thing to know that I love that and he deserves that yeah and I think that it's good to know that even with the players there like it's felt more people have had an active involvement in this campaign A chance, yeah.

21:11An absolute natural chance. Yeah, yeah. And whether they get to go to the World Cup or not is another thing, but they've definitely all played a role in getting England to the World Cup. And I think Jude Bellingham is one of them. He's the guy who's had, if I'm being honest, like a weird amount of discourse throughout these last few months for England. And I think that there's a few things at play here. You know, I mean, we're going to talk about it now because a journalist after the game in the press conference essentially flagged something to Thomas Tuchel. Tuchel hadn't seen it and he was just like, well, look, I'll review it.

21:48And the gist was that for the second goal, Bellingham hadn't celebrated and he was throwing his arms up in the air and moaning that he was coming off. And then to be fair to Sky, Sky actually reviewed it and said in a report that they had from their correspondent, they actually corrected it and said, look, we've actually looked at the footage and Bellingham did celebrate, he just went over to celebrate with Marcus Rashford for the assist. To be clear, the journalist alleged or suggested that Bellingham had not celebrated the second goal with the rest of the team and that meant that he wasn't a team player, not part of the collective.

22:22Yeah, and actually he'd gone to celebrate the assist from Marcus Rashford which was brilliant and a couple of other players did that and then they went to celebrate with everyone and then he saw that he was coming off and he kind of was a bit frustrated but by the time he got off it seems like he was fine you know this wasn't like a Vinicius in the classico storming down the tunnel like going off all the way off kind of thing it was just a bit like oh fuck I'm coming off yeah and I think as well yeah like he Albania deep line defense England had just gone 2-0 up and he hadn't had you know an assist he'd had an opportunity he maybe played Nese earlier.

23:02Played pretty well, actually. He played Nese as he could have scored. But I think that always the frustration of, look, I really want to like... Yeah, I think he was probably having quite a good time out there because he was moving the ball and he was involved in lots of little flicks around the corner, little passes here and there. What's interesting though is that like Tuchel wasn't particularly bothered by it. Sky weren't particularly bothered by it. Well, the Sky Journal wasn't bothered by it. So the Sky headline on the YouTube is like more kind of like, more forceful. but fundamentally the people in the center of this didn't play it up you're creating narratives out of thin air and the conversations around bellingham are what they are and look squads have internal unrest all the time look at look at spain look at spain when spain were winning three straight they literally had rail and barca at each other but they had that like chavi had to go and be a peacemaker right that was that was actual tension that was real like you know profound and they managed to sort that.

24:00I just think there's this real thing of like, sometimes, as you said, when it's all a bit too quiet, stuff has to be created. Now look, Tuchel is not without room for criticism. I think he has kind of the Amirim thing where it's, first of all, it's a second language. Secondly, I think both of them, I think Amirim and Tuchel, they're coaches first. And what I mean by that is when you're a coach first and you communicate with your players, your whole thing is the reason why Amirim is so successful or has been successful so far, the reason why Tuchel is so successful, direct communication has got them here, right?

24:31And when you're on the training ground and you're talking directly and that's the way you've always been because that's why he was so brilliant since the days of Mainz, that's your style. But I think Amorim and Tuchel, there's an element where they don't always grasp the ambassadorial nature of the jobs they have. Yeah, they don't actually speak enough like politicians, I think, that you have to sometimes be an England manager because - Just what I mean, this is it. And this is also something to do with the English press. I think that they are leaning for certain things in England, like England discourse.

25:02And I think sometimes, Southgate was absolutely amazing at this and he was perfect at the right time because he took a lot of the heat out of stuff, Southgate. Whereas Tuchel, it was a different time to when Southgate came on board as manager and that England team navigated a hell of a lot of really tricky stuff that I think Southgate mastered. Yeah, he did. Tuchel is here. we said this when he took charge, right? We were kind of giggling about how little of a shit he was going to give about the press stuff and how actually, I think we said at the time that the English press won't like that. The point I'm going to make is kind of similar to why I think Bellingham gets so much heat.

25:40There is a distinct thing ingrained in English media about the need for England as an entity, whether that be if you're covering politics, it's like Britain as a political entity, or if you're in a footballing sense, for the need to be like the centre of the conversation or like taken very, very seriously. Like the past decade has been dominated by Britain's insecurity about its place in the world, right? England's. England specifically, but it's done under the banner of Britain, right? But it is an English specific problem. And we've talked about this a few times. Now, I think that in a footballing sense, even on people who are politically quite liberal, a lot of that stuff is echoed through the coverage of the England men's team specifically.

26:23Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think with Bellingham, there's always been an element of this fact that his career has been so well... Produced. Yeah, produced as a good... And managed. Managed and planned well. Played in the Championship and then he went to Dortmund and then he goes from Dortmund to Real Madrid. And there's a sense of, I genuinely think from a lot of press people, of like, oh, he thinks he's too good for us? He thinks he's too good for the Premier League. I do think that that pisses people off quite a bit. Of course it does. And it's the same thing. And that's the thing with Tuchel. Tuchel doesn't really like care enough about massaging the ego of the English media to the point where they're like, oh, he's not taking us seriously.

27:02He doesn't give enough of a shit about us. Whereas Southgate, I think, got that a little more and took more time to do that. Whereas Tuchel's not there for that. He's just there to sort the football stuff out. It's exactly what it is. You know, I love it for footballers of all backgrounds who, I love it for England footballers of all backgrounds, who go abroad. Because you just get left alone, you get the chance to develop. And that goes for like footballers, you know, whether they be black or white. I just think it's great for your personal development. I just think you get to really work on your craft.

27:30I would have loved to see, I mean, I would have loved to see more England players work with Xabi Alonso at Leverkusen, where it's a town where you can just chill, do your thing, people root for you, and you can just really develop your craft. It's why I'm so happy to see Kwanzaa there. I think he's got a great coach there at Leverkusen. And look, he started at right back. His debut against a difficult opposition. He did really, really well. I was really impressed by that. So I'm all for that player development. I just think, I think we were talking in the chat before, one of our esteemed colleagues was saying how, look, this is actually one of the reasons why the Bellingham brothers will never play in the Premier League or might not play for a while because they just get left alone when they're abroad.

28:09And look, incredible footballer, as we all know. I think Real Madrid fans, some are still, I think some Real Madrid fans are still working out exactly what Bellingham is. As I've said before, I think he's the latest iteration of Frank Lampard in terms of all of that skill set or a rude hill. And I think Tickle knows that. And the best is yet to come from Bellingham. And what's so exciting is I think we might find lineups where you have all those players playing on the front foot. bellingham gordon foden saka or madame coming in and kane and that is a formidable attack and all these conversations the thing is they're going to be they're going to be like they're going to be like used chip paper in a few months it's all going to be forgotten it's all going to be forgotten it is it's just it's it there is an element of boredom to it i think and also is jude bellingham absolutely perfect no but he shouldn't need to be he's a young man playing football he's gonna this also this will sound a bit like whataboutery right but i'm gonna go there anyway why don't we celebrate the good news stories in this squad like elliot anderson for me the best story of this entire qualifier is elliot anderson i love his progression what he's done he came through the ranks at um newcastle found his feet at forest and for what he's done he's done it with such ease people don't realize how how hard it is to break through it normally players like that break throughout tournaments do you know why though in a qualifier english people don't like nice things things can't be nice there always has to be some kind of thing do you know what ryan i don't i don't think we've been spiritually on side for a while as a country oh my god are you talking like i don't think england england england is like remember that like do you remember that killian mbappe game where he was like he was like offside 15 times in the game.

30:04That's basically just like, if there was ever a nation that could not hold its run, it's England. Oh my God. Do you know what? That's, now we're getting to it. Because this is it. But there should be zero beef from this qualifying campaign. Like, what the fuck are we all doing? Like, let's get real. There is no reason to do this. Morgan Rodgers achieving his potential. Like, I'm not saying that the England team is perfect. I'm not saying Thomas Tuchel is perfect. Thomas Tuchel can be prickly. He can be difficult. he's had a long history of falling out with certain yeah executive level at clubs right are those players perfect no are they always going to be on their best behavior in terms of like if they're getting subbed off or if they're not included in england squad no they're elite athletes who want to play and they all want to play a part in it of course they're going to be disappointed is there anything that has happened in this world cup qualifying campaign to warrant the level of discourse that has happened absolutely not but that doesn't generate clicks ryan can you imagine if england had struggled to qualify like germany had been struggling can you imagine if england had lost 2-0 in a qualifier to like let's say a serbia like england in my opinion i don't think anyone has got the depth that england have got there may be squads who have high season top five players are maybe like better than england's top five overall but in terms of the highest floor this england side is so good and it has been good for a long time there has been you know england could have won a Euros in the men's because obviously the women have gone back to back but in the men's side of it they could have won the Euros they weren't drastically outplayed by Spain and they could have got to a World Cup final.

31:39Yeah, yeah. And do you know what I think is happening? It's a similar thing. I was talking with Andrew on the last blog last week and I was talking about how quickly success is normalised. Oh God, yeah. Totally, totally. And you've seen it with I was talking about it in an Arsenal perspective so like people have the right to do whatever they want, right? But for example, I mean, right, his house only started in 2020, so it couldn't have been that long ago. I remember specifically saying to Ian that I'm not sure if I'll ever see Arsenal win the league again in my lifetime because that's how far away it felt.

32:09It felt that far away. It felt like Arsenal were operating in an, and I can't believe I'm talking about Arsenal in an England sense, but I think it's quite an easy, it's quite a good, like, parallel. Arsenal felt so far away from competing at that level, like the latter stages of the Champions League, potentially winning the Premier League. miles away seeing what they are now achieving even when things don't go good like well i know how i can remember very very recently how far away it was and how much better this is and some of the stuff that we're seeing is unbelievable and it's the same with england we were told that the mid 2000s was the the era and you look at this squad now and what they what we have our disposal in an england sense and it's another level it's another unbelievable yeah like it's completely unbelievable and to do that for what since 20 I think it's got it's improved steadily year on year but the fact that they went to the semi-final in 2018 You know what it's going to come to I think England is so good now you're right the progression is unbelievable and at a certain point not yet because there's still tactical issues to iron out I'm sure but there's going to come a point when it's going to be a question of its belief actually Or freedom Yeah yeah yeah I mean within that yeah definitely and belief absolutely within that context of when an Anthony Gordon cuts loose, this is the thing, Anthony Gordon is not even England's best winger and he's good enough to win games at the very top level, you know, if he gets on a hot streak.

33:37Saka, we know Mediweke, who, listen, never selling my Mediweke stocks, but just the quality there. Like if you look at what Harry Kane's working with at Bayern as well. And Harry Kane is still relatively young. Harry Kane is working with an elite attack at Bayern, and he's working with an even better one for England. So you've got that guy basically supplying incredible runners off the ball. It's just all, I'm just not seeing enough excitement about what England have done. And I don't mean like overconfidence. I'm not saying arrogance, because we're also very good at that too, as a nation in terms of our footballing prospects.

34:13But this is genuine room for for like excitement I think there's a really interesting contrast between the response and the discourse around like Ireland's qualification and England's qualification I think this is something that should be a reminder that you should never take a group of players like this for granted and you should never take a qualifying campaign like this for granted and you shouldn't be complacent because look at how much qualifying for a World Cup means to people who don't have that pool of talent. And it's not like Ireland are, you know, Ireland have created, have had like a rich history of some unbelievable footballers.

34:50Yeah. And, you know, you look at what's happening with Scotland as well. Like Scotland's final game at Hamden this week is going to be one of the biggest moments for them in recent history. It means such a big deal. And yet we're here being like, well, is Bellingham well behaved enough to, it's like, fucking come on, what are we doing? Like, really? Again, I love that you've nailed it. You've nailed, don't take it for granted. Obviously, look, we support different sporting teams, franchises in some cases with very different fortunes from season to season. And they make you appreciate the good stuff even more when you have it.

35:26And I just, I don't know. I mean, I hope that this is all just like media noise and I hope that people actually back home are enjoying this is what it is and enjoying the individual stories. And to be honest, I think they are because you look at, you've got Nico Riley at left back. you've got Kwansoa right back you've got like a young core you've got like all these brilliant footballers you've got John Stones there who is like just the magician in like a couple of different roles I don't know man I like to think that actually some of this is just media confection I'd like to think that I'd like to think better I hope so because look man my Pacers went to the finals last season and we're now 1-12 I didn't want to name names but yeah oh no yeah enjoy it while it's there don't you know we seem to go and you don't know what you've got till it's gone oh no you truly don't anyway enough moaning about England it's all joy nah it's joy yeah yeah they're gonna be fine exactly let's shout out some stuff very quickly can we shout out Washington Spirit and Gotham are going to the final of the NWSL next weekend Washington Spirit beat Portland Thorns and Gotham beat Orlando Pride to secure their place in the NWSL final next week in San Jose.

36:40Can we also shout out Dino, who is the highest foul mascot, who's doing their absolute best and succeeding in putting off many a Leverkusen penalty taker in the Frauenpokal. Incredible. No way. Shaking its dino bum, lifting up the top, doing all kinds of nonsense. go and seek out the video if you can it's uh it's very very funny other shout outs WSL some interesting fixtures there I suppose the headline fixtures Manchester City 3 Manchester United 0 wow yeah like City standing on business that's a big result because I think Manchester United have been good this season and they've looked yeah I was slightly surprised by a couple of the lineup choices um but you know they are what they are this is a huge game so this was their first strength.

37:33That might have also been off the back of the Champions League in midweek. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I've obviously mentioned Mallard before starting off the bench, but that, you know, would have made sense in a full strength. But that meant nothing because City were 3-0 up at the half and were extremely assertive, even aggressive on the front foot. Lauren Hemp, superstar, scored an absolute banger, sealed the game at the third, having assisted the opener. Miedemaar dropping into pockets. And like Miedemaar, a player who hasn't really caught fire necessarily in terms of goal scoring for City, but is such a dangerous such a dangerous sort of weapon out of possession but also just dropping into those spaces playing much more withdrawn though yeah much more withdrawn and it doesn't again doesn't need to be a volume goal scorer because you've got the runners off you like Hasekawa wild that you say that still got 15 and 30 yeah exactly for me that's not right for her that's not volume right yeah City looked and it was interesting contrast because City getting the job done on a day when other challenges really stumbled with their finishing.

38:32I think Chelsea and Arsenal had very different days at the office. So they both drew. But I think that Chelsea can feel less negative about this than Arsenal only because I think the quality of look that Chelsea created against Liverpool was just better. They got much better looks, Chelsea. And apart from the kind of misses that Macario scores on a different day, they take this. They took the lead really early through Thompson, got pegged back with a great Liverpool counter, then didn't put it away. Whereas I think Arsenal, Arsenal made much harder work of the draw. I still think they didn't have to win the game though.

39:07They did, they did actually. Shout out to Smith and Wubben Moy in this game because they're the ones that really raised it. Hey, Lota by the way, 100 WSL appearances now for Lota, for Arsenal. Really? Yeah. Yeah, she had a good, I thought she had a really good outing. Yeah, really, really good. Arsenal still made enough to put this away, but again, like this very uncertain few weeks of form for them really difficult Yeah, Rennes Lakers afterwards was talking about the flow state that they found last season and they know how good they are they just need to find it again Yeah We talked about it before how sometimes off the back of a really big season there's a bit of a hangover and it can take you a little while to get going again And also the way teams come at you like knowing they're playing the European champions you know, that's a big thing too Quick shout out for Barcelona they beat Real Madrid 4-0 Yeah, the defending wasn't classic I have to say I suppose there's anything to be said look we know that Barcelona are significantly superior to Real Madrid the only thing in this game I would say is that if you're going to be beaten by your rivals you just want them to work a bit harder for the goals and I just felt like Madrid weren't assertive enough in clearing their lines in this game they made it a bit too easy for Barcelona but yeah Atleti beat Levante to go second and Real Sociedad picked up a point against Athletic Club to go above Real Madrid so Real Madrid are currently in fourth outside of the Champions League spots Caroline Ware got penalty saved as well yeah alright I reckon that'll do us for today we hope everyone's staying safe and well don't forget if you want to listen to The Reliable 11 on Thursday that's going to go up Thursday this week only two shows this week go to patreon.com forward slash stadio and sign up as a stadio member also don't forget to check the stadio outros playlist on Spotify speaking of which playing out on a track called Love on Other Planets by Wu anything you would like to add Musak one go it'd be nice for me to get some love on this planet frankly but anyway listen anyway enough that's bait that's bait someone will take it on my watch alright everyone much love back with you later in the week see you then

41:24Thank you.

42:01Thank you.

42:26Thank you.