Episode 1000 - CHAMPIONS!

35:33Elliot:You know, they're just not. And so they create this culture of him, which allows people to judge him based on whether they like him or not i mean that's just rubbish you know whether you like somebody i mean what are we doing whether he's excitable i mean what are we actually doing here you know look at the look at the information that's in front of you look at the points accumulated look at i don't want to go boring here but look at look at the financial status of the club in the last three years look where we are now you know and um and he's been behind all of that and so hey look when we lose a game guys we get a bit of stick sometimes because we are quite supportive of the manager etc but i like to feel as though he was the right person to be supportive of even from day one where you guys particularly have supported him and i think he's not the hardest thing to do in the world i think he's absolutely brilliant brilliant guy yeah yeah and you know all right like you get a sub wrong against west ham you say all right that that's the wrong sub, right?

36:36Should have just brought Mascara on. These kinds of critiques are all part of football. But zooming out and looking at what it takes to take a giant club and point it in the right direction and get it going there. Manchester United are the biggest club in England and probably were the biggest club in the world before Real Madrid eclipsed them. They cannot get their ship pointed in the right direction. They're thrilled to have a 40-game season that sees them get back to the Champions League. You know? And you look at what it takes. Liverpool, they win a title. All right, now they're pointed in the right direction.

37:07Look at where they are now. Scuffling to stay in the Champions League the next season. What you have to be able to do is stay ahead of where football is going, not behind it. And what people have missed with the whole, oh, set piece again, or this, that, and the other thing, is Mikel kept staying ahead. He kept trying to stay ahead. It's going to be a physical league, so I need to add steel. It's going to be a details league. It's getting more competitive. It's getting more compact. It's not as free scoring. So we need to be better at set pieces. We need to add little details. It's getting to be a compact football calendar.

37:37I can't do what Liverpool did and go out and sign two attacking stars. I have to deepen the squad so we can run the course. You have to stay ahead of it. You know, if you think about, you know, when we moved to the Emirates and people started talking about it, remember when they were doing the arsenalization of the Emirates? They tried to make it feel like home. You know what Mikel did? He arsenalized the club again. he brought us back to to something that felt like maybe for a while we'd been adrift of for a bit there's academy players contributing importantly elevating themselves to global superstardom as part of this team there's defensive solidity which you know if if you came to this club only during the arson wenger time and you might forget early arson wenger too defensive solidity famous arsenal back four right there's there's the angel whether you love it or you hate it it's there's a new part of the fabric of the club.

38:29There was an FA Cup, which people just hand wave. Oh, he's only won an FA Cup, even though we're always told it matters. And now there's a title. And if you go to the Emirates now, you can see the togetherness. If you look outside the Emirates last night, you see the togetherness. The club is back. The club is back. It is back to the statue where it belongs. The only team that ran the course in Europe this season, no defeats. Champions League final, Budapest. Premier League champions. 100 ,000 Arsenal fans in the street. It's the biggest club in England today. For today, that's where we are. And if you think about where we were and the journey we went on, it wasn't just some things they put around the ground.

39:09It was a big collective effort that Mikel was a big important part of and not the only part of, by the way. A lot of people who work inside the club and a lot of players who worked really hard to help bring us here and a lot of fans who came along and did it. You know, is it Red Action Road? You know, the Tifos and the Greet the Bus. and everybody kind of pulling together and realizing we all have to be a part of this to get them there and we got them there and they got themselves there and now like i said they they are part of a very big history of a very big club tim i i want to just think a little bit about you know the the the sort of burnley game as dumb as it sounds but just like you know to be champions we had to get through that game and that game felt to me really like Yeah, just everybody trying to get through it.

40:00Saliba's rubbing his back, and Rice is rubbing his calf, and Odegaard is stretching out. You can see the wear and tear on them. You can see just the belief, just the organization. The fans are trying to sing them through it. It was a pretty nervy night at the Emirates. I wonder what you think about that game as the last game. I don't know that you could script something better than Mikai Osaka delivering the perfect corner onto the head of Kai Havertz. for the goal that winds up being the one we needed to win the title. But it felt very much like a boxer that knows if the bell comes, they're going to be holding up the belt, but is just trying to stagger their way to the belt, and we did just about get to the belt.

40:44Yeah. Was it someone on this pod or was it at the live show who said something like Kai Havertz is due a big moment? Yeah, at the live show. Was it Clive? Yeah, Clive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wrote that down in the pre-show notes and said he should say it, and he did. Well, thank you. You're welcome. Yeah, absolutely. And from a corner, of course. There's so much I love about how good we are at corners. The main thing is we score a lot of goals that way, and that's very nice. It's quite good to score goals in football. I find a lot of people seem to be debating that in this insane world we live in now, and they want fewer goals scored from corners for some reason.

41:25but what I loved about it as well is after all the discourse about grappling and all of that which incidentally nobody can find any evidence of Arsenal doing this was like the least grapply corner probably of the whole Premier League season it's just like there's no one anywhere near the Burnley goalkeeper and Saka just sticks it on Havertz's head and he puts it in it's like it was the cleanest most uncontroversial kind of corner goal that there was And I love that as well, because I know that everyone that wanted us to fail would have been watching that and gone, they've bloody done it from a corner.

42:01And I can't pretend that there was a foul there or anything. It would have driven people potty. And I really like that. I really like how much it annoys people, how good we are at corners and the delivery from Saka as well. I love that angle that's like from behind him where he puts it in. it's such a good delivery but then he like jumps again uh like he kind of jenna with kai havertz yeah yeah yeah so good just do that like it's it's such a nice shot and you know look when that goal went in and i don't know why i won't learn this season because i've done this so many times this season we go one nil up and i go ah there we go we've broken the death lock it's gonna be easy out that will make things easier and then either we give a stupid goal away or we just win one when i really wasn't expecting that against burnley i expected it to be tense up to up to and including scoring the first goal and and it was coming like i think we started the game like very well and and we were well worth we could have been two or three nil up easily obviously the second half was I don't want to say an ordeal because I'm not I think Burnley had their last shot in the 57th minute yeah but obviously you're dicing with the margins like the long throw at the end a daft free kick or something or a silly handball or whatever um and and your whole world comes crashing down and yeah it was it was pretty stressful and and I have to say it's really weird the day before the game i think i've said this before i always do that like little gamble in my head um about like what what would you take and all of that if you were offered and the day before the game i had the thought like would you accept one nil win if it was given to you now and i really had to think about it because i was like well obviously i'd take the win but if we only beat burnley one nil i will be very worried about the final day against palace because i was thinking in a world where we only beat Burnley 1-0 at home, that tells me that we've shit the bed a little bit and the nerves have really come into it.

44:11And we can get away with that at home to Burnley probably, but away at Palace, I would be quite worried about that. And I would have been, I have to admit, I would have been really worried about that. Because that Fulham game where we just strolled it, at that point I thought, ah, here we go. The nerves have gone now. And obviously they hadn't. so the fact that the result went our way last night I think was was very very important but the other thing is I looked at like the videos and the pictures I took of the lap of honor I've been in that stadium many times when there's been a lap of honor on a sunny Sunday afternoon and the stadium's not even half full and Clive you tweeted the video of like Aaron Ramsey when he left you know and Danny Welbeck left and there's no one in there everyone's just gone everyone's bailed this was like quarter past 10 on a monday night and it was full it was totally full you were both there like um i don't know what it looked like like behind me in the upper tier but everywhere i looked was full i loved the um you know we got the arteta chant as well just before he went on the mic and it felt like a couple of seasons ago you know where he couldn't talk because people wouldn't stop singing his song and yeah again i think he deserved that because obviously there's been moments of doubt there's been speculation and you know time goes on and familiarity breeds contempt and all that i'm glad he got that like that little kind of outpouring of love and appreciation um but yeah it it was a bit of an ordeal wasn't it i'm i'm just glad it's over in in premier league terms now yeah yeah i mean it was it was always going to be the case that the stress of this was going to feel crippling.

45:55And ultimately, though, it's whether you can manage it, and we just about did. It will be lost to history, but I'm sure everybody's seen it by now. There was the fun moment in the game where Piero and Cappie's pants came down. And there's a great video of Ben White walking up to him after the game, holding his head like, oh, Piero, I'm so sorry. I can't believe that happened to you. but Clive if I think about the anatomy of a champion you have to have a great manager, you have to have great vision you have to have a Bukayo Saka from your academy, you know, your heart and soul you have to have a lot of things, a Saliba and a Gabby partnership but I think there's a moment where you add that piece you know, for Klopp's Liverpool, I think it was Virgil van Dijk I think they added that piece and that kind of took them to the stratosphere for Arsenal, I do think it was Declan Rice I think bringing in Declan Rice, obviously the extravagant price tag, the big gamble, the player that it felt like Fergie would have gone for, or certainly Pep wanted.

46:56And I think he has come to embody the way this team can go achieve things. and against Burnley again, every time a fire needed to be put out, every time a little extra yard had to be acquired to get to the ball, to move us up the pitch or keep us from falling back the pitch. He was the one doing it. I don't want to put one player over the other in the collective, but to me, Declan Rice has kind of come to symbolize the moment this club said, we're serious about going to try to win things. We're not going to rest where we are. There were times I felt, you know, during Arsene's last decade, where the club maybe did say we're comfortable where we are.

47:39You know, the Leicester season, I think, is one where we had some injuries, we could have gone for midfielder, we needed something and we were, we sort of stood pat. As we know, there was a January where we could have gone for a striker a few seasons ago, we didn't, we fell short. But Declan Rice is the piece of this puzzle that is going to massively symbolize the last few years of this era for me and the ambition and the quality to go win big trophies.

48:05Elliot:Yeah, I'll expand it out because you spoke about Rice. But what I'll say is there are what I call eyebrow-raising signings in this recent history. And maybe one of them was Capuchesus, eyebrow-raiser, taken from Man City, changes how we look. Oh, if he's come to us, we must be getting serious. right so obviously that worked out up to a point we didn't quite get what we could have got for that first year due to injury but that was a that was a signal to me then the next eyebrow razor was the declan rice window right and it was the rice timber havert so was it raya in the same window might have been um tim will tell me if i'm wrong but another eyebrow razor was rice but another one was Raya.

48:52Elliot:Let's be honest, we didn't think we needed him. That's an eyebrow raiser. And I think those players, because we had the centre-halves already, you know, we had a young one and we brought Gabriel early and he developed it to what he is today, where he could end up being player of the year. But they are literally long poles in the tent now, which we are defined by. And I just think tactically, the goalkeeper, the centre-mid, and the centre-halves, they run this show. They absolutely run it. It's your spine. Yeah. They run this show. And when we won the big ones in 2004, they're a decent goalkeeper, a decent centre-halves, and a decent centre-mids.

49:36Elliot:I carry a Thierry Henry up front, right? That makes a big difference, which turns those games into games we're not even in. He just goes and sorts them out. We haven't got Thierry Henry, this team, so it's relied on its stability and its spine and its stability at full-backs. and a culture running for the team. But Declan Rice maybe was the Van Dijk and Rhea was the Allison in our recent history and I think that took Liverpool over the top. You know, and Declan Rice enough to think Arsenal buying a£100 million player, I never thought I'd ever see it. You know, and we just do it and the fact he chose Arsenal, I never thought I'd see.

50:13Elliot:You know, you've got City and other teams, United out there. When Rain Rooney left Everton, he's only got one play go to Man United well why do you come down south to Arsenal Declan Rice in the old days we just go to Man United just go there right Real Ferdinand left Leeds go to Man United this is what used to happen and but now they're choosing to come to Arsenal and when we first started this podcast remember my phrase I used to use about being the employer of choice remember that and now we are the destination of choice we're the destination of choice for so many people and yeah Rice is he changes things, but when the camera lines across the team and you see him there, I think other teams feel different about us.

50:58Elliot:I think that's really important. I completely, completely agree. And it is a team that, whatever you think of certain qualities in it, is robust in a way that wasn't the case for us for a long time. And I like, you know, the Invincibles used to win it in the tunnel. And I'm sure when you line up opposite this Arsenal team now, there's a part of you that looks across at those big, strong, physical players and thinks that's going to be a tough day at the office for us. You know, the thing I love is Arsenal don't always win games and, you know, we've had some disappointing results. This team doesn't get battered.

51:42This team doesn't give an easy day to the opposition. You know you've been in a game. and I think the only thing if you were standing across those players you might have thought before is alright they're physical, they're tough they've got a lot about them but do they have the mentality? Now you know they've got that too and I'm so excited to see what they can do with this monkey off their back this confidence of champions to say we know we're good enough we know we're physical enough we know we're strong enough we're in our prime and now we know we can do it psychologically Clive you wanted to come back in there?

52:16Elliot:oh, you sort of went there anyway. And I think that sporting status they now all have will hopefully change them. And I know we talk about our team and we say, oh, we're physical with this because we get told that. I actually think we're quite skillful on occasions. And I think we're tactically immature. We adapt to situations really, really well. We have adapted late again in this season. But what we are, let's be honest, we are well coached. If you want to describe us, we are well coached. All aspects of the game, all phases of the game. We can do anything you like. you know we're world coach the only time I had doubts this year was when I felt we didn't adapt to Man City at Wembley League Cup final I was just going to say that I just couldn't believe it I'm staying there watching come on we don't do this we adapt to this and that was the time I really was sort of destroyed not about the game just about how we didn't adapt to it you can always lose games of football right we didn't adapt to what's on offer but he then rocked up at Fulham and done it and just showed us something else and by halftime the stadium exploded right so that's what i love about this group their their ability to adapt and overcome adversity and just deliver but you need to win so you can say that with chess and i can say it with chess today right i definitely can any any reputation that you want to build in sport is defined at some level by what you've won fairly or unfairly and now all of these players can add this to their reputation.

53:44What that does for them on the pitch, I think, will be brilliant. I want to talk a little bit about just some of the fun moments of the last couple of days real quick. I want to talk a little bit about looking forward. I think it's worth looking forward just a little bit to Budapest and beyond. So there's still a few more things I want to do. But while you bask in the glow of being champions, I have a brand that might be helpful in North London. It's just for the other side of North London. And that's better help. Mental health is health. I think the mental health of a lot of Arsenal supporters is good right now, but let's be honest, setting the football aside, it is important to take care of yourself mentally.

54:23You know, one of the things I love about being in London this last weekend, just meeting so many great people and being reminded of how fortunate we are with people that come along for this ride with us. A lot of people have said, you know, I've gone through some hard things. If you're going through something hard now, or if you have, if you know someone who is, you just don't feel like you're able to be the best version of yourself because things in your head are getting in the way. I mean, absolutely get help. And better help is access to therapy. That means you don't have to get in a car and drive there.

54:52You don't have to worry about finding a specialist in your area because they have it. You don't have to worry about whether it's convenient for you. You just do it and you start that journey. So it is absolutely something that I stand by as someone who has done therapy. And if you want, you don't have to be on this journey alone. Find support and have someone with you in therapy. Sign up and get 10 % off at betterhelp.com slash vision. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P.com slash vision. And if you want to start a business, I know Clive talked about starting an off-license. You can't start an off-license online, but you can start your business online using Shopify.

55:28Shopify is the best e-commerce platform I have ever used. And the reason I like it is it lets you build a site to bring your products to the world in the most professional way possible, but also put them where they need to be. TikTok shop, Instagram shop, Facebook shop. These days, people find product more there probably than just by going on a website. So you get this great professional website. It does things like cart optimization and shipping and taxation. So you don't have to know about that stuff. You just have to say, hey, here's my product. Here's the pictures of it. Here's what it costs.

55:55And then people can find it wherever it needs to be. With easy integrations, with easy design, professional, robust looking sites. In fact, Fortune 500 companies use Shopify as their e-commerce sites. so it's certainly going to be good for you and it's easy to use so in 2026 stop waiting and start selling with shopify cha-ching sign up for one dollar per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash arsenal vision that's shopify.com slash arsenal vision go to shopify.com slash arsenal vision hear your first cha-ching this new year with shopify by your site club is that enough of that indeed spoken like a champion my friend okay tim anything real real quick over the last 24 hours any any of the content that's particularly poignant for you that that stood out for you that you want to call out i mean for me seeing ian right with the fans and i there was a little part of me that was nervous i was like they may literally tear him limb from them so they can all have a piece of ian right seeing the players on holloway road just like bumping into fans and taking pictures with fans i actually saw a picture of of declan rice with a couple of guys in the background who i know listed the pod and if we were just hanging out with them at the pubs on the weekend?

57:00I mean, anything in particular that stood out to you, the players watching the game together, celebrating together? What stood out? I think what really stands out to me is that players see and hear things. I think that's what really stands out for me. Like the second the final whistle went, Piero Incapier was already holding the water bottle. and in that like it's kind of simultaneously beautifully unchoreographed but also choreographed in that second that precise second of elation and think what it means you know you think what it means to us what it means to these guys like this i mean hopefully it's not quite the pinnacle of their career but to this point easily the pinnacle of their careers in capier you know he won the bundesliga title as well um yeah in that moment his thought was i'm doing the bottle thing and um you know and and i loved as well the video that bukayo saka put up of miles with the champagne bottle you know when he goes they call us bottlers they call us bottlers we're holding the bottle now i love that and like you know it i think it's i think it's very easy to consider you know that the players are quite offline and they don't see this stuff they do see this stuff they know about it and i love circling back as well to some things like um you know i am not immediately but like in the kind of minutes following the final whistle i went back to find that as a press conference clip again where he's just like i don't care um we're gonna win and when we win you're all gonna have to deal with it and i loved i loved that i loved it at the time yeah It's like, it's obviously in hindsight with the context, just like the fact that he's completely chill and what a stone cold line to drop and then to go and back it up.

58:54So I think the fact that, you know, the players are conscious of a lot of this and, you know, Ezra's Instagram stories, you know, got the guy with the bottle. there's a photoshop where someone has literally photoshopped him as a giant bottle which ezra has seen and posted so like the fact that they're all sitting there kind of scrolling and they'll have been looking at this stuff for months and months right and and it's the first place all their heads went was just to give a a gentle little yeah we know we know what you were saying about us and you're going to get some of it back now and uh and and i think it's like well measured as well because you don't want to be as a player as fans i don't think we should be measured at all but you know i think you just just do it once or twice and let everyone know and then just kind of leave it at that but like just the idea that we i think we've all felt defensive like on their behalf reading this stuff and seeing this stuff not just this season but for several seasons the just get down the tunnel rubbish and like the fact that the players are aware of it and in their moment of glory went yeah we heard you we saw you we know what you said and um one of the things i think that i love about this league title i've talked many times about how the cup winners cup in 94 was so formative to me because everyone hated the way we did it.

1:00:26And when you do it and everyone hates it, it's wonderful because it's just yours. No one else gets to jump on that band mic and then say, I was cheering you guys. No, you weren't. You hate this. And that makes it uniquely ours. And I love the fact that the players feel that too. Yeah. And there's this weird phenomenon when you're a parent, you love your kids so much that when they do something to get hurt, like if they're riding their bike in a silly way and they fall and they hurt themselves, right before the compassion kicks in, you get angry at them. like well why were you doing that because not because you're mad but because you love them so much you don't want to see them get hurt and i almost feel that way with this group they do something dumb they drop points and i'm mad at them because no you're better than i want you to have this i want us all to have this and you want it so bad your first instinct is to get upset with them but like knowing that they're kind of you know they're in the generation now they're online um we interviewed michael marino and said you know how do you block out the social media noise and he said you know some of these guys in this group are pretty young they're on social media they see it they don't block it out and that makes me sad for them in a way because there's so much on there that's hateful and hard but it makes me happy for them that they get to stick it in everyone's face now because fair play turnabout's fair play if you can dish it out you better be ready to take it i don't know if you saw the banner outside the emirates you know the panic on the streets of london banner that they unfurl the city my mate sam made that and uh he messaged me two weeks ago to show me it made that.

1:01:52It says party on the streets of London with panic crossed out. Very clever. Very good. Very clever. They were singing We Are the Champions, the players together, and Bakayo Saka screams into the camera, no time for losers, when that part comes up. You know, Maduweke as well. Did you see, like, the way he says it as well was great. Yep, Maduweke. Yeah, you hear Saka, you see Maduweke in the video, yeah. Clive, anything that particularly stood out to you? It's one of those days is you just want all of it. You don't want to miss any of it. You want to see every last bit of it.

1:02:23Elliot:Trust me, I've seen it. I didn't sleep till about four o 'clock last night. Woke up at eight. And then I'm going back onto the iPad shortly to carry on to see if anything else has come up new. I posted about a million comps. And I love that. And the thing for me that really stands out in this whole thing is... Thank you. And it's for the younger people, really. The young fans haven't seen this before. My son is 24 years of age, and I have a picture of him as a two-year-old when I think he won the double, and holding both cups. And basically, he's never seen us win the league. And there's lots of people just have not seen this.

1:03:06Elliot:and they are the ones producing these comps. They are the ones on TikTok. They are the ones at the stadium on their line bikes, at their heads. And they're seeing this for the first time and now we have a whole new generation of fans developing and they are so energetic and enthused and ready to go. You know, ready to go. And this is theirs. It's for all of us, right? But I really feel pleased for them because I've seen it, right? I was in Copenhagen. You know, I've seen it. You know, I was in 93, both cup finals. All the league games, I've seen them. Last game ever, I've seen it. But nothing like this because of the globality and the youth element particular and the expansion of the fan base.

1:03:52Elliot:And they get a chance to really express themselves, right? The way we express ourselves, we're lucky that we've got this platform, right? And we can put our brains to use and share and connect people. but they can express themselves in their way right and i promise you last night looks a bit like not in ill carpool outside the ground and and come the parade it'd be the same thing and um so yeah i think all the things i see for the younger people the younger generation for the people you know all the people who have kids you know i'm talking about here they get they get a chance you get a chance to share it with them you know to really share it with them and that's where i am and i will be doing that in the next couple of weeks and solidifying a new set of arse of fans for the world.

1:04:36I mean, it is incredibly moving and it is incredibly exciting, Clive, to think about the journey that we're on is a continuum. It doesn't stop. I want to soak all this up. I don't want to just turn the page and I'll be soaking it up for months no matter what happens. I'm going to be enjoying this for months and months to come. But first of all, I'm glad Mikel and the team got this while Pep was at City. While City were, you know, if there is any punishment to come, if Pep is departing, now, no matter what, deck stacked against you, a club like that built on what they're built on, the less said the better, with that manager, and to get past them, that's huge.

1:05:22And I'm so glad they had that. And, Clive, I mean, just looking forward quickly a little bit, now it is very much the case that this group can go on not just to be our first title winners in 22 years and etched into the history of the club in a very important way, but a first ever Champions League winners. And obviously the European Cup has eluded us for our history, and it's this one, at least and it is it is something that we covet with the title done and that pressure off them i'm sure there's a lot of excitement inside the club to go on and go one for well because you know if the title wasn't wrapped up or god forbid it didn't happen i think it would have actually just heaped more pressure and anxiety onto this game but now this game just feels like a wonderful opportunity no matter what happens.

1:06:18But I think it's obviously a major, major opportunity to become one of the most beloved groups in the club's history.

1:06:29Elliot:Yeah, absolutely. And this is where Tim's got a bit of experience, particularly the women's team last year, the way they had a two week break, I think Tim before the game where they could absolutely focus on their game plan and really zero in. And by the time they lined up on that pitch, mate there was only one team going to win that game you know as soon as you see the players faces and I think by winning it early you know they could have a chance to get a few beers in get it out of their system and then lock in mentally for that final week and we as a team have things that they can't stop I've always felt that I was more worried about Bayern to be honest but I still feel that because I think they're a stronger team maybe potentially physically and I've seen them play I thought they were excellent at the Emirates but we have things that PSG can't stop and I can't wait to see it and I think we have players that can stop their players and I just can't wait to see it I said boldly at the weekend in the pub if we win the league we're winning Champions League that's an absolute certainty I'm sure that will change by the time it gets closer and I get more nervous but I do think we've got a real chance here and we are the biggest club or the club that's played the most maybe Arsenal Atletico Madrid that haven't won it in the Champions League and so I don't say it's our time but opportunities don't come along every two minutes right and we're here right now and our squad is fairly fit and we have a chance we have a chance and we have we have two really good managers and our manager now is a champion so he walks in there with his folders with his laptops and go and deal with them and we've got a real chance and when that holds this team in the pantheon I don't really care because I think the Premier League teams now are going to be around that last four for a while now going forward so we're going to be back here again if we're sensible but why wait why wait I think we've got a real live chance I've felt this for a while we've got a live live chance you know to really win this and I don't think we should go in there with any sort of inferiority and any sort of well, we've won the league, so let's not worry about it.

1:08:43Elliot:It's a bonus. Bollocks. Let's go and win it. Let's go and absolutely win it with everything we've got. Go and win it. And then let them talk about you afterwards, you know? So I really feel strongly we're going to go there and perform really, really well and get very, very close. Yeah, and the great thing is, and I get it to your point about, you know, don't go there just satisfied with what you've done, but, like, nothing that can happen now will make me anything less than thrilled by what we've experienced. So if you're a player and that bottler nonsense is off your back and the questions, because let's face it, all of us walk around every day with questions, you know, about ourselves.

1:09:23They've done it. They've done it. Those questions have been answered and that burnishes your reputation, but it also burnishes your self-confidence to go on and do something more special. I mean, Tim, do you look to the future at all in this moment? I realize it is a time for trying to stay in the present and not just turning the page. But, you know, it would be one thing if there wasn't a Champions League final ahead because, you know, you just live in the moment. But that is a big opportunity coming. And then you think about our stature, the players we can attract, the players we can keep, the project that continues, the journey that we continue to go on, but with the belief in who we are.

1:09:57So have you let yourself dream a little bit about the future, both in the Champions League and beyond as this project carries forward? Yeah, definitely. So we've got all the money, right? We won the Premier League. We got to the Champions League final. Haven't got to the Champions League semi-final last year. Sorry to put it down on it. They did raise the ticket prices as well. You know, that's a lot of money coming into the bank again. But even more this time, and obviously, once you lift that shiny gold trophy, when commercial partners come knocking, you know you can add a few grand onto the end of the asking price you know and you look at and going back to what we said at the beginning the scenes last night which player which again i know no one should care about this emotionally brand or whatever does not want to be associated with that i think another important thing to say as well is like it's like a hundred thousand people on the streets probably last night how many arrests you know um when they greeted the team bus against Burnley red action tweeted not a single arrest you know like like well-behaved fans as well like who doesn't want a slice of that who doesn't want that and um you know you guys are talking about Declan Rice earlier and like you know for him for example he probably chose the hard way by coming to arsenal he could have gone to man city he'd have got he'd have got his league titles definitely and no i don't think anyone could have blamed him for that but he'd have been just another player that got league titles doing this here that that like i'm sorry it does just mean more and that's why he would have done it and the faith he showed in you know the project and all of that but for me i i wrote about this today in the in the blog i did that this has to this has to be and it feels like it's the start of something this to me is not a culmination of this journey so that's where it was different on the women's side on the women's side it was like a lot of these players are 29 30 and now we're seeing that a lot of them are going this summer that was kind of the end of something and it's like right okay we've won a champions league we can use that to propel the club commercially in terms of players and stuff like that and i and i do think the club are doing that with players they're bringing in and it can be similar on the men's side now because it's like this thing could be about to catch fire so come and join us you know even someone like you know look at guys like Maduweke has that signing worked has it not at this point who cares because he's got a Premier League medal Jokeres you know I've had stuff to say about him this season lots of people have who cares he's got a Premier League medal so all the stuff people have said myself included about him doesn't matter just doesn't matter because he's won the Premier League and it's a fantastic kind of recruitment tool as well but there's more in this group there has to be more peps going Liverpool struggling to turn over their great team and the chance is there for us I think there's I think there's a big window open and now we've done it and hopefully some of those nerves and some of those jitters because I think this team was good enough to win the league by 10 points this year and it largely didn't happen because of us because it was big um you know and i hope this just knocks that away now like blows those cobwebs away and we just go and perform to the to the kind of capabilities that we've got but yeah this to me this feels like the start of something and it should be the start of something and the club have got all the tools both the existing tools and the means to go out and get shiny new toys that mean that you know we're back here next year and we're back here talking about other Champions League finals and we really build something.

1:13:54Yeah, and by the way, I should just say, please read Tim's blog on ours blog today. Tim, it's beautiful. It's just a love letter to joy and to everyone and to the moments we share together. Sorry, go ahead, Clyde.

1:14:06Elliot:No, well said, Tim. I think we're going to enjoy this, right? And some people are going to enjoy it with no grace. And the words insufferable are going to be out there a lot, right? someone deemed us the unbearables and i can live with that you know what i normally go for it man go for it you deserve it but it won't be long before they start stripping it away and say do you think you can win next year with a different style you know and like your style is still going to get questioned even when you win and and so so we'll have like we'll have a few hours of enjoyment we're able to say arsehole we're the best team blah blah blah give them their flowers blah blah blah and then it's going to be but look at how they play and look what they did here do you think he's going to change his style do you think he can mature arteta do you think he'll calm down on the sideline so it's going to be it's going to be what's the word on faint praise is that word might praise yeah of course a little bit of faint praise and this is where arsenal fans need to assemble and say no no no no don't be starting all that rubbish mate we've won we've actually won we've won properly and and it's something you can't buy and i think that's that's the most beautiful thing you can't buy this the way it's done and that's why people appear outside stadiums and and stay there i mean i've just seen a picture come up with a club shop there's no space in there mate there's no space in there and um this is going to go on and on and then quite rightly i just can't wait to sample some of it i'll be honest with you i can't wait to get up there.

1:15:41Elliot:I've got to get in the train now and then go out there and spend some money. That's what I'm looking forward to. Yeah, I mean, I want to just put some context around this personally the way I think about it and even just thinking about the conversations we've had, arguing with Paul about whether the Dennis Suarez loan was what we needed to take the next step. You know, Unai Emery pod one and two. You know, saying we wanted our tennis. Sorry, yeah. I tried to justify the Cedric signing. Well, he plays both sides.

1:16:13we've been in those trenches can't keep it in the stadium i mean andrew and i went to a game on the final day of the season when he scored and we both turned to each other and said cross was it a cross um you know i mean watching players leave you know talking about you know arson megan saying you can't lose players and still say you're a big club and then both those players leave in the same summer and watching the club fall out of Champions League, fall out of Europa League into no European football. And I look at other clubs that have gone that way and can't find the way back. You know, I think of the conversations we had when Mikel got here, the low ebb right before the Boxing Day remontada with Emil Smith Rowe against Chelsea, when it looked like it wasn't coming around and the way it started to turn after that.

1:17:06I think about moving on from Raul, moving on from Edu, watching a single ownership model lead to more revenue being available, more finances, thinking about all the things we had to sort of go through, all the stages we had to pass through, all the distance we had to traverse. Watching a Bakayo Saka come out of our academy, starting at left back, moving to the right side, watching him and Martinelli come into the team together and thinking about the excitement of what these young players could deliver. Could we go bigger? Could we go for other players? And then phase one under Mikkel, as Clive pointed out, Gabriel Jesus, Zinchenko, Ben White, right?

1:17:46You think about those players, Aaron Ramsdale, the first phase, the phase we tried to do it with the first time. Granit Xhaka moving up to the eight, leaving the club with people saying, we want you to stay, when it never looked like that was possible, but because we had lifted ourselves up. And then going again, and going for Rice, and for Kai, and for Yokeras, and Timber, and in Capier, and Calafiori, and Raya, and going for these extra players. Eberecha Eza, let it all work out. First name and number I've gotten on the back of a shirt in years. And it just, all that time, can we get there? Can we quite get there?

1:18:27having these weird debates with ourselves like are we really good when we're clearly sitting there near the top or at the top of the premier league when no one's accrued more points over four seasons than we have when we're at the final stage of the european championship and now we can say yeah we're really that good we really got here we did it the right way we took the right steps we brought in the right people and they're champions and tim i um i have an immense affection for so many of the players that brought us here, but I also have an immense affection for, and not to be too navel-gazing, but the group of people who have shared this ride with us.

1:19:02You know, I mean, who the hell am I? And I'm sitting here thousands of miles away. I land, and I've got messages of love and emails of love and text messages of love and phone calls. People, you know, like Tao FaceTiming me from the streets of London with Alan Davies waiting to get a drink because he just wants to say, love you, man, congratulations. You know, like the people that we have that are that are part of this and the chance to be at union chapel just days before this happened to share that love and express that feeling and sometimes it doesn't even feel like it's about what we say into the microphones it just feels like people want a place to come together with other good warm dedicated human beings you think about all the money that's been raised over the years and all the good and all the warmth and all the love and we've always said we want it for all of us and now we have it and i think one of the reasons the tears flowed is that it didn't feel like it was just something i get to celebrate it felt like this family this this this family you guys that i'm talking to right now and everyone's listening got to have this thing together and that has enlarged it for me for sure yeah absolutely um this was something actually renee slagers was talking about last kind of couple of games of the season like being asked about the size of the crowds arsenal women and stuff like that and she said like it just makes winning mean more because and she was talking about like you know all of us have like a primal need to connect with one another and um it like it does it just elevates it elevates your emotions in both directions it can make things harder when things aren't good but um you know what why did so many thousands of people instinctively get on trains get in cars get on line bikes and just run towards the stadium because they knew other people would be there there's nothing else there there's no bar there i don't even think the toilets were open like there's nothing there except the concrete the stadium but people ran there because it's like that's where everyone's going to be it's other people that are going to be there and that that's what makes it all also meaningful and i think you know uh it's it's a real kind of um pleasure like on match days like there's no match day goes by without at least three four often more people stopping and and saying they love how you know that how much they love what we do um and and i you know i sometimes i feel um i i get more of that than you guys just you know from being at more of the games and stuff like that particularly you and paul and the amount of people who i think found us during covid as well that's the thing i hear the most like during covid couldn't go to games couldn't experience it with people and what we offered but I think by accident was that sense of community that sense that you were you were experiencing it with someone because that that elevates things and that's um that's what I mean about the the city Bournemouth game on Tuesday night I was a little bit torn but I wanted to be with my family and uh you know my my wife hasn't seen us win the league before you know she wasn't a fan in 2004 and you know just having that kind of special moment um you know obviously just it's the same like why do you buy tickets for a concert when you've got whoever that artist is you've got their albums right um they're probably not a band i should mention right now because they're man city fans but you know i went to see isis last summer and you know just an enormous part of my youth uh absolutely enormous and going to see them last summer would just it's it's so strange it's so difficult to explain it was just like oh what like that there's a real like community feel the fact that like everyone here feels like they're seeing something special i could you know why not just buy the live album or listen to the songs or whatever it's it's the sense of people coming together in a place to experience it together That's what's great about sport as well.

1:23:00And when you look at football, I just put this question to you. What in human history has ever been more popular than football? What has humanity ever done that has the mass appeal that football does, right? It's difficult to answer when you start thinking about it. And why is that? It's that sense of having a community and some of the people I've been able to meet and become friends with in my life, that's because of Arsenal. It's because of football. That's where most of my relationships are formed. So it's something really special. And when you do something like this, when you achieve something like this, it's why you go on the timeline and stuff like that.

1:23:42You want to see how other people are reacting. And I'm seeing videos. Literally, I've just looked at a video of some guys. It doesn't look like they're at the stadium, but they're all in Arsenal shirts. one of them's got a baby and like they mimic the trophy lift with the baby so there's this like poor arsenal in a baby grow you know that the awake it from two years ago the psychedelic like bright he's got like a little baby grow this poor baby it's probably like one o 'clock in the morning and like everyone's going whoa and then he hoists him up and there's like people doing the candy like a choreographed just like so so good like that that stuff's really special it stays with you forever yeah yeah well said Clive a final thought on that just the togetherness the joy happiness for everybody I mean I could honestly I could go on and on and on I have already but what about you

1:24:39Elliot:yeah I think if you just I'm gonna do it to everybody if you just dial back to the West Ham game the last the last 15 minutes to that game and where that took you emotionally and then you go to the Burnley and it wasn't great. It was okay. I really enjoyed the pre-game drinks, by the way, and it was really, really a good day, but you just wanted it to be a bit easier. And then you have the emotion of the Bournemouth game and then you realise that, yeah, sport takes you to these places like nothing else, right? Against West Ham, I thought I was going to die and here I was last night. just didn't even want to go to sleep and it's just a few days later and and it's more around the corner and it's why we do it we do it because not what we know but what we don't know and where it's going to take us and who's going to connect us to and on the back of union chapel you get connected to a lot of people seen a lot of people this weekend met a lot of people always overwhelmed always exhausted afterwards be so overwhelming it's just it's just it's almost too good.

1:25:46Elliot:It's so overwhelming. To follow that up with a league win is just incredible. And the people that we met at the weekend, they know who we're talking about. They're all out there and we see them. I see them every other week. Tim sees them a bit more than me, but I see them a lot. And I'll be in the 12 pins on Sunday doing it again, watching the Palace game. I can't get a ticket, which I'm desperate for. And we go again. And like I say, It's not always what happens. It's who you share it with. And we are incredibly lucky, incredibly lucky that we get to share this with so many people that respect us and support us.

1:26:28Elliot:In the last couple of weeks, that's been really, really, really relevant, that support, and it goes both ways. Yeah, it's because of everything we've gone through together and the times we've shared and the laughs and the tears and the anger and the exuberance that this feels so powerful. And all I would say is soak it all up. But what I'm going to try to do, I'm going to try to soak it all up with this community, with the MDC boys and girls and with people that I talk to and what's happened, people on socials that I know are people. And by our people, I mean good Arsenal people. And what I'm going to try not to do is let myself go down the cul-de-sac that's inevitably going to have big red signs saying, go here, where it's the haters and the losers.

1:27:10you know the the sky sports content machine telling us why it isn't enough or doesn't matter what's wrong with it or immediately wants me to say you'll never believe who's linked with arsenal i'm not going to do it i'm going to stay in my whatsapps with you guys i'm going to stay on the pod i'm going to stay in mdc i'm going to stay in the in the comments of of our stuff i'm going to stay with the people on socials that i know are good arsenal people and i'm going to be champions for as long as we can be champions and enjoy that right up until I step on a plane to go to Budapest. And I said this the other night when we did our thing right at full time, the Bournemouth game.

1:27:49I just want to be there to clap those guys. I wish I could be there at Palace to do it. It is the one quirk of the schedule that we won it when they didn't play. So they haven't had a chance to have a clap. They had a chance to see everybody on the streets, but they're going to get that chance at Palace. And I want to be there to give them that chance when they step on the pitch at Budapest, no matter what happens. And I think we are all now ride or die for this group and this manager and what they've given us. And all I want to say at the end is a massive thank you. Thank you to this community for enlarging and enhancing the way I love this club.

1:28:24Thank you to these players for not quitting when it got hard and pushing through the nerves and the anxiety and the pressure of a fourth time trying this. Thank you to the manager for what he said when he arrived six and a half years ago and how he stood behind it coming to Union Chapel last season saying, I promise, stay with us. We'll go one further. And he kept his promise. Promise made, promise kept. And we are champions of England. I think it's a good place to stop because there's still more to do. We'll celebrate together this weekend. We'll celebrate together all summer. And we'll certainly have a lot on the Champions League final coming up.

1:28:56I'll try to coax a Friday night Clive out of Clive this Friday. But between now and then, there's going to be a lot of scrolling. We'll get back to the regular schedule for the main pod next week. presumably unless you know I don't know maybe we win something else between now and then once you started why stop but we'll see Clive for sharing this with me and being a part of this I love you and thank you. Thank you very much Tim same to you great article today brilliant words as ever there'll be time to try to put this in historical relevance more as the time goes by but thanks for being a part of it.

1:29:28Yeah in 50 years I'll do a history pod about this season. There you go yeah and you can If you want to print it and tape it to my headstone, you're more than welcome to do that. The problem is, which of the next 50 titles are you going to write about? You have to think about that. Yeah, let's not wait 22 years to do it again, but it was well worth the wait. Thanks, everybody, for being part of this. We'll have more coming. We love you. And how do we want to do this? I think we'll go straight to the phone. We love you, and we will talk to you. After Arsenal 10, PSG No.

1:30:23Elliot:I drive my bus in a busy city. That's why road safety is so important to me. I know that I must slow down and be extra careful when I make a wide turn. Buses need more room than cars. Everyone can help keep our roads safe. Next time you're driving, remember to give buses plenty of time and space to finish turning before driving ahead. Let's all plan to share the road safely. Learn how at www.sharetheroadsafely.gov.