Isak, Ekitike and Early Thoughts on the Coming Season

29:32So how important is this? And how much credit do you give the club for getting it done?

29:37Elliot:I think it's very important. And there are reporters and there are good reporters. You read James's articles on this. He's got it dead right. And that tells you there were challenges. It doesn't matter. I'd be very surprised if an agent and a player went into a meeting about signing a four to five-year contract and didn't ask about their playing time and pathway. I'd be very surprised if they didn't do that. In fact, I think they were stupid if they didn't do that. You'd be a very bad sign, wouldn't it, in terms of the mentality of the player? Exactly. What do you see for me? How do you see me going forward in the near term, in the medium term?

30:18Elliot:They can't say too much about other players, etc. They all have a pathway for that player. And that player has to decide what they want to do. We'd all want to believe, yeah, we love the club, we're just going to sign. Well, I remember when Ian Wright went to sign a contract, he said, where do i sign didn't look at it where do i sign when he went to ask you know um those days are over right now you've got people turning up with analytics information on where they are against other defenders etc other players in their position at the same age what they're doing it's a scientific intellectual game so i'd be very surprised we didn't try to find out where he stood you know and so it's not an it's not a negative if someone says that to how they say it probably could be it could just scare people up to get clicks but i'd be very surprised we didn't have that sort of issues for example and that's all right and this and we saw it last year didn't we we saw pre-season how important pre-season was we saw him viera having a dance-off on that right hand side didn't we in la and by the end of that trip we knew who'd won and guess what a few days later one was going out on loan and the other one was in our squad and i thought we'd be playing under 21 Champions League football, that changed in LA.

31:31Elliot:So that's the importance of pre-season. That can literally dictate careers. So he's quite even in his right to understand with people coming back, with signings coming in, to understand where he fits. He's always been given comfort and he's signed on the dotted line. I expect those challenges for players that are one of the best 18-year-olds in the country. You'd expect there to be approaches, people trying to steal him, with one year to go to try and get him not to sign, to try to steal one of our stars from us. What do you think this is? Kindergarten? This is ruthless, ruthless stuff. Don't take an affront to it.

32:06Elliot:Be happy that the club is well positioned now that we don't have to even think about this anymore. We lost a couple of players to Manchester United this year and I wonder how much that will hurt us. And particularly Aidan Hevin in particular. We didn't have the space for him. We didn't, you know, And he's gone off and he'll be in the Manchester United First team this season, no doubt. And we've got hardly any money for him. So don't think it doesn't happen the other way around. You know, just because this kid scores goals, we don't want him to go. Well, there are defenders just as valuable as well.

32:40Elliot:So it's sector's challenges. And I'm really, really, I think it's very, very important to where we're heading this side. It's the natural next battleground in football. young players who you don't know what you're going to get long term, but your investment risk is so much lower. Look at Will Wright, who we'll talk about in just a bit. Liverpool wanted to offer£100 ,000. We doubled it to£200 ,000. Now, I'm not saying that's not real money, and I'm not saying you can just run around doubling your offer to every youth player out there. But that's a rounding error in a bidding war for an Eketike or an Ezekiel.

33:20It's a rounding error. That's money that literally might fall out of the briefcase you're carrying to the agent's hotel room. You know what I'm saying? So this is the battleground when you can get a Cheeto or a Heaven or a Will Wright out from under another club, or when you can get an Ethan or a Max Dowman. You know, if you can turn their head for 50 ,000 extra pounds, 100 ,000 extra pounds, that is an investment worth making and a roll of the dice that's worth taking. And, you know, all you have to do is look at Chelsea's strategy, which appears to be acquire as many young players as humanly possible, and then just move them on at a profit.

33:57Whether they're even trying to compete to win stuff is hard to even know. And we'll talk about Chelsea as well in a moment. So, Paul, what do you think of that? The importance of Ethan staying, and I get it. No one wants to hear it. They want to know when Isaac's coming or when Rodrigo's coming, but there's a chance, pardon me, Eze or Rodrigo, but there's a chance that neither Eze or Rodrigo go on to be as good as Ethan could be. And I realize that's a very bullish statement I've just made, but it's really worth stopping for a moment and recognizing the importance of being able to keep your academy players at your club when they're that talented.

34:28It is. And you talked about the headlines and maybe this is a little under the radar, but in a parallel universe where he goes somewhere else, those headlines would be asymmetrically bad for the club. That's a great point. Yeah, can I stop you there? I want to say, I think that's such a powerful observation, which is we won't get the credit for keeping him that matches the intensity of the outrage we get if we didn't. That is a really, really good point. Yeah. I might try and get on Tim's next self-celebrate-a-thon for that one. A short section. Don't worry, I'll make sure that Goulam doesn't clip up this section.

35:07and put it on the socials. Unlike when I had him clip up Phil saying that... Oh, completely. Did you see that Nani Madweke could be Mohamed Salah, that they're basically the same player? Ghulam immediately clipped that up and threw that on the socials. And Phil and I... I woke up to like 17 notifications in WhatsApp from Phil. I was like, oh, what's happening here? Anyway, go ahead. Anyway, so Ethan. Yeah, look, the thing about it, it's such an important skill that you just pray the club. You need the club to be nice and settled and non-chaotic so they can make good decisions over time. There's the reporting on how Per, given that Andrea Berta needs to focus on the men's team at the moment, that per his kind of purview has been expanded in terms of importance and relevance.

36:07And he's the guy who's bringing that karma across the rest of the club to make sure it progresses, makes good decisions over time, because it's a time preference thing. And we've got to develop these players, and it's all part of a jigsaw. And it's so hard to judge from the outside whether it's going well or not, because the fruits of this, if they happen, happen a few years out. And I bring that up because even with somebody in the limelight at the moment, Ethan, he had an up and down season, if you look at it last season, and that's what you get with young players. And you need a very steady, calm view of the player that goes across several seasons, not one season.

36:52And so it was quiet at the start. Then he got quite a bit of game time, looked very good early on, then seemed to fade a little bit within his game time, and then was kind of taken out of the limelight for the rest of the season. Whereas you look at Miles Lewis-Gelly, I mean, who knew? Is that the guy we thought was going to take the world by storm in the previous season? And when he came on, you never wanted to take him off. He was playing back-to-back games. Had the A-listers been available and fit Calafiore, they would have struggled to get any minutes against this guy. So you just don't know what these – who would have betted that if we'd kind of black-boxed it, that it would have been Miles that would have gone, not just come in and hold a place, but get stronger and stronger and stronger game by game in a straight line.

37:47Ethan's was more up and down. there's a lot of skill and finesse to manage these players and a lot of calmness required and the one thing i'll say about michael is he's never rushing to keep these guys in the spotlight and i hope that translates into not just hey i want to play my my stars and the guys who were 26 and 27 because i want to win now i think it's always been the message that players have their own development curve and you need to allow that to unfold and now we look for ethan to build on those experiences and be strong every game, every opportunity he gets in the team this coming season.

38:25There's going to be loads of game time for him if we stick around in the competitions. And what we'll look to see from him is more linear building, like we saw with Miles Lewis-Skelly. Yeah. Clive, last thoughts on that?

38:39Elliot:Yeah, I think what is interesting, Elliot, as you are talking and Paul's talking also, but all these signings, what do they say? So we are, you know, I use the word renewal a lot, but we are really renewal. So what are we actually doing? So this year, the manager signed a contract last season. We've got a different sporting director. We potentially could bring in six or seven players. And so we're in a real period of change. We could lose four or five players. and what that does that buys you time but also refocuses you on your absolutely near term goals but now the manager has tools and he's been backed in this next cycle and so despite TalkSport trying to get rid of him by Christmas the club obviously said right we're going again and so all the players that are re-signing do you think they're not asking how long the manager's going to be here you know how solid is he so we're in a new cycle we all want the same thing so I'm not saying we don't have to win or anything like that but we are in a new cycle in a period of restating our stability there's a couple more big contracts to do, if they get done and the extra signings get done we may as supporters have nothing to worry about or moan about apart from the very next result that's a position I've hardly ever been in because I always want a little bit more I always want another player I always want something different to happen but we're going to be in a situation where we have all our core people signed, new players coming in, attackers coming in, defensive cover in place, midfield cover in place, a full ground, shared goals, shared motivation to win a trophy and be remembered as players that have won for Arsenal.

40:29Elliot:You know, we are really in that common ground place. Everybody's there. So rather than let anybody else pressure us, if we all want the same things and we're acting like it, we can turn that into real positivity. about where we are. And they've loaded us up with an unbelievably hard start, right? So that could all be gone by three games. But if we stay the course within this squad as it's developing, I think we've really got something here. I really do. We can stay the course and stay healthy. Yeah, I want to talk a little bit about, we'll write briefly, very briefly, preseason, and a bit of early look at next season.

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44:47Is that enough of that?

44:49Elliot:Indeed. Not it. Okay. Now that that's done, I would like you, Clive, to tell me everything we need to know about Will Wright in 90 seconds or less so we can move on to other stuff.

45:10Elliot:Six foot tall. Six foot two, sorry. Tall, leggy, forward, center forward. I've seen two videos on him. Scores goals. Scored 50 goals across the youth teams the last couple of years. And if I think about it from an Arsenal perspective, we've got a forward called Andre Hyman Anous. and he's our main centre forward at a youth level, but I'm not sure what's below him. And given the fact that we're in the Champions League again this year, I think adding another four is very important for the age groups. And I do think there's still movement for us to bring players in. From reading the experts out there, I think we're a bit light as a squad, particularly with a number of players with the first team at the moment.

45:51Elliot:We took a bit of a kicking under-21 level at St. Albans, which is quite near me. and because they just didn't have the experienced players to match the physicality of a non-league adult's team. So it's just interesting to see how we use this player. I really liked the investment earlier and you're absolutely right about the arms race at this level. There's more, the players are starting to become famous before they're shaving, you know what I mean? It's really important that it's starting to happen. There's a number of players that are out there in other clubs who I now know who they are. And they're 14, 15, I'm not sure I should know, but that's what's happening out there.

46:26Elliot:it's becoming an arms race and that transparency is there and we're competing with each other people moving from spurs to man city this week uh liverpool took chelsea's number one academy kid a couple of years ago they're about dropping a new contract he's growing now out of his boots looks like a player you know it's happening all around we've got our own start at the moment obviously everyone knows so um yeah it's uh it's an interesting part of the um market shall we say that we'll all become experts in, because that's what we do, without maybe understanding the intricacies of youth development.

46:58Elliot:So I like this one. I really do. Yeah. And I think the biggest takeaway for me now is I don't know that we need Gilchoresh at this point with Will Wright coming in. So that might explain why the deal's dragging. It might have been dependent on what happens with Will Wright. So it's only – look, he scored a lot of goals. Gilchoresh scored a lot of goals. Will Wright's younger and taller. QED, he's all we need. Did I just mention one other name? I'm not sure if you're going to mention it. It was Olivia Smith that we signed today. Yeah, the first million pound signing in women's football. Yeah, you want to touch on that?

47:33Elliot:Yeah, with Tim's not here, I've got to bring this up. I think it's a major moment for the women's game full stop. You know, this is a, you know, she's been here one year. Liverpool bought for 200 grand last year. Me and Tim were talking about it on the Ask Us, actually, and Tim said maybe we could have gone for her last year. maybe but we've got quite well stocked in those wide areas but we've had some injuries there and now we have a gap and um and i think it's a very very significant signing because of her age because of what she does from a sprinting and shooting point of view we've got 11 games at the amurice this year big wide spaces on that pitch i think she's going to do really really well i think given the fact that we just won a champions league we're well positioned now to sign from strength and um so yeah i'm so excited about this signing the players that me and tim have been talking about for for months and we sort of predicted it and it sort of happened you know so it makes us i just really really pleased with this and i can't wait to get down the emeralds to watch her play well said okay um and and i'm sure we'll hear more from tim on that down the line as well obviously uh okay so paul i i do want to talk pre-season for a minute because it is looming I think the players fly out Saturday.

48:50I think there had been hope that Victor Gilchoresh could be on that flight. That looks less likely now, I would say. Not impossible, but a lot less likely. I don't know. Clive, do you know, is Nani Maduike going on tour? He's probably on his holiday post-Club World Cup.

49:06Elliot:I'm not sure if he's going on tour. I know Ethan has said, I'm going to go on tour, which I think is really encouraging. Despite having played in the U21s. In the U21s, yeah. And he's due another week off, but he said, no, I'm going to come. I think it's brilliant. Whether the club is going to accept that or not, I don't know. I don't know what Nonnie McAweke is doing, given the fact he was at Wireless last weekend. Maybe he does need his holiday, and he wants to go. So yeah, I'm not sure what's going to happen there. It is possible, too, that he could take a few extra days, fly out just to be in Hong Kong or something like that.

49:36These players do have ways to get around the world. It's also the case, too, by the way. These are very long-haul flights. They may just decide, you know what? You've just played football. you're in pretty good shape we don't want you flying 12 hours 14 hours to get to southeast asia to play in 30 degree heat and humidity you just keep your feet up and relax we we would rather you do that so you know it may be the case that that's what's in their best interest but paul it is i think worth asking what you're hoping to see from pre-season um because the last time we saw Arsenal in domestic competition for getting Champions League, it really wasn't great.

50:17You know, we didn't focus on it because it kind of didn't matter. But Arsenal's last several months of domestic competition was kind of a mess. Injuries certainly played a role, prioritizing Champions League played a role. But it's still the reality of what our domestic competition performance looked like during that time. So what would you like to see in preseason? It's the early part of preseason, but in this earliest stage, the two games in Singapore and the game in Hong Kong, what would you like to see during this period? Look, the first, it's a bit like pancakes, you know? You're making the pancakes, you got the batter, you put the first one on, you have low expectations.

50:56You probably throw it away, let the dog have a nibble on it, throw away the first pancake. That's like the first and the second game of preseason. You just enjoy it. You want to see the lads out there having a good time, getting excited, charging the batteries for the season by pancake number three. I don't know who we're playing. What's our evolution of games here? Spurs is the game in Hong Kong. Yeah. Yeah. So it's what, Milan, Newcastle, and Spurs, yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's no, to be honest, there's no scrubs there in any of those games. But, you know, you bring on, I'm just reminding myself how it works.

51:34You bring on one team in the first half, all your players aren't there. It's like there's a lot of holes in the pancake in the first half and in the second half. And the same, probably by the second game, it's still pretty patchy. By the third game, you're putting on a strong team for one half, and then you put on, well, they'll be putting on their scrubs. We'll be putting on our other fine team that's not quite as good as the first team in the second half. By the fourth game, which would be Villarreal, you expect things to start getting serious. So is it a terrible answer to say? Not much, apart from just good vibes and players, enough new players on the, you know, you want Jaak Resh in there.

52:23That excitement, the excitement we saw when Gabriel Jesus showed up for preseason and lit it up. you're looking for you're looking for that one player who ignites it and tells everybody this is different going into the next season like jesus signaled something that season yeah and it lit us up that was the momentum yeah i think two things for me one i think just the reminder oh yeah when we're fit we actually still have a lot of talent there's this sense of like our attack was totally broken and needs to be rebuilt and a weird omission of the fact that it's because we lost all the players. So that first time we just line up in preseason, well, we arguably won't line up this way to start, but the first time we see Kai, Saka, and Martinelli on the pitch together, and you go, oh yeah, actually, we're pretty good.

53:09We could be very dangerous with this. The other thing, that first time Zubimendi punches a pass between the lines in the left channel, or we create a nice pattern of play up the left-hand side that gets that side looking like it could be more fluid or work, I think that might be kind of a nice sign. Clive, what about you are there are there little bits and bobs from the these first three games in southeast asia that

53:29Elliot:will that'll be important for you to see yeah i'm including the uh villarreal and bilbao games which which i just got my tickets for and we'll be going to i think um so many things earlier when you bring in six or seven players you're creating new units aren't you new new groups so you want to see groups together so it's not just about players filling in for other players you're going to want to see a Madiweke and say Timber play together on the right hand side what does Madiweke on the left hand side look like I'm not saying it's going to happen in Asia I'm not sure he's going to go um what type of players you know how does Subimendi work with a center forward that runs towards him versus one that runs away right how does Subimendi work when he's not the single pivot but he's got an 18 year old next in to him with biceps or a six foot one Italian with a headband on flowing around the midfield doing what he likes how's he going to cope with that what's he going to how's he going to work with that you know those sort of things the first back four we all sort of know we all sort of know the people in behind them um we know keep you a lot more now so there'll be one new defender to bring into that unit can he play left back left sorry left center back and right center back how does that look i think looking at all these things one other thing i'm looking at mate and it's something i did message scott the other day and he just hasn't even looked my message i don't know what i've done trump saying but um but the the 14 draws and i don't i think it's seven or eight games from winning positions i'll be looking at a different system in in these games i've been looking at a a system to end games you know um maybe it's a a five three two a two striker system you know to end a game or just looking at different ways to close games out because i think sometimes what we do we just play the same way and change the players normally put players who are not quite as good as the ones that left the pitch and we become weaker but can we become systemically stronger so we manage to change in players that come into a into a game cold i think you've got to look at that you can't look at 14 draws and not think what can we done when we're winning positions to do something better we're all hoping we're going to score more goals it won't be a problem what if we are one goal ahead what do you want to go to you know do you want to you know i think there are many ways we can line up i think we finally worked out what to do with with 10 men i know the system we're going to play and it we once we found it it works really really well i hope we don't have to use it but what do we do to hold on to those games when we've left out with draws i think it's something we've got to be working towards in the in the pre-season clive can i just stay with you for a second on something um i think martin odegaard's last season had some people concerned i think sometimes a concern verged into hysteria and underrated what he was still good at but i think sometimes the concern was warranted this feels like an important preseason for martin odegaard um to sort of re-establish his level and i don't even just mean to prove to fans he's still good i just mean to build some confidence for himself going into a season after knowing that his performance last season was not where he wanted it to be and he was clear that that was the case i thought we saw some signs he was coming back at the end of last season i mean that shot that should have gone in against psg you know he was starting to hit shots with more force um and accuracy towards the end of the season so is this a pretty important period for him to just get a little bit more confident in his final third contribution heading into an important season yeah there's a story to be told with his season last year we also speculated what it could be but we don't really know right and um but we do know and i've heard heard the coventry guy say this i thought it's really nice to hear an opinion from an outsider even though he's a cockfosses lad um an outsider obviously knows the club really well and he said he said it clear didn't he o'digard lacks a bit of power he lost a bit of weight he's not even an arsehole fan you know and that power differential we need that in offensive areas right so there's ways to there's ways to be effective physically and technically in a game having good movement around him he'll find you right i think we were very static we were sent the forward last year that was a center mid and we had a a less sprinty bakaya saka looking after his hamstring before madrid games etc and so the movement wasn't there for him to really show himself but we all know himself as an individual, he was underpowered and not in the best shape and what we had to do we had to play him through because we really lacked the alternative so guess what, we're going to have alternatives and there's lots of players that can play in that position so this pre-season he'll be winning no shuttle races he'll be doing everything and that's what competition brings you want to stay in this level, you've got to bring it So I'm not worried about him.

58:25Elliot:He understands elite football. And so he's going to have to bring it. And when he brings it, we won't miss it. We won't miss it. Yeah, I think if you get an Odegaard performance more like the one we saw two seasons ago, a lot of the things people presume we need in the transfer market and a lot of the worries people have about our attack immediately evaporate. So let's hope that's kind of what we see. Paul, I actually think preseason might be most important. for those players who want to make the manager's life miserable by giving him hard decisions to make. And this is where I think we have a fascinating preseason ahead in terms of Clive Vention and Calafiore, Marino, Norgaard, right?

59:09There are some players in there. I would have said Meduake at some level, but I don't know how much of him we'll see. Players who will feel, I am better than just being relegated to playing when someone's not available. I think Cal Fiore is immensely talented and has great chaos energy that can power up our attack. I think Christian Norgard is a player that has been one of the most important parts of a good Brentford team and isn't just going to, I think, sit there and allow himself to be a depth option. And Mikel Marino, as much as we loved what he did for us at Stryker, currently does not have a clear path to playing time at Arsenal Football Club.

59:45so those are three players in my mind that will want to make the preseason minutes they get matter to to really make Mikel think about how he can deploy them do you do you agree with that framing do you have another player in mind or what do you think of those three trying to show the manager that they belong more in his plans yeah yeah and two more I'd put in Havertz and white not because they need to make any point to anybody in some regard but they're both going to have serious competition for the spots they want to play and in a way as you were talking there it's almost like the five of them as a collective need to tip the manager it's not just individually what they need is the manager to go into the season thinking i've got almost two sets of players I could be playing here.

1:00:40I want to find combinations of these players that allow me to rotate. One of the problems is if you rotate one player across the season with another player, it's like that's not rotation. That's just, and you tend to fall back into patterns, so you stick with an 11. He needs to find groupings and kind of subsystems. He needs to find patterns that he likes that he thinks, oh, I'm excited about that. I want this for this kind of game or this kind of situation. So it's five players shifting him from thinking 1v1 rotation, more into this pod together works well, that pod together works well, this is for this situation, that is for that.

1:01:24So preseason for those guys is big, and it's big more collectively. I don't know how they configure something in the manager's mind, but there's a point at which a manager says, And Ferguson was really good at this, right? He had a squad that was way bigger than 11 players, and he chose them judiciously for a Champions League game on a Wednesday night, a Saturday. These couple of players feel they're going to play at the weekend, and we need to move much further away from, hey, we've got nine or ten players pretty much we know who are starting, but we'll rotate one. That's not rotation. so we'll have so many options the manager has to also step up to the the challenge of rotating thinking chess not checkers in terms of how we put out teams and how we rotate you know what's really interesting you guys if you think about it this is how much football changes in a year and why you have to be careful about being too dogmatic in your beliefs because Calafiore take Norgard out for a minute because we obviously just signed Calafiore Calafiore Ben White, Kai Havertz, Mikel Marino, I think you'd be within your right to think, in August of last year, if I named those four and said to you, where do you think we are with them?

1:02:47In a year time, you'd say, they're all nailed on starters, all nailed on first choice players at Arsenal. Kai's our striker, Marino's our left eight, Ben White's our right back, Cal Fiore's our left back. Great group, all starters. Right now, there's a chance none of them play the lion share of minutes at their position. And in the case of Cal Fiore, Marino, and Ben White, I don't think it's a chance. I think it's a guarantee. I would give you any odds you want that Ben White has the second most right-back minutes, Mikael Marino has almost no midfield minutes, and Cal Fiore has second or third most left-back minutes.

1:03:20So things change very, very fast. Now, Kai, I could still see Kai having more minutes than Jokrash. We don't know. But so, Clive, it is whatever you want to say about preseason if you're a player who wants to make a position yours or wants the manager to see you as more than a fringe player this is your moment to show them because when the games matter managers get conservative by and large so this is a big moment for those players

1:03:42Elliot:you know yeah i love what you say i can guarantee he's going to get the second most minute that's because you're going off the last game that you've seen or the last settled 11 it's all the matters as you know yeah and towards the end of the only data that's important is the last thing i watched and Elliot's very pretty but he's shallow that's what I want to say and um yeah my my theories I got many theories but one of them is the first 11 presents itself to you really really particularly in winning time it just presents itself to you we all can pick it but I don't pick it too early because there's different phases of the season um we only see the last game but they funny enough they see all the pre-season medical tests and they do all of those things they see all the training session they see who's lagging on the bleep test etc they see who's behind and guess what that's the player that doesn't play so um has to have a special training program i still one reason why i do love pre-season is almost like you you start again and you have to come back in shape you have to come back and re-establish yourself in a hierarchy right and that's what's so exciting about it you know it becomes new and people are out there playing and doing their stuff some probably know they're playing and they're managing themselves through the first the preseason make sure don't get an injury but some are really trying to get in the manager's eye you can see the ones that are versus the ones that are not and that's why rating players in preseason i think is a little bit futile but watching is massively important to see who is leveraging up against their competitive landscape i really do think that is it's great i watch preseason non-league games I'm that much of a nerd because I want to see how managers are developing their teams and what style of play they're going to bring forward in this season it's the same for the first team what's the manager focusing on what's the key messages he wants to get across is he changing the style slightly is he going to tweak the formation slightly in different phases of the game which I'm sure he will do we've got more options now to do all of that stuff you know so yeah it makes it exciting yeah um all right cloud I'll stay with you just for oh no Paul I pulled in there, mate.

1:05:50He's in. Get in. Just while we're talking on this, coming back to my thesis, look, Arteta talked this season multiple times about how to play in the modern game the way it's going, you know, the demands on the players. Is it unfair? He said bigger squads, right? That's his answer for now. It may not be the perfect answer to the way the game's going, but bigger squads. And it can't just be a starting 11 and a shadow team. He's really got to lean into, let's say you bring in Eze, you've brought in Maduaki, you have Havertz, you have Jokeres, you need to move. This is the big step up for Arteta, I believe, this season, and it'll make everything better in terms of attack, defense, the trajectory of the season peaking at the right time.

1:06:44learning the rotations and the combinations and the chestnut checker. It won't be one in, one out, I don't believe. I don't think we'll bring in a player, sell a player, because we can't. We need to actually, and that's the exciting thing as we look at these additional players coming in and why I do think it seems to be real that we're going to also look to bring in this left hand. In any other season, I'd say, nah, we're kind of done. That's the kind of thing they float out there. Oh, it's not this player or that player. It's both players. It might actually be both players this season or this preseason, it seems, or this transfer window this season.

1:07:25We've got to go up in numbers to go past 14 players he trusts to more like 18 players he trusts. And then he's got to lean into finding ways to get these players real minutes so that nobody's doing 500 minutes or 700 minutes. They're playing real minutes. They see consistency throughout the season that they can lean into. It's a big ask for Arteta, and it's the next level he needs to step up to, and that's what I hope my thesis plays out this season. It'll be a different way of putting a team out across the season in multiple competitions. I like the hypothesis there. I'm not sure I agree. Clive, what do you think?

1:08:12Elliot:I think, when I look at the squad community, I think we're going to make a sale. Sorry, I say that. There are players that we're all looking at, right? We're doing the ideal sums in our mind. They never work out, but let's do them anyway. So if we lose Nelson, we lose Sambi, we lose Inchenko, and potentially lose Trossard, that's four players that we lose. I mean, we get half decent money for them, and we can bank it. Then I'm going to get excited for an Eze, because I think we can do it. You know, from the wages going out the door, I think we can do it for the contracts we have to re-sign up to give them the money they deserve into the Man City range shall we say for Saliba and Saka we need to lose some we need to lose some cash off our wage bill right so I like that idea so I've sat here many a time and said I'm not interested in the League Cup FA Cup I just after the Big Two and the Big Two is what we all want but actually if we do have that squad I do think the excuses for a poor show in domestic cups become harder to justify.

1:09:12Elliot:Do you see what I mean? I think we have to show a much more serious approach. And we should have the players to do it. And so the whole winning mentality and winning trophies needs to be the number one message that goes to the players. And I'm sure that's what they all want. I'm sure they're sick of it. You know, having the second most points in the last three years in the league, but we're the one team that's not won the league title, that can't be sitting with them really nicely. Do you know what I mean? And so they're focused now, aren't they? And to be focused, they need the right level of depth around them so they can be what they need to be in the critical moments.

1:09:48Elliot:So, yeah, I think it's looking good. That's where I am with it. Well, so then, Clive, let me just ask you this as the final question. As we sit here now in mid-July, which is too early to know, but I think worth taking stock, you look around at the business being done, it still feels to me like the group is City, Liverpool, and Arsenal. And I will say, I don't have a strong lean. If you told me any one of those three won the upcoming Premier League, I'd believe you. Here's what the betting odds currently think from a point total standpoint. Liverpool 79, City 78, Arsenal 78, Chelsea 70, Newcastle 64 um and I know people are gonna say that's low those teams are gonna get more that's not really how the betting odds things work the point I think the more instructive thing there is the betting odds essentially reflect the reality that it's very close for example the current Premier League title odds from Pinnacle based on their futures are 27.7 for Liverpool, 27.2 for Arsenal, 22.7 for City, and 10.3 for Chelsea.

1:11:05So a clear break. And by the way, for people who might be saying, why are City kind of a little bit behind? I think those odds might price in a bit of a concern that City could have a deduction, right? So if you're a gambler, you price in all the information. And so I think City would probably be more right there if there wasn't the risk to gamblers that they could face a punishment. But Clive, this is all just sort of my setup for saying I think that's the group, although some might look at the Club World Cup, which I think is dumb, and say Chelsea might be there. I don't agree. But do you have a strong lean on any of those three in the group, whether anyone else should be in it, and what your sort of early thoughts on the title chasers look like at this point?

1:11:47Elliot:I feel that's going to be the group, and I think Chelsea will be there from a player trading perspective because they've got another 110 million quid in their bin out of nowhere that none of us saw coming a year and a bit ago. And they've now got it and they're going to bank it. And that makes them powerful. They can use that money. I don't know how it's going to arrive in their bank accounts. Not that they care anyway. So they're going to be there. Their trading model is going to be, it's going to get closer and closer and closer. They buy a goalkeeper, some defenders that are actually not 13 particularly central defenders they've got a chance to really do something so I do think this is our third year in the Champions League and we're slow this is we can now flex our muscles you know we're now there so we're starting to separate away from the other team because let's be honest although we've had three years at the top end of the league it's the third year in the Champions League and that's the key thing that's what makes us look at these signings we couldn't do this before without significant loans from our owners.

1:12:49Elliot:So we are in a really strong position and I do think Liverpool, City and Arsenal are starting to really flex commercially and what they're doing around their ground revenue, what they do with the Champions League money. They're becoming very attractive because that is the one thing that players want. I know Spurs have taken a shortcut to the Champions League as well, but losing 22 times, that jump's going to be significant for them with extra games if you're all pressuring there. But the manager's smart. Let's see how they go. Let's start the game, see what their draw looks like, the strength of their draw, how to manage against other competitions.

1:13:23Elliot:If I'm Chelsea, I am chucking the domestic cups straight away, not bothered, because why should I do it? Because I've got my 100 million quid in my bin. I don't need to worry about the FA Cup and all them other trophies. Let me stay in that top four. Let me scare them in the league, based on not playing that many games. Do you see what I mean? And so I did for an interesting year, very interesting year. but I do think we're starting to separate, which is probably not going to please the rest of the league. But we're also people, right? We spent seven years outside the Champions League and 14 years without reaching the quarterfinal.

1:13:57Elliot:Three years in, I'm happy to sort of reap the rewards at the moment and see what we can do going forward. Paul, thoughts on it? Yeah, I mean, I think I'm surprised in a way that the betting odds rate us that highly. I'm just used to getting faded, especially as we had, what, certainly outside the club. Looking at last season, most people don't carry the context and make the air quotes excuses for us that are appropriate. So I'm pleasantly surprised that maybe it's our persistence at a high level. We're just, to you guys' point, we're like, without even checking the numbers, everybody goes, oh, well, it's going to be Liverpool, Arsenal, and Man City, because it feels like now it's always Liverpool, Arsenal, and Man City, which is a very positive, virtuous cycle for the club, for our confidence, for our ownership's commitment to investing in the club.

1:15:06everybody can feel it's still building, despite the fact that you could look at last year and say, oh, that's a drop. We kind of lost the plot a little bit, et cetera. Apparently, it's clear to everybody, even those outside the club, gasp that we're actually really good, that last year was an anomaly with context, and that we're going to go. These new players that come in are going to give the players we already had, the squad we already had that was really strong, the room to stay fit, to breathe, to stay energized throughout a season. And so you're getting a net-net there, a kind of multiplier effect from bringing in this level of additional talent.

1:15:54And I assume the betting markets are seeing what we're doing in the summer, the players we're coming in, the level that they're adding, the number that we're adding in the areas we needed to. It's a vote of confidence to say Arsenal are making the moves they need to make and that they're serious. So, you know, I'd ignore the betting markets if it didn't suit me, but it suits me, and I think they're right. We're me too. To be right in there with Liverpool. I love the honesty. Consider the season Liverpool had last year. Consider the players they're bringing in, that the markets see us pretty much neck and neck.

1:16:34Look, let's say it's Eketike. I mean, this is why summer is a weird time. If you're just basing it on Wurtz and Eketike and Karakaz and Frimpong, and you know, it's exciting. But losing Trent sucks. He was hugely important for them. They are massively dependent on Virgil van Dijk staying fit. I think even with Eketike and Wurtz, they are still massively dependent on Mohamed Salah being elite. and he goes off to AFCON this year, there are risks for Liverpool that have nothing to do with what they're doing in the market. And I also think, by the way, their central midfield is basically grabbing Birch pretending to be a six and pray.

1:17:13Otherwise, it's endo. So, you know, any team, you can look at them and peel them apart and say, are they as good as the transfer business they're doing? Maybe Chelsea have it right. Have 700 players, and then you always have players to use. And if everybody gets injured, you're still fine. You're the last man standing. There it is. That's the path.

1:17:36Elliot:I can't wait until we go back to Chelsea to buy another player because we will. You might as well. Look, I'll say it this way. If Chelsea are going to hoard great young players to the point where they eventually have to lose them, go buy them. You know what I mean? Someone's going to buy Nico Jackson and I'll tell you something. They should. He's a good player. He's a player worth the risk on. Now, I do love a chaotic ex-G underperformer. See, also Darwin Nunez. But I think it's also worth pointing out, by the way, you know, there are a lot of people that are looking at like the Club World Cup, which everybody claimed they didn't care about and now saying, oh, don't rule out Chelsea.

1:18:08Look, Chelsea beat, they beat a PSG team that finally ran cold, right? They counterattacked a PSG team that was on their 70th game. Here are the teams Chelsea played in the Club World Cup. LAFC, then they lost to Flamengo. Esperanz Tunis Benfica Palmares Fluminense I mean and now we're going to say they're going to win the Premier League arguably they've gotten worse can I tell you something Gittins might be worse than Meduake and Jao Pedro might be worse than Nico Jackson I can't talk about Chelsea we're done we're done we're stopping we're stopping thank you Clive thank you very much Friday Night Clive tomorrow the destination content on Patreon website Friday night Clive AVP50 is your code to get half off and Sunday morning Paul is coming

1:19:02Elliot:thank you you might be on your own with that one and don't miss Tim's congratulatathon on Friday it's a two hour special and actually Sunday morning Paul is perfect because we can actually live stream and make him the pancakes so it all works out my name is Elliot Smith we love you and we will talk to you after Arsenal 10 Trans 1 to No Tommy Yasu and Kai Havertz and Machineli! Arsenal are flying!