Some Encouraging Signs And Some Worries With New Season Approaching

34:41What did you make of Jokras and Kai playing again in that kind of role? And I think a mixed bag. There were some good moves, certainly, but I'm not sure that it works. And there was that one moment, I want to get your take on this moment. Kai is in Yocres is running the defenders Victor Yocres makes what I regard as an awkward run to the back post and Kai slides a little ball just towards the channel in front of the keeper that I think he thinks Yocres is going to run on to Yocres runs to the back post the keeper collects it and then you have the perfect opportunity for bias and agenda because if you don't rate Kai it's a shit pass and if you don't rate Yocres it's a shit run have a blast go analyze football however you like but I'm curious what you made of that moment and make them trying to operate as a bit of a two up front yeah so it's a challenge because the

35:32Elliot:game work goes in sections right so the odegaard section then kai was a little bit deeper and then comes out even comes in even goes a bit deeper and then kai goes a bit higher so recency tells us that kai and yokos were together for the home home the whole game but it wasn't really the case right so on how can i say this are we doing the striker thing now should you just do the whole striker thing i think do the whole striker thing and i'm actually just curious also just to get your analysis of that one little moment because it got so much play you know on in my whatsapps and social and people's look at this terrible ball from kai look at this terrible run from you know you put yourself in a camp and i'm curious what you made of like the dynamic between the two of them and the striker situation in general.

36:16Yeah, I'm curious.

36:18Elliot:They are trying to develop a dynamic and they will do one. I see Kai as a second striker or a striker. I no longer see him as a second midfielder anymore and I don't want to see that. So we've got enough people that we don't need to see that. So you have to recognize that in preseason we've got seven or eight midfielders and not even unpacked their suitcases yet. So let's not talk about Kai midfield. Let's talk about relationship with because that's what we are going to see that at some point we could be a goal down we're going to have put two strikers on and so we are going to see that and they seem to want to develop a relationship and they were one of the more successful pairings in the game right so i think it comes down to how you like your steak right i don't think for many people jokeres is a type of center forward that they like and you know i was just watching some clips earlier on of izak and i'm looking at him i'm looking at jale pedro and to me they are more arsenal coded center forwards you know leggy technical you know i i we all grew up on cherry on rey so things that are close to that profile even neka tk is more of an arsenal type center forward so when we go for a a builder in in yokarez who's who is somebody a little bit more robust he's a line leader and he lacks some of the technical qualities but he has other qualities i don't think everyone sees all of those qualities and that's absolutely fine what i find more of a challenge when people are assessing him it's almost a disrespect which i don't think is warranted you know because in this respect is probably not warranted period right we should try to avoid discussing players who play for arsenal in that way in general yeah it's a disrespect we can have and a change different of opinion it's a disrespect to where they talk about someone who's our top score from last season is called 21 gold the minutes that he played when other people weren't available and and there's a shiny trophy by the north bank in the ground before the game and i don't think we have it without this guy whether you like it or not we just don't have it you know and and i think oh yeah he doesn't always trap it and yes he doesn't always stand up But the disrespect, right, and I look at the team, and I look at our threat level, and I promise you, Elliot, he was our most threatening forward in this game.

38:41Elliot:He would be the forward that the other team would be talking about. How do we stop his runs, drop off early? He is the one that's moving people. He's the one that's pinning people. No one else is doing it, right? So when you look at the context of the game, look at what he's doing to lead the team in that, lead that line. I don't think people understand what a line leader is. and what he does for the yesterday team and some people say actually i prefer false nine arsenal and so do i sometimes i really do i like when you have almost like all midfielders i do yeah because in our mind you control the ball more you're better footballers on the pitch you control the system and the highest level gains by the way psg who started did anyone want anyone else to start up front no do we have the do we have the midfield options at the moment to allow us to do different things no we don't and so i just don't like disrespecting this and i promise you he was one making the most runs if anything people are gonna like it if anything kai had a worse game than yokores in this scenario then oh i agree i agree i don't think this role gets you the best kai that's for sure yeah exactly and i'm thinking this is really promising this is the start of something i tell you now last year when yokores rocked up by arsenal he looked like a fan right This year, he looks like a football player.

39:58Elliot:And he looks much fitter and slimmer and ready to go from day one. He's done a pre-season. And he's working really hard. And I'm thinking, mate, you're not... No one's ready, by the way, Elliot. No one's ready. Apart from Solis. He's the only one that looks ready. So no one's ready yet. Everyone's loaded. Everyone's hanging. It's roasting out there. No one's ready. But he's a lot more ready than he was last August. A lot more ready. And that's really promising for the season. and I know people say, Glythe, but he can't do this. He can't. I'm not blind. We can all see what he can't do. The technical level isn't high.

40:31Like anybody who can't see that or won't say that is in my opinion not seeing clearly. You can praise the things he does well. The technical level on the ball is not particularly high and for a lot of people, myself included, who see football a certain way, that will be one of the first things you see in a player and it can turn you off to a player. You know, I just think that's the reality.

40:51Elliot:Absolutely fine. Would I like a 25-year-old Alexander Izak to be our center force? Of course I flipping well would. Well, he'd also have to stay fit, which is something Jokeres does. Well, of course I would love to see him strolling down the sides, doing stepovers at his best game. But we have this guy, and I promise you, his attitude and mentality is really, really good. And forget what I think, his teammates seem to really like him. and they seem to go now some people say that hey clive we we're forced to play down the channels because he's there well tell me what else we can do just tell me what else we can do at this moment in time in the season till we have options tell me what else we can do when we have those options we're gonna have some really healthy conversations about how are we going to play up front what the forward play looks like how are we going to upgrade certain positions at this moment in time the disrespecting analysis i found disappointing shall we say from people who should know better disappointing because this is where we are right now yeah you know by the way i i know what we're seeing you know but there's a lot there that's a lot better than it was this time last year well yeah i mean look not to keep referencing this thing but the last time i looked he was the top stock falling from our our app thing and like i think people people were frustrated and i don't want to be in the business of telling people they are wrong i was frustrated with a lot of it too I mean, the thing I do get frustrated with sometime for a very big, strong-looking fellow, I don't know that he's always as strong in the duel as he could be.

42:24And I think some of that is he is quite top-heavy in terms of his center of mass. You look at a Bakayo Saka and the way he can hold people off the strength he has. He doesn't have the muscle that Yokoz has, but the muscle is in places where he can really utilize his strength. And I think sometimes Yokoz is a bit top-heavy. And that one time when he got into the box and he was in and he kind of went down, I think, either trying to win a penalty or went down a little light. That's what I'd, you know, I'd like to see him not do that. Can I give you some statistics that I think are kind of interesting?

42:55By the way, this isn't about Yolkres. This is just about our play last season. And as usual, the brilliant Billy Carpenter has pulled out some stats and shared them. Four stats. Listen to this. I think this is interesting because I really want to get your thoughts on this, Clive, and how we either move away from this or change, okay? You saw it? It's brilliant. One, Arsenal increased their long ball percentage more than any team in the league last season. Two, Jokeres participated in 246 aerial duels that originated from a teammate's pass, 175 more than the next highest Arsenal player. three Arsenal sent it over the top 183 more times than Man City and had the sixth lowest completion rate 26.3 percent and four according to gradient sports Arsenal won 45 percent of their 50 50s which was 18th in the league 379 of 839 won and that last one for me by the way losing 50 50s that's how you wind up in games like against Bournemouth or like against PSG where the ball keeps coming back now against PSG I think the referee is a big part of why we lost 50 50s because he's blowing for everything where we tried to win 50 50s another story but losing 50 50s like that second ball games you know how that gets you can start to feel like the pressure's mounting on you like you're running backwards towards your goal a lot we went long a lot we didn't win the ball a lot and we wound up under pressure and I think those four stats to me Clive I'm not going to call them Jokeres stats even though he calls out participating in the majority of those aerial rules I think they're stylistic stats that Bruno's signing will help with that getting back some of our top players will help with but I think it is a big point of emphasis for us not to be caught in those dynamics again this season so what do you make of that yeah I think I saw that and I thought

44:45Elliot:well Jokeres in star against PSG by the way but let's not worry about that right no no I know but I'm saying that that was a game where we did lose those 50 50s although like I said I think yeah I think there were build-up issues in that game, which I think were more full-back related, for me anyway. But it is what it is. We're getting over that game, aren't we? Slowly, surely. Slowly, slowly. Yeah, and absolutely. And the biggest out of all was we won the league, right? And that directness was a change. So the season before, we had full control of every single game, right? So we had people, we had slow build-up.

45:24Elliot:we had control and what did we see we watched low block versus low block football sorry we watched it all the time because we allow people to get into defensive shape because we waited till we got into attacking shape before we attacked that puts a lot of emphasis on our superstar number seven who was fine until his hamstring blew up right so and we lost our forwards and we had that what i call the hamstring season but for me it wasn't it was good but it wasn't optimal because we struggled we had 14 draws right and that tells you we didn't quite have enough to take those games into wind this season from almost Bilbao we started to change in the summer we started to change become more direct and we all wanted it by the way we wanted fast transition football we just want Liverpool win the league with fast transition football with Salah staying up high and running through the pitch we all wanted but we've forgotten we wanted a centre forward we running centre forward to run people back to attack teams before they were settled.

46:22Elliot:And I was all for it. Did Jokic not hold the ball up on the Cators? Absolutely not. Did he improve his calendar year once Heinz had got hold of him and got him to hold the ball? And did he have much better success in 2026 than he did in 2025? Absolutely. And it comes back to the centre forward discussion and the identity of that centre forward and how they play. and we and i will say i will say this in words we all wanted a center forward that was what last summer was all about we were desperate to have a true center for we hadn't had one since eddie come out we've made marino work it made havert's work some people don't like those players although they they play a brand of football which i quite enjoy to be honest um but we sometimes you need a center forward you know and my words were also football club should have a center forward in it and we shouldn't have a team of just midfields with no forwards who don't really wake up in the morning and think i want to score 25 goals this season you've got one player that wants to do that one yeah you know and um and i think we need that mentality in our squad if it's not him it needs somebody else we need a forward every team needs a forward to go to you know and um and with bakaya not being that guy for much a season last year because of injury etc and when he's on he's just brilliant um left hand side we mix and match it there in center mid attacking mid we mix and match it there and what was the most consistent the best part of our team was the base of our midfield and our back full guess what we won the league based on our stability the best defensive record 11 games where we went one and up from set pieces which we control the game and we won a lot of games by one goal and we won the league easy because the game in england is coming to our style and we are the best at it and that's it so it's a discussion about what our forwards look like and we're not there yet but let's have this before we get there and have conclusions can we just see a midfield of men for a while we've got about four 27 year olds and a 28 year old can we just see them together and then we'll work out what the forwards look like yeah i mean i thought it was interesting by the way i don't know if you saw this but victor yokrest was asked after the match you know do you plan to use the community shield against you know as a training and a warm-up exercise is that how you're thinking about it and he was like what I'm sorry I don't understand like the game against Manchester City and he's like I don't understand like do you plan to see that as training he's like we want to win that game he's like no we want to win that that was so so good um look I think there's something we're gonna have to do no we're not gonna have to I'm gonna try to do nobody has to do anything I say but I think it's something that Mikel will do it can be true that we won the league last season and actually it is true we did it's wonderful and also true that there were flaws about our team last season that we should be aware of and discuss and recognize and improve on i guarantee you michael feels that the second half of last season in 2026 there were a lot of things about our game that he's not happy with and wants to improve that doesn't diminish our title far from it i think a new list came out of the top 20 teams in the world based on some system that ranks in 13 of them are Premier League teams.

49:35The league is insanely difficult, okay? And we won it, and you don't take anything away from it. But if you rest on your laurels, and you think it was good enough, and you pat yourself on the back, and you don't recognize the warts, and you don't try to remove them and fix the team, you don't do it again. And I think Mikel is far more ambitious than any of us. He talks about taking the level of the club up, wanting to win everything. Kai Havertz said we want to win every trophy. That's the right ambition. But you don't get to that ambition by saying, well, if we won the league last season, we must have by definition done everything right we didn't do everything right we did it right enough we won the title as we deserve to as we very easily could have in at least three of the last four seasons but we got there now it's time to evolve and improve and so you know i i think it it please do not take it as diminishment of our achievements to recognize that there are areas we

50:25Elliot:can improve i think i don't think it's anybody listening doesn't want to see us get better right I think we recognize more goals in particular 71 won't do it I will say this and I'll say this again if we go through a lot of our players there's a lot of them that can play better this season than last season a lot so there is some in squad development to see and improvement to happen from within the squad but mate I wouldn't mind seeing a couple of new forwards and a right side a right foot defender come in because that gives me the comfort that we need to be as stable as we were last season and maybe have 10 more goals in us than we had last season maybe a few more in open and play there's not one person listening to this doesn't want to see us do a bit better and you just have to because that's the evolution of the game if you don't if you stand still you know it's going to happen right so this team is built on stability we don't look stable at the moment but we haven't seen our midfield and we are missing the primary defender in the world in my opinion and we don't know when he's going to be back and that's a major problem because in the last three to four years when he's not on the pitch earlier i do not feel good and i've never felt good right so so we have to find an answer to that whether that's going to be how we construct the midfield or how we're going to spend to replace that player because i don't think what i'm seeing at the moment is telling me we got enough stability and experience there with the players that's being used i know it's early but let's wait till the midfield's in place till we understand them take the pressure of some of those defenders because it feels like the last line of our defense is the first line of our defense on occasions but that will come back when other players come in right so um see that's the worry i'd love to see i think with the introduction of solace earlier what it's made me think is we could potentially build a star there rather than buy a star on the left because i think we could potentially have enough within the squad to fill that position if we had one more player and if that player is just for example is a yielded and he may not be ready to be the superstar that maybe vinnie was but we can build him alongside a solid and alongside an essay it's not such a critical moment do you see it's not a critical i get it look he's a lovely player the only thing i would say is that i believe he has tendinitis in his knee and like i'm just terrified by something like that he started the last game they played into recently i think you believe he started but i've also heard the knee thing as well and so i'm not too sure where he is yeah i'm just you know once bitten twice shy the one thing we've also done is i think everybody's assuming well when we play coventry it's going to be miles and Ethan and it's going to be that you know and it's going to be Mikel was asked if he thought the World Cup players could be back for the start of the season he said uh on if we're confident about them being back before the season starts yes I think so yes I don't know that I think Mikel's attitude is we're going to start with a rotated 11 for four weeks and then bring Saka and Rice back well even if you think that would be the right thing to do I don't know that I think that's what he's going to do really quickly before we we touch on some transfer stuff and uh judy romero um he says through through the bile in his in his mouth martinelli came on late it was not a lot of minutes for martinelli um which i thought was interesting there were some players that that were used sparingly nelson is linked with a loan to west ham you know vieira played off the right briefly like there are players that feel a little departure loungy the ones we know nelson jesus viera okay martinelli is an interesting one because to your point if we don't get a yield is if we don't get a barcola if we don't get you know that that big name off the left i don't think you can let martinelli go um not only do i not think there's no chance you can let martinelli go and he's a player people have a lot of affection for and has been a really important part of our squad for a long time but it feels a bit departure loungy to me even if i'm just making that up out of whole cloth any thoughts on the end of the game seeing some of those players on and and maybe Martinelli in particular?

54:19Elliot:Yeah, sometimes you send messages to players, don't you? And when you're building, the season pre-season's gonna have different phases. So when you're building your minutes, you need the youth players, you need the fringe players, you need them all to play. You need them on, because you need to protect the players who are gonna play, right? So Odegaard got 30 in this game. You need to protect him. You can't just chuck him out there for 60 in his first game. That's not right, you know? Same for Big Gabby last week, when he came in, did the first 30. I think you went a bit longer in this game than 45.

54:47Elliot:But again, you're looking at somebody just to ease them in. And so, you know, for Martinelli to only get 20 at the end, you're in the kids' numbers there, aren't you? And that's a message, right, to say, I know you might be thinking about going, you've got a few offers. Think seriously about those offers. That's what that message could be saying. You know, Jesus, we think he's going to be going to Italy, and that looks like it. It's just depending on movement on their movement out from Lukaku, for example. So that will happen.

55:22Elliot:Vieira, again, Hamburg like him. It's all about numbers again. That needs to happen. Again, now the squad is back, these players become really superfluous. And now's the time. Nelson didn't come on. That feels like it's close. Well, that's the message to say you need to sort yourself out. You know, and so if he goes on loan again, what does that mean? We're going to get a loan fee. then he goes on a free and for those people wondering you know why can't we just sell a youth playing and and bang 50 million a pure profit we can't we can't for various reasons for unsuccessful loans and injuries that player's going to walk out from us at 24 25 years of age it's also like a missed opportunity there but that's just the way it is and so these things need to happen there's a lot of wages in that group you know martin ellie jesus fiera not so much nelson nelson earns maybe double what non-imed away k hands you know and um and so that needs to stop right and that's just squad inefficiencies and we'll tidy that up you know so and when we do we get the chance to see maybe a couple younger players and even gets a different role in the squad and you get to see the real meat of the squad so phase one of pre-season is over earlier Yeah.

56:36Elliot:Now we come to Como, to City. Those games are important. And then we roll into commentary. Yeah. All right. People are ready for it. They're ready for the transfer stuff. So let's just get into it quickly. I think I'll start, maybe not with the most upsetting, but nearly as upsetting to me. Because we need an attacker. We need a defender. I think it's pretty clear we need to do something at both sides of the pitch. Right-hand side of the defense. left-hand side of the attack if not forward but clive i didn't want to wake up today having rested bit of jet lag finally home just trying to ease myself back into life i didn't need to see us linked with pedro netto i i can't accept that i won't accept that and i hope those of you listening will not accept it either i mean to go to be linked to cutie romero and pedro netto within in the span of a few days.

57:30It's not as happy a time as when we thought Vinny was done. So can we start with Pedro Neto? I mean, I know you like to see the best in every player. This to me would be a flagrant violation, a lack of imagination by Arsenal, a lack of creativity in finding the right solution, defaulting to buying from the one club we always feel like we can rummage around in their bins to get a player who doesn't have the best injury track record himself, doesn't have the end product and just simply is not someone I'd want to see at Arsenal. Now, I know there are others who will disagree, as there always are in football, but I've gone pretty big with my opinion there.

58:05So what do you think?

58:06Elliot:Yeah, he's a player that I used to love, this player. When that 50 million price from Chelsea bit on him, I thought, ah, but you know what? He's always got a hamstring, and so I can live with that. And he doesn't score enough goals. I think you and Scott told me the data around it. He flashes, doesn't score enough, doesn't shoot enough, etc. I thought, okay, I can live with it. Go to Chelsea, his hamstring's been stable ever since. And he plays a vast majority of their games, and he's all right. I've always liked him. But I don't like him. Does that make sense, Elliot? I don't like him. I don't like his persona on the pitch.

58:43Elliot:I don't. And I've just got over Bruno. I'm just starting to like him. And so, yeah. But that link did not surprise me. because you just look around the world on what's out there is a sure thing. And City are looking at him as well, by the way. Because Premier League... Their fans don't want him either. Yeah. And they certainly don't want Chelsea to bang 20 million of profit on this player. And that's the thing. They just put a price at 70 million. I mean, that can't happen. You know? So, yeah, I don't feel that one they're saying. The Romero one is interesting because when you look at him as a football player, He could be exactly what we need.

59:25Elliot:He's good on the ball. Now, just forget the shirt. Forget the shirt. Forget the fact he's a donut. Forget all that. Just look at the football. The football, he's quick. He's aggressive. He can do the sweeper roll, which we need. He can do the central center back roll. He's passing his top. Again, for Spurs, right, no one can pin him. No one can hold him back. He's not serious. He does what he'd like. He puts a cape on charges up front. does what he likes because he's playing for Spurs and the players are crap and they need him to do something. He doesn't do that for Argentina. He certainly wouldn't do that for Mikel Arteta.

1:00:00Elliot:That's for sure. So forget that. Footballistically-wise, he works. If there's a release clause in there, he works. So I don't particularly like him. In fact, he epitomizes what I don't like about a football player, the undisciplined. I just don't like it. He's not a serious footballer to me. He just does what he wants. But the thing is, he can be. right but then when you see a situation where spurs with their beautiful stadium we're about to go down he's got himself suspended for the last four games for a countless another red card of stupidity and then rather than support his teammates he wanted to go back to argentina to watch a team a small team what does that tell you about him and what he feels about the club their fans don't like him it's not the best character reference but just pure football mate just pure just one minute just separate the two that's about as sure better as you can get for right footy center back for our system as you could possibly find within the league apart from konza who also fans don't like i prefer konza i like konza well i i the konza thing he's already in the dressing room he's already he's already assimilated again on ball play one-on-ones sweeper type mentality to get around it's like there's a few things i think so look at concept First of all, just like, he knows the lads.

1:01:20He's in the England setup. You know, he's played at a high level. He's played in Champions League. He's averaged 3 ,000 minutes a season for Villa, so he's durable. His passing numbers are good. Do I think he's the most elite defender? No, but I think he can play the Saliba role in his own way. And he can play right back. And he can play right back, although I prefer not to. But that's beside the point. The point is, he is a stable, established, right-hand side defender who can pass the ball a reasonable number of times a game at a high percentage and defend relatively well. What he isn't, he's not a clown.

1:01:47He's not a red card waiting to happen. He's not an accident of booting someone in the box and giving away a penalty for no reason. He doesn't come with the Spurs stain. He doesn't come with the head that you're worried isn't screwed on right because those defenders, you know the funny thing? We're really, really good. The way we could lose games is someone goes out and loses it for us, commits a stupid foul that gives away a penalty or gets a dumb red card from nowhere. That's how you lose games. When you're Arsenal and you're good, just don't make those kind of mistakes. And the other thing with Kansa, I think, is he could come in, in his prime, and when Saliba's healthy, I think Kansa's okay to say, well, I can play the second leg of a Champions League tie, or I can play an FA Cup fifth round tie, or I can rotate in.

1:02:27Cutie Romero is not someone I think comes in and says, yeah, let me just stay behind Gabby and Saliba. I just don't know that it's the right dynamic to have in this squad. And I get that at his best, there's a high-level footballer there. But I think a high-level footballer who every few games does something that loses you points is not someone I want. I don't want the Spurs staying. I don't want the squad composition there. You don't have to love Kansa. You have Saliba and Gabby. You have to think Kansa is as elite a squad level. I mean, Liverpool just signed Ronald Araujo. Araujo, whatever. He stinks.

1:03:01Okay? Okay? Like, he's actively bad. So don't turn your nose up at Akonsa. Now I get, should we be spending$70 million on that? Well, how much is freaking QT Romero going to cost? So no, no to QT Romero, no to$70 million Pedro Neto. And the Neto thing annoys me more in a sense because I think centerbacks can be hard to find good ones. Like I said, Liverpool just went for a bad one. Good centerbacks that can play at the Premier League level hard to find, especially someone that you need to start a decent chunk of games. But there are wide players to take. I mean, look at Cristos Solis. I don't know if he'll be great or not, but he looks like a pretty good find at a reasonable price.

1:03:35You don't have to drop$70 million on a guy who's already shown, A, he struggles to be fit, and B, when he is fit, he gets you three freaking goals in a season. What are we doing here? You don't have to rummage through Chelsea's bins every summer. You don't. And by the way, that's coming from someone who thinks we got a good player in Kai Havertz. A very good player. And I think that was a good signing for us. But it's a lack of imagination if you just go back to the Pedro Neto thing. And I'll go this far. I'd much rather have Martinelli than Pedro Neto. I don't think you're improving your team.

1:04:07So just stick with the guy who loves the club and the club loves him and we love him if you're going to do that. So yeah, sorry, Clive, that one sets me off a bit because it feels so reductive. But having said that, just to be clear, everyone listening, it's a rumor that may not even be true, right? Like I don't want to beat the club with a stick that's not even, I'm just saying, if that were to be true, that would be deeply disappointing to me. That's all I'm saying.

1:04:27Elliot:Yeah, so yeah, I agree with every word and applaud the passion earlier. And sometimes we don't always appreciate what we have how we started this attacking conversation you know we all want to improve but let's appreciate what we have let's not downgrade shall we say if you are going to spend tens of millions make sure it's an upgrade the Vinnie Jr thing we weren't debating the quality were we we weren't debating the quality if there's a way to get Alvarez in I don't think we're going to be debating the quality too much if that situation happens you may have to do some reconfiguration to make that happen but we're not going to debate the quality when you're talking Pedro Neto to that sort of numbers, you've got to say, ah, that's not really for me.

1:05:08Elliot:The concert thing is quite interesting. Romero has made concert more appealing, shall we say? It has for me, that's for sure. You were, to be fair to you, you weren't down on concert. There are other people who have been quite down on him. I think it's World Cup based largely, by the way, though, because I think he wasn't awesome in the World Cup, but I refuse to use international football as the measure of players. And also, you know, again, you looked at the minutes played. He played a lot of minutes. You know, how can our players be tired and he not be tired? He played 3 ,800 minutes or whatever, but he's not allowed to be tired in the World Cup.

1:05:42Elliot:Exactly. He played in the World Cup. He played a right back and center back, in back fours, in back fives. These are not bad things. These are good things, right? And so for me, 28 is 26 for a midfielder. That's like a no. Honestly, it's all about the price. And with that one, Elliot, there have been strong rumors of a bit under 40 million pounds so unlike netto just one just something you read on a tweet just upset you when you wake up in the morning the concert one feels more real the romero one feels like is there an opportunity there is there a market opportunity is there a release clause let me just inquire the strange thing about the romero one is he's up for it and that's the thing that i find really interesting even if i monkey's about spurs mate he won't be ducking down the back of the coach when the when the bricks are coming in he'll be just standing there at the front and so i find that really funny but for me the concert one sort of works in my mind and um and the thing is liba whether he's back in the near term or the medium term we just don't know but when he is back he's gonna need to be nurtured through his back problem has been around for three four years and he's got to a point now where we need to protect the rest for his career and this is a generational player and Conso could be perfect and the right back thing is important because to have that position covered as well we've got knee strap Ben on one side we've got groin timber on the other side we've got issues there Mosquera can do it I like him as right back actually not too bad but he also can play left centre back cover and I think that's going to be important because Big Gabby can't play all of the time so you need to create room to make that 8th defender because because Miles is out of that group now.

1:07:25Elliot:And so Konza really works for me. There is another player called Jacobo Ramon that plays for Como. I'm not sure he's going to play on Wednesday, but I'll be there scouting, mate, to see if he, because he's a six foot five centre back, bring something else, really leggy, quick. I'm not sure what he's like on the ball. I should know. Apologies. I don't know what he's like on the ball, but I'm interested in watching him and seeing what he's like to see if he could be a player to look at. Yeah. Yeah. Now, it is the case with transfer windows that you have moments where you're linked with really exciting players.

1:07:57You make some exciting signings. There are also moments where you're linked with players you don't want. And you have to be able to navigate those vicissitudes in a way where you can keep your head and also not overly praise the club for doing things they weren't going to do or overly criticize the club for doing things they weren't going to do. So I'm not preemptively criticizing the club for moves I don't want them to do. but like you know i i think it's important that we don't that we don't do those things you know

1:08:24Elliot:i literally got a i got a text from david while we're while we're recording you know david and he basically said the same thing as you if we get romero and netto in i'm gonna lose my nut basically i saw someone say uh they need to reissue them a printed season ticket so they could tear it up on camera which i thought was pretty funny though i can see the football side Romero we let's be honest we don't need to do that do we we don't need yeah well we'll see um as a final thing can I just ask you super quick a little bit of a weird one uh Edward what's his name Eduardo Severin or whatever and Jeff Bezos are going to buy a large stake in Liverpool I haven't had time to read up or have thoughts on it so I don't want to wade into something I don't understand but that that's a weird one I don't know why FSG is doing that unless they just ultimately want to get out of Liverpool full stop.

1:09:15And you never know what the interest of billionaires is noting these things other than being play things. But I will tell you, it certainly would give Liverpool access to whatever money they wanted to spend if these are people that actually care about competing. But you just never know. And it's hard to say. I don't, like I said, don't know enough about it to have any thoughts. I just saw it come over the transom and figured I'd ask you about it.

1:09:37Elliot:Yeah, it come up. I think they bought a one-third stake in the club, potentially and what does that make people think when you talk about the richest man in the world you're thinking oh they're going to be able to do stuff well what can they do at the moment their ground is brilliant you know it's been upgraded to 60 000 plus now and um their training ground has been done in recent years that's really really good so infrastructure wise they're good obviously they can improve their revenues their kit deals are good you know they're in europe now again so like from a revenue point of view what can they do obviously they can do a man city style shirt sponsorship you know they're gonna get more money he says allegedly um but having amazon amazon facebook liverpool shirts are gonna are gonna sell out the sleeve sponsorship 300 million for the left sleeve and 300 million for the right sleeve i think that'll be quite interesting um and if they do all of that then obviously they're gonna do their work but i think liverpool is a club in recent years that we have praised much many times on this podcast many times about their squad building what they've done and of their teams that are not City and Chelsea that have not been financially doped Liverpool have done a lot that we should be clapping them for in recent years some of their football decisions look a little bit off for me and even the Barca of the Lynx have you not thought about the right hand side of your team you know what's happening in your full back areas the Araujo loan a 55 option to buy okay I understand that you want a big space defender to replace your last big space defender but is that really going to improve you?

1:11:11Elliot:Two young defenders coming through look good on paper, on YouTube but they need to be in the heat what are they going to look like and the guy holding them together is 34 I don't know, goalkeeper has too many hamstrings for me and it's like I'm looking at it not as smart as they used to be and it feels like a club not quite ready and we're moaning about our club not being ready but we have reasons for that six or seven of our players were in the last four of the World Cup. So we have reasons for not being ready and we will be ready. I'm a little bit worried about, don't laugh, about commentary because they are ready.

1:11:48Elliot:They've been back training and last time I looked, they didn't have too many players in the last four of the World Cup. So they're going to be as ready as we can possibly see and you saw against Betis, a team that was fitter than us earlier and what that looks like on the pitch. It's not nice, is it? And so, yeah, we have some, I have some little worries there. We'll face that when we come up to them. the area looking next two games well we'll see i mean we don't look ready for the season yet but i got news for you nobody else does either um you know just peruse some of the other big clubs results i think chelsea drew with a team i've never heard of i think liverpool lost or drew with monaco lost monaco lost at home 3-2 yeah um so did we yeah right right so i'm just saying like and also remember the results of the preseason game don't matter a huge amount because if you bring on a bunch of kids when you're down 5-0 and they score five goals it doesn't mean you're good if you're up 3-0 when the kids come on and you lose 4-3 it doesn't mean you're bad like it is about the fitness I know that's a cliche and everybody shrugs it off we see the things that are working we see the things that need work a lot of it will just be fixed by our best players being on the pitch imagine that and we may get a chance to see some of that Bakayo Saka is back um david raya's back bruno gamerish i think would probably be involved in the next game that right there is going to make quite the difference um so how high are you and bruno what's your thought i think he is a sensational player i think he makes us a lot better i think declan rice and bruno gamerish plus any of who you want to put out there as the third option makes us better and i think he will make us better in both halves um you know i think off the ball we will just elevate that ability to be the best out of possession team in the world.

1:13:30And I think he's great at turning ball recoveries into transition opportunities. He can arrive with goals and assists, but even more, I think he's just willing to play that inside the block pass quickly to the next line once he's recovered the ball. Yeah, I think he's going to help us with tempo. I think he's going to help us with goals. And he'll just continue to make us a phenomenal team out of possession. Obviously, there's that question of is he still at his absolute best and for how much longer he can be there? But my instinct is yes. and I think we'll be fine. He's 28 until he's 29 after all.

1:13:58So we'll see.

1:14:00Elliot:I think that's a really good appraisal. I am so interested to see what he's like for us. You know, within our environment, what is he like for us? When he is allowed to be the absolute go-to leader and have two workers around him, he was very, very good. And a lot of his play for me, and we scouted him, he's done in the last third. That's, yep. I don't want to see him as the deepest midfielder. I don't want to see him picking the ball up between the centre-backs. I want to see him either between the lines or higher up even and out of possession, pressing, recovering the ball. So how we use him.

1:14:33Elliot:I am excited about seeing his midfield develop. And by the way, this is not a first-11 midfield. Just seeing the midfield develop and how many configurations we can have for what game state we're trying to crack. We've got a lot of options. We can do a lot of stuff. And people, like you've done, you've assessed him and what he does well and what he can bring. What can he bring for us? What is he going to be allowed to bring for us in our environment, with our players, with our quality? I can't wait for this. It's so interesting. At the end of last season, I'm not sure many of us are talking about this signing.

1:15:05Elliot:We really weren't. And what he brings, I do think we need to really think what the manager's thinking and maybe remind ourselves what we're missing, you know, and what we're truly missing. And I don't think we've all cottoned on to that. I will say I also want to give some kudos to Kaio Saka because I don't think all the Spain players are back yet Raya is Saka is I don't think all the Spain players are back I don't think all the England players are back I don't think Eze Rice are back so the England players are officially back today they're all back today so the squad is back today but he came back two days early yeah you know what he's our highest earner he's our biggest star he's our star boy he loves the club and he I think coming back even just two days early it's just that little bit of extra commitment to say I'm leading by example you know I love that from him not that the two days will mean anything it's just symbolically I like that I would just say and this is based on nothing I wonder if there's a departure coming in midfield that we don't see coming you know the numbers are big there we'll see you know and I'd be curious I'd be curious to see but let's not speculate let's get out of here and we have the power rankings tomorrow where we'll look at the other clubs in the league that will be vying to compete for second.

1:16:18And what they've done, the intelligent way that they've made their team stronger so that they can finish closer behind us. We'll see. And it should be an interesting one, and I'm glad Tim's done a lot of research on it because new managers, new players, a lot of turnover, very different-looking league than the sort of league we've been used to seeing the last few seasons with Pep being gone now. So it's going to be an interesting one. Clive, we'll certainly have you on for Friday night. Clive, I imagine, at the end of the week, we'll have an instant reaction maybe some voice notes from you from the ground after the Como game and then it's the Community Shield.

1:16:51Boy oh boy it's all here very quickly so lots to get through but thank you for doing this man it's good to get back on the mic and talk to you. Thank you very much If you want our app it's in the app store for both iOS and Android you can just go to arsenalvisionpodcast.com forward slash app and it'll take you to whichever app store you need it from so that's cool and we'd love to get your feedback on it let us know what you think because I think the idea is hopefully just another way that you can like transfer rumors are in there in the stock voting and just if you don't want to be on social media as much, it's a place you can participate and have some fun stuff to do without having to be on social.

1:17:19So we hope you like it. All right, enough of that. My name is Alex Smith. We love you. And we'll talk to you after Arsenal 10. Come on now.

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