Vini Rumors Take Turn For The Worse Ahead of Lackluster Dublin Game

27:05So he's a passer. He's an experienced defender. He's got Champions League experience. He averages 3 ,000 minutes a season in the league. He's right in the heart of his prime from a center back standpoint. I mean, 28 for a center back is probably closer to like 26 for a forward. And it is entirely possible that Saliba is not back until November or even December. You certainly don't want to rush him back. For a team that's identity as defense and whose options on the right-hand side of defense right now are Christian Mascara, a very talented young player, but a young player who can't play every single game.

27:38Ben White, who is not a center back and has injury problems of his own, and Urien Timber, who is also not a center back and has injury problems of his own. I don't know what you think we should do at center back, but I would argue that whatever interest and urgency we showed in getting Nani Meduake in to cover for Saka, we should be showing similar interest and urgency to have a plan for the right-hand side of our defense. So whether that's constant or not, I think it is sensible for us to take that very seriously because that is the kind of injury that can derail a season before you get Saliba back.

28:11And it seems very avoidable as well because we know the injury is there. This isn't happening week two of the season. It's happened in the summer. We have time to respond to it. You son of a bitch. I'm in. Ah, there we go. No, I mean, like I said. At what price? It's the price point. But maybe that's the thing, you know, if you do need that player and you are trying to profile that kind of a player who's got all the experience that Kanza has, maybe that is the going rate in the Premier League. I just don't know. Well, and it is the case that you have to also look at what are the alternatives. Like, I wonder, you know, we say that's too expensive, it shouldn't cost that much.

28:49That's easy to debate. I mean, I don't think a lot of the players that have moved this summer should cost what they should cost. So there's clearly price inflation across the board. And I wouldn't want to buy Conta at the expense of having the money to go after a really exciting forward. What I wouldn't want is to, A, not reinforce in that position and try to get through the first half of the season with Timber White and Mascara. I don't think that is a sensible approach. And I wouldn't want to bring in someone who just isn't good enough. There's some analysis for you. No, no, I know what you mean.

29:26But like somebody who might need time to adapt or get used to the Premier League or – yeah, I get it. Yeah, I mean, there is no one we could buy that has the relevant experience at our level or at the level that he has that would probably be available to move. And by the way, if you're like, I don't care about the experience, I don't think he's any good. You're obviously entitled to that opinion. But again, I think some of that is just informed by what I think was a mediocre World Cup campaign. and I try not to use international football as the way I analyze a club-level player. Sure, that's fair enough.

30:04Well, we'll wait and see what happens with that position and that deal that Arsenal need to do at some point before the season begins, ideally. Any further takeaways on what we saw or what we didn't see or anything else from the Dublin game before we sort of kick on a bit here? I'm not sure there's too much, really. It was a bit of a damp squib in the end. All the young players that came on, you know, good experience and good development for them. But Arsenal now will go back to London. I guess they're going back today on the training ground ahead of the game against Borussia Dortmund on Sunday.

30:42Then you've got Como in midweek. You've got the community shield and then fucking bang, we're right back into the season. So I won't say the urgency, but the preseason needs to step up a bit, if you know what I mean, if that makes sense. Yeah. I mean, I guess what I would say, too, is in some of this, maybe watching the game from the level we were watching it or just the fact that I'm not as good at watching games at the ground than I am on TV because I just have less experience. I might watch six games a season that way versus from the TV angle. But Mikel may be working on things that we're not aware he's working on, that he's testing out and trialing.

31:24And some of those things are going to not work. And then it doesn't look good on the pitch. And you think, we look like we're a bit of a mess, but he may be trying things. I mean, Cal Fiore's positioning was very interesting to me. He was floating and roaming all over the pitch. Well, he always does. He always does. But like Kai Havertz, for example, there were times he was the deepest midfielder and Ethan was ahead of him, out of possession. There were things that we were doing with Kai and Jokras' positioning that was really interesting and kind of hard to track from our viewing angle. And so I do sometimes wonder with preseason, in addition to it just being a fitness exercise, if there are things managers are working on and trialing that can make the performance look a little less coherent than it might otherwise, but we're not necessarily aware of.

32:05Because this thing of Kai and Jokras together, I don't know if that's something that Mikel really wants to try and lean into at the start of the season. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But I'm not convinced that it totally works in every phase. Like there are times when it looks like it makes sense and there are other times where it looks a little bit of a mess to me. No, I think it's down to personnel and who's available, right? So if you have Odegaard, Zubemendy, Marino, Eze all available to you, I don't think you play Havertz in that role. For me, Havertz and Jacarese are kind of either or, unless you're in a situation where the game demands a goal and you're putting two strikers on.

32:49That's kind of the way I want to see those two used. I don't think that we're going to sign another striker this summer. I just don't believe that's the case. I could be wrong. You never know what might happen. the market shakes in weird ways and something might come along and there's an opportunity. So I think what we've got are two number nines in Jochores and Havertz. And I think they're distinct in terms of how they play. And I think they're distinct in terms of who they should play against, you know, and that's not to be in any way critical of either of them. I just think Havertz is better suited to certain games.

33:22Jochores better suited to certain games, lean into those strengths over the course of the season and don't have Havertz and Jochores on the pitch together unless you absolutely have to, unless you're trying to, you know, batter down the door to get an equalizer or a winning goal in a game where that really is necessary. Yeah, and I would say a mixed game for Miles and Ethan, but I'm not sure that it helps Miles and Ethan when the third midfielder is Kai Havertz, you know, and is someone that's not really a midfielder by trade necessarily. So just like we talk about center-back partnerships are partnerships.

33:56Midfields are very much about the... the relationships between the players on the pitch. And that's one that to me still looks like a work in progress. I'm very, very curious to see what happens with Ethan, right? I mean, that's the one that I think people have their eye on in terms of can he really make the case for himself to have minutes and to be a part of the squad? Because if you think that Rice and Bruno are going to play a lot of minutes together during this season, there's an absolute logjam in that third midfield role. They're just, there's Ezza and Odegaard and Kai at some level and Marino and Ethan and Miles can even play there a bit.

34:34It is just natural that given Ethan's talent and given the interest in him that will exist, there's going to be a lot of people with their eyes on him in terms of whether there's a role for him this season. And I probably rate his talent more highly than many, but I do see the pathway being quite complicated for him. No, I agree with that. I agree with that. Shopify is your way to launch your business, okay? I have built Shopify stores, and the storefront looks so professional. It is so clean and elegant. It gives people the confidence to choose your products because they trust your site, which I really like.

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36:51Let's talk then about the Vinicius Jr. situation and the development that took place yesterday. It was all very, not cloak and dagger, but you know, there's going to be a meeting and then we're sort of, oh look, they've come out of the meeting and it's sort of like electing a new Pope. Has there been white smoke? What is the white smoke from Madrid about Vinicius Jr.? So here's the sort of the state of play via David Ornstein. Real Madrid raise contract offer to Vinicius Jr. Proposal said to reflect 26-year-old's importance to Real Madrid and the project. Decision time for the Brazil international.

37:28Renewal, which is with Real Madrid, obviously. Await free agency next summer, club one to avoid, obviously. Or pursue Arsenal opportunity. So that's kind of where we are. this is i don't think this is necessarily an unexpected development because loads of people were saying real madrid you know everyone's like they're not going to increase their offer real madrid are fixed that's it they're not going to do it they're not going to do it they're not going to do it and then they did it and i don't think that's necessarily unexpected to the extent that But I think it sort of leaves them in a better position on both sides, right?

38:11Where he's got very good agents and they've negotiated this potential rise with Real Madrid. It also, in light of this, gives them greater leverage if they do want to pursue the Arsenal opportunity, in inverted commas, to say, well, look, Real Madrid are giving us this. And, you know, maybe you can, I know you've gone far and you're trying very hard to, but, you know, what more can you do here? What more? Were you surprised by that development yesterday? So maybe I'm an idiot and your mind may vary on that, but I was surprised. I think my optimism that we could get this deal done was based on an intuition that was based on nothing, that Madrid wouldn't raise their offer.

38:58that he had demands maybe too strong, but he had requests of Madrid, like a signing on bonus, a renewal bonus essentially, which the reporting was that Madrid don't do that and they don't want to do that, that he wanted an improved image rights deal that they'd only ever broken for Mbappe and they didn't want to do that, wouldn't do that, that he wanted to be paid similar to Mbappe and they didn't regard him as deserving that level and not wanting to go to that level. All the way things were reported. I had this sort of thing of like, do you hire Jose Mourinho if you really want to keep Vinny?

39:32No, no, I get that. And do you want to have Vinny tied to this project for another four or five seasons at Galactico wages? Or is there a future for Madrid where they want to shift Mbappe left? They want to bring in a Hollander. They want to revitalize this project in a different way under a new manager and go in a different direction. And so in my mind, I thought, if you're Real Madrid, you can't be seen to be pushing Vinny Jr. out of your club. He's a global superstar. but I thought that the offer that they had on the table was likely as far as they'd go. And what gave me a sense that we could get him was the belief that if our offer was better, Roc Nation may say to Vinny, you should go try this new thing.

40:08This is a much better offer. Once Real Madrid, I guess, capitulated and decided, no, we can't just let this guy walk out of our club and have raised their offer to something that, at least according to David Ornstein, reflects his importance to the club, then I think it's hard to see because I've just not seen stars at the peak of their powers leave Real Madrid. That's something I've seen before. Are they, you know, is there a possibility that, you know, and I know the sort of behind the scenes, the whispers are that like, it's more likely he stays with Real Madrid than comes to Arsenal. Whether he stays at Real Madrid and signs a new contract or not, that's a different question, right?

40:47But is there a chance that Real Madrid are playing sort of 3D chess here, saying that, well, even if we up the offer, he can take it, or we can demand a little bit more from Arsenal, knowing that Arsenal are going to have to push the boat out even further if they want to sign this guy and pay a transfer fee, whatever that might be. You know, listen, hopium, copium, whatever you want to call it, I think it's... I do trust the information that we're receiving, and I do trust the people who have that information, who behind the scenes are saying, it feels like it's going back the other way, having been a bit more encouraging from an arsel perspective.

41:26So I don't want to downplay that or make it seem like I'm not believing the information that we're hearing. Nevertheless, I still kind of think that there are, that this is still a relatively, potentially a fluid situation where there isn't anything quite set in stone yet. And by virtue of the sheer size of this potential renewal or this deal, that there's a possibility that it can go back the other way. Does that make any sense to you? Or do you think now, well, we had the chance. It's kind of gone. We need to think about what next. It makes sense. But if you're trying to think probabilistically, right, just think about the dynamics of a negotiation.

42:11At the start of the negotiation, what was reported is they were quite far apart. They were far apart. And in any negotiation, if you're far apart, the only way a deal is going to happen is if both parties move, right? Is if you move to meet me, I move to meet you. From what I've seen in negotiation, just over life, if both parties start to move, a deal eventually gets done. Where deals don't get done is if one party draws a line in the sand and says, This is where we are and we're not moving. And the reporting early on was that Madrid had made their offer. It was the best offer they were going to make.

42:44They weren't going to move. And in my mind, that's when deals don't get done. Once both parties start coming to the table and move their offer and improve their offer, that tends, in my experience, in my mind, to indicate that both parties want to find a way to get the deal done. And if Vinny wants to stay and Madrid are now willing to move and try to meet him to a place where he can accept what they're offering, probabilistically speaking, I think the most likely outcome is he stays. Does it mean there is no chance this turns? Of course not. It could turn. Arsenal could improve their offer even more and Vinny could decide that he wants to be the guy instead of competing to be the guy with other the guys.

43:26Now, whether you think he'd be the guy at Arsenal is a different question. But so I think, yes, of course, it could still turn. But probabilistically speaking, based on the motions of this negotiation right now, it feels like it's heading towards a renewal. So there will be people who say, and maybe with some justification, but I think it's an interesting talking point that Arsenal have been a pawn in a game between Vinicius Junior and Real Madrid. And I think you could make that argument, right? You could say, what's a way to get a better deal where you want to stay is by introducing a third party.

44:01Then the question becomes like, were Arsenal naive or stupid to even pursue this, to allow themselves to be used? I don't think so. I don't believe that to be true. I think Arsenal, if they thought they had a chance to sign Vinicius Jr., should have taken that chance. because we've talked about Arsenal as a team that, or as a club maybe, that needs to demonstrate the right amount of ambition in the transfer market. So we've done that and we've done it recognizing that it was going to be very complicated and very difficult and there was always the possibility that Arsenal's interest allowed Vinicius Junior to get a deal more aligned with what he wants from Real Madrid because that's just kind of how it works, right?

44:46But should we have not done something because that was a possibility? I don't think so. I think you, if you really, really want to change the perception of your club to increase the quality of your team, you have to take any potential opportunity to do that. And Arsenal were prepared to go a long way financially and prepared to deal with the consequences of that financial deal in order to bring this guy in. but that idea that we've just been played, we've just been used, they've just sort of had us over a barrel and every, you know, Real Madrid and Vinicius will come out of this laughing on the other side.

45:26You know, I get it. I understand why people might think that way but I also think you've got to go for a player like this. If you feel like you can do it, the wrong thing to do is not go for it. Yeah, I think this is just an opportunity to criticize the club if that's how you're so inclined. And I understand if you're frustrated and we haven't necessarily been as good at buying attacking players as we might like, and you may have felt this was never realistic. And if you felt this was never realistic, then you wonder why we wasted our time with it. If you've just won the Premier League and you've made it to the Champions League final and you've been one of the best clubs in Europe for multiple years and you're trying to improve and the biggest area you need to improve is bringing in better talent in the attack, there's not a huge universe of players that do that.

46:10And this is one of those players. I mean, going into the summer, what were we saying? If you could get any player in the world, well, we need a left winger. Well, any player in the world who would be, well, Vinny, but that's not realistic. Well, you have to be in for that player if you have an opportunity to get him. If you're Arsenal Football Club, you have to. It's a very difficult transfer. It was always going to be difficult. If you don't go for it, you are not showing proper ambition. And I think there are clubs that get used in the media to get a player a better deal. I think those are cases where the sort of stalking horse bidder, so to speak, where their interest isn't authentic.

46:46It isn't real. It's being portrayed in the media to try to get an outcome. I think this interest was real. I think the club have been in contact with Roc Nation. I think that this was a very serious negotiation. All of the reporting indicates that and reporting from legitimate sources, not just sort of ITKs on social media. And I think, look, if you're trying to buy a house and someone else is trying to buy the house and you wind up having to pay a little bit more and you get the house, was the other person used? No, they did help the seller get a better deal, but you both wanted the house and the person who had the better offer got the house.

47:21Like the mere, we may have gotten Vinny more money at Madrid if that's what happens, but I don't think that's why we were involved. I think this was an authentic effort to buy the player where the player and his agent were authentically considering a move and had Real Madrid not improve their offer, I think he would be at Arsenal. So, no, I don't think you can demand of the club to show ambition and to go for the best players in world football and then complain when we don't get them because it's very hard to get those players. I mean, Manchester City tried to get Declan Rice and they didn't get him.

47:57Were they used in the negotiation with West Ham? No, I think they wanted Declan Rice and we just, we got him. That's just not always going to be the outcome. Yeah. then the question let's just sort of make the crazy assumption that he does stay at Real Madrid however that happens either with a new deal or with the possibility of leaving on a on a Bosman which you know is not beyond the realms of possibility either it's a risky one for a player because you pick up an injury and then all of a sudden you're you're kind of fucked but anyway let's make that crazy assumption that he stays at Real Madrid the question becomes for Arsenal what now because I do think for all the justification that we've made for going for Vinicius Jr you have a situation to manage as a football club because that kind of a deal raises expectations raises hopes you don't just do deals to keep fans happy we all know that you do deals like this to try and make your team better nevertheless people will be disappointed if you don't get this player because the pursuit of this guy isn't just because he's available.

49:08It's because you want to make your team better. And I think anybody listening to this could reasonably argue that there is significant room for improvement in Arsenal's forward line. Of course. Right? Going after a player of the quality of Vinicius Jr. is also tacit admission that you know, despite the fact this is an opportunity, you're saying we have identified this area of our team as in need of like urgent improvement, but we recognize that that's where we can improve. And we're also willing in order to make that improvement, as I said, pay the big money on the transfer fee, pay the big money on the wages, shatter your wage structure, shatter your image right structure there's a talk that or a report there that they were going to give vinny 100 % of his image rights as a way of incentivizing him to come into the club right so arsenal's willingness to go as far as they can financially is an indication that they know they need to do something in this part of the of the team so how do you manage that we've seen the club pivot before Or is it good enough now to say, well, we couldn't get that player and we don't really want to spend that kind of money on anybody else?

50:32And that's understandable. You don't spend that money on anybody else. But is it now incumbent on Arsenal to demonstrate the ability to pivot as we have in the past? Because Vinicius or nothing doesn't feel like a smart strategy. and I know the other night you made the point on stage at our live event in Dublin that you think our squad is really really good and I agree with that that our squad is really really good but if you go for Vinicius and don't get him and then don't get anybody else do you leave yourself open to hiding for nothing when in the first few weeks of the seasons goals are a bit hard to come by and everyone goes well you know what you should have done you know yeah I mean look look first of Well, you have to be able to distinguish your emotional reaction to this from your intellectual reaction.

51:20Like I am heartbroken if we're not going to get Vinny Jr. Because that was very exciting and I allowed myself to believe. And I don't think without justification that it could happen. So, yeah, that sucks. Intellectually, to your point, right now I think we're betting odds favorites to win the Premier League, right? Like we have a very, very, very good squad. And I don't know that that squad is any worse. I would argue it's quite a bit better with the addition of Bruno Gimeraes. and now has easily the best midfield in the league, if not the best in the world, we're better. And we're going to compete to win and most likely be favored to win the Premier League when the season starts that Friday night against Coventry.

51:57But that doesn't mean you don't do everything you can to not only try to win the league, but try to win the other competitions. And Mikel Arteta spoke about that. And they asked him, is your goal this season not just to win the Premier League, but to win the European Championship? He said, yes, we want to win all the trophies available to us. I don't think the attack is sufficient to feel confident that we are doing everything in our power to win those trophies. Look, I've said this before, and if there's one thing I'll do is I'll always say it again. Say it again, that's for sure. 71 goals, in my opinion, won't win the league again.

52:28No, no. And I think the firepower that we have offensively is not sufficient to want to try to go win the Champions League because ultimately, when you need that goal to win you a tournament, I'm not sure we have the firepower for it. Now, if you offered me Vinny Jr. or our star players to just be fit all season, I might pick the latter. Because honestly, if Kai Osaka comes back fit and if Kai Havertz is fit and if Martin Odegaard is fit, right, we're going to look a lot better. We are still thinking of the Arsenal that had a lot of Nani Maduike, Gabriel Martinelli and Victor Jokeres front threes during the run in.

53:02And that's not something we want to see again. But let me be clear. We should be signing another forward and a left-sided forward and a player that can be the quote-unquote first choice there. What I don't want us to do is just fire the money cannons that were aimed at Vinny at whoever the hell else is out there and overuse our financial resources on a player that doesn't warrant that. Like you don't want another, with all due respect, another Nani Maduweke, right? Who was pretty big money, seven trillion pounds we paid for Nani Maduweke. 70 trillion. 70 trillion pounds we paid for Nani Maduweke, who, you know, played a role, but didn't necessarily deliver what you expect a player in that position to deliver in terms of goals and assists.

53:47Like what I'm saying, like, okay, we were willing to go to 120 million transfer fee and 500 grand a week. Do we want to go to 100 million and 350 a week for a Nico Williams? Like, no, I'm not sure that we should now take this pent up enthusiasm to spend big on that star forward and aim it at someone who is not at the level because then that's financial firepower you can't use to go get an actual star player when that player becomes available. So as much as I wanted Vinny and as much as I think we should still try to find a solution for the front three, the players that I would be very excited about joining are not in huge supply.

54:27The names are pretty familiar. No, that's true. There isn't like a lot out there. I just feel like that pursuit of Vinicius Jr., whether it turns out to be unsuccessful or not, and it does look a bit more like not, it raises expectations. And, you know, we've said the decision to sign players is not about keeping fans happy. As much as we're all invested in transfers, as much as we all want to see those things happen. It just, the optics aren't great. You know, if you're saying we're going to go for this and then come the end of August, even with justification, intellectual justification like you've made, if nothing else happens.

55:13That has a ripple effect, I think, through the fan base in terms of how people feel rightly or wrongly, because, you know, I think there is a big midfield upgrade like Christian Norgard out. Bruno Gimaraes in is a significant midfield upgrade, right? And I also take your point about if Saka's fit and if Saka gets back to his best, we've got one of the best players. A Vinny-level player of our own at home. Not quite Vinny-level, I think. At his best. At his best, he was in that conversation for sure, but we haven't seen that best since that hamstring injury. So I understand why people would be skeptical about that.

55:51Like, I do get it, but we know from experience even last season you know not just um not just online either i think you know you could feel it sometimes in the stadium that the nervousness that that permeated through the fan base for all the reasons we've talked about and explained and and ultimately we got ourselves over the line and won the premier league and we're champions and it's fucking great but but you could feel that you could feel that and i just wonder if you run the risk of that dynamic being part of our season that every time we don't score a goal or every game where we struggle to score a goal it becomes the well you shoulda you shoulda you shoulda and i think we you know we we do understand how difficult it is to find those players i i think where it's even more about so so let's say we were never linked with any junior and someone just said to you, this summer Arsenal are going to buy this guy, Christos Solis.

56:49They're going to buy a good, competent defender. We don't know who that is, and hopefully that does happen. And they're going to buy Bruno Guimaraes. How would you have ranked that summer? I would have had that as a six and a half out of 10. I still, or maybe a seven, but like short that attacking player we need. But where I think the criticism, I'm not prepared to levy at the club about the Vinny pursuit. I am prepared to say, look, it seems pretty clear from reporting that Mikel Arteta wanted Morgan Rodgers, rated Morgan Rodgers, and believed he could be the guy for us. Now, you may say, we were right not to go to the money for that player.

57:25Fine. That it was an overpay, don't go to the money. Fine. But that was the target. We wanted him. We did not get him. He went to Chelsea. Then we pivoted to a very hard-to-get target, and it appears, as of the time of the recording this, that we're not going to get that player. It will be starting to build up a bit of a catalog of key targets Mikel Arteta identified that were not delivered. And the track record, at least in attack, for recruiting from outside of the club has not been particularly strong. Now, we still won the league. We still made the Champions League final. We're still very, very good where we've recruited in other areas of the pitch, midfield and defense in particular.

58:01We've been sensational. But the next sort of final piece to go to that level, Mikel keeps talking about wanting to take the club to a new level. I think you have to have stars in attack to go to that level. I think that is the thing that brings in the new enthusiasm, brings in the excitement, gets people fired up. I said this at the Sugar Club the other night, but like if you said to me, what are the three hallmarks of a legendary manager, right? One is they win shit and Mikel Arteta has now done that and he had done that before with the FA Cup, but he's now won something big. So he's on the start of that trajectory.

58:34Two is they get some of the biggest, best players to play for them, right? Declan Rice, I think, would be in that category. Maybe Bruno Grimor-Rice. We have some that we made ourselves in our academy. Yeah. Fine. but three is that they also play football that captures the imagination and delights the fan base and that the fans say i loved showing up to watch michael arteta's arsenal and i think that's been more mixed there have been times certainly we scored 91 goals two seasons or three seasons ago that was sensational i am sure michael arteta would like arsenal to be able to be more dynamic and go up a level in terms of the attacking football we play and that i only think you get by bringing in elite talent.

59:11So that's a long way of saying, even without the Vinny pursuit, there was a need to bring in, to elevate the level in the front three. We have not done that yet. And that for me would be a huge miss if we don't accomplish it. That's, yeah, that's kind of where I am with this. And that's kind of what I've been alluding to in this conversation. I do wonder, you know, if the Morgan Rogers situation was informed by the Vinicius Jr. opportunity, if you like, because it looked like Rodgers was going to come and then it all went quiet and that Chelsea swooped in and hijacked. But maybe that's because we decided, well, if you can sign Morgan Rodgers or you can sign Vinicius Jr., who do you go for?

59:50I mean, for me, there's no question, right? No question. I think the spending on Morgan Rodgers would have been an interesting talking point. I don't think it would have been a slam dunk. He's the right guy at that price for that position. No, absolutely not. Whereas Vinny is a slam dunk, the right guy for that position. Absolutely. Yeah, anyway, listen, we'll have to wait and see what they do or how things develop. Time of recording is about 11 a.m. on Thursday morning. So, you know, by the time this evening comes around, there could be something else happening. I just think that the club need to think about this very, very seriously, that the next level of improvement, as we've said, is in the attack and that kind of star quality, however difficult it is to find, you've really got to push the boat out to try and do it.

1:00:31They've done that or are doing that with Vinicius. I don't think they can just stop if Vinicius doesn't happen Is there a name that, like one or two names, like if since it doesn't look like it's going to be Vinicius do you have a sense of who it would be that would excite you where you'd say yep we pivoted correctly, this was a good pivot That's you know that's a really great question I mean the one that springs to mind is Julian Alvarez who I think would take the attack to a different level you'd still be talking about a Martinelli and Solis left-hand side one or the other because I don't think he's coming in to play off the left no no no um yeah I think that one's really complicated as well so I understand it I understand it but you know once you sort of take the lid off the Pandora's box so to speak of Vinicius Jr.

1:01:21or a player like Vinicius Jr. you know it's out there it's in the wild you try to pull a Chelsea to Liverpool with a Bradley Barkola is that a name that you think none of the money that PSG are looking for I mean I think he's a good player, but I don't think he's quite at the level. But then I find it really difficult to get a true sense of what anybody is worth these days because the transfer fees are so inflated that we're sitting here not justifying, but talking ourselves into a 60, 70 million pound move for Esri Kansa. And I get it, but that's also nuts. It's completely nuts. Of course it is.

1:01:59It's just you don't get to go into the store and complain that the prices are too high and walk out with the merchandise. The prices may be too high, but then you have to walk out of the store. Well, you know, you could also shoplift. Well, that's true. So you're saying just send in a team, take the player, you know. Exactly. Bring him to some black site item for a little while. Give him a haircut. Bit of plastic surgery and then come back. Hey, we found this amazing new talent somewhere. Yeah. Anyway, listen. Vinicius Senior. nobody will ever know. My name is Mr. Snurb. Okay, listen, we're going to leave it there because we have got a bit of traveling to do.

1:02:38We're going to see a little bit of Ireland over the next couple of days. So we're going to get ourselves on the road shortly. I'll let you do what you need to do with your bit of this podcast. But for now, Elliot, thanks very much. And I'll see you downstairs. Sounds good. All right, no big finish here. Just going to say, hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for listening. We will have our normal podcast back on Monday. We'll have all the patron stuff you expect the rest of the week. In fact, I think Friday Night Clive with Tim and Clive will be on tomorrow. And then the Instant Reaction Sunday, the main pod Monday.

1:03:09So we love you. And we will talk to you after. Arsenal 10, Dortmund No.

1:03:31Hi, my name is Madison Templin. And I'm Presley Hossbock. If you're enjoying this podcast, be sure to check us out on Serving Smiles. Serving Smiles is a podcast where we try to make health and wellness way less overwhelming. In partnership with Colgate Palmolive, we're breaking down topics like oral health, pet nutrition, skin health, and more with the help of expert guests. We'll be swapping stories, learning healthy habits, and asking the tough questions like, how often should I floss? What kind of sunscreen is right for me? And finding out what vets wish every owner knew about nutrition. Be sure to check out Serving Spinals wherever you get your podcasts.

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