S16E07 - The £500k-A-Week Question

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1:39It's the fighting. Cock! It's the fighting.

1:47It's the fighting. Cock! A camel churname! Hello and welcome back to the Fightin' Cock Podcast. today we have Ben Bowman Bash and Cal Bash mate saying Bosh like they've nicked that in a big way like Big John and his son like I know I've been saying that for ages it was like the word Ream became really popular when the only way of Essex came out Ream yeah we've been saying that for ages now we're just like cunts how you doing boys yeah good man all right okay on this episode we are talking about lots to talk about um there is the world hardest richarlison quiz you'd be happy to know nice um it goes from easy to impossible okay so we'll see the cut of your lots jib i've seen actually you ben you've been involved in a few quizzes and and sort of things on on tiktok i've seen i've seen your clips quite a lot so you should be quite good at this i'm not a bad quizzer are you not autistic ball knowledge

2:59everyone else just don't worry it's just a bit of fun it doesn't mean you're you know any less of a Richarlison fan if you can answer any of these questions right the first one's easy it just gets progressively more difficult we're going to talk about a few other bits pieces in the news Jed Spence going to Inter Milan or Italy in some degree other bits and pieces lots lots to talk about as always and we've gone to we're going to make this a bit of a Q &A pod as well so we've gone to our lovely patrons to get uh loads of loads of loads of questions for this episode of the fighting cock if you want to become a patron you can patreon.com forward slash fighting cock jade spent boys yeah it seems although it's never quite it's not easy to tell it seems that he might be on his way to um into milan and the money i'm hearing i'm not sure how you feel about this is about 35 mil.

3:52Well, you've got sauces, have you? No, no, just, no, I don't have, on that actually, there was a geezer in Turkey who's been arrested for, oh, not arrested, he's been remanded by the police for pushing fake news about a Musiala transfer from Bayern Munich to Galatasaray. And he was held for a day to discuss his antics. And I'm like, this is the way forward, innit? Yeah. like what you need to start doing that to some of the Spurs ITKs I reckon yeah that's what I'm saying it's like less let's spend less money tracking pedos and rapists and more money locking up people that spread bullshit on Twitter I agree Graham Bailey would be in big trouble check his hard drive footy inside is fucked footy inside is fucked oh my god yeah what's that one deadline day live that's like unfinished anytime you see one with it's like the yellow background and like the two cartoon looking like players it's like they're gone but you know do you guys know what the polymark is yeah yeah so it's like you can trade you can you can bet on anything it's like an open market you bet on everything and i think it's backed up by some sort of crypto blockchain shit i don't know right but it's from that era but so you can you can you could probably bet on how many missiles hit iranian soil tonight that's how dodgy this shit is um obviously ladbrook's i'm going to cover that so and there There are many other bookies if you choose to spend money with bookies.

5:18That isn't a sponsor. But the Ladbrokes wouldn't allow you to bet on how many missiles are going to hit on Iranian soil, but Polymarket will. So that is an issue for people that are starting to spread information that can affect a market that isn't true. And I wonder if we can get to the world in the same way that the blockchain ratifies every single transaction. You can see it. It exists. that every single transfer rumour needs to be ratified and sourced otherwise you can get in trouble because I'm sick to death of hearing about fucking Victor Osserman son of a man oh mate it's fucking team talk and fucking Graham Bailey's fault all he's fault everyone's going oh no we're linked to Osserman we're linked to Osserman so I want Osserman I want Osserman it's impossible forget it we was obviously having this conversation in the group chat yesterday and I said I said it It was like my stepdad and like, or like people of that generation, he always, I grew up with him just going, don't believe everything you read in the paper.

6:20Don't believe it till you see him like holding the flag, like the scarf on the side of the picture with the shirt on. And now they're the ones that are going, I saw this thing on Facebook. It's always Facebook as well. My dad's ITK is Facebook. He's Facebook feed. Or they like to call it X as well. I was literally, I was around my parents just before this and he was like, I saw something on X. about such like a gamut. So funny. I noticed, Ben, actually, a TikTok of yours that did rather well recently. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was about Osserman's, the way that basically all the shit that we've been banging on about on the podcast.

6:55And you've listened to that and gone, that'd make a good TikTok. No, I was fact-checking the information in the group chat just as I was making that video. Yeah, I know. Do you know what I think? When you're going, actually, what do you mean by that? And I was going, no, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was thinking, this is definitely going to be a TikTok. 100 % going to be a TikTok. fair play you're grifting you're grafting you're grafting not grifting not grifting grifting's worse what's grifting in the TikTok space it's like where you a lot of people do it for example where they will start sucking off like other rival teams because they know that it's going to get them to like you see Tottenham fans maybe doing it with Arsenal like making more content about them for numbers yeah and it's like oh you know what they've got to say fair play to them and all this kind of stuff nah nah it's not really on is it no anyway It's the opposite of on.

7:41That's like the opposite of off. It's off, yeah. How do you feel about the fact that we can potentially be letting Jed Spence go, Cal? Surprisingly not too bothered, really. Like I said last time out, I'd love for him to stay, but I'm not sure he's a right back anymore. And we've got tons of left backs. and yeah he's just going to struggle to play that that doesn't 35 million does not feel like enough money to me at all I think it should be closer to 50 but I guess Serie A clubs just don't have money like that anymore if it was to a Premier League club I think it would be closer to 50 but yeah I'm surprisingly not that upset about it really to be honest I think and it felt like for a while we've been all of us been kind of like oh we need attackers we need attackers but we you know when was Tonali the 1st of July it's the 11th of August now we haven't signed anybody since it's quite obvious that we the club are trying to get recoup some money so we can start buying attackers and no one wants for carrie or charleson or whatever else it's like okay we've got to start selling romero and spence and like we need attackers and i think if just to sell spence and romero you're gonna have money for upfront money for attackers then it's got to be done i don't think we need to retain jed spence i think that his reputation is probably as high as it's ever going to be.

9:07Like, after the World Cup, it's such an inflated opinion. And I'm not taking anything away from him at all. In fact, his redemption arc is one of my most favourite things that have happened in recent times. And I would really like him to stay at Spurs. But I do think right now probably is the best time to sell him. That might blow up terribly. But do you understand what I'm getting at? It's like, his stock is so high based on these performances in the World Cup in a team that most people didn't expect him to play in. And I think it would have been absolutely fair if he was left at home. And he had some really, really big clutch moments in that World Cup that have been clipped up and gone around.

9:46And everyone was talking about what a great player Jeff Spence is. And he is a good player. I just think we might right now be seeing the very top of his value because of the World Cup performances. On top of that, the fact that he's not going to start for Spurs means that he's a saleable asset. I don't know. Do you think that's correct? Yeah, I agree. I don't think... It is really funny how much the narrative has flipped on him outside of Spurs. And this always happens with... Not necessarily specifically to Tottenham, but it always happens when players have a good international tournament. Naturally, their stocks go up.

10:23And people are saying the same thing about Poro. Obviously, Poro was in the team, the tournament won it and was the best right-back there. If you just said to a Liverpool fan, for example, who have been also linked with Jed Spence, if they were going to sign Jed Spence before the World Cup started, they'd all be up in arms. And now Liverpool fans might listen to Tottenham fans. I did something on a podcast recently where we had to name like our best 11 for next season for Tottenham. And it was me and Seb, and we both said Porro and a doggy. And all of the comments are obviously from people that aren't Spurs fans, because it wasn't on the Spurs fans, going, where the hell is Spence?

10:55Like, what's that? And it's like, if we'd have done this exact same thing two months ago, nobody would be saying that. 100%. I feel like I didn't, like Spence was brilliant for England and obviously that moment against Argentina was kind of the crowning of all of his good performances. But I don't feel like I learned anything new about Spence during the World Cup. He was good at the things we already know that he's good at. Yeah, he had a few maybe more forays forward, like he won the penalty that got overturned against Norway, but he's also done that. It wasn't like that outstanding. Like it was a good bit of play, but I've seen him do that for Spurs.

11:30All of the things that he did for England, I've seen him do for Tottenham loads of times. I don't think we need to placate Liverpool fans because they're linked with him or Inter-Berfans. I mean, they're saying where's Spence. We'll tell you where he is because if we've watched him for two, three years now, we know exactly where he is. He has many good attributes and he could be developed into a super top fullback. But there are limitations and sometimes you have to look at the money, £35 million,£40 million. pound I if to me it feels right like the right amount and I'm kind of comfortable with it if you had a choice to keep him you know Archie Gray is going to be a backup right back because of where he's played in preseason the fact that Deserby even mentioned it and said that he doesn't enjoy playing there as much means it's been a conversation I think he is our he's our backup right back um so if it isn't so that means spence is um dispensable and the problem with liverpool fans is that they don't want they don't like the idea that we are selling one of our backup fullbacks for the top amount you know the prime amount that we could possibly get for him they don't like that because that's not where spurs have been for a long long time and you know you've seen the sort of mental reaction to how we've been spending this summer that no one really likes the idea that that one of the players that we think here are dispensable could be picked up by a club like Liverpool I think that's probably why they're a little bit bitter about it yeah yeah it upsets the apple part yeah yeah yeah it upsets their view of how they view football right it's they want to be in a position where they're ripping him from our hands that we really want to keep him but we're Liverpool we're massive and we take your best player and we're like he's our backup you can have him if you pay the money like you know it's one of them you want to food chain the ultimate food chainers yeah it's been I hate the fact that this has been adopted like but like I was saying that I was speaking to a lad who supports Newcastle earlier and I was asking him about like the sales and who they're going to miss most and all this sort of stuff and he was saying that we because who is it?

13:48James Trafford signed for Leeds. Loads of Leeds fans just getting into his account going, food chain, food chain, food chain, food chain. It's like, it's been bastardized. It's ruined now because every transfer someone's been... Anyway, I want to take us back to Osman just very quickly because on the last Patreon pod we did, we had a really good question from a gentleman called Joshua Almeida and whether or not Spurs can sign him and I know we've talked about it at the beginning but I wanted to read out two parts of of this uh Joshua Maldis says I don't know why you keep saying that the Osserman transfer is beyond us which is what I've been saying that's too much money for anyone to pay some quick transfer math for you the finale transfer fee was 100 million pound plus 275k a week means that over a five-year contract period the total cost to Tottenham Hotspur is 172 million pounds if Osserman is 55 million transfer fee plus let's say 500k per week in wages means that the over a five-year contract the total cost of the transfer is 185 so that is a 2.6 million pound per year difference the best striker available versus us buying a dm it's definitely doable now that we have Picasso money.

15:09That's very good. Realize there's no question. Yeah, so he's saying actually, while it seems ludicrously expensive for the Osserman transfer to happen, sorry, on face value, the reality over a five-year period is you're spending just 2.6 million pound more than we have already agreed to spend on Tonali. Which at the time I was like, actually, yeah. That makes complete sense. I quite like that. I like those masks. I bloody love them. Benny Vinn. Sorry, can you just repeat all of that so I can make a video about it? Well, I'll tell you what, here's a challenge, Ben. Make a video of what I'm about to read right now because that'll be much more complex.

15:49So a friend of the show, Anatole Pang, if you've listened to the Lab podcast, which is a sister podcast to this, Anatole's on there. He works in big business. He's a very, very clever man. And he understands the way these things work and specifically what the difference between wages and a transfer fee. So he said this, unfortunately, is not the right way to look at it. In the most basic financial terms, salaries are an OPEX item on the P &L, which transfer fees are a CAPEX item that goes into the balance sheet. It is not too complex to explain here, but salaries are, It is too complex to explain here, but salaries are a cash item that require you to use money you can actually generate to pay.

16:37Transfer fees can be complicated by all sorts of things, including deferred payments and simply shuffling things around into working capital. It is rarely what you see on the tin. As a consequence, Spurs have rarely shied away from transfer fees, but have been conservative on salaries. while we do have headroom on salaries it is not as much as people think certainly less than the PSR headroom we've had previously Ossiman is not impossible nothing really is but he would be a major disruption to even a generous wage structure and which is why no other club are in for him this is before we get to my point he referenced me uh point about tax equalization wage inflation across the squad and so on as previously calculated a 300 ,000 pound addition to a squad would previously have cost tottenham maybe a total of 500 000 pound in total due to matching requirements of other people's contracts i'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade but our understanding of football finances shouldn't diminish just because we are in a more open liberal era of spending ob osseman would be a commitment few could bear yeah make your fucking tiktok now ben now that well i was actually thinking exactly the same Do you reckon you could?

17:53Do you reckon if I give you all those words? Do you reckon you could make a two-minute TikTok on that? Yeah, I'll double down. It's fine. I'm giving you permission. I'm going to send you the fucking words. You want to make more money out of this? Fine. Yeah, if that's all right, thanks, mate. Yeah, no worries. I'll copy it over. I'll send it over to you right now. Give Adetok a fucking credit if you do. Oh, mate, I will. But it's kind of also like he was sort of alluding to. It's like one tide rises all boats, isn't it? It's like if you give awesome men that money, then what does that then do to...

18:19You've kind of seen it with Van Der Ven, obviously with his new deal, reportedly on£240 ,000 a week. Now, I'd like to see whether that is just... I doubt that's base salary. I assume that's including all bonuses and stuff. There's a lot of people talking about that, saying, look, he's a great player, but have we overcorrected a little bit here? And obviously going and signing Conor Gallagher in January and sticking him on the wages that he was on. A lot of players that are now going to be going into Spurs negotiating new deals and the new signings that then come further down the road as in the likes of Tonali Fernandes that will be, you know, looking for a contract renewal probably in a couple of years' time, obviously are on more money than Gallagher now, but everyone's going to be using like the Gallagher wages as like the benchmark for like we all want this if he's a squad player.

19:02Like it's very dangerous then to blow it completely open with awesome men because then everybody would be going older in a minute. We want, if he's on 350 grand a week net, once you minus the tax from it, as you were saying, that's what everyone's going to be wanting who's like deemed a top player at the club. So it is risky. and he's at the absolute limit like£350 ,000 for Osserman okay you can make a reason for it like£550 he cannot doesn't make any sense the time to buy him was when we sold Kane it should have been one out one in Kane should have gone and Osserman should have come in once he went to Turkey and his wages did that and skyrocketed that player was beyond us yeah was Osserman playing winning league titles in Italy when Kane left yeah Did he go to Galatasaray?

19:49Sorry, go on. Yeah, I think... He went to Galatasaray when we sold Kane. Is that right? It might have been the year after. I've got a feeling that... You know, remember we had him in the Europa League the season after, the year one. He absolutely killed us. I'll double check, but I think that might have been his first season, which was 20... Yeah, he was at Napoli 2020 to 2025, so he would have won a league title there. Then got loaned to Galatasaray for 24-25, which was the season that they beat us. and then they bought him last summer. All right. So it is possible. It would have been possible back then.

20:23But then you have Daniel Levy there, which is a different conversation. So Cal was right. It would have been, he would have been at Napoli when we sold Kane. Okay. Just before we go into the questions on Patreon, I just want to remind you that the Fighting Cock is backed by, who else? Ooh, who is it this week? Who could it be this week? So successful. Who could it be? Salie, this week. Oh, nice. Nice. I mean, all of us are not going on. You've been on holiday. You went to Ibiza, didn't you, Ben? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Might be going on holiday in October, though. A little international break. So I might need it for that.

20:54How many holidays are you having a year? Two's all right, isn't it? Is that right? Things going well, are they? They're going all right. It's those TikToks about us. He pumps out fucking 18 TikTok today. I'm on TikTok today. I was like, fuck, here's Ben. What's he got to say? Literally, here he is. Here he is. Ben, you're doing quality work. You're doing amazing work. I see your numbers, mate. They're insane. They're insane. Thanks, mate. Go and follow Ben on. Ben Bowman talks football about everything. That's what he is, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the app. Yeah, Ben Bowman talks about everything.

21:25Ben Bowman talks about all of football. All of the time. All of the time he can't escape. So, yeah, if you want to escape Ben Bowman, you can go on holiday. Just don't take your phone. Don't get caught out with Salee. Salee is an eSIM app from the creators of NordVPN, giving you instant, affordable mobile internet in over 190 countries. You don't have to wait at airport, kiosks. No sketchy sim sellers. Just download once, choose a plan, and you're connected the moment you land. Get 15 % off your eSIM app. eSIM today. Download the Saley app or visit Saley.com forward slash thefightingcock and use the code thefightingcock at checkout.

22:05You get your 15 % off. Stay connected wherever you go. And it's your favorite app, Cal, because? because if you go abroad it doesn't count if you're abroad if you're in a different country doesn't count you can text other birds on saley get a different number right drop down there's a drop down option there says text other birds click on that and then just join all the apps text other women all the apps and cheat yeah why do you think i'm going on holiday twice cheating ben uh okay go and cheat with ben away on holiday he doesn't talk to him unless he's doing a TikTok like right sit here yeah listen to this do you know who I am look at this yeah I'm Ben Bowman talking about everything that is 200 ,000 how many followers have you got on TikTok 130 ,001 and then 103 ,000 and another this is my name's Ben Bowman right I know I'm attractive as I stand you're looking at me I'm a big boy I'm not actually very svelte I made a rude joke about Ben the other day which I apologize I didn't even see it answer me you fat cunt which is out of order because he isn't fat at all but i just and i'm definitely fat so uh you're not fat yeah cheers so um yeah just if you want to escape uh if ben bowman's on you know if you want to go on ollie or ben bowman take him he could be an excellent windman for you if you're using say the app and if you want to save money you genuinely save money for this why it's such an easy thing to sell is uh you download it you don't you pay less than you you you you'll save more in data than you pay to say same with nordvpn when that returns as well so anyway uh let's do some uh questions got the quiz coming just quickly before there was a tottenham tears notification saying a fear in the from the athletics and a fee in the region of 25.6 million pounds is being discussed between Tottenham and Inter for Spence.

24:0125 mil. 25 mil. A little bit less than I'd like. I just don't care. That's not ideal. For who? I'm not going to... There's enough to be stressful about in this world. £10 million in money that I don't have any interest in is... And when we've got owners that are pumping money into the football club, I'd, you know, just... Whatever. How do you feel about it? Now it's£10 million less? Not ideal, but... That's a piss take. That's a fucking piss take. I'm sorry. it is a bit of a piss take I'd rather leave him there to be honest that's a fucking piss take 25 million in this market let him rot should we let him rot yeah I'm well up for that when was the last player that was left to rot it was actually last season I know the answer Ben you got the answer this episode is brought to you by Google Chrome you think you know a browser but Gemini and Chrome that's new it can help you with practically anything on the web like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block or finally break down on that long article you've had open for weeks.

24:58Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. Stream the biggest moments in sports live on Fox 1. The biggest names, the biggest games, the biggest matchups. Watch live or catch up on your schedule. At home or on the go, never miss a moment. All on Fox 1. Stream now. This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So you were scrolling on Marketplace, and there it was, the bike you'd been searching for. You sent a message, and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist.

25:38The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. Well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer, find more on Facebook. last season yeah Kel you got an answer it's not a Spurs player someone who's left to rot oh Raheem Sterling yeah yeah yeah no he was left to rot for sure yep but it isn't him I mean Chelsea had like the bomb squad didn't they there's probably a few of is it a Chelsea player no it's not a Chelsea player oh Harvey Elliott yeah yeah that was bad wasn't it that's so bad that was bad bang out of all yeah no one talked about that with Villa though did they everyone thinks that yeah Yeah, and we're just a great manager, lovely club.

26:24Fucking let him rot. There is no worse. Now we've got Ben on, like Ben talks all the world's football on TikTok. He comes across in many ways. A lot of other content creators from other football clubs. I think Villa are the gourmiest out of everyone. They're the world's worst. Aren't they? There's something wrong about them. There's something wrong with Villa fans, I think, genuinely. Mentally, yeah. I was on two things last week where I ended up having the exact same argument with them about the big six and everyone just can't keep talking about their mouth and i didn't have i didn't even have a chance to speak about us by that point but they're throwing in jibes everyone else is and then villa fans are saying they're going to be in a title race and they should replace us in the big six and i just went up to him and i was like fucking nutted him why do you care i was like do you just want like you're all you're only doing this for validation i was like why the fuck do you actually care that much it's just because every member of the big six doesn't think about being a member of the big six yeah it's the other 14 that have just got this mad complex yeah about it did you see we played it I fucking deleted it so I don't have it but Dan Bedell you're a big fan of him now I've worked with him a few times but it wasn't just damn what was that sound that was oh Dan we're such good friends so fucking beg is what he is are you begging it then what'd you say was you begging it begging it a little bit PTSD bruv do you want me to beat you up that's quite neat for i think our sort of mean audience um no but but he genuinely quite measured but he has the him like all the other villa fans are just completely um they're just mental about this stuff and someone put you know sent a message in i think flex was the guy who was um he was he was hosting it and it was just like a i don't say a hundred word complete dissection of villa's arguments about why they should be in the top six or a part of the big six we saw that league table someone posted league table 10 years ago phila and newcastle weren't in the league yeah yeah so how's your top six have it mate have the big six we couldn't give a shit have it it changes nothing what do you think the big six the rules will change just suddenly you you won't be non-compliant suddenly you'll be compliant with psr no it doesn't change anything it's like they think it's some sort of like like freemason club or something that just guarantees them more money like it's like but the best thing about that with Dan Bardell was like once Flex had read the text out he was like yeah you kind of put me on the ropes a little bit now I don't really know what to say it was like yeah it's because someone's actually speaking facts to you like just laying the facts out there in black and white that's why we are a big six club and you're not to be fair he did he did sort of oh nice yes have you met him nah no he seems like no he's sorry he's nice don't know him don't want to know him sure he's a lovely guy let's do two questions and then we'll do the quiz all right Charlie Eaton says just read out just read that Solanke has missed 50 games through injury and illness in the past two seasons he's been at the club maybe we should have sold him to Middlesbrough for 20 million instead it's mental you know his injury record before joining Spurs was impeccable amazing wasn't it yeah I really hope it isn't the pitch because no matter what we do can't do nothing about that no Russ Palmer says less well we can we can dig it up and well we did I did an episode of the lab and part of it was about the retractable pitch you can go and listen to it now if you want but ours is something like six centimetres more shallow than your typical pitch in terms of the amount of earth under a hard surface so it better not be the pitch otherwise we're going to have to sort it but we won't this retractable pitch is not going away because it generates more money in itself the stadium but especially the retractable pitch we can have so many more concerts not that this is something to celebrate than Arsenal than Man City because we have a barrier between the the substrate of our pitch and people walking all over it but if you want to blame anyone blame the fans of System of a Down they're the wankers yeah jumping up and down and they're fucking moshing Fucking neckbeard twats.

30:42I quite like Sister Me Down. Dear, I don't know anything about them. You know, you know Chop Suey and Toxicity. You know this about me. The toxicity of our city of our city of our city of our city of our city of our city of our city Have you been to a gig there? Nah. Shit. But Fontaine's are playing there next year so Oh. Ben, would I be allowed into your friendship group to go and watch that together? Yeah, of course. You can come. Yeah, cheers. Come on if you like. Cheers. Russ Palmer says, lesser question, more talking point if you don't mind. I'm an older gentleman. Last week, sorry, I met an older gentleman last week who stopped me.

31:27Sounds sexual. What are you into, Russ? What are you into? Nice. I've never seen an old gentleman niche. He stopped me as I was wearing a spur shirt and he wanted to chat and show me his Tottenham tattoo. That's very cool. Clearly a passionate and knowledgeable fan of the game, but he had no clue about who we were buying and why we were buying so many players or how we were buying so many players. Knew nothing about the Lewis family or the FFP PSR rules or revenues coming in allowing us to move this way post-Levy. His mind was genuinely blown. We must remember that not all fans are as ingrained in the detail of business and football.

32:03He was no less of a fan than I am. fascinated me as how we are perceived both by fans of the club and even more so by others who are not across the news of the financials. There is something in this, there's a criticism of what we've become and the rules, the PSR rules and the SCR rules that you all have to become sort of borderline accountants to understand what's going on and what we can do. and there's like my dad even my dad like I said earlier he gets all this information from Facebook he doesn't really get it either he understands that something's going on but he doesn't quite get it but it is it is interesting that's TikTok for you Ben yeah we've got to remember there's fans out there hi everyone hi guys we've got to remember that they're ripping the fabric of the game away from us that's what they're doing it would blow up it would blow up but he's right Russ is absolutely spot on is that the idea of just watching your football team play is long since been lost.

33:10Yeah. Some people just want to go to the pub and watch the games, don't they? Yeah. And even to an extent with just the rules on the pitch now, they change so much now. It's like, I always say it's like Formula One. It is. Every year there's like drastic... Will Lankshire the other night in the championship. It was the League Cup, wasn't it? In the League Cup. but because he took I think it was he took more than a minute to leave the pitch as a substitute that the player coming on had to stay off the pitch for a minute as a punishment I like that rule change I do but by October but it makes sense but by October you won't see that happening why don't you like it last year with the was the one I introduced last year with the goalkeepers holding on to it from longer than seconds you get a corner I reckon that happened three times throughout the season and most of them were in the first few weeks yeah when you were stamping the rules do you not like it Lincal?

34:00I don't like the constant changing of the rules. That's what I don't like. Do you not like the wankers who are pretending to be injured to disrupt the flow of the game? Yes, I get that. I get time-waste. And I think referees aren't harsh enough on time-wasting. I think when, you know, say a Burnley comes to play Tottenham at White Hart Lane and they're holding on to the ball, it's like, book the goalkeeper. And the goalkeeper takes forever over a goal kick. Book them in the first 10 minutes and they'll stop doing it. But I remember, actually, the game that really leaps out is Ben Foster, West Brom at Wembley Stadium.

34:31And he booked him in the 86th minute, I think it was. He booked him really late. And it's like, if you'd have booked him in the 16th minute, he stops doing it because he's at risk. You've set it out then. That's the thing with Tom Watson. You're right about it. But what I hate, I hate how much influence PGMOL want to have on football. They want it to be all about them. Hence VAR and the constant hiring of more and more and more referees to feather their own nest. but I also just hate the constant changing of rules all the time like it's Formula 1 so you don't even know what game you're watching I agree with that the new one this year is about the goalkeepers fading injury isn't it but it's like how are you actually going to it is one of the worst things in football when goalkeepers do do that and they go down injured and then the game stops for two or three minutes and they're not actually but and I like the fact they're trying to do something about it but again how long is that going to last and how are they actually going to prove that the player's not injured it's like it's the same with the head injuries and stuff you see it all the time Like, it's such a...

35:27The margins are so fine with something like that because the consequences could obviously be so severe. And if a goalkeeper goes down, you can't really just play on in the same way as if an outfield player was down. So how are you going to actually be able to legislate that properly? Yeah, it's a good point. Good point, Ben. Can I just check? Have you calmed down yet, Cal? Not quite, no. No, you're still agitated. I'm still irritated. Do you know what I am irritated about? Christian Romero. I'm fucking irritated about that. He is. Can I ask you a question about Christian Romero that's been sent in by our patron.

35:57Yeah, got on. One of our patrons, Ryan Bailey. I'm going to sort of use half of his question and make it into a question I want to ask. Sorry, Ryan. Do we accept£70 million from Arsenal for Romero or accept£35 million for Atletico Madrid? I would rather leave Romero, I would leave him to rot for the last three years of his contract than sell him to Arsenal for£200 million. Okay, so you'd rather he goes to Atletico Madrid for half the price. Yeah. I'd rather he went to dog meat Rovers to be honest. But that's not going to be the option we've got available to us is one or the other. Yeah. Never sell him to them.