Are Premier League owners too impatient & is it wrong to link MND with rugby?

15:28Jeff Mostyn:You know, Eddie, I could pontificate forever. You know, he's like my son, you know, and Jason alongside him. And, you know, it's always they have their camaraderie. They have their togetherness. they feed off each other you know and Eddie you know contrary you know to his looks he's like a you know blessed he's like a film star he's an amazing manager but he can be the baby-faced assassin he is again committed to his staff to his players and I've always been asked about what do I personally believe is Eddie Howe's greatest strength and I believe Eddie's greatest his strength you know amongst numerous strengths is he has this insatiable appetite for personal development and I believe if you have a manager in any walk of life if you can see your manager still developing and learning you are going to listen to every word that he or she says and I think that's admirable and maybe you know it's an age thing you know with with Eddie you He's still young.

16:37Jeff Mostyn:He looks 20 years younger than he actually is. So when players are actually seeing Eddie, I can feel the respect. It's really interesting you ask me this question. I had the privilege of having dinner with Eddie and Jason and the Newcastle team the night before our recent game, which was moved to the Sunday, which was the day of my 80th birthday. So I couldn't go to the game. You're not 80. 80, yeah. Thank you, Gabby. Don't say now you look 90 and spoil my day.

17:10Mark Chapman:You're using the same cream as Eddie.

17:11Gabby Logan:That was a good game to miss. That was one of the worst Premier League games of the season. In fact, it was the worst. On XG, that was the worst Premier League game of the season.

17:20Jeff Mostyn:See, I know how to pick them, Mark. You do, yeah.

17:23Gabby Logan:Well done for avoiding that. You talk about Eddie, and I don't know if I've ever said this, actually, but after he left Bournemouth, he did a match of the day too with me. and normally as as you know gabby when people do their first one there's sometimes a slight nervousness from them when they do their first one and even even the most experienced of pundits come in with notes and just to remember what you know what where their pictures are and what clip of analysis follows what clip eddie came in with we watched the games together he went into the edit suite he built his analysis on the games he came into the studio he had no notes no nothing and delivered everything perfectly absolutely because he treated it as if he was doing a presentation to his squad it absolutely blew me away how he worked that day it was it was meticulous and well prepared and then really natural yeah is he a future England manager

18:25Jeff Mostyn:Well, you know, I've I've been literally given the warning, you know, about this, because in my role as an FA counsellor, I was often and I also had the privilege of being an England ambassador. So traveled with the England teams and with my, you know, God gave me so much enthusiasm. You know, whenever I'm talking, I'm always talking about the people I love most of all. Oh, my God, is he a future England manager? Of course he is. You know, Eddie, you know, I absolutely love him. He's articulate. He's one of the few managers that's got a tongue instead of a shovel, you know, and, you know, he would be absolutely incredible, both in terms of coaching, you know, and wearing the Three Lions, which is a heavy jacket to wear.

19:10Jeff Mostyn:and then the closer I sort of got people were saying oh my god Jeff what are you doing you know he you've now put him as a really high profile prospect for England so I then at council meetings or if ever I was asked I'd said well I was only joking he's actually really difficult to work with the trouble that we have with him honestly he's you know he he's too late now It's too late now. But, you know, you've got to look. Will an English person ever get a chance? You know, who knows? It's a really strange situation, isn't it? Where for most national teams, they don't look beyond their own. You know, we seem to think the grass is greener.

19:55Mark Chapman:Well, we oscillate, don't we, between the two?

19:57Gabby Logan:Yes, we do. What do you need more patience for? Saving a club from liquidation or being an FA counsellor?

20:04Jeff Mostyn:Well, now that I'm no longer an FA councillor, although I am on the disability committee, I think saving a club. I mean, I actually thought you were going to say I have to be so respectful, you know, to the people that literally, you know, a funny story, Mark. When I first was appointed as an FA councillor, I was really nervous. And normally I'm sort of full of confidence, but I'm thinking, oh, my God, you know, this is the hierarchy of the football family. And I walked into the council chamber, you know, at Wembley with a guy called Neil Hope, who represented the armed forces. And Neil said, you've got nothing to worry about, Jeff.

20:44Jeff Mostyn:Honestly, you're going to walk in there. You're going to actually rock this place with your personality and enthusiasm. And he said, besides that, you'll be the youngest in there. Well, I was about 70 at the time. And instead of having a conversation with people, I used to bring a mirror out and see if it steamed up, you know.

21:07Mark Chapman:On slightly kind of drier issues, I guess, but nonetheless, you know, kind of important. Will the regulator, do you think, and you've kind of gamekeeper and poacher both, I guess, in this situation, you've seen both sides. Will the regulator be the thing that helps?

21:25Jeff Mostyn:Interestingly enough, I've always felt that it was quite alien to FIFA rules that any government should have any interference, especially the governing body, you know, of its national sport. So that, to me, was already a conflict. I don't know how they're going to manage the impasse between the Premier League and the EFL. Should there be a greater distribution of wealth? I can only answer that by saying that I remember doing an interview when we were in the championship talking about the pyramid as opposed to the franchise in America. And I've always said what I love most of all is the pyramid because it gives clubs like AFC Bournemouth the opportunity to reach the promised land.

22:15Jeff Mostyn:The year we were promoted, I was in New York and I was actually being interviewed and they said, Jeff, they referred back. I always forget people remember what you said, unfortunately. And I was asked what I think about the pyramid now. And I said, come on, it has to be the franchise all the time, you know, because you can't be relegated. And I think that is always going to be the problem. How are you going to get businesses? And people have to remember, people call them football clubs. You know, people call AFC Bournemouth a football club. I always try to remind people it's actually a business first and foremost.

22:49Jeff Mostyn:And we happen to be in the business of playing football. so it's it is different to any other industry where you have somebody that has come in as an independent regulator with a possibility of telling Premier League clubs they have to give a greater contribution of their own business to somebody else and then not only do they have to give them some extra money they then become a competitor I just think it's going to be very very difficult for to convince Premier League clubs with their huge expense as well to give some of that to the football family more than what they're giving at the moment which is a huge chunk it's over a billion.

23:34Gabby Logan:My other thing with it Jeff is the the clubs who are in trouble like real trouble and it was Morecambe until very recently it is still Sheffield Wednesday there have been plenty of others in the past. If owners are not willing to sell, then unless a football regulator has the power to force the sale of a football club, I don't understand how they will protect clubs who are in trouble. Now, maybe I'm just being thick and naive. I don't know. But let's say you'd bought Bournemouth and three years later players and staff weren't being paid and you were still towards the bottom of league two but you had invested some stuff some money in there as you've said you wouldn't let a regulator force you out would you no but mark i would agree with

24:30Jeff Mostyn:everything that you've said there i actually agree that you know there should be some form of regulation you know to stop somebody you know effectively you know killing a football club with you know over a hundred years history um you know and the the players the staff the whole community you know would be ruined for what reason i do not understand that the value of that football club is lowering every single day. So what is the final gain? And I can say this from my heart and from experience that when I first met Maxim Deming in 2011, I was introduced to him as somebody who wanted to invest in the football club.

25:15Jeff Mostyn:And I thought, oh my God, have I just won the lottery? It was about the football club, the decision I made to sell to Maxim. And it took about a year because if you recall, I'd already sold the club to two people who defaulted and we got the shares back by default and then took over the football club again. It was like the club that, you know, it's like the gift that kept giving. I couldn't get rid of it. And then suddenly, you know, being introduced to Maxim, who, you know, was one of the most honourable people I've ever met in my football life because totally different. I trusted everybody. Having come from a financial services background, my two partners could put a check in front of me and I'd sign it.

26:01Jeff Mostyn:And I brought the same philosophy into football, not realizing that, you know, I was walking around the world with my trousers around my ankles, you know, being taken advantage of as the most gullible person God's put on the planet because it was a ruthless business. but I sold to Maxime because I knew that he could take the football club to a level that I could never take it to as well as consolidating the club in its present position so I know what the right honourable thing to do and most certainly the owner of Sheffield Wednesday who I've never met and it's probably wrong for me to say but I believe if everything I read is true then that sale should be made at the earliest possibility to save a football club with one of the sort of greatest histories in English football and for the saviour of the town the players the staff and everybody associated with that football club you know I hope that we find an owner that is honourable and treats Sheffield Wednesday with the respect it deserves.

27:11Mark Chapman:One more question for you before we let you go.

27:14Jeff Mostyn:Can you sign this check? Yeah, Mark, I said I trust most people. He's a very good judge of character.

27:23Mark Chapman:So Gareth Southgate writes a lovely tribute to you in the book. I'm sure you've had many conversations with him and we've referred to him, we've referred to the England job, actually not directly to him. Should he be the next Manchester United manager?

27:39Jeff Mostyn:I'm an amazing fan of Sir Gareth

27:44Mark Chapman:You're saying this with a Manchester City hat on Yes he should be

27:49Jeff Mostyn:Read into this what you want He should definitely be the new Manchester United manager I think that he's an extremely good coach I just think that because of the instability in the club over recent years it's very very difficult for me I think the owners are the right people to make that decision. With Gareth's experience, he should definitely be considered, and I'm sure he was. And who's to say that it's not to come through in the end? There's always light at the end of the tunnel, but we know that ambition overrules common sense, as it did with me when I first bought AFC Bournemouth. Manchester United in particular, one of the world's leading clubs, you have to get back to the glory days and stability and I don't personally think changing the manager as frequently as clubs do not in particular Manchester United guarantees success what it guarantees is every time a manager comes in they have their own choice of players they want to bring in at a transfer window so that expense goes through the roof you change the manager the next thing that happens is they don't like the players the previous manager brought in and that adds a great loss so I don't think it creates stability on the balance sheet and I don't believe it creates stability on the pitch.

29:17Jeff Mostyn:That was a diplomatic answer wasn't it?

29:19Gabby Logan:Yeah I know.

29:20Jeff Mostyn:Thanks Gabby that's a big compliment.

29:23Gabby Logan:Yeah I'm glad it was because I could have come in at several times with my thoughts on the owners but I managed not to. Geoff's book The Chairman the man who saved AFC Bournemouth is out on October the 30th thanks for coming in Jeff lovely to see you The Sports Agents The Sports Agents

29:42Jeff Mostyn:with Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman

29:47Gabby Logan:So we're going to end the pod today by talking about Lewis Moody the former England rugby union captain being diagnosed with motor neurone disease aged 47 A lot of well-known sports people, Gabby, have been diagnosed with this disease and also heartbreakingly, I think for you, someone you know very well.

30:10Mark Chapman:Yeah, I've had quite a lot over the years, you know, kind of contact with Lewis and his family and obviously my husband, Kenny. They're not of a dissimilar era. They overlapped. And he was part of the Rugby World Cup winning side, of course, of 2003, many of whom we were friends with and Kenny played with. So, yeah, had a lot to do with him and his family are a fantastic, you know, brilliant giving family. He's got his own foundation that has raised millions for brain tumour diseases. And his son is signed as a goalkeeper for Southampton, a sporty family. You know, they're just a great ray of, you know, sunshine, a lovely, lovely family.

30:44Mark Chapman:And it doesn't make it, you know, any more tragic when a diagnosis like this is revealed, of course. But it always seems so incredibly unfair, doesn't it? when somebody gets this diagnosis because there is currently absolutely nothing they can do about it. There is no hope coming down the track at them very quickly. It can spiral and degenerate very, very quickly, as we know from previous sports people. And I think Doddy Weir was almost five years from diagnosis to death. It's brutal. And it has once again evoked the conversation about the link between sport and motor neurone disease. And I thought it was just important today that maybe we got somebody on to explain actually what the link might be.

31:26Mark Chapman:And because there have been high profile rugby players, there's been some kind of inference. Could it be to do with the contact? It's a contact sport. Is it to do with concussions? And as I said to you before, that would perhaps mean that there were more boxers and MMA fighters and other contact sports, but we don't hear about so many there. So we've got a real expert on the show today to tell us about the study she's conducting, but also what we really do know at the moment about motor neurone disease.

31:52Gabby Logan:So we're joined on this pod by Professor Dane Pamela Shaw, a world-leading researcher in motor neurone disease, to explore a little bit further just what Gabby said about what the links are, if any, between exercise, contact sports and MND.

32:12Mark Chapman:I've always been struck as an MND neurologist that MND tends to happen to people who are fit and active, whether professional sports people or little old ladies that walk their dog five miles every day. So it very rarely happens to people that lead a sedentary lifestyle. And I think the medical and scientific literature on this question is vigorous physical activity a risk factor for MND. It's controversial. There are different studies that have been done of variable quality. The studies that we've done do indicate that there is a link, particularly in men rather than ladies, but it's complicated because clearly exercise is usually a good thing for you.

33:06Mark Chapman:Most athletes don't develop MND, so we don't And we're very cautious and careful about it because we don't want to dissuade people from doing healthy levels of exercise, which are protective against many different diseases. But I do think there is a link, but it's not just the strenuous physical activity. It must be something to do with the genetic makeup of a person. And can we define strenuous physical activity then? So we've defined it in our studies as more than 12 hours a week of vigorous clinical activity. And we've looked into the UK Biobank, for example, that has a lot of people included in that who later on develop MND, but haven't had MND at the time they signed up for that with recorded levels of physical activity.

34:01Mark Chapman:And it seems to be, you know, I think really pushing your motor system. So strenuous training every day, that sort of thing. I think the normal sort of exercise that people do probably isn't a risk factor. But it's not just the physical exercise. We think there is an element of the genetic makeup of the person, which in turn controls the chemistry of the nervous system. And just to give one example, we took the commonest genetic cause of MND caused by a change in this gene called C9-0-72, which is a bit of a mouthful. So that is the commonest gene that can predispose to MND. 10 % of MND patients will have a change in that gene.

34:51Mark Chapman:And so we studied people who have that gene change when they were fit and healthy and measured the levels of strenuous physical activity that they did. And what we found is the higher the level of strenuous physical activity, the earlier the age of onset of MND. So ultimately, you could then, if somebody had the genetic risk factor identified earlier in their life, you would advise against that person doing strenuous activity, would you? Is it that big a correlation? I think it's too early in the research that we're doing to give firm advice to individual people. But if we can understand the biology of it, people can then make informed choices.

35:43Mark Chapman:But there also might be preventative strategies, you know, taking a cocktail of antioxidants before you run, for example. But we're not at that stage yet. There's more unraveling to be done.

35:56Gabby Logan:Is this an area, MND research, that has been neglected? I mean, obviously, you are doing what you are doing, but has been neglected in terms of funding over many decades, really? And actually, the high profile athletes that we've seen over the last 10 years has maybe increased awareness and therefore hopefully funding.

36:25Mark Chapman:Yes, I think that's right. I think Rob Burrow, Doddy Weir, so the Doddy Weir Foundation of funding the research that we do looking at this link between physical activity and the development of M &D. I got interested in M &D when I was training in neurology because I did think it was a neglected disease. We knew nothing about it. We did very little to help people affected all their families. So at that stage in the late 1980s, early 1990s, I did feel it was a neglected disease. But I think that's changing. I think the relevant charities, the MND Association, the Doddy Foundation, and those high-profile athletes have done such a lot to raise awareness.

37:15Mark Chapman:We're chipping away at it. There's more work to be done. And one thing I'm really interested in. So in the US, they have this veterans cohort that have been in the military, 6 ,000 people who've had their whole genetic profile analyzed, and the military have a fourfold increased risk of developing MND, probably because of the strenuous training that they do. And so if we can delve into that, 6 ,000 human genomes, a proportion of whom develop MND, then we might be able to unravel the genetic risk factors in more detail. And our aim is to be able to give people good advice to make choices, but also to think about how we can prevent M &D happening in these wonderful athletes.

38:15Mark Chapman:That is the aim, isn't it? That you either come up with something that helps to pause or stop the decline or prevent it in the first place. And I know that's what the research is aiming to do. So thank you for explaining all of that for us. Pleasure. Professor Pamela Shaw.

38:34Mark Chapman:It was great to have Pam on to explain her study and to know that the money that is being raised, And as she said, the profile that's being given to these charities by these sports people is going to really important research. And one day, one day, and hopefully in our lifetimes, there will be something that either stops or prevents the diseases. But, you know, it was so, it stopped me in my tracks really yesterday was, of course, we sent messages immediately, Kenny and I, to Lewis and his family. And Lewis's message came back to Kenny yesterday evening. And in it, the first thing he said was, I want to help raise more money.

39:06Mark Chapman:What can I do? I want to meet you for a coffee. I want to take on whatever I can because I don't want to start something fresh. I want to help contribute to what's there. And I just thought, wow, in that moment of, you know, two weeks of diagnosis of something like this, all he's thinking about is, you know, how he can help future generations. And, you know, I guess that's why he was captain of his country, wasn't he? What a leader.

39:27Gabby Logan:Absolutely. That's it for the pod today. Thanks for listening.

39:30Jeff Mostyn:The Sports Agents with Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman.

39:38you