Should Crystal Palace have to accept their place in football's food chain?

0:02This is a Global Player original podcast. Just eight months ago, Oliver Glasner and Crystal Palace were lifting the FA Cup. Fast forward to now, without a win in 10, Captain Mark Gay sold to City, knocked out of the FA Cup by sixth tier Macclesfield, and then Glasner, who already admitted he's leaving at the end of the season, says this. We feel that we are being abandoned completely, you know, selling our captain one day before a game. completely no understanding for this. We're preparing and then yesterday at 10.30 I got told that our captain will be sold. So why not next week? We can play at least this game next week.

0:39And other players are coming back and that makes me really upset today. So as we record this, he's not been sacked. He hasn't left. But does his anger over player sales ignore the reality of where Crystal Palace are in the football pyramid? So would it be too cynical to suggest Glasner is trying to get sacked. And is this just the latest of a line of managers who are airing their dirty laundry in public? Welcome to The Sports Agents.

1:17The Sports Agents with Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman.

1:24It's not just managers, it's high profile members of the country's most famous family. but let's not start um hello chappers hi gabby who are the i do know you do you mean the beckhams yes yeah i mean i mean even you even you who doesn't dip his toe in celebrity gothic must know what happened last night with brooklyn beckham but that's not strictly a sports story i'm in milan by the way this is what this backdrop is it says milanese not not bodo glimpse no we lost that one that came up in dinner last night though how the sports agents campaigned for that look if bodo if bodo glimt get through and to be honest with you it's been a few weeks since the champions league so i haven't looked at a champions league table um if they get through we'll continue the campaign shall we to get you to bodo glimt for the knockout stages can you imagine newcastle at bodo glimt that would be something else so yeah we'll continue that if it happens you're i'm taking a break from doing every single football match in the country at the weekend do you know there was a lot of football this weekend and i did uh i think the only one that I didn't see or do anything with was Brighton-Bournemouth.

2:32So, you know, obviously I'm not dedicated to the role. Yeah, there was a lot of football over the weekend. There was a lot that was good. There was some of it that was just tedious. And then there was some that was just mad. And in fact, the maddest one was the AFCON final, which I actually didn't do. And when I got home from doing Villa Everton, I got home and my son was like, oh, we need to put AFCON on just as Senegal were walking off. It was mad. I don't understand that penalty at all. No. We were obviously on the Sports Day just discussing this last week for the weekend edition, and Jay Harris from The Athletic told us that it was an absolute done deal for Morocco.

3:13They were going to win this, and it was going to be very comfortable. I was sat next to Mark Clattenburg, and I said to him, as a referee, can you not abandon a game? He said that if he was officiating, he wouldn't have been able to abandon the game. That would have gone down to officials who were around the match. It's kind of easy to say just abandon it, but there must be so many things that go into that, particularly if you're in a final. And also, just for those officials, that can't have ever happened. I can't think of that happening before. Can you imagine being prepped as a referee or an assistant to deal with anything, thinking, you know, all the laws of the game, and then one of the teams walks off in a major final with the eyes of the world on it.

3:57Interestingly, Mark, I don't know if I can say this actually on the sports agers, did tell me about an owner that he knows. I mean, you can do your investigations there, who was suggesting after a dubious decision, as he thought it during a match last season, wanted his team to leave the pitch and Mark advised against it. Look, I think probably as fans, not many of his own football clubs, But as fans, we've probably all been there where we've wanted our team to kick off and protest and walk off. I wanted Newcastle to leave the pitch on Sunday to save us all. The absolute dire display that they were putting on.

4:39Just both teams. Just leave the pitch at half-time and don't come back out for the second half. We're never going to get this 45 minutes back in our life. So everybody just go home. Take a point each. Let's be done. Oh dear. So, but the only other, I know everybody kind of goes, oh, you know, what a terrible look and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And look, I know it's not great, but everybody, everybody has been talking about it. And everybody, if they were looking at social media or whatever and weren't watching the AFCON final, would have flicked it on to see that. So I always think it's a little bit hypocritical when we pile in and go, you know, well, nobody wants to see that.

5:20I know it's not the right way to behave and you shouldn't behave like that. But everybody wanted to have a look. And everybody's talking about it. Everybody's talking about it. You must have been absolutely thrilled with Manchester United's performance and thrilled that you got to cover it on Match of the Day. Yes, yeah. As I tried to sort of ask on Match of the Day as well, I just think there are... Look, they were exciting and they were entertaining were United against City. Just the nature of it, the nature of Manchester United over the last few seasons is if they can do that why haven't they been performing like that it can't just be down to tactics and not necessarily knowing where they're meant to be at any one stage or personality clashes so there's some onus on the players there to go where has that been at times this season and then the other it's not a question mark but it's a you don't want to go out as Roy Keane said on Sky you don't want to go overboard they have been known to perform decently in big games over the last two three four years you know they they did win at the Etihad last season and Ahmad scored a couple of late goals to do that they did knock Arsenal out of the FA Cup albeit on penalties last season they have won at Anfield this season so but as Wayne Rooney said on on Saturday night on match of the day it was the nature of the performance and I do get that I do get that in some of those games that I've mentioned they were kind of hanging on or they didn't need penalties or whatever it may be but now it's okay you've done that there and it's Arsenal away this coming weekend and this immediately is disrespectful I understand that but when it's Fulham at home which is traditionally a fixture like, you know, Bournemouth at home or West Ham at home or Everton at home this season where United have struggled, are they going to be able to be as exhilarating at times in those games?

7:17Because you'd imagine they will be up for it at the weekend away. Absolutely, yeah. And it'll be another huge moment for them to show that, you know, they potentially are back against the big teams at the big occasions. But as you point out, it's the more, I don't want to use the word mundane. It's the more kind of routine. it's it's the games where the expectation is on them to go out dominate and win and that's where they have struggled the the other thing is and you try not to in this job but when you know someone or have worked with someone and it goes well for them you are you are absolutely delighted for them and we've worked with Michael this season he's done a bit of punditry and stuff I I am really really pleased for him because there's so much noise around it and so much kind of, I don't think anybody's been disparaging, but just that, oh, you know, keeping the seat warm kind of vibe around the appointment.

8:13I'm just really pleased he's off to a good start, really. I just want to mention the Bears. They have given me, they went out, they got knocked out on Sunday night in overtime. But for years, they've been terrible. For years, they haven't had a, what you would call a franchise quarterback, someone who can lead. For years, they haven't had a head coach that you really want to buy into. And this season, they've had a first year head coach in Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams, who is Chicago's quarterback at the end of his second year. And he has got so much flack in the past because he was the number one pick in the draft.

8:54He sometimes likes to paint his nails. How can you be a quarterback if you paint your nails? he is different and he is a he is an absolute superstar and there were all sorts of rumors in the build-up to the draft he didn't want to go to Chicago his dad didn't want to go because Chicago were a basket case of a team and this season they have had late comeback after late comeback after late comeback and if you are a Chicago fan and I think this is what you want from sports in general I know I bang on about it they have been so entertaining and they have given me so much joy you and even though they have gone out you could just sit here and go that was just the most fun that I have had in so long watching and supporting this team and if people haven't seen it he threw a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter with 30 seconds to go that tied the game once they put the kick over as well that tied the game even if you know nothing about American football if you watch that on YouTube or wherever, it is one of the greatest throws you will ever see.

9:57And Chris Collinsworth, who is on NBC, used to play the game. Their veteran co-commentator said, in all my days, I have never seen anything like that. And it was just one of those where you just kind of, genuinely, I nearly had tears in my eyes as you threw that. I've actually got tingles. Honestly, honestly, because it tied it and still gave us a chance. And we are all fans and support sport for the goosebump moments and the entertainment. Yes, you want to be successful and stuff. But honestly, every time I've watched him and the Bears, it just puts me in a great mood. And that hasn't happened for a long time.

10:37We won't talk much about the Australian Open. And there haven't been too many goosebump moments. So I've had my eye on Arthur Ferry. He beat a 20th seed Flavio Caboli in the first round. and that's his first win in a Grand Slam outside of Wimbledon, which is a big deal because Wimbledon, obviously, we have more Brits in, so you expect a few more wins. His mum was a former professional player and she rang him when he qualified and said, can I come? He said, yeah, okay. So he said he's pleased his mum gets to see at least two games now. So he's got a 60-second seed Thomas Echeverry in the second round, which is tomorrow, I believe.

11:11So I'm going to be keeping my eye on that. Okay, good. Excellent. As always, send in your questions, sportsagentsatglobal.com on email. You can find us on social media or via the link in the episode description. And you can catch up with all past episodes on YouTube, Global Player, or wherever you get your podcasts. And you can leave a comment or review when you listen and hit subscribe if you like so you don't miss any of our episodes. Next up, Oliver Glasner says he's been abandoned completely. We'll discuss it with former Palace player Clinton Morrison and Dan Cook from the HLTCO Palace fan channel.

11:45The Sports Agents. the sports agents with gabby logan and mark chapman dan can i start with you because before we get into everything that's going on behind the scenes i just find this whole thing just really really sad and i'm not even a a crystal palace fan but But if you want new clubs to flourish, different teams to win things, people to challenge the elite, it is really sad. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I've done a lot of, I wouldn't say soul searching, but I've done a lot of deep thinking over the last 72 to 96 hours. And I can't sort of help but settle upon the view that Oliver Glasner potentially thought that upon winning the FA Cup, we could smash through that financial glass ceiling.

12:43And the realities of the situation are just not that free and easy. I know that might sound a little bit reductive, but there was no way for us to not sell a Birese for£67 million in the summer to Arsenal when the player himself was desperate to go and when we were making£50 million of profit and he wasn't going to sign a new contract. And similarly, you know, Mark Gay for£20 million is a fantastic deal for Manchester City, but he's got five months left in his contract and he's not going to sign a new one. And the manager has already told the hierarchy in October of 2025 that he's not going to be staying.

13:17so I'm not quite sure what Oliver Glasner expected the club to do it is very sad I'm not trying to you know put any sort of glitter on a turd there but it just it just feels unfortunately like the realities of the situation for a club of our size are hitting home and I don't want to talk out of turn but it feels quite childish from Oliver Glasner to sort of want the club to back him for the entirety of this season when he's not going to be here come the summer. The other thing as well, Clinton, about this, and Dan, I think what you've come to after your three days of soul searching there, I imagine you probably at the very beginning had those thoughts.

13:56You've been through all sorts of emotions and you've come out and sound quite pragmatic. And that's the thing, Clinton, isn't it? Because when he's gone into this job, Oliver Glasner, of course, as a manager, he's ambitious. He wants to do great things. He's probably exceeded even his own expectations in what he's done. But he knew exactly the kind of club or the kind of club he was joining. He knew exactly the kind of role that he was going to have there. And he knew the history of this club in selling players when they can accrue a big profit for the club. That wouldn't have been a huge surprise.

14:26Spot on, Gabby. Listen, it's difficult because obviously I'm not being careful what I say. I know Glasner and I've got to go to the training ground on Thursday. I know the chairman ever so well, Steve Parrish. What you have to realise with Crystal Palace, it's hard for me to say it. I think Dan summed it up ever so well. Palace are not a club that can compete with the Champions League clubs like that. So Oliver Glasner knew when he was coming in to Palace, it was a stepping stone. If he'd done well, the next step he would do is go on to manage one of the big clubs. And he's there talking at the moment about, and I understand, I totally get where he's coming from, where he's saying he does need new bodies in the building.

15:00So I get that. Palace, I've always said it, they've got a basic 12 or 13 players that he relies on at the moment. So they do need players coming through, but you can't come out and have a go at your chairman like he's done because I've seen it before and we've seen it with other managers and clubs. Evidently, only one thing happens and you end up losing your job. So he knows what he was coming to at Crystal Palace. He does know what he was coming to. I do, as I said, he'll go down in my eyes as being Palace's greatest ever manager at the football club for what he's done. It still could be a good season if he gets his head down.

15:30They could win the Europa Conference League. I still think they've got a great chance and finish as high as possible in the Premier League. But all this noise that he's making at the moment, I know he's frustrated. But for me, I think it's a case of he's trying to probably, and everyone's looking from the outside, trying to get sacked, where the chairman at the club is too clever to sack him. He's like, well, if you want to leave the football club, you're going to have to walk away. Speaking of the chairman then, Dan, if you had been Steve Parrish and the Palace Board and Director of Football the summer just gone with the FA Cup one, what would you have done differently?

16:05to what the Palace board have done. Well, I mean, first and foremost, I'd have made sure that we'd signed a bit of paperwork that meant we could play in the Europa League. Yeah, that would have been a good one. But on top of that, you know, you look at the Iberia as they sell. Again, it frustrates me slightly because you've got a situation where the player himself had given five years to the football club. You know, he had scored in every round from the quarterfinals to the semi to the final of the FA Cup. we won it with a goal from him he wanted to go to Arsenal we cannot stand in the way of a Bria if he wants to make that move it would have been you know suicide really because you've then got a player that's not happy you're denying him that you then end up in a situation where he's of an age profile where you can't get the amount of money that we did from Arsenal so in terms of a direct replacement you know Jeremy Pino came in from Villarreal I'm not suggesting that he is a direct replacement for ebbs because it's almost impossible to do and in terms of bolstering the squad further i know it didn't happen in the summer we broke our transfer record at the start of january to sign brennan johnson for 35 million pounds you know you go through it jd canvo was 20 million ismail assar was 12 chadi riad was 15 remain sa was 12 eddie and ketty a year or so ago was 30 million pounds we cannot spend the sort of money that you manchester united's and manchester cities and arsenals do because PSR regs are so tight and we live in an environment with a 25 seater stadium and no corporate income where you'll end up with points deductions if you overspend that so as much as people can say you should have spent more money there is no guarantee that at the end of the window when Oliver Glasner by the way pretty much forced the club not to take 35 million pounds from Liverpool for Mark Gay knowing he wasn't going to sign a new contract he then walked out in October.

17:53So if we'd spent another 30 million in the summer to appease Oliver Glasner, and he still made that decision to move on, we're left with no budget and a new manager coming in, no captain, you know, the entire squad in disarray, all because you've danced to the tune of one guy with no guarantee that he's going to be around for the next three or four years. So I understand spending more. I don't think it's as straightforward as that. Can we just talk about Oliver Glasner a bit more though, Clinton, because there is a slight pattern here isn't there in terms of his previous roles and how he's ended up leaving those jobs at Wolfsburg he had a row about the failure to strengthen the squad after he'd taken them into the Champions League and at Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt he also fell out with a sporting director there about a lack of new signings so he's done this before so you kind of knew in a way what you're getting into bed with somebody who's incredibly ambitious and also will talk publicly about wanting new signings and how he sees the direction of travel.

18:52There's a lot of talk about where you've said it, where he sees his career going. Was Crystal Palace just a stepping stone for him? Yeah, I do. I think it was a stepping stone. So if it's a stepping stone, you don't need to come out now and start saying all the things that you're doing because you've done everything that you've wanted to do at Crystal Palace and everything that you've wanted to achieve. It is a bit of a pattern we see with Oliver Glasner and it'll be interesting to see what his next move is because, yeah, he will get one of the big clubs and let's see how his behaviour is then.

19:20But if you're at a big club, Gabby, and you're not getting the results at the moment, the pressure will mount on him. So he knows he can't come out and question the owners and saying, I'm not getting any backing from above because they'll say, we'll move you on and we'll get someone else to come in. What big club, to use your phrase, do you think he might go to? Well, listen, I don't think he'll go Man United. I know all the outside. No, I don't either. He plays the same way Chapas is Ruben Amory. It's already showed that 3-4-3 is not going to work. Palace have got the better players to play that formation.

19:51Man United don't like it. You see, I know it's only one game, but you see how Carrick's done there. So I think probably somewhere back to Germany, the only thing I could see, and don't listen, no one don't hold me to this. No, no one don't hold me to this. Don't hold me to this. I think it could be... Do we start with Tot here? No, no, no, no. I could see the Tottenham thing. I could actually see the Tottenham thing. I could eventually see it but this is something I see in the future is maybe Vincent Kompany going back to Man City when Pep moves on and he's getting the Bayern Munich he's got the experience in the Bundesliga that is what I could see Tottenham he would jump at Tottenham I think at the moment but I don't want to talk about any manager who's still in the job at the moment Chappers why not you're a pundit you're not a manager you're not a manager listen what I'm saying it's a job to do that alright listen to what I'm going to say Thomas Frank is under huge pressure Oliver Glasner is calling out the chairman.

20:44So for me, it looks like, I don't know, but it looks like maybe if Thomas Frank goes, could he get the job from now to the end of the season at Tottenham? But listen, you're going to Tottenham. They're under huge pressure. Those fans, they'll give you about three games and then they'll want you out the door if you don't get a win. Dan, it would be worse, wouldn't it? If nobody wanted Palace players, if Palace couldn't make a profit on players, because you haven't got the marketing budgets of the big Champions League clubs. You can't get any more people into your ground. There's a certain amount of money you can make from being Crystal Palace in terms of the brand, but you're going to have to sell players.

21:24And isn't it great that you've got this incredible recent run of producing or bringing on players, whether they're from the Championship or they're from Ligue 1, to actually become top players at top clubs? Yeah, for sure. And that, unfortunately, for Oliver Glasner, it's the model that we have to adopt to be successful. you know there is a great deal of luck because you can have hits and you can have misses we've had a string of hits you know Michael Alise for me is the best attacking talent we've ever had at Crystal Palace I've been saying it from the moment pretty much he arrived and I love Wilf and I love Eze and I love you know players like Clinton and Andy Johnson through the years Michael Alise is up there and we got him for eight million pounds but if you look at the mechanism that we exploited to do that he signed for us with a 35 million pound release clause as part of his deal we managed to pull it out of the fire at the very end and get him to extend on a 50 million pound release clause but he still ended up moving to Bayern Munich because no player of that level is going to sign for Crystal Palace and stay there for the rest of their careers so it comes back again to what you know we've been saying there's no way that Oliver Glasner walked into this job and thought well Palace can keep hold of these players for the rest of their their playing days it would be ridiculous so I'm I'm very very pleased with the business that we've done I mean I was looking through the championship the other day Middlesbrough Ipswich Derby Leicester Southampton all if you talk about passive fan bases and potential and everything else they're arguably bigger clubs than us and they're down there scrapping it out in the championship we've been in the prem for 12 plus years now it's not a good given right so as much as Oliver Glasner gave us the best day of our lives as Palace fans and I still listen to the bit of commentary with Clinton and John Murray on a semi-regular basis from the final whistle life goes on and actually dan you mentioned a couple of teams there middlesbrough and coventry um if either of them didn't go up there are players there that you would probably be interested interested in as a football club to bring in to replace some of the ones that have gone because that is that is the nature of of football isn't it and how the pyramid works and how the food chain works.

23:33Do you, just one on player release clauses, actually. I was with Dan Byrne last week at Newcastle. We were talking about Semenyo's move because he had a release fee. And Dan said to me, it'd be so much easier if every player just had a release fee and then you would release clause in their contract and then everybody would know what the situation was. As a fan, do you think that's easier to accept when a player moves on? Well, look, that was the fee. It's been met. we can't do anything about it yeah it takes the jeopardy out of negotiations for sure the only problem that arises is you end up in a situation where the player will hold the club not to ransom but we all knew that 50 million pounds when Michael Alise signed that second contract was was achievable and he did that because he knew it was achievable I think in Spain every player in La Liga has to have a release clause but you end up with these bonkers figures like half a billion euros you know because it's like it has to be there but we're not going to sell him players I mean I made this point and I'm sorry to sort of make the labored statement here but like the reason Arsenal are able to build with Mikel Arteta for seven or eight years is because Bokai Osaka will come through their academy and be happy to sign contracts for the rest of his playing days Declan Ross will leave West Ham as a European trophy winning captain from their academy and move to Arsenal because that's a destination club for him they can do that they can build pieces around others for 12 to 18 month periods and they can improve we can't do that because we have to constantly blow up the blueprint and re-sign players from you know Hayden Hackney at Middlesbrough as a prime example if he came in he would spend two or three years with us and if he flourished he'd go to a top six club and there's nothing we can do about that really and so and so when a manager takes on a role at a club like that which where that clearly is the model.

25:18That's what makes the outburst seem a little bit disingenuous, Clinton, because he knew what he was getting into. And reports are there's£2 million left on his contract. You know Steve Parrish, you know he won't be enjoying this at all. Do they go to him with some kind of financial deal and ask him to walk away now? Or will they hang out till the end of the season and we can all sit and enjoy, pull up the popcorn, put our feet up and watch every Palace press conference that there is this season? Yeah, I think get the popcorn ready, Gabs. I think it's going to be one of those. I can't see the chairman.

25:48He's a clever businessman. He's a proper shrewd businessman. He's not going to say, all right, you can keep having these outbursts. I think by all accounts, they must have spoke on Sunday and he just said, you're the manager from now to the end of the season. So you've got to deal with it and you've got to get these players winning football matches again. I said, it still could be a good season. I still think we could go and win the Europa Conference League. So the one thing I will say, and I've said it all along, players are struggling at the moment because they've let, even though Mark Gay and we talk about all these players, They've let one of the best men that work at that football club leave, Dougie Friedman.

26:19Dougie Friedman was the best. The way he brought in gems and Palace improved them, the likes of Eze, no one took a risk on him. Elise, Adam Walton's going to be the next one. Mark Gay, all these players. Ishmael Saar, I questioned him when he brought him in. I said, what are you bringing him in for? Nowhere near good enough. He's proved me wrong. The likes of Mateta as well, who could move in this window. And they've not brought a replacement for him at the moment. So I can understand Glasner's frustration, but that's down to the hierarchy to sort that out. But yeah, I still think, Gabs, he'll be there until the end of the season.

26:49But if he has two or three more outbursts, watch this space because you can't keep talking to your owners like that. It's like Chappers and you, Gabs, with your bosses there and you keep calling out your bosses five, six, seven times. Evidently, you're going to lose your job in the end, aren't you? Because that's the way it goes. Well, maybe not you two because you two are the best in the business. I'm not giving you any more compliments again. No, well, no, we just WhatsApp each other those comments rather than making them public. That's a joke, by the way, if any of our bosses are listening.

27:22Are you happy, Dan, if he does stay till the end of the season? Shut up, Clinton. Are you happy, Dan, if he does stay till the end of the season? And then the second point of that is, I always think Crystal Palace are quite brave in their managerial appointments. They don't always go for the obvious, and sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn't. So does the thought of who may be coming in next excite you or worry you? Oliver Glasner, he may have misjudged the sort of tired a little bit, I think, because he may well be coming into that game on Sunday thinking, I've won these fans their first ever major piece of silverware.

28:00they are going to back me categorically over the ownership and I don't believe that will be the case because you know what football fans are like we're tribal so if a man says I don't want to be here anymore he literally said I don't care who manages Crystal Palace in his post-match comments on Saturday if we're 2-0 down after 20 minutes that's going to turn toxic very quickly every single time you come out in a post-match press conference following the defeat and shift blame that as Clinton said you can't keep on doing that in terms of the next managerial appointment it's it's silly really for me to throw names out there the one thing not yeah well look i'm not sure i mean at the end of the day my main concern is making sure that the manager who comes in has some semblance of a transfer budget to work with i'm not looking forward to it but this whole last six months with with the uefa situation with the contract situation with mark gage transfer saga it has felt like one blow after another so it would be nice to get a manager in on say a three year contract and say look he's committed the players are committed this is what we're going to do does it does it feel like managers some for some reason are being a bit more bold this season in talking about their disquiet their you know feelings of being you know abandoned in his words disgruntled Maresca obviously Amorim didn't work out well for those two when they did speak out obviously I mean I think they were gone by now if you kind of go back to the press conferences where they spoke out, whereas Glasner is still in the job.

29:26Is it cultural? Oh, that's a good question. Do you know the problem with the Maresca and the Ameren? They were head coaches. Some of those top clubs, they just want yes, man. And that's not being disrespectful that the coaches are there now. They basically want you to go out onto that pitch, coach the players and we'll deal with stuff. When Maresca was losing his job, he had the hunt with the medical staff. Everyone thought it was the hierarchy. The medical staff are telling him that player's in the red zone. You can't play your best player for the whole of the game, but we're drawing and losing the match.

29:55So I'm taking off Cole Palmer, Rhys James, and I want to play them. I think it's a bit different at Palace. They're big football clubs. So if you're going to argue and go toe-to-toe with big football clubs, you're going to lose your job. I don't think Palace are in a position where they can just get rid of Glasner just like that because it's a different football club. But a name that I did hear, and I'm not sure if you will take it, that was floating around. It was Gareth Southgate. But I'm just putting it out there. I just drop it. But again, we're in a weird position as Palace fans because on one hand, you look towards a Palace Academy graduate who managed England, who did a very solid job.

30:28I know we didn't win the thing, but then again, people sort of say, oh, he's boring, he's this, he's that. I don't know what people want. I don't necessarily want Gareth Southgate, but we're Crystal Palace Football Club. You know, it's not a case of every single year you've got to level up. Do you know what? He's not boring, is he? He's decent and he's normal, and that's the problem in football. sometimes. I can't imagine him coming out in a post-match press conference and saying he feels abandoned. I can't imagine that. No, exactly. Dan, Clinton, thank you, Ben. Thank you so much. See you soon.

30:58So, after the break, we're going to jump from 2026 to 2016. Yep, we are jumping on the bandwagon. I don't actually know what that means. The Sports Agents The Sports Agents With Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman I actually believe you don't know what that means, Mark. I'm aware, I've read things that people are going back to 2016, but I am kind of oblivious to, I've heard, say, Scott mention it on the radio or whatever, but I am kind of oblivious to what's going on. He's your cultural prism, isn't he? Even though he's older than me, Scott Mills is my conduit to what goes on with young people. Yes, absolutely.