Bellingham + Gordon on song in Spain amid Alvarez drama

0:00Hi, this is Kim and Penn Holderness from the Laugh Lines podcast. This episode is sponsored by Ollie, your wellness partner for back to school and beyond. Back to school season is here. Packed backpacks, packed lunches and packed schedules are officially back. Ollie Kids Sleep helps little dreamers wind down with a gentle blend of melatonin, L-theanine and botanicals for restful sleep. Translation, an easy way to put those school night negotiations to bed. And for the grownups, Ollie's sleep helps you fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up feeling refreshed. Because as you know, the morning mayhem comes early.

0:35Visit Ollie.com and stock up on back-to-school must-haves today. That's O-L-L-Y dot com. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This ad is sponsored by ZocDoc. Hi, it's Danny Pellegrino from Everything Iconic. Have you been putting off that annual doctor's appointment because you don't want to make the call? Or maybe you've been meaning to find a new dentist, but you have no idea where to start. I find that's especially true when you move. It's hard to find your people. I've been there, which is why I use ZocDoc.

1:08Now, as a busy podcaster, parent, and someone who's always juggling a million things, I love anything that makes life easier. And ZocDoc lets you search and compare local in-network doctors with over 250 ,000 providers across more than 200 specialties. You can read reviews from real patients, find a provider who feels like the right fit, see actual appointment openings, and book instantly. I recently had a last-minute health issue pop up and needed to see someone fast. And instead of calling around or sitting on hold, I found a doctor on ZocDoc and booked an appointment in just a few minutes. It made the whole process so much less stressful.

1:42Now, taking care of your health just got easier. Download the ZocDoc app today. That's ZocDoc, Z-O-C-D-O-C, and book that appointment on your to-do list. Think of a toilet as just an everyday object. Your entire perspective shifts the moment you experience a Kohler smart toilet. Design changes everything, transforming a basic routine into something extraordinary. With standout aesthetics and intuitive controls, these are functional works of art, stunning design that never sacrifices performance. Enjoy customizable features for elevated comfort and convenience. It's more than a fixture. It's a cleaner routine and a more refined space.

2:24Experience the difference of Kohler smart toilets. Find more at Kohler.com. It's a brand new season of the Totally Football Show European Edition.

2:41Today we're breaking down the opening rounds of Action Spain. We get the SP on how the S-Special one got past Espanyol thanks to SP. France we hear about a shaky start for Champions PSG and what happened when Les Mans get to grips with Brest. And boom for British players in Serie A. We count the incredible number of our lads currently flying their trade in the peninsula. Monday the 24th of August It's a brand new Euro season Thank you so much for being with us Tom Williams here with me Hello James Place to ourselves Pretty nice, sit where you like Embarrassment of riches on the Chair front Very much so This because it's the first week of the season And already James Horncastle is off On his holiday somewhere James where are you?

3:35I'm in Milan James

3:36James Horncastle: You were there watching Inter perhaps at San Siro I did, I watched Inter Monza the champions against newly promoted local non-rivals and then I was in Turin on Sunday night to watch the Amorim C Milan What stories there were in both those games looking forward to hearing about those performances is Ruben Amarim off to a winning start with Milan. Also joining us, Paul Belus. Hey, Paul. Hello, hello. How are you? World champion, Paul Belus. Or maybe not. Maybe that's another country, is it, Paul? Where do you stand on that? Oh. Oh. Well, I'm standing, depending on how you want to see it, I'm standing in Barcelona, which is the main city of Catalonia, which at the minute is a part of Spain.

4:26So, yeah. And pretty much all the Spanish national team playing. for Barcelona this season. Exactly. Exactly. Actually, on Thursday, there's going to be a tribute at the Camp Nou to all the World Cup champions with the World Cup trophy in the stadium and everything. So, yeah, I think that the fans will... What kind of reception do you think they'll get? Because didn't they try something similar in Bilbao and were met with a rather less than warm response? Yeah, yeah. There wasn't a super warm response. But I think that at the Camp Nou or the thinking that the board had, it was that it's such a powerful image to have to the ball, to have eight world champions, because you can put Rodri into that mix now too, that they cannot pass on to that.

5:12And I think that at the current moment, politics-wise and how Barcelona is, I think that everyone will appreciate having that many players lifting the World Cup trophy at the Camp Nou. How many of them, Paul, will be wearing tattoos of their manager, their Spain manager? Yeah, so unfortunately not a single one, because the only one who promised that was Marco Curella. Borja Iglesias also said who would do that. And Alex Baina too, but none of them as of now is a Barca player. So yeah, a shame for the tattoo artist in Catalonia. Have any of them actually got ink? Cucurella has it. Cucurella has done it.

5:50Yeah, he has it on his triceps, I think. yeah he has a picture of the face of de la fuente just yeah ironic for such a hirsute man as cucurella to have a tattoo of a baldy right show of solidarity across the hair divide yeah i mean interesting angle on that uh james paul what does mrs cucurella think about this uh i don't think that she's had much of an opinion about that although mrs cucurella cannot complain in the sort of spectrum of the part of the body that he occupies in Cucurella's body because Cucurella has a tattoo in his whole left arm of the eyes, just like the eyes of his missus. So she's basically there in his whole arm, which is quite an uncommon tattoo.

6:40Is it the same arm on which Luis de la Fuente is? I don't think so I don't think so I think the tattoo of his woman is on his left arm I don't know what's the use of this arm but like De La Fuente is on the other arm between the arms what have you got to say to Luis then should they win past the evenings I'm not going to judge I'm not going to judge moment of the week perhaps from you Tom I'm going to go to the velodrome in Marseille Friday night Marseille's 4-0 opening win over Strasbourg Been a very sleepy summer at Marseille Contrary to what usually happens In that part of the world Missed out on Champions League qualification last season Head coach Habib Bey has gone Sporting director Mehdi Benassia has gone President Pablo Longoria has gone And the emphasis now Rather than fighting fire with fire which has been the approach over the last few years is actually trying to kind of take the temperature down new president stefan richard former chief executive i think of orange mobile phone company new sporting director gregory gregory lorenzi who was the architect of breast success in recent seasons a new head coach in bruno genezio formerly of of lille um and they haven't signed any players which is also quite unusual for marseille and one of the possible consequences of this new age of austerity is that some of the young players are going to be given a go and historically marseille really struggled to bring through homegrown talent in the last 15 20 years the only ones who've kind of made it are basically sammy nazri bubacar camera and now baston villa so perhaps that's about to change anyway one of the kids who was sent on against Strasbourg is a 20-year-old attacker called Kellyanne Abdallah.

8:39He scored the third goal and it was a lovely moment. All the subs run off the bench to celebrate with him and perhaps a symbol of the new direction of travel in that part of France. Good Lord. All right, James, what about you? What's been your moment of the week so far?

8:53James Horncastle: Well, I didn't think I would see a better goal than Hakan Chalanoğlu's strike that opened the scoring in Inter's 4-1 win over Monza. But then I saw Che Adams score an unreal goal. A sort of cross comes into the box. It's way behind him. Sort of he turns his back to goal and then just sort of turns it in, in one elegant movement on the volley. And it sort of made Milan quite nervous for him. It was a great strike, Jim. What a game it was that you went along to on Sunday night there in Cherink. And Che Adams, one of the kind of early adopters of Serie A, but now no less than 22 British players in the Italian top flight.

9:40Some surprising names in there. We'll have a look through the list perhaps a little bit later on. But, Paul, what's been your moment de la Samara? Yeah, ooh. I was tempted to go mainstream here and go to Julien Alvarez, but I'm sure we're going to deal with that later on. And I'm going to go a bit more niche to Robbie Dure, the Scotland striker that has signed for Sevilla. The biggest signing that Sevilla has done this summer, nine million, I think they paid. And a quote that his manager, Luis Garcia Blasas, said after the match, we said, basically, Robbie, he needs to adapt to the weather. The whole past week he was training and he was playing games saying, mate, that's crazy.

10:22That's crazy. And yeah, he just needs to get adjusted to the weather. Although he's been playing quite well, he's made quite an impact. And Sevilla has been one of the surprises at the start of the season. They've won two games out of two played, basically. And Robbie Ure, this guy that nobody knew and that is struggling with the heat. Let's see how he keeps going with that. But I think that he has a decent future ahead of him because the games I've seen him playing, he's been really good. Excellent. Excellent. All right, hey, let's begin our roundup this week with the news from La Liga. La Liga poll where, as you know, Barcelona are the champions, Malaga, Racing Santander and, hey, Deportivo La Coruña have rejoined the top flight.

11:10Lovely to see them back. And where Jose Mourinho has also returned after 13 years to helm Real Madrid. And he's got off to a winning start with a 2-1 victory over Espanyol. He's been sleeping at the training ground, saying nice things to people. Classic early season Jose, really. How has his return gone down so far, Paul? I think quite well. Quite well because of how happy he looks to be back at Madrid and to embrace this new job. And how funny he's been speaking to the media. I think that people around Real Madrid have been missing this sort of personality in front of the cameras and in front of the press conferences and everything.

11:54And Mourinho is a character. And so far, it's been all fun and games. Mourinho giving some quotes and some other good words. Things can get a bit messier if the results don't go his way. But for now, everything is fun. And I would say that everyone is quite happy to have Mourinho back. Although, I sense it's a different manager than the one we saw back in 2010. A calmer, wiser, happier man. A changed man, as he always is when he arrives at a new club. Yeah. A week one win. Well, it was actually week two, but Real Madrid didn't play in week one. But an opening win for him, thanks to Carlos Espy.

12:35So Real Madrid have really backed Mourinho, or at least made substantial investments in their attempt to wrest the title back from Barcelona. Denzel Don frees him from Inter. Ibrahim Konati from Liverpool. Paul Cucurea coming in from Chelsea, Bernardo Silva on a free, Jan Diamande, which was a very expensive move, and Carlos Espy from Levante, who was the bargain of the bunch, but proved to be the decisive player this weekend. Yes, he did, basically. And I was going to mention one of the biggest headlines that has been done after that game was made by Diario As. Let's see if you can guess it. Carlos Espí, yeah?

13:15His name was just two heads. Espíñol? Espíder-man. No, like Espíder-man. Espíder-man. It was right there for the ride there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

13:28James Horncastle: It was right, yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought it was going to be like Espíra or, you know, because one of the first press conferences Mourinho gave, he was like, we're going to find out how good your contacts are now. given what a big part of the Mourinho documentary is the Diego Torres book, you know, Who is the Mole Leaking It? Clearly, maybe SB. I don't know if Spanish, the word for spy is like spia. No, it's like el topo. Casillas was known as el topo. The mole? Just a mole. A mole. No, no, it's like a mouse. Yeah. El ratón. you get that that like the idea of an insider leaking information being a mole right i guess you'd have that in english as well wouldn't you oh yeah there's a mole in the camp getting confused with the italian there yeah italian paul this massive investment is small possibly enzo for that is well we would wait to hear for news of that but vinnie's sticking around with a fat new deal.

14:34Is it enough, do you think, to make them competitive with Barcelona? The thing is that for me, they have not resolved in a way the balance issues that they had. I think, and that's just my opinion, but that the Vinicius transfer situation was a blessing for them just to sell him for good money and restructure the team around it because they possibly had too many stars. And Florentino clearly, and what you could see last season, is that he was keener on Kylian Mbappe. And I think that too many stars didn't help them in the past. But yeah, they decided to keep going with Benito Jr., which of course is a brilliant player.

15:13But let's see if they can still balance the team. One of the big things, in my opinion, in this huge esprit that they've done investing is that they've broken a bit the rules that they had in their transfer strategy. They signed a lot of veteran players. they said Dumfries, Bernardo Silva players that Real Madrid didn't want to sign typically and offer like big deals so they have these long term contracts now because two years trophy-less it's an eternity at Real Madrid they cannot cope with that basically it would happen the same with Barcelona so let's see if Mourinho can find this balance I still think that the team I struggle to see them ready to compete for the Champions League but in La Liga in the end of the day in my opinion it's just two teams and a half competing for the major honour.

16:00So if you're there and you don't sleep too much, maybe you will have chance. Jude Beningham, also on the score sheet, he opened the scoring, in fact, on the weekend against Espanyol, playing in the number 10 role, which Jose says is going to be his position. Sorry, Tom, did you want to interject? A question for Paul about the new Real Madrid home kit. The red Adidas strike looked to me like a complete abomination. I thought I was watching Bayern Munich away. Oh, it's awful. Is there an explanation for it? No, no. The explanation is that it's just awful. I've only seen one thing worse, which is the Newcastle kit, which I think that the blue on the Adidas stripe is awful as well.

16:39But no, there's just no explanation for that. I'm sorry. No worries, no worries. Answer on you, Paul. They didn't get Rodri, though. He went to Barcelona because of a wedding, Paul, because of a wedding. Kind of, yeah. Kind of. We did this piece at the Athletic. I've got a lot of comments like on Twitter or like people reply me saying like the red wedding just making this parallel with Game of Thrones I think it was so yeah basically the signing was not done in a wedding but it was in a wedding a wedding from a guy who works at Barca now who is a player's care guy at Barca which is Danny Kudina he was formerly at City and he knew Rodri in there and a lot of City players and executives and background staff who were at the wedding as well and it was in this wedding where people started to realize that Rodri, a guy from the city of Madrid, which is the captain of Spain and which seemed the perfect fit for Real Madrid, he actually preferred to join Barcelona because he started telling people in there.

17:39And later on, we found out that, taking into account that this wedding happened in Catalonia, in the coastline, in the Costa Brava. I don't know if you've had the chance to go there, but if you have, please do. So basically, Deco paid a trip to the Costa Brava to be in there, have a nice lunch, discuss the things that they had to discuss. And a few days later, the transfer saga and signing to go to Barcelona started progressing. Why does he prefer Barcelona to Madrid? Is it the seaside? Might be. I don't have this intel so far. But no, what I know is that it's basically going down to sporting reasons, the fit that he sees himself into a team.

18:22He knows the dressing room. He knows what to expect. The way that Barcelona play is more similar to what he has done and to his strengths. And then deep down, and that's me being, I don't know if a bit cynical, but I think that Rodri is aware that Florentino Perez didn't really want him. So Real Madrid didn't want Rodri up until after the World Cup. After he won the World Cup as the MVP, he played really well. And Real Madrid were keen on bringing a Spain talent into the team. So basically, they started going for him. But Rodri was an electoral promise for the other candidate, Enrique Riquelme.

19:00And that's something that Florentino Perez doesn't tend to forget. I was just wondering as well, on the subject of things that don't get forgotten, how about, is there any bad feeling between Real Madrid and Rodri after they snubbed the Ballon d 'Or ceremony? So incensed were they that he won the Footballer of the Year award? That's a very valid question. I don't fully know the answer. What Val Madrid are saying right now is that they have no problem with Rodri, that they spoke with him, that they made a good offer, that they believe that they offered anything that Rodri could desire from them, and that they're happy with the decision and that they move on from that.

19:39But yeah, we asked about that, but they took a bit of trouble or responsibility to the Ballon d 'Or ceremony.

19:47James Horncastle: There's also absolutely no problem between Rodri and Bernardo Silva.

19:55James Horncastle: Are you being sarcastic? No, the best of teammates, the tiff that they had when Portugal met Spain. These things happen on the pitch. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. Good. Excellent. So Barcelona then, somehow making loads of new signings as well, because reasons. What they haven't done yet, a lot of people have been pointing out, is get themselves someone to replace either Fran Torres, who's left, or Robert Lewandowski, who's also done one. That doesn't seem to matter this weekend as they pumped five past their opponents. Exactly, exactly. Rafinha played as a false nine. Adeyemi played on one flank and Laminjama on the other flank.

20:42and yeah, nobody wondered about where the striker was although Barca say that they are still chasing one this one is Julien Alvarez, basically the name that they've made the top target since the very start of the transfer window in that they are still looking at him and waiting for a sort of miracle up until the deadline day something like this because Atletico, actually, and we're going to speak about them I guess later on but they have a problem in their hands with Julien Alvarez here but yeah, what we got from Barcelona is that they are open to sign a new striker They have the salary limit margin to register a big signing still.

21:16But they don't see a lot of candidates suited to have this top-quality talent that they need, because Paras are a top-quality team. So Julio Albrecht is one of them, but they don't see feasible options. They sort of wondered about Lautaro Martinez. They knocked into Inter's door, and Inter told them, yeah, you can go back home. And they went back home. And that's basically what happened. and they don't see a lot of other candidates. So my guess, and that's a bit of my guess, but it's either Julian, which is not going to happen, or Barca stay like this. Well, they have options to play as the full snide because among the players they've signed, Anthony Gordon, who's done that before, and had a bit of a star debut, didn't he?

21:59He was really good. Really, really good. I mean, we have to state that the moment he entered the game, the contact was really good for him because bars were already two goals up, if I'm not wrong. And Elche was trying to score, basically. So the game was wide open. There were plenty of spaces. And six minutes into his debut, he had already delivered two assists, basically, which is sort of amazing. Really good return. The first one, pretty significant, because it was basically him running on a free run to the goal. He could have shot and scored, but he decided to set up Hermin to let him score, which has been really well received in the dressing room as in a nice gesture to get into speed, the adaptation inside the dressing room.

22:44So yeah, everyone in there speaks really well about Gordon, about how nice he's been and how he tries to speak Spanish. So it's a nice first day for Anthony Gordon. All right, so why is Julian Alvarez not going to be joining Barcelona and why is he such a problem for Atletico Madrid? So basically, I don't know if you saw the game that Atletico played on Sunday against Villarreal at home. They draw 2-2. But the main story was Julian Alvarez. He went into the matchday squad for the first time this season. And he was heavily booed even before the game started when his name was on the big screen of the stadium.

23:21And yeah, just the fans booed him. Because basically Julian has openly admitted that he wants to leave Atletico de Madrid. And he only wants to go to Barcelona. Thing is that Atletico, they don't want to sell to Barcelona. And they would be open maybe to sell to another club like Arsenal. But the thing is that Julian only wants to live to one club, which is Barcelona. And now they have a 100 plus million player, which doesn't want to play for them, which is unhappy and has publicly expressed that he wants to live. Going to the stadium, being booed and whistled and shouted anything by his own fans.

23:58When he got into the pitch, he got a massive booing as well. And when he was on the pitch, he did nothing. Atletico ended up drawing 2-2. Simeone complained about the lack of strikers that he had in the squad, that they need to sign new strikers. The best one that they have, he doesn't want to play for them. And the only club where he could potentially be sold, Atletico doesn't want to sell. So let's see what they do. it's a bit more than 10 days left I think Boatletico has una patata caliente like we say here in is that what you call it? yeah yeah yeah it would make sense but about in France

24:44patate choude does anyone say patate choude? unless I've just invented it isn't it a pomme de thot and actually patate is a word that you would use to describe like a really spectacular long-range strike. Oh, quelle patate! What a potato. What a potato. And a really poor playing surface would be a champ de patate, a potato field. You can't play football. On ne peut pas jouer au foot ici, c 'est un champ de patate. We'll be speaking about one champ de patate a little bit later on. But of course, first we need to check with James Horncastle on how you say hot patate in Italy.

25:21James Horncastle: what the equivalent idiom or

25:29James Horncastle: patata bolente bolente but you have to be very careful about saying patata in Rome no Roman slang for patata is coming up next let's get on to Syria

25:51This ad is sponsored by ZocDoc. Hi, it's Danny Pellegrino from Everything Iconic. Have you been putting off that annual doctor's appointment because you don't want to make the call? Or maybe you've been meaning to find a new dentist, but you have no idea where to start. I find that's especially true when you move. It's hard to find your people. I've been there, which is why I use ZocDoc. Now, as a busy podcaster parent and someone who's always juggling a million things, I love anything that makes life easier. and ZocDoc lets you search and compare local in-network doctors with over 250 ,000 providers across more than 200 specialties.

26:25You can read reviews from real patients, find a provider who feels like the right fit, see actual appointment openings, and book instantly. I recently had a last-minute health issue pop up and needed to see someone fast. Instead of calling around or sitting on hold, I found a doctor on ZocDoc and booked an appointment in just a few minutes. It made the whole process so much less stressful. Now, taking care of your health just got easier. Download the ZocDoc app today. That's ZocDoc, Z-O-C-D-O-C, and book that appointment on your to-do list. Hi, this is Becca Moore for the Girls Podcast. All right, a quick shout out to our presenting sponsor, Apple Cash.

27:01Summer is here, which means the group chats are already spiraling with festival and summer plans. And we all know the worst part of being the one who fronts the money for the passes or housing. That's why this year, we're only using Apple Cash. It's a super easy way to settle up because you can do it right in messages. Just tap the plus sign to get started. And the best part is you can spend the money you get right away anywhere Apple Pay is accepted. Every payment is secure and protected by Face ID, Touch ID, or Passcode, and your transactions are never shared on a public feed. Set up your Apple Cash today in the Wallet app.

27:28Apple Cash services are provided by Green.Bank, member FDIC. Terms apply. In a world where AI is changing every role in every industry, knowing who actually has deep expertise matters more than ever. Upwork connects you with the highly skilled freelance professionals with proven track records, so you can hire with confidence. Upwork gives your business fast access to highly skilled specialists with deep expertise, so you can fill critical skill gaps, launch projects faster, and scale support up or down without committing to full-time headcount. With Business Plus, you can access the top 1 % of talent on Upwork.

28:04AI-powered shortlisting delivers a curated shortlist of top freelancers matched to your goals in under six hours. No endless searching required. Thousands of growing businesses already trust Upwork to hire highly skilled freelance professionals for everything from one-off projects to ongoing support. It's free to sign up, and posting a job is easy. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That is Upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's U-P-W-O-R-K dot com. Upwork dot com.

29:00Winks, for example, at Cagliari. Keenan Davis, we knew about him. At Udinese. Well, I mean, I'm not going to read through all of them. Lloyd Kelly at Juve, been there for a while. But Curtis Jones, John Stones and Jed Spence all now at Inter. And you saw one of them in action on Saturday night as Inter got off to a terrific start to their campaign.

29:22James Horncastle: Yeah, John Stones came on when the game was already won. He was trying to get more match fitness. He did score on his debut, if you count an unofficial debut, like a friendly against Robettis. The others, I mean, Curtis Jones had just arrived. Jed Spence was in the stands looking very cool, I must say. He's already become like a bit of a style icon in the fashion capital of the world. Sorry, Paris. Sorry, New York. But yeah, they've been called the Three Lions. and I suppose that general trend you mentioned James yeah the numbers of Brits now playing in Serie A there are a couple of reasons for it one there's an exemption for British players and I think players from another country maybe Switzerland countries that are not in the EU because usually you only have so many non-EU slots that you can use.

30:29James Horncastle: But after Brexit, there was, I think, some lobbying to like, can we still consider England, Scotland, Wales, et cetera, to be EU? And it was like, yeah, okay. And then I think there's always the belief that if you invest in a British player one day in the near future, they're English Mammoth's boys. They just want to go home. So you can then sell them for more money. I mean, that's probably not going to be the case with John Stones, who's 32, but maybe with Spence, Curtis Jones, and everybody else. and they've actually I mean to undermine my joke there about you know sort of English English players not settling well in in Serie A well they have shown as have Scots that they do settle well these days that they do enjoy life in Italy they do make it their second home and so why not and I think certainly from Inter's perspective they are signed with not only a transition in mind, but also an admission that they perhaps need some more physicality, intensity if they are to go back to a third Champions League final in, what, four years.

31:59English players and particularly Scottish players enjoying themselves down in Serie A. So Inter got off to an excellent start. What was it? 4-1 against Monza, managed by the former Southampton boss Ivan Juric. southampton across town their neighbors milan have made the intriguing appointment of ruben amirim as their boss and so far james it seems to be the old amirim the sporting amirim not the

32:31James Horncastle: man united iteration yeah i think milan made the calculation that you know ruben amirim is only two years removed from being the hottest thing or one of the hottest things in coaching in Europe and unlike with United it's a squad that is well adapted to him you know he's not coming into a club that is unfamiliar with a back three Milan played a back three last year with Max Allegri and the other thing is the owner Jerry Cardinal is much more hands-on than he has been at any time in his ownership Ruben Amirim is very much his appointment and you know along with the recruitment team that Cardinal has promoted within Milan they are in lockstep with the coach which Towards the end of Amarim's time at Man United, that Leeds press conference where he said, I want to be a manager, not a coach.

33:38James Horncastle: It was taken to mean that he felt that his influence when it came to signing players was not what it could and should be, and that the club wasn't going to recruit for him or his system. Yeah, that's very different at Milan. They've gone and spent initially£50 million for a guy who can play as a winger, a 10 or a wingback in Diego Moreira. They've signed Gonzalo Ramos for a club record transfer fee from Paris Saint-Germain as well. And they're not done in the transfer market yet. so I think there are all the conditions in place for Amrum to be more of a success at Milan than he was. Excellent.

34:25Do you think the investment has been enough to see them as realistic rivals for Inter? So I think Inter have so much depth and even when it comes to replacing veteran centre-backs

34:42James Horncastle: like Achebe and De Vrij. I think people at the club are quite excited by John Stones. I know he's 32 and seems to be like the kind of classic City A signing, someone in his twilight. But I think if he can recover his fitness and play regularly, he is quite a unique centre-back in his ability to step into midfield, be a bit of a hybrid player. a lot of people in football have been in contact to say they think Curtis Jones is a great signing for him to both great value and sort of underrated player as well Spence has experience in Italy having been on loan at Genoa and he had a good World Cup so yeah they've got like two very good strikers behind Lautaro and Marcus Churam one of which Pio Esposito scored a great backheel goal alla Betiga at the weekend and is seen as the kind of next big thing in Italian football the midfield that has got to a couple of Champions League finals of Barella, Chalinole and Mikitaian now is backed up by Petr Suchic who had a good World Cup Curtis Jones and you could say Andy Duuff even though Duuff is playing as a fullback and assisted a couple of goals at the weekend has been reinvented and um yeah the defense is is pretty stacked as well so i think there's an acknowledgement on everyone's part that inter start quite far ahead um but equally i think a lot of people have forgotten that milan were in the title race in march with the handbrake on um and i think there's there's a feeling that if they can play more expansively score more goals this season, then they can definitely be in the title race.

36:40James Horncastle: And, you know, I mean, a lot of people were remarking yesterday about their bench. There was Rabiot on the bench. There was Pulisic on the bench. Leal wasn't in the squad. I know they're looking to kind of sell Leal, but they had a lot of, you know, very good players on the bench that I think encourages you to think that this squad is a lot better than some of the skeptics would have you believe. What about Napoli then, where Amarim's predecessor, Max Allegri, having been binned by Milan, has gone to take over from Antonio Conte? They got their campaign underway with a two-minute win at Genoa.

37:17Kevin De Bruyne are looking lively. Are they in the running? Are they, James?

37:24James Horncastle: I mean, they finished runners-up last year. It's a squad that won the title a couple of years ago. they've done little or no business so far in the transfer window apart from sort of bringing Badia Schiele for more depth at centre back but some of the players that Antonio Conte didn't like last year are back like Lorenzo Luca for example or Noah Lang so yeah they've got lots of options they were very unlucky with injuries last year particularly in the first half of the season you know didn't have uh de Bruyne for uh the period between October and what April um Lukaku was uh AWOL and you know has been sold to to Fenerbahce um I think the curious thing with with Napoli at the weekend was they played 4-3-3 not not three at the back um and you know that's I think something that people at Milan were critical of Allegri for it's like Can you maybe evolve and play 4-3-3 again like you did in your early days at Juventus?

38:31James Horncastle: So he's quite funnily doing that with Napoli. But the big story out of this was it was the first controversy of the Serie A season in that when Kevin De Bruyne scored the opening goal after a lovely bit of play around the general penalty area. He seemed to shove Johan Vazquez in the back. and Genoa incandescent and wanted a foul. And I knew that we were so back in City Air when I was having a pizza in a restaurant near San Siro after Inter Monza. And I saw that the first interviewee after the Genoa-Napoli game was Genoa's sporting director who was coming down to demand more respect for Genoa on match day one.

39:20James Horncastle: I was just like, oh my God, here we go again. So, yeah. So, I mean, Napoli have the talents. I think a lot of people are down on Allegri at this moment. They don't believe that he is someone capable of sustaining a title challenge anymore. But, you know, I wouldn't write them off in their centenary year. Okay. Let's have some respect for Allegri and Napoli as well. What pizza did you have, James? I had a pizza with salami and onion from Tropea. Oh yeah? There was a lot of onion. Yeah, it was maybe a little bit too much. But a great place in the Buonarroti neighborhood of Milan, which is quite a historic place to go after games.

40:17James Horncastle: So there are photos of Manuel Ricosta, Paolo Rossi, the original and best, Ronaldo. And yeah, it's always fun to go. Also because it's late, it's open until after midnight. So, you know, there are places in Spain. I always think it's great when you can find a place that is open until very late because we often finish work very late and other places are closed. unless you're in spain where you know you know poll poll keeps everything open for you i mean you only have to ask uh nando's rastro sign of a seasoned pizza retail you know says only having two toppings on your pizza i respect that level of restraint i imagine that there were were there more tomatoes and things like that i mean but like the the yeah your your basic your base elements, but to just have two kind of feature toppings.

41:17I mean, one of them is that much onion, maybe. Tom, were you to emerge from the Parc des Princes late at night, where would you be heading for some late night nosh? I don't know, actually. Is there a French? There's a poke bowl restaurant near the Parc des Princes. I'm not sure how late it opens. I eat there all the time. I know. Jesus, Tom. It is terrible. But it does great. What can I say? Okay. To round up one or two other moves that you may have missed in Syria. Mauricio Sarri left Lazio for Atalanta. He's their third manager in a year. Got a win this weekend, 2-1 against Sassuolo. The man who replaces him, Ad Lazio, is the former Italy boss, Gennaro Gattuso.

42:05They're going to be playing Lazio at Bologna today, Monday, as we record. The man who takes over Italy from Gattuso is... Oh, look, it's Mancini. Mancini's come back.

42:23Yeah. So, best of luck to him. Legend.

42:27James Horncastle: There was a funny interview today. The president of Serie A, Ezio Simonelli, he was asked about this kind of, not urban myth, But there's been a lot of gossiping about the clubs in the league who are conjoined with the Italian Football Federation. It's not like, for example, in England where the Premier League broke away, the original breakaway league in 1992. So there are people from Serie A who are elected to be on the Italian Football Federation board every year. and there was this story going around that the clubs wanted Antonio Conte to be the Italy coach and Simonelli today said yeah that's right but you know Mancini has our full support which is kind of like oh I mean why do you even have to say that I mean fair play why would the clubs have a preference as to who would be the Italy manager you well look i mean mancini hasn't really been a popular choice um not necessarily because it's kind of reheated soup as which conte would be as well um which conte would be as well exactly so the point of difference here is that when conte resigned um it wasn't shortly after kind of signing a new deal and that sort of thing um and conte went to chelsea as well which people were like, okay, Chelsea, Premier League, you're still a young manager.

44:04James Horncastle: Mancini ditched Italy for Saudi Arabia and kind of tried to make everyone believe that, no, it's because the Italian Football Federation are meddling with my staff. And this was seen as sort of cheating on the most beautiful woman in Italy, which Mancini addressed this directly in his press conference when he came back he was like i'm just so glad for a second chance you know he put he framed it in those terms it's like you know i've made a terrible mistake i'm sorry please take me back i'm i'm so pleased you've taken me back there you go yeah no problems with that uh very good one other thing to mention very quickly on syria fabio grosso and fiorentina who have been messing around on the wrong end of the table for too long.

45:00James, in a word, or possibly five or six. A noise. In a noise. With some of the signings they made, like Massantoorno, could they be a force this year, Fiorentina, again?

45:13James Horncastle: Well, it's Fiorentina's centenary as well. So you've got three clubs celebrating being 100 years old, the Mediterranean diet and all that. and they all want to do really well. And Fiorentina have really gone for it. Napoli can't because they'd spent quite a lot of money under Conte and they'd been tied up in the Italian equivalent of financial fair play. But Fiorentina have just taken the Camiso family credit card and swiped, swiped, swiped. I think they are going to try and sell some players between now and the end of the window. It looks like Moisey Ken might be going to Como, for example. but they have made some really exciting signings Jimbo as you say I mean to get Franco Mastantuono from Real Madrid on loan with no option or obligation to buy you know it's quite exciting I was when I went to Buenos Aires a year ago I went to River Boca and he scored this unbelievable free kick which I think is one of the reasons why Madrid like paid 50 million for him so So he's already become the idol of the fans because he, no sooner did he touch down than he went to the beach on the Tuscan coast and he was kicking a ball about with kids.

46:34James Horncastle: And things like that just go down really well. And then he was spotted cycling through Florence. And again, just like, uno di noi. And yeah, Florentine's lover number 10. They hope he's like, you know, Baggio Antonioni, Rui Costa. From Fiorentino to the Florentines. Paul? Yeah, no, I just wanted to mention, because James mentioned that games, that River Boca, that Mastantuno scored this goal. There's been a lot of memes in social media from the Real Madrid fan base. Because, of course, Mastantuno failed in his first season at Real Madrid to impress in the way that fans expected. A lot of memes saying it only took him one windy day in Buenos Aires to stand for Real Madrid.

47:22I mean, it's been one windy day. Yeah, because, like, apparently, like, the free kick was held by the wind.

47:27James Horncastle: It's probably the best goal I've ever seen live. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it wasn't windy, I can tell you that. Oh, good. Have that. That's James, tell the meme creators. Wow, all right. Excellent. Thank you so much, James. We'll get a quick roundup on one or two other things that will be happening around Europe and, of course, League 1 next.

47:53Want to sneak peek every outcome? Digital twin it and take the lead in a world of what ifs to navigate the complexities of change with ease. Transform the everyday with Siemens. This ad is sponsored by ZocDoc. Hi, it's Danny Pellegrino from Everything Iconic. Have you been putting off that annual doctor's appointment because you don't want to make the call? Or maybe you've been meaning to find a new dentist, but you have no idea where to start. I find that's especially true when you move. It's hard to find your people. I've been there, which is why I use ZocDoc. Now, as a busy podcaster parent and someone who's always juggling a million things, I love anything that makes life easier.

48:33And ZocDoc lets you search and compare local in-network doctors with over 250 ,000 providers across more than 200 specialties. You can read reviews from real patients, find a provider who feels like the right fit, see actual appointment openings, and book instantly. I recently had a last-minute health issue pop up and I needed to see someone fast. Instead of calling around or sitting on hold, I found a doctor on ZocDoc and booked an appointment in just a few minutes. It made the whole process so much less stressful. Now, taking care of your health just got easier. Download the ZocDoc app today.

49:07That's ZocDoc, Z-O-C-D-O-C, and book that appointment on your to-do list. In a world where AI is changing every role in every industry, knowing who actually has deep expertise matters more than ever. Upwork connects you with the highly skilled freelance professionals with proven track records, so you can hire with confidence. Upwork gives your business fast access to highly skilled specialists with deep expertise, so you can fill critical skill gaps, launch projects faster, and scale support up or down without committing to full-time headcount. With Business Plus, you can access the top 1 % of talent on Upwork.

49:42AI-powered shortlisting delivers a curated shortlist of top freelancers matched to your goals in under six hours. No endless searching required. Thousands of growing businesses already trust Upwork to hire highly skilled freelance professionals for everything from one-off projects to ongoing support. It's free to sign up and posting a job is easy. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That is Upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's U-P-W-O-R-K dot com, Upwork dot com. Hi, this is Kim and Penn Holderness from the Laugh Lines podcast. This episode is sponsored by Oli, your wellness partner for back to school and beyond.

50:21Back to school season is here. Packed backpacks, packed lunches, and packed schedules are officially back. Oli Kids Sleep helps little dreamers wind down with a gentle blend of melatonin, L-theanine, and botanicals for restful sleep. Translation, an easy way to put those school night negotiations to bed. And for the grownups, Ollie's Sleep helps you fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up feeling refreshed. Because as you know, the morning mayhem comes early. Visit Ollie.com and stock up on back-to-school must-haves today. That's O-L-L-Y dot com. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

50:58This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

51:07Bundesliga is not back for another week in the meantime this weekend we had Bayern Munich beating Borussia Dortmund for a change on this occasion it was in the German Super Cup 2-1 a golden assist from Michael Alisse Jamal Musiala yeah we've been following that story poor Jamal has collapsed on a couple of occasions the talk is of a neurological dysfunction Bayern say that he changed his medication and this has prompted these fainting spells. But we wish him the best. He's not going to be seeing any action for the foreseeable future. Meantime, in Turkey, woof, Mo Salah's debuted and already grabbed his first brace for Trabzonspor in their 2-1 win over Istanbul, Basak Shahir.

51:58Nick Miller wrote a lovely piece about this. There were camels at the game. Of course. Also That's an exciting side Traps on sport Because they've got Sidney Lopez Cabral In there Oh yes World Cup legend Sidney Lopez Cabral That takes me That's a name I've not heard for a while Yeah Sidney and Mo Are not the only ones Heading to the Super League Who are very much looking Like the new Saudi As it stands Leandro Trossard And Duzan Vlajevic Have both gone to Besiktas Romelu Lukaku And Nathan Aki Have joined Fenerbashi Also got N 'Golo Kante There Mason Greenwood, probably loads of other players as well.

52:36Maybe Martinelli heading that way as well. But anyway, interesting times in the Super League. We'll get a rattle up on events there soon enough. Right now, though, let's just check in on league home of the European champions, Paris Saint-Germain. Let's see. They are the French champions as well. They've been joined in the top light by Troyes and Le Mans. this season, who replaced Metz and Nantes. PSG, though, the team to be slightly shaky start to this season, I'm going to say, Tom, because they lost in the Coupe de Trophy des Champions to Lens. They did, to 10-man Lens. 10-man Lens. Even. Wow.

53:20In the European Super Cup, they only beat Aston Villa 2-1. Which looks a lot less impressive now that we've seen what Brighton did to Aston Villa. And this weekend, they only drew 2-2 with Ren. Yeah. Yeah, I think the general feeling around PSG was that they were in better shape going into this season than they had been going into last season. In that last season, they got to the final of the Club World Cup. They had three weeks off and then they had to play the Super Cup against Tottenham, which they won on penalties. And then they were straight into their league season. lots of injuries in the first half of the campaign lots of muscular injuries in particular and it wasn't really until late February March that they started to go through the gears again right and look like the team that had won the Champions League the season before this time around yes a lot of their players were at the World Cup a lot of their players were there until quite late at the World Cup but six there you go just to quantify it um but you know the rest of them have had a decent summer break um you know done a bit of decent transfer business the previous summer there's been very little movement either coming in or going out a bit more turnover this time around uh gonzalo ramos has gone to milan lee kang in has left as well we're expecting bradley to join liverpool i think at some point as long as you know liverpool can get the money together ferran torres has come in along with mika gutz belgian winger from ajax magnus atliush super talented um winger from monaco um and so i think people are expecting psg to look a little bit better than they have done i think both the game against lans and against against ren were the kind of games that we have become accustomed to seeing from psg when they're still feeding their way into the season luis enrique picked a fairly experimental lineup against lans he's persisting with lucas Boraldo, the former centre-back, as the number six.

55:24He played Acriouche, who always played off the right wing for Monaco, as a false nine. They created a lot of chances. Ousmane Dembele was fairly imprecise in front of goal, fell behind after about half an hour to a Florian Tovan goal. And despite Lens having a man sent off, they just couldn't break them down. And a slightly different game against against Rennes last night in the you know Luis Enrique said this himself after the game he thought PSG had played really well against Lens and had kind of been you know a bit unfortunate I think he accepted that PSG were very firmly second best in the first half against Rennes on Sunday night they had lots of the ball didn't really do anything with it and and Rennes just hit them on the counter-attack twice really effectively second goal in particular it was beautiful charlie cresswell english center back who was joined ren on a season-long loan with an option to buy from to lose plays a quick free kick over the top musa altamari runs onto the ball back heels it into the into the path of um of simanski the sorry uh frankowski the the wing back he cuts the ball back and esteban lepool with like a trademark uh finish at the near post and that put them 2-0 up and in the end it was Ferran Torres coming off the bench at half-time who got them out of trouble and Fabian Ruiz as well who I think set up both of Ferran Torres' Yeah, so two changes at half-time Dembele and Farah Schellier hooked Torres and Mika Gutz both came on and then after about 50 minutes Fabian Ruiz came on as well Ruiz sets up the first with a lovely ball over the top and Torres runs in behind brings it down sticks it between Briz Somba's legs and then with about seven or eight minutes to go Ruiz picks the ball up on the left puts in the cross and brilliant goal.

57:11Torres gets across his marker at the near post, glances ahead or inside the far post and, you know, really kind of got them out of a sticky spot. So yeah, an entertaining opening game played against the backdrop of this disagreement over, you know, the staging of the game. It was supposed to be at Parc des Princes, but there is a fungal infection. A fungal infection. A champignon, a mushroom infection. Right. Not actual mushrooms. I mean, it would be incredible if it was because you could then sell them to the fans. Perhaps. So they had to switch the game to Rennes. This has been put down to global warming and extreme weather.

57:53Yeah. There's been a heat wave in Paris this summer. The pitch is in terrible condition. We've not had enough time to sort it out. Can we please play the game at Rennes? But there's also a fungal infection as well. So the argument is that the infection was caused by the heat wave. Right. That like the effect of the heat was that this infection has spread or whatever. Not an agronomist, but that is my understanding of things. It's like The Last of Us. Yes. Yeah. So the game is hosted by Wren. Yeah. Who had to, you know, kind of like quickly scrubble to, you know, host a game. But then their stance was, well, this, you know, we might have switched.

58:32pitched the venue for this game. But the game that we were supposed to play against PSG, which is going to take place in March, that's also going to be played here as well. Yeah, 100%. Because PSG are out of order. It's their duty to get a pitch ready. They were incapable of doing that. So we're not going to necessarily agree to play the return game at the Parc des Praises. We think we should play it here at Roison Park. And so there's a little bit of debate behind the scenes. There's going to be, I think, a meeting of the LFP, the French league authorities within the next few days to take a decision on that.

59:04But so a little bit of a needle. But there was a handshake pre-game, Luis Campos, PSG sporting advisor, Nicolas de Tavernos from Rennes pre-game, you know, publicly shook hands as if to say, look, there's no bad blood here. But yeah, kind of curious little, you know, early season beef, mushroom beef. Yeah. Unusual. That is unusual. Let's see, who's going to be challenging Paris Saint-Germain this time around? You mentioned whilst having a quiet time of it. Less so at other places. Monaco look interesting. They had an opening day win against Laave with Eric Dier, the only goal scorer there. But they're now managed by the former Chelsea left-back Felipe Luiz, who we saw Flamengo, taking Flamengo to the later stages of the Club World Cup a summer or two ago.

59:53His predecessor, Sebastian Pocagnoli, has gone to Scotland. We'll hear your thoughts on that perhaps in a second, but how did Monaco look? Yeah, I mean, Monaco had a very difficult season last season in that they sacked Adi Hutta, head coach, quite early on. Pocanoli came in, had this dreadful run of results, seven defeats in eight. And this was a season when they decided that the very talented young players who they'd been building the team around needed a bit of help for some wise old heads. brought in Eric Dier brought in Paul Pogba Lukas Radecki very experienced Finnish goalkeeper from Bayer Leverkusen Ansu Fati not experienced but you know knows what it's like to play at the highest level that didn't really work out because Pogba was injured all the time Dier was injured quite a lot Radecki was injured quite a lot as well Fati played well but inevitably was injured quite a lot too so yeah they're kind of back to the drawing board a little bit this summer following Balogun is still there as we record but I think the expectation is that he will probably leave um they've brought in Matisse Ablin very talented uh attacking player from Nantes there's probably going to be a few more outgoings I think between now and the end of the season um and yeah I mean you know decent win away at Le Havre funnily enough they beat the same opposition uh on the opening day last season and Eric Dier also scored oh yeah so he's clearly you know got a thing for the you know I don't know Maybe they'll have blue halved kit or something.

1:01:28But in terms of who's going to challenge PSG, I think it's probably safe to say nobody. Nobody? What about Lille? Yeah, so Lille also under new management, Davide Ancelotti, surname that may ring a few bells. Only his second head coach role after a short-lived spell at Botafogo in Brazil. They qualified for the Champions League last season under Bruno Genesio and won their opening game away at Angers, Olivier Giroud. Another familiar name. Olivier Giroud. On the score sheet there. How old is he now? 40 next month. 40. 40 next month. Yeah, still going. I think this is basically going to be the last season.

1:02:17And he shouldn't really be starting games up front for Lille. it should be matias fernandez pardo who kind of broke into the starting 11 in the second half of last season but he is in a huff because he wants to leave and has been told he says that he's been told he can leave the club say well no we didn't actually ever say that he's not playing hamza igerman who came in last year uh to provide you know an alternative to giroux is injured did his acl is going to be out for another couple of months and so they are left with no choice but to depend on on Olivier Giroud but yeah the other usual contenders Marseille haven't signed any players Lyon don't have a huge amount of money to play with either they had a fantastic result at the weekend Paulo Fonseca made 11 changes to the starting 11 right because they played in the Champions League played Fenerbahce right you know the superstars of Fenerbahce and got a very decent 1-1 draw away from home right rotated the starting 11 completely and they won away at Toulouse and have now got the return leg this week.

1:03:22And just an enormously consequential game for Lyon because they get in the Champions League, they can bring in some more players and obviously financially for a club who've been in big financial difficulty of late, who were almost punitively relegated to Ligue 2 12 months ago, that would be very helpful. Lens, it's hard to see them repeating what they did last season. Pierre Sage has obviously left. New head coach in Dino Tottmüller, They got a 5-2 win at home to Ouzer. A couple of penalties by Florian Tovar. I mean, I think they'll still be a very fun team to watch. Going to play a similar style of football.

1:03:56But, yeah, it's hard to see anyone running PSG as close as Lons managed to last season. Okay. And listen, one other game we should mention, which was Saturday evening's match between Le Mans and Brest. Brest, whose former manager, Eric Roa, died of cancer over the summer. Yeah, horrendous. I mean, horrendous news. I mean, it wasn't public knowledge, but it was known within the game that he was fighting cancer. There was a period earlier in the season where he appeared on the touchline looking quite unwell. And yeah, very sadly passed away in, I think it was in July. And the guy who transformed Brest into a Champions League club, got them into the top three, gave them the greatest nights in the club's history.

1:04:47And so, yes, some very moving tributes to him prior to that game, prior to the Nice-Lorion game as well. And yes, quite a poignant note to be starting the new season on. Indeed so. All right. Well, that's what we'll wrap it up for this edition of the Tony Football Show European one. We return in a week's time. We'll have a little bit of Champions League news. I guess the draw not least for the league phase isn't that what they call it? I believe so yeah and all the weekend's action and some midweek games too huh anyway for now many many thanks to James Horncastle there in Milan Paul Belus in Catalonia Tom Williams here in London producer Xavi bit of producer Lucy you wherever you are it's been lovely having you with us we'll speak to you soon by now it's goodbye

1:05:46The Totally Football Show podcast is available three times a week, bringing you all the football news you could reasonably be expected to care about. We've got views, we've got stats, we've got analysis, we've got some of the best football writers around, and the whole thing is absolutely free. So have a listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or all the usual places by clicking on the link below. Want to sneak peek every outcome? Digital twin it. And take the lead in a world of what-ifs to navigate the complexities of change with ease. Transform the everyday with Siemens. Think of a toilet as just an everyday object.

1:06:27Your entire perspective shifts the moment you experience a Kohler smart toilet. Design changes everything, transforming a basic routine into something extraordinary. With standout aesthetics and intuitive controls, these are functional works of art, stunning design that never sacrifices performance. Enjoy customizable features for elevated comfort and convenience. It's more than a fixture. It's a cleaner routine and a more refined space. Experience the difference of Kohler smart toilets. Find more at Kohler.com. Hello, I'm Monica Reinagle, host of the Nutrition Diva podcast. Summer is here and with it, the hot and sticky weather.

1:07:07A morning working in the garden or maybe on the golf course can leave you more depleted than you realize. And plain water isn't always the most efficient way to restore the balance. That's where Liquid IV comes in. Its science-backed formula is clinically proven to hydrate faster than water alone. Whether you're exercising, playing outside, or simply surviving a summer heat wave, it's an easy way to stay hydrated. Shop now at liquidiv.com. Liquid IV, hydration that goes wherever life takes you. You know that feeling when too many things fall through the cracks? Monday.com was built for that gap.

1:07:41The AI work platform where people and agents work side by side to deliver more together. Create your first Monday agent today at monday.com.