England aim for another final, Rashford to Barca + Liverpool’s spending spree

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2:09The Athletic FC Podcast Network.

2:19Totally Football Show today. Euro 25, burgers on a roll and French toast as France and Germany have a banger. We look back on that and ahead to the semifinals. Transfer news, Isaac Notoon and good etiquette. What's it all mean? Plus, Villa to Villa. What's the Rashford Barcelona dash for? And when David Platt had Barry Chuckles, all that and more in this Totally Football Show.

3:17Unbelieverable, unbelievable. In the middle of England. That's so nice, isn't it? Is it? I don't know. But it's nice, yeah. Yeah. Best of Coventry and the best of Leicester. Wrapped up in one little hamlet. And Charlie Eccleshire, who joins us from the world of tennis. Yes, and more specifically, E17 today. Boom. What a band. What a band. Take a moment, everyone. Megan Varinga is going to be joining us very shortly from Switzerland, talking about the Euros. a lot to talk about from there this monday morning the news in in england's been very much dominated by what's been happening with jess carter who says that who's basically revealed the amount of abuse of racial abuse she's been receiving through this tournament on social media and a lot of people talking about the steps that are going to be taken or that they want taken to react to that charlie you were mentioning this is a problem in tennis as well yeah it's a huge issue in tennis um largely with disgruntled gamblers um tennis is massive for uh betting and obviously it being an individual sport there's a pretty clear target for gamblers ire and i mean it's been going on for ages i did a big piece on this like eight years ago or something and then recently katie bolter the british number one talked about it in an interview the bbc and that kind of got it uh back on the agenda but yeah it's absolutely constant i think some of the gambling companies have sort of as a belated step said they will disable accounts of people that have found out to be abusing the athletes uh but yeah i mean it's been yeah best part of a decade this has been a really big issue and i'm you know i'm sure across all sports and it's um it means people just stop of using social media and it's and you know it's often easy to say well you know just do that get off social media but especially if you're a kind of low level or mid-level athlete you really need it to get sponsorships and attention and that sort of thing so yeah it's a massive issue and just horrendous what carter described yeah and them removing themselves for a forum where where anyone's been racially abused is not really the solution i think we're we're looking for there's a lot of talk about finding the accounts responsible reporting them to the police and that kind of thing in the past with i don't know bukai osaka after euro 2020 has there actually been effective prosecutions yes there's been a number of prosecutions and a number of uh criminal rulings uh there was one notably for an individual who racially abused ian wright that went to court and they were found guilty for racially abusing him as well um this is a real tricky situation in that you've got tech companies who very often claim that this is a wider problem in society.

6:03You've got individuals, I mean, Keir Starmer has just, has come out in support of Ms Carter and saying there's no place for that sort of racist abuse. Whereas I think many people can have legitimate grievances for seem to inadvertently take parts of an Enoch Powell speech not too long ago as well. And then there's football clubs who at this point in time are just dramatically unable to understand the many, many difficult and myriad ways racist abuse can manifest. So it is very hard to explain to a certain type of football fan that you, okay, you might have justifiable reason to say Jess Carter looked particularly slow when defending an opportunity against Sweden.

6:50But if you went, Jess Carter looks slow, I'm going to compare her to a certain animal, that might be beyond the pale. And I think there is very often this idea that education is some sort of silver bullet that can cure racism, whereas racism is not this big, discreet thing you can punch. It affects people like Collar in the water. So all my power to Jess Carter, all my power to all the lionesses and all athletes that have been affected by this. I mean, we're also talking in an environment where, as Charlie has just said, It's not the introduction of gambling has made things worse. So we are seeing now multiple news stories from American athletes who have spoken about how their abuse is getting worse, not even in games where they've played badly, but in games where they've played good, but not necessarily got the extra point or the assist that someone was hanging an accumulator on as well.

7:44So unfortunately, it feels like things are getting worse. I hope things get better a lot quicker. Is that something that's affecting athletes from all kinds of culture? heritage heritages yeah yeah well in terms of american sport and well since the united states has relaxed regulation around gambling there's been multiple news stories of athletes going i'm waking up and checking my my dms or checking my mentions and people have put a parlay on me to score 20 points are furious that in the final minute i only scored 18 the difficult thing like charlie has said if you are not a top level premier league athlete you do you do need to be on social media a little bit more because you are looking for sponsorship opportunities, advertisement opportunities.

8:27If you are not a top-level professional Premier League athlete, you're also a lot more likely to see those things because you don't necessarily have an assistant or a PR team where you can delegate that to. And I think this has been a long gestating problem in women's football in particular. I think we've said two or three times on this podcast, Mary Earps, the football player, is accessible in a way that her male counterpart is just not accessible. And there have been multiple WSL players, Lionesses, who have spoken about how they will finish a WSL game, spend the better part of two hours signing autographs, go home.

9:07And then that one person they couldn't sign an autograph will send them all sorts of abuse. And you're going, well, hang on, this person spent two hours signing autographs. you don't get that in the Premier League and two please understand these are people they're not livestock or just euphoria machines there is also an issue especially with somewhere like X and some of the tennis players have spoken about this I'm sure it's true for footballers too the way the algorithm works now it's not like oh I can just unfollow hateful people or whatever or even if you turn off your mentions or whatever you still find a way it still appears on your feed because obviously it's very relevant to you even you know even though it's horrific to you but they're talking about you and these things appear and yeah i mean it's it's kind of everyone getting it and and like really pretty horrific threats and we've also seen in tennis and other sports these online threats kind of then playing out in the real world and that's when it becomes particularly scary well it must be absolutely horrible to go through that kind of thing so as you say all power to jess carter and everyone else who's been suffering with that through the Euro 2025 campaign.

10:19Let's get into the action of that tournament. Saturday saw an absolute banger in Basel. For all of us who just finished reeling at England, Sweden, Germany went and pulled off a comeback win, including penalties that outdid perhaps even England's performance a few nights before. The Athletic's Megan Ferringer was there, and she joins us after this. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. Berger, do something. Berger, do something!

10:55It's unbelievable, but Olafsson said, wait, wait. Now you will! The check is over! There you go, one of those, we all speak more German than we think we do moments, as Germany, who'd started the game against one of the favourites, France, by going down to 10 players and then going a goal down, then lost their reserve right back, leaving their fourth-choice player facing Delphine Cascarino, still managed to equalise against France, managed to hold out to extra time, thanks in part to an absolute world ever save from their keeper, Berger, and then beat France on penalties with Berger saving two and scoring another.

11:34What a night at the St. Jakob Park, and the Athletics' Megan Ferringer was there and is now here. Megan, quite the tournament you're having there in Switzerland. Yeah, it's been phenomenal. The game last night was just, or two nights ago, is unreal. I think that was sort of my highlight of the tournament so far. I mean, so many of the games have been wonderful, but that game, 20 minutes in, I started writing sort of a dirge to Germany, and then naturally, it was totally incorrect, and I had to rewrite everything. It was a heroic performance from Germany, with the exception of Catherine Hendrick, with quite the stupidest red card that we've seen in a long time.

12:08when it happened in the stadium though no one saw it because i think everyone on tv could see it but no one in the stadium knew so all of a sudden when var got sort of involved you could hear the german fans start booing everyone was sort of wondering what the heck happened then when we saw the replays it was like how in the world have none of us seen this girl just completely pull her hair almost clean off and i had someone next to me sort of say well what's the big deal it's just a hair pull if you have your hair pulled it hurts like that is that feels like a part of your body Ironically, in the NFL, it's not considered like you can pull someone and tackle someone via their hair.

12:41But which is very fascinating. But yeah, in soccer and football, you cannot do that. So seriously, in the NFL, you could tackle someone by grabbing their hair. Yeah, there's a really interesting long read on the New York Times about it, actually, on The Athletic. And yeah, you can tackle someone via their hair because it's considered part of your uniform and your clothing, not part of your body. But I think Mbock would probably argue that it was part of her body because you could see her head to like very much lean in the direction of the way that her hair was being pulled. What did you make of France in this game, Megan?

13:15Germany's performed her own. But France, were they unlucky with a couple of goals ruled out for offside and that incredible save from Anne-Kathrin Berger? I don't think they'd be unlucky. I think it was just a really poor performance, to be honest. I mean, even the save from Berger, it really wasn't, it wasn't really a France shot. It was sort of ricocheted off one of the defenders and sort of was looping over. And I think France were just really poor. I mean, 20 minutes in, you're up an extra player and they just didn't look like they could find a way through Germany. And I think that was especially true because in the midfield, you didn't really have this playmaker who was able to sort of cut between the lines and really pry Germany open.

13:55You just had these wingers who were trying to take players on and Germany did so well to nullify them. So, you know, if I'm France, I'm disappointed in that performance. I really thought they should have been better. And to me, I thought Germany's chances were more threatening than France's were. What do you think about their chances then when they take on Spain? the massive favourites for this tournament in their semi-final? I don't want to not support Germany in this because obviously they proved everyone sort of wrong in the last match, but they're going to be without two key players. Nuskin especially, I thought she was fantastic in midfield and she's now out because of two yellow card defences.

14:33Their third choice right back, Linder, she sort of limped off 20 minutes in, came back on. Well, it turns out she's going to miss the semi-final too through injury. So now I think you're down to your fourth choice right back. I just think it's a little bit too much to ask, especially against Spain. I mean, I watched Spain, three of their games in person, and they're phenomenal live. I think this is probably the best Spanish team I've seen. In 2023, they were really good at the World Cup, but I didn't think that they were the best team in the tournament. But this tournament, hands down, they are the best team there.

15:02Germany did beat Spain last summer 1-0 in the bronze medal match at the Paris Olympics. There's also a fair chance they'll have 11 players for the whole of this game as well, which would be a significant advantage. Also, Spain didn't light things up quite the way we thought they might in their quarterfinal against Switzerland. No, they didn't. I thought Switzerland were wonderful in that match. I was in Bern for it. I got to do the sort of Swiss fan walk beforehand. And it was fantastic. You had all these Swiss fans going to the game. But there was also sort of this air of inevitability around everyone.

15:35It sort of felt like people were kind of marching towards an end that they knew was in sight. And yet for the first 45 minutes, I thought Switzerland were wonderful. Pia Sundic had done everything correct. The team executed her game plan. And Spain found it really, really hard to break them down. But then that's why you have a player like Bonmati. So the difference between France and Spain was that France didn't have a player like Bonmati. And then you get a player like Bonmati who can play one pass, break up the entire defense. and then suddenly you've got a player in so much space and it's impossible not to score.

16:06So I still think when Spain aren't playing well, they have that player to make sure that they can still win. And I don't know if there's another team in this tournament, barring maybe Lauren James, who can do that. Could be another big evening for Anne Katrin Berger there in the Germany goal. Can we focus a little bit on what kind of evening she had against France? You mentioned the Germany-Spain game last summer. And actually, Anne Katrin Berger, she saved a penalty in that game as well. So this is sort of like, this is her thing. She does this. And so it was, it was so good. I mean, back in 2023, people who know like Chelsea and follow Chelsea, she used to play for them.

16:43She actually got Chelsea to the semifinals of the Champions League because she saved two penalties and a penalty shootout in a quarterfinal. Last summer at the Olympics, Germany beat Canada in the quarterfinals via penalty shootout. She saved two, scored one. And so naturally she did it again here, but she was phenomenal. I think France had nine shots on target and she made nine saves i mean if that's not just like a complete performance i don't know what is she she's just so funny and in her post-match press conference because she got named player of the match so she had to go and do um some media afterwards and you can tell she just didn't want to be there like she she just sort of was sat there and people were like oh so what do you think of the game and she goes i'm not very emotional you know i made a few saves but my team are the best and anything else anything you want to add and she goes i'm living my best life from where in the semifinals, just so stoic and so stone faced.

17:32And then she just got up and was like, good luck with your nights, everyone, and just left. And she's easily like, she's such a good character. But to have that mentality to not only make those saves, but then step up and take the penalty herself. I mean, we asked Hannah Hampton after the England game, if she would do something like that. And she said no, because she needs to focus on making saves. And Berger, just she just focuses on, I don't know, everything. Her brain is, I don't even know how to describe but she's phenomenal. Before any of that, there had been the save on that deflected shot, which I think quite a few people were quite concerned she might have ruled herself out of any further participation with the way that she landed.

18:09Adrian, how unique was what she pulled off in Basel? It was a phenomenal save. I mean, just the way that she had to backpedal so quickly and then stretch out and find the right timing to pour the ball away was truly exceptional. It was one of the greatest saves I've seen. at a major tournament, men's or women's. I thought it was absolutely phenomenal. And when you look at the stills, the still images of it, you know, the ball in motion and her body and the way that she has to stretch for it, it makes it look even better. So, yeah, it was, yeah, truly exceptional. And I kind of think that might be the moment of the tournament so far in a way.

18:55Yeah, it was great to watch. memories of your mate Dave Seaman Adrian that Sheffield United one yeah exactly exactly that yeah no look every now and again you you get a save that sort of defies belief and and I think that that was one of those so yeah all power to her and obviously the journey that she's been on you know twice you know surviving thyroid cancer she's obviously got incredible mental strength and fortitude and look she she will feel indestructible and maybe germany will as well after such a resilient team performance so yeah look that it's just what's it taken out of them mentally and physically i would imagine that the next day they were absolutely in bits um so can they recover in time that's the big question it is a big question that's coming up wednesday is it their game against spain uh also defying belief in switzerland is the various teams record from the spot a theory is flying around megan as to why that should be it sort of belies belief honestly i have no idea why i will i kind of have a theory a few of the managers even sweden's manager said that they didn't practice penalties before their match which i don't quite understand how you can't i think once you get to the knockouts it's sort of honestly before you get to a major tournament you should probably just go maybe we should practice these things these things tend to happen um i just don't think people are doing it equally though with the england-sweden game when a player would step up you could see on their face whether or not they were going to convert this penalty it was either if they looked nervous it was like yeah this isn't going to happen so i i started playing a game with my friends on my phone on like right when a player would step up and the camera would zoom in on them we'd either put like a thumbs down or a thumbs up and most of us were getting them right just based on their expressions, which was, that was kind of fun.

20:47I'm sure someone will come up with a drinking game for it. But yeah, I think most of it comes down to just lack of preparation, really. The fact that Sweden and I think a few of the other players even said it, France, I'm not sure if Charlotte Harper wrote it in her piece, it looked like the France players weren't even told what order they were going to go and take their penalties. I think that's just a complete lack of preparation. And honestly, it's kind of unforgivable when you're at the stage of a tournament. Lack of preparation often leads to default. And what you're seeing, at least from the England-Sweden shootout, was a lot of the right-footed players were trying to put their penalties to the left.

21:22So they're shooting across the goal, which if you are a goalkeeper or had a little bit of goalkeeping training, you know right-footed player is going to try and put it that way. Which is why I think more than one person was screaming during the England-Sweden go, just put it down the middle, just put it down the middle. I think Lucy Bruns brought that up in her post-match press conference there about the I think she said I'm good at maths so yeah I wouldn't be surprised if the next couple of penalty shootouts or the next couple of penalties are going to see two or three more people just trying to shoot and pierce it down the middle She showed how to do it yeah it's absolutely levity Aim for the goalkeeper's face One of the tells as well as how nervous players are one that's more reliable Ben Littleton the kind of penalty expert something he says is look how play off there's a correlation often between how long players take before striking the ball that is often that's good that often leaves them scoring what you don't want to do is rush um because you're nervous and once you notice that that there is definitely something in that the second french penalty i'm not sure how it would fit in in the shootout yeah well that that's just a kind of uh complete anomaly i mean that was I mean, I loved it.

22:34I was sort of fascinated and was like, just so curious. Because if that works, you're like, wow, will loads of people do this? The fact that it didn't maybe nips that in the bud. Charlie, what did she do just for anyone who didn't see it? She takes this really, she stands really to the side of the ball. She's left footed. So she's very much to the right of it. And kind of, yeah, sort of has to make this run in towards, rather than running forward towards the ball. She's sort of running to the side. It's a winding sneak like run. She's kind of arcing her run and hitting it. And yeah, it doesn't end well for her.

23:09Megan, while we're on this subject, can I just ask you, have you got around to writing a long read piece on Chloe Kelly's run up? Because surely it's worthy of one. Her routine is quite something, isn't it? I mean, where has she got this from? I don't know where she's gotten it from. I'm sure it's in our list of long reads that we need to do. the other long read we have to do is about our shin pads because everyone zoomed in on the shin pads and was like oh there's a picture of you and your and your husband and your dog that's so fun and maybe that's the secret behind a penalty is is that but yeah stay tuned I'm sure there'll be a long read Megan you've got Spain going through against Germany who do you have in the other semi-final I think you have to go with England on this I love that they've made it to a semi-final the first one since 1997.

24:00They're a really, really great team when you think about the unity they've had to beat Norway. I mean, Norway were not great at all. So I think Italy maybe had quite an easy quarterfinal to get through in terms of like all the other ones that they could have possibly gotten. But I think on paper, England are obviously better. I think if England don't win, it'd be quite disappointing for them. But Italy are really kind of a weird one because they're sort of led by quite an older generation, six of their starting 11 against Norway were all over 30. They all debuted between 2012 and 2014. And then the other five all debuted between 2020 and 2024.

24:36So you've got like just basically two generations that have finally been sort of meshed together and they're coming out on top for a lot of these games. But yeah, I think they're very much the underdogs going into this semifinal. Adrian, you got a strong view on the line as chances? Yeah, I mean, I do feel that this is a match that they should win, they should control. The issue England have got is that Italy can just watch replays of the France game, of the Sweden game, and try to mimic the tactics, you know, the high press really looking to unsettle England on the ball, forcing them to kick the ball along because, you know, for some reason they sort of lacked a little bit of confidence to play through the press in both those games.

25:18And that, I don't think, really suits England. so Italy have something that they can try to achieve without the ball it's just, yeah, I think England have the superior individuals and after that very fortuitous quarterfinal win I think the Lionesses will surely think they've got out of jail and this is their chance to sort of nail it I think under Wigermann, whenever they seem to have a bad performance they always follow it up with a really good one and I think they'll be good against Italy. They'll make the final. And then, you know, you never know. Power of the England bench, so telling against Sweden, may prove to be a deciding factor in this as well.

26:01Megan, you're heading off to the Germany-Spain game on Wednesday. Do hope you have a great time there and a lively one as well. Many, many thanks for joining us this morning. It was really good, thank you.

26:16Megan Faringa, if England do progress to the final, they will be having a repeat either of the 2022 Euros final against Germany or the 2023 World Cup final against Spain. Interesting that. Also interesting that as France exit, they were, of course, the team whose manager began the campaign by quoting Einstein's remarks about the madness of doing the same thing over and over again. and they have now exited at the quarter-finals stage for the seventh time in their last eight tournaments. So what does it all mean? I don't know. Adrian? Just while we're on the subject of England, just wonder what Wiegmann will do in terms of team selection because Chloe Kelly was so amazing off the bench.

26:58Do you stick with her as the difference maker, as the person that comes off the bench to really get the team going? Because I didn't think that Lauren Hemp had a bad game on the left. I thought she was one of England's better performers. So personally, I would be tempted to maybe keep her in reserve again. It's just probably Ella Toon is the player most under threat, I'd say, with Beth Mead potentially coming in and sliding Lauren James in field. That's something I might do. And I think England have to make a change at the back. I know we talked about what Jess Carter's been through, which is awful, absolutely awful.

27:36but in terms of her performances and the way that other teams have looked to target you know sort of her lack of speed I guess they probably do need to change it and I thought that Esme Morgan would look really good at centre half when she came on so yeah I think there has to be a change at the back this time around because England's defending has not been good in those two games that they failed to win in normal time I think this is the strength of the Lionesses is that they've probably got the deepest squad at the Euros. I think the upper level, the ceiling, the strongest team is Spain. The team that manages to find the way to beat Spain is probably going to be the team that wins.

28:15Well, the team that finds a way to beat Spain is likely to be the team that wins the competition. England at their best can maybe edge a game, but this is probably why the England camp keep talking about proper England because when they're not totally on it, they can make blunders. I totally agree with you, Adrian, about changes there. and I think it's quite telling that Wiegmann refers to the substitutes bench as finishers, such as the modern parlance, like with Southgate and Eddie Jones. Very rugby thing, isn't it, Karl? Yeah, you're not a substitute, you're a finisher. So it's a pain in mind if you're coming off the bench.

28:49Every player that's ever played the game does not want to be a finisher. You can change the name, the title. Well, you want to be a starter and a finisher, I do. Yeah, do you know what I mean? It's not going to soften the blow. Sorry, Serena, but yeah, I get it. That's the thing you'd say to a kid. Yeah, you're not a sub, you're a finisher. You're a finisher. I think because they've got that depth, there is some merit in two or three players having a sort of, your remit is to play precisely 20 minutes because you offer something different compared to the person who's starting. I've been intrigued by Riegemann's lack of use of my Letizia.

29:22Put my Man Uteshi United hat on. I think that might be to do with the way games are being refereed and the use of VAR at this tournament. because Letizia is an old-school centre-back in the best possible way. So perhaps that's Vigman deciding not to risk potential yellow cards and more. Michel Adjomang, another of the weapons that's been so effective off the bench, but probably likely to start from there, or indeed finish from there, come Tuesday night when England take on Italy. Wow, we'll be back Thursday, of course, to review both semifinals and ponder what's in store in the final. Next up today, we'll get on to a bit of On This Day and some of that lovely transfer talk.

30:24around the world. The NFL is building a global game, and Accenture is helping make that vision a reality by striking the right balance between what makes the NFL beloved in America and tapping into the passions and preferences that make each market unique. Accenture, the official business and technology consulting partner of the NFL. Learn more at Accenture.com slash NFL. So I see, I heard we have ourselves a great movie. audiences are going loony for coyote versus acme couldn't agree more and critics are calling it a wildly entertaining movie i'm here for the in any pantsless modeling gig ingenious exactly chaotic comedy fun exactly a family-friendly blockbuster yeah of course and pure movie magic pretty flattering think things like this make us look pretty good in the public eye coyote versus acme in theaters august 28 tickets on sale now rated pg hey it's page from giggly squad summer gave your home a workout.

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32:21very best football writers around.

32:30It's the 21st of July, which is exciting because on this day in 1991, David Platt signed for Bari, all the way down on the heel of the Italian boot. David, who lit up England's campaign at Italia 90, the World Cup, and then had a brilliant season at Villa subsequent to that, moving to the Cillian Minos had just come up and went indeed straight back down again in a surprising move, I think, for many people. Adrian, you remember this probably. You played with David later on, didn't you? I did, yeah. I got to know him a little bit at Arsenal. And he was practically Italian from the time he came back.

33:11He absolutely loved it. He loved it. Really good guy, really good with younger players david platt i remember sitting on the sitting on a bus sitting on a coach trip to a game once with him and he had a he had a brochure of luxury yachts that he was you know browsing and and this was in between him taking calls to mancini and vialli where he's talking in italian he absolutely loved it he kind of liked to show off i think that he was a brilliant italian speaker and that he was mates with with those two absolute legends and i said oh we've got a few quid of you you know looking at the these luxury yachts and then i'll never forget it because he then went on to lament quite sad terms i've played in the wrong era clarky you're so lucky um you know you know your generation is going to make so much more cash than i have and i'm like yeah this is the world's smallest violin it came out suddenly he was famous in italy for at that time being the player who generated more transfer fees than anyone because this move move across.

34:15This business of him going to Bari, at the time it was very much felt that he was parked there. I mean, officially he was bought by Bari but I think everyone felt, no, he was bought by Juventus but parked in Bari because there was strict controls on the number of foreigners coming in. Interestingly, another of his illustrious teammates alongside yourself, Mancini and Viali Adrian was Von Amir Boban because Milan did much the same thing with Boban at Bari that season. I don't think he played at all. And they got relegated. They got relegated. But I think Zvani was injured through that season and then came into kind of full force the following campaign when Milan just steamrolled everybody.

34:54So he was down there, as I say, way down south, Platt, for one season. It was a good season, scored 11 goals. Then he moved to Juventus for a season. But because of the three foreigners, you were only allowed three non-Italians on field, well, at least in your starting 11. and they already had Andreas Muller and Julius Caesar, the big Brazilian centre-back, and also Jürgen Kola. So Platt's appearances under Trapporteni were pretty limited. Then he made the move to Sampdoria, where he became best buds with Roberto Mancini and all that. Viali, of course, had been his teammate, as had Roberto Baggio, crikey, when he had that one season at Juventus.

35:36Jimbo, can I ask you about the skits that you did with him that many listeners will have watched? yeah and i mean he must have been a pretty good sport to have done that yeah absolutely as many did though to be fair the skit in question involved the um a slightly lower budget remake of the terminator opening sequence where where arnold schwarzenegger visits a kind of small californian town in search of the child who will go on to become the thorn in the side of the you of the robots. And all our hopes are very much riding on that, Chad, right now. But anyway, yes, David donned a leather jacket, put some product in his hair, and stuck a cigar in his mouth.

36:20Yo, Jimmy. David Platt, is that you? Yeah, I'm sorry I'm late. I've got the law on my tail. You ready to do the programme? Yeah, do you not think that maybe this is going to damage your Mr Nice Guy image, though? Damn, yeah, right. I better go in and get cleaned up. but I'll be back. Also, we had a shot where he drove his Mercedes over a doll's head, which was a kind of shot-for-shot homage to Cameron, which unfortunately never made the edit because they felt, no, that's... Channel 4 wouldn't allow him. But, yeah, we were very much playing against David's straighter-than-straight Mr. Clean image.

36:56And, yeah, he did go along with it. I think also, I mean, other things we did involving kitchen implements as sex toys with Gaza and Paul Lince in a chicken suit. I think they were quite bored and quite happy to have something to do, but that's not to in any way underplay how amenable they were. Anyway, there you go. That was all on this day. Not all of that, clearly, but David Platt making the move to Bari was on this day in 1991, another era, probably before you were born, eh, listener? hmm now people who might be making similar moves this summer include marcus rashford to a little team called barcelona we have with us marcus's co-author of his recent best-selling book car that's you um is it good to see one of the infamous five finally breaking free Yes, even if you are not a fan of Marcus Rashford, I think it is in Manchester United's best interests that Marcus Rashford is gone.

38:03The news, as reported by David Onsene, indicate that Barcelona are committed to paying 100 % of his wages across this season-long loan deal. I am raising my eyebrow about how they're going to afford this. I'm sure there's going to be some sort of question about levers and registration, because obviously one of the reasons why it's Marcus Rashford at Barcelona now is because Nico Williams, his registration appeared to have failed. So Barcelona's wage bill is very high. Marcus Rashford at Manchester United was one of the highest paid players in the Premier League, which meant he was one of the highest paid players in the world.

38:40So I'm sure there's going to need to be some financial wrangling there. This might create further questions of Ter Stegen's future at the club. but there's good tactical merit in having Marcus Rashid on that Barcelona team. He's a very dynamic left-sided forward. He loves to run in behind the fences. When you look at Barcelona's current attacking options, the majority of their attackers want to receive the ball to feet other than Rafinha, I suppose. The fact that Rashid, he did that interview with some Spanish streamers where he said he'd like to play with Laminya Mal but he also mentioned he's finding playing as a centre-forward a little bit more second nature to him.

39:19which we did see in patches at Aston Villa as well. So all power to him. Marcus Rashford playing well is good. Marcus Rashford off the Manchester United wage bill is good for Manchester United and the Manchester United fan base, so they can get more players in after that. I think this is a deal that works for pretty much all parties. I mean, you look at Barcelona, you mentioned Rafinha, who would be on the left and you've got Jamal on the right. and then in the middle you've got this fellow Lewandowski, who is, having said that, of a certain age. So I guess there'll be room for everyone in the course of the tournament.

39:54But the wages, this is the one club who you thought have no leeway at all to play with in terms of their wage bill, because of the fact that it's the wage bill that keeps tripping them up in terms of registering signings. I am mystified by this, but best of luck to everybody. As for the other now infamous four, Garnaccio, Sancho, Anthony and Malassia, what's the story there? Unfortunately, little movement, a lot of transfer tattle. So Jadon Sancho appears to be of interest to Juventus. It seems like Juventus are trying to negotiate a cut price deal there. I'm not entirely sure about Juventus' finances, but they don't necessarily seem flush with money.

40:40I believe Timothy Ware is just going to Marseille as well. So that might free up some cash. But Jadon Sancho, again, similar thing. He's on wages that are north of£200 ,000 a week, which I think is far beyond what Juventus would like to afford. So they're probably trying to offer a lower transfer fee there. Anthony seems very, his heart seems to be set on moving to Real Betis. Real Betis' financial situation is, I want to say, fluid. Not really, because they don't have too much money there as well. Garnaccio, I think Garnaccio is one that could run and run and run because he's of interest to Premier League clubs, not just clubs on the continent.

41:23And I think that one is one that I wouldn't be surprised if Garnaccio is still a Manchester United player when the season starts. But he might be eventually sold in that little bit after match day one. And then Malassia, who, I mean, as far as I'm concerned, I think it's counterintuitive for Malassia to be part of this Ossia size five. In that, OK, he's not in Ruben Amarin's plans, but you probably shouldn't tell the world that your left back who's had two serious knee injuries isn't very good for trying to sell him. He's one I think you could probably hide a little bit more, a little easier than the other four.

41:59So he feels a little bit more counterintuitive. I think he was interested in Celtic. But again, his wages, while nowhere near in the same stratosphere as Matt Rashford or Sancho, I think his wage bill, his weekly wage, makes him prohibitively expensive for the sort of teams that could do with his talent. It's an important point that you raise, Carl. To what extent is this infamous five, this group of ostracised players, is that a media invention? And to what extent is it Man United essentially deciding to just publicly cold shoulder are some pretty valuable parts of their kind of squad assets i mean we used to call it the bomb squad i know french football french football calls it the loft uh i think one one i mean to use another rugby term we used to call it bin juice back when i was playing rugby uh several years ago agent what did they do they call it bomb squad rings it rings about i was i was a member of it at various interval let me tell you yeah but what the problem is like whatever you call it you are creating a massive issue for yourself as the selling club but you know any any buying club knowing that you really are desperate to get rid of these players really weakens your hand and you've seen this with loads of this is not a manchester united only problem all of the biggest premier league clubs are frequently described as terrible sellers and they generally are because you know once you've made it very clear that players set up just to requirements that really as the buying club you're like well I don't really I clearly don't need to push the boat out you're desperate to get rid of them and you have a problem if these players are still with you come the start of the season they have to take a financial hit here they have to you know a little bit like when you sack a manager you continue paying them you know and until they get the next job you know you have to subsidize it they're going to have to come to a settlement with these players they're going to have to Arteta did it quite well, didn't he?

43:49Obviously, famously with Aubameyang, one of the others. And the staffy. Yeah, exactly. Sometimes you've just got, you can't have senior players, big characters in the bomb squad. You just can't because, not for too long, because they will be toxic and they will basically create an environment that's damaging to the group of players that the manager has to work with. They have to take a financial hit here, Manchester United. So these individuals have been told that they are free to train away from the club. And if they do want to use Carrington's facilities, that they are best advised to do it after five o 'clock.

44:25So they're not interacting with the main group. I believe Marcus Rashford was the, as far as I know, Rashford was the only one cited at Carrington to still use the facilities because he very much wanted to go to Barcelona. So he very much wanted to keep his body gym fit, match up. however as it were I do think that we are seeing a rise in bomb squads in Premier League clubs because Premier League clubs have the biggest wages and there are so many more there are so many more players now who are earning more than£100 ,000 a week and if you are not a Premier League club a football player earning more than£100 ,000 a week is that should be your best football player and I think that makes it really really hard to trade someone away and this is why you're seeing bomb squads up and down.

45:10I mean, there was at least three years where it looked like Bernardo Silva wanted to leave Manchester City and go to Barcelona, but his wages and his situation, Pep Guardiola, made that very, very difficult. We can talk about Jesse Lingard's experience at Manchester United, where he was on, I think he's on wages north of£100 ,000 a week, and that made it very, very hard for him to leave on a permanent deal. So he had that toing and throwing with West Ham. There was some interest from Newcastle and eventually goes to Nottingham Forest. Yeah, I'm not a football agent, but if I was one, I think I'd probably start advising my younger players to be reluctant to take wages more than£150 ,000 a week.

45:46Because if this doesn't work out or if you end up falling out with a manager, it's really hard to extricate you from that if you're on£200 ,000 a week. Though they still have the security of that money. This is it, yeah. This is why I'm not a football agent, so there you go. And also, you can't just flog these players now to mid-lower Premier League clubs because all of those clubs are so rich. They can be like, do I want a cast-off from Man United? No, I'll just go and drop 40 million on a really good, exciting player from another league. Because those clubs can sort of financially bully clubs from other countries as well.

46:22And I think this issue is only going to get worse because we're having more and more games. So clubs need bigger squads. They're going to stockpile even more. And then they're just going to be stuck with even more players that then, when they want to evolve, and we know clubs need and want to constantly evolve, what do they then do with those sort of landfill-like players? Which is incredibly harsh, but that's sort of what they've become for these teams. They're just desperate to get rid of them. I've got a couple of questions from listeners. Hello, Aklak. Aklak says, Carl, now that Mbwemo is seemingly joining Cunha, which positions do United need to strengthen in priority order?

47:00And the other question from Ian Phillips says, with Mbwemo joining a club the size of Man United, does that mean everyone will finally need to agree on how to pronounce his surname? Carl, what have you got for us? Right, okay. On a very serious note, the confusion and the multiple pronunciations of Brian from Brentford's name comes down to how he would like his name to be pronounced versus how his name is pronounced in his native homeland. so the people of Cameroon would pronounce his name as Brian Mboumo as we have heard on Match of the Day and other pronunciations however in the Premier League literature that I sent out at the start of every season where multiple players say please call my name this he has said he would prefer it if you call him Brian Mboumo because according to some research I've heard talking to people at PLP he views himself and his family history as closer to the French speaking or the French pronunciation of the word.

48:00So it's not that we don't know how to pronounce his name. This is a little bit closer to a Bruno Fernandes and a Bruno Fernandes situation in that the pronunciation he would prefer might not actually be the pronunciation as Cameroons or people in his homeland would prefer it. So I've been calling Brian Mbuemo for most of last season. I've now seen this video of him saying he preferred to say in Bumo. For the most part, when I'm on Talk of Devils, I just say Big Brian. Okay, Bumo. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, great. In terms of hierarchy, I would... Again, I'm not a football agent. I'm not a sporting director.

48:37But if I was out shopping, I'd try and buy a central midfielder and then a striker and then a wingback. I think Manchester United, now they've got Rashford's wage bill off. I mean, Rashford is earning north of 15 million a year. That gives them a little bit more wiggle room to go shopping. and I think they are probably going to start with looking at a striker and then they'll see if they can get a central midfielder. They have just spent over£130 million on two forward players, essentially, in Kunya and Mbumo, who interestingly, producer Charlie points out, those two players, Kunya and Mbumo, were the two players who outperformed their XG the most in the Premier League last season.

49:17How concerned, Adrian, you're nodding. how concerned would Man United be about that no I wouldn't be concerned I mean I think often that that shows that they're really good at long shots which is Kunja especially which is certainly not a bad thing you know for a team that struggled to score goals struggled to make things happen last season having two guys in there that can score from outside the box it's got to be viewed as a positive hasn't it I think they're tailor-made for the two numbers 10 slots I really do Lucuna does his best work in that sort of inside left pocket. Bumo, I went in between the two there, didn't I?

49:56I'm an Bumo kind of man. He does his best work between the right wing and the centre forward slot. So I think those two are perfect for those positions, which then you think, well, does that mean that Bruno Fernandes now has to be an orthodox central midfielder? And I think in the eyes of the manager, that is the case. Now, is he good enough without the ball to play there? You know, that is a big question.

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53:14This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC Podcast A couple of other transfer things to mention. One, Evan Ferguson looks like he will be heading to Roma on a season-long loan with an option to buy from Brighton. See if Gasperini can work his forward whispering magic on him. I'm really excited about this move. Yeah. Really, really excited. He seems to have got a hero's welcome when he arrived in Rome. This is maybe because I don't spend too much time watching Italian football week to week, But it seems like when Roma get a player on that sort of short-term deal, they really push the bar to make sure they get heroes welcome.

53:57I remember when Dybala arrived, his reception was excellent as well. And Tammy Abraham as well had a brilliant first season, tailed off a little bit after with injuries, of course. There is an exciting sign in that. And hopefully, as I say, Gasparini, who's got a great track record with forwards, can do something with Evan playing alongside Dybala. It should be fun. Jadon Sancho, as you mentioned, possibly going to Juventus after Chelsea paid to not keep him at the end of last season. Famously, Charlie? Well, Evan Ferguson, he's one of these players who he was being talked about as a 100 million pound striker not that long ago.

54:33And it does sort of show that, you know, striker is a really hard position to get right. And there's often just like, just go and spend big on a striker. but he is kind of a reminder because he would have been talked about as like a yeah just go and do it he's Premier League proven he's the guy kind of thing and it doesn't always work out like that and Brighton who are such you know they're one of the savviest clubs when it comes to transfers I do wonder if they look back with some regret maybe not and I don't think it ever got to a point where they were offered serious money but generally that was because it was just deemed he was the crown jewels and he wouldn't be sellable but they could have got a pretty tidy fee for him a couple of years ago Evan Ferguson of course spent the back end of last season on loan at West Ham and if you'd forgotten that it's probably because he only made one appearance and didn't score that under Graham Potter who was his manager back at Brighton If ever there was a manager that was going to give him a chance you would have thought it would have been Potter so something must have been amiss with him physically I guess for him not to trust the guy because he clearly rated him he gave him the opportunity in the first place So, yeah, I really hope it works out for Ferguson because he can finish.

55:44He is a very crisp finisher, but it's, you know, that alone isn't getting him enough game time, is it? Let's see what happens down in Rome when the Serie A season gets underway. London Gooner 89 says, Jimbo, who do you see as favourites for the scotter this season? London Gooner 89. I have no idea, which is kind of the nice thing because that's very much City as USP these days, the fact that you don't know. I mean, last season it went to the wire and Napoli pipped into by one point on the final day to take the title. You've had four different clubs in the last six seasons taking the title. So it's pretty wide open.

56:25I would say that obviously Napoli are strong contenders, even though last time they won the title, three seasons ago, they then produced the worst ever title defence ever in the history of Serie A, finishing 10th the next campaign. This year under Conte, I can't see that happening. And with De Bruyne and a lot of other exciting signings in there, it looks like they're really going to make an impact this time as well. Inter, there have been so many managerial changes. One of them is at Inter with Simone Inzaghi moving on and Christian Kivu coming in. We haven't had a chance really to see what impact he's going to have.

56:58If they do manage to land Adamola-Lukman, which they're trying to do from Atalanta, I think they could easily have a title-winning campaign. Juve, unconvinced by them under Tudor so far, but who knows? They are Juventus sooner or later. They've got to get it right again. But the team who I think maybe could be a surprise after a couple of seasons of being really bad surprises, but finally in a positive sense, are Milan because they don't have any European commitments as Napoli didn't last time around. They've got Max Allegri back in, who's previously won the title there, also won five straight titles at Juventus.

57:35So I think a lot of the nonsense that was going on off the field will be cracked down on by Max, who's not here for your fun and games. And also, if they manage to sign equally, Dusan Vlajevic from Juventus I think that could be a really interesting set up. Vlajevic has had a better career than Evan Ferguson has but he's very much another of these reclaimed lost talent opportunities and I don't know, I have a romantic view of how that could turn out. We shall see. Sorry Carl, about five minutes ago you were waving your finger at me. Yeah, I'm just very interested to hear your opinion on Atalanta I'm still trying to get my head around Atalanta without Gasparini and Charles.

58:15Remind me It's Juric. I mean, the person who may have claimed to have been the worst Premier League manager of all time after his stint at Southampton. So you've got Juric coming in, Gasparini leaving. On field, you've also got, Luckman has mentioned, potentially joining Inter. And this in a summer in which they've already let Ritegwi, their top scorer from last season, go to the Saudi Premier League. So there's big question marks. The biggest one, though, remains the manager. The fact that Gasparini, the golden years at Atlanta, or entirely when Gasparini was there. They start with him and I suspect they end with him.

58:50For all that club's expert ability to pick up players for nothing and sell them on for lots of money, I think it's going to be a difficult campaign for them. And when the good times come around, my guess would be that it won't be under Juric. But we'll see. We'll see. I think also they've ridden the wave of there being some really off seasons at some of the big clubs. And the big clubs are maybe getting their act together a bit right now. the bigger clubs anyway, the metropolitan clubs. LondonGuner89, thank you so much for that question. Before we wrap it up today, there is one transfer saga that's still out there and I find it really really confusing.

59:28I'm referring to the Liverpool are in for Alexander Izak, no actually they're in for Eketike or are they in for, but what's going on there? Which is the real target? Which player is the better fit for them? How are Liverpool getting the money for all of this after already making their record signing in in Virts and various other ones as well. And what's the story about all this? Charlie, Adrian, Carl, can you illuminate me? Well, I did enjoy the sort of Liverpool power play that it seemed to be. And I'm almost surprised that sort of thing doesn't happen more often. It's kind of like, can we have your best player?

1:00:02No. Okay, we'll go for the guy you're trying to sign instead, which appears to be what they've done. And they look like they're going to get Eketike. I mean, part of how they've got the money, like they are spending free, they didn't spend much last summer to be fair to them. So I think they had a lot of PSR headroom and would have brought in a lot last year, winning the league, reasonable run in the Champions League. That does look like a really exciting signing. So is it going to be Eketike then? It's likely that Eketike will be the Liverpool striker. Isaac is now in a really interesting state of flux.

1:00:39So he didn't play in Newcastle's pre-season game against Celtic. Eddie Howe said it's best for him to stay away because of this transfer speculation. There is some sort of conversation that perhaps a Saudi Arabian club may be interested in him as well. He's already out of Saudi Arabia. Yeah, I was going to say, that would be an interesting negotiation. Yeah. Which I think it'd be a shame if he departed Europe's top five leagues already because I think Isaac already ranks among the top 10, if not top five strikers. in Europe at this point in time. Newcastle, however, are in this, not financial state of flux, but PSR state of flux, where if they want to get better, they probably have to sell one of their better players for a large profit to look good in the books there.

1:01:29I mean, in terms of how Liverpool have all this money, Charlie's explained it well. They're also just, I mean, I think it was in the year of 2018, they played more Champions League. In the year of 2018 alone, they played more Champions League games in that year alone than between the years 2010 and 2018. So because they're just the constant stalwart now in the top four, they have that money, they have that room. They also, while they don't sell players for 70, 80 million, they are pretty good at fashioning 30 to 40 to 50 million out for their squad players. I find that kind of amazing given we've been talking about how much United and most of the other biggest clubs really struggled to sell their players.

1:02:07Are they getting, what was it, like 35 million around for Concer, who was quite clearly, I mean, he started the first game of last season, got hooked at halftime. It was pretty clear he wasn't really part of the plans. I get that he's young, but they do seem to do that remarkably well. I mean, you're talking right now in a summer where I wouldn't be totally shocked if one of Harvey Elliott or Curtis Jones is on the move this summer. And I think both of those players are good enough to go for north of 40 million as well. Also Giz and Nunes, presumably. Yes, it has been said that one of them is likely to move.

1:02:43I think Liverpool are a lot more committed to keeping Luis Diaz than they are to keeping Darwin Nunes. Nunes has been of interest to Napoli and of Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia. Forgive me if I've got the Saudi Arabian club wrong there. I think it'd be really bad news if they lost Luis Diaz. Especially with Mo Salah. I'm not writing off Mo Salah. He's just had the season of his life. But he isn't getting any younger. and there will be a drop-off at some point from one of the wide forwards, from him rather, which means places even more onus on Diaz to deliver maybe from the other side if he's not going to be the centre forward.

1:03:23But it does feel like Diaz fancies a move. Well, he wants to go. He wants to go. He's been of interest to Barcelona. Bayern Munich have made a bid as well. I think the thing that can get overlooked in Diaz is his defensive contributions are very important to how that Liverpool team play. I think it goes on the rate how much off-the-ball work he's running. I think for someone who is that good attacking, he doesn't necessarily have to do that much running off the ball, but the fact that he does, that makes him so exciting and enticing. Well, look at Salah by contrast. Yeah. He balances out Salah, doesn't he?

1:03:59Not exactly known for his defensive foul. I mean, I have to say Liverpool's ability to evolve their attacking options has been a marvel, really. I think that Mane, Salah, Firmino front three was a generational Premier League attack. And yeah, they suffered a bit in the period in between. But last season, we were again talking about them as being one of the best by distance attack. And they've gone and reinforced again this summer. On the subject of Liverpool selling well, get German football news just listing what Eintracht Frankfurt have done in terms of selling on their players. Eketike, they bought from Paris Saint-Germain for 16.5 million euros, selling him on for possibly 95 million euros.

1:04:40Kolomouane, they got free from Nantes, sold him on to Paris Saint-Germain for around 95 million euros. And Omar Mahmouche, you may recall, who they got from Wolfsburg for free, went to Man City for 75 million. So that is some fantastic business from Frankfurt. You can add in Luka Jovic, who they picked up from Benfica, I want to say. for a very, very cheap fee before they sold them off to Real Madrid as well. Aller to West Ham as well. Yep, Sebastian Aller as well. They recruit very, very well. They platform their strikers in a very good way. I think it can be slightly easier for a club like Eintracht Fagfrent to do that because the expectation there is to finish somewhere between eighth and third and maybe have a good Europa League run rather than say they're bringing in strikers who have to be immediately good so they can finish in the top four in the Bundesliga there.

1:05:31but it's a wonderful club. I'd spent the majority of my time over Euro 2024 in the city of Frankfurt and got to speak to two or three people behind the scenes there at the club and they've built something really, really excellent there. And I mean, that Europa League run where they defeated Rangers in the final was quite something too. Oliver Glastner and all that. Now, before we go, Adrian, where do you stand on the big Noni Madueki divide? Now that his move to Arsenal from Chelsea has been confirmed as of last Friday afternoon. Yeah, I can't sit here and pretend that I've never been critical of Nani Maduweke before because I have on this show.

1:06:10I've not been his biggest fan in the past. A, because there's a lot of step overs without so much end product. And B, I think without the ball, he is sometimes, you know, like that industry that you need when playing for a real top, top team. So I was surprised initially where the Arsenal went for him. But now that he's on board, I think Arsenal fans should absolutely get behind him. He's still really young. There's a lot of improving to do. And I can see the attraction because Arsenal struggled last season for speed. They struggled. They're actually a really good team on the break, Arsenal. They just don't do it often enough.

1:06:51And I think that Maduweko on the break is going to be rapid. He's going to make things happen. He had a lot of shots from fast breaks, a lot of shots from ball carries last season. Only Mo Salah had more touches inside the box per 90 minutes than Madureka. How many goals did he get from those? He got seven goals and he played a lot less. They can't play Wolves every week though, Adrian. No, he didn't play Wolves every week, no. Three out of the seven are against Wolves, don't they? He gets defenders on the back foot, okay? He stretches teams, he's a good dribbler, he gets his shots away. I think only four players had more shots than him per game as well last year.

1:07:27So look, I think he's a backup personally to Saka. And he's also an option to play on the left. But I wouldn't have him in Arsenal's strongest XI at the moment. But, you know, let's see how he fares. They do also need a bit of chaos, don't they? I mean, there were a lot of times where it was all a bit predictable and regimented. And they played great patterns. But having a sort of wild card like him. I think the key thing is, yeah, the extent to which he is a bench option or he's expected to start games. Because, you know, I think I'm sure, Adrian, you agree. There's a lot of Arsenal fans want a left sided attacker to come in, you know, whether that's an out and out winger or someone like Eze who can kind of play more centrally but can drift out to that side as well.

1:08:11I mean, yeah, I think the obviously the petition and everything was was way over the top. I can understand the feeling that it doesn't feel like the most imaginative signing to just go back once again for a Chelsea player who was good. But I don't think I don't imagine there are Chelsea fans who are like gutted that he's left. You know, I think they'll be feeling they got a good fee from that. And it just, yeah, I think there is this, yeah, just a kind of feeling, you know, in an age of scouts all over the world and analytics and data. I'm like, oh, and by coincidence, you ended up on a guy from Chelsea who's available and is kind of, you know, and that's not to say he won't be good.

1:08:52I just think there's such a clear or an implied ceiling to how good he can be, because I don't imagine Chelsea would be selling him to a rival if they really thought this guy had the potential to explode. So he could be fine. But Havertz and Jorginho were both pretty good signings. But you want signings to be people who you can dream about being world beaters. And I just think that's probably hard to do when you're signing a kind of squaddish player from a rival. It feels like what you mentioned earlier, Charlie, when you talked about stockpiling, because there's so many more competitions. I think Maduweke reduces the burden on Saka on that right wing.

1:09:29He's also a different type of right-sided forward compared to Saka. So if there are games now where Ateta might be inclined to take off Saka because they've got a game two days from now, Maduweka can do a job there. I think he's good. I think he's good with the potential to be, I'm not going to say great, but better than good. So I was a little bit confused as to the ire there. I think Arsenal have a very, very good squad. I also think the combinations within that squad into creating levels is fascinating. I mean, Adrian, right now, who do you think should be starting left-back for that game against Manchester United on 17th?

1:10:10Who should be playing left-back? Yeah, because there's a myriad of options there and I still can't quite get my head around it. Myles Lewis-Skelly, I think, has got it locked in, really. Although I do think that if Arsenal were to sign Eberichi Eze on the left, which I would absolutely love them to do, it does impact the balance of the team because you've got Lewis-Skelly who wants to come in field, you've got Eze that wants to come in field. So I don't know how that's going to work. Arsenal sort of lack, ironically, the guy that just let go. A lot of work for Gabriel. No, they lack a Tierney.

1:10:39You know, somewhat overlapping. An overlapping left back. This is the really interesting thing I find when the conversation is about the left-sided forwards and Martinelli. I think Martinelli's best games in an Arsenal shirt came with Zinchenko behind him. And then when that left back changed, I think that affected him and he didn't quite get the consistency in reps that, say, Saka has had when Ben White has been behind him. So Arsenal are fascinating to me. they're in a good place and they absolutely, to my mind, should be winning a Premier League between now and 2028, 2029. There's also the Nuneiri element to the Madweki signing that it felt like, are you limiting the minutes of a really exciting youngster?

1:11:18A bit like when Willian came in. Nuneiri's a central player. I think he's a player that... He will be, but whether he is now... Let's leave a little bit for the handbrake off, Adrian. All right then. Yeah, okay. Big questions for the season ahead. And we will be previewing the prospects of the Gunners and indeed all the Premier League teams ahead of the new campaign, which is not that far away now, looking at the calendar. But that's where we come to the end of today's show. So many, many thanks to Adrian, to Charlie, to Carl, Megan and producer Charlie and you listener for being with us. We've got a Tony Gold coming out on Wednesday.

1:11:57Which one is it? It's the one. These are the shows that we did back in 2020 that have been dusted off and spruced up. During lockdown, we took a look back at some classic seasons. This is the one where we reviewed 1997 in the Champions League when Borussia Dortmund did Juve in the final. Paul Lambert. Then, on Thursday, we'll be back with a fresh edition of Totally, as mentioned earlier, looking back on the semifinals of the Euros. oh plus we'll have the second semivinal in the Intertotally Cup it's Tom Williams against Julian Laurence do hope you'll join us for all of that for now from all of us here it's very much goodbye

1:12:40you've been listening to the Totally Football Show part of the Athletic FC podcast network for more great football podcasts like this one including the Athletic FC and our six dedicated club podcasts search for The Athletic on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.

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