oh welcome back to the talk of Troy FC podcast we are here finally we've been in the studio for a couple weeks now but we are now now finally back on video with the full autama of the show Ben Cohen's here I'm Jack henan what's going on man it's good to be back it's good to be back on video uh in the studio it still feels new this this feels like episode one last week maybe like episode zero so I'm excited to talk about some International Break Stuff some United States stuff some uh new soccer fan stuff we'll which we'll get to later but first you have a surprise for us off the Jump well yeah it's kind of a grab bag today of topics and gimmicks I would say we've um we've really taken advantage of the visual medium this week I feel and I don't know if you remember proposing this to me over text but uh you and I both had birthdays in August um now that feels like a long time ago about a month ago in fact uh but you were like we should get each other soccer related birthday presents and give them to each other on the Pod and I don't care if you did not follow through on this yeah but I did uh and I I have something from classic football shirts no waycom for you to unveil so in the meantime I'm G to Vamp and you can just open that and uh and luxuriate and what it is okay um so I don't even know if there's any vamping needed youi a training kit there's red there's black there's white we've got those colors apologies if that opening sound got got some it probably sounded terrible on on Mike but it's all about the effect the headphones are coming off there we go man I think this I think this is a good look I'd say so I mean we always we always wear we try to to typically wear some footy related gear on the Pod we do don't we so I wanted to to throw that in your repertoire you're also not wearing it currently so you know I needed to to mix it up for you today so you didn't have to Vamp while I opened it but you do have to Vamp while I put it on of course of course so on the rundown today we've got a smattering of international break news as viewers of the show know Ben and I don't really love the international break it's just not the most exciting in in club so in the midst of the club soccer season obviously the Euros World Cup best there is in football but an international break three weeks into the Club season just kind of sucks um but there were some interesting tidbits over the past you know 10 days or so of international soccer the Le not the least of which being Dean R and Jack Gish both Former Republic of Ireland Internationals there he is there he is in the united kit Jack Declan rice and Jack Gish who both played for the Republic of Ireland youth teams both then uh filed onetime switches to play for England since that is the the more prestigious country on the international stage and then in the UEFA Nations League B division they scored for England both in the same game against their former country in Ireland um and I just thought everything about that sentence was hilarious because it also included England playing in the UFA Nations League B division which if there's a little bit of sha in Freud we can enjoy about England I'm going to do so exactly I think Dean and Dean Rice playing for Ireland and Jack relish uh them two playing for England almost feels like you buying a Manchester United kit doesn't it it does it would be wrong it would be wrong to look at thank you dude this is great of course this is awesome and and yours is loading thank you thank you so yeah romance on the Pod anyways England are off to a good start in the in the UFA Nations league b though they're probably going to get promoted back to to a when the time comes they've now had two two-nil wins under their new manager Lee carsley who is the interim for now until someone probably a bigger name maybe Pep Guardiola takes over but uh they looked solid Harry Kane obviously got a couple goals I think he got to uh 100 goals for England am I wrong about that something like that he had some kind of Milestone um over this this week and I don't know I mean it's just 100 caps 100 caps excuse me and and he scored two goals on his 100th cap um and you know I just I don't really know what to make of England right now this feels like a holding period until they establish some more you know promising manager that that people can really rally behind much like how the US uh kind of had this International break go in two weird Friendlies with an interim manager while Postino's contract was finally hammered out speaking of which the US lost to1 to Canada Jesse Marsh of course the coach of Canada who is up for the US job in that weird time period in which Greg ber halter was not officially the manager because he was undergoing an investigation and then rehired what did you make of Jesse Marsh's ambivalence let's say actually no I would say outright disgust with the US Men's National Team and and the whole Federation in the like on the back of this result well he made it clear this summer right that the US is not on the is not on the table for him he made it clear that uh it's not on the table for the United States and it was not on the table for Jesse Marsh to to become the United States manager after his this summer he wanted to stay the Canadian manager and and fair enough he had a good performance with them in the Copa America and then clearly some in some part of the burter process whether it was before he was rehired or this summer again there must have been a falling out because it couldn't is Jesse Marsh right that the United States soccer Federation is a mess yes but like to me that's not that can't be the only reason that he's he has such discussed with this team and this organization his own country um there has to be something deeper than that and you know we're talking about rehiring Greg B berhalter and what happened in the Copa America Jesse March I would get why he'd feel hard done by to not get consideration for the job I will say I don't really care anymore we wanted marissia Postino uh we got marissia poino am I thrilled about the way that the United States Men's National Team has been playing no but we don't have P we didn't have Pino yet and I don't care about friendlies it there's a reason that that this was I mean this week was for the NFL absolutely I mean and also you know this is still very much a work in progress poch was literally just announced yesterday officially I mean they knew it was going to happen but his contract was not finalized and the 11 that played against New Zealand although you know there were some usual usual suspects involved and PK ultimately scored you know Marlin FY was starting at right back who a lot of us fans probably didn't even know his name until yesterday um he's at standardly age in Belgium so you know this was a experimental kind of 11 should not necessarily be taken seriously even though you would hope that any us 11 could beat you know a New Zealand type team poch does have a contract through World Cup 2026 that is the mission that is the target they're gonna have to take it with the utmost seriousness and part of Marsh's comments were that he thinks this group of players needs to be pushed by a manager and really you know you know given kind of harsh criticism and put them in a new light in a way that b burter was maybe uh coddling them a little bit uh and do you think Posh is the guy who can do that absolutely I think when you talk about coddling you you talk about if if this is the new generation of United States soccer they were kids and are they still young yes but at some point you can't keep treating them like kids you have to start treating them like adults you there's that you know that picture of Eric ten hog to Kobe Mayu after the about Cup Final like next time like this is going to be you and then it was winning the FA Cup for United and then that after that FA Cup there's the picture the video of him with Toby Collier doing the same thing like they are children but you have to coach them up to be adults and pochettino with the pedigree that he has and if you're talking about becoming Chelsea manager then maybe not having a trophy is an issue but we're talking about coming becoming the United States manager I mean the pedigree that poino brings to the United States is unmatched I I think by any any coach that the United States has had manag the Champions League final manag the Champions League final uh we don't talk about what happened in that Champions League final and bring it on I I'm so excited to see what he can do with this team I think there's a there's an aura about him that he commands respect but not kind of awe he he is a man manager um in a in a way that will rally the cause and even if you don't have the best leadership in in behind you like there were definitely question marks about Daniel Levy when poao was at Spurs especially when a lot of money was going to their new stadium like poao can circumvent some of the problems that are above him in the United States uh organization at least in the short term on the field to get the best out of some of these players and and make them adults well and he's at three of the most probably annoying and frustrating Club circumstances in his previous three Club drops I mean Chelsea you know we we'll get into the whole Todd Bly clearly Capital beef later that I did a lot of reading up on um as a you know a fan of Chelsea I want to be informed on that and so that was a whole drama then at PSG obviously he was there when it was mbappe Messi and Neymar and you know there's inherent kind of ego and and drama and drama there uh in addition to you know mbappe maybe has not been on the same page as psg's front office in the past few years and then before that like you said it was Spurs which was honestly probably the easiest of the three of the three situations and they weren't even spending money and and they had to go and play at Wembley for a season so I I honestly like you can have so much criticism for the US soccer Federation but anything he deals with on that front probably pales in comparison to the situations that he's been in in the past did he make the Champions League final the year they played at Wembley I want to say Wembley was the season before but I could be wrong in hindsight because I'm just I'm thinking about the ax semifinal and I know I know the winner was away that LC famous Lucas Mora hatrick yeah I'm trying to think well look it up for us in the in the time being so a lot of excitement for the us something that um I personally was not excited about didn't care about at all but I feel like every time something like this happens for this guy soccer Twitter and and Bleacher Report football on Instagram they want to make it a thing even though I find him to be simply not relevant anymore Cristiano Ronaldo did score his 900th goal over this International break playing for Portugal he's still playing for Portugal they've shown no desire to move on from him in any serious way do you care about this like to what extent are we supposed to pay attention to Ronaldo anymore I personally do not pay attention to Ronaldo anymore I don't think that the world has an obligation to I think the media feels an obligation to because it's name is Cristiano Ronaldo if there was a time to give him his Stars when you get to 900 goals yeah fair enough when you score it against a goalkeeper who said famously at 700 goals that he wouldn't make 800 like yeah that's pretty funny and that deserves news um I think this is pretty this is a well-known you know anti- modern day Christiano Ronaldo podcast but at the same time we can give respect for it's due and on scoring 900 go goals are many of the last 200 like kind of shouldn't count yeah whatever but guy guy scored 900 goals like if there's a time to give him credit let's we can celebrate his 900th with him well crucially I mean recently he missed one on the road to 900 that would have helped his country I mean they they made it through eventually against Slovenia but if he had put that penalty away his life would have been a lot easier I I just think I mean I'm gonna play devil's advocate for a second here and say we pay so much attention to Messi Messi is no longer playing in the top five leagues um his involvement with Argentina is usually centered around major tournaments and you know obviously he's injured right now so he's not participating in their World Cup qualifiers someone could take a kind of Bird's ey View and be like well what's really the difference they're no longer playing in the major leagues they're getting on and when it comes to major tournaments you know we turn up the dial on our attention to them because it's the major tournaments but I I just I find Messi and and Inter Miami maybe it's the American bias because you know we pay casual attention to MLS we have an MLs Club down the street for that matter I just find Messi's situation so much more interesting than Ronaldo's at this time I completely agree with you I think the other thing whenever Ronaldo plays for Portugal it's hard for the first thought in my head not to be well how good would they be if he didn't play for them so I I I agree with you that's exactly right Messi still makes Argentina better it feels like whereas Ronaldo feels like he's actively holding Portugal back right but I think Nations League which is effectively a friendly um I I still feel feel good about that I know that they implemented the Nations League to get make more of these International breaks not friendlies but come on it it doesn't really matter England I would I mean I think it still makes the international break more interesting I mean having England and Ireland play competitive matches you can't tell me that's a little bit more interesting than England playing Germany in a total dead rubber is it more interesting than it used to be yes is it the right way forward we already have enough International competitions for me we have the World Cup obviously we have the Continental competitions and then we have the qualifiers for those competitions I don't I don't think we have to make international football bigger than that I understand that we improve the quality uh by making them competitive however this is my surprise going into the game going into the podcast here's my alternative we have the Nations League it served its two purposes one purpose was to spice things up and the second purpose was to provide a different competition that Cristiano Ronaldo could win for his International resume so I'm proposing the vacations league so send I love the name already so send your players to tenar Reef or Santorini or the Caribbean uh or the or Rio and let them let them go on vacation as football matches are becoming a hundred 100 minutes and players are overworked and play throughout the summer send them on vacation and make sure that some of them go together and convene twice three times over the course of two weeks on a beach somewhere and televis Beach football give us something that we haven't seen before for there's a new media rights deal you can associate with all of this give the people what they want which is Cristiano Ronaldo you want to be shirtless in front of the camera this is your opportunity honestly this is I'm so down for this idea imagine the the brand Partnerships opportunities I mean it's a whole Beach and Resort themed thing you know you can get like the Gucci slides out for this like the players will have to would have to get on board with this I mean they already go to Dubai you know and just hang by the pool anyway like why not play a little beach footy which it's got to be lower impact you know you're not running on on a hard harder grass surface you can make it International uh International Teams if you want to and make it kind of by the side I say let's roll with Team captains and televise the team captains part like take a page out of the NBA All-Star Playbook which they keep switching between whether they do team captains or whether they don't I think it's a great idea I love to watch professional players pick which ones they prefer to me that's Prime television but that's just me also you know what position group would absolutely love this goalkeepers well Andre ananas Anderson specifically exactly I mean have you ever seen these Beach football highlights the goalkeepers are having the best time the absolute best time because they get so many more touches than they ever do really in a or I mean you know more kind of uh it's it's like five aside but then the goalkeepers are really the ones initiating the play because there's there's very little like building out from the back because you can't pass properly on Sand so the keepers are the ones like batting the ball aerially to anyone forward it's honestly Beach football is kind of hilarious because it's it's like even more static than handball whereas handball like you just run down the court and then everyone stands in the semicircle and they try and Juke their man and and take a shot like Beach football is very much the same because the keeper just B in it forward to whoever is in like some degree of space and the forwards don't have a lot of like room to maneuver and also maneuvering is dangerous because the surface is uneven so it's just a lot of like keepers kind of chesting and heading and kneeing and then voling forwards for uh people to try bikes it's awesome you know who the biggest beneficiary of this rule would be Paul Pogba not suspended from this hypothetical competition like classic uh five star Skiller for lack of a better word to just like chill on the beach you can draft him to Neymar's team and let him have some fun there could be a whole Legends kind of category like get sadan back I don't know you saw this the the uh Adidas you know they do that kind of specialty kit for United Real Madrid Juve Bayern every year such a great advert by the way and and so I saw I saw a Tik Tok the other day of the and they had a legend this year representing each Club so Madrid it was zidan uh it was uh Schweinsteiger it was Schweinsteiger for Bayern it was Vieira for Arsenal I want to say it was real for juuve and I think Rio Ferd I think you're I think you're right about Ferdinand he wasn't in this video it was just the other four but they were doing like a first touch challenge where they were at this like modern Villa in some gorgeous location and someone tossed down the the football when they had cone set up in a square and the guys had to trap it in a square and the the other three than zidan did like a more standard trap and they you know they all did executed beautifully it was like I wish I could bring down a football like that so Dan just started juggling and and having a good time and then tried to kick it back up to the uh to the person who threw it didn't quite hit it but I was like that dude could play Beach football right now I mean he just did it like that that's all you need that's all the flexibility and activity you need get me a league you can Pro you know you can build little stadiums out of it um you could you could get people to pay top dollar to go or you could make it like a uh especially like these types of places that you'd be going on vacation are tend to be types of places where not too far you have low-income communities like you could totally make it a kind of like a public service initiative out of it um and kind of bring people in whether it's uh kids who want to play soccer just like bringing them in to to watch to hang out to even make a little team there there are so many ways you can take this while also giving these these players more rest that they clearly need and have been asking for uh pretty much since since Co kind of shortened everybody's breaks yeah I mean I mean if for the Premier League players you could go down to England's best beach in Brighton hold it there yeah I don't I don't know if you can believe I don't know if you're gonna say that with a straight face anyways we me mentioned Real Madrid briefly there with zidan there's one transfer story that I wanted to hit on even though of course the window just shut and we're not going to have a new one until January Real Madrid has started their next media campaign and they are targeting rodri what do you what did you make of this because this this feels very much like Perez pulling the strings and he's trying to get a a born and raised son of Madrid back to his home City to play for Los Blancos I have a different view of this to most fans because everyone here is like oh my God Real Madrid are getting honestly one of the best players in the world maybe the best player in the world now could win the bondor this year could win the balandor this year and it's like do they need another player no they already have a super team do the you know do the Warriors need need to add uh um why is his name escaping me uh Kevin Durant no they already have Kevin it's the it's the center after that ended up being like not a big Bo cousins dude they need to add Boogie cousins though like no but also Let's Pretend This is prime Boogie cousins um however Man City are also the 2017 Warriors and I would love for rodri to leave the Premier League and there's an aspect of it's like how much better can Real Madrid feasibly get like at some point there have to be diminishing returns here and this does seem like a match made in heaven um if there was one position that they would complain about it might be defensive Midfield is it because they have an embarrassment of riches and they have the luxury not to need to give chuani a ton of time to settle in yeah because he's a great player and he will be a better player and he's just now getting responsibility for that Midfield after Modric and cros Le because even though they're not playing every week like that's their Midfield until they leave you know and so you have valde stepping into the fold you have Jude Bellingham stepping in into the fold and it's players that like to play forward you need somebody at the base of it casmiro is a few years gone chuen is the guy that they rely on and he's young ad rodri and you've got arguably the best player in the world to play that position I I can't see how any team other than Man City would beat that team however we're talking about man city who then would be losing not just to me their best player hot take but also I think I feel much safer about saying this they're most important player and their most Irreplaceable player in rodri I agree I mean I don't even think saying their best he's their best player is a hot take I mean sure go Merchants will look at Holland and say you know that's that is the guy but take rogery out of city and and that team does not work the way gordola wants it to work I do think though this rogery thing for Madrid is it also a little bit of a admission def of defeat with Perez that like Trini and kaminga haven't made that spot their own in the post Cru era or or or I mean you could also say he's hedging right because like they wouldn't be able to do this until next summer anyway so if it doesn't go through you know who cares about a few stories in in the newspaper ass hilariously named newspaper ass um yeah I think anyways absolutely and then it gives them the time for tra and kaminga to come along if this were another team it would be saying all right this guy didn't work we're moving on but Real Madrid have the luxury to be able to have three worldclass defensive midfielders or one worldclass defensive midfielder and two guys that they expect to be world class and whose paths they don't expect to be blocked by rogery because if they're that good they'll make it anyway if they're that good they'll be cool with being on the bench and if they're very good and still not good enough they're going to make a ton of money selling him to whichever tier two tier three team wants to sign them and especially when you look at chuami when you look at kaminga signed for what 30 million yeah no they're going to make a profit on kaminga they could double their money without even trying exactly whether a team wants to play him at Midfield whether a team wants to play him at left back um I'm sure whichever team signs him if he end up leaving he could play whatever position he wants to this is like the best Swiss army knife in football arguably uh I would say fed valde is the best Swiss army knife in football but the fact that they have the two best Swiss Army knives in football like you can solve the problems even if you lose one exactly I I would be interested to if we weren't on air and wanted to come up with a Swiss army knife that we could maybe prefer to come maybe we could but I don't think we're getting one over another Madrid player who was I mean kind of faded from prominence a little bit David Oliva yeah like he obviously came to prominence as a left back now is playing Center back primarily and he's played all throughout midfield for Austria because he was their best player so he would just take control even like because left back was not going to offer him the the sufficient influence in the team that he could have in another position even if he's not kind of a number 10 number eight by trade shout out Daniel palmour in the comments mentioning uh probably the best like month of my life uh when the Cavs won the 2016 title and the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead uh which then kind of backfired and Gotham Kevin Durant and then gave me two of the most miserable NBA years after that or I shouldn't say miserable like post LeBron Cavs and pre- LeBron return Cavs were miserable it was just excruciating to have to go up against those Warriors teams should we uh should we get to our next gimmick here I think we should let's get producer Ethan in the studio so Ethan uh produces the show excellently and we're very grateful to it for his work he is not the biggest soccer fan so we thought it would be a great way to kind of rein in the new season of this show by having Ethan spin that wheel that we've yet to explain and pick his own Premier League team so here's how this is going to go we we have a certain number I'm very excited thank you for having me thanks for being here man we have a certain number of teams already on there there's a couple spots that we can fill still and we think those are generally like 12 of the 14 teams that should be in this conversation for Content reasons um there's a couple other options here and we can explain them to you to see which ones you want included how do you feel about that so in terms of adding on the two more spots and also perhaps subtracting so we can go through the 12 right now and see if there are any that you want to like ask ask us for maybe like a one- sentence preview on um also we should note that man city are conspicuously not on this list having uh won six of the last seven Premier League titles and with 115 pending charges against them okay so we're just we're just not going to let you be a man city fan the way we we decided to explain that decision to was as everyone knows you're a ners fan it would be like allowing you to pick the Chiefs but also if the Chiefs had 115 pending charges of cheating against them so like Michigan Michigan football similarly like Michigan football but like with the chief's level of dominance okay okay then I'm okay with not putting them on there um I say we just leave it like this and I'll Spin and if it lands on a blank space then we'll see what happens but I say we just spin like this I'm cool with that let's let's rock it let's rock it all right we're bringing up the wheel now the best part about this is that I can't see it where I spin I'll have to turn around and see it I think Ben is actually the only one who can see yes I can Ben can see it I have all the power here a big deal for me because this is what until May until May all right you ride with him for the rest of the season all right here we go no way it's Arsenal that is Juicy that is Juicy by by the hair by just a hair just get a get a look at that like if I if I shake the the wheel it's gonna move toel Chelsea to Chelsea which is just hilarious too we couldn't have Jack team be double represented I mean so I know that Arsenal was always near the top um I actually you know I did some preliminary research for this because again I didn't even know all 20 Premier League teams I didn't even know I couldn't even name 14 of them uh so I know that Arsenal sits near the top more often than not so this will be very it's like rooting for the ners essentially near the top not winning wait that's actually that's actually an extremely good comparison I think it's a better comparison than you realize actually for a context Ethan if you don't you if you don't watch the other talk of Troy show which you definitely do and if not you should Ethan is a famous Niners fan yeah I'm a resident I'm a resident ners fan so I yeah checking that out looking at a very brief history of like the last couple years Arsenal seems like my type of team winning when it matters but when it matters most you're not quite there so we we we'll see how this goes um I'm now talk of Troy's biggest Arsenal fan so we'll we'll see maybe I'll even get a kit isn't Juda kany lowy an Arsenal fan or am I making that up I don't think I've ever had that conversation with him but it's possible well it doesn't because I'm a bigger fan now exactly I literally just became the biggest fan there go that's a good answer so I think before we let you go uh let's let's let's give a brief Arsenal history okay so I think we should start with the fact that Arsenal have the most fa cups in uh in among English teams total with I want to say 13 uh and one ahead of Manchester United who are in second mid-season tournament Vibes but like let's pretend that that's like a huge trophy but it's been happening since the Inception of the NBA exactly and it like includes the college team the youth teams like it goes all the way through the English football pyramid and then there's one team standing at the end it's just like The Knockout competition of the league now Arsenal also in especially like the end of the 90s beginning of the two thou 2000s were one of the best teams in the world although they have famously never won a European trophy um that that's that's fun to say I can't lie and in 2002 Arsenal became the only team ever to be invincible and win the league without losing a game they did draw 11 games and finish with fewer points than most teams who have won the league game is game yeah I mean a draw is a draw it's not gonna happen in America L it's not a loss so those are the invincibles you got terryon re arguably the greatest player to ever grace the Premier League who then went who famously lost the Champions League final to Barcelona in his last game for Arsenal and then signed for Barcelona and won the Champions League with Barcelona Kevin Durant okay I'm just like a little bit of a snake a little bit I would say less of a snake I'm just using well yeah okay because he didn't play him seven times I'm just using any relatable Sports content that I know to compare so I have context of this as you should and it's and it's great for the for the content as well okay so what can you give me a brief synopsis of how they're looking for this so last two seasons Arsenal have put together Premier League winning caliber teams that have fallen short only to Man City who as we noted have 115 pending charges against them I will say quickly on City that none of their charges extend are are more recent than 2018 however when you build up a you know an incredible company illegally and then you're able to maintain it legally I don't know like you there's some suspect there there's there's some suspect there I will also say year one Arsenal bottled it they should have won the league and I think we're winning like we're up like 10 11 points toward the end of the season and really blew it year two they were also ahead you know maybe almost twoth thirds of the way through the season but I wouldn't say they blew it that time like they continued to play at League winning form and City just beat them it's just Arsenal have been the best team in the world that hasn't won a trophy in the last two years without a shadow of a doubt I think okay well I'm going to get them over the hump actually so yeah famous Niners fan to get to get the I sacrificed the ners for Arsenal I just didn't know it at the time to close the loop here their manager meleta is Kyle Shanahan 283 moment got it is exactly is what Ben was referencing there where two seasons ago they had 50 points at mid-season so they're on like a 100 Point pace which would be you know one of the two best teams basically ever in the Premier League and then they lost the title does artetta have a moment that was like he was in field goal range and all he had to do was run the ball three times and then kick a field goal and that game is over maybe his career hasn't been long enough yet to to quite have something of that Calamity but I will keep thinking on it well all I see is that I will be watching Arsenal versus Tottenham this weekend so oh that's the other lore is that Arsenal Spurs are Arsenal's biggest Rivals this is the north London derby um Arsenal I would say their biggest Rivals are probably Spurs number one I would say man united number two Chelsea number three um and then at this point I like everybody hates Liverpool everybody hates City at this point I'd say City might be even ahead of Chelsea or fourth just because like you've lost to them twice in a row and like they're the new Rivals but City also have no history so that all the Rivalry is new with them um like as a United fan I hate Liverpool more than I hate Man City uh personally um anyway welcome welcome to the arsal what what a perfect time to jump in then anyway thank you guys for letting me be here really quick I'm going to go back to my little Shack in the back um now I'm now I'm now I'm tot's biggest Arsenal fan let's do this next Jersey next Jersey Arsenal I think so I think it has to happen all right thank you for joining us Ethan very excited to chat [ __ ] about Arsenal All Season basically from here on out I ask you actually we want to get to I don't know if we you think we still have if we have time to talk about Chelsea before we get into some predictions I think all really wanted to say on this Chelsea situation I mean I can get into the nitty-gritty of of ownership uh stake and and kind of what's at risk here and the warning factors I mean it's Todd bully who has been the much known face of Chelsea's recent failure and he is a kind of the biggest individual owner in in contrast to clearl Capital which owns the majority of the club and that's a private Equity Firm and they have shareholders to whom they ever responsibility to make money um and there's been decisions made in their co-ownership of this team that has upset either party most recently was actually the fire a of pettino it sounds like Bly really wanted to keep him the clearly Capital representative who's most involved in the clubs this guy uh begad egali bad egali excuse me um he sounds like he wanted to fire P alongside our co- sporting directors so it's just a mess and I think the the biggest takeaway here is that disjointed ownership will lead to a disjointed product and that's exactly what we have seen culture often comes from the top down and sometimes when you have as powerful a figure as a Sir Alex Ferguson it doesn't matter if the glazers are the most kind of negligent and cynical owners because Ferguson was able to provide that top- down structure Chelsea has not had a manager basically ever I mean probably since Mourinho the first time who has been able to Strongarm the club in his own Direction you know every other manager has been at the mercy of Chelsea's chaos and churn and desire for Success at the cost of the process and I would say like yes but also some managers have been able to get their way but even when managers get their way it's in the short term knowing that I mean if if not knowing then naively not knowing that they're about to get fired the first time uh the first time things things start to go wrong like Thomas Tel got many of his signings in but then he got sacked and the only way that these signings were going to be good ones for Chelsea is with Thomas toua was the manager and then firing Tel leaves this club with players that it doesn't want firing Mourinho which which was probably the right decision leaves these players with leave this leave these this team with these players that it Al it otherwise wouldn't want yeah and I would say my other takeaway from that article to that point about Tule was that he took advantage kind of of a power vacuum during the Takeover that allowed him to make a lot of those signings that shouldn't have been made because he was the most senior voice uh and it actually probably would have solved problems for Chelsea uh in the long term if they had gotten rid of him sooner like over that first summer as opposed to dragging things out but a whole debate yeah it brings up an interesting conversation that could be a much longer one about the balance between managers signing the players they want to versus the the the the club profiles you can take extreme examples and say you know United signed Anthony for 100 million and that was ten Hog's signing I don't think every managerial signing is like that I mean you think about Antonio cont time at Chelsea and you think about signing Marcus Alonzo and Victor Moses uh New luten Town signing Victor Moses did not know he was still playing by the way David zapa Costa like these players had varying levels of success with Chelsea but were also instrumental in cont three at the back which I would say in year one was the reason that they won the league the reason they had an 11 game winning streak and won the league with 93 points and in year two was also the reason that they were terrible and and the reason that he got sacked and you could argue the reason that they were they didn't they didn't recover from him very well either and so it's this push and pull of you know if ten hog is going to get sacked you probably want fewer ten hog signings to be in the squad but also you're trying to make him succeed so you also want to give him some of what he wants and it seems like some of these new profiles are are more in the mold of what of what of this balance between signing players that the profiles that the manager likes but players that the club that the club agrees will work yeah and I mean since Bly stepped down from making key transfer decisions as the interim sporting director that is exactly when Chelsea shifted to signing a lot of young players on long-term contracts that was the window we signed Enzo Fernandez Mallo mudri Etc non madek some of those are going to work out some of those aren't but you know that was also another kind of key contrast in decision making it sounds like Bully well I don't I don't think bully was necessarily mad about these longer term contracts but you know there's been a lot of just been a power vacuum kind of and they haven't really figured out how to address it um and now I mean I think the club is actually in its most stable moment it's been in since the Takeover until it was disrupted by you know widespread rumors and Reporting about an ownership battle at the top so we'll see what happens uh if any major news like a internal sale of one party stake to the other happens we'll we'll track that and maybe I'll have a take on it I mean it's probably just going to be numbers and finances but you were talking about ten hog signings second ago Southampton United is going to be the first match we predict this weekend do you think United will bounce back after the debacle that was the Liverpool game I'm feeling pretty good about playing Southampton right now I think I'm feeling pretty good about us both having them bottom in the league um I don't think this isn't you know a Sheffield United luten town I don't think this is like a diabolically bad team but I think this is a team that every team in the top 15 that goes to play them will expect to win um and every team in the bottom few teams that goes to play them will um go into it saying this is an opportunity for us to get three points that are crucial to staying up and keeping them from getting those points on us and I think a combination of the necessity to to bounce back um thinking also about a Bruno Fernandez goal in a one- nil at St Mary's against Southampton I want to say the last time that United and Southampton played that was just an absolute Peach and it might not be pretty but I'm also hoping to have holand back uh another ten hog signing that you know might feel like a new signing after not having him for the first few weeks Joshua xer we we haded it to mention but I don't think we got to it that he scored in uh for the Netherlands during the international break break I think they beat Bosnia 52 his first goal at the international level exactly and I think he's had this this high at United scoring the winner in the first match of the season this low of uh you know he should have scored at least once against Liverpool but we have to have enough to win this game surely I'm not saying it's going to be comfortable but I'm going to go 3-1 United I just can't pick us to keep a clean sheet and win at the same time this year fair enough right now fair enough I I do think this is where United solidifies T hog will have been thinking long and hard about his game plan going into this over the international break I think you just kind of shut down shop keep things calm and put a couple goals away and I I went with two-nil United if there's one place if there's one team that's even even bigger Wild Card than Manchester United it's Chelsea and they're going to visit Bournemouth who I think both Chelsea and Bournemouth have had interesting interesting stars to the season where the results haven't necessarily reflected the game Bournemouth didn't win either of their first two games but I thought they played very well in both of them and then they beat Everton by scoring three goals in the last eight minutes of the game uh and then Chelsea only won have won one of their three games and it was a 6-2 that they easily could have lost in the first half and and then you know followed through and scored a bunch of great goals I was adamant about keeping Bournemouth on this board because I love Irola and what he's done with the club I think that this is a team that is way more likely to be on on the track of a of a consistent Premier League team maybe not quite West Ham Aston villea Newcastle but you know Everton let's say can they beat Chelsea at home they are perfectly capable of doing so I went with 3-2 Chelsea because I think both of these teams are playing chaotic games but Chelsea are rounding into form cette lost aside um and I just think this is one of those situations where Bournemouth has a big opportunity but maybe as a as a kind of let's say ninth to 13th speculative team don't quite have what it takes to really stamp their Authority on this because they're still figuring out how to play post solank integrating Evan neelen I think there's still progress for Bournemouth to be made to the point where Chelsea is is I feel weirdly confident in the blues at this moment so I I went with us 3-2 just to hammer home some goals I hate when we agree I have Chelsea 3-2 as well might be the type of game where Bournemouth strike first and it's like oh here we go again Chelsea and then you score maybe you don't really deserve it um we probably won't go up 3-1 kind of ice the game Bournemouth get back in it it's a it's a nervy ending because our teams don't like to give us uh uh easy games on the heart never shall we say should we move over to Spain we should we've got the the real Derby between real s do and Real Madrid real batis feels bad that you left him out here yeah I'm sorry s have been have been relevant for a little longer I think certainly at the at the top level right now yeah yeah um although I think so are behind Bettis on the table right now well yeah I was gonna say they're they're not having uh two greatest starts of the season a win a draw two losses in their most recent match against UHA they only managed 0.02 XG um it's looking a little rough but I mean it's also been a little rough and shaky for Real Madrid at this point so I I think this is actually kind of an odd game to predict I mean it's at it's in uh s Sebastian I I mean you could really see this going either way the way that real MADD are playing recently I guess I should say they aren't really dropping games they haven't lost in a competition officially this season you know minus a couple preseason uh L's but we don't count those I I mean I guess you have to go with the Real Madrid win kind of uh just based on where these two teams are respectively and and Real Madrid's fire power but it might be a little weird and shaky so I'm going to go 21 Madrid I don't know if it's going to be that shaky and here's why real sadad lost um lost their class president if you remember from little little callbacks from a couple episodes ago their class president mik Marino signed for Arsenal uh hasn't played for them yet uh although in od guard's absence which we'll get to later perhaps he's perhaps Marino will be back to contribute for them this season also that player himself Martin Ard that's a deep cut I didn't even I don't even think I knew that but I think this is a game that finally kilan mbappe scores with his first shot and it's one nil early and so adad look on the ropes and Real Madrid get over this shaky start and just Banks him in and I'm going 4-nil Real Madrid wow okay I I think that would be quite a statement that it's it's coming I mean you can feel it coming it's going to be one of these weeks it's just a matter of when not if should we let's save El trafico for the the last one here all right we've got Spurs Arsenal North London Derby at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium I think an finally gets his win against Arsenal in this one and I went with three2 Spurs this was the one game that I came in not having a prediction for just sometimes you got to see what the podcast tells you and originally all last night I was thinking you know Arsenal are going to beat Spurs you know I know Ethan's laughing in the booth like he wants that but e what you don't know is that I would say Arsenal's at least a top three Arsenal player Martin odard was injured on International Duty for Norway um it I've seen people say it was like a it was a minor ankle injury I've seen other like the manager I think said it looked more serious than that so hopefully for Arsenal he's back sooner rather than later well Marino's gonna have to step up they lost Smith Road they sent Fabio Vera on loan I mean this is the game where where you'd say marinho gets his his shot especially coming off International break where he's had two weeks to train with uh well actually he might have been on Spain dudy I can't remember but I assume he would have spent some time thinking about a potential first start for Arsenal here and it's interesting because Arsenal always have are have become so known as this uh defensively responsible Almost Boring team which is a which by the way is a title that I'm not necessarily sure I I think is fair but if there was a time to be boring it's without Martin odard at toam hots for stadium that being said when you think about picking a one nil in Arsenal Spurs like I feel like there's always at least one goal in the first 15 minutes in these games they're always weird they always get weird and so it's like if hung Manon isn't on the score sheet at after 15 minutes I would like almost be surprised so I'm gonna go I'm gonna go two1 Spurs uh no you went to on I I walked it back I I real I remembered how good Arsenal's defense is here and let's let's negotiate I'm going to let you have two one actually no I changed my mind cuz I want to pick a draw and I'm going to go one one there will be a goal early and then there kind of shockingly won't be that many more maybe just one more so we'll go we'll go one1 and it won't be the worst result for Arsenal but it's going to feel like a defeat because City are probably going to win again this weekend and two match weeks in a row gaining ground on Arsenal is not going to be a good look and I can confirm that Marino did not play for Spain over the break so he has been in the freaking lab with our tetta I promise you all right El trafo this one isn't down the street it's not down the street it's it's at the the Galaxy Stadium I'm hoping talk of Troy own Dillan luden got his his press credential for that one I know he was applying and hopefully we'll have an article up about it maybe you can come on the podt and talk about it based on how entertaining that game may or may not be this we got lucky this is a this is a top of the Western Conference Clash Galaxy's one LFC is two but with two games in hand four points currently separate them I mean obviously they're both going to go make the playoffs and and I hope that we get a a postseason traffico that would be awesome what do you expect from this weekend though it's tough LFC have now scored just a one goal in their last three games um including losing uh twice uh losing uh losing and drawing to the Houston Dynamo um they've had a week off since uh US Open uh US Open cup semi-final loss to to the Seattle Sounders um there's no second leg oh that was the second leg for that wait it says okay never mind I'm confusing myself but anyway LFC hasn't been in the best of form but we know form goes out the window in these darbies this should be star studded go arice Olivier giru Marco Roy like we're not just talking about stars we're talking about stars that are new to the MLS and so I think this is a this is a game of of European Stars looking to make a looking to make an impact on on their new teams and and then you know the the old guys who have been there forever when you look at like Ricky pu still being an important really important uh player for for La for the LA Galaxy and one of the biggest reasons that they're at the top of the table so this is another one that could go either way we also noted pre-match galaxy has won nine times LFC has won nine times there have been five draws so it's the race to 10 wins and I'm gonna push I don't think either team gets the 10 wins yet I'm going two two draw okay wow I uh I actually I feel pretty comfortable predicting an LFC win here because they've kind of had the Galaxy's number in in recent elicos except the July 4 game from 2023 which now feels like an eternity to go I remember watching that though uh and also I'm kind of chalking up lfc's recent stumbles to them just having a ton of matches like they're always so good they're always playing deep in these competitions they got to the leagues Cup Final heartbreaking loss there they have another they have a chance to compete in another final for the US Open cup I hope they finally snag a trophy there but it was probably just fixture congestion they've had a little bit of a rest this is a relatively deep team that knows how to beat the Galaxy although maybe no I mean they beaten the Galaxy twice already this season um so even though it's a way you know I don't think Carson is the most intimidating place to go so I'm gonna go with a 31 LFC Victory maybe a bonga hatrick even I could see it happening man he's a big game player what better way to end a podcast than with previewing El trffic I love it man I love I love a fall El tro I mean maybe I'm just nostalgic because you and I went into a glorious 42 LFC win at bimo Stadium last year covering it uh for talko Troy one of those games that's it's not just a classic because it was a 4-2 it was a classic because it was fun because at different points in the game you thought that either team was going to win different different parts with with momentum for different teams really really a classic um or a traffic yeah I mean no it was it was 22 until the 75th minute when banga had had the Breakthrough so the legend himself all right that will do it for this week it was so good to be back very fun show today and we will be joining you we're still figuring out our exact schedule but we will be joining you sometime next week with another live show and a new Arsenal fan thank you for listening and watching anywhere and yeah shout out producer Ethan the Arsenal's finest peace [Music]