Speaker A
Hello and welcome to the TFO Football Podcast. I'm Joe Divine, and today I'm delighted to be joined by John McKenzie.
Tifo Football Podcast discusses Liverpool's Barker signing, Chelsea's Alonso debut, and Fulham's new era with expert guests.
Key Takeaways
- Liverpool is close to signing Bradley Barker in a high-value transfer deal.
- 'In principle' agreements indicate a preliminary deal but are not finalized until contracts are signed.
- Chelsea is adapting under new management with tactical and defensive adjustments.
- Fulham is entering a new phase with changes in management and squad development.
- The podcast blends detailed football analysis with engaging, informal conversation.
What the video covers
- The podcast opens with hosts Joe Divine, John McKenzie, Ruben Pender, Jack Collins, and Steve discussing recent football news.
- They analyze Liverpool's agreement in principle to sign forward Bradley Barker from PSG for a large transfer fee.
- The meaning and implications of 'in principle' agreements in football transfers are debated.
- Chelsea's first competitive game under new manager Javi Alonso is reviewed, including defensive performances.
- The hosts discuss Fulham's new era, touching on the club's history, recent changes, and some lighthearted diversions about chocolate, cheese, and yachts.
- Crystal Palace and the future of striker Jean-Philippe Pata are briefly discussed.
- Upcoming Tifo Football live shows and podcasts are promoted, including special episodes on Aston Villa and live streams.
- The podcast features banter and detailed football tactical analysis, combined with humor and personal anecdotes.
- The episode includes references to transfer market dynamics, player performances, and club strategies.
- Listeners are encouraged to engage with the community through Discord and attend live events.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Guest Introductions
- 04:38Announcement of Tifo Football Live Show
- 07:38Discussion on Liverpool's Bradley Barker Transfer
- 11:41Chelsea's First Game Under Javi Alonso
- 19:42Fulham's New Era and Club Developments
- 25:43Crystal Palace and Jean-Philippe Pata
- 32:07Upcoming Podcasts and Live Streams
- 40:07Closing Remarks and Farewell
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Hello Joe. All right, buddy. How's it going? Really good, thanks. We've got Ruben Pender here as well.
Speaker A
Hello. There he is. All the way back from... It's your second show back from America, isn't it?
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. There we go. And we've got our first TFO Football Podcast debut of the season. You can hear him on the Ranks FC podcast and the Fulamish pod. It's Jack Collins.
Speaker A
Thank you for having me, boys. This is very exciting. It was a pleasure to have you today. Plus, Steve's here.
Speaker A
Hello. He was doing something else. I got him when he was doing something else. Don't edit that gap out, Steve. Make sure the audience knows there was a gap there.
Speaker A
Okay, you can edit this one out, though. Now, what did we talk about on today's show? Well, so much to discuss, wasn't there? We had our plan all in place and then David Ornstein... It wasn't Pornstein.
Speaker A
That comes back later. There, I got Pornsteined again, guys. No, David Ornstein, the real one, Emperor Ornstein.
Speaker A
He published a new story this morning. Liverpool bring in Barker in principle. So we discuss that. We discuss what in principle means or we sort of imagine what it means. But will he be more bark than bite on Murzy side? Asks Steve.
Speaker A
I'm warming up, guys. Have you seen... Do you remember Bar, the drinks company?
Speaker A
No. They do like cheap pop.
Speaker A
Yeah. Like they do cream soda and stuff.
Speaker A
They do a version called cola, right? So it's Bar Cola. I see a few people sharing that picture around, which is quite cool.
Speaker A
Looking forward to the Art of Football t-shirt. There were erroneous references to ambidextrous players, right, Steve? He actually interrupted pedantically, didn't he, at that time to correct us to say ambipedal, corrected very early on by Steve.
Speaker A
After this, we move on to Chelsea and their first competitive game under Javi Alonso and apparently become defenders of the banking system in that part of the show. Feels very apt for a podcast like this, doesn't it?
Speaker A
There we play Rondo. Will Reuben be the first player to get two wins under his belt this season? Well, Steve's keeping a log, so we'll find out later on today.
Speaker A
Then we move on to chat about my beloved boys Fulham. I've been a longtime fan of Fulham, of course, as you all know, and their new era. It takes a while to get there, though, because we talk about chocolate. Do we talk about chocolate and a bit of cheese?
Speaker A
Chocolate and cheese. Chocolate and cheese. We talk a lot about chocolate and cheese during that section. You'll understand when you get to the Fulham section. It does keep getting derailed. It was also derailed by yachts. How do you seize a yacht?
Speaker A
We discussed that. Try not to unless you're an authority of some kind, in which case, have at it and seize as many yachts as you can or seize those yachts. No, something got cut. It was instructions about yacht seizing and who is and who isn't allowed to do it. Steve, as it turns out, very on the side of the elite.
Speaker A
Now, what else? Oh, yes, we move as we move towards the end of the show, we touch on Palace, Crystal Palace that is, and the future of their atomic striker, Jean-Philippe Pata. That'll make more sense. Jean-Philippe Pata,
Speaker A
I'm Irish. Got potatoes on the back. That's a tasty Spanish snack. That is. That's what I'd serve at my potato restaurant. Jean-Philippe Pateta. Anyway, there we go. That's the show. A little bit of admin to tell you about.
Speaker A
Ring for Analysis this week is all about Aston Villa. That's an audio-only podcast. You won't find it on YouTube.
Speaker A
So, if you want to hear that on Saturday, you got to find it on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts or wherever the hell it is that you get your podcasts. That's me and John. We'll be talking a lot about Villa and also I,
Speaker A
we haven't recorded it yet, but I imagine a little bit about Nicholas Jackson's move that was announced today, 65 million pounds. So that's out on Saturday. After Manchester United versus Ipswich Town on Sunday, me, John, and Ka will be doing our first live stream of the domestic season on Sunday.
Speaker A
So you can join us live for that or you can listen to it on Sunday night, Monday morning as well. We'll talk about that game and any of the other big games from Sunday. And then next Tuesday, you can catch us with Tom Harris, Colin Miller, and a returning Ruben as well.
Speaker A
Oh, and one last thing to say. We have our TFO live show on Tuesday, the 8th of August. That's scarily soon.
Speaker A
September. September. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. I don't even know when it is. We've got it on Tuesday, the 8th of September. I think it's sold out.
Speaker A
So, if you don't have a ticket, unfortunately, you probably won't be able to get one at this stage. But I do want to say a little shout out to our friend from Egypt and Jack's friend Yousef, who unfortunately is unable to attend the show, Jack.
Speaker A
Yes, he can't come over. He had a ticket. Was very, very excited. A good friend of both Ranks FC and of TFO, which is a nice crossover. There you go. But his ticket has gone to a good home. His ticket has gone to a good home because I am now going to be at the live show. So, that's good.
Speaker A
So, thank you and shout out to Yousef. What a guy. Thanks to you. Sorry you couldn't make it, but also I like this guy, too. So it works out fine for me. There you go.
Speaker A
Whether if anyone has a ticket to the live show and they can no longer go for various reasons such as Yousef's, maybe they should say so on a Discord or something so we can make sure those seats are full.
Speaker A
Well, you know, sounds complicated admin to me and I don't want to deal with it.
Speaker A
So I won't say that. Well, where else to begin, of course, than with the big news of the morning.
Speaker A
Yes, David Ornstein's had, well, you know, he's had a very busy couple of weeks, hasn't he? I feel nearly an hour goes by without a new story. Breaking this morning was, well, some breaking transfer news, reported by David Ornstein. Liverpool, he says, Liverpool have reached an agreement in principle with PSG to sign forward Bradley Barker.
Speaker A
Something maybe we were expecting, uncertain whether it was going to happen or not throughout the earlier part of the summer. Seems as though it's going to. The clubs have agreed terms. The proposed deal was overnight for a package of around 120 to 140 million euros overall, of which 100 million pounds is guaranteed. So Bradley Barker seems set to be the latest 100-plus million pound forward player.
Speaker A
Bomber, another. Do you know what, genuine bomber. There you go. What's the difference between in principle and the other stuff? It's just that they haven't signed anything yet. It's just like they've agreed.
Speaker A
Trying to think back to when I got a mortgage. What does it mean in principle? They're like, "Yeah, sure." In principle, you know?
Speaker A
Like, ask me if I want to go to the cinema with you or something.
Speaker A
Trying to ring you. Just ask me. Just ask me. Do you want to go to the cinema, Joe?
Speaker A
Yeah. In principle. Yeah. Okay. How do you feel about that? It feels very uncertain.
Speaker A
I feel like... I feel like it's not happening when I say that. I think so, too. It sounds like you're... It seems like I'm saying in principle I would, but based on... Say in principle to me when I ask them if they want to do things. So maybe that's what's hurting. Maybe that's what's hurting.
Speaker A
It feels like over the phone they've gone, "Yeah, that sounds good." And then when they get in the room, they haven't done the handshake yet. The handshake is important. That's what makes it out of principle. Presumably, once you... If you're in principle, you get out of principle when it's that when you went to the bank after your mortgage, you had to shake the bank manager's hand.
Speaker A
I feel like the gentleman's agreement is now a thing that...
Speaker A
Yeah. In principle. Yeah. Okay. What does How do you feel about that? It feels very uncertain.
Speaker A
I feel like I feel like it's not happening when I say that. I think so, too. It sounds like you're It seems like I'm saying in principle I would, but based on say in principle to me when I ask them if they want to do
Speaker A
things. So maybe that's what's maybe that's what's hurting. Maybe that's what's hurting. It feels like over the phone they've gone, "Yeah, that sounds good." And then when they get in when they get in the room, they haven't done the handshake yet. The
Speaker A
handshake is important. That's what makes it out of principle. Presumably once you if you're in principle, you get out of principle when it's that when you went to the bank after your mortgage, you had to shake the shake them. You got to shake the bank
Speaker A
manager's hand. I feel like the gentleman's agreement is now a thing that doesn't exist anymore.
Speaker A
Right. Right. Yeah. Well, because of woke No, we can't start two shows joking about working. Now listen, what else is there to talk? Well, of course, we're talking about Bradley. We haven't even talked about Bradley Barkley. We're talking about gentleman.
Speaker A
In principle, we're talking about In principle, we're talking about Bradley Barker. And I guess the first question, let me come to you, Jack. The first question is uh good.
Speaker A
Yeah. I mean, yeah. Yes, he is. He is good. An easy one to start with.
Speaker A
Yeah. Thank you, Joe. No, it does. Look, it feels like a a good signing. And I think what's interesting about Liverpool's business or at the very least the targets that Liverpool have had in recent weeks has been that at the
Speaker A
very least they've seem to be the same kind of like type of player and they're clearly looking for wingers who are going to stay wide, stretch the pitch, get in behind and that kind of brings it into well what do Liverpool want?
Speaker A
Because there hasn't been enough of that. Cody Hakpo is a fine player in his own right but seems to come inside and get in everyone else's spaces and and occupy the middle of the pitch. And I think that, you know, we're talking
Speaker A
about, we talked all summer about the idea that MoSalah is is leaving. You're probably not getting a right winger in this market who's going to be MoSalah like in terms of the output that they're putting in. So what do you do? Well, you
Speaker A
change the angle of attack. You try and run this through Florian Vitz. You try to give Florian Vitz the opportunity in which to thrive. And so if the Salah replacement, if you will, in inverted commas is Barkler, that is not a, oh,
Speaker A
he's going to go onto the right hand side of the attack and score 30 goals this season. It's all turn into Florian vscers who are going to stretch or at the very least pull defenders out of position and
Speaker A
Barker is one of those will probably help that. Oh, I like the sound of Florian and VFC. I mean, there's a temptation, John, to think that uh based on how everything went for Liverpool after last summer that throwing another
Speaker A
100 million pound plus attacking player in will make it worse rather than better. But do you think as Jack says there's a chance for Florian FC? Could Could this be something that actually helps the connection between the other
Speaker A
attacking players? Yeah, I think so. There's a lot of people asking, oh, do they really need that front line player because they seem to have a lot of issues behind the front line that that could be left open and we
Speaker A
I don't know what you mean. Everything's fine. We talked a lot about rest defense in the last in the last episode with respect to Liverpool. Um, and yeah, I think that's the the big question everyone has is like it's not
Speaker A
necessarily is this team going to be able to attack well. It's going to be are they going to be able to deal with the conditions that their attack create from a from a turnover situation.
Speaker A
I didn't realize we'd started talking about Chelsea already. Am I right? Hey. Yeah. But I mean it's it's a good point, right? I think that's the way that the that's the way that the game is going a little bit. It does feel as though we
Speaker A
are moving back towards this a game where teams are going to be direct and then they'll worry about covering the the the conditions that that creates defensively um when it comes to it a little bit. But I think with with
Speaker A
Barclay like that that front line is clearly lacking someone who is able to make runs in behind you know none of the none of the players that they have really I think do that well um especially from a wide area. So yeah, a
Speaker A
lot of them are balls to balls to feet guys who are going to receive the ball and then run at defender. So Rio and Gamoa is is is precisely that kind of guy. Cody Kako is the same as well. You
Speaker A
want you want him to receive the ball deeper and then carry it. They do need to have some kind of threat um in behind because that forces lines back and creates space for you. So it's definitely the kind of player that they
Speaker A
need. I suppose the the natural push back here would be, well, they've got like a hundred left-sided players. Yeah.
Speaker A
And they're not replacing Muhammad Salah with like a like for like, so a wrong-sided uh winger who's going to cut inside.
Speaker A
So, does Bradley Buckle usually play on the left for PSG? Yeah, because he's right footed, right?
Speaker A
So, that you then get the ability to to cut inside and take those shots on. Got it.
Speaker A
Um, does say that he likes his wingers to play both sides. Uh and to an extent I think that's because he likes to use what we call double width which is this idea that um you you you want to get
Speaker A
good connections between your fullback and your winger. So often what will happen is the winger actually heads backwards to receive the ball and the fullback makes the run in behind as well. So you know you've got players like Frimong and Kirks who are then
Speaker A
strongided attackers on that on that in terms of like their right footed players on the right side and left footed players on the left side. So they can swing the the crosses in as well. But you still need that that player who's
Speaker A
going to be able to run in behind um and and and cause problems I think in the first phase rather than once you've moved the ball down the field and you you're you're maybe sort of working a block a little bit more.
Speaker A
Yeah. I wonder what it means for for Rio and Mo because he was so exciting towards the end of last season. I I watching Liverpool play Newcastle at the weekend, I thought he was very frustrated on the right side. He didn't
Speaker A
look like the player that's going to help Liverpool break down a low block, but I'm not so sure that Bradley Barker is also.
Speaker A
Well, but I think that the problem with Rio and Gamo is he's much better on the left side, right? So you Oh, he's also better on the left.
Speaker A
Yeah. Right. So he's been who they have on the right as is Victor Munoz, right? Who they just bought.
Speaker A
They played him on the right as well. Yeah. He he feels a little bit more kind of ambidextrous in terms of he's to be fair, he's another in behind runner, right? And he made a big difference, I guess, when he came on
Speaker A
against Newcastle. He obviously got the won the penalty that that got the draw for them as well. So, um yeah, when I said before they don't have any players, Munos is that. But again, all I think all of the players they've signed would
Speaker A
probably have a tendency to play on that left or want to. And I think with Rio and GMO, we've seen it a lot this preseason where he's played really well on the left and then they've started trying to use him on the right obviously
Speaker A
because they're bringing in Barkler or attempting to bring in Barkler and as a result it feels like you just sort of slightly reduce his his even with the players that they currently have. He's like the one that it does the least
Speaker A
damage to their game to push him out there. Whereas like if you put Gakpo on the right, he kind of becomes completely ineffective at the one thing that he loves doing. It's kind of interesting how much it really does matter with
Speaker A
wingers cuz a lot of them you kind of consider some wingers you could put on either side and it doesn't really affect their game but some really depending on how ambidextrous they are really need all the game on one side
Speaker A
ambi footstress ambiped footstress sorry but also even like Florian Vitz as a 10 central player on paper loves to do left side of the pitch and then when comes back from injury if they're going to try and play him and Isach together
Speaker A
then one of them will probably They have to play wide and they both prefer left side pitch as well that would be right.
Speaker A
Let me uh let me spin you a yarn young. I remember a time when when wingers were all the had the same foot as their side.
Speaker A
Do you remember that time? It was a and then when people there was one day people started to go, what if we played a guy with a different foot than his side? Everyone said no. Surely no.
Speaker A
That's crazy. That's mental. Why would you do that? But uh but they did it and it worked and now they you know they can't go back again. Who was the first big high-profile inverted winger?
Speaker A
I don't know. I just think about Iron Robin all the time, but I don't know.
Speaker A
He played on the left for Chelsea, for Chelsea. But then when he went to buy and he played exclusively on the right.
Speaker A
It felt like that massive shift from like when everyone wanted to be number nines to then Messi Ronaldo started scoring loads and loads and loads of goals from wide areas. Everyone was like, whoa, let's be wide forwards. That
Speaker A
became a change. I think there's a tactical point here as well, which is when you're a coach like Areola who wants his team to play in transition a lot, you it then becomes way more valuable to have strongsided wingers
Speaker A
because you're playing at speed and you're wanting uh your your your wingers to get the ball across the the the the corridor of uncertainty has a right foot and plays on the Yeah. And and part of the reason why I
Speaker A
guess that Liverpool didn't look as good against Newcastle because Newcastle were sitting in a lower block, right? So it then becomes well now you you sort of want the threat of of a two-way winger who can go down the line and play across
Speaker A
but also come inside and place shots with their strong foot. So um I think that's that's kind of partly what this is about. It's like is yeah you would want him probably on the left if you're playing against lower blocks. On the
Speaker A
right the idea I guess is for him to get in behind an opponent and then play the ball across which again is it's not as much his game but like So what does their starting front three look like now? If if this is at 10, if
Speaker A
we assume Alexander Isak is is at nine, Barkler on the left, Barkler on the left, we think. Okay.
Speaker A
Yeah. If you're going to spend that much money, I mean, they've spent that much money on all of their attackers, but then he's got to play in his strongest position.
Speaker A
So, who do they play on the right? Rio, right? So, you think he'll be starting, right? Or I wonder if there's scope for at times last season when they were really struggling to like um stem the flow of goals that they were conceding.
Speaker A
They moved Sosai out to like a right attacking mid position for a little bit more security and then I guess Graven Burke and Mallister played the midfield allowing V players as a 10. Now Sosai seems to be central to all of their
Speaker A
midfield action. Yeah. So I wonder if they will be reluctant to move him out there, but he he can play on that side of the pitch and that might allow for a little bit more because there was so much talk
Speaker A
about their midfield security and how they lost the ball against Newcastle, right? Yeah. And that train only has been good in preseason. So maybe he could get some game time if was to shift across.
Speaker A
That's interesting. Well, also David David Ornstein continues in in this news story. Uh nothing has been signed yet.
Speaker A
He wants he wants in principle guys deal to be complete but potential transfer could have knock-on effects for Cody Gako uh who's repeatedly been linked to Tottenham Hotspur and has also been the subject of interest from Manchester City this
Speaker A
summer more recently. That'd be kind of interesting to see him at Manchester City, wouldn't it?
Speaker A
They need some wingers. I've been thinking about this all season. This City squad is paper thin and they just sold their most valuable winger.
Speaker A
Well, he's he was cost £85 million. His name was Savio. He was he was called Svenhinho who he was.
Speaker A
This is kind of Can we talk about this because like he was Salvio at Jirona and then he became and then he became Cinho. But now he's back to Salvio.
Speaker A
It's because it was on someone said on his put it on his Brazil shirt when he played for Brazil. They said, "Oh, we should add an Inho." And then he he said when he joined Manchester City, let's keep it for good luck apparently. But I
Speaker A
guess that didn't work. And then he scored then he scored one goal in two years and thought, "I'm not worthy of your suffix anymore." But I like it. I like it as a sort of like as a very uh a visual metaphor for
Speaker A
a change. I think it's fun. I think he's like, "No, this is done. I, you know, I'm I'm starting my new era." Do you reckon he'll change again if he goes somewhere else after this? Like, like, you know, they use Ino for little
Speaker A
and for big like Louis. Maybe he's Sav by the time he has to into Milan into R9 had Ronaldo on his shirt as a teenager at times.
Speaker A
There you go. Yeah, I guess cuz then he obviously and then he should have been Ronaldo at the end of his career. He very much is Ronaldo.
Speaker A
Now anyway, uh there we go. That's Bradley Barker. Hopefully that happens. And if it doesn't because it was in principle, then that was a [ __ ] waste of the beginning of the podcast, wasn't it? There we go. That's the fear of
Speaker A
having a mortgage in principle. In principle is a good start to the in principle it was a good start. We just we simply don't know. We couldn't say. Um let's instead talk about Chelsea, who in principle had a good
Speaker A
start. Hard to say for sure, isn't it? Earlier this week, of course, Chelsea got their season underway with a 3-2 win against Fulham at Craraven Cottage. H Fulham at Craraven Cottage. That's my team, Reuben. Did you know that? Now,
Speaker A
is this the first time we've mentioned Fulham on this podcast? That was that was the joke I was trying to make.
Speaker A
Is it actually like presumably it is the first time we've ever done a section?
Speaker A
Listen, I I want to address this. Okay. Um as the focus probably I'm a Fulham fan. I've always been a Fulham fan. I uh that's I mean that second part is not true, but I'm a Fulham fan now. I've
Speaker A
decided I've decided to join your ranks. You welcome me, Jack. You welcome me. I I welcome you, Jack. There you go. And welcome.
Speaker A
It could be worse. I did this to Joe earlier and this week we found out that Spencer Matthews declared himself a Fulham fan. And so, uh, it was literally I was like, please, anyone else. So, the latest that Joe has become a Fulham fan
Speaker A
really does make feel a whole lot better. There you go. Made in Chelsea. I hope you know that, uh, literally on a show called Made in Chelsea and he's like, "Yeah, I went to Craven Cottage and it was it's actually
Speaker A
really cool. The craven cottage you call those really. Yeah. Yeah. Those it I'm going to call it the craven.
Speaker A
That's really I'm going to do that. Oh yeah. Oh god. I was down at the Craven Cottage and No, I like to say Craven Cottage. It's a lot more fun to put the emphasis on the wrong word, you know. It just sounds
Speaker A
What? Instead of Craven Cottage. Yeah. Yeah. People say craven. Oh, is it Craven Cottage? Craven Cottage, you know. Anyway, welcome to me as a Fulham fan. I'm sure we're going to have a great time together. I've been learning
Speaker A
all about my new team which has a rich history of careful uh being something got cut there. It's a rich rich history of being in Fulham.
Speaker A
Anyway, uh of course my my new team lost so I'm sad. Uh but after to Chelsea who have a terrifying attacking triumpvirate, don't they? That was that was quite exciting. Right. Steve of Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers, and Jo Pedro all
Speaker A
grabbing a goal each in nicknamed JP Morgan. This is not good. I I think JP Morgan's quite good. I saw I saw CPR and I was like, I don't like that at all.
Speaker A
And then someone said back to life got a post from a Chelsea fan being like, "Congratulations to Fulham for the first season to have their home for foreclosed on by JP Morgan." And I was like, that's actually not bad.
Speaker A
There's so many opportunities here, you know. So when someone gets loaned out a little bit of JP Morgan, could we get a mortgage in principle from JP Morgan? Do they even do mortgages?
Speaker A
So So that's that's Palmer Palmer. In theory, it should like cuz J Pedro is JP, right? So it should be JP P Morgan, right?
Speaker A
JP Morgan Chase. JP Morgan Chase. Yeah, they chase down the ball. Anyway, there we go. They all scored a goal. Uh and it was it was a very encouraging attacking display. However, Chelsea's vulnerabilities at the back were pretty
Speaker A
clear. Uh they were still shown in Fulham's two goals as well. And we are going to come on to talk about Fulham a little bit later who it's worth saying at this outset uh didn't defend very well. So that's that's that's our team.
Speaker A
We didn't defend very well. Uh so it's hard to know really how much to read into Chelsea's attacking prowess. It was very nice to see Cole Palmer have an exciting game after a difficult season.
Speaker A
I'm curious if that will continue against teams that defend better than we did at Craraven Cottage. Anyway, John uh Jabi Alonzo JP Morgan do do mortgages, Steve just included that. Uh Jabi Alonzo called this a performance to build for
Speaker A
the future. There you go. Which also in incidentally sounds kind of like a banking ad branch, doesn't it? Uh what did we learn about Chelsea from the from their first game, would you say?
Speaker A
Well, I'm glad that we're speaking up for the banks. If if we don't speak up for the banks, somebody's got to.
Speaker A
We're on the rise out of history here. Somebody's got to uh Yeah. Yeah. It was a good performance. They got a win. They lost this fixture last season, I think.
Speaker A
Um and obviously like the excitement was that that Shabilon had found a way of getting these this front three into JP Morgan into the front into the front three and finding a way of mitigating it. He talked a little bit in the
Speaker A
postmatch press conference about how in the first 10 minutes he wasn't very happy with the way they were pressing and um yeah I think that they were just a little bit passive with their wing backs and they became a little bit more
Speaker A
active uh with that but I thought generally speaking they were okay out of possession um with the exception of the fact that sometimes I guess Fulmore playing with with their center backs like incredibly wide like basically in different post codes which um gives you
Speaker A
certain advantages also certain disadvantages when you play the Before long, your two center backs are like on other sides of the pitch and your two central midfielders have run forward and then Max Laquire takes out eight of your
Speaker A
team with just one simple header. Yeah. Center backs hate this one trick. Um and yeah, so that was it. That was one nil, right? Um but at the same time, it did afford them advantages which was that they were able
Speaker A
to generate a lot of space and time on the ball in their back line. um when when the Chelsea players were a little bit slow to jump out the Fulham were using Timothy Castana in in quite an inverted situation at first and and that
Speaker A
allowed space around particularly Calvin Bassie to then take all the time in the world to play a weak foot uh channel ball. But because Castania was dropping deep, Cole was jumping out the line.
Speaker A
There was massive space in Chelsea's back line as well and so they were just sort of bombing balls into the channel and causing quite a few problems for Chelsea there. How does I just I just want to say by the way
Speaker A
that it sounds a lot like we're talking about Fulham, but we are actually talking about I just I I know you're talking about Chelsea, but I'm just saying it sounds like we're talking about Fulham, doesn't it?
Speaker A
Sorry. And I know we have an ideological problem with that on this podcast. It's just that because of it's just all the effort that Steve and I went to to break it up into a different structure.
Speaker A
Yeah. No, no, no. I'm going to I'm going to The point here is that it felt as though it felt as though that there were issues in in defensive scenarios for Chelsea.
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I like it. Because Yeah. because they were slow getting out to that back line, it gave them the chance to to play a little bit more of a physical direct game. And I I think that, you know, the there was a
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little bit of a clown car energy at times to Chelsea's defending. Um, in part, I think because when you're playing, so you're playing a back five because you're trying to get that front three in. Yes. And that's the way that
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you're doing it. But it with the two 10, it becomes so easy then, I think, to create that space in the wide channels to to then attack a a fairly static straight back line. And I think that's why Alonzo was saying we want you you
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need to have your wing backs a little bit more active in those scenarios I think because otherwise it can be um if you're having Cowwell jumping out of the line rather than Hatau jumping up then you're then you're disrupting like the
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center of that line rather than the edge of that line. So it's worth saying just throwing in as well this is from Liam Th's piece in the Athletic after the game. He said, this is of Chelsea's defense, that they only
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won eight of their 22 aerial jewels and more than half of Fulham's long passes were successful, which is not not that's not a good defensive statistic.
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And and what that did is it made the game become quite a not not transitional in the sense of backwards and forwards, but like the changing of possession was was quite frequent. So, in the end, Fulham had 60% possession in this game.
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Chelsea only had 40 and which is kind of wild, isn't it? Like that's surprising.
Speaker A
Yeah. And I I tweeted about this um in in the week because there's a lot of teams this weekend in the Premier League who won with much less possession. So there was a lot of teams with 40% possession who ended up um winning their
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games. Um which again sounds kind of I mean it's very different territory from what we've seen in the Premier League for the last the decade or so. I mean the change has been happening over the last few seasons.
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But you particularly don't expect it from one of the elite teams. Yeah. Game play is a part right because Chelsea have the lead for what 70% of the game. We saw similar with Chelse with Brenford and Tottenham. Brenford
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had very little of the ball, but obviously they didn't need the ball because they they they absolutely pummeled Spurs every time they had it.
Speaker A
Yeah, I would push back in that, you know, Fulham did get an equalizer, but also I think that the elite teams often when it comes to game state, the elite teams find it much easier to control the ball when they are in a winning
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position. Right. So in the past that has meant that teams like City, uh Chelsea, you know, Liverpool under club, they would keep the ball when they were Yeah, exactly. because there's less need for them to get the ball into dangerous
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areas. You can keep keep the ball deeper in the field and and protect it. That isn't happening now because teams are so aggressive. Fulham's press was really intense for most of the game. And as a result, you're ending up with these
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scenarios where a team like Chelsea can sort of ease into a 3-1 um winning position, but then but then they're never they're never quite safe anymore.
Speaker A
Yeah. And it felt like by the end it felt like Chelsea were hanging on a little bit um because teams like that now don't have the ability to control the games in quite the way that they used to. and so it makes the games much
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more open. So I think that's why Alonzo will have called it a performance for the future. Um there's loads of positives there. I think you know he's he's clearly in and what you get from Alonzo is he instills principles into
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the players. You watch that team and you're like we know what they're trying to do. We understand what they're trying to do. They they had like a they had nice rest defense. They had really nice uh you know connectivity and buildup.
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They were stretching the opponent with a with a wide front uh with a wide front five when they needed to. And then you you you know they were creating scenarios for Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer and and Pedro, which is what you
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want to do when you have players like that on the pitch. The big the bigger question I suppose is like where does this plateau out? They're they're obviously going to be a very good team in the Premier League.
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How much is how much of this is going to is going to come down to maybe Fulham snatching a goal at the end and suddenly we're talking about a 3-3 draw rather than a than a 3-2 win. How much is that
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going to happen? How much are we going to see an improvement from Chelsea to be able to control those games better? And I think this is just the reality of the modern Premier League is it's just a bit
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more chaotic. It's a little bit less predictable. It's harder to control games. And so it's going to come down to performances rather than plans a lot of the time. I think it's going to come down to teams being able to keep their
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players fit. Um it's going to come down to teams having better runs of refereeing decisions or V decisions and it's going to come down to like things like recovery as well. So Chelsea, I think, will be right up there this
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season. But I think this was a really nice reminder of like what is at stake at the top of the Premier League. Yeah.
Speaker A
What was your perspective on Chelsea from watching the game, J? I thought I think John's right. I think structurally there was there was quite a lot to like. Obviously, this is not a first choice Chelsea side. I think
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there's still maybe three, four to come in there. If you're you're looking at it from both of those fullbacks, I'd imagine are not the first choice wing backs now that they brought in Pstra, Chavaria. It looked a little bit clunky
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on that left hand side with Joro Hat. I think it's probably better suited to to drop back into that left center back role. I'm still quite a little bit unsure on Coldwell playing in the left.
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like it feels like he probably should be the middle guy and then they bring in Laqua and obviously Laqua has to play centrally and yes Cole has played out at left back before but it feels like he wants to be the person kind of dictating
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from the middle of it. It's one of those weird ones where because he's left footed it sounds like it should just work fine and because he's like good on the ball quote unquote but having watched lots of Laqua last
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season obviously I think if you move Laqua to the right for example on his strong side it would be very uncomfortable so like you say he's got to play there.
Speaker A
Yeah. I mean look and then obviously Pana is you know absent at the moment.
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Rehys James I think might play a little bit of right center back. They they played a midfield with effectively no knees in Romeo Lavia and Ree James and you're thinking okay does a more physical unit than Fulham go through
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that and and effectively be like let's give that a little bit of a test and so I'd imagine let's attack their knees.
Speaker A
Well yes I mean I mean without being crass let's go for where their knees should be.
Speaker A
Yes. Exactly. Exactly. I mean a little bit of hot milk and I think both of those would have melted like wheat a bits but it just feels like Fulham didn't really have that in the locker but I I think Chelsea will get better
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and I think the fact that they've won this and there was obviously big positives in terms of the front three would suggest that it's going to be absolutely fine. I I still I saw nothing on Monday that suggested to me that they
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weren't had them second before the season began. I still think of those teams in that kind of pack chasing Arsenal they probably have the highest ceiling of the lot. You know, obviously things can change in the last week of
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the transfer window, but that's where I am on on Chelsea under Alonzo. I think once PTSA comes in, once Javalia comes in, once you sort of see what the midfield looks like, I think is obviously going to make it's
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going to make a big difference to that midfield as well in terms of the defensive side of things. So, I think a lot of Chelsea fans will be like, "Yeah, but when Kaisedo's back, a lot of the issues you're talking about here will
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probably go away. Although, I still think the worry is that if you directly play over that midfield into that back line, that's that's where the clown car element kind of comes. They they do have a and and and you know they've got Rob
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Sanchez behind them who had a really poor game that brings he had a bozo moment.
Speaker A
A bozo m he had a yeah maybe maybe two. No, I think the first the first one was definitely a bozo moment. But I think when you have a goalkeeper who is a bit shaky like that it that that makes it
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worse for you as a center back because you're like I've got to deal with this because we don't want to risk it going.
Speaker A
Perhaps not for long though. I don't know if you've read the news this morning John.
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This is a great segue. Well now David again. David Osen very busy man. God bless his family. Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, that's the player that we were just talking about, John. Uh it was at fault for both goals
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conceded on Monday as discussed. Uh and yesterday David Onson and Jacob Tanswell reported on the Athletic that Ameliano Martinez has been offered to Chelsea by his agent. It sounds as though he wants to go. I don't think you know the move
Speaker A
fell apart. Where was he going? Was it in that he was supposed to do that?
Speaker A
It was only like€10 million I think something like that. There was the chance I think that Spurs could be interested but that doesn't seem to be you know this is it was United last summer wasn't it?
Speaker A
It was United last summer that nearly happened and then they went for Lmens instead. Uh so it it is possible by the time that you know they play next or the following weekend that they may have a different goalkeeper. Who knows? Let's
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see. There are other transfer related discussions to have here as well. I mean one of them revolves around uh Enzo Fernandez. There was there was a a video on social media filmed by someone in the crowd at Craraven Cottage uh who was
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just filming Enzo Fernandez walking off down the tunnel as his teammates were celebrating with the with the away fans which uh did didn't look fantastic.
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There is still the possibility that he might leave and go to Manchester City or or wherever next summer. Um and this is from from Liam Tumi's piece in the athletic. None of the coaches that Blueco have appointed in the last three
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and a half years have found a way to make the Fernandez Kaisedo double pivot work out of possession. Alonzo is extremely smart and may have a tactical solution in mind, but if Chelsea can get the price they want from City, would it
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not be easier to move on and reinvest? What do you think, Reuben? I'm surprised that that combination hasn't worked.
Speaker A
Well, well, he specifies out of possession, right? And is this is that presumably because Fernandez is seen as like a little bit maybe not active enough, not physical enough because under Moresco he always used to end up in that kind of left hand position,
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didn't he? Could when somebody inverted, but in theory there's nice complimentary skill sets there.
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Um I enjoyed his reception at Craven Cottage from the home fans. That was funny.
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He was roundly booed, wasn't he? And I feel as though it was it was booed in a scenario where you've got to say the away Chelsea fans who were there didn't really seem to mind that he was I feel
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like one or two of them in were involved in the booing as well. The film fans kept it up for like arguably far too long.
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We're some of the best fans. I suggest that actually that was because nothing else happened. Like if it had been a goal I think it probably would have ended like but because nothing else happened it was like right just keep
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booing him. You know 20 minutes later you're like tired of this now. I feel like an Everton fan. Creative stamina has always been part of our fan base as Fulham fans. Jack, you I'd have been I'd have been going all
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game as well. I'm intrigued to see how long that lasts. But obviously Yeah. So like obviously Man City are interested in Enzo Fernandez for what feels like so much money, but then you can say that about basically every Premier League
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transfer that's happened this summer. So if everyone's overpriced, is anyone overpriced? That's true. The market is the market. In fact, Connor Connor O'Neal of the Athletic wrote a great piece the other day was sort of in response to this uh Savio
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Cinho story where everyone's saying, "Well, there's like a huge fee for for this guy." What Connor did was that he he took a look at uh the value of players listed on the German website transfer marked at the time of their
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transfer and then compared it to the actual transfer fee. And Enzo Fernandez is is top of the list of, you know, players who have been quote overpaid for. the the caveats here obviously are numerous and Connor writes about them in
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his piece and also one one of them is that number three on the list number two on the list is Virgil Van Djk who it's hard to hard to say you it's hard to look back in retrospect and say you
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overpaid for him but I feel like with Van Djk they went for him quite early right in his in his development and I suppose as a result he was undervalued at that point in time whereas I guess the issue with
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Fernandez is that he's been playing at the top level for a while now so that would but but but he was 100 million after a World Cup in like one season at Benfica, wasn't he?
Speaker A
Yeah. I mean, he was relatively relatively unknown, I would say, by a Premier League audience when he was signed by Chelsea.
Speaker A
It also worth saying that Savio Cevin was number five on the list. So, despite, you know, us saying, "Wow, what a huge overpay." But yeah, to answer your question, if they're going to stick with this 343 with uh Cole Palmer and
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Morgan Rogers either side of Jo Pedro, and the only place Fenzo Fernandez in that 11 is left center mid as one of the two. Um, and they're looking for obviously Rhys James has got to play as captain. And
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like Jack says, maybe he'll play at right center back a little bit. Can obviously play right wing back, but maybe you don't want to test his hamstrings too much. So he'll probably play in central midfield with Kaisedo to
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fix this problem that Liam Tumi alludes to. Is there an obvious place for Fernandez in the 11? Maybe not. And therefore probably makes sense to cash in, especially when you only have one game a week, which to John's point, I
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think will help with the familiarity and the consistency of these performances. Yeah. Okay. Well, there we go. Uh that's Chelsea. Let's have a quick break and when we come back, we will play a rondo.
Speaker A
Yes. What a terrific break that was. Now, let's enjoy a Rondo. Do you know what the Rondo is, Jack?
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I do, Jack. I do actually regularly quite listen to Listen, I'm going to Well, a couple of Fulham fans.
Speaker A
I know. I know. It's always, you know, you got to stick together in this environment.
Speaker A
You have to stick together, don't you? Uh, maybe a good time to say people should listen to Fulhammer, a fantastic Fulham podcast.
Speaker A
Thank you very much. 10 years as well. 10 years. 10 years. Recent 10 years. A decade.
Speaker A
Wow. I thought I was a longtime listener. Been listening listening for a month or so now. No, I've heard it before. Of course I have. Now, listen.
Speaker A
Uh, we're going to play around. Here's how the rondo works. Okay, I ask a question that has multiple correct answers. We go around in a circle. We give correct answers. If we give incorrect answers, we are rejected from
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the Rondo. If we give answers that other people have already given, active listening, we are rejected from the Rondo. Worth saying Rondo Del Rey and chief Ruben Pinda has returned from America. Okay. So, things are really going to get however
Speaker A
I didn't do well on my return though, I don't think. Not on your return. No, but it takes a little while to get back into the swing of things, doesn't it? Yeah. We can't all be much fit. Yeah, Savio, you know,
Speaker A
I'm undercooked. You're undercooked. And actually, Ka swept up. He gobbled up a lot of Rondo del Rey titles in the bed the other day.
Speaker A
I I think Jack's going to be quite good at this, though. So, I I don't know. Let's Let's see how we go.
Speaker A
Now, this today's category was suggested by Box of Zer on on Twitter. Also, incidentally, if you join the TFO football discord, there's a whole channel which is called Suggest Rondo, and I take many of them from there. So,
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thanks so much for your contributions. But this one's this one's from Box of Zeros and it is as follows. What I'm looking for Premier League captains according to the Premier League X account graphic that they published. So, of course, there are there are clubs
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that have multiple captain roles, but there's all they all have one leading captain, club captains.
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Club captains captains uh and uh one one per club. Obviously, we've done this before and got tripped up over the Have we done this? No. The nuances of Jamal cells. Do you remember? Okay. I remember that name. Uh anyway, so this
Speaker A
is this is from the beginning of want club captains, not just anyone who is a anyone not anyone who's worn the band.
Speaker A
This is put it this way, right? There was a Premier League X account graphic that they tweeted out that had one person per club. Whoever you think they would put on that, that's what I'm looking for.
Speaker A
Whoever writes the match program notes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And and I and I So therefore there is there's no nuance or gray area here. What I want is the person that was on that graphic. If they weren't on there, there's no
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discussion about whether they are or aren't a captain and any different kind of guys. I'm uninterested entirely. Uh John, let's begin with you.
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Virgil van Djk. Now, Virgil van Djk of course is the Liverpool captain. You can have him.
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Jack Martin Erdigard. Martin Erdigard is there as the Arsenal captain. Reuben Dean Henderson. Dean Henderson is there of course as the Crystal Palace captain.
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Ethan Ampedu. Ethan Aadoo leads United. You're correct. Yeah. Tom Kenny. Tom Kenny for Fulham. Now, nice. We've sw we've done We did big big teams first and then our own teams.
Speaker A
Yeah. And now we're entering the unknown. I went straight to my own. Okay, Reuben.
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Uh Bruno Fernanch. Bruno Fernanch is Manchester United's captain. Of course he is. Yeah. John.
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Wow. A silence already. Well, I was thinking of Man City and I'm like, I have no idea who their club captain is.
Speaker A
Really? Um, I'm going to say I've got a feeling, maybe I'm wrong on this, but tonight's going to be a good night at Mickey Vanderven is the club captain.
Speaker A
Oh, Mickey Fonden, I think you mean, is Spurs captain, of course. I did see a Dutch person responded saying that you're kind of pronouncing it correctly.
Speaker A
Disgusting manner. I don't give every Dutch person the it. I don't believe that. I believe that person is not Dutch. Just honestly, I don't know if you've noticed this trend, but underneath every single Tik Tok video where you know there's a there's
Speaker A
someone says something that's exciting. The first comment is always this is not true and then the follow-up comments are all it is true. I don't know. It's a weird trend to just claim that things aren't real.
Speaker A
Stop giving Jack time. He's quite he's quite chic quite chic to say everything's everything's not true.
Speaker A
I'm going to go for Reese James. Reese James. You can have you can have.
Speaker A
Right. Reuben. John McInn. John McInn. Jack playing this game with a kind of confidence that makes me think he's gonna win. John um and John playing the game with a lack of confidence.
Speaker A
I think I would have got that wrong. I think I would have gone Tyrone Ming.
Speaker A
Yeah, I did think about him. Okay. Um name a club, Joe. No, that's not that's not how it works.
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I'll give you I'll give you their captain. Norwich City. There's quite a lot of clubs. Listen, should I give Can I give you a clue?
Speaker A
I know all of them. You know all of these players? Yeah. Yeah. Clubs. Um and clubs.
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Lewis Cook. Lewis Cook for Bournemouth. No, is not there. No, unfortunately not there. Um, you are out of the Rondo, John. Jack, it's over to you.
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This is going Who's going for the Bournemouth? I don't know. I'm not going anywhere near that. I don't know who that is. But Nathan Collins is the Brenford captain.
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Nathan Collins is the Brenford captain. My name's sake. Adam Smith. Adam Smith. Yes, of course. Very good.
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The famed economist is the Bournemouth uh Bournemouth captain there. Back to you Jack. Morgan Gibbs White.
Speaker A
Morgan Gibbs White is not. Is it the presum you think it's the forest captain?
Speaker A
Of course it is. He's not the forest captain now. Now you can have it on that.
Speaker A
Are you going to Are you going to give Ryan Yates or are you are you going to flex and give another one?
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Granite Jacker. Granite Jacker of course is the Sunderland captain. Well done to Reuben. He's back. There you go. We all had high hopes for Jack, but he choked on his debut appearance. It happens to the best of us and it happens to
Speaker A
say Palasios. Well, now listen. Would anyone care to guess any of the remaining ones? No, I'll tell you then. Dan Burn, of course, is the Newcastle United captain. You've got Louis Cole for Hull.
Speaker A
Lewis Dunk. Coyle. Yeah. Well, that's his name. Lewis Dunks in there. Ruben Diaz. I like to call him Louis Cole. Hull fans call him Louis Cole.
Speaker A
Coyle. Yeah. Yeah. Matt Grimes is the Coventry City legend. A lot of lead legends coming out here. Louis Lou Ker O'Shea switch town. James Tarovski, not a lead legend, for Everton and then Ryan Yates for Nottingham Forest. Well done.
Speaker A
Yeah. Well done. A good a good rondo all round. I feel like City have just changed captain once a year for a long time. Do you know what I mean? Like have they had Ruben De since uh he's been part of the leadership group.
Speaker A
Bernardo Silva. There we go. You would have been caught out as well. Before but before Bernardo Silva, it was like Walker for a year.
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Stones was it for a bit as well, wasn't he? It was obviously like club captain.
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He's too good for club. It was I mean famously it was Walker was part of that group, wasn't it? Because I've been watching the Pep Guardiola documentary where every game you say in my name. Well, maybe it's because you're a captain and
Speaker A
you're a sheet. I didn't know that he divorced the most beautiful woman alive on the planet.
Speaker A
On the planet. On the planet. On your planet. On your planet. He obviously isn't from Earth, right?
Speaker A
That's that's the inference. Like he came down from some other That was in the book, wasn't it, John?
Speaker A
Yeah. Tact Tactica, the planet Tactica. Yeah. Anyway, there we go. Uh that was the Rondo. Congratulations uh to to Reuben.
Speaker A
Uh now, let's discuss Fulham. Full ham about this section. I'm just going to sit back and enjoy it.
Speaker A
This is the section I've been looking for. John, I need you. I need you.
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I've come to learn. I've come to learn. Now, listen. Fulham's I've called this section a new era and not just because I'm a fan there although that's worthy of a new era in itself.
Speaker A
Are you a fan for a full season and that's it. What's the what's we see how it goes. We'll see how it goes. You know it's like starting a new relationship. It would be mental to say I'm marrying this woman you know
Speaker A
forever. You've been going out for a week. Most beautiful woman on the planet. Well I can't because Pep Guardiola's going out with Garnacho.
Speaker A
She's available different club every year. Let's see how it goes. I will say that the intention here was for me to learn more about a club that we never talk about. But if I become emotionally entangled, then who knows? Maybe I'll
Speaker A
stick around. It's unlikely, though, isn't it? Because, you know, but Fulham is very you. You're very Fulham.
Speaker A
Come off it. That's That's just such a mean thing to say to me. You're just saying I'm posh. That's it.
Speaker A
No, I'm just saying you love a cheeseboard. I do like a cheese board. There you go.
Speaker A
Do they sell cheeseboards at Fulham? You can get full and branded ones, mate. Well, I know what I stereotypes are true.
Speaker A
I'm actually really struggling with this cuz I don't like cheese. I'm actually the worst Fen fan ever. I don't like cheese. I don't like oysters. I like caviar.
Speaker A
I didn't know about this cheese connection, guys. Now I'm feeling a little closer. I don't think Fulham fans are posh. I think they enjoy the finer things of life. And I think you enjoy the finer things of life, too.
Speaker A
Well, yes, I do. I also enjoy some of the scummier things in life. Yeah.
Speaker A
Are we still allowed to stuff our faces with Christmas chocolate at Fulham? You can have a cottage pie.
Speaker A
A cottage pie. It's just going to be green and blacks. Yeah. Yeah. Got it. Do you know I've graduated to green and blacks recently.
Speaker A
I've got a dark mint chocolate in the fridge on the go because I find it's the only chocolate that I don't instantly eat all of. You know, a little bit's just nice.
Speaker A
It's so rich. It's so rich. Just a little bit's nice. Micro do. It's the least moorish chocolate.
Speaker A
You're really not doing much to dispel the you fit at full. Straight from the fridge or do you leave it out for a bit?
Speaker A
Straight from the fridge. Like what? Straight from the Straight from the fridge. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Straight from the fridge. With this soft chocolate. What?
Speaker A
Too hard of a voice. For what? For your mouth. Yeah. In this climber. Out of the fridge.
Speaker A
Yeah. Within seconds. It's melted in my hand. No, it's nice to have to to be able to um listen, we've gone we're here to talk about Fulham in principle. This is the Fulham section. Anyway, now Fulham's new season. It also started on Monday. Of
Speaker A
course it did because they played in the game that we were discussing. It was also the start of a new era. A new coach Alvaro Albaloas. I can't even say his name. Alvaro Albo's first competitor.
Speaker A
Alvaro. Alvaro. Alvar. Alvaro. Alvaro. Not Alvaro. Correct. Well, I feel like that's people from Fulham. We should say Alvaro.
Speaker A
I mean, you put the emphasis differently, right Joe? But there is an accent on the Alvaro. Yeah, Alvaro Arbaloa. Got it. That's good.
Speaker A
Thanks. It was his first competitive game in charge of course after a summer in which the club clearly backed uh his his transfer ambitions, signing Gonalo Garcia and Cesar Palace from Real Madrid uh from I guess not strictly from the
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youth team, but you know players who'd come through Real Madrid's youth teams that were known to Alvaro Aloa. Uh the former of course scoring his debut on Monday and Shay Charles from Southampton for 30 million euros. Um, we listen, we
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we talked already on this the podcast this season in an earlier episode about a a kind of um increasing division between Premier League teams. Some that have clear sporting director models where all of the manager uh all of the
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power doesn't reside with the manager and some that have kind of almost gone tempted to say sort of back in time or maybe forwards in time and are embracing the notion of having a manager that has lots of lots of power and input. Fulham
Speaker A
seem maybe to be fitting into the latter now with with Alvaro Albo. It was slightly different before with with Marco Silva. Can you describe that change?
Speaker A
Yeah, I think Marco Silva must be spitting feathers if I'm honest. So he must be like hang on I did five years and you never really let me have any control over this and you know new fellas come in and you've signed two
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players from his old side and you know a couple more besides like I I do think it is a strange one at Fulham and and look we've seen it obviously Uno Emory Aston Villa has effectively just had the whole
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thing built around him and it's been majorly successful. So I think that there is a divide in it. Fulham have a bit of a strange setup with with our kind of sporting directors and what's going on there because Tony Khan is the
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son of the the owner Shard Khan. He kind of runs this director of football operations role rather than director of football role. He's very into a lot of different things. So he's very very interested in wrestling. He runs a
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wrestling company called Oleite. He is part of the Jacksonville Jaguars data center and what they do there as well.
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And then he has Fulham. So, one of the kind of common complaints I suppose within the club is that one, he's spread too thin, and two, you can't do all of these things at the same time because they're all happening at the same time.
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And so, that's s of something that comes along. And so, I do wonder if the fact that has come in and been given the funds and the leeway to sign two of the players that he wanted to bring with him
Speaker A
from Real Madrid suggests a little bit of a shift. I don't think it'll be a complete shift in dynamic, but a shift in a little bit of how the power base runs. But yeah, I'm intrigued because, you know, obviously Abel comes in here
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with 6 months of senior experience at Real Madrid, which ended with two of his senior players putting each other in hospital. Um, and then 6 months at Castillo where he did quite well, but not, you know, absolutely take the roof
Speaker A
off the place. And if Fulham had signed a manager who had, you know, let's say was associated with Liverpool's first team and then spent two years at Tram 6 months at Travers.
Speaker A
Yeah. and then six months at Chia Rovers and then six months at Liverpool's first team and they ended you know miles off the pace and with players fighting each other and then Fulham appointed them I think everyone would be going ballistic
Speaker A
but it's Real Madrid Spanish I do feel as though that's the case for these two players that they've bought as well and there was there was the rumor over the summer of Thiago Betak potentially a third I do like the
Speaker A
idea that you could you could give any number of reasons why this might not be a good idea but all the only response required is but they play for Real Madrid it's your loss blank like we are.
Speaker A
Yeah, exactly. I mean, look, I think that Garcia is a really good signing. Um, and I think that Palasios feels like someone who has the potential to potent to to be good. We paid not all that much money for him. I think that fee was of
Speaker A
around 10 million. That's a gamble that we've taken on a player who's not got much senior football. The big fee was Garcia who top scored at the club World Cup last summer who has had moments and and kind of I think has has shone in in
Speaker A
patches for Real Madrid. the tactical like models and the data doesn't love him because he doesn't create loads of shooting opportunities, but he seems to be willing to have a go. He gets into good positions. He scores a lot of goals
Speaker A
from like through balls where he's one-on-one with the goalkeeper and he works incredibly hard. Fulham haven't really ever replaced Alexander Mitravich up to this summer. Ral Gimenez came in and he was brilliant for the club, but felt like a bit of a cut price option
Speaker A
and he was brought in before Mitri left. He was never really seen as the guy to replace him. And to be honest, considering what he did for the club over those couple of years he was there.
Speaker A
I think there's a lot of people very happy about what he offered. But it feels like the first time the club have gone and spent that money to try and actually replace the goals that that Mitch left behind. And I think first
Speaker A
impressions so far so good with Gonzalo Garcia. He worked incredibly hard at the in the game on Monday and I thought was in the right place at the right time.
Speaker A
Half yard off it first half but you know if you can get to up to speed quickly I think he'll be a useful player. He got his goal.
Speaker A
He got his goal. That's what they say. You don't want him taking a pen in the third game having not scored. That's what you don't want. Very brief interjection there. This time last week, I was on holiday uh on a boat trip off
Speaker A
the coast of Was it like a party? It was uh it was a sailing boat with a motor and there was like eight people on it and they you get st There was only eight people on this boat. How long were you on the boat for?
Speaker A
4 hours. Okay. So, it wasn't like you I thought you meant you were on the boat for a week.
Speaker A
No, no, no. It's a boat trip. I was going to say a boat for for a week with eight people.
Speaker A
That's very intense. Some Americans from Minnesota going, "Oh, where is your accent from?" Um, but the Did you do the Roy impression?
Speaker A
Well, it's a very interesting question. No, they the the captain pointed out that one of the yachts that we could see belonged to the full owners.
Speaker A
Kismmet. You can hire it out for an extortion. You can hire the kismmet. Well, I know what I'm doing for my birthday, guys.
Speaker A
You might be able to hide a gizmo joke. I can't. Some fans trip away, right? Isn't it right? Great. Great idea.
Speaker A
Let's get us all together. Get four or five of us. I'm sure I'm sure we'll be able to people for Yeah. Yeah. We'll get seven people to bring the cheese.
Speaker A
Royard shouldn't be there. And we and we passed another one that was in the like static in the marina that had been seized cuz it belonged to a Russian oligarch.
Speaker A
Oh, I love all these. And we were like, why don't we just get on that one?
Speaker A
Every yacht has a story. They all have a story, these yachts. I love the idea of seizing a yacht when presumably it was just in the harbor and they were like, "Now we are in charge of this." Just put your hands on the the railing.
Speaker A
Yeah. Anyway, uh we're talking about yachts during the Fulham section. Fitting. Fitting. Now, you also you said recently on on the Fulhamish podcast, very good podcast, by the way. You said on the Fulamish podcast uh that with the
Speaker A
appointment of Abalo, you think that the ceiling may have raised for Fulham, but also that the floor may have dropped, which is quite interesting way of looking at it. Again, you know, relative to what Fulham were experiencing under
Speaker A
Marco Silva, it's kind of it's probably worth remembering before Marco Silva that it things were a lot less certain for Fulham.
Speaker A
Oh, it was very chaotic period. Um, and so the five years under Marco Silva and 5 years doesn't sound like that long a time, but actually in the modern game, it it really is.
Speaker A
David Bowie said it's not very long. Must have been up there was one of the longest serving by Yeah, he was like Daniel Farco something like the sixth longest serving manager in the in the Premier League. I think he
Speaker A
was second, wasn't he? Michael Carrick is the second longest serving manager in the big six. He was appointed in gently. We're about to deserve his third from March. So, yeah, we're all we're all moving. But when when you kind of look at what he did,
Speaker A
you know, he took a Fulham team that had been bouncing between the divisions, won the league at Caner in the Championship, played some really nice swashbuckling football, but I think everyone's been a little bit burnt by the fact that we'd
Speaker A
been in this kind of weird yo-yo period. and got up to the Premier League and from the first whistle of that first game, we played Liverpool early kickoff 12:30 on a Saturday in our first game back and it ended in a two- draw. I
Speaker A
remember walking out of it and being like, "Yeah, we're going to be fine. Going to be absolutely fine. This is a team that's physical, that's competitive, that wants to battle in the middle of the park. He changed a couple
Speaker A
of things. Pellini came in, felt like a really big signing at the time." and Fulham from that moment onwards, I don't think in those four years in the Premier League really had any moments where we were looking over our shoulder thinking
Speaker A
we could be in trouble in terms of a relegation dog fight. Now, part of that is that some of those seasons had very poor additions of of teams that went straight back down and that's fine.
Speaker A
They all included Spurs and Man United as well, but yes, indeed. But you kind of look at it and thought, okay, cool. So after this period of four years where you've not really thought about relegation but also a Fulham team that seemed to tail
Speaker A
off every year in March when it looked like maybe European football could be on the horizon or we get to a Carabal Cup semi-final and we'd lose over two legs very narrowly to Liverpool or we lost to Palace in the in the quarterfinal of the
Speaker A
FA Cup and that felt like a massive moment to get to Wembley and and play in a in a in a FA Cup semi-final. So Fulham just sort of felt a little bit short with Marcus Silva. that shouldn't be,
Speaker A
you know, taken for granted. Like it doesn't mean that he wasn't a brilliant manager. I think he goes up into the pantheon of probably the three greatest Fulham managers in the modern era. Um alongside Soy Hudson.
Speaker A
Oh, I wasn't that. I was just curious and alongside Yeah. Um and probably John Tagana.
Speaker A
We're very esteemed. There we go. Um but yeah so like he's done a wonderful job but it felt Fulham every year Marcus was like get off to a good start make sure that you're not involved in that relegation trap but it
Speaker A
felt like Fum ran out of gas by the time it got to March April every year. Now maybe that's a overreaction but it seemed to be a theme I think profile thing.
Speaker A
Yeah 100% he liked older players he wanted kind of players with Premier League experience and also I do wonder if part of it was the idea that Fulham have got to get like we weren't selling any players on. There is a reason that
Speaker A
Fulham had to get rid of Sasha Lucid the OP for example this summer you know to a competitor if you will in inverted commas in in Iswitch town who I think will be stronger for having both of those players in their squad but Fulham
Speaker A
had there was a year left on both of those deals and Fulham you haven't got any money in for Rimenez haven't got any money in for Harry Wilson who were arguably Fulham's two best players last season and I think that we've got to a
Speaker A
point where Fulham obviously have realized the need to bring in younger players this hasn't been just this summer but we also saw Oscar Bob coming in January we saw or Kevin coming at the end of last year, Emil Smith throw
Speaker A
before that, there was clearly a kind of maneuver towards younger players that might have sell value. That wasn't going to mean anything unless they got minutes and showcased what they were capable of doing. So, I think with Arbaloa, there's
Speaker A
a lot of unknowns around his managerial style. There's a lot of unknowns about what he's going to want to play. Like, I think we learned a little bit on Monday, but I think more than anything, there is a chance that Fulham get dragged into a
Speaker A
relegation scrap if this doesn't go to plan. Equally, if it does and suddenly you're playing with young exciting players and you know they have that energy when it comes to March and you're 10th looking up three places and
Speaker A
thinking there's only four points in that then maybe there is a space to get to a either a day out of Wembley or or get to a European place and see what the challenge is like. So I I think that's
Speaker A
what I meant by the ceiling of the floor. It's it's tough isn't it for teams in that kind of range because in the in the world of uh squad cost ratio that we live in now, is that what it's called?
Speaker A
Something like that. um you're basically being judged against your the amount of money you can bring in and for for you know a club like Fulham you know they're never going to have massive amounts of revenue through things like
Speaker A
the cheese sales simply can't cut it most expensive season ticket in the league I believe yeah that's true that's like yeah yeah and I think that's the the reality is is that for teams like that you know and and that's why people talk
Speaker A
about your Brenfords and your Bournemouth and your Brightons is is that the best way of bumping up your your your your revenue is by beingcoming Yeah. is being a selling club, right?
Speaker A
And I think that's that's the reality. If you can't do that, then you're you're sort of resigning yourself to be constantly in relegation kind of question territory. And yeah, I think it's I think it's really tough for teams
Speaker A
in those sorts of uh situations because um yeah, you you really are never going to break in unless you can and and again, it's not easy it's not easy being a player trading club, right? It's easy to throw that out there, but like all it
Speaker A
takes is for you to have one poor crop of players and then you're like, "Okay, well, we're back at square one." I think um it's just I think it's just tough for those sorts of teams in terms of that. Just to to kind of add
Speaker A
to that and and to to Ruben's point there, this is I think why a lot of fun fans who don't sit in the fancy new stand with his Michelin star chefs, etc.
Speaker A
look at that and go, "Yeah, all right. If you want like if you want to open up a social club called the Lighthouse that's open seven days a week, apart from when there's games on and it's going to bring money in, fine." Like, it
Speaker A
doesn't really affect me. I don't I don't really care. Like if you're going to make that into a place where there's restaurants and you know if it is the most expensive season ticket in the league, I'm never going to see that. But
Speaker A
you get a meal served to you at halftime etc. by a rotating cast of Michelin star chef. Like I'm I'm sure it's absolutely amazing. Right. I have no doubt about it whatsoever. Yeah. I mean all all of these things like they don't really
Speaker A
affect me as as a Fulham fan, but I have no problem with them being there as long as you don't even like cheese.
Speaker A
No, I don't like cheese. I know. I'm completely useless in these situations. As long as they don't take the little weird little Guinness man who serves at the edge of the house away. And they have refurbished the toilets, which is
Speaker A
great news. First time in 20 years we've had a refurb the toilets in the house.
Speaker A
What have they done? What? What? They just cleaned them, I think. It was It was a pit.
Speaker A
Is it Is there new porcelain in there? Yeah, new porcelain. They've done it all up. So, this is the thing that's most excited the fans for a lot of the the summer. But like in terms of what that
Speaker A
is in terms of making money from places that aren't necessarily within the club like all of those things are okay cool there something that people are going to talk about and you know they're going to be a cause for mirth I assume amongst
Speaker A
other fan bases but ultimately fine that's bringing money that's bringing in money to the club then I like you know they're talking about bringing concerts to Craven Cottage and I'm sure that won't get allowed because of restrictions etc. But I was at Bad
Speaker A
Bunny and Tottenham's ground in the summer and thinking I probably just paid for like one/10en of Svenia.
Speaker A
We could we could get some classical musician. There we go. Okay. Well, I mean I think speaking of young players, speaking of player trading, the Fulham does have, you know, some a somewhat impressive roster. It was very exciting to see Josh
Speaker A
King. That's very American. You said Fulham does have a somewhat impressive roster. You said that again in English.
Speaker A
Uh Fulham has a a Fulham have a crop of young players. America. Oh yeah, I said you Americanized it both ways.
Speaker A
I did, didn't I? Well, I'm a Fulham fan now. I you know that's that's just how we Full America. Here we are. We're back.
Speaker A
Full America. Uh my point anyway was just just to say that Josh King was great. You thought he was good as well, didn't you?
Speaker A
Yeah, I I love Josh King. I thought he I was quite excited about him last season and it didn't really kick on for whatever reason. I mean, you'd be better at talking about that than than I would, but
Speaker A
he played in the 10. Yeah. and uh he just looks he just he's an exciting he's an exciting player and um I I guess you know the way that the the Premier League has gone. I was having conversation this morning
Speaker A
actually with some Man City friends about how the the number 10 position has evolved to to being a much more you know we're moving towards more physical profiles but Josh King does feel a little bit of a throwback and I I guess
Speaker A
that's what we're going to get with our beloas Fulham. It feels like there is going to be there's going to be excitement in in in those positions.
Speaker A
This not this is not going to be a a low block encounter side by any stretch, right?
Speaker A
No, I think we're going to be pretty front-footed is what we've seen. As you kind of alluded to earlier, you could have driven the number 14 bus through the two for them center backs for much of the game, which was a bit of a
Speaker A
concern and Chelsea did through long periods of it. But you kind of look at what he's trying to do and and and it's a change in that Marco Silva always seemed to want to attack down that left hand side, right? Like he loved Anthony
Speaker A
Robinson. He loved having a winger who who' tuck in there and kind of utilize that triangle. And suddenly you're like, "Oh, okay. Both of our fullbacks are the, you know, the highest players up the pitch. There is a lot of space in
Speaker A
that central area that Sander Burgerer is having to to deal with right now. I'm not 100% sure that him and Aobi are physically capable of doing that. Um, you both excellent players in their own right, but they're both quite plotty, I
Speaker A
suppose, and you kind of need a little bit of of kind of dynamism if you're going to fill that big a hole." There have also been reports of Sanderberger potentially moving away from we don't know.
Speaker A
I don't think that will happen. I'd be surprised if anyone pays what Fulham would demand for Sanderburgger given that we don't have anyone else really in that position to to kind of fill the gap. So yeah, potentially. But I'd say
Speaker A
you'd need a £50 million bid and I don't think anyone's going to pay £50 million to Sandberger and to be honest, nor should they. Um but but one of those where he's more valuable to Fulham than he would be to
Speaker A
anyone else. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. So I I think that with those two and to to John's point here with those two fullbacks high and wide we're going to effectively see I think three number 10s behind a striker and it's going to be
Speaker A
those interchanges for have a lot of those kind of small technical players Josh King Oscar Bob Cesar Palasios who you know is the other the other new joiny from from Real Madrid and then Emil Smith row as well who will kind of
Speaker A
feature in those kind of positions Kevin to a degree you're kind of looking at and thinking okay there's a lot of players in similar kind of profiles I'm a little bit concerned that there's almost no pace there and Garcia's not
Speaker A
the fastest either. And I think we lack a little bit of kind of dynamism in behind, but I think it's going to be quick interchanges, very technical players. They're going to have to add goals to their game. And that I think is
Speaker A
the thing that was nice seeing Josh King get off the mark. Obviously, he was denied his first goal in the Premier League at Stanford Bridge last season by that V decision that was pulled back and it felt like a very harsh decision.
Speaker A
It was a very harsh decision. Yeah, I'm not going to say what I thought about it at the time, but um like you kind of look at that and you think that might have been the moment for him to
Speaker A
kick on and like have quite a productive season as it felt like it really shook him set back. He lost his place at Smith Row kind of shortly after that and they kind of interchange for the rest of the
Speaker A
season. I think if he's going to nail down that starting spot, he needs to add production as does Oscar Bob on that right hand side who was behind Harry Wilson in the pecking order and you know we were talking about wingers playing on
Speaker A
their wrong sides earlier. Um, I think that Oscar Bob being forced out to the left hand side because Harry Wilson was in such a rich vein of form, he just never really felt like he settled. Now he's going to get that opportunity to to
Speaker A
showcase what he can do. So, I think film are going to be quite fun to watch.
Speaker A
I think we're going to be entertaining. I think we're going to be a bit of a neutrals favorite.
Speaker A
I picked a good year. We picked a good year to to do this. I think it's going to be pretty chaotic.
Speaker A
Um, but that defense does need tightening up before deadline and we're going to be conceding a lot of goals.
Speaker A
Well, I love a bit of chaos. Very exciting. What is your prediction for their finishing position this year? I mean, I think based on everything you've said so far, we understand that that's a hard question to answer and we know very
Speaker A
little about Alvaro Abaloa to this to this with Fulham to this extent, but um where do you expect them to finish?
Speaker A
Yeah, I mean, look, a lot depends on who comes in in the next few days. Albala apparently wants five more through the door. I'd be very surprised if five more come through the door in in the next few
Speaker A
days. But are there any that we should be, you know, thinking about? any any more certain?
Speaker A
I'd imagine that there will be a right center back. That's the the one that Fulham seemed to be very very hot on.
Speaker A
They were looking at No from Trabon Sport earlier in the window that went cold. It feels like it's still on ice and they might revisit that one later on. They were looking at Raphael again who's at a breast who is very talented
Speaker A
but with very limited minutes. So I think he's played like seven professional games, six foot six. We're we're linked with him as well.
Speaker A
It's it's a concern that you're like, "Okay, is that where we're going to with this?" But that I think there will be a right center back that comes in. I'd suggest there'll be a right winger that comes in although that feels like a
Speaker A
deadline day Tony Khan special. Um and then from Real Madrid. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be Thiago Patak like we'll see. And I think there'll be a center mid added like I think that's probably where we're at.
Speaker A
But yeah, it really does depend. I said on Fulhamish 14th and and look it's been funny actually hearing people kind of talk about it here in the Fulham fan base talk about the idea that Fulham could be dragged into the relegation
Speaker A
scrap and there's been a lot of different places that have kind of talked about this and have Fulham 18th or 17th and to be honest I understand why and and it's funny because I don't people are going why you know we brought
Speaker A
in this manager from Real Madrid and we brought in the striker and I'm yeah but you know this is very new things have changed if one of the you know promoted sides was to kick onwards there's obviously someone going to be dragged
Speaker A
into And I was talking about this with Ruben before the before we started. People going, "Yeah, yeah, it's ridiculous. People talking about Fulham.
Speaker A
We should be talking about Palace, new manager, you know, changing squad." And I'm like, "What are you talking about?
Speaker A
This is the same conversation that we've just been having." So, look, I I think Fulham will be okay. And based especially on Monday and the way that they they went about their business, I'll be surprised.
Speaker A
They scored two goals. They could have scored more, right? Surprised if we get relegated, but I can see why people would have put us into those conversations before the season began. I'm going to say 14th. But I think Gonzalo Garcia has a good season
Speaker A
and if that happens and we get a platform to build from, I think that's a success.
Speaker A
Okay, there we go. Well, that was Fulham. Anyone would anyone like to say anything else about Fulham before we move on?
Speaker A
Well, what's your prediction for Fulham? Top. Top top. Okay, let's have a break. Okay, we're back from the break. What a terrific break that was. Now, Crystal Palace. We should be talking about Crystal Pal. I'm hearing people say we
Speaker A
should be talking about crystal in the context of will Fulham go down in the context of Fulham's oncoming relegation. Now, how do I say this guy's name? That's the first question. Pierre.
Speaker A
S. S. Oh, I like that. The wise rock. Oo. Is that what he's known as?
Speaker A
Well, Pierre is Peter, right? And Peter is rock and sage as in wise. So, the wise rock.
Speaker A
The wise rock. I like it. You had to do your working, but once you did, I enjoyed it. Pierre s I don't know strange but yeah anyway it was Pierre Serge's first first competitive game in charge of crystal
Speaker A
pass it ended in a two-nil defeat to Everton on the banks of the river Murzy writes Steve the Eagles I'll give you a clue Steve wrote this as well the Eagles failed to swoop down on several presentable chances before becoming
Speaker A
unstuck against the toffies on the break I always find that expression interesting coming unstuck shouldn't it getting stuck before. Well, I think if you're stuck, then you you're fixed and you're in a fixed and if you become unstuck, then
Speaker A
you're sort of you're everywhere. You could be anywhere. Do you know what I mean? You're plans come together and are then unstuck.
Speaker A
I think there's there's so much metaphor going on here that I have no idea of knowing where we're at.
Speaker A
There are a few cross metaphors. Well, also if that's not enough, right, Steve? TMIC striker.
Speaker A
I like TMIC. TMIC. You're like Tomic. I think I think PMIC would be better actually. TMIC and Totemic striker TMIC Jean Philippe Mateta he looks set to finally leave uh with Aston Villa pursuing a purchase other clubs as well
Speaker A
reportedly interested I don't know what's we'll find out what's happening with that all in all not not the start Palace would want uh as they welcome Manchester City to sell her park tomorrow evening that's on Friday Friday of course Reuben um first question who
Speaker A
the [ __ ] is this Sar guy he uh he took longs to second place finish oh S was at in leer.
Speaker A
I like that. That's nice. Um and he rescued Leyon from a disastrous season a couple of years ago.
Speaker A
Really? Um so yeah, promising record in France, I guess. Continuity option with him playing like the same sort of formation.
Speaker A
Yeah, he seemingly happy to play either a back four or a back three in his previous roles, but has continued with the back three system. Okay. So, it's sort of continuity with Oliver Glasner and shown signs of where the club have
Speaker A
kind of doubled down on that by signing a couple of new wing backs and kind of versatile wide center back options like Tommy Aasu and Minga.
Speaker A
Mhm. Although as a as a La Liga, Minga right wing back or right center back cuz at Barcel he was like a right back.
Speaker A
Neither he's one of the weirdest players I've ever seen in that he doesn't really do anything apart from his passing range is absurd. You can't really I think you might have to stick him wide because or you have to find someone that's going
Speaker A
to cover him because effectively all you want him in there for is to like marau and just play passes. Um but yeah, I'd say probably right center back, but as long as your right wing back is doing some work backwards,
Speaker A
which Daniel Munoz has done a lot of, but Daniel Munoz has now been linked with a move away and the signing of Anan Kalilei from Salis is kind of um preemptively replacing Munyos in theory and losing Munoz would be a
Speaker A
massive blow especially with Ishma seemingly having his head turned by Galas Ryan. Where's Muno's being linked to?
Speaker A
Weirdly Everton. Oh wow. Everton Everton have needed a right back from Bren Johnson's already made.
Speaker A
They won two- nil. You know, everyone wants to play for Moyes. Yeah. Um Okay. Well, we're on transfers. Uh uh sorry. Pal has also rebuffed a Liverpool move forar as well. Does it seem like he's going to go? Not necessarily to
Speaker A
Liverpool but the club the club seems to be making it clear that he's not for sale, right? That seems to be what happens just before a player leaves.
Speaker A
Yeah, I think we're trying to drive the price up. It's a weird one because like a bit like Sander Burger at Fulham in that um he's so valuable to Palace what he did last season kind of dug them out
Speaker A
so many holes in the Conference League has been so scored so many important goals but a big team might look at him and think he's not worth 60 million or whatever Palace want for him because he's 28. He is see like technically a
Speaker A
bit more limited than the wingers that you traditionally see at those at those teams and weirdly plays mostly on his strong side. He plays on the right. So, he was kind of like Oise's replacement um at Palace, but like there is more
Speaker A
attacking depth now if he were to go kind of uh we've signed a guy called Go from Rail Salt Lake, right?
Speaker A
And I can't wait to hear about I mean he looks he does look good. Yeah.
Speaker A
Waiting for Go. Well, no, I was I was actually I was actually thinking I can't wait to hear how John describes his first poor performance. Yeah. You heard a bit of a bozo game. wake me up before you go.
Speaker A
There's there's something that works nicely. So, to tell me about Go. Well, he's like a right-sided player.
Speaker A
He's been playing as a wing back in MLS, but I think Palace intend to use him more in the front line. Um, it's just like a young dynamic, right, attacking player. Scored some spectacular goals in MLS, but okay,
Speaker A
it's hard to know how much you can take from that given the level is very different. And of course, a very rare swap deal in Dwight McNeel for Brennan Johnson right?
Speaker A
In which everybody involved goes, "Yeah, all right. I'm quite excited to see how how how Dwight McNeel fares at Crystal B." It feels very correct to me. He's very, but like I didn't like him playing not as a wing
Speaker A
back. I was like, "Surely you bring him in to play him as a wing back and then suddenly he's in the front line." I was like, "No, no, no. Playing like 10." It's bizarre. Um Yeah. I mean, I think
Speaker A
the reason he was brought in was because he can play any of those four positions, I guess.
Speaker A
Right. Um, but yeah, Brennan Johnson was a very bad move in January, which didn't work out at all. Um, never could have imagined that.
Speaker A
Yeah, it was like club record fee on the 2nd of January, right? But kind of a panic because Ishma was at AFCON and Munoz was injured and we had no pace in the team and like 3 weeks later it was like, ah, he's not working.
Speaker A
Brennan Johnson's a very confusing player to me because he's he's one of those players that the amount that I watched football last season and the season before I thought he's kind of [ __ ] but everyone said not
Speaker A
everyone people said to me like no he's he's great he's really amazing so I just assumed I wasn't watching enough football if you can put a chance on a plate for him at the back post with nobody in his way
Speaker A
he does that thing where he taps in at the back post a Spurs supporting uh colleague um told me in January, you will never see him take anyone on and beat them.
Speaker A
And we never did. Somewhat disappointing that is, but he's already scored for Everton, so that doubles his goal tally for 2020.
Speaker A
Did he score against you? No, thankfully not in one of their EFL Cup games in the League Cup. Yeah.
Speaker A
What about against Preston in the David Moyes derby? There you go. The big the big DMD. Uh what what hap what's happened with with Jean Philip Mes? I haven't been following this huge saga.
Speaker A
Yeah. So in January he tried to, this is important context, he wanted to leave in January. He wasn't playing very well.
Speaker A
Well, Man United tried to buy him last summer, didn't they? Or there was a there was he was on the verge of joining AC Milan in January and during the medical, it became apparent that his knee was bad. I don't know the exact
Speaker A
diagnosis. It didn't exist, but he then kind of and he wanted to engineer this move because he really wanted to go to the World Cup with France, which he did end up doing.
Speaker A
Played a combined like half an hour. Sure. Um, but you know, he was kind of like the obvious plan B for France and and he he achieved that. they he had to weigh out whether or not to have surgery
Speaker A
on this injury and I think it you know well it was decided that he wouldn't and that he would kind of just have a few weeks off heal well enough and then he scored the winning goal in the
Speaker A
conference league final and kind of got Palace fans back on side um after quite an unpopular thing to do and trying to like engineer a exit on deadline day.
Speaker A
Sure. But now he's undone a lot of that goodwill or his agent has by trying to argue with various footballing institutions. It it seems like they're not really sure who they need to take this complaint to cuz FIFA have said
Speaker A
it's not in our jurisdiction. They're arguing that the final year of his contract, which was a club option, you know, when it's like four with a club option of an extra one to preserve value, is invalid and that he should be
Speaker A
allowed to leave for free, right? which isn't true seemingly, but he he really wants to go or I mean, yeah, that's what it looks like.
Speaker A
What is his age? Uh, such a weird way of asking that question. I think he's about I think he's I think he's also 28. Let me check. You sound like you've translated that back from different accent.
Speaker A
It was a very French. How many years do you have? How many years does he have? He has How many years since birth?
Speaker A
He has 29 years since birth. Okay. Interesting. So that's quite a lot for a player like you don't want to wait, you know, listen, you're at that stage where you can't waste any more time.
Speaker A
So yeah. So and now that Nicholas Jackson as reported by David Ornstein, yes, is going to Aston Villa from Chelsea, um, makes you think maybe the that possible Villa move from Metata is no longer there, but we've seen various
Speaker A
reports this morning that maybe Tammy Abraham's off as well. So maybe that opens a space for him. could say United have been interested, but they also have like four players who can play as a nine.
Speaker A
Time is running out. I don't think many big clubs are going to want to pay the money that Palace will want having already turned down bids in the sort of 25 million region for Mateta.
Speaker A
So, he might have to stay and try and earn the trust of the fans back again.
Speaker A
Glad it's not my club. Hey, Jack. Okay. I mean, this is one of the great love stories, right? Like the onoff relationship between Mateta and Palace fans is really quite something.
Speaker A
Only half of us are going to shout boom. Say boo though, so it sounds exactly the same.
Speaker A
Uh prediction for their season. Um could feasibly be 11th? Uh 12th again. 12th. Who gives it? Yeah.
Speaker A
Is it was it 12th? I thought it was 11th. 12th. This the song goes 12th. I think that's our most common finish. I I Well, again, we're in the Europa League having won the Conference League. We have the depth
Speaker A
to compete in theory, but there's a lot of change going on obviously. So, I'll say 15th, 16th and the knockout stages of the Europa League.
Speaker A
Yeah. Do you know what I'm feeling? It's just a vibes check. I'm feeling uh 17th.
Speaker A
I'm feeling that there could be some scares ahead. Do you think SG will last the season?
Speaker A
I don't know who that is. No, listen. Let's uh we Steve, how much time? We We haven't got any time, have we?
Speaker A
No. No, no, no. Well, what we were Should I tell people what we were going to talk about? Yes.
Speaker A
Yeah. We were going to talk about a bunch of transfers. We were going to talk about Nicholas Jackson to Aston Villa. Uh Ollie Watkins to Al Hell. Now, it's worth saying, John, isn't it? I will have mentioned this in the intro
Speaker A
already. But our Ring for Analysis episode this week is about Aston Villa. So, maybe we'll be able to talk about Nicholas Jackson in that episode. If you're watching this on YouTube, uh Ring for Analysis is only released in audio.
Speaker A
So, you can only find it on RSS feed. So, Spotify or Apple Apple podcast, wherever wherever it is, you get your your audio podcast there. So if you want to hear us talk about Villa, please uh check in uh with us on that on Saturday
Speaker A
this week. Jack Greish, we don't know where he's going. There's a bit of a saga. Could have been yesterday sound like Sunderland Assaga. Uh today it sounds like it could be um it could be Villa.
Speaker A
Steve's read the username of that link that Steve's pasted into the script there. Oh, Pornstein. No, it was me. I put it in. It wasn't Steve.
Speaker A
You've been done by another. I've been porn steamed again. Oh my god. The second time this summer I've been pornsteined again.
Speaker A
What was the other one? Bird. You know what you need to do? He nearly supported Sunderland because of Pornstein.
Speaker A
Pornstein. Go tell me again. Pornstein. Do you know what you need to do? Put David's tweets on notifications and then ignore everything else you see.
Speaker A
Oh, that's interesting. I do that. Do you know what? There's a little thrill in getting porn steamed. I have to say there's a bit of a thrill in getting just a little bit porn steamed. I don't mind it. I don't mind it cuz I thought,
Speaker A
oh, oh, Villa, Sunderland, there's a saga. Turns out there's no saga. Just have a good time in Sunderland, Jack Greish, I hope you get up there. Now, what else? Oh, yeah. Manchester City signed a new player. Uh, Alan, we'll
Speaker A
talk about him another time. And Nikico Gonzalez has gone to Newcastle, which I'm sure we'll discuss as well because that was, you know, it was a high priority target for Matias Yeler apparently. 48 million pounds up front.
Speaker A
So, lots for us to talk about in future episodes, but no time to do that today.
Speaker A
John McKenzie, thank you. Thank you so much. I've really enjoyed today because I felt like I've been on other podcasts.
Speaker A
I've been listening to a podcast. It's been great. No, that's true, isn't it? It's nice.
Speaker A
Ruben Pinder, thank you. Thank you very much. And Jack Collins, thank you. Thank you very much.
Speaker A
What a great Oh, we're clapping him. We're clapping. Look at that. We clap at Fulham, don't we?
Speaker A
Yeah, we do. We love the clap with the clapper. Get the clappers out next time.
Speaker A
Yeah. Or Hey, something got cut at the end of the show. Also, uh, see you later Steve.
Speaker A
Goodbye. Yeah, there you go. We'll be back a different at a different time. Bye.
Topics:LiverpoolBradley BarkerChelseaJavi AlonsoFulhamFootball transfersTifo FootballPodcastPremier LeagueCrystal Palace
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