Football Yanks

Why the US Men's Soccer Team Keeps Falling Short: Inside the Latest Disaster

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In this thrilling episode of Football Yanks, hosts Derek, Luke, and Ryan dive headfirst into the hottest topics surrounding international and club soccer. Kicking things off, the trio scrutinizes Pep Guardiola's influential role at Manchester City and debates the controversies surrounding his final season steering the ship. While discussing Man City's ongoing legal battles and potential financial scandals involving Chelsea, they don’t hesitate to express their opinions on the ethical implications and the murky world of football finance.

Shifting the focus, our passionate hosts express their frustrations with the US men's national soccer team despite their impressive FIFA ranking of 11th. Was their disappointing performance against Colombia a result of mismanagement, player inadequacy, or a combination of both? They meticulously analyze the tactical missteps and player performances, advocating for immediate changes if the team is to compete at the highest level.

Additionally, the episode serves up juicy transfer rumors and updates, including Lukaku's potential move and Jamie Vardy's new contract with Leicester. Luke, Ryan, and Derek also speculate on future signings and managerial shifts that could reshape the landscape of the Premier League.

As if that's not enough, they touch on the controversial behavior of Jack Grealish, team management dynamics, and shocking events in recent women's soccer. With a sprinkle of light-hearted banter about cricket, curling, and AI hype, this episode promises to keep you both entertained and informed.

Don't miss the closing remarks and a sneak peek into their upcoming Euros and Copa America coverage. Tune in to Football Yanks and join the riveting discussion!

Referenced This Episode:
https://x.com/_MrDoorey/status/1797733965450920044

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Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Football Yanks podcast. We're going to call this special episode for the week of June 10, the why does the US suck so much at soccer? Episode? So we'll be diving into our friendly result, if you want to call it that, against Columbia. In much deeper detail than that. Greg would probably prefer us to. And then we'll be getting into the weeds of financial fairplay, or PSR, if you will. I think if I'm getting the acronyms right, in the Premier League, in more detail than city and their saudi friends would prefer us to as well. And then no episode this summer will be complete without Ryan Rizzio Romano's transfer market corner to wrap things up as well. Anything else I missed there, guys? You tried to merge my name with Fabrizio. Thought it was Ryan's rubber mill. All right, Ryan's rumor mill. Luke's got it. He's handling the marketing for this pod moving forward. Yeah, we're american, but we're talking about soccer here. Hosts Derek, Ryan and Luke are all football fanatics tracking our fellow yanks in the EPL and abroad. Enjoy today's episode. I can't even remember what I asked. I just remember that I've been waiting for Ryan for, like, 30 minutes. That's really. There's no shot that that is correct. Luke is the first rod today that gets on and immediately proceeds to ask why the two other fuckers of the podcast haven't taken care of the show notes that he refuses to read. Hey, I read them, just not before the show started. What do we title? What do we title this? You would open them and write, I'm not reading this. And I think that was before the show. Yeah. What do we title this episode? Why does the US men's national team suck a big fucking? We should talk. Yeah, we actually could call it that because we need to talk about that at length, I think. Um. I don't know if there's much at length. Fucking. Yeah, I'm updating the stream title, uh, pre euro nonsense, and us men's national team sucks a fucking bag. I mean, I guess, but, I mean, I think it's worth posing the question, like, is it entirely a coaching thing or is it also a talent thing? I don't know what you guys are talking about. We're talking about us men's losing to Columbia five. I missed this. So you didn't watch any of that game? No, it did. Did Copa. This is really bad. Did Copa America start? No, this is friendly. Okay, so it's a friend. Yeah, I, like Ryan, has a life outside of this podcast, apparently, is what he's trying to transmit at the moment. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't watch the friendlies. I didn't. I didn't even watch. I put a note to talk about not not the. Not, like, what happened in the game, because I also didn't watch this, but the England. England lost to Iceland and. Yeah, and what. What I was gonna comment on is, like, the. The people of England having a fucking meltdown over this, but, yeah, let's let's talk about. So I think we should talk about, at a minimum, what I have down here is we should talk about the US Columbia game friendly. You guys mentioned something about Balagan. I also didn't pay attention to that, but we should talk about that. I have the euros, like, just an early euros. Thoughts? I think we need to talk about what Man City is doing to the Premier League, just on the whole, and some of the implications of that. And with Chelsea's help now. Yeah, with Chelsea. Although I have a list of teams who. We'll talk about it when we get there, but I think the teams who are providing information against Man City are as interesting as the teams who are coming to their defense. And then I have a ton of transfer news we can run down. I'm sure you know her. Yeah. And we all know the club that all those transfers might be going. Off season. Yeah, it's. It's Ryan's rumor mill. We. We named it last week when Luke didn't show up. How the art thing over here? When do you go over pretzel Romano. Ryan Romano? When, uh, when do you go back to get your. Your. Yeah, we. Let's. Let's all catch up real quick before we hop in. So you, Luke drove to New York for an art show? Yeah, last weekend. Bushwick. Yeah. Yep. So I missed. I misunderstood what was going on. You were dropping a painting off, and now it's there for a little while or some paintings and. Yeah, I was dropping two paintings off and some by another artist from Baltimore. Do I know the painting? Um, yeah, you've seen. Have I seen it? Okay, yeah, you've seen. It's like the one with the dancing lady in the, like, uh, theater. Okay, that one's up there. And then there's this, like, hand painting that went up. Oh, yeah. This, uh, right behind me, if you're watching the live stream, this. Luke did this painting behind me, uh, during the pandemic. Yeah. So, yeah, that's why I was out. But the opening was on Friday. I couldn't make it cuz I had work stuff going on and. Yeah, just back in action here. I don't know when I'm gonna go get the paintings. I've like no life at the moment, so my June's fucked. Anybody else's June just totally fucked my June. And it's just like, I fucked. Life is fucked. There's no reason to put it to. Calendarize it, dude, at work, like I. So I am the technical lead for a very, very large machine learning project. And we were acquired and the hottest thing. So I'm a software engineer. Like my background, I think we've talked about that a little bit here. But the hottest thing in tech right now is artificial intelligence. And the company that acquired us seems to think that I am just an idea machine. And they are making me go to just meeting after. It's killing me. I probably shouldn't be saying this publicly, but it's just so many meetings and the invites are like, heard you're the AI guy and you're at all intent like that. And that's like the whole agenda. Yeah, and if you're at all in tech, like following this, like it's. It's nonsense. Like to call me that or to like, I don't know, it's. Wait till they find out that you're the rumor mill guy, too. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, AI, I think AI will will obviously. I mean, this is way out of scope for this. I bet you had these notes. And now we're on AI. Well, we're. I mean, we're like, we're just catching up at the beginning, but it's. The whole thing is so overblown. Like, I think this is just them. It's this. I really think it's like nfts almost. I think a lot of people have said that, but like, I don't know, people are super excited about it. And it, like, the only reason I even have that, I think my title is like the vp of machine learning at work. And the only reason I had that have that title is because the company that I was with needed to like, pretend we had some sort of structure to how we were doing things when they were being sold. So they just, like, they were like, oh, you managed that one project. Like, here, here's your title. And it is haunting me, haunting me. So anyway, my June is full of meetings that are like, tell me AI things. And. Yeah, but in my personal life, it's actually a very light month. And then July Shannon has her hundred miler, which will be. That'll be a big chunk of July. The 4 July happens obviously in July, but. Yeah. I don't know. Machine learning replacement for Luke when he's not. When his schedule work for us. You could probably hire like a twelve. Year old and probably we need better lighting. Like, I don't know that we could. We could like train a vision model on the shadow that is in the bottom of the screen. But yeah, Luke, a ring light or something. I will not have a ring light in mind. The second I get a ring light, I'm actually going to get an OnlyFans account. All right. Well, there we have it. I know what I'm getting. It's that twinkle in Luke's eyes. That's all it is, is the dark twinkle. Derek. How was little Donna? Uh oh. We lost Luke. So he must be doing something illegal. Someone was not really. Well, so did that. What's that? Luke. Luke figured out how to cut the video feed and so now I just assumed that anytime his video cuts out, he's doing something illegal. It's. Most people like mute themselves that come off mute. Luke goes off camera that comes back. I don't mute either. I don't hear the noises. Together. We didn't make it last night. Yeah, I have a hot take on little Donna's, but I'm gonna wait till you go because I know I watch. Your hot take now. No, no, gotta wait. I can't poison the. Well. I've got a. Like, Derek's gotta go. Yeah, we went to the ball. We went to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra last night. And if you have not gone that, it's phenomenal. It's like. What was the piece? Oh, God. I can't pronounce the guy's name. It's like Shakovsky number eight. It was like a trumpet concerto or something like that. Yeah. They have this new. So I've been going to the BSO for. For a while. Like for. I've always loved the BSO for as long as I've been here. They have this new like hot shot director conductor that they pulled from Germany who they're promoting the shit out of. And it was cool because they're doing this new series where he talks more like. So they're not just playing music. They like, in the middle of the performance they have this dude from like talk radio come out and ask him about the composition and stuff. It's pretty cool because I don't have a classic music background. I just really. It's like really calming, and I've always liked going to it. Shannon instruments, though. Yeah. I played the drums and I played piano growing up, but. Yeah, but I don't have, like, a classic background. Yeah. I also. I'm. I am also bullish on the BSO. It's amazing, dude. Yeah. Tesla is, like, a classical cellist for a long time, like, through college, and I. Have you talked with Shannon about this? Yeah, I think we have, actually. Yeah. Shannon's also a classically trained cellist. I, like kind of things. Kind of sappy, but I, like, fell in love with Tesla, watching her play cello. I think cello is, like, the most amazing instrument. Yeah. Going to the BSO is always, like, a real treat. Yeah. So this guy, specifically, Shakovsky. I don't know how you. I'm saying it wrong, I'm sure, but he. He's. I guess he's known for having the most complicated cello. I don't know, like, I don't know what you call it. Segments of the performance. So Shannon was, like, all about that. Cool. Yeah, cool. Well, yeah, let's. Let's go into the. Yeah, yeah. So what. What did the us men national team do? What happened? Hit me. What was the score? It was five. Five to one. Columbia. Who scored the one? I can't even remember. Yeah, that was embarrassed. That was a nice goal. And it was at two to one. So they, like, gave him a chance. Yeah, more or less, from what I remember. Created himself. I mean, he turned. It was a fairly tight angle. It was a good shot, which you don't necessarily like. He's more of a pacey guy, but it was really nice shot and finish. This is not like a golden generation at all for Columbia. Right. Well, they have good players in there, like. But not like they have Luis Diaz. Thomas Rodriguez still playing there. Yeah. Started Davis and Sanchez. Yeah. I mean, Jefferson, Lerman. It's not like they're not world beers, but honestly, like, they. I think the FIFA ranking is the twelve or 13 for whatever that's worth. Right. In my opinion. You know, I think they're up there in terms of top ten talent, based on what I've seen, and having some players like Luis Diaz that are. That are world class. But I think that, again, that some of that has to do with the fact that, you know, you have, like, a top. I don't know, let's call it top five, top six, and then there's everybody else. Right. And so it kind of. But, you know, obviously, we've talked about, like, us competing with top ten, top six, teams. And like, this is a good example of how far we have the comma, apparently because it just. The US team on the FIFA rankings is 11th. Yeah, that's crazy. That's wrong. Like, yeah, like, obviously I'm a big us fan but not correct. Like we're, we're 11th, Columbia's 12th. You only play so many games against like those top 15 teams, right? Yeah, that's part of it. We've been beating like Mexico and Canada and maybe racking up wins and so that all helps. But, you know, obviously this is one of the first opportunities in recent memory I think, for us to go against, you know, what I again would say is a top ten caliber team and have just a complete garbage result, especially with a fairly healthy player pool. I mean, looking at. When I looked at that starting eleven yesterday, like, I was fairly excited about it. Yeah, that's what I was going to be. My next question. But I think, Derek, I think you asked the right question. Right. Is it the caliber of the players or is it the management of the team? You asked that right at the beginning. Yeah, I think that's so what you just indicated in terms of what the profile of that squad was, in terms of what the best team we could put out there. We had the players to do it, whether on the bench or on the start in a starting position. But the way the team was set out for international football was just fucking stupid. Like, Giorena is not a number eight at the international level. Like, he can play as a number ten where he can play high and doesn't have to come back. He doesn't have the physicality to keep up with midfield runners. It just blows my mind that Greg Berhalter just cannot figure out a good structure for this team. There's just no structure to compete at this level. They're not going to have possession, they're not going to have the most dynamic players playing against Columbia. So why set up like we do? That's the big question. Right? I feel like we've been more competitive with teams like this in the past and then a result like this happens. How did, um. Oh, I've got it now. That was my angry response. Yeah, like, I mean, we put a team out there that was going to be my next question is, like, did we line up like this was a friendly? And I. The answer to that is no. Like this. This is as far as I can tell, this is nearly our best eleven that we can put out right now. And I think Cardoso is the question. He hasn't been in the team quite as much, but he's a good player at a high level, right? He played all the way. I thought. I thought he, you know, Luca de la Torre is not somebody who I get excited about and like the other guys behind him, I don't think Gene Luca Buzio is healthy for this cycle because I didn't see him. I don't think he's on the roster. Maybe he didn't make it, I don't know. But yeah, I mean, do you like to see Musa or, you know, Tyler Adams not being fully fit hurts two out there to start, but I think played all right. You know, it's weird, you know, to Luke's point on the tactics, you know, we've seen this four three three work with Raina playing like a box to box role. I don't. I would agree, though. I don't think that was the right way to set it up. I think. I think ESPN thought we were going to play a 4231 when they saw this lineup. Instead, we kind of had Raina drop back into a less effective area. I will say he can do a job in terms of, like, pressing, but, like, is he really the one you want running end line to end line the entire game? And I don't think that's a good use of his skill set. And then defending in front of your own box, you can't do it. Yeah, exactly. In that. Yeah. And the positions that you're forced to go into that you wouldn't be as a ten. I think that's a fair point. Me, I have a contrasting view of this to an extent. Right. There's the lead up to this game and the Copa. You know, they've been talking a lot about like, Ballo and I'm trying to think of others. You know, Chris Richards had a good spell at Crystal palace this season. Geo's obviously had a form, but, like, balo as an example, right? Like, I don't know that Ballo or Pepe or sergeant are top 15 caliber strikers at the moment, at least on form. Like, we've seen glimpses out of Balor and I was as high as anybody and I talked about in this podcast on Balor, but, like, he didn't have that great of a season at the club level and so, like, his form coming into this isn't fantastic. He did have some good touches and created some chances in this game yesterday, but. And then similarly, like, haji rights, like kind of, they put. I think they put him out wide when he came in. So, like, that's probably not his prime position either. And I don't think he's a top 20 striker either. And so there's some weird weaknesses. Tim reams, another example. Right. Like, he's kind of past his prime. He played, you know, he played consistent football, but is he a top 15, top ten caliber center back or is he going to be able to defend against top five and top ten strikers? No, I don't. I don't think so. And so to me, there's really. It's. It's kind of disturbing from a talent level as well, kind of where we are, like, I just don't think we're over that hump to get into, start beating top ten teams. But I don't even think we need to beat the top. We don't need to beat the top teams, ten teams, in my opinion. We just need to be more competitive than five to one. You take a 10, maybe a 20 or three, one kind of result and say, all right, well, we're competing against a good team. It's a warm up to tournament, whatever you take it. Right. But five to one just tells you there's an. There's an imbalance of the team and you can't change the talent levels. Right. You can make different choices, but we're not going to move the talent up. Right. So what does the manager have to do? They have to make the team more competitive. You guys hear Bowie down here just growling away? Yeah. We're watching him next weekend, right? Yes, you are. Yeah. Yeah, it's. It's kind of. It's. It's strange to me, like, just the way that Bertolzer goes, sets up the team. Like I said, I think it goes back to that. Now, I will say, in transition and going forward through general play, the US actually had some good chances. Like, there were good moments in the game because we were playing so wide open. Like, there were opportunities for us to get forward. We weren't clinical, and it could have kept us in the game for longer. So that is one thing I also thought Matt Turner was. Was really bad. Yeah, I was going to ask that. Like, first goal, near post. Yeah, maybe a deflection, but he's falling back before the shot happens. So he's. He's being. I think he's anticipating too much. And then the overhead kick goal, which was really fantastic. He really should be saving that. Yeah. Like, it's right in his frame. He's falling back again. He's not being aggressive. He's just. He's. He's anticipating too early, I thought it was poor. I think a top ten goalkeeper saves both of those. Right to your point. Like, there's an opportunity to make saves there and he's just not at that level present. And maybe, like, some of the individual performances overshadowed the, like, where he actually is from a relative talent standpoint, on. The international level, I think he's trash. I think that he had a moment where he really played out of his skull and he's regressing to the mean. And I think the turner is actually trash. I think truth to that regression. Yeah. Especially I don't think he's trash. Like, he's not like a trash footballer. I think. Yeah, I think at this level. Hold on, hold on. We're talking, we're talking. Derek just said he's not a top 15 goalkeeper. He's not a top 20 goalkeeper in the Premier League. Yeah, he's. He was the worst in the world. Yeah. He wasn't. He wasn't the best goalie on his team in the Premier League. He's. He's actually trash. That's. That gets it. Like, the disparity in expectations and a little bit of the cognitive distance, I guess, around, like, where the talent needs to be on the international level to compete with the. These top ten teams. Right? Like, we look at it and we're like, okay, this is the best USA team we've had in a long time, if ever. So we should be able to compete. But that doesn't mean we're over that hump to be able to compete with. These teams, not with a manager like we have. We're supposed to have, like, Gaga Slanina is supposed to be a crazy promise. I wasn't sure if I had to bait you into this or not. Like what? Where the fuck are we going with him? Like. Like, I put him on the list, right? And this is another one where they're talking him up recently, even though he's not in the squad. Right. You know, that's. That's like, Berlhalter should be fucking shocked for not even having him in the squad, I guess. But playing devil's advocate, like, why? Like, what did he do at a club level or. Or internationally to earn that spot so far? And that. The reason I asked that is if I got curious because they were talking him up, right? So he did play three, almost 3000 minutes, right, in the pro Belgium Pro league, but he conceded almost 60 goals. He only had five clean sheets. And if you look at percentage wise, he was in the 11th percentile and conceded per 90 he was the 17th percentile on clean sheets and he was in the 38th percentile and save percentage, which maybe I could get behind that at least if it was higher. But, like, I don't. Other than, like, his physical metrics and, like, the promise of having like, an up and coming international club level keeper, like, I don't know what he's done. And that's where it's really worrying to me. Like, I'd like to be bullish on him, but, like, I don't know who the alternatives are behind Turner, other than this guy who doesn't look like he's doing much at the moment. Yeah, I don't know enough about the context. I'd have to dig into the, the, the stats. I just, like, I just know he's, he's very, very, very highly rated by scouts. Like, and not just. I'm not just saying that because of Chelsea, like, he was. He's. He's been considered one of the most promising goalkeepers under the age of 20. I just can't figure out why. And maybe I haven't watched enough of it, but, like, yeah, his market value is down 40% year over year. Well, that's because Chelsea overpays for everyone. Like, yeah, like, that's not, that's not a useful stat. And I don't like, maybe for the next episode I'll dig into this. I'll try to figure out, like, because it could be that this team is defensively awful that we sent him to. So, yeah, there's like a lot I'll dig into, which is good preparation if. He'S gonna play for Chelsea. Right. So bringing it back to the US. Right. You're talking about this young, young goalie prospects. Great. Whatever. The thing about it is, though, going into a tournament, I actually think you have to be more consistent with the goalkeeper because you need the relationship between the goalkeeper and the back four or at least the set players in that team solidified. I think a relationship is better than talent at this moment. But the thing is, is that Berhalter is trying to play with a team that's not playing the best strengths of Turner either. He's at best a really good shot stopper. Right. He's not good with his feet. He doesn't really move that well across the box. But they're playing this open brand of football that just like, puts him in the worst positions where he has to receive pressure constantly on the ball. So the whole game he has to be like kind of under pressure to keep going. So when it when the shot stopping comes, he's not 100% focused on that. Right. He's doing a little too much in the game. I. You could say that of another. A number of positions on this team. It's just the team is not set up to succeed for the players. It has. So the second question I was going to ask is where were, where was. Where were they? Where, where was the. When the US had the ball? Were they like trying to play it through the middle? Were they going down the wings? Like what, what was their pattern of play? The wide areas were more open because the way Columbia sets up with. I can't find a. Which is crazy. Yeah, there's not a lot. There aren't full stats on this game, I think, but I can tell you that they congest the midfield they have. They play. Columbia plays for the midfield and they clog up the midfield. Right. And so that's an area of concentration. So there was room at times and there were some good switches like Antony Robinson in particular. Yeah. And why some good moments and Greg was yelling at Scally to get forward more and maybe that's where like dust helps you more in a game like this, but, you know, so, yeah, that's kind of where the space was like way I had some. Some room to run at times. I don't understand politic coming out early because again, there was room on that side. Yeah. I think there was an element of managing the game too in terms of substitutions. The game get a little disjointed because there were players coming in and out. So that like to give Perhalter like a little bit of like leeway, I'd say that, yeah, they were trying to play a high possession game combined to get in behind in the wide positions but because we were playing a little bit more open, we weren't. We weren't playing transition. Right. We were trying to possession, to possess, to go forward. I think that we just got beat in those transitional moments when we lost the ball quickly in midfield every single time. Columbia looked like they could challenge and win and score a goal. Yeah, they were lethal on the counter when we lost possession in the second half. So when you have someone like Gio in that number, he's number seven, but he's in that kind of number eight position going a little bit more forward or going forward more. It's not a position he really is ready to play. So he was on the edge of his box and in every transition moment they were able to combine and get in behind. So many dangerous crosses across the 18. Which positionally somewhere Tyler Adams excels, right? 100%. Yeah. Or Uniswap has more legs. Adams gets healthy for this tournament. Like what's his status at this point? I have no idea. Yeah, I have no idea. I know it's been a huge miss because of the leader he is in that team. I think, I think he has like deficiencies in terms of range of passing, but he really is a little pitbull. So. So it's. Yeah, he's been a big miss, but Eunice Musa and McKinney in the same team should have enough legs to do the job. But they need to play together. Yeah, well this team has talent. I mean Pulisic has had the year of his career. Robinson was arguably the best left back in the PL. We're talking about how bad Turner is. And he made a huge mistake too. Like that first goal is pretty much on him, right? Yeah. So I mean, I would say him and Ream could be like the shaking the rust off. I don't know. Hopefully. I think that that's a good point. Right? Like we can only overreact so much to a friendly. I will say I will. I think it's a. I'm interested in your opinion on this, though. Is there a naivety in scheduling Columbia and Brazil as your friendlies leading up to a major tournament? I mean you've got a. I guess the argument would be that you've got to beat the best team, be the best type thing. Like, you'll learn a lot from those games, I guess. I don't know, I don't think burls are, can learn anything from anything. Yeah, so that's the, like Berlhalter, like I can't believe we've pitched our ladder against that fucking guy. Like, and we've been anti, we've been Berlhalter out the whole time. Like not just for this podcast but like the entire time I've known Luke and yeah, I was expecting Luke to. Come fully unhinged this episode. No, I will come unhinged when that fuck, when we fall in the first round of the tournament in Cope America and we're just embarrassed. I'm gonna be like, fuck that asshole. Get him out. Him and his fucking huge ass shoes he's always wearing. He always has these like massive nikes on. They're like too big for his little slender bottle body. Well, I can restore your patriotism or your pride in our, in our national pres, international presence, I guess. Have you seen the, the cricket World cup? Do you do you guys know anything about cricket? What do you think? I don't know a single thing about. Cricket, but there's not even, like, like, interesting betting options on cricket. So, yeah, there's no reason for me to pay attention. Terribly sorry, Derek. Anyway, the Cricket World cup is being held in Texas this year. I assume that's a very worldly state. The whole national tour, it's a play to increase the. The footprint of the sport and try to get the biggest commercial value country involved in it. The United States is thus far undefeated, and Pakistan, they beat the. They beat the fuck out of Pakistan. Really? Not really. I don't. I don't know how close this was. Like, the score looks like math equation, but I'm just gonna go ahead and say we beat the fuck out of Pakistan, who was in the final for the previous cricket World cup. And I read the captain of the us team is like a software engineer from Oracle. Like, you could. You could look him up on LinkedIn. It has like shades of that. Remember when we, like, one at curling a couple Winter Olympics ago and it was like, it was like five dudes who like, hung out at a bar and decided they'd start curling or something. Yeah, I don't know. Anyways, that's venture of this podcast. Can we start a curling team? A curling team. Curling is awful. And also it's like, shockingly expensive to play. Barrier to entry is going to be pretty high, right? Yeah, it makes sense. So one of the teams that I. That I manage at work, they wanted to do curling as like a team building thing. And I looked into the prices to like use a curling court or whatever they're called. A curling field of sadness and world of rolling rocks. They are like, it makes. They've got to keep it, I guess. They have to manage ice. They have to. Only you can do it. So you're renting out this relatively large piece of ice that has to be kept frozen for an hour or whatever. Anyway, it's. It's serious. At least at the only place in this area that you can go curling, though, like Columbia curling Center. It's something like $250 an hour to good shit to do curling. So, no, I'm not interested. Yeah, what about cricket where we can throw balls at each other? Dude, I like, I can't like cricket. I don't want to feel. Dude, it feels like. Don't some like, sometimes the games take. Days and the scoring is ridiculous. It's like, look at this score. It says 159 over seven and 13 over one target 19. What the fuck does that mean? Seems pretty self explanatory to me. This is what Greg. Greg Berhalter looks like when he sets out his team. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. What is the over seven? He's like, literally Ted lasso. He's like, can somebody explain? Played off sides. All right. Oh, Balogun. What do you guys. What's up with him? Like, you guys sent something about him and I did. I didn't look well. That was my spiel. I don't think he had it. He didn't have that impressive of a club season. He didn't. I mean, he played a decent amount of minutes. It's good for the beginning time, but, like, I don't know. Yeah, his stock is down for sure. Did he get sold or was he loaned? No, he was sold to Monaco. Okay. Yeah, I think that. So I think in terms of experience, like, they came in second, I think in Liga. So I think there was good experience for him. I think there's an older striker, a more experienced striker in that team, too, who just ended up getting more minutes throughout the year. I think Belgian did not have the best game by his standards, but he didn't look like he looked dangerous. Like, on the half turn, he could. He gets off a shot, like, he does things that Haji Wright, Josh Sargent can't do. He's not quite as physical, but he does have that half turn kind of quick shot that I think is exciting. I think Balgen should be the starter, right? In my opinion. I think Haji Wright or Josh Sargent should probably be the ones off the bench. But Balgon just gives us so much more in terms of open play than either of those players do. What I would. That. What happened to what's his name? Um. What did he go to play in the belgian league? Who's the other striker we have? Pepe. Pepe, yeah. But Pep. He's been pretty quiet at a, like, pretty, like. Not a huge, like, high level, you know, I think what Haji Wright did with Coventry this year, particularly in the FA cup run in, was pretty fantastic at a. Probably an equal level. And I think sergeant has also been pretty good. Yeah, sergeant has been good for sure. I've caught that. Baligan. 29 apps and seven goals. That might have been what you said. I think you got it. You got to give him another year at a nuclear. Yeah, sure. So see what happens. You know, PSG will be in, like, in a rotational year, I think, again next year. So you never know. But I think that's. It's an example of like, I was guilty of this. I was like, you know, he's an arsenal level player. He's coming into the foal for the US and he's going to fix our striker problem and it's just not quite that simple. Right. It's nice that we have some depth now, but we still need like a clear. A clear leading striker that's going to go out there and score every game. And Balgon is by far the best chance of that. Yeah. In the, in the, in the current group of players. Yeah. We'll see what happens. Should we talk? England? Iceland. Did you guys watch this game at all? I didn't watch it, but I did watch the meltdown after and I. I had forgotten that Iceland like eliminated them from the euros. Yeah, they're kind of a boogie team for England. Yeah, sure. Yeah, I think that it's another. So, England, do you think it's because. Harry Kane was the starting striker? I think they. I think they should probably get rid of him if they. If their ambition is to win anything. Yeah. Yeah. And it's not like, it's not that he's not good, it's just that he played for Tottenham and it's not his fault. Right. Yeah. It's just like he's clearly probably top five striker in the world. Probably top two. Like he might be, I don't know, great player. Like, like, I think all right. But. He can't, like, you can't win anything and so I don't know, like it's, it's like a mentality thing. I'm gonna tell you what happened in that game. I think he'd have to have. Those english players didn't give a fuck. They were tired and they're like, I don't care about this. We're gonna run around. Do you think that's true? I think so. It looked like I didn't watch it, but statistically it looked like they really tried to win this match. Iceland, they took so many shots. I just, I just don't think they gave a fuck. Yeah. Watching it through the game, it just felt like they were tired. They were like, you know, they played some good stuff but like, it's just. How one did the right thing and left Madison at home at least I. Think Matt Madison did not deserve a place in the team. I'm surprised about Jack Grealish. I'm really surprised that Luke Shaw is in that team, but. Well, that, is that, that Southgate? Yeah, he's there. I'm ready for. I've been a big backer of Southgate just because, like, I appreciate the unity argument that he's made, but the team's not going to go forward anywhere with him there. He doesn't treat like his choices are so strange. He. Yeah, like he subbed in Ivan Tony instead of Ali Watkins for Kane when he was chasing the game. Yeah, I would say Ollie Watkins had a better season. Like, significantly better. Yeah. I don't know. I think. Yeah. So Garrett Southgate has done a lot to, like, for the mentality of the England squad and he has over performed with lesser, like, much less talented England squads in the, in the past. Like, like, I guess the previous euros. Did they make it to the final? Am I remembering this right? Yes, they may. They've made it to the semifinal. He probably had Henderson and Maguire in the starting lineup. Yeah, his. It's, it's another. I mean, he's obviously better than Berlhalter, but I don't think that tactically he's the coach to be leading a team with this much talent. Like, I don't think he knows what to do. He's like a play the odds type coach. Yeah. Like, increase your odds. Don't let the, like, control the middle of the field versus, like, being on the attack and the team is just too talented. Like, they have a guy who's a shout for the Ballon door this year. They have Declan Rice, they've got top. Of the line Phil Foden, like Odin, who's. Yeah, I think it's one of the best in the world. Sokka who stretches the pitch like no other player. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it. It's. You need, you need a coach who, I don't know, nobody comes to mind. But you need a coach who will. Will let those players, like, you got to control the game still, but you have to, you have to go on the attack, I guess, is my. More so than he has in the past. That's. That's my overall thesis on. I mean, I think that's an interesting point. Right. Because you look at the 4231 he set up and. Right. You could make the argument that maybe Mano should have been on the bench and you start like sock out wide and play four four attacking mids again and just really go after him, especially against a less talented team. Right. Because, yeah, losing, putting one shot on target is bullshit for the level of talent on this team. Yeah. Watching that. So there are the odds on fate. Like, the odds makers have them as the favor to win the euros behind or ahead of France. That's shocking. Yeah. Yeah. But, well, heading into this game, those were the odds. Yeah. Well, do you remember the famous Saudi Arabia argentinian result at the beginning of the World cup before? So I like. And this applies to the us, too. You know, this happens more often than we all think. Right. By the way, on that point, Saudi Arabia beating Argentina was less of an upset than USA beating Pakistan. Statistically in cricket. That was. That was referenced in the article I read. That's amazing. Sorry, go ahead. So, this is, like, again, I think there is a dynamic where the players are kind of tired. They've just finished a long season. They're trying not to get injured before the tournament, particularly for the euros. I think this is at play, so I will just, like, have to see where they go. I think they'll come good. I think that they're a semifinal team, for sure. And when you're in the semifinal of a tournament like that, you never, never know. Yeah. Yeah. But what I enjoyed about this was watching the meltdown. Yeah. I mean, people in England went from. And other english fans went from, we are winning the euros to, oh, my God, it's happening again. In the course of 90 minutes. Yeah. I do like the Declan Rice mano kind of combination, though. There is something that's really, like with Jude Bellingham in there, that. That structure and that's ability to go forward. So I kind of do like that just to throw that. Sorry, Derek. No, I think you're right, I think. But I think there's flexibility there and, like, in a game like this where you. You're. You're playing as lesser competition, you're having trouble scoring. Like, to me, it's not unreasonable. Put five attackers out there, Declan, behind. But, yeah. Gallagher probably would have been good. Gallagher didn't play. Yes. Like him in a game like that, where, like, you need a guy who's just. Just gonna eat up. Like, you turn the ball over and he's gonna get it back for you instantly. And maybe Bellingham saves, like, just fixes everything. Right. Like he is that good. Maybe he just comes off field like it's unfucked and, like, to your point, like, Southgate can just continue on autopilot like he has been his entire life. I do like the. I do like the Gallagher call, because Gallagher, while a different player, I think, has different, better qualities going forward, actually is a similar kind of profile to it. Jordan Henderson kind of plays box to box, covers a lot of territory, gives you a lot of energy and wins the ball back. Are you going to let Luke just compare Gallagher to Henderson like that. I think Ryan, I think Henderson at peak, Jordan Henderson had, like, that two way ability like Gallagher does. Yeah, it's hard to argue with that, but Henderson also became a complete fucking fraud, and I don't want to take talk about him. All right. Like, I thank you for ending the. Conversation. Right into that one. I'm glad he's lost to the tides of history at this point, but, yeah, nobody will think about Jordan Henderson again. Yeah. Imagine he had made this team. Like, what do you think Ryan would have done to the world, dude? I mean, what would I do? Like, people would have so, like, to Southgate's credit, he, with his selection, he was very progressive, which he hasn't been in the past. So he didn't bring. Henderson didn't bring. Madison didn't, which I think some people thought was interesting. McGuire didn't make the squad. Right? No. Sterling still out. Sterling didn't deserve to be in the squad. So he has moved on from that era. And I like, yeah. Jack Grealish being the biggest of all those names. Right? Grealish. No, he got left out. Yeah, he's out. Oh, he did? Wow. Yeah, that, that's the call that everyone was like, I think him and Madison. Are in a pizza or something together. Whoa, okay. I think I missed that. I think, yeah, Grealish. I'm trying to decide if I, I threw this opinion. Kind of ruined him, to be honest, which is a kind of growing opinion, but, yeah, Jack. Jack rule the question there. And in that squad, Jack Grealish, Anthony Gordon. Which one are you taking to the euros? In my opinion, it's Jack Anthony Gorger. And I would say Jack relish. Yeah, I. Anthony Gordon had a better season, and definitely, frankly, he takes, he's more of a professional at this point. Jack Real has just gone under for the partying motif. Dude. He, I mean, like, if you listen to his teammates talk about him, it's the, like, I think he might have, like, a drinking problem that needs to be addressed. And, like, like, I really do, and I, dude hit, like, I just, like, if you listen to his teammates talk about him, there they are a lot of, like, they often talk about how much he parties. And Holland has said, like, I try to get Jack to not, like, go out so much. Like, I'm I'm I'm, uh, synthesizing what, what he said into. You're using the AI model to create. Yeah, yeah. I don't know exactly. He was, I don't know. He's probably, like, he should be eating babies in my free time or in his free time like me, but. But, uh, yeah, I don't know, man. Like, I see the photos. Um, I hear. I hear the, what his teammates say he fell off the fucking float during the celebration for their EPL win. And there, there has to be a reason that Pep is not playing him, because Guardiola, he, he, he does value experience and he's playing doku over Grealish, who's very green for, for, like, for Man City and. Yeah, I don't know, there's an issue there and he needs. I think he needs to get it together. He's like 29, 30. He doesn't have that many years left. Yeah, he's just about to turn 29 this year. Yeah. Yeah. So he need to change teams this for next season. I want him to get the fuck out of there and go be Jack Grealish somewhere again. Yeah, that. I mean, that's the other thing is. I want the guy who got punched in the middle of a promotion playoff and then score the fucking game winning goal to come back to the world like, that. Dude was amazing. Yeah, grilish was. I mean, he was a lot of fun when he was just the man and I don't know, I forget. Still having a lot of fun. Yeah, dude. Also, he did win the treble last year and started almost every game, so, like, you gotta give him some credit for being at the top for. For some time once you win the treble. I feel like when you win the trouble and you're that good looking to, like british man standards, like, yeah, you gotta just, like, give it. Tell me more about this. Good for you, man. Derek. Derek just booked his ticket. Didn't know I was going to the euros this year. Well, Grealish isn't, so. There isn't a rich well of talent there, I've heard, but. Well, this feels like a perfect pivot to what Man City is doing. Details. What's that? I've seen it, but I'm sure you've read more about it. All right, so the title of the article that I have here is Man City launch unprecedented legal action against the Premier League. The gist is the Premier League. So for new rules around finances in the Premier League to be codified into Premier League law, it requires, I believe, two thirds of the owners of current Premier league teams to vote for that rule to be adopted. And one such rule, I think, two seasons ago, was that sponsorship values needed to be verified, validated by third party arbiter, so that these, like, state held clubs or state affiliated clubs couldn't use a business, another business they own, to basically funnel money into their. Their club. Right? Yeah, man. City. This. This is what they're in violation of. This like unfair market value and among other things, and then trying to cover it up and stuff like that. This is like where you get the 115 charges against them. Like basically they were pumping money into the club to cook the books and their finances. And when Newcastle was bought by Saudi, that's when this law was adopt. This rule was adopted. And so Newcastle are annoyed at this law because they haven't been able to pump money into that club either. City are suing the plastic and asserting that this law targets Middle Eastern owned clubs. And it like, effectively saying that it's racist or discriminatory against Middle Eastern owned clubs and that they should be able to value their sponsorships at whatever they feel like. And if they are successful in overturning this, which Chelsea is in support of overturning this, Shocker because they have their own dubious shirt sponsor deals and stuff like that. And again, if this is your first time listening to this podcast, I am a Chelsea fan, but I'm lucid. My eyes are wide open to what Chelsea are doing. Yeah. So they city are. Are pushing to get rid of this. And you may as well. Just like if they are successful, then city and Newcastle are going straight to the top. Like the city will be even more dominant than they then they have been. Yeah. So that's the story. It's not. It's not just about domination. It's also about the availability of all kinds of influence, outside influence, nefarious, possible. Right. And not. This is not directed at middle eastern countries. I would say, like, like the. The history of Roman Bromovich. Right. Is. It's a character like that. A character coming in from the US and just pushing money into the club for nobody knows where. Like that opens up a huge can of worms for ethics for like the continuation of the game and like. Yeah. Like the idea of this as the world game. Like it would be. It would be just destructive. There's. There's. There is a distinction between some of those groups. So, like, I'm painting with a broad brush, but what it. But it would lead to questions in all of those cases. Sure. It's like it just opens the so, so much up. But an oligarch coming in, I would say is similar to this. But an Ola carc is not going to be able to compete even with like Roman was. Yeah. Yeah. Was in support of the original PSR rules because City was bought by Abu Dhabi and he, he couldn't compete. He knew he couldn't. Like the, the amount of wealth we're talking here is. It's like orders of magnitude and there's no profit motive. This is purely a sports washing. It's what you're seeing in every. They're buying fucking the whole golf league or whatever it's called. The Premier league could become the, the new. Right. Golf league. Yeah. It opens it up to that. And that's, that's what they're trying to buy. World influence through. Through sports. Sports through entertainment. And we have to get wise to this. Yeah, it's fucking crazy. Like quick, like, I don't, I don't know, like in this again, it's happening in all sports. Like the, I think we talked about on here, the, the women's world championship in tennis is set to be held in Saudi Arabia for the next five years. And they wouldn't let a woman play tennis professionally there, or at least up to this point. Maybe they will now. But like, it's these. I don't know. This is all very sensitive, obviously, but my recommendation for the PL would be, and I said this in our discord this week, I would treat these, I would, I would recognize the mistake you've made and I would treat these two teams exactly. Give them exactly the treatment you gave Abramovich and force them. Force a sale. Like you, I think that you're basically at an inflection point with the Premier League where you have let the devil into the league and you have an, your window to, to snuff this out is closing rapidly. And they should ban match going fan. Like everything they did to roman to force the sale. I would just crater the club, force a sale and then change the rules so that you can't have city state ownership in the Premier league because like Chelsea. Yeah. Like american owners coming in and pumping money in is unsavory, but they still have a profit motive. Like Blue Co. Make money. These, these owners are not there to make money. Yeah. They're, they're, they'll take the loss. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're just perpetuating a political agenda which largely is predicated on things that are not good for the world to put it lightly. Yeah. Now I will say, like, it's the, the contrast that. Right. Is like the fans, whether we think about City or Newcastle. Right. Don't seem to have any problem with this dynamic. Right. So where does that leave the fan base relative to what's good for the league. Right. I mean, Chelsea fans didn't have a problem being owned by an oligarch, and, you know, and. But, like, you just have to, like, the league has to do the right thing. The right thing to do was to force Rome into sell. Well, yeah, I guess, from my perspective. Right. And again, like, maybe it's my take, like, at the time and for most of the time, like, Russia wasn't, you know, a terrorist organization, which it eventually became, came, and Brahma just got pushed out. Right. And I don't think. I don't know. There wasn't. There's a. There was a swath of fans that. That I find unsettling, that didn't want it to happen at that point, but, you know, fuck them. Right. I think largely, like, Chelsea came to terms with the fact that he needed to fucking go. Right. But I don't. I don't see that ground spell. Like, people think it's just peachy. Wow. Fan base is right behind him these days. So all of the justifications that the Premier league used to force Roman out, they existed the entire time he owned the club. Like, Russia has been an aggressor globally. They took Crimea by force during Obama's presidency, while Roman owned the club. Um, they, uh. Like, a lot of their. Like, they're anti LGBTQ. They'll, like, they'll imprison gay people there. Um, like, all the same reasons. Like, they all existed all along. And that's why I see the parallel here. Like. Like, I agree that they should have forced Roman out, and I still agree with it. Even though my club is a shit show. I think that they need to force the sale of these clubs, and they need to. Otherwise, it's going to precipitate more horrible things, the same way that Abramovich did. But you also found Abramovich a more willing partner, not to say that he was actually a willing partner to sell the club when he was forced out. There was a certain kind of, like, okay, let's just get it done. Yeah. In my memory of it. Yeah. But these also. These city states are not going to take it the same way. There will be legal injunction forever around these things, because that's the kind of sophistication they're working on. Right. Yeah. This is a long term legal strategy. I think the real backstop is going to have to be at the parliamentary level, where the government's going to have to pass some law to back them up, because there's so much gray space, it seems to me, and it hasn't been judged yet, so we'll see what happens. But it's pretty fucking evil, the argument for it. Yeah, it's just like. It's just the most unethical thing. Why is a club like Chelsea that doesn't have the same background in terms of city, state structure? Why are they pushing this through? Why are they supporting? Yeah, why would they supporting. I mean, I can only, I can only reason that Chelsea are in favor of this, because they are. Her finances are so pear shaped at this point that. That they, too, want this arbiter to go away so that they can pump money into the club and then try to. Yeah, I think that it's like, I don't think that they're making a political statement. I think they're just like, yeah, that would be nice, like, if we could get ourselves out of this hole. I think it's, like, fully. It's just a selfish stance. Right. Exactly. That's the point. I find that kind of, like, I thought it was hilarious that we backed him. And I do find it troubling that, like, unless they're really worried about being, like, a retrospective rule change, like, I think you have to kind of cut your losses at this point and deal with, like, a real financial fair play, reasonable, fair play dynamic as opposed to this just free for all that, that we're backing now. Yeah. Yeah. Real interesting. I really hope that this just ends soon. I don't. It's not going to. I mean, to your point. To your point that you made. I don't know who he, who he is in the, like, the citigroup chain of command, but. And I don't even remember the guy's name, but somebody relatively high up. When these 115 charges came, they said that they would rather spend €30 million on the top five lawyers in the world bogging the PL down in, let in litigation than deal with these charges. And I think that this is the first move in that posture for them. Yeah. Because a sports team. Right. Is an investment that lives on perpetuity. I mean, look at, like, the value of NFL teams, right? Whereas the oil pipelines are going to dry up at some point, right. So booze them to do everything they can to protect and to grow that investment. And they've been largely successful at this point, too. Right. So, like, the strategy is working to the extent they're not actually punished for anything they've done well and kind of. Changing it a little bit onto the footballing side, they've also been, I think now will be the question where this is time where this question is asked, for how long does Pep Guardiola pay a part in propping that image up? Because Pep Guardiola has been a huge part of them legitimizing themselves over the past five to seven years. How long have you. He's been there. And now I think the question really has to be asked more pointed towards him. It's like, at what's. At what time do you step away? Because this is too much. How long. How much have you attributed, or how much have you contributed to this? Right. And we'll see. Like, he's supposed to be this old man of soccer a little bit. You know, he has tradition of La Liga and blaugrana. So, like, when does he step away and say, this is too much? There's no doubt this is his last season, right? He is. There is doubt in my mind. There's not. Yeah. Yeah. I hope that he leaves before the season's over, but I kind of doubt he will. Yeah, I. So I think that he is quoted as saying something like, we do everything above board here, and the minute it becomes evident that we do not, I will resign. You said something. Approximately. And this lawsuit is that, like, this lawsuit is like, oh, this destroys football. Yeah. Yeah. In Spain, the laws are pretty big. The laws aren't ambiguous. The social take on the adherence to laws is a little bit ambiguous, but. So who knows what he really means? But sure. Yeah. So, interestingly, I'm also pulling something up that I want Luke to live react to because he doesn't. He doesn't. He doesn't participate in the discord. But anyway. Don't know what discord is. How. How old are you, Luke? We were calling you a 20 year old last week. Like. Like in your twenties, but aren't you. You're in your thirties, right? We're gonna. We're gonna stick with. I'm in my twenties. Okay. I'm gonna hide in there. I'm 32. Okay. I'd like that to be redacted from this. Okay. Yeah, I've got it. I have. I have discord, though. Okay. I just don't. You just don't like. Oh, I'm on some, like, whiskey group. I've been a member since 2022. I. So Shannon, when Shannon played tennis with Luke yesterday, and she said, I'm playing tennis with Luke at 830 in the morning. And I said, no shot. That's what I said. I said, no fucking shot. And then she was like, he picked the time. And I was like, yeah, he picks the time that we record our podcast every week and it's still like 30% hit. I was your first today, by the way. And she, then the next morning, yesterday, she was like, Luke just texted me, is on his way. And then I guess to close the day out, Luke told her, yeah, if I actually feel like doing something, I will show up on time or something like that. All right. So, yeah, it's good to know. I already knew how Luke felt about me, but I didn't have a third party involved. All of the signs were there and now we, we have it straight from the horse. That's not exactly what I said, but you can interpret it that way. I like that. Anyway, so the clubs, just to wrap this man city thing up, this is going to be a story all summer long for sure. But the, the clubs that have come out against Man City and are providing evidence for the 115 charges that Man City are facing include Man United, Arsenal, Fulham, Wolves, Brighton and Tottenham. So there are your good guys and that's enough to not pass this law, like not overturn this law or rule. Right. They need two thirds. Yeah. So. Oh, and they didn't overturn FFP or not fFP. Sorry. Various. That was another big news story this week. Yeah. Wolves were the only club to vote against it, which, like, you got kind of respect, but I think there were some discussions about how to significantly change it. Yeah. Which I think was the whole point of the vote. Yeah, they also, another vote that happened this week was. So there's those hotels that Chelsea sold, they tried to close that loophole and that failed the vote. So Chelsea are in the clear, just like they sold. I was trying to read about this. Derek, you're the finance guy, you need to look into this. But like, they somehow sold Cobham the training ground and two hotels to remain compliant with FFP, but the, the club retains the revenues generated by those two facilities or those three stack or something like that. Yeah, I don't know how that works, but yeah, some like real fucking financial jiu jitsu going on. Chelsea, hella shady. Yeah, yeah. And I think like, from what I can tell, the distinguishment isn't necessarily like that city was, wasn't doing or Chelsea wasn't doing this. Same things that Cedar is doing is that Chelsea didn't have a pyramid scheme set up for the Cayman Islands to hide the balance sheets of these transactions and then pretend like they were not related party transactions. Right. They just put them out in front of everybody. Yeah, exactly. It's like, it's very clear what's going on. Here, maybe stuff they found, and I can't wrap my head around this, but they also clearly undervalued the assets. Like, they sold the, like, that's all prime London real estate that they sold for way under market value. And maybe. Yeah, they probably did that to avoid the scrutiny of the fair market value valuations of it. Right. Because it's not. It's not that uncommon of a thing to sell property and then have at least back to you for use. I think there's a lot of that probably that goes on, like, with stadiums and maybe even the NFL and stuff, but from a business perspective, it's not that uncommon. I was also thinking that maybe they're set. Like, eventually they've got to sell it back so that they can sell it. Like, they're not going to sell a club that doesn't have a training ground. Right. Yeah. They'll have to sell it back when. There was a transaction. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's pretty funny. They're locked. They're locked out of selling the team for a decade. They have to hold on to Chelsea for ten years and that we're in year two. That's a long investment structure for. Right. Like, usually those investment structure, like four to five years. I have no idea. I haven't bought a soccer team yet. Luke, you want to watch that clip I sent you and live react to this? I did. She fucking knocked her ass out, dude. That is the craziest. That's it. Like, do you just ban that person forever? So you think the other player said something like, get fucking tunneled. She is a lefty. Get tunneled bitch. Yeah. This, I don't know. I don't know if you banned someone for life for that, but, like, Eric Catana wasn't, you know, banned for life for going into the stands and fighting somebody. So I think that it's not a ban for life, but I hope she gets some therapy because that was. Or she doesn't do a different sport. Like, she could be in boxing, dude. Like, she just walked that chick. Perfect form. Yeah. Anyway, I don't. I don't know who any of these people are. I have heard this. I don't even know what these teeth teams are. I've heard it's a friendly mar versus cod. So it's some sort of women's soccer friendly. And this, this. What is this? Like a defensive midfielder maybe? I love it right in the face. Maybe it's an. Like Jesse Marsh doing an interview, like, about the us men's national team. She's the same. Don't bring it back. Send him away. Well, the initial team tackle is. It's from. Yeah. It's like the dirtiest tackle I've ever seen. Like, I'm sure son's done. Oh, son is done worse. Yeah. All right. You're right. If you eliminate the butcher of north London, then this is pretty. This is pretty far up there. And then her, the woman who gets. Who got clobbered, her team comes to the defense and this bitch throws a left hook, like the cleanest left hook and just starches this other. I'll put a link to this tweet in the description of this episode if you want to watch it. It's wild. I'm glad it happened and that I saw it. Yeah. Yeah. In that moment, basically the only provocation is getting, like, I think she puts a hand to her chest, but that's like enough for the. The other. The opposing player to just swing a haymaker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a lot. I mean, catches are clean. Yeah. The lights go out instantly. Yep. She just completely rag dolls. Anyway, want to do some transfer news? Did you guys have other topics? I don't want to take that away. You can roll through. I mean, I don't care. There's nothing that interesting. Roll through, Ryan. Come on. Hey, everybody, we're entering the Ryan rumor mill. So. So fucking reading rainbow over here. Tosin. Tosin went to Chelsea. That's official now. He's like a six, five ball playing defender. Very tall boy. Big ass bitch, that guy. He is, he is. I don't know how he fits in. So Chelsea as a right sided center, defend like center defensive player. I can't words today. I don't know. You've got Wesley Fafana. Never play for Chelsea again. Maybe not. Trevo Chalaba and Axel Desassi. And now Tosin, and I assume toasted, is being brought in to help with set pieces because he's huge. He is really good in the air. He weirdly, he gets forward really well. I watch some clay. I mean, every like YouTube clip, clipped up video, whatever the hell makes every player look like a world beater. But he looks pretty smooth on the ball for. Especially for his height. I don't know. I like it. He was free. We'll see. Do you think, like, rather than having a coach that knows how to play with the lead, we're just going to sub him in the 70th minute of every match we're winning. I would hope. Yeah, I would hope. And maybe we should talk about Mareska and what did Luke, do you know anything about Enzo Marasca? Yeah, I've been following up. I think it still feels ridiculous to me that Chelsea fired Pochettino and then hired a manager who's never coached in the Premier League. May he like succeed. I'm not a like. Well, he was Pepsi sadistic fuck like. You guys about Tottenham. Like, I hope he does well for Chelsea, but it doesn't make any sense to me. He's Pep. He was Pep's assistant coach during the, their treble winning season. So I mean he has, he's not been the guy for a PL team, but he has coached in the Premier League. What, an assistant level, right. He's a manager of a Lester team with the highest wage bill in the championship, you know, so good for him. Forgetting. I just, I just don't understand the strategy, but it's all good. Yeah. So I do think this guy makes sense for that system. I think he will slot right in as the starter, Tosin. Yeah, but we'll see. Yeah. What else? I guess we'll like cover Chelsea's nonsense. So Arsenal and Chelsea are both going after Shesko from the Bundesliga. I think. I think he said Leipzig, young striker kind of get hazard. Not hazard, Havertz. Geez, Havertz. Vibes from him when I watch, watch him play. I don't know. I don't know that he's the solution. I did see Nico Jackson jacked his ankle up in international play this week and has a very severe, is what the report was, ankle sprain. So, yeah, I don't know. I also don't know why Sesko would Shesco, however you say his name, would pick Chelsea over Arsenal. Chelsea are officially out of the Osaman race. So I mean that it basically the finances don't make sense for them. However, Napoli are in for Lukaku and they have made an opening bid that of €15 million. His release clause is 38 and Chelsea say they are 15 million for Lukaku. For Lukaku. What a baller of a man that he can still. 15 million. Did Lukaku agree to that before or after he found out the fudge sundaes are being taken away from the cafeteria. Oh, well. So Don Conte is going to Napoli. Antonio Conte is taking the reins over there. And that's who pretty famously Thomas Tuchel pointed at and said, that's your daddy to Lukaku while Lukaku was at Chelsea. That's your daddy. That's your daddy. Yeah. So I don't know. We'll see. We know context. Kante is on record saying that Lukaku is the perfect striker and so everybody thinks that that deal will get done. Lukaku is also, he's taking the opportunity that he's playing for the belgian team to really give Saudi the eyes. Like, it seems like he's ready to chase the bag out there. So I do think Lukaku will go and I think that Chelsea will get the 38 million release clause or somewhere in that area for him. So yeah, and thanks to hotel Shell games that we've played, we don't, we don't have to sell. So yeah, Villa and Tottenham are in for Gallagher and I guess he's had preliminary talks with Villa. He is not interested in going to Tottenham for obvious reasons, but we'll see how that develops. And what are some other interesting. I thought it was interesting Vardy signed a contract with Lester. What a fucking baller. Yeah. Been drinking Red Bull since the 6th grade. Yeah, dude, fucking go. Just hammering a. What does he drink? He drinks like a glass of port and a Red Bull before every game or something like that. Having a can of Red Bull on the sideline before subbing on. Yeah, yeah, red blood, fine. But Port doesn't seem to fit. I think. I think that's right. I think it's for that. Give me a tummy ache, dude. Yeah. What a, what a, what an absolute legend. He, he snubbed Wrexham who had an offer on the table for, for Vardy. So, so yeah, he'll be in the PL again next season. Tottenham and United are targeting ese. That is. I mean, I would just stay, given those two options, I would just stay at Crystal palace if I was him. But yeah, Real Madrid are in or they're planning to go after Florian Virtz in 2025. So that's going to be their next big target acquired. I thought it was interesting. Graham Potter snubbed Brighton and they are now appointing Fabian Herzlar, 31 years old, 31 year old German American who guided St. Pauly to promotion to the Bundesliga last season. So I have no idea. I just found that out this morning. I have no idea what his coaching style is. So yeah, we'll see. Still no idea what's going on with deserve. The rumors were that his claws was triggered by a, some club and everybody thought it was either Man United or Chelsea. And Man United are still tiptoeing around the ten hog thing which is fucking. Make up their minds so they can make transfers as a team instead of just like, you know, dicking around all the time. Jesus Christ. It's amazing. Yeah. Still gonna be there. I think he will be. I think. I think he. They get. He gives the new ownership some leverage. If he does really poorly, I think they can be like, all right, it's our time. Yeah. You know, keep the manager, shift some players, see what happens. I don't think that Chelsea triggered Deserbi's claws, so I wonder who did. I have no idea. Or that could all just be rumor. I don't know. I'm gonna try to pronounce this dude's name. Kavita Kvarat, Skelly, the Kivera donna from Napoli. Everybody expected him to leave this summer. He was picked up during Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Players who were playing and I think the russian league foreign players were. So he's georgian. They were allowed to break their contract and pick a new club. Napoli picked them up and he's just balled out for them. And he was expected, so PSG and Barcelona were in for him and he is expected to sign a new Napoli contract. So he'll hang out there. There were also links with Premier League clubs. City was rumored with him. Chelsea have been on and off. Rumored to be in for him. Really, really, really fun player to watch two footed. Honestly, he'd be Tottenham. If they ever felt like ponying up some cash, he'd be a good. He'd be a good replacement for sun. He's. I mean, he's a very two footed winger and is definitely, like, more creative. He's less. Less direct than son. He's not as fast, he's not as Pacey, but he's very creative. I don't know. Anyway, I think that's just about it. Newcastle are in for Burnley's Trafford. Byron looked to be ready to sign Javi Simons, who's a la Masia product that's at PSG, but they're not convinced of him. And I put down here that Tottenham aren't doing shit. How many years does son have left Luke at Tottenham? I think they're trying to give him a new three year. I think he'll be there till he retires, to be honest with you. The amount of revenue. Yeah, I'm surprised, Ryan. South Korea is amazing. He's like a hero in South Korea, man. Yeah. Keep him on, keep the revenue coming. Like good old fucking spurs. No, I think he will, actually. I think he loves living in London. I think he loves Spurs. I think it. I think he probably has one more year as a starter every game, but definitely not up top. I think he should never play up top over again. So to Ryan's point, this might be the right time to start looking at bringing somebody else in. Nah. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I would think Angie's kind of on that. If another year. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I think our team, the recruiting team at spurs, has gotten significantly better in the past ten months or so. Like Lange, I think it might be his name. We've brought in some new kind of management level teams after the collapse of the Conte Mourinho years. So I think it should be on the right track, whatever manager we have. And the revenue of the club has gone up, so hopefully that materializes in spending. But you never know. Probably not. Probably not. I, I did see that. So I remembered when you joined the podcast early last year or early last season, I said that I didn't think Tottenham had a great squad. And you took issue with that. And I saw, I did see in the transfer news that Tottenham have identified eleven first team players that they'd like to sell. I was like, I don't think Tottenham have a very good squad. I think they're good players in there, but I just don't. I think the starting eleven's good, the squad's not good. I think there are players in there who are of a good level, like a Hoiberg type, like not top level, but of a good level that just don't match the way that the team plays anymore. So I think there needs to be a squad rebuild. And you look at someone like Ndombele, he's like, fucking record signing is about to get like they're about to mutually contract, break the contract. Like, so there's definitely been some midsteps but yeah, Eze is a good target for us. I think if we were, if we were able to sign a player like Eze, definitely would help. Some, some good noise around Berg. Volume coming in, dude, that Lucas Bergwald dude's gonna ball out at 19 years old. So that's the, that's. Is that the swedish guy? Yeah, I think he's swedish. Yeah, we signed him in. Where does he believe? Somewhere in like Denmark or some like. No, no. What position is he? Like an attacking mid. Yeah, kind of a center attacking mid. Number eight. Kind of like a Madison. Yeah, a little deeper than Madison, probably. I, it just occurred like, the replacement for son is probably Mikey Moore. Yeah, he's another two footed if he. Can become, come up to the level. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Still, still a lot to be proven there. Yeah, I think he's like 17 now. I think he just turned 17. Yeah. He was like the youngest Tottenham player ever play, I think, actually. Yep. Yeah, I watched his debut while you guys got smoked by Chelsea for a second time last season. Whoo. Yeah. Thanks, man. How's, how's 6th place? Like, practically as good as fifth place place. But it's not. Yeah, I think this season is going to be really interesting. I, I think that it'll be interesting to see if Ange comes off that this is who we are, this is how we play stuff and evolves. Right? Huh. It's risky at this point. If he rolls with that. Well, he just, I mean, they had some injuries and then I think Ange ball got found out and teams just weren't scared of them anymore in the back half of the season and they, they ended the season in dreadful form. So they had known none of the intensity that they had at the beginning of the season. Yeah. It just never, never leveled out. So historically, Angie's second seasons are his best seasons, so we'll see what happens. Yeah. Yeah, I'm curious to see if he can like. Yeah, if he, if he can adapt to the, the PL now that. Now that his, like, initial set of tactics have sort of been found out. Um, I think that's it. You guys have anything else you wanted to cover? I don't know how far we've gone. No, I think we'll jump into. I've got. We can talk about some, some women's soccer happenings next, next episode and they'll probably be good. We'll see how the men do in the interim. I don't even know where Riverside is on my computer right now. This is our, this is our machine. Learning guy right here. Yeah. Yeah. I have so many tabs open. I have like four tabs dedicated to that left hook alone. All right, well, I guess that's pod. Definitely check us out on discord. Apparently Luke has that but doesn't like us. That's. That'll be in the show description. I'll put the link to this tweet of this crazy foul and left hook in our show description for this week. And we are live on Sundays whenever Luke feels like it. And we're on all podcasting platforms on Monday. Please like and subscribe and review really helps us out. And I guess on Friday the euros kick off. So we'll be covering that next week. Thanks, everyone. Bye, everyone. Thanks for tuning in to the Football Yanks podcast. Be sure to subscribe wherever you heard this podcast so you never miss a future episode. We'll see you next time.