England's Tactical Nightmare and Southgate's Blunders: What's Next for the Three Lions?

🎙️ Football Yanks Euros Group Match 2 Review 🚀

In this action-packed episode, hosts Ryan and Derek gear up for an in-depth analysis of the second round of group matches in the Euros and the opening matches in Copa America! From Venezuela's surprising victory over Ecuador and the meteoric rise of Kendry Paez to Chelsea's latest transfer coups, Estevao Willian, and Paez himself, we've got you covered with all the latest insights and gossip.

⚽ Hot Topics:

• Chelsea's Big Moves: Dive into the Blues' new signings and the potential shake-up in their lineup, including a deep look into Conor Gallagher’s ever-evolving role.
• Calvin Phillips Mystery: Only one man can save Southgate's England.
• France in Trouble: Grapple with the controversy around Mbappe's non-participation due to a broken nose, and how France is faring without their star player.
• Ronaldo vs Mbappe: A head-to-head comparison of ego and leadership between two footballing giants and their impact on their national teams.
• Belgium's Rollercoaster: The drama of Belgium's group stage struggles, including Lukaku's disallowed goal and Trossard's shocker.
• Euro 2020 Favorites: Analyzing the frontrunners and dark horses, with special mentions to Germany, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands.
• Copa America: Shocking pitch conditions and tournament highlights, including standout performances from Argentina and Mexico, and a hilarious nod to Scotsman John McGinn’s charm.

🔍 Transfer Buzz:

• Chelsea’s Market Maneuvers: Critique the chess moves between clubs over wingers like Michael Olise and speculative bids for talents like Samu Omorodion.
• Man United's Dilemmas: Derek and Ryan roast United over internal issues and their desperate transfer attempts—plus a candid look at Ratcliffe's handling of operations.

Banter & Bold Predictions: Laugh along with some cheeky banter, and don't miss out on the speculation surrounding upcoming matches and potential tournament spoilers.

🎧 Tune in for all these juicy details and more in our latest episode! Whether you're a die-hard fan or just here for the drama, you won’t want to miss this dynamic breakdown of all things football. Subscribe, join our Discord, and keep the football conversation going with the Yanks! 🥅🔥

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Transcript

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Hey, everybody. This is Derek and Ryan, the Football Yanks podcast. This week we'll be covering match day two, primarily of the euros. We'll talk about some of the teams we're a little bit hopeful for in terms of competing for the championship there and a real focus on the disappointments. Mbappe refusing to play according to Derek. And England's, again, just continuing a master class in coaching, both tactically, player selection postgame like insanity. I don't even know how else to describe it. So we'll get into that towards the end of the euros and everything else in between, and then also touch on Copa America and our, as usual, just completely garbage pitches here in the United States that we've decided to expose people to and injure them from as part of the Copa America. And then we'll get into Ryan, you know, correcting and getting ahead of Fabrizio Romano this week. Rumor transfer. So. Ryan's rumor mill. Yeah, Ryan's rumor mill. All right, thanks, everybody. Yeah, make sure you stick around. We. We get into England last in the euro coverage, but it's. It's definitely a meaty we want. Yeah, we saved the best for last so we could savor it. Yeah, yeah. Really, really wanted to be mentally prepped and primed for that one. Thanks for tuning the football Yanks podcast. 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. That matches today. Right? First us match is today. Yeah, so we won't be able to cover that until next week's show, but yeah, we play at six, so I'll sit down and watch that live later on. Sweet. Well, how's it going? No Luke again this week. Do we know where Luke is this week? I feel like he didn't disclose his whereabouts. I don't think so. So he basically just said him and Tess were going somewhere. Yeah, somewhere better than Baltimore. Yeah. Bye, guys. Hopefully it's cooler than it is here. Sorry. Oh, shit. Yeah, I was thinking about going outside and doing some chores, but I don't think that's happening today. This is off to a great start. Yeah. Um, I just, like. I could not look at my hair like that for the next hour. Um, even under the hat. Yeah. All right, fair enough. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's just like. Fuck. It was sticking out the sides all crazy. I couldn't do it. We're good to go now. Take two. Are we? Yes. I know. Luke. I don't know. I like, he's harder to get ahold of than Obama. Wow, that, yeah, think about that one for a moment. Yeah, I haven't seen that guy in a minute either. Yeah, I think he's sitting this round out too. I guess I used to have Obama on speed dial, but yeah, he just, yeah, he doesn't return my calls anymore, man. Yeah, but, yeah, sorry, you're just, you guys are just gonna have to deal with us again this week, but, yeah, we've got lots to dig into. Euros are popping off. Copa America. I did read that players are really unhappy with the pitch conditions, which isn't like, entirely surprising. I guess I've only bitched, you know, like every other episode about how CONCACAF plays on these bullshit pitches and, yeah, now they keep choosing these venues where they have to lay fresh grass on top of turf and then you have injuries and they complain about it and, you know, just, it doesn't, the whole thing is so asinine, right? Like, if these games are selling out, then, like, why not use like college fields or something that, you know, you can fit more people in the stadium. Instead of selling the tickets at $150 a pop, you actually get a broader fan base and more concessions and stuff. But I don't, yeah, it doesn't seem like an optimized revenue model, but I've been saying that for a while. So I don't really know what these jackasses are doing, but they're saying people that decided to hire Greg back, right? Hire Greg twice. So I'm not really sure my expectations should be. Oh, you mean for the federation? Yeah. Well, yeah, the US Federation, granted. That's, I mean, I'm assuming the us federations who picked these fields, right? Because we're hosting, I don't know, maybe. Yeah, you would think so. We're hosting the World cup in 2026, right? So you would think that by that time we're gonna have to have our act together with this shit. Like, yeah, because we can't have, we can, we can have like the most important tournament and football being held on some scuffed fields that, that we, that we like, roll out there. Like the. The story I read this morning is that one of the stadiums, the. I think it's the Atlanta Falcons. Yeah. Mercedes. Mercedes, yeah. Which is like a brand new, like a virtually brand new stadium. And whoever Atlanta's MLS team is, they play there. I forget their name, and they played a match on turf and then they just like, threw grass down on top of the turf. Like, I guess they have, like, some, like, square, like, they can jigsaw some like, yep. Grass squares together. And I guess it was, it was bad. Like, really bad. And, and everyone was complaining about it after the match. So, yeah, I don't know what stadiums were selected for the World cup, but we're gonna have to get our shit together before then, for sure. Well, and, like, this was a prime opportunity to have, like, I don't know, to have a good experience of the fans. Right? Like, it's not, like, sure, it doesn't have the prestige of the Euros and rightly so because, you know, you got third tier teams like Mexico playing in this tournament, but, you know, at the same time, it was a chance to kind of, you know, I'd say grow the game in a sense, especially as it pertains to CONCACAF. But, yeah, a missed opportunity at this point and another black eye on, you know, just the general cluster that is us hosting games. Yeah, I still, it baffles me that we, that Baltimore can't ever get these, like, major competitions because the Ravens made the decision years ago to, because of their injury issues that they ripped the turf out of that stadium and they, they just have year round grass on that field. But, like, I get it. I get, like, the Baltimore is different guys. Like, it's not, it's not the wire here anymore, but, yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's close to a bunch of different metro areas, like, Philly fans and DC fans could come here and I feel like the field conditions are pretty great for, for this sort of tournament, but, yeah, I was really disappointed that we didn't get any World of the World cup fixtures here that would have been pretty sick to bike. Like, ride my bike to M and T and watch, watch a World cup match, but I think I'll have to go to Philly for that. Yeah. And I wonder, like, it's tough to get this information readily, but it looks like at least as it pertains to FedEx, they would have had to remove seats to fit the proper width. And so I wonder if that's, I think that's probably a piece of the problem as it pertains to football stadiums, even the ones that have good grass like Baltimore does. But again, like, this is shit that, like, somebody needs to be able to figure out, right. And better yet, like, you know, you're building these stadiums with World Cups and major tournaments in mind. Like, it's not hard to make modular seating. Like it's, it's 2024. Didn't we, I thought you and I, years ago went to a World cup qualifier at M and T. I know I went to a us game there. I want to say it was a friendly against, like, Iceland or some shit. Unless I'm remembering something entirely different. Yeah, yeah. I don't. I know I went games. I know I went to a match there. I don't remember if it was competitive. I think the problem though, right, like, that, connecting that to what I just said, like, and I bitched about this before, is we play on these non max with field in the US for these. These, like, important games, whereas, like, everywhere else in the world, they're playing in soccer stadiums where it's max length, max width. Right. And so it, like, the trade off is the field, like the grass quality versus the size of the pitch for, like. But like, there shouldn't be a fucking trade off. So. Yeah, the world cop or the Copa. But, yeah, well, let's talk. Let's switch gears. Let's go through. I suspect most people care about the euros, so let's. How do we want to tackle this? Let's. 1st. 1st. 1st question I have for you, early impressions of the euros so far. Who do you. Who do you think, who's in pole position for you now and then? Who has surprised you and who has underperformed? Like, so pole position, who's impressing you right now? So I think, you know, Germany is probably the only team that's come out and done what they needed to do and done it convincingly in the first two games. When I think about, I want to call it the top four teams if I were to see them. Right. Like, I. Yeah, I think that all the focus was on England, France, Germany and Spain to a large extent. Yeah. To me, there's a. There's still a clear line between those teams and those below them. Right. In terms of competitors that win this. Now you can talk about how that shift that's. That's shifted and changed a bit. But, you know, Germany, I haven't seen, like, any flaws and they. Yeah, they've looked very good. They seem like they. We talked about, like, they have a ton of depth, they have a great starting eleven. They have a good system. They're in form. Right. And then there's question marks around basically everyone else. I think maybe. Maybe less. Less questions are Spain than France or England. But Spain's a bit tricky. Right. Like, they're in this transition period between playing tiki taka that we talked about and playing this more like free flowing attacking game with, with, you know, pacey gifted wingers. Yeah, maybe the focus area of the team. I think they're still kind of building into, like, what that looks like, but definitely that. Why do you think they're building into that? They look fucking lethal. I think sometimes, like, we talked about, like, they. There's this propensity to force it down the wing. Like, they'll just bomb balls at Nico Williams, and he hasn't necessarily gotten on the end of, like, better than 30 or 40% of them. Like, I think there's a lot of wasted possession that I still see that they can optimize. And then, to your point, I think they're gonna be really fucking good once they kind of figure that out. But I think it's. I think it's still new to their identity to an extent. But I think, you know, again, they've, by and large, dispelled questions, and so I think you. You can make the argument that Germany and Spain have kind of been the ones that have come and come out and looked like the front runners to this point. Yeah. So what they put on the field, at least. Yeah. So for. For me, it's. It's been those guys and then everyone else, basically. Like, I just. I feel like they've been. They've been really impressive. So those guys being Germany and Spain. Yeah. They've been the ones who have come out for me and done what they needed to do and been relatively convincing about it. Yeah. I would say that the Netherlands and Portugal have a lot of talent and have performed pretty well. I think both of those teams still lack some refinement in certain areas. Portugal maybe, like, going out and getting the first goal sometimes isn't as efficient as it needs to be with them. And then I'd say the Netherlands, they're finishing just still isn't good enough. I don't think they're going to get there. Like, they have a lot of talent on that team. They miss Frankie Deyoung for sure, in midfield, but a bigger problem that is they don't seem to have that killer instinct in front of goal that we talked about last episode. So to me, like, they're kind of still outside that top four in terms of potential to win this. But, you know, we've seen other teams go on runs. Right. Italy and stuff that maybe didn't have top. Top talent that we know can end up winning a tournament like this. Yeah. So Portugal, they're through. So they have. Did they have a. They're. They're stacked. They had a fairly easy group. Yeah. Georgia, Czech Republic, Turkey, Portugal, that's like. I mean, they should be comfortably exact. Whether it's the state of Georgia or the country of Georgia. Nice people, but not advancing in this tournament. Yeah, I mean, Georgia has at least one world class player. Kaviczuk Fartsky. Yeah, but does anyone not playing football manager know that? Everyone knows who he is. I'm not. Who does he play for? He plays for Napoli. He. Oh, now we're talking about Syria. How many. How many leagues am I supposed to follow this podcast? I think he was the player of the season for Napoleon, for all of Syria last year. Dealt with. Apparently it didn't come across in the game. Yeah, he. He's a fucking g, but I don't think he's done trying to pull up like he's no Lukaku. Okay. Yeah. That's all I say to Lukaku is fucking cursed. We're gonna talk about them. Yeah. They're using this bizarre formation. I don't think Var. Its. Skelly has been able to be very effective for Georgia in this tournament. He's also like, he's had a down season relative to the previous season, but, yeah, he's. He's very good. I mean, he's a. He's a two footed, clever winger. He's the. I've talked about him on this podcast before. He's referred to as Kveradana. And Liverpool look to be in for him for 90 million pounds, if that gives you a sense of the level that we're talking here. This is not some obscure football manager guy that I am pulling out of my ass. There are another real melting pot of diversity. 18 of them have the same last four letters to their last names. Do you remember when. Do you remember when South Korea, like, everyone on their team's last name was Kim in the World cup? Yeah, look at it. Yeah, that's this team sheet, too. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so the point is, Portugal should have been comfortably advancing, and they have. I think that they have a little bit of yellow card trouble. I think if I remember right when I was watching them yesterday, the announcers pointed out that a few of their players will face a ban in the next fixture, but they won't care about that because they're already advancing, although they. How comfortably comfortable are they at the top of their group? I guess a draw guarantees them the top of their group, it looks like. And they're almost. They could even, almost certainly lose and still finish top of their group. Turkey has one win and one loss, but a negative goal differential, so they'd have to like, really pop off and Portugal fall apart in the next one. Yeah. So let me pull up my notes here. Let's talk. I saved the best for last again. So we'll get to England eventually, but the best isn't. I think we'll have a lot to say. I think the most controversial. I mean, you could see that of the ghost of a. But yeah. Yeah. Well, I have them say, let's talk about Belgium. So you and I, we hung out last group. What do you think of this whole group? It's a disaster. If there's a group of to death, this is the group of disaster. Right. This is just a complete ship pile. Yeah. All four teams in this group, Romania, Belgium, Slovakia, Ukraine, all on one win and one loss, which will make for a phenomenal final day. Yeah. There's a reason these games are played at the same time slot in the third game. I mean, that's gonna be a lot of fun. Lukaku. Like, we. So we hung out last night with, like, we were hanging out with friends and Derek was there and we talked briefly about Belgium. And the comment you said that was better. It was better put than I think how I articulated it. But you said that these teams, they play so much better for their club than they do when they're together. For Belgium, like, this is it how this. I mean, it's the story of the last decade for Belgium. Really, like, supremely talented squad, golden generation, and just underperformance in international play for a decade, for as long as I have been an adult watching soccer and. I mean, single tournament, right? Yeah, yeah. And this. I mean, this is them losing. So we didn't get to comment on this because it happened on Monday, but they. They lost to Slovakia in the greatest defeat in Euros history. Like, absolutely tragic. And the types of things that are happening to them is. Is remarkable, too. Like, that's worth talking about, I guess. Like, the number of goals they have scored that have then been called back is fucking hilarious for me to watch the offside on Lukaku yesterday was. Has to be the closest offside I've ever, ever seen. It was. It was by, like. I mean, it was by nothing. It was by like an inch. He was offside on, on. I guess what would have been. They ended up beating Romania to nothing, which doesn't tell the whole story of this match for me. So I'm going to pull up the who. I'm curious about the stats here. I should have had this up already, but I'm pulling up the who scored for Belgium, Romania, so in this match, possession was 55 45 in favor of Belgium, where total shots 20 to 14. Like this was closer than I ever imagined it would be. And I mean, De Bruyne looked good. He scored a goal. Lukaku had a great assist in the third fastest, I believe, Euros goal ever to Tielemans. So he lay, he laid the ball off the tielemans and it, I mean, it was a phenomenal shot by Tielemans. Whether he intended that, I'm sure he intended it, but I mean, he threaded it through to it had a very small window where this, this ball could be on goal and be a threat for a goal. And I mean, he threaded it so that, I mean, that was a great goal. De Bruyne's goal was great. Lukaku, I think, had two goals called off in this one. He might have had two or three in the previous one, but Romania were up for this. They looked, they looked really good for much stronger than you would expect against a team as stacked, seemingly stacked as, as Belgium and. Yeah, I, I don't know. So that's. Did you have any other, other thoughts on them? I. No, I still think they're under. As we said, there's a couple players, Doku, Dobronia, Telemen's that are playing at a world class level and maybe you can. Lukaku is such an unbalanced game. Right. I had a great assistant and everything else. He's like pounding at the goalie and then the what that, you know, I don't know, like, it's just, I mean. He put two in the back of the net that were called back, I think. And the one where he was offside, I mean, the, the goal that was called back where he was offside. Yeah, it was a good finish and it's good striker play. I mean, he was an inch from being on side there. He nearly perfectly timed that run. I mean, maybe they woke the fuck up in this game and that's going to continue. I don't know, maybe they're just asleep in the first one. But we've seen this out of them so often. Like, you see Tressard come on, it's like, oh, I'm playing for Belgium. I guess I just forget how to cross a ball now. Can you think of. Yeah, Trossard had a howler of a match and they will have to play him in the next one because I don't know how to say the dude's name. Loot Luke Becko, I think is his name. Look, a bacchus bacchio yeah. Luca Bacchio. That's how you say. Yeah. So he picked up a second yellow card. So for in this tournament, two yellow cards and you miss a match. And so he, they will have to play Trossard out there or doku out. Of position, but yeah, I think that's, didn't they play Doku out of position the first game and that was a shit show. I don't remember. I thought they started Trossard and Doku was in position. I could, I could be wrong. But anyways, they're gonna have to play one of them on the wrong, they're wrong side. Right. So why. Oh, you're right. Yeah. Well, don't. Yeah. Doku and Tressard prefer the left. Yeah, both of them. Right. But to your point that the two best remaining wingers, like, by far, unless you put like Carrasco up there or some shit. But now I don't think that's happening. Yeah, I'm trying to see, oh, you're right, you're right. They lined Doku up out of, yeah. And like, he looked like he was fucking lost in that game and maybe that was just the game. I don't know. He seems like he really prefers playing on the left. I thought was a little bit better, like flexibility wise, but looked like he never crossed the ball with his right foot in his entire career. Trossard ended the season in such good form too. Basically played Martinelli off the pitch. Yeah. And, yeah, you look terrible. Yeah, that's, that's probably enough of this lovely group that has very little chance of anyone winning an elimination game before we move on. The the a thought I had while watching this match is, is there anyone else, are there any other players at the nine that play that position the way Lukaku does not? There used to be more, there's not many, not many now. Like the big body nine is. Yeah, dude. I mean, he just bodies defenders. Like, I don't see anyone else. I mean, that dude for hungry, that looks like he's on my diet, probably could play that way. But outside of that, the dude from Hungary, I want to say he's, I think he's playing as their super sub. He's like, he's like 220 pounds, which I was like, oh, what? I don't know who we're talking about here. Let me see. But, but anyways, yeah, there's not a lot, certainly Christiana is not in there, like, you know, trying to shoulder, shoulder shrug people out of the, out of the box to lay the ball off. Right doesn't play for hungry. I don't know what I'm talking about. The pie, you know, is an example. Right. Some of these other guys are all kind of like, finesse, like step over strikers and yellow Kaku is definitely kind of a throwback. Yeah. I mean, he can turn and run too, like he is. He's a powerful runner. I mean, he. Nobody was catching him when he attempted to run and break the offside. Yeah, but he also, like, I don't think anyone. I can't think of anyone who plays with their back to goal as effectively as he does. I guess that was a crazy layoff for the assist there. I'm trying to figure out who would have come on for. I'm trying to find this striker that you're talking about. When did Varga come off? Varga came off. Gossdag. Who is hungry? Absolute unit. Martin Adam. Yeah. Martin Adam is the Martin Adam I have. Oh, he has? Come on. Okay. This doesn't even have his hungry, hungry striker. Just like me. This doesn't even have his. Wait, you're not a striker. Nice. 190 pounds. Dude. He is an absolute. You look at this guy. He hasn't come across my desk and football manager. Let's. Let's say that I've got. I've got 20 pounds on this guy. Imagine I'm gonna get fucking shamed tomorrow night. All right, who do I have next time? I know. Oh, France. I actually did not catch their second match. They drew right to Netherlands. I'm assuming you watched this. Yeah, I mark this than watch. Yeah. France. What would I say about. I mean, to be honest, like, on the whole, I would say it was a fairly balanced game. And the possession wouldn't tell you that, right? I mean, I think France is France at 62%. But, you know, I think they really couldn't figure it out. Like, how to score, how to even take, like, really good chances. Like, there were some shots in particular by, like, Dembele. I remember Griezmann. Yeah, that was a real struggle for him in this one. Right? Like, they just. They really couldn't figure it out. And, like, it's funny because all the pundits are like, well, even without a BOPE, like, there's plenty of people on this team figure out how to score. Like, now, as usual, you dumbasses are wrong about everything you're saying, but you would think that they would have had a good advantage of this. And in fairness, Netherlands played another good game. And it's not like they don't have world class team and, you know, having Van Dyke and Devry back there, like, you know, helps. Helps you mitigate that. But France should have done better with this game, for sure. And it can't just be, oh, well, you know, bop a has a little boo boo, so they'll be fine later. Yeah, I'm trying to find. Not to mention, yeah, your studio coming in as a super sub, but striker, I mean, Jerud. Oh, man, I love it. I love a Jerus shirt. Swap, kit swap at the end of the game. Yeah, dude. Yeah. Sorry, I had to. I had to bite my lip for a minute. The premium content coming to server, they are stacked. But are they, are they just not as stacked as I? I mean, like, Giroux is past his prime, right? Yeah. So they don't have, like, quite, like, I'd say a super stud coming off the bench. You know, you can also question, like, what was the wisdom of playing this, this 4411 or whatever it is that they lined up in, right? Yes. Trying. You know, I think generally they're playing a four three three with Mbappe and so I could be wrong about that, but part of me questions whether Giroud should have started and maybe they would have been a bit more dynamic or positive in terms of potential finishing. Dude, I didn't realize magic Mike was Francis keeper. Yeah, huh? Yeah. Fairness. He had a good game. Is there backup coma finger didn't come into this match. I guess midfield wasn't their problem. Is Conte the greatest tournament player of. The last ten years, bitching and complaining? Because I was like, these guys, like Conti and like Ronaldo and whatever, like, they shouldn't even be allowed to play in this tournament when they just piss their career away in the saudi league. Right? But Conti's look fantastic. I don't understand what the fuck he's doing in Saudi Arabia. Like, it's just a complete waste of. Talent, but, yeah, well, I mean, his. We cooked his hamstrings, but he looks. Completely fine and so maybe that's the thing, right? Like, he just kind of trot around for like eight months out of the year and then show up to tournaments and kill it. Like, yeah, that's how he's managing it. It just. It seems like it would be hard to come in with the right fitness and form, but, like, he has had no problem doing so. Like, he's, he's. He was the one piece that kind of, like, kept them ticking along. It had a big impact on that 63% possession, but doesn't help if, you know, Griezmann's tripping on the ball in the box and stuff, so. Yeah. Well, yeah. Some big questions with France, given the level of talent there. I mean, I think part of me is, like, if Mbappe didn't need surgery, right, and it's just like, a pain management thing or whatever. Right. Or, like, what's the risk? Right? Like, his nose gets displaced again. Like, okay, you're a professional athlete. Like, wear a mask. Well, he might not be able to breathe. Might not be able to breathe if it's too swollen. Yeah. Like, it might have just been too soon and the swelling. Like, his. His nose could be closed up and he can't breathe through it. Like, you're not. You're nowhere near as mouths to breathe through. Right? What humans have mouths to breathe through. Yeah. You're not as, like, the. The science is such that, like, you're. You're just not. You're not processing oxygen at the same rate if you have to breathe through your mouth. But, like, to me, could have played ten or 15 minutes at least, but. It probably doesn't matter. Like, this wasn't. Maybe. Maybe that's the argument, right? Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Like, so they need to win the next one. I will say this, though, right? Like, I think that Messi Ronaldo, the players of that caliber with that. That mindset would have said, fuck you, I'm coming into this game. Right? Yeah. You wouldn't be able to keep them off the field. Yeah. It's different if it's, like, a leg injury or something else, and, like, sure, it's gonna impact your performance or a breathing standpoint. That's absolutely, absolutely true. But, like, I just don't. I don't understand what it would take to have to keep somebody like that off the field, that, you know, that kind of impact, even at 90% or 85% or 70%, whatever it is. Yeah. So counterpoint, at least who scored, has rabio as the man of the match, and he was effectively playing the mbappe. I mean, he was playing left wing. Yeah. I mean, they. He's not really a winger, but, yeah, they set up in this way where he was working that flank and, yeah, he did have a good game. I would say, conversely, dembele was slightly further back from where he preferred to be and did not have a great game. I didn't even watch this fucking game. And I'm playing, like. Questioning, dissecting. I'm dissecting your takes on this game from a. Who scored sheets? Like, I'm reading here, Derek. Yeah. I don't know what you said, saw. Yeah, well, okay, so here's. Here's the point I'll make. I hate Mbappe as much as the next guy. I think he's an ego, the likes of which. I mean, Ronaldo is an ego. I'd say that they're like, nearly similar levels of ego, but Ronaldo's ego is earned. Like, multiple balloon door winner, one of euros for Portugal with, like, nowhere near the caliber squad. That other, like, Ronaldo has done it. And I can't stand the guy's personality or ego or whatever, but he is a legend of the game. He's a living legend of the game, and. But broken nose is. Is no joke. Like, if you can't breathe, you can't. You can't run for. You can't, you can't. You can't rise to the occasion here. I would think that by the next match, he'll be back on the pitch, but I think the most surprising thing to me, just looking at this who scored sheet is the lack. Like, France is deep and. Yeah, nobody. They made two subs. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know what the game called for, but there's a lot they can pull from here. And you're right. I mean, they used a bizarre formation, and I guess we're sort of devoid of ideas. They just didn't know how to win without Mbappe on the pitch. I mean, I would say they got. They got in dangerous spots and got shots off. They just weren't good shots. Yeah, 15 shots to eight. Yeah. Griezmann just seemed like he. Like he just couldn't deal with the pressure being that focal point in the attack. Yeah, I mean, to your point, like, I don't have necessarily the strong feelings that a lot of people do. I will say that, like, yeah, there's things about his leadership and his personality that rub me the wrong way. And the interesting thing is, as much as I think off the field, Ronaldo is kind of a narcissistic prick. And without getting the weeds of that right for the most generally, like, his teammates, his former teammates, his current teammates all think very highly of him and appreciate playing with him. And you can kind of see, like, the leadership role he takes on with Portugal and the teams he plays on. Like, he puts a lot of it on his shoulders, but he also likes understands it's a team game. And maybe that's dynamics changed in ways later in his career. But, you know, I think that's kind of the difference I look at versus, you know, Mbappe playing on great France squads, but PSG always kind of being a cluster, and I think some of that has to do with him as a leader. Yeah. So maybe that's a good pivot point. Let's talk about Portugal real quick. I feel like they have performed fairly well this tournament. I mean, they're. They're through already. Ronaldo really selfless laying off the. I think it was to Bruno. Yeah. For probably the third goal. But I mean, more importantly, his, his play there is really good. Like, him recognizing the way that that play was breaking down and just reading. Yeah. What the defender that he was in behind was going to do. His movement and his timing might be the best still out of any striker in the world, or at least in this tournament. Yeah. So I don't know that there's a whole lot to analyze with Portugal, other than I think that they have one of the best squads that they have ever had in an international tournament. They're very stacked, I mean, specifically for Portugal, and they have won this tournament, like I said a few minutes ago, with a far less talented squad than what they're playing with now. The other thing I'll point out here is Arta Guler, who is a deep cut from football manager, at least, like, I mean, until recently, like, people know about this kid now because he's signed, he's with Real Madrid. He spent a lot of this season injured. He has scored a few goals for Real right now. I think that it was a stupid move for him because I have no idea where he ever fits into Real Madrid at this point. So I think he'll probably be moved on at some point. But he had a sick game against, forget who they played. Their. Their first match of the tournament was. Sorry, I'm trying to back up to Georgia. He. Yeah, he had a phenomenal game in that one, but this whole team, like, what does who score have him at an eight on who scored, scored a goal. And like every, like, I mean, everything was just running through Arte Gula. It felt like, this kid's gonna be good. I think he's 18 and he was cooking in that match. The coach said that he. So he did not start against Portugal. He came on as a sub. The whole team looks shattered against Portugal. It's clear that their plan was to throw everything at Georgia. Yeah, they saw Portugal as a free hit, so to speak, and they will go in against. Who else is it? Check. And they'll try to get a win there. So. Yeah, I mean, but Portugal got it done. Right. But I just wanted to shout out our articulate. That's. That's a dude to watch. And Turkey has, like, they have a great football culture there. The fans are fucking nuts. I've talked about how unhinged their fans are at their, their home. Like, when I say great football culture, like, a level of decorum probably needs to be established potentially by force. Yeah. But they're passionate. They're crazy passionate about soccer there. And I think that Arda is gonna give them some. Something like, you know, he's gonna be their icon for the next decade. And, yeah, it was cool to see him perform so well in that match. Yeah. The good chance of advancing, obviously, based on where they are. I don't see them going any further than that in the tournament, but yes. So let's roll through a few of these real quick so we can talk about Copa America. I threw down Scotland one, Switzerland one, mostly because of Shaqiri's goal. Did you see that goal? Yeah, I've watched it live. I wasn't paying very close attention to it. Oh, sorry. Yeah, that was the one where he actually just ran on a one. Timed it. Yeah. So ridiculous. Bad, you know, giveaway by that was. Was that Scotland? Is that what you said? Yeah, it was a back pass. I forget who it was by on Scotland, but, yeah. Where that shot was taken and the level of difficulty and the way that he kind of definitively finished, that was something probably only he can do on that team. For sure. For sure on that team. He's. He is one of one first MLS player to score in the euros. So he plays for Chicago Fire, I believe. Yeah. And I feel like as long as I can remember, I've been watching him do shit like that in international tournaments a while. Yeah. I think the announcers said that. I didn't, like, look this stat up, but I think they said in the last six international tournaments he's played in, he scored like, he's just an absurdly good player for Switzerland who've been very consistent on the international stage. Like, they're not. Like, they're not winning anything, but they're a problem. You don't want to. You don't have to play this team. I thought a Kanji looked good. Yeah. But Shaqiri, it's. He's a lot of fun to watch. I don't know. And, I mean, he's in the twilight years of his career, so it's. It was cool to see him do that one more time, I guess. And McTominay, world class, best player on Man United. You know, also, if you want an absolute mind fuck, like, I caught a nosebleed listening to the Scotland players being interviewed after this. What the fuck are they even. What language are they speaking in Scotland? Yeah, it's, yeah, it's, it's. It's weird having, you know, being, being one of maybe, like, I don't know, how many countries are there where English is the official language? I mean, there's like, you know, anyways, whatever we. Austin, maybe two other countries, and none of them being Ireland, Scotland, or England, where anyone speaks any recognizable version of English. Yeah, but there's a lot. There's 53 really, where it's the official language. Yeah. In Scotland, might actually speak the most incomprehensible version of it. Yeah, dude. If they're. They should be removed from this list, actually. Like, it is. It is not the official language there. It is. It is like, whatever they're speaking, that is not English. Yeah. You think like, you're like, oh, this country must be, like, on the other side of the world from, from England. And then you look and it's like, oh, it's just like, you just drive up there. Like, at some point you're just in Scotland. It's like, all right, well, yeah, what happened? Like, did they not. They don't, they don't, like, talk to each other because I don't understand how they understand each other, but it's. That's crazy. I like the experience post game. I don't know, I think I, like, was, was working and this game was on, and so I, like, it just kept playing after the game wrapped up, and I forget who was being interviewed, but I, like, they asked him a question and it was just like, noise washed over me. I could, like, none of it was perceivable in any way. Like, it. Like, he's just like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I tried to give him a twelve stutter, and then, like, that's the end of the interview. Yeah, it was, it was like, dude, if he tried to say twelve stutter, I don't think I could understand how, like, the way they enunciate everything is like, it's, it's like the upside down in stranger things. Stranger things. The way Scotland speaks English is. It's the upside down further, like, relative to the rest of us. I have an important question about this game, though. Who. Who do you think the dirtier player is at, you know, from a holistic standpoint of their careers between McGinn and, uh, son. And son. Yeah, son, for sure. Okay. But I don't think it's even close. McGinn seems like he's given it his best effort, like every time he's out there lately. Yeah, yeah. I mean, McGinn is younger, so he's got time to close the gap. Yeah. But yeah, son has been operating at lethal levels for, for years. Yeah. His kill count is just that much. Longer at this point. Yeah. McGinn's 29. I thought he was a little younger than that. I think son's 32. Hyun Min Sun 31. Yeah. So they're like relatively similar age. Yeah. Dude, look at this piece of shit. His like this mug shot that he took for Tottenham. Fucking hate son. Get that in there. But yeah, you really know how to, how to get me, get me on one. Germany, I just wrote it's Musiala's world and we're living in it. I think that dor, not Dortmund. Byron paid 200k for, for Musiala from Chelsea. We suck at this, but yeah, Germany is actually. I'm gonna save that thought for a second. We already kind of talked about Spain. Nico Williams. I thought, I thought in the first match that Labine Yamal looked the more lethal of the wingers and he still looked lethal in this match. But Niko Williams is giving. I don't know who the right back was, but they're gonna have nightmares about Nico Williams for a while. And Ku Kurea is playing out of his fucking mind in this tournament. What was, what was he given on who scored against Italy? In Italy? I think I, like I'm, I'm selling on, on Italy. Like, they're there. I don't think they're very good. I don't know what's up with this tea. There's. It's a young team. They don't have a lot of chemistry. They don't look good. They look toothless. Donor amic completely kept that like one of the games of his life against Spain. Kukureya was given man of the match on who scored. But there are rumors that Chelsea are considering activating. Nico Williams has like a 60 million euro release clause. The issue is that his wages are very high and Chelsea are trying to keep this, this wage cap of week. And so I think that's what's been giving them hesitations. But if I am them, watching Kukure and Williams play together on that wing. Yeah, I'm thinking like maybe this is the move. Yeah. But yeah, Ku Korea is an absolute pest. Like a fucking nuisance. He's like a tick. It's crazy. He looks he's like a little kid that somebody gave a cape and told me he's a superhero. And he, like, he believes every ounce of it. Yeah. He's just out there doing his thing. I want to know. So he had a terrible 2022 to 23 for Chelsea. He was awful. I mean, like, look like he didn't. And I, like, I was very critical of him. He looked like he didn't. He had never played soccer before. Like, it was that bad. It's no exaggeration to say that he looked like one of the worst signings of all time if they hadn't signed Lukaku also. But, but, uh, he. He looked so, so bad. And then he sort of started. And we almost loaned him to United. Yeah, like, we almost loaned him to United because we were just like, this guy, isn't it? And then we ended up keeping him because. Well, United couldn't afford the transfer fee of $58. They couldn't afford the transfer fee. They wanted to be able to terminate at midnight season, which they did with regulon Reggie on. And then they Poch cup tied him to the Carabao cup. And then we had him. Do you remember we had him playing at right back when Reese and Gusto were injured? Yeah. And our entire defense was injured. Yeah. It decimated. And. And that was the first time I thought he looked really good. And I was like, why is this guy so good at right back? And then he got injured. He did his foot and had to get surgery. And since he came back, he's been the nailed on starter, and he is a man possessed for Spain. I don't know, like, maybe. I mean, there's a reason that Man City wanted him. The reason we paid over the odds for him is almost solely because city were in for him. Yeah. Right. Yeah, we were just like, we'll write the check. Yeah. But he. I mean, I'm really excited to see how he plays in Maresca system next year. I think he's gonna be very good. But, yeah. Shout out to Kukure, I was wrong about you. I've only been wrong once, and it's about Ku Korea. Oh. Oh, yeah. And I wrote down I wanted to. So last week, we called out the fact that this was not the Spain of old, and they are not playing that tiki taka nonsense pep ball like boar fucking the opposition. Like, lull them to sleep with. With this mind numbing brand of soccer. Like, they are going out and going. For over the crossbar. Yeah. Yeah. They are going out and going for it. And it's. I'm here for it. It's fun to watch. Did they, did they have, where is it? What were the possession stats? They did dominate possession in this one, but yeah, Italy's got issues. They're going nowhere in this tournament in my opinion. All right, and so then let's talk about England. The only note I made is lol. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like on the ship pile and there's already too much shit on the ship pile. Yeah. These guys, the lead in I wanted to make with this is Germany is playing this really interesting free flowing. I mean, they have the players to do it. But Maggie, playing soccer to win. Yes, but Nagelsman has identified that, that he has just these world class talents, these world class attacking midfield talents and he's just letting them cook and it's so fun and fluid to watch and they're playing at home and they, they just look like the team to beat at this point. And then you. That's because Germany hasn't a natural substitute for Calvin Phillips to drive that world class mid. Dude, what a nightmare of a post match press conference. I had to double, triple check that. That was from like this week. Like, I was like, he just taken out of context from like a couple years ago when Calvin Phillips was like. Must have been unavailable for a match. Listen. Oh, wait a minute. Never mind. This is, this is, this is a real today, dude. Listen, England, first of all, maybe Southgate isn't, and this could explain a lot. Hold on, before I make this statement, because I can't believe nobody has pointed this out. Maybe Southgate needs to get tested. No, before I make this statement. 22, 23. Right. Okay. So I am in the clear to make this statement. Maybe Southgate doesn't understand what his fucking role is on this team, but he could have selected Calvin Phillips. Yeah. He selects the fucking squad. So if you have a Calvin Phillips problem, it's because you didn't select Calvin Phillips if he was that critical to your plan, which is farcical. But yeah, I think it gets at. The challenge of the chat, the role of the job and the challenge of the job. Right. So like with an international team though, right? Like from a selection standpoint, you don't necessarily have to do as much work as you do with the club where you have to identify the players, bring them in, figure out who's in the best form, blah, blah. Like they're already. The clubs are doing that for you, right? Yeah. So, like Henderson did that for you. He's playing in saudi league he doesn't need to be playing on your team. Right. Like Phillips is trash. They won't play him. He doesn't need to be on your team right now. It becomes more complicated with a team like England where you have so many players playing in top teams in Europe. Maybe you could make that argument that it's harder to figure out who to select but like, you know, blaming it because you don't have Phillips who you could have selected but you took Alexander Arnold because he is in form but then play him out of position, you know, doesn't to your point, like I'm not really sure that's what, what your role supposed to be. Like, you, you could have found another good central midfielder, you defensive mid. Calvin Phillips is a defensive mid. Yeah, Declan Rice can play defensive mid. Kobe menu can play defensive mid. And they have one of the most talented young defensive midfielders on their, in their squad. Adam Wharton. I don't know if you know much about him. He plays for palace. Yeah, he, he's gonna, he will be like somebody should jump on him now. Like one of the big teams should jump on him now because he'll be in two to three seasons he'll go for Declan Rice money. Like he is. He is. He's very young. I think he's 20, but he's, he's a stud. And like the problem is you, you fuck. Right. Like it is you. You are shoehorning players into positions that they don't play and they were player. Options and tactical options. Yeah, you are like he's playing foden out of position and Foden looks confused. He looks better in this game, but yeah, I don't understand that piece of it. Yeah, he did, but then he also didn't. He made some like really bad decisions. There was one play where he should have put, he should have passed it to Kane, I think, but he just doesn't like decisions have to be made with this team, in my opinion, if they're going to succeed. And those decisions have to be that. Like one. You can't get Trent Alexander Arnold into this team. You probably shouldn't have selected him at all. I understand that he is. I understand how talented he is, but it's not the type. It's the type of talent. It's the type of toolkit that you have to build a system around and drill that into a team and like that. I don't think that translates to. We've talked a lot about on this podcast about the, the varying skill sets of, of managing that. You look for in players when you're managing a national team versus your club team where you're there week in and week out. Yeah. And have tons of time hands on with these players. So, like, you need to be able. To implement like more complex systems or like non basic systems, I guess you'd say, or different systems. And the players are even used to playing for their clubs, etcetera. Right. Yeah. So for me, it couldn't be more obvious to me that you can either have Jude Bellingham or Phil Foden on the. On the field. They. They play the same position. That is their best role and you have to choose one of them. I get that. That is the best player potentially in the world and the best player in the plastic, but having them both on the pitch is just sowing confusion. And you need to play a true left winger. You have Eze and you have Gordon and that would give you something. That would give you something so much more direct and different than what Phil Foden wants to play. And you have to. You have to drop Alexander Arnold and play one of the many talented midfielders that you have. I think that's the key piece. Right. Like I. Until I see it and I see it not work, I don't know that they wouldn't be able to play with Foden, Bellingham, Kane, Sokka and one of Gordon and. Or as a. On the field together and drop one of the defensive midfielders and have rice just play a little further behind which he's comfortable doing as that. What are you, like, if we. If they played a 4141, like, if they took Alexander Arnold off and put another, like, either put Gordon or SA in place. Right, and shifted the formation and let Bellingham and Foden literally just play wherever the hell they want in the middle. Okay. Still have wingers behind Kane. Like, that's like. I just like, can't. Like, Southgate is so fucking boring. Right? Yeah. If he was listening to me right now, he'd already be confused and thinking about how he. All he'd be. He'd be like, yeah, whatever. Okay, where are we gonna play Trent next game? That's all I thinking about. Right? And yeah, he. I can see him having a role as a sub, but you're right that. And it was so obvious that even he was forced to take him off basically at the beginning of the second half. Like, yeah, it's not working and it's. I think it's somewhat myopic when I think about it though, right? Because like, this whole team, like, even with that should be playing a lot better than they are and they're not. And I guess you touched on a couple of those different pieces. Right. But with Kane and Bellingham on the field, like, they should be going out there and trouncing a team like Denmark, let's face it. But, yeah. Yeah. I don't know. He's got a lot wrong. And then when he did make the substitutions, he basically threw everybody on the same time he takes off, you know, which, you know, like, maybe Harry Kane isn't, you know, the best player of all time. Like, better than Messi. Like. Like Luke would tell us, but, like, he even will admit that, you know, he's. He's the top. Top two or three striker in the world at the moment. It needs to be out there in a game that you're chasing. Yeah. It is absolutely breathtaking to watch Southgate squander. Yeah. The talent that is. That is on this team. It is remarkable. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it, because it's almost like you could take. If you. You could pick any, like, of 15 or so players available in this pool and put them out there and they'd be able to figure out how to win the game. Yeah. On their own. But, like, he's like, no, we're gonna. We're gonna do this. Yeah. Like, and we're gonna do it again and again, dude. And they were. And then I'm gonna cover myself by reminding people that I don't have Calvin Phillips available. I could. I can't believe nobody. I didn't hear anyone that, like, I heard Southgate say that. And this, like, since that match, I haven't heard anyone point out the fact that he chose to not have Calvin Phillips. That's still. That's still your fucking fault. And not only that, he picked Henderson, right. Who is actually a, like, for, like, player positionally and isn't playing him. Wait, no, Henderson's not in the squad. Jordan Henderson? No. Oh, Dean Henderson's out there. All right, well, never mind. Yeah, that's their backup. Yeah. Keep it. Right. Yeah. All right. We'll just disregard everything I said about Henderson. But anyways, they are to your point. May knows there, right? I mean, you didn't play him. You have deck. Declan Rice can play. Declan Rice is. Declan Rice is playing there. Yeah. Yeah. So. But, like, then what's the issue? You need. You need to defensive. I see yourself. Yeah. Well, and that's. Right. Say you don't right into your point. Like, you don't have to play this rigid 4231. Right. Like, you can figure out how to. You can play with just Declan Rice as a shield. Yeah. Yeah. Or you worried about Hoibier? Just, you know, just giving him the stick. Yes. Put menu next to him or Wharton. Wharton. Wharton is a phenomenal defensive mid. I was kidding. I think any of them could cover Hoyberg, but, you know. Oh, I, like, I'm looking at their squad and just, like, ignoring you and talking about what I had a really good. A Hoiberg or Hoibier, whatever. I think it's Hoibier, but, yeah, he had a great game. He made. He made the. I mean, he bossed the midfield against Declan Rice. Yeah. Jude Bellingham. And I think, like, Gallagher was on for a bit. Yeah, he did. Trent was on. Yeah, yeah. But, oh, to your point. Yeah. When it came to substitutions, it was just like, okay. Like, you know, an absolute fire sale. You know. You know how I know you're not making any tactical adjustments? Because you just poured right. As many four guys out there and you talked to none of them. Yeah. You're going on as many random changes as possible, dude. It's spectacular to watch this. It's so. It's so bad. And they're going to. They're. In all likelihood, they're going to advance, but if something doesn't change in a. In a big way, they're fucked. They're. They're like, they're going to exit the next round. Yeah. Instantly. And, I mean, that's the risk. Right. They went from being frontrunners to, like, I'm. There's. There's not a great. There's a high likelihood of them getting knocked out. Yeah. All right, well, let's. That's all I had for the. The euros. Germany, Spain and Portugal are through at this point. It'll be a fun week to watch the. The final matches for the group phase stage. Dude, if England gets eliminated, who do they have to play? They have to play Serbia, right? Yeah, it's not a given. Serbia's. What are they. They're in last in that group. Right. But, yeah, they're last night group, but. Oh, no, they placed Slovenia. They. They already played Serbia. Either way, Sylvania. I mean, Sylvania. You know, if you're Slovenia, you're thinking, oh, I get. Maybe I get through the tie here. You play. I mean, there's absolutely no fucking reason to fear England. Yeah. They. They come out, they score a goal, and then they do, like, regardless of what happens from that point on, they. Right. Like, literally, he pulled them. Like, it might. It was like he pulled his players off the field, was like, let's just hold here. Like, what are you doing? Yeah. Even when the, like, unity to, like. Do the right thing. Yeah, but. Well, but, yeah. Denmark leveled the match. Right. And they still just sat back and let the game come to them. It's so weird. Yeah. Their fa is every bit as inept as ours. Like, the fact that they saying something. Yeah. The fact that they pay attention to what goes on here, but, like, their entire country, like, you know, lives and dies by this shit. Yeah. The fact that they re upped with this guy. They. I mean, they deserve this. Like. Yeah, this. This is exactly. They deserve to watch boring, like, the most mind numbing soccer that on the planet and all the anxiety they feel watching the best players in the world just be a shell of themselves. It's got to be great to be a therapist in England these days. Like, that's what you get. That's the Southgate experience. Yeah. Anyway, what do you want to talk about? You. You've got. You said you have some notes on. But we're going to talk about the euros at Copa America. I mean, we talked about the field and the injuries with the Copa America. I mean, I'm mostly interested in how the US performs in this tournament. Selfishly, I didn't watch the Argentina Canada game. I'm not surprised. I guess it probably. I'm not maybe a little bit surprised. It wasn't a little worse, given the level of talent with argentina. Argentina. Argentina beat Canada to nil their first games. I didn't see mexico wins one nothing over jamaica. Whoop. They do. I don't know. This tournament kind of needs to. I need to see some more games before I start forming some opinions, but, yeah. Eds in that match significantly. Edson alvarez. Alvarez went down with what looks to be a significant injury. He's undergoing tests, but very important. Like, one of the only decent players on Mexico squad. That's probably the best way to put it. Right? Like, there's not many good players, and he's one of them, and now he's hurt because we throw out there on some shit field. Yeah. So, yeah, I, too, will be watching. What are they. What time do they play today? Like, at five?

Six. Okay. Yeah. 06: 1:14:13

00 p.m. against Bolivia. I'll be tuning in for that. Their group is Panama, Uruguay, Bolivia. I mean, they'll probably advance. We'll see. I am a little bit surprised that, like, Venezuela so, like, completely outplayed Ecuador in that matchup, look at the possession, was 66% to 34% in favor of Venezuela. So it'd be interesting to see if Ecuador bounces back from that one. But we haven't seen Brazil play yet. Haven't seen in the US play yet. I don't think even his Uruguay. I don't think Uruguay's played yet either. So. Yeah, a lot of soccer to be played there. Trying to pull up the. I don't know if there's anything else to combat down there so far. Are you looking at who scored or sofa score for that? I was looking at who scored for the Ecuador because I didn't catch, catch that. That score line. That was the 20. That was yesterday. Yeah, I didn't watch this. I've been watching a lot of the euros, but not so much the Copa America. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, so Kendry Paez. So this dude who started at the ten, it looks like Kendry Piazz is. He's headed to Chelsea in a year. He's considered for Ecuador. So he's considered one of the, like on the level of like Lamina mall talents and Chelsea have, have secured his signature. They did about a year ago, starting in this game. Yeah. Yeah, he's, he's, he's fucking dope. He's. I'm really excited about him. So he can play centrally like that. Um, he's also, I think he's a left footed winger, which we have in absolute abundance. I gotta believe they're thinking of like, they're going to stick him centrally long term, but they're saying that he's going to go straight into the first team for Chelsea. So that, that's one to watch for. Like, Paez is considered among the most promising talents in the world. Looks like Ki Saito had a pretty good, good match. Yeah, it's just surprising to me. I mean, there's a lot PI as being another one, but this team has a lot of talent. So a lopsided result statistically, at least in this one. Yeah. Interestingly. Who scored? Has Venice? Well, Venezuela won, but the man of the match was Sarmiento. So he's a winger who. I think it's Jeremy Sarmiento. He plays or he is contracted to Brighton. And that's another. Like, he's, he's not regarded the way that pious is in terms of ceiling, but he's. He's going to be a very good, like, that's a name that you'll probably hear a lot more of this season. I think he was out on loan this year for Brighton, but yeah, he's, he's good. So anyway, I mean, that's like, let's just start. Like my. We'll roll through my, like, mad ramblings of the transfer window real quick. So Paez, we were just talking about how he was confirmed to Chelsea. Chelsea also finally, officially confirmed Esteva William to Chelsea. This is another, like, I watched, I think, on the London is Blue podcast. They had two scouts who specialize in South America, like expert scouts. I forget who they're employed by, but their focus is on South America and they were specifically, they were focused on Esteva William and trying to the London is Blue podcast, they were trying to, like, gauge how excited they should be about this dude. And they also touched on Kendry Paez. I have watched a lot of Ken rep on YouTube, like, not, not like the best. Like, like a clipped up. Like, I've checked his matches out because Chelsea signed him and there's so much promise around him and he does. He looks legit to me. When I watch Paez, he looks far more of a. He looks further along as a product than Esteval Willian does. Pius just looks far more convincing to me. And I think he's the youngest goal scorer in a senior south american match ever. I think Paez is Esteva Willian. Like, if these scouts are to be believed, is the, like, the talent in the world. Like, everybody is. Like, I think they specifically said everybody is really wound up about Endrick because he's been signed by real and he's, yeah, in these friendlies, he's bagged these goals. He scored a goal against England and so there are a lot of eyeballs on him. But they're like, their feeling is that Estevao is actually the better talent out of Endric and Estevao and so that that's something to get really excited about. And Chelsea, they paid crazy amounts of money for him. I think that with escalations they can pay up to like 60 million pounds or something like that. I think the initial fee was 40. And so, I mean, they are really paying a lot for the promise of this guy. So that's one to watch. And Chelsea have said that next summer. So, like, we'll get through this next year and then the following summer there they expect Paez and Esteva Willian to go straight into the senior squad for Chelsea. They will not go out on loan. They're integrating straight in and the expectation is that they'll be starters. So, yeah, I mean, it reminds me of, we've had success, success with a certain other brazilian winger by the name of William. Right. And so it'd be nice to be fantastic to have somebody, to have another run like that. And certainly we talked about that being a position of need. It's with this signing being cemented, it does kind of suggest to me that if we want to get the best for attacking players on the field, it probably makes sense to still sell Gallagher at this point because I don't see us playing Gallagher, Enzo and Quesado at the same time much this season with. With his available this season. We will. We. Or there's a possibility that we would this season, but. But not beyond that. Yeah, not beyond that. But yeah. The bigger issue with Gallagher is that he doesn't. Mareska plays a control style of soccer and Gallagher's success is in, like, counter pressing. Yeah. Like, like you've lost the ball. Like, he's a perfect Pochettino player where you're playing like, the whole thing is madness. Right. It's the opposite of control. You're. You're trying to cause mayhem. And so that's not to say that Gallagher can't learn to play in a Maresca style system. We don't know, but, you know, we'll see. I think. I don't think Gallagher is going to go this season. I think that he is like, I'm just going to run my contract out if you guys won't put a offer in front of me. And, I mean, that's his right to do that. And I think this. I mean, the Chelsea fans unveiled a tfue for Gallagher against Tottenham and I. That was very significant. The fans love Gallagher and they know that. So. Yeah, what, rightly so. Yeah. What the roles. The role he was forced into in particular. He was like. He was the captain for the whole season, did tons of media is making next to nothing right now and just loves Chelsea. Yeah. So that. I don't know if you saw the t fue, but it was like it said, born a blue on it, I think. And that I just. The message with Tottenham at the time being the, like, the rumored front runner to secure his signing for the fans to unveil that while we were beating the fuck out of Tottenham for the second time this season. Very significant way of getting to that tidbit. Yeah. But Chelsea miss out on Alice. So Michael Alise will be a Bayern player next season with the same issue that I brought up earlier coming into play. Elise wanted. The rumor was that he wanted to be the highest paid player on Chelsea to join Chelsea, which would mean he'd have to make more than Sterling. Raheem. Sterling, who's on like, three hundred k a week. World superstar Raheem. Raheem. Yep. And Elise ended up going to Byron on two hundred twenty k a week. So, I mean, good for him. I'm a little relieved by this, to be honest, because if you back, like. You only need 15 footed wingers. Nice. 16. I still don't. And, like, this worries me. The. The club leaked. Like, their, their position to the press was that Elise was target number one for them this. This offseason. And they literally described it as an obsession. Yeah. That they wanted Alyssa. So on that side, you have Madwecke and Palmer. Potentially, they want to get Palmer in more centrally. So you've got Madwecke. You also have Angelo Gabriel, who played great for Strasburg and is considered a very promising winger, brazilian winger. You have Kendry Paez who could play there. Paez can also play more centrally, and I think that's where we'll end up playing him. And then you have Estavao, who is, you know, meant to be one of the greatest talents in the world. Most highest promise, highest ceiling talents in the world who also plays there. So what do you need a lyse for? Especially if you're saying that. That Esteva needs to go straight into the first team. I don't get it. Maybe there was never any teeth to it. I don't know. But, yeah, I mean, yeah, I agree. Like, at least we seem to have arrived at the right decision, which is, this doesn't make sense given all the context that. Yeah, you called out. Yeah. So I back it. Like, I. I back the idea that we're getting our wages, like, the club's position, and I agree with this, is that they're not bringing at this point in the. The progression of the project. This 23rd, the project 2030 is what they're calling it internally, where they're picking up promising talent like gelling as a club with the target of being a, you know, a world beater. By 2030, they're not bringing players in on huge wages there. They want the players to earn it and then they'll reward the players internally. And I, as, like, conceptually, I think that's a great idea. So anyway, in other Chelsea news, they sold Matson to Villa for 37 million pounds. 37.5. And then they're buying some dude where I pulled it up. Kellyman. Amari Kellyman from villa. Saw that. Yeah. From a villa. Right. No idea. 19 million pounds going back the other way. I don't know. I don't know anything about Kellyman, but I. There, there's some. We're running pretty long on the podcast, but like this. This whole deal is raised some eyebrows because it appears that Chelsea and Villa have helped each other out with PSR with these fees. Like basically inflating the fees so that it looks like pure profit in both directions and. Yeah, I guess, like, like some clubs are complaining about it. And then in Man United. Actually, one more Chelsea thing. If you listen to our podcast last week I said if I were Chelsea, I would be taking a hard look at Samu Omarion. And like the next day it broke that Chelsea had submitted a bid for Samu Omarodian. Then Ryan made some comments about things that Fabrizio Romano could do to. He can't wash my jack straps. Yeah, we can't repeat all of it on this. I don't understand the regulations closely enough to feel comfortable. Yeah, yep. You just. I, you know, of all the benefits that I thought might come from this podcast, I didn't think that it would be like a self documenting way to prove how right I am about. Yeah, and, you know, Shannon couldn't be more excited about that. You know, as with the rest of us, it doesn't. I mean, Atletico effectively told Chelsea to fuck right off. Chelsea submitted a 40 million pound bid, I think is what it was. And Atletico rate him like very highly. Like they're looking for like a hundred million euros or something for this, this kid. I think he's going to be a big talent. He's, he's, he's a physical monster and a great finisher and I think he's just going to grow, like, grow into that role and. Yeah, would have been. It would have been fun to see him at Chelsea. All right. And then two man united pieces of news. So Branthwaite is a big target for Man United. He's considered like the future captain of potential captain of England. He's a leader, an extremely good ball playing defender. And United submitted a bid, I think Everton value him at around 70 million pounds. And United submitted, I think, a 35 million pound pid. And ever since, that's all they have, so. Right, yeah, they submitted. Yeah. So Everton told them to f off. And then I heard yesterday that Man United are targeting Lenny Yoro, who plays for, I think, Lille in France. And he is. The only reason I know about him is that I had previously read that and Real Madrid are in for him and likely going to pick him up. And the unique thing about Lenny Euro is that he has played tons of first. Like, he's just very good. I think he's a six foot four, good in the air ball playing defender. I think he can play at right back as well in a pinch, and he's very young and has tons of first team minutes and looks really composed and. And. And just very, very good. And so Real Madrid have identified him as a primary target for them and they'll. They will likely close that deal. That. That'll be one of the things that they close out in this offseason. But the fact that Man United think that they can go in and compete with Real Madrid for this guy is, like, just I. The. The lunacy of that is why I wanted to point this out. Like, yeah, if that is real, I don't know how real that is, but they're fucking kidding themselves. There's, like, five or six players that need to be sold from this team before anyone would consider coming there. Yeah. Promising project, dude. Yeah. Man United should be focusing on selling as much Deadwood as they can because there's so much rotten that club, and maybe, like, I posted in our discord that their. Their dining facilities failed a food inspection for the second time, and just there was the. The roof was leaking. The, like, players have come out and said that the training facilities in. At championship clubs rival what United has. Like, they need to get the whole house in order before they think they can take swings at world class defenders that are Real Madrid targets. But I don't know. I'm here for it. Yeah. Can't wait to continue to see this pile grow. Yeah. Yeah. Ratcliffe, I don't think, like, fully. I mean, he's said as much in the me, so, like, interestingly, Radcliffe, the Ineos, the guy from Ineos who bought the footballing. A footballing stake or whatever, he's running football operations for Man United now. He has said that it's, like, shocking. Like, he has admitted to these issues with their facilities and he. I don't think he fully understood the job he was signing up for, but, yeah, I'm here for it, too. Like, I'm loving it, but I think that's. Did you have anything else you wanted to roll through? I think that's a pod, guys. We're at, like an hour and a half. This is a very long run one. Thanks for sticking with us. If you made it this far, check out our discord. We are talking shit in there all day long. Tom Ryan chimed in to tell me I posted something in the wrong channel yesterday. Should we just make him an fuck are you? Like, what is. Next thing, we're gonna see Chris Dibble chiming in. I don't know if you noticed this, but I put the poop emoji next to the man city group. But I think we were, we were treading in dangerous territory when you. We were commenting on de Brognia getting pulled out injured right next to embap. Embapi. Yeah. Who wore it? Who wore it better? Yeah. Anyway, join our discord. It's. It's fun. It's. I mean, it's obviously a very small group right now, but it doesn't have to be. You guys can join, like, and subscribe wherever you listen to this. Comments Help. Ratings are phenomenal. And we'll be back next week with more euros. Coverage might be a little later than normal. Derek and I are going to be in the middle of nowhere in Michigan until late Sunday, so we might have to record a little later, but we'll catch you then. Thanks for listening. Thanks, everybody. 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.