Tournament Drama: Why Southgate and Berhalter's Coaching Blunders Could Sink Their Teams

Join hosts Ryan and Derek on this electrifying Football Yanks episode as they dive deep into the thrilling Euros Round of 16 action! Their sharp analysis kicks off with a heated debate on the precision and leniency of offside calls that could reshape the game's future. Delve into an in-depth review of recent standout performances, including Germany and Denmark's tactical prowess and Spain's dominant display, capped by their stellar possession stats.

The hosts' passion for the game is evident as they dissect England's performance, not holding back on criticism of Gareth Southgate's tactics and player selection. Tune in as they assess England's chances against formidable opponents like Spain and Switzerland, while also acknowledging Italy's surprising exit and Switzerland's strategic brilliance.

Shifting gears, Ryan and Derek express their frustrations with the officiating and coach decisions in recent Copa America matches. Every detail is covered, from Balogun's questionable substitution to the team's shaky prospects against Uruguay.

As if that weren't enough, this episode also covers a flurry of transfer rumors and confirmed deals that could shake up the Premier League. From Tottenham's struggles to move players on to acquisitions by Chelsea and Newcastle, the hosts are committed to providing all the insider info you crave.

Finally, the episode wraps up with an earnest discussion on racism in soccer, including the efforts to combat it both in stadiums and on social media. Don't miss their closing thoughts on upcoming matches, and make sure to engage with the growing community on Discord. Tune in to "Football Yanks" for an episode packed with expert insights, passionate debates, and all the latest football news!

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Transcript

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Hey everybody, welcome to the Football Yanks podcast. This episode for July 1, we'll be talking through both the Euros and Copa America, and as a result, juxtaposing the two shittiest managers in the world, Garrett Southgate and Greg Berhalter, we'll find out where Ryan and I come down on either side of that debate, as well as updates on all the euro elimination games so far, and we'll get into the weeds of the Copa America as it relates to the us team's performance thus far, or lack thereof, and CONCACAF's performance in hosting that tournament. And again, not much to show for that one either. And no summer episode would be complete without Ryan's transfer mill, including some actual signings and departures. Yeah, this summer stuff. Stuff moving and shaking, you know, got to get those sales in before the 30th. It's always nice when there's some actual ink associated with the things Ryan's talking about. Yeah, you definitely have that this episode. Yeah, I didn't even mention that. Today is the last day of the soft transfer window, so the fine finances close out on the 30th, so they have to have their sales to remain compliant by the 30th. So. So lots of Ryan thinks that Tottenham's opening up their checkbook on July 1. Yep. Yeah, here they come. They're gonna do something. Maybe. Welcome to the football team. Hope you guys enjoy. 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. Been a while. Yeah, I feel like we haven't spending enough time together lately, so I'm really glad we have this hour to hour and a half together again. Did I lose you? Also, you seem to be working with Luke's Internet. That cut out there. I didn't. That was weird. But that's okay, I guess. I'm back. I saw like my upload catch back up very quickly. Yeah, I can't react to your reaction, but you had a reaction so that's sufficient. Take care of that netting. Yeah, I'm excited to see how things are out of alignment. Just the audio. Do I look like a blog? Like my on the stream? I look awful. You look like Luke. Wow. That's what you mean. What's going on here? I would think somebody as tech savvy as you just has your router on an automatic reset while you're on. While you're on PTO. Yeah, pretty bizarre. My the speed test is fine, huh? This is the content people came for. If you've been waiting all day this Sunday, this is it. Yeah, we're killing it. All right? We're talking euros. I'm updating the stream. Euros week. I don't. I don't know. Round of 16. Of 16, part one. What a wordy title. People didn't come here to talk about Ecuador. Jamaica. Ecuador. They're playing Mexico, right? Well, yeah, that game hasn't happened yet, okay? We're not talking about Ecuador Jamaica. This is not the podcast for you, if that's what you came for. Perfect. Yeah, man, my Internet seems tragic. I am a absolute mess on stream. Oh, well, why don't you just say it's. Why don't you just say it's the english national team? Yeah, yeah, let's talk about that. Let's not even. Let's not even other pixelated messes. Just. Yeah, I think. I mean, we've obviously talked a lot about soccer over the weekend. We're Derek and I. Well, so, yeah, first of all, no Luke. Again, we're not sure Luke is Luke exists anymore. We could be getting messages from someone who has stolen his phone and is trying to keep the ruse up. Yeah. You know what's really disconcerting is he left the bottle of bourbon here, and he hasn't come back for it. And that. Yeah, that's the red flag. We probably should reach out to somebody. Yeah. For help or welfare check. Yeah. So, yeah, maybe Luke next week. I don't know. Nobody's actually had eyes on Luke for. For weeks. Like, he hasn't been to your soccer. Games right now, but he was claiming some kind of injury, I think, a couple weeks ago. Okay. Yeah, but, you know, it's bad when. I'm in better, better health, and there's less of a welfare concern for me than there is for Luke. That's not a great sign for Luke. Yeah. I never have any welfare concern for you. Regardless of. There should be a. It's just that that's the kind of friend you are. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. You. You. There's, like, the level of concerned concern diminished with subsequent injuries, let's say. Yeah. Yeah. Dude. What? I, like, cannot believe how bad my Internet is right now. It's like. I don't know. I don't even know what to do about that. You can hear me all right, though, right? Yeah. Just gonna have to push through. It's already so late. So Derek and I just got back from the. This our friend's cabin. It rained for a whole lot of the weekend. So we had nothing really to do except for watch the Euros and Copa America and talk about the games. So Derek's heard a lot of my analysis already. I've heard what he calls analysis. Um, so, um, yeah. What do you think? What are your thoughts on England? We had. It was tough to watch this because we were, um. Like, we watched, like, the first 30 minutes at the cabin, then we were on the road, then we caught some of it at a bar in the airport. Um, yeah, I think it just keeps getting better. Right. Like, I couldn't have made up a storyline where they go, I think it was 93 minutes without a shot on target against Slovakia. And Southgate continues to impress with the way he's found a way to just completely neutralize and misuse the best player in the Bundesliga, the best player in La Liga, and the two best players in the Premier League. And that's not even mentioning, like, the rest of the roster. That's generally fairly competent, but, yeah. Yep, I would agree with. With all of that. Do you think they've, like. Do you think, like, these. The late game heroics and stuff, like, now that they found a new life like, this is finally the turning point for. No, I think that it's mean. The worst thing that could have happened to England is they get eliminated. The second worst thing is what happened, I think, because I think that Bellingham has been poor and a lot of players are being played out of position. I've talked about this last week. You heard me talk to death about that this over the weekend, players are being played out of position to accommodate the fact that Bellingham is a shout for the best player in the world. But he has been, outside of the two goals he scored, he's largely been ineffective and lousy and lost and not productive. And his presence is, due to the positional changes that have been made to accommodate him, have made a. Everyone else on the team worse and he should be dropped, is. Is my honest assessment, and that is. It feels like a crazy thing to say, but the reason there's no width for England is because Bellingham is on the pitch and, yeah, that's true. And, like, Bellingham bailing them out in the 90th minute, 90 plus five, I think, is when the goal was credited to the nightmare will just continue. Like, that doesn't help Southgate be able to make that call. And we know that Southgate is a weak human. It is. It could. His postgame is just. Every time it's something. Yeah, I mean, forget about, yeah, not being a human. But, like, the basics of leadership. I mean, shit, that's coming from somebody who has Greg Berhalter as a coach. I mean. Yeah, so, I mean, that's what I mean. Like, I don't mean, like, I'm not calling his humanity into question. I'm calling his, like, his gumption, his leadership, his. His aura. There's none there, so he's not gonna. He clearly can't make the calls that need to be made. Yeah, I think I had managers at party City that had more conviction than Gareth Southgate does at this point. You worked at party City? Yeah, as a teenager. Yeah, that was my, like, first. It's like, hourly job. It's hard to imagine, like, your whole deal at party City. There is. We'll save it for another episode. But there's. There's at least one incident that. That will align pretty. Pretty well to what you would expect from me at that age, working in that environment. But now, by and large, I was a well regarded, extremely highly regarded employee for some reason. But then again, it was party city. You know, my first job, though, was because you could do it at a younger age, was refereeing soccer. Oh, that didn't last too long. But no, no surprise there. Were you like, like a little too loose with the calls or whatever? Yeah, I think it was actually the opposite. I think it was like, you know, like, you know, kids would come in studs up and I'd be like, giving them the nth degree and the parents would be like, why would. Why are you yelling at the kids? I'd be like, because he's trying to break this kid's tibia. And it's like, all right, well, anyways. But, yeah, I had no tolerance for bullshit, so that might have been the problem there. But what was the tangent we were on here? Yeah, so we're supposed to be talking about England and so, yeah, I agree with the width. I agree with everything you said. I think the width is a problem. I think Bellingham being pigeonholed into that formation, the position he's forced to play is a problem. Foden's also been a problem. But, you know, I'm the. As I've said before on other topics, you know, thematically, I think that you want to get your best players on the field, and if that goal, saving them with that goal is any evidence beyond the whole rest of his body of work, he's still, you know, the. One of the best players in the world that needs to be on the pitch. What I would say is, because of all those issues you outlined, like, something has to change. Right. And so part of me wonders if a four one. Four which four. Sorry, 4141, which was something they were playing, I think in most of extra time would be something that would work to give him a little more freedom, a little less responsibility, which is a weird thing to say, but allow him to kind of get forward more cleanly right behind Kaneda. Um, and, you know, maybe have Foden come in to do a little bit more of the dirty work and link up play or Palmer there in the middle. Yeah, maybe that solves some of it, but, yeah, otherwise, I don't see. I don't see this getting better for them without finding some changes and the fact that this guy couldn't figure out any substitutions until Trippier forced him to because he got hurt, I. And he brought Palmer and, like, indicates he doesn't really have much of an idea of what to do or even, you know, putting Sokka as a. As a left back right isn't. Probably isn't the best use of Sokka's talents. What is the state of Luke Shaw like? I imagine it's like 2000, like 20. What was it, like, 2021 post Covid when he was just hanging out with Hazzard at the Burger King? I don't know, but I don't know why he's on the squad if that's the case. He. Right, so, like, he could have brought another left back, you know, like, yeah, I don't know who I like. Nothing comes to mind and maybe that's the issue, but, like, I'm trying to think of left backs available to England and nothing is. Is coming. It's. It's. Yeah, I mean, I guess he could have brought Ben Chilwell, but Ben Chilwell is a huge question mark this season. Not fit for huge chunks of the season, and then when fit didn't look very convincing, but that would have been better than what he's doing to trippier. And then he has, like, nothing in that. Now Sokka is playing there. Right. Which is ridiculous. Yeah. And as you highlighted right with Gray going out on, he used to sit one game right for yellow accumulation. Yeah, he has accumulation of yellow cards. So Mark Gehe will sit the next. I think that that takes away any shot at a three back. And not to mention a three back isn't generally a riskier thing to do an international play, I think, anyways, not to mention, like, just. Just the. The player personnel and the positioning that you're able to align them to with who he has there with them now. But, yeah, I, I don't know if it's as bleak as, you know. I'm trying to think. So they've got Lewis, dunk, Gehee, stones. Stones is a right footed center back. Who's the other one? They have like one more. Dunkahi. Joe Gomez, John Gomez. John stones out there. Where does Joe Gomez like to play? But we've seen stuff. I think Stones is playing left center back in a three back for, for city at one point, right, for a decent run of games. I don't know, maybe. But again, like that, it's a very different system. Right. So I don't know that's an option. But, like, unless they've been practicing that and they haven't shown it at all. Right. Which would tell me that if you haven't tried that at this point, probably isn't an option. So there's some, but there's some things, there's some strings he could pull, but he's been resistant to doing it. Right. So see what happens there. But, you know, again, this performance kind of speaks for itself, I guess when you, when you look at the statistics, I mean, they're, unless something like clicked for them, they're, they're in big trouble, it would seem. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's a problem. Southgate appears to be, he's appeared to be out of ideas. All right, so Gomez, Stones and Gehee are all right footed are gehee. And, you know, we wouldn't be talking about it as much if it weren't for the expectations at the fan base and the pundits and generally all of us as fans, the casual fans had for this team, given the level of talent there. But I, you know, they're going to be under scrutiny and rightly so. And again, it just boggles the mind that they thought that Gareth Southgate aligned with the level of talent that was on this team. It was going to give them a chance at winning a. Yeah, and I. Mean, that's been, that's been sort of my position is the English fA. They signed up for this. They, they knew this is, I think he's on, he's in year eight of this job and it's obvious the type of manager he is. It's obvious. I mean, people gave him credit, and I do give him credit for leaving certain players out of the squad this time. This time. But they're also play like he fucking took a team to the euros with no fit left back, like, and then complain. Yeah. That he didn't have Calvin Phillips available to him. Fucking select Calvin Phillips, then, like. Like, if that. I mean, I couldn't protest that assessment of what's gone wrong here any more vehemently. I think he just. I think, honestly, I think he just has. Just, like, he's devoid of ideas as a coach. I think he has no idea what to say in a press conference. Honestly, I don't think he has any idea what to say to the player. So he just starts saying things like, we've all worked with people like that or worked for people like that. They just start saying words and you're like, what? How did, like, I understand you can form sentences, but what do these thoughts have to do with anything that's going on right now? Yeah. Here's an interesting question. Would you rather have Southgate or Berhalter as your national team? Southgate. Okay, I'm gonna keep that in mind. We'll keep that in mind for later. We. We do a deep, deeper dive into that one. But, yeah, I don't. I don't have anything else to say here. I think they. I I don't think they have a very good chance against Spain on the. Body of work unless Earl Halter is the worst coach for any national team in the top 50 on female rankings. Is. I take him over a turncoat like. Jesse Marsh, but is Canada in the top? I guess they are in the top 50. Are they, like, they 48 or something? Let's say top pretty well. They were doing pretty well, actually, until he took over. I mean, he. I think, in my opinion. But anyways, that, um, not. Not the diverter from the core topic here, which is England's garbage pin of her performance, but, yeah, that's. I think that's it for me on England. I don't think they've got a very good shot against Spain. They play Spain next. I think it's Spain. Is that. Yeah, Canada is 48. Is that real? 48? Yeah. How the hell I just making that up? All right, but Canada's 48th. They just moved up one position from 49th euro bracket. England plays Switzerland. Switzerland's gonna beat the fuck out of England. I don't know. They're gonna be fuck out of it. As everybody else is. But I assumed because they were both playing today, they were playing the winner of that game, but. But, okay, well, that would make too much fucking sense. But Switzerland. Yeah. Spain will play Germany. That's gonna be a fun game to watch. Wow, that's wild. That one of the. Those are probably. Are those the two teams who've looked the best. I'm trying to think Germany did have a rough one. Rough match. Let's talk about that. I mean, so Germany wins to nothing against Denmark yesterday. I didn't get a chance to watch that live. I forget what that, what we were doing. I was out in the river or something. But you know, the suffice to say, I mean the two, the two goals that were scored in that game were, I would let, I want to say gifts, but you know, frankly, they're bullshit. Um, one was, um. Or, I'm sorry. Well, I guess the one goal, there were two Vir decisions that were bullshit. One was the, uh, the handball, um, which I, I think this is a great. As great an example as there is of like how var and the guidance that the governing bar bodies are giving or FIFA's giving to the referees on how to officiate are both wildly out of alignment with what's healthy or good for the game. There was basically, there was zero advantage gained on that handball and not to mention the fact that like the defender knew nothing about it. And you know, we basically put everything in a position where you can't, like you've got to stand like a stick figure with your arms at your side if you want to defend, which is unnatural and stupid in my opinion. At the same time, I, you know, I can appreciate us wanting to have more goals and keep the game exciting, but there's an easy way to do that. It's, it's conversely not, not calling off sides for some kind of bullshit where somebody's big toe is over the line. I mean. Yeah, yeah, I mean we've talked about how I feel with that. Yeah, I heard, I heard you laughing hysterically when you watch that. Yeah. If. I think if we're gonna apply. We've talked about this on the podcast. If we're gonna apply extreme precision to the offside rule, then there's probably gotta be some amount of like automation grace given to the attacker. Cuz that's ridiculous. Like the fact that his toe was offside is like. I think that's absurd. I. Yeah, so maybe there's just like. I don't know. So like the NFL, they've, they've done, they've done a lot to change the rules to increase the, the scoring in NFL games over the last like decade because that's what people want to see and I personally want to. Everything about soccer is like pretty imprecise. Like. Or a lot of soccer is pretty imprecise. Right. Like when someone is awarded a throw in, they take it from, like, roughly where it went out of bounds, and they, like, run up the sideline a little bit and throw it. As long as it's not too. If you're Kyle Walker, it's plus or -15 yards from. Right. Yeah, but it's like, you know, roughly that area if a free kick is awarded. Same deal, but it feels like, out of the spirit of. Of all, like, the way broadly rules are applied to this game to. To then apply extreme precision to things like that. Like, we're like, literally your toe. Think there was. There was an incident, like, a few years ago, or, like, around the time they started doing the automated offside where, if I remember right, it was like a player's fingertips were across the line. Yeah. And they. They called it off. I could be making that up, but I remember seeing one that was like, it's marginally more ridiculous than what we saw for Denmark, but I'm not a fan of it. Like, we should be giving some leniency to the attacker. If they're timing runs like that. It doesn't have to be much, but it should be at least a toes. Length, you know, and that's where it gets tricky. Right. It's tough to say, like, oh, a toes length or a finger or 15 mm or. Or, you know, 5 cm or whatever we want it to be. I wonder if something more fluid, like what you're saying. Just saying, like, okay, well, it's. It's armpit versus armpit or something like that. Or shoulder versus shoulder, and that way you don't have to worry about, like, where the feet and the hands are. Yeah, yeah. That's fair. Yeah. Like, limbs don't matter. It's where your torso is. Yeah. And not only that, then. That is vague in a sense, that then the refs can apply some level of reason. Right. Because that's what's been taken out of this. And in that game, there was nothing reasonable about those two VAR calls. They were both complete nonsense for everybody watching it. I doubt the refs felt good making the calls, but they have to, because that's the guidance they're given, and that's what they're judged against. Yeah, but, so, coming back to the original premise, do I think up until this point, Germany played pretty well? They didn't play, I guess, poorly in that game. I think Denmark, it was a good team. Denmark is a good team. And not only that's just a good team, but has some good individual talent, too. Germany, I think, dwarfs them in terms of overall talent, but in moments or broad swaths of this tournament. So they haven't put it together much the way France and England have stumbled a little bit. But I do think Spain has been very pretty consistent, which sets up for a pretty interesting matchup, especially the Germans playing at home, I guess, in what's going to be the premier matchup of next realm. Yeah, I guess let's talk about. I don't know that I agree. Comparing Germany and England. What is going on with England is a travesty. Like, Germany has had a good tournament. They get to play at home. Like musial. His goal, that was a great finish and a great ball through to him by Schlatterbeck. I think we could litigate Havertz, like the penalty being awarded to Havertz. But they did dominate this game. They had 55% possession. Their past success was higher. Their total shots. Like, they controlled this game. And that's a. This is a difficult team. This is not like, Denmark is good. Hoyland has his games. Erickson, I think I read, has the most dangerous chances created of any player in the euros to this point. Hoibier is a monster if his. His performance against England is. Is to be believed. They've got decent defenders. Christensen is good. So, like, it's like, this is a. This is a challenge. This is a team that, like, you have to plan. You have to plan around and. And. And beat. And England drew to this team like, one. One Denmark and. And, like, got taken to the absolute brink today against where I thought I had the FIFA rankings. Yeah, I mean, I think it is fair to say German. Germany is the, I guess, the second best looking team remaining in the tournament, or at least it's going to advance the next round. So, yeah, I mean, it will be nice to have, in a sense, to have that match up early. On the other hand, it's kind of disappointing that they don't have a run to the final against each other. Yeah, that's kind of the way this shakes out sometimes, which is how you end up with a team like Italy winning every once in a while. So Denmark's ranked 21st. Slovakia's ranked 45th in the FIFA rankings. Like. Yeah. And Denmark. The. Denmark are good. I think they're a good team. Yeah. Anyway, I guess, like, the only other shout I'd make is Netherlands, but they seem, like, pretty inconsistent. Portugal has looked very good as well. Yeah. I don't know. France does not look good. Yeah. But, yeah. All right, let's circle back to Spain. So Spain watched virtually all of this one. They. They look, the business, man, they're, they're wingers. Like, everybody's talking about them. Right? So I don't have anything, like, novel to offer up here, but, like, Nico Williams and Lamina mall look dangerous every time they're on the ball, and a lot of the time when they're off the ball. The opening goal being scored by Georgia was, was a lot of fun. Georgia has seriously overperformed getting to this point at all. I mean, they celebrated with their fans after this match where they were defeated four to one, I think was the final score. Um, and they should. George's FIFA ranking is. I have no eyes, 72nd. That's pretty good. 74. Okay. Yeah. I mean, they, they have one player who's a household name maybe, right. Like, not for, not in your household, but, like, I don't know. Um, he might be if you keep teaching people how to pronounce his name. Because I can't do it. Yeah. I mean, I can barely do it, but, yeah, it was, it was fun. They, they scored the opening goal. It was an own goal. I thought that hit the, I mean, the guy we're talking about is Kavica Varet Skellia, which I might be saying. Correctly, but he, he's better than the announcers on tv. So. Left winger for Napoli, they line up real strange. Is it a four, four two, maybe it's not that strange, but they, they line up with a pair, like a attacking pair up top. And he's one of them. On Georgia. On Napoli, obviously, Osaman's the target man. And Kvarat Scalia is the left winger. Now. He's, he's linked with. I mean, there have been talks about him going to Chelsea. I know he wants to leave Napoli. There's been talks of him going to Chelsea. There's been talks of him going to Man City, but he's good. Like, he's very good. And I thought he had scored that opening goal. It was definitely an own goal. He got himself in a good spot, though. Yeah. Yeah, he, he forced the issue for sure. I'd say it was pretty bad defending on that, that goal. Yeah, if you hit the ball in your own, your own goal, that's pretty bad defending. Well, how much, how much center back or deep, deep lying defense Ryan's played. In his life, but, yeah, not much. Yeah. Even when asked, put in there positionally, but, you know, I can understand it happening when you're swinging a foot out or something, but, like, he didn't, he didn't swing out at it. He just let it go off his thigh. That was a pretty passive play, but I think George. Yeah, I mean, Georgia showed up for this. They had a good run the tournament. It's kind of good to see them advance and get this far. I'm not going to overreact a ton to Spain's performance versus them, though. I mean, fairness, it was a pretty, a pretty complete display, dominant display. And Spain has been playing very consistently through this tournament. They had like a surprising result. Oh, the final possession was 75% at one. At one point, like for the opening 20 minutes, Spain had like 90% possession and then they got punched in the face by Georgia on a counter. I guess it ended 75 25. But England had 75% of the possession against Slovakia. So. Yeah. Yep. 35 shots for Spain to four for Jordan. That's a lot. Which is the 35 shots is a lot of shots. 13 on target. Yeah. Murata, more shots on target than England. Amazing. Yeah. Morata almost doesn't even like. I guess he just has to stand there while Nico Williams and Yamal just. I was thinking it's almost like they bypass him a lot of the time, which is fine. But you've also called out the fact that when the ball particularly goes to Yamal, they swarm him. And I wonder if that's going to become a problem if they just. If Murata is really not a threat, because more often than not, it ends up getting recycled and like, played diagonal. 40 yards to Williams. Yeah. There's always so often you can do that. I don't know. Yeah. Niko Williams looks so dangerous all the time and his partnership with Kukureya is like. They just have a fantastic partnership. You can tell that. They just really get each other's positioning. Niko knows exactly when to expect the overlap from Ku Korea. Yeah. I mean, notably Spain got to rest. Ku Korea, who's probably the, the man of the tournament. Yeah. You gotta take your best player off the field. Yeah. I mean, yeah, some time to re reduce. Yeah. They took him off in the 66th minute, so, I mean, he's gonna be like a fucking maniac against Germany. I don't know what Kai's gonna do about him, but, yeah, it's a fun, it's a. I had. I have a lot of fun watching the spanish team. In the past, I've dreaded watching Spain play. This team is fun. Like, they, they get it out wide to those two and they just make something happen and Yamal will just. He seems to be willing to take anyone on and in numbers and he's got a great eye. Like, I think it. He assisted two goals today, I think, and became the first teenager to do that in the euros. Say it's something like that. I forget what I read, but let's see, Yamal only has one assist. Maybe he's the first across two games or something. I don't know what I read, but yeah, he assisted the, uh, Fabian Ruiz goal. Um, Nico Williams with a goal and an assist. He assisted Rodri's, uh, game tying goal. And then Danny almo with a really nice finish to make it four. The keeper was just rooted. And it should be said that George's keeper, whose name I'm never going to attempt to pronounce, dude, has a 7.8 on who scored with four goals going in on him. So that, like, I mean, that's what happens. Nine saves. Yeah, yeah, nine saves and faced 35 shots. I mean, this was, this was a battering. Put in a shift. Yeah, he definitely put in a shift in this one. So. Yeah, yeah, I don't know, that's. I guess, let's see, dude. Was. Were there other euros matches we should talk about? Yeah, we required to talk about Switzerland beating Italy 20? I think so, yeah, we should. Tournament. So Italy. Italy, to my mind, was the most overrated team coming into this tournament. And I guess that happens to a degree when you're the defending champ or. Else you're a country that has nothing else going for you. Yeah. Mafia. Us national. Sorry, new national soccer team. Yeah, you're allowed to say that because you're italian, Derek. Feel that way. But you, Derek was, was, was really excited to watch this one as a proud italian man. And, you know, it was just really unfortunate. Yeah, I hate to see it. Yeah, they don't have a nine. I think the announcers were talking about this during the match, but, yeah, they. Talked about it pretty much the entire time. Also a case of sort of confusing squad selection in general for me and the team. Just like, they just didn't look to my mind. They didn't look up for this one at all. They look like they came out with no idea how they wanted to accomplish this and. Sorry, I'm pulling up the who scored? Yeah, I think that's probably. There's two pieces. I don't think the talents that good. Like, there's a couple class players. The talents aren't that good. And then it stood out. The world class players on the Dan Arama. Who? D Lorenzo Danorama. Oh, man. What? Yeah, what else? I guess, yeah, maybe. Yeah. Chelsea almost went in for him years ago. But that's what I mean. Like there's a couple of guys. Right. And I. But I do think to your point, watching this team play more than any other, maybe. Maybe even England, they didn't. They don't know like tactically how to build up and where to attack for the rest of the issue. And some of that maybe comes down to not having a nine. But like, you see Spain play bypassing the nine a lot. Right. And so like, a lot of teams don't play through the nine, particularly internationally, it feels like. And they just. They couldn't. They couldn't figure out how to set up and how to break anyone down. Yeah. Yeah. They. They look tactically confused. Yeah. And meanwhile, on like opposite them, they're facing a very well organized swiss team with a lot of players who've been playing together for a long time. Like they're. It's. I mean, Italy is a young squad at this point and I do not think they're well coached. They're obviously not well coached. They have not looked good the whole tournament. Yeah. I can't think of a game where I felt that they were particularly positive in this tournament and what other. What team. It looks more organized and more comfortable in their system than Switzerland. On top of that, they're playing this kind of wacky 3421 on top of that. Right. But yeah, they know what they're doing and how to play in that system. Yeah. Yeah. There's much to say beyond they've like stout defense, a decent keeper and summer. They. They have good counter attacking threats. They can bring Shaqirian off the bench who, you know, he scored that at like absolute banger against Scotland, which was a lot of fun to see. Jacques is there providing, you know, experience and like grit and, I mean, he's a good distributor. Yeah. And so if they don't or go. I was just saying, I mean, he was a key piece for. For Laverkus in this season. No, that's a good call out. Right. Like he. I never cared for him much when he was with Arsenal. I didn't make much of him going there. Like, he cemented himself as a key place, a key player on a club that went on to have an undefeated season. Right. Invincible season. And he's done similar in this team. Some of it's like commentators talking him up. Right. But like, you see, he's. He's in the middle of it all there. Like literally in the middle of the backbone of this. This team, as much as it pains me to say that. And I think coming back to that matchup with England. It'll be interesting to see if they come out narrow again with like, this narrow 4231 England's been forcing down their own throats. I think they're going to get throttled by Switzerland. Yeah. But if they find some width to your point, maybe that's an opportunity. Gets a three back. Right. Yeah. We're doing something slightly different here. That kind of shakes up Switzerland. The only thing I can be certain about is that Southgate isn't considering any of these. Yeah. Anything that makes it. Yeah. So why am I talking about them? Yeah. Kind of stupid. Because I'm applying logic. All right. Yeah. Let's skip past. I don't know why I'm analyzing that matchup. We'll talk about next week. Yeah, I'm. I'm picking Switzerland in this. I think this. I think they beat Engelid. Yeah. And, yeah, it's good. I guess it's going to be like this. This swiss team has been very comfortable without, like, out of possession. Like, they, they didn't, they lost on possession in this one, scored two goals. And so, like, if, like, they'll be fine letting England have the ball and counter them. And England will be without Gehee, who's been their best defender. And their defense outside of Gehee has looked bad. Stones has looked bad. They may, they should take this opportunity to just play Gomez and dunk back there. Well, so that's the thing. Like, yeah, maybe dunk comes in on this one at least. Why isn't dunk playing? I don't know. Because Southgate. But I'm gonna my hot take here for the next rounds. I think England is gonna win. I think they're just gonna blindly dry hump their way into the next round. You're not gonna like it. Southgate's gonna make like one change and that's gonna be enough to, like, do enough to change the dynamic and they're going to go through on some way. Yeah. Maybe somebody will pass the fucking ball to Harry Kane. I mean, other than Ivan Tony off of a redirected header. Maybe they'll try that. Kane missed a sitter in this one. Yeah. Yeah. I think that it's maybe being like, not generous to him, calling it a sitter, but it's a goal that you'd expect him to score and he, he flubbed it. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know. I could play. I don't want to talk about England. Like, England is. I fucking. I hate watching them. It. I hate it. It is. I'm just glad you were invested in watching them in the first place. Yeah, I mean, I. They're the players that I watch the most are on England and there's Palmer and Gallagher there and, you know, I watch a lot of the PL. So I was. And they have so much talent. I was, like, really excited to see them play in this tournament. They are awful to watch it. Like, awful. It's tough for casual fans. Right. Because you come into this and you're like, I want to watch the euros because there's these great teams, including France and England. Then you watch and you're like, wait a minute. Yeah. Am I watching Romania and Georgia or is this France and England? Yeah, it, it's so bad. But, yeah, anyway, Switzerland two, Italy nil. And the defending champion goes out in the round of 16 and they have a lot, a lot of work to do on with the squad there. I don't know too much about their coach or how they performed in local history or any of that, so I don't know if there needs to be a dramatic change there, but this tournament in isolation does not flatter their, their coach at all. For me, I can't believe there's not going to be. Yeah, it would have been fired today, but I. How long has he been the coach? Looking it up? He's like, surely he didn't manage that. Like, because they, they've missed the last two World Cups as well. Sorry, I'm trying to find the. Anyway, while I, while I look that up. Luciano Spalletti, you want to talk about. What do you want to talk about in Copa? You're the Copa guy. I'm the Copa guy now. Yeah. If you don't start talking about Copa, I'm going to launch into transfers. So it's on you. All right, let me, let me, let me pull out the deep cuts here. Luciana Spalletti, he has been the coach since 2023, so he's not responsible for their not making the World cup. So from a Copa perspective. Yeah. Lead in here, right? So we beat Bolivia two to nothing. I forget when that game was. It was. That was even Sunday night. After we recorded last week. I wouldn't say it was convincing enough when, in my opinion, I saw some good things, in particular, the goal, where it was Geo and ballistic and ballad. And that's exactly the combination you want to see and the kind of combination we talk about on this team, being critical. Critical. Then you get to the Panama game and I don't know how much we want to talk about all of what transpired in this shit show. But you know, we, we end up losing two to one in a game where way it takes a red card and what was that like the 18th or 20th minute? Somewhere in that range I guess I should, let me pull that up. It doesn't even have, I don't even know if it has this full stats. Yes. So he takes in the 18th minute. Four minutes later Baligan scores a beautiful goal off of a very, I think, not talked about enough layoff assist by Robinson. Kind of put it off his back, back of his cleats, his back heel and yeah, Balogun just strokes one with his left foot, putting us up one. Oh, but you know, then we let them equalize in the 26 minutes. Meanwhile all the while like the preponderance of fouls are getting, are going against Panama. Rightly so, but without yellows necessarily they'll get their first yellow into the 45th minute. They cleared out, Turner hurt him. He had to come out at halftime. And I think, you know, that the lack of a yellow there was kind of like the smoking gun or the term, the inflection point in the poor officiating in this one. And we talk about this so often, like just the lack of quality and the lack of consistency in CONCACAF officiating. And that's on top of the fact that like the backdrop of this tournament is us hosting it at fields where we decide to throw grass on top of turf and all this other dumb shit on narrow fields. And it's just you're not helping to grow the game for CONCACAF in a prime opportunity where you're playing against south american teams as well and competing for attention with the euros and then this is the product you put out there. Do you have a fiasco? And we've talked about Panama being a more competitive team that's kind of grown into CONCACAF, but to me this was the prototypical CONcACAf bullshit from them, too. It's not helping Panama or the US or CONCACAF to go out there and just hack people's feet for, for 90 minutes. Like, I get it that that's the only thing that's going to work for Panama because half of these players play in bullshit leagues like the MLS or whatever Saudi Arabia equivalent, like third tier division in, in South America. But, you know, it just don't have, I don't see where this gets us. And, you know, I guess maybe that's, that's diverting from the real problem here, which is another Greg Berhalter masterclass. The subs just did not make sense in this one. Yeah. A substitution pattern that rivals Garra Southgates. Yeah. I mean, what were your thoughts on kind of the subs or just the fact that it made no sense at all? I thought that none of it made sense. And the one that really, like, I came unhinged. We were all watching this together day one of the cabin trip and I lost my fucking mind over the Baligan sub. Yeah. So your Baligan, you know, in this scenario, he's not doing a lot of defensive work. He's the outlet. And so he's a. Where you're playing down a player, you've taken a red and he, so like, presumably he has your freshest legs on the pitch. You could, you could put fresher legs in more impactful positions that are having to do a lot of work than subbing Baligan for Pepe. And Balogun has scored a goal for you and has looked the biggest threat. And you could argue that the only other real opportunity we had to score was a run made by Weston McKinney and he put the ball in the box and it was Pepe's poor positioning post sub that hurt. Like, squandered the opportunity that we had to equalize. And it's not to say that Balogun would have been positioned better on that, but Balogun is the better nine. Like, I don't think that's controversial then, Pepe. So, yeah, I mean, that I've just found all of that puzzling and now we're in a situation where like, I don't know how we line up against, against Uruguay and we have to beat them or get a point to advance. Right. Like, we have to draw. That's what we have to do. Yeah, and so we don't have weah, we're losing a lot of pace with Weya and you're, you're gonna have to put, you're gonna have to hang like Geo Reina out there and that's not the type of player that geo is. And, yeah, I don't know, I don't like our chances. I think we're gonna bomb out of this tournament and it's a symbol of the immaturity of this group and there's not much of an excuse for that anymore. To my mind, like, these guys have been at this for a long time with the same coach for a long time and they were told that Panama was gonna get under their skin and way, I mean, he like, practically punched the guy. It was just idiotic what he did. And, yeah, I don't like we're gonna bomb out a copa. And it seems like what's good, in all likelihood, the chances are not good for us. Yeah. Look at the alternative scenarios because Bolivia is not a good team. Yeah. The substitutions are a tricky one. Like, I mean, really, he made two changes, right? He brought in. He was forced into the Horvath change. He was forced into Horvath change. And then. Is this right? We took on Carter. This. I think this is. Screw this order. This is screwed. Screwed up on. It was. Carter. Vickers came on for ream. Right. Not Tyler Adams. Carter Vickers came on for Raina and Cardosa came on for Tyler Adams. That's what it says. But I don't know if that's right because that would imply that we didn't have it. A center back on and something's wonky with that. I'd have to look at. I guess I need to look at another source of what it was. I guess what I would say, though, is, like, I agree with the Baligan move like that. Just. He was the best player on the pitch, too, and it was so clear to everybody. Watch. Yeah. Must have been clear to him, too. Yeah. I get, like, you've got a manager midfield, from distance, run in, like, trying to press and stuff in that situation. So you're. Regardless of when he took Raina and Adams off, you've got to. Got to manage around that. And then maybe your manager and your center back, they give him some more legs, you know, whatever. But I think that's where, like, it's clear, like, we don't necessarily have, like, this unlimited depth and so. But, yeah. What do we do against Uruguay? Uruguay, to get a result? I guess you got to hope that Uruguay is going to play their b team because they're. Yeah, they're through. And that. Yeah, I think you do it. It gives me a little bit of hope because I think we have the stature of players on this team that aren't afraid of the moment, have leadership and have the quality. Right. It's not inconceivable for me to think about, like, Raina and Bala and Pulisic and Adams and McKinney in some combination. There's combining for one or two or a couple goals in this one and then our defense just somehow clawing its way to a win. I don't know. That's the more scary part. But you do have Anthony Robinson. Right. And you do have scally who's played, you know, pretty. Pretty well. The rest of these guys have been kind of up or down. Right. So I don't know, I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility for us to advance, but it looks, looks pretty bad. And ultimately you have to put that on Berhalter for letting this happen even. And just like England deserves it, we deserve this. For picking Berholt. Yeah. For, for renewing with him. Yeah. I guess the difference here is, like, I view that game as like, hinging so much upon that red garden and I don't think, like, I mean, it's clearly on weah and not the shit on weah. And I think, you know, further that, like, all the shit that, all the, all the racist bullshit that's been going on, I guess I'll talk about that in a minute. Like, towards wea and Bala and everybody else is completely fucked too. But, you know, Waya made a bad decision in the moment. I get it. You know, in a way, I really get it because I think it's being fed up with this CONCACAF bullshit where you have some fucking, you know, five foot five guy jabbing you in the fucking ribcage that plays in some USF team and getting frustrated. Like, it's not surprising. But I don't view that as necessarily a reflection of the team as much as, you know, an individual mistake that, you know, he's been highly accountable for. But does that diminish from the rest of, like, the position that bertholders put us in? Probably not, yeah. And, but, you know, who knows, maybe Uruguay is a chance for him to earn his keep here. I don't know. I, I don't know. I'm hesitant to give. Any reprieve. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I don't know. I, I'm trying to. I hear what you're saying about how this, this is a way created problem, but that also comes down to coaching too. I mean, I, I don't know. I I. Maybe I'm just like, trying to find a way to be really harsh on Greg. Yeah, I mean, I think Greg is shit. Just, I want to be careful about. I want to only draw the conclusions I can draw based on the evidence that I see. And I, it's tough in that one to put it on him because he got the job done against Bolivia, but, but, but, you know, you paid, he's not, not paid well. Right. So you can, it's reasonable to expect him to go out and put out a, you know, give them a good chance against Uruguay. So if that falls short, then I would hope that we look at other options moving forward. Yeah. Do you, do you think we get a result. Like I said, I don't think it's, I don't think it's an inconceivable thing. Right. I mean, where our chances of progressing, I don't know. Like, I don't think saying 30 or 40% chances is like, overly optimistic. I think anything else above that would be. But Uruguay has historically and at the moment had very talented teams. In particular. At the moment, they're not at a, they're definitely not at a valley in terms of talent. They're probably closer to a peak, in my opinion, of where, you know, relative to where they've been the last couple decades. And so that, that makes it tricky. But again, some of those guys aren't going to play like Valverde. I wouldn't expect to play in this game. Nunez probably isn't going to play in this game. I would think if you're trying to rest up for the next round and make a run at teams like Brazil and Argentina. Yeah, I don't know, man. I don't think that. I don't. I'm gonna watch. I, you know, I, I'm gonna root for us. I don't like our odds. It, I just don't, I don't think we're going through and it's, it's a, it's a fucking shame and yeah, we've got. How frustrating is it? Yeah, it's so frustrating. I mean, yeah, if I wasn't like, luckily I was around like people and like friends and like, not like just sitting by myself because I would have just like, I don't know what I've been doing. Just yelling at the tv, yelling into the void and you're sometimes your part. Experience probably, my neighbors probably don't appreciate it, but yeah, very frustrating is a fan, right. I think we go into it a little bit more measured than we then maybe England fans do in terms of expectations, but it doesn't mean it's any less frustrating to me personally. Yeah, I think the other thing again, like closing the loop on all the CONCACAF shit, I don't know how much you saw, but there is, you know, a lot of there is there US soccer and CONCACAF and I forget who else had the issue statements, you know, condemning racist comments and social media. I think it was particularly towards ballot, shared some stuff and Richards in way as well. So I guess to me it comes back to again, like, we've created this environment where there's no real repercussions for any of this stuff, whether it's Mexico or whether it's Concoc half bullshit. Whether it's in Spain or Italy, there seems like there's certain places where this stuff is more commonplace than others, which to me tells me that the people doing this in the places it's occurring don't stand to lose much. And maybe that's where these federations should think about what they're actually doing to put teeth into it. Just another, you know, shockingly disappointing aspect of this whole thing. Right. Like maybe above all else that we, that we can't even have, you know, a tournament without this, this going on. Yeah, I haven't read much about this so I can't really comment on it. I did see that there were that, I think Balogun remarked on it in his like post match interview. I'd be curious. I mean that. So there, there are consequences depending on like, like, I don't know, I don't know if we're set up to enforce this in the stadiums that we're, that Copa America is being hosted in. I don't know. But I know that in the pl they've gone so far as to try to identify who the people who were doing this with the like, CCTV footage and banned them for life from, from the matches. And I'm like, all for that obviously. Yeah. I don't know. That's surprising. This was, I imagine, fans of Panama who showed up. Well this was mostly what I saw was mostly social media. Oh, social media. Now I took me some digging to figure out like who it was, right, because we've seen with England's national team, right. And I'd be remiss if we didn't notice, mention that like their fans turning on their players and with, you know, just you with very racist elements to it. It appeared to me the examples that were posted, at least from Bala, I think it was, it was clear that they were, if you looked into it, they were fans from, you know, other CoNcACAF countries and I'll leave it at that. And that's where I say, I think these, you know, some of these people just don't have a lot to lose and so that's always going to be the problem with social media. And I don't know how you regulate that rap because, yeah, that's just, that's the reality, right. Like it puts people on this, this, this playing, even playing field where anyone can say whatever they want, but at the same time I think there's more that needs to be done there to kind of further the game and, you know, you don't see this, this this kind of shit occurring at least around the euros, which is, I think, is a positive. Right. But it's disappointing to turn around and see it occurring. Yeah. In our tournament on this side of the world. Yeah, yeah. It's. And, yeah, yeah. Now I say that now. Am I discounting, what was it, the Serbs and the Croats basically, like, singing chants about king killing Albanians? Yeah. I mean, probably I should mention that. Right. And that's occurring in the stadium, which is even worse. Right. And what. I don't know what the repercussions of that even were. So maybe it's underplayed in terms of how it's reported on the media that I'm consuming. But stuff like that, to your point. Right. Like, you can identify the people in the stadium and you can go after them, and it's just. It's not something that occurs at, like, a. I don't know, us baseball game or football game or hockey game. So it's horrifying. Yeah. In a lot of senses, when we think about growing a great global game that should be shared around the world. Right. Mm hmm. So that's it for me on my pulpit. Yeah, I just didn't. Yeah. I didn't read into that. Like, yeah, it's a shame that. That it's happening. I saw the headline, and I was just like, God, I didn't realize it was on social media. I thought they were facing abuse in the stadium. They could have faced other stuff. I don't know. But, yeah. Well, no, I mean, I. Based on what I'm looking at now. Yeah, it was. It was on social media that, I meand, this is. Maybe this is gonna sound dismissive, but, like, I don't know how you get rid of that. Like, the people are just fucking awful trolls online, and. And Elon owns X. There's not gonna be anything that's done. About root causing the environment shit. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, these guys are in the spotlight right now, and so I guess a lot of it's concentrated on them. But, like, I just. I feel like social media is just fucking awful anyway. I feel like it sucks that they're experiencing that. I feel better about the fact that it's not during the match. Like, we see a lot of that when we play against Mexico and we've talked about that and, like, how they've had to establish these, like, phased consequences to deal with these fucking children that. Yeah. Show up for Mexico games. Yeah. So I don't know. It sucks, but, yeah, notably, Ecuador is playing Mexico right now. Ecuador, like, if what I'm looking at is to be believed. They lined up in a four two two. Let's go. Is fucking wild manager. Too often. I actually, I set this game to record because I am pretty interested in. I think it'll be an interesting game to kind of watch the full game. Yeah. Not dimensional. I mean, it is officially listed as a four two two. Yeah. With Jeremy Sarmiento who I mentioned last. Week how they display that graphically because I remember how they showed it in FIFA. Yes. Sarmiento please. For he was on loan but he's a Brighton player and is an up and coming talent. And then Kendry Paez, where's number ten for Ecuador? And I'll shout him out. He scored in their previous match. I forget who it was against. They, they lost their opening match to a team they definitely should have beaten. I don't know who's in this group. Who's in group B. Yeah. This. Who scored? I would say I would give them a c minus for how they've represent because typically you have that, like the second set of twos is playing like as wider players because you can't not. You have to have some width. You can't just stack. This isn't beer pong where you just stack everything. Yeah. I think it was Venezuela. You don't get this. You don't see that a lot. So it is. That is kind of interesting to see. Especially with Thomas Rodriguez playing at the top of that. Right. No, that's Columbia. Is that not. I'm sorry. Yeah. Not Hamas Ryder. Yeah. Yeah. Ecuador took in their opening match. They took a red against Venezuela and lost two to one. And then they won their second match and Kendry Paez took a penalty like, like on behalf of Ecuador and that one. And he did the Cole Palmer celebration afterwards. Secondary Paez. We talked about this last week. Paez and Esteva Willian are headed to Chelsea next summer when they turn 18. Paez is 17 right now and looking, looking the business for Ecuador, in my opinion. And both of them have now done the Cole Palmer celebration after scoring a goal. And I just think that's interesting because if for two reasons, one, it shows that they're very stoked to be headed to Chelsea in a year, which is great. And they're, they're two of the most promising south american talents at that age. So I'm excited about that. And two, it shows that Palmer is just this, like he has this global reach. Like he is a bona fide superstar. That's the reference point for these kids in South America. Is Cole Palmer after one season with this, right? Yeah, he is. He is Mister Chelsea after one season. Yeah, I think there's an element of it too. Like where I think about this until you brought it up, right? Like kind of like this, this Gen Z thing of like, you know, it's like fortnite dances and like, kind of like the over the top celebrations and all that stuff. And like Palmer Plate. You sound like such a boomer. I don't want to see him celebrate. I'm not saying there's no business in the game. That's you. Okay, let's remember who the older one is. Oldest, because it's not Luke. But anyways, zoomer shit, I don't think. I don't think it's bad. Right? Like, you do see it all over social media. Like he's. Palmer's recognizable. He's got this goober look to it sometimes, but like, that's his, that's his thing, right? Like, I don't know. Lando Norris is, you know, I'm a huge fan of Lando Norris and he kind of has some elements that too, right? Like, it's not like it's youthful. I wouldn't call it childish or, you know, or, you know, or anything like that, but it's. Yeah, you're right. It's interesting to see the reach, like after one season that. That Palmer's kind of, kind of had on things. Yeah. Now with that said, not enough to get them to play meaningful minutes for, you know, Southgate squad, but, you know, good for Chelsea. Yep. So I'll roll through a couple. I'm fucking exhausted and we've been at this for. Yeah, but usually, I don't know if the listeners have gathered this, but my goal is usually to talk enough about. Conc account so you turn off. Don't have time, but like. Or like Ryan's, like, I'm really tired, so I'm gonna cut this down from 15 to three. Yeah, well, Chelsea has been busy, so I guess they are signing Drewsberry hall, which to me is confusing. He played for Lester last season. When you said this to me, I thought you were joking. Nope. They are signing him for €30 million. He's a 25 year old who did not look great in the Premier League during Lester's relegation season. He did look great in the Championship. And he has that link with Enzo Maresca. Not a huge outlay for him. I think he's signing a six year deal, which will take him till 31. But, yeah, this is not like, I don't know, it's hard to get excited about this one. I needed coverage and that was like a value sign. I don't know. I listened. This is not an original thought. I wish I could remember who to attribute this to. But the assessment I saw of this is that the. The board is potentially looking at how difficult, like, how long it took Chelsea to actually launch with Pochettino. Like, they lost half a season. Basically trying to come up to, like, trying to wrap their heads around, like, tactically what they were supposed to be doing under Poch. And by taking this guy who was. Who was a cornerstone of what Maresca was doing last season, it immediately raises the floor for Chelsea at the beginning of the season because they have this guy who is. Who is. He makes the system tick and he has been playing in that system for a year. And so like, maybe they're just. They're buying some assurances early season that there will be. There will be like senior ish players that are very familiar with Enzo Maresca style from day one. I don't know. Like that. I mean, that could be the play. It just. It seems like a lot of money for. Yeah. That body of work, I guess, more than anything else. Like. Yeah, fit like I get. But maybe that's where the markets at. I don't. I don't know. So. And then they sold Ian Matson, that is official for 37.5 million pounds to Villa. That's a big fee for. For Ian Matson. Did I say Ian Matson or Amari Hutchinson? They also sold Amari Hutchinson to Ipswich for like 22. I think coming the other way is Amari Kellyman from Villa. I don't know anything about him, but they gave him like a media package. Like a welcome to Chelsea media package on social media. Like, I thought that this was like some sort of weird FFP shenanigans. But they sign this like 818 year old from Villa that I, like, I've never heard of. And then they way to cover your. Tracks is to use your media department, right? Yeah, maybe. But yeah, he got a, like, it wasn't a lot, but something that's been typically reserved for when we make like big, big signings where they get this. This like, media package that. That's deployed on social media. Like, he got that Hakeem Z. Is he moved on a permanent transfer that's been done for a while. I haven't heard that many ages. Yeah. And I think that's all that they signed this dude from. Oh, God, what's his name? Starts with a G. Striker. From what, mark we from Barcelona for 6 million pounds or something like that. Like Barcelona had this like tragically low release clause and they say he's going straight into the first team. He's on first team salary, wages and he's a big dude, he's a target number nine. He'll be very different, it'll be a different profile from Nico Jackson who I've been waiting for Luke to show up to deploy this to the podcast. But Nico Jackson most valuable player from Africa. And what was the source of the information? It's, I forget that it's, they do it every. It is a trade is a trust, it's, it's like a source that is, is like valued in terms of. I forget their name but they do it every year. They, they like reassess all the players values every year and so it's not some janky source but he is the issue that like what's at play actually is they do take into account like the number of years on left on the contract and stuff like that. So he's on like a big contract and that inflates the value with their model. But yeah. Nico Jackson most valuable player african player. Yeah. So and then the, the news that I had for Tottenham which Luke hasn't showed, we were, I was complaining last night, the Tottenham is like not made. We were hanging out with a Tottenham fan who is much more realistic about the state of Tottenham than Luke. And so we were like talking with him and he was like yeah, we, we really fucking suck for the most part. Like not disagreeing with anything we said. But he, they are in for what's his name. I know Archie Gray. So leads wonder kid midfielder. I think he plays as defensive mid or attacking mid. Like pretty diverse and his skill is his skillset at his age. I think he's 18 and West Ham thought they had it done and now Tottenham have come in and I like the headline I saw was that Angus is getting on a phone call with him personally to or this evening or he did. And so that's looking like a done deal for Tottenham. And I think it's, I think I read it's going to be like 30 million pounds. That'll be a good signing. He is. I remember watching him play against us in the FA cup and he looked very good, he looked the most dangerous player on, on the pitch against Chelsea when we faced them. So like that's a very high ceiling, promising pickup for them. Yeah, we'll see. It's not, it's not a done deal but it looks about as good as done. There are rumors that Chelsea might make a move for him and then he'll be able to choose a real club and not West Ham and Tottenham. But we'll see, we'll see if Chelsea. Go in the bets. All a matter of minutes at some point too. It's surprising to me they haven't sold more. The stackable bins that are on Tottenham's roster, you know, just finished. Right. But Charlison, I would have thought we've been gone. Yeah, there's a real lack of sales. Not sure what the hell's going on to be honest. Yeah. And I don't remember if you were around when I was talking to Chris about this. So Chris, the guy who Tottenham fan, also a big football manager guy and I told him one of the most challenging football manager playthroughs that I've done in the last year and this is true out of, out of like top flight teams. So like if I'm not doing a journeyman save where I'm starting in a lower league, like if I'm just hopping into a top flight team. I recently tried playing with Tottenham and they're bad. Like they're, they are actually like their first team, I believe so they've said publicly that they want to sell, move on eleven players, that it sounds about right out of their first team and then behind that at least like in terms of the scouts that they use to value young players, they have Mikey Moore and like nothing else in their youth system, like it. It was really, really challenging to gut the first team and establish like a succession plan at all of the positions because there was just nothing to build on. Obviously the. Financially the club is doing very well, but in terms of application of the deployment of those finances to running football operations, well, I don't think it's happening. Luke claims it's getting better, but I don't know. Yeah, it's weird because all those, the top half teams or top third teams, whatever you want to say, are investing heavily in youth system, whether it's through acquisitions or just through straight development and academies. And I'm sure Tottenham has spent money there but to not be yielding anything potentially puts them way behind the next, you know, I don't know, decade. Yeah. Yeah. So Archie Gray, that could be exciting for those guys. Yeah. Chelsea. Between Matson, Mari Hutchinson and Lewis hall who we've just absolutely destroyed. Newcastle on Lewis hall. That's like right there alone, that's I think over 100 million pounds in sales or it's close to 100 million pounds in sales. So get Richer, Ryan. Yeah. Our ability to make money, significant fees off players is pretty impressive. So, yeah, I think that's all I got. We'll call it there. There are rumors that Anthony Gordon's been offered to Liverpool, but Liverpool turned it down. Newcastle, I think, are in financially a bad place somehow. I guess that makes sense because they won't. They will not be returning to the Champions League. And they were already up against it with FFP. Yeah. So they're. They're trying to sell some people. And I think the likely. The most likely candidate was Bruno Gimmerish. But they. They want 100 million pounds for him and they thought that city would pay it. But I think City are also. I mean, city are obviously up to their eyeballs and litigation around their. Their transfer practices. So I don't know if they're going to be splashing 100 million pounds on gimmerish. Well, I think to that point. Right, like, we've seen city in particular do this before where they've been pretty savvy about negotiating and not fighting on the first offer. And, you know, there's only so many competing teams in that space. Right. So unless they think, like Chelsea or Liverpool or somebody, you're going to come in on them, then they. They tend to take a fairly, you know, aggressive approach to negotiating. Yeah, rightly so. So I think we'll probably hear more about that the rest of the summer. Yeah, we'll see. All right, I think that's a podcast. Thanks for tuning in. We will catch you next week. And we will very likely be discussing the exit of the United States and England. So tune in from their respective tournaments. So. So tune in for that. And in the meantime, we are always fucking around on discord. You can find that link in the show description. Please like and subscribe, leave reviews, whatever. And, yeah, I think that's a pod. We'll. We'll catch you guys next week. Hopefully I'll be better rested then and not have just come off a flight. And maybe Luke will be here. Who knows? You never know. Yeah, we're gonna have to give him such a hard time if, if and when he shows up to this podcast. Yeah. All right, guys, 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.