Football Yanks Luke Special Euro Final Preview: Can England Survive Spain's Relentless Attack?

In this high-energy episode of Football Yanks, hosts Derek, Ryan, and Luke dive deep into the climax of the football season with their Euros Final Preview Special. The conversation kicks off with the Euro and Copa America competitions. The hosts dissect team performances with a keen eye, debating the strengths and vulnerabilities of powerhouses like England and Spain. They spotlight key players like Yamal and Jude Bellingham, delving into their impacts on the pitch and beyond, including a contentious match-fixing scandal that has the football world buzzing.

Amidst the tactical breakdowns, Ryan shares a personal anecdote about his experience with a broken nose, adding a generous dose of humor and relatability in the midst of heated discussions. Meanwhile, Luke and Derek navigate the intricate web of player injuries, potential replacements, and strategic adjustments as the finals loom.

Transfer news and managerial gossip are also front and center. The team speculates on Jesse Marsh's coaching future, and the possible signing of marquee figures like Jurgen Klopp and Gareth Southgate, and it evaluates recent moves by clubs like Tottenham and Manchester United. The debates are passionate and varied, touching everything from Pochettino’s controversial training methods at Chelsea to Tottenham’s urgent need for new talent.

As always, the hosts don't shy away from critique, voicing their frustrations with conservative playing styles and questionable refereeing decisions. The episode is packed with spirited debates over controversial plays, the future of international soccer, and the managerial capabilities of figures like Didier Deschamps and Greg Berhalter.

Tune in for an episode brimming with expert analysis, insider knowledge, and the unfiltered opinions you've come to love from the Football Yanks team. Whether prepping for the Euros final or just looking to catch up on the latest football drama, this episode is your ultimate guide.

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Transcript

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Hey, everybody. This is the football Yanks podcast for July 15. Looking ahead two days because we're recording a bit early because we've got Luke back. So, Derek, Luke and Ryan this week. I can't guarantee how much longer that's going to carry forward or what. We'll see Luke again, but get it while you can. We'll talk about Ryan's hot takes versus the british media. And Southgate just totally redeeming himself in the semifinals on the way to a certain championship in the euros. Labigna Mall keeps cooking, and this. Turns. Out Greg is our favorite national team coach Greg Burholter finally got deported to Canada to spend some time with Jesse Marsh. So that's great. And then we'll have so much slander. Well, yeah, we might. We might get in trouble for this one. And then also we'll. We'll talk about Tottenham incoming transfers as they open the checkbook for the first time in a long time. A decade. In a decade. Like, actually a decade. Yeah. Which will eat into Ryan's rumor mill, but I hope you guys enjoy. That was a lot. Welcome to the 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. We're, uh. We're live now. Okay, so, yeah, again, I don't like looking at spreadsheets, so I need a fucking standing desk so I can do with salsa when I look at fucking worksheets and try to do lookup. Look, I'm using the right terminology and all that. Yeah. I hadn't heard much from you in terms of help. I guess you must be stumbling through figuring it out on your own, which I knew you were capable of, which is why I was like, I'm not helping him. I like that. Not even backhanded compliment, just, like, just. Straight up from the top rope. Well, it's the Luke Farley podcast. We're the football yanks very special guest today. Yeah, we got to hear Luke's thoughts on the last two months of soccer. It's a very special episode. We're recording on a Saturday ahead of the euro final. So, Luke, how do you feel about how the EPL season wrapped up and every round of the euros in Copa America? Let's hear it. Wow. Every. Like, I remember every single one. Let's hear your. Your expert analysis. I'm sure, like, with as busy as you've been, you've managed to catch all. Of the fix there has been a surprising amount of time in a hotel room watching the euros. I have. I also. I interrupted a barrel pic down in Bardstown for the Netherlands England game. Luckily, my boss is british, so I was like, I'm just gonna put this on. Nobody cares, right? Yeah, yeah. It was a nice little vibe. Just walking around with a tablet game. No, there's a, you know, a tv in the room. Tv and. Yeah, yeah. So. So, yeah, no, I think it's all been good. I think I've given my thoughts at the end of the EPL season. Like, I don't even remember the last time I did the podcast, honestly. It's been. We don't either. Yeah, that makes three of us as. A little backdrop here. Like, where do we end up? Yeah, I mean, how the fuck should we. Yeah. This morning, I went, you know, I did this absurd thing where I checked in to see if Luke was going to be, you know, was still available. Odd time, whatever. And Luke's response was basically like, what the fuck are you asking me about? Yeah, yeah. He was confused as to why we were confirming with him. His response was spot out, which is, hey, just looking for a sign of life. Looking for fact of life. I have watched Luke's dog, but not seen Luke like it is. It's been wild, man. What have you been up to? So, yeah, my work is just really, really amped up as I've kind of gotten my feet under me. I've just packed in a couple months, essentially, and I've been traveling a lot. So I was down in Barstown early this week, going to North Carolina tomorrow morning, then I'm going to Philadelphia, and then I'm going to Minnesota for a family trip. So it's just been like that, like, back to back trips with, like, five days in between. Does your family listen to this podcast? I tell them not to. Okay, yeah, that's good. Interesting, because I was going to advise that you just stop hanging out with your family so much. You did suggest that the other day, and I don't disagree, but I don't always have choices, you know? Yeah. I just have to do things. Yeah, I know that. So Shannon would say that you always have a choice. She has, like, a very binary. I understand where you're coming from, but, yeah, she. She will just not do anything she doesn't want to do, and she's comfortable with that. I'm a little bit more of that way of thinking. Yeah. Yeah. I like to say life is full of choices, and so anything we subject ourselves to is kind of on us. Yeah. I totally disagree with you. Neither of you are married. Go fuck yourselves. You don't know what the fuck you're talking about. He raises a good point. No, but it's been mostly good things. Like we. Tess and I went to rehoboth for a weekend to kind of get away. So that was kind of part of the whole thing. So it's. It's not been all work. It's just like, works really heavy, and we plan some vacations, so we're just kind of dealing with that. But I have been watching the euros. I'm all in for England. I really want them to win just for the, like, just ironic quality of Garrett Southgate winning something. How great would be, like, twelve more months of Southgate. Like, AI reels on Instagram with him just like, talking shit to the entire. World about where his mouth is. Just like, yeah, that would be great. I would. I just want him to be like, I told you so. I don't know. Might be the only good thing that AI has done thus far. I saw they found some, fought some. Yeah, they found a mining source for fossil fuel alternatives. But outside of that. Yeah, that's about that. And Southgate, me? Yeah, they probably about the only thing going. You know, it's have been interesting. It's been like. Especially because the Copa America has been going on at the same time. It's like. It seems so, like, mundane and kind of boring in this weird way. There's not really a great team in the euros. I don't think this round. You don't think Spain has been great? I think they've been good, but I don't think they're at the level of, like, like the high level french teams or the spanish teams of years past when Iniesta Xavi were on those teams. There's no team that, like, reached that level of play. I think it's a lot of relatively conservative football with some really tacky moments. Don't get me wrong. Like, Lamal's goal the other day is absolutely phenomenal. And his rise as a 16 year old, soon to be 17 year old, I think, today. So today. Happy birthday, G. Hope you get those braces off soon. Maybe you'll get a girl. Dude. It's so weird watching, like, probably the player of the tournament giving press conferences with braces on. Fucking crazy, man. You know, I think it's interesting watching England because England, like, South Gareth, Southgate, is like the mirror opposite of Greg Berhalter where, like. But. But Southgate just has way better. Players like Southgate, I would say their. Press conferences are pretty similar. Possibly, but, like, Southgate just plays the most boring football possible and doesn't even try to go near that space. And Greg Berhalter's just jerking off to Tikitaka constantly now, you know, rip, Greg, thank God. But, yeah, you're covering a lot of. Ground that we should probably approach in, like, a more granular. Well, you asked me about everything I've been thinking about. Yeah, we just kind of ad lib. We could change the format. I could just sit here and you guys can ask me questions. We said it's the Luke Farley podcast. This is the Luke Farley special. Fuck the euro final. Like, Luke's back, I think. I guess. To your point, Luke, do you think at a high level, as you look at the euros and the Copa is what it is? Did some of the misfires, whether it's the, you know, rafts in VAR or tactical decisions in the conservative play, did some of those things cumulatively detract from this euro cycle and make it a little bit more boring than what it's been in the past? I don't. I don't think it has to. I think it has more to do with the players are fucking, like, exhausted. You. Like, you watch some of those teams, particularly England, I think that this is one of the biggest issues with that England team is you look at the best players up and down the field. Kane, Bellingham, maybe Rice, like, they have. How many games have they all played? Particularly Bellingham, I think, has shown how tired he is, and I think that's true across the competition. That's why you see some teams, like Slovakia, who was the other one? I'll remember in a second. But some of the smaller teams, somehow country teams, are doing a little better because those players don't play as many games. So they're coming in a little fresher, they have a little bit more energy. I think that has a huge bout to do with it. I think that the refereeing has been not great, but not that. Not like Premier League level. It's been okay. Var hasn't taken up that much time. Even if some of the decisions haven't. Been great, I feel like the reffing has been fine in the euros, in Copa. We have a lot to talk about. Oh, my God. I guess, yeah. I was thinking about, like, the Kukure handball, to me was fairly obvious and also the. Just the fact that they think it's appropriate to have a ref that was that admitted to match fixing. Previously, like, why would you know you're. So. I read into this a lot and that. That's not exactly what you're talking about. The guy who ref to the last England game. So the deal with that, without getting like too far into the weeds on this, it is. It is an interesting. Did you hear about this, Luke, by the way? I did and I read a little bit into it. I. Ryan, I think go and tell us huge listenership what's going on. But I think masses, please. Yeah, yeah. So this dude, I don't know his name, he's like a german referee. And while he was in his twenties, like over 20 years ago, he was reffing in the german second tier, which he was like on this meteoric rise, he was considered a reffing prodigy. He's today considered one of the best refs in the world. We're not talking about Anthony Taylor here. This is actually a good referee who. Is refving some big games. Yeah, yeah. That fucking clown is. I don't know how he has a job, but. And like the fucking english announcers act like he's the, like God's gift to refereeing. But anyway, this dude had an issue with Jude Bellingham where he refed a match. It was whatever the, like, domestic cup is between Dortmund and. Well, the german domestic cup that year. I think when Bellingham was 18 and playing for Dortmund, it occurred between Dortmund and Bayern. And the deciding factor in that game was a goal or a pk, a penalty that was. That was awarded to Bayern. And after the match, Bellingham was asked what he thought about that award. And Bellingham's response was that, uh, if you hire or if you put a ref who is a known Mac match fixer in charge, then this is what you get. Um, I like. And so that was the drama around this game in looking into what actually happened with this ref. He broke up a match fixing ring. So when he was in the german second division in his twenties, the like, lead ref he was working with came to him and asked him to assist in fixing a match. And he reported it. And that launched an investigation into everyone associated with this guy. And in that investigation, they found a payment of, I think,€200 million or something that came from that ref to the ref who asked him to fix the match to him. And they ban. They suspended him for six months. He swears it was nothing and they could not directly associate it with him fixing any matches. And that's like, not a lot of money. Like, it was like, I think you said 200 million. It was like 200. No, 200, not 200,000,200, period. Yeah. It was a very small benefit. Yeah. And, like, it's the amount. It's like he could have been paying him back for something that he spotted a money for. You know, it could, but he swore it was nothing and he. He was banned as a precautionary measure for six months, I think, is what it was. And he actually demolished a huge match fixing ring as a report, as a result of him reporting this. And so Bellingham goes at this guy, and Bellingham was fined, like, 45,000 pounds for what he said in the press conference. And I think the ref took, just to take the heat off the situation, he took a voluntary six month leave of absence after what Bellingham said. But he probably doesn't love Jude Bellingham. Well, that's really. That's really the issue with the placement of the referee, was the relationship, the player. They really should have had him in the game. Correct? Yeah. So I agree with that. But I did. I dug into this because of, like, all the. The drama around that, and I'd never. I had not heard about this. I don't follow the german division that. That closely, but I don't. Like, this dude is, like, actually not a hero, but he. He's been pretty above board. And even, like, the fact that in the wake of Jude saying that he took a voluntary leave of absence is that's just him, like, staying, you know, like, rising above the noise. So. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I would say, knowing that. Right. Fuck Jude in England. Like, he should match the route, the matches that he's assigned to, like. And I don't think there should be necessarily qualitative assignments. Right. It should be purely objective based. But that's where this all falls apart, is. I don't know. Especially in the Premier League, right. In conc, it appears there's no objective measurement or system for performance. Right. We've talked about that ad nauseam and that's where it kind of falls apart. It's like they're just kind of picking people at a whim. Yeah. Well, I think that in the Copa America, like, those referees don't have any experience to ref games like that. That's. It's kind of almost like a different issue. Right. It's like there's huge level of incompetence in. In the selection of those referees or there's not a good referee crop. I don't really know. In the situation with the euros, with Jude, I would be on the side of he shouldn't have refereed the match because of the conflict between the player and the ref. And you just don't want that boiling up. Like, what if he calls or something off Jude that Jude doesn't like and runs up and screams into the guy's face? Is that a more aggressive act because of the history they have? Yeah, have him ref the Spain France game. Yeah. So 100%. And I think in the Premier League, they make those kinds of decisions all the time. In terms of what, like boyhood club this referee has, or although they do make those decisions. So I don't know. I think it's kind of a nothing issue, especially since, like, that penalty call on Kane was pretty controversial and I. Yeah. What do you think of that? Yeah, let's just keep talking about this England game and then we'll. Yeah, I think it was half of one, six. Half of one, six of the other, whatever. Have you half dozen of the other thought it was a foul, but maybe not a PK, but when you bring it to VAr, it's probably a PK. Well, the ass. So that's the piece. Right. To me, this is one of the. The clearest examples or the clearest one I can think of. Wherever something was interpreted so differently under VAR than it was live, because I don't think it seems like generally, myself included, when we watched it live, it was like, yeah, he was close to getting there and fouling him, but it wasn't foul. And then, you know, you slow it down, you pick it apart. Now all of a sudden it's a PK. Right? Well, his studs are up, his leg is straight. Yeah, yeah, right. He shouldn't have his. He shouldn't have his leg in that position in the box, but watching it. Live, like, I don't think anyone would have had the confidence to call that or, you know, very limited. You know, it would have been very tough to call live for any raff or any observer, I think. Well, I think Kane is smart in that situation. I think Kane knows he's been touched and he knows that if he's down on the ground asking for it, Var has to. Is going to look at it. Sure. I don't. I. You can say what you want about Kane on that level, but he kind of used the. The break of the game to his. And his team's benefit and good penalty, too. Do you. Do you think that. So, like, my issue with that statement is I've been like, in talking with other people in my life who watch that game for like, there's a lot of people in my orbit who hate soccer but watch soccer. Like, I kind of feel that way, Ed. Yeah. I don't know why that's surprising, that there's more self hating people orbit than just yourself. But people saw this, and they were like, Harry Kane's a bitch. Like, it was, like, kind of the. The sentiment. And I'm like, dude, like, those are. In most cases, unless I. Like, I looked this up because I thought I was losing my mind, but in most cases, those are metal studs, right? Yeah. Like, yeah, yeah. Like, so I don't even. Like. That looked really painful to me. Like, I don't think he was being even clever there. He got hurt in that. I think he's being clever because he gets up, but I think it hurt. I just don't think he needs to roll around on the ground. I think. I think he knows if he can cause a stop to the game, Var is gonna look at it. Yeah. I think that's part of the professional game now, and maybe that's not what he's doing, but I think he's a caliber of a player and a goal scorer that he'll probably know he can. Get away with because we've all been there. Right. There's things that look worse than they are, and there's things that feel worse than they looked. Right. And that's just part of. Yeah. For me. Right. So he's gonna do what he needs at Luke's point, like, the players gonna do it. He needs to get the call. Yeah. That idea never entered my mind. Like, I saw the replay and I was like, oh, fuck, yeah. He is hurt like that. Like that. That is a stinger that he just took. I think it's six of one half. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it does. It doesn't matter. Right. Like, I. So I. The one question I have, like, out of the statements you made there is you said that, like, I don't know. I forget who the defender was that was playing that. Oh, it's Dumfries. That's right. Who also makes a game saving line. Yeah. Clearance. Yeah. He. Like, he has a. He doesn't have a right to play that ball. Like, that's where I. Like, what? Like, he's nothing. Coming in aggressively. Like, he's trying to clear the ball. I mean, it's the way the game. The rules are written and. Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of. As a defender, like, I don't particularly like that, but, you know, he could have. He could have kept his foot a couple inches away and not made contact and still contested the shot, I guess, is what you would say is the counter argument. I don't think it was a shot. It was a 50 50 ball. Like, it was. Harry Kane was taking a shot. He was trying to hit it with a side volley. He miss, hit it and basically hit through Dumfries foot. Yeah, but like, the ball is. It's. It's in the air like it was bouncing. Right. And. Yeah, no, you're right. I mean, it's there as a loose ball. Yeah. Right. If there's any place that you make contact with that player and your foot is straight and your cleats are showing, if you make contact with the player, it's. That's the way the law is written. What I think he does is tries. He's a little. He needs to be a little bit more reactive, get more push off his back foot and have his blocking foot farther ahead of the ball so he doesn't come into contact with the follow through. So he needs to look to block. Block the shot or a shot. Instead of trying to win the follow. The side of his foot is facing the box. But a 50 50 ball in the box with Harry Kane, like one of the kind of most instinctive finishers in the world right now. Yeah, like Harry Kane's going to the ball. Yeah, for sure. Like, watch the euros. Well, in terms of. In terms of his. For the euros, he has what, goals or two goals now? Yeah. Yeah. Like, like one of them's a penalty. Plenty of good players, but you're gonna. But you're not gonna win that against Harry Kane. You don't try to win the 50 50 ball. You try to block the shot. That's what my advice to Dumfries would be. Yeah, that's an interesting point, too, because Dumphrey's, you know, we talked about. When we talked about, like, tactics and some of the nuance here, right? Like, Dumphrey's is more of a, like a. Like a three back winger than a four four back fullback. Right. Not kind of naturally. And where he excels. And so that's not how they were lined up in this one. I think this is kind of how they lined up throughout. Right. In the past, the Netherlands has actually played a lot more three back with kind of those wing backs. So, yeah, maybe he was exposed in this sense. But then, on the other hand, right, he's clearing balls off the line. Right. So, like, he's kind of doing the things you want him to do out of that position. But he made an instinctive defensive play. Yeah, he made up for it. I think it's a tough call. I. I could see it go either way. I was a little surprised that the penalty was. Was given, but it feels a little. Like re refereeing the game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I definitely think that. Yeah, it's definitely one of those. Those ones that, like. Especially Luke has had heartburn over all season where, like, the fact that you can slow it down and look at it a hundred times. It like, it. It plays with your mind. Like, it. Like, it makes you feel like you need to make that call. Oh, yeah. I. Despite me thinking that it's probably a foul on var, I wish they never go to Var. I wish. It's just not. Yeah. Yeah, I get why the Dutch were upset about it. I'm not sure they needed to smash up, you know, quite as much as they did afterwards. But, you know, that's. Yeah, that's what happens. Well, I. Yeah, I got what I said. The entire orange army could suck my dick last week and they got all of it. I mean, they made it further than they are probably projected to, but they had a pretty. Again, I think they had an easier run in the knockout stage to. To get. Get to the semis, but. Yeah. Shout out to Javi Simons for that incredible goal. One of the goals of the tournament. Probably not the goal of the tournament for me, but one of them that was. I mean, to see, like, Lamina mall's goal the day before and then that one, like, those are two just phenomenal goals in the. Yeah, in the tournament. So, yeah, it's. I mean, this. If, like, if you've listened to this point and, like, are wondering for whatever reason, what the end score ending score was. England two, Netherlands one. Netherlands went up one nil with a. Just a fantastic shot completely against the run of play. For me, one of the notes I made about this match was that England, for the first time, looked like. I have expected them to look in the first half. The first half, they. They were. They dominated. Something had worked out between Bellingham, Kane, who I don't know what the fuck position he's trying to play. Like, fucking, like defensive nine or something. He's defending. He's defending a lot. He's like, in his own box, like, I don't know what the fuck that guy's doing. You gotta think that's coming from Southgate. Like, he's not just doing that. Sure. Yeah, he wouldn't play mano, until we're. Gonna get to that we're gonna get to that. Hold on, let's table Southgate because I have a lot to say about Southgate, like a lot and the british media and like, I can't fucking believe what I've heard, like, since that match. But anyway, then Ollie Watkins just scores. Like, you get subbed on and in the. What was, what was it? The night I have the 87th minute, maybe. Yeah, it was, it was very close. What a fucking, what a touch. That first touch he makes and then the finished. I'd love to see the, the, like, probability of that goal being scored when the ball is played to Hopkins. Like. I thought, watching it, you thinking, oh, he was marginally well off, but there's no way this is going in. Yeah, back of the net and you're like, holy shit. That, that is the first touch. Brutal. Because, yeah, I mean, the defender did everything you could ask that the ball was just placed between the keepers fingertips of the quarter. Like, like it was just a, not a one in a million, but like that really, like that is that distilled. That goal distills Ollie Walken's season. It, like, it's so good, he just gets subbed on. He's had to sit there doing nothing for this whole tournament. And Southgate like, throws him on the pitch. People are acting like it's, it's Southgate's brilliance. I have no idea. Like, I think people have been screaming for Kane to come off. I guess, like to that point, I would have expected Ivan Tony to come on. I don't know if Southgate saw something about that back line where he was like, ollie's my guy. I don't know, but I think he could stretch them. So the back, back four were tiring. And Ollie Watkins will run in behind, which is essentially what he did just in the box. So he took advantage of a little tired legs. He's fast, he's physical, he can finish. Yeah. Starboy Cole Palmer with the assist on that one. Good little ball in. Like, I actually thought the ball was really good in terms of penetrative, but it didn't put him in a position to score other than that. Incredible. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Despite being a Chelsea fan, Heather was non plussed about Cole Palmer assisting the game winning goal for the opponent in this one. Fuck. Fuck the Dutch. And my, my opinion of the Orange army stands after what they did after. We need to get Ryan the clip of, from Austin Powers of on the Dutch. I need to clip that and get it over for a soundboard. Yeah. I mean, one thing I want to say about the substitution pattern to this one we'll get into. We can talk more about England, but it was interesting that to your point, Javi Simons had that, you know, had a great run of play, finishes with a goal, and then Komen decides to stick him out on the wing and just fuck over the entire formation. And part of that, I guess, is depth. Right. But, like, you got to figure something else out. Like, Bergwein could have gone out wide. I guess the pie got hurt. Right. And that's why he came out, which kind of hurt them in this one because he could have. They could have moved him behind Vaghdem horse. Yeah. Just kind of a nonsensical pattern of shit then kind of ensued from. From Coman in this one. So not the best coaching job, I would say, there either. But look at this. The announcement was bringing on the. Sorry. The weird one wasn't bringing on fake horse when to pay went off. I just didn't understand that. But. Sorry. Yeah, he was already no. Spearman on. Yeah. Yeah. Why not just bring Vaghorst on? Yeah, sorry, Ryan. The announcers were acting like Depy has been one of the players of the tournament. And I gotta, like, I need to go back and look at how he's done game by game. But he has not been a standout for me. He's been dangerous and he's been more effective. Interestingly, I think when he plays behind or with Vghorst. But, like. Yeah, finishing is so bad that, like, this whole thing of just putting him up there as a striker didn't make sense to me in the. From the get and it didn't play out well for them. Yeah. I just don't see what other people are seeing with him. It's raw talent. They've like. It's like the jowl Felix thing. Right. And then, like. Then it doesn't. Yeah. All the time. Yeah. I mean, you. You basically just said it, but, like, I feel like netherlands have looked more dangerous when Weghurst was on versus depai. I mean, if they're on the pitch together or whatever, but. Yeah. Well, I think the idea is, and I think a lot of. And you've seen this with Ivan Tony a little bit. But what. What white horse gives Komen from the bench is a way to change the game completely. And I think that in a tournament, you can't underestimate that. Yeah. Like, you, like a good team, like a championship winning team will always have one really big strategic shift that they can make to change the game. Yeah. And I think that's. That's why he stays on the bench. Yeah. All right, well, let's talk about Southgate. So in the wake, I guess I get it. Like, I understand fandom. You sure about that? I think I do. This guy, I mean, he stuck through Chelsea with some real troughs where I was just like, can I get off this podcast and stop watching soccer? Fair enough. I like listening to the revisionist history from. From the british media now that they're in another final. Like, they wanted this dude's head. And this match did nothing to dispel the fact that I think that Southgate is a fucking clown. And I don't know what would at this point. Like, his body of work is so unlike to me. He is a guy who has taken the most talented squad in the world and made them look so pedestrian. And he clearly like, to me, he doesn't seem to understand at all what's going wrong here. I guess he did tweak this system to pull both Bellingham and Foden in centrally, which was a huge issue coming into this match. I felt. I've been calling that out every week, that they have no width because Foden just keeps cheating and centrally. And then Kane is just stepping all over them because of whatever he's being told to do or whatever his, like, um, tendencies are. I guess I. I don't know what's going on with Kane, but he's all over the place and, um. Yeah, and it gets so, yeah, that tweak was made and I think you're. We, you and I talked about previously about the width, but then it leaves Shaw as like a stick figure out on the left, just kind of holding the ball up every once in a while. And that's probably not the best use of the talent on this team. And it's not what fans or anyone else is looking for. The really hard thing about Foden has been because you have Kieran Trippier on the left side and he does not want to go down the line. Foden coming in, instead of giving an alley for someone like Luke Shaw to run into. It just clogs up the midfield, like, right. You create that overload in the midfield and you switch the ball into still. Southgate's fault because he only brought one left footed right. Was Ben Joelle healthy for the year? Yes. Was he fit? So I would say that that was probably a mistake and I'm sure there's another player, so. And not because Ben show well, is like at the level, like, I'm not really making an argument either way. It's just to have a left back. Yeah, yeah. Bring Lewis hall. Bring, like, true. Bring a. Bring someone that is so that if Luke Shaw, like, you know, Luke Shaw has struggled for fitness all season. Yeah. So bring another option. Yeah. Joe Gomez hasn't played, right. Dean Henderson. I don't. Sorry. Dean has backup here, but I mean, Gomez is. Gomez left footed on. I think he's right. No, I'm just saying what's the point of having him on the roster? Oh, yeah, yeah, I see what you're saying. Yeah. Or Bowen for that matter at this point. Yeah. They went Bowen on once or twice, but I just do that like that. And then he's talking about how he doesn't have. Calvin Phillips will fucking select Calvin Phillips. Like, if he's. Well, maybe has been good. I agree. But after he figured out that he did the play. Obey, do. Yeah, yeah. I'm not so. Yeah, Luke, you haven't been around. I don't agree with his sentiment that the issue is that he doesn't have Calvin Phillips, but you select the fucking squad. If Calvin Phillips is so critical to your system, then bring him. Like, it's not an excuse. Like, all of this is your own creation. You've. You've. You've created this scenario. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I think he's a fucking fraud and it's gonna be a crying shame if he wins a final. And I really, like, I, I wanted England to win coming into this tournament, and Southgate has soured me so much on this team. Like, just. Just grinded me into submission and, like. I was the beginning. Yeah. I'm rooting so hard for Spain in this because, like, if that fucking guy gets knighted and is the dude who bring, like, it's just not. I haven't. I should go through how. How many minutes have they led in this tournament? They've had the easiest run of anyone, and they've probably led in matches for like ten minutes. But he's not here to lead. He's here to win. It's all part of the plan. He wants to go behind in every match. And then in dramatic fashion, like, he just. How they drew it up. Drew Bell or Jude Bellingham? This tactical master, Jude Bellingham. Fucking overhead kick in the 90th minute. There was all speeches themselves, Ryan. Yeah. Just how they had it on the whiteboard, like, fuck this guy and fuck the british media for. For backpedaling so hard on. On this. Like, they, they want. Coming into this match, they were ready to crucify him, and now they're talking about knighting him, and they're just falling all over themselves trying to back away from their previous statements. These are the same people that voted for Brexit. So I'm just gonna. Yeah, I don't. Anyway, that's. I'm so hot on the, like, I can't believe I have to turn on the athletic and listen to, like, like, southgate's legacy now when, like, six days ago, they were. They were like, does he have it? Like, have we made a mistake? I don't know. I. To be fair, the athletic is american media. No, it's not. It's owned by the New York Times. That is, like, less than a year old. And it's all the same people. That's not american media, by the way. The. The Athletic. The athlete. Like, I love the Athletic. I'm a paid. Apparently, I'm paying for it twice. I found out this week, like, it's. Supposed to shift one of those subscriptions to me. Well, it's supposed to be included in the New York Times now, which. I'm also a subscriber. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But then, like, the Athletic went ahead and charged me for my annual fee, even though, like, in my account, it's says that I'm a New York Times. I get the Athletic via my New York Times subscription. They then also charged me for my standalone athletic subscribe. Yeah, yeah. But, like, their podcast, in my opinion, has become hot garbage. That new host is bad chamilary. Yeah, he sucks. I like him. I do not. I. This week, he kicked off one of his episodes and was like, he was, like, setting up to talk about this England Netherlands game, and he was like, so, yeah, I wanted to get your guys thoughts on England versus the England one. Like, dude, you don't know who England played. And then I sit there and watch. He does, like, what we do. Like, he sits there. He's, like, typing to people. You can hear him, like, texting, like, typing on his keyboard while he's supposed to be, like, talking with the guests on his podcast. Our listeners are probably excited to hear our editorials on the athletic moving forward. Yeah, I don't know why I'm on this rant. I don't think that this is a good moment to disagree with you. So I'm sorry that you're so passionate about this. I just, like, I'm like, I don't know, like, the. I just. I've always loved the athletic, and I feel like the. The quality is just cratering let's say. This, right, to bring it back to reality. Part of the reason that, like, Ryan sold me on. On this concept, right, is because there is kind of. There always has been a dearth of any kind of good or, you know, quality or whatever the hell it is we're producing content. I don't know that we're hitting it, boys. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that we're hitting the mark. But I think the athletic was part of the story solution for a while. Submitting that anymore, which is when they bought. When they bought tfue. That. Like, that. Like, I love tfue. Also. What's. What's the guy, Joe divine? And I could probably, if you gave me a second, I. JJ bull is a fucking genius. Like, that guy's tactical analysis. Like, he just. I mean, he literally has, like, coaching badges and. And. But then just does, like, tactical analysis on behalf of Tfue. So that acquisition was good, but, like, it felt like. I don't know what happened behind the scenes, but, like, Joe Divine, like, seemed to, like, wash his hands of the whole thing. Like, I guess he had, like, made his money and was kind of, like, burned out and tried to step away and, like, all of it. All of it. Like. Like, the quality kind of went down, and he started to come back, and it's getting better again, but, yeah. Anyway, let's talk about Spain. Wait, no, no, no. I need to give you my thoughts about Southgate. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead. Why didn't you do that while I was talking about him? He isn't, like, butting in as much. As I do, like, burst your pimple or whatever it was. Yeah, dude, you got. You guys are fucking out of this world. Like, yeah. Has he managed the best teams ever? No, he's a vibes coach. The vibes in that squad are incredible. And that's the. That's the theory of the game for him, is that if he can create a good culture, it doesn't really matter what he coaches them. They're good enough players to go do it themselves. And up until this point, they're in the final of the euros, so everybody can go fuck themselves until they drop off in, like, the group stage or something, which has never happened with a Gareth Southgate team. Taven with Ericsson. Sven Ericsson happened with Roy Hudson. Like, this team has not dropped out the group stage, not once with Southgate as manager. He's a vibes coach. He's there, like, the greatest accomplishment of Gar Southgate was to have someone like Ollie Watkins, who's been sitting on the bench the entire tournament, come in with enough attitude, with enough self confidence, with enough, like, team spirit to make an impact like that. There's not that many coaches that can do that. Managers who can do that. Do I want him managing Manchester United, Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal? Fuck no. I want to managing Man United. Man, that might be fun. He should not be a club manager. Right. But in terms of creating a good environment, he succeeded in that and everybody can go, fuck off. His, like, little old british dick. Like, you should take the helmet City after pep steps away. Yeah, but in terms of. But club management is not national team management. They are two totally separate monsters. You see that with Gregor Berhalter, who I'm sure we'll get to eventually. Yeah. He was a genius at the club level. I'm not sure what that. My point is, I'm not sure what the Greg Berhalter experiment proved. Fair enough. Fair enough. Yokem low, right, at the. At Germany, right, has never really had success or interest going into club football because he knows european international football is totally different. Right. I don't think he would be a good manager at club level. So you got to give Southgate credit for creating an environment in which players feel they can succeed at an international level. That's not that easy. So I give him props. He's not technically good, tactically good. I don't know what he's doing with Kanek. Know. I don't think he's told Kane to do anything. I think he's just like, do what you want. Same thing with Bellingham. But I just think if. Give it to him for the vibes. No, give them to him for the vibes. He has gone to semifinal, quarterfinal and two finals. He is. He has been. His draws like, I don't know, he's just had the easiest path and nearly squandered it in this tournament every time. No, in every tournament. In every tournament they've done. I can't speak to every tournament they've done. I don't remember the draw in 2018 or whatever. So I'll look up, I'll do some homework. Look that up. And they always had such an easy path to the final in his tenure. He's. Let's go, Garrett. Southgate. Yeah, I. I'm team Spain for this one. Let's talk about that match. Spain, France. It opened with an Mbappe assist to. Who was it? It was moaning. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Plane playing striker. Yeah, yeah. Beautiful assist. It was a great assist. Mbappe came into this one. No mask. Oh, yeah, we got to talk about that, Luke. Derek has been on one about Mbappe. Well, and then the mask comes off, so magically it's healed, and it feels fine. It's Derek. Have you ever had your nose broken, Luke? Not broken, but I've, like, been, like, right on the edge of breaking it, like, okay, full bloody nose. Go for x rays. Not bloody broken since. Since, I guess. What was it, the second match of this tournament? Did you play the next week, Luke, or did you sit out like a bope? It wasn't broken, you fuck. He just said it wasn't broken. Derek has come onto this podcast week after week and basically called Mbappe a bitch for not. For not, like, at first not playing, and then for playing with a mask and not looking. Like. Like, I've had my news caved in and you can't sleep. Like, just saying the playing would have been out there. A what? The argentinian accountant looking dude would have. You think Messi would have been out there with a broken. I mean, yeah, he would have. With a mask, and he would have looked like a shell of himself. Yeah. I think it's a little. Little harsh to pass judgment on the dude. Like, he's playing, like, a sport at the highest level. Like, he's gonna get hit in the face a couple times. Like, I don't know. I think he had whacked a couple times afterwards. Yeah, it was like that. Scott Sterling, YouTube. I don't know. I think he just. I think that he probably didn't train the next day, and I I'm sure he wasn't quite as sharp as the other players, and they just. They held him off in the second half of that game. Right. He came on in the second half of the game. He missed starting right. I think he missed an entire game because they were winning or they were tied. So they were tied, and they didn't need him in one of them. Okay, stage game. Oh, you mean. Yeah, he. I think he sat out a hole in this match. He was. He was on from the beginning. Yeah. Yeah. I I don't know. I don't. I think you should let up on him. That shit sucks. Yeah, I I can't imagine doing anything with a broken nose. Like, when. When it happened to me, I think I laid in bed for a week. I think you guys are both right, actually, I just bought a little bitch. So I'm glad you told us any. Anyway, moving on from that, Yamal scores. Probably the goal of the tournament, I would say. And. And is so good in the game. Dude, it just incredible. I mean, he should have had an assist before for this. I forget who. Yeah, cross the ball. I think it was Fabian Ruiz. Yeah, yeah. Cross the ball in and Ruiz just skies it, but it was like inch perfect cross into the box. I guess he was already. I think he worked the ball into the box and then chipped it in, but same difference. All know who has also looked like a world beater in this tournament. Strange, somewhat strangely. Yeah, he. That dude, that first touch to score the second goal that Spain scored. So good. But it's an example of, like, at the international level, the little tweaks you can make that have a big impact. Right. So because Oma wasn't starting, I don't think at any of the group stage matches maybe one of them, but until Pedri got hurt. Yeah, I guess that. Right, that. So that's probably what precipitated him starting, but yeah, I mean, he's had a huge impact the last couple of games on this, on the run of form for this team. If you're that England back line man, and you, you've. You've sucked all tournament except for Gehe. Like, you've just, you've just. The backline has probably been the best part of the team, which is saying something. Dude, I don't think they, like, they've looked so vulnerable, like, especially to the break, which. Spain has been lethal. Well, the team is built for their wingers, right? Yeah, like, they're. Dude, I. I bet they're just waking up in cold sweats every fucking day leading up to the final. They have. Walker actually played his position properly that. I. Oh, what position? It's just vibes, dude. That's the south gateway position. Always. Positions are all relative. Like, yeah. Yeah, he takes tactical notes from a different one of his. He's playing striker. Kane's dropping back. Like, that's true, actually, they've overlapped several times. I really hope England beats Spain. I'm gonna, like, enjoy the next podcast if I ever make it on another one. Yeah, who knows? See you in two months. We'll earmark this to talk about then. Yeah, I was wrong. I thought Rodri was suspended in this one. After we recorded the last podcast, I looked into it and he had already picked up two yellows and, like, the group stages, so he had had his, like, slate cleaned in the last game. Big store. I don't know if you guys saw this. I posted it in the discord, which for some reason was a ghost town this week and usually there's a little more engagement. But Marotta, did you see what happened to him after this one? No. The cosmic. Yeah, the, the fucking injustice. Oh, my God. For Murata, it, like, so that, like, Murata is a guy, like, I, he. I mean, he came to Chelsea and I was like, super disappointed in his performances for Chelsea. The good thing was we had Marina Graniskaya running football operations then, and she somehow got, like, a larger fee than we paid for Murata to move him on. But he's a guy who, like, he's never been, like, a lot. Like, there's always been. Everybody's felt. There's been this, like, high ceiling for Murata that just never really materialized. He's always been pretty good and he's kind of having his moment now where he's led the line for Spain. While they haven't been at their best, like, the tiki taka golden generation was over and Murata was just leading the line for Spain. And now they have, they have a team now like this span. This spanish squad looks so good from front to back and they make it to the final and they're celebrating on the pitch and some fucker runs onto the pitch to try to take a selfie with the team, presumably a fan of Spain. And as he's running on the pitch, security guards are chasing after him and he nears the players, the security guards are chasing after him. And, I mean, this will circle back to a conversation earlier. The pitches, these pitches are slick. They water the fuck out of these pitches. And that's why the players are wearing metal studs like, you. You need that to stay glued to these pitches. And so the security guard is chasing after this clown and he slips and, and falls into Marauder's knee and he is, he is visibly in discomfort. Like, I would be shocked if he plays in this match. Like, it, it looked really bad. The coach after the match said, or the manager said that Dillafuente, I think is his name. He said that this is, that it's, it is. They're gonna have to monitor it. It doesn't look good type thing. Like, just awful for Marotta. Terrible. Yeah, yeah. I hope he's, he's a go, but it's pretty rare that, that a knee, like, a knee injury like that doesn't require some time. Like, even if it's just sprained. He's not starting on Sunday. Yeah. Just awful. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I guess the latest is it looks like they think he's going to play, and he's going to have an important role going, coach. Okay. Maybe that has. We don't know until he shows up, I'll say. It's interesting. I didn't realize that it's interesting because I think yours are ball or whoever came in behind him to fill that. That spot sucks in. This sucked. All tournament. Yeah. I mean, they've got Jose Liu and some other pieces that you can move around. Omo can play as a false nine. Yeah, that's kind of a. That's gonna be a miss for them. Yeah. I also don't think Mirata. I don't. I already think Mirata is playing through something. They've really managed his minutes. He's like, there was that one match where he just, like, sat down and was like, get me off the pitch. So, yeah, I. It just. It. I feel really, really bad for the guy. Hopefully, he's a go. Hopefully, it's nothing. But it. To me, it looked bad, and it. Did look bad from the camera angle. Yeah. And he, like, I don't know. Something needs to be done about this. I don't know what you do with, like, to iron that out, but, like, it's just. It feels like it's like, well, it's the fuck. It's social media, right? Like, people, like, it's. It. This is increased with, like, people wanting to, like, I don't know who thinks that's cool? Like, I don't know if I. Like, if I saw a friend, like, run out onto, like, a professional field, I would not be like, that's dope, dude. You know? Like, I would not be. I hope you had fun. Yeah. Great work. Yeah. Like, I don't understand this. Like, I. And I don't know what you do about it. Some people were blaming the security guard, but, like, again, I think that's a misunderstanding of, like, the conditions on the field. Like, the field is slick. They water it like crazy. Oh, it's not. It's not the security guards fault. He's just trying to help him out. But it's just unfortunate. Yeah. Spain, unlike England, has had a very difficult pass path. Excuse me. To make it to this point in the tournament and has risen to every occasion and has looked up to the task in every match. Yamal likely to get, like, as things stand, unless he just collapses in this final, which is possible. He's 16, I guess, 17 today, but likely to. It's hard to imagine him not taking both young player of the tournament and player of the tournament. Um, he's he's just looked incredible electric in every. Nico Williams on the other side has. Also looked also very good. Like, I don't know how Nico Williams isn't at a massive club. He's at Sevilla. I think it's, um. I mean, we could, we could dig into that, but there's some, like, he, he has a very low release clause, but they're paying him like crazy. Like, they're like, so Chelsea want him, Arsenal want him. There's some, like, I don't completely understand spanish football, but that club specifically has, like, some sort of huge preference to players that were developed in their local area, and Nico is one of them. And so they've paid him a lot of money. Like, he's, he's on like three hundred k a week or something like that. Yeah, yeah. So, like, I. It's like, you know, it's because they're. Not spending money to bring players in. Right. So they're straight money to pay the players they've developed, which, yeah, kind of ideal, ideally, what you want to do. Yeah. So it's really. And also because of all of those factors, he has a big connection with the club, so there's not like a lot of urgency for him to leave. And his brother plays there too. Yeah. So there's a lot of, like, weird externalities that are, that are sort of keeping in there and because, yeah, his release fee is rumored to be 60 million, which, like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep. So, I mean, that's, that's why he's, he's sticking around. I think Alma, like, Man City fans are just clamoring for Alma to come in. They're gonna dump a bunch of, like, their aging players on into Saudi. I guess Ederson has an agreement with Saudi. De Bruyne has an agreement with Saudi. De Bruyne is going to go to Saudi. I'm pretty disappointed by that, for some reason. What the fuck is that all about? Money. Money. Yeah. Des going to Boyd's been open about it. Yeah. He said like, hey, I don't have that long of a career. Like, somebody offers me that much money, I'm gonna go do it. Cities got plenty of money. They've got ten balance sheets. We know about another 20. We don't. So the dude, I. This is like, we could, this is like a whole, maybe a whole episode of the podcast. But, like, people are exiting Man City. Like, like, like, like leadership. People are jumping ship from say, I think. I think city's in trouble. I think they know they're in trouble. I think that's why they launched that weird lawsuit against the Pl. Yeah. Like, Chelsea just fired their. The head of their youth development or that two of them, I should know their name. Their absolute leg. It was like a stupid move by Chelsea. They were unhappy about the level of talent being developed at Cobham, and which is laughable because, like, musiala came from there. Levi Caldwell, Reese James Tamori. Like, the level coming out of the Chelsea academy is. It's world class. Like, like, busy Al is a shout for a balloon door sometime in his career. Ed. Anyway, but Chelsea fought, cleaned house, and they hired man cities. Like, like, they pulled Man City's guy in and Man United pulled one of their, like, c level executives over. Like, yeah. And, and Pep is saying he's going to leave after this season. Like, I think they're in trouble. I don't know what's going to happen. But if you're, like, if you're. If you're that level success and people are making parallel moves to get out of there or, like, arguably downgrades in their career, if you're going to run, Chelsea's like, you're at the best club in the world and you're going to run, like, doing a parallel move to Chelsea. Yeah. I don't know. Anyway, that's like a whole side bar, but, yeah. Anyway, I think Spain is going to fucking skewer England. Yeah. You have a score prediction you guys want? Oh, go ahead. I was just gonna say, I mean, I think France was. Has to be disappointed in this. That was a very talented team. And for Spain to go in there and beat them. Yeah. I think that that has to give them a mental and conceptual edge over England. I hadn't thought too much about the score of this one. I think it might end similarly. Like, two, one, Spain. Yeah. I have all the same criticisms of Deschamp as I do Southgate. Like, what a weird move to not have, like, kama Venga didn't start this, right? Correct. Yeah. Like, he was their best player the previous match to me, to my labio out there. Yeah. Has a World cup and a euros or just. Yeah, I know. Well, so this is. So we, we. This was a thought experiment I had last week, which is international soccer. I like, the question I posed was, is it, is it a bad product? Basically. And I ended, I looked at, like, the number of goals scored, scored in a PL match this, this season versus, like, what's been scored in the euros per match. And it. I forget what the numbers were, but it, like, the year, like, international soccer seems to reward ultra conservative coaching. Like, you. You just, you don't have a lot of time with these players, so you play a very conservative system and you wait for your opponent to make a yemenite mistake and then you capitalize on it. And my problem with that, like, I don't mind watching it because there's a lot of other drama around it. But, like, the american audience, they basically only watch international soccer. Like, they're being force fed the euros right now. They'll tune in for the World cup and. And I guess that's where this is disappointing, because, like, there's so, so much talent here available to France. And they just looked listless this whole tournament out of ideas. And international soccer. What, get rid of pks and international. Yeah, you could do that. Make people actually try and win a. Game or get rid of extra time. I think getting rid of extra time. Would be maybe going straight to P. I think that makes it worse. On death, you mean? Or like, well, I think there's more will to try to win the game in the first half of the, particularly, I think we're seeing a lot of really boring first halfs. I think the game would slow down in like the 75th to 90th minute if there was no extra time. But extra time's a total waste at the moment unless you're England, but, yeah, well, I guess. Yeah. We're talking about the same problem. Right. Which is like the. Yeah, the conservative and the extra time's a waste of it. Yeah, yeah. The thing is, if, if there's no penalties, is the game just go on forever? Just go to sudden death. Yeah, yeah, but, yeah. With no break in the 90th minute. Do what hockey does. Yeah. Just, you add. You add periods and. And it's over when someone scores. Yeah, I don't think that's a terrible idea, but again, like, there's a reason for it. These are all toppled. These are essentially all star teams, right, who are coming together for two months out of the year to train. You really can't get a huge tactical, like, body of work within that time unless you have a setup in your country like Spain did, right, with the Xavi and Niesta that pipelines all those players through the same kind of training practices. You see that happen in, again, smaller nations like Slovakia, who did pretty well this year because they're together a little bit more. They play together more because they're in domestically leagues together. Really, though, one of the only countries that isn't able to do that is the fucking United States. So. Or at least like recently. It's just a totally different product. I don't think it's a bad product or a worse product. It's just different. The pressure per game is higher, the anxiety is a little higher, but the pace of the game is definitely not as fast. Yeah, it's definitely a lot slower. Well, so we're at an hour. Let's pivot to. To. Let's. Like, you just mentioned the United States, so I'm going to take that opportunity. That was a bridge put. What would we do without you? Let's. Let's talk about Greg. Greg is out. After the United States bomb out of the Copa America, they get grouped. Greg Berlholt are finally gone. Luke is. If you're not watching the video, he's. He's losing his mind. Visibly overjoyed by this fucking worst. Yeah, I. Like, maybe the first words that we uttered on this podcast were, fuck Greg Berhalter. Like, that's hyperbole. It looks like Derek's looking it up. I wonder if I wrote a blog post about that. Maybe. Yeah. So this has been a long time coming. He's clearly not been up for it, and he's been sacked. I saw. I'm gonna. I'm gonna throw this out there, because I know how Derek feels about Lexi Lawless, but he. Did you see the interview where he said that, like, he's not sure how people can. How people can. Can be so sure that Greg Berlhalter is a bad coach and that he thinks that in the right environment, Greg could be on the level of Pep Guardiola? I didn't see the Pep Guardiola bet. Yeah, he literally. He literally. Literally said that in the right environment, Greg, like, who know? He was like, who knows? Greg could be as good as Pep Guardiola. Do we have any contacts could get us the glue supplier? Can we invite Lawless on the podcast? Yeah, I don't know. I think he's busy. I think Greg. And you wouldn't even come. I would come to that. No, I think, like, in context with the larger footballing world, like, you know, from high school through college, I think Greg Berhalter probably is a good coach. But at this level, it's just like, get the fuck out of here. Yeah. Just some of the most naive decision making, poor coaching, and, like, he didn't even get the vibes around. Like, the vibes were always bad. Yeah. And that's, like, bare minimum. Like, and honestly, the vibes haven't been very good. If that's a check, you know, haven't been good at the us men's national team for a long time. Like, the. The team is disjointed and hopefully they can bring someone in who will, you know, get it together. Jose. The word is that they, they reached out to Jurgen Klopp. Klopp said no. Yeah, but at least, at least that shows a level of ambition that I endorse. I don't know who the next on the list is, but that would have been the dream. I thought that there was a chance, like if you went to. I thought there was a chance that if you went to clop and you were like, look, we're entering the most important two years of our national program probably ever. We don't know when we're going to get an opportunity like this again. And you will create a commercial presence around yourself. Like, this will be so lucrative for you and you'll only have to work two months out of the year. Like you just said, Lou. Yeah, I don't think he understands quite how easy it will be even with the level of effort he wants to put. Do it. Yeah. So easy. Garrett Southgate can do it, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And he would be perfect. Like, you want a vibesman like that, dude. Like he would bring it. And I would not be surprised if Garris outgate was the us men's national team coach. Dude, I'll go to Canada. Like I'm already 50 50 of that. With the fuck would anyone want with Canada? I like 50 50 on that with the next election, like whether I need to start filling out applications. Jesse Marsh has made it. Made it clear that we're not welcome. But. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Jesse Marsh just. Dropping bombs on us, dude. I don't ever want to work there. It's brutal. It's brutal. But also, like, I'm glad someone said. That though, at least Jesse Marsh. I'm glad Jesse Marsh said that because it, like, you need a reality check and that needs to happen from the grassroots. I will. Sure, I agree with that sentiment, but also Jesse Marsh absolutely wants to work here at Jesse Marsh. Like, I will, I'll add, this is a huge statement, but I'll die on this hill. Jesse Marsh is a worse coach than Greg Berlhald. He, he is. But, but why? What standard? I don't disagree with you. He got Canada to this quarterfinals. Sure, sure. Like he caught fire in a bottle and that makes the statement look bad. He leads. Will never be the same again after his, his time at Leeds. They can't even get out of the championship. Now, after what he did to that. Team, he kept them up one year, the one year he took over, and then it obviously didn't go well the next year. Dude, I'm not. I'm not so convinced on the Jesse Marsh side. I don't know if I disagree with. You or not, but I. I think he's a terrible coach and I think that. I think it's fun. I think it's fun that I hate it, right? Because I don't want to see Canada do better than us. I think it's a lot of fun that he took that job and then immediately. Yeah, yeah. But I think that that is complete coincidence. And if you look at his body of work, it is not good. I'm convinced Canada is better than us at the moment. And I will say, having watched it, you know, Canada did play well in the Copa. They played well against Argentina. I think for me it was talent, not coaching in that. You know, he inherited a pretty good. An underrated squad, in my opinion, whether it's about Alfonso Davies or some. Some of the other players in there. Who's there, their striker. What's it, Davis or whatever. Yeah. He plays in France, right? Yeah, he plays. Just explain to Jesse Marsh is from Racine, Wisconsin. Jonathan David. He plays for Leo. Chelsea are tapped to sign him, by the way. I guess Chelsea not tapped and decide. So his. His contract is. Is like, done. I think Chelsea's been connected with him for like two years. Oh, he's from the US. Brooklyn, United States. Another fucking turncoat. What the. Send him back. Yeah. Anyway, no, he was. They were eliminated in the semifinals, not the quarterfinals. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good tournament for them, but, yeah. I don't know, I'm just. I'm stoked Berhalter's gone. I really hope we show some ambition here. It's not going to be Marino. He just took the job at no Gallatas array, right? Yeah. No galore's rival. Oh, then finer bache. Yeah, yeah. Finner, bocce. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jose Marino would be a good. I would love to have. But, like, how does it that. Isn't that a weird fit for the international game? Because he's gonna want to, like, actually. Install tactics and I don't know, like, I think that Jose Marino, it might be a better international coach than he's a club coach at this point in his career because he. Because he follows the thinking of high counter attack, high transition defense, offensive shape kind of tactics. Right. Very, like 2006 or whatever. Yeah. I mean, what in hindsight would have sticking with BJ when we had the opportunity been the better move. Say again? Stuck with BJ. No, BJ. Should we have stuck with BJ? Cow. What's it, Calligan? When we chose to bring Greg back. The vibes were good. The vibes. And that's all Luke cares about. Right? Made sense. I thought the player choice. Luke's here for the vibes. The vibes are no good. The vibes are no good. Maybe. I don't know. I think that BJ is. It's kind of like. You never know. Like, he sort of. The Jesse Marsh thing could apply here. Like, we had a good run of games with BJ, but he's also a pretty inexperienced coach, and I think we should be showing more ambition with this program than that. True. Yeah, I would agree with that. So, like, if he had done well, it would have just delayed the inevitable. Yeah. Like, us getting to the point that we need to go out and get a world class manager when he just. Went to an MLS team. So he's going out to get that experience. So, yeah, for him, he's not at the level. It's like. It's like how Craig Berhalter is not at the level. Jurgen Klopp wasn't at the fucking level. Not your and Klopp. Jurgen Klinsmann wasn't at the fucking level. Yeah. Like, it's just, like, not. Yeah. There's not really any manager in the american coaching atmosphere who could take that job. Like, I couldn't think of one. Yeah. We need to be pulling in an international coach to, like, it should. This should be an attractive proposition right now because the World cup will be hosted here. We still move to Canada if we bring Pach in. Dude, we got. There's so much. I'm so, like, what? Are we gonna see you again, Luke? Because I have some questions about pots. I play soccer with Luke every week, basically more than I want to, actually. I like, there's been some interviews coming out about Poch and from the players and, like, copa and the euros and, like, basically saying the guy was a maniac and a lot of the injuries were on him. It's weird. I saw an interview with Ku Korea just on the Athletic yesterday saying kind of the opposite of that, but I missed. What? I missed Ku Korea's. I believe that. Like, I'm not. Yeah. Caiced. Oh. Sticks out to me where he. He was. He said something like, with Brighton, we. We're positioning ourselves to always have the ball and. And control the game. With Chelsea, we were like, potch just had us running, run, run. And he'd have us running the, like the day before matches. He'd have us sprinting in practice and training and yeah, he was, he was. He didn't seem upset that Pach was gone. Well, I can see that a player might not like that. I don't know, like, it just depends on the players. And Pochettino is not a one season manager. You see the result of that. In what world is it a good idea to grind your players to a pulp the practice before game day? That's just what Pochettino does in the first seasons with his teams. Eviscerate the squad. That's probably the correct training tactic back when England last won a World cup, but not now. It's basically like he looked like we've talked about this before. He looks for buy in for the first year and he looks to build into the second. And those injuries don't happen in the same way in the second season because the players are ready for it. It. And he would tends to back off a little bit. He's basically like, I'm your daddy. Run for me next year. We'll like, like work on this. I think that's, that's just, I think. People, injuries, I don't think that. I don't. I don't think that's the right. I don't think that's the right approach for Chelsea. And Quesadill can go fuck himself. He had a shitty season. He was born what he was trying. To get a great season. Do you watch? Sock out of here, Ryan. I know you love to see suck all of those players dicks. Dude, you finished six. What was Satos average match rate? It was like a seven five last season. What are you saying? He was like their second best player. The team underperformed by 20 miles. That's like, I don't like. It's like, what do you like? Stop blaming the manager. It's just like, fuck it. I will say he started a little slow. Yeah. He didn't have a preseason. Yeah. The second half of the season he was worth it. At minimum. He was worth every. Yeah, he was. He was like, depending on what stat you're looking at, he was the best holding mid in the PL. Like better than Declan Rice. He's definitely not the best holding mid. He's definitely not better than Declan Rice or Rodriez for sure. In the back half of last season, he, he looked it. Sure in the back half of a team that finished six with a billion dollars in transfer fees. Like, I'm sorry, in the back half. The priced third doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all. The 6th place finishes. All that fucking matters. Your statement was, your statement was the Caisado sucked last season. The team is what I'm taking issue. So the team underperformed. Everybody's looking for a fucking person to blame. Pochettino is an easy target and those players were hurt way too much. If that's on him, I'm just saying, like, get the fuck over it and fucking show it next year. Like, with a totally inexperienced manager. See how it goes with more distorted. Why did they sign Shrewsbury hall, by the way? I can explain that. I also want to like Chelsea apologist. We've got a, we should stop this at the hour and a half mark. This is gonna be a very long podcast, but Luke's here. It's a special guest. I also want to talk get your thoughts on Archie Gray because I've been covering that, but you haven't been here to like weigh in on it. But I think it's, I think that Dewsbury, Dewsberry, Drew's, Berry, I don't know. Anyway, british names. He, yeah. So he is familiar with Maresca's system and I think that this is, I don't know. So this is assigning a lot of tactical thought and planning to the directors of football that Chelsea have that I'm not sure they deserve. There was a post on Reddit that asked this morning what, what your club, what, what your club's biggest Deadwood was. And I said, Paul Winstanley and Lawrence Stewart. Those are, I think that's the technical director and director of football for Chelsea. So, but this is my, like, assessment of this. Last season, Chelsea hired a new manager, and they clearly did not tactically understand what that manager expected of them for the, like, the first half of the season. And then they started putting it together. And so to attempt to not make that mistake, they've brought a piece in in the middle of the pitch that understands that system and can hit the ground running from day one and it costs next to nothing. So, like, if you think about it, is like immediately raising the floor of what Chelsea can do next season. It's probably good business. I think he was 30 million pounds and they sent another player the other way for like 19 million pounds. So it, like, you can look at it on balance, is like an 11 million pound signing. I may I. These numbers aren't exact, but they're directionally correct. It's also cover for Connor Gallagher getting sold. I also think Gallagher will be sold. Yeah, I think that that kind of needs to happen. That was the, like this is like this is happening now. Like him coming in like the Gallagher's for sure. I don't think of Shrewsbury hall is a better player than Conor Gallagher. So it has to be about the system and the manager. Yeah, he's a different player. Well, it's obviously about like he played for Maresca last season so it is about the system and Gallagher doesn't fit into that, that system. He's not that type of player. The, the big rumor is that he'll go to Atletico. Yeah. Yeah. So. So we'll see. What do you think about Archie Gray? How do you feel about that? I think it's a good bit of business. I think it's a really expensive 18 year old but kind of in line with what spurs mostly traumatic and tragic transfer policy has been in the past. But I think he's a player with lots of good signs. I think he's going to fill in mostly at right back this season because ange likes those players to go inside. So I think it's a smart sense we need to get rid of Emerson Royale. So I think if that's the second position at right back it's pretty good and shows good upside for the future. It's a very Tottenham kind of transfer, young player. Lots of upside. Is it Pedro Poro? Is that your primary right back? Yeah. Who's a lot more attacking than Archie Gray with probably better service but not as good inside, I'd say. Are you more excited about him or Berg Volta? I think they're both future players. I don't think either of them is gonna like hit the ground running because they're so young and they played at a different level. I have a little bit more excitement about Bergvaal because I've. I know a little bit more about him because I've like I've kind of watched highlights, read about them for what, six months now, however long it's been? Yeah. I think the way that Bergvaal plays on the ball is just like. It's beautiful. I think there's lots of. Of upside. Yep. But I think RG Gray's potential in the Premier League is probably higher. Yeah, there's more like the percentage points is more in line with Archie Gray succeeding. So I didn't know like this is not. I know I knew of Berg Vol because of football manager and then I had watched footage of him because of that game. Archie Gray I knew about because he played really well against Chelsea and kind. Of ran that game. Right. Yeah, he, he, he cooked against Chelsea and he against you know, Premier League opposition. He did not look out of place. He wasn't getting like bodied off the ball. I think he's got the build for the league and weight. Yeah, I think that that's a good, I think it's a really good signing for you guys and your midfield you've got Saar Berg, Vol and Gray and that's, that's like so much upside. Like those are some talented like highly thought out, thought about future prospects that you guys have. And then you've got Mikey Moore. Yeah, Mikey Moore. Jamie Donnelly is also another good prospect coming out and plays kind of as a number eight. I don't think he'll necessarily make it in the Premier League or with Tottenham but we need to sell some players now. Definitely in the midfield like Oliver Skip needs to be sold. Definitely need to get rid of Emerson Royale. Yeah. We need another attacking player probably. Yeah. You weren't around when I mentioned this or maybe I didn't mention it on the podcast at all, but I did a Tottenham say I've, I'd never ever done a Tottenham save on football manager because I hate them and I didn't want to, I didn't want to be responsible for their success even in a fictional universe. Um, but uh, I decided to play a Tottenham save like a brief one. Uh, and that team is in rough shape. Like uh, if, if like the scouts for that game are to be believed. Like I finally like kind of put together what you were saying. Like it is representative in the game that there's like about eleven first team players that, that are good and if like anything happens to them there's not a lot of good depth behind them. And then speaking to the recruitment policy to this point, there's not a lot in hanging out in the academy aside from Mikey Moore that at least according to that game, which they hire like professional scouts and stuff for this. And so like I disagree. I think there is some, some, some talent in the academy and that's coming through. But no, no huge names that have any huge value at this time. No. Yeah, so, but like the, the pivot to signing like an Archie gray, a Berg Volr. When did you guys pick sar up? It must have been like two seasons ago or was it? I think we picked him up two seasons ago and then he's online for a year. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So like, I mean that's like those are good pieces to build around going forward. And you guys are gonna. You'll have money if. If they choose to spend. If they choose to spend it. Yeah, we have. We're probably one of the best situations for PSR going forward. It just depends if the hierarchy will use it. And I think we'll get one big attacking player, I would say. I think if we got one big attacking player, we might be okay for another season. Yeah. And we need a cell. Yeah. The last thing I'll throw out there for transfer news, keep it brief this week. I saw this morning that Amadou Onanna is going to Aston Villa, which is interesting. Well, so he's looked good in the euros. He played. Played for Belgium, right? Plays for Belgium. I think that's right. Yes. He's Belgium in. Yeah. So I think he had a pretty good euros in spite of Belgium. And then Everton has sold him to Aston Villa for it looks like 50 million finalizing. 50 million pound exit deal. The interesting thing about this is this will right side Everton for their PSR issues for the season. They also, like, they were in better shape. It's come out now that they were in better shape than people thought they were. And this will for sure put them on the right side of the issue. And so what's his name? This, this takes effectively takes Man United out of the race for. Oh, God. Breit breathweight. Yeah. So United's gonna have to look elsewhere to sign defenders. They signed Johnny Evans on another one year contract. What? They did. I missed that. Oh, my God. Dude. Dude. They're. They're in rough shape. I don't know what they're gonna do, but they're. They brought in some other player maybe we should talk about. We can start. They just brought in Xerxi. Yes, they brought in Xerxi, which is an okay signing. And apparently they're gonna go after, like, their next option is Lenny Yoro, who I talked about. I think he plays at Leo and he's like an 18 year old center back. But Real Madrid, he's like, apparently target number one for Real Madrid. So that's a fucking fantasy. If you think you're gonna. You're gonna pull up. If you're man united and you think you're gonna pull a Real Madrid target, it's not happening. Move on to the next one. Yeah, I think. Yeah, we'll see. I think long time left after the euros and after Copa America is over, that's when we'll see things happen, particularly with british players. We're really not gonna see too much more until then. Yep. All right. I think that's a pod. We'll table everything else for next week, euro finals tomorrow. And so that'll be a topic of discussion next week and join us on our discord. That link is in the description for this episode. Please like subscribe, leave reviews, all of that stuff helps us. Yeah. Join our discord. Luke's in there now. He didn't. He got the Berlhalter announcement 2 hours late. Because he's not. He wasn't actually reading the discord. Yeah, he's got his notifications. Yeah, but not do that. Will you be you notify us you're awol like the next, like two to six months? Right? Is that. Yeah. So I'm gonna have to. I've got a new mobile recording set up. I actually have it right here. This is. This is the new mobile recording setup. Derek, if you ever need that. Yeah, so I'm going to test that out because Luke informed us that he's out for the next several months or whatever he said. So. Yeah, Shannon's race is on Friday, so I'll be. I'll be a fucking shell of myself on Sunday. But I. Since Luke is unavailable, I'll be bringing the mobile setup. I didn't say I wouldn't be available yet. You said. Listen, I want the listeners to know what we deal with. Just trying to schedule with Luke. He's like a local celebrity in Baltimore, so it is hard to get on his schedule. He sent us a text last weekend and said, I can't make it. Sorry. And I'm out for the next several weekends. Yet he's here now. And now he's saying that he might make it. Never told us that he'd be out for the following weekend. Yeah, he said next several weekends, which I agree is like, nebulous. I'm definitely out next week, by the way. Out next week or in? Out. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So on Monday. I'll send you a text the week after asking how you're tracking and you can tell me to fuck off. I'll make sure I do that. All right, we'll catch you guys next week. Bye. Peace. 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.