Football Yanks

Shocking Revelations: Top Teams Caught Cheating, Drones Used for Espionage!

• The Football Yanks

Share episode

In this captivating episode of the Football Yanks podcast, hosts Derek and Ryan dive into a whirlwind of topics that will keep you on the edge of your seat. From the controversial punishment discrepancies between Chelsea's transfer ban and Manchester City's sanctions to the thrilling Olympic performances, the duo leaves no stone unturned.

As they navigate through the murky waters of cheating scandals and the "us against the world" mentality of implicated teams, Derek and Ryan bring their unique perspectives. But the real substance of the episode lies in the thorough examination of Chelsea's preseason performance and the uncertainty surrounding their upcoming season. With a new coach, a new system, and several first-team players in flux, the hosts dissect the team's tactics, player fit, and potential acquisitions.

Every aspect of Chelsea's journey is explored, from the disappointment of defensive lapses to examining their options at wing. The duo also illuminates the financial hurdles faced by the French league and the impact of losing star players like Kylian Mbappe.

Amidst the serious football talk, Derek and Ryan share their personal experiences with Baltimore's chaotic weather, including Ryan's eventful weekend during Artscape and the aftermath of a powerful storm.

Join the Football Yanks as they navigate through the ups and downs of the beautiful game, offering insights, humor, and a touch of skepticism that will leave you craving more. Remember to like, subscribe, and leave a review for this must-listen episode!

LIVE on Twitch Every Sunday whenever Luke feels like it

Check out our website: footballyanks.com
Join the Discord: Football Yanks Discord

Hey, everybody. This is the football Yangs podcast for the week of August 5. Spoiler alert. No Luke this week. So you're stuck with me and Ryan. We're coming to you live this week from Baltimore, where we'll talk about Ryan's struggles through the weekend with weather related events and fallout. We'll talk more about more cheating and the reaction from the canadian team that's continued this week. I'll talk about the Olympics. Ryan will tune out and then tell me how he doesn't care. And then we'll move on to some analysis of Chelsea's preseason, some thoughts on comings and goings there, and some other random transfer thoughts and news around to the Football Yanks podcast. Yeah, we're american, but we're talking about soccer here. Hosts Derek Ryan and Luke are all football fanatics tracking our fellow Yanks in the EPL and abroad. Enjoy today's episode. It's been slow, let's put it that way. It's been a slow weekend. Doesn't seem like there's a lot of entertaining things to watch at the moment. Maybe that's part of it. Yeah. I'm ready for the Premier League to start. Yeah, for sure. I am definitely over. Definitely over trying to set up. I need to get better about setting up the title of the stream for the week. Yeah, I used to never remember to do that on beforehand either. Yeah. I mean, even on. On twitch. So we stream these on twitch whenever Luke feels like it. The schedule. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I can leave the title the same. I put it as football yanks offseason nonsense last week. So that can. That can remain this week. My weekend, we went out to dinner on Friday, and that was. There's a big art festival in Baltimore every year called Artscape. Right. And the restaurant that we booked our dinner at was right by Artscape. It wasn't Alma Casino, was it? It was. It was indeed. I tried that on artscape last year. Just ended up missing the reservation, canceling it, never going back. Cause I. Yeah, parking. And then I couldn't find parking after the actual event I was going to. Cause they close every street and then put a demilitarized zone around areas. Yeah. Yeah. They can't get it out. So. Almost stranded just in the middle of the DMZ, but, you know. Yeah. It doesn't seem like the most well orchestrated thing. You were with Jess during artscape last year? Well, we went. That was like a. Yeah, we were going on a date. Oh, God. What's the. It wasn't Meyerhoff, but it was. I don't know, one of the venues down there, it was the theater. I forget what the theater is called, but I don't know. Anyways, yeah, I dealt with that last year, and I got pretty frustrated. Yeah. So that was frustrating. And on top of that, so we. So we made a reservation. The restaurant was good. About, God, I look like hell. I'm looking at myself on the video feed, and I'm like, I look fucking toast. Like, I look like an absolute zombie. Sorry, everyone. I don't think anyone's expectations are that. High for us, but, yeah, I. Yeah, I mean, sorry about my, like, general outlook on life this week. Like, I'm just sorry. I think people rely on Luke for the senseless optimism on this podcast. Not either one of us assholes. Yeah. If I move this camera here, just change. Change everybody's perspective on you. Well, I just am so that I'm not, like, looking down. Yeah. Anyway, so we. We tried to go down there. We tried to go to Alma Casino and failed. Well, no, no, we didn't fail. We went. And then, like, right as we arrived, so we realized that we could not park there as you did last year. And so we. We had to get out and walk a considerable distance. And it was like, as soon as we started walking, just downpour. I don't know. There was a lot of rain on Friday, and there was a lot of rain last night, I guess, and so, yeah, we got drenched, and then we ate dinner, and then when we were about to leave, it just started downpouring again. Like, I should have recorded it. It was. The streets were like a river. I've not seen anything like it for quite a while. And that was just the, like, amuse boosh for whatever happened last night. So we. We left the city to go to. God, my camera is driving me crazy today. We left the city to go to, um, DC to hang out with some of Shannon's friends last night or the DC area. The first mistake is having friends that live in DC. Yeah, um, true. And somehow we didn't even drive through whatever hit ham. This area. I don't. I don't know if it was as bad in Canton, but I was pretty bad. Yeah. Yeah, bad. Hamden is. Is a war zone. It is. There is debris everywhere. There are downed trees everywhere. I read somewhere that citywide, there are, like, 180 something road closures because of downed trees. But we weren't here. We drove from here to DC, did not drive through a storm. And then we just started getting all these alerts that power was out. My, like, you know, like, all my, like, smart devices at the house were, were failing. And we were like, well, they'll probably sort that out. And then, um, yeah, hopefully they'll sort that out before we get back. And then, you know, we got back here at, like, ten 3011 and still no power. And because we had left, like, my bold of our, um, thermostats, smart thermostats, they had long been off, like, before the power went out. Yeah. So, I mean, our homes were just furnaces. And so I slept like hell. I had, like, crazy dreams. I was up, like, every hour. I was basically, like, 1 hour sleep, 1 hour awake, just sweating and feeling awful. Then we woke up and it said that they, for some people, I don't know if this is still the case, but they were saying that. So

we're recording this on Sunday. It's 03:

00 p.m. on the east coast right now. They were saying that 80% of customers would get their power back by

11:

00 p.m. tonight, and the remaining would get it

by 11:

00 p.m. tomorrow. And there's a section of Hamden I was reading that utility workers came out and there was just downed livewire in the middle of the road, and they put, like, red tape around that and said it could be weeks before they can fix this. And then they left. They, like, said that to people that were standing around hoping that they would get power. And I think Levi is affected by that particular piece of the outage. So, anyway, I didn't get to see what happened here, but you could again, because we were, we were, like, outside of, we were in Tacoma park or whatever the hell it's called, but, yeah, seems bad. Seems, yeah, like Baltimore is in shambles. But, you know, if you believe in such, you know, magic as global warming, these types of storms are becoming more. I don't. So I don't believe in that. Compounded by the fact that if you also believe we've underinvested in infrastructure in this country, which is also, you know, hard. Yeah, hard to fathom, kind of compounds the issue. Yep. Yeah. Well, hopefully. I just, like, I can't help but feel that, that a storm like that wouldn't happen in Trump's America. So. I'm right. Yeah, project. Yeah, I'm sure that's in scope for project 2025. Yeah, project 2025. No storms. Yeah, no more storms. Yeah, I realized it kind of funny you bring up global warming. Last night I realized that. So it's one of Shannon's. We were hanging out with one of Shannon's friends from running and her husband, and they invited a bunch of people over that we didn't know, like, they're friends from. They do, like, rock climbing stuff. And so they had their rock climbing crew over. They were all pretty cool people. But Adam, her husband, Shannon's friend's husband, Adam collects oddities, which is. I mean, it is. He has, like, shrunken heads and human skulls. It's like a museum in their house. I wasn't sure if there's code for hoarding or there is an actual, but this sounds like. No, this is maybe worse than that. Worse in ways. So when they describe this to me, I imagine they're just being like, shit everywhere they have it. It's. That's all in class cases. Yeah. It's like, tastefully set up. It is really walking through my gallery of. Yeah. Of horrors. Yeah, it is. It was really bizarre. But he has this, like, woolly rhinoceros skull. And he said something like, this was the third time I have ever hung out with Adam. And he said something like, this used to be rare, but because of global warming and the. The, like, ice caps are melting, they're finding more and more of these. So this isn't even that special anymore. And I said, well, I don't believe in any of that. Typical deadpan. I don't think he got. He actually. I don't think, God, that I was joking. He didn't know that 95% of the things that come out of our mouths are just complete. Yeah, yeah. But, uh. And then somebody else was talking to me later, and he, I think, was commenting on the storms and said something about global warming, and I opted to not make the joke. And so I determined that my global warming. I don't believe in global warming jokes come out somewhere between zero times and three times having hung out with someone, you see what I'm saying? Like, so brand new to Ryan. I'm not coming in hot with the I don't believe in global warming, but three times I'll do it. Then I'm like, they don't know that you're completely full of shit yet, so it's not really the right cut off. Maybe after ten times, they know that you're. That you're embellishing a little bit. Yeah. You better be on the treadmill by interaction number three or not. Good. Like, we're just not going to get along. It is a steep curve. I can appreciate that. Yeah. Someone call it a cliff some. Yeah, I wasn't going to put it that way. There's a clip on the other side of it, too. Now I'm thinking about it. Yeah. So not a lot going on. I guess we could talk about the Olympics, where we are kind of, sort of like everyone in a holding pattern for real soccer to come back. We can talk about the Chelsea game. I. Yeah, I mean, I. We finally got power. I was way behind. I've not made a lot of notes for today, so we're gonna have to sort of wing it here. But, um. Yeah. What. What did you want to tackle first? I want to talk about cheating. No Luke today, by the way, I. Spoiler alert. In case you haven't picked up on it. Yeah, yeah, he's in the midwest again. Um, yeah, that's as much as we know. Not sure why we were given. Yeah. Uh, he spent seemingly the whole summer there. Vermont. But, yeah. Let's get into cheating. What did you want to talk about? Man city or. Well, you know, it's funny you mentioned man city, right? Um, that. Wasn't that what actually stoked my memory of this? But they're front and center, right? Um, I I don't know whether you need to mention them by name or nothing. I'll leave that up to you. But, you know, one of our friends, I think you've mentioned in this podcast, seems to root for every one of these cheating franchises, and it may be excluding Canada. Cause who gives a shit about Canada? But he, you know, in the news today was that Michigan football is being about to be sanctioned again. A different coach. You remember hall bar left to go to the Chargers, I guess because he knew that, like, basically, he was so guilty that everybody was gonna have to go down with him. So he left town to go make bank in the NFL after he did his damage. But, you know, whether it's the Patriots, man city, Michigan football. I've noticed a pattern here. Yeah. You know, granted, those are great, great teams and great, you know, in terms of storied, in terms of their accomplishments. But, man, a lot of. A lot of. Yeah, it's almost like there's this apathy around city as an example. Right? Like, I don't see, like, it. Maybe. Maybe the fans are behind this, that, like, they didn't cheat, they didn't do anything wrong. But I see the same thing I have, like, Michigan football. Like, they. They won a national championship, but in no way does it seem like anyone feels like it's tainted by the fact that they were cheating for, I don't know, numerous years before that. So, yeah, I don't know. Like, it seems like every day there's something new and, you know, it's. It's topical to our podcast. Given the reaction I saw from Canada, in particular, the players who, you know, I get the sentiment of feeling like this were. They weren't the ones making the decisions to cheat necessarily. But, yeah. What, by the way, they got. They got out. They. They advanced. Right. I predicted that they would. Us against the world mentality because, you know, despite the fact that it was their head coach that was fired, others and nobody. Nobody's really claiming that it didn't happen, just that it wasn't the players fault. Yeah. Just, I think it's an interesting perspective to try and sit there and act like, cry foul as if they're being persecuted when in fact, the team cheated. Simply put. Yeah. You know, it'd be like me saying Chelsea didn't deserve to have a transfer ban. Like they did. Like, they cheated. They were caught, and they were rightly punished. But maybe that's a holier than thou attitude because we weren't facing the types of sanctioned city is. But for all, we also didn't. We didn't. We didn't get to come to that party either. Like, we. The. Like Chelsea was punished for a specific crime. There have been other issues with how Chelsea has run their club and they have worked through, like, especially with the new ownership. We've talked about that, and they have worked with the leagues and the governing bodies to make amends. And, yeah, it is. It is different. It's different. One, because of the magnitude of the accusations and the number of the magnitude of the number of accusations and that, you know, preferably we just, like, these teams just. Just followed the rules and. But I know there's. There's always going to be a certain element of trying to get one up on everyone, and then that usually requires further litigation and additional rules added to the. The game, but, yeah, I mean, man, city couldn't look more guilty of something. I don't know what they're guilty of. I guess it's nuisance. Last week, right, that they. The, um, the federation announced penalties for two, what was it, $2 million in fines for coming out late for the beginning of games and for halftime. Yeah. Which I guess those ones were pretty easy to evidence. You just look at statistically how many times they came out late, and it was probably every game. So, yeah, there was, there's been a crackdown with that practice in general. I haven't put too much thought into what sort of advantage you get? I mean, I guess you get a couple more minutes to tweak things tactically in the locker room or. Yeah, but that happened in Copa America too, right? Like Chili's coach was banned and so was it for the same thing. It was kind of like, kind of interesting. Like both coaches in the same match were banned for the same thing. It was during the group stages, I don't know. Or had a one match ban anyway. Yeah. So like city has some other charges that they had to pay up for, some other rules violations. The like 160 or whatever, 55 charges, financial loopholes and shit that they're under investigation for. That's still TBD, right? But yeah. Yeah. What did you make of Tyler Adams? He was being interviewed and he said something like, he said, basically everybody does this. What do you make of that? What do you think? I mean, I have my own thoughts on this. I haven't read anything since one of the listeners asked our opinion in the discord. So I figured maybe we could flesh that out since she brought up. I just assumed that around the same time it kind of came out that it sounds like Jesse Marsh was aware that they were cheating, but like most of it predates him. I don't. Who knows if we'll really know the particulars of that. I'm sure that's the reason he's keeping his mouth shut. And so part of me wonders if like Tyler Adams is another Jesse Marsh apologist because he. He enjoyed that tire fire while he was there, which is hard to believe, but yeah. Or maybe wants him back. I don't know. But part of me also feels like. I don't know. Some of these. It's a young team and some of these guys, pulisic and Tyler Adams and stuff, they'll say, or McKinney for that matter, they'll say and do things that kind of raise eyebrows from time to time. I don't know if I believe that everybody is doing it. I think he was more so referencing the fact that, yeah, this happens a lot and nobody does anything about it. And certainly the u we talked about the us federation was aware. So like he has a point to an extent in that like, people were aware of this stuff going on and just brushed it under the rug to an extent. Yeah. Yep. Drones are like that. How many teams do you think are using drones to spy on the other two? Like, I can't even tell week to week whether teams are actually looking at like physio stats and like life vital signs from. From like data collection standpoint. So I don't even know if they're looking at drone stuff. I'm sure there's enough teams that have enough money to do it. Yeah. You know, especially at the level we're talking about, whether it's a Premier league or international. But I. It's just so. It's so much more flippant than having somebody, like, stroll into a stadium and look around that what's going on in a practice. So I don't know that usually where there's smoke, there's fire. I haven't seen anything else about, oh, like this. Many other teams were doing this internationally. I imagine most teams understood that, like, they would, you know, a. It was cheating, so they shouldn't be doing it and be like, if you're going to cheat, this is probably a pretty easy way to get caught because it's pretty hard to conceal a drone flying around if somebody spots it. But, yeah. Yeah. Pretty. Pretty odd. I don't know that we closed the circle on why we brought up Michigan football. So the same friend, who is a Man city fan and a Patriots fan, is also a Michigan football fan, right? Yeah. Three for three. Yeah. Yeah. He likes the Orioles. Is that his baseball team? Yeah. They haven't cheated yet, although that's probably just due to lack of resources. Yes. We've changed ownership, so we're on the right track now towards getting some unsavory acts. Hopefully here soon. Yeah. Anything else to say on cheating? Do you want to. Have you been watching the Olympics? I. Nothing will get me to watch the Olympics. I just don't care. Luckily, the men's shits show was 404. No loss, I think, to Morocco. Occurred early enough in the morning that I was actually working, so I didn't watch any of it, the whole u 23 thing. And then even beyond that, our player selection, to me, wasn't optimal either in terms of our senior exemptions or players. Just in the u 23 pool, there were some bright spots out of a few players and like, to get to the quarterfinals the first time in 24 years or whatever it was. Yeah, I think that is a positive accomplishment. Just. It's tough to put a whole lot of stock in the Olympic format and what it really means from a women's standpoint. Yeah, I guess I've been following that more closely because it's the full player pool. First real competitive tournament for Emma Hayes. I'd say they had a pretty mid game against Japan. Uh, first knockout round. Um, for. For the. I think it was the first time I really saw some some holes in Emma's tactics and kind of coaching and, um, especially in terms of substitution pattern. Uh, I think we used one substitution prior to. Actually, I might have been the first substitution was made after, um, 90 minutes. But anyways, we were. We were lagging way behind on use of substitutes. And whether it was night swallow or anyone else, granted, our top three forwards are probably untouchable, but they're just. It was clear that we were a little bit tired in spots, and she pulled the trigger late. But aside from that, I mean, it's still a team that could very well win the Olympics, so, I mean, that's interesting. Um, and, you know, sets us up for. For future success. Um, it's. Again, it's the best that teams looked for me in. In a long time. So that's been exciting to see and pretty. Pretty entertaining. Football in general, even, you know, this game aside. Yeah, yeah. Emma Hayes, her appointment is for sure exciting. Um, I'll have to try to catch some matches, especially with the. I mean, the team finally changing. The changing of the guard is finally, like, fully happened. So I should maybe invest some more time there. Yeah, I saw that. There's still. They're still in the tournament, right? Yeah. I forget one of the next game is the semifinal, but, yeah, I think it's a semifinal against Germany. Germany beat Canada and PK, so. Oh, I see that. Proper justice for the non cheaters. Speaking of proper justice, hold on. Let me make sure this is correct. We're all about accuracy on this podcast, so fact checking is important. Yeah, never mind, I'm incorrect. Wow. Hold on. Maybe I am. Yes. Okay, so, yeah, speaking of justice, France beat Argentina in the Olympics. Yeah. One. One nil. Oh, man. Yeah, that was caught. That. Yeah, yeah. And then, I don't know if you saw the discord, but apparently, like, the vice president of Argentina was, like, backing Enzo and was like, I don't see a problem with this. So I felt a little bit vindicated and call country and nothing burger of a country on the world stage if they think this is okay. But, yeah, I did see that they did not. Chelsea did not allow Enzo Fernandez to go to the Olympics, so he was. He's with the Chelsea first team now. So he wasn't there. It's like Julian Alvarez was there, though, at that game. Yeah, yeah. France. Mandy. What a parade of talent that comes. Comes out of France. It's. It's crazy. Like, yeah, yeah. Who's it? Costello. Lakiba. Eve perissette plays for. For Chelsea, but that. That team in general, was. Yeah. Again, a very talented national team. Yeah. Guillermo Restes is thought to be a very good keeper. And then Ryan Cherokee, he. Where does he play now? I think, Leon. You were talking about the men's Olympic team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm talking about the men's team. Yeah. I wasn't paying attention to what else was going on that bracket. Okay. Yeah. So, yeah, this is the French Mendez beat. Beat the Argentina men. That's why I was saying, like, Enzo Fernandez was not there to play. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, pretty cool to see that, I guess. I'm sure that felt good for the french players with the weird chance and stuff like that, but. Yeah. And then we've got. I mean, I guess we could talk about preseason Chelsea got. I mean, I could only see because I had no power, I could only see highlights or only managed to see highlights. It looked like Chelsea statistically and from what I watched it. I'm curious how you feel about this statement because it sounds like you watched the whole match. Maybe like half of it. I don't know. What kind of fan isn't streaming that off of a hotspot to their tablet? Yeah, the kind that doesn't want Shannon to kill him for. For not listening. Let's. Let's be clear. Engaged with her. Stop you right there. If you're not dead already, the likelihood of Shannon killing you is probably pretty close. That's. That's a fair. Well past that threshold, I would have thought. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. So it's statistically, like, if you look up who on. Well, where was I looking at? I think who scored from yesterday? Can I pull it up quickly? It did look like Chelsea. Like they had more. This is off the top of my head because I didn't pre pull this up and I don't see it. Yeah, I mean, the goals. A couple. A couple of the goals are just bad mistakes or individual errors. Yep. But the bigger problem is, like, in that, like, the defense still looks super shaky and like, this is the core pool of defenders and so, yeah, I. Forget where I pulled this up. So Chelsea dominated possession. More passes just off the top of my head. More chances created. More big chances created. But Holland just like, sank all three of his goals when he had the opportunity and, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, he had a big game. I would say overall, fairly disappointing performance from Chelsea. Maybe that goes that saying. But again, you're, you know, on one hand, you're missing some key players. On the other hand, like, these are highly compensated, like first team esque, if not direct backups playing. And so you expect more out of them. I thought that it was still kind of experimental, the way he lined up. I think he almost did that on purpose because don't we open, we open the league against City, right? Yes. And so I think maybe not playing. His first choice eleven had something to do with that to start the game. I think we definitely looked, we've looked better with Madwick and Sterling on the field. What half of that equation isn't surprising? Yeah, they played Mudrick on the right wing, which is. I thought that was interesting. So we have not seen him there yet. I. I think he played out there in some matches for Shaktar. Is that where he came from? Dynamo? Cigarette? I forget which team he came from. But anyway, he played on the right wing, which I think speaks to the system is nothing. It's, it's not built around inside forwards where you're, you're cutting in and trying to shoot with your off foot. So if you're not, like, if you listen to us for some reason and don't play soccer, like you can have, you have two kinds of wingers and there's wingers that add width and usually their strong foot will be to their outside. Um, so like I. If you're on the right wing, you would be right footed and then your, your goal is to drive the ball up the wing, add width at the wing and then provide passes into the box, you know, from your outside foot. If you are an inside forward, typically if you just think about your body mechanics, you would, you would then be left footed on the right wing. So opposite foot of the wing that you're on and then you would be cutting inside. And if you think about like positionally how that would work with your body, then, then you'd be able to drive the. Like, you'd be able to take a shot with your left foot. So that's, we saw inside forwards in Pochettino system and that's why a left footed right winger and Cole Palmer was so successful in Pacha system. They're talking about Palmer. We have not seen him in the preseason yet, but they're talking about him being centrally in the, in the role that in Cuckoo and Carney Chukwamaka have been playing as the, the furthest forward of the midfielders. They're talking about moving Palmer there, but so moving Mudrick to the other side, to the right wing, which he's, he's. We had not yet seen him in that position. That is an indication that we're looking to get width from our wingers and they're not. I would assess based on that that they're not viewed as a. And we kind of talked about this last week how I said that last season we would have seen Noni take some of these shots and instead he seems to be looking to make a pass. I don't think that they view Maresca views wingers is like goal threats. He wants them working the ball into the box and playing a pass into the middle. I don't know. Yeah, I think that plays into the possession based formatties. Looking to have her in terms of more possession being emphasized. I would say you did see, you do see some of those things. Mad wake for sure, though, he did have a great finish yesterday on a breakaway where he honestly could have passed that ball. But that was a great finish. Yeah. So it was there and took it because of his excellent control in the ball. He. So he looks like he's fitting into that role well. Sterling looks like he's fitting into that role well. Mudrick doesn't look like he's there to me. Yeah, it's tough to find any, any positives, to be honest, that go along with the $70 million price. Yeah, that might be a $70 million mistake at this point. Yeah. I think he in particular just doesn't fit this system. So we bought him as this raw talent to be developed and then we've put him through this is like his fourth or fifth coach. So like Potter, Frank Lampard, Potch and now Mareska. So he's on his fourth coach in like two seasons. Fourth manager, whatever. I think they call them head coaches at Chelsea deliberately because they, that's all they do. Like they're, they're seen as distinct from the rest of the machine and, yeah, I mean, he's, he's. And we've talked about this. Like Lampard apparently took a look at Mudrick and was like, this guy's a physical beast, but he just doesn't have a great footballing mind. And, uh, if you, you know, you have, you have a player like that who is physically talented, physically gifted will put in the work. I think the only way you can make up for the lack of natural tactical, uh, like being able to process deep tactics is stability in the tactics, which he's not had. So. So, yeah, I don't know. I'm worried. I think we're probably looking at alone and maybe bringing in another winger, but I don't know who we, who's available. We're not going in for Nico Williams. I suspect that this is partially why Chelsea were, by their own description, obsessed with Elise. Yeah, but. Yeah, I don't. It's hard to imagine why you would be obsessed with Elise and it being target number one, it's hard to imagine that you would then just not pick up another winger like you. There's something about your current complement of players that you don't like. Yeah, well, it's. It's tough because you don't know. It comes back to the same thing I've been talking about for months. I don't. I just don't know how the pieces fit. We won't know until we get there, like whether you can play Jackson and Koku Palmer mad wake together up top or if that's even what he wants to play with. And Cuckoo looked. He didn't look like the right fit to be the lone striker yesterday. Yeah. Nor is that probably his best fit at. He was very successful and France playing as the second striker and so, you know, maybe Jackson moves back up top and Cuckoo goes to the left. I don't know. Or vice versa. They can switch. It just doesn't seem like we've gotten a good look at anything in preseason because of the people that are missing. Yeah. So I think you'll see. I don't know, there's. I saw something crazy like, Chelsea currently has 41 1st team players and the next closest is something like 30 from. People are wondering why we're forcing people out of the team. Yeah. Yeah, it's. It's silly the position that Chelsea are in. So, yeah, if. I mean, if I think too hard about who could fit in where, I'll get a fucking nosebleed on stream. But like, right now it looks like for, at least for preseason they're demoing Chuquamaka and Cuckoo as potential attacking mids. But then in this match they tried in Cuckoo as the. The lone striker, Mark Gui or you. I don't know how you say his last name. I should figure that out before the next episode. He looks great. Uh, he looks very, very good. We'll eventually get Jackson back who I think is with the team, but injured. Um, we are. I would say it's. It seems fairly likely at this point that Chelsea will land. Awesome. And I don't know how I feel about that. Maybe I'm reading the tea leaves wrong there, but evidently Conte is obsessed with bringing Lukaku in and Asimin is obsessed with leaving Napoli. And it just seems like there's gonna. To me logically, something will get worked out there. Obviously, Osimun has higher value currently due to his age than Lukaku, but yeah. So then you add him to the mix and. And, yeah, you could play in Cuckoo on the left, but Sterling seems to be fairly nailed on there. I mean, he'll need a break here and there. We know Jackson can play out there. I don't know who deputizes Madweke. I think I called that out as a concern last week. He seems to be the only option on the right flank. Well, that's the whole thing though, right? Like, who knows if this is just posturing them, Palmer comes back out and plays on the right. Maybe. Yeah, that could be, but Palmer doesn't. You know, if we go back to what I said earlier, Palmer is not a like. Yeah. Blazing down the wing, adding a lot of width. Like he likes to float into the middle and. And cut in and have a go on his left foot. So I don't know that he's. That's the role for him and in Mareska's system anyway. Yeah. Yeah. And then the defense. I don't know. I can't tell if this is a systemic issue. I. My only hope is that they're as leaky as Chelsea have been and the individual heirs. That, that's just like teething issues with the. The new system. But it's. It's hard to say. It's. It's. It doesn't look good. It looks like. I mean, Chelsea's hitting the possession. Statistics are going to be a big talking point. They are pressing hard. Yeah. You know, out of possession, but that is. They don't know what to do yet, to not leave themselves completely exposed when with, with those two, like the combination of tactics being employed, it's a very high line getting everyone involved in. On the attack, basically banking on the fact that you'll. You'll be able to recover the ball before being countered and it looks very susceptible and. Yeah, I don't know. We'll see. Yeah, I think I saw. It's interesting you mentioned that one of the themes was in. I'd say in. I don't know if it's Emma Hayes system as much as. Just the way the us team sets up is Japan was sitting in a low block the whole game. And so you saw the US struggle in counter attacking situations, in particular against Japan. Um, it's. But. But to your point, right. Like, if you're going to play that way and leave yourself susceptible, like there's. There's teams that can take advantage of that you've got to be in those moments. You've got to find a way to recover and lock them down. Chelsea hasn't been able to do that. Yeah. Yeah. It does not inspire confidence heading into the season, but we'll see. I mean, it is just preseason and. But you'd hope to see more in a preseason where you're working on a new system with a new coach, with, you know, you got a lot of first teamers out there. You would hope to see more of the ideas solidifying. It feels like a more important than average preseason, I guess. Yeah. So, yeah, we'll see. We'll see what happens. Don't even know, like, what the team will look like, but. And maybe part of the strategy with. With right wing is like, I don't know, we've got Estevao, we've got Kendry Paez, who I think he likes to play, at least for Ecuador. He's been more centrally when I've played more in a central role when I've watched him, so. But I think he could also play out right and out left. So you've got those two coming in and then you still have Angelo Gabriel, who I think just went back or maybe it was Andrey Santos just went back out on another attacking midfielder in Santos. I think he's an attacking mid or. Yeah, I shouldn't even say that. I don't know exactly what his best position is, but, yeah, he went to Straussberg. So, like, the sister club for Chelsea, also owned by Bluco, I think both of them are heading back out on loan there. So, I mean, yeah, there's. There's depth. There's, like, promising talent in the pipeline for Chelsea, but I don't know what happens this season out on the right other than Madweke and then. Yeah, I mean, last week I read that they were linked, that Madwecky had agreed to personal terms with Newcastle, and I'm sure the club isn't interested in that, but, yeah. And then there's the Gallagher mess. We could talk about that a little bit. So it's almost like we paid a bunch of money to bring in Drewsbury hall because we know he'll be okay just being a substitute, from what I can tell. With the understanding that we could change Gallagher out for probably for a little bit of profit, but that hasn't really come to fruition. Yeah. Also, like, I don't know if you get the same sense, but I don't know if it's like the profile pics I see from the media or what, but Drew's bay hall constantly looks like he's auditioning for a Clint Eastwood movie for some reason. No, he doesn't have. I don't want to say he looks odd, but, yeah, he doesn't look like an EPL player. I know what you're saying. Hats on him and give him like, a couple pistols. I don't know. So I've only, I only saw him against Club America, which, you know, that team is way below Chelsea. So it was hard to get a sense of anything from that game. We weren't playing well at time. I mean, we won three nothing. Right. Against Club America. Yeah, but like, yeah, there were times that we didn't look. There were also times where I was like, oh, that's what Mareska ball is where we, we really played out of the back. Yeah. Maybe like next week we can. We should go through the whole, the whole Chelsea squad, like, make predictions for what we think happens to them. Two and a half hours free. Whether they get, they get shipped out or if their stock goes up or down this season or something. We can come up with a format there. But I can't even keep track of all of it in my head. Like, the number of fucking players on this team. It's crazy. But, yeah, Drewsbury Hall, I think that the strategy there was, the thought was, I don't know, maybe I'm assigning more charity, I'm being more charitable to the staff and the ownership at Chelsea than I should be. But to me, if I'm trying to think about it logically, it's like we, Chelsea fell like they got hired a new coach and early season, it wasn't working because the team wasn't well drilled yet in that system and they fell behind and never dug themselves out of that hole and. But, like, you could see it all coming together at the end of the season. Yeah. And our ownership and head of football or whatever, directors of football, they were like, well, that started to look real good there at the end, but we're going to, we're going to start from square one all over again. And so, like, jusbury hall, he adds, like, he raises the floor maybe for what, what's possible for Chelsea this season. He has a lot of history with Maresca. He knows the system. He had played in the PL for a very bad Lester team, but he had played in the PL just two seasons ago. They won in the championship last season. So, uh, that was probably the thought is, like, we'll try to not fall so far behind early season, even though we don't think this guy is like a nailed on starter. And then you've got Gallagher. Yeah. Who he is just getting flogged by, by Chelsea at this point. And I don't even know, I don't know that I blame Chelsea. It's tough to watch happen because I love Conor Gallagher. There is no, like, nobody bleeds blue on this team like Gallagher. Maybe Reese James, but we never get to see him between red cards and injuries. So, yeah, I mean, Gallagher was born a blue. That's what the tfue says. And his family are Chelsea fans. And he has been with the Chelsea academy since he was seven. I think six or seven. He, I was thinking, I was thinking about this on like a walk this week. Like, has Connor Gallagher ever played a match against Chelsea in his life? Probably not. Like, when he was on loan at palace, he wouldn't have been eligible against Chelsea. So it's a guy who's like basically in an abusive relationship with, with this club where he loves it so much, but he did. And he's just like, letting all this bad shit happen to him and, yeah, I, for a while I thought he, like, didn't want to sign one of these long term deals and maybe that was the issue because it would have taken him into his thirties. But the rumor is that he rejected a three year contract. Yeah, it was a two plus one, right? Yeah. Where the club had the option to extend by a year and. Yeah. So two plus one. And it would have put him, it would have matched the wages that Enzo and Quesado are on. So for a midfielder, he would have been paid, you know, fairly for the team structure. He rejected that. I don't know why. Like, I couldn't find any. There are no leaks as to why he, he didn't like that set up there. Now the thought is that he wants to be, you know, locked up long term with, with the club that he loves, Chelsea have accepted an offer from Atletico Madrid. I think Gallagher would fucking cook under Simeone. He would, he would. Simeone would have him running all over the fucking place. It'd be a match made in heaven, that, that setup. Um, but Connor doesn't want that. And he's got a year, it seems. Um, he's got a year left on his deal. And the club has said that, like, you either accept this or accept the offer we've tabled for you or you're going to be banned from the first team facilities. And that's rough. That's, that's rough. It's also business and I get it. Like, the first thing that happened to these owners when they bought this club is Rudiger and Christensen went on a free and to two of the best clubs in the world. And Rudiger has gone on and won like three champions leagues. Like, the club got nothing for those assets and they had vowed to not let that happen again. And that's what you're seeing here. Well, on the other hand. Right, like, Gallagher could have just signed the contract. Right, and said, I'm going to play through this and earn my spot amongst midfield. But I imagine to your. To your point, part of it was an apprehension about the long term and securing, like, that playing time under Chelsea. But I. Yeah, I can't. You can't just become a united where you can't move on from any of your players. Yeah. And it's not like city doesn't let players leave either. So, I mean, it's not like this is completely unfounded, but, yeah, it is tough, given what he put on the line for Chelsea last season. Yeah. Especially for fans. Yeah. The rumors are that, that's part of why. So, I mean, we sort of forget in the way that we talk about Pochettino leaving the we. And this is me and probably others, I think, but that was a mutual termination. Pochettino was not fired. They had a handful of meetings at the end of the season and determined that everybody got along. Everyone felt good about how they, like, what they had achieved and they were just going to go separate ways. And the rumors from those exchanges are, were that, like, one of Pacha's stipulations was that Gallagher could not be sold and the director of football, that there's like a co director of football set up at Chelsea, Winston Stanley and Lawrence Stewart, they do not think, like, they're, they're very data driven and they do not think that Connor is what they want based on. Based on the profile of player that they've gathered statistics on. So, yeah, that. I mean, that was apparently a big part. There were like a couple players that, that pach was like, I rely on these guys. Yeah. And, you know, Chaliba, they've, they've, they are flogging him too. And I don't think we lost a game last season that he played in. It was something like once he came back into the team, we won eight and drew two or something. Look at the shit show that's ensued in his absence. Yeah. So. Yep. And then there's like, the message that all of that sends to players who might sign for the Chelsea academy, you know, true. Yeah. So it's a very, very complicated thing. A lot of drama. I don't know. I get it. I get it on both sides. I think Connor's earned the right to do whatever he wants, and he should. It's a business decision on his end as much as it is on the owners. And so I'm interested in how it resolves. I don't know. Yep. Trying to think of what else we, we had that we could cover this. So I did want to give a shout out to. It's McKenna Whitman became the youngest american soccer player to make their first top division debut in the NWSL last week, eclipsing Kavan Sullivan's mark from the week before. So she was 14 years in one day, which is crazy. A couple days north of 13. But, yeah, I think it's another props to her. I think it's a great thing for talent recognition in our youth system, especially given that I think we are slow to react to the changing of the guard in the women's senior team. And so hopefully pulling up talent at a younger age leads to continued success there. And I think, I imagine, given how fucked up men's youth system is, that the entire youth system is pretty jacked up. And so maybe this is another step in the right direction if nothing else. Okay, that's Derek answering the question. If a tree falls on the NWSL, does anyone hear it? Ryan's in a spicy view because he hasn't had power all weekend. So we're just gonna go to his list of topics. Hopefully he gets himself some food and water. Yeah. All right. Um. I don't know. I don't know that I have many topics. I did just see that Nico Williams has decided to stay at let it go Bilbao. So that, I mean, that's interesting because, like, Barcelona were trying to, for some reason, pull him in. Well, it's weird because, like, the, the, where he was linked, like, not, I don't know, like, it wouldn't have been a great, like, Barcelona is a terrible fit. Maybe that's where he really wants to go, but they can't, they can't make moves. Yep. Gladly swap sterling. But, you know, I don't think that was gonna come to fruition either. So. Yeah, Arsenal was also loosely linked with him as like, trossard is getting up there in age. Martinelli needs someone to push him. So I could see it. There's a path there for a talented left sided winger. So she sends. Sock is now a right fullback. Yes. Yeah. Throw another inverted winger on the other right. Side. Yeah, that was left sided. Was. No, he was playing on the right. What? Sokka was. Sorry. Yeah, Sokka was playing on the right. I thought they pulled him back to the left because they didn't have left wing backs. Oh, maybe he was playing there. It's. Oh, you're right. There was at least a game where he played there. I guess I'm thinking of one where there is three, four, five or something. Yeah, yeah, you're right. They played him all over the place because he's a left footed right winger, right? I think he is. It sounds right. Kaya saka, I think he scored that. That goal from right, but he's playing right fullback, though, in the game that he scored that game. Winner late. Yeah, I can't find. Yes, he's left footed. Okay. Yeah, so they. Yeah, that was because Southgate didn't bring any alternate alternative. Shaw. I don't think that's gonna have any foothold in the Arsenal tactics. This. You don't see him at left wing back. Weird. All right, well, I just don't think you're a creative enough thinker. That's. Yeah, you're clearly not on Southgate's level. The only other thing that I found pretty interesting, and then I guess we can. We can call it a podcast, is, was it Bordeaux. The club or the wine club? Okay. I'm considerably less interested in the club. Yes, it was Bordeaux. Yeah. Bordeaux were relegated to the fourth tier of french football after declaring bankruptcy. So this club, the french league, we haven't talked about this much. We. I alluded to it when we were talking about. I think Marseilles has been like, loading up on players somehow. The french league in general is. Is like careening toward financial insolvency across the board. I don't know. Have they. I'm looking this up. They had at least as of. Did they ever get a tv deal? Yeah. So that's what I'm looking at. I don't know. So as of July 11, the quote is, we must hope for a miracle from one of the. So it says that there's an 11th hour deal worth 540 million. Oh, okay. Being in a partner, I don't know who Dazzin is, but I recognize BN. Yeah. B. Oh. So being dazzling. Yeah. I mean, that's still not a great deal. That's. That's not like ESPN, you know, or NBC, you know, they were looking for the type of deal that the Laliger Pl and the Bundesliga have. Have been able to strike, and they did not get that. Well, if they keep bringing in brand ambassadors like Mason Greenwood. I'm sure they'll be fine in the long term. Yeah. Yeah. So we're kind of dancing around the issue. The french league, their tv deal expired this year which is significant because it's also the season that Killian Mbappe has announced he's leaving. So like bye far the biggest draw in the french league has left and they don't have a tent pole club really anymore in PSG drawing a lot of eyeballs. Like they don't. You know, if you think about a couple years ago PSG were a huge draw. They had Mbappe, they had Messi, they had Neymar. Who else they had. I mean they were just stacked with, oh, for a while they had what's his name, the defender from Real Madrid. Oh, it's, I can't believe I. Ramos. Ramos, yeah, he was there. So they, they were this Galactico team that drew a lot of attention to that league. And PSG is still change their strategy, I would say for the better, for the long term health of the club. They're building around some of their youth. They're being a little more strategic about who they acquire although they, they have had some misses. What's his name? The Uruguayan. I'm brain dead today because I didn't sleep last night. Goddesse they paid out the nose for. And I, and we know that you and I, or at least me because I, I'm the rumor, transfer rumor guy. But Chelsea were about, they were about to, they were minutes away from signing Agarte and PSG came in and like back the brinks truck up to his house so they're trying to dump him over to Man United. But anyway they're, they like Zaire, Emery. They've got a very good academy that they're in and they're building around their players and setting the club up to be, have better longevity. But at the same time that has sort of cratered the global perception of this league which is, has not been very competitive either when put into like european compete. So yeah, as a result of that, despite the fact that France is a hotbed of talent like we were just talking about with their men's team in the Olympics, how talented that young team is. Despite that they just don't have a league that is, that is at the level of prestige as some of these other ones. So they export a lot. Yeah, they're on the rise for a while there too. And so some of it comes to like, again like who specific, very specific discrete decisions. One of them being Mbappe right. So many chips were in Mbappe. Now he's gone. Right. Yeah. It's interesting because it's looking at that first team, it's still a very good PSG team. Like, yep. Every position has top, top tier starters and depth and they have a great. Coach and Luis Enrique. True, like, a great coach. And so much of it just comes back to the commercial aspect of the game, which we obviously talk about a lot. But, yeah, you know, went from having the best player in the world to not. And it's not even close between, you know, the gap to who's them behind them, but, yeah. And that's, you know, that I'm sure they'll do fine from a. From a french revenue standpoint, but internationally, that's. That's what drives the game a lot. Like the. The investment in the Premier League is because of international investment. We talk about that all the time. And so France is way behind the ball on that at the moment. Yeah. And so, like, Chelsea bought Strasbourg, I think, maybe a year and a half ago, and their fans were furious about that, but they are. They're good financially. There's great investment happening in that club and they performed, I would say, a lot better last season than they would have without Chelsea. Like loanese from Chelsea and investment from Bluco Bordeaux. They might. They might take a look at what's going on at Bordeaux if they're unhappy with the ownership of their club, I'm talking to Strasbourg here. But Bordell was. They were thought to be on the verge of being acquired by. I forget the name of the company, but the conglomerate that owns Liverpool, we're looking at buying Bordeaux. They backed out of that deal. Bordeaux files for bankruptcy and as a result of their financial status, they're now relegated to the fourth tier of french football. So call soccer. Go USA. So, yeah, pretty big. Pretty big news there, I think. But beyond that, I don't know. Was there any other topics you wanted to cover? I think we did a good job filling out an hour here somehow. Yeah, yeah, just a lot time. The topics that. That I want to talk about that Ryan would rather I not bring up and we say bye bye. Us plays Germany at noon eastern time. Okay. So I'll probably watch that recording at some point on Tuesday, but now I think that's about it. The call out and then we've still got, uh. I don't know, how many weeks do we have until the start of. Of the. The Premier League season? I think it's soon. Chelsea plays Real Madrid. They're gonna get. They're gonna get worked. I think that's in LA. In a friendly. Yeah. They're. They're final friendly of the us tour, I think is against Real Madrid. Or maybe they have one more after seven. Oh, I guess I'm contractually obligated to watch that slaughter. I can. I can watch that. You watch the. That's bad. I agree. Yeah. Oh, it looks like they play inter. So they have two more preseason friendlies, and then their first match is against Man City on August 18. So that's. That's the weekend the PL kicks off. There will be like the Community shield, I guess, before that. Yeah. At some point that would be city that plays in that. Right? So we could see City will play United City. Yeah. I think we know the result of that one. We think we know, like, United beat them in the FA cup final. That's this coming. Okay, so that's this coming Saturday. Yeah. So we'll have that to talk about. Yeah. Man United and they're still running on fumes. It's like the moves they make then get injured. Yeah. Lenny Yore. Oh, so, yeah, they confirmed injury for Lenny Yoro. He's going to be out three months with a foot injury, and Hoyland is out for like a month and a half with a hamstring injury. So they're. They're in bad shape. On top of that, they've been unable to seemingly move on from players that absolutely needed to, or should, at least, namely Anthony Maguire, some others. But they'd love to move Casimiro on. True. Yeah. And the one, you know, the one youtuber was complaining about the wages that they're on makes them all unmovable. Yeah. Interesting. Goldberg probably, yeah. Was blaming the Glazers for that, but yeah. Yeah, I get stomped out by city, so we'll get to watch that. Did you see? So I thought Calvin Phillips was transferred to West Ham last season. He was loaned by City and he was playing for city yesterday as a center back. I incorrectly reported as part of the Derek Ruber mill that he was going to get transferred. Then he was like, no, I'm not going. And now he gets to start as the center back in the preseason tour and then ride the bench the entire season. So we'll see how that worked out for him. Garrett Southgate. Garrett Southgate's just looking perplexed at the tv, wondering how. What they've done to his boy. Yeah. Yeah. This. Yeah. Pep just. Just cratering England's chances. All right, well, that's probably a pod. I'm Ryan, that's Derek. This is the football yanks. Thanks for tuning in. We would love it if you would like and subscribe and leave a review. All that stuff helps a lot. This is still a, you know, a podcast we'd like to grow. There's been more movement on the discord. Uh, views are ticking back up, so we really appreciate it. Hope you guys are liking the content we're putting out there. And, yeah, we'll catch you next week. Got anything else, Derek? Nope. 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. It.