Join us on a thrilling ride as we, your host Laurent Courtines and guest Christopher Rodriquez, dissect the latest football transfer news. As an Arsenal aficionado, Christopher adds a unique twist to the discussion. We delve into the emotional departure of Ilkay Gundogan from Manchester City and speculate on the possible transfer of Declan Rice to the same team. We also ponder over Arsenal's potential addition of Declan Rice and potential departure of Partey. Our debate takes a keen look into Arsenal’s trials and tribulations of the last season, while also speculating Rice’s possible move to Arsenal.

We then shift gears to question Chelsea's decision to potentially let go of Mason Mount, a player who has consistently performed well over the past seasons. We also cast an analytical eye on Manchester United’s unsuccessful attempts at transferring players. The conversation takes an interesting turn as we discuss the possibility of the team releasing up to 13 players. Additionally, our discussion encompasses the potential signing of Caicedo from Ecuador and Anthony at Manchester United, and the possible addition of Ari DeVisi to Arsenal.

As we wrap up our lively discussion, we delve into the controversial topic of money in European football. We examine the implications of Arab money entering the European football leagues. Our conversation further extends to the Newcastle takeover and the potential implications it could have on the sport. We finally round off our discussion by discussing the ongoing transfer talks surrounding Kylian Mbappe, and his potential move to Real Madrid. Join us as we navigate the thrilling world of football transfers, offering in-depth analysis and diverse perspectives on these pressing matters.

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(0:00:01) - Transfer Talks and Player Departures

(0:11:46) - Arsenal's Need for Player Additions

(0:16:55) - The Mason Mount Transfer Saga

(0:30:17) - Transfer Speculation

(0:42:39) - Money's Impact on European Football

(0:55:44) - Ownership and Transfer Speculation

(1:03:40) - Kylian Mbappe's Future at Real Madrid

(1:15:24) - Wrap up

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Hello and welcome to the Squeaky Bum Time Podcast, presented exclusively on the Chop Sports channel of the Premier Streaming Network. We are recording this on Wednesday, june 28th. I am your host, laurent Cortines. In this episode we try something new. I have a new friend, christopher Rodriguez, who helped, who reached out to me to be on his show, and I'm just putting this intro in for us.

We recorded this show on Monday. It's a round transfer, so it's just before the rice transfer news went through, but we did talk about Havertz and we just talked about everything. Chris is a great guy. He's coming to us as a Arsenal fan who is big on Real Madrid and has done a lot of work on lots of YouTube channels, and I'm looking forward to our collaboration for most of the season. So before we get to the show, please like, share and subscribe. Like, share and subscribe. It means everything. I don't know how regular I'm going to be during the summer, but as the episodes come out, we'll figure out new ways to get this part of the show and get all this part of the thing together. But up next, christopher and Laurent Talk transfers.

Not a whole lot going on over here, definitely, but I'm still coming down from my treble buzz.

Everybody knows I'm a city fan. That's main road behind me. Cities, former home and after winning the treble it took so much emotion to add to me I had to take it easy and go away from football. but I'm back already. It just took a two week break. You only get two weeks.

For what we had. We had to watch the Premier League. You definitely need a break, man. It was just well for me. You know, arsenal fan I'm definitely. If you're exhausted, i went into a full depression, i know, but we're going to get it this time, man. And we got the headlines right there, which is not good because right now, me and you are about to go at it because Manchester City had to put their nose in Arsenal's business.

Right now, They had to send us a hundred million pounds, man.

What's up with that?

So I mean I think it's interesting. I mean today I had an emotional moment Ilgay Gundogan, captain of City, the first signing pet mate. He missed his first season after blowing out his ACL, but he left the club. Today They did the announcement for Barcelona on a free And I thought the way City has handled things this is one of these things people don't know about. City is just we're so good about dealing with former players. Everyone is welcome, He goes, we give him a clap, We give him a cheer. So he's an emotional day. Gundogan's leaving, but they have to replace him. And I think, if there are players in the mold of Ilgay Gundogan although I mean Declan Rice is good, He's no Ilgay, He's good And I think Pep can get him there They need to be midfield replacements. And so Rice is that high quality player that Pep probably sees as hate. We can make this guy better.

Now, don't you think that Declan Rice is more a rotary type than then? Fair fair.

But he's not taking Rodri's job, because Rodri's job is a job that even he took 18 months to get good at. If anyone remembers from City, he used to turn like a battleship. He'd take three touches to spin around And it took time for him to learn to do that. Inside step touch, turn and pass out to the wings. Inside step spin out of trouble. Rice is going to have to learn all of that.

So there's no way he takes Rodri's job.

He can take a job that is less risk, which I think is that next step forward from that center. who gets the ball from the defenders? He can turn and run. He's got that in his locker.

Now before I have with Rice.

Oh, go ahead.

No, before we get into Declan Rice in depth, i'm wondering and you as a Manchester City fan why. I mean Manchester City just won the treble. They have all the money in the world. I mean technically seriously. So why is Il Kai Gundon want to leave?

So I think, yeah, yeah, I mean, that's a question that's going on. You can see it with a lot of the TikTok and football, TikTok, City, TikTok is that question. Why are players leaving City? There's a couple of reasons for it And I think that they are reasonable and difficult. One it's hard to be a city player. Pep is demanding, It's nonstop, It's relentless, And if you know how it is at City player can be informed in favor. Not last year, but the year before Cancelo played. Nearly every game was an undropable. A season later he's not in the side, He loses his rag and he's off the team just because he complained. So one it's difficult to be a Pep player. He's demanding, the levels are really high And you, we City fans, joke Pep Roulette. Who's playing? I don't know, You might not play. So, whereas whereas at some teams at that level like we will probably talk about Modric in a minute Modric knows, especially up until recently, if there's a game, he's playing. If there's a big game, he's playing. If it's the second leg, he's playing, he's playing, he's playing. All those players play at City.

That is not always a foregone conclusion. Only this season did it feel that way, But normally things get chopped and changed. You don't know if you're going to play, and that's part of the edge, right? That's part of why you want to leave. You're like I want to play, I want to know I'm going to play And I think over time, someone like Gunnagun's, probably like you know what. Let me just go to Barca. I know I'm going to play because that team has seven, literally 18 year olds in the midfield. I'll sit next to you, I'll sit next to Dijon and we'll just boss this thing, and Gavi and those guys can figure out what they're up to. I know I'm going to play is going to be relatively easy in terms of my on the field when I'm going to play stuff.

Oh, by the way, this guy, the Barcelona player you just meant Frank de Jong He might be master. United might be interested in him. He might find his way out of Barcelona, which is crazy, i mean, you know, but definitely it would be a team to watch for the Champions League this coming up season. I think it's a pretty good sign and you know they're going to unsign in by Barcelona.

However, a big hole. it's a free. Yeah, Yeah.

And a big but a big hole for Manchester City to fail. Now they decide to go a hundred million pounds. I still can't believe the amount of money that that people are paying for these players.

But well, I mean, let's think of, let's think, let's take a step back though. Let's really break it down though, because I think it's unfair to sort of blast city in this case. No, I mean I mean everybody.

The Premier League literally has more money than all the leagues combined. Right, Just like the. You know, Bournemouth just bought Cliver from the Villarreal, who is considered a top 10 striker in La Liga. That's Bournemouth. They're the last. They barely survived relegation. So it's this bottom of the table like guys, and even that lower level. So within the Premier League, plus the Premier Mamm, English players, plus Rice, is still only 22, plus he's in the English national team, That's 30 million right off the bat. So let's say he's a $70 million player. Then you have the competition from Arsenal. So that's another sort of push. Hundred million doesn't sound that unreasonable Once you start sort of putting in all the factors that he is a very good player. He is a captain of a team that I know we're going to laugh. He lifted a trophy in Europe for West Ham for the first time in 50 years. Yes, it's the conference league, But if Jose Mourinho can get a tattoo of that thing, then Declan Rice can be proud to win.

That's true, that's true. The trophy. I will say this because this is kind of it's interesting how this is playing out, because Declan Rice has made it clear to his environment that he would rather stay in London and go to Arsenal Absolutely, absolutely. But you know, i posted on TikTok and people were like well, he prefers to stay in a football club, a traditional football club, instead of choosing plastic in dollars or euros. But, which I don't think is a fair assessment, because if you Made up by the news, they don't give a shit about that.

If you ask the regular guy, me and you would jump in a heartbeat to go fill up water bottles for the team for that kind of money. So I don't necessarily.

The other thing is he's 22 years old. This concept of plastic club comes from when, 2010, when he was 12 years old like it gets perpetrated, but I don't think players think that way at all. I think they think that's Pep Guardiola, they just won the treble. They don't. They're not fans. Remember, players just think completely differently. It's very rare that they stand fandom because they've been in it for so long. He's probably like what are people talking about? You know what I mean? Like he's probably thinking you know Arsenal are in London. I can stay home and still go home to my mother on Sunday dinner, right, i mean ideally, i'm sure, ideally he'd love to go to Chelsea, but I think Is he a Chelsea?

fan. Is he a Chelsea fan? He came up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He and Matt where he's going to be and he's going to play for Arsenal. I don't want him.

I mean you know they're professional.

No, i get that. I get that. Yeah, they're professional.

Exactly Right. Well, Jamie Carragher was an Evertonian. He ended up playing for Liverpool.

And the clear is that he's going to leave Westham United. I mean, there's no question, you know. The question here is well, manchester City was playing sideline for a while watching this whole thing. You know play, but you don't think so.

I've seen these things so many times. I think it's all freaking crap, honestly. Like I just remember the Cristiano thing, where all of a sudden city are going to sign Cristiano. I'm like no, we're not. There's no way. When the bid comes in from United, you know Ferguson's calling up saying oh, he can't go, ever go to sit.

He was never going to city. So I think that this news conveniently comes in. When Arsenal says, oh, we can't go another $10 million, and all of a sudden city comes up and says we're signing Decker and Rice, i find that to be a move to get the $100 million from Arsenal. Well, it's all.

I mean Arsenal need him more than Manchester City does. I know that's a fact. City doesn't need him. I mean it would be nice to get somebody to kind of fill the hole of Gundo and leave him, but I don't think that city really is. We have him. It's called.

Phil Foden. Phil Foden will drop into the middle, it'll be no problem.

And so I mean Arsenal is there. I mean you know they're preparing to throw a third bid for Decklin Rice in the next few hours, probably tomorrow at the latest, but you know. I have a question for you though.

How much? when you watch Rice. how does he fit into how Arsenal plays Right? Because he's a ball carrier. He's not a line breaking passer. He's much more of a defensive player. on offense. He yeah, that's one of his three goals that we're seeing on the screen But like he's much more of a carrier, he doesn't pass Right. Here he goes.

Well, yeah Well, he passed it right there. But I mean, listen, i feel like this could be a nice addition for Arsenal, because I mean we kind of need those players, i mean somebody that can grab the ball and it's not scared. It increases the quality, right Yeah somebody that's not scared is going to get the ball. Yeah, give me the ball, i'm going to take it. I'm going to have the audacity to actually do stuff with it. I hate stagnant football. Just players do everything one-on-one.

And sometimes you can't have that.

You see a lot of that in European players, south American players from this area. They tend to grab the ball and play like they do in the neighborhood, and European players are more especially German players. They're more by the rule and everything will work this way, and I think Declan Reyes has a little bit of a rebel that Arsenal need, and our Teta knows that. He knows that, He knows that.

But isn't he really just a replacement for Parti who through until the city game was fantastic And then the city game he basically died after that. He got so exposed. whatever the plan was, he was awful in that game because he had to cover two guys And then after that he was cooked. He couldn't defend, he couldn't do enough to stop. the saliva thing Is in Parti going to leave or whatever.

Right now there's no information on that. I don't even see, i don't even have to find out anything about him in particular. Now, if they're trying to fight for Declan Reyes so hard, it's because obviously our Teta hasn't seen, listened, the way Arsenal lost last season. It's something that needs to be. I just it, yeah, fixed. Yeah, because I mean things can happen in football. But let's be clear, i mean you, you can't blow a season like they did. I don't care how how good matches their city is, they're good But you have, at one point I can't. I can't remember how many points there were over city and 11.

Yeah, so I mean in a moment like city had two games in hand, but they were 11 ahead.

So I mean you have to really try to lose a tournament for that to happen, and I know that. but you, but you're talking about Arsenal. I mean we got George Ginho, who is a European champion with Italy. You got Ottergurt. you know, experienced with with with Real Madrid. I know he didn't leave as, but he's a tremendous player. Ro is a good player, sock guy is a great player.

That's the question I have. Where was Ro? Can't Ro play in the midfield? I didn't understand that.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean you could have dropped deeper. That's the part that I had a question about. I mean we don't have to relegate all of Arsenal. That's the part that I questioned with Adeta, which was where was the adaptation, Where was the trying to move a player into a spot that maybe he isn't comfortable? Where's Ottergurt dropping deeper and using Ro in Ottergurt spot, like he just kind of let it happen? Anyway, that's a whole different story.

Yeah, there was no. And, by the way, also Gabriel Jesus. I mean I like him, but he hasn't played to me good in Arsenal And by the way, city fans could have told, asked me how he would play.

Well, he ended up playing exactly how he played at sea which I thought he was.

You know, because sometimes we're getting habits to which people are down in, you know.

I think you'll be fine. Actually, I like habits.

Sometimes the change of scenery is good, but listen, chelsea fans are killing Arsenal over Havertz. You cannot do that with somebody that gave you a Champions League. I know he didn't have a good season. I understand that, but he didn't become me playing football.

There's a reason that Havertz has beef. But do you want, do we want, to talk about some stuff with our friends in the north, my neighbors with United and Mace's Mount, and all the clear out and everything? that's going on there, because that's the other saga. So we have the rice saga that's boiling now, but the one that's been on a simmer for about three weeks is this Mount thing where it's just kind of is he going, is he not going?

Before we move on, quickly tell me where do you think Rice is going to.

I think he'll end up at Arsenal. I think that this is a play that City are getting played to push a higher bid from Arsenal for Rice. City will put a stake in the ground. If he takes it, they'll take Rice. If Arsenal go higher, they'll let him go Okay. Well, I think I do way to get that $100 million for 100 million pounds.

I do believe that he's going to go to Arsenal. I believe that I think he's done well for Wesson for them to screw him over Right now. He might not be at Arsenal or whatever, but he wants to stay in London. So I think they're going to try to work something out for him. But, like you said, I think it's a game. So let's move on to Mason Mount. What's going on Chelsea? are they going to leave this kid? He wants to leave, He doesn't want to stay there And clearly they want to clear their cap. So why are they not taking an offer? He's going to be free next year, So what?

I think this is another one of these stories. That's a saga. I think that there's a desire. I think the one thing that's weird is like there's a forgetfulness about. I mean, we forget very quickly. Mason Mount was Chelsea's best player for probably three seasons. At least two right Scored all the free kick goals. He's actually quite similar to me as Declan Rice, even though they're no, he's not similar to me He's similar to Declan Rice in that he's a carrier, less of a line breaker, has much more offensive flair, but he's a player that works, takes orders.

Every manager he has ends up playing him, even when they try not to play him, because he does what you ask him to do, which is great. Everybody wants a player like that. He presses, he does everything.

Earlier in the episodes, i've said it. I don't even know why Chelsea's trying to get rid of him, because he's been, like you said, one of their top players. Now I understand this whole money thing and you know they want to do that.

What's going on at Chelsea is a whole mystery in and of itself.

I don't understand. I don't understand why. I mean, their offer is 10 million short. He wants to leave. You clearly want to get rid of him. Is 10 million really that much of a difference? You know?

I understand. I'm so confused as an American. You know we just went through NBA free agency. We just have, like, all these things that are going on with our cap and all our systems. I'm always intrigued and enthralled by how this whole transfer system works. You get these long term stories. It's a saga.

I honestly don't think any of this is really happening. I think it's total bullshit. But I think that there's some point. United will just come with the money that releases him and that's that. But we're getting three weeks worse of news stories from sources here. There's five different people. There's an agent, there's family, there's the club, there's United who want to make sure their fans know that they're putting effort in. And we know from previous seasons United is a SIF. Everything comes out at United. There's no cool, there's no class, and I don't think that Ten Hog really has his own representations in the team yet to handle how transfer should work. The way it should happen is it should be early, it should be quick and it should be quiet, and that's that hasn't been United for years now. So now we're getting this next Mason Mount thing where clearly he improves the team. But it shouldn't be this big of a saga, it should just be.

We paid 60 million.

We got Mason Mount Yeah. But, instead, we're getting this song and dance about a player, who's good, but I don't think he clearly wants to leave the dynamic of United.

Now, well, with their decline, chelsea declined their offer 55 million pound offer. Obviously, united are trying to refocus on other targets. However, the information is that they offer still on the table, and so Chelsea can accept it at any time. But I mean, can't we? we're going to get into Manchester United getting rid of up to 13 players.

I mean there's no way to getting rid of They're not going to, obviously, but but you can see, i mean if, if you cannot sell Maguire, that's right now on vacation If you can't sell him, you're not getting rid of anybody. You know what I mean. Because, yeah, i'm sure Geronimo might need a center center back. Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean.

I think the issue that's happened to the Premier League and this is a. this is sorry The issue they have is it's so wealthy and the players are on such high wages and they've literally have escaped velocity from the rest of world football. They can only sell to each other or Saudi Arabian. They can't move players. They can't sell Maguire to Inter Milan for $40 million.

Because he doesn't have the money. Maguire makes 200,000 a week.

Yeah, there's. No, he can't move. Yeah, so either they sell him to you know, let back to Lester, or Lester went down. Sorry, they sell him to you know someone like Aston Villa and he can play next to next to you know one of their center back pairings or, weirdly and I know you'd laugh at this if he went and was the backup center back for Saliba and Gabrielle, he actually might work at Arsenal like that kind of thing.

You know what I mean. Like yeah, they can't, they have nowhere to go, so these players are going to be stuck with United, and I think one of the things that I think we'll probably see as a emerging issue at clubs is how they manage their squads when there really isn't a way to move players on. Even loans become inoperable. You look at Chelsea's got. They've got this lifeline that they've often guys into into Saudi Arabia. But if you have a big squad, the way United do, they're really going to have a hard time finding places for these players.

Maybe he'll go to Lune.

Maybe they'll go. I mean, you've got to think of like, be creative and be like. Oh, you just came up Sheffield Wednesday, sheffield United. Do you want Harry McGuire to be the anchor of your defense? You can stay in the league. It's got to be creative And I don't know that United has those creative executives in the squad, in the team, in the back room staff anymore.

Well, right there, Manchester United, willing to sell 13 players in 260 million pound, clear out its price tags for each star, including Jaden Sancho, who just got there. I mean literally a season or two from from Germany.

Bruce.

And you know clearly Manchester United have been saying that they're willing to pay. their budget is about 100 million per year, but they spent 200 last season, so I mean they're spending ridiculously. And the point, and it's kind of sad because it is. I know you're a city fan, but this is one of the biggest clubs in history, football history, and for the past 10 to 15 years it just has been trash. And I mean just say I mean you, can you know you?

two are five managers. Players on that squad Yeah, different managers with no cohesion. That all played differently. Yeah, right, you've got moist players still there. You've got marino players, you've got Van Gaal players, you've got all a players. And now. And you've got Ragnick players, and now you have Van up 10 hog players. Right, how does that all work together? Sancho was always white whale And now he's on the team, and 10 hogs like I don't know what to do with you, you don't do anything.

And then you've certain players that play no matter what. Right like mcdomine, because he works hard And he's capable, he's still playing. Fred comes from Van Gaal. What is he even doing at this point? Right Like just players upon players that they don't know what to do with them. The squad's too big. They try and move them on. I've talked about it on my show many times. I thought 10 hog did an incredible job. Like that team is not good. Yeah, they somehow were able to piece together these wins, i mean, and they have some bad losses. I mean the seven Nils, liverpool, the six three versus city. I mean a lot of games where they really got hurt badly because they just don't have the players yet.

Now you got players that are selling for message like, like goalkeeper on Nana. They're trying to get rid of the hair.

I understand.

See, this is the, the, the. The contradictory statements that they always throw out is that you want to get, you want to save money, you want to get rid of your clear, your cap or whatever, but you're trying to get rid of. I understand, you know 375,000 a week is what the heck is paid, but that's not your excuse. Your excuse is that he doesn't know how to play with his feet And you trying to get on Nana from mentor.

It just don't make any sense.

You know he is a good keeper but you know just say that you try to get rid of the hair for money now, because he doesn't know how to play.

The issue. The issue with the hair and that goalkeeper situation is he's still very, very good And in many situations he literally saves them points. I think statistically he was one of the best keepers in the league in terms of saving goals. He was like a plus 10 expected goal This is my nerd stuff, don't worry about it, i get into this stuff Like expected goals saves. He was like the number one, plus 10.

But and then the other issues is it becomes an issue of priority. Do you want to spend weeks upon weeks of executive capital working on moving a guy out when really you probably need more central defenders? Sorry, you need another central defender. You need cover for Casamiro. You need to replace McTominay. Mctominay should not become a freaking Manchester United legend. He should have been gone after a season. He's a stop gap. But that stop gap is now there for five years. That's where the problem comes in. But I also think and I'll just give you this point about the hair is it's unseen, is the problem is when you watch United and you go. Why are they so slow? Why can't they build up? Why is everything a step too slow? Why is it not work? That's the hair. The hair holds onto the ball. The buildup goes slow, the central midfielder is drop in. They don't get the ball on time. Then the defender, everyone pushes up and everything slows down. All the options disappear. And that's just because the hair was scared for five seconds.

Well, i tell you, i tell you this, though I want my goalkeeper to play with his hands and the dribbling that can be nice, but listen, i've seen Onana get out of hand with I mean, i understand he can be messy out there, i don't care, but he still has to defend and goalkeeper, he does make saves, mike.

No, he does.

But, as you mentioned, the hair actually has saved a lot of points from Manchester United this season, so I don't think he is the problem.

Talk to United fans. Trust me, he does it. He does, he makes great saves, but there are things that he doesn't do that are infuriating, yeah.

What was he coming in?

He does not come for crosses. So that pressure those saves that he makes. he should actually not have to make them, because he should have got the ball already. Right, Right. So, he's still that. Those problems that he had are still there. It would be like if City had kept Joe Hart the whole time. City probably would have still won with.

Joe Hart.

But it would never have been as fluid.

Now, last but not least, just two players here Sancho, 45 million. Prystag, maguire, 40 million. Prystag, 25 million. on Marshall. Are they leaving Manchester United, marshall? Which one?

Marcial. Oh well, i'm sorry. Yeah, marcial, they should just cut Like just he's sunk. Cost, go play with the kids. You're gone, you just, we don't need you. Although Ten Hog does like him, they have played OK when he's in the side, because it lets Rashford be out wide, where he should be, because he's not a nine, he's an actual nine, which is what United have needed. This is not good enough And he sort of gets hurt all the time. Maguire the thing I think about with Maguire and I remember him at Leicester.

The thing is what I remember about Maguire and you see it with England and you see it when he's at his best and you don't see it when he's at United At his best. He comes out with the ball, he carries the ball out of defense. He's like a shit John Stones where he comes out and he makes those passes. The other thing is they've never really had good enough protection. Everything kind of breaks down and he ends up on his own And so all his timing is gone off, all his confidence is gone. I really believe another manager and another team. He'd be great If he somehow were to get to Aston Villa. I know he was talking earlier about him going to Villa. I think when I am he would figure it out. I'd be like, oh, this guy's good, he can do this. Versus focusing on the things he can't do, he would focus on the things Maguire can do And that's that build up. It's those line breaking passes And it's that reading of the game At United he became a lightning rod for everything wrong with the side. Now he's been terrible. I've seen him make terrible mistakes.

My friend, john Santana, who's our resident United fan in the chat group that you joined recently, christian. He's always like please get him out of here, please, please, make him go. I do think that there's a player in there And I think about a player like Chris Smalling, who was at United many years and was like get rid of Chris Smalling, get rid of Chris Smalling. He's been at Roma, he's been with Mourinho for now three or four different managers, five years doesn't miss a game. He's considered one of the better defenders in Serie A, but he couldn't play for United Because why, who knows? So it's a matter of who can handle the pressure. Does he get the time? Can he build a partnership with United? They just need to take a pair of centerbacks and keep them together and let them play.

I don't think One player. This pretends to be United, but also Chelsea and Arsenal. One player that's really sounding for all these teams is Qaisido, from Ecuador. He had a great season, But it's just one season, So I mean he's good. I just the amount of pride, Like a lot of people are really talking about this player, like. I mean, i get it, he's got a good season now.

OK, let's take a step back In retrospect. Would anyone have said that about Angolo Conte in 2015, after they won the league with Lester? No one would have said. It's only one year. Why is he going to Chelsea? What if Qaisido is Conte? That's the question you have to ask That could be.

I mean, i like him, he's a good, good player and all these teams really are looking forward to getting him, so I don't know Working midfield.

I just all I care is that if he doesn't go to Liverpool, that's all I care about. He can go anywhere, just not Liverpool.

Well, he might go to United. He's a whole different. He might go to Manchester.

United. I don't care about that. If he goes to Liverpool, klopp will have a destructive laser beam of war that he can use at his disposable. That I will be scared of And he will mess up my team. I do not want to see that man running around in red of Liverpool Because I like him a lot. One of the things I don't know if you know maybe I don't know how much people know Brighton is just like the most incredible team I've ever seen.

I was completely in love with them. I can't get enough of them. Estupinyan Qaisado McAllister's already there. Oh, they already got McAllister. So they're probably not going to take both their midfielders, but Lewis Dunk, a secretly fantastic defender. If you haven't watched Lewis Dunk playing for Brighton, please do it, because he's what people thought Harry Maguire should be, but he actually is the best English defender that there is. He's fantastic. I love him All right.

We'll leave deep, i get deep, i get deep into my Lewis Dunk. We'll leave that one at that man. Now let's talk about more important things, like Arsenal and More on Arsenal. Ok, so, jurian Timber man, arsenal is launching a second transfer bid and hope to seal the deal this week after agreeing on personal terms. But personal terms is just personal terms. Until you have to agree with the club, club terms are what matter. You know, yes, and so do you like this player man? What do you think?

So he's Ari DeVisi. I'm always wary of these Ari DeVisi players.

Yeah, you know, it's a low level You never know what's going to happen with them.

I mean, we think about Anthony at United. He did not have a great season, But then on the other side of it, you know, you have someone like Luis Suarez who essentially took over the world from IACS. I don't know Timber well. I just worry about these Ari DeVisi players where you don't know the level of intensity. Can they do it on a rainy night in Stoke, as the joke always goes? Can they handle the pressure? I think our Teta is a good manager. I think he can handle it, But I would be wary of this guy being a solution in his first season. But I don't mind it as a squad player, a player who can grow into a role and someone who can contribute in the sort of second half, last two thirds of the season. But if this is your signature signing, I think you'd be worried.

Now Tawks have continued with Micah or Teta or Michael or Teta, and he wants the deal done this week. And the latest bid is rumored to be worth between $34 to $39 million, with bonuses than add on possibly a 90-pound week contract. So I mean I think it's going to be done.

I think it's going to be done. I think for Arsenal they're going to have Champions League this season. He ran, and you know this better than anyone. They ran that team into the ground. They stopped. He did I mean, it's the same 12 guys over and over and over again. And, granted, when he tries to play other people, it didn't work. So I think it's about getting that number up to. Can we get to 15 quality players that I'm not afraid to play any of them in any combination? right, you had the great.

I think the Trossard move really saved Arsenal to make that bid go a little bit further. But it needed to be one more defender. Right, it needed one Johnny Evans, one Webster, one even very English defender who was just like, ok, soli. But you do what you want. I'm going to go put my head in people's face And if they come near me I'm going to knock them down. That's Arsenal needed Tony Adams, arsenal needed Martin Keown, they needed some English fight for the run-in, and so I think I would be looking. That's why I'm not even being funny. I would get McGuire If you could get him for $40 million no, I wouldn't.

You couldn't pay a limited amount. You couldn't pay me Saudi Arabia money for me to take with McGuire to Arsenal.

But here's the thing at what price is it worth it? At $40 is it too much, And no, but at $35? When is the number right?

I mean listen, man. I've seen way too many highlights of McGuire that are not good.

I think he's about the only player Turning, turning, turning around like this.

He's about the only player that gets highlighted, that gets low light.

I'm trying to sabotage Arsenal.

But hey, I want to give a shout out to Del J who commented live. He said Declan Rice doesn't impress me as Champions League quality, just overvalued because he's English. I mean, that's the point of view.

But here's the thing to remember that I think we have to think about with Declan Rice Being a central defender. with Moise you never have the ball, so we're not sure what kind of a player he is. I think we'll see something different when he's in a team that has possession. whether he can handle that, hey, i need to make 90% of my passes. I'm going to get 80 to 100 touches per game and move that ball in and out and bounce it off of OdaGuard and try and see those overlapping runs down the wing. Can he hit that raking pass that Martinelli's going to make? Yeah, and I mean he would make him to Bowen, but maybe once or twice a game when you have to do it all the time.

Can he be a bowser? Can he control a game? It's getting hectic in the midfield. Can he put his foot on the ball, turn around, play it back to the vents, slow things down and control games? That's the question I have for Rice. He was used to when he had the ball going on the break. but can he be a bowser? take the game down, slow it down, let Arsenal win games 1-2-0, find the moments that make sense for them.

Now, just to finish with Arsenal. Romeo Lavia might be at risk to get hijacked by either United or Chelsea.

Man, i don't know what's going on. So, as a city fan, whoever wants to buy Romeo Lavia, please do. I think city have like a 15% sign on fee. You'll be giving money to city.

Well, clearly, I mean, this is just the way it is Arsenal, we have money, but we can't compete against city Or I mean I don't know about Chelsea. They're selling players like crazy, but so it is what it is. At this point, I think he just has to want to play for Arsenal And for him to work together.

Again, these are these questions. He's very, very young. I think he's only 20. He had good season in a tough time with Southampton. He was playing well under Haas and Hoodle. He got hurt for most of the middle of the season, didn't really get to affect whether they were going to go down or not, came in late, had some good results. I mean I think he was in the side that drew with Arsenal.

Good player, really nice touches, really unafraid. Take that ball out of the fence, make those runs really smooth. Really good, well taught out of the city academy. So our tetra will see that, know that he's got the skills already, because all that stuff comes from the top right, it's Cruyff down to Pep, in through Chiquit de Verestan and they teach it all the way through the city academy. So those city graduates are really valued for these attacking managers who are like I know he knows what to do, because this is how I want to play, and our tetra will have known Lavia from when he was probably 15 years old, frank, and he'll be able to grab him and be like remember we do this bum bum, bum, bum. So I like him. But my question was you know Lacongo, who they got from Enderlikt and they loaned him to Crystal Palace, did he? is he just out, like he was supposed to be that midfielder? Is he just not going to be there, like?

I feel like yeah.

I have. They have a gap. They have this problem where they are all. The first team is pretty solid, but they that next group of who's going to come in it's all young.

And I just a lot of young players.

He is ready to lobby is right I mean there's still the youngest team in the league still a lot of you.

I'm listening. I'm waiting for Zaka to take over the league at some point in the next 20 years. But I'm waiting hard man. But you know he's going to be tested in big games And a lot of these players actually not just not just not just young players, but a lot of these players failed miserably when it came to depression, the pressure to have to compete in high pressure games, especially when city was breathing in the back of your neck.

They didn't lose the league to see. They lost the league to Southampton. They lost the league to West Ham.

Well, okay, well, that's a good point, but but if city city lost more games?

no, but they had the lead so that they could lose those city games. It was not against city that they lost the league, it was Southampton and it was West Ham. Those were the games that killed them. I'll even give them a pass, for Liverpool, southampton and West Ham That killed them. They were cooked, they knew it. They knew it. Although they almost pulled that West Ham, that's Southampton game Almost man All right.

Well, that's. That's your arsenal of news. I guess the show's over, No no, no, no, I'm playing.

We got more, let's go. We have more things.

We have Saudi Arabia man. You know they're. They're. They're talking about Griezmann going for me now is in negotiations. They Oh actually they just finalized 23 million pound deal with Brasovic, Marcello Brasovic, from Inter Milan, So he's going to go to on the sir. So what is going on? And if there's a, I know Gary Neville. The other day, about two weeks ago, you know, he just he said that they need to be investigated. Something needs to be done. Listen, I know that European or well, not all European, but like English, Spanish, but I believe German as well They have to stay under a fair play.

Fair play Yes, so based on way fun Yes.

However, i mean PSG has been, has bought players, has spent a lot of money on the, on players, and they're in and they have paid, they have paid the fines for reaching. So that's what it is. I have the money to find early in city.

We got a 50 million pound. fine, we just paid it.

Is it that? Yeah, yeah, we got it.

We're busted, thank you, no problem. Now, should this be a concern that these are interesting and difficult questions?

Let me tell you this, lorraine. When I mean because I look at it from the, from both ways, okay, listen, if you're like I just said, arsenal, i mean we can't compete. But at one point is this starting to look like we are mad at the rich for being rich. I mean these are the questions I have.

So these are the bigger questions that I think we all have to sort of think about. There is a through line. I'm going to get deep. Just give me, give me some runway. There is a through line in English football particularly. That is about working class people and what football means to them and how it works and how it's considered And should this money?

there are a lot of people that are like, oh, i don't ever watch football again, money's ruined it, money's ruined it. I want you to know that, as a big baseball fan, i have studied the history of baseball and the history of sport down to like the 19th century And you can find articles from the 30s that say money is ruining baseball. The Yankees destroyed baseball because they bought Babe Ruth. Or in the 50s, the Giants are ruining baseball, they just bought Y8, uh, ruining football, they bought Y8 Tittle. This is a story that is eternal. In sport, it's always too much money. It's always destroying the game. So that's that.

The second piece that I think is interesting is what we love about European football and football in general, or European football specifically, is that it's unfettered and free, that the clubs can spend whatever they want. That's what makes the leagues great. That's why Manchester United were so good. That's why Real Madrid are so good. That's why Barcelona were so good. There was no cap. They could be as big and as amazing as they want, right, yeah, the issue comes when it is an outsider. Nobody has a problem with the aristocratic clubs. We can call them. Whoever's won a Champions League, aside from, like, city and Dynamo Kiev, whoever's won a Champions League, says that they're allowed to win the Champions League forever and anyone who's new is bad. Right, okay, so we have that narrative. The issue with the Arabs, i think, is that it's new money, it's brown money, it's non Christian money, it's non European money.

It's foreign and they don't like it, right. And there is human rights abuses and we can talk about. We can go through history and talk about everyone's human rights abuses. Yes, they killed that journalist. I get it. It's terrible. But the question is, the bigger question is, who has a right to glory, who's allowed to win and who controls it? This is the big question. Right, i go through it with Manchester City all the time. It's not fun all the time to have to defend city and our 115 charges. It's not fun for Chelsea fans to have to defend Roman Abramovich and the fact that he was literally called Putin's ATM machine. That stuff's hard. But we love our clubs, we just like. Well, i'm doing this, i don't care, i had to love George Steinbrenner. People have to love terrible players who have trouble all the time.

Yeah, i mean, i can say about Arsenal, see we don't say much about Crunkies, how he owns, or they own, walmart. You know 100 teams in all cross sports which could be considered. I know they're not all football, but could be considered like, listen, what is this? I mean you know, because if I want a team, i know they're not all football, but say, if he decides to buy a club in Spain and all of a sudden, even though they're not in the same league at some point could be conflict of interest. You know that's what in Mexican league. You know you see one owner owning one or two or three clubs. You've seen it and they criticize family.

Yeah, and you know they own Watford, Sienna and like four other teams.

So at some point I know you know, because they're going to tell you like when is Sienna going to play the Champions League to beat? I get that, but it's the principle, because how do you know that there's no you?

own a big club in the city. We have, we have. We have the city football group. We have a team. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't talk about that man, cause I like I'm tired of hearing. You know, in Uruguay there's a Uruguay FC city. I'm like, yeah, city FC. Like, come on, man, every everywhere in the world is there's a, there's a city team which listen they have a business model.

They're trying to figure out how to leverage and scale up the operations of football right, which I don't have a problem with that, you know, i think.

I think it fits legal. It is what it is. just cause they have the money to do it Doesn't mean that they're bad about it, you know, or it comes from the legality.

I think, I think, I think that the question with the Saudi Arabia thing is and where Gary Neville was coming from was the revelation that they may have a stake in Chelsea secretly through Clear Lake capital. And that's the issue, because if they have a stake in Clear Lake and they are essentially shoveling money and moving players back and forth, Well, that's, that's illegal, I mean.

Populating their Arab League and populating Chelsea. Then you have a problem of like where's the money coming from? Is Boli just a front man? Is the next step in 10 years of their own Newcastle and Chelsea? That won't happen. But they've got Newcastle. I think they've been doing that right. I mean to be fair. They've bought Newcastle. They're not spending crazy money. They bought Tanele and one other player. They had a great season. All's love and fair. But I think it's the scale and the fear of like Hey, they just bought golf, now they're putting three teams together. They're trying to populate it with the best players in the world. I don't. As a person who's a city fan, i know that just buying big name players doesn't mean shit. You've got to earn.

You have to earn the hearts and minds on the field and you have to suffer and you got to put time in and you have to start stringing together moments of shared history of all of football. You have to be in a Champions League final against Chelsea, you've got to lose against PSG. You've got to play against Barcelona, and that Arab League has no history that anyone is going to care about. People think that just quality of football is what makes it, and we know now that that's not true. Right, look at Wrexham That is a story that is beyond quality.

And that is one thing. Actually, i'm glad you brought it up, because that is one story that is cool and I like it. But I think we're kind of hypocritical because you got two I don't know who the other guy is but you got one famous actor.

Rob McGillaghani from Always Sunny and Phil Delphi.

They got together at the water club and they it's probably the most famous championship. Where are they? Championship or where?

They are lower than that. They were non-league. So it's got to be the most famous club and everybody was excited talking about them.

Of course, they have a huge following, but nobody said a lot when they bought the club, and I think I wanted to bring something up. I said Saudi League or Saudi Arabia, but this is more. The problem here for people is Middle Eastern money, and so is it fair, and I'm going to let you have it. Is it fair? Like PSG, they're owned by Qatar. They spent all their money there And now now they spent all their money. It didn't work. They got the World Cup. They got. They got Mbappe, messi, neymar. There for the World Cup, everything was good, sold a lot of money, a lot of jerseys, whatever. Now they're done. They're willing to sell Mbappe. They got rid of Messi. They're about to get rid of Neymar at some point. Now they got bored. It seems like they got bored and now they're going to try to move on to Manchester United.

Now you're talking about one big club to another bigger club, and so is it okay to be like. You know what I have. You know they have all the money in the world. I couldn't do it here, i'm bored, let me move on to the next one.

Is that because that doesn't seem Is it okay? Yes, it's okay, it's it's so. here's the thing For Paris Saint-Germain fans. it's sad.

You don't have to say like that man, because their team What, they're really killing. My French, yeah, just because I can't say Paris Saint-Germain.

Paris Saint-Germain For PSG. they're going to suffer, but I think that that club has a lot of passion and they booed Messi. They were like you know, you're not one of us, you're not of us. Yeah that's true.

Your point, i'm sorry, is that they tried two different models, right? Yeah, one went for stars and brand and one went for what happened, went for infrastructure and what happens on the pitch is what matters, right? City, if you think about it, none of city's players are world superstars. They're world superstars for their play on the pitch. Right, there's no flashy hair, there's no stepovers, it's just like David Silva is the best player, but you couldn't pick them out from a line on a DMV. But like? who's that little tiny Spanish dude? He's like Hey, what's up? Aguero? we know, but he barely spoke English. He never interviewed David Silva. Never spoke English, never interviewed. Yaya Torre was famous because his agent was a lunatic, but I love that on every. I love money. Yaya is my guy, but everything was about success on the field. Whereas PSG was Zlatan, neymar, kibani was about stars. Kibani, although Kibani looked great, right, he had the bow and arrow thing. So and I think they'd learning that football doesn't work that way. It's about the 11. It's not about the one.

Yeah, it's definitely about the 11. I mean, you know, it took them 15 years to win a Champions League And they won the league in four years?

No the.

Champions League the, the, the, the, the but. I know that but the, but the but. The Premier League is also hard And it did take them a while in the beginning because, like you said, it's about the 11. It's not just putting all these players and say, you see it, you saw it in the NBA when LeBron joined Miami Heat. I mean, it's not about You lost that first A thousand. You can't put an all-star team galacticos. They didn't. They didn't win a crap, they didn't win anything. They didn't win the league.

They won early on. They look good. They didn't win the league.

They, they look good. They were rock stars everywhere, cameras I mean it was. I'm sure it was fun to be there, but they didn't win anything.

So and and and and and. to be fair, if you look at it from a business perspective, PSG have been successful as a business, right, yeah, high profile, they've got the Jordan brand. They've probably made tons of money and done great. but from a sporting perspective and they made Champions League finals it's not to belittle it, they have. you know, you can have three balls go different directions and you won the Champions League right When they undertook them, when they when they lost the barn. but it's fine margins. And when you look at it from the outside, you feel, like you said, the PSG project is coming to an end in this iteration of it And I do think they're starting to figure out oh, we need to go.

Paris, born and bred, paris, essentially, is the best source of young players around the world are all in Paris because they have good infrastructure. France has a great grassroots thing. They have the Claremont Academy. The world's best players are from France. I mean, they've World Cup Champions, but their league is fifth down right. So Paris can mine that and sort of grow a team that is French and French first and Paris first, and I think that'll connect them together and that will give them the better chance And then add the superstar versus the other way around.

Now let's move on. Clearly well, we didn't settle this debate. People are still going to be talking about this for many years, but this is, but this is where it's headed, man. You know, like the glaciers, they're tired of owning the team. for some reason, people hate them. They might be bad, they might be good. whatever it is, they're going to get rid of it. And it's just people don't like the way Americans do Team team that's going up for sale, you better believe there's oil money going to be looking for that team.

Because who has it? Nobody else has money.

Nobody else I'm. Liverpool is one of the clubs that is, i mean Arsenal, of course, but they're still on, but, but you know? but see, i have a problem with that, like they're still owned by somebody. You know what I mean. It's not like like, ramadri is a club that's like.

Ramadri is a club.

Yeah, yeah. So I mean nobody's going to be happy ever, man. I mean, liverpool is owned by the Brownie.

I think the thing that becomes the thing that becomes funny and odd and ironic and bizarre is just like, okay, the cronkeys have, let's say, seven billion dollars That's their total net worth And you're like, wow, seven billion dollars. They're, like you know, in the top 20 richest people. On the other side is like these sovereign wealth funds that have, like, i think, the PIF that owns Newcastle. They have a hundred billion dollars in assets. It's like you're talking about like a kid who goes to his lunch and he has a dollar, and another kid rolls in with $20. That's a big difference. I mean it's like, well, you can do anything. I mean we're talking scales of money that are just beyond our comprehension And I guess that's a question is like when do? what is the line? when you've established that sport in Europe is a free for all and anyone can buy anything, do we want to restrict trade? Who gets to buy teams? Yeah, or?

how much money they spend.

That's out of the barn. They can't make it smaller.

You know, they could probably regulate how much money they spend a year, which that probably would do it, but I don't even know if they could put it Right.

You could put a salary cap in England, but does that mean that there's a salary cap across all world football? That doesn't mean that the Saudis have a. This is the thing, right? The thing we have a luxury of in the U? S is that the leagues are closed, it's controlled, it's a single country but, like right now, spain has a salary cap. England doesn't care about that salary cap.

No, that's Barcelona, He doesn't have a salary cap?

Yeah, clearly they just sell themselves off. Let's move on, let's move on.

Top num, also in a clear out, but to get rid of 10 players, at least among Davidson San Che, the Colombian player, yvonne Parisic, inter Milan. I mean, that's a good player, i like him. He came with Conte, but now Pasticoglu, he doesn't like this thing Very good. Again, again with the same. Like Manchester United, they just you can't get rid of 10 players So quickly. What?

do you think?

I don't, yeah, i don't?

I think the thing with Pasticoglu and I've researched him. He's a fascinating character. He's a real rags to riches, a guy who did the work. Coming from I mean you want to talk about the backwater of football Second division Australia works his way up rung by rung, step by step, gets to Celtic as like the third choice after Rogers ditches them, gets his hand on that team, has them playing attacking football. A no nonsense, an awesome, a real Australian. He has it in him. The fascinating thing was he was trained by push gas, the most famous Real Madrid player ever famous. The push gas award is named for this man, for the greatest goal every season. He was trained at his first coach, which was pass when he was a young man, as push gas was running around the world. And he just he has the, he walks the walk, he has the strength and the strength to get in gravitas, to be like. You want to bullshit me? I was nothing and I'm here now and you're going to play the way I play.

He's a no nonsense coach and self made man but attacking football, pressing this sort of modern coach, or just like we press, we go as a group, we fight to the end this mentality, monster kind of thing. A four, three, three, attacking, pushing fullbacks, where the we defend as a group and we defend from the front and we we attack as a group and the fullbacks push on. You know that kind of modern cloppy in full throttle. Football is where they're going to play and they just. And he got a notoriously difficult group of fans, the Celtic fans in Glasgow, some of the toughest, most badass, will follow you home fans in all of England and all of Europe. He brought them on side and they love him And you've got to trust those Celtic fans to believe that post-acoggle will get Spurs playing. The issue is is that he does need buy-in and it will be rocky for probably 10 games.

But, and what are you going to do with Kane? I mean he doesn't want to stay, clearly. I mean he's been wanting to leave for a long time. They haven't treated him really like well either. I mean you know he's, he's. I don't know very many players have been more important to Tottenham other than Bale, maybe He's he's, he's I talked about this as one of my.

He's just such an incredible player. I think he's almost underrated. I mean I mean the guy puts up 25 and 10s. I mean that's crazy. And I'm not talking about points and rebounds, i'm talking about goals and assists. I mean incredible, who does that? I mean there's no other striker like that. The only player I can think of that had that much impact on goal scoring Benzema.

Benzema is like is like but that team was better, right, Because, like Suarez, 14, 13, 14, where he like, that Liverpool team was not good And he carried them to a 30 and 15 season. or or your man, uh, terry Henry, with with having like a 25 and 20 season where he's just carrying the team, everything goes through him. You know all the passes, everything but the talent on Spurs. without Harry Kane they could get relegated. Like that team is terrible.

And they couldn't defend. They could not defend. He's been wanting, he's been wanting to, he's been wanting to leave. Clearly, manchester United, real Madrid, ben and talks, but it doesn't seem like uh, it's Levy, levy's not going to let him go, yeah, and that's, that's the thing you know, because he there's only so much he can do. He's not going to win your Champions League. He can't, nobody can.

The. Thing is. The thing is that Kane Kane is like a I'm channeling my own. He's passed away recently.

He's Buena.

Hente. He's a good dude and he does not want to burn bridges or have people not like him. And when you are ruthless or you think about a Cristiano especially I think he's the best example of, or is LaTan when it's time to go and you feel like you've hit where you need to go, you pack up your shit and you stay home and you go. I am not setting foot in that stadium until you move me and I'm gonna hold my breath and I'm gonna start naming names And that's how you have to move. If it's about your career, about where you wanna go, that's how you do it.

I don't know how much how long he's got.

He doesn't have that in him to do.

Yeah, i mean he could have easily. I thought he was gonna go to city a couple of weeks or last years He was gonna go to city.

His brother was his agent and his brother was a moron. He blew it. He should have gone to city. That was the moment two years ago he should have gone. But now he's gonna be 30, 31, his contract's running out. That was the time to move him. But they got Mourinho, they sold him on the project. His other big mistake was if you are a top level player and you're young and you're leading the league in goals, you don't sign a six year contract with Daniel Livi because he will hold you to it, and so that was his other mistake. He comes off a World Cup and he signed a six year deal and Livi was like I own you, and so all this time he's now on year five. He still is gonna have five and one more. It's still going. This contract that never ends, and so that's why he's been stuck at Spurs, and until he holds his breath that's fired to the training ground, he will be at.

Spurs.

All right. Well, let's move on to the next one, And it is Frenchman. Kylian Mbappe is well, real Madrid are optimistic about this. However, i can tell you that I see darkness in the horizon, because Kylian Mbappe has proven that well, he says he wants to go to Real Madrid, but he's proven that he likes money a lot I mean a lot of us do. But he has got a $60 million salary, which is insane in a year. And then he's got another amount 90 million in bonuses. This is the first time I ever heard a bonus being higher than the salary. But this is. It is what it is. So it's about 150 million.

These numbers are funny. Who even knows what this is, even mean Like? I haven't seen a Forbes list where he's number one. He's not making more than Cristiano You know what I mean?

Oh no, of course not. But so he's got supposedly 150 million pounds guaranteed until if he completes his contract with PSG. So what he doesn't want to happen is that if he goes to Real Madrid right now, he'll lose that money. He wants to make that money either by Real Madrid in the contract throughout the years that he can get the 150 million back, or they can negotiate between PSG and Real Madrid. The thing is, he doesn't care how, but he wants the 150 in his account eventually.

So should Real Madrid fans feel like he wants to be around Madrid? but, man, the first time that you let everybody persuade you to stay, you stayed. They also paid you a lot of money, And now it seems like he's got a condition to join Real Madrid. He wants to get his money, which you know, and we've been talking about it. If you want, like I said, if you want to go to Arsenal, you're going to have to know that they're not going to pay you like that. So does he want to play for Real Madrid? Is he a fan? Is he not a fan? I know he's a footballer, but what's happening?

I think he is very savvy, i think he's modern, i think that he's very connected to NBA type stuff, like he's connected to that group. I think that that sort of ethos, that LeBron ethos, is spread, i think, around football And I think he's very aware that the money is there and he controls what's happening. And I'm not going to give you any discounts. I'm the talent, right, he's very modern in that way. Right, it's a little bit anti-modern football. It's very much. I'm the brand, i'm the player.

I think that he knows that Real Madrid want him and he's just trying to use the leverage that he has at this moment. The thing that I warn him about, that I would if I were advising him, is go as far as you can, but these windows of opportunity to get to Real Madrid to be the number nine at Real Madrid which is, let's be frank, the highest profile position in all of world football right To be the number nine of Real, possibly It does not come that often And Benzema left and if you don't take the opportunity now, real will move on to the next target. They'll go hard for Holland, they'll go for some emerging person that we don't know yet.

So we have to go down.

So do you think I mean Halin is not going to be a free agent, he is going to be, and Bap is going to be a free agent? Do you really think that Real Madrid is going to say no to him if he has to stay there one more year at PSG?

What the question is if and Bap does not go to Real this year, who is Real's number nine? They're going to go with the sevens. Well, it's going to be.

Rodrigo, rodrigo is going to play.

It's a nine.

I mean they're going to. He was playing that. He's not it Obviously Benzema was, but he left and they don't have him. You know they just don't. If they do, if you know they got this, if Real.

Madrid play. if Real Madrid play without a real nine, they're not going to score, they're going to lose, and they already been losing. They spent a lot of money in the midfield with falling in All those Chuka, manny and all those guys. So they've got the. they've got their priorities right. Like they, they've got a solid base. They've been working on their core right Cause they know that they've been getting old. but, upfront, that Benzema spot are they going to go by committee? They're going to let Hoselu do it and just rely on Vinny? I mean.

Hoselu score 16 goals for Espanyol, who descended So with Real Madrid you're going to expect them to play 25, 25, 30 goals.

He's not. Listen, he, nobody, is in Bap. He's probably the best player in football right now. I mean, you know you can argue, he's up there, but it's clear that, listen, i feel like he, he's got he's, he's got the bull by the horns and he's either going to get his money or he knows that he will play for Real Madrid next season And there's not going to be anybody that's going to tell him no, you we didn't want, we wanted you last year and we don't want you now, Well, he did, he did.

Well, that's the other thing. Florian Theo Perez is not a man to be effed with.

No, he's not.

If you slide him? if you slide him, he may just be like you know what? No, I don't, i don't, i don't see, i don't see.

Real Madrid not signing a free agent in Bap. That'll be hard, that'll be hard. That'll be a boss move in.

But, but think about it, though Real Madrid at this point, have not been in the Galacticos business, right? No, For a while, right, They, they let, they let. They let Cristiano go, right? Right, They let the Galatinos contract run out, They let. After they got burned, and they and and and COVID and all that stuff. You know, after the after a hazard, they have not spent money on superstars.

Yeah, no, i mean, we'll see what happens To me, i think. I think he's going to, he's not going to join this this summer. You know, if you watch the channel, you know we've been posting videos actually one of them was this is a Madrid that channel right.

No, no, no, no, it's not. But I mean, like I said, you got to talk Oh yeah, it was a long time ago, but you got to you got to talk about the biggest star, one of them in the football world, and certainly people want to know what he's going to do. Listen, i don't think at this point that he's got Real Madrid's 100% trust, like they don't trust him 100%. You know what I mean. He agreed.

And as a free agent they're going to make him blink.

And let me tell you this I don't think Real Madrid knows 100% that he will say yes as a free agent, because anything can happen. I mean, that's their city. I mean you got United getting bought, being bought by Qatar. They could offer him a lot of money and it is United.

So well, that's the. I mean, that's the thing that I think United fans probably dream about is being on that stage and being the club that can do that again. Right Like that. That is where the Premier League wants to be. I think Holland is actually quite unusual. I think anyone who's a fan of the Premier League knows the Premier League is not really where the world's stars play. It's where they get made and then they move on Right. But the fact that Holland is in the Premier League in his prime could be a catalyst for United to go. You know what? Why are we going to buy Kane for 150 million? Why don't we just, why don't we just go get him popping Yeah?

But PSG was trying to get Kane too.

That would be like I mean that would be like putting like United on the map.

That's like really taking it out and being like we're here, we'd be in. Trust me, i think that's what if Mbappe? because of free agent? I know everybody else has been quiet and has been re-amagrated against PSG, but once Mbappe, if he gets the free agency, he is going to have more than one suitor and United City they're all going to be in that City won't?

no, you know cities, that's not city's profile. We won't do it. I'm telling you, as long as Pepsi there, it's not going to happen. Never. No, Why not? That's not the type of player that City would sign. I'm telling you, never Too big, Bigger than a club Never.

No, no, nobody's bigger than a club. man Relax. Nobody's bigger than a club. I know City's got two year history.

Well, I mean, a lot of people are bigger than.

City.

City's nobody.

No, no, what do you mean? They got a champion. How many more? Imagine the United has like two Champions League and you got one. They think they got two or three. So you know, i think three. So I mean, come on, don't, don't sell yourself short, man, it's Liverpool, they have six, the bastards. At least at least don't.

You know what's funny? At least don't say publicly I don't think about United, i don't think about United. Liverpool's the one that I'm always afraid of.

Del Jays, they have a real coach Del Jays says in Bapileft, Madrid, at the altar of course they're going to be cautious, but if he wants to go there they'll take him. Of course they'll take him. I don't think they'll say no. Flonty O'Pair knows, He knows what his club needs.

And I mean there's, there's, there's so many moving parts. Right now, Football is in this weird flux. I think that there's a really the Europe, the Premier League, is on its own and the rest of Europe is something else. Like they could, there could be changes that we can't even see yet. Anyway, it's crazy.

Okay, So just just to end the show. Psg fans tell Bar and Munich. Psg fans tell they don't want Lucas Hernandez from Bar and Munich. They don't want him. You know how PSG fans are. On the other hand, luca Modric signs a one year extension. He's not going to Saudi Arabia. He's not falling for temptation, although he might. After that, after that season, you know it also.

You know what. I could not adore a player more than Luca Modric. He is just tremendous.

Now Manchester United fans that were excited about Rabi. Oh, he's looking like he's going to sign an extension with Juventus, So leave him alone. He's a rabbit.

With Rabi. Oh, you get his mom too. Forget it Who they want to help you.

Well, it was nice having you. Man LaRod, Thank you for being on the show.

We're going to be. I made this show go too long. We're going to have. No, we're good.

We're good. We're good. We had a lot of news to cover. Right now, the football world is just transferring news, transferring everybody's moving, everybody's leaving, you know. So that's. There's a lot going on, but thank you for being on the show. We're going to be here on.

Monday again.

We're going to be talking, hopefully. well, things are going to be changing. Of course, you know who knows? and Bobby might be playing for Arsenal next week, who knows, man Well we the biggest news this summer, we're going to have to cover we're going to have to cover Messi playing. Oh, yeah, we're going to have to get, yeah, we're going to have to cover. We didn't talk about the U S man's team, but we will at some point when they win.

I'm curious about them.

See you guys Talk podcast brought to you by top football club, a YouTube channel where we give the fans an opportunity to stay up to date on the latest trending news.

That was the squeaky bum time podcast with Laurent Cortes and Christopher. We are the football wing of the chop sports channel, presented exclusively by the premier streaming network. We record on Mondays and Thursdays, so be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcast So you never miss a show. And if you're listening on Apple, please rate and review the show. It means everything to us and we'll see you soon. Please enjoy, and welcome to Christopher. Thanks for everything.