In Episode # 150 of the Squeaky Bum Time Podcast, Mike and Laurent (well, not Mike) discuss the massive news of Roman Abramovich's personal sanctions and what it means for Chelsea Football Club, the UEFA Champions League results, and more:

• Chelsea football club get the death penalty. What does it mean? Is this the end of Chelsea? What does it mean for the Premier League
• Paris Saint-Germain Bottle IT AGAIN. Real Madrid show the heart of the champion and move on 3-1 on aggregate.
• Premier League midweek games! Leeds lose. Norwich lose. Watford lose... could those three be the relegation threesome?
• And... we call for peace in Ukraine. Maybe they should get an automatic bid to the World Cup in Qatar?

Follow us on Twitter (@SqueakyBum_Pod), Instagram (@SqueakyBumTimePod) and Facebook (Squeaky Bum Time Podcast) to stay up to date!

Part of the Chop Sports Media Network!

00:00

hello and welcome to the squeaky bum

00:02

time podcast with mike and laurent it

00:05

is

00:07

friday march 11th

00:10

and today we can only talk about chelsea

00:13

who received a death penalty but we'll

00:15

talk about psg blowing it we'll talk

00:16

about scores we'll talk about games but

00:18

first

00:20

p chelsea

00:22

chelsea and robin abramovic receive what

00:26

is the equivalent of the ncaa's death

00:29

sentence for those of you who don't know

00:31

what that is the ncaa once gave it to

00:34

smu for violations within the ncaa rules

00:37

which effectively meant your school

00:39

could no longer play or no longer be

00:41

part of the ncaa and football but

00:45

chelsea received the death sentence what

00:48

does that mean why did they get it what

00:50

does it mean for the rest of the league

00:52

so to recap uh mike had the conversation

00:55

with ollie uh the other day um chelsea

00:59

are owned by roman abramovich

01:01

roman abramovich is a russian oligarch

01:05

whatever that means basically it means

01:07

he made a lot of money

01:09

with

01:10

putin or through the auspices of putin

01:13

or with putin's

01:16

agreement uh he essentially bought the

01:20

resources

01:22

of russia as it was collapsing in the

01:25

early 90s

01:26

for very cheap and then was able to sell

01:29

it later on at exorbitant prices so he

01:32

got very rich

01:34

by ill-begotten means and has the

01:36

nickname of putin's wallet

01:40

where that comes from how it got to him

01:42

i don't know but

01:44

essentially chelsea received the death

01:47

sentence the uk government has listed

01:50

him along with 25 other oligarchs

01:53

or friends of of putin

01:56

due to the

01:58

uh attack in ukraine so i'm gonna read

02:01

from my phone here roman abramovich's

02:03

assets have been frozen by the uk

02:05

government meaning

02:07

he is unable to sell chelsea he could

02:10

sell chelsea he just could not make

02:12

money from it he has frozen assets what

02:15

does it mean

02:16

these are tactical things that are

02:18

happening further ticket sales to home

02:20

and away games from fans are prohibited

02:22

however if you already have a season

02:25

ticket you still may go to games no

02:27

merchandise sales are allowed not

02:30

necessarily true they cannot

02:32

buy new merchandise but whatever is in

02:35

the stores they may sell but they may

02:38

not get new merchandise they cannot make

02:41

any transfers because they cannot spend

02:43

any money because they don't have any

02:45

money their bank assets are frozen they

02:48

cannot do any contract renewals for

02:52

chelsea this is a big deal that means

02:55

that antonio rudiger uh aspella quetta

02:59

uh several women on the several players

03:02

on the women's teams who have rolling

03:03

contracts as i understand it as of now

03:06

chelsea's ban on is runs through may

03:11

31st

03:12

and chelsea have no access to money they

03:14

may not be able to make payroll they

03:17

have no

03:18

access to new cash

03:20

all the money that roman abramovich has

03:24

been using to fund the club has been

03:26

frozen they cannot transact now chelsea

03:31

does have special dispensation that

03:33

allows essentially the club to run

03:36

provided it's from existing deals

03:39

so there is some sort of system where

03:41

the players will be able to be paid

03:44

there is some sort of stipulation where

03:47

the team can travel so

03:50

chelsea do have to travel to lille lille

03:52

l i lle the french champions and we're

03:55

going to get onto psg in a minute that

03:57

allows them to finish up their leg

03:59

they're up two-nil in the champions

04:01

league and i believe they play next week

04:03

this is a massive deal and we are in

04:06

completely

04:07

new

04:08

territory

04:09

for sports

04:12

um we are in a place where

04:17

i believe

04:19

no team has ever been i don't know of a

04:21

team

04:22

ever being

04:23

frozen by the government we've had in

04:25

the nba

04:27

a team being taken under control by the

04:29

commissioner's office the last team i

04:31

can remember was the

04:34

um

04:35

new orleans

04:36

hornets slash pelicans

04:39

and they voided famously the chris paul

04:41

trade under david stern so this is new

04:44

territory um the team was for sale roman

04:47

abramovich seemed to know that this was

04:50

going on he's last week he sent out a

04:53

crisp

04:53

cryptic message that says oh chelsea

04:56

will be under control of the chelsea

04:58

trust no one knew what that meant and

05:00

the people in the chelsea trust didn't

05:02

know that they were in that chelsea

05:04

trust and didn't know that what that

05:06

meant he seemed to be trying to protect

05:08

his asset he then said later in the week

05:12

that the team was for sale that he

05:14

wouldn't make any money from it and that

05:16

all the proceeds would go to ukraine and

05:19

that

05:20

he would not ask for any loans

05:22

so they tried to get the sale through

05:25

but this was all happening too fast and

05:27

there seems to be other laws that were

05:30

coming onto the books that the

05:32

english government was

05:35

grand standing for that allowed and

05:38

pushed this through and all

05:40

and i think the bombing of the hotel of

05:42

the uh children's hospital of mary pole

05:45

was the final straw for the oligarchs to

05:49

actually get their assets seized and

05:51

this happened for about 60 people

05:54

and so chelsea football club are in

05:58

limbo they have no access to funds the

06:01

person who funds the team no longer can

06:04

send them money they are

06:08

under normal circumstances when someone

06:10

has their assets taken

06:12

you know it's a it's a factory it's a

06:16

it's a warehouse it's a

06:18

it's something that's just inert it's

06:20

just there they just take it they take

06:22

the yacht they take your house they take

06:23

your apartment no problem but a football

06:27

club is different

06:28

it's a living entity it has fans

06:31

it is a public good it is a community

06:35

asset as they say it would be as though

06:38

there i think the way to think about it

06:40

is

06:41

football clubs are as though

06:44

someone owns a church or owns the

06:47

congregation of a church

06:49

yes they can charge rent or whatever and

06:51

they are shepherding the maintenance of

06:53

that church or you're the owner for the

06:56

time being and you can make money but

06:58

that that building doesn't belong to you

07:01

in the natural sense of

07:05

what

07:06

we would think of as a normal asset

07:07

because

07:09

there are millions of fans and millions

07:11

of supporters that support chelsea

07:13

football club they didn't have a choice

07:16

in who their owner was they didn't

07:18

control it and so

07:20

it's a delicate situation that the

07:22

government has gotten themselves into

07:24

and they've opened themselves up to any

07:26

number of things

07:27

um

07:31

i

07:33

am torn

07:35

i am torn

07:37

uh what do i think about this right what

07:39

do i think is happening

07:41

i am torn

07:42

because this is a dangerous

07:45

precedent to set now these are

07:48

mitigating circumstances we have putin

07:50

invading ukraine we have uh abramovich's

07:54

direct ties

07:56

to putin there was an investigation

07:59

within the last 10 years or five years

08:00

that said they weren't direct or what

08:03

have you i think it's pretty clear i

08:05

don't think if if if chelsea fans really

08:07

can search their heart they know that

08:09

abramovic got that money through

08:11

ill-begotten means

08:13

did he have someone killed is he a

08:14

murderer i don't know whatever the case

08:16

is

08:17

he's on the list

08:21

i don't

08:25

i don't like the idea of guilt by

08:27

association

08:29

i know why it's being done i understand

08:31

the pressure but

08:33

the chelsea fans and supporters

08:37

are not

08:39

russian citizens this isn't

08:41

something along those lines these are

08:44

british citizens or english citizens or

08:46

fans around the world who because their

08:49

owner

08:50

is associated with the president of a

08:53

sovereign nation

08:55

their team

08:56

[Music]

08:58

may

08:59

collapse

09:01

in the short term i i chelsea are big

09:04

enough brand

09:05

uh i think that they can weather this i

09:08

i don't think they're in danger of being

09:10

relegated or whatever or or being in

09:13

trouble but how long do they have to go

09:15

through this i think it's super fluid

09:17

and i'm torn

09:19

because

09:21

there's a lot of hypocrisy

09:23

um we've just seen

09:25

the saudi wealth fund the pif by

09:28

newcastle not exactly good people

09:32

i will raise my hand and say listen

09:35

manchester city are owned by sheikh

09:36

mansour of the emirates and abu dhabi

09:42

it's their culture they're doing their

09:44

own things i'm sure there are terrible

09:47

things that sheikh mansour has done in

09:49

the name of his country

09:52

is he funding the houthis in in the

09:55

emirates is he

09:56

funding um uh osama bin laden's former

10:00

fighters i don't know

10:02

we can assume

10:04

that if a country is one of the oil

10:06

states

10:07

that

10:08

there's a loose morality

10:10

that doesn't feel good to deal with

10:12

um

10:14

and we can do that with a lot of very

10:16

very wealthy people they are wealthy

10:20

especially at the multiples when you're

10:22

in the multiple billions of dollars

10:26

they're wealthy

10:27

because

10:29

they see the world a certain way and

10:31

they are ruthless in a it does it

10:33

doesn't mean they're killers i'm not

10:34

saying they're murderers i just find

10:37

this pandora's box of

10:40

taking teams from owners to be worrisome

10:43

i don't know if it's wrong in this case

10:46

i just don't know

10:48

when we're gonna pull this out and use

10:50

it for

10:52

nefarious

10:53

or unusual means

10:55

um sometimes

10:59

where you don't think of second and

11:00

third consequences so you know we should

11:03

be asking ourselves okay

11:05

chelsea's been taking away from roman

11:07

abramovich and then what

11:10

okay this team gets sold but he can't

11:13

get the money okay and then what who

11:15

gets the team who benefits it do we have

11:18

to do this more often what about other

11:20

teams whenever whenever there's a war

11:22

and a country's associated owner is

11:24

connected to it do we then have to take

11:26

the team away because that would mean

11:28

that the sovereign wealth fund of saudi

11:30

arabia and newcastle should have their

11:32

taken team taken away because they're

11:34

forcibly starving the

11:36

the the yemenites in their civil war

11:41

are we going to do that

11:42

is that something we want to think about

11:44

is that something we want to be in

11:45

charge of

11:51

a lot of fan groups

11:54

and

11:55

your your pie in the sky folks are now

11:57

oh we need to go to the german one

12:00

percent ownership this is what this is

12:02

what the premier league has wrought with

12:04

its billionaire owners

12:06

that might be true

12:10

that might be true

12:11

there's other ways to fund teams

12:14

there's other ways to handle football

12:18

or

12:19

the premier league just keeps on going

12:21

on the way it is

12:23

these

12:24

things we

12:25

we want to stick to sports as often as

12:27

possible

12:28

but

12:30

society is reflected in sport

12:33

and there are oligarchs that own teams

12:36

and

12:38

there are labor relations you know we

12:40

just found that out with baseball

12:42

they're all these things that are

12:43

involved in base in football and the

12:46

world i don't know what to do but watch

12:48

this space

12:51

chelsea are one of the big six

12:53

teams

12:54

they're one of the big brands in the

12:55

world um chelsea fans love roman

12:58

abramovich they have

13:00

been singing his names at the games

13:03

um

13:04

and i don't blame them for it

13:06

i really don't they love their team

13:10

he has shown that he cares about winning

13:13

which is all you can ask for

13:15

13:18

of the team chelsea have won the most

13:20

trophies in england and that's a fact

13:24

and chelsea fans can hold on to those

13:26

moments

13:27

they just won the champions league they

13:28

just won the club world cup

13:31

they have mourinho

13:32

they have championships under ancelotti

13:36

they have uefa cup under

13:38

under rafa benitez they have the famous

13:42

siege against the greatest team that

13:45

anyone has ever seen they beat barcelona

13:48

in the champions league

13:50

in the biggest rear guard action you'll

13:53

13:56

hood stood and

13:58

withstood another attack from bayern

14:00

munich and won the champions league that

14:02

season as well

14:04

kante won a league with them mourinho

14:06

came back

14:08

it was against liverpool that the slip

14:10

happened

14:11

it was against chelsea that the world

14:13

famous gerard slip at anfield happens

14:15

and and mourinho reveled in it chelsea

14:18

are there they're part of the fabric of

14:20

the premier league and the fans get to

14:22

revel in those moments and

14:24

abramovich has been the funding of that

14:27

and i

14:28

people hate him he's controversial did

14:31

they dope the league did they break the

14:33

wage structure all these things might be

14:35

true and i don't know the answers to it

14:38

but

14:39

the premier league will never be the

14:41

same it has now been irrevocably changed

14:44

by the events in ukraine and i expect

14:46

more changes more changes to happen i

14:49

think that

14:50

these financial crises

14:53

that are hitting the premier league

14:56

and the financial crises of inflation

14:58

and the financial crises of covid and

15:01

the financial crises of a war in europe

15:04

are gonna change football and this is

15:06

probably just the first step but

15:08

let us get to the football this was the

15:12

champions league week

15:13

we had bayern munich defeating red b red

15:17

bull softsburg 8-2 on aggregate uh i

15:20

guess salzburg weren't ready they did

15:22

they did go into the tie 1-1 but

15:24

lewandowski and bayern munich just

15:25

decide off we're taking you out uh

15:28

uh

15:29

uh lewandowski with a hat trick

15:31

liverpool lose but go through 2-1 on

15:34

aggregate they lost at home

15:36

in anfield

15:37

wow and wow loltaro with the screamer

15:41

and then uh alexis sanchez sent off for

15:44

an orange card unfortunate i think enter

15:47

could have got that liverpool live again

15:50

the ghost of anfield carry them through

15:52

man city win 5-0 on aggregate they play

15:55

a drab nail nil draw the only thing that

15:57

anyone can say about this game is 42

15:59

year old goalkeeper scott carson got to

16:01

play

16:02

and uh some of the kids got to play but

16:05

the drama drama drama came from the real

16:09

mcgridd psg game

16:11

psg up one nil going into the game

16:15

score a goal from mbappe early they're

16:18

up two nil on aggregate in the game

16:21

bape scores two other goals that are

16:23

offside

16:25

psg are cruising

16:27

psg have this thing in hand

16:30

in the second half

16:32

there is a

16:34

bump in the 61st minute

16:37

donnarumma tries to play the ball he is

16:40

not known to be a good keeper for

16:41

playing the ball but he has a

16:43

euro winning goalkeeper he won on

16:45

penalties

16:46

he

16:47

gets bumped off the ball by benzema

16:52

it's a arguable foul

16:55

and from that moment and they score a

16:56

goal goes to venetia's goes back to

16:59

benzema benzema puts it in

17:02

and from that moment on from the 61st

17:04

minute on

17:05

psg collapse

17:07

again

17:09

this is now

17:11

the fifth or sixth year in a row that

17:13

psg have collapsed in not in a row they

17:16

had they made it to the final against

17:18

bayern munich and probably could have

17:19

won that one they made it to the

17:20

semi-final against city and city put

17:23

them out uh in in the snow game they

17:25

were so much better city in that game

17:28

but they have the ramantata where they

17:31

were down they gave up three goals in

17:33

the 87th minute on uh they have just a

17:36

poor poor history and psg's narrative

17:39

continues mike this is just for you

17:42

in football

17:43

because

17:44

there is not free agency because

17:47

there is not mass there is mass movement

17:50

of players but

17:52

teams get stamped with an ethos

17:54

um

17:56

and those narratives live on and

17:57

unfortunately

17:59

you know spurs

18:00

for mike have the concept of spursy

18:03

which is the idea that they they they

18:05

blow it in the end

18:07

and psg have now

18:09

mostly in the champions league picked up

18:10

that

18:12

moniker as well as a team that

18:14

can't find a way to win whereas real

18:17

madrid on the other side are a team that

18:18

have

18:19

the will to win they're warriors they

18:22

have the aged

18:24

battle scars of cruz and

18:26

modric and modric at 36 years old just

18:30

completely

18:31

took over this game from the midfield

18:33

benzema scored in the 76 in the 78th

18:36

minute and psg collapsed they were like

18:40

just gone they couldn't pick their heads

18:42

back up they couldn't get themselves

18:44

back together

18:45

um

18:46

the narrative of this game is

18:48

not one of tactics or not one of

18:54

not one of two teams raising their

18:56

levels but

18:57

of a team

18:59

getting punched in the mouth

19:02

and being unable to recover football

19:05

is

19:07

a wonderful sport

19:09

and there are a couple reasons why it is

19:13

i mean we've talked about it a million

19:15

times

19:16

but

19:17

the

19:19

continuous flow

19:21

and lack of timeouts and lack of

19:23

stoppages and really no way to control a

19:28

crowd when it decides to pick up its

19:30

team like what happened at the bernabeu

19:32

in madrid

19:34

against psg the players in the moment

19:38

have to

19:39

as a group

19:41

find a way to pick themselves back up

19:46

and that doesn't happen

19:51

often teams

19:54

only have so many moments to test

19:56

themselves to get up off the mat

19:59

and sometimes

20:01

the team's history

20:03

ethos ghosts

20:05

uh whatever the case is

20:08

does lift them and for real madrid it is

20:10

a

20:11

we're the 13 time champions of europe

20:13

we're at home we're in a building where

20:16

di stefano where ronaldo where raul

20:19

where the ghost of every real madrid

20:21

champion lives this is our league we're

20:24

royale madrid we are spain we are

20:27

football we are royalty

20:30

regardless of the players it's expected

20:33

for us to pick ourselves off the mat

20:36

react to our crowd

20:38

and go win games and that's exactly what

20:40

real did they found the heart of a

20:42

champion

20:44

it it is

20:46

classic

20:48

it is

20:50

narrative busting but it is there when

20:52

you you watch the game you can feel it i

20:55

i i

20:56

it sounds trite and it sounds cheap and

20:59

it sounds easy but in football

21:03

we have those moments

21:05

and what we have in psg is

21:09

a nouveau riche

21:10

a

21:12

ill-begotten gains team a team that

21:17

is less than the sum of its parts a team

21:19

that's not connected to each other a

21:21

team that doesn't play as a unit a team

21:24

that

21:25

thinks that it can

21:27

get the greatest player of a generation

21:29

on it and that makes it better

21:31

when in fact it doesn't

21:33

teams need to suffer together teams need

21:35

to fight together um

21:38

and and psg have found have

21:41

been unfortunately regardless of coach

21:44

from la juan blanc

21:45

to

21:46

pochettino to tuco

21:49

to ancelotti

21:51

they've all been unable to lift this

21:53

team and and

21:55

bound a unit together because

21:58

the players

22:00

on the team know they can go around and

22:03

go to the owner and so the structure of

22:05

the team doesn't allow for the manager

22:08

or the leader to lead his team and so

22:12

you see these disjointed performances

22:14

where they get punched in the mouth and

22:16

they go down

22:18

and you know it was not an imbape uh

22:22

thing but this was the end of mbappe at

22:24

psg he will leave

22:26

he will go to real madrid he will play

22:28

with benzema and the legend and the

22:32

power of the royalty of

22:35

of of football will live on

22:38

the whites the blancos

22:41

the madristas

22:43

will carry on and they're not going to

22:44

win the champions league real madrid is

22:46

not good enough to win the champions

22:48

league they will lose

22:50

to a team that also plays as a unit

22:53

it will be

22:54

bayern it will be liverpool it will be

22:58

city who can defeat

23:00

this grizzled lion of a team

23:03

that is real madrid i would expect them

23:06

to go out but they take a big scalp

23:08

and

23:09

you know for the

23:12

for the royalty of football they

23:15

continue liverpool goes through bayern

23:17

munich goes through

23:20

uh next week we'll see

23:22

men united and atletico and juventus and

23:25

chelsea

23:27

and iax

23:28

try and get through

23:30

iax having the toughest road with a 2-2

23:33

aggregate

23:39

so we see this the the royalty of

23:41

football come through

23:43

and it's very odd

23:45

because

23:46

it does

23:47

match

23:49

status of the club i don't know how it

23:52

works i don't know why it works but it's

23:54

one of the things that makes me love

23:56

football and it's one of the things that

23:58

even though city are through

24:00

i know they don't have it

24:02

i know they don't have the glory i know

24:05

they don't have the um

24:07

the history behind them

24:08

but we're trying to make our history

24:11

and um

24:12

we made it to the final last year the

24:14

less spoken about the nil nil the better

24:16

but from my perspective with city

24:20

we keep fighting and we have to fight

24:22

against the ghosts of of glory and make

24:25

our own glory and it makes it really

24:27

really really hard um it doesn't

24:29

mean that manchester city don't have

24:31

history

24:32

24:35

they've been champions today part of the

24:37

history of english football

24:39

but they're a local club

24:41

and the people from manchester who love

24:42

the team

24:44

feel insulted that they're they're told

24:46

that they don't have history we have our

24:48

own history we have 99 in the league one

24:50

getting up but

24:52

on the international stage city don't

24:53

have history and that's okay we're gonna

24:56

take united's history united play next

24:58

week against atletico

25:02

but we carry on i i got sidetracked

25:04

normally i just go through the scores

25:05

but i got moved by the champions league

25:09

we also had

25:12

premier league games today out of a blue

25:14

a lot of teams to a lot of games to make

25:16

up

25:20

we had wolves defeat watford 4 nil

25:23

watford still in the bottom three still

25:25

not really going anywhere norwich also

25:28

lose to chelsea chelsea in the face of

25:31

finding out their team

25:33

could collapse we don't know what will

25:35

happen but they win 3-1

25:37

um the fans still chanting bromage's

25:40

name

25:41

goals two goals for havarts uh and a

25:43

goal from chalaba

25:45

newcastle continue their run they're now

25:48

14th in the league they defeat

25:49

southampton i just watched the

25:50

highlights of this southampton were hard

25:52

done they were really really good and

25:54

should have gotten something out of the

25:56

game and leads under jesse march

25:58

give up three more goals

26:00

to the rampant aston villa um

26:05

mcginn's back

26:06

uh coutinho was on the ball in this game

26:09

so aston villa are up to ninth

26:14

and leads have not dropped into the

26:16

bottom three yet but they are getting

26:19

awfully awfully close

26:21

it's getting near

26:22

more than squeaky bum time for them

26:28

as i look through this

26:30

leads just four shots on target

26:33

they have 50 possession but that's just

26:35

not enough

26:36

um

26:38

not a great performance for them

26:40

goals from coutinho calum chambers with

26:43

a worldly also matty cash with a worldy

26:45

so getting two goals from defense for

26:48

for villa and um

26:50

um

26:52

steve gerard has his team

26:55

rolling

26:57

his team

26:58

rolling i'm at the half hour mark nearly

27:01

and i'm starting to get tired and not

27:02

have much to talk about mike and i

27:04

always bring up the fact that whenever

27:05

we do the show solo it gets really hard

27:08

to um to find more than a half hour

27:12

to talk about and when we do the show

27:13

together we get to about an hour so it's

27:15

pretty funny that between the two of us

27:17

we talk for about a half an hour but

27:19

let's go through let's go through the

27:21

the weekends games coming up

27:23

we have

27:25

brighton liverpool

27:26

burnley brentford and the six pointer

27:28

the mighty spurs versus van united but

27:30

then the whole the whole schedule is on

27:32

sunday all at 2 p.m chelsea newcastle

27:35

that count that game gets really tough

27:37

now that'll be the first test for

27:39

newcastle southampton versus watford

27:41

watford should go down west ham villain

27:43

the battle of claret and blues that

27:45

should be a good game as well i really

27:46

love what gerard's doing uh everton

27:48

wolves everton need a win desperately

27:51

they could be in trouble leeds vs

27:53

norwich six pointer there and then to

27:55

end the week we have arsenal versus

27:57

leicester city uh all the top four still

28:01

up for grabs let's go through that as

28:03

well city with the six point lead over

28:06

liverpool who have a game in hand

28:08

uh we don't know what's gonna happen

28:10

there this will all be decided on april

28:12

10th chelsea are in third but we don't

28:16

know if they'll be able to circle the

28:18

wagons on what's going on with them are

28:20

they going to be able to make payroll

28:21

are players going to be looking for a

28:22

way out uh jamie carragher has always

28:25

talked already talking about thomas

28:26

tsukel leaving and taking the man united

28:28

job i mean they're gonna pick the bone

28:31

if chelsea have an economic problem they

28:34

will be picked clean of their players

28:36

the first one to go to will be ruediger

28:38

he'll go to united

28:40

united in fifth west ham and sixth uh

28:44

followed by spurs who have two games in

28:46

hand on 45. there we have our our spice

28:50

boy crew in the middle of the pack there

28:52

basically from 14 to nine they're all

28:55

kind of in the same spot but new castle

28:57

are pushing to break into the party and

29:00

brighton are sitting there uh wishing

29:02

they never sold dan burn and then the

29:04

bottom four

29:07

leads everton burnley watford norwich

29:12

between burnley everton and leeds

29:16

one of them is gonna go down

29:18

um

29:20

burnley look strong

29:22

on paper

29:23

everton are too big of a club leads look

29:26

like the one to fall into that group

29:29

they have burnley have two games in hand

29:31

but only and and leads only have a

29:33

two-point lead i don't trust jesse march

29:36

i do

29:37

trust daish

29:38

uh it you could see leads going down

29:42

if they don't right the ship uh the last

29:44

performance was good against leicester

29:46

and they were hard done not to get a

29:48

result but today's was worse

29:51

and leeds

29:53

giving up goals for fun they have a face

29:56

a must-win against norwich or they are

30:01

in a lot of

30:03

trouble

30:10

i do want to

30:14

take a moment

30:15

to um

30:16

acknowledge how little

30:18

sport means

30:20

it's the least important thing that

30:21

means everything uh this time you know

30:24

we have this chelsea issue

30:27

but why are we having that issue because

30:28

there's a war

30:30

in the ukraine

30:32

that was

30:34

caused by russia whatever they invaded a

30:36

sovereign nation

30:38

whatever the reasons whatever side

30:39

you're on people are dying my friends

30:42

uh in the ukraine i actually have

30:44

friends there

30:45

marina

30:47

pavlo

30:48

misha

30:51

alexi

30:52

that i work with i think about them

30:54

every day

30:56

i hope they're okay and their families

30:58

are okay

30:59

and i hope that um

31:01

they're finding stupid things to do to

31:04

make them happy um and hopefully you

31:07

know this this thing ends uh it's gonna

31:09

affect football it already has russia

31:11

has been completely kicked out of the

31:13

world cup

31:14

uh ukraine have postponed their fifa

31:17

games to um

31:20

to join

31:23

uh they have a playoff game against

31:24

scotland i would like to see fifa just

31:27

be like you know what ukraine

31:29

we're just gonna put a extra

31:30

team in you're in the world cup it's

31:32

those sorts of things that

31:34

are so little

31:36

that can be done

31:38

that could give a country so much hope

31:41

and i wonder if they if if fifa would do

31:44

that i don't think it damages the

31:46

integrity of the thing you think you

31:48

know i don't know

31:49

so you have an extra two teams

31:51

you let you let scotland and ukraine in

31:53

so what

31:55

i don't know

31:58

i know football doesn't want to be

32:00

political but

32:02

everything is political now everything

32:04

means something

32:05

so why not use the power of football the

32:08

power of sport

32:09

to

32:11

lift up a country's hopes

32:13

and just put them in the world cup who

32:15

cares whether they made it or not or

32:17

you know let them play out all their

32:19

moments see if they make it on merit

32:22

and then

32:23

just make a special

32:27

ask ask if a team will sacrifice their

32:29

spot or or make an extra spot or do

32:32

something i don't know the right answer

32:35

make there be a group with an extra team

32:37

so what it's just football it doesn't

32:39

mean anything

32:40

it's just football they're not going to

32:42

win the world cup but if they can have

32:45

their moment in qatar

32:47

for the ukrainian team

32:49

that would probably mean everything to

32:51

them

32:52

they have something to cheer for

32:58

now again did does that

33:00

open a pandora's box again does that

33:02

make me a racist because i didn't say oh

33:05

palestine should have a team or yemen

33:07

should be able to make the caf uh

33:10

championship yeah maybe

33:11

maybe

33:16

but

33:17

you know

33:18

i don't care

33:20

just living in my feelings right now

33:23

and just uh hoping that

33:26

we have peace

33:27

and that um

33:29

that peace comes quickly

33:32

and i hope there's peace for the chelsea

33:34

fans i don't want them to lose their

33:35

team

33:37

i don't want chelsea to collapse just

33:39

because

33:40

roman abramovich

33:42

is a man who was greedy and made friends

33:44

with the wrong guy

33:46

when he was in his 40s

33:48

is he a murderer i don't know

33:51

i certainly hope not

33:54

did he

33:55

steal from russian people probably

33:59

does that mean that every chelsea fan

34:01

should suffer

34:03

i don't know probably not

34:07

because i certainly don't

34:09

i certainly wouldn't want

34:11

manchester city taken away

34:13

or dropped from the premier league

34:15

because of something shake monsoor did

34:17

or

34:17

or um

34:18

the cronkies are found out to be mass

34:21

murderers and and arsenal be taken away

34:24

or or fsg and john henry we find out

34:27

that he's a

34:28

sacrilegious you know pedophile

34:31

ring and liverpool be taken away or or

34:34

hey the sullivan and gold were

34:36

uh porn settlers and they still own west

34:39

ham

34:41

you know

34:42

what

34:43

what's the morality is i guess war and

34:45

bombing hospitals is the morality but he

34:48

didn't do it it's not putin doesn't own

34:50

chelsea a friend of putin owns chelsea

34:52

how far do we go

34:55

if i'm his hairdresser am i the guy who

34:57

takes pictures of him on horseback do i

35:00

lose my team i don't know i'm asking

35:02

questions i mean it's uh it's one of

35:04

these difficult things you know we talk

35:06

about football we talk about uh amazing

35:08

goals um

35:10

did i leave out new i did i left out um

35:14

i left out newcastle over southampton

35:16

today

35:17

really good goal in that game

35:27

i don't know okay

35:28

that i'm gonna wrap it up

35:31

that was the squeaky bum time podcast

35:34

without mike but with laurent we record

35:36

the show on

35:38

tuesdays and fridays we hope for peace

35:41

we hope you'll leave a review we thank

35:43

everyone who follows the show especially

35:45

the chop sports network and fanhub and

35:48

we will see you