In Episode #148 of the Squeaky Bum Time Podcast, Mike is joined by Goalitics founder Oli Carpenter to break down the ever-evolving situation for embattled Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich as he now looks set to reliquinsh control of his beloved football club.

• First of all, how did we get here and what of Abramovich's rumored ties to Vladimir Putin?
• Who are some potential new ownership groups and are we looking at a potential Stan Kroenke situation at Stamford Bridge?
• What could new ownership mean for Chelsea's current operating staff? Who stays and who goes? What fates await Marina Granovskaia, Paulo Ferreira and Thomas Tuchel?
• Will this negatively affect Chelsea's on-field performance in the top four race and Champions League?

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!

00:01

hello and welcome to the squeaky bum

00:03

time podcast with mike and laurent

00:05

laurent isn't here this week but we've

00:06

got somebody better it is friday march

00:08

4th in this episode chelsea fans strap

00:11

in it's been a wild week of drama on the

00:14

field with cup craziness and nonsense

00:16

carabao cup fa cup and of course off the

00:19

field with all of the

00:21

wildly evolving roman abramovich saga

00:24

speaking of we've got a guest on to help

00:26

us get to the bottom of all of that

00:27

we're happy to welcome to the show ollie

00:29

carpenter of goal lytics

00:31

ali how are you today

00:33

hi i'm good thank you mike it's it's

00:36

good to be here and i'm looking forward

00:38

to talking shop with you today yeah

00:39

absolutely so again thank you so much

00:41

for coming on um first let's talk a

00:43

little bit about you and what goal

00:44

lytics is uh we met on twitter uh over

00:47

the course of the last week or so um but

00:49

i know i have some questions because it

00:51

seems like a really interesting project

00:52

so i'll kind of shut up and let you take

00:54

the floor

00:55

um well goaltex is something i sort of

00:57

set up kind of ad hoc um out of nowhere

01:01

what originally happened was i i posted

01:03

a great big long thread about roman

01:05

abramovich and his ties to uh the

01:08

kremlin and putin and things like that

01:09

and it blew up it got like 3 000

01:12

retweets in a couple days like over 10

01:14

000 likes three million of people have

01:16

seen it and i wasn't expecting the uh

01:18

the absolutely huge response that came

01:20

from it so um i thought well what if

01:22

there's a dedicated place for this sort

01:23

of thing

01:24

um so i set up at golatix which is uh

01:27

basically your one-stop shop for

01:29

everything uh which is sport and

01:31

politics related

01:33

very cool very cool it's a better name

01:34

than squeaky bum time we should have

01:35

come up with that

01:37

so that's awesome and i'm i'm looking

01:39

forward to kind of watching not just the

01:41

the growth of of the platform but also

01:44

understanding a little bit more

01:45

obviously um on our show we sort of live

01:48

in that gray area i think that that's

01:50

one where some of the more interesting

01:51

story lines are for me as a spur

01:53

supporter it's why won't joel lewis

01:55

spend a dime with no money but

01:58

largely uh it's in it's in larger things

02:00

like this right and uh and it's not

02:02

often that it happens um but when

02:04

something

02:05

as as massive as the roman abramovich

02:08

saga that we've seen kind of pour out

02:10

over the last week or so it's great to

02:12

have someone like yourself on the show

02:14

to talk about so um so yeah i mean we

02:16

chatted i think it was on saturday or

02:19

maybe sunday uh because right because it

02:21

was during the the the league cup final

02:23

or before it um and so saturday right

02:26

let's walk through the whole week and

02:27

then we'll kind of go step by step

02:28

because i'm curious what your thoughts

02:29

about it pretty much the whole way

02:30

through um so saturday he announces that

02:34

he's going to be stepping away from the

02:36

club but he's still going to be the

02:37

owner but he's giving control of the uh

02:40

to the board of trustees

02:41

and so everybody went hmm that doesn't

02:44

sound like the end of this road but okay

02:46

what does that mean for marina what does

02:48

that mean for a couple of the other

02:49

higher-ups of chelsea right uh sunday

02:51

obviously tumultuous day in the league

02:53

cup with the whole kappa saga we talked

02:55

about that in our last episode we won't

02:56

make you re-lift that um

02:58

[Music]

03:00

uh monday

03:01

all of a sudden abramovic pops up uh

03:04

helping in peace talks between the

03:06

ukraine and russia

03:07

where in the hell did that come from

03:10

tuesday matt law of i think the daily

03:13

mail uh reported that ibrahimovic will

03:15

be receiving offers and possibly could

03:18

sell that turns into wednesday yeah he's

03:21

selling he makes an official statement

03:23

uh with uh through chelsea football club

03:25

on their social media outlets on their

03:26

website all that says he does not want

03:28

the loan to be repaid back

03:30

but the price tag

03:32

suggests otherwise and then of course on

03:34

thursday uh chelsea were actually

03:36

included i don't know if you saw this in

03:37

what was rumored to be the super league

03:40

2 electric boogaloo as i'm calling it

03:42

but there were no german clubs no psg or

03:44

spurs or arsenal i think there was

03:46

actually there's conflicting reports on

03:47

that um

03:49

so i mean and there could be some some

03:52

news since i don't know since we woke up

03:54

today uh that is even furthering this

03:57

this story so but let's start back with

03:59

that that thread on twitter if you could

04:02

uh i guess as i was saying to our

04:04

listeners in the last episode we're

04:06

gonna have ollie come on and explain it

04:07

to me like i'm five years old so without

04:10

further ado

04:11

um well the so the the threads kind of

04:14

breaks down uh what uh abramovich's

04:18

relationship with putin and the kremlin

04:20

has been and it's a story of about two

04:21

decades in the making

04:24

um and it sort of it points out some

04:26

sort of certain factors um of about

04:28

where abramovic and putin have crossed

04:31

paths um in the past um specifically

04:34

04:37

um

04:38

putin was um

04:40

recommended to

04:42

uh boris yeltsin by abramovic as his

04:45

successor to russia for example um

04:48

abramovic was uh a governor of um a

04:51

russian oblast like a province called

04:53

the chukotka in the far east for like

04:55

eight years um

04:57

he even recommended uh president

04:59

medvedev um to be

05:01

uh to jump in as as president when

05:04

putin's

05:05

previous term had subsided um while he

05:08

sort of took a years stint away

05:11

as a prime minister

05:13

yeah it's very sort of liberal uh how

05:15

all that went but um

05:17

and uh the other major factor was uh

05:20

abramovich obviously had a very large

05:22

role to play in

05:24

um russia's successful world cup bid uh

05:26

05:29

um

05:30

from what i have read he has been

05:32

instrumental

05:33

in that um but it's interesting that

05:35

05:37

05:39

involvement with the kremlin and then

05:41

after that there's almost nothing

05:44

um

05:46

except for the russian world cup um

05:48

which leads me personally to believe

05:50

that abramovic sort of since that point

05:53

since leaving his governorship in

05:54

chicago um

05:56

kind of wanted to distance himself from

05:58

putin in a sense um

06:01

and you can see why he would want to do

06:03

that in some ways you know especially

06:05

for the reasons we're seeing now you

06:06

know sanctions and things like that that

06:08

are being uh talked around you know

06:11

everyone on twitter becomes an expert

06:12

overnight right but um on the on

06:15

geopolitics last week it was uh

06:17

something else this week is geopolitics

06:20

it's really interesting

06:22

um and it's also important to note that

06:24

um abramovic as well

06:26

um like i say he was really involved in

06:29

06:31

russian world cup bid

06:33

but other than that in like a decade he

06:35

hasn't really been involved with the uh

06:37

with the kremlin at all um so there's

06:40

this sort of

06:42

easy isn't he

06:43

involved sort of thing to it where

06:46

it seems that like he's sort of he's

06:48

keeping putin at arm's length through

06:49

other things that he's done such as he

06:51

gave putin a yacht for example um he

06:54

also um didn't go back to russia though

06:57

when he when his visa wasn't renewed in

06:59

the uk he went to israel instead and got

07:02

israeli citizenship from their right to

07:03

return

07:04

um and it just shows that this whole

07:07

thing is that abramovich

07:09

knows putin like that's completely you

07:12

know that that's beyond

07:13

a doubt known at this point um knows

07:16

putin and even was described at least in

07:18

the past to sort of having like a

07:19

father-son relationship with him um but

07:22

now i think that's kind of

07:23

more evolved into like uneasy

07:26

alliance or sort of like

07:28

as

07:30

that's kind of what i'd say whereas you

07:31

know he's kind of keeping putin at arm's

07:33

length

07:34

um while sort of trying to protect his

07:36

own assets and i think that's kind of

07:38

ultimately where this whole sale of

07:39

chelsea's come from

07:41

that makes sense and even if you go back

07:43

to um the the world cup bid right i

07:46

don't remember exactly when but i know

07:48

07:51

07:54

that whole process was so if you really

07:56

if you parse it back four more years

07:57

08:00

all settled so that settles right into

08:02

that oh

08:03

08:06

spelled out for us yeah and the

08:08

important thing to remember as well is

08:09

like a brown which is like a notoriously

08:11

private guy so like he didn't speak to

08:13

the media for like 16 years or something

08:15

like that before eventually coming out

08:17

and having an interview one day um and

08:19

it just shows that maybe you know part

08:21

of the whole reason of him wanting to

08:23

sell is that there are just too many

08:25

eyes on him at the moment you know he's

08:26

a private guy and he doesn't want to be

08:28

in the spotlight anymore and maybe

08:30

that's kind of been the the reason for

08:32

him choosing to want to accept offers

08:34

for chelsea

08:35

sure and you know that was obviously one

08:37

of the questions i i think everybody has

08:39

right where um

08:41

it doesn't seem

08:43

because he is a private guy you don't

08:44

get a good insight into who the man is

08:47

what the man make what makes the man

08:48

tick

08:49

and

08:50

i think you could draw a straight line

08:52

between him and chelsea football club as

08:54

far as like this is he loves this more

08:56

than any person on earth it feels like

08:58

right and so there were um

09:01

at least murmurs of a complete redesign

09:04

or potential new stadium to replace the

09:06

bridge at some point right so so he was

09:09

going to make his mark on

09:11

um

09:12

an everlasting mark as if he hadn't

09:14

already right um on on chelsea um so it

09:18

is it is sort of interesting to see that

09:21

the the rapidness with which this is

09:23

sort of uh kind of played out between

09:26

like i gave the timeline before between

09:28

sunday and wednesday it went from um

09:30

maybe he's gonna step back for a little

09:32

while too he's selling the club he has

09:34

three offers on the table it's it's

09:36

impressively fast um

09:38

so so that's kind of where i it's all

09:41

conjecture right but i like you said it

09:43

is certainly to do with the most recent

09:46

fallout in uh in in russia and ukraine

09:49

so um

09:51

i want to turn to a second to um what do

09:54

you think about

09:56

the future for chelsea potentially looks

09:58

like

09:59

in the in life after roman if you will

10:02

um we've heard that there are a couple

10:04

of buyers there's some u.s consortiums

10:07

um

10:08

and i i look at it in the context of

10:11

current premier league ownerships right

10:13

um

10:14

and three that i would bring up two are

10:16

in london uh with stan kroenke uh joe

10:19

lewis who are

10:21

i would say relatively hands off and

10:23

then sheik mansour obviously of

10:24

manchester city um who's far more not

10:28

that he's active but he his his funding

10:30

is active for and i'll stay take a step

10:32

back for the listeners who don't i'm not

10:33

sure

10:35

um all of this money that chelsea has

10:37

spent on players we've talked about how

10:39

much they've spent on lukaku quite a bit

10:41

um this is all in the context of

10:44

personal loans from roman abramovich

10:47

that correct me if i'm wrong uh is

10:49

upwards of 1.5 billion pounds maybe two

10:53

i'm not sure that i lose it in exchange

10:54

rates sometimes um

10:56

where effectively

10:58

when he sells

11:00

the thinking is that that would be built

11:02

into the cost of the acquisition for the

11:05

new buyer so with that in mind

11:08

do you think that there's um

11:12

does you think that that a deters any

11:14

potential buyers and b

11:16

do you think that what what do you think

11:18

of the new potential ownership that

11:19

could come in

11:20

in the context of like i said that

11:22

cronky lewis and mansour

11:25

spectrum if you will

11:27

uh okay so i'll do do one thing at a

11:29

time

11:30

the um

11:31

in terms of the

11:33

the the 1.5 billion pound loan um it

11:36

appears that he's at uh abramovich he

11:38

released in his statement when he said

11:40

he was going to sell the club that he

11:41

wasn't going to be asking for that back

11:43

um

11:44

and that uh therefore chelsea will be

11:47

able to

11:48

just sort of

11:49

have it written off as it were um

11:52

brahmovich and so abramovic is only

11:54

looking to uh i believe he said he's

11:56

only looking to get the net proceeds um

11:59

and he's going to donate the rest to

12:01

charities in ukraine um you know sorry

12:04

he's actually going to set up a charity

12:06

to donate to the ukrainian people who

12:08

are suffering at the moment um and i

12:10

think more than anything that can

12:11

probably tell you where he stands on

12:13

things um without him having to actually

12:16

um

12:17

condemn putin himself because we all

12:19

know what happens when people condemn

12:20

putin

12:22

people don't last very long so um

12:26

in terms of um the loan itself i don't

12:28

think um that'll put people off because

12:30

like i said um

12:31

abramovic is planning on having it sort

12:33

of be written off as it were um and he's

12:35

not asking chelsea for it back there was

12:37

a lot of conjecture around and a lot of

12:40

speculation around what would happen if

12:42

someone wanted to come in and they

12:44

assume that debt and then suddenly

12:46

chelsea are a team that's one and a half

12:48

billion pounds in debt and the owners

12:49

don't really want to do anything

12:51

with it

12:52

they just kind of want to use it to

12:53

profit off chelsea and make some money

12:55

which would be the worst case scenario

12:58

um but i would say in terms of like what

13:01

a new ownership structure needs to look

13:03

like

13:04

for chelsea there's there's definitely

13:06

the chance of getting sort of like a

13:08

consortium type um set up with multiple

13:11

buyers that's what's being talked about

13:12

a lot today um i believe his name is

13:15

weiss or vice i don't know how you

13:16

pronounce it but the swedish guy and

13:18

some americans are looking into buying

13:20

uh at least they've put an offer on the

13:22

table i think of around three billion

13:24

for abramovich

13:26

and we're hearing of other reports of um

13:31

unconfirmed people you know people we

13:34

don't know yet unnamed um who are also

13:36

bidding

13:37

literally as of sort of a couple hours

13:40

ago um for chelsea so

13:43

i think where where it could go um in

13:46

terms of chelsea the the post-roman era

13:48

is going to be for starters extremely

13:52

like it could be a hugely broad

13:56

set of circumstances on the one hand you

13:59

could get

14:00

roman 2 right which pretty much every

14:03

chelsea family to use best case scenario

14:05

um in my opinion you get someone who

14:08

loves the club who wants to put money

14:10

into the club um keeps that ruthlessness

14:13

that chelsea are so well known for

14:15

um and win at all costs because that's

14:17

the that's sort of the uh the chelsea

14:20

um sort of culture as it were you know

14:22

i think a lot of chelsea fans when they

14:25

look at

14:25

um other teams like um arsenal for

14:28

example or man united they really worry

14:30

in terms of like the the ownership

14:32

structure and if we don't get a good

14:34

owner on the other end of that spectrum

14:35

if we get an owner who is somewhere more

14:38

like the glazers or someone more like

14:39

cronky i don't know much about joel joe

14:41

lewis myself but maybe he is a part of

14:44

that

14:47

you know maybe it's the case that

14:50

he's you know like maybe in from that

14:52

way you're looking at people who are

14:53

trying to make money off of the club

14:55

instead of really um put the you know

14:57

who are putting the money before the

14:58

club and the and the money before the

15:00

passion for the sport and the club which

15:02

is

15:03

and and that won't sit very well with

15:05

chelsea fans because that'll be a

15:06

massive culture shock to someone who's

15:09

who's treated the club like his baby put

15:11

ridiculous amounts of money into it

15:13

loves the city loves the people and and

15:16

now that he's selling you even though

15:18

i think he knows the writings on the

15:19

wall which is why he's selling i think

15:21

he knows that he will be sanctioned soon

15:22

if he doesn't um

15:24

so ideally what i have heard and this is

15:28

all conjecture and twitter nonsense you

15:31

know if you choose it to be i suppose

15:32

but um from what he has said he wants

15:35

obviously to the best for chelsea so

15:37

he'll likely pick the best candidate who

15:40

gives him a

15:41

strong enough bid so if there are

15:42

several uh buyers all looking for a

15:45

roughly about the three billion mark i

15:47

think he'll probably end up um

15:50

choosing whichever one of those is best

15:52

for chelsea

15:54

which is a little bit worrisome in some

15:57

cases because

15:58

um roman loves the club and we know that

16:00

but we don't know um well we probably do

16:03

know how much he likes the british

16:05

government at the moment which is

16:06

probably not a lot um and you might want

16:08

to give them some problems or you know

16:10

something like that or

16:11

hurt the british government in some way

16:13

through chelsea by his choice of next

16:15

owner but personally i don't think i

16:17

think it'd be a little vindictive of him

16:18

to do that i think he loves the club too

16:20

much for that and he'd rather go with

16:22

grace

16:23

um so i think ultimately

16:25

yeah like it's gonna be

16:27

one thing or it's gonna be completely on

16:29

the other end and it it's it's sort of

16:31

it's uh it's like being at the crest of

16:33

a roller coaster for chelsea fans at the

16:35

moment you have no like you know you

16:37

know there's a you know it's about to

16:39

get really exciting uh

16:41

uh for one reason or another but we're

16:43

just not sure in what way yet well it

16:45

seems like it's been exciting the last i

16:47

don't know what 10 days or so uh

16:49

substituting goalkeepers before

16:51

penalties i promised i wouldn't talk

16:53

about it i'm sorry

16:55

that's okay but to be honest i think it

16:56

was the right decision i think it's the

16:58

right call

16:59

okay

17:00

and so wait so i'm actually now now i

17:02

have to why do you think that was the

17:04

right call well okay right so

17:07

just to get into that you know this is a

17:09

good opportunity for me to speak about

17:10

my my uh because we all know

17:12

from my thread and things like that

17:14

clearly of my excellent political

17:16

insight

17:17

but here we can talk about my insane

17:19

ball knowledge which is you know it's

17:20

great

17:23

and you know and how modest i am as well

17:25

yes um

17:27

but

17:27

so here's what i think is the right

17:29

decision uh for him to bring kepper on

17:31

yes mandy was having a good game right

17:33

that's in the in the in the league cup

17:35

final there was no doubt about that

17:37

but the plan has always been for kepper

17:39

to come on that is always the plan in

17:41

penalty shootouts kepper is a penalty

17:43

specialist

17:44

and i think he doesn't get anywhere near

17:46

the amount of bat well he gets way more

17:48

backlash than he would have done because

17:50

he missed

17:51

um i think if he had come on say

17:55

uh the

17:56

instead of going to 11 10 or whatever it

17:59

was kepper scores his penalty and it

18:01

just goes on further right and then

18:02

eventually say liverpool win anyway on

18:04

say 15 14 or whatever um then that

18:07

player gets a lot of stick but on top of

18:09

keffer being sobbed on he also missed

18:12

the the penalty you know even when he's

18:14

named as the the specific penalty spent

18:17

specialist but

18:18

i think you've got to trust in tucle on

18:20

that one um you know he's uh kepp has

18:22

saved us in a fair few penalty uh

18:24

shootouts in the past in particular the

18:26

super cup people have really short

18:27

memories you know he came on

18:29

in the 119th minute of that game won us

18:32

the penalty shootout you know so i think

18:34

it was it was for all intents and

18:36

purposes especially when you look at

18:38

stats and the statistics and the um the

18:40

percentages and things like that of

18:41

penalty saves keppa is a better penalty

18:44

saver than mendy no matter how good a

18:45

game he's having right and and

18:47

ultimately i

18:48

um you can't put

18:50

too much pressure on a goalkeeper

18:52

missing a penalty because that's not

18:54

their job um you know you can say all

18:56

you like about having missed the other

18:58

penalty uh having not saved the other

19:00

penalties but remember kelleher didn't

19:01

save any others either right no and and

19:03

so

19:04

when we say penalty specialist we did

19:06

not mean taking penalties right

19:09

i think that's important to call out

19:10

right away we call that we talked a lot

19:12

about it on our show on on tuesday um

19:15

the thing that we found interesting and

19:18

i was actually saying and i was first

19:20

guessing it i i had forgotten that they

19:23

do do this and i did listen to uh tukel

19:25

saying you know the plan assuming we

19:27

have a substitution left is to bring him

19:29

on at the end of extra time and i

19:31

understand that uh two things i'm not

19:33

sure there's there's enough data in

19:36

games to say he's definitely better than

19:39

in penalties which is by the way still a

19:41

handful of coin flips anyway most of the

19:43

time right um so that he was having a

19:46

good game and also he's five inches

19:48

bigger than kevin

19:50

which i think should matter more than it

19:52

does right like so um as a casual

19:54

observer frankly i don't care much for

19:56

chelsea or liverpool i was watching that

19:58

game uh kind of as a very interested

20:01

neutral i guess um

20:03

but uh i i found that to be very very

20:06

interesting and of course you have to

20:08

talk about keppe's past right with the

20:09

the it was the lead cup i think a few

20:11

years back with sorry right so so that

20:14

that is for me at least and i think for

20:16

a lot of fans the lasting image they

20:18

have of keppa because that was sort of

20:19

the peak of him at chelsea uh if there

20:22

was one i suppose um

20:24

but yeah so i think that that was the

20:26

the main

20:27

questions that we sort of had walking

20:29

out of walking into the penalty shootout

20:31

i was like i don't know and then i don't

20:32

know if you're familiar with um the men

20:34

and blazers podcast they're very famous

20:36

here in the states they are both british

20:37

by the way one and then uh michael

20:39

davies is a chelsea supporter um but

20:41

they always say the premier league

20:43

scriptwriters right like because it's

20:44

like some things you just can't make up

20:46

right keppa comes on and it's 10 10 or

20:49

11 10 at this point and he has to he has

20:51

to score to keep it going and of course

20:53

he hits it not even not even on the

20:56

frame he hits it into rosie right so i

20:57

mean it was an excellent field goal it

20:59

was fantastic yeah i mean that's good

21:02

from 60 yards so yeah um yeah i mean um

21:06

so i guess i'll i'll i'll move into more

21:08

football then com questions then do you

21:11

think that because we saw them struggle

21:13

with loot in town yes yesterday whenever

21:15

that was in the fa cup they ended up

21:17

pulling out a 3-2 victory um do you

21:20

think that this and tuko has

21:22

acknowledged this do you think that this

21:24

kind of can create issues for chelsea on

21:26

the field in the next i don't know

21:29

next couple of weeks they seem to be

21:31

locked into that third spot

21:33

we've said on the show a lot we don't

21:34

really think that they're of the elk of

21:36

liverpool or city this year and that's

21:38

certainly nothing against chelsea at all

21:40

um and they don't seem to be in danger

21:44

of any of the frankly also rans behind

21:46

them fighting amongst themselves for

21:47

fourth but do you think that they could

21:49

be pulled into that race as a function

21:51

of this

21:54

i

21:55

it's possible uh you know i think

21:56

there's a lot of um the speculation

21:58

around the club right now and um i think

22:01

there's a there's a really interesting

22:02

way to view it and that's through two

22:05

cool's managerial style um it's really

22:08

important to remember to said like

22:09

several times this season when there's

22:11

been like drama around the club whether

22:13

it was the romelu lukaku interview um

22:16

whether it's now the stuff with ukraine

22:17

or abramovich selling the club he hates

22:20

noise you know he's someone who doesn't

22:22

like distractions

22:24

and it's clear like you know seeing the

22:26

um the players play yesterday even

22:28

though we did pull out the victory um we

22:29

were nowhere near the sort of quality

22:32

that you would expect um from you know a

22:34

chelsea side going up against a good and

22:37

strong but ultimately less good luton

22:40

loon town team

22:42

um so i think it's clear to see that the

22:44

players are distracted um it's now come

22:46

out i think angola kante did a uh

22:48

an interview today where he said um

22:50

because the news came out so

22:53

soon before the game it sort of it did

22:55

have a sort of a distracting effect on

22:58

the players

22:59

and it will also have that effect on

23:00

touhou

23:01

you know

23:03

i'm not sure what uh what possessed him

23:06

to choose to play loftus-cheek uh in the

23:08

center of a back three defense but you

23:10

know it's it's again it's you know it's

23:12

one of those ones like the uh the kepper

23:14

and mendy situation if it if it works

23:16

it's a it's a stroke of genius

23:19

and it did work um so i think it's fair

23:21

to say that there's there's a lot going

23:23

on at chelsea at the moment and um

23:26

i would be surprised if we didn't see

23:27

results suffer on the pitch a little

23:30

as a result um but i guess now it's the

23:32

chelsea fan in me saying i really hope

23:34

that doesn't happen because getting

23:36

pulled into the top four race will be

23:38

quite um quite a miserable place to be

23:41

uh

23:42

um you know especially because it's so

23:43

competitive this year for that fourth

23:45

spot you've got the likes of spurs are

23:47

looking better under conde conte all the

23:49

time you know even though you know

23:51

they've had their issues you've got

23:52

arsenal who are who are just flying in

23:54

some games you've got west ham man

23:56

united who are probably actually in my

23:59

opinion won't make it this season but um

24:01

you know you've got a lot of really

24:03

really strong teams vying for fourth and

24:05

if chelsea let up too much they can

24:07

definitely get leapfrogged um and with

24:09

the distractions going on at the club um

24:12

i think that's definitely has to be a

24:13

valid concern whether or not it will be

24:15

in a few weeks you know we'll see maybe

24:16

they can steady the ship

24:18

yeah no and as i turn to looking at

24:20

chelsea's upcoming schedule hey burnley

24:23

is not your father's burnley anymore i

24:25

mean they are

24:26

they are still playing a lot of the same

24:28

style they are still very much sean

24:30

dyche ball if you will but there's

24:32

there's a hunger about them uh that i

24:36

i'm scared of now i mean i just got bit

24:38

by it a few weeks ago right or whatever

24:39

that was but so they go into turf more

24:41

on saturday then they they uh are away

24:44

at norwich look that's luton town right

24:47

like you can be distracted as you want

24:48

you're still a chelsea football club you

24:50

still should take care of business

24:51

against norwich newcastle for me at home

24:54

i think that that's one that they can

24:55

probably take care of then you've got

24:57

some of the cup games you're already up

24:59

nil um against lille in the uh in the

25:01

champions league we've seen more

25:03

dramatic things happen

25:05

but come on

25:06

unlikely right so uh and then

25:08

middlesbrough uh in the fa cup the less

25:11

talked about middlesbrough's last fa cup

25:13

game the better um and uh uh

25:16

then brentford and southampton in leeds

25:18

right so obviously after that it

25:20

certainly picks up you've got far more

25:23

you know difficult fixtures to end the

25:25

season um but i do think that you pick

25:28

up a good amount a healthy amount of

25:29

points there

25:30

and you probably move into the uh the

25:32

quarterfinal the champions league and

25:33

probably the semi-final of the fa cup so

25:36

you're looking at you know uh a season

25:38

despite all of the lukaku stuff despite

25:41

all of the you know the the ownership

25:43

stuff you were quite literally one

25:45

penalty away from the carabao cup

25:47

whatever

25:49

more than likely the at least the

25:51

quarterfinals of the champions league

25:52

the semi-finals of the fa cup and

25:54

comfortably in the top four because

25:55

again

25:56

i just it's it's going to be awfully

25:58

hard for me to see them lose that many

26:00

points in the next call it three to four

26:02

weeks

26:03

where spurs or united or west ham or

26:07

arsenal basically two of those has to

26:10

catch you for it to really be

26:11

troublesome and yeah we've talked a lot

26:14

on the show we've spent way too much

26:15

time on the top four race this year

26:16

because it's one of those hot potatoes

26:18

that literally nobody wants uh and

26:20

sometimes that makes for the best races

26:23

but not when you're in it i can promise

26:24

you that

26:26

so

26:27

it's really interesting because you know

26:29

that like i said it's really really

26:31

competitive this season especially for

26:33

that um you know it seems that the i

26:35

mean for all intents and purposes i know

26:36

there's been talk about like sort of

26:38

like a title check

26:40

reignition for liverpool but i don't

26:41

think that'll happen i think i think

26:43

city have it's sewn up um i think

26:45

liverpool comfortably get second

26:47

then you've got chelsea who you know

26:49

despite what we've said it's pretty

26:50

likely they'll get third but fourth

26:52

position is absolutely crucial this

26:54

season um you know it and the clubs

26:58

vying for it are all they're all big

26:59

clubs they're all clubs that really you

27:01

know are looking

27:02

um looking to make their mark especially

27:05

the likes of west ham who who are

27:07

absolutely phenomenal on the david moyes

27:09

this season you know for what they've

27:10

been doing in the past

27:12

um he said yeah like uh there's a

27:14

there's a it's a getting very

27:16

competitive just going back um to

27:18

talking about chelsea's schedule um yeah

27:20

burnley aren't your father's burnley

27:21

anymore i think that's a really good way

27:23

to put it they've um they've sort of

27:25

evolved with the times they i think it

27:27

used to kind of be the um ever since

27:30

stoke left the premier league burnley

27:32

sort of took up the mantle of being that

27:34

team

27:35

um you know where it's just kind of

27:38

kick it lump it long and you know you'll

27:40

get enough points and you'll stay up but

27:42

you know um maxwell corney is one of my

27:44

favorite players um out of the top six

27:46

this season he's he's an absolutely

27:49

phenomenal player um and he's been

27:51

phenomenal for for burnley this season

27:54

so i'm really really impressed with him

27:55

so

27:56

i don't know if he is injured or

27:58

anything at the moment but if he plays

28:00

against chelsea um that will be a

28:02

serious concern for us because you know

28:05

all

28:06

you know

28:08

we have this thing amongst um chelsea

28:10

fans sometimes we're called charity fc

28:12

because we're we're good at just gifting

28:14

games away

28:16

and uh and you know i'm sure as the

28:18

spurs fan sometimes it feels like that i

28:20

have no idea what you're talking about

28:24

so you know it's kind of a chance for

28:25

charity fc to be in full effect

28:27

especially against the likes of burnley

28:29

um and you know i know how you say that

28:31

norwich aren't really uh you know aren't

28:33

really much competition and while we did

28:34

beat them by quite a significant margin

28:36

in the earlier game this season chelsea

28:38

were flying high they had a lot of the

28:40

players they um

28:41

don't now don't have a lot of the

28:43

players that they had back then because

28:44

of the likes of chillwell getting

28:45

injured and things like that and

28:48

as well when you look at it norwich is

28:49

starting to press up on form as well

28:51

they almost drew with liverpool a couple

28:53

weeks ago i think you know so i think

28:54

it's it's important to remember that

28:56

norwich were also on an opera trajectory

28:58

that i don't think

28:59

you know it's the classic thing of the

29:00

premier league everyone can beat

29:02

everyone more or less except man city

29:04

man city beats everyone else but um

29:07

except for tottenham this year except

29:09

for tottenham

29:10

yeah who who then themselves can that's

29:13

our trouble against everyone else but

29:14

you know

29:16

uh yeah so it i don't know um i think

29:20

it will be a largely defined down to the

29:23

players response um especially with all

29:25

the uncertainty going on at the club at

29:27

the moment

29:28

um for whether the

29:30

where the chelsea's fixture list you

29:32

know weather comes for

29:34

april we're looking

29:35

like we've secured top uh we've secured

29:37

third place or whether it's looking a

29:39

little dicey you know it only takes one

29:41

or two poor results in tandem

29:44

before

29:45

especially at chelsea before people

29:46

start asking questions and

29:48

and there's like a lot of speculation

29:50

about what's next and what the answer is

29:52

especially with our misfiring attack

29:54

this season yeah now that makes sense

29:56

and they still have two games at hand as

29:58

i love to point out but those are not

30:00

easy games uh at home against leicester

30:02

and then you've got a london darby

30:04

against arsenal which i mean geez that

30:06

could be three versus four that could

30:07

have some kind of permutations for both

30:10

teams uh in the top four race so that'll

30:12

be a really exciting game still to be

30:13

decided when that game is going to be

30:16

um but yeah i think my larger point was

30:18

like hey

30:19

you're not playing a lot of the top side

30:21

these are points that despite charity fc

30:23

you probably should pick up and should

30:25

see you clear

30:27

through again a a bumbly uh top four

30:31

it's it's top three and then the rest i

30:33

think is how we've kind of um looked at

30:36

it for a lot of the season but um

30:38

so

30:39

let's go back to the post-roman era for

30:41

a second uh

30:43

i had again this is all twitter

30:45

conjecture i think is how you put it

30:47

it's absolutely bang on i have seen

30:49

names um like paula ferreira potentially

30:52

leaving the club uh marine i think that

30:54

was confirmed today is that confirmed

30:56

okay so then that's a that's a

30:57

significant loss

30:59

or absence

31:00

for chelsea going forward marina who we

31:02

have uh fawned over as much as any

31:04

tottenham can on this show the way that

31:07

she handles basically everything and you

31:09

could tell us better than than we the

31:11

homework that we did but

31:13

this is more or less her club at this

31:15

point is that fair to say

31:16

um yeah you could say that to a certain

31:19

degree um i think there's

31:22

marina gets uh a lot more credit

31:25

maybe than she should and also a lot

31:28

more stick than she should at the same

31:30

time so like she gets a lot of criticism

31:32

a lot of criticism and she also gets a

31:34

lot of love and the the love she gets is

31:36

obviously for being an excellent

31:38

financier of football deals right you

31:40

know the likes of selling the hazard for

31:42

whatever it was

31:44

combined 150 million on the last year of

31:46

his contract you've got morata who you

31:48

know i'm who i'm convinced at this point

31:50

is an international money laundering

31:52

operation because how

31:54

many people paid 60 odd million for

31:56

maratha um

31:58

you know and and getting good deals for

32:00

almost every player who we do bring in

32:02

um

32:03

you know it's uh marina who signed the

32:05

likes of uh con angola conte for 32

32:08

million where you know and if if you can

32:10

imagine the likes of angola kante going

32:13

for anything other than you know back

32:15

then going for anything other than

32:17

60 odd million now you'd be absolutely

32:20

laughing so

32:22

you know she's she gets a lot of praise

32:24

um

32:25

and she and she deserves that praise

32:27

it's worth saying you know i think um

32:29

what a clear thing is to see as well

32:31

about the speculation about who's coming

32:32

and who's leaving at chelsea to see how

32:34

good a person really is um because we

32:36

all get these little echo chambers of

32:37

our own clubs and our own fans right

32:40

is to actually look outside of it look

32:41

what and see what rival fans think of

32:44

someone joining or leaving your club

32:46

right and rival fans will be lapping up

32:48

the concept of mourinho leaving chelsea

32:50

that shows how big of an impact she's

32:52

had on the on the other side she gets

32:55

a lot more criticism than maybe um she

32:57

deserves especially from inside the

32:59

chelsea fan base because people don't

33:01

always quite understand and it's quite

33:03

easy to misunderstand why um because she

33:06

is only a financer of deals she doesn't

33:08

scout players she can only work with you

33:10

know okay this is the target all right

33:11

i'm going to negotiate the best price

33:13

that i can for this player um

33:16

she doesn't scout the players um so you

33:18

know the likes of lukaku and bakayoko

33:21

and this and that and and all the

33:23

players you know although now you know

33:25

the laundry list of players who have

33:27

started to not quite hit the right mark

33:29

at chelsea um she can be an easy

33:31

scapegoat because people go look she

33:33

paid for this but you know you're

33:34

actually going well the club paid for it

33:36

and she made the deal as good as it

33:38

could be but you know she's also you

33:40

know she's only given what's in front of

33:42

her in terms of targets at least that's

33:44

the way i understand it um and i think

33:47

people can um people can give mourinho a

33:50

lot of stick for that on the other side

33:52

as well there's valid criticisms to give

33:54

marina as well um because she is

33:57

notoriously hard-nosed right in terms of

33:59

business deals and that really works to

34:01

chelsea's um

34:03

to chelsea's benefit a lot of the time

34:05

but except when selling players that um

34:08

you know the when people talk about

34:09

deadwood players um you know these are

34:12

actually you know assets of the club and

34:14

it's important to be able to get as much

34:15

money out of them as possible for the

34:17

stable unsustainable running of the club

34:19

you've got the likes of you know

34:20

bakayoko uh bashuahi kennedy who just

34:24

came back into the squad all these sorts

34:26

of players who are still on chelsea

34:27

books danny drinkwater even you know who

34:29

he paid a ridiculous amount of money for

34:31

in his

34:32

oh just don't go into it but um

34:35

you know and and the reason marina gets

34:38

criticism is because at this point

34:40

chelsea are saying free up the wages

34:42

sell you know just sell them for

34:43

anything doesn't matter let their

34:45

contracts you know don't let the

34:46

contracts run just sell them for a

34:47

million sell them for a twix and a

34:49

packet of biscuits if you have to just

34:51

sell them um but marina uh is you know

34:54

focused on getting the most out that she

34:56

can for players you know if she can eat

34:58

seven for this player and three million

35:00

for this player and 20 million for this

35:02

player it adds up kind of quickly and i

35:03

think it's

35:05

it can be easy to miss that um but at

35:08

the same time it's very frustrating

35:09

where if she's going if she holds out um

35:12

on deals that potentially could make the

35:14

club better in the long run for the

35:15

financial

35:17

impact right now

35:19

so it's sort of it's here and there she

35:21

gets a lot more stick than she deserves

35:23

but she also gets a lot of love that i

35:25

think is also deserved but

35:28

you know she has her downsides as well

35:30

no that makes a lot of sense and i think

35:31

um

35:33

the uh the way that we look at her and i

35:35

think the way you said that like we

35:37

actually think she's fantastic so if she

35:39

did leave we'd be like all right that's

35:41

that's good news for not chelsea fans

35:43

essentially right um

35:45

uh i think the way that we look at her

35:47

is the way that she's managed what we

35:48

sort of refer to as like the chelsea

35:50

loan army and if laurent were here he

35:52

would be fawning over his new love child

35:54

conor gallagher um and so you look into

35:59

if let's say go back to the earlier part

36:01

of the conversation where like the worst

36:03

case scenario for

36:04

for chelsea where basically you have

36:06

more or less uh just a cranky as a

36:09

new owner right um uh you still have

36:13

that stable of you're gonna plug him

36:15

into your midfield next year no problem

36:16

right so um

36:18

there is even the worst case scenario

36:21

for chelsea in the near term

36:23

still pretty good right so um that's

36:26

sort of where we

36:28

have given her so much credit to say wow

36:30

not only is she moving these players on

36:33

to be able to fund a lukaku deal even if

36:35

that deal falls on its face it's a net

36:38

even right it doesn't hurt at all

36:39

whereas you know some of the other clubs

36:42

in the league especially

36:43

clubs that consider them

36:45

effectively fighting for the same spots

36:46

and same same trophies

36:48

spurs can't do that spurs literally

36:50

wanted to do that with lotaro martinez

36:51

and they couldn't right so um

36:54

so so it's interesting that even despite

36:56

all of roman's money in the loans and

36:58

all that stuff she does still to a

37:00

degree run it as you said like with the

37:02

hazard sale

37:04

pretty close to a net even uh you know

37:07

kind of operation which is shocking to

37:09

think about you think you only look at

37:10

it as oh they spent 100 million on the

37:12

concrete they spent this on this guy and

37:14

so on and so forth but actually like you

37:16

said 3 7 10 not just the dead wood but a

37:18

lot of these players coming through the

37:19

ranks they add up as well so um so i

37:23

find that that's how we've always at

37:24

least from from this side of the pond

37:26

myself and lauren have always looked at

37:28

uh marina as the man we got to get that

37:30

out of here because she's awesome

37:31

you know um

37:33

so so i'm very curious to see what what

37:35

she does or what her role may or may not

37:37

be in this new world order at chelsea um

37:42

what do you think about uh it like is

37:44

anybody safe right is tucle safe because

37:46

when i think about a new regime coming

37:48

in in any american sport and this is

37:50

sort of what we do a lot on the show we

37:51

basically say okay well over here this

37:54

is what would happen right and so uh if

37:56

a new general manager would have come in

37:57

or a new ownership or whatever uh i

37:59

think of college football a lot which is

38:01

sort of silly for you to think about but

38:03

um

38:04

uh if a new athletic director comes in

38:07

and they don't love the head coach they

38:08

give him like six months and like if you

38:10

don't win every game we have i have

38:12

every excuse in the world to get rid of

38:14

you if i want to tucle has quite a bit

38:16

of success in his short time at chelsea

38:18

but would you think that a new ownership

38:20

and new hierarchy in place might look to

38:23

potentially get rid of him

38:25

that's an interesting question um and i

38:28

think

38:29

it

38:30

will depend on how in tune the new

38:32

owners are with the fans right um and

38:35

this is where people like you know um

38:37

the chelsea supporters trust and things

38:39

like that are really important to be

38:40

able to communicate with the club about

38:43

what's good for them and what they want

38:45

and and um i think one key thing um it's

38:48

quite interesting chelsea fans disagree

38:50

about basically everything right you

38:52

can't get chelsea fans to agree on

38:54

literally anything except thomas tukle

38:57

everyone wants thomas tucker to stay

38:59

everyone thinks he's basically you know

39:01

if not one of if the best manager in the

39:03

world at the moment um and even you know

39:06

including myself

39:08

um uh you know i i would be absolutely

39:11

uh appalled at any decision to get rid

39:13

of um

39:14

what people are arguing is chelsea's

39:16

best manager ever you know in in

39:19

in a year you know

39:20

in really not a very long stretch of

39:22

time he's he's done what almost no other

39:25

manager has done you know i know you can

39:27

39:29

basically managed itself

39:32

you know uh with the champions league

39:34

whereas you know tuco did it and he

39:36

didn't re you know chelsea won the

39:38

champions league out of canter they

39:40

really did that their their defensive um

39:44

record of only letting in four goals the

39:46

entire campaign that was absolutely

39:47

ridiculous i'm not sure about you know

39:49

there's a good chance that might never

39:50

be broken again

39:52

and so um

39:54

tuko's legacy um and he's lucky um in a

39:58

sense to

39:59

for this to be the case but his legacy

40:01

is already cemented as like a great

40:03

chelsea coach um and i think that will

40:05

give um whoever the owner is to come in

40:08

like a good opportunity to to look at

40:10

him and figure out whether you know

40:12

they're who he's who they want to go

40:14

with for the future you know there's

40:15

there's not um there's precedent of of

40:19

uh of

40:21

managers staying um when new owners come

40:23

into the premier league and leaving um

40:25

for example you've got an example from

40:27

chelsea when roman abramovich came in

40:28

for the first time running area out

40:30

mourinho in right but then you've also

40:32

got an example of recently you've got um

40:35

burnley who were bought out by i think

40:37

it was um a lk's uh sports or something

40:40

like that they're alk

40:41

group

40:42

um

40:44

and um and they're still with sean dyche

40:46

because they love the guy um so there's

40:48

it's definitely about like how in tune

40:50

any new owner is with the club um and i

40:53

think

40:54

chelsea supporters more than anything

40:56

else with the new owner coming in they

40:58

want to stay

41:01

yeah i know that makes sense and i think

41:02

uh

41:03

i think it would be

41:05

a tremendous mistake to let him go i i

41:08

as you said with rival fans i hate

41:10

thomas twogle right so

41:12

so there you have it right um

41:14

although it looks like mourinho may be

41:16

out of a job again soon so if you did

41:18

want to go for another go around with

41:19

jose which i cannot stress i think would

41:22

be a great fit for chelsea at this point

41:24

um yeah no um well i mean i think that's

41:28

that's pretty much all i've got thank

41:29

you so much uh for coming on ollie uh

41:32

you can find ollie at ali j carpenter on

41:35

twitter and at goal lytics which we're

41:37

very excited to learn a little bit more

41:39

about and watch it grow uh just as much

41:41

as that thread did the other day thanks

41:43

so much ali for coming on that was the

41:45

squeaky bum time podcast with mike

41:47

salero and lauren corteans and sometimes

41:49

i like carpenter uh the football wing of

41:51

the chop sports network we record on

41:52

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