Football...Bloody Hell

Football........Bloody Hell

Tom and Rick are joined by former Yeovil Town striker Alex Fisher to discuss his career and what his future holds for him. The chaps also look forward to the new season at Huish Park, flair players and exclusively reveal the result of the Netherlands v England Euro semi*

*possibly...

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Duration:: 57m
Broadcast on:: 09 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Good ball, how the hell? Hello and welcome to our latest edition of football bloody hell. It's an unfamiliar voice this week. It's not Dave Fry that's hosting. He is currently on wedding duties. So it is up to myself, Tom Bailey, to step into the main seat this week. And I've got two very special guests with me this week. Firstly, we'll introduce Mr. Rick Hyatt, who is with us as ever. Rick, how are we doing? I'm very good. Thank you, Dave Price in the pub. That's why he's not here, just in case you didn't know. I lied. He's not doing wedding stuff, he's getting drunk again. It's an unfortunate cycle that we found ourselves in. But yes, I do worry about the commentaries coming up for the season. It may well drop in quality, but we shall wait and see. Or improve. Or improve, yes. You meant just simply not nobody's talking about and that could help. It would stop his awful puns, perhaps. Please God. But we do have another very special guest as well with us tonight. We have got, formerly able-town striker, Mr. Alex Fisher, Alex, how are we doing? Very well, thank you. Thank you for having me back on, pleasure to be here. Not a problem. You've clearly done a good enough job to be invited back. I don't know about all you guys are really scraping the barrel. But I'm happy with you, though. It's brilliant to have you on, always a pleasure to have you on. First things first, what have you been up to? Have you been? It's been a bit since we've had you on. And obviously, the last time you spoke to you, you were employed with the club since then, obviously, the end of the season has come. And unfortunately, we're not on the retained list. What have you been up to, basically? How's your summer been? Well, it's been a good summer because we finished relatively early for the euros. And then we seem to kind of gone back relatively late. So it's been probably the longest of season I've experienced in my in my career. So plenty of downtime. It was nice to finish on a high last season, which made the you can kind of justify perhaps a few more beers that you normally have, which was nice. Had a nice little holiday away, a little bit of golf. And then probably in the last, I'd say, probably middle of June onwards, just started to ramp up a little bit of fitness and just kind of ticking along at the moment, waiting for opportunities to develop on the football front. But there are some relatively harsh realities for someone that's out of contract and sort of early to mid thirties that you have to kind of buy time and wait for an opportunity because given my, although a nice contribution at the end of the season, it's not a full season and you kind of have to rely on your sort of inner beliefs in yourself that when a chance to come to to go train somewhere, you're ready. And it's been quite nice, actually, because I've had a lot more home time than I thought, whilst also being able to get my fitness up. So it's been quite a quite a unique summer, I'd say, my end. How does that work, Alex? The club's getting contact with you regarding? Yeah, I've not, I've been fortunate that I've not been too short with offers at the same level that we're in last year and I'm very grateful for the correspondence I've had with some of those teams. I'm in a position where my location has become probably more important than ever with a little fish on the way due in less than a couple of months now, when your responsibilities change. So do the certain things that you can justify time away from home, distance away from home and then the commute becomes, you know, how much do you have time? So there's quite a few variables that I've never had before. Kind of enter my my situation in these last and I've prepared for this, by the way, like for knowing I knew my situation at the overall, probably in January. So it wasn't a shock to the system at the end of the season. I thought perhaps my form might have been worth maybe a further conversation than I was given, but I was under no illusions that that was going to be my last six months at the club. So it allowed me to really enjoy those times, especially the celebrations and the like and being involved in some of the goals that helped cleanse the title and also allowed me to prepare quite nicely for this off season and the next few months too. So all in all, it's been, it's I wouldn't say it's a comfortable position when you're out of contracts, but it's certainly the least twitchy I've been compared to previous years. It was an impressive comeback considering the injury that you did have at the end of, well, not last season, the season before that. How proud of the contribution you make, obviously, didn't really start for us until January, February time, and you had a month out of Oxford as well on loan. How proud of your contributions were you considering where you'd come from? I mean, I think a lot of people were extremely proud of again, where you've been and where you got to. Some of the goals you scored and some of the work you put in were fantastic. I mean, Alex, you've finished the season on fire, is the informed striker at the end of the season there? That was very kind. It was really nice. Perhaps there is maybe an edge of pressure off kind of knowing the full picture of my situation, but you still have to go out there and do it. And then it was real pride, if I'm honest. I have sometimes perhaps played the modest card a lot over the years in terms of, you know, maybe not taking too many accolades and obviously recognizing there are a lot more people out there achieving great things at the club and beyond. But I was really proud, if I may say, really proud because it was, I sort of just came again, then it was play again, then it was score again. And to fact that I managed to, I mean, I only made three appearances at home in the new year and score in each of them two starts and got one of the matching both of those at home, they were really proud moments and ones that I really hold very dear to me and again, has offered a level of satisfaction that, you know, that's four years in the making of those and obviously with the injury halfway through or three quarters of the way through, you can just get that if you had played for a year. There was so many things that took the build up of my career available to allow those moments to be so special personally. And that's not even considering the achievement that the club had, obviously winning a league and going closer to the position that it should really be in. So yeah, it was a really nice moment and I'm grateful for everyone at the club and the wider community that have really pulled me along because it was, you know, I didn't feel like any ever any points in the community that I've ever forgotten and was always really warmly received at the stadium. So, you know, for those people that listening that were part of that, I think that that's a fair summary. I still think back to your goal against Chippen and where that was the only bright spark that we had in that 90. It was such a well taken header that I can I voted for it for my goal of the season genuinely because even though everyone voted Jordan Stevens, just the fact it was going away from the goal and you've still somehow nodded that top corner. Just that I don't think people realize how difficult that is. How many votes did you get? It's when we had Matt, Matt Worthington on the other week, you told him that you voted for him? Did I vote for Alex? How many votes do you get? I just voted for all of them. I liked all the goals, but that was one of my favourites. I think it was the glove has cast. They're like trying to build the list and I nominated your goal for the list where they hadn't thought about it. So yeah, it's up there with one of my favourites anyway. Oh, that's really kind. That was one I'm actually personally very pleased with for the kind of the reasons you described. It was a good boy in, but it was well struck, let's say. And yeah, from my point of view, seeing it kind of knowing that it was in kind of from the off, but still seeing it have to get underneath the bar and then it's a nice moment. But for me, that was like, the one thing I wanted to do was just saw it here at Park again. So yeah, the fact that the rest kind of unfolded how it did there after was kind of poetic, I guess. Yeah, definitely. I mean, we mentioned Oxford as well. Obviously, when you went out, it was end of January time, I think, wasn't it? Sort of start of February. Yeah, it was January. January, I think like basically 28 day loan for all of January. And I thought that was going to be extended, but then there was injuries to a couple of the forwards, Jake Hyde and Reese Murphy. So as much as the intention is probably to go back and that was discussed with the staff at the Oval. I said it would be kind of silly to not perhaps keep me involved because these guys get fit. And then when they realized their injuries were as long as they were, you know, it's funny how football works out. So yeah, it was. I've got a lot of history Oxford. I played there when I think it's 15 or 16 years between debuts for me and me and them there. Very familiar with the club and I grew up around there. So all the clubs I was grateful to come in for me on loan. That was certainly one that it worked out really well. I think for both parties. Yeah, absolutely. I think as well. With the you mentioned about the clubs at the level we've just left. So given you offers, are Oxford one that have approached you with perhaps a contract offer or is that not even something you can say? I haven't spoken talks with this at the moment. When I spoke to them last year, it was under a different manager. So he's now moved on to Boring Word for Australians. But Oxford City are in the conference north. So that they said before his departure. My conversations with him is that that does change a lot of their recruitment. So they doesn't necessarily change too much for me given my location. But I think in general, it's a different style of football often play in the north compared to the south and it's a different catchment of players from which they look to try and get people from. So it's hard for them to maybe recruit players that have as much willingness from south of Oxford which I am compared to north of Oxford when all your games are northern. So I think that's perhaps part of their structure as well. But it's a conversation I'm sure will take place in due course. Yeah, I completely forgot about the fact that they were in the north this season. I'm just there thinking, oh, yeah, it'll be fine Oxford to come back down. So yeah, that's not something that across my mind. I mean, maybe the club like that as well because the travels a lot. They've got a very community driven club. The gates aren't all that high. So the finances involved, I think, with playing in the north does affect, you know, as it would most, you know, lowerly, lowerly club. So yeah, there's a few nuances there. I think can sometimes perhaps get forgotten, but it's so they have to factor in budgets and so forth which then dictates, you know, what does it doesn't get offered out to players. Yeah, I think I don't know if you've seen people mentioned online where people get upset about the fact that, for example, Oxford, I think last year Bishop Stortford were in the north and people are seeing just the sheer amounts of distance that people are having to cover because of the fact that it's 24 northern teams, 24 southern teams. People have mentioned splitting it into a central league as well. I don't know if you've if you've seen anything about that, if you think it's even a good idea. It's tricky. It's a really hard balance, I think, because I think it makes sense to go from a national league to provincial leagues north and south. I think just the way that panned out this particular season is perhaps unfair on the way, I'll be careful, but northern most southern teams, because it's a lot. And then it's a lot for clubs that go and have to play. I think, you know, you wouldn't want to be playing many of the Tuesday night games away from home, but then the same for the more northern teams, more than playing Oxford City or Bishop Stortford away from home on a Tuesday night. So I can understand the logic behind a central league, but I probably say just from a personal point of view without kind of thinking about it too much, just off the bat. It feels like it might detract from either the level of output of that league. If you dilute it once more with another 20 odd teams and perhaps it takes away, perhaps the professionalism as well, that it's not quite a it's feeling the closer stepping stones to the next league above. It might be quite a big gap to then to go from winning a north middle or south league to then going into a fully national league with full of professional sides in it. The thing is you've got to draw a line somewhere, haven't you? It's it's like your VAR with your offside. If a line's there, that's where it's got to be. And you've got to be one side or the other because, of course, played we played against Truro at a northern league round as it turns out towards the end of last season. They're probably one of the most southern most teams probably and they had to play at a northern and national northern league. You had quite a nice to quite a nice evening there, didn't you? Yes, Truro in Gloucester. I was the weirdest way to win a league, I think. Do you think that just made that spec? We've talked about this. We've talked about, like I said, we had Matt on before. But it's just everything was hyped up for it to happen on the Saturday and then that never happened. I'm having been there at the Truro game. It did sort of make it and not might be a bit sort of not elitist, but it's a bit like it's our thing. But if you were there, it really was a special sort of evening. Did you feel that? Yeah, it was. I've never won a league. I've had a promotion in the past, but to do it kind of, I think because it felt like it was almost taken away on the Saturday before. You know, I think having watched it back, that's also an interesting, perhaps discussion as well, that particular bell. Was it offside? If you take it from the time you hit, I think it's worthy, plays the sort of like long ball forward. Then by the letter of the law, I actually think he might be. If you say that it hits Morgz on the way through, then I'd say he's not and you can't tell from the camera. I just think it was a very ballsy move to put the offside given the fact there was so much at stake. But if, again, maybe perhaps it's where you draw the light, you can't tell. My gut at the time was that Frank was offside and Murph made a deeper run and they might have got the two mixed up. But they, on reflection, I think it could have been the right call. It just felt so unjust at the time because you're like, oh, we've literally done it at home. But it's funny how things pan out because it was a strange game, because Truro had a series of games that week that they should really have been so fatigued that it shouldn't have been as hard a game. If they were playing different teams, weren't they? They had one team to play and then the club would play like two days later with almost, because there was what one player the same was a goalkeeper, wasn't it, Tom? We were on contact. The goalkeeper was the only one who played in the previous game and all the outfield players had been changed. Then there was a conversation to have with the league to see is that fair on the other teams that were near the drop at the time. The granted is not their fault that they've all got where you draw the line with blame. But they've had to play a series of fixtures and therefore get dispensation to sign other players that other clubs wouldn't have had. So it was actually a pretty tough game and just to get that second goal was a really proud moment. And I mean, picky cliches for everything thereafter, but to be part of that game was great. And I guess it's very the oval town to have in a national league, North's ground, playing with some of the most teams in the country, if not these other games. On a Wednesday night after a series of fixtures for us that had the drama on the Saturday in for a trio that had such a backlog. But yeah, really cool, really cool day. I think that goes down as one of my favourite nights in my life. It was certainly something. I actually missed the celebrations in the changing. Because I thought everyone was outside, but you can't see it. When everyone's on the pitch, you can't see past the next few people in front of you. So they did all the champagne celebrations and stuff. And I was still outside, like, giving it. So yeah, it's funny how it all goes. It was a strange little set up as well. It was like you had to go downstairs to the changing rooms because all the the main stand for the listeners that weren't there. It was almost the entire main stand was built out of, like, shipping containers. So it was like different levels. Yeah, you'd go downstairs and then the changing rooms were there. And then you go back upstairs as the bar was the odd little layout. It was a good night, though. It was a great night because the players in the bar afterwards, again, sorry for anyone who wasn't there. But hung around in the bar and celebrated with all the fans and everything. And I got free beer, so that was nice. But it was just a great night to be part of. Yeah, I think I just want to want to reminisce on for, well, many years to come. In terms of, obviously, that was what your fourth season with us last season. Where would you rank that among the rest of, well, your oval seasons, but also the rest of your career? Because obviously you've had a storied career. You've been to many different sides. I think you've been to Spain as well. I've actually wanted to ask you about that. What was it like playing abroad in a completely different environment? It was, yeah, for people just to concept, you wouldn't have seen the early stages of my career. So I played in Spain, Belgium and Italy in a three and a half, four years bell. Now, if you're out of contract, there's Why Scouts, which is a video platform that shares all your highlights. There's lots of word of mouth. There's agents for people that are playing that probably shouldn't maybe have agents at levels, you know, that, you know, and everyone's got an ego and opinion. Opportunities are therefore available. When you don't get something, say, 15, 17, 18 years ago now, for me, once you've kind of not been offered a contract or professional terms at your Boyhood Club, it's kind of like a blanket while he's clearly not good enough. You know, that's it. So it was quite hard to find opportunities back then. And I was fortunate enough that an English Academy with the Glenn Hoddle Academy was run out in Spain and had been operating for about a year. And I got the nod to go over there. So it's kind of like an English bubble in Spain, which was really cool because you were coached by, you know, Glenn himself, Graham Ritz, Nigel Spakman, and Dave Besant with the coaching staff. So people with, you know, incredible careers and expertise and the Academy ended up taking over the local side that played in Cucinda B, which is the equivalent of stepwise, league one. And so quite a few of us filtered into that team where we got competitive fixtures and then people went on and had their careers. Thereafter, and that was kind of how I got introduced to playing abroad. It was a bit of a Hail Mary trying to find, you know, opportunities to play to play football. And I thought, well, what an incredible setup this is. You'd be stupid to not do it. And yeah, led to a network of playing a broad and as much as it might not seem like a big deal, perhaps now with how easy it is to move around. But then it felt like a massive deal to go from one country to the next. But it's the equivalent of like driving from London to Manchester, these places. So when I ended up going to say Belgium, for example, your 60, 70 miles away from Rotterdam. And that's a completely fresh country with different leagues, different system. And it's quite easy for players to therefore move around. And your access to football was actually quite high, which was meant there was quite a lot of opportunity. And yeah, just ended up playing a few years abroad, which allowed me to get more experience under my belt. So by the time I was 23, 24 coming back to England, I'd maybe have a hundred games, which I previously wouldn't have had playing men's football in England, certainly at a level where it would have been considered enough to sign for a league two side. So upon return to England, about, yeah, I think it was 24th birthday. Yeah, signed for Mansfield and picked up my career back home, which was always the ambition. But playing a cupboard was really cool. There was so many little nuances. The language was probably the hardest thing, certainly in Italy because there was no English. Spain was an English bubble, Belgium, everyone spoke a bit of English. Everyone sounded American and watched so much American TV. That's do that as well. Yeah, it was, it was, and everyone wanted to practice English with me, which kind of didn't help me learn the language. All the football terms are new, but Italy, it was like, well, I mean, yeah, that was quite, that was tough. But then it was, yeah, some really cool experiences out there. You can't look bad on the CV, kind of come back at that age and you've got European experience. I think people were quite close minded to it. They said they couldn't really relate to it. I mean, one of the bits of feedback I never forget I had from my Asians at the time that said they couldn't relate to the level or the quality of it. They said that they'd rather sign say someone who's playing in the National League for say, Woking, where they'd seen, you know, 25, 30 games of this guy and five or six goals, perhaps, because they could, they've seen it in the flesh. They can relate to it. There's no video platforms where they can perhaps see like they do now. And some managers really liked it. They said, I like the fact that you've been introduced to different styles of football different, you know, and you can fit into therefore into different systems, perhaps a bit easier than someone else that might need a bit more coaching. And yeah, it was just lucky the job, which manages like what's, but it certainly wasn't term as perhaps, people now say, oh, you should go abroad and get experience and it's kind of like a cool thing to do. People would like to encourage that. But then it was kind of the opposite, actually, certainly. We're not talking about like, you know, I never played in the talk. I'm talking about sort of like second tier, third tiers in these countries, the equivalent of perhaps a League one set up. For example, in Italy, you know, it's while you're experiencing it, it's really good. But and I was, you know, loved my time out there. But yeah, I'm not talking about, you know, when Drew Bellingham goes to Dortmund and I'm not some serious football, this is playing the League or two down. So that's perhaps where the opinions came from. Yeah, I still think it's a great idea. I mean, playing football and eating pasta in the coast of Italy. I don't think that sounds too bad to me. I was, it was really, really enjoyable. I was very fortunate. And I would genuinely encourage anyone that's perhaps out of contracts or younger that's looking for a bit of a challenge. That it's a route back into English football, certainly. Yeah, especially with like you said, he's scouting all those sort of things now that their stats and their performances are accessible, weren't they? But it's not going to be that close mindedness about playing there. It will be a genuine benefit. Yeah, it's funny. It's funny that's it's good and bad that because there is there for no hiding place. Yeah, it's at the same time, you know, as much as it's great to show some of your highlights, you don't have the perfect game for 90 minutes. And often sometimes what's lost, especially if there's no sound or something on some of these is that certain games have momentum swings. So perhaps, for example, a goalkeeper catching the ball in the 90th minute with the volume off away from home, but in front of the home end, you just get a good clap. But if you're the forward in that team, you're like, Oh, thank God, you've, you know, you jump out, you know, so those, those things are lost. My stats were really, I've noticed have been a bit skewed on some of these because often my contribution is probably from a goal kick. So I have a pass, if I win a header, it's seen as a passing complete. So my past completion is very, very low because I'm just flicking on to nobody, really, but my past completion back to goal, it would be like to think reasonably okay. But it's, yeah, so certain things like whilst it's very good to be able to market yourself, there are certain parts of it that, yeah, you get lost in the reality of football matches. So that's like a quite a big conversation in itself, so I want to kind of dive into that too much, but it's just something perhaps for people that might not consider that in the past to know you think about. Lies, damn lies and statistics, read them whatever way you want, can't you really? And that's another thing, we've had this conversation with managers in the past where they would say, look, I could show you one bit of footage of your play. You could argue with total logic that it was good. I could argue with total logic, but it wasn't good. I would agree that my logic is going to beat your logic and we'll move on. But you can, everything's subjective unless you have quite literally made a howler, in which case there is probably no hiding plans. Nowhere to hide, yeah. Which often is my case, but so, yeah. But you are doing the hardest job in football, aren't you? Scoring goals is the hardest job in football. Why are you always getting the glory and the cash? Yeah, I suppose they always say, yeah, there's a team of 11 people out there trying to stock you deal with you. But then again, it's, yeah, it's, but you can have a terrible game. I've had games where I've not necessarily produced much content and I've just poked one in and everyone's like, you know, when a goal score, everyone texts you. I'm like, you literally didn't, if you, if you sort of have a five second spell, but if you saw, perhaps my holder play on the halfway line wasn't the best. You know, so it's, it works both ways. So yes, you can get the plaudits, but at the same time, yeah, it's, it does swing, it does swing sometimes. It's got to be better than being a goalkeeper though, isn't it? Because if you make a state when you're a goalkeeper, there's nowhere to hide. I think they've got to be the most mentally strong players. Just the most mental. It's, it's, you can go, I watched an actually an ex-glover, Nathan Baxter was in the playoffs with Bolton and he hadn't touched the ball for about 20, 25 minutes and it's away at Barnsley. At the time it was, I think, 2-1, so precarious lead and a ball gets like shot across the goal and it bounces right in front of them. And then he captures the ball and everything slows down, everyone gets up, but I just thought you've had to concentrate. So you haven't touched the ball, you're not, you're not really warm, you're not really, you know, it's almost like starting a game again, but I'd imagine if a keeper hasn't touched the ball for that long in time. And I really think that shows some of the, the better players in the game because they can go, a forward can go 10, 15 minutes without touching the ball. When he gets fired into his feet and he plays one touch around the corner and it's perfect. Ah, that's some serious problem. And sometimes that's the last I think in commentary at the top level. I've seen some incredible hold-up play and it's just like ball into cane, which is out wide and I'm like, oh, he's like rolling, got the ball in the perfect position, seen the pass, nailed it like shin-height, like a daisy cutter. And I'm like, I just want to be talking about that as the players developing and yeah, sometimes when they make it look so simple, it really is. I'm taking notes on that. Well, I have a daisy cutter against Belgium and I'll be making sure to discuss that. Jake Wallen on daisy cutter, he's got that. Yeah. Jake Wallen has got a hell of a ball on him. It's, it's one of our favourite things to talk about last season was the Jake Field Crossfield ball of the diet. And that's a fan of Jake's, I thought it was excellent last year. He made the step up from the semi-pros. Yeah, he did well. He did well, step up. Yeah, very difficult. Actually, when you're a defensive, when you're a defensive line, the gaffa there, he likes to play obviously out from the back. You are under pressure pretty much all game because you're big in possession and you're big out of possession. And I thought actually it's fair credit to everyone in the back four because it's not easy, especially if you go one down or it's windy or it's a bit slippy and you still have to keep doing the right things. Yeah, I thought, I thought Jake was great. I mean, give credit to most of the defense, as you said. Anyone in particular in the defense that you'd like to give credit to Tom has got a bit of a Michael Smith fanboy, Alex. There are a lot of Michael Smith fanboys, but I do feel like it was one of the first. So I do claim lay claim. He thought when when you've announced that they were signing him, his little face lit up. Oh, so please. I can't remember which group it was either our one or my friend's one, but they mentioned is like, oh, it's Michael Smith. I was like, well, Michael Smith, they're like, who is this? Like, I don't know who he is. Michael Smith should not be playing at this level. I've not seen too many players when they say always come in and he's got experience in this or any other. And you think it's only so much. I think a player can truly contribute, but he pushed that boundary farther than I've ever given credit that you could. And you genuinely like, not only from how he conducted himself around the place, but his communication whilst playing football was some of the best stuff I've seen. So I played out wide more than certainly quite well coming off of the bench. I often went on the right sometimes and he'd literally be like telling me where to go. And I'm like, well, I was going to do that, but you've said it a second. Like you've seen it before I've seen it. And I was thinking you're thinking about your own game. You see where the ball is. You're telling other people where to go. Yeah, he was really, really influential and something that you wouldn't necessarily hear from the stands, but you notice his players. And yeah, I think his acclaim is very much justified. Yeah, looking forward to another season of Mr. Smith at the right back position. Look at ahead then to next season. Obviously, unfortunately, you're not with us, but we've got some new faces in at the club. I can only assume you've been keeping half an eye on it. What do you think of the business conducted so far? I mean, six, seven new faces have joined us since. I think it's important. I think it also kind of takes the edge off the timing of the signings. I thought we're good. I think the quality of the guys. I don't know I haven't played against some of these people, but I'm aware of some of the names. And I think, yeah, I think they've got they fit in their own rights, a mold of the oval town. It could be someone that's coming in perhaps with a bit more experience that might perhaps. A job is, for example, you know, you know, where the goal is, is a presence. He works hard from what I can see. And then you've got some, I think he's a young fool that's signed as well. I'll be a green slate. Yes, like, you know, someone that goes, if he goes on to have a career where it sounds like he could go. This was his spell way because a lot of players often play for you over time at some point in their younger years. You know, that kind of fits that mold. You know, so there's those people there that I think have been signed. There's logic behind the signings. And I think you can see how they would fit into a Mark Cooper system. So I'm really hopeful that it's a not a fast start, but a competent start where you can see that the club's really trying to move in a certain direction. How does it feel as a fan, like watching it from the from from your side? Because it looks good from a professional side for sure. I think, at least from my point of view, I think it's exceeded my expectations. I didn't really know what to expect, but I think, as you say, the timings have been really good as well. There are a lot of people getting quite restless, seeing to barn it fly out. The gates were sort of six signings in like a week and we're sat there still working out who our sponsors are going to be. But the timings have been good. One a week has kind of felt nice to sort of drip feed it in. And like you say, each one, even if I hadn't heard of Jordan Thomas, I actually thought it was a Jordan Thomas that went to Cheltenham. And when I sort of saw his name, I was like, oh, wow, it's amazing. We got him. And then I realized it wasn't. But it's still reading into it. It's he's a young fullback who's done very well with Hampton Richmond. Just there's, as you say, there's logic behind all of them and there's no reason to believe that they won't do well. There's some there's sometimes there'll be a sign and we go, no, doesn't feel right. Not sure about that one, but but yeah, every single one we've had so far, I think there's there's reason. There's a good chance as well that they will all succeed or at least do reasonably well with us. I don't know how you feel on them, right? But yeah, they have to be adding something. That's what you can make a million signings. But if they're the wrong signings, you can't just chuck players at a thing. You have to and especially with you've got you've got a side that's one a division. If you stay still, you go backwards, don't you? These signings have to be the right signings and they have to move you forward and progress. And as a club, after so many seasons of struggling and fighting against relegation and whatever, you don't want that feel good factor that you had last season to go and instantly be involved in a relegation fight again. You want there to be no pressure on it and again for it to be a progression and to build. That's what I think and I think you look into the players that have signed now. I'm not as much of anorac as Tom about players and their background at this level. But then you trust the manager's got the right player and then you do look into them and look at what they've done before. And you think, hang on, I can see why this has happened, why he signed this guy. And yeah, it looks as much as it did last season when we got the signings in that we got then. They all filled everyone with enthusiasm for paying in National League South. You get these boys in now mixed with a title winning side, a title winning squad. And it certainly looks as long as you get off to a better start first game of the season than we did last season. That would be helpful. But I think it looks good, but we'll have to wait and see. So if there's only one thing I could maybe comment on in terms of coming in would be quite a few of the guys that were certainly up top that weren't news were of an age where I know you've got Frank up there and experience and Jarvis knows what the goal is. But I would just say perhaps I'm not really specific to a position just like another, I guess, Michael, Ilk of Michael Smith, I think can just be, I don't, again, it's not really specific to a position. It's more just perhaps an older head and it's not too, it's not like they're going to set the world on fire. Perhaps, you know, on the pitch as much as what they can contribute off the field. Without going all Roy Keane about it. It's about getting the right characters in the people that have that effect in the dressing room, and they can perform a job. I think there'll be times where there'll be players that will be training well, but the team's winning. So they'll be like, well, I should be playing, but you can't knock on the manager's door because the team's winning and you have to buy the time and you need someone to go. Robin's saying who's perhaps sometimes you see this in teams where they're like, yeah, if I were you, I'd be a bit annoyed, actually, because you train well this week. You need someone to say, hey, look, you've had a good week's training, but they won 3-1 on Saturday. So-and-so scored and so-and-so assisted and even if he didn't contribute, he was important in that game. Keep doing what you're doing. Give it a couple more weeks. If things change, the guy that they've won a few games, it's happened last year. They've won so many games in a row. You had to buy, you couldn't then just go, oh, first defeat, right, I should be playing it. So no, no, no, they've earned the right for probably three defeats on the ground. And then it's having that personalized, you just kind of be like, no, we'll do some running afterwards. We'll do a bit of extras together. We'll keep you sharp and just distract from perhaps the reality of someone's situation where they're just chomping at the bit to get minutes. And it's that kind of influence, I think, is important. So that would be kind of the one thing I'd say is just kind of replacing maybe that kind of mentality. Because that I think is worth points. That's the best point. Someone comes on and they're motivated to do something off the bench, not just for their own game, but for the game of the squad is when a team, you really sensed that they were drilling. I think we had that last year. People came on and you wouldn't necessarily like, I don't know, say it's, you're on a precarious one-mill lead and you've got a chance to go one-on-one and score a second or you've looked at the clock. Literally 30 seconds left. I'll take this to the corner because the three points is better than my stat. And it's trying to keep that kind of culture. Well, Mark Cooper, if you're listening, if you need an experience, had sort of nearer the, nearer the top of the field, we've got a guest right here. Well, Rick, Rick, are you coming out of retirement? I'm 57. I think that time has passed. Yeah, there's there's older headed than there's old head. There's there's a difference. Old head and old head. He'll cut that bit out. We'll be fine. Final, the other question, I suppose, prediction, early prediction. Where do we think we could, we could finish up sort of among the, it's quite a competitive lead this season. There aren't really sort of a runaway winner, you know, like a Rexum or a Knox County. There's, there's a real sort of mixed bag this year. I mean, I'd say it's a tricky one, so I've not kept my eye on too much of the dealings. Apart from Barnet, it seems to just come up with my food every 30 seconds with something. So in those first few weeks of all the off season. For me, it's hard to put a place or position on where the club might finish. It's more, for me, it's, it's about momentum and it's about that feel good factor. And I would just like to see the club just continue that for as long as possible because that in itself will translate to a good position. Might say I'm sitting on the fence here and avoiding an actual position in our proper answer and give it a position. But I would love to see, I'd love to see the club knocking around the top half and those playoff spots because you've always got something to go for. If you start edging down a little bit and I experienced this in that first season of my second spell, it's, it does kind of take away the edge for the fan and the player when you suddenly start seeing that the playoffs have just started to creep out of sight. As long as you've got something like that to hold on to, I think the club's got a great chance to then really snap up one of those, one of those promotion spots. Yeah, I suppose the game comes into the whole cup run sort of aspect of it. I mean, we made a bit of a run in the ethic up last year, not that it mattered because we ended up winning the league anyway. But suppose an F.A trophy run would be would help a lot if you're going to sort of drift into those, those lower spots. How important is a cup run? I mean, as a player anyway, for a team that kind of drifts into that sort of weird sort of mid table space. It's a good question and it depends on the, I guess, so much depends on the club's position and the kind of atmosphere around the place because there's times when you think, oh, God, not another fixture, a chance for us to lose. And that does sink in and then you can, no, no, no, like this is a chance for us to get back on track with the win. It's a free hit because if we lose, we've not lost anything in the, you know, we're not losing points to other teams. So I'd always edge towards the latter, obviously, and would say that a cup run is a really good confidence booster for a team that might not be performing so well. I suppose the further you get in that competition and the, say, the league position doesn't improve, then it can become perhaps a distraction. So it's a really fine balance because you go, oh, well, I'd have traded that three-0 win for three points on Saturday and you lose two in that home. It's, it loses its edge, but I suppose it kind of, I always would think in what, who would you wiggle when they won the FA Cup? They got relegated. What would you rather? Would you like the relegation or the league or the cut win? It's a tricky one, like another year in the Premier League or, but the prestigiousness of winning a such a great trophy. It's a hard question to answer. It also brings up the difficulty of even more fixtures the next year because you end up in the championship with Europe as well. It's yes, an unusual one. Well, actually, I don't, I think I would still, if I was a wicking fan, I'd go for the cup and relegation still. I would, you know what, I'd say the same, but if I was in the national league knowing how hard the south is and what's at stake for a club survival at that level financially, I'd say I'd rather stay in the league that I'm in at the expense of winning trophy, say the FA trophy. But it doesn't detract from the fact those games mean something. It's just that I think the status probably is more important in the grand scheme of things than perhaps a cup win. But then again, as a player, like it's a chance to get to Wembley. So you're like, oh, like, you know, we're not exactly playing teams there. If you're in the national league, you're the highest that you can be playing in the trophy. So it's not like in the FA Cup where, you know, let's face it, you're not really getting to the latter stages. So you're like, this could be, you know, Wembley could be once in a lifetime opportunity for a player and that's one of the ways to get there. So there's so many, yeah, there's so many little nuances to unsquad rotation like this. Yeah, there's so many little bits that will affect. But yeah, I'd always, I'd always want to try and certainly learn down the perimeter guard. So the status, your league status probably edges a cup run. Yes, I think it's bang on. You always think that anyone that agrees with you, Tom is bang on. That must be the right opinion because it agrees with what Tom Bailey's already decided. But I agree as well. I don't know. It's difficult in it because it's so hard. I can't, if you would, if you're doing one in the cup, but you're doing rubbish in the league, you winning games somewhere. So that would suggest that there are you're capable of winning games. So I don't know, give me a good cut run and a nice boring league campaign. Yeah, safety, safety and then your little bit of excitement comes in the cup. Give me a never finish. I think you take a 10th place finish with a effort trophy final. Yeah, 100%. I'd be delighted with that. That'll be a great return. Hi, this is Matt Worvington and you're listening to Football Bloody Hell. We're jumping to international football now. Yay. Yep, Rick's favourite part of the show. I think the last time we actually had a show, it was last week with Hugo where we had Adrian and Tony Pounder discussing the European action. Since then, England have got through their quarter final tie with Switzerland, albeit. Well, in a tense manner, we'll say, well, who do we start with? I think we'll start with Alex. Firstly, have you watched? Did you watch the game? And if you did, what did you make of the fun they put us through? I did indeed. Yes, watch the game. And I enjoyed that one more than some of the previous games. And very rare that I think I can say this. They were the five, arguably the five best penalties I've not just seen by England. I'd say actually in any penalty shootout, I can remember. The back itself, I mean, I was a bag of nerves like I'm sure everyone else was, but to see it executed to that level was a real joy. And I almost went out and tried Ivan Tony's penalty. You know, I could kid again because I get inspired me to think like that. And I thought if it's doing that for me, it's doing that for other people. That was really nice to see. I mean, the Ivan Tony one was, I think that was the best of a lot. The fact that there's not even a run up in that and he doesn't break eye contact as well. It's seriously. I was talking about it with someone. Yeah, we're saying like you can't do that penalty with a run up because I think there's too many variables. You need to know where the board is. You need to have it in your peripheral vision. But then you need to be trust that if the keepers gets right, that you only works. If you hit the side netting, because keepers can reach just instantly. They go early. He goes the other way, which in itself to change your mind so late is impressive. But if he goes the right way like he did, you then have to be like, well, I know I can pass this into the side netting. If he doesn't stay still as long as I push it into that side netting of school, I just think it's such an incredible, it's it. It's unsavable. If you do it, how he does it? Yeah. Yeah, it was such an I think even Trent's penalty as well. Again, a little bit of bias. I'm a livable fan, but the balls on someone like that to to take a penalty top bins, a winning penalty and not look phased whatsoever. It's again, it's a testament to how far. Well, not only, well, I suppose psychology, but also just the players themselves, especially after what happened in the last tournament, it's it's seriously impressive to see how far everyone's come with there. It's been a nice moment as well for Saka with with his penalty. I mean, Rick, more on the performance side, sort of in the 120. That's probably the best performance we've had of the tournament. I don't know how you felt, but I certainly felt we looked more positive. You think it was probably better to say it was the least worst? That's more fitting is rather than it being anything right home about. That's half full. Yeah, I mean, it's like England and France are having a competition between the two of them to see who can be the worst team in a tournament and progress the furthest. Can you imagine England play France in the final? Just turn out for the penalties. It will be awful. Yeah, if you're a betting man, we kind of know how that one's going to go. It's yeah, it's not been particularly inspiring, but I mean, I think the only sort of concerns we could maybe have about the performance probably came. And when I saw he got subbed off thinking, well, this is obviously going to penalties and then we brought him off and like, well, that's, you know, our best striker who takes penalties all the time. He's not recovered from the injury he got during the season playing for Munich. He's not looked for ever since. And it's gradually it looks like it's catching up with him. So it's a big call not to play him if he says he's fit. He's going to play, isn't he? But then to be without him for the penalties at the end is quite a big, big deal as well. So he just doesn't the England team moving forward is basically the only decision that Gareth Scott make is which 10 players he puts on the pitch with Kobe, because that is how England will progress. He was pretty good. He was outstanding. That boys you look at the you look at the crop of players. It's funny, Bellingham, what just got 21 during this tournament and then you look at the young players that we've got there as well and you look at Kobe Mayno who hasn't played a full season in the Premier League yet. And yet he's bossing a European championship quarter final at 19 after scoring the winner in the FA Cup final. I just that just outstanding. So there are good there are good things to take from it, but it's just it's come which way do you look at it? Do you want England to go out and say we've got all this talent and we want to play exciting football and we want to entertain people? And then you lose five four or do you want to take the pragmatic approach that we have and say that it's awful. But here we are. We're in a semi final at the end of the day. I take one Nilsen. I take one Nils all the way to the final and we win it 100% that and I also think I don't know if you would agree, Alex, but I feel like compared to sort of higher level. I see a lot of how Yoval played in England, very patient, we're not going to rush things and we'll take a chance where we know there's a chance. We're not going to sort of slice at things. I don't know how you sort of I suppose you've not watched a ton of Yoval because you've usually been on the field, but I don't know if you'd share that sort of you. Is Mark Cooper the next England manager perhaps? Well, the way the way Yoval set up last year, there was a lot of logic behind what they wanted to try and do. Goal kicks being passed amongst the back four with a view to invite pressure to then play through it. And then you've got five people out the game. Now, sometimes that takes a while to get out and teams with sit in and you did hear the odd. Boo, perhaps from the side when it wasn't as maybe. Get it forward, get a baller. Same breath I get because you pay your money to get entertained. It's tricky. So yeah, there's but you won't be talking about those shouts when you've won the league, just how you wouldn't be thinking. You won't think in 10 years time, you would go, oh, that was a boring year as you get one. We won the euros and it's yeah, it's a tough balance. I think Gareth Southgate, it's really kind of damned if he does and damned if he doesn't, because he gets sick if it's boring and granted, I think we were quite fortunate to go through. I mean, it took a moment of a world-class execution from Bellingham to take us to extra time. But it's going back to the Bellingham thing Alex. You would like you would referencing what you said before about a striker and getting things clipped up and whatever. If you would you Bellingham, you'd clip up that goal, but you wouldn't clip up anything else he did during that entire match. He was awful, but he'd be remembered for that finish. I mean, it was, it's the fact that you could stimulate that, I mean, it's terrible to be able to do it on demand in that environment with that pressure on is just like when as soon as it left his foot, you just knew. But yeah, that's, I think when it comes to, it's like the marinio question, sometimes he got, you know, is it the most exciting foot in the world, but the guy has won everywhere he's gone and his record speaks for itself. And in 10 years, you probably don't think about style as much. Or if you do, you go, yeah, be one leak. So yeah, I think what would I take? I'd love to see a bit more excitement, but if that's at the expense of losing, it's really tricky. I'm probably showing why I'm currently not emerging. But I would, I'm really learning, the more older I've gotten, the closer I've come to potentially that, you know, being a career move. These are the questions I never used to think about. And now I'm like, actually, there's, like, yeah, what would I do in that position? You know what, I don't actually know. Let's see what happens at the best level and, you know, try and learn from that. But they, yeah, it's a tricky one. I think you take two, one meals or no one else in penalty shootouts, but say that you've won the one the US. How exciting is losing five for every week? A bit of novelty of being playing exciting football wears off pretty quickly, if that's happening. Well, I suppose you, this is just, this is a bit too soon for me to really have appreciated the type of football, but the Kevin Keegan Newcastle era, they played a lot of, like, they had exciting football that scored a lot of goals, but you don't have their name on the trophy, you know, at the end of the season. So, although it is always caveatical, God, whether they used to outscort teams, you don't remember them as the Premier League winning side. The best thing about that Newcastle side, because I'm old enough to remember this, is they beat Manchester United at St James's. A bit, a bit with five nil. How bad trip was that? Yeah. Yeah. Apparently, Sir John Hall turned to Martin Edwards in the director's box and he said, you've just seen the champions of England there. And, you know, he was right. But it wasn't the team he thought it was. Yeah. Yeah. But that's, yeah, I suppose that argument, though, that, yeah, the. If you can do both, if you can combine both of them, then that's absolute football heaven, is it? If you can win something and you're playing spectacular football, doing it, then everyone's a winner. I don't know if this is a euros question or not, but I was talking to a mate of mine about this style of football that's displayed at the euros is quite robotic. And does the current, like, football culture that we sort of see with the way that football's being played, take away your Ronaldinho's and use it down to the world? Well, I don't see whilst you, I mean, these guys are just so far beyond anything I can comprehend when it comes to their ability. And they are incredible at what they do. There's even at that, their level of execution is exceptional, but there's still, like, almost level of flair that you don't see as much as you used to. And that's something like, has that been kind of, has that era kind of now, is that in the past, and is this euros an example of the future of football? Well, we've had, we've had this conversation before on the pod, haven't we, Tom, about Manchester City's way of playing? Exactly, one man's fault. Yeah, but it's just, it's, to my mind, it's a bit tedious. I know for the football purist, it might be brilliant, but you just want your maverick, don't you? That's what people want to go and go and see, rather than a team that can pass the ball five yards amongst themselves, workspace, and then be very clinical and very efficient. You want your maverick players, your George Best or somebody that's going to break lines and do something unexpected, rather than it being, like you say, too, too robotic. And that seems to be the way way it seems to be going now, the successful sides anyway. I want Jack really back, which is not so, I thought I'd say. He's one of those guys, I mean, he got players that could obviously do that in the team, but he was someone more than most where it looks like he can, he can, he can always feel his enjoyment at trying to take a player on. And that's been quite infectious when you're watching it. Yeah, yeah, I think the closest we've got to that currently in the team is, I'd say, Foden, because of the confidence he's gotten and how he's played in the league as well, it's kind of sort of carried over into the, into the tournament. There have been points where, yes, people have criticized him for not doing too much, but he's played out of position. And when you have given the ball, he's not been afraid to run at people. And I think that's still better than, well, the systems, I suppose, that are deployed. Well, this is where I feel a bit of a fraud even commenting on it, because just there, exactly that kind of, say, Foden, for example, doing exactly what he's done is that in its own right. So it's not me saying these guys don't do it, they do in the system they're playing. But I don't know how to, it's almost an indescribable kind of element of flair that you just feel might be, it's just kind of lacking in excitement, perhaps. But in their own right in the system, they play, they absolutely execute it. It's just that there's not, I suppose, you know, you can't just give the ball to someone, just take a load to people. And then, you know, because I think this success rate of it, even the best dribblers in the world, it isn't huge. I'm watching a game of, it was a real, it was a five minute, every touch of Lionel Messi in a particular lad, an eager game, can't avoid it, what it was against. And he must have tried to do the same series of take-ons, maybe seven or eight times. And he gave it away those seven or eight times, but on the ninth, he gets past four players and that's the highlight. And on the 12th, he gets past three or four players scores, that's two goals. They're like, my God, it only is the best. But it took, he then had a team round him, they'd go get it in back. Whereas if he gave the ball away with us so much on the line here, it's like, well, we can't afford you to give the ball away, because we're then under the cash. And if we concede, and they go suddenly five five or five four one, it's hard to break down. So there's so much more than just wanting to see flair. It's just the way I think these zeros have panned out. I've seen it more than this euros than I've ever seen in international football, that there is just that perhaps lack of some form of flair. Or maybe flair is just redefined in the current way we play as, you know, taking the ball under pressure and trying to thread passes through into pockets. Yeah, yeah, maybe, yeah, as you say, maybe flair is done differently now, not that I like that. I think we're all in the same boat of we want our Ronaldinho's back. Just make sure that this is me saying I'm just happy to control the ball. So if I can take if I can pass the ball in less than three touches, I'm satisfied. He did a very good job of it last year. Well, to be honest, I don't think there's too much more than that. I mean, there's there's transfer news, but we could probably cover that on Wednesday. So I think we could probably wrap things up unless there's any final points that anyone really, really wants to sort squeeze in. Not particularly, I think that's a good little roundup of the bits and box from round. You think that Nike should never be allowed to design an England kit again, because that looks like it's the kit they're playing in at the moment. Looks like it's something that the USA could have worn in 94 or something. Bloody awful. That's the personal thing. I know, Tom, you are a particular fan of the new yoga kit as well. You go bring it back round to you over again. I love the new yoga kit. I just think it's shiny. We've not had the shiny. We've not had that. It's launched after our last episode. So actually no one, no one from us has given our view on it yet. No, I think it's brilliant. I think it might just edge last years for me. Just and last year's was wonderful. I think the detail with the gloves on the stripes is the bit that's got me. If it was just a plain green shirt, it's like, yeah, it's nice, but yeah, it's a bit simple. The stripes for me has kind of sold it. The only bit that could make it any better is a collar. I know a lot of people aren't a fan of it. Alex, you're a fan of a collar for... Ashley, how does a collar affect play? Does it, if anything? I spent the really thought. When I think collar, I think Eric Kanzner. I should do. If I could, yeah, if it would allow me to have even 1% of his ability, if I put my collar up, then yes, I'm pro-collar. I've never really thought about it. It doesn't really get in the way. I suppose I've got quite a freakishly long neck, so it helps hide that a little bit. Or like wearing turtlenecks. You like a pohenecks? I thought you were going to pohenecks. Yeah, if we could get a little roll up that would be nice. No, so I've seen the kit. I think it looked really nice, and it's done a good job. I've seen the posts of the Bradford sponsor from Days Gone By, where there's quite a lot of success for the club. So I hope that's going to continue into the next year. If it might, you'd love us. Fingers crossed. Well, I mean, we'll end it on that. Alex, who you are, hang on. Don't end on that. Sorry. One thing. One thing you've got to do. We've got a full match to play on Wednesday. Ironically, we were talking about the Euros last time we were on Tom, and we were talking about the potential of England playing the Netherlands in the first knockout round. Turns out they're actually playing them in the semi-final. Alex, score prediction, please, thank you. I'm going to go against the current grain of form. I'm going to say, within 90 minutes, 2-1 England win. Oh, Tom Bailey. I think extra time, and I think 1-0 England. Ricci it. 1-0 England. I'm not sure how it's going to happen or when it's going to happen, but Virgil van Dyke, own goal. Yes. Yeah. Been a few of those this time around. Yeah. They have top score. Don't go leading score, am I? Yeah. I think Virgil is due a goal. And to score the winner for England, I think would be marvellous. Second place should be Romulil Lukaku, but his kneecaps decided to exist. Exist. Be off side most. Yeah. Very harsh on him. But yeah. Well, I suppose with that, we've got other lovers of the England. A big thank you. Oh, the Alex Fisher. Yep. Up the Alex Fisher. And, well, thank you for coming on, Alex. I mean, it's been great to have your time. Hopefully we can have you on again soon. Yeah. It'd be nice. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah, brilliant to have him. Of course, fingers crossed. We find you a club. Well, we find you a club. Fingers crossed. You find a club soon. Yeah. We're mentioning... Get back playing football games. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure. I'm sure it's by the time you see how it goes. Well, thank you to Rick as well for joining us. As ever, gracing us with your presence. You're very welcome. It is always a pleasure. Never at sure. Never at sure. And, of course, if you can't wait, well, I don't know when this goes out. But we will be commentating on Tuesday night. It's myself and Dave Pryor. We will be there at Milksham. So I believe this is going out Tuesday morning. You can hear us later on if you so fancy it. If not, then wait for our next podcast, which drops on Friday. So with that, I think all that's left to say is thank you for listening to the latest edition of... What the hell? It is usually me bollocking Tom about some things. Yeah. Good evening. And welcome to Oh Fuck It. Yeah. Okay.

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