Football...Bloody Hell

Football........Bloody Hell

Tom, Rick and Professor Adam Davis are joined by Yeovil Town board member Jack Hellier to discuss the latest goings on at Huish Park. England's performances at the Euros come under the microscope and the chaps have a look ahead to a potential England v Netherlands clash, (that worked out well...)

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Duration:: 52m
Broadcast on:: 28 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Goodball, buddy hell. Hello, and welcome to another edition of football bloody hell. Yes, we're back. We're back after Monday's edition. We're here for our next euros round up and we've got a special guest with us tonight. We'll run through the standard running order first. We've got, well, not only myself, Tom Bailey, as host tonight in absence of Dave Pryor, we have got Mr. Rick Hyatt, how are we doing, Rick? I'm all right. I'm a tad warm, but other than that, I'm OK. I've enjoyed our 48-hour summer, and I'm now looking forward to putting my jumper back on. Enjoy the weather while it's here. It's absolutely brilliant. Yes, as a man who works indoors. Yes, well, we'll gloss over that part and I am also, yeah, I am cold-blooded. We've got... You are quite brilliant to be fair. I am. I'm very... I don't know where to go with that. I wouldn't go with that. We'll leave it at that. So, yes, we've got Rick Hyatt. We've also got Mr. Adam Davis, how are we doing, Adam? Very well, thank you. How are you? Yes, very good. Thank you. Warm, just like everybody else. A pleasant warm, and you say it's warm in the north. I've also just come back from the north. You have a lovely city you live in. Oh, I try very hard. I try very hard to... And we're so glad that it met the such high custom that the West Country requires. Well done, Adam. Well done, look forward to it. Look forward to our visit whenever we're scheduled to visit in the not too distant future. Yes. And our special guest tonight is not the main man, but it's one of the main men. We have got, year old town board member, Mr Jack Helier, Jack, how are you doing? Not too bad. Thank you yourself. Yes, very good. Thank you. Brilliant to have you on. And it's great that you can perhaps spill some secrets on what may have been going on across the summer so far. Obviously, we've not spoken to you guys since mid-May. Well, at least we spoke to your dad at that point. Since then, a lot has happened. Obviously, we've had transfer incomeings and we've had some of the departed finally clubs. But we'll touch on some of the incomeings first. And obviously, this week, it was announced that Ollie Wright has joined us from Southampton on loan for a season. Obviously, a tall commanding keeper came to Hewish Park last season with Worthing actually upon a very good showing. Was he someone that you personally were aware of? Or is this something that this is purely a Mark Cooper special? Yeah, I'd go to say it was purely the Mark Cooper special. I knew, obviously, going back, maybe, let's say two weeks, he had his eyes on him. I heard the name pop up. Me and dad, obviously, had a meeting like a catch up of him as you do over the summer, just discussing the plans for next season. Obviously, everything from the plane budgets or recruitment and transfers and things. So I think, yeah, it's just a Mr Cooper special, I believe. We had no input on the signing itself. We deal with the salaries and things like that. And obviously, we allow Mark to choose his tools as well as such. Yes, it's certainly a promising signing against such a young age as well. People online have been comparing it to the likes of Alex McCarthy, who's also come through Southampton's system and joined us on loan in the past. But one of many good additions, have you had, well, I don't know if you can play favorites, but have you had a favorite so far that we've added? Obviously, we've had, this is now number six on a permanent new deal. I wouldn't really say I have a particular favorite. I mean, obviously, each one is an exciting prospect. I think Mark's building quite a strong team. And I believe that we're going to make our mark in this division. Obviously, it's a very competitive division and no one's going to give you a win or give you a result you want. You as a team have to go out and play for the badge. You can't expect it to be given to you. I would say a particular standout to me, interestingly, is Harvey Greenslade. He was kind of the first one, the first signing. But I see a lot of potential in him. He's quite like, I mean, with a lot of them, they're young. And I think there's a lot of potential there, but I'm boosting up things like market value and training them to gel with a team. And it's like when younger players see the slightly older ones, like Frank and Whittle, for example, it's kind of like they look up to them kind of thing. But I think our recruitment is looking at more of a younger kind of area from what I'm seeing. And I think like I say, just Mark just kind of, I'd say, knows his onions in terms of recruiting, at least what we're seeing so far. Yeah, Rick, I mean, maybe more from a top flight perspective, obviously. United have made a few young signings in recent years and perhaps not got on to boost their market value. How important have you seen from their perspectives of having young players, having those experienced players to learn from and how important is it for their development? It's a different sort of situation, isn't it, down in the National League? You really want players, although you're looking at potential and what they can bring in the future, you do want people who are going to hit the ground running and make a contribution to what you're going to do next season. So it's good, again, that it's the whole two year. I know you're keen on a two year contract yourself mentioned it before, but that's obviously that's important as well. But you do want players that are going to be comfortable at national league level. It is a step up. It's a progression from the team. We said last season, looking at the signings that were made, they were almost national league signings made in a national league south environment to guarantee that promotion, which is what everybody wanted. Now we've got it. I don't know, Jack, do you feel that it's a less pressured situation going into the season in that last season, everyone expected promotion this season? It's more a case of consolidation maybe. I mean, it would be lovely to be in the top echelon's of the league, but not bouncing, not dropping straight out again, I suppose is the priority, isn't it? Yeah, I'd say we absolutely, as a club, have to make our mark in that division. We have to prove to other teams who we are. You know, like I say, no one's going to give that to us on a plate. The team have to perform and we have to, you know, we have to get wins out of the park. We need to get good results at home. I think really, like you say, I personally would be happy with being in my own opinion, knowing we were secure in that division and having a good cup run, maybe go for the trophy kind of thing, or maybe even look at playoffs. I know obviously Mark is feeling very confident in our outcome. At least obviously we haven't, we yet to kick up all the season, but he speaks very confidently and I'm aware he knows the division with likes for a screen and things. Well, it would be nice to actually have an enjoyable season in the National League, wouldn't it? Because the last couple of seasons you all have had at this level have been absolutely miserable, but to have one where there's no immediate, imminent danger of dropping out of it, and like we said, establish yourself and whatever and start looking up further than down would be great. It would be that step forward again, isn't it? Yeah, but I mean, we're all thinking absolutely positive. I think we've got a good core at the moment. You know, we haven't had many that have moved on from the winning side as such. So, you know, they've got that mentality in them. You know, I've spoken to last week, spoke to Frank Morgan Williams yesterday. They've got that winning mentality in them. Matt Worthington as well, they want to keep going, keep going. They said there's no time to rest, and they're keen to please. They're not thinking all the jobs done because we're in the National League. You know, we're, you know, we want to aim for Football League status one day, and they want to keep that winning mentality. And while you're in a division where, yes, says some teams with crazy budgets, the likes of Forrest Green this season, but that doesn't mean anything until you get the results. So they're looking at keeping the winning mentality in a division where simply any team can win the title. There's no recsum, there's no Chesterfield, Knox County kind of thing. There's no one who would directly be the number one favourites right now to go up. But there are quite a few teams with extortionately large budgets compared to the average, I would say. A team that, if all things go well, could be chucked into that category, our South End, Adam, we're going to, we're going to bring you in, our financial expert. It was announced that, I don't know how up to date you are on South End, by the way, but it was announced today that the embargo on South End has been lifted. So sorry, the winding up position has been lifted. So they aren't going under just yet, there's still fighting them, but they are, I believe they're a team that should the take over go through. They are certainly going to be a threat going into next season. I don't know what your thoughts are on that one, Adam. I agree with everything that Jack said up to now that the fact that, as opposed to in previous years, there's sort of been some fairly obvious candidates of who would be pushing. And realistically, I don't think we've seen, and nationally, this open, probably since the year we fell into it, sort of during COVID, and that sort of era, because that was the year that sort of Barrow played everyone off the park, and Harrogate did some decent stuff as well. Since then, we've had Eurexims, United County, Stopport, Chesterfield today, and just a few. There's a lot of very well-drilled sides there. There's a lot of teams that have a lot of experience within their side. And South End is one of them. And South End has a long way to go from the issues with South End. It will just keep going on and on and on, up until Ramartin gets what he wants, which the problem is it becomes cloud during cloudy at truly what he's looking for, apart from to annoy everybody, and to upset the town of South End that he claims he cares so much about. So it's a real concern for South End. Generally, this will continue to rumble on. I think if the new provincial ownership can't get it over the line because of various mistakes that Martin will inevitably continue to make, he absolutely loves breaking the ship with the courts, the idea that he basically will leave it and leave it as long as he possibly can, and then mysteriously the money will appear. He seems to get a real kick out of it. That seems to be the only way of describing it, which is a real shame, because at the end of the day, this is many people's pride and joy at stake, regardless of the level as we all know. So it'll be really exciting, hopefully, to get that in the right direction. They've got a very good manager. They've signed some very good players, particularly when the ownership or the new potential ownership first reared their heads, sort of January, February of this year, of which of all of them are still tied down to contract. They'll actually have to start the season, which realistically wasn't guaranteed prior to six months ago. So they'll probably be okay because these types of organisations always are, but it doesn't mean that it won't run to the wire very, very close. I was also with South End, for example, I remember, because they had a, did they begin with a, was it a 10-point deduction they received last season? So I remember it, you know, it got to the final day of the national league, and they were potentially one or two games off making top seven. And you know, for them to be deducted 10 points, and this was the season where we beat them in the FA Cup and Gateshead as well, for example, obviously FA Cup's slightly different circumstance. But I think it's an example that, you know, had South End not been deducted to points, they could have been looking to challenge for semi-final playoffs. So they, again, they could be anything this season. They're definitely a side that will be looking at playoffs. I think what's always important to stress is that generally how big your budget is, does still massively contribute to where you will eventually end up in the season. What South End had that no other club will have had was in the day they've been receiving parachute payments, falling out of the football league. It's not very much, but it is enough to sort of swing the dial ever so slightly. And it would explain why Yova managed to finish fourth the year we fell down, and then really it papered over quite a lot of cracks, which we're all well aware of in the years that followed. So if, you know, without knowing too much of the details, as is more within their right, plenty of clubs will be on very high budgets, all of them with the same expectation, that there'll probably be at least seven or eight clubs, and it will be nice if Yova is one of them, but that is, you know, who knows if that's truly the case, at the end of the day to do still only go up. So the bottleneck will continue to exist, and it will mean there are plenty of interesting games, and it will be nice if Yova is at the right end of the table. But as we have stated, and as we've stated on this podcast, so many times over several years, the fact that there's a Yova town at all is enough for me. That's the thing. I mean, we could even go back to last season, where our initial objective, as bad as it sounds, and I think my dad said it, we were expecting to finish in the top 10, initially, of the National League South. We didn't even think we'd be favorites for the title. I mean, we weren't, even we were like four or fifth favorites. You had Maidstone, Torkey, Eastbourne, having a crazy budget. If not, I'm informed by few higher than what we had last season. And they, you know, look where they finished. I know Torkey had declared administration, or whatever happened from the league. And I think a team like Eastbourne is an example of you can have all the finances in the world. But if you don't get your recruitment right, and your team doesn't gel, it can go horrifically wrong. So I think it's important that you have to trust in your manager and your management team to do the right job at the end of the day. Yeah, no, absolutely agree with that. Speaking of the manager, how is Mark Cooper? We've not seen very much from him this summer at all, when they'd be looking nice to actually see him when we all had to pre-season. Good spirits, I hope. Yeah, he seems very bright. As I said, I think when did I last see him in person? I think about a week and a half ago, like late, like two weeks Friday kind of thing. He just popped up the club. Just of course, came in with Aaron Jarvis, I believe. The photos we've, so he was in for that. You know, they've had their few meetings down at the club, just getting prepared for next season. Yeah, he seems in very good spirits. And I believe his sons all well, as far as I'm told as well. And yeah, I mean, he's buzzing. He's rearing to go from what I hear, so. Sounds like it's the same across the ball for everybody. Us included as well. So fingers crossed, we'll all have a lovely start in pre-season, at least. Of course, you can hear us on Three Bodies Radio, where we cover milk shim on the 9th of July. I remember the date. You don't have made that. So yeah, yeah, I really limped to the line, but I got there. How have you found the additional responsibility of being on the board? And obviously last year, you came in initially as just part of the family. And then you were put onto the board and sort of helping out. And sort of response to these responsibilities grew and grew. How have you found tackling them? And what do they entail other than just painting the bars, perhaps? I think initially, it felt in your mind quite a big, obviously, it's a huge step up. But actually, when you break it down, it's, you know, I kind of got more like authority in terms of like selling things like sponsorships for next season. So let's say you're selling out the, you know, getting batches to renew the stands, getting a brewery to sponsor, because we're getting chilled lines put in at the club. For an example upstairs, it's just to improve the efficiency of the bars. And we're getting them sponsored, for example. So they're being funded. I think it's a case of like building more relationships with suppliers and sponsorships. I've kind of been working the last couple of weeks on the match day like food offerings. So the tea bars, we're just looking at improving the stock, improving margins on sales where we can, making sure prices are better the consumer as well. Obviously lately, yeah, I'm still painting the food things as you can see. Still got some masonry on me, but I mean, it's good fun. I mean, you could never turn up one day and think I've got nothing to do. You have to constantly write down what you're doing, because you're, the trouble with me is sometimes I'll start a task, and then I'll see something else start that. And you like think, oh, I should have finished the one before that. I think the objective is I've got to stay focused on one task. Welcome to my world. Oh, yeah, absolutely. God. But no, I mean, all's going well. I mean, they love it. That's all you can say, really. It's one good thing. Jack, at least this year, the seats are nice and bright. You don't have to worry about that one for another season or two, do you? Funny enough. Oh, no, don't tell me the big one. Yeah, they're having a little look today. They were looking very sharp. I did notice that the bottom row of the currently called the Banford Stand is almost like it's looking like it's a tiny bit faded. It's very hard to tell. It's really hard to picky now. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You become like, you become obsessed with it, like got to be tidy. So we might just give it a quick little tower over very briefly. Obviously, you have to be very careful, because there's only so many times you can get it, of course. I mean, overall, with the stadiums looking really good, pitch is looking well. Our grounds have done a fantastic job with that, as usual. Obviously, we had the pitch like relayed and things like that, and it grew back in a matter of, well, it's incredible. I think it was like two weeks it all grew back. It's mind boggling. I don't know how the sciences and stuff weren't buying that, but I mean, it's a serious credit to Matt and the team for that one. But yeah, I mean, again, boggles the mind. And it's a great tool testament to not only him, but to all of you that huge part looks alive again. Because I mean, we said it all year, but compared to a year ago, it's night and day, like from inside the ground, outside the ground. It's a lot of work that's that's gone into it. That was the thing that you really noticed last season, wasn't it? With the new ownership of the club, was it was looking dilapidated, run down, the club got relegated. And then all of a sudden, the first time people looked at huge park after the new owners had come in, hang on, it's got a big board outside that says where we are. It's starting to look tidy. All the seats were done. I know we said about the seats, but the seats were done. The painting was done. And the whole place just looked more professional straight away. And that gave everything at some level, you know, psychological level, or whatever. That gave the place a lift because it didn't look like it had been neglected, like it had been for previous years. Yeah, I think, you know, we obviously, again, it's easy to, you know, actions are louder than words. We had to prove our point. We wanted to show fans, look, we have took the club over now. But, you know, within that weekend, we got the keys and was working straight away. So we obviously had seen social media posts where other teams have done it with the seats, the blowtorching. So obviously we thought we would try it on one and we thought, oh, we'll replace the seat if it goes wrong. We were afraid initially that it wasn't going to work. And that's, you know, a whole new kettle of fish in terms of finance, if you had to replace the seats. So we were lucky with them. And, you know, for an example, I know I started on the Monday blowtorch in the seats. And I was doing like excess of 11 to 12 hours a day doing it. Because each seat took about, we timed it down to an art. It was something like there was 5,000 seats around that number. And it was like every seat you did took on average, like 28 seconds. So you had it down to like a fine art of you could do 200 in a period of time. And then you could have your break and move on from there. But you got fed up and doing it after a while. And I think, and then it was like moving on to painting. It was like, you know, some areas where like the green masonry paint, for example, were being taken years of UV damage from the sun. And it was becoming like this yellowish, like horrible colour that just wasn't inviting. Like you were saying how the place looked neglected. And all like the yellow on the seats was all damaged. And even the non-slit there was non-existent. We had to put that in when we came in and things like that. I think it's really important to stress. You're talking about all of this as if it's small things. Okay, yes, you put a lot of time in. But this is stuff that nobody for 10 years had even remotely thought of doing. Or even indicated they wanted to do. So I think you're doing yourself a massive disservice in terms of the work of just going, well, of course we did this. So of course we gave it a go. No one else had actually bothered to do that. And for my own failings, I've not been able to get the huge part all of last year. It was very noisy. Hey Adam, are you just taking our word for this? Because you haven't actually been there, have you? Well, I can see a social media post just as well as you can, Rick. All right. And as a result, I'm actually finally able to, and this is a three values exclusive, actually going to be at the Exeter friendly. And I am so excited to go. And I've not been that excited to go to Hewish Park since I was a child. I am that excited to see what it is. And to buy into Yoval Town again, because realistically it's not been something many people have been really willing to do for quite some years. And they are small things. But once you apply all of them into a wider sort of package, it's a nice spectacle. And as much as we're going on, it'd be nice if Yoval entrenched themselves in the National League. This is a good start having been in the League below before. But this is inherently still a National League and a very large club at that at the National League level. And it's nice to have a stadium and a squad and a board that know that and are willing to sort of remember that as more than just a financial transaction as some may have done in the past. And this is a football league club. Well, I'm not going to go into the details, but yes, deep down. Which stack would you like? Because some stats say it's a National League club. Some say it should be in the championship. So whichever you want, Rick and I'll go on the Ricky standard of having a guess. And what I consider, I consider Yoval to be a football league club. Put it that way. Yeah, very. And you will find, funny enough, with historically, with the football club even looking into the, dare I say, the historic financial accounts of the club. You actually found that an average club, let's say, of Yoval's sustainability running costs, you find that they are most efficient in League two. So when you go, when you get promoted to the football league is probably no one. You're given quite a large, what I deem to be a large chunk of parachute money. The National League gives you traces of compared to in the football league. So it's like something of like, you know, over a million pounds when you jump in the league too. And that covers the sense that you play in budget. Your ticket prices match your outgoings and things like that. And it's just, there's just more sponsorship from the league and just more viewership and things like that. So really, you know, it's tough to make money in non-league. Yeah, I think a lot of teams have seen that when they sort of drop down. And again, we're quite fortunate that we're one of the lucky few that they've been picked up by somebody and someone who actually cares, which is nice. It is the most horrible league in the country, isn't it? The National League is such a... It's exciting, but it's also torture. Oh, yeah. So hard to say. I've never understood, as well, the lack of promotion spots. Yeah. Because you'll have one automatic and second to seventh for go up in playoffs, but you'll have four go down. And when you get into league two, I believe it's something like four go up and two drop in the National League. But the corruption in that or why or, I don't know if there's been some historic disagreement, maybe? Or... Oh, well, without sounding too boring, sadly, I know the answer to this in a shock to Tom and Rick, I'm sure. Sit back, ladies and gentlemen. I naturally mention that, isn't it? I'm sure we're not. Everyone wants to know. Well, the first one is why is there four promotion spots interleaked out of league two? And that is due to actually back in the fifties, when we had the existence of Division three north and south. As a result, it used to be two at the top. Two would go in from the north league and two would come in from the south. As a result, when they merged the two leads, that's why you left four promotion spots. At the other end, this is actually down to the 1980s when there was no... Oh, no, it's one being old. Yeah, exactly. Rick will remember when this first happened, and that we don't talk about the 92 just because it's something that we sort of... But we obviously will stop at league two. That's because for a long period of time, that's all there was in terms of professional football in England. And it stopped at the bottom of league two. And you had to ask for re-election into out of the sort of the third league, which is what we now know as the National League. It wasn't a given, was it? You had to... The bottom club could actually... You could finish bottom of what was the old Division four and retain your position within the football league. It was within their gifts, shall we say Adam? And that's precisely the point is when the question is, well, how come there's only two promotion spots? It's bull. Guess who decides how many spots there are? It's the people in the league above and unsurprisingly... How long was there only one? Because there was only one for a long time, wasn't it? The second one is quite recent. Yeah, well, I think it's still within the last 25 years, because I think it was two spots when we escaped in the Gary Johnson era. But I don't think it's much more before then. I have got 1998 in my head, but that's pulling something deep from the Braybox. So yeah, that sort of explains that one and it's why people constantly go, well, why isn't there three spots? And there was an awful lot of coverage about it last season when it was Rex and Knott's County and Chesterfield. Sinically, that coverage seems to have massively got quieter when people forgot that the football existed when Rex and weren't there anymore. But that's me just being a cynic. And of course, this is not a cynical show, is it, Rick? It's not a cynical show. Very high profile, Adam. And it's more so when you're here. Well, quite. So that's why there's only ever been a bottleneck between the two. The other thing and Jack will be well too aware of this. As a result, there's no financial rules. There's entirely different rules in the National League. And as a result, they can spin whatever they like. But without, as Jack has already highlighted, significantly less funding of which that funding's only going to increase for the new EFL TV deal, which some of it's going to lead to. Not a lot, but there is some. And this is why you see so many clubs that fall out of the league too and take quite a few years to sort of set themselves again. Because realistically, they were running in a budget and in a system where they were arguably comfortable and suddenly are no longer comfortable because those safety nets weren't there. You can reel off an awful lot of clubs in there. The oval included, when we went down those ourselves, we went down with Notz County. And we've seen how much money Notz County has since been given, but they were comfortable. Rochdale is the same. Scumfort went straight through. Who else? We've got all sorts of clubs in there that realistically you go, "Oh, no, that's a classic 92 club." It's the line that some older fans may claim. And it's annoying that there's very little coverage of this at the lower levels. But then again, it gives me a greater scope to whinge about it on the oval-based football podcasts. And with that point, with a neat little bow on it, I think we'll hop into that. The final serious question before we move on to international bits. Are there any sneak peeks or further deals to be done, both sort of commercially on the pitch as well? Is there anything that we could either get a sneak peek at? Or is there still stuff to be done that maybe we can't be told about yet? I think absolutely I would like to state there is, quote unquote, more to come. But I mean, that can involve, you know, we've got things like sponsorships to come in yet. Obviously, we've got a very good core of players ready. I don't know if Mark is to potentially add to that anymore. That may happen. Start the league later on. I don't know directly on that matter. But yeah, I think we've got more to come in terms of sponsorships. More people kind of coming on board. Season ticket numbers, for example, are looking very healthy as well. So I'm expecting them attendances to be pretty comfortable next season. Are they about the same as last season, do we know, or is it higher or? I probably, you know, I comfortably say they're higher, but I obviously can't give an exact number of them yet. And I think there's a lot of people with that kind of, I think a lot of fans almost like the players have that like winning mentality. They want to see oval, keep winning and keep getting results. And, you know, we've got to make, you know, at the end of the day, it's they have to put on a show. And I like to think that we did, the oval did that last season and the fans want more of it. Yeah, I couldn't agree more with that as well. Yeah, we all want to see a show. And I think the players did just that. And I think the fans helped along in that as well. Do we have any news thinking about it on the kit? Because there's an unofficial, there's an unofficial date of the fourth of July. But is there any sort of time frame? Is there perhaps even a tiny hint that is there stripes on it? Is it green? Is there anything? The home kits, blue, I'm afraid, not great. No, obviously, confidentially speaking, they can't really disclose the kit itself, but obviously seeing it. And I think we've got a pretty exciting sponsorship deal as well, which will be obviously further as when I quote more to come. And yeah, I think the fourth of July will entice that via socials of the kit release, as far as I'm aware. Well, fourth of July, book it in your calendars, ladies and gentlemen, as the potential kit date potential. I don't think there's anything interesting going on that day. No, no, nothing interesting. Wait, hey, that one. Even if there was, I'm making sure it's not. No. Love that. Yeah, bring up your diaries. Well, we'll move on to international football. We'll go a little bit bigger than yours. Not that you can get much bigger than you over, of course. It was about to say, I don't know. It's a tough ask. Hi, this is Matt Worvington, and you're listening to football, bloody hell. We'll go from, well, the joys of you over, actually, to whatever the hell last night was, as we record this, as England tops their group, who, but perhaps in the dullest possible manner, with their, their nil-nil draw against Levenia. Jack, you mentioned before we started recording that you have been watching the England games. I mean, what are your thoughts across the three games and what were your thoughts on last night? It just obviously is like, I could not myself be in those players' boots for the life of me and do what job they're doing. I understand there's probably an unbelievable amount of pressure. You know, you've got millions of fans watching you at one time and managing and stuff. But I just feel like we felt, from the games I watched like the first game, it was like we'd score one goal and relax, and it was like the Denmark game the other week. It just felt like we'd score one goal early, like 20 minutes in, it's going great. And then we end up like just falling back and we're letting them get in our penalty box, and we eventually concede. You know, the Denmark game is an example. I don't, I don't understand. It just feels rather like not inviting. Like, I don't know if Southgate thinks like the job's done at one-nil or he thinks the opposing team are going to lay off pressure, they're not. You know, some of them in our group have got nothing to lose, so they're just going to go for it regardless for results. I don't know. I think obviously the job's done with first place, but I don't know if we deserve it. That's probably some that are perfectly. To be honest, it's done, but whether we deserve it is different. Rick, as we all know, you are a massive international fan. Have you got any thoughts to share with us that are safe for radio waves? Bearing in mind that I've got to edit out any profanities, I don't want to make the job harder for myself. It's hands, isn't it? I think that the one thing that I've taken from it is there was a lot of talk at the end of last season that with my other football hat on, my man United One, any of us were talking about potentially getting Gareth Southgate in as a potential manager. Blimey, did you dodge a bullet there? I think the job has become, it's funnier, I was talking to my son about this today. And if you look back at when Southgate took the job, the England squad, there was no expectation of them, and he had a system, and he had Ashley Young in it, he had Jesse Lingard in it, lesser players than he's got now. And he was more of a systems manager, and he made coach, and he made that work. It's almost, to my mind, now he's got world stars in the team, and he's not a big enough man to manage them. You don't have to, England's best team does not have, probably have Phil Foden and you bullying him in it. But not together, but as with Spengo and Ericsson, when he had the quandary with the three midfielders, and he left out the best one, you're in a situation that I think Southgate is too scared to back himself and go with that. And when, not that I am that old, but when we won the World Cup, the best goal scorer in the world was sat on the bench for England, because he didn't fit into the team that went on and won the World Cup. Now, I'm not saying it's potentially that situation again, necessarily, but England's best 11 as a team probably doesn't include those two unless you persuade Bellingham to play deeper and play, Foden's wasted anywhere other than a ten at the moment. It seems even more ridiculous the decision to leave Grealish and Rashford at home when you're only out there on that left-hand side now is Anthony Gordon, who's got what, two or three caps. He's put himself into a corner doing that, and to gamble on the fitness of Luke Shaw, he's been out since what, March. It's just so many flaws and bad management are coming into it now. And England have got to be the worst group winners of any group in a European competition. It's the least goals that have been scored. Own goals! It's scored more goals than England so far in this. It's something more than a lot of people to be fair. Yeah, in fairness. Yeah, that is quite a big number. But it's tedious. It's all, I have fallen asleep during the last two. Yeah, and just it's numbing. There's nothing. And yet they're also aside, because we bumped ourselves up and our media convinced everybody that we've got this world-beating squad. It's the biggest letdown ever. They had more support from the country going into this competition than I think an England squad had ever. And what they've turned around and produced, whether that's down to the coach, whether that's down to individual players, or whatever, is pitiful, really. Yeah, I think it's a very good job on that one. Adam, I'm not sure on your freedom. Lift us up, Adam! Give us something positive for the sun. No, I will give us some positives. Not many. There aren't many, because some of the performances have been very, very disappointing. My two main points of it are he's actually... It was the post-match interview by Kyle Walker after the Denmark game that surprisingly sort of gave me a little bit of positivity. And it's in fairness. If you go far enough back from a time perspective, we are still top of the group. We didn't do it prettily. We didn't do it very well in any stretch of the imagination. And in the best half of the draw. And in the best half of the draw, as a consequence of that, somehow. I mean, the line is so far with England. Which is exactly what happened with the 2018 World Cup, when we had absolutely nothing to play for. We had all the freedom, because everyone thought we would be rubbish, because we've seen 2016 and everything else since then. And we'd had Allied dice with his glass of wine, or his pint of wine, sorry, and all the other things. So there's a lot of... There's some similarities there. In terms of did we achieve what we needed to do? Yes. Was it spectacular in any way? God no. It was absolutely awful. And the Denmark game really, really annoyed me. The thing that annoyed me the most about the Denmark game is that we'd lost the one thing that England had been very good at for the last previous tournaments. Which was at least there wasn't much talent, but there was a lot of togetherness, and that disappeared. And we still saw it a bit in the Slovenia game. Rather than picking each other up, arms were being thrown. It was being thrown, particularly by... I will personally throw a full phone under the bus. I really, really didn't like him in the Denmark game. People saw that as, "Look, he's the only one making happen." Yes, because he wasn't giving anyone else the ball. So that was my initial sort of disappointment on that one. But we did still get through. The immediate flip side to that was, I immediately flipped to the ITV4 after England had drawn with Slovenia just to make sure that Serbia didn't win. And the first line after the final whistle was, "And Serbia have gone out having scored one goal." And me and my partner immediately highlighted being like, "Yes, but England have topped the group having scored two." So really, we can't be too picky on that one. If you think about the other clubs or the other nations that are on paper, equally should be as dominant as England, the only two that have really sort of followed that have arguably been Germany and Spain, because France haven't looked particularly exciting. Italy have looked very, very weak to name just two. And if you think Portugal equally haven't looked that spectacular. And on paper, these are nations that have the same or at least similar quality to ourselves. England probably still have the better squad on paper. But the only two that have sort of maybe lived up to the hype that we sort of expect from a purely English perspective of Spain and Germany. And both of them have had very poor tournaments recently. And as a result, the level of expectation on those two nations is lower. It's almost as if people put too much hype on all national teams. It just happens to be that we in England do an awful lot of shouting, some of it very good, most of it not. And as a result, you know, this is why my, to bring it all back to, is it mildly positive? Yes, because we have ended up on the right side of the draw. Okay, we're probably going to end up with the Netherlands who again on paper, well, that's not very good. But anyone who's watched the Netherlands over the first three games haven't looked exactly that spectacular. England are very good at playing at the level of their opponents. And we might nick it one nil at various levels. However, that applies to the Slovenia's of this world, but that equally applies to France in the World Cup quarter finals two years ago, when we all went, France are going to absolutely walk away with the World Cup because of how good their squad was. And we only just lost. And it was through Harry Kane mid penalty, which was a free event in on of itself. And suddenly go, yeah, England, England did all right. And this is the still the same types of players. There's still many tactical flaws. There's still a definite lack of ambition by some players. But I think they've all, they've very done very well at shielding everyone else around them. And Southgate takes the flag as is his writers, the manager. And that's his role, you know, every very top class manager has always said, I will protect you, but I will have a go at you in private, you know, Ferguson did this all the time to his best effect. They all clearly have a plan. Their idea was we will top the group and they played such and they shielded it. And okay, yes, from a viewing perspective, it was dire. But it's still to an extent got the job done. We won't go home, I think miserable. I don't think we'll go home having been dismantled, but it might be with a whimper. I think as well, my like sort of input on it. I, the thing is with England, I think to be honest with you, I think there's going to come point now in the knockout rounds, where I think we're going to, over one things, I think we're going to suddenly start fingers crossed, put on a more exciting show. Or we're going to, as bad as it sounds, end up winning games. But games we don't deserve to win. So let's say we will concede a goal early, and maybe in like added time in the final minutes of the game, like we have done historically England versus Wales, I think a few years back, you know, end up going on to win a game in like the final few minutes. And but fans are thinking for 90 minutes, we have not deserved to win the game. And I just think we're going to end up getting results, that maybe we will progress, but we almost don't deserve it. That's the least what I've seen at the moment. Yeah, I think as well, historically England, or at least in more recent tournaments, it's taken England a long time to warm up. Game one and game two, we've kind of either been, eh, but got the job done. And so game three, we can chill and rotate. Or we do generally just take a little bit to grow into a tournament. And sort of round the 16, we might get an easier draw because we've won our group, because we kind of got through it. And we started to look sudden, like you say, as Adam said as well, we play to the level of our opposition, which can be a blessing, but can also be a curse, as we have seen with Iceland, as we saw last night with Slovenia. We should also add as well, well, England were pretty average. Slovenia did a really good job of keeping out the likes of Saka and Foden. So for a country that small, and to only have one or two, sort of fairly recognizable players, they've done a pretty good job. And it looks like they're going to the round of 16 as well for the first time in their history. So, well, kudos to them. But yeah, I think that it was a very toothless performance. I think under the radar as well, Jude Bellingham had an absolute howler again. Only the first game, he looked anything like the Jude Bellingham we know. So hopefully he can pick it up for the round of 16 and sort of help get us back on track. But yeah, it was a rough night. And I put in our group chat that everyone could probably hop off and miss nothing. And one of them took my bet on that. And it was the best decision they could have made. Unfortunately, we had to stay up and watch it for this for this very show. But there we go. We've managed to get 10, 15 minutes out of whatever the hell England put on. But Ricky, you know, you've got to say that. Yeah, there's only one way that game yesterday could have been worse. The substitution brought up and Jordan Henderson came on. But thankfully, we were saved that. Why are you smiling at me? Because there's somehow, you've baffled me. How have you managed to get him into this discussion? Because he's a not-bed. Well, moving on swiftly from that. Obviously, we've got the round of 16 to go high-bound stuff this year. It's the final, well, tonight, as we record this for the round of 16, begins on Saturday. The ties are slowly beginning to come together. There's Jeremy Denmark is one. Thank God. We've not gotten to that side of the draw, as it could have been pretty ugly. The only other fully confirmed ties so far is Switzerland hosting Italy. So that could also be Italy. Haven't really been at their best, while Switzerland have kind of exceeded my expectations. And Austria topped their group. So they'll be facing a much easier draw from Group F, which looks likely to be Turkey or Czechia. But hipster's choice, Austria. The hipster's choice. Some might say a three-valley's podcast host, Dark Horse. I don't know. Far beef for you to blow your own trumpet. I don't know who could have possibly said that. But would it have been you, Tom Bailey? It might have been. It might have been. I believe there's also an apology that's due to be issued. You all laughed at me when I said Croatia were going out. We are not laughing now, are you? You're all. Where's my applause? I don't remember laughing. I must have missed that episode. That's true, you weren't on that one, Adam. So I'll let you offer that. But no, I said Croatia were going out. I can feel Dave Pryor's resentment already. Rick, anything to say? Let me have my moment. No. Well done. You shadowed out the octogenarians of Croatia have finally reached the end of the road. You're a bully. You're bullying old people, Tom Bailey. That's all you do. I was right, though. And that's what matters. OK. Yeah. Let me have this moment. You're usually right about everything else, so. There's, to be honest, not much else to cover with the euros other than the fact that England are likely to face the Netherlands on Sunday. Jack, will you be watching? As far as I'm aware, yes. Yes. How can we get? This is normally the Wednesday/Thursday/Friday podcast, whenever this goes out, is usually a predictions pod. For the Premier League, we do all sorts of predictions. You know, we predict all 10 for the weekend. We're going to get you to do an England prediction and just a little bit of a preview on what you think might happen. It's a free throw. You can go, you can say whatever, well, pretty much whatever you want. And going to penalties, do whatever you need to do. But Jack, can it take the stage? I think we'll be an equal score at full time. And I think we'll win the game in added time, maybe two, one. That's a very exciting thing. That would be an England score in two goals, yeah. Well done. That's not going to happen. Which will, from the sounds of it, well, yeah, they do do it. They'll be doing it in the 118th minute from the way it's going today. Well, I mean, we saw it with Denmark in the last tournament. It's certainly not off the table. And I'm going to hop in. And I'm not going to directly agree. I'm going to say we do it too, Neil. I think the Netherlands are inconsistent. And I think they're going to have an off day. I think we'll turn up our game a little bit. We might even see Southgate make some bumbum changes. So I think we'll pick it up for the last 16. And I think it's a home time for the orange. Adam, what are your thoughts? It's the battle of who has looked more naff compared to what's on paper, I think realistically. The naff derby. It is the naff derby, which in fairness, knowing Dutch, that probably means something that it shouldn't. Everything would seem to have a double F in French. In Dutch, sorry. Anyway, I think we will win. I think it will be miserable. I think it will be tense. And I think lots of people will be very angry for large parts of the 90 minutes. However, I think it will end up England 1, the Netherlands bill. Positivity, Rick Hyatt, the beacon of positivity that you are. Any hope? The team with the fewest Virgil van Dykes in it will win. The weirdest unit of measurement I've ever heard. England will do it on penalties after a stinky 1-1 draw. I could see that happening. To be honest, I can see all four of our scenarios happening. I think it's scoring two goals. It is wildly optimistic. Unless Coby Maynard gets a couple. Other than that, we've got no chance. God, the agenda is starting again. What? I've worn myself up for the season. It's so far up. Yeah, so far away. Every pub landlord in this country is praying for an England win. I just shadowed the doubt. God, we're in the arrow on the Thursday for the Denmark game. And the amount of money they must have made from all the drinks. More the fact that half of them weren't actually drunk. They were bought and then launched. But it's been a bit of that going on in the stadium as well, isn't it? There's been a lot of... I know that the beer is cheap and you only get it in half-point things. But as some journalists have been complaining that when they're goals have scored, there's bloody lager everywhere. Well, it was offside, wasn't it? And so you see... Can I have the argument? God's sake, I've only got one now. Yeah. But was it the first game where they halved the alcohol content in the beverages? I think it was the first one, yeah. Yeah, it was rumours of it. Yeah. That was it, we've made great marks for ourselves as fans. But there we go. Apparently we've all begun quite nicely, which is a pleasant change. So maybe a sign of things to come. Maybe now we start behaving ourselves. This is the year we finally do it. Yeah, new beginning. We can dream. Adam's got his flair ready, just in case he can make the final. I have it on permanent standby. Adam's charging on to the pitch at full time. If I'd been at Gloucester, it might have gone off, but it didn't. So... You're keeping your powder dry on that one. Very much so. He's waiting for Wembley when we go up in the playoffs. Something to look forward to if we do get to the final. Well, final, yeah. It'd be amazing. I've only just thought of it, but we'll find a question. With the fan zone, obviously, growing into life last season, and obviously there's been a couple of events held across the summer, so far with the likes of the, I think it was the beer festival, when there was also a concert. A mute sunset, I think. Yes, that one as well. Are there any plans upcoming for any other big events? So is perhaps something in the future, maybe a fan zone being used for future international tournaments, or is that still a bit of a way away? I think in the future we'll be looking at it. As far as I'm aware, it's just not something we could adapt to in time for this upcoming tournament. We're obviously being shown the game up in the Alex Stock Lounge. Of course, it was kind of like our last-minute thing. But obviously, in regards to next season, we are looking at, for example, improving the quality of life on match day. So we're increasing bar capacity, going into next season. We should be up and running for the friendlies as well, as far as I'm aware. And so you won't be queuing for X amount of time to get your point before kickoff. And just improving like a few food offerings as well, and just kind of improving the quality of life and seeing arrangements and bits like that. We'll continue having bands and special events on our bandstand and things like that, as we progress. Adam, which friendlies are you coming down for? I will be there for extra service to you. I would suggest, Jack, that you get some red carpet ready for that particular day. It's all green will do. Oh, green carpet. Oh, yeah, plenty of that, yeah. Well, I think we've covered pretty much everything. I think it's pretty much an hour as well. So I think it's a good time for us to wrap things up. So firstly, a big thank you, Jack, for coming on and giving us some of your time. Great for you to make your three bodies debut. Oh, yeah. Thank you very much. I really enjoyed it. Here's to many more, hopefully. Yeah, we've not scared you off just yet. That is legally binding. And a big thank you to Adam Davis for once going grisius with your time. Absolute pleasure, as always. Thank you very much. Lovely to see your face once again. And hopefully we see you at Exeter. Very exciting. On the over four Exeter. And a big thank you to Rick High once again for pleasing our railways. Nice. It's good that you struggle to actually find something that you were thanking me for there. You need to speechless. You do make me feel so welcome. On the day of my show. Well, you see, this is why I'm out of routine. I'm not on my show. I'm on Dave's. So it's a difficult one. And on that note, it's time to wrap things up. Thank you all for listening. And you've been listening to... Well, good evening. And welcome to, it's not good evening, is it? This goes out Friday morning. Bonox. Rubbish. You've had one line so far. Right. I'm out of practice. You are an amateur. I've thought in my life I would miss Dave Pryor and I miss him right now. Bloody Dave Pryor. So I'm so used to listening to him make the mistakes.

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