BladesPod - The Sheffield United Podcast

Distrusting the Process

Ben and Andrew have some BIG FEELINGS about the current state of inactivity at United, with the whole club seemingly on pause as John Egan, Oli McBurnie, Ben Osborn and Daniel Jebbison leave on free transfers. Will it all come together? Hopefully, but for now it's very hard to trust(y) the process...

Plus! Half an hour of England Euro 2024 chat which you are free to ignore if you're had Welsh / Scottish / Irish / Other / had enough hearing about whether football's coming home.

Thanks for listening, UTB and come on England!

Duration:: 1h 14m
Broadcast on:: 03 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

[Music] Hello and welcome to Blades Potter Ease Wednesday the 3rd of July. My name is Ben and on the line is Andrew how are you mate? I'm all right mate how are you? I am good as well thank you. England is still in the euro so you know that's that's keeping some football interest going and we'll talk about that England towards the end of it. You know how it is? No one uses bad news mate you know when we last recorded when was that I was like 33 weeks ago. I felt like it was 20 days ago let me see if I can just find the last episode here because we did say um as you were going on holiday when we recorded that one yeah and so we said well no pod next week but we should be back the weekend after when hopefully we'll have something to talk about with Jeff and I didn't know no nothing's happened all it was the when was this the it was the 13th of June so yeah three weeks ago recently I did not anticipate that we'd be sat here with no positive changes for United if you like we knew at that point that there was like a takeover potentially lurking was how we knew at that point that obviously is is real like you know did all the reporting is that that is a real thing and it's with the EFL at the moment still not progressing very quickly you should say as these things tend not to do and yeah I have questions about the timing of it I suppose we're going to try and record this episode even though there's nothing to talk about yeah to try it because we've watched for I think the thing is is that we expect to the squad to be bigger not small about the time we recorded but that is a that is a great shorthand way of putting it yeah um we're recording this to try and manifest some positive action by the club I feel like whenever we record the club does something like a day and I just joined everything by the way she's coming up on an notification I thought that was a joke oh for half a second there I thought that was a joke and then I remembered I've just got an notification don't forget that don't ever talk about that ever again so we're doing this to try and manifest some positive action by the club because nothing is happening and that is bad obviously he said some players have left but that is that is basically due to inaction on our par on the women's side I just want to bring this in here as well the club still haven't appointed a first team manager yet if five months yesterday was when Jonathan Morgan was sacked and two of the best players the women's side Tara Bourne and Beck's Rayna have just announced that they're leaving as well the first friendly for the men's team is in 10 days time the season itself kicks off in slightly over a month we've been mathematically relegated since April and arguably preparing for life in the championship since last July so what is going on I mean the club it just isn't functioning as a club at all at the moment we can't sign anyone and we've got the biggest rebuilding our recent history and whatever the reasons are for that you know the take over holding things up and all that the facts are of what's happening and where we're at is we need 12 to 15 players and as it stands we're seemingly unable to sign anybody and the club is not functioning as a football club but like I say I don't know what's going on behind the scenes and stuff but I do know that we're we're getting to a stage now where it almost feels like I'm not overly like overly panicked you can bring 10 players in in a couple of weeks and get them all gelled that can happen just in buying that recent history I'm just not very confident of that happening and it feels a bit like last July where we've written a season off before it started it does and I I do think it will come together like you know there is still time because yeah you know I just I don't I don't think we'll have a team like for the but I think like for instance by the by the window closes by the end of September we'll have a team we'll look at it and say yeah it could have been worse like I think it's a massive aspect to a promotion push I really don't think that's a on the equation at all obviously could be wrong whilst I've done it before where he's had this massive clear out and and brought people in but I've seen people talk about back-to-back allegations as it stands yeah I think that would happen if we didn't sign anyone but I think we will sign someone but you can only judge things as they're happening and I don't see how there's any optimism or really any defence to be honest about what's happening well it's based on pure hope that things will be different there's some really amusing copium going on from our fans and I get it because I I'm doing it with England yeah that's true you know honestly they'll click they had one good move in the last match they'll be all right next time they'll get it's like 50 to them I get the copium but it is that and it's there's no it's not based on any logic it's not based on any and and this is not me criticizing though those fans you should do that as a fan you should have like blind up but it is blind up because there is absolutely nothing coming out of the club right now to suggest that we're anywhere close to to build in a competitive team yeah so I think it'll come together but it's looking more like scramble a team together to stay afloat than have a tilt at promotion it's kind of looking like I almost feel like we're doing what Wednesday are to do last season whether if I've remembered this rightly they got promoted and then like there's lots of players yeah there's a sign like 15 players and just like cobbled together a team and that's kind of where we are but we're coming down a division instead of going up a division I suppose equally they're equally bizarre situations to find yourself in I suppose I've achieved division even if we do strike gold you know and wilder pulls off a miracle or even take over goes through and suddenly we have you know cash to throw around and yeah you know bring in bring in a bunch of good first teamers even if we strike gold I think the process deserves a ton a ton of criticism yeah like we're not running our club in a serious fashion this summer like this is I mean it's just unforgivable what we're doing here I feel sorry I feel like I'm on talks but it's sorry I feel like Jamie O'Hara or something what is this I mean come on I'm not am I overreacting? No I'm not the thing what what people say and I get this is there there's no point of spending a little money that we have if we have anyone I I'm on players that we might be able to improve on if when this takeover comes through and I understand that but I do think we all get into the stage but we're probably at the stage now where we do need to start making some genuine moves the first team I know Shackleton's supposed to be coming in I think you know he's going to be coming going to be coming in as a squad player by all accounts I would have thought just judging by what you know I've got the view from from Leeds and stuff you just basically an Osborne replacement yeah I'll get a say that's that that doesn't usually float my boat to be honest no no I've been in Osborne's replacement yeah yeah and you need players like that in a squad you can do multiple positions I'm okay with deciding you know free transfer it makes sense whatever but I just think that we're what we're starting pre-season we're starting pre-season we're what 18 players and how many of them are over 21 I want to say I'm talking about like I'm including like Femi Sariq in this 18 you know I think I'm curious and people like that if you look at I saw I can't remember it we might have been all things played put out like our best team at the moment and it would Adam Davies in goal which is a fun night right when backs bubble yeah fair enough left wing back R&D not played for two years basically oh can't trust him Jack Robinson fair enough trust date off the back of an appalling season and Elle almost certainly not going to be here Sousa almost certainly not going to be here aim probably won't be here to be completely honest I hope I hope he is our blaster who's come off the back of an amazing start but it's a big ass room to carry the team and then Brewster and a solar up from and as some people say that's top six material and I'm like what I think people have massively underestimated the championship as well people say well it's not the Premier League and a mild better team than the one we've got now we're messing about in 18th and 19th on the slav and that that team there were far better and you might say well there's a far better manager but that were a far better team that struggled and as it stands right now and you can only judge there's no point like I said that the coping and the hoping wherever it makes sense because that's what you do as a fan but we can only just we're trying to analyze the situation we don't judge what's happening and right now we are just a complete mess and this was supposed to be everybody used everybody was saying we need to get everything done so quick it's the biggest summer ever no messing about straight onto it we've signed no one and we've actually lost probably four players that we didn't think we're gonna lose yeah that's a really good point there and we've sort of uh to kind of moved onto that subject I suppose um these are players we wanted to keep like you know we obviously couldn't find a middle ground in terms of how much we wanted to pay them versus how much today wanted to be paid but it's not like uh it's not like we wanted to get rid of egan jebison mitt bernie and osbourne because we made him an offer I mean jebison potential it well there's no way we would want jebison to leave all things being equal but you know you could you could say well we made him that contract offer just so we're covered in terms of we get some compensation when he goes but the rest of them we definitely wanted to keep like that's that's not that's not the club going up get them out you know three crocs like you know they haven't done and they haven't done enough for us get rid we try to keep them but we haven't been able to for whatever reason yeah it's the array again seeing fan saying i'm glad you might be glad and that's absolutely a fine opinion to our if you think we should get rid of them three because your injuries totally understand it that but the facts are the manager ought to keep him or at least three out of the four you know he said he wanted to work with us born next season he's gone we're obviously tried to get jebison to sign for whatever reason maybe that we're all smoke and mirrors just so we get a tribunal now we've offered me earlier contracts he's turned it up but the end of the day if we didn't want these played people to stay did they be on the pitch at the end of the uh tottland game and we want to offer them a new contract yeah but we've offered them contracts it doesn't matter this is what i think this is what's like sort of frustrating when i see people saying it's great for the club brilliant news and stuff like that you might you might think that and you might be right with that but the club that the manager don't think that because otherwise i wouldn't have offered them contracts yeah you know it's seemingly like the owner doesn't think that either of those who want to you know sanctions offering of a contract now exactly exactly this they've turned us down we've not turned them down we've not a master plan from the club it's not a oh you know we've decided against it because we might have offered them lower terms and that's why they've not accepted but that's four players who have left us by their own decisions and if that doesn't concern you then i don't know what will because he doesn't matter what you think of them as players that's four players there and they've left us other than Osborne to go to go nowhere to go to no club it's not like they've got a better offer and they've like well you know he'll be a fair enough he's gone to far is there they are without a club right now it's it's and whatever you think of them again it's made while the job harder because it's okay you know it's okay saying everyone wants to rebuild and wants to clear out and all this sort of stuff but while they wanted to keep them and then it was their their decision and not ours and i don't know anybody realistically at the end of the season people might change now and say they wanted to get rid of the egan jebison Osborne and mr bernay all for free it's about 30 million pounds with a player there i don't know you know we're going mad about we need to sell burgers out of contract get him out get him out get him out and yet on the other end we've just lost mr bernie i don't know what to do worth now 10 million probably because he's 50 15 gold striker at least in the championship jebison at least five million i'd say uh Osborne probably a couple a million uh egan if he gets back fit again five or six million so whatever money we got for berg we've lost on these by just letting them go i just i don't i don't i just think it's it's muddled management yeah and that line about you can't let players get into the last year of the contract well that's well well yeah well what have we done with these i mean this is and this going back to like this in activity and and just slowness about everything and like muddle thinking as you say like you know it's not a shock that egans are contract or mr bernay's a better example because egan all right he's had a long-term injury you can understand why the club would be like we're not going to you know we're not going to give in you contracts in february or whatever when you you know you can't even run yet but you know we have we was obviously a month ago that that retained list come out i wonder if it was three weeks ago so um yeah they've reached a stage where they felt like they were ready to offer him a contract but it's just it was 19th of may our last game against spurs and as you said it we've just got the squad's got smaller i just ultimately i think that's a take over and if it happens soon and we get a new you know new broom whatever behind the scenes and we turn it around like you say the the destination might work out okay but we can't judge that right now and people might be listening saying are being negative and stuff like that i think the people who were not sort of being negative are genuinely just i don't understand the blind a base in what they think on hope rather than what's happened now we can only discuss what's happening now you know i'm basing everything that's happened over the last three years of the pitch i'm just going to assume that the worst thing's going to happen because that seems like the most logical thing to do other than the other side of it so yeah yeah there's not much that makes me optimistic to be honest um can we let's talk eagan quickly um well not quickly as long as we want to suppose we're not we're not going to do it like a tribute to john eagan here um because i'm too angry to be perfectly honest i.e i flagged this uh maybe three or four weeks ago i think when we recorded and i i said like that is the if he is not playing for chefing art next season that's going to make me extremely angry i'll be really short-sighted is i said it would be it would be behind and ji being sold to marsay levels of anger but it would still be quite high up there i really thought he was going to stay um and i'm i'm good he's not here i think it's a mistake uh in football in terms obviously it's like sentimentally it's it's a below as well when you look at like the characters that the the team has lost like say you got balled up bash him nor would eagan now maburni as well all out the door i think every one of those will have worn the captain's own band at some point maybe not um i don't maybe bash him as him but you know he's one of the he's one of the leading figures i suppose in the dressing room it's an incredible turnover of like personality people want what a clear out and i've seen a lot of people say you know everyone want to clear out another mountain there's one thing i'm in a clear out bringing absolutely nobody in these plays might come in and i don't believe for a second anybody sat down at the season and said the plays that we've lost we want to lose all and start all over again i don't but i just don't believe you if you think that if you think that we're if that we all view before it's happened it's a matter of change the mind sentence but just jeberson alone letting go of jeberson and people say oh he's not done anything he's done he's got he's a young player he's 90 not many people at that age have played in the top two divisions as a striker and scoring goals in him and i know that ain't got loads but you know he ours and we've lost him for free and maburni is if whatever you think of at bernish fitness issues is a 10 million pound at least striker that's gone for free yeah no it's shocking management all around yeah the jeberson one we've talked about before aren't we like backing uh i think back in january when it's sort of first i feel like it first sort of surface like there's no way he's signing a new contract and we talked about you know the club needs to take a look at itself basically whatever you think of he's a you know his ability or where he's going to end up in the game he was an asset that was under our control and due to our own you know decisions or circumstances or whatever we have allowed that asset to leave for nothing um who else was on this as i talk about um oh yeah the jeberson thing i just want to bring this up again do you remember when he played in that under 21s game before the end of the season yeah yeah that would be a new situation jose saying like surely he's staying surely he's staying um because we've got you know but now we're on the wildest stuff there he's been signing next 24-48 hours i do think that would probably ruin i think fill a full blade set it way back when um that it would probably all about it we're never going to stay but we need to look like we're offering him a serious contract otherwise we don't get a tribunal but why playing i can see we had that conversation didn't we have um yeah and it must it must be you know but you know income is dried on the contract if he's playing the blooming under 21s and then we had like a little footnote to that was like would you put it past you and i had to have played him even though he has no intention of staying and we're like i guess not and that's actually what's happened and for all the criticism the prince has gotten the owner's got that i presume that's not on him do you know what i mean the club has a hold at the moment just seems to have no direction no plan or anything and i'm sure wild of those but whether he's you know in control of things we've all learned about this death tailor character with his transfer list and all this sort of stuff oh my god is is he on debt which list does shackleton better we are watch list is he on and all it's just like just give us some players i don't care what list they're on we seem to be simultaneously i have two owners and no owners at the same time we've got this this new owner in the old on i totally get the prince not wanting to put him all money in because you know he's on his way out he thinks he's on his way out i get it whatever but we've got no one doing anything and you can't run a football club like that and i think with den blazer said everything you if you want to do back-to-back relegations this is what we're doing with everything in the in the handbook of how to get back to it if you're trying to do it deliberately we're going the right way about it and it looks like looks like that and it's like i could say there's a lot of like because it's preseason and we had kicked off and stuff i think there's a lot of people like it'll be fine and it might be fine it should be fine but right we can only comment on what's happening now and i just don't uh i don't know it's like it's just laughable it really is i want to say i'm like quite sort of angry about it but it's genuinely quite funny that how badly it's been done yeah i'm i'm happy to continue this conversation here as though we've signed a player or two by the end of this week i just assume shackleton for example signs in the next couple of days yeah maybe i'm brown or whatever yeah i don't think that jeopardizes what we're talking about it dates it if you like because the things yeah yeah i think it's going to be funny when we sign shack see everyone we're on in and here we go shackleton sign it doesn't matter about he's not about that at all he's he's july if you get if by the end of this week we've got six players through the door maybe spent even a bit of money got his burrows in or whatever yeah i'll i'll well come on make like i say we can only judge what what's happening i can't i'm not going to judge the future but i don't know when none of us know what's going to happen yeah but the present uh is not good at all it's a shocker um just on eagan like yeah this this really did take me off but um the only the only way this is defensible for me is if his injury is really bad like as in he's yeah he doesn't look like he's going to be a chat that you know if the club have made the call that he doesn't look like he's going to be a championship level player which could have you know that could be happened we saw that with cutes for example at a similar age you know slightly different injury i suppose but we that could happen that then makes sense that we would lowball him if you like in terms of we haven't met what his perceived what his own value is to him the only other way is if somebody's blown us out the water and if he turns you know contract wise and if he turns up on a bench or a Premier League team or something like that now we'll know that within a week or so i would imagine yeah but yeah if he's i don't know if he can signing for a serious team by which i mean a championship team or above in the next week or two i'm just gonna be even more angry that we allowed it to happen and yeah that's kind of what i expect that is what i expect to happen to be honest um but yeah i'm i'm really really unhappy that he's gone but bernie same i mean i know we've we've offered him a new contract and he's kind of you know he's done the uh i i don't think he's intelligent enough to do this deliberately but he has done the sort of social media like you know leading us down the garden path a little bit like you know there's been a little bit like flirting without you know yeah but um i don't think he's coming back like you know if he's reached this stage which again comes back to the inactivity by the by the club if he's reached this stage open market someone offering more than we're willing to i would imagine like yeah yeah yeah i mean look he's too good of a strike i don't know he's got his uh critics i don't understand that but he's too good of a striker certainly a championship level to to not to not have offers um ends i can see those like supreme i could absolutely see a Premier League team thinking like well we we can get this guy for free like bring him in like fourth choice striker or so why not um i think it's well so sorry i think as well like we're not here from wilder i'd like to be here from wilder so i mean i i'd know you were trading weren't i yesterday or other stuff but i i would like to hear from him because i think you'll be able to tell fairly quickly what's that you know if he's confident of the yeah you know and it's any sort of part of the decision process to let these players go but we've heard nothing and i understand you know we can't talk about the takeover and all this sort of stuff if you know what's what whatever's happening with that i would like to hear from wilder i think it'd put a few people's minds maybe at rest or maybe make him even more worried if the club mentioned anything officially about takeover nothing i don't know if i've though and there's just been sort of sporadic stuff in the local media and yeah danny all obviously saying it was two expats and you know um i don't know like this does some people saying it's fallen through and the s2 or the people saying it's going through no i don't think anybody knows and i think even the people who would sort of people go to for it you know he knows stuff i genuinely don't think they know i don't know why they would know because these people's names haven't been released it's obviously nda's going around and stuff like that i think it's very close you know i do think it's real i don't i don't agree with the people who think you know it's just a ruse or whatever i think it is happening i just don't think people know what exactly is happening it is unusual though right for it to be this i mean look i don't follow other teams i suppose that's closely but it does seem weird that there's it hasn't come to light yet i mean if it's with the efl you know there's uh which it is apparently i don't know it just feels like it should have feels like we should know more by now in terms of i've never known i mean there might be someone can prove me wrong yeah i've never known a takeover like this one i always compare it to is like the Coventry one where i want to say don king it's not don king that's the boxing throughout i don't know the guy's name it's a Coventry but his name were in the press for a couple of weeks before then he got done and they were like oh it's not gonna happen and he did up and obviously they wanted their owners out for ages you know i remember like when chancera took over wednesday he just seemed to come bang day later he's the new owner um the prince with us came you know there would nothing lead to anything they were none of this or someone's coming on board and blah blah blah and then he just came i understand so like why people have really um you know suspicious by this this take over because it's it's just it's he has gone the same way as the others in the set in the sense that he's just dragged and dragged and dragged and dragged yeah i um i i didn't i really didn't expect even with united i didn't expect us to be here in the start of july with uh in a worse place than we were like at the end of june um yeah and it's very frustrating as i said um jebison we've talked about um before so i don't i don't really feel the need to go into that for too much more i will say yeah probably not that bold prediction is that he kicks a ball in the bermi league before chef united next do i don't feel that's a usually bold prediction like i expect him to sign for a upwardly mobile championship team at the very very least yeah yeah yeah i sort of i don't want to talk a little bit about i was born because i don't really know what's happened here but it does seem like we've messed him about and all right it's a business you know i get that and i you know he he hasn't made a huge song and dance about it or anything you know it is a business we're obviously in a strange situation financially at the moment with the take over but it doesn't sit right with me um and i i do sort of feel like i'm you know reaching for another stick with which to beat chef field united but at the same time can we not you know comport ourselves a bit more recently i guess it sounds like he expected to stay with us and then we've sort of pulled the rug out from under him um i believe he's had a a death in the family recently as well uh yeah so it's great to see him kind of land on his feet at another club in the championship his boyard club as well of course but yeah it really does sound like we you know as i said pulled the rug out from under him a little bit yeah and you know the i think the bernie put a thing on saying you've made you know the the best of a bad situation or something and he put Osborne something like i'd never expected this to be happening two weeks ago by all accounts off in the contract for whatever reason probably through the take over he got pulled wilder again this is why people say yeah go you know about say good riddance and whatever wilder what to keep him talks about last season he's obviously had some bad family stuff going down i don't want to like accuse the club of stuffy because i don't know what's going on but it does seem like it was badly handled to a player who's seems a you know a really good egg yeah and he's played for us for ages right it was when we saw in 2019 2020 yeah yeah well bernos born going he's not creepy might say well it's only Osborne you know what you're worried but it's not about that it's about like how everything's happening at the club at the moment and things are getting leaked out you know the egan stuff getting leaked by jul i can't even truly be arbor yeah that's i understand that and then you know he's obviously gone too so maybe we had the the stuff but we obviously knew we were leaving so i don't understand and then we rushed out this oh john egan's leaving as well oh yeah uh but i don't know it's just it's just so the massive massive massive massive massive but it will be because it's even like there's nobody actually in control of the club yeah no you're right um so yal's born i mean look we're not a charity i'm not suggesting you know we should have just you know made him a better offer or you know just paid him if we didn't actually want to keep it but yeah you know there's ways of doing things in there and yeah just it just as i said it just feeds into that feeling of like we aren't going to blooming clue what we're doing at the minute it flips no and i see it might it might all turn out well i keep saying this because it's important because i think i've seen a lot of people saying everyone's about bed wetting and stuff you can only drink the situation as it is there is absolutely no point of saying well this could happen though and that could happen though because then you all just literally getting into fantasy island you know i could say here and say yeah but we might sign 10 players for 200 million pound i'm judging the situation right now and nobody can argue the situation right now is a disaster and i don't think any farm would have ever said this oh by the way by the start of July not only we're going to sign nobody but everybody it was our contractors left yeah i just keep coming back to like the processes is the thing that really bothers me because yes it might all come together as you said but then there's no reason to think that you know we're not going to be in a similar mess like further down the line if we don't i'm not even suggesting we need to become like you know this ultra intelligent you know analytically run just thought like you've got a plan do just run like a like you have competent professionals in charge of everything and like an actual structure and hierarchy i mean i'm glad you mentioned that you can think because that really unnecessary levels of annoyance uh from that like yeah the first we hear about it is uh jilly br who posting it on his instagram that egan's leaving which are then hastily deleted and egan's own message out there the club must have known he was leaving like it's not like he just turned up on Monday i was like yeah sorry lads i'm not signing that but he like they must have known that for days or even weeks and yeah with nobody's handling these things and that you know that is just a communications job like but it should have been that's in with everything else that nobody seems to have any steer over anything yeah yeah yeah the moment it hit the first of July we knew we were leaving and that's what it should have been you know come come to agreement with egan or whatever thank you for everything it was what two days later oh what can it be i'll do this job i'll do part time around my plumbing you're in the bargaining stage uh where are you going like when when uh you put the message out and you were like maybe they're just good mates i'm like an egan staying it's just really gutted br that is not going to get to work with egan anymore because he's leaving oh god so annoying mate so annoying um west fodgering him signs for uh west ham just a little footnote so west fodgering ham uh good for him you know i feel like uh get that bread where's he's yeah that's it he played most of it clearly once i'm not you know i'm not going to knock him for having a Premier League you know a couple of years started on a nice bench at the Herr London Stadium did it look like it has an bench yeah it is a London Stadium here yeah heated i got heated seats on the bench oh yeah i would have absolutely thought it'd be heated seat but then i see he's i bet he's like i mean he doesn't really have to do anything he probably never going to play a game again he's like matt matt when the the league cup or whatever but yeah then you're a pick anyway the conference league or something like it's something you got into this year because he's sat might might he got sacked didn't i yeah i don't know actually yeah pretty sure and he's on the bbc now calling everyone by the former names like the Czech Republic and Czechoslovak here you know yeah he did get sacked sorry i didn't miss that uh sorry i i missed that um yeah so he's he's gone there max low has gone to wednesday that was a weird one although maybe it's not that weird actually do you think about wednesday right and i think there's a bit of things that some people are like going wins you're blowing us out of the water yeah i look at all their signings the couple i don't know and i'm not sat there jealous by any of them but at the same time i will absolutely admit they look like they've got a plan do whatever whatever that that might not that might not work that plan but chance every seems to be backing role to the best you know the best that you can and and i think that's another thing that sticks in the claw every day like you wake up or whatever or you look at the back of the papers and stuff and wensy sign this guy and you've never heard of him other than jamaolo maxlow you know they're not like big players but you're thinking hang on they sound like six players or whatever it is rather than a sign nine these it seems who knew i mean rather knew what division they're going to be in pretty much the same time as we did they signed nine plays demanding rubbish players but it looks like they've got a plan yeah they signed it before the end of june as well yeah well in advance of pre-season training and stuff like that so never mind the friendly so as i said our first friendly is in ten days time at york and yeah you ain't you ain't gonna see him much of a i don't imagine the squad that will be playing that day will be too similar to what we put out against Preston but i hope it's not anyway i think there'll be a lot of youth people who think that that's that's top six quality i hope they're i i just i i just i think it's mad about that especially when an elan suzer almost certainly i'll never play again for a while i expect haemorrel go like i can almost see suzer like no one wants him yeah i would suppose with suzer it might be just get rid of his way just get him out of law which i thought i i'd said that would happen i think i think that will happen yeah um it might be even the same gribbitch i'm not sure but yeah it's i mean i don't know what's happening right now i do think we'll probably end up getting money from but i think it'll be late in the window and if this take over it'll happen then i well i'm already bracing myself for the season starts now in september when we bring five long players in on the last day but i can't accept it i can't accept that it's happened again because it's i mean i don't know i bet what i'll just pull in his air out yeah yeah i guess so uh well so am i frankly yeah um i feel like i had a final sort of footnote on that uh but i don't know sit my mind so i'm happy to just sort of leave it aside now we're at uh our buddy uh Tyrone um and messaged me this on twitter the other day saying uh i think he said when egan left he said like you know if you're from me 21st now i'd snap your hand off hmm i don't want me to pessimistic but i think if you throw in not losing to wednesday in that little package then um i probably would take that deal right now right hey just look if the if the plan is if the the take over and happen or whatever the prince stays in the plan is what we're going to do this over two seasons we're going to slowly make sure we get the best plays in we're going to trust wilder either or they thought i'd wear but at least it's a plan and i will absolutely accept finishing fall from bottom and just staying in the league or whatever i don't think it'll be that bad i do think we'll get players in who who keep us competitive i think any hope right now or they have even mount in the promotion challenges is proper cloud coco on top it could change if it brings players in but i just come yeah i mean it's looking like it best to season the consolidation which we haven't really dwell on as a source of frustration but i i'd you know it's almost just like it's so obviously not the case that we we just dismissed it out of hand but usually when a team gets relegated particularly you know a team who's approached the previous season like we have where it is that was consolidation you know financial consolidation pretty normal for the team to then expect to try and get promoted the following season having you know immediate promotion and get two years parachute payments and if you don't go up in them it makes it even harder as evident shows yeah well this is um this is not how to get promoted or so yeah i'm certainly not expecting that um the fixtures are out we got uh was it pressed in a way first game you know which i that feels a little on the nose in terms of like welcome welcome back to the championship is pressed it again um yeah unfortunately i would actually go to that game so i always enjoy pressing away but i'm on holiday for that one but uh i am back for yeah i'm back for qpr um yeah i don't know i i don't i find it hard to you know produce a lot of content about fixtures because it is just this is the fixed your list because these are the fixtures this where they're gonna play yeah i mean yeah as a whole i've tried but i've tried to sort of get into the auras and forget about united but obviously with everything that's happened in this past week and all the fallout from it on social media and what have you it's hard to are to ignore in obviously we do a podcast so we have to talk about it but if i could you know in a mental health sense i'd like to just wake up on that friday morning and see what the squad is and see where we're at because right now it's it's you should be looking forward to the new season especially if you've just been relegated and you're expecting to be in more games and for one of the best eyes but i'm looking at this and i think we all are strength from a bit on s2 like they've got a count down to when the championship kicks off it's like the doomsday club and that's how it feels right now you know i want give it give me some of this i don't want to live and help you i want logical help you yeah no when are you gonna left i mean but bernie i saw i don't know i really thought one of those two would stay but when are you gonna left i was like is there a refund window when you season ticket i am i paying 400 quid to watch are under 21s for the first six weeks of the season because that's sort of how it looks at the moment and and the fact that this obviously i'm not going to go into this right in a big way because it's not happened yet but the fact that that happened last season and even happened two seasons before that under slav it's just not it's just not good enough is it no it's not it's funny you should say that actually i was um before we start this i was trying to find my notes for um we recorded one a month out i think from the start of last season and we basically said like uh nothing's happening like this seems bad but in the process of looking up that document i did also find a similar thing from 2021 which i think was the slab season right it's just like uh we're about to find out if pre-season matters or not because we're basically basically not bothered and we haven't signed anyone we have one friendly uh which was like a training game against the gibberlton side that seems it's docaster actually i think we won five whatever like we're going to be fine let me just see if i'm gonna find that yeah i was i said like you know we're we're going to start the season with a midfield of flecknord and Osborne and a um probably injured and don't know if he's going to stay sanderberger so yeah that that seems like rich rich ground compared to what we're up in at the moment anyway um i think i think that's all i want to talk about with united for now um and we've got rexam in the league cup just in a i don't want that you know that's like the worst possible draw right give me crew at home or something like i'm not really going to be bothered if it lose because presumably they're going to you know turn up in their numbers and want to really stick it to us after that fa cup game and we're basically we don't have a squad to rotate for that game so we're probably going to lose and it'll be annoying i'm not thanks that much i'll i'll tell you that i am absolutely not going to that game yeah i because they're just going to be like uh revenge it's going to be all over the crap document i say it's true i've never watched it uh it was documentary but i yeah i thought people saw a lot of drawing could be really spicy i'd be massively up for it if we were any sort of we were functioning as a football club but we're not so yeah i'd almost rather have drawn wednesday in the first round than rexam because i i feel like it would be easy to just you know if we lost a wednesday in the first round of the league cup i think would be easy to just be like it's basically just a friendly like we really don't care about this whereas yeah the rexam twitter masses from around the world like yes revenge talk we've done it where's billy sharp now yeah he's a doncaster of course was the other bit of usage oh really that that did warm my heart i was pleased to see him turn up there and hopefully as a phenomenal season banging in the goals for donnie i think traveling blades ready to switch his allegiance right yeah yeah don't worry relationship ended with Sheffield united yeah don't since he's moved back to Sheffield actually it's all gone to crafts i've got back to donnie traveling uh but yeah i think um we we're billy sharp even the rexam fans are all over that i don't know if so that's where you go in ah we're in league one and billy shops in league two who's laughing now it's like he's 39 years old but he's not gonna play in the Premier League forever no exactly uh so that's bad uh everything's bad let's hope that we um let's hope that we sign some players soon and that those players are good but i don't know as you said we're uh we're operating on pure blind hope at the minute yeah i'm up next pod if you should say i'm just gonna go into this sort of i don't know i'm just gonna stop going into fantasy land and start saying i reckon this is a big season for sam curtis he's gonna be a breakout star and things i can't back up whatsoever seems to work yes indeed well yeah the uh let's let's hope the the outcome is is better than the process um just as Gareth Southgate managed to do against the back here uh this week so i want to talk about england now mate so this is a little um you know public service announcement for anyone listening if you don't care about listening to two people talk about england and the euro's then feel free to depart right now i will not uh big grudge you that but um i haven't really spoke to you about the most recent game we watched the slavina game the final group game in the pub together but um i just watched the slavakia one at home so yeah feel free to depart if you're not interested in england um but yeah we're gonna talk about that now um i want to just try and avoid spouting the same you know talking head stuff like there's no real need to do that um but do you want to talk about it as i said i i don't think i've heard enough criticism of this win over slavakia weirdly so i've listened to uh the not the top 20 england podcasts has been really good i've i've really enjoyed that um what else was on this is it the guardian football weekly the one with oh it got done in in russian yeah oh god glenn glenn denning mate what i can't say what i think about him on here but he is a yeah these some of these things that he said i'm just working before don't yeah yeah anyway yeah he's a yeah an idiot um tell us to that uh i'll listen to uh let's be having you um earlier as well i i i almost feel like people are so relieved at this result that um or that you know the the final the final outcome i guess that we're moving back into that like he was on the trophy like could this be our year that's sort of like tongue-in-cheek thing has come back of like you know is it all gonna come together in the end and i had to know i i was kind of hoping to get to get more echoing of my own feelings which is oh my god it was so bad it was so so bad and um obviously i'm over the moon that we got through and i'm already can't i'm looking forward to Saturday i really do expect Switzerland to be as which we can you know talk about whether you think England whether it will come together for England or not um but it was a great moment like it was a fantastic the best one of the best England moments that i think i think you messaged me about ten minutes to go and said even if we equalize here we are not going to be able to get a functional team together kind of quarter final so let's just and i hear someone else i can't remember it was he might have been i think you were criss school on the quickly kevin or whatever it's called now um let's be having you and he said um he was like and i'd get there so he's like well let's just go wow i've had him you know and they were like someone else who said is and he's i can't remember who were a commentator he said he's giving England hope or has he just prolonged the misery i can't remember who that was it might most have been talked for most have been talked so it's that kind of thing they'd say um but yeah it's it were horrible it was a horrible horrible game and it would i mean it would just Iceland weren't it all over again but with an unbelievable overhead kick that saved us and i suppose again you know the hope you're going in a lot of that today talking about that is maybe that boost has given that you know that lift of like oh my god we've got the name on the trophy you know these things happen to winners and we've we've gone through even though we're not being playing well what was more than anything is as soon as we went to and all we went back to just defending his own area again what are you doing man i hated that i really did hate that with with a few days really when was that sunday sunday yeah with a few days relief i do think that is our strength like and it shouldn't be but you know i think when we go into that defensive shell uh shout out to i get a low block if you like i think that is the strength of Gareth Southgate's England you know look at how many chances we conceded yeah yeah in the group stage for example and you know we do in in our deep runs into tournaments under Southgate we have kept it tight very well and i don't remember Slovakia really having a chance today have i missed a note not in that extra time there are a few points into the box you know i think for i really laughed at pick for it yeah and i do that was brilliant yeah yeah yeah yeah it did the same against those didn't he when he pulled them at Bernie's table yeah that's right yeah um but yeah i mean yeah well if that had been i don't know i'm doing cliche easier but that had been like a Germany or something you just said that they saw it out easily you know that's what they're good at and stuff but i don't know i mean that that the first stuff were absolutely shocking and they could have had three goals easily um so back here and and then the second note the changes thing i just felt like and i think i think they said this on the not top's when i think of a day walker who said um he's felt like Southgate would go in out on his own terms it felt like i am not making any subs this is the team that's like yes you know this is this is what you all say i am here it is is even Tony in the 93rd minute i mean even now i'm mad about that and you could say it works you played brilliant when it came on but we've got 20 minutes out of it that we we shouldn't have got real life like if not for an overhead cake i thought it was really good at having so many when it came on i just don't know what when you're looking back at videos of these games i can't understand what him and Steve all under the rest of the coaching staff are saying i can't i'd love to be in there and say what what do you things work in here why why are you so scared to to mix it up and i'm sure he'll turn around and say well we're winning but we're winning because of individual brilliance and pretty poor opposition and we're only we're only just winning as well let's be right i'd be serving a one-nail who finished bottom of that group so probably rubbish and then we just won this game in extra time so i didn't even win that technically you know you know in 90 minutes rather and he'll say like i say you'll say well put Portugal druid slovina could have lost it if if they just got that you know chance right at the end slovakia beat belgium and stuff there is no easy games and all that sort of stuff but even in those games that Portugal played and belgium played they created far more chances than us and there's lots of far more capable team of creating chances we didn't have we had two shots in in 120 minutes against slovakia yeah it's the the sort of so i think in previous tournaments because i'm quite pro south gate to be honest um i think he's uh is record if you're dismissing his record in international tournaments you um i don't know you you're almost like spiting yourself in a way like you know it doesn't happen this level of consistency in international tournaments is particularly for England is very rare so i think he deserves a lot of uh praise what's gone in the past book yeah great but like right now he i i think he almost got the i feel like he was almost getting the best out of a mediocre squad in particular in 2018 where it's yeah you know you lean into the fact you're good at set pieces and you've got a good striker and you just you know try and play through that basically but so i felt like he was almost getting the most out of a mediocre issue international team but now it's almost the opposite but also the players are playing really badly or they're not suited for the roles in which i can't even no i can't even excuse them for that to be honest the players are playing really badly i don't think you know if you change manager tomorrow i i don't know i don't see that that suddenly makes them play better no no no no i think it's too far i've seen people say get rid of self-gating i'll bring someone in that's not going to change anything now it's there's something right i well we might end up winning it and it might be that we've had all these hope before you know all these tournaments where we've been playing well you know under spending stuff for 2004 portraits i think it's the best chance we ever had of winning anything and we went out on pens and then they were the office of the etla euro 2020 when everyone went together and it was brilliant and then we lost on pens maybe we're just going to look you know poor and but it does seem like there's something behind the scenes it's just not quite right and all this siege mentality i understand siege mentality against the press i think that can work i'm thinking the managers have done that in the past venables did it you know we're gas going with the drink thing when he scored and and all that but they're going against the fans building him's like say well we shut a few fans up you haven't though i mean you're a good you're an amazing player no one's doubting that mate well if it wasn't for your one and one million goal or whatever then we're going out to love you have not you've not shut up any not not shut anyone up but you know the fans have every right to be complaining even if we've got through to the quarterfinals because it's been awful yeah i think the theme of this whole podcast is process bad outcome hopefully good yeah yeah yeah well that's it we should we we should have lost our game like Slovakia played it perfectly they they showed that they could you know move the ball and create chances much better than we did in the first 20 minutes and then they very correctly again i don't think the outcome changes as a sort of validation of their tactics very correctly just said right England break is down because we know you can't you you know you're unbalanced loads of you players look unfit frankly i mean cane plumbing i'm a i'm a i'm a hardly the boldest call being a defender of cane when he's like the leading scorer in the country's history but he's miles off it at the minute he's i i refuse to believe he's fully fit and um even if even if he is he should be he shouldn't have played all three all four of those games there was a moment in that first off which i think was indicative of the whole team of like he got sort of played into him on the edge of the area and he like tripped over his feet but then he he got it back under control but it was so slow it was actually jump parking you know remember the beast used to play for president yeah yeah yeah and there's there's loads of them like that where i just i watch it i just think like and i know this is a cliche but like why don't we ever why do all these players not have the ball under control or when they're passing it they either over hit it or under hit it i feel like i'm turning to real pub boy here but it's the evidence the evidence is there like if you watch that game surely you see other teams generally just zip it about better and obviously we know that players like folding and rice and whoever are better than they've been playing in this tournament but and that's the hope that's where the help comes in but you do hope that these players are just going to click you know i said i didn't say it on the part i said i think i said it's you i did think in this lavaca game all it would have taken for England to be a genuine you know serious contender at the show rolls is it if they had to beat slavaca if three in all comfortable a bit like hollanda jesterly with romania i think we'd have been on cloud it only takes that one match it does and if we do that to switzerland i'm all i'm all the way in mate with four five games in now you know and this is going to be the fifth game so four games in the fifth game next and we've not i'm we've not shown it and i don't know he feels i feel spoiled by complaining when we're in a quarter final i feel like at the same as you i feel like a pub boy i'm not normally one of those put sort of people with England but he's just been tortured and and we've got through due to individual brilliance um with bellingham and just pack in the area basically against poor sides yeah maybe that's uh you know maybe that's all you need you know it's a special summit but um i don't think so it will come up again so the worst quote he said south gate after the game is um he said oh i couldn't you didn't make any subs and he was well we were concerned if you go to and all down then that's the game over and i thought you're you've been cautious at one now down against the back to you yeah like how don't worry about that they've gone twenty minutes ago they've gone and i don't know why he's going to change now i don't see how he's going to say do you know what i've got it completely wrong and change everything he obviously that's what he should do everybody knows that's what he should do but i just feel like a bit like when man some managers just they're just there too long and it and i think south gate sort of meant too long i think he's got in his own bubble and his own head and he's not gonna change now and i think he's gonna you know he's we're gonna we're gonna go out probably on sat there and he's gonna be slaughtered and probably you know what i'll probably write the cell for this sort of them yeah i think the absolute best case scenario is probably with squeak pass switch and then get pounced by the Netherlands or even turkey to be honest in the uh in a semi-final which obviously get into a semi-final that's a meant you know just to throw it back to what was the same a few minutes ago that's amazing english international semi-final if we win on sat a day i don't care how it happens i'm going to be absolutely open to me you know i'll take it that's i mean that's that's my i'm happy with that i don't care we've played far better football in tournaments and gone out on luck you know the Portugal game uh two thousand four uh brazil we were a decent side when brazil beat as they had a fantastic side it's still they were unlucky they were better than on the day but penalty shoot out add you know all the years i've been in france to be honest in uh 22 21 whenever it was all correct yeah yeah yeah and we went out to that i'd rather be a really lucky winner than an unlucky loser but i just don't see how we can continue even if we get through switzerland the games are going to get harder and harder and harder as you get as you go on and i just i don't know i keep again i'm just sitting there with this hope so uh maybe if a team comes at us we'll raise our gaming thing oh bit serious now you know we need to get into it i don't think we're going to hit a team that does that though until at the very earliest the semi-final and potentially the final like if we place it it's on a quite attacking uh it's it's crazy that people say no you know jack is going to be running midfield and uh in doy the yeah not in doy yeah yeah from and i'm thinking but the players we've got and i know it sounds really arrogant english this but if this were Premier League game now you know these plays when we're thinking oh jackie we've got to watch out for him you know we've got his replacement you know the fella who nicked his job in decklin rice i don't know what we're worried about this is this is why international tournaments are so beautiful as players is because i do think switzerland are a better team than england like i i would pick switzerland to beat us on saturday yeah they are yeah they are but i was thinking about this in terms of teams that got to the last certainly um teams that are in the quarter finals i mean england have to be the seventh or eighth best team right like which team in the last day are england better than france have been poor uh really poor but they've got better players than us um i don't know maybe turkey maybe i i would not want to play turkey they play with a furious energy mate that i think we will really struggle with um and i would put it to you that there are teams that are not in the last day uh that are probably better than england in terms of like how how they play i suppose like you know austria austria absolutely but maybe even georgie you know like if georgia and i know i'm just doing a single game here but if georgia played against england as they did against spade in a game they lost forward i stressed out yeah i think they probably beat england because they counter attack like crazy i think they yeah i think they would have beaten us you great slavakia yeah i just think slavakia are kind of a kind of a mediocre international they don't really do anything particularly special do they slavakia and yet they still should have beaten us uh and kind of comfortably in a way um just to return to this uh it was a great moment when bellingham equalized yes massive feeling of relief obviously but huge joy and then the same when came when king scored that was a fantastic i can't believe the bellingham thing i i've watched it back and i'm trying to think about my emotions at that moment if you know what i mean as the ball's coming out i don't really remember it i don't know if you're the same i don't really remember i think i was so sort of slumped so uh that's it we're gone obviously we've got a long throw we're not going to score a whole bloody long throw always not a championship football um and then i i i don't know obviously like i don't know if we i would have been watching the screen but i can't remember actually seeing it go anywhere you get one come on i wanted to ask actually what it was like watching watching it in the pub this one it was great great i mean i had sort of checked out the previous 94 minutes the 94 minutes were awful i mean like i said i'd sort of checked out and i think every soon as it got tonight i mean it's and every time we put it out of play or they kicked it long we'll turn to each other saying well that's it that's that that's that and you do think that it's not you know it wasn't like uh it wasn't reasonable to think that and then this is what i mean i genuinely think i checked out i think i were watching the game but you know what sort of thinking right well that's what's out you know it was next game on today you know i'm not really like watching because i'd already accepted it and then that went in and really still as soon as we scored we were always going to win that game yeah yeah you're right yeah um yeah i'd uh you know i'd i'd double check to the location of the tv remote relative to where i was sat because i was like this is going off the second that final whistle blows and i'm probably not paying attention to the euros until the quarters start the absolute earliest yeah um so yeah i mean look we united fans we have had a miserable 12 months mate following our team and i went into this euro's hope in that England would give me some joy and i think that's probably why we're there's almost why we're like the entitled fans here i guess you know this is a good team that we should we should expect this team to be good and to be watchable and um four games in they've been dreadful well that'd be the most but i mean it is obviously even now i thought that start the tournament were fantastic they're only two boring games they both involved England yeah yeah um i do think the Slovakia game probably for a neutral were quite decent not in terms of chances but just the drama of this you know the shot coming on and then building a Portugal um yeah that were a great game when it yeah it wasn't a great game but the drama of it was was fantastic and yeah i mean i would talk like i manager at work he just said i was like i can swing one then and he goes oh they're going out oh my god yeah because you've got about he's Wednesday i could you've got about time right on yeah you're united fans well get out of my face get away don't talk to me about football yeah so yeah we you know we've we've we've hardly had anything to enjoy in 12 months and um i really enjoyed this so you know i don't want people to have listened to his own here and think like a card reader but this is one of my most negative positives we've done this it's just been pure amounting and rightly so yeah that's but it's as i said we're moaning about the process the outcome for England so far is um i'm not full i hope but i'm i'm looking forward to Saturday but it like oh yeah that is the best thing about England in international tolerance when they haven't been knocked out you know you can just like just look forward to that next game like it just comes in going like you know because if we win that one uh on saturday then it's like Wednesday Wednesday night i think for a semi-final like oh yeah this is the thing Netherlands were awful against Austria from what i saw and then they've just absolutely you know should have won like 15 England's past year when England had done well they had that they were awful in Italian I but they got a last minute goal against Belgium scraped through Cameroon and then lost on Penn's to West Germany again could have gone either way more recently we were awful against Scotland and then we scraped through and then we beat Germany and everything changed again that's what happens in Toronto football like you know it doesn't have to be great all the way through you can just have a couple of games where it works or do a portable and just be awful and just you know just ride your look at it and win it i want i want England if they go well when they go out i want it to be heroic defeat if you like you know i want i want this Bellingham goal to be to to not get sort of lost to the sands of time which you know i think it's sort of well if we i mean obviously you know you'll see it on like the cover of FIFA or something like that you know for ages but um you know if we lose the Switzerland it's like yeah well you know i guess it was good when we equalised against Slovakia whereas you know gazors goal against Scotland that obviously ended in heroic defeat to uh to Germany you know plait it was before my time but plait it's all you know it's all you know to write what are you equalised in the last minute it's just got the winner in the last minute yeah yeah i guess Belgium probably not if you go out in heroic fashion makloin's goal against Argentina you know that was a heroic effort yeah to play against play with ten men for so long yeah i want it to be a legacy moment the you know propels England a couple more rounds by i don't have huge anticipations it's not going to be an heroic moment if we go out to Switzerland and that's really disrespectful no matter how we go out yeah that's how it's going to be seen we could have had 50 shots hit the post 200 times and you know go out on penalties it'll not be seen as an heroic failure because people will expect us to be switzerland you look at the two teams and you can understand why but if you look at the two teams actually playing on the pitch we are i was sure he said it we are underdogs he says like it's ridiculous but we are i mean we're not in terms of the book is but we are realistically any football fan has watched his tournament we'll say all yes Switzerland are better yeah and i think part of the problem and i'll try and wrap this up too because even for us it's self-indulgent um i think part of the problem is like we've kind of tried everything now like savagets sort of try like i don't see how he's going to land on the answer i don't see how it's going to come together you know i don't think that decalim rice is sudden and i think rice is a really good player and it's been good for England for a couple years now but i don't see how he's suddenly going to realize that he can pass like past people into into attack like he just seems to at the minute him and um even may need to be honest though i think he just done pretty well it's almost like if there's one defender in the way it's like whoa i'm not trying that like i've got a mane who i thought were the most positive player i thought there were a lot of times when we didn't pass to him we're in space and i'm like getting to give it to me and we know he's going to get it and go forward he never barely ever goes backwards which is not what rice has been doing i'm like just just give it to him and he was oh and i also think why is me and rice coming so short to the defenders johnston has all given the best ball player in the Premier League you know what i mean as a defender but he's up there do you let him bring it out what we don't need four players back five six players back at whatever it is the biggest thing though is trip your lap win back that is by far the biggest issue because i think you could probably get away with folder and if Luke sure will fit or we had a proper life back because he could come inside of him he's loved the width the fact is and he's not even his fault trip i mean you sent me that meme which is hilarious if you want to say ex i might get it wrong i think it's just a trip it's saying he wants it fold and replies it trips just hit five yards down the line no can do amigo there you go Mark yeah no can do amigo because i could only use my right for ridiculous i mean obviously gaze out for the next one i'm really intrigued with the team and i don't know why i just got a farmer i was not realistic he's been the best player in the last two games just give me give me your prediction of like what changes do you think how different do you think the team will be i think console come in yeah which is a full obviously our necessity because gay is suspended and a trip you might be injured and if that happens then i think you'll probably play cow walker left left back that's it i think we're the same team that barre bar gay you obviously yeah we don't like at all i don't like how is cold palma not playing i'm it's so i'm not that high i'm cold palma i think i'm not as i before this tournament it wouldn't have been in my team but i think is the i've all the the wingers or whatever you want to call and is anyone actually ruining people yeah to me he's not like greelish was in 2021 or whatever it was that you're it's and if you didn't take penalties for Chelsea i don't think there'd be quite as much glamour and see what if it's got about ten goals instead of 20 however he has done well and he is one of the few players that doesn't look like they're tripping over the ball all the time or like not really sure what to do with it like contrary compared to folding who clearly is a very good player but maybe he's not a very good international player i'm starting to come around to this this is like the third major tournament folding and you know i i would i would prioritize getting saccharin attack over phodem because sacchar he does it on the big you know he has done it for England seems to be that kind of you know live wire player for England so i think if one if you're gonna sacrifice one of those two i'd definitely sacrifice phodem i think even though he's the blooming you know player of the year player of the year let's go all out of time i just i just can't believe that i'm actually sat here thinking like Anthony Gordon and cold palma two players i think are vastly overrated hmm probably should start for England i think in this game because they play 343 in the really i mean they still got that Rodriguez playing they're really slow down the down the flanks that would make perfect sense but i think we've just i think this is what i mean with some managers they just go too far and this is what i think we're self-gating the moment i think he's just he's got his own edge i think that's it it's almost like and it's human nature in a way you've got to be really strong as a person i suppose to come out and say even though winning i know i've got this wrong i just don't think he's gonna do it i think i don't i don't feel like that i mean i didn't watch every interview but i don't feel like that really was his sort of takeaway either his public you know facing takeaway of like god we got lucky there like you know we played badly and i got so many things wrong and i'm gonna try and learn from that it was more about like well we really put you through the ringer in that one didn't we yeah i know i know it seems to think he's going all right he's like he's acting like we haven't got the plays he's acting like we did in 2018 where you know we're doing his best with this group of plays we can't do this and it's just it's just not washing anymore is it? no not really um so Switzerland on Saturday can't wait me i i love international tournaments we've got a space reserved in the boozer it's sat at a early evening in it um could be good could be good uh and also i should say because i don't actually expect us to be Switzerland it probably won't be that devastating for me personally uh when when we don't go through um what has been your awkwardest bit of england small talk with the total stranger so far because i i've like i've delayed haircuts to uh avoid to make small talk about england i think it was after the Denmark game i was gonna eat my own cup yeah i can't i can't face it i just can't face the small talk i'll just let my hair grow a bit longer well obviously i've watched every single yeah every single game in a pub obviously we went no one really spoke to us but from that guy trying to hit us when we assigned uh in one of the pubs that we went so i'm not saying what it is in case it gives him bad publicity but um but yeah uh like the pubs it's just people what i found really interested is people aren't really that angry so i'm going oh what's he what's he doing there and someone will just turn around and say he's crapping it like there's no words no analysis it's just people just stunned like what what's happening but i thought i told you this one i went swimming and i wear my columbia share before swimming i don't go swimming in my columbia share obviously um and this guy just goes where i didn't know when he's when uh been watching your old pal i was so tempted to around and say now i'm gonna keep an out copper america to go and i think this is anything which is when England had been rubbish as if it didn't know yeah because England have been rubbish i thought they'd been playing all right actually and awkward chat with fellow swim dad yesterday there must be a swimming thing that brings us out but yeah it's watching it's got the game on in um in like the cafe in the sports center so i was it was Romanian Netherlands where we weren't yesterday it was complete no it was yesterday yeah and like Netherlands are like a goldmouth scramble that just about got clicked like ricocheted off about three different uh Romania players have somehow got clicked like fell to the goalkeeper so the dad was like i've never spoke to apart from all right it's just like like watching England isn't it oh that happens all the time and i was instinctively i was like got the job done though i just kind of helped myself i don't know which team i don't even know which team he was talking about did he mean like did he mean like Romania's like harem scare him defending or did he mean Netherlands like not putting it in the net and i said to you it's been sort of the early rams i've sort of come to accept the fate now but every game are getting more and more mad about England because every single team seemed to attack outside of frant and on every every team watching turkey george's levak here all these teams like you've you sort of given no opto and i'm like i'm getting so so i'm somewhere already like a family and stuff and i'm about to watch a couple of games with my dad like why aren't England doing this? i can't even just do this run run happy happy as i was with the win over Slovakia switching to spain absolutely what seems through george it was was brutal unfortunately fortunately the worst case scenario because i was getting really cheesed off with how good they looked and then i realized the worst case scenario is we lose to spain in the final and if England are in the final i'm gonna have had a good couple of weeks even if we don't win it i've got a feeling germany might be it's been i just think we're in torments the team who were start off flying i don't know the only this what's great about international torments it's a one game where you're not quite on it and the other team is and you've been almost perfect so far perfect and he's well i mean i'm in britley when they want it they were the best team in that yoros but then you lost to austria if you remember he's got like a late goal to equalize in the second round and yeah it happens it does let's open England starts a little better but just win just win baby we're getting deep in the tournament now just get that win if it takes a night if fifth minute over ed kick from you know the best young player in the world then fair doos i suppose right mate i enjoyed that he's not english enjoyed that a lot even you know i feel like i've got some emotions out there which is always always good indeed yeah uh anything you've been working on anything to plug madely's finished now we're going to do a uh like a round up thing i think we're just going to do it after the tournament now the problem is when you try and do it i'm doing in what's the word invert a quote is that it yeah you know amount of quotes invert a quote yeah a comedy sort of thing when you're trying to talk about football is that you see something you think oh i'll talk about that and then it's all over the internet it's like all news and everyone's already seen it so think of it we're just going to wait till the end of the tournament and then like do our favorite funny moments i do check to tell everyone to check out Ross Kemp though on his Instagram page you're like he's absolutely fantastic he's reacting to the England game i remember it from the last year it was good value um i published something on actually i've got two things since we were last recorded i did a uh sort of emergency article for the pinch and persuaded some to publish oh yes yeah well persuaded him to publish it then which i think was yeah it was June the 14th because i'm sorry you couldn't wait nothing i could have waited because the the pinch is on hiatus at the moment till till July they're having a little break and i was like i've i've just written this like you don't you don't even have to use it i'll just you know talk about it on a podcast doesn't it but um as if you do if you are going to publish it i think you should publish it now because it'll probably become dated very quickly well we're three weeks on and this is all very relevant um so that is a burning takeover questions and it was basically concerns about whether the takeover would a hold up you know it's transfer business b impact contract renewals for egan mop bernie etc uh and also things like what does it mean for chris wilder and why now why why has this takeovers just come to light you know once we've gone from being a Premier League team to looking like a completeness um so that is at the pinch dot uk and then the other night i wrote um a new newsletter for women of steel as well which is basically um a lot of bad stuff in the women's game at the moment um from a like financial organization point of view uh redding have dropped out the women's championship and um basically sacked off all their age group teams which is you know horrendous situation for you know players that are in full-time employment but also youth youth players as well you know making their way in the game and redding on a minnow of the women's game they're in the WSL as recently as like two years ago um and that's obviously related to a situation that's not dissimilar to united whether in a financial mess and their owners like in the process of selling the club so it's just kind of on my radar that i don't want united women to end up in that situation which i don't know there's there's no huge evidence that they should i suppose obviously with uh born and rainer leaving this week that's not um not a great start i guess and then you've got stuff like man united where their owner just like quite openly doesn't care about a team that just won the effort a few months ago and players are leaving them as well so i wrote about that and um just how the take over at chef united could be impacting the women's team as well and that is women of steel that sub stack got a bit of news for you um the championship televised fixtures up until the end of september have been announced as far as i can see we've only got two changes checking out of what third sunday the first of september at three o'clock bizarre uh and friday night away at hall uh whenever that is i can't find it i've just seen that so friday night it got whole away getting got away what's that we have some playing by then uh sorry i just saw the tweet of um yeah the two fixed your changes and literally the first reply is any chance of some players to play these games i really feel for whoever runs united to it they're not making the decisions i know i criticize the communications and stuff but like i don't think the person who runs united's twitter is probably responsible for you know the club not having messaging ready to go about eagan in advance anyway uh let's let's go mate sorry i've talked far too let's what happens when we get going on vote we've had you know we've had nothing to talk about and you know hopefully next time we talk we've got some players in the building and we can start playing in england or in the semi-finals remember semi-finals you're not england of warning it forget it the excitement come on yeah come on england and in terms of like please do better and come on you know out in terms of please do something yeah anything yeah yeah right let's uh let's depart mate thanks to everyone for listening thank you very much for your time pal i will see you on saturday for a a few beers and hopefully uh football coming one step closer to home yeah thanks a lot bud see you later you