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So try Ad Hub today and reap the rewards of Spreaker Self Advertising Platform. It makes it as effortless as ever to be heard by thousands regardless of the listening app they use. Visit spreaker.com/adhub. That's S-P-R-E-A-K-E-R.com. Forward slash Ad Hub and start using your advertising dollars in an impactful way. "I try not to believe in fit I hear, if fit I see, fun talk, within fit I bet, in favor of, it all be real, it's hard to be in doubt without the pieces around to believe. And it's hard not to go without fit I feel the need." It's transfer window time and we certainly can't believe anything we read. It's a day trippers. We move into week two of our preseason pods in the back of a pair of matches in the US which have posed more questions than they've answered. Tonight we're delighted to be joined by the Anfield Raps dynamic duo of Neil Atkinson and John Gibbons to talk about Make a Stream the book they've just launched. We're also checking with Chicago resident and our tripper man at the match last night Paul Gilligan. He'll be filling us in the vibe in response to the tour in the States. In the implausibly hot bunker tonight we chat ten gently around the aforementioned topics. We have bike theft victim and childish Twitter terrorist Paul Brennan and the Dale Winton Simon Cowell hybrid that is Phil Casey. Okay, first up let's talk about the ongoing US tour with Paul Gilligan who's a Chicago resident and saw the game last night. Paul, you're very welcome to the show. What was the atmosphere like last night? Was it surprising to see a lot of reds around the place? Were you always aware that there was an LFC community? The general kind of buzz, is there a media presence for the club? How have you found it in general? Well, overall there's actually a pretty decent Liverpool supporters club in Chicago. They've got a residence, a spot that they meet at. Okay. I know the bars overall. Yesterday there was a lot of the journalists going out to different bars and trying to get closer to the stadium. And I think they were blown away with seeing all the reds in and the sing songs and the pubs and everything going on. Overall it went over very, very well. That was read all over yesterday. It was a great scene to be honest with you. It was nice to have the recruiting Chicago for the first time in Ghana. Maybe ever I don't even know if they ever played here before. It's been a long, long time. At least not in my time over here. Sure. Have you found as well that there's been a media coverage that's been noticeable? Is it basically a munder? They're over there to raise the profile of the club and for commercial reasons. Is it looking successful from that regard? Yeah, definitely because there was a lot of talk yesterday then with the delay in the game before that. I just looked at it on the Twitter feeds and everything and people going nuts about the game. The first 10 minutes of the game wasn't being shown. That was very good. Yeah, and there was just the uproar about it was all over the place through Twitter, through all the other social media that are out there. I know for a fact that there was the big TV audience yesterday. I didn't get exact numbers on it from I'm sure they'll release them today at some stage but I haven't seen them yet. After the World Cup with the way the US national team went to, I think there's the whole that's called it soccer as it's like they called it over here. The whole profile is definitely raised and the coverage over here has been really good too for the last three or four seasons too. It's very hard to not see a game. You're almost better fixed than we are in some ways. Between the various channels there. Does this seem to be a match that's missed really? I suppose there is the timing of the matches at times is a bit of a pain in the ass for you guys. Basically, your impression from over there is that this kind of thing is a bit of a success. What do you think about taking the team so far away? Clearly there's upsides and downsides for people like yourself. Well, personally I like it because, and I think a lot of the reds over here, I suppose the Californian side reds and the ones that are two hours behind us. A lot of those guys traveled in too for this weekend and probably did holidays around the tour. They come to Chicago, they're going to New York or Charlotte or wherever Boston for last week is posed. A lot of those guys sort of pan around the tour because we know about the tour six to seven months in advance in most cases. And at least four or five months in advance. But the overall buzz I suppose is the coverage is really, really good here. The time zone thing, yeah, it's a bit of a pain. It's a pain if you want to go see a live game. And I'm a good hour away from the local and everything. But to go down and meet up with all the reds and all the good sports companies. I've done it three or four times and everything and it's a great atmosphere. You feel like you're sort of part of a little small red community when you're part of that. And it's just the profile of the whole game over here and the overall is really good. And I suppose if you look at the other side of it, it used to go to the still do I suppose to the Middle East and Asia, South Asia and stuff. And that's equally as far away, if not further away, then jump across the pond. Absolutely, absolutely. Paul, talk to us a little bit about the match that you saw yourself. Who impressed you, what were your thoughts you came away with, the strongest thoughts you came away without the match? From yesterday's game, the one thing I came away with and I was sort of sitting looking at it just off the halfway line. And some of those candor attacks just stay the speed like breakneck speed, not one where Henderson and Markovich and Sterling were involved. Yeah, it was lovely stuff. That thing was so rapid, it was unbelievable. It was just one of those things where, you know, it's hard. I suppose when you see it in front of your eyes and I watched the game back this morning and it doesn't look as good on TV as it was in the flesh. It was just breakneck stuff and it was unreal, like the speed in that team, it's unbelievable. The one little query I probably do have is, or fear I do have is, we lack a little bit of power. Now I suppose we saw that from Champ and we've seen him in, I suppose, the first two games over here that man, he's a powerful looking unit, I suppose. Yeah, you know, it's one of those things where Mark, which is a very slight guy and obviously Sterling's not the, although he's as strong as a guy's Sterling, but, you know, you wonder about the power and off the team, because Brendan just seems to be going mad on this pace and he loves this rapid sort of fluidity that the transition does so, you know, that's my biggest fear about it. I suppose the overall thing was, to some good performances, I thought stories look very good, and even watching it back like he did enough, a lot of things. I suppose we weren't used to seeing him do last season where he was sort of like a lone guy up front and was waiting for support and held the ball up relatively well. He knocked over a few times I saw and there's a few other things I suppose with. You could tell like a heavy legged guys like Enricula, very heavy footed, you know, towards the end of the first half and a couple of the guys that were just coming back that didn't look as fluid as you'd probably like to see him, I suppose, but overall they were very compact and you know, look very secure. I watched enough out of Henderson, like just following him and seeing what he did. And the guy is amazing, like he truly is an amazing, amazing guy to watch the mental work and pressing that he does on the ball that's unreal. That's the joy of live watching this. And as you say, you can follow around like your own kind of camera. Paul Paul in the studio here, Paul touched on Markovich there and his impression of him, maybe not being as powerful as we have liked. What was your overall take from the match last night? I didn't think he was particularly brilliant, but it is like it's only preseason, he's only jelling into the team. He looked maybe a bit like he was trying to hard sometimes with the tournament he could have played it a bit simpler sometimes but there was some great moments there. Counterattack, the Paul mentioned, but himself, Sterling and Henderson, it was himself played the ball into Sterling's feet. And I think Sterling just failed to find Henderson, but it looked and tells him he played the ball straight into Sterling's feet and ran around the other side when all of a sudden while Henderson crossed over to the left as well. I thought so. I think there is. Obviously, we know he has a lot of potential. Just so he does look maybe a bit raw. And obviously he could are in that out quite a bit in preseason because it is where you get a lot of your rustiness out. You're very you're very reasonable and measured, which is nice to hear in comparison with somebody else that we were seeing last night from the young man over here on the left. What was your name for him there Phil? Just to remind you of the listeners, would you like to tell everyone? Benny Merkovich, I just thought when he ran, he ran like somebody out of the Benny Hill show. He was like, "You don't want to speed up somebody jogging." He's like, "Yeah, he has a small gage." So when he goes, his legs are going like a hundred million miles an hour. And it's like the floppy hair as well as it just goes. So he's an instant right off then. He's obviously got the floppy hair on a dodgy roll. The load he's written them off. It's really written them off. It's really written them off before he even said it was like, "No, I know players." All the players. Paul, what do you think? From what you saw there yesterday, I know it's basically two teams. You see, isn't it really in those friendly matches? You talked about the speed and transition and that kind of thing. Was there anything else that looked like you thought, "We're obviously going to play a different style now. We're going to have to play a different style with the absence of Suarez." How did you think that attack was looking at what potential did you see from the players that you got to witness yesterday? Who would be your front three, I guess? Well, if I was to go front three, obviously, Sturridge, and my feeling, unless they sign somebody, my feeling is that they're going to push Stirling a little bit further forward this year. And I think we're going to see him maybe playing a little bit off Sturridge. So the one thing about Stirling, he's unbelievable at tracking back like I watched him yesterday too. And his work rate is really, really good. And I think that's one of the sort of morsels of Brendan's sort of attack. It's sort of like defend from the front. And if you lose the ball, track back, track back, track back, sort of thing. And the other side, I don't know where we're going to continue, has to sort of nearly fit in that team by the looks of it. Yeah, I don't know where Lana fits in. I don't know enough of him. I've seen him obviously plenty with Southampton over the last year and a half, two years. He shows flashes have been really good. And he's that sort of Brendan style player. But he's, I don't know if I dropped continue over Lana. Do I think they'll spell each other? Probably. Paul, tell me what you thought of Lambert. Because again, there's been conflictive views here amongst ourselves with the chats we've had. How did he come across? Let's be honest, he didn't have his final style order in the match that you saw live. Was there anything that you could see some intelligent other ball rolling or anything else for people to hang out to? I think when he's good at it, I think he's an intelligent player that I think will be able to hold the ball up. And I think he's got a knife for a pass too. And I think he tried a couple yesterday that didn't just come off very well for him. He's not afraid to have a shot himself. We saw that in the Boston game too. But he looks labored. He just doesn't look like he's, you're looking at a team with the attackers around him. They're moving at a million miles an hour. And he looks like he's just coming back from the beach. I know what you mean. I know what you mean. Did you get to see the Roman match as well you did? Obviously on TV, I didn't see it live on TV. Well, I don't know, call it pre-season of all you want. That was hard on the ice now in all fairness. Yeah, did you see development? Do you think there's a little bit of development from one match to the next? Yeah, but at the same time, I think you're looking at such, you know, you've got 11 players through the first half. And it's such a huge transition then in the second half. I suppose the highlights from that game. He looks really impressive. He looked like the best player on the field by a million miles in the Roma game. There was a couple of things. I suppose we saw our first view of Emory Chan and what he brought to the table. I suppose the highlight for me was in dropping the shoulder and going on that little rampage down the wing. It was impressive looking. And the only other thing I could think of, just in case you asked me about that game, it had to be Adam Phillips and his cameo had to be. That was the thing of beauty. Two-footed lunge that was about half an hour late. But the best thing about that whole thing was Adam Phillips thing was you saw Henderson going over and protect him. And there you go. There's your future captain there in my opinion. The guy is just F off you and he's given plenty of lip to the guys that are trying to trip the 16-year-old kid. And he's there like a godfather protecting him. Phil, that's a good point that Paul makes there about the team spirit and the emergent team spirit. We saw it over the course of last season. Is this one of the benefits of these trips away, do you think, that you do get a little bit more bonding on? Again, we had incredible team spirit last season and it builds up. I think results also breed team spirit because you feel like you can't be beaten and the more wins you get, the more close the team get. If the team are loose and you'll see more people getting on each other's backs, there'll be questions down about the team spirit. It's all a natural part of it. When you go on these type of tours, let's not cut ourselves to friendly games at the end of the day. The results don't matter as much as if it's a league match to the players. They just want to get their fitness up. The manager is the same. He's the same way saying, "Okay, we've got minutes under the belt, we've got this, we've got that." And the most important thing out here is that we get another step close to being ready for the start of the season. To go back to the matches, again, I'm looking at it and saying, "Okay, who's strengthened in our forced team from the emergent players that we want to see come true or that's coming back and looks like they're going to make a step up again from what they performed last season." And Sterling, again, we've seen a guy come off the back of an incredible six months and he's taken that form into the friendly game that he was in last night. You know, you're looking at a guy who's progressing and has continued his progression. We're talking about what we've lost Suarez, and straight away he's the one that's scoring for us last night. He's so alert and he's so quick. Storage misses a shot and he's there. And even though it wasn't a clean strike, he's doing that thing that you want from all gold scores in the sport at Royal area. If you want them, I'm not a particular fan, but there was definitely hint of Muykel on Esken terms of the way he got into the position. He used his pace, got in there and just got the defiant touch to take it into the net. It doesn't need a great connection, but it just needs a decent connection. Emory Chan, you know, we watched him in the forced game when he played the 20 minutes or so and he was bossing that midfield against Preston. He comes into this game and again, last night, he's everywhere. He's just everywhere. He's covering the left back. In the centre midfield and his boss in the midfield that's going on, as Paul said, he's a unit. Of all the signs that we've made, he's the most premiership ready in my opinion. He's not complaining all over the shop, even for the great chance that Markovich has in the forced half. He wins the ball back, knocks a fella out of the way and creates the space for Markovich to be able to exploit and get into the box. I would have been hoping in a couple of weeks time Markovich bends that into the bottom corner, into the top corner and into goal. Markovich, I thought he had a poor 30 minutes. I thought there was a bit of nerves there. I thought his touch was poor. I thought he fell over a bit. But at the same time, he actually came in fairly strongly in terms of his last 50 minutes. He showed a lot more of what we were expecting. As Paul said, the explosive boarster he had with Henderson, you know, that boarster was where he used his pace. He looks a flyer. He does need a haircut because I can't persist with a man-bob. You know, if it's long, it's long. A man-bob. A man-bob, yeah. There isn't even a fetter to look about it at all. It's just sort of like Aquilani mixed with fetter already. I'm beginning to sweat it. I think he's a flop already. Maybe if you had a headband or something, I'd probably be able to get around it already. I'd just band or something. It's just the lack of anything. It's just a proper man-bob. If you had slightly wider hips now and I was looking at it from the back, you know, you could get confused. So that's what scares me a wee bit, right? Henderson, he might as well never take a minute off. He just takes up from where he left off again. Storage looks rusty, but storage always looks like when he comes back from the fourth cup of games. He's seen it when he came back from injury. But again, he's there. He's the most prominent part of our attack and he shows what we need. We need something else like storage in that game. We can't afford to go in with just storage, Beringy and Lambert as our front tree options. We need something else. I thought storage has a good all-around game except for his finish. I think the two shots, obviously the miss hit that Sterling took away. And it was another one where he cut in and blasted in high wide and not very handsome. But I thought his work rate was brilliant. I thought the way he held the ball up, you saw the tackle. You're manded on him when he couldn't get around him. He just lifted him out with a ridiculous and friendly look. But there's a good few moments like that where he brought people into play and he drifted out wide. And that's what we're going to need from him now. That's what the team is being built around. Because he does have the ability to do that and he just needs to do it. The show for the ball a lot. What you're on there? Moving back to the far end of the field. There's only one in the meta case there for you. Like, you know, Glenn Johnson made a case for it to find the biggest skip that he could be thrown in. I think somebody said the reason we knocked off for the Alps anymore in case there was a chance they dropped off at Santa Tas for something like Jesus wept. That's shocking. Anyway, serious football question to you, Brian. I hope you saw it. Anyone make a case? Martin Kelly, for example? I thought he did well when he came on. He's a strange one because he's been around for years now. And we can't see him to get a full season out of him. Sometimes he comes back and he looks like the wealthiest man in the world. He looks like he needs to be oiled or something like that. Well, yesterday I thought he played fairly well. I thought most of the defenders did. Positionally, I think the defense did fairly well. There were still a couple of moments where, like, I think our defense is still really prone to panicking. When, you know, if a ball gets put over the mountain, there was one time where, you know, we kind of stopped at Limbiac as an attack and they came back. And one of their midfielders just dropped it into the box. And I mean, there was just pandemonium. I think that was when Enrique just about kind of took it off. He took it off savvy, old as tall. Yeah. Yeah. That's fucking unusual, isn't it? Oh, Jesus! That's so not like how was it? It was a start and fall back. Well, Glenn Johnson's a visible waste of everyone's time, so I won't go into him. Enrique was, like Paul said, he's one of these players that's kind of stodgy when he comes back. Looks like he has to shift a timbre whenever he comes back from pre-season. I remember, yeah, Rodgers is for a season when we're in America as well. And he came on to the pitch, but not. It's like, well, Paul, there's a lot of wedness. I think the centre back, Skirtle did fairly well. A couple of nice interceptions and blocks. And Klad is, I thought, was very cool. Worth a go for you. Is he going to be worth a go? There's a theory that he's on his way, you know? Yeah, he does seem that way. He does. I think he's putting up as good a case as anybody else, really. Yeah, on this tour. Yeah, especially even as a backup. Because we know, obviously, he's really, really slow. But, positionally, he looks really good. I think he's a good tackler in his decent in the year. No, he made a great tackler. Remember when Joe Allen gave the ball? Yeah. He played a true ball to the Greek lad. And Klad has showed a good bit of a recovery pace, which I wasn't expecting. And just got the tiniest of toes to take it off your man. The forest and void. And then Jones was able to get a touch on the ball as well. Yeah. And knock it wild. I thought that was really impressive. Because we'd seen him before. I mentioned it last week when Rodgers lost faith in him. It was when Lassina Choyari did him over in Russia, right? And it was similar like that. And he was just left dead. And it was great to see a good recovery pace on him as well. It was good for his confidence as well. Regardless of what happens with him or whether he's part of the prince, it was good to see a young centre back, you know, getting some confidence and showing a bit of form. Yeah. And I remember it. I think he was one of the, he was part of the old and massacre, wasn't he? Where himself and Skirt got absolutely bullied in the air. Yeah. And what you got? Like, that was your kind of wondering, "Well, what's, what's he got at therapy?" He's not able to deal with a big man when he's huge himself. But he looks a bit more assured. And I thought, like, I don't think he was out of position once our game. I thought he played really well. On Enrique, you're clearly not keeping up the tabs with the selfies. That man has not got any timber on him at all, I tell you. He's eager to show it to you as well. No, I don't. I don't follow him. I follow the bunch where I had to unfollow him. Like, it was just, it was just getting to him. For your sanity. Paul, Paul, you haven't seen the game live, Paul. What did you think of, of Mr. Jones and the goal? Is he, is he someone that you're going to be very, very happy to see there as the goal to go? He should, it's something happened in your life. You know what? Jones, he's been, he's been one of those fellows that over the last couple of seasons. He's done really nothing wrong in the pre-seasons and as few outings as he's got. Is he what you want for a backup? You know, is he up to that level? I don't know. But, you know, he seems sure enough, I suppose. But, once again, I think, I think if he was playing the first six or seven weeks of the season, I think we'd be, you know, we'd be shitting it a little bit too, wouldn't we? Well, that's, that's, that's exactly the question I'm asking. Like, even based on, on seeing him up close and personal, would you indeed be a little bit shitting? And if you, if he had to start the season, because me and you know, it was cracked. I would. You would not first. Yeah. And that would, that would imply that you'd like to see coming in, someone coming in there, yes? Yeah, yeah. Like, I think it's a, going back a little bit, I think, shop window time for him. And maybe even just request us to, you know, maybe it is shop window time for them. And, and, you know, like I was happy to see quite as looking, looking well yesterday. But, you know, the bottom line is, is how many center house we need. We have Jesus six. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it was funny. It was funny. It was just thinking earlier on, like, what's our line up going to be two center racks, hand on front of them and seven attackers. That's really sort of, you know, the feeling that we have four. Is it going to be the other way where we're going to play five sec paths and four up front, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I think Brendan played four once, and I didn't go down awfully well. It was again, so Hampton as well. Yes. So we don't move on all the Southampton players. I did wonder whether the Dennis Domenis kit was going to look good, right? I was actually surprised at how well it looked on the Hammers. What did it look like up close? What's that look like before? I wasn't the biggest non-fan of that third kit. I actually liked it from the get-go, so I was one of the few that, like, I had no problem with it and compared to last year's abomination, I think it was, and it's a look good, you know? Yeah. But, yeah, you know, I agree. I was worried about the keeper kit, too. I thought that was going to look bad, like, you know, very much for that. But that actually looked quite good, too. I just, I do have one thing, right? Yeah. Fasten the button? No. No. No. Fasten the button. No. Because it makes that yellow button stand out. That's not cool. On a black grey and red kit, like, it really is the leftovers from the, from the purple and yellow stuff from two years ago. Yeah, yeah. Paul, Brian, you like, you like, you've stepped in goals on occasion, haven't you? What do you think that'd straight be a fair that, uh, Brad was wearing last night? I can't even remember what he was wearing last night. Really? Was it, was it grey? It's kind of grey and white. It would sort of red. It'd make a noise, would be changing. Yeah. I didn't really fancy it. Just out, um, yeah, because it didn't really make that much of a impression. I can barely remember it. Fair enough. Just out. Again, I'll borrow a phrase off, you know, I think he's, he's the most, is what he is, keeper you could get. Just like, you know, if you, if you boot a ball down the center of the goal, I think he'll get something on it. There's no guarantee that he'll catch it, but he'll usually get something on it. And it might kind of go back out into play or whatever. Like, I don't think he's, I don't think he excels at any part of the game. Yes. He's just kind of like, he can make saves. You know, you don't know where the ball is going to go or anything like that afterwards. Yeah. I don't think he's like, brilliant around to know. To be fair, I think that was an Andy Young phrase. Oh, is it the Andy Young phrase? Oh, is it the Andy Young phrase? Take give demand to credit. Sorry, Andy. Sorry, Andy. What do you think, Paul? Looking forward to the, the remaining games of the US tour. We've got silly, don't we, on Wednesday night? Towards the night, I think it is. Oh, is it? Or maybe it's what? Towards the market. The professional podcast here. It's, it's midnight. It's midnight Wednesday here. So there you go. That's towards the zero, zero o'clock. If you could all just turn off your various listening voices so I can just apply a beating here for some. Paul, I was in the middle of asking a question for your man. Sorry, getting out. Forcy about GMT. What are you thinking? Are you hoping to see more of a kind of concrete lineup? And maybe lead from that into how you think the season's going to start on Monday night. You're optimistic about the start we have given the fixtures. Yeah. I'd like to see, I suppose, the core of what we think we're going to start with. I think, like I watched the, I saw highlights of the city game this morning. I didn't do much whole thing, but I watched the highlights of it. And, you know, they had a sort of a, I don't think they have any of their internationals really back yet. Yeah. They had fake sterling playing as well. They had fake sterling, fake sterling score too. Yeah. With, with, with, with, with his, with his little hair, hair, hair color too, little shit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, actually a Joe attacker. Look, look, look to deal yesterday too. And, you know, he's a, when they add him in with Zeko and, and, and Guero and. Scary, isn't it Paul? What? It's scary. Oh, yeah, it is. It really is. Yeah. So it'll be, it'll be interesting to see. I'd like to see, I suppose, a core of what we started with yesterday and see if they can gel a little bit more. And, and I thought, the one thing about yesterday's game, I thought with us, I thought we sort of sat a little bit deep. And I thought they, the, the, the, we were very compact in the back and we, I just thought we didn't move the ball like we were used to seeing at the end of the season. I know it's early, early, the preseason here. But I think once we get a little bit more fluidity from, you know, that defense to, to, to through the midfield and, and through the lines and, and get that gone. So I'd like to see it. I'd probably a lot of that. First half the team again. And I'm not sure. I just, I think I read a few minutes ago. I think the government's on his way over to. So we probably won't see him until we probably won't see him on this tour all life, whether he's coming over or not, they're only here for another week anyway. So, if he's on, if he's on Remy's plane. He's playing. He's never going to get there. Never ever. Just one round of circles. Hot air balloon, just wandering around the globe in the jet stream. I reckon that, that line up that we used in the first half, though, I think that could be something he goes for in a lot of the big games. Yeah, we're there, Chan and Henderson closing out a lot of the space. Yeah. And just try and rely on the front three, really, and maybe the odd bursts from midfield. Would you not see Coutinho in that front three instead of Markovich, for example? I think Coutinho's going to be, yeah. Sorry, sorry. I think, I think, I think that's the midfield. He'll go for a lot of the time to keep it really kind of, could keep a lot of legs around Gerard. And then, if, if they can get forward, but try and rely on the speed up front as well. I thought it wasn't creative problems. I thought it was incredible at times when you watch that, when, when Olympiacus went to break the speed, the Henderson and Chan were able to get back around Gerard. So, he was never exposed. He got, he was never exposed to, to, to the counter attack front for Olympiacus at all. And, you know, it's something that, you know, we complained about when Lucas and Gerard was in there, that we used to be left to a wide open. Yeah. And that just didn't happen yesterday. Like, you can see Coutinho playing, you can see Coutinho in that team. It's had the same arc of it. And, and, and, and playing, as Paul said, you could push sterling upside storage and play almost with Coutinho as a 10. And with the other three, because Chan is well capable of being able to cover the flanks and also cover in the midfield. And, and if you have Henderson, he can do the same on the right hand side as well. Well, Phil, today we heard, uh, Brandon say that he was asked a question about Jack Robinson, who said, look, he'll get his chance. And if he takes it, that's great for us and it's great for him. And the, I don't know, it seemed to be almost as if Brandon was doing a hodgy and kind of luring our expectations a little bit about who might be coming in there, because, obviously, we've got the other man that we spoke about before. Now, if it is Enrique, and if it is Johnson, and I think most people will roll the dice and say it probably will be, those two boys, you mentioned midfield, are going to have their fucking work cut out from the mountain. Let's be honest, you're going to have to cover into those corners and cover track runners. Yeah, but that, that's why, at the same time, to just offset that. Like, that's why, with the legs of Henderson and Jan, it means that it takes a lot of pressure off Gerard, so he can sit, he can literally sit there and cover those corners. Yeah. It's, it's, it's asking Gerard taking another step in terms of progression and playing as that player that's in front of the defence. And hopefully he can, because in fairness, he took on the roll quite well last season from when he did it. And, you know, it is, it is possible that he would grow forward into that role, because he's not worried now about being exposed when he has the two lads in front of him. Alan, Alan is, is getting up and down the pitch. I thought Alan was very good when he came on. He was, again, he was fast. He was very quick in our counter attacks at that stage. And as Paul said, we were sitting that little bit more deep, but boy chases, he was well able to get up to pitch and support the attack when it was going on as well. Did Joel look good to you, Paul. He did, he did. He really did. Jeezer couldn't believe how small he was when he saw him in the name. But... What toys are us with you? Yeah, yeah. Seriously, seriously, but, um, the, his, it, I've always liked him, you know, I've never really been a, one of those people that sort of jumped on his case when he was getting no love at all. And he's one of those fellas that I think. But he does very basic stuff, but he does it very well. Yeah. And, you know, there's no frills about him. He's, but I think, you know, he was, he was buzzing yesterday. He was up and down that field. He was buzzing when he came on yesterday. He did really, really well, I thought, too. Yeah. He's one of those fellas that you, you know, is he going to be a starter when we're playing European nights? Probably not. I mean, and spelled somebody absolutely, and he's got the guy that's probably going to play, you know, 60, 70 minutes on a Saturday before a European game. He probably used that too, you know. Yeah. So, you know, he's, he's going to be a very valuable piece to the midfield puzzle, for sure. Paul, absolutely fantastic to get your underground take on things there. And really hope you enjoy the rest of the tour and we'll keep in touch over the season, fella. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me. Okay. We're very pleased to be joined by Neil Atkinson and John Gibbons. They'll be known to you as the Lads from the Anfield Wrap and the Reuter Podcast. And they are here to promote their book, Make a Stream. So, Lads... And it's so, it keeps on, it keeps on. Well, we, we think that's proper order, proper order. Lads, I know both of you do some fine scrubbing for, for the Anfield Wrap, for the website. Was this something, this book, was it something you planned all the way through? Was it a planned enterprise? Or was it something that grew out of, of your own writing as the year went on? Or something that inspired you at the end of the year? Neil, we'll start with you. Well, it's interesting, it's basically what happened was, we started talking about it around October. And then, you know, it was the sort of thing, you don't have a chat in the pub and say, "Oh, we should, should we do a book? Shouldn't we do a book this season? It's a bit mad. We've probably been knocking around long enough on how to do a book. You know, look at all these other fellas, they're all doing books. Yeah, those fellas, yeah. Those fellas, yeah. Those fellas, yeah. I mean, they're all right, aren't they? They're all right, yeah. Yeah. But then, what happened was, I started to do those much review things and, again, talk to even John, and it'd be like, you know, this is something, and then John said, and I said to John, basically, I don't want to fully commit to a book because if we don't win the league, then we've, you know what I mean? It might not be right. And John went, "This season's been so brilliant, so mad, so astonishing. It needs to be written down." Yeah. So, you know, we very much talked me into it aggressively around mid-March. Is that right? I think it's about mid-March. Yeah. You could definitely do this. I think so. I think that's when we committed properly. Yeah. And then, from there, sort of, like, just started to make a note of things, and then I very aggressively wrote a list of 110 chapter headings, and told them, basically, get on with 40 of the YouTube. Yeah, yeah. And I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was going up about my business. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's, that's, got the perfect insight into how, into how me Neil works. John, there's a lot of mention of aggression there, fella. It's a little bit of a worry. Yeah. What, what could you explain to me, yeah, what your own thought process was behind, like, did you, did you find yourself bro beating, or was it you doing the bro beating Gordon and Neil? I just, it just got to the point where, Neil, says it. I thought it was, it was. Yeah. I thought whatever happened, it wasn't. And I think, I feel even more kind of vindicated than that, because then I think in a few years time, or maybe in five, ten years time, I think it's going to be difficult to explain to people just how mad this season was, and you kind of try and remember, and you kind of try and put things together. And you say, oh, we had all these crazy scores, but then we didn't win anything. There's obviously, I mean, Liverpool's a really successful football club, and we, you know, all watch seasons where, you know, we're trophies, and, and that's ultimately, you know, what I think this season, I don't think anyone had more fun than Liverpool fans. And I, I mean, in the world, I don't mean there's a football group of football fans watching their football club, who have more fun than we does. And then surely that's the actual point of, of, you know, doing it and spending all the money we used to be spending, you guys, even more, because, you know, you have to come over and things like that. So, I think, I think, and ultimately, you know, there's only so many teams, you can, you can win something, and the rest of us, you know, we're just trying to get as much joint room inside of it as possible, and I think even more than, you know, Man City fans or Arsenal fans or whoever, you know, who, who did get the trophies here. You know, I think, I think Liverpool fans are the best ride, and I think, I think that's worth documenting, and I think, I think it'd be great to look back on in years time, and just, you know, when turning the pages, and just remembering that the crazy results and the amazing performances that went through, and how we felt, and it kind of, it does bring it all back, it's done it for me, you know, and I wrote up all these things, you know, when you read it back, it, it does bring back how you felt, and you remember the nights out after, and things like that, and gives you a warm, frozen side. Nice thing because, because so much of, I think so much of modern discourse, just to get slightly partial for a second, so much of modern discourse, quite cynical, it's quite, you know, it's very much, it looks to pick holes and things, modern criticism the same, and I think that getting something which just, right is about joy, because that's what it's about, the box about joy, it's about how much form this was, it is just, and, you know, you read it now, and there's, there's, there's, I'd like to think, there's analytical stuff in there, and I'd like to think, there's some insightful stuff about football in there, but it's primarily about a feeling of, like, here on fire, you're going to football matches and you're coming out and it's like someone set fire to you, someone set fire to every aspect of your body, you're flying into a city centre, you know, anything feels possible, everybody's gorgeous, everybody's full, you want to be around everyone, you want to hug everyone, you want to hug the people who aren't there, you want to hug the people who are, and you want to hug evertonians, and, you know, you find yourself, and, and I evertonians sort of want to be hooked by you, because you got caught up with it for a month or two, and the whole thing, you know, the city was absolutely pouted, and that's what the box about really, and yet there's, you know, there's loads of, as I said, I'd like to think there's loads of good football stuff in there, but that's a funny thing to write about, because there are loads of people doing that, you know, practically everything that's written about anything, not just football, but, you know, about films, about music, about whatever, it's often people trying to sort of, you know, trying to find an angle or trying to find a point of a lot of angle, if you want to find an angle, is, that was fucking amazing. Yeah, well, if it was coming down to the idea of celebrating joy, and just, you know, remembering the happiness of it, like when you were putting the book together, and compiling the various memories and stuff like that, you must have revisited all the various highlights, if I was to ask you, Neil, what was the most, the happiest one of all of those joyous moments, is the one that stands out? It's, it's, it's for you, really, because there's, there's the moments which, for instance, there's the continual equaliser, which, you know, in hindsight, massive, it's absolutely, obviously it's massive, you know, but at the time, I just felt like the release of an Enoch in anxiety, where, you know, that was all that one was, but then, you know, John always bangs on about the storages forth against Arsenal, up to stone, what would be his answer there for you, but that's, you know, that's the way in which it goes. I think it was the absolute, my God, highlight, in my head, sort of his sterling's opener against city, it's just the, the fact that he's, you know, he's, he's 19 years old, and this, you know, I remember all the classic Liverpool DVDs, videos, DVDs, where you watch the official history of Liverpool, and I think there's, I think it's a, I think it's a dark leash goal, where there's like the lads sliding in front of him, 80s defenders who are overweight sliding in front of him, and as you just keep dropping his shoulder, and they're trying to get a blocking for a shot, that never comes, and finally just put to the bottom corner, and that's what failing was doing, and it was right, it was right in front of me in the ground, and, you know, there'd been all, everything building into that, and city turn up, and, you know, they'd go on to win the league, but the main challenges at this point, and Reheem Stirling just goes back to them, and that, that, for me, is the one which, as I say, at the time, I just thought, yes, this is incredible. Yeah, well, absolutely, as sources and moments of joy goes, it's hard to be that one, John, for yourself, which one would it be? Yeah, they asked the one that's been mentioned, but also the home, as you said, Darby, just because, I think, like, another reason why it's good to kind of document seasons and the way we have is, you can kind of forget a little bit of context and context isn't the most important thing in the world, you know, Christ, it's great to just remember how great things were going into that Darby, there's a lot of people who thought Everton were going to beat us, you know, we hadn't played great the weekend before, you know, Everton won a good run, you know, they had a couple of injury doubts, you know, they had brought welcoming back, and people were, a few people were worried about sitting in the Liverpool contingent, and the Evertonians were a little bit bullish. They were dead bullish, so going into that, and then just, then it was quite a tough start to the game, really, and then from Gerald's goal, obviously, we just, we just kind of tore them apart, and so I think, I think that, for me, was it brilliant now, you said, I know, I watched, I was with all my friends in the ground as well, which always kind of makes it a bit better, so, yeah, the home Darby had then split his drive around the next day in his way for Darby. John, was that the one, had Everton won that day? Would they have been, like, two points behind us or something? Yeah, something like that, yeah, it was going to be close, and that's what the really interesting thing about the Arsenal game is as well, because when we'd be Arsenal at home, you know, they were, I think, eight points ahead of us at the time would have gone to eleven, they would top of the league, they had the best defensive record in the country, and little things like that, you forget, and, you know, just how kind of big those games were at the time, but yeah, Everton were right on our hails, and you were talking at the time, well, you know, there was still a debate over fourth going on by Cowards, who were in. Could I tell a story? I was going to tell a story, but we were over in New York for the United game, and the United Way game was on, and we're on, we're on it, but it's like, you've got to get up at stupid o'clock, so we're on this train, because it's a half-one area, so it's like seven o'clock. I'm just going to interject it here, and wait until the fans at America get up at stupid o'clock every week, we have to do what, and we're still moaning about it. That's the whole fault for leaving in stupid o'clock land. Well, I mean, we tried to run a strong no blame culture, but you might have a point for the things. Yeah, you know, New York has got a big going on. We're on the train, over from Brooklyn, Manhattan, to go and watch the game, and in the legends bar, that we're going to watch it. And we're on the train, and we're moving along, and by this point, you know, we've got on the run that we're on, we look unstoppable. I might never, and I'm out on Fitzgerald, but sitting next to him, they've contributed to the book, and they sit next to me and John on the train, and they just start talking about, you know, how many points behind us, and now the eight are the eleven. What impactful that I want today's result, with reference to Evan, and with what happens with us in the United, and all this sort of stuff. And John just turns out to them and says, "What? Just put a fucking sock in it." Absolutely, I think you just ever know what to do with us, when we go on one way, and they would call it all, but you know, it could be tough today. And John just went, "There's no way United can beat us." So, the train Joe's opening, we walk out, and I was walking out, John just steams ahead, and I saw the truck along, and he says, "You're gonna have to have a way with them too." Well, I'm liking these aggressive John stories, actually. Do you think, guys, do you think I have to ask, right? Because, you know, especially in the last couple of years with the advent of all the Twitter accounts, the websites, the podcasts, obviously, the whole lot. But do you think if we had to be around, say, in a way of annoying, you know, it would have been documented as well, and we'd have the same sort of memories as the last season has given us our, are they just two completely different campaigns in reality when you look back at it, especially when you look back at that one? I don't think it was quite the same personally. This year, it completely came out, and now we're really, I mean, we came, you know, 6th, 8th, and 7th, the last few few seasons. You know, we thought we were gonna progress, you know, there were signs towards the back end of the season before, or not just the back end of the second half, you know, that we were good team and we had good players, but I think it was just kind of so unexpected really to jump that much and to become a team so close to winning the league and also the results and the way they happened, and the manner of how we, you know, would be good teams, you know, especially at home. So, I think, I mean, everything I was a good season, what great season I enjoyed it, and, you know, it was, it's a real shame looking back on what happened to that team under those owners, but, you know, I, I mean, maybe, maybe looking back, we might have, might have done something around that, but I don't mean it as a season, it's necessarily comparable in terms of, you know, what the football could achieve and the roller coaster that we went on, a few green, you know. While we were writing the book, it sort of, we got to the spot, we had about 70% of the text of the book written, it sort of hit me when I was looking back over it, and fuel is the kind of writing more, that what we were writing about was reclamation, that there was the field, this field on that, you know, there was something was being reclaimed, some sort of spirit, some sort of freedom was being reclaimed, and, and the thing about to wait till now was it was still on the Hicks and Gillette, and there was still, you know, there was still issues, knock around the football club in a big way. For instance, you know, as much as we take a place out for the evertoes over the after, the money, you know, we never saw the Robbie Key money again, as an example of it from that period. And, you know, I think that, where does this, the last season and that, this is why I'm so desperate, it continues, there was a huge sort of, you know, everyone was united in a common purpose, everyone got right behind it, every aspect of it, right the way to do it, everybody was just all in. And I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't for one second, for instance, say that the atmosphere for the for all, against Arsenal in L0809 was, was worse than, you know, practically any given atmosphere last season, you know, I'd say that they were mostly comparable from what I can remember, but the point being was that it felt like, and it's part of that came out of nowhere, it's part of the nature of the manager, it's part of the youthfulness of the side, it's part of that side sort of exuberance that it displayed, you know, all these things sort of had to go up, and I think that's why I think it just became, you know, but the things I remember from L0809 that are very, very similar, our friend of mine once rang me after, we'd be united at home to L0809, and he rang me up, and he said, "What happened last night? I can't remember." And we had a chat and he went, "Oh, me face hurts from smiling and laughing so much." And it was loads of that last season, like, you know, the number of times you'd still be, Arsenal, you beat Arsenal 5, 1 at 12, 45, and you're still going at 1 a.m., and, you know, you're still going at 1 a.m., going absolutely berserk, and then waking up the next day, and somehow, just being adrenaline, you're not hungover, but the only thing you can remember is your face hurts. I think Neil, so Neil makes a really good point in that, in terms of how he and I, if he wanted to do something right about that, you couldn't have wrote a pure football book, and that couldn't have just been about, you know, what was going on on the pitch and what you were doing off it as people, you know, would have had to be so much context involved, so which in terms of what's going on with the owners, and personally, I wouldn't feel like I was kind of best placed to do that really, I'm better at writing about drinking. Because then we beat United on 8.09, that morning, there was a march, there was a march around that field, I was on the march, there was a march around that field, that took place before we beat United to 1.09, and, you know, it's not to say for a second that everything will be rosy forever and ever now, or that, you know, there isn't still be on question around what the owners are not doing, but there's no march, and there's no need for the march, and that does not help, because, you know, you go on a march, and you'd be marching around that field, and you'd, you know, I remember all this, and you'd be walking past lads in there, in beer gardens, you'd clap you along, and you'd be like, "What, you're marching?" That doesn't make any sense if you agree with it, but you're, you know, and all that sort of stuff was still, you know, was still knocking around, and people still had those feelings, and that makes it difficult, but now, you know, that's gone, but the thing that I make the observation in the book, and I hope I'm right, I might be wrong, but I think sort of what a lot of that left now, a lot of that, because that burns away, the sort of solidarity of purpose that was whipped up in that period, is what left the beef's gone, I think, a lot of the beef's gone, but what left is this sort of desire to say? We're going to really enjoy this, because we did all that, and it was pretty horrible, and, you know, we, you know, we had, you know, we had the very Hodgson stuff, we had the reality of Hicks and Gillette, we had all that stuff going on, and I think a massive reason why people just got behind it, and the intense way they did, was because we've done that bit, and all the horrible bits of that now would have gone, we've purified it, but we've got this wonderful thing left at the centre, which is that we're not messing around, you know, we're fucking serious, we're livable for popcorn, and we're about to go through all this, and now we're there. Neil, if you take it that, you know, as you say, there's been a reclamation of joy and that kind of happiness in going about what we do, which is just supporting the team, there's nothing like transfer season to cause people to start pissing and moaning and getting sort of agitated and fighting almost themselves, what we've had here, there's probably going to be a fight in the room even here tonight, but like, you know, in the wake, I know what a fan you were of, of Suarez, like myself, I've written your stuff on him, given that everyone's favourite Mendelis is now gone, I mean, is there the opportunity for us to dream in the same way next year, do you think? Yeah, I think there definitely is, to be honest with you, I don't think, I think Suarez is going, Suarez was a catalyst massively, I mean, you know, it's split in all sorts of directions, but you know, it roaches his team, but I think a lot of what it did, certainly the first half of the season was huge in Suarez's image, but I don't think there's any reason to think, they're not thinking about the same thing that we're thinking about, which is the league title, but that's not what they're not the conversations that are being had in Anfield, it's interesting that, you know, a couple of the players have actually said it as a run of sign. Now, I think both Jan and Mark have gone out of the way to mention the idea of winning the league. So, you know, I think that's the critical focus, and I think they're still there thinking that they can really do. And I think one of the reasons, though, why there is, you know, there's bad sense of exchanges on it, one, because there's always bad sense of exchanges, but two, because everyone's so desperate for it not to stop, well, if everyone's so desperate for it not to stop, let's believe the football, there's so desperate for it not to stop, let's believe the manager's so desperate for it not to stop, therefore, why should it stop? You're still playing 13 sides next season, who, if we're all honest about it and we all look each other in the eye, a shite, the 13 really, really bad for four teams in that league, you know, and every doc can have its day, they can all put up a performance out the bag, but there's, Liverpool will play 26 games, they should win, and off those 26, you know, they should win, you know, 10, 12 of them comfortably, emphatically, the way it must be won games last season. So, I don't think, you know, there's any reason, if, as I say, if everyone keeps pulling in the same direction, internally in the club, internally in the boardroom, transfer committees, and then on the pitch, if all those players address it, and, you know, for instance, I don't see Jordan Henderson running less, he did 19 minutes at a penalty, the night, you know, I don't see those players running less, so I don't see why it stopped, do you think it's going to stop? No, I don't so agree with you, I think we need to get more in, but I think in terms of players, but I think we will, and, yeah, so, I don't think the belief will have gone out to them, you know, as Neil said, if you've seen very Polish, even Jedi, seems very Polish, I was a little bit worried about Jedi, to be honest with you, bearing in mind what happened at the end of last season, and also, you know, the summary, didn't have a great summer with England, it's got lots of different ways, but, you know, he's come back very determined, and making the right noises, and, you know, growing even more is a leader, if you like, doing you guys and making the right noises, you know, Colotore is going to come out and say we're going to win the league, so whether he's here or not, so, yeah, I was slightly concerned, you know, how much, how much last season, and how much doubt, what had happened at the end would take it out of us, and then not with people, or even Suarez, but, you know, the players seem very happy, they seem very focused, and, you know, Rahim Sterling, nothing in the world bothers him, you know, he just thinks he's dead, he's dead, he's dead easy, don't he? I've done the only thing that's stopped storage score on 30 league goals is his own fitness. That's the only thing that's stopped storage score on 30 league goals. Yeah, yeah. And when you think about that for a second, you know, there's not that many sense of forward in the league that you can actually say that about, you know, it's easy, you know, a aware of, for instance, might be one of them, but, you know, I still don't think necessarily Arsenal have got that player, and if you've got a fella or you look at the new thing, he could score 30 league goals, then, you know, you should be in any conversation about any silverware. Yeah, John, talk to me for a second about, if we take it that we're going into this season now with a different kind of tension, it's less negative than it was, and we're reviewing what we can see in front of us now with the pre-season and the new boys coming in. The man affectionately referred to as Benny Markovich, boy, my mate Phil here, who thinks he runs like Benny Hill. What did you make of the new boys that we could see so far in pre-season? I thought Markovich looked dangerous, at all, you know, he's obviously still quite raw, but at all, you know, he got at them, they thought they didn't really seem to know how they wanted to defend against him. We probably had a little bit more space than he'd get in the Premier League, but still he looked dangerous, his shooting was maybe a bit off, but we kind of knew that would be the case because his goal record was not great, but, you know, he looks, it looks like a lot of attributes that will suit how we play. I think Sean looks good, I think he looks very composed, I think he looks very at home, it's interesting that he started that game Sunday night because, you know, it looked like it kind of first 11 at first, almost, and then it changes from there, so he was interested, I don't think he'll start out at a casino when we start, but it's interesting that, you know, it might start at City. Yeah, he could do, yeah, so it's interesting that they put him in there. I mean, you know, he's probably not a head of Alan at first, but it's interesting that he wanted to have a look at him playing there, you know, in the head of Jeddah, because I think that is likely to be where he'll get, you know, more game time at this stage. Well, well, Jeddah is still able to play most games, so I think it was good to have a look at him there and see how he did that. I think he just, I think he seems to have a lot of belief in himself, and I don't think he's going to come to Liverpool and be phased. There's what I'm saying. I think, you know, he seems to believe in himself a lot, and he kind of should be here. Yeah. And that's kind of all we've seen, really, at the moment, isn't it? I'm a Lambert as well, who I'm not completely sure about, but that's, I feel like a bit of a miserable bastard being up, because everyone's so pleased for him. So, Jeddah, I think you have a point on Lambert. You know, when we're talking about transfers, with the lads here, I'll be sort of saying it as well. I think the guy is still in that sort of well period that he's playing for Liverpool, because obviously it's the club that he's supported since he was a boy, and he needs to sort of snap out of all while I'm playing here for Liverpool, and needs to get into getting down and just treating it as a job and doing the business on the pitch. Look, for me, he seems to be, you know, a bit rabid in the headlights when he's on the pitch. But, you know, you have to put yourself about more and stop looking out of that and wearing the crest and I'm wearing the jersey. It's about now acting in the jersey when you're wearing it as well. I think the Chan thing is interesting, because, again, looking at it, you know, I think he played there, because Markovich is possibly not as defensively. Yeah, there might be something in that. He was covering that left side, and Jesus, he covers some amount of ground. Every time you look, he was in the frame at a bar, so he's almost like an even more physical version of Jordan Henderson, so that's really impressed me in terms of what it is. That's even possible. Whoever those two guys are, they're going to have to cover a lot of ground next season, and, you know, that's going to really help us defensively. So if you've got someone similar to Henderson, who can do that, I mean, that helps the three guys in front of them as well, you know, sort of concentrate on them really on what they're good at. So, yeah, it's an interesting point of that. And Neil, off the ones of the people that we've seen so far, who's kind of getting you dreaming about next season? Is there one in particular, or is it the obvious beauty of M. Ray Chan, or who's it? To be honest with you, I think I'm looking forward to seeing Lambert, because I think he looks like he's got a lot you can play a lovely pass, and I love anyone. He's got a true ball in him, doesn't he? He's definitely got a true ball in him. I like to look at Lambert's, you know, I understand that. I think he's just sort of quite a look great with pace around him. I can see they're being on frustration every now and again. But then I think that's, you know, that's the case with practically every football and all of them are perfect at the nature of them. I think that the use of Coutinho is interesting, but I thought that back in the last season as well, Coutinho dropping a bit deeper. I think it's really interesting. I think he's going to look better than he really goes to be brutally honest with you, because I think that he's going to be able to get on the ball more and influence more. And I also think that the big thing from last season, which, you know, I think we've nailed in a manner which I think that earlier on in the season, it looked like only City and Arsenal have, is having people in sentiment who can beat men. And I think that's the big, I think that's not being discussed enough really by a lot of people who write well about football tactics, is that I think that, you know, you looked at, you know, at City last season, they would so often have Latin sentiment who could beat a man. Oh, so when they were looking good at the start of the season, people like Ramsey, who could just take one player out to the game. By the end of the season Liverpool had jennars who can take a player out to the game. They had Henderson who can take a player out to the game. The other one who can argue to take two out to the game with the way in which he carries it and shields it and sentiment. And then they had Coutinho in sterling at times being, you know, proper midfielders in that area to the pitch. And they can take two up to the players out to the game. And if you can take two up to the players out to the game in the middle third, then all you look up and see in front of you, is someone like Daniel Stouridge, someone like Ricky Mster. And loads and loads of green space. And that is, you know, that's terrifying, that's dangerous. And that's the reason why, you know, I remain certain that we'll be, you know, we'll be breaking 76 points. We'll be in the business end of it because if you've got that in your locker, then wherever you go, whoever you are, whoever it is that you're up against, you can terrify people. If you can take two team midfielders out the game, then suddenly you've got a back four. That is absolutely backpedaling at 100 miles an hour. And that's why I think, you know, that's what I'm looking forward to. And that's what I like seeing from the preseason games is, we're not taking any backwards steps from that. If we've got to put Coutinho right back in there, then we'll do that because that's the advantage it gives us. Now it's just on the flip side, who's signed our P-45s on this tour for you? I think that's something that's new is there. I mean, it's all the players you've thought Quattos is going to go. You've got all right though, honey. Yeah, it's hard to say. He's not going to get his games. I mean, that's the thing. You know, Quattos is surely going to go. Well, with Lobb and Corey, we've just got too many centre-huffs. Don't be gagging. Not being able to play the moment really helps him because I don't think the manager is generally sure we can trust him any way. And, you know, so I think, I think I think I just thought that was the biggest name who's looking, you know, less likely than others. He'll stay. I think Lucas is maybe playing himself in a little bit more in a funny sort of way. So I thought Lucas would go. I'm less sure now, but I think I think I just probably the biggest name. But we'll see you leave. Yeah, OK. That's really, really appreciate your time. Thanks a lot. We're going to land you on this. And best of luck with the book. That's a hope of flow. Come here. It's out, isn't it? Everywhere at this stage. All right. Yeah. It is. It's out everywhere. So around the world, you can get it. Just going off Twitter, which is @MakeUsDreambook. And there's links to buying it, but you can get it around the world on AMHODCOPY and electronically, as in e-book, just in Amazon at the moment. But hopefully soon it'll be on all of the devices and things like that as well. Yeah, it should be getting sorted out the e-book thing. I mean, we're an absolute novices at this. We barely managed to get the thing out. A few of the things as well is that what was sold out. We've recorded two thirds of it as an old e-book. It's not like a normal old e-book. Oh, who have you got doing the voice over there? Well, no. It's us. Oh, yeah? With one of the fellas. I'm sorry about that. You have a Morgan Freeman there. I was kind of hoping for Morgan Freeman, I'll be honest. Samuel L. Jackson or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The way that it works is that we have a bit of a chat. We read one piece about each game, but then we actually have a chat about the game. It's not like it's much more of a commentary than if you buy the book. Basically, there's still something in the audiobook for you. And if you buy the audiobook, there's still something in the book. If you see what I mean. We were only reading about 40% of the book out, because one with tenable at read now. I'm reading out, yeah. And two, you know. It's harder than you think, you know. Listen, I know. I've got to be honest with you. You're fired at the talk, and I can hear you. You think you're good. You're fancy yourself. You want to go with the read now? I know. We know from Trev's outtakes. It's a shambles. It's a fucking shambles. Ruth was that shambles. Ruth was that shambles. Ruth was the one with Sam Ford and me. All right, lads, listen. Thanks again for your time. I'm really, really best. Best luck, fellas. Let's move on and take a look at the transfer activity off Liverpool football club over last while. Lads, we're actually a bit shit of transfers, aren't we? I mean, we're shit at leak and stuff. We're shit at completing deals. We're shit at waste and time. We're shit at losing players and airplanes over the Atlantic. Jim Fishlock, we're delighted to be joined by yourself today. Well, as a man who's organized a transfer committee on his own time there at world stage, could you please tell me, do you agree that we are shit at transfers? Yes, we are. I mean, I've got family who've traveled from the UK to Seattle in America quicker than Liverpool have got two footballers. Yeah. And when the ones got there, he's not fit. Yeah. Now, bear in mind, everyone says we've got the best scouts. We've got the best sort of people doing research into these players. We know everything. We know what they have for breakfast. They know how many times they go to the toilet. How many times I might pick their nose. Everything. Yeah. But we don't know. The lower Grammy has got a dodgy knee and a hole in his heart. All right. Everybody knows that. Yeah. Yeah. How do you explain that, Jim? I mean, we've been just being chatting about that there as one of the things I wanted to touch on. What the hell is happening there? I mean, that makes no sense. I have literally no idea. It can't be a shock to them. Yeah. Because all you've got to do is put his name into Google. Well, yeah, exactly. We struggle with that before. Yeah. Well, look, apparently we can't even find the right interpreter for people. Yeah. It's just like, it's a combination of people who have no idea what they're doing and they're just muddling through it, which for such a large corporation, I suppose, as we are, to have people in those roles who can't do what would appear to me a simple task, really. Yeah. You know, if you're buying something, you know how much you want to spend. You've invariably sort of not tapped the player up. You've really put the feelers out and thought, how much is he willing to accept wages wise? If he asks for something or, you know, is rumored that he's going to want more than what you're going to pay for him, don't bother going in for him. Yeah. You know, I appreciate it. It's not as easy as it is on feet furnace, not as easy as it is on football manager. Obviously, that goes for I'd say it. But surely, it's not as I had as we make it. Yeah. Fair but Paul Brennan seems like an awful waste of two weeks to have invested so much time in this guy. And then facts that were already known seem to be the reason why we've caught out. Well, just the simple fact is that it's a Liverpool transfer, so something has to go wrong. And even if it was two weeks, that's kind of quick for us to wrap it up with you. So obviously, this has to be something else going wrong. So like, you know, he's on the plane over. And he's looked into his medical history. Sure, it's fine. And then, you know, he gets there and they find out that he's failed fucking four medicals before and he's got a hold on his heart. He's got a shot at eight. He's got a shortage to be honest with. That's probably what it took so long. I had to do a stall away in a fucking boat across the Atlantic. It was a cruise. It was one of those tall ships. You had to wait for the round of world race doctor for the Boston. Phil, what are the committee doing? Seriously. I mean, well, they don't have fucking laptops for a start. Yeah, because what I have to do is they're using Bing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, is there any logic to it that you can see? I'm lost at the logic of Remy. I am genuinely lost. Like, I was thinking up until, you know, when the room would 60 and a half million deals for Acidi and Burini were coming out. I could accept that yet Sanchez wanted to go to Arsenal, you know, for lifestyle reasons or whatever reason it was. And I said, fair enough. Like, you missed out on that. That's not a playing thing. That isn't a player issue. You know, that wasn't that we were prepared to meet terms. But then we went after Boney, I suppose we met the agent and Hugh Jenkins was pissed off that we'd gone behind sort of didn't ask Swansea's permission because we were just going to activate his release clause, which we knew was. And that was all over the papers. This is another thing. Everything that we seem to do gets fucking leaked, right? Or a version of what we're doing gets leaked because don't forget on the Remy thing, they were telling us on Friday night that they was done, that he completed his medical and they were just waiting for the paperwork to go through. Literally, like, I cannot understand how they couldn't, like the first thing you'd imagine to do, if I was, if I was looking at the transfers, the first thing you'd do is definitely look into the medical background. Now, you might get the full medical facts, but at least you'll be able to find out has the guy had previous issues with doing medicals for clubs? Is there an eating stand in there as a condition or is there an injury that we have to be aware of when we do the medical because surely you don't want to check that more than we want? And it's not the first time this has happened because you remember Maravaux came over a couple of years ago and his medical son, and he failed the medical. Do you know what the film, all I will say, right, in Remy's defense, you know, obviously it's not his fault that he's got these conditions, but it's very similar to Denver Bar. He's failed medicals. Yeah. He can remember, I can't remember any games he's missed through injury while he's been at Westam, Newcastle or Chelsea, and I don't think Remy's missed that many. So, you know, if we know that he's got these medical conditions, why are we even talking about a five-year deal? That was the other weird thing about this whole deal. Yeah. You know, it was like, it was literally the worst deal we could be doing. Now, Remy wasn't really that great a sign in, and then to stick him on a five-year deal, a 27 anyway, it just flies in the face of everything we've sort of been doing without contracts and without deals for everyone we find. Look, I can understand the logic and sign in Remy, because there's gold scoring record and the premise has been quite good, and at times you've been getting one and two. If you're looking for a similar player to storage, he was not maybe at the storage's level or potential level the storage could get to. You can see playing style, yeah, he can come in, he can do a job. If you want to rest storage because he's carrying a knock after Champions League game, he can bring Remy in. That's fine. I can understand the style thing and the whole lot, but it just boils back to this. You know, I actually feel sorry for Remy, because this stuff is all over the media that, you know, he's failed at medical and he has an issue with his heart and, you know, there's an issue with his knee and stuff like that. And it's very tough for the fucking guy, because this stuff is out there. They might never put the exacting of the paper, but it's out there now at the moment. He's gone over there, obviously they've, well, look, this is it, it's been there beforehand. So they knew what we're going over. So you can't, I just think he's been treated fairly shabbily in terms of what's going on. What that's what's in comprehensive about is that the knowledge was there. You've got poor L Harry Redknap there and they're looking like a fucking bulldog, so they're looking piss off and that leaves that piss off. I'm delighted from them. And he's saying, you couldn't meet a fitter, lad. I don't really don't know what's going on. He hasn't met him yet, so he wouldn't fuck him on the spooking bollocks. He's their fittest lad you didn't meet, so it's Harry. To play devil's advocate a bit, like, obviously, there have been doctors that have passed them fits your medicals. So you could say maybe the club wanted to look at them, but, like, surely then, that's one of the first things you get out of the way. Yeah. Like, before you even get into personal terms, like, you know, you know, his medical history say, right, we want our doctor to look at them, and if our doctor says he's okay, then yeah, we'll set. Like, what's the point in agreeing, absolutely evident, and then, like, saying, okay, come on. They've done that in Anfield. They did love in medical in Anfield. I mean, in the mail, what our in Liverpool, wherever it was, right? Could they have not, if they had doubts about the impasse of the medical, could they have not have done it under, you know, kept a fairly hush-hush, did it in Liverpool? If anything showed up then, nothing gets out, and it's like, it would have been still just a rumor that we were possibly in for Remy, or we were considering other options, and he was something. We were in negotiations, if it doesn't come out then, it's just, look, we couldn't agree personal terms, et cetera, et cetera. He goes on his way, and you don't get this massive splash, and rubbish that's basically going on in terms of, you know, we're talking about a guy who's, you know, who's gone all the way over to Boston, expected to sign, was given to seven years, we knew he was being given the number seven years. So there was definitely high hopes from Roger. So I'd say, to be totally honest with you now, I'd say Roger's is fucking hopping over this one, because if I was Brendan Rogers, and I'd had Remy obviously in my plans, I'm given him a jersey, I know what number he's given him, I know what role he's going to fulfill in the squad, and then something that's pre-known suddenly stops this whole thing because we can't get the insurance, whatever, it just seems a lack of pre-work that's done in this transfer. It's madness. Jim, talk to me about that idea of the leaks that are going on. I mean, as Phil says, they're right down to the fact that we all knew he was getting the seven, and there was massive debate about whether he was worth it or not, and all that nonsense. We can't seem to do anything under the radar anymore, can we? No, we all know there's one or two guys on Twitter who get a little bit of information. But the fact is, if those lads are getting a little bit of information, and from wherever they're getting it from, it's obvious that other people are going to get a little bit of information, and it's obvious that those people, those other people, and the sort of scrupulous as the lads that we speak to, and they're just putting it out there. Now, you can look at it one or two ways, can you? You can say, "Well, if we're in for a big player, and the player is sort of like Leverin, he's itching for the move, and we think it might be trouble, difficulty working with the clubs." Then put it out there that we're in for him, and hopefully there's a little bit of a first kick-up like Leverin did, and eventually the deal will go through, or you can look at it the other way. Why don't people keep their fucking mouth shut, wait until the player's got the deal done, signed on the dotted line, and then we can all talk about it. The fact that we know what squad number he's going to have and everything, I mean, you know, that's vital information really, I would say, that's information that can only come from sort of one or two people at the club, isn't it? Yeah. Because we've all seen the being Liverpool documentary, where he, you know, Rodgers and Allen are talking for about a week about what number he's going to have. You know, this has already been done and dusted, Remy, hasn't it? Yeah. So, you know, people might say, "Oh, it's only a squad number," or whatever, but you know, all we to know these things until, you know, I mean, Leverin didn't even have his number on issue yesterday. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And what more child about that today? Yeah. Yeah, that's only come through today. I don't know what number he's wearing. But, you know, you might say it's stupid, but at the end of the day, people are getting old with all this information, and we were told, initially, really, that the club had stopped it all. You know, we were, you know, doing things the Liverpool way. There was no leaks. Nobody was knowing anything until anything had happened. I think the only people who don't know what's happening, and the people at the club, unfortunately. It kind of looks like that, Paul, speaking of leaks, I mean, who the hell are we going to go to next? The big name that's being mentioned now is that Lacazette guy from Leon. I mean, and you can only presume, because that rumor is out there, that's very, very real, and that's the latest leak, I mean, who do we turn to? I have no idea. Like, is it going to be a step down from Rami? I mean, wouldn't this be a great opportunity to show some ambition and go and just sign some someone proper? We've gone from Sanchez to just completely looking at, you know, kind of mid-table, primary league pairs, it seems so far. Yeah, we've seen that pattern before, haven't we? Yeah, like there was rumors there about, I came out of it, you know, Royce, probably unrealistic. Iskall made, we could fuck money at Real and get him, probably, but like, it just seems to me, okay, now we're kind of mid-table player, we go for it now, because Sanchez is off the table. Yeah, it just seems like the kind of standard of target is just falling off a cliff once that didn't happen. Jim, I'll ask you, Royce, because you guys did this, right? You know, it's something that I thought about last season as well. Our strategy always seems to be a bit hit and miss in terms of, you know, I never get the feeling that we have five targets, right, and there's a hierarchy of targets, so that if one falls true, we may want to the next. If the next one falls true, we move on to the next. And Kamala used to get slated for being a goner, a walking goner, basically, right? But it is, you know, at the same time, he always seemed to put in a load of bids for players and always seemed to have a fallback option if one didn't, because we always seem to be negotiating, constantly negotiating with different players. And I'm just wondering, like, I think we have two targets, the impression I get is that we always have two targets, right? Yeah. And when those two targets fall true, we don't necessarily have the next target lined up, and then there always seems to be a gap then, like, we talked, it was about Boney and Remy, and we went in for them, and then there seems to be a gap, now, the lack is that thing, right? But, like, in reality, there just seems to be a void now because the Remy thing is falling apart. To say we were, I remember last season where we had Mikateria and then Costa, there was the opportunistic kind of had a goal, William, but he wasn't a target before that, and then it fell off, clicked down to Victor Moses, and we all know what happened, the pass against West Ham. It's after, like, three weeks or so. Yeah. Yeah. Your own thoughts on that, Jim? Well, yeah. I mean, you're right about comedy, and I always think, you know, if you have three targets for every position, you should be able to secure at least one of them. You know, you know, Connor Plianca, in January, he was supposed to be the man, he was supposed to sign him, and he was supposed to fire us to Champions League football. If you're signing someone in January, he was going to get you to Champions League football. To my mind, you think that not only can he get you there in six months, he can play there? Yeah. So why haven't we gone back to that deal? Because as far as I was aware, that deal was done and ready in place, and he should have been there on the first of freaking July. Yeah. You know, then, you know, we're doing, I was told when we were doing the transfer committee thing that the times have changed, and we moved on to bigger and better targets. Well, if our bigger and better target was Alexis Sanchez, who can play wide and can play through the middle, and then it's from him to Laura Gremi, what Connor Plianca is somewhere in the middle? Yeah. To me, if we got Connor Plianca and he's ready to come in and play in the league now, immediately, it takes the pressure off Markovitch, because at the moment, we're looking at Markovitch and everyone's like, "Oh, my God, he's got to play." And if he don't hit their ground running, we're in dire straits. Yeah. Paul, to further the point that Jim makes there, and he's expanded on what Phil was saying about the amount of targets, and the idea of ambition here, like we're strongly linked again now with this Javier Amancilo guy, and you kind of assume that that's something that's possibly going to happen. Now, I don't care how many people come on to it and tell me that they're very familiar with him, because he hasn't played many matches. The fact is, nobody knows a whole lot about this chap, genuinely. You can talk about scouting and all the rest of it, but if he's our next go-to guy, what's going on? You know, as Jim says, if you don't get Moreno, why aren't you in for Rodriguez, or someone of a similar role? And especially the fact that it's a year-long loan of a fellow who's barely played. Two year-long loan. Two year-long loan. Yeah. Clearly, I know he's a right-back, and he's going to be coming in for Johnson, but whatever. Yeah, but that is incredible, that's one of the first targets we've come out for. For a right-back. Yeah. Like a year-long loan, or a two-year-long loan for a fellow who's only played a couple of of games last season for a let-go. Like it is just- But there's a guy Paul who plays for a let-go ahead of him, one-front. Mm-hmm. Now, you know, if-I've let-go originate better with Man-Kilo, and thinking he might develop into something, they want to buy him back, and sort of just let him go out on loan and get him back after he's developed at us, but why don't we go and get what I'm front? Why don't we put a big bid in for him? Yeah. So it's back to the ambition idea again, Paul, isn't it? It's back to the ambition. Yeah. Yeah. And like, I don't know, we could go off on here and get really upset about it, but it's very hard to have fate in the fact that, you know, become this stuff that's going on behind the scenes. Don't worry about it. Don't throw your toys out of prom when there's no evidence to the country. Yeah. And especially, like, I don't want to bang on about this, like, sign them from mid-table teams. But like, and I know people say trust in Brendan and trust that they know what they're doing and they just go out with these players. But the fact is that we've lost Lewis Suarez, and like, we are down a match-winner. Because, like, Lalanna and Lovren, like, that's 40 million, over 40 million that we've spent there on them. And like, we're not even close to buying another match-winner, like, Markovitch, obviously, another 20 million for the future, Origi, is going back on loan. Like, they were running out of, we still have a few positions to fill. And like, we are running out of time to buy someone who is really going to kind of replace the sort of quality that Suarez has. So we do have to show some ambition. And like, I know people keep saying this, like, trust Brendan, these are the players that he wants. But like, you can't just dismiss everything by saying trust Brendan. Like, if you're watching the team, those in one nil, and you and your mayor suggest and like, oh, what would you do now? Would you bring continue on? You don't say, oh, shut up you, trust Brendan, like, you have to talk about stuff. Yeah. But also, Brendan could see the feel-good fact among the fans, and he knows how important that is. Like, he saw the fans lying in the root way for the boss and all the rest of it. Like, people would like a mad sign. Well, okay. Can I just say, right? So going back to the idea of trust Brendan, right? Yeah. So Brendan wants Remy. Yeah. Right? And that's, that's who he wanted. Right? And you're saying it looks like he's contradicted. And then we didn't deliver that, right? So, you know, it boils back to, he said, he's told him who he wants. He wants to be trusted. Now, if the guy is, if the guy can't pass the medical and the whole lot, and he thought there was going to be issues with the medical, of course, that's what I said, if the thought was going to be issues, then you keep that well on the wraps and you don't sort of allow the leaks to drop and the whole lot. And you say, look, let's hold off and let any of this leak until you get a clear indication whether this is going to work or not, because if it doesn't, it's going to come back in her face. And I don't have an issue with us not signing them because we weren't happy with the outcome of the medical, right? I'm unhappy with the way it, the stuff, the way it was handled as opposed to what happened. Because you don't want, like, one of the players that failed the medical force before was Mark Fiffy and Fowy, you know, and they do show up issues with players that could have horrible consequences for both the players held and anything further down the line. So you don't want to put yourself in that position either from a club point of view, you know, but I just said, it's just handled so badly in terms of the way everything has gone on and that that's the disappointing fact, because we've been told about the Transfer Committee. We're much more well equipped in the market. And I'll tell you one thing, I'll give you a bit of praise on this, because he lined up two deals for Asaidi and Barin, you know, the players still have yet to go or have decided not to go, right? But he's managed to get them out there. He delivered the targets that have been set out in terms of Lover and Lelana and Chan, even for his bio clause, he needs credit for that, they got Mark of it in as well in terms of delivering that. Now, he's actually, if you look at the speed of the business that we've actually done, it's been quicker than we normally see Lover Pool deals been done, you know, he deserves a bit of credit for Landon, for Landon those deals, but he can only do the deals if the targets are lined up and they're identified and they know exactly who they want. Well, this is where there's a problem though, Phil, because even last summer, there was a disconnect with the Committee and Rogers, because the Committee, well, we spent all summer looking at Papadopoulos, didn't we, another guy with a bad knee, couldn't pass a medical. And then, you know, towards the end then, we switched completely where we needed a right-sided centre back. We switched, Sackle came into the market or the Committee had seen him and scoured him and said, "We're going to get him." You know, there was all that talk of, "Well, Rogers didn't really want him. He was going to stick with Aga and play Skirtle alongside him, sorry, play Papadopoulos if we got him alongside Aga." You know, so that was sort of a disconnect. Then we've had it again in January where we couldn't get the deals across the line. Again, you might say, "Well, luck is down to that, Ukrainian owner," or whatever, but we left it to the last half hour. So, you know, again, you're putting all your eggs in one basket and you're at the mercy of one of these Ukrainian lunatic owners. And again, this summer, we seem to be working off two different hymn sheets, really. You've got the Committee who I think are purely looking at the future and are happy to spend money on players for the future, and then you've got Rogers who, like you say, we all trust him. Of course, we do. You know, he deserves that on the pitch and he deserves us to be trusting of his coaching style. Has he done enough in the transfer market to say you should have full control over it? You know, I don't think so. So as a fan, I'm entitled to turn around and say, "I trust Rogers 99.9%, but that 0.1% of bringing in players," you know, "I don't." Yeah. Paul, look, we're going to always ship comments about being overly negative here, and it's possible that we're coming across that way here. But look, if you-- We're going positive when we talk about matches, though, we are trying to-- So that's a little old, like, yeah, there has to be-- there has to be-- There has to be any yank. There has to be a realistic angle on it, too. And like, what I want to talk to you about here is we've talked about the transfers coming in and, frankly, we're a bit shit at them so far. What about the stuff on the way out? Phil mentioned the deals that have been lined up for Barini and for ASEED, and they seem to be hitting the skids a little bit. In both cases, what we're hearing-- and, again, it's what we're hearing-- is that the player is necessarily happy with the setup. Barini apparently wants to stay in point for his place. The only one who's out of the people that we'd like to have seen is Aspass. So what do you make it out? That's all you think? Yeah, it comes back to, like, what I said about Remi, it's just like, transfers just generally don't go too smoothly for us and for us to get offered the guts of 20 million for two players that we're actively looking to get rid of. Like, that's just-- that doesn't happen for us. So, of course, the players are fucking saying that they don't want to go. Like, I do get-- and people are correct saying that it is admirable that Barini wants to fight for his place, but like-- and I can see why he does, because he was injured for his basic-- his full season that he had here went and did well at Sunderland, and now we want to sell him. This is all after he left Rome, like, where he was doing really well. So I can see why he wants to fight for his place, but I think most fans are looking and saying, 14 million for him, we're never going to see enough for like that again. Because there's not a club that wants him as much as Sunderland does, and there's going to pay that again. So it is fairly annoying to see, like, that it's not going to happen, and the same with Asayidi, I think the fee that we're getting for him is really good, considering, like, we bottom for next to nothing he's done, next to nothing for us. It's 'cause of the year that's in, it's 'cause of the payments that the club-- all the clubs are receiving. Yeah, yeah, maybe, but it is-- it is really, you know, like, at least we have kind of got rid of Aspus, like, 'cause he-- like, I don't want to be too harsh when we used to play a lot-- a lot of play out position, it's a new league, and all but he was-- And he had to take corners. Yeah, yeah. [LAUGHTER] I have to say, I was very disappointed I didn't see anything from you on his medical photos. Did you see him? Did you see him? Photos of his medical-- Like, he's dying. He actually looks like-- He doesn't look well. He doesn't look well. He's in the-- And then go, you know, that pick there-- Oh, the-- Your brain inspired. It was radiation photos. That's what we looked like. He looks real sick and-- If anyone was going to fail a medical, you would have thought it'd be in there. [LAUGHTER] I know. He actually looked like he was in hospital. It did. Not that he was doing medical, I know. It looked like he was in hospital. He looked like he was in hospital. He looked like he was in a traffic accident. He's coming on, "I'm OK." [LAUGHTER] Yeah. Don't worry about me, man. I remember he was in hospital. No. No? Because I think he's got a lot of ability. And-- Like, there's a lot of people. Like, a lot of people have kind of dismissed him as this kind of clear the committee signed. But like, there is a lot of people as well who think it was Rogers who really pushed them to get them. And that's why we went so high for him. He seemed to have faith in merely on and then something seemed to happen. It just went better. He's caught like piss driving as well, isn't he? Yeah. So, you know, you just wonder. But again, I'm not going to worry about the lads that are out alone who, you know, in real terms when there's still a lot more else that needs to happen from the squad as well. But the odds are going to be reliant on us getting in decent replacements. You know, it's this constant balancing act which we don't seem to be able to get right. You know, and, you know, that's the key thing. We still, in my opinion, we still need to ship Johnson. We still need to ship Lucas this year. We still need to, you know, and then-- We're still heavy on big earners. People say we've done well and everything. But if you look at that squad now, especially the squad that he's taken over to America, you've got-- you're looking at Quattes. It's in there. Rainers in there. Brad Jones, if we're still looking to sort of replace him with another keeper, looking at Lucas, Daniel Agar, they're all rumoured to go. They're all on decent wages. Glenn Johnson, you know, there's a still-- a fair load of players still available to him, even though we've sort of strengthened that squad. Now they've all come back off loan. It's quite a bloated squad now. Jim, tell me about those-- by two of those guys, and take their Bernini and Agar, who reportedly have returned home from the tour to get their injuries. With the medical staff after what's going on. They'll get their injuries treated despite the fact that all our medical staff are out in the tour. Well, if they're all out on the tour, who did leverage medical yesterday? Well, that's a very good point. But there was no picture of your lot of staff. Well, no, no. You know. Maybe he flew to a boat. No, he couldn't have loaned a bus and got back. He'd still be working in the airport. Not if he was on-- If he was on Remy Airways, there's no chance of that. Maybe they did the medical on the plane. Well, to wrap it up on a slightly upbeat note, how do you feel? Are you optimistic that there's going to be some big, mad, wonderful signing coming in? Because I'd love to see someone a bit not coming into the club. No, I don't think we will sign. You don't? No, but that doesn't mean I'm being negative about it, because I'm trying to stay as positive as possible. I don't think we're the sort of club anymore that signs big marquee, big name players. I think we're the sort of club that don't mind spending money on players who fit the right profile and players who we think we can improve and turn into wheel beaters. And I think that's what we're going to do. And I'm happy with that to a certain extent. There's no guarantee. You signed someone for 50 million quid on 200 grand a week. There's no guarantee. They're going to hit the ground running. There's no guarantee they're going to fit in. There's no guarantee that it won't affect the harmony and the squad. So the squad and the team is what I'm sort of looking to be improved, and I hope that come first to September, we're all singing off the same hymn sheet, and we're looking at a stronger squad and a more balanced first 11. And I think, you know, we can go and have a good season again. Yeah, Paul, what will be you? You're happier optimistic that we might actually possibly get someone crazy in or a big name signing that everyone seems to be calling out for. I don't know how much Jim I don't think we're going to. I think we seem to have, you know, we've gone into the Champions League and we seem to have kind of used that status to spend kind of extra on players. I think we could have gotten anyway last season rather than kind of trying to drive at some, you know, the higher bracket of players. So that's what we've done so far, really. So I'm not, I don't think we're going to get in the squad ball strength for you. Yeah, that's what I think it's going to fail. How's your hope levels? Ah, shorts, fucking alien windows do. So we've got four weeks to go. So I'm going to fall on the side of positivity because Dave Thomas would actually knife us if we don't start finding some positivity again. So I'm going to, I think... I'm hoping I think we might revisit the security deal because of everything that's gone on and I think we'll sign a striker. And then, do you know what? If we sign Mankalo and we managed to revive the Moreno deal. Yeah. Suddenly, spirits will be lifted again because we'll have addressed the fallback areas. Right. And then you can focus all your attention on the forward option. The forward position or two. Yeah. You know, you could even live with one forward if we went out and fucking made a mega splash. And now that I'd say we won't do... It's unlikely we'll do a marquee sign. I'm saying it fine. But if we went out and spent $30 million on Julian Drexler, I'd say. Everyone knows that this is the upcoming kid in Germany. So, you know, that would... Certainly everyone's juices will be flown. You know, he scores goals. He makes goals. He's direct. He's aggressive. You know what I mean? Or if we bring in lack of luck, is it near a void of the security deal? Again, you're saying to just have, yeah, now we've got a... We've got such trouble. But that Drexler deal, Phil, that's the sort of deal that we would do. I would believe that we do that. I wouldn't class necessarily as a marquee signing. But I would think that that's the sort of deal we'd be looking to do. Yeah, it's still under that umbrella of potential there, and could grow with us as a footballer. And we seem to spend time... Well, our scouts seem to be at Shalka matches as well last year. So, there's a hope in me that we could still nail someone like that and bring them in. I think the money is there to do it as well. So, what you're telling me is my hopes of Balotelli coming in and shaking everyone up. Right, can you imagine Balotelli? It's a good ride. Just love it. It's brilliant. Him and... He's an ass. He's an ass. You wouldn't like to see him. He's a lazy. If we show him Balotelli, I hope he lives with Enrique. The selfies will be... Oh, can you fucking imagine? Forever. Could you imagine the madness? I would often is living room. As Enrique plays FIFA, tops. Yes. So, that's all we're going for. The monkey on Moreno in, and then a failed bid for Balotelli in the last minute. There you go. You heard it here first. Right, Jim? Thanks for meeting me for your time. I really appreciate that. Pleasure is all mine, guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Take care. We finish with some admin, as usual. We start with a mention for Astro Park. Five and seven aside football. This is your place to go. So, if you want to get and book a game, get on to www.astropark.ie. You should get on our website for lots of deadly stuff to do and see. And some amazing articles to read. No excuses. Just get on there www.lfcdaytrippers.com. And finally, our competition winner who gets to Stephen Gerard sign Jersey is David Sords. And that Jersey is courtesy of soccerspeaker.co.uk and five times. And finally, your day trippers tonight were Paul Brennan, Phil Casey, myself Trev Downey. I'm the man with the plan. Right, right, man with the plan. I'm going to come to you first on this question. It's just basically a word with a chit of transfers. And I'll throw that one out to you, mate. So, you can get the ball rolling on this, okay? Well, yeah, we should get the transfers. That is a good question. That is. Let me introduce you, mate. It started how I wanted to go on. 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This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. After countless steps and more than a few miles, your dog drives you forward one last time to make that final climb. And as the rising sun peeks out from the horizon, you know, incredible happens here because it starts here. With a fuel that makes it all possible. Pro-Plan Sport. transport.com
Preseason Ep.2 lands and jaysus there is loads to talk about. We discuss the latest tour matches and results and performances with someone who was in attendance there Paul Gilligan. We then talk to our TAW mates John Gibbons and Neil Atkinson on their wonderful new book Make Us Dream. We round off with transfers and how good we are at them or not. We keep the Welsh quota up as we are joined by the wonderful Jim Fishlock to praise our incompetence at our internet usecos nothing much happened transfer wise during the week. The winner of the signed Stevie G jersey is David Swords and we’ll be in touch with regards mailing details etc.
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