This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Okay, parachutes ready. Boy, the things I go through to get on our loan rates are slow at 0.99% APR for 60 months on new vehicles with PenFed. You are aware that you don't have to be a military member to save hundreds on your auto loan, aren't you? Anyone can join PenFed. As someone terrified of heights, I probably shouldn't look into that. Probably. Drop me off at the shore. PenFed Credit Union, visit penfed.org/autos or call 1-800-247-5626. Advertised rates available through the PenFed Carbine Service to receive any advertised product you must become a member of PenFed, entered by NCOA. So, let's say you're in Tioga, or Pilates, or maybe you dabble in gymnastics like me? Either way, you know being flexible is key to doing what you love. That's why Smoothie King created this stretch-and-flex smoothie for people like us, with whole fruits and organic veggies, plus type 2 collagen. Make it part of your daily fitness routine to support flexibility and joint health. So, try this stretch-and-flex smoothie in Tarte Cherry or Pineapple Cale. Order online today for pickup or delivery. Smoothie King, rule the day. [Music] [Music] On tonight's show, the group stages are almost on transfer rumors for LFC and resurfacing, as all the English players head home after one had you know, they deemed a successful tournament. We look at the other airy fallers and the various issues that have really caught our attention in this World Cup. We look also at those Louis Suarez rumors, an incredible sense of deja vu being experienced by us all, and we finish up discussing what we did on our fortnight off. Alright, just in the bunker then tonight, no Skype, no nothing, just a room full of lads, we've got Paul Brennan, we've got Steve Daly, we've got Dave Thomas, we've got Phil Casey and myself, and we are going to talk about whatever the hell comes up. And the first thing we're going to talk about is the World Cup, which is basically on everybody's TV. So, who's catching your eye with everything you've played for going into this last round of matters? Who do you fancy, Dave? I still think that a couple of the big teams are still come to the force. I think you'd be foolish to ride off Argentina, particularly with Messi looking like he's gaining confidence game after game. But so far, you've got to be impressed with the Dutch, three wins. I thought their demolition of Spain was a little over cooked. I think that if Silva scores his chance, it's two near the Spain, and it's a different competition then. But they play great counterattack in football, Vanguard has impressed me. They've changed his team and his tactics in every game, he's made great substitutions, so the Dutch have looked good. That's a worry, isn't it? It is a worry, I mean, well, yeah, but you won't have the Dutch squad at United next season, so I'm not that worried. Yeah, well, I don't really love them all, and apparently, which is, you know, there's a real upgrade there. But of all the teams that have impressed me, I think France have been the best. I think front to back, France have looked the best, the best team. I think they've looked defensively sound, their midfield looks absolutely outstanding, and they've got probably the informed striker in Benzema in terms of the all-round game. So if I was a betting man, I'd either go Argentina or France. I'd say France, Paul, LeVioni, I think different are our contradictions. Yeah, France surprised me, I just ignore international football, but basically most of them. That's our deal for his podcast. You've got to make an excellent part. What really are Irish, though? Well, France surprised me. France, they're a baller. You've taken one of mine, it's dead. France, look, France look absolutely brilliant, God, just all-around brilliant team, as well, like they said, Holland, they look really dangerous, and Van Hal, he kind of gets the best out of him, Parisi, which that's kind of worrying for next season. And then, yeah, Argentina have looked really kind of labored, but Messi's still just kind of, he's still there making the difference. So, yeah, they'd have to kind of, like, they need a guero, I think, to step up a bit more. But like, if they get it right, then they'll be really dangerous. So, someone throws you 20-year-old, who are you going to put on? I'd go France so far. You'd go France? The way they're playing, I think, all-round, they look brilliant, like, that midfield is ridiculous. Yeah, there's a lot of depth there. They suck at the back. Yeah, that's true. That's true. There's not even anything about that injury that he picked up last time. Anyone here? I think more about that. Yeah, apparently he went off. I just, I missed that particular. He seems that that will be a concern, like, for us, at the next season, he does seem to pick up injuries. Just a bit. Just a bit. Just a bit. It's the same time, as the other side did, just depth in that French squad. Yeah, especially midfields. It's incredible. But it's straight after the match, they thought he was going to be OK for that third game. Yeah. But I think they're going to leave him out, I think. I think I saw something today that he was OK. Like, they probably missed the third game, but they'll bring Cuchely in, and that's pretty good. Well, all the Arsenal fans think that Cuchely should be started and they're going fucking meant a lot to them. They do. They do love a bit of Cuchely. Those guys, yeah, yeah. And, Steve, now that you're back from looking at pictures of Cuchely, this is Mrs. What's your-- Listen. She's delicious. [LAUGHTER] OK. You made it. Nobody's blaming it. Nobody's blaming it. You're a share. Looky, I'm still at that. [LAUGHTER] Yeah, I'll be honest. I started out before the tournament, I backed Germany and Spain, both 7 to 1, I think. Yeah. And then, coming up to the France game, first match against Honduras, I think that really impressed me about them was, normally, Honduras came out to absolutely brutalize them from the first minute to the last minute. They kicked seven shades of shit out of them. And the thing that really impressed me was that France didn't react. Every time they took the kick-- well, OK, I say that, and Pogwe got booked for that little petulant kick, but you know what, if they're every had dealt with it right and seen it when he did, it could have been a red card before Pogwe even picked up a yellow for it. You know what I mean? It was a horrible stamp. It wasn't anybody for a reactionary moment like that. But straight after the game, I want to shed a load of money that night, actually, because I backed a load of stuff in the France game, the six of the seven bets came up. And then I backed them at 16 to 1, after the match, they were 16 to 1. So I backed them. I just thought, you know, in terms of Loris, greatkeeper, watched the back four, looked composed. Buran just looks absolutely majestic. He's just like, he's like what you used to think of Maldini. Now maybe I'm going a little bit over the top because he still has to do a lot to reach the height, obviously. Oh, I'm right, Kelly. I'm right. I'm right. I know that you mention it like, yeah, I did forget about that. Just give the order, right, Maldini, Matt, Kelly, everyone else. That's one of your two more shows. I thought Cass was true. But in seriousness, yeah, he looks absolutely-- he looks brilliant. I would say him and maybe Tiago Silver are the two defenders of the tournament. Yeah. Silver's a bit ragged. Oh, I like him. I think he's a bit ragged. Don't come be wrong. I would have Silver in alongside him ahead of Sacco. You know what I mean? If you were picking a back four, but yeah, he would look excellent. As we've all said, they're midfield. And this is a midfield without Reebri. You have to remember that. You're all in and from? Yeah, I am. I really like them. And yeah, you know, I'm not that pushed by Brazil. I haven't been that bothered. I have Argentina in the sweep state coming. So obviously I'm cheering for him. If you were the world's unluckiest man and your work sweep state came in and you thought you'd done really well, what team do you think you would have got? Spain. Yeah. Yeah. Who do you think that man is? I would point towards yourself. That's my self. Yeah. Very nice. Phil. And congratulations. Thanks, mate. Who are you all in for? It's hard to know as a veteran of many World Cups at this stage. Yeah. How many cups have you got? Yeah. What? World Cups. Yeah. Oh, that was a veteran of many episodes of EastEnders. So in the '82, '86, '94, '98, '82, '76, '76, '76, '76. So you've been born for a certain number of years? Yeah. I haven't been alive. I've been made alive. I've been made alive. I watched the tournament change as we came out this time. And where are you going with this? Hang on a second. What age are you? '87. '37. So... That's why I didn't say it to '78. Hang on a second. You've been '37 as long as I've known you. Hang on a second, Phil. Hang on a second. Hang on a second. Hang on a second. I'm '37. I'm '37 in Trevor years. What? That's fair. No, I'm always worried about going for a team that's shown such good form and such power in the group stages. Yeah. Because they never tend to actually win the actual tournaments. The ones that are impressing me are potentially Belgium and Colombia. Right. Because they're winning their games without being particularly brilliant. I actually think Colombia are being very effective in their games. They've been ruthless in the way they've won the matches. But they're a banana shirt to win that, aren't they? Well, you know, again, we're in South America. The stats would say to you... We're not, you know. Oh yeah. Can you hear the flames on his own? Oh yeah. Live from real. Steve always is the enemy. It is time. It is time and time. He's a veteran. He knows. It's a bit of a town. Well, no, I just think, yeah, they're shown that sort of efficiency in getting through the group, you know, they're safely through, they're winning their games. And they have the foot now to do something to knock out stage. When you get into the knock out tournament, the snark out part of the tournament, anything can happen. To be fair, their group was kind of pissy, though. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I wouldn't be choosing my pants over. At the same time, like, you look at Spain, you would have said Spain would have cruised to a group handily enough in terms of who they were playing against, given the form that they've shown over the last 12 years. So, like, so, you know, they have sort of stood out and said, okay, they've definitely stood up for their tags of dark horses and tournament as France have done as well, because France have been very, again, similar, very efficient, ruthless on the way they've done it. So I've no issues there and saying the France have looked good. What was your group again? The dark horses grew up there? The dark horses grew up there. The French, France have looked good. It's good work for you. I know. It's seen. And their jerseys. The jersey. I can't use magic. No one can bench normally other these in the game, yeah. That's it, Bob. They wear it. But the Brazilians, the Brazilians, they've been showing out that they're playing a bit like Chelsea in the way that they've got. Look, they aren't the free-flowing Brazilian teams that were used. And Scallary's team in 2002 wasn't a free-flowing team. They've gotten all forward. No, they don't. And that could ultimately be their own undoing, but at the same time, all the tastes of Fred are one of them to get on a run of golds and the knockout stages and then they're in the finals. You know what I'm saying? Those teams are making their way through the groups. And when they get into the knockout stages, that's when potentially the start team performance has been put in. This is kind of leading us on to the next thing I want to talk about. What's the story with impressive teams or so-called big teams and the way they're struggling in their second match? What do you think that's about? See, I was going to mention Germany because the forest game, they were just unbelievable. But the amount of running that they did in that game, it seemed to really affect them in the second game and they couldn't put the same level of energy into the actual match itself. And I think the conditions are probably not talked about as much as they should be in terms of the way teams are actually performing. So some teams are coping with the conditions, definitely better than the others. And I'm not quite sure how I think, like you're looking at, say Holland, they weren't that impressive in their game against Australia. Like you know what I mean? They're very good against Chile again today, and managed to get through, just managed to get through Scrape Boy and the actual Australia game, Italy. I didn't see all of the, I didn't see all of the Australia game, but does that come down to the Australians being similar to the Americans in just having an absolute winning mentality? They know they're not going to really achieve anything, but they go out there and they will give it their all for 90 minutes. And to be fair, Spain bent over. They did. There's no doubt in that. They just didn't. I know. They went two, three, no, sorry, two, three, one down. That was a game over. They just didn't want to know about it anymore. It was just like, get us off this pitch where the Australians weren't against Chile. They didn't do that against, you know, I didn't see the match tonight now, but against Holland for the bits of the game that I saw. They didn't do that. Great job. Yeah. I think, but I genuinely think the conditions are affecting some of the teams. And I think, you see, even Argentina, they looked so labored in their second match there. Like, you know, they struggled to get that win against the against, who was it again? Oh, my Christ, there's a round, a round, a round edit. I was like, a struggle to get that win against Iran. No, but like, you know, and it takes a bit of brilliance from Messi, right at the debt to win the actual match. And fairness, Messi had a very good game being very, very quiet in it. You know, part of it could be that they don't need to win the second game. You win the first game. You probably only need a draw on the same game, maybe win the third or, you know, you go through a stop. So four points gets you through. So I think if you win the first game, I think mentally everyone goes a little bit more conservative in the second game and says, okay, well, luck, let's just, you know, let's play for the draw. Listen, before we go any further, there's something that's been on my mind about this tournament since it started. I just want to throw out there and see what you guys think. I keep hearing this phrase at this level. Do you know what I mean? If you're going to compete at this level and it's sticking in my craw because as far as I can see, the level that we're watching, it's much lower than the top end of the Premier League. It's much lower than Champions League. You're talking about teams that are put together in Journeymen, Outlads, Younglads. It's just a cliche. It's a cliche that was relevant up to, say, the 1990... It's accepted. It's now. Yeah, I know. It's nonsense. It's, you know what it is. They may as well say, you know, to compete when you've thrown these bunch of lads together four weeks ago. Yeah. You know what I mean? Because that's truthfully what it is. It's like asking people to play the FA Cup within the first four weeks of the season. You know what I mean? I know that's a silly analogy, but I'm just saying it's like asking... Or it's like starting, you know, the starting of Champions League in August and not having that gap. Right. You know, and even at that, that's not even relevant because... In a nutshell, if you want to look at it in a nutshell, it's the difference between Henderson and Jared and someone else and Henderson and Jared and someone else when they're playing for a Liverpool and I've been... No, it's not. One guy... We'll deal with that later, but it's not, though. It absolutely... In terms of the way it's set up. That's my point. It's your manager's and stuff like that. That's my point. Like, and that's all to do with the level. I still think, look, when the top team's played, you know, it's a league level football. It's probably... Champions League. Yeah. You're a knockout stage at Champions League because it's the same players who are involved in the Champions League. But as Steve said, there's a valid point that you don't get the intensity in a four-week tournament that you get when a competition is spread over six or seven months. And the funny thing is, you nearly should get more intensity in a four-week tournament because it's all or not in those four weeks, but it's not... In theory, yeah. You know, it's an anti-climax every time for me, personally. I know this is a good one, right? This is a good one, right? This is a good tournament. Best in a long, long time. Yeah. I don't... Not obviously. I think that's overused at the minute now. How amazing this wardrobe is. Really? Yeah, I do. Like, you know what I mean? You've watched an Iran-Arland-style against Russia team put their backs to the wall against Argentina. You know, okay, Germany Ghana was a good game. I think I've only been bored twice, Steve. That's not bad. Like, I've seen a lot of matches. I've liked that a lot. You have... I don't like international football, generally. Yeah. You haven't been watching many of the fucking 11 o'clock games at night. Have you then? Well, no, actually. That's a good show. Oh my God. How I've stayed awake for them. Yeah, a lot of the late ones. A career against fucking... It's hard 'cause it's 11 o'clock at night, like... Well, that's true. That's true. Yeah. This is what you were playing, the big books for these kind of fucking insights. Paul, you were saying... I'm sorry. This is free of Russia, it was. Yeah, that was one thing. That was shocking. Yeah, but purging shit. Like, again, you're gonna have bad games with so many games going on. It's just... It's a matter of matter of matter. I think... I think the reason why this tournament is probably people who have enjoyed it more than normal is because there's a lot more goals being scored. And that's more down to shit defending than it is to necessarily brilliant football. But like, once you get a tournament with loads of goals going on, there's always something happening and there's always the likelihood of a mistake that's gonna lead to a goal. And that's why it's more enjoyable. Think back to the '94 World Cup, when teams basically just set up like rugby teams and fucking... Brace us down. And break us down and it was long ball and everything and it was disgusting, right? It was one of the worst World Cups I can remember. Even though all two World Cup was a shit festival. There's the kickoff times as well, you have to remember. People are enjoying it because the first games are five o'clock. So most people are getting home to see at least the second half of the game and then they're getting to see more of it. So they feel like it's a better World Cup. You know what I mean? If you've got games at two o'clock, you're catching the highlights, you're catching a bit of it because you were in work or whatever it may be. I think just the timing of the games in this World Cup has been absolutely spot on. I think it is a better World Cup though. I mean, certainly better than 2010. And I think that, I think one of the reasons it's proven so enjoyable is that there are genuine surprises. Like, nobody's got Spain going out. Nobody really saw Chile come in. You know what I mean? Costa Rica. Costa Rica. I mean, nobody saw Ghana taking Germany on. I mean, you know, these are, and that's part of the boot of international football is, you know, unless you're someone, you know, we all know people like this who claim to stay up all night watching every type of football game ever. That's always some way. You know, that's always some person on Twitter who's seen everyone all the time all the time. You know, we don't know about these players. You know, now, you know, the coaches should know about these players, but we don't know about some of these teams that are turning up. And, you know, we don't know about the left back from fucking Costa Rica. It turns out to you. Well, you don't. I don't. Yeah, exactly. I, you know, I have other things to do. Like sleep. Yeah. But there's more surprises, I guess, is my point. So I think that's what's, that's what's exciting about it. And I think we forget as well, because there's so much time in between tournaments. I think we forget that these things do happen in World Cups. You do get surprised. What about that? I don't care about the standard of the goals being mostly down to bad defending. I can think of Jones as goal for America. I can think of Messi's hit. I can't think of too many others outstanding individual, wonderful hits. Okay. Okay. Heroes is my goal. Okay. Heroes is my goal. Well, you must be out on a cardiac with all the goalkeeper errors that's going on. I mean, there's not a good goal for that. You know, surprisingly, right, for the actual goal goalkeepers are really standing out in the tournament. Like, I'm really impressed with Claudio Bravo and goal for Chile. Achoa. Well, no, yeah. Achoa. Achoa. Achoa. It's happened to crack. What the fuck is going on? Have you seen this misses? I want to look at this. It's about any goals. I can handle it. But he's going, I am not spending another day here when I could be fucking that. I tell you, in that Korea, Russia game, did you see? Is it? I can feel? Yes. Did you see? Oh, my God. That's splendid. That's up there with the Nigeria OG, before the World Cup was in again. Who was going against Scotland now? You look at it. The top goalkeepers are really, and because of the mistakes they are really standing out like, you know, the ones who are comfortable coming for crosses, who are good with their feet, they just, they look so many levels above the other goalkeepers in the tournament that you realize how important they really go goalkeepers. You mentioned that. Achoa fella before as a bit of another. Did you? Or am I getting that wrong? No, no. You mentioned him as backup. I said, he will be great competition. And I said, at the time we were going for him and Minuli, and I think the price being quoted for him at that time was $4 million. And who's he with? Jesse Owen Francis. That is. And he's out of contract now. Now, I know we're going to talk about this later on, but that's one of the massive flaws of the TV coverage is they don't say the name of the bloody club that the players with. And to get back to what Dave's saying, that's a real, that's a real flaw for me. Look, I don't know who these guys are, who they're with. He's shot though. Achoa is an artist. Yeah. Achoa is an unorthodox goalkeeper, but he's been like Mexico's number one for a good while at this stage, right? Yeah. You're not a bad goalkeeper if you're a player, if you're your number one for your country. You're an art-fellow, you're a shit. [LAUGHTER] Follow all the ones that are. Solid analysis. Solid analysis. It's so scary. At this level, though, you are right. Yeah, at this level. To be a goalkeeper. At this level. [LAUGHTER] I don't know. You know, it wasn't surprising the game that he had against Brazil because he's capable of it. I remember watching Jesse against PSG in Jordan the Year, and he had an absolute blunder that night. PSG did absolutely everything. He was just stopping stuff. Stuff that he'd now write the stopping. What do you do? Watch the French football a lot. What a man's a goalkeeper. Just stopping stuff. [LAUGHTER] [INAUDIBLE] Use in his hands. [LAUGHTER] A bit like Minuli when he makes those incredible saves that he has no right to get to. He's capable of that. I just think, again, if you're comparing goalkeepers, you know-- Does he catch a ball outside the six-yard box? He does. [LAUGHTER] But if you want to-- If you want one of the best football and goalkeepers in the World Cup, you're looking at your man Claudio Bravo for Chile when you look at the way he's playing. If you were going to say who would be your architect who would start to Barcelona type goalkeeper in the World Cup, he's your man. The way he's so comfortable to ball at speed, the way he's able to play it out, and he's been brilliant at the area as well. So, yeah, look, some great goalkeepers, some really shook goalkeepers, walkups great. Apart from the keepers, Paul, you're saying they are enjoying this unusually given that you don't really like international football. Who's standing there for you? Is it just the obvious? Is it Suarez? Yeah, basically, yes. Like, the likes of himself. [LAUGHTER] Fuck off. [LAUGHTER] How do? [LAUGHTER] Oh, dude. Sorry. [LAUGHTER] I said that again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK. Yeah, yes, Suarez. [LAUGHTER] Now, obviously, they're like, what you did at the English? It's absolutely brilliant, like, and there's just, is that, you know, the vine going around the Hudson? Because there's a lot of kind of it. There's so many of them, that vine. [LAUGHTER] I mean, you mean the one where he just puts his head down, like, he's just... Yeah, because there's a lot of debate over this, like, whether he's kind of looking at really scoring, like, missing a chance, or whether it's, like, that's his actual reaction. Like, you know, smiling as Suarez is bearing down on goal and smashing it in, and then, you know, someone flips his off switch, and then he shoots down. [LAUGHTER] Yeah, that was another highlight. But, yes, Suarez. [LAUGHTER] Suarez, my parents, he was brilliant against, um, Spain. I didn't see much of the Australia game. And they're messy. Like, Messi, I think, he could, I think he could click into gear. Yeah. They're a bit kind of disinterested for them. What's your life? I think he could in the knockouts. I'd certainly not. I'd certainly messy. Robin. Robin. Robin, yeah. Well, like, I've asked this question a few times, even when we've been watching Champions League, and stuff, how did Chelsea let him go so many years ago? Well, I know. Well, he went to Real Madrid. Didn't he so? Yeah, but still, you know what I mean? Like, how did that let him go? Yeah. You know what I mean? Then why didn't Chelsea buy him back? You know what I mean? Like, I know he went to Bayern Munich. Like, it's not like he's been going to shit. No, he's not going to be wrong. But I'm just saying, the lad has seemed like he was 35 for the last ten years, and he's still only whatever, 32 now. He does look like, yeah. He taught a speed record or something, didn't he? He's like, that was everybody banged on about bail, that goal against it, let it go. He's taught it. Let it go. Wasn't it that he scored the goal? Yeah. When he went around the outside, he fucking went into the dugout and up over the first row of the stands and back onto the pitch again. But like, that goal that Robin scored against Spain, the app, the speed room is just electrifying. And I just love watching him play. He's 30, Steve. I think he looks the fittest player on that team. I love him. I tell you, I know what's not going to happen, but for Liverpool to sign somebody, when we're talking about, you know, sort of that wing forward kind of player, he's absolutely lost to sign him. Yeah. So for you, he's the outstanding player. Yeah, for me, he's been the player. He's been the player I've enjoyed watching most so far. I have to say, yet again, you know, nothing may be spectacular, but I've just really enjoyed watching France play. And I think for a play today, Sean, because there doesn't seem to be the ego there, doesn't seem to be anything. I think even French fans are surprised by the standard of some of the people, like the performance of Sisocoli and like, people were taken aback by that, you know, this kid, what's the guy we were linked with? The other midfielder. Fair point. Fair point. No, not fair point. Mattuili. Yeah. Mattuili. Like, you know, I think French people themselves are genuinely surprised by the standard of these guys. They seem to have a men's step there, but what about you, it's not enough for you. I'll tell you the bigger teams, which obviously, you know, we've all kind of talked about. I think, to be fair, Clint Dempsey is at a very good World Cup. I think it's got a great goal in the first game, played well for the United States, but you look pretty good. Do you mind? Black and Decker is being offered as well. Yeah. Right. Is that the dreadlock chat? Yeah. In front of the drive-backs, yeah. Yeah. You know, I think even watching the Ghana game against Germany, I mean, I thought that their athleticism in the final third was unbelievable. I mean, you know, Germany played really well as well, and Mueller, you know, he's probably going to... Oh, Mueller is just... He's such an intelligent forward, isn't he? In reality, he's just incredibly intelligent. He looks like he's a painter the decorator. He doesn't look very good. I like the way he comes in. Stable's talking about Robin there. Mueller's my share for that dream signing from this World Cup. That's who I want. I'd say anyone. I'd say the alphabet killer out of Beverly Hills Cup too, as well. That's so wonderful, Chef. Yes. Can you imagine, like, nearly every decent footballer at this World Cup, Daniel Floyd's being shot and how much he hates them? Yeah. That Mueller is cool. He's got a prick. Yeah. Yeah. I know. But what do you think of Robin? He's only a concert. Okay. They all from us. Into the Lucas Pascal, which he has. And he was looking really good as well, and I don't know if he's not fat anymore. Yeah. Yes. He is the French one, although, isn't he? Like, in terms of, you know, when he's trimming all, he's just, he's explosive. He has that same sort of story. San Ronaldo. No. Yeah. The real one. Yeah. Yeah. Actual Ronaldo. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For me, Hammers Rodriguez of Colombia. Yes. I thought he's being absolutely excellent. Hammers. Yeah. Did you think so in the first game? I love that. Yeah. Well, the first Colombian game, fair enough. He ran the show to refer to him, and he does look as signing. That's what it was. He was part of the Motinho deal, wasn't he? Yeah. That's, yeah. Or I was thinking to myself earlier on, what were the ones that RT were fucking up on? And they were talking about how he was part of the most of them. How he was part of the Falcao deal, and I was just going, boys, it was a year before that. He's signed for it. He's been playing the season. Wasn't he? He's all part of that, George Mendez. Yeah. Connection. Like, that's where Falcao called. Here, Mutinho's up on a call. You've got Hammers. It's not an agent, does it? Yeah. He's the super agent. He's Mourinho's agent as well. Ronaldo's an agent. He's the fellow who's sorry they were bad, but he didn't know he was a legend, isn't he? He's a legend, isn't he? Which is meant to happen. Having the crack. I've got this great lad. Baby. Wait till you see him. He's up there with Sony Anderson. Hey. Dave. Mursla. Close up. What are you thinking? Can he possibly go on if the team goes on to blitz this record altogether? I mean, closer... Like, he's still the man for him in many ways. Well, he is and he isn't. Do you know what I mean? He's the man if you need someone to go and hang, like, do you know what I mean? Six yards away from go on and stick a leg out. I mean, he's made a career, you know, statistically you can't argue with a guy, but he's probably the worst best, or the worst good footballer I've ever seen. Yeah. Well, I'd say he couldn't talk in Zaggy's crown, but... He's in Zaggy. But you're... Without the pace. Yeah. And maybe he's like in Zaggy. But with less offsides. With less offsides, but less about him. I'm just... You know, I actually think it would be a bit sad if he ended up being... Oh, he is the joint top scorer, right? Yeah, he is. He ended up being the outrides. But for a 52-year-old, it's fucking fair, so impressive. I mean, considering he's 10 years younger than Trev, I think he's doing all right. He's doing all right again. He's doing all right again. I know, but in all seriousness, I mean... To have that longevity, in a team like Germany, who, you know, let's be honest, they're not short on top. He's not running in as much as... Yeah. He's praying for Germany. He's gone to the World Cup and he's scored. You know, you've got to take it out of there. I think what closer does really well is that the German teams sometimes look like a team that needs a striker, because if you think of the way, like I said, the Dortmund set off... Focal point wise. Yeah, yeah, because all of a sudden, all the good players that they have around the box, exactly as they say, when the ball goes in there, he's ready for a rebound, he's ready to get on the end of the thing, and that's where he gets so many. Even his goal, like, again, during the night, you know, it's like that Southshire goal from the night to night, in Kofo and where... It's instinct. Yeah. It's just... Just fell on the end. Well, yeah, it was heading in anyway, wasn't it? He kind of steamed. Yeah. And it got... That's fine, that's fine. That's fine. That's fine. It's fine. That's fine. It's fine. That's fine. That's fine. It's a very hint to Craig Johnson off from the 86 at Kofo. If we played like that in Kofo, you'd say, for the last seven minutes, you throw him on and you'd say, "Don't move from there, because we're just going to throw all these balls in the box." And that's what he did. And that's what he did. You know, that's the type of player he is, but he doesn't fit into any more than start in system, you know what I mean? So you couldn't imagine a player like that coming along again. Would you hate... If you're playing against him, you'd hate to see him coming off the bench. Because you know, it just sets fear into the team. But he's like... Yeah. Ballocks. That's a goal. That's a goal. That's your man again. Worst celebration ever. You know, tried to do a somersault, landed on his ass. You know what I mean? He's fucking broken. He only wanted to equal the record and fucking be paralyzed at the same time. Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately. I'm done. We're kind of skirting around the issue here. I suppose we've spoken about a few players here individually. There are a lot of them who are, we've already said, we would like. There are a lot of them who are actually being overtly linked to Liverpool. Of those players, who do we think is impressed? But I suppose we started off with the obvious one that all the talk about is today Alexis Sanchez. Anyone any strong opinions about this kid? Well, Sanchez, before he went to the World Cup, was already a player that everyone knew. So, you know, he filled a void when Messi was injured for Barcelona this season. He's a top-class player, you know what I mean? And he's 25. So he still has three, four years, more progression to go. And you can see him even watching tonight against Holland, if anything was going to happen, it was going to happen through Sanchez in terms of what was going on for Chile. So, like, to be linked with him, regardless of what people think, to be linked with him, it's a great sign of where we've come to now that we're now in the market for that type of player. Yeah. Doesn't it also speak to a horrible reality that if we are going to be linked with that kid, the likelihood is there's somebody going in the opposite direction that we don't want to really talk about? Well, I know we're going to talk about it later, but like, you know, it's all what's ifs and whens until something happens. But like, we're talking about players who are impressed as he would be in Roma targets. Again, you could say the same for Varan being included in a deal that would see him going to Real Madrid. It's been talked that Liverpool are interested in because he would feel a phenomenal for you. It just came there. No. But like, you know, if you had Sacco and Varan as your centre-back partnership, like that, you know, that's immense. You know what I mean? Immediately your defence is a lot stronger for what it is at this moment in time. There's loads of right backs. Every single right back in the world was being, being together. We're going to count the Johnson, we're going to count it, but I can see you working away as well. Oh, let's talk about right back to some of the other way up to it. Even São Paulo, the Chile manager, has been brilliant that way back. So, do you see the amount of touch on Corbin? He's been doing... That's just been fantastic. Ah, he's brilliant. He's very mobile. Very mobile, yeah, yeah. And he's fit looking as well. I heard he couldn't have found a cross for your ball as well. And he's excellent, and he's been excellent in the two games that I've seen him in. So far, the one thing I'd say is, I'm actually wondering why people are so worried about players going in the opposite direction. You know, we're now in a position whereby someone doesn't have to go in the opposite direction for us to sign a player, that caliber. Yeah. And they shouldn't be going in the opposite direction for us to sign. Well, that's for sure. You know, this is the season when we've done everything, when I say we, I had very little to do with it to be fair. But the team... What are we working with? Brendan Tipster. The team, the team have done everything that's... Could have been asked of them in terms of expectations from the board and more. Okay. So forget about the fact that we lost the league very late in the season. That was just an added bonus. And it's still a disappointment that happened. But the truth is we finished second, guaranteed qualification with Champions League, no qualifying or anything like that in terms of pre-rounds. This has to be when the... We're backed when the manager is backed with the type of money and type of quality that has been promised by them since day one, you know what I mean? We haven't been able to deliver Champions League football since they came in. And that's fair enough. So no one could expect the sort of output on transfers during that time. Any of us that were expecting that sort of mad money to be spent were just delusional. It was hope rather than reality or... Which leads us to a situation where we never have a little bit of hope that money will be spent. And we can talk about those transfer targets a little bit later. But in terms of just the area we're talking about there, apart from Sanchez, anybody else that has been overtly linked with the club, I mean... Mueller. But you know, Benzema, absolutely... But these are all fancy ones, I mean, they're actually being tangible rumours about it. What are you going to be controversial and say that I think love runs pretty well. Oh yeah, that's just controversial. Well I don't give a fuck away to you. You know, we've been linked with him. He was a... His first game, first game of the tournament, he plays against Brazil, right? But he did okay. He wasn't spectacular. The second game he was pretty good actually, I thought he, you know, and the thing I like about him is he's really vocal and he's an organizer at the back. He is the leader at the back. And I think of all the characteristics that Brendan's looking for, for a cent a half, that's the big one, that he wants them to be able to organize and to be able to coordinate the back for. The other person, I don't think we've been overtly linked with it, but I think it's at a pretty good tournament so far, he's a greasement from France. Yeah, that wasn't all of us. Oh my god, we should be all over that. Just two things there. Listen, I know we haven't necessarily been overtly linked with, or we have been overtly linked with players, but it's been a lot of speculation on Twitter by people who frankly probably don't have a clue. They're just speculating and having a guess and hoping that the rumor takes off. More popular rumors. Something else. It's a retweets and favorites and whatever it may be, but you know, the truth is, you said there, Trev, realistic targets, you know, when I said Mueller or Sanchez, or that's me being pessimistic. I know what you're saying. To me, that's where we have to be now, you know what I mean? Because we've had a few years in the doldrums, you know what I mean? We're now saying, oh, well, you know, the love run isn't the level that we, love run should be not a guarantee, but it should be like the Ricky Lambert deal. It should be, if we want love run and we want to pay the money, then he's ours. That should be the approach nearly now, you know what I mean? When we were at the height of our pump in the Benite's era, if we'd had the money, we'd have signed David Silva. We'd have signed, you know what I mean, you know what I mean, those players that were, you know, really just about hit the very peak of their career, we'd have signed them if we'd had the money in the backing to do it at the time. And we're back there now, in my opinion, being back in Champions League and with a manager that players have to be looking at the way we play football. I don't care whether you're in the League or whether you're in Syria or whether you're in the Buns League. You have to be looking at the way Liverpool have to be on football. The thing with love run for me, though, is I'm looking at him and I didn't see anything in the games that Sacco hasn't done in the game that he played for France or I haven't, I'm looking at him. I don't know people aren't his biggest fan, but when I look at love run, I'm looking at Agar. You know what I mean? I'm looking at the same level of player. So I don't see the step up that we're talking about that's gone to, you know, come in and solidify his place in the force team, necessarily. And who represents that? Is it someone of the standard of Iran who might? Yeah. For me, I'm saying, like, if we're going to replace somebody in the back four and it's, you know, we've already got Sacco, who's probably going to be the starting left centre back because, you know, given who he is and the amount of money we spent on us. And it's then who's gone to play alongside him? Is it going to be scared? And we've all said throughout the year, you know, the partnership didn't seem to function well. So then you're looking at, okay, who's the most impressive right centre backs that you've seen in the actual tournament? And that's what I was sort of saying, right, if Love Run comes in, it's just another of the same that we have. We don't need to sell like... He's the left centre back. Well, unless he plays Love Run right centre back. Love Run's played all his games and left centre back. No, no, no. But he has played a right centre back. I know, but he is mainly, and even at Southampton, he mainly played and left centre back. So I'm saying, my thing on it is that who are we looking at and who are we linked with that's actually going to improve what we have. And that's when when I started talking about Sanchez, Sanchez would improve the squad. You know, we've been linked with Pedro. I don't think Pedro is going to improve our squad. In fact, I don't think Pedro will do well in the partnership. I don't get that anymore now. Because he was even lightweight in the world. I don't think the Pedro link is really... He's a bow jump. That's exactly to me what he is. You know, and I think he's a quality player in the Barcelona setup, but we don't play like Barcelona. We play more like a German side than we do play like Barcelona. And Pedro wouldn't get into the German side the way they play. I mean, at the end of the day, if who he wants, and it is Love Run, then sign Love Run. If who he wants is L'Alana, then sign the L'Alana. Because I would rather he sign players that he played than sign players who sit on a bench and don't do anything. And on the right, right, center back piece, Varan aside, right, there's no obvious candidate for me. And I don't think... You know, I'm the one saying we should sign Mueller's, or we should sign Benz, or whatever. I don't think Varan is actually a viable opportunity for us. Because the point is, Benzema, you know, if they go and sign a world-class striker, it's not Baylor Ronaldo's going to fall the victim there. I think it's going to be probably Benzema. So all of a sudden you're signing that player that's not quite getting in at first. Same with Mueller. You know, he's played what? 25, 30 games. I know that's how Guardiola has done his squad. Not most players haven't played 40 games this season, but yet again, it's a player that's not a guaranteed name on the team. He starts in all the big games for Bayern Munich, so I don't see... Plus, they've lost Mandusic. Yeah. So I think Mueller is... But they've gained... They've gained... 11 Dowsky, so... Yeah, but I still think Mueller plays in the tree behind him, because they know what Mueller brings, intelligence, and he can play across that front tree, and he just scores goals for his goals. I can't see why I'm going to let Mueller go. No, neither can I. I can say I'm letting crews go, but I can't see I'm letting Mueller go. Well, going back to the right centre back, right? So... Who is it? Who is it? Who else, Varan? Yeah, yeah. Right, apart from Varan. Who's out there that we go? That is... That's a great right centre back. No. Yes. Well, I... I'd buy it for the midfield. And he's a human being. And he's mad. I would not want it. You're a fan, aren't you? You're a fan, aren't you? I'm a huge fan of Maddell. Right. And I think he's brilliant at right centre back for Chile. What would we do when I'm down? What's brilliant about him? He got his junk by a shrew. He was junk by a shrew. Look at the shows. Tim Kay, hello. John the Mamp, down to the header. In fact, Tim Kay, I would have jumped probably most lads with Lad and the Shoulder. Seriously, I don't know any realistic characters. When it goes back to the point we were making it. No, but we're talking about players we were linked with as opposed to, you know, just picking out random players at the opposition. So look at Shaqiri. Shaqiri hasn't had a good World Cup before. I'd be shocked. Yeah, for Switzerland. But I would still sign them because of... No, you can't judge a player on the World Cup. Because you've seen what he's done before. Yeah, exactly. And like, this is where people got to get lulled into this romance in the World Cup. Remember fucking Sally fucking Joe and Elle Haggie Juff. Yeah. And what they did when they came. Let's be honest. When we were looking at this World Cup, not known who Cristiano Ronaldo was, you'd go, "He's a bag of shit." Yeah. You know what I mean? And lots of players that have been like that, you know what I mean? Like Wero. Like Wero. You'd say, "Look at that, lazy cunt. There's no way I want him near my team." Yeah, but at the same time we're talking about who of the players that we were linked with. Who have stood out. And reality, very few don't have. Yeah. And that's the truth. But that's the very few players have stood out. So, you know what I mean, even if we'd been linked with some of the absolute top talents in Europe, they still haven't stood out in this tournament. Well, the very fact that Messi was in the talk there, the conversation for who might be the best player in the World Cup simply because he scored two effective goals. Well, I don't think he has been before. The World Cup is not a scout in Europe, right? Yeah. That's the reality. Which goes back to what Steve said. Just signed the players' Rodgers once. I don't think his mind is going to change either way based on what happens in the world. Listen, the fact that he's on home is he's borrowed rather than in Rio, you know what I mean? It was anyway, it says in itself that he's not that bothered by it. You know, it's really once. I'd say we've got plenty, which is Suarez staying, and we've got Plan B, which is Suarez going. And I think that he's very, I would imagine he's very, very clear on what he wants. And the club should back him. And we can, everyone can have an opinion, but I guarantee you, nobody has seen these players more than the professional scouts who work for, for the club. He's made the decision, that being the man, how meticulous he is in his preparation, he has to have seen whatever's come his way and absolutely drilled into that. Speak to me, Phil, about the, about Messi's countryman, Maradala, David Maradala, and the team he's been coming out with. What's your take on? Well, started off after the Costa Rica match, when he slaughtered FIFA for a drug test in seven of them, saying that they were picking on the, on the Costa Rican team and picking on the smaller teams in the whole lot. And then I can't remember what the guy's name, who's the head of the Argentinian FA said that Maradala was the jinx to Argentina on the back of, Maradala left before Messi scored the winner against Iran. And what's his relation to, like, what your man's about? Degas Abad. Who with the manager? Yeah. Well, Maradala thinks he should be managing the Argentinian team. He said it before the World Cup as well. So, like, you know, this, this Argentinian team would want to walk up before he was manager for them. So he, he definitely. Like the last time. Like the last time. I mean, that was terrifying to watch. I think the A goes back on the care to be honest. But he came, he was on Venezuela in television and there was a comment put. I guarantee is the part of the show, right? Of course. He said, um, so how do you respond to being a jinx? He just gave the finger to the camera. It's, I gave that to the fucking Argentinian, that was really, yeah. Maradala's on fire for this World Cup. I'd love to see him. Imagine him in the studio with an RTA or something. They'd be fucking brilliant. It's easy. It's the Argentinian, don't feel like. If you're just kind of, if you don't, if you take him with a pinch of salt, he's just great to watch. Where's where's Pelly? Where's, why isn't Pelly come out with an odd little shout? Like, I mean, homeland and all the rest of it. What's going on there? Pelly is just a sound bite. You know what I mean? And there's nothing. But wouldn't you imagine he'd be rolled out of it? I'd say, we don't take this with a pinch of salt, but he's not the most popular Brazilian player. Like, I read a great article, I think it was in the Guardian or something, that if you were to go to different parts of Brazil and ask him who the best player, you know, in the history was, none of them would say Pelly. All right. They'd say Grinchard. They'd say Jazinho. They'd say Zico, depending on which part of the country they went to, you know, so he's more respected. Very broken. It is very broken. I know. So if you go to where as outside of Brazil, you know, Pelly's kind of a bit of a spokesman far, FIFA, but inside Brazil, he's not really that much of a figure. It is a shocker, not the same thing. I think he'll be there, though. I'll hit him a fight. You know, as it was, Blacker started to poon, Pelly had started to poon. Through Dave's whole piece there, I've got a whole little skinner and badial thing going on in my head, just going, "Pelly's a con-pelly's a con-pelly." I just wanted to do it in his back lap for Dave when he told that story, but we don't sing it in the background. My favourite Maradona court was when they asked him about Messi versus Neymar, and he said, "Well, Messi's better than Neymar." Sorry. Neymar's the new Pelly, and Messi's the new Maradona. And just like I was better than Pelly, Messi's better than Neymar. That's my court. He is so shocked. Pelly's every bit as arrogant as Maradona, whereas Maradona is just like, he has this kind of larger than life, kind of, all right, but Pelly, you listen to him talk, and it's unbelievable, just like the regard he holds himself in. It's remarkable. And like, it's purely good. Do you reckon anyone could be at your level? Oh no. No, I was like, "Oh, fuck!" You're absolute shit, I was like. He refers to himself from the third person. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When he thought about himself, sometimes he says, you know, people think, "Could they be like Pelly?" But Pelly says, "No." Okay, look, it would be remiss if it was not to speak about England, to some extent or other. We have a round of applause for England, lads. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads, lads. Why? I mean, look, the routes, are you surprised? I'm really, really disappointed. I'm disappointed, too. Like, I'm genuine. No, no, no, no, I'm on record saying I wanted them to get through, and I cheered when started scored, but I also cheered when the opposition scored, because I'm a bit psycho-op like that. Why did you want them doing it? Because I really, really liked them, and I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Steve, what, what, overall, it's just- Show up, you're tapping, Craig. What, overall, it's this whole fucking thing with England is hard to know. You can't get, you can't escape it, you can't get away from it, you can't get away from the fucking delusion of the English press, you can't get away from the excuses that are already putting out for the cunt. You know, this man is an abhorrence in football. I don't hate Hodgson. He's a fucking wanker, and he needs to be sent to the Amazon to be fucking lost. Did I hate Hodgson when he was at Liverpool? Yes. Did I want him out of the club? Yes. Did I give a fuck about Roy Hodgson and his life before Liverpool? No. Did I give a fuck about Roy Hodgson and his life after Liverpool? No. But that's a- So I nothing him? That doesn't fit with your theory about wanting to see England do well, so surely then, if they've got this absolute no cappello either, you know what I mean? But I still wanted them to do well when he was managing them, saying what's Van Gogh and excellent. I don't give a shit about their injury. I know, but your team, your chosen team, have got this absolute impediment, leading them. Yeah. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm disappointed by that, but this isn't- nobody at this table is hating Hodgson because he's leading England out of the World Cup. That's called a spade, a spade here. You're all hating Hodgson because y'all think he's a cunt and hate him from his time as Liverpool. That's not why I dislike him. I dislike him because I think he's outdated with his tactics, so actually I don't even dislike him. I just nothing him. You know what I mean? If he dropped dead tomorrow, it wouldn't give a shit. You know what I mean? Genuinely, I wouldn't bother me in the slightest, but I really am disappointed that England have gone out and I thought they should have- should have and could have done better. Anyone else in the room agree with the table there? I know. I do too. I don't hate Hodgson for taking England out of the World Cup. I love Hodgson for taking England out of the World Cup. Are you delighted they're gone? Of course I am. Genuinely. Yeah. Why would I? I see your point, but would you not like to have seen the side show go on? No, I don't think there's a couple of things here. There's no correlation between how Liverpool players do with England and how they do with Liverpool. Right? So this theory that we should run Liverpool players to do well with England because they bring a back to their clubs is nonsense. We won three European Cups between 1977 and 1984 and England were fucking awful. Right? So there's no correlation between Liverpool players doing well with England and Liverpool players doing well at all. The second thing is as well, just read any article, any article that's been written in the last month about England and the World Cup either before they went or while they were there or since they've come back and the level of delusion that they have around in both directions. So before the World Cup, they started to build up to the fact that they could get to a semi-final and if we've got a bit of luck, we get to a semi-final. Now they're out to the World Cup, all of a sudden all these players are terrible. The players aren't good enough. I read an article today that the bottom line, they finished the bottom line is the players gave it all, but they're not good enough. I'm sorry, right? But that team that he put out against both Italy and Uruguay, that's a very, very good team. That's a very good team for the very good players. Is their perspective to the articles that you're reading? Is it Alan Shearer saying they can get to the semi-final and then Alan Shearer saying the players aren't good enough. So that's like saying I read an article from this Italian fella who said Hitler was fucking great crack and then they lost the war and this other Italian fella wrote this article and said Hitler was an awful bollocks. You know what I mean? A Sarah Palin one said, I read all the magazines, right? I get my news from a wide variety of sources, okay? I don't just read Alan Shearer, he just happens to be the first thing I read. No, I just, I actually felt that this is the first tournament in a long time, that the English media didn't over height. But Hodgson's done that, right? He brought their all the way down and then they started to build up. It was right to bring it all the way down. They, they, they lost Italy, right? They played well. Which they were lucky to do. Hang on a minute, they played well for 40 minutes out of his two-year tenure, right? And in every single article I've written. Well, that's not true. They didn't play well for 40 minutes out of his two-year tenure or else they wouldn't have qualified. Okay, let me rephrase it then. They played attacking football for 40 minutes. Who says attacking football is the right football? But that's what they're writing about him. That's what, you've asked me which articles I'm reading. Every article says that he's got England on the right path and he's playing attacking football and giving you for chance. Which is box. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Because at the heart of that, central thesis is something very wrong. And the touch is back on what I was trying to say earlier on, but the cases start again. Here's my final point, sorry. If Ireland went to a World Cup, there were a whole- Holy fuck it. I'm not getting interrupted now by him and by you. If the Republic of Ireland went to a World Cup, with a manager, he tried to only take into a World Cup. And he lost your first two group games, and with Orfer. So you mean the last major championship we went to with Trappatoni then? You're telling me there wouldn't be a debate about whether he should lose his job. And there wouldn't be an Orfer. Of course it would. But there's not about how is it? That's because the chief, the chief executive of the FA. But that's true. John Lainey did the exact same thing. But it was true. But John Lainey came out and backed Trappatoni after the Euros did he not? And then Trappatoni got the fucking bullet. You know what I mean? But my point is that, no, I'm not saying it's OK. What I'm saying is that you've said that all the articles you read beforehand were all building them up. And then all of the articles that you've read since are shooting them down. Now I've read a lot of articles that were in the... It's not shooting them down. It's shooting them down. It's shooting the players down. The players are getting the full in the face where it was hiding. In reality, it was a tactical failure. They couldn't easily adapt their game to counteract what England tried to do. England did nothing. Now, England should have gone out. He half-arced it. He half-arced it. He tried. He put the Liverpool personnel in place and he fucked up because he didn't have two screeners in front of Jared, which is what we've had when we were good. He had one. And it was a fucking... But then he shouldn't have put the Liverpool players in place. But this is at the heart of why he's so very useless. I mean, he is absolutely... I'm not saying here, are you? The question was, are we glad that they're going out of the world? Oh, but I just said no, I wasn't. I was very, very disappointed. Look, Steve, I'll be straight. This was the first tournament where if had you removed Hodgson, I would have liked England to do well in. Straight up. Yeah. Right. But I couldn't sit for, say, any set of circumstances that England were going to do well in this tournament. And I thought they'd struggle to get out in a group. And it's fucking proven. Rightly. Oh, no. We've sat true, Hodgball. We've sat true to what the chop is, the chop is a spoofer. He manages by media, right? Whatever the media recommends he should do to the team, he goes and does. Then the media do not have anti backlash against them because he's done exactly what they said. If they were then to come out and criticize Hodgson for doing the things that they thought should have been done, inherently criticizing themselves, and they won't. Because they're all vain bastards. The Henry Winters, the fucking Martin Samuels, the whole on, they know the game better than he was in their mind. So when they're putting the stuff out and then Hodgson is following what they thought should have been done, they will not then come back out and criticize because they're criticizing themselves. And they're all sort of putting them set their own knowledge of the game down. And this boy, this sim is the symptomatic problem with Hodgson as a football manager is he has no testicles. He has no fucking he has. That's a proven fact, actually. You may as well put the stretcher to carry the physio off in the dugout once that whistle went. In game management is a business. His whole management is abysmal because he doesn't manage. He listens to what everyone else says he should do and he follows that. Which is why Paul, it's a wonderful thing that he's got these two more years. I mean, there's a lot of fun to be having. I was conflicted about England going out. There's the Liverpool angle, obviously, what I wanted there. You know, the Liverpool lads have, you know, a better crack at the tournament. But I do enjoy, up to a point, I really do enjoy the Hodgson side show. It's just like, you know, now that obviously they're kind of shit hit the fan, they got knocked out. It just goes back to, you know, what we had to put up with when he was Liverpool manager where, oh, it's absolutely everybody's fault except Hodgson. Like, this the sort, like, I remember after your 2012, it was sort of, and I'll fuck that. That doesn't matter. Like, you know, Hodgson came in and he didn't have much time to prepare. World 2014. That's where it's at. That's where we're building the awards here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As soon as that was gone, oh, no, no, no, welcome to 2016. Like, this is, this will just go on for as long as Hodgson is alive. Yeah. Like, when the tour comes on Hodgson, I am going to fucking glory in the tour. No, I think it'll happen before Christmas. It won't. The wonderful thing about it is, right, is that when people look back at what the journalists have said, right, and the English journalists, particularly in this, they're just going to laugh at the fucking, the two-facedness, the xenophobic way that they've carried on, because if that was Fabio Capello, if that was Fengar and Ericsson, and Ericsson said it himself, Ericsson got into a court appointment and he was fucking lifted from Hawaii. They had pictures of him being torn into vegetables, you know, look at Graham Taylor, look at what they did to Steve McLaren, right? And all of these lads that were there, they weren't the best buddies with the press the way Hodgson is. Hodgson is getting a free ride because of them. It's the English guys that make the real comparison. Like you said, Graham Taylor was a turnip, right? McLaren was the Wally with the Brawley, right? They got fucking hammered. Right? But Hodgson, no, Hodgson's in the inner circle, he's in that fleet street, you know, accepted. There is a genuine piece, you know, that I am disappointed about, which is the Jared angle. You know, I think that the way he's been hung out to draw, Dave, is this score. It's disgusting, and the fact that his manager has him come in and absolutely hammered that down, but he never will because he loves throwing fuckers on the bus. And listen, I thought he was poor though. He was poor. But he was poor because of Hodgson, I think he was hung out to draw. No, he wasn't poor because of Hodgson. It's the system. Steve, I think that's the same thing here. The system doesn't stop kicking a ball to the fucking player that you're with. No, but in fairness, that's just the point I was making early on. I think he was hung out to draw with the fact that he didn't have that structure. Look, the reality is that we can argue about whether it was Hodgson or whether it was or whatever. Jared did have a poor tournament. The thing I'd say is that Stephen Jared is probably the best footballer that England have had in the last ten years. Take it all together, right? The entire package, probably the best footballer they've had. And he's going to go out like this. So I'm a little bit disappointed about that for him because I think he genuinely looked like disappointed, you know, to be going out. Of course he was disappointed. My point is, like, Pandelli, take it that he's a poor in-game manager. He's not. But let's just take it that he is. Do you think that Perlow, with the level of experience and quality that he has, stands by and plays his game specifically to the way he's being told? Or do you think he adapts his game, watching how the match is going on with the level of knowledge and experience that he has and tries to rectify the situation himself? Okay, I'm not talking about being Johnny Big Balls and Johnny Bravo, you know, Alajarad versus Chelsea. But when you've got Danny Welbeck out on one wing and Wayne Rooney running around, not sure what he is in the other wing, I think Henderson and his own in front of you, you're in trouble, aren't you? You've got some managers who let you do that. Exactly. No manager can stop you when you're on the pitch. The only thing he can do is take you off. So this is my point. This is where... Well, they tell the players to do the opposite of what you're telling them to do. But I'm not even talking about what you're telling other people to do. I'm talking about what you do yourself. How you change your own positional sense in the game. Stuff like that. I'm just saying, unfortunately, I think that is a downside to Stephen Gerard and his game and everything else. I think that's a bad idea. And I still don't see Gerard's porness being changed because he decides on the pitch that he's completely... He's not going to completely change the shape of the English team. But Gerard himself is not going to take a panel himself and say, "Okay, Hendo, you push on and actually play as a point as a point." He can't. That's the point, yeah. He doesn't take Gerard off. He'll take Henderson off and he'll put somebody else that'll sit in beside Gerard. I agree 100%. I agree 100%. If he wanted to set up the way Liverpool have done, he had to play the right players. And sometimes we spoke about on the pod ages ago in terms of using L'Alana for Coutinho and Suarez, or Rooney for Suarez, if he was going to start with Rooney. Okay. I never would have had fucking Danny Welbeck near the team. No. Even though Welbeck wasn't the worst, to be fair, he actually wasn't the worst player in the game for them, unfortunately, probably one of our own players, but truthfully, if he wanted to set up the way Liverpool have it, but listen, you can't just decide we're going to set up the way Liverpool do, and that's going to work, because what you need then is you need Brendan Rodgers and his team sitting on the bench, implementing a day in day out in training and pre-game planning and everything like that, and unfortunately, Steve Peters is decent, but he's... Yeah. The ability to turn Roy Hodgson into Brendan Rodgers, so... I've seen him getting hammered as well, poor as Steve. He got a lot of credit, so now he's taking a bit of the flack as well, you know? He's not quite Eileen Drury, like to be fair. Paul, Steve was kind of touched on there about underperforming Liverpool players, and I don't think even Roy Hodgson could be deluded enough to think that he's right back, and I could turn him and could he? So far. What do we expect basically from Johnson? It's what he did basically all season, just hesitant on the ball, just awful defensively. He actually got the assist for Rooney's goal, didn't he? Yeah, which was good. Well, that was kind of like Rooney against Italy, where he was absolutely awful, but kind of came up with an assist for them, but yeah, there was no surprise there at all, really. You could say he maybe expected Gerard to do better, but like you weren't expecting Glenn Johnson to be like any better at all, he was just Glenn Johnson, he just, he Johnson did basically. He Johnson did. Well, you're touching this area and we're looking around, maybe he's just me, but I've been actively looking around right back on, "Jesus Christ, who can we get?" Looking at this thing, as if it's like a sales room, you know? And is there anyone staring at it? Well, I'll tell you straight after I go, I'd be looking at the wheelchair front. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I watched him twice, he's been excellent. If you want to look at a way, we expect our fallbacks to play. He plays exactly that way. He bombs on and he's a good attack and fallback. He's what Glenn Johnson is set out to be and he's got his premiership experience as well, if you want to look at that one and I think he would fit naturally into our side. What annoys me about the Johnson thing is that again, people are banging on, "Oh, it's bad form." Like the opening goal for Suarez, the header, right? Covani comes inside and Johnson just backs off and backs off and backs off and backs off and backs off. Covani is able to get about five touches, look up, see the role of Suarez and float it shaped across to the back post, but he should never have even been able to look up. It's phenomenal execution because he's had five touches and a look. Exactly. I mean, I haven't seen a role. I'd have a chance at fucking pinging in a decent bar myself for that much time on the bar. A fallback should not be allowed to let him come in that far. He's nearly in at the D when he plays the football. Yeah, he is. He's inside the 18, and we're not inside the 18, but he's... Inside the 18-year-old. You're in space if you're in the real world. Absolutely. You're not having flashbacks, watching that. Yeah. I've just got an old fucking head. But here's the thing that's... For all the good things with Brendan Rodgers, if we start the season with Glenn Johnson as our first football... And that looks like a blind spot. It's a massive, massive fall to it. And I honestly think, I know, Jon Johnson has this reputation as an attack and fallback, but I honestly think Flanagan's better on the ball than... Quite brave, anyway. Yeah. He's massively on the right. How many times does he get the ball? And he stands still, and there's a pass on, and he's looking at it, and he's just gonna... Oh, I don't know about that. Mini-lay, you haven't. Yeah. He does the car, put the foot in the ball, turn back, and pass it back there. Yeah. I mean, I completely... I wasn't as bad on Johnson as you were last season, I never got his wound up about it. But two things. He looks too big for his body, like, you know, to be a fallback. He's bulked up so much. I think he's bigger than Skirt, you know, if you look at the actual mass that he's carrying, which means he's not nimble enough to go in and nick a ball off... Not nimble. It's not a word to come to mind. Off an attacker. And my other thing, I think Johnson's gonna go. Like, I think he's a last week of the window, we've played our first game, Flanagan started right back, and perhaps we signed another right back, and that's the message, fuck off. That's the worry, though, that we don't sign another right back, and he goes in the last week of the window, and then you're thinking, right, Jon Flanagan and Martin Kelly or Andrew wisdom, whoa. I think there's an argument, if you sign Marina or an attack in left back, that you can probably have a slightly less attack, like we did last season, where we had, in theory, an attack in right back, and Flanagan as a defensive left back, I think that you could probably start with Flanagan or wisdom at right back, if you sign Marina or left. My worry is that Flanagan doesn't have the same level of season that he hadn't, you know, left season. Which is, and you know what, the same with Sterling, there's nothing wrong if that happens for the age that he is, what's he, 22, 23? That's OK, Sterling? No, Flanagan's 22, Mo's. 22, really. Max. Max, OK, so it just feels like he's been around young, you know, but in terms of that's OK, if he has a little drop off, that's fine. It's not fine if he's our first choice rifle, you know what I mean, and that's what you have to remember. Sterling became a fixture in the first eleven, because he played himself in at the start of last week. November, wasn't he? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was whole, I think, wasn't it, was the first real game back. And then that's Norwich. Norwich and then Sporus, sorry, yeah, yeah, that's right. He got the top in against Norwich. Exactly, that seems to change his whole season. Yeah, and then he played Sporus as well, but in that short period of time, but what I'm saying is he didn't start the season with Rodgers thinking he's part of my first team plans. And Rodgers ultimately nearly has to start the season with the same approach to Flanagan. If he plays his way in, or if he keeps his place brilliant, you know, whoever we sign, let them sit on the bench, I don't care, because there'll be enough games to give each of them games. But the truth is, in my opinion, he can't be our first choice rifle. The fact that the worry about it is, though, I think that if, if we're saying Flanagan's not going to start, that I worry that he'll stick with Johnson, because he's done too much too much. Yeah, so our own homegrown sorts of lads that, you know, we've had a lot of good kids coming through. And fairness, McLachan didn't, it was, it's two pre-seasons ago, he went to America and they really, you know, I think he goes on loan for a full season. It's too early for us. We definitely need a senior right back in the car, but one senior for the back, at least even free up some of the play up right back, I think, like Johnson, I think, for us it's that he's almost got this kind of like, bogeyman, like, status where we think he's never going to be gone away, like, we're going to go to bed every fucking, like, Johnson's going to be in the wardrobe, it's going to be under the bed, grabbing at her feet, like, I don't think he's going to be here, I think, like, realistically he has to go. I think Johnson stays, and I think because the, if the talk about his contract is right, he's on a reduced wage for the last year of his contract. Yeah, so. And they keep purely for that reason, they see him as a senior fallback and it's up to somebody like John Flanagan or whoever it is to take, to push him out, which, I do think you're just afraid we're never going to get rid of Johnson. And, listen, I genuinely, right, I know we come in here and we've given out about him, probably on about 106 of the $10,000 podcast that we've gone out of. But, you know, it's because you're seeing the same things over and over again, and that becomes frustrating. And even when you're looking at World Cup, you're looking at the same player do the exact same things over and over again, and you're just looking on, "Am I the only person that's seeing this?" That's sad. It's that Einstein's theory of insanity, isn't it? Yeah. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting it to be different. If someone said to you that, "For your voice I open a commande will cross it and swirl it and head it in." You go, "I think I have an idea what." I say, "I've got the ball, I don't need a left, I need a left." What have you like to be out on the right side of English? Well, the good news about Johnson Steen is we'll always have an agenda item for the podcast. There you go. No, we'll always have something to talk about. 15 minutes a week guarantee. If Johnson Steen's... It's the Johnson corner. Exactly. It's the Johnson corner. Let's talk about it. Well, that should actually be next season when if Johnson stays, rather than having the happiness index, it should be the Johnson index. What level is Johnson standing on how much he's fucking annoyed us on a Saturday or Sunday. It's how we feel on a Monday for the pod. How are we feeling that Johnson and his buddies are going to be probably... Well, definitely they're going home early and escaping. I think it's a good sign for us. A bit like the Spanish players going back early as well, I think it gives us a bit extra in terms of our preparations and all the pre-season, and that can't be a bad thing. Yes, it does. Rogers doesn't have to give them that windy two weeks off. It's the same. It's the same. I know it's next. I know what we're going to talk about because we can't ignore it in terms of all the speculation that's gone. It's the same thing that I've vividly went tonight, and you're a goyer out there. I reckon we'll see a resolution to the Suarez thing in terms of some real information coming out, whether a bid's going to happen or not going to happen. And sooner rather than later, because I can see it's in the same boat and wanting this to drag on. Although, if Madrid had a real suit of that's in here, then it will drag on because that's Madrid's way. Basically, they look to off-low players before they bring Suarez in, as they did with Bay last season. Because... Well, there was an article in the echo today. It may as well have been an open letter from John. I mean, it was basically... What was it just a bit of? Well, basically, it was saying they don't want to sell him. He's given no indication that he wants to go, but the money involved to sign him would be... But the money involved to sign him would be double what Arsenal bid last summer. So you're talking about 18 million, whatever it is. And there's Barcelona and Real in for him, and we're talking to Barcelona about Alexis Sanchez. So that was basically... So to sum it up, we don't want to sell him. He hasn't told us he wants to go, but if he does want to go, he's going to have to pay a fuck ton of money. Plus, we're talking to this really sexy player who will come in and take over from him. I think... I read the article as well, and it was probably the most open thing we've read on any speculation from the English press on a Liverpool transfer story this year. Because again, as Dave said, it sets up more or less what the fee would have to be, and it also sets up some of the conditions that both the player and the club would have to be happy with the clubs that are coming in from. So it's more or less saying, look, we did put a real clause into his contract this year, if they meet it. And it's one of those too. It's Madrid, Barcelona. It's like a lot of two clubs. I'll potentially even buy Munich. I think Munich could be a late bidder in the... There's no way it's not cast iron. There's no way they haven't got a totally nailed down after last summer's messing. You know what I mean? I don't think Munich coming from... After signing in Leventowski, I just don't see it. Well, they signed Leventowski on a free. I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about fitting them into the team and into a system. And I think you can fit Suarez into any team in the world. I think he's that good. You're talking about one of the three elite level players of this generation. And I think because of that, I think... But again, remembering that as agent is... Glen Johnson, one of the other gentlemen. And Paul Kinchesky. I just want to clarify that. So that's a no there, OK? No. Given that as Budar, Pep Gradiolus Budar is Suarez's agent. Roger Me and John Suarez. Not much of my footballer, but a fucking deadly man to tie in your bathroom. Juan Suarez is tied. Tying an implement. You need time to implement one of Juan Suarez. No, but I just think that the code be machinations there. For me, I think an awful lot of the rumours in order to leak are potentially even from us trying to drive the price up. So that it's not just the release clause that you have two teams that are going in there and we're trying to get the best deal out of it. For me, I said it to you guys before, I'm still not so old that he'll necessarily want to go. I think he's that mad that he may want to stay for one season and play in the Champions League for Liverpool. And then go to for one season. I think I'd be with you on that. I think all of the things he said... Now, listen, I suppose there wasn't a huge amount of indication up until a bit of Anavic last year that he wanted out and then it all kicked off from there. But I think he said enough on talking about how much he can't wait to play the European nights at Anfield. Listen, for Polish talk, bollocks all the time and say, "You know, I don't necessarily think it's bollocks. I think it's what they're thinking at that very moment in time." But shit changes. You know what I mean? It's like somebody sitting and talking, they got a call off a recruitment agent and say, "I know, listen, I'm not really looking at the moment." And then the recruitment agent goes, "Well, listen, it's paying this and it's with this company and it would involve this, this and this." And they go, "Oh, there's a semi over the spec and I'll have a look." And I know because I do for them and so you know what I mean? It's my job to turn people's minds and whatever. So like, you know what I mean? People don't necessarily have an intention. Do you know Juan Suarez? I do, yeah. He just did a bathroom from there, he used to go, "Lovely job." Juan Suarez creme de Marfel, creme de Marfel on the floor. One thing I want to say about this, and it's to do with the money and it's something to get on my absolute work. People talk about money. When would you sell? What would you sell? Blah, blah, blah. So at the end of the day, we all just want to watch Luis Suarez playing for Liverpool. Yeah. And it doesn't really matter. This is a shit. People can have the argument about, you know, if we get this and this, I just want to see him playing for us. Sorry, lads, but at the end of the day, Luis Suarez in your team is 10 times better than Luis Suarez not being in your team, right? Great. I said I'd take 100 million for him last season when we were on the pod one of the nights, just to fucking store up with the bait. That's not like it. It was on the pod, I think it might have been just in a chat that we were having. It was just before the ghost pill. But you know, the truth is, first of all, I think sterling for the whole season, rather than for six months, replaces some of those goals and some of those assists. Good show. Yeah. Yeah. Second of all, I think signing storage gives me a bit of hope that we can buy players who will come in and do something for us. And the third thing is we are in a Champions League. We're in a Champions League. We're in a much more attractive proposition. I mean, to your point earlier, I think you said it, the fact that we are, even in the conversation for Sanchez, right, is encouraging. Now, Sanchez, for me, feels a little bit like, you know, the stalking horse. He's the guy that we're throwing out there, the name that's out there. Whereas actually, I'd say we've got three or four in our party. Is he this season's mikaterian? Well, he's better than a mikaterian. No, but I just mean in terms of the name that was thrown at us. Yeah, I think he is. I think he's the name that people will go at if we lose Suarez will get Sanchez. Whereas I would imagine there's a list of about six or seven players on that. You know, maybe Isco, maybe Maratha from Real Madrid, maybe Rodriguez, you know, maybe there's a couple of the routes. So maybe, you know, maybe you go to Bayern Munich and you try and get gots her out there, whatever the hell, you know, these different players that the top end players, top end players. I just think Sanchez is just the name because we're dealing with Barcelona. But I think he's good enough to come in. Oh, again, I take him tomorrow. You know, if Hayes is frightening as well, if Suarez has to go, well, that's the type of player who comes in and can slot into the team in the position that Suarez played, which is huge as well because our team was set up to get the best out of Luis Suarez and Daniel storage. Now you take Luis Suarez out of the team and do you go back to the drawing ball with the formation? You don't really because then you're shifting everyone around again. I think I think I think storage gets here an extra five, eight goals a season without Suarez in the side. Maybe even more. Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting because the team shape changes slightly because it becomes less focused around Suarez and more about any storage. Maybe the whole team goes more. But when it comes down to what Suarez, what the numbers he's put out and the way he fits into our team, if you lost him, they could give us 170 million and you might still struggle to replace him. Because obviously we said there's not going to be, no one's going to come in and reproduce what he did on their own. You're going to have to try and get it out of two players. And then you're coming into one of them gets injured, one of them is out of form or whatever. It's just like if Suarez plays with us next season, he could hit 40 goals. And like that's just like that's what you're looking at trying to replace there. Yeah. Well, we don't think somebody comes in and replaces Suarez. That's the other thing I'd say, you know what I mean, maybe let's throw a little optimistic slant on. Well, maybe somebody does come in and hit a goal again next season because of the way we play football and the amount of chances we create. Yeah. That's why Suarez didn't score a goal again when he landed it. So like storage is capable of the only put he won't he won't do it over him. Do you know the matches because of the injuries? So that's why you get two or three players because unlike any other player in the world as well, that's why this is one thing he has over him. He's never injured. Yeah. Even when his knee up. Except for that knee up. Which would you, would you come back for it after 24 hours? No, no, no. I'm not even sure he had a knee operation. I reckon they just brought him into hospital for a lollipop and he rolled out in a wheelchair with a little side head and a hoodie on him. No, no, no, no, no. It's something his knee and his arse trapped up the hole. How many operate in Louie Suarez's knee and he just runs out gets cramp after nine minutes before I'd score a header, a deep and header. Just an interest. Sorry. Did anybody see that cartoon of Suarez versus England? We'll put it up. We'll throw up the link on through the day trip or Twitter feed at fucking brilliant. It's Suarez, you know, just playing act in the bollocks against Uruguay, you know what I mean? And he scores. He goes, Oh, hey Joe, you got too much jet in your hair. As he's bearing down on gold, then all of a sudden Joe Hertz took off trying to win and then he smashes in the gold and he goes, Oh, I don't know. And then, and then you see him and he goes, Hey, Stevie, pass me the ball, pass me the ball. And Jared turns around and there's Suarez in the Liverpool of Jersey and Stevie goes, All right, Louie. And then he goes stupid, slippy G. And he turns and smashes, Oh, it's fucking, it's so funny, it genuinely is brilliant. I have the link to it on the in the WhatsApp there. What put note upon on the show now tomorrow. It's really, really good. And apparently there's a ton of them, but go ahead. Make back to a serious point. Well, the other theory of Suarez, Paul was going to make a point. Oh God. All the people listening, it is fucking. It's getting ragged, wetting like a glassblower's arse here. You can smell. Well, the other theory on losing Suarez is that you don't replace, is that you take, say you get 50 million a Sanchez. You take the 50 million and you upgrade Coutinho and Henderson and get more goals from them because actually that's where we need to improve because there's no guarantee, even if Suarez stays, he has the same season next season, right? There's no, you know, none of these guarantees. If you're looking for obvious areas for improvement, you'd say, Coutinho and Henderson's goal return, they've got to add five or six scores each to what they did last season. So you go and replace the midfielders. The funny thing is, I actually think it could be easier to get four or five goals from Henderson than it will be from Coutinho. I agree. I think Coutinho plays off the cuff. He's probably a harder man to coach into what you want to do and I think Henderson next season, you might actually see a better goal return. But you clearly need to read more broadsheets because Henderson is shit and Jared is shit and Hodgson is the light. And on that note, funny then, some admin, big shed to Astro Park as ever. If you want to play five or seven-side football, this is the place to be. So get on to them and book your game and www.astropark.ie. A scary amount of excellent content currently on the website, including a wonderful look at the Champions League by Connor Thompson and new one up from Jagdesh Singh on Wednesday. There's also an open letter from David Hartree to Roy Hudson. So again, I'm not going to give it a read. The site, of course, www.lfcdaytrippers.com. We haven't forgotten the best of listeners questions and the case is back from his social and the tally he might bother us to actually compile it. So we may or may not record next week, depending on how excited we get and what goes on LFC wise. Your day trippers tonight were Dave Thomas, Paul Brennan, Stephen Daly, Phil Casey and myself, Trevor Dermi. What's that for? What? I don't understand that. What does that mean? I see it too big. I see it too big. What's it mean? It's this. Oh, it's the name of the song. Okay, right, right. I'm suggesting I say this. No, no, no, no. He's got a YouTube. Buh-sah. Buh-sah. Hot table. Tae-hoo. Who's that? I see a big one. I see a big one. Oh, give me a minute. Where do you find this shit? I see a big one. The fuck? Don't make the talking. Okay, you recording there? Turn off your laptop. We're on sta-cation. I'm on TotalWine.com. They have so many rosés, Chardonnays and Proseccos, it feels like a real vacation. Wonderous selection, helpful guides, ridiculously low prices, TotalWine and more. Hey, imagine if all your frustrations about advertising your business could be solved right now. You should know that podcast listeners are more engaged in higher converting than any other advertising media. So try adhub 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/adhub and start using your advertising dollars in an impact on your business. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. [BLANK_AUDIO]
This week we have an acoustic session of sorts with just 5 (trev, phil, stevo, brenzie and dave thomas) in the bunker talking the world cup, transfers, luis suarez, how appalling hodgson and johnson are, the delusional english media and a great Luis Suarez cartoon. link below https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEgjGB4w0A4get on the website for great content LFCDaytrippers.com
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