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Welcome to the Total Soccer Show and our latest edition of The Bulletin and it's a transfer special. We're looking at what Yundia Monday can do for round Madrid. We're seeing if Newcastle have any players left after Brubardo Grammarish agreed to deal with Arsenal. We're seeing what's going on with Manchester Central midfield with Rodry, likely on the way out and so much more. My name's Ryan Bailey, joining me today, we've got a toosome going on. The other part of that toosome is Mr. Joe Lowry. Hello, Joe. How's you? I am great, not just a toosome, but a terrific toosome. We are missing the other half of our fantastic forosome, but, you know, we can still have a positive, a literative adjective that starts our little duo today, Ryan, I'm for it. We can indeed. I think this is the first time in a minute where we have recorded or one of us has recorded from the great state of Texas. Oh, you find yourself today, Joe. How's it feeling in Texas? It feels great. It feels much better than the last time I recorded in Texas, which I'm pretty sure was post a US Cup America game in 2024 and I was kicked out of Jerry World. They wouldn't let me use any rooms in there. They wouldn't let me lower it around. They booted me and I ended up recording from the car, but the air conditioning in the car made a clicking sound appear on the microphone, so I had to record with the AC off. I thought I was going to pass out, and that's sort of the moment I thought, maybe I'll never record in this great state again, but here I am, I'm back, and there's AC, really what could be back? Oh, wow. I hope you cracked a window back then, Joe. Yeah, there was some dog measures being taken for sure, although even then, you're not supposed to do that, right? Even if you crack a window? That's all cool. Yeah, that's actually illegal in the United States. Nice. Yeah. We would never do that to you in the UK either of course. What a relief. What a relief. What a relief indeed. Plenty to get to. Lots of conversation about the Cummings and Goings in European Soccer at the moment. But before we get there, Joe, we should remind a good, good people about our Patreon.com slash total soccer shows where you get our bonus content. You got bonus episodes of this here, podcast. You've got a video content we're putting out there and access to our Discord server. Joe, how many, if you had to estimate? Yeah. How many of the cool kids are in the Discord server, do you think? I think we're approaching or even at all of the cool kids are in there, although I think it would be even cooler if the person listening or watching this was in there as well. I don't know if we can straddle that line, but that's really how I feel inside. Yeah, that person doesn't need to sign up, I agree, very much indeed. Patreon.com slash total soccer show, we mean you. And thank you so much to everybody who supports us via that medium. We definitely appreciate your custom excellent stuff. Joe, before we do get to the transfers, a bit of sad news that came in over the weekend. Jorge Messy, Leo Messy's father, passing away at the age of just 68. Of course, Jorge was his mentor and his agent. The two of them packed up and traveled to Barcelona when Messy was about a teenager, a 13-year-old to pursue his career. Obviously, a big, big part of Messy's life. We remember during the World Cup that he was taking ill, that storyline that came along. So unfortunately, Joe, Messy Senior has passed. Yeah, it is sad. I will say it was quite touching to see the response from not just Barcelona or into Miami, but really the soccer world kind of pour out their support for Messy, another reminder of just how much his exploits have meant to so many people. I think that is just an absolute joy. And getting to see some of the tributes that poured out, I think, were quite meaningful in touching. I enjoyed Rodrigo de Paul, Messy's flawed, but true friend, it seems like scoring a goal from Miami after Miami had held a moment of silence before the game began against Monterey. The other night. And de Paul scored and took off his jersey, and underneath his jersey was a Messy into Miami jersey. The dude was wearing two jerseys on a muggy Florida Saturday night in the summer, like genuine commitment. It's this part, tongue in cheek, but I think I genuinely do mean that at the same time. So yes, you know, certainly feel for Messy and his family and another reminder of just how much that family has meant to so many people around the world. Definitely so. What's the record amount of search that you could wear in Miami during a game, Joe? I don't think you can do any more than two. I think two past two, and you're starting to flirt with real danger. I mean, even with two, I think if you do that for more than a half, I think you might just combust somehow. Sweat combustion. Sweat combustion. Oh boy. We don't watch that up on anyone. And of course, our condolences to the Messy family for that news. Joe, why don't we get to the transfers? The biggest one, surely. Yundee, Amanda, making 135 million Euro move. Two rumble dread from Ebi Life Sieg, a seven year deal for the wide forward there. That's going to eclipse the amount that Ramajib played for Jew Bellingham, which is believed to be about 134 million, the extra one million with add-ons for Diamanday here. He becomes the most expensive African player with this one as well. This is obviously something we've been tracking for a little while, Joe. We suspect it after the World Cup, he would make a big move. And it's confirmed how we feel him. I mean, this is an incredibly promising move for Ramajib. There's a reason why basically all of the big clubs were sniffing around Diamanday. You had PSG and Liverpool very much in the race for now the former RBI Life Sieg Winger. I mean, he is a real talent. And if you hadn't had a chance to watch Yundee Monday before, you probably had a chance to be listening to this, to at least catch clips of him or to watch a bit of him for the average coast of the World Cup. He is rare. He is an absolute rarity, a player who is 19 years old, who put up 20 goal contributions in one of the best leagues on the planet last season with RBI Life Sieg. And the rise that he's undergone has been so quick. And you go and think about how, I'm sure, although I don't know for sure, I suppose, but it seems likely to me that some agent nonsense led him to that famous story of being playing soccer and that's a high schooler in Florida in the United States. And MLS teams trying to sign him while he was, I mean, it was just absolute nonsense path that he's had. And I'm glad that things have turned out okay for him because it seems like there was some dicey stuff potentially happening earlier on and I feel for the guy. But he ends up at Lagannas in LaLiga and he's got a release clause in RBI Life Sieg hit that release clause. And now after he was right out of the noses of all these LaLiga teams, although apparently there was no real concrete interest from those LaLiga clubs in signing Yandia Monday as a 17-year-old when he finished up at Lagannas, a couple years ago now, he goes to the Bundesliga and was incredible. He was fantastic. You don't see, and this is what I mean by rarity, you don't see players of his age typically have that sort of impact in wide areas at a high level like he was playing in the Bundesliga and playing in the champ. He had really, really sharp seeds in last year. And because he has risen so quickly and it's still so young, I think part of the price of course baked into all this is potential, right? And I think the potential with the Yandia Monday is wildly high, even beyond the fact that he's already playing at a really, really high level today. I mean, this signing, I think, is a really, really promising one for Al Madrid that could bring them some interesting balance on the field as well and is not just a potential play for next season or beyond. OK, so let's talk about that balance in joke because Vinny Jr is going to be staying as well. Apparently late last week signed a new deal as well. So we'll have Vinny, we'll have Dumonday and we'll have Enbappe in the front line. That's how it's going to be shaping up, right? I mean, I think we'll see plenty of that. The nice thing about this Dumonday move is that it lets Ramadrid rotate through players at a level that they weren't really able to before. And I think more than that, it really helps their right side. I mean, Dumonday can play on both wings. It's part of the reason why he is such a high potential player and has been to a effective already in his career. But really, you think about Ramadrid last season, the right side was a bit of a carousel. It was a bit, you know, like at some point, it was Fetty of a Verde riding the horse and spinning around the carousel. Other times Gulerra would be a little bit wider, but he has got a decent spell of minutes out on the right side. You had so many different players moving through those positions. Now I think you have a default option for that. And it's not like he has to play every minute. You look through the minutes played totals for some of the best players in La Liga. And sometimes they're barely touching 2,000 minutes in the season, right? They're not having to play a huge burden of League Minutes to go with Champions League Minutes because these clubs have the depth to go out there and sort of handle multiple things at the same time in a way that's a little harder to do, certainly the Premier League and maybe even in some other European leagues. But Dumonday now, as the default right-sided player, gives them balance that I just don't think that they had before. Where, yeah, you had to pay attention to everybody on the field for Ramadrid because they're playing for Ramadrid. But you have now the idea of Vinny Jr. as the default starter on the left. And he often, we see this for Brazil, we see this for club as well. He will be really high and wide all the way on that left side, eager to get the ball and go one-by-one. And then you have Bellingham who can operate in the half-space on that side or Gulerr can. There's so many options for Ramadrid there. Then you have Embape who can be the nine in Rome to the left side as well. And then you have a play on the right that forces defenses to defend you differently. Simply put, then anybody that Ramadrid had last season, Dumonday gives them that. And I think he's also, and this is maybe really important for Ramadrid more than it would be for most clubs, given the makeup of the rest of that front line. I think Dumonday is willing to come and do some defensive work. And the fact that he's a little bit younger and still not quite as established, I think means that he will make weight for Vinny Jr. and Embape at times in that way. Because that's something you get from Fetty Valverde when he's playing in that position on the right side. As you know, he's going to track back and do the dirty work. Dumonday is not going to do it as effectively as someone like Valverde is, but I think he will help provide some defensive balance in a way that if it was just another carbon copy of Vinny's Jr. on that side, maybe you're not getting. Yeah. It seems to me, Joe, that this Ramadrid side this year is going to be pretty different to the one we saw last year. I was having lunch on Saturday, B-Dubs, actually. Good for you, man. Good for you. It was good stuff. It was good stuff. And there was a Ramadrid friendly against Ferris on the TV, but not no silver snapped up on the screen. I was like, oh, I forgot that happened. That was a thing that happened. So obviously they've got here. They've got Kinate, Kuturella's formerly done his, you know, his photo were getting his medical and all that kind of stuff. I don't even know that one's been done for a while. Dense with Dumfries as well. This is obviously a new manager in Jose Maria too. So this is going to be presumably a very different looking Madrid side this season. Yeah. And there's a lot to like about a lot of their business. I'll admit that the Dense with Dumfries move still confuses me slightly, but he doesn't have to play huge minutes if Jose doesn't want him to. And he is a different kind of right-sided player than any of the other options that Ramadrid have. He is very much a straight line player. That's maybe a bit discurdious, but that is at his core. I think what Dumfries brings best to the table, where he is a vertical threat down that right side, even as his age is advancing. He can go and serve pinpoint crosses in. That's just a different sort of right-sided than Ramadrid have. But I think about Kinate and you run through the list. I think Kinate is a brilliant center back. I think Liverpool are going to miss him, although we're going to talk about someone that they're bringing into the fold behind him that I like as well. But I think Kinate is an excellent player and he's going to bring real quality to an area that Ramadrid have needed to refresh in for quite some time, right? And as Alba has aged and now moved on, as Rudegrazi, I mean, you run through the list. Kinate is going to bring something new to that spot, and I think he's going to bring real improvement to that area of the field. You talked about Bernardo Silva. Justin Mourinho has made some comments recently about how he's come back from vacation, not quite rearing and ready to go on the fitness perspective. But Bernardo Silva's game is not first and foremost predicated on fitness, and he's a professional. And he's a brilliant, brilliant in possession midfielder. Kukarei, I thought, was fantastic at the World Cup and has been underrated now for a little bit of time at Chelsea. He's going to bring something to that left back spot and I think upgrade them there. All of these players now adding Jemonde to that list, there's a lot to like about what they could be under this Ramadrid setup. I do really wonder now, like, how is Jose going to use all the bits and bobs, right? This is his first really high profile job that he's had now in a little bit of time. And now he maybe has the most talented squad on the planet. I know that's kind of the Jose Bernardo thing is, is like just piecing all the pieces together and kind of letting them do the work and setting up sort of compact defensive structure along the way. It's not going to be the easiest to do the classic Jose sit and defend at times set up with this group of players. And he's going to give them the imposition principles to go out there and succeed, or are the players just talented enough as they've been now for a long time to go and do it themselves. It kind of feels like this is just the latest version of the Zadan enchilotti. Let's go out there and kick it around boys version of Ramadrid. And that has helped them win a lot of titles. And I think the talent is going to be there for them to do that again this year. Yeah, it doesn't look like they're going to be definitely a contender, which is a trying thing to say about Ramadrid in the league, of course. But when we look at the summer at Barcelona's hat as well, Joe sort of had a caramedi Emmy come in, they've got Anthony Gordon, of course, as well. It does feel like Ramadrid are winning the war on the transfer front at the very least at the moment. Yeah, I think when you look at the squads, I mean, Ramadrid's squad to me today seems more impressive. I don't think Barcelona are done maneuvering. I would be, I would be floored, absolutely floored if they end this, this summer transfer into Barcelona without signing another forward, like another center forward option. You mentioned at a Emmy who I think could end up being sort of the Ferentora's replacement as there's smoke around Torres moving out of PSG, but really with Robert Lewandowski leading, leaving and Ferentora's seemingly on the way out. That's most or all of your striker minutes from last season. They've been sniffing around with an average for so long and Ramadrid bit up the price on that. It's so long and just such an extravagant number that it doesn't seem like that move is now going to happen. It looks like Alvarez, at least as the tea leaves stand today, as they're sitting in that cup that he's going to be staying at athletic Madrid. I do think Barcelona have another move in them. Even so, Ramadrid came up second in lovely girl last season and they're tired of finishing second. And I do think the window that Madrid have had is promising enough mixed with the talent that's already there and a little bit of a refresh and maybe Joseph Marinho is going to help making that locker room a little less combustible. And I think that would be really crucial if all those things happen for Ramadrid. They are going to have every chance, not just win LaLiga, but also to win a continental trophy. And I think that's the waters that they're going to be swimming in this year, at least based off of the window they've had, lots of things can happen, of course, but there's a lot to like about what they've done. There is indeed. And we're going to get a nice Marinho Taster this week, Joe. I don't know if you saw that Marnex Flix are releasing their Marinho three-part documentary tomorrow Tuesday as we record. One of the big reveals that was, I saw it in the athletic news letter this morning, is that Marinho was to succeed to Alex Ferguson and made it in 2013, but instead chose to go back to Chelsea instead. This is post his first in Ramadrid, at that time when I'm works. But obviously we've got David Moise at Manchester United instead at that point and the rest is history. Should be an interesting documentary, so you like about Marinho, but he's a watchable character. Yes, he is. Well, isn't we can bet with absolute certainty that Graham would be watching anyway? So at least now as Graham watches all three parts as soon as they drop, he'll have someone entertaining as the primary character. I don't know what he's saying. All right, let's take a quick break where we come back plenty more transfers to talk to including, but not limited to what's happening with Rodri at Manchester City, Ronald Arralho, potentially on the move, Ferran Torres to PSG, so much more. Join us then. Total soccer show, welcome back to the bulletin, we're talking all about the biggest transfers that are happening right now and the biggest transfer news as my colleague Joe Lowry rubs his hands together with Glee. We are streaming by the way and we have a YouTube channel. If you haven't found it, we have a link in our show notes. Come check it out. Do a like and smash a subscribe. That's what the kids say, right? Yes, smash it. Smash it. Smash it. Rodri to Barcelona, Joe, how are we feeling about this one? It does seem like Rodri is destined to depart Manchester City and we can talk about the moves they've made as well. But there has been an offer rejected by Barcelona, I think a $52 million offer was rejected per ESPN, so that number's going to be creeping up a little bit. I'm not sure what they were doing bidding 52. But what do we think about Rodri as a 30 plus injury prone player, albeit a ballon door holder and a very, very, very good one at that, Joe? I think you've summed it up quite well and maybe that's Barcelona's argument for why they started the bidding, sort of where it is, although the initial reporting, at least that I had seen around this, was that Ramadrid were sniffing around Rodri and that Rodri wanted to go back to Spain and it doesn't really seem like their interest was that sincere either. I don't know if this is another early and average situation or if it was something else. But now Barcelona seemed to be the primary landing spot for Rodri as Manchester City are apparently happy for him to move on and we will talk about them in just a second. I can't get over how promising this move would be, Ryan, you are right to bring up the downsides and they're very real. Rodri's 30 years old, he's one year left in his deal at Manchester City, I think that's a big part of why they're willing to sort of let him go and enter their next generation of that midfield and he's not the healthiest player across the board. But we saw, we saw it at the World Cup, we saw it whenever he's on the field from Manchester City over the last however many years he's been there now, it feels like forever and I mean that it's a compliment. We saw how transformative he is to a midfield and the idea of adding him to a Barcelona team that plays in a style that he can thrive in, right? It is like an even more extreme version of some of the things that Pep Guardiola did in terms of positioning and moving the ball and the freedom that's allowed there within still a structure. I mean, getting to see Rodri play alongside Pedri and getting to see him play in a mid, I mean, you have so many pieces of the Spain team in this Barcelona team, Danny Olmo as an attacking midfielder, the idea of adding him to a team that does so many slick things on the ball already and he is, yes, governed by principles, but it's also governed by players and having the freedom of movement, man, there's a lot to like about this deal. So someone who enjoys watching Barcelona as I do, probably I enjoy watching them more than most teams in Europe, the thought of adding Rodri to this team is just an absolute delight. It is indeed. I mean, presumably they're presuming they're going to get two to three good seasons, right? That has to be. I think so, right? You can't be betting on Rodri giving you another eight years, although I will say the injuries are more of a concern for me than his fitness. I mean, he is not totally dissimilar as a player to what we saw from Sergio Busquets. He is a little, I mean, the frame is different and I don't think he is quite as incisive of a line-breaking passer. And we underrated Sergio Busquets' defensive ability at Barcelona because he is not the fastest from point A to point B player, but he was clever in his positioning and did have the length to go out there and make plays defensively. We've also underrated historically Rodri's defensive impact, I think as a society because he's been in these high possession teams now, like the best high possession team on the planet for as long as he's been at Manchester City. He's still though Rodri is able to go and move and put out fire. So there will be a drop-off as he gets older. What I will say is it wouldn't surprise me if this move comes off and lets be clear it's not official yet. There's still has not been a number of agreed to that's been reported or anything along those lines. But it seems like there's something coming down this pipeline. It would not shock me if we see Rodri at 35 still playing 2,000 league minutes a season and still starting key Champions League games for Barcelona. He is that good of a player who could have because he's starting from such a high level who could have enough longevity that his decline is real but is not so steep and is starting from behind a place that he can afford some decline along the way. But how all the pieces fit together and how he is going to fit into this Barcelona midfield and exactly what the best combination of players is, both now, potentially in the future. I don't know, but yes Ryan, to your point to your question, certainly the best of Rodri will come soon and Barcelona I think are and reasonably so trying to set themselves to go and win yet another La Liga but also to win a Champions League and I think Rodri absolutely helps them get there. Yeah. Spain is going to be an excellent one to this season this season, judging by these moves that are being made so far. On the man's city side of that deal, obviously, Joe, during the Pep Guardio de Aura, Manchester City, the common-held knowledge is that his teams have lived and breathed on a specific central defensive midfielder, so it was Fernandinho and then it was Rodri. And now it looks like the chips are being placed on Ellie Anderson to be the third Aura or in the post Guardio de Aura. So how much do we think Rodri will be missed in the centre of the park for man's city? I think he's going to be missed. I think there is going to be a bit of a transformation not just in that part of the field, but I also think there's going to be a real knock on effect here of the rest of the team under Enzamoresca. There was always going to be though that transition and that's why I sort of don't be grudge in Manchester City for thinking, hey, now is a decent time to move on. Let's just take our medicine now. Rodri brought a level of cohesion, even just like an implied level of cohesion because of how he played and made it simple for the players around him, but I'm not sure Ellie Anderson is going to bring. They're very different sorts of players, although Anderson can do a lot of things well. Anderson is just a, he's a far-rangeier player. He is not, I don't think that's quite as positionally disciplined as Rodri is. He's not as smooth on the ball in tight spots. He doesn't quite move the ball in the same way, but he brings a lot of other things to the table that Rodri doesn't bring. He is far more dangerous defensively, Ellie Anderson. He's able to cover more ground. He's better in duels than Rodri was really good at those as well, and he still brings a lot on the ball. I think he's more likely to hit a booming diagonal than Rodri is. I think he's more likely to progress the ball in the dribble than Rodri. It will look different for Manchester City. It absolutely will look different in the basement field. At the same time, I think now is the time for that transition to happen because it's already going to happen at a macro minigurial level, and to be fair to Manchester City. This is another reason why we've talked about already why it makes sense for Rodri to move on from their perspective. He's not a guy you can count on to be available every game. There was already a transition happening when Rodri missed a bunch of this past season. It's not like this is a total, hey, we've never thought about turning the page before. Now we're thinking about it and we're actually going to turn the page. The page is already halfway turned, regardless of whether Rodri is around or not, but now adding in the players that you've clearly allocated a lot of resources to. That's not just L.A. Anderson. That's a you. Boatty as well. The player who's shine for Morocco was at Leal. Apparently, there's a deal close for $114 million coming down the pipeline. I mean, adds Boatty, add Nikko Gonzalez, who played a lot of minutes last season, more so than I'd recalled. In a deeper midfield role, though, can play a little higher as well on the same ghost right, Anderson. And really for Boatty, I think, too, in that way. There are new options. New options that are going to be stepping into that spotlight. I am really, really curious about how Maresca's Manchester City is going to look now that Rodri is apparently headed out the door. I think that makes them even more interesting this season than they were before. Definitely. And on Boatty as well, that one looks like that deal is being closed in on two, as you say, Joe. How do you feel about that? How do you feel like his profile as a potential man city player as well? Because obviously a bit slightly more advanced than this sort of Rodri. Sure. Ish role, right? Yeah, I think where we saw Boatty at his best of the World Cup and some of this is true with Leal as well is alongside another midfielder where he has a little bit of freedom to go and push rather than always having to be the deepest option. Now, Man City, I'm sure under Maresca will play lots of games, lots of phases of those games with a double pivot. And Boatty will have cover next to him. The thing that surprised me the most about this is Boatty is a really good player. He's a teenager. And I don't know that I had on my bingo card for him, even coming out of the World Cup where he was as sharp as he was, although I'm Sir Man City's interest is primarily based off of his time in Liga. I didn't have it on my bingo card that a team of Manchester City's caliber would be talking publicly about how they wanted to integrate him into the first team right away. It's not like I think Boatty is like a Premier League U-23 player or anything on those lines. I think he is good enough to play in the Premier League, but I'm a little skeptical maybe that his role is going to end up being like in every game starter, I'd actually be shocked if that was the case. I'm not even sure exactly that he's going to be a go-to player in the league. Maybe he's going to start this season as more of a cup starter or something along those lines. I think it's a really good player. I think there was maybe even for me after going and thinking about it and watching more and reading more. I think it was maybe a little bit of overinflation of just how good he is coming out of the world cup. I think he's a tremendous young player. I don't know that he is like a deal Monday level. He's a teenager and he's ready to impact one of the best teams in the world as a starter right now. I think there is still some more growth to do in terms of his defensive decision making in terms of shorting up some of his on ball play, but the tools are there and I can absolutely understand why Man City want to get this deal done now rather than waiting any longer. They want to have Boatty in this squad. I don't know that he's going to be a super regular player right away, but hey, between Roderie potentially exiting and now Bernardo Silva, of course, is off the road like we talked about earlier. There are minutes up for grabs and that makes this interesting. Yeah. Can I have some different looks? That would be very interesting. Indeed. Josh, we talk about Liverpool potentially. Let's do it. One of the Rojo. A lone move seems to be on the cards as we record. I think Liverpool is looking at Bradley Barclay at the moment. If we focus on a Rojo for now and this lone, it makes sense for both parties, it seems at this point. I think so. A Rojo wasn't really a first choice player for a lot of that season under Hansi Flickard Barcelona. It seemed like he was pretty keen on a new challenge, at least that's a lot of the smoke coming out of Barcelona right now. I don't see why that would be wildly off base here. And Liverpool need a center back. So finding someone that you can sort of try to buy if you'd like with A Rojo, I think the option after the season long loan is reportedly about $64 million, having someone that, hey, you can see how he beds into the team and then go from there. There's a little bit of Pierro and Kappie A about this with what Arsenal did, although very different. I suppose not just profiles of players, but also ages and that sort of thing. But Liverpool needs center back help. Liverpool just need help right now in general, I think when it comes to bits of their squad, you mentioned wing. I think that's just a really interesting area of the market right now as a whole, given that both Arsenal and Liverpool seemingly are after a winger. And I don't know that there's a lot of super high profile options outside of Barclayla that are really left in that tier one. And maybe Barclayla is not even going to move because PSG won a lot for them and don't PSG don't really have to sell things now, do they? So I don't know if anybody's going to get a deal over the line on that front, but this was a huge area of need for Liverpool. And now that they have A Rojo along into replace Conte in a lot of ways, they have Jeremy Jacquet arriving from Legon after they signed in January. There's something there. I think another knock on effect here is that Barcelona probably need to add a central defender. We'll see what that ends up looking like at the end of the day, but I like this move for Liverpool. I think it makes sense. I don't think there is a huge drop-off in my mind between Conte and A Rojo, and that's important for Liverpool. Yeah. And obviously, this is the area of the era at Liverpool going forward. A rather big player has left the party, of course. How do we think this Liverpool team is going to be shaping up at this point? Do you think they need to do a bit more business? I absolutely think they need to do a bit more business. I think with Eureola, Eureola is super interesting to me, and we're not far away from a Premier League previews, by the way. So those are coming on the pipeline next week, I believe, if you have memory serves, Liverpool is one of the teams that I have. And I think they're just this really curious team, regardless, because Eureola is sort of in my mind, and I have to go back and run through the list a little bit deeper to be absolutely sure of this. But I've been thinking about him as one of the first non-tiered one managers to come into a team that has huge ambition in the Premier League in a little while now. I don't just mean non-tiered one in terms of name. I made it in terms of style of play, where you think about how Bournemouth played, there wasn't a whole lot of overlap between how Bournemouth played under Eureola and how the best teams in the world tend to play. And now Eureola is at one of the best teams in the world, even if at times we could be forgiven for not thinking that of Liverpool last season. We know that this team has real top end talent, and can those players get on board with playing just a different style that's going to demand different things of them defensively than they're used to? I think there's some players in this Liverpool team that probably aren't great fits for what Eureola wants to do that are going to have to play big minutes early on under his tenure because there just isn't quite enough depth in this squad just yet. I think there's still more work that needs to be done to this Liverpool team for them to be taken seriously as a contender. I could be totally wrong about that, but I think they would be best off, and I'm sure they're aware of this as well, if there are another couple of moves, like big serious moves that come down the pipeline. All right, well, some big serious moves being made Arsenal, reigning Premier League champions, meanwhile, why don't we take a little break, we'll talk about them, and much more in our bulletin episode. Join us then. Total soccer show, welcome back to the bulletin, a few more transfer deals to talk about some prospective ones, including Ferentoris de Paris Saint-Germain. Now, Joey, now notes here, you've put the PSG looking for a backup striker. Is Ferentoris a backup? It kind of seems so, or at least I wouldn't be bold enough if I was PSG to go and drop him in as a starting option, given how effective that fluid Front 3 has been for them, what do you think about some combination of duet and barcola, and then Cavaire Skellia, and then Dembele playing for the middle, but also not playing for the middle, because somehow he's on the right hand on the left and through the middle all at the same time, and also Cavaire Dona is now in the middle. I think that approach has worked so well for Luis Enrique, but Torres, like partially, I think, will evolve that approach, but also won't, and what I mean by that is he's a winger turned center forward, or at least that is what the role he was playing at Barcelona was, where originally he was brought in and played a lot of minutes on the wing, or at least certainly had throughout his career, and then's up basically as the rotation option for Lewandowski, as he kind of fell off a cliff a little bit last season, and ended up playing a lot of good minutes for them there, and then plays mostly as a center forward for Spain this past summer, I think that is his role now, and PSG have their first choice group, and Torres, I don't think is going to displace any of those guys. Maybe I'm wrong about that. I really don't think I am barring injury, but now that Gonzalo Ramos is off Italy and Rendo Colomones gone, I think there is very gone officially. Now I think there is certainly room for a player to go and basically play a similar role to what he played at Barcelona as a utility forward, coming off the bench for a team trying to win the Champions League. I don't know. Do you think I'm way off base there on Ferran Torres? Not really. I suppose my general point was that Ferran Torres, I wouldn't expect it to be back up at many clubs. Yeah. I don't think he'd be happy getting 30% of game time. Yeah. It's a great point. You know what Ferran Torres would be happy with is a larger paycheck, and it seemed like that was at the center of all of this. He had made some pretty public comments about how he was happy to think about maybe going somewhere else. There was some clear media posturing from Ferran Torres in his camp about trying to get a new deal from Barcelona and Barcelona said, that's all right. Thanks. We've got to put some coins in the Rodgerie coffer. You can go ahead and exit. I think that this deal is probably tied to in some ways. The Rodgerie deal, at least there's some in and out going stuff happening here. But I do think Ferran Torres was prioritizing finding the back and fair play to the guy, I suppose. But he will, I think, enjoy a role that, yes, grind to your point. He would not have it a lot of other clubs on the planet, but Barcelona and PSG are probably two of those clubs. Yeah. Definitely so. PSG, how they're shaping up. You mentioned a couple of deals in the outgoing, certainly with Ramos and Rando Colomani in the front line. How are we feeling about PSG? It's a perspective European tight in this season. They pretty well lost you. Yeah. They did all right. They did all right in the last couple of years. They are absolutely in the tier one of favorites for the Champions League yet again. They'll almost certainly win Liga. This is a really good team. And the thing that was so scary about them all along when they win that first Champions League two years ago now. And then, of course, they win it again last season is that it was possible to see them as a dynasty. Like players entering their prime or in their prime, but now we're juggling it together and seem to have found some answers on the field. Yes, there were dips last season. I don't think they hit the same heights as they did the year before, but they still have the same core. They have the same, I mean, you run through every line of the field. It's players that have performed now and have accomplished things at the highest level. There is no reason to think that they couldn't do it again this year. In fact, they're probably favorites to do it again this year. Yeah. Indeed. The Ritz and Leagues want a sec to Arsenal and Bruno Gamarish coming in for $100 million cent, $5 million pounds for Bruno Gamarish, a good piece for Arsenal. How good a move is it for them? We can talk about how good a move is for Newcastle in a second, but it's an Arsenal first. Yeah. I mean, this is a win now move for Arsenal. The Guardian had a really good piece out about Bruno Gamarish's move. And the quote is Bruno Gamarish has broken a very niche record. He's 75 million pound move, which is 100 million American Duccarus. He's 75 million pound move to Arsenal is the most expensive transfer for a midfielder aged at least 28. This is not a sum that you typically see for a player of Bruno Gamarish's age. It's a lot of money. Typically, a lot of the transfer fees, as we talked about with Diamonds, are based around potential. This is not based around potential. This is a fee based around. We believe that Bruno Gamarish can tangibly move the needle closer to another Premier League title and closer to actually winning the Champions League. During this era of so many of our key players being in their primes, that is that's the long and short of this. Yes, there's more nuance when you think about how he's going to fit into the midfield in those sorts of things. But he is a elite player. We see that with Newcastle where he was one of the best players in the planet when he's playing with them. We saw it for Brazil, the World Cup. He is a tremendous central midfielder who can do a lot of different things at a really high level and Arsenal want talent. I think Arsenal overall would probably have preferred to spend this money on an elite level winner, but it just doesn't seem like they've been able to get that player in the door. And so now you have a player that's going to make an already a strength of this team. Though with a few cracks, I'll admit, but a real strength of this team, even stronger and I'm imagining that opposing midfield groups are downright terrified of the one that Arsenal have assembled. So with Gamarish, Joe, are we expecting him to be straight into the first team? And if so, where are we expecting to start in sort of a more advanced partnership with Declan Ryce? Or what are we thinking? It's a great question, Ryan. It's a really, really great question. I think the impetus is now absolutely on, Michele Arta, to figure out the best group of players for the games that matter, right? I mean, you run through the list. This midfield is like the Thanos Infinity Stones midfield of the Premier League, basically, where you have Brunigomarish now in the fold. You have Martin Zubimendi, you have MLS, you have Declan Ryce, you have Oda Gardy, you have Mikael Moreno, you have Ebreche Eze, sort of straddles that line, and maybe Moreno does too. I mean, that's an insane amount of depth in that part of the field. And Arsenal clearly believe that that's something that's influential to how they want to play and is going to really inform their success this season. But you can pick different options for different games. We saw last season, moments where Zubimendi was the deepest midfielder. We saw where MLS was the deepest midfielder. We saw Declan Ryce even at times, that's the deepest midfielder. Moreno, we saw playing in the midfield group or playing up atop as a reserve nine. As it can play as one of the 10s, sort of in the Oda Gardy role, or you can play a little bit higher and a little wider, maybe, on that left side, Martin, I mean, the options are basically limitless. If you're asking me what I think the best midfield group is, and I know that's what you're asking me, but I just wanted to underscore how much insane depth there is in this. I think you're probably are looking at Rice and Bruno and either Oda Gardyreze. The problem though, and I think this is another reason why this move makes sense, is that Declan Ryce seems to be dealing with some pretty consistent injury issues, like nerve issues, I believe, is what I've read that makes it a little bit difficult for him to maybe have the same load that he has had over the last several years. And Oda Gard can't be relied on to play period, right? So having now another body that can be at an elite level and play either a little higher as sort of free eight or can play deeper in the double pivot, or it can even play as a six, just gives you more elite level flexibility, where you're not having to drop Declan Ryce to bring in, I mean, basically all these players are elite, but not necessarily having to drop Rice to bring in Zubimendi or Louis Kelly, or maybe the weaker parts of this group, you now can drop Declan Ryce to have Bruno Gamarish, who would start for almost any team on the planet and be crucial for every team on the planet. So I think this just gives them so many more toys to play with, while also perfectly fitting in the style, the murky style that Arteta wants to play. It feels like such an arsenal move, and I mean, that is complement truly. Yeah, it does indeed, just to reiterate that midfield, you mentioned Zubimendi, Declan Ryce, Oda Gard, Burrino, as a, is there a better midfield in Europe right now? I don't, I don't think so. I mean, you could make an argument that maybe there's a more cohesive midfield when you go and look at the group that Barcelona might be putting together. I mean, if you stack, just in terms of starting groups, Roderie Pedri and Danny Olmo as a trio, that's rough. If you go and stack PSG's midfield, I think that's another one that lays claim from a starting perspective. But I do not think there is a midfield that has from top to bottom of the depth chart as much quality as arsenals, those two that I just mentioned are probably reasonably close, but Arsenal are doing things that nobody else is doing right now. Yeah. Well, I'm convinced doing something that no one else is doing is newcastle. It seems as well, Joe, obviously, we had DeGordon passing Sandra Tanali for big money as well. They did not need, I presume, financially to get rid of Cramarish as well. So then of the factors that play obviously, but they are selling off their best assets one by one. It seems newcastle. This has become the newcastle story, I suppose, hasn't it, where they have not reached the heights that we thought they could when the takeover happens and now they've access to basically limitless money, but that is not how it's played out. And I know that some spending regulation makes that a little bit more difficult, but they have not solely creeped into being part of the big six in any real way. I mean, we think about last summer, where you're going on from the great striker hunt where they're constantly slipping on banana peels along the way, where it's, can we keep ESAC? No, I suppose we can't. Well, can we, can we not? Maybe we get another, I mean, oh, we're not going to get that guy. That was the entire narrative last summer for newcastle. And now it seems like the narrative is exactly what you just said, where there are some of their best bits and bobs, Tanali and Gamarish and Gordon are out the door and they will do what every club does. Well, they go out and replace those players and they've already done a lot of that work. Taylor's Taylor's favorite son about his, I'm a Tore is already coming to the fold and he's going to get some minutes in wide areas and that Gordon would have had before. They've already made some moves in midfield, but still they are getting worse so far new castle. Now you have a managerial turnover as well. Maybe that jostles something into just the right spot and supercharges new castle. I don't, I don't think that's probably going to happen, right? I think this could be another difficult year for new castle. It's, it's shaping up that way. Yeah, I wouldn't feel too great if I were a new castle fan right now, but hey, I've been proven wrong many times before one more club, maybe one more player to touch on here. Joe Christian Romero, potentially on his way out of Tottenham and Tottenham have been making some moves mentioned. Sandra, she's not only coming in there at the taste of Fernando, she's coming in for big money as well. And Jampel Van Hecker, who is probably coming in as a Romero, I don't have to say understudy replacement. What do we want to call it? Mickey Van DeVence signed a new deal as well. So it seems like there's some moving parts there and Romero is on his way out. Yeah, I'm wondering if Romero and Deserby were a little too combustible in this whole situation where Tottenham thought we'd rather our combustion come on the sidelines rather than on the field. So let's, let's go ahead and move on from Romero. I mean, Christian Romero is a phenomenal player, right? He is, he's a great defender and he is a absolutely brilliant box attacker. Like his movement is just a downright ridiculous when it comes to set pieces and those sorts of things. And I'll admit, I think Romero added Letty just feels like he was written in the stars. Like he had to check that box at some point before his career expired. I don't think there was any other choice for him, ultimately. So maybe this was just the universe working that into effect here. But really, I think Tottenham have decided he's maybe a little too chaotic for what we need. And we have other options that can give us a little bit more stability and are maybe slightly better fits in the model that Deserby wants to play. I don't know that they're going to upgrade, frankly, on talent on Romero when you think about Van Hecker and you think about SNS use come in as well. I don't, I don't think that that's probably going to happen, but maybe you get better in the aggregate just by having some, if you're red cards and a little bit more reliability on the field. But I do in general, Ryan, you ran through a lot of the names. I like a lot of the business that Tottenham have done. And I like this pickup for Adletty. So maybe this is a sort of win-win deal that makes both teams a little bit better or at least more stable. Yeah. And stability is going to be interesting off the Tottenham going forward as well as seeds as well. We're giving, as you mentioned, the coach and the potential volatility down the road. But also they are spending their way out of it, as we've mentioned here as well. It seems like we're going to get a different look Tottenham and maybe their businesses isn't done. Yeah. I think that's, and it's quite possible. I mean, I really am. We've done a lot of transfer chat. And I love, sorry, as an aside, I love in the Romero deal that Arsenal were very eager to sign Romero. They certainly were reportedly interested. So Libba is going to be missing the start of the season with the back injury. They wanted to have a little bit more on that position group. And probably they're still going to go hunting on that, on that side Arsenal. But Spurs just said, no, we're not, we're not doing that with you. Well, we'll go find a suit or elsewhere. And it sounds like they've managed to accomplish that. I am really, really on watch for sort of what the few big deals are left here, where I think Arsenal, the area that I am looking at most closely is win. And Arsenal and Liverpool, we mentioned this briefly earlier. They are both really looking for a difference maker in that part of the field. Almost wonder if both clubs are just going to have to be content with what they have now. Because I think outside of maybe Barclay, you're looking at dropping down a tier in terms of impact, where maybe you could go and look at a, pulling what Barcelona did last year, or the Rashford loan, or you could look to someone like Raphael Lau, or you could even drop down a level and go for a politic or something of that. Like you're in that sort of tier of players now, where you're not in the globally elite category anymore. You're in the, what else could we get? And I wonder if teams are going to spend on that, or if they're not, I don't know. But I think some of the biggest clubs on the planet still have potentially a mover to left in them this summer. They do indeed, Joe. All right. I think we've talked about plenty of transfers today, Mr. Larry. Anything else you want to get in before we say goodbye to the girls and boys? I'll just mention briefly, the US is qualified on the men's side for the U-20 World Cup. That happened recently in the Conquer Half qualifying process. The US fell in the final to Mexico that was last night, but they'd already qualified by then so that the impetus was sort of off of them. We've talked a lot in the last couple of weeks about how many promising young U-20 players are in the pipeline right now for the men's side of the program. I think the U-20 World Cup, really important to give those players a lot of the many way, an opportunity to go out there and impress. If you're thinking, well, Joe, how impressive can they really be if they lost in Mexico in the final? Well, a lot of the US's best talents right now were impressive enough that they weren't even released by their clubs to go and play in that tournament. It was not a first choice group of US players. I imagine it would be much closer to one at the actual World Cup next year because that's a tournament that I, like I said, US soccer really does want to put a lot of emphasis on. Not just on the men's side, but on the women's side too. The Hays has come out recently and talked about how she thinks that that's a huge platform for young players. And that she's a little worried that the US is not really prioritized it like they should. And like other nations do, I think it can be quite helpful for player development. And this group of young American men's players is really promising and giving them a chance to go out there and get the rhythms of a tournament and to feel a little bit of pressure and expectation. I think it could be quite helpful. So it's fun to think about some of the names that could be playing for the US at that tournament coming up next year. And at least now we know that the US will be there. We're doing, indeed, 2027 FIFA Under 20 World Cup taking place in Azerbaijan. And it was Becker Star. So the US will be there. Excellent stuff. That's your US YNT brief update. We'll have some USMNT coming on the feed later this week as well with our weekly USMNT show. But that's it for today, Joe Larry. Thank you very much for all your insight. We appreciate you. Do you think Graham russens out there some by saying, I wanted to be talking about transfers today. Yes, and I think he's decided to cope with that by talking out loud to no one. But Graham, we welcome you back soon. Please come back. We love you and miss you. Likewise. I miss Rockwell. Yes, indeed. Yes. Very good. All right, Joe. Thank you very much indeed for your contributions. Lister, thank you for joining us on this one. We'll be back on the feed. Very shortly indeed. But for now. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.
