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We've had the first week of the season in that friendly league, not just that, other stuff around Europe, Bayern, winning the German Super Cup, Real Madrid, leading the late winner from the new Gonzalo Garcia, Barcelona, looking deadly, Francesco Pioz Paulzito too, but we need to focus on the Premier League, because remember we used to talk about the big six, right? Okay, so Arsenal win, sitting in two goals in the last, what, seven minutes to go and avoid defeat against Bournemouth, Liverpool need a penalty in the fifth minute of injury team to avoid defeat at Newcastle, whole beat Manchester United, spurs losing to Brentford, Chelsea don't want to jinx it, they're playing a few hours away to full them, but clubs kind of chaotic right now, sorry, before we get into Newcastle Liverpool, which is our big eight. Yeah, great first weekend. It's great because the big team's a lot of worries, it's just kind of just reinforced what we said, that the gap is just enormous, and these other teams are just behind right now, they're behind where they want to be in terms of preparation, in terms of chemistry, I mean, there's no other explanation, right? No one, you can question why you're not ready when the season starts, really, especially if you're on top club with a lot of resources, with a lot of money to sort out your recruitment, to sort out your transfer window together, the players ready, and even if somewhere at the World Cup, you know, some of them came back a long time ago, so it was good to see so many things happening, I don't think it's great for the Premier League that the big teams don't do that well on the first weekend, but again, they will get better, they will get stronger. For some of those teams, the starting 11 will look very different in two weeks time, or even a month time, so for some, nothing to worry too much about, but I thought it was great that it was not so straightforward, especially for the big boys. Let's talk Newcastle on Liverpool, I think we have to start with Newcastle either, we offer like point out flaws in the other team, but Newcastle, you have this guy, Matthias Jaisle, he's like, you know, the next big thing in football at Salzburg, decides to take the money and go to Elastley in the Saudi pro league. Some of us thought, all right, that he kind of loses edge while he was out there because it is a very different environment in which to work, comes back, replaces that he had what three weeks ago. On a team where confidence is low, they've had to sell everybody because, hey guys, guess what, you can have very wealthy Saudi owners, you can be owned by Mubadda, or not Mubadda, but the public investment fund, yeah, but you still have to follow the rules, and they're following the rules, and so Anthony Gordon-Lee's, Brunoghi Mirage Lee, Sandra Tronani-Lee, and he just goes out with this 424, if you want to call it that, fast guys, solid defending, a lot of guys missing Jolinton, Dan Burns, so on, and I thought they just carved Liverpool up in transition time and again. Yeah, I mean, that's the game really, it's the verticality, the transition, you know, playing so quick forward, and they will have issues because they can't play like that every, they need a plan B and there's no plan B. So when they have, when they play against team, they are not as open as Liverpool were on Sunday, I think they will struggle maybe a bit more, but for this game with the atmosphere that was there, St. James's Park, after the tribute, especially beautiful tribute for Kevin Kagan, obviously, who passed away during the summer and played for both teams. It was perfect, that's exactly what Liverpool cannot defend against right now, but that's also what Irola and Bournemouth last season struggled against those transitions, so he will have to sort that out for the Reds, but for Newcastle, that side of the plan was perfect, was great, we saw his grit in that, was soulised, grit in that, the wingers are great for that, the problem is, is that it's difficult to do it over 90 minutes to start with, and also at times you need a bit of control, you need to keep the ball, you can't just go vertical all the time. All right, Dr. Jules, the area that we need to operate on, the view is midfield. Yeah, and again, I mean, I don't understand how we can be here now on August the 24th, and Liverpool still haven't signed a midfield they've lost another one in Curtis Jones, we've got Gravenbush and Sobosly, plus McAllister, who came off the bench, and as you say Gabby, they are good players, the problem is not the quality of the players, the problem is the way this team is going to play with two very attacking full bags, you need more control in that midfield, you need more defensive strength in that midfield, which neither Sobosly or Gravenbush has, neither of them is a six, arguably, arguably neither of them is really a nate either, okay, you can make a case for Gravenbush a little bit more than Sobosly, who Sobosly was a attacking wide player, a 10, but certainly not again, he burns the law, he presses well, he's a great player, again, we're not questioning the quality of the players, but this team was so open, again and again, they're not going to play every single weekend against the team as good as this Newcastle team in transition, sure, but still that midfield is not good enough, and certainly not what this team needs for the way the other players play. So here's how I see it, I agree with your assessment so far, I don't think McAllister, by the way, surely if we get last season's McAllister, who, you know, seemed to save himself for the World Cup, that's not going to move the needle. But for me, the difficulty is in the formation, because if I have two guys there who are, you know, two specialists, mean defensive midfielders, fine, then I can carry the 4-2-3-1. For me, if you're going to pay 4-2-3-1 with these kinds of attacking fullbacks, and it might change when Connor Bradley's fit, he can give you a little bit more, read things a little better defensively. If you're going to play that, you have to kind of get it right, and you talk before about how Bournemouth got caught in transition sometimes last year, it takes time to build those mechanisms, because when Bournemouth were good, the other team didn't see the ball, right, other than like aimless balls and whatever. But to do that, you need a lot of time on the training pitch, you're not guaranteed to do it, and you're not guaranteed with these players who let's face it, I think our less dynamic and less physical than the guys he had at Bournemouth, they're better players. And so to me, the midfield is definitely an issue, I think Sabaslai in a two, it's just against a decent team, doesn't work, because you know what, you said it doesn't work against a team that pays in transition like Newcastle. Well, it doesn't work against a good team either, that's going to have a lot of the ball, because when you do, Sabaslai haven't chased around all over the place. No, but you really have, leave it put, leave it put, leave it put, you know, play against the team that has 70% of the ball either. They don't need 70%, but even just a team with more quality, that's going to want the ball more, I think it becomes, it becomes a problem. I wonder if he needs to rethink this, and if you want to play 4-2-3-1, you put Sabaslai at 10 and you move Verts wide. I don't know why that conversation's gone off the table. You can't give up on Verts, given what you pay for him, but because Verts with ESAC, it'll be different when a ticket ticket comes back, a ticket ticket because a much more aggressive player, a much more physical player, even though he's not physical and ESAC is obviously bigger than ESAC or close to it, but he plays with a lot more energy, right? To me, the issue is in the formation as much as it is, because if you can adjust the formation, now the question is can you not, for you at all, is can I adjust my for me? Because I am playing towards replicating what I had at Bournemouth, which is what got me the job here. Can I do that with a different formation? And I'm not sure he can, I think that's the trade-off, that's what he's weighing up. Yeah, I don't think he will change the formation. The prime for a role as well is that this is a team that we have, like we saw on Sunday, a lot more the ball than his Bournemouth team used to have before, and he used to coach that Bournemouth team to be very good in that verticality and transition, but with the ball, the games where they had more than 50 percent of the ball as season, they didn't do as well. With this team now, this is a team that has the ball, a place with the ball, and there's much less verticality than anything before, so even him will have to, in a way, change a little bit, I think his approach and his philosophy to it. The bottom line is, there's a weak left in the transfer window, and they still need players to start with, just need bodies, they need more players in these squads, because Victor Munoz did okay when he came on, but he's a squad player, and they just need more body, they need more wingers, they need more midfielders, and then they need players that would probably fit why he wants more, they are fitter, they are better defensively, suddenly in the midfields, and probably a full-backs, but they won't do that. They won't sign five players between 90 and a single window. No, there's no sign. If they have two, that will already be a result, I think. It was what we saw last year, even when they needed one player, i.e. Marc Gay, or any kind of semi-competent center back, they ended up screwing it up on the last day of the transfer window, and then did nothing in January, and that nearly cost them deer. I don't follow that. They seem to be all in on wingers, they've been linked with Jakub Minte before that. Of course, they were linked with Yomand, they were linked with Barcola. Obviously, there's a type, the very fast skillful winger who can run at people and run past them. I, I sure, very good player. Is he better than Cody Gackboy, if you want to play a certain way, if he plays, if you have him on the left, or if you have him on the right, is he better than what Rio, who isn't even 18 years old yet, can give you short. But even then, I don't know that this is a more serious problem. I, then, what you described before in the midfield, and maybe even having an alternative, I left back because in certain games, I'm not going to blame Kerkhez for the first goal where Alanga runs past them. You're in a foot race with Alanga, right? You're not going to catch them. It's just that that's fine. He made the right run. But obviously, there's going to be vulnerability there off the ball, and in certain games, you might want to go for, for a more defensive option. Shall I look at all this? I look at the signing of a rail hold, talk about adding a body, and I'm wondering what's, what's going on, and how much can this hurt them? I mean, I think if, if the like Kerkhez is Jones good, they already have a replacement in mind, and I would expect that midfield to arrive soon. I think for minted, the deal will happen, whether it's a good deal or not. He's out for six weeks. It's a deal that you could have done much earlier in the summer, because they've liked him from a long, long time, and they even back in February, March, I was told that he was the one they wanted to replace most salar on the right hand side. And he starts suddenly, when fit, I've been outstanding in the Premier League in everything with the ball without the ball attacking wise defensively all of that. So I can, I can see it, and I think for, for 60 million, which might be a lot of money for minted, I'm not saying that they're not overpaying, but I'm just saying this is the place that they want, there's the player that they wanted, that they want now, that he really wants for that right hand side. So I get that. But it's just, it's just, it feels really late again. And right now, if at least that starting 11, which looks decent on paper, by the way, it's a good, the problem was the depth. If that was working, I think there would be less worries to have, because you would have a starting 11, that is functioning well, that is coherence, that is getting to grip with what the new manager wants, all of that. So, but that's not even the case. So that is the problem. Your depth in your squad is a problem. Your recruitment so far has been an issue because we have one week left in the transfer window, and all you bought is a rojo. Sir, and Victor Munoz, okay, but again, so I don't know, I think that if I was a Liverpool fan, those seven days, I don't think I was fit much. And I'm assuming at this stage, you keep that, but right? Because the other thing, let me remind you, the other thing we haven't talked about is, if you take his out until the new year, this means ESAC has to play every game. And if we see the ESAC that we've seen now, I, it's not going to work. So I don't know, I mean, again, had you moved earlier, maybe you think a striker on loan, maybe those for six months until you take his fit again, who just can take some of ESACs minutes away, help them try to regain his form. That's not the window, right? Unless you really want to play with Cody Gackbar front, we find, but then, but then you create a, then you're basically saying, even if Mintek comes, I'll let them forgetting somebody, then you're saying my left hand side is going to be Victor Munoz and Rio. Yeah. And they're also going to be my backup, so one of those going to be my backup on the right hand side too. They're simply shorthanded. But they might have, yeah, they're shorthanded. They need, they need players. And maybe they have those deals lined up, by the way, we're saying that a week in a week. Yeah, maybe it's a strategy to go and do the deal at the end of the window, but because obviously working on something, they're, yeah, they are. If we can see it, they can see it. So I think they, you could also hope and stay positive and just hope that they've got those lined up and there's a midfielder that will arrive and a winger or probably two will arrive, maybe another attacking player and maybe like a full bite that can play either right or left. I don't know, like a livramento type. I know he's injured and he won't be him, but you see that kind of guy. Lewis Hall was mooted as well, but that's not going to happen. No, and he can only really play on the, you know, purely both sides. Yeah, but like livramento is probably more suited for both. So, but, but for now, it's not, those signings are not there, and, and I think what we saw on Sunday and I think they were, despite good stats and good XG and things like that, they were lucky to get that draw, you know, if, if, if Lewis Hall doesn't make that silly file in the box, where Muno is going nowhere, well, you know, the game, they lose that game to one and then, and then it's tough, even tougher. That's the point I was going to make. I have no issue with stats and analytics. I'm very pro stats and analytics. But as we have a content, a context to it, and you know, it's too smart. When he said, well, we had twice the expected goals and we had 36 touches in the opposition box. He says that can be a context. He knows that he's talking nonsense. The reason you had twice the XG is because, because of that penalty at the end, right? That's 0.79 on the XG. That way is pretty heavily. That's not down to your sparkling play. It's down to giving away a penalty, which by the way, you know, could have also not been given. I think it was the correct call, but different referee. If you put it this, it's the thing that he doesn't give VAR is not going to step in. Touches in the opposition box, I think it's a metric that he needs to be contextualized. If the opposition sits deep, then it can be pretty, a pretty relevant stat. How about you and Lisa and to transition to the Newcastle, who for me was Man of the Match. It was incredible. But then he's going to look back and say, man, I also missed true absolute sitters. Yeah, one, especially. They're one, the Dalas and one. Yeah. Well, the other one where he doesn't connect, he's there. Yeah, but you're center forward. Yeah, I know. I think that's got to hurt him. It's weird that we can speak of his glowing performance. Yeah. Those two go in. Let me poke and see four goals. And then it's really upheld. Yeah, it is. I think it was incredible. The season was a frustrating season for him with the injury to start with. And then obviously a tough season, I think, for Newcastle overall, you know, despite the running to the championship, which was cool. But this suits him so well to play like that, I think, whether he's him, the lone striker, or he plays with the Sula behind. He gives you so much. And I think the problem, especially on the chance where Alisson makes the save. And he could have hit it a little bit better. It's a decent save. It's just after running so much. It was so hard. Yeah, when you get to the last 15 minutes or 20 minutes of the game, he's going to start to be less lucid in front of the goal, which is again, normal. But yeah, I think if Yassler for him is perfect and he's perfect for what Yassler wants to do. Do you think so? This was effectively a 424, right? Are we going to see, especially as players come back as maybe they pick up him in other midfielder away from home, especially? Do you think he's going to continue with 424? I think he has one way of playing, really. I don't know where we've watched him for many years now, even in Saudi and he had success, he won trophies, big ones. But you know, I think that's what, that's very much his DNA. I'm sure he can do different things and stuff like that. But I think that's the way, that's the way they play. And again, yesterday, even with the crowd pushing them every time to go for it or of that, they could and should have had more control, especially in their second half. And I just thought the penalty given away by Wallis is unfortunate in a way because it's clumsy, but they kind of invited that a little bit towards the end and they would have to correct that because in the Premier League, especially in the Bundesliga, it's a bit different because it seems like everybody apart from Bayern, I guess, maybe in Dortmund, just play like that. So he's very much the basketball game. In the Premier League, he would have to do a bit different. Yeah, because you have to line up against teams that put like eight guys in the box. Finally, I want to go back to Liverpool for a minute. You talked about in midfielder. Let's profile what we're thinking or what you're thinking, right? Because we know funds are not unlimited, especially after last summer's spending. Are you thinking of a starting caliber guy who can, you know, maybe be a squad player but can fill in for Gravenberg or McAllister or are you thinking about a guy that becomes a starter? And secondly, where does Sabas Lago? Yeah, I mean, I think you need options. You need competition for places too, whether that is a vote and so does I as a ten and just pick the best one and whether that. I drop one of them. I drop one of them or move another one somewhere, right? To the wing. Yeah, versus to the wing, I think. I know, I know. I know. We disagree with this. Yes, I'm the wing. It's old. But he has to play somewhere, right? Well, I guess so, yeah. I would, you know, I would go and spend I think they need, I think they've been crying out for midfielder. And there's this, the Tri-Kaisido, which would have been perfect and obviously missed out on Kaisido two or 18 months ago. They tried to be Mendi, who again, they missed out. And yet, those players who were clearly very, who were the right profiles and the right player for what they wanted in those positions. And then you've just stopped chasing those kind of profiles, which I don't understand. I'm going to pull a name out of thin air, a guy who did well in the young last year. I admired him seeing, I'd never seen him in the flesh until the World Cup. Let me in camera. Yeah, yeah, is that the profile? Yeah, yeah, completely. Yeah. And that's not somebody who needs to start every game if he moves to Liverpool. Oh, yeah, sure. But it's probably better in that role. And also freez up Gravimbers to do other stuff, too, because Gravimbers had playing with Sabaslai must explode, yeah, yeah, defensively, right? When he got people running all over the pace. Exactly. Yeah. It's difficult for him. But even, I think, even a water type, you know, that those kind of guys, I think, would be, would be good for them. And there are a lot of options. I don't buy the buddy would have been great, buddy is young and buddy is super expensive. And maybe they don't have that money to spend on a midfielder like that. So maybe water as well, it's too expensive. Maybe, but they are, they are options out there that they could have signed a month ago, even. Will Kamara be substantially cheaper than buddy? Yeah. Yeah, Kamara is no a hundred million pounds. No, but I mean, are we talking like in the 40, 50 range? Yeah. Yeah. Which they have that money, they must have that money. Well, I would rather spend it on that that I'm minted, frankly, right now, because you know what? Because it's coming back. I know mint is better, right? But if you have to only choose one, I would choose the midfielder now. You, you've only, you've basically convinced me because yes, I would assume that when it can take every turns, like, he's not going away, right? So you get to think in terms of the positive, which is, he's that we'll get back to close to the level he was at, but it's going to take time. So it doesn't mean that is, he's going to be relegated to the bench immediately when it can take a ticket comes back. So that means if you take it or ESAC become an option in a wide area, both have played there before in the past, right? Yeah. And I have, and I still have Victor Munoz was young, and I have real, and I have Cody Gackbo, if I don't shift them, and I may need to find a home for veerts. Like, you can do a rejiggering there. Yeah, that's not erotic type, though. It's completely not. Yeah. But you know what? You signed him, you know, ESAC and veerts were there when he arrived. He knew they were there. So he said, I'm not necessarily going to play the way I played at Bournemouth. I'm going to adapt it. He's a very smart guy. I have a lot of faith in him. I hope people will give him the time. All right, enough Liverpool. How about some quick hits instead? It's good up. After 4,830 days, Jose Mourinho makes his return to La Liga. Real Madrid win 2-1 in Espanol, but yours takes a late scrambled goal from the Nugam Salo Garcia. Carlos Espí, to get it done. Yeah, it was not the best of performances despite an early goal on set-piece. Gula for Beningham. Gula, who started on the right-hand side with a lot of freedoms to leave that right-hand side too, then Zedem Fries, who started ahead of Trinalex and Rano, then our right-hand sideings were booming for it and all of that. So you could see already what Mourinho is trying to do with Beningham as a ten and Vinnie and then Bappé and then a double pivot. There's still a lot of work, I think, to do that. And that's also me, Nyanjo Monde, on your bench, for example. He came on and didn't really do too much when he came on. But for Mourinho, that looked so quite a lot and the camera kept panning on him through the whole game obviously, because he was the attraction. He was the big star. He looked quite worried for a lot of the game until the 90s, the 90s, whatever minute it was, and when SP scored that graphic goal. To win it, he had to, it's all about winning. For him, he had to start with a win, of course, but there's a lot of work to do with this team. Yeah, and I think what you described there with Tromanian for Bernardo and Cucureia in that life-back, yeah, leaving aside Millie Tauhoet, this point is kind of virtual. I think this is his idea of the team and Dio Monde can be guy coming off the bench to change games and so on, but I really think he wants to give Artigullo a chance. I got to talk about Carlos' aspect just for a second. You know, I was a big Gonzalo Garcia fan. I thought it was ridiculous how Arbeloa kind of didn't really give him a chance until kind of the season was over and then Bappé and Vinnie started saving themselves for the World Cup. I thought it was even funnier that then he goes and signs them for full and makes no sense, but there's a basic reality in football that if the other team is defending deep and you're desperate for a goal, simply having a large man up front who's going to put himself about, it's going to change things. It's a simple reference, simple law of football. Even Pep Guardiola at Barcelona, late in the game, we need to go, what do we do? J-R-P-K, go up front. It's a simple thing, there's no shame in it and I'm so happy for this kid and I'm so happy that somebody there was bright enough to realize, all right, Gonzalo, whatever, let's bring somebody else in who can do that. Isn't the kid look so happy? Bayern win the German Super Cup, Bittin Borschadolman-Turran, got my Bormi Calolise looking good again. First half especially. After that. All the Bayern look good in the first half. Cobalt felt like made like a million saves and then it's Bayern sometimes do. They kind of packed it in a little bit. What surprised me and obviously Dortmund pulled one back late, maybe could have even equalized, like, oh no. What surprised me again is Vincent Company. Okay, I understand. Moussiala's out. Carl is out. Sergeant Abbey's obviously out. But hey, look, let me put Nathaniel Brown in attacking me. I was pulling that out of the hat. He scored a goal. He did. He's obviously going to interpret the position differently, but I like just why I love Vincent Company. He's thinking one step ahead. He's trying different things. And I thought in that first half they looked like you said. They looked tremendous. It's kind of like this is all we need to do. Manchester City leave it late to turn things around against Bormis winning 2-1. Tools deserved. And more importantly though, how about Holland's haircut? Yeah, I mean, I don't care too much about Holland's new haircut. And yeah, I think the only enough chances to certainly not lose that game. They looked shaky defensively on the goal and a couple of other occasions. My rescuer is still tinkering with his midfield and Gahie there, who even he was surprised to play there. I'd never played there before. So I'm not really sure exactly what Moussial tried to do. And I don't think Gahie, by the way, who did okay, but I don't think he was comfortable at all in that position. He was also playing ahead of Elliott Anderson. Yeah, for all of it. I think he struggled to find a right position for himself and to move and all of that. But in the end, I think Shurkey saved the day with two assists late, one on set piece, and then a wonderful pass for Gvardjol to almost spare the blushes for Mariska and City, who would have to do much better. But again, they could easily have scored early and put that in too bad. Erling Holland missed two sitters, Gay missed an even bigger sitter. Ryan Shurkey needs to play enough of his tactical bounce. We saw today, Foden can play wide, right? So, you know, well, not really. He can't really play wide. But he put him wide, but he was terrible. So for me, so the back he was nice, he was early back ill, and then he kind of disappeared after the one. And sticking with City, Gaby, multiple sources, including us on the website, and he has been reporting that City have agreed a fee of $85 million for Ayu Buoyi. It's a ton of money for an 18-year-old. It doesn't change that. Now, in the modern game, and modernization, all that, if he's just mid for three years, you sell him for 50 million, and you net out. So that's the downside. The upside, if he lives up to the hype, to what we've seen, he's going to be tremendous. But Jules, you pointed out that maybe he's not ready to start straight away. Maybe you ease him into the team. I'll start him, but he's just what you expect from him, then, because he would take a bit of time, but he's got everything to be one of your style players. Two goals a piece of Raffinia and Fermin Lopez, as Barcelona stomp Elchio away 5-0. Who needs a center forward, huh? Tools. How do they look? Yeah, I thought they did a great guy. Raffinia is the number nine, if you want to force number nine, whatever was outstanding, involved in pretty much everything. Fermin as a ten, looked great, and looked really, really sharp after his injury earlier in the summer. And then we had Anthony Gordon coming on, with two assists in transition. They played great in transition. They played good with the ball. The only thing really was maybe a bit lamin was a little bit off at time, and was certainly not happy to be served off and look like he clearly showed that unhappiness on the bench, like a face like Sunday he had, but perfect way for them, I think, to start the season, when you think there was no the young, no rotary, no kubansi, no kunde, no pedree. No pedree. Some of these guys came off the bench. Oh, yeah, for God's sake. Who seemed to have picked up another injury, so I really enjoyed that performance. Manchester United, for newly promoted, the Hull City away, 2-0 on Saturday, Gabna, Gustaf on Michael Carrick. No, I thought this was horrible. I thought this was really, really, look, you'd been telling me how overmatched Hull City were in the Premier League. Most people have them guessing to go down. I'm not going to say they're terrible side, but because they thoroughly deserve the win. They carved United up again in transition. They were better on set pieces. That made field of Andre Santos and Yuri Tileman's. We love Tileman's. Tileman's does not run around the coach like a madman, right? I mean, he's not even the least athletic central midfielder they have because obviously called Maneu still there. Andre Santos looks overmatched and again, you, you're a big fan, maybe you'll develop over time. I don't know. I hope so. Matthias Cunia does nothing. I know Cesco. I would have wanted to see Cesco start. He was obviously injured and I'm assuming this is why, but the message has to be clear. We spent a zillion pounds on Cesco. Cesco needs to be the person we built around. You get to pass to this one because he's not fit, but I would expect Carrick to have a lineup and a formation that suits Cesco and it's going to be built around Cesco going forward. I'm telling you, this is going to be, he needs, he's got a lot of things to work on. He might get some help from the transfer window. Obviously Carlos Baléba, we think is on his way. That's fine. I don't know, by the way, Baléba comes, if you're going to continue playing 4231, how psyched some of these guys, especially Andre Santos is going to be because then do I slip back in the pecking order now. But there is a lot of work to do and not much time to do it because they have European football. Yeah, we've mentioned this. Sticking with United, the good news is that Baléba almost done, but also now they're linked to Alejandro Balde. Do you like this Joe? Are you a bit surprised to how things are souring with Barcelona? Yeah, for Baléba, I know he's not the best defensively, obviously, but the attacking strengths that he has, the pace and the technical ability, I think are great. Maybe there's been issues with, I don't know, attitude we don't know about, maybe the injuries of the past and I worry for some of Barcelona so they put him on the transfer market. I know United we're looking for a left-back with the whole summer and we're linked with different ones like Louis Hall, who was just, I think, too expensive in the end. I don't know if Alejandro Balde is the answer for them. Again, I think they need a full left-back or right-back by the way, because I think they could do with another right-back. Balde can cover both. Yeah, but as a proper left-footed, it's probably better suited on the left-hand side, but with that defense better, but when I look at that defense against Herb City of Masrawi, Maguire, Heaven and Shore, I mean, this is much better United, we're talking about. This is a ranked defense. The lift will be coming back at some point. Maybe Lenny Oro will be good. So Balde, question mark for me, Baléba is a big yes because I think they need, as we say, on Thursday, that kind of profile, the physicality, running with the ball, the carrying the ball, all of that, I think they need that, but again, how fit is he? And last season, he didn't have a good season either. I'm assuming Barcelona are doing this to balance the books. I think so. It seems kind of like, it seems like Barcelona players, especially ones who are homegrown, love being there, but they also have to accept that the club will try to drive them out when they need to, because we saw the same thing with Ferdinand Lopez, and then it didn't happen. Exactly. In Terminant, rode to a 4-1 win of a Monza, a gap from Cisco Pio Esposito, it's pretty good, and it's got a pretty good grip. Oh, yes, yes, you like that? The little back, you know, it's still not the goal of the weekend, because I'm sure we'll mention, for me, the goal of the weekend a bit later on, but yeah, that was sweet. I want to have a word as well. It wasn't the same thing. Even that can't be. I just love the amount of energy and unselfishness that he brings. Go center forwards with his profile. Don't always play with this much energy. Ain't that have a proper rotation now. Takes pressure off of Lautaro, who, you know, is going to have to ease into the season. He wasn't particularly good. Takes pressure off of Marcos Turem, who's hoping to play a little more at the World Cup. And then Andre, John Bunny is there. He's got to be smart how he uses his four forwards, but that is a deep attacking for Ferrant Torres has to come off the bench to rescue Paris Saint-Germain a way to run. Jules, reason to be considered. Should we just celebrate the genius of Luis Enrique? People were laughing at Ferrant Torres. Who's laughing now? I had a great coaching because, you know, everything he did in terms of much management, in-game management, sorry, for Luis Enrique worked yesterday. We were not good at all in our first half, although we had a big chance to come back to 1-1. But considered twice in transition, which was poor, the rest defense, a bit like the Liverpool rest defense, was not good enough on Sunday night for PhD, but then Fabian Riz and Ferrant Torres, Mika Gots was well coming on, and all having a really good impact. But the two goals that Ferrant scored, the movement that he had, and, you know, I'm not a fan, I've never been a fan, but I have to say, you were really good. I was telling my kids, like, oh, I don't like him. And then, yeah, he saved us. It's two games now, the launch defeat, the previous weekend, this draw there, which I think again, I expected it because they're not ready and they're not fair. Luis Enrique took off Vaskelia and then Belé have time. The ball and the winner has strong, strong words against Belé in his post-match interviews as well. So it'd be fun for the next few weeks. When you win two Champions League titles, you can, or three even, you can, and you're a little mad, you can act like Luis Enrique does. Brent Ferrant destroyed his first three in a gabber with the Zervi said they were unprepared and had no soul. Yes, he's 100% correct. He's a job to prepare them. He might be, but he's got a long injury list. I think we're just terrible. I think it doesn't excuse us. Who's unprepared? Wait, Tonali, what did you do this summer? Hey, how'd you enjoy the World Cup? Gallagher? Hey, how was your World Cup? Oh, wait, how they could be unprepared physically? I don't know. There shouldn't be unprepared tactically because they've been working with the Zervi. Credit to Brentford, the guy in midfield who they picked up was, some guy from Los Angeles. That's what you're going to do to you. Devastated. Imagine that guy at Liverpool. That's the kind of profile they needed. But there's a lot to work on. Look, they're going to make more moves in the transfer window. I suppose that'll help. I don't love the guys you're talking about Simon. Yeah, no, I don't. But that's who they're going to sign. I think the improvement will come when the injured guys come back because they have a super long injury list. This is way back on Friday, but Arsenal began their campaign with a 3-0 win over Covertry City. Yeah, I mean, Covertry, I know good at all, but I also know where I was standing from, start to finish even just in second gear. They didn't even have to play more than second gear. I have it again scoring after counter-pricing and everything. Best of ours, yeah. Yeah, it was great to start this season. Julian Alvarez gets booed before drawing an after-pettico Madrid's 2-2 draw with Villarreal on Sunday. Got any sympathy? I have none whatsoever. He deserves everything he gets. There is a way you have to be an adult about this. I think there's, I don't play in Barcelona in this because they get awfully make an offer. They're told hey, this is here. It is a little sketch when his agent also happens to be a hands-y flicks agent, but, but no, I will always side with the fans. I don't know if I'd let they are going to stick it out until the end or try to sell in somewhere else or whatever, but this is bad. It's for the game itself. It finished 2-2, two penalties, slightly not happy with that, but they also did go down to 10 men after Robin and Normand went off. Brighton were a 4-0 up on Aston Villa after half an hour. George, this is really ugly for Unai Emery and he also has an Ollie Watkins problem. Yeah, he has because Watkins was not even in the match desk squad. He'd refuse to play, refuse to train all week. He wants to move away probably to Saudi Arabia. I think they're the only team really linked for him right now. And if you're Villarreal until you're fine with a replacement, whether that's for our in Balogun, for example, they really like and they've been in touch with Monaco over him. You can't let Ollie Watkins go if there's no replacement because that leaves you with Tommy Abraham and then... Oh, Tommy, Tommy. Tommy is good, but you know Watkins and then you also need a backup at some point, so... They'll have the other guy they outplayed against Price as your man. Madjo was only... Yeah, Madjo, who is it? You know, it's the size of a building. Yeah, yeah, and maybe that's it then. But yeah, this is Aston Villa we're talking about. Yeah, no, you're right, maybe. Although I think they would push to do Balogun. For the game itself, they started well and then one mistake and they fell apart to a point that we've seen them falling apart before, even on the Unai Emery and having the lack of reaction sometimes, but that was horrendous. This is where I struggle with. I'm like we haven't heard Ollie Watkins side of the story. And Unai Emery, certainly, certainly gave the impression that it was Ollie Watkins' choice not to be going. So, you know, when you only hear the club side, whatever, I just really wonder about what sort of people some of these guys are. And the same goes for Alvarez. And look, I'm cynical. A club's will screw players over when they can. It's a business. I get that, right? But you had your eyes wide open. You knew Aston Villa's financial situation. You knew that, you know, there was some Morgan Rodgers for a lot of money and stuff like that. You have an agent whose job it is to go and keep track of these things. You should be making a commitment to the club at a certain point, not trying to force moves or whatever, given what the club has given you. And you've given to the club, too. But you also are highly paper-fessional. I just find this really, really disappointing from Watkins, not as bad as Alvarez, because there's other elements they are going on. But it's a rough one. And they also have an Emery Martinez situation, which is a different one. But again, they need to find him a way out. Is there an order of operations problem here? Like maybe don't blow 30 million on a goalkeeper until you've moved your starting goalkeeper? Yeah. Ruben Amorim begins his Milan career with a 2-1 win of a Torreino as young and old Alfa Sisee Anadrian Rabio score. Can we talk about Alfa Sisee? Yeah. I don't know. Like Ruben Amorim, a year ago he was in CAB. Has a ton of faults. We know this. We've seen him up close, right? But to have the freedom to say, oh, look, this guy had bad injury, played recatanzaro. Let me chuck him into the starting lineup. Okay, and I didn't know what the politician though. Yeah, really good. Good, good preseason. There was no politician. I know, but you also had Salamackers there and Diego Moreira there. To go, I'm sorry, do you think Maxalegri would have ever done this? Do you think Maxalegri knows who Alfa Sisee is, even though Milan signed him back in January? No, I'll tell you. No, he has no idea. So I think it takes guts. I like the fact that big Italian clubs are playing the kids, occasionally especially Italian clits. Like this guy, he's from Treviso, though. Obviously, he's from Africa. Can you, and I think, Decent? Decent, yeah. And I thought he played really, really well. Should have won a penalty as well. I thought he played really well, to be fair. But the goal of the weekend is Cheyadams is gold. Incredible gold. By far, the goal of the weekend. But I thought Milan and especially in the first half where I was standing. It's said, yeah, it's where you go for your, for your highlight real. Cheyadams, take a bow, son. Can't show his back. That adventure locked. He gets all three points on his debut for Leela way to Anjere. Jules, that handsome guy who opened the scoring looks a little bit familiar. Yeah, Olivier Giro, 40, yeah, young very soon. Next month, he will turn 40 years old, scored after 11 minutes, cause on the opening game, on the opening day of last season, after 11 minutes as well, for Leel. Again, then he was a bit more difficult for him, obviously at that age. And he was not supposed to be the starting number nine, really this season, because I found this part of as we mentioned, I think on Thursday, he was supposed to be the one, but a bit like Vila and Wilhelm work in, Leel have a problem with him who he wants to leave. Very solid from David Anjere Loti, coherent in the team that he picked up and the performances that he had individually, collectively as well. That was sounds. So good stuff for him. This is his big shot, isn't it? Yeah, it is. And so far, so good. Gelsen Bremer scores to give you events. So one, he went away afro Zinone and newly promoted Fro Zinone, but God, what was Paleti so mean to my boy, Rondal Kolomone, back to the club. He's from Bar, I put Paris, Bar and bread in the script. He's from Bondy. He's not even the most famous, he's not the most famous footballer from Bondy. He's no, probably not even in the top well, not top two, for sure, top three, five, maybe. Top weight, who's the other one? And Bappe Saliba. Oh, Saliba, that's right. I know. J'ai misjake from Liverpool. Paul, you put a jerry jake ahead of Kolomone, it's a bit early, this career, you know. Anyway, I tell you what Spaleti said. So you've a creative channel, Fro Zinone, they're not very good. You've a creative channel, so they weren't great. Douglas Louise got the star. It was later turned as you'd expect. I don't know what they're going to do with them. You have a haven't finished. They're not done. They're going to, I think we'll see a lot of events announced. But Kolomone missed an absolute sitter early. He missed another one later. And Spaleti comes on and says, well, if he hasn't played in two years, we haven't scored in two years, what he meant to say, there must be a reason. Sometimes you think you're exceptional and that leads you to forget what made you great. Now, he only scored one legal last season in 30 odd appearances for Tallinn, which is not good. But man, why did you take this guy back? Because they like him and he likes it there. I know there's a good player because he was good when he went on loan that the season before last season. He wasn't that good. He was good. He started really well. Then I did. 50 million commitment to Paris as your man, 4 million euros, and then 34 million. If you've qualified for Europe, they have to spend 34 million to make the deal permanent. I really hope they qualify for Europe. I thought you might. I don't want to have a go at him, but it seems so bizarre of Spaleti to go. Obviously, not every player, people say, oh, it's confidence. Some players rely more on confidence. I don't know if it's an issue with this guy. But why would you go and undermine him when you say to the club, yeah, yeah, let's get him, right? They're already destroying Jonathan David by trying to sell him all over the world, I know that you're in a bad financial position, but why call him running? I don't get this. Two out of three newly promoted teams start with a win. Jules Acero for Ipswich Town, who beat Sunderland with a late Jack Clarke goal. Yeah, and a massive mistake from Sunderland and why you trying to play out from the BAU almost got caught a few minutes before in a similar position. And this time you are made to pay for, pay for it. Good for me, switch and Gary only in terms of again, the energy, the intensity a bit what we saw with her city against United. And we knew that we were going to play like that. And she saw without standing because when he runs at you and when he has that kind of freedom, he can be really good. But I thought Sunderland, especially after coming back to 1-1 with our goal of free kick, just had it. They even just the point, but they had chances. They should have won it probably, but then at least if you can win it, don't lose it and they did. So well done to Ipswich, a lovely goal by Jack Clarke. I think they spent a lot of money on it and on the squads this summer, a lot of money, 150 million pounds. A lot of money from Ipswich to give them all the tools to be able to stay up. So let's see, but at least it was the perfect start. And Emerson of course has an extra M in his name, which probably makes him better than the other Emerson we've seen. And again, Liga, you know, Liga product, that's what you do. Napoli win 2-0 away to Genoa, Gab, or well from Axel Agri on his debut. No, no, no. And again, narrative, you know, De La Rente is not a president called like, oh, we won. Yeah, it's the only good thing here is that you got to 3 points. Napoli's XG, minute 60, 0.10. And you're playing Genoa. You're not playing Paris Saint-Germain or Barcelona. You're playing Genoa. Who had chances, by the way? Who had chances as well. Yeah, my boy Baldansi, like sneaking around in there. They're big Vitini as well. The other thing, which, which you know, we would obviously completely incensed Genoa, and Daniela de Rocio in the club, was De Bruyne's goal. Hey, well, sorry, this is the other thing, right? Allegri, like because of two subscord, De Bruyne and Vergata, like, oh, look, his changes. First of all, don't check a genius to send on De Bruyne. Second of all, ah, De Bruyne thought it was a foul. I can, I couldn't even, like, the thing is, you've got to call those all season long. Yeah, if you're going to do this, right? So I can see why he's upset. The other one, yeah, okay, Otoa doesn't short out his seat and basically, like, shepherds the ball into the net for the Vergata goal. So I don't think you have anything to be crawling about or being happy about, um, Rasmus Hoiland and Lorenzo Luka, combined for zero shots and one touch in the opposition box. Those are your center forwards. I rest my case. Let's go to the championship. West Brom's striker, Aune Hegebel, has been banned for two games for intentionally deceiving the referee. Remember, this is one of the guys scored with his, with his hand against Norwich. Yeah. And a Philip Klemont, I don't know which manager, really not happy, as you would understand, there's no VR in the championship. And before he did in his press conference before the game of the weekend, was to read out the list of the 81 leagues and 81 countries, some have VR in the two top leagues, top two leagues, sorry, where they have VR to highlight the fight, how come the championship in England doesn't have the VR? So he's starting, like, he's starting by having to go there. It was amazing towards, if you have like five minutes to, to waste in your life. Go and listen, because he has the list and he goes, Algeria, Albania, it's just, it's amazing. And it goes through the whole count, all the countries. And he's right. He's right. I also understand culturally, the football league is different, this country is different, whatever. I would, I would have done exactly the thing he did. Actually, I wouldn't have been creative enough. Well done, Philip. What I find shocking here is that people aren't blaming Hegabo. People are blaming the referees for catching. You know, but both really, you've been blaming him. He should have said, and that he spent it, yeah, he should have said, listen, you know, I should have been suspended for longer. He should have been, and this is the first time we've had it. We've seen it, we've seen it happen in the Premier League as well, where it pulled schools a couple years ago. Yeah, like, I'm sorry, I agree. It's not a good situation. Bloomberg report, the UAE officials warned the British government that a negative outcome or heavy sanction against much the city over those 115 charges, you know, against the Premier League could strain relations, that's the quotes, between the two countries. This big deal, is this for you? Bloomberg reports it, so I'm assuming it's, it's, it's, it's well-sourced. If I'm Haldun al-Mulbarak, the first thing I do is I get on the phone with my boss, and I say, please find whatever UAE, whatever government officials in our government went and did this, and I don't know, leave him in a room with me and baseball back, because this is one of the worst things that could happen. There's two readings of this, right? This does not help Manchester City. I think Manchester City are furious that this happened. Yeah. One reading is, oh, they're worried that, and so they're trying to exert political pressure. I don't believe that's right at all, because, first of all, because I actually believe the, the whole process is pretty watertight. I know it's absurd, it's been years, and we still don't have a verdict, even though proceedings ended a long time ago, but I don't think City have any, have any knowledge whatsoever, worried one way or the other. I don't think anything's leaking. Secondly, City are too smart. City know that anything like this is only going to make them look worse. So I think they would have been totally against them. Yeah. Whoever thought that this was going to be clever, this crap doesn't work in this country, right? They don't, the Premier League is its own animal. They don't like listening to the government, and come on, think about who's been charged with the government now here in this country, Andy Burnham. No chance. Betis via Riazotidad and our boy Reno Matarazzi on Friday night, one meal, and Jules, they're getting help in the form of Troy Parrot for 16 million. Yeah, he was there in the stands, watching. I've been outstanding last season, really, in the area of Davise with Alkma, it's a big move for him, I think, to obviously a better team, a bigger league. And I think Betis, who have Kutra and others of front, of course, could do with his sense for his eyes for goal and, you know, his movement in the box and all of that. So I'm looking forward to seeing. It's an alternative. Yeah, it's an alternative, and seeing if he does well or not. England, France and Spain are among the countries that have named squads for the end of 20 women's walk-up in Poland next month. Gabda, does this mean they won't boycott it? Well, they were keen to point out that they weren't, they didn't just want to, if you remember, UEFA, threatening to boycott all FIFA competitions, or saying they would boycott Al FIFA, unless Johnny Fantino's plan for the football forward thing wasn't just withdrawn, but that they would make a pledge never to do this ever again. He hasn't done the pledge. So theoretically, the boycott should still be on the table. I think I hope to learn more when I get to hang out with all the UEFA folk in Monaco next week. But you're not 20 World Cup in Poland. You can move it. You can move it. You can have alternative competitions. You can just play later in the year. You're not going to deny these women's chances of playing. The problem is October 9th, because October 9th, this is when you've got the women's World Cup qualifying playoffs. That is where the rubber hits the road. You boycott that, then you have an issue, because there is a women's World Cup in 2027. So we'll see which way this goes. Punishment has been handed out for the brawl post-World Cup final jules. Do they seem fair to you? Yeah, I mean, remember we did the show straight after that final and we said, you were angry. We were angry. We said, Paredes should be banned for a long time. He got 10 game ban, which I think is fair for the fight that he kind of created by himself, really. Molina 7, again, I think he's right. Then you've got Chagolmada and Gabi with one for Little Scruffle. But I'm glad to see that Paredes with a hefty fine, although the money is no problem for neither of them or the Argentine Federation anyway. But they got heavily sanctions. Yeah, and I think you're also going to have to pay some games at 50% capacity. I don't know how heavy a sanction this is. I mean, how many official games, I mean, I kind of imagine Argentina's next 10 games are all going to be friendly. Or they're about to play. The Guardian reported on plans for a combined UFR conquer cuff nation's league gap. This seems an obvious attempt to circumvent any infantino and FIFA. Yeah, this is a little bit naughty, but you want to pay out the scenario. You put the UEFA teams, the conquer cuff teams, maybe their friends in Asia, who of course also signed that statement against infantino. And then all of a sudden, could you imagine a nation's league where I don't know how it worked. I presumably you wouldn't fly across the world regularly to play each other, but maybe somewhere, yeah, maybe the top 16 qualify for for tournaments. Instead of a final four, we'll have a, we'll have a sweet 16 at the end. Yeah, yeah, some miniature world cups somewhere. That's what they're trying to do, I think. Lionel Messi scores, but Inter Miami, Fallout, Toronto, FC21. Jules, one point from their last five MLS and league cups, leagues cup games. Yeah, it's tough. They consider a lot of goals. They miss a lot of chances as well, because again, I think in this game, the defeat is a little harsh considering how many chances they had and how well they played at time. But there's a lot of frustration. I think for Leo Messi too, there was a few incidents. He's going to have slapped the back of the head of one of his opponents and things that you don't usually see him doing. And obviously a lot happen during the World Cup and the final loss. Then after that, his father, everything. So you can completely understand, you know, frustration, they're human beings as well as players, but, yeah, but poor, poor patch of form, so only not so much for him before the team. Shakhtar Donetsk will play their home champions league games as them for British seasons. Guy, is this a good idea? I think it's a good idea. I think the reality is their country is a war. They were they were attacked by by Russia. They've had to play away from home, although they play in Germany where they had a lot of Poland where they where they had support and it's obviously nearby, but you take it to London and you take it to a bigger dimension. Stanford Bridge is not in use. And for me personally and very selfishly, I like the fact that I will have more than one Champions League football option on Champions League match nights. Yes, exactly. Cristiano Ronaldo scored back on Friday in El Nasser's 4-0 win over Eriad. Jules, it's 25 straight seasons with at least one goal. Yeah, incredibly boy. It's a good finish as well if you haven't seen it. And again, that they dominated, they dominated, sorry, quite heavily. And Sporty Koglu was very happy. And they would be much tougher games where he might not be as efficient and in that kind of goalscoring form, but I mean, we run out of superlatives anyway of his career and how incredibly bored of a goal scorer. He's been, I don't think this will ever be beaten really 25 seasons in a row to score in one of the big leagues of the top flights of the top flights of a country. This is still a big league. You know, it's still the top flight in Saudi Arabia. I think he's just remarkable. And that's for what we say is probably his last season. I wonder, you say it never will be beaten, but Liv Andowski and Giro, aren't they? Oh, no, because Giro took a while to get going. He was a Grenoble. He was a 25 years, 25 seasons in a row. He's a 20, 21. No, no, probably not. He was a lot. You know, it's a lot. FIFA president, Janine Fontino, he's still under pressure, Gabi, conca-caf president Victor Montaliani, asked him not to attend an event in the Caribbean. And you have a president, Alex, on the suffering, said mean things about him for change. Yeah, it's, it's, it's bad cop and good cop, isn't it? Yeah, so the Montaliani thing that was they had the Caribbean football union meeting, he sent a letter. And the letter was made public. We had a ESPN as well. Basically, he said, like, like, it's not appropriate for you to be here. So what does he do? He comes, anyway, he can't stop him from coming in. And to be fair to Infantino, obviously, you know, and I would have done exactly the same thing, you know, he meets with the head of the Olympic Committee and the sports minister and this and that because these countries hedged their bets. They don't know who's going to win. I saw Alexander Chefer and he appeared on Oster Campbell's podcast and he was extremely clear. He said, Infantino needs to resign. He says, so there's two options. Either he realizes, and I quote here, he realized he doesn't have to support not only the political support of the ones who vote, which ultimately is what's going to matter. But the political support of the football community, the political support of fans, the political support of players, former players and coaches, a problem is these guys don't vote. Although they can put pressure on their FAs if they want to. Or the second option is that he's going to go to elections in March. In that case, I think somebody will stand against them. I don't know yet who Chefer in said it's not going to be him, which is good because Chefer would lose. And he said, he doesn't think it's going to be NASA. If he says this, it's pretty obvious it's not going to be NASA. So the question is, who's it going to be? Will it be the good cop, Victor Montellani? Will somebody else come out of the woodwork? Stay tuned. Or will it even get to that? Because it's entirely possible that if he resigns before, somehow, we will get an interim boss through March and then maybe it'll be two totally different candidates. Just this brings us to an end. Yes. I'm not going to be here on Thursday. I will be in Monaco at the Champions League draw. You'll be holding down the Fort with Don Hutchinson, I believe. Right. So until then, love the game. Love your neighbor. Love yourself.
