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How do you get the best of Jose Mourinho for this project? How do you convince him to do this? Nice head like Jose. If you want one of the bottle, go with one of those other production companies, but if you want a special one, you need to work with me and vent you land. At no point did any of this thing that Jose was going to get. I don't think he thought he was going to get a room with good job again. Christian Policic, his stock is down. There was an element of not living up to the hype and in particular, as we've said time and time again, in a home world cup, I would argue that the most important asset that Conca Cap has of those 41 members is the United States. In general, I'm in favor of Conca Cap emerging. You'll never have a player like Messi or you'll never have a world cup when it comes to the men's side. Fine, that's okay. Because if that's the trade off, I don't want any up. Hello, Sunshine. I'm Alexey Lawson, welcome to the State of the Union Show. This is where we look at the beautiful game on and off the field through the lens of red, white, and blue color glasses. This show will be talking, ooh, the new Marineo dock. Yes, US leaving Conca Cap, question mark, stock up, stock down. When it comes to US men's national team players, especially after this summer, Balagun speaking of US men's national team players, moving question mark, authentic soccer culture and so much more. But first joining us all is my friend, my colleague, my guiding light, David Mossie, a soccer cement, and a Fox soccer researcher and writer, Extraordinary! Mossie, how you doing on this Wednesday, August 12th in the year 2026? I'm doing well, I'm still in New York. I'm at the midway point of my visit. And it's been good stuff so far. I'll tell you all about it and what are we watching segment? But I do have an incredible meal to report on. Oh, you got some food stuff to talk about. Yes. Oh, I can't wait for that. How's your family? How are the Mossies? They're doing great. The novelty of me being home wears off for a couple of days. So the first little bit of irritation, I'm starting to sense from them. But I think we'll get through the next few days. Well, I have my kids here and one home from college. And I can relate to a certain extent in that the novelty of being back home with your parents works both ways, too. So my best to your parents over there, I hope you're having a good time. We look forward to seeing you back here in Los Angeles. I got some travel coming up. But don't you worry, it's not going to interfere or change what we're doing. We do have a special show this, well, this recording is on Wednesday. I talked to John Batseck. And you know if you listen to the state of the union that Mossie and I often talk about the things that we have watched. And I think it's fair to say Mossie that we both, we love film, we love entertainment, we love television. And I know we blend it, but we also, in particular, love documentaries. And John is as a long history when it comes to documentary, including the new Marino doc, which just dropped on Netflix. So we talked to him, all right? If I go to that right now, Mossie, let's do it. All right, let's talk to John here. As promised, John Batseck joins us from the UK over there. He's one of the founders of Venture Land, the managing director and producer over there at Venture Land, a producer and an executive producer associated with all sorts of stuff, including award-winning Oscars and Emmys and Peabody's and Beth does and all sorts of stuff you know him from. Let's see, all these incredible documentaries. Beckham, once in a lifetime, you watch that when it comes to the cosmos. I'm searching for Shurgman, one of my favorite all-time documentaries of all time. One man in September, Hillsboro, Man Hunt, the hunt for Bin Laden, that is awesome. And then what I think may be my favorite is WAM. I absolutely loved the WAM documentary. Anyway, welcome, John, welcome to the State of the Union. But you're here to talk about your latest effort, which is Marino a three-part documentary on the great Joseph Marino, which is just dropped on Netflix. I have watched it. I know other people are tuning in. So I guess the first question would be to you is this iconic and legendary figure in the game. How do you get him? Because also part of his legend is, you know, he's prickly. He's as my, well, as as a lot of time who also appears in the movie, by the way, or Tyrionry might bristle at, I think he's arrogant, but in the best possible sense. So how do you get the best of Joseph Marino for this project? How do you convince him to do this? Well, first of all, can I just say Alex, he's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me on the show. And it's a very good question. And the truth is, we got him. I got him on the show because about three years ago, his people made it sort of made it clear to the production sort of world that Joseph was interested in doing a documentary and that he was going to meet with a bunch of production companies, all of whom would pitch for the right to be the people making the doc. And as it happened, I know Joseph had seen our Boris Becker film. We made a film with Boris Becker. Alex gave me direct to the film that I produced about Boris Becker that was on Apple. And he was a particular fan of that film. I knew that. And so I was one of the three production companies who were auditioned by Joseph for the role of being the producers of the film of the series. I went to meet him at the Chelsea Harbor Hotel in London, which is a very famous, a very near Stanford bridge, and is a sort of famous footballer hangout. And I had my, having been forced to wait for a few hours for my allotted slot, I had my one hour chat with him. And, you know, it's sort of, it seemed to go fairly well. And then I must admit, and I say this cringing internally at the very least, at the end of my pitch to him, I said to him, look, Joseph, I know you're chatting to other production companies. And I said, look, Joseph, if you want one of the bottle, go with one of those other production companies. But if you want a special one, you need to work with me in Ventureland. And he, he lapped that up, would you believe? I know it's a ballsy play. Get a full of flat on my face, but he actually loved it. And, you know, and ultimately he chose us. Wow, wow. So you took his own words and turned them back around him. I mean, let's, you got to play to the ego, right? You have to work for it. So, so, so now you have your main character in this production. Were you sure you were going to get an absolute genuine representation of what Joseph was? Because, you know, having watched it, and it's a, it's a fascinating, like I said, three parts over there on Netflix. It's fascinating to, to see him. But I'm, I'm always left wondering about, you know, how much of it is true? How much of it is genuinely who he is? And how much of it is performative? And it's interesting because one of the first people that appears in this documentary, and we're not giving anything away here is, there's a lot to Andy Berhivimich. I worked with him over the summer at Fox with the World Cup. And it occurred to me that there are some similarities in that they both occupy this space where they are these personalities and their characters. And so, how much of the true Joseph Merino do we see in this doc? And how much is it just performative? Because that's what he's just giving the people what they want kind of. I mean, it's a really good question. You know, I suppose in some respects, I'd throw back to you with all of these kinds of people, how much of the actual truth are you really going to get? That's the challenge that we all face as documentary producers and documentary directors. And you're right, I suppose immediately I was thinking to myself, and the team thought to us, I said, okay, how on earth are we going to get through the sort of protective wall that Joseph is likely to throw up for himself? And knowing the complication of the character, how are we going to try to get to any sort of a truth? And all you can do is, all you can do is your very best to do that. And I think the director, we chose a director Joe Perman, who's really brilliant and talented. We put our heads together and Miles Coleman, the other producer who produced it with me. It's a set about doing our best to break him down in that respect. And you do that in a couple of ways. One is we spent a tremendous amount of time with him. And you hope by doing that, that at a certain point, he almost forgets that the cameras are rolling. And certainly David Beckham did that. David trusted Fisher and me and the team to extend by interview number three or four. He'd kind of forgotten that the cameras were there. Boris Beck has no filter of any sort at any point. So that wasn't the challenge at all. And with Joseph, you know, it's a really, it's a good question and it's a tough one to answer. I think we get to a lot of truth with him, but part of the truth of Joseph is that he's determined not to give you the truth. And that's the challenge. That's a huge challenge. And so, and as you can see there, moments where Joe the director really calls him on it. And he doesn't enjoy that. And yet we try to push him and keep pushing him. And to some extent, we were successful and in some respects, you know, there are areas of his life that he just wasn't going to get into. And so, despite the fact we pushed him, pushed him to try and get into those areas. He didn't go there. And in a way, you know, all we could do is push as hard as we could because at the same time, what you don't want to do. And this happened a couple of times. Pushed so hard that he gets pissed off with you and lo and behold, you know, he's like sulking and he won't talk to you for four months. Um, in watching it, at any time we watch a documentary or any kind of look into someone that's been incredibly successful, we're looking for, you know, the magic potion, the ingredient, whatever it is and trying to get some sort of inkling on to what makes him tick and how he is successful because we often think, well, maybe we can apply it to ourselves. I think one of the constants is throughout this documentary is that at one point, I think he says, I'm not one of them. And, you know, from his, from the time that he kind of came on the scene, he had been surrounded and competing against other coaches managers who were oftentimes not just former players in very big time, but, you know, legendary players out that. Do you think that that, it's insecurity, I guess is the only word that I can come up with. That chip on that shoulder is ultimately what makes him so driven, so competitive and then ultimately what's so successful. And this definitely plays a huge part. You're absolutely right. I think he very clearly says that he, you know, he's not one of the club. He doesn't want, you know, he wasn't a former professional and I think he felt very, he's always felt an outsider. He says he's always felt an outsider and that was really driven him to show those guys that he's not only as good as them, he's better than them. I also think that the fact that his father was a manager in the football world and was a beloved manager in the football world, but was pushed around a lot, was really pushed around a lot by the football world, made Josie determined that he wasn't going to let that happen to him as well. So I think the combination of those two things, which both amounts of sort of chips on his shoulder have made him utterly determined to be a huge success, despite the fact that he doesn't come from the kind of background that football expects they great managers to come from. I think we got also a picture of a flawed human being in the best possible sense, you know, none of us are perfect and you do see some of his flaws and you do see some I think of almost a hypocrisy at one point. You know, I think he says that football belongs to me, not to the intruders. And it's in the context of Roman Abramovich at Chelsea and obviously he plays a big role in everything and you know, he bristles at times when they talk about the money that they spent and you can tell that he's sensitive to that, to that fact about this. Do you find any hypocrisy in the way that he talks about the money in the game, which ultimately in many cases has led to the success that he enjoys? I mean, listen, you were talking to somebody who comes from multiple generations of psychotic Chelsea fans. So you're gonna have a hard time getting me to toe that line. I think, I think Jose feels very strongly that money or no money, you know, he is a brilliant, brilliant manager. He took that porto side, his first side and they won the Champions League, they won the Europa Cup, they won the league with no big money spent. The fact is when he got to Chelsea, he did have the muscle that enabled him to bring in some great players, but he still had the core of that team with players who had not won at the highest level for a few years certainly. And he came in and said to them, you, I'm gonna make you the best in the world. You are gonna be winners. We are gonna win together. And he does it with such conviction and such power that they all believed him and lo and behold, you know, that's exactly what happened. I think, like I said, he doesn't believe that money by his titles, he believes that his skill is what bought the titles. Give me your, if you can, your favorite part of the movie and of the documentary. And maybe something that you feel if you had to do it over again, we all have, you know, thoughts on it. If I did it this way, I would do this, any part of the movie that you wanted to maybe dig in deeper and you didn't get there either because you just didn't have the time or like we said before, maybe he just, he wasn't feeling it. Well, I think, I think I've got many favorite moments. Like I said, as the Chelsea fan, it's hard not to love the moment where we get to the bolt in the way game in Frank's schools. There's two girls and we win the league for the first time in God knows how many years, 53 years or something. I love, I have to say, I love watching Inter Milan, the sequences Inter Milan win the Champions League and just the way the players just was so completely an utterly in awe of and in love with Jose. Listen, I wish we'd been able to drill deeper into Jose's relationship with his father with the sort of history of his family and how that played into that chip on his shoulder. I think he's a very complicated man who we got to some of the complications I would have loved the time and the space and the openness to get to some more of that stuff. Well, I mean, there's a point there where he's talking about his family and I thought in one of the most, you know, honest parts of the whole documentary where he basically admits that they are better without him at times and in doing so shows how committed he is to what he does but the cost oftentimes for us. I thought you guys did a great job of pulling that out although I'm sure it was, I'm sure it was difficult. And, you know, his my way or the highway type of approach it's, you know, feast or famine, you know, boom or bust when it comes to what he's doing. A couple other questions here before I let you go. One of the interesting parts of this as you go through is that he made news at the end of what I think was probably the stuff that you were going on returning to Real Madrid and now we're all kind of in on what's gonna happen here as he returns to Real Madrid. Was that originally going to be part of the documentary or was that, did that need to be added at the end as kind of a surprise because you couldn't just ignore it? No, listen, you know, at no point did any of us think that Jose was going to get, I don't think he thought he was going to get in the room with good job again. So maybe he did actually, he's probably the one person who did think he was going to get it again. So no, that came as a big surprise to us. You know, we, we followed him to Roma, we followed him to Fenerbahce, we followed him to Benfica. That, that, I think that, I think the football world felt that was signifying the fact that Jose was no longer in the top of the A leagues. And I think most people in football were surprised that he got the Real Madrid job. We, so, so, we were sort of very close to the end of post-production when that happened. And so we tacked it on to the end of episode three because it's an amazing moment, but we definitely didn't see that coming. I've read some other interviews where you guys were talking about the fact that you felt like at times you were being, and you used the word manipulated. And not in like a, a bad sense, but can you just expand a little bit on the fact that the subject of your documentary was manipulating you through the movie? Me, listen, he's Jose and we knew, isn't he? I mean, he's, he, as he, you know, he says in our documentaries, no such thing as a manipulator. There was only the people who allow themselves to be manipulated. He's a master tactician, isn't he? He knows what he's prepared to do, he knows what he's not prepared to do. I must say, we challenged him. Jose, there were times when he was not happy with us at all for various reasons when he didn't like the line of questioning when, you know, when, when we didn't allow him to push us around like maybe other people, he's pushed other people around. And I think, I hope that ultimately he respects us for that. But he's, he's brilliant at it, you know, and so we had to be really alert to it and on our game to make sure that we still got out of him what we needed to get out of him. For the most part, an almost to a man, his former players, many adore him at the very least, respect him. And then there's a couple others. But the cast of characters that you got to talk about him, I think says a lot about the man himself, D.D.A. Drogba, Edden Hauser, Frank Lampart, Eker Cassius, we'll get back to you in a second here. Samuel Hato, Sir Alex Ferguson, I mentioned Zlatan earlier in the production element with that hat on, was it, was it difficult or once they heard this was about Joseph Merino and obviously he was part of it, they just lined up. The truth is that almost all of them, as soon as you say Joseph Merino, they were like, yeah, of course we'll do it. That doesn't mean there's a lot of hard work from that moment to actually getting them and setting it and having the date and then showing up and us doing the interviews. But for the most part, you know, he's massively respected and admired and quite rightly so. And all of those people, particularly the ones who've actually worked with him, for sure, I'd love to talk about it because he, as you say, when they love them or not, they succeeded with him. He made them better players or better coaches or better assistant managers and they love him for it and they respect him for it and they're happy to talk about it. Speaking of talking about it, you know, one of the legendary types of moments, because you know, you show the good and the bad and the ups and the downs of his career, the first time I guess it would be now that he's going back to Real Madrid, but his first time at Real Madrid and the relationship and the fractured relationship with Eucharcaseus in particular, who I thought was really, really important to this project. I guess my question to you would be, and you know, there's plenty of soccer folks that are listening and watching right now. Is the mole Eucharcaseus? I'm not in the position. I don't have sufficient information to be able to tell you that, but I mean, what's the episode three and you can come to your own conclusions? I have to say, you know, even Eucharcaseus for all the difficulties, he sat for an interview, he talked to us. It's not like he was like, go to hell, I'm never going to do that. He, you know, Jose, they were incredibly successful in season two under Jose. So he obviously made enough of a mark on Euchar that he felt able to tell us both of the positives, but very significant of the negatives. So, but I couldn't tell you whether he's the mole or not. Well, you have to watch it. It's a fascinating look into a situation where I think as big as Marino is, and often times, and I think it's said time of time through the documentary that, you know, his bigger than life personality takes over a situation. It was almost a time there where Real Madrid was, in this case, at or even bigger than him and, you know, dramatic stuff kind of ensues there. So if you haven't heard the stories, you'll get a good education on what's going on there. Anything on the cutting room floor that you didn't get to that you would like to get to? Or you wish it had been in there? Well, listen, I mean, the thing about it is, we could have gone on and on and on. Of course, we could have spent more time on Man United. We could have spent more time on Tottenham, although as a Chelsea fan, what's the point of spending more time on Tottenham? But we could have, and we didn't. Ultimately, I think, you know, and also on Porter, you know, we could have spent more time on Porter because what he did in Porter was absolutely incredible. Of course, we do tell, we scoot through that story and we do tell it a few times, but, you know, ultimately, we're extremely proud of the series. As I said, for me, having spent, spending as much time as we did with Jose felt like an extraordinary, an amazing experience. I'm thrilled we had it and I did it. And, and, you know, I think, you know, it seems that it's come out of the blocks pretty fast. It seems to be doing well across the globe. Hopefully people will come to it and appreciate it and enjoy it and, you know, let's see. John, a little bit about you before I let you go. I am mentioned to all the different projects that you've been involved with over the years and incredibly successful projects. What draws you to a documentary? And I know it's a work in progress like anything else, but how do you at least believe that it is going to be successful? Well, let me say, first of all, once in a lifetime, love making that movie, the New York Cosmos, what a story. Oh, my God. You know, I follow my passions. So, so I make a lot of films that are based in sport or have sport as a backdrop to a bigger story from Pat Tillman to Beckham. And, you know, the magic ingredient for me is always the sense when I look at a story of thinking, okay, I see what is the central core of this story. But does it have the ability to be greater than the sum of those parts? So does it have the ability to work on multiple layers so that someone who has no interest in Boris Becker doesn't know who Pat Tillman was, couldn't give a damn about David Beckham or Jose Mourinho, will hear something about this series or this film that will make them think, hmm, that sounds interesting. I want to check that out. And that, I would say, is that the center of all the films that I gravitate towards is that ability to broaden out stories that it can appeal to people who on the surface don't have any interest in that subject. Is there something in the soccer football world out there that you haven't done that you have your eyes set on? I mean, I would always have loved to do the story of the Abraham of It's Years at Chelsea. I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of football stories. I'd like to make a film about Tiger Woods. I know that's not football, but there we go. You know, I'll never stop being interested in football stories, soccer stories that can, as I said, transcend the central story and become about something bigger and better. All right, last question. It just has to do with titles, right? What's the difference between a producer and an executive producer? A producer is someone who will take a project from day one to day 10,000, and a producer will dip in and dip out, but isn't the person who's really driving the whole production? As a producer, give me some things that a producer does in your line of work, specifically to documentaries. Well, I often raise the money, all the money to make the film. I'm the guy who sits in front of Jersey and has the nuts to say, if you want one of the bottle, or if you want a special one, I find the director, I find the editor, I put the whole team together, or the producer traditionally puts the whole team together. Then you sit very close with the director and the editor as a producer and work creatively helping them realize the vision that you're all trying to realize. Then also, take with the producer like me because I've been around for so bloody long. I then sit over the process of selling a film or working with the people who finance it, whether it's Netflix or Apple, whoever, to work on the marketing, the trailer, the poster, the release strategy, the press, the whole, so I as a sort of creative producer play a big part in the whole process. Awesome, awesome. Well, you've done another wonderful job here. I just, I really, really enjoyed it. I can't recommend it highly enough. We'll be giving it, well, I will be giving it. We'll see what my colleague David Mossy thinks about it because we're going to talk to him and he is going to watch it too. But I'm giving it two thumbs up. Congratulations on another successful project here. John Batsett, from Venture Land. We talked about him being the producer of this new Netflix documentary, three parts called Merino going through Jose Merino and just giving it a incredible look in it. Thank you. Thank you for coming on the state of the union and I wish you luck with the documentary and anything else that you're doing going forward. Thanks, Alex, he's a real pleasure to have chat with you. Thanks. All right, again, a thank you to John Batsek over there in UK for staying up late with us and being on the, the show. I thought it was really interesting to get a little bit more perspective and a little more in depth about the documentary, which I really think is good, Mossy. I think you're going to really enjoy it. But I also think you know, like a lot of, there's so much meat on the Merino bone that it's almost impossible to get all of it. I think John did a good job explaining on how they had to distill but there's probably more episodes that they could do if they wanted to. I can't wait to watch it. I do have a couple of questions for you. Did they focus at all on the fall from Grace the last few years? The fact that he ended up at a club like Fenerbahce? No, they didn't focus on that. Although at times throughout both he and the way that he is depicted make it very, very clear that he is in a certain sense chasing the high. And that's probably what keeps him going and makes him the person that he is. And obviously the coach that he is. And it's, I think he readily admits that he is addicted to that. And especially at a very relatively early age experiencing that moment. I think at one point during the doc they talk about the dopamine effect and the adrenaline and the power that having that type of success multiple times. And especially the younger age is something that you end up chasing. So I think there's a lot of that that you see. But they don't go into a whole lot of what has happened. Although as you heard John talk about they certainly had to tag it with the Real Madrid news of him returning. One criticism you've had of these documentaries in recent years is that the subject of the documentary has a bit too much say editorially. And so it ends up sounding like an infomercial. How did this one come off in that regard? Yeah, I mean, there's always that debate as to is it better to be an authorized biography or a documentary or an unauthorized where you can actually get to some of the good stuff. And so you probably have to do that balance. I don't think that they shade it. I don't think that they bend over backwards to make him look good by any stretch of the imagination. So I do think that you get a balanced view on what he is. But I think John will be the first person to admit that they went in understanding that they're never gonna get maybe truly who he is and that he is going to try to, as he mentioned, manipulate the situation. But I think that that's inevitable regardless of who you are doing it with. So maybe it's an ideal that I have that's almost impossible to actually have a curve when you're doing a documentary. But either way, I'll be look forward. And I think our viewers and listeners will look forward to seeing how you react this after seeing this interview. Depending on the Wi-Fi on the flight, I might watch it on my way back to LA. I do have a book on Shay Guevata, I want to read. So it's gonna be their Shay or Modingo on the flight back. Two legends in their own right. Where should we go to now, my friend? All right. So another European club season is upon us. In fact, today, PSG beat Aston Villa, two to one in the UEFA Super Cup, another trophy for them, but at Scale and Duet with their goals, did you see the 17 year old, my Joe got the goal for Aston Villa? He is a handful. Yeah, I was just about to say he is a handful. He's still, he's still raw, but my goodness. The goal that he scored while being manhandled at a certain point at one point, he also had a couple of blank shots, ran over some defenders. That was something to behold. Also got his failure, oh my God, it's so hard to pronounce. His goal was wonderful because in them, it's not the modern age, but let's just say certainly in the last 20 years, the whole off-winger coming in and cutting to their preferred foot and then hitting it to that far post has just become ubiquitous in the game and because it works and it's effective. And in this case, he switched it up and the way he kind of set himself up to look to that far post and then hit it back to the near post. It was wonderful to see. All right. So with another European club season upon us, we're going to play a little stock up, stock down with US international in Europe, what the outlook is for them. We're heading into this new season. Now, this is largely based on their national team standing, what happened at the World Cup, the fact that Puchotino staying, but also taking into account somewhat their club situation. So I know you've put together a list, take it away. Yeah, I just want to also talk about a little bit more about what you said in that you could be having a wonderful club situation and then get to the summer and either add to it or completely flop. So I recognize that they are very two different types of circumstances. But look, we're coming off of this incredible summer, a summer in which we talked so much about this team, so much about these players. And now they're starting up their seasons. And I thought it was just kind of good to take stock of a handful of these players as to where they are, not the least of which, shall we start off, Mossy with Balligan. What a summer. What a summer. I think he came out probably on top with your power ranking who came out in the best possible light. And even the whole controversy with the red card and all of that happened. I don't think that that hurt him in the least. He's also a goal score. He did what he needed to do in terms of scoring the goals. He became a household name for, not for those of us obviously that follow the game and the whole point was to get people into the tent. And people that I know don't follow soccer at all knew who Balligan was. So that was wonderful for his chew rating or whatever you want to talk about that. And as he has moved with his club career, he has continued to score goals. So I think he is sitting pretty right now, certainly stock up. Even as we come on air today, Mossy, more rumors about the possibility of him being transferred and going a bunch of different places out there. Yeah, we talked about PSG last week. Those stories have cooled, but Tottenham have emerged as a potential destination. That would be interesting because, of course, he came up with Arsenal. So he'd be joining their North London rivals. We'll see if that comes off. That would be fun to see Folleting Balligan back in the Premier League. It would be fun. There's an element of, and I ended up saying this for a number of years in that when my Manchester United fell from grace, there was always this element. And even by the way, we just talked about Merinio going there in terms of, at some point it's going to come good. And they're going to return. And you want to be on that ship. There's the same type of effect when I think about the potential of Balligan at a spurs. Whoever it is, both the coach and the players that bring them back to prominence. I mean, this is a team that was, you know, as crazy as it sounds, was almost relegated. And so I don't think that that's going to happen again. So yeah, it would be interesting for him to return to England. And in this capacity, be there for this team. And if he was ultimately associated with the resurrection of this once great team. It should be noted, there are conflicting stories. They keep and Tom Bogart are talking up Tottenham. Fabito Domano is actually pouring cold water on it. He's mentioned Turkey and Saudi Arabia as possibilities for him. Now, I've already insulted Turkey once by saying that Jose Moding was ending up at Fenerbahce was a fall from grace. I don't want to do it again, but nevertheless, I think he would agree. Let's hope Tottenham is true rather than Turkey or Saudi Arabia. Yeah, from a competitive standpoint. But again, you put yourself in their shoes and some of these places, whether it's a Saudi Arabia or even a Turkey for that matter, they get paid a lot of money. And which one would I rather, if it came down to either going to Turkey, or going to Saudi Arabia, I'd probably say Turkey. I think, and again, it's a selfish, we want him to be in a situation where he's testing himself and where he's the best version of him come the national team and the next tournaments that we have. But I mean, there's almost an element of me of, is that if those are the other two parts, take the money out of it, and I know it's the possible to do next to impossible. And I'm almost rather, stay put and wait for something else to come along. All right, so I certainly agree with Balagin, stock up, who's next? Let's go to Christian Policic. And I don't think that there's anybody out there that would disagree that his stock is down. Keep in mind, his stock was down, even before the World Cup started, and then, you know, a World Cup where he was injured for most of it, where he took a lot of shots, many of them fair, in terms of his performance. He absolutely did not kind of harness the power of being the poster boy for this American team, and introduce himself in a way that is changing his marketability. People know who Christian Policic is, but there was an element of not living up to the hype. And in particular, as we've said time and time again, in a home world cup, where there were so many more eyes on him, and where he could have had an impact on for his brand in the US. And, you know, for various different reasons he didn't. And then he's going back to a situation where certainly the first half last year in city of for AC Milan was incredible. And as incredible as the first half was, that's how incredibly horrible the second half was. So it's a, it's a Jekyll and Hyde for him, and what shows up now with this, I guess revamped AC Milan and this reclamation project that they have on their hands right now and how much is he a part of it? And do we see that first half from last year? Christian Policic at AC Milan? Or do we see that second half or the summer for that matter when it comes to the world cup? So yeah, I think his stock is down after the world cup. I agree. It is crazy how many managers he's had in his career between Dortmund, Chelsea and AC Milan. He has another one in Ruben Amorim, who is saying all the right things about Policic having an important role to play in the team that's upcoming campaign. But we'll see. I mean, he did not score a single goal in the 2026 calendar year and then had a very difficult world cup, as you mentioned. So he is definitely entering this campaign with a lot of question marks about him. You know, at one point, the narrative was, man, what a breath of fresh air Milan is compared to the toxicity at Chelsea. He's really found the home there and now people are wondering about his future entering the season and his standing with the national team, as we've discussed, there's a lot of talk that this is now Bologna's team rather than Policis. All right, let's move on to West McKenney, who unlike Christian Policic in Italy, just had a banner here. It was just wonderful. Again, proved that he is maybe more so than anyone in American soccer history, able to adjust to whatever the circumstances, whether it's the opponent, whether it's the teammates, more importantly, whether it's the coaches and make himself very, very quickly a valuable asset. Now, did he have the greatest world cup this summer? No, but he was fine. He did what he needed to do. I think people really enjoyed seeing him as a player. I think people enjoyed his personality. So I only think that he helped his brand and I certainly think that he's coming out of this summer with stock up as the stock was up even going into the summer. Yeah, to think that at the start of 2026, there was an idiot on a podcast who questioned whether he was going to be a starter for the US at the world cup. That was me, of course. And it felt like he was the first name on the team sheet. And I'm sure he's going to remain a very important player for Puchotino moving forward. And yeah, this is the first summer where there's been no stories about him possibly leaving the event as having to prove himself again. He's very settled there. He's signed a new contract. Luciano Spantino loves him. Gush was about him. Every chance he gets. So yeah, I think Weston's in a really nice place heading into this new campaign. Yeah, and Weston loves him. What did he say? He's my favorite coach talking about Spaletti. My favorite coach, the best of those I've had in my career. Well, you're always going to say that for someone that likes you in place. We'll see if that lasts. I hope that it does. But yes, definitely stock up for Western McKinney. Let's move on to Tyler Adams. I do think stock up, especially because what's the big knock been on Tyler Adams? Well, the knocks that he takes and therefore the injuries and the time out. And I'm going to not speaking of knocking. I'm going to knock on as much wood as I possibly can that he's going to continue to be healthy. The way that he has been for this period of time. Again, I don't think that we have yet to see the best of Tyler Adams as a player or the best of Tyler Adams as a player in the World Cup. But I don't think that he heard himself over the course of this summer. I think he was better than he was, let's say four years ago in the World Cup. So he's improved from a World Cup perspective. I think he's, you know, what did he have 26 appearances last year for warm up, two goals, two assists? Does have a new coach, but new coach, what do we call it? Marco, what do we do? What do we do as it has his last day? Back when we used to cover the goodness, they get Kate Abdo would refer to this fellow as Marco Russa. It couldn't just be Marco Rose. She would put a little bit of English into it. Or I should say a little bit of English. You know, the Brits are going to say something completely different. They might even add a syllable, but the time this is also stuck in my head at his Marco Russa. Well, either way, he is from the Red Bull system. So maybe that bodes well for Tyler Adams who certainly has been immersed from a very young age in that going forward. But ultimately, I think if Tyler Adams stays healthy, that's the most important thing. His stock will just continue to go up from there. Shall we move on to Malik Tillman? This is the only possible argument against Balagan in terms of that power ranking about who came out of the World Cup. Now, just the World Cup in a better position. I think Malik Tillman had obviously a wonderful World Cup, not just the goals, but you know, the way that he showed different facets of the game that the layers that he showed, I'm not sure everybody projected that or saw that coming into the World Cup. So he came out of it smelling like a rose. Now, the problem with him is that he had a very, very difficult year last year in the Bundesliga. And he will readily admit that. And the transition to labor, Kuzn wasn't great, was a weird ass year as producer Sean has put in the run down here. But that kind of sums it up. But I still think that his stock is up, especially after having a very successful and positive World Cup. It just remains to be seen whether he can parlay that into a better club year than he had last year. Yeah, remember, he signed to play for Eric Tenhag. Tenhag was fired like five minutes into the season and they brought in the former Denmark coach, Casper Hohmann. And him and Tillman just did not click. Tillman's been outspoken about that. It's now a spanner, Carlos Martinez. So we'll see how that goes. But yeah, certainly from a national team standpoint, I agree with you, terrific World Cup. Tillman starts this cycle as one of the pillars of Mauricio Puchotino's team. All right, Georena has got to be stocked down. I mean, look, great goal. And obviously there was no drama in a good way. I mean, that's a positive. And I guess that's a compliment given what happened in the last World Cup. And so that's an improvement. But just in general, I think he is coming into the situation with his stocked down. Again, he's not a starter for the US team. Wonderful goal, not taking anything away from it. But he finds himself once again moving. Now, that he finds a landing place after the Gladbach thing didn't work, now going to Strasbourg over there in France and Ligue 1. I think that just says how much talent he still has and how much people still believe that they can find something. But I still think that it's fair to stay stocked down. He didn't command the World Cup by any stretch of the imagination. And this move to Ligue 1, you could even frame it as a step down in competition. But sometimes you take a step back in order to go two steps forward. I don't know if this step back is going to be followed by two steps forward, but he's been given another lease on life and another chance. And it's just amazing how many chances he's been given. Yeah, you mentioned that he comes on scores that great goal against Paraguay and the opener, everybody gets excited and then doesn't do much of anything the rest of the World Cup. I wonder where he sits right now and puts a Tino's pecking order. And then at club level, just disappointing because I thought Gladbach was a good fit for him and he scored one goal all season and after one season, they decided to unload him. It was three million euros to Strasbourg. So it's not like they've received an offer. They couldn't refuse. This was more Gladbach unloading him. And we'll see how things go at Strasbourg. But I mentioned this on a recent pot. It's starting to feel a little freddy a douish existence of his where he has to keep bouncing around from club to club. You'd like to see him stick somewhere for multiple seasons. You know, there have been whispers about MLS for him if at some point he'll consider going to MLS. So we'll see how things play out at Strasbourg. But I definitely agree with Stockdown. All right. So Genio Dess, he's an interesting one because did not have a good World Cup. And certainly while the team didn't play well in that last game, he was horrible in that in that last game and that defining game for many people when it comes to that round of 16 game. You know, we know he is bummed around. And still, I think a quality player, although there might be a moving on from him when it comes to Pochettino and the national team, he might be one of them where you say, yeah, we could continue on. But you know what, we're going to turn the page and move forward. And which is kind of unthinkable. If you look back a couple of years and what's their gene, you know, Dess was, not just playing right back, but his ability to play right back and left back and then moved into the midfield and didn't misbeade and all those different things. And I'm not saying that he can't do that again, but it kind of feels like for Genio Dess, maybe I should have put a stock up down or sideways, but right now we're sideways. I can make an argument for it's stock down and stock up because there are still reports now that he might be moving on from PSV going forward. We know all the places that he's played. Still a quality player, but what would you say, Moss? He's stock up or stock down for Dess. Yeah, he's very much a stock sideways. I'm okay with him staying at PSV. He's got a pretty good situation there. But I guess my question with Dess from a US perspective is can we give up on him ever playing right back in a back four again? It seems like Pochettino views him as more of a winger or somebody that's always gonna play further up the field. Well, I mean, we're gonna find out what Pochettino has in mind when it comes to formation and tactics moving forward. And it might be a hybrid. It might be going back and forth. But yeah, maybe. I mean, if this US team has moved on, maybe he fits, I don't know how to be interesting to see again, as we're going into this next phase of Pochettino, we know he doesn't suffer fools. And again, I would not surprise me in the least if he just says not we're moving on from that player and that era. And if we are, so you know, Dess has given us wonderful, wonderful moments. I think he's a brilliant player and has been a brilliant player for us in the past, but we'll see moving on. I didn't have any players that are playing in Major League Soccer, but if I did, certainly stocked down would be the goalkeepers in general, but Matt Fries and Matt Turner right now, we've talked about that at Nazim. I stock up from, I guess, what were MLS players until a few weeks ago would be your Sebastian Burr-Halters and your Max Arvston's and these types of players who have parlayed not just their good play in MLS, but also their, well, in Burr-Halters situation, actually playing in the World Cup, scoring in the World Cup. And for Max Arvston, at least being a part of the national team under Mauricio Pochettino, so they would get, they would get stocked up. And they've always already kind of cashed in and realized that stock. Yeah, just on the goalkeeper front, the conceit of this segment was Americans in Europe, and you wanted to get goalkeepers in there, but the reality is there isn't an American goalkeeper vying for the starting job at any prominent European club right now, which is a story in and of itself. If you think about the goalkeepers of the US has had through the years and the level they've attained in European club football, so I agree with you, the goalkeeper position in general is just they stocked down. Well, let us know if we didn't hit any of the players that you want, that you think are stock up or stock down out there. There's certainly plenty of other ones out there that have benefited or been hurt by what happened this summer or are coming into this fall in a very different place than even a few months ago. So let us know, where should we go to now, Masi? The final matchday of the league phase of the league's cup is taking place Tuesday Wednesday Thursday of this week. We're taping this pot on Wednesday afternoon, so it's a bit tricky. We can't really get into scenarios and standings, but there were a couple of games on Tuesday that caught my eye. Did you see a van there scored another long distance strike for Cincinnati, although Cincinnati coughed up the lead late, they lost two, one to Atlas. That will very likely cost them a top four spot in the MLS table. Same for Charlotte, who lost the Pachuca. There was a crazy game, Tegres van Coover, Tegres finished with nine, Linus and Guzmán sent off, but they finished one, one and then one on penalties. So yeah, the league's continuing to provide entertainment. And when the dust settles here the next couple of days, we'll see which four teams are going to ask, which four teams from League at next advance? Yeah, and really small margins. And the room for error is very, very small when it comes to the points. And as we mentioned before, of these 18 teams from each league, only the top four from each league after the group play happens move forward. And so you're going to have a lot of teams that won two games, have six points that don't go through. So, there's a lot of calculation going on, ultimately when it comes to the four teams that come through. And that's Massey. All right, cool. Let's take another quick break. Well, our first quick break, that was a long segment, but it's okay. We'll take a quick break when we come back. It's time for Ask Alex. Okay, welcome back. It's time for Ask Alexi, that part of the show where you send in your comments, questions and concerns. Keep in mind that our handle out there on the old, the social media platforms is SOTU with Alexi. You can use the hashtag Ask Alexi out there on all the old social media platforms. Or you can call into our state of the union podcast hotline, which is 6, 5, 7, 5, 4, 9, 2, 2, 9, 7. That's 6, 5, 7, 5, 4, 9, 2, 2, 9, 7, Massey. What are the folks want to know today? First up, we have a voice mail. Let's take a listen. Hey, Alexi and Massey, this is Josh from Atlanta. Long time no talk. I just want to congratulate you guys on an amazing world sub podcast. It made me proud to be an American. So excited about the summer. I got a question about the 2030 World Cup qualifying. It sounds like I got to do something for a common ball, because three teams are automatically qualified. They have this really cool qualifying process now, where they play everybody humming away. They can't really do that for 2030, because so many teams are going to qualify. Why not put US, Mexico, Canada to replace our just being a pair of Y, Uruguay, and do a similar thing? And basically, so many teams are going to qualify. They need to do something with the state. Here's my idea for the state. How about the top two or three teams get to be in part one? The next two or three, part two, the next two or three, part three, et cetera. And maybe the last two have to don't qualify or have to do some sort of playoff or something. I think they got to figure something out, and really interested to hear what you guys think, especially Masi for this one. Thanks guys, love the show. All right, well, thank you, Joss, and thank you for the kind words. Yeah, it was a hell of a summer. We had a good time, and I'm glad that you did too. All right, so this is interesting, Masi, and I'll be interested to get your take here. I feel like there are some wins of change that are swirling out there when it comes to the world of soccer, and let's be honest with what is going on right now with FIFA and the World Cup, and all of the different conversations that are going on about what the future holds and what it looks like. And maybe it parallels what's going on in politics right now and everything in that there seems to be, at least the way I interpret and feel it, a desire for something different, a desire for change going forward. Now, how does that manifest? I don't know. We can talk about the suggestion that Josh has, and there's been lots of talk over the years about how Mexico, Canada, and the United States, in particular, would do better and do well by themselves to go and to be playing in a consistent way with calmnable. Keep in mind, calmnable for South America has 10 teams, okay? 10 teams in the entire confederation, as opposed to Conca Caff, which is the confederation that the United States is in, and Canada and Mexico, there are 41 members, okay? So it's a very different type of setup and very different type of size. Now, the amount of quality that exists in those 10 teams down in commonable is well documented. But as Josh rightfully says, going forward and looking towards 30 and what the qualifying process, and we're not going to get into the weeds out there when it comes to something like that. You know, ultimately is the dilution of competition just because of the sheer size of the world cup, I'm going to make World Cup qualifying irrelevant and can confederations and federations and teams afford to have that happen. When you look at Conca Caff, for example, and I said this the other day on the old X machine, I got some pushback from some people, but I can certainly make the argument. I would argue that the most important asset that Conca Caff has of those 41 members is the United States. Now, you could certainly argue Mexico, but what the United States brings on the field in terms of the importance in the asset and the value of the United States men's national team playing and playing in finals and being internaments, but also and maybe even more so, the markets and the value and the business of the United States. I mean, there's a reason why gold cups, there's a reason why, hey, Copa Americas, there's a reason why FIFA Club World Cups are here. And so that's part of the value that the United States brings. And whatever confederation the United States would be in, they would bring that value. Now, there's talk right now, and you see rumors rumbling all over the place right now, relative to Mexico possibly leaving. The reality and I guess the, from a competitive standpoint, the sad fact is, we're really challenging ourselves against Mexico and Canada at different times. And then it gets slim pickings. Doesn't mean we can't lose to other teams in ConcaCaf, but there's very limited competition in the other 40 members of ConcaCaf for the United States. But you also have to, the grass is not always greener. And you have to, you know, you have to be careful what you wish for. That's a long way of saying, Josh, I don't know what the future looks like. I don't know if the U.S. playing incominable makes the U.S. better. And when we say better, let's be honest, it's all in the context of doing better in a World Cup. I mean, I would, I'd be fascinated to see what the U.S. looked like in Mossy. I'll let you take it from here. What the U.S. or Canada or Mexico for that matter looked like going through a World Cup, a normal World Cup qualifying process. So I know things are changing, but a normal World Cup qualifying process when it comes to a commonable. Yeah, as you mentioned, this topic's been in the air. We also got a question, X from Bowser, Frozenov. He said, can the U.S. leave ConcaCaf? We gain nothing from them. Refs are ass. A lot of the stadiums and pitches are ass. First of all, very quickly, Josh, given the current state of Brazilian soccer, I don't need qualifying to be any tougher. I was actually quite looking forward to not having Argentina and Uruguay in there and just dealing with a riff rath in South America and maybe Brazil can scrape through the 2030. But listen, Josh, you're focusing on the circumstances in 2030. In general, I'm in favor of ConcaCaf merging. Alexi gave you the numbers. Ten in ConcaCaf 41 in ConcaCaf, that would make 51. UEFA has 55, so it would be comparable numbers there. Now, it's easy to say that the devil's in the details that have to figure out the calendar, what that would mean in terms of the competitions and the format. But I think you could have just the regional tournament, this part of the world, just be a tournament of the Americas. And then you could maybe concoct a nation's league. And even at club level, I'd love to see League of Max and MLS teams compete with the best from South America. How fun would it be to have an MLS team go play, the Book of Juniors in La Bombona, or play Flamengo, and the Manacana. Speaking of, as soon as we're done, my dad and I are going to go watch Cruzeiro Flamengo and the Copoli Bratadoras. So I think in the long run, it benefits everybody. I think it would certainly benefit the US. The US is trying to do something that's very difficult, which is to become an elite football nation while playing outside of Europe or South America. It's a little bit, to make a college basketball analogy. It's a little bit like a mid major that's trying to become a blue blood, you know, you're kind of outside of where the action is. And the US needs to put themselves in a position where they're playing a better competition on a regular basis. Imagine if over the course of a cycle, you were guaranteed competitive matches against Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay. I think the US would really benefit from that. Yeah, real quick, before we end this here, just some context. As I mentioned, if the US, as a single federation were to leave ConquerCalf, that would be a devastating loss for ConquerCalf. As would Mexico leaving. And this is the, you know, the talk that's going on on that, that gets to Balzar's question about can the US leave ConquerCalf? Well, there is precedent when it comes to someone like Australia back at the turn of the century, back in the early arts, where they went from down there in Oceania to the Asian Confederation. And they argued that it was going to be better in terms of competition. And Oceania at that time did not have an automatic bid to the World Cup. And they recognized that they did not want to have to continue to go through these playoffs, so they would take their chances over there with Asia. So it has happened before. I would think that ConquerCalf, and maybe even FIFA would put up a fight because they would have to approve for something like that to happen. But again, it just goes back to times are changing. And I think the world of soccer is changing as we speak and as we are discussing these things. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's not necessarily a good thing, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. And I think it's also inevitable as time moves on and as things grow and progress and evolve and change. People either want or the world demands that things change. I believe the inevitable compare and contrast between MLS and South American club football is the subject of your one for the road. It is my friend and that's a wonderful tease. All right, we'll take a quick break, come back. And like Mossy said, I'll give you my one for the road. Okay, welcome back at the end of our show and at the end of each and every show, I give you my one for the road as Mossy said. But Mossy, I want to pull you in here because I want you to kind of set this up for me because it plays into something that is evergreen and something that even back before you were born, Mossy, I was dealing with when it comes to American soccer culture. Take it away. So Junior Alonso is a paragwine defender that I'm very familiar with because he played in Brazil with a Pledge Coominero, but he's since moved to MLS with Atlanta, who of course are having a terrible season. And Junior Alonso, who by the way played in this last World Cup, faced the U.S., he was talking about the differences between MLS and South American. And he said here, there isn't the same pressure. If a team were in Atlanta United's current situation in South America, the players wouldn't even be able to go out. Their cars could be burned. Okay, so Mossy, as far back as I can remember, when it comes to American soccer culture, it's often been framed that we are doing things that don't happen around the world. I mean, even when the rare coverage of soccer would happen on, I don't know, CNN or whoever out there, it would often be relative to the craziness and the violence and the hooliganism and all this kind of stuff as to this is what soccer really is. And oftentimes, and this continues, it is framed as this is normal. This is authentic. This is credible. And I want to make sure and be very clear, this is not a slight against junior Alonzo, all right? He is just saying in a very stark way, the differences and the experiences that he has had and how different they are. But oftentimes when we in the American soccer community hear these types of things, there is the tendency to believe that in order for us to be better, in order for us to be authentic, in order for us to be credible, that these types of things have to happen. And I absolutely reject that. Do I recognize that challenging players, both on and off the field, not just players and not just athletes, but humans in general, can get better results, can motivate them? Sure, but to what extent? Burning their cars to me is not an indication of you being authentic. It's also not even an indication that you're being passionate. And I refuse to believe that in order for us to be looked at either from the outside, but maybe even more importantly from the inside, that we have to adapt or adopt these type of practices in order to be viewed as credible, that that is something that we should even entertain. No, I'm not going to apologize for the fact that we are not that shit crazy, that we are not destructive, that we are not violent when it comes in general to our soccer, or when it comes to our sports. Now, look, there are plenty of anecdotal things out there and certain things that you can point to when it comes to things that have happened in sports that go beyond the pale, even in American sports. But no, we are different. And oftentimes when the argument is made that in order for players to develop, they have to be put in the pressure cooker. It's fair enough, okay? But what does your pressure cooker look like? And what are you willing to do to manufacture that pressure cooker because a lot of this is organic. And it will be excused when it's happening around the world as well that's true passion when it comes to the game. And again, I just refuse to accept that and I would throw it back and say, okay, how are you going to replicate? How are you going to manufacture that in order to get the benefit that you so much crave out of these young players that are being developed? Or for that matter, out of these professionals that are playing. I don't have the answer to my question. It's rhetorical. But if the answer is lifts type of behavior, then you can have it. I don't want it. I am actually incredibly proud that as an American soccer playing nation and as American soccer culture, we haven't adopted some of the problematic stuff that exists out there. From a young age all the way to our professional ranks. Now, you might look at and say, well, that's why you'll never be this. Or you'll never have a player like Messi or you'll never have a world cup when it comes to the men's side. Fine, that's okay. Because if that's the trade off, I don't want any of it. Anyway, Messi. On our last part, we talked about club America fans taking over Providence Park. Did you see this video that surfaced of an America fan running through the Timbers Army section waving a club America flag? Now Sean Sullivan, before we started taping, posed the question, would this fly in South America? And as I said on our last pod, this wouldn't even fly in Portland if John Strong was still running Timbers Army. I mean, this guy would have gotten his ass kicked for sure. But unfortunately, it sounds like Timbers Army has gotten soft since John the part of the scene over there. Oh, it just goes back to this ridiculous purity test of what true authentic fandom actually is. And the comparing contrast with around the world that happens. Now, I don't recommend doing something like that. And fandom is tribal. And it's territorial. I completely understand that. And I get that. And there are certain behaviors and actions that you should not do if you value your safety and security when it comes to being a fan. And that exists all over the place. But obviously not to the extent elsewhere around the world. And my point was that old CNN story of, this is what soccer fans are. First off, we all know that it's a warped type of perception of what soccer fans are around the world. But even within the ones that are doing that, we don't need any of that. That's why I'm so actually happy and proud of the safety aspect of what happened this summer with the World Cup. And that shouldn't be taken lightly. It was not just a great World Cup, but it was a safe World Cup. And that's important. Anything before we go, Monty? Yeah, very quickly. I had a terrific Tuesday. First I went to a real hidden gem in New York City. It's called the Museum of the City of New York. It takes you through the whole history of New York. And they have this special exhibit now focused on the Revolutionary War period when New York was actually occupied by the British and what life was like under that British occupation. So if you're in New York, I think the exhibit is going to be around for the next few weeks and months. I highly recommend it. It's terrific. And then after that, we went to Brooklyn and ate at Peter Luger, which for anyone who doesn't know. It's this super famous steakhouse. It's been around since 1887. Now it famously lost its Michelin star a couple years ago. There was some New York Times jerk off named Pete Wells who wrote this dating review back in 2019. And that kind of started to create a bit of a negative narrative that Peter Luger had lost its fastball and lo and behold, they then ended up losing their Michelin star. I can report having gone there last night. It has not lost even one mile off its fastball. It's still one of the best meals you'll ever have. The steak is so moist. I know you're not a bacon guy, but one of those specialties, they serve this big slab of bacon as an appetizer. And it's one of the best things I've ever eaten in my life. So I highly recommend still folks. If you're in the New York area, you want to check out a famous, famous steakhouse that's been around since 1887. Peter Luger, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, you will not be disappointed. No matter what Pete Wells says. Oh my, what is your order? What does, what was the order? So yeah, my father and I split a steak. They have like these different combos you can get. So we got this steak for two. And it's so unbelievably moist the way we make. We also got these German fried potatoes as a side. We got broccoli, we got Caesar salad as a starter, then dessert, I got cheese cake. I mean, basically they had to carry me out of there, but it was well worth it for now. Oh my goodness. Well, I got nothing to watch because you listened to the interview with John Batsick and that three-part merino documentary on Netflix has just dropped. I just, I cruised through that and it was wonderful. So I hope you enjoyed that. I will look forward, Mossy, to hearing your take because I know you're gonna watch it at a certain point. Have a wonderful weekend. All right, keep downloading and reviewing and subscribing and rating and doing all the different things that you'd do. Double fist and up and down, let's go. When it comes to smashing that button, smash that button over there on the old YouTube channel and the Spotify and the Apple and all the different things that we do. Have a wonderful weekend. We'll talk to you again next week and until then and as always, my friends, size the day.
