Rory Smith on Men in Blazers: "I think Arsenal will win the league, and I think they might win it quite easily."

You're listening to the Men in Blazers media network, suboptimal radio. 2026, 27 Premier League season looms, 300 net games, over 283 days, harder season ever to predict in the modern period, so much in flux, 9 new managers, including 5 of the big 6, not to count the newly promoted World Cup was left to transfer when they were late breaking so late, this is chaos city, yet let's begin with some stern predictions, Rory Smith, who's going to finish fourth? Who's going to finish fourth? It's the big question, Roger, it's the one everyone's excited about. In the interest of intellectual consistency, I'm going to say Manchester United. Interesting, who cares about intellectual consistency? I'm going Liverpool Football Club at the last. Who have you got in third? Manchester City. I'm going to blow your mind, brace yourself, go and top them hot. Oh, a lot of money, a lot of money this summer, a lot of money. I believe in more the money, we're going to reveal second and first, in just a moment, in this lucky size Premier League breakdown. First of two special preview episodes, in the second one, we're going to look at the North, in this one, we're going to go down south, break every single massive transfer, down Camargoon Rodgers, play alongside Col Palmer in the Chelsea midfield, can Arsenal go back to back and can Roberto Deserber, breathe life, breathe hope, breathe joy, all these vape smoke into spurs. Rory, are you ready? Just about, Roger, I've seen my World Cup jumper on. I'm still feeling a little bit of handover from it, but I think I'm ready. It was years ago that we were all cups. Let's go down south, start with a sudden 10. Let's them in the comments how we're doing. If we've gone too far with the Premier League, Jerry Mandering, if we've got the geography wrong, set a straight rule. Let's start with defending champions. Oh my God, how does that sound to you? Defending champions, Arsenal football club. That's all I've ever wanted. I think being champions might be better than winning the championship. You think I said to Michele Arteta, when I interviewed him, defending champion Arsenal, he could stop you with ideas. I was like, what? You're just attacking champions. Right. The LK, he's still on LinkedIn. Great. Yes, you a little bit of his might, but the Nix, Mayo, Arsenal, it's been some year of wonder for ending droughts thanks to the World Cup. Honestly, Arsenal's title win feels like it was years ago, not just 17, knowing days ago that they drove that trophy through the heart of North London, getting Arsenal's global nation, absolutely dancing epic scenes of near-biblical revelation. Millions congregate everywhere. Kenya, Uganda, Indonesia, New York, combination of a journey. Honestly, I admire it. It was borderline a DC. I honestly watched the Odyssey the day after the World Cup rule, and I thought, God, not only this is big deal. DC's just had to see off the Lotus Eaters, jam himself in the Trojan Horse, hook up with Charlie Theron on the beach for a while. What Michele Arteta did, overcome English, score in itself, that's a hundred times more difficult. Which one's Celerin, which one's Carriptus, is it the weight of wanting to win that first title for 21 years, or is it the kind of resistance to his methods? These kind of questions are above my pay grade. We save it for our other podcast today in ancient Greek, but this weekend the fans and can we play you every week to Manchester City, that they just threshed in the community shield, read into that at your peril rule, Premier League pressure changes immediately from, can you win it to, can you become the first modern Arsenal team ever to defend the title? Manchester City made that outlook a little bit easy, but no other club had done it apart from them since United in 2009. First question now. 22, Sissiffician years of trying, falling, being laughed at. Book of Joe level suffering, really. Being told by Pundits, you don't know how to win a title until you've won a title, which is the kind of catch 22 stuff that bends my brain. They've won it rule, and we were just there. I've got to tell you, Michaela Teta is not afraid, and this did tweak me mentally a little bit. Talk about aspiration, talk about hunger, talk about dynasties openly. That conversation is in the show notes, you should watch it now, Arsenal fans, but what do you think about that? That is either a baller move or wax wings. I suppose it's confidence. Does they have lifted that weight off their shoulders? That's what last year felt like. It was, as you say, it was the culmination of what six years worked for our Teta, but 22 years worked for Arsenal, and their biggest enemy in the running, apart from Manchester City, which is quite a big enemy, but was the kind of, was the worry that they might not be able to get over the line, not having done it before? That is a relevant factor, I think. So the fact that our Teta is now prepared to talk openly about, okay, we go again, we want to establish primacy, dominance, all that stuff. I suppose, psychologically, that's valid. They have, they've lifted that weight, now you say, right, well, the next test is to retain and retain again, go back to back to back. The problem for me, and I think Arsenal, I will spoiler alert this, I think Arsenal will win the lead, and I think they might win it quite easily. But the one little asterisk, the one little caveat, is that, as you say, no one apart from Guardiola has retained it for 17 years, and not only that, but most of the teams who have won it have imploded the following season. It's happened to Liverpool twice, happened to Chelsea twice, lester, you can kind of forgive, just that was a different circumstance. Arsenal and League, what loading? I think that winning that first title after such a long weight, the emotional energy that crossed you, the amount you spend, I think there is a handover. So our test as big test this season, the test for building that dynasty, is how do you get over that handover? From dreams and philosophies to realities, on the field, big game goal cult hero, Leandro Trossard, the Warby Parker celebration king, he's gone off to Turkey, 31 years old is replacement Greek speed three, Christos Solis, seven years younger, to assist he got in a community show performance, which is very, very commanding, says yes, he's more than just future proofing. I love the Arsenal fan tweet. Solis is Trossard with a 90 sleep school. Yeah, he always looked quite tired, Leandro Trossard, I hope he's getting some rest in Turkey. But that left side of the attack does feel a little exposed after that adrenaline filled, ultimately do mission, to free Vinicius, donkey Houghtian, tilting at windows, shining your rival, is that lover and a fighter Bruno Gimarech plucked from the heart of Newcastle for a cool hundred and one million, 28 year old, another Brazilian in the squad, he's a leader, he's incredibly hungry to win, he's tactically deeply versatile, he can sit at that back there and just repress all cumbers, he can crash the box, he can create, he can destroy so many midfield options, Zubimendi, Declan writer, Declan Marsler, Esqueli, if he's still there. Michaela Teta will deploy Gimarech, how do you think? I think it'll be him and Rice sitting next to each other, it strikes me that he's an upgrade and a slight switch in emphasis on Zubimendi. Rice, obviously, is untouchable, he is the kind of heartbeat of that team. Next to Demarage, that is pretty impressive, there won't be, assuming Martin Odedard, I think a lot of people are asking this year, I think Martin Odedard is due a big season, if that is your midfield three, I think that's pretty hard to beat. And as you say, the profile of the Demarage shining, I think it's really nice, he's been brilliant for New Tassel, he's been there best player for some time, they'll be part of Bruno Demarage that thinks, I'd quite like some medals to go with, my car about Cup winners medal, he'll want more than that, 28 pts, good price in the current market for a 28 year old, even though a few injuries, to the end of this contract, you maybe would look at that traditionally and say that's a premium, but if you think about some of the prices, other people have paid for midfielders in the last in the last six weeks, it's not a bad deal, but that hunger, I think, is really important, having a player who just wants to win stuff, that's what after a while. 100% I mean, we're Bruno Gimuresh, first of all, he tattoos every trophy he's ever won on his body and we talked about, where are you going to, you know, what tattoos do you want next and where are you going to put them, he's like, I want them all. How many trophies has he got tattooed on his body? It's going to be a very low threshold. Just a massive caribou truck. No, he's got the copper doe Brazil, okay, which I just terrifying at my spin-outs and I looked at him for a little minute to make sure I got it right. Did you give it the full spin, the copper doe Brazil? The Brazil, he looked at me like I was slightly demented, but he like, I said, what was that word, we had to do it? Tour de Bain. Yeah, he looked at me, he looked at me like slightly demented and said, do it all right? Yeah, and I just winked at that one. I kind of ran out of paint. We did it, we did bit. There's some Sudamereca copper that he won as well. Okay, he's got that one on his taint. It strikes me as being a really good idea when you say as a young player, I'm going to tattoo every trophy I win on my body. I think if you then get to 28 and all you've added is a caribou cup, you probably really want some trophies, Roger. Tony Hibbett's just got a large floor of the cup and a medium sized trout. Probably just as important as you say is positional question, is that hunger? I mean, Michaela Teter talked about him as if he was like a mentor. He was about to drop into a kind of code, genuinely taking that and answering your question was how do you mentally prepare to go again by bringing in someone with that desire, self-described it, I said, what kind of a plet, what are you? That kind of mentality, dropping it in and upgrading, demanding everybody else, get there. The minutes in midfield, Declan Rice, Super Mendy, ran themselves ragged, having him there to spell them, more than spell them in an extraordinary brutal gun and they've games to come. I mean, ultimately, Arsenal Footballers, this is the greatest challenge as I can see it, they all ran ultra-merathons, they're key players. We all got runners nipple just watching them. Lots of talk about can they defend the title, will they, can they pivot, can they mount in the salt on that other long, coveted, moby dick of a chalice, a champion's league, but I'm fascinated by this rule, extent to which that desperate, valiant assault, ultimately successful on the title last year, followed by that World Cup for many of their key players, World Cup that many other key players played on stumps, rod and legs. You know, will their players be, you talked about the mental deficit, you know, that hungover, but just pure physical energy deficit for this season. Well, that has to be. There has to be just because they not only did so many of them go relatively far in the World Cup, you know, they won't, a lot of them won't have returned to training until a couple of weeks ago, and we'll see this with more teams than just Arsenal, but Arsenal will be affected by not having players fully fit for the start of the season, that will be a thing. But if you think about the number of games they played, especially the key players, as you say last season, in winning the title, in getting to the, to the Champions League final, in going deep in both of the domestic clubs, that I think is why there is this tendency for teams, other than Manchester City, in the last 15, 16 years, to drop off after winning the lead. I agree with you completely that Bruno, in terms of mentality as much as positioning, is an attempt, is a direct attempt to offset that. It's saying right, you lot might be tired. We've got a fellow here who will drag us through by force of will. The one that is maybe slightly more worrying is trying to get Vinicius, which was really bold, really brave, really ambitious. It was a real statement of intent in the transfer market. I do wonder whether that was Arthetta saying we need to find another way to lift ourselves to that Champions League winning level. We need a difference maker, and they've not got it. Does Vinicius do it sometimes in your contract at Real Madrid and Arsenal have to kind of bow out gracefully? Does that suggest there is something in Arsenal's squad that Arthetta still thinks they are lacking? That's the only question. Will they make the move for it? I actually do think there'll be one more big piece in coming. Just to button that thing about the exhaustion, the physical exhaustion, I still have four outfielders for more than 4200 minutes. Including that entire spine, Declan Rice, 4456 minutes, 11th most. Martin Zubimendi, 4298th, 15th, Celeba, and Gabrielle, rounding that out. Celeba is now out for some time of a back-knack. His loss is a little bit like shields down for them. He Arsenal's win percentage drops precipitously without him in the side. I can't think of a team ultimately did in body more in their style of play, the physical side of modern football, and at the same time were almost threatened to be undone by that physical side of modern football fatigue is real. So many of their players have looked shattered, played the World Cup, looking even tighter. One big question I've got for you, they rule in a different direction. We saw at times Champions League final, in particular, the attack. Arsenal, deeply versatile, deeply flexible, so many options. Ways, Leicester completely hurt you, mortar, score on you, with wonder, but few of them. You don't think of these players as serially lethal. Kai Havertz, Noni Madwake, Yoko Rez, the beautiful, beautiful, ebberidgey, even the kind of sacca, all can score. But none are like that big dog that you know. In key moments, they are the ones who are going to knock. Do they lack that killer edge? Well, I think Yotra Rez last summer was an attempt to kind of offset that, was to say we do need someone who can just put the ball in the goal reliably, consistently, without really blinking. And to be honest, as much as I think he was okay, Yotra Rez, it didn't work out. So yeah, I think that might be one of those things that they are missing. They don't have a killer, effectively. And I wonder, Vinicius again, maybe that was part of the attraction, that he is someone who has consistently produced in big games. He stored goals in two Champions League finals. He knows what he's doing. Get me a man who's killed before and will kill again. Exactly. They've not got that. And I think Artheta will know that as much as they were really impressive Premier League Champions, they put together, and they maybe didn't get the credit for it, because it got to February Roger, and as we always do, we got obsessed with the Tordrupal. But if you think about the campaign Arsenal puts it as a trap. It's a trap. As soon as the Tordrupals mentioned, you fail. Whatever you do, you fail. But Artheta will know that they're not perfect, that there are things they can improve. Bruno is an attempt to address one of them. Going for Vinicius, I think, was an attempt to address another. And you might be right, look, we're still 10, 12 days away from the end of the transfer window. It may well be that Artheta will have something up their sleeve to try and bring in that extra little bit of edge, not necessarily to win the Premier League, but to win the Champions League, which is what I think Artheta will want. I'm telling you, I think he's going to play, not fill that hole, gap, but play a real role in being a part soul. Max Downman, still just 16. I actually think he's going to do more than be a footnote, a curiosity, you know, a team dream this season. Another fascinating, open question for Arsenal. Referees have been told to crack down on the gripple grappling at set pieces. You can wrestle at set pieces. No more. You can see a couple of early red cards only against Arsenal football club rule. Artheta called 25 set piece goals in the Premier League this season, not including the penalties highest in the entire division. Set a new record for goals scored off corners, it's going to be fascinating. I mean, will that dull their competitive advantage or do you see a way for them to keep evolving as they did last season to be fair on the season before? You'd assume that that's what Nicholas Jova has spent his summer doing, he's fidgeting out right. If they do crack down on the physical side of stuff at corners in particular, how do we respond to that? I don't think we're going to see a season where like Arsenal don't score any goals from corners. I think there will still be a threat at set pieces, but my instinct would be that, having seen the World Cup, having seen the Champions League, the wayset pieces were kind of refereed in the Champions League last season. I think the Premier League know it became a bit of a problem. We spent an awful lot of time last year waiting for corners to be taken, and that's not great entertainment. So I think it will change, but it won't mean it isn't a weapon for Arsenal. They just have to adapt. Just judging by the community's yield, there's a lot of armless football, which is actually a challenge for the defenders as much as an attacker. That quick-groff, the grab. But that I remember no more. The Arsenal work with Thomas Grunemart, who's the throw-in guy, the throw-in coach. And when he invented... He invented first person ever to take a throw-it. And when he first started working with Liverpool and Brentford, people thought he was trying to teach players how to take long throws, but his thing was always, no, no, no, that's a weapon. But you also need to be able to take quick short throws. He says much about how you use the ball from those restarts. And I think it'll be the same with Arsenal and Corners, that Jova's job is not. If all Nicholas Jova has, is let's pin the keeper and push everyone, then he's not the coach we thought he was. Just hum, guys, everybody, humping, come on, humping! He will have other stuff up his sleeve. Watch this space. We're going to win every team. We have a quick, rapid fire response for your rule. Emphasis on the quick part. For Arsenal, how many trophies? Do you think Arsenal Football Club will win this season zero to four? Give us a number. Two. You're going to tell us which ones? Or did he mind just sitting up, saying, spitting out? Premier League, definitely. Champions League. I'm going to give you that team. No flow of the cup, though. You'll never sing that. From a team, managed by Mikkel Arteta to one managed by his childhood friend, Shabby Alonso. Manigrew up on the same street. As Mikkel, in San Sebastian, maybe swapped cassette tapes and all that kind of... We're going closer and closer. We're going to learn at some point that they're actually long-lost brothers. They're just... They used to boot an earnier with a little side-by-side bed. They shared a house. Yeah. I mean, God, I'm not going to take it any further, but they played on the same team for nine years. Been lifelong friend. Shabby has arrived as a first leader, named manager and not just head coach under this new ownership tenure for as long as that last. Does that mean he's really going to be the first person to properly age men rule? It's all about age in men. It is about age in men. Being Chelsea manager is about age in men. That post has the... So that's what I should like. That you should have done. The... My proudest line of last season. The you age men, yes or no? Yes. Obviously, it's a hot seat, isn't it? A manager or chair is always a hot seat. Chelsea's increasingly feels like a coach yet that you just have to watch somebody else put the straw together. And Alonso is an attempt to break away from that. What? It is that you just watch somebody else somebody else is actually building the straw. You don't have any power. Who? Liam and Rossignia. Well, they were all head coach. And it's the number of sporting directors that Chelsea have, which I think currently sounds at five. They're the people actually sounding the players. Alonso in that... And this feels like a whole world away, Raj. But when Alonso was appointed and in the statement it said he is the manager, that felt like a really kind of significant thing. Whether it's played out like that this summer is difficult to say. Isn't it funny that Chelsea and all of their difficult years, all of them recently, their solution was, we need another director of football. We don't have enough. Surely we have four. If you get as many as possible, they don't get it right. If we stockpile all of now, that's a strategy. Monopolys. It's a future. Management by committee. It works famously. When we hire all the managers, I spent time with Shabby last, with a funny interview on our YouTube page. He is a lovely man. He's so nice. He's quite sophisticated, human being. Very charming, very bright, very chatty, very humble, given all these achieves. No, really good looking. Very good looking. Just a genuinely lovely man. When I tour the UK, just meeting manager after manager play after play, things probably... I mean, I get mugged off a lot, but this is probably peak mugging. Sitting by Chris Yenorghard last night, my mum came to my first ever... To the jawline. My mum came to my first ever live show. She's never talked about other men, in ever. She leaves. I said, what do you think of this show mum? She's very honky. Never heard my mum use that word before. So is it slightly distant certain? Well, no, it's how I far after our left Shabby are also to be candid. Look, we don't know the answer to this question. This is my first question I asked him. I'm going to ask this. Explain this to me. Shabby. Great young coach. Goes to buy a laver cousin. Gives him their first league win. Ever in their 120-year history of trying. Most coveted young manager in football, right after that, decides, has all the pick of the big job? Says, I'm going back to Real Madrid. Loses six games out of the 34 that he coaches. Looks about as comfortable, as Ned Stark in King's Landing. And he was so confused by a placey 30 new as a player. It was an experience that left him with quote in his own words, a scar, but explain this to me. He's still just 44 years old. He left Real Madrid because when he spat out by Real Madrid, your reputation can remain intact. You can just point to it and be, you know what? It was just Real Madrid being a hyper-political club that did me in. And Chelsea, yeah, they're massive. But they've had six full-time managers in the last five years. Has nobody told Shabby what happened to Pochettino when he washed up there after being spat out by PSG that was a disaster for him. It really eviscerated his reputation doing them back to back. What do you think about Chelsea Football Club made Alonso truly believe that that would be the right destination for him and they're here and there? I think it's probably a combination of things. One is the profile of the team. The fact that it is Chelsea, they are established now. Shabby was around as a Liverpool player when that kind of reputation started to take root. They are one of the big teams in World Football. They are genuine colossus of the game. That's appealing. The profile of the player that he's working with, he will have been made promises about the type of players they want to sign. And I think Chelsea have been as good as their word. They've once again, I think, spent more money than anybody else this summer. What we do, that's what they do, he'll have wanted that. He'll have been like, this is my chance to work with a truly elite squad. I think his experience at Real probably taught him that he might be better off with a younger squad, rather than one that contains like ready-made, ready-set superstars. But ultimately, I think it's pragmatism, Raj. I think he wanted it to get back into management this summer. I don't think he wanted to take another year away. By a minute wasn't available. Liverpool wasn't a thing. And Chelsea was on the table. And at some point managers want to work. And that is not, people will dress it up as they want to, he wants to multi-million pound contract. Shabby Alanto is starting off more than any. I don't think he's driven by that, particularly. He wants to work, he wants to prove himself, he wants to be proven right. That's what they're all in it for. He wants to prove that he is the talented young coach. He took Levertooth an unbeaten to a Bundesliga title for the first time in their history. And not the guy who got spat out by Real Madrid after 34 games. And Chelsea is the best place for him to be there. Also, it is, here in your framework, it is that kind of epic, gree kind of challenge. Can you tame the wild bull of Chelsea, that the club that no human being has been able to claim it off a chaos journey. The last season of 10th, can you improve on that? I mean, to do it, one of the immediate keys, take a cold parmer back to, you know, not just the eye salesman that he's become. I've got to get him back, find that lethality, find that confidence, find that consistency, you know, season of struggle, season of grind, that ultimately so I'm left off. A humiliation, really, the World Cup squad. You know, he's been just genuinely too sore in America, at the World Cup, or to launch your own personal ice brand. You know, fully enough knowing him, he'd probably prefer the ice brand. But Shabby, to get the confidence back, has brought 158 million big ones into Morgan Rodgers, from Astonville, a most expensive British player in history. It's a man that Cole loves, played with him. I think since he was 14 years of age at the Manchester City Academy, if I'm being honest, Cole Palmer stole the Cole Palmer. Selling from that man, and then trademarked it, behind his back, that mad bastard. How do you see the two of them playing together in the Shabby system, because so much of the early Alonso tenures going to be defined by whether he can get that duo's chemistry right? I think you can see that it should work, as a kind of a pair of tens effectively. I mean, how they line up in a practical sense, how they're put like placed on graphics, I think doesn't really matter particularly, but both will want to play behind a central striker. And they should be able to occupy that role. Sounds a bit hammering me, to be honest, but they should be able to kind of dovetail quite nicely. And the fact they've got a pre-adjusting relationship is really important. If you're going to spend that much money on one player, you want that player as much of a guarantee as possible to compliment your start. And that's what you get by signing your star's best mate in football. That makes sense to me. Like, I think there is real logic there. It's a lot of money for Morgan Rodgers, like it feels very premierly premiumy. But in the context of putting him alongside Cole Palmer, you can see why Chelsea have done it. And you can see how it works in an Alonso-style system. I think managers, we too easily kind of pigeonhole managers as oh, they play that way, or they play that way. I don't think Shelby Alonso has a, he's not Amarim. He's not like, I'm going to play three at the back. He's quite tactically flexible. I think he kind of wants to, I think he's interested in the ideas of how you can be fluid within a system. And I don't think it's the case that he will say, right, three, four, two, one, that's it. That's how we play forever. It will mature, and it will evolve, and it will change. But the fact that those two get each other, that's a brilliant starting point. And he's a manager who's obsessed with culture and he's really tried to instantly transform that Chelsea locker room. They've owned out. Shelby's made the ownership groups. He's the folly of their perpetual obsession with speculation on one raw young genius after another, baby after baby incomes, 35-year-old Danny Welbeck, fresh off that quite magnificent 14-goal season for Brighton, 36-year-old Jordan Henderson, straight off that last scene breaking his hand for England, while trying to jump over an advertising hoarding, elite athletes, a lot like us. With some leaders that suggest that, you know, within that culture, there was a deep element of leadership. And that kind of link between coach and players, it's been missing. I will say quickly, and we'll see whether this is an issue. The goalkeeper still feels a bit like a self-inflicted room. The ownership group will not go for that. Still eras strewn Robert Sanchez, Chelsea's number one. It's about to face a little bit of competition from six foot seven, 21-year-old Mike Penders, essentially Belgian Yao Ming. One of the most fascinating new arrivals. I'm really interested in this. That Braveheart stunt double Austin McFay. The set-piece coach, prize for Mastin Villa. I crap you not, Chelsea paid a release clause in his contract from an unknown, but said to be record fee for an assistant coach. Look, Villa scored 29 times from dead ball situations last season, and on Fees three year watch, they have excelled scored 74 times in total. But it is, it's kind of surreal now. This is where the Premier League is. This is where modern football is. It's kind of like assistant coaches becoming coveted. That's even talking about this. It's like the guy who holds the cue cards on Saturday in their lives becoming so famous that he gets his own sketches and his own segments on late night shows and his own right now. The fact that McFay had a release clause in his contract. I mean, that's just a job. Being an assistant coach is a job. Do you have a release clause in your men and blazers contract? I'll have to check, Roger, but I don't think so. That's not a common debt me play. I'm very happy. You've just seen the sun paid very shifts to a lease clause. Like it does, when that story happened, it struck me as being a bit odd that he'd have a release clause. It's been sure that he's just got a right to have another job. And if Chelsea didn't pay him more money, which I presume they are, then he's allowed to go and take it. I find it very odd. But yeah, it's very, it's distinctively, kind of modern Premier League, isn't it? It's the signing, the really big signing. All right, the son of modern Roger's $158 million. But the really big signing is the guy who does the corners. That is very, that is very where we are into. Who does thought in 1992, when they relaunched the Premier League, that it would lead to that? That was not what they thought. That is your point. They'd be like, the guy who does the corners, he's already forwarded to you. Big picture, where are you emotionally in-chain? Let me get a good chair. I'm bullish. I've got to be candid. I want to be bullish. What makes me believe or try and believe, as much as you can in this deeply fluid. This league is going to make a fool out of all of us, by the way, in case you hadn't called that. You're making me do predictions. I know. Not making you begged. It's ridiculous. You begged. You said otherwise, I'm going to get the national inquiry to trigger my release clause. Look, I believe Pauli because of Shabby. Pauli because of the lack of European competition, which means that they can really, really focus Manchester United style, almost on the task at hand. Do you see a return to what passes us the ability and the top four? 100%. Yeah, I think the key thing, Shabby's really the coach. He'll have the respect to the squads. I think the profile of the squad suits him. I think the well-backed Henderson thing is a bit gimmicky. During the World Cup, did we talk about umorals? I've got what I've got. There's so much. So the umoral is the Italian building site guy, the old man who comes onto the building site to tell all the underbuilders they're doing it wrong. That's Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson. No, don't do like that. Don't do like that. It's Jordan Henderson really. Danny Welbeck is going to play along. Jordan Henderson's transformation into culture guy is amazing. It is an amazing phenomenon within modern football. Again, maybe that's it. He's been brought in to be subbed in in the 79th minute. He's there to be like, he's there to tell to keep the young guys on the straight and narrow. Between Oslo and the soprano guys doing a no-show job. Between McFeigh and Henderson. He's going to sit in the deck chair with that. That's something thing under his chin. Jordan Henderson's been signed to be LinkedIn. That's what he is. That's what he's there for. But his late career art is not. I think not being in Europe is massive. The caveat is that they still have far too many players. As much as Premier League Swaddon, Swaddon needs to be bigger now to cope with the physical demands and stuff. They don't need to be that big. I think the last time I counted, there were 46 players with squad numbers at Chelsea. That's too many. They've got 10 days to try and ship some of them out. Some of those are younger players admittedly who you tell them want to be around. But they need to trim it down a bit otherwise. There will be problems within the squad. If the ownership haven't learned that yet, then there's no helping. Just sell a hotel to themselves. Baby, here's your quick question. Who finishes with more gold contributions this season, Cold Palmer, Q Cold Palmer celebration, or Morgan Rodgers, Q Cold Palmer's lawyers, suing Morgan Rodgers. They're going to do it both to you. They'll do it together, right? That'll be what it is. That'll be the celebration. It'll be really nice. Palmer takes penalties, Palmer. I think it'll be Jal Pedro. Next up, Tottenham Hotspur. Oh, my favourite. They've responded to a near death experience. That same last season, relegation dodged at the very last. That after winning the Europa League and held a new dawn with Thomas Frank before the poor day was undone by just a slew of injuries and an Arsenal coffee cup. Spurs saved by Roberto Deserbe. What a ferocious hero here. 17 plays back. And response was to spend like a big 16. That they want to be club record $321 million this summer. I love every interview Roberto Deserbe said. He goes out his way. We are not the only team who has spent very, very big. Look, Marcus and AC. Pluck from Bournemouth. Jean-Paul Van Heck. From Brighton. Old Man Andy Robertson. Bringing that will to win the experience and leadership that you could say has been deeply absent. Then there was a club record fee. Shattered twice in quicks, accessing Matthias Fernandez. Dispatched by West Ham in return for a cool $160 million. Smash once more. When Sandra Tanali was sucked out from a weather spoon in Newcastle for $133 million. Whole new physically dominant spine roar. It's been a summer in which more Premier League footballers have had hair transplant Matty Cash. Alexis McAllister. Fabian Herzler amongst them. Is that what Spurs have done? Essentially, they've done, they've given themselves a club level hair transplant. Just like a vibe shift. But does it work to just radically, expensively graft plastic hair onto a club metaphorically, if you will, stay with me here? I don't think that's the right transplant and allergy. You don't? I think they've got a couple of new loans and a kidney. I think that's what they've done. Try not to say boobs. It's not that. That's also not a transplant. The, um, that's what it would be. I don't know. The doctors, it feels like more radical surgery than nipping off the turkey and getting your plugs done. That's so painful, man. So, do you know how any of those plays are in a head of ball? You're not meant to disturb it. Yeah. The, um, that'll be a real problem is when a goal is conceded because a player didn't head the ball. Alexis McAllister, wait it off. Yeah, I'm not, I don't know. I don't do the head, no. Until October when it settled. The, um, I really like Spurs' business. I think that it's been a real kind of, there's an element of political about it. It's down your leavey, obviously, not there. It's, it's, it's, it's sane, I think, to the fans. Look, the purse dreams are looser. We are, we're going for it now. We're behaving like bid boys. Um, but at the same time, it's also a response to two seasons of kind of impossible under performance. Like a team of Spurs' side shouldn't be able to finish 17th. They definitely shouldn't be able to finish 17th twice. So you go out and get probably Newcastle's best player last season, apart from Bruno, um, certainly West Ham's best player. You sign, you know, Robertson, huge experience. Van Het has been a brilliant kind of, Premier League player for two or three years. It's an AC really reliable. You say, basically, this is the team that finished 17th last season that came within a whisper of going down. That's not this team. They are completely different. I think there is still one glaring problem and that's up front. But other than that, it looks like a Spurs team that has been completely transformed. It is more than a hair transplant. It's fascinating to watch. You've mentioned Daniel Levy, the old chair, you know, dictatorial, um, in his way. Spurs try to be a bright young team under him, um, you know, staying cheap in the transfer market. Then they try to be, can I bring in big manager, and big manager their way into the Champions League. Neither tactic really works sustainably. Um, so they're almost doing both, uh, at the same time. Just like spending big, bringing in the manager, smart, smart guy, see if it changes the reality. Then you reality, um, build a team that's befitting of our beautiful stadium. It's an identity that's polished, a worthy brand of London. When I was down in the capital last week, there were 20 Spurs legends, Michael Dawson, Fernando Urente, Glenn Hoddle, uh, in my hotel. Is that in a sending order? Uh, you know, what? I take, they've got a fairly fast, it was, I take it was in the summers of cult heroes. Right, yeah. I think it's funny to me. But, you know, speaking to them, they were like, Daniel Levy never did this. But what we want to try and do is reconnect the club to its heritage, to its, you know, its story, where we've come from. As you admired it, um, you know, the players were super excited to be reconnected. They wanted them all to meet Roberta who deserve me. Um, you know, for this club to really matter again, make noise, um, you know, to splash the cash to become that DNA entertaining again, team who have looked into the abyss, seen their own death, um, and are choosing rebirth. I honestly admire it. I really, really, they, whether it works, ultimately depends on the culture that they can knit together in the here and now, um, in a way that, honestly, if I was a spurs fan, tiny little worry thinking about Liverpool, this time last season, um, but it also depends on deserving leaders, capricious, is combustible, um, as a will to lead, uh, that's intent. It does burn out when I spoke to him last week. He did talk about leading to some more bombass, a reliable striker, attacking midfielders, you know, the possibility of Savinio, uh, still lingers for whatever purpose that is. Truth is, I think we're all, we have no idea how spurs are going to be. We don't know how all this is going to knit together in a chaos season, where there's so much unpredictable spurs are almost the identity, the totem of that. Yeah, because they've got so far to, to climb back up, but at the same time, you look at the players they've signed and the quality they already had, 17th to an extent was, uh, was a false position. They, they shouldn't have been anywhere near that. And I know that's a sort of empty thing to say because they finished 17th twice, so they clearly should have been there. But they, they seem to have so much scope for, for recovery, that normally you'd say, well, you know, even, even after a great summer, a team couldn't go from 17th to 5th or from 17th to 3rd. But spurs probably could, because they've signed some high-quality players, and they had a decent squad that just needed a bit of kind of shaping and management, and they now have a manager who didn't do it. I don't know whether there's a ceiling on deserving teams, that might be something you, you would kind of put in the con column, that they do tend to have that very kind of, formulate, it sounds downwind, it's not meant to, but that very kind of structured way of playing. This is, this is how we, this is how we do things. And I, I do think that the modern Premier League has moved a bit beyond that. It's a, someone said to me the other day, the Premier League is a really quick study. If you do one thing, the lead has worked out by the next time you play football. You can't repeat, you have to keep changing. Whether deserving to do that, I don't know, maybe. They will definitely have a better season than the last two seasons, but whether they can make that leap quite as high as I think you might anticipate, Raj, I don't know. Yeah, spoiler alert. You know, what is fascinating? I take it one step forward. It's not just can they go from 17 to fifth, fourth, whatever, based on what they do. This is, within context, the Premier League of chaos. There are so many teams, including the big teams that are set up top, who are in deeply fragile, formative. It's almost more like a World Cup campaign than the Premier League. Teams are going to have to find themselves in this area. The managers are going to have to define themselves. By the way, some will. One or two of them will not. These projects will absolutely knows dive on the new management. And it's going to be fascinating. I'm going to say I interviewed. Desirby last week was very interesting. He's got, I think politically, he's got a lot of leverage at that club. He has such a strong hand right now. When your front office has kind of disgraced itself by hiring ego chew doors, disaster class. And then you come in and you save things. You know, you have a lot of power in those corridors. How he uses it is fascinating. It was very, very interesting. He's not the only manager that's done this. He talked about how he wants to teach the squad courage. That value, very happy to talk about that. Expressed loudly as desire for more bodies. He's been very explicit about that. But to be tactically about what very few of the new managers want to openly make predictions, even talk vividly about what they intend to do with their plan. So rule, you know, ultimately I asked him what is success for Tottenham this season and how would he measure it? And he kind of dodged, danced, kind of waffled a little bit. So how would you answer that question? I think there has to be back where they should be, whether it's in terms of the kind of economics or ambition or aspiration or quality of stadium. I don't think Deserterbury would be under pressure if Spurs finished sit, then missed out on the Champions League. That would not be kind of, oh, this has been disappointing after the outlay. I think there'll be an understanding that he is coming from a low base and that sits place back into Europe, back into the conversation for Europe is massive progress. But they could, and look, Rodgie, completely right, and this will be a recurring theme as we do as we work our way through the team. Oh, no, no, no, it's impossible to say where... Manchester City, Liverpool, Spurs, Villa... Chelsea, Newcastle, those sort of six teams that you'd expect to be around Spurs and Arsenal in the top A. I have no idea, the transfer windows are open. All of them have left their business far too late. They've mostly got new managers... Why are you still watching this? We don't know anything. Or managers who've been appointed within the last six months. You could make a case that all of them could finish second and you can make a case that all of them could finish tenth. This is the only Premier League preview where we're admitting it upfront. We have no idea what we're talking about. No one has any idea what we're talking about. The only thing I can say is that the more certain the pundits are in their definitiveness, the more divorced from reality they are right now. The quick question, yes or no, will Roberto Deserber be finished this season as Tottenham's manager? Yeah, probably. Interesting. I was going to say, did that quick question very well? The one worth and then the second one came in and it was a killer. He does have a streak in him, Deserber. It is possible that he will. He's not going to play. He is very much that kind of player. Okay. This segment should be called B is for Brains. We're delving into that section of the league. You're Bournemouth. You're Bryons. You're Brentford's at start with one of my favourites, the Golden War cherries of Bournemouth. Team we've seen them pervious to change, selling off star after star with a hydro-headed tenacity. Finished a historic six last season, qualified for Europe for the first time ever. How will it respond to their brain transplant, a whole new manager, and Doni Eroola, that bookish basket headed to Liverpool, talking about him in episode two, enter Young German Marco Rosa, must now continue to try and summon the alchemy of his predecessor, who did not lose. This is still unbelievable to me Raw, a game last season after selling Anton Semenio, his best player to Manchester City in January. Is Marco Rosa more handsome than Javier Lancer? I can do the quick answer to that, no. It's close. It depends what your time is. He's quite afflecky, Marco Rosa. Is he there? He's a little bit afflecky. Is he? I'd say little bits doing a lot of heavy lifting in there. He looks like Rue Van Nistel and AI Rue Van Nistel Roy. Who is the most handsome coach in the Premier League this season? And why is it David Moise? A bit of old rough. I've heard... When the minute came from, I've got... When you hear your mother say the word honky for the first time ever, you kind of threw it away from me. You didn't have to explain that. That wasn't on air. You'll have to explain that. I think it wasn't there. Wasn't it? Yeah. This podcast started five hours ago. It was like... No, I don't. It's really hard to tell. You're in your cups, baby. David Moise has got a certain point. When it plays you, Javier Lancer, who's the honkiest manager in the Premier League? That's what the people want. That's the sort of preview the people want. By the way, I can make the case it is, David Moise. You can make the case, but it would be your real stretch. But then, sometime, you know, ultimately... He's a hand model. There's no accounting for taste. A lot of people down on Bournemouth, but whether he's more handsome than Javier Lancer or not, I think Rose is a really smart appointment. He's had this kind of impressive but understated career, largely at the Red Bull clubs, particularly Arby Leipzad in Germany. He went to Dortmund. It didn't quite work for various reasons. I think he's a better coach than people are giving him credit for, and his style of play is quite similar to where I all was. There won't be a massive, kind of tactical shift for Bournemouth. I think it's a smart appointment. 49 years old. Yeah, do you know what you told him, Jon? I was surprised by that. I think he's a young-looking 49, if I was being tactically... As a man who's closer to 49 than he wants to be, I would say 49 is the new 27. I am 14 years of coaching. Quite... I mean, he's linked in resume. The thing's interesting to me about him. Play for Klopp, play for Tuck or play for Ragnet. It was Klopp, actually, I think you told him. He should manage. He did win. The German Cup, the Polka with Arby Leipzad. The thing I'm interested in. He's managed up some real talent, early in Harlan and Jude Bellingham, at Dortmund. He took me to second place in the Bundesliga. Led Berusha Munchen. Glad back into the Champions League. Went back to Back Austria and league titles with Red Bull Salt for what that's worth. Does play the kind of front foot attacking football at the American O'n Ice Vegas Gold Knights? Bill Foley loves. You know, the good news is, little old, little old Bournemouth. Tiny, tiny Bournemouth as their fans call them. A team who were in the second tier. Was it four years ago or now in the Europa League? Which means that squad's going to have to juggle that dreaded Thursday. Sunday schedule, which we're going to talk about a lot. It's probably the second deepest recurring theme for the mid-table and mighty meaty aspiration on mid-table. Good news is, teams held on to most of its stars. Alex Scott, Ryan, and Junior Croupe, 20-year-old sensation, who saw, came, conquered, whatever it is, double figure goals. Tracked in the likes of PSG, but only because he's still like the nakedest form will be out for at least four months. But for Rose, it is a lot of our conversations in this preview. We're going to be at the manager. Can he? Will he? Is he going to be able to? What challenge is he going to be harder for him? Adapting to the Premier League for the first time, which is a tremendous challenge, taking this small squad into Europe for the first time, or having to follow the quietly-loud legacy of Andoni Europa. And when you put it like that, Roger, it all sounds very difficult to be fair, if you do all three at once. I think the legacy thing will be an issue, just, obviously, former fans loved their role for obvious reasons. But Rosa is a natural fit. And no, I think we looked at, kind of, Rosa's career, and because it didn't work out at Dortmund in the way that people wanted, everyone's really down on Marco Rosa. But if you look at what he's done, he's clearly a very competent manager. He might not be the world's greatest manager. He might not be the heir to Eurodon Club or Pep Guardiola. But he's clearly really good at it. He's had success with mid-range teams, consistently. And he plays a style of play that's not a million miles away from Eurodola. I think that bit will not be a problem. Adapting to the Premier League, I think we'll be okay. Just because he's not walked into English football 30 years ago, it's an English football where most of the pressing triggers are whatever are stolen directly from the Bundesliga. They'll all be really familiar. He might be a little bit shocked by the meat wall. That might surprise him initially when he sees how Arsenal take corners. Armless now. But if it's armless, then even that has been removed. Armless meat wall. The modern football. Someone might have to explain to him how much Daryn Evel there is. That will be a bit of a surprise than Marco Rosa. But other than that, I think it will all be very familiar. The challenge for Bournemouth, and I like their business this summer. They've been very smart. Kept hold of Croupy, kept hold of Ryan, kept hold of Alex Scott so far. If that stays the case, then that's a great start. Antonio Silva, the central defender from Benfica, who they signed. For a long time was kind of one of the big promising defenders in European football. Potentially a great signing. Alvaro Rodriguez, the striker from LCA, who's kind of a data darling, is a really smart signing, very Bournemouth. I think it will work. All of that works. All of that is promising. The issue has been in Europe. That's going to be the real problem for them. Marco Rosa, never mind that. The return on points. Just save other hunkiness. Oh, just look at him. Look deep into the pools of his eyes. Don't look in his eyes. That would be much easier. You're quick question. I'm going to tick through the rounds of the Europa League. Stop me. When you think Bournemouth will get knocked out, will they make it past the group stage? Knock out round of 16. Cool to finals. Semifinal for the cherries. I think that's where you tore it. Bastard. They're going to win it all. Championest cherries. I wish you joy in that European journey. And I actually hope to catch a game, to see Bournemouth in Europe is to, is to be alive. Back in London, to another tiny terrier of a club. The brains of Brentford. It's Keith Andrews to Electric Boogaloo, last season's revelation as a young manager. When he was appointed, how we laughed? Brentford, I think, where everybody's favourites for relegation. What a rookie manager. A set piece coach. Brentford were much more than set piece FC last season. The season was a delightful shock, I think, for everyone. We'd file under. They pressed high with courage. They finished ninth place. They finished ahead of Chelsea. Just outside the European places, I think, was an agony by gold difference alone. Andrews been back this summer. They sound young, Molly and midfield. The Mamadou Sangare from London's for a club record fee. Brentford do not spend big offending. They've broken $40 million mark just twice before once for ego or terrier game. Proved to be a, I think, I don't like to be hyperbolic, but a tantric striker. The other was for Dango Otara. This is the first time they've spent it on a midfielder. And Sangare is intelligent, and he's a physical monster. He's tipped to become a real star, a European force. I can't wait to watch him. But for the bees does this season, I hate to keep reducing this to managers to Keith Andrews' difficult second album. Other teams, you've said it already. They catch up with you. They understand you. They decode you. They diffuse you. You know, they're going to be wiser. They're not going to be overlooking Brentford. This season, perhaps, they did in the first half at least of the last campaign. I think a lot of cases we do tend to focus too much on managers. I think in Brentford's case, there's no reason for it to be a difficult set in season. As you say, it's not just Sangare who's the channel standout signing. Couple of really smart ones. Tannen Wilson, a bit of experience, has cover for Tiago. And Jaden Antony, who was one of Burnley's better players last season. I think both really smart signings. I have a sort of semi-theory, Raj. I've got a semi. It's not about Brentford. But I've got a bit of a theory that is kind of odd with the kind of, for Premier League as a shark thing, which I do deep down just really believe. What? The Premier League as a shark, it keeps moving forward. So you have to keep moving, or you get eaten. Does that work? Maybe not. But my other theory, I'm ahead. In this season of chaos, there is something to be said for, if not quite stasis, then consistency. And if you look at Arsenal, which we talked about at the top, that's what they've got going for them, is that Arsenal haven't had this huge revolution. They haven't got a new manager, a new centre of identity, load a new players. It feels like Arsenal, from last season, plus a bit, right? And I think Brentford are the same. So they've had no major losses, as we're recording, none of Brentford's better players from last season have gone. You've added, I think they've signed four players, two of whom are probably starters in San Gare and Anthony. Wilson will be a substitute. They look like themselves. They know what they're doing. We know how smart they are. We know they've got all the data. We know they'll have all that stuff that's kind of reinforcing their decision-making. I think Brentford won't be a surprise. You're totally right. They won't be a surprise this season. But we know what Brentford is going to be. They're going to be tough, mid-table, adaptable and flexible in how they play, really versatile, really smart, and they're going to finish somewhere between eighth and twelfth, depending on how the table pans out. God, when you were speaking, I got lost in shock. So if I started, I wonder what kind of shock would Everton be? Like Google, vegetarian shock. Hammerheads. No, Hammerheads are amongst the most vicious creatures. But I'm a team. Mate. I was at Bastion Charter. I've got to tell you. I've got to tell you. You have got a boner on your nature, just in case you do run into it. I haven't never heard of a bonnet head shot before, which gets 60% or more of its nutrition from seagrass and seagrass alone. Is it like a waltz shot? It's it's it's like, there's a lot of pleather. Here's your quick question. I love it. Just plays your shock skin, not really. God, I'm going to get lose myself in like the short wormhole fat. I've come quite fascinated, slash terrified of shocks. I watched when I was a small child, a documentary about sea snakes and spent about 10 years at least before I'd go to the toilet, you know, the sit-down part, just checking in Liverpool to make sure that the sewer system didn't have like a sea snake. You should be frightened of sea snakes, their terrifying. Not as terrifying as the short wukurat, I rule. Here's the quick question. Oh, Brentford, how many of the traditional big six clubs will Brentford finish in front of anywhere from zero to six? Those are the numbers. Those are numbers. You tell me. Non. God, you hate joy, hate, happiness. Not because they'll have a bad season, just because I don't think they'll finish above any of them. But Brentford, there is no kind of question marks over Brentford for me this season. They will they will finish mid-table, they will beat four of the traditional big seven. So just give the little tip bit the shark wukurat, Ty. Wrapping up this tree of admirable strategic data driven models of pre-exist sensible football, Brighton and Hove Albion, who are team as much in transition as Fabian Hurtler's hair, age 33. Don't like to go to this well again, Roar, but Man is reportedly on his second hair transplant. I think that's a, that's an incredible, it's Wayne Rooney pace. Yeah, I saw a picture of me the other day with the kind of telltale signs, but it didn't show me the Fabian Hurtler had bad hair. I think, I've got to tell you, there's a lot of reddit, I'm not in it, but there's a lot of reddit who are trying to work out what we were looking at on his head. Oh, is that? Yeah, wait, I think the bonnet head shark may actually eat a lot of it for it's, you know, at least maybe not for dinner, but for lunch, baby. I'd just say when I look it in, and I look at it like this is my callister. That's so easy to go off on this, but this is at the end of the day. It's a ball podcast, masquerading as a football shindick. It looks so bloody painful, man. I don't know how they do it. Yeah, it looks like it really hurts. Yeah. But I, um, it's obviously in Britain, the place we associate with hair transplant and teeth is Turkey. And I spoke to someone about my teeth a little while, not in Turkey in Britain. You know, they have to shave it, they shave you, I was on board for it, like, you can do these magic braces where they can switch it. Yeah. And then we're like, yeah, but first of all, we'll have to shave your teeth. And at that point, I was like, no, no, I'm out here, like you're not shaving my teeth. Yeah. Where are they taking the hair from for the hair transplant? How are they attaching it to your head? I don't think you want it. We just don't need it. I think most is it. I've not had it done. I'm not even looking at it. I just assume it's bum hair that was on her. So there's, um, head, but many places at gmail.com for all of these things. You must really not appreciate the idea of in a beauty to get it done. But it's not the only transition. That's called the pivot after a season in which friends just back on the check. Seemed only, only just, and they got a European place. Behold for Brighton Hoverwell. Let's just say an eminently winnable conference league. Um, James Miller retired. At an age that can only be described as Tim Remish is fellow Wunk Danny Welpat. We've already talked about he'd decamped for a last dance at Chelsea. Oh wow. Yeah. The family is most well-traveled trade route. Not reversed by a 35 year old. Solly Marsh, Adam Webster, also gone. So the heart of that locker room rule in terms of experience, in terms of leadership, ripped out just old man Pascal Gross, faster appreciating warrior, Lewis Dunk, remaining also missing Jean-Paul Van Heck, who defended like he sounds last season. Just one swear word away from being an iconic action movie star. I can't wait to watch. I'm quite excited about this. Um, Brighton brought for 62 million Spurs, Teen Dream, Luca Vuskevich. Brighton's analytics team, I've got to say they rarely miss. The 19 year old Croatian never played a single game for Spurs. He's a ball-playing defender. He looks absolutely elegant from the moments I've seen of him. Alongside him, the arrival of Pascal Strook from Leeds. I think that's a sophisticated pickup. Give him time and space to ease in. I can't wait to watch Boe for them. Yasina Yari, fresh officers, then World Cup, still their Colors Belieber for now. Still there. One wrinkle rule. Brighton fans sang their hearts out when Roberto Zerby got them into the Europa League three seasons ago. But remember what it did to their Premier League progress? It completely sank them in. They slipped down to, was it 11th place? Burn out, Zerby. Can it be another way this time real? The slight complication for Herzler, I think, is that two of his big attacking threats. I don't miss the first couple of months of the season. So Motoma's injured and Mintez injured. That's a blow. I really like the Vuskevich signing. I like it and I'm baffled by it. Just Spurs bought him as a kid, loaned him out to Hamburg, where he was filed accounts, one of the best players in the Bundesliga. And then they sold him, which makes no sense to me. And I get that Spurs are kind of in a weird context, where you don't want to take a risk on a 19 year old central defender in his first Premier League season. But at the same time, if you've got hold of one of the most promising defensive prospects in Europe, maybe you don't sell into Brighton. So I'm fascinated to see how he does. I think they will suffer from what Bournemouth will suffer from and when we come onto the palace as well, that European burnout thing will be a factor. I'm not worried that Brighton will get relegated or anything like that, but as things stand, I don't know whether they have enough depth in the squad to sustain like early stage conference lead games and Premier League games, which might sort of set the tone for the season. One of the signings I really like is Trostinia from Olympiacross, he'll be a good player to watch. Oh, this quick question, trademark, 90 Brighton specific rule, but let's round out the Bs. We're going Bournemouth, Drenford Brighton in the order of finish in the B table, wheels of him, wheels, who finishes top, middle and bottom of these three clubs. Oh, it's really hard, you know, this is quite tricky. Brentford Bournemouth Brighton. I'm with you. Nice. Back into lovable London. You mentioned him, crystal palace, the pride of South London, up the Eagles and mean it, a 15th last season, but champions of Europe, you'll never sing that. Can the club build on it? Defiantly potent, successful silver lead in the era, AKA the Oliver Glastair era, without, you know, Oliver Glastair, they won a third trophy inside 12 months. I mean, just absolutely magical. So unbelievably happy for palace fans, that conference, the glory, what a night. What memories were made, but football, man, it is better than real life. That brilliant, wily tactician, Oliver Glastair, forever a palace icon. So I did good idea to move to palaces, sudden doom rivals, not even Forrest, and Forrest rule, travel to Selhurst Park, October the 10th. Might not just be the stealth most, can't wait rumble of the season. I like it when you get a new and slightly random rivalry in football, and they don't happen very often, but palace forest already feels like a more authentic downbeat to me than palace Brighton. You know, there's a word in Yiddish for like hatreds that are based on reasons people can't remember. It's a brugest, the reason for it is pretty tangential, but the venom of anger, hate the station, is it in 11? And it's beautiful. It's a little bit like Crystal Palace and Brighton, like you hear a hundred reasons why those two teams hate each other. Well, it was a very hard in 1973, actually, Roger. That's what it was. But it's the hatred, just feel that the hatred itself becomes the reason. And it's better when one of the clubs sues the other because of a banner, the fan show about the owner. As Crystal Palace fans showed, suggesting that the evangelist, Maranacus, the forest owner, was not necessarily the most delightful man in the world. Maranacus has taken the hatred. There were a lot of details. And because of the legal situation, I don't know if I want to talk about it. Allegedly. But it was definitely a banner. It was definitely a banner. No, it's allegedly a banner. It was allegedly a banner. Allegedly a banner. It was a banner that was offensive. Allegedly a evangelist. Allegedly Maranacus. And allegedly a evangelist, a evangelist Maranacus is suing. No, he's definitely suing them. He's definitely suing them. And I think that's nice, as the Premier League has seen you in court in Greek, has conquered all types of TV. It offers a bit of everything that you want from every type of TV show. And increasingly, it's decided, right, we're going to branch out. Now, this is a legal drama. I really like that. It's actually suits. Yeah. Law and order Premier League. Replacing Glasner is the... CSI Premier League. I know. By the way, watch that. I would watch that. In a percent. Well, you would, wouldn't you? Replacing Glasner. Fascinating, but impactful. PSS, how do I say that? You like that, Rod? Do I really? Yeah. You got it right. You got it in one. Anyway, if you want no young children watching, how you do this, you just take the word and you kind of pronounce it in the way you think is least likely to make any sense. And then you hold your breath to see if we're all correct here. Who is he? He's a 47-year-old Frenchman. He's had a pretty unconventional, pretty rapid rise to the Premier League. So much of the last two decades working in the amateur battles. I think they're called the Anals of French Football Role. Tell us how we made the leap into the spotlight. Well, he took a caretaker position in charge of Leon and did a surprisingly good job at a club that was mired in chaos. Been head of the youth academy, haven't you? Yeah, he was kind of, he was the caretaker guy and then he got brought in, did well. The club was bottom of Ligur. And then... Let them to six. Let them to six. And then got the job on a permanent basis. And from there, we took over at Loss. And took Loss, which is a small-ish team in industrial northern France. I was there just the other day. Took them to second in Ligur. Ah, the in Ligur. In Ligur. And that was enough to get him the palace job. So he won the French Cup. He won the French Cup as well, that's right. Don't take away his coup. I will not take away his coup. Bruno Gilmérich, he's got his suit on his shoulder. Yeah, he's got his self-respect. So he wins the French Cup, great season at Loss, but just one season at Loss. And he kind of, as you say, it's a slightly unusually meteoric rise for PSR, I would say. Yeah, so that reputation, methodical trainer wins a respect of his players as he makes them better. Favourite courageous, hungry attacking play, which is going to be fascinating to watch him attempt with his squad. What do you think about Sars' rule? Because it is kind of, I've felt it, and I don't know how you say this in French. High risk, I reward. Yeah, with the emphasis on the first one, I think. It feels like a real role of the dice that, we talked about this a million times, Roger. Managers are really context-dependent. And as much as his work at Lear and Lance was really good, both begin with an L, maybe. Both, that's important. Leads future. I just don't know whether you can say that he's... I only do L clubs. ...suited to this squad, or whether he'll be able to transfer that to English football. Lance won the French equivalent of the community shield. They don't PSG the other day. So it may well just be that Lance had quite well run, and that he had some quite good players, including San Gare, who's at Brentford now. I'm quite worried about Palace. Who's more vital to Palace's success, I'd like to do a little button for something slightly optimistic. Is it Adam Wharton? Is it Jean-Philippe Matetta? Probably Wharton. I think Wharton is, if they can keep hold of Wharton over the next 12, 10, 12 days, then that will give them something to build on. We've got used to Palace selling players in Ezea and Elisa, particularly, obviously. I think the expectation was that they'd lose Wharton this summer, and that would kind of just leave his Milo-Sar. Matt Soltz Laquire has gone... They've not done a huge amount in the transfer market. They signed a right back from Union San Gare was, the Belgian team, who's apparently very good. I won't claim to have watched a load of Belgian football, but they are excited by him. Tell me, tell me, come away with your weak opinions, then. You're putting the word rule, or you don't. But one of us does is all I'm saying. But I think there was a real risk. If you throw in Europe as well, I think there's reasons for Palace fans to be as concerned as they are. By the way, you talk about new bodies coming to Palace, imminent, meant-to-be, real Salt Lake Winger Xavier Guzou! Maive, just 19 years of age. It's said to be joining Palace in the coming days to watch this kid for West Valley U-Tar, just shopping his game in the Premier League will be... By the way, with Chris Richards, the mentor in... It's one of the best values in U-Tar. Yeah, talking about America, it's at its top 10 value. Tell us, menimblazergmail.com. From Crystal Palace, very American to the most American. Historically, full America. Ah, miss those days. Full of the Tony West London team. Essentially, a few gramps was an entire squad. Another team, in true transition, a bit of a theme rule, 11th last season. Quite a vanilla innocuous ending to the Marco Silver Rain. Five years of bubbling promise, the always-on-edge Portuguese decided to phone home to Ben Fica. In comes what? Lovers of alliteration, Delight, Alvaro Albaloa. Double A, a gentleman here. I guess the word is survived at your motor, five months at Real Madrid's management role. Stepping in for poor befuddles, Shabby Alonzo. Nunder is watch. Let me ask you, really, rather than me say it. In the low light, we all know there was a locker room fight between Tuomania and Valverde, in which the latter was left unconscious. Was there anything you saw in those five months that made you think, hmm, naive tactics, hmm, hot mess culture? And you were just like, yeah, that's just Real Madrid, Madrid, and all in there. Albaloa actually did stuff that made you think, hmm, Premier League manager in the making. Not really, but I don't know if it's fair to judge him by that, because Real Madrid and Real Madrid in that context was very much a kind of unique environment with something had broken within the squad, whether they can fit it under Jose Mourinho as a different matter, not for the full-on section of a Premier League preview podcast. Albaloa had built up quite a reputation as a youth coach, their second team just a year of, as a nurture of players. He's clearly, he's not not to where he is by just being, kind of, friends with Laurentino Perez, the Real Madrid president. He has some coach and ability. He's used that to bring in two players from Real's Academy, one of whom had played quite a lot for Real's first team, Gonzalo Garcia, the striker, and he was relatively well thought of in Spain, says our Palacios, the other one, is a little bit more low-key, but it's a risky appointment. It really is. I did all of this. I don't like to get conspiracy theory on your ass, but you know, I do admire the work of one Alex Jones, and I'm trying to be the Alex Jones football. Stay with me here, Lucas. It's been a full-on fans. I know a lot. Little worried. The owner, Shaheed Khan, he's a client. Stay with me here of who? Real Madrid president, Florentino Perez, his engineering and construction firm. You know, ACS Construction Group. Stay with me here, people. It's US subsidiary, Turner Construction. Just happens to re-building the Kano and Jacksonville Jaguars, $1.4 billion. That's billion with a B-Raw. I think this is how Alex Jones would do it. Stage in renovation. I've never actually watched Alex Jones. He's just like a mad idea in my head. Full of them, what do they do? They take Alvaro Arboloa from Real Madrid. On Perez's word, hmm. And then they take, you've talked about the two kids from Real Madrid, Gonzalo Garcia, Cesar Palacios, for what? For $58 million. You know, all three, the players in Alvaro, who do they have as their agent? Same agent, Oscar Ribo, who is he? He had a communications of Real Madrid under Perez. You see in a pattern here? Not great, Bob. Is that, it's always something with the red strain, isn't it? It is. But for reals, Rob. For reals, right? I mean, it does not feel like, we've always said, what is the point of a full of them? And that's where we've gotten to here. I'm starting to feel the point of a full of them is that the fans are just there to cheer for for Real Madrid's sloppy seconds. But I don't know whether, I mean, that conspiracy theory feels a little bit far-fetched, even for me, Rob. 1.4 billion with a beat. And you know I love a conspiracy theory. I think it's not a bad thing for full of them to have that relationship with Real Madrid. Real Madrid's academy to put the positive spin on it, just we are retarded in a room with at least one full of them. Real Madrid's academy is kind of what people think Barcelona's academy is. Real continually churn out players. I think generally they have the most graduates of any academy in the major European leagues pretty much every season. They've been more than Real Salt Lake. Even more than Real Salt Lake. Gonzalo Zogo. Well, the thing is obviously the Real Madrid unnamed after Real Salt Lake. And Zavier Gose. I'm here to go, sir. Being named after Real Salt Lake, they feel they have to maintain that illusion. No, Real Madrid's theory of the youth academy produces drug players. Our below had built up a decent reputation there. He was clearly massively out of his depth at Real Madrid. But we can't simultaneously. Well, there's a lot of full of the shallow end in very much so. We can't, they've got a pool in that new stand. We can't say Alonso shouldn't be judged by his tenure at Real Madrid as it's a madhouse. And then say, but our below have failed at Real Madrid. You have to have the intellectual consistency, Roger. So I think our below is a risk. I don't think full of them are going to have a good season. But I think it's not a bad thing to be the place that Real Madrid think they can send their youth players. Plus, in Josh Kinne, full of them have got a genuinely exciting home run prospect. So here's where I worry if I'm a full of them. If you want me to get serious, like to do the Alex Jones serious boys, I'm assuming he has a, I don't know. Tell me some grommies. Helmet. Oh my God. Too late for that, man. We're like 35 minutes into this journey, baby. Helmet God, Raul Jimenez, gone to Wolves. Welsh Banger, Highlight Real, Human Being, Harry Wilson. 19 of their 43 Premier League goals were scored last season by that duo. Both ducked out on free transfers. I think full of them could really, really, really struggle this season. Or dot, dot, dot, surprise candidates to do it. I think the, the verb is a West Ham. Yeah, I think you'd have to have them down there. In fact, in our predicted tables that you're forcing me to do, they are only a gunpoint. They are, they are towards the bottom of it. I think that Marta Silver was a really good manager for Fullham and they may, there may be a point this season where we start to reassess just how well he did at Fullham. Now that he's not there enough. No, he's gone for a hunky mate, he's gone for a hunky upgrade. It doesn't always work. What was wrong with Marta Silver? He was humorless. He didn't have Riz. Let's replace him with a guy who's got the hunky Riz. I don't know how much Riz of our our lower house. You don't know. He might have a better Riz. El Riz. El Riz. Yeah, you don't know. Can I ask you the quick one? Yes or no? Will it is our lower? Survived the season was full of management. No. Yeah, I agree with that. Baby, that's enough talk about relegation. Let's revel. And on new friends, the newly promoted rule, where we get geographically difficult, because there's two of these that are not in the South. But go on. Yes, but you know what I mean? We stretch to make do because that's how we operate. And both of these towns have second world war significance. Let's start with Coventry, which, by the way, before you do your hate mail about why are they in the South because this is the South section of our preview. It's the most sudden of the Midlands 3, Villa, Forest and Coventry. I got out my ruler and measured the geographic latitude because I'm pretty finiquity raw. Well, I'd like to interview the more evidence in that, Roger. Kenya. In the Olden days, there was not Premier League championship, lead one, lead two. There was one, two, three. And then third, South and North. Yeah. And Coventry were one of the teams that flipped in between, because they had to, yeah, well, they had to switch it around, depend on who came down and who'd not promoted. And my granddad played for them in both the South and North. He did? What was his name? Bruno Smith. He is long dead. Yeah, but it won't stop Chelsea coming in from 25 million to make them experience the little lockering. Bruno, a lot of experience in Bruno Smith. Yeah. Absolutely. I bet you. How many more minutes, I think, Jordan Henderson will play in the Premier League in Berlin? The dead, Bruno. My granddad, who died in 1984. Yeah. 27. A minute. Yeah. More minutes. Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? Which one? 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