The Pochettino Paradigm: Cultural Reset, Dual-National Friction, and USMNT Gridlock

Hi, hello, welcome to your favorite average school podcast called What You Want. Jimmy Conrad alongside Charlie Davies and Tony Miola and we have a great show for you or an average a good show for you. Let me correct that. We're talking about Marisa Pochicino, had a press conference. He said some things. Talk about dual nationals, young players, battle again. We're going to talk about all that stuff. Then Georena got off the mark in Liga so that we have to discuss that. He's a special case. And then eight Americans are in the mix for the Champions League league phase and that is kicking off this week. So we're excited about that. For me, it's almost like Merry Christmas week. I'm so excited for the Champions League. He's one of my favorite competitions. I get all excited about hanging out with my loved ones and watch all the games anyway. What are you guys doing? Chuck? How was your weekend? My weekend was phenomenal. Phenomenal? Yeah. I got to go to LA for the Rebs taking on the Galaxy although the game wasn't great from the Rebs perspective. I got to see my nephew, my brother just had his first child, Julian, so Justin and Lindsay got to go visit them. That was awesome. See my parents. So it was a nice trip. What tip did you give your brother? What's your number one advice brother? Enjoy the whole process. Don't try and rush them to walking and running and playing. Just enjoy while you can hold them and enjoy every step of the way because just being in that environment, like, man, I do miss like, okay, yeah, you know, doing the diapers was a lot. You do miss them being that, at that age, it was all, it was one of those times where you look back and like, man, that seems so long ago. My twins are 10 years old now, I'm like, oh, my, I couldn't imagine going back into that world. Yeah. Long days, short years, as they say famously about being a parent, I'll piggyback off of that because we were up visiting my in-laws and we had some younger kids, family for, oh, actually not family for, it's my wife's cousin's kids and they are four and 18 months respectively. And I'll be honest, big don'ts, my kids are much older now. I was worn out after about 10 minutes. I'm like, I can't do this baby thing anymore. This is a lot. I feel like I've kind of, I've tipped to it into older age. I just don't know if I have the bandwidth to manage all this energy right now, which is like, that's like, that's like grandpa talk, grandpa talk, you know what I mean? So that was a nice revelation, yeah, yeah, that's true, that's true. But slow it down for my kids, there's no rush to make me a grandpa. All right. I don't want to jinx anything here. Big tone. How was your weekend? It was good, man. I was up in Stam Vegas up there and working with CBS, covered CDI, covered a little DFL. We did a little bit of everything and a weekend flew back yesterday. We'll head back, got, got Chuck, I'm calling your team tomorrow, Arsenal, Napoli, Arsenal tomorrow. A big league down here. Another tone. Another tone. Back up to Stam Vegas on Friday. So you guys love the deal. Back and forth. Back and forth. Hopefully I'll be back in Stam Vegas very, very soon. All right, let's talk about Marista Pochettino. He speaking ahead of the upcoming camp from what we understand. The roster will be dropping here very soon. Obviously we can dive into that and give you guys what we're thinking. I think it's next week. It's going to happen. All right. So here's the first quote. This is him talking about dual nationals. And I wanted to get into this one right away. This is essentially on, on considering Noah Kai Banks for the U.S. Men's national team. Marista Pochettino said this, we are in contact with all the potential dual nationals. I think it's important for us, of course, because that is a human connection that is so important. Even if they, like in that case, Noah Kai Banks didn't change his mind and is waiting still. No decision. And of course, we cannot consider him for the next camp. So Noah Kai Banks is looking like he's out for the next one, which is disappointing for all of us because we're a little thin in that area of the field at the center back position. Toh and I'm going to come to you first. He said dual nationals. So there's a plural there. I'm kind of curious as to who else he's looking at and talking to. But talk to me about Noah Kai Banks and another missed opportunity, at least from our perspective, to bring someone in and give him a look who's got some potential. Yeah, I think we did a show a couple of weeks ago and they said, who's your number one guy you want to see in camp in this, this was my number one guy. So then sound like I'm going to see him or we're going to see him. Yeah, I suppose if it's early in the cycle, right, the thing that kills you, it's a four game cycle, right? So you really had like an extended period of time to see somebody, whether it's him or somebody else. But I'm with poach, if you haven't made a decision yet, you want people that are completely bought in and of course he, he says we're in contact with all dual nationals. There's a lot of dual nationals out there, Jimmy. Yeah. And there's probably names that I remember this from when I was at US soccer. There were names that people didn't even know about and they had a dad that was in the military at one point or whatever the case was. There's a million different reasons, right? And they never, you know, they never turned in any, but you're always looking. You're always searching. You're always trying to figure out where these guys are. But in this case here, I would have liked to have seen him in camp, but he's got a, you know me, I'm on that bandwagon of you got to be fully committed to the national team. That's just me. I get people are like, there are people that will say, we got to beg somebody to come in. Okay, if you sit in that camp, I'm fine with that. That's you. But for me, you got to be fully bought in to be in with the national team to be on the national team. Yeah. And then with regard to no key banks, before I kind of turn to some other names that he might be talking to, a bank said, I know that I have to decide by the next international break or at the latest by the international break after next. So so this one, I think is going to bypass. But yeah, I think it's next, I think it's November. No, is there another break in November? I believe that there is. And so he is trying to make his decision then. And I kind of wonder, Chuck, to Tony's point, if you're Marisa Pochettino or if you're any manager trying to recruit a dual national, what would you say? How do you say it? I mean, there's an element of yes, we want you to, when you make the decision, we want you to be all in. But there's still a little bit of, hey, this is a great project we got going and you could be really centered on some of this if you decide to go on. Yeah. No, for me, when you're the US national team head coach, you have to recruit. That's, that's just the, the landscape now across global football. Hey, we want the best players to play for our national team. But again, there's a difference between recruiting and, and promising or guaranteeing a world cup spot, starting spots like, no, the shirt has to mean something. So we obviously need more center backs. And this kid has a lot of potential, he's, you know, he's playing in the Bundesliga. But at a certain point, you're saying, okay, listen, this is the pathway, right? This is the potential we have as a national team. This is what I can do for you to help you grow as a, as a center back. This is how I see you fitting into the team. But you got to earn it. That's, that's something that every national team, I think, to get the most out of the group is making sure that there's no entitlement. There, there, you, you have to make sure that in order to play, you got to prove it and you got to earn it. Otherwise, you have that negative, you know, locker room start to, start to creep in, you know, with where people start chatting. Hey, why is this guy playing? He's not playing. He, you know, he doesn't do anything. He's not good enough. You have to always earn it. And for me, I think Pugetino is going about it the right way is putting almost like healthy pressure. We're not saying you have to do it by this time or, but I'm telling you, when you decide, I can't call you in until you say, hey, I'm ready to commit to the U.S. man's national team. And, you know, from, from Nookai Banks perspective, if you're saying, I've been in Germany, I feel maybe a little bit more closer to the German national team. And I want to give myself every opportunity to see if there, this is a real potential for me in the short term. Then I think he's trying to wait it out to say, hey, does Yergen Klopp feel like, hey, I'm going to be a part of this project. And as soon as he gets the, the feeling or the sense that Yergen Klopp is like, ah, I'm not so sure on him, I think that's when he has to make the disheart decision, hey, I'm going to go to the U.S. I'm going to, I'm going to put all my eggs in the basket and go with Pugetino and, and be a part of this process, or I'm going to keep holding on to hope that Germany finally, you know, changes their, their mind on me and, and gives me the opportunity. Yeah. It's going to be interesting to see. I, I think the German center backs, though talented or, or maybe not as good as they've been in the past or a little bit older now, I think at Antonio Rutiger in particular. As some other names, I was, I was like, what other dual nationals is he potentially looking at? Maybe some younger players that maybe aren't on the radar for everybody, but Landon, Eminolo, I think is one of them plays for Chelsea, just actually made a lone move to Celtic. He's a left, ah, left back and, and he, he is featured for the U.S. at the youth levels. He's been most recently with a England under 18s. He's eligible for Nigeria as well. He's born in Arizona, moved to England when he was young. I think what's interesting about Eminolo, not only his dad, who was technical director of Chelsea for a while, but, but he was fast-tracked into first team training, okay, at Chelsea, by none other than Mauricio Pochettino shortly after his 16th birthday in January of 22. Wow. So, so, Pochettino is clearly familiar with Eminolo and I'm curious to see where he, he, I mean, that's a, when a, when a manager gives you that chance, right, you get to have a special place in your heart and I, I feel like we could potentially win him over. Martin O'Neill, the Celtic boss after the lone move recently just said, Landon is a very good player. We have followed for some time. He'll give us some real quality. He has many attributes that I think will benefit us. He's very quick and athletic, but also very composed on the ball. And while he can defend, he certainly gets up the pitch into attacking positions too. I know he has a real desire to do well for us and I'm sure that he will. He had strong competition and support on our left side, Martin O'Neill, one of the best. And so that's a high praise. We'll see how many minutes he gets with the, with the hoops this upcoming season. Another American, maybe, you know, Austin Schuss, CCCV, can maybe, you know, Carmen, Carmen Carter, Victor's can try to win him over as well. There's another kid, Montreal Colbrith. He emerged in the second half of the last season for lever cues and started eight of the last nine games for, for them, 18 year old can operate as a winger or a wingback. I think he's more of a number 10. He's eligible to represent the US through his father, but he's been most recently with the German U-19s. He's got three goals and nine games for them and, and he's coming off an, up an injury so he hasn't yet played for lever cues in the season, but someone to keep an eye on. And then from a center back perspective, there's a kid at OXER. I say, kid, he's 23 years old, six foot three. He's been a prospect for us for some time, but he just tore his ACL at the end of last year, placed for OXER in, in Liga, Brian Oco. He, he was born in Texas, but grew up in Switzerland. And I feel like, if I'm going to put the full court press on someone, he could be one just because we're thin in that center back position. And now he's playing for Will Still, who was a hot name as a manager for a while. They've lost their first three games. They just got promoted OXER. So, uh, Claire and Validian's manager. That's right. That's right. And then there's a goalkeeper who, who could play, uh, he plays for Royal Antwerp right now, Tashi Nozawa. He is a 23 year old, never played for the US, but, um, Japan-born goalkeeper could play. He's an American father, uh, big tones. And, and I feel like the only reason he could potentially be an option for us, obviously we're thin in that area. It was Zion, Suzuki, kind of being the number one for Japan. Maybe the path forward, uh, isn't as clear for Nizawa. Also for Japanese American. Exactly right. So, so, I feel like there's some options out there and I wonder. Where's, uh, Koleo Shoe? Koleo Shoe? Did he make a decision yet? I can't remember. No, he hasn't either. No, I just saw it. So, just Italy, Canada, and then us, right? Yeah. He, he just got a cap, though, didn't with Italy. I believe he got a cap. I think he did. I don't know if he's after the world. Yeah. I think after they didn't qualify, right? For the World Cup, didn't he get, I know he got called in. I don't know if he took the guy to go look, but he just came to mind, but. Yeah, so there's some guys out there. There's some guys. And, and if I gotta call him, don't forget, don't forget, yeah, sorry. Don't forget, like, the Julian Halls of the World, the Mammettis of the World, too, right? The young kids that are playing here that have the opportunity to play at other places. Julian Hall, you know, there's been word, rumour, whatever, that Poland really wants him. You know, so there are other guys like that, too, that are a little bit younger, that maybe aren't for, if the World Cup started today, aren't for today. But remember, we're a little less than four years away, so you never know how these guys develop, but you know my feelings on the Metti, man. That's the one kid I want to see how he develops, but there's a lot of dual nationals, man. Yeah, there are. And it's going to be very interesting to see what the names on this roster are going to look like, and moving forward, of course, because the recruiting process isn't just a one and done, if they don't come to a camp. All right, there's some other comments here from Marisa Pochettino that we want to dive into, but we're going to start with one who we think he was alluding to in particular. Kevin Solven. Now, I think what's interesting about Kevin Solven, three goals in his last three games, absolutely on fire, full of confidence, tops put out this tweet. Now, 16-year-old American soccer phenom as they tweeted, Kevin Solven's one out of one MLS debut, Patch Autograph card, just sold for $324,000, smashing the record for the most expensive MLS card ever. Solven debuted at just 14 and set to join Man City when he turns 18. $324,000. Okay, so now just, I'm using that. I need to read 24. Don't you do like 325? Like, isn't it? I don't know. I think it's a bidding process, right? Go in one, three, go in twice. Okay, so Marisa Puchotino had a couple quotes about, it's an arrogance in some capacity. Let's see Marisa Puchotino said this. We are watching everything and it is so important to have respect to be professional. How you treat your teammates, how you treat your opponents, even if you are young and you are good, you are confident. You need to use your confidence in your arrogance to score goals and to perform every day and improve every day and be much better. Okay, that's the first part of it. The second part is, if you've won eight ball on doors, okay, you can talk with a certain arrogance, but even messy. Never are you going to hear him talking this way, but if you are young and you start to talk, you can play here, you can play there, you can play. I don't believe that these are in the right way to build your career in the best way. That's Marisa Puchotino's quote. Now, this is off of Kevin Zollivan going on a Alexi Lawless' State of the Union podcast saying, thinking of that Belgium game. Now, I'm in Kevin Zollivan's voice. Thinking of that Belgium game, I think I could come into that game on the right side and make a difference, right? That's just what you want. You want to have to believe in yourself. You have to think you can help your team win. So there's an interesting chuck. I'll come to you on this one as our resident attacker here. You have to be arrogant in some capacity, right? I mean, that comes with having the confidence to go out and make place to believe that you can go out there and do it. And maybe in that Belgium game in particular, we lacked a little bit of that confidence, especially when the game got away from us and that arrogance that you, that swagger that you need. But on the flip side, I understand what Pochettino's coming from, like, hey, you got to earn that respect in some capacity and you got to pick your spots and use it where it matters, but don't let it spill over into other areas either of your life or when you're being disrespectful to the opponent. Yeah, this is one of those moments where, I think it's taken a little bit out of context, to be honest. You know, it's like, oh, he's talking about coming in to help the team like he's arrogant and maybe entitled a little bit. I think that's not what he was trying to say. He's trying to say, I backed myself that I could come in and change the game. He didn't say I should be playing over somebody. He didn't say I should have been in the World Cup team. You know, it's easy for people to get carried away is what I'm saying. We would never do that here on that show. I want the attacking players that are creative to have that type of confidence. That's why he's 16 years old and starring at MLS right now. Let's not forget how he's literally changed the way the Philadelphia Union have performed. At this moment, he's scoring goals. He's creating. He's playing with elite confidence right now. He's a 16-year-old and major league soccer. So I don't want to take that out of him because that's what makes him different. And that's why he's daring and he tries things on the pitch. Now, I think with the performance comes experience and he'll get the wisdom. But let's not say every player has to be messy to be able to talk, right? How many people can we go across that have been very boisterous and outgoing with their comments? I mean, a slap down he'd bring him of it. You think when he was 16 and 17 years old that he was quiet and he wasn't, because I've heard so many stories playing in Sweden about how he wasn't a player. So I don't want every player to be cookie-cutter in a box. That's just not how it should be. So I'm happy that he's one thriving in MLS right now. I was a 16-year-old, but two, he backs up what he's been saying at the moment. I mean, at the national team, would he have come in realistically and changed the game? No, he wouldn't have. But I like the fact that he backs himself to come in and change the game. Okay. So we just have to be a little bit cautious in terms of like, is this guy coming out here and saying he's the best player in the US national team set up right now? No, he's not doing that. Right. No, no, no, that's fair. And I agree with you, ultimately. I want a little swagger, mate. So, so, Tony, this is specific to you because you got to play with this player. Eric Winalda. For me, that guy is like all swagger. And I wonder if he didn't have that type of confidence, he wouldn't be anywhere near the player that he was for us, right? He scored some big goals and never backed down from anybody. And so, so, do you see a little bit of that in terms of like that backing himself and Winalda, and if he didn't, he took that away from him, he'd be really tame. They're different players, though. I think that goal score versus like a Christian Ronaldo at night. Sure, sure, sure. You know, doing all the tricks and flicks and then he gets to Real Madrid and he's like, oh, I'm wasting energy. Let me just focus on scoring goals. Yeah, yeah. Messy too. You can do all the tricks in the book. You don't see him doing tricks and flicks. He's very, blah, blah, blah. Rodinio said, hey, all the tricks that I do, Messy can do. He just doesn't do that in a game, right? So, I think you got to give it a little bit of context. But go ahead, tell him. Sure, sure, sure. Yeah, look, you don't want to take the confidence way. To your point about Winalda, right? Yeah, he had confidence. I will say, we'll say this from having been around in my entire career, basically. He always respected his teammates, right? Like, I don't ever see him saying this kind of thing that would have, and I'm with you, Charlie. I think it's been taken out of context, but that's what the media does, right? Yeah. But the reality is that you got to always watch what you say. And what Puccino is saying is basically, be careful, right? Because there is a line. You just don't want to cross the line. I'm curious if you're one of these players that were in the national team, and you're only reading. You're not going back to Alexi's podcast and like deciphering whether he was right, answering the question or it was taken out of context. You're just reading what is in the paper, what you see online. And you're like, get out of here, you're 16, you're old. Like, yeah, wait till you come to camp. Like, there's got to be a little bit of that. If you go and read the article, Puccino goes deeper. Now, we're making an assumption, right? And this is, I don't know if it's an assumption more as much as it's an educated guess that he's referring to these comments from Kevin Sullivan. But if you go into the article and read Puccino, all of Puccino's quotes, he goes out of his way, he mentions it, and then two times later, he goes out of his way to also talk about, and on the field, you have to respect your opponent all the time, right? And for me, this is where he was even more talking to Kevin Sullivan with regards to, I said, Kevin's in a fight every game. I love the feistiness. I love it. But you bring up Eric Wanolda. What happened in 1990 with that feistiness with Wanolda? First game, one stupid push in the back, red card, we're playing with 10 men in a world cup. And he learned quick. He learned quick, and he mentions it every time you talk to him. So that's the part, I think Puccino is trying to defend against, right? And get out of. Shout out to Eric Wanolda with his new coaching opportunity, right? Yeah, in Estonia, yeah. Estonia. At least he's going to go get it, right? He's chasing it. So it's good to see that at this age, he's like, hey, you know what? I'm going to take these opportunities and go and coach and see what I can do. Yeah, so let's point, sorry, with the arrogance and confidence conversation, right? Everybody has a different line. Puccino's line might be just shut up and play, where some other guy might say, hey, you can say all you want as long as you back it up on the field, right? Like, there's a line for everybody. And you sit on wherever part of that line you want, and you say it's arrogance or it's confidence. Me, you know me, I just want to be a go play and let the ball do the work, right? Jimmy, I want to know what your perspective is in terms of Kevin, because remember, he's 16 years old. He's Simon Manchester City. He's kind of like the hot shit, right? Now, if you're an MLS player, he's got a big target on his back. So you're saying, okay, you think you're the guy. I'm going to come and smash you, smash you, smash you, right? That's that's how you would get treated. But he's still delivering. So I get the fact of pace, why are you fighting every game? Well, it's because guys are going after him every game. Now, he hasn't gotten a red card, which could, you could say, hey, man, he hasn't gotten a yellow card or a red card. And he's got three straight games with a goal. And they're unbeaten in the last one, two, three, four, five matches. So, you know, as much as we're talking about, hey, chill, calm mate, just back it up. He is performing and the team is thriving, and he does have a target on his back. So where do you stand, Jim? Yeah, so I had this opportunity with Fredy Adieu, in particular, right? I was in the midst of my career when he came up, 14 years old, similar hype, right? He different, not like for like, obviously, but brought something special to the table, could make the final pass, had good vision, good ball control, little guy, right? So that's another thing, too. When you see these guys on TV, and kind of similar to what you're saying, tones about when you read about their quotes in the paper, you're like, I want to know what this guy's all about. And then then I saw Fredy Adieu, I was a little guy, he's a cute as a button this guy, but then you can't get anywhere near him, because he's so crafty on the ball. So yes, to your point, Chuck, when you have an opportunity, at any time you get a diminutive playmaker, you have to get close and get tight so they can't. So did you kick for you? Yeah, I mean, I tried the best I could to just make the game difficult. I don't remember going out and saying, I'm going to kick the shit out of Fredy Adieu, but I do remember thinking, you remember if Fowlum? Did you Fowlum? Did you remember? I'm pretty sure I Fowlum, yeah. There was a preseason game. I remember playing down. He would be the only guy he didn't foul in his career. Yeah, or that would be. Maybe I'm having a revisionist history to make me sound like a nice guy. So let me get this right, Jimmy. In training, you would go down and take me down, take me out and foul me, but in a game, you wouldn't do that to Freddy. No, I'm not saying that I mean, you're really he fouled them. No doubt. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I fouled them. You can't remember, come on. I remember like all these moments of playing games. So some big, big, big tones. That's right, tones. We were playing together. We played Freddy Dune his first preseason game. So DC, I never seen somebody get kicked up in the air so many times unique. I swear, I've told this story for years. And anyone that I've never seen and the referee didn't do anything. And remember Nick Garcia was going out. I mean, it was one kick after another. And I was like, holy cow man, the kid's only like 14 years old. At the time he couldn't really. He's got a step on you here. I think he's got the angle of the photo, big tone. No, we don't really. He's got you right here. I love the confidence from all these guys. I love it. Just let it just let it happen with the ball. We don't it mean in the end, we'll see how this whole thing turns out. But by the way, Chuck, he did, Kevin did get a red card. If you remember, it got rescinded. He was going to wasn't his brother. His brother got tackled. Or was it somebody else? I can't remember. But at the end of the game. That was that was all stupid. But yeah, yeah, look, I love. I watched him games. I never watched Philly like this. I'm like, give him the ball, man. I want to see what he does. Just give him the ball. Let's see. Let him go out people. Let him take people on. And let's see. Let him make his mistakes. We talk about this all the time. Yeah, the other stuff. Just, I'm guessing, I don't know this for sure. Charlie, you're probably would be closer. The closest to this having played in Philly. I'm guessing somebody has gotten in Kevin's ear and said, Hey, man, look, just be careful with the things that you say. Yeah, I mean, the perfect person on his team is Alejandro Badoia. Oh, there you go. The first person to look at him and go, Kevin, shut up. If that, if that was worth it, you know, like Badoia's, he's one of those outspoken guys in the locker room that, you know, sees things from, I think, a positive point of view. He understands how the world works and he understands how, you know, coaches talk and the right way to conduct yourself. He had played, he's played in Europe, he's played in World Cup. He gets it. So if there's ever a player to give proper advice in that locker room, it's Badoia. I also think there's something to be careful about. This is his superpower, clearly. He likes to talk and there's some bravado to him. And I, I just curious, if you take that away or handcuff that a little bit, what, what that means for him, I understand there's like a delicate balance here. And I understand where from Mr. Pochettino is coming from as well. He's trying to get ahead of it and to make sure he lays some good groundwork. But I also don't want Kevin to lose that edge in particular. And any of our young players have a ton of confidence. Do you guys ever remember Freddie coming out and talking that way? Because I do not ever, I don't think Freddie, Freddie was media trained to the, to the 10th degree, right? He was, he was phenomenal in, in handling media. I think he was trained really well at, at such a young age. I mean, 14 years old being a professional. But I don't ever remember him coming out and being like, I could change the game. He might say it to us internally, you know, but in the public, I don't think he ever crossed the lines in that type of way. And what happened to Freddie to do? He played for 18 teams and 18 years or something. Keep the confidence going. I'm a big fan of confidence. All right, we're going to take our first break. When we come back, we're going to get into a worrying lack of minutes for some of our core guys in the US men's national team. So keep it right here. Don't go anywhere. All right, welcome back to your favorite average, a good podcast. Call it what you want. I'm Conradinho. Alongside check chasing Chuck and big tones. And so as I tease before the break, there is a concerning lack of minutes for some of our players, most notably, Fowler and Baligan and Christian Foolistic. We'll start with Baligan first. Here's the big news. And Tony, I want you to chime in here first. He has been omitted from Monaco's conference league squad. That means I remember when Chelsea was in the conference league, all of their first team players were omitted from the squad. Let's not make a big deal out of that. I know there's some guys behind the scenes here would be like, oh my god, panic. He's not in the conference league, you know, chill. I think you can also you can also add him back in in January. That's the whole point you can. Yeah, but you're still missing eight European games. And then there has to be light at the end of the tunnel that you're going to play on the weekends, right? And not play midweek. And then you missed two, you missed, I guess, Turkish transfer windows over, right? Everything's over. You missed all the transfer windows. Hopefully this isn't an epidemic right now for him where it doesn't get any playing time. Of course, when you get results on the weekend, managers don't change all the time. So this is a, this one's a tricky one. I will say this. I was watching the game, you know, up at the studios. We got all the screens as you know, we're watching the game. We're watching that man city game and then our man United game and then Everton scores the goal, great goal at the end and the atmosphere. And my first thought was, oh man, this would have been great to see flow in this game right now. Like, that's my first. I get, he made his personal decision and we all live with that and but I personally said to myself, oh man, this, this game would have been great to see him battling, you know, in this game right now. I guess the Saudi, they're telling us the Saudi window, Saudi Arabian windows still open right now. I don't know if that's even an option for him. But yeah, this is, this one's a wait and see, because it could be sort of a logistics thing for the week where the policy one might be a little bit different right now. All right, so he was not in the squad this weekend. Monaco went into Paris and beat PSG 2 to 1. A really good result. Their new manager, Felipe Luis is the first manager in Monaco's history to win his first five games in charge. And Baligan hasn't been a part of any of those. So I guess there's a little bit of concern there. They've got some other options that are doing the business Paris Bruner in particular. But the Brazilian coach, Felipe Luis said this, Baligan is a Monaco player. The club is more important that any single player, but he is injured. Once he recovers, I'll be counting on him. I'm very happy with the squad I have. But right now, I just need to focus on the next match. So, so Felipe Luis clearly not closing the door on Baligan's influence and potential impact on the season, but still a bit of a concern, Chuck, right? Just a little bit. Yeah, for me, it's more about getting out of rhythm. And the reason why I still think he'll be okay is from Monaco's perspective. If they've moved on from Flare and Baligan being their starting striker, you still want to maximize what you can get from your your return on this investment. So why wouldn't you just continue to try and keep his stock at least in a way that in January, they can get 30 million for him or 20 million. Because in the end, you don't want your assets to depreciate so much that he just walks for free. So I still think he's going to have opportunities to play. And if they give him those opportunities and he thrives, his value is still going to be pretty high, even with a year left on his contract, if he takes it through the full year. So they could get, you know, still 15, 20 million for him with a year left, if he still continues to thrive under Felipe Luis. By the way, it is a hot start. It is promising. And if you maybe if you end up doing extremely well, there's not like a real need to leave, right? So again, he's looking for a bigger contract. And he's looking for obviously playing in the Premier League top top competition. I still think he would thrive in La Liga. I still think he would do well in Syria. So as long as he keeps his options open and he just gets back to work and focusing and waiting for his opportunity, which I think will come, then for me, it's there's no issue. But I'm concerned from the US international team's perspective, just because you lose a rhythm, the timing of your runs when you're not playing, when you're just training, that goes. And, you know, being able to feel against defenders when they're coming in full steam and you got to be able to roll them and deal with that physicality, that goes when you're not playing matches regularly, you lose a lot of that ability that makes you so strong in your form. So that's what's going to need to come back. Yeah, I ultimately love your approach, though. Just just get good at getting good at what you did or getting sharp again at what you can have control over. So yeah, I like that a lot. The Maurizio Puccino also weighed in. He said that about this, this balligan situation, it's difficult because you cannot influence the decision and only you need to support what they are doing with the people making the decisions. Of course, in some special case, like flow, I will call in the next few days because I want to give a little bit of space after all that has happened with the situation in Everton. I want to know from him what happened, but always offering our support and be with them. That's it. I think he's an important player for us. It was an important player in the World Cup and hope that he can find being in Monaco or another place is best, his best place to perform in the best way. So that is Maurizio Puccino chiming in. It's almost like he's doing his own podcast, doing these press conferences. Maurizio Puccino. We're just waiting for Maurizio, huh? We're going crazy. Hey, Pucc, join the show already. It's about time. Geez. Everybody else, we just want like 20 minutes of your time. Is he one other player? Is he, what are you saying in the beginning? Subscribe? Is Puccino? Yeah. What did you say? I said, Slubscribe. Yeah, that's probably why he's going to join the show. He's always wanted to subscribe to Everton. The goodness show. All right. Another player that maybe gives us some concern, we're going to go to our resident A.C. Milan fan. But Milan just picked up a one-one draw against Juventus on this Sunday. No game time for a Christian Pulisic. He's been on the bench for a third consecutive game. Milan have won their first, have won first two under Ruben Emmering, their new manager. Subtle for a point against Juve. So speaking to reporters after the game, Emmering explained that Pulisic is back from injury. I'm managing him. For now, Alpha Cise is taking his place. Now Cise has been pretty good. He's 19 years old. Just joined from Helles, Verona. He scored on his debut against Trino. He came off the bench to grab the opener against Juve. What do you make of this Christian Pulisic situation? Big tones. Yeah. Cise coming off, the bench is one thing, right? The look at him, young player. You get to start in the opener, gets the goal. Back from loan, I think he was in Cedia B, cut the thanzato last year. But the more concerning is the fact he's changed Salamakar's position. He put him in what would be Christian or Cise's position. He's moved Robbio up the field. A lot of it has to do with getting Eunice Musa on the field because Eunice Musa has been so good for him this season. So it's had this sort of ripple effect and it's not been beneficial. And then the other thing that's concerning, they brought in Omari Hutchinson in the late and the transfer window. And now you're starting to look at it and then you're just doing like basic math, right? And you're like, well, where does he fit in? Cise is another guy. He plays a little bit deeper on the right side, but he's also used him in that 10 roll. And then you're like, well, I mean, Christian fit. We talked to Marco Messina during the game. He told us at halftime who was warming up after the game, we asked him, did Christian warm up at all? Because they were at the stadium. He and Nigel Rear of Coker were at the stadium covering it for us. And they said he didn't warm up until like the 70th, 75th minute, but it didn't look like a warm up to go into game. It looked more like a warm up to do the running after the game, right? You know what I mean? So you're getting ready. So I don't know, man, I will say this, I said at halftime of the game, the game was screaming for a player like politic to be in the game. Get the ball at his feet. Someone confident with the ball, dribble at you because it was it was bumper cars in the first. It was a it was a ugly game in that first half. It really was a little bit better in the second half, but I said at halftime, the game was looked like it was screaming for politics qualities in that game because there was moments where it opened up, but it got sloppy. But there's a bigger picture here. Hopefully, Amarine has them in his plans because I really think that they need his skill set right now. They don't have a guy like him. Salamackers was not good on the day. He came out like it was it was a tough watch that I thought policy could have helped him. Yeah, Chuck. Let's get into this part of it because Adrian Rabio, who's coming off of injury as well. So, so I should say like this, Amarine plays a 3-4-2-1, right? He plays a box in midfields like we were screaming for for the US, right? You have two sixes, two tens. His sixes ultimately are Luca Mojochen and Eunice Musa. And then he had Rabio and Salamackers playing like the two tens. I think in somebody commented on in in the in our chat about how it Manchester United, Amarine didn't really play with wingers either and he likes to talk them in a little bit. Rabio usually sits. He's a little bit deeper. He played higher. He's one of the tens in this particular game. Salamackers. That's right. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So he's see that's that gives me some concern because now you're putting a guy who usually dictates midfield in the tempo a little bit deeper and up a higher. And then Salamackers who didn't have a good game maybe doesn't he's more of an out and out winger. So, so I just I worry about the future a little given what Amarine's history is as a manager and also kind of how this season has started for Milan. He'll find his way in because talent, you know, the cream rises to the top. I'm always a big believer in that. But but I wonder what that's going to look like when he does finally get back and healthy. Oh boy, I was a lot. I was ready to jump. I was ready to jump all over this. What do you expect for me? What do you expect from a from a club of this like at the stature of AC Milan? When you're at a club at that level and you're not healthy for preseason and you're you're trying to work your way back. There's competition all over that that's expected. So he's starting on the back foot. It's a new manager who hasn't really had the opportunity to work with Christian and see what he's about. It's going to take time. But Salamackers is nowhere near Christian politic at his best. So I'm not worried. I think Christian will fit in perfectly in that position. By the way, it gives him more flexibility to pop out wide to come inside. I'm not worried at all about Christian playing in this team. That's and I love the fact that Eunice Musa is making the most of his opportunities and his quality back. Eunice Musa, you know, I always think back to this past world cup because in 2022, Eunice Musa was phenomenal. I'll go back to that England England game with the way that Musa Adams and McKenny worked in that match. McKenny played more on the right side, but they overloaded England. England could not deal with them for most of the game. So, you know, you would have thought the natural progression is Eunice Musa taking a step forward. Now his club decisions and maybe his advisors did not help the situation. But now it seems like he's getting back into a rather where he can take, get back to where he was and then he can take that next step forward. So I do think Christian politic will be fine. He just has to get back to being 100% fit and then that is game fitness when he starts getting minutes. But I think he was probably further back than we thought physically coming into that Milan training camp. So I'm not worried. And it's a good problem to have because that's why you stay in Europe when you have played in World Cups and you have played in Champions League. The reason why you stay in Europe is because nothing is guaranteed. If he's an MLS and you're training, you're playing. That's the reality of the situation. You're in Europe, new managers happen and when new managers come, guess what? You've got to rebuild your respect within the squad. You've got to rebuild your trust in the manager and that's just how it goes. So the reason why I love Europe in terms of outside of just playing with top competition is nothing's ever given. You always have to push and train. That's why trainings matter. That's why your performance is matter week to week because if you're not there, it's the next guy's turn. So yeah, I'd say Kalmaté with the Christian not playing so far. All right, two questions. Tone's you go first here and I'll answer these as well. Who's situation between Balaghan and Christian concern you the most? That's part one. Part two is do you think Pochettino should omit either from this upcoming camp? Oh, because of the kind of current situation. I'll do that one first. I mean, coming off the first camp after World Cup, especially Balaghan doing what he did at the World Cup. I think these guys got to be in camp. In a lot of ways, even more so if they're not playing because they're still important guys on your roster. You got a chance to give them probably two times 90 minutes or something to that effect over four games. But I can see if Pochettino wants to lay down a marker. Now's the time where you just like his quotes. Now's the time four years basically out of the World Cup where you start laying down the markers, right? Not four weeks before the World Cup. Who's situation is a little bit more dire? I'm with Chuck. I think Christian gets in and I saw comment before what makes you think you had the score since 25, what makes you think my comment was the qualities that Christian had was something that they didn't have in their lineup. Salamackers was in there to dribble a ball by people. He lost so many balls in the game. So my point was what Christian does, that's the quality that they were missing on the field. That's the skill set they were missing on the field. I'm a little bit more worried if I'm being honest about about Balagan's situation right now. I think being off the conference league as much as we've seen this from Chelsea, which was for me a completely different story because they had 700 guys on their roster. I think it was Cole Palmer was the big one that was off that conference league list when it happened. I just not playing on the weekend, everything that happened trying to sell them financial difficulties at the club. I don't like his situation right now. Yeah, Chuck. For me, it's Balagan too, and it's more about being in this situation after a promising World Cup. You want to continue to play and see what's the next level you can reach. Now all of a sudden, you can't even play at the club team that you've been thriving at this past season. That for me is more troubling because it's about opportunity versus competition. Christian Pulsox situation is more about just getting fit and he's competing with guys like Salamackers. I would take that about a hundred times out of a hundred times. Christian getting back into that team because it's about just getting fit and then it's a competition. For Balagan, it's more of a they wanted to move on. They were trying to collect funds. You were trying to move on. And at the last second, that doesn't happen. For me, Monaco already kind of planned what life was going to be like without Balagan and Philippa Luis had his team, maybe had his players. And that once that move doesn't materialize, he's not in the roster for the conference league. Now, it's not a big deal, but it might be a big deal for Flare and Balagan if maybe you're not playing League of matches. Well, that would be your opportunity to still play matches. If you're not playing League of matches and you're not playing conference league matches, that's a big problem. So for me, I'd say Flare and Balagan is because you don't know what the future is either. You got two years left on your deal. This year could be a wash. If you're not playing, that's a big problem. I also say the momentum optics. We know the conference league. We know it, but when people read it, like you said earlier, big tones, when people just see little blurbs in the newspaper, they're like, that's not a good thing for that particular guy. So yeah, there's some optics. And he halted his momentum. And I'm bummed for him because he had a lot of good stuff going his direction. And ultimately, I agree with both of you. I think Balagan's a little bit more dire. And I do think that you bring both of them into camp and hopefully get two of those games. I don't know. I'd actually prefer them to play against Mexico and Canada because those games are going to be a little feistier than Peru and Chile, but I want Kevin Sullivan playing in those games too. Just run it up all the time. No one's got to play against Mexico, right? He's running his mouth the whole time. That's what we expect to see. All right, we're going to take our last break. When we come back, we'll get into some notable performances from our player pool, the Westminster national team. Keep it right here. All right. Welcome back into the show. Let's get into some big performances from our Americans. Abroad. We're going to start with the special case. Georena created two chances and scored his first league on goal and a six to win for Strasbourg versus toa. And his goal made it 3-1 at that point. A little bit of a run away towards the end. He had been subbed out at that point, but good performance. And his coach is thrilled with how he's been performing. Ricardo Pepe scored his third goal of the season. Five minutes into a big one for PSV against Ajax in Amsterdam. 3-1 win for Aindhoven. Joe Scally started and scored in a 4-3 loss. Rusha Munchengladbach lost at home to Elversburg and Cole Campbell. Tyler Adams recorded a match. I three tackles and eight recoveries and a very sadding 2-2 draw for Bournemouth versus Newcastle away from home. At St. James' Park, Alex Freeman made his first start of the season for Villarreal at home. Unfortunately, they lost to Deportivo La Coruña. Pierre, Emrik, Obamiaing ended up scoring the winner in that one. Freeman was kind of involved in all three goals that they gave up. Maybe not directly, but a little indirectly, whether based on positioning or just not reacting quick enough. And so those are areas that he's going to have to improve upon for sure. Big tones. Who caught your eye over the weekends? Anybody outside of this list? Anybody on this list? Joe Raina, this is, you know, a couple of weeks in a row where the game, the the improvement in the game. The goal's one thing. I'm looking more the play on the field, looking a little bit more confident, looking a little fitter. This is exactly what sort of the doctor ordered, right? For Joe Raina, it's finding a place where the manager believes in you is going to play you. More often than not, it's going to play in a position where he's in the attacking part of the field. He roams the field. There was a package. Someone put a package of his highlights again. Online, he roams all over the field to find the ball. He'll drop, you know, the left of the center backs. He'll drop a little bit deeper in the middle of the field. He'll spray pass. He's always giving it and going to look for it again. Like I'd love to, I've always loved that part of the game for him. I just want to see him keep improving. Joe Scally is an interesting one, right? Because we were told Joe Scally was supposed to find another place, but then the right back gets hurt and all of a sudden, you're like, I need Joe Scally. He's got to play, you know. So yeah, that those those kind of stuck out to me. So, so I'm going to piggyback off of that a little bit because Hugo Olivera, the manager for Straussburg, described Geo Raina as the heart of the team in his four, two, three, one formation while also stressing that Geo must take on the pressing work required of Straussburg's attacking players. So that is a very healthy recommendation from his manager, Chuck. Yeah. I mean, what stands out to me is yeah, he started and he scored a goal in a six to win. Nothing is saying, I don't think anyone is saying, Hey, Geo Raina's back, he's back to where he was at Dortmund and assisting and scoring goals when he was playing with Erlin Holland. But what I will say is what a promising start. This is where you want to be, starting being counted on. And more importantly, the managers talking about his off the ball attitude, his pressing, you know, that's what stands out to me. It's we all know how creative he is. He can score goals. But his responsibilities without the balls being highlighted, the availability being able to play, pressing his physical durability, his final third creativity, like all of that is what excites me about this move for Geo Raina. So finally, you know, we talk about players moving on from bigger clubs. What's the next step? Maybe it's a step back to take two steps forward. So you leave Dortmund because things start to sour. You got to find the right spot. And it feels like he's been advised to go to certain spots that just weren't, you know, nodding him for us probably is the biggest place going that was just not a good spot for him. This seems like a great spot in terms of the club culture, how they play young players, how they give opportunities and confidence, and the league is very physical and demanding. And if he can hold up and get 25 to 28 starts in this first season, my hands, I stand up, standing ovation, and let's keep it going. I think what's interesting is that we were clamoring for this situation for him for years, right? It wasn't working where he was. Go find a place where you can, they can build a round you and you can be a pivotal player in this one. He's only 23. It's funny that he's still so young, despite how much we've been talking about it for years and years and years. But this is, it's really a model for a lot of different players. If something isn't working and you've given that that option a chance, it's okay, right? There's, I guess there's some ego. There's some pride, of course. I would feel the same way about not wanting to take that step back for fear of not knowing how that could potentially impact the rest of your career. But sometimes to your point, Chuck, one step back for two steps forward, this is a big opportunity. Whereas I think if he demonstrates that he can be trusted in a certain situation and he's doing all the intangibles that his coach is asking him to do and he's doing it. And I also look at this too. And I think I've talked about it on the show as well. When a player scores a goal, how many people go and sell, how excited are his teammates for that, for that player? And I actually thought the whole team was really excited for Geo, which is a good sign that he's fitting into the culture and excited to be his teammate, which is great. I saw another goal this weekend. I can't remember somebody else scored. And nobody really celebrated with this guy. It was hilarious. By the bit I'm PSG, I can't remember who it was. I said, don't beck. Was it don't beck, right? Was this new club? I saw I saw nobody. Nobody went over. Maybe there's like one guy who belatedly came over and gave him a high five. But so those are little details that I think that are important when you're watching in terms of the body language stuff. So yeah, I'm excited for him. I'm excited for all of our players to get as many minutes as possible. And speaking of that, this was a nice segue into the Champions League. Champions League kicks back off this weekend. Excuse me, this week. And we have eight Americans in it. Okay. So a little quick promo for everybody. It's back this week starting today. Actually, eight Americans in the league face and they're going to be fighting to get their hands on that big eard cap that Real Madrid usually wins. You can catch that on Paramount Plus all season long starting today with a three day special. Get in there, make it happen. So here are Americans playing in it. Got Johnny Cardoso at the Pledico Madrid. Okay. He's put 32 appearances for the front. Let's see. Got one goal. Mattis Albert playing for Bruce Adortment. Only one minute so far in the Bundesliga. So we'll see if he gets any minutes here in the league phase. Maybe it depends on the opponent. Dortmund are taking a via a real out today. Ricardo Peppy, PSV, Indehoven, Sergino, Desk, PSV, Indehoven. Got good numbers. Always competitive in the Champions League. Excited to see how they do. They take on Schochtart, Denetsk, Friedman, Alex Friedman, Vio Real. See if he gets another back-to-back start. They are away at Adortment. Then you have Samuel Edneron. How do you say that? Not last name. A deneron. A deneron. Thank you guys. Appreciate you guys. So if Lask is back in with George Belos' teammate there, we'll see how they do. Lask is a way to hike Athens. So they're going to go to Greece and try to get results. And then Georgiode Marzzi. Third string goalkeeper for Roma, baby. You love to see it. And they are away in Turkey, if Enterbatsha. Do we know anything about Samarzi? Big tone. So you're familiar with this? I think he was born in Pennsylvania. I know he's played with our, is it under 19s or under 19s? You played once with our U19s. U19s? Okay, that's why I asked your Pennsylvania. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's all I know. It's Italian parents. But I think he was raised in Italy, right? I don't think he was raised. Yes, he was. He was raised in Italy. Yeah. Yeah. Good, good. Love seeing a young 19-year-old goalkeeper. That's for sure. Six foot two. Absolute beast. And he grew up in the Roma's youth system. And so he's now with the Roma's first team. Listen, I'm a big fan of their manager, Gasparini. So I don't know how much he impacts the goalkeepers per se, but I'm a big Gasparini fan. Any of those players you're excited to see? Chuck? Most excited to see? I should say we're all excited for all of them, but. Yeah. I'd say that the duo at PSV and Dustin Peppy. You know, Peppy is one of those players for me that has to continue to prove himself. I mean, the full-on move that he wanted to make broke down. And then full-on comes back in for his teammate test this summer. And that's like, no, almost like, full-on's out there yet. You know, I'm trying to go back to that elite Champions League pedigree. So those are the two players that I'm excited about in terms of the Champions League. They probably have the best chance of making some headway in the league phase. But, you know, there's something to say about Georgie Bello who was so hyped for so long and getting an opportunity to play Champions League, which is incredible. His pathway, think about that. And Adeneron, one of those players who played, you know, in USL and, you know, MLS grinded. No one really knew anything. And then here he is teamed up with Georgie Bello. And are they expected to do anything in this league phase? Probably not. I mean, if they win one match in the league phase, that would be like a huge accomplishment for them. So not getting obliterated in the league phase is probably something that they are trying to do. And this is probably one of those matches where they could potentially get three points or get a result. And that's something that they probably need to do to start off the league phase the right way. Yeah, I'm sure Ike Athens is looking at the same way, right? In terms of these are the, if we can't get points against Lask, we're probably not going to. And Lask is thinking like, if we can't get points here, then exactly. It's over. That's kind of like the league phase a little bit. You know, you kind of look at your opponents, you're like, okay, we can probably get three points against these three or four opponents and the other ones are going to have to be scraping. I'm kind of curious to see Matisse Albert. I hope he gets some minutes. I feel like he's not going to get much in terms of meaningful minutes, more maybe some scrap minutes at the end. If Dortmund can get a big lead, maybe he can, he can get into the team. Alex Freeman, I want to see if he gets back to back starts. He's got a 24-year-old Santiago Moreno, who he's competing with, who started most of the games until this past weekend via Real, not off to the best start. So maybe there was a reason to change it up. We'll see who gets to start in Dortmund. That'll be a good game to watch. And let's see, you know, if they can go to Liverpool, they're playing at Anfield, Johnny Cardoso has been trusted before. We'll see if he can get into the team. I'd be surprised. I'm also just all in on the PSV guys, taking on ShockDark, ShockDark Donetsk. I'm excited to see if they can get back into the knockout rounds, how they do. They're never a team you want to play, especially in their home stadium. They're very dynamic and a big Yvonne Parish fan as well, who I just think is so good at managing tempo in the game. And I always like their team, and Peter Bosch has done a nice job of keeping them competitive and obviously winning the air to BC back-to-back. So, so big tones. Anybody for you that you're excited to watch? Yeah, just on Johnny. I just, you know, I kind of feel like we missed out on him at the World Cup. He made him making decision. He had to get the operation before the World Cup. I think in my last sort of roster before it came out, I had him in the World Cup roster. So, I want to see how he's come back. He's been trusted in big games for Tolo Simeone, so we never know. And in Champions League, I had him the two games against Arsenal last year. Yeah, I want to see how how I would love to see him get like a real run. I know he hasn't done it for the national team, but now it's a new cycle. I would love to see him get like a real run with the national team and put something together. Yeah. Man, lots of talk about the Champions League. Obviously, they're upcoming camping games as well. We're going to call on a show though. It is done. So enjoy the Champions League. Oh, wait, I got to go on. One shout out. What do you got? What do you got? One shout out. So, I was in Manhattan Beach for the LA Galaxy and Rebs game and the manager of the hotel in the first four restaurants stopped me and said, guys, all right, Charlie, I'm a huge fan of the pod. Oh, let's go. So, shout out to, I think his name is Paris and in Manhattan Beach, but you know, everywhere that we travel, I always come up, you know, meeting someone who's a big fan of the podcast and that's great. So, respect everybody in the comments, respect everybody listening, really appreciate it. Chuck, you see a manager of what? A hotel, you're trying to get a free room or is it a restaurant? Trying to get some free food in the future? You know, hey, I'm a Bob Boy guy. We're Bob Boyd out. I love that. I love that. All right, that's it. We're going to show thanks for hanging out with us. We'll see you again on Thursday, same place, same time. You guys know the deal. Enjoy the Champions League. We'll see you in a couple days. Later. We'll see you in a couple days. This is just the beginning of the story of Hampton Square.