Episode #224 – The Premier League is the Super League in Disguise: What it Means AND Premier League Previews

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[Music] hello and welcome to the squeaky bum Time Podcast presented exclusively on

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the chop Sports channel of the premiere streaming Network we're recording this on Thursday February 2nd I am your host

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Laurent Cortes in this episode The Return of the Premier League after a week off from the FA Cup for match week

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22 and our United friends Newcastle and Manchester

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our caramel cup finalists and what's at stake but first the transfer window what

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it means what's happened and the Fallout from the spending of Chelsea is the Premier

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League the Super League in Disguise disguise disguise but first a little housekeeping

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please rate and review the show please hit like please hit subscribe it means

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everything the show has been on a growing term and I thank everyone uh please go to Lauren corteans on YouTube

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and you'll find uh transcripts of the show and replays of the show so please hit like hit subscribe please rate and

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review the show it means everything to me and I really really appreciate it but

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let's Jump Right In to the show the transfer window what happened what is

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going on with the rest of the world so as you know we covered a little bit of the transfer window

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uh at the end of at the beginning of last week's show just going through all

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the comings and goings we had Enzo Fernandez young star of the World Cup come from Porto or come from Portugal to

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Chelsea Chelsea getting Murdoch Chelsea signing players left and right to the point that Chelsea spent more money in

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this window than all five European teams combined um Nottingham Forest did deals in the

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last minute bringing Taylor Navas a three-time European Cup champion from uh from PSG

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on loan to Nottingham Forest so what we're seeing is this wealth transfer

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this power of the Premier League going from top to bottom um just an amazing display of money

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power and the power of a league over the

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power of teams I'm gonna go through a little history lesson here

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why did this happen so if you know guys don't know this England was the first

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league in the world the English league was based on you know people don't know this based on the baseball league to set

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four it was just called the first Division and as the television money starts to grow and you for American fans

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the similarity is um as Sports Center starts to go and Regional Sports networks and yes start to happen those

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opportunities aren't there in England and the top six teams in England the same ones you've been talking about

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Spurs Arsenal Liverpool Manchester United they are gaming and they tell the

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TV operators in England hey we're gonna break away uh because we want our own TV

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deals there's money to be made because they find out in an open bidding between ITV and BBC and Skye and Rupert Murdoch

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is involved for for our friends from Spock support FOX Sports and Skye helps

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really summed it up and whatever but that is a seminal moment also the

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English teams needed money to pay for the Taylor report which is the government report after the Hillsborough

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disaster on on how they need to redo their stadium so the Hillsborough disaster Liverpool fans and Manny

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actually does save football uh don't tell Liverpool fans that their deaths were not in vain

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um but it does force the owners of teams to upgrade their stadiums and there's a massive building boom to be compliant

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there's the Premier League there's the money coming in and why am I saying all this it sets up the framework for the

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Premier League to grow over Spain Italy and Germany

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math 40 years 30 years 40. 40 years

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um the English football league and England's history of being a much more

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um business oriented place has set itself up by not focusing on its teams

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by the compromises made in forming the Premier League where International rights were shared equally where uh

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Place finish shared money they had an egalitarian set up for the 22 teams in

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the Premier League with a rule to go for the 24 with a rule to go down to 20 uh to share income and Market the league as

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a whole one thing having worked with the Premier League at tops is you cannot do

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anything without consensus from all the teams all the teams you need to either

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have consensus or 75 percent of the teams that's why they talk about the other 14 and the big six they can't

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break the other teams they need each other so there's this push pull that happens with the Premier League and it

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has pushed it to have a level of Revenue and money that we just saw uh bully spending over

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half a billion pounds on players um Italy and Spain complaining uh for

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their own proms Italy's problem is they have not looked at their own league for

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decades their stadiums are falling apart attendance is down and the clubs

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individually negotiate and just look to England to see how they can grow around

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the world but forget their domestic problems so they're losing money internally they're losing money on uh

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making it a good TV product to look at on TV because the stadiums are half empty and they've given away to the

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Ultras in Spain they squandered having Ronaldo and Messi for 10 years

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because Barcelona and Real Madrid couldn't get out of their own way they did not have a system in place to share

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the wealth among the rest of the teams so they have a league that's a duopoly they can't get out of that they're not

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sharing money enough sure it's great for real and Barca but they were drunk with money barcel was just 1.2 billion

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duopoly they're not beholden to shareholders they're not run as businesses whereas the Premier League as

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a group as a collective with good leadership under school tomorrow lifted itself up to the point now that

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Nottingham Forest has more money than a top team in Spain Nottingham Forest

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can outbid any team in France all the teams in the Premier League are in the

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top 20 of the money League by Forbes which is this sort of soft power list it's not quite accurate that gives you a

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list of the most valuable teams in the world by the way the most powerful sports teams you want to know the

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strongest league is it's the NFL it's locked in the worst the least valuable NFL team is worth

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more than any European team you can think of aside from United real and and Barca

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and on the other side of that you have Byron I want to talk about Germany Germany just doesn't look past its own

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fans because they have the 51 rule where no owner can own more than 50 the fans

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own 51 of the team no matter what or they have a vote at 51 so it's very fan

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focused and they can't they can't leave the fans out of any business practices so here you have these leagues that have

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caused problems and the premier league has expanded internationally by pushing

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its League over teams League over Stars

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it's very much a propaganda thing it was not true that the Premier League was the best league for many many years but

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the Premier League kept saying we are the Premier League buy into the Premier League we have the story we have the

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narrative it was never Liverpool versus United it was who in the Premier League can topple United who

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we know about Newcastle we know about uh Crystal Palace we know about Spurs we

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know about all these teams and we know about all these characters because it was packaged that way so if you think

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about um a good example would be NFL films and thinking about John Facenda and thinking

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about that music that burp burp that was all part of growing the NFL and giving

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that sports package to TV providers so that you could grow the NFL when the

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games weren't on the Premier League did the same thing Premier League Productions is fantastic they made a

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story about every single team about every single battle about every single story that perpetuates and perpetuates

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and perpetuates so that now as we move to the our friends in the carabao cup

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learned about it through the league so um both the United's

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make it to the carabao Cup Final um it has been a historic

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step for Nuvo reach teams and new managers to emphasize the carabao cup

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um Mourinho won it in his first season with Chelsea as a stepping stone

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pep won it every year city has made it a priority uh to win

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the carabao cup and now United and Newcastle both have a chance

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to win something um this is a big step for 10 hog this is a big step for Newcastle uh I think you

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know for me this is going to be about whether this is a game that's going to

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be about whether the Talent of United

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can match The Passion of the Newcastle fans for Newcastle this will be a chance

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trouble weight of being united so this was a moment for for for Newcastle fans who remember 99

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they had Shira they had just gotten him it was a final under rude holiday and

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champions league and Newcastle were there with the other teams as a big club and it's only after Mike Ashley buys the

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team that they declined and have two relegation fights and are sort of this sputtering team but until up through the

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you're not you're bright more than that they were sort of your Everton your they were in that class of team and that's

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what people always talk about and that's why I think this carabao cup final is just gonna be so so massive for

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um for the Newcastle fans I think that this game while it's gonna be in a couple

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weeks is gonna be um a fight I think that the defense of

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Newcastle they don't give up goals they don't give up goals at all so they can't

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and United is has been good has been strong but I

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don't think that their defense is as good as their attack and I think that matched up with Newcastle and Eddie Howe

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having time and guys getting back together I think there'll be a turnover

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that Newcastle enforce I recommend everyone go on tifo uh IRL on YouTube

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and watch the um the thing by JJ bull around why Newcastle are good why they

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have the best defense in the league uh it's real it's it's Nick Pope although he won't be in this game

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um and they won't give United anything and it's going to take a level of effort and skill from United to break down a

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stout Newcastle that I just can't see them because I United when they face big

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challenges they've been seen wanting they're not quite there yet they're not quite able

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to break a very tough defense down and I think that Newcastle uh will uh Prevail

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but I really want to talk more about the feelings of this this is you know the reason why I let off with this after the

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Super League thing is football is about feelings we've talked about wrexum and what it means and for Newcastle this is

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about a resurrection a Phoenix rising from the

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Flames this is about The Passion of fans lifting their team

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going to Wembley Newcastle is very far in the in the

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geography of England they have their own name they're called jordy's because of their accent and it's way in the north

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west Northeast of England it's quite far from anywhere so they have their own unique feeling and they bring a a

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certain chip on their shoulder and a certain Pride about being from Newcastle

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because it's the only city really nearby sunderland's there but it's not sunderland's not really its own City

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Newcastle is the city of the Northeast and it's almost on the Scottish border it's way the out there well

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relative to the Scottish border compared to like you know Manchester or something like that

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and they bring a pride and a level of Love of team that is beyond is more in line with

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wrexham than your Chelsea supporters Your Arsenal supporters who are Cosmopolitan and City dwellers and have

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all the international stuff Newcastle is the town team that's why they're called the tune Army because tune is how Jordy

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say town so they're tuned uh it literally comes from that so it sounds

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weird but that's what they are so uh I'm pulling for a Newcastle in that one and I think that that's where I would want

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to go that's who I would want to play for that's who I would want to pull for uh but we go into the league wow Premier

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League's back after two weeks and we start the week off with an amazing London Derby that uh is involved with

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all that um transfer stuff there we go Kelsey a

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brand new team essentially rebuilt on the Fly Joe Felix um Enzo Fernandez uh Mikhail Modric just

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tons of dudes just now in here they're at home at Stanford bridge and here they

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go they've got to play Fulham a well-drilled tough team didn't do anything in the transfer window

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you know Fulham are just ready to go as they are um let's just break that that game down

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a little bit have a look at where things are for them I'm just gonna go look at the old who scored my favorite uh sort

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of quick site just to give you a sense of of what's going on there and um yeah the teams come with just so

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much change unknown what's gonna happen we have you know a little bit more transfer stuff

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they've lost georginio georginio has moved on to Arsenal an amazing turn of

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events and we'll get to all the individual changes I got swept up in the Super League stuff around the transfer

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window forgot to talk about individual players who've moved on georginio is is now an Arsenal player uh but that means

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that Fernandez will be in the Midfield with mountain kovacich likely uh ziitch almost transferred to BSG and they got

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the paperwork wrong he went to Paris and was stuck there and now had to come back to London so I doubt Zach will play but

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there's still the list of missing players for uh Chelsea is this broja pulisic content Sterling Zacharia Mendy

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fofana ciao Felix on a red uh Rhys James and Ben chilwell both doubtful getting there and then for Fulham they've got

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their whole gang Pereira mitrovic villian Cordova Reid Paulina Reed what a

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group Reem Tete Robinson was rumored to go to City but never did um this is a game that with all the

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spending and all the activity with Chelsea Chelsea has to win this game at home it is not an option for them they

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must win this game um this is about as big a game as Chelsea has had probably

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since Abramovich came in I mean I'm not even being funny I think the way their form has been with all they've done they

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have to get a result this is not okay to draw you've got to get a result Grand

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Potter I love you you're fantastic but can you reach your players you know

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um when you think about the players on this team and the levels that they are

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when they walk in the dressing room at Chelsea and Stanford Bridge

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do they get the sense that they're expecting to see a Champions League level manager like should it be too cool

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should it be enchiladi should it be pep should it be klopped and then you walk

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in and it's Grand from Sully Hall so this is where

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the power of grand Potter has really got to be strong he's got to have a strong

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personality and explain to the players hey I may not have the pedigree that you do but I'm gonna help you be better even

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though I've not been in the World Cup final the way Fernandez has been so an amazing game an amazing

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um Enzo Fernandez will probably play and start especially as georginio's left

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so amazing stuff

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um there have been actually I have to be I have to clear that up uh Fulham did bring in Cedric Suarez from Arsenal he

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wasn't playing much he was a backup uh fullback uh probably won't play but it gets cover for the team and lukic moves

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on from Torino to Fulham I'm looking forward to this game tomorrow Friday love it love it we also have

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um excuse me I have a little bit of a cold so bear with me as I sniffle my way

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through this but our friend Mr dice uh is has arrived at Everton

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um to face uh just you know just Arsenal no big deal it should be fine so Sean

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dysh comes in they don't get any deals over the line he's without um

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um his Winger uh what's his name we went to Newcastle I should have mentioned it

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Anthony uh I can't remember his name I don't know why I'm blanking on it anyway they've lost their

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their Winger I'll find it in a second as I work through it

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um and it's going to be a tough game for he hasn't had much time with the team he

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has been saying the right things somewhat uh you know daish is a very

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is a fascinating character he has that gravelly voice you feel like he's gonna

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move the team forward um almost always but um

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oh God I'm so embarrassed I can't remember the guy's name but he's moved on from Everton he's now part of

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of uh Newcastle but yeah I see this game as listen

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it's at the Emirates daisha's got his work cut out for him I

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think I know this you know this we all kind of know as good as a dude uh as as

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as Frank was and is uh Frank Lampard he's not a good defensive coach

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and when teams leave when when when he

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leaves teams especially with Chelsea um we found out very quickly

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that um he can't defend and tuko turned his team around uh and and got it going in the

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right direction right away I have the name Anthony Gordon thank Christ he'll probably jump in for Almira

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honestly because almiron's magic Gold Dust has disappeared so maybe uh Anthony

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Gordon will take on for all Iron he's the guy that I always thought had the weakest link within the team but daish

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will take over he will assess the team her obviously know

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tarkovsky he'll obviously know some of the players who came over uh that he

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already had with him tarkovsky he knows um

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Cody he'll feel good with Calvin Lewin it will be I'm curious about what he'll

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do with iwobi he'll try and play Michael Keane who's been hurt thank God because he stinks uh uh but we'll see this will

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be daisha's first game it is at home so

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you'd like their chances if they get a reaction from Everton against Arsenal

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this would be an amazing amazing amazing result so come on you toffees please put

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the hurt on the dreaded Arsenal uh it could happen listen Everton got a draw

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against cities so anything is possible uh but it's a crazy old game and we're

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hoping that that happens because good God I need it speaking of my team

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um we go on and face Spurs uh in a game that uh will have no

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Antonio Conte because Antonio Conte has had his gallbladder removed he uh looks

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like he had something going on had some surgery he's gonna miss the game I'm assuming that

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um Mason what's the guy who cracked his head my names are all off I can't remember anything I got dad brain uh but

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the big thing was can Salo moved on to Bayern Munich pep and Consuelo had a

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massive Fallout right away incredible that kinselo who was seriously City's

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best player not a year ago has now moved on Spurs always cause problems for City

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I would expect I would expect Spurs to sit back

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um and just soak it in and let Cain and Son run on uh we'll see maybe

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maybe Spurs will be better without kante maybe they'll play a little bit different maybe they'll they'll push on

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a little bit more uh it's an interesting game always a tough game especially at

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Stanford Bridge always Troublesome but I like cities chances we only played a

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couple weeks ago where Spurs went up to and City came back and smashed them that was the replay and this is just another

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game I don't think Spurs has the mentality right now they're a little fragile to think that they can

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um beat City it was only two weeks ago January 19th that uh City defeated them

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pretty easily but the first half was bad from City and that's when pep blasted the team and said they were terrible and

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that was sort of the first moment where we were like holy what the going on with pep uh he said you know

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Arsenal are devils and they will destroy us if we play like this so and that was before the FA Cup game or whatever so

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Holland will be looking for a big one you know we we know these two players these two teams

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have incredible players I'm just hoping City get a win because they can't lose anymore no more losing not a chance to

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lose um and so that's the big deal there in other

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notable matches and then we'll run through the rest of them also on Sunday is Nottingham Forest leads for our

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friend Chris this is a big one uh this is old school this is Clough this is

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damned United this is about as 70s blood and thunder as as football gets if we

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love wrexham and we love stories and we love Nottingham Forest and we love Newcastle

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Forest vs Leeds is about you know you can close your eyes and almost see the

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red shirts and see the white shirts and see the blood and see the mud and see

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the 442 and see the yelling and Don rivi and cough and all the fighting that went

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on uh and it's just one of these things where certain team names just invoke

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football history forest and leads to leads are without Rodrigo who's out for

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months he did his knee in but leads do have west of McKinney so the

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United States of Leeds continues we now have three major American players the

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spine of the team is America now we've got McKinney Adams Aaronson and Marsh all playing for leads uh they deserve it

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I mean McKinney had been at U of A all this time uh Adams was fantastic during

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the World Cup and his the engine that makes leads go and so um those two teams will face each other

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Nottingham Forest added their 28th and 29th players Taylor Navas

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came on to the team I just don't I don't even know who's on leads anymore but

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um you know I think they win with yonto and Somerville whenever he comes back and hopefully you know we see leads move

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up the table these are the games though that I feel for marsh if he cannot get

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something from Nottingham Forest what are you doing buddy uh what are you doing you know I love Steve Cooper this

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is uh probably evenly matched game I'd say I think Forest we still don't know what they are uh there's still more

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players to to move into the team there's still more to do uh Steve Cooper is

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doing an incredible job uh they're out of the relegation Zone and so are leads but these guys will want points from

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these games and I just keep staring at the two stars above the tricky tree uh for their two European cups and I think

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about leads being the last champion of the old first division this is two teams that

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you can't get up for this game what are you doing what are you doing really you know it's like these are just

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such classic Big Time games and just put so much

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um put so much into football that we just have to always think about what they're

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doing how they're doing what their stories are how they push things forward and what they mean to football so if you

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ever want to and I recommend any of these things is like for leads watch

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damned United and then read the book because the movie is really entertaining and then for Forest there is a

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documentary about cloth and about Forest well worth the price of admission just

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search for these things Nottingham Forest documentary I'll try and put them in the notes uh of the show just so

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people can hunt them down there's so much to learn especially if you're an American fan or if you're a young

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English fan and you just kind of follow along with football Without Really learning about it so much of these teams

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their stories are so great and they're everywhere right up and down the pyramid

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every team has stories um I just think about wrexham all the time now that story has just taken can

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offer the U.S and we push forward with leads and Forest as our as our proxy for

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where where we where we think we are where we think things are happening where we think we're pushing things

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forward um it's just an amazing feeling um about where we are with these teams

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right now and and what they mean and all the rest of it so rambly today I'm on medication I'm doing

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it for you I'm doing it for you people I love you I need you so I do the show for

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you even though I'm knackered and out of it but I'm gonna kick on so

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we're just going to go through the rest of the fixtures you know we talked about Fulham and Chelsea talked about arsenal

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we talked about um we talked about leads we talked about City but let's just go through the rest

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of the fixtures also on Saturday Aston Villa Leicester city it's a derby it's

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not really a derby it's a derby for Lester Aston Villa doesn't think about Lester at all uh they want to be where

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Lester are I think unai Emery has definitely righted the ship there again Lester no transfers what are you doing

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but one thing that did happen the chairman of Leicester has written off

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all their debt and made it into Equity so that's cleared the books for lesser I

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don't know what that means but it means something um wolves get Liverpool Liverpool also

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inactive during the transfer window they made all their moves uh but none of them are a midfielder so I suppose they're

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waiting of course klopp had to complain about money because you know that's what he does by

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the way Liverpool fans let me look at let me look at the camera and talk to you people stop with the FSG out okay stop

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okay stop they bought FSG bought Liverpool from

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Gillette and Hicks when they were dragging the team to the seller

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rescued your team brought in clop in the players paid for the renovation

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of the stand and because they haven't bought you two midfielders in the last year you

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were on for the quadruple and because they didn't buy two midfielders you want fsgl okay shut the up you people

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are crazy okay sorry about that but uh wolves wolves play Liverpool

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um away from home Liverpool there's no reason for me to think that Liverpool will beat wolves sorry this is a draw

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written all over it in fact I would bet on it if I could find the betting numbers United Crystal Palace uh Crystal Palace

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without zaha I don't see United losing especially the way we've been playing at home I believe that United are unbeaten

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at home in 15 games Brighton Mighty bright play

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Bournemouth Bournemouth made signed a striker I believe uh again big money

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more money than half of Syria uh Brighton satpet they did hold on to kaisero kaisero went nowhere United do

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sign savit sir so this is a midfielder to replace Ericsson who was did have his legs taken out by the shagger

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um in in the in the FA Cup he is out in the running game injured until May no

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more Ericsson goodbye Saboteur should be a good replacement then Brentford vs Southampton Southampton made a lot of

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moves Southampton grabbed a handful of players from lower divisions so they're trying to not get sacked uh Southampton

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really want to play for this I do like Southampton I think that they're a good

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little Club um I'd love to see them stick around but I mean someone has to

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go down and it feels like Southampton are the team to go down but we'll see what they come up with I do like the

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team again I still think they need a keeper I don't like bizuno at all

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I don't think he's a good Keeper at all but I just want to make sure that I've got their manager's name again because I

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keep forgetting it and I want to make sure I know it I'm just looking through it

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sorry gang I'm a little bit funky right now yes my friend Nathan Jones my friend

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Nathan Jones as long as um uh James Ward passes on that team he's gonna fight as

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hard as he can to keep that team alive and well uh keep that team alive and

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well um other fixtures as we go through

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Newcastle versus West Ham we'll see uh we'll see what happens there West Ham

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didn't make any moves either I mean you know to the point

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with uh with Moyes he he can't handle the players he got in

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in the summer let alone adding more players they did sign Danny yings and he already got hurt so I'm not sure what

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West Hammer is supposed to do there that's a that was a little bit wacky uh but you know I at St James's Park West

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Ham will not score against Newcastle I will guarantee you that I don't know what the score will be I

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don't know if Newcastle will win but I will say this West Ham will not score bet on Newcastle keeping a clean sheet

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in that one um but that's the week's games uh that's where we are Brantford Southampton

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Brentford playing well I already talked about that battle of bees Brighton Bournemouth and then United vs Crystal

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Palace round out the week I am sick I am done and I'm gonna get myself out of

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here if I missed anything please let me know in the comments if I had more interesting things I should have said please let me know in the comments also

34:26

like And subscribe on the show and let me know that I miss things in the comments okay that was the squeaky bum

34:32

Time Podcast with Laurent courteans we are the football wing of the chop Sports channel and presented exclusively by the

34:39

premier streaming Network we record on Mondays and Thursdays so be sure to

34:45

subscribe wherever you get your podcast so you never miss an episode and you can help me with my show thank you and good

34:53

night [Music]