Episode #226 – Manchester City’s Off-Field Battles, The Super League 2.0 What Does It Mean for The Future of Football – Premier League Match Week 23 Preview

Welcome to Squeaky Bum Time, the Premier League Sports podcast, where Laurent Courtines, your host, takes you through all the exciting action from Match Round 23. Plus, what is at stake in our Super League 2.0 battle.

In this episode, Laurent will cover the following key highlights:

• PART 1: Leeds vs Man Utd and life after Marsch

  • Jesse Marsch’s tenure at Leeds United coming to an end.
  • Manchester United and Leeds playing out a thrilling 2-2 draw at Old Trafford.
  • A closer look at the current state of Leeds United and what the future holds.

• PART 2: Chelsea Vs West Ham

  • Previewing the London Derby between Chelsea and West Ham.
  • Assessing the Hammers’ impressive form and the Blues’ chances of securing all three points.

• PART 3: Arsenal take on Brentford

  • Analyzing Arsenal’s challenging tie against in-form Brentford.
  • Laurent’s thoughts on the Gunners’ chances ahead of their big title clash on Wednesday.

• PART 4: Man City’s finances as they face Villa

  • Lord Pannick QC re-appointed by Man City to fight off-field battles.
  • A closer look at over 100 charges of breaking Premier League rules and what it means for Manchester City.
  • Assessing the Citizens’ prospects as they face Aston Villa.

• PART 5: Laurent talks Liverpool v Everton

  • What’s gone wrong at Anfield this season?
  • Whether Liverpool’s season can be revived in the Merseyside Derby.
  • Thoughts on Liverpool and Everton ahead of their important match.

• PART 6: What next for Nathan Jones and Southampton as they take on Wolves

  • Previewing Southampton vs Wolves.
  • Analyzing Nathan Jones’ tenure at Southampton and what the future holds.

• PART 7: Howe returns to Bournemouth

  • Eddie Howe returns to Bournemouth.
  • Laurent’s thoughts on the Cherries’ chances of a revival.

• PART 8: Leicester vs Spurs and the rest of the weekend’s fixtures

  • A round-up of the rest of the weekend’s fixtures including Leicester vs Spurs.
  • Laurent’s predictions and analysis of the key matches.

Tune in to Squeaky Bum Time for the latest insights and analysis of the Premier League. Don’t miss a minute of the action!

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TIME STAMPS

00:00 Intro

01:00 Super League is back.

06:00 The supporters MATTER in Football.

08:15 City, Chelsea, PSG created modern Football

15:05 Leeds and Manchester United.

16:50 Match week 23 schedule

20:30 Jesse Marsch final throughts.

24:00 West Ham v Chelsea

26:40 Arsenal v Brentford – How does Arsenal react?

30:15 Manchester City 100 charges… where are we?

34:00 Actual football! City v Villa

35:55 Merseyside Derby. Can Klopp take responsibility?

38:30 Is this the end of Klopp?

41:00 6-pointer Saints v Wolves

43:20 Howe Derby Bournemouth v Newcastle.

47:00 Leicester v Spurs

49:10 Roundup – Fulham v Forest, Palace v Brighton

51:50 Wrexham and the replays of the FA Cup.

52:50 Final thoughts: City and Wrexham are more similar than you think.

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Transcript

0:00

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

0:06

the chop Sports channel of the premiere streaming Network we're recording this on Thursday February 9th I am your host

0:12

Laurent courteans in this episode we'll talk to merseyside Darby the weird M23

0:17

Darby and you the United's playing each other for the second time this week but

0:23

first the super league is back Manchester City are in the news and this

0:28

is all connected let's get to it first please like subscribe to the show we

0:34

need you we love you we appreciate you we're on YouTube We're on Facebook we're

0:40

everywhere so please like And subscribe to the show we need you as much as we can uh we thank everyone who's joining

0:47

the show and especially my friend Tony skalicki who doesn't like soccer but is listening to the show anyway thank you

0:53

for that uh first the super league is back okay what is the Super League last

0:58

year we had um an attempt by the Richer older clubs of Europe your established

1:05

hierarchy or Aristocrats of football barsa uve Real Madrid Manchester United

1:11

Liverpool not PSG and not Bayern but Borussia Dortmund whatever whatever the

1:17

case was trying to create a closed shop League what does that mean they wanted to make a league that is different from

1:24

the Sporting Life of your Europe they wanted to make it like the NFL for those of you don't know the NFL in the

1:32

U.S is by far the richest sport in the league uh by far the most valuable

1:38

franchises in the league and is literally the most valuable sporting Enterprise

1:44

in the world um it's a closed shop 17 games a year

1:50

controlled labor costs controlled television the least valuable NFL

1:56

franchise the Jacksonville Jaguars would be the top the most valuable team in Europe

2:03

so European Sports have been trying to get to an NFL model as much as possible because what you have in Europe is

2:11

jeopardy American Sports are a socialist oligarchy where the rich teams stay Rich

2:16

it's very controlled and Europe's sporting culture is hyper competitive

2:23

where each team every season fights for its survival in the standing that it has

2:29

now the big team stay there and they want to stay there but they don't have control over costs what happens in

2:36

England affects what happens in Spain what happens in France affects what happens in Spain it's not a closed

2:42

League So within Europe as the leagues get richer and richer and more competitive and more competitive other

2:49

leagues big teams have slowly fallen down in the revenue bottle as their

2:55

country's markets cannot be squeezed anymore for any more money so that was the Super League

3:02

um its initial release by Florentino Perez the president of Real Madrid went over like a lead balloon uh the English

3:09

clubs and the English fans specifically really protested hard and made known

3:15

what was up with this they protested there were marches in the streets there

3:21

were burning of fans in effigy it was an organic display of unity against

3:28

anti-competitive oligarchal regulatory capture of the wealth of

3:34

football fans are okay with competitive battling

3:39

fans are okay with teams having money what fans are not okay with is the idea

3:46

of a team coming from nowhere building itself up and getting into the Premier

3:54

League so in England this is possible you can buy a team in the fourth division spend money and grow it slowly

4:00

and get to the Premier League it has happened it is real but we're on to the second Super League

4:06

so the marketing company and agency behind this something called a20 or 822 something out of Spain has presented

4:13

another round of this and it has removed some of the barriers has been a little bit more thinking this time around it

4:19

and it's expanded to 60 clubs a guarantee of 14 games uh promotion and

4:25

relegation so they they heard all the things that were happening and um are trying to float this trial balloon the

4:32

clubs are all saying again oh this is this isn't real blah blah blah and they are fighting it or saying the

4:40

politically right thing to say um I think this is a reaction to

4:47

the Premier League the Premier League is now three or four times the revenue of all

4:52

the other leagues combined this is a reaction to the wealth that has and competitiveness

4:58

of the Premier League um we talked about it last week how the Premier League was founded as a want to

5:06

break away and make money process in 1992 and how the club's shared revenue and that little seed of shared Revenue

5:13

around the world and the marketing of the Premier League did actually brought revenues for any team in the Premier

5:18

League to be massive unlike all the other leagues uh England did a great job of promoting itself in England to keep

5:25

the fans and the excitement live when you watch it on TV and then spread it out around the world as an amazing

5:32

television television package the Premier League is the equivalent of the NFL but for Europeans soccer but it has

5:38

promotion and relegation it has the battles it has the tension of of every

5:44

game meaning something all 38 games mean something there's something on it for

5:49

every game and this super league and these folks who want to take Sport and

5:55

make it purely up about business are missing a key ingredient the fans

6:01

matter it can never be just about money it's not actually a good investment

6:08

and it's not something that we should take for granted it's not something that we can let owners take for granted the

6:15

fans the singing the songs the sarcasm the marches the drums the derbies all

6:22

that stuff is what makes football just because the byproduct of that is

6:27

eyeballs and television revenue and this narrative in this story the core of it

6:33

is the feelings that the competitive nature of sport bring

6:39

Americans we don't get this we've manufactured it in our sport because all our sports are closed franchises made

6:46

for business but there's a reason why Americans see

6:51

the passion of rexim see the passion of a relegation battle see the fans singing see that and we're

6:59

drawn to it we want the authenticity more than anything in the whole world

7:04

it's Super Bowl week here in the United States and we're going to have the Kansas City Chiefs play The Eagles I

7:11

Don't Care they're trying to spend two weeks to drum up me carrying more than anything

7:16

in the whole world but you know what I do care about I care about the merseyside Darby

7:22

I care about the history of Leeds in Man United I care about Arsenal trying to get past

7:28

Brentford these aren't even my teams and I know the pain and hurt and desire that

7:35

these games are going to bring because there's something on them I'm getting goosebumps you can see when

7:42

I talk about football it comes into me it lifts me up it makes something that I

7:48

didn't know existed exist and I can't explain it it's mystical it's magical and they're trying to steal and monetize

7:57

mysticism and the feeling of a Sunday of time um and I and I do want to connect this

8:04

back to my beloved Manchester City because we're taking a real beating within this so

8:10

um City PSG and Chelsea these are the three

8:15

clubs that ushered in not just wealth the Premier League

8:21

um ushered in wealth with man united making a lot of money and figuring out how to do sponsorships and la and Real

8:28

Madrid and Barca really expanding and making money on their own television deals but real Barca sorry but Chelsea

8:37

in 2004 with the fall of the Soviet Union money from Abramovich he had

8:44

billions of dollars it'll be gotten whatever the case may be uh he was called Putin's Banker

8:50

he bought Chelsea he transformed Chelsea and by that

8:55

transformed the Premier League four years after that

9:00

Manchester City were purchased for 150 million dollars and all the debt from a

9:06

Thailand businessman who run the team into the ground owned the team for less than a year didn't have the money it was totally fake they purchased the team

9:13

200 million dollars in the in the Eastlands of Manchester and it was a mess there was nothing there there was a

9:19

shitty stadium that got built in in a marsh and though and then PSG in 2010 in Paris

9:28

buying the brand the Qatari wealth fund City owned by the UAE and Shake Mansour so you had sovereign states purchase

9:35

teams and their level of wealth is not billions or ones and twos of billions or

9:40

threes and fours of billions it's hundreds of billions so their scale of what they spend is beyond the

9:46

comprehension of the Premier League and City proceed to decide

9:52

we've bought the name Manchester we know what the work of Alex Ferguson and

9:57

Manchester United did were buying a team called Manchester City The Branding of Manchester is in it they know they have

10:04

a passionate fan base in the Beloved Manchester City faithful who are the

10:09

most Gallows humors fans in the league having gone down to League one when when man united were winning the trouble

10:17

so three European big cups and trophies in 1999 city were singing about Paul

10:23

dickov and um and Brian Hurlock about winning the league two playoffs against

10:29

Tony pulis's Gillingham I'm going to keep talking about that because that's a seminal moment in the history of the

10:34

club and it's what makes city city we don't care about the wealth we could

10:40

lose it it's not our big it's not it's not a big deal to us we'll live without having money without

10:46

our club being massive or anything doesn't matter to us we've been relegated we've been in

10:52

League two who cares doesn't matter to me it's not me I just love the team you

10:58

show me a team in sky blue and I'll show up so what I'm driving at is that City took on the league

11:04

Chelsea we're taking things on and they flushed the market with money

11:10

and lifted up all boats and forced Manchester United to find new Revenue

11:17

forced Arsenal to find new Revenue I don't think it's a coincidence that the Emirates was built around this time

11:24

arson Wenger knew they needed to find new revenue and force teams to improve

11:29

their day their date their game day revenue and forced West Ham to see the Olympic stadium and be on the list to

11:36

get it the money spent by these oligarchs and terrible people I don't care about the

11:41

morality lifted the Premier League the drive for money pushed for money and

11:48

competitiveness the competitive pushed all the other teams we can say what we want the morality of of ffp and what

11:56

city did and whatever having been a Yankee fan in the 2000s and watching the

12:02

Yankees and the Red Sox go to war literally over every player every free agent

12:09

culminating in the 2004 and then 2007 and all those battles uh Pedro throwing

12:15

Zimmer down that war between those two teams lifted the entire American League

12:22

and force teams to to find a competitive edges like Moneyball

12:27

like uh statistical analysis of finding players and that has happened in the Premier League Arsenal did it and now we

12:35

have Brighton and Brentford the two best run teams in the league run by analytical sharp teams and why did that

12:40

happen because teams like Manchester City and PSG and and Chelsea pushed

12:47

these archaic old teams with their it'll be gotten wealth to improve and be

12:53

better now I don't want the Super League I want the competitiveness what I'm trying to

12:58

drive at is that this money that we're supposedly stealing and cheating was put

13:03

into the league and into the club it wasn't taken out for profit Manchester City spent money and cheated sure to

13:10

improve and win on the field to beat Manchester United and their

13:16

owners who were taking money out of the club Manchester United is billions in debt and taking Revenue out of the club

13:22

for the glaciers every year but we're the bad guys it's fine it's fine FSG

13:28

taking money out of the club so that they can pay a dividend and now they're chinsing out on Liverpool that's fine

13:34

that's fine all I'm saying is Manchester City spent money and lifted this league by making

13:42

it more competitive and making those Nuvo reach teams sweat

13:47

to the point that they have to create a Super League just to keep up and this I think in the long run this competitive

13:54

battle what we Americans think of as the market

13:59

and what people love about the competitiveness the promotion and relegation of the Premier League comes

14:05

from the money that poured in but ffp and going after city is a means

14:12

to stop it to control the money coming in to stop the competitive battle

14:17

because they can't keep up maybe they should find better ways to make money maybe they should find better

14:23

ways to compete there's only 11 players on a team

14:29

they're not all going to be worth all the money the premier league right now has seven

14:34

deep did that money that City spent and cheated make them be in first place

14:40

right now did Liverpool push them to within two points twice

14:45

yes they did and they should be proud of that and Liverpool were fantastic and it would have won the league any other year

14:51

and would have never got 97 points without relentlessly chasing City down

14:59

let's go to the Premier League weekend so we start with some games actually uh

15:07

Leeds played in midweek against Manchester United uh the first game

15:12

after Jesse Marsh left leads and we'll talk about leads for a little bit

15:18

um this was a great game for leads they came out in the first two minutes scored goals early

15:25

really punched United in the mouth um we have um

15:30

nyanto is really a player he's this short diminutive

15:36

four million dollar Winger from Italy only five six but built like a brick

15:42

house reminds City fans of Sean Wright Phillips if you don't remember him Winger played for City played in MLS

15:48

for Red Bull played for Chelsea and then came back to city in the end he's been great the only reason he's playing is

15:56

because there were so many injuries that leads and he's very direct and Leeds played great they played the way they

16:02

always play Under Jessie Marsh except you know this time they got results and

16:07

this time they scored their goals and they did hang on United are very good at home

16:12

um it's not really working for veg Horst with United when Sancho another

16:19

Reclamation project another great move by ten hog 10 hog handle de Sancho issue

16:25

and got it going um and he's now firing on all cylinders but I do want to give a shout out to

16:32

Jesse Marsh we talked about him a few times he's going to be gutted that he had to leave this team but Leeds still

16:38

don't have a manager and they still have to play United Again by a quirk of the schedule both Uniteds play each other

16:45

twice this week but let's go to the rest of the fixtures this week like I said we

16:52

have Leeds versus Manchester United again which is fun because historically

16:57

great battles if you remember if I spoke about it before early in the Premier League early in

17:04

in Sir Alex Ferguson's tenure leads were the best team in the league the back

17:09

pass rule comes in and actually ruins leads because they were a long ball playing team but here's the schedule on

17:16

Saturday morning we get a London Derby West Ham versus Chelsea at the London Stadium what do we find from the rest of

17:22

Chelsea's team so much for Grand Potter to do then Leicester city played Tottenham Leicester come off a good win

17:28

4-2 against Villa where they come back Lester Tottenham

17:33

lose basuma who has a broken ankle and Hugo Loris so they may be in trouble I

17:39

like um Frazier Foster as a goalkeeper he was really good for Southampton when they

17:45

were good under pochettino and Ronald cumin but it's he's along in the tooth now he's six foot seven and a bit of

17:51

lumbery so we'll see there then I will talk about this game later Crystal Palace versus Brighton the M23 Darby

17:57

these two teams have beef from shared stadiums from brutal games in the FA Cup and this is a secret underground little

18:04

rivalry of the suburbs of London uh between Brighton well Brighton's not a suburb but Crystal Palace or in the

18:09

suburbs of London and it's only about 20 miles away from each other but different culturally Crystal Palace is in a urban

18:16

working-class neighborhood and then you take the train down south to um to Brighton which is this seasound Resort

18:22

it's like the distance between say uh the Lower East Side or like downtown Brooklyn and going to Coney Island it's

18:27

about the same feel of like it's a different area but that's one to look at uh it should be really passion I'm gonna

18:33

go check that one out because I love to see matoma then your beloved Arsenal play Brentford a lots of of discussion

18:41

on this one Brentford best team in the league over the last six matches taking on Arsenal who have a little bit of

18:48

blood in the mouth after uh taking a shot against Everton what will Brentford bring in this game Brentford not as good

18:54

on the road as they are at home and tend to play these big six games really well

19:01

but they get all the night games because they have such a good atmosphere so can Brentford bring that energy on a 3 P.M

19:08

on a Saturday not sure six pointer here Southampton V wolves Southampton are in deep trouble wolves

19:16

played well had the great result against Liverpool fulling Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest away against Fulham no

19:21

chance not even far as he's gonna lose this one Bournemouth in the Eddie Howe returns Darby Bournemouth hosts

19:28

Newcastle uh Newcastle need a win they've been drawing a lot of games the aforementioned Leeds versus Manchester

19:33

United then that's on Sunday and then Sunday late Manchester City versus

19:39

Aston Villa unai Emery has never beat pep but you City living with the cloud

19:45

living with all the ffp living with the investigation I don't know how it's gonna affect the team will it Galvanize

19:51

the team who the knows with City we've been under investigation for 15 years then we go to Liverpool

19:59

it's anfield it's Everton and Everton are in great shakes after an

20:07

amazing win um against Arsenal I think Everton our favorites in this

20:12

game is that possible after 25 years that they could be favorites I don't know but

20:19

uh it is a little bit wild to think about that um I do want to go back again you know

20:25

having having read the schedule talked about what games we are and just sort of rap put a bow on Jessie Marsh

20:34

um at Leeds I think he was hard done um I liked what he was doing I liked his

20:40

energy I thought that the American thing was held against him especially by the Leeds fans the

20:47

board was split so I don't know if people know this but leads are partially owned by the 49ers group so they have a

20:53

stake in the team and they're slated on a time-released purchase to purchase

20:58

the team in the next 90 days or 100 days something like that and I think that they wanted to keep Marsh

21:05

um as he's American and they they've made the purchase of of um

21:10

of Western McKinney and and backed Marsh on his on his players but I think and I

21:16

blame Christian from the WhatsApp group for this the loss against Forest really

21:21

put leads into trouble and March into trouble uh losing win lesson eight is is

21:27

relegation fodder and firing fodder and he wasn't loved by the fans when you're an American or you're a foreigner well

21:34

not a foreigner when you're an American and you are have the personality of Jesse Marsh you do not get a lot of rope

21:42

uh and in fact whatever rope you get is designed to be put around your neck uh and they will pull you out and get rid

21:48

of you um leads still play well this this relegation battle is just an incredible

21:54

state there's seven teams we know the only two that I feel good about going down good I

22:01

don't want you to go down but you gotta go you gotta go is Southampton and Bournemouth both not looking good right

22:08

now um Gary O'Neal new manager bump gets the job they're winless since he got the job

22:15

and I've only scored one goal and then um and then on on the Southampton side

22:23

Nathan Jones is like talking crazy he hasn't got that team playing he wasted

22:28

his manager bounce on Cup games and really needed those wins in the league um

22:33

but I'm looking forward to it leads have no manager we don't know who they're gonna go with the thought is

22:40

that leads will go for bielsa BL selismo because bielsa's football he's so loved

22:48

that leads for bringing him up and he had them playing in a way that they liked and he had a very philosophical

22:53

view that an acolyte of bielsa will be the next coach so West brom's cobraan uh

23:00

Irola in Spain I got his name wrong but a Spanish Copa Villa Villarreal not Villarreal Villa dolid I think uh was

23:08

going to come but who knows and then the other thing is just like the Premier League as much as all the money is

23:14

coming in it's also now a place for great managers you look at wolves they have lopatagi who was managing Real

23:20

Madrid and Spain and you have you know does pochettino want the leads job I

23:26

mean it's that level the the Premier League you know we were talking about the super league and all those things

23:31

the Premier League is at such a high level every body around the world in all

23:36

of football is trying to get to the Premier League and has only 20 jobs so you might take a

23:43

job like Leeds not a glamorous Club but why not why not take it anyway

23:48

speaking of managers who got lucky and took the job that were near them uh Chelsea playing West Ham

23:55

um this is a big one for this is a big one for Chelsea

24:03

again I've been saying it I said it last week they need results I don't know how long

24:08

it's going to take I love Grand Potter I'm so disappointed and so worried for him and I don't know what's going to

24:15

happen there you know we have this essentially American Revolution happening at Chelsea where Todd Boley is

24:22

essentially giving contracts of an American style eight-year contracts the English have no idea what to do with

24:29

this concept of a five-year deal or a four five ten year deal a five-year deal in football is outlandish and giving

24:35

eight you know for a young player it just seems anathema to the whole culture

24:41

of the sport and we're just trying to figure out how that works and what it means and maybe boley's just gonna kick

24:47

it down the can and just be like oh okay whatever I'll just go down the road uh one thing I do want to bring up with the

24:54

there's a little bit of resurgence for West Ham is that you know all the fancy

25:00

scorers that they grabbed uh cornet and skamaka are out so they're going back to

25:06

Antonio and going back to Bowen they're getting some some consistency with rice

25:12

and pakata and then aguer who I talked about in preseason who missed months but

25:18

was amazing for Morocco nayef agered is an amazing Defender he saved the game for them on an attack all against

25:25

um Callum Wilson in their last game against um

25:30

Newcastle again no one thinks that West Ham is being relegated even though they're one point off the relegation

25:36

Zone this is a good team I could see a draw happening what Chelsea just needs is to get that early goal just find any

25:44

way to get a goal and once they get the goal like I said Chelsea's defense is not the problem they can't score the

25:53

converts just floats around we're gonna see what happens with mudrick apparently he was sick Gallagher as much as I love

25:59

him he it's just a runner and I don't know what he does we'll see if Fernandez

26:04

can affect the team a bit more but Chelsea again trying to push themselves forward and figure out what they're

26:10

going to do and how they're going to kick on everything's not Out Of Reach for them they just need to find a way to

26:15

get themselves moving and get themselves into the relegation fight get a few

26:21

games in a row three games in a row four games in a row and let themselves start picking up points because the way things

26:27

are going now they're just sputtering and they don't want to be in crisis and we're going to go on to another

26:33

London Derby I talked about it a little bit already in the rundown of games Arsenal taking on Brentford again

26:40

Arsenal you've got to get wins the key thing

26:45

that Sir Alex Ferguson said and and Pep Guardiola said and whatever is it's a

26:50

cliche of course but it's how you react to the game after you lose uh I wouldn't say that Arsenal had a bad performance

26:57

they just ran into a dice performance the best of that dice can bring

27:02

um and so they have to find a way to get the team back going they're playing City

27:07

on Wednesday e-i-o will bring that up on Wednesday so will arteta rotate the team

27:14

it seems like certain players are a little getting gamey Martinelli's not scoring much I haven't heard much from

27:21

him how does how does the team react after not scoring for a game not scoring

27:26

in the FA Cup they've had two games in a row without scoring a goal how do they react how do they feel where are they

27:32

where are they at inside it's very much like um like is there Rhythm breaking

27:37

down these things can happen this isn't like a knock on Arsenal that they're not going to win the league but they've got

27:42

to respond to these things I think so one of the things that was good for them was that they kept playing and kept

27:47

playing and they keep scoring goals and wouldn't get shut out but now they've had some problems creating and Katya

27:53

missed a couple chances they need a little bit of a of a kick they need to move forward a little bit and see where

28:00

they are um and see how they can just get themselves moving again because they're

28:05

slipping just a little bit two losses in a row once in the FA Cup

28:11

once to Everton um you know they had the three goals against Man United and they won the

28:17

Derby after that that late those two games we thought oh God here comes Arsenal they're gonna win this thing and

28:23

then they slip up against City and then the loss against Everton bad luck no one thinks they're gonna win you know

28:29

getting 100 points was going to be really hard but we'll see where they are and Brentford will not be easy

28:35

brentforder tough Brantford know how to play they know who they are they have a

28:40

good coach they've got everything that you need to go and win a game their last

28:46

games they just beat Southampton they had a nil nil against Brentford then had beaten Bournemouth lost in the FA Cup

28:53

and beat Liverpool and West Ham earlier in the month so they're they're on form

29:00

they're moving along great they've scored tons of goals and you've got to

29:06

be careful if you're Arsenal you know over the last six Branford on 12 goes

29:11

three against Arsenal on 12 goals six against Branford have been better

29:16

Brantford has been better than Arsenal over their last six the opponents matter the energy matters but we're gonna see

29:22

what Arsenal are made of this is a key game and I think arteta knows it he can't have three losses on the bounce

29:28

you've got to score goals and get the energy back in your team they're good these are two very tactically astute

29:35

teams and if you watched and I shared something earlier if you watch do you feel IRL they really covered the Everton

29:41

game and what they did to nullify Arsenal and I wonder if Brentford will do the thing same

29:47

thing the four five one where the Press was shifting back and forth into a 4-4-2

29:55

with the two midfielders switching sides to deny space in the middle of the park where where Arsenal like to play Arsenal

30:01

like to get you all over the place but if Brentford can stay disciplined they're gonna give Arsenal a really really hard time

30:11

um got to go into City so City I'll give a little bit of a

30:16

rundown of where we are with the the great um 100 charge thing from the Premier League

30:25

it's gonna be long it's gonna take hours and years and it's not going to be six months uh they've hired the same lawyer

30:33

a bad name for a lawyer Lord Panic not great uh uh they've hired the same

30:39

lawyer that they had for the cast The the court of sport in Europe um for their previous fight against wafa

30:45

and they are just going to take these charges and really fight and say

30:51

something effective like hey you guys are just looking for something for us we're not giving you all our

30:58

documentation we're going to fight you tooth and nail the more we give you the more you'll find because you're looking

31:04

um do I think City are probably guilty of course they're guilty uh I I don't

31:10

not naive when they show when when the Deloitte money leaks shows Manchester City earning more money than Real Madrid

31:17

I mean that's just not feasible there's not enough fans there's not enough City fans unless

31:23

you know unless they're cooking the books but maybe maybe the thing is is like maybe the corruption and the

31:29

cooking of the books goes up to the sponsorship level so they're just like yeah we spent you know we spent the 100

31:34

million on City meanwhile the UAE gave that company oil at A Cut Rate price and

31:40

that's separate from that byline and they're just like yeah we did you know what I mean like do they have their Ducks lined up in a row to to the level

31:48

of conspiracy hand washing hands like there's a lot of extra stuff that's going on with the city thing because the

31:54

government in England is actually in bed with the United Arab Emirates for getting a lot of money a lot of

32:00

investment is coming from that and will the government get involved on the on the slide be like hey hey don't mess

32:07

with these people they're gonna they're gonna pull a deal there's a lot going on there's a lot of power in this this sort

32:14

of wealth transfer from the modernizing Gulf States whether you agree with their

32:21

social politics they're aware and they're very controlled on we have oil

32:26

now we're investing our money all around the world into all different things because that money one day is going to run out

32:33

we're going to use that money to grow as many businesses as we can from Emirates

32:38

Airways to Etihad Airways to elistat to be in sports all these things are

32:44

well-funded well-heeled companies that are not really profitable but being propped up by oil

32:50

so they're looking on a 50-year horizon and they're using Europe and they're funding things and they're putting money

32:56

here and Manchester City is frankly part of that uh it's a way you know for that

33:01

they use the word Sport washing but it's a way to project soft power and make deals and have guys come to the game and

33:07

whatever um I think it's legitimate I think it's fair I think Europeans and Americans don't like that someone is doing the

33:13

game that they used to do uh if you look at your turn of the century history the

33:19

Americans did that to Europe we were the ones you know sort of using soft power

33:25

and sort of going yeah we'll do it our way we're the Americans we do it this way and we had the money and we had you

33:31

know the Innovation and we had all these things now did we have a stronger culture not based on Islamic law yeah

33:40

but we're still a Christian country but we shared that with them so this is a little bit different I tend to think that it's a little funky and I tend to

33:47

think that City are going to fight through this and get where they need to go

33:52

um oh I should talk about football uh City playing villa villa coming off a

33:57

really poor performance against Leicester city where they

34:03

frankly just gave up too many goals I just think they made mistakes they were all over the place they actually got new

34:08

players which is good but uh City are odds on to win this game and haven't lost to Villa you know if we remember

34:15

the last game of the season the the uh the gundagon goals the three goals in

34:20

the seven minutes against Villa they were up to nil City one they had a draw in their last game that was under Stephen Gerard in September seemed weird

34:28

at the time but still have defeated Villa mostly over the last couple years

34:35

we don't know what the lineup is going to be

34:41

you know City didn't make any signings a kanji Laporte Louis who the hell knows

34:46

what's going to happen we just had Consuelo leave I think City will have to we'll have their hands full with Bailey and Watkins

34:52

and listen Luna Emery is clever and knows what he's doing the thing is that I think about is the back line for Villa

34:59

is poor uh it's still Dimitri young sorry Dimitri young he was a ball player fat ball player play for Cincinnati it's

35:07

still Ashley Young and Lucas Dina who are not great defensive players uh Kanza and Ming's always have a mistake in them

35:14

and then Martinez is a good goalkeeper we know from the World Cup but he can get rattled I'm hoping City just

35:21

has an easy game again look for those goals in the first 15 minutes if City scores a goal in the first 15 minutes

35:27

they're gold if they don't and they have to go into the half then I start to worry I'd expect at least a good

35:34

performance to happen it's been a long time since City had a good performance

35:41

and Villa are sitting in 11th on 28th City on 45 in second place

35:50

we do have to go there it's time it's time to talk about Everton and Liverpool

35:58

there's been a lot of conversation this week on Liverpool uh some of the things

36:03

that I brought up actually ended up being the national conversations around Liverpool like

36:08

klopp does he take responsibility for this can he see a change I know that his

36:18

philosophy is very powerful and has to be completely bought

36:23

into the running the pressing The High Line and all those things but

36:29

can he adapt the team to keep that identity but still push the team forward if they

36:37

keep doing the same thing they're gonna keep losing uh I think about this game

36:43

um even though you know I don't think Liverpool have lost at home to Everton in 20 years

36:49

I think a draw for Liverpool at this point is a good result I'm afraid for Liverpool in this game Onana

36:58

Onana de Corey and arducigay

37:04

are the type of hard-working attacking in your face midfielders that

37:10

Liverpool are dying for that that Henderson used to be that fabinho used

37:15

to be um it was always Thiago who made all the moves but when you think about one album wine album Henderson and fabinho were

37:23

just in your face killers and then you throw in firmino as the extra midfielder he'd make up the numbers as a as a false

37:29

nine and he would just kill they would suffocate you and now they can't do that

37:36

but then you saw with Everton they did it they did it they did it

37:42

against Arsenal if you think that Sean dice isn't going to try and come in there swing his giant Ginger

37:49

nuts and be like I came into this team I got no transfer money I beat ourseling at home and now I'm gonna beat

37:56

Liverpool he's gonna try and do that that's for sure you can guarantee it this Everton team is good

38:03

Frank Lampard was that shitty a coach I'm telling you Everton is gonna finish in the mid table they're so good

38:09

I didn't ever understood it but I do I think the thing to look out

38:15

for is how's klopp doing could this be the end of Liverpool

38:20

if they can't if he feels like he can't reach the team

38:25

and FSG are trying to sell the team and aren't going to spend money and they tell them hey we can't spend money we're

38:31

trying to sell the team I'm not going to put another 200 million dollars in this thing while I'm on the way out

38:36

what is klopp gonna do what is klopp gonna do is he gonna leave

38:42

is he going to take his bag and go home and go I did the best I could I took it as far as I could and let someone else

38:49

battle for this now I don't know

38:55

I don't know and it could be it could be that Liverpool goes right back to the

39:01

Wilderness honestly there's no reason they don't have

39:06

sorry they don't have a great history within the context of premier league history of

39:12

really being a well-run club and let me caveat that

39:19

they were a well-run club but they have their moments of their best moments have

39:25

been under charismatic strong managers who drove

39:30

the club forward Benitez did that tapped into the Spanish Market completely made

39:37

Liverpool the best defensive unit in the Premier League and let Stephen Gerard and do the things he

39:45

needed to do to win games and then you know Julie also was very good before him

39:51

and then after that soured because of the defensive nature of of Benitez and his kind of like maniacal I do

39:57

everything right and I want to control everything they really went to the Wilderness again FSG by them by a stroke of luck

40:06

klopp has a bad year at Dortmund and they grab Dort and they grab klopp and it's a match made in heaven

40:11

but if klopp leaves what does that mean for Liverpool that these charismatic

40:17

kind of coaches don't really grow on trees and there isn't one out there that I could see that fits with Liverpool as

40:24

it is today although I would imagine that if klopp were to leave or announce that he was going to leave in the next

40:30

month tuko would be the first manager to show up at Liverpool I mean it feels German to German tuko took over for at

40:37

Dortmund after klopp left I mean it seems like a match made in heaven where clot where Tuka would take over for

40:43

klopp but I don't know it's an interesting concept uh tuko's pretty ambitious he's very London in

40:49

Cosmopolitan I think he had her he was breaking up with his wife and he had a kid in London and he's probably still in London

40:56

um I'm gonna move on there think of talk about the relegation battle because we have a six pointer with Southampton and

41:03

wolves wolves with lopategi are just sharper they're just good at this point

41:08

and I wonder I wonder what Nathan Jones is gonna do

41:15

with this team because they're young and inconsistent it seems

41:21

they've moved Ward prowse into a number 10 role where they can get him on the ball to get him shots off because they

41:28

just don't have the players to do it I really love salisu I have all season uh and Lavia is a great midfielder who

41:34

hasn't been able to make a difference yet but um Lavia and and Ward prowse and atoms to a

41:42

lesser extent are really the chances that they have adozi also a Manchester City player again I don't like bizuno I

41:49

talk about their goalkeeper all the time he's awful and he cannot be playing for this team

41:55

it's just a disaster I don't know what they're thinking uh wolves on the other hand very clear Dawson comes in just a

42:02

solid Premier League defender who just will be like you know what I got this not a problem uh he he steps in scores a

42:10

goal and then killman also really really good it does bring one of their better

42:16

Defenders to the bench I can't remember his name um I'd have to look it up

42:22

um no I can't find it off the top of my head anyway but they'll always have matinee to come in and they've grabbed

42:27

kunya and Sarabia to try and score goals and it looks like Wolverhampton wolves have finally got enough goal

42:35

scoring that was always their problem they couldn't score goals so they're now scoring goals three last week away to

42:41

Southampton this is a six-pointer I think if Southampton lose this game wolves are up they're in 15th now and

42:48

20. if Southampton loses game they're going to fire Jones and they'll go to another manager and I don't know what

42:54

they're gonna do right Southampton have lost eight of their last nine uh with Wolves winning their last four against

43:01

Southampton so it's really really not a good time for

43:07

Southampton and I think if wolves get the win here they'll be in really good

43:12

shape able to kick on and call themselves Champs of the bottom

43:18

uh I do want to touch on this Eddie Hal Darby so what an amazing

43:25

place to be for him to return I imagine he's going to get massive cheers these are

43:30

these things that football culturally we're going to have Newcastle Bournemouth Eddie Howe looking at his

43:36

old team and just going thank God I'm in Newcastle but this is an important game for Newcastle this is the furthest they

43:42

can go is it maybe southampton's further so Newcastle oh God it's England May

43:47

travel like 800 miles uh it's gonna be a long trip for them they'll probably fly uh going to Bournemouth a small town on

43:55

the on the on the ocean 7 000 seat Stadium they're gonna bring the tune Army down

44:01

I can't imagine they'll probably have to leave it's a late game they'll probably leave first thing in the morning or maybe the

44:08

night before and play try and win this game but um I mean it wasn't too long ago

44:14

Newcastle was in the championship and Bournemouth was in league so

44:19

I'm not sure what's going to happen with form if they are windless in their last five uh really slipping only have one

44:26

point in their last six games minus ten only scored one goal meanwhile wolves

44:33

have only scored five but again what I talked about before only giving up that lone goal to West Ham they had been on a

44:39

five goal goal of five clean sheet streak but

44:45

for their problem is they're not scoring goals the amerone goal machine disappeared they had a nil nil vs Palace

44:51

then a one-nil versus Fulham nil nil versus Arsenal that was that first drop points the nil nil first leads looks

44:57

even crazier because leads just give up goals to everyone so they've only scored the five goals in six games they're

45:04

really slipping in that regard but again if you don't give up goals you don't lose and Newcastle do not give up goals

45:12

so uh I would expect Bournemouth they ain't scoring no chance Char

45:18

botman burn trippy a Legends with Pope that five trip a Char botman

45:24

burn and Pope are just gonna go down in history for um four Newcastle fans as like you know as

45:31

a defense the way um the way Keon and Keon and Adams and

45:36

and and um and winter burn and uh and and that that

45:43

group with Arsenal under under Graham Taylor went down you know one nil to the Arsenal they're gonna start singing One

45:48

nil to the New Castle the way things are going but we'll see if Gordon who's new to the team can bring a goal they need

45:54

Wilson to get off the schneid they need gumarish to come back they'll still be defensive with long staff and then for

46:00

Bournemouth yes they have spent lots of money they got Cimino who's really good uh got

46:07

Sensei is in the back otara they've got players and they're trying to move the team forward but it's

46:14

the Premier League everyone has spent money you're just trying to keep up with nothing I wonder did Dominic solanki die

46:21

yeah he's doubtful they really need him to come back in he was supposed to be their goal scorer he did everything for

46:27

them in the championship scoring like 29 goals in the championship and without him they're really hurting and they just

46:34

need him to get back he's doubtful for this game maybe he'll come back we'll see what happens there but they really

46:40

really need solanki back in there to score goals uh for Newcastle we expect

46:46

to see ISAC that's going to be a big difference for them they just need more options up front to try and get those

46:52

goals from that amazing pressing that they do

46:58

Lester Spurs kante I believe is still out but they had a great performance against City we

47:06

know goddamn Spurs ruined my goddamn weekend again I can't why can't City

47:12

beat Spurs I don't understand it uh they'll they shouldn't have a problem versus Lester Lester score goals but

47:18

Lester give up goals uh as long as Madison is in this team they're gonna win uh the form tables got

47:25

Spurs on three wins and three draws with Leicester on only one win and a draw in their last four yeah everything is

47:32

directly completely even for Spurs eight four eight against three wins three losses nine points which is nice uh you

47:39

can't go the season that way Leicester still scoring goals but again scored seven gave up 12. so you can get a sense

47:47

how that works for them last few games Tottenham killed Lester early in the

47:53

year uh in September when a 6-2 when Spurs were scoring goals I don't know what the hell happened what we were

47:59

doing then uh Tottenham on a bit of a streak against against Lester have won

48:05

let's see here one two three four out of five scoring boatloads of goals

48:13

but also Leicester scores goals too we'll see what happens here here's the stat you ready Tottenham have scored at

48:19

least three goals in their last four matches against Leicester in all competitions basically bet the over

48:28

bet the over um you know we we still want to give give a shout out to Harry Kane he's

48:34

finally getting a little bit more respect I think you know 200 goals in the league 267 for his career what a

48:42

player what he does how he can play two positions he's more than just a striker

48:47

and I'm looking forward to watching him break Alan share his record because it does not look like he's going anywhere

48:53

Spurs already fending off you know your yearly rumors of Kane to United Kane to

48:59

sit well can't no one Kane's not going to city but you know the regular sort of scheduled rumors of this guy going here

49:06

and that guy going there um I just think we're rounding up here but uh do want to give a shout out

49:14

to a couple more matches Fulham versus Nottingham Forest again I

49:19

spoke about it earlier Fulham hmm they're gonna beat my your

49:25

beloved Forest Chris uh you know forests have gotten their points and are doing well I do want to talk about this

49:30

Crystal Palace Brighton game it's a derby and matoma is the best

49:36

Palace of drawn their last three home matches against Brighton but they have failed to win in their last five so

49:43

Crystal Palace are slipping the form table looks like this Brighton second in

49:48

the league over their last six four wins a draw and a win but the big thing here is 15 goals four eight against with a

49:56

plus seven Palace not doing the same they are winless in their last five with

50:02

two draws uh not playing well right now and where are we with the um Patrick

50:07

Vieira I I feel like he had some juice he was doing well now it's kind of

50:13

slipping I really think Conor Gallagher made a difference in that team I'm not a fan of Hughes on their team he took the

50:20

stupid handball um he doesn't bring the dynamism that Gallagher had he's kind of just a

50:26

destroyer and I'm not seeing much from decorate they really need Joe Kim Anderson to come back uh it does not

50:32

look like he's gonna be back anytime it's soon but you know we'll see what happens there and zaha also unavailable

50:39

but that's nice because it lets EZE Elise and Edward all play together

50:44

um for for my friends from Brighton just give me more matoma give me more March

50:52

give me more McAllister give me more casedo and let me give the Love Fest to Louis dunk the most underrated defender

50:59

in the Premier League I love him he's the captain of Brighton when City go down and I have to watch him in the

51:05

championship I'll still love them but Brighton will still be there and I will pour my love into my beloved seagulls

51:11

and uh hopefully they will continue long may continue the M23 Darby uh lots and

51:18

lots of juice on this one has a strong history locally it's a weird one where

51:24

no one knows why just a bunch of games with red cards and people sharing stadiums and real local silly stuff that

51:32

is what makes football so great and what I talked about at the start if you have a closed league in a Super League

51:38

teams like Brighton will never be in it teams like Crystal Palace will drop out they'll never be there Chelsea will

51:44

never play whole Manchester City will never play you know uh wrexham

51:49

give a little update on wrexham our friends from the FA Cup replay around I

51:55

sort of missed it as I was getting tired at the end of the last show fourth round replays Blackburn defeats Birmingham

52:01

Grimsby town over lutantown Burnley a 94th minute winner over Ipswich Town Fleetwood over Wednesday

52:08

Sheffield United defeat rexham and Fulham defeat Sunderland uh in two weeks

52:15

time at the end of the month the fifth round we're getting close to the quarterfinal rounds we'll have Stoke vs

52:20

Birmingham Fulham versus leads Southampton Grimsby town West Ham versus United at Old Trafford

52:27

Lester will face Blackburn City pick up Bristol City Burnley over Fleetwood they

52:33

have a good chance of getting through and mighty Tottenham will go to bramel Lane on March 1st to Def to play

52:40

Sheffield United and Billy Sharp's blades so we say goodbye to rexham and I

52:45

think it's a good bookend on this show to appreciate something like wrexham in

52:51

the face of super leagues in the face of competitiveness and you know reximate

52:57

City are not that dissimilar I know this sounds absurd but

53:03

if you have rules to prevent investment how far do they go

53:09

can Ryan Reynolds and and Rob mcalleny not spend as much money because wrexham

53:14

is in the fifth Division and there's a salary cap and they and there's no promotion there's no hope for that team

53:20

to go higher and that money that they Advance they can't just keep investing for it to move up what if there was

53:25

Financial fair play down there at the at the level of it's the fifth Division and there's regulations to make sure that

53:32

the football league doesn't have any more relegation think about that think about what rexim is rexim is a

53:39

story of of you know of of people spending money and investing in a club they can't generate

53:45

that Revenue and City just did the same thing they just had the draw drip drawbridge

53:51

pulled up on them and someone got mad and decided it was done for them you know it and I know it too City and

53:58

wrexham like this all right that was the squeaky bum Time Podcast

54:04

with Laurent courteans we are the football wing of the chop Sports channel and presented exclusively on the

54:10

premiere streaming Network we record on twos on Mondays and Thursdays so be sure to subscribe where you ever you get your

54:17

podcast so you never miss an episode and if you're listening on Apple or listening on YouTube or wherever you are

54:23

please rate and review the show it means everything in the world to us and Tony

54:29

skolicki if you made it this far I love you brother bye [Music]

54:39

foreign [Music]

By Laurent Courtines

I'm here and I am ready to go. Been doing my homework and I have things to say.

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