In Episode #119 of the Squeaky Bum Time Podcast, Laurent is back and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is gone after a dreadful performance in his last game managing Manchester United, a 4-1 loss to Watford. Also:
- The end is here for Ole: we say goodbye to the most-talked about person in Squeaky Bum Time history
- Premier League Contenders Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester City handle the tricky post international break fixtures.
- Arsenal show they aren’t ready against Liverpool
- Canada beat Mexico to go top of CONCACAF… we told you to watch out for these guys!
- USMNT drops points against Jamaica after their big Mexico win because of course
- Tottenham come from behind against Leeds as Antonio Conte riles up the Tottenham Stadium crowd like it’s White Hart Lane.
Leave us a review: Apple Podcasts Follow us on Twitter (@SqueakyBum_Pod), Instagram (@SqueakyBumTimePod) and Facebook (Squeaky Bum Time Podcast) to stay up to date!
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Transcript
hello and welcome to the squeaky bum
time podcast it is tuesday november 23rd
third third in this episode canadian
concacaf chaos that's a lot of seas the
premier league is back ola is sacked if
i like i'm rapping we have new bandages
your bounces everywhere there were two
three threes but first mike
i was excited probably more than you
were kante
fist bumps and is this the best
half that spurs has played since
pochettino
so the the quick paid answer is yes the
actual answer the not fun one is
mourinho it was the first few weeks of
mourinho i was there and it was [ __ ]
fabulous also the six three was good the
six one whatever it was was good well
yeah but that was more about united
playing like garbage and then oh you
mean they've been they've been terrible
for a long time and no one noticed
yeah yeah um
no and the thing that it reminded me of
was the last season at white hart lane
with like that's the quick bait answer
you're looking for right like where like
kane is flying and the goals are going
in left and right and i i mean they only
won two to one but they could have had
five right so um
was that three posts they hit in the
second half
yeah i just thought it was one of these
things where the narrative was
spurs were playing how they had been
this kind of like how do we play what do
we do
there's three at the back i uh where's
this guy supposed to be
maura was doing his running i thought
regulon was good
i thought he was really bad but he was
just it was just a function that he was
taking a lot of risks and sort of paying
for a lot of them um but he ends up
being in the right place at the right
time and scores the winner so i thought
it was nice to see winks i think winks
will be one of those players who can be
coached and will take on what the coach
says so he'll play so he'll be a kante
guy and kante will say
[ __ ] dumbley you don't [ __ ] listen
i'm gonna go with this [ __ ] who
doesn't do [ __ ] but at least he does
what i ask him to and i'm gonna ask him
to pass forward and he's going to pass
forward anyways it's important well
let's stop there for a second it's
important to have winks in the side and
in in contention for places because
what you need out of him is to build up
his confidence back right like he he's
shattered mason tried a little bit after
mourinho but it just never worked under
nuno and now you've got a kid who's not
kid anymore but like you've got a guy
who's essentially just
useless in his own body because he he
can't string a pass together it's almost
like he's got the yips so
what kante is doing is two things a
reacting to a
alarming lack of depth in the midfield b
he's he's saying in don belay you're
like like i've been saying for years
[ __ ] you dude you've got all the talent
the world and you got a 10 cent head
like you don't care
so i'm not going to play you um but what
i liked was was the return the first
half looked like spurs the second half
looked like
kante was like
not
[ __ ] today
not today is this [ __ ] happening he
put he had the jacket he didn't have the
jacket on he puts the jacket on so
jacket first step he's ginning up the
[ __ ] crowd he has had it he either
and and and should they have played that
way in the first half i thought it was a
great juxtaposition
against ole where
all they just never got anything out of
united
and in this one instance you see the
difference between a coach and not a
coach right when united would come back
it wasn't because all they did anything
it was because the united players were
like [ __ ] we got to come back you never
saw ola get mad you never saw him yell
you never saw him do anything with kante
he's got [ __ ] an extra
half a percent out of white heart lane
he literally
pushed them on and it worked and i saw
the two times it's working
the two types of work this year was the
first game against city where it wasn't
anything to do with nuno it was
coincidentally his first game but it was
it was the
um
tottenham versus the world mentality
especially with city coming in the whole
cane narrative all that yeah but this
was sort of a
we we need our club back right i mean it
wasn't the first game with with kante
but it was the first winnable game which
all narrative aside for a second leads
in the second half we're gonna get into
best bets a little bit later on i guess
or maybe on thursday or whatever
bet against leeds in the second half
holy [ __ ] not only do they play in
aggressive style so that leaves them
open at the back
they have the most goals against in the
second half against of any team in the
premier league
and they're just bad
on defense right and and spurs we've
talked about spurs being just
stuck in neutral for months now
basically
going well back into last season and
this
is the team that shredded you now
granted they do have all the talent in
the world but sunny and kane and and
others but really
so leads
there's a thing where it's like the
doctor will see you now that like
tottenham if you're if your team is
ailing go see dr tottenham and you'll
take care of them it's almost like it's
dr leeds right so like so if you see a
team sputtering
maybe going after him but it was good i
mean it was up and down i thought leeds
played their part i mean leeds always
are entertaining if even if they lose
but i i do i do want to keep the the
united juxtapositions are one of the
things i kept thinking was like
the win that all they got for spurs is
now like how the [ __ ] did you lose
well no when we talk about it as
cristiano ronaldo tottenham legend right
because what ended up happening is
you know we had that episode where we
said the sword of damocles and one of
these men will fall
and uh and and it ended up being nuno
right and that actually saved spurs's
ass like that's what i'm saying here's
the thing now you can think about it
thank god nuno played that badly because
you wouldn't have kante exactly kante
would be now you do
right and thank god and i what i don't
understand is one of these things that
drives me nuts is this
i get the dna thing like oh kante is not
a united guy and this guy is and i find
that to be complete and utter total
[ __ ] i think it's
i think the
the
the coach has to come in
and stamp
his identity his identity within the
context it's really just performance
right like yeah you know oh
could could mourinho have been the
united manager yes if he spoke the right
way not saying i want to blow it all up
or i want to burn it all down or or van
gaal being
it's it's whether you're
whether you're iconoclastic and want to
be bigger than a club i don't get the
sense that kante wants to be bigger than
clubs he just wants them to spend and
he's gone to places that don't spend
right like he's or maybe i don't know
kante well enough no i mean look
the the rap that i got on him from when
he was leaving chelsea is that like he
kept complaining about
more money more money more money and it
was like hey man
that's not really what they do there
they give you what you need right and so
um
that was what sort of turned me off to
the conte at the end aside from the fact
that he he won there and i hated chelsea
not not past tense hate chelsea but
in the second season they did win the fa
cup right that's correct yeah so i
always think of that season as a failure
what was the league and then the fa cup
the next year right yeah yeah so but i
think you know i i do i think the united
thing looming and then kante and seeing
it happen and seeing what happened with
united and i mean i don't know how
in-depth he went against watching
wofford
but
wofford beat the [ __ ] out of united it
was a
it was a down tools performance it was a
holy [ __ ]
this is really really bad like
no reaction not in the second half
nothing and that was it it was it was
over we finally have the sword drop and
again united
bungles this by waiting like yeah and it
doesn't seem that they have any plan
well the weird thing is it's almost like
they that that interview that came out
too
it was very strange because i felt never
seen that that's pathetic me neither me
neither but it also felt like they did
it before the game didn't they
yeah but let's take a step back so so
olay they have the performance they come
out from the break united are terrible
there's just nothing there i do want to
give a shout out to tanganga i was happy
to see him anyway he was still good he
almost got sent off but he was fine
maguire was terrible again seven minutes
second half two yellows boom boom gone
uh the front three at watford of sar
um
of tsar dennis and and and josh king
really really good they made him look
like
monet sal and firmino it was like what
the [ __ ] what is united doing anyway we
know he's bad so they fire olleh but
they keep all his coaches who are
equally as bad
so that's weird so it's it's carrick
feeling and by the way let's stop there
because this is how they got into this
situation in the first place when they
got rid of was it it was mourinho right
yeah so they got rid of mourinho they
bring in only as an interim manager he's
a guy who's got the juice he's got the
united
background and history and then rashford
puts the team on his back against i
think paris psg right in in the
champions league there was a handball
that should have never been called right
right and so there was like two or three
wild results early on and everybody's
singing only at the wheel and now
you've signed yourself up for what ended
up being what three years
of of just
just complete you know
utter
uselessness and and so mediocrity
and now you're bringing in michael
carrick
who sounds a whole lot like oleg on our
sulshar in that same interim role and
what happens if they go on a run right
now hell i'm rooting for it now because
i want to see them do their [ __ ] again
right
the the idea is that he's gonna have a
little
he's gonna have it until the season ends
right but that's exactly what they said
with olei they're gonna get drunk on on
short-term success if it comes because
they did it once they're gonna do it
again and why the real reason why i want
that is because i really don't want
pochettino in united
it's it's
i think
united will bungle it it seems to me
that there's a deep structural
damage in the team it starts at the top
the ultimate decision makers are the
glazers
it doesn't seem to me that there's
a hierarchy of a football person there
at all i think again we'll probably
we're going to touch on arsenal i think
one of the things that's interesting
when you juxtapose it with arsenal is
arsenal went through this same structure
with three or four different attempts at
football structure but they did
eventually hit on it with edu and arteta
and a couple other guys they tried with
missing but at least they tried to
modernize after wenger i think with with
with um with saf leaving
after ferguson left he literally ran the
whole team in his head he was all the
roles
came in like did you write anything down
like no i didn't write anything down
it's just all up here i'll tell you and
i'll tell you over lunch
no
now to be fair i think moyes did that at
everton he really was running it the way
that you that that ferguson ran it but i
think at united it's a little bit
different so so we have that i mean and
i think it's really hard i think you
have a
you have a multi-billion dollar business
publicly listed on the stock exchange
american owners who think they can run
it like it's the an nfl team
where you have time and you can just
kind of like take the tampa bay uh tampa
bay buccaneers and kind of go five years
sucking and then go oh look it's tom
brady oh awesome let's do that yeah
right and kind of go oh yeah that'll
work
it's that it's that fourth estate that
we talk about right in the nfl it's
owners players that's it
and television
this
the idea of fans having that that that
cudgel to bait you over the head with is
just
americans just don't get it we're just
like
what do you mean we have to win
what do you mean we hit the revenue
number
what what's the problem yeah because you
didn't do it right you have to
this other estate is here that you have
to please and they kept ola for that
estate and now they're going to have to
try and navigate some
method of
they're still playing like pr management
with how they pick a manager it's kind
of a disaster
well that's what i mean i
think i'm rooting for it
to our think even you as a city fan
can't you find it in your cold black
heart to root for a little bit of
short-term success so that it ultimately
torpedoes the next two years for united
here's what i know
teams that are well run
beat
teams that are not
right and united are not well run no
matter what they do whether they get
pochettino whether they get [ __ ]
bill shankly
they're not gonna be good or build uh
nicholson it doesn't matter who they
have they will fail they're just i think
unless they just spend over the top and
go crazy well sure
i don't necessarily agree because
despite the fact that they're
dysfunctional despite the fact that they
don't play together and by the way bruno
is sort of being found out this year um
i do think they're still just a declan
rice away from being the best team in
the in the country
so i think they're one good position
player away
and a good coach of course sure
well i mean i'd listen if you bring in
ten hogs if you bring in pochettino if
you're bringing sudan who i know doesn't
want the job but like if you bring one
of those players
he's gonna look at the fine but he's
gonna look at the team and go
yeah there's a huge [ __ ] hole right
in the number six giant gaping hole how
about we go get declan rice how about we
go get somebody else right like if if
they go in and they say oh i have
effectively unlimited funds as
manchester united's coach i don't need
them i just need one really good player
65 70 million dollars
done
they're going to be in the title i think
i think you're right i think
yeah i think you're right i mean i had
said it a million times i was like this
is the best team in the country
and they're terrible
because they're not coached at all right
they'll be so much they'll be so happy
once they have a coach like oh my god
look what's happening
i do want to talk about teams that do
have good coaching
um
i do there there there was thing you
know we had we had liverpool versus
arsenal and i think we thought that
arteta might be a good coach and this
was one of those
litmus test games for arsenal and
they
failed but not too badly it wasn't a
oh they need to go back to the zero they
had a way they wanted to play they did
try and play it they showed some
resiliency they had ramsdale make a
bunch of saves
and then
arteta and klopp got into a
pretty high quality on the touchline
spat where they're yelling at each other
uh arteta literally jumped in the air
and was pushed back so it was a quality
one
but it was at anfield
and that ginned up the crowd
which ginned up liverpool and then
from the half hour mark to the end of
the game
arsenal felt the full wrath of
liverpool
at home
angry yep and they got the doors they
got the doors blown off them yeah
i have uh
if you listen to the show i have been
banging on arsenal and saying fade them
fade them fade them they're pretenders
they're not that good this was the game
to make all of my money back
uh
i didn't bet it because i moved this
weekend and had completely forgotten uh
until after kickoff which i was very
upset about but yeah um
let me
let me yeah but you wouldn't you
wouldn't have said four
i would have said if it was one and a
half i would have said smash liverpool
um
but
um
let me take my foot off the hate arsenal
gas for a second
i
don't think
they're they're certainly not as bad as
it as a four nil score line no looks no
essentially especially like you said at
anfield where arsenal will be defined
like many teams in this middling part of
the of the table against wolves
it's well yeah but that's but that's
december 28th it's the
the
holiday fixture festive
festival period festive period jesus
christ that starts realistically on
saturday uh you're gonna have games
pretty much every three days in the
league
um this is where arsenal have had an
advantage in the last six weeks because
they haven't had any european titles or
any excuse me any european games or
titles for that more titles
thank you uh and so uh that's gonna be a
real test for them obviously like it is
with everybody else but now they're on
even footing so
newcastle at home you have to win that
game you go to old trafford what who
knows what they're gonna look like in 10
days time um and then everything is a
game that you need to win as well but
that's a way that's back up and those
are tough games
yeah i just thought i just thought i did
i just thought watching arsenal it
didn't feel the same manner of this is
pathetic this was just liverpool at 12
and as a city fan
i know what liverpool at 12 is like yeah
and it's just
these those moments when liverpool is at
their best
they're the best team in the world and
it's not close like yeah those you just
like
why i don't know what to do
yeah
they completely suffocate you now
granted some of these were
self-inflicted like i think tavares made
a couple of bad passes some of them were
just really bad but they're clinical
trent alexander arnold making passes
they're just like it's just you're just
like we're
we're [ __ ] yeah just cover the face
take body shots yeah you're just like
okay
we made three mistakes and they scored
goals on all three
and granted i didn't see any smith rowe
i didn't really feel like arsenal had
any chances but they did
suffer together and i thought that was
actually good versus some of the
previous
uh arsenal things where they just get
battered and it's like hang your head
this was like well there's finger
pointing a lot of that right so they
were okay and i think they just have to
go we're not ready this we're not here
yet and no
no and like you said
there are three teams in the league that
are and we've said that it you know a
lot on the show it's chelsea city it's
liverpool in whatever order you want um
but those are the three and then there's
the rest and and real estate and the
rest are really close together
they are yeah i mean it's a long list of
rest yeah yeah yeah and the funny thing
is i would not put united in the rest
right now now one one game later they
probably would be back in it but
the the thing i love about west ham is
that they
want to be tottenham so bad that they
even mimicked the very very brief
glimmer of hope near the top of the
table so
uh they
they struggle against wolves who are
finally getting the bounces that we saw
or we expected them to get early on um
and and they go into the model which is
always a tough game to play and they
lose one late uh to
two uh two wolves and it's something
that's been coming so i'm not really
surprised at all but yeah yeah yeah and
and i got i got respect i got a shout
out from our friend carter krishna who
just was like oh
this guy you know laurent said that
wolves are good i'm like it's just xg
against verses you know you can see it
it's just you can see it when they play
you could see the triore kind of not
finishing things you could see they had
a better way to play because that team
was always good and you know i think
that they were they were getting better
uh the whole time but uh yeah i mean
west ham's not there yet
they they don't have the consistency you
would expect that they would have had a
better result but i think that injuries
are
ibana makes a difference i don't i mean
they lose one no they didn't score
anything but i mean uh michael antonio
was flying on private jets to play for
jamaica he scored his first goal so i
mean
these are guys they're not i just i just
flew from [ __ ] sweden and i'm like
three days in and i don't know what
planet i'm on so i can't imagine where
these guys are um but and then and then
to round out our big three
one more point on wolves uh chelsea one
more yeah
uh
who's your manager of the season so far
if you had to pick one right now
and why is it bruno live the manager of
the season is more
it depends uh i think it i think
narrative will drive this a lot
i think if kante can pull
spurs into like a winning run down the
stretch sure he would be the obvious i
know but 12 games
it would be it's almost moyes again
yeah i well look i mean it's i for me
looking at the table it's moyes bruno
lodge um
and
um
uh vieira at palace
those are the three for me
oh i forgot that yeah yeah yeah
i mean pallets are just like but palace
is just like the thing the thing that
everybody has to really have
is gallagher yeah yeah well sure
but
the thing you have to remember about
crystal palace is that they didn't have
first-team players
on like
july 31st
right they had like three first-team
players they lost like 10 guys to free
agents
uh end of you know running down their
contract they didn't ha like i can't
stress this enough they didn't know who
was going to be playing for them
and so they pieced it together they got
you know they got gallagher on loan
which was a huge huge get but
a number of players came in so you know
if there was a gm of the year it's most
definitely palace and i don't think it's
close
um but but having vieira bring all those
pieces together more or less and hit the
ground running
was incredibly impressive i think this
was something so we'll take a digression
before we talk chelsea
this was something that palace had been
wanting to do with under steve parish
who's the g who's the who's the um
chairman the chairman they had taken the
investment money they had wanted to play
they had that window under uh frank
deboer he loses he goes on eight
yeah
i was excited for deboer and that didn't
go at all it doesn't work
then you bring in hodgson
he stabilizes them keeps them in the
league
everybody likes him
they keep playing under him and i think
that they sort of targeted
this season of just like hey let's let
this group run down
let's let roy finish it out we're still
in the league and i think they targeted
this whole thing i think they knew they
wanted to go attacking i think they knew
that they wanted to play
and have a team that reflected the
neighborhood in a weird way because like
all those south london kids zaha and and
and uh
and all those kids with the flare they
wanted the team to reflect the
neighborhood and i think that matters i
think there's a weird connection there
and i think vieira as much as he's a
he's an arsenal guy he sort of reflects
that as well it's an immigrant community
and i think it it made sense and i think
they they had the they had the right
target they basically have taken
find the most exciting player in the
championship buy him a year before
anyone notices and then have him on your
team right so as a
uh like find that zaha replacement two
would take two or three swings at it you
know it's almost like taking that it's
like tanking in the nba except you do it
differently you don't you don't tank you
simply get those number one draft picks
and start putting them in your pocket
speaking of which i saw ryan sessenyon
play again
oh that did
he played yesterday he played at spurs
he brought him on yeah everyone has a
chance on the conte um so that's cool uh
the the less spoken about chelsea the
better the thing i noted was they just
they just killed lester it wasn't close
yeah unless there are still sputtering
they're in that group the ball moved
fast it was like boom boom boom boom
boom boom boom boom boom that was really
shocking and then rudiger they had a
cool set piece goal
was pool of sick they just and then they
scored i think
three
late offside call goals which was before
the three so so there were at least four
or five extra goals lester's in trouble
i think as someone who's gone through
this
when your manager gets your head turned
as you say he's checked out
your team can suffer the player i think
i think we're talking about these you
know they talk about fine margins all
the time if you're not committed
you're in trouble no the margin gets
wider and
if i feel like for a guy like vardy who
you can tell
he's like jake taylor in major league
right he's just like yeah he's he's
trying to get everybody
galvanized again but when he sees
uh brendan rogers sort of start to waver
and watch even even yeah but even if
it's not like it's not whatever right
but it's even if it's not
mean or nasty it's just it just is right
it's the business right
it's too nasty it's it's organic yeah
it's just
i it's human nature you go oh you
instead of you said it about kane the
difference between harry kane in the
first half and harry kane in the second
half was not anything that you could see
on the scoresheet but it felt different
and you can say that about lester
between call it the last few years and
more or less most of this season and
it's very interesting to me that brennan
rogers is still being considered one of
the top candidates for a lot of these
jobs because
if you're united and you can't miss this
higher right you cannot hire brendan
rodgers you can't but listen if it were
last year if lester were and by the way
they're only five points a drift of
fifth place right now so fine but they
just look like hot garbage so
is that the if you're so concerned
overly concerned as you said about pr
and image and how these these things
look if you were to say that brennan
rogers is going to leave leicester in
the middle of the season and then come
to united if you're a united supporter
and actually have a friend of mine who i
was talking to today who wants brennan
rogers
i don't understand
if you're gonna if you're gonna hire
rogers hire potter
sure oh my god yeah you know what i mean
like it's this it i don't think there's
i don't think that there's a significant
difference and there's no baggage right
i think brendan rodgers is potter with
better with a better pr firm right like
i think they're as good coaches i think
they bring out the most from their
players you know i do think that potter
is at that level it just hasn't happened
yet because he hasn't had the team yet
no right well potter potter doesn't have
like you said i suppose the pr but he
didn't have the backing of a very
memorable season at liverpool and then a
few
you know basically punching above their
weight seasons at leicester and let's be
very clear every season that leicester
is in the top five i don't care
championship be damned um
they're punching well above their weight
every season brighton stays in the
premier league they're above their
weight i understand that that's nice
no no i understand that
we're saying the same thing but i'm just
saying like if you're united you put the
pr machine on to hire potter because
that's actually who you want you want
someone young who can grow with the team
now is he ready for that level probably
not but what if yeah well here's here's
a question
what we just talked about deborah and
palace right which by the way i thought
was a great hire at the time i love the
kind of football he plays and he's
probably never going to touch the
premier league yet he's never going to
touch any team again after that hire
he's flamed out at every single team
he's right even even atlanta yeah
so
yeah that's right
um
if you bring on potter
a guy who quote unquote has never done
it at the big big stages before and i
don't believe in that and i know you
don't either but um
i think this what's the leash like let's
if it gets to a really bad start let's
say which i don't think it would but how
quickly how much more quickly would the
knives come out not just for potter but
for the woodward's and i know he's
leaving but the woods
i think the issue the issue that potter
would have and this is where the
difference between the big clubs and
something like a brighton job is is he
can't walk into the room the way that
steven gerrard just did
and just be like
you've seen me on tv
you've seen me lift the [ __ ]
champions league trophy this is what i
want you to do right he can never do
that and that's what brendan rodgers is
always going to have a problem with now
tucle had no problem doing it but he
grinded he grinded his way through mines
he grinded his way through bruce
dortmund playing some of the best
football they've ever seen so he has
that level of like i put the years under
my belt you know i've done you know
pokel
potter doesn't have that and i think
that's always going to be the issue and
i think it's that gravitas piece like
like
when you're an all-time great player
and again this is where olleh all they
had it and that's kind of what kept him
in the job but gerard coming in at villa
do we have two managers that came in
right he just likes he just goes in and
he's just i got this is olay the player
comparable to steven gerrard the player
or is he ollie the player
you've said this on the show before and
i think it's a perfect analogy uh is he
aaron boone the player
he's aaron boone right yeah so well
actually but i mean
to be fair
but but he's much better he's closer to
boone than he is to gerrard right like
he's gerard
gerard is derek jeter yes
i actually made that comparison i made
that comparison before as well but so um
except as a loser well sort of a little
bit sort of but for one thing uh
but yeah i mean ole
is known for one thing
it's it's you know it's it's incredibly
you know dramatic and great and all that
stuff but it's not as if
he was the bus driver for a decade right
he was a he was a a supporting actor who
had a really really great line in an
awesome comedy movie that's what he was
right he was i mean he's he's he was
like what kevin james and one of the
decent ish out of sam you basically what
he was was a
club legend who greets you when you go
to the uh the boxes yes who ended up
getting the job like my analogy was this
the way i thought about it was it would
be as though
they did a
who wants to be the man united manager
collected all the great all like all the
uh alzheimer's day guys show up and they
did a show and he won
[Laughter]
like he beat out steve bruce for the
keys to men united he's like and ole
you are now the manchester united
manager and he's like yeah you
are the father
yeah yeah so i mean that's basically
what it is it was like a reality show
guy who gets to be the end of the job
but the contestants were all former
united players you know gary neville
drops out immediately because everyone
hates him and he's like oh at this
moment in time i'm leaving the show so
[ __ ] him uh but yeah
it's it's shocking it's shocking it's uh
it's one of these things where i'm not
sure
um
what they do but i do i do want to sort
of go to the last of my big threes is uh
our things is just another
another city performance against everton
um
this game will be remembered as the game
where
gio conselo made the greatest pass
anyone has ever seen in the history of
the world
yeah
uh right footed onto raheem sterling's
foot no problem goals
and we're there um where do you want to
go next mike yeah no i actually want to
switch gears i want to talk about that
canadian concacaf chaos we talked about
in the open because uh when we left you
last last tuesday was just after the us
had absolutely trounced mexico uh and i
he i had some words of caution because
at that point we were only halfway
through the concacaf um world cup
qualifying
the u.s was top of the table everything
was looking good but there was
danger of foot especially for a team
that was on sort of shaky footing like
the us transaction team was what we
learned was that two three days later
the us dropped points against jamaica
you already mentioned michael antonio
that son of a [ __ ]
um
the u.s drops points they are no longer
top of the table because
the canadian national team played
with
father with general winter on their side
in the most
uh frozen game that
mexico's ever played in
two nil almost another dos acero with a
late mexico gold omega 2-1 and now
canada the canadian national team is top
of concacaf with games in january coming
up where it's going to be even colder so
um i gotta say it's gonna be difficult
to knock them certainly all the way down
to one of the even the fourth spot where
you're not going to have um you know
you're gonna have to be on that playoff
so right now canada's won us two mexico
three and i believe it's panama four i'm
not looking at the table right now but
um yeah i don't know
where it goes from here
the nickname is iceteca
ice hecka nice
i love it uh so i do want to i do want
to give us some credit i mean we we both
were like
why not canada
yeah they have the best player they now
have uh jonathan david who's leading
league on scoring
from
already led a team to win the league in
liga where is he going to go next is he
the next striker to make the jump to the
champion to to the premier league
because as we said before narrative
dictates you're not a real player until
you're in the gym until you're in the
premier league which is bigger than the
champions league which is coming back
and we don't even care because these
games don't matter uh maybe for a couple
teams uh and so you know i think in the
alfonso davies thing david a team that
plays as a unit we've seen it with wales
we've seen a good coach galvanizing a
country to pull around them there's no
reason why not canada they're early
they're looking at 26 they don't care
about 22 and they're going to make it
so that's fine
so all right going back to the table i
do have it up now us on 16 us i'm sorry
canada on 16 us on 15 mexico and panama
tied on 14. now mexico's got that
difference in uh the the tiebreaker and
gold difference but what we're talking
about is a scenario a disaster scenario
where mexico could be playing for their
lives to get into the world cup which
has happened i think in both of the not
the 2018 but certainly the 2014 world
cup um let me ask you this
how hot is tata martino's seat right now
hot
yeah because they don't this doesn't
happen to mexico quote-unquote right
they they are they are very much in the
chelsea
realm of things where they react and
overreact and uh not even chelsea more
more watford than chelsea right they
they change their manager more than they
change their underwear down there so
he
he should be getting close to fired yeah
it's actually that bad um i see who
they're playing in in january they may
have to they may have to appoint dean
smith for mexico okay so they have two
soft games in january coming up um but
there's three it's they're shoehorning
him again
jamaica costa rica and then a massive
game
at home i believe
against panama
uh on february 2nd
so we'll see
what that looks like then and then
conversely panama in that next structure
because this is going to go a long way
right like so
actually they have the opposite they
have costa rica then jamaica and then
mexico so if you you can envision both
of these teams get six out of six from
those first two games that is an
absolutely massive showdown uh on
february 2nd so you could be looking at
you know the the biggest game
in concacaf and ironically you're i'm
completely neglecting the fact that the
us is going to play canada three days
earlier right that's for the top of the
table but realistically
i think it's strange that there's there
it doesn't matter as much for the pots
and the groups and all that stuff if
you're in you're in right so i don't
think it matters it's just a matter of
how quickly you get in
the the real thing is it's it's like
it's like the promotion playoff being
bigger than who won the championship
right like that's kind of how i think of
it in my head yeah so
we're literally
one year out from the world cup one yeah
i know i know and and i'm starting to
get excited about it that game against
mexico really jazzed me up we're gonna
have the uh winter olympics in february
which i'm really excited about i'm
talking about that usa canada in fact we
might have usa canada in
uh in soccer and then in hockey like
three or four days back back to each
other so um
i'm our shows that week i'm gonna be
really like full on i'm gonna face paint
i'm gonna be talking some [ __ ] about
maple syrup it's gonna get wild in here
um
so yeah we had we had we had we had two
three threes yeah let's get into that
two three threes for teams that uh
shouldn't have three threes uh burnley
and
crystal palace actually i'll put these
two together because it's all the
greatest hits it's burnley crystal
palace
and then it's uh brentford and
uh newcastle the results don't matter i
don't really care all that matters is
gallagher was incredible saying maxum
man scored two goals was incredible um
ivan tony scored two goals was
incredible and then burnley was my guy
cornay just like being the black
stallion who who in this field of old
beat up junky white english players
they're not even like white horses
they're cows
right he's like he's like the herding
dog
right
yeah yeah it's like a bunch of
soot-faced
[ __ ] coal miners and there's this
beautiful exactly what mother burnley is
how have we not made a coal miner joke
about burnley and then there's this 100
40 million episodes goddammit there's
this beautiful french african who just
comes in and just gives them something
completely new completely beautiful and
scores goals that
no one on their team would ever score
ever in a million years
and then of course gallagher set up
benteke twice and been taking this one
gallagher is by far my favorite player i
can't even deal with him he's like he's
just a [ __ ] jack relish but jack
realistic [ __ ] so maybe he's actually
the new dracula the only thing i don't
love about it is that at the end of the
year he's got to go back to [ __ ]
chelsea so
maybe maybe but he won't play it chelsea
yeah that's true
so uh yeah by the way another weird
story to follow is
new castle is bottom of the table
uh norwich two wins in a row farpas win
and then dean smith got a win against
southampton by the way haas and judo for
united just putting it in here
no
no wouldn't it be bad
we fell in love with him and we were
sold snake oil i like them still and i
want to root for them i want this i want
them to stay up
that would be a disaster you know
actually now i like it
because he would cry when he beat
liverpool yeah no he would cry when he
got his [ __ ] kicked in by liverpool did
you see his he's wearing the three-piece
suit by the way it looks very oh i
didn't see that on a giant man he's
wearing he's wearing the he's no tr he's
tracksuit out three piece in is he
trippy he's triple breasted yeah yeah
he's looking good
but losing losing to norwich
so we've we now have
newcastle
bottom of the table
with the saudis in place
eddie howe in his hotel room because he
got covered
before the game
so he's got two weeks sitting in his
hotel room they did come out and attack
mac i just want to see maxim you know
say maxim just go nuts and not defend i
don't care what the hell he does as long
as he does insane things like spin
around i wanted to do a spinorama goal
that's my goal for him is to do a spin
aroma because spinoramas are cool in
every sport
including
especially in hockey oh expression
let's let's um come up with a reason
another reason to root against newcastle
if they go down they will sell say
maximum
no they won't you don't think they will
you don't think he'll stay there for a
year
no
they won't have to sell him he'll want
to leave
yes okay that's correct yep you're right
um
and
there's a chance then he goes to
you know one of the there's a chance he
goes to brighton
oh my god oh my god you would you would
you would light all of your manchester
city stuff on fire live on the job
and denounce them forever and become a
bright you would do it you would like
it'd be like a gender reveal you would
just like unzip your jacket and be a big
brighton shirt i think i think the
problem i'm having right now is
there's
too many good fun teams like the [ __ ]
part of the league you know outside of
the big three which we kind of tried to
touch on like there's these three teams
they're going to win the league then
five through
what are 12. they're
they're all really good and really
likable and it's sad that three teams
have to go down
like even burnley you're just like oh
does daichi really go down or like okay
wait wait wait wait wait is it is it
really going to be leads is it going to
be dory i'm out
burnley is likeable for burnley
because they have one good player
and we all have stockholm syndrome based
on what they usually look like and then
we go
okay well i mean that guy's great right
it's almost as if if um
uh you know rose by another name right
like uh i don't i don't subscribe to
that they are more fun than past
iterations of burnley but they can still
get [ __ ] back to the championship get
the hell out of here i'm done with burn
i'm not like okay so
if i
if i go by
my xg per 90
worst teams are norwich
newcastle watching tottenham okay but
watford have these
no not anymore tottenham
are moved up the list they're now
right in the middle of the table right
exactly where you'd expect it to be yeah
but uh arsenal arsenal are actually uh
um liverpool are the best in city these
two the three that we expect are there
and then strangely
crystal palace is in the top five for
that that's a surprise i'll keep my
keep my eye on that so norwich we think
would go down that wouldn't be a
surprise
newcastle going down they have to make
it january but they need to be in
striking distance
and then
watford they do wait to to stay up no
they don't
um
they need to be
within and this is a this is a big
number but i would say if they are right
now they're five
if they're within 10 points of 17th
place they can pull out of that
anything more is going to be tough
but 10
10 points
yeah it is but think about it in the
context of man it's if if let's say if
liverpool's chasing chelsea and on
january 1st they're 10 points behind
you're like oh my god that's a lot of
points
it is because chelsea is not going to
drop 10 points
not because liverpool have to make up 10
plus from wherever they are if newcastle
has to make up 10 plus points on leeds
or on watford that is not the same as
making up 10 points on the title
challenger so i do think that lion is
probably 10 maybe even a little bit more
but not a lot um
but yeah and especially in the context
of you're fighting for your [ __ ] life
every point matters
relative to
we're 10 points behind we're chasing
this un you know unwinnable war
essentially with chelsea or city or
whoever it is at the top of the table at
that point um yeah i mean i'm just
looking at the group here right like
norwich is a go down candidate
watford arsenal is down here but there's
no way arsenal's going down burnley's
there bill is there leads are there
i don't think villa's going down uh
speaking of where gerard had his first
game he showed the passion almost the
same way that kante does that kind of
like jump and punch what you want like
chuck does it in a in a neurotic way
uh
does it in a neurotic way i just worry
that it's gonna seem phony with gerrard
it's not
i'm not
wait till things don't
think things go a little bit sideways
not a lot two losses on the bounce
i i i i really like him i watched him
i'm not saying i don't like him i'm just
weary of
buying his all the way through
i watched all his stuff with rangers and
he
he's got the right
manner like he comes with the suit and
the tie and the jacket he's not like
he's not fly by night like he's
he's taking the intensity that he took
as a player to be the best player he
could be and he's taking that intensity
to be the best manager he can be right
like it's not
and he's not ego maniacal that he got
guys that are real managers who really
know what they're doing and to this
point of like oh wow that shows
maturity right like oh he's not afraid
he's got big personalities on his staff
that actually do stuff so and
again think about what all the things
the same the same
way the mindset i just cited about the
10-point gap
you have think about the teams you have
to beat just to stay up which
realistically is villa's goal this
season i know gerrard's gonna have
higher ambitions to get them to mid
table which you could argue is just as
likely
um as them staying up but they have to
be worse than watford leeds and burnley
basically all three of them
they're not gonna do that they're
they'll be fine
yeah i i am starting to get worried for
brentford
i don't i i don't want to be but i am
too um but again they're a team that
attacks a team that goes to play for
wins and not draws so if they lose the
next three and they win two they'll be
fine
they need to get the keeper thing right
i know because that keeper thing is
worrying me uh anything else we got
champions league city play psg
pochettino in manchester um
scary i'm not liking it uh chelsea play
yuve this is a weak uva they should have
no problem with yuve because they're so
so good they don't give up any goals
well you've one of
and that's actually a game for the top
of the group isn't it
the villa real united game i i don't
think anyone expects anything from
united but villarreal are not really
playing well in spain so
hold on it shouldn't be close
it shouldn't be close at all but well
neither should the neither should the
young boys game
right but like
we we're going to learn a little bit
about carrick because it's not a regime
change he's been there the whole time
with ole so
uh i don't know but i want to dial it
back to you and chelsea for a second i'm
looking at the table right now uv's 4-0
chelsea's three and one uh the goal
difference is plus two for yuve a
one-nil win for chelsea puts them even
uh and i don't know what the second
tiebreaker would be that goal's four so
i think uva would still have it but um
it's head to head first yeah but you've
a they'd be
even if it's aggregate right they won
one nothing so
anything
there are some permutations of this
where chelsea go ahead on goal
difference but
the point is that going into the last
match day of the of the group you would
have uve and chelsea both on 12 points
both on what would probably be a six
goal difference um so there's a lot of
different um avenues for chelsea to
to um you know kind of stamp their mark
on and get that first place in the group
which obviously is important because you
don't want to be stuck with a a stud
team uh in the round of 16. so um but
they will get through with a win or any
kind of result uh it seems
so um this united this united this
united game is massive
yeah i mean like
gigantic
for them
because they then they'll really freak
out if they if they well i mean yuva and
chelsea are through right it's just who
wins the group
uh the only ones that are up for grabs
is a [ __ ] group with redville salzburg
united villarreal atlanta they're all
they're all fighting
bayern barcelona
with jave that doesn't matter the inter
real madrid one is
still up for grabs but sheriff is not
[ __ ] whatever no not iacs are the
best team in the world that no one talks
about
um
and then city psg
they're both through but it depends on
well we talked about this during the
last champions league midweek game
whatever the [ __ ] match day um atlanta
has just as much of a chance to win that
group as united and villarreal do so um
i'm very excited to see they should take
care of business against young boys
tomorrow or or whenever the hell they
play this week and um
i think that
it all contin it's all contingent if you
remember it was like a month ago and i
was sort of getting galaxy brain i'm
like well this team puts this team but
this is pretty cool um
but uh
you're gonna have atlanta on eight so
that means in all likelihood you're
either gonna have them tied with all
with both clubs on eight or they're
going to be in second place so um
very very interesting stuff and then i
think they play
villarreal
uh yeah they play villarreal and united
in their last two games in the group so
a lot of fun of for for group f i think
that's one to watch closely
um i don't really know that there's that
much
else here like you said we ran through
it but city psg is the headliner but i
kind of don't care i don't yeah it's
it's weird i don't either uh i'm just
happy the league's back happy we had
good games happy to see gerard win happy
to have dean smith pulling things out
those were good dudes um still
fascinated by what happens with united
who the coach is going to be it's a
complete catastrophe and then kante and
what he does with spurs second half
could they
let's let's say
where what happens to them if they are
if like if the season started today
if they were top four the rest of the
way i think they could be
they're going to be absolutely tough for
the rest of the way i think uh they'll
struggle at the back
you can't have ben davies uh starting in
a back three i mean he's a good left
center back in that but like
i i think he's okay there i think as a
as a wing back enough
as a fullback
i just and romero's hurt again because
of [ __ ] international duty and i just
every time tottenham get a little bit of
momentum they plastically burst
themselves and it's just back to square
one right so you know what it's gonna be
it's gonna be
can
kante
teach
sanchez how to play football and joe
rodon i don't know where the [ __ ] he's
been but like he'll probably play this
week on thursday and i think that
in so much as everybody's got a chance
under contact you can only play 11
players so the more games you get under
him the more training sessions you get
under him the more chance of making an
impression so i think rodon's hungry i
think he wants
some of these minutes you're not going
to be able to play dire sanchez davies
the whole time you're going if if romero
is in fact out an extended period of
time which seems to be the report
joe rodon is going to play a big part in
the next six weeks so
i'm hoping that he gets his shot
all right i'm ready all right let's get
out of here all right
that was the squeaky bum time podcast
with mike salerno and lauren cortese we
are the football wing of the chop sports
network we record on tuesdays and
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once every everybody's
not jet lagged and [ __ ] weird all
right thanks bye
