In Episode #124 of the Squeaky Bum Time Podcast, we discuss how the Champions League group stage shook out, including all four English teams qualifying for the Round of 16. Also:
- Barcelona fall to Europa League for the first time since 2001!
- Chelsea draw at Zenit St. Petersburg, drop the top spot to Juventus
- COVID hits Tottenham hard, two games postponed
Follow us on Twitter (@SqueakyBum_Pod), Instagram (@SqueakyBumTimePod) and Facebook (Squeaky Bum Time Podcast) to stay up to date!
Part of the Chop Sports Media Network!
Transcript
hello and welcome to the squeaky bum
time podcast with mike and laurent we
are back it's friday december 10th in
this episode barcelona are a disaster
the premier league is dominant with four
through kyle walker is a [ __ ] but first
mike it's back coven spurs disaster
discuss what is going on with your team
how many games have they missed in the
last 10 days
um only two well now it'll be so they're
going to miss brighton on the weekend so
that'll be too but
so the interesting thing is that uh they
had their game today against ren stadren
and in the last game of they bailed on
it they bailed on it yeah and what um
it's the last game of the
europa conference league remember
uh leicester city will be joining you
great
i don't know the rules on who advances
and who doesn't there's a playoff
apparently apparently
great more games
but if you lose if spurs were to lose
this game or potentially forfeit it
then i'm under the impression that they
would drop out of the competition which
would mean wonders
wonders for their premier league
campaign i cannot even begin to express
to you how badly i want out of this
[ __ ] thing and i know what you're
saying and i know what some sort of
supporters are saying across the pond
well it's a real chance to win a trophy
yes it is
and i know we haven't won a trophy since
2008 and i know that that one's still
make-believe too the real last trophy
that spurs won was:and it was the fa cup
hey against manchester city very famous
game but i'm just
not like this like stop all right
because it's gonna come at the cost of
the premier league uh season if you will
but so there's a couple of takes on this
a
hey good thing everybody got vaccinated
right this is a variant that hasn't
killed anybody in the world and we're
stopping everything we're stopping world
travel we're stopping games we're
stopping everything in the name of
madness it's madness it's madness i
agree i'm the least skeptical skeptic of
skeptical ville i've got all the things
blah blah blah i'm over it like i'm
double vaxxed i'm over it i hope that's
i mean just for context let's take a
step back spurs have a brit an outbreak
on their team there's there's outbreaks
everywhere the
english government was telling everyone
not to have parties and get together and
then they had a party at 10 downing
street good sounds like uh it sounds
like california yeah but i do want to go
through scores because this is a soccer
podcast and we talk about soccer but we
don't talk about the champions league
but i'm gonna go through it are you
ready mike i'm ready there's a lot of
games ready leipzig 2 city one dead
river of the group city finished top
kyle walker's a [ __ ] psg win 4-1 versus
club bruges i don't even know where
bruges is
slept on giant undefeated in their group
sebastian haller
uh west ham reject
set the record for goals in the group
stage with like 37
porto
atletico porto atletico madrid plays one
of the worst games ever in one of the
biggest
disaster classes of [ __ ] housing ever
are you ready are you ready for the stat
the average game has 60 minutes of play
on the field
right the ball is in play for 60 minutes
that's normal
atletico managed to get this game to be
down to 50.
[Laughter]
sat there with a cigar with his feet up
going yeah [ __ ] that was my mouth
minutes they made the game 50 minutes of
play real madrid two inter nil the inter
had a red card italy is a terrible
league that brings us to liverpool
versus ac versus ac milan liverpool play
the kids don't even care milan needs to
win to get through and they don't even
make it to europe italy is a terrible
league and they're falling apart and
they're broke shakhtar versus sheriff i
don't even know where either of those
places are besiktas loses five nil to
dortmund dortmund drop into the moon
door that is the europa league with
outspurs honestly and without leicester
zenit three chelsea three regression to
the mean here keppa's in goal for this
one but chelsea blow this and now finish
second in the group yeah which means
they can get psg and madrid ooh juve go
undefeated in the group they're terrible
in italy but they're good in the premier
league and i think in syria in in the
champions league and i think it's mostly
because they get to play malmo benfica
go through they beat kiev dynamo that's
a big win for them lil also french
champions win their group but are
terrible in france weird
rb salzburg the first austrian team to
make it to the round of 16 in a long
time they beat sevilla bad performance
by sevilla
men's men united versus young boys at
home a draw they were through not really
a big deal byron munich three barcelona
nil uh barcelona score only two goals in
the entire group stage in six they try
and play they get annihilated bayern
don't even show up barcelona are a
disaster and in the final game of the
group villarreal pull it out behind my
guy danjuma if you watched a
championship and you paid attention to
bournemouth you know about danjuma
danjuma's incredible he gets two goals
pulls villarreal out of beautiful
atalanta and we've got to go to the
standings and tell you who goes through
here i go oh my god that was a result
city psg are through liverpool atletico
madrid through i accident sporting
lisbon are through real madrid and enter
through bayern and benfica
real mad manchester united villarreal
lil rb salzburger through uva and
chelsea uh zenit sevilla atalanta
barcelona oh indie europa looking
forward to that
yeah
sheriff go to europa dortmund porto rb
leipzig
that's the most champions league we've
done in a little sprint but that was
your speed minute
yes and and so
um let's go to barca
there well there's three headlines right
we're looking at the standings and yeah
i would suggest that if you're listening
to this maybe you pull up the standings
on your phone and do it as well but the
headlines again
italy disaster just disaster quest with
the exception of duvet which we'll get
to in a second
but dortmund dortmund drops out of the
champions league do they sell holland in
january now maybe should maybe
um
that's really really interesting the big
bombshell you already alluded to it is
benfica goes through in group e in the
second spot and barcelona mighty mighty
barcelona how how they have fallen all
the way to europa league
favorite sea west ham in hell
[Laughter]
uh atlanta uh is as as joining them as
well i'm sad for them uh they're
they're basically italian lester right
so like yeah yeah
italian brighton except better yeah yeah
yeah yeah yeah so they're a team you
root for but unfortunately you'll have
to root for them in the europa league uh
and then
in group h
chelsea with some curious personnel
decisions with the opportunity now let's
be clear if they win
aside from something out extraordinary
with um extraordinary by the way i was
about to say that um
uv had to win by like five or six goals
yeah yeah yeah right so all they needed
to do was win at zenit very to be clear
in december not an easy place to go it
was very [ __ ] cold it's horrible it's
st petersburg you go there you win you
guarantee first place in the group which
means for the uninitiated
you get one of the second place teams
that laurent just ran through right you
cannot play one of the first place teams
it's tough and you can't play your own
country you can't play your own country
that's correct but so now you you're
potentially going to face a real madrid
a bayern psg you know
no you won't play psg because they
finished second but but realistically
there's two giants out there for you
that you you know for chelsea it's psg
and real i think no no it's it's real
and byron because oh that's second right
right anyway it doesn't matter they
shouldn't be worried about ray allen
they're better than real sure but but
nonetheless
[Music]
there were some most of these games that
you mentioned were dead robbers and it
didn't matter right united city uh there
were a handful of them they're in fact i
mean cities was a dead rubber until the
[ __ ] [ __ ] kyle walker decided to get
to that in two seconds but i just don't
understand tougal's
thinking with
what he didn't want mandy to get a cold
in russia like i i don't understand that
i don't know so i don't know they end up
they end up drawing three three would
send it very entertaining game um
and and as a result of that like i said
they dropped a second in the group so um
that could have
i don't remember when the draw is but
that could have ram coming i think later
tomorrow
usually that makes sense
it's actually when you listen to this
the results of it probably will have
come out i think it's usually friday
morning after the thursday right right
um i do want to touch on i think
something that's
weirdly under-reported like
i think the the the punditry that covers
barcelona is
more so around oh their results are bad
these teams are bad i think they're in
like a full-on existential crisis
missing the champ they could miss the
champions league
and be in the europa league you know
this as a spurs fan it's about
and loss of 80 million dollars off the
bottom line which they don't have
any time anyone sees anything look i'm
going to look into the camera when you
see a rumor that barcelona is going to
sign someone it's a total lie the team
is completely 100 percent
a thousand times over bankrupt they
don't have any money they're completely
run poorly the money is they're barely
paying their players this team is a
disaster every moment that covet
continues or covered fears continue and
people don't travel is money flying out
of the door of barcelona this team is in
free fall and could become the spanish
arsenal i'm not being funny that's not
hyperbole no worse than arsenal um well
arsenal's rich they're just cheap you're
right um
and yeah i the thing
i don't remember the last time barcelona
wasn't in champions league 2001 is the
first time that they haven't made the
round of 16.
okay but they still made it the next
year
uh it's probably been a very long time i
mean i'm sure we can look it up i mean
formats have changed hairstyles have
changed
and you know what realistically going
back past the year 2000 it probably
doesn't matter all that much because the
money really wasn't all the way there
yet until the last 10 15 years the point
i'm making is that when you look at or
you mentioned barcelona's bottom line
they look at that as an absolute staple
of their finances they've already
commented yeah they don't even think
about it and now not only is it not
going to be there
you're in trouble
and it's not going to be there yeah
right so so this is something where if
you're you're doing your books and
you're like okay i have
this 80 million dollars
and now you're all right oh there's a
lot of murky water over here but at
least i have this and i can build off of
that
now the murky water has invaded all the
all the way into the other end of the
boat and you're in deep [ __ ] here
barcelona so um yeah i mean i'm worried
for them yeah they could slip through
the moon door i think that there is a
sickle and we've been talking about this
and uh you heard it here first the
premier league being bigger than the
champions league the premier league
being bigger than the whole of european
soccer right it is a vortex it is a
problem
juve's in trouble
uh real madrid are the best manager of
the other big three but it's really the
premier league and bayern munich and
bayern munich is only able to hang on
because they're supremely run and they
have a league that is
weirdly so efficient that the teams go
well i have to sell my best players to
bayern because that's how i make money
they don't think in terms of like
being like well i'm never doing that
they're not worldly they're like ohio
they think that
yeah they think that everything revolves
around them yeah and i'm like hey guys i
don't know if you noticed but:called and uh
they decided the rest of the world was
right um world war ii reference for the
day um
but that's the thing is that like if if
you've ever been to ohio people are like
why why would you ever leave
why would you go to california why would
you go to new york why would you go to
florida mostly
because it's not ohio but that's the
thing about
germany has that same mentality yeah
where there's so it's it's like it's
insular
with a side of nationalism it's crazy
but there's also this protectionism of
like they don't want foreign money they
don't want to expand they don't want to
have games on saturday to make more
money on television the
the bundesliga was on espn plus before
anyone else
yeah and they've just showed it aside
and be like hey we're going to spend
money on la liga oh without ronaldo and
cristiano because spanish people are
into this and it's more with dramatic
bayern munich and that league just
doesn't generate the interest the
revenue
you could argue over the last 10 years
has been as good of a product as the
premier league from the neutral
yeah it's absolutely a good neutral
perspective but they can't seem to
develop the narratives around it they
can't seem to get people behind it it's
not i think the thing that
that hardcore soccer fans
don't seem to understand is
high level of play is not what makes
your league good
right it's drama it's it's personality
it's
it's all the other stuff and play right
like yes like if
cristiano would not have be cristiano
without messi and real would not be real
without barcelona sure bayern just needs
dortmund to be better in fact it should
be in their interest to not buy their
players
right
if they had if they had had lewandowski
the whole time
it would have been a league and it would
have been in their interest to lose once
in a while yeah it's as if the the red
sox in the late 90s and early 2000s sold
everybody to steinbrenner and the
yankees and you're like hey why the [ __ ]
are they doing that yeah they're just i
don't know i don't i don't want pedro
i hate him and i like that he's there as
much as i secretly love pedro more than
any player that i've ever loved in my
life to this day i'd throw hands with
that guy if i ever met him but he's
nonetheless come on i i i it's like uh
the end of anchorman when like vince
vaughn looks at ron berg and he's like i
hate you but god damn it do i respect
you right that's how i feel about peter
martinez i love him i love him i love
him uh yeah i mean i think he talked to
me about kyle walker what did he do okay
so so city have you ever do it 100 times
city have a complete dead rubber they've
got the group cleared away once they
beat psg they were good uh a lot of city
fans really wanted a couple of the kids
to play because city have
after 10 years and a high level of
development and the guys that ran the
messiah that ended up making the
barcelona that we all know and love
they're actually making that at city
there's two or three kids that are
coming through that are really really
good and then our best one the guy that
i love uh
liam delap has been hurt so he's not
even playing but anyway everyone wanted
them to play city have minutes that they
need to get kevin de bruyne plays he
hasn't been playing foden gets an extra
second game back to back they're trying
to build up the team but they do retain
walker in the side
okay city give up a goal and a break jon
stones plays he's a little bit slow guys
haven't been playing fine city are down
there they're losing this game two-nil
whatever it's a little chippy it's a
little dirty there's no fans in the
stadium because germany's freaking out
over something that hasn't killed anyone
anyway that's another story we talked
about with spurs and kyle walker just
decides to [ __ ] shin the guy
from behind
and he gets a red and now
you know for the round of 16 he won't be
available and that means that consalo
plays on the left yeah it's one game it
could be three i thought it was oh it
was two yellows it wasn't a straight red
oh uh you know what that's a good
question i don't know if so then if it's
a straight red then he's out until the
last the second leg of the quarterfinal
i don't think it's a straight rate it
wasn't bad
it wasn't something that like if if they
got a straight red they should review it
because it's not a straight it's a it's
a kick out in the back he it is a
straight red but it's not malicious it's
just kind of yeah somebody just matters
i know but it was dumb it's like and
they can if they if they look at yeah if
they look at it
however
it's wafer and it's city
they'll [ __ ] city if they can
yeah that just means he'll play in the
premier league that week and a half and
it'll be fine
right but that is a i think you know
this and and you and i say this all the
time kyle walker is secretly
city's
he's their last line of defense
he's to get out of jail he's the guy who
stops things that don't happen sorry he
stops things from happening that you
don't see he simply runs back stands in
front of a guy and that was gonna be a
goal
but now it just stops he's got he's got
makeup speed and you can't teach that
right so yeah yeah i get it but but it
also it has the downstream effects
because now can cello has to play on the
right which means he's not on a left
which means he's not cutting inside and
being an extra manchenko then
it'll be zinchenko likely there isn't
another
mendy raped someone
and we don't talk about him anymore so
yeah he's gone
well okay
this is gonna be
it's a good segue this is gonna be
the other mendy oh no this is gonna be
right after the january transfer window
the game yeah they could get it right
back they could go get a [ __ ] right
back no problem
uh probably would you like matt doherty
i can give you matt dardy for 20. what
happened to that guy i like that oh
mourinho happened to that guy he broke
him in half
he hated matt already oh my goodness oh
god um so we talked a little bit about
chelsea we've talked about city uh
united the less spoken about them it's
more time for for the rat for the
rangnick patrol but rangnick in this
game uh he does
play the kids there's like new united
guys i've never heard of before uh
elanco orlando orlando carissian is
playing for a man united now let me get
his name correct um
uh let's see what's his name
oh i have alanga
alanga uh we got a return of luke shaw
wambasaka matic in defense very very
funky funky lineup so yeah i mean he's
trying to see what he's got right like
yeah okay you know he was up front what
he's looking at and
it's about trying to move pieces around
and see what what sticks in the event
that he needs them which makes sense in
the holiday period and additionally
speaking of give your guys a blow you
know so um so i i that makes all the
sense in the world to me
yeah yeah so they get an easy draw no
big deal something easy uh the only
thing about this one that was
interesting was in um charlie savage
played who's robbie savage's son
who's a famous premier league pundit
famous more for his hair than what he
says so uh he's he
we have a sun
appearance and uh another interesting
thing like that so united get through to
their thing
i'm getting tired of the champions
league i don't care about any other
games
i still
find the premier league way more
compelling and i think my feeling is the
feeling
that a lot of people must have because
it's real it really
if they're gonna expand the champions
league which they're going to do
it's going to get worse before it gets
better
right yeah oh yeah absolutely i mean is
there
i i guess the question is and maybe this
is a big bigger talking point is there a
version of the european super league
that makes sense that would be palatable
that's not the champions league
and why would the why would the premier
league even do it well the question i
okay so let me post it to you like this
then
when you said they're going to expand
the champions league my thinking was
okay there's two ways to do this a
you expand it equally you give
all the also rand leagues you know kind
of a shot and by the way i've got 20
bucks that says the dubai super league
is just trying to get a [ __ ] bid into
champions league
um
or they'll take the money
right or do you give two spots each
additionally to
england spain france germany right the
big the big five leagues which
ironically none of them deserve besides
england anyway so if you gave four spots
to
england let's say we already have four
no no additional four four more so you
went down to eight
would okay would you take the eighth
place team
in england right now which i'm not sure
who it is but we have an idea it's
probably lester
no lester's in like 10th
it would be
arsenal yes the world would take arsenal
in a heartbeat over
anybody in the top four
all right anybody outside of first place
in france germany or spain
uh yes i mean i i think that is an
absolute fact there are not big enough
brands
in the other leagues
there's no team in another league that
is as big as arsenal
not even right and maybe arsenal's a bad
example because they're not they're
they're really big but aston villa is
bigger than okay well technically wolves
will arsenal's seventh right now so
wolves that's a great example brighton
eight and nine
if it was a wolves brighton
fight oh those are that's a poor group
people would okay
but all right let's go look at serie a
hmm interesting
uh
it would be like napoli and atalanta
those are those are your you're going to
be
like like roma yeah okay
yeah they've got history who gives a
[ __ ] this league is is is dead
right so
uh and and by the way
they're deeper than than
france or germany
they're all germany germany's germany's
team really has bad branding like nobody
yeah
like if you go out and you start talking
about freiburg or stuttgard
or barus emotion god black or wolfsburg
people like what are you talking about
dude yeah i mean we think we think you
know like someone like what
to be honest city is a small team we
just happen to have bought our way in
like we're
cities not as big as
some of these is not as big as rome
meaning honestly you know they've
they've
been getting there
right
but yeah i mean look they they've got i
mean if if it means that if it means
that 70 of the time everton arsenal
spurs are basically guaranteed to be in
europe
then it's worth it right okay well let
me ask you this from the college
football playoff argument that i keep
hearing
does it cheapen
or enhance
uh the premier league season
for the teams who were from let's say
six to ten right it makes it cheapened
this is the argument that the premier
league has is like why would we do this
yeah we don't need to you come to our
league we'll pick you guys off you play
in england think about this
when you finish second
okay fine you're going to champions
league but you didn't get what you
wanted third
all right hey we're fine we're going to
champions league fourth feels like a
trophy right trust me i'm a spurs
supporter fourth feels like a trophy
fifth depending on who you are is either
first like the next second place it's
like [ __ ] we gotta go to europa league
or you're west ham you're like we got to
go to europa league right
so then all you're doing is you're
pushing these down the line and if you
were to make
basically make uh
more spots for england and by the way
let's
talk about it for all the big five let's
say there's two more spots per
england spain germany france and uh
italy right
then you're just pushing that further
down and so what you're telling me is
that liverpool and chelsea would just be
in perpetuity well yeah but like
this year's version of liverpool and
chelsea who are we've talked about it on
the show a lot
head and shoulders above the west ham
spurs united arsenal writing group
but two of those teams
at the end of the day gonna get less
money because of how they placed
but
what why and the only thing i can really
see is not so much expanding the entire
champions league format but yeah more
playing games
okay maybe okay i could see that but are
you ready for mine are you ready for my
radical idea here's my radical idea
first of all england is brexited they're
not part of the eu anymore right okay
the premier league is outside of the fa
they're not really governed by the fa
and the efl they're separate already
if you're the premier league
why don't you go to 24 teams
bring in real and barsa and bayern
and just be like we expanded
they're in our league
france i mean france is right there
spain's a little bit of a trek but
france is right [ __ ] there so so okay
you we'll we'll take
we'll let you guys fight it out who
wants to be in the premier league the
germans you don't want to be in it all
right we got three spots the joker snaps
a pool queue right all right there you
go yeah because basically it would be
like
you just say we're expanding three teams
we're taking them from europe
which one of you three want to be in it
and if i'm the premier league i want
barcelona and real
i could do without uva i could do
without bayern i could do without psg
psg is not a big team okay here's here's
let's build on this
why wouldn't then
uh and you basically in doing this you
would more or less
have no need for a champions league so
the money already doesn't right because
you've got you've got all of south
america now they're just like oh we need
the premier league rights because it's
the premier league plus barcelon real
well
i'm going further
uh why what happens if barca gets
relegated that's the problem do they
have to go to the championship that's
what i'm asking that's what i'm here to
ask you right like i don't know i
haven't thought that far it was
happening the super league is that it
was closed right yeah yeah yeah yeah and
so it needed relegation yeah and if you
have pro and rel
well
what is la liga doing what is bonus lee
you're doing yeah because if you want to
take byron out of buddhism it's the
championship right so
well well it just slides up one dortmund
just wins all the time
uh
yeah sure but like yeah okay what um but
what i'm getting at is
collapse all of the leagues into the
england structure [ __ ] it
all of you yeah you just let the whole
thing float and it just goes yeah yeah
so yeah it's small enough why not yeah
we just do pro rel we just take the big
five leagues and we just have a play off
which team wins yeah yeah every but yeah
and so the champions league spots would
create
a play-in system to get into the initial
inflated premier league but what is what
becomes the first division what country
is it based in
uh
it's based in no it's it is the
champions league now
no but you know what i mean like if you
would have take if you were to take the
pyramid if you were to take europe's big
five and literally make that the pyramid
right
well france is the fifth division then
right that's what i mean like how do you
float it so that how does it go up
france like what germany
spain
italy
england
right so to create the premier league is
it top seven from england top three from
germany so how do we get to the first 20
right and well no i no here's the thing
you all have to play our game i'm sorry
i'm leeds united do you know who the
[ __ ] i am i'm in the premier league you
have to take my spot okay well no i
understand that but if you get relic if
you're leads and you get relegated do i
have to now play in france
you're like we're going to dijon we're
going to stad ren and you're like
what the [ __ ] is going on
i mean
that would be i mean
leeds just traveling around europe to
play weird teams because they're in this
new league system would be incredible
because they would set it would be like
the saracens burning down
countries and stabbings and knivings and
oh yeah and the tur and the turk and
everyone out of the top five leagues is
just like well what about like rangers
i'm like no sorry rangers
[Laughter]
anyway
this is what happens we're 30 minutes
and this is what happens when you have
an absolutely
horrible
slate of
match days yeah yeah we start making
probably the worst week
of the season i hope it is um because i
don't know if i can handle anything
worse there's not a single game on this
schedule that i went oh i want to watch
that you brought up one and it's because
it's because
because of the narrative and gerard and
going back to anfield so you know what
you're right i want to watch the
pre-game and the first 10 minutes and
then i don't give a [ __ ] and the problem
is that this is the first weekend
without college football i don't know
what the [ __ ] i'm gonna do with myself
but you're gonna have to watch these
games so here here are the bad narrative
stories we have we have the bees of
brentford versus the hornets of watford
isn't that funny it's a bug game okay
that's friday um we have uh
you if if if this were the leads of the
previous season leeds chelsea would have
been good but i don't like what's
happened to leeds they're getting their
guys back but now they've lost phillips
again so without phillips that's not a
contest
um
mench city wolves should be a good game
the two best defensive teams going
against each other wolves can't score
city don't give up anything so city will
just win this game one nil and then
knock the ball around because they have
midfielder mentality not a striker's
mentality
i could see triori not missing after
running in on goal which he normally
does
arsenal try and get back in their fake
uh we're gonna make the top four against
southampton they lost two on the bounce
they're kind of normal
they're up and down and they don't have
the talent frankly um oh we have a war
of claret and blue of uh burnley versus
west ham that's two men enter one man
leaves i would have loved i would have
loved brighton versus tottenham but now
that
would have been the game tottenham is
cancelled how is your schedule looking
now for spurs spurs now have
three games to make three moves in all
competitions in hand um
and and like i said in the open i don't
know what's gonna happen with the stat
red game um
or was it should they just forfeit it
and just like oh [ __ ] they absolutely
should but here's the thing they
pussy-footed around about it
um the other the opposition i don't even
remember if it was dead render the test
but they were [ __ ] pissed off they
came to london because they all right
spurs i think yesterday or
earlier in the week said this game is
not happening
and uefa said [ __ ] you yeah it is
and
they sent the opposing team to london
and the opposing team's fans
and they're like no no [ __ ] you this
game is being played now
i said in the open like this is really
at this point this is a big old crock of
[ __ ] and i firmly believe that but
there's 13
positive tests with spurs i don't know
if that's all players they obviously
didn't mention who um but it's first
team staff and all that [ __ ] but that's
a lot right and and so
you don't have you physically don't have
enough players who are um able to play
the game in any other scenario if
everybody got the [ __ ] flu you'd
either play sick or you'd forfeit
but because we're in this hypochondriac
uh world now we need to just put
everything on hold eve for something
that has killed literally zero people
nonetheless
um
the way that it was handled by everybody
which this will surprise you was
horrible
right like
uefa sent these guys they had no
business playing this game i i think
that's actually genuinely fair whether
whatever
and spurs
were out on the front foot about it by
the way
spurs fans on twitter are made
to care is to do a hashtag
because that's the right thing to do oh
pull your thumb out of your [ __ ]
asses dude the english have been the
english have been brainwashed uh well
it's not even that it's it's it's
i'm surprised there aren't more shoulder
injuries among the english for patting
themselves on the [ __ ] back like it's
ridiculous knock it off
well the other thing is they all hate
they all hate boris johnson and he's a
skeptic so yeah but it's okay but it's
the same thing with gavin newsom in
california so it's not a politics left
or right thing it's just people in
charge are [ __ ] [ __ ]
and you're done for voting for him
regardless of the reason
well no one in england vote so it
doesn't matter um but so then there's so
there's that piece and then there's um
there's just
complete confusion
for everybody involved for spurs because
it's all [ __ ] it's all crap like
they should either just play or not play
but don't half play and say we care
about the players you care about the
check
and yeah kante was actually honest he
seemed to genuinely care about his
players he's like we're not playing who
cares
that's exactly it that spurs
uh statement was born out of kante be
basically grabbing levy by the shirt
collar and was like i'm gonna [ __ ]
kill you if you try and have this game
played um which is great
period
i don't care about the thursday game the
sunday game would like i said the the
schedule sucks would have been the game
of the week but for me i think it's a
huge win for spurs to not have this game
why
every day
that they have antonio conte as their
manager training today that they were uh
they are better than they were yesterday
so if you play brighton
in three months when this game gets
rescheduled for one i don't know
whatever it gets rescheduled because
they're not gonna they're not gonna play
it another game through january not
gonna shoehorn a game in there no if
they don't make it into the europa
conference league you'll have one of
those games where everybody's paying
attention to like the champions league
quarterfinals and spurs are playing
burnley or spurs are playing brighton
because those are the two games they
have to make up
yeah so um
everything
the longer you go the more advantage
spurs have for that game um the more
time with kante exactly and and you
don't know what injuries may or may not
occur before then but whatever right
like these are
these are crucial times even if you're
not getting anything out of it
necessarily because everybody's on their
deathbed even though they're vaccinated
um
so that's that's the kind of thing the
thing that we the thing that we don't
get is we don't get neil mopay
sodomizing spurs we don't and by the way
i was ready i don't have any bets but i
was going to bet on mo pay to score like
that was it like
i hate that prick but man if there's
anything in there in the last two weeks
so so i so i miss out on on my my
favorite team brighton you don't get
your team to play we're stuck with still
lester vs newcastle and palace versus
everton everything we talked about
everton uh arsenal i don't remember we
must have talked about damari gray's
goal but anyway i did have i did we
talked very briefly about atletico uh
that we're already past that yeah
there's not much here's a here's an
answer a question for you take the names
and take the logos
out of this match week
on pure on field talent alone what do
you think is the most entertaining game
to watch because we just told we just
told our listeners don't watch any of
these [ __ ] games no no no no no
yeah but i actually think there's one or
two in here yeah if if it were
if it were me it will be me because i'm
gonna watch the games
i think
chelsea leads is gonna be good
because leeds is gonna come after them
and chelsea are reeling but still a far
better team
tukel will has to kind of
move around a lot to sort of break leads
down
but leeds come off a final minute
victory uh it's at stanford bridge that
should be fun
uh i think city wolves
could be good the way city are playing
right now they're just it's just
unbelievable to watch them
just yeah that's precision of like
[ __ ] ginsu knives uh of like you know
they're very
i feel like city are like a japanese
soccer team like they are very precise
everything is like to the to the mark
it's perfect they look right like if
they're the team that have the perfectly
tailored suits with the right shoes they
have the right haircut and the right
sunglasses and the right everything they
kind of
they kind of look like the ss
[Laughter]
you really think about it very cool
uniforms like we might hate nazis and
and germany and all that stuff they
looked amazing killing everyone
anyway
that's kind of what's that's kind of
what
they had a great kit man
they really did have the best kits i
mean it was kappa kappa classics anyway
hugo boss amazing um uh you know norwich
norwich city versus man united i mean
this will be
weirdly a test
because i feel like ragnarok has had a
lot of time
playing at home there's been a lot of
that and i think dean smith is pretty
clever norwich have played better if
united is weak
they could have a slip up i think
there's an interest in that game but in
terms of pure play
without the names it's chelsea versus
leeds for me um okay
i agree with all of them uh but there's
one more i'll add on i think it's alice
everton
uh i think that they
again if you take the names and the the
crests off
everything and all the branding uh i
think that that becomes a fun game to
watch as a neutral um
i don't yeah otherwise i mean i don't i
mean
just bad but that is a that's the thing
together
yeah it's two teams close together two
teams trying to play different ways and
changing their identities
i think it is a clash of styles uh we'll
see where vieira's got palace after
they've lost a couple tough games in a
row the united game for them was bad i
want to see what my guy gallagher can
muster up some more strength to take on
i mean gallagher decorate in the
midfield should be good
sure yeah and then uh we've got you know
liverpool
can they keep going and keep scoring
goals
right against against an uh a resurgent
villa
villa's been good and you know that
gerrard is gonna have them revved up for
that um he's got them revved up that
dude is honestly yes but we talked about
it when he took the job he we talked
about this game
specifically when he took the job three
no i would
i would record yeah and i would
recommend uh jamie carragher did an
interview with gerard it's on youtube
and they're not
acting like buddies it's really like
gerard is
you know guys take over manager jobs and
i never felt this way from zidane he's a
three-time champions league winner
gerard is like slid in he's got the
mileage under he just seems like a
premier league manager already he's got
a really
strong demeanor already
right it's not like hey look i'm
managing kind of the way lampard was
like um and then ola is the worst case
of this he's just like
what how did i here's the thing i think
lampard was worse
than ollie no yeah no way no way no way
not even close
no
i mean he was he was terrible with the
champions league winning team
yeah but he was playing the wrong guys
oh no i'm not
like that's part of what i'm saying like
yeah like he just didn't see that
rudiger was his best defender right no
that's what i'm saying like it's [ __ ]
weird yeah i don't think he's at it at
all i think only
for all he and and the other thing was
is that like he said the demeanor and
all that stuff
i think all they tried
i don't think
um
uh lampard lampard i don't think lampard
like
nude i don't think he's got any [ __ ]
charisma whatsoever
no
that's part of i agree
yeah right so yeah
gerard has charisma i'm like okay
where are we going let's go
i'm ready like you you want us to go
[ __ ] that guy up
yeah and he's the guy he's the guy he's
like you ever met my mate stanley like
he's there with the knife he's ready to
go i'll tell you and that's this is
going to be two tops throwbacks in a
second there yeah uh gerrard has some
bramleage in him he's uh
yeah and for those that are uninitiated
uh michael bramledge who i know is a big
big listener of the show uh was the our
fearless leader when we were both
working at tops many moons ago
and again he was the kind of guy that he
was like we're gonna do this [ __ ] today
and it was absolutely crazy
and then a half hour later we walked out
of his office going yeah we're gonna
[ __ ] do that [ __ ] today so yeah yeah
yeah i think that's where where where
gerard
chimes in on that you know he's yeah but
i feel like he's a guy that's like i'm
gonna do we're gonna do something
ridiculous and he instills the belief in
you over the next half hour that this is
how we're gonna do it you walk out let's
do it like i didn't think so
but now i think the end of the season
we'll know if he's going to be the next
liverpool manager
yes
well right and so he can't just cut and
run on villa too right like i think it's
got to be sure he can
if liverpool comes he go well yes but
the question is when does he come right
yeah when do they come and i think it
probably doesn't happen until the end of
next season but he's got to win like
it's got to be like and that's the other
thing phillip
top six listen
this i mean the new manager bump we hear
about it all the time right let's see
villa go through a little rough patch
let's see him go through the whole
rigmarole once again injured watkins out
you know like that kind of like what do
we do and so yeah i mean he'll have what
about 25 games under his belt which is
close enough you know that's two-thirds
of a season at that point um
this is good let's go through it right
villa are on
19 points
they're at i want you i want to see
where's the points per game they're on
1.27 points per game
do they have to get to like
at one and a
half points per game would that be
that would they're almo we're almost at
9.56
would that put them at 56 it needs to be
60 it needs to be a nice if he can get
them to 60 points that would sure
[ __ ] huge but let's be very clear
about something he's been manager for
what five games
yeah but they've been good
they had nine points in those five games
they had 10 points in the first 10 games
yeah and they lost the city which was
you know that was their big loss right
yeah so
they're but they're but they are i want
to see it in a longer stretch from him
of course i agree right
too if you're a liverpool fan listen to
this you shouldn't be like i'm [ __ ]
not hiring him right now do you want him
to succeed so you can hire him of course
you do but you want him to prove it you
want him to put it beyond a shadow of a
doubt for him to be like
walking back into anfield going yeah
obviously this is my place
um but i want liverpool to go yeah we're
not even interviewing anybody right like
yes well i mean they they he may be look
klopp may leave and they may be in a
situation where
we're still the best team in the world
we cannot hire steve gerard
right
right we're hiring nogglesmen you know
what i mean like we're do you know what
i mean like they're not so you could get
the ship's passing in the night thing
right because like i said and and it's
all about time about this right yeah
exactly the more i think about this like
okay and i said after next season but
then i thought about it yeah 25 games is
enough of a sample size in the premier
league for you to say
you've got it or you don't
because you'll basically you'll play
everybody once at that point and and
you'll have gone through the ups and
downs and most importantly the the
festive season which is the most hectic
time of the year
um
is is astonishing i don't know in the fa
cup can they win
the fa cup
in are they in uh well they're in the fa
cup are they in the league cup i don't
even know anymore
i don't i'm not sure
cara bao
yeah they're out but that's that's the
thing is that like i think that
liverpool they're out they're watching
very intently yeah it's fine
you've got west ham december 22nd oh
dude
[Laughter]
enjoy it
oh some good teams in that group yeah
there are i don't want any part of it
yeah that's that's uh that should be
good that's a good little christmas gift
the old caribou here's the thing if
we're playing west ham for playing
arsenal for playing chelsea all of a
sudden they care about this trophy
but otherwise if you don't care
if you don't care and you're and west
ham comes to to white hart lane and
beats you can't have that
can't have that that's twice in a season
no no no no no can't happen
you got to come that's got to be a
that's gotta be we gotta we're bringing
knives
well let's decide what weapons we're
bringing okay no knives everybody get on
the same page
yeah yeah let's go [ __ ] let's go get
that done let's wrap this sucker up
yeah i mean there's not a whole heck of
a lot else to talk about we don't really
have that many bets you know what guys
take the week off take you take your
girlfriend your wife out to dinner don't
bet on sports all right
go buy a change man go christmas
shopping it's a big week christmas
shopping yeah
let's get the hell out of here that was
the squeaky bum time podcast with mike
salerno and laurent corteans we are the
football wing of the chop sports network
who have an announcement coming up
there's a hockey podcast that you're not
on i don't know why i'm not on it we
record on tuesdays and fridays so be
sure to subscribe wherever you get your
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if you're listening on apple please rate
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and there was a regression to the mean
from the rangers they lost seven too
i told you they saw
