In Episode #146 of the Squeaky Bum Time Podcast, Mike and Laurent discuss the implications of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the football world, including a potential ownership change in West London? Also:
- Looking at the paths Liverpool and Man City are on leading to their title clash on April 10th
- Tottenham lose to Burnley, shaking up both ends of the table in an impressive just three days!
- Arsenal push past Wolves on a dramatic late winner, are they in pole position for the last Champions League spot?
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 lebron it is
friday february 25th
in this episode the title race is back
on or so does liverpool tell everyone
arsenal have staked a claim
leads in a relegation fight no and
they're terrible but first mike
war what is it good for oh
first of all let's get this out of the
way and we obviously
hope for a peaceful and uh you know
as less bloodshed as possible resolution
to this ridiculous conflict between
russia and ukraine and the impending one
with china and taiwan uh and uh i don't
like it yeah it's not great bob um yeah
obviously i i i wear my my rabbit for
hat in solidarity with my uh ukrainian
brothers and sisters especially my
co-workers
marina
pavlo
constantine
eugene my crew who code for me i pray i
was bummed out all day sad i hope
they're all okay yeah and um we hope
beyond hope that what happens from this
does affect the football world and we
have
breaking news that's a possibility no
yeah but it could happen well all right
and as we segue back into why you're
listening to the show
new i mean plenty of news to talk about
in this episode but i think off the rip
we have to go with
what may happen to one of the biggest
names currently in world football the
current
european champions right
may
be forced to sell
uh their own
football club so called chelsea for a
reason
that's right
so roman abramovic uh is a dirty dirty
russian man and we've known this for
a decade
and exactly now the chickens just yeah
the chickens are starting to come home
through rest almost two decades
um
the actually like his name was brought
up in parliament saying you should not
be able to own a football club yes
because of uh i guess
disingenuous dealings it's just finances
there's just there literally is a list
of people that they have in their pocket
for when [ __ ] goes down they go and say
hey fu you can now this has happened
before there was a guy that the russians
poisoned in in london in 2014 there was
the invasion of georgia and nothing
happened so
this is a little bit bigger i think
ukraine and and russia
i don't think people know this ukraine
is the second largest country in europe
by area and provides
almost all the bread so it would be like
if you know um wonder bread got taken
over by [ __ ] hostess it's bad this is
trouble they really went after them they
wanted those [ __ ]
rainbow bubbles and dots and stuff this
is bad news count chocodile breaking in
stealing [ __ ] this is what's happening
so here's where it could get bad for
chelsea specifically yeah if
if roman abramovich were to sell the
theory is or even just have the team
confiscated
that's even worse theoretically but the
thing and the way that chelsea has
used their finances or i guess laid out
their finances since 2003 is and i'm
going to read from an article from
forbes from a little earlier today
roman abramovich has a sanction
insurance is the headline a two billion
dollar loan to chelsea fc what does that
mean effectively all of the signings
that chelsea has made since he bought
the team back in 2003 for i think 100
million yeah nothing i mean 100 million
teams are very cheap
relative to american sports so
190 million 2003 which i would still
argue is a large sum of money back 20
years ago but nonetheless now they're
valued at 3.2 billion and the problem
with that as i mentioned all of these
player sales that we've always talked
about over the years
those are all technically loans
to roman abramovich so he is owed two
billion dollars so if at any point he
decides hey i'm gonna hit the cash out
button you effectively have a chelsea
football club who's two billion with a b
dollars in the hole yeah and that's
gonna be a problem you're gonna bring
back the save the bridge signs right so
yeah um so so so that's one piece that
we have you know russian oligarchs and
whatever and and i think that one of the
owners of of arsenal was also implicated
in this i can't remember his name he
tried to buy arsenal many times but the
cronkies bought him out i can't remember
his name unfortunately well then and
then but the other one is the champions
league final is going to move well i
want to get to that in a second yeah
this is sort of how
when putin stands there and he goes i'm
walking in the front door of ukraine's
borders uh and if anybody threatens me
i'm going to nuke you which is i'm
paraphrasing but effectively what has
been said so far basically yeah the way
that corporations can sort of fight back
well it's an extension of cancer culture
really but um
the sporting world like joker it which
is one of the biggest teams in the
finnish hockey scene they're in the khl
in russia yeah they have withdrawn from
the khl for the rest of the season right
out of protest so so there are ways for
teams
uh teams organizations and and uh
gas prom off yes and that was what i was
going to say um
there's a lot of things that united has
yet to comment on its sponsorship
biggest airline aeroflot it's eight
million dollars well whatever but so the
point is that all these things are going
to start to add up and yeah i um yeah
it's interesting that like you said oh
wait we're talking about obrava has that
that out clause if you will but russia
as a whole is going to start to feel
yeah i think i think the thing is that
sports is culture culture is sports
football is global russia is part of
that global world shaktar do next has
not played there those are freaking
that's a that's a europa league champion
in the last 10 years
you know uh fernandinho from manchester
city who played there did a whole uh
message to the team so all these
interactive things it is not in a vacuum
we're going to have issues with teams
here and there there's going to be
players doing dissidents i think the
napoli versus um a barcelona game that
the the teams both came out with no war
signs and these are these are big things
because putin is
is
a dangerous actor he could do something
[ __ ] weird you know you don't know it
he's got he's an autocrat he can do
whatever he wants so we have that
looming over football and the champions
league final which i actually thought
about going to but now that it's going
to leave st petersburg maybe i'll
actually go to the city yeah well
maybe me and you will go because there's
a chance it could be a difference yeah
well the emirates there's a chance that
there's a shiny brand new stadium in
london
that is begging to hold big events
they've they've bid for the super bowl
it's time for hotspur stadium i've been
there it is a gem right this is fit for
a large scale event like this it's
literally built for things like this and
so the two uh names that i have heard
shortlisted for the potential move of
this emirates
wembley and spurs stadium uh i don't
know why you would do emirates with with
with literally spurs aim right up the
road um
somebody somebody another deep dirty
brown bag right that's just saying
yeah yeah maybe you maybe you owe some
money somewhere and you don't right
right right but so that so there's an
interesting thing there and then um you
sort of have the segway into huh
liverpool and chelsea will be at least
into the quarterfinals of the champions
league city will be there too of course
but there's no real beef with city
as a spurs supporter
but there's a chance that the first
champions league final in tottenham
hotspur stadium is won by one of spurs
rivals which
would not sit well with dotnet yeah
that's another thing you don't you kind
of don't want to have that happen yeah
anyway but we do want to get to the
football and mike has had a wonderful
wartime distraction uh to uh take away
from spurs who are completely changing
the premier league both at the top end
and now at the bottom end one game at a
time one game at a time changing all the
narrative so we talked last week was the
big win for spurs our
our effusive amazing moment of oh the
title race is back open oh look at spurs
they're going to kick on then they play
burnley midweek
and
they play like spurs again they're back
they're normal i think the irony of it
was was you know you guys spurs played
city after city had played midweek
burnley plays spurs after spurs had
played in midway and the absolute high
of that game is hard to and so to not
have a hangover yeah and so the resting
and all the stuff comes back to bite you
you go to turf more and you get george
boyded uh late late goal and you didn't
play well
we didn't play poorly i would say it was
an average time performance we had some
good chances i think sunny was a ghost
uh i know that because i bet on him to
have two shots not on target just two
shots he had zero um
well he did set up the two cane shots uh
two of them and one kulesetsky shot who
uh just missed going wide far post um
but listen i think that this story here
and and it's true um from burnley's last
game where they beat the [ __ ] out of
brighton too is that they are
they're they're
they're feeling the back against the
wall maybe not so much now but that's
two wins on the bounce where they went
out and got these wins okay this was not
your sit back and and we'll just hit you
on the counter sort of burnley they got
two name brand wins they got one against
villa which you would not have expected
especially the way villa had been
playing and one against your mob where
you would not have expected it well no
no and and and brighton
i'm sorry brighton excuse me they beat
brighton even better an even better win
yeah exactly and so i mean look the
stats if you look at it 34
possession but they out shot spurs right
so it's not good no um but they went out
and they got this game and and more
power to him
frankly this could have been two or
three nothing as well like
hugo made a couple of really nice saves
um
and i cursed christian romero because he
was having a phenomenal game uh i was
watching him closely and
i thought he was great
and
his bend me beats him for the goal now
he's sort of it's it's a weird
angle and me does a great job in the air
to go up and get it and and angle it
into the corner um
i don't really put this on romero all
that much he did but frankly his man got
the goal his he got beat by ben me
yeah i mean i think there was just a
it was a
englishness verse
i'm not ready for englishness not that
i'm bad but this guy went full english
on me i think it was he had it i'm not
allowed
to sausage
he had a full run but he did go through
romero right yes well he like it was but
i mean it was it was playing like it was
a one-on-one yeah
he beats him but he beat him right and
then we told you we told you that
liverpool would beat the living [ __ ] out
of leeds oh they really [ __ ] pounded
them like they did six no
i want to say something that [ __ ] me
off because
i understand narrative everyone's a
title race when city beat leeds seven
nil it was the end of football as we
know it all the league's over it's
terrible this thing doesn't work the
money blah blah blah with the narrative
was that when liverpool beat leeds six
nil it's oh look isn't this great look
how great salamani are if like listen
i'm not a [ __ ] tinfoil hat thing and
it goes back to the thing but i'm just
pointing out
some teams get or have the right to
glory and others have to earn it i don't
know when city will earn the right to
glory they need to have 96 of their fans
die they need to have communist owners i
don't know when that's gonna happen i
don't think i want that to happen i
don't begrudge liverpool for having it
but if i do [ __ ] pisses me off i do
that there's a constant din of
city or bad city our evil city city city
when you know
i get we have to accept it but it's
really frustrating and i only call it
out because
it's really [ __ ] annoying it's
cyclical it's cyclical there's three
teams three and a half if you want to
count chelsea there's three teams where
they're the story no matter what and
those teams as we all know are liverpool
manchester united and arsenal okay yes
and the stories are they're the biggest
they're the biggest clubs in the world
short top ten the the the stories of the
former uh the latter two i should say
for the last ten years has been that
they haven't been at the level of a
manchester city or a chelsea or a
liverpool so
they are red
they do right that's very
observant of you but the storyline is
it's very much it's very much like the
yankees here in the states
if the yankees i saw somebody have the
balls to say the yankees have a world
series curse
they won in 2009 and by the yankees own
standards that is a very long drought
but it's by the yankees own standards
you don't get to consider everybody else
by the yankee zone standards do you no
you i don't see you talking about how
the um let's see the seattle mariners
the oakland a's right the cleveland
indians yeah that's a curse
right right so so like you know
stop it behave yourself right well i
don't we know the the internet has made
sports fandom brutal just awesome right
and so but it's true it's even more true
in in england because again as i've said
many times on the show this is the only
[ __ ] thing you people have and they
have no access so they have to lean into
the bottom even more so
if liverpool united or arsenal are very
good they're the best that you've ever
seen and you're privileged to be alive
in this moment to watch greatness and
unfold or
if they're
four five god forbid six or worse then
there
everybody needs to be hanged in the town
square immediately right so there is no
middle and the fact of the matter is is
that i mean united are a bit of a
[ __ ] mess but they're comfortably
well no i shouldn't say comfortably in
the force but because arsenal are the
plucky underdogs now right so so so
you're starting to see that narrative
already
shifted yeah i mean i think there's a
there's a i mean
i do want to talk more about liverpool
just because it it'd be unfair to sort
of
short trip the fact that they're really
[ __ ] good especially at home they now
have the top three leading goal scorers
and the top three leading assist makers
they've scored 70 goals which is more
than the next
three combined i mean it's a big number
they're gonna put a hundred down for the
season they are on city's back
city cannot we have
nine we have 18 19 all over again
april 10th mark it down the new el nuevo
clasico
liverpool versus manchester city ate
etihad is and if you need to see it
at the etsy hand
yes it's
german sorry
no more german i can't even make war
jokes anymore because now we're having
the first land war in europe since 1945.
it's not even funny anymore
it's upsetting kind of funny they don't
have as nice uniforms as the old ones
though
i haven't noticed the uniforms no
they're not good it's not quality are
there any spikes on health no no no fur
no hats none of that
none of this good stuff
none of the real [ __ ] um so i'm gonna
put my my uh my i gotta get all my loyal
gear on i got my new hat for the season
ah san diego loyal very nice yeah it was
co it's cold in san diego it's 45
degrees wow
so um yeah so liverpool on city's back
it'll be a title race down to the end
what i was trying to say is
barcelona
madrid with ronaldo and messi with pep
versus mourinho that
2009 10 11 12 13 seasons those clasicos
that you had to watch in la liga just
before the just before the premier
league took off again
not really not only were they battles
the level of play was so high you were
just like this is a different sport
yeah something else is going on here and
liverpool versus manchester united city
is now that
right you get
the two best managers in the world you
can argue and pick which one you can say
uh fraudiola or checkbook pep or you can
go to klopp and say
yeah you won one trophy and one of them
when everyone was at home so take it
easy
i ate punch magoo right you you lost
every big game until until you didn't uh
win it with fans there then you'll feel
some real [ __ ] pressure [ __ ] uh 93
20 for life
yeah it was easy it was easy when nobody
was there to win the [ __ ] league love
that
you like that you like that i do like
that i do like that yeah i'm salty it's
like counter argument is the kind of
argument to that is like yeah but we
have anfield and it's like okay you only
have anfield half the time yeah i don't
know whatever i i have nothing my my
stadium is like playing with no one's
there all the time so you can tell that
like manchester city laurent is on the
ropes yeah i am on the ropes and i'm
gonna help him out no i uh i think
i'm salty man i'm [ __ ] had it i hate
liverpool i don't want them to win i now
have to live [ __ ] uptight games for
the rest of the season and have to watch
my back and when when we draw against
everton away because frank lampard
figures out his stupid [ __ ] team and
and my and and guardiola is like oh
let's play zinchenko so he doesn't have
to think about the war and he gives up a
[ __ ] goal i'm gonna be very upset
about it
let's play zinchenko so he doesn't have
to think about the war
all right let's buy a fun game who's
gonna drop points first because no
neither of them
neither of them i will say will go
undefeated or i guess pick up all of the
points between now and april 10.
somebody has the city has a better
chance to do it they're just better
you mean they have a better chance to to
run the table
because they have a better team um okay
so
i'll say this saturday this coming
saturday everton man city
and liverpool don't have a game because
they have the efl final so
you're going to
um goodison to take on everton always a
tough game oh i don't agree i think
i think
i mean this is not a good ever i don't
think i don't think that um
sorry i don't think that lampard is a
good manager
so i'm less concerned nor do i think
everton is a good team or a tough tough
game for city right now okay city
schedule is everton united palace but
the thing about this game is this is in
liverpool's backyard right once
two
it is literally in liverpool two
um
thankfully
unlike
your jellyfish spine manchester city has
one right and they're damn [ __ ] good
so they're gonna see liverpool put up a
touchdown on leeds and they're gonna go
all right [ __ ] you wanna dance
let's go and they're gonna make they're
gonna they're gonna pull everton's heart
out of their ass and they're gonna show
it to them it's gonna be three four
maybe five nothing but it's gonna be one
of those it's like ah
we are not like liverpool's not the only
team in this race okay so i think that
they're going to have a convincing
like just we're here to kind of win
statement win yeah um
liverpool might get a trophy this
weekend for all we know
one is sure that doesn't that's not the
end of the list
go on we let them win uh then what that
also means is they will have a game in
hand coming up after this weekend uh
liverpool then hosts west ham on march
5th the west ham are a big bag of who
knows what uh
yeah but that weekend that weekend city
has the manchester derby and they have
the darby the thing the difference there
is that
if by chance west ham gets something out
of liverpool city's going to know it
because it's the next day right they
play on a sunday right rather than a
saturday thing is united are always
that's a tough that's tough i
i hope that the next the rest of the
season and it does look that way
um
that at least through april 10th
they never play on the same day oh they
don't plan well they change th this
information changes all the time so it
doesn't
i don't think it's gonna change to this
point i think it's pretty stocked in uh
at this point but like so the reason i
said that is because every like you're
gonna know what liverpool did and vice
versa every time you go on the pitch
it's not gonna be like one of those like
we're both playing at the same time and
you've got one of the assistant coaches
with a uh checking his phone right i
don't know they they move stuff trust me
they'll they'll figure but not this not
this soon right they were sure they will
the only thing that they'll move is the
second uh the quarterfinals of the
champions league which isn't until
right around april 10th you can't tell
me that in all of april city is playing
at at three o'clock there's just no way
that's happening no no no no no no in
fact i'm saying exactly the opposite i'm
saying through april 10th this is the
schedule after that yeah no you've got
fa cup you've got you've got champions
league so i don't know those games will
move i'm sure of that but what i'm
saying is
we have a we have a we got a monday
night game against palace that'll be big
yeah
yeah
[ __ ] it's gonna be a fun one
you've got brighton
you've got the harder run
to april 10th and i think i think
liverpool has a harder run after april
10th
yes we have this is a tough one this is
a tough run i mean this is this is a
tough run it's tottenham everton united
palace brighton burnley than liverpool
like i would rather not play burnley
before liverpool because that means that
you're gonna be bruised you know even if
you beat like it is a myth right like
yes will go away to burnley but
they
it happens enough that that you just go
whatever but city do
kick the [ __ ] out of burnley there's no
like i shouldn't be i have it right here
league schedule in front of me
there's a chance that there's a chance
that the quarterfinal might be midweek
before man city liverpool i hope it's
not i hope it's after
um but it's definitely going to be one
of those
um
it's either going to be like april 7th
8th or april 12th 13th something like
that so
our 13th 14th so i hope that it's the
latter just because like i don't i i
want eight days off for city and let me
look at liverpool
i want yeah well that's okay that's the
first time they play on the same day
up until that match so i want them both
to have eight days off i want every big
dick they have swinging going into that
match and i want ali frazier like this
is what we're talking about here yeah
yeah it's gotta be it's gotta be like as
nationally televised it needs to be big
it could be if it's still three
uh that it could possibly be three that
it's
it's a it's a title decider ish it is a
title decider regardless of what happens
leading up to it right because um as
long as they stay within three of each
other right exactly exactly
you know uh i do the thing is the whole
difference thing that the leads thing
blowing out leads was bad because well
that's why i say now you've got an
opportunity to do the same thing to
everton who are a [ __ ] side right now
right so so but that's that's the point
is that you you don't
style points now are going to matter
it's almost like like college football
like no no we're going to keep the first
team on the field because we want to
actually win 70 to nothing instead of 42
tonight yeah i mean and that's actually
the that's actually the shame that's
actually the bad thing for city that
liverpool's defense is not
the title defense team where they would
get those early leads and they would
take their foot off the gas because they
could because van dyke was otherworldly
he's now just good
and now they just throttle teams they
don't stop anymore because they have to
keep going right otherwise they'll get
beat like if they try and sit they're
not good enough defensively
to me defensively anymore to not attack
sure because by the way very very few
teams ever are
right you shouldn't do that and if you
don't some teams do that some teams do
that they're really good and they don't
do like yeah
not good and do that yeah but i mean it
it is a style that's going away but i do
i do think we should go in to talk about
liverpool your beloved wolves
come from behind when at home the place
going nuts
this was a good performance
go down arsenal arsenal i said let's
pull i meant
yeah yeah wow what a game it was good
and they they
they fought hard to get the win this was
not a
this was this is not a weak
a mentally weak arsenal side they are
building
something at this point that is either
youthful exuberance or
arteta
winning the hearts and minds giving a
mentality a fight listen
i know in our preview i did tout
arsenal but there were reasons right
like they did have a good defense even
with leno they did sign davies i didn't
know about gabriel i mean uh
ben white but i knew about him he was
one of my sons from the championship i
knew about him in leeds he came up with
leads and then went to my beloved
brighton and was good in brighton i
didn't know about gabrielle
tomiaso i didn't know about but these
sort of stabilizing defensive forces
um
weirdly the shaka thing hasn't hurt them
lately but the smith rowe saka
the energy the fight uh i really like i
don't know i mean arsenal fans seem to
not like him but i think lacazette's
really good i i i mean he has a hard
time scoring winner here i mean
but but but but but outside of the goals
whenever i watch them i'm like he's in
on everything that they do
in the games where i mean he ends up
being sort of like quote unquote like
big game player he always bothered me
with spurs he's had a few really really
nice goal he fights he does work he does
things he's not
passive like he's he comes deep he comes
gets the ball he's he's the kind of like
when i look at arsenal i do see
the manchester city side of it so i see
the same patterns they're not as
clean they're not as predictable it's
kind of like a [ __ ] version of city but
they have something that's different and
that is
a bit more
swag and juice
right like
cities very ordered and professional and
robotic whereas arsenal has some
has some fun to it it's like there goes
[ __ ] martinelli holy [ __ ] that guy's
amazing that one that's the difference
in personality not in quality
personality yes between pep and arteta
arteta encourages that whereas pep
basically stomps on it
yes you yes we are a collective we are a
unit i am the spokesman of this unit
well
yeah yes that's the main piece right
it's not so much that arteta doesn't
uh it's not like he fans the flames or
he puts them out he lets the players
appreciate we are a collective but i
want you to enjoy your
cog in the machine essentially yeah and
i'm not going to be the face of the
program here whereas pep is
hellbent on this is me and my team in
mind there's not as much depth so the
players are
there's
less rotation because they just don't
have the like arsenal can't rotate and
like it's not his cutthroat where
there's a guy to replace you at every
spot right who's like literally the best
player from his country yeah
but it was a good win uh the goals were
good i love that smith rowe and
martinelli have a little bit of
competition between them they kind of
move in and out gives a little bit of
juice for both of them saka seems to be
a permanent fixture in the team uh you
know party was good
shaka didn't hurt them he plays a little
bit deeper the the ben white and and
gabrielle partnership was good you know
wolves
wolves are [ __ ] name brand man they
don't [ __ ] around now they
are and this is gonna i just looked this
up
their goal their expected goal
difference is so far off the charts that
it is like they they they are bound for
a regression to the mean but their games
are the lowest scoring events in the
league because they are one of the
lowest scoring goals uh lowest scoring
teams in the league at um
uh where is their goals against oh my
god i can't find goddamn wolves sorry
wolves are third bottom but they're also
third top on defense so they're third in
goals four and third from the bottom and
goes four but third from the top in in
goals again so nothing happens in their
games yeah yeah no i know but their
expected goals against is plus 14. so
they're like playing way over their
heads and it's just
look at looking at this table because
i think we can as far as the top four
race is concerned i think we can
probably despite the fact
that what you were just saying i think
we can close the book on wolves now i
think that this game and using it in the
fashion that they did this was their
chance to to jump back up
and their quality does not reflect it
right they're not this good exactly yeah
and i look at it and i go man if if
spurs beat burnley or southampton or
[ __ ] villa or or newcastle or
any of these games you're just like what
the [ __ ] are you doing
they're right there with arsenal and the
game in hand that both teams have left
is the north london darby so we're
talking about just such a missed
opportunity when you talk about the
massive
nature in which we're looking at with
man city and liverpool where i'm not
comparing it to oh they're already those
teams are gone i'm not comparing it with
equality but like as far as like
that would be the second biggest game of
the year would basically be tottenham
arsenal for a champ music spot towards
the end of the year yeah when is that
game being rescheduled for i don't know
let me see here's arsenal's fixtures i
don't know that it has yet to be quite
honest
wait you got to create you want a crazy
stat you're ready for an another wacky
one emile smith rowe
is the
joint top scoring englishman in football
yeah phil foden well you know jared
bowen is on eight
uh uh uh
jamie vardy is on eight
and uh jared bowen and and smith rose on
nine and he doesn't play every game
which is pretty pretty in credible uh i
do want to go through some more games we
didn't go through the scores because it
was a bit of a
haphazard week we can't jump into scores
as i go through it i hunt them down i
look for them i find them and the scores
midweek we had
we had burnley one nil that we know ben
me grabbed that one on uh yesterday then
our boy conor gallagher returns puts a
knife into watford what watford crystal
palace really put the smackdown on them
wilfred zaha with two goals matata carno
gallagher god i [ __ ] love palace and
i hope they lose to city uh badly then
we know liverpool smash leads leads are
in a relegation fight mohamed salah with
two goals money with two goals salah
both penalties sadio mane uh in the 80th
and 90th van dijk and matsup score
they're just getting goals from
everywhere they put 16 shots on target
against pathetic leads leads aren't
really leads are in trouble let's stop
there for a second do we want to you
don't want to go let's go through the
rest of scores then we'll go yeah no the
last score is the arsenal wolves game
just to cover the scores pepe in the
82nd minute and then by the way after
that pepe gold goes in
this is an arsenal that is not seen for
[ __ ] ages they were like
wounded dogs looking for blood against
wolves no pun intended it was wolves
against wolves uh they were after it and
i was very impressed it was like whoa
where's this team from and the emirates
had some juice and the players were
edging them on there was
some collective spirit coming from the
stadium to the players to the goal to
pushing everything forward it was it was
nice to see it's the thing that happens
with football that no other sport has
it's the drive of the crowd the whole
thing it's why we hate [ __ ] anfield
because you're just like [ __ ] they they
got them it's like
they're willing them forward you can
feel it you're like
you see it in like college football
sometimes you see it in like like when
seattle did their 12th man [ __ ] but
like like
you can see
the fear on the opposing players
it's not it's it's that's the that's the
the metric right it's not like van dyke
going nuts it's not the cop end going
crazy it's it's
everybody else looking around like uh oh
oh [ __ ] right like that's where we're
gonna get got and that's yeah it's it's
it's barcelona down four i mean up four
falling apart like that doesn't happen
in it it just simply doesn't happen uh
but but anfield has that and leads uh
just get swallowed up by that we were
talking about that arsenal get dragged
along forward but i think the relegation
fight is where you want it to go or yeah
you want seven teams that i'm gonna
include in this now we talked a lot
about how it's a four it's a four-man
race it was one spot not anymore it was
and then burnley go out and win two
[ __ ] games and they're right there
okay but it's not just newcastle who are
in danger now everton what are you doing
guys they're on 22 points so all right
let's start at the top we're gonna go
all the way up to our beloved
we hope not brentford at 14th yeah okay
now they're
right around 26 games yeah they're right
in the middle on goal difference yes 24
points from 26 games now that point
ratio is going to start to be the factor
that you look at here now
i do want to give the xg they're way
better than these teams
yes
well but this is expected so this is in
terms of quality now this is games
they've already finished we know about
their early games that's the entire
season xg
sure if we were probably in the last ten
no no they're right there okay
something has happened
like everything we thought we loved
about brentford has gone away all of the
exuberance all of ivan tony's just juice
all of the thomas frank magic
it seems to have dissipated
okay they can't stop anyone they're
giving up goals like crazy
yeah yeah and as you mentioned a few
times on the show you know you lose your
uh a strong goalkeeper to johnny they
got him back though that's the problem
and maybe he's not well
so let's let's see their last
since
their last six games i think was it wait
one two three four five they three of
liverpool three to united two to wolves
two the city a nil nail dragon
to the wolves who you we just spent five
minutes talking about how they don't
create anything
no they don't right you can't give up
two wolves then right yeah it's just
they just they're just giving up you
know three three is when you're giving
up threes you're in trouble so they
can't keep clean sheets and that's what
was keeping them in games early and a
lot of the the hay they made was early
like they only had one loss in their
first eight but they've now slipped a
lot yeah um and they need a win i mean
this newcastle game is a big big [ __ ]
game on set
and that's the thing is that's the fun
part now is that we've got so many teams
included that there are points to to
you know give out and so these numbers
are going to change and the crazy thing
is the margins are still so razor thin
that as we said with burnley two wins
changes the outlook of your season and i
saw it in the [ __ ] burnley players
faces they were they got that three-nil
against brighton they're like we're
gonna go get these bastards and we're
gonna win three more points i mean what
did we say we said eight eight wins it's
gonna take eight and burnley just got
two of them yeah right so uh everton's
on six so we're kind of just like hey if
everton win two more games they're
probably in decent shape but it is
everything has four draws so i i don't
know what the number and and wins is
hard right but like i
it's gonna be
35 points i think he's 36 yeah 35 yeah
right so um that's the race
you look at it you go okay well
brentford needs theoretically four more
wins or however you want to slice it up
but the problem you're getting into now
and as i mentioned you're getting
lighter on games brentford only has 12
left leeds has 13. everton to their
credit has 15 right so this is where i
look at it and i've been harping on
games in hand all season because of the
wonkiness of the year but i think
brentford on 24 is in more danger than
everton on 22. because brentford
brentford has three less games uh to go
than than everton right so is everton
bad yes is everything going to get boat
raced by city on saturday yes but can
they beat leeds can they beat burnley
watford norwich i think they probably
can right yeah so that's where everton
is going to stay up because a they've
got games in hand but b
they're better
than some of the absolute [ __ ] in the
league whereas
they may not be it's super close on
points per game so
uh newcastle and brentford and leeds are
all on .92 points per game exactly so
they're relatively even on their quality
where watford and norwich are on 0.72
and 0.68 so you can you can find this if
you go to fbref and go to the all top
five leagues and then you sort by points
per game you get a good sense of you can
get a number so you need to be on a
point per game at this point right so if
you can get to
right there's 12 games to go a point per
game puts them at 36.
exactly and so i mean yeah you you you
can probably kiss goodbye to watford and
city but the latin norwich city i should
say the last time i said that burnley
went out and won a couple of [ __ ]
games so yeah you don't know
it's a vote for they got the right
striker that they needed for them i
think that is the thing that i always
think about with burnley
they may not get players you like they
may not be flashy but they get the
player that they need for them when they
need him
it works
is a problem creator he's good he just
he just starts problems for opposing
defenses yeah i thought tottenham did
well against him i just not well enough
unfortunately well ben me was the
the winner but but white horse was was
in and around and it was interesting to
watch that because you haven't i mean
chris wood was always like it was your
consummate counter attacking forward
right but and he was any and he was a 10
to 12 game 12 10 to 12 goal scorer
course has scored 20 goals in the
bundesliga and finished in the top four
this is not a bum this is a real
guy like this is not a joke it's a good
thing he's had his last his last four
seasons in wolfsburg finished sixth
seventh and fourth seventeen and seven
sixteen and three twenty and eight he
was having a down year because wolfsburg
was having a down year and i'm sure they
wanted to pick up their money but for
his career his goal plus a six goals
plus assist rate he's on a goal every
other game he's .49 for goals 0.63 for
goals and assists this is a good good
good player like if he plays well
they'll sell him and his and his uh his
style works for the people giant yeah
he's six five and a half he's quick oh
he's good yeah and he's quick and he's
dutch he can move his feet yeah so uh
he's had he's been bedded in we like
burnley to stay up cornet didn't even
play and they're they scored okay we
like burnley's chances
i don't want them to stay
again i want them to go of the teams
that are in danger that i've said
brentford leads everton in in addition
to the normal four newcastle burnley
watford and norwich
i think brentford and leeds are in the
most danger of that group of four yeah
of getting pulled in
yes
however newcastle without trippier
does look to be a little like well same
old newcastle right like they have
they are undefeated in five they're
and points are points i get that but but
i'm
i was bullish on newcastle i am slightly
less so without trippier who by the way
they won goals uh they won games on two
free kick goals so it's not like one of
the games it's not yeah it's not
actively one minute
but there is something that has changed
i think uh bern my guy from from uh dan
byrne solidified that team's defense he
has a winning mentality
they took a player who did not work at
the job that doofus uh steve bruce had
him playing joe linton went from being a
striker that couldn't score goals to now
he's a deep lying
box to box midfielder who just crunches
people they literally changed his job
and so so you got to give credit to
eddie how to be like oh you have this
guy who's not good buy me a striker i'm
going to use him to go kick the [ __ ] out
of people
so i'm gonna find the defensive
midfielder that i thought i needed but i
haven't but again
and these were lately free kick dead
ball goals
that got you four extra points because
you figured they would have drawn those
games if you take those four points away
they are literally watford
so
i'm not sold on them staying up yet
but
this game against brentford
massive massive big and it should be
good because now that you're a fan of
attacking football if you are a fan of
not newcastle and running the league for
the next 10 15 years
you are pulling for the bees
by the way we have to segue into this
side story related to newcastle's new
owners the pif the far foreign fund that
presented 80 of the money for this
newcastle purchase was trying to do the
same thing in golf
with this uh they tried to do a rival
league to the pga
uh that's in saudi arabia and
what people wanted the premier league to
do the golf world did the players
completely rejected it they've been
touted and called out because of uh phil
mickelson made his his comments public
about how terrible this actually is but
i want the money and all the other
players from europe were like no these
saudis are evil they killed khashoggi
they did all the stuff and they got they
just completely
killed this golf super league to make a
new pga but you know it's good enough
for the premier league but not for golf
which i find which i find to be amazing
when you scrat and i do like our sort of
themes here of just like hey
society is sport and sport is society
they reflect each other and so you sort
of have this sovereign wealth and who
are are they allowed to do what they
want i don't know but it was interesting
to see that the pif
is rejected by golf uh but not by
premiere not the english premier league
yeah i mean
you've got my cash
yeah
mike ashley was a dick that was they had
to get rid of mike ashley right you have
he didn't have people killed as far as
we know no
but
what he was doing to
if you're the premier league yeah i get
and you have one of your and it's not
guaranteed because promotional
relegation i understand they have gone
up down up down up down up and
he's flagship franchise yeah
this is one of your name brands right
yeah he
he is as a function of holding newcastle
back he is holding back the revenues
that your league could generate because
that's how big of a name brand this is
yeah right yeah yeah
yeah it's sort of like a dance schneider
it's dan schneider with the redskins
what are they called now who gives a
[ __ ] oh we do wait chop sports does it's
the commanders that's right oh yeah
that's right we had it right commanders
the commandos we're gonna we're not
wearing the commies
the coffee's even better i'll bring it
around to the beginning of the show um
if you have that like i lost my train of
thought now but it was basically to say
if newcastle were up
in the top ten if they were wolves right
if they were where wolves have been like
just a bit such a bigger story they
would be the easiest team to market in
the english premier league you know why
awesome because it's like they have an
alcoholic beverage with their name on it
it's the easiest team to promote ever
yeah but they don't
no but it doesn't matter to a to a
growing fan base around the world
specifically in the us are you kidding
me i know two or three guys from like 15
years ago who are still newcastle fans i
think i don't talk to them anymore who
became like every every american has a
dumb origin story right you don't care
what fan you are you have a stupid
reason for supporting that team because
it's just not the correct reason which
is i grew up here this is my club right
yeah and it's okay there's nothing wrong
with that i mean there is inherently but
it's okay
the reason to support newcastle blindly
as an american is
i like the beer by the way the beer is
[ __ ] but also
it's just a silly reason right yeah we
all have stupid one day we'll i have to
do my my origin story it involves oasis
which is yeah pathetic yeah and mine
involves contemporary and fifa right and
so i don't it doesn't matter it doesn't
matter is the point overseas anywhere
outside of england which as we remind
you again is the size of new york
[ __ ] state so anywhere outside of
that bubble you're allowed to have a
dumb reason to support whoever you want
yeah
it is it is one of those fascinating
things that the narrative of the whole
league comes from this small local
parochial island nation
that they don't that they can't watch
all the games like we can they actually
can't cover their own league as well as
we do because we can literally watch
every game and they can't
uh tifo uh a great channel if you're not
following on youtube tfo is fantastic
they're probably athletic but they were
already on their own and then like
everyone i'm joining the athletic they
got scooped up but they do good
uh explainer things and they did a whole
video on the explainer of the the the
noon window in the uk where no games can
be televised from i think 12 noon to 3
15
every saturday and only england does
that no other country does that
like not even the germans who are the
most traditional lunatics ever don't do
that like they still wear spiked helmets
to the games they don't they don't race
bikes
that was one last war reference all
right but now i have to go back to world
war one right we're gonna talk about
we're gonna talk about mud we're gonna
talk about verdun we're gonna talk about
rail guns it's gonna be great
so that's what you have to look forward
to on the next episode of the spooky bum
time wartime podcast oh my god we could
can we do that i'm gonna do that
but i do want to go through the schedule
uh just this weekend's coming up we have
uh southampton norwich on friday
southampton on i think a four or five
game winning streak they're really good
that you can expect them to beat norwich
at home then leeds tottenham if
tottenham can't score versus leads you
can't quite do anything
the get healthy game you better put four
past them brighton aston villa on a
battle of two teams that we love and
we're worried about them i don't think
brighton need this game as much as villa
do steve gerrard needs this game it's a
big one then we talked about it probably
the game of the day brentford newcastle
at brentford should be a barn burner
then palace burnley the less talked
about that game the better united
watford don't care city everton a big
game the saturday late game
city need this game but it's at goodison
yeah yeah yeah i'm scared and then uh
west ham wolves i think both these teams
are going to find out that they're also
rans i would bet the draw
and then chelsea lester i was gonna say
when they made this schedule
all right that's postponed oh it even
says it sorry west ham
the league cup final between chelsea and
liverpool on sunday
um
be interesting to see who liverpool
trots out there uh one
they better go [ __ ] win that thing
don't be well they do have depth now so
it's not it's it's not like you know
that's the same 11 and they're gonna
give them a blow but it's chelsea so
we'll see but i want to go back to the
west ham wolves game i do like a draw as
a bet i'm not going to
i'm just going to lose a lot more money
but this does feel like an elimination
game and and i know that it probably
both are probably far gone from the race
but
if if
if either team wins you are one game off
the mark for europa league at least
which for west ham and wolves is not
nothing it's a big deal so
west ham are still in the euro league
remember this is a playoff round for the
europa league before those teams that
qualified these groups even that's right
they broke it up so west ham are still
in the europa league when i started that
sentence meaning to say and then i
remembered united are probably going to
beat watford is that that brings you a
little bit closer
if you win this game regardless of who
you are specifically west ham though
you're still in the top four race you're
probably not but you're still
mathematically in it i don't trust
united in any game even against sure
listen the problem now
is not that you're how many points you
are behind how many teams you are behind
okay yeah because now you just need more
teams to drop [ __ ] and and i don't think
i mean we've seen crazy top four races
where it's literally a hot potato nobody
wants it but uh it's happened many times
yeah
and in that case tottenham's got a shot
still do you're right yeah i think i
think the inside tracks now are united
by virtue of they actually have the
points in hand which is very valuable
and they have the most talented squad
i think arsenal's got the inside track
yeah well that would be the other one is
arsenal has the inside track um but
they you know we can't i don't think we
can expect
arsenal to lay
consistent performances they have a
tough
back half of the season they still have
to play liverpool they still have to
play united they still
that's
they still have to play west ham so they
have tougher games but uh you know i
would expect them to lose versus
liverpool because they never beat anyone
ahead of them but there's less and less
teams ahead of them so
so as long as they stay in that realm uh
you know maybe they'll pull chelsea back
you never know the way it's going
especially with lukaku we haven't even
talked about him but he had the seven
touch game
he got benched in the in the champions
league game versus lil
i mean
i wonder what roman abramovich thinks of
him
how does he feel about his 100 million
pound loan
i think he's uh doesn't he give zeroes
and he's just like i'm good i'm good
yeah yeah yeah all right i've read in
that same article that uh his his worth
is 13.3 billion so it's still just a
drop in the bucket for him but yeah all
right that'll do it for us let's get it
all right that was the squeaky bum time
podcast with mike salerno and laurent
corteans we are the football wing of the
chop sports network we record on
tuesdays and fridays so be sure to
subscribe wherever you get your podcast
so you never miss a show we thank fanhub
who has been killing it for us and thank
all the people in england and pray for
the people in ukraine and that's about
as non-sequitur as i get
