Ep 3487: Slot Tunes Out, Mile High Irish, IFAB Conflab, Boehly's Minerals, Domestic Banners - 02/03/26

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2:13We know this. It's the ultimate honor. Saturday night, that honor went to Keith Andrews' Brentford. Roaring into a three-in-a-lead against Burnley, getting pegged back to three-all, Burnley had what looked like a winning gold chocked off by Var. Instead, Mick Adam's guard put Brentford for three-up before Varas stepped in again to deny Burnley a dramatic equalizer. It was the weekend of Var, but it was also the weekend of Brentford who now have the best way for him in the Premier League over the last six games. Snack box, efficient chips from the Chipper. Welcome to Monday's second captains football ball. Maybe it's going to be option. Yep, Keith Andrews has come a long way from this day. He's asking him, can he go on a bet his choice of fast food on Air Sports Champions League coverage. As discussed on the World Service last week, the unfanning in studio John Bruin on today talking Premier League, but what about the domestic game, Bruno? The domestic product, as you insist on being called. I don't know that he insists on that, but I won't pose. Cannot stop beating Shama Grover's three-two win on Friday night at a raucous stadium in Park. It was quite raucous actually. It seemed quite raucous, except for the little bit where Rover scored a couple goals in injury time.

3:17Yeah, yeah. It was raucous. I hope I didn't offend the sensibilities of the Minister for Sport, Patrick O'Donovan, who had spent the week leading up to last Friday's games using tax-right language to describe football fans. So when we say raucous, it was everything was... That was, you know... For listeners across the water, Bruno, that was for what happened at the Draughta game. The Draughta, Dondak, Laudabee. There were flares and so on. There was flares. The Minister was only happy with the extra pitch that he had just unveiled. And he wanted to see severe sanctions on someone. He wanted a collective punishment, I think, the word would be for him. Well, is that actually going to happen? Because he was like, we're going to cut all funding to everybody. No, it's been... No, his punishment has since been handed down. And he said that it's been dealt with now. Right. Quite an unfair punishment in that Draughta fans are now allowed travel to the next four away games, which that's bad if you're a Draughta fan, I suppose, but it's even worse if you're like an administrator and one of the clubs hoping to get revenue from the Draughta fans coming to your pitch. So it seems to be more of a

4:20punishment. Whatever the four away games are, those home clubs are now going to miss out on that revenue. See, that seemed odd to me. I just felt there was something in the air last week, leading up to last Friday's League of War on the Games. And obviously the bows were always games, the TV game, and it was an excellent game to watch. And I suppose, in football terms, a good kickback to just the way the league had been kind of dragged all week on, you know, by the Minister. Quite an excitable guy, he seems to be. Even the T-Shirt shared that opinion, I think he may have felt this, but, uh, Minister, I don't have any comment, which was going a little too far away. What did he? A plague on all your houses and this sort of thing was just like, let's just calm down. Well, calm this rhetoric down a little. He was saying he was talking about gougers and so on. Gougers, y'all, but did you think it was, I mean, struck me as like, oh, this is the more sort of vigorous rhetoric, you know, that we that we look for from politicians

5:22these days, you know, don't be afraid to call us spade us. Yeah, well, I kind of remind you again. What was the Sunday Times in 85, a slum sport for a slum people? That was their headline, you know, when England was in the depth of its hooligan crisis. And I think there was nearly, nearly trying to link, you know, people back to that imagery of the 1980s. Well, do you, do you think it was good? What did I see? What did I see? Well, what did I see? Yeah, what did I actually happen to draw to? Do I think it was good to detour it? That's a leading question, kind of. I think that's what that is. You know, you should should that not be criticized. I mean, it was a bit like, come on, you sort of wish people wouldn't do this. You know, it's like, of course, yeah, throwing flares in the pitch, you know, that's not great. Just to add a pure, like, out of pure local words, we're going to burn your pitch. Gougers, out of pure, out of yobbery. So what are we, I mean, you're policing the man's language. You can't call it what it is. He called, he said it was akin to an air raid. You know, I mean, the flair was briefly airborne, airborne, yeah, tenderly devices. Yeah. What about their bows? Performance,

6:26the end of all that then. Well, the last time we were talking about bows, you were a bit flumic spider. The last over the intricate tactical approach. Yeah. St. Pat's would yield it very little, by the way, of coherent attacking plays. It seems to be a bit of that on this play last night, though, the good stuff. I mean, yeah, once again, it does prove that it's how it is hard for layman. You know, I haven't done any badges to understand exactly what's going on out there. But it seems now it's working. The integrated complicated systems that I was too much for my little brain about three weeks ago are now, and which I was wildly, you know, admonishing to anyone who would listen to me. It's too intricate. It's too complicated. It's too complicated for me. Imagine how the players feel. It's what I was saying to people. The players actually feel pretty good about it. The players feel great about it. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, man. No, we can actually take this on board. It's, it's fine. It's a leak. It's a good Friday for the League of War and a Friday that it needed. Obviously, the the flair thing and a Patrick did or minister, Patrick minister,

7:27minister Patrick, Sir Patrick. Obviously that did exercise him when he had sought and he'd given his departments money, not his money towards this new astral pitch being opened. They should be playing on grass. But that obviously exercised them. But there did seem to be like the League of Ireland does seem to be the main, you know, I'm not getting over the top here, but it does seem to be the most vocal, you know, institution, sporting institutions on the island against this upcoming Israel game that's hanging over sports, you know, in Ireland. And it did seem to me a bit like the minister or people may be taught, we've got you now, you true couple of players in the pitch, we're going to use this the harmonious. And there seems to be a bit of that a play, I thought. There's a lot of politicking about what about Alan Chatter, though, then because I mean, you know, he though there was obviously there was a I think it was a Shaman Grover's banner which seemed to be directed at Patrick O'Donovan. There was a Shaman Grover's banner directed at Patrick O'Donovan which they unfairly compliment their ultra is basically saying like, this is our culture.

8:30I think they use the words get fucked. You know, stop, stop talking about us, we're going to we're going to keep doing this stuff. But there was a banner from Bohemian's fans as well. Yeah, I saw on the internet afterwards. There was a banner directed at Alan Chatter, Shatter who's kind of like spoken out on Twitter a few times against both. Well, I that was what I was wondering why do what why would Bohemian's fans have a banner about Alan Chatter? Alan Chatter is a former government minister, but he's also quite vocally in support of Israel and that has led him into Twitter flame wars at times with Bohemians who have, you know, played a Palestinian team in the past and the club have been like outwardly vocal in support of. Well, he's now a bit demanding action from the FAI. He put on Twitter, he said my statement. He says, will the FAI act on my being vilified and defamed at last night's Bohemians versus Shamak Roberts much and despicable banner in the terraces? Will they act to implement the anti-racism pledge?

9:35Will Daniel Lambert's Bohemians be disciplined for violation of FAI in a way for rules like drawhead F.C.? Or does Lambert's influence within the FAI in fear of the cult's reaction grant Bohemians impunity? Yeah, well, I don't think it's Daniel Lambert's Bohemians, like he's just an employee. It's a member's own thing. And, you know, obviously it's not a club sanctioned or a league or an F.A.I sanctioned banner. It's people have brought this into a stadium and unveiled it. Yeah. All right. Well, the month of March is snow-cup on us. The month that's going to end with the World Cup playoff in Prague and hopefully another one in Dublin on March 31st. What a month to be a World Service member. We're beginning to ratchet up the build of tomorrow, Damien Delaney and David Snade picked their Republic of Ireland starting 11s, which are going to look a lot different to what lined out in Budapest because of injuries. Not even before our fit players have to survive the next few weeks. Well, five-year-old was that per month and second captains.com, if you want to sign up to hear that show. And the rest of the recovery of the World Cup players, playoff, I should say, over the next few weeks. Well, the Heymer Hallegrimson did an interview. I should go and come asking you our signs

10:37over the weekend. Oh, yeah. Where he, among other things, pinpointed an issue that had never occurred to me as being significant before our own, but now has me extremely worried. Go on. Altitude, altitude. Now, I haven't really given it much thought because you know, altitude. You always think altitude and football, Bolivia. You're playing in La Paz. You're going to lose. Your players are probably going home if you're going to spank them five now. Yeah, I apologize to all our Bolivian listeners. They might be better than that, but I can always appear as they're extremely strong at home compared to away. Very, very strong. I can't remember our own playing in La Paz. Maybe it has happened, but before my time. So it's just not something that's ever... The Irish rugby team play up in the high belt against Johannesburg. What? It's a little bit of altitude up there, isn't it? Yeah, but like not so that you'd really notice, I don't think. I mean, I was in Johannesburg before and it wasn't like I was struggling to catch

11:41my breath. I didn't really notice that. So where have we played? Where have Arden played it? Yerevan. Yerevan. Yerevan. Altitude. The place of our greatest... The darkest night before the dawn. That's right. Yeah, Yerevan. Now again, I didn't, you know, I was in Yerevan. I thought, oh, this is nice. I had a lovely time there, actually. And I wasn't thinking, oh, the air is a little rarefied here, but Amar Algrimson points out that Yerevan is actually 1100 meters above sea level. That's a bit... That's about current-tool height. Well, that's high enough, I suppose, you know. Current-tool is 1,038 meters above sea level. So it's higher than the highest mountain in this low-lying country. Yeah. And he noticed that... Being in the sea, to look at, no, current-tool. You know, she's... You wouldn't fancy playing a game of international football at the top of it. She's a grandson. Well, by the time I got up there, no, oh no, wouldn't be fit for...

12:42Have you been up? No, she's gone. Would you believe it would never even climb crop hats? So what he's saying here is saying that we struggle. This is the reason we lost to Armenia, was because we're playing Altitude. Well, he notes that two of our most disgraceful performances in recent years have occurred in Yerevan, which is... As I said, did I mention that it was 1100 meters, obviously, towering over Yerevan. You kind of don't think of it as being in Altitude, because it's this huge mountain overlooking the city. And you think, ah, there, the altitude's over there. You don't realize that you're already pretty high up. Gotcha. You see? Yeah. And this may have been a problem. You also mentioned Andora at the 121s, losing 4nil to Andora and the Pyrenees. Well, we did, you know, we went to Andora and we gave Andora a downward thrashing under Stephen Kenney, I believe it was his first win. It was no Troy Pirates first goals for Ireland.

13:44So, you know, we've admittedly Andora, maybe not the best. It takes two weeks to acclimatize, but that is logistically impossible, as we have been assigned a base camp at sea level. This is if you qualify for the World Cup. Well, this is the problem, because if Altitude is actually a worry, and I'm not saying it definitely is, because I see we also had a pretty bad performance in like, did we lose in Baku? Dublin. We've had a few bad ones in Dublin over the years. Yeah, yeah. We'd be fair, you know. That's right. We won in Baku, didn't we, which is like almost below sea level. But we did lose at home. Obviously, our home ground is at sea level pretty much, and we did lose there. Did we lose to Azerbaijan at home? We've lost a number, we've had a number of poor games. We also looked some very good home, and didn't we draw what Azerbaijan? Yeah, I can't remember. I remember Azerbaijan scored a great goal. I can't remember if we equalized in that game or much to lose, but yeah, they did score a nice goal. But yeah, I don't know. The relevant thing here is if we qualify for the World Cup, it's going to be

14:46Mexico. And actually, I did know that Mexico, Mexico cities were at altitude. In fact, Guadalajara, which is where we're supposed to play against South Korea. Thankfully, another low lying country about the same size as Ireland, of course. Much higher population. Yeah, a lot more people heard the truth. But Guadalajara is 1,570 meters above sea level, the mile high club almost on Mexico. Mexico in Mexico City. Yeah, 2,240 meters. Like two current duels. I hadn't thought of, I hadn't actually thought about this. No. That's why, that's why Hammer is where he is, and that's where you are, where you are, Kent. Well, you know, I mean, obviously our previous World Cup game against Mexico was a, was a disgusting experience for the entire country. Yeah, that was the humidity was the issue there, rather than altitude. Yeah, Orlando altitude, 27 meters, not a major issue, but temperature, 40 plus

15:54degrees problem, humidity 100%. And this is the possibility of this Mexico game, if it happens, being another one of these just absurd climate-driven horror shows. I feel for the art of players, not climate-driven conditions. Hammer might have a point based on my own personal experience. Oh, yeah. Of competing in the... In Mexico? Not in Mexico, but in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Ooh! The great Ethiopian run of 2012. Wow. It's self-model act John Tracy. And a number of others. Addis Ababa, 2,355 meters of elevation. Yeah, yeah. Higher than Mexico City. Yeah, I felt it actually. I really felt it on the run. I was like, you know, you're, it felt like I had to really, like I was missing a one out of every three breaths, if you know what I mean, like you're trying to take a breath in and it's like, oh, nothing came in there, and you're going again, and it's just the breathing becomes more labored. I felt a little bit light-headed. This was on a 10k run.

16:57This doesn't sound good enough. No, and then, you know, I've run longer distances than that in the past. And I was not running fast. I was trotting around. I did realise that I said, maybe I'm just, it's a case by case basis. And some people can handle the altitude. Apparently, I'm not a, not an altitude guy. So, you know, I'm at Hamer. This could scoop our plans when we're up. Well, look, Hamer is going to, he's going to see if any of the guys are altitude guys. Apparently, some players are better than others when they have to look at the red blood cell levels and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Well, as long as it's, you know, you can check the, they're, you know, they're medical baselines that you can take and then begin treating our players on a player by player basis from now, just in case. Well, I mean, that extra month could be what decides. Well, he'll absolutely be looking at that because he cracked open the laptop for Gavin Cummings. He said, these are our plans going right through to the final of the World Cup. He's planning for every eventuality and he's not afraid to say it. So, definitely be looking at anything. Did he say right through to the final? Well, Gavin Cummings, he reported as he has plans right through to the World Cup final. Yeah. And he's told his players as he said, I'm going to,

18:00I'm going to show the players my plans when we meet up in March. Yeah. Before the playoffs. I'm going, no, don't do that. What he's, what he's saying is that we need to, yeah, the base is going to be Fort Worth. If they, if we make it four, which is, you know, this endless car, escape of Dallas, you know, Dallas, Fort Worth, whatever, which isn't the most attractive base to be honest. But look, not at high altitude. Yeah, it's not, it's not at high altitude. He's not in bad and bad and it ain't. No, it's not. It's certainly not. But look, what was he saying? Also, he was disappointed with the weakness of Irish players when he came in. He had to see him that the Irish players were tough competitors. I don't know. He quickly found that they were not. Nice lads. They did not work hard. They did not win their jewels as he expected they would. When we analyzed, I had this presumption when I came in, there was one thing I didn't need to change. Irish players will win their jewels and work hard. But when we

19:02analyzed the first games, it was not true. We lost much more jewels than we would. The other teams were harder working than us in the Greece and England games. I don't know much about Irish. I didn't know much about Irish football, but out of my mind, the Keynes and Duff, you know, what you were facing. Lots of courageous players playing with their hearts. That was something we need to reinvent. The stats showed me this was not the case. Irish players used to win 70-30 jewels, but now we were losing 50-50 jewels. Slowly, we have improved in this area. When the Czechs say we are a physical team for me, that is a compliment. Yeah, the item football and all that. Yeah, so let's go to the least of becoming competitive in 50-50s, although, obviously, now this altitude thing is just a whole new thing to worry about. It's really rattled you can. I hate to be the guy that says it, but let's just focus on Prague first. What's Prague above sea level? Yeah, that would be much, let's be honest. Oh, surely not. Well, Fragg. elevation, Prague, well, between an altitude of 235 meters.

20:06Okay, I think that's fine. I think that's basically fine, isn't it? So what are we given to? You mentioned Brad Fruit, Owen. They did very well. Spurs, of course, pushed in the back, stabbed in the back. I think I saw a graphic on Sky that suggested that spurs had lost all but one of the remaining fixtures they have this season last season. Which actually isn't really that surprising when you consider they lost 22 matches, but if it were to be replicated this season, I do think even West Ham might have a chance of might have a chance of going past them. An Igor Shooter, the Wilson and a gentleman was at the Craven College for the Guardian and the headliner in his piece says, Tottenham lacking in attack, midfield, defense and brave. Amazing, it was. Is Wilson channeling the 1986-7 Ashes Tourer there? Well, I don't know if it's the 1986-87, but some English, one of the very few

21:10victorious Ashes Tourist Australia was prefaced by I think it was the telegraph cricket writer saying, can't bowl, can't bat, can't catch. Adding that of course stormed his 31 victory. Well, this is what Shooter was saying. He's a prick. Shooter, it seems nice guy, although maybe Tottenham were already kind of scratching your head going, why do we appoint this guy? He'll be out of here though. You think that's all I have to say? If they lose again on Thursday night, you bring a guy in for a new manager of bands, you happen to end the season to start from getting relegated, he can't lose his first three games. They need to try another new manager bounce. Yeah, I don't have the ability to get looking for one. No, not him, I have the man. It's right under their noses. How are you right now? No, who's their leader? Who's their spiritual leader? Sometimes takes that leadership a bit. Romero. Boom. Christian Romero, manager. He's suspended. He can't even... Manager. Yeah, he can't even stand on the side of it. Yeah, but that's a spank, it's going to be, yeah, but done. That's going to be up after the game, after next. Yeah, so I mean, so...

22:10Listen on that. So that shooter carried the count until then, and then let the beating heart of this club see them to safety. I was looking at you to his pulse. Him or Harry, Harry, riding up one of the two. I mean, he really did look like a goddess, been a tough, eight months, freer, chewed, or, you know, wait a second. But this isn't the, like, this isn't the walls. This isn't the tea, you know, I'm thinking of walls, you're bringing in a manager really with the idea that they'll help you get promoted again next year. This is spurious, they can't just accept going down. So if they lose, certainly if they lose two more games, the buttons are going to be pushed. But I just don't know what they do. Like, I mean, Romero is something I hadn't considered to be honest. Consider that. Have a think about that and come back to me tomorrow. I said, Harry, riding up dead, actually, say, I would love to go back in. Yeah. I mean, if Martin O'Neil, I mean, you know, well, it's Martin O'Neil. It's Harry, riding up much older than Martin O'Neil. Martin O'Neil leading Celtic to it back to a... I mean... Too old, Ross. I don't know if you saw the steps of the beat. I saw the Rangers' goals, and the first half, they were phenomenal. Well, one, there was one phenomenal goal, and then one goal where it was nicely finished,

23:12but there was perhaps, there was a couple of advantages he could have done, better with a swing and a miss, and then letting the ball back for us. Okay. At this age, we would like to wish a happy birthday to Harry, riding up. Yeah, this is birthday today. Turns 79 today. Stamined up, spread day as well. So, thank you. Martin O'Neil. Martin O'Neil, lunatic on the solid one. Martin O'Neil is a pop competitor. It was his birthday yesterday. Martin O'Neil. 74 yesterday. Everyone's having their birthday. But where were we? What's Todd Bowley's birthday? We don't know. I don't know that. It's the kind of thing you would know. I thought you might have an answer. I haven't checked for you. No, I haven't. I haven't been interested in... I haven't been interested enough in Todd Bowley. He's not a football player. September 20th. And he will be... It's a boring one. Yeah, it's a boring one. It's September 20th. It's mid-September, nothing interesting. 53. He's only 53. He will be 53. Oh, wow, he's 52. 1973, yeah. Chelsea. And the other birthdays this week?

24:13When's your birthday, bro? What day? Tomorrow. We obviously remember the cake has been ordered. Let's start at tomorrow. Let's just say we've got a couple of tricks over our sleeve, bro. Now we've got to have to do something, no? Yeah, we do. Through where? It wasn't last. You've even brought out your benchmarking report like last week, which revealed that Chelsea had lost 355 million pounds last season. The biggest loss ever recorded by an English football club, which was... Yeah. Yeah, I thought, wow, there's, you know... It seems like a lot. Kind of thought they'd front-loaded the losses, but it seems like... No, they've actually... The losses are actually increasing. The losses have ballooned since the initial loss period. I don't understand finance as well as Todd Bowley. I want to say that. This is the guy who... I'd love to see how he sees the world. Like, it's just all of these sort of arching trajectories

25:17of credit rates and rates of return. And he's just able to, like, look ahead and see to where, like, these lines are going to separate here and all that. See, that space in between? That's all going into my body. That's bowling. That's bowling time. Yeah, bowling time. Bowley though. Well, Bowley, I mean... Ten pin bowling. We saw his team. Yeah. Still out there. And again, we're talking about him as the Chelsea haven't, which he isn't really. I mean, he is the most famous, the most glamorous of the Chelsea haven't as a better like Bowley. Seems to be the more hands-on figure, but Bowley is obviously the more interesting. And he, the team that the Chelsea are running out, I don't really see it as being that much... I'm like, where's all this money gone? You know? It's like... You know, yeah. I just... Okay, they were missing Westy Fufana, who was a bad player for them to miss against Arsenal, especially I suppose, when you look at the way the girls end up going in.

26:18He would have been useful there, maybe. But I just, I still don't really see it as having got together. Not that this... Having... As a team that's really coming together. Obviously, they suck Merescap and Manjury, who I think are in season. I was like, oh, I think Merescap is finally getting this together. But Bowley, I saw, was at this conference in Miami called Eye Connections. And he was introduced as one of the most interesting investors in the world, a building with which I would agree. And he talked a little bit about Chelsea, actually. And he talked a little bit about that first mad summer of 2022 when he came in, having both a club from Rowan or Brownvich. Well, at that point, he was pretty hands-on. He was very hands-on. As he revealed to the interviewed Eye Connections man. So you're going to make mistakes. Yeah. And obviously, having taken over in the circumstances we did,

27:19basically the whole management team left. Yeah. Right, so you know, I was stuck being Interim Sporting Director for a summer, having no idea what made a good football player. Yeah, right. But knowing that, you know, Mark Cucurella, if Man City wants him, I want him. Yeah, right. It was really simple that way. That was pretty simple, yes. All right, so let's pivot into, I know, a topic that seems like it's not related minerals and defense, but minerals. You made a big investment in an Australian company that has led you to, I think, a lot of other things. Tell everybody about how you're thinking about. Yeah, so a couple of years ago we started coming to the view that the mineral space was going to get really interesting. Sorry, the mineral space. I mean, I started off, you know, listening to the kind of Chelsea's, how he structured Chelsea's transfer policy, just copy everyone else's homework. Man City, one Cucurella, get him. Arsenal Want Mudric, get him.

28:19That didn't actually work out that well. Liverpool want Kaiseido, get him. Liverpool want Lavia, get him as well. But they're only going for him because their first choice in the position has come here. It doesn't matter, get him. You know, some of these moves have worked out better than others, but then she starts talking about minerals and defense. I'm like, what, Todd? Todd, what's going on? What's he, what's, what are you up to, Todd? And it turns out that like, if there's a reason why we don't see quite as much of Todd Bowley at Chelsea these days, this man has got other irons in the fire. And what irons, as he was, as he was happy to explain on stage in Miami. So he's bought some Australian mining company because he's like, oh, you know, everyone suddenly realized minerals are kind of important or whatever. And like, nobody knows anything about them. So I'm going to buy this company that has like all these, that employs all these like mining engineers. Because like, nobody, nobody does that anymore in college.

29:22Like, no one's got a clue. And then I'm going to talk to them about, anyway, here, do you want to hear Todd Bowley talk a little bit about, you know, his activities in the minerals and defense. Do you like this? He's a Chelsea owner here talking about minerals and defense. Fascinating. And how does that link into how you're thinking about defense and defense tech? I think minerals are part of defense, you know, but we've also been really active at figuring out what's going on in this kind of, you know, prime supplier channel, right? You've got, you know, eight tiers of suppliers to the US government. You've got the primes that, you know, frankly, are under pressure to move faster. But for their own issues, right? Because the government used to, you know, say, I want 10 of these one year and then 51 year and then 91 year. So it's hard to manage your business without, you know, more certainty. So I understand what their challenges are. But at the same time, these re-industrialization of the defense base and the wake up of Europe, right? You know, we're watching all this happen in real time.

30:23You know, and I think we're in a world where you're thinking about peace through superior fire power. And, you know, I think the reality is so much of what we're seeing going on right now. It's just some giant mark to market of what happened after World War II, right? When basically the Europe was told to disarm, America said, we'll get your bat. And, you know, America continues to spend on defense, continues to stay cutting edge. Europe's really stopped that, started funding social programs. And now they have to figure out how to get all that cycle. And Germany's, you know, their best bet to lead the way. But all of this money is coming into defense. Cyber is going to become really important, right? Space, you know, I think all these areas are, are, are, you know, going to be very fertile places to be investing. Well, specifically the area of selling weapons to the United States government. That seems to be the main, that's like, that's El Dorado now. That's like what everybody, that's what it's all about for everybody. All of the, like, most interesting investors and, you know,

31:26the cutting edge capitalists all seem to be in the business of, how can we sell weapons to the American government? Yeah, just, there's other people doing it than maybe that. No, don't worry. They'll buy guns off you as well. They'll take it from me, they'll take it from all comers. We're realizing, you know, peace through superior fire powers. It's the light from the Chelsea owner. But just, I mean, he is above all an investor. I mean, you know, he's a sports tycoon. He's a, he's a minerals guy. He's, he's a weapons, I guess, an arms dealer now, maybe, hopefully. But, but really, you know, before he's any of those things, he's an investor. And so I think it's, you know, people are interested in this kind of thing. What makes someone successful as Todd Bowley? How does he actually, what's his investment philosophy? I mean, what is his, what's his strategy? How does he know whether to invest in something or not? What are the things that he has himself? This is all knit together. If somebody said, how does this all knit together, Todd?

32:27Sports, mining, defense, tech, credit. You know, it's, you know, what we've always said, you know, we want to be invested in what people want and what people need. And I think if you just constantly are looking at through the lens of, what do people really want? Right? They really want sports. They really want experiences. So, you know, that's a theme of what people want. And then what do people need? Well, you know, we need security, you know, because I think if you think about like the battle that's going on inside people's brains, right? They want convenience. They want security, right? And they want privacy. The problem is those three things don't coexist. Right. Right. If you want convenience, you're going to give up privacy. Yeah. Right? And I think security and convenience are going to trump privacy because the reality is most people don't appreciate how much, you know, you're emitting as you walk around with a phone. Right. There's really no such thing as privacy. Right? If someone really wants to, to, to track you, it's really just not that hard.

33:28So, I'm, it's given a fighter for money there. It is. As a keynote speaker, or whatever he is at this conference, he's giving him plenty. I went looking for this just to get that little Chelsea bit. And then just to see what he's saying about Chelsea. And then I stayed to the end for this. You're going to be a piece of security. Superior firepower. The wake up of Europe. Yeah. You know, Germany could maybe lead it, but yeah. But yeah, just that's it. It's about the investment philosophy. What do people want? What do they need? What do they need? Try to corner the market and those things. Jack up the price and sell it to them. And, you know, that's, that's a way of making money in the world. And yeah, he's been, he's been good. It hasn't demonstrated it so far with Chelsea. They are, as I said, making big losses. Does it matter? I honestly don't know. It seems like it should, but with the Chelsea thing is it's like we've been asking. The analysis all the way along has been, you know, maybe this all will make sense in the end. I just don't know when the end is. It feels like we're getting closer. He's been around a few years now. So we must be getting closer to finding out whether or not this is going to all work at some.

34:30Maybe if they beat PSG in the Champions League, then you can say, definitely if this is work. Well, they are the club, they're the club world champions, you know? I mean, I mean, I mean, it's a pacing now, so I'm all right. He got to be there. He was there with Trump on the, you know, for the pictures, go prior to place. Maybe it will, maybe it will continue to have prior to place for some more time.

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37:44How did you get a little bit of chew for the toy and fix a streamer in a multi-factors? Right? It's a very interesting day. Everyone should go to a multi-factors on the Friday afternoon when it's sunny. So I went to the block that normally fix your mower on a streamer and he said look, go down to the multi-factors block down the road. Get down with the car. The block stops me and I recognize and I knew he was one of the real family to a great boxes at the time. And then not a block was I need a platform. He's a counselor for, you know, some solidarity or a land or something. And he's given me an airfall about something I said and I tell him, I went in to get a little bit of chew. And then I went in to get the ass of hell over the bit of chew but anyway, I don't look so real. And there's Jerry Tooth. Tooth or something. So it was a very interesting day. Everyone should go to a multi-factors on a Friday afternoon when it's sunny.

38:50That's the most blind care story, by the way, we're out of here. Oh, true, very true. Brian cares you to see, and... Well, I'm joined now in shooting by Deon Fighting. How are you, Deon? Good can, how are you? I'm very well and online by John Brown. John Howard has tricks with yourself. Yeah, not bad. Good to talk to you, Lutz. That's great. Well, was it good, though, to watch yesterday's game between Arsenal and Chelsea? I'm going to start here with some comments from a Premier League. Well, effectively, bystander. Arna Slaught. He's no longer really involved in what's going on at the top of the table. But he is pretty much disgusted by what he sees. Arna Slaught reveals. Most of the games I see in the Premier League are not for me a joy to watch. It's always interesting because it's so competitive. And that is what makes this league great, because there's so much competitiveness.

39:50Everyone can win against everyone. But just as someone who loves to watch football, without being interested in his winning or losing it, just to be enjoyed, I think there's a big difference now between three or four years ago. And the Premier League teams are so much stronger. Three or four years ago, when the top clubs face the number 18, 17, 16, 15, it could have been a four or five goals difference. And that's usually what you like. If there's so much difference between the teams, then one team is really good. But that's not the situation anymore. It's not only about the set pieces. It's also because so many teams have become very strong. But we're not going to change. What do you think, John? This is a slot, not impressed. It's something of the dutch purism there, isn't there? You know, that the dutch have an idea of football. And that isn't just the Johan Kroif Ajax idea. Like that extends to you. You're fine on PSV schools. And I think Arnay Slot comes from that. He's also a disciple of Pep Guardiolo. He's made no secret of that. And he arrived in the Premier League, hoping that that's the type of football

40:51that was going to be played. And that isn't the case. Now, if we're talking about what you should be known as the Grand Slam Sunday, you know, an Arsenal V Chelsea fixture, there were points in that game when I did consider doing some medial admin work rather than watching it, because what's the word that is always used in post-match press comes eye attend? It is jewels. And that game is about jewels, Igor Tudor, also talked about how top of them are losing jewels. We've got this sort of pitched all in wrestling. I saw Barney run a compare the game yesterday, too. You've probably seen those 600-year traditions of football in a garbage village where people are just fighting just over a ball. And if you're the last man standing holding the ball, you win.

41:52It's just it's a mob of people crushed into a laneway, punching each other in the face. It's on a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah. And, okay. You know, do you know what I mean? I mean, particularly in the penalty box when the set piece is come in and I mean, the example, the Monday just gone, you know, Everton Manchester United that, you know, around Lamonds, this sort of where he had to sort of reach for the ball and Everton just kept aiming it into this one slot hoping to score. This is what we haven't to get used to. And, you know, not everyone is, you know, as aesthetic as Arne slot. We're not all dreamers like him. Well, yeah, it can get a bit wearing watching it. Are you as aesthetic as Arne slot, do you know what I mean? Do you share his, the Frisson experiences watching the top team beat the 16-place team 5-0? The piece John referred to there by Barney Roney.

42:54Also, you know, it was okay. This, you could call the Arsenal Chelsea game. Ugly. People have used words like abomination. I don't know if Barney used that word. But people have used words like abomination. They throw around these types of language. But this is football. It's not actually entertainment. It's meant, and this is a compelling, competitive spectacle. Watching all that, watching the detention, the drama, all the angst. This was, you know, you're going to watch the next episode. You are. And that's the essence of football is that ultimately, it is a competitive thing. It's not some performative art. It matters. And the reason people are as invested in it is because of what it means to people. And you can see that in Arsenal. I would say that art is slot. What I think he's saying is like, you don't have any Liverpool PSG games on your hands there. Yeah, yeah. You know, this, and the other thing about his comments is there is always with slot.

43:54There is this sort of self-serving. You know, it actually seems easier for teams like Liverpool three or four years ago, when they could just beat these teams. It's harder for me than it was for Jörgen Klopp. Yeah. And that's not true. It's hard to find an easy mode. Yeah, yeah, it is true. It is true, but it's because Klopp is a better manager than Slottas. And I think there's a problem with this in terms of you, you want to avoid being a kind of, being somebody who just is like, this is terrible. This is really, this is awful. This is an abomination. Because you know, you can sound like, you know, just, you know, an old man shouting at the clouds like talking about how things were better four or five years ago. Yeah. But it's sometimes, sometimes things were better four or five years ago. And this is, this is one of, one of those occasions that I think as John says, most matches are, aren't very good. Like that's the thing. But most of the time, and we all know this, that people go to, you know, and don't go as much as I used to,

44:54but we can go to a lot of football. Most of the time, you go there and it's like, well, you're okay. This is, this is terrible. He's like, I met some people who had moved a job. Yeah, yeah, there was some nice food. And off you go. But, you know, at the same time, the, the, the only game that jumps to mind this season as a game that was really thrilling to watch was, you know, matches are so much just united as a kind of spectacle. This is the three, two, the recent, yeah, the Emirates. Yeah. Well, I mean, I wonder though, like these slot quotes of, I've just been released just as we sat down here, you actually sent them on, John. I thought, that's, that's an interesting, because I can already imagine that Arnestot is being, where Arnestot's comments are being pilloried by Arsenal fans, they were saying, well, hang on a second. This guy is, is going on about how things are, when Liverpool have scored more goals from corner kicks than anyone, they scored three goals from corner kicks in one half. And no team has done that in the Premier League for 10 years,

45:55so the hypocrisy sinks, you know, blah, blah, blah. I say this just because I get the impression, I don't know if you shared this, but I'm clear enough, the only one that Arsenal are particularly annoyed by this type of criticism, you know, that it's like, there's a kind of a feeling of, hang on a second, why are we being, why are we being singled out here? And I see that Martin Samuel in the Times also sort of gets this feeling from Arsenal, but it's saying to them today, just forget it. You're like, you're going to be like Novak Djokovic, you're going to be like the England rugby team in 2003, Nick Fildo, apparently people hated him, I don't know, or Floyd Mayweather, you know, or Arsenal. Or, well, he does get all, he does go on to say George Graham's Arsenal people didn't like it, but, you know, you won. So, and that's what it's, that's actually what this is about. So, what do you think about that? Is there kind of a frustration here, which is wasting a bit of mental energy at Arsenal?

46:58No, Arsenal fan is going to swap winning the title for playing the right way at this point, right way in quotation marks, of course, because they really, really want to win it. And maybe that at some point may stop them winning it, but we'll have to see it in a title running. But, Michel Arthetta has struck on this formula, and it's been successful for me. It's successful against Chelsea. Chelsea, who, you would say, ahead of the first goal, were the more likely team to create something proper. Yeah, I mean, it would say peace. I would say, like, the most likely player on the pitch to create a goal-scoring opportunity was actually Sanchez, the Chelsea goalkeeper. No, and he, in fact, did, he was right there at the, you know, the winning goal. It was, it was, yeah. Yeah, and, and, you know, who was probably the key player in that game is David Raya, you know, who made a brilliant save,

47:58or two or three brilliant saves. And that is part of winning a title, and, you know, some was correct in that, the Arsenal team that won two titles back in 1989 and 1991, were a defense was the core of what they did. They also had some very good players up front as well. That's, that's often forgotten. You know, they could mix it. They could play a bit. That's the old formula, isn't it, for success. And there is something, but Arsenal aren't, old school in that way, that there are this new football type of thing, I don't know, which is the analytics. It's the, you know, the set pieces, that there's, especially set piece coaches. There's the sort of, you know, that every detail is pressing patterns and working out what's going on ahead of the game because, actually, you think of that game, you know, Liam Rossini decided Arsenal would have presumably a pressing plan for his players, so he sticks coal palm out left to disrupt that,

48:58and it did cause Arsenal a problem. So everything is strategic. It's not, there's no such thing as lads, it's top name these days. It's planned to the, to the nth degree. The one thing I would say is, you know, when I go to a Premier League game every week, the last five to ten minutes, and I was at Bournemouth at the Sunday, at the weekend, I absolutely chaotic because these puns tend to come apart. They can't last over 90 minutes. They don't last, there was 12 minutes of time added on there. They don't ask it. It just becomes chaos, and football strategies in that way aren't sustainable. And I suppose one of the big questions you would have to ask about a coach like Arteta, and he's not alone in this, and you might ask it Evane, slot as well, because Liverpool were not, when Liverpool won the title last season, they didn't dazzle us, did they? Let's be brutal about this. Is maybe they don't trust their players.

50:02They don't trust, they don't give players freedom of expression. The idea, and it's a concept, that Jonathan Wilson goes on to the nth degree, and I do follow what he's talking about, the idea of moral courage, of digging yourselves out together, it always goes back to a tactical plan. And, you know, it's, Arsenal are, they're not great to watch, but they will, they will celebrate this success so wildly. I'm living not far from Arsenal. The streets will be full of people partying, and they're not going to remember that, you know, Gabrielle's set piece goals or what got them over the line. They'll lionize those in future years. Well, they already do. Don't they have, don't this Arsenal team at least stand and impress you as having moral courage? Although I'm not sure. I wouldn't say no. Sorry. So I jump in on the key, with the trigger words. I'm not sure what moral courage is, exactly, I mean, often moral courage is like,

51:03I'm not going to, I'm not going to carry out that illegal order. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, for the other. Yes. Well, I think it also, maybe in a football context, moral courage means taking things beyond where you're expected to take them in the course of the game, and actually identifying yourself putting your head above the parapet, maybe. Like Declan Rice celebrate, you know, just saying, we don't even, we don't like this slip letter against Tottenham. Or actually, what, you know, even doing, you know, moral courage, maybe it was what he was doing, you know, that led to the Tottenham go. But I would say with Arsenal that there isn't, there is an absence of, there is, there is an absence of that in terms of any kind of freedom of expression. And when you look at, and when you look at the teams who've played and the George Graham team being a good example,

52:03especially the team that won the league in 91, which, as John said, had a mixture of like a credibly resolute defense, but like a skillful player is playing good football. And a combination of things that you would actually say are kind of key values in football. Like you defend, you defend together, you attack together, you do, you know, that, that stuff. And even in a way, when you look at the teams, if you go back to the shit on a stick era, Marinos Chelsea, when they had Robin and Doff, attacked very dynamically. They were, they were very hard to beat. They played, you know, there was, there was elements of shit, hasery about them as well. But they actually went out and played football too. And that's something that you don't see as much, you don't see as much with this arson side. And it's become very reductive. And it's funny, like you look at,

53:06it is, you know, I was like on match of the day last night, they're talking about, it's great to have, you know, if you're in a tight game, it's great to have a set piece up your sleeve, you know, to be the set piece team. But to me, that's like, to the carpenter every, you know, every solution is a nail. Like, you know, if you're a set piece team, you think this is what we need. But the great teams have always found a way to distinguish, to separate themselves from other teams through something in their team. Arsenal, and I think it speaks to how our TETA is as a manager, it's totally limiting in terms of what he wants his team to do. It is of a piece with how he, you know, speaks around games, various little tricks and devices he has of motivating. There is something that is actually deflecting from the game itself and everything he wants to do, including when they're playing the game. Yeah, I wonder, you know, when you see, because it's obviously not just Arsenal, Arsenal are the kind of coding edge,

54:08because they are the top of the league. And obviously everyone's sort of paying attention to what they're doing. But this type of, you know, like coach ball, let's say, is increasingly dominant. I wonder how much of it has to do with the massively increased squad sizes. And in fact, the fact that, you know, the fact that you now have a 16-man game. I mean, TETA did, at one point, talk about used the rugby language of finishers, you know, instead of substituting. He did that earlier this season. And like if you look back and say, Arsenal, George Graham Arsenal, when they won the league in 91, it was like seam and 38 appearances. Winterburn, 38 appearances. Dicks and 38 appearances. Steve Boll, 38 appearances. They've also got like Tony Adams, Anders Limpar, Paul Davis, Paul Merst, and Alan Smith all with like more than 30 matches. Like this, this team played every week.

55:08And did they only have, I mean, they had two substitutes. Maybe it was always Perry Groves would come on. Or Kevin Campbell would come on, or David O'Leary would come on. And that was basically the three, there were the three things that happened. Whereas now if you've got like the teams changing every week, there's 25 players in the squad. The 16 players are going to feature in each game. The same thing doesn't tend to happen, game after game after game. That like, I wonder if there's any other way to kind of have an organized team. Other than by saying, okay, these are the rules for our team, and everyone has to follow them. You know what I mean? In the sense that you can't really allow individual freedom when you've got so many individuals. You need to have them all like drilled. Otherwise, you can't, they can't sort of work together. There's not like this kind of, I don't know, chemistry or whatever word you want to use. That people develop from familiarity of playing every match together. No, but I think you can actually have in within a framework, you can say to players, this is what you can do.

56:10And this is what you're able to do. Obviously there are going to be players who do that better than other players. But I, again, I think if you're a certain, if you're a coach with a certain type of mindset, you will look at whatever the circumstances are and they will tally with how you want things to be. So if you're out there, you'll take that argument and say, that's right, this is why we can't do that, because we've got all these players and we have to interchange them. Whereas if you think differently about football, you might decide, well, no, there is still that. There is still that freedom. Now, to your point, I would say, like the team that are actually most enjoyable to watch at the moment are Manchester United and they would actually make that in some ways because they're playing so few games. Yeah, and they're playing a pretty consistent team now. Why wouldn't they? It seems to. Yeah, so that does speak to you. That does, you know, that would encourage that argument to a degree. But I still think our ourselves need for that control

57:12is bigger than that. I don't think if, even if they were in a situation where they were playing the same team all the time, they would, because we see what happens with the players who do actually try to take, you know, we saw what happened as a for a while. What happens to players who do step outside that. If something goes wrong. Yeah, if something goes wrong. Well, that's, and that's it, and that is the essence of a really, you know, you have to be, what are you prepared to accept going wrong in your system? Yeah, like the thing about, you mentioned when you're not there, and obviously they won again, again, it's from their top of the league since I'm really going to sacked, you know, their own beat, their own beat and it's just hilarious. The transformation from one of the worst teams in the league to the best team over the last eight matches. But like one of the big reasons why they are a good team to watch is Bruno Fernandez, right? Like, do you think that, John, again,

58:14Bruno Fernandez, he has a score penalty. He played an amazing ball for the winning goal by Chesco. Um, do you think a player, I mean, there are actually aren't many players like him anywhere in the Premier League, anywhere else in the Premier League at the moment. Do you think that such a player would actually be tolerated at a, at a system team? Well, I suppose the only one you would compare him to will be Cole Palmer, but Chelsea simplifying glows of ways to lose Kyle Palmer, a Cole Palmer, Kyle Palmer, Kyle Palmer was the drummer in ELP. Uh, Cole Palmer, uh, there's a lot of ways to lose him within the team. Um, Bruno is given probably the freedom he's always craved. I didn't get under Amorim. He's playing the best football probably of his career. I can't speak to his performances in Italy and Portugal. Um, but yeah, there is that, that idea, that freedom, that, um, do you think we, the thing with Manchester United,

59:16they're not playing with the same pressure as Arsenal, are they? Let's be fair about this. Uh, when Amorim and Carrick handed the job, it was like, this season's done. You know, we, we just wait for the next manager to come in and we'll just have to see what happens with Carrick. But it's, they're playing with the freedom and enjoyment and the one thing you would say that Carrick is done well is to, to, to reinstall that enjoyment in the team, but they've not playing with those same pressures. If Manchester United next season are under Michael Carrick, are in the Champions League, are fighting on three fronts, will they be able to play with that freedom that the demands of the game and the way other teams play, suggest otherwise, don't they? And you can tell that Manchester United's rise does appear to be annoying a few people. I've noticed this, um, the, the decision for the, for the penalty and the, you know, dog zone denial of a goal-scoring opportunity. Yeah. Enraged people, didn't it?

1:00:17And it's like, what we found fun, it's like, oh, well, that's typical. That's, you know, that's the way it's always gone at old traffic. Well, it hasn't for many years. Well, yeah, they're back. They're back now, John. Yeah, they're back now is the dark overlords when, you know, they put together a game on beat and run. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I, I thought like, it's one of the, that particular decision. And, okay, this weekend when there was loads of terrible decisions, we can maybe talk about some of them, even though what's the point? But that, I kind of felt like there was a lot made of this. I know you're sort of referring to the people complaining about it. I'm like, I think letter of the law, yeah, it's a penalty. And then they've got this rule, even though they've brought in the, oh, you don't give a, you don't give a red card for dog. So if it's a penalty, as long as the person's tried to play the ball, right? So in this case, the defender doesn't try to play the ball, because it's like, it's a, it's a shoulder tug, a light shoulder tug.

1:01:20It just altogether is the, the outcome of penalty to Manchester United and red card for such a tiny vowel. Just, it feels disproportionate. But I agree that by the letter of the law, yeah, you know, you can see why, yeah, you can see why it happened. But it just, it just sort of feels kind of feels a bit unfair. It's like, just give the penalty, you know, he hasn't sort of, he hasn't tried to do him there, but I suppose, you know, that's, I think it, I think it also, because it's, it's, it's done with VAR and there's all these delays and everything that everybody hates. Yeah. It adds sort of, and I was watching it and I kind of remind, I was like, what, what am I feeling? What is this reminding me of? And I'm looking at all this and they're going through the checklist. And you're saying, right, you need this and you need that. And it's taking so long and everything, you know, and we've so many times as we get. And actually, and it's, you know, it's something we've all wiped from, what a reminder me of was like lockdown, you know, when you were having a checklist of things you were allowed to, if you were able to go to a certain place, you know, on my 2k and my 5k and I go in, I'm having a nine, nine euro meal,

1:02:22you know, all these kind of, you know what I mean? And that's what, that's what they've done with football. They've turned it into this kind of, you know, here are all your rules and regulations. If you want to go ahead and have a good time. Or even just go and speak to somebody. Let's say petty authority must must be led to intrude into and govern over every, every aspect of this activity. Yeah. Well, the good news here, Chaps, I was reading the iFab meeting, which I suppose rather got overshadowed by world events. They're going to increase the dogs over rules. So I'm not quite sure what they are. But also VAR over the awarding of corners. So that will make the game fretful, even freer. I hadn't noticed that the expansion of dogs are real, so that's an interesting one. I did see that their answer to tempo disruption because this was the, this apparently was something, you know, people are tired of watching games where,

1:03:24you know, everyone's just standing around and the, you know, nothing's happening and we're waiting for it to start again. What are we going to do? You know, and it's like more VAR is what they come out. But also let's have countdowns for everything. So I don't know what the story is with this. I think it's like the referee can sort of say, I've lost patience with this player taking so long to go to field. I'm going to start at countdown now. I don't really be mic'd up to the answer, you know. After review. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, you know, I mean, it's just, it's sort of almost bearish belief. But here's the other thing about this, let's say just looking at that kune thing, one of the reasons is for straining. Is that if we go back to the Arsenal Chelsea game, there's like full on, like bare hugs from guys. So, so Declan Rice obviously got away with one just before the go that the Arsenal conceded where he's got his arms locked around. I was a sharp headdro and then handles it with his elbow.

1:04:28Or I can't remember which Chelsea player it was. No, it was, was it Joel Hato, maybe? I can't remember. Anyway, and then... And then Raya made the save at the end of it, you know. Yeah, Raya, Raya, there was one of Raya's good saves. It was from this rice deflection off his elbow. But like, I'm looking at that and looking at whatever about the handball. They look at the handball and say, well, he's in physical contact with your opponent. So they kind of, they forgive him the handball because like the other guy's kind of made him do it. It's apparently the logic. He's got both his arms locked around the guy. And then you see on the gold, they concede, immediately after, he's actually the bulldozing another guy again in a bare hook. This is the same thing we see with Saliba. You know, in the incident with Draupadro in the second half. Here's an article by Martin Ziegler. From the times they did August 14th. The referee's chief, Howard Webb, the August 14th, 2025. The referee's chief, Howard Webb, has a nice to crack down and players holding their opponents on set pieces

1:05:29except the tough new line will lead to more penalties. Instants in which players hold opponents with both arms are focused on their opponent instead of challenging for the ball. And we're holding a fexity attack as a moment. We'll result in the wording of fouls leading to a penalty for fences inside the area. And Webb says, I'd expect to see if he more penalties. He says, this isn't going to be one of those six week campaigns where we forget all about it. But I mean, the lesson from the Arsenal Chelsea game is like, you know, do what the Arsenal players are doing. If you look at the star on the gold that you're in Timber's course, he's looking around trying to see the ball. He doesn't have both arms locked around Timber. Yeah, Timber's course. I mean, that's an arsenal of taking the view that this isn't going to be clamped on, even in a VAR world. If there's enough of it going on that you actually put a kind of such a psychological pressure on VAR to say, are you going to do this every time? Are you going to stop this and start looking at this?

1:06:30You know, because there is, you know, that's, I mean, again, this is the whole, like, it's terrible to talk about. But the whole, there is a real pointlessness to this argument of a VAR saying, make decisions quicker. Because you either get rid of it or you're going to have to accept. So this is what's going to happen if you're sounding it over to a studio. And I said, bletchley park and sockley park. Bletchley park. What, do you, do you have a suggestion, John? I mean, we're kind of, we're here going. I thought I'd purchase, like, coming up with, um, rules. But like, yeah, they sort of, the, the, the average United Game last one day was just amazing, you know, in terms of this, this corner stuff. Obviously, last, yesterday, we see the biggest game of the weekend. Settle just by corners and this, you know, blah, blah, blah. Do you, do you number one think this is something that something should be, someone should try to do something about this? Like, I mean, we, you know, which, which itself is a position.

1:07:31I mean, maybe this is actually fine. And number two, if, if so, what could be done? I'm not sure. I'm, you know, the, um, I'm not quite in the abolitionist camp just yet. Even though VR has made the game far worse as a spectacle, the reason for that is that I think it, I, I was at the, uh, Estonville, a new castle game the other week when Chris Kavanaugh had an absolute nightmare. Oh, this was the cup, the cup game FA Cup game. Yeah. And I suppose one thing you could say is that that was a, particularly, but almost unique display of awful refereeing that, hopefully referees would, without the use of VR, we'll be able to have a bit more self determination, not second guest themselves and eventually river back to the mean. I'm not sure that's the case anymore because it, it's, it's the Pandora's box. It's open this whole thing. It's, they've changed the rules.

1:08:31I mean, reading over the, I found, um, stuff, you know, David Ellery, who, who we all remember is the Harrow Master that, you know, sent Dennis Irwin off, you know, kept sending, kept sending Ricky, you know, thank you. Yes, yes. Uh, yeah. Not a fan of Manchester United Irishman back in the day, uh, and they went a fan of him either. Uh, he, he, he's involved in this and it's sort of the tinkering of the rules and it's like, when you look at the amount of times that the rules have changed in the last hour of many years, it is eight years since we came in compared to the previous hundred odd years. It's, it's just got to the point where, I mean, you, uh, of my former colleague, Dale Johnson, who works at the BBC now, you know, you almost require someone like Dale to explain what was gone on over the weekend, you know, and it's, it's, it's created a whole new industry in itself. And we're all from an era where, you know, it was played so that the whistle get on, get on with the game. Uh,

1:09:33and if something goes against you, you play well enough to try and counter that and hope that a referee doesn't decide games, though, you know, you can go back to Chelsea against Barcelona back in 2009 and stuff like that. And obviously, uh, Island in Paris, where a refereeing decision does decide a game. I never used to think that was the case. And that was what caused this ground swell. And we, we have to accept that we're never going to go back to these days that didn't really exist of innocence and free flowing football that we all sort of enjoyed, but forgot all the bad stuff. That's how nostalgia works. It's, it's, it's, uh, it, it's something that, you know, when our next slot is sat there grumbling about how bad football is, VAR has been a big contributor to that. It's not just the set pieces. The grappling stuff, yeah, yeah, it is ridiculous. It does, you know, you're watching a rolling wall from rugby, aren't you? It's, uh, it's an unedifying spectacle. Um,

1:10:33of course, we operate in this world where everyone accuses each other of, uh, biases and, um, agendas. And there is the accusation that asks or get away with it more than anyone else, but I'm not sure that's the case. It's what everyone does now and asks them with just the trendsetters. I think when John says that, you know, you need someone like Dale Johnson to explain, and one of the terrible offshoots of this is that you also have an entire briefing culture that has kind of come out, you know, PGMOL, like we saw it with the, uh, with the, um, the, uh, game, the Liverpool Man City game, when, you know, Gary Neville was outraged at this goal that, you know, it's obviously I'd been sent off and the goal had been disallowed. Yeah. And by the time we got back to the studio, possibly, you know, post, uh, a briefing from PGMOL. The town I changed. The town I changed. And it's, and again, because everything, everything is in a different, pace now, like, you know, like, and there, there is an insertion of officials into,

1:11:34you know, the mic top thing is, is part of that as well as insertion, like the people who are briefing, like, okay, clubs are going to be briefing people about situations off the field and stuff and journalists about things during the, but very, the only people briefing during a game are the referees. And like, you know, and it's like, you know, this, this, this, points to how out of, out of whack the whole thing is God. That, you know, and again, with the, like, nobody, nobody said it's, it's trivial stuff, really, but nobody said, I tell you what we really need now. We need to hear from the referees on the page. You know, maybe Henry Winter said it, but, you know, nobody else said it. Um, you know, we need, we need the mic top and say, you know, unreviewed, you know, final, you know, my final decision. All that stuff, which is pointless. And there's just inserting them further into it. Now, I, I think there is a problem, like, I'm in the kind of abolish VAR camp. Yeah. But I also felt before VAR came in that we'd reached a point with, um,

1:12:34identification of mistakes that are very hard to continue as we were. Yeah. Because you had this terrible discourse and there were certain channels bee-teaming the class example who's suspended entire analysis of the game, just talking about refereeing decisions. They still do though. You know, they still do, but, but how you, how you, in, in a sort of surveillance society where every mistake, you know, you're going to have a hundred cameras on something, how you actually get back to a place where you accept, um, a degree of fallibility and referees is, is the issue. And that, like, and I'm not sure how you do that with or without VAR. Yeah, you probably, it's, yeah, it is, it is a problem. And I, and it seems that the refs prefer VAR, um, because I suppose for a soul, it's, it's good for the, it's just for the boys in the sense that, like, there's, there's more work to go around, but, you know, it's, it's, it's good for the refereeing industry. There's more of it. Way more of it. Oh, yeah. So that's, that's good.

1:13:35But also, it has this other effect of, of decentralizing the, the blame. Yes, it, or distributing the blame a little bit more. You know, it's not just the ref. The ref's like, hey, you know, I'm just, I'm just the ref. There's also the VAR guys is, there's web. There's, there's, you know, there's this whole sort of structure of authority that's, that, that, that the responsibility for any given mistake can be now disperse the moment. Yeah, I was just a spokesperson for the rules, like, you know? Yeah, I was going to say that, yeah, it extends to this, you know, this comms going on during the game, isn't it? Because I was, when I was at Bournemouth on Saturday, there was a, Sunderland would deny what looks a clear penalty, quite early on in the game. And then probably about five, ten minutes later, suddenly on the screen at the vitality, suddenly this explanation appears of something that happened ten minutes before that, okay, I didn't know it'd down. But most people in the game will have moved on from this. Yes, it was, it was normal contact, I think it was the phrase used.

1:14:39And so, okay, you've got this, you know, it's VAR is not live tweeting during a game. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's out, you know, to add a second screen to what you're doing. It's, you know, it is bizarre, isn't it? It's, you know, there's like an eye robot sort of world that we're, the, the, the, the, the Premier League football has become. I'd be saying, I think there's an important point right going into, like, like sentimentality to a certain degree. It's like this, the referees to see, if you want to, if you want to actually, you know, get referees involved, you know, recruit referees, there has to be a actual accept, like what this is doing for the idea that the referees' decision is final. And maybe not central, but slightly pious point. And it is hugely damaging because if you're talking about, like, you know, I'm involved in, in grassroots football, as I mentioned in every time on this podcast. But, you know, the only thing you have, the only thing you say to your kids playing football

1:15:44is you have to accept the referees' decision. You can, I don't care how stupid it is, you have to accept it. And that's the point. It's not, like, it's not that it can be debated, or it can be referred, or appealed, or there's another authority. It's like, that's the decision, get on with it. And yet we all know. They can see that that's not really worth it. But the football they're watching in the most part, like, you know, they're coming onto the pitch and they're doing celebrations they've seen at the, you know, watching, they're only watching YouTube, they're not watching full match. But, you know, that's what they're doing. But they're also aware that there is, like, that there is this other authority. Now, the referee is just like a guy, being sent out to kind of, you know, frontman for this corrupt organization, basically. Yeah. And, you know, and ultimately, like, if he gets it wrong to be somewhere else to come along and do something. So I think, and that's something the officials, I don't think, you know, have really factored into this, that it is going to undermine the idea of accepting a decision,

1:16:44not that they're getting it right, but that you just accept it. Yeah. Well, it's something that Johnny Infantina actually was speaking about after the IFAF meeting the importance of respect and conducting yourself in a respectful way in order to give a good example to all the children in the world while his peace prize guy was both the medic getting 48, 48 leaders in one shot. But we'll, we'll leave it there. Dion, Dion, John, thanks a million for talking to us about all that this morning. Thanks, John. Good chance, he jumps. I hope people enjoy the podcast podcast to take out the seconds captains podcasting the hugely successful podcast. I'm sincere about this. I want to thank the gentleman to take out the take out the take out. Here at Blue Apron, we've been thinking a lot about the whole cooking thing. And we've decided you shouldn't have to cook. Introducing dish by Blue Apron,

1:17:46pre-made meals that are ready in five minutes or less, at least 20 grams of protein, a good source of fiber, and no artificial flavors or colors. Shop dish by Blue Apron at Blue Apron.com. Get 50% off your first two orders with code apron 50, terms and conditions apply. Visit Blue Apron.com slash terms for more. Ryan Reynolds here for Midmobile, the message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please for the love of everything goodness world stop. With Mid, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpay no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at midmobile.com slash switch upfront payment of $45 for three-month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate for three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra, see full terms at midmobile.com. I was saying at the start of the show that were only 24 days from March 26th from the playoff

1:18:53and Prague. That means we're even closer to the celebration of our patron saint. Our national day is on only 15 days. It's great to see that Austin Villa have noticed this. Actually, Villa brought out a lovely little shirt. It's a green one now. It's got some, I'm just trying to open it up here so I can show it to you. Hey look, look at that. Austin Villa prepared and its Irish heroes have made legendary events. Can we play the audio of the little clip they tweeted? From Stanton, to Helton, to Townsend, to God. Irish heroes have made legendary villains. So, please, no? God being palm of gravity. Yeah, and you can buy that from the... But what's this? Sunderland Football Club? What's the word? Sunderland?

1:19:56From O'Shea and Murphy, to McEdean Queen. Oh, look, it's the same guy. The same fucking template. She's the toast of Ireland. That's not a real match. That's been the pride of what it's like. Don't look at the AI, is that it? I don't know. No, no. Queen appears. I don't know if it's a real... No, Queen or an AI. I wouldn't... He appears in the... Yeah, okay, well, okay, villain. Sunderland is doing the same thing, but I mean, I'm sure that I guess that was how, like, this cookie-cooter potty wakery is going to just be replicated at a, like, Clubs such a pride clip, like, Everton Football Club. From Sheddy and Cole, I want to hear the line in this one. Some of our greatest blues are green. Okay, some of our greatest blues are green. There may be a whole bunch of other... I presume every club has it. If those three, there's something in particular linking those three clubs, isn't it? Well, not apart from the wonderful history of Irish players who built the clubs with their own hands

1:21:00and wearing their mullskins trousers. But I think they've got different kids' suppliers. But look, it may not only be these clubs, but it's true. Do they have the wolf zones across the front of it? But yeah, I mean, they hired that guy for some reason. I see, they've been the wolf. Does Angry Welsh fans say, well, you never did anything for St David's Day? St David's Day was... Which was yesterday? Was yesterday? Yep. I've never even heard of St David's Day. Do you know what? There was something about St David's on TV. Am I seven-year-old kid that said, oh, what's this about who's St David? And I was like, nobody. I felt like something I should have known, but if can't heard, you'd know it either. I actually feel a lot better. Honestly, you never heard of him. Yeah. Honestly, you never heard of him. You never heard of St David, the patron saint of Wales. Until today. He's not. He doesn't have the same name recognition as St Patrick. He doesn't even have the profile of a Saint George. He's no Saint George, and he's no Saint Andrew. Saint George is probably Welsh as well, and Saint Patrick as well. I feel bad. At the start of the... At the start of the build-up to Arlen's Wales this week, it's quite clear, our saint kicks who they gave to us.

1:22:04Well, we talked. He was stolen, as I was saying. They gave to us their saint. We kicked nothing off. And listen, he's kicking the head out of there, same thing. To Saint George kill dragons, and the castle. Yes. Yeah. That would be his vibe. That's cooler than Killam's. Saint Andrew of course invented golf. But I don't even... I'm not sure how the English kind of decided that they were going to take... You actually believed me there, but... No, I just could paint and drop it a little bit there. Why? Saint George actually has nothing to do with England, right? They've just kind of... They've just kind of glammed on to him as the same way that they have lions and unicorns and stuff like that. He's literally got as much to do with England as these things. He's in a Catalan as well. And Georgia, isn't he? Yeah, you see him. But where have you gone? I told you Saint George grew up in Palestine. George of Capitolce. Yeah. Yeah. He was born to a Palestinian mother and raised in historic Palestine.

1:23:04Oh, there you go. Historic Palestine, I'm sure there's absolutely no war where it's over that. That's fine. All right. Can... Murph... Kevin. Oh, what? Oh, we've ended up with our more clubs. No, I'm sorry. There may be more, but... It's just Saint George's body. He's got more countries on Murphus Clubs. Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Thank you, Karen, thank you, Kevin. And thanks for that. Heat Andrews is... The storm is out. That's the second time it's done off. Never go home, never go home, never go home, never go home. That's fine. It is not war and death and famine. It's not that at all. It's the opposite of that. It's the Swedish rule outside of that. That's the right sports important. Active campaign is the marketing automation platform built for big swings and big dreams. Generate ideas in seconds,

1:24:04import your brand, and create full campaigns with simple prompts. Get started for free. At ActiveCampaign.com. Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to fantasy fanfellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the fantasy fangirls podcast, and your resident lover of all things Sanderson. And I'm Steven, your bookish internet goofball, but you can call me the smash daddy. And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic, Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before. That's right. Hey, hey, so each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chip.

1:25:05And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert, he'll be wrong. Newsflash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.