Why were so many English clubs humbled in Champions League?

This is a global player, original podcast.

It's not an admission.

The reality is a reality of where the group are.

They've played over a hundred games in 18 months.

They've had no break in terms of the international games,

the travelling that say, as Yael Pedro,

or Enzo Fernández, and Moi Cayse, they do to South America,

it's not an excuse.

And then six became two.

Just weeks ago, we were talking about

intelligence in Europe.

Now, it's just Liverpool and Arsenal

who make it through to the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

The four sides that went out,

because he did 28 goals between them in the last 16.

Liam Rossini said his players were fatigued,

but did English clubs have dominance even in the first place?

And sticking with Europe,

Bodo Glimps were on the verge of an historic

Champions League quarterfinal with Arsenal,

and then a capitulation in Lisbon

saw their fairy tale come to an end.

And Gabby's hopes of a trip to Bodo coming to an end.

How did a town with a population that could fit inside the Etihad

make it this far?

Can other smaller clubs follow suit?

How is this season's success for them?

Hold down to top them.

Welcome to the Sports Agents.

The Sports Agents.

With Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman.

Hello, Mark.

Hi, Gabby.

So the dream is over.

What's a music about this?

Is that we actually spoke to Lars

before the second leg of that last 16 tie,

against Sports Agents Lisbon,

and kind of did it in a way of,

we think they'll go through how amazing.

And Gabby should be able to go to Bodo to cover the...

And I would speak, because the quarterfinal I'm doing that night,

now I am going to Lisbon.

So it would have been Bodo.

Yeah, because we never know who's going to get rich games

and which nights they're going to fall on.

But I can tell you that trip was just...

It was there. It was in the palm of my hand.

Oh, no.

I love Lisbon, it's quite city, but I've been there before.

So it's a really nice interview with Lars civics

and a little bit later.

And it's still massively relevant.

It's just taken a little bit of editing

to take some of the optimism out of it.

Yeah, it's been a strange week, hasn't it?

I don't think anybody really saw any other outcome.

Those were the two teams, weren't they?

Arsenal Liverpool, who were predicted out of the six

to come back from those quite dreadful first legs

for quite a few teams.

But it's the manner as well.

I mean, that first half in Newcastle,

I thought we're going to have a right ding dong.

It's going to be you score one and score one.

And then just obviously got away from them in the second half.

But even Manchester City's kind of limping through that game really.

It never really came to life that much,

did it in terms of hope for City?

I mean, they had a few chances early in the first five minutes.

They could have two, couldn't they?

But then they were reduced to ten.

But then they were reduced to ten.

I think, and one of these,

I've tried to speak to the pundits about this week

when doing the Champions League is,

look, the teams that have gone out

had very difficult times, you know.

They were taking on the elite of Spain and France, basically.

They didn't get the draw, say,

of a, with all due respect, of a bowdough flip tour.

I mean, you know, obviously got accepted, didn't they?

Or at a lanter, you know.

So, I do take that into account in all of this soul searching.

And by the way, on this soul searching as well,

I don't think football fans really give two hoots, to be honest.

I think you support your club and the relative,

the relative strength of a domestic league.

It's something that the media are obsessive about.

But it is interesting in just standing back and looking at a season, isn't it?

Because every year, Clarency Adolf says to us,

don't get too excited in October, November and December.

It's where it all starts this February and March, you know.

And when you look at PSG, who can persuade their league,

regularly as they do, to postpone matches,

to help them prepare for Champions League games,

let alone having, you know, the winter breaks

that Anna Slocke keeps mentioning that we don't have,

yes, Anna, we've noticed.

You know, and the FA Cup and Carabell Cups coming as they do

in this very congested period as well.

You know, we are kind of really stacking the odds against the English teams.

Well, a little bit.

But then you go the other way.

And I think a lot of fans of other Premier League clubs

would then go, well, why would we alter the fixtures list

to favour them in Europe?

I don't think that we should.

And I think that's the odd thing in some ways.

You know, Paris Saint-Germain, yes, you know,

they have all the power in that league to be able to go,

well, can we rearrange this and not play them?

And so on and so forth.

And other countries have winter breaks.

I sort of understand that as well,

although I am incredibly cynical about that in this country

because I think we all know that several of them

would probably go off somewhere far more than rich

and rich and play a friendly and earn some money.

I just think, going back to that point,

they've had difficult opponents,

but they've been absolutely walloped.

I mean, Chelsea have conceded eight over two legs,

City five over two legs, Spurs seven over two legs,

Newcastle eight over two legs.

They haven't lost two one or three, two on aggregate.

They have been smashed.

Now, actually, we are at, we are,

you do get a lot of big score lines in these games

at the moment.

Look at it.

Look at what Bayern have done.

Look at the sporting bow dough game as well.

But they have really struggled.

And Oliver Kay on the athletic road,

that he's looked at some of these teams

and they seem to struggle coming up against

expansive, attacking, fast breaking teams

because the Premier League isn't that anymore.

It is attritional and deep-line defences

and to be honest, quite dull.

Well, the team who are being accused of playing

the dullest and most, you know,

because they rely so much on their set piece, obviously,

and a lot of people giving Arsenal stick

for their style of dominance,

are still in it, right?

And you wouldn't bet against them

getting through to another semi-final this year

against sporting Lisbon.

So, is there something in the fatigue?

I say this only because there's a table

on the BBC Sports website,

which I put on our group today,

which is quite interesting about days lost to injury.

And the average Premier League amount of days

would be 675.

And most five of the six clubs

who were in the last 16 in the Champions League

from this country had a lot more days than that.

Only Liverpool actually had fewer.

Newcastle had one thousand and six days.

Tottenham, one thousand and one hundred and twenty-eight

which won't surprise you atop.

So, a lot of football does lead to a lot more injuries.

And that obviously has played its part.

I think there will be plenty of other teams

who will go hang on to me.

You're the richest league in the world

and you've got massive squads

and you pump all the money into your academies.

Do you know what I mean?

There will always be a counter.

You're a Manchester United fan.

Manchester United doing very well at the moment in the league.

They're not playing in any other competitions.

I'm well aware of that.

There is definitely a link.

There's definitely a link between the amount of football you play

if you haven't got the talent there.

But I'm not listening.

I'm not getting a tiny small violin out

and playing it for the Premier League at all.

Those clubs deserve to go through who won this week

and they are great to watch.

Paris Saint-Germain is just turning on the right time.

They are scintillating when they play well

and I wish them all the very best.

It just feels there's something skewed here

that is maybe going to prevent any more than two

going through to quarterfinals in future years

even if we get five or six through.

I also find the whole debate quite interesting

with people what the metric is for best league in the world.

They will always say,

yeah, richest or top can beat bottom.

Anybody can beat any time.

Anybody can beat bottom can beat top.

Actually, I'm not sure that's necessarily been the case

the last couple of years in the Premier League.

Although walls have started to turn it round a little bit.

Well, according to Opta, the Burnley,

who are currently the lowest ranked side in the Premier League,

are tougher opposition than nine teams in Spain's La Liga

and 11 teams in Syria.

I'm not sure how they come up with those metrics,

but even the top European experts that we speak to

would say that there's a competition between maybe five or six teams

in those leagues and actually they would expect to beat

every other team below them.

In Germany, maybe even fewer,

such as by Munich's dominance at the moment.

What would they be in La Liga?

So they would be tougher opposition than nine teams in Spain's La Liga.

That means they probably sit mid-table

and 11 teams in Italy's Syria.

So rumours that Burnley are applying to play in Syria.

So if I was to follow Opta there,

that they would be tougher opposition than nine teams in La Liga,

that would mean that they are tougher than Valencia,

Sevilla, and Mallorca,

who are all in the lower reaches of La Liga.

We should explore this more.

I would love to know how they work that out.

Because how does that take into account crowds and atmosphere

and injuries and I'd be really interested in that?

Well, let's get somebody from Opta on to explain

how they come up with those metrics.

Talk to the supercomputer.

Can we just have them while we're talking Burnley?

Let's move a few miles over to Bolton

and talk about their bid to become the first English host

of the Ryder Cup in more than 30 years.

Andy Burnham, who of course is the mayor of Greater Manchester,

said the bid was not pie in the sky.

It makes a great headline, doesn't it, Bolton and the Ryder Cup?

But we thought one of Bolton's favourite

son's, prodigal sons, because he lives and spends

all his time in the south, of course,

should tell us why Bolton should be the host

of the Ryder Cup.

Here's Vernon K.

Hey, Gabby, I'm Mark.

I believe you're looking for someone who's obsessed with golf

and is from Bolton.

Well, Paddy McGuinness is way too expensive,

so I've taken the button and I'll do it.

Bolton is a tremendous tone.

It's a great spirited tone

and its catchment area for sport is massive.

It sits between Liverpool and Manchester,

so it's got great cities either side.

It's on the cusp of the Yorkshire Lancashire border,

not really, but geographically,

if you're telling Americans where Bolton is,

you'd say it's pretty much that.

And it's got obsessive golf players, golf fans.

If you think of the people that can get to Bolton within the UK,

it's so accessible.

It's got tremendous highways and bywares to get to Bolton.

The opportunity to have the Ryder Cup in the tone

would be tremendous.

I mean, let's not forget people are fully aware

that Bolton Wonders were one of the founding fathers

of the Football Association.

I think it's a great opportunity to step away

from the filed cost and the Whirl and then bring it more inland

having the Ryder Cup in Bolton.

I can't believe I'm saying it.

It would be tremendous.

And I completely agree with him.

I completely agree with him.

I think it would be a, it would be amazing for Bolton.

They are trying to put greater infrastructure in place already.

And it would be somewhere different

and not the usual open random.

And you get to stay home.

I get to stay at home.

That'd be dead easily.

Quick half an hour journey into the Ryder Cup every morning.

That'd be perfect compared to sort of the recently,

which would take like an hour and a half to get to the course.

Not that I'm complaining.

It's an amazing thing to do.

Yeah, I'm fully with Vernon.

I'm fully with Vernon.

Also, it's only our kind of perception

as a nation of what Bolton is in terms of thinking it's somehow

a comedic suggestion.

The rest of the world would go Bolton.

Lovely.

Sounds lovely.

Oh, that looks nice.

The course looks lovely.

Where can I go for the week?

Where can I stay?

Oh, I could stay on the coast or I could stay in the centre of Manchester.

Or I could stay in Liverpool.

You know, it's actually, it's not a bad kind of idea at all.

I don't think.

No.

And actually, some of us up here think it's a perfectly normal idea.

Why would you go anywhere else?

And the other thing, bizarrely,

this whole momentum of the Ryder Cup

and how it has grown into what it has grown,

really started at the Belfry.

And the Belfry just in the sort of middle of the middle of the UK.

The middle of Birmingham covered in Pylons.

So, this all started.

This all started at a place that maybe,

I don't know, whenever it was announced.

And it wasn't as big then, maybe raised a few eyebrows.

But that started not one of the courses that's on the open rotation.

No.

The only thing that's disappointed about that was,

and I know Vernon mentioned Paddy McGinnis there.

But if you're going to talk about, you go to Sarah first.

You go to Coxie first.

And then I know the way he's gone.

But then you work.

I didn't have Sarah's number in my phone.

But also Vernon is a golfer.

I don't think Sarah plays golf.

No, that's also a very good point.

She's a show jumper.

Yes.

She's an equestrian.

So next time that they try and put the world,

show jumping championships in Bolton,

I'll bring her on.

Anyhow, enough of our chat about our famous friends from Bolton.

You can catch up on previous Paddy McGinnis.

Do you have his number?

I don't have Paddy's number.

No, I don't have the other two.

I feel like I'd get it from Vernon if we need it.

Yeah, well, we could all do that.

Come on.

You can catch up on the woman off the chase.

She's from Bolton, isn't she?

She's just going.

Amir Khan.

He's from Bolton.

Amir Khan.

And we're just going through Bolton now.

Peter Kay.

Peter Kay.

Where was I up to on the play?

You can get to the previous episodes.

Yeah, there we are.

YouTube global player wherever you get your pods.

And we'd love you to subscribe or follow and leave a review.

And do get in touch on socials at the Sports Agency or email

of the Sports Agency at global.com.

So is the success of Bodo Glimt really down to hiring a fighter pilot?

The much edited interview with Lars Sivitson is next.

The Sports Agency.

The Sports Agency.

With Gabi Logan and Mark Chapman.

Lars, thank you so much for joining us.

I think Mark and I both cover the Champions League.

And the Bodo story this season has just given us all so much joy.

You know, you think you might be neutral in a fixture when you're watching a game.

But when Bodo are playing, you can't but want them to do well.

There is something so beautiful about this whole story.

So we want to kind of dive into some of the quirks of the club

and some of the ways that they've managed to navigate this Champions League.

Well, not even being in their regular season right now,

which is just incredible, isn't it?

And the challenges that they have.

How long has this journey been going in terms of, you know, where they've got to now?

So it has been a continuous thing over, um, over a number of years.

Since they got, I mean, you have to go back to when they were in the second tier

about eight, nine years ago.

And even them, and they used to be a bit of a yoyo club.

It's not easy running a football club in the Arctic Circle and being competitive.

And they were, and they were the first team from the North to win a trophy.

So they have a history, but they've always been a bit of a yoyo club.

Then they got promoted and started being competitive there at the top of the table.

And when they won the league, that was considered a miracle in itself,

which they've then proceeded to do a number of times.

And then there's been a gradual progression in Europe claiming their first scalps,

you know, playing in the Europa League, Europa Conference League,

and finally getting to the Champions League.

But I do remember a few years ago, they very narrowly lost the Champions League qualifier to Milan.

And I remember thinking, oh no, that was the moment, you know,

they might not get a chance to do it again, but here they are.

And it's their ability to keep raising the levels,

keep taking on a bigger and bigger challenge is incredible.

I'm really glad that you're having this reaction to it, Gabby,

because I'm at the risk of resorting to pomposity here.

I do think this is not just a heartwarming story.

I think it's an important story, because what we're seeing in European football

is that it's dominated by an ever smaller circle of ever richer clubs.

And most of us don't support one of those clubs,

like a lot of us still support our local teams.

So I think it's important that you have a team that shows that it is possible

on a rational sensible budget to achieve things,

even if you don't have what we in Norway refer to as a rich uncle.

So I would say, like, if you're supporting Exeter or Torkey

or whoever you are, like in the UK, you should be rooting for Bulldogland,

because if it's possible for them to go from the second tier of the Norwegian League

and getting to this level without any kind of financial doping,

it is possible for you guys as well.

And that is why we buy our season tickets every year, isn't it?

I don't want to go on a negative here, but what is the reaction

and the support of Norwegian football fans, not burdo fans,

but Norwegian fans to this story?

Because the more successful you are in the Champions League,

the richer you become.

And by nature, if you are in one of the smaller leagues in Invertercomers,

your success can then distort the domestic competition.

Yeah, that is a concern.

I mean, there will be Norwegian fans who are passionate fans of Brann,

of baking, of Rosenberg, of Olranger, who look at this and think,

yeah, this isn't good for us.

Like this is not good for us at all.

Because the amount of money that they are now bringing in,

if they manage it carefully, yes, you could set up a dynasty.

But here is the thing, they didn't win the league last year,

viking from Solanger won the league last year,

which is an incredible achievement by them.

So it is still, again, the lesson is that everything is possible.

And I like what Bordeglimte have done with the extra income so far.

Because they have actually spent a fair amount of that money

bringing back players that they had who left.

If you look at the squad, a number of them were successful at Bordeglimte,

earned moves abroad, decided that they didn't like it.

And Bordeglimte have now spent some of that money that they made

to offer them better contracts if you want to come home and still play in Bordeglimte.

Let's talk about the practicalities of being a club inside the Arctic Circle.

Right? So the season finishes around November time

and picks up again sometime in mid-Mid-March, I think.

Is that right?

Yeah, we just started the first round of the Norwegian League was this weekend.

Yeah, so all these big scouts they've taken in the last few months have been out of season.

They play on a plastic pitch, obviously.

Spend a lot of time away from the area, away from Bordeglimte,

because of the weather training in other parts of Europe as well.

So there's lots of practicalities that they have to consider.

So when you're recruiting players, you're not saying come to our club

and have a nice settled life and it's a...

You've got to kind of sway them into a very different football experience.

Yeah, that's a really good point that you're struck on.

Is there a recruitment side of it?

Because I do think one of the reasons they've done this,

their superpower is the togetherness,

is the community that they've created.

I think that their coach yet to acknowledge and said something about the thing

where the best that is about being us, us as in the group.

And I think part of that success is that you get people through the building

who 100% buy into this.

Because if you have someone who's a massive egomaniac and thinks he's...

Yeah, they probably don't want to move to a city of 50,000 people

inside the Arctic Circle.

You eradicate some of the wrongs just by the nature of where you are

and what the place is.

Because you only go there if you're fully committed to being part of this group.

But of course, it throws up...

And this is a debate we're having in Norway now.

Is it an advantage or a disadvantage to not be in the middle of the season?

I would argue still, that is a disadvantage.

Especially when you get to the go to the first games,

like when you have to play competitive games,

not having played a competitive game for so long, it's a problem.

They've done so well.

They've had warm water training camps.

And I think the fact that they're so sharp physically in these encounters

is a real credit to the players, of course, for the work they've put in

but also the coaching staff.

But it's not an easy thing to do.

It isn't.

The players have had to cancel holidays.

I mean, usually in the winter, you will go to the Canary Islands

or something with their girlfriends.

And there were players who, when they progressed,

when they went out of the group, were like, oh, no.

We had a holiday schedule for this.

We have to cancel that.

So they end up just not really having a break, in a sense.

It's like they've had to shift the pre-season

and start the pre-season much earlier than any other team in Norway,

is the way they've effectively done that.

They've played every, we haven't had a week off for a year, have they?

No, effectively.

I mean, there wasn't a lot going on around Christmas,

but you still have to stay sharp.

You can tell them to go and relax the way they normally would.

And I think the way they've done this,

I mean, the wins against City and Athlete were incredible

but it's also worth pointing out the point they got away to Dortmund

because half the squad had the flu or something.

Like there was illness in the group

and they were not in a good place in the league qualification.

The fact that they were able to go away in December after the league season

would have to squad ill and get a point away to Dortmund.

That ended up, of course, being pivotal.

And it shows really the determination and the stilliness

that is in this group of players.

How much of this is down to the head coach and his staff?

A lot.

But I really want to highlight the fact that it is the strength of this

is the community that they have, which is, I think, as unique.

But, of course, the coach has done an absolutely incredible job.

He is, as a tactician, he's very brave.

You'll notice, the first half against sporting,

they were so good in possession, the way they kept the ball,

the way they moved it.

And I think it's a real credit to him that they can play in different ways

because in Norway, they are a possession team.

They averaged like 63% possession or something in the league last year.

They control their games.

And, of course, as good as they are when you're playing city,

that's not going to happen.

So they've had to play games in the Champions League,

where they've had to sit back, where they've had to defend,

where they've had to be structured off the ball.

And it's an incredible achievement, I think, to be able to master

these two completely diametrically opposed ways of playing football.

And that's one thing that's very different this year is they've gotten better

of having the parries of time when they have to suffer.

But they also said that.

They're so good at focusing on the process and not on the outcome.

So when they beat Atlassica Madrid, incredible results.

But they were saying in interviews, one of the players said

in an interview, after you've had this incredible experience and said,

yeah, we won, but we did end up like being pushed quite far back

and we ended up being quite deep.

And this is really how we wanted to play this game,

which is like, what are you talking about?

You've just beaten Atlassica Madrid away from home.

But they are laser focused on the performance, on the process,

because they believe that if you get that right.

I'm going to pick you up on the word laser, actually,

because it's right.

Oh, yeah, see the connection.

How important is Bjorn Mansfield?

Is that how you say his name?

In terms of, yeah, in terms of, and the word laser relevant,

because he was a fighter pilot, right?

Yeah, I mean, there's just really not that many teams in the Champions League

who have a member of the coaching staff who has actually dropped bombs

on Gaddafi's forces during this sort of intervention in Libya.

That's not entirely common, I guess.

I think he's very important not being in the dressing room.

I don't have firsthand knowledge.

But again, I am so impressed by the mentality they show the way

they're not phased by these big occasions.

The way border glimpsed are able to keep their heads,

are able to not freak out.

And that's what Bjorn was brought in to hone that mental focus.

Yeah, and that's something that they do absolutely incredibly well.

They do a lot of meditation and things like this.

They're working on mindfulness and stuff.

They're out of the box thinkers.

I believe pre-match huddles have been a big topic in Britain.

Over the weekend.

You will find they like a huddle border glimpsed.

And you might see that if, let's say they can see it very early,

let's say they can see it maybe once or twice,

and everything is going wrong.

You might see the players do a huddle just to have a chat about what's going on

and let's get out there.

I think they have a captaincy group.

They have a revolving captaincy thing.

So they're encouraged to have many leaders in the group

and take responsibility themselves on the field,

which is something the coach encourages.

I think he's very humble and good of him.

So that's a big part of their success as well.

What I find interesting as well is what happens next with them

and how vulnerable they are to bigger European clubs

to come hovering and picking off their best talent.

But you balance that, don't you Lars, with as you said.

A couple of these players have gone elsewhere, tried it, and come back.

They strike me as not necessarily a group or even a coach

who will necessarily think the grass is green or elsewhere.

Yeah, that's such an interesting point in all of this.

And I genuinely wonder what the scouting fraternity make of this

and what the recruitment guys around Europe make of this.

Because you have a lot of guys who think,

okay, they've done well in Norway, but then they went abroad

and it didn't work and they went back.

That would usually be a pretty big red flag.

But then they go out and like trounce various giant European teams.

And then you say, what exactly do you make of that?

It's going to, but you look at the most eye catching players,

maybe Jens Petra, how you get, has had a career abroad.

But I think in his stints at Milan and at Frankfurt,

you definitely saw glimpses, even then,

that he is very, very talented and could and probably should be playing

in a bigger league.

It's interesting, someone like Patrick Berg, the midfield general,

who's a third generation buddha glim player,

both his father and grandfather played for the club,

had a short stint with Lance in France, didn't seem to settle it all and came back.

He is somewhat again based on his performances for glimped

and for the national team, really should be of interest for a bigger league.

But I do wonder if, again, when the club is in a position to pay them

pretty decent salaries by Scandinavian standards,

even though it's nothing compared to what they'd get in England,

for instance, but still it's a good living.

And you're able to have these unbelievable experiences in Europe.

Maybe you'd be a little bit tempted to do what the Rosenberg players did in the 90s.

We had a Rosenberg team who were from Bronttronheim,

who were a competitive in the Champions League almost every year.

And the core of that group remained very similar for long period of time.

Can you tell us a little bit about what life is like in Bodo?

So you've got a population of 54,000.

You could fit them inside some of the big stadiums, the Etihad, for example,

in the UK, you could put the whole city there.

What do they do for a living?

What are people doing when they're not donning yellow and cheering for their football team?

I mean, it's an incredibly beautiful place.

I think it's worth pointing out as well.

And it's one of those things where you're going to have a lot of weather.

That's unpleasant.

But then you probably appreciate it even more when it's nice.

And of course, you have no sunshine really to speak of in the winter.

But then you have a lot of sunshine in the summer.

So like an hour or two.

What's the daylight?

We have the polar night.

I mean, we're inside the polar circuit.

So in the mid-dead of winter, there is no sunshine.

The sun doesn't come up.

You're inside the Arctic Circle.

That's how that works.

But in the summer, you also have this just night.

It's just bright all the time.

So it's a bit of a head scratcher from that perspective.

There's a fishing community, of course.

And it's a commercial center for the region in a sense.

It's just a small one compared to what you guys are used to.

I guess.

I'm desperate to go sometime in the future.

I don't think it's going to be next season.

Sadly, because I don't think they're in the Champions League.

But you never know.

I might get to cover them on telly sometime.

There is one thing for a British audience is we're saying.

If one of the secrets, I think,

behind the success of this season,

it is actually all thanks to Tottenham.

Just not in a way you might expect.

Because you might remember last year,

they came up very short in the Europa League games in Tottenham.

They were not themselves in those games.

Which was sad for me, really.

I did quite a few of these interviews.

I ended up that game and then they weren't that good,

which I thought was unfortunate,

because they weren't able to show what I've seen them do so many times.

But they were shocked in that game by how physical spurs were.

Because say what you want about Tottenham.

But if you look through the lineup they had against Bulldoggimp.

There's a lot of dudes who are like six foot something

and full of muscles.

And they just couldn't get an air in the challenges.

They were really struggling physically.

And it actually made them rethink how they train.

They changed their whole thing about how they prepare physically

and how they train based on how much they struggled against spurs in the Europa League.

They even contacted the club.

I actually wasn't aware of this.

I read this now in the Norwegian press before the sporting game.

They got in touch with Tottenham to ask them

and to learn more about how they prepare physically.

Because they were like, you guys are so much stronger than us.

What's going on?

And they were apparently told by spurs not we buy physique.

I guess this is what's the transfer market.

We get off the shelf.

On current evidence, Lars.

I think Tottenham might be back in touch with Bulldoggimp at the moment.

Yeah.

Possibly they bought too much physique.

But I guess that's the difference.

When you make the kind of television money that you do in the Premier League,

then if you want strong players, you buy them.

Whereas if you're a team from Norway,

what they've done is they've added a lot more strength work to their whole schedule.

Thank you so much, Lars.

It's been fascinating chatting to you.

Fascinating. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

The Sports Agents.

The Sports Agents.

With Gabi Logan and Mark Chapman.

Looks like I'm going to have to pay for my own trip to the Arctic Circle.

I haven't forbid.

Oh no.

Actually, because they didn't,

because they haven't won the Norwegian title,

the season that sort of finished.

Just gone.

Well, not just gone.

So end of last year.

Viking won that.

They won't be in it.

You'll have to slum it in the Europa League.

Yeah. Well, you get to some nice places there.

Don't you?

You do in the Europa League.

You never know.

That might be where Newcastle are playing.

If we can pick up some points in the Premier League.

There you go.

They could be.

They could be in the Europa League.

There you go.

Hardcore.

With the yellow toothbrush.

That's it for today.

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The Sports Agents.

With Gabi Logan and Mark Chapman.

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