
Fútbol Fellas
Group of Friends talking about football, come see if we know what we are talking about.
Fútbol Fellas
It’s Starting to Look Like Summer
Episode 43.
Jerrell:43. I'm back. You guys don't have to listen to me. I'm not speaking to the void. Will
Will:I really enjoyed it.
Jerrell:here. Christian is out today. Unfortunately. He watched that, he watched that Columbia promo. I, I got hyped watching it and I was just like, I understand half these things. But when I saw all
Will:I,
Jerrell:players like, let's
Will:I really, I really took last week off'cause I didn't want to be held accountable for how highly I ranked Todd and him in preseason versus where they finished. So I was just like, you know what? I'm ducking the smoke, the smoke's not for me. But thanks for holding it down, drill.
Jerrell:oh, yeah, no problem. Yeah, I, I covered a lot. We talked about Arsenal women, we talked about the conference league. We talked about Chelsea, but getting their all the infinity stones and UFA tournaments, so it was pretty crazy. I. We're football fellows. We're back. We are two thirds of a full squad. Today is Thursday, June 5th, 2025. I'm Jarrell, like I said, Will's here with me too. Will you got any shout outs from your time
Will:Shout out to the two thirds,'cause sometimes all you need is two thirds. Christian, we hope you're doing well. Shout Arsenal Women. Gerald, thanks for the coverage while they're out. But shout Arsenal Women. I watched that game front to back and I was just like, whoa, Barcelona's gonna get it eventually. And then at some point around 60, I was just like it'd be crazy. Arsenal got the goal and they just held the fuck on. So shout out to them stopping that three feet. So Arsenal Women, shout out to you. I, summer euros, women euros coming up. Maybe we'll dive a little bit deeper into the women's game. Maybe we'll continue to try to expand our back a little bit further. Who knows?
Jerrell:More than the Club World Cup,
Will:I'd much rather go over the women's Euros respectfully than the Club World Cup. Yes.
Jerrell:I don't wanna really
Will:Yeah.
Jerrell:But yeah, no, I, I was, I was watching that final on the way to the beach. I had my phone and I didn't have one of those mag safes where you can just dock it on your dashboard. It's just like the phone's in my lap. I'm like, it's basically the radio now and just trying to keep up with it.
Will:Gerald said certain things are worth risking it all for.
Jerrell:All of it. Yeah. To see Arsenal lift a trophy, please. All right, so we did have the Champions League last week. I did Kind of like favor inner.
Will:Ions.
Jerrell:I did favor inner going into it, and boy was I
Will:Holy shit. Life came a drill fast. I think we were all leaning into with our hearts and we're like creating in our head, like I can see how they can eek it out. And then PSG was just like, fuck your narrative pretty much.
Jerrell:Oh God. Five zero the largest. Margin of victory and finals history or something like that, or they definitely made sure I was telling, I was telling my girlfriend before, I was just like, yeah. So trying to give her some backstory on both teams. I'm like, P, S G's, the type of team word for word. I was like, every game they go into they're just gonna try and drop five. And I was just like, no shit. They're gonna do it today too, I
Will:And Joe's just see, I told you. I told you.
Jerrell:Yeah, just trying to drum up the hype and was like, let's get excited.'cause last year we watched Dottin Real Madrid. We, we were at brunch and they just put it on the tv and I was like, this is what I need you to understand this about, about these teams. get excited here. She did not watch it with me. I did. It was another one of those, watch it from the phone kind of things, but yeah. Insanity. It was a thrashing, it was just a beat down. Inner was just like, don't
Will:Once Duwe
Jerrell:Can you,
Will:caught in the 20th minute, I was just like, oh no. Like I just wasn't sure if Enter was gonna able be able to find the goals. I know they were able to score against Barcelona a lot, but for instance, just like even the way PSG and we talk a lot about force, but just the way they press. From position to position. Like they don't really give you space to breathe. So I was like one, oh. I was like, okay they got a set piece thing, but how quickly Dway was able to score a second goal, I don't feel like Answer was even able to go into the game.'cause they were trying to press, they were trying to play from the back and like the pressing up top from Dim Belly down, I enter just never really looked comfortable. They had a little, like a small spell of possession to start the second half it. But nothing that was really threatening I'd say. And then. Dway on the back half was just like if you really thought something was gonna happen, score a brace. I think you got a stat on that.
Jerrell:yeah, yeah. First senior scored brace since 1962. I don't have players' names, but that was the match. It was Ben Feca versus Real Madrid. Benca won that one, so I. Yeah, it was, it was something special. If you're a PSG fan, it's just something like so demoralizing. If you're an
Will:Yeah.
Jerrell:just handing out trophies to, to first time to
Will:Yeah. And it's two teams into like different areas of transition. I know we typically covered Premier League, obviously, but PSG I believe also like one of the youngest teams to make it to the UCL final ever. Louis Enrique, obviously, in BAPE leaves last season, you're thinking it's just you have a tall task ahead of you. I remember back half of last season, he was like sitting in BAPE for halves of games and people were just like what are you doing? He's we're gonna have to learn how to play with them anyway. Obviously there's an area of in investment when you look at that team, Duwe with his brace, he comes off of from Renz for decent investment January signing Var Scalia. He had probably had one of his best games since he joined PSG. He was able to score in the 73rd. But yeah, the culmination of just kind of like, a great project at PSG, which is well to say, considering the teams, they've rolled out the wave, they've thrown money at things, but a lot of youth and just like really strong all over the pitch as we cited throughout. This runup and then enter on the flip side, one of the oldest teams to ever play in the UCL final in Zagi, I think like a day or two after he announced that he's headed to Al Hillel. Citing just like an investment in the team isn't where it needs to be. So yeah, enter for a team that's made it to two outta three finals, they see some more heartbreak. It's just how do we move forward? It looks like yeah, two teams, different trajectories despite both reaching the summit of probably the. Next to World Cup, like the biggest competition in Europe.
Jerrell:Yeah. And I, to be honest, maybe I should paid a little bit more attention to enter in the runup because this was a team that was dominant in their domestic league, but they lost the domestic cup tournament. And then they finished second in Syria and the writing was just on the wall. The this team and then even with Barcelona, like this team had been defensively strong, not conceding goals or anything. You can see six goals to Barcelona in two games, and then like it just starts to unravel after that. And then, I don't know, P-S-G-P-S-G is
Will:And what I'll give into is same as the Barcelona thing almost. And I think in the run up to the semis, while we were doing the deep dive, they played a lot of games. As they were trying to contend for their trouble. They had I think 13 or. 12 in like 39 Gade it looked like. And I remember just kind of like that depth is gonna be tough. They lost against Roma and then Milan in their domestic runup, and then also in like their domestic cup runup. So you knew they were dealing with like depth issues. They weren't as strong as they were earlier in the competition, but you figured with more time. Okay. You see the setting, okay, what's the best inter gonna look like today? And it really looked like, like arsal in that first leg where PSG came through a haymaker and then we're able to land another one. And it, it, obviously a lot of things can happen. I'm a Barcelona fan. We saw happen that last match. But just watching it, you didn't, you didn't feel like there was the same belief or the same, almost just kind of like, okay, this is gonna be our outer area to manipulate. Which is, which is, which is wild considering the teams they beat on the way up. Yeah, tough result. I don't think, obviously PSG probably not five games be five goals better on average. But on, on Saturday they were shout out PSG, congratulations. I think a team, since I started watching soccer, it's like, ah, they'll never win, in the Farmer's League. Always a joke, but they'll never win. But, shout out to PSG for getting it done. Done.
Jerrell:To do was change their philosophy.
Will:all we had to do was get rid of a bop. We'll be all right.
Jerrell:Just, just you just stop dropping money on superstars
Will:Ulu, his goal in the 86 minute, like not a lot of burn, he literally celebrated, I don't know if you saw the celebration, he celebrated the way I imagined one of us would celebrate if we were to score in the Champions league. I know we're just like, I didn't expect this and I don't have a cell lined up. So he just just up much joy just bouncing around. So yeah, good moment.
Jerrell:PSGs, like substitutions are so wild too.'cause like normal teams would be like, oh, we're gonna sub, we're gonna sub and play more defensive. We're just gonna close out the game. Whatever. PSG, always looking for the next one. I think their last sub, it was, and then Juan Carlo Ramos what's his
Will:Gon It's port, it's Portugese.
Jerrell:Ramos. Yes. They sued them on. I'm just like, aren't those forwards? And they're like, we're gonna go get another
Will:He said We're all having fun.
Jerrell:Yeah. Basically everyone just wanted to get theirs, What, what an exciting champions league to watch just for an offensive powerhouse of PSG in that moment. So we had Nations League.
Will:Nation leagues is fucking popping. I know we didn't talk about it in the la the run up a lot with quarter finals and all the other competitions going on. We touched on Netherlands maybe a little bit, talking about these games matter to people. But yeah, Germany. Portugal. Yesterday. Portugal, we got a winner from Christiana. Ronaldo in the year of 2025. Yeah. Yeah. Fir first goal was through Verts. I know we're gonna touch on him in a little bit later in the pod. He scored in the 48th. Portugal though was like in more control of the game and that goal. Bernardo Silva, after the game, shit housed a little bit, was just talking about how the goal should have been disallowed for all side. It stood up. But Francisco, he scores in the 63rd. And then everyone's goat had Aio Christiano Ronaldo. He scores a goal in the 68th to send Portugal to the Na Nations league's final played on Sunday. But the real game
Jerrell:A little bit of drama leading up to the Spain France game. Did you see Al's comments on social media about di Bele? Not indirectly to di Bele, but more
Will:that this could decide.
Jerrell:yeah, along the lines, I vote for the best player all year, but if you're going to focus on one game, then I guess we'll see who's better in this match. Yeah,
Will:Depending who you ask because I, I, I,
Jerrell:just.
Will:I stand by it. I think De Belly's had an amazing second half of the season, but, oh, sorry. Ellis had an amazing second half of the season, but I think Al had been more consistent throughout the year, but obviously you can't go wrong with either. But Al you have to remember when he says things like that. He's 17, he's says 17.
Jerrell:For sure. Yeah, no, if anything, it's brings a little bit more energy to the matchup as well. Already a big match. But you're gonna go out and be like, oh yeah, it's gonna be a one v one today, and amal, he got the brace. He got a brace. Nico Williams scored, we'll talk about him a little bit. M Miguel Marino, he, he scored, but did he score from the nine or did he score from the midfield? Petri got a goal and Bape, he also scored like, it was a, it was a fucking shootout. I, I feel like I need to just go
Will:Y Yeah, I think do looking at the recap,'cause I only saw bits and pieces of it. They were up five one initially, and then France was able to rattle off three goals with one late from Kola, Milani in the 93rd. Yeah, I think it ended up looking closer than it was, but at any time you see a nine goal barn burner and Hey, I'm down five one and there's something worth watching at the end. Yeah, definitely want to need to catch the second half.
Jerrell:Yeah.
Will:Yeah. Nations League semi, so that final's gonna be on Sunday, so we'll dive into that and what we saw next week. But off the top of your head Portugal, Spain. Who You got? Spain.
Jerrell:Spain, They've just been so dominant. Do what? They won. They
Will:Euros. Yep.
Jerrell:I mean they won. Did they win the Olympics? Yeah, they beat
Will:Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Oh, that's crazy. France hates the, hates the Spanish right now.
Jerrell:Oh yeah, for sure. And now they're in a, the is is Pepe playing for Portugal?
Will:I refuse. I thought I forgot if he retired. Actually, I wasn't, I kind of like fell off a little bit in how deep I was covering, but I think he might've played his last game. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not a hundred. Don't quote me on that or email me telling me I'm wrong. I, I'd appreciate it.
Jerrell:But the country of Spain has just been absolutely ridiculous. A women's team won the World Cup like not too long ago. Like that country is just popping off in the world of soccer right now.
Will:Hmm.
Jerrell:no way you can't, you go against them at
Will:Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Should be a, should be a fun match. And it's cool to see like some stakes drawn up without it necessarily being like a full on, let's play a hundred games in this competition. Considering we just played a hundred games, it feels like over the last calendar year, less games. Please not, I don't, I love soccer, but also the players need help, please. But yeah, Spain. Spain. I'm gonna go ahead and say Christian says Portugal, even though I think he probably leans. Spain just off the strength of his Christiano love
Jerrell:I.
Will:Christiano scored a goal. He's back. He's back. So
Jerrell:About to find his way into Club World Cup on this
Will:someone's about to sign him.
Jerrell:fucking transfer. So speaking of, we're, we're moving over to transfer
Will:Oh, sh.
Jerrell:News and, and yes, there's a. Early 10 day window for clubs that are in the club World Cup, they can find some players to bring along to, to start to play for them, to make it more interesting because I guess tickets aren't selling. I, I heard the
Will:The prices have gone down. Yeah.
Jerrell:The opener against inner Miami and. It's a, it's a Saudi
Will:Is it hourly?
Jerrell:which one. It's, no, I don't think so. I'm not sure. But they had to slash the, the prices of the tickets'cause nobody wants to see messy in a
Will:My favorite response is just people are like, they're selling tickets for how much or whatnot. It's yeah, welcome to the American model. Yeah, because
Jerrell:I just also think that like you, if you, most people are gonna have to choose, are you gonna watch the club World Cup? Or are you gonna go to the World Cup the following year? And not to mention, Copa America just happened. So it's just like you gotta pick and choose what you want to see.
Will:Yeah, I think on the flip side is just the opportunity to get one in the World Cup's gonna be tough, but it's just like, how have you drummed up interest for these games outside of just here's these big teams. And it's just I don't think anyone's asking for it. I don't think the players really want it. They're gonna go out and compete. There's a lot of money on the line, so obviously club ownership is gonna wanna see like good results and. For certain teams, depending on what their lead up coming into the end of the season look like, are gonna see as opportunities. Oh, okay, this is an extension of maybe like preseason essentially, where it's like, Hey, I can really do some coaching here and try to try some ideas against, especially like these teams aren't balanced across the board respectfully. But no one asked for it. No one wanted a June transfer window so we can get prepared for this. Thing coming in, I would've loved to just focus on the women's zeroes, honestly, all summer as we're leading into preseason with the transfer window. I think that's enough.
Jerrell:And that's also my issue with the club World Cup is like the structure of qualification. Some of these teams qualified four years ago they're not the same team and they don't, they're not gonna have the same players. I think one that came to mind until their recent success was was Chelsea, like they won what the, was it the Champions League? the Champions League a couple years back and they get qualification. It's not the same Chelsea team. It's just awkward, and even looking at like the MLS side, you have Seattle Sounders, I think is one, and then the way, and then you give, and then you put Inter Miami in, who've haven't won anything outside of
Will:They won the community shield.
Jerrell:Mouse
Will:They won the supporter shield. What's the problem?
Jerrell:Did they win the supporter
Will:Didn't they finish with the best record?
Jerrell:points. Either way,
Will:we know what it is, bro. We know what this is, bro. Whatever, bro. I'd rather see him than Colo. I don't wanna see Columbus out there. Respectfully, I. Fuck it. No, actually disrespectfully fuck them.
Jerrell:I, I, I would wanna see Columbus out there. They won their domestic league I don't know. It's, it's just weird. The qualification is just weird. And then at the end when they're just like, we just need another team. Hey, enter Miami, you're in. So
Will:You gotta give the people what they may want,
Jerrell:they don't want They're not even buying the
Will:We will probably cover lately, right? So transfer rumors. Jre, where do you wanna start?
Jerrell:that's, that's what
Will:My, my favorite part of earlier as we were like working on like our like little skeleton docket out outline or whatnot, JLL is on adding a bunch of shit as I was just like, yeah, I should add something to this shit to me. And drove just like NSYNC typing and moving things together, just
Jerrell:it's not all
Will:So much leading off. I love it. I I read it. I was just like, that's crazy, but it's on brand. So what, what's the first one you wanna announce? We'll go band for band until we're bored.
Jerrell:Yeah, sure. Yeah. I'll kick off with
Will:Hell yeah.
Jerrell:Keeper Mark Fluen. He is leaving the bees, he's heading on to Le Cuson. It's not a big contract. I think it was like 8 million
Will:Mm-hmm.
Jerrell:But they're signing the understudy keeper Kelleher
Will:Mm-hmm.
Jerrell:which. Frequenting the Reddit, Liverpool fans are like, you
Will:A good one,
Jerrell:good one. So let's see what happens. He is
Will:not him being one of the good ones. Yeah. No. Yeah.
Jerrell:Yeah. younger. Build, build up again. Brentford has had
Will:Shout out David Ray. Yeah.
Jerrell:out of Brentford. Yeah. Came out Brentford as well. So I have a lot of faith in the bees and their decision making on who, who starts that
Will:Always, always love a good beekeeper.
Jerrell:for
Will:I'm gonna go now.
Jerrell:I can't wait to see the new
Will:Yeah. Yeah, that, yeah, that's always a vibe when we do that. Outside of that Manchester United, they've made a couple splashes, mate guna. That was a big rumored deal that's been confirmed. So Guna is gonna be there as the new nine as they're looking to offload Rasmus Hoyland, who's had trouble scoring. Brian and Baum news, they're looking for about 55 mil with vari, 10 million variables about, so 45 fixed, 10 million variables as their initial offer that hasn't been accepted quite yet. Correct.
Jerrell:No, it hasn't. There's still a couple people, still a couple teams who are in that sweepstakes. Arsenal has been rumored. I don't know how serious they are about it, but Brian's dream is to play for Manchester United, no matter the state of Manchester United. So that's the club he wants to pay for or. Play for, and there's a good chance that he, he heads that way. I know a lot of Brentford fans are just like, why, why would you do that? They're,
Will:It seemed, it seemed about right.
Jerrell:on the
Will:Yeah.
Jerrell:but it's the name, you
Will:Yeah. Yeah.
Jerrell:Manchester United's dollars as good as anybody else, and that's
Will:Yeah. And the other piece to watch over this summer yo Wea as well. Also another prolific forward for Brentford. Look for him to potentially be on the mood move. Over the summer he's been doing really well.
Jerrell:I mean that, that, that duo was so good for Brentford this season. I believe it was 1918 goals. Each, I don't know who had, I know Brian had more, but it's just that's just
Will:But hey. Yeah. And they're able to, bring some funds into B Brentford, reinvest into the team Keller. It looks like it could be some shrewd business for them. Yeah, we'll see what B Brentford looks like in over the next couple months, hopefully. Yeah. Good stuff for them.
Jerrell:for sure. Goni pulled back into Man United's clutches after his stay at real betas where he found the love of
Will:Bettis. Were trying to figure out how to keep him. Yeah, they were just like, the money just ain't money.'cause Man United tried to make up that 80 mil deal They did.
Jerrell:He's, he's expensive. Yeah, man. United splashed a lot of cash for him, so his buyout is also a lot,
Will:Who wants to get someone to splash more cash?
Jerrell:we didn't
Will:I wish I'd be supported. I wish Ted ha I, I wish someone was into me the way Ted Hags into an Anthony. He's trying to get him on a third team. I love it. Here. Go ahead, drill. Sorry.
Jerrell:HA is going to, he might bring the goat with him. So how, how likely is that? it gonna be another like loan thing going on? Do does Man United even fuck with 10 HA anymore and be like, oh, we'll loan him to you
Will:think
Jerrell:because if he
Will:I,
Jerrell:fit in Man United System, you
Will:I have to look into more about what, but I'm just like Manchester United. I think they're just trying to see how much money they can get for him, but I don't think anyone's gonna pay a huge premium on him. So I'm just like. We'll see Manchester United, they're fairly active in this like in inner window as well, looking to move, Hoylan, looking to move goat tinney, if you will. And also interested in a number of pieces as well. So we'll see what it looks like. It's just always tough to be like, Hey, this is for sure happening. I'm sure I, I, I don't, I assume he won't be there in some way, shape, or form by August, but. It is really gonna turn into the recoup versus a loan. Is there obligation with the loan or what? But I just know no one's gonna pay 70 million pounds for him, I don't think. What's Chelsea up to actually? So
Jerrell:Chelsea's ready to draft another American football squad. But yeah, men United definitely, definitely have been busy very early on just trying to build a competitive squad, give
Will:give him what he wants.
Jerrell:that he
Will:Yeah.
Jerrell:Yeah, give him, so there will be no excuse next season. We'll talk about team expectations further down the line, but the people
Will:The Great Expectations pod. I can't wait for it. Yeah, hold that. Hold that. Remember that
Jerrell:Oh yeah. Nico Williams Saga is back. He did score in the Nations League
Will:he said for country, I go crazy
Jerrell:Yeah, once again are rumored to be leaving
Will:everyone. Yeah, he's, he's been.
Jerrell:basically tied to Barcelona, tied to Arsenal. I think his buyout clauses
Will:It, it's pretty, it's not that bad actually. It's 50 million. It's like about 60 million euros. 50 million pounds ish. What looks like a stumbling block is the wage. Yeah.'cause he had 22 mils, so he'd be highest paid player. And then you're looking at, okay, if he wants to re-up, he's, there's gonna be a price up with it. And once you're talking about tho those wages, there's really just like a select number of teams. And considering he didn't have the best like club season, whether that's his fault or not, as far as like goal and assist contribution.
Jerrell:Still want them though. Athletic club still
Will:I mean I, I, I think at at Bill be or club. Madrid or,
Jerrell:sorry. Bill,
Will:yeah. Which o obviously makes sense with the structure of their team, but so they wanna hold onto'em and, figure it out with like, how they build their squads up. But it's just like that release clause isn't that crazy? So I'm sure that there's some type of new contract that they're trying to lay out for him to keep him. But Nico, if he, if someone presents the bag and we'll see how it looks over the summer, I'm sure he will take it. So we'll see. A lot of moving parts.
Jerrell:Battle's going to Champions League next, next year as well. So
Will:Yeah.
Jerrell:you wanna keep that
Will:Unless, yeah, you can get,
Jerrell:definitely building
Will:or if you can give them a new contract and so that way you can make a little bit more money off of a sale. Team that's been rumored within Barcelona. Barcelona was able, it looks like they're gonna win the sweepstakes. The sweepstakes for John Garcia plays for Espanola Barcelona rival picking'em up on a 25 million Euro release clause. Fairly low for someone who's come. Looks like a high level goalkeeper young 24 and looking as one of the better keepers in La Liga. Also being told by, no, by, liverpool in, in regards to Louis Diaz rumors Liverpool is pretty much just if you're not gonna give me enough money to buy someone better, what are we doing here? Liverpool seems apparently comfortable in June. So that could change letting Lu Cho's deal run out in 2027. Just having him play on the field versus. Selling him if they can't get someone comparable to replace him. Going on there, they were also able to pick up Jeremy Fong from Lever Cus and Lever Cus is being stripped for parts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fre pong headed to Liverpool to replace replace Trent ar Alexander Arnold, Trent Alexander Arnold. Of course, I think two weeks ago we confirmed, this is done real Madrid as well, just saying. Fuck you to Hilti. They're re revamping their back line. They pick up Dean Huen from Burn Myth as well for 50 million pounds, and they're trying to get Alva Carreras from Benfica as well. So we're looking at three new starters on that back line when all Hilti said, chemist, a singular defender.
Jerrell:Angela being the manager of Brazil, and they're like, why aren't you bringing Andrick in? And he just he doesn't play for his club. I'm just like,
Will:As someone who's on the other side of the rivalry, I really enjoy Enc. Angello. Yeah. His manager really doesn't, how could you be upset?
Jerrell:That's
Will:How could you be upset? Can't, won't, huh? Arsenals all over the place, right? I think what Zubie maybe.
Jerrell:Why does Arsenal always rumor for a striker and can never land a striker? It, it I think from what I've seen, it's just like penny pinching. It's just like we can, we get production outta Kai haves. We are not gonna spend all that money on
Will:They're gonna, they're gonna spend money somewhere, but the way they're going about it is really opening up a way for just the funniest thing that could have happened is if your deal gets sniped.
Jerrell:Mm-hmm.
Will:Joan Garcia, for instance, prime example, is someone that they've been chasing like since last year as a potential second keeper. Low release clause Barcelona, swings their prestige around swings a deal. They pretty much stipend from Arsenal arsenal. So right now, I think two weeks ago was looking Giles. Recently I've heard at Sesco we're looking into a situation where apparently it looks like they're trying to figure out what the numbers are gonna be for either deal, like a contract wise before. Blowing the money and the worst timeline. Don't clip this or clip it, whatever is, if we get neither of them because we're not gonna get esoc for his price point,
Jerrell:Rodrigo, which is
Will:Rodrigo is gonna be probably just as expensive for that. I'm just kinda and then it turns into wages again, right? Where it's just pay the Nico release clause, right? Because Rodrigo's probably gonna cost 70 to 80 mil. Regardless. Real Madres not gonna let him go for cheap. And then yeah, arsenal. Apparently also there have rumored interest in Morgan Rogers Villa Morgan Rogers also linked with Man City and also with Igor Paia. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right. I do not speak Porsche guests that well. He plays wing for rd, so he'd be a cheaper deal. Morgan Rogers expensive business. He has a contract through 23 20 30. Yes. Don't quote me.
Jerrell:Okay.
Will:Hi, his name. Hit my,
Jerrell:get a. Oh yeah.
Will:no, no, go ahead.
Jerrell:It def defensive midfielder and Zu Mendy.
Will:That that's, that's not all the, just gonna not quote more time on that. It's, it looks like it's just pending a physical, I think is what I last read, but.
Jerrell:Oh, I thought it was locked. I thought the deal was
Will:I think the only thing they're missing is a physical, so Zubie, obviously, we thought we were gonna get him last year, didn't get him. It's if we can't get the full Hershey bar, at least let me get a Hershey kiss. And we got Marino, his his midfield mate. So that worked out actually pretty well. Maybe not for the reasons we thought, but yeah. So
Jerrell:We really needed a nine, so we got Marino.
Will:nine, I'm, I'm, I'm going to keep going until he is gone. And then Joe Bellingham, oh, sorry.
Jerrell:Yep. Joe. Yeah.
Will:We can go anywhere. Yeah.
Jerrell:a kind of a win. Yeah. Really. Can Liam dla,
Will:Chelsea?
Jerrell:got Chelsea. Yeah. So Ipswich, although they got relegated, their striker was still worth the look. So Chelsea got their striker,
Will:million pounds. Good business. I.
Jerrell:30 million. Yep. And he can compete in the club World Cup if Chelsea is trying to win this tournament or
Will:I think winter gets like 50 mil. So Yeah.
Jerrell:Yeah. So
Will:That's what they're trying to do is like the money's gonna make you want it. But the sponsorship's not there. Joe Bellingham, brother of Jude, he's following the track and he I, he rumored with, I track Frankfurt Ortman. I think I saw it. Looks like Doman is ahead, but we don't know for sure.
Jerrell:is ahead. Yeah, but Irak jumped in there I thought we were gonna get a Bellingham in the Premier League. Oh,
Will:still time. There's still time. I'm not giving up.
Jerrell:What else do we have here? Do we talk about Florian words? Liverpool
Will:not. Probably the biggest thing right now. Yeah. Flo
Jerrell:million. Rejected.
Will:Verts was rumored with Byron at some point. Locked in, rumored with Man City. At some point, man City was like, that's way too much. And then now looks like Liverpool. Which is terrifying depending who you ask. So lie, I don't know where you're gonna end up if Vert is there, they'll figure it out, I'm sure. 109 million. Me and Joe were talking about a little bit before the pot. Why is that not enough? It isn't, man said he dropped out because they're like, this is way too much. I think Lever Q was rating them around like 1 50, 1 70, so
Jerrell:Yeah. The number I saw was 1 25, but yeah, sure. One 50.
Will:hey, pounds, euros, dollars. It really depends right?
Jerrell:Yeah. Can we, can I get that in pesos?
Will:Lot of, lot of stuff going on right now, but I'm sure we'll see more going forward.
Jerrell:Oh yeah, that's a big one. Oh, I did wanna, it's not related primarily at all, but Luca Morich signed with AC
Will:Yeah.
Jerrell:I think today
Will:think we covered it, but yeah, they pretty much were just kind of like, we're not gonna resign you. Monique was trying to stay with them. I'm sure Christian's gonna hear this, he be like, fuck you guys. But and I, it was the end of an era. It looked like, obviously last season I. But no more Luca and Madrid, which honestly is gonna be weird. I might watch some serial out just to see if I can get used to the jersey, but probably won't be able to. But glad he landed in Milan, don't you? Mm-hmm. Captain America, who will not be playing in the summers US tos because he's tired.
Jerrell:because
Will:Fuck him.
Jerrell:Yeah.
Will:fuck him.
Jerrell:oh you gotta win to get tired. No, I'm just kidding. They, they won, they won the league, right? Syria. AC Mulan. No.
Will:I thought, no, no, no. Napoli won. Napoli won AC Milan went to the final of the cup, but I don't know if they won yet. I.
Jerrell:AC Mulan has no tournaments next season. They're just too focused. Oh, NTUs is back in Champions league too. I didn't pay attention to, sir. Time any other transfer news you want to go
Will:I am sure we'll have time later.
Jerrell:Oh
Will:We'll, we'll cover more.
Jerrell:Time later and next week and the week after that. I can't
Will:We'll get a break for what, two weeks? I think the window's until either the 10th or 14th. So we'll, we'll have three weeks and then the regular window will activate, so we'll be all right.
Jerrell:Oh
Will:Ah, she, here we go again.
Jerrell:I did Promise. Team grades. Team grades from the Premier League. We're starting from the bottom. We'll do the bottom
Will:Okay.
Jerrell:I don't know if we, we'll have a lot to say about that, but 20, south Hampton, Southampton, the Saints.
Will:Yeah. What you gonna give them?
Jerrell:a lot of positive to say about it, to go up and then go down right away and also have 30 losses in the campaign. It's enough. I, there's just no, I, I try to find a way
Will:I.
Jerrell:slice it and give them something, but I'm just like, it was, it
Will:It is gonna sound like I heard your score and I was like, I'm gonna give'em a little bit better. So all my Saints fans are saint contingent. Fuck with me a little bit more, but I did tell you pre pod, I'm gonna give'em half a grade, like just like a slight bump for not ending up with the lowest point total.
Jerrell:That's fair.
Will:an EPL history. So I'm gonna go ahead and give them.
Jerrell:the lowest is
Will:Yeah, I'm gonna give, no f plus, I don't know. Does it change at that point? It's just you're really bad. It is a really bad, I'm gonna give them a D minus, like the deepest D minus. And they messaged me saying prof, please round it up. What can we do? So I'm a, I'm gonna say we gave them a bump and that's where we're at. But yeah, definitely. Not a lot went, went right for the saints. They were doing okay early on. A lot of tough like losses where it's okay, at least they're competing. And then towards the end it was just kind of like, fuck, here we are. So
Jerrell:Yeah, they lost. They lost the
Will:they, they, they, they lost hard. They lost fast. They lost every week a different way. But they, they held on for 12 points. So we'll give them that.
Jerrell:Except. Except for that man city draw on third to last game. You know what F
Will:F
Jerrell:for Southampton for the draw against man
Will:would you feel better if you instead of a F, got a F plus hey, instead of getting like a 50, you got like a 55, 56
Jerrell:If I'm already shit, I want to feel less
Will:sh.
Jerrell:So yeah, I'll
Will:Oh man, that's a spoiler. We're not there yet. Mwi, go. Where are we at?
Jerrell:Cool. Where's Christian at?
Will:That's why Christian took the week off. He was like, I can't do this. I can't do this.
Jerrell:do it to the
Will:So Ipswich first time up, we'll start there. They did give up 82 goals though.
Jerrell:Yeah. South
Will:ideal.
Jerrell:86 also.
Will:Shit. So I do, I have to start out d like.
Jerrell:Yeah. but they did score 36 goals, which is more than all than the other two relegated teams.
Will:Gonna give a f.
Jerrell:I think IP switched 19th. It makes no difference. They could have been an 18th place team. Not that it matters. I do rank them a little bit higher than Lester City. Just'cause Lester City was like fucking Jekyll and Hyde.
Will:Half of the year was real brutal, but just not scoring for eight games that, that'll change'em man.
Jerrell:Yeah. So iwi for me is probably, it's gotta be like a d plus, maybe a C minus. They were exciting to watch. I don't know if
Will:C minus is too heavy for me. Yeah, but it's your ranking
Jerrell:Yeah.
Will:CC minus for Christian. I like it.
Jerrell:carries them to the C minus.
Will:if Ed Shearing can play a team and or the desolation is small for me, like the song from that soundtrack, I'll, I'll meet you at C minus, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna give him, I'm gonna give him, I'll give him f There is no vibes. I really picked up off of them and I feel like, do we see them back next year? I don't know. DDI can't go lower than South Hampton.
Jerrell:Their striker to Chelsea. They're not coming
Will:That relegation clause is cut deep. Yeah, so we'll see The foxes, the foxes. Three points higher at 25 points row. If you had to give him a grade, what would you give him?
Jerrell:They're, they're a solid d for me. 18 games where you didn't score a goal is a lot of games
Will:yeah. I'm gonna go D minus. Yeah.'cause that gold route was insane and.
Jerrell:Yeah, to, to me it's just like I said, it's just that yeah, the drought is a lot and I can't like really overlook it. You might be able to argue like, hey, they won two, their last five to close out the campaign, but it's just like
Will:That
Jerrell:didn't
Will:their early season PSR fight? Um hmm. Yeah, I don't know. I, yeah, it's, I think their vibes are worse, honestly, just because I expected more from them and it's really tough down the,
Jerrell:They fired their manager too.
Will:they had to, but down the stretch it's just kind of like, Hey, at least give me something to root for. And there is nothing to root for for the foxes, so I might, I might have to give the foxes a f.
Jerrell:Jamie Vardy could save
Will:J Javar gets him a D minus. He got his two hundreds goal and his five. He gave me something to look forward to. You're right,
Jerrell:They even gave him the last game off.
Will:he's, the last game was a, was a, was an away game. There's no point 200 goals, 500 games, good. Round number D minus to the foxes. We'll see you maybe in two years. 17th.
Jerrell:This will be interesting. I wanna hear your, I wanna hear your grade first for Tottenham,
Will:Spurs.
Jerrell:where do you put
Will:Spurs 64 goals, scored 65 goals allowed.
Jerrell:One, they could not finish even. I was actually hoping that they'd finish at least even or positive
Will:gonna, I'm gonna go ahead and say that the trophy counts as counts as one. So I'm gonna say they finished even, right? They won the Europa. It's tough'cause I feel like when Tanu was healthy. They played solid football. I think their goal differential early on in the season, they were like plus 14, plus 15, despite where they were in the table. It felt like they just weren't getting results together with, due to a lot of injuries. But you finished 17th. This is like your worst season of all time. So where do you draw that between your first trophy and how long was it? Like 17, 20 years? So I'm just kinda hmm.
Jerrell:Yeah. How much do you value the trophy? Now granted this is a, the second tier European competition, so
Will:Considering, I guess considering, I think honestly, it's just would you wanna keep Postoc co glue? Do you believe in what he did? It was just the injuries that came on. So sitting right here, the thought that, we don't have a like kind of thing on him.'cause I'm just like the players were galvanized enough to win the second biggest trophy. I'm gonna go ahead and give him a C minus. I'm gonna give him a c. Ugh, I, okay, I'm gonna give you two grades. I'm gonna give you a grade if they win it and a grade if they don't, so if they keep post colu, I'm gonna give it a C just'cause they got the trophy.'cause I think there's a lot of challenges and for as much as we talked about Arsenal, the vibes were bad there. The players still believed in him a lot of the season. They were able to pull off the trophy and then, if they fire post colu, give him an F.'cause then what was it for? You got the trophy and now think so, and I'm sure there's Spurs fans who are just like, no, it, he's a part of the problem with how he plays or whatnot, but. If not, what's it for? What are you building on? I always think like winning a trophy like this or living winning care about like Newcastle did, it could be like a good plateau a good like litmus tester's hey, when things go right and we perform this way, like there result against I earlier in the season when they're able to play with them. It's this is what we can do when we're operating at what we're supposed to. And then half the squad, if not more gut injured. So I'll give'em a see if they keep in buyin. I'm all about buy-in with coaches that show they can give you a level of results. If they fire him, then fuck it. Daniel Levi, we will have a pod about him, so I'm gonna give him a c. Since Postoc Co is still there.
Jerrell:C, solid C. All right. Average. So yeah. The Spurs are just so hard to place just because like you said, a lot of injuries throughout the season. They're, they were only negative one on gt, on GD for a 17th place team. They started the season pretty strong. I think their average placement in the campaign had them a little bit higher at 13, 14 range, which still isn't great either. But it's also a team that won the second tier European tournament if they didn't win the tournament. I think I would put them at a, at a
Will:Oh yeah. Terrible.'cause it's like you, you were terrible. Yeah.
Jerrell:And that's, and that's losing in the final, if, if they didn't even make it any, if they didn't even sniff like a quarter final in that tournament, they were f all day. But I think that trophy really saved them. And, and giving the benefit of the doubt with the injuries. And that's just hard to say for a lot of teams because I know injuries are part of the game. I, they're gonna be a C minus for me. I'm just gonna go a little bit under because I don't wanna still 17 and
Will:exactly. Yeah.
Jerrell:16, so it's I'm feel like I'm being a little bit more graceful for t them. I'm sure other people would be like, it's a fucking F, it's a D. Like how do you play 17? But they did win a trophy and like pasta,
Will:And it wasn't like a preseason trophy or anything like that. And the player, there's a thousand ways the players could have folded like in those competitions or didn't have the belief and they were able to achieve it and it meant something. Yeah,
Jerrell:Yeah. And you went up against an other premier
Will:and it.
Jerrell:despite their status this season
Will:And it's, I think it's just like also just like a project of football where you can see just kind of like, I can point to certain moments during their season where I was just like, oh, okay, if they can get it together, this is a high octane, high pressing, is it sustainable over the season with the debt they have? I don't know, but it's just like this could work. And you've seen it in like in PO portions before the team was fully decimated by injuries. Like for instance, I don't think I would rate Manchester United as high. For different reasons, even if they want it, even though Manchester United finished higher on the table, even if they want it, my grade for Manchester United will do it next week. Not as good regardless. But it's just because just the football that was played, there was a part of it that had me convinced throughout the season. Manchester United was random and I only used them as like a framework. I know they finished better and they, hey, they made it to the final as well. Just because watching them week to week, you had an idea what was gonna happen, but you didn't know how it was gonna happen week to week.
Jerrell:For sure. And it's I know we rag on the Spurs a lot, but it's not lost on that. They, they were able to score goals. They just had an issue, conceding
Will:Yeah.
Jerrell:when they, when they were winning, they could win big. Like you, like you said, you could see the product, but when they lost, like
Will:And then flip side too, the, they did try to splash big on Solanki, and that looks like it was a relative miss for the price tag they put on him and what they were expecting from him. He gave you about what he did. At his previous team, but he'd never really like upped his production for the price tag they put on him. There's some invest. I, I think Levy, I'm not a spirit fan, I don't follow them that closely. It's just like you continue to build on this.'cause if you make another, quick fire, oh no, postoc CO is not the way. It's just then this season's just a loss. How do you build on it then? As you're transitioning? Yeah.
Jerrell:Yeah, it's definitely a different situation than to about Man United last year where it's 10 hag won, the FA Cup, but like you don't, the Spurs have Champions League next year
Will:I,
Jerrell:so it's it's a whole different, the
Will:yeah.
Jerrell:is it's like apples to oranges almost.'cause it's like you're playing at the top flight now. Next year, you're coming from 17 place. Like the expectation is is like you're gonna
Will:I like fucked it up. And the, and the 10 hog issue too is still just like 10 hog is just what was the discernible love like way we wanna play? Do you wanna be defensive? Do you wanna be a counter attack team? Oh, do you wanna play in midfield?'cause you're getting played through your midfield, like watching even this season. I guess before you got cut you saw teams were just like, oh, we're just encountering him to death because Cas Samir is slow and all those other kids are young and we're just gonna kind counter him to death. Amar MI mean, we'll get into them next week but I just,
Jerrell:Yeah,
Will:you can see a vision is my biggest thing. So if I can see, hey, this is what we're trying to do and there's investment in it. Okay, cool. Maybe it won't work out, but at least you have a project and a direction we're trying to travel in. So wolves,
Jerrell:Yeah,
Will:unless you add on, hang on. Yeah.
Jerrell:wolves. No, no, I got nothing else. Yeah, the wolves.
Will:Team of two halves.
Jerrell:Team of two halves, but also just historically just finding themselves
Will:Yeah
Jerrell:I. So I was looking at their history a little bit. I think in the 21, 22 season, wolves finished 10th, and they haven't
Will:no, I'm trying to be, don't get me,
Jerrell:They're just consistently a bottom half team, even like a bottom
Will:I,
Jerrell:team. So 22, 23 season, they're 13th, 23, 24, season 14th,
Will:I.
Jerrell:then the season they were 16. So worse, definitely
Will:They started off really bad. Yeah, I think they had one point through eight or something like that. It was really, it was bleak.
Jerrell:was, it was awful. But like even watching the wolves this season and just seeing games where they just they would pop off and they just couldn't find. Did they find their manager
Will:They did well. They did and they bought in. I was literally about to look up what his name was,'cause it's losing me right now. Because he did a fantastic job just getting the, making sure Vito he bought in he was bought in December 19th. Of the season replacing Gary O'Neill and the team really turned into like a different beast. They were able to trail off a series of results from like February to like April, I'd say. Where they went from. I remember when we had them on Relegation watch, it was like, oh, they're there. Our bottom three are there. And then at some point that turned off. It was just kind of like, oh, okay, they're safe, so this isn't gonna be as fun to watch. Yeah.
Jerrell:They went and snagged, they got 42 points. Wolves are just like, I don't know. I, I see the team. I don't have expectations for them. There's just a team that I'm just like, oh, you're in the Premier League. You're just trying to fight off
Will:Nigga
Jerrell:just, a team that's
Will:today, I.
Jerrell:survive. Not, not to make Champions League not to make Europe, but just survive in the Premier League until the pieces fall into place. The first half the season. Yeah. Tragic. Second, half the season a lot better. Really good. I, think if, if they could put both the seasons together, my grade would be a little bit higher. They might, they're a c
Will:Two minutes.
Jerrell:be honest. Just because there's a lot to be desired from their, the new manager and what this Wolf's team can be. And I saw moments of like
Will:I'm gonna go,
Jerrell:greatness, but like
Will:I think their first half of the season, I gave them an F in my head because they were just that bad. Second half of the season, I'm like, BB plus. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna level out. At a, I'm gonna level out at a C minus. I would meet you at C if Noni did actually post on his real Instagram and not, oh, I'm his burner leading up to their game in Monu Yo Monu shit. And I was like, you guys have a chance to do the best thing. And then blew the game. So I would go C minus. Honestly, in my head though, it's probably, it is probably like cc plus without they finish. I, if I am. Wolves I focus on just look at what we did the second half of the season because the way they were playing was fantastic. Versus the first, first half they were dead in the water. They'll have questions going into next season. They, it looks like they're gonna lose Ray two man, city Man City's gonna bring him in. I believe he plays left back. I could be wrong. He plays fullback. And then Mateo as we alluded to as well. So they are receiving funds at least so they can do some reinvestment. It's just like, where does that reinvestment go? How do you replace those pieces? Some intrigue over the summer for them, as things all everyone's cars and some dominoes fall into place. So I'm gonna go ahead, I'm gonna give'em a c actually beat did a really good job, CI.
Jerrell:All right. Those are bottom to 16th. Our rankings, the, the grades don't matter. We just like to
Will:It means a lot to us. Actually these grades are actually gonna end up on, on my fridge, so
Jerrell:oh, shit.
Will:that'd actually be cool. I should do that.
Jerrell:Get'em laminated.
Will:Hell yeah.
Jerrell:Next week we'll
Will:I'm gonna put South Hampton Ipswich and Ceer City in my freezer though,'cause no one's gonna see them next season. The championship matters. I take it back.
Jerrell:Next week we'll talk about Man United, Westham, Everton, crystal Palace, and Fulham. So we'll give you 15 to 11 next week and tell you how we thought they
Will:We are gonna give you our imaginary grades that have a lot of weight in this circle, damnit.
Jerrell:This circle and on the power
Will:And on socials, which we have does drill. Let me tell you about them. The football fellows were on x.
Jerrell:on
Will:We're on Blue sky. We're on Insta.
Jerrell:Twitter.
Will:on Twitter. Twitter. We be skating on Blue Sky. That's my favorite bit. We also have an email. You disagree with one of us? We short responses only. I'm not gonna read anything else I want. Five, 500 words minimum. Tell us why we're wrong. The football fellas@gmail.com I really do have to get active on the blue sky. I just don't remember what the password was as of late. Next week, as Gerald said, we're gonna cover some more of our team grades. We're gonna cover that UA a Nations League final and we'll probably give you some more traction reviews. Why not? It's the summer. We just having fun. Go to the beach. May,
Jerrell:So I'll transfer
Will:pod from the beach. Hmm.
Jerrell:actually,
Will:Blessed. Did you hear Shakira last night? No. You live further. I could hear Shakira through my house last night. It was amazing.
Jerrell:Did, was she two nights in?
Will:She was definitely last night. I can tell you that.
Jerrell:It was on on Tuesday. Camping World was popping off, but I didn't know who
Will:It has to be Shakira. As far as I'm concerned.
Jerrell:so she
Will:I'm convinced that I heard her Tuesday performance at my apartment, and I'm gonna hear her Wednesday performance tonight because I like. Eight or nine. I was like there goes the neighborhood, my love to my partner. Oh wow. Who, how could they allow this Islam music? What happened to the noise ordinance? And then as we're going to sleep, it's just like we hear, I'm down tonight, my hips don't, I was like, oh, actually. So I was like, how far is it? And they're like, it's actually a good distance over. I was like, that's crazy. I don't understand how sound works. So
Jerrell:was bumping
Will:popping
Jerrell:of,
Will:so,
Jerrell:it was crazy.
Will:so shout.
Jerrell:I saw the lights. Saw hot lights. Oh yeah. You think she performs at a show in the club World Cup like she did for Copa
Will:No one asked for Lincoln Park.
Jerrell:in international. Oh, that was
Will:I didn't want, I didn't want, I refused to.
Jerrell:like, oh, cool, Lincoln Park. And I'm just like, the sound, it just sounds bad. Like it
Will:It's almost like they shouldn't have done it.
Jerrell:Not, yeah, not anything against Lincoln Park. It just it just the stage, the sound. It was just not a great setup going on. But they tried to do the numb Encore. I was like, who's doing Jay-Z's part?
Will:And then Christian Rose from the ground,
Jerrell:yeah.
Will:but yeah.
Jerrell:Yep. All right. We'll do it again next week, episode 44. Can't wait to see you there. Peace.