Are We Live? Episode 52

World Cup Final

3rd Place match

Morgan Rogers to Chelsea

Song: Podcast By Snail Music (Loop)
Author: ‪@SnailMusicES‬

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Are we lying? No, no, no, get this. We lie. Okay, so I ain't gonna cover you with this punk. Yo, we back. A lot of football to talk about. Of course, there was the uh World Cup final. There was a very eventful third place match, and then there was that Morgan Rogers Bamba that came was that what Monday or Tuesday? I think it was Monday after the uh the World Cup final. So let's get into it. Um let's start with the infamous, I don't even know if that's the right word, infamous third place match. Um, we don't have to get into too much detail about the game itself because I mean truthfully, it was not a serious game. I mean, like I saw people calling it a preseason exhibition. I think that would be even generous when it comes to like you know effort and defending and all that stuff, but like um there were a couple things I want to talk about. Like, first of all, I saw a lot of chatter about like, oh, I wish this was the final, this was the final. Like, if I wish these two teams played in the final instead of Spain, or bro, if these teams made the final, it would not have played out like that. Like, let's be for real. Like, we saw what Tuchel did in semifinal with a 1-0 lead. We see Deschamps over the years. That would have been a very cagey, very defensive final if uh both these teams made it. Um The only real takeaway from a footballing perspective that I wanted to talk about was like tactically, I would say at least, that Thomas Tuchel just he looks even worse somehow than he did after the semifinal against Argentina. I mean, Bukayasako playing what 90 plus about damn near 100 minutes probably, and what is ultimately a meaningless third place match after getting zero minutes in the semifinal against Argentina is pure like it's just coaching malpractice. Like there's no other way to like to to to explain it. Like, I mean the only the slightest defense you can give Tucos, right? Um that Sokka had not been like amazing throughout the whole tournament, like truthfully, he had not been right been pretty poor, I would say, for most of his cameos in the games up until that Norway he came off the bench against Norway at halftime. I thought he was quite good in um in that second half and extra time. Um and in generally speaking, he's by far their best winger, and to get zero minutes in that match was just like it boggles the mind to be honest. And really, I I thought the fact it wasn't a bigger deal on the day of the loss is just kind of crazy to me. Like, yeah, there was a lot of discussion about how defensive Tsuko approached that 1-0 lead, but like the fact that uh he didn't come on at all, and then even when he brought on Rashford and Ivan Tony, they might as well have brought on Saka then. Like, what what the hell like what did he lose his mind? Like, I mean, there's that I talked about it in the last part, but that image of Ezri Kanza just whipping in horrible cross after horrible cross, like that could have been Bakayo Saka, you know, like what the what happened there? Um, yeah, for me for France, I mean, I get that it's hard for them to get up for this game after losing to Spain. Um, even Mbappe talked about how you know it was it was hard for us to not be human in um in that match, but that kind of performance was especially in that first or in that first half, was atrocious. Like Konate and Maxis Lacroix, especially the two center backs that came in for Saliba and Upwancano, was shambolic to say the least. Um something that I don't know if annoyed is the right word or whatever, but it just meant it just put me off was that before the game, you know, on in one of the midweek pressers leading up to the match, Konate was talking about oh I wish we didn't have to play this game, you know, yada yada, the usual like third place match sucks type stuff. And I'm like, okay, if Kylian Mbappe says that, I get it. If Ubu Ankano says that, I get it. If even Adrian Rabbi says that, I get it, right? But you are currently the fourth chase, fourth choice center back. Surely you would use the opportunity to like, I don't know, prove yourself being a worthy starter going forward in the future? Like, you're just coming off the worst season of your career by far. Um, you don't think Zenin Zidane was watching that final or that game? You don't think Josie Marino was watching that? Like, if I'm then watching that, I'm like, whoa, do I really want to believe in this guy at any point in the future? Like, I mean maybe it doesn't matter at all, but like I was just like, what the what the hell was that, Konate? Um, to go along with performance. Um and then Ubumcano came on and he showed you why he's the main man at France, at least at least in that right center repetition. Of course, Saliba is also, you know, a nailed on starter. But those two, Ubu Mokano came on and showed you why he's the main man in the France uh French defense and why he played. And he came on, he played with a sense of pride, you know, about playing for his country and Deschamps last game and all that. Um and he and they almost came back and uh they probably should have equalized if Ulise didn't forget how to finish. Um but uh yeah, I mean the last thing was like on this is just like Mbappe, as a result of the third place match, finished with the Golden Blues. Um he now holds the record for World Cup goals, which he was gonna own at some point anyway, I guess. Um but one thing I was thinking about is like should the third place match stats count towards the World Cup, right? Like it feels weird that a glorified friendly is the reason why Mbappe is the golden boot winner, but at the same time, once you quali once you made the semifinals, you've earned the right to play that third place match. So I'm kind of conflicted back going back and forth. Like, I know this is this is not like a new thing that the third place match has always been there and it's always been you know a less serious match, but this is the first time where like it was uh you know, I I talked about how a preseason intensity would be generous, like this was legitimately like a charity match or something like that, where it's just like okay, we don't really care about real sports being played here. We're just trying to see some goals for the fans type thing. Like, I don't know, I don't really have a a good answer to that if it should count or not, but um, yeah, just something to consider, I thought. Um all right, moving on to the final Argentina versus Spain. I would say you could say the two best teams, but I would say France is probably better than Argentina, so I would say two of the best three teams, I would say. Um and in the end it kind of became interclimatic, like we were kind of just waiting for Spain to kill the game and uh go on to be champions. But let's let's dig into what we saw at least. Um starting with the with the first 11s for Spain, Unchained starting 11. If it's not broke, don't fix it. Luis de la Fuente, I totally understand that. Now the only thing I would consider is how fit was Nico Williams? Because I mean, when he came on in the second half, even though he wasn't perfect, like he create clearly made a spark out there that Alex Baena did not um he didn't pose the same threat, at least I would say. Now for Argentina, a bit more, a bit more creative, a bit more of a change from Scaloni. You mean he went with Nico Gonzalez on the left wing after he made some I mean I would say he made an impact in the semifinal versus England, you know, he just someone out there with a bit of width, you know. I thought it helped him stretch the pitch a bit. Um and he brought in Rodrigo Paul for um Leandro Paredes. You know, Paredes and Simeoni were dropped, and uh DePaul and Nico Gonzalez were brought in. Um I felt like benching Paredes was a big mistake from Scoloni, and we'll get into why in a little bit. But let's let's talk about what actually happened in the game. And on last week's pod, I talked about how Spain schooling France in the semifinal. Um how how this how school uh France got schooled by Spain in the semifinal, and Spain probably schooled Argentina even worse in the final. I mean, I thought coming into the final that you know Argentina would largely play on the back foot, like they'd be not be able to hold the ball too much. Um, but I think I thought their midfield would be better equipped than France was, and I think, oh my goodness, I was wrong because I mean I think like I said earlier, Scoloni benching Paredes proved to be a crucial mistake because Enzo and Fernandez and Alexis McAllister were horrible at playing out the press. Um, so much so that Paredes was brought in at halftime to replace uh to call he came in for I believe it was Nico Gonzalez and then McAllister got shifted out to the left. Um so yeah, I mean they could Argentina for until the red card where they just gave up trying to play football, they could not play out the mid-back, like they got pressed to death out there by the Spaniards. Um and the final score says 1-0, an extra time win, which comes off as a tight game. But realistically, I mean Argentina got battered. They got battered from a uh open play standpoint. Um zero shots for Argentina in the 90 minutes, and then I think their first shot came like with like what three or four minutes left in the game. Like, just I mean, like I said, they got pressed, Argentina got pressed to death from Spain. Um, I thought the Olmo and Fabian Riz and Oyota Ball's positionings were stretching Enzo and McAllister all over the place, and they were just I mean, Argentina was just Spain was just creating openings for fun, like it was nothing, like they were just tick-tock, tick-tock, just playing through them like it was nothing. Um yeah, I mean they just it we were just kind of waiting for Spain to kind of capitalize on all those openings, and it didn't really come until the until it did. Um, and despite all that dominance, right? The chance at Messi making some magic out of nothing to me remained a possibility. Like, there were like two, three minute spells of Argentina holding the ball, and in those spells, was it possible that Messi could create something out of nothing? Yeah, I thought so. Um, but until Enzo Fernandez picked up his red card, I believe, which is around the 80th minute or so. Um maybe a little bit later than that. Um, and truly, one of the dumbest things a footballer has done in a World Cup final. Um, and to me, it's more idiotic than the Zidane's headbutt of Materazzi. Because listen, Zidane was wrong for what he did, especially costing his team like that, but he stood on the principles, right? Enzo Fernandez to stretch and make a tackle like that for absolutely no reason in the middle of the pitch while on a yellow card is just painfully stupid. Um, painfully stupid. And to be fair, the first yellow he got for descent was maybe a little harsh, but ultimately you lash out a ref like that, that can happen. So even that to me was kind of stupid because in that first yellow, he dives, clearly dives. The referee doesn't buy it, and it's not a foul. So the referee was correct. He kind of makes some hand gesture or wave like, oh come on, and the ref is like nope, yellow card. Now, in my opinion, I would prefer the ref to not book a player in that situation, but to dive that blatantly and then to lash out when you're wrong, like you're just an idiot at that point, you know what I mean? Um, and on top of that, Argentina got away with so many yellow card offenses in that game. I can't, I mean, Leander Peretis not getting sent off was a minor miracle. Alexis McAllister not being sent off. I mean, the handball he got in the first half, we just punched the ball in the air with for no yellow card, it was just bizarre. Like, I don't know. I mean, there were some tackles on the mean that were somehow not penalized with yellows. Um, so yeah, in the end, uh they got their comeuppance with that Enzo red card. Um, and the Enzo red card basically crushed any hope of Argentina um stealing in the game um in in without penalties, I would say. Like they were always gonna lose anyway, in my opinion. But 11v11, they had a small hope of maybe creating something, you know? Um, and of course, they had to sub off Julian Alvarez for uh Cine C and just pray to hold on for penalties. Um and to be honest, for a while it kind of looked like they were gonna hold on. I mean, Martinez was making save after save, Spain were flubbing all their chances and half chances. Um, but then immediately into the second half of extra time, Farrant Torres scores um his back post volley. Um and Montiel, after being caught ball watching in the semifinal versus Anthony Gordon, he does the exact well, not exact same thing, but he does again, he's basically carelessly defending that the back post versus Nico Williams. Nico Williams just wanted it more. He got his head to it, he headed it back towards the middle of the goal, and Ferrantoras smashed it into the net. Um, you know, Argentina managed to cause a little bit of havoc to close the game out, and you know, Simeoni had a half chance, more than a half chance, I would say, to maybe equalize, but and then Spain held on to a uh 1-0 victory. Um, I mean, yeah, big picture stuff. Spain cap off, I mean, and ultimately what became an extremely impressive World Cup run. Now imagine saying that after they drew against uh Cape Verde in the opening match that they would be this dominant in and winning the World Cup. Um they only conceded one goal the whole entire tournament. And it's not like they played a bunch of you know bottom feeders. They went through Uruguay in the group stage. I mean, Uruguay literally ended up not being that great, but there's something, you know? Uruguay, Portugal, Belgium, France, Argentina, and they bossed damn near every minute of all those games. I mean, I know the Belgium and Portugal score late goals by Mexico Marino, funnily enough, but they bossed both those games, I would say. Um, and they also did all this with their two best attackers, Lamin Yamal and Nico Williams, like nowhere near their best. I mean, Nico Williams barely played in this tournament. Yamal was, I mean, for the average player, he was above average, I would say. For his standard, I would say he was bad. Um, and like imagine what does the Spain team look like if we got Nico Williams and Yamal at 100% their best level, you know? Like, what if Nico Williams looks like the player he was for Spain at the Euro 2024 and Yamal looks like the player he was all season for Barcelona? Like, that might have got really ugly for these other teams uh in these games. Um Lastly, when it comes to I mean players, I said before the game on Twitter that Rodriguez resume, if he won the final, would be spooky as hell. Um, and then he won the final and they gave him the golden ball. Um now I think him winning the golden ball was ridiculous. Like, there's no way anyone can tell me he was better than Messi or Mbappe. To me, the golden ball winner should have clearly been Messi. Um, I could have heard an argument for Mbappé, but to me it should have clearly been Messi. Um, to be fair to Rodri, he was amazing in this tournament, especially the knockouts, I would say. So, I mean, he was Spain's best player, I would say. Yeah, yeah, he was Spain's best player, and I guess they want to reward him for that, but come on, that should have been Messi's award. Now people will say that Messi didn't deserve to win in 2014, and that should have been maybe Jamas Rodriguez or something like that. Yeah, I guess it all works out in the wash. But I mean, Rodri's resume as a footballer, as a midfielder now is just crazy. I mean, in uh England he's won the league multiple times, he won the FA Cup multiple times, he's won the Carabao Cup multiple times, he's won the Champions League, he scored the winner in the Champions League, he's won the uh the Club World Cup thing you win. Uh I forgot what it's what it's called. Not the club world cup that we saw last year in the US, but the other one the uh the one where the winner reached constant and plays. You know what I'm talking about. He's won that one. He has won the Euros, he won the player tournament at the Euros, I believe. He won the World Cup, he won the player tournament at the World Cup. He has a Ballon d'Or. Like, I mean that that resume is crazy. Crazy. Now I don't think he's as good as that resume would indicate. Like, this isn't the best midfielder of all time or anything like that, but it's gonna be crazy to look back on in like 20-30 years. Um, and honestly, I wouldn't be shocked if they started some campaign to give him his second Ballon d'Or. Like, I don't think he should win it. I think he should just beat Lamin um because he was the best player in the world for the uh club season, but I wouldn't be stunned if they uh kind of fixed to give him a second ballon d'or like they did uh a couple years ago. Um yeah, that's it on Spain. I mean Luis de la Fuente has been damn near perfect since he took over. They won the Euros, they won the World Cup, they're gonna be the favorites to win the Euros again in two years, 2028. Um, then they'll be hosting the next World Cup in 2030. Um, you would think these next two tournaments will be La Minha Mall's prime, which is crazy to think about. I mean, hopefully that I would say that's his prime. Um so yeah, I mean to be fair, De La Fente they said he was 65, which kind of surprised me. He does not look 65 years old. So maybe he doesn't even do the next World Cup. Maybe he does the Euros and then bows out, but um yeah, he's been on a hell of a run. Um it's crazy, right? Spain. 2008, 2010, 2012, they won Euro, World Cup, Euro, and now 2024, 2026, they've won Euro, World Cup, and maybe the book they'll finish the bookend again. Um and both times there was a uh Spanish tennis player that was considered maybe the best in the world with you know Rafael Nadal. Now there's Alcaraz, it's crazy how it works, huh? Um So yeah, Spain deserved champions. I don't think anyone can say anything other than that. Um and moving on to the absolute bomb we got from Ortonstein that Chelsea had convinced Morgan Rogers to choose them over Arsenal, and they paid Aston Villa 117 million pounds for this transfer of Morgan Rogers, just a staggering amount to read out loud. Like, yeah, Morgan Rogers went for 117 million. Um the reports are kind of muddy on what Arsenal were willing to pay Aston Villa, you know, it was obviously less than what Chelsea did, but um ultimately if Morgan Rogers chose Arsenal, I mean chose Chelsea over Arsenal, it doesn't really matter what Arsenal were willing to not pay or not pay because he was he chose Chelsea. But um, if you're a listener of this pod or you follow me on Twitter, you'll know I am simply not a fan of Morgan Rogers as a player. Um when Marcus Fashion Went on alone to Aston Villa not this last season, but the season before. I watched loads of Aston Villa games. And you know, Aston Villa have become a prominent team in the Premier League anyway. So I feel like I've watched enough to have strong opinions on him as a player. But since I've been so negative on him as a player, I'm gonna start with some positives and try to see why Chelsea maybe did this from their perspective, right? Now, in terms of a system fit or fitting into a team, Morgan Arters is way more suited for Chelsea than for Arsenal. Just from the fact that positionally he can be a bit wonky. Like, is he a winger? Is he a 10? He's not really either. He's kind of both like I don't know where to fit him in to my team. But luckily for him, well not luckily, but maybe this is this factor into the decision. Um Xavier Alonso at Chelsea is going to play with you know a 3-4-3 with you know two inside tens. Um forgive me that I have PTSD from that whole 3-4-3 stuff from Ruben Amerton. But um, yeah, not gonna have to I'm an expert at Xabi Alonso's you know philosophy or system or whatever, but it does seem like he uses the dual inside tens. Um, and to me, if Morgan Rogers is gonna succeed at the highest level, then that role is the best way to utilize him, I would say. Um Morgan Rogers certainly has crazy X Factor ability. Like you look at some of the goals he scores, some of his dribbles in the middle of the park, his ball carrying his his uh his uh ability to hold off and shrug off defenders and whatnot, top-notch. And on his day, he's really a chance for he's a handful to um stop in transition. Um he's Premier League proven. Uh so in terms of transitioning to Chelsea, it should be seamless. You know, he'll be able to he should be relied upon basically to immediately. Like there won't be any, oh give him a first year, like you know, he's been the Premier for a while, he's been in the England his whole life. There shouldn't be any issues with him um transitioning into Chelsea at all. Um, and lastly, this is more of a small thing, but you know, we all know that he's close with uh Cole Palmer. And if there's any if for any reason that keeps Cole Palmer at Chelsea for the foreseeable future, then that could be a hidden bonus for Chelsea as well. Um so yeah, I mean that was me trying to be nice because truthfully, I hate this transfer for Chelsea, um, and not because oh they paid too much money, you know, he's a great player, but he's not worth no, it's not that. Um but to be fair, the price they're paid for his caliber of player is mind-boggling. But the reason I don't I have an issue with this transfer is not because of the price they paid. My biggest issue with Morgan Rogers has and always will. I just would not want my team to heavily feature him um as a part of their main 11, you know, as one of their main core players in the team. Like, as part of a squad, yeah, sure. I I he's definitely talented enough to be like an X Factor off the bench, to be, you know, certain games where he's playing in transition only, like, yeah, I can totally see him being useful, but with this transit fee you've paid, he's going to be a mainstay in the first 11 at least for the next 10 months, 12 months. I mean, until it is or isn't it isn't clear, is okay. Let me say that let me say that better. Until he makes it abundantly clear he's not good enough, he's gonna be in that Chelsea 11, and he's gonna be given a lot more grace than other players were because of his price tag, right? Now, I'm gonna give you my biggest gripes with Morgan Rogers as a player, and to be fair, one of them isn't really with the Chelsea because, like I said, um, he does fit what Shabi Lonzo's system would uh entail. But I'm gonna start. Number one, one of my issues with him is that he's kind of a positionless player in that he's not really a number 10, he's not really a winger, right? As a number 10, I don't think he's created enough. I don't think his playmaking or passing ability is good enough. I think his weight of pass is pretty shitty. I think his tunnel vision can be really bad. I think his decision making can be quite bad. Uh, I just don't think he's got the like playmaking chops to be number 10 or to play like in a midfield role. Um, and as a winger, even though he's a really good carrier in the middle of the park, I don't think on the wing, as like a touchline dribbler, he's got enough in his bag to be like an out-and-out winger personally. Now, I did say that these Dizzy's flaws won't show up under Xabi Alonso's in his system, but there's no guarantee Xabi Alonso is gonna be there at Chelsea for the next five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years. Like, you know, it's like it's Chelsea, like they just sat what three managers in the same year, right? Was it? Uh, yeah, it was, right? No, they had three managers, they didn't stack three managers, they had three managers, they had Moresca, Rostinier, and that McFarland guy. So there's no guarantee Xabi Alonso is gonna be there for the foreseeable future, for you know, any type of future. And if he's gone, where does he play? Where does he fit in? That's it'd be a question to me. Um, and uh going on with that, Shabi Alonso was just sacked last season because he failed at Real Madrid. Now you can make these, you know, whatever you want. Cope perfect excuse. You want to say that for that for that uh for that happening, but it is what it is. He did get sacked for flopping just last season. Um, but moving on, my next issue with Morgan Rogers is that he does not get on the end of many high-quality chances, like he relies on extremely low probability shots for his goal scoring. Um, and of course, there was this whole thing last season about Asin Villa cheating their XG and how their like I think we went like a 12-13 game win streak, and how that was kind of you know misleading because of their overall you know, chance creation wasn't actually that good. And then in the end, it kind of caught up to them. Um, I think Morgan Rogers was kind of the face of that. I mean, there was a run where he was just scoring screamer after screamer. Now, I do believe that he has that in his bag, but you know, like second half of the season he went on a cold streak a bit with those, and I don't think making an impact like that is sustainable unless you're just like an alien, like a Harry Kane or a Human Sun or a Messi or a you get what I mean. Like the guys that can sustain off you know, outlier finishing, it's just it's a short list, and I don't believe Morgan Rogers is gonna be on that list going forward. Um and the the the biggest my biggest um my biggest issue with the Morgan Rogers thing is that his claim to fame as a you know future star or hot processor, however you want to frame it, is that his goal scoring and output. Now, to me, there isn't much data to suggest that he's all that special in that regard. Like if I go and look it up for Aston Villa in the Premier League, you know, no Europa, no Carabao, no FICO, none of that. Just strictly Premier League, he's played 7,032 minutes for Aston Villa, and in those minutes, he has 21 goals, with which is about 0.27 goals uh per 90. Meaning basically he scores once every four games, right? Now, once every four games is not really a terrible number, right? Like, that's basically if you were to say a player played every minute of a season, um, or every game of the season, let's say, then he would score about nine league goals a season as a forward. Like, is that a bad number? No. Is that a good number? Eh. To me, if you're putting up nine goals a season as a forward, you better be top-notch as a dribbler or a playmaker, you know, or you know, you're a high level of both at least. And to me, I don't think he is, like I said earlier, I don't think he impacts the game consistently in those two uh facets of play. Um, and I think I'm gonna need more goals than that for the price that Chelsea paid and for the leash he's gonna get in terms of his place in the team. Um, and it's not like he was playing for relegation fodder, right? He's on he's like, you know, he's playing at Wolves or, you know, one of these clubs at the bottom of the table where he's feeding off scraps or he's has to make you know something or nothing all the time. He's playing in a good villa team that's been in the Champions League the last couple years, has been in Europe, has been that wins games, that's in the top four. Um he plays for a manager in Uda Emery that's quite good at maximizing his attackers. Um, so I just don't think his his output has been has been all that good. And like I said, the playmaking and dribbling aren't good enough to offset that, I would say. Um Yeah, I mean uh Of course, if you if you've been on Twitter, you've probably seen that uh that viral clip of him playing for Villa. I think it was in Europa, um, maybe Conference League, where he was uh he like he couldn't make a pass for like three or four consecutive passes, or more than that, maybe, and then he finally completed a pass and the Villa fans uh cheered him for finally completing one. Like that's that's the kind of thing. That's my issue with Morgan Rogers, it's just like his weight of pass, pass selection, tunnel vision is just really, really poor. And I'm certain, I'm certain that Chelsea fans at some point this season will get a bit frustrated to say the least. Um I mean one thing I will say it's quite hilarious to watch uh Essen Villa all of a sudden have interest in Garnacho. Um, you know, and all this reporting, oh yeah, uh Uno Emery he loves Garnacho, he loves Garnacho, he last he loved Garnacho last season too. It's like really he loved Garnacho last season, then why didn't he buy him? You know, it's not like it was hard to get him, it was not hard to get him, and it's not like anything happened across the last 12 months to make you think, oh yeah, buying Garnacho makes a lot of sense. Um I think anyone paying attention knows that Villa and Chelsea are kind of scratching other back when it comes to the finances there, but hey, we'll see how it goes. Um Rogers is only 24 years old, so maybe there's some scope for improvement. And hey, I talked about how Shab Alonso could not be there. Maybe he's the one, maybe he was, you know, the Real Madrid job was just an out is a blip in his career. He's gonna be a great coach going forward, and he's gonna max get get 120%, maybe 150% out of Morgan Rogers, and this whole price tag, all that stuff doesn't matter. You know, um yeah, like that that is you know within the realm of possibility. Not gonna act like it's impossible. Um and but one of the things, so moving on from the Chelsea side of this, and now to Arsenal, who it looked like I mean, it looked like it was gonna be their premier target for the summer. Um and to me, they dodged a crazy bullet. Like I just I just don't think he's worth this money at all. I don't think he's worth making like the diamond of your team or whatever you want to call it. Um, one of the faces of your of your club or whatever you want to say. Um and even more so for Arsenal, because unlike Chelsea, where he's playing this left-hand position, he's gonna he would play as a what a left winger for Arsenal with them selling trust art. Like, I don't love that. Um, so yeah, I feel like this is a bullet dodge for Arsenal to be honest with you. Um I will say though, um, even though I just said that they dodged a bullet with the signing and they would have spent 100 million or whatever, losing your number one target to a Chelsea that finished 10th is kind of crazy. Like, it's actually more than kind of crazy. Like, I mean, we don't I don't really know I don't think I've seen any reports on if Chelsea offered him like a shitload of money compared to Arsenal or whatever, but like damn, you couldn't convince him to pick you over Chelsea after winning the league, after losing the Champions League final on penalties, after you know, you have all these English players in your squad that he I would assume gets along with. I mean, Arsenal's a bigger brand than Chelsea to go along with that. That is kind of I mean like even though it will probably bear out to be a good result for them. If I'm an Arsenal fan, I'm kind of looking at my executives like, what are you guys doing? Like, how can you how can you guys not convince him to come to come here? Like, you know what I mean? Just in a from a process standpoint. Um makes you think, like, you know, all this narrative of Arsenal playing shit football and set pieces, yada yada. Do players do players care about that stuff? Like, does Morgan Rogers watch Arsenal and is like, man, I don't know. I don't want to play with this set piece team that can't score from open player, doesn't play free-flowing football, yada yada, right? Like, does does the optics does the optics actually matter when it comes to players? It's interesting to think about, right? Um But yeah, who knows? Um And like I said, like when Chelsea hired Shabi Alonso, even if we don't really know if he's the guy or not, like them hiring him and giving him that manager tag was kind of like a signal of intent that we're trying to be a serious club again, right? We being Chelsea. Um and maybe that that persuaded Morgan Rodgers to come. Now, like I said, I'm not a fan of Morgan Rodgers, but maybe that could be a tool they use for some other players, right? Like there's been some whispers that that they want Bruno Gomarez um ahead of Arsenal, which I don't know how real that is or not, but maybe that could help them land a player like that, right? Who knows, right? Um, yeah, that's all I got on the Morgan Rodgers transfer, on the World Cup final, third place match. I'll be back next week. And hopefully LeBron has made a decision on his next team by then. Like, LeBron, please, dude. Can you please hurry up? Like, I'm begging you at this point. Um, but yeah, until then, see y'all.