Should Neymar Be At The World Cup & Why England Will Disappoint | SI FC

The players have completely turned on slot, the fans have totally turned on slot.

It's not really in Liverpool's nature to sack a manager that quickly.

If you go to Real Madrid and you fail, you can fail downwards to Liverpool and to Chelsea.

If you fail at Liverpool, the next step is, is much lower.

This is the worst year of my footballing life for by a mile.

Da da da da da da da da da ta ta.

Inter celebrating the Scudetto, Manchester United in the Champions League.

Bruno Fernandez, 20 assists.

Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.

This is Sports Illustrated Football Club, your weekly show here on Sports Illustrated.

The show who wants to talk about Inter winning the Scudetto because Lia Buzzidi was in Milan celebrating, screaming 10 years ago, and now he's with us.

Lia, bro, I was in Milan literally like 3 hours ago.

I'm knackered at the moment, but duty calls.

Duty calls.

Sports Illustrated gives me a call.

I'm there.

And look, man, it was a good weekend for me, man, because look, Bruno did his assist record, I was watching that.

I was in Milan, yeah.

For other people didn't have the best.

I know you had a great weekend, right?

You had an amazing, very good weekend yourself.

Luca, how was your weekend?

Not so good, man.

Not so good, Luca.

Why?

it was, it was nice in England, if someone was celebrating the scudeto, someone a few weeks ago was celebrating the the Champions League, and now probably needs to practice a bit there da da da da da da da da da ta ta.

Luca, how are we?

I like that.

Depressed.

Melancholy, forlorn, sad, upset, I wanna walk off set and just not think about football for the rest of my life, I think.

Ah, for the rest of your life.

Uh, I'm gonna come back to you, Luca, because now I want to focus , uh, a bit on Liaz because Liz was a great experience celebrating Gascudeto with Inter, something really.

First and foremost, thank you to Inter for sending me there because it was an unbelievable experience.

Like the, the game wasn't the best game, to be honest with you.

They played their second team, but experiencing the San Cyro pitch side, meeting the current players, meeting the ex-players, meeting the coach Kivu, and they gave me a gift, man.

They gave me a gift.

They gifted me their kit this season, the Scudeto winning kit.

What's going, what's going on?

Internacionality Milano.

Let's make this a little more lively, man, honestly, OK, it's a beautiful kid though, Luca, very, very nice kid.

Luca, uh, what, what do we, I mean, for me he's a good kid.

He's a nice kid.

He's a nice kid, it's nice.

It's the player, it's the player version too.

The details, but I have to say it's different to me than.

On, on, on Luca, I would say for for Luca it's no, I don't like it, no, exactly, there's no way that's gonna, it's gonna happen, um, so we're starting with Serie A, are we then?

Yeah, I think we'll start with Ser we start with Serie A, uh, I want to look at what happened, what didn't happen then.

I don't even know what to say, I, I think.

I knew the last two games were gonna be tougher than Ramas, Milan's, Comas because we had Fiorentino who hate us, and they're always gonna play until the death, even though they have nothing to play for.

This is their Champions League final, and we have Torino, the dare to be on the last day.

But my goodness, man, we went from 3rd to 6th in a day.

We, we didn't turn up.

It was like they were playing for the Champions League.

We didn't create anything.

We were defensively so poor.

Our keeper has costed us once again in a big moment.

He's cost us at least 15 points this season.

This is the 18th time he's conceded from the first shot on target in a game this season, which is absurd.

Got done on his near post.

Ah, I, honestly, I wanna just tap out of this season.

I, I, I can't do this.

You had a bad year.

You had a really, really bad year, honestly, like he thought Italy was the only thing that could really come onto this spot and.

You had a bad year.

This is bad.

This is the worst year of my footballing life for by a mile.

The worst one yet.

The worst one yet.

The worst is yet to come.

You think it could get worse.

It can.

Look, look, look, and in with Inter celebrating the Scudetto, Manchester United in the Champions League, Bruno Fernandez, 2 assists, but I want to say, who did you meet yesterday?

Oh, who didn't I meet, man?

I met a few of the current players, Turam, uh, who else was there?

Uh, Talanoglu, Dumfries, Kivu, the coach, amazing guy, by the way, right?

Kivu is, is a, is a really nice guy.

And then I met a few of the legends.

I met Cambiaso, I met Zanetti.

I met, who else was there, Julio Cruz , that's a throwback Julio Cruz, Pez Pez 06, Julio Cruz, El Jardinero.

What a nickname too, man.

And then uh Francesco Todo, former goalkeeper too.

I met a lot of people.

I met a lot, a lot of people, it was an amazing experience.

Uh, if you're watching us for the first time guys, uh, I'm gonna read you some comments.

Uh, Spider-Man Gat says this is the best view on YouTube.

Do you agree, yes?

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

OK, completely agree.

And then we have Shukarang, sorry for my pronunciation.

Best football show and talk on YouTube.

A lot of love for your beard, Luca.

Keep it, keep it, keep it.

And to be fair though, since he started growing the beard, Juve hasn't been going well.

We have Steven saying that the chemistry we have is amazing, guys, please continue.

And Jannik said, I'm the best DJ set maker mixing Luca and Lia, the best football talk music in history.

So you know you said we have a really good chemistry, right?

I completely agree, and that's why.

I really value our friendship here and I actually brought Luca a gift back from Italy.

Well, this is a historical moment I would say there's a present, so yeah, yeah, first and foremost they gave me a nice bag.

Ah yeah, yeah, it's nice.

How much Inter merch do you have on you today?

I got more, don't worry, I got more.

They gave me this nice box too, ha la la.

But how many league titles did Inter have?

I mean, we, we want, I want, I want to know how many you think they have.

According to what they say, um, it's 21, but Luca doesn't think it's 21, right?

No, I know it's not 20.

What is it?

20.

Well, that's why I brought you a, a nice shirt , right?

A nice shirt made by them specifically.

I told them I was gonna be on a show with a UFA fan.

So they made me a shirt with 2 stars plus 1.

There you go, man.

Can, can, can, can we get it for a second?

I'm gonna show it to the camera.

This is the chemistry, guys, when people can start about football, this is the present.

The Lea has brought to Lucca, thanks to Internazionale, the best club in Italy.

Luca, no, no, no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna respect you.

So guys, if you're watching us, like, subscribe, we are in every platform possible, also for podcasts.

I want to start now from, from England.

Yes, let's please go over to England.

We go over, but I have to do it.

Since I, I want to start from Ryan Chucky breaking the protocol once again, OK, uh, queuing for the.

The trophy, he saw the the prince, Prince William, and he took a selfie.

Now my question for you, I'm gonna start with Luca because otherwise, and Luca, the most famous person you took a selfie with.

That's a good question.

A selfie, a selfie.

Do you have it in your gallery?

Maybe it's not a selfie.

I don't know what would you describe as fame.

Are you talking followers or are you talking like how do we measure them by followers?

If, if, if they went to a location and they told their, their audience, their, their fans, come meet me here, they would get the most people there, you know what I mean?

Which I guess follow followers in a way is that.

Yeah, I would say either Wenger.

But obviously I can't rank Wengerm followers.

Yeah, yeah, no, but he's, he's, he's a big game.

He's a bigger name.

He's, he's got a statue, so, yeah, but I would say probably Dybala, to be honest, cause like if you talk about like footballers, I think he's the most famous footballer I've met , like my generation, everyone knows him.

Wenger's more famous than Dybala, yeah, but Dybala, like follower wise, one of the most, still one of the most popular footballers in the world, but I'd say Wenger maybe status wise is bigger.

But I've been like next to Del Piero.

I never got a selfie with him because he was working, so maybe them two.

Yes, I mean, you got a lot of selfie this week yeah I did, but the thing is we're talking selfie, we're not talking just like picture, right?

It has to be I hold the phone and we're like this, yeah.

It's gotta be the Frenchman.

Who are you thinking?

Henri, yeah, I know, but TT wasn't a selfie.

It was a picture.

We were sat down, so we're doing the selfie.

I think that's what he's saying, right?

Selfie is different.

No, Dibala, Dennis Wenger.

I didn't get a selfie with Dibala.

It might be Iniesta, you know.

You've got a selfie with, you know, it's a big name.

I'm just dropping out there, you know.

That's a big one.

I think it might be Iniesta.

Ilusionista Iniesta is he, is he the biggest?

Yeah, he's a powerful one.

He might be the biggest.

Yeah.

What about who else have you met though?

I met a lot of people, but I think, I think it might be it.

Ferguson, huh?

Have you ever met Ferguson?

One day, I hope, man.

I hope that's, that's oncorrect there, man.

Ferguson that's, that's big time, yeah, Sir Alex, I would, I would fan out if I met Sir Alex Ferguson, but a selfie with Iniesta, wow, yeah, yeah, something really, I think about you, you know.

I don't have a selfie with Totti.

I have it with Dybala.

I have it with Cannavaro, uh, with Ayana Bomati.

I don't know if it counts.

Yeah, it's she's she's big, she's popular.

She's popular, yeah, I mean, I think you win with Iniesta, you win.

I mean in terms of follower, probably I win because Dybala, yeah, Dybala's big on social media.

Iniesta, how many followers do you think Iniesta has?

Probably more.

No, no, I don't think we're gonna do this live right now.

I think Iniesta Iniesta 60.

Iniesta has Barca attacks, man.

I'm, I'm telling you, I think, OK, so how many do you think Dybala has?

Over 60, like 50 I'd say 60.

No, he's got 55.7 million.

OK.

How many do you think Iniesta has?

Probably like 1510, 15.

There's no way he has more than Paolo.

20.

30, 40.

OK, Paulo beat him, but he's got 42.1 million.

2.

OK, you guys definitely underestimate.

I'm hearing 1015 million anyway .

We have, you gotta, you gotta realize if you played for Barca, you got a huge.

I thought Unk made his uh account recently, maybe, but that's why he's probably not more than 42 million.

Hey, in fact that's what I thought maybe he's a more recent Instagrammer, but I was fuck, OK.

Let's go back to Wembley for a second.

Yeah, let's do it.

Last trophy of Guardiola's era.

I don't know, man.

I mean, he keeps saying I have one more year, I have one more year, but then it's weird.

I would, I would find it really weird if they lost the league and he left.

I almost feel like you wanna go out on a, on a high.

I know that's what Fergie did, and that's not to say Pep has to do that.

Pep could leave tomorrow and he, he has no regrets about his legacy.

But I would just think Pep would wanna leave like saying, OK, I won the Premier League, like I didn't, I didn't let anyone beat me on my way out.

So I think he's gonna stay, but all the rumor, all the noise and rumors are saying he's gonna go.

Yeah, I mean, uh, was leaked a video with him and indeed he had with the trophies, all the trophy won.

I saw that one.

I saw it could also be for Bernardo Silva though AI these days, man, you never know.

Yeah, true, you don't know what to believe.

I do think Peppa will leave, to be honest, Ala.

I think this is his life.

Last season, I just think, I get what you're saying, Les.

I think he would ideally want to go out on a Premier League win.

But if Arsenal were to win it, it's only 3 years out of 9 where he hasn't won the Premier League.

He's dominated English football, there's nothing really left for him to do.

It'll be a decade after he came.

And he wins 2 trophies in his final year, when in reality they didn't really have much of a right to win those trophies, in my opinion.

I just the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup.

Yeah, I think Arsenal could have even swept at least one more of them.

I think I think City, City could City are, let's be careful the way we talk about City.

I feel like with City, we oftentimes talk about what they have the right to.

This squad is so expensively assembled.

This is not an underdog story.

City should be going into every season it's an underdog.

For me, City had a huge right to win both these trophies.

Going into the season, yeah, you could maybe actually I probably would have said Liverpool are gonna be the favorites for the competition, but City would have easily been in my top two or three.

I think Parabao Cup, for example, I think Arsenal are the favorites.

Got Man City, yeah bro, I thought Arsenal would have, would have been the favorites going into.

I think 2 is a good season.

No, it's a good season, but I'm saying that for me, I don't, I don't like the, the, the way we're like I, it's not just you, a lot of people say like, oh.

They were the underdogs in the, in the title race.

They're outsiders.

It's still Man City.

Like they, they have guys on their bench who are worth like $80 million.

Let me ask you this though, yes, right, at the start of the season, would you have said City were top two favorites for the Premier League title this year?

I would have had them top three.

Premier League, OK, it's, it's, it's 38 game season, but in the cups, I 100%, especially Pep's record in these competitions.

They've gone to more FA Cup finals in the last, they go to the final almost every single year.

I think this was their 4th final in a year, in 4 years.

But in, in all fairness to Pep in the FA Cup, he has won 2.

And so like you could argue that it's worse on Patreon compared to like the.

Oh no, no, this is the 3rd, but going into the season I was saying, yeah, I don't know, I just, I, with, with City and Pep, with how good their squad is and how how much of a winner he is, I could never look at them going into any competition and still think to myself, well, they didn't have a right to win it.

Like they're gonna be there.

What I'm saying is like at the start of the season, if you told me that come the end of the season, City would win the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup, you would have been surprised.

No, I wouldn't have been surprised.

I would have been like, that's a good season for them with this squad.

Do you get what I'm saying?

I don't think the Premier League and the ion.

League was really, but what if they didn't win them and with that squad, you would be like that's a disappointment, that's a failure.

That's where I'm disappointed, yeah.

In, in this case, it's like City with that squad, they have the right to, they have the right to win every trophy, man, to win and to compete for every trophy.

No, definitely, I'm not saying that, but I think out, OK, this final they're big favorites, but I think Carabao Cup, I would have edged it to Arsenal going into it, in my opinion, as the favorites on paper.

So I think coming away with two trophies in a season is a good year.

For City, so I think if Pep was to leave on this season, I don't think it's like going out on a whim.

But you know what it is for me, I think City next year, if they had Pep, I would have them as favorites in the league.

Given the way they've kind of grown since January, the additions of Gay and Semenyo, Cherokee is growing.

I think Pep was starting to figure out his team a lot more in the second half despite the Everton result.

I think going into next season, if they had Pep, I would have said on match day one, yeah, or City will win the league this year.

Now with, with Maresca, it's uh if Maresca's to be the guy who replaces him .

I look at City completely differently.

Uh, they're gonna be up there, they're not gonna completely fall off, but I agree.

I think Pep with with City's Pep next year, I would have said they win the league.

OK, I, I would have probably still gone Arsenal, cause I just think they have the best squad, and I think if they were to win the league this year, I'd just see them kicking on.

Potentially building a mini dynasty with the Arsenal side.

But I would, I wouldn't disagree.

I think with Pep, like you can't really count them out of anything.

With Moresco it's a different landscape.

With any other coach it's a different landscape.

Yeah, definitely.

But I think 2, I think 2 trophies this year for Pep is a good way to go.

Wow, in my opinion, I think because he set the standard so high, it's like I know he's anything but anything but the prem does feel like a Premier without, without Premier Champions League, it just feels like, oh, Pep should have done more.

It's, it's because of what he's done before.

But yeah, man, how, how he has changed the Premier League.

He's monopolized it.

He's literally made it, uh, I mean, OK, I won't discredit what Liverpool did in terms of pushing them as much as they did, and they've got one, and, well, they got 2, to be fair, and, and Arsenal this season looked like they might get over the line and they pushed them, but.

I think he's just raised the standard of the elite, elite, elite level in the Premier League in terms of 100 points, like quad quad winners, treble winners, like he, he set a precedent in the Premier League that I don't think we'll see for a very, very long time.

Like the levels that Manchester City hit and so consistently, is something that I even think now we look at and we look at Arsenal this season, I think they're underwhelming.

And you could give reasons for why they are, but a big reason for it is because we just saw City go through a crazy dynasty where they hit 90+ points in their sleep.

They compete on all fronts in their sleep.

Anything less than that just feels regular, and that's because of what Pep did.

Then on top of that, the style of play that he's almost.

Across the country from first division all the way to grassroots football, which he often does wherever he goes, to be fair.

Yeah, he is, he completely changed English football, completely.

Look, I know you don't like this game, but if I ask you to rank uh the best manager in Premier League history.

Number one, who's who the GOAT is.

I mean, for me the number one is Sir Alex Ferguson, arguably, but then.

In Premier League, yeah, Pep is 2nd for sure.

I think Pep's the better manager than Ferguson in general, to be honest .

Yeah, I think he's, I think he's a better a better coach.

OK, I, I, I, I, I've heard people say coach manager, two different things as a manager.

But if I was to combine everything and I, you were just asking me to do a ranking, I wouldn't separate.

Coaches into managers, then coaches, I wouldn't do that.

If I was to just do like a top five list, I'd have Pep number 1, combining everything.

I think Ferguson in terms of his Premier League longevity, of course you've gotta say he's number 1.

When he walked into the door, Liverpool had how many more titles then?

Manchester United.

And yeah, a lot more.

And then when he leaves, Man United were #1.

And I don't think Pep could stay at one club for as long as Ferguson did, if that makes sense.

But I look at the level of English football, how it's changed, the level that Pep Guardiola's reached with his size, I think he created better sides, I think he created a more dominant dynasty.

I think he reached a higher peak in English football in my opinion, but I would still say that Ferguson, time spent in the Premier League is still number one.

I mean, look, I don't disagree with everything you said, right, because you could definitely argue that City's best team is better than United's best team.

But the idea behind saying he created a better team is also because he had much more spending power to do so too.

He's, he's, he's, he's, he's managing, uh, uh, basically a team owned by a nation, right?

Manchester United towards the last 10 years are finding bargains in Mexico of Chicharito and still winning the league and bringingebe in.

Fergie's never even seen him and they're signing him and still winning the league.

So I agree with some of your points, but I just think the, the dominance that Fergie had over such a long time, right?

Never finishing below 3rd, which credit to Peep yeah, he has never finished below 3rd as well too.

Um, and, and reinventing himself, because I think that's a big thing that people underestimate when it comes to longevity.

When it comes to players, I really value the peak that you hit.

But for a manager to last that long, you have to be reinventing yourself and retooling your team so many times.

Pep, uh, Ferguson has like 4 or 5 different Man United teams that he managed to get over the line each, each and every time.

I think if you want to talk about all of football like outside the Premier League.

Then I think you could definitely make a case for Pep Guardiola, of course, but in the Premier League, I'm sorry, it's, it's Sir Alex.

I, I, no, no, I agree.

I just wanna rebuttal on the spending point because there's a one thing spending, but then there's another thing spending well.

We look at Chelsea in the last 5 years, they've spent a lot of money.

They've completely failed.

We look at United post Ferguson, you've spent a lot of money, you haven't won a single Premier League title.

So in all fairness, fairness to Pep Guardiola, he's spent a lot, but he's also succeeded and he's spent well.

Yes, there's been a few misses and the transfers like City are allowed to make more.

Mistakes with the money, the money they spent like they bought Omar Marmus for how much now?

What is it 70 million.

He gets paid 2000 a week and he's just on and now they're talking about he might leave next season.

Ferguson, you spent a lot of money as well, but never to the extent that we can sign somebody and then basically offload him the next year.

Like he just becomes a bench player and we go and buy someone else and we spent a lot of money and we spent it incompetently.

I'm not trying to say City haven't spent well.

They've made amazing signings, but I just think when it comes to spending, you're comparing City to another club like.

It's, it's tough, man, because I don't wanna use that to discredit Pep because he spent well.

This is what my argument, and Ferguson wrote the British transfer record 7 times, so let's not act like, but Sir Alex, Sir Alex is spending, again, he's spending big on a player or so, but again, Pep is literally spending hundreds of millions on numerous players, and then the, and then the wages, and then the wages on top of that is unheard of.

Like you cannot compare Man City and Pep's uh spending to, to Strass, even with the moneys as well, even, even if you.

Look at it relatively, the amount of money that's City can pay £300,000 a week.

Again, I'm gonna keep using that same player, but the fact that he's just a, a, a squad player at City for 15 million basically.

150 million pounds per season.

Yeah, yeah, no, no, I, I get your point, but we, we also have to say this, and that's not me people have changed a lot.

Yeah, but no one else, no one else in England, it has changed a lot, but no one else in England is able to do what City do.

No, no, I, I absolutely agree with you.

Let us know in the comment if you're, uh.

Sir Alex Ferguson, or you are Pep Guardiola, he said in the Prem though, he said Sir Alex.

Yeah, yeah Pep reached for me Pep reached higher heights in the Premier League.

For me it's more impressive what Pep did.

13 Premier League titles is more than what Pep does.

Yeah, but he spent a lot longer.

OK, you have to, you have to be a certain level, like I said, and also again, keep reinventing yourself and keep the energy up for that amount of time to do what, what Sir Alex did.

They both, Shane, I would say Manchester United.

When, when, when Ferguson took charge was that.

A bigger club than Man City when they were a bigger club, but they were in the midst of, of a drought at Man United, a drought completely were built up City to what they are as well.

Hold on, hold on, let me say let's changed the, let me say Manchester City for me.

City were a better team when Pep took over than Man United were under Strali.

Yeah.

We can definitely agree on that, right?

No, yes, yeah, that we can agree, yeah.

But Manchester United were a bigger club , that's, that's what I'm saying.

Yeah, they, they still are a bigger club.

Yeah, yeah, yeah .

I sneak that in there.

And surprise, surprise, Xabi Alonso is the new Chelsea manager.

That is a surprise to be fair.

What do we think of it?

I think it's a great appointment, to be honest.

I think Xabi Alonso's still a brilliant coach.

I think his time at Real Madrid is quite overhad, to be honest.

I think he had a like he had a very good win rate.

I think it was 71%, and it only really dropped massively after the big fallout with the players where he just lost the dressing room.

I think he should have been given a bit more time, to be honest, at Madrid, but in general he's a brilliant coach.

Evercruz and he won the league going invincible.

He won the cup as well, he won the double in that season.

He's quite an intelligent manager, he doesn't really jump into a job for no reason, I feel.

I think he's quite calculated with his decisions.

So him taking his Chelsea job probably tells me that Bluco have given him the blueprint to be able to create his own team, have more of a say in the transfers, sort of like Arteta has at Arsenal.

Cause otherwise I just don't see him as a coach signing off on that deal.

If they didn't make him promises to give.

more control .

So I think Chelsea also as a, as a, from like a, an ownership point of view, seem like they're on the right trajectory and maybe have learned from their past mistakes, but obviously time will tell.

But for me, X Alonso taking this job just tells me that they've given him more power and the, and the range.

Not just more power, mm, maybe he saw in the current squad something he can build on, no?

Uh, maybe, cause I do think Chelsea have some talented players, they haven't shown it for a very long time now.

But I still think if you're a manager and you're looking at a pool of Cole Palmer, Kayo, Reese James, let's see what happens to Enzo, Joa Pedro, you're looking at that and saying there's something to work with, that's a good core.

What can I do around them and how can I improve them?

Yeah, um, I think my, my thing with, with Alonso is it's a big risk for him, right?

It's a very, very big risk.

That's, that's what I was thinking yesterday.

I was talking to, to a friend of mine and say, wow, Real Madrid, it didn't end well, Chelsea.

If he doesn't go well at Chelsea, then your status typically this is why I wanted him to go to Real Madrid in the first place, because when it was rumored whether he was going to that or Liverpool, I just thought if you go to Real Madrid and you fail, you can fail downwards to Liverpool and to Chelsea.

If you fail at Liverpool, the next step is, is much lower, right?

So going from Real Madrid, there's a lot of clubs below them.

And for me it didn't, it didn't, was a failure at Real Madrid.

So I say failure, right, like he failed in terms of he got fired, but.

Maybe actually though, the one example I could give in comparison to this is Maresca in terms of a coach leaving a job and 6 months down the line, he actually has a better reputation than 6 months earlier.

Maresca's in a similar boat with how Ross Senior did.

So yeah, Alonso looks a lot better because of how the Real Madrid season has played out.

But make no mistake about it, he needs to do well at Chelsea, otherwise, his next job is going to be very far away from the jobs we initially thought he was going to be getting.

And for him to take this Chelsea job, which has been very volatile, it's been.

It's been a tough job for a lot of coaches.

It's, it's a bit of a, a job killer.

You look at how it's killed the reputation of Graham Potter, Liam Ross Senior.

Marissa, to be fair, is gonna go on to do pretty good things, I think.

It's a big risk for him.

So I think he's probably been guaranteed a lot of things from Clear Lake.

Like, I think already they're talking about.

He now has the, the title of manager rather than head coach, which is, I believe the first manager to get that in the Clear Lake era because they've, they haven't been willing to give that responsibility.

I'm sure he's got numerous clauses in his contract in terms of what he's going to be guaranteed to get in terms of player choice and this and that.

But there's big pressure on him because this is a sleeping giant.

This is a club that have failed a lot and he's under massive pressure.

Yeah, because it's like the risk, then, then you, you become Village bos, otherwise it's, yeah, true, right?

We look at those boss, that was a bit of a meme, but you remember him last time at Porto, he was really, really successful there.

Yeah, now he's, he's the president probably, yeah, but like post Porto, he didn't really go on to do too much.

Yeah, best of luck to Xabi Alonso.

What's gonna, what's gonna happen with Liverpool now because Xabi Alonso.

He was the, the favorite to, to, to take the job.

He was meant to be the heir to the throne, but I don't know, Liverpool, this is a massive loss for Liverpool in my opinion.

I think even the turmoil around Salah posting what he did on Instagram, Twitter, the players have completely turned on slot, the fans have totally turned on slot.

It's not really in Liverpool's nature to sack a manager that quickly.

It almost seems like they wanna build projects with them and give them time, but I just think with slot.

His time's up.

I don't think he's capable of taking this Liverpool to the heights, is it, it needs to be up, so I think this is a massive loss for Liverpool.

I don't know.

I don't even know who they could bring in now.

You say it's a massive loss, but like a massive loss for me would be like if he turned them down.

According to reports, Liverpool have basically put their hands up and said we're good actually, we're going to continue with slot ourselves, right?

So.

It's a weird one.

It it really is bizarre.

Like I know Liverpool, like, like Lucas said, are not a club that have a history of just turning their back on their managers quickly.

They want to give their managers time.

But after Salah's statement this, this weekend, I feel like he's a dead man walking.

When the star player of the club who, yeah, admittedly is leaving but still has so much.

Power over the club and the fans and narratives makes that kind of statement.

He's almost bringing you down with him like, OK, if I'm going, you're going down with the ship.

I don't know how slot slot, and it, I think I read too 15 of the first team players went on to like Salah's statement on Instagram, meaning that.

This is like, yeah, yeah, you lost the dressing room, you lost the dressing room, and I look at the performances, it's, it's a, it's a team that are clearly not behind their manager.

They're clearly not buying into whatever he's trying to sell to them.

So yeah, I think this is as simple as we start next season.

There's the idea that I'm so sure Slot will bring in some signings and there's the hope that he can kind of get things going again.

But within 3 months of next season, if Arnold Slot is still on the job at Liverpool, I'd be shocked.

Yeah, I mean it's, I would say it'd be lucky after what we saw.

Or you'd have to have a huge turnaround and like he gets the, the players to buy in again.

I don't know, I don't know, I have no idea because the thing with slot, right, you can lose the players, the players, losing the players is big.

That's a really, really big thing.

But when you lose the fans, that's big too, man.

The way.

They booed against Chelsea, the way now so many fans are almost disillusioned with the football he's playing too.

They can't get behind the football he's playing.

Klopp at times under the uh underperformed at Liverpool, right, when they, they finished outside the top four.

But he never lost the fans in terms of like the idea he was trying to sell to them.

I don't think Liverpool fans are buying into what Salt's trying to sell though.

Uh, Les, you are the um sporting director of Manchester United, who's gonna be.

Your manager, your head coach next season.

It's gonna be Michael Kerrick.

We're just waiting for the here we go right now.

It's gonna be Kerrick.

And you know what?

I think it's, it's, it's deserved.

I, first and foremost, I look at the managerial market and I don't look at anybody that I'm, I'm dying for.

I, I'm gonna be real, right?

Alonso, if he didn't have the Liverpool connection, I would have looked at that and said, wow, we could really do Alonso.

But everyone else, no, I'm not, I'm not really, I'm not really falling overhead of like I like Gaola.

I think he's a good coach.

There's no guarantee he comes to Man United and turns it up.

I'm OK on Glasner.

United doesn't want to hire any manager coaching at the World Cup.

Understandable.

So I think giving Kerrick the 2-year contract that they're going to give him plus 1 is perfect.

I think it means that United don't have to commit long term to Kerrick in case it doesn't end up working out.

I think it gives Kerrick the opportunity to continue building his name at United because.

A job he probably never thought he would get in his life and it allows us to just kind of analyze the situation while also making sure we get our recruitment right because I think right now for United, the most important thing is getting good players into the door, making sure the squad is good for next season.

Yeah, I mean, I, I'd, I'd replace Michael Carrick just if I had the like Enrique, if Enrique becomes available, we go get Enrique I totally, I totally, I think something people would underestimate too, the squad loves Kerrick, right?

And look.

If they love Kerrick and he's, he's, he's in 15th place, it's different, right?

You have to perform it wins are the most important thing.

But I think people seriously undervalue how important it is to get people who work for you to like you, right?

In any walk of life.

If you're a boss and your employees hate you, more often than not, that's not going to make for a good working environment and you're probably not gonna get the results you want.

So the fact that the squad has bought into him to then go and tell them at the end of the season, actually we're gonna go for a new manager.

I think that would probably ruffle.

Yeah, exactly, it probably ruffle the dressing room a little bit, cause I think he definitely has got them to bite into what he's selling.

Yeah, and I, I agree, and I think on the flip side of what you said about Slot losing the dressing room, losing the fans, Carrick has both, like right under his, the palm of his hand really, and I think it comes from a respect point of view too, because you look at Carrick, what he achieved at United, how long he spent at the club, how well he knows the clubs, the fans are always gonna be behind someone like that.

The, the idea of Carrick winning at United is beautiful for Manchester United fans.

Same as like Ollie, right?

That was like everyone was behind him, ex-United legend, like this is huge.

And the players seemed like they would die on a hill for him.

They're playing good football.

He's getting results, he's getting Champions League .

Why wouldn't you give Car a chance?

I think it'd be so stupid.

Something, something clicked for me this weekend, and I'll bring back in to clown you, like, hear me out here.

Watching that game, I kept an eye on Kivu on the touchline.

And Kivu, he does these little things during the game you wouldn't see on TV, but when you're watching him at the stadium, you really notice.

I see Kivu at random times just geeing up the fans like this, or the fans will be doing a song or whatever, and he'll almost be like patting his leg to the beat of it.

It's like this guy actually lives and breathes Inter.

He's a former player.

He's coached and he, yeah, he won with Inter.

He was a great soldier for them.

He was coaching to the youth academy too, and now he's the coach and.

He's won and it's like this guy, it's different winning with one of your own compared to someone else.

And obviously he has to be good enough to do it in the first place.

You can't just get any fan or ex-player to do it, but I would love Kerrick to win a Man United.

Like any, like the Carrick winning it would feel so much better than any other random guy who comes in.

Like if Enrique comes in and, and, and he wins the Premier League, it won't hit as much as if Kerrick wins it.

he has to do it, but I would love it, bro.

That really made me realize with that Kivu thing this week , I'm desperate for character to do well, man.

Yeah, because it's a sort of fairy tale, you know, when, when one of your guy wins it, you know, in, in modern football, fairy tales, I mean, are something rare nowadays, and we saw it in Scotland, look, unfortunately.

No, I wanted Celtic to win.

Really?

Why?

I like Celtic.

Fair enough, man.

The Grinch, so surprise, surprise.

I like Celtic.

I've always had a soft spot for them.

I don't, I don't, I don't mind Celtic.

Yeah, no, I mean, I, no, you wanted something different.

I get it.

Yeah he's a, he's a Juventus fan, so he's normally stay with a stronger.

I, I've always liked Celtic, man.

I don't know, I've always been like fascinated by their club's history and everything, and being Catholic, I don't know, I always felt a tie with them, but I obviously from like a footballing perspective, you probably would have wanted Hearts to win.

I think it was the 1985, the last time a different team apart from Rangers and Celtic, yeah, Ferguson, Aberdeen, um.

What was his, what was his budget?

What was he working with?

Did he break the Scottish record?

Different era, man, different era.

Different era, he couldn't stop until 2013 era.

Different football, we don't know, we, we don't know yet.

We don't know yet if it's gonna be a fairy tale for Arsenal fans next week, we need to wait.

Uh, Luca, we've talked a lot, but before we say goodbye to these people.

And let us know in the comments what we say.

The first year we go coming is Jose Mourinho back to Real Madrid official.

Anything you want to say?

I'm just surprised.

That's, that's it really.

I really didn't think.

I saw the rumors, but I really didn't think it would happen.

The first year we go was Juve are playing Thursday nights this season.

That was the first, you know what, yeah, I've got a problem with it.

That was the first here we go I saw.

Mourinho was the 2nd 1 .

It's gonna be, I'm disappointed, I want to play in the Champions League next season, now I won't get to see him.

It's gonna be, it's gonna be a long week, and let me tell you something, it's gonna be a long summer.

We'll be back soon.

Thanks Lia, thanks Luca, see you next time.