# Xabi Alonso Sacked: Real Madrid In Crisis

An episode of [The Real Deal: A Real Madrid Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1807821669), 12 Jan 2026, 1 h 08 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/103607aa8/podcast/play/113898483/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-0-12%2F415992799-44100-2-b31d1cd7c09a7.mp3

Jarod Hector and Sid break down Xabi Alonso's sacking, how it's part of a larger trend of decline and mismanagement at the club, Florentino Perez's flaws and the way forward at Real Madrid.

## Transcript

[0:02] That music is not hitting particularly hard right now.
[0:06] Sid, welcome to The Real Deal, a Real Madrid podcast with me.
[0:11] Gerard Hector joined by Sid Ramsundar doing a emergency
[0:15] podcast. Sid, as you know, I'm getting
[0:17] ready to get on a plane in less than 48 hours.
[0:20] I was getting ready to detach and not worry about this club
[0:23] for a while because I'm like, look, man, I got to get away.
[0:26] And, of course, what happens less than 24 hours after losing
[0:30] to Barcelona 32 in the Super Copa final in Saudi Arabia, Real
[0:35] Madrid sack Jabby Alonso after seven months on the job.
[0:40] How you doing Sid? Hey, I was.
[0:42] I woke up. I hit the gym we had.
[0:45] I know I was just trying to wash the taste off.
[0:46] Put that Steve Kerr ticky talk episode out.
[0:48] I saw this report that Benzema told Paris to trust Alonzo
[0:52] inside a midfielder for him. Like, oh.
[0:53] You felt good. Oh yeah, yeah.
[0:55] And then literally seconds later that drops so nobody clicks on
[0:58] the episode. People are like, who?
[0:59] What is this guy tweeting? And then I'm like, oh shit, who
[1:04] am I kidding, this is Real Madrid.
[1:05] What was I thinking? Like, of course, because my
[1:07] first, my tweet was like, just listen to the ex player.
[1:09] It's good shit. That's what we need.
[1:11] Listen, I'm trying to speak it into existence.
[1:13] It didn't happen. It didn't happen.
[1:14] It's it's just wild, Sid, because obviously this is not
[1:19] something that you and I and many of the fan base wanted.
[1:22] We see the structural problems with this team on the pitch,
[1:27] within the set up at Belle de Bay bus, the training facility
[1:32] and within the business office of the board and Jose, Angelo
[1:37] Sanchez, Trini Calafat, the whole regime.
[1:41] Headline, headline by Florentino Perez.
[1:44] You know, this is unfortunate. It's it because I think you and
[1:46] I believe that all of the young coaches in the game right now, I
[1:50] mean, if we think that Javi Lanza for sure is the best and
[1:54] he has a bright, bright future ahead of him.
[1:56] And I'm just disappointed that Real Madrid did not give him the
[2:00] opportunity to really showcase what he could do.
[2:04] Yeah, extremely disappointing. It's a dark chapter in the
[2:07] club's history no matter how we look at it.
[2:09] I think X player has a lot of good attributes.
[2:13] Unbeaten with Bayer Leverkusen. Put all that together and he
[2:17] comes here six months man, like 6 months after the start of the
[2:21] season. It's it's just a nightmare
[2:24] timeline. Like remember how we were
[2:26] talking about how everything's going to work?
[2:27] The club was building into it and I it's, it's I'm speechless
[2:32] to be honest. Like I was telling you off air,
[2:34] but just to tell everyone, 10 years ago when I started
[2:36] following the team when Benitez was sacked, there were similar
[2:39] issues. I knew Benitez was more flawed,
[2:42] but the a lot of the same issues of refusing to back your coach
[2:45] in certain ways was there. And the club was debating who
[2:50] was going to sack Zadan and take a hit for it.
[2:52] And at that time I remember thinking if they sacked Zadan,
[2:55] why would I watch this team willingly week in week out was
[2:58] my question. And right now, I feel like we're
[3:01] coming off a dark 18 months. And I think the scary part is
[3:06] there's no end insight on top of all this.
[3:07] This is symptomatic of the bottom falling out.
[3:10] It's the beginning. It's like we're just starting to
[3:12] fall off the Cliff. Yeah, no, I, I think you're,
[3:14] you're, you're dead on. Like what?
[3:16] So it's like you're at the tip, right?
[3:17] And you're, you're about to fall off into this unlimited drop.
[3:20] And that that's where that's where we're at right now.
[3:21] We've just over the edge. And I've said it like we are.
[3:26] This is behavior, Sid like Manchester United like and I
[3:30] heard some people in in that I put this out on Twitter saying
[3:34] no, we'd be menu if we kept them.
[3:36] Whatever, we're doing the right thing.
[3:37] The guy said trophies didn't matter.
[3:39] And you know, fans love to hear what they want to hear.
[3:42] Jabby Lanza never said trophies didn't matter.
[3:45] What he said was of the cup, of the competitions that we are in,
[3:49] Super Copa is the least important of the three, which is
[3:52] a factual statement. You all know this in this club,
[3:55] we prioritize it in this order. Champions League, then the
[3:59] league, then Super Cup. You guys know that or I'm sorry,
[4:01] then Copa del Rey, then Super Cup.
[4:03] Like you know that that is how this league prioritize this team
[4:07] prioritizes trophies. So of the I mean, that's a major
[4:10] trophy. Of the 3 1/2 major trophies,
[4:13] this was the half. This was the least important of
[4:15] three. Something wrong with what he
[4:16] said there. And by the way, as we said on
[4:19] the The Breakdown show, said his game plan, given his
[4:23] limitations, was actually right and was working right.
[4:27] You can only do so much, right? Like when you have one hand tied
[4:31] behind your back and you're in a boxing match.
[4:34] Listen man, you're only going to last so long right before you
[4:36] get pummeled by the guy with two with two free hands.
[4:39] It was so sad just watching the progression.
[4:42] It's like each chapter from when he joined, everything was
[4:45] squeaky clean from day one to Athletico and outside Athletico.
[4:50] We won almost every game other than Athletico and PSG up till
[4:54] the end of October and to see Vinny complaining at the end of
[4:58] October I guess was the first sign things were deeply wrong.
[5:01] It's just, it's like, I guess some people saw signs because
[5:05] Vinny wasn't happy getting benched, but to just go from
[5:08] winning to that. He wasn't performing.
[5:10] So what? I mean happy about what?
[5:12] Like you weren't doing shit. Well, it's funny because his
[5:15] underlying numbers were better when he was getting benched than
[5:17] after. And then he just then he just
[5:18] stopped beating his man. Yeah, And I think there was a
[5:22] lot of stuff being created then of like Vinny was unfairly being
[5:25] benched. I guess that was the beginning
[5:26] because on film, all of us, like all the people who coach that is
[5:30] not and like people who view the game critically, not just people
[5:33] who are fans, all the different coaches we talked to that we
[5:36] have advising the show, Like it kept popping up that one, Arta
[5:40] wasn't the best of duels, but two, Vinny's not defending.
[5:43] And like, we'd win games and there would be sequences in
[5:47] games where people would point out Vinny's not defending.
[5:48] Well, it doesn't matter. And I just remember thinking
[5:51] because we're winning, people are not noticing and because
[5:55] we're winning. When he got sacked, you can
[5:57] blame the coach and yell at the coach and be like, hey, like,
[6:00] we're winning. Don't take him off.
[6:01] But yeah, the level of results, like the results being glossed
[6:05] over that time in favor of some underlying process of the
[6:09] players being implemented was very disappointing.
[6:12] Are also are you seeing the reports that the problem started
[6:15] even earlier with the Club World Cup that that was coming out
[6:17] today? Yeah, that I guess players
[6:18] didn't like the, you know, how he was trying to implement
[6:22] things. Look, we all, first of all, the
[6:26] club hired him with that in mind.
[6:28] They knew he was a tactician that wanted to play a certain
[6:31] style. Look, you saw the tape at
[6:33] Leverkusen. Don't be out here acting
[6:35] surprised, not being like, oh, we didn't know it was he that
[6:36] was he was going to do. You knew he was going to bring
[6:39] that in here and there was factions of the board that said
[6:42] we wanted to add discipline to the team.
[6:44] Now, again, I know I've mentioned this report numerous
[6:47] times, but I'm going to go back to it because it is instructive
[6:49] here. Kim Ballagan.
[6:51] Kim Ballagan wrote that Carlo Ancelotti called Jabi and told
[6:56] him, it's not like I'm paraphrasing.
[6:58] It's not like we didn't give them instruction in the during
[7:01] the week before a weekend game. They just didn't do it right.
[7:05] So a lot Enchiladi tried to implement certain things.
[7:09] Remember, he would always complain.
[7:10] Balance, balance, balance, balance.
[7:12] Like he would say it like ad nauseam.
[7:14] And the club for whatever the place, for whatever reason, did
[7:17] their own thing. OK, He said this is an issue.
[7:21] He also said Mbappe cares about his records, the issues.
[7:25] Junior cares about being a leader in the locker room and
[7:27] worried about his place because Mbappe's here and Pede Valverde
[7:30] is not mature enough to be a captain and only wants to play
[7:32] midfield. So he told him this is a tough
[7:35] group to coach and here are three major things you have to
[7:38] worry about. Why wasn't this something we
[7:41] focused on in the summer? I think it just felt like they
[7:44] would all buy in and listen. I think we took it for granted
[7:46] that we know we had to done. We had Carlo, we're bringing in
[7:49] another coach from the same genre of understands Real
[7:52] Madrid, maybe a little more tactical, but I feel like we
[7:55] took it for granted. They would listen.
[7:56] And I admit I was wrong there because I was telling people,
[7:59] anyone who would hear like, hey, he's going to do what Saddam did
[8:02] for Ronaldo and and that team, he's going to get us going.
[8:06] None of that happened. The players didn't listen.
[8:08] And I think this group is just fucking retard.
[8:10] Like they're, they're crazy, they're egomaniacs and.
[8:13] And to be clear and fair, right, Because you know me said I
[8:17] always talk about what about the blame pie, right?
[8:19] It's never one person 100% or one thing 100%.
[8:22] There is blame that goes around across the board to everyone.
[8:27] Chubby is not absolved of any blame here.
[8:32] OK, now his inability to get his message across effectively to
[8:38] this group of players, part of that is on him right now.
[8:43] I will say that he was also handcuffed in that the club did
[8:46] not back him right and did not give him that kind of support a
[8:50] la what we saw happen in Liverpool with Mosala.
[8:53] Right when Sala was making his deal, the club immediately back
[8:58] Arnie Schlacks. He he's assisting and on the
[9:00] pitch in two weeks after what looked like the world was
[9:03] collapsing at Liverpool and for us, the world's collapsing and
[9:06] like he can come. I I hate to admit it, but like,
[9:09] you know, there was that funny tweet going around, like, you
[9:11] know, he Vinny's represented by Roc Nation and other agency.
[9:14] They omitted Alonzo from his apology on purpose after
[9:17] Classico. Yeah, and I didn't want to read
[9:19] into it, but honestly, man, that was some petty shit.
[9:21] And everything fell apart after that.
[9:24] And I can't help but feel this is a case of clear internal.
[9:28] It just feels like internal sabotage and everyone should pay
[9:31] the consequences. It's.
[9:32] Like no doubt. It's got a clean house.
[9:33] And The thing is that includes the president.
[9:37] But with that being said, Gerard, one thing I want to
[9:39] touch on this president doesn't seem like someone who's going to
[9:43] relinquish power that easily in any way.
[9:45] And he seems very cunning in terms.
[9:48] Of and he's, he set himself up said to basically have a fiefdom
[9:52] where he decides when he leaves and who his successor is going
[9:55] to be. There is no does it not, there
[9:57] does not seem to be a mechanism by which enough power can be
[10:02] amassed among the board to move him out.
[10:05] That does not seem to be a possibility.
[10:07] And so if that's the case. Well, I think on some level
[10:10] there needs to be someone who is of the same caliber financially
[10:15] competing with it. Not just personal success, but
[10:18] like showing they have the corporate connections, they have
[10:20] the CEO mindset of pushing us into the future.
[10:23] I think if you look at everyone who's been around the club for
[10:26] 4050, sixty years since Bernabeu, he stands so far above
[10:30] everyone else that he has earned that.
[10:33] And I totally understand it. A lot of people are saying,
[10:35] like, you know, Florentino's done good.
[10:37] I just think you anytime you want to improve, you got to keep
[10:40] the good. You got to leave out the bad.
[10:42] That's just how things go on some level.
[10:44] Like you might do that once and succeed, then you're going to
[10:46] learn new things that you need to leave out and learn new
[10:49] things to keep. And I think because there's no
[10:52] clear candidate, it's not obvious to people how that'll
[10:55] happen. But, and yes, he did change the
[10:56] rules. He did change the rules
[10:58] financially so that he could stay in power.
[11:00] And people are saying that he's going to set up his successor.
[11:03] So it can't be someone who questions him and Rafa Nadal.
[11:07] But that the problem with that is it seems like nepotism has
[11:10] hurt the club from a from a medical standpoint, everyone's
[11:13] always injured. And how does how is a new coach
[11:16] going to change that? But like Carlo got screwed over
[11:19] by the same things, like Carlo won a Champions League getting
[11:22] screwed over that that stuff in 2024, which was a miracle.
[11:26] Necrotism and cronyism Sid are are destroying this club right
[11:31] because there are people who just want to hold on to their
[11:33] power. We discussed the nutritionist
[11:35] situation which and I wrote about this on Twitter.
[11:38] That situation in of itself defines who this club actually
[11:42] is. The fact that a qualified person
[11:45] was brought into a role to help the players with their
[11:48] performance as it relates to how they eat and that person was
[11:52] undermined by doctors who told players don't listen to her, she
[11:56] doesn't know what's. After fixing Carva Hall.
[11:58] So they knew. They knew what's coming.
[12:00] Don't listen to her 'cause she doesn't know what she's talking
[12:02] about to the chef. In the hierarchy of an org chart
[12:07] of a public Real Madrid state, where do you think the chef
[12:09] would rank in relation to the head nutritionist below You
[12:13] would imagine, right? Like, why would they be?
[12:17] The head chef said. I don't care about listening to
[12:19] you and fucking put out pastries and doughnuts and shit.
[12:22] And that is said as amateur level stuff.
[12:26] This is Bush league. Look, Real Madrid loves to
[12:29] purport itself as the greatest club in the history of world
[12:32] football. Some kind of gold standard.
[12:34] That type of behavior is not gold standard.
[12:37] That is bullshit. And that's where we get into the
[12:41] report that that Pintas was being forced on him after some
[12:45] yesterday, they just decided, hey, like you guys aren't fit.
[12:47] You're going to let Pintas run that.
[12:48] And I think at that point, Alonzo's like, I think his
[12:52] training methods are way too wrapped up with his
[12:54] conditioning, which is how I would do it.
[12:56] I really wouldn't do separate those things like those work
[12:58] together. Like at the end of the day, you
[13:00] have a total amount of battery and juice in your body.
[13:03] You have a total. Amount of battery condition to
[13:04] do what I'm asking you to do tactically, right?
[13:06] But if my, if my conditioning doesn't work, then what's the
[13:09] point of right? Like it's like a, it's like a
[13:10] marathoner training like a sprinter.
[13:12] Why would you do that if you're a marathoner?
[13:13] Well, it's also a load thing because like the big thing that
[13:17] changed and I go back to this with Pintis and why he's
[13:18] outdated. Like we got to touch on this.
[13:21] At some point in football they stopped doing sprints without
[13:24] the ball. Like it just isn't efficient way
[13:26] of training. Like you know, Jerrod, you've
[13:28] looked at CLA and stuff. I think constraints driven.
[13:32] I think that's been I think I told you, I think that stuff
[13:34] goes even deeper in soccer and it's a whole part of the ecology
[13:37] because fundamentally they found that the time you spend running
[13:40] without the ball tires you out without making you better at
[13:42] football. So you might as well make
[13:44] everything, every conditioning exercise constrained by having
[13:47] to play with the ball. And this is what Guardiola did
[13:50] really more like introducing Rondo's everything is a
[13:52] possession drill and training. And Pintis is the opposite.
[13:55] He he runs them separate from this stuff.
[13:58] It might work because on some level like it, it is something
[14:02] that can work. Don't get me wrong.
[14:04] It's just not necessarily the best way.
[14:05] And the coach who's very much focused on maximizing how much
[14:08] his team can learn and implement tactically doesn't have time for
[14:12] that shit because then you'll cross the load which the players
[14:15] can handle with that extra Sprint work.
[14:17] This is Pintas man and I can. And by the way.
[14:20] Why he would? I see why he would resign over
[14:21] that. By the way, remember the players
[14:24] were throwing, having a mutiny against Pintas last season.
[14:28] They were saying we're getting hurt here.
[14:30] I'm not really into this Pintas thing.
[14:32] You see, this is part of the problem with this club, too much
[14:36] focus on results and not enough focus on underlying process.
[14:40] How we get to where we get. Now, I understand results
[14:45] matter. Of course they do.
[14:46] That's how you judge. But how you get to where you get
[14:49] should matter as well. Now, I say that because we look
[14:53] back, Sid, at the underlying metrics when we started this
[14:55] season, right before up to the Barcelona game.
[14:59] But he was being benched and, you know, rotated like benched.
[15:02] He's being rotated, right? The underlying metrics were
[15:06] outstanding. We LED La Liga in XGXG against
[15:11] shots, ship passes in the final third.
[15:13] All of the major. We just were not finishing.
[15:15] OK, except for Mbappe, nobody was finishing.
[15:18] That included Venicius Junior, who's bitching and complaining
[15:20] the whole time. Across the top five European
[15:23] leagues, we were among the league leaders across top five
[15:27] leagues in all those same metrics.
[15:28] So by every underlying metric, we were a top team in Europe.
[15:34] Glasco comes, Vinny has his meltdown.
[15:37] That changed everything, Sid, Because once that happened, and
[15:42] you mentioned in the apology that Vinny did, he left out Javi
[15:45] Alonzo. The story came out that he told
[15:48] Florentino, I'm not going to renew my relationship with this
[15:50] guy is where it is. Instead of punishing Vinicius
[15:54] and backing Chavi like Arsenal, I'm sorry Liverpool did with
[15:59] Salah. They just let it float into
[16:02] ether. The job is like, fuck, these
[16:04] guys aren't backing me. I can't lose many because he's
[16:06] an important point in the locker room.
[16:07] So he gives in. And what happens when he gives
[16:10] in, Sid? They smell blood in the water.
[16:12] This guy can't do shit. We're in charge here.
[16:15] Cool over I. Just think, there was so much
[16:19] perceived harmony at the time. I get why he didn't want to
[16:21] ruffle the toad. It's like, OK, we won 13 and 14,
[16:23] do you want me to do a few? Things for you?
[16:26] Yeah, so it's like, OK, maybe you bought yourself some time
[16:29] where you can let the players do some shit and then it turns out
[16:31] they can't do anything, but they won't go back to playing a more
[16:34] defensive style. And man, it's a whole mess.
[16:38] And then on top of that, I will obviously there's the coach,
[16:42] there's the reports that he wanted a Zubamendi and we
[16:45] obviously didn't sign anyone. That was also pretty crazy.
[16:49] And all things considered, there's who do you think is
[16:52] still on his side? Now there's reports that the
[16:54] locker room just fragmented and Alonso just didn't have the
[16:56] trust of it. There was a video, I don't read
[16:59] too much into it because I'm people are saying don't read
[17:01] into it, but like Alonso was asking the players to do a guard
[17:04] of order, right? And.
[17:05] Then Papay said no and called everybody off.
[17:07] Yeah, and Rodrigo as well was waving it off with him and.
[17:10] I would say for sure the players who I think for sure are in
[17:14] their own camp are like anti Alonzo, Vinicius Valverde and I
[17:21] think Mbappe. I think those 3 for sure.
[17:23] I don't know about anybody. Else so you think Mbappe who got
[17:27] every everything he wanted from the coach all season Yep
[17:30] platform he was platformed the whole season though Yep.
[17:34] Even though. Why?
[17:35] I think because he was still resistant to pressing the way he
[17:41] needed to and especially when Gonzalo Garcia played when he
[17:48] was injured and he came out and said, I do exactly what the
[17:52] coach asked me to do. He tells me to press.
[17:54] I press, right? Like you guys have to be able to
[17:57] read between the lines sometimes, right?
[17:59] Gonzalo saying that is an admission that this guy knows
[18:03] what he's talking about and I'm doing exactly what he says.
[18:05] And this is how I. And look, yes, I know it was
[18:07] against Betty's. But Sid, is it any surprise that
[18:12] when you play how a smart tactician is asking you to play,
[18:19] good things tend to happen, right?
[18:21] Those were the easiest three goals I think you would ever
[18:24] see, right? Just because he was doing
[18:26] everything in the flow of the game versus when Ibapi was going
[18:30] for his calendar record at the end of 2025.
[18:33] Everything looks so forced and stunted and stilted, right?
[18:35] I got to score, I got to score, I got to score.
[18:37] It's like, dude, like, just play within what you're being asked
[18:41] to do. You're so good.
[18:42] Good shit will happen. But you know, so I do think
[18:46] Imbabe was someone who didn't like because again, when you're
[18:49] someone like Imbabe, who has won a World Cup, who has won the
[18:54] Golden Boot 9 gazillion times, like, I mean, he hasn't won a
[18:57] balloon, he's won a Champions League.
[18:58] So to be fair. If this is what he thinks, I
[19:00] think he's stupid. He's never won a Champions
[19:02] League bro. Like I, I agree, see, I think
[19:05] there's such a giant gap between international football and the
[19:08] Champions League and that's why I think we feed into our own
[19:10] narrative. the Champions League is like a billion times harder
[19:13] competition to win than the World Cup in terms of the peak
[19:16] quality you have to achieve during a game cuz the opposition
[19:19] are more coordinated. Everything is more difficult.
[19:21] So that's actually why I think I dislike Mbappe, this dude like
[19:26] cuz if you look at his career, his legacy is riding on being
[19:30] like Pele at this point and winning a couple more because
[19:32] he's not going to be Cristiano or Messi on the on in club
[19:35] football. He's not close and the only way
[19:37] he's close is numbers. But yeah, this is some shameless
[19:40] shit, man. He like stands outside the box
[19:42] like waits for the ball to come to his feet and shoots.
[19:45] Raffinia right now is a better footballer than Killian and
[19:48] Bape. And I know La Conte was talking
[19:50] shit about Rafina last year. Well bro well La Conte is mad at
[19:53] the front office and Bape now too.
[19:55] He's cool selling them too because he's like, OK, like
[19:57] second year Rafina being better than you, let's sell this guy.
[20:00] Yo, look, watch that match yesterday.
[20:04] How decisive was Rafina in everything he did?
[20:07] Not just when he they were in possession.
[20:10] Out of possession? What was he doing?
[20:12] Sprinting and pressing his ass off.
[20:15] I'm sorry like I anyway. Well, so why, why do we drink
[20:21] our kool-aid? I think that's one thing to
[20:22] touch before we get to our below.
[20:24] And I just want to just want to debunk the idea that they were
[20:27] the most successful team. We won five in a row at the
[20:30] start and we won six in the last 12 years when we have not
[20:33] retained a league title. So that is the context in which
[20:36] we have won the most knockout trophies.
[20:38] So we have the two most dominant knockout eras ever.
[20:41] Does that mean we're the most successful club?
[20:43] We went 30 years without winning a Champions League.
[20:45] We won a bunch of leagues. Then I wonder if it's almost
[20:48] ingrained in the club that they think there's a contradiction
[20:50] because I think they had the youth team that won five in a
[20:53] row or something. They won a bunch of La Ligas
[20:55] with a bunch of Castilla guys who came through.
[20:58] I forget the name Keon and others always bring up that
[21:00] name, but what? Maybe there's a contradiction
[21:03] there where they're like, hey, it doesn't matter.
[21:06] And I think on some level of Florentino realizes the bottom
[21:09] line goes up with the Champions League more than with each
[21:11] league win. It's like, hey, I just need 3 or
[21:13] 4 leagues in here. It's like 3 or 4 leagues in a
[21:15] decade plus. Champions Quintadel Boutre.
[21:18] Yep. Quintadel boutre, right?
[21:21] So I think Paris feels like, hey, a Quintadel Boutre would
[21:24] not have the same commercial impact as 4 Champions Leagues
[21:28] random. And maybe we don't win the
[21:29] league, but I signed guys who definitely sell jerseys.
[21:32] And when we win the Champions League, we're gonna be #1 in
[21:35] revenue. And I'll use that to stay in
[21:37] power. Like I think that's how he's
[21:38] thinking. And it's just, man.
[21:40] Florentino clearly thinking strictly about revenue, by the
[21:43] way. For a club that is again
[21:45] generates no other world football club generates a
[21:47] billion dollars in revenue. We're not going to do it for the
[21:49] third consecutive season over a billion dollars yet we cry
[21:53] poverty and Oh no, we can't sign this player.
[21:54] We can't sign that player. Here's the thing that I and I
[21:57] want to be clear about what I'm saying here.
[21:59] I am not blaming Mbappe for the state of this team.
[22:03] I'm using that as an example of the problem of the strategies
[22:07] that Florentino uses. And I've asked you this numerous
[22:09] times, OK, we got him for free. But when we signed him, right,
[22:14] it was $100 million signing bonus and all the extra add-ons
[22:18] coming off of already winning a Champions League the year prior,
[22:22] right? What if instead of that 100
[22:24] million signing bonus for Mbappe, we use that on other
[22:27] profiles to strengthen this team?
[22:29] What would we look like now with and with a, with a, a Javi
[22:35] Alonso and with those extra signings we made this past
[22:38] summer in Carreras and Housen and this and that and the third?
[22:42] I think this has been happening for I'm realizing this has been
[22:45] happening for nine years. We just rode Cruz Modrich,
[22:47] Benzema till the dusk. Yep.
[22:49] And, and, and they just delivered in a way no vets in
[22:53] history ever have at that. Moment asked so many of this
[22:56] team's problems because they were so good.
[22:59] Now remember, to your point, we did not retain any league titles
[23:02] during that during that time with them either, right?
[23:04] Because they couldn't, they were vets, they couldn't do it every
[23:07] single match. So they knew that, OK, we'll
[23:09] turn it up and dial it up for the biggest matches, which are
[23:12] Classicos, Athletic and tournaments, right?
[23:15] That's when we'll really turn it up.
[23:16] But if the league is out of out of grasp, we're we're just going
[23:19] to punt that. We'll worry about this.
[23:21] Yeah, totally. And I think they they, they rode
[23:26] that group. I'm I'm saying go back to like
[23:28] when we won 2017, bro, this is that's when it started.
[23:31] Because this guy's like looking at the oil clubs, he's seeing
[23:33] the Ronaldo contract thing way back then because you know,
[23:35] that's what he thinks about all the time.
[23:37] All the the the financial sheet floors got that down.
[23:39] We know and and so this guy signed Sibaios, which Sidon
[23:44] didn't want that kind of droves it on out the first time and
[23:47] Sibios didn't make sense where to play him.
[23:49] Then the signing of Brahim Diaz for no reason.
[23:52] And like some of the signings we made when Sidon came back were
[23:55] only because it on requested them for land.
[23:57] Mendy Jovic, like Hazard was the one we signed no matter what
[24:01] because he's a galactico. But.
[24:03] And what a waste that was. Yeah, yeah.
[24:05] But we're not like there's no world where we sign a 50 million
[24:08] defensive like French left back. No way.
[24:11] Like who's not like like some goal scoring big name and that
[24:14] was all Zadan. And ever since then we've been
[24:16] doing the same thing every summer.
[24:18] Like Carlo just he turned lemons into lemonade in 2324 because it
[24:23] really should have fell out that year.
[24:25] Like fine 22 you squeeze one more out of Benzema going God
[24:28] Mode and doing something you wanted since he was a kid.
[24:30] He turned Jude into the second coming in that in that 2324
[24:33] year, he's like this guy's good. Play him up up top.
[24:35] Because again, even in that year we won the double, right?
[24:39] And we won the league. We won Champions League and we
[24:40] won Super Coba kid with a critical eye.
[24:45] How many of those matches should we have lost?
[24:49] Lunan turned into Pete Courtois during that run.
[24:52] How many times the opponents hit the woodwork?
[24:55] Bayern should have beaten us. Like there there were so many
[24:58] matches we like rescued, rescued victory from the jaws of defeat,
[25:02] right? Like when we really shouldn't
[25:03] have, right? Got extremely lucky.
[25:06] You play that over and over 10 times.
[25:09] We maybe win it one more time, maybe probably not once.
[25:12] The one out of 10 and we should have lost that final.
[25:13] Dortmund, we played with us. We played with fire against
[25:17] Dortmund. I think the fact that Courtois
[25:20] is frankly at Real Madrid specifically, Courtois is near
[25:25] the very top of goalkeeper peaks of in history has glossed over
[25:29] so much. So it's like the ageing vets
[25:31] give you enough structure to bring in players without
[25:34] worrying about hierarchy. And then even then your tactics
[25:37] don't work. And Courtois is the reason you
[25:40] get through. The tactics work enough, but
[25:42] really they're dependent on Courtois.
[25:44] And I think the other thing is how many times do we have, like
[25:48] look at our 2017 double winning team.
[25:50] Why can't we have like 4 years in a row where we put out a
[25:53] squad like that every year and actually deliver?
[25:56] It's like, OK, we had a good year, fine.
[25:58] We're going to let things stagnate.
[25:59] We're going to let someone sell, we're going to let you guys for
[26:01] like become demanding again and then appease you the year after.
[26:04] And he's been doing this for a while.
[26:07] What are your thoughts on the idea that Jose Angelo Sanchez
[26:10] and is like, he's kind of the sporting counterweight to Paris.
[26:13] And they say that basically he pushed for Alonzo and Carreras
[26:17] and all these guys and Florence Ito always told him I'm going to
[26:20] Sedan or Arbiloa if this doesn't work.
[26:23] And Pintas. Pintas was in his back pocket,
[26:25] too. This, this is the situation I
[26:28] have Florentino. He does things the way that and
[26:32] it's true because he was a fan. It's it's legendary.
[26:35] Go back and look it up. He's to go to games when he's a
[26:37] little kid with his dad, the whole 9 Like he is a fan of the
[26:40] club and that's all well and good and we want that spirit.
[26:42] But bro, you are the president. You cannot think like a fan.
[26:46] OK Pint. It's been reported numerous
[26:49] times that he believed that pintis is the secret sauce to US
[26:54] winning Champions Leagues. Bro what kind of stupid shit is
[26:57] that secret sauce? What is the data and metrics
[27:01] that show you when pintis is in charge?
[27:04] Our physical output in comparison to our opponents is
[27:07] better. Show me that.
[27:09] The only data I would say that exists is 20/17/22 and 24.
[27:13] Our performance chasing games was exceptional and that's the
[27:17] data point he's using to then tell himself.
[27:19] But again, like the fact that that happened has to be
[27:22] separated because of all the flaws.
[27:24] Like we need to train differently.
[27:25] We need to train with the ball. And if you're training 2 hours
[27:29] with the ball, you might not have energy to do the Pintas
[27:31] method after or it might cause injuries if you go do that and.
[27:35] The thing is, I can't. As I said before, I cannot blame
[27:38] the calendar. Real Madrid isn't the only club
[27:40] that has a packed calendar. Every top club has a packed
[27:42] calendar. Yet we seem to be more injured
[27:45] than anybody else. And I'm like, what's happening?
[27:49] And then don't and then let's get on to the quarantine on the
[27:52] board and the lack of squad planning and preparation.
[27:56] Sid, I was looking at it this morning.
[27:58] We have 10 people in in the defense on this roster right
[28:02] now, whether it be because of injury, their actual ability or
[28:09] or yeah, availability. We have seven of those ten
[28:14] players on that on on that defense, Sid, who cannot play
[28:18] and who have not played consistently this season.
[28:20] Seven. That means we have 3 left.
[28:24] How can you be an effective team with seven of your what?
[28:30] Yeah, no, it's ridiculous. And on that note, one thing
[28:35] people criticized Alonzo for was not playing youth.
[28:38] Guys. It's like, OK, your first team's
[28:40] injured, you don't have guys to play and your first teamers
[28:43] can't pass as well. So why can't you play the young
[28:47] guys as a question? Now firstly, I do see think that
[28:49] these guys see them in training more.
[28:51] So obviously there's a an element of that, but like I
[28:55] think they know that they may not deliver before if they
[28:57] choose not to play them. You said why doesn't he play
[29:00] young guys? Well, if he gave in to the
[29:03] players and said, OK, I'm cutting video sessions, I'm not
[29:06] going to bench Vinny, you think you could then say I'm going to
[29:09] play young guys? Yeah.
[29:09] Yeah, yeah, he can't. It it he loses his credibility.
[29:12] He neutered himself. Right, Yeah.
[29:14] So that's his flaw and he wasn't helped by the club if he had
[29:16] that Mourinho streak. And I think so the the main
[29:18] thing with Arbolo he has is that Mourinho streak.
[29:21] I believe Arbolo sided with Mourinho during the days of the
[29:24] fighting between the Spanish national teams and the whole
[29:27] poking Villanova is why and all that stuff going on.
[29:30] So this is a soldier we could trust and.
[29:34] Look, I I I am skeptical about what Arbello is going to be able
[29:37] to do, mainly because first of all, you already see the little
[29:41] leak that leaks that are going out from the factions within the
[29:44] club right on the board. So many Arbelloa will be more
[29:48] enchiladi like. All right, that's already been
[29:50] leaked. Oh, OK.
[29:51] So a hands off approach is how he's going to be let the players
[29:54] do whatever they want, right? More man management, less
[29:56] tactical. Like I, I just look again,
[30:01] whether it's Arboloa, whether it's Enzo Maresca, whether it's
[30:04] Jurgen Klopp, whether it's freaking the second coming of
[30:07] Jesus Christ. It don't matter if this club is
[30:10] going to continue to not give the coach the authority to do
[30:15] what he has to do, give him back him and sign.
[30:20] Forget about just we have the proper depth in place, right?
[30:24] As I said before, we have 10 defenders. 7 out of 10 of those
[30:28] players this season have not been able to play more than
[30:31] three consecutive matches in a row.
[30:32] Look what what are we doing like that?
[30:35] You can't. You can't operate a top level
[30:37] football with with stuff like that.
[30:39] Yeah. And and so I guess before we
[30:41] even jump into our below, there's a lot of contradictory
[30:44] information, I guess that we should get into that in terms of
[30:46] who's doing what. Like all the projection coming
[30:49] out about like how who's going to be like Carlo or what he's
[30:51] going to do. I'm looking at Pepe Alvarez
[30:53] first. So Pepe Alvarez, that account
[30:57] that's supposed to be tied to someone's camp in the club, it's
[30:59] clearly is like too many people follow it.
[31:01] It is. It is projecting someone's idea
[31:03] of something who is what did. He say.
[31:05] He said that Chabi Alonso wanted Upamekano when he was asked
[31:09] about free agent options a few months ago in December 31st.
[31:12] Then it said Chabi hasn't been fired, he's resigned, exhausted
[31:15] from the ego and the constant lack of respect from the locker
[31:18] room that have intensified this week in Arabia and due to the
[31:20] total lack of support from the club these past months.
[31:22] I will say this. Or hey, pick on who I met when I
[31:25] was at the Real Madrid event in Chicago.
[31:29] He actually said that Alonso was sacked.
[31:31] So this, listen, when Mourinho left, I knew it was mutual
[31:34] because he wanted to go to Chelsea.
[31:36] So on some level we knew like he just wanted to break contract,
[31:39] didn't need to pay out. I don't really see what's
[31:41] happening here. Like I get that Alonzo might
[31:43] have resigned, but it's not even fully obvious if that's exactly
[31:46] what happened. I, I think he got fired.
[31:49] I, I, I, I think he based on how we played last night and three,
[31:55] two with limitations, I think he said, OK, I, if I can get us to
[31:59] the finish line, right. And over the summer, I might
[32:02] have a chance to really work in some new stuff.
[32:04] I think he was looking long term.
[32:06] I really do. I think the club just fired up
[32:09] because that's what they do. They're reactionary, right?
[32:11] Florentino's extremely reactionary.
[32:13] No process involved. No, again, no looking at the
[32:17] underlying metrics and saying, you know, when we actually
[32:20] played the way you wanted to play, you weren't finishing.
[32:21] But damn. And yes, Oh, it's boring
[32:24] football. Oh guess what, sometimes it's
[32:26] got to be boring, OK? Like that's just how it works
[32:29] sometimes. Teams were literally doing
[32:31] nothing there. The XG against us during that
[32:33] first 15 game sig was ridiculously low because we
[32:37] Courtois had no work to do because we just Nope.
[32:40] We just won the ball back and we had it.
[32:41] We were dominating possession. Yeah, And going through Pepe
[32:44] Alvarez's other comments, he said Alonzo, they wanted to
[32:49] impose Pintus on him starting tomorrow and there was brutal
[32:52] disrespect from this account, says Fetty Valverde, Jude
[32:55] Bellingham and a few others. Fetty I understand.
[32:58] Jude I don't know, I feel. I don't yeah, the Jude one.
[33:01] My thing is I think there's an agenda against him, against by
[33:04] Spanish media for sure. I because he's English and he's
[33:07] black and the whole thing. I don't Jew doesn't strike me as
[33:11] someone who's anti Jabby Alonso. Like, that's not the vibe I get.
[33:14] I don't. I would say even beyond the
[33:16] black, it's there. They hate English midfielders.
[33:18] There's like it's like an aesthetic thing because like you
[33:22] know, I've seen. I would say it's more so with
[33:24] Camavinga and Chuameni that they would say it's black.
[33:26] Here's the thing, that's the sad thing.
[33:28] They had all these metrics. They were supposed to be all
[33:29] around players and some of these guys didn't be.
[33:33] And as a result, Jude is getting scapegoated for that the most of
[33:36] all of them and when he's the one who can score the most
[33:39] goals. So that's what I find a little
[33:40] strange, right? The other thing is what's it
[33:43] called the the account saying this.
[33:47] I just wonder like, OK, like, are you a competing faction of
[33:50] Bellingham? Right, right.
[33:51] I'm just like, is this an Mbappe camp trying to throw shade on
[33:54] Jude? And lastly, this one is this 1
[33:57] is the brotherly relationship between Jabi, Alonzo and Arboloa
[34:02] has deteriorated in recent weeks.
[34:04] God, I feel like they're just, I feel like they're selling smoke
[34:08] on some level, but I'd also think there's some truth.
[34:10] It's a lot of mixed thing and I don't know what to make of that.
[34:13] But I still don't know what to make of that account to be
[34:15] honest. It's just all weird.
[34:16] Like, I feel like Arboloa is just here to finish what Jabi
[34:21] started in many ways. Yeah, just a.
[34:25] Just a touch on this because this someone brought it up here
[34:27] in the chat. The Spanish fans hate you a lot.
[34:28] He has gained fame of being a drunk.
[34:30] Who knows if it's true. Like this thing with Jude going
[34:34] out and clubbing and being drunk in the age we live in now with
[34:38] cell phone camera videos by now we would see tons of footage of
[34:42] him out. I've not seen one video of this
[34:45] during. Where is it?
[34:47] I've not seen it. Again, I, I, as far as I can
[34:49] tell, I haven't even spoken to him about this, but going
[34:51] through Le Conte's tweets, I don't think it's him.
[34:53] I'm pretty sure this is an attempt to scapegoat him.
[34:56] And like, that's why I say we, we, we talked to coaches and
[34:59] coaching minded people and tactical people across, they're
[35:03] all saying this is not on Jude. Like we've, we've all
[35:05] triangulated on this from different areas, different first
[35:08] principles, approaches. And that's why I and inherently
[35:12] a lot of the drunk criticisms are in the Spanish language.
[35:15] Inherently, if you're not even on Twitter when you see it, I
[35:18] understand. Listen, the, the span.
[35:20] I think the Spanish fans are sick of seeing a team without
[35:22] Pausa and they're letting it out on Jude.
[35:23] I get it. He's English.
[35:24] He comes from England. Like this is the the land of
[35:26] Pausa. Jude is more pausa oriented
[35:29] than, you know, some of his predecessors.
[35:31] But like the gap in Spain is still huge.
[35:34] And you see it when a random Zubamendi comes on for Spain and
[35:36] just cooks and and, and we don't sign him.
[35:39] But you know, it's funny, the fans, the fans who call Jude
[35:42] drunk, who are mad, still understand like the problem
[35:44] better than this, because they. And and Jude, he is a victim of
[35:50] his own elite ability, right? It's like, OK, Carlo Youtham was
[35:55] a false 9 right in his first year and he scored all those
[35:57] goals last year. He kind of had to play both,
[36:00] right? A little bit of false 9, a
[36:01] little bit a little bit deeper. He is the same thing happening
[36:04] now because Giaby Alonzo realized, OK, and I need you up
[36:08] closer to the box to help us like but nobody can help us win
[36:12] duels or in build up. So you have to play right
[36:14] because Arta can't do like so he because he's so good.
[36:18] All right, I'm going to pull him back here now.
[36:19] And so he's constantly being yo yoed from here to here to here
[36:22] because of his ability to be versatile.
[36:25] This is where Sid your versatility can hurt you.
[36:27] Yes, but interesting thing here, Jerrod, I know you were talking
[36:31] earlier, who's who's who posted about Jaby.
[36:35] Do you have the list here? Who posted about Jaby and who
[36:37] didn't? Posted what?
[36:39] The a farewell. Like the you.
[36:41] Were listing that remember? Yes, I did not see Jude.
[36:45] I saw Feta. Feta do it.
[36:48] Housen did it, Carreras did it and Guler did it and Bobby did
[36:51] it and. Bobby did it.
[36:53] And by the way, by the way, and Bobby, I don't know, man.
[36:56] Just something's fake about him dog.
[36:57] That didn't. What did you learn bro?
[37:00] You did not print. You did not Sprint when he asked
[37:01] you to press. You did not learn shit.
[37:03] You did not learn shit. I what I want fans to understand
[37:07] is it's like, as much as we're looking at this and it's funny,
[37:09] like who said thank you, who didn't, whatever.
[37:12] You can read things into it, but you also can't read things into
[37:15] it in that the players that are well trained by their entourages
[37:20] on what to do and always look good in the right light are
[37:23] going to do the right thing always, whether or not that's
[37:26] how they actually feel, right? And then Boppe is this kind of
[37:30] person, right? He's always going to say the
[37:32] right thing in the media. No, no, it's not just about me
[37:34] scoring goals we have to do is he's going to say all of that
[37:37] because he's well PR trained. However, when you watch him on
[37:41] the pitch, what does it look like to you?
[37:44] Is it about we scoring goals or is it about me scoring goals?
[37:47] OK, Like, listen, LeBron does this in the NBA like all because
[37:53] there's a game you have to play, right?
[37:55] It's about your brand and looking good.
[37:57] And it's there's so much involved.
[37:59] And I think for fans said what they often miss is because most
[38:02] of us played sports growing up, you think about how it was when
[38:05] you were a kid, right? When you play sports, it was
[38:07] just about the game-winning and losing, and that's all that
[38:08] mattered. But none of us played at this
[38:11] height of a level, and none of us are personal brands worth
[38:13] hundreds of millions to billions of dollars to companies, right?
[38:16] We're not. So we don't understand the game
[38:20] you have to play of I have to look a certain way in my public
[38:24] facing, on my social media. So it appears that everything's
[38:27] all good. But really, behind the scenes,
[38:29] I'm a malcontent. I don't like this.
[38:31] I don't like that. There's so much.
[38:33] And again, when you're not in there, you know, sourcing inside
[38:35] the locker room, it's hard to to judge because remember, anytime
[38:40] a source tells you anything, unless you can get confirmation
[38:43] from other people who were present, you're only getting one
[38:46] side of a story, right? And you're not getting the full
[38:48] picture. Absolutely, and man, so much
[38:53] man, so much went down and I'm I would love to be on fly on the
[38:58] wall for sure and learn more and I think more answers will come
[39:01] out in due time. Just we're we're here, we're
[39:03] sniffing around it. And we know the team, the team's
[39:05] leaking stuff. We know that, right?
[39:07] Like, it's just, you can see based on what the reports are,
[39:10] you know where it's coming from. Oh, all of a sudden it's oh,
[39:13] Jobbie's relationship with the players are deteriorated
[39:15] massively over the last four days.
[39:17] This is the final straw. Like you, you know what what
[39:20] side that's coming from. And that's the thing.
[39:21] That's what's hard for fans to keep track of.
[39:23] Everybody has a vested interest, has their ability to leak
[39:27] stories to the people they want to leak stories to, and within
[39:30] an organization that is trying to win at the highest level.
[39:34] You can't have this many disparate groups.
[39:37] You got each. It's not even sit, it's not even
[39:39] the players are all in one camp. The players are all in their own
[39:42] individual camps. What what's interesting is
[39:44] that's always been a thing. There was the Ronaldo camp and
[39:46] the Spanish camp back in the day.
[39:48] There were two different camps. So like Jamez, Marcelo, Ronaldo
[39:50] would hang out and then you'd get Sergio Ramos would have his
[39:54] own little clique. But it worked.
[39:56] And I mean, again, Sergio Ramos and Ronaldo were great leaders
[39:59] like who would who would will us over the line in games and
[40:02] because. There are certain players who
[40:04] can put that aside and they're also so great.
[40:07] I mean, Romano's, Ronaldo's arguably the greatest player of
[40:09] all time, so he can elevate himself to a level of, he said.
[40:12] He said we don't have Bill Benzema and I don't have to be
[40:15] friends because the whole thing was Messi and Suarez are good
[40:17] friends. That's why they play together at
[40:18] Miami. It's like their spouses get
[40:20] along and all that. Great.
[40:22] Yeah, great. Good for you.
[40:23] But Ronaldo said I don't have to get along with Bill and Benzema
[40:26] to play. Well, yeah, there was a
[40:28] professionalism get the job done about him with them, Boppe.
[40:31] It's like get like get mine and get out and.
[40:34] Not get the job done for us US get mine and get out.
[40:38] And and even though the Ronaldo's I just want to
[40:41] emphasize Ronaldo's body language was bad.
[40:43] If sometimes you didn't get the ball if a teammate score, people
[40:45] wouldn't celebrate it loud. But man, I I just think all
[40:48] those things are passable if you're willing to head the ball.
[40:51] If you're scared of getting a concussion, get the fuck out of
[40:53] here with. That shit you're scared of?
[40:55] Getting a concussion bro, you're paid 50 million a year.
[40:57] Go get surgery for the concussion bro.
[40:59] Like you're scared of your you want to get the records, win the
[41:02] Champions Leagues and leave with an intact head No, you're giving
[41:04] that up. You're you get CTE, you get CTE
[41:07] like Ronaldo. If you want to be a great bro,
[41:09] you got to give up something. You get CTE.
[41:13] And that's the thing, like I just think at this point they
[41:16] make so much money. How are you bitch made like
[41:17] that? Like you, you I get it, because
[41:19] I'm scared of hitting the ball, but I'm Sid bro, I'm not in
[41:21] lopping. I'm.
[41:22] Sid, Look, I, Sid, I think we're heading towards dark times my
[41:30] friend, I really do. I just because what we're asking
[41:34] of this club to do just be critical of itself and have a
[41:36] critical eye and do critical self examination.
[41:39] I don't think they have the ability to do that.
[41:42] And so if that if that is the case, they're just going to
[41:44] continue to do what they do, which is we're just going to
[41:48] sign the next. Also, I said this on the last
[41:50] show, we spent 180, two, $100 million, whatever it was this
[41:54] past summer and no signings. What are the odds Florentino
[41:57] does that again this summer? Probably not likely.
[42:00] Probably not likely. Well.
[42:01] Yeah, so I guess we have Arboloa, and then separately we
[42:04] have Florentino, which are two different beasts and completely
[42:07] different things to break down. And I like this comment.
[42:09] The Vinnie issue definitely played a major role in the sack.
[42:11] 100% Paris backs Vinnie over Alonso all day.
[42:13] I like Vinnie, but it's time to leave.
[42:14] Yeah, I like Vinnie. And as other people are asking
[42:18] then to jump to Mannerium. One thing I'll say about about
[42:20] about Vinnie Sid, that game against Barcelona yesterday,
[42:24] this season, how many games like that has he had?
[42:27] OK, yes. Now my only concern is how do
[42:30] you replicate that with the medical situation at the club
[42:32] because listen, we are literally taking genetic royalty.
[42:36] Yes, Cake Eater 0 exactly. We're scraping.
[42:39] We're scraping the gold off their genetics and like leaving
[42:42] it, leaving it with nothing but like rust.
[42:44] It's like we're rusting their genetics and leading it to
[42:47] decline and decay. We could leave everything we
[42:49] touch better off, or we could do this stupid shit and listen,
[42:53] Jerrod, I love Vinnie and listen.
[42:55] I don't know how to do that. I don't know how 24 happened
[42:57] anymore because I guess at that point maybe the sabotage wasn't
[43:01] as high as far as the nutritionist stuff seems to
[43:03] suggest the next season. Only 24 at that point so it
[43:07] didn't he was still peak genetically but when all that
[43:10] running into the ground now at 26 ain't working or how old he
[43:13] is ain't working anymore, now we don't no one decline.
[43:16] A good decade at the top requires a lot of things to go
[43:19] right. You can have a good five years.
[43:21] I think that's why you see guys flame out faster.
[43:23] It's like Hazard 2013 to 1819, then let's.
[43:26] Let's just look at look at forget about doing LeBron comp
[43:30] in in in NBA. Look at Ronaldo.
[43:33] Why was he still to this day, why is he still so good?
[43:36] Because he's insane about his body and spends ridiculous
[43:40] amounts of money on making that. Yeah, the team is telling.
[43:43] All right. He's probably like, yo, fuck
[43:45] your medical staff. I got my guys who I trust.
[43:47] This is what I'm going to do right?
[43:49] Because I'm trying to be the best version of myself.
[43:51] Yes, and Ronaldo remains the one guy to have his own.
[43:54] I think he had the best staff, team, medical team outside Real
[43:57] Madrid. Like he had his own guys, he
[43:58] trusted them. And listen, I'm a full advocate
[44:02] for that now, just looking at how these teams are, Oh my God,
[44:04] like screw pitching the teams, just pitch these players.
[44:07] They're in monkey circuses. Well, maybe I'm maybe I'm
[44:09] biased. I'm looking at Real Madrid.
[44:10] I got to pitch the teams. Remember, we're not not every
[44:12] team is stupid. Not every team is stupid too.
[44:15] So we got to find out the balance here.
[44:16] But I will say Ronaldinho has brought up a cake eater, has
[44:19] washed at 2712 months after winning the Bollandor.
[44:22] And Ronaldinho is better than Vinnie too, by the way.
[44:25] I think, I think Denny's like I will say this in defense of
[44:29] Vinny, Vinny 2324, the like what he was able to achieve or the
[44:34] team that's like it's up there like like it's up there, man.
[44:37] Even per 90, I think it's up there with Denio.
[44:40] But listen, I think Vinny's more motivated than Dinio.
[44:43] In Brazil, there is a history of players not having motivation.
[44:47] They have a, they have a lot of entourage with them, people who
[44:49] aren't the best influence who are like, hey, let's go party.
[44:52] And they listen to them instead of thinking, hey, like I have a
[44:54] limited amount of time to maximize my earning window,
[44:56] which they don't always do. Vinny definitely does not strike
[44:59] me like that. I think he's a lot more focused
[45:02] and most Brazilians, he got raised by Cruz and Madrich, not
[45:05] by corrupt Barcelona or whatever it happened, but not that it was
[45:08] Barcelona fault that Ronaldini was like that.
[45:10] I just think the entourage was like that with him.
[45:12] So I don't think Vinny's guaranteed to go that way.
[45:15] But man, like it's the thing with Vinny and Mbape, you guys
[45:18] have no height. You don't have an aerial game.
[45:20] So your off ball game is based on speed.
[45:23] And with Vinny, like your off ball game is not as good as
[45:25] Mbape, so you need your on ball game to be on.
[45:27] And you know, your on ball game is literally the most breakneck
[45:31] on ball game we've seen in the last decade.
[45:33] Like it's like it's like one of the craziest.
[45:36] So yeah, I worry about that. I worry about those hard jolts.
[45:39] OK, just look at that last touch he took in the goal.
[45:42] OK, how many times can you even do that dribble without burning
[45:46] out? If you're not, it's hard.
[45:48] Like that last touch was peak reaction time.
[45:50] I just don't know if you sustain that.
[45:53] Not. Sustainable.
[45:54] Also just the evidence of this season.
[45:55] I feel like maybe he did extra training work during winter
[45:58] break and maybe that paid off here.
[45:59] But during the season it's been like one good game beating the
[46:02] full back, one game not beating the full back.
[46:04] It's like. And Kunde has always looked
[46:05] easy. Kunde just sucks he got locked
[46:07] up by Connor Bradley so. Locked up by Connor Bradley.
[46:11] How much of that would was also just Kunde and Kubarsi being
[46:14] kind of bums on defense honestly.
[46:15] They're certainly not faster than him.
[46:17] They're just right. So like that's always able to
[46:19] beat them. Like this is what I mean.
[46:21] I I just don't look that one-dimensional word.
[46:25] It's all about your speed and power being able to just go by
[46:27] everybody. If you lose a 10th of that Sid,
[46:30] you're cooked in many ways against lead opposition.
[46:32] And I'm sorry, Connor Bradley is nobody's definition of a
[46:35] lockdown right back. Is he like, I mean, but he
[46:39] locked him down like he had no shot at beating him in any foot
[46:44] race and that was surprising. And that's literally the
[46:48] opposite of the Vinny that we signed.
[46:50] The Vinny we signed is hard to beat in a foot race, explosive
[46:53] and just goes at you 100 times. So I think it is really worrying
[46:58] where where he's at. I don't know what you do.
[47:01] So the front office has big questions and I think the rest
[47:03] of the season is that audition kind of like when Solari and
[47:07] Zadan did it six years ago or seven.
[47:09] But the difference is like there's no cruise, there's no
[47:12] Modrich, there's no Benzema. And like it's scary because like
[47:17] Mbappe and Vinny technically produce similar more like Mbappe
[47:21] produces more than Benzema did at that time.
[47:23] But like, damn, we would kill for that Benzema upfront.
[47:26] Now just it's interesting like, and and that goes back to
[47:30] Rafinia is more impactful than Mbappe.
[47:32] So I think for our below, where it has to start is can you make
[47:35] some of these high end attacking guys run and like the same
[47:38] question we had for Alonzo. And if they don't like can you
[47:42] play the Castilla guys, Thiago, Pittarch and all these guys, can
[47:45] they help you escape the press? Can they play well with our
[47:48] current midfield? I think with our Biloa, we're
[47:51] going to have to go in the direction of Castilla.
[47:53] I mean, yeah, and I hope he does because he's he was there and
[47:57] knows those guys and hope he has the authority to play them.
[47:59] But again, if you're playing Castilla guys, that means you
[48:02] have to bench first team guys. Who is he going to be allowed to
[48:06] bench? Yeah, it's, it's interesting, I
[48:12] think. I mean.
[48:12] Honestly, Sid, where it should happen is Wednesday's game
[48:17] against in the Copa del Rey. I think that's, I actually think
[48:20] Wednesday is going to tell us everything like as far as like
[48:23] how aggressive this guy's going to be.
[48:26] I mean, it seems like he has no worries about burning bridges
[48:29] with any player. So let's just go start.
[48:30] There, he shouldn't. Or with anyone at the club like
[48:33] he sided with Mourinho cuz he's really like militant in terms of
[48:37] loyalty towards standards, discipline, enforcement on some
[48:40] level. Also just look at him as a
[48:41] player. I will say this, his style as a
[48:44] player is exactly what we need. Like we talk about Alonzo and
[48:48] overplaying Guler are below is like Arbolo is literally a
[48:51] defense first right back like he was way more defensive than
[48:54] Carvajal. Carvajal smoothened out that
[48:56] right hand side a lot. It was it was rough man on
[48:59] offense with Arboloa. But you know what that means?
[49:02] That guy thinks a. Lot of Mandy, if Mandy's
[49:04] healthy. Yeah, no, it's funny.
[49:07] I mean, Arbolo is like, he's a bit like Lucas.
[49:10] I feel like he's the kind of guy who would play like a defensive
[49:13] Lucas Vasquez over and Papay. And I just want to see some of
[49:17] that. And I'd love to see Mbappe has
[49:19] to run. It would be so funny if he's
[49:21] like Mbappe run and he doesn't and then he just benches him
[49:23] like takes him off during a game.
[49:25] Like hey front three, you all come off like screw all you.
[49:27] Would love it, would love it. I mean, I doubt it, but I would
[49:30] love it. Well, I think the upside of
[49:32] Arboloa is I think when you have a toxic environment like this
[49:36] Rod. Toxic is the word it is.
[49:38] Toxic, yes. And I think it's so toxic in my
[49:41] I personally believe in sinking the boat.
[49:43] If it's like too toxic to sink the boat, go, go.
[49:46] And like whoever can get off gets off the boat.
[49:48] Whoever survives survives. I don't think this ship needs to
[49:50] continue. And I think a provocative guy
[49:54] who's willing to go and like, honestly, I think he's going to
[49:56] be very provocative. I think he's going to be, he's
[49:59] like, he's almost like a militant troll for these
[50:01] galacticos who don't want to defend.
[50:03] He'll be like, be like, oh, yeah, you don't want to defend.
[50:05] You're like, I'm calling, I'm benching you.
[50:06] And I think he can use Zombapi's records as leverage against,
[50:14] hey, you want records, you're getting benched.
[50:15] Cristiano never got benched, but you suck, so I'm benching you.
[50:21] Like, oh man, it is. That's what I think we have to
[50:23] do. And then Vinny, it's like, hey,
[50:25] Vinny, like you think you're getting that new deal of playing
[50:27] like this. Like that's what I think he's
[50:28] got to talk like, go parliament. These guys, you need that
[50:31] military locker room like bullying.
[50:33] That's what they these players deserve to get bullied right
[50:35] now, Gerard. They get paid enough where they
[50:37] deserve to. They get paid enough to handle
[50:38] that stuff. There, yes, I agree there is a
[50:41] Wayne wench. The players need to be spoken to
[50:46] like it in the real in the realities, right.
[50:49] I talked about this before. One of my favorite things when I
[50:52] talk to NBA players when they're being honest is about film
[50:55] session. Because you can't lie during
[50:57] film session. Whatever bullshit you tell your
[50:59] coach. No, that's not what happened.
[51:01] He he missed the screen assignment.
[51:03] No, no, no, we supposed to switch.
[51:04] OK, cool. But when we go watch film the
[51:06] next day and we lay it all out. So what happened?
[51:09] You just told me this. Here it is right here.
[51:11] Explain yourself that accountability in front of the
[51:14] group, not just to me. one-on-one.
[51:17] You why did you let your teammate down in this scenario,
[51:20] right. Explain to them why did you do
[51:21] that? Yeah, that's what I right.
[51:24] When you hold them accountable peer-to-peer where it's like and
[51:27] Bobby where it is going to be obvious where it shows.
[51:30] Yeah, I was only kidding on my records, not about you, right.
[51:33] We know. We see.
[51:34] We see it. My God, we saw.
[51:36] Yeah, now Miriam says his Venice is done at Realmotored.
[51:39] In particular La Liga, because of his style, seems suited to
[51:41] Bundesliga and the Premier League with vast bases to run
[51:43] into. I just want to emphasize, if
[51:45] you're not willing to do the film, you're not suited to any
[51:47] top five league in Europe, correct?
[51:49] If you're not willing to watch film and if that's how you
[51:51] think, and also if your one-on-one ability fluctuates
[51:55] from game to game, you're going to look a lot like these last
[51:58] few games. When Vinny's not finishing where
[51:59] it looks like cool danger, but he's not actually creating that
[52:02] last bit of separation doesn't actually go in.
[52:05] So then what looks dangerous becomes wasteful.
[52:07] Yes, Vinny has the heart to constantly get into open space
[52:10] in those leagues, but I don't. I actually think that like the
[52:14] better you are as a player, the last that shit matters.
[52:17] That shit, what matters the the league difference it it's like
[52:20] half court versus full court, transition versus box.
[52:23] All that shit matters when you're not good, when you're the
[52:25] best in the world. It is a matter of what scenario.
[52:27] Exactly. And that's why like, yes, Vinnie
[52:29] has become a little too transition oriented and we Carlo
[52:33] was able to take advantage of him these four years because of
[52:36] that. Zidane was perhaps not able to
[52:39] spark him the same way, but I just think any great team is
[52:43] going to play in the half court. Arsenal play in the half court,
[52:45] Man City will play, Bayern Munich play in the half court,
[52:47] PSG play in the half court. We, when we're good, we'll when
[52:50] we're pressing teams late in games, it's not transition.
[52:52] It's still like circulation. Like a lot of those comebacks.
[52:55] We have good sequences when we're finally down.
[52:57] So I think on some level you got to be able to watch film and fit
[53:01] into a concept that's not changing just cuz you would
[53:03] leave La Liga. And again, like he maybe you
[53:06] know, what does change in in those places you probably get
[53:09] like good chefs who listen to their nutritionists.
[53:12] They're not putting out croissants and Donuts and shit
[53:14] before games. Listen, I, I, I, I am hoping for
[53:19] the best because obviously we, I support this club.
[53:22] We support this club. We want real much to do well.
[53:24] But as you all heard me say numerous times, hope is not a
[53:27] strategy. It it's just not hoping and
[53:29] wishing we do things differently is not strategy.
[53:32] I want this team to axe club to actually take things seriously
[53:35] and recognize here are all the mistakes that we've made over
[53:38] the last decade plus, right? Like, listen, the business side
[53:42] and the commercial side doing so well, we're making all this
[53:44] money, but flow every time a big time name comes up on it's a
[53:48] galactico. That's not what we have to do,
[53:51] right? We have to look at where do we
[53:52] have holes on this squad? Clearly the defensive line, we
[53:54] need massive reinforcements. See, I was looking at our
[53:57] midfield, so we got Jude, Kema, Vinga, Fede, Chuomeni, Guler and
[54:05] Sabios. We have 6 midfielders.
[54:06] Of those 6, two of them you have questions about where and whom
[54:12] they can play against, right? And Sabios and Guler.
[54:14] That leaves you with four. Of the remaining 4, only two of
[54:20] them have elite technical ability in Kema, Vinga and
[54:24] Bellingham. Yeah, at this point, Camo Bingo
[54:26] plays like half. He plays like 1/4 of the season.
[54:29] That's why I said 2. Plays and in big games, he's
[54:32] basically like the same player when he joined.
[54:34] It's like hot or cold in terms of press resistance and
[54:37] everything. How is that classico?
[54:39] How is that feasible for a club that thinks it's trying to win
[54:42] major tournaments? You have one midfielder with
[54:45] elite skill 1. Yeah, and I will say like I'm.
[54:49] Sorry, I'm sorry. Elite technical ability.
[54:50] Excuse me. Excuse me.
[54:51] Excuse me. They all have one skill.
[54:53] Elite technical ability. Well, it's tricky and maybe you
[54:55] rely on Trent and then Trent gets injured, but you're not as
[54:57] deep as you used to be where you kind of cover for injuries
[55:00] anyways. That's where it starts.
[55:03] Yeah, Camo Vingo is the same player he used to be when he
[55:05] joined five years ago, for sure. That's that's really crazy.
[55:09] And I think as far as our below any other expectations any I
[55:14] don't know too much about the young players specifically who
[55:16] might breakthrough. But when Solari came in, he did
[55:20] have Vinicius kind of come through and he also brought
[55:23] Marcos Joriente through who he sold, who the club was mad at
[55:28] for selling and not playing him as our defensive midfielder of
[55:30] the future over Casamaro. I I, I think, I mean, obviously
[55:35] I expect to go trophy list. What do you I guess, what do you
[55:37] have to say the people who suddenly expect things to work
[55:40] because I'll I'll bring up this comment.
[55:41] One guy said you don't give Hendrick a chance and on the
[55:44] same day he scores a goal for Leon far outside the box.
[55:46] No biometer player can score like that.
[55:48] Get him out Arbelo in great decision that say.
[55:51] Hendrick and Nico, Paz and Arbeloa are not rescuing this
[55:56] team and turning them into Champions League winners.
[55:58] Like, I don't know what you have to watch to understand that it's
[56:02] not about sacking this coach and bringing this one in.
[56:05] It is clearly has nothing to do with that because any coach
[56:09] that's out right now that we would want to get, whether
[56:11] that's a Jurgen Klopp, Enzo Maresco, whomever is going to
[56:16] demand certain things from its front three.
[56:21] Same things Chappie Lanza demanded, which those front
[56:23] three clearly did not want to do.
[56:25] So all of a sudden they're going to do it now for this new coach
[56:30] and the club still has its issues in its squad, pieces
[56:36] spinning together and lack of depth.
[56:38] Are you going to fix that? Well, so under Solari, what
[56:41] happened was he found a lineup and he got them running.
[56:44] If you recall vaguely, Minnie was playing well, they lost to
[56:47] Ajax and before that, basically that lineup started getting
[56:50] injured once they started running.
[56:52] So that's the other thing. You might get them running, they
[56:55] might get injured as soon as you get them running, so.
[56:57] Because you got some kind of Mickey Mouse medical staff.
[56:59] Look what I mean. Yeah, yeah.
[57:01] And it's, it's looking bad. I will say if we I don't think
[57:07] we're winning any trophies this season.
[57:08] The big. Trophies this season, the big
[57:11] one that's funny and I know somebody got on me in the last
[57:13] show about like oh, Terraj saying Barcelona is not good
[57:16] Hector blah blah blah. Like Sid, you come on Barcelona,
[57:20] this we talk about how bad this club is and we had numerous
[57:25] opportunities to not only tie that game, possibly win that
[57:27] game gets Barcelona. Barcelona lost to PSG earlier
[57:30] this season as well. Listen, they're, they're a good
[57:33] team in terms of results, but they're not on the echelon of
[57:36] Arsenal. And they, I think the main thing
[57:38] is they can get there and they're, they're winning a lot
[57:40] of points. They're on track for 98 points
[57:42] in the league or whatever, right?
[57:43] But they can score goals. They can score like nobody's
[57:45] business. Yes, but I think they have the
[57:47] same flaws as last season. I agree someone should beat them
[57:50] in the Champions League, but it's it's they're they weren't
[57:54] dominant for sure that there's a lack of.
[57:56] I think that's what makes this upsetting for us.
[57:58] There isn't too much dominance in Europe right now and we're
[58:01] just sitting on all this revenue, all this money, all
[58:04] this institutional credit from winning, and we're literally
[58:07] just. Lighting it on fire.
[58:09] Well, we're going to like, we're not even shopping with it like
[58:11] we're, we're, it's like you have all this money to go shop and
[58:14] buy the nicest car you need and we're going to a used dealership
[58:17] or trying to strike like secret deals at the nice dealership
[58:19] only like for like cut rate deals that you can't get
[58:22] anywhere else. Yeah, and this mentality of
[58:24] Florentino that we don't make any moves in January because
[58:28] players are too expensive, then I'm sorry, a blanket like that
[58:32] when you have clear known issues on this team, unless you are
[58:36] saying we will bring up someone from Castilla to play center
[58:40] back or whatever, which they're not doing either.
[58:42] It can't be both. You cannot do both.
[58:45] Agreed. Agreed.
[58:46] You can't have it both ways so it's it's going to be so
[58:50] annoying to watch this play out. Florentino has power and like
[58:53] Rafa Nadal. Rafa Nadal is like 5 years away
[58:57] from being able to run for president like I just mentioned
[59:00] him because again, institutional capital name.
[59:03] All these things also matter with running for president of
[59:05] Real Madrid drug. Would you run for president
[59:08] someday? I I need some more time in socio
[59:12] but I I listen shit I I would totally do it man I'm not.
[59:16] I'm not associate, I don't know if our we got to make sure the
[59:18] whole real crew gets in just in case any one of us want to run
[59:21] somebody because like what, 20 years?
[59:23] Shit, that's a long time man. Listen, we, we, we, we'll show
[59:26] you guys how to, how to do this, all right?
[59:28] I'll show you how to do this, son.
[59:29] Look, we will, we will put together elite at every level,
[59:34] not just frigging on the pitch. I'm talking.
[59:38] I'm talking nutrition. I'm talking literally fucking.
[59:40] The way you clean the freaking hallways is gonna be elite.
[59:44] Everything is gonna be about yes, ship excellence.
[59:46] The hallways, Gerard, that's where it's at.
[59:48] I really think that's where it starts.
[59:49] Clean cleanliness throughout, accountability, transparency,
[59:53] sunlight and like, clarity, incentive, motivation, working
[59:57] in unison at the same goal. We just don't play for the same
[1:00:01] thing anymore. Yeah.
[1:00:01] And I will, I will say we were a little soft on Killian because I
[1:00:05] just feel like everyone's trying to scapegoat him too high on the
[1:00:08] blame scale. But now he is a symptom of the
[1:00:11] culture and a part of the culture.
[1:00:13] So now when you're talking about changing it after Alonzo, like
[1:00:17] he's been here through two coaches now, so and like he
[1:00:20] earns the most money. That like it was one thing the
[1:00:22] 1st 18 months like OK like we'll try something different with
[1:00:25] Alonzo. Maybe Carlo didn't work Now
[1:00:27] though, it's it's a whole different story and I think it's
[1:00:32] just time to clean house now. I, I think the I think the win.
[1:00:36] The thing is, this could be the window where like Killian
[1:00:38] leaving if there's ever a possibility this.
[1:00:41] Could be the. Window shit needs to hit the fan
[1:00:43] right now. Yeah, shit needs to get worse.
[1:00:45] There needs to be like, protests outside the burnabout, like, it
[1:00:48] needs to be crazy. And I actually hope for things
[1:00:52] to fall apart. Look, truly.
[1:00:53] We're not gonna win a trophy this year.
[1:00:55] So I mean, it's gonna be two years in a row with no major
[1:00:57] trophies. It's.
[1:00:59] Going. We're not winning the league,
[1:01:00] we're not winning the Champions League and if we get bars in the
[1:01:02] Copa del Rey final, definitely not winning that.
[1:01:06] And that's where like people talk about rooting against your
[1:01:08] club, but like, I think it's really only warranted when you
[1:01:11] need to destroy complacency on such a deep level like we do
[1:01:14] now, where defeat is the only thing that will prevent it.
[1:01:16] Any victory. Dude, if we win the Champions
[1:01:18] League, we're fucked. If we it's, if we get the
[1:01:21] easiest draw, let's say we get a 2016 draw where we're playing
[1:01:24] Wolfsburg and, and like, maybe we play some team like that Man
[1:01:27] City where everyone's hurt and it's not a good team.
[1:01:29] Maybe we play Chelsea like that's a good example.
[1:01:31] If they're not that good. And then we make it all the way
[1:01:34] to the final. And what if the final is a team
[1:01:36] that's like just tactically not having it that day?
[1:01:39] And Courtois just plays like God MO with 85 arms and just stops
[1:01:43] everything. Yes, and.
[1:01:46] And Bob a goes on a crazy run and like does something like an
[1:01:48] out of the ordinary and we win 1 nail or two or two one.
[1:01:51] But I'm. Looking back and we could do
[1:01:53] something well those years, which was we could still defend,
[1:01:58] like we could still defend and counter a Guardiola team.
[1:02:00] We went to Munich and beat them 40 with Ronaldo and bail on the
[1:02:03] wings. No talk of who's defending first
[1:02:05] leg. We sat up in a block at the
[1:02:07] burnabout. There was no talk of like, who's
[1:02:09] tracking who? It's like Neil's playing deep
[1:02:11] 442. Ronaldo, you're the man up
[1:02:13] front. We're finding you.
[1:02:14] Everyone else defend. We're compact and like, yeah.
[1:02:17] And, and Ronaldo would arrive in the box though.
[1:02:18] That's the key. Like he would, he would actually
[1:02:19] go. He wouldn't wait for cutbacks
[1:02:21] because he's scared of concussions.
[1:02:25] Also someone in the comments I haven't brought it up, he said
[1:02:27] like yes but Mbappe can shoot outside the box.
[1:02:29] OK bro so could Ronaldo. I don't know if you've seen his
[1:02:31] highlight reel. He was.
[1:02:34] Outside the box. Let me tell you about that dude
[1:02:35] shooting outside the box. My God.
[1:02:37] Yeah, like it's like they're trying to put like Mbappe is at
[1:02:41] best half as good at shooting outside the box as Ronaldo so.
[1:02:44] Best Ronaldo. Fucking elite shooting outside
[1:02:47] the box, Oh my God. Oh yeah, it was disgusting.
[1:02:50] And even Bill, that's the thing, we went from guys who could
[1:02:53] score 30 yard free kicks and do bicycle kick headers and shit
[1:02:57] that these guys were scared of headers, man, I can't believe
[1:02:59] it. I always felt that was after
[1:03:01] odd. I just went too much with my
[1:03:03] bias. Is this I think I got biased
[1:03:05] like reputation statistics? In terms of what?
[1:03:09] In terms of Jabulons. Just expecting more from these
[1:03:12] guys who can't fucking head the ball when obviously you just
[1:03:14] force them to go ball defeat every day and they're just gonna
[1:03:17] become a predictable mess. You just can't play through the
[1:03:19] trees of people's legs all the time.
[1:03:21] You need to be able to go over the top.
[1:03:22] And yeah, I, I thought, I think that should have been more
[1:03:25] obvious. I apologize.
[1:03:26] I think I was very naive. Well, no, I I think what it was
[1:03:29] is you saw the potential if they were able to gel under a
[1:03:35] tactician who you believe has really good ideas, which we
[1:03:37] still believe that Javi Alonso does what that could look like
[1:03:42] and besides and bape, nobody was really finishing early in the
[1:03:46] season, right, like he you saw he was finishing right.
[1:03:48] So I have to give him credit for that.
[1:03:50] He was definitely doing that, but the rest of the team just
[1:03:53] wasn't able to to to to gel on a flow state in in the way that we
[1:03:56] need them to right. You know, a lot of factors, of
[1:03:59] course, Club World Cup, no real pre season guys not listening,
[1:04:02] buying in all all the reasons that we talked about.
[1:04:04] You know, it's a shame. Look, I I want to close here and
[1:04:07] say that I I do I know we did this.
[1:04:09] I I do wish Javi Alonzo much, much success in the future.
[1:04:13] I think we both think he's going to be an elite coach in world
[1:04:16] football for a long time. I think he's headed to the
[1:04:18] Premier League and let me tell you, he goes to Liverpool or
[1:04:23] City. They got their coach of the
[1:04:25] future, now they he's the number one coach on the market.
[1:04:29] Did you see there was a tweet saying Alonzo being sacked
[1:04:31] changes the coaching market? It's he's the top coach on the
[1:04:35] market. I think Man City were very
[1:04:38] concerned that company had gone to, but I would be concerned if
[1:04:41] I were them that their club legend who would have been fit
[1:04:43] like a glove is there and they're losing Pep at an
[1:04:46] inconvenient time, ideally coincides.
[1:04:48] Well, guess what? A solution landed on the market
[1:04:50] from your glorious philosophical football rivals who who spit it
[1:04:53] out of their machine because they don't know what they're
[1:04:55] doing with him. And I will say Leverkusen never
[1:04:58] won a trophy for 30 years before he did that shit.
[1:05:01] So this, this shit's going to happen again, man.
[1:05:03] And I hate to see that the coaching market changes.
[1:05:06] Reading that made my blood boil. I'm like, Oh yeah, of course.
[1:05:09] Like we fuck around with this guy and now someone's going to
[1:05:11] succeed with him. And now watch out, he he's a guy
[1:05:15] that we're not going to want to play in in the Champions League,
[1:05:18] right? Because you know, he's going to
[1:05:20] do his thing with with that club.
[1:05:21] He's going to have players that are going to buy into his system
[1:05:24] and they're going to run circles around us if we continue along
[1:05:27] the way we're doing. I hope Sudan doesn't come back
[1:05:30] until we change president ever. I hope Zidane.
[1:05:33] The only thing about Zidane is he's he's such a big brand, like
[1:05:37] bigger than Alonzo. And I think on some level he's
[1:05:40] always going to be soft spoken. Like yes, he came out and said
[1:05:42] Lamine's my favorite player to watch, which was instructive by
[1:05:44] the way, for all you haters out there.
[1:05:46] I'm just saying like play making is what Zidane valued too.
[1:05:48] Like that's what he forcing a double and getting someone open.
[1:05:52] That's what Zidane's football style is, and that's why he
[1:05:55] appreciates Lamine. But I think in general, Zadan is
[1:05:57] not the type to publicly battle against the president unless he
[1:06:00] had to, which he was forced to last time.
[1:06:02] But I just hope he doesn't come back, man.
[1:06:06] I hope he doesn't come back because like, at this point, if
[1:06:08] if we don't succeed with this president, like again, he comes
[1:06:12] back, he's going to be dealing with the same shit he did last
[1:06:14] night. Yeah.
[1:06:14] Of course, of course, nothing's going to change like Florentine,
[1:06:17] like he's given no indication that he will do anything
[1:06:20] different than what he's doing right now.
[1:06:21] So. And I just say that because
[1:06:23] like, you know, I think even he knows how lucky he was in the
[1:06:27] circus of everything that happened.
[1:06:28] And I think he's well aware that things would have to be perfect
[1:06:32] to even get a chance at replicating those results, let
[1:06:34] alone. And, and if things aren't
[1:06:36] perfect and things are the way they normally are, he knows that
[1:06:38] coming back is a one way ticket to dragging his name through the
[1:06:41] mud, which is what they like doing.
[1:06:42] And you know, Florentino, his whole way of leaking things to
[1:06:47] the media, I think it's completely outdated.
[1:06:49] Shit's not working. A lot needs to change, man.
[1:06:52] It's it's, it's a long, slow dark.
[1:06:54] Times, Yeah. Listen, we Dark times, man.
[1:06:56] Dark times ahead, Metrodistas. Dark Times.
[1:07:00] Well, Gerard, you got vacation coming up.
[1:07:03] I do, I'm excited for that. Thank you guys all for tuning
[1:07:06] in. We appreciate it.
[1:07:08] Please like the video. If you haven't liked it so far,
[1:07:10] drop in the comments. Subscribe please share it with
[1:07:14] other people. It'll be up on Apple and Spotify
[1:07:16] later. Someone listen to the audio only
[1:07:17] version. I will be back in time for
[1:07:20] Villarreal, the Yellow Submarine.
[1:07:23] We got, we'll be covering postgame shows when Gerard's
[1:07:25] gone too. We got plenty going on.
[1:07:26] So yeah, Gerard will be back later.
[1:07:28] Oh yeah, once again. Lastly, if you have any tips, if
[1:07:31] you have any anonymous tips or whatever info, I guess we
[1:07:34] haven't put that anonymous tip line yet, but you want to tell
[1:07:38] us something, please do. I think we'll talk more about
[1:07:41] the factions and the media stuff with Xavier on our next episode.
[1:07:44] He'll be on a. Lot of factions a.
[1:07:46] Lot of factions. Well, thank you all.
[1:07:49] Take care guys.

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