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and are not available in every state. Coverage

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is subject to policy terms and conditions. Hello,

1:08

everyone. And welcome to this week's edition of

1:10

the Spanish Football podcast. I'm Phil Kitch, my

1:12

lead is here to discuss what happened on

1:14

match day 24 with my good friend and

1:17

colleague, Dr. Sid Lowe. Hello, Sid. Hello, Phil.

1:19

How are you? I'm okay. You've you finished

1:21

writing for a Monday? Well, I finished the

1:23

main part. I finished the piece,

1:25

but I now have to do all the, you

1:27

know, all the rest of the weekend's news, which

1:29

quite handily I can now just make a note

1:31

of as you tell me all of them. Yes.

1:33

Well, there we go. Very handily. This is what

1:35

happens on match day 24. Friday

1:37

night was an Andalusian derby.

1:40

The Estadio Nuevo Mirandilla. It saw Real

1:42

Betis beat Cadiz by two goals to

1:44

nil. It is five and a half

1:46

months since Cadiz won a league

1:49

game of football at the beginning to look

1:51

pretty desperate at the moment. Then

1:53

on Saturday, Alaves and Villarreal played

1:56

out a 1-1 draw. Osasuna

1:58

won a- to Real

2:00

Sociedad's, first time in a

2:03

long long time that they've won away to Real

2:05

Sociedad, 18 years. They hadn't

2:07

won away to their near neighbours but a

2:10

goal from Antebudimir enough to give them

2:13

all three points. L'Areal by the way

2:15

have gone four matches, four consecutive games

2:17

without scoring. Last time they did that

2:19

was 2004 when they were in the

2:22

second division. As Sid and I were

2:24

both at the Estaños Santiago Bernalleo to

2:27

see Real Madrid demolish Girona

2:29

by four goals to nil. And then

2:31

Las Palmas scored twice, very late on

2:33

to beat Valencia by two goals to

2:35

nil. Sunday, Sydney was in attendance to

2:37

see Petafe beat Celta Vigo by three

2:40

goals to two. It's

2:43

even painful just to say this but

2:46

there we go. Rio conceded once again

2:48

in injury time to lose. They were

2:50

beaten 2-1 by Mallorca and Rio looking

2:52

pretty dreadful. Sevilla beating Aestélico Madrid by

2:54

a goal to nil. The goal scored

2:56

by Isacro Romero who has had

2:58

really a massive impact on this Sevilla side

3:01

a couple of weeks ago. He was playing

3:03

in the fourth division of Spanish football, the

3:05

fourth tier of Spanish football for Sevilla B

3:07

and he's now got three league goals in

3:09

five appearances. Is this at the point at

3:12

which I act cocky for you having laughed

3:14

at me for having gone to watch Sevilla Atletico

3:16

play on a Sunday morning once about

3:18

six weeks ago? And I can now press

3:20

Umeir as they say in Spanish of having seen Isacro Romero

3:23

before anyone else even knew about him. Although I can't claim

3:25

that he made an impact about him. Well I asked

3:27

you about him but you said I can't even remember if

3:29

he was playing. Don't try

3:31

that one. I've asked you. Did you say that's anyone ever

3:34

who was playing or not? He was

3:36

playing in that game because I looked it

3:38

up but he didn't score but there we

3:40

go. He's been doing very well indeed. Isacro

3:42

Romero and Barcelona drawing 3-3 with Granada, second

3:46

bottom Granada scoring three times

3:49

away to Barcelona who have got serious,

3:51

serious issues. More on that in just

3:53

a moment. Monday Night Football is Al

3:55

Maria against Athletic Club. Can Al Maria

3:57

do it guys? Can they finally win

3:59

a game? A. Football. Fan.

4:02

A long time since that happened as

4:04

they remain bomber the table and winners

4:06

are over a patron.com forced as Csfp

4:08

this week hit his was on the

4:10

many guys patrons are getting a brand

4:13

new episode of Ring concluded our our

4:15

podcast about these cultural nuances of living

4:17

in this wonderful country it's They also

4:19

get the usual Q and a pod

4:21

answer your questions and a bonus point

4:24

discussing Champions League games around Madrid and

4:26

Real Sociedad at this week's he can

4:28

be poppy Fantastic Lally the loving community

4:30

on the T Sfp. Discords. You get

4:32

all of that. For. Around four

4:35

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4:37

not of money. goes quite fox a

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smaller at Lally. The Contents: A Come

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and join uspatron.com. Forced. Us to

4:43

assess pea. Soaked Sydney use an

4:46

owl and I was all other been about

4:48

it's as see round the drugs at beach

4:50

it owner of for nearly as interesting isn't

4:52

it because we've spoken in the build up

4:54

to this game is this felt like such

4:56

a big occasion it was sold out as

4:58

think I'm into the ticket prices the cheapest

5:01

ticket with ninety five euros to this game

5:03

up in the gods at the pound about

5:05

those are the kind of prices I used

5:07

to reserved for steer that he. From.

5:09

Their Catalonia or or a big Champions League

5:11

game. it's this. had a spiel of of

5:13

of being a really really big occasion the

5:15

of client I'll find some tier owner. Officially

5:18

three hundred were in the a waste as

5:20

stand us there were quite he more is

5:22

what it felt like. a big to hit

5:24

with a cemetery just absolutely blew down upon

5:26

death and other it felt like they party

5:28

brew them apart because it was a big

5:30

deal I was quite small. Bites Rodriguez coming

5:32

off the game he said he said yeah

5:34

we knew this is a big time. there's

5:37

that polls where. Where. you can almost

5:39

see him realize what he sang swallow every game's

5:41

biggest ever games of as for every games a

5:43

big one but maybe this was just a little

5:45

bit big when i think there was a sense

5:47

wasn't fm brown wish you'd have to sign a

5:49

tight as let's put an end to this now

5:51

i don't want to overplay it because that does

5:53

suggest that madrid can just turn it on off

5:55

as they wish and and that's not entirely true

5:57

biting business small element of that and if you

6:00

at the way that Ancelotti was

6:02

talking post-game. I think

6:04

from what some of what he was saying, I thought

6:06

we got echoes of what happens in Europe with Real

6:09

Madrid and that he referred to this as a humble

6:11

game, a game of humility. And I don't

6:13

know if you remember this, but when we were talking about

6:15

Madrid's kind of Champions League miracle

6:17

a couple of years ago, I described

6:19

it, I came up with this theory that I thought

6:22

it was a combination of a

6:24

huge inferiority complex and enormous humility as

6:26

well. In other words, a team that

6:28

says, right, we've got loads of talent, we're

6:31

really, really good. At some point the moment will come

6:33

and we will take it because we're good players and

6:35

we will take that chance. But we're

6:38

aware, we're humble enough and I

6:40

realised that using the word humble about Real Madrid will be

6:42

a lot of our listeners going, hang on a minute, that's

6:44

not a word I'd use about Real Madrid. But I think

6:46

in Europe there's been an element of that in recent years,

6:49

though that sense that, okay, we know these are good teams.

6:51

So if we have 25 minutes or half an hour,

6:54

or in the case of the Man City game, 70

6:56

minutes, where in truth the other team is better than

6:58

us, we're not going to lose our heads.

7:00

We're not going to lose the plot. Now, I don't

7:02

want to go

7:05

quite far that far down this

7:07

route for this game because of course it's Girona.

7:10

And Girona, the reality is that Real Madrid should

7:12

be bigger than them. And this is a

7:14

big part of what Michel was saying post-game and

7:16

the analysis that he was offering. And I

7:18

think he's absolutely right. But if you look at

7:20

the way that Real Madrid started, I thought they

7:23

played with three midfielders quite narrow, quite tight

7:25

and quite close to their defenders when

7:27

they didn't have the ball. But then they would go

7:29

and press when they had the chance to push Girona

7:31

back. And Angelotti talked about that post-game, which I was

7:34

surprised by. I was surprised that he was quite so

7:36

clear about that. And then of

7:38

course you then had just the quality of

7:40

the players on the pitch. I was writing

7:44

about this for the match report, obviously, and I'll

7:46

be writing about it again today. And I couldn't

7:49

kind of see beyond, at least on

7:51

Saturday, that famous Mike Tyson quote. Everyone's

7:53

got a plan till you punch them

7:55

in the mouth. And

7:57

I had that feeling on Saturday. And again, I

8:00

don't want to overplay this because Madrid scored after

8:02

only five minutes, so it's pretty early But those

8:04

were five minutes of Girona having the ball moving

8:06

it around and Madrid sort of saying I genuinely

8:08

I was I was doing a Sid I was

8:10

trying to count it You were counting weren't you?

8:12

Three minutes thirty seven the first three minutes thirty

8:14

seven seconds Girona had the ball the entire time

8:16

Yeah, which is not normal at the moment It

8:19

really was low and I was certainly counting that

8:21

first possession which took Took

8:23

80 seconds the first possession before the ball I think

8:25

went out of play and then Girona got it back

8:27

again I wasn't I didn't continue beyond that point. It

8:29

was very striking Girona like okay We've got the

8:31

ball and then Venetius goes wallop There's your punch

8:33

and it's and it's and it's gone and of

8:35

course one of the things about Brown Madrid And

8:37

I think this this really reinforces, and I

8:40

don't want to be a smart ass But I'm gonna be a smart ass

8:42

allow me to be a smart ass This

8:44

really reinforces the way that we have

8:46

talked about Brown Madrid all season, but

8:49

we've looked at them all season We thought we're

8:52

not sure that they're that sparkling We're

8:54

not sure that they're that brilliant, but

8:56

we just watch them and feel like yeah,

8:59

they're better They're gonna be

9:01

there were pretty spot. They were pretty sparkling and

9:03

brilliant They were brilliant on Saturday But I thought

9:05

that what that first half performance did was show

9:07

that they could do the resisting bit and then

9:10

whack you And then they could

9:12

take control of possession and I think and she was really interesting

9:14

on this post game He talked about how they were really good

9:16

in Possession and in transition and they

9:18

did both those things really well playing deep when

9:20

they had to and then breaking from there into

9:22

Loads of space and then also keeping the ball

9:24

and say okay. You can't have it back now

9:26

I think the possession stats by the end I'm

9:28

not sure if they were in favor of Girona

9:30

But they certainly were at halftime and yet you

9:32

still felt no Madrid are the more dangerous team

9:34

And I think why I say this fits with

9:36

our analysis all season Is it kept you kept

9:39

feeling like when it matters? They're gonna just

9:41

kind of step up and say right okay, who's done

9:43

now again. I don't want to make it too Instrumental

9:46

and make it too easy and make it

9:48

sound like they could just choose to do

9:50

this But I do think there's an element of that

9:53

Playing right. This is the big game. We do this

9:55

now And and I think

9:57

if you go through that team and and it was very nice

10:00

who were listening to Mitchell post-game

10:02

talk about, he said,

10:05

look, and he actually

10:07

said the pfft bit, he was like,

10:09

Camo Vinga, Vinicius,

10:12

Bellingham. So when you come up

10:14

against players like that, you

10:16

realise what your own reality is. And

10:19

our reality isn't this. And I think that's, I mean,

10:21

you know, I would love to add to that as

10:23

well, Tony Cruz, who I thought was wonderful at the

10:25

weekend, handful of other players played really well as well.

10:27

But I just think you look at Real Madrid and

10:30

you think, yeah, they just got lots of really good

10:32

players. They've got lots of really

10:34

good players, many of whom put in really,

10:36

really strong performances. We could spend a lot

10:38

of time dissecting individually many performances,

10:40

but I guess we have to dwell on Vinicius

10:42

because he's a good one. He set up to,

10:45

it might have been one of

10:47

his, I mean, it was one of his best games

10:49

for Real Madrid. And

10:51

Ancelotti says when he plays like that, when he's

10:53

focused on his attitude is right, he's the best

10:55

in the world. Well, I thought

10:57

Ancelotti, there was a message in there, wasn't there, when

10:59

Ancelotti says when his attitude is this, that was definitely

11:01

a message because of course that's a recurring theme. And

11:04

we saw it after the Super Cup when Ancelotti said

11:06

he didn't like him doing little back hills on

11:08

a touchline when the game was already won. In

11:10

fairness, we should point out that he was talking

11:12

about Vinicius and Jude Bellingham on that occasion. But

11:14

there's been lots of conversations with Vinicius over the

11:17

years. There was a comment from Nacho Fernandez saying,

11:19

you know, we've tried to talk to him, we've tried to

11:21

get into focus on a football, we're trying to do this.

11:23

And that day after the Super Cup final, Vinicius actually came

11:25

out and said, I'm not a saint and I'm trying to

11:27

change, which I thought we all thought was

11:29

really interesting at the time. But

11:31

I think the bottom line is the talent

11:33

and the talent is extraordinary.

11:36

I was thinking about this today and so apologies if

11:38

you've read me by the time you've listened to this,

11:40

but I was kind of thinking about the four goals.

11:43

And as you said, Vinicius got one goal and two assists. I

11:46

actually think he gets three assists in this game. Because

11:49

I think his is the last touch before the fourth

11:51

goal, albeit Rodrigo then runs from almost the halfway line.

11:54

But Vinicius is the one who gives a second to get the ball by making

11:56

the tackle. And he makes

11:58

the tackle on Yankoto, poor old Yankoto. who

12:00

was in tears at the end because he almost could

12:02

not have had a worse day. But

12:05

if you look at the, he was literally crying

12:07

when the guy who's marking you is literally in

12:09

tears in the end, you know you've probably had

12:11

a good game. You've destroyed him. You've really put

12:13

him through it. But look

12:16

at the four goals. I think what's interesting in

12:18

this is that Vanishes is involved in all four

12:20

goals in four very different ways.

12:23

And the way I was thinking through

12:25

it today is he was four different

12:27

players. Right, bear with me on this. The

12:29

first goal is Cristiano Ronaldo. That's coming

12:31

in off the left and absolutely belting the

12:34

bastard and just completely smashing

12:36

it into the corner. The second one,

12:38

obviously, is Luca Modric. The

12:40

outside of his boot is bent.

12:42

The timing and the weighting of

12:44

that pass is absolutely impeccable. I

12:46

think it's a genuinely brilliant, brilliant

12:48

assist. The third one, his name is,

12:52

he's running at someone, running, rolling the ball under his

12:54

boots. He flips it from one foot to the other. Goes

12:56

through one player, slips it through the legs of another and

12:58

then Bellingham is there to finish it off. And

13:01

in the fourth, he's the one pressing the

13:03

defender, winning the ball, giving it to Rodrigo

13:06

by winning it. I

13:08

still think statistically that might count as an assist,

13:10

albeit Rodrigo still got 50 metres still to run.

13:13

And I was trying to think of which player he is,

13:15

you know, robbing high and being aggressive. And I thought, he's

13:17

Gavi. Now, I know Brigid fans were, frankly, for saying Gavi,

13:20

but he was the only one I could think of. He's

13:22

got a player who has four

13:25

goal participations of very

13:27

different types. Now, in a game

13:29

in which Venetius plays brilliantly, but all of it is running

13:31

at people, it's exciting, it's electric and

13:33

he's brilliant to watch. But this is four

13:35

different types of things. And in particular, that

13:37

Venetius, sorry, that Modric style pass is

13:40

really, really striking. And I thought,

13:43

I thought he was brilliant, absolutely

13:45

brilliant. I actually think

13:47

he has been given the

13:49

assist. Has he? So yeah, I think

13:51

so. Oh, well, there you go then. Because it is

13:54

his last touch, isn't it, before Rodrigo gets it, albeit

13:56

as I say, Rodrigo has to run 50 metres into

13:58

the penalty area to the score. generous

14:00

assist given their advice. Listen, there is so

14:02

much we could talk about this game, genuinely

14:04

loads, but I do want to move on

14:07

because we've got other stuff to talk about

14:09

from La Liga this weekend. If

14:12

you've got a question, send it to us, we'll

14:14

talk about it tomorrow. Shout out to Madrid, by

14:17

the way, who had all four centre backs injured

14:20

for this game from their first team squad and still managed

14:22

to keep it clean. Well, and their first choice goalkeeper. And

14:25

their first choice goalkeeper. And they kept a clean sheet and

14:27

for the first time this season, Girona didn't have a shot

14:30

on target. This

14:33

episode is brought to you by Allstate.

14:35

Allstate wants to remind fans that mayhem

14:37

is everywhere, like at your pregame barbecue.

14:39

While you prep your meats, that grease

14:41

trap you forgot to empty is prepping

14:43

to smoke your porch, garage, and the

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car inside. And without the right home

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and auto insurance coverage, the cost to

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repair this could eat up your savings.

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So bundle home and auto with Allstate

14:53

to save and get protected from mayhem

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like this. Bundled savings vary and

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are not available in every state. Coverage is

15:00

subject to policy terms and conditions. Before

15:03

we move on, Sid, the

15:06

title race, the rest of the season in

15:08

La Liga, it's not

15:10

over yet because the difference is only

15:12

five points from a five points clear

15:14

of Girona, but then the 10 points

15:16

clear of Barcelona and 13 points clear

15:18

of Atletico Madrid. It feels like

15:21

it's very close to being done. Yeah,

15:24

I think so as well, because if you look

15:26

at what's left, Real Madrid

15:28

have been away to Girona, away to

15:30

Barcelona, away to Atletico Madrid, admittedly where

15:32

they were beaten. They've

15:34

been away to Sammamés. I think

15:36

the only really tough, they've been away to Betis, they've

15:38

been away to Sevilla, albeit I don't know if those

15:40

count as really tough games anymore. Certainly Betis, I think

15:42

probably does, but Sevilla maybe doesn't. The

15:44

only really tough away trip they've got to

15:47

do now is Real Slothly Dad. And

15:49

so I look at the fixture list now and I think first

15:52

of all you've got Madrid's quality, which I just think

15:54

is higher than Girona's, even

15:56

if you can make a case to say that

15:59

their quality is not... significantly higher than Barcelona's or

16:01

A Fatico's their lead is. The

16:05

lead over those two is really, really big now. Yes,

16:08

they've got the Champions League. Yes, they've got a short

16:10

squad. Yes, they might struggle for because of the injuries

16:12

and particularly as Bellingham is now going to be out

16:14

for probably a couple of weeks, maybe three. Yeah. But

16:17

I just think that that gap is

16:20

significant. To be perfectly honest with you, even if

16:22

Girona had gone top by one point winning this,

16:25

I would still think Madrid would probably just about

16:27

end up winning the league. But the

16:29

fact that they've now got a five point lead over

16:31

Girona and then a bigger lead still, is it eight

16:33

and ten or is it ten and thirteen? Ten and

16:35

thirteen. Ten and thirteen. I mean,

16:37

that's a huge lead over Barcelona enough. I mean,

16:39

put it in very simple terms. Ten over Barcelona.

16:42

Are Barcelona going to win three more games than

16:44

Real Madrid? Because even that's not enough to

16:46

catch them. And I think the answer is probably not. It

16:49

feels unlikely giving Barcelona's current

16:52

situation or the situation that they've really

16:55

been going through for the vast majority

16:57

of the season. A few weeks ago,

16:59

Cavi decided to announce that he was

17:01

leaving at the end of the season,

17:03

hoping to spark some kind of reaction

17:05

from his players. Since then, we've seen

17:07

them scrape a 1-0 win at home

17:09

to Osasuna in somewhat unconvincing fashion and

17:11

then go to Alaves and beat

17:14

them by three goals to win in a game

17:16

in which they conceded plenty of chances as

17:18

well. So there weren't two

17:20

particularly convincing victories, but I

17:23

guess if you desperately wanted to, and I think

17:25

Cavi did, you could make an argument that

17:27

there had been some kind of reaction because there had been

17:30

two victories. There is absolutely

17:32

no way that that slightly

17:34

tenuous argument can continue after Sunday's

17:37

performance against Granada, which

17:39

was really quite extraordinarily poor

17:42

in almost every imaginable

17:45

way. The only ray of

17:47

light for Barcelona is Lamine Yamal, who scored

17:49

twice and at the age of 16, became

17:52

the first player to score

17:54

a brace in La Liga aged 16. He

17:57

is continuing to amaze and marvel.

18:00

and thrill us, but within the context

18:02

of playing in a really

18:04

quite... I don't want to say

18:06

the sign is depressed, Sid, but it

18:08

feels really sort of flat, this Barcelona

18:11

team. There is no reaction to Cammi's

18:13

announcement. They're shipping lots of

18:15

goals. And how about this?

18:18

Catalunya Radio reporting

18:20

that Schwanler-Porter sent trays

18:22

of canapes flying in

18:24

the Palco after this

18:26

result, and presumably flying onto

18:28

the floor, and not

18:31

being consumed. So yeah, really quite bad

18:33

night for Barca. Well, I mean, they're

18:35

called Volovants for a reason. They were

18:37

Volandas, those Volovants, all over the place.

18:39

I mean, it's pretty startling, isn't it?

18:42

And it tells you something about the

18:44

tension internally. I don't know if you

18:46

saw... There was an interview that Deco

18:48

had done, I think, with a Portuguese TV. I'm not sure.

18:51

I must confess, I only saw the pickups. I didn't see

18:53

the original, in which

18:55

he basically has said, we've got

18:57

to change everything. Our entire identity, our style

18:59

has got to change. And I think that tells

19:01

you something about the internal tensions, because if anyone

19:04

represents a style, even if the reality was

19:06

different to the discourse, then

19:08

it's Cammi. This performance

19:10

was, as you say, it was bizarre

19:13

in some ways, because... I

19:16

mean, it was kind of... We've seen

19:18

a bit of chaos this year, but this

19:20

was sort of almost more chaotic than the previous

19:22

ones. We've seen moments of chaos last this

19:24

year, but this one was... I

19:28

suppose it was chaotic all the way through.

19:30

Admittedly, at 1-0, Barca had a couple of

19:32

chances to make it 2-0. Maybe it's different

19:34

at that point, and Cammi liked to... Or

19:36

said that that's what he felt post-game, that

19:38

they'd been in a position where they could

19:40

have put it to bed and they didn't

19:42

do so. But when they made it 3-3,

19:44

almost immediately, Granada had a chance for 4-3.

19:46

There was opportunities for Granada, who aren't a

19:48

great team. Admittedly, they are an improving one,

19:50

or at least they're competing better. I'm not

19:53

sure I would actually say they were a

19:55

really improving team. But Easterly had

19:57

a really good game, a really, really good game.

20:00

just kind of all over

20:02

the place and you know I've

20:04

been critical of him on occasions this

20:06

year but Gundogan for example

20:09

look at his statistics his statistics are

20:11

brilliant and you sort of think imagine

20:13

if he was playing in a good team we might

20:15

actually be looking at him saying wow he's amazing but

20:17

this whole thing doesn't

20:20

function and as

20:22

you say that look the bright spot is a

20:24

really bright spot because let me

20:26

admire this so exciting and he

20:28

is only 16 for goodness sake and

20:30

he does things that I don't

20:32

think we see other players do he makes decisions

20:35

really well which actually I think sometimes it's a difficult

20:37

thing when you've got when you've got a young player

20:39

like him so you've got a young player who is

20:43

quick and skillful and can take people on

20:45

sometimes when those kind of players come into the

20:48

first team and it's what excites everyone that

20:50

excitement and that capacity to run at people

20:52

sometimes blinds them to other options but actually

20:54

the liminium-al doesn't make bad decisions it's not

20:56

like he runs at people he's not like

20:58

Dembele for example running at people when he's

21:01

shooting or passing when he should

21:03

run he seems to know the right moment he seems

21:05

to choose well and I think he's going to be

21:07

a really really really

21:09

good footballer but Barcelona

21:11

are yeah a bit of

21:13

a mess and I suppose the question mark now is can there

21:15

be a mental to use the

21:18

Spanish phrase can they change the chip for

21:20

the Champions League because if they play

21:22

like this in the Champions League to be perfectly

21:24

honest they will get battered they

21:26

won't just get beaten they'll really

21:29

lose badly now I trust

21:31

in the fact that there will

21:33

be a sort of slightly different mindset maybe it'll

21:35

be structurally a bit different maybe there will be

21:37

something about the occasion but this

21:40

isn't good at all they

21:42

are taking on Napoli in the

21:45

Champions League they're not playing this week they're playing

21:47

the week after they're away to

21:49

Napoli in the in the first leg Napoli who

21:51

are ninth in Serie A so it's not like

21:53

they're flying this I mean it's actually quite similar

21:55

aren't they I mean Barcelona

21:58

are really struggling who

22:01

are Spanish champions, not really struggling in the

22:03

current Italian champions. So we'll

22:05

see. But yeah, they are they're not doing

22:07

well at all. Just to go back to

22:09

those quotes you mentioned from Deco, it was

22:11

about the it

22:13

was about the method or the method.

22:16

He said, the method is that agotado

22:18

y a quiero ronper con el pasado,

22:20

the method, like the method of working,

22:24

the style, I guess, is finished.

22:26

It's finished. Agotado finished over. And you

22:28

have to break with the past. I

22:30

mean, he then the club have tried

22:32

to sort of suggest that the elements

22:34

were taken out of context, which

22:36

of course they were. They always are. It's

22:38

never difficult to understand how they would be.

22:41

But those are quite as they say in

22:43

Spanish, dura de claraceles, quite sort of

22:45

strong, strong things for the sporting director

22:47

to be saying about him,

22:50

about how Barcelona approach everything. I mean,

22:52

I don't want to be completely, you

22:56

know, completely negative about Barcelona. But this was

22:58

a very negative night. We've mentioned how La

23:00

Minamal is a positive and how, you know,

23:03

is exciting. But listen, there

23:05

is a possibility that Barcelona could

23:07

be struggling to finish in the top four. I mean,

23:09

they're still three points ahead

23:11

of Atletico who are fourth and

23:13

Athletic Group have a game in hand and

23:15

there are further three points behind. So if

23:17

they win, there's a chance that they go

23:19

level on points with Atletico Madrid. But point

23:21

being, I just think it's worth reminding

23:24

how important

23:27

it is for Barcelona to finish in

23:29

the top four economically. And

23:31

if they don't, it could be the start

23:33

of a really, really, I mean, they're already

23:35

in a bad way financially, but this could

23:37

be the start of a catastrophic cycle for

23:39

them. If you do not make the Champions

23:41

League, remember Barcelona have already sold off a

23:44

good chunk of their TV rights for

23:47

money to buy players

23:49

with over the last 18 months. But now

23:51

that means they're going to be getting less

23:53

money than Real Madrid from TV rights for

23:55

the next 30 years. That

23:58

I don't know, it just feels like a really. really

24:00

bad situation for Barcelona and I'm not sure what

24:04

the way out is at the moment. I don't see a

24:06

light at the end of the tunnel and I was listening

24:08

to some of the Barcelona reporters on the radio yesterday and

24:10

they were similarly they were just like I can't see a

24:12

way out of this. This feels really really bad at the

24:14

moment. Well the way out

24:17

is the Super League. That's

24:19

one of the reasons why they cling to

24:21

it and there's an unease at Barcelona by

24:23

the way about the Super League because as

24:26

you've seen La Porta has started to

24:28

edge away from Florentino Beléf a little

24:30

bit partly because I guess there's

24:32

a discomfort in Madrid being the ones leading the

24:34

Super League project. I think there's a discomfort at

24:36

the risk of what this might mean to your

24:38

relationship with UEFA if it doesn't go through and

24:40

actually you know it looks very much like the Super

24:42

League project. At least in the

24:44

short term probably isn't going to happen. I think it may

24:47

help to to leverage a little bit more power from

24:49

UEFA but there's a difference between controlling it and having a

24:51

bit more power and of course one of the things that

24:53

gets missed I think in this whole Super League discussion and

24:55

I don't want to go down the street because we

24:57

could be here all day is that one of the reasons

25:00

that the situation is what it is is because actually

25:02

UEFA has ceded power to the big clubs but it

25:04

hasn't ceded power to organize and to run and to

25:06

control and that's sort of

25:09

the way out for Barcelona but

25:11

I'm not sure that that's going

25:14

to happen and as you say you know

25:16

this is one of the things about

25:18

the the Palancas and you sell off part of your future

25:21

earnings and of course in the short term you think well

25:23

it's not so bad because you build a team and it's

25:25

only a small percentage and so on but if you think

25:27

of it as a small percentage it's 25

25:29

in one season. Exactly in one season so

25:31

all right so one summer we spend 25%

25:34

less than Real Madrid effectively or at least we

25:36

get 25% less from TV money

25:39

doesn't necessarily mean you'll spend 25% less because you

25:41

may believe that you can generate money elsewhere but

25:44

you're getting 25% less you might think

25:46

well all right one season

25:49

but do that for 10 seasons and

25:52

and it looks quite bad you know and

25:55

and admittedly it's not your only source of income and of course

25:57

the hope of the Super League is that the Super League income

25:59

was so dwarf the La Liga

26:01

income that actually losing that over the

26:03

next 25 years becomes largely irrelevant. And

26:06

it is plausible that that

26:08

is the final outcome. I

26:10

don't think it's happening in the short term, but

26:12

it's plausible that that becomes the final outcome. It's

26:14

plausible, I suppose, at some point that Barcelona try

26:16

and buy some of these rights buneck, or

26:18

that they believe that they generate sufficient money

26:21

with these new partners that it covers any

26:23

shortfall. But the point is the shortfall of

26:26

the actual TV rights itself will always be relative to

26:28

the other teams. So relative to Real

26:30

Madrid, it will always be 25%

26:32

less. What

26:34

about them becoming a limited company? Well,

26:37

there's a bit of me that thinks,

26:39

okay, so let's think about how this

26:41

works. And

26:43

here comes the person that knows nothing about

26:45

finance, all right. So I'm saying this intuitively.

26:48

Two people who know nothing about finance. I'm

26:50

here as well. Yeah. But

26:52

you are essentially what Barcelona have done

26:55

in a way is privatize without privatisation,

26:57

without putting the club in private hands

26:59

in that they've sold some of the

27:01

club's assets. Now, obviously, in truth, clubs

27:04

do this a lot. So reality

27:07

is that the asset they normally sell is normally a

27:09

player. That's the big difference this time. These are future

27:11

sales assets. Now, other clubs have done this. For example,

27:13

Real Madrid is certainly their old training ground, I suppose,

27:15

in a way with the original plan. Real Madrid have

27:17

a deal with legends

27:19

and sixth street in terms of the exploitation of

27:22

some of the stadium income and so on. But

27:24

of course, that starts from a zero point rather

27:26

than starts from point of this is money we're

27:28

getting and we're now giving it away. Starts from

27:30

zero point to build towards something. So

27:33

if you sell 50, well,

27:36

you'd sell 49% of your club, that

27:39

has a huge injection of cash and then

27:41

you have a part owner. But

27:43

the way the financial play rules are in

27:45

Spain, that brings in that

27:47

money at that point to effectively, if you like,

27:49

kind of clear everything and maybe give you a

27:51

surplus of cash and maybe give you the funds

27:53

to build from. But the way La

27:55

Liga rules are, let's say for argument's sake, you

27:57

sell half your club to Coca-Cola. Right.

28:00

Coca-Cola can't just give or more likely a

28:03

Saudi investment fund. They can't just give you

28:05

money every year, at least not according to

28:07

the rules. And so it

28:09

doesn't necessarily mean that everything's fine. It means

28:11

you effectively get a fresh start

28:13

and you get a fresh start with a financial

28:15

deposit and you probably will get investment and you

28:18

probably will get fine ways of increasing

28:20

your social capital.

28:22

But I

28:25

think there is a bit of a risk in thinking

28:27

that this resolves it forever and I'm not sure it

28:29

does. Let's move on. There's

28:31

much more that we could discuss but yeah there's

28:33

still other things here we want to work we

28:35

want to mention. Severe beating Athletico by a goal

28:37

to nil. That goal scored by your old mates

28:40

it's Isaac Romero who you've known for a long

28:42

while. You'll be giving your eye

28:44

on him. I have. You know what? Detail

28:47

scouting reports. When he first came into the team and he

28:50

was called up I think we might have mentioned this on

28:52

the podcast. Yeah you mentioned it to me. You said what's

28:54

this? What are they doing with this guy? I

28:56

was like, well hold on he's 23 and

28:58

he's playing in the fourth division with Severe

29:00

beat. By the time you were 23 you

29:03

would have expected someone to take the jump

29:05

into I mean at least second division. I

29:07

mean I don't know there seemed to be

29:09

a little bit of a red flag here.

29:12

I was like, hold on maybe he's not

29:14

that good. Well yeah you know actually Kip

29:16

Trow he's very very good. Actually he's not

29:19

just a goal scorer. I'm really impressed with

29:21

everything about him. His movement, his strength, his

29:23

passing as well. He laid down a

29:25

lovely goal for a Yusuf Endesiri at

29:27

Bayekas last week and he put two

29:29

goals on a plate last night against

29:31

Atleti. We were one Yusuf Endesiri missed

29:33

and Oliver Torres missed a great chance

29:35

as well. He's a really clever player

29:37

and it's really nice to see players

29:40

being brought in through the youth academy

29:42

and that is what the B teams

29:44

are there for. They're literally there to

29:46

supplement the first team and Severe have

29:48

had to dip into the

29:50

cantera, the youth academy, and they've plucked out Isak

29:52

Romero you know showing what I know. At the

29:55

moment he's doing extremely well and he's a player

29:57

to get excited about and Severe needed him and

29:59

they need needed some excitement and

30:01

God knows they needed the two wins in

30:03

a row that they've just had to lift

30:06

them six points clear of the

30:08

relegation zone. So yeah, a big, big, big discovery

30:10

this East Act I made off of them. I'm

30:13

going to defend you here by the way. You say that

30:15

shows what I know but with the

30:17

greatest of respect that shows what anyone

30:19

knew because as you rightly say if

30:21

he's 23 and playing in the B

30:23

team then, you know,

30:26

alright players can mature later. Players

30:28

can be not pierced here as

30:30

well. Exactly.

30:32

This isn't a guy that's beating up on everybody in

30:35

that division. It's not like, you know, it's not like

30:37

this is a guy that playing against teams, those teams

30:39

have got their reports and going wow, this guy is,

30:41

you know, he shouldn't be here. And if

30:44

he's 23 and hasn't been given a chance in

30:47

the first team until now, it tells you that

30:49

the other first team coaches and

30:51

possibly even the B team coaches because they are there

30:54

in part to propose and to suggest and

30:57

to identify players with a

30:59

particular projection, that

31:02

happens sooner if they think he's genuinely special.

31:04

If they thought he was this good two

31:06

years ago, then this happens sooner and this partly

31:08

comes. But then this is always the way and we

31:11

know this and let's not pretend otherwise and let's not

31:13

be so naive as claim otherwise that players get opportunities

31:15

at times of difficulty. There's a reason why Valencia's

31:18

first team is packed full of kids. Now

31:20

one of them is that those kids are very good. Right.

31:22

And the other is that the youth system

31:24

works really quite well at Valencia and the

31:26

work they do bringing the players through is

31:28

really quite good. But someone has to open

31:30

that final door and that

31:32

final door doesn't open. I'm going to really murder

31:34

the metaphor now. If the room

31:36

on the other side is already packed, they're

31:38

great players. It only gets opened

31:41

if what's inside doesn't convince the manager. Have

31:43

you used that in an article? I

31:45

haven't, but should I? Yeah, definitely. I should

31:47

do this. That was good. That was good.

31:49

So yeah, the door has

31:51

been opened to Isaac Romero and the room isn't

31:54

that full and he's making space in that room

31:57

for himself. At Lettie, the

31:59

sixth away defeat of this season. They've

32:01

been so strong at home, they're unbeaten at home

32:04

in the league, but they've lost six times away from

32:06

home. They were beaten in the Copa

32:08

del Rey semi-final first leg, they're

32:10

13 points behind Real Madrid, they've

32:13

got a tough looking Champions League tie against the

32:15

Inter Milan. I mean this could be

32:17

another disappointing season for

32:19

Alletti. Yeah, and in the context

32:22

of a season that we thought was looking alright. That's one

32:25

of the reasons why it's kind of difficult

32:27

to get your head around because actually for a lot of

32:29

this season we thought, oh they're playing well and

32:31

they're playing differently than Allettico used

32:33

to and we're seeing a side that's

32:36

creative. We're seeing Griezmann be I think

32:38

the outstanding player in Spain this year

32:40

possibly with Bellingham and, Bellingham

32:42

and Cruz maybe, and

32:45

he's, or Roodegar perhaps as well, he's

32:47

been really really good. They have

32:50

been good to watch, as you say, their

32:52

home record is phenomenal until the defeat against

32:54

Athletic last week. It's 28 games, 26 wins,

32:56

two draws going back over a year. But

32:59

that away form is bizarre and actually the last

33:01

couple of defeats are a bit, slightly, I think

33:04

our outliers a little bit. I

33:06

didn't think they were terrible in this game. I

33:08

don't think they were brilliant because actually Isak has

33:10

the goal, one against the bar, one he provides

33:12

and one he puts just wide if I remember rightly. Last

33:15

night I was doing a list of the moments that

33:17

he'd been involved in. There were kind of four really

33:19

big high sort of standout moments. But

33:23

they created chances at Allettico. They probably should have got

33:25

an equalise at some point. That one that's cleared off

33:27

the line, I think it's a good one

33:29

for us, isn't it? They really understand how that

33:31

probably ended up in the back of the net.

33:34

And I thought, similar in the Copa

33:36

del Rey when they were beaten by Athletic their first

33:38

defeat at home in a year, I actually thought they

33:40

played really well. I thought they were really unlucky not

33:43

to win that. And I wonder if there's a degree

33:45

of fatigue after the last month and certainly Simeone had

33:47

a bit of a complaint about that post game yesterday,

33:50

which isn't great actually because if they're about to go

33:52

into Champions League now, although they do now have a

33:54

week off before the next Champions League game, they

33:58

could do with getting the players fit and fresh. I

34:01

don't know about you, but is

34:03

there a temptation for Simi to revert to

34:05

type a little bit in the Champions League, particularly as it's

34:07

two-legged ties? Yep. That's what

34:09

I thought. Definitely. Yeah, I

34:12

think there's every chance we see

34:14

that. Listen,

34:16

guys, unfortunately, we

34:19

simply don't have any time for any discussion of the

34:21

Segunda this week in unrelated

34:23

news, sporting beat Oviedo 1-0 in the

34:25

Asturian Derby. This week in

34:29

the Champions League, on Tuesday

34:31

night, you've got Leipzig against Real

34:33

Madrid. Have you

34:36

heard how difficult

34:38

it is for a lot of Spanish

34:40

journalists to pronounce Leipzig? Yes.

34:43

Yes. It should be

34:45

that hard. It doesn't look like a particularly difficult

34:47

word. No, admittedly. Elaseig. Elape-the.

34:50

Elaseig. Anyway, mind

34:52

you, we've spent most of this season listening

34:54

to them try and do a little hard

34:57

trying to say Leicester, so it's not a

34:59

huge surprise. In fairness,

35:01

it's only the last part in which I was

35:03

calling Toire Trois. Yes. It's

35:06

been plenty of names that I've actually murdered

35:08

over the years, so maybe I shouldn't laugh

35:11

too much. Maybe we should shut up. Yeah,

35:13

absolutely right. Now, when you say you've got

35:16

PSG against Konarreal, can the pole trial… Go

35:20

on, Subira! Suh-useSEA

35:22

Jesus... switch off… Suh-useSEA …. So

35:25

there is plenty of big, big football for

35:27

us to enjoy this week, and we'll be

35:29

back later on, on Thursday or Friday, to

35:31

analyse what happens in the Champions League with

35:33

those Spanish sides. So make sure you join

35:36

us then, amigos, on patreon.com/GSFP, and if you

35:38

don't, we'll be back here next Monday. Adios.

36:00

Thank you.