Hello and welcome to the double pivot the podcast on the how the radio network that was not expecting to have this much content this week That's right. We were sitting around on Saturday trying to figure out what we were gonna do I guess there was gonna be like the caribou cup But that turned out to be terrible and we could have expected it to be terrible there were we gonna like talk about Newport County and Leeds Which was not even televised in terms of ungame and then it came down the transfer window is actually happening and we already talking to you about Poutineo about other transfers apparently and all the transfer happening now So we have a lot of content a lot of soccer talking about I'm Michael Kayley and I'm joined here online by Mike goodman How you feeling? I'm feeling pretty good the music you heard in the way and as the whalers who got max on the other side of the virtual class Please download subscribe to this five star reviews and make us happy as podcasters It is one of my articles of faith about international football that nothing happens during winter transfer window Right, it is like right. That's just the way the world works.
Lots of newspapers run lots of stories about lots of big names that are never really going anywhere Occasionally you'll get something like I don't know one motto moving from Chelsea to Manchester United where it's like One quasi star in extenuating circumstances has something happened and then there's this window and so we already have one super move So we've got two related super moves and possibly more to come it seems pretty clear that Alexis is moving to Manchester Yeah, just a question of which Manchester. Yep. And so what I wanted to do to sort of off the top of this I thought that it'd be useful in this field is this very double-tive Instead of talking about specifics and players and like the things that people you know fans care about when they care about things I wanted to sort of set the theoretical, you know We're gonna have a theory discussion instead of talking about what fans care about because it's really important that we have no listeners Exactly exactly like the reason that nothing happens in J. It's not it's not like this like weird inexplicable thing The reason that happens in January is that in January the season is halfway done So it's too early for most teams to have nothing to play for either teams are worried that they're gonna get relegated And they can't lose their players or they thought something big to play for they've got a trophy to play for they've got a title to play for Between we can't sell less we risk getting relegated and we have to buy to try not to get relegated Those are like related, but not the same thing exactly so like you've got your top like six seven eight teams They're not gonna do anything you've got your bottom like eight nine ten teams.
They're not gonna do anything so how is anything going to happen and this is true in lower weeks well for first-seller reasons and And so you have teams and then if they're going to sell they're going to require lots and lots of money this is going to be a premium because they have they know what is at take at that point and So one of the questions I have is why is stuff happening this window? What changed or is it just sort of like I guess sometimes interesting things are gonna happen our world can be fun? Well, I think I think we do have There are a number of different things going around right? I think it's for starters It's wrong to say it's wrong to look for one overarching reason because say what's going on with Barcelona Liverpool and Southampton is not What's going on with the likes of Sanchez Arsenal right?
These are these are two very different factors They just happen to be happening in the same window, which is a little weird If you're gonna look for one overarching factor the only thing I would say is The top four race is exceedingly close this year You know Manchester City you're gonna win the league and then there's five teams who are exceedingly close for three spots Yeah, and so when you have that circumstance what you expect is okay buying players becomes way more important for these teams and Now these teams are selling players Yeah, so I mean I do think that like part of the story here to me is that That player that player power is more important than I think is it gonna be taking an account like the good team No, just like he the first game he plays for Barcelona The first game that he's played in two transfer windows because last he quit He's sort of sat out all of Liverpool's games and then something the most transfer we know open he sat out again until he gets sold And there are reasonably well-reported stories that players at Arsenal are very mad Alexa Sanchez for Similar sorts of things so it seems like if you're willing to go to the jerk mattresses and just like piss off your two Hates and piss off the two motors like you can get a lot of man Somebody is really gonna quote you out of context on Twitter saying jerk mattresses Yes, you're right if you're a player and you're really really willing to play hardball you can't exert power I Think what's fairly interesting is that we may look back and say you know Gee it was a wonderful job of management by Liverpool and Klopp that they that they basically got continue to play between the transfer windows Without too much fuss. Yep as you would say compare that to Ross Barkley who Did not play for the entire first half of the season after Apparently walking out in the middle of his his medical with Chelsea in the summer has now Completed the world's longest medical and finalizes transferred it to Chelsea Like it's not unreasonable to think that that could have happened with continue given given what's gone on right like yeah clearly in retrospect It seems like he really tried to force his way out over the summer. It didn't happen now the winter transfer window is open and he has forced his way out You know Liverpool got a lot of money given given given that and so I find it hard to fault them I think Yeah What is Barcelona doing right like Why are bars like I understand continue once Barcelona? I understand Barcelona once continue There is I cannot see a conceivable reason why you are paying like you need continue now as opposed to this summer like Reach an agreement with him the moment the season ends before the World Cup starts four years ago This is exactly what Chelsea did with sess fabric ass it was done like before the World Cup started there was no issue It's easy you do it early you get it done like Why are you doing this now with Barcelona when you have a huge like you're hugely favorites and continue can't play in the champions Like anyway for you because he's cut out the liver yeah And so and I run the issues here is knowing exactly what changed between the fall and the winter If we are to believe the reporting on the Liverpool side, which broadly I would tend to give that they were right both times around One of the big things that changed is Barcelona are guaranteed money The reporting from the Liverpool report of our solo reports reported that the final summer offer was in the range of a hundred million guaranteed Liverpool reports reported it was only about eighty three to five million guaranteed and so that would mean that the guaranteed money increased by about 20 million Which would not be a particularly super unusual like January Premium especially given given how important how tight Liverpool's position is in the top four race So one thing that happened here is that Barcelona saw fit it seems to offer quite a bit more money For a player who is worth significantly less to them right now because he can't play the champions It's weird and because they're in a much more powerful league position than they were this summer exactly They don't need to work that they could easily play you know They have Dennis Lawrence they could play Andrei Gomes and they would be fine in the league and And they need to do his resting yes to play in the champions like which they can't do because they're dying points up on their Second place at like 15 points up on the trip.
Yeah, I don't I really don't like usually you can tell a story you can like Figure out like even if you think it's a wrong decision, you can figure out where the wrong decision comes from I Am I am at an utter loss on this one, you know Like I can I can understand Why? I can't understand my continual like handles it this way right I can understand my Liverpool handles it this way I can understand my club is doing But barring some piece of Barcelona information Coming down the pike that we don't the public doesn't know that it hasn't been reported on yet really anywhere like We're well into the sort of realm of like just pure speculation is two kinds of things that would make this make even a little bit Yeah, I had a lot of like angry Barcelona fans in my densions when I tried to make this point And what they tended to push were two points neither of which I've ended all good insane But if it doesn't got um there's a third point that I've had recently convincing but is different The two points I've had all convinced the first is what if he has a great world cup of the price goes up and that to me is In January you could agree to the price of me exactly like You could have a world cup right yeah, yeah Also, who is the price going up? Against like who you been against that like you're already like double what anybody else was gonna pay for him The only way his price goes up is if you Barcelona decide his price is gonna go up or I've never pulled the sides They're not selling but continue is already made it clear He's gonna make an utter ass of himself to get out understandably so like How is the price going up like what is the mechanic by which that price then goes up even if he has a great world cup? Yeah, I didn't buy it The other was that he has time to bed in and learn the tactics and get to know the players for next year Which is a real value thing but no one pays 20 million pounds for it right like it's just not thing if it were thing Teams would pay you some or transfer values that it's it's and then the third reason that came up that I do find recently I'm telling is the Barcelona wanted to have it.
I mean I think that's it I really I just like that's I don't like you know look maybe maybe there'll be some unbelievable new story like Barcelona transfer ban out of nowhere or you know like Secret money option vested at Barcelona dropping them 400 million pounds. They had or euro They had a spend by a deadline or it went away You know but aside from that it seems to me like it was Barcelona see shiny object shiny object wants Barcelona keep throwing money at the repula It's yeah, and the other question on the Barcelona side is what is there? What is there? What is their financial situation?
If you do the math out on transfer fees and just transfer fees like given the money that they brought in obviously the Money but a couple other sales and they're gonna be selling my sharon out against the money in They're okay. The problem is that their wage bill is skyrocketing is they what they give us They use a lot of the name our money to give messy this massive massive new contract, which fine. He's messy But you know, they're bringing in Cucino and they have to turn over a recent a lot of the squad which means bringing in more Wages it's not clear to me how well the money works out on the Barcelona side I'd never clear how the money works out on the Barcelona side and yeah Everybody who knows stuff about Barcelona seems to always say Barcelona really don't have all that much money Sort of that they can spend and then Barcelona goes and spends money and this just sort of happens year after year after year So either Barcelona actually has money and the Barcelona are kind of broke is this sort of sing Concerning trolling you get from Barcelona nation that says Barcelona are kind of bad and like you know It's a matter of degree and the degree is actually quite high It's just a comparative thing or equally conceivably everything is sort of a financial house of cards that may come down at any moment like you know Like with the play on the field we sort of have a chance to like make our own value judgment as to whether or not they're actually bad And they're not with the financial situation. We don't like have access to their books So we can't really pass our own judgment as to whether they're actually fine and everybody just worries because that's what people do Or they're actually not fine.
Like we just have no way of knowing Yeah, all right now. I do want to go back to the Liverpool side as we move on to talk about virtual night night because the Generally speaking and also Barcelona generally speaking turning Neymar into Dembele and Cucino Sort of makes sense right like if it was a trade you would analyze that trade and you could argue about that trade And but you would in general say it's in a realistic realm right like who came out slightly better who came out slightly worse You can argue it but it's not like it's not a ridiculous differential But what it does make clear is that they didn't get a ton of extra value for the super extra value that they got from Neymar Right like most of the value that they got from Neymar was then passed through to respectively Bartman and Liverpool in the next two deals and now I want to follow that domino to Liverpool And say okay, did the same thing happen with Virgil van Dyke? Did they just pass through sort of the extra profit that they got from Cucino immediately to van Dyke and really Liverpool aren't gonna actually seal a benefit of selling Cucino for a lot more because they just turned around about van Dyke for a lot more And this then this applies with Dr. Matanas to what if there is another player perhaps the secret player yes that they are they are after It should be it should be Van Dyke plus right because then it's obviously not all of the the amount that I got from Cucino Right and I think they're kind of two questions in their innocence Because like one of the issues with the Neymar money is that it was crazy The Neymar money was way above what anyone thought was valuable What we have argued here and many others have elsewhere is that this is not money?
We should understand it being linked to revenues in the way that normal money is It's money that is linked to the Carter South top of the well fund and the various things that The rulers of Carter want to be doing with their soft power and their big their big source team and so then we would so this is so but every time it moves down every time other transfers happen and look really really Expensive it I think it offers the question of are these really football Revives are there is the sort of like the growth in football revenues with with new TV contract and money for For champions league and sort of just you know increased interest in paying for sports is that what is driving the increase in revenues? And so to what degree are these just um? What is the Neymar money being is the extra Neymar money not really extra Neymar? How is less of it like just extra added this was a weird situation where they pay the transfer fee because they are owned by By the sound of well-funded Carter and to what degree is this just you know?
He's a great player Money are there other great players are just gonna cost that much more money now And I think that like as this money moves through the market look at their sense of it But I think that like the degrees of those two questions are right now a bit unclear right so like at some point When you've received this sort of it's a little bit like a natural resource problem right when I when I'm developing country strikes oil Everybody knows they have oil and I have money from the oil so everybody demands that they spend the oil money on stuff And so right as soon as the Neymar deal happens everybody knows Barcelona has money and so Ortman and Liverpool can't can say we know you have money We're gonna hold out for a higher price and Barcelona is still obligated because they have to replace Neymar to pay those higher prices And so you have the pass through of the distorting effect now at some point right like It's not necessarily a dollar-for-dollar situation and usually that gets diluted as you as it filters out through the greater economy But you know as Continuous price rises in relation to what he might have otherwise been worse you get closer and closer and closer to that rise in price Just being a dollar-for-dollar raise for you know raised price that just the actually that you know instead of like for every extra dollar You got for Neymar you spend 30 cents extra on continue it moves up to 60 cents 70 cents 90 cents And at some point you're getting really close to just a dollar-for-dollar straight pass through and Liverpool in particular are in this bind because the top four race is so close like Ortman can have a really bad year and they're having a pretty bad year But I don't think anybody thinks they're you know Like it is still well within their region would be an upset if they were not to qualify for the champions Right, ortman are in a much easier case when it comes to reinvesting the Dembele money because they can wait They can just they have the up They have the benefit of not having to replace necessary like for like but just sort of on a general talent level Dembele Where's Liverpool stuck in the middle of a really heated top four race do need to elevate the talent level pretty immediately? And so they face the same problem bars loaded and at some point as Van Dyke's value goes up and up and up and up and if they're looking at another player to bring in sort of It's not a strategic replacement But another midfielder to play the same thing will happen and at some point you just lose the the entirety of the value that you get for the outside Sale in this instance has that happened with that? I mean I think it's an argument I think that when you start moving from 50 to 70 in particular it seems pretty close to like like Barcelona offered 20 million more than they did this summer and now Liverpool are basically offering 20 million more than they did this summer Yeah, I mean that Liverpool are paying premiums and it's also it's it's disundary. It's not just that the money exists It's also the demand exists But like you know if you are dealing with Liverpool right now You not you not only know that they got the money which is which is nice They know that you know that you know that you know that they have a favorable champion's lead draw and they have this incredibly tight top four race And one thing that's worth noting is you brought up Dortmund and You know the players that that they're linked with in the window now for attackers obviously their liquid trying to get Navi Keita in early You know Liverpool and it seems not not unreasonable to be looking at other players in the Bundesliga Who could sort of because you need to be sort of slide into clops actors quickly Players played German football seem like not unreasonable choices for that The Bundesliga top four race is even tighter.
Yeah, but you know I guess but to be fair some of this is like a perception thing right like Dortmund fired a disastrous manager and I think the maybe wasn't disastrous, but that's certainly the perception and I think the Dortmund thought is not oh We need to get more players it is much more conceivable to paint the argument that Dortmund's position is we need our players to play better Whereas Liverpool are playing well and still maybe need to add talent Yeah, they're going to be playing in multiple competitions down the stretch They're there there there there's a draw was poured out which means I think that like they're certainly favored They're solid favorites to get through sets for games or you need to be playing you know You have to play on out to at least have four games You're playing your best 11 for 90 minutes with good games man in the league alongside those And and they have you know they have very much struggled to get production out of their backup forwards. Yeah It's true every time that they don't have Fermito and Monte and Sala in the front line Let's think and play Latino in there. He's gone. They have they have lacked for production They have they have not I mean storage has been good when he's played but obviously sturages is other kinds of issues So long as it given them that much a lot of you something very different was in the front line I think I think the hope is probably ox the jamble and at this point who has kind of played well when he's he's had those minutes I think but if he provides that depth it's a bonus.
I don't think you want to expect it I think it's a good way to approach that issue. Yeah, which is again why you understand why they're sort of tentatively linked with Lamar Although I just I'm not sure Lamar is that good? I mean I like I'm sure he's pretty good I'm not sure he's very good Yeah, and and like you know Everyone loves this guy. It sort of makes you want to like keep looking at his numbers Which continue to be just be like fine right and so okay?
Maybe there is like you know the scouts are watching him the talent is there the skills or their production is there But what Liverpool need is someone who can play in that forward line right now and not cost them that much as they rotate their best players Yeah, and I don't he's not that no He may be in a couple years like that tweeter midfielder that you need in that system That is just a fantastic productive player and that may be worth spending a lot of money on right now But he's not that right now, right? Yeah, like you can go and say okay best case scenario is that or worst case scenario Is he's a squad player and that we can justify the price for that but That profile is not what Liverpool necessarily needs they need you know sort of death that can come in and play immediately Thus the mystery player the mystery player could solve all of those problems You don't know because he's a mystery and we'll see you know like in a normal year I'd be like rolling my eyes at this and and laughing at all you poor rooms out there believing the rumors that there's gonna be a big deal that Happens but this January is different I know it's gonna be Christian Erickson. You're gonna all like laugh at my tears. I Believe I believe I have like today of Daniel you say that either Harry Kane or daily alliara for sale and I can't help But notice the Christian Erickson was not mentioned in that headline Never be sold problems.
It's human nature to hate problems But why is that after all problems inspire us to mend things bend things make things better? That's why so many people work with IBM on everything from city traffic to ocean plastic new schools to new energy flight delays to food safety Smart loves problems. I mean let's put smart to work. I mean I'm not com slash smart to learn more All right, should we jump over to Alexis which is it which is a move that's happening because he's he ran down his contact basically And yeah, it's interesting It is again a situation of if Arsenal are willing to make this sale now Why weren't they willing to make this sale for like twice as much in the summer?
It's really weird It's really weird, you know, it's like they're not out of the top if our school were like well out of the top four races Oh, totally normal. You took a gamble. It made sense. It didn't work Go on but like they're still like they're underdogs on the top four I think they're like 30 percent right now in 538 which means about right?
I think that the gambling odds on the same same region I'm sorry, you know, that's not a huge that's not a huge underdog when you're talking about five teams for three slots Exactly they're perfectly within and their level of play has been perfectly reasonable for a top 14 and they're in the Europa League Which there are some good teams there, but there's a very good case that they're one that they're you know It's hard to make the case they're better than Napoli, but they're one of the best teams in the Europa League I mean, they're a top there. They are certainly a top three or four contender. Yeah easily them, Bartman, Napoli It's a fun year. Oh, I'll leave say I guess LA Right, so that's a lot of good teams It is a little bit of an unusual year in which usually if you're arsenal You can sort of expect to be one of the best two to three teams as opposed to one of the best five teams It's a tougher field than usual, but other than like draw odds It doesn't necessarily make that much of a difference in a knockout competition Yeah, you know like either way you're gonna like like in theory play a good semi-final and final right like whether there's three Two other good teams or four other good teams.
They're probably not gonna luck into Iax like Matt I said I did last year, but they're still going to there still and they're in the top four It's like right yeah, no, but it's one right if you told the Arsenal fan obviously knowing that they're 30% would make them kind of sad If you told them the general story of their season up to now I think that relatively few Arsenal fans would be sad about and honestly Well a month ago when they were like a point above Spurs they were actively gloating about their season Like you know it had gone well So yeah, they got a home match in the semi-final of the top two, you know, you know winning some more silverware. Yes Yes I wouldn't know I assumed I couldn't lose so I went to brunch It was actually on at brunch, so I had a wonderful time playing peekable with my daughter watching Arsenal be amazing Yeah, okay, so this is just purely Alexa Sanchez running down his contract and and leaving right like that's what this is that has to be Right Yeah, and he's not quitting on the team it appears that like The teammates are mad at him right which you know we don't know anything beyond that but like clearly there are tensions of some sort It's been recently well reported Right exactly this is I find this kind of great for this is that like you know He's talking about public house problems and like you know your numbers and your tactics and analysis can't deal with With other problems and there are clear problems and is also clear. They're not causing arsenal to be worse on the field There are situations where you can you can make the argument that that's going on right? Oh, yeah, ever turn under on a cum in this year you couldn't make the argument that some of the off-field locker room reported stuff was impacting their play on the field Arsonally has a half it's not it's not happening And so I mean You can make the flips out of you that right imagine how good maybe they could possibly be if there weren't those those those rumored issues But like even with them They're certainly playing at a good enough level that removing Alexis doesn't make them better in any capacity Yeah, and I think that like I mean the and then the other rumor going around with Arsenal is that they are trying to line up Some one apparently Carl Echelotti to be their next manager Which I think sort of goes to the the the bigger issue with Arsenal Which is that they let both Mesetazile and Alexis Sanchez run down their contracts to the very end while kind of doing the same thing with their manager who that he sort of keeps being around for one more year and He's also the one who's in charge of making decisions about transfers and and who gets bought and sold And so like it seems to me that that like these things have have collided Which is that our son Vengar?
I mean I'm not saying that he is being Or the Vengar who is you know constantly not sure if he's gonna be there for another year has put together a roster that is very much focused on this year Yeah, but you can't change track in the middle, right? You can't you can't if you leave Well, but so you're saying that the decision to sell Alexis isn't about is not him is like them being like okay We're overruling you I think by the way this is going on point. I think this is all my fanfiction I appreciate big B sort of like ass demanding evidence in that moment. Yes.
Yes. He's a very evidence based analysis dog exactly but like The fact that Arsenal getting to this point is weird and Batman's explanation as well It's not like the moment that Arsenal Arsenal have found themselves in January with two like two of their best players Two like two of the best attackers in the world two guys were going to be playing next year on top teams and contributing tons of goals those guys both out of contract like it was weird to get here and like suddenly thinking maybe we should get some money for one of them isn't like It's an about face because they were doing such weird things in the past. Yes, that's right It's it's weird to go from not selling him this summer to selling him now It wouldn't be weird to either run it down the whole year or to have sold him this summer and it's not again like in general these are players exercising their power and running down their contracts But in this particular case the underlying fundamentals of why you would keep him haven't changed nor has the power dynamic I mean, I guess they could have hoped Alexis was gonna sign a contract over the last six months But that didn't ever really seem like realistically in the cards did it like No, we should we should like we should talk about this idea that like in other sports American sports a player running down their contract And then re-signing with the same team is not odd It's maybe slightly rarer than than just signing an extension But it's it happens fairly frequently that like a player will run down their contract They will test the waters They will see what else is out there and they will ultimately stay like that happens fairly frequently That doesn't happen in in in in soccer If you decided to run down your contract because the norms are such that almost everybody extends or gets sold because it really is In teams best interest to keep you locked up so that you can generate a transfer fee When players make the active decision to run down their contract. They're running down their contract.
Yeah, it's Talking about that's it is the truth. It's like the Why you just exit to you vent is in history. This is what I've decided It seems absolutely inevitable that a player that good leaving for free is going to go to you ventist that that It's just required. Yeah, it's all right I don't know that I was wondering over Arsenal is gonna get us any closer to like a theory of answers here So do we want to do we want to maybe get some of the questions that that we got about this?
Yeah, let's see which questions we have we have answered So I think we kind of talked about like, you know, how to replace Coutinho and the idea that Coutinho isn't that important we don't agree with that. Yeah, so what? Normal poor Rockwell, we're gonna say no, we don't buy that. My favorite question that we got was from Ruben Seidman Which was Alexis question mark I'm gonna say question.
I'm gonna say no exclamation point. I don't know what I'm answering precisely But I am not Alexis. Are you Alexis? See I'm not Alexis, but I was taking it as is Alexis Sanchez go We're working of discussion which is quite this is podcast already answered.
Yes, so I say yes, okay. There we go So this question I kind of like picked it because we wanted to you know Questions we need to sort of expect specific as a promise. I kind of enjoy it too Does the van dyke fee move Liverpool into the Chelsea density category where any success has been bought from at Richard Craig's? I know this is a thing we talk about but like all successes bought Yeah, I don't mean to be like annoyingly philosophically flippant here, but like Whether you're spending money on developing kids in an academy or whether you're you know spending huge amounts of transfers or whether you're doing something in the middle All successes bought some is bought for more and some is bought for less But like it doesn't happen in a vacuum and van dykes purchase happens in the context of the continue of sale and in the context of everything else that goes on on a transfer window So is there success bought sure, but so is everybody else's?
Yeah, and like there is like There are two teams in the world that are owned by sovereign wealth funds of countries that have Effectively infinite resources in terms of soccer And so what they're doing with their money isn't like a business in quite the same way that some of the other companies are businesses But all of those are businesses using money. I don't know if there's any I don't think there's any like it comes down to kind of like aesthetics Of using money that like is it more aesthetically appealing to a have a club that uses money Not in a way that is directly linked to a balance sheet Is it more aesthetically appealing to have a company company that for historical reasons? You know is rail the dread and makes tons and tons of money and thus their balance sheet allows that to pay very very large fees and Transforms or aesthetically appealing to have a somewhat smaller club that is bringing up more players from their academy It's a lot of money for salaries like all of it is aesthetic and it's also PR because like people want to say that Barcelona Used to be the one and is now the other except the you know The entirety of Barcelona even during the payday of messy shavi in yes Them but sketch was buttressed by like a super expensive super important right back in Danny alvis And like they felt like they just didn't have quite enough firepower So they dropped god knows how much money on David via like the best striker in la Llega to come in and supplement like You know the area and really didn't magically disappear from arsenal and like retroactively become a Barcelona talent, right? Yeah, so some of a lot of the Buying success is just battling PR's it really is Yeah, and like I think that you know most of the people listen to this podcast are fans of very rich teams Like there isn't like a moral position that you get to stake out because you are a fan of a team that is somewhat less rich I envision dortman fans howling at us at the moment except that dortman Dortman like to pretend that they are at the second which is called in the Bundesliga Yeah, what you get is that added free song where Where you didn't quite expect to win.
Yeah, and that's great. That's fun That that I was a boss. I'm a boss. I'm a boss.
I'm a fan Like I feel like that sort of structured my fandom that like I am just chasing the dragon of the 2004 world series and alcs And I don't I think that like my thinking spurs was certainly related to that like them doing that amazing season that title winning season or trophy winning season or whatever Would be amazing. That's what you get you don't really get like a moral position Moral position Okay, I think now from markception Which team will benefit more from a Sances transfer city or united? I think that's kind of interesting because like to me the answer is clearly united because there's only so much that city can benefit because they're so good already um But then again, they only have one striker and they are going to try to win for competitions so like there's a lot of benefit for city, but I just think that the united the united margins are so narrow um that even though alexus is sort of like Exactly the same role that rashford marshy al and first of all nikertarian are supposed to be filling um and it's like Perhaps not the position that you would say they are most in need of a of a talent upgrade It's hard for me to envision the possible benefit he can be united to match anything towards the marginal benefit Like it's hard to imagine the marginal benefit from city for city could be anything like the marginal benefit could potentially be united Yeah, I agree with that. I I agree that like you know, it is much clearer how you would use alexus in a variety of positions to get tons of minutes value In city system Um if he was playing for united, he's just you know resting marciala rashford He's better than them right like he improves the team and he gives you like if you want to play two more attacking sort of inside fowards at once Around the coffee, which gives you you know three options to choose from but it's a very clear.
What role he sees He's filling right it's not solving the problems with their team elsewhere. Um And I think this is one of the things I went about with it in the general know because what united need really Used to make top four and it is getting tighter and tighter as they drop some points and as they continue just not to perform at a high level Um we're expecting them to drop more points we're expecting that top four race to get rough for them at some point this season And so improving the team is worth a lot because they're very highly leveraged in the top four race Um, it's not really because we're worried about whether they will or will not win a bunch of trophies Um They're not really in I mean they can win the epic up that'd be great I don't see them as as you know outside of something really I don't see them winning the champions league The champions league without a level of improvement that would put them in a pretty safe top four position is the thing Yes, right. Yes, it's hard like if they get good enough like if things fall into place You can envision a world in which they make a Champions League run but that world is also one where they're comfortably the second best team in the premier league I think Yeah, and so there there's And on the other hand man city like they're I'm sure that I'm sure they would love to win the league cup and the epic up But like fundamentally this team They would sacrifice Anything in those two cups. They have a better chance to win the champions.
Yes Um, and really what a Sanchez versus those would make them have to sacrifice less in those two cups To have your optimal chance at the champions league. Yeah, so that's the marginal benefit like don't get me wrong Like like replacing Bernardo Silva's minutes with Alexis Sanchez's minutes is it's a big upgrade, right? But those are lead cup and I think I mean I mean I mean Um I think the thing you get tactically is you probably just put Sanchez at the nine a lot of the time I think that's probably right as well. Um, especially I mean especially because it's out and I think now we're Starting to see is is sterling started at the nine In the leek up semis.
Um Yeah, I think still still play the nine for that earlier this year And you also spent time at the nine in that semi final match it was they both they both did Um Which like I understand how you can conceivably use sterling in that role, but that sterling's been so good Um That you really do need to figure out who's filling those non-aglero minutes And like you know, this is the sort of the same refrain we've been saying about city all year long right like They seem vulnerable to injury and then they just never are so Yeah, yeah And so I mean with city this isn't really but The question city gets a little bit complicated economically because I've talked about you know teams effectively owned by summer Well funds and they've got this as Emirati money Um, but like it is kind of interesting thinking about what a team should do Because like what is the purpose of Manchester City other than to do that don't Like you want to win the title and you want to win the champions like you want to do it the same year and that's why you know That's that's that's why you own the team if you if you are the Emirati So that that is you know what and fans would love to see that that would make fans Incredibly happy and joyful and that's kind of And figuring out the math like the economic math though the the Like what is it worth? Does it help more? It gets messy in this moment because you know, it is probably not worth that many more percentage points chance that they win the champions league But what value to put on a couple of percentage point chance you win the champions league when that's the whole point of you Competitively the question is quite clear that it will help united more than it will help city Financially, it is not at all clear that the degree it will help city competitively is not worth more dollars or pounds to city Then the degree it'll help united is worth two Manchester united Although it gets complicated because united has tons of money also and we're not talking about like city and swans a year right like united can spend a Load if they want yeah, but i'm not i'm probably good at it. I'm not talking specific of money Like it's not about winning making revenue Oh no, it's a champion spending money on to bring in Sanchez right like united in Does anybody bring on Sanchez in order to get right more correct in order to like bring joy to people Right, but at some point right it reduces to a how many pounds are we willing to spend on Alexa Sanchez for that extra percentage point chances at glory Versus how many pounds are man just united willing to spend on Sanchez for the more For the bigger competitive edge it gives them which is you know, yes, so there's an imbalance in competitive more glory and right Right, there's a united there's there is an imbalance in the competitive edge that goes to united that may be More than counterweight by the fact that city are willing to pay more for glory because why else are they there?
Yeah, all right. So I think we have I think we've beaten this pretty well into the ground as is our wants to do As is our want to do we started theoretical and we almost never got back down to the ground. So uh, thank you for staying with us Um, have you been doing anything fun? Uh, that isn't soccer So I figured I go back to a new year's eve because last week we talked about Star Wars I didn't I didn't talk about my new years even all which is um My wife and I did what we always do on New Year's Eve, which is we opened a nice bottle of wine and we watched three movies um We've neither of us particularly like going out on New Year's Eve, but we discovered years ago that telling people we just really don't like going out New Year's Eve isn't received particularly well However, if you tell people we have a true family tradition in which on New Year's Eve we open a nice bottle of wine and watch three movies People are much more receptive to that as an upholding of a tradition as opposed to being lazy Um It was changed somewhat by having a child.
Uh, so before the little girl went to bed we watched uh lego batman Um, you know my wife and I watched it a little girl sort of played and was vaguely aware that it was on tv because she You know, she can manage like a three or four minute attention span, but that's that's basically about it Um You know, we can do what we can do a little bit of Sarah and duck or puff and rock but but a movie is you know Probably about 18 months beyond her still, um at least Uh, but we were able to watch it so that was the first one and the baby went out to bed and we watched Wonder Woman finally And the big sick, um, I've got a couple thoughts. I like Wonder Woman. I understand why a lot of people love Wonder Woman Third act problems are real just as they are real and all superhero movies. Um, I think a lot of Wonder Woman rests on how inspiring you find the idea of a woman being a superhero and just being a superhero, right?
Like you know, it's the idea of sort of specificity versus generality in character and there's something empowering about the idea that While Wonder Woman's gender is important. It isn't her definitive thing as a superhero. Her being a superhero Is her definitive thing as being a superhero and that that is empowering But it is important to the movie in a way where if you don't find that empowering you won't like the movie as much Um, which is my my brief Wonder Woman take and then besides that it's a pretty good superhero movie Um, so you know, it has the possibility to be elevated if that particular thing speaks to you and if not, it's a pretty good superhero movie Um Big sick is really good. It's just a really really well-made movie Um, you know, and I went into it having a particular sauce spot for Puneon Johnny, who's whose comedy I've liked for years and years and years Um You know, so I was sort of aware that this movie was being made Um, and it's sort of been excited to see it and it's just it's the true story of Kumail and his wife She became very very sick when they had when they were basically just started dating They've been dating for a while and she became very sick and there's a weird way to describe it as a rom-com But it is um, and it's a lot of the movies.
She's an a coma and it's him and her parents Um, so and their interactions and the parents are Holly Hunter and Marya Amana who are both just wonderful in this movie Um, and it's really good. It's a really really good movie and I highly recommend it. It was it was probably our highlight of the three for the evening Yeah, I enjoy I enjoyed they sick a lot like it was it is I would I would similarly like recommend it. I felt that like it had this kind of like This identity issue where part of it was this like powerhouse acting Yeah thing where like Holly Hunter is just destroying everything around her and Ray Romano and Kumail and Johnny are being very impressive that they're keeping up with her And that movie could have been edited down to like a really tight clear film that would have been absolutely brilliant But it also wanted to be this sort of Bae-hee apatabi and rom-com with like fun set pieces and cute jokes And the two of the two movies kept colliding.
I enjoyed watching it Like I have wanted to see like the really tight version of it So I heard I heard an interview with um with Kumail and his wife Emily Gordon who was who was Co-writer on the movie and one of the things that they talked about was the The commitment but also the difficulty of giving the Emily Gordon character agency in the movie and making her present in the movie Because she spends a large chunk of it in a coma and I do think that what part of what we're reacting to there with the Hangdog nature of it is it spends a long time in the early part of their relationship Which is where a lot of sort of a hangdoggy comedy takes place Um, and I just don't know if you can be committed to giving her character Being a character without that sort of chunk of the movie which does really clash As you know, well totally a little bit but also just sort of like pacing wise with with the rest of them Yeah, um, but I do think that that was that that's a result of sort of that awkward compromise of like being committed to making her an actual character Yeah, yeah, I mean, one thing that this is you know one thing the movie does very nicely is that It doesn't like smooth over the like the fact that she's not there when she wakes up She's very clearly someone who's not been there right? Yes, it is not I thought I thought they thought they're dealing with like real experiences so they can draw that very easily I thought they portrayed that very nicely but like all of the movie things that happened in the In that middle period they didn't happen for her. She's in a coma, right? If you've seen the movie and you enjoyed it, I would highly recommend Jesse Thorne's interview on Bullseye with with Camille and Emily Gordon where they where they talk about the process of making the movie It's worthwhile.
It's worthwhile listen, and it's really interesting and they talk about a lot of those issues So so that's what I did a couple weeks ago. I watched three movies. It was wonderful. I had a very nice bottle of wine one of One of the things in our life is that both my wife and I were sort of wines now beyond a budget Um, but that has sort of you know fallen by the wayside So it was nice to have you know opened a bottle of wine that we've had sort of you know in our collection for a few years Where we stopped doing that?
So that was nice to do. It's a enjoyable bottle of wine. That's nice. That's nice.
I think I Very brief thing. Um, well, I really like making I really like making cocktails here like mixing drinks And I haven't done it quite as much recently because like it creates a mess and you need to have citrus in the house and And you can just pour some wine and we have a wine because like you live near a lot of wine store And recently I discovered in our tertiary liquor cabinet, um tertiary with a wonderful phrase A bottle that I bought a while back of a slow gin Which is a it's a classic I think we have a plinth bottle that it's you know, it's it's just a it's it's a gin that is flavored with slow berries I don't know if slow berries are but they're what's in slow gin and so If you're in a low It's not like tortoise gin Exactly and so I had to make a slow gin fizz because that's what you have to do with that And so and so we had to use some raw egg mixing and I you know All the rest of it was pretty simple. It's you know equal parts of um, it's actually it's actually oh, it's a one-on-one It's I made it with equal parts of slow gin and um, you know, I gin I use beef eater I think it's a really good mixing gin and lemon and simple syrup So it is a one-to-one to one to one to one the way I was making it. Um, it's very exciting.
Um, and so then I then we started making Think head like okay to make more things with egg whites. Um, and so then we made some made some miso sours Made starting playing around with other things like white so I've been having fun mixing cocktails recently None of the experimental ones have come out as well as it likes so and maybe next week if one of them does I will share share share share I will say the benefit of cocktails over wine is that when one doesn't come out just as you'd like It's much less of a loss than if the bottle is like, you know, not good I completely I like this is the other way around Is she cockyled need to be like really tight and on point for her to like them? Um, whereas wine she'll sort of accept, you know Oh, well, she should wrinkle but your mediocre wine. Yeah, it's just it's much more deeply depressing when a bottle that you thought was Gonna be really really good turns out to be like Yeah, I'll have some mind if we drink this I guess Yeah A little bit she'll just like full on turn down the cocktail that wasn't like like right on the screws My wife has once in a restaurant in the years of been together set back bottle wine for being not good We are not people who would bet is a horrifying confrontation Yeah Um, yeah, so all right.
We will be back Next week after the premier league is back and the blood is like as we can see we'll have a whole bunch of leaks out to talk about Oh, we still did that they accomplished. I gotta the one we could we could preview the replays. Oh god I'm gonna hang up now. My internet is breaking up.
Um, uh, my computer is shutting down. Uh, all right Here's your job