Some Encouraging Signs And Some Worries With New Season Approaching

Elliot Smith0:33How beautiful is the sleighhead area of Ireland. How peaceful and relaxing is it? It's so peaceful and relaxing that even links to Christian Romero can't ruin it. This is the ArsenalVision Podcast. My name is Ellie Speaking of Black Man, Twitter Angler. Hello, everybody. I'm back. I'm back from Ireland. It's weird, no one has reported this. And so I may be the first one to tell you. Ireland is a beautiful, friendly, and wonderful nation. Why has nobody mentioned that before? No, I'm kidding. Wonderful, wonderful time being shepherded around. The Beautiful Nation of Ireland by Andrew. We had an event at the Sugar Club in Dublin and then set off to Dingle and Galway and Sleighhead, as I mentioned. Places so beautiful and serene that even links to Cutie Romero can't ruin it. And and I of I think that is the most glowing praise you can give to the Nation of Ireland is possible. I had an absolutely sensational time, and met so many wonderful people, obviously, at the Sugar Club event and look to do more live events throughout the season. So thanks to Andrew for hosting us and what a time it was indeed. I will let you know that the Android app finally passed Google's, extensive reviews to make sure that Arsenal fans listening to podcasts and voting for players doesn't violate any terms of service or whatever they were worried about. But it is only version one in the Android store, the more important version, the one that adds full patron, Patreon integration, all that stuff. That's in review. That'll be out, I imagine, in the next twenty-four, forty-eight hours or four hundred and eighty hours, whatever, whenever they pull their finger out. The iOS one is out.

Elliot Smith2:00You can vote for stocks, you can go look at the stock votes, see what other people have voted. And then when the season starts, we'll refresh that and start at new, but it'll track the season long stock voting as well. So you can see who's rising, who's falling, and finally know what to think about our players. Because of because of this app thing. We'd love for you to get it, but if you don't want to get it, use whatever app you have. For God's sakes, there's so many options. Tim and I are doing a power rankings episode tomorrow, a pre season power rankings where we will rank the opposition. That it will I think will be quite fierce actually to finish second behind Arsenal. So we'll have that tomorrow and then our preseason stuff will start to kick off where we do things like the prediction pods, which I think they're okay, but they are Clive's favorites. So we commit to doing them because he insists. And here with me now is the man who insists upon the prediction pods and insists upon having those predictions memorialized where everyone could see them and that is Clive Hillclive. You had a good one with the predictions last season, especially you were higher on Manchester United than most, and that came to pass. Not that that's

Elliot Smith3:04What you want to be known for.

Clive Palmer3:05Yeah, well, I get mocked for these things, not taking them seriously, but underneath, Elliot, I'm always thinking, mate, always thinking. I know MDC

Elliot Smith3:14Competitive fire burns. It burns brig.

Clive Palmer3:17Had my number when I said Magnite are finishing top four. They probably thought, that's it, I'm out on him completely. But you know what? It's gone a bit quiet in there, my son. Gone a bit quiet.

Elliot Smith3:26Mm. See, this is the thing. You you misunderstand the philosophy of MDC, which is never back down, double down. So they can be wrong, but they will never they will never back down. I will say it wasn't maybe the best game, but it looked like a beautiful day out at the Emirates. So your quick thoughts on getting back to Emirates Stadium for the I think the first time since we were crowned champions, seeing the little Premier League trophy in twenty six up on the ring around club level and just generally how the day was.

Clive Palmer3:59Yeah, last time I was there, it was after the Champions League final and it was a strange, obviously we lost but it's a strange one, you we lost but we recovered quickly when you're all together, sort thing and obviously the parade is the next day. So it's the first time I've been back since then and it was roasting at the X 30 degrees, it was really, really hot. It a day for nylon, a day for merch, it was a day everyone had their gear on and I you what, Adidas must be loving the deal they have with us because it's an incredible amount of stuff that's out there. And it is nice to get back, met Tim before the game, we took his daughter for her first men's game properly at the Emirates, so that was nice. And it's just really nice to see people, met my season ticket mate Trevor on way in. And he's just like, yeah, everyone's just shaking hands, like as if it'd all been a war. We've all come out, we've been victorious, and we're all saying hello to each other. And we know what you're thinking, you're a champion, yeah, I'm a champion, yeah, you're a champion. It's like that. And there was a different crowd there. We say it every year, but it's a different crowd. Lots of people get an opportunity to go to a game of football. They wouldn't normally get an opportunity and to go to parts of the ground they wouldn't normally be in because the tickets are so expensive. And that's always nice to see, right? Where does the next generation come from? It's got to come from occasions like this. And ground was sold out ages ago. There's always ones and twos that are open because they're well priced. And it was just really, really nice. Really nice day.

Elliot Smith5:24Did you get a chance to see Bruno Guimarães wander out in his jeans and his new Arsenal top? We've got we've now got, I think the traditionalists will love our midfield this season. We've got your 36s, your 41s, your 39s. You name it. We we got the n we got the number for you, the 49s. As aside from number traditionalists who will be outraged by what's happening in our midfield, what do you make of him wandering out in the middle of the park? What what were your initial impressions?

Clive Palmer5:50So I got in just about an hour or so early and then I to watch the warm-up, funny enough. I think it's always good to watch warm-up, particularly early in the season. My son's religious, he watches it every single week. I watched it and I didn't really notice that Bruno was out there warming up. I wasn't really looking for him, so he shows you what your eyes can tell you. And I didn't notice Rayo was out there at some point. I just didn't see, I wasn't looking. But not only have we got different numbers out there now, we know I may feel very high numbers, we must have one pair of faded jeans, right? Because they say he must have given his jeans over to Bruno and he come out in them. And the first thing that struck me about him, he's a bit taller than I expected. I don't know why. Yeah, he looked taller

Elliot Smith6:34Mm. Ever everybody looks that way to me for what it's worth.

Clive Palmer6:38And very slim and very upright. I thought, that's interesting. And I have to say. I'm not sure you've asked me this question, but you know me, I don't actually listen to the question. But what I have to say,

Elliot Smith6:49Y I may have and you just didn't notice, yeah.

Clive Palmer6:52I have to say I have found the words around his signing really interesting. Because at the end of last season, I don't think many of us were thinking this group lacked leadership. And I think it's quite ironic listening to the words around this. And when you think about. I've been thinking a lot about when you reach the mountain top, what do you do? You almost bring in characters that allow hungry people that want to do it again, and really not let the standards fall down. I find this.

Elliot Smith7:25Who haven't been there yet and are desperate to get there so that they won't let the people who just got there backslide. Yeah.

Clive Palmer7:31Yeah, I think this signing, I'm really open-minded on, because lots of people, and I'm not one of them by the way, have been high on it immediately. No debate immediately. I've let it develop within me sort of thing. And to be honest, when I saw his interview, when he's signing on the interview, the five minute, mate, it's just, it's down to the person again, isn't it? And it's what this team has. It has a high quality individuals. We can critique them about their football. We will do that continuously. We have our own. Personal favourites which we all have and we are on some than we are on others and that's just the nature of the game and how we see the game. But the quality of their characters are really, really high, and he's another one that's going to come into this group and I am so looking forward to the, how they all coexist together, how they get on together, how they share the ball together, what roles they take, how they accept other people pushing them for their positions. This is where the improvement is and I can't wait to see it.

Elliot Smith8:30He said, I'm your warrior. I'll never stop fighting for you. And somewhere in the darkened rooms of PGMOL, a man with steepled fingers nodded knowingly and said, Good, good. Arsenal had no red cards last season. Good, Bruno Guimarães. Never stop fighting. Good.

Clive Palmer8:47I have to say when I normally sit next to Trevi the first thing he does he looks at the referee and he says I never liked him or something like that to those words. In this day it was

Elliot Smith8:57Kavanaugh, it's the worst.

Clive Palmer8:58Kavanaugh I wasn't with Trevi this day but I'm thinking what's he thinking about Kavanaugh but to be honest when I saw his Kavanaugh even though I thought he was poor I let him off mate come on West Ham is fresh in my mind as far as I'm concerned the Declan Ryce is setting off by the Cornflag I'm over it finally But now, West Ham, you got the ump with them late on and you helped give us the league. So I'm all for him.

Elliot Smith9:18To be fair, th there were little things like I think there could have been a red card when Odegaard was through, but you what you don't want as a manager? You don't want to play against 10 men in your third in your third preseason game. You want to have a good contest. So all things being equal, I think that's fine. I would say it looked lovely. And and, I the Aviva was lovely, by the way, as well, right? Good, good pitch, good skies, good crowd, good moods, terrible football. What can I say? Now, I will say that I think against Dortmund, we played some better football. But there are really two areas of significant interest, I think, for this team right now. We know the midfield's gonna be good when push comes to shove. We know where there's gonna be quality. I think the two areas of interest are the left hand side from an attacking standpoint, where we've lost Leo, we've gained Tzolis, and we feel we probably need to add, and the right hand side of the defense where Yurian Timber is out and Mikel said he is weeks away. Not super encouraging, right? But yes.

Clive Palmer10:12But he also said he's on the pitch though, Elliot. And I know you sent me that note saying have you seen the Timber update? And I thought, must be bad. When I read it, I thought, actually that's good. Because what he's really saying is after international break, that's when we're gonna see him. That's what he's really saying.

Elliot Smith10:27What he didn't add though is he said he's on the pitch writhing in agony, was the rest of the quote. No, I'm kidding. He's he's on the pitch, sure. Saliba, he's Mikel said he's in rest mode currently. He's literally just trying not to aggravate the injury. Look, we know with the back injury, there is no procedure. It is time bound, period. That's it. And it's gonna be a while. So let's start before we get to Solas, who I think is one of the exciting talking points of the game, end of the summer, looking a really savvy by and looking like he's settling in well. Let's start with the right hand side of the defense because absent Timber and absent Saliba. You have a young man in Mosquera who is learning his trade at center back. You have a guy in Ben White who I think is still very talented, but has not played a lot of football due to injury himself in the past few seasons. And we've given up a lot of goals already in preseason, a lot of them offset pieces, ironically. Which, to be fair, I'm sure Kepa has something to say about that as well. But what do you make of the situation? In the right hand side of our defense and this may naturally lead into the unfortunate discussion of play players we're targeting in the market.

Clive Palmer11:33Yeah, so when I watch pre-season games, I find I best stay away from the common discourse because I feel far away from how people view these pre-season games. I have a different view. It's all about minutes loading and learning. And I think what I think's being shown and being learned is not what other people are thinking. So I have to keep my nut down, keep my head down. When the way we play. We are quite a proactive team defensively. We nicked the ball in middle of the pitch and we transitioned very, very quickly, one, two passes into broken play out to the right hand side, one rat attack into the box. We enter from that side primarily finished on the left. But we are really good proactively in the center of the pitch because we've got declamers, we've got Zubmendi, we've got people like that, direct traffic into areas where we can win the ball. And then we've got this unbelievable insurance policy in Sleba and Gabriel that are basically twin brothers and they know exactly what each one's going to do and they cover without even talking. So it's the platform from which we play. Our fallbacks can be quite loosey, no problem. Timber shoots off for me sometimes too much to carry fuel, you can't find him with a torch. Sometimes it doesn't matter because we've got three or four other players that really understand positionally how to create a platform for us. And so what we found in pre-season is that we have on-the-ball midfielders.

Clive Palmer12:58Who looked really good, everyone said, what great pass from him, what a great cut back from him, great, great, great, but mate, well, you watched the game recently, and I watched the game, and when that ball transitions and the other team have it and they're running through green open spaces that are not normally there, and then what do we do? We look at the outcome, we look at the outcome of the last people that we see, the last line of the defense with no protection, with the yellow arrows running at them in this case, and two on one, and we expect them to do everything and block it. Where normally there people around to create distress, to create pressure on the ball, to let them to jump out appropriately. There's no pressure on the ball, so you have to stand, watch, wait, and the goalkeeper's waving it in every single time. It feels like every shot goes in. And so, our defence is good. Well, actually, our defence is a bit of a problem because they're not able to engage in the same way, because the midfield platform is not there. And the worry that I have, and I'm reading all the stuff on Havertz and Gyokeres and this player and that player, because people are worried we haven't got enough attackers, so they're really aziring on our attack. Our attack worked a lot better in our defense in this game. A lot better. The patterns were there, and if you don't know.

Elliot Smith14:04We had some lovely moves and some good chances that we created. Yeah. I th I agree with

Clive Palmer14:08And you know what, Elliot, I do my arteta watching thing and I watch when he claps and I watch when he turns away and F's and blinds back to his bench. And some of those attacking moves, he had his arms above his head clapping. I'm thinking, yeah, because he knows the intention was good. We are attacking units on the right hand side in particular. My view, my IR was we really do overload the right hand side a lot. Some of that's personal related. Lefties like to go out there. And so you have a lot of lefties in that space. But then sometimes you do that to create the overload to get in behind. So yeah, I have to wear that tactically. It might not fit my eyes. Watching. I see Tzolis on left-hand side on his own, writing a letter to his mum because he's got enough time to do that before the ball arrives. And I'm looking at him as our fittest, sharpest player. Give him the ball. And so without really understanding what we're trying to do on the right-hand side, we're trying to tilt. Tactically rotate and then get it behind to then create the chances. So I'm developing my thought process about what we're doing and I think the team are developing theirs as well.

Elliot Smith15:15Yeah, I think defensively another thing that you have to look at. Obviously there's the Kepa component and let's just say it, he's not a very good player. He hasn't been very good for us, and he hasn't looked very good in this preseason. And I think Melier's looked better. And it wouldn't surprise me if Melier is ahead of Kepa already in Mikel's plans in terms of what he wants to do or Yep. Yep. They did. Yep.

Clive Palmer15:31They split them in each other, didn't they? They split them half and half, right? That tells you something.

Elliot Smith15:36And Raya's back in training now. I imagine he'll play against Como, so we may see a bit of a different dynamic. There was one there's one video doing the rounds where we're in possession of the ball at the back and Kepa's too close to the man with the ball. And McKelly, you can hear him screaming, Go away, Kepa. Get o move away from him. You need to create space. You're bringing defenders over to him. Not ideal. So there's that. But then the other thing, I have to say the Calafiori performance I don't think was great, but the Califiore role, I noticed it at the Aviva, but I wasn't sure because we were sitting very low to the pitch, and I think it could be I'm not a great watcher of football at the ground. To begin with, I just don't have enough training at it. But especially when you're low to the ground, it can be very hard to get spacing. But it looked like he was roaming a lot. And it looked like he was roaming in this game a lot too. And it almost took me back to the Zinchenko era of where he was going and how all over the place. It's one thing to do that when you have Gabby Saliba and Timber and Raya in goal and Rice in front of you. It's another thing when you have Myles and Ethan and Mosquera and Kepa. And there were a lot of times that I felt that.

Elliot Smith16:42Calafiori roaming when we lost the ball, that side of the pitch, the peop players were running. There was the one where Gabby just kept dropping off and dropping off and dropping off. It didn't look good for Gabby, but he had no support. He was the only man on that side of the pitch. So have you noticed anything about how we're using Calafiori maybe even more freely than we have in the past, and maybe that how that has worked or not worked?

Clive Palmer17:04Mate, he's having a pre-season run about and so's Ben White. They're running about, staying high, don't look at them. Honestly, don't look at them too long as they are getting off the pitch and they're healthy. I wouldn't look into those roles too seriously and say that it's going to be it because they haven't had an adult midfield to play with yet. For me, one of the big things around the season has been the responsibility given to Ethan and Myles. They've literally had to be the men at the base of our midfield. And I think that's been a huge learning for them, huge development for them. They've uncovered some wards, but they are developing on the pitch. Two 19 year olds in the centre of our midfield for two or three games in a row. Absolutely fantastic for them to forge maybe new positions to understand what they have to do at the base of the team rather than slightly higher up, which we know they're comfortable with. Me and Paul did an IR after the Betis game and we were quite high on our Ethan's performance because it was so, he had so much of the ball and some of it was a little bit awkward but he was really given some responsibility. We looked at the stock fallings and he was at the top of it. I thought, dear, I misread that. Thought, don't say nothing, don't say nothing. And then yesterday's game he came on after half an hour and looked sharp and he's interested in seeing our tetas quotes about him to say how pleased he was. And I thought, good, I'm reading this right.

Clive Palmer18:32I used words he's on trial. He wasn't on trial per se, but he's been given a lot of responsibility. This is a career defining.

Elliot Smith18:38Does he look taller and slim like his body has changed, it seems. He looks leaner and taller,

Clive Palmer18:46I think he, it's hard to judge people athletically at the moment. But again, it's the reason I watch the warm-ups in these games. I think it's really interesting time to do that. He is a bit more athletic. But I do think athleticism with him takes a bit of time to come, and same for Myles as well. And I'm talking about true flow across the pitch, true bounce. He's not. He's explosive punchy runner, but he's not a flow running athlete. A big space athlete, he's a punchy runner. Off the mark, acceleration. Myles is a punchy, intercollision runner. When he's running 40 yards, you tend to see everything that's not quite right in his movement, in athletic movement. And so he has looked a little bit taller, a little bit more with the game for me. And I thought he did well in this game. And I do think the responsibility we put onto those two with our fallback disappearing trying to recover games, because we've been behind quite a lot in the last two games, the game states haven't really suited stability. So to recover games, I think it's been great for those two kids. Unbelievably good. And I'm so interested to see what happens next with them. And by the way, everything's on the table, Elliot.

Elliot Smith20:03He was the second stock rising from people voting on our thing behind only Solus yesterday, so I think people gen generally agreed, and that's after a couple of being the second stock falling in the previous two games. So certainly a bounce back performance in the eyes of many. The one nice thing is that Odegaard was back. He played 30 minutes, obviously he was involved in some of our best moves and yeah, when it's your first thirty minutes in preseason, it's a bit of a fitness exercise. But I think the encouraging thing is just that he was at the heart of the things that went well. One the move I really liked was one through midfield where Yoker S played him in behind that led to the near red card and the free kick because it was nice to see him make that follow on run in behind, trying to get into the box. It was such a feature of his game for a long time. And that's what we need, I think, from that third midfielder. A a late arriver, someone who runs beyond the striker. And the irony is like it's also the thing we need from Gyokeres, which is the ability to put his back to goal and be a provider to that late runner. So a nice bit of combination play in the center of the pitch, something that we've been calling for, that we need, that we don't always do. I thought was a great move and a nice little cameo there from the captain being back.

Clive Palmer21:10Yeah, I thought Scott and Paul did a great job on this, particularly Scott talking about Odegaard. I thought he nailed it. I didn't realise it was Odegaard making that run through the centre of the pitch, being the last man. I was at the other end, I still went north bank end, and I was at the other end, so I didn't get it. It didn't get into my brain because I never expected to see it. But that's a really encouraging moment. You look for encouraging moment, you look for intention. Some of the direct passing was really good. So you look at. If you're thinking about the season, whether you like these players or not, you're looking for relationships, you're looking for partnership. And it's very important for Martin Odegaard that he develops a partnership with Gyokeres. Because he hasn't really done that yet. And to see signs of that, that's a big green tick. To see him running off him, going into zone 14, off the ball, running in behind, come on, mate. We've watched you play for a long time. That's a massive green tick. That means. Messages are going in. So that's a really, really good step forward. So yeah, I thought he did fine. Again, he's always going to look fine on the ball. For me, my issue's off the ball. And off the ball, we still haven't got it yet. But however, I will say for the whole team, off the ball, we are not going into collisions there yet. Know, there were opportunities to

Clive Palmer22:26Get collisions in middle of the pitch. Why are we doing it? No one cares about a preseason game. If you go down into these preseason games, it changes everything, right? So. And we were moments there, particularly white and colour fuel, they tucked in from the side to make collisions and then to turn transitions into goal opportunities that we just didn't go in. And so again, I am not rushing to any conclusions at this point in time. This team needs one thing more than anything else and that's health. If we had health, we're going to be absolutely fine.

Elliot Smith22:56Yeah, I think that's right. I've been saying for a couple of seasons now that if you could promise me our key players stayed fit for the season, I'd take it over any signing because we have some of the best players in the world. The issue for us has been not having them on the pitch enough. And that not only impacts performances yeah, in condition, not only impacts performances when they're out, but it impacts performances when they're back. We have this expectation that players will just come back. Well, you and I had the chance to go to an event. We're very fortunate I had the chance to talk to Gabriel Jesus a bit, as did you. Jesus said, You're damned if you do, damned if you don't as a player, because if you don't play because you're injured, you get the reputation of being a croc. If you do play when you're injured, you play below your best, but nobody gives you credit for that. And then your reputation takes a hit in terms of your quality. Well, I think we notice when players are out. What we don't always notice when they're back from injury is that they're not necessarily at their best. So we need our best players at their best. Obviously, all clubs need that. I think the other thing too, just in terms of that dynamic, there were probably a few moves that could have been executed better if Max had been a little more I don't know, how would we say team oriented perhaps? I think Max always catches the eye when he plays, but there were definitely a few moments where he held on to the ball a bit longer than he should have or was a little more let's just say

Clive Palmer24:08His teammates are.

Elliot Smith24:10I I was gonna say more oriented around his own capacity to do something with the ball, but some might say selfish. I would I would say as a sixteen year old the talent is evident, but I think with a lot of young players, identifying the right time to release your teammates. When you play with academy players and you're better than them by immeasurable amounts, you what the best thing you can do is keep the ball and not give it to them. Because you're just too much you're better than them. Anything you're gonna do is better than what they're gonna do. At this level, you have teammates that can really help you and make you look good. And y you have to you have to bring them into the game more. Now, to be fair, he had a beautiful assist a couple of games ago in preseason. It's not like I'm saying he can't pass the ball. I just think he a little more selfish in this game than maybe he needed to be.

Clive Palmer24:51Yeah, and you need to do that sometimes. Young player, you need to show people what you got. You need to show the rest of your teammates that you're not in charge of me. I'm on this pitch too and I have a right to be on this pitch, right? So, but there was one, Elliot, and it was coming down my end. So unlike the other guy, I can see this one coming towards me when Havertz made a lung-busting run to get on the outside of him in Ben White overlapping zone, And Elliot, he was on full power. And if he gets that ball, it's a side foot across or it's a shot, it's a side foot across to a tap in the middle of the box. And Max took a shot, man, he did something, it was a shot or a cross. And was, and Havertz turned around and let him have it. And I'm thinking, and he let him have it and Max just brushed it off, right? And I thought, yeah, but he's got to let him have it. It will go in. Particularly in pre-season, you ain't got many of those runs in you when it's 30 degrees. And he's thinking, mate, give me the ball.

Elliot Smith25:44Well not Yeah, not to mention you can say, how you're ballocking a sixteen year old? Well that sixteen year old may be starting games for us to

Clive Palmer25:50That's it. That's the game.

Elliot Smith25:51Start this season, so he needs to be in the group. And if he's in the group then he's gotta be in the group all the way. That's how it works.

Clive Palmer25:55I've been in dressing rooms where 16 year olds have to take some stick mate, a proper stick and they're pinned up against the wall. It's part of the game, it's part of the game, don't worry about it.

Elliot Smith26:06This was the Emirates Crowd's first chance to see our new superstar signing, Christopis. And he's been bright this preseason. There's just no getting around the fact that you can see this is a player who's very intelligent, but the two feet, I love a player with two feet. That for that goal, touch to his left, he doesn't try to cut it back to get it on to his right again. He delivers it to Ethan and it's a tap in. His corner kick delivery is excellent. Which is great because we need more set piece goals, he says joking. But look, I don't want to overplay what he is. He's not a dribbler. He's not beaten anybody off the dribble, but he makes good quick decisions off both feet and that leads to opportunities for others. So I've been impressed by him. He had one where he was all the way back in the center of our box defending and had a ball recovery back there. So already our tetra pilled. Good to see that. You you hearing things around the Emirates about him? What was the reaction to him among the Emirates faithful?

Clive Palmer27:01Everyone loved him. Immediately. Everyone loved him.

Elliot Smith27:02Good to hear. Good.

Clive Palmer27:04Not. It's going to be the easiest assessment of him. In fact, the more challenging podcasts, Elliot, are going to be when he plays bad. Because it's going to happen. Because that is moment in time. Looks like our best player. Seriously, just looks fit. He looks sharp. Again, warm-up time. Look at players in warm-up. There's always players that do the warm-up well. Havertz is not great for warm-up shooting. He does stupid stuff. He flicks the ball top of corner and then he flicks it around. He tries stuff, You watch Jokere's in the warm-up, he's just breaking the net all the time. He's just score, score, score. Watching Tzolis in the warm-up, crossing, delivering, control. I tweet that straight away. We have a player. Left foot, right foot, different finishes, power finishes, little slot finishes into the side netting. Anything you like, you're just producing it. And I'm taking that thinking, flipping hell. And then the game starts and again, you become coded and biased and I'm thinking just give him the ball a bit more. That's all I kept thinking to that and he's sharp and people say he's not dribbling. Well, he could still beat his man and cross the ball and he had to dribble to do it. So I know the stats may not give him a high dribble percentage, whatever. But when the ball comes to his feet, what's my hope index saying? Is the ball going to leave his feet into another player and things are going to happen?

Clive Palmer28:24That's really quite high and it was quite high when Trossard used to get in. And he used different ways to beat his man. He would dummy them, he would then clip across in, would play a travel pass around the corner to Calle Fury, he would play a one-two inside, he would nutmeg you. Whatever happens, you've got productivity from Trossard. This guy's been there two minutes and he's already doing it. And the difference is, Elliot, he's more muscled, he's more robust, he's got a punch, he's punchier, his first three yards are more. Acceleration to go into collisions off the ball is better. He's just stronger, right? He's stronger. I think he's going be good. I know he's new and we're all excited and it's pre-season. You can't be killing people in pre-season and then bigging up someone else in pre-season. But I don't see a tactical mismatch. Don't see anything. He's lucky he's been watching us for two years and decided I'm going to do this then. Really intelligent, really smart. We've got a player. We've got a player.

Elliot Smith29:23Not the only or even maybe best Greek player on the pitch, so Konstantinus Koretsis really caught the eye, and that's someone we were linked with. Dortman went in quick for him and it looks like they've got a again, it's preseason, but it looks like they got a star in their hands. Nineteen year old, really good.

Clive Palmer29:37So he shows you how the football world goes, right? So Ethan was primed at one point to be in Dortmund, shall we say, depending on what you believe. I don't think he's going there now because this guy's the lefty they wanted in that interior role and he's good at it. He looks a bit slim and light as he was started off. And then I started to notice that he can be slim and light, but no one could catch him. He knows when someone's near, he flicks around the corner. When someone's far away, he holds it. His intelligence on the goal was just really, really good and he just lifted it into the corner. You can't blame the keeper on that. And that was down. Yeah. Yeah. Well,

Elliot Smith30:13I can but I won't.

Clive Palmer30:17Just make a safe stumble. Just one. Just give me one. But I'm not going to blame him on that one as it rattled into the side net and it was a goal from moment he decided. The moment he had time to get his head up and look where he's going to put it, it was just in. Very good play out. If he didn't go for half time, it could have been tough. Yeah, one to watch, right? One to watch and we'll probably buy them for 120 million in couple of years' time.

Elliot Smith30:39Fair enough. As long as we're still spending that, that would be encouraging. So I think the attack in general is something that everybody's really fixated on. And maybe what we can do is talk a little bit about Yoker S up front, Kai playing in midfield, some of the options that we're gonna have for the attack. Okay. Clive, first of all, look, I have always believed that Kai Havertz can work as a midfielder. I have seen it work. I believe it can work. I think I think there are ways it can work. But I even I have to come around to the idea that it's probably not his best position and it's probably not our best use of him and use of what we've got in midfield. I just I see how it doesn't work, right?

Elliot Smith31:45And I think it's tough because we do sometimes retreat to discussing things based on how we evaluate players. Let me let me try to say this because I will tell you some of my least favorite words in all of football discourse are agenda, right? That's just one word. But agenda, right? You have an agenda or bias. No. We all see players differently, we see their qualities differently, and you might see what makes a player good in a certain position, whereas I may see the weaknesses. It doesn't mean you have a bias or agenda or I have a bias agenda. It's how we see football. It's different. As we've joked on this pod. I like the tens with the twinkle toes and the technical quality. Clive likes broad shoulders and beards, and that's fine. We can set up our dating profiles however we want. But it's it's it's fine. But, even I have to come around to the idea that, well, I really rate Kai very highly, I'm not sure it. Always works in this position, even though it's generated some interesting moves. What did you make of Gyokeres and Kai playing again in that kind of role? And I think a mixed bag. There were some good moves, certainly, but I'm not sure that it works. And there was that one moment, and I want to get your take on this moment. Kai is in, Gyokeres is running the defenders. Viktor Gyokeres makes what I regard as an awkward run to the back.

Elliot Smith33:08Post and Kai slides a little ball just towards the channel in front of the keeper that I think he thinks Gyokeres is going to run onto. Gyokeres runs to the back post. The keeper collects it. And then you have the perfect opportunity for bias and agenda because if you don't rate Kai, it's a shit pass. And if you don't rate Gyokeres, it's a shit run. Have a blast. Go analyze football however you like. But I'm curious what you made of that moment and make of them trying to operate as a bit of a two up front.

Clive Palmer33:33Yeah, it's a challenge because the game work goes in sections, So the Odegaard section, then Kai was a little bit deeper. Then Odegaard comes out, Ethan comes in, Ethan goes a bit deeper, and then Kai goes a bit higher. So recency tells us that Kai and Jokers were together for the whole game, but it wasn't really the case, right? On. How can I say this? Are we doing the striker thing now? Should we just do the whole striker thing?

Elliot Smith34:00Think to the whole striker thing, and I'm actually just curious also just to get your analysis of that one little moment because it got so much play, on in my WhatsApps and social and people look at this terrible ball from Kai, look at this terrible run from Jokers. And it's like, you put yourself in a camp, but I'm curious what you made of the dynamic between the two of them and this and the striker situation in general. Yeah, I'm I'm curious.

Clive Palmer34:22They are trying to develop a dynamic and they will do one. I didn't see. I see Kai as a second striker or a striker. I no longer see him as a second midfielder anymore and I don't want to see that. So we've got enough people that we don't need to see that. So you have to recognise that in pre-season we've got seven or eight midfielders and not even unpacked their suitcases yet. So let's not talk about Kai and midfielders, let's talk about relationship with Jokerevsk, because we are going to see that at some point. We could be a goal down, we're to have to two strikers on. And so we are going to see that. And they seem to want to develop a relationship. And they were one of the more successful pairings in the game. So I think it comes down to how you like your steak, right? I don't think for many people, Yokozis are 5 % of all that they like. And I was just watching some clips earlier on of Isaac, and I'm looking at him, I'm looking at Joe Pedro. And to me, they are more arsenal coded center forwards. Know,

Clive Palmer35:24Leggy, technical. We all grew up on Thierry Henry, so things that are close to that profile, even Eka TK, is more of an arsenal type center forward. So when we go for a builder in Gyokeres, who is somebody a little bit more robust, he's a line leader, and he lacks on the technical qualities, but he has other qualities. I don't think everyone sees all of those qualities and that's absolutely fine. What I find more of a challenge when people are assessing him is almost a disrespect, which I don't think is warranted, because in this game.

Elliot Smith35:56Mm. Yeah. Well disrespect is probably not warranted, period, right? We should try to avoid discussing players who play for Arsenal in that way in general, yeah.

Clive Palmer36:06It's a disrespect. We can have a change of opinion. It's a disrespect to where they talk about someone who's our top scorer from last season, scored 21 goals, the minutes that he played, when other people weren't available, and there's a shiny trophy by the North Bank in the ground before the game. And I don't think we have it without this guy. Whether you like it or not, we just don't have it. And I think, yeah, he doesn't always trap it. And yes, he doesn't always stand up. But the disrespect. And I look at the team and I look at our threat level. And I promise you, Elliot, he was our most threatening forward in this game. He would be the forward that the other team would be talking about. How do we stop his runs? Drop off early. He's the one that's moving people. He's the one that's pinning people. No one else is doing it. So when you look at the context of the game, look at what he's doing to lead the team in that, lead that line. I don't think people understand what a line leader is. And what it does for the extra team. And some people say, actually, I prefer false nine-arsal. And so do I sometimes. I really do. I like when you have almost all midfielders. Yeah,

Elliot Smith37:13I do. Yeah, I do.

Clive Palmer37:14Because in our mind, you control the ball more, you're better footballers on the pitch, you control the system. And the highest level games, by the way, PSG, who started? Did anyone want anyone else to start up front? No. Do

Elliot Smith37:27Yeah. Scored a beautiful goal as well.

Clive Palmer37:29We have the midfield options at the moment to allow us to do different things? No, we don't. And so. I just don't like the disrespect for Nitta and I promise you he was the making the most runs. If anything, and people are not going to like it, if anything, Kai had a worse gang than Gyokeres in this scenario than Gyokeres did. Yeah, and he's like.

Elliot Smith37:45I agree. I agree. I don't think this role gets you the best Kai, that's for sure.

Clive Palmer37:50Yeah, exactly. And I'm thinking, this is really promising. This is the start of something. I tell you now, last year when Yokue has rocked up at Arsenal, he looked like a fan. Right? This year, he looks like a football player. And he looks much fitter and slimmer and ready to go from day one. He's done a pre-season and he's working really hard. And I'm thinking, mate, you're not, no one's ready, by the way, Elliot. No one's ready, apart from Tzolis. He's the only one that looks ready. So no one's ready yet. Everyone's loaded, everyone's hanging, it's roasting out there. No one's ready, but he's a lot more ready than he was last August. A lot more ready, and that's really promising for the season. And I know people say, Glyfe, but he can't do this, he can't. I'm not blind. We can all see what he can't do. Back heels are not his thing. Yeah.

Elliot Smith38:34The technical level isn't high. Anyb anybody who can't see that or won't say that i is is in my opinion not seeing clearly. You can praise the things he does well. The technical level on the ball is not particularly high. And for a lot of people, myself included, who see football a certain way, that will be one of the first things you see in a player and it can it can turn you off to a player. I just think that's the reality.

Clive Palmer38:55Absolutely fine. I like a 25 year old Alexander Eczak to be our centre forward? Of I flipping well would.

Elliot Smith39:02Well, he'd also have to stay fit, which is something Gyokeres does.

Clive Palmer39:06Well, of course I would love to see him strolling down the side, doing stepovers at his best game. But we have this guy, and I promise you, his attitude and mentality is really, really good. And forget what I think, his teammates seem to really like him. And they seem to go. Now, some people say that, hey, Clive, we're forced to play down the channels because he's there. Well, tell me what else we can do. Just tell me what else we can do at this moment in time in the season until we have options. Tell me what else we can do. When we have those options, we can have some really healthy conversations about how are going to play up front, what the forward play looks like, how are we going to upgrade certain positions. At this moment in time, the disrespect to analysis, I found disappointing, shall we say, from people who should know better. Disappointing because this is where we are right now. By the way, I know what we're seeing. But there's a lot there that's a lot better than it was this time last year.

Elliot Smith40:03Well, yeah, look, not to keep referencing this thing, but the last time I looked he was the top stock falling from our app thing and I think people were frustrated and I don't want to be in the business of telling people they are wrong. I was frustrated with a lot of it too. Th the thing I do get frustrated with sometime for a very big, strong looking fellow, I don't know that he's always as strong in the duel as he could be, and I think some of that is he is quite top heavy in terms of his center of mass. You look at a Bukayo Saka and the way he can hold people off the strength he has. He doesn't have the muscle that Gyokeres has, but the muscle is in places where he can really utilize his strength. And I think sometimes Gyokeres, is is a bit top

Clive Palmer40:43I need some

Elliot Smith40:44Heavy. And that one time when he got into the box and he was in and he kinda went down, I think, either trying to win a penalty or went down a little light. That's what I'd pr I'd like I'd like to see him not do that. I can I can I give you some statistics that I think are kinda interesting. That by the way, this isn't about Gyokeres. This is just about this is just about our play last season. And as usual, the brilliant Billy Carpenter has pulled out some stats and shared them. Four stats. Listen to this. I think this is interesting because I really want to get your thoughts on this, Clive, and how we either move away from this or change. Okay. You saw it? It's brilliant. Okay. One, Arsenal increased their long ball percentage more than any team in the league last season. Two. Gyokeres participated in 246 aerial duels that originated from a teammate's pass, 175 more than the next highest Arsenal player. Three, Arsenal sent it over the top 183 more times than Man City and had the sixth lowest completion rate, 26.3%. And four, according to Gradient Sports, Arsenal won 45% of their 50-50s, which was 8.5%.

Elliot Smith41:5518th in the league, 379 of 839. One, and that last one for me, by the way, losing 5050s. That's how you wind up in games like against Bournemouth or against PSG, where the ball keeps coming back. Now, against PSG, I think the referee is a big part of why we lost 5050s because he was blowing for everything where we tried to win 5050s is another story. But losing 50-50s like that, second ball games, you know how that gets. You can start to feel like the pressure's mounting on you, you're running backwards towards your goal a lot. We went long a lot, we didn't win the ball a lot, and we wound up under pressure. And think those four stats to me, Clive, I'm not gonna call them yoker-esque stats, even though he calls out yoke participating in the majority of those aerial jewels. I think they are stylistic stats that Bruno's signing will help with, that getting back some of our top players will help with, but I think it is a big point of emphasis for us not to be caught in those dynamics again this season. So what do you make of that?

Clive Palmer42:47Yeah, I think I saw that and I thought, well, Jocko is in StargainstPSG by the way, but let's not worry about that. But

Elliot Smith42:53Right, w no no no, I know, but I'm saying that that was a game where we did lose those fifty fifties, although like I said, I think we were unlucky with

Clive Palmer43:00I think there were build-up issues in that game which I think were more fallback related for me anyway.

Elliot Smith43:03Mm. Mm. Fair enough.

Clive Palmer43:06But it is what it is, we're getting over that game, we? Slowly but surely.

Elliot Smith43:10Slowly, slowly, slowly.

Clive Palmer43:11Yeah, and absolutely, and the biggest out of all was we won the league, right? And that directness was a change. So the season before we had full control of every single game, right? So we had people, had slow build-up. We had control and what did we see? We watched low block versus low block football, sorry. We watched it all the time because we allow people to get into defensive shape because we waited till we got into attacking shape before we attacked. That puts a lot of emphasis on our superstar number seven who was fine until his hamstring blew up, right? So, and we lost our forwards and we had that, I call it the hamstring season. But for me, it wasn't, it was good, but it wasn't. Optimal because we struggled, we had 14 draws. And that told you we didn't quite have enough to take those games into wind. This season from almost Bilbao, we started to change in the summer, we started to change, become more direct. And we all wanted it, by the way. We wanted fast transition football, because we just want Liverpool to the league. We fast transition football, we're sadder staying up high and running through the pitch. We all wanted, but we've forgotten we wanted a centre-forward. We want a running centre-forward to run people back to.

Clive Palmer44:25To attack teams before they were settled. And I was all for it. Did Gyokeres not hold the ball up on the casters? Absolutely not. Did he improve this calendar year once Heinz got hold of him and got him to hold the ball? And did he have much better success in 2026 than in 2025? Absolutely. And it comes back to the centre forward discussion and the identity of that centre forward and how they play. And we, and I will say this in words. We all wanted a centre-forward. That was what last summer was all about. We were desperate to have a true centre-forward. We hadn't had one since Eddie came out. We've made Merino work, we've made Havertz work. Some people don't like those players, although they play us brand of football, which I quite enjoy, to be honest. But sometimes you need a centre-forward. And my words were Arsenal Football Club should have a centre-forward in it. And we shouldn't have a team of just-me-fills with no forwards who don't. Really wake up in the morning and think, I want to score 25 goals this season. We've got one player that wants to do that. One. And I think we need that mentality in our squad. It's not him, it needs to somebody else. We need a forward. Every team needs a forward to go to. With Pekai not being that guy for much of the season last year because of injury, cetera, and when he's on, he's just brilliant. Left-hand side, we mix and match it there.

Clive Palmer45:51In centre mid, attacking mid, we mix and match it there. And what was the most consistent and best part of our team was the base of our midfield and our back four. Guess what? We won the league based on our stability, the best defensive record, 11 games where we went one and up from set pieces, which we control a game and we won a lot of games by one goal and we won the league easily because the game in England is coming to our style and we are the best at it. And that's it. So it's a discussion about what our forwards look like. And we're not there yet. Let's have, before we get there and have conclusions, can we just see a midfield of men for a while? We've got about four 27 year olds and a 28 year old. Can we just see them together? And then we'll work out what the forwards look like.

Elliot Smith46:36Yeah, thought it was interesting by the way, I don't know if you saw this, but Viktor Gyokeres was asked after the match, do you plan to use the community shield against, as a training and a warm up exercise? Is that how you're thinking about it? And he was like, What? I'm sorry, I don't understand. And the game against Manchester City, and he's like, I don't understand. Do you do you plan to see that as training? He's like, We want to win that game. He's like, No, we want to win that. I thought it was so so good. Look, I think there's something we're gonna have to do. No, we're not gonna have to. I'm gonna try to do. Nobody has to do anything I say, but I think it's something that Mikel will do. It can be true that we won the league last season. And actually, it is true. We did. It's wonderful. And also true that there were flaws about our team last season that we should be aware of and discuss and recognize and improve on. I guarantee you, Mikel feels that the second half of last season in 2026, there were a lot of things about our game that he's not happy with and wants to improve. That doesn't diminish our title. Far from it. I think a new list came out of the top twenty teams in the world based on some system that ranks and thirteen of them are Premier League teams. The league is insanely difficult, okay? And we won it and you don't take anything away from it. But if you rest on your laurels and you think it was good enough and you pat yourself on the back and you don't recognize the warts and you don't try to remove them and fix the team, you don't do it again. And I think Mikel is far more ambitious than any of us. He talks about taking the level of the club up, wanting to win everything. Kai Havert said we want to win every trophy.

Elliot Smith48:03That's the right ambition, but you don't get to that ambition by saying, well, if we won the league last season, we must have, by definition, done everything right. We didn't do everything right. We did it right enough. We won the title as we deserve to, as we very easily could have in at least three of the last four seasons, but we got there. Now it's time to evolve and improve. And so, I think i it please do not take it as diminishment of our achievements to recognize that there are areas we can improve. I think that's important.

Clive Palmer48:29No, no. I don't think anybody listening doesn't want to us get better. Right? I think we recognise that. I

Elliot Smith48:33Yeah. Score more goals in particular. Seventy one won't do it.

Clive Palmer48:38Will say this and I'll say this again, if we go through a lot of our players, there's a lot of them that can play better this season than last season. A lot. So there is some in-squad development to see and improvement to happen from within the squad. But mate, I wouldn't mind seeing a couple of new forwards and a right-footed defender come in, because that gives me the comfort that we need to be as stable as we were last season. And maybe have 10 more goals in us than we had last season, maybe a few more in open play. There's not one person listening to this doesn't want to see us do a bit better and you just have to, because that's the evolution of the game. If you stand still, what's going to happen. So this team is built on stability, we don't look stable at the moment, but we haven't seen it on midfield and we are missing the primary defender in the world, in my opinion, and we don't know when he's going to be back. And that's a major problem because in the last three to four years when he's not. On the pitch earlier, I do not feel good and I've never felt good. So we have to find an answer to that, whether that's going to be how we construct the midfield or how we're going to spend to replace that player. Because I don't think what I'm seeing at the moment is telling me we've got enough stability and experience there with the players that's been used. But I know

Clive Palmer49:49It's early, but let's wait till the midfield's in place to take the pressure of some of those defenders because it feels like. The last line of our defence is the first line of our defence on occasions. But that will come back when other players come in. So that's the worry. I'd love to see. I think with the introduction of Tzolis earlier, what has made me think is. We could potentially build a star there rather than buy a star on the left. Because I think we could potentially have enough within the squad to fill that position if we had one more player. And if that player is, just for example, is a Yieldist and he may not be ready to be the superstar that maybe Vinny was, but we can build him alongside a Tzolis and alongside an Eze, then it's not such

Elliot Smith50:31Is he's a lovely player.

Clive Palmer50:32A critical moment. Do you see? It's not a critical moment.

Elliot Smith50:35It. Look, he's a lovely player. I the only thing I would say is that I believe he has tendonitis in his knee and I'm just terrified by something like that.

Clive Palmer50:42Yeah, he started the last game they played into recently, think you believe he started, but I've also heard the knee thing as well and so I'm not too sure where he is.

Elliot Smith50:50Yeah. I'm just, once bit and twice shy. The one thing we've also done is I think everybody's assuming, well, when we play Coventry, it's gonna be Myles and Ethan and it's gonna be that and it's gonna be Mikel was asked if he thought the World Cup players could be back for the start of the season. He said, on if we're confident about them being back before the season starts, yes, I think so. Yes. I don't know that I think Mikel's attitude is we're gonna start with a rotated eleven for four weeks and then bring Saka and Rice back. What even if you think that would be the right thing to do. I don't know that I think that's what he's going to do. Really quickly before we touch on some transfer stuff, and KD Romero. He says through the bile in his in his mouth. Martinelli came on late. It was not a lot of minutes for Martinelli, which I thought was interesting. There were some players that that were used sparingly. Nelson is linked with a loan to West Ham. You Vieira played off the right briefly, there are players that feel a little departure loungy. The ones we know, Nelson, Jesus, Saviera, okay. Martinelli is an interesting one because to your point, if we don't get a yield is, if we don't get a Barcola, if we don't get, you that that big name off the left, I don't think you can let Martinelli go. Not only do I not think there's no chance you can let Martinelli go. And he's a player people have a lot of affection for and has been a really important part of our squad for a long time, but it feels a bit departure loungy to me, even if

Elliot Smith52:16I'm just making that up out of whole cloth. Any thoughts on the end of the game, seeing some of those players on and maybe Martinelli in particular?

Clive Palmer52:23Yeah, sometimes you send messages to players, don't you? When you're building. The season pre-season is going to have different phases, so when you're building your minutes, you need the youth players, you need the French players, you them all to play. You need them all, because you need to protect the players who are going to play. Odegaard got 30 in this game, you need to protect him. You can't just chuck him out there for 60 in his first game. That's not right, Same for Big Gabby last week when he came in, did the first 30. I think he went bit longer in this game than 45, but. Again, you're looking at somebody just to ease them in. And so, for Martinetti to only get 20 at the end, that's, you're in the kids' numbers there, aren't you? And that's a message, right, to say, I know you might be thinking about going, you've got a few offers, think seriously about those offers. That's what that message could be saying, Jesus, we think he's going to be going to Italy and that looks like it. It's just depending on movement on there, movement out from Lukaku, for example. So that will happen. Viera, again, Hamburg like him, it's all about numbers again. That needs to happen. Again, now the squad is back, these players become really superfluous and now's the time. Nelson didn't come on, so that feels like it's close. Well, that's the message to say, you need to sort yourself out. And so if he goes on loan again, what does that mean? We're going to get a loan fee. Then he goes on a free.

Clive Palmer53:48And for those people wondering, why can't we just sell a youth playing and bang 50 million a pure profit? Can't for various reasons or unsuccessful loans and injuries that players are going to walk out from us at 24, 25 years of age. Feels like a missed opportunity there, but that's just the way it is. And so these things need to happen. There's a lot of wages in that group. Know, Martin, Eddie, Jesus, Vieira, not so much. Nelson, Nelson earns maybe more. Double what Noni-Made Weke hands. And so that needs to stop, right? And that's just squad inefficiencies and we'll tidy that up. And when we do, we get to chance to see maybe a couple of younger players and Ethan gets a different role in the squad and you get to see the real me in the squad. So phase one of pre-season is over, Elliot. Now we come to Como, to City. Those gains are important and then we roll into commentary.

Elliot Smith54:48Yeah, all right. People are ready for it. They're ready for the transfer stuff. So let's just get into it

Clive Palmer54:54Go on then.

Elliot Smith54:54Quickly. I think I'll start maybe not with the most upsetting, but nearly as upsetting to me. Because we need an attacker, we need a defender. I think it's pretty clear we need to do something at both sides of the pitch. Right hand side of the defense, left hand side of the attack, if not forward. But Clive, I didn't want to wake up today. Having rested, bit of jet lag, finally home. Just trying to ease myself back into life. I didn't need to see us linked with Pedro Neto. I can't accept that. I won't accept that. And I hope those of you listening will not accept it either. To go to be linked to Cutie Romero and Pedro Neto within the span of a few days, i it's not as happy a time as when we thought Vinny was done. So, can we start with Pedro Neto? I know you like to see the best in every player. This to me would be a flagrant violation, a lack of imagination by Arsenal, a lack of creativity in finding the right solution, defaulting to buying from the one club we always feel like we can rummage around in their bins to get a player who doesn't have the best injury track record himself, doesn't have the end product and just simply is not someone I'd I'd want to see at Arsenal. Now I know there are others who will disagree, as there always are in football, but I've gone pretty big with my opinion there. So what do think?

Clive Palmer56:11Yeah, he's a player that I used to love, this player. And went up 50 million prize from Chelsea, bit on him. I thought, but you know what? He's always got a hamstring, and so I can live with that. And he doesn't score enough goals. I you and Scott told me the data around it. He flashes, but he score enough, doesn't shoot enough, et cetera. I okay, I can live with it. Goes to Chelsea, his hamstring's been stable ever since. And he. Plays a vast majority of their games and he's alright. I've always liked him, but I don't like him. That makes sense, I don't like him, I don't like his persona on the pitch, I don't. And I've just got over Bruno, I'm just starting to like him. And so yeah. But that link did not surprise me. Because you just look around the world on what's out there as a sure thing. And City are looking at him as well, by the way. Because Premier League Proving sure.

Elliot Smith57:05Mm. Their fans don't want

Clive Palmer57:08Yeah, and they certainly don't want Chelsea to bang 20 million in profit on this player. And that's the thing, they just put a price of 70 million. I that can't happen. So yeah, I don't feel that one the same. The Romero one is interesting because when you look at him as a football player, he could be exactly what we need. He's good on the ball. Now, just forget the shirt, forget the shirt, forget the fact he's a donut. Forget all that. Just look at the.

Elliot Smith57:36Second part's hard to forget.

Clive Palmer57:38Just look at the football. The football, he's quick, he's aggressive, he can do the sweeper role, which we need. He can do the central centre-back role. He's passing his top against, for Spurs, right, no one can pin him, no one can hold him back. He's not serious, he does what he likes. He puts a cape on, charges up front, does what he likes because he's playing for Spurs and the players are crap and they need him to do something. He doesn't do that for Argentina and he certainly won't do that for Miquelartown, that's for sure, so forget that. Footballistically-wise, he works. If there's a release clause in there, he works. So I don't particularly like him. In fact, he epitomises what I don't like about a football player, the undisciplined. Just don't like it. But the

Elliot Smith58:21Yeah, he's not a serious footballer to me. He just does what he wants.

Clive Palmer58:25Thing is, he can be. But then when you see a situation where Spurs, with their beautiful stadium, were about to go down, he's got himself suspended for the last four games for a countless, another red card. Stupidity and then rather than support his teammates he wants to go back to Argentina to watch a team, a small team. What does that tell you about him and what he feels about the club? Their fans don't like him. It's not the best character reference but just pure football mate, just pure football, just one mate, just separate the two. That's about as sure better as you can get for a right footy centre back for our system as you can possibly find within the league. Apart from Konsa who our fans don't like either.

Elliot Smith59:03Prefer I prefer consa. I like consa.

Clive Palmer59:06Well, the concert thing, he's already in the dressing room, he's already assimilated. Again, on-ball play, one-on-ones, sweeper type mentality to get around. It's like, come on.

Elliot Smith59:17Th there's a few things I think. So look at Concept. First of all, just like he knows the lads, he's in the England setup. He's played at a high level. He's played in Champions League. He's he's averaged 3,000 minutes a season for Villa, so he's durable. His passing numbers are good. Do I think he's the most elite defender? No, but I think he can play the Saliba role in his own way. I think that

Clive Palmer59:37And it can play right back.

Elliot Smith59:39And he can play right back, although I prefer him not to, but that's beside the point. Point is he is a stable, established right hand side defender who can pass the ball a reasonable number of times a game at a high percentage and defend relatively well. What he isn't, he's not a clown, he's not a red card waiting to happen, he's not an accident of booting someone in the box and giving away a penalty for no reason. He doesn't come with the spurs stain. He doesn't come with the head that you worried isn't screwed on right because those defenders, the funny thing? We're really, really good. The way we could lose games is someone goes out and loses it for us, commits a stupid foul that gives away a penalty, or gets a dumb red card from nowhere. That's how you lose games. When you're Arsenal and you're good, just don't make those kind of mistakes. And the other thing with Konsa, I think, is he could come in his prime, and when Saliba's healthy, I think Konsa's okay to say, well, I can play the second leg of a Champions League tie, or I can play an FA Cup fifth round tie, or I can rotate in. Cutie Romero is not someone I think comes in and says, Yeah, let me just stay behind Gabby and Saliba. I just don't know that it's the right dynamic to have in the squad. And I get that at his best there's a high level footballer there. But I think a high level footballer who every few games does something that loses you points is not someone I want. I don't want the Spurs staying. I don't want the squad composition there. I you don't have to love Konsa. You have Saliba and Gabby. You have to think Konsa is as elite a squad level set. I

Elliot Smith1:01:01Liverpool just signed Ronald Araho. Arauho, whatever. He stinks. Okay. Okay. He's he's he's actively bad. So c don't turn your nose up at a concept. Now I get, should we be spending 70 million on that? Well, how much is frickin' cutie Romero gonna cost? So no, no to Cutie Romero, no to 70 million Pedro Neto. And the netto thing annoys me more in a sense because I think center backs can be hard to find, good ones. Like I said, Liverpool just went for a bad one. Good center backs that can play at the Premier League level, hard to find, especially someone that you need to start a decent chunk of games. But there are wide players to take. Look at Christophes. I don't know if he'll be great or not, but he looks like a pretty good find at a reasonable price. You don't have to drop 70 million on a guy who's already shown, A, he struggles to be fit. And B, when he is fit, he gets you three freaking goals in a season. What are we doing here? You don't have to rummage through Chelsea's bins every summer. You don't, and by the way, that's coming from someone who thinks we got a good player in Kai Havertz, a very good player. And I think that was a good signing for us. But it's a lack of imagination if you just go back to the Pedro Neto thing and I and I'll I'll go this far. I'd much rather have Martinelli than Pedro Neto. I don't think you're improving your team. So just stick with the guy who loves the club and the club loves him and we love him if you're gonna do that. So yeah, sorry, Clive. That one that one sets me off a bit because it feels it feels so reductive. But having said that, just so we're clear, everyone listening, it's a rumor that may not even be true.

Clive Palmer1:02:24I was gonna say.

Elliot Smith1:02:24Right? I don't wanna I don't wanna beat the club with a stick that's not even I'm just saying if that were to be true, that would be deeply disappointing to me. That's all I'm saying.

Clive Palmer1:02:31So, agree with every word and applaud the passion, Elliot. And sometimes we don't always appreciate what we have, how we started this attacking conversation. You we all want to improve, but let's appreciate what we have. Let's not downgrade, shall we say. If you are going to spend tens of millions, make sure it's an upgrade. The Vinnie Jr. Thing, we weren't debating the quality, were we? We weren't debating the quality. If there's a way to get Alvarez in. I don't think we're to be debating the quality too much. If that situation happens, you may have to do some reconfiguration to make that happen, but we're not going to debate the quality. When you're talking Pedro Neto at that numbers, you've got to say, it's not really for me. The concert thing is quite interesting. Romero has made concert more appealing, shall we say.

Elliot Smith1:03:18It has for me, that's for sure.

Clive Palmer1:03:19To be fair to you, you weren't down on concert. There are other people who have been quite down on him.

Elliot Smith1:03:25I think it's World Cup based largely by the way though, 'cause I think he had he wasn't awesome in the World Cup, but I refuse to use international football as the measure of players. It just won't do

Clive Palmer1:03:33You again, you look at the minutes played. He played a lot of minutes. How can our players be tired and he not be tired?

Elliot Smith1:03:42Played thirty eight hundred minutes or whatever, but he's not allowed to be tired in the World Cup.

Clive Palmer1:03:46Exactly. In the World Cup he played it right back and centre back, in back fours, in back fives. These are not bad things, these are good things. And so, for me, 28 is 26 for a midfielder. Mate, that's like a no- honestly, it's all about the price. And with that one, Elliot, there have been strong rumours of a bit under £40 million. So unlike Neto, just something you read on the tweet, just upset you when you wake up in the morning. The console one feels more real. The Romero one feels like, there an opportunity there? Is there a market opportunity? Is there a release clause? Let me just inquire. The strange thing about the Romero one is he's up for it. And that's the thing that I find really interesting. Even give a monkey the bounce bars, mate. He won't be ducking down the back of the coach when the bricks are coming in. He'll be just standing there at the front. And so I find that really funny. But for me, the console one works in my mind. The thing is, Leibov, whether he's back in the near term or the medium term, we just don't know. But when he is back, he's going to need to be nurtured through. His back problem's been around for three, four years, and he's got to a point now where we need to protect the rest of his career. And this is a generational player, and concert could be perfect. And the right back thing is important because to have that position covered as well, we've got knee strap bend on one side, we've got groin timber on the other side. We've got issues there.

Clive Palmer1:05:14Mosquera can do it. I like him as right back, actually. Not too bad. But he also can play left centre back cover. Think that's going to be important because Big Gabby can't play all of the time. So you need to create room to make that eighth defender because Myles is out of that group now. So Konsa really works for me. There is another player called Jacobo Ramon that plays for Como. I'm not sure he's going play on Wednesday, but I'll be there scouting, to see if he's a six foot five centre back. Bring something else. Really leggy, quick. I'm not sure what he's like on the ball, I should know, apologies. I don't know what he's like on the ball, but I'm interested

Elliot Smith1:05:47Mm, mm? We'll find out.

Clive Palmer1:05:49In watching him see what he's like, to see if he could be a player to look at.

Elliot Smith1:05:54Yeah. Yeah. I it is it is the case with transfer windows that you have moments where you're linked with really exciting players. You make some exciting signings. There are also moments where you're linked with players you don't want. And you have to be able to navigate those vicissitudes in a way that that where you can keep your head and also not overly praise the club for doing things they weren't gonna do or overly criticize the club for not doing things they weren't gonna do. So I

Clive Palmer1:06:17For a rumour.

Elliot Smith1:06:19I'm not preemptively criticizing the club for moves I don't want them to do, but I think it is important that we don't that we don't do those things.

Clive Palmer1:06:26You you know what, Elliot, I literally got a text from David while we're recording, David, and he basically said the same thing to you. If we get Romero and Neto in, I'm gonna lose my nut. I'm basically paraphrasing.

Elliot Smith1:06:39I saw someone say they'd need to reissue them a printed season ticket so they could tear it up on camera. Which I thought was pretty funny.

Clive Palmer1:06:48I can see the football side of Romero, let's be honest, we don't need to do that, do we? We don't need to.

Elliot Smith1:06:55Well we'll see. As a final thing, can I just ask you super quick, a little bit of a weird one. Eduardo what's his name? Eduardo Severin or whatever and Jeff Bezos are going to buy a large stake in Liverpool. The I haven't had time to read up or have thoughts on it, so I don't want to wade into something I don't understand, but that that's a weird one. I don't know why FSG is doing that unless they just ultimately want to get out of Liverpool full stop. And you never know what the interest of billionaires is known in these things other than being playthings, but I will tell you it certainly would give Liverpool access to whatever money they wanted to spend if these are people that actually care about competing, but you just never know and it's hard to say. I don't like I said, don't know enough about it to have any thoughts. I just saw it come over the transom and figured I'd ask about

Clive Palmer1:07:41Yeah, it come up, I think they bought a one third stake in the club potentially. What does that make people think? When you talk about the richest man in the world, you're thinking, they're to be able to do stuff. Well, what can they do at the moment? Their ground is brilliant. It's been upgraded to 60,000 plus now. And their training ground has been done in recent years. That's really, really good. Infrastructure-wise, they're good. Obviously, they can improve their revenues. Their kit deals are good. They're in Europe now again. So from a revenue point of view, what can they do? Obviously they can do a Man City style shirt sponsorship. Then they're going to get more money, he says, allegedly. But having those

Elliot Smith1:08:15Yeah. Mm. The Amazon Facebook Liverpool shirts are gonna are gonna sell out quickly, I'm gonna tell ya.

Clive Palmer1:08:22Yeah, the sleeve sponsorship, 300 million for the left sleeve and 30 million for the right sleeve. I think that will be quite interesting. And if they do all of that, then obviously they're going to do their work. But I think Liverpool is a club in recent years that we have praised much many times on this podcast, many times about their squad building, what they've done and the teams that are not City and Chelsea, they have not been financially doped. Liverpool have done a lot that we should be clapping them for. In recent years, some of their football decisions look a little bit off for me and even the Barker links. Have you not thought about the right hand side of your team? What's happening in your fullback areas? The Araujo loan, a 55 option to buy. Okay, I understand that you want a big space defender to replace your last big space defender, but mate, is that really going to improve you? Two young defenders coming through. Good on paper on YouTube, but they need to be in the heat. What are they going to look like? And the guy holding them together is 34. I don't know. Goalkeeper got too many hamstrings for me. And he's like, I'm looking at it. Not as smart as they used to be. And it feels like a club, not quite ready. And we're moaning about our club not being ready. But we have reasons for that. The six or seven of our players were in the last four of the World Cup. So we have reasons for not being ready. And we will be ready.

Clive Palmer1:09:48Little bit worried about, don't laugh, about commentary because they are ready, they've been back training and last time I looked they didn't have too many players in the last four of the World Cup. So they're going be as ready as we can possibly see and you saw against Betis a team that was fitter than us, and what that looks like on the pitch, it's not nice is it? And so yeah, we have some, I have some little worries there, we'll face that when we come up to it and see how we're looking next two games.

Elliot Smith1:10:12Well, we'll see. We don't look ready for the season yet, but I got news for you. Nobody else does either. Just peruse some of the other big clubs results. I think Chelsea drew with a team I've never heard of. I think Liverpool lost or drew with Monaco, lost to Monaco or something like that. Yeah.

Clive Palmer1:10:30They lost at home 3-2, yeah. So did we.

Elliot Smith1:10:33Yeah, right. Right. So I'm just saying and also remember the results of the preseason game don't matter a huge amount because if you bring on a bunch of kids when you're down five nil and they score five goals, it doesn't mean you're good. If you're up three nil when the kids come on and you lose four three, it doesn't mean you were bad. It is about the fitness. I know that's a cliche and everybody shrugs it off. We see the things that are working, we see the things that need work. A lot of it will just be fixed by our best players being on the pitch. Imagine that. And we may get a chance to see some of that. Bukayo Saka is back. David Raya is back, Bruno Guimarães, I think, would probably be involved in the next game. That right there is gonna make quite the difference. So

Clive Palmer1:11:12High are you and Bruno alien? What's your thought?

Elliot Smith1:11:15I think he is a sensational player. I think he makes us a lot better. I think Declan Rice and Bruno Giemreich, plus any of who you want to put out there as the third option, makes us better. And I think he will make us better in both halves. I think off the ball, we will just elevate that ability to be the best out of possession team in the world. And I think he's great at turning ball recoveries into transition opportunities. He can arrive with goals and assists, but even more, I think he's just willing to play that. Inside the block pass quickly to the next line once he's recovered the ball. I yeah, I think he's gonna help us with tempo. I think he's gonna help us with goals. And and he'll he'll just continue to make us a phenomenal team out of possession. Obviously there's that question of is he still at his absolute best and for how much longer he can be there. But my instinct is yes

Clive Palmer1:11:58I he'll be fine.

Elliot Smith1:11:59And I think we'll be fine. He's twenty eight until he's twenty nine after all. So we'll we'll see. Yeah.

Clive Palmer1:12:04I think that's a really good appraisal. I am so interested to what he's like for us. Know, within our environment, what is he like for us? When he is allowed to be the absolute go-to leader and have two workers around him, he was very, very good. A lot of his play for me, and we scouted him, he's done in the last third, the offensive third. Yeah.

Elliot Smith1:12:25That's yep. I don't want to see him as the deepest midfielder. I don't want to see him picking the ball up between the center backs. I wanna see him either between the lines or higher up even and out of possession, pressing, recovering the ball.

Clive Palmer1:12:35So how we use him. I am excited about seeing his midfield develop. And by the way, this is not a first 11 midfield. Just seeing the midfield develop and how many configurations we can have for what game state we're trying to crack. Because we've got a lot of options, we can do a lot of stuff. And people are like you've done, you've assessed him and what he does well and what he can bring. What can he bring for us? What is he going to be allowed to bring for us in our environment with our players, with our quality? I can't wait for this. It's so interesting. At the end of last season, I'm not sure many of us have talked about this signing. We really weren't. And what he brings, I do think we need to really think what the manager's thinking and maybe remind ourselves what we're missing, and what we're truly missing. And I don't think we've all cottoned onto that.

Elliot Smith1:13:24Say I also want to give some kudos to Pikao Saka because I don't think all the Spain players are back yet. Raya is Saka is I don't think all the Spain players are back. I don't think all the England players are back. I don't think Eze Rice are back.

Clive Palmer1:13:34So the England players are officially back today. They're all back today. So the squad is back today, but he came back two days early. Just that kind of idea.

Elliot Smith1:13:37Okay. Okay. Yeah, that's that's why you what? He's our highest earner. He's our biggest star. He's our star boy. He loves the club and he I think coming back even just two days early, it's just that little bit of extra commitment to say, I'm leading by example. I lo I love that from him. Not that the two days will mean anything. It's just symbolically I like that. I would just say,

Clive Palmer1:13:56It means a lot, means a lot.

Elliot Smith1:13:58And this is based on nothing. I wonder if there's a departure coming in midfield that we don't see coming. The numbers are big there. We'll see. And I'd be curious. I'd be curious to see. But let's not speculate. Let's get out of here and we have the power rankings tomorrow, where we'll look at the other clubs in the league that will be vying to compete for second and what they've done, the intelligent way that they've made their team stronger so that they can finish, closer behind us. We'll we'll see. And it should be an interesting one and I'm I'm glad Tim's done a lot of research on it because new managers, new players, a lot of turnover, very different looking league than the sort of league we've been used to seeing the last few seasons with Pep being gone now. So gonna be an interesting one. Clive will we'll certainly have you on for Friday night. Clive, I imagine at the end of the week we'll we'll have an instant reaction, maybe some voice notes from you from the ground after the Como game. And then it's the community shield. Boy, boy, it's it's all here very quickly. So lots to get through. But thank you for doing this, man. It's good to get back on the mic and talk to you.

Clive Palmer1:15:01Thank you very much.

Elliot Smith1:15:03If you want our app, it's in the app store for both i iOS android. You can just go to arsenalvision podcast.com forward slash app and it'll take you to whichever app store you need it from. So that's cool. And we'd love to get your feedback on it. Let us know what you think, because I think the idea is hopefully just another way that you can like the transfer rumors are in there and the stock voting. And just if you don't want to be on social media as much, it's a place you can participate and have some fun stuff to do without having to be on social. So we hope you like it. All right, enough of that. My name is Alex Smith. We love you, and we'll talk to you after Arsenal 10. Come on now.