Richie McCormack

And Ray Houghton, I think, was about six foot tall in it, which if we all know that, Ray Houghton is not six foot tall.

Paul McGrath's shoulders do not look like Paul McGrath's shoulders, et cetera, et cetera.

So there was a lot of that shit.

exceptional movement of players and one of the episodes of the series looks at the move of Alfredo Di Stefano to Real Madrid.

Now, as I mentioned at the start, some of these transfers are kind of like, it might have been a bit of crack if Ronaldo went to Rangers or if Mikey Johnson had ended up with Flamengo, like the story of that almost happening.

But as I mentioned in the podcast, nothing goes so far or no move, one move goes so far as to defining the legacy of one club and it's also its rivalry with another as the move of Di Stefano to Real Madrid because he should have been a Barcelona player.

Like in all intents and purposes, there's footage of digging around in pursuit of material for this.

found footage on YouTube buried in a Di Stefano documentary in Spanish of him training in a Barcelona gear.

And you're like, it's a different world.

Like, do Real Madrid win the first handful of European Cups if Di Stefano is not a key member of that attack?

Probably not.

They have a very good side regardless, like your Raymond Copas and your Ferenc Puskas of this world.

The player of his time is Alfredo Di Stefano.

If he's not there, does it happen or not?

There was a really complicated backstory to how he ended up at Real Madrid.

So initially there was a player strike in Argentina.

Players weren't happy that they weren't able to negotiate contracts in line with Real.

you know, modern pay scales, etc.

So a bunch of them, and there was a handful of players from River Plate in particular, ended up in Colombia in what was a breakaway league called the Dimeor, where they were offering these massive contracts.

If you ever look up Di Stefano's Wikipedia page and it says like four games internationally for Colombia, this is why.