Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hello and welcome into the latest edition of ESPN FC. Kay Murray, Shekhar Hislop and Stevie Nicol here in the studio. Lots to talk about tonight. We've got a mixed bag for you, but we are starting with Chelsea in the Premier League. We do have Luis Garcia. Yep, thumbs up there from him. He's in Madrid ahead of a big game this weekend and Don Hutchison is joining us too.
We'll be hearing more from both of them in a minute. But as we look to domestic football returning, he's a reminder of how Chelsea are faring this season. They are sixth in the Premier League as it stands right now, still in the FA Cup. In the FL Cup, they were eliminated by Arsenal and they just came out of the Champions League before the international break to PSG.
Well, Marco Correa has been talking to The Athletic this week, this is what he's had to say, about Chelsea's transfer policy. He says signing young players only might complicate fighting for major trophies. Against PSG we lacked players that had gone through situations like that.
I understand this is part of the club's policy, looking to the future, but for all of us who are still here and want to win big things, moments like this make you feel discouraged. It's obviously to do with the model and specifically concerning the centering around youth when it comes to Chelsea. What do you think when you see that, Xhaka?
I think Cucurella has a point.
the ownership group with clear lake or blue coal whoever it is they've kind of um they have their approach and they've kind of set their stall out kukurela talks about it young players coming in um so from a business perspective maybe they can't be as criticized as as you would from a footballing perspective signing young players with a knife for the future and the salon putting them on relatively low wages but long contracts i guess from a business perspective makes sense
From a footballing perspective, it does not. Footballers want to win things, no. Fans want to see their club win things, no. You can sell them a project a year or two in advance, you cannot sell fans seven or eight years time, we'll be all right. And that's the balancing act, and that's... The big clubs get that just right. This new ownership group, again, has not.
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Chapter 2: What insights does Marc Cucurella share about Chelsea's management style?
Going outside and putting these kind of things to the rest of the public just generates a lot more confusion. I understand that when you are not getting closer to trophies, you are frustrated, you look around, but what that means that you got young players that they maybe are not ready to fight for the trophy, that they don't have enough quality, that they are not there to...
um to to fight for for all the trophies i think the chelsea history have shown that there was a period a short period that they managed to get trophies but in a long range of for the past 20 50 50 years we know what is the history of of chelsea so it's not a team that he's been winning trophy every single weekend so what is success for chelsea on these days getting closer to champions league right now
they have the option to get into the Champions League position. So I understand the frustration. But if you want to build a strong team and you are believing in the youth, I think the first thing is not pointing against the youth. It's about pointing about why the plan is not
starting from having a manager for a long period, having and understand what you want, the vision that you want to have for the future, and keeping on that. In the moment there, after six months, you change it, it doesn't matter how many players. It doesn't matter if you bring Lionel Messi, Mbappe and Neymar that Paris Saint-Germain had. because the success is not going to be there.
If you believe in the youth and you believe in your vision and what is your target in the long range, it's not about the players that you bring, it's about what are you doing with those players.
It's a perfect segue into a little more on what Mark Kukure had to say. This is what he was talking about when we heard he had some comments on Maresca.
he said when a manager gives you that confidence and offers you a platform to fight for titles you die for him the moment maresca left it had a big impact on us these are decisions taken by the club if you asked me i would not have made this decision to make a change like that the best thing is to wait until the end of the season the instability around the club comes from this in a nutshell and that leads on stevie to what you were saying this is enzo fernandez who'd also
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Chapter 3: How does Chelsea's focus on young players affect their competitiveness?
who said something along the lines of knowing what the whole plan was under Maresca and now having to deal with a new manager again. I mean, I think what he says is absolutely 100% correct. But it goes back to what we've just all been saying. Keep your mouth shut. If you've got a problem, go and ask somebody. Keep it in the building.
There's nothing wrong with having a problem with something that's going on at your club, but there's a way to go about either changing it or you move on yourself if you don't like it that much. So, yeah, what he's saying is correct, but he shouldn't be saying this in public. It's just... All it does is... All the things that we've been saying...
is all the things that Enzo Fernandes and now Kukere has been saying. So actually, we're not too far off the mark. Why are we hearing it from so many players, though? There's got to be something more to this.
Part of the issue is the more things change, the more they stay the same. Back in our day, you knew you'd go on international break, somebody was going to go back to their home country, do an interview, and a week or two later...
that that interview would filter through and it'd be criticizing whether there's a club or his teammates whatever it is roll the clock forward was it 30 40 years and and nothing's changed really despite social media and the immediacy of it players go away to international duty and do interviews in their native languages with reporters maybe they're comfortable with and and these things come out um but but again to steve's point um i do not disagree with a single thing cuccarella says
I really don't. And it's true. And the other aspect to this is, well, we can sit here and say, well, listen, as a player, you really shouldn't be talking about this publicly, which is right. If you are a little bit frustrated and you're thinking, I can engineer a move here, you say what you want. Because to Stevie's point, players are on contracts, you move them on.
You know, that's what he's looking for. There are ways, again, that players kind of go about their business in terms of, you know, I'm kind of pushing for a move. These are the kind of things you do almost every single time.
Yeah, we're taking names now, Don, because speaking to Alexis Nunes, we had Malo Gusto also talking about Maresca. Now we've just heard the latest from Marco Correa there. We've got Enzo Fernandez. So this is a number of players speaking to a number of reporters on this international break about the same topic.
Yeah, they weren't exactly moaning when they signed their seven-year contract, so were they? Listen, I think it would carry more weight if it was a John Terry or Ashley Cole. You know, with all due respect to Mark Kukurea, he's not in that bracket. He's not an elite left-back, in my opinion. So him and Gusto and Enzo Fernandes.
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Chapter 4: What frustrations are expressed by Chelsea players regarding management decisions?
Is it a suicide? At this point, nobody knows. Old friendships, buried cash, and a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie plays out in real life. I'm Juju Chang from 2020 and ABC Audio. Listen now to Bridge of Lies wherever you get your podcasts.
So Italy are still reeling from failing to qualify for the World Cup for the third time in a row. And maybe you saw our podcast title this week, which said all roads lead to home for Italy.
Great work.
our team there pretty much what all the top papers are saying in italy as well let's talk more about this then don hutcheson an adopted italian it has to be said still with us luis garcia with us as well all right don let's get your reaction first and foremost because we see that you've been pretty vocal and pretty active on x following this elimination
Well, obviously it's embarrassing. You know, I think the conversation would last two or three hours if you're having a serious debate on what's happening with the national side. But when you look on the face of it, it feels like they've lost their DNA. When you close your eyes, you think about the strongest Italian teams. You think about Italian defenders that are rugged.
Not like Bastogne or Calafiori where, and I'm not singling them out because they're good footballers, but the Italian defenders were Italian defenders. And they've lost the ability to find the number 10s. They've lost the ability to find Baggio's, find Del Piero's, find Gianfranco Zola's, these guys that were mavericks. Now, what I would guarantee...
is that these kids are out there in the schools, these Baggios and these Del Pieros are out there in the schools. So the Italian FA and the teachers and the coaches at the young level have to make sure when they identify these young kids that are ultra talented is not to knock that out of them and turn them into athletes.
Because when you look at the Italian national side now, it feels like they're caught between trying to play like in a Premier League type football where it's a little bit long ball, it's a little bit athletes, it's a little bit runners because You know, if you look at Fratesi, for example, he's probably the best number 10 that the Azzurri have got. He's a runner who runs in the box.
He's not Baggio. He's not Del Piero. He's not Gianfranco Zola. He's not an elite Maverick number 10 that's ultra skillful or totty, if you like. So I think the Italian side, when you look at the graphic there, which three World Cups in a row is just an all-time low, I think... when you look on the face of it, these kids have to be out there. You know, I don't buy that the talent's not there.
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Chapter 5: How has Italy's failure to qualify for the World Cup impacted their football identity?
West Ham. Couldn't call it. Yeah, couldn't call it.
Would you rather give up your phone or TV for a year?
TV, easy. Easy. I don't watch a whole lot of TV, anyway.
Everything you get on TV, you get on your phone.
Yeah. I don't watch a whole lot of TV, so that's an easy decision for me.
Easy. If you keep the TV, you can't even phone them, do you? What about YouTube? Give up your phone for YouTube. A TikTok. Yeah, he wants a little TikTok, doesn't he? What about you, Grant? Well, you can't walk around the street with a TV on your shoulder, right? No. See what I mean? You can try. Most of the TVs know. Look at that size. It can tick through you.
Done.
Biff my phone off. Biff it off. Oh, yeah? Yeah, end of season, I'm coming off X and all that sort of rubbish. Spent too much time on it. So, biff the phone, watch loads of TV, watch Seinfeld, watch Only Fools and Horses, watch all the classics, biff off the phone.
How are we going to get in touch with you to come on the show and talk about Italy and Sunderland and Newcastle and all those things?
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Chapter 6: What are the reactions to Italy's elimination from the World Cup?
Centre back, yeah. Is it kicked off yet? Thank you so much for sending in some wonderful questions tonight, guys. You can roll me, you can roll me, gents. Oh, boy.