Chapter 1: Why was Liam Rosinha sacked by Chelsea?
Hello everybody, good to have you with us. What a thrilling Thursday, Vish.
Yeah, yeah. It feels a bit like Groundhog Day, given what we talked about on Wednesday. But yeah, another lovely sunny day in the kingdom in a World Cup year. It couldn't be better. We're having a great run of it, aren't we?
We really are. We really are. Don't take all of my lines, though, Vish. Otherwise, I'll have nothing to say. But yes, it is, as Vish says, beautiful sunshine in such a beautiful country. Now, let's move on swiftly.
In the best country. In the best country. Sometimes we get comments like, oh, I think you went a bit soft on the Chelsea squad. I thought you were pulling your punches. Well, now we're not. This is the best country.
Yeah, if you lined up all the countries, then... A chance to prove that this summer, of course. But anyway... Let's go to West London, where Liam Rosinha has, of course, been sacked by Chelsea. He was sacked yesterday after a run of five successive Premier League defeats. He's finished with 10 defeats in 23 games.
Chelsea released a statement saying, Liam has always conducted himself with the highest integrity and professionalism following his appointment midway through the season. This has not been a decision the club has taken lightly. Hmm.
However, recent results and performances have fallen below the necessary standards, who with so much still to play for this season, everyone at Chelsea FC wishes Liam every success in the future. Are they obliged to give him a job in the company elsewhere? We know he's a company man. They obviously promoted him against or with his wish when he was at Strasbourg.
Do they sort of go, all right, OK, you can go back there or you can, you know, I feel they have a responsibility.
Yeah, that's a great point. This is technically a restructuring, isn't it?
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Chapter 2: What are the implications of Chelsea's recent managerial changes?
And I understand that there's always going to be the pulling power of the Premier League and blah, blah, blah. But let's be frank. Often, a lot of that is to do with money. They are not Manchester United. No matter how bad Manchester United got or get, you'll always have somebody go, oh, but my dad supported them, or I supported them growing up, or whatever it may be.
Chelsea, I don't think, have that. And so the board, they've really dragged the place into the mud. And... Again, if you're a manager, you'd steer clear of it, surely, if you're more bothered about reputation rather than money. Again, there will always be takers. And you'll always get managers who, understandably so, will think, oh, I'll be the guy to go in and sort that out.
But also with players, like, if you look at those Chelsea players, none of them are happy. I appreciate that, and I feel sorry for Rosinha on a human level, but also I do feel sorry that clearly his players just weren't having him.
for whatever reason and I think that's definitely something that's a very very evident and has been for many years in modern football I think back in the day I don't know what it was maybe because back in the day you were much more local and you would probably drink in the same pub as a lot of the local fans so you couldn't get away of completely phoning in performances but
Whereas nowadays, it's kind of like, I don't fancy this guy. I probably want to move. Yes, sod it. But the effort that some of those players put in was incredibly low and incredibly poor. But ultimately, more often than not, it comes from the very top of the club. And the very top of that club has been toxic for quite a while now.
I don't want to defend the players outright. Obviously, we see this with other clubs as well. That feels like, you know, player power is what it is and has been the case for, I suppose, longer than we choose to admit, really.
But ultimately... Because it gets into our romantic notion of football, I think. 100%.
It happens to be a job when it's our dream, yeah.
Yeah, so sometimes we're naive with that. I appreciate that. But I think there is something to be said about it.
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Chapter 3: How did Manchester City perform against Burnley?
He doesn't take like, you know, respect for playing career for granted. Yeah. But yeah, ultimately he was one of them, wasn't he? So they've reacted like that.
Yeah, well, the fact of the matter is Liam Rosinha is gone. I don't think that comes as a surprise to anybody. I thought, I wonder if he'll make the summer, and then of course you look at their league position, they are falling, they still have an FA Cup semi-final to play, and you think, okay, you know, they are where they are.
I think it is a, if you are a Chelsea fan, you're probably pleased to see Rosinha go, not because you wish him bad or anything, but
they have to get some kind of European football next season you know again we spoke about this the other day on the pod the financial situation at Chelsea is is quite worrying and you know and I implore anybody if you if you're bothered to look into that because as I say it is quite boring and with any kind of talk of finances and whatnot you can get a bit tangled up and I don't think it's the most riveting chat to have in with with the detail on that but it is quite a worrying situation but
If they were to miss out on European football completely, that's a financial hit. Even if they got Europa League football, it would still be some sort of revenue. And with the FA Cup there, I appreciate what would they be, second favourites behind Manchester City, but there's still a chance. If they finish this season as FA Cup winners... then it does gloss over a teensy little bit.
However, if they miss out on Champions League, which I think they are going to, I don't think that's a particularly insightful prediction, then it goes down as a disappointing season. There's huge questions to ask of the board. I don't think they're going to get it right anytime soon.
They've got Callum McFarlane in, who's going to be interim manager, quickly becoming the Ryan Mason of West London through no fault of his own. He took one point from his two games as interim of the club last January. So he's going to get very used to this routine. But he does strike me as a man who is not interested in this job, or certainly not now anyway.
It's just hot desk here at Blueco, isn't it? It's just hot desk here at Blueco.
it's fine it is it absolutely is so they are going to have to appoint someone who will who the fans won't hate immediately and at the moment there's not a huge amount uh of names that i think realistically that the clubs can can go and get i mean andoni areola is would be an obvious one because he's as we know he's going to be a free agent in the summer
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Chapter 4: What does Leeds' last-gasp draw against Bournemouth mean for their season?
And even then he said not that long ago, he went, you know, I appreciate I could be quite difficult to work with and the demands I make and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I'm not sure he would be the man that they would want. You've got some other interesting names in the mix. Funnily enough, Frank Lampard's being linked by people. Frank, don't do it. Please, please don't.
Third time lucky.
Yeah, maybe, yeah. Have I changed enough? Has she changed enough? I don't know. No, please don't do that, Frank.
I can't change them, but they do have more money. Yeah. And they are spending it recklessly, so I can get in on that.
Yeah, true enough. I don't know who's linked Diego Simeone to the job, but somebody has, which is a complete waste of everybody's time.
To be fair, he loves long contracts.
Go on.
Yeah, but he likes seeing them out, though.
Yeah, yeah.
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Chapter 5: How is the title race shaping up between Arsenal and Manchester City?
He'll be a very popular acquisition. On all sides, really. I think it also buys them a bit of good press with the English media, which is obviously something they care about. Whether they should or not is up to them. Well, it's up to everyone else to decide, but they certainly do. I don't know. I think that works.
For Chelsea, for a bit. Does it work for Fabregas, though? I think he's too well thought out to do that.
Do you also think maybe, quickly, do you also think that would potentially, if he goes to Chelsea, it might potentially rule him out of, say, in two years' time if the Arsenal job comes up?
Now there's a thought. There's a thought. He's got options. I think we could agree. I think we can agree. Well, how about this for a stat? Since Antonio Conte left in July 2018, Thomas Tuchel's the only manager to manage at least 100 games at Chelsea.
That came before Bluko took over, didn't it? Bluko took over at the back end of that run. So, yeah.
Yeah. I mean, since Conte, Maurizio Sarra, Frank Lampard, Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Frank Lampard again, Maurizio Pochettino, Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosinha. Can't wait for the next one.
Yeah, so what is it? The new ownership are looking for their fifth manager at this stage, yeah. Wow.
Well, good luck to them, eh? I think that there's... I think what they're hoping for is kind of what's happened at Manchester United this season to a degree in that they give it to Carrick at Man Utd and the results improve and they've got back into the Champions League. Well... it's very, very likely they're going to get back into the Champions League and people just seem a little bit happier.
The ownership is still the ownership at Manchester United. You've still got all those deep-rooted problems. But you can just about get by with what's going on there and maybe the hope of trying to go for a trophy or whatever next season. That's really what this Chelsea ownership are going to do. I can't imagine the ownership are going to suddenly have a complete and utter...
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Chapter 6: What challenges does Chelsea face in finding a new manager?
But how do you feel about the title race now after seeing last night? Has it moved you or sort of altered your thinking? What kind of percentages are you given if you can just pretend to be the Opta supercomputer at the moment? Feel free not to do that.
I definitely want to mix last night's Man City performance with the weekend's Arsenal performance just gone in terms of... Yeah, okay. I had a bit more belief in Arsenal, weirdly, after they lost at Man City.
Yeah, I know what you mean.
Because of the performance. You talked about it on Monday really well. And then at the same time, that has been slightly raised, that expectation, by just Man City being a bit patchy on Wednesday night. And... I'd say I'm still giving it to Man City because I feel like they still have that individual quality that can win them those games in that run-in.
I feel like also Arsenal... Again, we talked about this a little bit on Wednesday. Arsenal might have to be a very different Arsenal to what we've seen over the last, you know, however many months of the season, eight months or so. And, you know, that's just a difficult thing to do. But, yeah, I think... Guardiola is the massive tell, isn't he?
And I know, like, we laud... Well, certainly I laud players like Scherke for being independent to kind of the nonsense. And, you know, he had a decent game yesterday as well. But I think, like, seeing Guardiola, like, really... Like... Do you remember that, was it last season, where he kept scratching himself? Yeah, that's right.
And it was almost like a cartoon character with tire marks over him. Yes. He has that kind of, he's approaching that. Obviously, he's a very passionate guy, but there were times yesterday where I was like, just keep the camera on him. He's going to do something crazy here. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm not saying it was outrageously bad or anything like that, but I was like, keep it on him, because some of this might be used in evidence down the line. He's on the verge of doing... You know, there's someone at the bar where you're like, have you seen this bloke who just walks in?
Yeah.
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Chapter 7: What factors affect player morale at Chelsea?
That's all we've got paid to do.
We're paid to be wise after the event. It's literally the whole point of this.
I told you they were going to... Oh, you didn't see this coming.
Am I the fucking oracle?
fuck off either person who gives a shit yeah none of us thought none of us thought that Man United were going to end up in league champions this season yeah that would be yeah that would be one event that we couldn't be wise I thought Carmelo was going to win of course he did you're an idiot So that game at the Etihad, I wonder if everyone will say what they've already been saying.
And as soon as Man City won that game at the Etihad, you saw the body language, you saw the celebrations, blah, blah, blah, and then Man City just went on and Arsenal looked scared. Or will we be saying in a handful of weeks' time... And that was the moment where Arsenal thought, right, we can't just kind of hope it all goes away.
We can't just hope that Man City lose the league and we'll just scrape the odd 1-0 here and there. It was the moment where Arsenal went, you know what, we're going to have to be more front-footed in games, we're going to have to go after it. And they can start that, win against Newcastle United and win well, woof, the confidence will be up. So it's an absolutely fascinating title race now.
And again, be happy, neutrals, that we've got this. Because this is brilliant. Very seldom does a title race go like this in such a difficult way to go. What's happened in recent seasons is, yes, say Liverpool and Man City or Arsenal and Man City have gone it and it's been exciting. But that's where Man City get the little advantage and they hold it and they're away. This, I think, is brilliant.
I'm very pleased as a neutral that this is going on because it is absolutely absorbing. So drink it in, Vish. Drink it all in.
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Chapter 8: How does Bournemouth's performance impact their season outlook?
You know, sometimes this season we've had a 7.30 kick-off and an 8.15 kick-off, I think mainly for the Amazon games. I would have loved that for this.
Yeah, I know what you mean.
Trying to split back and forth, but shame.
Come on, Sky Sports, sort it out, sort it out. They've reached 40 points, Leeds United. Last time a side went down with 40 points, or in the 40-point bracket, was West Ham when they were relegated in 2002-2003 with 42 points.
I mean, yeah, they're totally fine now, surely.
Oh, I would have thought so. I mean, you know, they are nine points above Tottenham Hotspur. OK, Spurs, West Ham and Forest have games in hand, but I think, yeah, Leeds have put themselves in a fabulous position there.
They're as close to Bournemouth in seventh as they are to Spurs in 18th, yeah.
Yeah, it's indeed. I don't think Leeds are going to catch Bournemouth. I don't think Spurs are going to catch Leeds. But Leeds, good times for them, as you say. To get an equaliser deep into stoppage time is always going to be pleasing. They have a semi-final to look forward to. Good times for Leeds United. But what about Bournemouth, though? Disappointing for them.
Yes, they're 14 games unbeaten. They're in seventh. They would have gone sixths. with a win but oh so close i mean really they had the chances to whisker away from going three one up uh with you know again a very narrow offside uh call but if it's offside it's offside that's something that we've come to to learn um i mean
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