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Chapter 1: What is the significance of the 2026 World Cup kickoff?
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It is the Breakfast Wrap. It is the Anfield Wrap. It is live. It is Thursday. It is John Gibbons. And it is, ladies and gentlemen, Josh Sexton is going to explain basketball to me.
How long have you got? Just the concept of it.
Not for the first time. That's coming up in a minute or two because it's all gone off in New York City and this is a worldwide show. You know, I've got Mr. Worldwide here as well. We're getting ourselves all sorted out. But I've got to start off with the big news. The traffic is horrendous in Old Swan. It is abysmal. Absolutely ludicrous. Old Swan, broad green as you approach the rocket.
Just don't go near it. Don't take any chances. Don't even think about going around Old Swan right now. It's red lines everywhere on the AA. So you just keep yourself out of it, whatever it is you're doing. You just settle back in with us and take a different route. It's the way it goes from time to time.
I think Old Swan might be pound for pound the worst traffic. Maybe even in England, certainly in Merseyside. There we go. Just avoid it if you can. Nothing against Old Swan. I was there last night. But something happened. The streets have been designed in a way that does not suit the modern world.
No, I've just gone on AA.com and it's almost flashing. It's gone deep red and it's almost like going, no, no.
It's a shame because it's a great Tesco.
yeah that tesco but you can't get near it you can't get near it so that's this is the sort of the vicious show this show is here to do it's traffic but on a global level it's weather but on a global level and it is an absolute delight and the world cup does start today it is the first day of the world cup we'll see if it's any good or not as it wears on because my god the early signs are not promising off the pitch it's worth pointing that out as we go through and deal with all of this summer
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Chapter 2: How does the transfer market impact football teams during the World Cup?
People have a go at managers for leaving and stuff like that. But this is a reminder that they might just sack you in three months. For no reason, almost. Yeah, and so I think managers do have to look out for themselves, as do arguably players. But I think from a manager, from their point of view, sometimes someone will get promoted, for example, and then they get linked with a bigger job.
And everyone's like, oh, I can't, I'll just sort of walk out. If you're struggling for three months, they'll just sack you. And Rob Edwards, listen, he didn't have to work out on Middlesbrough, it was a bit slave sort of what he did to them, but having endured the stats he is in at Wolves, and actually I think done alright. We've got some sense of team spirit in amongst it all.
Yeah, he looked more competitive, he looked like he had a bit more purpose, you know, he was always positive even in the face of, you know, what was certain relegation, and... I bet he was quite looking forward to a season in the championship, winning a few games, getting them going, maybe getting them back up. And they've just gone, nah. And it is so harsh.
So I think managers will be looking at that and thinking, it's in my mind. Especially if you've got a mad German or you work for a bit of a basket geeks club. If you get an offer, do it once. Just go and do it. Because it might not be there in two months when you get sacked. So that's Rob Edwards, Josh.
The next one is Kieran McKenna, who yesterday, just from nowhere, says, that's enough for me. And it's the idea that it looks genuinely as though he's decided to walk away to take a bit of a break from football, which I think for now, let's just take a face value. I think that's quite impressive. He's obviously had four or five really intense years with Ipswich.
He might be thinking, maybe he's had a meeting internally in Ipswich and he's thinking, next year, my existence is battling to win eight games.
and I don't know if I can be bothered with that on top of everything that we've just gone through let that be someone else's problem but if that's the case fair play to him you know I'm quite I'm into the idea of him just basically saying I just need to take a bit of time here because this has been heavy yeah it's the strange thing about Ipswich maybe being ones to book the trend that John's referring to there is you know they've kept Kieran McKenna around even when they were relegated from the Premier League they kept Kieran McKenna around and you know he's been sort of yo-yoing between there and the championship now if you can call it that as in going up and going back down and now coming back up
again so I imagine that is a lot of pressure and like you know we've we've spoke about loads on the Ampharap in the past about you know the basically you have to be a psychopath to take the Liverpool job because of the amount of pressure that comes that but I don't think that's only limited to Liverpool I imagine that pressure of you know coming up from the championship being a really attacking team but potentially in the championship as well and then coming up to the Premier League and you know as Burnley have found out a couple of times the past few years you can't necessarily be that front foot attacking team and still uh
you know guarantee yourself survival so you know that i can imagine that is a you know a bit of a head fuck if you're a manager really to to constantly go through that up and down and sort of shifting tactics so you know as you say if you are taking it at face value that you know nothing has necessarily gone wrong there that for now i sort of say fair play to him and maybe rob edwards will look at that and be like sort of wish i'd done that really now because it just felt like for half a season there it was the nether that he was you know
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Chapter 3: What led to Wolves sacking Rob Edwards?
It was really weird, wasn't it? Every video he filmed was just at a train station. He's a very odd man now. He's a very odd man. I think there's probably a point where someone could have stepped in. But as it is now, things are out of hand.
No, they completely are. I'm sure the firebrand is still going strong somewhere for Rio. All the twerking for Qatar didn't really advance very much. I think there would be loads of United fans who'd have been up in arms if they'd have got that state ownership, who are still a little bit up in arms now with the Ratcliffe situation. So there are definitely some really bad actors in football.
I'm not surprised that people thought that maybe you were acting in bad faith, but I think you don't often do that when it comes to the Blues.
very rarely certainly not on city wide radio Josh not from the top of the tower at the top of the hour that's not the way in which I like to go about my business Andy Bear has been quiet though hasn't he it's almost like he's abandoned the Blues now it just shows that you can marve off when you're made of an insignificant old mill town but you know when you're running for the you know the big job which he theoretically is I mean at the minute he's just make a field but I take your point probably just feels that now he needs to be a bit more sensible and choose his words a little bit more carefully
Yeah, absolutely could not agree more. It's about time that Andy Burnham decided to get a grip of himself and we can go on from there.
Either that or he's going big on Wigan Athletic because he's so for Ashton and Makerfield that he's like, you know, I'm just going to attach myself to the nearest institution.
Well, he obviously does need to be careful because Burnley, you know, is in Lancashire, so they're wronged in this. But, you know, it is tough. I'll just tell you, though, my boy heard about this in school yesterday. They were talking about it, yeah, and he said, what's happened with Everton? Oh, I made up a tit-and-plague.
yeah what's happened with Everton and I was like well there's this and that and I said they've cheated some but it's important to remember you know to teach them that the cheats never prosper and he said are they gonna take the trophies off them I said you don't need somebody about that
don't worry about it excellent stuff 30 years Ted I want to talk about the collective 31 John I want to talk about the collective situation with I wonder whether or not so there's obviously rumours at the minute Anderson I want to come on to how many how much football has cost in a second We'll talk about that.
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Chapter 4: What are the challenges faced by managers in today's football?
And when he first came in, he didn't look up to very much. And, you know, I think he's slowly growing into it. There's a few others, like I'll even look at someone like Savino, who I know that they're looking to move on from now. But...
he's someone who has been a little bit of a slower burner for them and I think it's because they're having to be cuter in the transfer market but then also because they're being cuter and because they're going for some of these slower burner players and because City are expensive operators in the transfer market the smaller teams now or the clubs who've
got these big assets who City are going to buy from can suddenly turn around and go, we know how much you need him because you're not suddenly signing, you know, four fullbacks for 200 million. So we're going to, you know, put a premium price on this and all the best basically.
And I sort of think it's one of these strange things where I didn't think Declan Rice was worth 100 million, but then you could argue he has been to Arsenal. And I do wonder if because City are having this sort of issue of moving on from Rodri now that Anderson might just look like he's somehow worth 100 million in a couple of years time.
I think he could be the best one who's moving this summer, John. And I think that the Declan Rice point is a good one. You know, right now, Arsenal, you look at the seasons that they've had with Rice. The difference was, though, it felt to me like Rice was just a little bit further along in his development.
And it also felt like he was more of a massive impactor of football matches, you know, from nowhere. He'd done a bit of that for...
They did score goals as well.
Yeah, there was definitely an element to that. I don't want to act as though for a second because I don't want people to think I want Liverpool to be cheap. I don't. I just think that if you're Liverpool this summer, the reason why this is a concern, if you're City, the money's where it is and you're able to sort of act like that.
Liverpool this summer, we know they spent a bit more than they would have liked last summer in the round. We know they didn't do everything they should have done last summer in the round. So we end up in this situation where Liverpool have got a fair few to get and if the Premier League centre midway sort of
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of Everton's compensation to Burnley?
Imagine what we're going to be capable of by the time we get this thing finished. Honestly, the things we're going to solve nationwide, we're never going to solve Switch Island. I'll just rule that out. But everything else feels as though it could be possible for us at this point in time. It's exceptionally exciting. It was good to hear from Rob there, Josh, just to begin to sort of wrap up.
As I say, I've got a gutter coming later on today, so if people want to subscribe, it's theanfieldrap.com forward slash subscribe, or through the app in order to do that. You can also subscribe through YouTube if you're watching this on YouTube. That gets us our video content. It doesn't get us the audio as well, just to be clear. But, yeah, this is all available online.
across the course of the day so do subscribe through the app and then you can get to see everything or through the anfieldapp.com forward slash subscribe and hear everything as well but there is a little bit of a thing where you know for me I think it's important Liverpool have got tons of quality in wide areas but that quality doesn't all have to be Salah and Mane style quality I still think Diaz is a very different proposition to the two of them and Liverpool won the league and Diaz was a really important part of that
I think there's periods where Klopp himself plays a bit of a lopsided 4-2-3-1 where salary is really important and really high up the pitch but so is Mane but Naby Keita for instance played left midfield Shaqiri played right midfield there's more than one way to do this and again I think one of the things that I think we all want is for Liverpool to box clever I don't think any of us want Liverpool just to throw money at this off the back of what we saw last year Liverpool boxing clever is I think the thing that we want from Iriola from Richard Hughes from the players themselves and from us
Yeah because we also want the players to be versatile and I think maybe one of the worries last season was we looked at a player like Alexander Izak for example and went oh suddenly like we've got this sort of footballer who only belongs in one position and he's not necessarily versatile and I think maybe a couple of friendlies for Sweden have proven that's not necessarily the case like he is someone who likes to you know be able to pull into channels I think if you watched more of him at Newcastle that was definitely the case that he did like to be able to
have the freedom of the attacking third of the pitch really so that he could pull into channels and could drop a little bit deeper and stuff and I do think Liverpool have got in theory there a front three if you've taken the players out of it that you've taken out over the summer in Mo Salah and sort of discounting Rio Engamo for now because he's kind of a different prospect to the other three so just in Florian Wurz and Hugo Ekotike and Alexander Izak all three of them should in theory be versatile and we should be able to make something work with that front three that
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Chapter 6: How does the Premier League's financial regulation affect clubs?
you know, even if it is a little bit lopsided, even if sometimes it looks a bit more like, almost a bit like Salah, Mane and Firmino did, where Wurz is Firmino in that formation and Ekotike and Izaka pulling into the channels a bit more like Mane and Salah, then hopefully it's something that can, you know, work for Liverpool once Ekotike does get back from injury.
It's something I definitely want to see more of last season and I have a bit of sympathy for slot that like we didn't get the chance to see it too much, but it's kind of why I want us to, you know, go out and sign
at least one winger this summer really is is that it kind of it almost i don't like implores the new manager really just to be able to to look at that formation a little bit more look at the idea of being central to to you know people flying down the flanks or you know being a bit more like wide forwards um and i'm just i'm so intrigued by split strikers as well like i loved what brentford used to do with the split strikers thing to the point like you now look at someone like in
And you could argue even Vissar, even though it's obviously a very small sample size of Vissar at Newcastle really, and be like, Mbwema was actually clearly not a number nine. And he was sort of built into kind of being a number nine as a split striker at Brentford. He looks much more like, you know, sort of inside forward, wide forward now.
So I'm intrigued to see if Liverpool can do something like that where, you know, wingers kind of fit into it and Eketika and Izak fit into it.
For me, John, I did all the Transfer Committee shows, seven of them that are available for all of you subscribers. Sorry we didn't manage to get a video one done. Annoyingly, Liverpool sacked a manager and employed another one and we had to keep reacting to that. We were going to try and do a video one and we had to sort of lose it as it went through. But...
What I learned from herding cats, in a way, was the importance of the challenge of keeping the wage bill down, getting exciting players, and being able to still have the strength and depth across the squad.
These things are thought experiments, I'll say it all the way through, and it could be that if Liverpool are going to box clever and maybe just maybe have a bit more of a wide midfield option, because I think you've got to have width.
you can't not play this game without width and you can't play against low blocks without width but a bit more of a wide midfield option on one flank it frees them up to have one or two belters on another flank or another belter to play through the middle at times as well if that's the direction you want to go in I think spreading this wage bill a bit thinner it's going to be really really important but we've got to accept that comes with a couple of trade-offs there's only so much money
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