Brighton Preview

The new season is here! Everton open the campaign against Brighton. We preview the game, give our predictions for the season, and we give Chelsea a good kicking.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Welcome to episode 76 of the Blues Brothers Everton
podcast.
That's Austin.
I'm here.
Don't know why I talked aboutmyself in the third person.
There Side of madness, Andy andAdam are here.
Adam's still in Florida.
How are you doing, Adam?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I'm good thanks, enjoying the nice weather,
enjoying the plethora ofextremely calorific food and
enjoying going to the themeparks in the evening and stuff.
It's nice.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Awesome Andy's at home near Rotherham.
How are you doing, andy?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
I've still had good.
Thank you've seen, I'm good.
Thank you, yeah, I'm off worktoday, so I went to the cinema
this morning, saw a horror filmcalled Long Legs, which was
extremely good fun, veryX-Files-like in part which was
right up my street.
So, yeah, enjoyed that.
Had a very calorific lunch inFive Guys and then just been
chilling here in the afternoon.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
I had Five Guys for lunch today as well.
Awesome, ben can't join us.
He's, I think, doing his job orsomething.
He had some excuse, I don'tknow.
It's the middle of theafternoon in America, so if
you're listening from myemployer, then it's 7pm.
So we're going to talk about wesort of did transfers last

(01:29):
episode.
Uh, obviously we're recordingthis on wednesday.
The bright games on saturdaywe're going to talk about that.
But I wanted to start with justa bit more generally.
You know we're about to hitthat start of the season and
everton have been absent fromour lives for about three months
, blissfully, uh, it's about totake over again.
I just wanted you guys to tellme how you feeling.
Like andy, I'll start with youlike you're feeling optimistic

(01:51):
pessimistic, you know, lookingforward to it, dreading it.
What's your, what's your moodas we start on another season of
inevitable, inevitable tortureand heartbreak?

Speaker 3 (02:03):
I think, no matter what the previous season has
thrown up and no matter how good, bad or indifferent the summer
transfer business might havebeen, as an Evertonian you
always start off beingoptimistic, thinking that the
new signings will do well, thesquad will have improved,

(02:25):
they'll get off to a good startand then kick on for the rest of
the season.
Now, obviously, invariably, itdoesn't work out like that, but
I'm quite optimistic because Ido think that the new signings
that we spoke about last week, Ithink the club have done really
good business.
I'm looking forward to seeinghow they slot into the squad.

(02:46):
I'll be interested in yourviews on the Roma game because,
other than the score, I knowzilch about what happened in
that game.
Apart from Indy seemed to havehad quite a good game.
So I'll be interested to hearif you guys know anything about
that.
So I'll be interested to hearif you guys know anything about

(03:08):
that.
The one caveat is keeping A ifCalvert-Lewin stays at the club
and B keep it in fifth and ifBrantwick stays as well.
If one or both of thosesituations change, that will
have a big bearing potentiallyon what happens during this
season.
But overall I'm quiteoptimistic, bearing in mind the
circumstances, financially andotherwise, within the clubs

(03:31):
operating with it.
I think they've done areasonable job over the summer
in strengthening the squadreasonably well, so I'm looking
forward to the new season.
I think we'll do alright.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Adam, what are you thinking?
Yeah, I'm optimistic I the newseason.
I think we'll do all right.
Adam, what are you thinking?

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah, I'm optimistic.
I sort of always am, I think.
This time last summer I said Ithink we'll avoid a renegation
battle.
So I'm optimistic, if notcompletely accurate in my
predictions.
But I think our our, um sorry,someone was facetiming me um,

(04:11):
our, uh, professionals, alwaysabsolutely our, our, um, our
squad is comfortably better thisseason than it was like last
season, I think, in terms of thething, the position is that
we've strengthened.
You know, we brought in Ndai, webrought in Lindström, so we've
got those two sort of morecreative, pacey players that we,

(04:32):
that we sort of we said welacked last season.
And then obviously, you know,we've lost Danana, but as we've
watched Lyrical about, he didn'tnecessarily fit Dyche's system,
so you could argue whether he'sgoing to be a loss.
So, yeah, I think BBC film andulti put that we finish about

(04:53):
11th and I think that's what wecan look at.
We'll be knocking about, youknow, anything between, like you
know, 10th to about 14th, Ithink, is where I think we'll
finish.
I think we'll comfortably missthe relegation places,
additionally, because obviouslywe're not going to have the

(05:14):
points deduction that we endedup having in the end as well.
What did it end up being?
I can't remember what it wasnow in the end, was it eight
points or 10 points in the end?
We lost eight in the end?
Yeah, in the end, was it eightpoints or ten points?
In the end?
We lost eight in the end, yeah.
So add those, add those on, andyou know we ended up with a
significant number, a highnumber of points than we did
last season and put us aroundabout that, that, that point in
the table anyway, and we've nowgot a better team than we had

(05:37):
last season.
So without any major departure.
And if there are departures,then you'd hope for players to
replace the, you know, calvertlewin, and being the most
obvious amongst that, and then,yeah, I don't think we'll have
any trouble.
I think it's a should behopefully the start of a slow
rebuilding process acceleratedby a um, uh, new investment and

(06:00):
um, you know what the?
The um, optimism and newopportunities that the stadium
will bring starting next season.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, it's a good.
The Thelma Nolte prediction isinteresting, or maybe not,
because you look at last seasonwe finished on 40 points, which
was comfortable enough.
I mean you got relegated, you'dhave stayed up on 27.
So it was.
You know, finally, hopefullythis is the nail in the coffin
of the 40 points to stay upthing, which hasn't been true

(06:28):
for years and years and yearsnow.
Um, and obviously we finished15th.
48 points with our goaldifference would have had us
12th between brighton andbournemouth.
You know all on 48 points, withjust the goal difference
separating us.
And you know Brighton andBournemouth, everyone lauded the
great seasons they had.
Now we're a bigger team withmaybe higher expectations.

(06:51):
But you know it was frustratingfor all of us last year that we
were consistently judged basedon our league position, whereas
the results we were getting onthe pitch were not.
That wasn't the reason for theleague position we got, you know
we got deducted, you know,obviously, at first 10 points,
then we ended it with eight.
So phil mcnulty is basicallypredicting we will finish where
we would have finished last year, which is interesting if you

(07:13):
think about because I agree withyou, our squad is relatively
better, which I think isdefinitely true um whether
actually we could surprisepeople by getting into the top
10.
It depends how relatively otherteams have improved, obviously,
but we should have more goalsin us than we did last year.
If nothing else, we should becreating more chances than we

(07:36):
did last year.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, and last year as well, of course is that there
were lots of games, certainlyearly on in the season.
I mean the Fulham.
I think did we open againstFulham last season and we
battered them and then theyscored.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, lost 1-0, yeah, lost 1-0.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
And there were a few games like that.
So obviously it doesn't take ahuge swing in the fortunes of
both teams to turn those defeatsinto draws or wins.
I'd just like to come back toone further point about the

(08:27):
points deductions.
If you recall, we have got afurther charge or issue hanging
over us from the second of lastseason, so that issue still
requires resolving now.
As far as I'm aware, no datehas been set for that to happen
yet, so it's anybody's guess asto when that will be, but that
is an added complication aroundthe financial fair play rules.

(08:47):
We'll just have to wait and seewhat happens.
Everton are confident thatthey've not done anything wrong,
but they were fairly confidentinitially before we had the
points at the last time.
Is that confidence misplaced?
We don't know.
We'll have to wait and see.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
It feels like a lifetime ago now, but they
admitted confidence misplaced,we don't know.
We'll have to wait and see.
Well, they admit.
I mean, if you feels like alifetime ago now, but you know,
they admitted the first timearound, our point wasn't
everything's perspective, wasn'tthat they hadn't breached the
rules, it was that there weremitigations and the big one
obviously the stadium, andukraine was the big one which
was not accepted.
So, um, yeah, it would be turnthis into a different type of

(09:29):
podcast if we got into the sortof detail of that.
But it has to do with six and ahalf million pounds worth of
interest charges.
Now, looking at that and thescale of that, that feels like
that would at worst be worth acouple of points, even if it
didn't go our way.
You know it's not going to beanother 10 because it's part of

(09:50):
another thing.
So, yeah, but it's a good, it'sa good point.
We may live through that.
It'll be interesting as well.
I mean, we're not going to turnthis into a psr podcast, but
the man city situation has toget resolved.
I cannot conceive of that notbeing resolved in the next 12
months yeah, and then you know,apparently you know, word is
chelsea and man, man united,have both got you know

(10:11):
significant issues as well.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
So you know yeah, and that's that's another aspect to
it, because I've I've heard umthat the man city uh cases might
start um being dealt withbefore the end of the year and
that might take a couple ofmonths to resolve.
So if that is the case, thisseason might be the season where

(10:33):
that's finally sorted one wayor another.
And I certainly agree.
And again, I've heard thingsabout Chelsea and Manchester
United as well.
So you sort of wonder if thePremier League have got, frankly
, bigger fish to fry than the£6.5 million of interest
payments that we may or may nothave breached by.

(10:54):
So that might come into it aswell.
They might just sort of say toEverton well, you know, you had
your eight points last season.
This isn't, in the grand schemeof things, that big a deal.
Just, you know, we'll give you,you know, a warning, or even
just a single point, orsomething like that.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Or they may do what they've done up until now, which
is not enforce the rules forthe big clubs, and just come
after us and forest.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
That's a possibility too.
That would be likely as well,yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
All right, so let's do some predictions and then
we're going to talk about theBrighton game.
Adam, where do you think we'llfinish this year?

Speaker 2 (11:34):
I think we'll finish.
If I want to nail down anactual position, I think we'll
finish 11th.
I will go with.
I will go with.
I will go with Phil McNulty'sPhil McNulty, on that one, like
I said, our squad's better thanit was last season.
So I think we can.

(11:56):
I think that's a reasonableposition to say that we'll
finish and, considering if youtake away our PSR charges,
that's roughly where we wouldhave finished last season.
So yeah, I'd be disappointedwith anything lower than I'd say
.
Obviously we finished 15th lastseason, so I'd be disappointed
if we finished there.
But if I was being reallyoptimistic, then there's no

(12:19):
reason why we don't think thatwe can break into the top 10.
I think that's obviously thelimit of what we can expect,
what we can break into the top10.
I think that's obviously thelimit of what we can expect,
what we can hope for, rather,this season yeah, and it's.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
It's interesting, isn't it, to think about how
other people's squads haveprogressed as well.
Andy, what's your prediction?

Speaker 3 (12:43):
I think we'll finish 13th, which is not you're going
to be able to throw a blanket, Ithink, over the club's
finishing between 11th and 14th.
So we'll be in.
I think we'll be in amongstthat group.
But if you ask me to nail downa position, I'm going to say
13th, because I think as wellthat I don't think that the

(13:06):
clubs right at the bottom willbe quite as weak as they were
last season.
So if you get the same pointstotal as last season, you might
finish a position or two low inthe lead than this season, than
you did last.
So, um, I'm gonna go 13th Ithink we'll finish ninth.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
I guess I want to pick a different answer to you
guys, but also I think Dycheyear effectively year four,
second full season, you know hasgotten more of a handle on the
squad.
If we could have.
If we score 10 more goals lastyear, I think that, exactly as

(13:50):
you were saying, andy, makes adramatic difference to our
league position.
I think we'll still 10 moregoals this year.
I think our defence should bebasically just as good.
No reason why it wouldn't be.
It's going to have literallythe same players in it.
So I think we might surprisesome people and finish, I can
see us getting 51, 52, 53 pointswhich is just effectively

(14:16):
winning two more games than wedid last year, and I think I can
see that happening.
So there you go.
We'll get Ben's prediction whenhe's next on, or he can dodge
it and not have anything toanswer for in nine months.
Alright, so we're playingBrighton on Saturday at three
o'clock back home.
Adam, you'll go into this game.

(14:38):
So we're playing Brighton onSaturday at three o'clock back
home.
Adam, you'll go into this game.
So I'll start with you.
How do you feel about it?
What do you want to see interms of?
You know the team and the setup, and how do you think we'll do?

Speaker 2 (14:54):
Yeah, I'm going with our dad.
We really look forward to it.
I usually get to about, likeyou know, four or five games a
season.
Four or five games a season orso now.
So, yeah, I went to.
I went to Fulham at home.
It was the first game lastseason and we absolutely
battered them and lost 1-0.
So obviously not hoping for adirect replication of that, but

(15:18):
there's no reason why we can'tgo play Brighton at home and
think that we're going to dowell, because Brighton are
obviously going to be a bit of afunny team this season, because
they're either going to doreally well and carry on their
new manager will carry on thegood work of Graham Potter and
Deserve and the likelihood isthat they will because Brighton

(15:44):
are extremely well run.
They obviously do their duediligence over people that
they're going to bring in.
So it's going to be a toughgame and they've made some quite
smart signing-ins, chief ofwhom Minte from Newcastle,
obviously, who we wanted andprobably would have ended up
getting if Calvert-Lewin agreedhe'd move to Newcastle.

(16:06):
So it's going to be a toughgame, but I want to see an
attacking performance becausethere's no reason why we can't
go there.
I don't want to see us, like,sit back and absorb possession.
Really, I think we can go aboutour game, which is, to you know
, press high and and go at thembeing at home as well.

(16:30):
So because I don't thinkthey're obviously a better side
than us, judging by the lasthalf a decade of seasons.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
But we got the same points as them last year.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, that's a fair point.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, yeah, we had a slightly worse goal difference,
but only by four.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
That was that team that I was trying to think of
earlier, when I was thinking,like you know, who was that team
that we Everyone talks?
Oh yeah, you, everyone talks toyou.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Oh yeah, you'd think Brighton won the league the way
people talk about them.
They finished 11th on 48 points, with a minus seven goal
difference.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, so there's not a lot between us, so home
advantage I want to see anattacking performance and it's
just nice to get back and getback to Goodison as well,
obviously, because this will beone of my three or four

(17:21):
opportunities to go before wesay goodbye to the old lady.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah, it's going to feel very heavy being there.
I'm hoping to get there, Ithink maybe twice, hopefully
this side of Christmas andcertainly one on the other side.
It's going to feel very, verystrange not going back there,
very strange.
Andy, what are you thinkingabout for the Brighton game?
What are you looking forward to?

(17:47):
What do you want to see?

Speaker 3 (17:49):
I'm looking forward to it.
I think we can go there with nofear and take the game to them
and try and win, because, Ialready said, the start of the
season last season was verypositive.
Unfortunately, it wasn'tmatched by results.
I've got a funny feeling aboutBrighton.
I completely accept what Adamsaid about their well-run and

(18:12):
they've got a good continuity interms of player recruitment and
recruiting new managers, butcan that continue year after
year?

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah, can they keep putting lightning in a bottle
year after year, can they?

Speaker 3 (18:26):
keep doing it and I sort of think, because I agree
last season I mean, as you said,the media reaction to that,
compared to how they finished,was completely out of portion.
I didn't think they were thatgreat for large chunks of last
season.
Now all right, Deserby had sortof checked out by about March
really, so you can write off theend of the season to an extent.

(18:50):
But I think this is a seasonthat Brighton could start to
struggle a little bit.
So on that basis, we've gotnothing to fear from them at all
.
So I've got every confidencethat we can go and win.
And just on the point about itbeing the last season at
Goodison as well the atmosphereis always good there, but I

(19:11):
think this season is going tohave something special in every
single home game.
Because there's going to bespecial in every single home
game, because there's going tobe people at every single home
game for whom it's going to betheir last time at Goodison.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, that's a really good point.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
So I think the atmosphere is going to be really
, really special this season.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Yeah, it's a really good point.
I think it's going to.
I can't even think about it toomuch.
It's like it's a really goodpoint, I think it's going to.
I can't even think about it toomuch.
It's a big deal.
I'm sure every team's the sameto some degree, but the history
of Goodison and the for not evenlike obviously all of our lives

(19:52):
, all of our dad's lives, all ofour grandparents' lives, all of
our great-grandparents' lives.

Speaker 3 (19:59):
Well, it's 133 years by the time the end of the
season rolls around.
I mean it'd be interesting toknow has any football club
played at the same ground forthat length of time like other
sides of everton and no like,not like like creston north end

(20:23):
of you know, played at umdeepdale for probably a
comparable period of time butit's not counting again with the
other one, I guess rightthey've been not counted.
but yeah, there'll few,obviously founder members who've
never moved around, but they'reyou know we all do respect them
.
They're you know, not on thescale of the size of club than

(20:45):
Everton.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yeah, and the things Goodison Park's seen with
Everton and the European nightsand the World Cup games and Pelé
and you know like just morehistory in in that place than
almost anywhere else in terms offootball, you know.
So there's a good point, andy,it's going to feel.
You're right.
There's going to be peoplethere who are every time is
going to be it's going to betheir last time.

(21:10):
One other question I want tothrow at you guys is we talked
about Dominic Calvert-Lewin lastpart and there was the
consensus amongst I think youall was that he would leave
because last year of hiscontract you know, etc.
I just want to come back to itbecause and see if you guys

(21:31):
still feel the same because itwas interesting.
And you talked about the Romagame and he scored.
Guys still feel the samebecause it was interesting.
Andy, you talked about the Romagame.
He scored a good goal in thatgame.
I didn't watch all of it, butword is from people I heard who
were there is that we playedwell and he played well.
But also he played, I think, 80minutes.
I think Beto came on for 10minutes.
Clearly this is the finalrehearsal game.

(21:53):
It's sort of yeah, yeah, it'sabout building fitness.
But if dyche thought he wasgoing to be out definitely out
the door next week, he wouldn'tbe playing him for most of the
pre-season game.
So there is clearly likethere's clearly more than a
possibility that he stays.
How do you guys feel about that?
Adam, I'll come to you first.

(22:14):
Is that like oh shit, you knowwe're going to get screwed money
wise.
Or are we pleased that we'vegot him, that we might have him
for at least another year?

Speaker 2 (22:25):
I don't think that the club will be either naive or
daft enough to allow him toleave on a free unless they're
either confident that they canagree terms with him or that
there's going to be someactivity.

(22:47):
Agree terms with him or thatthere's going to be some
activity.
There's going to be someactivity.
You're absolutely right.
The fact that he's obviouslyplaying 18 minutes in the final
pre-season game and has playedagainst, you know, slago Rovers
and played against Preston aswell, indicates that he's

(23:08):
obviously going to be thepreference up front.
So I don't believe thatNewcastle would have been the
only team that would have beeninterested.
And if it became obvious that,like Dominic Cavalier said, I'm
not signing a new deal, then wewould have inevitably dropped
our asking price because he'sobviously whatever we would have
.
We would have inevitablydropped our asking price because

(23:30):
he's obviously whatever we get,obviously get for him.
We've had him for such a longtime.
Yes, we've got to considerobviously any sort of sell on
clause to Sheffield United.
We've got, but we're going tomake.
We would have made a decentamount of money for him.
So I think I'm optimistic thathe'll sign a new deal based on

(23:51):
that.
I just can't see the clubletting him run down his
contract, and if we can get himto show the sort of form that he
did, you know, towards the backend not the last season, but
the season before last when hewas scoring.
He had that fantastic game awayat Brighton where, although he
didn't score, he was absolutelycentral to everything that we

(24:11):
did when we beat them 5-1.
And then, obviously, the goalagainst Crystal Palace when we
were 2-0 down.
So if we can get into that sortof team play form because I
don't think Dyche wants him toplay in the same way that
Ancelotti wanted him to play,which was sort of a poacher
getting on the end of stuff Ithink Dyche wants him to be much

(24:32):
more of a team player, and thenyou're going to have players
like Lindstrom, mcneil, harrisonand Dyche contributing more
goals coming from the players.
So, yeah, I'm quite optimisticabout him signing the contract.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
Andy thoughts on that .

Speaker 3 (24:57):
Yeah, I'd go along with that.
I think I said on the last podthat there's no way the club
could afford to let him go forfree at the end of this season.
So he'd either have to sell himnow or be confident that he was
going to sign a new contract.
And, as you guys have just said, the fact he's been as integral

(25:18):
to the pre-season plans as hehas been would clearly indicate
that he's integral to the plansof Dijs' plans going forward,
which therefore makes you wonderis he going to sign a new
contract?
Because, yeah, I'd be amazed ifhe was a central figure of this

(25:40):
season and then the clubwatched him walk away in a free
come next June.
On the other hand, if it were tosell him, just on a point of
what he might be worth, just todemonstrate that a player is
worth what somebody's preparedto pay for him.
I don't quite understand howDominic Solanke is worth £65

(26:05):
million, but he is, becausethat's what Tottenham have
agreed to pay Bournemouth forhim £55 million plus £10 pounds
in add-ons.
So you can probably add on afew million quid to
Calvert-Lewin's potential fee ifthat's the sort of uh money
that's going around for PremierLeague goalscorers.
Um yeah, but uh yeah, becausethat was one transfer that

(26:30):
really did have me scratching myhead at the value of it.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
But there you go yeah , it's going to be interesting
to see what happens withRicharlison as well, isn't it at
Spurs?
Because you know he's furtherdown, even further down the
pecking order now not quite thesame place, like Anki, but you
know he Not quite the sameplayers as Anki, but he's a
forward and I think I wouldn'tbe stunned if Richie moved

(26:55):
somewhere before the end of histransfer window.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yeah, he's already said no to Saudi Arabia, didn't
he?
It's just real credit to himbecause he's he's a young guy.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
How old's Richie now 26, 27?
, 27.
Guy he calls Richie now 26, 27.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
27, yeah, so he's comfortably second choice in the
two positions that he plays,because now Solanke will be
playing up front and Son willplay off the left.
The two positions that Richiecan play.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
It almost certainly won't happen.
But you wonder if it's worth aphone call to his agent or to
Tottenham from Everton justsaying you know, can we get him
on loan?
I mean, have we got anothergroup we?

Speaker 1 (27:39):
have one, don't we?
We have one loan slot.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
One loan slot left.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
So his wages will be the stumbling block there,
because he's pretty much doubledhis wages when he moved to
Spurs.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah, yeah yeah, I mean you can see if they don't
think they need him or if hereally wants to play.
But in it, you know they'vejust had the Copa America.
There's no World Cup in thesummer.
He's not going to feel thatpressure to like if it was a
World Cup season.
He might say I've got to beplaying every week.
You know he might not do, I'vegot to be playing every week.
You know he might not do that,but it would be.

(28:12):
I mean, we'd love to have himback.
It would be awesome.
I have this sort of thoughtknocking around my head If you
sell Calvert-Lewin, we mightsign Lukaku.
But that obviously is likecompletely ludicrous because no
one can Definitely can't affordto play him anymore.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
Would you?

Speaker 2 (28:30):
imagine.
I'm sure we'll have a list ofplayers if Calvert-Lewin were to
.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, I think you guys convinced
me of this the other day.
I think actually, ifCalvert-Lewin goes at Otham,
they will replace him, or notimmediately.
Because you're not to yourpoint about Solanke, andy.
You're not going to go out andget a better player than Beto
unless you pay 50, 60, 70million, which we obviously

(28:57):
haven't got, which we haven'tgot.
So you're going to have to tryand do it in a different way.
And yeah, I think that you knowthat.
So I think actually you knowwhether that's a good thing or a
bad thing.
You know time will tell, but Ican see him, you know that.
So I think actually you knowwhether that's a good thing or a
bad thing.
You know time will tell, but Ican see him.
You know, because, adam, you andI were talking about this the
other day like you can see theclub incentivizing Calvert-Lewin

(29:19):
to sign a new contract.
It's got to be in his interest,right, and it's fair enough.
He's a, he has a short career,he's entitled to maximize what
he gets from that career.
So he's not going to sign a newcontract on the same terms at
Everton just because it removes,puts his transfer fee up, makes

(29:42):
it less likely, weakens hisnegotiating position.
But you said that the other day, you could see us offering him
something where we pay him morewhich gives him a reason to sign
it, and maybe pay him more thanwhat he wants, which he's not
getting anywhere else, and haveclauses where, if a Champions
League team comes in for him,there's a release clause.
That is reasonable.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
Yeah, you know, you can see that sort of situation.
Yeah, exactly, I think heobviously has ambitions bigger
than everton, which is, you know, which is fair.
You can argue both.
You could say, yeah, you know,that's fair enough, because he's
been there for a long time.
He's obviously a very, verygood player.
Um, on the flip side, some mayargue that, you know, he was

(30:23):
injured for pretty much twoseasons and we, we stuck by him
and he sort of owes us and hewas, you know, he didn and he
didn't really live up toexpectations last season.
So you can sort of see it fromboth angles.
I think another point that'sworth mentioning with him is
that we'll lose him on a freenext season.

(30:44):
But obviously that only getsactivated for all clubs
worldwide in june.
Um, you can agree pre-contractagreements in january with
foreign clubs.
Now there's not going to benecessarily going to be, um, a
great deal of uh, welcome backandrew.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
Um, there's uh andrew , small, small ps8.
Andy, when you take theheadphones out of your ears, it
hangs up the zoom every it was,it was.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
It was about to fall out.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
I was trying to push it back in and I did push it
back in my ear, but itdisconnected if they're like
mine, they're flat, it sort ofpours.
Yeah, if they're like there's aflat bit on it, it pours.
Anyway, less about thegeography of, uh, geography,
yeah, if there's a flat bit onit, it's a pause.
Anyway, less about thegeography of it.
So yeah, with Calvert-Lewin inJanuary, we do have obviously

(31:36):
another option there to sell him, because there's not going to
be a great deal of interest fromabroad for him.
I think it's fair to say so.
There is an option there.
Of course, you'll lose an awfullot of his value because he's
only got six months left on hiscontract, but if he doesn't end
up leaving this window, that isan option as well.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
And he's not like Calvert-Lewin, I think, is not
going to get signed by.
He's only going to get signedby a sort of top club as a
backup at a stretch, right, Likehe's not going to be.
I don't want to say he's not asgood as he thinks he is,
because it's unfair.
I think he's a very, very goodfootballer but, given his injury

(32:23):
record and his patchy form,newcastle obviously wanted him
as a backup and weren't preparedto pay what he wanted for a
squad player, basically, whichis fair enough.
So you think, well, what optionsis he going to have?
Really, he could get overpaidby a smaller club, right, so he
may go somewhere where someonelike Brentford might sign him

(32:46):
and pay him too much, basically,might sign him and pay him too
much, basically.
Or he could go to Saudi Arabiaand get paid loads of money,
which, if he wants to give up onhis England ambitions and all
that stuff and just go and makebank, that's fair enough too.
But otherwise you're like, well, everton might be the biggest
club he can be a starting playerfor.

(33:07):
I can sort of see that, inwhich case he probably does end
up.
He probably does end up signinga new contract.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yeah, I made this point last time on the last
podcast about Newcastle.
I just didn't really see how hewas going to expect to play all
that much with Isak and thestyle of play that Eddie Howe
likes to have New Newcastle play.
And you start to think andthere's, like you know, you
thought maybe like West Hammight have been, it might have
been interested and theyprobably probably were.

(33:39):
But I imagine they theyprobably realized they could get
Nicholas Fulcrook from Dortmundfor for about half the price.
Yeah, um, so there's not a lotof there's not.
He hasn't got a lot of optionsand I think maybe the club are
playing a bit of hardball, youknow, knowing that the interest
is maybe not there and maybewhat he or his agent thinks

(34:02):
there is yeah, yeah, because I Ican sort of see that and you
might see this.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
as he's 27, it's his last opportunity to make a big
move, which is probably right,but unfortunately he's not
delivered.
You know, dom's like 80% of theplayer that we maybe at one
point thought he could be.
He came through.
You know we signed him when hewas very young.
He's developed really, reallywell and if you sign someone for

(34:28):
like, what do we pay for?

Speaker 3 (34:32):
A million or something, 1.2 million, from.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
United.
You sign a player like that andhe turns into what we've got.
That's great, it's awesome andyou know, because we've
effectively grown a startingstriker, which is fantastic.
But he's not.
You know, he's not Granthwaiteor even Anthony Gordon or
someone where you can say he'sgoing to be, has the potential
to be at the highest level.

(34:53):
He's not going to be at thehighest level.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
Yeah, just on Brantway, I think that's.
I mean, that's worth sort ofmentioning in light of United
signing De Ligt.
There's no doubt that you know,next season there'll be more
interest in Brantwaite and he'lllikely leave, but I think us
keeping hold of him wasabsolutely massive, given the

(35:20):
strength of Tarkovsky andBrantwaite's partnership.
Last season we were the fourthbest, and Pickford as well, of
course.
We were the fourth best defencein the league and that was
absolutely huge.
And credit to Brantway as well,because you look at Gordon and
the way he went about histransfer and you think, when

(35:44):
teams want you and bigger teamswant you, are you going to be a?
Let's say, the Newcastle arenecessarily a bigger team than
us, but they have more money?
Um, are you going to be ananthony gordon and throw your
toys at the pram, or are yougoing to be richarlison and go?
Yeah, I want to leave, but, um,I understand that there are, I
understand that there's a way togo about it and this is the

(36:07):
right way to do it.
And you know, credit tobrandthwaite, because we haven't
heard a peep out of him, um,and for all intents.
But he agreed personal termswith united, so he obviously
wanted the move and that'sabsolutely fine, not a problem
with that at all, you know, um,but he, he will also, I'm sure,
understand that.

(36:27):
You know we have to get a fairvaluation for him and United's
valuation and offer to us wasinsulting at best.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Yeah, I agree, and the financial impact is huge
because he's effectively a pureprofit from a PSR point of view.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
So if you do get 75 million for him down the line,
that's massive for us in termsof our ability to spend money
Exactly, and the other level,like you know, we've probably
given a 10, 15% sell-on clauseto Carlisle, so they'll be, you
know, they'll probably get youknow something like how much did
we pay for him we paid about,didn't we pay about?

(37:07):
I can't remember how much wepaid for him, it was like a
million or something, wasn't it?

Speaker 1 (37:10):
Yeah, like maybe I mean a rounding error in
football terms?

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Yeah, exactly so you know.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
You look at it like you'll be pocketing 60 million
minimum, even after you've paidCarlisle, and that's absolutely
huge, you know, huge for us yeah, and just one further point on
that is I was listening to theRaw Blue podcast by the

(37:38):
Liverpool Echo guys earliertoday and they were saying that,
as far as they were, evertonneed to break even financially
this year, this financial year,in terms of PSR, to avoid a
breach for this current season.
So again, if you see asituation where Brantwick stays

(37:59):
this season and then we sellthem before the end of June 2025
and all that profit is bankedon this season's balance sheet,
well, you'd imagine that there'syour break-even with the sale
of one player.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Yeah, exactly, and we wouldn't have spent the players
.
I think we've been really smart, really smart.
I know we've talked about thisin a previous.
I think it's worth reiterating.
I think we've been really smartwith the signing of O'Brien as
a pre-empt to Brantley leaving,because you've got a player
there who will play a decentnumber of games, is a very good,

(38:40):
an extremely good backup toTarkovsky and Brantwaite, who
you can comfortably say will bethe preferred pairing again.
But you've got a really goodplayer there who can come in,
who will play a decent number ofgames, and then when Brantwaite
inevitably leaves next season,he's ready to go.
I think they've been really,really smart.
And you're absolutely right,andrew, I don't think we

(39:02):
wouldn't pay the transfer feesthat we have, because we've
shelled out about anythingbetween 32 to 36 million,
depending on what you read onO'Brien and Ndai to bring those
to it.
So that's a decent outlay andobviously sold Anana for 50
million.
So we're obviously in the blackin terms of our net spending.

(39:25):
But we they've obviouslyanticipated that and gone right.
We can sell Bramthwaite nextseason and we're not going to be
and we can spend this summerbecause we know we're going to
have that asset to sell nextseason?

Speaker 1 (39:37):
yeah, yeah, they're probably not.
You've got to assume that wewell, we know how much we
overspent over the periods wewere fine for and it's not that
much right.
So the sort of profit from youknow, my understanding is that
the thing we did with theswizzle, we did with Villa, you

(39:59):
know, for Lewis Dobbin, you knowobviously net just 10 million.
Understanding was that that gotus compliant the period that
ended 30th of June this year,and then we've made net.
We've banked net 20 million onOnana, and so we're probably for
this season, slightly in thered.

(40:19):
But you can lose net 30 milliona year.
It's not that you can't loseany money, it's the losses are
capped effectively at an averageof 30 million a year.
So we're clearly, obviouslywe're well within that, unless
there's some stuff we don't knowabout, but I don't think that's
the case.
All right, so we're excited.

(40:40):
We think we're going to finishsomewhere between 9th and 13th
and we're going to beat Brightonwith dynamic, attacking
football on Saturday.
Anything else we want to chatabout before we wrap this up?

Speaker 3 (40:53):
Just one thing I will mention and I've climbed on the
laughing at Chelsea Hill manytimes over the years but I'm
going to mention it againbecause, according to this
morning's independent, a playerthat was due to be transferred
out of Atletico I think possiblyto Chelsea has failed to agree.
personal service that's rightyeah, which has meant that the

(41:15):
sale of Conor Gallagher fromChelsea to Atletico is on the
brink of collapse.
Now, bearing in mind how muchChelsea have been, you know, I
mean their squad of players isunbelievable.
Anybody who hasn't seen theirsquad of players?
If you've got nothing elsebetter to do when you've
listened to this, just have fiveminutes Googling it.

(41:36):
You've got eight goalkeepers.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
Eight senior goalkeepers yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
It's unbelievable.
So you wonder how on earththey're managing to find the
money to spend them all.
They've spent hundreds ofmillions of pounds again this
year, so they must be banking ongetting Colin Gallagher out the
door to bring some money in sothey can be compliant with PSR.

(42:02):
They're already running ringsaround the rules selling hotels
to themselves, and there's otherthings as well about the
women's team.
Some part of that has been soldto some other subsidiary
company apparently.
So I think there are PSRcharges waiting to happen at the
end of this season or the endof the next season, and I just

(42:24):
wanted to mention it justbecause it's just dead funny and
I'd just like to laugh at them.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
There is a genuine Terry, go ahead, ad no, no, no,
you go, it's fine.
There is like a genuine like.
I was listening to the GuardianFootball Weekly about this the
other day and they were talkingabout the goalkeepers.
I am desperate for someone toexplain to me what Chelsea are
doing Like, because you know,whenever I see stuff like this,

(42:51):
my inclination is where you go,some organization or even a
person is doing something whereyou're like.
That makes no sense to me.
My assumption is that they knowsomething.
I don't right, but nobody seemsto.
The Athletic did a whole episodeon this on their podcast, which
was very good.
We've talked about it, theGuardian's talked about it.

(43:11):
There is nobody can work outwhat the hell they're trying to
do and they are obviously sostuck.
And one thing just quickly thepoint Athletic made about the
mechanics sorry, this might havebeen Kieran Maguire on the
Costa Football podcast, which isvery good, definitely recommend
to listen to that is that youcan get into a trap with the way

(43:35):
PSR works because you have a£100 million player on a
five-year contract, that PSR.
The spend is amortised over thefive years, so it's £20 million
a year.
So after two years of thatcontract.
That player has a book valuefor PSR purposes of £60 million,
has a book value for PSRpurposes of 60 million.

(43:56):
Now, whether that player isworth 60 million is an entirely
separate.
As you said, andy, earlier on,players are worth whatever Cubs
prepare to pay for them.
So because Chelsea got to thinktheir strategy was to get
around these rules by havingthese very, very long contracts
seven, eight, nine-yearcontracts which of course, yeah,
reduces the annual amount thatthey have to book for those
acquisitions.
So it maxes, you know it's it.

(44:17):
But it's no different to like.
You know, psychologically, ifI'm borrowing on a credit card,
it's like at some point it comesdue.
And the way it can really comedue for them is they could have
players with five years left ontheir contract where their book
value is double what anyonewould pay for them.
So to see if they sell thoseplayers, they don't make psr

(44:38):
money, they lose it.
So they like they, they would.
You know, if you have a playerthat has a book value of 60
million and you sell them for 30, that is minus 30 million to
your psr calculation.
So you, they could.
So they are probably in thatsituation with like they could
be in that position with liketwo dozen players where they

(45:02):
can't sell them because theyliterally don't have the PSR
room to sell them.
Normally, it's like you don'thave the PSR room to buy players
, so they could really really,really be stuck.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
Additional issue with this as well is well, because
obviously, andrew, you talkedabout the way that they've
stopped hiring players in somany positions.
But not only are they stoppedhiring players in positions, but
the fees that they paid forthose players means that some of
them are quite literally notgoing to have enough game time
to prove to any potential buyingclub down to two years down,

(45:38):
yeah, that they're worth payingfor that.
So, if you take an example,let's take the example of
mckayla mudrick, who's probablyprobably the best example of
this.
He didn't play an awful lotlast season, you could say.
You could say that he was a,you know, a squad, a squad
player, um.
They signed him for 80 millionum, was it two years ago?

(46:02):
I want to say it might havebeen a year, was it?
No, it was last summer, wasn'tit?
It was last summer and theygave him and I think he's on an
eight-year contract, so that's10 million, 10 million a year.
So let's say it doesn't work,let's say it doesn't work out in
, you know, they want to get ridof him in two years time he's
still gonna have 50 millionworth to um, to to Shakhtar, to

(46:23):
pay.
So and it's not worked outbecause he hasn't played enough.
Well, are they?
Are they gonna necessarily getthat 50 million um back for him?
And if they do, they're gonnamake, they're not gonna, but
they're not gonna make anythinglike put over 60 for him because
he hasn't played.
So, like players are going totake that sort of risk on on

(46:45):
such a massive, massive outlay.
And if you think of, likemudrick and he's not really
played, what sort of level ofclub is he gonna go to?
Is he gonna?
He's gonna go to?
He's gonna end up going tosomeone, like you know, a west
ham newcastle level of club.
Is he going to go to, is hegoing to end up going to someone
, like you know, a West HamNewcastle level of club?
Well, that's pretty much.
That will be like half, half,two thirds, three quarters of

(47:05):
their budgets.
Are they really going to dothat?
So they're playing a huge game.
And that's just one player.
Of course They've got so manyother players.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
They've got 426 of them.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
And that's just one yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
And, just to the point, do they know what they're
doing?
I mean, look at Rishi Sunak andthe whole shambles around
leaving D-Day early.
Nobody looked at that situationand thought that's probably not
a good idea.
He should stay.
And then there's the wholeshambles about, you know
Berlin's airport, the whole,which is open now, but you know

(47:41):
the escalators, the wrong size.
The smoke detection systemsucks, you know, fresh air into
the building to feed the fireinstead of sucking the smoke out
.
I mean, there was a high-speedrailway line in France a few
years ago A couple of theplatforms or stations had to be
rebuilt, because the platformswere built too close together

(48:02):
and there wasn't room for twotrains to pass each other.
So the point is you assume thatthese people you know, in all
these high-pressure jobs whereyou know you're dealing with,
you know people and tens ofmillions and hundreds of
millions of pounds of budgetsknow what they're doing.
But massive cock ups do happen.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
Yeah, and so you wonder if Chelsea are just
walking, you know, blindly intoa footballing version of that.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Yeah, you totally see that We'll have a Chelsea
segment on the regular as we gothrough this season.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
I know I mention them a lot, but it's just.
No, it is absolute madness Justbefore we go, we can do
predictions for the Brightongame.
Oh, you did, thank you for thereminder.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
What's your prediction for the Brighton game
, Andy?

Speaker 3 (48:54):
I will say Everton 2, Brighton 1.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
Awesome Adam 2-0, Everton.
I'm going to say 2-0 too,obviously.
All right, we'll see you on theother side.
Good to see you both.
Thank you for listening.
Dear listener, follow whereveryou get your podcasts, subscribe
on Spotify, follow us on Appleall the places we're there.
Tell an ever-supporting friendand we'll see you on the other

(49:19):
side.
Come on, you, blues.