In this episode,
Kevin talks about Wilfried Nancy leaving CF Montreal for the Columbus Crew, a certain timeline of some events that have happened, and a context on the last few months in Montreal soccer. Then, he looks at 2 potential candidates, a pragmatic/realistic choice, and a fantasy choice, and argues why he believes his pragmatic choice is as we speak the #1 candidate for the job.
Plus, Kevin looks at Koné's transfer to Watford, explains why statistically he was attractive for the Vicarage Road outfit, and looks at Alistair Johnston's move to Celtic, in Scotland.
Catch Kevin's latest articles on soccertoday.ca
Subscribe to Soccer Today's channel here https://youtube.com/@soccertoday
Subscribe to the podcast everywhere you find your favorite shows.
Until next time, have a great soccer.
Kevin talks about Wilfried Nancy leaving CF Montreal for the Columbus Crew, a certain timeline of some events that have happened, and a context on the last few months in Montreal soccer. Then, he looks at 2 potential candidates, a pragmatic/realistic choice, and a fantasy choice, and argues why he believes his pragmatic choice is as we speak the #1 candidate for the job.
Plus, Kevin looks at Koné's transfer to Watford, explains why statistically he was attractive for the Vicarage Road outfit, and looks at Alistair Johnston's move to Celtic, in Scotland.
Catch Kevin's latest articles on soccertoday.ca
Subscribe to Soccer Today's channel here https://youtube.com/@soccertoday
Subscribe to the podcast everywhere you find your favorite shows.
Until next time, have a great soccer.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome. I'm Kevin Larmey and thisis Soccer Today. Yes, good day,
good night, and welcome to SoccerToday. I'm Kevin Laramie and today
(00:26):
yes, slow newsday. Nothing totalk about whatsoever. We've got a brand
new website. We're gonna need abrand new coach in Montreal. I'm gonna
need some new players in Montreal.Eastman Kne Alistair Johnston added to the list
of players transferred out of Montreal thissong season. We will look at the
(00:46):
reasons why they attracted interest overseas,statistically looking at why want for that seat.
Goodbye yellow brick Road, goodbye smiledcone to Watford FC, and we
will look why statistically speaking he cutthe attention of the Hornets. We will
(01:10):
also look at Alistair Johnston Celtic goingto Glasgow playing for the biggest team.
Yes, I just shared my allegianceof the Scottish Premier League, the biggest
team in Scotland, Celtic. Wewill talk about why Alistair Johnston of course
(01:30):
has joined Celtic, and we willalso talk about for sure, to start
the show right now about the biggestnews of the day, No, not
the results of the World Cup.We're not going to preview France England.
That will be coming on another episodecoming very soon and very soon. That's
a new word I just invented.Coming very soon. We will of course
(01:51):
talk about Wilfred Nancy leaving Montreal goingto Columbus, the new manager of the
Columbus Crew. The Hassling family hasthemselves a pretty decent coach, and we
will talk about a couple of reasons. First of all, a certain timeline
of events that happened, or evenmore events that we don't know that first
(02:15):
sure happened before. The relationship hasbeen strained for a while between the owner
and with and with Hednazi's agent andthat camp. The two sides have been
pretty much at audends for a whilenow, for months, and it all
came to a clash. For thefamous altercation that took place on July ninth.
(02:38):
You can google it to look forit. It was after a well,
it was two bad losses, onceto la at the Galaxy four nil
and then Kansas City two one astaze Puto a very bad loss and Teotonio,
a journalist for Lapteis, was witnessedtoo. While bad words, I
(03:01):
would say, and basically the ownerJoey Saputo talking to Ride about the manager,
saying that something happened, and itwas known since then that there was
a big altercation the gist of it, and that is unconfirmed. I don't
know is that the truth, Butwhat is believed to be known in the
(03:22):
soccer world here in Montreal is well, we're gonna see. Basically refused access
to the locker room to everybody,including the owner, and that did not
go well. There was already incidentsany historian relationship before that July nine and
since then two there was some badword exchange on each other side. It
was basically a well to the divergentpoint of view coming to a clash,
(03:50):
and there hasn't been since then amendingof defenses, so much so that it's
now believed to be the case duringthis season with Cannas wanted to leave right
then and there when Montreal was doingreally good. I'm out peace, but
no players, and of course themanagement and Gabria Javert, the president of
(04:14):
the club and the direct parting directorand Ivana and the players key players of
the team got together and were ableto convince, according to multiple reports,
with Cannasi to finish the season.What's interesting now is while the link between
all the parties, the trust,the one thing to do business between camps,
(04:41):
at least from with Cana's part aswe now know, was gone at
that point. He has been witnessedto a lot of things over the years
and he knew. That's according tomultiple people that are close to we,
Canna see growing as manager of allfrom of all he was part of the
academy, He's been an assistance.He was with academy since its inception in
(05:04):
twenty eleven, has been an assistantwith the first team since twenty sixteen,
and will fredna see over the yearshave seen a lot of things happen in
this club, from managers being firedto players and managers having public altercation in
the locker rooms. Things have happenedin this club over the years. We
all know that a lot of thingswent down in the walls of Statsiputo since
(05:28):
twenty eleven. Since with Carenas hasbeen part of the environment of the club
and when he was in a positionto dictate how he wants things done,
it didn't go well. So thatbeing said, that relationship between him and
the club, meaning the owner,has been strained for a while, and
this was the worst kept secret insoccer in Montreal, even North America,
(05:51):
the fact that with Canasi was goingto leave see if Montreal. It's been
also the worst kept secrets in Columbusthat he was going to be the next
manager of the crew. He hasbeen seen over the last few weeks at
different spots in the region in Ohio. He has been seen looking at houses,
he has been seen in restaurants.He has been seen with the Edwards
(06:13):
and Hasslem family which owned the Columbuscrewp so. Now it was announced today
on December sixth that CF Montreal hashad a financial agreement with the Columbus Crew
and there will be an exchange ofmoney here. We don't have a detail
right now as how much. Pressconference and all will happen later and you
can look on a brand new websitelater when we have more information. Because
(06:36):
that's strikes Soccer Today dot CA.That's the new branding. It's easy,
it's Soccer Today dot CEA. Alreadyyou have news pieces I just dropped earlier
today my news aspect. But alsoit's a research there's a lot of statistics.
It's a bit of the gist ofthe history of his MalCon it's a
short version of his timeline to thechampionship, the journey, the Vicarage road,
(07:01):
which we'll be talking later on thisshow. Why Watford wanted is Maricone
Statistically speaking, there's a good reason, even though he is at the beginning
of his career. And we'll dothe same for Alistair Johnston. But just
to finish on with Red Nazi,we wish him all the best in Columbus.
(07:24):
This is the end of the cyclefrom Montreal. Let's call it spade
a spade. It's not just areconstruction. This is the end of the
cycle that was started with Tierriri.This is the end of the act one.
This is the end of the firstera, of the Olivier Rna era.
So if this was movies, okay, we all know the Marvel Cinematic
(07:46):
University MCU. Well, this isthe Montreal Soccer universe. This is the
MSU and this was the Thieri Risnash with saga. Now we're gonna move
to a different saga. The andthere's a there's a link between the two,
(08:07):
and the link between the two isgonna be following this and this is
not confirmed at this point. ButI do have a couple of candidates that
I think can be the manager ofMontreal. But here we will continue the
MSU analog MCU analogy. Here MSUthe Montreal Soccer universe. We finished the
(08:28):
Wilna Si saga with a whole lotof Canadian players, a whole lot of
Montreal players making it to a WorldCup. Even though they haven't played,
like Joe Wanderman, Semi Piat andJames Pantemis haven't played during the game,
they were part of the team thatwas at Qatar twenty twenty two. Alistair
Johnston played, Eastmone played, Kamalmellaplayed. So that's Canadian, right,
(08:52):
It's moving to the next era.That was the easter egg, the six
Canadian to finish the season in twentytwenty to going to Canada for presenting CF
Montreal was the easter egg for whatcould be the next era. And this
is not confirmed. I'm not sayinghe will be the next manager, but
(09:13):
all signs point towards one name andone name only, and they have been
for a long time. He hasbeen liked for a long time. There's
a relationship, there's path there's connections, there's mutual friends, there's a whole
lot of things that happen over theyears from somebody that is in Canadian soccer
(09:33):
for decades now, that is oneof the engineers, if not the engineer
of Sigma FC Academy up until hejoined for JEFFC for the first season,
the inaugural season in the Canadian PremierLeague in twenty nineteen. And I'm talking
about for Jeff C's Bobby smirniadis heis my chop candidate. As of now,
(09:56):
this is not confirmed. I don'thave any information dating of today that
he has signed or that his agreementsor that he has met anybody. But
in the past he wasn't in thatwas mentioned in the Statsuputo's offices in the
past. There were conversations between thecamps in the past. There's been a
relationship that has been built between someteams in the Canadian Premier League and some
(10:22):
teams in Major League Soccer, anexchange of principle, an exchange of philosophies.
There's close ties of philosophies. Whenyou look at what Bobby Smernanas did
with Sigma with for JEFFC and whatCF Montreal wants to be Smernonas loves to
develop, loves to grow, notnecessarily having the top end academy that he
(10:46):
would like to actually achieve the dreamsthat he would like. But he sees
a team in Montreal where they wereable to sell multiple international Canadians over the
last few weeks and great international Americanswell or at least good LAS players like
Mihailo, which prospect to Europe formoney. So I do believe that he
is my top candidate if I wassporting director, if I was president of
(11:09):
CF Montreal, Bobby's Mrnianis would bea good choice. Financially, it makes
also sense you don't have to paya million dollars for your coach. This
way also has a very high ceilingof success. If it works out is
great, and quite honestly, therisk is pretty low. You don't risk
financial necessarily instability by getting him.You're not necessarily in a position where he's
(11:31):
going to alienate financial players coming in. He doesn't have a pedigree, he
has trophies, he played well inthe Champion Well. He was able to
qualify a team of the Canadian PremierLeague with a fraction of the budget of
some of the teams in the KAFFChampion League. While he was able to
get his team there through process thatwon't exist anymore, but through the CONKYCAFF
League and you he won his wayinto the Champions League from a comedian championship
(11:56):
type situation amazing while he eventually inthe Conquy cafleeing in all great performance by
four JEFC. So he is mytop candidate for now to take over CF
Montreal. Will it happen? Idon't know. As of December sixth,
the recording of this episode, Ido not have any information if he has
met somebody this time around, butin the past there were communications. In
(12:20):
the past, there was also wellsaying I'll see you next time around type
of conversations, but those were withdifferent people that are there. Now.
We have a new president in andwe'll see how that changes in the future.
But he's my top candidate. Ofcourse, there's a couple other candidates
(12:41):
that will very soon be available,and that's where you could maybe dream a
little, but this could not work. This could be a left field situation.
But bear with me. In mycareer, it's been a decade now
that I've covered this club and theleague, Major League Soccer. There's a
(13:07):
couple of conversations I had with coachesthat have stuck with me, and one
was through an interpreter to one ofthe few foreign coaches that doesn't speak English,
that managed can't speak to English,but not enough to do a conversation
in Major League Soccer. And Ihad, of course some other journalists with
me. Famously, I had Tristampersonal friend, Hello Trista if you're listening.
Who was next to me talking toTata Martino years ago when he was
(13:30):
manager of Atlanta United during one ofhis games in Montreal and after the time
to listen to him, and Iwanted to ask through a translator how he
viewed coaching, how he view beinga manager, but also what was his
role? And I thought it wasfascinating to me. His answer, who
(13:50):
was, yes, you have tomanage, you have to know your players,
but he emphasized the educating, theeducator role of a manager, especially
in the league like MLS and Montreal'sand a bit of a influx. Right
has a new Academy director and it'sa bit of a transition heading into the
Apple era that will start next year. So this being said, and he
(14:18):
that could be interesting. It isTata Massino, yes he is Mexican.
Won't be able to do press conferencesin French or English, but could that
be worth it? Could the endgoal of having a team that receives education
that is made better by Tata Massino, an experienced coach. Could that be
(14:41):
the case? Might be moving forwardand moving on from eventually Real Madrid.
That's a big name too. Thatwon't happen, but you know, Canada
might need a manager in the future. Maybe that works. What could be
an ideal candidate? And now I'vementioned and one dream candidate and that the
Masino one realist manager that i'm mymind is the top candidate right now and
(15:07):
could be the front runner in Bobby'smrnianis do we go? Tommy Wildon who's
with Cavalry and has relationships with CFMontreal. He has managed his team Cavalry
FC here Joel Waterman. He soldJoel Waterman to see if Montreal there's a
certain knowledge and certain well they knoweach other. Could that be an ideal?
(15:30):
Could that be a situation? Whoknows? Is there any Quebec coach?
I don't believe so the case rightnow and it's unfortunate that there's not
an established The reserve team is notestablished enough in the PLSQ with they're going
to change the coach. We knowthat it was announced earlier this week that
the coach from the twenty three lastyear both the Teina was in the PILSQ
(15:50):
won't be coming back. So it'sin flux there. What is there to
do for CF Montreal? Is therean easy solution? It's early December.
Hopefully before January this is resolved sothat the training camp that starts in early
February early January could start with yourmanager. So do you look to Europe?
(16:14):
Is there a European candidate that isrealistic? Will leads continue where they
are? Jesse Marsh forget about that. That will never happen, but that
would be ideal, But they willnever happen. Been there, done that,
burned bridges as we talked. Sowhat is the situation from Montreal?
Who's going to be the manager?I've said two names now when I think
(16:37):
about it, only one of themis realistic, of course, and that
is Bobby speranis But where do wego from now? Where do we find
another another candidate? Is the jobinteresting for candidates that are the same level
or higher. That's where the ideaof Bobby Spirena. If if you're going
(17:03):
to give somebody their first shot atthe first year in this country or North
America, no offense to the CPL, then yeah, the job is interesting.
If you're higher up and you're usedto a certain level of job security
(17:23):
or certain level of wild professionalism whenit comes to different part of the organization,
you might not want to work withthe CF Montreal here just looking at
how the managers have been treated overthe last decade or some an mls.
So that is a big question.Do you go back to a moral Biello,
who is assistant with John Herdman withKenian's national team, Been there,
(17:45):
done that? Who? Who?He might not even want that right now?
He might be next in line tobe Canada soccer manager if John Herdman
ever gets an offer that he can'trefuse. So this leads me with an
empty third candidate that I need tolook into that I need to do a
(18:07):
couple of phone calls, to havea few conversations to see who's in line,
who other? Who else? ThenBobby Smirnanis could be CF Montreal's new
manager. That's my question for youtoday. We'll take at your break.
When we come back, we willcontinue our great show today talking about kon
(18:29):
to Watford. We'll talk about DG'spractical son and the road to Vicarage Road,
so the journey to Victory ROJ andwe'll talk about Johnston Alistair to be
precise, and why Celtic fell inlove with the Canadian International That and more.
After this short break, we're backon Soccer Today keV Laramy. You
(19:26):
can follow myself on Twitter at keVLarramay. Yes I'm still on Twitter.
You can subscribe to this show everywhereyou find your favorite podcasts, and please
take a second to subscribe to theYouTube channel, YouTube dot com, slash
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It's easy. Just look for SoccerToday or at soccer Today at YouTube.
(19:49):
That's my new YouTube handle at SoccerToday. We're really doubled up.
We're doubledipping, we're doubling down,We're going all out. Thank you for
really liking the new branding of SoccerToday. Soccer Today dot c a podcast,
magazine, news and analysis on thewebsite podcast everywhere You're fundament podcasts and
(20:12):
magazine in video form. What Ilike to do with my magazine shows is
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YouTube dot com, slash act,Soccer Today or Soccer Today dota. All
(20:51):
right, I hope you enjoyed thislittle musical intro, this little intermission.
Time to gather our thoughts and moveto the news of the day too,
the positive news that was made ofpublic yesterday. And let's talk about Ismail
Cone first of all. Right nowon Soccer Today dot ca, Ismail Cone
(21:14):
to Watford, the Journey to VicarageRoad. You can find the article.
The written version of this segment isavailable right now on the website. If
you don't know, you'll learn inthis article that he blew up on the
local soccer scene in NDG. That'swhere he played, That's where his amateur
time was truly truly spent. That'swhere I live. I'm in Energy for
(21:40):
a few years now. That's whereI train, That's where I now have
a kid. It's really too young. He's not even too much a month
a month in the two days.So Arthur is not playing soccer yet.
He is in my mind, butthat doesn't count. Maybe he is already
available in my football manager career,but that's something else. But I train
(22:00):
with parents that are my age ora little older and have kids. They
have been playing an NDEG soccer associationfor a long time and they keep following
this kid. They were Statzopuco allseason. They've been traveling all the way
to the West End in twenty eighteento twenty twenty to see him play for
one of the biggest soccer talent tocome off of NDEG. East man Kna
(22:22):
prodigy. Here. I hear storiesstill of him running past defenders by speed,
defenders, having nightmares, seeing ghostsout there. We're seeing goal scoring
effort. There's a famous game thatthey played against Piechfon. I believe that
in twenty sixteen. I was readingabout it on the suburban. There's been
(22:45):
game against the twelve, the lasttwo that they were really famous, where
they were down two goals in Eastscores two goals and like a fraction of
a second to make it too tooand very he's very disappointed that they've lost.
And you read the article the suburbanor other places that they talked about
this kid and they're like, yeah, there's just a draw, but this
(23:07):
kid's gonna be good. This kid'sgonna be great, and we all know
the rest is history. But theyoung Canadian International is on the Yellow Bick
Road to success. Of course,Watford and all the Elton John puns and
jokes, well they go well together. If you don't know, Watford FC's
most famous supporter in the world isElton John. Yes, the singer,
(23:30):
songwriter, international media superstar who's justfinishing is good Bye Yellow Brick Road World
Tour. So that makes for bigjokes. So there's a couple of puns
in my article if you if youlook for me, you could find him.
Will follow our rocket Man to themoon, for sure, rocket Man,
(23:53):
but his journey to Vicra Drow's isobviously impressive. And we've talked about
this before on this show where justa few years ago he was like on
amateur pitches just next to where Iam. I can see a pitch from
my window right now as I'm talkingto you, and he played on that
pitch. I've seen pictures of himon that pitch. I've seen pictures of
(24:15):
him on Trentholme Park, on otherparks Josh Champia Park not far from here
too. Those parks and NDEG arewell known here and he honed his craft
on those. Well, for me, they're now holy grounds because he's going
to be the next big thing.It's easy to say, but his meteoric
rise is only equitable to a certainOffounsio Davies. But it's even quicker than
(24:40):
Alfounsio Davies in my mind. He'sa little older than the same necessarily the
same path. He doesn't just doesn'tgo to buy a Munich, and he's
not gonna starily gonna get a managerright away that believes in him. It's
gonna be a little harder when itcomes there. And he's going to Watford
and he's going into dirty in thehard, gritty championship. W for this
(25:00):
fourth right now, there's two playoffspot outright in the championship. Right there's
forty four teams in championship. Firstof all, well, sorry, there's
twenty two teams in the championship.You play forty four games in the season,
that's a whole lot and forty sixI believe, Sorry, it's crazy
the amount of games you play,and then you have all the cups,
so the load management is amazing,like amazingly brutal in the Championship, and
(25:26):
on top of it, to trulymake it something special, you have a
playoff at the end of it forjust a couple of teams to be promoted.
So the top two teams outright goto the Premier League, then the
four following teams in the Championship.They play each other in the playoffs situation,
(25:47):
and the winner at the end getspromoted. And that's one of the
biggest match in the history of sports. Every single year. The amount of
money involved for the winner is likehundreds of hundreds of millions of euro dollar
euros or now pound because well,I guess it's gonna stay pounds. So
it's amazing the amount of money involved. It's they call it the biggest money
(26:11):
match almost every year. It's whenyou win or when you get promoted and
you win the playoff where you getpromote a right, it's a golden bridge
where you get a whole lot ofmoney. Another Golden Bridges expression is used
often time to explain the relegation thefirst year because it actually will help you
have a financial support because it's sucha big, big rop in revenue the
(26:36):
following year. But when you lookat teams winning that game, it's called
that the biggest prize money in socceralmost so it changes a club whatsoever.
And while third were in the PremierLeague just a couple of years ago twenty
twenty two, straight relegation last yearunfortunately, and since then the light top
(26:56):
team in the Championship and they'll tryingto make it back to the Premier League.
And yeah, we've talked about EltonJohn being a famous supporter of Watford.
Not only was he famously their biggestsupporters, and you can see nice
images of him on the website tooin nineteen seventy four with some of the
Watford players. Well, he waschairman of Watford FC four well a little
(27:19):
bit, a little bit less thanforty years. He was named in the
nineteen seventy eight and he resigned intwo thousand and two. But he was
there for a long time. Hewas manager for a long time and he
was really helpful during the seventies andeighties when Watford rose to being a well
then there was no Premier League.It was just the first Division and it
(27:41):
was the top tier, top flight, and they never won the championship.
They never won the first tier wherethey were the first division in the Football
League. They were playoff winners ofthe second tier once in nineteen ninety eight,
nineteen ninety nine, they were runningsup in eighty two, eighty three,
and they were runnings up of theChampionship in twenty four fifteen. In
twenty twenty one, that's when theygot promoted the last time twenty twenty twenty
(28:04):
one, so they won the PremierLeague for twenty twenty one twenty twenty two
straight relegated and they could be backthis year. They've never won the FA
Cup, but they've finished runners uptwice in the FA Cup, which is
one of the oldest soccer tournament inthe world. Yes, lamar at Us
Open Cup is one of those oldestsoccer tournament in the world also by the
(28:26):
way, but runners up in theFA Cup in nineteen eighty three, eighty
four and twenty eighteen eighty nine forWatford FC. But let's talk about Ismail
Cone. Why was Cone selected atsuch a young age and such a short
sample size of professional experience. Thiswas his first year as a professional with
(28:51):
CF Montreal. He played thirty twogames all competition two thousand and sixty nine
minutes, four goals, five assists. That's, of course MLS, which
includes secondary assists. Expected goal thisseason in MLS one point five two point
four expected assists this season. Passingaccuracy of eighty eight percent all competition including
(29:11):
the playoffs. That is very impressive. Key passes of twelve and that's where
it's fascinating to me some of theaspects of a hesmaicne. But I want
to dive a little deeper into theadvanced statistics here to look at his smon
is contribution with CF Montreal over thelast year. Is passing accuracy. What
(29:37):
was really good. We've talked aboutit. Eighty percent of competition and eighty
six percent during the season. Shortpasses eighty eight, ninety percent for medium
passes and eighty four for long That'sgreat in the midfield. You can find
your strikers be able to connect withyour defenders if you need to. What
I think is fascinating is for hisshort sample size of amount of games or
(29:59):
a star, he has a perninety so ninety minutes average of seventeen point
six so seventeen point six times thisseason did he play ninety minutes if you
look at his amount of games played. So that is one of the measures
to quickly look at a player andsee how many games he played or what
his minutes equivalates. So I lookat that, and then right next to
it, I look at the shotcreating actions, and I'm thinking my data
(30:23):
on FB reference dot com fbref dotcom, which is one of the leaders
in data and events statistics that youcan find out there. So I'm looking
at fb ref and I do lookat his mad Kona forty four shot creating
action for a per ninety of twopoint five, and according while looking at
the statistics for players that played asimilar amount than him, that's very close
(30:47):
players that played less, it's higher. He's close to a Kyoto in that
aspect. And to me, it'sall about that. I'm all about shot
creating aspect. Goal creating actions onlycome after shot creating action, and in
any long term, in a longseason, long sample size, I like
these shown creating actions. When I'mlooking at a short sample size like a
(31:07):
World Cup, like a tournament,the goal creating action like Mbope in France
France has eighteen goal creating actions sofar, no wonder they scored a ton
of goal saying for Brazil. Bythe way, the two best teams will
be in the final. That's myprediction. Brazil France in the final and
Labler wins back to back. Ormaybe the salsa. I ask if you,
if you I watched me on sayTV earlier today, you've heard that
(31:30):
me use the word sasa esque flareof Brazil. While guess what it might
be dancing the salsa on December eighteenth, or it will be France. But
that's my two spoiler alert. That'smy top two teams in the World Cup
so far. Spoiler alert. It'snot that hard, so that's good.
But one thing that I wanted youto keep in mind, and I think
(31:52):
that's the reason Whysford really liked hismedicon because he's going to be helpful in
the championship. He's gonna grow,and he's gonna be help for in the
Premier League next year when they getpromoted. Okay, it's tackles, including
after interception and recoveries. So thosethree metrics together, I like to add
them up. It gives you anumber. Okay, that number could be
(32:15):
skewed if you have more recovery,more interception and I'm gonna sneeze, I'm
gonna pause it for a second andevery while, but we'll just have a
little interlude of music for one second. All right, I sneeze, We're
good. So, as we weresaying, when you add those metrics interceptions,
(32:37):
tackle, recoveries, it gives tome an indication of can you create
turnovers? Do you have turnovers?And when you have turnovers do you get
possession back? Do you bring toyour team more balls and more possession game.
It's easy just to see possession gainand possession loss, but that can
be skewed with a good defender.That can be skewed with just you loose
(33:00):
using your ball. But tackles,interception, recoveries added together gives you a
bit more global portrait to me inhow you can truly affect a midfield in
this case, riz mancone or asa striker, even he played as a
striker with NDG with Say Sens said, I want to be a problem to
(33:21):
see him as a striker further downthe road, But when I'm looking at
this situation, I think that's whyhe was chosen. He's got a lot
of interception for his position. He'sgot twelve twelve is the same as Georgie
Mihailovich. He's only behind the topof the team like of the Camas Show
and defensive players. But for astriker a midfielder, that's pretty good.
(33:44):
And you add recoveries. He hasa lot of recovery, almost one hundred,
and he played half as much asplayers who have the similar recoveries as
he does. He has more recoverythan Georgie Mihailovich and he played more.
He played less than Mihailovich. Soto me, those are the reasons why
Corney stands out statistically looking at hisbody of work, not only offensively,
(34:07):
and how he can do key passes, get the ball into transition, find
space and influence the result of thegame. He influences where the ball is.
He's got pretty much a two pointsper match statistic influence. To me
that that's not a coincidence, shortsample size of coincidence or a season happy
(34:30):
season in this case if we lookat his game started or gameplayed. But
I do believe he'sman corne brings thataspect in your midfield. He'll give you
an offensive upside, He'll find spaceand with his speed he can go down
the flanks. Again, I've talkedto you. I've heard a mother who
trains with me talk about his defenderkid who's got burned badly. But he's
(34:52):
gone and didn't even want to playthis game anymore. So when you look
at situations like this, you havehave quite quite an opportunity for success because
he has work rate and work rateworking in the midfield getting ball when the
ball is loose, you get theball you intercepted, You recover loose balls
(35:15):
in the championship. That is valuable. The Championship might be the toughest thing
in the world to play. Youhave zero time on the ball, you
got somebody on you. And whenyou create space, when you can create
link up with your teammates, whenyou bring the ball forward, that is
extremely useful in the Championship. Youthand also, his mileage is pretty low.
(35:37):
He's like he's an older card thanthe young younger car of his age,
but he doesn't have as much mileage. He came a little bit late
to the scene. So East Malcone, congratulations on your move to Watford.
Will always keep an eye on you, and it's a little bit funny the
(36:00):
feeling inside seeing little kid from anig going to represent not only the country
on the world stage and Qatar seeif Montreal all abroad, but also the
deeds in England. We'll be rightback. I'm waiting for a big wolf
(36:40):
to come out of somewhere to attackme. It sounds like I'm in a
Disney movie right now, in cartoonokay, so so as I tippy toe
on my woody floor and waiting forthe big bad wolf to come and attack
me. Let's talk about Alistair Johnstonjoining Celtic. Yes, the Canadian national
who played at Qatar twenty twenty twoand was able to find himself well a
(37:06):
new digs in Green in Glasgow.He also found himself on the worst eleven
of the World Cup. For somereason, I don't believe that thing.
He put some respect on the man'sname, Beliz because he's now part of
one of the biggest club in theworld. He's part of a Champions League
club. He is part of eternalfavorite to win the Scottish Premier League.
(37:30):
Yeah, Celtic. But let's talkabout his rise to success. Let's talk
about Eastmail Cone's predecessor in being transferredfor Montreal because mister Johnston happened a couple
of weeks ago and he played inNashville. That's where his craft was owned
(37:54):
on the MLS level side two yearswhen Nashville, but really grew into his
role with Montreal on the rights backright wing back situation, even called the
pawn as he center back and usingthe right side of that center back a
couple of times this season with CFMontreal. Thirty three games played with CF
(38:19):
Montreal, thirty starts, four goals, five assists. That's a lot for
a defender. Five shots on targetout of fourteen that is almost thirty percent.
It's pretty good this thirty percent.Actually, it's pretty good. Passing
accuracy with Montreal eighty five point twoduring the regular season, and if we're
looking at the playoffs situation eighty five, it's pretty good. It's five percent
(38:44):
more than he had in Nashville.But I want to bring your attention to
two other statistics concerning not concerning buttalking about Alisa Dunston. So so,
two things that are very important tome is dual percentage of one. He
wins a lot of his duels ina season he had a lot of interception,
(39:07):
but he won ninety seven point sevenpercent duels this year with CF Montreal.
And yes, you might not thinkthat he's that tall and in he's
that good with headers, but hewon eighty two percent of his headed duel
this year and to me that that'skind of interesting because he can help whip
(39:29):
the ball in. He can beuseful there, but he can be useful
on set pieces as a heading piecetoo. Even though he's not the tallest,
thirty two interceptions in MLST. Thishere that will be useful if we
look at his recovery and interception ratioone hundred thirty eight recoveries, he is
in the top ten of CIFF Montreal, even in top seven of CIFF Montreal
(39:52):
with one hundred thirty eight recoveries thisyear. He's got thirty two interceptions like
we talked about, and you hadthe tackles, which he was in the
top with Montreal for tackles all seasonlong. Alistair Johnston, he has,
let me just get the stats here, forty seven tackles, top four of
(40:13):
CF Montreal for tackles behind Victor oneYama, behind also Rudy Camma show in
front of Rudy Caamas show. Hewas second for CF Montreal Alistair Johnston for
tackles, So the ratio we talkedabout in the last segment of Tackles,
Interception and Recoveries does indicate here theAlister Johnson was very useful in the Scottish
(40:37):
Premier League. Will help Celtic overtakeRangers as maybe the most important club in
the league. Of Rangers have hada resurgence lately, so that is one
of the reasons why Alistair Johnston reallydoes and will do well with Celtic and
why he was transferred by Montreal.It is also talked about earlier in the
(41:04):
show an end of a cycle fromMontreal, so you're gonna have a new
coach. Might as well just getthe value that you can out of these
players coming out of the World Cup. You might never see it again.
Joe Waterman might be sold, KamalMiller might be sold. I wouldn't be
surprised if you get an offer forJames Pantemis. By the way, James
Pandemis is out of contract. Theydo hold the rights to him in MLS.
(41:24):
We'll see where that goals from nowon. He hasn't played, but
his name was in the World Cuproster. That has value inherently and we'll
see if that does affect there.We'll see if he comes back. Montreal
will need goalies, Montreal will needplayers. If you are a professional soccer
players, give a call to RiviaReal. You might be next to suit
(41:45):
up for the Blur bla noir.I want to quickly just talk about Celtic.
Of course, Celtic is one ofthe biggest club in the entire world.
And I'm not gonna act like Iam a big on SR or like
I know what I'm talking about here, but it is one of the clubs
that I've followed from AFAR and wewill give you an overview like we did
(42:09):
with Watch for It. Here forwhat Celtics or Celtic one on one,
let's go, here we go.He did some hydration for the boys here.
They play in Glasgow. The stadiumis called Celtic Park. It has
(42:35):
a capacity of sixty thousand, fourhundred and eleven persons. The Boys and
the Celts and the Hoops. Thosethree are the nickname of the Celtic football
club, founded in eighteen eighty eight. The ownership group is Celtic PLC a
corporation. They play in the ScottishPremiership. They finished first last year of
(43:00):
twelve and twenty twenty twenty two andwe will see where twenty twenty two twenty
three brings them. As of now, they have quite the record when we
look at the amount of championship andthe amount of things won in their history.
So let's look Scottish League Championship.They have won the top tier league
(43:23):
in Scotland fifty two times since nineteeneighty eight. Yes, fifty two,
that's a lot. They've won theScottish Cup forty times. That's a lot.
That's a lot. They've also wonthe Scottish League Cup twenty times,
(43:44):
so those are the domestic honors.A lot of those were were triples.
Let's face it, multiple of thoseyears were triples and its congratulations to Celtic.
Their trophy case is impressive to saythe least. We can continue to
(44:07):
talk about their honors. European Cup. They've won it once sixty six,
sixty seven, they finished runners upin sixty nine and seventy. They finished
runners up of the UFA Cup intwo thousand and two, two thousand and
three and the Intercontinental Cup that doesn'texist anymore in nineteen sixty seven. They've
won other awards over the years,and let's talk about them right now.
(44:30):
BBC Sports Personality of the Year TeamAward, they've won that once in nineteen
sixty seven. The France Football EuropeanTeam of the Year, they've won that
once in nineteen seventy. FIFA fairPlay Award, they've won that once.
Also in two thousand and three,the UFA fair Play Award, they've won
that once, yes, only oncein two thousand and three. And to
(44:53):
FIFA Fan Award for maybe one ofthe nicest and best fan and club in
the world, for the best fanin twenty seventeen. I've talked about the
troubles. They had a few.They had seven troubles in their history.
And that's the last little ty bitof information I'm gonna give you before we
(45:15):
say goodbye for today. We willbe back with a France and England magazine
preview show and of course a podcastalso in an article over the next couple
of days on the website Soccer Todaydot c. A league title, Scottish
Cup and League Cup. It happenedseven time in the history of Celtic sixty
(45:38):
six and sixty seven, sixty eight, sixty nine, all one about two
thousand and oh one, sixteen seventeen, seventeen, eighteen, eighteen nineteen and
twenty nineteen twenty twenty. They wereon quite a run from the mid point
of the twenty tens all the wayto the end of this decade with four
(45:59):
trouble in a row. And that'swhere they want to go again, and
that's where they hope that Alistair Johnstonwill help bring them. Until next time,
I hope you enjoyed this podcast,part of the Soccer Today family,
available at soccer Today dot CA ofcourse everywhere you get your favorite podcasts,
and you can find our magazine showon our YouTube page at YouTube dot com,
(46:22):
slash at soccer Today, or justGoogle YouTube and at soccer Today and
you will find a link to ourchannel on YouTube and that is where our
magazine show with visual graphics with aidcan be accessed accessed. Also you can
see some of the graphics on thewebsite at Soccer Today dot c A But
(46:45):
as always, until next time,have a great soccer that was unpat had
Welcome. I'm Kevin Larmey and thisis Soccer Today. Yes, good day,
good night, and welcome to SoccerToday. I'm Kevin Laramie and today
(00:26):
yes, slow newsday. Nothing totalk about whatsoever. We've got a brand
new website. We're gonna need abrand new coach in Montreal. I'm gonna
need some new players in Montreal.Eastman Kne Alistair Johnston added to the list
of players transferred out of Montreal thissong season. We will look at the
(00:46):
reasons why they attracted interest overseas,statistically looking at why want for that seat.
Goodbye yellow brick Road, goodbye smiledcone to Watford FC, and we
will look why statistically speaking he cutthe attention of the Hornets. We will
(01:10):
also look at Alistair Johnston Celtic goingto Glasgow playing for the biggest team.
Yes, I just shared my allegianceof the Scottish Premier League, the biggest
team in Scotland, Celtic. Wewill talk about why Alistair Johnston of course
(01:30):
has joined Celtic, and we willalso talk about for sure, to start
the show right now about the biggestnews of the day, No, not
the results of the World Cup.We're not going to preview France England.
That will be coming on another episodecoming very soon and very soon. That's
a new word I just invented.Coming very soon. We will of course
(01:51):
talk about Wilfred Nancy leaving Montreal goingto Columbus, the new manager of the
Columbus Crew. The Hassling family hasthemselves a pretty decent coach, and we
will talk about a couple of reasons. First of all, a certain timeline
of events that happened, or evenmore events that we don't know that first
(02:15):
sure happened before. The relationship hasbeen strained for a while between the owner
and with and with Hednazi's agent andthat camp. The two sides have been
pretty much at audends for a whilenow, for months, and it all
came to a clash. For thefamous altercation that took place on July ninth.
(02:38):
You can google it to look forit. It was after a well,
it was two bad losses, onceto la at the Galaxy four nil
and then Kansas City two one astaze Puto a very bad loss and Teotonio,
a journalist for Lapteis, was witnessedtoo. While bad words, I
(03:01):
would say, and basically the ownerJoey Saputo talking to Ride about the manager,
saying that something happened, and itwas known since then that there was
a big altercation the gist of it, and that is unconfirmed. I don't
know is that the truth, Butwhat is believed to be known in the
(03:22):
soccer world here in Montreal is well, we're gonna see. Basically refused access
to the locker room to everybody,including the owner, and that did not
go well. There was already incidentsany historian relationship before that July nine and
since then two there was some badword exchange on each other side. It
was basically a well to the divergentpoint of view coming to a clash,
(03:50):
and there hasn't been since then amendingof defenses, so much so that it's
now believed to be the case duringthis season with Cannas wanted to leave right
then and there when Montreal was doingreally good. I'm out peace, but
no players, and of course themanagement and Gabria Javert, the president of
(04:14):
the club and the direct parting directorand Ivana and the players key players of
the team got together and were ableto convince, according to multiple reports,
with Cannasi to finish the season.What's interesting now is while the link between
all the parties, the trust,the one thing to do business between camps,
(04:41):
at least from with Cana's part aswe now know, was gone at
that point. He has been witnessedto a lot of things over the years
and he knew. That's according tomultiple people that are close to we,
Canna see growing as manager of allfrom of all he was part of the
academy, He's been an assistance.He was with academy since its inception in
(05:04):
twenty eleven, has been an assistantwith the first team since twenty sixteen,
and will fredna see over the yearshave seen a lot of things happen in
this club, from managers being firedto players and managers having public altercation in
the locker rooms. Things have happenedin this club over the years. We
all know that a lot of thingswent down in the walls of Statsiputo since
(05:28):
twenty eleven. Since with Carenas hasbeen part of the environment of the club
and when he was in a positionto dictate how he wants things done,
it didn't go well. So thatbeing said, that relationship between him and
the club, meaning the owner,has been strained for a while, and
this was the worst kept secret insoccer in Montreal, even North America,
(05:51):
the fact that with Canasi was goingto leave see if Montreal. It's been
also the worst kept secrets in Columbusthat he was going to be the next
manager of the crew. He hasbeen seen over the last few weeks at
different spots in the region in Ohio. He has been seen looking at houses,
he has been seen in restaurants.He has been seen with the Edwards
(06:13):
and Hasslem family which owned the Columbuscrewp so. Now it was announced today
on December sixth that CF Montreal hashad a financial agreement with the Columbus Crew
and there will be an exchange ofmoney here. We don't have a detail
right now as how much. Pressconference and all will happen later and you
can look on a brand new websitelater when we have more information. Because
(06:36):
that's strikes Soccer Today dot CA.That's the new branding. It's easy,
it's Soccer Today dot CEA. Alreadyyou have news pieces I just dropped earlier
today my news aspect. But alsoit's a research there's a lot of statistics.
It's a bit of the gist ofthe history of his MalCon it's a
short version of his timeline to thechampionship, the journey, the Vicarage road,
(07:01):
which we'll be talking later on thisshow. Why Watford wanted is Maricone
Statistically speaking, there's a good reason, even though he is at the beginning
of his career. And we'll dothe same for Alistair Johnston. But just
to finish on with Red Nazi,we wish him all the best in Columbus.
(07:24):
This is the end of the cyclefrom Montreal. Let's call it spade
a spade. It's not just areconstruction. This is the end of the
cycle that was started with Tierriri.This is the end of the act one.
This is the end of the firstera, of the Olivier Rna era.
So if this was movies, okay, we all know the Marvel Cinematic
(07:46):
University MCU. Well, this isthe Montreal Soccer universe. This is the
MSU and this was the Thieri Risnash with saga. Now we're gonna move
to a different saga. The andthere's a there's a link between the two,
(08:07):
and the link between the two isgonna be following this and this is
not confirmed at this point. ButI do have a couple of candidates that
I think can be the manager ofMontreal. But here we will continue the
MSU analog MCU analogy. Here MSUthe Montreal Soccer universe. We finished the
(08:28):
Wilna Si saga with a whole lotof Canadian players, a whole lot of
Montreal players making it to a WorldCup. Even though they haven't played,
like Joe Wanderman, Semi Piat andJames Pantemis haven't played during the game,
they were part of the team thatwas at Qatar twenty twenty two. Alistair
Johnston played, Eastmone played, Kamalmellaplayed. So that's Canadian, right,
(08:52):
It's moving to the next era.That was the easter egg, the six
Canadian to finish the season in twentytwenty to going to Canada for presenting CF
Montreal was the easter egg for whatcould be the next era. And this
is not confirmed. I'm not sayinghe will be the next manager, but
(09:13):
all signs point towards one name andone name only, and they have been
for a long time. He hasbeen liked for a long time. There's
a relationship, there's path there's connections, there's mutual friends, there's a whole
lot of things that happen over theyears from somebody that is in Canadian soccer
(09:33):
for decades now, that is oneof the engineers, if not the engineer
of Sigma FC Academy up until hejoined for JEFFC for the first season,
the inaugural season in the Canadian PremierLeague in twenty nineteen. And I'm talking
about for Jeff C's Bobby smirniadis heis my chop candidate. As of now,
(09:56):
this is not confirmed. I don'thave any information dating of today that
he has signed or that his agreementsor that he has met anybody. But
in the past he wasn't in thatwas mentioned in the Statsuputo's offices in the
past. There were conversations between thecamps in the past. There's been a
relationship that has been built between someteams in the Canadian Premier League and some
(10:22):
teams in Major League Soccer, anexchange of principle, an exchange of philosophies.
There's close ties of philosophies. Whenyou look at what Bobby Smernanas did
with Sigma with for JEFFC and whatCF Montreal wants to be Smernonas loves to
develop, loves to grow, notnecessarily having the top end academy that he
(10:46):
would like to actually achieve the dreamsthat he would like. But he sees
a team in Montreal where they wereable to sell multiple international Canadians over the
last few weeks and great international Americanswell or at least good LAS players like
Mihailo, which prospect to Europe formoney. So I do believe that he
is my top candidate if I wassporting director, if I was president of
(11:09):
CF Montreal, Bobby's Mrnianis would bea good choice. Financially, it makes
also sense you don't have to paya million dollars for your coach. This
way also has a very high ceilingof success. If it works out is
great, and quite honestly, therisk is pretty low. You don't risk
financial necessarily instability by getting him.You're not necessarily in a position where he's
(11:31):
going to alienate financial players coming in. He doesn't have a pedigree, he
has trophies, he played well inthe Champion Well. He was able to
qualify a team of the Canadian PremierLeague with a fraction of the budget of
some of the teams in the KAFFChampion League. While he was able to
get his team there through process thatwon't exist anymore, but through the CONKYCAFF
League and you he won his wayinto the Champions League from a comedian championship
(11:56):
type situation amazing while he eventually inthe Conquy cafleeing in all great performance by
four JEFC. So he is mytop candidate for now to take over CF
Montreal. Will it happen? Idon't know. As of December sixth,
the recording of this episode, Ido not have any information if he has
met somebody this time around, butin the past there were communications. In
(12:20):
the past, there was also wellsaying I'll see you next time around type
of conversations, but those were withdifferent people that are there. Now.
We have a new president in andwe'll see how that changes in the future.
But he's my top candidate. Ofcourse, there's a couple other candidates
(12:41):
that will very soon be available,and that's where you could maybe dream a
little, but this could not work. This could be a left field situation.
But bear with me. In mycareer, it's been a decade now
that I've covered this club and theleague, Major League Soccer. There's a
(13:07):
couple of conversations I had with coachesthat have stuck with me, and one
was through an interpreter to one ofthe few foreign coaches that doesn't speak English,
that managed can't speak to English,but not enough to do a conversation
in Major League Soccer. And Ihad, of course some other journalists with
me. Famously, I had Tristampersonal friend, Hello Trista if you're listening.
Who was next to me talking toTata Martino years ago when he was
(13:30):
manager of Atlanta United during one ofhis games in Montreal and after the time
to listen to him, and Iwanted to ask through a translator how he
viewed coaching, how he view beinga manager, but also what was his
role? And I thought it wasfascinating to me. His answer, who
(13:50):
was, yes, you have tomanage, you have to know your players,
but he emphasized the educating, theeducator role of a manager, especially
in the league like MLS and Montreal'sand a bit of a influx. Right
has a new Academy director and it'sa bit of a transition heading into the
Apple era that will start next year. So this being said, and he
(14:18):
that could be interesting. It isTata Massino, yes he is Mexican.
Won't be able to do press conferencesin French or English, but could that
be worth it? Could the endgoal of having a team that receives education
that is made better by Tata Massino, an experienced coach. Could that be
(14:41):
the case? Might be moving forwardand moving on from eventually Real Madrid.
That's a big name too. Thatwon't happen, but you know, Canada
might need a manager in the future. Maybe that works. What could be
an ideal candidate? And now I'vementioned and one dream candidate and that the
Masino one realist manager that i'm mymind is the top candidate right now and
(15:07):
could be the front runner in Bobby'smrnianis do we go? Tommy Wildon who's
with Cavalry and has relationships with CFMontreal. He has managed his team Cavalry
FC here Joel Waterman. He soldJoel Waterman to see if Montreal there's a
certain knowledge and certain well they knoweach other. Could that be an ideal?
(15:30):
Could that be a situation? Whoknows? Is there any Quebec coach?
I don't believe so the case rightnow and it's unfortunate that there's not
an established The reserve team is notestablished enough in the PLSQ with they're going
to change the coach. We knowthat it was announced earlier this week that
the coach from the twenty three lastyear both the Teina was in the PILSQ
(15:50):
won't be coming back. So it'sin flux there. What is there to
do for CF Montreal? Is therean easy solution? It's early December.
Hopefully before January this is resolved sothat the training camp that starts in early
February early January could start with yourmanager. So do you look to Europe?
(16:14):
Is there a European candidate that isrealistic? Will leads continue where they
are? Jesse Marsh forget about that. That will never happen, but that
would be ideal, But they willnever happen. Been there, done that,
burned bridges as we talked. Sowhat is the situation from Montreal?
Who's going to be the manager?I've said two names now when I think
(16:37):
about it, only one of themis realistic, of course, and that
is Bobby speranis But where do wego from now? Where do we find
another another candidate? Is the jobinteresting for candidates that are the same level
or higher. That's where the ideaof Bobby Spirena. If if you're going
(17:03):
to give somebody their first shot atthe first year in this country or North
America, no offense to the CPL, then yeah, the job is interesting.
If you're higher up and you're usedto a certain level of job security
(17:23):
or certain level of wild professionalism whenit comes to different part of the organization,
you might not want to work withthe CF Montreal here just looking at
how the managers have been treated overthe last decade or some an mls.
So that is a big question.Do you go back to a moral Biello,
who is assistant with John Herdman withKenian's national team, Been there,
(17:45):
done that? Who? Who?He might not even want that right now?
He might be next in line tobe Canada soccer manager if John Herdman
ever gets an offer that he can'trefuse. So this leads me with an
empty third candidate that I need tolook into that I need to do a
(18:07):
couple of phone calls, to havea few conversations to see who's in line,
who other? Who else? ThenBobby Smirnanis could be CF Montreal's new
manager. That's my question for youtoday. We'll take at your break.
When we come back, we willcontinue our great show today talking about kon
(18:29):
to Watford. We'll talk about DG'spractical son and the road to Vicarage Road,
so the journey to Victory ROJ andwe'll talk about Johnston Alistair to be
precise, and why Celtic fell inlove with the Canadian International That and more.
After this short break, we're backon Soccer Today keV Laramy. You
(19:26):
can follow myself on Twitter at keVLarramay. Yes I'm still on Twitter.
You can subscribe to this show everywhereyou find your favorite podcasts, and please
take a second to subscribe to theYouTube channel, YouTube dot com, slash
at Soccer Today, new website,new u r L for the YouTube channel.
It's easy. Just look for SoccerToday or at soccer Today at YouTube.
(19:49):
That's my new YouTube handle at SoccerToday. We're really doubled up.
We're doubledipping, we're doubling down,We're going all out. Thank you for
really liking the new branding of SoccerToday. Soccer Today dot c a podcast,
magazine, news and analysis on thewebsite podcast everywhere You're fundament podcasts and
(20:12):
magazine in video form. What Ilike to do with my magazine shows is
to visually show you numbers, analysis, research, Let's talk. Let's have
a conversation while you listen to me, and you can comment on YouTube,
YouTube dot com, slash act,Soccer Today or Soccer Today dota. All
(20:51):
right, I hope you enjoyed thislittle musical intro, this little intermission.
Time to gather our thoughts and moveto the news of the day too,
the positive news that was made ofpublic yesterday. And let's talk about Ismail
Cone first of all. Right nowon Soccer Today dot ca, Ismail Cone
(21:14):
to Watford, the Journey to VicarageRoad. You can find the article.
The written version of this segment isavailable right now on the website. If
you don't know, you'll learn inthis article that he blew up on the
local soccer scene in NDG. That'swhere he played, That's where his amateur
time was truly truly spent. That'swhere I live. I'm in Energy for
(21:40):
a few years now. That's whereI train, That's where I now have
a kid. It's really too young. He's not even too much a month
a month in the two days.So Arthur is not playing soccer yet.
He is in my mind, butthat doesn't count. Maybe he is already
available in my football manager career,but that's something else. But I train
(22:00):
with parents that are my age ora little older and have kids. They
have been playing an NDEG soccer associationfor a long time and they keep following
this kid. They were Statzopuco allseason. They've been traveling all the way
to the West End in twenty eighteento twenty twenty to see him play for
one of the biggest soccer talent tocome off of NDEG. East man Kna
(22:22):
prodigy. Here. I hear storiesstill of him running past defenders by speed,
defenders, having nightmares, seeing ghostsout there. We're seeing goal scoring
effort. There's a famous game thatthey played against Piechfon. I believe that
in twenty sixteen. I was readingabout it on the suburban. There's been
(22:45):
game against the twelve, the lasttwo that they were really famous, where
they were down two goals in Eastscores two goals and like a fraction of
a second to make it too tooand very he's very disappointed that they've lost.
And you read the article the suburbanor other places that they talked about
this kid and they're like, yeah, there's just a draw, but this
(23:07):
kid's gonna be good. This kid'sgonna be great, and we all know
the rest is history. But theyoung Canadian International is on the Yellow Bick
Road to success. Of course,Watford and all the Elton John puns and
jokes, well they go well together. If you don't know, Watford FC's
most famous supporter in the world isElton John. Yes, the singer,
(23:30):
songwriter, international media superstar who's justfinishing is good Bye Yellow Brick Road World
Tour. So that makes for bigjokes. So there's a couple of puns
in my article if you if youlook for me, you could find him.
Will follow our rocket Man to themoon, for sure, rocket Man,
(23:53):
but his journey to Vicra Drow's isobviously impressive. And we've talked about
this before on this show where justa few years ago he was like on
amateur pitches just next to where Iam. I can see a pitch from
my window right now as I'm talkingto you, and he played on that
pitch. I've seen pictures of himon that pitch. I've seen pictures of
(24:15):
him on Trentholme Park, on otherparks Josh Champia Park not far from here
too. Those parks and NDEG arewell known here and he honed his craft
on those. Well, for me, they're now holy grounds because he's going
to be the next big thing.It's easy to say, but his meteoric
rise is only equitable to a certainOffounsio Davies. But it's even quicker than
(24:40):
Alfounsio Davies in my mind. He'sa little older than the same necessarily the
same path. He doesn't just doesn'tgo to buy a Munich, and he's
not gonna starily gonna get a managerright away that believes in him. It's
gonna be a little harder when itcomes there. And he's going to Watford
and he's going into dirty in thehard, gritty championship. W for this
(25:00):
fourth right now, there's two playoffspot outright in the championship. Right there's
forty four teams in championship. Firstof all, well, sorry, there's
twenty two teams in the championship.You play forty four games in the season,
that's a whole lot and forty sixI believe, Sorry, it's crazy
the amount of games you play,and then you have all the cups,
so the load management is amazing,like amazingly brutal in the Championship, and
(25:26):
on top of it, to trulymake it something special, you have a
playoff at the end of it forjust a couple of teams to be promoted.
So the top two teams outright goto the Premier League, then the
four following teams in the Championship.They play each other in the playoffs situation,
(25:47):
and the winner at the end getspromoted. And that's one of the
biggest match in the history of sports. Every single year. The amount of
money involved for the winner is likehundreds of hundreds of millions of euro dollar
euros or now pound because well,I guess it's gonna stay pounds. So
it's amazing the amount of money involved. It's they call it the biggest money
(26:11):
match almost every year. It's whenyou win or when you get promoted and
you win the playoff where you getpromote a right, it's a golden bridge
where you get a whole lot ofmoney. Another Golden Bridges expression is used
often time to explain the relegation thefirst year because it actually will help you
have a financial support because it's sucha big, big rop in revenue the
(26:36):
following year. But when you lookat teams winning that game, it's called
that the biggest prize money in socceralmost so it changes a club whatsoever.
And while third were in the PremierLeague just a couple of years ago twenty
twenty two, straight relegation last yearunfortunately, and since then the light top
(26:56):
team in the Championship and they'll tryingto make it back to the Premier League.
And yeah, we've talked about EltonJohn being a famous supporter of Watford.
Not only was he famously their biggestsupporters, and you can see nice
images of him on the website tooin nineteen seventy four with some of the
Watford players. Well, he waschairman of Watford FC four well a little
(27:19):
bit, a little bit less thanforty years. He was named in the
nineteen seventy eight and he resigned intwo thousand and two. But he was
there for a long time. Hewas manager for a long time and he
was really helpful during the seventies andeighties when Watford rose to being a well
then there was no Premier League.It was just the first Division and it
(27:41):
was the top tier, top flight, and they never won the championship.
They never won the first tier wherethey were the first division in the Football
League. They were playoff winners ofthe second tier once in nineteen ninety eight,
nineteen ninety nine, they were runningsup in eighty two, eighty three,
and they were runnings up of theChampionship in twenty four fifteen. In
twenty twenty one, that's when theygot promoted the last time twenty twenty twenty
(28:04):
one, so they won the PremierLeague for twenty twenty one twenty twenty two
straight relegated and they could be backthis year. They've never won the FA
Cup, but they've finished runners uptwice in the FA Cup, which is
one of the oldest soccer tournament inthe world. Yes, lamar at Us
Open Cup is one of those oldestsoccer tournament in the world also by the
(28:26):
way, but runners up in theFA Cup in nineteen eighty three, eighty
four and twenty eighteen eighty nine forWatford FC. But let's talk about Ismail
Cone. Why was Cone selected atsuch a young age and such a short
sample size of professional experience. Thiswas his first year as a professional with
(28:51):
CF Montreal. He played thirty twogames all competition two thousand and sixty nine
minutes, four goals, five assists. That's, of course MLS, which
includes secondary assists. Expected goal thisseason in MLS one point five two point
four expected assists this season. Passingaccuracy of eighty eight percent all competition including
(29:11):
the playoffs. That is very impressive. Key passes of twelve and that's where
it's fascinating to me some of theaspects of a hesmaicne. But I want
to dive a little deeper into theadvanced statistics here to look at his smon
is contribution with CF Montreal over thelast year. Is passing accuracy. What
(29:37):
was really good. We've talked aboutit. Eighty percent of competition and eighty
six percent during the season. Shortpasses eighty eight, ninety percent for medium
passes and eighty four for long That'sgreat in the midfield. You can find
your strikers be able to connect withyour defenders if you need to. What
I think is fascinating is for hisshort sample size of amount of games or
(29:59):
a star, he has a perninety so ninety minutes average of seventeen point
six so seventeen point six times thisseason did he play ninety minutes if you
look at his amount of games played. So that is one of the measures
to quickly look at a player andsee how many games he played or what
his minutes equivalates. So I lookat that, and then right next to
it, I look at the shotcreating actions, and I'm thinking my data
(30:23):
on FB reference dot com fbref dotcom, which is one of the leaders
in data and events statistics that youcan find out there. So I'm looking
at fb ref and I do lookat his mad Kona forty four shot creating
action for a per ninety of twopoint five, and according while looking at
the statistics for players that played asimilar amount than him, that's very close
(30:47):
players that played less, it's higher. He's close to a Kyoto in that
aspect. And to me, it'sall about that. I'm all about shot
creating aspect. Goal creating actions onlycome after shot creating action, and in
any long term, in a longseason, long sample size, I like
these shown creating actions. When I'mlooking at a short sample size like a
(31:07):
World Cup, like a tournament,the goal creating action like Mbope in France
France has eighteen goal creating actions sofar, no wonder they scored a ton
of goal saying for Brazil. Bythe way, the two best teams will
be in the final. That's myprediction. Brazil France in the final and
Labler wins back to back. Ormaybe the salsa. I ask if you,
if you I watched me on sayTV earlier today, you've heard that
(31:30):
me use the word sasa esque flareof Brazil. While guess what it might
be dancing the salsa on December eighteenth, or it will be France. But
that's my two spoiler alert. That'smy top two teams in the World Cup
so far. Spoiler alert. It'snot that hard, so that's good.
But one thing that I wanted youto keep in mind, and I think
(31:52):
that's the reason Whysford really liked hismedicon because he's going to be helpful in
the championship. He's gonna grow,and he's gonna be help for in the
Premier League next year when they getpromoted. Okay, it's tackles, including
after interception and recoveries. So thosethree metrics together, I like to add
them up. It gives you anumber. Okay, that number could be
(32:15):
skewed if you have more recovery,more interception and I'm gonna sneeze, I'm
gonna pause it for a second andevery while, but we'll just have a
little interlude of music for one second. All right, I sneeze, We're
good. So, as we weresaying, when you add those metrics interceptions,
(32:37):
tackle, recoveries, it gives tome an indication of can you create
turnovers? Do you have turnovers?And when you have turnovers do you get
possession back? Do you bring toyour team more balls and more possession game.
It's easy just to see possession gainand possession loss, but that can
be skewed with a good defender.That can be skewed with just you loose
(33:00):
using your ball. But tackles,interception, recoveries added together gives you a
bit more global portrait to me inhow you can truly affect a midfield in
this case, riz mancone or asa striker, even he played as a
striker with NDG with Say Sens said, I want to be a problem to
(33:21):
see him as a striker further downthe road, But when I'm looking at
this situation, I think that's whyhe was chosen. He's got a lot
of interception for his position. He'sgot twelve twelve is the same as Georgie
Mihailovich. He's only behind the topof the team like of the Camas Show
and defensive players. But for astriker a midfielder, that's pretty good.
(33:44):
And you add recoveries. He hasa lot of recovery, almost one hundred,
and he played half as much asplayers who have the similar recoveries as
he does. He has more recoverythan Georgie Mihailovich and he played more.
He played less than Mihailovich. Soto me, those are the reasons why
Corney stands out statistically looking at hisbody of work, not only offensively,
(34:07):
and how he can do key passes, get the ball into transition, find
space and influence the result of thegame. He influences where the ball is.
He's got pretty much a two pointsper match statistic influence. To me
that that's not a coincidence, shortsample size of coincidence or a season happy
(34:30):
season in this case if we lookat his game started or gameplayed. But
I do believe he'sman corne brings thataspect in your midfield. He'll give you
an offensive upside, He'll find spaceand with his speed he can go down
the flanks. Again, I've talkedto you. I've heard a mother who
trains with me talk about his defenderkid who's got burned badly. But he's
(34:52):
gone and didn't even want to playthis game anymore. So when you look
at situations like this, you havehave quite quite an opportunity for success because
he has work rate and work rateworking in the midfield getting ball when the
ball is loose, you get theball you intercepted, You recover loose balls
(35:15):
in the championship. That is valuable. The Championship might be the toughest thing
in the world to play. Youhave zero time on the ball, you
got somebody on you. And whenyou create space, when you can create
link up with your teammates, whenyou bring the ball forward, that is
extremely useful in the Championship. Youthand also, his mileage is pretty low.
(35:37):
He's like he's an older card thanthe young younger car of his age,
but he doesn't have as much mileage. He came a little bit late
to the scene. So East Malcone, congratulations on your move to Watford.
Will always keep an eye on you, and it's a little bit funny the
(36:00):
feeling inside seeing little kid from anig going to represent not only the country
on the world stage and Qatar seeif Montreal all abroad, but also the
deeds in England. We'll be rightback. I'm waiting for a big wolf
(36:40):
to come out of somewhere to attackme. It sounds like I'm in a
Disney movie right now, in cartoonokay, so so as I tippy toe
on my woody floor and waiting forthe big bad wolf to come and attack
me. Let's talk about Alistair Johnstonjoining Celtic. Yes, the Canadian national
who played at Qatar twenty twenty twoand was able to find himself well a
(37:06):
new digs in Green in Glasgow.He also found himself on the worst eleven
of the World Cup. For somereason, I don't believe that thing.
He put some respect on the man'sname, Beliz because he's now part of
one of the biggest club in theworld. He's part of a Champions League
club. He is part of eternalfavorite to win the Scottish Premier League.
(37:30):
Yeah, Celtic. But let's talkabout his rise to success. Let's talk
about Eastmail Cone's predecessor in being transferredfor Montreal because mister Johnston happened a couple
of weeks ago and he played inNashville. That's where his craft was owned
(37:54):
on the MLS level side two yearswhen Nashville, but really grew into his
role with Montreal on the rights backright wing back situation, even called the
pawn as he center back and usingthe right side of that center back a
couple of times this season with CFMontreal. Thirty three games played with CF
(38:19):
Montreal, thirty starts, four goals, five assists. That's a lot for
a defender. Five shots on targetout of fourteen that is almost thirty percent.
It's pretty good this thirty percent.Actually, it's pretty good. Passing
accuracy with Montreal eighty five point twoduring the regular season, and if we're
looking at the playoffs situation eighty five, it's pretty good. It's five percent
(38:44):
more than he had in Nashville.But I want to bring your attention to
two other statistics concerning not concerning buttalking about Alisa Dunston. So so,
two things that are very important tome is dual percentage of one. He
wins a lot of his duels ina season he had a lot of interception,
(39:07):
but he won ninety seven point sevenpercent duels this year with CF Montreal.
And yes, you might not thinkthat he's that tall and in he's
that good with headers, but hewon eighty two percent of his headed duel
this year and to me that that'skind of interesting because he can help whip
(39:29):
the ball in. He can beuseful there, but he can be useful
on set pieces as a heading piecetoo. Even though he's not the tallest,
thirty two interceptions in MLST. Thishere that will be useful if we
look at his recovery and interception ratioone hundred thirty eight recoveries, he is
in the top ten of CIFF Montreal, even in top seven of CIFF Montreal
(39:52):
with one hundred thirty eight recoveries thisyear. He's got thirty two interceptions like
we talked about, and you hadthe tackles, which he was in the
top with Montreal for tackles all seasonlong. Alistair Johnston, he has,
let me just get the stats here, forty seven tackles, top four of
(40:13):
CF Montreal for tackles behind Victor oneYama, behind also Rudy Camma show in
front of Rudy Caamas show. Hewas second for CF Montreal Alistair Johnston for
tackles, So the ratio we talkedabout in the last segment of Tackles,
Interception and Recoveries does indicate here theAlister Johnson was very useful in the Scottish
(40:37):
Premier League. Will help Celtic overtakeRangers as maybe the most important club in
the league. Of Rangers have hada resurgence lately, so that is one
of the reasons why Alistair Johnston reallydoes and will do well with Celtic and
why he was transferred by Montreal.It is also talked about earlier in the
(41:04):
show an end of a cycle fromMontreal, so you're gonna have a new
coach. Might as well just getthe value that you can out of these
players coming out of the World Cup. You might never see it again.
Joe Waterman might be sold, KamalMiller might be sold. I wouldn't be
surprised if you get an offer forJames Pantemis. By the way, James
Pandemis is out of contract. Theydo hold the rights to him in MLS.
(41:24):
We'll see where that goals from nowon. He hasn't played, but
his name was in the World Cuproster. That has value inherently and we'll
see if that does affect there.We'll see if he comes back. Montreal
will need goalies, Montreal will needplayers. If you are a professional soccer
players, give a call to RiviaReal. You might be next to suit
(41:45):
up for the Blur bla noir.I want to quickly just talk about Celtic.
Of course, Celtic is one ofthe biggest club in the entire world.
And I'm not gonna act like Iam a big on SR or like
I know what I'm talking about here, but it is one of the clubs
that I've followed from AFAR and wewill give you an overview like we did
(42:09):
with Watch for It. Here forwhat Celtics or Celtic one on one,
let's go, here we go.He did some hydration for the boys here.
They play in Glasgow. The stadiumis called Celtic Park. It has
(42:35):
a capacity of sixty thousand, fourhundred and eleven persons. The Boys and
the Celts and the Hoops. Thosethree are the nickname of the Celtic football
club, founded in eighteen eighty eight. The ownership group is Celtic PLC a
corporation. They play in the ScottishPremiership. They finished first last year of
(43:00):
twelve and twenty twenty twenty two andwe will see where twenty twenty two twenty
three brings them. As of now, they have quite the record when we
look at the amount of championship andthe amount of things won in their history.
So let's look Scottish League Championship.They have won the top tier league
(43:23):
in Scotland fifty two times since nineteeneighty eight. Yes, fifty two,
that's a lot. They've won theScottish Cup forty times. That's a lot.
That's a lot. They've also wonthe Scottish League Cup twenty times,
(43:44):
so those are the domestic honors.A lot of those were were triples.
Let's face it, multiple of thoseyears were triples and its congratulations to Celtic.
Their trophy case is impressive to saythe least. We can continue to
(44:07):
talk about their honors. European Cup. They've won it once sixty six,
sixty seven, they finished runners upin sixty nine and seventy. They finished
runners up of the UFA Cup intwo thousand and two, two thousand and
three and the Intercontinental Cup that doesn'texist anymore in nineteen sixty seven. They've
won other awards over the years,and let's talk about them right now.
(44:30):
BBC Sports Personality of the Year TeamAward, they've won that once in nineteen
sixty seven. The France Football EuropeanTeam of the Year, they've won that
once in nineteen seventy. FIFA fairPlay Award, they've won that once.
Also in two thousand and three,the UFA fair Play Award, they've won
that once, yes, only oncein two thousand and three. And to
(44:53):
FIFA Fan Award for maybe one ofthe nicest and best fan and club in
the world, for the best fanin twenty seventeen. I've talked about the
troubles. They had a few.They had seven troubles in their history.
And that's the last little ty bitof information I'm gonna give you before we
(45:15):
say goodbye for today. We willbe back with a France and England magazine
preview show and of course a podcastalso in an article over the next couple
of days on the website Soccer Todaydot c. A league title, Scottish
Cup and League Cup. It happenedseven time in the history of Celtic sixty
(45:38):
six and sixty seven, sixty eight, sixty nine, all one about two
thousand and oh one, sixteen seventeen, seventeen, eighteen, eighteen nineteen and
twenty nineteen twenty twenty. They wereon quite a run from the mid point
of the twenty tens all the wayto the end of this decade with four
(45:59):
trouble in a row. And that'swhere they want to go again, and
that's where they hope that Alistair Johnstonwill help bring them. Until next time,
I hope you enjoyed this podcast,part of the Soccer Today family,
available at soccer Today dot CA ofcourse everywhere you get your favorite podcasts,
and you can find our magazine showon our YouTube page at YouTube dot com,
(46:22):
slash at soccer Today, or justGoogle YouTube and at soccer Today and
you will find a link to ourchannel on YouTube and that is where our
magazine show with visual graphics with aidcan be accessed accessed. Also you can
see some of the graphics on thewebsite at Soccer Today dot c A But
(46:45):
as always, until next time,have a great soccer that was unpat had
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