Why Lampard Blanked Big Meeks, Beckham Versus Hoddle & The Pressure Of England No.1 | Ep 32

Hello and welcome to The Rest Is Football with me, Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards. It's an international break. It's a Sunday. There's no Premier League football to look forward to this afternoon. What are we going to do with ourselves? Seriously? Honest? We need football so much in our lives, don't we? Because today I'm in London going to watch the NFL. I don't know the rules. I don't, I don't, I don't know anything about it, but I'm just filling time. But it's at the Spurs stadium. So it's nice to go to the Spurs stadium. How much did you pay for those tickets? Pay? Big Beats don't pay for that. They pay him for going, don't they? Who's playing? He hasn't got a clue. It is the Titans and the Ravens, I think. Yeah. And who's playing up front for the Titans? Is that how it works? I can see you as a linebacker or something. I know, I've got the size and I've got the, yeah. I should have really done that, shouldn't I? You've got the size, the speed, Micah. Yeah, you've been really good at that sport. What are you nodding at, Al? What are you nodding at? I'm nodding that you could definitely, you've got the pads on already there, haven't you? You won't need any protection. How's your weekend, Al? Well, I was, as per normal, I played golf and I was... Apart from that, no, I was looking forward to speaking to you guys this morning. So yeah, good to see you again. That's lovely. What about you, Gaz? What about you? You always ask us, what about you? What have you done? Any dates? Any more cooking? What's going on? No dates, Micah. Cooking, yes, I've been cooking a bit. I'll cook today, but just, well, it was obviously most people hate the international break, but I don't mind it because I get a little weekend off where I don't have to traipse up to Manchester, much as I love doing much of the day, but it's nice sometimes just to chill out. You know, when Micah announced it last week that you're single and you might be going out on a date. Did you have the Blue Rinse Brigade come and all contact you? You must have had loads of them ringing you up. Yes, Gary, I'll have dinner with you. No, not one, as it happens. Although I haven't checked my DMs yet, maybe someone... No, not at all. It's funny you're talking about the Blue Rinse mob, and I was looking in the mirror the other day, and I'd never seen it before, but I spotted a grey hair on my head. I thought your phone would have been going off the charts with dates for you. The absolute opposite, the absolute opposite. No, I was staying in on my own, England, Australia, and there's so much to enjoy. Obviously, Gareth was putting out, I suppose, what you'd call a second string or most of it. Who impressed you? Do you know what? I actually fell asleep. And he has a go at me being old, Micah. I fell asleep. Which 20 minutes did you fall asleep for? Sometime in the second half and... Missed a goal, that's what I always do. I missed a goal, yeah, I missed a goal, believe it or not. Obviously, I watched it back. It wasn't great, was it? It wasn't a great game. Do you think, what purpose those kind of games serve? I suppose, just a chance to have a look at some of the players that he thinks are on the periphery of things. I would say we've been critical of Southgate for not giving other people a chance. We talk about players coming to the squad and they know what they can do. So, I actually really enjoyed seeing Madison there, seeing a link up with Grealish, seeing what Watkins could do up front, Tamori getting a run out, Caldwell doing well, making his debut. So, Sam Johnston, we talked about the goalkeeper situation, who's going to be the number one come the Euro. So, I think it's brilliant. You get to see some new players, fresh ideas. And it wasn't the greatest game. I actually thought Australia was the better team, if I'm being totally honest. But it was good to see fresh faces. Do you think it's mentally tough for those guys? Because, I don't know, let's use Ollie Watkins as an example. I mean, great for him, great that he scores. But even if he scores a hat-trick, he knows he's not playing on Tuesday against Italy, doesn't he? Do you think mentally it's tough for those guys coming in, knowing that whatever happens in that game, there's going to be a totally different team? There's probably going to be eight, nine, even ten changes, I guess, for the Italy game. You know what it's like though, Alan. You know, when you get the opportunity, you know, even if you're behind someone in the pecking order, even if you're behind a great like Harry Kane, you also know that Harry Kane is now in his thirties. So, and also, we also know that injuries can happen and stuff like that. So, if you're a player, I think I understand about the pressure, because, you know, it's almost like one chance saloon, isn't it? You've got to impress. And you've got to make, but, you know, I always thought when I was playing and breaking into the England team, I used to say, like, you've got to make it happen. You've got to make it happen. It's no good getting all tight and uptight, but you've just got to go out there, and I don't know, with determination, and this is your chance, this is your chance that you've always waited for. And you never know what might happen down the line. Yeah, I totally agree. It is tougher for those lads coming in, knowing that when you do, you have to, you've got to take your opportunity, because the next one might be a few months away, if there is a next one. It's just different, though, isn't it? Because you two's mindset, we've talked about this before, is elite, isn't it? So you're always like, I'm the number one, I'm going to... It's not elite when you start, though, Micah. When you start breaking into the team, you have to, you have to earn that. Yeah, but you have that certain confidence to be the number one. So a lot of players in that squad, like you've mentioned, with Harry Kane that Alan's mentioned, they know they're not going to be Harry Kane, but what can they do to be the next best thing? So it's just about the mentality switches a little bit. It's sort of like when I was at Manchester City, I was number one, Zabaleta came into the team, I knew I had to adjust my mindset because I was no longer number one. And it's different for you guys, because you guys have always been number one, probably not to the end, but you know, throughout your career, I just think it's a little bit of a different mindset. I think it was probably, well, you get into the England side and then it's, if you do become the number one, Micah, you then have to justify that by performances and your statistics and all that sort of thing. I'll be honest, I think I was slightly fortunate as I broke into the England side quite late, but also in that era, we weren't blessed with loads of brilliant goalscorers. Mark Haitley was more of the hold-up player. There was, who else was around? Tony Cotty, Kerry Dixon. If you go to, and they were excellent strikers and good goalscorers, but if you go to Allen's time, I mean, you had a lot of competition there, Al. It must have been, you know, Fowler and who else? Fowler, Wright, Collymore, Ferdinand, Cole, Sheringham, Letizia, Collymore. Yeah, it's like, there was some unbelievable- Who was the best out of them, would you say? Allen Shearer. Put yourself aside for a moment. Who would you have picked to play that number nine role? Finishing-wise, the best finisher for me, natural finisher, was Robbie Fowler. I mean, Andy Cole was some finisher as well. Class. I mean, his time at Newcastle with Peter Beardsley, was ridiculously good. I mean, they were a lethal partnership and he was flying then. Les Ferdinand, I mean, Les was just incredible as well. On his day, unplayable, couldn't play him, too strong, too quick, great in the air, good touch as well, and obviously good score goals. So yeah, the competition was ridiculous. Righty, I mean, Ian Bryant, Jesus, what a player he was. I mean, I played with Righty as well and obviously we were in the same position like he was with you when you followed me, really, Allen. So it was funny with Righty because it took him a while to score his first England goal, didn't it? I think it was about nine games or something. We played together up front in one match. He might have come on and we were playing Cameroon at Wembley and it was minus eight. It was unbelievably cold and we got one up in, I think I scored a penalty in the first half and then in the second half, we had a corner and I always used to, we talked about this before, I used to stand really close to the keeper and then you'd be marked. There'd be either someone on your right-hand side or behind you or in front of you and wherever they were, I used to like dip the shoulder and then come away and find like a yard of space. And so I went in there and then Ian Wright was standing, what are you doing? He went, no, I always stand here at corners. I went, huh? No, not today, but he kind of hung around anyway. So the corner came over. It got flicked on at the near post. Righty rushes in with his foot and I just get it there before him and just knock it in. And I could see Righty went away trying to claim it and then he realised he wasn't going to get away with it. So I went, you know who's goal it was, Righty. He was absolutely gutted. Yeah, it is true. Why do you think, I mean, you're probably the main reason, Alan, I don't want to blow smoke up you, but why do you think that the likes of Fowler and Andy Cole didn't really do it at international level, it didn't happen for them like it did for you? Well, they were bloody good players, but there was just someone who was better than them. I'd retired by then, Alan, what are you talking about? Brilliant. I don't know. I mean, I was, I don't know, you have to say I was fortunate at times because as you know, I hadn't scored for two years for England, leading up to 96. So you also need a manager that believes in you, that I think that's hugely important and is going to stick with you because inevitably at times, whatever level you're playing, you're going to have a bit of a dry spell as a forward. Did you ever sense, Alan, that Andy Cole, Robbie Fowler, all those people behind you were going, why is he always picking, it's always him? Did you get a feeling that... I could tell, I could, absolutely, every time I could just see it in their faces, thinking, why the f**k is he always playing more? Why is he not leaving him out? I deserve a chance or whatever. I could, oh, without doubt with Righty and Les and Coley and all of them must have hated me. Was you a goody two-shoes though, Alan? Was you one of those who was like, manager's pet? You know, if you just play me one more time, I won't let you down, gaffer. I can just imagine you being, no, I wasn't like that. I was still scoring 37 in the season. That's why the manager believed me for my club, you see. Touché. It's funny, I had a really close relationship with Terry because Terry Venables was your coach at the time with England. I didn't play for him under England, but I obviously played for him at both Barcelona and Tottenham. So when you're a footballer, you don't really have a kind of personal relationship with a manager or a coach. It's very unusual that you would ever kind of socialise outside of football. But I had that with Terry Venables when I was at Barcelona. And he was only there really for a season, a bit when I was there. But we used to go, we used to go and have lunch with Mark Hughes as well. We were the kind of foreign players that came in. And all we ever did was talk like tactics and football and that sort of stuff. But it was the one time in my career that I can never remember having that kind of relationship where, let's go out for lunch today and have a, which is really unusual, isn't it, with a manager? Terry was brilliant though, wasn't he? I think as a coach, I think not very often that I've gone through my career that, I mean, I've had brilliant relationships with some of my managers. Kenny Daglish was incredible, did it so much for me and the family. But he wasn't really a coach. Whereas Terry Venables was a great man manager and a great coach. I think he, I mean, he had, and he was brilliant. He had a great relationship with all of his players, which is why we felt, one, we let him down in Hong Kong or China or wherever it was. Then we had to then make up for that because we did admire him and respect him so much. You talk, for those that don't know, Alan, you're talking about the dentist chair night, aren't you? When it suddenly became front page news, boys were out drinking before a tournament. We let him down and we let everyone down, but he sort of stuck up for us. He's put his neck on the line for us, Terry. Backed everyone. So then we all then had to repay him with some great performances and we did that. And it's ironic that we are talking about relationships with England managers and managers. Has anyone seen the David Beckham thing where he really heavily criticizes Glenn Hoddle for his response after he got sent off, didn't he? I mean, I loved Glenn Hoddle also. He gave me the England captaincy. I thought he was a fantastic coach as well. But I understand why David's critical of him, didn't sort of agree with him and what he said after he got sent off in 98, but I loved Glenn Hoddle. I thought he was brilliant. He hung him out to dry though, didn't he, Al? I don't know if you've seen all the documentary. We mentioned it briefly on one of the other podcasts that we did. Because he criticized him, you mean? So basically, after that game, and we're talking about when he's put his leg up and Simeone's done a theatrical form and he's walked off, he's been interviewed after the game and he basically says, like, he gets asked a question and just blames, basically, Beckham for them going out of the tournament. And after watching that tournament, it went to penalties, didn't it? So everyone's blaming Beckham for that, but they had the chance to go through with penalties. And I just thought now, if a manager came out and did that against a player and pretty much blamed him for them losing, it just wouldn't happen nowadays, I don't think. I mean, I get the criticism because I know he was a lot younger and certainly not as mature as perhaps he could have been. And that's understandable. But he did kick out and he did get sent off. And I mean, no, it wasn't his fault that we didn't go through, or it wasn't his fault that Ince or Batty missed the penalties. Not at all. But yeah, we would have had a much better chance with him on the pitch. It is what it is. We all, I don't blame him at all. We all have made mistakes on a pitch that you regret and I'm sure what he does, you can hear the regret in his voice, but it happened. We don't, I didn't blame him, but I don't know. With his criticism of Glenn, I always liked Glenn. I know we all have personal reasons, but he gave me the England captaincy, one of the biggest and best things that can ever happen to you in football. So I like Glenn Huddle. I mean, I've worked with Glenn a lot on television and I've played with him as well. And as a footballer, he was unbelievable. And I actually think he was very gifted. You just listen to him talk about football and he sees things in a different way, particularly tactically. He's really excellent. That actually, the Beckham thing and the red card that he got and obviously the vitriol that when he came home was quite extraordinary. Which brings me actually to the subject of Jordan Henderson being booed. Obviously Gareth Southgate came out after the game and he said he just couldn't understand why they would do that. And I suppose it's perhaps a mixture of things. Obviously going to Saudi Arabia and I think people think perhaps he shouldn't be around the squad now and stuff. But I mean, he's given so much to his country. He's been brilliant in tournaments. He's been a very, very important player for Gareth Southgate. He certainly doesn't deserve to be booed. Not at all. I thought that was extremely, extremely harsh. Let me ask a question or let me say, would I be correct in saying that I guess 98 or 99% of those people that booed him the other night, if given the same chance, put in the same position to earn 700,000 pounds a week at 30 odd years of age, would they say no to that? I suspect they probably wouldn't, Alan. Correct, absolutely. But I think also it's become this frustration amongst the fans that he should be in the starting line-up. It's not necessarily about the fact that he's gone over there. But it's the kind of fact that Gareth Southgate has really stuck with him, I suppose. Yeah, but you can't blame him for that. No, I agree. I'm just trying to play Gavel's advocate. The work that he's done off the field as well as on the field. I mean, he's been a great captain for Liverpool. Fantastic leader. Taken Liverpool to heights that they hadn't been to for a long time. So no, I don't agree with the criticism of him at all. Again, I'm playing devil's advocate here, but his critics would say that he did so much for the LGBTQ plus communities. And he's undone that by going to a country where those particular minorities are frowned upon. Well, he could have chosen not to do it. He could have chosen not to do any work whatsoever. He could have chosen not to do any work beforehand for the NHS, for all the captains when he got those two together for the LGTBQ plus community. But he did. No, I'm totally with you, Alan. I'm just putting the other side of the argument. I just think though, it's scary enough. I think Henderson has been fantastic and we all know that. He's been a leader. He's performed at the highest level for a while now. But the frustration comes from, he's gone to a league where people don't know how good the league is and he's still playing for his country. When we used to play for our country before, you might get one, maybe one or two who are not playing or coming back from injury or something like that. But basically now, the pride of going to play for your country, the level, nobody knows the level in which you have to be at to go play for your country. I think that's where the frustration comes from. So if you look at someone like Ward Prowse, the start that he's had to the season at West Ham, we knew how good he was at Southampton in a struggling side. Now he's in a team which is performing a lot better and he still can't get a sniff. So that's where the frustration comes from, from a football point of view. And that's where I'm like, okay, Southgate has still got his favourites, but he's a manager. He can do what he wants. He can do absolutely what he wants. And if that's picking Jordan, as I've told you before, I said when I went to Japan, I made a conscious decision to retire from international football because I think when you go for that end of career sort of experience payday, call it what you like. I think personally, it helps the England manager at the time if you make that decision for him. But we're all different and there's no reason why he should do that. But that was just how I felt. He might be thinking exactly that after the Euros, Gary, mightn't he? For all we know. Could be. We don't know. But what we do know is that being the England manager, unless you win every single game, and even then, it's a pretty thankless task. But maybe if he wins a tournament, then we'll all love him. Everybody. We already do love him. Let's not get intertwined with this negativity around. We've done nothing but sing his praises for years and years and years now. It's just sometimes we're frustrated because we want to see players within the team. And that's what we do as pundits. He is a top coach. He's been unbelievable. So yeah, I don't like the fact that, I don't know, people think we're not criticising at all. We're just observing the situation. Of course. And we all know that every single person, if they had the job, would pick players that we'd go, oh, why are you doing that? Why are you doing this? Yeah, because we've all got an idea on that. Let's have a halftime break. Time for some segments of Orange. Welcome back to the rest is football with Alan Shearer, Micah Richards and myself, Gary Lineker. We're discussing international football and who should play, who shouldn't play. It can be quite dull being away with England. And I always thought it was actually worse when you've got just a couple of games at home or something, because you're kind of sitting in a hotel for a few days or St. George's Park, wherever it is now. And you have to make your own entertainment a little bit. Because I remember one time, it was actually Gazza's first call up. And we used to stay at Burnham Beaches and train down the road there. And it was a nice little old hotel and stuff, but there wasn't much to do there. So I think Bobby Robson organised a golf day on one of these gaps where we didn't have a game for a while. And it was at the local Burnham Beaches Golf Club. I didn't play golf then. And I think about half the team went to actually play the golf. And then the rest of us had to meet up afterwards and go and have dinner in the clubhouse at the golf course. And we went there and we had the food. And then the captain of the golf club stood up and he did about five, 10 minute speech. And we're all going, oh, come on, shut up. We want to go home. We want to go back to the hotel. We want to get some sleep. And then we're all about to leave. And Gazza had just been called up. He suddenly stands up and we're all going, what's he doing? And he did about 45 minutes stand-up comedy. And it was extraordinary. And it was people, we were crying, we laughed. I remember Brian Robson goes, turns to me and went, what the f*** have we got here? Honestly, he was brilliant. He did 45 minutes. He was hysteric. Some of the jokes he messed up a little bit, which made it even funnier. We were wondering what we got in our hands and we were to find out. I've got one more before we go. So basically, I'm in the England squad now, aren't I? I'm Big Meeks. I've arrived, you know? I'm at England. I'm at the top of my game. Please tell me you came into the dressing room first day and you arrived, you went, Big Meeks is here. You know, similar to what Bellingham does, where he just sort of holds his hands up. I like Bellingham without the ability. So anyway, we're at England now. So again, going to England, it was sort of like, do you remember the Renford rejects? It was like the rejects. So you had all your top, you had Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, whatever. And then you had like Man City, Everton, Watford. So me, Julian, Lescott, Ashley Young, we're all together. So because I'm in England now, I feel like I'm like one of the guys, you know, Gerrard is my mate, and Lampard or whatever it is. So we've finished international break now. We're playing Chelsea away. Stamford Bridge, horrible place to go. We used to get tongued there all the time. So we're in the tunnel now. You know, you come down in the tunnel, you're lining up and you say hello. I think I said hello to Joe Cole and this, that. Tried to say hello to Lampard. He only goes and blanks me. What? Blanks Big Meeks? He blanked, he absolutely blanks me. So I'm thinking, is it game face? Is it whatnot or whatever? So as we're going out to the pitch now, I'm thinking, has he just, has he just blanked me? It was only last week we was together in England camp. I thought we was mates. So now I'm in my own head, aren't I? I'm in my own head, I'm thinking, I'm going to smash him the first chance I get. Honestly, the highlights in that game, it was about six or seven nil to Chelsea. I'm at fault for at least five of the goals. There was one instance, I'm telling you, there's one instance where he gets the ball. I'm in my head, I'm looking at him, you know, like you're on the pitch and you're following someone around, where is he going to be? When he comes into my zone, I'm going to do him this, that and the other. He plays outside of the football and I think I've got it, but he goes blindside of me or whatnot. And Drogba just finishes it off. And it gets even better because it goes to match of the day. And I'm thinking, oh my God, I'm going to absolutely get killed by you two, these two Herbert's I'm working with now. And luckily, luckily, you went for Javi Garrido, the left back started talking about his positioning, this side and the other. So I got away with it. Gary, can you remember that? That night, honestly, when we're in match of the day, we said that this kid is ----. This youngster at City, he's played for England, we can't attack him on match of the day. Alan was going to put you away, but I said to him, I said, let's, let's, let's leave him alone. Let's, let's go easy on him because one day I've got a feeling we'll be doing a podcast together. So what had happened at the end of the game, Micah? Did you confront him? So after the game and whatnot, it's come on, you're embarrassed are you? Because it's one of those, you two won't feel it as a strike. I'd say you going through and you should score and you should win the game. It's similar to that, but I would say it's a little bit worse because you've cost your team, you know? So afterwards, I see him again. We're back in England camp now. We're back there now. I'm thinking, how do I approach this? You know, like I'm big meeks, but in England camp, I'm little meeks, you know? I can't throw my weight around. And we was in the physio room and basically he shook my hand. He said, I'm one of the good guys, you know? I was just in the zone. I'm pretty shy. So if it come across arrogant, I apologize. I said, you could have told me that at the game. I've got something here, Micah. I've just been sent something by one of our producers. And it's a picture here. I don't know whether you can see it. I'll hold it up there. There you go, look. That's a picture with Frank Lampard looking very angrily at a young Micah, at a young big meeks. He was calling the officers a C word. Who the f*** is this kid? He was like, F***, who is this? So yeah, it was good times, but it was bad times at the same time. Italy next for England. Obviously that's a qualifier that he'll choose his absolute first choice lineup for that. Who would you like to see in it? It's tough, isn't it? Because John Stones is back now. Maguire, although he's not been starting, he's sort of a hero the other day when he got the assist from McTominay. Bellingham's the one that we want to see. I mean, I know we've talked about him many times on this, but I'm just so excited to see how far he can go now. You know, that's what I'm looking forward to. And seeing if we can play, because there was a stage for six months where we was playing some incredible football. It seems to have dipped a little bit. Yeah, of course. But just play that free-flowing football. I'd love to see Madison again. I think he's outstanding in that number 10 role. I don't think he had any best game the other day, but he's still trying to make things happen. I suppose Bellingham's now playing in that role, isn't he? He could play him off the left though, couldn't he? He could play anywhere on that top part of the pitch, I suppose. Good news this week that Euros in 2028 will be in Great Britain in the Republic of Ireland. I know people will say we hosted the Euros a few years ago, but it was just the semis and the final really, wasn't it? Whereas this is the whole thing. So that's something to look forward to. Yeah, it'll be a great atmosphere. I mean, we had it, I know it was in 1996, and to be part of that then, it was amazing. The atmosphere in the stadium at Wembley for us as England players did not help us. I know we didn't get to the final, but the atmospheres in those games were some of the best I've ever played in. That Holland one, that game against Holland at Wembley that night was probably the best atmosphere I've played in an England shirt. It was unbelievable. I was there cheering you on, Al. Were you there? Yeah, I was there watching, it was amazing. So it'll be something similar again. So yeah, I think it's great news. It's more football, which brings me to the subject of the complaints of Virgil van Dijk this week, saying players are playing too much football. Somebody's got to start speaking up to protect players, et cetera. What did you think of that? Alan, you're shaking your head. Nonsense. Players are playing too much football. What? Have you ever heard some... I mean, come on. You're getting paid hun... I know that you shouldn't ever mention the money, but they've got bigger squads than ever. Got more substitutes than ever. You're getting paid more money than ever. You've got the best physios. You've got the best technology. You've got the best of everything. Do me a favour. Playing too much football. Do you agree with me or what, lads? Well, my point would be that they are asked to play a lot of football and they are asked to fly all over the world to do that at times, depending on who you play for. Say the South American players in particular, I would say. In their private jets? Well, you know what? My view's on private jets, so I should be banned. However they travel, it is still tiring. My complaint is not for the footballers themselves, although he would say perhaps his injury was caused by tiredness. Who knows? But for me, I think we need to think about players' welfare because for the good of the game, to keep the game as entertaining as possible, that players are as fit. But didn't he say it was England? Well, he did. Well, there is a lot of football in England. I mean, international football, I sort of get and understand because they're just creating and creating more games and I know why they're doing it. We all know why they're doing it. They're doing it for financial reasons. But I mean, here in England, you can tell I don't really agree with that. I suppose we've got a League Cup and an FA Cup. But they don't play in the League Cup. We still have replays in the FA Cup, so you end up playing. Again, I'm playing devil's advocate here because Alan feels so strongly about it. Micah? Yeah, I think coming on this podcast today, I probably would have disagreed, but I understand what you're saying, to be honest. I just think sometimes the standard of football drops with the amount of games, do you know? Sometimes when you're playing three games a week and you made a good point, they've got more bigger squads than ever. If you've got a squad of 25 and they're all top internationals, you should be able to cope. But I just think the way football's going at times is it just feels like it's just become too much of an entertainment business rather than the quality of football. And I think we don't ever want to go down the road of it just being about how much money football can make with the amount of games that we can play, if you know what I mean. It's more about the quality. Like we always talk about the Premier League is the best and most entertaining. We have to keep it that way. And sometimes there's too many games and the fixtures, it's the fixtures, isn't it? I don't necessarily think there's too many games. It's the too many games in that short period of time is where I would agree with Van Dijk. Just before we go, a former England player, one of the greats, Wayne Rooney, has got the job at Birmingham. John Eustace was let go. They were sixth in the league, it's a bit tough on him. What do you make of it, Alan? He better do well. I mean, I don't know that. I mean, he's a huge name. We know the part that Tom Brady is there now and the influence that he may have had in sort of getting him there. Yeah, it was very harsh on Eustace. But that's football, isn't it? But the one thing that he has to do now is because of where they were when he took over in sixth position and doing really well, he has to go and he has to get a very good start. Otherwise, it might turn pretty ugly quickly. But yeah, very harsh on the previous manager. Spoke to a Birmingham City fan just last week and he was flabbergasted. Really? And so Alan is completely right. It's going to take a little bit of the fans to get used to this new Hollywood style approach. But the question I asked him, I said, well, if it works, it'll all be all right. Football is cutthroat, isn't it? And we don't like it. We don't like to see managers losing a job when a six in the championship. Of course we don't. But if it's for the long term gain, then this should look further field. But yeah, it was still, it was still harsh. But that's football. That's the industry we're in. Really interesting. Actually, I think his first game is up against his old team mate, isn't it? Michael Carrick, Middlesbrough. Yeah. So that's their first game. They've picked up a little bit, Middlesbrough, haven't they? They've picked up, yeah. It's a tough one. It's a tough start for him, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Some good games coming up in the championship with the Mighty Foxes at the top of the league. I just thought I'd give you a weekly reminder of that. Enjoy it while I can. We'll finish with the moment of the week. I don't know whether you've seen it. The Gillingham interim boss, Keith Millen. Did you see it? He got sent off for tripping over one of Warsaw's players who was coming off the pitch at the time and he just stuck out a leg. He's a bit of a bandit though, isn't he? Come on. We have a bit of fun in our game. We can't do anything anymore. Getting sent off for a little trip. Come on. Yeah, but he's the manager. You know, he's not the opposing manager. That's what makes him better. We're all loathing Roy when he's saying, do you want some? Remember when Roy was giving it on a touchline? Yeah. What was the other one? Was it Alan Pardew who had one, didn't he? Pardew, yeah. He head-butted someone, didn't he? He head-butted a player, didn't he? Yeah. Do you remember Alan Pardew's little jig at Wembley when they went 1-0 up? Do you remember that? He was fantastic. He was giving it all, the boggling and all that. He ended up losing, I think. Did you say it was fantastic? I can think of another word. Touchline feuds. Managerial touchline feuds. You can't beat them. That's it from us. The rest is football this week. Thanks once again for all your support. Kind words, they're much appreciated. And on the occasions when you send us your questions as well. We love that you're loving it. And hopefully long will that continue. From me, goodbye. Goodbye from me. Have a good week.