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Hammering Away Ep #33 - Personality
65 Plays1 year ago
On today's episode of the podcast, Jack and Joe discuss West Ham's 1-1 draw with Tottenham, their come from behind win over Wolves, the Hammers' upcoming Europa League Quarterfinal against Bayer Leverkusen, and more!
Music by: LADI OGUN & @ANTlll
Blog: Hammering-Away.blog
Twitter/X: @Hammering_Away
Instagram/Threads: @HammeringAway_
Tiktok: @hammering.away
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Transcript
Time Travel Jokes and Episode Corrections
00:00:26
Speaker
Welcome back to the hammering wave podcast is episode number 33. I think last week I said it was episode number 34. Um, so either that episodes in the future, we don't have to do it again or this episode already happened. Um, and in a way I kind of do wish this episode already
Football Stress and Points Pressure
00:00:49
Speaker
happened. Well, we'll know the new castle episodes last week. Um,
00:00:55
Speaker
But I would still say the two games we played this week were painful. Not painful at the Newcastle one, though. They were very stressful games. I'm happy that we got out of there at four points. But I know I was texting you, Joe, earlier this week. I didn't even introduce this week, I think, at this point. Everybody should know. But yeah. But yeah, I was texting you earlier this week. And I was just being like, you know, I don't know how much longer I can handle this.
00:01:23
Speaker
It's a lot, man. It's a lot. Yeah. And it just hasn't gotten easier. It's just, you know, cause like when, when we were in relegation battles, like, I mean, I guess like we were in one last year and I was pretty stressed last year, but it's like, you know, teams are dropping points around you too,
Relegation Battles and Team Depth
00:01:43
Speaker
you know? And we always find a way in the past decade, at least.
00:01:47
Speaker
Um, and we usually always have one or two guys that we can lean on, you know, like whether it's Marco, whether it's deck. Um, but like a knees, it's like, we have like seven guys we can lean on. And I'm like, man, like, I just, I just don't know if we have enough. Do we have enough to finish in the top seven? We might've already dug our hole.
00:02:15
Speaker
If we have a top schedule and like United have games at hand, Chelsea have a game in hand, Newcastle seem to be picking up form.
Newcastle and Chelsea's Form Concerns
00:02:28
Speaker
It's gonna be tough. Newcastle are my biggest worry right now and I'm gonna be really angry if they finish above us. Cause that game is such a backbreaker. Yeah, we essentially gave them four points.
00:02:42
Speaker
Yeah, we will sort of referee. But yeah, like we said this last week, that's such a back backbreaking loss. Not not to start off the episode negative, but it really it really is a tough, tough loss to take because we could win around 48 points, six games ago. They're on 47 points.
00:03:05
Speaker
with seven games ago. They've shown that they're really inconsistent, thankfully. We've been pretty inconsistent since the turn of the new year. Hopefully, they drop more points than we do. Chelsea have some really difficult games coming up, which I didn't actually realize. I thought they were super easy. I think that their schedule gets really easy after this run, but they play Arsenal
00:03:30
Speaker
Villa and Spurs in their next three league games and they have a FA Cup semi-final city in there too. So hopefully they lose all four and their confidence is sharp. Yeah, I mean, to be fair, this Chelsea team is a resilient bunch. Mentally, as tough as they get. Yeah. I do.
00:03:57
Speaker
United will pay for drawing that lead to them. I don't know when they'll pay, but they will. Yeah. Like everybody involved in that loss is facing really difficult things in their future. Like really, dude? I mean, ten Hoggins specifically, because I was honestly, we'll talk about West Ham, but I was honestly not that out on him when they were on
00:04:23
Speaker
forming early in the season. Cause like you did a good job last year. He obviously was great at IAC. But like if they're so chaotic and teams play through them so well or not well so easily, it's embarrassing. And it's like even, even their draw with Liverpool the other day, it's like Liverpool got into their final third with so much ease. They can see the most shots in the league. I like it's,
00:04:51
Speaker
Yeah, I think they could see like what 28 shots. It's insane. It's insane. That's what people want to see us do. Remember somebody tweeted the stats of the Brighton game that they lost 3-0 to Arsenal said that this is what they want. That's what we did under Pelo Green. And you know, when we were winning some of those games, it was cool. I enjoyed the feeling of like feeling like we're all like we're going to take it to them. We still do take it to these teams if we're being serious, but
00:05:18
Speaker
The other thing about that is when we were beating Arsenal 1-0, when we drew Liverpool 1-1 at the bowl, going toe to toe with these teams, we were still defensively compact. We weren't like, we weren't playing like, who did we just play? We weren't playing like Anj Pashtikagliu at like Old Trafford or at the Eddie Hadd, like, come on, man.
00:05:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, this is like a dead subject at this point. These like idiot moist outers. I know, but they they love it, dude. And I love it. I love hearing. Do you? No, it's killing me. I'm quite tired of these guys. It's it's killing me. OK. We do need to talk about the game, honestly.
Tactical Analysis of Wolves Game
00:06:11
Speaker
that first half against wolves. I was scrolling through Twitter and halftime. I was seeing all the Mois outers getting their takes off. And I was like, you guys deserve this today. This has been terrible. And it was not that like the tactics were bad because honestly, I think Gary O'Neill just had them set up really well. I think that their system really notified everything that we try to do with our buildup down either side. I know
00:06:37
Speaker
Jack Ellerton was tweeting about that today, and I was reading more about it. And really, they just nullified everything we wanted to do. They would be able to double up on us and outside. They overwhelmed us in the field. And anytime we had runners, they had enough center backs to track the runners. So honestly, we couldn't really get out of our own half. Our best chance should have been a goal, really. This came from pressing, which we didn't do that well in the first half, but we did really well in the second half, I thought.
00:07:07
Speaker
Um, and yeah, I mean, we were, we were just terrible. I mean, could fall really horrendous. The last week, honestly, it's been embarrassing to watch him, especially it's a shame. Cause I think we were on here raving about him during the break and he deserved it. We were played so well for a month and half. He came back from this international break. I don't know what's wrong with him. Um, I guess he didn't get called up to the check squads. We couldn't go out like an animal. Did he not get called up?
00:07:36
Speaker
I don't think he's been getting called up since the whole incident. He was at the club for the game. It's ridiculous, dude. If they're in Euros this summer, it's honestly insane for not calling him up. Anyways, he was atrocious.
00:07:58
Speaker
Am I, am I talking about wolves? I'm talking about wolves. Yeah. Yeah. Cause he, cause I'm thinking about what he did in the first half of it and stop him. Um, but yeah, he was terrible. Uh, Peketa was the worst player in the pitch and that first half of his wolves. It's embarrassing. He cannot play like that. It, those little, these little hats, those spells he has like this, they have to stop. Um, I, and cause the thing is that I'm willing to live with the fact that like his play style really
00:08:27
Speaker
Like it, it breathes these kinds of like random inconsistent performances, especially when like he was in that form earlier in the season. I think he could have carried that on forever, but you know, he gets hurt, he comes back, he has to find his rhythm again. And so I understand that he's going to have halves of this, but what he has to do is when it's not coming off and when he can't
Antonio's Impact and Club Legend Status
00:08:46
Speaker
find forward passes and when he can't break out of those tight spaces, he has to be able to just keep them all. Just keep them all.
00:08:54
Speaker
Because it's a backbreaker when he tries to get himself out of something that he shouldn't be, and he gives him all that. It kills us. It's an absolute kill. Yeah, he's not been in the best form, I guess. But one thing that you do have to commend him on is the fact that he doesn't let it affect his effort level.
00:09:14
Speaker
Like, no, yeah. And that's what I love about him. Like he is pretty consistent with his off ball work, which is, which is part of what makes him special. Um, but yeah, like it just leaves us. So like it's, it's such a risk and you might argue this like a necessary evil from the play this way. Um, but at the end of the day, like in your own half, like if you're not, if it's not coming off, just like,
00:09:45
Speaker
That's my thing. It absolutely isn't necessarily evil. And I think, and you can see it when he plays for Brazil, and even if you go back and watch some older games of Leone, even though he plays a similar-ish role there just through the middle.
00:09:57
Speaker
That's how up-tempo they played. But Mois has to ask him. Like, it's pretty clear that Mois asks him, every time you get on the ball, I want you to look to kill him. Every time he's on the ball, he could kill him. Which, you know, has paid dividends this year. But sometimes, to me, it's when he doesn't get it to come off the first time and then he starts trying to force it instead of, you know, pick up the ball. And he likes to manipulate those spaces. Like, manipulate the space for yourself a little bit and then try to play the pass.
00:10:28
Speaker
Because he just needs to create more, I guess, advantageous opportunities for himself when it's not coming off in order to try and get something to work. But then again, like I said earlier, I think that Gary Ono just had them set up really well. I know that we've beat them twice and that we thrashed them the first time. I think he's a great coach with what he's doing over there. And they don't have a lot right now. They're just as hurt as Newcastle are. Yeah, they're as battered as they come.
00:10:58
Speaker
No, Neto, like that's their by far best player. And I don't actually feel any sympathy for them. I mean, he's always out. But they like playing is her not not to diminish your point because you're right. But like Tony is also right. Right. He he he came back. Can't remember if he came off the bench or if he started, but he he didn't. I don't think he played against us, did he?
00:11:27
Speaker
No, he played on Sarah. I remember seeing him out there. I was like, what the hell is he doing so deep? And I think it was in the second half, yeah, it was. And then the second half, well, actually, I'm not done slandering people. Paquetta, Kufo, who's the other one, Suchak, and Warcrouse in that first half.
00:11:51
Speaker
just horrendous and it specifically pick up there because when pick up this playing like that we can't get up the pitch we can't keep the ball we are just essentially defending counter attacks um because where he's giving it away um but having said that i thought that well first of all moise again making a change at halftime we're not playing well um shows you how bad
00:12:17
Speaker
that performance and the Burnley performances, because he's not a huge fan of that, but he'll do it when it's really terrible. Having the balls to take Suchak and Kufall off and bring on Johnson and Antonio. Great subs. And then, Roy Prowse, having the gumption
00:12:39
Speaker
to step up the way he did it. Yeah, the gumption dude, to step up the way that he did in that second half. He really, he really, really did. Like he pressed so well. He was so combative, played with so much energy. He started, he found some effective passes. The set pieces were dangerous and he got his reward for that and more. He's the one who
00:13:05
Speaker
He didn't win the ball back to the penalty. I think I said that. He won the ball back for Emerson's disallowed goal, which should not have been. It's ridiculous. It's absolutely insane that that was disallowed. I don't care that he kind of steps on his foot because tomato has no reason to go down like that. And he should not be rewarded for throwing himself to the ground. Should not be rewarded for that. It's a, it's a goal. It should be a goal. Whatever. Lee, I think, and then you want to do something crazy.
00:13:31
Speaker
You like to get SOPA squirt. You'll get SOPA squirts stats, right? Yeah. Dabble. No, no, no, no. No, no, no. It's not an exposure thing. I'm no, cause I'm about to ask you a question. When you look at those stats and you look at how many times a player was possession, how many times you usually say, I guess it depends on the position, but like a center mid center mid, like
00:13:56
Speaker
15 times, 10 times? 15, 18, 20. Look at those 28. I haven't scrolled that far down from all those guys. Because for Antonio, it'll be like as many as touches. Yeah, like will he have more completed passes or like lost possession? Yeah, because it's not a great indicator, right? But yeah,
00:14:22
Speaker
People lose possession a lot throughout the course of the game, basically. Yeah, it happens. James Ward Prowse lost possession, according to the SOAP score, against Wolves, four times. That's crazy. It's impossible. Yeah. Dude, he's taking set pieces. Does that count as giving away possession? I can't. I don't even know. I don't think so. I don't think we had that many.
00:14:49
Speaker
And I guess if he crosses it, we get our head on it. It's not his lost possession. And his free kick turned into a corner. He's never going to score a free kick. Well, that's what he's given us. Yeah, but he was just spectacular in that second half. And I think only giving the ball away four times with how he played in that second half is
00:15:16
Speaker
really awesome and then obviously he gets the reward for the corner which is just hilarious that he scored that right like of course of course he scores in olympico before before as a goalkeeper like i know goalkeepers have caught it has a goalkeeper like dove and like saved one of his free kicks yet
00:15:41
Speaker
It's not even slandering. I mean, it's not that many good opportunities, but it's just fun. Yeah. Yeah. I think one punched. One got punched. Yeah. With like two hands, that was comfortable. It's like one of these. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One of the like punching practice. Like nature is going the right direction. If not for Antonio, he probably would have been my man in the match. But then again,
00:16:09
Speaker
Antonio comes on, he changes these games. I mean, what he's done against Burnley, what he's done in every single performance since he's been back, besides Forest, where he wasn't even bad, we were just terrible. Besides that Forest game. This is like, it's almost like every time you think he'll never score another goal for us, he like hits the best form of his career. I understand that the real best form of his career is like the beginning of the 21-22 season.
00:16:37
Speaker
But he hasn't put a foot wrong in a month. Yeah. When it's all said and done with him, and that day will apparently come. Allegedly. We're going to look back. Yeah. We're just going to look back on this guy. If you gloss over the actually bad periods of his studies. Which you can. Yeah. Because the good periods are so important. Yeah. Which we absolutely will.
00:17:07
Speaker
And it comes with his good, his peaks always come at when we need them the most. Like it's, it truly is like. It's insane.
00:17:17
Speaker
He's a club legend, every sense of the word. This guy has exceeded expectations every single time. And he's doing it again. This is the day he was signed. This is the day he was signed. And he's part of the reason why. He was supposed to be a nothing player for us, dude. He was supposed to be like an option off the bench to play wing. Then he was a right back. Then he didn't want to play right back anymore. He was tired of giving away penalties.
00:17:46
Speaker
He's amazing. And another thing about the bad periods, and there have been bad periods, even for his biggest fans, we have to admit they're in the bad periods. But even those bad periods, like, has there been a legitimately, like, cause obviously every player has bad games and like little patches of bad form. Antonio has those long, dry, disgusting runs. Has there been one of those runs
00:18:17
Speaker
in a season where we've been good. Yes. No, I disagree. But I think I know when you're going to say. 21-22. No. He was only working Thursdays that spring. But what about the winter? Dude, no, but the reason I'm asking about this is because I watched the video.
00:18:47
Speaker
um of all of his goals and so that yeah so that that winter was bad right and he does this thing where he's bad and he like and you think you always think only until he's cornered that then you're like when the hell was the last time he scored from a corner but you watch he's always scoring from corners he um so he scores against Pallas right remember the Ben Rommel we won that game 3-2 the land scene again yeah on New Year's Day so he scored in that game
00:19:14
Speaker
He was fine in that game. He was terrible against Southampton, but he scored. I think it was Boxy that he scored. Was that another corner? Yeah, that was a corner. Then he scored against Southampton from a corner in the FA Cup in the beginning of February.
00:19:36
Speaker
Dude, you know another goal that does not count, but like obviously it counts. Which one? Fulham at home last year.
00:19:51
Speaker
He handled it. It would have been disallowed if he scored. It would have been disallowed if he scored the first one-on-one, but since it got saved, then it was a new phase of play. It wasn't disallowed. So funny. And that was to make it 3-1, right? That was to make it 3-1, yeah. Yeah, that goal truly did not count.
00:20:21
Speaker
That was like the least threatened I've ever felt up one goal. It was that game for whatever. Yeah. Like we didn't even need the goal. Like we were fine. He was just... That is insane. The Bournemouth goal last year from the corner. You don't even remember it, dude. In the four now. Trying to think. He scored... I just remember the two forget the goals. He didn't score twice, did he? No. It was...
00:20:50
Speaker
Antonio Piquetto, deck, and for nows. And then Cornet had the goal to sell out. I guess I just remember the Piquetto header. Yeah. But because I was watching his thing and I was thinking I was like, for a guy who's never in the right position, he's always in the right position. And like the goofiest, like the goofiest one. He knows how to attack corner man, like,
00:21:21
Speaker
Because think about it, Chelsea, away last year, Chelsea at the bridge last year, standing on the line, tapping. When else has he done this? He did it, scored a lot of fake goals last year. Alcorn, corner, on the line.
00:21:41
Speaker
And bro, these are big goals too. Like I'm not, like those two aren't like totally fake because like he needs to be there. We needed those goals. I'm not slandering Antonio. They're just funny goals that of course he, cause like one of the big things and he has no strikers instinct. He's not where he needs to be, which to be fair from open play, sometimes I'm screaming at him. The ball gets pulled across the front. Where is he? Where is he?
00:22:10
Speaker
But from these corners, man, he loves it. He loves it. He, even when he's not scored him, he's so crucial to when we, to our set pieces from corners is because he's constantly wrestling the goalkeeper like that. You can't replace that really. Yeah. It just makes him uncomfortable, especially hitting me so big. Yeah. He has them in hell. Yeah. Alison hates it. Alison will be in hell in a few weeks.
00:22:39
Speaker
Oh yeah, you'll be in the building. Yeah, I will be in the building, which is crazy. Yeah, some of his goals just killed me, dude. Like, who do we play? The remaining team? I want to go by the correct name. No, no, no, we played them in the group. I want to call them by their correct name. What was their name?
00:23:07
Speaker
It's like, it's like an initial, wasn't it? Yeah. And TSC this year is throwing me off. So I can't remember it. And they also, they, they like changed their name because they used to be something else. Uh, okay. I've looked this up because he scored the most hilarious goal. Against them. The one FCSB FCSB. Yeah. So.
00:23:37
Speaker
He like received the ball, right? And turned super well. And he's in on goal and he just hits it straight at the goalkeeper with his left foot. But the goalkeeper is bad and is like trying to guess where he's going to go. He's already moving away and it hits his arm and goes in. That goal is super goofy to me. Anyways.
00:24:01
Speaker
He is a goofy guy, and I have a sneaky feeling that we're gonna have one more run-of-form like this next year. Another year. That's impossible. I'm rolling it out. Dude, no. No, because, see, that's the thing. You think it's impossible. Dude, I thought it was impossible this year. He scored twice in the first two weeks. Or three weeks. Yeah, dude. He's never gonna die. He's never gonna die.
00:24:29
Speaker
We're going to replace him next year. The guy who comes in next year, Salanky, he better like, get, whoever it is, better get all his money up front as much as possible. No bonuses. No bonuses. No, no wage spikes. Cause he, they're going to fail. The dark magic of Michael Antonio will cause they're going straight into the Antonio curse. Yeah.
00:24:55
Speaker
Every one, every year is like, this is the one. This is the one that breaks the curse. No, no, this is the one. This someone is the one. Yeah. No, it is. It's the one. I've heard it. It's the one, dude. Halaire was supposed to, Halaire invented the curse.
00:25:13
Speaker
The curse gave Hilar a cancer. Literally. Which we can say now that it's interesting. Yeah, congratulations. Congratulations. But he went and started playing well. And Antonio curse followed him. Antonio curse never left him, dude. His bones are still infected. His bones are still infected. That's crazy.
00:25:38
Speaker
Dude, what's going to happen to Skamako, bro? He's going to get knocked out by us in the Europa League. He's going to beat him in the final. What happened was...
00:25:48
Speaker
He got, he's, he got ostracized from the Italy team or he like, his like coaches always like talking shit about him in the Italy team. I don't know if he's, no one has said a good word about him besides West Ham fans. Besides Moi's outers are the only guy in his court. Smock his mom. It's like, I can run more. Dude, it's crazy. Like you don't even hear like at Atlanta fans being like, I'm sure they like him. He scores goals, right? Like he's sort of like, he scored their, uh,
00:26:17
Speaker
He scored the biggest goal of their season so far. He scored the winner in the Europa League. Yeah. They like him a little bit. And I mean, I like him a little bit. Not a lot of it. Because he doesn't run enough. And he will be exposed in Dublin. I like him. Is that crazy to say? It's not that crazy. It's crazy because of how cultish everything is right now with this fan base. But it's not crazy. Because the craziest part about that
00:26:46
Speaker
Moiz likes him. Moiz likes him. Moiz wanted to keep him. Moiz only sold him because we were just like, if we get 30, we have to sell. Moiz essentially asked him to stay. And he said, no, I want to go back to Italy. So it stopped being so insane. Anyway. Yeah, this is like the... It's so true. It's so made up of the whole spot. That's an award this summer.
00:27:16
Speaker
And I was on the front lines. Yeah, I mean, I wanted him to stay. I think he would have had like a pretty fine season first. I think he would have had a pretty similar season for us that he's having. You know, we could have used him this year, especially when. And Tony was now Tony. Yeah. I'm sure we would have figured it out. I'm sure big Moise, you had a plan.
00:27:41
Speaker
But hey, he would have made a war. If that 30 million turned into Muhammad kudos, bro. I'm never thinking I would have never. I would have walked in Italy. Literally. I would have killed him. I would have shot him in the face. Dude, I would I would I would have walked him to Venezia FC, dude. I would have walked through the water to the ocean city. I would play second division football.
00:28:11
Speaker
Where do they play? Where the hell do they play? There's no way there's a pitch on that little stone island that goes up there. It's sinking. Oh, Venice? Yeah. I don't know. They don't play out there, do they? They can't play out there. Yeah, there's a stadium in Venice. I'm going to have to look at that later. That's craziness. That's awesome, to be honest.
00:28:39
Speaker
I wonder how big their stadium is. They can't be that big. When is Venice going to sink by? That's what I want to know. Here, you find out what their allocation is. I'll find out when Venice is going to sink, so we can inform everyone in Hamming away to take their significant other and or mother to Venice. I googled when it's Venice. All right, so I have my answer. Do you have your answer? I have my answer. Yeah, I have answer.
00:29:09
Speaker
Well, the stadium capacity is 11,000. When is it going to be underwater? It's 11,000? Yeah. I really want to go. The latest study suggests that Venice is sinking at a rate of about one to two millimeters a year. If he keeps up this pace over the next 20 years,
00:29:32
Speaker
It will sink by around 80 millimeters relative to sea level. And then the other answer is by 2100. That's enough for us to come out. Could I have a contract there? We'll see it sink in our lifetimes. You know, knock on wood. Yeah. I want to see it sink. I want to see it sink. Yeah, yeah. Not like in a bad way. I just feel like I would see it sink and I would be like,
00:30:01
Speaker
Yeah, this climate change shit is getting crazy. That sucks right there. I remember when I went and I went with John Lucas Kamaka because he signed for Venizia to end his career. I personally was 11,000 fish. SpongeBob is playing the intros.
00:30:26
Speaker
No, they got, dude, those water, that water got dirty, bro. I hope there's no fish living in that water. Yeah. I mean, it's, I don't know how, I'll go and I'll let you know if there's any fish there. I mean, in all the pictures, it looks beautiful. It looks beautiful in the water, but like, it can't be. My parents went last spring, they said they loved it.
00:30:46
Speaker
I'm sure they did. It seems amazing. I'm not saying it's a bad place. You're the one who wants to sink, man. I don't want it to sink for malicious reasons. That's my heritage. I'm sorry. I apologize. I don't want Venice to sink yet. What's going to happen when it sinks, though? That's another thing that I'm interested about. She's going to be like, damn.
00:31:17
Speaker
Well, it's just like, here, here's my thing. Is like, is the bottom like touching the bottom of the ocean or is it like, I don't know how it works. Like how is it sinking up? Like if it sinks, it sinks. Yeah. I mean, there's other reasons you could really do at that point. What'd you think about the Tottenham game?
Chaotic European Semi-Finals
00:31:39
Speaker
Um, the Tottenham game. Yeah. I mean, uh,
00:31:47
Speaker
Man, what a crazy game that was. I was just thinking, what was that game? But that was an insane game. It reeked of the game. It was sloppy as hell. It reeked of the game from last year. Which one? The home game last year. The one won at the bowl last year when Suit checks board. And we had the chance again for Bowen and then Paquetta and Emerson ran past the ball and the whole game. That game pissed me off more than anything. Yeah.
00:32:15
Speaker
Dude, it was like, it was like a carbon copy. Even the end. Should have won it at the end, again. Yeah. Honestly, dude, there is a world where we could have picked up nine points this week. And I'm more mad about the Newcastle one, because honestly, I was thinking, I was like, I was optimistic. I thought we beat Newcastle on the wolves. I thought we would draw a top in them. We should have. Only one. Yeah, Kufals has been having a rough
00:32:46
Speaker
rough going past three games just between like Werner had him on Han stilts. Gordon had him on stilts. Is there any other like corked up white wingers out there that like are going to give him high inverts? Oh God. He plays on the middle at least.
00:33:08
Speaker
No, yeah. He'll get a... He'll get... Grimaldo. Oh, my God. Yeah, he's going to get Grimaldo and Tella on the same side as him on Thursday. After three starts in seven days. And his big age of 31. I think he might play Johnson, dude. I don't think that he will because of how big the game is. But at some point, questions have to be asked of how much does Ben Johnson have to do to earn a start.
00:33:37
Speaker
And then I think, and I know Kufall just had a great run of form, but I think questions also have to be asked that if that story about Kufall wanting to seek other opportunities, since he's not getting a new contract yet is true. And since he's at the big age of 31, with how well Johnson has played every time he's been given a chance this season, even though he's been ostracized.
00:34:05
Speaker
why not give Ben Johnson a new contract and then sell Kufo and actually make some money back? Paul's 31 and Ben Johnson's 23. Do you remember when, like right before the World Cup, Correa was like consistently starting over Kufo and like, then the report came out that like Moyes went to Kufo and was like, I'm so sorry, I'm never doing that again. I do not remember that. That's insane.
00:34:35
Speaker
Yeah, he was like, Khufal gave the interview during the World Cup break that he was like, like, cause like Khufal got benched and then came back right before the World Cup. And he was basically like- We lost three games in a week. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. I don't know. I forget the context, but like Moiz was like, like, I should have trusted you. Like some bullshit like that. I do. I do. I do remember. I do remember.
00:35:02
Speaker
Oh God. And he really hasn't like, yeah, he's never done it again. He's never done it again. He started in the final. Like we were both like pretty sure that Carer was going to start in that final. That is true, dude. Carer, it's weird actually. Cause like Kufo obviously, Kufo always had more of a chance to start than Emerson I thought. Right. Cause everybody was shocked when Emerson started. But like Carer had like just had his best performance in a West Ham shirt against United at that time.
00:35:34
Speaker
Carrere started at least one of the Alcmar legs. And I believe he started against leads. He started one of the leads in last three games.
00:35:50
Speaker
He was playing a lot at that time. He was playing a lot. Yeah, it was a legit 50-50. And it was like, what would we do? And the answer for that was star career. It was the United game. The United game was so moving at that time. He was so good that day. And like, you know, people would be getting on career because he, I don't even, career is like such like a professional guy. Like, I don't think he was taking a shot at Moyes. I think he was just trying to be like,
00:36:16
Speaker
Look at me, I'm good, I don't suck, you know? Yeah. So, yeah, I don't really care about his quotes. But I always liked T-Lo, because he gave us something down the second half of that spring of that season, and at the parade he was going crazy. Yeah, easy, like I remember Carrera, like he's
00:36:39
Speaker
He's a good guy. He's a good guy. He's a good dude. He's just one of those nationalities that we never signed. You know what I mean? We never signed Germans. We never signed Portuguese players. We don't sign Colombians. We don't sign Americans. Thank God. God willing. Oh my goodness. I don't think I could do an American player at this club. I really don't. But we both wanted Tyler Adams. And we both wanted Tyler Adams.
00:37:10
Speaker
There's also once upon a time where we both wanted, uh, what the hell is that other guy's name? McKinney. Yeah. Yeah. Weston. We were proven wrong about that one. He's playing. Is he not playing good for you, Ventus? I don't care how he's playing for you, Ventus. He's terrible. That's a good club.
00:37:31
Speaker
Yeah, dude. Yeah. Oh, well, yeah, they are now. A good club that employs good players. Congratulations, sweet Anderson. You joined the club with fine morals from another club with fine morals. Yeah, he's just... He's just going from club to club. Well, he's going to clubs. He's going to Italian clubs, so it's like... Yeah, so he doesn't have any options. They're all pretty shitty, comparatively.
00:38:01
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, Rudiger said that he was so excited to join Chelsea, such an accepting club when he left Italy, which was just the most insane quote I've probably ever heard. I wonder if he still says he might. He probably does, dude. He's on Madrid now, so he definitely does. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He probably thinks England is so progressive. Right. Maybe it is. Maybe we're good.
00:38:31
Speaker
They only called me the n-word? Wow. Wow. They're creative here in Spain. Sorry, I'm one of them. In Spain, I'm afraid to speak out because they might treat me like Venetius. They might just help me with bananas or something. It's crazy there. It's genuinely so disgusting. Yeah. It's really sad, but
00:39:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's upsetting. Ben, are you going to be upset? If Ben Johnson doesn't get a contract, there's a segue. Am I going to be upset? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I love Ben Johnson. That's my guy. Me and you have been like, me, you, and Ollie, us three, have been the only West Ham fans that have been 10 toes down on Ben Johnson. We never left them.
00:39:30
Speaker
Since the moment he made his debut, until today, we got through the Darby County match. We got through- What? What did he do wrong in Starview? That was like the, I just remember last year, that was like- Oh dude, yeah, people, we won that game and people wanted to kill him. It was so weird, bro. So weird. That was the legitimate peak of the delusion.
00:40:00
Speaker
But I was there. And the delusion was real. Because you remember, we played United. And he didn't play well in the last 10 minutes. But that was his third start in like seven days, if not playing for four months. And he was one of the best players in the pitch for 75 minutes. And lest we forget who gave away a goal that day when we were still in the game and still chasing the game, Naive Faguerre. And nobody wanted to blame him at that time. No, we're not going to say anything bad about Mr. Number 27 over there. That shirt's cursed, by the way.
00:40:30
Speaker
Is 11 cursed? Are we just cursing jerseys all around us? There's only so many numbers in the alphabet, you know? We curse all these numbers. There's two in the first 27 that guys just can't wear. Of all the numbers that are currently taken up right now, what's going to be cursed? Who's going to curse the number when they leave? Ooh, that's a good question. That is a damn good question. I know exactly who it is.
00:41:02
Speaker
I think number 28 is going to stink. I think it's going to stink. There's going to be a stench coming from that locker. That is insane, dude. That's probably right, though. The next person wears 28. Dude, they might get hit by a boss.
00:41:40
Speaker
Jesus. Dude, everything that that guy has put us through, I see that. It's either 28 or 3. 3 could be cursed. If I see somebody in 3. Dude, I can't see another player in 3. I can't even imagine it. Especially imagine a non-English player in 3.
00:42:01
Speaker
like imagine imagine like like if we signed like Michael Taglia Fico and he was wearing three get the fuck out of here dude like we should probably just just retire three out of like the safety just like just just to be safe yeah we're gonna get like we're gonna like win the Europa League this year right we're gonna like qualify for Champions League we're gonna sign like fucking what's his face from Ipswich
00:42:30
Speaker
His name is escaping me right now because I'm on the spot. It's because I can't say his name. It's like one of those weird British EI names. Isn't he talking about what position? He said Ipswich. He said Ipswich. He's a left back. We're getting another Ipswich. He's got to wear three. That's the only like. Oh, he's good. He's good.
00:42:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. I do agree with that. Okay, we'll sign that kid from Ghent then. We used to play for Darby. And we'll sign him to play left back and he'll take three. And like, somehow he'll get us just banned from the way for competition. He'll just not be allowed to participate in the Champions League. And honestly, I think that
00:43:26
Speaker
Like that's what we get from for forgiving other players. Nine I could see being cursed, but it was like already cursed. Nine's already cursed because he's like, if anything, he's fighting that curse for us. And we'll only find out if he won when he's done. We will not know if he's won that battle until he retires.
00:43:53
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I mean, to be fair, Carole were nine, but like the position is cursed. And I'm still going to say that Antonio is fighting that battle for us. No, yeah, it is absolutely cursed. I don't, I don't, I won't, I won't hear anything else. I mean, we're doing pretty good for a club with curse strikers, curse number 11s and curse number 27s and Cresswell. And yeah, it was just a cursed individual.
00:44:23
Speaker
Dude, how funny was his podcast? It was awesome. Anybody who hasn't listened to Chris Will's edition of the Iron Cash to listen to it. He's fun to listen to talk. I mean, I know people from Liverpool or something, but he's just funny to listen to talk and he's funny guy. He's like, you know what, man, he earned, I mean, obviously he didn't have anything left to earn, but
00:44:49
Speaker
You know, everybody's got that one player who's just given them the one too many times and they just kind of always had it for them. And I like over the last years, you know, I've tried to, you know, distance myself from even really talking about Cresswell too much. Just like, you know, even while he played, he had like a fine season last year, but I just like, didn't want to be one of those. I didn't want to be out or something, but essentially I want to be one of those guys just hating on Cresswell for no reason. Um,
00:45:18
Speaker
But he was my one, you know, everybody's got their one. And he, um, he, he, he shut me up with that golden scriber. That was it. That, that, that really made up everything for me. It made everything okay. It made the red card. Okay. The other red cards. Okay.
00:45:37
Speaker
i mean i don't know like no it's it's not it's it's but like it's it's as close as you're gonna get what you want you want him to score the winner in a semi-final are you insane we can be nice to him without like we'll never again well it's not it's not it's not like it's forgiven but it's like like we're moving past it you know what i mean yeah i didn't move past it until he scored that like it can't be overlooked
00:46:04
Speaker
And he was super funny about it in his episode of Ironcast. He goes, the guy, whoever it was, is like, oh, we got to ask you about the two records. He's like, oh, fucking now. And they're asking him about it. My favorite part was when
00:46:25
Speaker
in the Frankfurt leg, where he went down, he went back into the locker room. He was sitting there by himself, and then eventually, when he's been down to join them. That's exactly what I was getting to. That is the funniest thing I can imagine, is Crustwell sitting there for an hour, just with his thoughts.
00:46:51
Speaker
by himself. And Moyes is like outside those walls, like, like, attacking children. And he's like sent back in there, like still with like steam coming out of his ears and off of his hair. And Greswell is just sitting there by himself. Like I need like, they needed to... They did not say a word to each other. I don't think they said a word to each other. I think that's why that there's no more to the story.
00:47:20
Speaker
Yeah, they really should have pressed and seen if any words were exchanged. There's no chance any words were exchanged. Absolutely no chance. To be a fly on the wall in that room. We have yet to have a normal semi-final, by the way, in Europe, which I guess I never thought we'd have one semi-final in Europe.
00:47:51
Speaker
Now that we have reached the European semi-finals, we have yet to have, like, even, like, we can, like, lose our win and it can be normal. You know what I mean? Obviously it won't be normal, because it's the European semi-final, but, I mean, so, just to go over it, the Europa League semi-final, Creswell, Moyes, and Declan Rice, after the game, were all shown red cards.
00:48:21
Speaker
Declan Rice accused a UEFA official of match fixing. Yeah, and getting paid off. Probably because you saw a camera, if I'm being honest. Yeah. Because that is the most detached from reality thing to say. Why do they want Frankfurt to win? Why do they want Frankfurt to win?
00:48:48
Speaker
He's probably been paid, by whom? Because they were terrible, but like, you know, it was a record. And who paid them? Yeah, like, who's taking the money out of their pocket? Those three were sent off. Deck has accused a UEFA official of matrixing, which no one's been found guilty of in 15 years at that point. I wonder if they're investigating it still.
00:49:16
Speaker
Did they ever investigate it? No. That's why I was personally investigating it. Yeah, David Moyes.
00:49:26
Speaker
like attacked an 11 year old, he kicked the ball on his head. And then not only did he do that, he doubled down on it. And his folks came for his conference by saying I have to because he didn't even apologize. All he said was I have to apologize. And then he said, but it sat up nicely. I do wonder if and then Antonio fucking told a Frankfurt fan,
00:49:55
Speaker
They make more money in a day than he'll make in a year. Which was crazy, too. Get the hell out of there, dude. Like, he was definitely like, he was just, like, so pesky that he didn't even know what to say. Like, he got got. He didn't even get a got. That was ridiculous. That guy speaks German, dude. He doesn't know what you're saying, man.
00:50:20
Speaker
Can you imagine what it was like for that 11 year old to like get the ball beamed at you by David Moyes? It's just like so insane. The funniest part about it is like just so nobody gets it twisted. David Moyes is absolutely in his right to do that. In the right, yeah. Yeah, absolutely in the right. Shit. That child
00:50:46
Speaker
was time wasting from minute one. We should have had Eden Hazard on the pitch that night, if you know what I'm talking about. Should have kicked him in the stomach. Kicking a ball at him was nice. That kid should be breathing differently today. Even Hazard was nice. Yeah. To be in a wheelchair. But yeah, no, that was crazy.
00:51:08
Speaker
But also it's crazy. Oh yeah, so that game, right? All that happens. Go to another European conference league semi-final. Our fans, our players' families are attacked. Oh my God. Are attacked. And security is doing nothing. So our players are celebrating. Then they go into the crowd and fight Dutch people.
00:51:38
Speaker
There's videos of multiple of our players swinging on fans, which is incredible. And then they get... I was gonna say, they get back from their scrap with Dutch civilians, and Mark Noble is waiting for them with Heineken in the changing room. You know what came out of our last European semifinal?
00:52:08
Speaker
the three worst words in the English language. Nolsey, come tribute. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. That's insane. That was... All right. We're not going to talk about that. Look, that was crazy, but he is a hero. But yeah, that was... He's a hero. He's a hero. He's not that big of a bitch. He's a hero.
00:52:39
Speaker
You're not that big of a hero, but he's
Bayer Leverkusen Match Strategies
00:52:41
Speaker
a hero. Don't say it again, please. I'm not going to say it again. Please don't say it again. I know that when we started this podcast, we said we weren't even going to curse. Now we're talking about the KCT. No, no. The KCT. The KCT. And you know, that's what the people like here. It's honestly, I would like to imagine what the people who listen to this one here.
00:53:06
Speaker
But anyways, all this European semi-final talk, we have to talk about a European quarter-final first, because I think we've talked about everything else, but we have to talk about Leverkusen on Thursday. We do. What do you do with who's available? Well, first of all, do you think Bowman's going to be fit? I think that it's not a lower body injury, and it seems like
00:53:34
Speaker
like you know it is probably a deep bruise and you know it must be serious if they're talking about you might not play but day of the day this is this is a black and blue or something and i'm sure it's stiff but if he's even 25 and there's doesn't seem like there's risk of future injury i guess that's true
00:53:57
Speaker
If there's no risk of future injury, I think they'll probably play. You know, I don't think he's going to play though for some reason. I think he'll sit or maybe, maybe they're doing this whole charade because it's leprechaun on Thursday. You think there's like a little smokescreen action going on? Kobe. Mr. Moiz doesn't like to give away information in the, uh, in the, um, pre-matches. He's always like, we have to see, we have to see, we have to see. Mm.
00:54:28
Speaker
I don't know. Look, assuming... I don't know what's safer too soon. Assuming he plays, what do you do? Assuming he plays, bro. I'm going... I'm going our team. I'm going... Kufmeister keeps his place. Yeah. Yeah. And you go to Johnson for Fulham on Saturday or Sunday.
00:54:58
Speaker
Yeah, I mean like we like he's not been great. But he's the guy we go to in these big games. Yeah, I mean, he's been the guy for the last four years. Like there's no there's no need to change it up now. I mean, there was an argument for sure. For a year. More guy was the guy for a year. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that I mean, nobody likes to talk about that. But
00:55:29
Speaker
Um, yeah, could fall by Rapados, Zuma, Emerson, uh, Ward Prowse. So essentially you would not match their system. No, no, that system just gave us hell. I'm just playing devil's advocate. I would not match their system either. And I'll tell you why, because we went man for man with wolves and we were better than them.
00:55:58
Speaker
We are not better man for man than by our level, who's in our. Yeah. Like we, we, we, there's dueling like philosophies here. And we just kind of got, we kind of have to hope that where they're vulnerable, we're strong. And that, that is true. Yeah. That it is where they, where they leave space where we're proficient, which is in the white areas where kudos attacks.
00:56:27
Speaker
You know, this is going to have a few chances to run that, uh, and Kathy or yep, or, um, I can't say his name or yes, I can. That's over. I can't say the other center backs name who doesn't start. He'll have chances to run at those center backs bone love chances around the center backs. And if Antonio gets in the space, I mean, Antonio and Jonathan tah is a war. It's an absolute war. It's a war, dude. I can't wait.
00:56:55
Speaker
I'm dreading this tie, this first leg especially, cuz it's gonna be- The first leg I'm disgustingly dreading. But if we can get out of there with less than a goal or less, like a goal or less, down, going back to the bowl. And Paquetta does not get booked. If Paquetta gets booked, I will be on here next week. I will be so furious that Anger will never leave me if he gets booked then.
00:57:25
Speaker
I don't know if there's any resilient players out there. He got his yellow card out of the way. You should have seen what he did.
00:57:44
Speaker
He, because I know that you missed like the last five minutes, but we're not even gonna talk about the VAR decision, just so it's on the record, that is absolutely justified, justice hasn't served. We had to go wrong, we're just allowed to. I don't really have any sympathy for them. We got them, in like the 93rd minute, the ball goes out of play when he's holding it in the corner. He like flops, throws himself to the ground, whatever.
00:58:11
Speaker
picks the ball up, runs back onto the field with it, so they can't throw it in, and then throws it back to where he picked it up from. He gets broke. Really? He gets broke, of course. It was the most insane thing I've ever seen this guy do. And he's done so much nonsense. Well, you better be on his best behavior for 90 minutes. You better, dude. That's all we asked for.
00:58:41
Speaker
I actually don't care if he's bad. All he has to do is defend. Don't make challenges that are going to get you both. And yeah, like I'm, if he gets booked, I'm going to treat it like conceding a goal. They might as well be. Yeah. And it's, it's, if he, if he, yeah. Yeah. So there's that to use your mind for Thursday.
00:59:11
Speaker
Um, do you think we'll get out of there with, uh, the result we want? I think we'll lose by one. Me too. That's the result. That's the result I thank the heavens for. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you know what? I, I think that we can beat them. We can beat them in, in a one-off European game at the bowl.
00:59:36
Speaker
Because if they don't, if they beat us or draw to us and then they're not going to lose on the weekend, I don't think they're going to win. They're going to win the league this weekend. Let's not forget that. So they're going to play us and they're going to win the league over the weekend. There'll be 43 unbeaten. They'll just won the league. Maybe a little bit of a hangover from winning the league, the pressure of 43 unbeaten. Now there's the pressure of, because I think that they're already in the locale final. I'm not sure.
01:00:05
Speaker
But now there's a pressure of the trouble. Yeah, there's a pressure of the trouble. This is the only final they have left to get to. I think that the recipe is there for that to be the loss. I think it's... And we're winning the information war. We got Sidon. Sidon has detailed... Sidon knows how many times these guys like scan the field per game. Like he knows how many, like the length of their strides.
01:00:34
Speaker
fucking hair on their balls. He knows every single length of their strides. If Paquetta chops one of them to the ground and gets booked, I'm gonna lose my mind. Dude, he, yo, can you imagine, bro, he scores and he takes his shirt off? Oh my god. I would kill him. I would actually kill him.
01:00:58
Speaker
This is, unironically, what I'm most nervous for about the first leg is that they get a yellow car away from the suspension. It doesn't carry over to the semi-final, right? If he gets banned in the second leg? You either stop getting banned... No, you stop getting banned in the first leg of the semi-final. But to be honest, look.
01:01:22
Speaker
We don't need him. Like, I would like, I would like him to go back to the San Siro if we got to the semifinal. But like, look, if he gets booked in the second leg, so be it. We'll set up a deep block from hell in Italy. I don't give a shit. Yeah. I'm not worried about that team. Yeah. Neither am I. If we ever get there for the second leg, I'm cool. Um, but yeah, I,
01:01:50
Speaker
Because I wouldn't have even been nervous about it because he hasn't been getting booked lately until he did that shit on Saturday.
Podcast Wrap-Up and Listener Engagement
01:01:57
Speaker
I couldn't believe my eyes. I think he's a nut job, but I think he can keep it in his pants for 90 minutes. Yeah, well, I hope so.
01:02:12
Speaker
Anyways, thank you everybody for listening. Let us know if you think we're going to get a result in Germany. Um, even a positive one. Maybe we'll win. Imagine we went on Thursday. We have, I haven't even considered that. That's not a, it's not on my radar. It's the, um, but yeah, thank you everybody for listening. You can find the blog at hammering dash away dot blog on your browser of choice on the internet. You can find us on Twitter.
01:02:41
Speaker
at hammering underscore away on Instagram at hammering away underscore and on TikTok where we're active again, hammering away. Thank you everybody for listening again and we'll talk to you next week.