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Episode 4. Anyway, Here's Wonderwall
26 Plays1 year ago
Oasis are together again, but Spurs are falling apart again. City are in midseason form. United are worse than anyone expected. Goodison Park was a crime scene. Could City beat Alabama?
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Transcript
Disappointment Over Oasis Tickets
00:00:00
Speaker
and Devin, I did not get Oasis tickets. Did you try and not get them or did you not try? What I did was they went on sale at 9am UK time, which is 3am our time. And I set my alarm for 2.50pm. Okay, so you tried to try? I tried to try.
Why Care About Oasis?
00:00:31
Speaker
And I'm glad you started here because why do I care about Oasis? Says the man in the Manchester City jersey. I mean, that's a that's a separate issue. that that That connection. I'm talking about the band Oasis. I'm not talking about the Gallagher brothers and their love for her. Why do you, Benny, need to care about Oasis? Okay. Obviously, I don't need to care. No, you don't need to, but of course you do. Of course you do. Because you're friends with two mid-40s white guys.
Oasis in the Britpop Era
00:00:57
Speaker
Oasis were the alpha band of a pretty big movement of rock and roll in the 90s, known as Britpop.
00:01:07
Speaker
One of the fastest selling debut albums of all time. like Their first two albums were like some of the best albums of the 90s. They played to 250,000 people at a time, always in the tabloids. And as Devin and I discussed the other day, it felt like Oasis. the Oasis came to prominence at a time when the internet was like still very new.
00:01:28
Speaker
And it felt like Oasis were the first like post-modern rock band um or sort of like meta rock band where they knew they were a rock band and they knew that there were expectations of them as a rock band and as rock stars. And they knew that they had the eyes of the world upon them. And and those people also had the expectations of them as rock stars. And so it became this sort of like feedback loop where like they could behave away and see it reflected back to them in the tabloids and the early internet and like real time.
Oasis vs. Nirvana: A Grunge Dislike
00:01:55
Speaker
That relationship.
00:01:57
Speaker
made them feel bigger than any other band at the time. And all of this started, this is sort of the next big like rock wave after like Grunge kind of ended. And it's interesting because like Oasis and Nirvana never really overlapped. And they famously did not like Grunge, correct? I don't think Oasis liked anything.
00:02:18
Speaker
To this day, they don't like each other. They like, they like the music that they made and they will tell you all day long about how great their music is and where it stands in the Pantheon
Oasis's Musical Self-View
00:02:28
Speaker
Rock. And I think like, if anything, they're great, but they're also like not as good as they think they are. There are a number of other good rock bands, legendary great rock bands from England that Devin and I would probably put well above Oasis. And I'm not sure Oasis would put those bands above Oasis. Devin.
00:02:48
Speaker
I agree with all that. I think they drew so heavily from the Beatles, who I'm a huge fan of, and and explicitly. I mean, Noel said something like, yeah, writing music is easy. You just take your favorite Beatles song and like switch the order of the chords. And I think they did that in the media too. And they they took the irreverence and like adapted it to the 90s when you could push it a lot harder than the Beatles could push it. you know John Lennon made a casual observation, not a celebration, that they were bigger than Jesus and got crucified for it. Even I know that one.
Oasis's Anthemic Sound
00:03:29
Speaker
Noah Gallagher would have said, we're bigger than everybody but the Beatles, including Jesus.
00:03:36
Speaker
So they are, they are good. They're, they're very good. They're great. I think they're, I think they're great. Great. I don't think they're legendary in terms of all time. Let's say an all time British rock bands. They're probably beats here. And then there's a tier and S tier above them. I feel like they, they did a couple of things exceptionally well.
00:04:02
Speaker
they packaged sort of anthemic rock with lyrics that kind of don't matter, no but are very palatable.
Oasis vs. Coldplay: Easy Listening Rock
00:04:14
Speaker
It's like if, you know, people go at Coldplay for being like the easy listening of rock and I think that's fair. Oasis is like the easy listening of harder rock, right? Like champagne supernova,
00:04:31
Speaker
You don't have to work to enjoy that song the way you do like Bohemian Rhapsody. Bohemian Rhapsody instant hit, crazy hit, but it's a hard song. It asks a lot of you to play along. Yeah, it's like a sphinx of a song. Yeah, that's right. Champagne Supernova is like- There's nothing there. Right. It's really- There's nothing there but vibes. It's all vibes. Yep.
00:04:53
Speaker
And they're great at those vibes. They're great at candy-coated rock and seeming in the media like they're not candy-coating anything. But all the biggest hits are candy-coated. I mean, Wonderwall is such a brilliant throwaway of a song. Equally about nothing.
00:05:15
Speaker
that's That's the one. i'd like to just to Because I knew we were going to talk about this, literally like the earlier today or yesterday, I went through like you know top 10 Oasis songs and went through them. I will say most of them I did not know. I obviously wonder what I knew. But when I just listened to it, it just always amazes me that that that That sort of duality that we live in in terms of like you know white culture and people of color culture, I will even say that because it's not really
Cultural Disconnect with Oasis
00:05:43
Speaker
Latino culture. It was more like just being a person of color from New York, like that world.
00:05:48
Speaker
i mean If you told me five years ago like to name an Oasis song outside of Wonderwall, you could forget about it. There's nothing. Then I realized also the time that this was happening, the time when this happening is like 94, 95. Yes. Nick, I am neck deep.
00:06:07
Speaker
into the hip-hop world. yeah This is Illmatic, this is Biggie, and it's also me getting into me being Latino and trying to go back and like, oh, look, Hector La Vo has all these plays, has all these songs. I never heard about them. Oh my God, why Celia Cruz? And then you start hearing one of her older bands. That Oasis thing is all happening at that same time. And I'm just like, I'm in another world. too But I think it's awesome. like I always, because I just don't knowah i't know excuse me, the brothers, just because they love Citi so much. and like it's it's always It's always weird to go, oh yeah, and they're like one of the most influential bands in the world. I mean, there's such an amazing musical like history in Manchester, but Citi also have ah Joy Division, Love Will Tear Us Apart that they play in the stadium, which I love. All those reminded earlier,
00:07:04
Speaker
When Spurs played Newcastle, St. James's Park was singing Spurs are falling apart again to us, to the tune of Level Terrace Park. Thank you, Joy Division. I think that's the cue, my friend.
00:07:23
Speaker
Last time we did this, it went downhill from here. So let's pick up the energy, boys. No, I'm high energy. yeah I'm ready to talk about this, I think. I guess we can get it over with first. You wanna start with you guys?
Tottenham Spurs vs. Newcastle Analysis
00:07:38
Speaker
Okay. Just let's for posterity,
00:07:42
Speaker
Spurs go to their house of horrors. One of their one of their probably several house of horrors. That's everybody's household. look it's It's a tough difficult place to win. St. James's Park, yeah. we Difficult place to win. We don't love going to St. James's Park. ah Spurs go, they dominate pretty much for 90 minutes.
00:08:03
Speaker
All the stats are in Spurs' favor. Shots, shots on goal, corners. The whole pass is completed, whole thing. Time spent in the other half of it all the way. Touches. Newcastle 2, Spurs 1. And only an own goal. Only an own goal. Yeah, not a pretty goal. All the shots and only an own goal. We have now seen three Spurs matches. Match one.
00:08:31
Speaker
We draw a newly promoted side. I mean, you know, not just any newly promoted side, it's Lester, you know, give them their, give them their respect, but we draw a newly promoted side. And and suffocated them in the first half. Yep. Absolutely suffocated them. Look great in the first half, didn't score any goals.
00:08:47
Speaker
We go out there against Everton and look, we'll get to Everton. But we go out there against Everton and blow them away in the first half and blow them away in the second half. And with the exception of like maybe like a 10, 15 minutes spell in the second half where Everton looked a little scary, Spurs dominate from beginning to end. And we think, here we go. This is Ange Ball. We're gonna start to look like this more often than not. And then we go to Newcastle and it's basically, is it, is it, and I'm gonna ask Devin this first, is it?
00:09:18
Speaker
the first match all over again? Or is it, we looked great, but we lacked a striker because both of our strikers were on the bench. And like, this is why we got so lanky and this is why we have her Charleston. And with those guys in the match, maybe it's a different story or like, what do we, what do you think we're looking at here?
00:09:33
Speaker
Yeah, it's a good and hard question. I mean, there's a couple of things. You called it a House of Horrors. And yeah, it is a hard place to come away with a win. But Newcastle have given us, this is the best we played against Newcastle in years. We could be 5-0 last time we went there. Yeah, something like that. It was, you know, there was a 6-2 and a 4-0. I can't even. Yeah, so on one hand. I feel like you just had like four goals before the half last time we played them. Yeah, that's right. So we actually looked a lot better than we have against them.
00:10:03
Speaker
we I think looked better than we did against Lester. We looked compelling compared to the edited performance. We just could not finish, could not make anything of opportunities. And that's a pretty classic pattern for us under and just like get all the way there. We don't score. I don't feel as bad as I did after Lester. I don't feel as bad as I could because I think We are putting something together. It's clear that there have been commonalities across all three matches where it's like we look when we're good, like the same good team. yeah And even last August, when we were on top of the world, I don't think that was true. I think we looked good in different ways every match and it was like, oh, we're figuring stuff out. We're piecing things together. We look in the same way. This team is clearly trained together. They've found chemistry, even with new folks like Otobear contributing in the same way every match.
00:10:58
Speaker
Without Vendven, we lack some of the pace we usually have to like get back to the line when we're playing eight guys forward. And yeah, without Selenky and Richarlison, neither of them has really proven themselves this year. you you know I wouldn't say Richarlison had fully proven himself last year, but sure they're gonna be threats if they're there. And lacking those threats, you know people can close down Kulisevsky a bit more, make him sloppy on his passing.
00:11:28
Speaker
you know, so and I thought did well, but wasn't finding the support he had against Everton. So yeah, I don't feel as bad about it as as I could have. but Just to update what you guys said last three games at St. James's Park. ah Six one ah for four nil to one this week. Okay, we're much improved team.
00:11:59
Speaker
Things are looking up for Tottenham Hotspur. What was surprising me, though, like I have the stats up 20 shots on goal, six on six on target, 66 possession and 500 passes compared to 261. Like that there's no way. And our past completion rate was was like way high. And not only were there classes past least two has to be two to that. You have to finish that game to to get.
00:12:29
Speaker
At that minimum, there's probably should be three, two, but we could
Spurs' Style Under Angeball
00:12:34
Speaker
have had five. I mean, if you look at how many chances we create, cause the thing is this is the own goal, right? It's not how we want to score ideally, but what happened is we cluttered that box. So another russia we created constant pressure, constant shooting the Ball is going to ping pong around, and sometimes it'll go in. I think that's a feature, not a bug. That's a feature of Angeball. And if I remember correctly, I think we led the league in own goals forced last season, too. like We play a style of ball where the ball can go in the net off of the opponent. So here's my question. Yeah, I'm glad you brought up Angeball. Is this the this just the same team as last year? I think it's there are a number of players who are a full season into the system now.
00:13:21
Speaker
and Everybody played last year, including dudes who didn't play every game. You know, people like Basuma and people like Tsar. Van de Ven's been here for a year. Both of our backs, Houdagi and Poro have been playing in this system for a year. And when we throw in people like Wilson Odebearer, who's a totally different kind of winger than we've had so far, when you throw in Solanke, who's a real striker, we haven't had a real striker in this system. When you throw in true center back depth and we have these new kids in the midfield in Archie gray and Lucas Bergvall, who are going to be like real difference makers probably before like the holidays with more opportunities to play because we're playing Europe this year and we're, you know, Europa league means more games. Like we said a couple of episodes ago, I don't know that the result is going to be meaningfully different.
Spurs' Potential and Dynamics
00:14:09
Speaker
I think we could jump from fifth to fourth. I don't think we could go much higher than that. I think something would have to go kind of sideways with Liverpool for us to to make it to third.
00:14:17
Speaker
But I think the team gets better. I think the, I think the philosophy gets more sound. I think everybody believes that. I think people are on board. These last two transfer windows for us were about kind of getting the last groups of players out from the last few regimes who were doing their best and Ang ball, but who were never going to make the grade and who are never going to certainly never going to start, if not be part of the squad.
00:14:42
Speaker
Is this style ever going to produce a top 3-2? Just today. You probably lost it because you were running a high line. And you play one of the highest lines in the league. and We're not going to stop either. either and Yeah, it's not going to stop. And whatever. that's you know He's going to live and die by it, but you are going to die by it. And you die by it today because i mean Newcastle really didn't have anything.
00:15:11
Speaker
Let's move on. There were all the teams. There was another, there's a team that Oasis is pretty fond of. Let's get this over with. Well, we don't, cause I mean, you know, it's just like, don't, don't, don't do that. No, no, no, no, because like, if we yeah i don't like you feel like we need toavor to if we need to like, really like, like, just like take us, take little tiny sips of every city win. Like we're going to be here forever. Like for every episode, like
Man City's Strong Season Start
00:15:35
Speaker
there's another city win where Ireland, Ireland had another hat trick.
00:15:39
Speaker
It's going to happen again. It's already happened before. Like we're already in we're in the third game of the season. This is not even the first time it's happened. Is your second warning about the tongue? Third time? You don't want to see the third time it's a card.
00:15:57
Speaker
ah I'm really surprised at how good we look this early on. I thought it would be more struggling, more trying to grit through wins, two ones, that kind of thing. The first two games, I just thought we it would be more difficult, but they are playing Like we're playing, they're playing like mid-season kind of good right now. And we don't have our full roster. We don't have any, but we don't have, we don't have three important players and we're just still just playing and we're also Alvarez. But Holland's right now, but him not playing in the Euros, maybe, maybe that motivate him, but he's. You guys look terrifying. It already terrifying.
00:16:40
Speaker
um And I agree. I thought it was going to be like, yeah, right. Like it's, so you know, a little bit of a hangover. We won, you know, 19 premier leagues in a row. Maybe we're going to get off to a slow start this year. Maybe we don't want it as much as we did, but dude. And yeah, like, do guys missing new pieces, the charges hanging over everything is is the last year of pep. Like, you know, is is he going to stick around?
00:16:59
Speaker
But man, like you're right. Like West Ham did not stand a chance in that game. And there were like long stretches where just the ball just like never crossed midfield at all.
00:17:11
Speaker
And there was no threat at all. i like Antonio sucks. Jared Bowen is sometimes dangerous. They were neutralized, and they could not do anything. And that press, that little city press that we do at the end, where Holland lets you complete the first pass, and then instantly comes and blocks you off, and then everybody flows to that way, another four minutes of possession.
00:17:35
Speaker
Again, I'm saying, Rodger is not even here. Our best, in my opinion, our second best player is not even there. Phil Foden is not even playing. Kyle Walker is not playing. John Stones is not playing. You not only haven't played your best 11, you maybe haven't played your best seven yet.
00:18:01
Speaker
Like, how many hat tricks can somebody have in a season, do you think? Like, could he get to seven, eight just this year? He's on track to like 25 hat tricks, I think, this year. Yeah, I think that like that holds.
Man Utd's Struggles and Identity Crisis
00:18:25
Speaker
I want to read a couple of quotes that were on the broadcast today. but but Please, please read the one that that I sent. about Manchester United. ah John Champion said, ah there's a slight mutinous air to the place. um when they I believe it was right when they came back from from the from the from the first half, from halftime. A halftime that saw Casamiro get subbed off. And possibly have left the stadium. Left the stadium. and So we'll see what's up with Casamiro. The other quote that I wanted to read, um and this is this I believe
00:19:02
Speaker
It was after Onana basically kicked a like a goal kick ball, just straight sideways out of bounds. Um, that's not a standard that you can accept at this club. Now I famously, I think at this point, uh, on this podcast said, I might be the only person alive who's scared of Manchester United this year.
00:19:24
Speaker
I did not know how wrong I would be. Like this is, I didn't realize how bad things were going to be already at United. Like they got destroyed today by Liverpool in their own house again. They got Southampton coming up. They got it they got an easy one, but that's easy at this point. Southampton is looking for their first win.
00:19:49
Speaker
That's right. And you'd say, oh, this is a must win for Man United. You wouldn't have had to say this is a must win for Man United in seasons pass, right? Not already. It's like to be looking at Southampton in week four. You cannot come out of that game without three. We don't know what's going to happen. Yep. It's the 7.30. It's the early game on Saturday morning at Southampton.
00:20:10
Speaker
Oh, God. If they draw or lose, they'll have that, like, three-day media cycle. That'll be the first story on every studio show, if they draw, is is Eric Tanhout gonna last the weekend? We're talking about, we're not talking about, uh, Everton. We're not talking about Southampton. We're talking about the equivalent of the Dallas Cowboys, America's team, England's team. They are the team. The team.
00:20:39
Speaker
Long time now. Tell me what their identity is, and tell me what player do they have. there There's no way that you're telling me, here's Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandez, guys. All right, it's us. We ain't just united. Ride or die. There's a difference between who do they have and who should they have given the names on the roster, right? There's a lot of names on the roster that should be guys playing together, and not one of them is working out.
00:21:07
Speaker
It's almost like they have like Chelsea disease where like you look at the roster and you think, I guess a question is like, are these guys dudes or are they dudes? Cause they're on Manchester United and we have the expectation that they're supposed to be dudes. That's what I think.
Marcus Rashford's Challenges
00:21:25
Speaker
where're The whole Marcus Rossford thing, like I feel sorry for him, especially for what happened to him when he missed those PKs. But that question has been answered, and unfortunately, for him. like There's nothing there. There's nothing there. He is not Ronaldo. He is not Mbappe. He is not Phil Foden. He is not Sokka. He's not that guy. He's not that guy.
00:21:45
Speaker
And they are a club in which at this point they should have found that superstar that was like despite bad management still plays great and still scores 20 goals. You brought up the Cowboys. I'll throw the Yankees in this conversation too. Like these giant iconic sports organizations that transcend their sport and attract global attention that play in these like legendary venues in their sport and The Cowboys haven't won a playoff game in 30 years.
Man Utd vs. Iconic Teams
00:22:17
Speaker
The Yankees went from 2008 to the last few years without any real success. you know We're seeing United go through this cycle where, yeah, sure, they're Manchester United, but those names that you mentioned, you know, Paul Scholes, um, you know, Roy Keane, any, any of those guys, any of those guys from, from the, like, we're reaching back pretty far. And to, to, you know, pull a, pull a quote from another American team, it's like, you know,
00:22:44
Speaker
You know, Larry Bird's not walking through that door. Like Roy Keane's not walking through that door. Correct. United. And like they have to somehow find a new identity for this team because like Ferguson's not coming back. He's and though he in the stands every goddamn game. Like he's not going to come back and coach the team. One of the points that Gary Neville made is that like it wasn't Vangal and it wasn't Marino and it wasn't o and it wasn't a Ralph Rangnick and it's maybe not Eric Sennag. And it's like, well, who what's the problem here? All of those people that we mentioned won in other places. Some of them won everything in other places. But no matter who you've put in that seat after Ferguson, it's like not the right guy. Like what do we, at a certain point, like what are we talking about? How many do you have to go through before you stop thinking that's possible?
00:23:41
Speaker
Before you just hang it up, close up shop. This was a great team. We're done. We're still known to Phoenix. We're going to pass. me that forfeit We're going to try American football. This is getting big in London. Maybe it could get big in Manchester. Rashford would be a great outside wide receiver. Oklahoma City United.
00:24:08
Speaker
What happened to Everton this weekend?
Everton's Missed Opportunities
00:24:11
Speaker
I don't think I've ever, I mean, you know, I've been watching Premier League forever, man, but like I, 2-0, so i didn't I didn't watch the game live. I mean, it sounds like you were watching it live, but i I watched live. I watched the highlights and the highlights.
00:24:25
Speaker
Benny, they should have been up 5-0, 6-0. It was a goal rush watch for me. Even when he would cut back and forth, you could tell there was like this Everton dominance. They're a goodness in park. They score first. They score another. They're flying. They're flying. Like they could have, they honestly, they went up 2-0 between the second Everton goal and the first Bournemouth goal, Everton could have scored four more times. But they didn't. But they didn't do it.
00:24:54
Speaker
And under no circumstances can you ever give up three goals in 10 minutes? I remember four years ago when we beat Lester on those two late goals from Steven Bergwein that happened after the 90th minute when we were down 2-1. I thought at the time, like that's about as crazy as the sport gets, right? But to be down 2-0 and win with like not crazy time added on, I don't understand. I don't understand how it even happens.
00:25:20
Speaker
when When I started watching Premier League, I feel like there were there were a number of attempts for to like try to like get into football for real. And the first forward intake. And somewhere in there, it was like, well, what what team am I going to support? And Everton was like, I feel like Everton made the made the finals of the teams that i was that I was going to choose. And I'm not going to say that like you know I or both of us, either of us, dodged the bullet by by picking Spurs.
00:25:47
Speaker
because obviously it has been an easy ride. But man, am I happy I didn't pick Everton.
00:25:58
Speaker
We have Labor Day tomorrow into the international break next week. What are we watching? What are we doing? Any plans? Should we watch a movie? Should we watch a movie and talk about a movie next week? Like a film? Yeah. Like a new movie or like a novel movie? I don't know. Is this in game? What are your thoughts? Your Jimbo? like I got, I got no plan. I'm just saying we, if we got to watch something and talk about something, we don't have
American Football and Soccer Exchange
00:26:22
Speaker
sports. Also, I don't watch other sports. How do you feel about the SEC, the SEC this year, Devin? If you ask me about the SEC, I'm going to start talking to you about the Securities and Exchange Commission.
00:26:41
Speaker
Manchester City plays Alabama. Adjacent weekends. First weekend, English football. second weekend American football. Who loses worse? I mean, both teams are going to get blown out. The problem with American football is that there's so much special like specialization that doesn't exist in European football, where like if you put athletes on the field,
00:27:06
Speaker
You're going to get embarrassed, but you're not going to get hurt. And I feel like if you put anybody up, like the biggest dude put Holland or like Kyle Walker up against forget about an offensive lineman, even like a middle linebacker will put Erling Holland on his ass. Any middle linebacker.
00:27:29
Speaker
I guarantee you. Like an average middle linebacker at a at a like a second division college school would knock the wind out of early Holland. The third string running back at Alabama is such a good athlete. If you throw out some of the skilled athletes, like they could they could defend. you probably defend They could They don't have any ball skills, so there would be no offense to speak of. But they were they could run up and down and sort of still be there.
00:27:59
Speaker
But, I mean, you line up Kyle Walker on somebody, like just even trying to defend a pass route, like he's done. Yeah. I mean, we talk about how fast Kyle Walker is, or how fast Mickey Vandevant is, or how fast Kylian Mbappe is, or whatever. But like, yeah, I mean, any wide receiver on Ohio State is faster than everybody in the Premier League. There are 74 high school wide receivers in Louisiana who are faster than anybody who's ever played for Manchester City. And there's six four. Yep. And there's six four.
00:28:29
Speaker
ah And they probably bench 225 like 20 times. What's their first touch like though? That's the problem?