Ramble Reacts: Three gifts from Jesus
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Yes, welcome to Rambler Reacts. It's a show that we do at the end of the football, what's taking place tonight. Luke Moore, how you doing? I've seen you a lot today. I've seen you a lot this week. I've enjoyed it. We're a Carabao family in this house. Yeah.

And nothing will change that, despite... I'm very well, thank you for asking. You put some respect on the lid of that can for crying out loud. But did you see another Monster Energy product being advertised around the pitch in the Arsenal-Crystal Palace game? How is that allowed for crying out loud? They know what they're doing. Monster Juice, the Mango Loco, is that... It wasn't the Mango Loco, it was a new one called, I think, called Bad Apple. Bad Apple.

Bad apple. Oh, I'm already salivating at the tartness. That's going to be tart, isn't it? That's going to be vinegary. What's it going to take for you to move across from Monster back to your family bosom in Carabao? I just don't know why Carabao don't make a big F off can like Monster and Rockstar and stuff. I don't know why they think a tiny little live... The sort of can I could sort of fit up my arms... Careful.

Careful, steady. Fit down my arms. I just got to encourage shoplifting, but could you steal a monster juice? I don't think you could. I don't think you could. No, it's harder. It's much harder. But you know, Carabao is famously Thailand. It's from Thailand, isn't it? It's famously Thai. It is, yeah. So very warm climate in Thailand. Right. They might adopt a smaller can for the same reason that Australians have small beers because they get...

Is that right? It gets warm very quickly. Maybe that's the reason. Yeah.

Yeah, good point. And I think that Monster Energy is American, right? But Monster Energy is from California, so you'd think the same thing. But they eschew the small cans for the big boys. It's serious stuff. It's only for serious energy drinkers. I know it is. And I'll tell you what's for serious people, serious football fans. The Carabao Cup, Arsenal 3, Crystal Palace 2. Imagine a big Crystal Palace, but it's not a Crystal Palace. It's a big fridge.

It's full of your favourite energy drinks. Arsenal recovered from 1-0 down to win 3-2. And guess who scored? Come the season, he's the reason. It's Gabriel Jesus, and he scored a hat-trick. He hadn't scored at the Emirates in over a year before tonight, Lukey Moore. It's quite...

quite interesting that he started to do it around the festive season yeah maybe he took some I know he's a religious man so maybe he's taken some inspiration from the story of baby Jesus in the stable maybe he was concerned there'd be no more room for him at the inn yeah at the Emirates maybe he finally saw frankincense yeah and scored some goals yeah

I did actually see him when he celebrated each goal. The first one, he went, gold. The second one, he went, frankincense. The third one, he went, mer. Mer. Yeah, that's for you, wise man. That's for you, the other wise man. And that's for you, the other wise man. I mean... What is mer?

Oh, I think it might be very oily. You know, one of us that, you know, one of the, I think one of them's really oily and the rest are just your normal commoner garden. It might be frankincense actually, but either way, when we've sort of seen Gabry Jesus over the past few weeks, he's looked very short of confidence. A dink over the keeper in a knockout fixture. Come on, you having a bit of that? I am having a bit of that. It's like he's gone, fuck it.

You know, I'm just going to try. But before we do that, though, I know it's Jesus and I know it's nearly Christmas, so I get it. Yeah, okay. But we have to talk about the fact that...

Jacob Kyrgios is going to have to take a packed lunch in tomorrow because he had his dinner money stolen from Jean-Philippe Mateta in the first few minutes. Absolutely bullied. He was bullied all over the pitch. That's the only word for it. I think that's the word that the commentators used. I think that I imagine Mikel Arteta will be using it with him tomorrow. To be fair, Mateta looked good...

in some quite important pivotal moments for Crystal Palace. But he just looks like, physically, so much different to every other Arsenal kind of defender. He had the run of the sweet shop for limited periods of time and it didn't get them over the line. If you had had the run of the sweet shop, all your teeth would have fallen out by now. Oh yeah, I mean, I'd be cola bottles...

You used to get sweepings back in the day off the floor. They were like, I don't know if they were called sweepings. I can't be a thing. But they were just...

It was bits of coconut, bits of licorice, bits of random sugar, and they'd be pink, they'd be brown, they'd be white, they'd all be in one bag. That's probably what I'd be in front of the room at the sweet shop. Well, give me a mouthful of grass after my tattery fish with its sweet pigs all over the gaff. Absolutely terrible stuff. But the first half, it was great from the players. They flew out the blocks and they did exactly what they needed to do. And actually, for the first half...

I thought they looked okay. I thought, you know, Arsenal had a large share of possession. Arsenal did have chances, but I also thought they looked a bit sloppy, a bit predictable, a bit slow. And I thought if this carries on, because Palace had a couple of chances, half chances on the break as well. I thought if this carries on, this could be a famous night for those Eagles. But then the second half, Sterling has that chance not too long after the halftime where it's an amazing save from

Dean Henderson, who's actually having a pretty, I would say he's having a pretty good season. The last, like, I mean, he was really good against Ipswich away from home, made some really important saves, really good against Brighton, made some great saves there as well. Had to make a few saves against Man City. He's been in really good form and he made an amazing save from Sterling, who then hit the, seemed to hit the bar from what was like an open goal position. But anyway. Yeah.

They did sort of really up the tempo in the second half. And on another night, it could have been Jesus has chances. He misses the first couple and he never really gets going. But I did wonder when he scored his first, I thought, I wonder if that'll get him firing. Now, I didn't necessarily think in this game, but generally speaking, because they could obviously do with him.

And he just seemed to take confidence from that and keep going. The second goal, to me, looked offside. I have to say that. Yeah, I think it looked offside for everyone. But I mean, does it even matter if no one's going to call it offside? It's still refreshing to not have VAR, though. Yeah, yeah, I guess so. It feels a lot more fluid as a game, you know?

Yeah, but I mean, we were talking, we've made some suggestions for a special New Year's Day show on the Football Ramble feed coming up.

coming up um it's worth sticking around because we've got some really good um suggestions by the discorders by the the people on social media uh suggesting ways to improve uh the game and how to keep that game sort of moving forward and moving fluidly um and uh yeah it's so well worth a listen on new year's day so i'll keep my powder dry on some of the things that were said in the room i imagine one of them is just fuck off far forever is it uh yeah i mean i mean that's

I wasn't on the show but I can guess that. That would definitely help. I mean, Arteta, for most teams and most teams that are closer to the top of the league than the bottom of the league, in this round of...

EFL Cup fixtures, there were a lot of changes made. Arteta did make eight changes from the weekend. And it was quite heartening to see that those changes, the players coming in, they all are buying into the kind of Arsenal way of doing things. And they didn't look massively off the pace, is that fair to say, apart from Sterling's sort of glaring misses here and there? I just thought in the first half it was a bit predictable. And they got caught cold at the start. But other than that, I mean...

They moved through the gears okay. And at the end of it, they kind of saw it out. I mean, I thought that it was a big boost for them to be able to bring on like Saka and Edegaard. You know what I mean? They made a big difference. But I was also really pleased for Eddie and Ketia to score because I was... Do you know who I was pleased for the most? I was pleased for...

Sky Sports who went out of their way to say we're going to do a little package before the game on Eddie Nketiah because he used to play for Arsenal now he plays for Palace and it's going to include the question are you going to celebrate if you score and my initial reaction I'm not afraid to say it before the game was don't worry about it it's not going to come up but it did happen and it was a fucking great header it was a really good leap and a really well timed header and I was actually fucking pleased for him because he's had a pretty good time of it in the League Cup generally Eddie Nketiah

he's scored some important goals for Arsenal in that competition and for him to come back to Arsenal there's going to be a bit of ego there's going to be a little bit of disappointment that you know he couldn't quite force his way in consistently and to come back and get a goal fine they're on the losing side but I mean I was really actually chuffed for him I thought because he made a game of it in the last 10 minutes or so right it could have been interesting How high does your kind of prop score

as we head higher and higher up the Sky tree towards the eventual owners of the Sky Corporation, the Murdochs. When do you stop giving Sky props for pointing out this kind of Eddie and Ketia package before the match? I would say that, I mean, I just think it was a brave piece of broadcasting.

because he was unlikely to score and so they could have just done they could have just wheeled Ian Wright out couldn't they that's your low hanging fruit get Ian Wright to walk around South London and then walk around North London so

They could have just done that. But they didn't. They said, Eddie and Ketia, we're going to do him. It's going to work well. And it did, and it paid off, and I was pleased for him. I thought they deserved a few props for that. But the main star of that particular thing was Eddie, and good on him. Yeah, indeed. Completely agree. Well...

Speaking of wheeling out strikers to talk about things, Marcus Rashford has been linked with a move to Arsenal. I think Andy said this morning on the show that it wouldn't necessarily be the smartest thing PR-wise to hand them over to an Arsenal side who are obviously a little bit higher in the league than Manchester United. But I could see that happening. I think he feels like a very Arsenal kind of footballer, Luke.

Yeah, I mean, I was interested in what Andy said this morning about PSG because I was reading that their interest is called in him, really. But it's a bit of a strange one because they've already kind of done this with Jadon Sancho to Chelsea, right? Exactly what we were talking about there. Chelsea are doing much better than Man Utd. They're miles ahead of them in the league, yet United have kind of given them this player. And Rashford feels like...

you wouldn't be I mean if you're a United fan you'd be delighted with him going to Arsenal he's like a homegrown player I know I know he's had his ups and downs I know that he's you know he seems demotivated and to be fair to him this isn't really mentioned that often but I think it's important to mention in this context because of all the really amazing community work he does which he should be credited for and he was doing that this week as well

It also gets glossed over a bit that he's had a few disciplinaries as well. He's had a few issues where he's been out on the piss or not necessarily on the piss, but out and about late before games and not turned up. And I remember it's not that long ago. He was like, it was widely reported that he had like overslept through team meetings and stuff. So like he's obviously got an issue with that type of stuff.

And he clearly said to Henry Winter recently, didn't he, that he wants a new challenge. And Ruben Amri was like, well, maybe that could be a new challenge here. The whole thing is a new challenge because I'm new and it's a new regime type thing. Yeah.

definitely done I thought from Ruben I thought a rare bit of deft work from the managerial pressure lovely yeah thank you I think I think that seems like a I think it seems like a straight look from Arsenal's point of view you spot on I mean it'd be great to is he when he's at his best is he an improvement on Jesus well this morning I would have said 100% obviously not tonight oh no quite a difficult argument straight off the back off the back of a hat trick but but

But from Arsenal's point of view, great. More Chris to the mill at the very least. But from United's point of view, like I keep saying, I'm not... I get it from, as Marcus was saying this morning, I get it from a kind of...

PSR thing like the fact that they can move him on those homegrown players the way current finances in football work are much more valuable because obviously it's pure profit as Mark has said but I mean you know it's really difficult to get past the idea that if you want a Ruben Amorim regime at United to do well and kick on and really improve then

you know, you're really giving Arsenal the opportunity to just make even further strides away from you by giving them one of your most important players. He's probably the most high profile player at United. Possibly Bruno Fernandes maybe, but like basically Rashford because of his homegrown status. So to see him put on another Premier League shirt of really what is a rival and a really big team as well,

I just feel it's not exactly... To me, it smacks of them not being great at PR still. It's a really fucking cool look. For them not to cash in on, like, how much money would they even make out of it? I mean, I sort of think for them to not... For them to cash in anything less than 80 million for... I don't know how long he's got left on his contract. Well, the chance is it's going to be... Well, your contract's a 2028. So it's a long contract. He signed a new contract about a year and a half ago. Yeah. I think...

Andy was alluding to it and I've seen it reported elsewhere that it was like seeded out that it might be about 40 million because various reasons, but then United kind of denied that. I think it obviously depends. If you're a United fan, you're much happier going to PSG or somewhere. But then the other thing is, to use an Andy Brassel phrase, think about landing spots for him. What are the landing spots, right? He's not going to go to...

Barcelona they can't they can't they can't afford him he's not going to go to Real Madrid because they've got other players in that position and they're not going to go for him

PSG possibly, but that's called off. He's not going to go to Saudi. Not really, given the type of character he seems to be and his age. There's nowhere else he can really go. He's not going to go Bayern Munich. He's not going to go to Italy. They won't be able to afford him. So it's really difficult to think of where he could actually go. And that's the problem with these top earning Premier League players. Rashford signed a massive deal. Some people are saying it's like 350,000 a week.

Who's going to take that? The deal's going to have to be structured in a way that United are still going to have to pay something. It's Salah-level money, but he's not putting in Salah-level performances for whatever reason. And if he does find himself in PSG, in Paris, it's going to be a real problem because he'll be two hours late for the meetings because there's no time difference, isn't there? Arsenal fan Keir Starmer was spotted wearing the Netherlands Away shirt.

at a kickabout in North London. Is that how we're introducing the Prime Minister now, is it? Yeah, that's it. Arsene Van Keer Starmer. Random North London middle-class man was spotted wearing a Netherlands Away shirt at a kickabout in North London. I think it was The Sun, of course it was, they were complaining that there was something a bit wrong about the clothes he's wearing because he seems to be wearing a Netherlands Away shirt. Maybe this is a

a pro-Europe, you know, a bit of PR maybe. He's playing football with his pals, isn't he? He's just playing football with his pals. The game finished 8-8, but yeah, maybe... We're reporting the score as well, Gray. Yeah, he's in his 60s. It looks like he's carrying a knee injury. It's really problematic. I mean, I know that man can't do right for doing wrong. I do think...

He shouldn't be criticised for wearing a blue Netherlands Away shirt because all of the rest of the team were in blue. And what he could be criticised for this week is maybe inviting Mohamed bin Salman to watch a football match. That was a bit much. It wasn't his own football match, was it? No.

I can guarantee goals. I can guarantee goals. It's it all for crying out loud. Mohamed Binz Salman. Get in there, boy. Get in, Binz. Get in, Binz, for crying out loud. Strap my gloves on for crying out loud. I would like to say that... Oh, you're already wearing them because you decapitate men. Hello? I would like to say... What's that in your bag? That's not a bone saw, is it? That's not a bone saw, is it? Keir Starmer looks amazing for 62. Could we just agree on that? Yeah. I mean, I think you sort of look at that and sort of go, well...

To be fair, I do play with men who are in their 60s every now and again, and you do sort of go, oh...

maybe there isn't that much difference between 45 and 63 but yeah he does look amazing and when you see him in motion though it's not quite as impressive because he's he's hobbling around because he's 63 and he's playing on a very hard 4G service I can't play on those anymore I know I'll tell you who also looks amazing for 62 Chris Bryant as well when we're on the subject of Labour MPs I couldn't believe he was in his 60s I thought he was in his mid 40s or something anyway Helen Mirren shall we go through everyone what was the what was the point oh yeah um

Keir Starmer played football with his mates fine what's wrong with that it's absolutely fine in a freebie shirt he got given I was hoping I saw this in the little list of stuff that Rory said we could talk about tonight I was hoping one of the games tonight would be terrible so I can say well I'd rather have watched that than watched X but they're all pretty solid stuff so the joke doesn't work

And no, not with another hat.

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Southampton for periods of time didn't really come to the surface very well. They made a game of it though. They did at the end. Shall we head on to that one first? I don't care. Do what you want. Quite a lot of things going on in that match. Liverpool have made it to the Carabao Cup semi-final. Liverpool 2, Southampton 1. Nunes, Elliott and Archer with the goals. That Archer goal really put

Well, he's up them. Obviously, Arnaud Slott was in the stands because he was in a bit of bother last time out. So he put together a change side, I think it's fair to say. And it looked...

To all ends, like a really, really assured performance in the first half. But, you know, you've got, as soon as Darwin Nunes did an overhead kick in the Saints box and completely missed the ball, I just thought, well, the tide's turning now, isn't it? Don't call them Saints.

Don't call him the same. Sorry. Just call him Southampton. Southampton. I'm sorry. It was a surprising end to the game, Pete, because Liverpool went 2-0 up. For those who listened and didn't see this game, Liverpool went 2-0 up after half an hour. It's pretty routine stuff. There was a kind of Alex McCarthy slip.

for when Darwin Nunez was through which made it really easy for Nunez to score then Elliot followed up five six seven eight minutes later I forget what it was but it's around half an hour with the second and you thought okay this is it I mean Southampton are absolutely in an absolute shit state right you know they're a right old mess Endo was playing well he was dropping deep and oh man it was good it was good

Yeah, and they played centre-back for a large part of the game, it seemed. But they looked dead and buried, Southampton. I mean, it's one of those things where they started off so badly against Spurs last weekend that it's become more of the same. And then they sort of, from nowhere, what seemed to happen was Liverpool made a couple of changes at half-time

and Gomez and Trent Alexander-Arnold came off and they kind of seemed to siege control the game and then when they brought off McAllister and Gakpo it kind of got worse like they brought off those two players as a response to Cameron Archer scoring to get them back in it and then after that I mean for the last 10 or 15 minutes you know it got to the point where you know Samantha were forcing corners and then like a couple of their players were like G in the crowd up when they were 2-1 down it's like

how is this happening? Like, this is a team that is in an absolute terrible scenario. The fans are booing, you know. In fact, they couldn't sell the stadium out for this game even though it's Liverpool in town. You know, it's a quarterfinal of a cup, you know, a chance to get into a semi-final. They couldn't sell the stadium out. It didn't seem like it was going to be anything like an atmosphere. But to be fair to Southampton, they really rallied. They put Liverpool up against it and Liverpool were able to close it out and actually win

Federico Chiesa, who's a player I really like and I'm hoping his Liverpool career really gets going soon because I think he's a really talented player. He's always so positive, always tries to make things happen. He's got two good feet. He almost scored and it was cleared. I mean, the keep wasn't getting there. It was cleared off the line effectively. They had another follow-up which was blocked again. So they were pushing themselves but

Yeah, Southampton are out. That's the end of their season, really, probably. But they did make a game of it, to be fair to them. You know me, I don't ever want to give them any credit at all, but they actually really ran it. The last 15 minutes or so was genuinely good.

Yeah, I mean that Brenton Diaz kind of diving header, really sort of, even though it was, I mean it was on target and he was offside and stuff, so it probably wouldn't count anyway, but it really sort of jigged them up. I mean like Liverpool were dominant for most of the game, but it almost felt like Liverpool's fluidity and sort of flexibility in the first half was kind of the downfall. Players didn't have defined roles and it just seemed a little bit messy. And I think the commentators were a little bit sort of like talking us into a bit of a contest by the end, but...

I was massively pulled in. Big shout at the end to Fernandes as well, taken out just outside the box. I mean, it's Mateus Fernandes going down after Jair Kwanzaa. I don't know how... That's a foul, that. I don't know why they've not given that. I don't know why Kwanzaa got away with that. I don't know. I mean, I probably don't think... Referee's staring right at it as well. He's right there. It should have been at the very least a free kick. It's a really good point. I forgot about that. And, you know...

That's when Liverpool, Southampton were really pushing. You know, it's a ball over the top and they struggled to deal with it. A lot of teams play such a high line now. Defenders are asked to run back towards their own goal a lot more. And he looks so out of his comfort zone, Kwanzaa, doing that. And he fouls the guy. I mean, look, the referee's looking right at it. There's no VAR, obviously. To me, it's a foul. It doesn't mean necessarily Southampton are going to score or the game's going to change. You know,

Sometimes it's super frustrating, even if you're just watching the game. I would prefer Liverpool to win, obviously, but...

When you're watching the game and you think, God, if that was against my team, I'd be raging about that. They were raging about it. Some Amtler players were raging about it about five minutes later. They were up there trying to defend and screaming at the referee. Did you see the bit where, for Southampton, a player got wiped out, McConnell, with a very amberish yellow, let's say. And then the Southampton player tried to turn the advantage into a free kick by just passing it back to the injured party. But the injured party sort of jumped up

resurrected, almost lost the ball. It was so wonderfully Southampton and so wonderfully chaotic. But I mean, on Liverpool's side, obviously the main story is, you know, Arnaud Slot resting players, I suppose, and Liverpool preparing for a pretty big match

Tottenham away on Sunday they've they rested Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk Trent went off obviously at the start of the second half so Arnaud Slott will be back on the touchline with a you'd probably say close to full strength squad they are halfway through the

a really testing month for them. They had nine calendar games. They lost one fixture due to the derby getting wiped off. I don't know when that's going to play. But would you say they've sort of passed the test? They were sort of criticised a little bit. They've not really played anyone important or imperious in the league really this season apart from Manchester City. Have they passed the test in their difficult December?

Well, I mean, they've won some really big games in Europe, to be fair, and they're beating who they need to beat. And I think in terms of the rest in the players, they did that in the League Cup last season and won it. You know, I mean, if you look at some of the players they played in the final against Chelsea, Van Dijk obviously scores late in extra time. But, you know, Jayden Downs, who came on tonight and, you know,

James McConnell came on in that final as well played out extra time you know they started with Harvey Elliott as well they did like Connor Bradley played you know Keller had played as well so I mean it's something they do in the League Cup and it's something that to be honest if you're a top team you have to do because there's so many games these days I do think you're right to say that you know Spurs away will be possibly tough

But, you know, don't be seduced by Spurs smashing Southampton because Spurs themselves would be so fragile. If Liverpool blitz them early at the weekend and Spurs concede early, that crowd will turn and the pressure will be on. Spurs will find it really, really tough to stop other teams scoring. They haven't had a clean sheet for, well, apart from the Southampton game, obviously they haven't had a clean sheet for a while. So, you know, I think it's probably a bit of...

six or one half dozen the other when it comes to Liverpool they don't choose who they play they just have to play them and if they're winning all the time I think they've only lost one game this season and that was that kind of anomaly against Forest of course they came pretty close to it last

against Fulham didn't they and they kind of got out of that even though they were down to 10 men but Spurs have still got to play tomorrow night as well so you know who knows what state they're going to be in they've got a lot of players missing I think for one reason or another Spurs might have I think nine players out tomorrow so you know it depends yeah

Yeah, well, on the Spurs situation, Ange Postakoglu spoke about the Russell Martin sack and he said, you don't even get sacked in the morning now. You've got to change your song, mate. That's because Russell Martin was so bad. I didn't think he deserved the respect of having a night to think on it. I just put him out of his misery. Did he feel for the absorbent Simon Rusk in charge of Southampton tonight, Luke? Very, very absorbent. Very absorbent. Absolutely. Very, very absorbent. A lot for him to chew over, I'd say. Yeah.

Hey, there we go. Are they chewable? I guess they are quite chewy when you... That's the point of it, isn't it, if you're a baby? I mean, you don't give babies... We've both got babies and I've never given my son a Rusk, ever. You've never given... I think I... They're not a thing anymore, are they? No, they are a thing. I had... And to be fair, we had a box...

the baby had one I have eaten the rest anyway elsewhere in the League Cup our final fixture to talk about tonight is Newcastle 3 Brentford 1 Ternali on top form Shah popping up with a goal and we're still at the end getting a consolation Newcastle United making it past the League Cup quarter finals for just the second time and as I said on the show earlier this week

It's Newcastle's competition. It's Newcastle's competition. I couldn't believe that when I heard it. Yeah, it's wild, isn't it? They just never made a good go of cup competitions. And perhaps some of these competitions have lost a bit of their luster. And Newcastle United are one of those kind of like mid-table teams who see it as being... They played a strong team tonight, didn't they? They did. I mean, they had to, really, because I think they saw what Brentford did to them last time.

down in London but Sandra Ternalli's goals tonight were absolutely stunning I thought he was going to wrap things up with a lovely tight volley later on in the match but Ternalli's he'd only scored one Newcastle goal before tonight yeah that's a surprise as well but he's been out for so long hasn't he I double screened Liverpool and

knowing that you'd be watching your beloved Toon, mate. So I'll have to follow your lead on this. But it looked pretty routine. The goals looked good. They played a strong team. And they should do, by the way. I mean, you know what it's like at Newcastle. You know better than me. If Eddie Howe delivers them a league cup, I mean, that's big potatoes for Newcastle. They don't ever win anything. It's as big as it gets. It's not as big as it gets, but it is quite big. It's as big as it gets around there. And then Brentford obviously travel like, you know,

No. What doesn't travel well? My son in the car? They travel like my son in the car. Vomit everywhere. A rusk in a non-sealed container, which happens a lot in our household. I mean, I think the only good thing for Brentford, the only kind of green shoots you could probably say with this match, bearing in mind they've got to play in about three hours' time during the weekend. Kevin Sharder's throw is very long.

That's all I had written down for Brentford. Scant consolation. Are you pleased with the lovely Fabian Schar to get a goal? It was a very tender moment between Bruno, obviously setting him up completely for his goal. And yeah, lovely sort of...

beautiful embrace I very much enjoyed William Osler's bleaching his hair to try and pretend he's Brazilian to get a game to try and get into that Newcastle squad you have to be Brazilian and you have to have bleached hair but yeah Brentford were just second to every ball they looked a bit shell-shocked I

I can't actually remember what team they played compared to what they played at the weekend, but they did look very, very ordinary indeed. But yeah, exciting times. They're just a very, very strong home team. I mean, their home record is just ridiculous. So good. Away from home,

They have struggled. I mean, they, you know, with the exception of Chelsea, the Chelsea game last night, they looked okay. They were really poor away against Everton. Didn't win the game. Didn't lose it, to be fair to them, but were pretty poor. I just think they're a real homer team. Their home record is so good. And if Newcastle are going to play a team that strong and be really into it, maybe Eddie Howe said to them, you know, listen, we want to start the show for this, you know? And from his point of view as well, they've, I wouldn't say they've kind of

gone backwards but they've definitely stagnated haven't they yeah so if you can bring a league up that covers a multitude of scenes and you know they've got a real chance now I mean there's no reason they can't go all the way

I think if they can kind of knowing a cup competition ends so soon in your season you can kind of concentrate on applying the press and applying a press in this competition really helps because a lot of teams aren't expecting it because they're playing secondary sides or they're just bloody knackered and they're trying to manage minutes so the intensity isn't there so if you could just sort of bring a bit of intensity to these fixtures I think you can

you can do a bit of damage but I think yeah I mean a double-legged semi is not what anybody wants at this point in time but it depends when it comes if it comes I don't know what the schedule is off the top of my head but if it comes around the time when they're drawn against a team player in the Champions League and there's a priority needs to be made and Lukasz can who've got no other real challenges other than

they've got a really good home draw in the FA Cup as well, haven't they got Bromley at home, so that's the only real other competition they've got, if they're going to finish mid-table anyway, just fucking go for it man, you'd be a legend forever up there, the fans would be so happy to, I'd love Newcastle to win the League Cup, I think it'd be fucking amazing. Yeah,

and looking at my tax bill, I probably couldn't afford a ticket this time. Elsewhere, I'll tell you what does travel pretty well. Real Madrid to Qatar. They won the Intercontinental Cup tonight, which is very exciting. The final was being held in Qatar. I mean...

there's not much to be said about this competition. It's kind of confusing how it all gets put together and who's actually qualified for it. But the most important thing was Richard Keyes and Andy Gray were attempting an Eid Mubarak on pitch side at one point. And the satisfaction at Richard Keyes literally just saying Eid Mubarak like that, looking to the camera as if to sort of go, yeah, nailed it. I was like, where have you been for the last 10 years, Richard? Yeah.

Should that be impressive? Should you be pleased with that performance? Yeah, I mean, I don't really know what to say to that. But what I do know is that Real Madrid have gone surprisingly way over the top on their official Twitter about winning this. Right, okay. I thought they were plucky underdogs. Is this part of their plucky underdog style?

If I were to say to you that one of the first people photographed on their Twitter with the trophy being held is Florentino Perez, would that sum it up for you? The owner himself is getting right on the official Real Madrid Twitter with the holding the trophy. Okay, right, yeah. With a little quote, getting himself right in there. And they're going massive. We've won five titles in 2024. It's great to keep winning. It's special to keep winning. You know, it's...

we're Intercontinental Cup champions with a lovely, lovely graphic that some graphic designer's done for them, ready to go, straight up there. They're loving it, mate. They're loving life. It's a Rags to Richie story. Well, Jim, when they saw that, when we saw that in the, in like the car park or, you know, the holding area at the Emirates where it said Arsenal League title winners, you know, kind of like, like,

Yeah, because you have to get it ready. You have to get it ready. These are loads of different kind of forbidden little JPEGs and graphics for every Premier League side, every Champions League side. Would it be a JPEG or would it have to be higher res than that, do you think?

Well, you can get away with a JPEG. It's probably a WebP now. Have you ever downloaded something online and it turns out to be a WebP and you can't use it anywhere? That's annoying. I remember when you had all those... Every year you used to get that T-shirt made up, Absolute Radio DJ of the Year. Because you had to get it ready in advance, right? You had to get it ready, yeah. You never got to wear it. It really put the noses out of joint. You never got to wear it outside the house. I presented it to myself on Secret Santa. King of the no-repeat guarantee. King of the no-repeat guarantee. Well...

At the very least, I'm a one-peat guarantee, one would suggest. Anyway, thank you for listening to the Football Rumble, part of the ACAS Creator Network. We'll be back on Friday for the preview show alongside Jim. Is it me, you and Jim on Friday? It's me, you and Jim. We're going to have a lovely pre-Christmas. I'll bring Screwball Scramble. You can bring Yiar Kung Fu and a Spectrum ZX-80. Pete, I lost an entire afternoon on Christmas Day two years ago to Screwball Scramble.

Screwball scramble. My niece got it as a present and I was like, I remember this. Give it. I remember this. Do you know how to do the invisible maze? Because you can't see the ball. Yeah, I do. The hardest bit is the bit at the end where you ding the bell. Yeah. It takes... You can't hit it too hard. You can't hit it too soft. There is some real... There's a real craft to it. It's got real weight and purpose. I love it. Here's something for you, Luke, that you're probably not aware of. There is a screwball scramble too.

Oh, nice. Bring it on Friday then. Shall we do one of those on the mailbag? Do a Scrooble Scramble question on the mailbag. I'll bring in Scrooble Scramble 2. Okay, yeah. Yeah, it is more of the same, but I just didn't know it existed. Never mind. Yes, follow us on XBlueSky, TikTok and Instagram, at FootballRamble, and subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. See you. Ding, Luke. And it's from me too. Bye.

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