America's Anfield
America's Anfield was created by two brothers in the US who are passionate fans of Liverpool Football Club. Follow along for episodes discussing match results, transfer news, and other hot topics in the world of football!
America's Anfield
Liverpool at a Crossroads
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A year ago Liverpool began the season as heavy title favorites, and everything seemed so settled. Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes running the front office, and Arne Slot a title winning manager looking to win more trophies in his second season.
Fast forward to today. Edwards is gone. Slot is gone. Hughes is on the way out. Mo Salah is gone. Is FSG next? Who is making the decisions right now? Is the team being built not just for this season, but for the next 3-5 seasons?
Matt and Jonny discuss an organization that appears to be at a crossroads, with major change coming soon.
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You're listening to America's Anfield, a Liverpool FC podcast brought to you by American Brothers Matt and John. From the heart of the U.S. to the cop, we're talking all things reds every week.
SPEAKER_01People. That's right. Hey, I'm Matt. This is Johnny in America's Anfield. We're not we're not gone. We're not dead. We're not dead. We're not dead. We're back, baby.
SPEAKER_03We are back. Listen, we we just needed just a a refresh in Ibiza for the summer, and we feel we feel alive, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we hung out with Schmotke. Yeah. Quite a lot of guys, actually. That's right. You know? Uh Richard Hughes is out there, not doing a whole lot, you know, in between jobs. And I mean it was great. And and we're back. The season kicks off this weekend. Um, but yeah, it was it was kind of honestly good to get away from it a little bit. Watched a lot of baseball, basketball.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Just kidding. World Cup. We did that. Yeah. We did. We did. We watched Mosala get um completely robbed. Yeah, that was we we thought about changing the name to uh let's put Johnny on the spot. Can you even pronounce his new team?
SPEAKER_03Do it. Uh uh Transubspor. America's Transbenspor. Well, it's funny. I was just overseas, and my cab driver when I arrived in country's name was well, I can't remember his name, but he was from Turkey, right? And we were we were we were talking soccer, and he's like, Who do you like? And I was like, I like Salah. And he's like, Do you know who he plays for? And I was like, Trapsenspor, and he was like, Yes.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so you said it well enough that he wasn't like, what a Ricky.
SPEAKER_03Right, yeah, he's very proud of me, I think.
SPEAKER_01It's great. Yeah, let me hit you with this before we get going. Just a list of major events that have happened since our last podcast. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah. We landed on the nuts.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, but this is like people think about it in in these terms. It's like, when have I heard Matt and Johnny last? Well, here's what's happened. So keep it sports, the Knicks won the NBA Finals. Okay, so shout out if you're a Knicks fan. It's great. Um, obviously the World Cup happened. Yep. Yep. I think many people probably thought uh France was gonna take that. They did not. It rocked, right? It's embarrassing. Cabo Verdi fever swept the nation.
SPEAKER_03Swept the nation. I I want a jersey, to be honest.
SPEAKER_01Uh, our neighbors have one. I mean, I think I think Megan might have a t-shirt. Yeah. Um SpaceX IPO. Oh yeah. $75 billion.
SPEAKER_03I thought you were gonna say they rocketed a spaceship into the moon, which they also did. Or was that was that Bezos?
SPEAKER_01That might have been Bezos.
SPEAKER_03Was that our boy? No, no, no. His rockets were just blowing up, like on takeoff. I'm pretty sure SpaceX rocketed and went into the moon.
SPEAKER_01And when you have his type of net worth, it doesn't really matter. It's like uh 10 million down the drain, whatever.
SPEAKER_03Okay, try again. That was the change in my left pie.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, a couple good movies came out. Uh, maybe well, good could be debatable depending on you know, but we had another Toy Story. Are we d is Toy Story played? Like, did you see five?
SPEAKER_03There's another one coming. I already I think I already read about it. Okay, really? Okay, okay. Fun fact though, do you know when that first one came out in the year?
SPEAKER_00Oh god, this is gonna be bad.
SPEAKER_03Toy Story One, get ready to feel old.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Um is it before 2010?
SPEAKER_03Way before not not even close.
SPEAKER_01Okay, tell me.
SPEAKER_031995.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god.
SPEAKER_03That's the I was younger than my current children when it came out.
SPEAKER_01Woof. Because you would have been like 10.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Wow. Woof.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_03Listeners, you're really getting in deep with us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, a lot of personal information.
SPEAKER_03Uh Spider-Man came out. Did you watch that?
SPEAKER_01Did not. I haven't, you know what I've seen? It's not great. So I took my youngest to see Minions because he's really into that.
SPEAKER_03That's a good one, though. Come on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was funny. Um, haven't seen Michael, haven't seen Odyssey. Um and I'm kind of getting ridiculed for not having seen Odyssey yet. Like I have people that have seen this multiple times. Um and then saw the live action Moana, wouldn't recommend that. So if you're out there, you got young kids, they might love it, but guys, it's the same exact movie. Spoiler alert, sorry.
SPEAKER_03It is plot, same plot with people. Um, I saw I had a weird weekend where I saw Spider-Man and the Odyssey two days apart, like back to back. And it was funny going from one to the other because both those movies have I think like 10 actors like in involved in both. So it's funny to see Spider-Man and and uh our boy Tom, and then he's supposed to be Odysseus's son, and you're like Spider-Man. And then uh the Punisher shows up in Spider-Man spoiler, uh, is then I think Minelaus, and you're like, bro, that's weird. Where's your skull t-shirt? Anyway, it was they were great though. They were great. It's good times.
SPEAKER_01It was yeah, so so point is it's been a minute, and before we kind of dive into uh the topic of tonight, and just for you guys who are following along in um honor of the fact that the season's kicking off this weekend, we are gonna release several podcasts just to catch up, just because we know you've missed us. So stay tuned. But before we could dive in, obviously we need to talk about what the drink of choice is tonight.
SPEAKER_03And I think you've got a travel-related one, so go ahead. I did. I was just uh Son of the Soil has just returned from Ireland, uh, where I was for work and fun. And I have a favorite. Now, I'm gonna be honest, it's it's on the cheaper end. There's a whiskey, an Irish whiskey made from Middleton Distillery, uh called, well, they're all called spots, various colors, kind of like Johnny Walker has like blue and red and blah, blah, blah. So I would say yellow spot's probably my favorite, but I was just out of green spot. And it was the first, special in my heart. It's the first Irish whiskey that I drank where I was like, oh, this is different. And I ran out, and while I was there, I copped another bottle and cracked her open tonight. Delighted. As you should. Yeah, it's great. Get another bottle. That's right. That's right. I know it's well, and it's fun because when you're there, I've now made a friend at the Duty Free. His name's Stuart. Shout out, Stuart, if you're listening. Um, but he gets up open stuff for tasting and whatnot that they don't necessarily have out. But it's also fun because when you're traveling out of the EU, you get quite a quite a deal. So win-win.
SPEAKER_01Hey, that sounds good. Um feel free to share the next time I'm in town. By the way, guys, you know what? Here's another thing that happened since we've podcasted last. I've came and visited Johnny's new house when he was not there.
SPEAKER_03Um I was in Ireland that time too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. And um quite the collection of alcohol to the point where it wasn't even about drinking it. It was about messing with the shelves and the order of the bottles. Because Johnny's a little bit what's the word?
SPEAKER_03OCD.
SPEAKER_01Particular about is that the nice way of putting it? Yeah, that was nice.
SPEAKER_03I felt it. I felt the love. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like it was meant to jab but not wound. So I think I jabbed but didn't draw blood. So particularly. I found it.
SPEAKER_03Your your movement.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Anyway, um, and so for me, like I said, I could, yeah, let's sample these. Or what if I just move this one way over here and bury it, you know, five back and see if Johnny notices.
SPEAKER_03I did right away. Right away. It's like, what are you doing what are you doing over in the aperitifs? Get out of there. You don't belong there at all.
SPEAKER_01Well, also, yeah, I don't know these as well as you do, so you're like, why did you put a gin over here? What here? That's this is the Irish whiskey. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It stood out like a sore thumb.
SPEAKER_01I've got a kind of paper plane adjacent cocktail here. Yeah. Yeah. Very nice. Um, they'll be sipping on that throughout the episode. So, all right, hey, let's dive in. Um, we'd start here. You can't really frame up the season, in my opinion, without acknowledging just how much change has happened, not just at the club, but now with the recent news of the minority uh investor group coming in, 1892 Holdings, I think is what their name is.
SPEAKER_02That's crazy.
SPEAKER_01Um you can fact check me on that. That's right. A lot of things have happened with Liverpool that you know, it's funny. Maybe a week ago when you and I were kind of chatting about what we wanted to talk about uh tonight, I was kind of wanting to go to a place of this is an organization, not just a team, but an organization that's at a massive crossroads. You know, you think about how Liverpool were were lauded by everybody with the way that they transitioned away from Klopp. You bring in Edwards, you bring in Hughes underneath him, you bring in Arnie Slott, you win a title, you re-sign Van Dyke, you re-signed Salah, and people are like, this is how it should have been done, and there's a lot of comparisons to like Man United. And then the next season was a train wreck, and it turns out that Edwards gave his notice about 10 minutes into the next season and served it throughout the season, wasn't really making any decisions, I don't think. Just very much advisory, probably, and that's probably being nice. Like, you know, let me let me as an aside, if you're Michael Gordon and you have to make a big decision, like are you even copying Edwards on that email? The guy's quitting.
SPEAKER_03Not at all. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're bringing him up, you're like, hey, what do you think? I don't care what you think. Anyway.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, agreed.
SPEAKER_01You've got this, so Hughes is going to be gone, and there's been smoke about him going to Saudi for, I mean, I don't know, like five months now. I mean, it's been a long time.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well into well into last year. Yep.
SPEAKER_01You got Arnie Slot is obviously gone. Mo Salah is gone. Um, and now with the sort of secondary news that this ownership group has the chance to buy out Liverpool, buy out FSG for like eight billion dollars within a year, you have the very real news that FSG is going to move on to. And we'll have basically ripped this puppy down to the studs or build a new house just a couple of seasons after Klopp is gone. And so I just thought we'd start there. You know, there's a lot of uncertainty, I think, in my mind, going into this season. I don't necessarily like, I'm not trying to say the ownership thing made it more uncertain. There's just a lot of dominoes that have been falling. And I remember doing the preview pod with you and Matt a year ago, and we were the odd-on odds-on favorite to repeat. And everybody was like, Liverpool won the title, they got Verts, they got Isok. They're gonna run away with it. Like they're the best already, they got stronger, and then we were terrible. You go into this season, and what I think of is I don't know what the hell to think. I have no idea. I think Ariel is a good coach, but I don't know how he's gonna do. He's never coached in the Champions League before, he's never had to do all of these different competitions, right? Um, I still think Virgil van Dijk's a good player, but he's you know, getting up there in age now, had to play the entire World Cup. Like, how will that work? You know? We've done minimal business over the summer. Are we gonna strengthen the team? Are we gonna do this thing where we wait until deadline day and then that person's not fit, and then they go ahead and they they you know have a little muscle injury and then you don't see them again until the spring? A little right? Yeah. Um, who's calling the shots right now? You know, and then like a year from now, I mean, what does that look like? You know? Yeah. So I don't know. I mean, I'm I'm thinking out loud here, obviously, but is that a fair way of framing it up? Like as a fan, how are you kind of thinking heading into everything?
SPEAKER_03I think the first thing I thought of when I read that this well, I'm I'm assuming that you don't put that in the fine print of a minority stock or purchase unless you're gonna actually execute that later. So I think everyone's operating in the assumption that this group is going to take over eventually. What is he what did you say it was 18? What did you say what was it called? 1892. 1892, thank you. Uh Columbus hailed the ocean blue. Just kidding. Uh uh nailed it. I mean 400 years, give or take. Um so I think I I first looked backwards and was like, okay, this makes sense uh given a lot of different things. So because we had we had been wondering about why we've done various things that we've done. And it kind of makes sense with Edwards and Hughes, why those were, I guess, invariably short-term things. Makes sense some of the other weird financial things we had done, even makes sense as to why Ariel is signed a short-term contract, I think, uh, is because internally everybody knew that things were kind of in limbo. Uh, and so you you kind of, you know, and uh I don't know that I I am concerned as much about who's taking ownership, although that that is a a part of the calculus for me.
SPEAKER_01Definitely matter at some point, but yeah, maybe not for tonight.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and there and again, there's also not much we can do about it, you know, in terms of fans uh fanship. I'm just like, well, you know, it's the team I like and I've supported, so I can't, I can't I can have a feeling or opinion about it, but I can't really change it, obviously, unless I got cash to splash. Uh but I I don't want to be the types of teams that that have that type of ownership group or front office where they're just you know the the Chelsea of the world, the cities of the world, etc. Whether they've been successful or not, I just I've Liverpool's never been that type of club, so I don't love that that. But yeah, I I think going along with that too, it does, it does touch even because things seem to be in limbo, who's actually behind the wheel. And you even when you get really granular down to what signings you're going to make, what you know, are we going to make any, what can we afford? I don't it feels like it is a bit of a a cluster because we there's so much unknowns for the average fan. We don't know how that's going to play out, and we're not sure what how that's going to impact this season, let alone seasons of the future.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think the other thing that that immediately comes to mind is this, like you said at the beginning, connects a lot of dots. In my mind, like like we have said, if you've listened to the podcast religiously, if you haven't, you probably didn't hear this, but we've said before we we think, hey, are we sure that they're not for sale still? You know, I know we kind of made the big noise about we are on the market and then kind of walked that back. You always saw some things that made you wonder, are we sure? Because if you look at, like you said, all of the contract lengths with Hughes and Edwards being the same at slot two, you know. And then you look at some of the people that we splashed the cash on. Yeah, it I'm sure they thought in the moment it made sense on the field too, but it almost felt like we're, you know what? What do we need to do, Mr. Real Estate Agent, to sell the house? Well, guys, listen, the bathroom's a problem. You guys gotta fix it, right? Yep. The roof, someone's gonna come along and they're gonna be like, hey, the roof, it's old, just go ahead and replace the roof. It felt like we were doing things to get ready for that, you know.
SPEAKER_03Even the training, training center and the add on to the stadium. Like if you actually think back, you're like, oh, really?
SPEAKER_01100% chance, 100% true. And so that to me connects a lot of dots. As an aside, what happened with slot makes a lot of sense now, too, knowing you know the the information that we have about Edwards, because I don't think we wanted to throw more uncertainty into an uncertain situation by sacking him. I think it really was something where like our hand got forced and we were like, oh my god, like that's terrible. We have to do this. Um but I do think to kind of go back on what I just said, I do think it's something worth exploring. The problem now is though, like we're about to sell the house, and there are still like long-term decisions that need to be made about the property and who's gonna make them. You know what I mean? Like this team, unfortunately, and in in the next episode, we do, we'll get into the team more and in the squad more. But I mean, in my opinion, we're nowhere close to a title contender as it stands right now. And that's hysterical and sad given how much money we spent last summer to be in this position now. Yeah, we don't have a sporting director that I'm aware of. Um, I think that staff I've read is fairly thin. Which makes sense. So, like, what's the strategy? You know what I mean? Are we in a holding pattern this year and we're just gonna do whatever we can to keep the lights on, and then you know, it's Bezos and uh Batia and crew that are gonna take over in a year and they're gonna be ones making the call. Like, I don't know, but it's just I guess my point in teeing it up this way is we had nine years of um consistency and nine years of stability under Klopp, and we won a ton. And I I just find it interesting that like the whole goal and Klopp said this was to leave the club in a better place and then you know, ease of transition, and instead it's been really chaotic, like really chaotic.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I want to use a an American sports analogy here. I wonder, I've or I have wondered if in the in those years with Klopp, I think one of the things that was most frustrating for a Liverpool fan was as good as we were, we still had to compete with City. And where you know we we have the most points won by a second place team ever. I don't think that record will ever be broken. That's the worst record to ever happen. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Never. I I'm with you. I do not we'll never see that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you'll never see a second place team with that, I I believe. Uh so and that that happened how many times to us, right? There was times where I thought for sure, remember leaving one Sunday when we had it wrapped up and then they they came back and won their game and we lost the title again. It happened multiple times. Um, but I wonder the the analogy I'll use is I think this is true certainly of college basketball, probably of college football in America, where the game has changed. And I wonder if uh FSG as a whole were just kind of weary of trying to play that game. It's like, hey, listen, what it requires now is people that are willing to, you know, kind of skirt the rules and you know, sort of push the envelope financially, infuse all this cash in to buy players, the rate of players and their costs is going up and the inflation's out of control when it comes to, you know, there I was listening to a pot even talking about some of the guys that um Ariel had on Bournemouth where he'd acquired them and then they went from like 30 million that they bought them for in January, and now they're worth 100 million. Like that's in half a season. That's crazy money. And so I think there, I wonder if there's just a part where FSG was just like, you know what? Like, I don't really want to do that. And we've tried to fight against that, I feel like, as a club for a really long time, trying to do things quote unquote differently. But I think there's a level where they're like, I don't know that we're gonna be able to compete with the likes of the cities and the Arsenals and the Chelsea, and don't really want to go that way. And so my fear, I guess I'll say, is that we've sold now or will sell to a group that's like, yeah, we will do that. I don't know, I don't even know what that means or looks like, but it's I I think it could it could be a mess.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, totally. Then you know what? I think that's a really good point. So, okay, let's keep it on the American sports analogies. One of my favorite teams has been the St. Louis Cardinals, okay. And I have always believed now, this is a little in the weeds, but I'll kind of give you the maybe the you know the quick history here. So the current Ownership group came in like early 90s. They brought in a manager named Tony LaRussa. They were really, really shrewd with trades and development and player acquisition. And from roughly speaking, uh 2000 until like 2014, we went to several World Series, won it twice, were in the NLCS all the time. I mean, you know, Johnny's a baseball fan, he's a Cubs fan, right? So he knows. The Cardinals dominated the National League during that time. But then the game started to change in a very similar way that you described with football, too. Now, hey, I need a starting pitcher. Okay, well, you know, they're all represented by Scott Boris, and all of them want, you know, a 10-year deal for $250 million. And this is something that happened with Albert Pools before he left. And the Cardinals, I think, found it more and more difficult to go get premier talent because it costs so much money. And so they tried and floundered to do this in different ways. And I I don't think it's a coincidence that since 2015, I don't think they've won the division. Right. Um, and maybe maybe that's happened once, but uh have not been back to the World Series. The Cubs have definitely, and the Brewers have definitely kind of overtaken them as the two best teams in that division. And so anyway, I think there's a parallel there. I think you're exactly right. Um the other thing I'll say is that it always felt like, and I mean I know this is the play with all these guys, but it always felt like once teams, you know, in different sporting leagues started to sell for crazy money, that that that this was more and more of a reality. Because it to me, we put ourselves out there a couple of years ago, however long it was, three years ago, didn't really get any bites and said, nah, like we're good. Okay, so we didn't get the valuation we wanted. But then you see the Lakers go for 10 billion a year ago, and you see the Celtics go for over six again, you know, about a year ago. And then obviously you see the Lakers go again for 12 and a half billion a couple weeks ago, right? And these are major, major flagship, you know, organizations, franchises. And so now you hear that they could potentially get eight billion in a year on top of what's already been given. You know, just all these things start to line up, I guess is my point. So, you know, I've also read that like the Super League thing was that was it for John Henry. He hasn't really cared about the organization since that happened. You know, like that was his way of trying to level the playing field a little bit against the cities of the world. Um, so so yeah. I mean, I think the other question that you brought up though is like what kind of we don't have to delve into this now, but like what kind of ownership group are we gonna get? Are we gonna get Todd Bowley? Like, oh my god. You know, is this gonna be Chelsea? Right?
SPEAKER_03No, but well, although I just it's interesting you say that too. I just read he was gonna sell. Like to his whatever, Clear Creek or whatever.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And I know that he's not uh, but I'm just saying, like, is this gonna be a Chelsea? Right? Right. Um, is this gonna be a you know, team that comes in and just throws money after money after money quite stupidly in like we just don't go anywhere? Because as as hilarious as this is, FSG didn't do that, but like when they did, excluding last year, it almost always worked.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01You know?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So so so I guess my point is let's tee up the season. We have no idea what to expect on the field, but then off the field, like you know, we're gonna be talking probably sitting here in a year and talking about okay, there's a new regime in town, and like what in the world is that gonna look like, you know, right? Also, if you're if you're Areola in a private moment, are you like F man? Like you want a new ownership group coming in when you've just signed a contract. Well, uh again, these guys always get fired when they bring in new owners.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_03Well, uh, unless he does really well, which you know you're soping. I but I I feel like I know he's historically done short contracts, but uh there's also a part of me where I'm like, he had to have gotten wind of something to get this job and say, I just want two two years. That's all that's all he signed for. And uh, you know, he he justified it saying I'm I'm a results guy. So, like, you know, after a year, after two years, if you want me, I stay, if I'm doing well, but he also leaves the option open for himself. I kind of respect that, but I guess it's good in the sense of he's like, you know, this goes sideways in a year. I got one bad year and then I'm out and I can go find something else. But but yeah, I mean, like everything could change. Uh, and we don't even know what that means. Front office-wise, financially speaking, yeah, it could be a chaotic mess, or I mean a lot, it's funny, a lot of people have said too, like, oh well, uh Bhatia, you know, like he knows what he's doing because he he was involved with the Queen Queen's Park Rangers. I was like, didn't they they've gotten like worse and worse every year, so that's not sorry, trying to talk on mute.
SPEAKER_01The only thing that that is interesting there is like he has experience doing it, but that doesn't mean he has experience doing it well.
SPEAKER_03Correct, you know, right, yeah. He wasn't it wasn't crushing success. So yeah, I don't know. It leaves I think going all the way back to your very original point, it leaves us as a fan base kind of on pins and needles in sort of anxious territory because you're like, well, we were anxious when Klopp left. We didn't know what to expect, and then we won. And then after we won, we were awful, and then we're anxious about that, and then we got rid of slot, and then we got Ariola, and we're sort of you know led at the end of the tunnel and feeling good. And now we're anxious again because we don't even know what to expect with the new ownership group, uh, most likely. But then all along with that, that has you know a corollary or firsthand effect on our team, which we'll cover in our next pod of like, you know, what's the plan? Are we are we gonna like withhold a lot of different investments and player moves and things just because we don't even know? I don't know. It's kind of like you know what if you're if you're about to switch jobs, you're like, I don't know what my income's gonna look like. I'm not gonna go buy the car now. I probably should wait. And so uh it's either that or we have, you know, it's like the opposite. It's like when presidents go out of office, they're like, well, let's just spend money like the world's burning down. Like it could be either side of those things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and and I agree. And so, I mean, yeah, I think we've kind of said all though that we want to say here, but I to me, it's just there's we have no idea who's making the long-term decisions. And then those do impact this season. You know, I mean, we we still don't have a right wing. Um, there's still a lot of rumors about Barkala and Gakpo and you know, Curtis Jones and our right back situation's disaster, and so there's a lot of that. Who is making the decisions right now? No idea. No idea. Um Billy Hogan. Maybe. You know? Um, but I think it's worth pointing out, and I think maybe the lesson here from a fan standpoint, it really is, is just to like really cherish the good times when you have them. I'm not suggesting that we're about to get on the toilet, but I'm just saying the nine years we had under Klopp, a lot of teams don't get that at all. At all. Um, you know, and there's a lot of teams, not just Liverpool, that are going through their own transitions right now. You know, Manchester City or her losing Pep Guardiola and Rodri in the same summer, you know. Good luck with that. Um and you know, we've seen obviously like Chelsea was, you know, by their own choice, just chaos all the time. But anyway, yeah, I think that it's good to tee it up that way. We'll see how it actually impacts us on the field. Like, that's the one thing I'm always kind of, I don't really know how to pin that because I work in an office, okay. If the culture is bad at the leadership level, that will permeate down to everybody else. You know, we're all there. It's a little different because it's like once removed, like, okay, well, you're gonna tell me that because there's no sporting director, like the players can't play good football on Saturdays. Well, I don't know if I can say that or not. But I do think at some level it might matter a little bit. I do think there's plenty of studies out there that stay that say that hey, if you are in a really stable, well-run organization, that will impact you better than if you're not, you know. Yeah, it flows down.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I absolutely I do know that one thing will change for sure. As I think you're gonna see a new sponsor on the jerseys, probably.
SPEAKER_01And is it gonna be Amazon?
SPEAKER_03Amazon, or it could be Meta also, because you know, Savron's also part of the group. So we could see Meta or Amazon instead of standard charter. Oh.
SPEAKER_01Which means that the kits that we have are like true vintage now.
SPEAKER_03That's right, the last of their kind, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I'm I'm I'm not planning on getting one this season. I don't know if you are, because I really even though we were so bad last year, I love the long sleeve. Like I will be wearing it as much as possible.
SPEAKER_03Uh there I think there is a long sleeve this year, but I don't really like the weird red one. Uh, I do like the third kid this year, though. You like the third kid? I do. I don't like the white. Well, I have a white one too, but yeah, the third one's nice. But that's you know, we'll see.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, let us know what you guys think. You know, obviously we're still out there um on Spotify and Apple. Um, so leave a comment. You can follow us online at x slash Twitter at AmericaZanfield. Johnny mans our threads account um and normally gets into fights with people who are like, oh, you are an American and don't know what you're talking about. And then that really triggers him, and then he loses it.
SPEAKER_03My people does it really grind my gears. Or they they blame the water breaks at the World Cup on Americans when it had nothing to do with America. It was literally FIFA.
SPEAKER_01We hosted it. We hosted it, we didn't make that decision.
SPEAKER_03We didn't change the rules. Okay. Dumb take. It's a dumb take. Agreed.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So um, but yeah, check it out. Uh, let us know what you think, and then we are going to do two other episodes, you know, as the season ramps up this weekend. So next one will be talking about our squad in depth. And then our third one will be predicting the league, which I'm not looking forward to, to be honest. I am.
SPEAKER_03Um it's gonna be great.
SPEAKER_01Good why you just you're just gonna dig in and not pick Arsenal just because you don't want to, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, not looking forward to that one. I have no idea where I'm gonna place us. Um, you know, but I'll have 1.5 more of these drinks, and who knows what's gonna happen. You know, like I'll be like, listen, it's happened before you win one, you get knocked off, and then you win it again. You know? That's right.
SPEAKER_02So it's true.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, uh, for Johnny, I'm Matt. Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time.
SPEAKER_03Thanks for tuning in to America's Anfield. If you enjoyed the show, make sure to like, subscribe, and follow us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. You can also find us on YouTube, Twitter, Threads, and Instagram at America's Anfield. Got questions or topics you want us to cover? Send them our way. We'd love to include them in a future episode. Until next time, up the red.