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The fact that we even discussed it, I think it's quite um a thing, honestly. Modern football's gone mad. It's gone. Like, you know, when Arsenal won the league a fair late, but you know when they, you know, when like they've got that they've got that mural as you go to the ground sort of from the Caledonian road and they were going to or they had one of Nicova. It's crazy. What is happening? It is absolutely peace, isn't it? They made a mural to him like to get a mural to get like it's not a million miles off a statue. It's like no commemoration.
Same thing. Yeah, we're remembering it's like back room stuff. Get throwins correct. Crazy. Austin McY we're talking about. He's going to leave his role as Aston Villa setpiece coach after 5 years because Chelsea have triggered his How does he even have a release clause in his contract? How does he sit down and get a release clause in it? It's amazing, isn't it? Uh Villa scored the joint most number of goals from set pieces in Europe last season alongside Arsenal, 29, which is a big number to be fair. And of course uh with Rory Jennings alongside me, we had to get uh the Villa side of things as
well, I think it's fair to say. So we've been um searching and scouring the internet for one. Uh we have got one. He's coming. Um but on it very quickly though. Um big loss for Villa though, isn't it? Or Who is it? I find it very difficult to get too I appreciate that people will now call me sort of old-fashioned and a yada and whatever else, but I find it very difficult to get too animated about this. Yeah, it's a member of the back room staff. It would be like if Billy Blood left Chelsea and went to Arsenal. He would be like, "Okay, I can't get animated about this." It's a member of the backroom staff.
You know who is animated though? A good friend of the show, Mr. Dan Bardell, is livid. Is it? He's not happy at all, Dan. Um, I find it all very embarrassing, Dan. And I heard you're upset about it, so I find it embarrassing for you. Um, but go on. Why are you so upset, Dan, about losing your set piece coach? Is it because of his hair? Good hair. I'll give him that. But anything else sort of I'm I'm bewildered as to why anyone cares about this. Uh, I wouldn't say I was like massively upset. Are you I'm just I've gone a bit red to be fair looking at the looking at myself on the screen there. I'm not sure why. Um, my thing is more they've gone Chelsea really. Like obviously we've lost a big player to Chelsea in the in
the last seven days and then it's just kind of a another thing there where a team that's finished 10th and as Rory will know has been a mess under Blco for the entirety of time. He's just decided to go there I guess for more money. I've met him a couple of times. He's a really nice guy. Really good at what he does. I think the release fee stuff is I think he's pretty standard, you know, back room staff contracts to be fair. I think probably most clubs will their staff will have the same kind of thing going on. So, it's a pretty low fee. It's probably not even worth reporting. But wait, wait. What's the fee? Do you know I've been Someone's told me, but I can't
come. I can't No, no. I can't. It's low. Text me. Let me know. When you say low, what are we talking like change down the back of the sofa? Low. What? You're not talking millions of pounds, right? Okay. You're not talking millions of pounds. If you two are getting paid more than that, do you know what? I can't work out and it feels like you're going to have far more knowledge on this kind of thing than me. How impactful do you think this story will be both for you and for us? Uh I think from a villa perspective, look, he's been there 5 years. He came in under Dean Smith. Steven Gerard came in pretty quickly and kind of discarded him a little bit. Didn't give him much
of a chance to do what he's good at. And as soon as he left, Dunai Emry kept him on and identified him as someone who could be a weapon for Villa. And but Villa have scored lots of set piece goals. I can't I don't know how many they would have scored without him. But when I watch us play, our set pieces are pretty inventive. Even in some games if we do something that's quite inventive and it doesn't come off, you think, "Oh, that was quite a good move. I can see what we were trying to do there." And it goes away for a few months and then maybe it comes back out the playbook and we use it again at some juncture.
Ultimately, you know, even if I am rele, I'd be absolutely devastated. That's the only thing that's going to cause me to shed tears. But I still think in a summer where there's been a lot of change for Villa in terms of a couple of back room staff members have left already. Some of the medical team have left and obviously we've lost two key players. I think when you put it all together, that's probably the thing that's disappointing for me rather than it being the individual that's gone, if that makes sense. You know what scares me, Dan? And this is not a Villa thing. This is more just a football thing in sort of entirety. this set piece thing and the focus on set pieces. I was at the World Cup and I was watching you like so Spain
just knock it around and they barely relied on set pieces and France do the same thing. I don't know how many goals they score from set pieces as well and it just kind of took me back to Arsenal won the title so you know fair fair do them but the reliance and the over reliance on set pieces now rather than just playing good football is just it's given me a headache. I just think there's now individual coaches for a lot of things. I think obviously Arsenal utilized it really well last season and maybe you watch them and think it's maybe it's gone from being a marginal gain to being the be all and end all but it was an
effective tool for them and ultimately it was one of the things that carried them over the line to win the Premier League title which is look it's what they wanted to do isn't it's what they've been trying to do for years I understand what you're saying but I also think set pieces have just always been a thing that's happened I had a bit of a debate with Stan Kymore who I've got no problem with it sits a couple of seats away from the at the villa and he was saying it's not a loss at all. So, everyone will have a different opinion on it. He reckons set pieces are no better or no worse than they've ever been and that basically there's these specialists are coming on and being chances was essentially what he
said on X. But he has been a good part of Villa and the players have always spoken well about him as well. When I score a goal off a set face, they go and celebrate with him like he's obviously very good at what he does and he'll probably be very good at what he does at Chelsea as well. So McI has gone, obviously Tieleman has gone and Morgan Rogers has gone. What are your aspirations for the new season, Dan? Because obviously Unai Emery, I think everybody here, you, me, Addy, we all agree that Unai Emory is excellent at what he does. Elite at what he does. Second best manager in the league. I think you can certainly argue that.
Yeah, I think you can certainly argue it. Are you still are you what are you thinking now for the next for the new season? Because I think off the back of the off the back of last season, you qualified for the Champions League. It was a very good campaign, but this summer hasn't gone to plan so far, has it? I think there was always going to be a little bit of a reshuffle, but I think some of the things that have happened have maybe expediated it a little bit. Like Villa had to get younger because they've got the oldest average age in the Premier League if you look at the numbers last season. So, something was fundamentally going to have to change and it's difficult for Villa because of
the financial situation. But, it's better to do it when you're on top in my opinion because you're more attracted to prospective players when you're in the Champions League. So Villa have got Johan Manzambian who they got in before Rogers left but is essentially Rogers's replacement. He's got a high ceiling. Maybe he doesn't come with Villa on in the Champions League. So I understand it. I'm not particularly worried because as I said earlier, Uno Emry is the king at Villa. The day he goes is the day I'll start to worry about this football club. As long as he's there, we'll be somewhere near where we need to be. We'll be challenging for Europe still. We'll still be trying to disrupt
the top five, the top six. I do think this season preseason the way it's gone so far with the transfers, it's more geared up for the so-called big six to become the top six for the first time in a long time because Pillar have disrupted it a couple of times under Ro, but I'd say that we'll be pretty close to them because we've got that stability and we've got a genuinely top class manager and you guys agree he's one of the best managers out there. So, he will always be Bill's differential and whoever the players are, they will always get better when they're working under that manager. That I think that's a fact at this point.
Dan, final one. You must You spoke about the financials. Obviously, you guys are trying to I don't know. You're almost trying to play cards with your hands tied behind your back. And then you must see what Chelsea are spending. You think, how's that possible? You're you're you're not allowed to spend. And Chelsea have just spent that much money on Morgan Rogers. They spent that much money in Pstra. They spent that much money in Quender. And you guys can't spend any money. Yeah. And look, Chelsea, it's not just Chelsea as well. It's it's Tottenham. They've obviously spent a lot of money after a couple of really bad seasons. The rules are there. They benefit those teams because of the revenues and Villa are never going to
get their revenues up to that level. Villa have got and I include Coventry in this. Villa have got the second lowest net spend in the Premier League across the last 5 years. Like we've spent barely anything because we've sold really well yet we still can't go and have free rain in a season when we've just won a trophy and we're now going to be in the Champions League again. It's annoying. It drives me mad on a regular basis. Chelsea City, whoever, they were allowed to build at a time where the rules were pretty flimsy and they got themselves to a certain level and now their revenues are through the roof. The Villa, Forest, Newcastle, whoever, that's never ever going to
happen because the rules don't allow that to happen now. But we'll just carry on going on about our business and just try and be successful, sorry, despite all that stuff. And that's what we've done for the last four years. And I'll keep backing us to do it again because honestly, I can't tell you how special this manager is and where we're so lucky to have him. Dan, as always, my man, appreciate you coming on. Thank you very much. Danny Tardell there, massive Villa fan, top broadcaster as well. All right, let's quickly focus on Chelsea whilst we've got a couple of minutes. Uh, reports suggesting, by the way, that Chelsea are in for Danny Walbeck, Brighton striker, um, who's had a good
last couple of seasons to be fair. I mean, there was some talk about him being in the World Cup squad as well. That didn't materialize. But, um, it's a bit strange, isn't it? Chelsea have always gone young, always got on these sort of exciting new talents and this is a completely different sort of shift in ideas. [clears throat] Yeah. Which is progress. I think it's I think it's progress. I think it's the club I think it's a testament to the club acknowledging that they got it wrong. Acknowledging that they made a pig's ear of it. Acknowledging that they tried to run Chelsea Football Club as if we were some Silicon Valley tech startup. That didn't work. And now, fair play to them. They have gone, okay, we
need we now need to shift. We need to pivot. We need to bring in a proven manager with pedigree. We need to give that manager the title of manager which is symbolic. We now need to let him do his job and bring in the kind of players that he deems necessary. What does he do well that you who that guy? Well, yeah. Wellbeck. Well, what does he do well? What apart from the last couple of seasons where I think he's got 16 Premier League goals and 10. He's been in the Premier League. This will be now his 20th season in the Premier League coming up. And this isn't me trying to dig at him because I think he's a good role model.
He's a good professional. He's got 92 goals in 20 years. But what you just touched on there is very important. Well, yeah. What you just touched on there is very important. What Chelsea haven't had in since this ownership took over. Let's remember when this ownership took over at Chelsea, we were champions of Europe. In fact, we're champions of the world if you really want to drill into it, right? We won that tournament. No one wanted We won that tournament in Dubai, right? That's that's who we were. That's who we officially were.
Since they come in, everything has gone wrong. We've bought terrible player after terrible player. We've bought young, only young. we have lost any kind of standard at the club. What Danny Walbeck will bring, regardless of how effective you think he will be, I think he'll be a good player for us. But even if you want to have a conversation about that, he will bring standards. He knows what the culture of a dressing room is supposed to be. He will bring an experience and a knowledge to that dressing room, which is basically incredibly Isn't it going too far the other way though? You've gone incredibly young.
You are correct. Ain't you now going incredibly old? He's 35. Isn't the happy medium somewhere in the middle? Yeah, absolutely. But he's a very experienced player. Chelsea don't have any distraction if you want to try and put a positive spin on it any distraction of European football. He will be required to play you know approximately I reckon 20 games a season. So that's that's Liam Dap gone. Oh Liam asking is that Liam Dap should never play for Chelsea again. I mean you could argue that he should have never played for Chelsea.
Nicholas Jackson gone as well. Nicholas Jackson I think you have a conversation about I think Nicholas Jackson probably goes. Yeah. But if you think about what Chelsea will be, it will be Xiao Pedro with Danny Wbeck to fill in as and when equally if Cole Palmer's injured um then what will happen is Xiao Pedro can do that role. Danny Wbeck goes up front. Yeah, I think it will be ex I think it's a very good signing. It's good for the standards. It's good that the club are now backing the manager decision. This will be an Alonzo decision. He wanted to bring in Granny Jaca, didn't he? He didn't get Granny Jaca. I think he clearly wants he clearly wants experience and standards which when you think about how Chelsea I like the way you spun it. I
mean it don't worry you spun it very well it is true if you think about how Chelsea never a Chelsea sign I never like even over the last even over the Abramovich era were you this is so not a Chelsea sign we're not that club anymore you're that club in terms of spending power no but we're not that club we don't have those standards we don't have those aspirations like when Roman Abramovic was Chelsea manager the ambition every season was to win the European Cup and the Premier League in the same season that was the ambition now is to at best qualify for the Champions League I think Danny Walbeck helps us qualify for the Champions League potentially I think he done it well, but you're buzzing.
Yeah, I think he contributes to us potentially challenging for the Champions League. But what I'm what he will bring us is standards. What he will bring us is professionalism. Whatever you think or whatever I thought of Graham Potter as Chelsea manager. The Chelsea players calling him Harry Potter is obviously bang out of order. I think it's quite funny, but I'm not a Chelsea player. I'm not a Chelsea employee. The players that were his players had absolutely no respect for the office of Chelsea manager when they're calling Graham Potter Harry Potter. They had absolutely no respect for the office of Chelsea manager when they're calling uh Liam Rinior a substitute teacher laughing at him mocking his method. I
think his methods deserve to be mocked. He was a stain on the office of Chelsea manager. He was a terrible Chelsea manager. The worst that we've had since Ian Porterfield if not before. But the players shouldn't have been doing that. I don't think that happens on Danny Wbeck's watch. I don't think Wbeck allows anyone to mock the manager like that. He was managed by Sir Alice Ferguson. He's not going to allow that sort of disrespect to the office of manager. I hope for your sake you're Let's go. Darren's gone. Let's go to Sap very quickly. S Villa fan. Sap, how upset are you with what's happening to Villa in the summer? Um, you just probably heard Dan Bardell there. You've got one of the
best managers I think in Europe. And he's almost not allowed to do things. He's not allowed to bring in the players he wants to bring in. He's having to sell the players he clearly doesn't want to sell. And now he's lost his set piece, coach. Yeah. I mean, um, it's it's The set piece coach I feel is a footnote. Um I agree that we concede uh sorry we score a lot of um set piece goals. I don't have the exact numbers but I feel like we concede a good number as well. I never feel completely solid from set pieces and I feel like it needs to be both ways if you are a set piece coach. Um and on the playing squad thing that does worry me a bit because we're linked with Watkins going out. We've got
console linked with going out and we've got Martina still linked with going to UB and I feel like we have had you know we've restructured you know we bought quite well but we're almost at the point where we're tearing apart too much of the team with Luca Dean also going out you need time to build these relationships which have had over the years and that can't be replaced in one preseason. It is scary, isn't it? Because with Villa, you are very close, I think, to going to that next level where it's consistently Champions League football and who knows, right? Challenging for the league title. And if you are Con who, by the way, I think had a fantastic World Cup, especially considering that a portion of it was
played out of position. You're probably looking around thinking we've gone a bit backwards here in this window. We are losing our best players and not bringing in sort of equally talented players. You're bringing in good cover, but not as good as Rogers. and certainly you ain't going to find a goalkeeper that much better than Emmy Martinez if he goes as well. There must be concern that some of the bigger players might start looking around and getting itchy feet. Yeah, know I completely agree and I feel like it's sort of getting to the point where we probably need to hear from the club that like that's fine. We've had these sales going out and we are working
on incomings but no one else is going because if we lose Watkins and we lose Concer that's the spine of our team completely torn out and then you just worry about you know are we going to finish mid-table next season is that good enough to keep Unai and the next thing you know like where are we the season after that so it is it's at the moment optimistic but if we lose any more sort senior key players that's when it becomes a worry. Great call sap. Appreciate you coming in. Thank you very much. Let's quickly get one more in if we can. Andrew Manchester. Andrew, you want to quickly talk about Danny Wbeck?
Yeah, I do. Pal, just a quick question for Rory. Rory, what makes you think it's Danny Wellbeck's responsibility to make sure the management at Chelsea are not undermined? I just think that the senior players of any dressing room will generally play a role in making sure that the dressing room is kept in line. It's fairly uncontroversial. And do you think that do you him fitting in with his colleagues at the club's more important than to him looking like he's supporting the management team? Do I what? Sorry. Do you think him fitting in with his colleagues at the club and being one of the boys is more important than to him looking like he's fitting in
with the management team? It's not going to happen, mate. No, I don't think he'll be trying to fit in with the management team. I just think that Danny Wbeck because of who he's played for and because of his professionalism, he will naturally exude a level of commitment and professionalism that isn't there at Chelsea at the moment. It would be like if Chelsea were to sign John Stones, which I think we should bringing in a player like Jon Stones who has been such a consumate professional for his entire career should have a positive impact on the Chelsea dressing room. So you think he'll distance himself from his colleagues in the dressing room and actually go align with the management?
No, I don't think there'll be I don't think there'll be a distance. I think he will set a tone of the dressing room which will make everybody on the same himsh sheet. And he'll do that naturally by the way as well, isn't it? It's not even it's not something he thinks about doing. It's just at 35 years of age. They'll get in line with him. He's he's the player that they'll look to get in line with. I don't agree mate. I think that's a bit optimistic. I think they would I think would you say that would be the same if Msia would have been there? Would Danny Wellbeck not have jumped on board with getting on Messiah's back? I think that
players like John Stones, Danny Walbeck, players that have been in the in the game for 20 years will naturally have a loyalty and professionalism which will respect the manager and it will make sure that the players that don't are brought in line. The reason why the reason why players and dressing rooms thrive when they have players like Frank Lampard, John Terry, Pichek, Dier, Drogba, the reason why the Chelsea dressing room was so in line and could win a Champions League with a player like Roberto D Mateo, sorry, with a manager like Roberto Dim Mateo at the helm is because of the standards that were set by the spine of the team.
Bringing in players who have a track record of success, a track record of professionalism can only help harmonize a dressing room and make a manager's life easier, can't it? Yeah, I agree for once with you.
