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Cowboy Crooks here in a pizzeria in New York City. Delighted to say I've been reunited with my big pal Sam Matterface, talkSPORT's chief football commentator, for a very special episode of The Window. How are you, mate? I'm fine, thank you very much. Just delighted to see you, as always. Um and what I'm really pleased about is that um the cowboy hat has made it out of Texas. Mate, it's This is going to be cemented to my head all the way through to the final in New Jersey. And probably the first show that you and I do with Gabby Agbonlahor back in London.
Okay, it's become part of your personality, hasn't it? Yeah. And it's made you instantly recognizable, I've noticed. I got a lot of attention at Madison Square Garden with the hats uh last night. We enjoyed that. How you finding the American dream? You absolutely love it in New York, don't you? I do. I love New York, but I love the country. I love going around the country and meeting so many different people. It's such an amazing, wonderful country with so many different cultures all blended into it. You can go to Houston, as we've done, and Dallas. You can go to San Francisco, it's very, very different on the West Coast than it is on the East Coast, the big cities like Philadelphia and Boston and uh New York.
Again, absolutely [clears throat] completely different, vibrant, big, loud, noisy. There's always something going on, and you know what we're like, we're not very sit-still people, are we? We like to be out and about, we like to be mixing with the locals. And what I can't believe is just how big the talkSPORT reach is, because we were sitting Wait, actually, we tried to get the New York ferry from um Pier 11 to Brooklyn, didn't we, yesterday? Some guy came over and he was like, "Crooky, Sam, can I have a picture?" And he was like, "Oh, uh we listen to talkSPORT all the time, it's fantastic." And we were like, "Wow." You know, so talkSPORT's got this
massive reach, and I think, you know, the big part of that is the YouTube and the social and whatever, but also the thirst for Premier League football and for football in general, which I think is growing here as well. And for transfer news, which obviously we're going to come on to. But just look ahead for me, you'll come and chat the game for television. England Panama tomorrow in New Jersey. Yeah. Really good in the second half against Croatia. Really average over 90 odd minutes against Ghana. Which England are going to turn up tomorrow?
The wild swings of emotion that accompany England always dictate that there's going to be a massive reaction to whatever the result is. So when they win like they did against Croatia, everyone thinks, "Oh wow, we're going to win the World Cup." You said it. Um and then when they draw against Ghana nil-nil, everybody says, "Oh, they're not as good as I thought they were." You said it. Um and that's the kind of temperature of the nation. I actually as you know wasn't surprised by the Ghana experience No. because we thought that Ghana nicking a goal against Panama would mean that they were able to sit in, try and nick out a point. If they get that, they're through, which is what happened. Now
I think England needed to move the ball quicker. I think they probably needed to make different sub- I felt like they put every attacking player on at one stage and maybe not necessarily sure that combination worked. But at least they gave it a really good go without really penetrating the back line. I think they'll be better against Panama. It's a team that's set up to beat better teams. You know, the low block has historically been a problem for England and I find that those games cause them more issues than maybe sometimes when they play more expansive teams where there's more room on the pitch and those creative players that they do have can really make an impact.
Somebody wasn't able to make the same impact in the second game he did in the first was Elliot Anderson. We sat here hours after Manchester City agreed a British record deal for Elliot Anderson. City sources saying it's 116 million. Forest sources saying it's nearer to 130 million. The truth is probably somewhere in between. Is it a British record? That's the big question. Well, I think both sides are admitting that. Here's my point. So it's bigger than Isak?
It's It's a record for a British player, definitely. Forest are claiming it is bigger than Alexander Isak. That was always what Evangelos Marinakis wanted to get to. But my question to you is if Elliot Anderson is worth north of 120 million, how much would Paul Scholes be worth in the current market? Well, blank check, write your number because he's Listen, I think Elliot Anderson is very good, by the way. You know, and obviously there is a There's value attached to um English players, which is a massive premium for anyone. I think with Elliot Anderson, he does two things. He breaks up play and reads the game brilliantly. He has got the ability to um get out of a tight situation with the
ball. When you play for Manchester City, you've got to be able to retain possession. And that is something that he does well. He also can distribute. You know, you've seen a couple of great balls from him during this tournament, which are sort of defense-splitting passes. Bellingham, wasn't there in the first game? Exactly. And you know, this is a guy who can do all facets of that role. So, he's he's always going to be worth a lot of money.
I mean, if I'm a Newcastle fan, I'm thinking to myself, wasn't it 2 years ago we sold him for like 40, and now he's being sold That is a mistake. I mean, I mean, you'd be literally punching yourself in the face thinking, "How did we allow that to happen?" I think it just shows where the game has gone that when we were growing up, all the money was spent on strikers. You know, we remember Alan Shearer's British record move from Blackburn to Newcastle for what, 15 million pound? Manchester United banging big money for Andrew Cole. Now it seems midfield is the area where the 100 million pound checks are being signed. d'Or goes as well, by the way.
Well, that's right, but I do wonder what it does to the market. Now, you've got Sandro Tonali, who clearly is trying to navigate a way out of Newcastle. I'm told Tottenham, by the way, have offered him in excess of 250 grand a week to go there. Does he want to go to London, though? Because from what I understand is he gets homesick quite a lot. He wants to go back to Italy. But there's no way that the Italian No, they're not going to be able to afford it. So, what is he going to do? Go to London because it's easier for him to get back to Milan on a regular basis or because they might be more of an Italian community there and he feels more at home.
Quite possibly. But, I thought he was pushing for a move to one of the Manchester clubs as well at one stage. Yeah, well, Manchester City is still at the table, but I think London would be his preference. But, what I'm saying is you've got Tonali, you've got Adam Wharton who's obviously got a lot of suitors, you've got Carlos Baleba still at Brighton. If you're the selling club, you'll look at that Elliot Anderson money and that's going to set the bar, isn't it? Yeah. Absolutely. And it would depend on contracts, obviously, and how long is left on each of those contracts and I think Crystal Palace probably have a figure in mind that they want for Adam Wharton, which will be somewhere near what Anderson is getting,
but I think it'll probably be about 90, 100 if when he eventually moves, depending on the length of his contract and how long he's got left. I've always seen him as a possible for either Liverpool or Manchester United. Baleba has been linked with Manchester United a lot, but I'm not sure he's in the same bracket in terms of price as the other two. No, especially having had a pretty underwhelming season. And because I don't think that he endeared himself to the manager and the team down there because he was sort of got a bit annoyed when the transfer initially didn't go through.
Agreed. Well, we're going to keep an eye on the midfielder market, but you've had your eye on a couple of players at this World Cup. One in the Switzerland team in particular you think could have a bit of interest. Well, yeah, I mean, he's no one under the age of 20 has managed to or is the youngest player actually to create the chances that he has at a World Cup. Johan Manzambi plays for Freiburg. He was excellent in Freiburg's run to the semi-final of the Europa League to the final of the Europa League. Um and he played really well in the second game for Switzerland. He came off the bench
in the first game and actually gave them a little bit of impetus when they needed it against Qatar in searing heat in the Levi's Stadium in uh Santa Clara. I was there that day. I do think he's going to be one of those that eventually makes a big move. He's still very, very young. He's big, tall, physical, athletic. He's got this brilliant ability to run with the ball and shoot from distance and cause problems as he did in that Europa League semi-final. He did have a shot on target in the final itself as well. Uh so, I think Yohan Ben Slimane is one that we could see moving to the Premier League at some stage. And what about the Moroccan boy, Bilal El Khannouss, who's been linked with Arsenal?
Mate, I said to our producer, Ollie, during that game, I really like this boy. Um the first time I saw him play for Morocco was He's only 18. Was in that game against Brazil. He's playing against Brazil and he's absolutely running the show. He was terrific. He is another one, very tall, bit slight at the moment. Maybe Arsenal will have to build him up for the Premier League, but he looks very confident. His command of the football is excellent. He breaks up play, distributes it well. I think he's got massive future. There you go. Two potential future Premier League stars picked out by the main man, Sam Matterface. Stay tuned to talksport.com and our YouTube channel
for all the very latest from the transfer market. We'll have a brand new episode of The Window every single day.
