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It feels like that is just the direction of travel, isn't it? It's like you we get these players from whether it's like Europe or South America. They come to the Premier League, we build them up, you know, and then they end up just going to Barcelona or they go to Real Madrid and they become a Galactico. Yeah. Look, look at Cristiano Ronaldo. Like he makes himself one of the best footballers ever been at Manchester United. Then he goes to Real Madrid and it probably goes up another couple of levels there. And it was obviously toe-to-toe with Messi and La Liga, which was a brilliant time for football. You know, you used to watch La Liga every weekend, didn't you, when it was uh it
was Barcelona and Real Madrid in those days, Mourinho against Pep. It was absolutely phenomenal. Speaking about that era of Mourinho at Madrid, I remember we all remember when uh Ozil made the move from Madrid to Arsenal. Could that be an example? He was he was still at the top of his game. Maybe he was, but was he outside the Real Madrid 11 at that point? It's like Bakola, like he's a big name, but he's probably not in PSG's best 11. It was quite weird, wasn't it, in the World Cup? Because for France, you felt like Barca was maybe ahead of Dway, but for PSG, it feels like Dway is ahead of him. If Liverpool were now signing Carvage Skellier, who I think is number one in his position, at least or maybe two or three
in the world. Liverpool were now going and getting him, I would say that's a superstar signing. Whereas Barca, I think as good as he is, I think he sits just outside that level. And in all honesty, I know you're you're a Liverpool fan. Yeah. I'm not sure he's the right signing for the position you need to fill, but that's probably a conversation for a different We'll get to that in a bit. We'll get to that in a bit, Dan. But I don't know. For me, I just feel like do you think the Premier League does it just come down to money? Is this just down to money? Can they can you know players they leave the Premier League and they can go and get the big bucks at Real Madrid? Um you know, there's that you know that kind of old, you know, the
way that they do things. is they wait till a player is about to um you know end their contract and they sign them for free. Yeah. And then they get a massive sign massive like signing on bonus. That seems to be the playbook at the moment, doesn't it? Yeah. Real Madrid have been unbelievable at that over the last 5 years. Got in some superb players for no money at all. And obviously they'll be on big wages, but in terms of transfer fee, no transfer fee at all. And they've
continued that this summer. I do think in terms of signing the superstars as well, I actually think the way Spain do their like presidential elections sometimes that's a factor because a pres a prospective president will be well if I get if I get the role I'm going to sign this player. They offer the world don't they? They literally offer the world. It's happened loads of times over the years. If you think when Real Madrid used to sign like Beckham, Ronaldo and Michael Owen, all the players that they sign, they sign superstars. It's all based around what the president's going to come in and do or Well, if memory serves me correctly, I think Beckham was initially offered by Manchester United to um to Barcelona and
the president had kind of like said to the Barcelona fans that, you know, I've got David Beckham and Beckham was like, "No, mate, I want to go to Real Madrid." So, it is I hear what you're saying about the president's offering the world. Um but yeah, I don't know. I just feel like we need to stop the Premier League needs to stop that kind of direction of travel of all of our stars going to La Liga and going to those top two teams. It's hard though, isn't it? Because I do, as much as I love the Premier League and obviously I'm I'm English, like Real Madrid and Barcelona are they are the greatest. They are the two biggest teams, aren't they? I don't think you can really argue with
it. And it's it's a dream for a lot of players to go and play there. That's why that's why Drew Bellingham went there when he did. That's why Trent Alexander Arnold has left his boyhood team to go and play there because he dreams of pulling on the white of Real Madrid. I do think he I don't think it's going to happen. I agree with I think Rory said it a few days ago on Talk Sport. If Arsenal signed Vinnie Junior, I think that's the biggest signing in Premier League history cuz that's not been done. I don't think Arsenal have gone and got a premium player or a Premier League team's gone and got an absolute premium player from Real Madrid or Barcelona.
They might have got players who play for them who as I said like Özil were outside the 11 at that time but to go and pick like someone who's in contention for the balonor every year that would be huge and from an Arsenal perspective as well 5 years ago them being able to do that kind of thing was completely unthinkable. So fair play to them for putting themselves in that place to even be in the discussion. Well Rory Jennings was on drive and believes the division would never have had a bigger signing than Venicius Junior. It' be massive absolutely massive for the Premier League. I totally agree with you, but I think it's you
have to look at it through the lens of Arsenal. You have to look at what this means for Arsenal. They're behaving exactly as they should. When you are champions, you come with being champions of England comes with the power. It comes with the opportunity and they're making the most of it. I think this probably if this happens, Venicious Junior landing at Arsenal. Arsenal were already Premier League champions. They were Champions League finalists. They were Champions League semi-finalists last year. You think about the momentum of Arsenal. If he lands at Arsenal and is the missing piece to then winning a European Cup, it immediately becomes money well spent. It probably goes down what? Off the top of
my head here, biggest signing in Premier League history. Rory Jennings there. I think this is the biggest red herring in history in terms of like transfers because I feel like Venicius Jr. has been trying to get a new contract with Real Madrid for the last couple of years. Um, in that time they've signed Mbappe. Mbappe is on incredible money and he obviously is going to want par with that or somewhere close and I think he's using the Premier League as a bit of a bargaining chip to try and up his up the ante on his money to try and um try and get a bigger contract. What do you reckon?
Surely though despite the Arsenal interest like surely he's going to get a big contract anyway because they're not going to let him run down his contract and go for a free. I think they've said it's quite well known that if he doesn't sign a contract this summer, they will look to sell him and it would still be an incredible amount of money. Although I think it's less than PSG want for one for Bradley Barola. I think everything points to the fact that he will sign a new contract, doesn't it? I don't think it's a red herring though. I really don't because there's a blatant vacancy in the Arsenal team in that position.
Oh, I think Arsenal want him. Oh yeah, Arsenal. I think they're you I think he's his team are using Arsenal as a porn in the whole thing. But you not think if let's say he can't agree terms with Real Madrid. Where else would he go? Yeah. Way too early for him to go to Saudi. That's unheard of. That would be there's been links before, hasn't there? There has been links. Yeah, he wouldn't go. Let's hope not. He's too good a talent to go there at this stage of his career. But potentially departing the league is Rodri, former Balandor winner, previous Balandor winner with Real Madrid reportedly expected to make an offer uh
for the Manchester City midfielder. Is that a good look for the Premier League? Have we seen the best of Rodri already? Have we had the best of him? That's exactly what I was going to say. I was going to say from a Manchester City perspective, they've had him in his prime during his prime. He scored the winner in a Champions League final. He's been uh he's been in countless title winning teams. He's been in the team that won the treble, an unbelievable footballer. There has been some great players in that kind of sixth position over the years, but I think he's definitely in the discussion for being one of the best ever, probably not just in the Premier League, but in
the world. I genuinely believe that Rodri is that good. I think since he's come back from injury, he hasn't quite been the same. Although he did do a good impression of the player that we knew before in the World Cup because he was absolutely phenomenal. Golden WP. Yeah. Won the player of the tournament. So it looks like he's coming back to his best. He's 30 now. Year left on his contract. It's probably, like I said earlier, for him, someone who is Spanish, he'll have dreamt of playing for Real Madrid. Like at this stage of his career, and I will say about Manchester City as well, when a player comes towards the end and they've been a good servant, they've achieved a lot with the club, Manchester City do usually kind of wave them off
and they don't ask for an overexuberant transfer fee. They usually say, "Can maybe sometimes, can you give us another year?" Or in Bernardo Silva's case, it felt like happened every single year. Can you give us another year? And he's finally departed this summer. Their team's kind of breaking up anyway. So, is it the natural breaking point for Rodri to go and Manchester City get a decent fee for him? Although it probably in the modern day it does look like a little bit on the low side. I would say it's fair with 12 months left on his contract. He gets to go and play for Mourinho at Real Madrid and Manchester City probably have 200 million pound
players replacing
