First Show of 2024!

Music. Liquid football! Shit! Is he left?

He must have a foot like a traction engine! The proof is in the pudding. Music. And the pudding in this case is a football. Move! Eat my goal! The goalie has got football pie all over his shirt!

Welcome to this episode of the down the pub podcast my name is lispy mcgee we i mean gary have a very special guest this week down the pub og chris serrell is hanging out talk all things wanderers and beyond so uh welcome back to the show chris great to have you buddy oh fellas this is this is awesome since you told me anthony i'm not even gonna lie to you a little bit nervous, a little bit jittery, but all in a positive way, excited.

It took me back to some wonderful memories from the years past, and it's crazy to think that this show has been around since the league has been around, and here we are about to enter year six with a lot of the same questions that we had back then when we were doing the roundtable with Derek. So before we start, I want to just give you guys a lot of love too for what you guys have done. The podcast ecosystem has changed so much in the last five years, Anthony.

I know it's been a roller coaster poster for yourself personally but it's great to see you're still doing this and this is like I don't want to say it's a dream come true but it basically is to to be back on the back down the pub. You're more than welcome, man. It's great to have you back. Gary, it's been a while since we've talked before Christmas. How have you been, man? I've been good, yeah. I think I needed that little break after the season ended.

I had about six weeks of not really wanting to engage with anything. And then over the past few weeks, I've been YouTubing. I've been searching up random players on YouTube and watching them, finding players who've got season compilations and watching them.

Them and remind reminded in the process how aggressively bad player compilation video music is like it's the worst techno shit ever playing on those compilation videos so i've been back in that world some of the some of the videos themselves are pretty sketchy as well like there's a lot of star sweeps yeah yeah yeah that kind of stuff i like i like it when they're like they show the player doing something good but then they cut the clip before that that play has ended and you're like yeah

you were up in the next 0.3 seconds.

Hoofed it in the rows there so there's obviously a lot's been happening i feel like we're playing catch up a little bit like it's been one of the more interesting off seasons where a lot of stuff that's happened and one of the big stories obviously is what's happened off the pitch we had media pro last year uh trying to take rogers well took rogers to court to try and get one soccer onto their network which wasn't successful and now we have it seems like a parting of the ways between csb slash

the cpl and media pro which is one soccer is their parent company so uh one of the one of the reasons i i reached out to chris come on because i know chris has looked into this quite well and he's obviously has a media background so chris was there any rumblings this happening and how did we get here.

Rumblings is an interesting word because it kind of feels like from day one when the league was announced, February 2019, I believe, is when the deal was fully announced. announced. A 10-year deal. There were some eyebrows raised.

MediaPro, what's MediaPro all about? You dig in a little bit and you see they're not really a platform as much as they create the content in terms of audio, visual, editing, the cord draggers, if you will, the people that do all the heavy lifting and the hard work behind the scenes that don't normally get the credit that they deserve. But you wondered why would something like this want to start up with the Canadian Premier League?

What kind of connections and conversations have been happening behind the the scenes they made a 10-year commitment we didn't quite know the financial terms but we're starting to peel the onion a little bit with the uh the upcoming court situation and they're asked for 60 million after about five and a half six years of operations that you know averages 10 million dollars a year so 10 times 10 it's 100 million dollar television deal right off the bat for

the league so on one hand when when you say the term rumblings i think everybody was probably a little bit skeptical from day one and i think those people have been really vocal over the last Last 24, 36, 48 hours now that the details are starting to double down and parlay. And we're starting to see now the nooks and crannies of things like the league promising 16 teams, for example, the League One Ontario offer that never really came to fruition whatsoever.

Amongst other things, including the actual core sum of how many games were going to be produced. Because again, media pro, they're the core draggers, they're the behind the scenes people. So the more the merrier for them. And I've seen some of the stuff they've been doing behind the scenes since the CPL season's over. Done a few tenders with the NCAA. They've got basketball, volleyball, soccer contracts actually towards the end of this past 2023 season.

So they're a business that is on its wheels. It's not as if they need the CPL, but the CPL sort of needed them because it seems like they were the only partner that really, really wanted to lean into it and give it their all.

So to answer your question up front, I don't think there were any rumblings only because it seemed like MediaPro pro the platform that is one soccer we're developing a more concrete programming line it seemed like the the personnel were more engaged into the content that they were providing it seemed like there were more features it seemed like there was more to to with Jordan Wilson for example like you're signing literally somebody in-house from the league to give

his opinions and give his insight and his thoughts you're not going to get that in a whole lot of leagues in some cases like you do see that in the top leagues the upper leagues but for the most part you get analysts that go to school you don't get somebody who actually has the ability he has so it just seemed like the relationship as it was getting past the halfway point was strong it wasn't as transparent or open as we thought and I mean that's been an issue with the league from day one but in

terms of rumblings it didn't really seem like there was a whole lot to show that this was was on the horizon but you know we know that relationships don't last forever in this case though because it was getting past that halfway point and we've seen progress since the start that we'd get to that 10-year point but here we are so guys just a question for you like so. Looking at what they had that by now we were supposed to have 16 teams or,

like was that ever plausible for us to have 16 franchises in such a short space of time I mean, no idea is the short answer, but I mean, COVID happened. I think people are tiring of businesses using that as an excuse, but for this league in particular, I think it's a very valid excuse.

It literally stopped the league in its tracks for two years. so all of these discussions that would have been going on behind the scenes about bringing new regions into the league would have stopped because suddenly the money isn't there or they need to redirect the money elsewhere i don't know like the question for me is kind of those sorts of conversations those sorts of things that both the league and media pro were coming out with at the start of of 2018 2019 was was that something

they genuinely believed might happen and i think I think the disintegration of the relationship is probably due to the fact that. Like as much as both parties, MediaPro in particular, wanted to present this original deal as some altruistic act where they wanted to raise the profile of Canadian soccer, they're a business at the end of the day. And both sides would have been expecting certain returns by now, regardless of COVID.

And the number of teams obviously was an issue because it came out somewhere that media pro expected the league to have put on x amount of live games by now but they're only 25 or whatever towards that target so it would have been an expectation but obviously neither side has delivered exactly what they promised so chris do you think that like subscriptions were high enough at one soccer like because to me this feels like a league that's

like because it's still kind of new people want to go to the games like you know what i mean it's like it's not.

Really a game like you know obviously you watch the wonders when they're away but if you're not if the wonders are in town you're right you're at the game watching it right so like have we ever had any indication of what their subscriptions because that's what that's where all their revenue apart from adverse came from i guess right yeah and that's what but i was just in my little rant that you know gary did a much better job wording

it than i did i was just ranting trying to find the words that gary said but to be completely honest and jokes aside that's the transparency part i was talking about is is we've never really known who's subscribed to this aside from us literally talking to one another are you with one soccer no i watch it on fubo do you oh do you watch it on fubo no i i illegally stream it like there's enough businesses and companies around the world now that actually

show the cpl that you don't need to have a subscription to one soccer And I think that that towards the end, if this is indeed the end, which, you know, as we continue the conversation, there might still be an olive branch, completely just me throwing an idea out. But, you know, when you see two sides, obviously, like Gary said, one expected to return, another expected to return, you have to ask yourself, what could each side also do more of?

It's a post-pandemic world. Yeah, we talked about this over time, Anthony. 12 to 14 teams by 2026 was always kind of the number that was thrown out there. The fact that the league told one soccer media pro 16 teams is like, well, that's extremely ambitious. If media pro really, truly believe that this was a thing, they signed the contract. But, you know, you can't use that against them in court. You sign the deal.

Deal it's it's a weird thing where you're going to have to look at both sides and figure out where somebody was trying to be a bit cheeky with what they had on the table down the road okay no maybe maybe 12 teams is going to be better blah blah blah that type of stuff it's just that in itself is with the lack of transparency that's been an issue with the league is a as a complete sphere, it's none of our business of course this is between the league and

its broadcaster its operator for all intents and purposes we don't know those numbers we would know those numbers if they were high enough for them to brag about it it's kind of the way i've always seen it as which is a really crappy way of looking at it but as a fan as a consumer the three of us as season ticket holders and lovers of this team and want to see this league grow and want to see this league evolve into being a league

where we don't have to have these conversations and worry about vote, where the television revenue was coming from, how many people are subscribed, et cetera, et cetera.

It's just a model where if you're on the outside looking in, you might think that it wasn't thought through fully enough. And I'm not saying that disrespectfully to the members of the CSB at all. And I'm not saying this is anything disrespectful to the folks at MediaPro at all, but I think it's just two heads came together at a time that it might not have worked out as well as both thought it would, almost as the generic way of putting it.

Gary i think as well the the most important point in all of this is that the not even really reading between the lines but the league clearly believes the only way to grow the league is by getting it on a national broadcaster so everything they're doing now is designed to get them on a national broadcaster media pro obviously rode that horse as far as it could and just were banging their heads against a wall i don't really know the details of why they couldn't negotiate some sort of deal

with a broadcaster but the league clearly thinks doing it independently they will be able to so i i fully expect that something is either close to being in place or in place for that otherwise they wouldn't have taken that risk and that's the thing i keep saying to people too sorry to cut you off gary like they wouldn't have dropped this nuke on their end. If they didn't at least have a backup plan. And I honestly think that there's some really smart minds owning these teams.

You look at the Valors and the Forges, for example, they come from a CFL background where the TSN deal has to get renewed every few years, but they find a way to make it happen every year. So I've been saying to people, there's a good, a bad, and an ugly to it. We see and I've heard and know what the bad and the ugly is. And the ugly, ugly is the worst case case scenario, and I'm not putting it out into the universe because I don't want that to happen.

But the good is in the first five years, we've seen what markets have worked. I'm not just going to toot our horn here in Halifax, but we've done incredible. There's now five extra years of experience for all these owners in this space, some of which have not been in this space before.

And they'll be able to pick each other's minds and try to find the right path, the right way to carve it out, whether they're making contact with local broadcasters or or distributors, whether in Halifax's case, and sorry, Derek, I'm not trying to put any information out there because this is entirely me just analyzing and speculating, but an Eastlink, for example, could step in for a year. Ontario, they've got countless second-tier broadcasters that could step up.

And I mean, this is what I was saying too about the olive branch. Maybe Media Pro stays in touch with a few of these clubs to try to get this over the hump, whether it's for for a year or two before there's a more permanent home. So it's something where, like I said, the good, the bad, and the ugly. The bad and the ugly are obvious. It's what's being discussed. It's what's going to clearly be discussed in litigation.

But I do also feel like this is a chance for everybody to take a deep breath, step back, and come up with that plan B that Gary was just talking about. Surely it's there. Surely it's there. Yeah. So do you think this might have implications for our stadium that if the city is looking at.

This kind of being so messy now with court cases and all kinds of stuff because you know i think park doesn't want to give the money for stadium is going to be based on everything being like like smooth and you know obviously with a new league everything's going to be volatile so you think that's going to be affect the decision on the the stadium i i only i only think that feels precarious right now because we are in this weird in-between stage before we

know what the next plan plan is the second the next plan is announced if say some of the games are going to be broadcast on a national broadcaster throughout the season which again I feel like the league must have an idea will happen that's a much stronger bargaining hand for the club than we're on one soccer 24 7 and only X amount of people subscribe to it so yeah I I think as soon as the next plan is announced announced as long as it looks good

on paper then it shouldn't affect things at all yeah that's that's a good thing because i was just kind of worried like wondering to myself like the people who are using every little thing to kind of shut this idea down they're going to jump on this kind of stuff so i can't imagine friends of halifax common are going to go digging deep into media pro and one soccer's broadcasting deals but we have seen them lower yeah so i see where anthony's coming from I'm like,

I personally don't think the correlation is there, at least immediately. But if you're talking about a league that doesn't actually have a permanent premier TV deal two, three years down the line, and maybe that was a good chunk of hard revenue that could have been transferred into the actual construction of the stadium. I mean, you know, there's, there's obviously eyes to dot and T's to cross when it comes to that stuff.

And the money comes from different avenues. news and maybe the tv deal money has nothing to do with the construction of the stadium but to the people on the council end and the friends of the commons for example they'll use every reason they can against derrick against the club and against the idea of making the stadium permanent it could be something that may end up on the council floor as just a a chatting point but i i don't think that it negatively correlates

as much as we think it does you know the moose heads are still only on a regional television broadcast for the very most part and you know they didn't need the permanent stadium built but they're the prime premier tenant and right like i use them as an example where they're a junior hockey team and they only have the one or two games a year on sports net they still find a way to make it work so i think that you know Derek being of the background he is when it comes to,

I believe he worked the, is it the Vanier Cup? Yeah. Yeah. So like that, for example, like they have to negotiate a television deal every cycle with that as well. And they've gone years without that being on a major broadcaster. I believe one year it was on YouTube. I could be wrong and he'll probably tell me if I am. But, you know, I think that he, along with the other owners, must have a plan and an idea.

And in Derek's case specifically with the stadium looming, I think that he would be the type of guy that would really make sure that there's a plan B and plan C. And I take his tweets as they are. He's never been the type of person to stick his chest out without actually having some substance behind his opinion. And he's the type of guy that will put his name on something that he believes in wholeheartedly.

And I think that those subtle tweets, those little those those gifs, those gifs that he put out, like they actually spoke volumes to me.

So I'm a little less concerned personally, Anthony. okay so just before we move on to the season ahead and obviously we had a player announcement like last week so me just just for people so media pro they kind of have a little bit of a history of this don't they like didn't something happen with they had rights to legal legal in in france and something happened there and i think it was something else that they were involved

in that just kind of happened so they seem to have like a little bit of a history with this too and it's It's funny you bring that up because that was the example I was using with my last spleel about how MediaPro might end up being the hard distributor for actual clubs because I believe they still did Leal's games. I could be wrong, but they still did a club's games for the rest of that year to kind of like honor and finish off that last season's worth of their deal.

They do have that history. They've also have a history of picking up deals. If I'm not mistaken, they bought Fox Sports' rights to the Argentinian League. League and pretty much save a hell of a lot of clubs in terms of bringing in that revenue, bringing in that income that needs it. So it's a weird kind of situation where they've been on the wrong end of just not paying their bills and blaming the leagues and blaming the powers that be for the problems.

But on the other end, they've also been there to pick up the pieces. They're not a broke company by any means. Their revenue streams are in the billions.

Millions it's not as if they're pinching pennies per se so i think that with that maybe again this is the third time i've said this there's an olive branch maybe there's a backup plan to avoid litigation i don't know what they're going to do i don't know what the full long-term plan is but with that history i think this could be a dagger in media pro in this space but it sounds like that they've got a good concrete business model and business floor with NCAA, for example.

I mean, you're talking millions, countless millions and millions of dollars probably pouring in through that alone. So- Last week, we had the great news that JZL is coming back to the Wanderers. It was fantastic news. He's just such a nice guy.

Gary, I just want to get your thoughts on the reason you think that we went back for him. Because obviously, sometimes you don't want to go back to what you were before. Where do you see him fitting in alongside the midfield that we have? I think in terms of reasoning, we'll get into profile of player and that side of things in a moment.

But I think experience is a much needed attribute to our recruitment this offseason because I think people forget sometimes that we had one of the youngest teams in the league last year. We regularly have the youngest 11 in the league. So I think prioritizing experience is on the club's agenda in this offseason. And he ticks that box. In terms of why him specifically, I think anyone who has worked with him in any way speaks incredibly highly of him. him.

I remember talking to people around the club when he left and they all were still very, very big on him. Life circumstances meant he left, but there was certainly no animosity. He was an incredible professional. And I think it's a really good fit. I think he's the type of player who will really mesh nicely with how Patrice likes to work. And just like an example to illustrate that, I remember towards the end of his first season at Wanderers, I heard a story about how.

I don't think the old coaching staff was huge on doing a lot of video, a lot of video work in the lead up to games, to review games. Nothing wrong with that. Different people work in different ways. But I heard that JGL had kind of spoken up during a meeting and said, because they had done some video work in the lead up to a game, which was slightly unusual, some more video work, I should say. And JGL kind of spoke up at the end of it in front of the group and representing

the group to say, we really enjoyed that. We found that really worthwhile. Can we do more of this? And he was very big on encouraging the staff to do more video work with them. And if you think about a coach like Patrice and a video guy like Jed, who is incredible, like not just within the league, Jed is incredibly highly thought of throughout the game on his video work.

Like if you look at his work in Estonia, he's worked in Iran, he's freelanced out, like his video work is at the top of the industry. So for Jed, sorry, for JGL to come in and work with someone like that will be hugely beneficial to him. The second big reason I think it's a good thing is just positionally what he is, which is a player that is a centre midfielder, but who also can play as a left back. And what do we all know about the way Patrice likes to play? It's about fluidity.

It's about multi-positional players who can be a left back who comes into centre midfield, can be more of a traditional centre midfielder, or can be more of a traditional left back.

And Jeremy can do all of those things to a high level. and he's just he's just a quality player i i was kind of i went back and listened to one of our old episodes and towards the end of his last season because i was like i thought we thought highly of him and i was trying to remember exactly how we felt about him and you and i were talking about him like our player of the season towards the end of that first season yeah so

he he he's really he's a very good player and he offers us a lot of different options and he's a top top professional as well so chris obviously you know you kind of get to see the other side of players where missy has players over for dinner and all that kind of stuff so what what what does he bring.

To to the team like you know to the players around them like respect them and think he's awesome and like what's how did you find him when you were like kind of interacting with him i think gary kind of hit it on the nose at the very beginning there there's there's veteran leadership and then And there's being a gel, almost being able to fuse different player groups together, being able to speak up in those not necessarily awkward situations,

but situations where 20 of your 23 guys might be quiet. He's that type of person, you know, he's always presented himself hilariously sort of as a been there, done that kind of guy, but doesn't get bored. And we even saw when York traveled here, the first time he was injured, he wasn't even in the 18. But he He traveled with the team to do his workout after the game. And, and that.

Two years of tremendous examples of his professionalism and skill and the type of player he was in Halifax, but it took him being gone and seeing that example of him with another club for me to truly appreciate the type of player and professional he is. But personality-wise, the person he is, he, like so many other players, became entrenched in our community, but he was the type of person that wanted to get to know everybody from top to bottom.

I've been blessed to get to know people in the back room and the staff and, you know, Pardon me, my relationship with Marvin is no secret. And of all the players over the years, and we're talking five years, over 100 players that have played for the Wanderers, JGL is one of the guys that have probably gotten the most love, praise, and positive attention that I can honestly remember, list, think of the one story about him rallying the guys up for pride and a great turnout.

To this day, I think that was the best turnout for any sports team in this city period to come up for that pride. And that was because Jeremy spoke up and was like, this is where we live, who we are as a community. Halifax has embraced this as something that they want to be a part of their community. How can I help? How can I be a part of that? He was at all the schools. He was at all the luncheons. He was at all the functions.

He was what you would call a club captain, a club leader, that type of person.

He wasn't necessarily the leader on the the field with the armband but you knew that he was the vocal leader and that gel and that's kind of you know jgl gel the the three-letter acronyms but a great efficient lad is literally what the gel meant that's literally what it represented and and that's jeremy to to a t and you know from a personal perspective he knew that i was always such a big fan of him i mean i'm a grown man i'm a big kid i'm older than him he knew this and he still ran into the

locker room and came out and gave me his kit, signed it for me and just gave it to me. And it was just that one little. Piece of appreciation to know that he knows that we appreciate him. And I think that as a fan base, we do generally appreciate our players openly. Whenever a player scores a goal, you see the comments. Whenever somebody has a tough performance, you see the support. There's a lot of negative too.

And I think that he knows that that comes with the job and he just lets it roll off his shoulders. And having those type of people in the locker room as well, I think is very important.

Important so another long-winded answer anthony but it's it's the gel he brings a gel to the locker room and a gel to the club i always found that even after a very bad performance at home obviously there's a lot of them in that season before he left he was still over to the fans and make sure that he appreciated them being there and stuff like that to me that's the mark of a good person that you know you're you're able to get in amongst the fans during the good

times but But when the bad times are there, you're still able to show your face and say sorry or, you know, better luck next time kind of thing. So I think he is a top, top bloke and he's really, I'm really happy to have him back. But so obviously we lost Mo Omar, Gary in the offseason. So is this like a like for like replacement almost? Or how do you feel? Like, how would you see him sitting in behind beside like Rampy and Lorenzo?

I don't know if he's like for like, I mean, he's a left foot like Mo is. But I think he likes to play in more advanced areas, which is kind of surprising because he hasn't scored a CPL goal. But he's kind of that pre-assist guy, isn't he? He probably won't play the final pass. He won't have the final shot, but he'll be an important part of the build-up. His progressive passing numbers are really good.

If anyone hasn't read it yet, Josh from Wanderer's Notebook did a really good article today where he's using data that this Ottawa fan's doing to kind of highlight different players' strengths. And Jeremy comes out of that looking very good in terms of progressive passes, dribbles as well, which you don't think of him as a dribbler, but he scores quite nicely on that.

And I think when I think about our midfield group now, I'm not really thinking in terms of Jeremy will be playing alongside Lorenzo or alongside Rampy.

I think we've got to view them as a group who game to game interchange like we can't obsess over starting 11s because that doesn't really exist in this league so we just see them as a group of players you can plug and play any of them they'll all be working on the system throughout the offseason getting to know what how Patrice wants to play how he might change how he wants to play which I'm sure we'll get too late and all

of those midfielders how they fit within that group and that's what I'm excited to see like like how those relationships start to be built. Obviously, last year, he seemed to have a few injury worries.

Are you worried about that from Chris? I feel like he played a more strenuous style with York, which definitely, like you said, caused those injury issues. I was just mentioning the story about him traveling with the club to Halifax. He's the type of guy that, to me, it seems like he tries to stay in top fitness, top shape as much as he can. I'm not saying he's old, but we know how quickly you can age out in this sport.

And he's at that age now where all it takes is one season of him not getting that good form and that good fitness for him to basically say goodbye to his career. So I think that my concern for him might not be as there as it was last year, just because I feel like in Patrice's system where it's so fluid, everybody just kind of moves and motions where the ball goes. There's not a whole lot of him having to make those 40, 50 yard runs.

He was basically playing as a number nine at times last year with York when Babouli was out and they were having some issues scoring goals. So I'm not as concerned in what I would presume to be Patrice's system with him having to strain himself out and get injured, like you said, if fitness ends up becoming an issue. But I do believe that what we have right now is a midfield core. That depth is there already. It could still use a piece or two.

Maybe we'll talk about that in a bit. But I feel like he is that complementing piece for both Rampey and Lorenzo in different aspects. and I think that they're going to be able to rest each other when Rampy's gone. Potentially for the Copa America, for example, those guys will be able to play when Rampy's back. They'll be able to interchange, take a break, almost treat it like a DH in baseball. One guy's on the bench and he'll come on with 15, 20 minutes left, hopefully to shore up a lead.

So I'm not concerned on the surface, but obviously, like you said, it's there. He did have his struggles last year, but I just feel like it came down to the play style more so than who he is as a player.

We obviously as i mentioned like my walmart is gone and then we lost callum watson who's gone to the mls next pro so gary were you surprised that we thought because like i thought like callum bought us he was a really good utility player that he could play like he like he was a multi-positional player for us and obviously he gave a bit of he had a bit of pep about him he's always willing to like run as good too so were you surprised

that we that he left not entirely i mean I always liked the player. I thought he was slightly undervalued because the stuff he did was the stuff that isn't immediately eye-catching. We talked about it a lot last season, didn't we, Ant, how he was a really good off-the-ball player because he brought that energy, the pressing. So you could set up against teams who wanted to pass out for them back with him, for example, because he would just run for his life for the 70, 80 minutes he was on for.

So I don't think anyone had him on the bingo card for who would be our first ever sale.

Definitely not even going into the off season i didn't really see it coming so i am surprised, but he's obviously got really good connections in the states he had a really successful college career there he's obviously built relationships up because of that he played in a very good nc double a team which means a lot to clubs especially in usl and mls next pro so yeah good luck to him i think i think he'll have a nice career at this

sort of level i think like he'll have a really good career and he's only going to get better as well so yeah best of luck to me he'll be missed as a character though because i think and i'll miss seeing his dad like around game days as well.

Like i had some had a nice i had a nice day after the big hurricane in september i went to the pint to watch arsenal because all my power was gone and i walked in and his dad was sat at the bar and we had a nice few hours chatting about football and watching arsenal so yeah i'll miss his old band definitely him and callum came out we have like a sunday kick about after the season finished his dad and callum came out and had a kick about with us and nice yeah it was yeah they're like really nice

people and i i think obviously like there's football and reasons or whatever like you know it doesn't take away from the fact that like people are good people right and uh they'll definitely be missed so wish them luck in uh chattanooga so we have a couple of gaps like and we had like quite a few people the parts as well like uh where their options been picked up and so far so what at this moment in time where do you think is like the biggest gaps in the squad that we need to kind of to fill oh

sorry chris you know you you go first gary you're the tactical genius of the three i don't i don't think this really is a tactical answer i mean just in terms of numbers if you look at who we've got attack is where we're we're missing numbers i think we need a couple of center backs because we've got dan and kayle who are are center backs but we need at least two or three for depth in terms of fullbacks we've got. Zach Riley and I guess Wesley now we think of him as a fullback you want another

one or two bodies in there so you can rotate those those players around midfield I think we've got enough I would like a more creative 10 I think would be my big wish list for the the midfield because. We've got a lot of really tidy technical players in there but I don't see anyone who's going to give you that last ball even Geraldo who I guess is ostensibly the most attacking of those midfielders I think he's more of a box crasher.

He's more of a chaos agent, isn't he, than someone that's going to play that last ball. So I would like a creative player who's going to get some assists for us. We need a couple of forwards. I would say someone with experience who has scored goals at a comparable level, ideally. Because I love Coimbra, but he is only 18 years old, or 19 years old, sorry. So we definitely need someone there.

And Pacey Winger, we need wingers as well. Well, ideally someone with a left foot because we have all righties in our attacking players. Like all of our attacking players are right footed. Crazy, right? Yeah. And I think you do need, it's such a weird detail, but you do need people with different feet in your lineup just because it allows you to invert both sides, for example, or it allows you to play as more traditional wingers on both sides. It opens up different angles on the pitch.

So yeah, those would be kind of the ones I'd be looking for. Chris, how about you?

Honestly like off the top of my head you pretty, i'm not even trying to cop out of and it's pretty much listed everything like you know for the first time we actually have goalkeeper kind of shored up like yeah ends the starter and it looks like we're going to have a bit of a goalie competition between clark and rushness so you know some defensive insurance like you were talking about a center back or two for sure i'm a fullback or two and it's why like you know i in matt we trust i've always

showed matt a lot of love even during the tough years. I've always been a fan of his recruitment and his style and just the way he tries to not necessarily cut corners, but to find the little niche deals, if you will, to save a penny here or there in a cap league, but still bring the quality to the team. And guys like Armin Wilson and Jake Ruby, to me, they still had value, if that makes any sense in terms of.

So I'm really curious to see how Matt replaces those kind of hard workers that showed themselves last year as players that I personally would have kept in the squad this year. And to me, like that defensive insurance, both in the midfield and in the back, I think is kind of a necessary addition. And I agree like with a forward, a proper number nine and somebody that can play either flank. Honestly, there's a, there's a few names that, that I've been throwing out there.

My favorite, somebody that I would literally throw the house out as Kakuta Mane from Pacific when I watch him play and, and off the ball on the ball, knowing the experience he has as well the levels that he's played at and knowing and hearing that he actually has a Nova Scotian connection as well I just keep throwing it at the dartboard hoping I get that treble 20 and it's him because I think that you know you talk about

game changing signings and Jeremy is one of them don't get me wrong and some of the names we've seen both semi-confirmed and rumored you know these are all players that will bring some quality to the club but to me there's still a few names you know whether these players are signed or not from what I've I've heard everybody signed. It's just a matter of announcing them. But where do those depth, those squad depth pieces come into play?

Like, are we signing an 18 year old local kid potentially to play in multiple positions?

Are we going to go for a veteran like a Ryan James, for example, who can shore up, you know, multiple positions? Where's Wesley going to play? And what does that do? And how does that dictate left back from the future? How does the midfield going to be shaped? Are we going to play triangle one way or the other? There's lots of different little things that could also dictate who we bring in as well. But to me, Gary pretty much knocked it out of the park end by end, bit by bit.

I think it's interesting you kept mentioning depth there as well, because something I've been thinking about with the players we've let go and the players we see coming in, and I think we've all heard similar names of players that likely are coming in as well. And I think in sports, we always talk about raising the ceiling of a team. And I don't know if we're necessarily going to do that, but I think what we're doing instead is raising the floor of the team.

Team so it doesn't really matter who's playing because they are all starting 11 caliber and that will be the challenge next season is managing a dressing room where 18 19 of the players feel like they should be starting week in week out but it just but having a squad that strong it kind of allows us to win the game twice if that makes sense like whoever the first 11 are you get a lead you win the game and then you bring on players to an equal quality who can win the game again for you and that's

going to be yeah important before we get to uh listener questions there's quite a few because obviously we've been away for a little bit what what are your thoughts on the wonders opening a coffee shop i'm joking yeah so i went i went there for a coffee the other day it's a nice little spot good coffee as well a nice little spot as well it's cozy down there it's in like have you been there no i haven't been there it's like you know when you

walk down the stairs of of the club shop it's to the right where they used to have like the sale items and stuff oh okay cool they got some really cool old photos up in there and so who's is a mafia making the coffee is he the barista or yeah busy in the off season it's got a little stylish mustache going.

But a little uh latte or putting a little hearth in your coffee and stuff yeah i will say real quick it caught me off guard but the more i think about it the more it works half of our fixtures or foggy, rainy, dreary days where the one thing you want in your hand is a nice coffee. You know what I'm saying? So it... It caught me off guard. I thought it was random. I laughed at first. I was like, what a weird idea. And then the more I think about it, the more I'm like, you know what?

It's an extension of the brand that does kind of make a little bit of sense. So I'm willing to give it a season or two to see if it sticks around. And if it does, be it. I think it's fantastic. It's more revenue. It's more marketing for the club. And it seems like it's a passion project as well, which I'm all for people taking chances on.

It's actually closed on game day. so no see i'm joking i'm joking i'm joking that was the thing i was saying i was like i don't even want to say free coffee but like maybe a donation like on match days and i'm sure like they obviously have costs to cover and an overhead and stuff like they're not just going to want to give away their product for free but what a tremendous way to grab just random people walking by you're going to the wanderers game no oh blah blah blah here here's

a coffee for free you know there's there's ways that you can use that space to like extend and and then enhance the branding of the team and i'm actually kind of uh kind of excited to see where it goes because at first i was a little like what is this yeah i totally hear you is a cup of bovril thing in ireland as well like halftime cup of bovril yeah i used to like drink bovril when i came home from school so that was called it so it's

like is it like is it like a football thing like because in England like in the old school grounds you get a cup of Bovril at half time nice hot thing on a cold it's more like a cup of tea that they do in Ireland so, just before we get into the questions Gary I know that you wanted to talk a little bit about Ottawa so.

It's your favourite topic but like honestly though they have had like a pretty, a pretty good off season like signs wise stuff like that they've brought back quite a quite a good few like local people which I think adds to it like I know Vancouver kind of, put since last year to try and bring home like Vancouver rights to the as they brought in Ben Fisk and David Norman Jr. But what did you think of them bringing in is it a tablet that they brought in if they reached 150 likes on a tweet.

I i think they've made some really good signings actually they're looking they're looking very very strong i just i just found the whole that likes thing quite interesting and i find it interesting because there's a weird dynamic at that club and if you follow if you follow kind of the interactions on social media their supporters group and a lot of their kind of more vocal supporters were very angry at the end of last season and it was and some of the tweets almost sounded like

threats threats towards like we don't deserve this.

Almost like we won't be coming back if we're this shit again and i just find it's a weird dynamic when like the fernando lopez right that's his name yeah like by all accounts is a lovely guy but i feel like with with like by bending to support a pressure over who to sign and almost giving them so much power as a supporters group it's it's it's long term is dangerous you kind of get them back on side really really quickly but at the end of the day you don't want supporters dictating who you

sign as a club you need that to be your scouting department who dictate that because they know football so yeah i just i just find that dynamic interesting and i'll be interested to see what happens if then if they go for another rough patch because it's they're they're kind of they're in bed together at the moment all of them and it's it's it's it's going to be interesting yeah do you remember uh wayne rooney's he did like a scouting thing with like wayne rooney's like soccer skills it

was like an elimination show yeah they were like kicking the ball across rivers to hit goals and stuff weren't they yeah so i remember that so so the fans are starting out in like in the summer to see if they can like bring in some players so we should we should like we should like invent a player that we feel like you know george way is cousin for southampton we should invent a player and then like just whisper

to the like this guy is amazing like I used to watch him every week in the conference in England like get sign him sign him sign him oh yeah artist legend Paddy O Jesus.

Paddy Jesus did he we do have quite a few listener questions so I was hoping to hear from you too Chris which is kind of awesome too so, just let me bring them up here and we will get where are we going real quick too while you're bantering like I like what Gary is saying 100% in terms of the pushiness of the Ottawa fans, quote unquote. Actually, I shouldn't say quote unquote because Gary didn't actually say that. I'm saying that.

But I do like the engagement. Think about how big a club Atletico is and that we're kind of just like a side project feeder type thing. We kind of have the same...

Connection or they have the same connection and vibe and fusion with their supporters that the big club does it's almost like it's not a copy paste obviously but when you go to like the athletico english page for example they're very engaging with their fans they make their fans feel like they're heard they make their fans feel like they're actually a part of something bayern munich's social media does a really good job with that too i mean they're more of a club a fan-owned club but i

feel like athletico do a really good job leaning into it even if it's a a little too much but that kind of interaction that kind of branding that kind of marketing i think is huge for a small league like this and you know the wanderers have done an amazing job from jump pacific's done a great job cavalry a couple of clubs leave a little bit to be desired and they can learn from an ottawa and how they engage with their fans how they market these signings how they do this type of stuff their

their off season has impressed me the most of everybody so far for sure yeah and i've i've i've i won't say it on here but i think this will be leaked in the next few days but i know of another player they've signed who is a very very good player who i know we all like a lot so yeah they're doing well and and i do completely agree like as much as like there's banter between the clubs like they are a club i do want to succeed desperately because the the league needs as many kind of very visible

supporters groups as possible and they're kind of the closest to us in terms of how much attention. They bring to the club and like within their own city as well

and if if they're a club that is winning things and that support group's only going to grow and the league's only going to grow so you do want them to do well and and they've been fantastic in terms of engagement first question was from nigel but uh we've pretty much answered this question was about the cfb media pro thing and the trying to get to the 16 team so, you've answered it so thanks for the question Eliza this one's from Carrie Ryan who do you think will light it up this year.

Well, we might not know who yet. That's the beauty and pain of this time of year. It's like it's so close yet so far to the season. We're still not quite sure who's leading the line yet. I do hope and pray that it's Coimbra. There was a lot of hype with him coming into the club. He showed it in spades during the preseason.

Preseason every time i have i was bugging marvin for preseason results because the club weren't leaking anything and every time i got a message back coin per scored twice coin per scored coin per scored and then it just kind of seemed like as the grind of the season came along whether it was fitness or confidence or what he just kind of became a non-factor but every time he was on the field for his age that there was a quality there there was a deceptive pace there's

a brick shithouse for lack of better terms right like he kind of scares the shit out of you when you see this this tall semi-lanky guy but his feet are landing on the ground as hard as i've ever heard a human being but it comes with pace comes with agility it comes with quality so i would love to see him in double digits this year if i could put one thing on the bingo card is like a middle spot that everybody picks like you know this is the guarantee aside from

a trophy obviously would be to see uh tiago get that 10 plus goals this year and and and kick his career on i i would like to to see lorenzo actually like do something this year so last year he was fucking terrible so you know it's time for that man to step up i think right and like i just wanted to see him complete a couple of passes so this one's from halifax steve we always really appreciate uh steve's questions how do you think the team's playing style will evolve or improve this season.

I've got a long-winded answer for this so go and put the kettle on boys basically i've i've i've reached that point in the off season where i'm starting to develop madcap theories, and i'm going to point i'm going to point you in the direction of three pieces of evidence that i've seen that i've completely extrapolated from and run with into different directions, so exhibit a is during the copper libertor dores final patrice was gushing over

fluminese and how they were playing and saying they'd never seen anything like it before exhibit b is a podcast, sorry is jed davies last month tweeting out if anyone had any good articles about by leverkusen's defensive structure and exhibit c is the podcast geordie did the other day where he talked about how he's been given a lot more responsibilities on set pieces so from those three strands i've developed a theory so the first thing

to say and this is going to be really boring unless you're a football nerd is fluminese and underneath their manager so the way tactically pep guardiola and all of the kind of like the modern greats coach is using positional play which we've talked about before where the pitch is broken down into zones players have roles within those zones and don't really leave those areas the areas of the pitch.

Lots and lots of clubs are playing like this now. There was a big furore during the last World Cup, people moaning, saying every team basically plays the same way now, that every team builds up in a 3-2-5, every team has a box midfield, it's boring. A massive reaction to that has been Fluminese in the Brazilian League and their coach, Danitz. And what he's done is something that's been coined relational play. So relational play is more about players having relationships on the pitch.

It's doing massive overloads in part of the pitch where like eight of the players go over to one side and they play lots of one-twos, lots of triangles, get the ball up the pitch that way. Kind of like Brazil in the 1970s. So to kind of give it kind of a strained metaphor. Positional play would be like a classical music orchestra with a conductor telling them what to do.

And relational play would be more like freeform jazz at 3am in a nightclub in New Orleans where everyone's just kind of off their tits on acid doing what they want so when you when you look at patrice watching that team fluminese play and being impressed by it and we know he's a manager who likes to borrow from his influences you think okay what's he going to do with that exhibit b jed watching by leverkusen and trying to research them that makes me think

he's probably been asked by patrice to like go what are they doing why are they so good in germany and what What they are doing is they are a positional team because they have Xabi Alonso, who's Spanish and positionism was born in Spain. But they also have relationist principles where players kind of have a bit more freedom to do what they want. So tactically, I think if we watch by Leverkusen, we're probably going to be moving towards that sort of thing.

Based on my madcap theory, Exhibit C was Geordie and set pieces. Set pieces are the last marginal gain in football where there are massive returns to be got from it.

Like if you can score five to ten set piece goals a season by having set piece routines that you work on to the point of like an nfl play then you you you score a lot more goals so yeah that's i that's my theory probably all a load of bollocks but that's what i've been thinking about on my long evening walks like quickly add like when i saw that question the first thing that came to my mind was less fluidity more rigid does that add up to what you're saying

gary in any kind of way shape or form it?

Because I see what you're saying with like the relational type positioning, like you have a role within a certain space. Does that stunt the fluidity that we're used to with Patrice's system or does it enhance it? Well, we've been like a positional team where you have your zones, the pitch is kind of carved up into shapes and players within those zones have responsibilities, how he's kind of like.

Twisted that into his own thing is the fluidity where the players jump into each other's zones and swap over okay so kind of that's why we do look so fluid whereas if it was a if we were a relational team those zones would kind of go out the window and the players would be given permission like kind of just go where you want like follow wherever the ball is be close to your teammates play lots of one twos the danger of that is though if you get caught on the counter-attack you are absolutely

fucked because everyone is in one area of the pitch and you've got maybe one defender hanging back whereas in positional play if you if you lose the ball and the other team tries to counter it's okay because you know exactly where your three center backs are you know where your six is going to be so you can kind of block out the central spaces that way.

I i like i say all this but patrice is also a massive guardiola disciple who is very very aggressively positional play and zones and roles so it would take a lot to move him away from that but just i'm just massively reading into a tweet that he sent during a game i'm looking forward to getting a message for us to cut that bit out of the podcast in case anybody's listening from the opposition so so this one's from our good friend kevin he runs the hammer of sparks account

and he's got his podcast which is also by the way he had a fuzzy poku i think on today this one for you chris so i know you you're a rules guy so how do you feel about the cpl's announcement of the repeat of the weird international rule that should never have been? If the people at home could see me, I'd just put my hands to goodness. Yeah, I've very openly never been a fan of... I'm a fan of the international limit rule, obviously, because we do want to see a platform of our domestic players.

We are, without necessarily calling it a development league, a development league, and for that purpose and that point, we want to have as many spaces as we do for our domestic players. That being said... Limiting and almost funneling the ages of the international players that you want to bring into your country to help develop your domestic players, whether it's with different cultural influences, different tactics, different styles, different philosophies.

Why would you bring in younger players that need that development as well? Why would you limit these teams being able to bring in more players in the 25 to 30 age range That have that experience, that have that knowledge of the game. To me, it almost made absolutely no sense for it to be a rule in the first place.

In fact, I thought there should have been more of a, and I've said this before too openly, more of a per game focus on youth period, whether it's certain amount of minutes per game or one or two positions per game where you need to have an under 21 or under 23.

However you really want to flex the age-wise but in terms of this international rule to me just it never made a lick of sense because not a lot of clubs are going to be sending their young talented players to our country to develop to stay in our country or bring more to our country they're trying to get that player back as a better player than they were when they left on loan they're not really leaving anything to our sport where these players that are older they come to to our country,

then, you know, I'm going to use Oli Minnitel as an example. Obviously, he's not that type of old guy, quote unquote, but he came to Canada, fell in love with the country, club to club, had suffered a major injury. And if I'm not mistaken, I think he's still coaching here. It was in that cover yeah and and you know daryl ford ice your buddy like another example.

I'm sure there's more too i'm just completely i mean look at cavalry staff for example like they're half of their staff or guys that came here and played here grew up here became a part of our culture part of our philosophy but also helped develop it to an extent as well, so to me that age limit for the international player spot international player roles it never never made a lick of sense to me and it only pigeonholed the potential for roster growth and the

potential for development for our young canadian players great answer he also asked when's the day for the first ever harmless sparks down the pub mashup it all depends on how much you're willing to pay to come on the show this one's from denton this is for you gary which player is the best at video games current roster and all time oh mate i've i've i haven't played a video game in about 25 years so i have no idea who would you two say has anyone got a clever answer for

that because i i don't i do know ibra suno yes oh yeah he did the fifa thing didn't he very good fifa player he streamed and everything he was still those are everyone's tournaments awesome yeah i remember him being really good at fifa akim garcia was really good at like first person shooter games like he was a big call of duty guy i remember hearing that he was a bit of a sniper if you will and actually jordan jordan told me his story.

About how I think it was Massimo Farron. And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but he's a big football manager guy. Like when they're waiting in the airport, when they're in the hotel, when they're on the bus, whatever they're doing, Massimo is playing football manager. And over the years, there's not a lot of guys that played. I mean, it's probably the question I ask each and every player once we get them over to the house for dinner or chat with them at training or whatever.

I got to bring up football manager. And it didn't seem like a lot of guys were attached to it or anything. but from what i've heard jordy says that massimo is a big football manager guy so i'll have to ask him about that next season that doesn't surprise me at all after hearing your interview with him and when i get i think i mentioned it on the podcast after you interviewed him but it was such an unusual experience to hear a footballer talk like that because like with the

greatest respect in the world footballers are young athletes and they're so focused on being on being athletes and being footballers but listening to him talk like he sounded so in like so intelligent and thoughtful and so the fact that he plays what is essentially a football strategy game does not surprise me in the slightest that was like one of my favorite like not to say it was one of my favorite interviews because like you know you just gave him a question and he ran with it and he's.

Very very intelligent and uh really came across really well so i feel like out of all chris is different here because chris knows a lot of the players and has good relationships with them but But I feel like if I met a lot of the players, there would be a lot of awkward silences because I wouldn't know how to talk to them because I'm just not in that world at all. But I feel like Massimo I could have a lovely chat with over a Wanderers Grounds coffee.

Are you asking about the date? Is that what's happening right now? Moved on from Lorenzo. Lorenzo ain't getting my 3AM tips this year. Lorenzo's blown out. so this was from uh wickwire it's a question for the whole panel, I've never been called a panel. I like that. Thank you. We're on QI. I know. I know. What's the loudest crowd reaction you can remember at the grounds? Ooh. When that guy had his beer knocked over and then drank it. Yeah. Yes. That's still one of my favorite.

You could see that from the top of the section. Yeah. Yeah. We were right there, man. It was near you, wasn't it? That was a classic moment. Yeah. That was pretty. That was a roar. That was a roar. One of the goals, like, was it the forwards' goal? Everybody went up to the list when we scored in the last. Anemic penalty. Oh, anemic penalty. Yeah, that was. That would be the one for sure. Perea goal in season one against Forge was pretty loud as well.

Yeah. Or he meant against Montreal. The reason why is because it kind of came out of nowhere. Yeah. I remember it almost being. That's a good one. Because Montreal were finally getting a bit of a run of play.

And of course we're all in the crowd like oh here we go montreal's gonna score the things we're getting you know like this is what we expected about with an mls team and i i remember there was a bit of a bit of a bit of scrappy play in the midfield and cory was tucked in way more than normal and when he where he got the ball it was almost like he only knew one thing and one thing and it was like watching and i think i've even said this to you anthony cbu cory bent confidence

Confidence and the ability that he had when he was in college and for him to do that against Montreal at the grounds that to me is. It might not have been the loudest reaction, but contrast-wise from how the crowd was kind of getting a little bit anxious to, holy shit, we have a lead? Yeah, that one always stands out for me. It was a different noise. It was a bubble popping, a bubble bursting, which was in a good way. Do you remember the game against York? I think it was the 2-2 game.

It was absolutely pissing me off, right? And we're already equalized. That was pretty loud, too.

Because it was just like made the whole day fucking worth it like getting the flu and all that kind of stuff what about the other way not to not to extend things a little bit further the loudest jeer the loudest boo would that have been the jordan jordan muriel when he kicked the table i i think was i i honestly think it was a it was a dad luke that looked in the playoff game yeah yeah yeah i've tried to forget about that yeah yeah i'm not

too sure who this is aim that that is did you say this guy is a garden known comment to bobby smirniotis his greatest ever insult i wish that was me that was chris all the way that's so fucking funny we're listening back to that long story short because you know me anthony i could do a long story i remember when we were playing forge every time something happened bobby was up off his ass yelling at the refs talking to the fourth official yelling at our players yelling at his players it was just,

a non-stop litany of just him being a for lack of better terms and i remember. His player dove and there was no call and something happened in the midfield it might have actually been lorenzo on topic and then you know he took the tackle foul call bobby jumped up screaming yelling throwing stuff everywhere his assistant like tried to get him to sit down and stuff. And my inner spirit just jumped out of my body and just decided to scream at him. Sit down, you garden gnome.

Go back to Middle Earth, you lugger. Just was running off all these jokes and stuff. And it just came from, like I said, my inner soul jumped out. I can't take full credit, though. It's been great sharing the Wanderers experience with my girlfriend, Kayla. And she always used to joke that the the set of cpl coaches would make a really good garden gnome set.

And i can totally see that yeah bobby would be the grand wizard with the beard and then you've got tommy kind of like the skinny one in the back with his arms crossed then you've got patrice then you've got carlos gonzalez you could even get martin nash and there was like the lanky one there were so many like funny we got friends like james jansen for example who's incredible at caricatures for example and i was just running all these ideas through my

head and i was like man what a great idea that would be but for some reason it came out in chant form and.

At halftime my brother was scrolling reddit and they were there was a bunch of people in the match thread that were like did anybody hear that fan called bobby garden gnome definitely a fun memory from this season for sure i love it this one's from martin bauman from the coast he's from the coast yeah yeah and he has a book he has a book out soon he's a friend of the pod so we should promote his book hell of a ride you can pre-order it now yeah it's out march the 15th.

So you know which one of you is getting dental surgery before this episode to start when you're down the pub tradition fuck you martin fuck you this is not funny it's horrible it's an affliction i have to go get them tightened on thursday you sound good though you sound good i i do not sound good anyway this dude never never never never read the coaster or anything to do with it's an awful awful outlet and so this one's from halifax day we had a couple but i think we've

answered most of them to be honest but there is one for chris why are you so angry on twitter and do you need a hug oh man long story short again i hate trolls there's nothing more cowardly than sitting behind a cartoon character account with a random first name and nine numbers after it and you just talk Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. So I like to be the human reaction to trolls at times. And there are times where I take it a little bit too far.

But I have recently promised my mother that I would tone it down a bit and grow up and stop being an asshole online. So the timing of the question was funny because, like, I even sat down to myself. I was like, all right, Chris, a bit nicer and more presentable on the Internet. When these people make you mad, bite your tongue. I'll give it a month.

So you did have one little tip in here, I guess, Gary, you can answer. What type of players are you expecting to see in the next couple of rounds when Elton's competing with Tant or the team that are loading up? So what type of players do you think we're going to be signing? Experience. Like we talked about earlier, experienced attackers because that's where the need is. You have a really short answer to that. Perfect. And then last one from Jerry underscore.

Score should we start planning the parade route now or wait until the rest of our signings have been announced lock it in mate lock it in yeah we should get we should all the if we ever win the league the players should go around on the harbour hopper they should do the parade in the harbour hopper can you imagine like imagine lorenzo necking a bottle of champagne for a medal round his neck on the harbour hopper at 1 p.m in the afternoon

i love that i love that i I love that. It'll break down on the way up Citadel Hill. That's a great question. Honestly, though, I'll ask you guys might as well. And I mean, I know you guys will be doing your season previews and stuff here in the coming weeks once the roster gets fulfilled. But like it from a from a standpoint of expectation, mine has always been 2025 legitimate title contenders.

But after last year, obviously, I kind of feel like I'm on the seesaw between do I want to bring that forward a year and make that X amount? Or is it like a playoff win this year? What's like the minimum for you guys, personally speaking? Well, I...

My i i think it's like stepping stone so i'd like to see like a make the playoffs and i win a game, you know i'm sure threese and and jordan and stuff like that will say they want to win, either the league or the shield and have a crack at the concacaf next year but i think we all have to be slightly realistic just to you know we're only coming into the second season of the new management so yeah i think a playoff win will be fantastic i

think there's actually like an interesting point wrapped up in that as well about the fact that one of the biggest challenges next season will be managing expectations which wasn't something they had to worry about last year because the bar was obviously quite low but now we we like ourselves as a club we like the players we have we think we're a good team so the fans expect something now and managing those expectations will be a challenge in terms of what an achievement is i i would

just like to see us become over the next three or four years one of those perennial playoff teams where like you kind of know next season forging cavalry and will be in the playoffs at the end of the season so even if we're not winning things i think just becoming one of those teams who you feel a degree of comfort around making the playoffs is good enough like it's a very competitive league everyone's improving so So I think every season,

as long as you make the playoffs, I consider that a successful year.

Last year, finishing joint second was an extraordinary achievement. But just making the playoffs would have been enough. And I think it will be enough next season as well. How are you, Chris? Yeah, I'm kind of in between. Again, like I said, mine was 2025 to be a genuine contender. Like you look at a team making it to the championship type stuff.

And with the two trophies available now, Now, you know, you can be ambitious and say one of the two, but I'm kind of in between, like Gary said, making the playoffs again, hosting a playoff game again. But I how it ended last year, you know, I think a poor Zach on the ground, you know, thinks I think the world of this young man. And then, you know, he thought that that was all on him. And we all know it wasn't on him. I want to see that redemption, too. So I want to see that playoff win.

And it would be so sweet if it was at the grounds. So it's been great hanging out and chatting some football. Before we go, I just wanted to let people know that on Saturday, March the 2nd, Suburban is having their new Canadian Soccer Night. It's free to play. It's between 4 and 5 o'clock at the BMO Soccer Center. Basically, you get a chance to meet other new Canadians and kick a ball about. As we all know, football is a universal language, so it's a great way to meet people.

I found it difficult when I moved here to try and find. The soccer community so it just would be a really good way for you to to get to get to meet some other football fans you'll also have the chance with the meet and greet with the suburban fc players coaches and staff i wouldn't recommend talking to all the he always sees an arsehole there's snacks and refreshments are provided and there's no registration required and it's free to attend so if you know any new canadians or if you're a new

canadian yourself it's definitely Anthony, if you've worked your way up, go check it out. It's only for an hour, and you can play some football. So, lads, it's been amazing. See you tonight. Loved it. Yeah, this was a blast, Anthony. You know, you've always sparked my love for this game, this podcasting thing. And, you know, I've been away from it for a while. I've made a couple appearances on people's shows, but I haven't been doing it full-time myself.

So anytime that I get a call to come on a show, I get excited. But this one meant a lot more to me. just because it's the roots and seeing how far you've taken this and how Gary has been just an unbelievably perfect wingman for you. I'm proud of you, brother. Keep it going. Five, six, ten, twenty more years. Maybe the boys will be co-hosting with you when you get older. What I'm hearing is Chris Sell, future revolving guest on the show throughout the season. That's what I'm hearing there.

Do it, mate. Do it. If the invitation is open, count me in whenever. . Music.