Joining us now.
Oh, he's got a seatbelt on, so it is safe guesting with Ross Smith and we'll try and get our best Tony husband story while we're at it too, So there's row. Yes see, that's the idea.
John N.
Nice to see you.
You're to be seen. Let's see. So you are safe guesting this morning? Where are you, sir?
I am my apologies. I am actually heading to Nashville. Esse's training right now.
Okay, so yeah, so.
Whenever, yeah, whenever, I mean it's I'm in market, I live in Nashville, I'm based out of here. But on the Fridays, I love the access we get with Apple to be able to get on the training ground and chat with the coaches, and coaches have warmed up to it a bit more than the first year when they're a bit a bit, a bit skeptical of what we're up to coming onto the training ground, but now it's it's fantastic and the insight you get is.
There's nothing like it to prep for the games.
So you got BJ Callahan.
When you get to show up on Fridays, what's it like to see the BJ Callahan era in Nashville compared to what Gary Smith had and he had going on.
A different culture and I would say a different language and bj Callahan from the first day when he stepped on the training ground, the words that he was using is so different and unique to any other manager, not not just Gary Smith. He's made it his own and he's believed that the players, they all need to be on the same page as part of creating the culture that he wants, but the understanding as well. So he went when he uses certain terms and granted that was,
you know, a year ago when he started out. Now when I'll step on the training ground today, everybody's talking the same talk. And I think that's it's really interesting to you know, to sort of see that. And then the style of what you go into and how he's approached it. He's very meticulous with his attacking phase of play and the spaces guys into. It's been, uh, it's been really neat to see him operate and how it's come together.
What unlocked Sam Surage.
His position?
I think his position, and I know Gary Smith was was looking at that as well. And I think with with Sam playing more towards like a left winger, that's when he played, that's where he played when he was across in England.
You know, I think that's his sweet spot.
You know, it's It's interesting because Sam, when I say what stands out whenever you have a dos name player, I always say they have to have a separating feature. And when Sam first came in, I thought, I really don't know. He doesn't have blinding pace. He's not a beast in the air, and it's not as though its back to goal. He's bullying center backs. So what separates him? And for me now it's it's right place, right time. He understands where he needs to be. I think bj
Callahan has made that very clear. And Tonney Mookdar also raising his game back to the levels that we've was known to Hanny since he's come into the league. You know, Hani's backed as well, and that certainly helps Sam surge. But you know, the positioning, the starting position of Sam surg I think he feels a lot more comfortable and he's used to that position from when he was at his best back at England.
Traditionally it would be for going up against Nashville, you pin in Honey mooktar, you cut off the supply lines.
Nashville doesn't have that second option.
Now under BJ, you've got Sam and then there are some other supporting players that take advantage of this positional gravity. Who else, in your mind has benefited the most from the unlocking of surage and Hanni getting back to being honey.
It's a great, great question.
And you know, I'll tie this back in when he said, you know the difference with Gary Smith would.
Say Gary didn't he didn't have Patrick Gasbeck.
He didn't have Eddie tag Seth, And they make a massive difference. And the style to which BJ can play now is that they press higher up the pitch. They can keep teams, teams locked in their own half, they can keep their team on the front foot in the front half, and so they make a massive difference.
So there's wave after wave now coming.
I don't think any tag Seth John has been given enough credit for what he is is done for the team. If there was an MVP category in terms of the most truly the most valuable player, he's got to be in the conversation for what he does winning second balls, you know, biting at the other teams their ankles, not allowing them to find a rhythm in the game. He makes the most difference for guys like Schaffelberg to go and and I still don't think we're quite seeing the best of Schaffelberg.
We're seeing it in in glimpses what he can do.
But Alex Mweel, I think he's the biggest benefactor of what we've seen in terms of players off the radar to what you wouldn't notice right away. You want to talk about Sirch, you want to talk about Haney, Mootar. Now we're starting to talk about Tag seven p Gasp. I think alexman Wheel has had the best season he's had an MLS. It's the position he takes up. It's the role he's been asked to do. And you know
the guys that are around him as well. I've certainly benefited from the quality of of tech Seth and the aspect.
Russ Smith practicing safe guesting on his way to practice this morning in Nashville, hanging out with us year on s D H A M. It is the Purple team coming to g Otis. We can't we can't use the O word here. Uh in an Atlantic program Ross so uh. They played in the midweek Gallesse ends up getting the same and the shot and the clincher in the PKS
which was insane. What kind of a lineup are you anticipating for the Purple team coming to the Fairgrounds and the Speedway to take on Nashville this weekend.
I think it's really uh, it's it's interesting. I don't know. And the one thing is that's helped them is that their their game.
Next weekend, which my my partner Tony husband and I we were going to be covering their game has been pushed now to October eleventh, and so that allows them then to maybe turn out a stronger team today to be able to then flip that around and turn it turn it around against Miami knowing that they have next weekend, you know, with.
Without that game. So I it's it's interesting.
I think Oscaria that's the one the one standout feature to what he's done is depth in this team, and he's he's almost got two players for each position. And and for me, Oscar Perea, I don't think he's in the conversation enough for for being sought manager what he
does with players from scattered all over the world. And I know that's the league we're in now, but there's there's no better example than Orlando, where you know, I feel like you have two players from from each part of the world that have come to his team and
they found the common thread. So getting back to your question, you know, I think it'll be a semi strong team, but I don't think it matters because I think he's got the rotation, he's got the buy in, and he's got he's got twenty players that at any point can step in and do the job.
And I think what we've also seen with Oscar and probably like over the last two seasons, it seemed like old Oscar when he realized, Okay, I'm safe, I'm in the playoffs.
Everythink's cool.
He would decelerate and then it's like, okay, purple teams in the playoffs, everything's cool, and then they hit the wall the second they get into the postseason.
That's not the case anymore.
With Orlando, they're just still pedaled down and they haven't taken the foot off the accelerator win their late season anymore.
They know what they are, John, And I mean, first and foremost, when you talk about all the stylistic points that I think in Nashville will get and you know, seems like San Diego first and foremost, they are horrible to play against Orlando, and I think they embrace it every game they go in.
It's a street fight, it's a brawl, and teams know it. They have to be up for it. They have to be up for the gamesmanship.
Players like Schlegel, I think he defines what Oscar Perea's side is all about. That he will fight and he'll he'll go for every little moment to go his way, and that is just it reverberates throughout the whole team, and that's what they're about. So first and foremost they fight, and I think they wear you down. And then you get into a long season, you start to step into playoffs and you think, oh my goodness, we've got Orlando again.
You know, the body's may be a bit tired.
We're piecing ourselves together, and we got to go up against this team who aren't going to give us a second to breathe. That's where they get at you, and that's where I think they become stronger and stronger, because every single player knows what they're about. Every single player fights for their lives for every single ninety minutes, even at this stage of the season.
So then how do you combat that kind of a team. Say, say you're on the opposed touch. You're going into this matchup knowing it's going to be a street fight. Do you match street fight for street fight? Do you change your mindset a little bit? How do you attack a street fight in this case?
Yeah, it's it's difficult because you can't get sucked in because that's exactly what they want is to rile you up. But then at the same time, you can't back down. So you have to find that that balance of not losing your head. And and think about you know what Messi in his first year, nobody could figure out the formula to to to beat Miami until Orlando came out along in a ujo in the center of the park, God under Messi's skin, you know, and you thought, that's
the first player to do that to Messi. And Orlando turns Miami over. It's impressive. You gotta find the balance. You got to find the balance, and you've you've got to as best as you can let your quality show through, and that's will have plenty of it.
You know.
If you don't have the quality, then you have to grind it out against them. But you have to match it to a certain level, but you have to trust that your quality and you have to rise above it with with your ability levels.
Okay, let me go through secondary transfer window. Will do some of the greatest hits here. As you're on your way to practice. Paxton Aronson comes from Europe comes back to Major League Soccer. That's another big get for MLS three point zero whatever you want to call it. You now have players from Europe who are of the US M and T quality coming back to play here in Major League Soccer. How big a get is having somebody like Aaronson come back to Major League Soccer.
At his age as well the European experience.
You know, you've seen it with Mahalovich when you know coming back to Colorado and then obviously Toronto and the amount of money they've paid, So it's it's great for It's great for MLS getting guys in their prime and wanting to come back to a league that's you know, they were very much a part of before and helping to grow. And I think that's important. And when he hit on that point, is that players who want to be here to see the league grow.
I think you're starting to see more and more of that.
Yes, you know Paxton being an American, but you've seen other players from outside the country.
They want to be part of something and to push it forward.
But in terms of this transfer, when John is as well with other you know, big ticket names coming in, obviously Muller, obviously Sun for for l a FC.
You know, everybody's making a push.
Columbus crew have gone out and signed a designated attack or designated player attacker, spend a lot of money on it, you know, Cincinnati. I don't know if it's over the line, but Brenner's coming back. It sounds like who was terrific. I don't know if that's over lined by today. But it's just the names that are coming back in and more and more. The talent is UH is improving and and I'll finish on this.
What what has stuck with me? I sat with Jim Curtin.
I think it was the start of last season and Jim Kurtin, I'm waiting to see where he's gonna pop up. But Jim Curtin said, what other league overpays for play than MLS? And he said, we'll go out and we'll spend a little bit more to be able to bring
in the talent. And he's right when you do actually sit and you think, what are the leagues in the world will pay the money that that MLS is paying, and you know it's a it's a league now that is taking you know, more investment, further pride in the talent coming in and they're willing to spend a bit more than other leagues to bring that time.
All right, what's your best Tony husband's story? I know you turn into a pumpkin here in a second.
Oh my goodness, my best Tony husband's story.
You know what Tony Tony as He's never won for a signature goal call, and this one stands out to me because Tony to find humor in his own jokes.
You know, that's that's never won for him.
But our Saint Louis game last year, we had Nelly, who was from Saint Louis going to be He delivered the match ball and he was in the stands and he is asked for the producer. If Saint Louis score, make sure you get a shot of Nelly because I've got a great gold call and that's never Tony. Tony's gold calls are always you know, off the cuff, and he had it ready that and he didn't tell me, and it wasn't until after the game it was nil nil,
so I never got to do the gold call. But he wanted if Saint Louis scored, there was going to be a shot of Nelly and he was gonna go.
Oh, it's getting hot in here. See it's so cheesy. John though, it's so cheesy.
But I thought that's brilliant and it had me in stitches because it's so unlike Tony and he was so happy with it.
Well, I would have I would have said that it was something like I'm from the lou and I'm proud. That would have been what I would have done if it was a Nelly shot in there. Just don't talk
Plymouth argyle with him. I think that's the key with you can't talk because all right, full disclosure, Tony's been on with us in this time slot before and over my shoulder in my studio, I'm in a hotel room about two hours east southeast of Atlanta today in my studio space over my shoulder, I have the Plymouth art our guyle AFC Wimbledon Promotion Playoffs scarf over my shoulder because I'm a member of the Dons trust.
I forgot.
I kind of conveniently forgot to tell Tony that that I'm a Don's trust and so literally I just I shifted over and I said yeah, and I've got that, and he noticed that I had the plymouth arg gyle thing there, and it's just like, yeah, man, we're just we're not good this year. And it's literally, if you get him going on a plymouth argyle riff, he's gone and you can't bring him back.
And it's awesome.
To me and with Wayne Rooney when he went there and he couldn't believe it.
It was. It was tough times.
We were having an extra pint at the bar nights after games to talk about to commiserate over his time with Uh with Rooney, I've got to ask you before I know, you've probably got to cut me loose. But uh so you were Don's Dons and are you Don's Wimbledon?
Whoa whoa, whoa, whoa whoa.
You just mentioned you mentioned a team that's a bunch of carpetbaggers, sir, that the on the ones that exited. Okay, so here here the deal. And I thought you were turning into a pumpkin because you parked. Okay, so I got a couple of minutes here. Full disclosure. When I when I started, like a decade or so ago, getting back into the EFL and the English Pyramid and all that kind of stuff, I thought it would be cool
to join a trust in each of the divisions. And so what I did is I joined Swansea's trust, I joined Pompey's trust. I joined AFC Wimbledon, and I joined Scunthorpe United. And I'm like, okay, I've got one in each and you know, it costs like sixty bucks a year to do all four and that's cool and everything.
And you know, when a Portsmouth was being sold, they send you this forty page document that you've got to go through and you know, approve it to Michael Eiser, all this kind of stuff, and I'm like, yeah, great, I've got one in each of the four divisions. Then that whole pro rail thing got in the way, and so literally I'm now having teams playing each other that I have trusts again with, you know, so it's like AFC Wimbledon's playing Portsmouth. I'm losing my hair about what's
going on with all of this stuff? But no, I am AFC Wimbledon. I've got the document on the other side of the desk back in the office.
Uh.
And so that literally was I'm look when AFC Wimbledon. And I didn't tell Tony this either. When Ak and Fenn was scored the penalty to secure promotion, I was screaming in the office and.
The boss back home.
Literally she comes running downstairs and she's like, what is going on?
Is everything okay? I said, yeah, yeah, everything's great.
We just got promoted and so and she's like, oh that and then she just kind of did her hand and then she goes back upstairs. But yeah, so that's I didn't tell Tony that part about Ak and Finn won the PK.
I didn't get it. So, yes, literally, that's that's how that is.
What are you gonna get? Have you had Robbie urrole on your show?
So I learned sort of my trade of broadcast under Robbi eurro because we're both at Portland's and what a guy, What a fantastic guide, what a fantastic person mental But if you want stories, what a guy for.
That is you get Robbie on here and we probably I'd budget twenty and we'd probably go for an hour and a half.
Have a great call with Tony. Now that you have the key, now that you have.
The garage door opener. Like I tell everybody else that comes on in this ten o'clock slot, Tony Terren's you witting Ham, all of you. You get bored on a Friday and you want to pop in and here in the hour of chaos, say you're three minutes, get in and get out. That's what this hour is for for all of you to kind of sit there and so like, hey, I'm sitting here at practice and I figured out would check in.
That's what this ten o'clock East hour is.
Four Rock, you've got the garage door opener, go to practice and have a good call this weekend.
I would love to come on again. Thanks so much.
John the evet that goes ross Smith, He's going to practice.