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#152 | The World Cup | Are They Still Magic?

Episode Summary

Ricky and Flav ask whether the World Cup still has the magic they remember from childhood. Favourite players, Brazil shirts, Michael Owen’s famous goal and England’s disappointments bring personal football memories into a discussion of how the tournament has changed. Do expensive tickets and FIFA’s commercial priorities make it harder for supporters to feel part of the occasion? The hosts recall moments that made international football special and compare those feelings with the experience of attending games. Their stories explore the gap between the competition’s enduring appeal and the frustrations surrounding it.

Listen to the episode here: Spotify, Apple or find it on any podcast player.

Key Topics / Timestamps

Related episodes

Continue reading related Lads Anonymous transcripts: Football and what it means to fans (episode 91); British football hooliganism (episode 157).

Full Episode Transcript

00:00:01.07
Ricky: I'm excited. I'm bloody excited.

00:00:02.65
Flav: Yeah? What, like the night before Christmas?

00:00:05.94
Ricky: Well, yeah, that it ah that's exactly what I'm talking about.

00:00:10.45
Flav: What are you excited about, Rick?

00:00:11.45
Ricky: Well, I mean, it's Thursday today and we're doing LADS, so because we can't record tomorrow because we're both preoccupied.

00:00:13.94
Flav: Yeah.

00:00:20.75
Ricky: I'm coming to see you tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. that i a

00:00:32.48
Flav: Lads are getting on it. Lads getting on it.

00:00:33.34
Ricky: yeah

00:00:33.82
Flav: yeah But this is what happens. and but Now we're in our 40s. This is the only time you get to meet up. You've got plan it months in advance.

00:00:38.68
Ricky: yeah yeah

00:00:41.37
Flav: Months and months in advance and then go, like, can people make it? And then they go, yeah. And then you have have to wait in batited bri with bated breath for six months.

00:00:52.94
Flav: And then eventually it comes around.

00:00:53.14
Ricky: yeah

00:00:54.34
Flav: A few is like, i can't actually make it. They drop out.

00:00:57.05
Ricky: Yeah.

00:00:57.85
Flav: But yeah, everyone's everyone's together. That's what happens. When we were in our 20s and there were no fucking kids and wives in the way, it was like, should we get mashed on Saturday?

00:01:03.13
Ricky: Yeah.

00:01:04.61
Flav: Yeah. All right.

00:01:05.02
Ricky: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:01:05.88
Flav: Done.

00:01:06.06
Ricky: Let's get mashed now. cease yeah, yeah.

00:01:07.21
Flav: Should we get now? It's a Tuesday. Actually, I remember my brother and me had… It wasn't my brother. It was me. It was Alex. It was Ryan. And you might have been roped into this at some stage.

00:01:20.89
Flav: But it was Wednesday Club.

00:01:22.74
Ricky: ah yeah yeah yeah

00:01:23.26
Flav: The Wednesday Club, is i the rule was treat Wednesday if it was a Friday. Just pretend it's Friday, but it's a Wednesday.

00:01:32.50
Flav: and he Ryan would ring us up and he'd go, i remember it's Wednesday Club. And yeah, what's the first rule of Wednesday Club? We don't talk about Wednesday Club. Yeah, what's second rule of Wednesday Club? We don't talk about Wednesday Club.

00:01:45.75
Ricky: ah ah

00:01:46.42
Flav: Yeah, but now it has to be planned in advance. People are buying ticket. Who's picking up?

00:01:49.91
Ricky: Yeah.

00:01:50.18
Flav: Someone's doing a big shop.

00:01:51.54
Ricky: Yeah.

00:01:52.16
Flav: Yeah.

00:01:52.76
Ricky: that It's mad, isn't it? It's mad.

00:01:54.87
Flav: yeah

00:01:55.22
Ricky: um How many people are actually, do you know how many people are coming?

00:02:00.02
Flav: Probably about 10, 10 of us, maybe. yeah So interestingly, I've made this clear. ah You know, I've got a pension for brown people.

00:02:08.92
Ricky: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:02:09.46
Flav: Not, I might say fetish. It's not that because that's like racist and stuff.

00:02:11.64
Ricky: Yeah. Yeah.

00:02:13.62
Flav: I've just think pro rata. I've said this on you here before.

00:02:16.82
Ricky: Yeah.

00:02:17.50
Flav: The soundest people I've met based on the smallest sample people are browns.

00:02:23.13
Ricky: Yeah, yeah, I can believe that.

00:02:25.18
Flav: Yeah, um and Mark is similar to you.

00:02:30.36
Ricky: Yeah, yeah, okay.

00:02:30.44
Flav: He's Anglo-Indian. And I just think there might be a clash here because, like, obviously you'll probably always be my number one.

00:02:39.82
Ricky: Mm, thank you.

00:02:41.85
Flav: But he could be my number two.

00:02:44.22
Ricky: That's, yeah, that's fine.

00:02:45.84
Flav: All right, I just, no, I mean, but it like, sometimes number two has become number ones, Rick.

00:02:46.00
Ricky: That's…

00:02:49.88
Ricky: They do. They do. And you just got to roll with the punches. You just got to worm your way back to number one. That's all you got to do. You got to lay traps for the new number one and he will fall down. And then you worm your way back to the top.

00:03:03.58
Flav: I'm

00:03:03.80
Ricky: Obviously, what I've been doing all this, all this time, been working my way through. Are you worried? Like, ah because in my mind, right, ah ah I'm very…

00:03:11.06
Flav: ah scared of the…

00:03:13.78
Ricky: um I'm very homely, very private. People come to my house. I'm just like a bit like, this is my, where I pull the shutters down. and this is my safe place where my kids are like, oh, by the way, dad, one of my mates is coming around. I'm like, oh, for fuck's sake.

00:03:31.29
Ricky: But 10 men.

00:03:33.27
Flav: Well, they're not all staying. So there's only like five five people staying at my house.

00:03:35.16
Ricky: Right. Okay.

00:03:38.14
Flav: there's There's various B&Bs and stuff around the and the Airbnbs and whatnot. So, um but well, nah, not really.

00:03:43.18
Ricky: Uh, which, What, what?

00:03:45.62
Flav: It's point of getting a house, isn't it? So I can do fun things in it and no one can see.

00:03:49.85
Ricky: Yeah. what Wife's going to be there all weekend as well?

00:03:54.87
Flav: I mean, she'll be she'll be she'll be around Yeah, yeah, she'll be around. I can't in any good conscience kick my wife out of her house. and Nor would I want to.

00:04:01.10
Ricky: No, sure.

00:04:02.49
Flav: um

00:04:02.58
Ricky: No, no, of course.

00:04:03.19
Flav: ah No, she's ah she'll be around and um she'll be ferrying and and and doing bits and cooking. and um Yeah, she's going to make some food on Friday night.

00:04:14.38
Ricky: Oh, she decided what she's going to and nothing Nothing from the sea, please.

00:04:16.74
Flav: I don't know. don't know.

00:04:20.95
Flav: She hates fish as well.

00:04:22.04
Ricky: good it's Good, good, good.

00:04:22.74
Flav: f I don't know. i don't know what she's going to do.

00:04:25.33
Ricky: Kids about.

00:04:26.33
Flav: No. No, no.

00:04:27.22
Ricky: okay

00:04:27.76
Flav: They're gone. They can't. We can't be sort of hot plating at 4am and with kids walking around coming in.

00:04:35.70
Ricky: if ah how How are you anyway? you were You've just come into the office and you're it's like you've just got out of the shower and you've put your headphones on

00:04:45.37
Flav: Yeah, i am ah I have to walk the dog trying to get 10,000 steps in a day. Mate, 9,500 today.

00:04:53.68
Ricky: Come on.

00:04:55.00
Flav: So I went for a walk this morning with the dog and it started raining. So i nipped into my dad's escape rain. And then when I left, because i had to leave to get here, the rain was like double as hard coming down.

00:05:05.46
Ricky: Oh, God.

00:05:06.33
Flav: So yeah um I'm a bit of a drown wrap. My office smells of wet dog.

00:05:11.10
Ricky: ah

00:05:13.08
Flav: But put the radiator on for him, so he'll be all right.

00:05:15.45
Ricky: You have to towel dry him. Like if you've been out for a walk and you come back home and he's soaking wet and.

00:05:21.62
Flav: Oh, Frankie. No, I think sometimes. might Not really. Just let him dry.

00:05:27.43
Ricky: I've really. I've um fallen off on the walking.

00:05:34.93
Flav: What?

00:05:34.90
Ricky: We're like, I've just not been out, not been out for a week or so.

00:05:38.20
Flav: What? Have you been bored of it?

00:05:38.68
Ricky: ah But yeah, ah it's got to the point. I started it in lockdown. that's like six years I've been doing this, doing the same kind of two or three routes, going out for an hour and 20 minutes for a walk.

00:05:50.46
Ricky: And I'm just like, my my my weight is maintaining. It's good for kind of like just putting on a podcast, ah getting a bit of a sweat on and stuff like that. But I'm just, I'm bored of it now.

00:06:03.38
Ricky: And I feel like I need to do something else, like kettlebells at home or something like that. But I know what I'm like. I kind of feel like this, I'm going to go into my… um my fat era and and not and not caring you know like it's just like i'm i've got to the point now i'm 43 and i'm just like do you know what let's

00:06:15.70
Flav: ah

00:06:24.74
Flav: Have you really, really struggled since you spotted putting the weighted vest on? Because that's made it more physically draining.

00:06:31.22
Ricky: maybe it might be that but it's also like it's like a a good hour out of my day that i could just be sitting here doing stuff.

00:06:44.06
Ricky: you know what mean?

00:06:45.40
Flav: Yeah.

00:06:45.55
Ricky: I'm just kind of like, why just…

00:06:47.45
Flav: you you You're not going to think about going back to the gym. You hated that, didn't you?

00:06:52.38
Ricky: Yeah, and the thing is, I said this to my missus, like, I could pay. I've got a gym not even fucking five minutes from my house. Sauna, swimming pool, gym, you know, lovely, really lovely place. But i know just going there, I'll get there and I'll pick up the weights and I'll just feel really self-conscious and awkward and be like, I don't want to be here.

00:07:14.04
Flav: a

00:07:14.18
Ricky: I really don't want to be here.

00:07:15.22
Flav: You should maybe do a little PT session and at least you have some guidance.

00:07:20.59
Ricky: I do know a PT there, actually.

00:07:22.52
Flav: Yeah, it's up to you

00:07:23.06
Ricky: So, yeah, I might um and might do that. Shall I… am

00:07:28.07
Flav: Yeah.

00:07:28.19
Ricky: lit li jo

00:07:29.37
Flav: Doodle jingle.

00:07:56.31
Ricky: Hello and welcome to Lads Anonymous. It's episode 152. I'm Ricky. He's Flav. Two best mates. One main topic. We answer your life dilemmas and confessions in our feature Something Only You Know. And everything remains anonymous. Always. So sit back, relax and enjoy the pod.

00:08:15.61
Ricky: How are you? you good?

00:08:17.37
Flav: Yeah, good.

00:08:18.11
Ricky: All good.

00:08:18.58
Flav: I'm good.

00:08:19.26
Ricky: I am… We've got a voice note to ah for the don't this a feature.

00:08:26.77
Flav: Good.

00:08:27.32
Ricky: And I don't know what it is. It's two minutes long. And when they've sent this in, they've sent it in again, right?

00:08:31.67
Flav: Okay.

00:08:34.81
Ricky: And the little message they've put, Ricky, I sent you this back in 2024 and you never replied. Go on, click it. You're going to like it.

00:08:47.00
Ricky: ah So, I mean, this is before the feature. So, so I don't know what it is.

00:08:50.52
Flav: Right, right. So you don't know what it is.

00:08:53.83
Ricky: I've got no idea what it is. And for anyone that's listening, don't listen is a feature where you get to feature on the podcast. You send in a voice note,

00:09:05.94
Ricky: As long as it's not, you know, you can record anything you absolutely want. We don't know what it is. We don't listen pre, you know, pre-pod or anything like that. We just play it. And hopefully it's not, you know, very incriminating or anything like that.

00:09:19.58
Ricky: And it's all above board. And um if you want to do that and you want to become part of the podcast, Send in a voice note and hopefully label it as don't listen to ladsanonpod at gmail.com.

00:09:35.74
Ricky: And you are now going to listen to this week's voice note.

00:09:45.69
Ricky: Oh.

00:09:48.57
Ricky: Some tunes.

00:09:53.35
Flav: Mate, there's a little volume bar. Just pull…

00:09:58.74
Ricky: Oh.

00:09:58.89
Flav: Oh, you stopped it. Just pull the volume up because you can't hear it. There

00:10:03.47
Ricky: Yeah, guy.

00:10:12.18
Ricky: Okay.

00:10:21.02
Ricky: Ooh. o

00:10:41.05
Ricky: Is that saying, oh, friend?

00:10:44.81
Ricky: Yeah, it is.

00:10:49.65
Flav: That would have been from the first episode.

00:11:24.18
Ricky: Right, this is going on a bit now.

00:11:26.88
Flav: Who is that?

00:11:37.43
Ricky: Got something in between there's love in here.

00:11:44.15
Flav: friend

00:11:55.93
Flav: is that

00:11:57.59
Ricky: it's sir Is that Jay? Or is it Simon that does Football Friend?

00:12:03.77
Flav: Oh, I didn't know. i thought that that was something he'd made.

00:12:07.32
Ricky: No, that was s from Inbetweeners, isn't it? Where ah they're taking the piss out of him because he ah did training at West Ham and he's jumping up and down on the bonnet.

00:12:15.54
Flav: Football friend.

00:12:15.99
Ricky: a football friend well thank you very much for that uh loved your music very very good um yeah if you've got any other voice notes that you want to feature on the pod you know the email don't need to do it again do you know what uh the podcast is about today it is the world cup so the world cup

00:12:19.32
Flav: Yeah, very good. Very good.

00:12:31.67
Flav: Yes, it is the World Cup.

00:12:40.51
Ricky: Starts on the 11th of June. So people that are just, you know, downloading on Monday, it starts today. ah Patrons, you listen to this on the 4th, so it's not starting today.

00:12:52.98
Ricky: First, do you know the first um first fixture?

00:12:59.40
Flav: uh usa is it usa

00:13:02.30
Ricky: No.

00:13:03.14
Flav: mm so is it mexico it has to be one of them i don't even know he's in their group i don't know why i'm trying it would be it would be a one in 47 chance so i'm gonna say well hang on hang on it can't be england it can't be ghana it can't be

00:13:06.71
Ricky: oh here we go.

00:13:16.70
Ricky: Go on, go for it.

00:13:22.94
Flav: It can't be Croatia. Who else is Panama's in our group. um I'm going to say Mexico versus Germany.

00:13:32.98
Ricky: No.

00:13:34.00
Flav: Ah, damn.

00:13:34.74
Ricky: South Africa.

00:13:38.94
Flav: And is it in Mexico City?

00:13:41.54
Ricky: I don't actually know where it is. ah should, you know, I should not…

00:13:44.14
Flav: I'm sure it'll be a home dry.

00:13:45.91
Ricky: Yeah, yeah, it should be. i It's got to be.

00:13:48.02
Flav: Big problem. Big problem with that.

00:13:50.26
Ricky: What, in Mexico?

00:13:51.33
Flav: Well, Mexico City is um high ah high altitude.

00:13:56.02
Ricky: Is it really?

00:13:57.21
Flav: Yeah. ah So yeah have to you have to kind of train to play there. I think it's… so know I heard that on the radio yesterday. I think it's that.

00:14:06.36
Ricky: you know what? I hadn't even thought about any of that shit, you know.

00:14:09.02
Flav: I think it's going to be a massive issue for all the Northern European clubs. That's why countries, they're a huge disadvantage, I think.

00:14:16.70
Ricky: Fuck.

00:14:17.97
Flav: It's going to be…

00:14:21.26
Flav: It's, what we saying? Mid-30s at every game.

00:14:26.29
Ricky: That's a nightmare, isn't it I can't even go in the back garden for that long and so didn't if you're talking about 30 degree weather.

00:14:33.58
Flav: Yeah, I'm not happy about it. I'm getting into it now because I've done some work last week around the brown the World Cup. I'm i' much more getting into it, but ah ah hate like I have a big issue with the Russian World Cup. I had a big issue with Qatar and I have a bigger issue this with this one.

00:14:52.54
Ricky: what What was your issue with the Russian World Cup?

00:14:55.96
Flav: Well, why were russian Russia given the World Cup? And you know why? It's because they've paid the they've engineered a way for it to um to be played there.

00:15:00.63
Ricky: Right.

00:15:06.70
Flav: And why would they be interested in having a World Cup there? Why would Qatar be interested? Why would Trump and the US be interested in having a World Cup?

00:15:14.58
Ricky: Sport washing.

00:15:15.35
Flav: But yeah, why would why did in the 1978 World Cup, why why was Argentina desperate to have it? Because they were plan they were there were plans in place.

00:15:26.14
Flav: I'll be really cynical and conspiracy theory here.

00:15:28.14
Ricky: Nah, go for it. Go, go, go.

00:15:28.95
Flav: There were plans in place to do things that would would be frowned upon by the world. So there was that military junta that was, you know, tens of thousands of Argentines died. And it was happening during the World Cup, but before the World Cup.

00:15:45.82
Flav: ah But what do you think about Argentina in 1978? When you think about it now, you think of the streams, of the confetti and the… The incredible atmosphere.

00:15:53.66
Ricky: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:15:55.93
Flav: um You know, it's interesting that Russia invaded Ukraine shortly after. They they can't even play in the World Cup now.

00:16:06.66
Ricky: That's mad, isn't

00:16:07.67
Flav: um Qatar have their own, you know, the for the reason why Qatar bought PSG is the same reason why they wanted to host the World Cup. So anyway, that's my grumble about it.

00:16:15.22
Ricky: it? No, no, no, no. No, it's interesting because I hadn't even put, you know, that ah two and two together, really. he's Like why ah America are hosting it and that that could be the possible reason.

00:16:27.35
Flav: Yeah.

00:16:27.77
Ricky: But that's just me, just little naive me, just just enjoying the World Cup as I do.

00:16:32.31
Flav: no yeah you should you should you should enjoy it. Football's supposed to be enjoyed. but it's just

00:16:36.89
Ricky: Yeah.

00:16:37.78
Flav: it's it makes it harder when you've got one because like Infantino is the head of FIFA making decisions based on money.

00:16:41.40
Ricky: Yeah.

00:16:43.30
Flav: like It shouldn't cost £8,500 to get every ticket of you to watch your team if they get free to the final. shit was It should be £13,000. You have to pay for every ticket up front, Ricky. You know that.

00:16:53.34
Flav: Every ticket.

00:16:54.71
Ricky: That is insane.

00:16:54.82
Flav: You have to pay As if you'd… So if England reached final… so if england reached the final

00:17:01.05
Ricky: Yeah.

00:17:01.55
Flav: you'd pay something like 13 grand. I can't remember what the exact total was. If they get knocked out the semi-final or the quarterfinal, you then get reimbursed for the three or two tickets remaining and or the four tickets remaining.

00:17:14.46
Flav: But FIFA keep 20% handling fee.

00:17:19.86
Flav: Yeah. It's a racketeer. It's ah it's an absolute… It can play and die.

00:17:25.06
Ricky: How can they do this?

00:17:27.74
Flav: It's a money racket. Uh… How can they do it? Well, they're being investigated.

00:17:35.19
Ricky: Good.

00:17:35.64
Flav: He will be investigated. Uh…

00:17:37.24
Ricky: Good.

00:17:40.12
Ricky: I just, like everything, like I i'd like don't want to start this off on a negative, but ah ah but like with prices of gigs, football, all of that stuff. It's just getting absolutely ridiculous, utterly ridiculous to the point where average Joes just can't afford it.

00:18:00.98
Ricky: And it's like…

00:18:01.08
Flav: Yeah, this isn't ah an affordable World Cup in any shape or form.

00:18:01.69
Ricky: It's fucking mental.

00:18:06.17
Flav: and so And I think that's why people are less excited about this World Cup than than than others.

00:18:06.30
Ricky: Right, let's…

00:18:14.49
Flav: so um But anyway, look now as soon as it comes around as soon as it it starts, everyone will be back on back on board.

00:18:23.18
Ricky: What's your room earliest memory of World Cup?

00:18:27.77
Flav: David Platt scoring and it's in Italia 90.

00:18:33.30
Ricky: Really?

00:18:34.67
Flav: Spurs. England played Belgium and the ball was pulled over and the ball came over his shoulder and on the volley it he connected with it and it went into the net.

00:18:37.02
Ricky: yes

00:18:48.28
Flav: It's such a rare goal. um One that you won't… I can't remember. Maybe… i think there was one with Van Persie scored one for Arsenal.

00:18:57.08
Ricky: yeah

00:18:57.36
Flav: because similar where it came on show, that is one of the hardest things to do in football is just to not be able to fully see the ball and in the corner of your eye for it to come over and land flush on the volley and into the goal. And as a kid, that amazed me. And remember practising that in the playground the next day.

00:19:17.21
Ricky: did Did you ever nail it?

00:19:20.02
Flav: That's impossible.

00:19:24.13
Ricky: I think mine is… um It's got to be um the Brazil-Italy final Baggio penalty miss.

00:19:36.44
Flav: ah That was 94.

00:19:38.23
Ricky: Yes.

00:19:39.21
Flav: Yeah, he kicked it over. It haunted him that, didn't it?

00:19:41.72
Ricky: Yeah, it did.

00:19:41.94
Flav: this is not it's not like It's not like it hasn't, like, like people miss penalties all the time. That was in mid-game though. Was was it mid-game was it a shootout?

00:19:52.59
Ricky: I think it's a shootout.

00:19:53.91
Flav: He just put it over the bar and remembered, like, he was one of the world-class players. He was incredible, brilliant.

00:19:58.23
Ricky: Yeah.

00:19:58.63
Flav: And he had that beautiful little ponytail behind him.

00:20:00.50
Ricky: Yeah. It's the ponytail.

00:20:02.14
Flav: Yeah, which added something to it. Like, that added, like, 10, at least probably 10 million to his value. adam Yeah, I remember that, yeah.

00:20:11.06
Ricky: ah Cause I remember as well. And I don't, I don't quite, you know, when your, your mind is a bit hazy, but I remember staying up late or it being dark outside and me being up past a time that i should have been.

00:20:24.63
Ricky: um, And watching the penalty shootout. And around that time, I would have been, so 94, so I would have been 12. So around that time, I was just getting into football, like really into it.

00:20:40.06
Flav: yeah

00:20:41.85
Ricky: Now, since I was five, my dad has always taken me to Tottenham. And during that period, I was attending Tottenham where we were losing a lot of games, half empty stadium.

00:20:56.34
Ricky: um It was cold. that My most favourite part of the day was getting a McDonald's with my dad. um It was nothing to do with the football. But then when I got to the 12, 13, 14, that's when I really started to kind of come into football. and I think watching that World Cup and knowing how big it was, and then, yeah, the fallout of him missing it, that didn't scar me, but I remember it really, really well. I i don't remember… um the 90s, the Platte one.

00:21:27.48
Ricky: I know the goal, but i can't lot I can't remember watching games and being excited about it and World Cup kind of fever hitting me.

00:21:28.70
Flav: yeah yeah senior students but you um Do you know what else happened in, sorry, sorry to Rick, 2024, sorry, 1994, it was the Escobar, do you remember him?

00:21:37.40
Ricky: um World Cup is always synonymous. Yeah, no, no, go on, go on.

00:21:51.10
Ricky: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:21:52.22
Flav: He was a defender for Colombia and they he a ball came in and he slid and he put it into his own net. He scored an own goal.

00:22:01.40
Ricky: Yeah.

00:22:02.46
Flav: ah And obviously there was a massive thing with Colombia and the cartel and stuff. And he ended up, I don't know if it was directly linked linked to the, the story goes that he was he was shot.

00:22:08.76
Ricky: Yeah.

00:22:13.51
Flav: He was killed because of it.

00:22:14.33
Ricky: Yeah.

00:22:15.39
Flav: But he might have been doing something else, but that's the story.

00:22:18.84
Ricky: Well, I um ah swear I remember watching a documentary about it called The Two Escobars.

00:22:23.38
Flav: Yeah, of course, the it would have been what easy pace Pablo Escobar.

00:22:25.24
Ricky: Yeah, that's.

00:22:29.23
Ricky: Pablo, yeah. That's fucking He was mad into football as well, wasn't

00:22:32.98
Flav: Well, yeah, everyone and in Colombia is.

00:22:36.50
Ricky: Fucking hell. That's mental, isn't it? That's how far it got. Jesus.

00:22:41.75
Flav: ah i'll ah I'll find out the full story and then.

00:22:44.76
Ricky: Yeah, go on. World Cup, obviously synonymous with the football shirts. Or as our American fans are listening, jerseys.

00:22:54.29
Flav: Yeah.

00:22:55.26
Ricky: Jerseys. Do you have any fond kind of, um you know, shirts that stick out for you? Like, are you one of those kids or or one of those?

00:23:07.08
Ricky: You're not one of those people now. I know that for a fact. When you were younger, you wore different countries' kits or clubs because you liked them, just that they that they looked cool.

00:23:22.87
Flav: ah No, not not since being a child. um But my dad was my my dad loved the Brazil jerseys of like the 70s Brazil um with Zico and, ah you know, others. I'm not sure when Pelé stopped playing for Brazil, but probably earlier than that. um the And so he would buy me those and he bought me, I remember him buying me the Marseille jersey with Jean-Pierre Papin on the back.

00:23:52.06
Ricky: Oh

00:23:53.66
Flav: Yeah. um

00:23:57.02
Flav: So yeah, we had Man United. Sorry, yeah we had the ah we had Brazil. I had Brazil shirts. Yeah, I was all quite fond of those. I had the 94 Brazil shirt. Romario and Bebeto played him.

00:24:09.24
Ricky: I remember actually you having a part of your story of when you went swimming and you were wearing a Brazil shirt. Quality.

00:24:16.05
Flav: I shit myself.

00:24:17.49
Ricky: I, so…

00:24:20.41
Flav: Just didn't tell dad. Just carried on swimming like nothing had happened.

00:24:25.98
Flav: Yeah, that was the that was vintage. That was a vintage Brazil shirt.

00:24:28.89
Ricky: quality um i say

00:24:33.34
Flav: I was old enough to know better as well. i didn't know what happened.

00:24:34.90
Ricky: yeah ah ah So funny. But I think the classic one for me, i didn't buy it, never worn it.

00:24:46.01
Ricky: But the most iconic one is the West Germany with, you know, what is it?

00:24:49.91
Flav: Yeah. the

00:24:52.22
Ricky: The black, red.

00:24:53.50
Flav: Red and gold.

00:24:54.84
Ricky: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the patterns across the top. um Would Klinsmann would have worn that?

00:25:01.37
Flav: yeah yeah it was cross it was Yeah, it was.

00:25:01.97
Ricky: nightea

00:25:03.33
Flav: That is ah it was 1994.

00:25:07.38
Ricky: yes

00:25:07.74
Flav: That was the same same kit. Yeah, it was beautiful kit.

00:25:10.38
Ricky: Mate, and like, obviously, as a Brit, you can't really be knocking about in a Germany kit.

00:25:15.30
Flav: No.

00:25:15.81
Ricky: But that's one of the kits that I've always thought, yeah, I'm fucking, that I would definitely wear that.

00:25:21.36
Flav: isn't I've never seen much like that. Certainly not in England. It's almost like an eagle on on the chest, on the shoulders.

00:25:27.16
Ricky: Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:25:29.59
Flav: Like an eagle's wings. And it's all made of like a triangle of diamonds. is matt It's really cool.

00:25:37.27
Ricky: I think they still have a kind of similar pattern to that now.

00:25:39.90
Flav: Yeah.

00:25:41.14
Ricky: Similar-ish. What about the…

00:25:42.07
Flav: Yeah.

00:25:42.54
Ricky: um Talking about England, what about England kits? Are you fond of…

00:25:47.61
Flav: Not really. There's nineteen there's a 2019 England kit. I think that's probably the best kit I've ever ever seen anywhere ever.

00:25:55.70
Ricky: that's quite specific. What one was that one?

00:25:57.87
Flav: It's the only kit I really, really, like, i would generally consider wearing myself. um England kit.

00:26:06.26
Ricky: I really liked… um There was an England kit…

00:26:09.43
Flav: No, it wasn't 2019. Sorry.

00:26:11.51
Ricky: um

00:26:11.55
Flav: I'll find it. Yeah.

00:26:13.11
Ricky: and all I have ah is a picture in my mind of Kevin Keegan. And it has like these blue shoulders, a blue block of shoulders with a red underneath red, red stripe underneath.

00:26:25.46
Flav: Yeah.

00:26:25.48
Ricky: I don't when that would have been fucking God knows when 80 sometime. um That was a ring kit. And I've always, if I was to wear one, would be like a more vintage one, not that. But yeah,

00:26:37.64
Flav: There was a blue there's a blue polar neck one, which I think was, well, it maybe 2018. No, 2020, 22, 21, when we had a polar neck.

00:26:44.60
Ricky: Right. I know the one you're talking about.

00:26:47.25
Flav: I always like a polar neck on a football shirt. I think that's classic.

00:26:51.22
Ricky: I am.

00:26:51.28
Flav: It's blue.

00:26:52.98
Ricky: And I also liked. um

00:26:55.96
Flav: Campos, remember him? World Cup, Mexico here goalkeeper.

00:26:57.02
Ricky: Yes. Yeah.

00:26:59.38
Flav: He designed his own kits.

00:26:59.57
Ricky: out What?

00:27:02.05
Flav: Yeah, he worked with whoever the kit designer was, and he would pick the design himself, so that's why they're always flamboyant.

00:27:08.57
Ricky: When I was. um That's quite cool. Actually, I'd love to do that. When I was looking at this as well. The 1974, the Dutch kit, right? It was obviously the Cruyff years.

00:27:21.62
Ricky: And Cruyff, he, like ah obviously, Netherlands had all orange with the you know the black line on there, but they were sponsored by Adidas. And because Cruyff was sponsored by Puma, he had two stripes on his arms, not the three stripes.

00:27:39.54
Flav: Really?

00:27:40.25
Ricky: Yeah, know.

00:27:40.63
Flav: didn't know that.

00:27:42.84
Ricky: thought, oh, fucking, that's a bit fucking certain, isn't it?

00:27:46.48
Flav: Didn't know that.

00:27:47.19
Ricky: ah The other kit as well, wem which I have to mention, which is probably my ah the one that is burning my mind, is the 90s Gaza Lineker.

00:27:57.20
Flav: Of

00:28:01.05
Flav: course.

00:28:01.46
Ricky: Yeah, yeah.

00:28:02.77
Flav: Yeah, that was probably, I think if you you think, if you can generate an England kit in your mind's eye, it's generally that one, isn't it?

00:28:08.18
Ricky: Yeah. Oh yeah, for sure.

00:28:08.83
Flav: I'm broke. Yeah.

00:28:10.20
Ricky: Yeah. Especially with, yeah you know, that's the Gaza crime one in it.

00:28:13.64
Flav: That's right, yeah.

00:28:14.87
Ricky: Yeah. Poor fucking Gaza. Poor Gaza man. I mean, Nigeria, they also have some, is that I think they will, they have some mental kits that I'd definitely, definitely be wearing those.

00:28:24.34
Flav: Yeah. Yeah, they're, African nations are good.

00:28:29.30
Ricky: um

00:28:29.59
Flav: Yeah.

00:28:31.29
Ricky: I have to ask you, it's World Cup.

00:28:32.86
Flav: o

00:28:36.18
Ricky: Do you have a favorite goal? And it's in, okay, what we'll do like, we'll do England goals. And then if there's any um goals that stand out to you that you're kind of like.

00:28:53.49
Flav: Yeah, there's one that stands out and it kind of launched him. ah The James Rodriguez goal where he took it on his chest and it's gone over his head and he's volleyed it in off the bar.

00:29:01.63
Ricky: Oh, yeah, a a yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:29:05.92
Flav: I mean, that was… Essentially, got his move to Real Madrid. He's a good player anyway, but he got his move Real Madrid.

00:29:10.10
Ricky: Yeah.

00:29:12.12
Flav: ah But for England, I would say it's not World Cup, but the Gaza um against Colin Hendry against the um Scotland, where he loops it over and volleys follows it in.

00:29:24.76
Ricky: Oh, yeah. yeah

00:29:26.17
Flav: um World Cup qualifiers, say Beckham's free kick against Greece.

00:29:30.39
Ricky: Grace. Oh, that's men's flowers.

00:29:32.51
Flav: Yeah, incredible.

00:29:34.07
Ricky: My…

00:29:35.00
Flav: What have you got?

00:29:36.06
Ricky: ah So for mine, i would have to go with it has to be Michael Owen, Argentina.

00:29:44.73
Flav: course.

00:29:45.88
Ricky: He was like 18 at the time, I think. as When he first came onto the scene, electric pace, everyone's talking about Owen and how great the season he's had for Liverpool and stuff.

00:29:53.00
Flav: Yeah. Yeah.

00:29:58.55
Ricky: And this fearless kid running at Argentinian defense. And they're kind of doing everything they can, falling over, slipping, sliding. And he glides off to the right. And as he as he hit that ball in, I just remember him just doing this as he's running away.

00:30:12.66
Flav: yeah

00:30:13.42
Ricky: And I was like, this is fucking amazing. Can you imagine being that that age at a World Cup doing something like that against Argentina?

00:30:17.29
Flav: They say,

00:30:22.02
Ricky: It is, you just, it's fucking mental.

00:30:24.84
Flav: I mean, 17. He's 17 years old. like i remember I remember watching that. I i watch i was watching it in the on my dad's front room. um And I remember sort of desperate for Owen to get in.

00:30:36.99
Flav: he like he was like People think, you think about like players like Bereval and Archie and think they're great for their age. He was doing world-class things two or three eight years younger than them.

00:30:43.35
Ricky: Yeah.

00:30:46.90
Ricky: Yeah.

00:30:47.32
Flav: it was He was unbelievable. He almost got… He got overplayed at a younger at a young age, actually, which is probably why. ah

00:30:56.24
Ricky: I'd probably say back then he was one of my favourite players, non-Tottenham players.

00:30:59.48
Flav: i be I mean, he was our age, pretty much. was my age.

00:31:03.96
Ricky: Yes. Oh, God, man.

00:31:05.40
Flav: Yeah.

00:31:06.39
Ricky: Can you imagine that? Just being that good at football?

00:31:08.41
Flav: He scored.

00:31:08.93
Ricky: Yeah.

00:31:09.47
Flav: He came off the bench and scored in the game before that. He scored. He came off the bench. um And we had, I don't know was our team then. it would have been it' have been Shearer and Sheridan, probably. Or maybe Sheridan was coming towards the end.

00:31:23.30
Flav: Shearer was definitely playing. And then you had this young upster, Michael Owen, come along and they just tore it up.

00:31:34.07
Ricky: Yeah, I mean, ah just, ah I always try and put myself in those people's shoes. Like, yeah can you imagine the amount of pressure on you, the amount of eyes on you being at a World Cup and being that young and scoring or being the hopes of the nation on you?

00:31:48.28
Flav: I think it's at that ages yeah that age, it's…

00:31:48.63
Ricky: It must destroy people.

00:31:52.36
Flav: And our obsession in in in England of you know building people up and then just tearing them down. Rashford had it similar. Owen, as it turned out, was a bit of a knob.

00:32:03.93
Flav: But you know we didn't know that at 17.

00:32:04.47
Ricky: ah

00:32:06.65
Flav: Also, he played without fear, didn't he? he was like He didn't hear that noise. He just felt that he was, and you know, untouchable. And he was just brilliant. pace His pace left him because of the amount of hamstring injuries he had in in later on in his career. And I'm saying later on in his career, i'm so about mid-20s.

00:32:25.05
Flav: It's why you've got to think about the fact that Jamal is doing what he's doing such a young age when Messi and Ronaldo weren't even close to the numbers he was putting up at that age. How long, how quickly can he…

00:32:38.22
Flav: They can't manage him he's too good to leave out, but you have to worry about the amount of high-pressured moments he's been put in and how long his career is going to be unaffected by injury.

00:32:42.36
Ricky: Yeah.

00:32:50.74
Ricky: Do you think do you think he's he's that good that it will potentially, like Spain will get get far, like he's got…

00:32:59.48
Flav: ah Yeah, I mean, it's I think in terms of people who are going to win it, ah Spain, obviously, they're brilliant. It's not just him. They've got Pedri and they've got midfield that just rivals Portugal.

00:33:10.42
Flav: um France have got a stupid squad, but defensively they to be got at, I think.

00:33:14.10
Ricky: Yeah.

00:33:17.66
Flav: um But their attacking is so heavy. It's just yeah just unreal. you know Dembele, Dwey, Mbappe, um

00:33:29.13
Ricky: That's fucking meant to it.

00:33:30.46
Flav: matt Yeah, that front line is fucking sick. um But defensively, I don't think they're great. I don't think there's… this they're not fan they're they're and not fan They're not fantastic defensively. Canate might start for France and he's an average Premier League midfielder. Sorry, centre-back.

00:33:47.26
Flav: ah But Spain have a great chance. I just think the heat, having it there, the humidity, if you are from South Africa, sorry, South America or any region of the world where that kind of level of, and that type of heat you're used to playing, then you're in a massive advantage. Like Argentina would be absolutely fine.

00:34:06.39
Flav: And they've got a good side. You know, they could, they could go back to back, I think world, world champions.

00:34:12.82
Ricky: but no No looking for Brazil.

00:34:16.91
Flav: It's mental. Brazil's squad is just mental to me.

00:34:20.25
Ricky: It seems shit, I'll be honest with you. Hmm.

00:34:22.62
Flav: ah but But you know why?

00:34:23.19
Ricky: then didn't

00:34:24.14
Flav: It's because what was great about the World Cup once, Ricky, is that you were learning about players. But now the the the world is so small because of the internet and so much football is… And half the fucking Brazil squad plays in England.

00:34:36.82
Flav: So you're kind of like… you're kind of like, i't I know what Gimoresh is, right? He's good, he plays Newcastle.

00:34:43.06
Ricky: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:34:43.85
Flav: So in your brain, he's Newcastle's midfielder.

00:34:45.56
Ricky: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:34:46.01
Flav: Cunha was at Wolves before going to Manchester United and Man United are on a bit of a downturn. So you just think, i see that he is great, Cunha. I'd love him at Spurs, right? But when you think of Brazil, you think of players that can't be touched, that are that will only come from Real Madrid and Bayern Munich and but those sort of players.

00:35:01.82
Ricky: Yeah.

00:35:02.86
Flav: But they've obviously got, they've got Vinny Jr., Neymar's going.

00:35:11.58
Flav: I think that's political. he hasn't hes but He's barely played this season. And Gio Petro got could couldn't go because he make way for Neymar.

00:35:16.41
Ricky: went went

00:35:21.95
Flav: Mad.

00:35:22.81
Ricky: when When I think of ah Brazil World Cup, Ronaldo, Romario,

00:35:29.39
Flav: Yeah. Yeah.

00:35:31.06
Ricky: um Bebeto, Cafu, Roberto Carlos… Rivaldo. Like, those that those teams back then, they were the fucking, they were top Donnies.

00:35:44.42
Ricky: But now Brazil just absolutely rubbish.

00:35:46.74
Flav: We'd never heard of Bebeto before 94.

00:35:49.29
Ricky: No.

00:35:49.66
Flav: No one had heard of him. like new one Well, if you were to learn it. In the 98 World Cup, we no one knew a single player that they had.

00:36:03.64
Flav: No one had heard of them. like You were learning about Ozzy Ardili's during the World Cup. Oh my God, he's good. The only one that people knew about was Campos, who was a centre forward.

00:36:16.18
Flav: And he was the only player who was selected who didn't play in Brazil. Like the manager, I can't remember manager's name now, but the manager had this thing about only selecting players that are playing in Brazil.

00:36:29.53
Flav: And Campos was playing for Valencia in Spain. and And obviously he was their number nine and he couldn't not pick him.

00:36:32.86
Ricky: Yeah.

00:36:36.63
Flav: But other than that, these were all unheard of players. Spurs ended up siding two of them in Rozi Adelis and Riqui Villa. So, um yeah, it was different then. Whereas now you're like, yeah, that ain't that impressive because I've watched Gimoresh play every fucking week.

00:36:52.30
Flav: I've seen him have stinkers. I've seen… as i One of them, Gomez, don't know if he made the squad. I was just looking for it. He got relegated with Wolves.

00:37:02.70
Ricky: Who's that? Oh, Wolves. Oh, yeah, fucking hell.

00:37:05.29
Flav: I don't know if he made the squad, though. It's the only thing I'm um'm hesitating. No. No, didn't.

00:37:10.84
Ricky: so talking Talking about goals in Brazil, I think it would be um remi remiss of us not to ah speak about the Ronaldinho-David Seaman goal.

00:37:13.85
Flav: Yeah.

00:37:20.89
Flav: Sorry, quickly, just their midfielders, Bruno Guimaraes, Casemiro and Lucas Pochetta.

00:37:26.52
Ricky: That's that shit, isn't it?

00:37:27.86
Flav: I mean, they've got Danilo and Fabinho, I don't know much about, to be honest. But yeah, if their midfield free as that, they can't win the World Cup, can they?

00:37:35.10
Ricky: Fabinho, that's the ex-Liverpool one, isn't

00:37:37.90
Flav: It can't be him, though. he

00:37:39.54
Ricky: It has to be him.

00:37:42.78
Flav: I'm Googling it right now. It can't be him. There might be loads of people called Fabinho in Brazil, for sure.

00:37:50.46
Flav: welcome

00:37:51.64
Ricky: Yeah, the Ronaldinho goal. Brazil, England, Seaman, flapper.

00:38:00.30
Flav: oh yeah yeah i i when you look you look at that's iconic but you look at it now and you think skip it should have done better you can get fat ass off the ground you know what mean

00:38:10.62
Ricky: ah I remember that was ah played early in the morning, that was. And me and my mate went up the city centre and there was a bar called, what was it, Bar Med that was playing the game.

00:38:26.81
Ricky: We queued up, had our first beer at like seven in the morning something like that.

00:38:29.11
Flav: Yeah. Was that the South African World Cup?

00:38:33.22
Ricky: I can't remember what…

00:38:33.37
Flav: No, no, it wouldn't have been. but It might have been. There was one where we had to yeah get up at stupid o'clock, eight o'clock in the morning, and we played. Because South Africa actually, time-wise, not that dissimilar to England, is it?

00:38:45.73
Ricky: I don't think so, you know.

00:38:48.12
Flav: No.

00:38:49.27
Ricky: But yeah, we went to this bar, um obviously drinking early in the morning, saw that.

00:38:53.75
Flav: Oh, my God, I think it is the same Fabinho.

00:38:54.80
Ricky: I told you.

00:38:55.39
Flav: It is him. the fuck that's the best midfield they the whole of Brazil can put together

00:39:06.13
Flav: that is mental sorry mate cut your story you got up in the morning to watch it maybe it's Japan World Cup maybe it's Japan World Cup Japan and South Korea had one yeah yeah

00:39:07.29
Ricky: yeah yeah got up in the morning, got pissed.

00:39:13.62
Ricky: Yeah, that sounds about right. That does sound right. And I got pissed up, watched it. And I remember, obviously, the goal. um And I swear, um Oasis, Stop Crying Your Heart Out was playing.

00:39:26.30
Ricky: that's that that It was that time. And I can't listen to that song now because, obviously, it reminds me of that. And me and my mate, we traipse off back to Weatherspoons.

00:39:35.10
Flav: but what we lost who you're talking about right so yeah yeah you yeah it's an extra time wasn't it is that right maybe not don't know but i remember everyone just being really odd and everyone looked fucking really odd yeah what was that all right

00:39:36.44
Ricky: Yeah, lost. Brazil, when Ronaldinho's… Yeah, yeah, sorry.

00:39:44.62
Ricky: can't even remember you know yeah yeah i think it was the just japan south korea one and then we went back to weatherspoons me and my mate and we sat there all glum drinking beer drowning our sorrows early in the morning and at my mate where he was sitting on a sofa and he put his hand down the sofa

00:40:07.59
Flav: Oh,

00:40:07.70
Ricky: and he's like, what's that? And he pulled it out and he found a massive bar of hash that someone had dropped down there and were like, should we go back to yours and smoke it?

00:40:13.37
Flav: and nice.

00:40:16.89
Flav: Go. Should we go?

00:40:18.99
Ricky: Yeah, yeah, let's do that. Day saved. Fucking day saved.

00:40:23.19
Flav: Result.

00:40:23.93
Ricky: ah And I can't really, um again, like a couple of goals. I don't like to say his name, Gary. Dennis Burkamp.

00:40:35.45
Flav: Oh, yeah. What goal.

00:40:37.24
Ricky: Netherlands, Argentina.

00:40:38.68
Flav: Yeah.

00:40:39.81
Ricky: I mean, was he at them lot then?

00:40:41.50
Flav: Just, yeah. Do you mean it?

00:40:44.79
Ricky: insane goal.

00:40:48.00
Flav: I think it might be an inter then, you know. I might not. I can't remember.

00:40:51.61
Ricky: it it was an insane goal

00:40:54.14
Flav: Yeah, it was.

00:40:55.06
Ricky: It was. And again, there's that. And the the one that's always spoken about as well, Maradona, England, not Hand of God, the one where he fucking took on our whole team and everyone was like slipping and sliding on the floor.

00:41:07.06
Flav: Same game.

00:41:08.82
Ricky: You what?

00:41:09.43
Flav: Same game.

00:41:10.95
Ricky: Oh, was it? ya Yeah, yeah, yeah, was, yeah.

00:41:12.73
Flav: Yeah, little wanker. All I would say is defensive now, we'd never have got away with that.

00:41:17.23
Ricky: No.

00:41:17.87
Flav: I don't know why they fucking… don't care if he was good and whatnot, but he's fucking cheat.

00:41:19.32
Ricky: well

00:41:24.11
Flav: lett them in the in the most blatant way, he was a cheat.

00:41:30.69
Ricky: Yeah, he was.

00:41:31.48
Flav: like um no i don't i don't respect him at all. I don't care how good he was.

00:41:35.10
Ricky: Yeah.

00:41:35.33
Flav: cheated. He's a fucking cheat. don't…

00:41:37.40
Ricky: You can't say that about Maradona. I don't respect him.

00:41:39.29
Flav: I know I can't. I know people would upset people, but I don't care. I don't care. Your your hero is a fucking cheater.

00:41:43.32
Ricky: Good. Yeah, good.

00:41:45.62
Flav: Same with Thierry Henry. There's something about the fabric of the man.

00:41:49.43
Ricky: Yes.

00:41:49.91
Flav: If you handle, this is a World Cup moment, right?

00:41:51.96
Ricky: Yeah.

00:41:52.09
Flav: Ireland versus France.

00:41:53.78
Ricky: Yeah.

00:41:54.23
Flav: I think it was in extra time. And the ball, mean, in in the modern era of VAR, it would have been ruled out 100%. But the ball, he used his hand to control the ball, cross it, and they scored and it knocked them out.

00:42:08.11
Flav: And he celebrated lucky he done like done an incredible thing. He knew it hit his hand. He's a fucking cheat. Tells you everything about the fabric of the man. So did Maradona. And he wheeled away like he'd done something amazing.

00:42:16.86
Ricky: and

00:42:20.06
Ricky: ah

00:42:20.09
Flav: and and And you didn't, you cheated. So, no, not God breast his soul, you cheat.

00:42:24.95
Ricky: Good. I like that. No, good. Wear that. That's pretty funny.

00:42:30.51
Flav: good boy.

00:42:33.08
Ricky: Do you… ah ah I have a penchant for… um Yeah, penchant for goal celebrations.

00:42:36.37
Flav: Punch on.

00:42:41.05
Ricky: And we spoke about Bebeto. Yeah.

00:42:42.62
Flav: but Maradona in 94 when he just ran at the ah the he's clearly coked off his nut and he run these scores a goal for Argentina he's like this is an ageing Maradona by now he must have been about 38 I don't know how old he was and you could see was just full of coke he just runs at the fucking camera grabs the camera and screams down the lens

00:42:48.15
Ricky: Yeah.

00:42:55.44
Ricky: Fucking hell.

00:43:02.78
Ricky: Yeah. i yeah

00:43:03.54
Flav: I haven't taken cocaine during my life.

00:43:06.65
Ricky: m

00:43:06.74
Flav: The last thing I want to do is play football when I've had a line.

00:43:09.18
Ricky: It's mental, isn't

00:43:10.68
Flav: Yeah. but

00:43:11.98
Ricky: I

00:43:12.47
Flav: Mike Tyson used to go to the, go to the, arrive at this thing with cocaine in his system. No, because like about halfway through the fight, you need another bump and you can't get one.

00:43:17.78
Ricky: it's not how i don't understand how people do that.

00:43:24.12
Flav: like Less than halfway through the fight. Oh, you fucking three rounds in. Give us another line. You can't, Mike. in the world title fight here.

00:43:32.86
Ricky: yeah The thing is, is well your adrenaline's going, your heart's going, you need a shit. what

00:43:39.42
Flav: I was only 33 in 94. Strange. he was older.

00:43:45.88
Ricky: I was going to say is, yeah, Bebeto, that ah goal celebration is, yeah, point points points to the sky, rocking the baby.

00:43:51.39
Flav: Yeah. What a baby. mean, inspired by the generation.

00:44:00.14
Flav: Yeah.

00:44:00.54
Ricky: Great celebration. ah Other ones, Roger Miller. Do you know that one?

00:44:06.14
Flav: Of course, yeah, yeah. Scored against England in in the in the in the 94, 94. Roger Millie was 38. Yeah. roger lee was thirty eight

00:44:14.33
Ricky: Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ran over to the corner flag doing his little dance. And I know it's technically, you know, we are we are leaning onto the the the Men's World Cup here.

00:44:29.14
Ricky: But I would like to mention the, as I'm pretty sure it was the Women's World Cup, USA v England, and Alex Morgan, when she did the teacup celebration.

00:44:34.84
Flav: yeah

00:44:43.42
Flav: Oh, yeah, I remember that. Yeah.

00:44:44.98
Ricky: that's that That was pretty cold, man.

00:44:47.03
Flav: did that um Did that?

00:44:48.31
Ricky: it annoyed me.

00:44:49.72
Flav: was

00:44:50.39
Ricky: Yeah, it really annoyed me at the time because they beat us as well.

00:44:52.73
Flav: Yeah.

00:44:54.07
Ricky: And i was just like, and then that celebration, i was just like, fucking hell, man.

00:44:58.09
Flav: Fuck you, Alex. And then she signed Spurs, didn't she, for a bit?

00:45:00.02
Ricky: Yeah, no.

00:45:00.92
Flav: win

00:45:01.02
Ricky: Ream as well. Absolutely Ream.

00:45:03.29
Flav: What?

00:45:04.25
Ricky: Alex Morgan.

00:45:05.18
Flav: What? Do you find her attractive?

00:45:06.58
Ricky: Yes.

00:45:08.44
Flav: Okay.

00:45:09.02
Ricky: What, do you not?

00:45:10.81
Flav: I can't even pick her out of lineup.

00:45:12.60
Ricky: Could you know

00:45:13.46
Flav: but and

00:45:15.80
Ricky: How do you think the… I just want to go back to, like, how do you how do you think the Mexico-Canada World Cup is going to be perceived

00:45:28.66
Flav: Perceived. What way?

00:45:30.17
Ricky: Yeah. As in, well, sorry, not not perceived, received, I should say. As in like, yeah.

00:45:37.69
Flav: always get like a shit game for the first one, don't you? I think a lot the first one was ah Saudi Arabia versus ah Morocco or something, which is you know interesting to some degree. um Not Saudi Arabia, Qatar.

00:45:48.86
Ricky: but More like the the the late nights of watching…

00:45:52.07
Flav: It's going to be a weird one. It's going to be weird one. The England games are going to be like 9 and 10 o'clock at night. I've got a couple of… I've got to work for them. I've been booked for a couple of shoots. ah So that's going to be strange.

00:46:04.89
Ricky: God, what are you going do? What, you've got to go into London and watch it at night?

00:46:08.76
Flav: Yeah, there's um there's a ah it's basically film production company called Matchpint. Well, they've come with this idea called Matchpint, and I'll just…

00:46:19.26
Ricky: Oh, I saw the advert yesterday.

00:46:21.27
Flav: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're going to sitting and watching the um the games play. So, yeah, that'll be all right. But um that's that's… The fact that they're at that time is going to be a bit odd. But it's not too bad. All the England group games are at a time where we can watch them pretty much fine. Whereas Haiti versus Scotland is at like four in the morning.

00:46:45.18
Ricky: Yeah. yeah ah

00:46:47.41
Flav: I've done them dirty there, really. The Scots, I think…

00:46:49.08
Ricky: Yeah, I know. ah I'm always like my the most fun time watching any tournament, but specifically World Cup as well, but um is going to the pub and watching it.

00:46:58.17
Flav: Yeah.

00:47:02.88
Ricky: Beer gardens.

00:47:03.03
Flav: Are you going to do that?

00:47:04.82
Ricky: See, this is the thing. I don't know what to do because they're like late kickoffs.

00:47:08.15
Flav: What did your gut say?

00:47:08.46
Ricky: And if it's during the week, ah my gut says the two that are during the week, watch it at home. And the one on the weekend, I think it's on a Sunday whatever, then go to the pub and get lagging.

00:47:24.44
Flav: yeah it's a good point. Hang on. The schools are out, are they? No, they're not.

00:47:29.24
Ricky: No, they're not.

00:47:30.28
Flav: Fuck. ah The missus will have to do the school run. but not going to be around, so.

00:47:34.42
Ricky: ah Like, ah there is nothing more fun than the pregame, getting to the pub, having a table booked as well, because you know it's going to be fucking Ramo, being with your mates, smashing beer down, tanning cigs, and then watching the game.

00:47:46.40
Flav: Yeah.

00:47:54.23
Ricky: But…

00:47:54.97
Flav: I mean, I would have agreed with you once upon a time.

00:47:58.33
Ricky: Yeah.

00:47:59.38
Flav: Not now.

00:48:00.48
Ricky: Really?

00:48:00.95
Flav: That doesn't sound like fun at all.

00:48:02.20
Ricky: Really?

00:48:02.87
Flav: No. Sounds a fucking hell, Ricky.

00:48:07.83
Flav: I remember watching England versus Paraguay. And um we beat them 1-0 in the first group stage. And we were uptown. don't know we were together or not. But we were uptown.

00:48:18.74
Flav: Beckham called a ball in. I think, actually, it might have gone straight in. It was like a cross. Free kick that was like a cross that sort bounced and went into the net, i think.

00:48:26.07
Ricky: yeah

00:48:27.10
Flav: um And it just went mental. And I'm like, and and and that continued. And now it's like, I think performative. I think these limbs for England goals are, they're over the top.

00:48:41.29
Flav: They're not real.

00:48:41.53
Ricky: yeah

00:48:42.21
Flav: They're just people that don't watch football very often that want to be a part of this this social thing that's now happened. Like supporting Arsenal. Yeah.

00:48:50.14
Ricky: yeah

00:48:50.72
Flav: It's like, Arsenal won a cup. I'm going pretend to be one. Wear an Arsenal shirt and go on a parade.

00:48:57.75
Ricky: Yeah.

00:48:58.05
Flav: It's performative.

00:48:58.07
Ricky: Yeah.

00:48:59.35
Flav: um They're not real. And did you see the bloke going to the ah the parade and asking really basic questions? Like, who is the manager before Arteta? And like, half of them didn't even know.

00:49:08.06
Ricky: Yeah, yeah.

00:49:10.03
Flav: Like, what are you doing?

00:49:10.60
Ricky: Yeah. Yes.

00:49:11.48
Flav: What are you doing?

00:49:11.61
Ricky: yeah

00:49:12.77
Flav: You're a culture vulture.

00:49:16.22
Ricky: yes

00:49:16.26
Flav: You're lashing on. So so ah I've done, i had ah most of the international tournaments I've been to in the last… I didn't go to Quark, didn't even end in Qatar. I went to Russia and I went to France.

00:49:32.12
Flav: I went to Euros in France. and um And a couple of you had to work, we did work at home. like So we we we would cover like, I think Spurs, but England played Sweden in the World Cup, we beat them 2-0.

00:49:47.38
Flav: And we were at the Gridiron Square. I worked for a company called Ball Street back then and we had to go and get content and just just watching and people are just waiting for a goal just so they can just throw their beers in the air.

00:49:56.47
Ricky: Yeah. Throw the beer, yeah. Yeah.

00:49:59.50
Flav: Mate, don't want to be a part of that. You get to a point where you think, I know how to celebrate a goal. it and And it's fine if everyone's having fun, but it is so mental to celebrate like that for a 1-0 in your first game against Paraguay means that you're just doing it to dip for the sake of doing it.

00:50:13.82
Ricky: Yeah.

00:50:19.34
Flav: Do i sound like an old man?

00:50:21.27
Ricky: No, no, no, not at all. Not at all.

00:50:23.25
Flav: Right.

00:50:23.35
Ricky: I think what you're thinking of Box Park, like those main event gatherings, me down my local when I'm with the lads, no one's throwing glass pints over each other.

00:50:28.31
Flav: Yeah. Yeah. They're not going to do that.

00:50:35.10
Flav: Yeah.

00:50:35.80
Ricky: Um, and it generally, it is, you know, it's, it's fine. There will be fights. There always is. ah remember I remember, can't even remember it was a world cup, but I got, uh, got involved in fucking.

00:50:48.63
Flav: Did you go in public?

00:50:48.79
Ricky: oh

00:50:49.42
Flav: Yeah.

00:50:49.78
Ricky: Yeah. Well, mate, it was horrible. It was really, really bad.

00:50:53.59
Flav: What happened?

00:50:54.55
Ricky: So what happened was there was a fight kicking off outside in the beer garden. i i can't quite remember. Mine's a bit hazy, but my mate's wife went to split it up.

00:51:07.22
Ricky: And I think someone pushed her. She turned around and put pushed another girl.

00:51:11.48
Flav: Oh.

00:51:14.46
Flav: Ah.

00:51:14.78
Ricky: And then it's like, oh my God, you've pushed her. Then all the pub turned on us.

00:51:17.50
Flav: Yeah.

00:51:20.86
Ricky: like and And I'm not even joking.

00:51:22.68
Flav: How many of you?

00:51:23.83
Ricky: There was maybe four of us all pissed up.

00:51:25.99
Flav: He's all pissed up.

00:51:27.58
Ricky: And then there was a whole pub and everyone's pointing the finger. Everyone's trying to get at us, trying to kick us in.

00:51:32.99
Flav: Jesus.

00:51:34.10
Ricky: It was mental. We had to stand outside the pub. We couldn't leave the pub because people were waiting for us.

00:51:37.85
Flav: Yeah.

00:51:39.86
Ricky: um We had to wait for it to die down. Then we had to slip off a side road and try and make our way home ah whilst like looking over our shoulder and just being panicked that we're going

00:51:50.94
Flav: Was it D-Money's fault?

00:51:52.98
Ricky: She wasn't even there.

00:51:54.10
Flav: thought he said you pushed her.

00:51:55.51
Ricky: no, it was my mate's wife.

00:51:57.34
Flav: Oh, Jesus.

00:51:57.94
Ricky: yeah Oh, yeah. So that that kind of stuff in the pub beer garden is…

00:51:59.58
Flav: ah says a

00:52:02.74
Ricky: um

00:52:04.73
Flav: But it is great.

00:52:04.76
Ricky: iss

00:52:06.33
Flav: like i want do What I do like about a World Cup is that you people kind of come together, don't they? More or less. You have what you always have people that fighting in pubs and whatnot, and a lot of gear and stuff flying around. But it is quite nice to sort of unite with people that don't necessarily, would typically follow football, but they take interest in an international tournament.

00:52:23.72
Flav: like I like sitting down… with my wife watching games, um that she's Swiss. So she sort of she wants she likes England to win, but she's she considers herself a Swiss national. So we watch the Switzerland games.

00:52:36.70
Ricky: Does she really? a

00:52:38.46
Flav: not Not passionately. She's not like…

00:52:40.25
Ricky: yeah yeah, of course.

00:52:41.27
Flav: like but If you even asked her, she probably wouldn't say Swiss. But she to me, she says, feel Swiss. So when Switzerland's on, she'll watch it.

00:52:48.02
Ricky: What?

00:52:49.73
Flav: Her dad's Swiss. So…

00:52:51.14
Ricky: Are at the World Cup?

00:52:53.21
Flav: They usually are. They always fucking it around. you i Like everything, they're just there, aren't they, the Swiss?

00:52:59.38
Ricky: ah

00:53:00.38
Flav: I don't know. like i mean, a good side. Yeah,

00:53:06.01
Ricky: I couldn't tell you one Swiss player.

00:53:08.42
Flav: you could.

00:53:10.74
Ricky: um

00:53:11.08
Flav: Midfielder.

00:53:14.14
Flav: Ex-Arsenal.

00:53:15.22
Ricky: Xhaka.

00:53:15.80
Flav: Yeah. Yeah.

00:53:16.95
Ricky: ah There's that, this is his name Briel Mbolo?

00:53:21.35
Flav: I don't know. Now you've gone past what I know.

00:53:23.00
Ricky: Right, okay, Shit, man, Swiss players.

00:53:27.39
Flav: Alaba? No, that's Austrian.

00:53:31.97
Ricky: Yeah, see, I don't fucking…

00:53:32.21
Flav: Yeah, Switzerland are… Mate, they've got a plum group. Right, listen to this group. We've got a horrible group, Rick. You know that.

00:53:38.62
Ricky: We have. People don't realize it. We could be going out really early doors, you know.

00:53:43.13
Flav: yeah ah we Because there's so many teams… ah We can't. like It would be an unmitigated disaster. The worst performance in the history of England. not those not look but you know You can't put it past us, but there are top two go through and then there are eight other teams, best finished ah third place teams out of 12 groups.

00:54:04.41
Ricky: Right. right Okay.

00:54:05.32
Flav: like it's inputs like We would have to be so bad to not to not qualify from this group.

00:54:09.69
Ricky: yeah

00:54:13.38
Flav: So, although in the in traditional sense, Panama is obviously is is the gimme. Croatia is a problem.

00:54:20.95
Ricky: Yeah.

00:54:21.14
Flav: And so is ah Senegal. Like, big, big problem. Like, they effectively, we no one knows who won the African Cup of Nations yet because there's all legal stuff.

00:54:30.10
Ricky: and we I thought we had Ghana.

00:54:32.47
Flav: No, we do have Ghana. Yeah, my bed am i bad. my bad. a bit bad, isn't it? Racist? Racist.

00:54:37.06
Ricky: No, mean, there's lots of teams, isn't there?

00:54:39.58
Flav: They lost those teams.

00:54:40.78
Ricky: Lots of teams.

00:54:42.22
Flav: It's ridiculous the amount of teams in the World Cup. 48. That's just too many. It's over 100 games. It was for seven weeks.

00:54:50.20
Ricky: I mean, this is like but all about the money, innit?

00:54:53.50
Flav: Yeah, but then when when a World Cup starts, I get well into it.

00:54:54.19
Ricky: All about the money.

00:54:57.82
Flav: And then when it ends, I don't know what to do.

00:55:00.12
Ricky: Yeah. What was it?

00:55:01.59
Flav: Because like when three games go down to two games, you're like, and then there's a break of two games about games, two days about games, and you're like, I don't know what to do.

00:55:04.68
Ricky: it's a nightmare, innit?

00:55:10.90
Ricky: Yeah. What was the last World Cup that was for? Where was that?

00:55:15.13
Flav: Qatar was brilliant. the guitar I think I enjoyed Qatar World Cup more than any World Cup in living memory.

00:55:16.22
Ricky: ah Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:55:21.08
Flav: I thought it was going to be awful.

00:55:23.00
Ricky: Wow, really?

00:55:24.31
Flav: Yeah, i think Qatar World Cup was the best. The best there's been. Probably, i mean, people will look at like rose-tinted glasses ah at like Italian 90 and they're for good reason, but most of us don't remember that.

00:55:38.61
Ricky: No.

00:55:39.03
Flav: I think the Qatar World Cup, in terms of like the practicality for us, in terms of the it's like it was two hours, there were two hours in front, but the games were played at eight o'clock, so that was beneficial.

00:55:51.77
Flav: um I thought the standard of the football was great. I remember watching a game between Georgia and Turkey and it was incredible. I just thought, just loved it.

00:56:01.18
Ricky: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:56:02.66
Flav: I enjoyed it more than any other World Cup. um and ah And like i said, I've worked for a couple of them. Like Russia was hard to enjoy because I was, i was,

00:56:12.98
Ricky: Working?

00:56:14.14
Flav: yeah He was working and I was driving. The work in this in the rough Russian World Cup, I've mentioned before, is we got we did a deal with Vanarama. So the deal was that they put us in a van and we drive to Russia in the Vanarama van and then make content around the van, ah which I didn't want to do.

00:56:32.87
Ricky: God. Yeah, that sounds horrible.

00:56:34.18
Flav: i didn't Yeah, you want to drive to Russia in a van? not Not really. Who would want to do that? And you're not going to earn any more money. ah um So anyway, I ended up doing it.

00:56:45.66
Ricky: but

00:56:46.94
Flav: um So that was a mental trip. So it was hard because um that included the England versus Belgium dead rubber, which is the one we had. We didn't know we had tickets for actually. And this is, we we made two short films about this.

00:56:59.78
Flav: And people think we made up the fact that we didn't have tickets. We were driving to Russia without tickets because we we've got this deal. Vanarama wasn't the sponsor of the World Cup. They weren't, there was nothing.

00:57:09.66
Ricky: Yeah.

00:57:11.09
Flav: They would just did a deal with Ball Street, put us in a van, make the content go. um So I had to start trying to pull as many strings as I could to find us tickets. This is the truth of the matter.

00:57:23.16
Flav: And people go, of course you had tickets. You wouldn't drive all the way. with We didn't have tickets. um which, you know, and um I wasn't overly bothered by it because it was a dead rubber. Both England and the Belgian were through.

00:57:36.25
Flav: It was just watching the B teams of everyone. So it wasn't the end of the world, but it would have been a shame for us to drive. And when I say Russia, I'm talking about…

00:57:41.24
Ricky: Yeah.

00:57:43.86
Flav: there are There's a bit of Russia that exists inside Europe, which is… I forgot the name of it now, the name of the city. It's between Finland and the main mainland Russia, next to Poland.

00:57:58.78
Ricky: Right.

00:58:00.94
Flav: can't remember name city, it's gone. ah So it wasn't like we drove to Moscow, which would have been mental, right? But we did have to drive through Europe, through Poland, through… We drove through Poland in a day.

00:58:12.18
Flav: um But all this time we didn't have tickets. So I'm like so scurrying around. This should but should be the job of… ah but of a I guess I was the producer. So as a producer, it was my job to find a ticket.

00:58:21.91
Ricky: ah

00:58:22.79
Flav: So maybe it was my responsibility. And I knew… I had him um a mate of mine who worked for a a PR company. And… he I messaged him, I said, is there any chance you know anyone with tickets for this game? And he goes, let me have a, let me have a yeah you know, let me have ask around. And he did.

00:58:42.84
Flav: And he come back and he went, there are two tickets for you. and But you have to go to this hotel and you have to ask for this person.

00:58:52.22
Ricky: Oh.

00:58:52.72
Flav: The person I had to ask for, well the name I had to give was Simon Mignolet.

00:58:54.46
Ricky: Yeah.

00:58:58.01
Flav: Now, that name might mean something to people who, you know, watched Liverpool, um you know, 10 years ago and liked football.

00:59:03.33
Ricky: Yeah.

00:59:06.29
Flav: Simon Mignolet was like the second or third choice Belgium goalkeeper. um who had two tickets spare. And just i they did i don't even think he knew where those tickets went. He just handed handed them to the PR company.

00:59:23.86
Flav: He rang me back and said, go there, ask the Simon Mignolet, there'll be an envelope and your tickets will be there. so we have But when you enter the and when you enter the hotel, do not have like England shirts on and stuff like that, just don't be dressed normally.

00:59:34.78
Ricky: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

00:59:37.27
Flav: Anyway, James goes in. I sat out recording with Sam Peoples. There's three of us there. And we was a bit gutted. We had to choose two people to go in because we only had two tickets. um And there was three of us.

00:59:51.22
Flav: And I was like, I knew i would give it up. i i just I was fine. If they wanted to go in, i would find a bar and just sit and watch you like out i would regret.

00:59:57.06
Ricky: You're a good guy. Of course you would.

00:59:59.62
Flav: i'll be able um but I'll be happily sitting in a bar at the pub having a few beers watching it almost prefer it than actually go into the stadium and and watch it anyway um we opened the envelope and there were four tickets in there again people think that we made this up we didn't we didn't know that we were four and yeah we're all we're all going to the game

01:00:06.46
Ricky: ah

01:00:21.85
Flav: ah

01:00:22.01
Ricky: That's quality. Was it an England game? Fuck.

01:00:24.59
Flav: It was England, eagle and Belgium. So we had similar millionaires. So we were sad we were sat with the players' families. In front of me, there was a player called, oh man, what's his name? a really good midfielder.

01:00:37.55
Flav: He played for Roma. He played in Italy. it was a Belgian midfielder. tra um Clemens?

01:00:45.69
Flav: they are This is important because we sat in front of him. We were chatting to his mum and dad. ah when was it 2018?

01:00:54.94
Ricky: Yeah.

01:00:57.10
Flav: metons Merton's, Merton's.

01:00:58.47
Ricky: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:00:59.19
Flav: Yes, so Merton's, Merton's parents.

01:00:59.23
Ricky: Mertens, Mertens, yeah. yeah

01:01:02.04
Flav: And there was a moment where we, um we nearly scored and I went up and leapt up and I threw my GoPro about 12 rows in front of me by mistake and i had to climb over Merton's parents.

01:01:15.90
Flav: But yeah, which was,

01:01:17.46
Ricky: That's amazing, though. Like, going to watch ah an England game at a World Cup.

01:01:21.24
Flav: Yeah, I've done it a few times. i went i went in I did it in Euros the other time when I had to go to Paris. I went to Paris up three or four times in in a four-week period.

01:01:30.05
Ricky: What?

01:01:31.05
Flav: Don't you remember this?

01:01:32.01
Ricky: No. No.

01:01:32.86
Flav: That was when I interviewed Ian Wright.

01:01:35.26
Ricky: No. don't

01:01:36.66
Flav: You remember I interviewed Ian Wright? What?

01:01:40.45
Ricky: fucking know. I don't remember.

01:01:41.96
Flav: Mate, it was a mad story, Rick. i was So I was was in Paris. I was with um i with Matt Wilson, who I used to work with. He was the owner of Ball Street.

01:01:50.10
Ricky: this a time when you went out to dinner and you didn't know what to say and you just started talking about sharks?

01:01:54.14
Flav: Well, yeah, you kind of ruined my joke, but yeah.

01:01:55.48
Ricky: ah Sorry.

01:01:55.74
Flav: yeah yeah So we ah we um it so we we had gone over there to interview.

01:01:56.72
Ricky: Sorry.

01:02:04.13
Flav: I'd been asked with the boss to go over to Paris to interview Ian Wright because we had this we had this podcast idea called The Long Ball Street. And he um

01:02:18.17
Flav: i I was like, brilliant. So it's all arranged. Brilliant.

01:02:20.79
Ricky: Yeah.

01:02:20.93
Flav: And and and Matt had also um been asked by Enright to pick up some trousers. or some So he had some some trousers or suit tailor-made, something like that.

01:02:32.09
Ricky: Yeah.

01:02:32.94
Flav: So Matt said, don't worry. When we come, well we'll bring it to you. And he's like, great. ah So… we he Matt reaches out to Ian Wright and says, where where are you? And they said, we're at this bar, this pub. We're just getting some food, a bar, a restaurant.

01:02:53.14
Flav: And he went, all right, we'll come over. so I was like, okay. So I was like, we're going to meet Ian Wright, give him his trousers, and and then, I guess, fix the time to to do the interview.

01:03:02.71
Ricky: Yeah.

01:03:03.40
Flav: We've gone in there, and there's Ian Wright. Lee Dixon, Glenn Hoddle, and is it montie Montague? I can't remember his name. He like he presents for ITV.

01:03:18.68
Flav: He's like the main sports anchor.

01:03:20.76
Ricky: Right.

01:03:20.84
Flav: He's a little geezer.

01:03:21.04
Ricky: Okay.

01:03:22.49
Flav: He was there. And we we sort of, it felt like to me that we were intruding on their dinner. But Matt very was very comfortable and just sat down.

01:03:34.75
Ricky: Oh, no. Yeah.

01:03:35.67
Flav: So I had to sit down. So I'm feeling like we're in this situation where I've got these legends of the game around me, especially Glen Oddle.

01:03:43.05
Ricky: Yeah.

01:03:43.86
Flav: My dad grew up, you know, idolizing Glen Oddle.

01:03:45.88
Ricky: Yeah.

01:03:47.18
Flav: He was so good. And I'm sitting in front of him and that I didn't know really what to say. And I i was ordering some dinner and I've got to say something because if you say nothing, you're even more weird.

01:03:58.58
Ricky: yeah

01:03:59.61
Flav: So I spoke to Lee Dixon a bit and he told me he moved out to California. And so I know that there are sharks in California and great whites and stuff. So I'd bring up, start talking about sharks with Lee Dixon. It's very odd.

01:04:12.47
Flav: Anyway, it also became apparent during this this um this dinner that Ian Wright didn't really know that we were there to put do podcast a podcast with him.

01:04:22.00
Ricky: Oh no! Right.

01:04:23.00
Flav: and Matt still had work to do in order to convince him that he wanted, the that the podcast was the right thing to for him to do. Bearing in mind, Ian Wright was a part shareholder of Ball Street. He invested money at the beginning.

01:04:35.54
Ricky: right

01:04:36.12
Flav: And, um, So it would have been in his best interest to help us, but it made it clear that he was getting irritated by being asked constantly.

01:04:46.94
Flav: Anyway, and you can hear it. If you go back to listen to the start of the podcast, he has a go at Matt.

01:04:51.22
Ricky: yeah Oh, fucking hell, really?

01:04:54.01
Flav: Uh, Yeah, you can you still listen to it now.

01:04:55.09
Ricky: Yeah.

01:04:56.60
Flav: you Just type like type Long Ball Street, Ian Wright, you'll find the podcast. But he has a go at him. And do you know why? Because after we went to dinner and we had some drinks, we followed them back to their hotel.

01:05:08.73
Flav: I played a game of foosball, table football, with me and Matt versus Ian Wright and Lee Dixon.

01:05:15.35
Ricky: yeah

01:05:16.41
Flav: And then about half past 11 at night, we went in and found this room, ah set up the mic and did an an hour and a half long podcast with with Ian Wright, which is a bit of a coup to be fair. Now it'd be very difficult to get him to do that because clearly didn't want to do it then.

01:05:34.55
Flav: But yeah, we did it. it was an awful…

01:05:35.77
Ricky: Half eleven at night?

01:05:37.53
Flav: Yeah, half 11. We sat down in this this room in the hotel.

01:05:40.84
Ricky: I'm not surprised that Ian Wright was a bit fucking eggy about it.

01:05:44.73
Flav: Yeah, i was I was so tired as well by that point. The last thing i wanted to do was a fucking hour and a half podcast. But it was, yeah, it was good. So my point, this long-winded explanation is that I haven't been able to sit down and just enjoy a World Cup.

01:05:56.99
Flav: But I can't do it now either because we've got this gig with Match Pints. So it's a bit of…

01:06:01.40
Ricky: ah So that's why guitar is your favorite. So you got to, cu you because I could just sit down and watch it on my own.

01:06:04.61
Flav: Sat on sofa and did nothing.

01:06:08.22
Flav: beers I mean you remember it's beautiful weather no hang on that's the no that was another World Cup when when did Ericsson collapse I remember that being like the like a really beautiful the weather was amazing then when that World Cup was on no not beautiful he recovered and still still plays didn't he get him back

01:06:08.98
Ricky: Yeah, yeah, yeah. say beautiful moment. That's the fucking study. Yeah.

01:06:27.58
Ricky: f Yeah, I think so. Free agent. Sign him up. Right, I think that will work.

01:06:34.43
Flav: Swiss have got Qatar, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Canada in their group.

01:06:35.74
Ricky: Oh.

01:06:38.26
Ricky: Who's that?

01:06:39.23
Flav: Swiss. That's where it started from.

01:06:40.02
Ricky: Right.

01:06:40.83
Flav: Qatar, Bosnia and Canada.

01:06:44.92
Ricky: I mean, Bosnia, they can be a bit handy.

01:06:47.77
Flav: Can they? I think, I know they've, why? Why do you say that? I kind of know what you mean, but I don't know why. I couldn't articulate in any way why they couldn't be Andy.

01:06:55.38
Ricky: what's his name? Um, who's the striker? Zeko, is he still there? that him?

01:07:00.61
Flav: If you're worried about fucking 42-year-old Dzeko, you're

01:07:02.91
Ricky: Mate, he's fucking, I remember when he was like, when he went to city and we were interested. Oh my God, mate, he was fucking mustard.

01:07:07.12
Flav: He came up 15 years ago.

01:07:10.57
Ricky: He's still mustard now. he would do a it would do a job for Tottenham, I'm telling you.

01:07:12.06
Flav: is he still playing? Mate, there there are loads of ancient players. Do you know who's playing up top for Ecuador?

01:07:20.89
Ricky: Oh, God. um

01:07:22.94
Flav: See if you can get it.

01:07:24.95
Ricky: Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. What's the beginning letter of their name?

01:07:30.00
Flav: What one? The first name or surname?

01:07:32.47
Ricky: ah Let's go with surname.

01:07:33.75
Flav: The…

01:07:35.66
Ricky: The… Oh,

01:07:40.42
Flav: You'll never believe it, I don't think.

01:07:44.31
Ricky: ah shit. Shit.

01:07:48.31
Ricky: Not, uh, why is my, matt what what's it what's his first name with the beginning letter of his?

01:07:53.95
Flav: E.

01:07:56.26
Ricky: Oh, fucking hell. Go and tell me.

01:07:58.11
Flav: Ena Valencia.

01:07:59.74
Ricky: I was going to say Antonio Valencia. Yeah, i got

01:08:02.65
Flav: No, you're down there. It is Ena Valencia, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.

01:08:06.01
Ricky: yeah, yeah, yeah. It is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:08:08.02
Flav: He's 40. He's still leading the line.

01:08:11.55
Ricky: Fucking hell.

01:08:12.61
Flav: He captained…

01:08:12.77
Ricky: See the,

01:08:13.81
Flav: Didn't he Man United about 15 years ago? Hang on a second. He's only 36.

01:08:21.40
Ricky: what Did he play for United?

01:08:23.13
Flav: Who am I thinking of? Am I getting my players mixed up? so glad I'm doing it here. Then I'm not…

01:08:30.39
Flav: I swear he played for Man… Yeah, he did play for Man United.

01:08:32.46
Ricky: Did he? Oh, sorry.

01:08:33.37
Flav: He captained Man United. No, he's never played.

01:08:36.15
Ricky: Fucking hell.

01:08:37.09
Flav: West Ham.

01:08:39.13
Ricky: Yeah.

01:08:41.42
Flav: I'm thinking of another Valencia.

01:08:43.67
Ricky: Antonio Valencia.

01:08:44.73
Flav: he that's yeah yeah Is it him who's playing?

01:08:45.46
Ricky: Yeah.

01:08:48.06
Flav: Maybe it is Antonio Valencia. Hang on.

01:08:50.13
Ricky: don't know.

01:08:51.66
Flav: This is bad for us. I'm so glad I cleared this up here.

01:08:54.46
Ricky: ah ah See, there's going to be so many players out there that are still fucking doing their business.

01:09:02.74
Flav: No, he's not. He's in a Valencia ex-West Ham.

01:09:04.69
Ricky: Good. Good. Right. Before we wrap this up, um this podcast is in collaboration with Flushkind.

01:09:17.82
Flav: Oh, yes.

01:09:18.86
Ricky: So Flushkind turns ordinary toilet paper into a wet wipe. Kind to your skin, kind to the planet.

01:09:29.53
Ricky: Now, why I say that is I am i used to be a user of wet wipes. I love wet wipes. it's to After you've got the you know the dry wipe, then to finish off, a little wet wipe, little freshen up down there. Now, they used to wind me up because every time I'd pull them out,

01:09:51.03
Ricky: they would just start kind of ripping and be caught in the packet. It's well annoying. I found out that even though they have like a biodegradable on them, they're not actually biodegradable.

01:10:02.52
Flav: No, they're really bad, really bad for environment.

01:10:04.66
Ricky: Really bad for the environment. Create, what is it? Fatbergs and all that lot. And ah they're just bad. Now, flush kind is a lotion that you, one one pump squirt on your toilet paper

01:10:21.18
Flav: Yeah.

01:10:21.16
Ricky: Clean your bum after. Job's a good one.

01:10:24.18
Flav: Yeah. Sometimes i have to, it takes a while. use a lot of paper.

01:10:29.27
Ricky: Hmm.

01:10:30.33
Flav: It's like, why is it still, why isn't it gone?

01:10:33.24
Ricky: Yeah, and I know.

01:10:36.34
Flav: When I've used when i've used the you know wet wipes in the past, it's a much cleaner process and your arsehole feels clean.

01:10:40.82
Ricky: Yeah.

01:10:43.99
Ricky: Yeah, exactly. I mean… that

01:10:45.39
Flav: we're We are a dirty, dirty, dirty nation, by the way, aren't we?

01:10:48.44
Ricky: Yeah, I'm slightly finding that out, actually.

01:10:51.06
Flav: like how like in england the correct etiquette is just to wipe your ass a few times and then just walk away like it's done whereas in in in in in europe they've got guns or bidets where you can wipe wash your fanny or wash your ass blow like blast water blast it like bum guns got those but in it england it's just like yeah a bit of paper that's see it would do i mean oh it's not quite not all all done but that's that'll do

01:10:51.20
Ricky: to be

01:10:56.22
Ricky: Yeah.

01:11:03.83
Ricky: Yeah.

01:11:07.10
Ricky: I mean, it yeah, everyone's got a bum gun. We haven't.

01:11:18.97
Ricky: Flush Kinds, right, is the next best thing because not only can you use it for post poo and your baby's bum, one for of the lasses out there, period hygiene and post sex as well. So you've got a fresh fritter and a fresh frank.

01:11:38.39
Flav: is a

01:11:38.87
Ricky: I mean, and it's everything that you want from a lotion as well. Cruelty free, alcohol free, no ring sting.

01:11:47.52
Flav: Where'd you get it?

01:11:49.05
Ricky: you can get it on Amazon, right? and And I must stipulate this, right?

01:11:52.06
Flav: What's it called?

01:11:54.08
Ricky: This is for UK people only, maybe in Europe,.co.uk. So if you go to amazon.co.uk and you type in flushkind,

01:12:05.10
Ricky: you'll see the product there. Also, if you go to flushkind.com, you'll see the Amazon link there. And all lads and on people, right? All the lads out there, you get 10% off. When you get to the basket, type in lads and on 10, all uppercase, and it gives you 10%

01:12:25.01
Flav: It's time to stop upgrading your weapon your ass, I think.

01:12:27.89
Ricky: Yeah, exactly. And I used it this morning, right? And the the kind of coolness on my ring piece and the freshness, it just feels so, so clean. Like you could eat a roast dinner off it.

01:12:42.49
Ricky: That's how clean it was, right?

01:12:43.39
Flav: That is violent. That's disgusting, Ricky.

01:12:44.82
Ricky: Yeah, it's disgusting. Flushkind, Amazon, Lads Anon 10 for 10% off. And all of that will be in the show description as well.

01:12:59.03
Ricky: Now we are going to be going on to dilemmas and to something only you know. I'm just going to go straight into the dilemma. It's called who should I support?

01:13:11.86
Ricky: Right. Where is dilemma jingle? Oh no. This one.

01:13:46.23
Ricky: Who should they support? Boys, I've got a dilemma. I need your advice on a family football dilemma. I recently adopted my wonderful children, h and L, who are three and two years old.

01:13:59.36
Ricky: I'm a huge Tottenham fan who was born and raised near the Spurs stadium. So obviously supported my local team with my brother, which was also my mum's team. Now I live in Essex and don't get time to go and see Tottenham play live much anymore. especially with the rising costs of Premier League tickets. Luckily, i'm lucky if I go once or twice a season.

01:14:20.98
Ricky: My question is, do I encourage my kids to be Spurs fans and teach them about pain and suffering that only Spurs fans can ever know, or do I encourage them to support a smaller local team in Essex that they can regularly see and go to games?

01:14:37.62
Ricky: I wasn't able to do this with my dad and I would love to do this with my kids. If so, do we go Colchester United and see a professional team or do they support Tottenham but also have a local non-league team like Chelmsford City?

01:14:53.38
Ricky: Hmm.

01:14:54.96
Flav: I think it's fine to support Spurs and watch your like you know your local club play. I know people that have done that. like they were brought up I know someone who's brought up a Chelsea fan.

01:15:07.67
Flav: And as he got older, he was i and we went to Chelsea a lot. And he was just like, this I don't feel like a Chelsea fan or or it's changed. And he followed Brentford a lot in the championship.

01:15:18.00
Flav: A lot of his mates a lot of his mates did.

01:15:18.33
Ricky: Wow.

01:15:20.66
Flav: And so ah now feels more closely aligned to Brentford than and than than Chelsea. So I think it's fine. I think it's good to go, go football with your parents, but, but with Spurs, it's about the emotional investment.

01:15:30.84
Ricky: Yeah.

01:15:33.99
Flav: You're emotionally invested. the kids should be emotionally invested. yeah Unfortunately, they are going to feel a lot pain and disappointment through the years, but that's part of being a well-rounded human being.

01:15:40.98
Ricky: Yeah.

01:15:43.85
Flav: What's the alternative? to Give giving me Arsenal and turn into one of those freaks. So, uh,

01:15:51.51
Ricky: I think, yeah. ah ah And as well, they will naturally see you're connected to Tottenham and want to support Tottenham too. But I don't think there's any harm in um going to see some non-league teams.

01:15:58.87
Flav: ye

01:16:04.82
Ricky: um i When I was younger and my dad… When Tottenham were playing away, we used to go and see Northampton Town, Rushton and Diamond, who were non-league, Steve and Edge as well.

01:16:17.40
Ricky: And I'll be honest with you, I hated all of it. Absolutely hated all of it.

01:16:20.15
Flav: He didn't enjoy it.

01:16:20.48
Ricky: i Yeah, didn't enjoy it whatsoever. And I was just like, yeah, just take me back to Tottenham, really.

01:16:22.62
Flav: What was it about Spurs? Spurs.

01:16:25.51
Ricky: That is all I wanted to do. And I think probably, although the enjoyment of going out with their old man to non-league and stuff, I think it will always be Tottenham because that has the the bigger pool. So I'd plumb for Tottenham.

01:16:38.81
Ricky: And if you want, go to a few non-league games. They'll find their way like Flav's mate did. So, you know, that that would be my advice. Always Tottenham. Always Tottenham.

01:16:48.95
Flav: Yeah.

01:16:49.62
Ricky: Right. We're going to go into something only you know.

01:16:58.42
Ricky: It wasn't me. One day I decided to go commando to work. Oh dear. Nothing wrong with that. I'd done it before when I'd run out of clean boxes or just fancied a bit of extra wind around my chap. I'd even tell people that I was going commando as a badge of honour.

01:17:16.34
Ricky: it was no biggie except… When it was on this day, I paid a visit to Jen to the gents and did the whole works. Nothing was out of ah or unusual at all. And I went back to the meeting and took my seat.

01:17:30.65
Ricky: It was only after the meeting that things took a turn. We all stood up to go. And the lad next to me said, Oh, what's that? and pointed to the floor.

01:17:41.18
Ricky: Imagine my embarrassment when I realised that when finishing off at the loo, I'd accidentally clenched bit of poopy roll between my buttocks and between walking back to the meeting and taking my seat, it slowly wormed its way down my pants. and out the other end of the floor.

01:17:58.97
Ricky: We all stood and looked at it and felt sick. I pretended i had no idea where it come from, and to this day, it's often brought up as an unexplained and gross occurrence. And that is something only I know.

01:18:12.60
Flav: That reminds me a little bit of the human poo we saw in Where Do We See It?

01:18:16.89
Ricky: in Paris, under the Eiffel Tower.

01:18:18.65
Flav: Yeah. The biggest poo I've ever seen. And the woman stepped in it.

01:18:25.04
Ricky: With sandals on and it all went in their toes.

01:18:27.48
Flav: Yeah, it's disgusting.

01:18:27.94
Ricky: Fucking hell, mate.

01:18:28.27
Flav: Yeah.

01:18:29.64
Ricky: That is such that what a fantastic memory. And matey, if you'd used flush kind, you wouldn't have had that problem. Would have been clean as a whistle. So get on it.

01:18:37.56
Flav: Yeah. yeah

01:18:39.89
Ricky: ah God, I didn't even say the um what we've got for next episode. Next episode that we're doing is Father's Day, ready for ah Sunday, 21st of June. We're going to have a guest on. We're going to have Jack from Rule the Roost. Been on Fighting Cock loads over the years. Also goes under the alias to Trunk.

01:19:01.24
Ricky: um Yeah, it's Father's Day. We're going be talking about our kids. You know the score. So if you've got anything that you'd like to add to ask, send it in to ladsanonpod at gmail.com.

01:19:15.03
Ricky: And until then, we'll see you next week.

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Dilemma: Who Should They Support?

Something Only You Know: It Wasn't Me

TOPIC FOR NEXT WEEK: Father’s Day – Sunday 21 June. We have a guest for this episode, Jack from 'Rule The Roost' podcast, you’d have heard him on the fighting cock over the years, teh Trunk is his alias.

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