Saponara with the chip, oh no he didn't, what a goal!
And that is the way to finish Ricardo Saponara, exquisite, glorious!
Hello and welcome back to say a spotlight episode 100 and to mark this momentous special event.
Matthew is back.
Hey guys, we'd like to thank Minto for filling in the formidable shoes of Matt,
but please brother, tell us how are you?
I'm good man, I'm good, it's good to be back in the studio, now this is my first time recording in the studio.
Yeah, thoughts?
Amazing bro, what a place, I love the kids.
We've got the kits, we've got the bubble heads.
Yeah, yeah, still needs work obviously, but there's no door.
It's kind of, I mean, yeah, but I kind of like the curtain vibes.
That's all, it's so good to be back man, obviously I wasn't in Australia for a good time,
but after three weeks of missing games and missing this and missing my homies and missing work,
finally I'm back drinking local beer here with you brother.
Yeah, yeah, bro.
And what better way, episode 100.
Did you miss the Kalyari game, the comeback?
Yeah.
Oh my god, devastating.
I was in and out for most games, I mean, I always got up for Milan,
but for most of them I was falling asleep, which was late nights, early mornings over there.
I have a lot of catching up to do.
I'm so glad I didn't try to record because I'm on.
Yeah, you would have been a mess I think.
But Mintoff is very good though.
Yes, Mintoff is brilliant, I enjoyed every single episode.
Thank you obviously to Mintoff as well for stepping in.
Yes, they really enjoyed it.
The listeners were enjoying it.
Less manic than I remember.
Yes, oh, he's settled, he's matured.
Maybe he's found a woman, he's a fellow, but he's definitely matured.
But yes, guys, for our goal of the week, since there weren't any goals of the week,
because it's the international break, we plugged in Saponara, our favorite over here.
Obviously.
Ricky Sappi, and there were that fantastic goal he scored for Spetsia against Roma and the Coppa Italia.
Yeah.
Before we get into it, guys, for this episode, we are going to ask each other a few questions.
It's going to be a special sum.
It will be football related, some might not be totally football related,
but obviously we'll always end up going back to football.
We'll take questions that we collected through Instagram and Twitter over the past few days.
And at the end, you'll actually hear from our patrons.
We ask them to send a voice note, basically saying how they stumbled upon us,
what they like about the show.
And yeah, honestly, I got very emotional listening to it, because I never thought that this little
thing we did meant so much to certain people.
And it's great.
It's really good.
And not everyone sent in a voice note, but we've got a really good representation of the
worldwide listeners that we have.
We've got a listener from America.
I've got from the UK.
We've got from Norway.
You know, we've got a really good sample rate just to show you guys,
like how far we've come in 100 episodes.
Whenever I speak to people about podcasts, they always say the same thing.
So long as you get past episode five and you keep on going,
then your community is likely to grow and that is really one thing that I've noticed
doing this 100 times, essentially.
And they are what keep us going, to be honest with you.
I love when I open my phone and people are reacting to what we said or people are like,
oh, that really made me laugh that moment.
These things keep us going, of course.
If it was dead silence, I'm sure we would have stopped a while back, right?
Yeah.
But yes, I'm going to thank the patrons before we get into it, bro.
I'd like to thank Ed Allen and Elena Jose, Mintoftonna, Matteo Luca Argento,
Anthony, Michael and Mattias.
Thank you very much, guys.
We have a nice little mix over here.
Milan fans, United fans, Chelsea fans, Juventus fans,
an Atlanta fan, new Michael, welcome.
And Mattias, of course, is a Roma and a BK Huckin fan,
if you know who those guys are, because I most certainly do not.
We also have Anthony, Mr. Locash, who also represents Italy,
Greece and Australia in one.
Mr. Worldwide.
He also meant to send a voicemail, but he's having a great time in Malaysia,
so I don't think I think the last thing he's thinking about right now is the voice
that he has to send us.
Really, enjoy, brother, enjoy.
But yeah, bro, I'm curious to see what you've cooked up for me
and these questions that we have to prepare for each other.
So what we're going to do this is I'm guessing I ask one,
take some time to discuss and then you ask one,
take some time to discuss.
I think that would be the best way to go about this.
So I want to start off with a question about the podcast
to celebrate episode 100.
Do you consider our podcast successful?
If not, what is your measure for success?
So the podcast is successful, in my opinion.
It's purely subjective.
I'm sure there will be people who look at the numbers and think maybe,
yeah, you know, the total football podcast with Michael Richards,
Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker got 10 million downloads
in about 20-something episodes.
All four months ago.
We were on 100 episodes with 20,000 downloads, you know.
But I never even expected us to get this far.
This was a little project.
And for me, the fact that we have made connections with people
who share our passion for football,
that is a clear sign of success for me.
I just love the fact that I can open my phone at any point in the day
and just talk about football.
Or if something happens and I can't wait to put a spin on this
or talk about it, quite frankly.
Discussive joke about it.
The second someone celebrates in a weird way,
I'm already thinking, like, how are we gonna fucking roast this guy?
So yeah, for me, it's something I enjoy doing.
I have never kept something up for this long.
I am the CEO of starting things and stopping.
Even when it comes to gifts for Sarah,
I would start making something and I would just give up.
I teach, I started working on a book once,
an English grammar book, I fucking never finished that.
So many things, Jim, like you said.
Yeah, and this is the one thing that has been consistent.
This stuck.
And I think I'm pretty much mirroring what you said.
I'm really glad we see it in the same way.
What were our goals coming into setting this podcast up?
Number one is that we'll give up on it
and it'll be something consistent.
It'll allow us to watch more football
and watch it more closely.
And have an excuse to watch it.
The girls will be like,
you're gonna watch another game?
We have to, it's work.
It's work.
It's the grand, baby, it's the grand.
No, damn.
I really hate that I have to watch Bologna Genoa right now.
I really don't want to be watching it.
Sign me up.
And the most important thing to me out of this is that
you and I got to do something like this together,
that we got to keep it up,
and that we got to build a small community.
That if you had to tell me,
we'd have our group of friends listening to our podcast,
and they were super engaged and listening to it,
and it's 10 of them,
then I'd probably keep on doing it.
You know what I mean?
That is the way in which I measure the success.
Hopefully one day,
because you need to also shoot for the stars,
so we've got our success,
because we're nice, grounded guys,
then that is our idea of success.
However, there always needs to be a next step,
and if there isn't a next step,
then you can get a little bit stagnant
and the hunger can die.
So I wonder what that next step will be.
I think the shop is the next step,
merchandise,
figuring out how to do it.
I want to buy a printer tomorrow's Black Friday,
start making prints, make them available,
hand out a few to our patrons,
after I figure out how to send things overseas.
And eventually a t-shirt print would be cool,
a t-shirt presser, like 200 euro apparently,
you could totally get one and make a few t-shirts as well.
That would be nice.
I think that could make us maybe sustainable.
Give us another front.
Increasing our output on social media,
obviously you've been doing that by yourself
since I've been away.
So it'll be good having both of us back here,
so we could start getting millions of views again
on singular videos.
On stupid controversial videos, quite literally.
But yeah, and I don't know,
it sounds a bit like a dream,
but doing this full time is the astronomical goal.
Like right now, I would so be that guy to like,
not that I want to quit my job or anything like that,
but so be that guy to take a risk,
but just like most people,
you know, got a loan to pay off and this and that,
which doesn't make it quite sustainable
to take such a risk at this stage.
But who knows, man, who knows, who knows.
I think the most important thing is that,
look, the most difficult thing about growing in any field
is stopping the gold post from moving.
That is the most difficult thing about,
let's say for example, even when it comes to career,
you start off at minimum wage, you work for 10 years,
all of a sudden you're making triple what you started out with,
for example.
I'm not sure if that's an accurate example,
but let's use that for now.
If you lived 10 years after you started working,
the same way that you lived when you started working,
then you would live like a rich man.
The problem is that we always want a bigger house,
a better car, better clothes, a more expensive trip.
The thing that we have to do is keep our goals within reach
and remain consistent and enjoy it,
because if we're not enjoying it
and if we're not giving out good content,
people will feel that we're not into it.
And that's when the listeners will drop.
100%, I couldn't agree more.
I'm glad we see eye to eye with that.
Let's give a bit of a cheese.
All right, now my questions aren't as insightful as yours.
In fact, my first question is, who is your favorite patron?
How could I answer?
Are you serious?
There's no way.
There's some patrons of new from age four, like Theo,
you know what I mean, and then there's Alan certainly got an unfair advantage
because he flew to Malta and we invited him over two hours
and watched matchday one of Serie A together with him.
And then L'Occasius, hilarious, Matthias is a genius,
Alan is fucking hilarious, Lena is brilliant.
Like she doesn't speak that much,
but when she does, it's always something fucking brilliant.
I love them all, man.
Yeah, I love them all equally.
No favorites.
All right, now I'll ask you my first real question.
Okay.
Do you ever worry that you're too good looking to be hiding behind an audio-only podcast?
Oh, what?
Jesus Christ.
No, all right, my first real question.
If you had to replace me with another co-host,
any other co-host in the world, who would it be?
Any, you can pick anyone.
Oh my God, any co-host in the world.
Any co-host in the world.
You can be sat here with Cassano or Obama,
like whoever you want.
Before Cassano opened his mouth, I really liked him.
I liked his attitude and all that, but he's like...
Terrific play back in the day.
I mean, play style, one of my favorites.
When he joined Milan in the latter stages of his career,
he was just brilliant, man.
Brilliant as that number 10 role that doesn't exist to commonly anymore.
So to that beer.
A part of me wants to say
Gattuso, right?
A strong part of me wants to...
Imagine that context.
Yes, because!
I would absolutely love that.
There are some brilliant hosts on other platforms
that I really like.
I really like the Seria Sit Down guys, for example.
They're absolutely...
Frank and Richard.
They have to have either one of them,
even if we could do a collaboration with them one day.
That would be pretty sick.
But I think I do have to say Gattuso.
Gattuso?
Be the eloquent one.
The unpredictable one.
Exactly, but the thing is, I have met someone
when I was working in hotels,
who was looking after the multi-national team.
He's like the hospitality guy, he books their hotels,
books their flights, make sure they're in on time,
they send that.
And he actually used to be that guy for Milan.
He was a Maltese man.
Allegedly, obviously.
This is what the gentleman told me.
He was telling me stories about
Pirlo, Gattuso and Enzaghi.
Apparently,
firstly, all of them chain smokers.
Smoking cigarettes.
This guy made claim, okay guys?
He made claim.
He made claim, but we have heard stories about Pirlo being a smoker before.
It's not new news.
Was he doing it at the height of his career?
I don't know. This guy made claim.
Where was I going with this?
And he said that Gattuso, Pirlo and Enzaghi together
were fucking hilarious.
And troublemakers.
And I think we see it with Gattuso's press conferences.
There's a famous story of Zlatan picking up Gattuso
and putting him in a bin.
Another one where Gattuso rammed his free stab
someone with a fork.
And another one, he ate a bug.
He ate a snail or a slug.
Gattuso, they bet that he wouldn't do it.
He did it and he gave all the money to the kit men.
That's the energy that you need on this podcast.
It just starts eating bugs at any given moment.
Who else would like to have one fucking Gino da Campo?
If he's in Tusseriado, I thought he's in Malta right now.
He's opening a restaurant on Mercury Towers.
It'd be hilarious.
I wonder if he's in Tusseriado.
Who would you choose?
I like James Horn Castle.
The horn.
Who's that guy?
I know who you're talking about.
I like him as well.
Gabb Marcotti.
He's so good.
He's so level headed.
What a good pundit.
There was this one where everyone was shitting on the quality of Italian teams
in the Champions League.
The way he leveled out these Premier League legends and pundits
and stuff, he really brought them back down to earth.
That would be great.
Also, I have to go for a legend.
I think it would be Paolo Maldini.
He's amazing.
Very elegant.
It would make me look like pure shit.
That would be fun to have on the podcast.
For sure.
But James Horn Castle, that was a brilliant answer.
Thank you.
I'd agree with you over there.
James Horn Castle would take your seat.
With his voice.
His name matches his voice perfectly.
I always love him.
It's funny because he's got this chill demeanor.
And then his hair is fucking crazy.
It's like a juxtaposition.
I guess.
You're the English teacher here.
Sell me a pen.
Write something down for me.
Roasted.
Fuck.
Fuck, I'm going right here, baby.
My question.
Yeah, yeah.
What is your favorite and least favorite part of this podcast?
So, okay.
Okay, okay.
My favorite part is...
When we have like a crazy comeback or a crazy goal,
and we start getting into it,
and we start kind of like spiraling and making jokes,
and like the jokes get slightly more inappropriate,
and we look at each other and we're like,
should we keep that in or the fuck it would keep it in?
And we're kind of really threading on the edge.
I love that.
That's my favorite part of the podcast.
The laughs, man.
The ribberry joke will live with me forever, bro.
You killed me.
And that was like early days.
Very early.
The joke for those of you who don't know was...
Please, you have the voice in the system.
I said, ribberry had the number seven shaped into his head.
What does this signify?
How many minutes of football he's fit to play?
Or the amount of times he's fucked and underage prostitute.
And it killed me.
It caught me off guard.
Crazy.
This was at the time of course,
ribberry was at Salaernitan,
and he was barely fit enough to play,
and of course you all know the allegations.
My least favorite part is when there are two
match weeks in a week.
Oh, man.
I hate that.
We either have to choose to group them or to release an episode
halfway through the week when the next match day starts,
the next week, make people lose interest in the episode.
I never know what to do over there.
I want to cover every single game,
but it gets so crammed at times,
the schedule.
And sometimes, there will be
fucking
four games at 3pm on a Wednesday
when that shit happens.
So we'll end up missing most games.
What am I going to say if I didn't watch the game?
How could I sit here and preach
if I wasn't there watching every single second of the game?
Yeah, you've got like, all right,
match day seven, for example,
finishes on a Monday, and then you have
Wednesday and Thursday, you've got the next match day.
And all the games happen in those two days.
So you don't even have time to watch the extended highlights,
like, and take fucking notes, and like,
you don't have any time to do anything.
We're here complaining as long as the players, man,
Jesus Christ.
The players play for those 90 minutes,
they train leading up to it, they only need to prepare another nine games.
They want to focus on,
so yes, what I'm saying right now is our job
is more difficult than that of a football.
I don't know, full-time athlete.
But yeah, what about you?
What's your favorite part of this?
I'd say I mirror your favorite part
to perfection.
I think to add a little bit to that,
it's when we've had a bit too much to drink as well,
and we're just being absolutely manic on the podcast.
And then we always...
There was one time we were going to give up, remember?
We couldn't even speak.
We were saying like four words,
we were just bursting out laughing.
We had the...
It was the season Milan won the league.
The best season.
The first season we started.
Yeah.
And we did the extravaganza.
Actually, it was the season Milan won the league,
but it was in December, January,
where there was the break.
We did the extravaganza.
We called it...
No, we called it extravaganza.
We called it Bohemian Rhapsody 1,
longer than the rest, I remember.
But the extravaganza for those of you that don't know
was recorded over three days.
We got drunk recording it three days,
and we were hungover.
Halfway through, we were hungover, getting drunk again.
And we had two events.
We had New Year's Eve, bro,
when we were recording it over New Year's Eve.
Because we had some events,
so we're like pre-drinking and recording the podcast
while doing it.
So I like it when we get a little bit messy
on the podcast. I think we've got the crowd
to enjoy it as well.
My least favorite part is when
I didn't watch too much Seria,
and I'm prepping for the podcast,
and I'm like, shit.
Sometimes weekends get busy.
Honestly, when that happens, bro, kick back,
extended highlights, put them on, and relax.
That's it.
Because honestly, there's nothing worse.
If you have a very busy weekend, then you have to prepare.
And you have to read every article
under the sun that was written about.
And fact check everything.
Because it can get tedious.
And in that case, the discussion would be more
stats-based and facts-based and opinion-based.
Yeah, don't give them the secrets now.
Because they'll know and haven't watched the game.
But like, yeah, this guy's just dropping
for a central statistics.
Like, wow, Tomori's had seven recoveries this game.
Like, yeah, really?
Someone didn't watch the game.
But yeah, bro, my next question for you.
All right, I'll go for this one, actually.
You played as a goalkeeper for Mosta FC
when you were a kid, right?
Yes.
So first of all, how old were you?
Because my memory is fucked.
From age of nine to age 11.
Okay, so from nine to 11, you were a goalkeeper.
Yeah.
Where the hell did you even get the deal?
Where the hell did you even get the desire to be a goalkeeper?
And I don't even remember you, like, ever mentioning
being a goalkeeper.
I just remember you coming home one day and being like,
I'm a goalkeeper now.
And what happened?
Iker Casillas happened to the road.
Iker Casillas, holy shit.
I was absolutely obsessed with Casillas.
I had started watching Real at a very young age.
I started watching Real at 2003.
I was five years old, man.
I started watching Floridino Pears' initial Galacticos.
I remember fucking David Beckham signing.
I remember the lot.
It's because our cousin supported Jal Medrid.
So I was super into them from a very young age.
And I was obsessed with Casillas because he was a young goalkeeper.
And he was God, bro.
He was good.
Casillas, he was God, man, between the sticks.
Obviously, I really liked him because he's a sensitive
and emotional guy.
You see him.
Like you?
Exactly.
I felt like I could idolize him because other footballers,
you look at this lot and you look at this and that.
A lot of people really put, not saying,
that isn't his natural personality,
but so many people put on a front.
Casillas was just emotion.
He was himself entirely.
He'd make a good save and you could see him start to tear up.
When he lifted the World Cup,
pulling up, but when Real won the 2007 League,
when Reyes scored that dopietta,
crying his eyes out.
I remember our parents used to tease me a lot.
Like, ah, look at Casillas.
What a baby.
He's crying.
I used to get so offended, bro.
Toxic.
Bro, was it Lopez who benched him?
Yeah, Diego Lopez.
Then he was bought by Milan.
Yeah, then he was bought by,
then he was benched by Dona Roma.
16-year-old Dona Roma, bro.
World's Collider.
Okay, but you were very good, huh?
And I think, come to think of it,
if I remember correctly,
whenever we played football in the garage,
I was always taking shots and you were always the keeper.
So probably you were molded into...
I mean, I used to train, bro, as a goalkeeper,
because, well, I'd drawn a goal post in our garage,
but a big garage growing up.
We also had a monument of our great-grandfather.
We had built one of the first hotels in Malta,
so they had the monument,
and they were keeping it in our garage
until they found a place to keep this.
And we, a mattress kid, would position this monument
in different places and fucking kick the ball
to the monument to try to get him to score a hit or a net.
We used to call him yup-stops.
That's so weird.
He was stomping a lot.
Our dad used to work in catering at this hotel,
so he used to work really long hours and used to come home late.
And whenever I'd hear the garage door opening,
which was manual back then, it was a metal manual door,
it'd go sprinting down with my goal, I remember,
and I'd throw a ball at him,
the poor guy would be fucking exhausted.
So he's...
because I used to tell him two goals,
and that's it, two goals, and we go up.
And those two goals sometimes used to take like 40 minutes.
He'd be shooting and just like shooting, and he can't score.
And then he'd score, and I'd be like, no, that hit the post.
That's amazing, man.
But that's how I became good, because every day I used to play.
But then the problem is you stopped at 5'9".
Probably 5'8".
I've had quite a reckoning recently.
Someone pulled out the tape.
Someone pulled out.
It was the first time in Australia.
The last March.
That's why this trip was so negative for me.
That's why he gives you a Matthew Zoyev person,
which is about to be 5'8".
So in Australia, everyone's fucking huge.
And a bit cold.
Okay, so I guess that's my question now.
So I've got a Would You Rather.
That's my hypothetical here, okay?
Would You Rather.
Okay, Would You Rather.
Give up the podcast.
And Milan win 5 Scudetti and 2 Champions Leagues in 10 years.
Or keep the podcast, the podcast.
Jesus is the podcast.
And watch another Milan banter era for the next 10 years.
Oh my God, you can't.
It's 5 Leagues and...
5 Scudetti and 2 Champions Leagues in 10 years.
Oh my God, I would be drunk every day if that happened.
Oh my God, what a fucking...
And you know what?
Toss in a Coppa Italia as well.
Milan banter era means fighting for Europa League.
You know what the thing is, I would be thinking about,
I want to be talking about this right now.
That's the thing, right?
I want to be recording and covering this.
Such good content, no?
It's great content.
But then again, another banter era, man.
Before it, you by the time come out of it.
Yeah.
Who asked you?
I have to cry.
No, I'm being a big fuck me, man.
You know what, man?
I'm keeping the pod.
That fucking makes one possible girl.
What I'm saying, fuck it.
That means one of us, yeah.
I can't, man.
I can't just give it up.
I'm only messing like...
Then what happens after the 10 years?
You know, am I going to be one of those guys?
They call this Milan.
Look, I'm missing Gullit.
What attracted me to Milan?
It's not like most people who...
All right, I grew up watching Milan who were insane.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
But the thing that really drew me to Milan
was watching them fucking suffer, man.
Yeah, honestly, man.
Watching them suffer.
Yeah.
And there are fucking shout-out to all the homies
that were there throughout those eight years of shit
that busted their nuts, the Bonaventuras.
Yeah, yeah.
The Romanioli's.
Yeah.
Where they're Jeremy Manes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Fucking Bacca.
Bacca, that one season.
You know what I mean?
This like in the town.
Sousseau, who really helped take Milan to that next level.
Romanioli renewed when everything seemed to be over, man.
Shout-out to Ricardo Rodriguez.
Shout-out to Borrini, man.
Yeah.
They did their best, man.
You know, that was the thing.
They didn't have the quality to be playing at that level, most of them.
But they proved many people.
Those are my Milan heroes.
And they gave their all, man.
Those were my Milan heroes, bro.
Yeah, yeah.
Same, man, to be honest.
Of course, I remember very clearly that 2017, man.
Yeah, of course.
And for me, those were...
We met those, bro.
We fucking met them in the summer of 2006.
But I hardly remember because I almost vomited, man.
I turned red, I got dizzy, and I don't know what happened after.
You remember calling Tita tall, bro?
You're tall, man.
You're so tall, man.
What language was Cedar speaking, bro?
God knows, bro.
Probably Dutch.
Dutch does not sound chill, like.
He didn't give us the time of day, as either.
No, Cedar was on the phone.
He kept going back.
El Presidente, no?
El Presidente.
The guy that took the most time out for us, Caca Ber, Cala Cedud.
Yes, shout out.
What a guy.
We even posed for a picture, like they were on the way to dinner.
Yeah, Caca was...
Wow, man, we met fucking Caca.
Yeah, that was nice.
He took a photo with Nondonev.
Yeah.
Nondonev.
RIP.
RIP, bro.
All right, bro.
Favorite book and movie?
Crime or punishment?
Is it really?
Favorite book?
I'm almost finished from it, and it's ridiculous.
I'm getting Raskolnikov tattooed in March.
There we go.
So I can't read a book without getting a tattoo.
It's such a deceiver.
So count Matthew's tattoos.
That's how many books he's read.
My favorite movie is Moneyball.
It's about how the money...
I was setting it up for a...
No, Moneyball.
Moneyball is great.
I love Moneyball.
Yeah, I used to watch Moneyball before.
I was like, I don't care about baseball.
I watched it, and I was like, wow, what about?
What a movie, dude.
I've watched it three to four times.
I watched it again on the way to Australia, by the way,
because it's always on...
I mean, you might have really had like three years.
It's always on Emirates and Turkish Airlines, always there.
Every single time, Hattie hits that home run,
every single time he hits it, and the...
music comes on, tears.
But not like tearing up, like tears, man.
Every single time I watch that scene, I cry.
You want to...?
Everyone fucking doubts him.
He's got a weird elbow like it's a mess.
No one...
They go to see him for the first time.
Paulo Maldini rocks up to recruit him,
and he's like, I can't throw for a shit.
I can't play for a shit.
That was the beginning, and in the end, that's a true story, bro.
That's crazy.
Now ask me the real question, please.
That was my real question, man.
Favorite book and movie?
Yeah, man. Why not?
Why not?
We never talk about ourselves.
That's true, man.
So why not?
Now they know that you like moneyball,
and you like fucking Raskolnikov, or the fucking name.
Crime and punishment.
Another great book, where I'm really answering these questions.
Now, if you guys don't like novels or anything like that,
read Ryan Holiday.
Ryan Holiday is great, man.
What he does is, rather than writing self-help,
he writes about a message.
So the message of this book, for example, is stillness,
so being in the moment, allowing the world to slow down,
and you being in the moment, and being present.
What he does, instead of preaching this for 350 pages,
is he gives you tiny, tiny stories about how successful people
have exercised stillness to help them become great.
Yeah, yeah.
It's a fantastic read.
He's great.
He simplifies the Marcus Aurelius types,
and all the ancient literature, quite frankly.
Alan once made a good point, though,
that a good way to actually learn about stoicism,
and all these philosophical things is,
honestly, watch university lectures on it.
I watch some Jordan Peterson ones,
and even though they're not exactly on stoicism,
and all that, like psychology, and philosophy,
and stuff like that, he uses, last time he used
the Lady Bird book, one of those kiddie books,
as an analogy it was.
Do the imitation, bro.
Well, the difference between black and white people
is that they'll ever love melanin.
In their system.
I don't know who has melanin, and who doesn't, and whatever.
The clear difference between them.
What's your favorite book on movie?
All right.
My favorite book.
Oh, man, I really enjoy these, like, literary classics.
Like horror, like Dracula, and fucking Frankenstein.
Like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Love that shit, bro.
It's written so well.
We've got so many at home, bro.
You picked up some recently.
I picked up a few, yeah, bro.
I grew up reading Goosebumps, Shivers, and all that stuff.
Like, I'm a big horror fan.
However, I have enjoyed many biographies.
I remember when I was quite young, to be honest.
So I remember you might be skewed on how good this book actually was.
But I remember being so entertained by Ozzy Osbourne's biography.
I read it for the first time, actually,
because it wasn't in our syllabus at school.
The picture of Doreen Gray.
Oh.
Fantastic book.
Fantastic.
I'm saying, oh, not because I've read it,
but because you've told me all about it.
So well-written, man.
That's, I like these types of books.
When it comes to my favorite film...
I have no idea what your favorite film is, man.
Man.
I don't even know what my favorite film is.
Oh, I know what your favorite film is.
What's my favorite film?
Enter the Void.
Enter the Void is my favorite fucking film.
Okay, so I have, okay.
I forgot that whole rabbit hole in my life.
So Enter the Void is a crazy film.
For those who don't know this film, it's a lot, it's very heavy.
I recommend Bracing Yourselves before watching it.
The director of this film actually directed another movie,
Just to Raise Money to Make This Movie,
which was the original movie he wanted to make.
Enter the Void.
It's a film, POV.
It's about, it's a story that combines DMT,
the drug with the Mexican book of the dead leg.
Yeah.
And it's a trip, this movie.
I also enjoyed the Korean version.
I sound so pretentious.
No, but your Korean version pretends just, you're weird.
I'm weird.
I haven't even watched Oppenheimer or Barbie.
They do nothing for me, dude.
I watched Oppenheimer, I enjoyed it.
And rather watched like, I don't know, something stupid.
But anyway, yeah, the Korean version of Old Boy,
the original version.
Old Boy is part of a revenge trilogy made by this director.
And it's crazy.
The plot twist at the end would blow your mind.
But yeah.
Yeah.
And then of course I enjoyed football.
Show was football series as well.
I really enjoyed Ted Lasso for a family show.
I enjoyed it more than I thought, I would be honest.
No, anything football.
I just watched Beckham.
Oh my God.
I watched Figo.
That was brilliant.
I remember when I was much younger,
I read the Roy Keane autobiography.
And that was excellent.
It was really, really fucking good, man.
I read Adrenaline by Zlatan in Africa.
And that's a nice read as well.
It's very interesting.
You have to read Crime and Punishment while I'm done with it.
It's a commitment.
I started listening to the audiobook,
but I was just killing myself.
I was just putting it on before bed,
falling asleep and losing where I was.
And then listening.
And I remember, it's like, I would be listening to this story.
It sounds familiar, but not enough for me to know what's going to happen.
But then when it happens, I say, ah, yes.
But I've fallen asleep.
Jake, we are fucking, all right, we're Gen Z.
I think you're Gen Z.
We were taught in a very millennial manner
where unless we're reading something,
we're not going to learn it.
Unless we're writing something down,
we're not going to learn it.
You read this book, that's the fucking true way
that you're going to follow the story
and get familiar with the characters.
It's unbelievable, man.
Now for my question, again,
we are way less personal questions than yours.
We understood different assignments from what it seems.
But what is your favorite goal in football history?
Oh man, the only thing I can think of right now
is Kaka's goal against you and I did.
That's a...
We made Hainte and Evra.
Evra? Evra? Evra and that, I think.
He made them kiss, man.
Yeah.
You know, it was a crazy goal.
Yeah, that's one of my favorite goals for sure.
I also really enjoyed watching Zlatan's goal
for Sweden against England there.
That was a crazy goal as well.
Ronaldo's bicycle kick against Juve was a mental goal.
Luis Muriel had a goal where he fake shots
the goalkeeper but touches the ball just enough to bounce it,
like pass it and just taps it in.
That was a goal of pure finesse.
I enjoyed Totteys,
I enjoyed Totteys chips from all over the box
and it's hard to pick one, you know,
but I think the one that stuck with me the most was Kaka's.
Mine is,
for what it was
and for what it meant,
Kualiarela's against Napoli.
Oh my God.
Takes the cake without a doubt.
Berezinski back here, oh my goodness!
Kualiarela with a moment of magic.
He's retired, he's announced his retirement.
But for those of you that don't know
what that goal meant for Kualiarela,
there has to be a movie about this one day
or a docu-series or something on Kualiarela's life.
Look it up if you guys don't know it,
but basically this was a guy who all he's wanted his entire life
is to play for Napoli.
His boyhood team, his favourite club,
it was his dream.
After a string of fantastic performances from season to season,
he gets to represent them.
But what he was looking forward to the most turned into problems,
not problems, it was definitely the most devastating period of his life,
something that I hope no one listening ever goes through.
He was being stalked by someone very close to him,
only to find out that it was his protector.
But while he was at Napoli, he was receiving threats,
finding notes in his house, blackmail.
Because the darkest ticket.
This forced him to move and the best sufferer came from Juve
and the Napoli fans resented him and they hated him for it
and they viewed him as a traitor when reality was just protecting himself.
For his entire career.
So devastating.
His favourite football team,
he got the chance to play for them and it was devastating.
And the fans resented him forever because he moved to Juve.
Upon his return to face Napoli for Sampdoria,
after the news had come out and various articles were released regarding
the fact that his protector was arrested because he was proving guilty.
I believe he was a police officer.
Yes, a police officer that was assigned to his case and a close friend of his, I believe.
He met him through a mutual friend or something.
He was welcomed back to the Maradona stadium
and the entire Napoli fans had banners saying,
we are so sorry.
We are so fucking sorry.
And then Berezinski whips a ball in and he just backheels it in midair.
Fucking keeper rooted to the spot, doesn't celebrate.
The entire stadium goes nuts.
Sampdoria win 3-0 and you could just see him,
his reaction to scoring that goal.
It's like just the biggest relief ever in history.
It was also an I'm him moment.
Massive I'm him moment.
I remember, I'm going to say this,
with the truffles together in Amsterdam,
we got weird, we got fucked up.
While Mintov and Santi were recording in our behalf,
early episodes, if you go check them out, they called themselves the jubilani,
because of their heads.
We spent 30 minutes of our 7 hour long trip, whatever it was,
watching Qualiarela goals over and over and over again.
And I wouldn't have it any other way.
They called him Mr. Wonder Goal for a reason.
That has to be my favourite goal ever,
for what it meant and for the way it was scored.
It was perfect man.
The best goal I've ever witnessed live was Theo against Atlanta.
I was in the Europa League there together and I fucking dislocated your shoulder.
And a goal that lives with me in recent memory that was pivotal for Milan's Scudetto,
when it was Jeroes Goal against Inter,
where he absolutely fucking did the De Vrij and then started it at home.
That was so good.
When I wrote this question, the first one that came to mind,
not as my favourite but as one I can't believe happened,
was Pato against Barça on the 26th second.
Yeah, that was crazy as well.
Milan were such underdogs in that game and 26 seconds in,
fucking prime Alexandre Pato.
Man, you...
It's not supposed to, it's like he has another gear to get into.
It's like he took four steps to get right in front of the keeper,
like just knocks the ball around Puyol, like ridiculous goal.
Ridiculous.
Good question.
Thank you.
Name a well pre...
Okay, let's try that again.
Name a well rated player, you deem to be overrated.
I'm gonna stick this area for the theme.
Okay.
Right?
A well rated player who I believe is overrated.
I'm gonna have to be a bit controversial.
We love it.
What I'm actually gonna say to Milan's star man, Leal.
Oh my god, you are...
Okay, this is the most controversial thing you've ever said on the podcast.
I think Leal is overrated.
What do you think is overrated by him?
I think.
About him.
So, the argument of he can only do one thing, can quickly be diminished
because he is mainly successful at doing that
and he's incredibly effective at doing that.
But when he's neutralized to doing that, like with a low block or something like that,
and you give him time with the ball, maybe just outside the area,
he can't pick a pass that's gonna set a teammate up unless he takes it to the byline.
His forward passing in that sense is awful.
His decision making isn't great.
His shooting is terrible, honestly.
And he's way too big for his boots.
I think there's no one that can do what he does in the sense of running down the wing
and then cutting it back.
Like what he did against Napoli, what he did against all these teams
and then the school at the winning team, sure.
But he's not the next.
Yeah, look, the thing is I tend to agree with you because
when it comes to getting the ball on the counter
and taking the ball to the byline and slowing the pace of the game down
and then bursting and absolutely destroying everyone by getting into a gear
that the defenders don't even have.
You can't fall to it.
You can't.
It doesn't even look like he's running at his max speed and he's destroying everyone.
He's elite.
I don't think there are many players better than him.
When he turns it on and he starts dribbling past all these players for fun,
it's magnificent.
Yeah, it's incredible.
But he doesn't seem to have understood his skill set.
And I just say he's getting a bit too big for his boots perhaps.
These long range shots, I can't stand them.
I don't think I ever recall him scoring for most of the box ever.
So, okay, fair enough.
For me, I have two monsters.
You know one of them very well because you lived through, I think,
two or three years of me fucking cursing and hating this guy.
Think carefully. Think about me long players.
One that I couldn't stand, bro.
Do you remember who it was?
It was a striker.
It was Baka.
Baka, dude.
You hated Baka.
I couldn't stand Baka because, okay, granted, great finisher,
Fox in the box, a poacher like no other.
In Spain, he was ridiculous.
Yeah, but he's a luxury player.
You need everything behind him to be perfect.
You have a player like that.
You have a team that can build play up without needing the number nine to get involved.
And Milan weren't that.
Milan would always try to play with Baka.
And like if the team was superior,
if the opposing team had a superior midfield, Baka would be invisible for the entire game.
Until maybe across the box and he did score like,
but his build up play was terrible.
He had no weak foot.
He would always go for the rubber.
Anytime the ball was on his weak foot,
Nefron was like, wow, he's so good.
Like, no, he's shit.
He can't even shoot his weak foot.
Like he's doing this fucking rubber.
And I granted it went in like twice, but,
but yeah, I couldn't stand.
I couldn't stand Baka.
I couldn't stand him.
I thought, as always, felt like Milan were a man down.
And granted, he had one incredible season.
And the rest like were what I expected, to be honest.
And the next one is slightly controversial as well was Ronaldo at Juve.
Ronaldo at Juve should have been a nine to start off,
but he should have been their striker.
He played where he wanted to play, which was out on the wing.
And I don't recall him dribbling a player ever.
I don't think he ever dribbled a player.
He shifted to a nine and then he was very good.
And in fact, he has that clip where he beats the Sampdoria man to a header.
He makes him look like he plays a different sport.
He scored the big goals.
He's a player who scored that ridiculous header he had.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But the fuss was too much every time he scored.
It's like, you see these big pages,
I know Ronaldo brings that about him, right?
He's still got it. He's killing it and say, no, he's not man.
He watched the game half the time he's getting the ball out wide.
He's going to step over and he's passing because he can't beat his man.
Or he's getting tackled.
And that was the reality of it.
Another one, Buffon at Parma, don't at me.
Buffon at Parma and say, B, if you watch the footage, it can be quite bad.
But that makes us simple.
Exactly, everyone posted on Twitter.
But that's it about ageing.
You don't remain as sharp as you once were.
But please, bro, your next one.
My next question.
That was a good question.
I had to overrate it all.
Thanks.
This is my last question for you.
If you were an aspiring footballer and needed to choose one player past or present
to teach you how to play in all positions, who would you choose?
Radhe Kronich.
Brian Kristand.
To teach me how to play all positions.
That was a yes, by the way, because sometimes I nod at you and I forget we don't do video.
All positions.
So it needs to be a player who's absolutely complete in every department.
Basically a question of who's the most complete footballer ever.
Ahhhh.
It needs to teach you how to be a fox in the box.
It needs to teach you how to be a crusher.
It needs to teach you how to be creative.
Maybe quick down the wings or at least tricky down the wings.
Hard man at the back.
Oh man, I don't know what pictures.
It's usually me how to do everything, man.
Finally, enough of a player that's coming to mind is...
You know what, man?
I would have to become a midfielder because I feel like the reading of the game is better than most.
You know, I would go for Pirlo.
Whoa.
I'd go for Pirlo.
Teach me, like teach me always, teach me how to maintain a walking pace.
A thousand feet around there.
Yes, man, because he was playing right in front of the defense from Ossof Skirje.
He would position himself enough that he didn't actually have to get into dirty challenges.
He never actually had to sprint.
His football IQ was incredible.
The rest, I guess, is you either have it or you don't, right?
Yeah.
But yeah, I think I would pick Pirlo.
I would go option...
Let me start with option B, and I'll get to option A.
So option B, Clarence Seydorff.
Clarence Seydorff is the perfect answer, actually, you're right.
He's option B.
He's option B, so there's a better one.
A better one.
Who is it?
It's Zinedine Zidane, bro.
Oh my God, all right, bro.
Clearly I made this question.
Yeah, he had a lot of time to think about it.
Zidane, man.
Zidane is a crazy answer.
He's like a ballerina turned footballer.
He's crazy, man.
He's got size.
There was that video, man, of the clip of him playing that game with Juve when the pitch was flooded,
and he's using the water to fake, to faint even more.
He's splashing.
He's creating splashes, so the defender thinks he's going a certain way.
And the song in the background was dripping like a muck and all water.
Dripping like a muck and all water.
I never saw him fall off the horse.
I have seen him fall off the horse.
Fucking hell, man.
He's so elegant.
He's still on his feet, right?
No, he rolled.
He rolled.
He fell into our roll, and he just stood up like nothing happened.
Like he's the main character in Uncharted or something.
So yeah, rather cron-age.
My last player for you, we discussed this actually early on, so...
The last question.
Yes.
He said, last player.
The last question is, a player you wish played in SEA?
Oh.
As a Milan fan, I would say I'm a father for Milan, eh?
But...
I would say, messiba wat papugom, as you know.
I wish we got to see...
Can you imagine, iniesta?
Yeah.
Can you imagine iniesta?
That would have been crazy.
That's my answer, man.
Or...
Oh, my god.
To be honest, there are three...
center midfielders I played for,
Barça that are all very, very fucking good answers.
What's your name?
I'm Bousquet.
Bousquet as a six.
That's a six.
I'm a six.
Six.
Now the Milan inter, Juve, Bousquet as a six.
I'm going to go Bousquet, bro.
I think, yeah, yeah.
I'm going to go Bousquet.
Fair enough, man.
That's a good answer.
Thank you.
You know who I think would have been great in Italy?
Gooty, man.
You remember Gooty?
Don't...
You're asking me if I remember Gooty.
Gooty was my favorite player for like ten years.
Gooty?
Gooty at lots, you'll do.
Oh.
Gooty, I haven't seen, I swear to God.
Now you could tell me Kevin De Bruyne.
Fuck you, fuck off.
Never watched Gooty play.
Gooty's vision was ridiculous, man.
It was ridiculous.
I have...
There was a game, Real beat Viadolid, 7-2.
He scored two and he assisted four.
Jake, this guy was unbelievable.
I'm not saying because he did that back heel twice.
No, no, he was a super player.
The back heel, that was the one right in front of the keeper.
It was ridiculous vision, man.
Another one, a prime Ozil, man.
Prime Ozil.
Two short a period, though.
It's probably two short a period.
But that would have been nice to watch him.
Yeah.
Drogba would have been fun in the league.
Drogba was linked to Milan heavily back in the day, bro.
Heavily.
But yeah, I don't think, to be honest, the repertoire of players that have played in Italy leaves a lot to be desired,
because they have been some crazy good games.
Especially early 2000s, late 90s.
The best were there.
Yeah.
You know who I've really been intrigued with recently, just his story in general, how good he was.
Because I was thinking this would have been such a good question.
In fact, I'm going to ask it.
Who do you think, out of classic players, legends, would have fared the best in today's game?
Of all the legends?
Of all the legends.
Think of FIFA icons, like, who would be...
Who would?
So, obviously, it's a much different game.
Yeah.
I think Kaka was ahead of his time, for example.
A bit too recent for me.
Okay, okay.
Roberto Carlos.
Can you imagine Roberto Carlos and a team where the fullbacks are meant to do more than defend, for example?
He's fucking benching the Marco.
Exactly.
Definitely.
The Marco would just be waiting to clean her shoes.
But so many, bro.
I'm thinking older, like, because these guys touched the 2000s.
Who I was thinking about, for example, so crazy what I was thinking.
Like Van Busten, bro.
Van Busten would play in any Iran, it'd be amazing.
That's who I've really, really...
Because he's just denying.
Like, he's a crazy good number nine who has no weaknesses, like, apart from his injuries.
That's what I've really been intrigued with recently.
Just going back, watching his...
You know how old he was when he retired?
28, 27.
Yeah, 28 years old.
Crazy.
28 years old.
Crazy.
Like, Zlatan had 10 more years at least.
Christ.
Madan, man.
But yeah.
The listeners have some questions for us as well.
Hey, hey, hey.
Let's get into it.
Andrea asks the first one on Instagram.
He says, oh, how did you guys meet?
And where did your passion for culture start?
So, we're brothers.
So one day, when I was two years old, my parents came home.
My mom wasn't fat anymore.
And she was holding this weird, chubby, pink thing that looked like an alien.
And they were like, this is your brother.
And I was like, oh, God, the inheritance has been split.
But yeah, that's how we met.
And our passion for football.
Now, originally, I didn't like football.
I was all about basketball, ball or die, you know?
Because football was way too popular at school.
And there was almost a social status thing around it.
Yeah.
And I was like, well, depending on how good you were at it.
Yeah, you were as popular as you were good at football.
Yeah.
But then I remember my dad, our dad, showing us clips and watching games.
And there were crazy moments.
And I would actively be pretending that I wasn't enjoying them.
Just to not be proved wrong.
It's like when he used to play, hey, there, the Lila in the car.
It's like the same thing.
You turn it off, I hate it.
Then you leave the car and put it on.
But yeah, pride is the enemy.
But yes, I realized that this sport, as simple as I thought it was,
can bring out every emotion in human, every single one.
It's crazy.
I think that the last few times I have cried,
because I actually do have a problem crying,
the Sarah was doing football games, underdog stories.
They get me every time, like every single time.
But yeah, I was always into it from a young age.
My dad was involved with a football team in Malta,
Mosta, which is where Jake and I grew up.
And he used to take me to watch all the games.
At a young age, I remember the smell of burgers
and a soft drink at the football pitch.
I remember going to the Derby's between Burgu and Isla back in the day.
I remember going to watch Malta play against Turkey.
I remember all these memories.
And I think, of course, he said, how did our passions come together?
When I moved to Scotland for a year,
I couldn't watch football because I was working 60 hours a week.
55 to 60 hours a week, at least.
Especially on the weekends.
Sometimes I'd watch some Champions League.
I kind of fell out of love with the game.
But you don't watch many games, you become disinterested.
When I came back, this was 2016, or 2017, when I got back.
It was back-hanging out with you.
And at that time, all you were doing, you don't know the things.
Sitting down on the couch, watching every single game from beginning to end.
I was like, okay, cool.
In the beginning, I was like, how long does this go for?
Why is Bro talking to me about the mid-table teams?
What's going on over here?
How could I interest myself in the mid-table teams?
I fell in love with it, man.
You notice, when you watch closely and you watch more than once,
and you watch carefully, with the volume up, none of this stream bullshit.
Without commentary, you will realize how authentic Italian football is.
How beautiful the stadiums are, how passionate the fans are,
how much it means to them, how different the fans are from certain teams.
It comes from the Xenopoli section, it comes from the Milan fans,
for example, totally different vibe entirely.
You see the Salernitana fans, they're underdogs,
but they look totally different to the Xano fans, who are also underdogs.
The Caliari fans, well, then you're all the way inside, then yeah.
Venice, we're in Serie A.
You have to get on a fucking gondola to go to the stadium,
like, oh man, this shit is...
If the Super League happens...
We're done.
We'll continue covering Serie A of the Super League.
Don't worry about that.
That is so pissed.
Our next question comes from Gabriel Borges.
Gabriel Borges, I always call him Gabriel, I don't know.
His name is Gabriel.
He's a great fan, listener, friend.
He says, at any point, was there a part when you guys said,
fuck this, let's stop?
No.
Never, like, never.
I never thought about stopping.
And if so, what kept you being resilient to not do so?
Well, again, it's the fact that the challenge becomes a challenge against yourself.
It's like, I want to do this, I want to remain consistent,
but in order to do that, I have to do something I potentially don't feel like doing on this day.
Today, I just got home from work, I had a long day, I need to do my prep, I'm gonna do it.
And then you dread starting, you start doing the preparation,
you realize you're just watching football.
Which is fun.
Yeah, yeah, there's that.
And when you start doing something consistently,
it becomes a checkbox in your mind,
and if you don't check it off, there's a void.
Yeah, yeah, you feel unproductive for sure.
It's only unproductive, but like, you're not fulfilling.
Like, this is super fulfilling.
It's like, for anyone that's got their vices who likes to put on a bet,
or likes to smoke a cigarette or having a drink, it literally,
it gives you like a similar dopamine, I guess, to that fulfillment,
you get releasing an episode, getting feedback, this and that,
like, I can't live without it.
And the times, I've never thought of quitting,
but like, when it's peak freshers and I'm at work, and it's mental,
and I get home at seven and I need to prep, and I need to do all my prep,
and we're recording tomorrow, and I need to be up tomorrow at 5am,
and go do a donut run, and this and this and that, like,
I get exhausted, and I would dread doing the prep,
but I would never dread recording the podcast.
You know what I think about as well, bro?
I think about one day having kids, and telling them about the good old days,
but they'll be able to sit down, and listen to me and you,
talking about the days as they happen, the good old days,
and I think that's cool, you know?
I would like for my children to check it out, to get a feel of what football was like,
because you know when dads talk about football,
so it's like, ah, back in my day, and it's so obscure,
it's like, what the hell does that even mean?
They'll actually have something tangible, something that they can relate to.
And the most particular moments as well, like,
imagine Milan where to never win a league again,
until or not, but you're never to win a league again,
by the time we have kids,
you could say, this is the last time they won the league.
Here is every single match they played, and my opinion on it,
every single game of the season is covered by us.
Every single fucking game, we don't miss one.
It's nice, it's good.
Then you have my kid, eight years old, listening to the podcast,
trying to figure out what Italian football was all about.
What's a prostitute?
I don't know, ask your uncle.
The next question comes from the mysterious Leo Messi on Instagram.
A follower called Leo Messi doesn't want to tell us his name,
so he has to be referred to as the mysteriously Leo Messi.
What a guy.
It's a question we've already answered, to be honest,
but shout out to him, he said, what made you start this podcast,
and do you ever feel like enough is enough, I quit, no.
What made us start is a good part.
What made us start, I think it was the fact that we were watching
the games already.
I had a Twitter account where I would post Milan related things,
and I would post things about, say, in general,
but they wouldn't get much attention at all,
because everyone was into Milan,
I had that Milan fan on Twitter.
So I decided, you know what, man,
it would be cool to have a place where we can talk about everything.
Where there's no such thing as a priority game,
where there's no such thing as big teams and small teams,
where everyone gets to be discussed.
And Matthew was on board, which was great.
And yeah, that's it.
And I think, like, we mentally started a podcast,
like, seasons before we started a podcast.
We would always be watching football and say,
if we had a podcast, like, we would say this,
we'd start on this, we'd do this segment, we'd do this and that.
And then I remember, I got so used to saying,
if we were to do this or when we were to do this,
you accept that that's never gonna happen,
you're just kind of getting dopamine out of the idea,
out of mentioning it, you almost feel fulfilled,
like, you've done it, you know?
And then, you remember, you said,
we're doing it this season,
because if we're doing it this season, we need to start.
I'm like, sure, man, just like,
I don't know if I wanted you to shut up or whatever,
I'm just like, sure, let's do it.
But I wasn't, like, 100% committed to doing it,
to putting in the work when I said yes.
And then the mic arrived,
we watched the first match day,
and we're like, so now we plug the mic into the laptop,
and I guess we go, man, prep five games each.
We're so vanilla on the first one, the first episode.
That was vanilla, we were cool, we were nervous,
and you can feel it the way we speak now
and the way they spoke back then.
I think it was a strong start, don't get me wrong,
but yes, there's definitely a difference.
We should do some shit, like we listened to episode one,
and there was an episode 100, compared to, you know?
Alan, my guy.
Patreon, brother, friend asks,
what were your most optimistic and pessimistic expectations
before the podcast started,
and how far is your current reality from those expectations?
So for me, the most pessimistic thing I thought of
was like, just a bunch of guys, two guys with another podcast,
they have nothing unique to offer,
and I can't even understand what they're saying,
because they have a weird accent.
That was the pessimistic thing I was expecting,
but in reality, all we get is like,
your English is pretty good, guys, like it's damn good.
I mean, it's an official language.
Optimistic expectations was for people to listen and react,
and the reality has surpassed,
because people are actually paying membership fees now,
and I'm so grateful for that.
Uh-huh.
My pessimistic was just that would be recording for nothing,
and I was almost, there was a certain element of me that
I was embarrassed by the idea to have our podcast
on my Instagram bio when it had 12 followers.
I was embarrassed what people might think.
I was embarrassed that people might look at someone
starting a podcast as something vain,
like, you think people are gonna care what you're talking about.
So that side of me that like caring what other people
are gonna say kind of thing, I'm past that now, right?
But that was a massive kind of thing.
They've totally got it twisted,
because it's not a matter of showing off what you know,
it's a matter of sharing a passion, you know?
Exactly.
It's a matter of...
I don't know more than Matias.
Exactly.
I don't know more than Matias.
No, no, no.
Or Alan.
Or these guys have crazy good ball knowledge.
They could have their own podcast, you know?
Literally.
Um, the thing is that we try to...
We try to make people who aren't as into certain games into them,
or we give them something to look out for,
so maybe we'll tempt them to catch a game.
Yeah.
What's in it for us?
I don't know, we just love it,
and we'd love for you to love it too.
My optimistic expectation to give a different answer
to the one of watching more football,
um, I guess was the very odd idea that it could work,
that just like people would listen,
and would get new followers,
and would get loyal followers.
A couple viral videos, you know?
Couple viral videos, like I would, bro.
The idea of getting 8 million views on one TikTok...
Yeah, it was an Instagram video, not even on Instagram.
Didn't even cross my fucking mind.
Never.
Didn't even cross my mind,
or like 1 million on the Kim Min Jae,
and like the 8 million one did well
because it was a funny video.
You know, right, there's a bit of commentary,
a bit of back and forth between me and you,
but like the Kim Min Jae one,
it was your joke that got a million views.
It was your joke that got people dying
in the comments and tagging friends and this and that.
And Koreans going, I'm so proud.
It was nice.
And then Europeans saying, you're so racist.
Literally, but yeah, that just goes to show, right?
The Koreans were proud, and I was talking about them.
The Europeans were offended,
and I wasn't talking about them, but yeah.
The West, 2023.
Alan also has another question that we've already discussed,
but then he also has a third question.
He said, has any or both of you ever been to a sex show in Amsterdam during corona,
where either of you have been asked to take part in the act on stage,
one of the performers, and also accepted the request?
If the answer is yes, how has it changed you as a person?
Alan, brother man.
It's fucking changed me.
I'll tell you that.
Shall I?
I guess you have to.
How far in are we?
An hour ten?
Do it.
That's fine.
Well, one of them said they like how long our episodes are,
so it was Andy, I believe.
Buckle up, guys.
So we're in Amsterdam, right?
It was my first time.
So it was me, Jake, his girlfriend, my girlfriend, me, Jake, Key and Sarah.
Key is my girlfriend, Sarah's Jake's girlfriend.
I went to Amsterdam together.
It was my first time.
They had all been before, a couple of times.
And they're like, okay, Matt, get up.
We're taking you to the red light district today.
And I'm like, fucking right.
Let's see them tits.
So we obviously, we have our breakfast.
We go to a cafe.
We smoke a few joints, probably just to get in the mood.
And we start walking to the red light district.
And as we're approaching it, I'm getting...
To obliterate that, by the way.
Like in Amsterdam, you're never alright.
And it was freezing.
It was the coldest I've ever been in my life.
And I couldn't speak.
I was so high.
And we're walking around.
And all of a sudden, I just start seeing like someone was turning the set.
Just turning the sex on a bit more with every corner we cross.
And then I start seeing women on show, like behind glass, like ass naked.
And I'm like looking and then looking away.
And Jake is like, Matt, the red light district.
Those women are over there to be admired.
So what a misogynist.
So admire them.
I'm like, okay, so I start getting a bit more comfortable with the idea.
Jake's like, ho ho ho, my brother, let me take you to a peep show.
I'm like...
It's baby steps.
Baby steps.
Yeah, so I'm starting to see live naked mannequins.
And now we're going to a peep show.
By the way, Ki and Cera game this entire time.
They're so in.
We go into this octagon.
None of us had coins.
And then Jake whoops out his wallet and he starts handing out two euros to everyone.
You just had two euros for everyone.
You had those two euros.
I never had any cash.
We each go in these small cubicles, like the small corners of this octagon.
You put in two euro completely by yourself and the curtain opens.
It's not even a curtain.
It's mist.
It clears up on the glass.
First, I don't know what was happening.
There was a bit of a big yell just like looking sad.
I'm like, what's that?
And then there was this lady, bro.
She was a tiger, man, which was crawling.
I was like, I like this.
This is fucking fun.
She was looking at me and then she was asking Jake to go to the back.
I'm like, no, man, I might look like a neighbor.
I'm here.
I've been with my girlfriend for seven years.
I'm not going to the back with you.
I looked there just like looking at her like biting my fucking lip.
But then five minutes in, the mist comes back up and I'm like, whatever that was, more.
I'm like, is there a situation where we could go to a bar because everywhere closed at five here.
Because it's during COVID.
So we were shut down.
We would have drinks at like two and it was acceptable.
So I'm like, can we go to a bar, have a drink and there's just like people fucking like around us or on stage or something.
Say no more.
Say no more, brother.
We'll search. Okay, there's this place called Mulan Rouge.
Name and shame.
We find it and we're like, okay, it's 50 Euro each entry.
Okay, we'll get a free drink and then that's basically there.
There are people on stage fucking and doing this and how good.
So we walk up this place and I remember the place is like within like 10 meters and we're just like looking at each other discussing.
Who's going to go first?
And then I walk up to this guy that's outside.
He just looks at us goes, you ready?
All right, you ready?
Like, okay, we had them the 50.
I think this is like, okay, bottoms out to the left in case you need to go before like you do you like, okay, we walk in, we grab our drink.
We're sat on the side.
It is me, Jake, Kean, Sarah and two guys.
All right, and then there's the stage and there's a guy with a massive dick fucking a girl with massive tits.
That's what's happening.
All right, that's something right on stage.
I'm like, brilliant.
I wish there were more people.
Weird.
Like, we're outnumbering the other people here.
And then that act ends and then a woman comes on and calls an act.
A woman comes on, she's touching herself a bit brilliant.
And then a woman comes on, she's pulling Christmas lights out of her pussy.
And it's like, never ending, bro.
It's like, when's this gonna end?
It was crazy, man.
Blame shit.
And then like an acrobat woman came in, she was so hot with the short blonde hair.
She kind of looked like my desires.
And then we hear this.
Just walking in, clearly someone wearing massive heels, right?
And there's this fucking woman.
A lot of work done, but to the point that she's very like, is she a human being?
30 on the 100.
Yeah.
And is she a human being?
Like, was the real question over there?
And she just goes, okay, someone on stage now.
Someone on stage or no show?
We close, no show.
And we're like, okay, we're safe because we're with our, we're with our girlfriends, these two guys.
And they're obviously like, no, like forget it.
Don't ask me again.
And then she looks at us.
I'm like, again, we're safe and I'm safe until the three people to my right start pointing at me.
All right, key Jake and Sarah start pointing at me to go on stage.
And I'm like, the quicker I say, yes, the quicker this will be over and I don't want this place to close because I'm having fun.
Yeah.
So I get on stage, keep in mind, everything is so fake about this person.
Like you do you, but everything was so fake.
She sits me down.
And then all of a sudden she's like, you can't do this. This is this is this. Okay. I'm like, I guess while I'm saying I guess she fucking slaps me in the face with her tit, which is rock solid, bro.
It hurt it hit me.
My head hit the wall behind me.
Like that's how hard it was.
I was like, what?
What you heard from the non was literally.
And this is just like dancing in front of me, like giving me a lap dance. I'm like, okay, if this is the worst of it, like, fuck it, whatever she's giving me a lap dance.
Then she tells me get on the floor.
And I think over, over, there's a get on the floor. I'm like, okay, fuck it. And get on the floor. Do whatever you say at this point, like, and I'm laying on the floor scared, scared, right?
And I'm not seeing anything happening because I'm looking right up at the ceiling, but I'm here.
And I look to my right.
My God.
And she, brother, and she's got a dildo down her throat, like just a massive, she's looking me right in the eyes and she's
The dildo is coming out of your pants. No, not yet.
And she unzipped my pants. And I'm like, there's absolutely no way there's no way.
It's going to give me a blowjob on stage right now because what do I do? How do I even say no? Like, you know, like, what the fuck?
The love of my life is right there. And my brother and his girlfriend, basically my sister at this point have been together 11 years.
And these two dudes just like there, I'm like, this is the worst day of my life.
And then she puts the dildo where my dick is supposed to be and she starts sucking it. I'm like, my God, how I wish you were sexy because if you were sexy, this would be so enjoyable right now.
And then she starts riding me and like, oh, like making a bunch of noise. I'm like, cool.
And the dildo. I wonder how many listeners have to doubt. I doubt it. They probably all have. They probably put the volume out.
And then she gets the dildo and obviously dildos got the end with the head and the other end has like a stand.
She grabs it and she puts the stand in my mouth. It's a gag. It's a gag, quite literally.
She puts the gag in my mouth and the dildos coming out of my mouth. And without any caution whatsoever, she sits on my fucking face with, she's naked like, bro, completely.
And she's riding my fucking boom, boom, boom, boom. I'm smelling her. I'm tasting her.
My nose hurt when I pressed it for like the rest of the holiday. She was and then she was telling me, come on, come on, come on.
So I was like a chicken underneath her, like moving my head up and down, essentially obeying her.
And at this point, I'm like, they must be finding this so funny. Let me just go on with it. Let me fucking, I don't move my head back and forth.
Then it's over. I stand up with pussy juice all over my mouth. I look at Key, Jake and Sarah expecting to see them laughing and they're all looking at me like, what the fuck is this happening?
Key, who totally encouraged me to go up, didn't speak to me for the rest of the day. She's so disgusted.
She made you go up.
We were supposed to do shrooms. I'm like, there's no way. I remember we were on the bus and every time we look at the covers, just staring out the window out of your shock.
I remember that, bro. I'll never forget the ride home. I was bursting out laughing looking at you, man.
You had like your head in your fucking palms and your palms just on the window.
Like you've just been traumatized. But yeah, man. Thank you so much. Alan, that was the most vile, vulgar thing we've ever said on the podcast.
Maybe. Thank you very much. So far.
Yeah. I mean, Alan, like I said, he came to my house and obviously we started sharing anecdotes with him. And yeah, he put me in the deep end.
So thanks a lot, Al.
Thanks a lot, pal.
But yeah, Frank on Twitter asks, well, he says, love the laid back approach and the feeling that you are in a bar chatting. Now, this is the first time I've heard this. And many people when we asked for feedback said the same thing.
It feels like a, like we're in a bar having a conversation over.
Isn't that what we work with?
Great.
Organic as possible.
Exactly. Exactly. That's great. That's amazing.
He asks, what is your first memory of culture? Who was the person who gave you the bug for it? Now, for me, the person who gave me the bug for it.
There were two people and Zlatan described them as his adrenaline brothers in his book.
Gattuso and Pippons off.
Oh, bro.
Bro. Whenever Nzagi scored, the hairs on my neck would go up. He was looking at them.
It was.
No matter how it was scored meant so much to him. That man and Gattuso, the fact there was no nonsense, no bullshit.
He was so tough, man. Like, like he would beat, he would go into a 50-50 with anyone and then fucking win it.
Anything with a fucking.
I remember going to the stadium to watch Milan Real Madrid and Ronaldo had fallen to the ground and Gattuso bent over him.
Yeah.
His face is screaming in his face.
And then Ronaldo got up, Gattuso grabbed him by the neck and Ronaldo went on holding his face.
Yeah.
I remember the entire Milan.
We were there.
We were there, of course we were.
I was in a Real Madrid kid. That is probably the, when I look back at how you cringe at yourself in the past.
That's mine.
But funnily enough, you mentioned that when Nzagi scored the doppietta and one he was clearly offside for and the entire San Siro jumping and singing his song, the oioioi song.
That, like, how could you even be mad?
That was really.
He was like 37 or 40, perhaps even.
35, 36, I think.
Wow.
That's really.
Two different things.
That really made me fall in love with Milan and then Serie A.
But the one moment where I realized I was out of the Real Madrid bandwagon and totally in the Serie A bandwagon is, I'm watching Real Napoli in the church.
Napoli in the Champions League as a Real fan.
And this is already when I was back from Scotland and it was almost like a formality that I was still supporting the team I had grown up supporting.
But obviously I was Milan through and through, you remember, from a younger age, like.
But out of respect, I guess I kind of kept supporting Real Madrid.
And I really liked Insignia, one of my favorite players, not of all time, but recent history, one of my favorites.
And he just gets this loose ball, 35 yards out.
Against Real.
And from 35 yards out, he curls this incredibly low drive past Kailor Navas into the back of net for one of the best Champions League goals I have seen.
And I stood up, I went, like, what am I doing?
That was a real moment for me to realize.
That was a real moment.
I need to stop pretending here.
Great.
Four questions from Luca Argento, who was drunk when he sent them because he just graduated and he had his bus skate today.
So congratulations, Luca Argento.
Not sure what you graduated in, I know it's something to do with sports, if I'm not mistaken.
But well done.
Well done, Landlis.
Congrats, brother.
His first question is, when can I touch Jake's head?
And whenever you want, as long as you ask.
I have never said no, but ask.
Is it annoying to slap your head?
No one's slapping my head.
No one's slapping my head?
No one's slapping my head.
No, I'm kidding. People slap me sometimes.
There's nothing I can do about it.
But if you ask, no problem, touch my head.
It's fine.
Question two, will I be able to see all your intermerge?
Yes, we are planning on opening up a shop where we'll be selling posters and eventually maybe items of clothing.
Intermerge.
Yes, I've drawn a few interposters of DeMarco, Turam, all that stuff.
All right.
And he seems to be interested in that.
Did Vladovic get replaced by Keane due to results in game?
I think Keane's been on a way better form than Vladovic.
He looks more involved, he looks more lively, he looks more willing to get deep and to fight for the ball and to win it.
Vladovic looks like he's on an island when he's playing, so my take is that yes, Keane earned the spot through hard work.
Way more involved, Keane in the game, way more like dragging the ball forward from more central area to break into a scoring opportunity.
He's been brilliant over there.
I think he is what you've assigned Vladovic for, to have that guy with that drive breaking forward and finishing.
And Keane's been that guy, he's so strong, he's really good at hold up play, he's looking much better than he ever has.
So I think it's a choice.
And then his fourth question really demonstrated that the person currently talking to me is not in his senses because he asked,
what should Bologna do about their defence man?
And I'm like, wait a minute, Bologna hardly conceded this season.
I looked it up, Bologna have conceded the third fewest goals.
Inter have conceded the fewest with 6, Juve with 7 and Bologna with 10.
Okay, so whatever they're doing, I think they need to keep doing it, bro.
I agree.
Thank you, Luca. And I hope you had a great time and hopefully tomorrow won't be as brooding.
Bro, I think we can move on to our patron voice notes, man.
Oh, I can't wait for this.
This is lovely. This is one of the most wholesome things I have ever experienced, like listening to these.
First up, we have one from Matthias. It's not actually a voice note, he sent a text because I repeat, I quote,
sorry, father duties did not allow him to send a voice note tonight.
Yeah, priorities.
He says, hello, Seria, a spotlight.
I am delighted to have found your podcast.
It is truly great to follow your weekly enthusiasm for the world's most fascinating league.
I have watched Seria for 20 years and find the league to be in one of the best states of these two decades.
The competition for the title is more dense than ever.
The young players are evolving and I find the mid table teams to be more interesting than ever.
In the mid-noughties, games such as Bologna Torino, they were a bit of a drag, with half-owned players and conservative managers.
Now these games are compelling with details of excellence as well as meaning for the future of the league.
I feel that you capture this compelling and competitive and treat it with the enthusiasm it deserves.
This podcast has a bright future and every listener should become a patron so that you can be in one of the lenses.
So you can be one of the lenses in the theater lights directed onto the league.
That's beautiful.
Being from Sweden, I wish to give you something from the history of Swedish-Italian football.
So many footballers have made the way south, starting in the 50s with Nordahl, Gren and Lidholm in Milan.
To now, when talents such as Kulesevsky moved to Italian academies to get their first senior games in Serie A.
I therefore give you a best 11 with Swedish-Serie A players.
His goalkeeper was Robin Olsen.
That's a strong start.
One of only two Swedish goalies in the league, not too successful.
Yes, I can confirm.
The back three involves Glenn Heeson, Glenn Stromburg and Isaac Hjen.
Stromburg here is an Atalanta legend, mainly as a midfielder, but played as a libero in the early 1990s.
Isaac Hjen is a fascinating young talent who should leave Verona for a more structured side.
I can see him to be good in Monza or perhaps even as an aggressive Fiorentina defender.
Very good shout.
I love Isaac Hjen.
He's so good.
Midfield.
You're killing me here.
Skoglund Ingesen, Lidholm, Kulesevsky.
Skoglund and Lidholm are players from the 50s.
Lidholm went on to manage Milan and Roma.
Ingesen was a workhorse at Barri and Bologna in the late 1990s.
And Kulesevsky, one of the only Uwe players I don't despise.
Would love to see him back in Italy though.
The attack featured Nordall, Zlatan and Brolin, three of the absolute best attacking Swedish players of all time.
In this formation, Brolin would have to play behind Nordall and Prime Zlatan can take any attacking position he wants of course.
Much praise and respect.
Cheers to the next 100 episodes, Mathias.
Thank you so much, Mathias.
That means a lot.
Love to get your input on the Swedish players in the league.
You often open our eyes to things that we don't even notice ourselves.
So good to have you onboard and you are yourself a contributor to the podcast.
That can be said about all the patrons.
Yes, thank you very much brother.
Next up is our boy Alan, who made me say that despicable fucking story.
But yeah, AC Milan.
We won't be getting that vile anytime soon again, don't worry.
I am comfortably in your car in traffic without worrying.
Why do you make promises when you know we probably can't keep that dog?
Well, you're right.
Alan is an AC Milan fan.
Alan is also a good friend of ours after we hung out with him during his time in Malta.
But here's Alan.
Hello, Jake and Matt, who is finally back from Australia.
Happy to hear that you're back with your brother.
Guys, congratulations on the 100th episode of Serious Spotlight.
Good job, you did it.
It's a huge milestone and I don't know why, but I'm excited on your behalf.
It's really cool.
I can probably say that I've listened to every single one of your episodes since launch.
Not in order, but yeah, I came across the podcast on Reddit post.
I believe you once told me it was a friend of yours who helped you set it up or something like that.
It wasn't love on first sight, it was love on first listen.
I enjoyed it since.
I actually went back because you already had recorded like three or four episodes before I became aware of it.
So I went back and listened to those episodes as well.
So I had like a week where I listened to five of your episodes or something like that.
So yeah, cheers guys.
I hope this is just the beginning for you, whatever your ambitions are.
I hope you achieve them because you deserve it.
Okay, so I've written down two points.
I want to say something a little bit about what this podcast means to me personally.
Because I live in Norway and Norway is like a prem head country.
I have friends that are really into football.
They watch a lot of football.
They know a lot of football.
They know a lot more than me.
Not that I'm some kind of standard for knowledge, but it's all Premier League.
Premier League, Premier League, Premier League.
And they will like sit down and they will watch like Milan Inter or now they will probably watch Juve Inter or the weekend.
Nobody's going to watch Bologna Torino and discuss it like the next two days or nobody's going to watch Fiorentina, Sausole or something like that.
It's like it's if the top seven face each other, that's when they are watching it.
So for me personally, this is like where you guys come and fill in this gap.
You provide this great discussion about the thing, one of my biggest passions.
And you provide this outlet for me where I can kind of like get to indulge into my passion in a sense.
So yeah, this is I guess what this podcast is to me.
It's like this platform where I can live my passion that I don't get elsewhere in life because of this prem head country.
I mean, I don't want to talk shit about the Premier League.
It's a great league, but I'm in love with Serie A.
And that's how it is.
So thank you for that.
And also I wanted to say a few words about what I enjoyed the most about the podcast or like, but I don't really know how to phrase it because I can't like pick out one thing.
So it's like this perfect mixture, this perfect balance.
You know, the weekend, the football weekend, that's like the main dish.
That's where I'm sitting watching the games that I have time to watch, of course.
But then a few days later, you drop your episode and that's like the dessert.
And the dessert is just perfect.
It's not too sweet, not too bitter, not too sweet.
Not too salty and yeah, I don't know the taste.
I'm not a chef, but you have this perfect balance.
That's just great.
You have your ball knowledge.
You have your humor.
You have your personalities.
And yeah, I mean, no matter how funny or witty somebody else, I would never bother to listen to them talk about football if they don't have the ball knowledge.
That's that's step one.
And but you you master it greatly and I really appreciate the podcast.
I really appreciate the community you have made in the WhatsApp group.
There are a lot of great personalities in there and it's it's a fun part of the day whenever somebody writes a text there.
So thank you.
As long as you keep recording, I will keep listening.
Don't stop.
Keep going.
I appreciate you guys.
Peace out for some Milan.
Alan, thank you so much.
There aren't even any words I can I can use to express my gratitude right now.
Terrible because it's a podcast.
I know.
Exactly.
You can't see my face right now.
But I really appreciate it.
But when I look forward, we look forward to bringing you more content.
Now, a really funny thing was how Andy reacted to this voice note, right?
So you sent this voice note and you made it clear that it was going out of your comfort zone to send this whatever you urged all the other patrons to do, which I'm very grateful for.
Thank you for the push.
Massive, bro.
Yeah.
And then Andy sent this.
Well, darling, very proud of you.
You sounded pretty good.
Yeah, also a few words, boys.
I'll put something together a little bit later on for the old essay.
Yes.
That is fucking classic Andy.
Andy, man, classic Andy, man, what is with he qualifies a road man?
Not a modern road man, but you know how like in the nineties, like have you watched?
There's this movie.
Is it the one he recommended?
Well, kind of like that one, not the Green Street hooligans, but like it's another variation of it.
Yeah, about the I am blanking out completely.
What were they called?
And the fan groups of fans, the firms, yes, dude.
It was a Chelsea firm, I believe the movie.
I believe so.
I watched a movie recently, something, some barrel and a loaded shotgun or something smoke, Glock, pussy and a smoking barrel, shotgun barrel.
And Vinnie Jones is one of the actors that Alan sounds like every single one.
That Casey fucking mugged me up for the.
You know, he's eloquent.
He is.
He's very well spoken.
He's a Crystal Palace fan, guys.
He can also rap.
Brilliant rap.
Won't be showing you without his permission.
No, we've asked.
But anyway, here's Andy for you guys.
Hello, serious spotlight.
Hello, Jake and Matt Sandy from London.
One of your on your patrons here.
Congratulations on your hundredth episode of the podcast.
Just want to say a few words, really.
It's not easy to keep a podcast going.
You see loads of podcasts out there, thousands of them.
And they come and they go, but you've stuck around and you've got to this milestone.
So congratulations and you're doing a brilliant job.
Just want to tell you a little bit about how I came about you really.
I came about you.
I think it's through Spotify.
I think it was in the really early days, maybe episode 12, 15, something like that.
But like Alan, your other great patron said that I went back.
I've listened to every single one of them as well.
And I'm going to echo what he said. What I do like about you guys is the length of the podcast.
You fill in details with every single game.
And you don't get that on many other podcasts going out there.
They focus on the big games or just a controversial moment in one or two games.
You focus on every single game in Syria.
Because I don't know if you know this or you're aware,
not everyone in the world supports your Ventus or into Milan.
Some people do support other clubs.
So that's where you give that quality to your podcast that you give every club a sort of a platform
and you let them, everybody else know out there what's happening in the league as a whole league,
not just a couple of episodes.
Being a Crystal Palace supporter, I'm used to a life of despair and sort of a life of disappointment with my team.
So I think that's why maybe I can relate to people that support lesser teams in all other leagues as well.
And I like the way you come across in your podcast.
Because again, other podcasts out there, someone fucks up about backpast.
They give them a little, oh well, maybe it was this, maybe it wasn't.
No, it was just a shit back pass.
When I listen to you, it's like I'm talking to you in a pub.
It's like I'm chatting to a friend and you're chatting to me.
We're having a conversation like you would do with any of your other mates.
And that's what I like about it, the groundless of your podcast and the easy listening and the comedy and the laughter.
That's what I think sets you apart from majority of other podcasts out there.
So well done guys.
Congratulations.
And if anyone's listening to this, I'd recommend definitely signing up to follow these guys.
Because if you like Serie A football, it doesn't matter if you like Prem or if you support another Premiership team like I do.
If you like Serie A or have ever liked it in the past, it's a good opportunity for you to listen once a week and you'll get filled in exactly what's happening.
The big events through every single team in the league and it'll keep you up to speed and in the loop.
So once again boys, well done and hopefully look forward to seeing you in the future.
Cheers.
Thank you so much Andy.
One day we should totally grab a pint, be it here in Malta, be it in Italy, be it in London.
We should definitely meet one day.
You seem like a straight up guy, like a stand up guy, I think that's the expression.
Yeah, can't wait to meet you man.
Same here buddy, same here.
Next up guys we've got Lena.
Unfortunately our only female patron.
However we do have other female listeners thankfully.
Lena's more than obviously just the female to tick the checkbox in our patron.
But she's a fantastic addition, she's absolutely hilarious.
She's always at games, she's always sending pictures.
A massive fan of football.
Here's what Lena had to say and thank you to her.
For a bit of female representation, my name is Lena and I've basically been following football in Serie A for nearly 20 years now.
For me it all started when I got hit by the puberty truck and I saw a kaka in the 2006 World Cup Bonilla album.
My friend and I then basically bullied our little brothers football coach into coaching a girls team.
And football has been a huge part of my life ever since.
So the team is obviously Milan.
It offended me greatly when people used to ask me if I'd switched teams when Kaka left.
Because by that time Milan had grown on me like a particularly nasty tumor that I sometimes wish I could have removed.
I found Serie A spotlight not too long ago, maybe about six months-ish.
When somebody mentioned it on Reddit and I've been starving for some sort of commentary or community,
that wasn't quite as bandwagon-y and negative as sometimes discords and forms tend to be.
And in this podcast I've just found genuinely good commentary and objectivity so much so that I'm even willing to forgive the Milanese blue comments.
And the passion that Jake and Matt have for Serie A is really quite infectious.
Myself, I tended to be very tunnel visioned when it came to football in Milan.
Sort of neglecting everything around Milan.
And this has really helped me broaden my horizons so I really appreciate that.
Plus it keeps me awake while driving to work at 5.30 in the morning.
So cheers for that guys.
So yeah, I'm really happy with my random find and especially with the little group chat as well.
So for my fellow female lurkers out there, please feel free to join.
I promise nobody will ask you to send boob pics.
Really appreciate it Lena.
Not even my own girlfriend likes the sound of my voice at half five in the morning.
So what we have is special.
Thank you very much for listening and for being a part of our family.
Yeah, and my girlfriend doesn't like it when I ask her for boob pics so I've learnt not to obviously be that guy.
Next up we've got Santi, one of the two Jubalani's.
You know more about him than me but I find him to be a fantastic guy.
Yeah, diplomat, fantastic character you can get on with anyone.
You can put him in any social setting and he'll fit right in.
Santi's a gem of a person.
And that's what he had to say.
Jake and Matt, 100 episodes. Congratulations boys.
Really, really well done.
I've been listening obviously since day dot.
Jake and I working together in our previous jobs.
And you know one day he just comes up to me, sends me a link on WhatsApp saying,
do you mind giving this a listen? And it was from then on, part of my weekly routine to listen to you guys.
It was also fun also being on the episode with Mint a couple of times filling in for when you guys were in Amsterdam.
And then coming back for a special episode with all you for previewing.
I think it was last season I guess, quite some time ago already.
I was flying. But that was that was loads of fun.
Especially talking nonsense with Mint and proving Mint wrong.
That's come up. I was only going to score six goals in the Premier League.
Well, less than six and he didn't.
So yeah, that's just to just wanted to remind everyone about that time when Minto was wrong and I was right.
Otherwise, really well done lads. Love listening to the podcast every week, even though I'm getting less and less time to watch Seria,
which probably makes it even all the more better to listen to you guys so I can get all the details of the games every week.
And yeah, and especially I mean, I'm a Prem fan actually first I started watching football when Chelsea played Reading a long time ago
when both Czech and Hilario got injured and John Terry went in goal and I just love that game.
So I decided to to start following football and then following Chelsea.
But I am deep down deep, deep down. I mean, I'm fan at heart.
So watching Seria sport listening to Seria's post site and watching you guys on Instagram and your other clips has brought a lot of love for the pod.
And obviously love for you guys as well. Congratulations once again and best of luck for the next 100.
Thank you very much brother and thank you for not boasting too much about pocketing Maltese national Paul and Bong.
Yes, but thank you for boasting about beating Minto in that bet.
Yes, beating all of us in that bet actually we all thought Skamaka would give more than six goals in the Premier League,
but used to do a ground and you were proven to be right.
Unless you're taking all competitions into consideration, I told you to call you over specified so fuck you, Zanky.
But thank you bro from the heart next next up all the way from the states one of our most recent patrons and it is the guy with the coolest name on the podcast Mr. Michael Lockhart.
And here's what you have to say.
What's going on, Jake and Matt. This is Mike.
I'm coming in from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the United States.
And that's actually one of the big reasons that you know I started listening to this show.
Fortunately for the United States, we have one of the major streaming services actually picks Syria up.
So about one to two days a week I actually get somewhat decent Syria coverage, but with that led me to wanting more.
So I reverted to podcast. I want to say I found your podcast.
I'm actually highly confident it was actually on Reddit.
Just saying that it was a very laid back good podcast to listen to plenty of information.
And I'm pretty much given this from the perspective of I've only been a listener for about four to five months.
So I'm definitely giving the new member perspective.
But everything that I've seen so far it's been great.
I look forward to the podcast every week.
It's packed full plenty of information.
I mean whether it's you know the Milan Darby or Frosinone versus Genoa, the information is always there.
I'm going to Atlanta fan myself have been for the last seven years.
Just seeing what that team's done.
It's been nothing short of amazing going from where they came from.
And I've really wanted to look for a place where I can get news coverage, things like that in English.
And your podcast every week you know when they play I'm hearing about it.
I'm listening to your review and you guys are giving the you know what I want to hear.
So I just want to say good luck to you two congratulations on a hundred episodes.
I'm in the process now of actually going back and listening to probably about 50 of them.
But I'm sure I'll enjoy every minute of it and listening to a couple other of these.
I think everybody kind of gets the same thing and why your podcast in the Syria realm really stands out is
you guys sitting here listening to it.
It makes it feel like we're all sitting in a room together just BS and with each other.
It just makes it real fun, lighthearted.
Usually when I go on longer drives or whatever I'll pop the podcast on.
And of my fiance in the car and you know she cares about Syria football.
Just like the bubblegum stuck to the bottom of my shoe.
But listening to your guys podcast you know some of the stuff he says you know pretty funny things like that.
You know she'll laugh at it. She'll at least pay attention to it and seems to somewhat enjoy it even though
I'm sure she could care less about you know Albert Goodman's brace in the last match.
You know I don't know how to tell her with that but with somebody like that who's completely neutral
outsider that enjoys this podcast I think that goes a long way.
So just wanted to say you know keep up the good work.
I'm going to obviously continue to listen and I really enjoy it and hopefully everybody else does.
Thank you Mike. Good to know that another woman enjoys the sound of our voices.
And I personally love the way that you pronounce teams like Frozanoa and so on.
Genoa. Genoa. So on so forth.
But it's really cool to see the American let's call it soccer community out of respect
but it's football we all know that.
But really enjoying seeing that growing over the past years and it's good to have at least one of you guys
on our side enjoying some good Seria.
You're the man Mike. Up next we've got Luca Argento the previous.
The guy who asked the question.
Yes.
The previous question.
Luca Argento the previous question.
Oscar.
He got it.
He's right.
Luca Argento is a loyal listener a patron fellow Maltese newly graduate.
Yes.
So well done congratulations.
And they were supposed to come to our offices.
We're on campus.
He said he went to Bay with a vibe sticker.
Oh what a guy.
You should have come to our offices.
We were giving them beer.
Luca.
Well morning.
Jacob Matt.
First of all congratulations on your hundred hundred episode on Seria spotlight.
I'm Luca.
You might know me.
I'm your resident Juventus fan.
Again congratulations.
So basically I've recently I think I'm the most recent one who joined the group.
I joined like roughly two months ago at the beginning of the season.
I've always been a Juve how I seria fan but I had a tendency to tunnel vision on on you
only on new games I didn't take into consideration the other teams.
And but this year I wanted to see what's out because I was bored actually at work.
I went on Spotify and I found I found you guys and it's.
I haven't even now since that day I haven't stopped listening to you guys your humor and
the your mixture of humor and facts and the commentary between you guys.
It's something which always brings me back to listening to another episode of yours.
Additionally with the commentary I love how you go into so much detail and so show so much
passion towards each and every team literally no team is left left undiscussed.
This also helps me which keeps me more up to date and then the loop.
It's not every day I can be glued to the TV and watch every single game there is.
I hope you celebrate this momentous occasion and again congratulations on your 100th episode
and I hope to see the next 100.
Let's see be there the next 100 episodes you make.
Cheers guys and enjoy.
Thank you Luca for listening thank you for your participation in the group chat you're
hilarious you're great thank you for giving the girls no it wasn't him he
think of the girls their first victory Jamie did.
Was it Jamie or Luca?
I think it was Jamie.
He's doing really well in Fanta I think he's second.
Yeah he is well done Luca and thank you very much and thank you to everyone this has been
an amazing episode the vibes have been immaculate.
Yes and I mean it's episode 100 so celebrate the journey a little bit man just have a bit
more of a light hearted one getting our patrons on the episode asking each other some random
questions like hopefully you'll learn a thing or two more about us that Jake loves Asian
movies.
And Matthew has had a traumatic sexual experience.
Exactly.
So yeah good to be back as well obviously my first my first episode back but next week
we get to properly start again getting into the nitty gritty getting into the nitty gritty
there's gonna be a Derby d'Italia the cover bro.
Derby d'Italia Milan Fiorentina excellent.
Looking forward to seeing you guys take care love you all love you.