The Premier League Unfinished Business XI

Honey punches of otes la forma perfecto dependen la conto familia.

Cono ju las crucientes and

los niños les encanta.

Ademas delicios estos trosos de grandola, nuesces y fruta, que todos vana dis frutar.

Honey punches dotes para todos.

Tocal benefara vermás.

I get so many headaches every month.

It could be chronic migraine, 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting four hours or more.

Botox, autobotulinum toxin A, prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine.

It's not for for those who have 14 or fewer headache days a month.

Prescription Botox is injected by your doctor.

Effects of Botox may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms.

Alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition.

Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk.

Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck, and injection, side pain, fatigue, and headache.

Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms, and dizziness.

Don't receive Botox if there's a skin infection.

Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve nerve conditions, including ALS Lugerig's disease, myasthenia gravis or Lambert Eaton syndrome, and medications including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects.

Why wait?

Ask your doctor.

Visit BotoxChronicMigraine.com or call 1-800-44-BOTOX to learn more.

CRM was supposed to improve customer relationships.

Instead, it's shorthand for Customer Rage Machine.

Your CRM can't explain why a customer's package took five detours, reboot your inner piece, and scream into a pillow.

It's okay.

On the ServiceNow AI platform, CRM stands for something better.

AI agents don't just track issues, they resolve them, transforming the entire customer experience.

So breathe in and breathe out.

Bad CRM was then.

This is ServiceNow.

I'm sorry, you can sit there and look and play with all your silly machines as much as you like.

Is Gas going on how to crack?

He is, you know.

Oh, I think

brilliant.

But jeez!

He's round the goalkeeper!

He's done it!

Absolutely incredible!

He launched himself six feet into the crowd and Kung Fu kicked a supporter who was

without a shadow of a doubt getting him lip.

Oh, I save!

It's amazing!

He does it tame, and tame, and tame again.

Break up the music, charge a glass.

This nation is going to dance all night!

Premier League club names in theme park YouTubers, and Conor McNamara takes one step closer to bringing out a whole album of musical commentary.

Plus, written off goalkeepers, defenders who've come crawling back from Saudi, veteran midfielders doing one more season at their hometown club after winning the World Cup for England, Harry Kane's carefully planned final assault on Alan Shearer's goal scoring record, and getting one step ahead of the Darwin Nunez redemption story.

Brought to your ears by Goal Hanger Podcasts.

This is Football Cliches and the Premier League Unfinished Business 11.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Football Clichés.

I'm Adam Hurry, and with me to select some prospective Premier League Cherry second bite merchants, is Charlie Eccleshare.

How are you doing?

Very well, thank you.

David Walker, how are you?

I'm good.

And Nick Miller, how are things?

Very good.

Very good.

How are you?

Yeah, I'm really good.

Looking forward to this one.

We're recording on a Wednesday lunchtime, so let's run through those all-important Tuesday night classified results.

Aston Villa 3, PSG 2, 4-5 on aggregate.

Borisia Dortmund 3, Barcelona 1, Barcelona winning 5-3 on aggregate and Park Life B3, Clapham Chiefs 0.

Dave, a line has been drawn under this, I think.

I think so.

Yep.

Park Life seemed like they were the worthy winners last night.

There were some possibly over-enthusiastic celebrations in the stands.

I think there were some flares involved, but it is what it is.

But yeah, I think we could all move on now.

I think everything's fine.

Everyone has said everything they need to say about the situation.

Let's crack on.

The fifth tier Sunday league pyro.

What is the word coming to?

Adjudication panel matters to take care of first.

Charlie Greg Clark writes in and says, as a Brit living abroad, I watched day four of the Masters this weekend on an Aussie TV channel called Fox Sports.

As Rory McElroy approached his relatively simple putt to win on the 18th, the one he eventually bottled, the podcast immediately crossed my mind as the commentator noted that Rory had got one arm in the green jacket.

jacket.

That is a really elegant variation on this.

I really like it.

Yeah, I imagine that's a thing like that's been used before in some variation of that.

But yeah, it worked really nicely.

Yeah, Nick, you know, in the grand scheme of one foot in finals and things like that, how do you feel about one arm in the jacket?

I mean, if you've got a putt, a presentable putt, to win on the 18th, that's a good one arm in the jacket territory, I think.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's a, you know, one hand on the trophy, all that kind of thing.

Yeah.

I smashed it.

I'm going to start thinking this.

You know, next next when you're shopping and you sort of try on a jacket or an item of clothing and you're like, I'm pretty much getting this, aren't I?

But you're like, I'm going to try on one last time.

At that point, I'm thinking, I've got one arm in this jacket.

One hand in your wallet.

Yeah.

It wouldn't really work for t-shirts, would it?

Your trousers, fine.

One leg.

One leg in the trousers.

Yeah.

One leg in the trousers.

T-shirt, one arm.

Doesn't really work, does it?

No.

For t-shirts.

No, it wouldn't.

Rory McElroy did actually have some trouble getting the green jacket on when it was presented to him.

So there was a period of about 20 seconds or so where he only did have one arm in the jacket and he couldn't get the other one in.

Too hench for the green jacket.

Next up, this came from Max.

This is from the This Is Love podcast.

And it features the editors who put together the Guardian's blind date feature each week.

Here they are talking about their struggles.

It's no date this week.

I've literally gone through all of my friends and

even The Guardian at times.

So I'm like, any single guys out there?

Just on the general email.

Yeah, so I kind of wish that time on the squeaky bum times, we call them, that Anna was there with me.

Why do we call it squeaky bum times?

Because it's squeaky when those when the

bum squeaking because it's like you're

not pissing us, you're pissing yourself that there's going to be a blank page, kitty.

A real moment for this cliché, Dave.

Like, this is the first time I've ever heard it mentioned and not referenced back to Alex Ferguson.

So, I mean, obviously, nor should they know the origins of it, but it's good to see that it's kind of flown the nest, really, hasn't it?

Yeah.

Yeah, there's so many degrees of separation now between its origin and its widespread usage.

But what were they...

I couldn't quite get my head around what the situation was, whether their usage was appropriate or not for this.

So they were struggling to find people to participate in the blind date so that they could fill the column for the newspaper.

Ah, so squeaky bumps.

They were getting into deadlines.

Okay, we need something here.

They were in Fergie time.

Yeah.

There was

a slight sort of change-up of it, Nick.

They were calling it squeaky bum times, which implies like a prolonged period, like an era.

Hard times.

Squeaky bum times.

Squeaky bum years.

And they did take it.

I can't remember what we eventually settled on when we discussed it, but I think

it wasn't full shitting yourself, which they seem to have escalated it to.

I mean, I suppose that might, there might be some squeaking involved there that might go.

Yeah, you've moved beyond squeaking, haven't you, at that stage?

Later on in the episode, they do get onto the issue of whether it's a false transcription or whether it should actually be squeeze your bum times.

So that's

they do go deep.

God, a long time ago, that this podcast was speculating that it could be the chair that was squeaking, and the bum was squeaking on the leather chair, but innocent times.

Next up, this came from Ethan Nichols, and here is our friend Mark Scott on match of the day 2 commentary duty for Chelsea versus Ipswich on Sunday.

But it wasn't just any old Sunday.

What a save from Alex Palmer!

That was a full-blooded hit from Enzo Fernandez, who can barely believe that the Ipswich Keepers kept him out.

Well, it's Palm Sunday, and Alex Palmer has surely preserved the point here for Ipswich Town.

Charlie, surely the first reference in mainstream football media of Palm Sunday as a kind of usable concept in the context of a football match.

I mean, all the big guns, your Halloweens, your Valentine's Days, they're all terrible.

Your early Christmas presents.

Yeah, exactly.

Good Fridays.

Yeah, Palm Sunday.

I actually, in the split second before he reveals the goalkeeper's name, and I hadn't made that link, I thought you could just do it with stinging the palms of a goal.

Like, that's even if your goalkeeper isn't called Palmer, that's a presentable opportunity for next year's Palm Sunday if commentators want to emulate that.

Well, there's a slight implication that the goalkeeper has elected to Palm because it's Palm Sunday.

He's a knowledgeable goalkeeper.

I wouldn't put it past him.

Nick, I'm not a clued up Easterman.

I have to say,

Easter baffles me.

And where is Palm Sunday in the hierarchy of the days of Easter?

Is it right up there?

Is that a notable day?

Is it one of the big ones?

Absolutely no idea.

I hope my Catholic father isn't listening to this because

I'm sure he taught me this many, many years ago.

It's got to be above Maundy Thursday, right?

Yeah,

where does it rank among your Ash Wednesdays?

Below Shrove, definitely.

Definitely below Shrove, yeah.

It's match day minus one, isn't it?

That's what Jesus called it, I believe.

Yeah, match day minus seven.

Go for a little stroll before he resurrected himself around the ground in his travel.

It's funny you say that because it marks Jesus's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, which I guess was the equivalent of kind of wandering in, surveying the scene, clapping with the Louis Vuitton bag in hand.

I'm so glad you came in with the extra context there because I was really struggling.

Thank God.

Easter League years.

Fantastic.

Right.

A quick footballer's names in things for you.

There's a BBC article about the news that Universal want to build a theme park in the UK in Bedfordshire.

And the BBC article, Dave, canvassed the opinions of some theme park YouTubers and to sort of get their views on what they thought it would be like.

And they got the view from the US.

And it says, for 24-year-old Crystal Palace, the new theme park is a little further to travel.

The New Yorker is a regular visitor to US theme parks, as seen on her YouTube channel, The Crystal Palace, which is not about the Premier League football team.

What a name.

Crystal with a K, we should that we should point out here.

Crucially.

Do you think it could be Crystal Palace, maybe?

Hope so.

Oh, that's great.

I wonder if her channel has been boosted at all by some potential Crystal Palace fans just offering their support just out of.

Crossover episode with Matt Woosnam from the Athletic.

That'd be a good midweek piece of content for him.

Right.

I enjoyed this from Tommy C.

Nick.

You're probably probably well aware of the um cult sub-genre that is the puns that Skysports put on their coverage as they're going to an ad break after half-time or after full-time of a game at the bottom of the screen.

And he says, uh, I tried to screenshot this, but I couldn't get there in time.

Uh, after Hull won Coventry one, Sky Sports caption was, tigers tame Coventry.

Can tigers be the tamers?

I always thought only they could be tamed.

Don't even get me started on the crowbarring of animal nicknames into headlines slash bite-sized captions.

For example, if Hull beat Watford, you wouldn't say tigers sting the hornets, would you?

Bang on, this is so lazy, isn't it?

Maybe it was to emphasize the magnitude of the performance result.

Even the tigers are doing the taming now.

I mean, they're apex predators, tigers.

They don't need...

What would they need to tame?

Yeah, exactly.

That's just foreplay, isn't it?

Just eat the fucker.

There is an elephant in the Coventry badge, though, isn't there?

You can tame an elephant.

They're quite tame anyway, aren't they?

I don't think a tiger would need to tame an elephant.

They would absolutely rip it from limb to limb.

Tigers say, oh, I can't.

I don't know.

I think the elephants

are cumbersome.

But they could just squash its head, couldn't they?

I don't know.

I think it's always too bad.

What about the tusks as well?

All I'm saying is it's another example of the lazy usage of animal-based club nicknames, and it

should be called up on.

And well done to Tommy C.

for bringing it to our attention.

A couple more things.

This came from Jack.

This is Dion Dublin on 5-Live Co.Comms duty for Villa versus PSG on Tuesday night.

You will not guess where the in and around is coming from here.

And Kvaratskelia was left on a heap five yards inside the PSG half.

The ball had gone and McGinn, this momentum took him into Kvaratskelia.

Yeah, unnecessary that from John McGinn.

I think he feels a little bit aggrieved.

He was tripped in the box, so he thought he was tripped in the middle of the pitch as well.

And he's got a little bit of a red mist in and around him.

Felt like he needs to get some contacts.

He's got himself a yellow card for that contact.

Charlie, we're so used to the red mist descending.

Yeah, that's exactly.

The red mist in and around him.

That's a bizarre usage of in and around.

Well, I guess once it's descended, it can sort of filter around.

You know, it doesn't just descend into one spot.

It's kind of just there.

It's this powerful.

Do you absorb the red mist, Nick?

Inhaling the red mist.

Yeah.

There's some kind of like anger-inducing quality in the red mist if you get it in your nostrils.

Like pollen.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, yeah, we're talking, if we're assuming that the red mist, Dave, is a vapor.

I mean, you're the go-to guy for this granular level of discourse.

If the red mist is indeed a vapor and not a dry thing, and we are talking about a semi-membranous thing that is the skin, then it's going to be in and around you, isn't it?

Yeah.

Yeah, it actually actually works really well from Deion.

He's nailed it.

Think of an actual mist.

It is exactly that.

Yeah.

It is kind of...

Or is it in you?

I don't know.

Yeah.

It's more around you than anything.

But you admit it.

Don't you admit the red mist in the first place?

It's just going to go back inside you.

This is mad.

Red mist doesn't come from nowhere, does it?

Oh, it does, because it's not.

Well, it does descend, because it's sort of

up above, but it comes down and hits you.

That's mad.

That's how that's weird how it behaves.

If it's a misty day, but you're actually in the mist, you can't really see it.

It's only like in the distance, isn't it?

No, I think it does because then you are in it.

Then you are both in it and it's around you.

So Deion Dublin is justified.

He is vindicated.

I think so.

Yeah.

Right.

Meanwhile at Villa Park, Nick.

Now I'm all for broadcasting innovations and Amazon Prime are very much at the vanguard of this sort of thing, you know, producing the watch without commentary option, things like that.

They were bringing up Aston Villa's next six fixtures and how tricky they look.

And instead of doing sort of H and A for denoting home and away, Dan Powell noted that they use a house symbol for home and a plane symbol for away,

which is a massive over-engineering of this, isn't it?

Is this a kind of a subtle comment on the

anti-greenness?

Yeah, well, yeah, exactly.

Flying to like Arsenal, flying to Norwich or whatever it was, is the one that always gets cited.

But yeah, maybe it was some kind of eco-warrior who was sending a subtle message.

But you know what's particularly stupid about this is it has the flight symbol, which you think means away, but it also has the flight symbol for Crystal Palace, which is at Wembley, which is a neutral game.

So

it's actually misinformation.

If you have just have the H A and the N,

like, it's wrong.

Yeah, I think they should commit to this further.

Or unclear anyway.

Come on.

Actually,

for the games

that are far enough away for them to actually legitimately fly to them, fine, have a plane.

If they're getting the coach, have the coach or a train.

For Wembley, just have an arch.

Right.

Like, come on.

If you're going to do it, do it properly.

How do you do it?

Wembley win.

How do you do?

Neutral.

Like maybe like a pH strip or something like that.

Don't put it past them.

There's something for them to fix.

Anyway, but do you know what?

I think I know what Richard Keyes would think about this guff.

It's changed, but whether it's moved on is open to debate.

What a great Keys and Grey Corner that was, by the way.

Can we just take a moment to celebrate how good that was?

The longest longest Keys and Grey corner in history by some distance as well.

I think it was about 20 minutes.

Possibly 20 plus minutes.

I think

it was about 20 minutes in the edit.

So Christ knows how long you actually talked about it for.

A good few hours.

Right.

This episode is brought to you in association with NordVPN.

For those who don't know, VPN stands for virtual private network.

It secures your connection, protecting your personal information and online activity, especially on public Wi-Fi.

A VPN can also make your phone or laptop appear as if it's in another country, which is great for accessing content while traveling.

Much like Tom, who was listening to Conor McNamara on world feed duties for Newcastle vs.

Manchester United on Sunday on NBC, I believe.

And here is Conor McNamara confirming his status as the king of impulsively musical commentary.

They will still have a game at hand on every other team of the top half.

Bay and dear on the piece.

Son Jung Min.

We should stitch them together.

Son Jung Min, Bay and India.

Once again, Charlie, it lends itself to moments of mild peril for goalkeepers.

Yeah, yeah, it is.

It's edgy.

It's a real.

What's he going to do?

Is it musical enough, Nick?

Are we scraping the barrel now?

Yeah, I think it still counts.

But yeah, as you say, it's absolutely perfect for the kind of, you know, walking along a narrow wall or something like that.

Very much so.

Six Premier League games left this season.

Yeah.

And maybe a few European ones too for Connor McNamara.

Let's see if he can get a couple more in, see if we can get to a proper montage by the time the season's out.

Have we ruled out the possibility that you know, you know how some people will like hide messages in an article or something like that first?

These are all notes, and if you put them together at some point, it forms some kind of song.

It's gonna unlock something.

I hope so.

If you want to try NordVPN for yourself, go to nordvpn.com/slash cliches, and we'll also give you four extra months on the two-year plan.

It's the best discount available.

There's no risk with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee, and the link is also in the podcast description if you need it.

We'll be back very shortly.

Popsicles, sprinklers, a cool breeze.

Talk about refreshing.

You know what else is refreshing this summer?

A brand new phone with Verizon.

Yep, get a new phone on any plan with Select Phone Trade In MyPlan and lock down a low price for three years on Any Plan with MyPlan.

This is a deal for everyone, whether you're a new or existing customer.

Swing by Verizon today for our best phone deals.

Three-year price guarantee applies to then current base monthly rate only.

Additional terms and conditions apply for all offers.

For a limited time at McDonald's, get a Big Mac extra-value meal for $8.

That means two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun, and medium fries, and a drink.

We may need to change that jingle.

Prices and participation may vary.

Attention, all small biz owners.

At the UPS store, you can count on us to handle your packages with care.

With our certified packing experts, your packages are properly packed and protected.

And with our pack and ship guarantee, when we pack it and ship it, we guarantee it.

Because your items arrive safe or you'll be reimbursed.

Visit the ups store.com/slash guarantee for full details.

Most locations are independently owned.

Product services, pricing, and hours of operation may vary.

See Center for details.

The UPS store.

Be unstoppable.

Come into your local store today.

Oh, look

welcome back to football clichés it's time for the premier league unfinished business 11 we love our themed 11 and um what better way to bring back the themed 11s than with this from brian's gun it's just it's just a little bit of unfinished business i think really because unfinished business unfinished business unfinished business unfinished business a lot of teams with unfinished business i i certainly do feel as though I've got unfinished business.

Unfinished business.

A lot of unfinished business.

Do you feel as though you've got unfinished business?

I think it's business, whether it's unfinished or not.

I've got unfinished business.

Unfinished business.

There's unfinished business.

People are saying unfinished business.

A bit of unfinished business.

It's not unfinished business.

In terms of unfinished business, I don't quite see it like that.

It's not unfinished business.

Unfinished business sounds a little bit Hollywood.

What's unfinished business?

Does that make you proud, or does that just scream unfinished business?

Yeah, a bit of both.

Harry Kane there, who may well feature in the reckoning for this.

That video, perhaps, Dave, kind of reveals a little bit of sort of nuance about what unfinished business means.

We've discussed the real core meaning of unfinished business before on this podcast.

And I do want that spirit to underpin.

this selection process.

But I also don't mind if this kind of just descends us into predicting the 2027 January transfer window.

If it's as superficial as that, I'm alright with it.

Yeah, it is a nuanced thing.

I think as you can tell from that clip there, as I mentioned the other day, unfinished business does tend to follow managers around.

So we're obviously going to be mainly talking about players here, which is a slightly different concept.

I also think, having had a look at some of the mainly excellent suggestions that people have posted on the Reddit page, it isn't simply just Player X leaves the Premier League, therefore they have unfinished business.

There's more to it than that.

Well, on that point, the point about the reason it lends itself to managers is obviously because they get sacked a lot more.

You know, players don't get sacked in the same way, but the implication is that they're kind of something's taken away from them.

Yes.

And so I think it's important with players to think about: not, this won't be the case for everyone, but often it's they've it's sort of been they've been pushed away and told you're not good enough for this league, whether that's stylistically or physically or whatever.

So I do think that's something to bear in mind.

Like you say, it's not just because you know, players leave all the time.

That's what makes it unfinished.

It's kind of like you, you still had business here and you were, you, that was taken away from you.

Now come and finish it.

A sense of kind of injustice there.

Um, Nick,

we're looking for players who simply ooze second go at the PL.

But I think we should use the true definition of unfinished business as we understand it as a sort of tiebreaker for any tough choices.

So I want to keep the spirit of unfinished business very much at the forefront if we can.

You know, players who really have that burning sense that they have a point to prove.

I don't know whether there is any value in kind of putting a rule as to what you've achieved already in the Premier League.

I mean, I think I've got a couple on my list who have won the Premier League.

How?

But I don't know if there is any value in

ruling out to the business.

The ultimate thing is interesting to hear them.

Yeah.

Yeah, it could be more personal than their collective achievements.

One thing I wanted to just clarify at the very start of this is,

is there a blanket rule on any player who's gone to Saudi as not qualifying for unfinished business?

I don't think that's the case.

I think it's okay.

Do you think there are players that have gone to Saudi who could potentially have unfinished business with the Premier League?

Absolutely.

That's a whole subsection.

I've got a few which and the very specific kind of criteria like that which I'm sure we'll get onto.

Okay.

Yeah there are levels to this certainly.

Level one in the core the core kind of cohort of this are going to be ex-prem players currently overseas who might have another crack at our league.

Now we could also look at current Premier League players who look like they're on the way out very obviously but will be back at some point in the future.

Now if you go to level three which is Charlie Eccleshares Galaxy Brain we can think about overseas prospects who look destined for a failed Premier League move but would then come back again in the distant future so we're looking two steps ahead for some of these so a little sprinkling of that in the consideration is fine but let's not go too fantasy world but no no that's that's sort of one novelty pick yeah I know I love I love the idea of it and and it's good to get ahead of the game in that respect so let's kick off in goal with our goalkeepers all sorts of possibilities here Charlie someone who makes a kind of a low-key return to be a number two somewhere kind of sort of begovic level kind of operator a European kind of former youth goalkeeper who was in the academy but is now back as a fully-fledged kind of six-foot-six inch prospect.

Someone like Loris Carias, as well.

Like their business remains unfinished, I feel.

He's quite a specific case.

Did he not finish it by coming back to Newcastle?

I feel like that sort of drew a line under it.

He played in the Carabao Cup.

He played in the Carabao Cup finally.

Yeah.

Oh, he did, didn't he?

Yeah.

So that felt a little bit like, okay,

I think you're done now.

Yeah,

linking to the thing I was talking about with the kind of stylistic, I went with Andre Inana because I feel like he's been, it's not just that he'll flop, he will flop in such a way of being like, you should, this style of key, you know, like his whole being and modus operandi has been questioned.

Like that's not the way to be.

It's too risk-takey.

It's too silly.

You know, you know, what was Keesy talking about the other day?

I can kick the ball from here to there.

Like I think there's a whole school of thought that he's just a bit much and isn't cut out for our league.

But I can see him going to Galatasarai or or somewhere being good again and then coming back to our old favourites west ham yeah who have moved on from alphons areola another sort of former goalkeeper for a big club um it's quite full of me andrea nano i could see him at fulham or could be fulham yeah but you know with a point to prove okay um and and show and and maybe you know in a slightly less high profile uh role it's a good shout and i i was talking the other day because it's 10 years since watford got promoted to the premier league so i was chatting on another podcast about that team and i was talking about about Joralio Gomez, who I think, had we been doing this 10 years ago, would have been a perfect candidate for this team.

Having a high-profile, error-strewn spell at a big club in Spurs, leaving and then coming back to the Premier League with a promoted club, a smaller club, a club where his personality was accepted and people were really happy to have him there.

I think Inanna, just in the cauldron of Manchester United and everything that goes with it, obviously is struggling.

But yeah, if he comes back in a few years and plays for a mid-table club, I think you could definitely see that working.

It feels instinctively, Nick, that goalkeepers don't often have that Premier League redemption story.

I feel like if you're if you're written off in the Premier League as a goalkeeper, that's it forever.

Like, you don't, you know, a striker or a forward like Salah, for example, could go away and improve themselves and come back a completely changed being.

But a goalkeeper can't really do that.

Yeah, which I think is one of the reasons.

But I've only got one name down for a goalkeeper and connected to Inanna, which is David De Gea.

Given that he was kind of

he left, he didn't play for quite a long time.

And now, by all accounts, he's doing brilliantly for Fiorentina.

It absolutely reeks of United get rid of Inanna and bring him, bring De Guerre home.

Oh, wow.

I mean, all it takes is a change of manager, really.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

And the fans still quite like him, Charlie.

This is quite viable.

Didn't he always win their player of the year or something?

I don't know if that was voted for by fans, but he's also good in that idea of sort of being ideologically shafted as well, because he was told, like, you're an anachronism, you know, goalkeepers need to be good with their feet now.

It's no good just staying on your line making saves.

So, yeah, I like that.

Yeah, I do really like it.

And also, Dave, I get the sense.

And

I also believe this is purely for tax reasons.

He spends a lot of his time in England as well.

I think he still likes it here.

He's settled.

It's fine.

To clarify, he won the Manchester United Players Player of the Year in 13-14, 14-15, 17-18, and 21-22.

And he also won the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year in all of those years too, as well as 15-16.

So

well thought of.

Yeah.

Wow.

Okay.

It could throw this spanner into the works.

It's a very niche spanner, but here it goes.

It's from Agrafo Sam.

Peter Galachi sees out his contract to RB Leipzig and moves on a free transfer to Fulham, signing a one-year deal.

He plays back up to Bernd Leno and has a great performance in an early League Cup round penalty shootout win over Newcastle.

But then they lose in the next round to Wrexham and Galachi's error when playing out from the back is highlighted in the Disney Plus documentary.

A little bit too niche for R11?

Or do you know what?

Charlie, I love the Andre Onana prospective career arc, but we cannot start this 11 with a player who's already in the Premier League right now.

I mean, let's bring that in gently, shall we?

What about another candidate quickly?

Go on.

Aaron Ramsdale, who is about to be relegated.

Well, has been relegated for the third time.

in his career.

But that spell at Arsenal and being the sort of second choice keeper for England, it does still suggest that, you know, there's a player in there.

You know, someone could, someone will still take a chance on him and believe that he could be the number one, right?

Does someone really need to get a tune out of Aaron Ramsay?

He's never a goalkeeper.

I don't want my goalkeeper to be got a tune out of.

I don't know whether this is...

It feels like he will...

a player who's kind of he's now stuck in that cycle of it only Premier League clubs might sound him, but it's only Premier League clubs that might get relegated.

So he's just kind of stuck in this endless cycle.

So he'll never finish his business.

Yeah, well, I guess that, yeah, that's the thing.

The unfinished business is playing for a team that aren't going to get relegated again.

He's got to do it once.

I'm not altogether comfortable with players getting relegated and coming up to the Premier League as an unfinished business route, as

an import route, as a supply line.

So I've looked up David De Gea.

He's 34 years old.

Charlie, I can feasibly see a pundit saying, look, you know, that's young for a goalkeeper.

Yeah, yeah.

Yes are ahead of them.

He could easily play for three, four, five, six more years at the top level.

And he was over quick, you know?

Still in great shape.

David DeGea is our goalkeeper with all due respect to Andre Onana's future prospects.

Right, into our back three or back four, perhaps, we go.

I put it to you, Dave Walker, that especially with centre-backs, there could be a kind of good logic behind bringing a player back.

to our league to shore up your defence because you need a player who is well versed in the physicality of the Premier League, the pace, the tempo.

You can't just get someone in from abroad who's fresh and he's going to be like a rabbit in the headlights.

A bit like, I don't know, Abdu Qadir Kusanov for Man City, that sort of thing.

You want to bring in a player who knows how our league works and the rhythm of it.

So that could feed into the unfinished business kind of spirit.

Yeah, definitely.

I've got two names on my list and I saw one of them suggested a lot on the Reddit and that was Vikaya Tomori, who obviously, yeah, played a bit for Chelsea in that, in that Lampard season where they had the transfer ban.

He was playing quite regularly then, wasn't he?

And then obviously now he's at AC Milan.

But he's still, the thing about it is he's kind of talked, especially within England circles, he's always talked about in a way that I think his reputation is somehow bigger than it should be in a way.

Right.

Because I don't think people are really watching Siriat week in, week out, but he's just, he's got an air of being good about him.

So people sort of think he's really good.

And I can see that his signing could be heralded as a good one.

But then he comes back and he's actually maybe not as good as everyone thinks.

This is quite complex, actually.

This is really interesting.

Dave's point that Tomorrow's stock is high because he's playing in the kind of mystique-layered foreign league for a, you know, historically giant team.

So therefore, he must be good.

But I do also think that his England place is basically dependent on him coming back to the Premier League and being more visible.

So it's a tricky one for him because I don't think he'd become an England regular unless he has the English eyeballs on him.

Yeah, he was a kind of minor character in a WhatsApp group.

People who were like bigging him up and saying, oh, he should be, you know, it's a disgrace he's not in the English team, he's not showing no imagination by not looking at Syria.

Yeah, and then I can't remember who it was against, but they played an English team in the Champions League and he got absolutely ripped into it.

Liverpool, it was Liverpool, it was Liverpool.

So, yeah, it is the

handle the pace, exactly, tempo.

Charlie, this might well be a running theme of this team.

And you know, if we if we'd done this episode 10, 15 years ago and we considered this concept then, when English players abroad was very much a novelty and players who were doing this, at least at the top level, were trailblazers and and voyages into the unknown but right now it feels like there are so many good english players abroad playing at a high level that we can't just say lazily oh they'll be back in the premier league yeah they they know where their bread is buttered in terms of international recognition and and where they're where they truly belong a lot of them are really taking root kind of more and quite happy to be there which is good yeah obviously but this was yeah this was definitely a thread that ran through with because basically

and that's why I think it needs to be quite specific case because otherwise you can basically just take any English player playing abroad and put them in this category.

Because, yeah, like you say, there's no sense of it.

It's a gravitational pull, right?

Yeah.

But I don't know if that's so in the spirit of Unfinished Business.

Like, maybe it is, but it depends the extent to which they've kind of chosen to go and do it.

Has Chris Smalling got Unfinished Business, for example?

I don't know.

I don't think he has.

Yeah, I think he had some good years away.

Like, maybe we can have one representative from that subsection.

Oh, I think we should.

Definitely.

Yeah.

Because I do still think that gravitational pull exists to some extent.

I'm going to chuck some random names at you, Nick.

Nuno Tavares,

once of Arsenal, now excelling in Europe.

Sergio Regulon, who is still a Spurs player, but has basically left.

Tavares is still an Arsenal player.

Really?

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

There's a lot of low-knies here.

Ruben Vinagre, who I think is at Leggy or Warsaw now, but he's coming back for sure.

Clement Longley, I feel quite strongly about this.

He's going to Everton.

Oh, God.

Yeah.

I mean, again, in that um are we sure he hasn't actually played for everton before yeah and he's he oozes freaking group loosening the purse strings and getting in a bass at defender um emerson royale who ponky guy writes in and says low move to wolves and has a good start but fades away until he's on the bench in january looking for a move away emerson royale's got another premier league stint in him hasn't he yeah he he could be a newly promoted club as well really what like yeah sort of an exotic pushing the battle yeah because it's like oh we've got a brazilian right back

so yeah he was regular at spurs you know three years ago we were you know playing in front of 8 000 now we've got a brazil's right back

not brazil's right back right i i really like emerson ryle for this um dave what about eric dyer i had eric dyer yeah all spurs all spurs i mean these uh these defenders it's it's perfect i mean ryan luke writes in says i have eric dyer to everton um we're gonna have a everton centre-backed partnership here whilst you could question does he have unfinished business or not in the league after a relatively solid and long stint, Dyer to Everton seems on the nose, given there's no fee involved, and there's even a little added bonus of going back to a club where he didn't succeed.

Some unfinished business in itself.

Eric Dyer was at Everton, yeah,

yeah, yeah.

Before, I mean, when he was when he was very young, yeah, and I do think that having played for the club, because just to throw in a little bit of a curveball, um,

because we might want someone with the specific unfinished business at a club rather than just in the league.

Absolutely right.

And I do wonder if Trent, depending on the terms, how well or badly it goes down, him leaving, if there'll be a little bit of an unfinished business for him to go back at the end of his career.

Like a Thierry Henri-style, low-key return that kind of tends to get airbrushed out of history.

Could be, or depend, I mean, how long?

It won't be as good, will it?

Never go back, they say.

He's 26.

So he could still, he could have four years at Raoul and come back and finish up at Liverpool.

It's more of a Michael Owen leaving, isn't it, than Henri.

Henri, I think, it was very...

In fact, he's going for free, has obviously gone down bad.

The narrative is a little bit poisonous about Trent leaving on a free.

There is this kind of assumption that Liverpool fans just aren't going to have him anymore.

Just going back to Dyer, I had him down as a sort of like a similar kind of thing to De Gea, a victim of a sort of stylistic thing.

He wasn't, obviously, wasn't a Postacoglu player, but it feels like whoever replaces Posta Coglu will kind of bring him back in a kind of

human equivalent of bringing the ketchup back.

He's so catch-up

as well.

Yeah.

Great.

Right, that's it.

He's in.

He is in.

A Grapho Sam is back, Dave, and says Cameron Carter Vickers in a shock £25 million move from Celtic to Wolves or any of the promoted clubs back to bolster their back line.

He impresses, despite the team struggling, and becomes the starting centre-back for the USMNT in their second-round exit to Denmark in the World Cup 2026.

Cameron Carter Vickers?

I mean, if you impress for the old firm, the door is ajar back to the city.

That That is a good route back.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it is.

And I could.

He's also a proper old-fashioned defender.

So it would kind of be like, oh, there is room for this kind of defender.

And it completes the Spurs back four.

And to reference something we touched on a few weeks ago as well, despite all logic, there is still some sort of strange glamour attached to American players, you know?

Especially in this World Cup year.

I could just sort of see a club executive going, oh, you know, it'd be good to tap into the American market in this year of all years good for the summer tour in a more footballistic sense nick this is this is great unfinished business he's coming back a more well-rounded player than he left the premier league he's achieved something he's got substance behind him that's in the spirit of this 11 very much isn't it yeah absolutely yeah he he was not really kind of so much who did he other than totnam who did he play for sheffers united with that in the play yeah on he had a load of loans and bournemouth yeah oh bournemouth

but when they're in the championship very bournemouth if he played when they're in the championship oh yeah yeah so he had lots of unfinished business there.

Yeah,

that's good.

I like that.

Defence was where I had my Saudi pro league players

with

this kind of idea that people were talking about this quite a lot in the Euros, where

a few players in Saudi Pro League actually turned out to be all right.

Everyone just assumed that they would be completely useless.

I think there's a lot of like, well, well, yes, I did go and cash in and take the money, but I can still play.

I can still play.

That's my unfinished business.

So you like someone like Laporte or maybe Jiao Cancelo.

Well, well I'd say Cancelo's bridges have burned because Man City won't have him back and also he he he is somehow seen as this troublemaker he doesn't seem like the sort of player but he just seems like a real pain in the ass yao cancello it's like chill out mate inverted fullbacks aren't that big a deal you know

you know though i could it's definitely he's got he's still got enough of a profile that a reasonably big club would still value him like i think top like i think spurs i could see spurs going a club like spurs of that sort of level going for a cancello he's big wages and old.

That's the problem.

Big wages and old.

No one likes that.

Man United all over them.

Yeah.

It's more splurgy than Spurs.

As for Laporte.

Laporte is quite as good.

He's quite Everton again, isn't he?

I think that's an interesting one.

I mean, the very kind of lazy Route 1 stuff.

I had Newcastle for Laporte.

Of course, he'd have to displace, you know, Big Dan Byrne, of course.

Yeah, because that's a good shout, actually.

I love it.

And that makes it a little bit less Spursy.

Yeah.

Less entirely Spursy.

Yeah, and then that'll be the final chapter in the Dan Byrne stories when he actually sells out and goes to Saudi.

Oh my god,

what a year it's been for him and Saudi.

Certainly has.

Okay, well, that's that's nice balance for our defense now, then.

Okay, so our back line is David De Gea in goal and a back four of Emerson Royale, Eric Dyer, Cameron Carter Vickers, and I'm Eric Laporte.

Right, we'll be back onto our midfielders and forward line very shortly.

This podcast is supported by Progressive, a leader in RV insurance.

RVs are for sharing adventures with family, friends, and even your pets.

So, if you bring your cats and dogs along for the ride, you'll want Progressive RV Insurance.

They protect your cats and dogs like family by offering up to $1,000 in optional coverage for vet bills in case of an RV accident, making it a great companion for the responsible pet owner who loves to travel.

See Progressive's other benefits and more when you quote RV Insurance at progressive.com today.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, pet injuries, and additional coverage and subject to policy terms.

At blinds.com, it's not just about window treatments.

It's about you, your style, your space, your way.

Whether you DIY or want the pros to handle it all, you'll have the confidence of knowing it's done right.

From free expert design help to our 100% satisfaction guarantee, everything we do is made to fit your life and your windows.

Because at blinds.com, the only thing we treat better than windows is you.

Visit blinds.com now for up to 50% off with minimum purchase plus a professional measure at no cost.

Rules and restrictions apply.

Say hello to the next generation of Zendesk AI agents.

Built to deliver resolutions for everyone.

Zendesk AI agents easily deploy in minutes, not months, to resolve 30% of customer and employee interactions on day one.

quickly turning monotonous tasks into autonomous solutions.

Loved by over 10,000 companies, Zendesk AI makes service teams more efficient, businesses run better, and your customers happier.

That's the Zendesk AI effect.

Find out more at zendesk.com.

Oh, look at that!

That is wonderful!

Welcome back to Football Clichés.

We've got our backline sorted for our Premier League Unfinished Business 11.

We go into the midfield jungle now.

I don't know if it's a three or a four.

Let's see what we've got.

So, Charlie, I guess the first port of call, theme-wise, is perhaps we're looking for a Kevin De Bruyne-style resurgence, a player who didn't get get a good crack of the whip at his first Premier League club, went away, got himself to stellar status, came back for big money, and then went on to be a Premier League legend.

That's great Unfinished Business.

And also Kevin De Bruyne, he has that unfinished business face.

He says, I'm going to prove everyone wrong all the time.

Could he come back again after this?

Will he have more unfinished business?

They said I was done.

They said I was done.

I'm never done.

Not quite.

conforming to that, but conforming to but a bit to that and something else that I want to bring in is Vitinia, who obviously was a bit of a you know a kind of

i mean no one really cared about him but he would have been just dismissed at the time as oh another mendez portuguese player at war yeah pull the other one and now he's this absolutely elite central midfielder who would kind of come back king of the world and would you know would go to one of the biggest clubs and and i can and because he's not there's a very specific type of unfinished business where Dave Jones or whoever is almost saying it to remind you that he's played.

So in the season preview, they'd be talking about players to watch, and he might say, And, you know, could there be a bit of unfinished business for Vitinha?

As a kind of like, here's another little layer that you might not have thought about.

He has a point to prove almost on top of everything else.

He was referenced by Prince William, wasn't he, the other day in his little punctury book.

He sort of made a point of going Vitinia, who was a wolves, of course.

Of course.

Yeah, I feel like Vitinha's return to the Premier League, Nick, would be a welcome boost to the SEO hopes of Chorley FC, who must be mentioned in dispatches every time Vetinha's name is raised.

Yeah.

Okay,

I like Vetinha for this, but where's he going?

He's going to have to go to a real top, top level team.

Is he going to Guardiola City or whoever turns into the Liverpool from Guardiola?

Ooh.

Something like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, like when they brought in Thiago, Liverpool would be a nice thing.

PSG played so well against them in the Champions League.

It's sort of an old school, like, oh, we've got to sign this guy.

Pinch your best player.

Yeah.

Returns to the scene.

Yeah, the inside story of how they sign you know it writes itself you know it was after that game that a slot said we this is our guy right let's look into some more mundane names um i could throw in charlie stephen bergvine brian hill uh gaz meek says giovanni lace elso fulham splashed 30 million pounds on the 29 year old in the summer of 2025 goes on to have four wonderful seasons for the colleges lace elso is on my list but actually but rather than fulham uh was working with reuniting with emery at aston villa that was always talked about

Because the Selso was every window that he hadn't already been loaned out was being talked about as they need to get rid of him.

And it would always be, because

he went to Villaré Allen, did well under Emery.

So that was always a kind of two and two together thing.

Crucially, though, does he have time to reinvent himself that much?

When I say reinvent himself, I just mean restore his reputation as a solid Premier League operator because he's probably been written off by

the fair weather Premier League fan, right?

Yeah, but I mean, I thought yesterday when like Ross Barkley came on for Villa, in, you know, his career is just so weird.

Like, he,

if, if I, like, I haven't been following Ross Barkley very closely this season, I would probably have been dimly aware he was at Villa.

But if you'd said to me, no, he actually stayed with Luton.

He's doing really well in the championship.

Yeah.

I'd have believed that as well.

That would have been perfectly believable.

And then there he is coming on to salvage a Champions League tie against PSG.

It's like, there's such a fine line for these players.

Ross Barkley,

if his career had gone just slightly differently, it would be plausible to see him in the baller league now.

You're absolutely right.

It really is fine margins.

And there hasn't been any hint, Nick, that Ross Barkley's undergone some sort of private transformation.

He hasn't like hired a private chef and

a guy that's completely changed around.

I don't know, he's stopped eating...

rice or something like that.

He's just carried on being Ross Barkley.

Because the thing about Ross Barkley, he's a really seductive concept, Ross Barkley.

He's built like a great footballer.

And he does occasional things that make him look like an all-round English midfielder.

He's like Gerard Lights, basically.

So the spirit of Ross Barkley is still really persuasive.

And I just don't think anybody wants to let him go yet.

And he's edging 30, I think, Ross Barkley.

31.

The other side.

The other edge.

Yeah, the wrong side.

It is

the idea that someone has.

When he was 19, they go,

this guy's going to win 100 England caps.

And they just cannot let it go

in the face of most evidence.

Dave, I couldn't get Charlie's heart going with the Stephen Bergfein, Bergfein, but how do you feel about Arno Danjuma?

Where is he still at Spurs?

No, no, yeah.

He had a lone spell.

He's since had a lone spell at Everton last season.

He's back at Girona.

Wow.

Wasn't there a thing that, like, he was going to sign for Everton, then he mugged off Everton

for Spurs, and then he went back to Everton.

That's cool.

So this would be a third.

He's all for third bites of the cherry.

I think we should definitely have someone who's having a third crack.

Speaking of cherries, could he go back to Bournemouth?

Oh, yeah.

And he was at Bournemouth.

The place where he was happiest.

How old is Arno Danjuma?

Because this is crucial.

He's 28.

It's a bit newly promoted again, Charlie.

Yeah, yeah, I can sort of see it though.

Like as a...

Someone coming up and spunking 100 million straight away and still going down.

Bernardly, next season, when they come up.

I like it.

I like it a lot.

Right, Jackson Keir, says Nick.

Everton fans will get very excited about signing Brahim Diaz in a summer transfer window.

He'll be loaned out to Villa Real in the following January, having failed to impress.

Brahim Diaz feels very of that kind of discarded as a youth player for PSR reasons, but wants to come back and prove that he actually is a player.

I actually had in that specific role I had Jeremy Frimpong, but obviously we've gone past the defence now, who was at City

as a kid.

So Diaz kind of fills that role quite nicely.

Yeah, in a way, in the same way that ex-Manchester United youngsters basically flooded the EFL for 20 years, Charlie, are ex-Man City youngsters that you never knew played at the Etahat for a season or two, or at least in the youth team, Are they the new elite-level version of this?

Yeah, a little bit.

I mean, you see someone like Morgan Rogers, who just has nothing city about him.

I find that so, like, because his whole story is the fact that he came up from the championship and then tore it up and that, you know, it's a lesson about signing players from the championship.

The city bit feels so incidental.

And also, you've got the Cole Palmer equivalent, who obviously we all know is at City because he went straight from City.

But yeah, there are, there are tons of these players.

Yeah, you're right.

There's so many ex-city players.

Like Sancho is still knocking about,

but there's loads of sort of more humdrum examples as well they've got like cj egan riley who's one of burnley's best centre backs this season played for city and it's like was like mate to cole palmer and stuff in the team even watford we've got one i don't think he's got any premier league unfinished business tom deli bashiru but like you played for we got him from james trafford at burnley they're everywhere looking even further back um eintrack frankfurt's kind of hotly tipped young gun manager dino totmuller had a season at man city did he when he was younger on the 17s coach or something?

No no he was as a 21 year old player.

Oh right.

Oh I see.

I have no idea.

No idea what he did and why he left but yeah I like I like this ex-Man City production line.

Brahim Diaz could be in there.

Let's address the elephant in the room now Dave.

A beard of Perez says for the unfinished business 11, Scott McTominay to Aston Villa, much maligned of Man United, flourished in Serie A, seen as a perfect fit for Unai Emery's high-octane side.

Yeah, I've got McTomery on my list.

I wasn't quite sure where he'd come back though.

I mean, I think there's a chance that he could be in a similar situation to the one we talked about with De Gea and Eric Dyer in that a change of manager.

So I think he was respected by enough Manchester United fans.

And he's sort of one of those players that the worse Man United get, the more his stock rises in absence, right?

So I think he's definitely got unfinished business because he, it was a bit of a weird transfer, wasn't it?

Yeah.

A bit PSR-y as well, wasn't it?

Yeah.

Yeah, I think a lot of people on the outside, Charlie, thought, why are they getting rid of him?

Because whenever you watch, if you didn't, if you weren't a Manchester United fan, you just watched Scott McTonaminay, you scored every fucking game you watched.

Like, it's like, oh my God.

Often like a 97th minute winner with a header from a corner.

Let's add a bit of flesh to these bones.

Hero Dean says Mctominay definitely has unfinished Prem business.

Napoli player of the year 24-25, but doesn't win any silverware.

One more year with them before Milan scoop him up.

Serie our winner.

Prem return in his early 30s.

Playing the elder statesman midfield midfield role think tiago barry or carrick or even i would say charlie jordan henderson that kind of we got him into to be the guy that everyone looks up to because he's built up this seriar body of work but i think we're looking too far ahead with mctommini i don't i feel like he doesn't fit the bill right now give him another season then i think it's in that realm how do you feel yeah i i mean i think he probably will come back at some at some point but i mean a few other names one the sort of the level three the only one i could really think of, and I'm not sure if I necessarily think this, but Zubimendi, who is one of those players who just, he's talked, he's been talked about, I feel like, forever.

Then he'll finally come.

And maybe he won't be quite what everyone hoped he would be.

He'll have some flaw, you know, be some flawless.

He's just not physical enough.

And then he'll be moved on.

But then it'll be like, oh, he is tearing it up in the Liga.

Will, should another team take a bite on him?

He's so good technically

in a way that like Vitinia.

has shown maybe it just wasn't the right time for him or something like that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um, yeah, I don't know.

Maybe you could come back as a really, really sort of seasoned midfielder, Nick, and sort of sign for West Brom or something and say, yeah, do you know, in his older years, he can really run a game.

And, uh, but yeah, I don't know.

Um, I quite like this from Luke Goldsmith, Nick.

Jesse Lingard, without a doubt, has unfinished business.

I can see him at someone like Birmingham when they eventually come up in a couple of weeks.

This is a good long game suggestion.

I think this is great because 29, Jesse Lingard.

My only kind of issue with that was that he has already done the sign for a newly promoted team thing.

Oh, okay.

So I don't know whether that negates it or not.

And he's having fun in Korea, by all accounts.

He's the captain of his team as well.

So maybe he's just enjoying it over there.

And why wouldn't he?

This feels a bit more straightforward, Dave.

Gerard O'Shea says Donnie van der Beek to someone like Burnley.

Is Van der Beek done with the Premier League?

Well, I saw someone on the Reddit suggest that he would come back and have a spell at Brentford in the sort of Christian Erickson sort of mold.

I feel like it's clever enough signing for them.

Yeah.

It didn't feel moneyball enough for them.

I did enjoy his extra shout, though, Charlie.

Wouldn't rule out somebody trying to get a tune out of Tangy and Dombole, perhaps for Leicester.

Is someone going to take another chance on Tangy and Domboulet in the Premier League?

I think a lot of these players fall foul of, not entirely, but PSR has made teams become a bit more sensible.

And I feel there are fewer of these sort of like madcap, Hail Mary, aging players on really big who would probably want really big wages because they've become you.

Like, that's what I feel about Lingard.

He, I don't know,

that might be a bit of a deterrent.

It depends, you know, what he

would say.

Maybe the first name on my team sheet.

He was mentioned in passing earlier on.

Jordan Henderson, surely.

Very specifically, he comes back and he goes to Sunderland if they get promoted.

After England have won the 2026 World Cup.

Maybe.

And then he's having one sort of kind of parade season as a World Cup winner.

Because

that's your CV sorted for your move where's he going Sunderland Sunderland oh

oh I love it I love it a lot in he goes that's great I saw someone um reply to a suggestion of Henderson saying yeah but what business has he left to finish which on the surface you might think yes you know he's won won everything he could have won with Liverpool but the the nature of his departure and the and the the damage is to his reputation for various reasons since I think he's definitely got he's in the point to prove category isn't he?

That's exactly why I had him in.

There's never a good reason for David Ornstein and Adam Crafton to be in your kitchen.

Let's face it.

Things are

not going to be there.

So yeah, there is that cloud.

I don't know if it was his kitchen.

I think it was somebody else's kitchen.

Anyway, I really like this.

Okay, well, that might overshadow our other returning Britons then, Charlie.

Danny Burns says Billy Gilmore to Graham Potter's West Ham.

Ooh, I like that.

Is he ready to come back, Billy Gilmore?

I did like that.

I don't know how imminent, but yeah, that's a great marriage.

Yeah.

The problem with both him and Mctominay, and this is just going by Rory Smith's recent interviews with him in the athletic, they both seem quite happy in Italy.

They have absolutely no desire to come back.

Do we come back to England?

Living in Naples.

Brilliant.

McTominay on tomatoes is one of the greatest quotes I've ever seen.

Before, I just thought they were red water.

To be fair, English tomatoes are shit.

They are shit.

They're good.

English tomatoes have a very high ceiling.

Yeah.

They're absolutely amazing.

That's going on the TikTok.

Right.

Toby says Loftus Cheek has still got a September 2028 player of the month with newly promoted Watford in him.

I think those days are over, lads.

We're signing players like Musa Sisoko now who've got unfinished business with Watford in the championship.

Ainsley Maitland Niles has trade the blade, will be playing for Fulham within three years.

He's very Fulham.

I had him, yeah.

Yeah.

And finally, Mario Lamina says Reddit for My Sins is destined to bounce back to the the Premier League for a fourth time, having left under a cloud three times previously.

Any lower mid-table team could work, but I like West Ham in a January window specifically.

I really like Mario Lamina coming back for a fourth Premier League spell.

He's part of the furniture.

He belongs to me.

I'd sort of forgotten that.

Is he in Turkey?

Turkey is that.

Yeah, Galatasa right.

Yeah, I mean.

For a second time, by the way.

I slightly struggled with Turkey because obviously I did trawl through the squads looking for.

And I thought, well, John Joe Shelby, he's one.

He's in Turkey now.

But it turns out he's not.

Did anyone else realise he'd moved to Burnley in Japan?

Yeah.

Oh, Burnley, yeah.

To finish some business.

Yeah, I feel like he's championship now, just quietly going about finishing his business.

Right.

What about Connor Gallagher?

Oh,

I saw him mentioned as well.

We do need a PSR merchant in here, don't we?

Yeah.

I mean, he as well, because I can see him coming back to Chelsea

and having specifically unfinished business with Chelsea, you know, and saying something.

Some shouts for Connor Gallagher amongst them.

Because also,

he never won anything, did he?

He wasn't around the squad when they won the Champions League, shortly, in 2021.

I wouldn't have thought so.

So I can imagine it being a sort of like, I've always wanted to win something with this football club.

It's like Lampard coming back as manager.

He will be so welcomed as one of the rows.

And the PSR thing means that, you know, you don't have to write him off in terms of, you know, betrayal.

He was pushed out.

That was it.

Yeah, did him a favour.

Oh, I like this.

But we can't have Connor Gallagher and Jordan Henderson in our midfield, can we?

So, who's got the greater unfinished business?

Is it Gallagher?

Dan Henderson?

No, I think Henderson.

Oh, I think Henderson's case is more compelling.

Okay, so having a four-man midfield for our themed 11s really does undermine the excitement levels of our forward line.

I go always go three, always four three-three in these things.

Come on, we've learned that by now.

All right, Charlie, you're the thinking man here.

You've got to decide who's going out of Vitinia, Giovanni La Selso, Arno Dan Juma, or Jordan Henderson.

I think get rid of Danjuma.

Okay, not quite the hinterland going on there enough, is there?

Okay, great.

Okay, midfield.

Vitina, Giovanni La Celso, and Sunderland's returning hero, Jordan Henderson.

Right.

Okay, that's our midfield finally sorted.

We'll be back very shortly with our forward line.

You've got the VPN, the encrypted messenger, the private browser.

But if your mobile carrier's selling your data, those apps are just window dressing.

Meet CAPE, the mobile carrier that never collects your name, address, or data.

Because what they don't store, they can't sell.

Premium service, nationwide coverage.

CAPE is just $99 a month.

Your first month is just $30.

And with code CAPE33, you'll save 33% on your first six months.

Go to CAPE.co.

Lock down your network, not just your apps.

Sucks.

The new musical has made Tony award-winning history on Broadway.

We demand to be hurt.

Winner, best score.

We demand to be seen.

Winner, best book.

We demand to be quality.

It's a theatrical masterpiece that's thrilling, inspiring, dazzlingly entertaining, and unquestionably the most emotionally stirring musical this season.

Suffs, playing the Orpheum Theater October 22nd through November 9th.

Tickets at BroadwaySF.com.

Take advantage of the EV lease incentive and leave the ordinary behind with an epic lineup of electric and hybrid vehicles at the ready.

And right now, qualified lessees of Dodge Charger Daytona, Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xE, and Wrangler 4xE may be eligible for a 7,500 EV lease incentive through Stellantis Financial Services to be factored into their lease calculation.

When leased through Stellantis Financial Services, not all lessees will qualify.

This incentive is offered by a third party as a cap cost reduction and is subject to change without notice.

Lessee cannot claim EV incentive on personal tax return.

Consult a tax professional for details and eligibility requirements.

Restrictions apply.

Contact your dealer for details.

Offer ends 930.

That is wonderful!

I do think, Dave, that we want a Mohamed Salah-esque success story second time round.

And perhaps we could go for Victor Giokarez.

Now, he never actually played in the Premier League for Brighton.

He played a handful of cup games.

Does that rule him out?

If you didn't start your Premier League business, but you were in and around it.

Yeah.

I think that's alright.

You think it's alright?

But

doesn't that strengthen it?

But he didn't get to...

He didn't.

He presumably wanted wanted to play in the Premier League, but he didn't.

Desire burns more.

Do you have to have started your business for it to be unfinished at some point?

Is the question.

What you're saying, Dave, is if we publish this team, is someone going to say, well, how did he actually play in the Premier League?

Exactly.

Yeah.

And I know he makes technicalities like that.

Did he sit on a break?

He's got your bike three times, does he?

Especially he's got unfinished business with English football, having played very well at Coventry.

He's not in the Salah de Bruyne bracket, I don't think.

No, but that's fair.

But Nick, if Yokarez does eventually sign for a Premier League team, as is widely mooted, he is one of the strikers up for grabs, the big number nine's up for grabs this summer.

Whoever he signs for, within three days, there will be a long read, athletic or otherwise, about

his kind of English football kind of origin story.

And that's part of your unfinished business tapestry, isn't it?

Having a long read about how you did before.

Exactly.

And I don't know if his unfinished business case is strengthened by the fact they lost in the playoff final when he was with coventry so there is although he didn't play in the premier league he there's a sort of he came very close and just just oh that's great then that plus the not having play in the prem for brighton yeah i think that he's been you know he might have thought he was never going to play in the premier league yes exactly okay that's it okay he's spearheading our attack until another name pops up joe parker charlie says adamola lookman screams unfinished business signed by a top six side does well in europe and goes 20 games in the the league without a goal.

I mean, you can quibble with the minor details, but Luckman has a kind of salah-style, you know, maybe it's like a Poundland Salah trajectory, but it could happen.

Yeah,

I don't know if it will, I don't know how big a team would go for him, though.

Like,

he's 27, isn't he?

He's not young.

I don't see him going to one of the biggest clubs.

Yeah.

I think that's more a kind of West Ham.

Has his ship sailed.

Is that what you're saying?

Possibly.

I think he signed after the Europa League final, shouldn't he?

That would have made more sense.

But yeah, definitely the fact that, you know, for most people, his most telling Premier League contribution is that fluffed Panenka.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

So he definitely does have, you know, he definitely does have a lot of unfinished business.

Specifically, coming back to score a Penenka would be a lovely way to go.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

Can you imagine?

Finger to the lips.

Nick, we should address this very literal unfinished business.

E.L.L.

says, surely Harry Kane is the captain of the Unfinished Business 11.

People were so convinced that he is destined to break Alan Shearer's record, they were making themselves believe he actually returned to Spurs from Bayern.

Do you think this is in Harry Kane's unprofessed career plan?

I mean, yeah,

I actually didn't write down Harry Kane because I thought it was kind of too obvious, but I'd forgotten about the record.

Really?

Yeah, I know, very, very stupid, but yeah, it does feel very...

Because,

you know, win a few trophies at Bayern, you know, then come back and finish his business.

I mean, Sheringham did it in a different way, but with Spurs.

You know, he went, won everything, and then came back and had a few years at Spurs.

But yeah, the fact that he's got this very specific bit of business to finish, I think, is a nice little twist on it.

I mean, if you took the record out of the equation, Charlie, let's just say he was nowhere near the record.

It was never, ever in the equation, but he was still a Spurs great.

He's got that season left at Tottenham as a victory lab.

Again, I'm going to invoke the Henri case study here.

That's got to be part of the Kane strategy, hasn't it?

Yeah, and the fact that Bale did it as well, as well as a more recent example, as well as.

Shit on a fucking Daniel Evo be able to pay the wages.

It'll be all right.

I think that plus the record means it's it's a no-brainer.

I think he kind of has to be in the team.

The one thing with Kane is that, in a way, his him leaving Spurs and going to Bayern was sort of that in itself was kind of an unfinished business thing, in that he's left Spurs to go and win something.

He's left Spurs to go and do some business.

He's finished some of his business.

Now he's got more to finish.

He's got a spider diagram of unfinished business.

He's done that one.

What's that one?

He's doing it in increments.

Well, this is really overshadowing my long list of Nicolas Pepe, Devocarigh, Fabio Silva, Anthony, Evan Tony, John Duran.

I mean, where do these players?

I'm suggesting that Devoc Arigi has no unfinished business.

I'd say he has done more than he could ever have dreamed of.

I mean, he's.

That's why you're here.

Good.

He's gone.

He's got so many great moments.

Like, he could give some.

He's like swimming in business.

He could lend some to some of these players.

Swimming in business.

Lovely.

Let's deal with the Saudi dilemma, Dave.

Ivan Tony, John Duran.

Their Premier League business isn't finished by any long stretch, is it?

John Duran's interesting in that he's left at a relatively young age and quite soon after he became a noted Premier League property.

Tony's very different in that sort of he's a lot older.

His move to a big Premier League club just didn't transpire and it feels a bit like he's happy.

He was happy to sort of just leave it all behind.

Don't worry about England anymore.

I'm going to go and take the money and play in Saudi.

I can't really see him coming back to the Premier League.

So he's not going to, he is just going to sort of diminish quite quickly, I think, over there.

But I don't mind Juran.

But you glossed over Anthony briefly there, but I think we do need to get into him.

Because, again, it's the Manchester United thing and the fact that he was second most expensive player United history, I think, and, you know, was pilloried and was just associated with the disastrous ten hag sort of regime but then all of a sudden goes to bet east and is like seemingly playing well and doing well that's all it takes for people to go you know what he could come back in the sh in the in the grand scheme of shop window scenarios charlie anthony

this doesn't feel like it fits the template as normally this isn't a case of oh he's really found his form over there let's give him another chance i feel like it's just that it's more a case of la liga is the place for him yeah i know what you mean yeah he's a tricky one.

It feels like something's not quite right.

But I think it's the Man United thing in that all it takes is a player to leave Man United and start to play well and then it all and then the people just go, well, obviously it was United that were the problem and not him.

So I think, but yeah, it's hard to see exactly where he would come back to.

I've got a couple of suggestions of players that are in the Premier League currently.

One who is in the process, I think, of finishing some business right now is Marcus Rashford.

He's doing it in real time.

Yeah.

He's gone to Villa and he's saying to people, look, I'm still here.

And then also a little bit further behind him in the trajectory, but on the same sort of trajectory, I think, is Jack Grealish at City.

I think at some point he's going to leave and he's going to need to remind people that he

is Jack Grealish.

And he could go back to Villa.

Yeah.

Has he got time to go away from the Premier League and come back?

Yeah, that's the tricky one for him.

Whereas I think another one of a similar kind of formerly beloved player at a club is Wilfred Zaha,

who, as we saw from him kind of challenging the streets won't forget allegation, I think he is someone who's sort of permanently got a point to prove.

So I can kind of imagine him, you know, wanting to come back, maybe even if it's just for half a season or something at Palace, you know, for kind of one last harah.

Yeah, it doesn't feel unfinished business-y enough for me.

I feel like his legacy is sealed.

It would be a victory lap, much like Harry Kane, but without the without the extra twist.

How about here's here's the obligatory player who I had to Google alongside the word pronunciation before we recorded.

Moise Keene.

I'm going with it anyway.

Moise Keene.

Yeah,

I wondered about him as well, but again, it feels like perfectly happy or seems sort of fairly content where he is.

That his unfinished business is probably in Italy rather than in the Premier League.

I know he played in the Premier League, it was no good, but yeah, I don't know.

Could be part of a double swoop for somebody with David De Gea, though, from Fiorentino.

Double unfinished business.

Simon Trainer writes in Charlie and says, Serge Gannabri's famously inauspicious Premier League spell surely means he has unfinished business.

Given how many ex-Bayan players are at Man United, he'll turn up there in 18 months and not do very well because almost no one does.

You know what as well?

He hasn't...

an added thing because he went on loan to West Brom when Pulis was the manager and I think was discarded and derided by Pulis and that's held up as a kind of classic you know these these English managers these dinosaurs don't have a clue kind of thing so for him to then then come back as a kind of, you know, he's won everything and then

he's really good.

United doesn't seem right to me.

Villa?

Yeah.

Feels quite villery.

For their stable of lots of really good attackers who cost a lot in wages.

I think Villa are a bit better than that now.

He's pretty good, isn't he?

Still?

He's 29.

It's the old and expensive wages thing.

Yeah, but they love big wages at Verdana Villa.

Yeah, they have got a slight track record for, well, a slight track record.

They did it in January of picking up sort of faded faded players from theoretically bigger clubs.

So, yeah, they make the kind of signings that no one else does.

You know, like players who are aging and are on huge wages.

Get him on a no-brainer boxman with an incentivized contract.

He's fine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

One category I would like to throw in there is player that was written off as irredeemably shit and then forgotten as soon as he left.

Yes, please.

Then turns up somewhere else and is quite good.

And the name I have is Eric Maxim Chupu Moting.

Moting.

An absolute punchline at Stoke.

Couldn't get in the Stoke team.

And then he pops up at PSG and Bayern and scores a few goals.

I don't actually know where he is now.

He's 36 years old.

He's at New York Red Bulls, Nick.

That's not happening.

All right.

Well, I had him at Crystal Palace, but, you know, fair enough.

Not even Barclays era club would take a punt on a 36-year-old Eric Maxim Chupo-moting.

Here's a little sprinkling of names for you, Dave.

Woods Green says you best believe Jean Luca Scamaka will be at Fulham in a couple of seasons.

Ed Quoth the Raven says a team that qualifies for the Europa League or Champions League is bound to sign Alexander Sorloth from Atletico Madrid.

And we will hear on a weekly basis that he barely got a kick at Crystal Palace.

Love, love the idea of Sorloth.

Yeah, they're both good suggestions.

I like that.

I could just picture Scamaka more than I can Sorloth, but that's probably because I don't know what Sorloth looks like.

Charlie, I really, really want to indulge your level two thinking for this.

And I think this could be the name.

Anavab Sashdiva says, can you have unfinished business while you're still in the league?

Because I think our friend Darwin Nunez is already there.

It has to be.

If we're going to indulge this theory and get ahead of the game and answer people's queries about why he's in the team after we publish it, this is the name we're going to go for.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, and he conforms to...

what I was talking about at the start.

Like, he has been made into a complete joke figure.

I mean, I guess less as a stylistic thing, more just in a like, you're not good enough kind of way.

You're too ragged and kind of, you know, you don't have enough control.

Where does he go to?

Where does that come back to?

This is the crucial thing because I think it's all set up.

Like, he's been written off.

The reports of his summer, Dave, have got to the point where it's just like, it is expected that he will leave and field.

And everyone's gone, yeah, we don't need to source it.

It's fine.

It's definitely fine.

So he's going.

And there'll be takers because he's young.

He has the raw kind of elements he wants to number nine.

He's got such a high upside.

Yeah.

Is there an international tournament?

Are Uruguay doing anything this summer?

You know, does he need to keep himself ticking over?

It doesn't matter, really.

Where's he coming from?

But it's perfect for him because he'll, if he goes this year, he'll then have the World Cup next summer to put himself back in the shop window and then Palace or whoever compounds.

I think he comes back higher up than Palace.

I could see.

Yeah, no, I don't think it'll be Palace.

I could see Chelsea taking a punt on him.

He needs to do...

He needs to pull up trees somewhere for Chelsea to want to have a sniff because they can't gamble again on a number No, I don't know.

I think there's still so much chaos

energy.

Exactly.

I think they could.

Next summer, he'll have just turned.

He'll have just turned 27 next summer in Chelsea's whole only sign young people.

What about he goes somewhere for a year, scores goals and then Newcastle sign him to replace Isaac?

That'll go down superficial.

Eddie Howe on the steps of St.

James's.

I think he's good.

The underlying numbers are really good, I promise.

As we always must say in these situations, that's not Eddie Hout, that's Jason Tyndall.

Tyndall gets sent out to face the horns.

Well, I love this.

There's no point in mentioning Dave Bushel's suggestion of Anthony Martial now because it's Darwin Nunez.

He is our complete random level 2 choice for this unfinished business Premier League 11.

Here we go then.

David DeGea in goal.

Back four of Emerson Royale, Eric Dyer, Cameron Carter Vickers, and I'm Eric Laporte.

In midfield, the diminutive ex-Wolvesman Vitinha, Giovanni LaSelso, and homecoming Jordan Henderson, up front, powerful trio, Victor Giokarez, Harry Kane, still seeking the record, and Darwin Nunez in future.

Love that, but of course, we're not done.

Of course, we're not done.

As we said right at the top, the spirit of Unfinished Business lends itself to football management.

So much potential here for the man to lead this team, Charlie, Mauricio Pochatino, Julen Lopateghi, and if we're going real technical with this, Bruno Large,

who is suing the Crystal Palace owner John Texter for not hiring him and instead going for what's his face, Oliver Glasnar.

Really?

Wow.

Yeah.

The thing that kind of slightly blew my mind about this was that

I saw the story and thought, well, that's weird.

I mean,

Bruno Large must be kind of kicking his heels and sort of not doing much at the moment to bring this kind of lawsuit.

He's bed FICA manager.

He's already in a job.

Yeah, he's already in a job.

What's he doing suing John Texter?

That's not going to send good signals to your employer, is it?

I'm suing somebody else for not hiring me.

Is that all right?

You have to put that through the outside work committee.

That's too good a choice, isn't it, Bruno Lage?

Ponchatino is again, like in the Kane example, he has a very specific, because he always, he talks about it a lot himself, that he's, you know, he's still clearly got unfinished business at Spurs.

How would he have to wrap up his USMNT stint, Nick?

to kind of extricate himself and release himself for Premier League duties again.

You'd have to leave them on a good footing, right?

Or be a complete disaster.

Yeah, it's either out in the group stage, no wins, or get to the semi-finals, isn't it?

I don't know.

I think the last 16 is kind of perfect.

Like, it's about par.

No one will be that gutted he's left, but he can leave.

At least have held high.

Do you know what?

Yeah, and it would, and you know, it wouldn't put Spurs off going for him.

His stock wouldn't have fallen.

It would basically be as it was.

I mean, I could foresee a situation where he comes back to Spurs before the World Cup and he just jacks it in and just says, I actually, you know what?

Fuck this.

Spurs want me back.

I'm going.

Sorry, lads.

He will go back to Spurs because things just change so rapidly.

Like, the landscape will change.

I mean, I know the hierarchy won't, I still could be in place at Spurs for a long time, but the fans will probably just about tolerate it.

Pogetino did that interview with a load of English journalists a few weeks ago as well, which you're not doing that if

you're content and happy in your current job, are you?

Yeah, you've got to do a little briefing to get yourself back in the ether.

Come and get me, please.

Yeah,

the subtle come and get me, please, very much part of the unfinished business.

Ivan Urich, back out of the ether.

How do we feel about that?

That's a no.

Never.

No, he's never coming back to these shores.

Eric Ten Hag.

I mean, he definitely, in his mind, because he feels he was so wronged, you know, and he'll...

That's so unfinished business.

You can imagine him referring to his cup wins in every press conference.

Yeah.

And even finals, isn't it?

Three finals in two seasons.

So as

his palace team or whoever are kind of battling in the, you know, he's talking ahead of their fifth round tie.

He can point to, well, he's a, you know, he knows how to win this competition.

Gary Cottrell turning up at his unveiling with some silly questions.

Could he?

I don't know whether he will think himself above Palace.

Is there a kind of double-layered thing here where he manages Tottenham?

Because they didn't they turn him

on the basis that his English wasn't good enough or something.

Yeah, historically

interview well.

Yeah.

I mean, are we in danger of overthinking this?

I mean, is it is the manager?

Is the manager not Jose?

No way.

He's gone.

He's done.

He's an absolute caricature.

Come on.

In his head, there is mountains of unfinished business.

He's got bent off by three clubs who have now, in subsequent years, been in various states of disarray.

So he can just say, well, I mean, I got United to second and look at them now, kind of thing.

Name one club that would hire Jose Mourinho in the Premier League.

Chelsea.

Chelsea.

Chelsea would 100% bring him back.

Oh, fucking hell.

I think they would, yeah.

You could definitely see, what would that be?

The

third coming of Marina.

Gary Cottrell, that would be like eight Christmases.

I'm not saying it's the right, it would be the right thing to do, but Chelsea would 100% do that.

But he's opened the door to come to a club of lower stature as well, hasn't he?

He's talked about potentially managing a club, you know, who's just come up or is fighting for survival.

I think

West Ham.

And we haven't actually talked about West Ham as much as we often do.

So I think that is, I can sort of, I feel like their their owners are just about out of touch enough to think that's a good idea.

Yep.

Yep, maybe.

Mourinho to West Ham, that's a very seductive idea.

When it transpires that Graham Potter actually can't finish his business.

I'm tempted to put Maurico Potitino and Jose Mourinho in as a kind of Evans Julier kind of turned up here.

But I'll end on this low-key note.

Good titties writes in on Reddit and says, Jesse Marsh is so Norwich.

That is a great shout.

I really like it.

I can see it at Carrow Row.

Yeah, I could see him signing.

I could see him bringing a few Canadian internationals with him as well.

Yeah.

Also, if we want a pundit, obviously, to kind of front this team, we know who.

I mean, Keesey is so unfinished business, isn't he?

I mean, he has

the unfinished business in his mind.

Him fronting this game for Skye.

This is real stuff that we've got so far into the weeds that we're...

doing the TV coverage, unfinished business for this team.

What we need is a UK media equivalent of Elon Musk to take over Skye and bring Keesy Keesy back as a maverick move.

That's what Tildsley is the commentator.

Oh, it's so perfect.

Is there a stadium with unfinished business?

I'm really, really trying to think of this.

I was desperately trying to think of a stadium that befits

unfinished business.

What about a stadium that's stadium that was mooted and and proposed but never got planning permission and then eventually got built?

I mean, I don't know.

Has West Ham's London Stadium got unfinished business?

Because people have been writing it off as a football venue.

What about the it feel feels slightly unlikely that now there's a shopping centre there, but to Chelsea Stadium at Battersea Power Station.

What of the great sort of ludicrous ideas?

Wembley is a Premier League stadium.

You know, it's done it.

It was much maligned, but

could it actually whisper it quietly, but Wembley's actually been really good for London Club Y.

Right, no more of this.

This is absolutely silly.

Jose Embry, no, it is.

Fine.

Wright.

Brilliant, brilliant stuff.

I really enjoyed that.

Thanks to you, Nick Miller.

Thank you.

Thanks to you, Charlie Equisher.

Thank you.

Thanks to you, David Walker.

Thank you.

Closure, are you all right?

I'm all good.

Excellent.

Thanks to everyone for listening.

We'll be back on Tuesday.

See you then.

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.