Body image, Bum Wiping Technique and Football Academies

Have Romesh & Tom ever embarrassed their wives? It’s time for another email episode, where we tackle everything you’ve sent in to us, from bad advice that nearly derailed Tom’s stand-up career to the scrutiny young footballers like JJ Gabriel face online, plus a wiping technique masterclass nobody asked for. Got a question, dilemma or poem? Email [email protected] Ranga Bee Production Chapters 00:00 Intro00:38 Tom’s Post Partum Advice04:45 Romesh’s Body Image Advice07:18 Partner Public Embarrassment 08:22 Toilet Paper Queries & Shocking Wiping Revelations14:55 Football Academies & Bad Advice21:58 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:26Speaker 01

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• 1:08Speaker 02

  Let's do it. Yeah, welcome. Hello. Oh, Tommy's taking the reins. Welcome to this special email episode of Wolf and Al. This is special because Ramesh Ranganaathan is feeling absolutely inquisitive.

• 1:26Speaker 03

  Emails, questions, queries.

• 1:29Speaker 02

  Pictures. Life advice.

• 1:31Speaker 03

  WolfAlPod at gmail.com. Hi Wolf and Al, I thought I'd reach out to two sweet souls and parents who have both gone through weight fluctuations and fitness transformations. I recently gave birth to my first child and have struggled with the major changes my body has gone through. I know it's a stupid thing to be concerned about, but as someone who's always been fit, now has no clothes that go over a rather ginormous arse and hips, it's constant in the back of my mind, especially as I can't afford new clothes thanks to our pretty shitty maternity pay. But that's a rant for another day. It's hard to exercise and watch my diet with a new baby and I struggled with a serious eating disorder in the past, which scares me when it comes to implementing a diet in case I fall back into old patterns. My husband has not said or done anything to make me feel this way, but my brain is questioning how he can find me attractive now. I'm so different. It doesn't help that I'm now starting to lose hair and look constantly bewildered, bedraggled and usually have a tit out.

• 2:18Speaker 03

  Oh God, that's so mature. I know hormones are also playing a part in this, but I wanted to ask you how you support your wife through this many changes after childbirth. There's a new way to find confidence and appreciation in a new body. Thanks in advance and thank you for making me feel, thank you for making me laugh every week. The perpetually tired possum.

• 2:36Speaker 03

  Tom tips?

• 2:37Speaker 02

  Well, yes, it's a different kind of vibe for me because of the nature in which we had Grace.

• 2:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:43Speaker 02

  But obviously that in itself.

• 2:44Speaker 03

  If you want to get the full details of that story, obviously instinctively you'd think, is there a past episode of the Wolf and Al? But I can, if I could point you in the direction of parenting hell, which is where Tom decided to give that exclusive story.

• 3:00Speaker 03

  Yes, Tom.

• 3:02Speaker 02

  I think firstly, I think it's a, but in what we went through, it has its own, you know, its own ways, I guess, and its own.

• 3:15Speaker 03

  Different set of challenges.

• 3:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, but yeah, I'm trying to think of what I've articulated, but my mind's gone blank. I think the truth is, I think being a really, really supportive partner and I think for the most part, there's an understanding and that there's a support in you going through what you've been through. I think from your husband, I think to most women, you realize, I think quite what it takes and what it can take away from you. I think you have to, I think any sort of decent person gives as much support as possible through that. I think, and I think it's a level of you not being too hard on yourself.

• 3:54Speaker 02

  Cause I think that's the truth is everything you've been through and what you're going through and you're probably going to go on for the next couple of years, whatever it is, you sort of, everything about you kind of takes a bit of a backseat, I think, once you have children. It's a little while down the line before you almost look at yourself and come up for air and go, oh shit. Like you feel a certain way and I think you question yourself as a parent. I think how you look physically can actually sometimes sort of play more of a part than than others. Cause I think by the sounds of things, if someone who trained a lot and looks a certain way, I suppose that was, that became quite a big part of who you were as a person. I think it's important to say that you, you need to own the place you found yourself

• 4:38Speaker 02

  in and how you, you know, and not be just tough and not be hard on yourself. You know, I think any fad diet or, you know, if you've trained, you know, it's not an easy way to get back and, you know, certainly if you've struggled with an eating disorder before, I think it's really a difficult thing for you to go, right, I'm just going to do, I want to find this thing as, as a way of dropping weight. I think it's, I think it's getting out, walking. I think, you know, we've just done an episode on happiness and what it is. I certainly look back at that time when Grace was first born, it's probably been the happiest time of my life, but also met with quite a lot of other challenges mentally, physically, whatever. And I think that, yeah, you just need to, I think, just give yourself as much of a

• 5:21Speaker 02

  break as you can from being hard on yourself and be as good as friends to yourself as you possibly can. And take small steps, literally in getting yourself into a healthier way of being and a healthier way of thinking about yourself, like what is a new you? And that's it. I mean, I don't know if I've articulated that very well.

• 5:38Speaker 03

  Really beautiful. Really nice.

• 5:40Speaker 02

  I feel like I've.

• 5:43Speaker 03

  I think if you've just had a baby or if you've had a baby full stop, you just need to, by the way, I'm loaded to give advice here because I'm sort of unqualified to do so. But if you've had a baby, you need to just give yourself a break. You know, your, your body's created a baby. It's an amazing thing. And so I think the whole idea of being too hard on yourself for the, what that's done to your body is, is, you know, it's a route to unhappiness, but I get it because you were sort of, you sort of fitness was part of, it sounds like it's kind of part of your identity a little bit.

• 6:17Speaker 03

  I think, you know, Lisa's, obviously we've had three kids and she is, gets down about herself sometimes and I hope that none of that comes from me.

• 6:33Speaker 03

  That is not important to me, you know, that, that side of things is not important. I just want Lisa to be happy. So I think it's this thing of, you know, it's not coming from your husband. So this is all generated by yourself. And I think if you do want to do something about that, first of all, I wouldn't worry about it for a long, long time. But if you do feel, at some time when you feel ready to do something about it, do something small. Do you know what I mean? Like raising a kid is hard, so you're not necessarily going to have time to like really devote to fitness, but try and make a little bit of time if you want to do something to, I don't know, go for a walk or something like that and start there. Start small, start with, you know, Tom and I have talked about the, I mean, I don't know

• 7:15Speaker 03

  if your rule is this, my rule is always don't do it if you don't think you could do it long-term, you know? So if you don't do something radical or like you mentioned fad diets, do something that you think you could, you could imagine yourself doing for a long, long time and then do that. And, but don't put yourself under any pressure. You've done an amazing thing. I think it's about being kind to yourself, but that is difficult. But I think you, your husband is not exerting any pressure. The pressure's coming from you and you just try, you need to try and be kind to yourself and sort of almost train your inner voice to be a bit nicer to yourself about how you look. And you look loads better than you think you do, I promise. And I'm speaking to somebody who's had like, you know, Lisa gets so fed up with me, some of the ways that I talk about myself.

• 7:59Speaker 03

  And I've had to, I've had to check myself because I don't want to pass it on to my kids. Do you know what I mean? But it's a difficult thing. It's not easy and I wish you the best of luck with it.

• 8:12Speaker 02

  Dearest gentle reader, sorry, Wolf and Al. I was recently out grocery shopping with my boyfriend in Aldi and we were having a disagreement on which toilet paper to buy. After a while, he got distracted by the middle aisle and I got fed up and asked from afar, is the usual one okay? He blurted back from across the middle aisle, no, we can't get that one. That's the one where my finger breaks through. I can't tell you if it was because he was so passionate, but he said it way too loudly. I was mortified at the supermarket, it was packed, more than a few heads turned our way. I was so shocked, I scurried off to pretend, to look at pasta and disown him for a bit. The worst part is we still had to circle back to put some, some form of paper in the trolley. Anyway, turns out we got 32 rolls of the wrong one and the commentary from the bathroom

• 8:57Speaker 02

  continues. My question is to you, have either of you ever been embarrassed by your partners during a public spat? Have you embarrassed them? Also, can you shed some light on toilet paper integrity? I never experienced a finger breakthrough. Is this something that happens to other men? Yours truly, the embarrassed and chin.

• 9:16Speaker 03

  Echidna.

• 9:17Speaker 02

  Echidna, there we go.

• 9:20Speaker 03

  Have your, have your fingers ever broken?

• 9:22Speaker 02

  Yeah. I'm, you know, I sometimes curse those moments when that happens.

• 9:28Speaker 03

  I would curse them every time.

• 9:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:29Speaker 03

  I mean, there's never a time when you're thinking, that's a blessing.

• 9:31Speaker 02

  No, does it happen to you?

• 9:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's awful.

• 9:34Speaker 03

  John, has it happened to you?

• 9:36Speaker 04

  No, I wipe with a flat hand.

• 9:38Speaker 02

  What?

• 9:39Speaker 04

  I'm not, I'm not putting a, I'm not going like.

• 9:42Speaker 03

  You're not using.

• 9:43Speaker 04

  I'm not like, I don't really understand how you, one finger, I'm like, I'm wiping with a flat.

• 9:48Speaker 02

  The whole hand like that?

• 9:49Speaker 03

  First of all, John, what you're saying, your method is not a flex, so check your tone, all right? That's the first thing I'd say to you.

• 9:55Speaker 02

  I would say the worst place that can happen to you is a festival.

• 9:58Speaker 03

  Do you think we ever get too high, bra? We were talking about philosophy.

• 10:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:01Speaker 03

  Earlier on in the week.

• 10:02Speaker 02

  I think if, if it happens at a festival, it's almost akin to that.

• 10:06Speaker 03

  Well, I would, I would never, ever in a million, the idea of taking a shit at a festival.

• 10:13Speaker 02

  If you're at a festival for four days.

• 10:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, I would rather fucking teach my body to re-internaldize it.

• 10:18Speaker 02

  Can I say, yeah, well, that's what you shouldn't be doing. It's recent studies have come out, how lethal that is.

• 10:23Speaker 03

  I'm aware it's lethal. I'm, I'm not taking a shit in a fucking long drop at a festival.

• 10:28Speaker 02

  You're, why? There's something quite exciting about it. Have you done it?

• 10:32Speaker 04

  Oh yeah, I mean, of course.

• 10:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, sorry, I forgot I was talking to two fucking legends.

• 10:38Speaker 02

  I think there's something quite, yeah. But also, yeah, but it's an awful place. You've got to go in there with your own toilet paper. Um, it happens probably three, four times a week, the pop for the toilet paper.

• 10:46Speaker 03

  What?

• 10:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:48Speaker 03

  What?

• 10:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:50Speaker 03

  Are you, sorry, I, I, when I said it had happened, I mean, it's happened like twice in my life.

• 10:56Speaker 02

  Twice in your life?

• 10:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's not happening, it's not happening three or four times fucking week.

• 11:01Speaker 02

  I'm an aggro.

• 11:01Speaker 03

  Are you kidding me?

• 11:02Speaker 02

  I'm an aggressive wiper.

• 11:03Speaker 03

  Okay, but change your technique or layer up a bit more. Who, who, let me tell you something. If I had one week where my fingers had broken through, I'm changing something. I'm not going, this is my life now.

• 11:18Speaker 02

  No, but I just got.

• 11:19Speaker 03

  What the fuck are you talking about?

• 11:20Speaker 02

  I just look at.

• 11:20Speaker 03

  You're forty seven years old.

• 11:22Speaker 02

  I'm looking at other areas of my life to change.

• 11:25Speaker 03

  Sure, but what, but you're not, you're not working on how to wipe your arse at the expense of your stand up tour, are you? I, I would say when you're, when you're at or on the toilet, that's where your focus is.

• 11:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, but you know, like, it's the same thing as like tripping over the same fucking paving slab.

• 11:43Speaker 03

  Right.

• 11:43Speaker 02

  Right? You just get used to it and go, fuck it, that's just a part of life now.

• 11:46Speaker 03

  Okay, fine. But if you trip over a paving slab, it doesn't give you shit under your fingernails.

• 11:52Speaker 02

  It's not going, my fingernails are quite short, I'm not going. If you're going with fingernails first to wipe your bum, what are you thinking?

• 12:00Speaker 03

  Well, first of all, that was a turn of phrase. First of all, you've got, you, the idea that you can take a judgmental position to what, the idea that you could even clamber, let, let me tell you something about your high horse, nowhere to be fucking seen, all right? So don't start looking for it to climb onto. Your fingers break through your toilet tissue four times a week, my friend, okay? So you are just gonna, you are just gonna have, you are just gonna have to accept, I've got the higher ground here.

• 12:27Speaker 02

  You've got the high ground, but if you're doing your, if you're wiping your bum like there.

• 12:30Speaker 03

  I'm not wiping my bum there.

• 12:31Speaker 02

  What, with your fingernails?

• 12:32Speaker 03

  Twice in my life, my fingers have broken through. In my life, okay?

• 12:38Speaker 02

  But then, would you not think that I'm the expert at this?

• 12:42Speaker 03

  Somebody, okay, a, a, a doctor that has lost loads of patients doesn't make them the expert, okay?

• 12:55Speaker 01

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• 13:56Speaker 03

  You've only got two deaths on your hands in your entire life.

• 13:59Speaker 02

  I've got eighteen.

• 14:00Speaker 03

  I've had four this week.

• 14:03Speaker 02

  So I think I know what I'm talking about. Who would you like to get advice off? Me or this guy who doesn't know how to talk to someone who's about to die?

• 14:11Speaker 02

  Um, I think you're some quite an erratic wiper. I think it's like you have a fight.

• 14:15Speaker 03

  Show me your hand, show me your hand. No, no, I mean i- in position.

• 14:19Speaker 02

  All right, there.

• 14:21Speaker 03

  Okay, I think there's a.

• 14:28Speaker 02

  Where are you, show me yours.

• 14:29Speaker 03

  I'm sort of like that, I would say.

• 14:31Speaker 02

  What? So where, where's the toilet paper going?

• 14:33Speaker 03

  Sort of resting across here.

• 14:35Speaker 02

  Really? So what, you're like that?

• 14:36Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:37Speaker 02

  I'm like that.

• 14:38Speaker 03

  That to me, can I tell you something? That is cleaning your arse. That is an examination.

• 14:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, true.

• 14:43Speaker 03

  And also it's four times a week.

• 14:46Speaker 02

  I just, I just think there's more place to move, like quickly turn.

• 14:50Speaker 03

  Up your arsehole with your fingers.

• 14:51Speaker 02

  It's not being messy, you can twist and turn more.

• 14:54Speaker 03

  Messy is the word, mate.

• 14:58Speaker 02

  Oh man, I need to look at this.

• 15:00Speaker 03

  I don't, I, I, I just think four times a week. I'm amazed that you've done it four, you did, done it four times. If, if, honestly, if, I just can't believe that after the first week of it happening four times, you wouldn't go, something needs to change here.

• 15:14Speaker 02

  I was kind of like after it happened like that and then the next week for, I was like, maybe this is just life now.

• 15:18Speaker 03

  Okay, I get it. You just think everybody's having that. But now you've, now you've seen.

• 15:21Speaker 02

  If I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm sitting in a room, I slightly feel quite vulnerable on the basis, I'm sitting in a room with someone who's never happened to.

• 15:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:27Speaker 02

  And someone who's happened to twice.

• 15:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:30Speaker 02

  So literally, if you put you both together, I'm, I'm, I'm beating you in a, in a, in a week by tw- by doubling.

• 15:36Speaker 03

  We've got an office here, I think you could, you probably got trumps on the entire office put together.

• 15:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I would have thought so.

• 15:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:42Speaker 02

  Unless you've got someone else who's, yeah, no one's hitting those numbers. I'm like the LeBron of fucking

• 15:47Speaker 03

  No.

• 15:48Speaker 02

  breaking toilet paper with his fingers.

• 15:49Speaker 03

  There is a way of looking at this positively.

• 15:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:52Speaker 03

  Is that you are being more meticulous.

• 15:54Speaker 02

  I'm, that's the one thing. There's never anything left on the.

• 15:57Speaker 03

  The toilet tissue is a casualty of your desire to leave yourself clean as a whistle.

• 16:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I, I, I'm very thorough.

• 16:05Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 16:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, as I've said before, I ha- I hate the thought of anything being left, like, anything, yeah.

• 16:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, okay.

• 16:13Speaker 02

  Anything left.

• 16:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, got it.

• 16:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, it would be a clean bowl.

• 16:18Speaker 03

  Right, shall we go to the next one? By the way, I hope that advice helps.

• 16:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And by the way, uh, based, I mean, you can make your own assumptions, but based on the conversation we just had, have I ever embarrassed my wife? Yes, I think the fast conversation is just another one to fucking throw into the mix.

• 16:47Speaker 03

  Holy shit.

• 16:50Speaker 03

  Hi Rom Tom, I thought it was about time Rom came first and a couple's name is a perfect start. A lot is being said about the young lad JJ Gab- is JJ Gabriel, isn't it?

• 16:58Speaker 02

  Gabriel, yeah.

• 16:59Speaker 03

  Wanting to leave Man United and who's guiding him in these decisions. Have you seen clips of this kid?

• 17:03Speaker 02

  Yeah. He, by the way, he was good. No Max Down, I think Max Downman was, so.

• 17:08Speaker 03

  He has already passed through West Ham, Chelsea and Arsenal academies and Man United all before his sixteenth birthday and the belief is his latest request is because they feel he should be in first team squads like Max Downman.

• 17:19Speaker 03

  The difference is JJ was actually ineligible to play last season. He didn't enter fifteen until after the thirty first of August, whereas Max was fifteen and this naturally has delayed him, albeit only nine months or so between them. Nine months is a lot at that age, I might add. Leaving Man United could turn out to be a good choice, time will tell. My question to you, I'm, I'm fascinated by what this question's gonna be after the back of this. Have you ever followed some advice that turned out to be detrimental based on the idea that you were bigger or better than you were at that time? This could be turning down a role, changing your original persona, or maybe you found yourself questioning with hindsight some advice you've given your children? Maybe mostly for Rom, that one. Your friend, the pissy python.

• 17:57Speaker 02

  I mean, I would say in JJ Gabriel's defence is that there's a lot of kids out there who've passed through more than one academy. I don't think that's a, you know, a normal thing. I think it's.

• 18:08Speaker 03

  Man United, is, Man United fans are getting a bit shitty about all this, aren't they?

• 18:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I think because I think he has so much talent and I, but also think that there's, I, I, I've never ever witnessed anything like this with a kid of that age coming under such media scrutiny.

• 18:22Speaker 03

  But I think you're gonna increasingly see that.

• 18:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:25Speaker 03

  Because like, do you remember when J- J Cole was coming through?

• 18:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:28Speaker 03

  And like, nobody had seen him because you won't get any social media clips, but you just hear people that had turned up to those games.

• 18:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean.

• 18:35Speaker 03

  And then the rumours would spread like this is kid at West Ham is unbelievable.

• 18:39Speaker 02

  Decaduums like that, decadums, yeah.

• 18:40Speaker 03

  But now, because it's, we're at, we've got access to so much more stuff, kids, in my opinion wrongly, are being given loads more scrutiny at a younger age.

• 18:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, and that's the same thing.

• 18:51Speaker 03

  I mean, he's, he's a kid.

• 18:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:54Speaker 03

  And he's getting shit online, not directly at him.

• 18:58Speaker 02

  No.

• 18:58Speaker 03

  But he will, he'll be looking at it. Kids are more online than anyone else.

• 19:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 19:01Speaker 03

  And he's gonna be looking at people sort of going, oh, this, this kid's been advised by.

• 19:04Speaker 02

  I would say that, I would say that he, he's, he feels that he's probably got like quite a strong sort of surrounding, like, like a backing and it feels like, to be fair, he's been almost made into like this thing that, like a footballer, that's almost like the intention that he's that good. I, I, I personally think that, you know, it's not a new thing. I don't, I'm, like I've shown my geeky and I said, there was a kid when we were younger called Sonny Pike, who was like, everyone talked about being the next big thing. He was, I think he was at a few British clubs, then he went to Ajax and everyone was talking about he was gonna be the next thing. And then he sort of, you know, sadly, he just didn't get to that point. It happens a lot. It's like,

• 19:44Speaker 02

  you, you watch Max Downman, Max Downman, for everything you watch about him, he looks incredible, but nothing is written in the stars. You could literally go Jermaine Pennant, you could reel off names of people who've went, oh, right, that, they were gonna be the, the, the best player in the world, they're gonna be a world beater and that. It, it, so many things have got, have to go in your way. And when it comes to the question here, the reason, one of the reasons I stopped stand up for a long time was really bad advice from someone who was trying, I th- I don't think, thinking they were giving me bad advice, but they were very much like, you need to change up everything about the style of stand up. Everything that I think like you've sort of talked to me and Flo's talked to me about what is what I do now, they literally were like, no, you shouldn't do that. You should be like, everything's really scripted, you shouldn't be improvising, you shouldn't be messing around, you shouldn't, you should literally go out with your jokes and I couldn't, I literally couldn't do that.

• 20:29Speaker 02

  So I, I went from someone who's very quite assured of got step, stepping on stage and going, I know what I'm doing. Um, because this is all I've known, I've sort of self taught, to someone who was going up and literally dying and killing myself doing the thing that I didn't believe that was gonna make me any better, but I believe the person telling me to, to do, have my best interests at heart. So I think he's got, he, he's close family and they're coming under a lot of scrutiny, which I think is slightly unfair if I'm honest with you. It must be a very difficult thing if you've got a kid of that age who's got the talent that he's got and you know that you want a fair run at it and you want, you know.

• 21:03Speaker 03

  Yeah, the advice thing, I have been told things that didn't work out.

• 21:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:08Speaker 03

  I've been told to do certain things, to do certain shows or to, to, to not do one show and do a different show.

• 21:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 21:14Speaker 03

  And those things on the face of it have not worked out, right? In theory. Like this thing that I've gone on to do has not done well and the thing that I could have done might have done well or whatever. But I just think it's, I don't sound so wanky, but it gets you to where it gets you. Do you know what I mean? Like, like you, you, you.

• 21:31Speaker 03

  You didn't do, like, you got told to do it a different way. You fell out of love with stand up, right?

• 21:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:36Speaker 03

  Started doing all the acting or started focusing more on acting, right? And now you've come back to stand up. I know this is your second tour since you come back and you're great at it. And also you've got the acting career that you've got. So there's an argument that that advice actually ended up working.

• 21:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, of course.

• 21:52Speaker 03

  Do you know what I mean? Like, I know that wasn't what the intention of it was.

• 21:55Speaker 02

  No, but also I don't think the intention, I don't think anyone sets out to give bad advice.

• 21:59Speaker 03

  No.

• 21:59Speaker 02

  I think people.

• 22:00Speaker 03

  I do sometimes when they're a direct rival.

• 22:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:03Speaker 03

  You're trying to get in their head a bit.

• 22:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I think, um, hold up, that advice you've given me. No, but I think.

• 22:09Speaker 03

  But listen, keep doing what you're doing, man.

• 22:12Speaker 02

  But I think when, uh.

• 22:13Speaker 03

  Don't change a thing.

• 22:14Speaker 02

  Uh, so, but I think at the moment, I think, I guess in the advice that they're talking about is what his dad's saying. And his dad is, for me, it's like the pressure on the kids massive, but the pressure on his dad to go. And I think because.

• 22:28Speaker 03

  I can't even imagine, yeah.

• 22:29Speaker 02

  Because kids now, you're looking at, you're talking about the big six, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, have all fielded someone around the age of sixteen, seventeen in this, this last season. That's, you know, Newcastle got a young kid there who's, people, these young boys are making it into teams. And I think the, the pressure of going, oh shit, well, my boy is as good, is better than some of these kids. And he's not making it through. And actually, out of all of them at the moment, Man United kind of needs someone like that. It's hard, you know, we've got at West Ham at the moment, there's two or three kids where you watch them, but I am weirdly, we're outside danger, I remember speaking to Wayne Rooney about this, where we had someone come for, uh, West Ham. And I was like, why aren't we paying this kid?

• 23:09Speaker 02

  And his thing was, it's all well and good playing these boys, but they have a bad game, another bad game. And all of a sudden their heads, their heads start going and before you know it, their confidence has gone.

• 23:19Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:20Speaker 02

  And if they're playing in a really good team, like Max Dalman at the moment, Max Dalman's playing with freedom and experience because he's got 10 players around him who can bolster him. But if you're going out there at the moment for Man United, which is a conflicted team and you're having to put those performances.

• 23:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, the circumstances have to be right to try.

• 23:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, all of a sudden, it's not just J J Gabriel turning up and going, right, well, you know, everyone else has got this. I can show a bit of flair, you're coming in and going, right, you've got a great, grab the game, get a scruff in there. And we're expecting this from you and this from you. The only person I've ever seen who actually weirdly is Wayne Rooney, who felt like he was able to do that.

• 23:50Speaker 03

  Who you know.

• 23:55Speaker 03

  Uh, thank you so much for listening to and watching.

• 23:59Speaker 02

  Au revoir.

• 24:00Speaker 03

  The Wolf and Al Podcast email special, [email protected], questions, queries, pictures, a fee. We will see you next time. Remember to like and subscribe. It helps us and you, apparently, I've got no idea how. Take care, bye bye.

• 24:13Speaker 02

  Thank you, Shannon.

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