Ask OTC: Salah’s next move, Lens’ fixture dispute and could Klopp return?

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2:04Paver Opera excludes the last gun away. Welcome to Ask OTC, the show where we answer all of your questions from the week in European football. I'm Dotson Adibio. I'm Andy Brassel. And I'm Nikki Bhandini. Nikki, this question from Colin on Instagram is a move to Europe on the cards for Mozilla. I wouldn't completely rule it out. I also wouldn't say it feels like it's on the cards to me. I think at the moment when I think about whether demand is most likely to exist, I suppose what I think about the demand would exist for a par like Mozilla at 33, I think everywhere. There are certainly clubs in Europe who'd like to have Mozilla. He's certainly, despite having, I suppose, slightly more of a down season this season when he's still hit double figures for goals, by the way.

3:05He's still absolutely the age and of a talent where top clubs in Europe would want him. But when it comes to clubs who can put the money on the table for someone of that age, I do think the demand is likely to be strongest from the Saudi pro league and from Major League Soccer. I think the Saudi pro league is where everyone has assumed for a long time he will go. And there's an obvious reason for that. He's such a prominent Muslim footballer who speaks very openly about his faith. And I think that having someone who represents that and who represents the region is something that would be held in even higher value in Saudi than it might be in other places. And I think that is a reason that he's got huge popularity all across the Middle East. And I think it's a reason why he would have particular commercial value there. And I think, of course, on top of that, those clubs simply do have huge financial resources, bigger even than the Major League Soccer ones could muster up.

4:06So there's obvious landing spots there for him between the four clubs that are owned by the public investment fund and then also others backed by oil companies. But the question really comes down to which he hasn't spoken about. What does Moussala want? And I do think that on top of might he still want one more crack at the European Champions league, the UEFA Champions League before going somewhere like that. The second question, which is a thornier to talk about and awkward right now, is might he look at the currently scary situations unfolding around the world and ask himself if his family, he might feel safe and not going somewhere like that? I don't know if that's a thought on his mind. But the reality is there have been games postponed recently, even for Saudi clubs competing in the Asian Champions League. And that's, I suppose, a really uncomfortable for everyone to talk about

5:08and think about part of this conversation as well. I mean, there is one perfect fit that we're kind of overlooking in all this, isn't there? And you'd be very annoyed with me if I didn't bring this up. Wouldn't you Turkish Super League? I think really because if you're looking about him wanting to stay in Europe, in European football, wanting to continue to compete in the Champions League, getting paid what you couldn't get paid at any other European club, and connecting with Muslim culture. Well, if he rocked up at Gallatassara, Fenerbahce next season, would that astonish you? It wouldn't astonish me. Now, I think if this was a slightly different era of Turkish football, this would be a shoe-in because, of course, he's going to turn 34 in the summer, but exceptions are made for superstars.

6:08You look at Angola Cante, go into Fenerbahce, and still look in the part, by the way. And I think it's a really interesting halfway house for, we've talked about it before, Don, those who would like the money of the Saudi pro league, but still want to be involved in European football. So I think that's an interesting option that's out there. This question from Happy Humber on Instagram. Lance have opposed PSG's request to move their league game, which falls between Paris's Champions League quarterfinals against Liverpool. Since receiving this question from Happy Humber on Instagram, we've now got news, just come to us that league air have decided what should happen. What's going to happen, Andy? So Lance versus PSG, which was meant to be on April the 11th, in between the two legs against Liverpool,

7:08will be postponed. Actually, PSG will breast versus Strasbourg. That's the sort of undercard I suppose in terms of this dispute, because Strasbourg, of course, are involved in the conference league, which I would say they've got a pretty good chance of winning. But to explain this, basically, we talk a lot, of course, about how teams on the continent often get games moved and get free weekends before big Champions League games or in this case between big Champions League games. But the point to make, when this happened previously with PSG this season, when they had the game against Nantes postponed, that was with the agreement of both clubs, Nantes agreed to move it, and will now be played in the fourth week of April, and Nantes who are battling relegation. The point to make about that, and what leads us into this situation with Lance and PSG,

8:11is the fact that Nantes fans were really quite unhappy with this, the fact that their survival push could be affected by doing the right thing for the country as a whole. And clearly, there is an imperative to put PSG in the best possible situation, because it is for the benefit of all French clubs, certainly in a UEFA club coefficients point of view, because now, especially with the elimination of Leal and Leon from the Europa League, in the last round, a lot leans on PSG for that. But I guess when we mentioned Nantes, that the last point of view is so important here, because the way they framed it, and the reason they didn't want to move it, is because they have said,

9:14well, look, we're the team of the 10th budget in Leal. How many advantages do PSG need? And also, really, do we have to move constantly to the rhythm of what the biggest clubs want? And I have a lot of sympathy for that, and because they are in the middle of a genuine title contest with PSG, there are a point behind PSG at the moment of admittedly having played a game more, but with the inconsistencies that have been part of PSG's season, and the fact that I think they will drop more points in Leaghan. The title race is well alive. There's no doubt about that. And the points and make here is that the official LFP Leaghan statement says that we've moved this without the agreement of the clubs. They can do that once in the season. They can't do that for the semifinals, for example. So if PSG were to get a postponement of their game in between the semifinal legs, that would require the agreement of the club that they're playing against that weekend.

10:19Yeah, I think what makes this situation so extraordinary is that it has such a big impact as Andy's been saying on other clubs, because there are other examples across Europe of leaks making adjustments to fit into what suits their teams competing in the Champions League. Certainly, if I look to say they are, there have been games that would have previously taken place over the weekend, have in recent years been moved to Friday nights, which gives teams more room to have an extra day to prepare for their Champions League commitments, say on a Tuesday. And that's the sort of adjustment that sure it creates some disruption for the other club. It's moving a game a day forward. It might mean they get a day less in their preparation the week before, but what's being proposed here for a long season is quite drastically different. And one of the statements that they'd put out previously was saying the changing the date of this match would mean that we would not play competitively for 15 days. And then we would have to play a match every three days, which that is a big material change to what they're having to put up with as a club.

11:24When, as Andy points out, they are dealing with lesser resources than the team that's benefiting. People from the outside look at legal and just think PSG win it by 20 points every year. I mean, that's not actually factually true. And I think if you compare it to a lot of the other leagues, really what's happened to legal in the last decade? Of course, it's affected by the Katari investment in PSG. And that is something that needs to be kept a close eye on. But if you compare it to Bayern's run in the Bundesliga or until the last couple of years, that event has run when they went on all those successive titles in the immediate aftermath of the building of the Allianz. I think what's happened to legal is kind of in line with a lot of European football. But that perception from the outside, if we're talking about his selling itself, which legal has not always been great at. And in an era where they've struggled to shift the television rights, the value of the television rights has gone down to the point

12:26where they felt they've had to have that sort of net flexification of legal and basically sell their own rights directly to consumer, which who knows if that will continue or not. Because it does put them, the majority of clubs in the league are a bit of a disadvantage, at least in the short term. If you're trying to sell that as a product nationally and internationally, if there's a league that's actually winnable by more than one team, surely, at this point, when the league is trying to build its reputation and say that it's a worthwhile competition, rather than saying, we're just going to make it as easy as possible for PSG. I think this is imperative to the future of the league. That and your order, they just need to get more creatives. You see, okay, we've given you an advantage by moving the fixture and now you give an advantage back. You have to pay the first five minutes about your goalkeeper. Some would say PSG would be doing that for most of the seasons, but you know. It would serve to you, perhaps, as well, because they need to have,

13:28I think, extra TV interest in the game afterwards as well, so you're going to have that so win-win. Instacart understands that not all bananas are created equal. Some people want them green, some people want them ripe, some people want them ready right now. With Instacart's preference picker now available at most retailers, you can choose how you like certain items, like banana ripeness, deli thickness, even avocados, before your shopper even starts. So instead of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best, you get groceries picked the way you would pick them. It's a small thing, but it makes a big difference. Download the app and get bananas just how you like with Instacart. Traffic may be locked, but savings isn't. Unlike the savings that boost mobile with unlimited wireless for just $25 a month, forever, no contracts, no hikes, and you keep your phone. Unlike the savings at boostmobile.com slash unlock. $25 for ever requires customers to remain active

14:29on boost unlimited wireless plan for full offer details visit boostmobile.com. Type of your card insurance rate going up even with a clean driving record? You're not alone. That's why there's Jerry, your proactive insurance assistant. Jerry compares rates side by side from over 50 top insurers and helps you switch with ease. Jerry even tracks market rates and alerts you when it's best to shop. No spam calls, no hidden fees. Drivers who save with Jerry could save over $1300 a year. Switch with confidence. Download the Jerry app or visit jerry.ai slash acast today. From Bruno and Blue Sky, after Jürgen Klopp strongly rejects his claims that he was sent to join Real Madrid, are we feeling a sense that he's keen to return to coaching? We're feeling a sense at least that he's open to it.

15:30And he said that himself. And I think part of that is that he's not going to return to coaching. He's going to return to coaching. We're feeling a sense at least that he's open to it and I think part of that is that he's refreshed after how tidy was at the end of the Liverpool experience. But the other half of it, I think is the politics of the job that he's taken on since. Now, look, being ahead of global football for Red Bull, even though a lot of people, particularly in Germany, were really upset by this because they felt it went against what Jürgen Klopp had stood for for years as a friend of the fans. And there's still a very strong anti-Red Bull sentiment in Germany, although I would argue that it's more projection and us as a community of fans supposing what Jürgen Klopp stood for,

16:30rather than him actually selling out what he stood for. I think the politics of it have been difficult because he wanted something that was not front line coaching, of course, and it's not been that. And you look at him out and join his life and go into the Grand Prix and on holiday with his wife and playing paddle and it looks great. But I think there's another side to it that what you represent to the football community as a coach and as a coach of substance. It can't leave you because not only is he spread quite thinly over a lot of different clubs. So Parry FC want help from him. Salzburg want help from him. Leipzig want help from him. But Aganchino in Brazil want help from him. And you know, there's a sense in France of, well, isn't Klopp meant to be in charge of this? You know, he turns up every so often

17:31wearing the Parry FC cap because we know he loves the club shop clobber. And you know, shouldn't we be better? But how can he do that? I think in terms of someone doing that oversight job and setting a sort of a house style for all those different clubs and having a shared philosophy. Mario Gomez, who has been working for Red Bull for a while, he's far more, I think, a man and coherent and good at that oversight job. He would be better at Jürgen Klopp's current job than Jürgen Klopp is. I think that's fair. But the other thing with Klopp that you've got bear in mind is, you know, I think we look back at his CV and think, well, there's not that many clubs on it. Surely he's got loads more in the tank. But he should be exhausted after every job. I mean, he was in charge of minds for like seven years

18:31and before that he was there for what nine, ten as a player. He was a Dortmund for seven years. He was at Liverpool for nine. He's like this football serial monogamous. He just throws himself into everything. And he looked, he looked knackered at the end of minds. He looks absolutely exhausted and out of ideas at the end of Dortmund. And we know how he looked, of course, at the end of Liverpool. And he spoke about that quite openly about how tired he felt. For me, the logical next step is probably not a club, but the German national team. And there's growing speculation that he's been speaking to the DFB over the last couple of months. And maybe despite the contractual situation of Julian Nagelsmann, Nagelsmann will go at the end of the World Cup, which for what is worth, I don't think would be a massively successful one for Germany. And then maybe Klopp takes the job from there. So he gets to engage his coaching side. But the risk of burnout is far, far lesser.

19:31Yeah. And he's gone exactly the direction that I was thinking about national team. A little part of me was thinking not about Germany. I do think if it wasn't for the fact that Thomas Tuchel is doing great, that there would have been a lovely fit for him in England, just because he's got that connection with at least a part of the fanbase. I do feel like maybe I'm off the mark on this one and maybe fans of Manchester clubs or other clubs feel differently. But I feel like despite having managed one of the big English clubs, he hasn't necessarily got the fans of the other clubs all hating him. I don't think that most of the fans of... I don't feel like he's hated by Arsenal fans. Again, maybe everyone will disagree with me listening to this, which can easily happen if you coach one of the big clubs. If you coach a big club, then the others might all hate you. So I feel like he has a certain genealogy in his public image that would go down quite well in England. But of course, Tuchel is doing a great job right now. So I can't imagine that it's going to be on the table. But I do agree with Andy that the national team pace feels like the way to go.

20:36I think that the Syrian Monogamous is a really nice way of putting it because as Andy says, he has given everything he has to every club he's been at. And he has burned himself out. And he is going to be... He's going to be in his 60s soon, which is of course not a time when you can't keep doing things, but it is going to get harder to give that a level of physical energy as well as emotional energy. Because it is physical energy as well, that I think coach has put in a certain level of the amount of time you spend being, travelling everywhere, being at training all the time with club level, football at the top level now is a lot as well. It's not that you can't do those things, but can you do them in the way that your club has always done them? Because he's such a full-on person, he's such a... an all-in person. And I can see international shooting him better. But I do think the way he's talking, the way he responded to these questions about Real Madrid effective, he's saying, listen, that offer doesn't exist, so that's not a real thing.

21:36But he's clearly got it in him still. He clearly still wants to coach. And what I don't want to happen for you can club. I don't want him to wind up, like Arsen Venga trying to reinvent the off-side rule in 15 different ways, when he could just be doing the thing he's really good at, and then he enjoys. That is true, isn't it? I think the other point I would make about Jürgen Klopp apart from seconding that last point from Nicky is the fact that you've got to consider how incredibly influential he is in Germany and beyond. And when we're talking about managing the latter part of your football career, I think it's really important. We always talk about how a football part of being a coach is picking the right job at the right time, and you're probably only two bad choices away from never getting a job again or never getting a job again. He really has, right? The fact that he said those clubs for that long

22:36is not just about him, it's about the fact he's picked the right club three times. Yeah, it is. And really, he made a kind of brave choice and going to Liverpool in the first place, because from what I gather, he was planning to take an extended time out, after leaving Dortmund, and then the Liverpool job came up, and he was like, okay, this is too soon, but I can't not do it. And he took that risk, and eventually, partly because of the patience he was afforded, it proved to be the right one, but he was only out of the game for what five months, if that in the end. After leaving Dortmund. But I think how culturally significant he is, particularly back in Germany, is really interesting. And when you think about him particularly taking on the Germany job, it's easy to forget that he was a massive cultural figure before he was even the Dortmund manager, not just because of his loyalty to minds, but because of his punditry during the 2006 World Cup, and like people thought, wow, this guy, he's fun, isn't he?

23:38And that really was the start of the legend of Klopp, in like wider football fandom, I suppose. But it's interesting here in Dortmund, Hansi Flick speaking last week about how Barcelona's his last job, and once he's done with Barcelona, he's done with coaching. Now again, I think if you look down, I mean, he's done less years Klopp coaching than Klopp, but he will have finished only doing a couple of clubs. But I think it's indicative of how much he put into it. I mean, a couple of people, like I spoke to after that, said, Hansi Flick's like 61. I can't believe he's 61. He looks incredible, but he looks incredible because he's not really coached like 20 years of club football. And if he had, he'd be looking like exhausted, I think. I think that is a good thing. And like what Klopp has done, I'm not saying this is necessarily influencing Hansi Flick's decision, but that sense that, you know,

24:38there's time to enjoy your life. There's time to enjoy your family as well. There's time to do other stuff. There's time to dick about playing paddle and going to a Formula One. And that's not so different to anyone else in any job. But I think some people get to that point and realize they don't actually enjoy the other stuff. That is the problem. I think some people think they're going to enjoy retirement. And that's true again, not just in football, and then they actually don't, because what they've built their whole self around is enjoying the thing that they were doing. Just don't talk to me about retirement. Anyway, from who? Never so funny. You're not going anywhere, mate. Forget it. It's not loud. This from nothing to see here on YouTube with the two new recruits of Paul Vanna and Karni Chukameka. How would you rate Austria's chances at the World Cup? I think there's two parts of this question. I don't know what you feel, Nicky, but that there's how do you rate Austria's chances at the World Cup? And how do you see Austria looking over the next 10 years?

25:40Because I don't feel that either Vanna, who could have played for Germany and Chukameka, of course, could have played for England, are players that will necessarily make them step up several levels during this World Cup. They're both players with enormous potential. And bear in mind that Bion wanted to keep Vanna this season. And he said, well, I don't think I'm going to start enough. I'm going and went off to PSV, which interestingly opened up the door to Leonard Carl to become the player that he has. So it's not only Vanna's not only responsible for his participation at the World Cup. He could be responsible for Leonard Carl's participation from Germany at the World Cup, because he's just got caught up to the squad, of course. But Chukameka, he is such a talented player. I love him. I love watching him. And it is exactly what Dortmund need. But as of yet, he's not a player that you can consistently get games out of, such as as it's been his fitness. Remarkable thing about Kani Chukameka,

26:41bear in mind he made his Premier League debut at 17 for Aston Villa, and he's been at Chelsea and Dortmund since. And everywhere he's been, people have massively rated him. And I'm massively rating him. You know, he's never completed 90 minutes of first team football. That's a major minute. Not once, not once, as he lasted the whole 90 minutes. And I guess that's the thing. How he's looked after and what is bodies capable of over the next four or five years. Is such a part of this question. Yeah, like you say, and a question in two parts. Austria, I mean, to an extent, the Austrian qualification campaign itself was quite inconsistent. Wasn't it? You know, 10 now. And they also nearly blew it at the end of the group. It lost to Romania. And they nearly didn't, didn't go through. And, and do I think that they are ready to to go and be a front runner at the World Cup? Probably not. To be honest with you, I look at a team. And I think you're still relying on Marco and Arty,

27:42which for goals. Not again, trying to tear him down as a player. He's, they're all time leading score, I think. And he's been there for such a long time. But he is 37 and he's not someone who, and to revert to a conversation, PSA show, he's not a bad player on Arty, but he's not, he's not the go to Z. He's not the one who you think is going to carry you from, from nowhere to, to win a World Cup on his own. So he thought he was to go. He thought he was. Yeah, that's true. So, so I, I don't know. I don't see them as, as, and they're not one of the teams that I'm imagining, being in the lattice age of the competition. But also, World Cups have their own journeys and unexpected twists. And sometimes part of that, that story has to be a player who gets called up at the last minute. You're not expecting necessarily to be the one who defines the whole World Cup. So who knows? But, but this is, this is what Austria need to get younger. There's no doubt about it because you touched on, on out of it, Chernicki, David Alaba, who knows if he's ever going to get

28:43to his proper level again. And I think the answer is, is, is probably no, with, with the fitness issues he's, he's had in the last little while. Look at Marcel Zabitz, is the wrong side of, of 30 now. They need something new in there. These guys have got the talent. That's, that's not even the, the question. And I think if we're basing it on fitness, Vanna could probably make the, the bigger difference in, in the medium term. I feel like, Chukrameka personally has got a higher ceiling as a player, but the fitness is the question. Especially in Ralph Ragnic team that's going to play. It's going to press. It's going to bring that intensity at the end of a season when everyone's naked. I think that, that's also part of the picture as well. Mark Onimo wants to know, Jean-Pierre Gasparini has struggled to establish his system at Roma this season, Nicky, with a club unable to fully meet his player requirements. But Claudia Ragnieri, has also frequently pointed to financial constraints as well.

29:43Is Gasparini trying to do too much too soon? I think this is a really interesting topic because I think there have been points this season when absolutely everyone has been convinced that Gasparini is brilliant and has been doing the best job imaginable. And look how vindicated Roma and Ragnieri are in making this choice. And then recently there has been this wobble. And it's come at a point this season where you don't want to have a wobble going through the spring when you've gone from trying to qualify for a Champions League sport to looking increasingly like that might not happen, especially because other teams, especially Korma, are suddenly finding their form and pulling ahead of you. And it feels like this verdict on Gasparini is still so perhaps unsurprisingly because it's Rome and Rome has always been an over-emotional city. But it's so prone to the whims of the moment. It's so prone to all what happened this week. Well, that is the entire verdict on Gasparini's time there. I think he's dealt with some quite tricky

30:46stuff this season. I think for the first half of the season they were really missing a goal scorer. And Adam Doffbick never really fit the way that Gasparini wants his teams to play. He wants his teams to be very involved and connected. And Doffbick is more of a pure poachero wants to be Evan Ferguson came in obviously and just couldn't score the goals. Gasparini liked some of what he did as a footballer, connecting the team but he wasn't and hasn't really ever been prolific in front of goal and that was a problem. And now finally the curious twist is they get Daniel Marlin in January who is scoring the goals. And somehow nothing else is quite working around it. Everything else is gone a bit off the boil. I think when you listen to Gasparini, it's sometimes quite hard to know where his head is at exactly because he even said something in February in one press conference where he said

31:47he was talking not for the first, not for the first, second or third time about the fact that he perhaps hadn't got everything he wanted out of the transfer market yet. And he said, and then if the club doesn't make the Champions League you sack of the manager. And that sounded like, do you think this is the end? If you don't make the Champions League are you already planning for this come to an end? Or is it what happened several times during his chapter at Atlanta? Well he's basically just letting the board know this isn't really my fault. I haven't got the players I want and if you want me to deliver what you think I can deliver, you need to back me up. And I think it's interesting you brought in that Ranieri quote there, dot in, and it sounds like Ranieri is still in his corner. And I think that as long as he's got Ranieri in his corner, I'm more inclined to believe that the project goes forward and they keep moving than not. But it has been a difficult few weeks.

32:48They have fallen off quite badly in the league. And I think that what also feels quite like another blow is getting eliminated from the Europa League by Bologna because that was a reasonable, not saying they were the favourite, but they were among the teams that could win that competition you thought. And that was a way into the Champions League as well. And to lose to a club who are below you in the league and who have lower aspirations in you in the league from your own domestic league, that certainly was not, was not the ending of that competition they were looking for. So yeah, interesting point in the gas brainy story. I think this has twists yet to come in the next couple of months in terms of his mentality and the club's mentality about what the project is. In this difficult period though, what we are getting, that Nikki is entertainingly cantankarous Jan Bologna Sparini. He's very good at that. But it's just on a bigger scale now, at a bigger club, isn't it? And so you had after the win over Lecce

33:49that they just about scratched out last weekend. It being reported that he couldn't do his media duties afterwards because he'd lost his voice. And then it being reported from various TV people that were in the tunnel. They could hear him shouting at the team. I'm sorry, he clearly hadn't lost his voice. It was clearly nonsense. But I guess I wanted to ask you like how much of his, how much of his complaints be they open or veiled are reasonable. Because on one hand, the fact that they're picking the same team again and again and again and he's picking the same team again and again and again does sort of explain diminishing returns. I think we get to this point in the season. They've looked leaky, I think, the last couple of weeks. So the question is, does he not have the depth or is he making the point that he would like a better depth because that wouldn't be something that I would put past him?

34:51So the phrase that stuck with me from one of his recent press conferences was he said when he was saying about the club needs to decide what it wants to be. Do we want to be a Champions League team or do we want to be a team that's bringing through under 23s? And I think that's a completely false dichotomy that he's created. And I think that it's a frustrating one because it plays into all sorts of stereotypes that when I say stereotype, it's not just an outside stereotype. I think it's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy of Italian football that not enough faith is put in young players sometimes and it should be. And I think that what's interesting is even this weekend, we saw Robin Yovaz came in and scored the winning gold against Latja, who's one of the players they signed in January, who might have a very bright future. People have very high hopes for Vaz. And I think that you are seeing now Gaspettini giving some more room to players like Vaz and also Busy Lee, who's another of these young Italians who there's been a bit of buzz around.

35:51And I think what's interesting actually is that I think Gaspettini needed some of his best work at Atlanta when the board understood how to tread the line between letting him vent, but also just being like, yeah, these are players you've got and they're young and you should play them. Because Atlanta brought through lots of great young Italian players while he was there. Often they were sold after a year or two for good money and that's how the club sustained itself. And I think that the real way forward for Roma is probably, yeah, we bring in some signings like Marlin who are practical signings who fit what you need and who's gonna score those goals for you. But also play these young players we're signing for you. These young players you've got, they're good and you're gonna have to use them. And I think that Gaspettini, it is a line to tread, because he is cantankerous and he is not shy of saying what he thinks in front of the cameras or indeed to his players. But I do think he did, again,

36:52some of his best work at Atlanta was in chapters when he was insisting that he couldn't possibly achieve things with this group where he hasn't got everything he wanted. So yeah, the balance is between the club and between him I think is less straightforward than he would like to present to us, certainly. That's a really interesting listen, guys. But now let's go to our game of the week recommendations. Each week we recommend a game for you to watch, or at least each of our experts recommends a game for you to watch the weekend. And just as importantly, we also suggest the food, yes, as FWD that we should be having with it. Now we'll let you into a big secret here. I'll tell you that we are recording this episode on Thursday afternoon. So we don't yet know who's going to be playing in Europe's World Cup playoff finals. However, through the magic of broadcast technology,

37:55we can now find out the answers. Over to you, Andy Brassel. So game of the week, now I've just watched the penalty shoot out that saw Republic Wilder not get through. It's got to be Sweden versus Poland. It's a biggie. There's no doubt about it. In Stockholm, Sweden's getting through despite no Alex Ezek, all down to Victor Yuckres and his hat trick. I knew he'd find his score in books. So just told you. And Robert Lewandowski and Poland, obviously two number nines, at different ends of the career, but we'll see which one of them gets to the state's Mexico and Canada. It's going to be a great game anyway. Pretty sure about that. Especially now the Grand Potter Train is properly rolling. Accompleting this, obviously, it has to be Coppola as Mr. Potter would tell you that's the meatballs, of course, with a bit of Lingham Berry Jam. To go on the side, I know Mr. Adabair will approve. And now for the big one,

38:55did Italy make it to the final, Nikki Bandini? Well, now that the semi-finals are done, I am relieved that I can give you a game of the week with Italy in it. It will of course be their playoff final for the World Cup away to Bosnia and Herzegovina, who beat Wales on penalties in car. You're absolutely dramatic ending that I've just finished watching. And perhaps setting up, can I call it the Adin Jekko Derby, after Jekko's years in Serie A, everything he did for Roma and Inter. I think certainly he's the familiar face for Italian football fans. And certainly even at 40, he has been a hugely important figure for Bosnia all through this qualifying campaign. Was there leading scorer in the groups and scored their equaliser in Cardiff? So not just there to make up the numbers. I do think he's going to be a central figure. I think it's going to be a very physical tough game for Italy in Zennitzer. Italy, kind of what we expected tonight, there were better Northern Ireland, they did get through. But certainly someone in the nerve still there

39:56and relied on that moment. I think of just absolute quality really from tonight to break things open. And after that, it felt like the breaks came off a little bit. And obviously got the second goal and looked a bit better towards the end. Fort Piro is positive. I was good after coming on. The interesting to see if he could even get a nod. Ahead of retake in a second leg. We'll see if Gattusa is going to stick to his guns or if he's ready for a gamble. Should be a great game for food. Don, I'm sorry. I don't think I'm going to be able to eat next Tuesday night. So it's just going to be a gallon of ice cream in the fridge as my food will do the week in case in the fridge in the freezer. Might as well just be on the side, frankly, because if we lose, I'm eating all of it. So just on stand by some ice cream other than that too nervous to me, I think. Well, there we go. We now know who will be playing in this weekend's finals. Thank you for listening to Ask OTC. If you'd like to ask a question, you can contact us at any time at OTC Pod. You can also email us OTC at footballrambl.com.

40:57Thank you, Nikki. Thanks, don't you? And thank you, Andy. Thank you. And we'll see you all next week. Music On the continent is a stack production and part of the ACAST creation network. Hi, this is Pablo Torei from Pablo Torei finds out and today I want to talk to you about boost mobile because we spent a lot of time analyzing these in sports, overvalued contracts, money tied up in the wrong places, and so on. But those inefficiencies aren't just on a roster. Sometimes they're in your own monthly expenses. Boost mobile says switching to their $25 unlimited forever plan can unlock up to $600 in savings a year. That's $25 a month for unlimited data, talk and text when you bring your own phone. If that money is trapped in a pricey phone bill, it might be worth a second look.

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