00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Judah, Mr. Liam Kean. It's day five, Marbella Training Camp and early
00:17morning session, 9.30 today. We drove about 20 minutes from Shea Judah, got here and Gary
00:24O'Neill had the plays in the big huddle. It was an interesting chat, wasn't it, to start?
00:29Yeah, probably a little bit more of a serious chat, albeit no old school screaming and shouting
00:35like you might imagine back when Gary was a player. But no, a bit more of a serious
00:40chat about finding the balance between having a little bit of fun and doing serious work.
00:45A little bit of talk about Arsenal and what they'll be doing, obviously with our first
00:49game coming up and saying we've got to make sure we're matching standards. And then they
00:52went on to have a great session. The sessions we've seen have all been very well structured,
00:56good atmosphere, good vibe, and then obviously the quality there as well. I think Gary's
01:00just trying to make sure that maintains. Yeah, it is interesting because that's a couple
01:05of times in as many days now that Arsenal has been discussed, not obviously in detail,
01:10but the reference is there. And it's refreshing because you're in July, but that focus is
01:16on that first game at Arsenal. It's not about, no disrespect Koman, it's not about RB Leipzig
01:22or these games Crystal Palace and West Ham in Miami. It's about Arsenal. That's where
01:27it starts. And it's the work between now and then, how they get there to be ready to go
01:33on that Saturday afternoon at three o'clock. Yeah, exactly. And once they get closer to
01:36that Arsenal game, obviously with the players, they'll start going through tactics. Gary
01:40and his team will obviously start on that a lot earlier, but the players will start
01:43to go through tactics a lot closer to the game. But the mentions of it now, it's more
01:47mental than anything else. It's, you're having that game as a target and everything else
01:52is preparation for that one fixture. And obviously that's only one game off, but it's the starting
01:58point of what is a long, arduous season and you want some momentum. So that's the thing
02:04you target and you try and do your best, you know, the best job possible. That is a tough
02:09away trip against probably, you know, someone who's going to be challenging for the title.
02:13So yeah, I quite like it. I like it. It's thinking about, everything we're doing is
02:18important, of course it is, but that's the target. That's what's in front of us. Keep
02:22it in your rear view mirror.
02:24A lot of close ball work as well to start with and then splitting for some defensive
02:31and forward work.
02:32Yeah, splitting the two up really. They were doing a lot with the defenders on shape really.
02:38A lot of the centre backs lining up with other centre backs in front of them or the defenders
02:42in front of them and just working on shape and movement and moving as a unit. And Ian
02:47Burcham and Gary were both working with the defenders specifically on, you know, balls
02:52coming from different angles, whether it's across from the right, from the left, a through
02:55ball, whatever it might be, and just working on that shape and positioning. And on the
02:59other side of the same pitch, working separately, Tim Jenkins, Sean Dowie, taking the attacking
03:04players through obviously midfield and attack, through phases of play really to find the
03:09space and get crosses in and score goals obviously. So, yeah, two ends of the field
03:14that were obviously massively important. They were working on both and then they brought
03:18that together toward the end. Again, we saw similar earlier this week, seven of side games,
03:23just trying to get a little bit of need or a little bit of competitiveness in.
03:26And it was. They worked hard and you think that's the end of the session. Oh no, it wasn't.
03:34This is your, this is mine, this is your and this is everybody at home's worst nama because
03:39it's been about an hour, an hour and 15 minutes. It is hot. It's 37, it's 38. They are dripping
03:45after these three seven of side games, really competitive. And then Gary O'Neill says it's
03:50time to finish. It's time for runs. All right, lads, we're doing running. Um, yeah, sets
03:53them up. Actually, ironically, the goal is just in front of us. You can't see it on the
03:57camera, but they line up right across here, um, or running that direction. Uh, he's off.
04:03There you go. It's not quite as good. Oh, he's going to get like, I didn't expect him
04:09to go a second time. Wait, I hope he doesn't do the whole thing. Cause I'm just stood there.
04:13I'll just let you watch him. It's fine. He's going to be knackered by the time he gets
04:21back. Go on granddad. Oh, I felt like doing that a few times. Come on. Okay. Come on.
04:37Um, but they did, they did work really hard. Um, so who were the main contenders? I'll
04:44be told the peeps. No, no, no, no, no. I was, I was still my youth. Um, right at the front,
04:50Daniel, leading it pretty much from the beginning from the almost start to finish. Almost start
04:55to finish. Great, great shape. Looks absolutely. He looks in top four. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Luke
05:00Condal right at the front. Sarabia right at the front. He was up there. Padre Lima was
05:05up there right now. Nori was there. Nori was roughly around there as well. Um, there
05:08was a few that were, uh, towards the back and probably set their stall out early. No,
05:12name me no names. No, I wouldn't do that. Judah Keen. Yeah, we'd definitely be at the
05:17back. Um, Condal ended up winning in the end. Padents, he had it in the bag and this last
05:22little lap here, I don't think he cared about winning really. And he just sort of trotted
05:25over the line. Padents was the guy where you've got two semifinals, your favorite to win the
05:32100 meters final, top four qualify, and he lets up on the line and finishes third because
05:36he knows he's, he's, he's absolutely fine. He's coasting. He's coasting. Coasting is
05:40the right word. Uh, and I'll tell you what, it was a, yeah, brutal session. I can, I can
05:45tell from your breathing. It's not, it's not easy. It is heat as well. I'm quite, I'm quite
05:48tired already actually, to be fair. Not great. Um, look, interesting at the end as well,
05:51you spoke to Totti Gohm, which is great. I'm sure I'll be on the express itself very, very
05:56soon. Remember, two pounds subscription, six P a day, the rest of this trip and all of
06:00Miami plus the six days in between as well, which we're going to be in the, in the beautiful
06:04warm UK. Can't wait. Can't wait for that weather. Um, and then Gary Neil and when he chatted
06:08a bit of a chat privately on the pitch. Now, look, we don't know what was said, but interesting,
06:13especially with, I know that we know and around the players 24 seven here, but at the same
06:18time they're in groups, aren't they? They're going to dinner, they're going back and they've
06:20got their own time. So sometimes you can get a player one-on-one. It might be after trading.
06:24It was today. Uh, I just wonder whether the, the bid for Marseille might've been mentioned.
06:29Yeah. Yeah. Reiterate. We don't know what was said. We weren't in a shot of the conversation.
06:34Um, but it was as we come to expect from Gary very much. Um, friendly, you know, he's an
06:41arm around the shoulder kind of guy. He's hugging, he's chatting to him. He's laughing
06:44with him. He's, I think, you know, he obviously wants to keep Wang Yi Chan. I think the player
06:48is definitely happy here as well. Um, and the odds of that deal going through and him
06:52going anywhere, let alone Marseille is very slim unless obviously money talks. So yeah,
06:57it was nice to see really because he, we, we see him do that around the squad. Um, just
07:02over here at the ends, um, Santi Bueno and Pablo Sarabia were just sat in the sun and
07:07having a chat. He comes over and he sits with them as a chat and it's good. Yeah. It's,
07:11it's, it's very hands on. It's very hands on. And regardless of the, what they were
07:16talking about with Wang, obviously it's interesting because of the bid that we know, we know,
07:20we all know came in, um, to have that kind of relationship with the players I think is
07:23really important. And then obviously come and have a chat with us as well. Yeah. It's
07:26a very brief chat with Gary at the end as well. It was very nice for him to come across
07:28and you know, kind of just going through what, what we've seen so far and he's, he's excited
07:32that we're seeing it firsthand and you can tell in his speech, just the enthusiasm he's
07:38got for this challenge ahead, but also in pre-season because as we said before, it's
07:42his very first pre-season as head coach and didn't get one at Bournemouth, didn't get
07:46one at Wolves. So this is, this is new to him as well. Yeah, exactly. And I said at
07:50the end of last season, Gary hinted at it himself, that he'd have learned as much about
07:56himself as the players from last season and from this pre-season as well. Um, they were
08:01slightly tweaked and speaking to Tim Jenkins, obviously this week and our pieces is out
08:04there, um, slightly tweaked the way they do things. They're not experimenting, but they've
08:08got certain things they want to try out and try and evolve the team. And it's about not
08:12standing still and trying to keep up with modern football, which is a behemoth of a,
08:17of a challenge. So you've, uh, what a word. I just came out of nowhere. I don't even know
08:24what happened. I couldn't spell it. I couldn't tell you. I've never ever been doing this
08:32for 10 years. I think it's supposed to start. No one has ever come out with the word behemoth.
08:37Yeah. But you're, you know, you're still next professional these days.
08:42No, I respect it. I respect it. Uh, but yeah, that, that point really,
08:46finishing off is that yet learning about himself as well as the players and having a pre-season
08:52for himself as much as the team. I think it's gonna be really important for us moving forward.
08:56And we've had five days now of really good training. I guess they had an evening session
09:01when they first arrived on the Tuesday as well, but five strong days. And for the first time,
09:06I think we're both looking forward to it. And I know Gary's looking forward to it as well.
09:09We get a game tomorrow. I know we get a game. It is Wolverhampton Wanderers against Como.
09:14I know. Uh, tomorrow, Monday evening, it'd be about six 30. Um,
09:18it's about five 30 UK time. Yeah. It's just one back one hour back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
09:31Yeah. It'd be great to see great to see. I mean, it'd be slow paced and play in terms of
09:38the amount of minutes each player plays will be very limited because of the fact it's the
09:41first game back, but just to see a bit of a game scenario, a little bit of competitiveness,
09:45see how wolves line up, see how they play, see which players stand out. It's, um,
09:49yeah, looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to seeing Larson play.
09:53We've seen, look, I think he's going to be really good. I think he's going to be very useful. I
09:57think he's going to be a starter for wolves overall, whether it is at the start of the
10:00season. You don't know because you've got to see how the premier league is for a lot of these newbies,
10:04but he's going to be interested to see his movement, whether he can score what is, you know,
10:09what his mantra is. It's going to be very useful. I think for everybody, not just us, but Gary O'Neill.
10:15Yeah, definitely. And also, you know, we're talking about different options in the forward
10:19line. So whether they go into the premier league, starting him or whether he comes off the bench or
10:23whatever, it might happen, having a different profile of forward and an hour and hour number
10:28nine is exactly what was needed. And it just gives them those different options going forward. So to
10:32see him playing, um, is, is one of the top ones I'm most looking forward to because, you know,
10:38get a couple of goals and all of a sudden everyone's a little bit excited.
10:4120-goal-a-season man, then. Bagsman, right? Next Highland.
10:44And that comparison is so easy for me, isn't it? It's so easy.
10:47It looks tiny, a little bit similar to him. They're both similar heights. He's Norwegian.
10:51That's similar to him.
10:52You know, it's that, like, Scandinavian look, you know what I mean? That, you know.
10:56He's blonde, blonde, white, blonde hair.
10:58Yeah, it looks a little bit like him. Same height, same nation, you know what I mean?
11:03I get you, I get you. Um, yeah, so we'll be doing our video after the game tomorrow,
11:06isn't it interesting? First ever analysis video of 2024-2025. We'll see you then.
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