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00:00welcome back to another episode of five aside on being sports today we're talking about
00:23the league on table french soccer is looking more interesting than it ever has
00:27the return of paul pogba we're going to also speak about afcon the groups of death what teams do you
00:34not want to see what teams does your nation not want to face and then lastly there's a lot of
00:39controversy because some coaches aren't super keen on letting their players go represent their
00:43nations in africa we're going to get into all that right now but first we have to speak about
00:48the french league table so what's going on in france is unprecedented we haven't seen the french
00:52league look like this in a long time right now we have right now we have lawns in first with 31
00:58points after 14 games psg just one point behind marseille one point behind psg leo and renz
01:04rounding out the top five it's been a long time since we've seen a team other than psg really push
01:09it for the top spot but to see lawns up top there um to see marseille really neck and neck with psg
01:14does this feel like a maybe a new moment for the french league um and is it something that you guys
01:21are interested in tuning into yeah i mean i watched psg over the weekend against monaco
01:27obviously looking for pogba um but they lost um and monaco was a man down for a portion of the game
01:34and they just don't look as scary as they have in previous years and i think they're going for it in
01:40the champions league they've been performing really well but domestically it's just like
01:44they're missing a little bit of that oomph and it's hard to defend the title so i understand but
01:48they just don't look like the psg of previous years i think it's really good for france because
01:53we talked a lot about marseille coming into this season the signings that were made the kind of
01:57vibe under deservey we expect to marseille to maybe give a good push but the fact that they're right
02:01there but then you have a completely separate team and lawns actually sitting in first after what 14
02:06games i think the league is a lot more competitive than people give it credit for
02:09so speaking of that competitiveness now that pogba is back what does that mean for his chances at a
02:14world cup it's a competitive league now we can't necessarily just call it a farmer's league right
02:18pogba is playing in a league that allows for there to be title contenders and championships
02:22like storylines if pogba puts in a good shift does he get a spot at that world cup and of course he's
02:29playing in his home country um and the key matchups obviously getting consistent running games you know
02:34something that should be good for him for his legs to get acclimated to the sport he has to show up in
02:37the big games obviously he's able to step in for monaco secure the one now psg let's see how monaco
02:43goes up against the other big teams yeah another thing is that didier dechamps is trusting of pogba
02:48he was on the pitch dominated in 2018 when they won the world cup so even though he obviously hasn't
02:54had the same last few years of the likes of maybe a kefren turam and guys like that but of course i
02:58think we'll still make the team i think some of those lower end midfielders of that 25 man squad he
03:03can knock one out if he puts in a really good second half of the season because again he has that trust
03:07from the coach yeah my concern is they've been like phasing pogba back into the team like he still
03:13hasn't i don't think he's started a game yet he's still like coming off the bench i don't think he's
03:18played in champions league yet even though like that's obviously clearly important um so my fear
03:25is just like i'm wondering when he's finally gonna start and become like a regular you know what i'm
03:30saying like become like an influential part of the team from the jump because when he's coming on in
03:35the last 20 to 30 minutes it's like all right we see a couple good passes we might see but like
03:39we're not seeing him in his full flight yeah and so it's like obviously i respect the the fact that
03:46they're phasing him back in but with the world cup coming so quickly it's like ah we need like we
03:50might even start starting some games real soon so i don't know 2026 pogba it's right around the
03:57corner i don't know i think with a world cup the world cup is such a different tournament than
04:01that normal league phase you bring pogba not even i would bring as a coach i would bring pogba even
04:06if we don't see him get that stretch of games that you're asking for because when it comes to world
04:10cup and you're playing the netherlands in a semi-final and you need a player who has the
04:13experience to like not get shocked not get nervous and really play into that or even someone on the
04:18bench or in the locker room to like talk to people and call me down leadership you bring pogba he's one
04:22of the only french midfielders in the world that can speak to that position having won the tournament
04:26speaking of difficulty in tournaments um the cameroon squad right now is looking a little
04:32interesting because a player is going to have difficulty going to the tournament and playing
04:36on the field you might watch from the stands but andre onana is not part of the cameroon squad
04:40he's been putting in some decent performances in turkey so honestly as a current cameroon i'm a
04:45little surprised but there have been issues and you know there's always been a little bit of
04:49doubt cast on his play style coaches have often said that he wants to make the game a little bit too
04:54much about himself he wants to be a very modern goalkeeper and some teams don't necessarily have
04:58the equipment to handle a goalkeeper that wants to be that modern but he's probably the if not one
05:03of the most famous cameroon soccer players in the world and they have decided not to bring him to the
05:07tournament what do you guys think would you guys ever would you guys ever allow your nations to do
05:11something like this it's hilarious i think i mean what's more interesting to me is the fact that
05:18the coach was also fired so bryce was let go um and we talked about it a couple weeks ago but
05:24the fact that he didn't want to show up for um to announce the the team sheets for the uh the world
05:29cup qualifiers was like a huge point of controversy and i think samuel eto hasn't let that go like that
05:36really he he fired him citing subrefuge um and so he could what was the word subrefuge i don't even
05:44know what that means we can google it yeah and ato just got re-elected as well as the president of the
05:50cameron federation as well yeah so it feels a little bit like a reset by firing the coach by
05:58not bringing in a major key figure and there was a little bit that was actually done with spain after
06:03the failure of the 2022 world cup leading into the new coach louis de la fuente and you see the
06:08success now what they did in the euros so sometimes when you are this bigger nation with the expectations
06:12and maybe there's a little bit of favoritism the shake-up can be good but regardless of that idea i to
06:18me it doesn't make sense to not have onana the fact that he's now playing much better in turkey
06:22and everything going on and afcon being a tournament not even just a league or anything like that to me
06:26it feels a bit strange yeah and just to clarify the word were subter subterfuge which is deceit
06:33used in order to achieve one's goal wow deceit yeah that's what he decided for that's what he said yeah
06:38hey learn something new every day it does every day it does feel like a little bit of like
06:43succession or one of those like political shows of course of course you know where it's like
06:49eto reelected and then he gets rid of all the people that like aren't getting along with him
06:56which is which is terrible for soccer yes power moves we need the best players on the field
07:00i don't need you to prove you're the king here yeah just pick the best players i've got you please
07:05please just pick everybody want me ceo huh and it's weird because it's not like we're looking at
07:10just some businessman that's running the cameron federation it's a previous player one of the
07:15best players one of the best african players or being about this exact nonsense when he was a
07:20player yeah right so to see him now perpetrating and it's like ah samuel corruption is only bad
07:26if i am not involved yeah right it's one of my favorite sentiments um all right so let's speak
07:32about a little bit of the difficulty in africa yeah not off the field but this time on the field
07:36the groups for afcon there's some i've been out for quite some time um but really we're getting
07:42very close yeah tournament is very very near and some of the groups of death are group b angola egypt
07:49south africa and zimbabwe yeah group d benin botswana dr congo and senegal and most importantly
07:55group f cameroon gabon ivory coast and mozambique which one would y'all say is the toughest group i'd
08:04probably go with group f yeah you have the reigning champs in coltivoire you have cameroon one of the
08:09most historic nations in africa who still have a very talented squad have some guys absolutely
08:14balling out in europe right now gabon who was so close to getting their first birth and you have
08:19the amazing partnership between obama yang and dennis bowanga and lamina as well in the midfield
08:26man that to me that's the toughest group the other two are pretty tough as well but give me
08:31cotevoire cameroon gabon mozambique as the toughest group so who's getting out of that group two only
08:36right two only well it could be three but just give me your yeah my top two i'll go cotevoire and
08:42cameroon okay gabon home i would agree more disappointed for obama yang someone's getting
08:48disappointed you know what i mean if it's not them it's y'all i think cotevoire tops it i think cotevoire
08:52tops it yeah yeah um speaking about sneaking in and perhaps in this case sneaking out we have a little
08:58bit of controversy coming out of the top european clubs in the world because coaches and federations
09:04are having a little bit of a battle that happens every time that afcon is on there is this struggle
09:10with coaches not necessarily valuing afcon for the african players that play for their clubs and so
09:16you have ses fabregas who i respect and i was very surprised that he said this but he said that his
09:21senegalese player asandiao that didn't make sense for him to go and play for como uh sorry didn't make
09:27sense for him to go and play for senegal as a como player um i have to say i don't think he would
09:33say that if it was a euros or if it was a copa america so there is still this sentiment that going
09:39and playing in the african tournament is not really worth it quote unquote now i understand that
09:44clubs have this issue because your player leaves during the middle of the season and you're the
09:47one paying his salary so if he gets injured or you lose him for three months you still got to pay
09:50and that sucks however it is an international tournament i think more respect needs to be put
09:55on it but what do you guys think i think that i don't think it's from a lack of respect i think
10:01it's more a selfishness from the coaches and the teams not thinking about what it means for that
10:06player to go back to africa to represent their nation and play into what is absolutely the
10:11equivalent of a euros in a copa america it is very unfortunate that it is during the club season
10:16and that does remove them from important games como is having an exceptional season too and i
10:21think fabregas probably feels the um the history that's about to be made in that whole project so
10:26he feels the urgency of this season and missing a player that good for just a few games could have
10:30a big impact you know how how tight tables get so i don't think yeah so i don't think in his
10:35specific case other people like carrie was disrespect i don't think fabregas is disrespect but
10:40it is selfishness because he's only thinking about como and his own success he's not thinking about
10:44what it means for that player i feel like there's it can't be anything but disrespect because if
10:49you're going to play for a team like senegal bro like senegal even looking at world cup people are
10:55talking about senegal as a dark horse they have the possibility to win the whole thing i could
10:59understand if he was if like he was going to play for benny and or one of the teams that people are
11:04saying like they're people aren't projecting them to go on and win the tournament so it's like okay
11:08i'm gonna lose my player for a team that's likely to like lose in the group stage sure but for a team
11:14that's actually competing for the whole entire thing to come out and win to be like oh it's
11:19not worth it it's like that's just a lack of respect for like what that title is because you
11:25wouldn't want your player if you value that player that much you wouldn't want him to miss out on that
11:29possibility you wouldn't want him to miss out that's what i'm saying it's selfish and i don't think he
11:33would even care what country he's at because the fact that i'm missing you for games when i need you
11:37so we can potentially go to the champions league guys let us know what you think in the comments this
11:41has been another episode of five aside on being sports we'll see you in morocco very soon
11:46you
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