Cobham

Do you know what I mean? It's totally normal to be immature, to do things you'll regret down the line.

But I always remember going to Cobham, Chelsea's training ground, to meet Conor Clifford when he was... what age was Conor at the time? It was around the time they probably won the youth cup.

So it was enough interest in them to be doing a piece for them.

Like, you know, and I remember just getting like, going out from London and Cobham, there was some stat about like the, the sort of, the, the sort of the pro, the rate of like, you know, it's, luxury cars or like what you call the supercar to like everywhere else in the UK population it was like way above average and I met Conor Clifford in a Starbucks and there was a couple of other like young Chelsea players there and they're all like very well dressed you know like all sort of hanging around a little bit so there's fast cars or zoom and then they're all outside and it's almost like obviously it's great to go to this environment like to learn to be a footballer and Chelsea of course at the time were just coming off the back of being like you know league winners and Gloria but it's also like it's an alternate reality and like Chelsea at the time were stockpiling players and then all of a sudden they take them into Chelsea it's great and they're trying to a lot of the youth players there even were assets for them that they were trying to flip as much as like to be Chelsea first team players and And you're surrounded by money every day.

Everywhere you look, you're surrounded by money.

So obviously, like if you see the first team players driving this car and you see them with this phone or this watch or this kit bag or this whatever, like you'll feel second class going in if you don't have something like that.

And Britain can start thinking again about how she's going to engage with, I was going to say the wider European war, but actually the wider global war, because one of the... one of the factors that influences things is that in order to stabilize the government, um, a lot of people have been brought in who were initially, uh, not on side with, with the, um, with the Pelham government.

Uh, and that includes a contingent to call themselves the Patriots, uh, people like, uh, the elder William Pitt, um, and Lord Cobham.

Uh, and, and they've, they've now come into government as well.

And, and, This is something we'll see with Pitt in particular, because another thing about this expedition is that it prefigures a lot of what happens in the Seven Years' War when, again, there are debates about whether to operate in Europe or North America or on an amphibious basis.

This is a really good deal for us.

We can keep our...

Political allies, you know, Pitt and Cobham happy by attacking French commercial targets.

And we can help our continental allies because we'll be distracting huge numbers of French troops.

So we're gonna react to an, uh, Athletic article giving us some deets on that.

A little shout-out as well to, um, Lawton of The Times explaining how Chelsea are upgrading the Cobham training center, which actually by some standards is still pretty darn good.

Hey, it's a move in the right direction.

The money men are in control now of Clearlake, and they're looking to make changes, but not sportingly.

I spoke yesterday about, you know, how I think Ben Atikbah, his ego has made him sort of want to take more control and really focus on, on being a success 'cause he didn't like people calling him a C word in the stadium, but we'll see what happens, of course.

[whooshing] Uh, yes, coming from the Times also, I'm getting this off the Blue Dodger X account, Chelsea Dodgers.

Uh, work, uh, to improve and modernize Chelsea's Cobham training ground is expected to start soon.

So Clearlake now in full control are going to make changes.

The Wizard, you know, tore his hair out.

He'll go into Chelsea training tomorrow at Cobham.

Bold-headed.

They'll be like, what the hell happened to you, mate? And he'll say, hey, tell you what, mate.

There were lights in all the houses on the common side of the three village, and the people were kept awake till dawn.

A curious crowd lingered restlessly, people coming and going, but the crowd remaining, both on the Cobham and Horshall bridges.

One or two adventurous souls, it was afterward found, went into the darkness and crawled quite near to the Martians, but they never returned.

For now and again a light ray, like the beam of a warship's searchlight, swept the common, and the heat ray was ready to follow.

All night long the Martians were hammering and stirring, sleepless, indefatigable, at work upon the machines they were making ready, and ever and again a puff of greenish-white smoke whirled into the starlit sky.

About eleven a company of soldiers came through Horsell and deployed upon the edge of the common to form a cordon.

Later a second company marched through Cobham to deploy on the north side of the common.

Several officers from the Inchmain Brackets had been on the common earlier in the day, and one, Major Eden, was reported missing.

And it, uh-

uh-I was exactly the same at Cobham every Sunday.

There is girls and there are families everywhere, which as you, as you said, can only help the men's game, can only help more of those girls' brothers stay in the game as well, which helps the men's side.

And I, I listened to your guys' pod on the week, and I, I absolutely agree that for the Red Roses, they don't have to worry about everybody else.

I remember being part of a player-led festival at Chelsea.

We went down there and I can't remember how many teams were there on the day, but it would have been probably six or eight different clubs all converging at Cobham, the training ground there.

And the Premier League putting on a festival where you've got one timekeeper in the middle of the field, you've got a bunch of kids from different clubs all wearing their strips, and they're all technically competing with each other in the system, and they get given a playing card and they go and do a player-led festival.

They've got to go and find the team, find the players with the same card, and they do player-led.

Belgians like cycling, and I saw many families traveling around by cargo bike, which is like a big, strong bicycle with a huge container on the front to carry the kids and the dogs and the shopping.

And another reason to be cheerful is that this Saturday, September the 12th, I'm telling stories in a library near where I live in Cobham in Surrey in the UK as part of a book festival organized by Cobham Bookshop.

So if any of you live nearby, do come along.

It starts at 10:00, it's free of charge, and it would be lovely to meet you.

Remember, there's an Owlet letter for subscribers posted every week on our Patreon page.

Keep telling your stories and singing your songs.

Hope to see some of you at the Cobham Library in Surrey this Saturday morning.

This podcast was produced by Kim Normanton and David Smith at Wardour Studios in fabulous Blitzrovia in London.