Would you agree with that after the weekend, Fran?

Yeah, the reference to the word war is interesting.

So I was only thinking about this.

It's a bit odd for me to start, I suppose, with a basketball reference, but you've probably seen The Last Dance.

And I remember watching it and Michael Jordan was talking about how he would...

in practice like he'd go after people like this was kind of when he came back after his ill-fated stint in baseball and he was talking about how there was a lot of new players there and he'd go after them he in practice he targeted them because what he wanted to do was he wanted them to know what it was like when they were in the trenches because otherwise and these are the words he used otherwise when the war starts they're not going to react And that's what I feel like is happening with this group of players.

You know, I kind of mentioned before about some of the goals we concede.

if we'd say it come on yeah no

Yeah, go

on.

And I thought the point...

I thought that John Russell, you know, he wants to play this 4-2-3-1 and we have the players to do that.

We're still a bit soft down the middle, like we've said all the time.

But I kind of thought the way to approach that game was to make them deal with us rather than us trying to kind of counter them, you know.

And we saw it in the first half and we saw it most of the game.

But go on,

would you say to that

I'd say it's very important.

Second cup final.

Second cup final, you know, it's still there.

You know, as Scotty said, we kind of, like I thought it too.

I kind of thought the league might be a bit beyond them now.

But, you know, you've players like, I mean, Kate Mooney coming back is massive.

But

I don't know if you have any, any thoughts on that in terms of what could be done for the match day experience

yeah it's tricky tricky question to be honest i mean like in terms of the match day experience like i mean you need to improve like basic things like the bathroom facilities like i think those bathrooms have like they're they're still a throwback to the old days i think in some ways i think you can improve them just to make people more comfortable um i know a lot there are families who probably You do have a lot of kids in the ground on Friday nights, but maybe not as many.

I've heard parents comment that before.

They don't necessarily feel comfortable bringing their kids out on a Friday night sometimes.

And I don't really know if there's a lot you can do about that per se.

But I think it's just making people as comfortable and making it as accessible as possible.

And I know Nathan touched on the stuff for additional needs there.

Oh

How was the evening in Amsterdam?

It feels like it was ages ago now after yesterday, but we'll get to yesterday in due course, I'm sure.

But yeah, no, it was incredible.

I don't think I've ever walked out of a ground so elated after a 3-1 defeat in my life.

It was a bizarre experience.

The day was great.

I think, shout out again to John Brenner.

even if we got that win and say if we lost or drew the next one that would have put us a point ahead of Dundalk or level with them so we're just throwing our aspirations and our goals out the door it's just crazy just looking at it we had so many opportunities got ourselves into great positions in the final and just weren't clinical enough we need to start taking these chances it took us 30 minutes to register a shot on target

Could he be the answer? Do you think he might come back for an Ajax game maybe?

I think we've asked an awful lot of free tests in the last few games, and I think he's done everything you could ask him to do, except, you know, score consistently.

And I think me coming back would certainly give him and Dan Ring some help.

I think in this formation, with the pace that he has, he could be very, very good if you can get him fully fit.

And I think that, I know Nathan mentioned it earlier, like, you know, I think tactically in the formation and stuff, I kind of, I like the way we're setting up.

I like the way, what we're trying to do.

but you know like even when I was looking at the war for a game even the you know it was interesting like I mean he Russell alluded to this himself like Milan down the right side like he got forward a lot now for me I think it's delivery it can still be hit or miss but he got down that side a lot we got a lot of joy down that side and I thought it was interesting because him with the kind of you know the 4-2-3-1 if you like you know it let Coop drop out into other spaces, and he had the joy down that side, whereas he put Kelly on the left because he is more natural width, and that means that Cam doesn't get forward, which he probably wouldn't do as much of anyway.

you want to go five at the back, Fran, but it

Do you have a bigger problem than we realized here?

You know, I watched John Russell's interview.

I think we all did because we wanted to hear from the new man in charge.

And he said, one of the things he said was a non-negotiable was that players give their all and leave it all out on the pitch.

He wants players that fight for every ball and that fight for the club.

And on Friday, I would ask each of those players, can they honestly say that they did that? Because as you said, there was some body language that I saw from certain players and you kind of got the impression they didn't want to be there.

And I don't like saying that.

What do you think going into Thursday?