I wonder, you know, the crowd reaction said it all, didn't it, James? But, you know, how sad is this for Michael Carrick, really, given that he'd done so well last season and so very quickly, things have just fallen right away again in a matter of just a couple of months, really.

It's incredibly sad for Michael Carrick because you know how much this means to him.

He's somebody who, when you talk to people around him and I've seen podcasts with ex-players who played with him, you talk about whether Carrick thought he would have much of a managerial career going forward.

I've seen a few stories around today sort of suggesting that, you know, if the end comes as we all sort of expect it will do, that he may take a long time before he manages again and he may never manage again.

And if that's, you know, if the people around him who know him closely are sort of thinking that, I think it tells you how much of a special case United were for him to come in in an extremely difficult moment in January when they, when they sat Ruben Amorim where they were in the table a long way off the Champions League, um, places and to put the run together that he did, you know, was a remarkable achievement.

But, you know, to some extent you could see this coming because, you know, history told us that United had been down this road before with the popular ex-player who has the club, you know, close to his heart in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

And of course Solskjaer lasted longer, but it felt sort of similar really in the sense of, Here was a guy who understood what it meant to play for Manchester United and could communicate that to the players.

If you were Jason Wilcox, who would be your preferred pick of the candidates that appear to be leading the race to replace Michael Carrick if he goes?

They weren't putting up much resistance at all, were they?

No, I came on this show the back end of last season when they were flying under Carrick and I said at the time I felt I didn't think that giving in the job permanently was going to take them back to the point of winning leagues again.

I got hammered for that on social media at the time.

And so I haven't changed my view on that.

And I think there's just some really worrying signs that the sort of positive vibes, the momentum, the enthusiasm that was there, and Michael Carrick, to his credit, brought back in that incredible run in the second half of last season, doesn't look to be there.

They don't, you know, there's a lot of very sort of drawn, serious, downcast body language, faces.

Again, the damning stats, the running stats, you know, they were outrun again by Spurs by five kilometres collectively.

But we've kind of seen that throughout the season.

Is it a question of giving this time? Or is this already starting to look a little bit worrying that you spend all this money, you need them to gel on the pitch quickly? Yes, these things take time, but how much time?

Yeah, I mean, the ownership at Tottenham have been criticised for decades for underinvestment and for prioritising the balance sheet and not the team sheet.

And clearly this summer, when we can talk about whether they've spent it well, they have wholeheartedly backed their manager.

I was at the Newcastle game and they lost the previous weekend.

And normally...

when they're 2-0 down at home, the fans would start singing something negative about the ownership or the board.

Well, they can't do it because Daniel Levy's not there anymore.

How on earth do you replace Pep Guardiola? The answer is you can't.

So what I'm hearing is that the attack kind of is where they wanted it, but didn't quite get it over the line, right?

Yeah, I mean, they had, you know, the Vinicius Jr. thing was genuine.

What they've done this summer, really, with the two big ones, with Vinicius Jr. and with Hooney and Alvarez, is they've sort of sat on the sidelines with their hands in the air and kind of waited and sort of said, we're here, we know in the Alvarez situation...

Atletico don't want to send him to Barcelona.

He wants to go to Barcelona, but the two clubs absolutely despise each other in this context.

Maybe in all contexts, I don't know, but certainly in that one.

So that deal is not going to happen, but the player wants to go, the player wants to go.

Well let's give Arsenal some credit as well because they have spent money in this transfer window James what do you think the best bit of business they did do?

Uh, James, could you see a return to City for him? This is a bit of a curveball.

I mean, it really is.

I mean, this would be a sensational move if, if City did come back in for him, um, obviously having, having sold him, um, previously.

I mean, I, I...

Look, all we've been told all summer is that i- it's a bit of a stalemate, which is that Alvarez wants to go to Barcelona.

His club, Atletico Madrid, are refusing to sell him to Barcelona.

And I think Arsenal have been sort of sat in the corner of the room with their hand up sort of saying, "You know, while you two argue, we're over here if anybody wants to use us as the, as the sort of, uh, compromise option." And I think that's sort of where we are at the moment.

Is that then, I suppose, a reflection of his confidence in Aston Villa's strategy that sometimes they are going to sell their best players?

I mean, to even be in those conversations of signing one of the best players in the world, does it kind of tell you something where Arsenal Football Club are now?

In the Champions League final post-match press conference, I asked Mikel a fairly generic question about what he was going to do for the next few days and how he'd process this and what just the next couple of weeks would look like.

And he turned that, Henry was talking about press conference answers, this was a pure luck, this one.

He turned that into an answer about we need to be very ambitious and we need to think about going to the next level.

And he essentially said we need to spend big in the window.

And completely lucked into that answer.

It wasn't anything on my part.

I thought it was at Wembley, but it's in Cardiff this year, James.

But the fact that they've been in the relegation zone, having won, and they're still there, what is that going to do? Because it's another week that they're in the relegation zone looking ahead to another big game, and West Ham United, of course, play before them next weekend.

Well, uh, uh, d- but it depends how you look at it.

I mean, that, obviously, if you're looking at the table, it, it's a, it's another psychological blow.

But they, they have to focus on the fact that they've won a game of association football, which is not something that they've done very often.

They have to focus on that, and they have to believe in the principles and, and the plans that De Zerbi's putting in place are, is starting to generate something.

You know, the, the performance against Brighton, although, you know, they didn't win the game, was one of their best of the season.

Now, okay, the bar's on the floor for, for their standard of play, but still, there was something there to get behind.

Yeah

Given the way he's started, do you think he's making it ea- easier or harder for Manchester United's hierarchy?

Harder, undoubtedly, because if they really thought Michael Carrick was the right man, they would've given him the job permanently.

Fact of the matter is, what he's doing at the moment is absolutely maximizing an opportunity to return Manchester United to some sort of default setting, which is playing the system they wanna play, putting the academy players back into the setup, putting just simply the best players in the best positions, which is what Ruben Amorim was so resistant to doing for so long.

And I think the, the... probably one of the biggest aspects is that he's been bold with a lot of his substitutions, and, uh, we saw that when they beat Arsenal, that at two-two, you know, they were still trying to play on the front foot.

They were s- they weren't regressing, which is what they used to do a lot under Ruben Amorim.

And again, yesterday against Spurs, they, they ke- uh, obviously, they had the man advantage, but they kept making positive changes, kept trying to be on the front foot.

And the bar is so low at Manchester United these days, that that is enough to start to make it look like progress.

Half an hour, yeah

James, if it is to go get even worse and it becomes a four-nil, maybe even a five-nil to Australia, what next for England, for Stokes, for Rob Key, for, for Brendon McCullum? Is that era gone? Do they move on from that?

I think if they lose five-nil, it's very difficult to defend Brendon McCullum and BazBall because the, the...

It's all geared towards The Ashes, is it not? I mean, the whole, the whole, the whole point of the, these cycles is to make England competitive Down Under.

I've been reading pieces all year about how they've been planning for that-... that five-man pace attack and, you know, th- they were gonna be able to take a form of cricket down under and compete and, and, and, and not wilt under the pressure, which is what they've done.

And y- I, I, look, I get, I get, I understand the point about the mentality and, and empowering the players, and, and I have to say, I don't fault them for a lack of effort.

I don't, I don't think they've not tried in this series.

I don't...

The Mirror says, "Stop being villains." Was this a case of Aston Villa being very good? A congested fixture list catching up with Arsenal? An injury, uh, uh, crisis at the Emirates, or something more deeper to worry about for Arsenal?

But when you run a football club you also have to have a bit of ambition, and is it fair to say that over the years his ambition has been, always been outweighed by his determination to, to balance the books and keep a very tight ship?

Yeah, I mean, and that's been the leading criticism of him, isn't it, is that, you know, all of the sort of ambition that they've shown off the pitch with that stadium, which is one of the best in the world, it, it's innov- ...

I mean, it, it's sort of remarkable to think it's six years old because you, you go there and it almost still feels absolutely brand new.

You know, and that, that has become one of the world's most, um, prominent and, and sort of celebrated venues, because of course they have got a lot of concerts there, they, they can host F1 events there, it's got a fully retractable pitch which is, you know, remarkable innovation.

And then the training ground, you know, Jose Mourinho when he was head coach there he waxes lyrical about how luxurious the pillows were, and how wonderful it was to stay there, and the, and, and the whole club they felt, you know, as though they geared themselves towards success off the field.

But I think the fans just feel that that hasn't been replicated on the field.

I would say, to defend Levy a little bit here, uh, in the article that I've written I went back and looked at the net spend of the last five years, and actually there's only three clubs that have spent more in terms of net spend in the Premier League than Spurs in that time.

Just from what you know and the conversations you're having with the club, do you genuinely think that that is what's going to happen now? Will, will there be a marked change in how they approach the transfer market?

We've given you everything you need now to really compete properly with Liverpool," and how much will Arteta be judged at the end of the season?

Yeah, I mean, he has no excuses now.

He's been given everything he wanted.

Uh, look, I, I went on tour with, with Arsenal to, to Singapore and to Hong Kong, spent some time with some of the executives and just spent a lot of time around the squad.

And, and the sense was...

And this is obviously before they did Eze and while they were doing Gyokeres.

The sense was, "We're pretty happy." We, you, we look at teams.

Alexander Isak, James, where's he gonna be September 1st?

So is this the year? Is this the year that they finally (laughs) get the title over the line?

Well, that's the, the million-dollar question, isn't it? I, I, I still feel that other teams are probably ahead of them, um, because I think that you're right.

If, if Jocurez is done and the expectation is that it will be, then you look at that front three, assuming everybody's fit, and you're talking about Jocurez playing through the middle, Saka on one side, and probably Madueke on the other.

Although, I think as this tour goes on, we're gonna try and learn a little bit more about exactly what the plan is for Madueke.

I mean, obviously, he primarily played on the right, cutting in from that position, which is e- exactly what Saka does.

But I don't think Arsenal are in a position to pay 52 million for a, for an understudy for their, for their best outfield player.

So I think he's likely to start, in which case, that's a big ask of two of your front three sort of coming in and, and gelling straight away to the extent that you can win a Premier League title.

So how did he take it and what do you think Tottenham's prospects are going forward with, with Thomas Frank?

So that's something they can be proud of, I guess, if they do it.

Yeah, I mean, uh, a lot was made of that when- when they won the Club World Cup actually, because, um, that was the- the- just before the- the whole Roman Abramovich, um, ownership ended or- or- or the- the club went into, uh, government ownership.

You know, they'd won the lot and then obviously they created, UEFA created this Europa Conference League and suddenly they've got- they've got one more t- hurdle to jump.

But I mean, this competition really has felt a bit sort of lose-lose really for Chelsea all the way through in- in that they're quite obviously been the best team, you know, the- the strongest team in the competition with the be- with the best European pedigree, the- the- the biggest resources by far.

You know, they've been playing, with all respect to a lot of these teams, they've been- been reple- you know, really playing European minnows all the way through.

Now they've got a proper team in the final in Betis, um, but the sort of expecta- expectation is still that they win it.

So even if they win it, it's not...

He's kind of done okay, but not pulled up any trees.