Listen, just quickly, Sam, where did it all start?

All started in, uh, Dudley, um, West Midlands.

I, uh, grew up in a council estate with my dad being a Scotsman, with my mum.

Uh, both of them Scottish, came down from Scotland after the war, I believe.

Uh, got a council house on the Old Park Farm Estate, and luckily enough there was a green field in the middle of it, and that green field never had any grass on it.

And, um, that's where the football education started from the, uh, be- even before I got to school, I think.

So as far back as I, I can remember, the, the, the old man was rarely seen.

Give it to us, Sam

As a former manager, how do you see it?

Well, in that, in that job, y- you've gotta be able to accept both, you know? And I think that, um, you know, it, the emotions run so high.

Uh, semifinal of the World Cup again.

W- get going one-nil up and then, uh, unfortunately losing, losing the, the tie in the last probably 10 minutes or so.

And I think that, uh, it, when everybody looks at the situation and what happened, y- you've got to look and say that, you know, y- you've got a hard job in the game today with five substitutions.

And, um, that makes you thinking all the time on when are we going to make the substitutions? Who are we gonna substitute and why? And I think that that, that process is, uh, critical, critical to your success or failure now as a manager.

And, uh, and, and unfortunately what we saw, whether that was his tactic to begin with or whether it just happened, the, we, we all noticed, whether you're a manager like me or whether you're a fan or whether somebody like you, we just dropped off and we all wondered why.

Fouling?

... changed it

... "changed everything." Uh, you know, "It wasn't a foul.

I understand the game." And, you know, c- of course he doesn't, but, you know...

Uh, and I think that, uh, uh, whatever hold he has on FIFA, uh, th- they subsided to it.

And I don't know why, I don't know how, but in terms of the integrity of the game, it, and, and the discipline of the game, he's completely blown it straight out the water.

So, uh, England, Sam, what are you rating?

Well, on the basis of Mexico's performance and Mexico's performance alone, on the level of performance they gave, they can get to the final.

Whether they win it or not, I don't know.

But you know, we talk, I mean, I mentioned Euros games there as well, but if you want to take the World Cup i- in terms of best since '66.

I, I'm, I'm, I'm surprised Wayne said it's one of the best, and I would've thought he'd have come up with his best team performance while he were playing for England, 'cause there was many, I thought.

But I mean, I think certainly in terms of what they had to come across and what they had to come up against, like I said at the beginning, altitude, uh, humidity, heat, um, I think that, uh, they overcame that.

And the, the hostility of the stadium, the play acting.

The play acting by the players, I mean- You know, I find it incredibly disappointing that, you know, they roll over, squeal and cry at the least or slightest touch that they get and the referee does nothing about it, does nothing with it.

Brand out a few yellow cards and stop this play acting and stop this cheating in terms of trying to get a penalty or a foul or somebody sent off when there's barely a touch.

I mean, we saw, I mean, everybody at your end thought it was definitely a booking, but, you know, Declan Rice getting booked in the first 30 seconds, what could he do? He had to go for the ball.

So Sam, from your perspective on Tuchel.

It was superb.

Uh, Well, I mean, not that we wanted it, but it had everything you want in a game of football in terms of excitement, in terms of biting your nails, nervous energy, how are we going to make it with 10 players, how are we not? Some great performances on the pitch and a very good performance by the managers and the coaches on choosing when to change the formation, when to put the subs on, how to defend the lead that they've got.

And I think they came across...

A huge challenge, not just on the field, by the Mexican players feigning injury, trying to get people sent off, trying to get more penalties.

Every little touch or every little contact was rolling over in agony as if they'd been shot.

And I think that...

They overcame all that brilliantly in the end, and of course the substitutions to just make sure that the opposition didn't score later on, and then of course the referee deciding that it'll play a huge amount of time to see if he can give Mexico that last chance to get the equaliser, which I'm glad to say that didn't happen.

Have you ever heard of anything so incredible in your entire football career, Big Sam?

yeah

i mean yeah you could see the reaction i mean people talk about reaction is it is an old an old time in it we monitor we monitor players like everybody said you'd You do too much, but you take away out of it what you can.

If I bollocked a team, the first thing I'd do would look at the stats and say, what was the input of me bollocking the team? On the physical side, tactically, you'd talk about...

Bollocking the team at the right time means you've got an increase in output in the second half.

It might die off later on because they get tired.

So I'd look at the first two.

What effect did we have from the first half to the second half? Well, the second half gave us a bit more energy, a bit more high-speed runs, a bit more sprint distancing, a bit more...

think they will when it's on?