00:02.29
alexei sayle
Hello everybody, welcome to episode 132 of the Alexi Sale podcast. We're recording on a Friday afternoon in downtown central London.

00:14.66
alexei sayle
Temperature is, ah the I-5 is backed up as far as Encino and there's an escaped alligator on the...

00:18.30
Talal K
scotio

00:25.15
alexei sayle
bill but but but bu um I've been... um I've been recording the audio book version of my book, how I've tried to change the world by walking down the middle of the street, shouting, um, the, I think all, uh, the launch event, which is at the Royal geographical society on September the nineties, getting close to being sold out, even though the tickets are quite pricing. yeah.

00:55.10
Talal K
Oh wow!

00:56.39
alexei sayle
Um,

00:56.72
Talal K
Who's gonna be interviewing you in that?

00:58.71
alexei sayle
I think Robin, I think,

01:01.69
Talal K
Oh interesting, not like your podcast co-host and the person who knows you probably more intimately than anyone in recent years.

01:05.59
alexei sayle
oh ah I never, I'm sorry, I never, never gave it a thought.

01:13.56
Talal K
Yes you never you never do do you?

01:19.93
alexei sayle
um maybe what do you want Would you like to do that?

01:23.10
Talal K
No, no, no, don't want to steal a gig from Robin.

01:28.34
Talal K
No, no, he'd be better at it.

01:28.58
alexei sayle
He does

01:29.66
Talal K
He's more professional and grown up and white than I am.

01:33.30
alexei sayle
he's he's um he does a lot of these.

01:33.38
Talal K
sir

01:38.78
Talal K
He's very good at it, I guess. Or he's very good at looking like he's good at it.

01:45.94
alexei sayle
well

01:47.44
Talal K
Don't worry, and not bitter at all over here. Don't worry. I know my place. It's here on the podcast, which I love.

01:55.70
alexei sayle
Yeah, where way your ways should be. um did do um What are we going to talk about?

02:05.80
Talal K
Congrats, man. No, I didn't mean to derail you. Congratulations.

02:08.40
alexei sayle
That's all right. That's all right. Andy Bannum.

02:13.03
Talal K
He's now leader now of the party, but not prime minister, which is confusing, but I'm i just accepting it.

02:13.02
alexei sayle
Oh, thought we were. Yeah, yeah.

02:17.78
alexei sayle
Yeah.

02:21.28
alexei sayle
Let's leave that for another day. Did you say you had some questions? We're doing quite a quick one, aren't we, really?

02:27.74
Talal K
Timing issues, scheduling issues. You've been in the studio for three days, so we're squeezing this in.

02:31.65
alexei sayle
That's true. so Yeah. affair

02:33.72
Talal K
The show needs to come out Saturday morning. We're squeezing this in and just under the wire. um And I guess I... Yeah, we've got some questions, but ah I wanted to give a shout out. I wanted to talk about briefly... This isn't a football podcast and I have no interesting football insights.

02:55.74
Talal K
But... ah we were meant to record yesterday and I was really hung over cause I was up the night before watching the England match and I had some thoughts about, so the months leading up to the World Cup, I was certain I was going to boycott it um because of mainly Palestine and,

03:18.04
Talal K
various you know anti-capitalist reasons, but vague enough, but I got a bit swept up by it, especially as there were more 48 countries. And so as soon as I saw like Curaçao and Cape Verde, I was like, what's this now? And I got really swept up by all the, and then I started remembering my dad because ah I grew up, my me my dad loved the World Cup. We'd watch it every time together as a family.

03:43.83
Talal K
And yesterday was six years since his passing. And it's because of him that I know you and this podcast exists at all.

03:52.05
alexei sayle
Mm-hmm.

03:52.40
Talal K
so And we've done an episode about the siege that he was a hostage in and everything. So wanted to give a shout out to Pops.

03:56.45
alexei sayle
Mm-hmm.

03:58.94
Talal K
And I remembered that he always used to tell the story that he was at the 1966 World Cup final in Wembley. And he might have been with your mutual friend, I'm not sure. Or he might have been on his own.

04:12.09
alexei sayle
Yeah, Ian.

04:13.62
Talal K
No, no, Waseem.

04:14.98
alexei sayle
Oh, Waseem.

04:16.15
Talal K
and

04:16.38
alexei sayle
I don't remember Waseem being at the sixty six

04:18.62
Talal K
No, so maybe not. But my dad always tells story of being there and then England won and everyone marched from the stadium into the center of London to Leicester Square and it was a massive street party all night long and he woke up the next morning on a bench in Hammersmith

04:32.24
alexei sayle
Right.

04:37.50
Talal K
um And he always recollects it as this really wholesome, unifying, beautiful moment.

04:45.24
alexei sayle
Yeah.

04:45.50
Talal K
i mean yeah And in recent months, you know with the whole, you know the the reform, the resurgence of the far right of in this country, of I did feel a bit of that in the pub the other day. It was nice having that kind of unity and everyone was together and it was... And I was gonna ask you if you had any memories of 66 and...

05:08.22
Talal K
How old would you have been?

05:08.44
alexei sayle
Not many, really. they They held... Some of the qualifying rounds were held at Everton's Ground, Goodison Park, which was near our house, of course. I remember the North Koreans played at Goodison Park, and I think won, I seem to remember being very excited by that, really.

05:29.08
alexei sayle
um But apart from that, no, I haven't... I guess we're pleased that...

05:37.91
alexei sayle
I don't know whether we cared that England won the final, really. There's an in interestingine it but there's ah an interesting in documentary.

05:49.50
alexei sayle
ah there was the like England's greatest player, in a way, was this guy called Jimmy Greaves. Small, a number nine, I think, played for Tottenham.

05:56.81
Talal K
I haven't.

06:00.79
alexei sayle
And he got them through to the final and then South Ramsey didn't play him in the final. And there's a, in this documentary, i remember there's a very kind of forlorn shot of him standing on the sidelines in a suit.

06:16.70
alexei sayle
Um, and, um, it was a sort of one of those, like, know, Shakespearean, you know, I mean, it was like a bit like um Henry V betraying his old friend Falstaff, perhaps, although there probably are better examples than in Shakespeare of that. But the the ruthlessness of it was was shocking, really.

06:43.67
alexei sayle
ah But I just remember that. I used to see, and then later on, he was a sort of pioneer of that kind of chummy kind of sports stuff. the Saint and Greavesy with Ian St. John. And he was an alcoholic for many years and then actually got sober.

06:59.96
alexei sayle
um But the Saint and Greavesy was on. And I think I used to see them and say hello to them because I think they did at Central Television where we were making OTT. So I used to see the Saint and Greavesy from time. So I remember chatting to him and he seemed very nice, really. What you saw is what you got. But they they sort of ushered in the modern age of the kind of...

07:23.67
alexei sayle
a different analysis of of football really um uh so that's what i remember about 1966 and its aftermath um

07:40.16
alexei sayle
what the the current situation i don't know really um

07:45.17
Talal K
It's all just

07:49.05
alexei sayle
Something that line of, you know, Wittgenstein, isn't it Of what we do not know, we should remain silent.

07:54.07
Talal K
Yes, I cannot provide any insight whatsoever.

07:55.42
alexei sayle
I could. I could, but I don't know, really.

07:59.45
Talal K
But.

08:02.78
Talal K
No, but you know,

08:03.86
alexei sayle
I mean, I don't know. I mean, it's...

08:08.41
alexei sayle
remember Arthur Matthews, you know, of Lindholm Matthews, who used to... mean, he was a big football fan, and he said... remember him sort of doing, like, oh, that's a monologue about how...

08:19.67
alexei sayle
whatever you think footballers should do or a manager should do, they will have thought of that, you know? So you think, well, why, why did you let, why did you give Messi all that space to, you know, but will I guess there would have been a solid reason why they didn't try and man mark him, close him down.

08:43.26
alexei sayle
um

08:44.02
Talal K
Well, of course, yeah, they're the professionals.

08:44.12
alexei sayle
but

08:46.18
Talal K
They would be.

08:46.49
alexei sayle
Yeah, yeah, but then maybe they did just, you know, after they went, they they seemed so shocked by going 1-0 up that that was the kind of, there was a kind of emotional collapse after that, really.

08:58.11
alexei sayle
I've been watching, because my favourite sport is the Tour de France, and that's been going on concurrently, and there is, yeah, Wimbledon, I don't have anything to do with.

09:04.34
Talal K
God, that and Wimbledon all at the same time. Yeah.

09:10.36
alexei sayle
ah But there is ah there is a rider in the Tour de France called Tadej Pogacar, who is just this extraordinary prodigy who is so much better than everybody else, really. I don't know, Linda thinks it's a privilege to be to be able to watch, to be alive in such a time.

09:32.95
alexei sayle
I find that that that that he is so much better than everybody else, I find. I mean, he also he rides for UAE, so he's got the support of a team who, you know, it's a bit like Manchester City and, you know, they're all supported by um Middle Eastern autocracies.

09:47.71
Talal K
All the money in the world.

09:49.72
alexei sayle
So he does have that. Whereas his biggest rival, Jonas Vinegar, rides for Visma Lisa bike, whatever that is. Well, all teams are commercial teams in the Tour de France. So the Quick Step lock at Lotto Sudan, which is Soudal, which is ah like, for instance, a mixture of um instant flooring,

10:13.56
alexei sayle
um the Lotto lottery. And I don't know what Soudal is, possibly a cough syrup. Yeah,

10:21.89
Talal K
Visma is a Dutch bike rental company.

10:24.05
alexei sayle
yeah. yeah

10:25.13
Talal K
they're going to be very rich, aren't they? Because if you're a Dutch bike rental company, you're doing all right.

10:28.50
alexei sayle
You probably do have resources, yeah. But still UAE are going to be, you know.

10:34.74
Talal K
Oh, yeah, you can't quite beat the people who can build fake islands in the sea.

10:36.60
alexei sayle
But it's, I mean, it's sort

10:40.76
alexei sayle
Last year, there was an Israeli team, and and that so there was you there were demonstrations. It was interesting because it was a you know i mean it was a way, yeah I mean, there's a big debate, and Norway is is is agitating for Israel to be banned from um yeah FIFA, from world football.

10:59.60
Talal K
Wow.

11:00.25
alexei sayle
And many other countries agree. But, I mean, it was interesting with the Tour de France last year, with this yeah Israel Premier Tech, or Israel Stars Up Nation, or whatever were called, that the public just stopped it.

11:12.18
alexei sayle
i mean, the public just made it impossible for a team with Israel in its name, or with links to Israel, to function.

11:17.69
Talal K
wow

11:18.69
alexei sayle
And so there was a kind of really interesting, interesting you know, I mean, you used to see, I mean, that last year, I mean, the whole route was lined with Palestinian flags. particularly when they're in Spain. But it was an actual, I mean, the public, because of the Tour de France is open, is uniquely open to the public. The public just said, no, you know, an Israeli team cannot compete in this contest. And so they stopped it, really.

11:46.01
alexei sayle
Interesting. Yeah.

11:48.10
Talal K
Wow. As a safety issue, partly as well, I'm sure.

11:49.18
alexei sayle
Yeah.

11:51.04
Talal K
because

11:51.03
alexei sayle
Well, they did. They had to cut short several stages and because of demonstrations and stuff like that.

11:56.29
Talal K
Yeah.

11:56.93
alexei sayle
But I think it yeah ah it was a it was a a really effective use of of of people power, really, that that that situation was brought about.

12:06.98
alexei sayle
So, yeah, that's it.

12:08.02
Talal K
Interesting.

12:08.18
alexei sayle
and I mean, i sort of, it's sad in a way that this year, that there're aren there aren't there is you see the occasional one, but there's not many Palestinian flags. um But yeah, I mean, it's it's the greatest sport known to man, really, the Tour de France in many ways.

12:26.46
alexei sayle
You know, every out football wyoming footballers play for 90 minutes. As you know, the Tour de France is three weeks every day.

12:35.36
Talal K
Bloody hell, yeah, you're right.

12:36.54
alexei sayle
Yeah.

12:38.31
Talal K
don't they And they don't take turns or they do? No, they don't. They're all going all the time, aren't they?

12:42.87
alexei sayle
ah No, they do there are there are days when various different specialists sit. But you've still got to be there. You've got to make it. mean That's the amazing thing. you still If you're a sprinter and it's a mountain stage for the mountain specialist, you've still got to get over those mountains within the time time limit.

13:01.77
alexei sayle
And similarly, if it's a s princes stayed yaniba similarly if it's a sprinter stage and you're a mountain climber, you've still got to get to the end by the...

13:03.86
Talal K
On your bike. Alright, yeah. hell.

13:12.16
alexei sayle
um within the cutoff really so it's a you know it's it's a sport in which you can never really be uh you know you can never sit back really you're not like messy walks 63 i mean i know he's a prodigy but messy walk 63 of the time really you couldn't do that in the tour of rand you have to always be up there with the you know with the body of the race really it's a spectacular i mean it's it's You have to know.

13:16.51
Talal K
laial

13:36.60
Talal K
m

13:40.41
alexei sayle
it takes a while to learn what's going on, but it rewards knowing that, I think. And, of course, one of the greatest days of my life, when I did commentary on the Tour de France in 2028,

13:51.74
Talal K
Yes, we know, we know.

13:52.70
alexei sayle
twenty twenty

13:54.17
Talal K
They need to get you back, man. What's going on?

13:56.06
alexei sayle
And i well they but sadly, the old crew's gone because they lost the concession, Channel 4. I really, really miss them so much.

14:06.11
Talal K
I'm so sorry.

14:06.65
alexei sayle
Ned and, you know, David Miller. and

14:11.35
Talal K
They do a podcast though, don't they?

14:13.40
alexei sayle
I think they are doing, yeah, but I, you know.

14:16.25
Talal K
Any listeners to this who listen to that, reach out to them and tell them Alexi's missing them.

14:22.52
alexei sayle
Yeah, they did say come along and commentate, really, but they never got around to it. I mean, I think they're all travelling around France in a camper van doing it, I think.

14:31.90
Talal K
Ah, OK.

14:33.46
alexei sayle
um We should plug the roundhouse on the... whenever When is that? The 2nd of August.

14:40.14
Talal K
2nd of August, matinee, 2 o'clock or 2.30 at the Roundhouse in Camden with Diane Morgan as our special guest.

14:42.26
alexei sayle
Diane Morgan. Diane Morgan.

14:50.61
Talal K
All right. and If you go

14:55.26
Talal K
two ah sorry, I'm getting dings. If you can hear those dings. Roundhouse.org.uk. Search for Alexi Sale on the website. You can see...

15:08.10
Talal K
uh how to book tickets we really want to see you there we're going to be taking questions from the audience we'll be talking to diane morgan for full hour we're going to be on stage for like 75 minutes or something come on down if we're gonna be

15:21.27
alexei sayle
Yeah.

15:23.80
alexei sayle
We need you to come down because we've guaranteed that end Morgan a fee, haven't we? Quite a substantial fee. And if we don't sell more tickets, we're going to come out of it with nothing.

15:35.74
Talal K
That's true. So please help.

15:37.56
alexei sayle
Yeah.

15:38.60
Talal K
I'm just looking at the the website now. We've done all right, you know. but we could sell a lot more.

15:45.37
alexei sayle
big old gaffe.

15:45.62
Talal K
and there's there's cheaper tickets available. The ones near the back and stuff. Come And the questions from the audience will be on a roaming wireless mic so you don't even have to get up.

15:56.41
alexei sayle
Hee-hoo-ha-hoo-ha.

15:58.26
Talal K
Technology. So, okay, that was Sports Talk on the Lexile podcast.

16:02.68
alexei sayle
Yeah, it's Moistog, thanks to thee.

16:05.50
Talal K
ah We had Kenny on the Patreon chat room. If you want to join the Patreon, go to patreon.com forward slash

16:19.32
Talal K
Sign up for as little as £3 a month. Get full video episodes a day or two early every week. We have Alexi Reacts on there, where Alexi reacts to old stuff he's done and other bits and bobs that only Patreon members get.

16:31.78
alexei sayle
Alexei reacts to having his phone snatched on the street, and isn't he?

16:35.54
Talal K
Did that happen?

16:35.94
alexei sayle
What? No, I just made that.

16:37.27
Talal K
Oh.

16:39.83
Talal K
ah

16:40.81
alexei sayle
Aren't you fly? My, my you know, my Tai Chi senses would tell me if that was happening.

16:48.06
Talal K
I know, right? I'm very cocky with my phone in the street. And in the pub, i'll leave it on the table. My friend's like, you shouldn't leave it there. I'm like, I dare anyone to try and take my phone.

17:01.66
Talal K
um Kenny says in the chat room there Hello I'm very happy to hear Alexi mention popularism Lansbury and the Labour councillors that went to prison rather than force the poorest to pay unfair local taxes to the City of London Council What did you say they said?

17:19.28
Talal K
They said ah I'd rather break the law than break the poor

17:21.56
alexei sayle
No, it's more poetic now. Better to break the law than break the law.

17:26.67
Talal K
Okay, pretty much said it right. ah If you want to interview someone with more details on this story, please get in contact.

17:34.52
alexei sayle
Okay.

17:34.61
Talal K
My father gives a talk on this and so has researched a lot about it. His grandfather, my great-grandfather, was one of the counsellors who was also jailed alongside George Lansbury.

17:49.30
Talal K
hey

17:52.64
Talal K
Would you like to interview this person? Maybe that's something to consider.

17:54.14
alexei sayle
Yeah. Yeah.

17:57.66
Talal K
Let's give Burnham a couple of weeks and then we'll have more to talk about. um

18:01.82
alexei sayle
Yeah.

18:03.39
Talal K
Tony asks, do you remember where the Red Star Club was in Liverpool? I went there a few times and think it might have been Shaw Street. Thanks, mate. Hope you can help.

18:13.91
alexei sayle
Oh, God, no, I don't think so. If my mother was alive, she'd know.

18:21.11
alexei sayle
Now, can't remember what it was. No idea. and

18:28.15
alexei sayle
Somebody mentioned in the YouTube that there's a couple of things missing from my IMDB.

18:33.21
Talal K
I have that queued up. I actually have that queued up.

18:34.58
alexei sayle
All right.

18:35.44
Talal K
So I was gonna do a special edition of our comprehensive ranking.

18:41.05
alexei sayle
Okay.

18:42.30
Talal K
I was gonna mention these two things. Do you remember what they were like? I'll read them out, but do you remember, did they did you recognize them?

18:50.10
alexei sayle
Well, one of them, I think, Fundamental Frolics was actually was a charity thing for Martin. um But they cut that when it went out on the TV, they cut me out completely because I was to you know too raw.

19:03.63
Talal K
But this fella seems to remember you from it.

19:06.36
alexei sayle
I don't think I was in it.

19:06.81
Talal K
This person.

19:08.68
alexei sayle
He's got evidence to the contrary.

19:08.70
Talal K
Well, here we go. He says, this is a comment from the last episode on YouTube. Forgotten Television and Drama 2750 on YouTube commented, two 1981 Alexi Sale credits are missing from your chronology.

19:23.35
Talal K
ah Celebration, the Alexi Sale hour. from 23rd, on ITV, transmission date 23rd of July 1981, and Fundamental Frolics, BBC, transmission date 31st July 1981.

19:38.39
Talal K
nineteen eighty one Busy week for you on TV, but you said you got cut out of Fundamental Frolics.

19:41.24
alexei sayle
Yeah. I think I did, yeah.

19:45.36
Talal K
I guess you'd remember a heartbreak like that so early on in your career.

19:47.67
alexei sayle
ha

19:50.98
alexei sayle
I don't think I was bothered.

19:53.02
Talal K
Shall we not put it on the list then?

19:55.32
alexei sayle
don't know, well, we can talk about Celebration if you want. to

19:58.55
Talal K
So what's this, an hour at a stand-up special of yours?

20:00.47
alexei sayle
So Celebration was actually a show that only went out in the Granada world. region And it was, um yeah when you know, when you used to have regional television shows. And it was their kind of, their weekly arts show.

20:17.11
alexei sayle
And so they'd been down to London and seen me and um asked me if I'd like to do this hour long, which again, I think uses some of the elements of...

20:18.22
Talal K
Oh.

20:30.81
alexei sayle
that we later used in Lexi Sales stuff talk, doing stand-up talking to the camera and stuff. But it was i was i mean it was terribly exciting then. I mean, g Granada were a funny company, really. I mean, I say, I think in my second volume, that Granada were always... They got there before the BBC. They got like...

20:52.90
alexei sayle
rick dawn and jennifer they got to put on them on tv first or got them to make tv programs did with me very early well before ott and well before the awards but then they would sort of lose their nerve and not put shit out and so in a sense effectively kind of waste your time in a way but um This, so, that but it was, I think it was really my first solo TV outing and Bill, my partner from when was double actors in it.

21:25.69
alexei sayle
um There's a song I did which I think on a roller coaster, which is a parody of Adam Hand, which I think is completely inaudible because we're on a roller coaster. um But it was also it was directed by David Liddermans, who later went on to become head. i think he wasn't director general of the BBC, but he was certainly head of comedy to head of light entertainment.

21:47.89
alexei sayle
And when he was at, I mean, because he was gay, because he he was the one who really breathed life. When Coronation Street was kind of dying in the late, the early 80s, he really breathed a lot of life into it by making it kind of camper in a way, bringing these big, powerful female figures into it when he was still at Granada. And the sort of runner on it was a guy called John Plowman, who later...

22:11.99
alexei sayle
became head of comedy at the BBC and is, you know, was responsible for, or partly responsible for, you know, things like The Office, Ab Fab, where he always gave himself a cameo. i was so I'm very fond of John. Actually, I haven't seen him for a while, but I'm very fond of John Plowman. You know, he was really good with my show and and stuff. Yeah,

22:34.74
alexei sayle
ah yes so it was... But the thing that they did, I mean, this was a very typical Granada thing. that So this is now a long comedy. and so they But before they put it out, they had they filmed a sequence with Frank Carson, you know, the working men's club comic Frank Carson.

22:55.84
Talal K
Vaguely.

22:55.83
alexei sayle
I think sitting in on a so kind of set of a seaside in a deck chair. And Frank Carson, you know, the way I tell him, he was Northern Irish. Frank Carson essentially tells the Granada audience that I am funny, that though they may not have seen this kind of comedy before, um they should, you know, be open-minded about it.

23:20.89
alexei sayle
And it was such a kind of typical Granada thing to do, really, to to be brave and bold and and make something original. But then to get this kind of working men's club comic to preface it by saying, giving the public permission to yeah to enjoy it ran and tell them that it really was funny, despite what they had first thought.

23:40.38
Talal K
Yeah.

23:44.57
alexei sayle
um And so it only went out in the in the Northwest region.

23:52.80
Talal K
Well, fascinating. I wish I got to see it.

23:54.07
alexei sayle
Yeah, but the fundamental frogs i ah in my memory is I wasn't if it's what I'm thinking of, I think I was cut out of it.

24:01.02
Talal K
Okay, well then let's definitely include celebration on our list here.

24:06.94
alexei sayle
Yeah.

24:07.05
Talal K
We're still figuring out the science of how, you know, we want to make you feel comfortable ranking things, but it's really, it's a matter of how fondly you remember it or or where you place of things you're proud of.

24:18.23
alexei sayle
I can't remember now, mean, I've probably got it on a VHS somewhere, but, you know, I've got no way to watch it.

24:24.17
Talal K
But from memory, celebration, the Alexis Sale Hour, better or worse than whoops apocalypse.

24:33.18
alexei sayle
I was different because i would probably put higher because it was my own output, really.

24:33.34
Talal K
Not better worse, higher higher or lower, I'll say higher.

24:38.26
alexei sayle
I think I wrote it all myself, actually, so I don't know. don't quite know how that worked.

24:44.74
Talal K
Right, so you wanna put it higher than whoops apocalypse.

24:47.99
alexei sayle
oh so pop I was just an actor in it. I didn't write it.

24:50.81
Talal K
Okay, that's a shocking twist and I love it.

24:52.66
alexei sayle
Although I'm seeing David and Andrew. I'm seeing David and Andrew for lunch. Okay.

24:59.93
Talal K
Can I come mic you all up?

25:02.33
alexei sayle
ah

25:03.88
Talal K
All right then, well, instantly then, it makes it to number one on the list.

25:08.60
alexei sayle
okay

25:10.52
Talal K
We're happy with that. alex Celebration, the Alexia Lauer, something that no one has ever seen for 40 plus years. makes it to the top.

25:22.62
Talal K
of the list, congratulations, celebration, the Alexi Sale Hour. Number two, whoops, apocalypse. Number three, boom, boom, out, go the lights. Number four, transmogrification, sorry, transmogrification. Number five, repeater. Number six, the comic strip. Number seven, loss for words. Number eight, dwindling down at the bottom is Wolcott.

25:41.14
Talal K
The comprehensive Alexi Sale official ranking of stuff he's done. um Thank you for that comment. Anything else to discuss Alexi? Because we do have to keep it short I'm afraid.

25:56.99
alexei sayle
No, I think that's probably that probably it really,

26:03.19
alexei sayle
for now. I suppose Trump's going to the World Cup finalists, so presumably he'll be cheered by the Argentinian supporters and booed by the Spanish.

26:15.19
Talal K
That will be on Sunday. Where are you going to watch it?

26:20.02
alexei sayle
Oh, probably in my house, right here. I like to watch football alone. i don't i find it confusing watching it with other people. I mean, i like I don't mind going to a football, a Premier League match, but obviously you can't do it. But um watching it on TV is, I prefer to watch it alone.

26:46.13
Talal K
Well, with that sad image, we'll leave you, listeners. ah You and Linda, surely not alone, alone.

26:56.31
alexei sayle
Well, Linda Combson, she knows more about... She somehow, because she can see... She can see the patterns and stuff. I can't... I can't decode football. I can't see the matrix, really. I don't really know what's happening ever.

27:15.64
alexei sayle
You know, some people can see the patterns and say, he's doing this and he's doing that. and You know, they... I've got this example of... A friend of mine, his his brother was a football agent and he was at a football match.

27:32.25
alexei sayle
with another somebody, let's say, another guy. and And a player picked the ball up in his own half. And immediately the my friend's football agent brother and the other guy said to each other, he's going to score.

27:47.61
alexei sayle
And they could see the way that the elements were lined up. The matrix was arranged. And and and he did. This guy picked the ball up in his own area, took it, you know, and scored.

27:59.00
alexei sayle
And they could see that that was going to happen because of, way various forces were aligned, this person was there, that that other person was somewhere else.

28:10.04
alexei sayle
I can't see any of that, really. I wish I could. It's ah it's a sadness, really. I would like, know, when they talk about, well, you know, that this player is dragging somebody out of,

28:24.61
alexei sayle
I don't know. When they talk about um tactics and strategy, I don't understand what they're saying.

28:35.61
Talal K
Yeah.

28:37.08
alexei sayle
um Which I do more in the Tour de France, which is very, very strategic.

28:43.69
Talal K
It's a language, isn't it? You know, it's it's like learning a language and...

28:47.55
alexei sayle
I suppose. I don't know. I mean, I'd like to... i don't know. i don't know what's going on, really. I never know. But, um I mean, it was clearly, I suppose, a kind of collapse after England scored against Argentina.

28:55.66
Talal K
Hmm.

29:03.82
Talal K
Hmm.

29:06.17
Talal K
um I'm with you there. This isn't a football podcast, so that's excusable.

29:10.60
alexei sayle
Now...

29:10.69
Talal K
Don't worry. um But come at us, one in a fight, and you know how that'll end, folks. We can read you in that way.

29:20.66
alexei sayle
That's true, we're a martial arts podcast, aren't we?

29:22.62
Talal K
Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. And Messi...

29:24.44
alexei sayle
there was it There was this thing a few years ago with this American guy. I remember Channel 4, I think, had a series where a guy travelled the world studying martial arts styles.

29:36.95
alexei sayle
um I don't know what it's called, if anybody can remember it. I'd be really interested to see it now. Now I know a lot more about martial arts. I'd be interested to see that, really.

29:53.08
alexei sayle
But, yeah.

29:56.12
alexei sayle
Yeah, we know all that, mate.

29:59.58
Talal K
So watch it. Yeah. Right.

30:02.75
alexei sayle
can watch it.

30:07.82
Talal K
Let's get out of here.

30:09.15
alexei sayle
All right. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.