Brentford vs Leeds Match Recap: Hull City & Malukas Drama

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Bringing you all the latest talk and possibly rumor in motorsport and soccer. This is Tackling the Chicane.

Yeah, just about almost nailed the soundboard there that time. So coming up, coming up. Getting pretty good with the new equipment. Yeah, still digging it. Love it.

I did, uh, just as a side note, I listened to a lot of, um, higher-end podcasts that deal with motorsport and/or car topics. And just so happened to see, um, on— because most of them are going to video now, so they, they have a fixed camera. Uh, 2 of them have the same Procaster 2, so it must work. Yeah, yeah. Um, the only way we're going to video is if, um, one of us quits our job and then learns to— well, I know how to video edit, but I just don't want to because it takes a lot of time.

No, and I, I Yeah, that's— yeah, that may be something, uh, in the future. I, I sort of see the value in it, but there's also a lot of podcasts that are awesome that you don't have to kind of deal with that production and everything. Yeah, we're in a weird spot because we, like a lot of, like So we record like together in the same space where a lot of podcasts, the people aren't in the same room. So what it actually weirdly makes it kind of easier because they'll use like Zoom or something and record the meeting. And then there's your built-in video where like we, since we're in person, we would have to get like a whole camera setup to do that.

Yeah. And we also have technology at work when we're in meeting rooms where it basically looks like a large soundbar, but it has cameras in it and it will track voices and it'll go to the area of the room. Yeah. I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon, but anyhow, so here we are. Yeah.

It's been Uh, an exciting week of action both on the track and on the pitch. Um, IndyCar doubleheader at Milwaukee, rain pretty much the story of that weekend. We have a new champion in IndyCar, and by new I mean Alex Palou, but confirmed as the 2026 champion as of this second race. Yeah, and which was actually the first race. So however you want to do that.

But okay, so I did not— I didn't get to this, the replay of the first race after the second race, so I didn't know that. But, um, fair enough.

Um, I guess what, what did you think of this? What do you think of this double, the double race in Milwaukee, first of all? And, um, what— obviously there was some issue with the Melukkas car, so I guess we can go into that a bit just to see, uh, where we're at with everything in IndyCar. We only have— what do we have, one left? Yeah, this Sunday.

Yeah. Um, yeah, so Melukkas did not win any race. Um, shocker. Um, But basically kind of stole the headlines from the weekend for 2 reasons, twofold. Um, as I said, Palou is your IndyCar champion, pretty much to the surprise of no one.

Um, Pato O'Ward took the win in both races. He is of course the only McLaren driver coming back to that team next year. Uh, Lundgaard, who apparently sucks on ovals, was on the podium for technically Milwaukee Race 2. Uh, reminder, they shitcanned Christian Lundgaard, and they being Tony Kanaan of McLaren, for, um, Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist. But yeah, the, the big headlines weirdly came from David Maloukas Because one, he came second again.

That is his 6th second-place finish in IndyCar. No wins. Now, was that the Sunday race or— no, there was 2 races on Sunday, right? So it officially was race 1. Okay.

Um, happened second. Um, so what happened there Maloukas in the lead with an amazing chance of winning with 30 to go coming out of a caution. Um, on the restart, the Chevrolet-powered Ilmor— well, the Ilmor-powered Chevrolet. Ilmor builds the engines and Chevy basically slaps their badge on it.

Remember 2 years ago at Indy when they had the plenum fires? That's what happened. Okay, so basically the engine— now obviously I am not the tech gearhead of the show, but to my underst— understanding, uh, like a, a small short burst of, of a fire occurred at the— in the engine. Basically they tuned the engine to, to rev to a certain, you know, RPM and get a certain amount of power out of it. Um, but sometimes you go overboard, which Chevy has done in the past, has known to do, when you try to draw so much power out of an engine that it kind of fails on itself.

And, uh, basically it— the plenum fire events are like very quick issues, but that is enough on a restart to where you can hear it happen he accelerates, and then when he goes to shift, you can hear like machinations of not what a shift should be, right? Like you can hear like a click and like, okay, that's not what happened. Pato Ward goes around and that's it. Yeah, I, I didn't get to see the replay of the, of that first race. I did see some headlines that they had a basically a failed restart.

Um, no blame to the driver on that. Now these are— so I think where Maloukas is at with Penske right now is this is going to be a curve and a learning curve. So yes, we've had a bit of bad luck this year, but I think they're going to regroup. Hopefully they're going to figure out some of this stuff and I don't think— I definitely don't think he's going to lose his seat. No, again, he will finish top of the Penske drivers in the point standings.

No win to show for it. McLaughlin didn't— hasn't won since 2024 though, if we're playing that card. Um, here's the thing, Malukas got himself into a little bit of hot water because in his post-race interview, when they shove a microphone in front of your face 10 minutes after the race He made it pretty clear his displeasure with Chevy and the engine that failed. Didn't— it wasn't a scathing thing, but he said, yeah, disappointed. Um, I don't remember his exact wording.

He, you know, kind of shifted blame to Chevy, and then the next day on Twitter, apparently unprompted, said that, you know, I, I shouldn't have said that, basically. Which, who knows, there's a real chance that Papa Penske phoned him and goes, yeah, you're not gonna say that. Yeah. And okay, so in the stratosphere of racing, there are the drivers, there are the owners, there are the manufacturers.

And the drivers tend to be the most, um, what's the word, emotional. Okay, manufacturers do what they do, owners do what they do. It all goes back, follow the money bags.

The fact— and he's not the first person to do that in the history of racing. Yeah, well, watch enough F1, you'll hear it probably every race. Yeah, but that's a whole different Yeah, I'm just, I'm just saying I don't blame him for that. It was— it's frustration because what people don't realize is these drivers get up every day and they train 100%, and they, they're working very hard, and they, they have the skills to manipulate and to make these vehicles do certain things on track. And then when a mechanical failure happens after you've done all of that work Yeah, and put all of that time in, obviously your frustration level— because the audience sees David Maloukas, they don't see Chevrolet or the engine builder or the team engineer.

They see the, the driver front and center. So I totally understand why you would rise to that and why you might get a bit upset about that. On the back side of the business end of this, you never shit on the people that— yeah, and he's, he's young, he'll figure it out. Yeah. And there's— you— the older guys, the willpowers, and, and they— you can almost kind of see it.

Well, just look at another Penske driver, Josef Newgarden. Never in a million years would he go say something. Yeah, Chevy. Um, he might be frustrated. He'll talk about how he's frustrated about himself or how we just— we have to be better.

You will not hear them say anything unless they're leaving, like Scott Dixon. He shat all over Honda, but he's going to Chevy. Yeah, so he doesn't care. Um, yeah, it is just one of those things where It's getting to the point with Malukas that it's like, what, what mythical entity did you piss off? What curse needs to be lifted?

Because this is someone— now, he has wrecked a couple cars this year that, you know, you wouldn't put down to luck, um, but Like things like a plenum fire costing you your first win. I mean, he was going to win that race. And then you have— he just doesn't have speed coming off of turn 4 of the Indianapolis 500 the last lap and loses by the closest margin in race history. When does he get, you know, the, the benefit of, of unbelievable happenings? That's where it's like, geez, man.

Yeah. And I think, you know, we could— I think when we go off-season, be a good time to bring someone onto the show who has many decades of experience watching IndyCar. Um, we have a few people in mind that we will do that with, but it's really just hard. Yeah, it's hard to win. And I think what people who casually tune into the series, or even if you follow the series like we do, sometimes we forget how hard it just— that's what I was going to say.

We I think are guilty of at times sort of brushing off what Alex Pelo has done. We're talking about, about a guy who, you know, yes, probably on the best team, but to win 4 championships in a row in such dominant fashion and most weeks do nothing wrong, like just he He doesn't make mistakes more often than not. That is something that in racing you just don't see that often. Now take F1 out of the equation a little bit because that is so very heavily car dependent, but in a spec series where theoretically every car is pretty much on the same playing field you have a guy like Alex Palou who right now in IndyCar on any given week you could say he's going to win and you're probably going to be right. Now, you know, this season weirdly hasn't been as dominant it seems like with— in terms of race wins.

But you know, how many times have we come on here and talked about a guy like David Lucas and gone, man, so close. And someone to have like Palou be able to just rack up wins like that. Yeah. And Palou has also suffered a bit from race to race. I mean, yeah, he collected his points early, but he also didn't have like a banner late season.

They had mistakes, they had some issues. I mean, people beat him Yeah, uh, but it's not always about the position that you're in. Um, it comes down to the points race, and he deserves it, no question. Just looking at the ranking right now, um, we have Lundgaard in 2nd, Kirkwood, which I think Kyle Kirkwood has really kind of shown that he's a, he's, he's a really strong driver. You wouldn't be shocked if he wins a championship at some point.

It really depends on what— how long Palou can sustain this. I mean, we obviously— everyone's time ends, but there doesn't really seem to be an end in sight. You know, we talk about how hard it is to win, but also in IndyCar the past 2 years especially, there hasn't been a real challenger to Palou, and I would really like to see that change soon. Um, there's guys that maybe a given week can challenge him for wins and stuff, but across the whole season, no one is really coming close, which just kind of makes you wonder, like, what, what is Polo and his team doing that is separating them? Because it's not all driver.

I mean, the cars are largely the same across the whole field, you know. I suppose the obvious question in the room is, what does this 2028 chassis bring to the series as far as resetting the table, if it resets the table?

I was listening to a podcast today that was talking about basically how the car that they're driving right now is a semi-upgraded iteration of the DW12 chassis. Yeah, from 2012. It is the same chassis, it just had modifications done. And there were some questions to did they choose the right path with this 2028 car, or are they just building another series of clone cars? Um, it— the only way I can describe this is, is it was an older gentleman commenting who has a lot of race prowess talking about how IndyCar used to be about innovation and teams brought like oddly weird stuff.

Yeah. To try to beat each other. I think we're out of that era largely. That will never come back. No.

And I understand, no, they're not enough money in it. I under— exactly, it's not enough money. I understand him kind of waxing poetic to go back to those days of— and we saw it at the museum when we were there. Look at this oddly configured contraption that actually was fast. Yeah.

And look at this weird thing that didn't work. Uh, we're beyond that, sort of unfortunately, but at the same time, I mean, can you honestly imagine if next year they said just make, make a car and bring it? That's fantastic. You know what else happened in those races? Guys would win the Indy 500 and be laps ahead of the person in second, right, right, or something like that.

And that's not what I want to see. Or you have half the field fall out within 20 minutes. And I'm— we've— I was super— I'm still excited about this '28 chassis. I think it's gonna bring some— a new level of excitement to the series. I'm excited about it.

So I'm fine with it. I think what I had listened to today was people who came up through the series 40, 50 years ago. And everyone, as I've said this before, always goes back to what was your halcyon day, right? What was your best time of your life? And for these guys, that was the best time of their life.

So understood.

Okay. All right. Well, I think that'll do it for IndyCar. Yeah. So you have something else to speak on?

Just the— I, I guess this is Seika's the last race. Yeah. Laguna Seca. Yeah. Laguna Seca is the last race.

3 days. Um, And we'll cover it on the, uh, next program. No, no reason to preview. Uh, I— what do you feel about that double though? Uh, that happened last year too.

Yeah, it's not that uncommon. They had an Iowa doubleheader in years past. Um, I don't mind it. I mean, they have to. There's not enough ovals that will accept IndyCar or that will it makes sense to run IndyCars on.

You can't go to a lot of ovals because frankly IndyCars are too fast for a lot of ovals. So you can't— it limits it. NASCAR owns a lot of the ovals and don't really play nice unless their show is involved, like in Phoenix. So, well, and that's where we're at. Interestingly enough, the 2028 chassis will be even faster.

Allegedly. Allegedly. So yeah. All right, uh, just very quickly, uh, this coming weekend we have the, uh, Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix Premio d'Italia 2026, and that is coming up Let's see here. Practice 1 on the 4th of September, which I believe is Friday, and then qualifying Saturday, race on Sunday, 0900.

So a nice breakfast race possibly for this one. Um, quickly, circuit 5.793 kilometers. This is the oldest one in in the books. Monza. This is where this started, 1950.

They will run 53 laps. Fastest lap time, Lando Norris last year. Total distance, 306K. So F1 Forza. All right, well, I think that's it for motorsports.

Uh, unless that's it. No, that's good. Okay, well, we will— yep, crickets, crickets, crickets. One more week of IndyCar, F1 back in the swing of things, and potentially more championship drama if, uh, McLaren maybe continue their run of form. But now we move on to the world of soccer, and it was a chock-full week of goodness on the pitch.

Uh, 2 fixtures of the Scottish Premiership since we last recorded, one being today, Wednesday, as we record. So I will have some fairly fresh reaction. I was able to watch the first half of the Celtic match, which, uh, I guess luckily for me was the only half that had goals. So, um, but before that, we're gonna start down in England in the Premier League, the 2nd match day of the season. First, let's run through some interesting scores.

Um, that you should be aware of because we're not really covering one of the bigger air quotes there, um, teams for our, our match this podcast. Uh, pretty routine win for, uh, Manchester City who took down Crystal Palace 4-1. Erling Haaland with 2 goals in that one. Uh, Ryan Cherki with the other 2. Uh, side note, Crystal Palace relegation threatened, question mark.

We will find out. Uh, and not sure what's— as I was saying, Saturday slate of matches. Liverpool off to a tricky start to the season. They drew 2-2 with Nottingham Forest. Of course, Liverpool with under new management, Andoni Iraola, who is off to not a flying, flying start.

2 draws. Alexander Isak scores and maybe gets a little bit of goodwill back with that Liverpool team, but not enough for them to get the win. Uh, just a quick dive here since we're already on it. My second team, you'll remember, uh, for this season is Hull City, newly promoted Hull City, who have now made it 2 wins in a row. Uh, stole a 1-0 win against also newly promoted Coventry City, who I think, uh, I feel pretty confident in saying are going to finish bottom this season, and I will make that prediction now.

So Obviously we're quite early here, but, um, this Hull City team in 3rd place, uh, pretty decent pick, I guess. I mean, they, you know, I think the statement win was certainly against Manchester United, 2-0 at home. Um, maybe not super surprising that they got a win against Coventry City, but really any win Um, is huge for them, uh, being the new— a newly promoted team. Um, and you have to beat teams like Coventry City if you want to stay up. Um, I will say this, a little disappointed in Coventry City's fan base.

A lot of empty seats for a Premier League game, I should say, which is really— if there are any noticeable empty seats, that's a pretty big issue, especially having, having come up. Yeah. A lot of empty seats for, um, of course Fat Mob says that, uh, 1,400 empty seats. Let me ask you this. So when a team comes up a league, are the— I'm assuming that ticket prices might reflect that.

Yes. So a, a bunch of folks who have watched this team play in a lower league are like, well, I can't quite make that. No, that's usually not how it goes. You usually don't show up. The attendance goes up as you go up and it goes down as you go down, typically more often than not.

So to have empty seats is not a great look in the Premier League, a league where if your stadium isn't full, you will be made fun of. So just kind of weird. Didn't expect that. Chelsea, I think, are going to be one of the most fun teams to watch this season. Which is why we will 100% be covering them next week because they play Arsenal this weekend, which, uh, a heavyweight clash.

Chelsea have won their first 2 matches under new manager Xabi Alonso. They are fun to watch because not only do they score a lot of goals, they concede a lot of goals. They beat Brighton 4-3 and they just have a smattering of of very entertaining players. Sunderland in the win column, 1-0 win against Fulham. Manchester United beat Ipswich Town in a comeback victory, 5-2.

Uh, Bruno Fernandes exploded with a hat trick in that one, 3 goals and I believe an assist on top of that. But that now takes us to our match of the week, at least that we're covering for this week, and it involves your, your adopted second team, the Brentford Bees. Yes, the Bees of Brentford FC, and they traveled up to Leeds for this one. Certainly not a game that, um, produced, you know, a ton of goals or anything like that, but a very, I would say, evenly matched contest. Uh, 2 teams that probably have pretty large ambition this season.

Uh, Leeds in their second season of this stint in the Premier League. I think Brentford, um, you know, the, the television pundits are very high on this Brentford team and think maybe they can challenge for a European slot. So this is your second team. I'll turn it over to you for your thoughts. Yeah, I'm, I'm trying to find the guy.

Is it, uh, Christ, let me look. First of all, this, this match didn't really get hot. I mean, there was, there were some chances early for both teams. Um, in the 41st minute, it was Potter to Sade for a goal to make it 1-0 Bees. And then basically we had the half, but there's a player on this particular team and I'm trying to find his name here.

Brentford? Yes. Mamadou Sangaré. Is that M?

Sangaré, maybe. I want to say Igor. Oh yeah, Igor Thiago. Yeah, I'm sorry, they— the English say Igor, so yeah, well, whatever. Not— yeah, Igor Thiago.

He seems to be kind of a hot foot, uh, gets a lot of chances. Yeah, I mean, he's their sort of supposed to be their talisman. He's their striker, uh, they signed him last season. Um, and he scored a lot of goals, uh, last year and has had looks like 26 goals in 51 appearances with Brentford, which is a pretty good return, about a goal every other game. Uh, yeah, he, he's definitely a player you should be looking out for.

Yeah, so mentioned a lot during this game. So we went to the half, we're up 1-0.

79th, uh, Calvert to, uh, I believe it's Lewin. The goal scorer was Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Oh, Calvert-Lewin. Yeah, hyphen name. Yeah, so that was a draw, 1-1 Leeds, and that's how we end up.

But I guess for this particular team, not, not a bad showing. And I don't have any background on Leeds. Possibly you can give me some. Yeah, well, they were promoted last season and survived the drop, obviously, which is why they're here. Uh, Daniel Farke is their, uh, manager, uh, German.

They play, you know, they, they don't care too much about having a ton of the ball. They, they're They're always more of a, more of a counterattacking side. And that was kind of reflected in the stats, 47% share of the possession despite being the home team. But like I said, this was a really kind of even-keeled match. 1.46 expected goals for Leeds to Brentford's 1.67.

So, you know, 1-1 is probably the fair scoreline here.

Um, it, it feels a bit to me, and I'm obviously— we're 2 matches in, right?

This Brentford team kind of has a little bit of spice to it. I mean, what do you mean by spice? Um, I don't know. I I felt like they played well, but I'm sure that you could watch any one of these fixtures and have a team play well. So I'm still trying to get my footing on what's a, what's a good squad or what, how a squad will play.

Um, and I guess as I get a little deeper into this now that I have a second team to watch, I'm gonna have to pay a little bit more attention to that, but Um, I don't know, I felt like they played well. We'll take the draw, I guess. Yeah, I think it was, like I said, a fair result. Um, pundits very high on Brentford, especially after they smashed Tottenham, who— Tottenham are really, really, really bad. Uh, do you find that because of management, or— I don't know, it's Tottenham.

I don't even know anymore. They're starting to become like a Browns situation where they're just bad and you don't even really know why they are bad. Um, 2-0 loss to Newcastle over the weekend. Um, I don't know, I can't really figure it out. Their squad on paper is good.

It is a good Premier League team that should have no issue fighting for like European spots. But, you know, they've lost both of their matches so far, um, have scored 0 goals in the league and are rooted to the bottom of the table. Granted, after, or after 2 matches, um, I don't know. I don't get it with Tottenham. Uh, you know, statistically they did okay against Newcastle.

You could I suppose make an argument they were unlucky to lose against Newcastle, but the fact is the score reflects a loss. So just a very odd team, a team that has spent a lot of money, has brought in a lot of new faces, and probably for better or for worse will be good entertainment this season.

Yeah, so I don't know if you want to— what you want to go to next. If you want to talk about the, um, table first for the league, or if you want to go into the match. You can go into that. Are you talking England here or what? No, I thought— are we, we done with that, or— sure.

Yeah, no, we don't have to be. Yeah, we're done. Uh, basically the next match for this podcast is going to be Chelsea versus Arsenal, which perhaps will have an early sort of reflection on if anyone can actually challenge Arsenal for a title. Arsenal cruised to a 1-0 victory against Aston Villa on Monday and still look to be very easily the best team. In the league.

So Sunday, September 6th, uh, at 11:30 AM Eastern, which means we'll have to record it because of family obligations. So yeah, at this point, let's move on to Scotland, and we have a little bit more of a mature table to look at now. So if you want to roll through that You certainly can. Well, we have, uh, matches played are mostly 4. I guess there's a few that have played— Dundee looks like they played 5, but Celtic on the top of the table with 4 wins.

Um, St. Mirren right behind, 3 wins, 1 draw. Motherwell, Dundee, Rangers round out your top 5. Hearts, uh, Hibernian 6th and 7th. And then I guess we're gonna go straight down to 10th, uh, St. Johnstone, Dundee United, and Aberdeen. Yeah, the bottom is, uh, Falkirk and Kilmarnock.

Kilmarnock have 0 points. Um, Hearts and Hibs play tomorrow as we record, uh, so That'll be an interesting match. We'll definitely tune into that. So I'll, I'll take— okay, I guess I'll take the crap for choosing Kilmarnock as my second team in this league. It is early, we'll see what happens.

Um, I did not watch the match today. I did see, um, the Fotmob updates come in. Um, what say you about this Kilmarnock team? It might be, um, they just can't defend. They've conceded 14 goals, which is 4 more than the next closest team, Dundee United.

I see that. Um, yeah, I think it's simple. They just can't defend for shit. Um, and it's not even a schedule thing. It's not like they, they're playing, you know, they've played Celtic, I'll give them that, and they shipped 5 very easy goals.

But from day one, they've been horrible defensively. They shipped 4 goals against St. Johnstone, who, mind you, are the promoted team. 4 goals to Dundee United, who— Dundee United don't look impressive at all this year. Um, St. Mirren have been really, really good, which is something I want to touch on briefly. But yeah, today just a 1-0 loss, but 4th minute that goal came.

So they, you know, defense was breached within 5 minutes today. That's, that's your issue right there, you know.

Yeah, um, like I said, um, I'm trying to get some feet wet here with a second team. We'll see what happens, uh, but yeah, who knows. Who knows? All right, so the match that we want to discuss today came from Sunday, and it was sort of the, the box office, uh, match of the weekend, although certainly not the best match of the weekend. I'll get into that later.

But, uh, a sort of struggling but maybe has played a lot of the better teams in the league Aberdeen against a Rangers team that just kind of aren't very good, if we're being honest. They've now made it 2 wins in a row, which has seen them to the lofty heights of 5th. But yeah, Rangers aren't very good. I think it reflected in this match against Aberdeen. Um, Lawrence Shankland getting the penalty in the 69th minute, that was your only goal in this one.

Um, I think it was a penalty. I didn't have a huge issue with that. But what did you make of this one overall? It kind of felt like, um, Aberdeen— there was a bit of an onslaught in the first half where Rangers were really shooting. Um, they defended that.

I know it was only a one— it was one play And it was— it involved Kim where there was multiple shots on goal and they were able to defend it. After that, um, like you said, the, the penalty came in in the 67th or, or so minute. Um, yeah, I, I don't know. I, I didn't see anything fantastic really from either squad on this match particularly. It doesn't feel like Aberdeen have much to them, um, and, and we have more knowledge now that Celtic made super, super easy work of them today.

3-0 at halftime and that was pretty much it. Yeah. Um, what do you— you have a comment here? Well, there was one Obviously the equalizer got taken away. Yeah.

So that was the big— that was sort of the hullabaloo.

I think it was deemed— was it— there was a foul in the buildup or something? Yeah, there was contact. Yeah. I don't know. It's— Nisbet apparently had a push.

It was several minutes. It was several seconds before that. That came 82nd minute. Yeah, um, there was a foul in the buildup, um, but yeah, I mean, what do you think of Rangers? I mean, is— are they seriously caused— do you think they're gonna cause any threat in the title race here?

Or— I'm a super— I'm superstitious, so I don't— possibly, but the way they look right now, no. But we're so early. I mean, we're 4 matches in. Yeah, we could see any one of these top 5 or 6 teams we saw it. Yeah, I mean, I'll give you that, but we've seen enough of Rangers and Celtic now.

Like, Celtic look way better than Rangers. Well, there's no question. Yeah, there's no question. But I can't, I can't tell you that they're not going to make a late run or possibly, you know, yeah, between us and them. It seems to be diminishing returns with Rangers.

I mean, we saw Hibs make a run at some point, you know, in the years past, if I, if I remember. I mean, I don't know, I I'm not saying Celtic have a league title wrapped up September 2nd. That would be silly. But this doesn't seem to be a campaign where I don't think we're gonna get Hearts running, taking it to the final day. Um, Rangers just aren't there.

And you know what, we play them twice in September, and if they beat us, then I'll eat crow. I'll gladly do it. But I don't see Rangers being really any threat at all to Celtic. Um, I think there's a reality where Celtic kind of thrash Rangers each time they play, just being honest from what I have seen so far. Like I was saying, it's diminishing returns with Rangers each season, so they've kind of been in this cycle where they bring in a manager each year and it kind of starts out— it either starts out rough or it's like fine, he's good at the beginning and then it falls off.

But we're seeing it. I mean, since this show started, the first season Celtic were amazing, um, and Rangers weren't really a huge threat. But then the next 2 years Rangers were competitive and ran it decently close. But the past 2 seasons, they've been nowhere near it. And honestly, I think this Rangers team right now might even be worse than the team that finished 3rd last year.

Well, there's no question about that. Um, but I was just looking at my updates from earlier today, and obviously this was yesterday, I believe. We said goodbye to, uh, Hatate. Yeah, yeah. Celtic have made 6 signings today in like the past 24 hours.

Yeah, it was just— there's a, a ton of stuff coming here. Yeah, so it's the transfer deadline day technically tomorrow, um, for Celtic. Well, the whole league. Um, so tons and tons of signings have been flying in. Uh, but that has given me more confidence to say that I think Celtic are clearly better than this Rangers team.

Uh, new signings are— have made a big impact already, most specifically Camilo Durán, uh, striker who now has 6 goals and 2 assists in all competitions this season. He scored 1 tonight, uh, and he scored Um, during the weekend as well. And they've brought in a lot of help now. Like, I think there's a reality where the squad is, is better off than it was, you know, at the beginning of the season for Celtic, even though they waited too late again and pissed away the Champions League. But that's a whole nother issue.

Um, but yeah, I mean, I, I don't, I don't know.

I'm just, I'm just looking at the highlights from today. Um, and then obviously with this, the folks that they brought in today, um, I, I don't know much about the, those players that they— no one does. No one knows anything. So we'll see. I mean, So here we are with, with matches played and where we have no draws, no losses.

I guess my question to you is, how do you— as early as it is in the campaign, is this league always going to be tilted towards a certain team? Yes. Okay, that— it seems that way. Look, it— well, I'll just tell it to you straight. When I started the show, I wasn't ever gonna talk Scottish football.

You, you expressed interest in it and gravitated towards it, so we kind of naturally just started talking more about it. But yeah, no, look, that, that's the way it's been since the '80s. And right now we're in an era where it's mostly one team, Celtic, that, that dominates, um, for a million reasons. That's a podcast episode in itself. I would prefer that other teams were better than they are, and that includes Rangers.

I like beating Rangers. I think they're a stupid club, but the league is more interesting when they are good. The fact that they are shit doesn't really make it easier to come on here and talk every week about Scottish football. Now, I'm also a guy that, yes, my team dominates in, in their domestic league, um, but to me Scottish football is so much more than just what are Celtic doing. Yeah.

And I like the storylines outside of what Celtic are doing, outside of even the top division. So that's why I come on here and I like to talk about it because I think it's worth talking about. And Scotland is not alone in having a team dominate. No. Germany, Bayern Munich has won 12 of the last 13 titles.

PSG runs France. 2 teams run Spain. The Premier League is honestly more kind of on its own with having, I'll give you 4 teams maybe that could win it in any given year, maybe generously, but that's kind of the nature of the beast with European soccer. Well, and that's understood and we've seen that. Very closely last year, but I think we shouldn't be remiss in the fact that when you follow a team like Celtic, you also get all of the benefits, the folks that you meet.

Yeah. The people that you hang out with. Yeah. And that's the thing, like, I I suppose it's easy to say because all we know is, is winning championships in, in Scotland. Um, but to me it's so much more than winning, uh, games.

Uh, it is— I, I'm attracted to the, the, the ethos of the club, the, the history of the club, why, what they represent. What the people represent. Um, and yeah, I don't— it's not always about winning. Now, we, we saw probably the most unbelievable Scottish season occur last year, which Celtic of course still came out on top. But to me, that showed that there is a light at the end of the tunnel for these Scottish teams.

And we know that Celtic while they came out on top by some miracle, really. But, um, Celtic is not this unslayable beast, you know what I mean? Celtic have dominated in Scotland the past 15 years. Again, this needs its own podcast episode, but Rangers have been so horribly mismanaged since 2012 when their club literally folded and had to restart in the 3rd division. And you are still feeling the effects of that.

Since then, Rangers have won the title one time in 2021, but they are just a basket case. And Scotland has gone through eras where Rangers is the team that no one can seem to figure out how to beat. Um, and right now we're just in an era where Celtic are that team. So like everything, it, it comes and goes. Yeah.

Um, so yeah, well, this— so learning about this league, it's this— I understand cyclical things that happen. It seems a bit slower Cyclically. It's a hard word.

Like in the NFL, you're not going to have— well, you're going to have some 6-time champions, but not in a row. Well, because I've said this on the show before, we have made socialism— and bear with me here— we've made words like socialism into some horrific, evil buzzword here, but our sports leagues in America are the closest thing to socialism that we have because there's things like salary caps and luxury taxes and playoffs. These are all artificial things put in place specifically so that one, it makes it harder, much harder, for one team to dominate year in and year out. That is why even the great dynasties of American sports history, you're talking what, 3, maybe 4 championships in a row max? There is no such thing in European soccer.

Yeah. And Scotland is a landscape where you have 2 teams with just way, way, way, way more money than everyone else, more fans, more everything. So they can spend more money on better players, and it's just a process that sort of— it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, really. So, but like I said, Scotland is in a place where you have a team like Celtic who dominate in Scotland. I think you and I both know that Celtic isn't really that well-run of a club.

They have benefited from a league that is, is, is easy for them to dominate. But we saw last year, if they have a bad season and you couple that with another team having a really good season, they can be got at. Um, and usually it's Rangers historically that, um, are that challenger. Last year it happened to be Hearts, who— Hearts still have that project going on with new ownership that invests money. When that ownership of Tony Bloom, who also owns Brighton in the Premier League.

He had, I think, like a 5 or 10-year plan to get Hearts challenging for titles in Scotland. That was year 2. Year 2, he got it within 1 point. Now, I'm not saying Hearts have had to rebuild that squad, basically. I don't think they'll take it that close this season.

But it really wouldn't be that hard to get a team in Scotland to challenge for a title. It just comes down to dollar signs.

All right, well, fair enough. And we, we shall see how this 26-27 season plays out. Um, Not super exciting to start off with. I think we have a few things. I mean, it's nice to see the teams that are up at the top at the top.

Uh, I'm a little concerned— not really concerned, I guess, um, because we've seen some kind of runs happen in this table. I may have picked, uh, and I'm not— I'm fine with it because I appreciate the team, but, um, I mean, to be 12th is a little bit rough. Yeah, I mean, it's September 2nd, so there's that. Um, I don't know, the bottom of the table is always crazy in Scotland, so it's interesting. I think it's probably good that your team is down there So you can follow the bottom of the table.

Like I said, there is a whole league outside of Celtic. So yeah, sure, from a neutral perspective, is it boring that Celtic win it more often than not? Probably. But there's also 11 other teams fighting and jockeying for position, fighting to stay in the league. Um, and I think Kilmarnock will give you that perspective of what it's like to go through a relegation battle.

Yeah, um, which is what many fan bases around the world are subjected to. We happen to be lucky enough probably to never experience that. So, um, another thing, here's what I'll say to just put a pin on, on this subject. Celtic have had a very, very easy start to the season in terms of the teams they have played in the league. Dundee, which they scraped by.

Kilmarnock, who seemingly are terrible. I don't think that's a stretch to say Dundee United are not good. Um, and then Falkirk, not good. Aberdeen, not good. First real test Saturday away to St. Mirren.

St. Mirren has started off the season very well. That will be a big test. Yeah, and has been in the past. Yeah, I, I remember last year it took a last-gasp winner to to win there. And we lost in the League Cup against St. Mirren last year, lest we forget.

So yeah, I mean, any given match Celtic can lose, you know. This isn't like a don't tune in because you'll know exactly what happens situation. Um, so I will say that. Yeah.

All right, we're gonna get right into the Premiership, the Scottish Premiership, Premier League. We're gonna finish out IndyCar with one last race. We have a few races to go with F1. We'll see how that season unfolds.

Um, yeah, I think we're up against it here quickly. I— because I didn't discuss Motherwell Sure. Uh, 3-3 draw against St. Mirren over the weekend. That was easily the match of the, of the weekend. Not on TV, sadly.

Um, St. Mirren were down 2-0 and then went up 3-2 all the way in the first half. So 5 goals in the first half.

Jesus, sorry. And then can I— I gotta stop eating before these. Um, and then 94th minute Motherwell equalizer to split the spoils. St. Mirren are one 94th minute Motherwell equalizer away from being tied with Celtic, uh, at the top of the table. So that is why I, I caution anyone, uh, saying that, you know, this is a a done deal because I think Rangers will find some form here eventually.

And St. Mirren have been sneakily very good to start the season. I think we talked about them quite a bit last year, if I remember correctly. Well, like I said, we had to with the League Cup final because they beat us in that. Yeah, so that was the trophy Celtic actually lost. So not impossible, folks.

People do beat Celtic sometimes.

Um, yeah, so look out for that match. That is Saturday. That is a 3 PM Eastern start time. So, uh, perhaps, uh, something you could watch live, not, uh, have to wake up at the ass crack of dawn. Uh, Motherwell of course played today.

The whole league played today and, uh, they easily dispatched Dundee United 3-0, and their next match is against Rangers.

That will be— I mean, if, if you're following what we are following, that'll, that'll be a great match to watch. Yeah, I think so. Really interesting next few days for the Scottish Premiership. We have the Edinburgh Derby tomorrow, Hearts versus Hibs. Both of those teams look very solid to start the year.

Um, I think if Hearts are really gonna be like a challenger this year, they have to beat Hibs tomorrow, um, and lay down a marker of, hey, we are still a very good team. Um, and then yeah, Celtic at St. Mirren I think should be interesting, and Motherwell traveling to Rangers. So the Celtic-St. Mirren match is when? Saturday, 3 PM. Okay.

Yep. Um, yeah, I think we are officially through our agenda for this episode. I will be in the throes of the largest Mustang show in Northeast Ohio on Saturday, but I will be obviously tracking on my phone. Well, you'll have the, of course, great ability to watch it via post. Yes.

Delayed recording. Okay. Yes. All right, that's it. You ready to get going?

I am.

For executive producer Richard Tanaka. This has been Tackling the Chicane, copyright 2026, Studio 2520.

Tackling the Chicane is recorded using Rode microphones and a Rode Procaster 2 console. They don't pay us yet, but maybe, as you all know, someday.

It might.