Las Vegas Grand Prix 2025 Recap: McLaren DQ Flips Title Race

Podcasting from Studio 2520, somewhere near Akron, Ohio.

Bringing you all the latest talk in motorsport and soccer, this is Tackling the Chicane.

I'm growing fond of our, uh, our music here. It's a pretty good track for being free and generic. That's pretty good. It's funky. Yeah.

Is there a cat running around here? I don't know. I pressed the wrong button apparently. Uh, yeah. So budget, uh, constraints have allowed us to have a rather large, uh, 15-piece band here in the studio that we're using now.

So, uh, you won't hear any commercialized music anymore. It'll all be original, original pieces, original pieces by the gang. And there we go, studio audience.

Okay. So, all right. We've got some F1 to talk about, potentially season-changing F1 news to talk about. And then we're, I'm assuming we're going to talk Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. Yeah, we are going to talk some Premier League in the second half as per usual.

Arsenal are starting to look like they are legit. Meanwhile, in Liverpool, things are, things are going very poorly. I think panic stations have been assumed on the red side of Liverpool. They've lost 9 of their last 12 matches in all competitions, and I believe sit in 11th place currently in the Premier League. Arsenal have opened up a 6-point gap on Chelsea, of all teams, in, uh, second place.

So, uh, I would say right now it's kind of Arsenal's title to lose, but we'll discuss in more detail in the second half of the show. You, uh, hinted at it earlier. I would say the, the actual Grand Prix for Las Vegas was, dare I say, forgettable. Um, not, not offering what the last 2 editions did. No, I would agree.

And that may be what just what happens when you bring a circuit onto the campaign. You're gonna have some oh shit moments the first year. Obviously we had that with the Manhole covers and everything makes it interesting. Second year, we had a very competitive race, very compelling race to watch. And this year we just had a typical F1 race.

Um, it wasn't horrible, but there just wasn't a whole lot going on, you know? No, by no means, uh, unwatchable. Max Verstappen did run away with it. Um, Which at that point you're thinking, you know, impressive drive but doesn't really alter the situation all that much. Um, Lando Norris kind of went balls to the wall to— for the win on the first turn essentially, which did not work at all.

Um, and he lost a bunch of places. Yeah, he was pretty, pretty lucky to be able to continue Yeah, on. Although, spoiler, uh, you know, hours later we would find out that both of the McLaren cars were disqualified for ride height, um, issues. And that came millimeters— that came lit like hours after the race. Well, about 3 or 4 hours after it finished.

I always wonder what the protocol is for tearing the cars down. Is that a result of another team going, hey, you guys need to look at the McLaren car because we saw something, you know, that maybe you didn't? Or is it a case of they just randomly pick a car and say, all right, we're— well, every, every car gets a post-race inspection, um, much like in basically— so they're every other— they're doing the parameters of that plank is really important. So that's probably something they check every time. Every car.

Yeah, it's, it's something that is, uh, you would think would be kind of difficult to mess up, which means that McLaren were trying to get an advantage, i.e., cheating is what I would call it. Um, but yeah, I mean, every, every car is inspected after every race. Yeah, you're talking about millimeters too, so Think of it this way. You've got that, whatever the prescribed distance is that that plank can be off of the pavement. Now think about suspension settings, fuel load, car weight, tire pressure, all that.

All of those things will change that dimension. And it's, think of the calculations that these guys have to do to make sure that they're within the tolerance of millimeters. So for me, I'm in the camp that Formula 1 teams in 2025 just don't make those kind of mistakes on accident. No, I, um, so I don't disagree. I think you're trying to get every advantage that you can.

Yeah. And so everybody knows that there's whatever the adage is in racing is, is you cheat and you can't win it. Right, exactly. Which they didn't win anyways. So I— what shift— what that 2 disqualifications meant is that there was a pretty large shift in sort of the, at least the narrative of the last 2 races, mathematically speaking.

Totally. It totally fucked everybody. I mean, in a weird way, I don't want to say That's not the right term, but now you've got both Mercedes on the podium. Kimi Antonelli scores P3. Thank God for Haas.

They now they're both in the points where they would have finished right outside of the points. So now they've raised themselves up to 7th place in the constructors. And listen, for a team like Haas, that's 6 would be golden, but we'll take 7.

Right? Until next year when everything gets flipped on its ear. But I mean, if you just look at the finishing order after the disqualification, Verstappen, Russell, Antonelli, Leclerc 4th. Williams continues to have this just presence. I mean, they're not going to kill anybody, but consider what Williams was like just a year or 2 ago.

They were terrible. Now they've got, you know, they've got points. They've got guys showing up in the top 5. Um, uh, Hulkenberg finishes 7th. Um, and like I said, then, you know, the 2 Haas cars get in the points.

And if this disqualification hadn't happened, they would be outside looking in, you know? So yeah. Uh, I was, Coming at it more just from the actual championship battle here, which it was a, a huge swing. Um, it completely shifts. There's 58 points available left.

Max Verstappen went from having basically no chance of winning a title to being kind of right in it. He's only 24 points back, tied with Oscar Piastri now for 2nd. Um, so in terms like throw out what the hell happened in the top 10 of this race. I mean, that's great, but it had a huge impact on the actual championship battle right now.

I look at this a couple of different ways.

Yes, I would like a McLaren car or a McLaren driver to win the championship. But at the same time, you have to give a lot of credit to this Red Bull team who just never, they just never quit. They never quit. They still have the best driver on the grid, I think. So when you have that, you know, here we are.

6 campaigns ago, we were laughing about how McLaren was going to rock this thing all the way to the end. And then now we've got Max just lurking, looming in the background, just right there, like you said, tied with Piastri. Now Piastri has to worry about, not am I going to win the championship, but am I going to get beat? Yeah. Interestingly enough, as we record, he's on pole for the sprint tomorrow, Piastri.

So like I, my point is that The fact that the 2 McLarens got disqualified just completely changed what these next 2 weekends are gonna look like. Now, if Lando Norris cruises to a victory on Sunday, that's probably— well, that almost certainly would be it. But I haven't seen anything for this weekend yet, so I don't know who looks racy, and it's kind of probably hard to tell. Sprint qualifying is A little bit of a, of a look into how the cars are performing. Um, you, do you have it up?

Who's— so what, what's the order for the sprint race? Uh, I'm about to pull it up, but I, like I said, Piastri is on pole, followed by George Russell, Lando Norris, uh, Fernando Alonso, Yuki Tsunoda in 5th, and then Max Verstappen. So not a great session for him. Yeah, Kimi Antonelli, Carlos Sainz rounding out the top 8. So only 8 score in sprint.

So, uh, whether or not you want to look a lot into that result or not, I, I'd still say that's pretty damn important considering the fact that Verstappen's not going to come back from 6th to win a sprint. So, uh, advantage, I guess, Piastri in that respect. He could get a couple points back on Lando Norris if he wins that sprint. So like I said, 58 points available. Um, if you max— if he maxes it, maximalizes his performance, Piastri, that is, in cutter could be very interesting the final week.

Yeah. Well, if nothing, this, this campaign has been one of the better ones to watch. And we're talking about, you know, what could happen in the final 2 GPs of the year, which is a good thing because as a race fan, nobody wants somebody to be 150 points ahead of the next guy. Uh, which we, at one point in the season, we were there. We were, we were there thinking that this, that Piastri was going to just handle this.

Yeah. Um, yeah, it did feel kind of like a— speaks to the, the fickleness of racing and how tough it really is to have the same result week after week.

So where are we on, on on Las Vegas?

Uh, I'm a little biased. I've always liked it as a venue.

Um, it's hard to say. We've had 3 GPs there. We've had 2 that were pretty compelling. We've had one that was just a blah race, but we, you could have that anywhere in the world. Yeah.

Um, they're committed. Obviously we talked about this before. They have a contract for A long time. A long time. So we're not going away from it.

Um, I still think in the US we have a, a way of making ourselves look ridiculous. I mean, when you go to other GPs across the globe there, why does there always have to be like a, uh, like a, what do you call it? Like a, a hitch? Or like, why do we have to have a Lego fucking car? A gimmick, right?

There is always a gimmick involved with— I mean, even Miami and Texas are the same way. Yeah. Um, that's, that's pretty much only a thing if you watch every race. Um, you really only see the gimmicky shit in the American races. It's like, okay guys, enough.

I think that's just our, our culture. Uh, everything is Um, turned up to 11 here. Our sports, whether you like them or not, are kind of inherently a show. They're filled chock-full— our professional sports are chock-full of gimmicks. So I mean, yeah, it's kind of just the culture.

It's always been that way since the Super Bowl. Yeah, now we're at the 60th, I believe, this year.

And we, we've cyclically, cyclically gone through this. Oh, it's all about the commercials and it's about this and it's about that. And I think that train has left the station, people. I don't believe that that's a thing anymore, but who knows? I digress.

But I just thought the— it was typical Vegas, you know. And yeah, maybe people around the world, they Maybe they enjoy the fact that it's weird here. I don't know. I— a pink Lego Cadillac. Look, it was ridiculous.

Yeah, I, I don't know. I think that opens us up to, uh, being made fun of, especially on the online forums. Um, deserved or not, probably a little bit deserved. Uh, the pink Lego thing, maybe a little Of course, last year they rode in a limo, so that was pretty stupid as well. Well, I— this whole thing of taking them to the fountains to be interviewed.

Okay. Yeah. And then can't we just do what we do everywhere else? I guess not.

Um, but yeah, I don't know. And I don't even know who the hell was the guy that was driving. Terry Crews. Yeah, don't know who that is. I feel like you would know Terry Crews.

He's been in 5 bajillion movies. I, maybe I know, but didn't recognize him. I don't know. It was also 2 AM. So I guess I'll give you a pass.

Yeah. Yeah. We should say that this is one of the rare occasions where we were actually able to watch the race live. And apparently the commentary, it was also. Uh, our little 5-person chat.

Well, Brett, yeah, probably watches most of them live, but yeah, yeah. Uh, and it was only— well, I say only as a relative youngster, but, uh, 11 PM was actually fairly reasonable. You— it, it was 1 AM, uh, the first 2 years, and I still watched it live, but Um, that made it a little more feasible. Of course, the race was not really that interesting. Um, I still don't actually believe in my heart of hearts that Max Verstappen is gonna win a championship this year.

Probably still go with Lando Norris. Um, see how this weekend goes. And the sprint, it doesn't really pay enough points to make huge difference unless someone DNFs, which is possible. But I am not, uh, despite all the off-track drama, I'm not at all prepared to say Max is gonna win a championship like maybe some people are saying. No, I think what it is more importantly is, is who's gonna end up second.

Yeah. And is Piastri gonna be, you know, Cinderella story, or is he gonna end up in 3rd place. And that would hurt him, I think, more than anything.

Yeah, it's hard to say. I don't really know if Piastri really believes he's in the championship fight anymore. Who knows? I mean, obviously I don't, don't, can't look into his psyche, but I think that, you know, he hadn't even been on a podium since the beginning of September. Um, and still hasn't with the disqualifications and wasn't going to anyways in Vegas.

So, um, I— yeah, like I said, I still think it's Lando's to lose, and it would take a pretty big F-up at this point for him to do that. Well, we will watch, uh, this weekend and see how the sprint race plays out tomorrow. Is it, or is it tonight? Sprint is tomorrow. Tomorrow.

Qualifying tomorrow as well. Um, and then, you know, we've just got a few more races before we really need to dig in this offseason with what this 2026 car is and what it looks like. I've got a few things queued up, uh, internet-wise to to kind of take a deep dive into this new, basically it's new from the ground up. It's not going to look, I mean, it's the body does not look insanely different. The front nose is smaller.

I think dimensions are more in line with what a good, I always thought the F2 car was a way better looking car than the F1 car. I like that, the smaller wheelbase, it's more compact. Yeah, those are like significantly smaller, uh, which I kind of wish F1 would go back to. This thing's still a behemoth even though they've— the, the, the sizing down is— we're talking like 100 millimeters here. I think it's 100 millimeters shorter, uh, lengthwise and like 200 width or flip them, but either way, that's not like a ton of difference.

Yeah. Um, I don't know when or why F1 decided the car had bigger was better, but here we are. Yeah. Who knows how that, how that evolves from year to year to year. I wish I could remember.

I, and I could look it up. I mean, we've got this all, their website is phenomenal. You could see anything you want from '54 all the way up to right now where we're at. Yeah. Um, the one live practice that I watched in Indianapolis, and I think it was 2001, those were, those No, 12s.

No, they were 8-cylinder cars, I think. I don't know. That would have been V10s, I think. 10s. Yeah, they were loud as fuck.

Yeah, 8,000 RPM. But that car looked good. Yeah. Um, from what I can remember. But yeah, I mean, who knows?

I'm— the goal obviously is still to make one of these races at some point. We have to see one live. When that's going to happen, I'm not 100% sure, but that's kind of the goal for the future. They say Texas is the best, most affordable way to do it, but we'll see.

Yeah, I'm not buying that with our Florida connection. Well, Grandpa Gary. Yeah, I mean, that's just a case of, you know, can you, can you get to and from though, or is it just going to be a shit show because of the number of people and traffic and all that stuff? I don't know. I, I really don't know.

I know Miami is not a huge attendance draw for F1. It's not one of the bigger actual events for them just because of the constraints of the actual course. But I don't know, I guess we'll work that out. Yeah, we'll see. I, I'm Personally a little bit more, uh, on the train of doing, uh, the Indy 500 Detroit doubleheader in 2026, but that's just me.

Yeah, we'll talk to Jimmy. He did it for years with his dad, and that was when there were— there's not 2 races, is there, anymore? No. So there, there was— when they was on Belle Isle, it was 2. It was a 2-race weekend.

Yeah. It would actually be honestly not really that hard because you would just stay downtown where the race is. So that's what I would rather spend dollars on with all due respect to F1.

Yeah. Well, that would be a, I would be off for 10 or 12 days to do that, which is not insurmountable, but yeah, that would be fun. Anyways, uh, speaking of IndyCar, there's a fella with a pretty popular last name that, uh, was inked his deal with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing over, uh, well, since the last time we recorded. Yeah, so Mick Schumacher. And I don't know which car he's taking.

Devlin DiFrancesco's. Okay, big deal. The shitter. Yeah. But we'll see.

I mean, this guy has a history and a reputation of wrecking a lot of shit in F1. Yes. On a dogshit team. Yeah. Yeah.

So I mean, I'm excited. I think it's great. The name itself is going to bring a lot of attention to, you know, Red Bull. There will be eyeballs. Yes.

There will be a lot more eyeballs on IndyCar next year just because. When a guy with the last name Schumacher is right in the series full-time. He's not just running the 500, he's running the full schedule. Full schedule with a somewhat competitive team depending on if they're on ovals or not. Hopefully they figure out the fucking oval program for next year.

That would be something if Mr. Schumacher were to be bumped from the 500. Yeah, which is not out of the question with Rahal. No, they've come close a few years in a row where things, weird things have happened.

You know, that will forever be my home team, obviously, with Bobby Ray Hall in the '80s who won the .500 in, I believe it was '86. Could have been maybe a year plus or minus that.

To see a name like this come into the team and it's going to draw, it's going to, it'll be good for them. And I would like to see, there's potential, I think, in this team. There should be anyhow. I mean, you've got 40-plus years of lineage here and money, you know, so. Why they don't crest or haven't been a whole lot better.

Apparently maybe Penske money is different than David Letterman money. I don't know. Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure it is. I mean, David Letterman has a lot of money, but I don't know if he has B money, so to speak, billions as Penske Entertainment does.

Sure. Yeah, they should be a lot better than they have been over the past few years. They do have Louis Foster, who is the Rookie of the Year in a halfway decent, uh, rookie class. So, uh, I think he can be something. Graham is Graham.

And then, uh, Schumacher obviously is gonna have a decent amount of potential. He made F1 on his own merit. Um, he was good in F2 and Uh, showed the occasional flash of brilliance in F1, did wreck a lot of cars. Uh, that— the era of Haas when he was there, Haas just as a team were very bad. Uh, 2021 they were terrible.

I don't think they scored a point. And 2022 they were also not very good. Yeah. Um, so I'm not gonna penalize him much for his time in F1. Obviously the kid is incredibly talented.

And anytime a guy with the last name Schumacher is in IndyCar, I think that can only be a good thing. Yeah. It'll be interesting to see how many German flags appear at Indy next year. I would imagine we'll see at least a few. Yeah.

Well, that's good. It's good for the sport. So.

I guess we'll briefly run through the Qatar here. Uh, boy, this is a weird looking track if you look at it from the planogram view of it. Um, 2021 was the first race here, which I didn't realize it was that new. Uh, fastest lap, Lando Norris last year, um, 1. Or 1 minute 22 seconds and change.

57 laps. There's a huge straight here. There's a couple of places that could possibly create some passing opportunities, but, uh, pretty technical, uh, in the back section of the track. So we'll see what happens this weekend in Qatar. And as we look out the window of the studio, I'll be happy to see the sun on TV because right now it's sort of snowing.

Yeah, not too bad. Uh, we're not in wake effect zone. Uh, we're talking feet up there, so I think we can take our dusting and be fine. Yep, will do. All right, well, let's shift gears here into the world of soccer.

We already hinted at kind of the, the main topic of today's discussion. Uh, lots has kind of gone on since then. First off, Liverpool are in a complete tailspin, as I mentioned earlier. 9 losses in their past 12 matches in all competitions. They actually got battered at home, uh, in the Champions League midweek to PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands, uh, and before that lost 3-0 to Nottingham Forest.

And calls for Arne Slot's head have already been made, uh, despite the fact that he, if you will remember, won the Premier League with Liverpool last year. So Uh, I'm not— I'm, you know, I'm not a Liverpool fan, but I, I would say to axe him during a, a rough spell would be probably a little bit premature. I don't know how much longer a club like Liverpool will tolerate this type of form if it continues, but it really has opened up a window of opportunity for Arsenal. Who look, uh, to be quite a behemoth at this point in the season. Uh, we watched their Champions League performance against Bayern Munich where they won in pretty comfortable fashion, 3-1 at home.

Um, but North London derby against Tottenham on Sunday where obviously Emotions run high and weird things can happen in, in derby matches like that. And really, they kind of just cruised through it. Yeah. Well, I mean, eventually, um, I thought it was interesting that only, uh, Erling Haaland had scored against this team in the last 8 matches. He was the only guy that could get one in on them, which speaks to just how dominating this team is.

They look incredible. I mean, Eze, the guy has a touch like no other that I've seen.

And they, this was short notes. I have 6 here. So that tells you how quickly this thing sort of went. I wouldn't say spiraled because we did have, we did have one goal in the second half, which was amazing. I mean, that, that goal for Spurs, they caught the keeper way out of the box and the guy just touched it, gave it the sweetest little bend.

And there was nothing the guy could do. He was 60 yards away from where he should have been. I'm not sure how he got out of the box that far, but Uh, you know, sometimes we've seen a trend in recent years where keepers are a lot more aggressive in their positioning, and every once in a while you'll see them completely caught out. And that was Richarlison with the goal. Of course, at that point, for me, that was kind of just, uh, what's the word, uh, consolation prize, because they were down 3-0 at that point.

55th minute. So I guess a lot of time to actually turn it around at that point, but obviously that didn't really happen. But, uh, sort of a cagey first 30 or so minutes of this one, as you would expect in a big derby match. Usually the way it goes is you set up your team not to lose and then see what happens from there. I just think right now, despite Tottenham's relative resurgence with Thomas Frank now that, you know, Ange, uh, was, uh, given the, the pink slip.

Um, I still think they're just kind of a level below where Arsenal are at. Mikel Arteta, the manager for Arsenal, has been around for 6 or 7 years, no pun intended, for Arsenal. So, um, that system has really matured now, and I think it's culminating with the fact that they They just look like a very sound team fundamentally. And you can see that defensively, especially. They don't really concede a lot of goals.

So if we look at this top 4, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, Aston Villa, well, top 5, I guess, Crystal Palace. Is anybody going to be able to make a run? On Arsenal, or is this just going to play out where they're going to continue to dominate for the rest of the campaign? So 2 years ago and the year before that, so 2022-23 and then '23-'24, uh, Arsenal led the championship for a majority of those campaigns.

Um, similar to a Piastri situation and did not come out on top either of those. If you'll remember, Man City won both those times. Then last year, Arsenal— Liverpool were fantastic, Arsenal were just not very, not great. So, uh, I would not say by any means this title race is done. Um, Pep's Man City still look to be vulnerable.

They still lose a lot of games, which I don't totally know what is going on over there and why that's happening. But Arsenal have a very good opportunity, window of opportunity, to actually win their first title in over 20 years. Um, mostly I think because Liverpool have just completely shattered for about the past month and a half. Um, now Arsenal are, are doing what they need to do. They're beating opponents, they don't concede a lot of goals, which is the big thing.

Um, winning in professional style. But it also helps when I say probably their biggest rival is just completely lost the plot, so that helps.

Okay. Well, yeah. I mean, and I mean, you have, you have a little bit of a, of a, what do you call it? You have an interest here as a Man City fan. I have not really chosen a team in this particular league.

Sort of been historically wishy-washy if you listen across the podcast. So I probably need to make that a goal in the next few months here to try to get on board with one of these clubs. I don't know who it would be, to be honest with you.

I don't know. I've had a little bit of a relationship with Tottenham. So I don't know if that's the way to go only because of Apostolakoglou and his You know, I don't know. I, the respect that I have for him as a coach, the Celtic connection, the Celtic connection, obviously. So yeah, I will, let me work on that because I, I'm pretty sure I'm 80% sure that that would be the horse for me in this league, but not really 100%.

Uh, there. We'll see. Yeah. So I don't know. Maybe I don't need one.

I suppose you should have a team you root for. I mean, personally, I'm more of a neutral observer of the Premier League than anything. Um, how, so how did Man City, I mean, cause you have some Man City connection. I mean, that, that sort of tapered and fell off for me, uh, just as I matured. But, um, Man City were sort of the, the first team I, I followed and kind of fell in love with.

Got me into the game, um, in a, in an obsessive way. I had kind of casually watched soccer for a while and then really got into it about 7 years ago. Um, I— how that really came about was there was really no rhyme or reason. I think I just They were like the first team I played with on FIFA or something and just started watching their games. But I— not to, I don't know, wax poetic or whatever, stand on my soapbox, but I didn't like how they are owned by an oil consortium.

They're basically state-owned by the UAE. Um, who, you know, that, that section of the world, uh, does a lot of sort of, um, questionable things when it comes to sports. And they, you know, Saudi Arabia are the same way, Qatar's the same way. We talked about that a lot last World Cup, like the, the human rights, uh, record over there is not particularly great. And I, I wasn't— I just did not really feel, um, I don't know, it felt a little strange at some point when you know that the money is coming from kind of nefarious places, which helps you win games.

So yeah, um, I don't know. I mean, I— the thing with the Premier League is there's so much— there's ungodly amounts of money So it just kind of is the way it is with any team now. Um, I don't know, Arsenal are— Arsenal are owned by an American businessman. Um, so I don't know, to get off that topic a little bit, I, I really do think Arsenal are kind of in the driver's seat, uh, of this title. I mean, we saw it in this game.

You mentioned Eberechi Eze. Hat trick in this one, all of which were pretty impressive goals. And you, you could feel it, it was coming. So after the second goal, obviously there was mention of potential hat trick. Yeah.

And what— while I was watching, I'm like, oh, it's gonna happen. I just, I felt like it was just, yeah, he's gonna do it. And he ended up doing it. That's a rare That's a pretty rare thing, especially in a match of this caliber. Like, you're, you're playing literally your fiercest rivals, and, and it was late.

It was 76 minutes, so— and he actually almost scored again, if you remember. Yeah, yep, he bounced one off the, uh, I think it was either the left, left post or it was off the woodwork. Yeah, he could have easily scored again, but sort of his breakout moment with Arsenal. He'd had He had some, some good flashes early in the season, but he was, um, you know, he played for Crystal Palace the last 4 seasons, and all summer, as they kind of talked about a lot on the broadcast, all summer was being courted by Tottenham. That was kind of the— that seemed like that was going to be Tottenham's marquee signing, and they're going to splash a bunch of cash on him.

And then at the 11th hour, Arsenal comes in and does one better and signs him.

Well, I mean, obviously this guy has incredible skills. I mean, wouldn't— can you imagine what he could have done for Spurs had they made the signing? You know? Yeah. You do wonder what he how that would have changed the trajectory that Tottenham are on.

They've been resurgent this year. Remember last year, they were awful, but, um, they really have looked a lot better under Thomas Frank. Uh, still not quite there, but that's sort of a long-term project, I would say. And Arsenal were already a really good team, and then they added a guy like Eberechi Eze, and all of a sudden you're A damn good team undoing Bayern Munich over the week. This, I guess, what was it, Wednesday?

Now we're recording on a Friday. That was where I'm really starting to buy in because Bayern are a very, very good team and Arsenal kind of just dispatched them.

They did not look like the Munich team that I've seen in the past. Usually they are very, very tough. Yeah. And they just, Arsenal just handed it to them. So yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I think that's where you and I said this team's real. They're, this is a real deal team. Yeah. And we're going to be looking at them at the top of this table, possibly, you know, championship winner at some point.

Yeah. Like I said, I think that they look mature. They look like, you know, this isn't too big of a deal for them. I think that was part of the issue was you, you built a new and essentially an entire new team 3 or 4 years ago. And I, I just don't know if that, that team kind of had the mental fortitude to carry out a 38-match season and, and deal with all the pressures, the highs and lows.

I think this team's just a lot built for that type of, uh, ordeal now. Even within— they've had a lot of injuries this year and it doesn't seem to be affecting them. That's sort of the mark of a really good championship-caliber team in the Premier League. Yeah, so I, I would back— if I were betting, I would back them to do it, especially because Liverpool just looked completely incompetent. Man City on their best day will destroy any— anyone.

They will destroy any team in the world on their best day, but they also, the past 2 seasons now, will inexplicably lose to bad teams. They did it in, in the Champions League. They lost at home to Bayer Leverkusen, who are not what they were a couple seasons ago, and they've lost quite a few league matches that really they shouldn't be So I don't back them at all to win a title this year. Um, Chelsea are kind of interesting. I think, you know, say what you will about the Club World Cup, they looked damn impressive in that tournament and have clearly, um, stepped up their game in, in recent months.

So I wouldn't totally, uh, write them off, but Arsenal are in the driver's seat. Is, is the point here. Yeah. From now until, I guess, until they show otherwise. Okay.

Uh, do we need to speak to the other league at all? Uh, we did see a game up at PJ's, I think, since we— yeah, I, I'm actually kind of ready to make a pretty bold claim here. So Hearts lost at the weekend to Aberdeen. They've now failed to win 3 of their last 4 matches. I think we can write them off.

I do not think they are going to win the title. Okay, I would put a lot of hypothetical money on Celtic to win the title, um, especially we pretty much know that Wilfred Nancy— whoops— Wilfred Nancy from The Crew is going to take over next week. For Celtic. Martin O'Neill is going to manage his last game for Celtic Sunday against Hibs.

Um, we did have— not to back up, but we went to PJ's obviously to watch the match. It was a pretty bad match as far as just not a whole lot happening. Yeah, but we did have a final minute miracle goal. Conor McGregor. Yes.

That at least made it worthwhile.

Of course, anytime you go to PJ's, you're going to have authentic Irish eats. So hadn't had an Irish breakfast since we were there in May. And that was probably worth the trip on its own. But yes.

Uh, boy, I never— I didn't see that one coming. I thought we were gonna walk out of there with our heads kind of hung low and as a nil-nil tie and shitty performance. Yes, very shitty performance. Or I mean, hard to watch. Yeah, most of the time I knew it was going to be very difficult away to St. Marin on a blustery night.

Is never ideal. I did kind of get the feeling that if Celtic had an opportunity, that they would take it late in the game. Callum McGregor especially does that shit like it's his job. Like, I— he just can pull rabbits out of the hat from time to time, and he did it again. But you literally— you cannot for one second in domestic Scottish football drop your head, let your guard down against Celtic, because the second you do that, especially with Celtic not with Brendan Rodgers, uh, there's going to be a price to pay.

And frankly, St. Mirren gave McGregor entirely too much space to take on a shot, and they should have known, and I'm sure they did, they just didn't execute, but they should know that McGregor scores From outside the box all the time. Yeah. A final minute of that game, if I recall. It was pretty much the last kick of the ball. Yeah.

Unbelievable. I didn't even, no one, no one could believe it. I turned to Mike. Mike couldn't believe it. So, and he also, I think I confused him because I went for the shake with the, you know, open palm.

And yeah, he's more of a high five guy. Well, different eras. Yeah, but it was good, good, good times anyhow, um, at PJ's. And with your move to Parma, you will be even closer now to PJ's. Jealously, uh, like within, I don't know, it'd probably be 10 to 12 minutes for you to get over there from where you're going to be.

So. Much, much more, uh, football for you to watch with the gang over there. If you want to pack up and leave Studio 2520, I guess you could. If you want to relocate. Yeah, yeah, a lot more snow up there.

Yeah, you— yeah, that's true. You're going to be up, you're going to be in the thick of it potentially. So yeah, but, uh, that was kind of a heroic moment, but I, I'm serious. I, I will go on record and Uh, you know, we keep all the audio recordings here. If Celtic aren't lifting the trophy at— on— in May, I will play it.

You can make fun of me, I don't care. They're going to win the title. Hearts, the bubble has burst because I, I said if they run into trouble, there will come a point where Celtic are not playing this bad, and it's starting to happen. If Celtic win their game in hand, they'll be 1 point back. And I just, I, I don't think hearts are built for a 38-game season at this moment to win a title.

That's just, again, 40 years of history is backing up my claim. So I think hearts are, are going to be increasingly more competitive with this Tony Bloom guy coming in and investing. He, Tony Bloom, uh, owns stake in Brighton and has turned them into a very competitive, smartly run club, which is dangerous in Scotland because no club is run smartly in Scotland. They're all run by fuckheads, including Celtic. So if he— and he uses analytics— he bought a team in Belgium, Union Saint-Gilloise, who had not won a title in 90 years, and within 5 years got him to win a title.

So the, the gap— he's gonna have to invest a lot more money than what he's doing right now. The gap is huge between Celtic and Rangers and everyone else. However, give him enough time, and I do really genuinely believe that Hearts are going to be a serious problem Um, like I said, if, if anyone with any sort of ability and knowledge to run a football club comes into Scotland, they're going to be a problem because they are all run by idiots. Okay, well, fair enough. You heard it here first.

And we'll, uh, I guess— okay, so we've got the Qatar GP coming up here. Qatar This weekend, what will happen? The fate hangs in the balance with Piastri. Will Verstappen, you know, take second place or is this going to be an all-McLaren show for the end of this year? And then anything that we're going to be watching in the next few days on the pitch?

I accidentally closed out my, my app. Uh, your sort of box office match in the Premier League is Chelsea-Arsenal on Sunday. Uh, in Scotland, Hibs-Celtic is probably your best matchup, and one that will— I mean, Kilmarnock-Dundee United, that could be incredible. You never know with Scotland. Sometimes the, the matches that on paper look horrible, they'll— I'll pull up the score and I'll be like, 4-4.

Shit. But, um, Hibs are very tough. That, that's not going to be an easy one for Celtic away to Hibs. So the classic tackling the chicane adage of we shall see. Um, Chelsea-Arsenal, again, on paper should be good, but I don't know.

You never know with the Premier League which games are going to be good or not. Uh, just the small business of the game tomorrow, if you want to throw in a cheeky prediction. I feel like, yeah, so it's the one time a year where we'll talk other allegiances.

Yeah, Ohio State, uh, Michigan game tomorrow. Obviously, apparently I have plans, uh, for dinner during this Probably a good thing.

Listen, this Buckeyes team is really tough this year. And you never know what's going to happen when these guys take the field. If I had to make a prediction, I think it's going to be 17 to 14 Buckeyes.

All right. I mean, we have a, we have a really good defense, but I don't know these, they, and I say this with reservation because what I would love to happen is Michigan to play one of those miracle games, you know, but we've done that now 3 to 4 years in a row. There comes a point in this rivalry where the magic ends at some point. Last year, I don't know what voodoo devil magic incantations we were cooking up in the locker room before because I expected, much did everyone else in Vegas included, 23.5-point favorites Ohio State were last year. What's this?

You know, 9.5. Well, there was no scientifically explainable reason why Michigan won that game last year. Yeah. Davis Warren, the worst— we've had some bad ones— top, bottom 3 worst quarterback I've seen in my lifetime for Michigan, threw for 62 yards and an interception. 62.

Right. And we won the game. Yeah. Well, that— so that speaks to Anything could happen. I, I didn't believe— because you have to understand, from my perspective, you have had the privilege of being alive when the rivalry was in Michigan's favor.

Up until 4 years ago, that was never a thing, right? I had watched Michigan with my own eyes beat Ohio State one time until I was 18. Yeah, one time. Yeah. So I never truly believed that anything could happen in the rivalry.

I, I didn't because there was no evidence to suggest that. Now I'm kind of thinking, shit, I kind of think anything could happen tomorrow because— are we in Columbus? No, Ann Arbor. Okay, well, that helps a little. For Michigan to go into Columbus at 6 with a 6-5 record and be pretty terrible the whole year and then still not really play all that great and then beat Ohio State.

Yeah. Well, last year was just like, what the hell happened? Yeah. And now, so now it's like anything could happen. You got to play the game.

Yeah. Yeah. The game is not won in Vegas. So I don't know. True enough.

I do not know. Um, one thing I do know is I'll have a couple— Jesus Christ, fucking with the shit here. I have a couple pops already in my system. That really helps take the edge off of this game. Not, uh, endorsing alcohol consumption, but life has been easier watching this game after Uh, some Millers, right?

Agreed. I, uh, I guess I never made a prediction. I don't know, I've set myself up for a— apparently we, we're gonna be eating dinner out somewhere, so I don't know how that happened, but whatever. I'm sure it'll be on wherever you're at. Yeah, I don't know, can't eat dinner at noon.

Is the game at noon? It's always at noon. Okay. Well, then it'll be over by the time we go out. I thought, well, I don't, I have no idea what's happening tomorrow.

There's, we have plans with, with people. The matriarch of the show made it seem like you were going to be gone during the game. Okay. Well, I don't know how that is going to play out, but whatever. Anyways, I never actually made a prediction in that long-winded, uh, soliloquy, so I am going to go— I don't know, I have a weird confidence in this Michigan team this year, uh, which probably means they'll lose by 50, but I'm gonna go Michigan 21, Ohio State 20.

Okay. Nail-biter. Yeah. All right. Maybe I'm envisioning Ohio State missing a game-winning field goal.

Oh, I think that would be hilarious. Fair enough. But we'll see. Okay. All right.

Well, I, that's the end of this one, I think, right? We're an hour plus, probably 57 minutes. All right. So an hour is good. All right, ready to get going?

Take it away. All right.

For executive producer Richard Tanaka, this has been Studio 2520, copyright 2025. We'll see you next time.