My Day on Arsenal Vision

Yesterday, I made my debut —I'm choosing to call it that— on the Arsenal Vision Podcast. I was alongside Elliot, who I'd met previously on his two appearances on The Beautiful Pod, and Scott Willis, a frequent guest and modeler/data analyst. A Princeton grad, Elliot is a mile-a-minute talker. I don't think he's very tall but he looks very healthy. He has good hair and a memorable face. As a Yank covering soccer, he has a tendency to be self-effacing and "big himself down," while simultaneously dominating the conversation and bending its narratives to his perception.

This is what great broadcasters do. Working on Adam's show, and then Beautiful Pod made me more comfortable expressing myself in front of an audience, even if that was with/for someone who I'd been a fan of for years. It's of course exciting. All that time in my ears made me feel like I was already their friend, a bit. So all I had to do was be myself?

My experience as a 'live voice' began the day Adam interviewed Zohran Mamdani.

Less than 48 hours after meeting with Trump, where Mamdani was naturally met with effusive praise from 45/47 because he loves handsome men that are good on television because he's gay (why do you think he keeps bickering with Rosie O'Donnell on the internet), Mamdani was a big get for the show. Adam had interviewed big celebrities many times but he loves talking about politics. His takedown of Ritchie Torres was a real pop for the show. Being pro-Palestine while looking so aggressively Jewish is also a great bit aesthetically. He also believes it which makes him bullet-proof.

It was November 23rd, the day of the North London derby. The interview was scheduled to happen during the match which was the main reason I was there. I suppose I could have asked to attend regardless, and I'm not sure Adam has ever said no when I have, but I probably wouldn't have. But Zohran is an Arsenal fan. Adam is an Arsenal fan. I am an Arsenal fan.

The basis of my friendship with Adam is Arsenal. Then sports. Then Jewish. Then some soft pop-culture and theoretical politics, but that's mostly Adam monologuing which is fine because he's very funny. But it's about Arsenal. We talk on the phone for hours about Arsenal. We watch games. We bonded at Win Son Bakery, sometime in the summer of the 2022, about our shared disdain for watching Gabriel Martinelli dribble the ball out of bounds. Loving Arsenal is a big experience to share. From what I can tell, Zohran loves Arsenal too. He was tweeting about ArsenalVision in 2021.

The fact the game was going to be played at the same time made me potentially useful to the interview, as Arsenal was easy common ground for Adam and Zohran to riff. Having someone who's view/reporting of information about the state of the match—The NLD, I repeat—could be useful.

When Zohran arrived, I greeted him. I was met by a stern looking, stout, Stud with the NYPD (I think?). There were also a couple of his advisors. When I opened the door for him he gave me a smile and a handshake. I congratulated him and he thanked me. Then I got down to business. "How're you feeling about the Derby?" His eyebrow cocked.

"Good. As I should, " he replied. "You'll get no argument from me, I think we're going to spank them." He liked that. We. Then we jabbered about Arsenal as we walked into the studio. Adam wasn't quite ready yet, so Zohran and I watched at the desk in front of the set while we waited. It was easy. I didn't have any political questions to ask him. Just wanted to talk about Arsenal. I think he was more than happy to do that while we waited. Because he also loves Arsenal. He knows about the kit-release cycle. So on a certain level we understand one another.

I did turn out to be useful. Adam threw to me a few times, and Zohran asked a couple follow-ups to my synthesis of reporting and analysis. I got a couple laughs, too, describing the 4-1 demolition of Spurs as "domination." It was nothing big, but I was tossed the rock and progressed play efficiently, and did so with a little bit of style. I'm giving myself a lot of credit. My job was easy with Arsenal doing so well and Eze scoring an unprecedented hatrick. And it was easy because I know about sports and how to talk about them. Or at least I should.

I've fallen asleep to a sports podcast every night since I discovered Colin Cowherd. Then came Bill Simmons and his cohort—Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, Ryen Russillo, Chuck Klostermann. From those Grantland/Ringer guys, my branches sprawled a bit further into pop culture and ultimately soccer, leaving me with a new generation of broadcasters—Nick, Adam, & Stav; Anna and Dasha; Simon Jordan; Elliot, Clive, Tim and Poz. I'll throw Nick Wright in there, too. Listening to that collection of voices is the greatest education in how to at least not be boring. Believing what you're saying, however misguided, also helps.

As the episode began, Elliot immediately threw to me, "giving me a shot," by opening the floor for me to talk about not just Bruno, but about other options that I perhaps preferred. We'd discussed prior to the episode the loose structure of what we'd cover. I interjected during that brief prelude to ask Elliot whether we would be discussing options at CM besides Bruno Guimaraes. This was a reasonable request because we, as of yet, still don't have an agreement with Newcastle to buy the player. But that's not the point. It was my debut and I wanted to express myself. Give my takes. Let myself land. YankeeGunner seemed a bit reticent, though he did not reject it, and I didn't push it.

I didn't expect it but I love that he did it. Knowing what I know now, which is just how deeply contradictory to his recent stances my opinions were, I am grateful he was so magnanimous in his balanced responses to my thoughts. Not that I couldn't have handled more pushback. But he didn't box me up on my first episode which was a kindness. I told him, and apparently his dedicated Match Day Chat Discord server, who I love, that Bouaddi was not only better than Bruno, but already a top 5-10 CM in the world.

He is. His archetype, a deep-lying carrier/playmaker with great physique and technique, that can truly operate as a solo 6 in a midfield 3 is incredibly rare. His processing speed is nuts. I struggle to find another midfielder of his intelligence playing. Experience is a factor in intelligence, yes. But 'Genius' types transcend this. And I think Bouaddi is just that—the next 'Avatar Regista'. In the lineage of Sergio Busquets, then Frenkie de Jong before him. Of course they don't look the same. They're from different tribes. It does not change what they are.

I also let them know that both Johan Manzambi and Fermin Lopez were better players than Bruno Guimaraes. Let's get a few things straight: Bruno is an excellent player. He offers top drawer creativity in a true box-to-box role and has great presence on the pitch. He is very fit, but he's not an elite athlete in open space. His role, much like Gabriel at LCB, is a relatively common one in the market.

Manzambi (93rd percentile in Goals and 96th in shots) and Fermin (77th percentile in Goals and 95th in shots) are both better goal-scorers and more explosive athletes. Manzambi is also a 1v1 demon, while Fermin maintains elite attacking stats in addition to being in the 87th percentile of defensive contributions. They also both pass the eye-test. Manzambi looks like a slightly smaller and less technical Paul Pogba to me. But perhaps a more stable athletic composition. Fermin is an instinctive and acrobatic finisher from midfield with an engine like a freight train. He plays like a Spanish Frank Lampard. These are Superstar talents.

I am of the belief that just because someone is younger and has not “proven it” does not mean they’re not already better. It means you haven’t seen them be better than the guys who you watch that are really good. Not projecting, but attempting to understand what makes a player great before the conclusion is universal. Because that’s the easy part. It’s easy to know a player is of a certain level when they’ve reached XYZ milestones. Like a video game.

But they had to be great before that point to do whatever it is they did. William Saliba was the best CB in the world by late 2023. He had played one season in the Prem. Bukayo Saka was great by 2022. What had he won? Yes — they were both playing in the Super League, and with lesser leagues there are easy (and not altogether invalid) arguments to make. But truly great players; Max Dowman, Ayyoub Bouaddi, Luka Vuskovic, Johan Manzambi, Kennet Eichhorn, Nathan De Cat — they’re already great. They’re already at, or above the level. And it’s not wrong to say they’re already better than players that are established.

I do not mean to diminish a factor like experience. The body often has to learn the lesson to truly push a person to the next level. But the players I reference are of a different talent/ability spectrum, in my opinion, to these excellent and more often experienced guys.

The only other take that really got me in trouble was saying I don't think Gabriel should be an automatic starter and that Calafiori is the better fit. I've already made myself clear on that — Read the Jonjo Shelvey Conundrum if you're interested to get the full scope.

To extend a bit on why I prefer Calafiori — I think we need him centrally more than we need him wide. His maverick abilities in that part of the structure of our attacking build up would unleash him in ways that could define a Champions League campaign. I'm not Hincapie's greatest fan, but either he or Jurrien Timber could comfortably fill in as a left-sided defender that tucks in to accomodate Calafiori. Timber, Ben White, or Cristhian Mosquera could feasibly play on the right, though I am a huge advocate of signing Michael Kayode (Brentford) this summer.

The point is, it's easy to envision how it could work with Calafiori at CB. It radically improves our ability to break lines through the middle of the pitch, something currently sorely lacking. When done properly, it is the best way to create high-leverage attacking overloads.

Reading the comments on Patreon was a gleeful experience. Adam texted me, letting me know it was hilarious to him that a girl, who listen to ArsenalVision, liked my voice. That was nice. If you read this, Cesca, don't get mad. Be proud that your boyfriend has a not horrible voice. Plus, most of the patrons are really angry at me. Or at Elliot for having me on the show to begin with.

But there will be no apologizing for being American and calling it soccer, if I want to. It's bitch-made. If we're ever going to get good at this thing we've got to double-down on what we are. I'll talk about my grand plan of getting the South to adopt soccer another time.

I did well on my debut and it had very little to do with the content of my explanations. Elliot liked the episode before it landed with the audience because he I think he knew it was going to be provocative without being overtly implausible/outlandish. It would drive engagement. He also had a good time on-air together. Elliot himself has bold beliefs hidden (though he came out of his shell a great deal last season and the show was better for it) behind a sometimes deferential tone and I think he liked that I wasn't afraid to say what I believed to be true. He gave me the space to be myself and I believe I rewarded him with an interesting "episode of TV." That means we get to do it again. I should also add that there are few, if any, people covering football that both run a network and contribute quality content to the extent Elliot does. Plaudits to him and his ever growing community.