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Thank you. Welcome to the Total Soccer Show and the debut of a new format we're tentatively calling,

Take it or leave it.

The premise is simple here.

You send us your soccer hot takes and we decide whether they're hot to trot or if they're not.

The rhyme needs a little bit of work there.

We'll get to that one.

My name's Ryan Bailey. Joining me today a a man whose calm, measured, and logical approach is perfectly suited to giving out hot takes on podcast. Taylor Rockall. Hello, sir. I'm here to scream. I'm here to yell. I'm here to berate Graham for things that I don't agree with. I think we're just going to go full, like, Skip Bayless Shannon Sharp on this one.

And I'm excited for that not to be the case. Mm, FS2 behaviors. I like that. Is FS2? FS1. It's an FS of some sort. It's one of them. It's an FS of some sort. Joining us for an FS of some sort, we have a man who loves hot takes. Oh, sorry, sorry, I read that wrong. It's a man who loves hot cakes.

Graham Rutherland, hello.

Hello, Ryan Bily.

Yes, I read that wrong. It's a man who loves hot cakes. Graham Rutland, hello. Hello, Ryan Bailey. Yes, I do love hot cakes, but I think I prefer hot takes. Taylor, is Skip Baylor's, Bayless, the guy who sits at like a table opposite another man and they like basically just shout to each other about sports? Is that the format? But it's very, like, I don't think he was always this way, but it is very just clearly, like, you take one side, I'll take the other, and we're going to scream about it, but nothing matters. And I think Daryl was always fond of pointing out that they seemed to always be talking about whether or not LeBron James was the greatest of all time. That feels like the easiest one to go to. So like, once a week, if that show was on, at some point there would be a conversation about like LeBron James was the greatest of all time. That feels like the easiest one to go to. So like once a week if that show was on, at some point there would be a conversation about like, LeBron versus Michael, who you take it? Every single week they had to have that one. I don't know if that's one of our questions we're answering today. I hope it's not. Well, maybe not about LeBron James of basketball, but we might get a question about the LeBron James Wow, that is easy to say, of soccer.

Christian Poulosick, maybe they'll be in there at some point. Oh, tease, Graham. I like it. On that, let's come back to Skip Bailey's thing once again. Is Shannon Sharp the guy who wears a really tight suit and looks like he might burst out of them at any given moment? He looks got incredibly good physique. Is it the gentleman I'm thinking of? Yes, it's him and Michael Richards are one and two in that category, yes. I see. It looks

like if he gets too angry, like the bicep will burst through the sleeve of the jacket at any

point. He is a legendary Denver Broncos tight end who also has great facial reactions. If you

need a gif, he's your man. He is. And you know who's our man if we want to have our takes judged? It's you, Taylor, and it's you, Graham. And to a small extent, me as well, guys, we're going to get into our take it or leave it now. We're going to start off. By the way, if you want to get in touch with us for these, you can tweet or X us.

Are we saying that, X us?

No.

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