Hello,

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the total soccer show. My name is Taylor Rockwell.

Joining me on Not a Monday is Ryan Bailey. Hello, Ryan.

Not a Monday. It's a Thursday. Hello, Taylor. Made a song out of that. You welcome.

You did. And it was like a very heavenly song. And I have to believe that that's the type of thing that only happens as we get closer to the end of the week. Mondays don't seem to bring that out of you.

I was listening to the Smith's this morning. So I think that's where that voice came from, actually. Oh, that's a fun way to start the morning.

No, thank you.

I think I started with the soundtrack to Bob's Burger.

This is how I began my day.

There you go.

That's a way to get the morning. No, thank you. I think I started with the soundtrack to Bob's Burger. This is how I began my day. There you go. That's a way to get things going. Hang on. Because you're watching the show, because you have that on your, like, Spotify? Yes. That is my answer. I have the soundtrack on Spotify, and I'm watching the series as well. It is one of my, it took me a really long time to get into it, but I think I started watching it like two months ago and now I'm on the final season, I think. It's a good show. I'm a fan. I've not seen it, but I like Archer and it's the same voice actor, isn't it? It is, it is, and it's very musical, but there are definitely some Archer-esque jokes, but it's a wholesome show at the same time. It's like, I think I explain it as it's half Simpsons, half family guy, but airs on the side of Simpsons. Like, it's a lot of, like people are generally nice on that show, put it that way. That really skews towards the Ryan Bailey demographic. It really does. It really does. I'm a very big fan, and I like a lot of the people involved, but we're not here to talk about TV, though we've already done that. We're here to answer listener questions and to talk about Project Big Picture, which is no longer a thing, unless you're Manchester United in Liverpool, in which case, it could still be a thing and it will come once again. But we are going to get to, I think, 10 or so

listener questions, some submitted via the website, some via Twitter. But I'm excited for Ryan

to have a go at making sense of all of the many queries from our listeners.

I shall try my best. I'm just picturing Taylor in 20, 30 years, time, maybe longer,

talking to the grandkids, there was a time

for five days when Project Big Picture was all we talked about. All across the land.

It did feel that way, right? It felt like it kind of took off. It was a leaked document. And then

now here we are where maybe we won't be talked about that much more. But it was a moment in time, right? It was a moment in time. And that's what we're here for. It is indeed. Should we get into it? Should we get this question about it? Let's do it. Yes, we did have the opening question from Nick Gillick. Is Project Big Picture as evil as it sounds? We'll get to the evil or not evil nature of it in a moment.

Let's talk about what it was in and of itself for people who haven't been paying as much attention or avoided it entirely because who cares about the Premier League.

Essentially, it was a plan headed by the English Football League chairman Rick Perry in collaboration with leading clubs, Man United in Liverpool, although by all accounts it sounds like Man United and Liverpool were the kind of like the originators of this plan.

But it was essentially a way to finance lower league, like the championship league one, league two football in England to make sure that there was sort of their financials were secure given the COVID era.

Same thing for the Women's Super League.

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