Hail GFOP!

I write with fingers compelled to give Liverpool Football Club a guard of honor. After defanging their latest challenger, Newcastle, the team they face in the Carabao Cup final in 17 days time, 2-0, Peter Drury nailed two truths about them in his brilliant full-time eulogy. First, the 2024-25 Champions elect are so efficient. That describes their Slot DNA. In an erratic season, filled with injury, self-destruction, and chaos for other teams, Liverpool have been consistent. Cue Drury’s second point: Not a team in the land comes close to them. They have won at a stroll — a 13-point lead in February with just 10 games to go (If they win seven, no one can touch them). 

10 weeks of coronation now await. The relegation battle seems over. The Manchester City 115-charge judgement may add some intrigue, but thank God for the race for Europe. Nine teams going for almost certainly two Champions League places. A royal rumble between overachievers and underachievers. Champions League and FA Cup, which returns this week, become all the more riveting. Let’s do this Fifth Round thing. 

ii. I spoke at the Financial Times’ Business of Football Conference this week on a panel about the impact of the 2026 World Cup on the United States. I was fascinated by a strand of the conversation over whether or not “America is already a proper football nation” as one of my fellow panelists suggested. I have to say, I dream that it was so, but this reality cannot be deemed sufficient. How many USMNT players can the average American on the street name? How many Americans know who Mauricio Pochettino is? How many games can the USMNT team sell out? I would love to hear your takes on this as I think this is a fascinating question. We charge towards a World Cup 2026 that I hope can change so much, but only if we are honest with ourselves. 

iii. Interviewing David Moyes last week might be the happiest hour of my 2025. I adore that man – who he is, how he carries himself, and the values of tenacity that he embodies. I have loved the response to this interview. A version of it will be on our television show March 9th, along with a documentary about my visit to the last Merseyside Derby at Goodison, which we have been working so hard on.  

P.S. RIP Gene Hackman. Scene stealer of every frame he was in. He will live on for me in the sage advice he offered in The Los Angeles Times in 2003: “Life’s too short to take seriously. Just do your best, be kind, and try not to screw up too much.”

This Week at MiB HQ 📡

This has been another glorious week at MiB. First up, we are really proud to have partnered with Apple on Rebuilding a Champion – a live show we shot last week with your defending MLS champions LA Galaxy – which is now available on Apple TV. A night in which we dove into their “worst to first” journey of cultural transformation before ultimately lifting the trophy. It was a pleasure to see GFOPs on the west coast and it would not have been possible without our partners at MLS Season Pass and Apple TV. To do this with them on the eve of a new MLS season, while raising money for the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, was an incredible honor. It’s worth tuning in just to hear Marco Reus speak beautifully and powerfully about exactly what the victory meant to him within the context of his storied career. ⭐️

ii. Over at The Women’s Game, USWNT’s Crystal Dunn joined Sam on this week’s Friendlies episode. She talked about her move to PSG and becoming a veteran on the U.S. national team with over 150 caps. To make sure you don't miss anything from The Women's Game, sign up for our TWG newsletter. ⚽️

iii. Meanwhile on Vamos, Herc Gomez chatted with Sam Porter, owner of Liga MX side Necaxa, about his time at DC United, investing in clubs around the UK, and his recent acquisition in the Colombian First Division. 🇲🇽

iv. Thank you to everyone who read, rated, and sent us feedback on our new Monday Raven. It was a joy bringing you all our thoughts from the wild weekend in football that was. We’ll see you again this Monday when we’ll recap everything from the FA Cup fifth round, preview next week’s biggest Champions League matchups, and share a few more of the best bangers from around the world. 🐦‍⬛

Behold! Your FA Cup 5th Round Horses & Riders 🏆

All kicks off with Aston Villa welcoming Cardiff City this afternoon at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN+.

Manchester City vs. Plymouth Argyle (Saturday, 12.45 p.m. ET, ESPN+)

Do you believe in miracles? Third from bottom in the Championship, yet showing signs of life under Wayne Rooney’s courageous replacement Miron Muslic, Plymouth Argyle are the lowliest team left in the tournament. Rubberneckers assemble! The FA Cup is now Manchester City’s everything. Real Madrid ended their Champions League early. Liverpool have left them in their Premier League wake. Spurs de-Carabaoed them. In his coaching career, Pep Guardiola has had only one season – his first at City in 2016-17 – that was trophyless. Can tiny, plucky Plymouth Argyle, Liverpool slayers in the last round, make it two? More on them below. Their wins against Brentford and the Reds came against much-changed starting elevens. Will Guardiola, who still needs to lock down a top-four league finish, make the same number of changes?

More: How Pep Guardiola’s possession based tactics have stopped working.

Rogstradamus 🔮: There is no romance in football. Heartless City romp 5-0.

Manchester United vs. Fulham (Sunday, 11.30 a.m. ET, ESPN+)

Can Fulham clip the FA Cup holders and remove Ruben Amorim’s fig leaf of decency? United are only in this round due to Harry Maguire’s late offside goal against Leicester in the last round. Their manager is suffering death by a thousand blows – mass club firings, soup and sandwich drama, Garnacho strops, Patrick Dorgu red cards, piles of injury. History however is in their favor: They have progressed from their last nine FA Cup clashes against Fulham since a 2-1 quarter-final defeat in 1908, most recently winning a quarter-final clash in 2022-23.  

Rogstradamus 🔮: What is dead may never die. Maguire does it again. United 2-1. A win that will only feel like prolonging the misery.

Newcastle vs. Brighton (Sunday, 8.45 a.m. ET, ESPN+)

Fabian Hürzeler turned 32 this week with the Baby Manager celebrating victory over Bournemouth – the surging Seagulls fourth straight. His Brighton have European dreams, as do Newcastle. The Toon have already reached Wembley in the Carabao Cup and Alexander Isak is unlikely to play due to a groin knack. This game may be won by the manager willing to risk it all – play their strongest line-up and go all-in on the FA Cup, even if it sacrifices a percentile of performance in the 11-game sprint to Europe that is the Premier League closing gauntlet.   

Rogstradamus 🔮: Fly Seagulls, Fly. 3-1. 

Bournemouth vs. Wolves (Saturday, 10 a.m. ET, ESPN+)

In this wide-open FA Cup in which so many big teams have been clipped, Bournemouth fans must look at the flawed and distracted remaining pack and dream, “Why not us?” Two consecutive league losses – the first against Wolves – have bruised their exocarp (which Google has just informed me is the skin of a cherry). But this has to be a golden chance for the profoundly injured yet undented dreamers that Andoni Iraola lead to reach the quarter-finals, from which they have never progressed.  

Rogstradamus 🔮: I love this Golden War Cherries team so much – their audacity and fearlessness – I fear I cursed them. Bringing Good Vibes: Cherries 2-Cunha 1. 

📺 Full FA Cup fifth-round schedule here.

📧 Enjoying The Raven? Check out our other Men in Blazers newsletters.

An Interview w/ Plymouth Argyle Owner & GFOP Simon Hallett Ahead of their Date with Manchester City Destiny! 🟢⚪️

In 2016, Men in Blazers received a magical email from GFOP Simon Hallett, a Bucks County, PA-based corporate investment officer telling us he had been moved by listening to Steve Parish and Barry Hearn talk about ownership on our podcast. Hallett had been so inspired, he decided to invest in his local childhood team, Plymouth Argyle. Then languishing in League Two, England's fourth tier. Really languishing…10 years ago, Plymouth Argyle narrowly avoided dropping into non-league after near-bankrupting debts of $23m – and when he came on, Simon talked about how the investment was a purely emotional one, but that he dreamed of restoring the club to the big time - like a Lower League Jerry Jones. He has done so, leading them all the way to the Championship. This season has been hard. Yet under new manager Miron Muslic, the slaying of two Premier League sides, Brentford and Liverpool, has the Mighty Green Army dreaming ahead of their visit to the Etihad. We caught up with Simon ahead of the game (This interview has been condensed for brevity):

RB: Plymouth went into the fourth-round clash against Liverpool on a run of Harvey Dent-style mixed results. Your club had just one win out of five in the Championship, but you’d also beaten Brentford, another Premier League opponent, in the biggest bracket-buster of the FA Cup’s third round. When you drew Liverpool — the Premier League leaders — for the fourth round, what were you thinking? What were you feeling about that match, and did those feelings change as kickoff drew closer? 

Simon Hallett: We’d had a terrible time in the Championship, so the Brentford match had given a significant relief to low morale. Liverpool seemed the best possible draw: the best team in the world at our home ground. As the game approached emotions were rather banal: the usual excitement/nervousness – avoid humiliation!

RB: I was so moved by the emotion, the passion, that your Pilgrims showed, battling for every loose ball, refusing to be awed by the occasion or by the badge stitched on their opponents shirts. Defender Nikola Katic lost one of his own teeth early on, and center back Maxi Talovierov, that ponytailed Ukrainian warrior, celebrated every tackle like it was a trophy of its own. Was there a moment — before or after Ryan Hardie’s penalty — when you truly started to believe? 

SH: Our new Head Coach, Miron Muslić, demands courage, conviction and commitment. He got all three against Liverpool from everyone in the squad. Taking the lead in big matches is always an initial cause for joy, but followed by misery in anticipation of a darker future. Students of the human mind will tell you that we weigh losses much more heavily than gains. Against Liverpool it was all fun and games with nothing to lose, until there was something to lose. Watching Niko and Maxi join Julio Plegezuelo in our back three was thrilling. Their rule of thumb is that if the ball’s below knee height, belt it. If the ball’s above knee height, head it. Bodies flying around the box made for the kind of viewing normally associated with Tarantino movies.

RB: In the final minutes of the match, Liverpool went all in, even sending goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher — who played as a striker as a kid — down to battle in Plymouth’s box. How did you experience them? 

SH: Time stood still. Why do we have to keep looking at the clock, when we know that the act of looking makes it run more slowly, like some kind of Schroedinger’s wristwatch? Why do we want our entertainment to end? Why do we call it entertaining, when it holds the prospect of misery?

RB: When the final whistle blew, and Home Park and its Green Army absolutely erupted into something between defiance and joyous disbelief, who were you celebrating with? Who did you speak to first afterwards? Did you speak to the players, or to manager Miron Muslić, before or after the game? 

SH: I just hugged anyone in range—my wife, our CEO, toothless old geezers like me. Everyone. After the game I left the players and coaching staff alone – it’s their achievement for them to savor together—they don’t need me, much as I may want to share their joy. All I said to Miron that day was “You’ve just been part of one of the greatest days in Argyle history.” 

The next day, after we drew Manchester City in the next round, I reminded him that Napoleon liked his generals to be lucky. He replied simply, “Millwall on my mind”… referring to our league game, 72 hours later. I had the below WhatsApp Exchange with my daughter, Polly:

RB: Plymouth’s reward for knocking Liverpool out is to face Manchester City at the Etihad. What are your expectations going into this match? Has winning against Brentford and Liverpool made you reassess your ideas about what’s possible? 

SH: Anything’s possible, of course, though our priority has to be league results, given our position in the relegation places. I just watched City vs. Liverpool and it appears we may be able to rest some of our players. The combination of a historic home win and a visit to an extraordinary stadium in a great city is perfect. Unfortunately, and showing how surprised we all are to be in the fifth round, I will be in San Martín de los Andes, in Argentinian Patagonia, getting ready to float down a river fishing for trout. I console myself with the thought that, if we lose, I’ll be glad to have missed it. If we win, there’s another great day in our near-term future.

RB: If you could go back in time to speak to young Simon Hallett who grew up watching Argyle, and you told him what the future holds for both yourself and for Plymouth, what words would you conjure to express all there is to come? 

SH: I’d tell him to pay more attention earlier to what was going on in his hometown. As my career and life progressed, the city went backwards—losing so many jobs in the Dockyard, becoming, as some say, a northern town on the south coast. The population has barely changed in the half century since I left. People outside the southwest associate the area with beaches, green fields, and clotted cream, but it suffers from the same deindustrialization and poverty as the North, without the attention that northern cities get. Could I have done something earlier? I will never know the answer, but I will always have a tinge of regret that I didn’t make contact earlier and help fans and the city with the years of pain.

RB: Last question for you: at the Liverpool match, you wore a spectacular green, white, and black knit hat. I have to know, was this something you made yourself, or did you buy it from manager Miron Muslić’s secret Etsy shop? What’s the story with this headwear, because Daddy Wants…?

SH: You’ll have to speak with my wonderful sister-in-law, Tessa Hallett. Two of her great successes in life have been A. Keeping my little brother on the straight and narrow and B. Knitting Argyle hats. That hat portrays both team spirit and a sense of individualism. There’s a price for everything, I hear, but these, I like to think, are labors of love.

RB: Godspeed Simon. You are a human inspiration. I admire what you do and the style in which you do it so much. GFOPs, follow Plymouth on Instagram and get yourself down to a game if you can.

More Football, Did Ya Say? ⚽︎

• The Premier League may have TWO transfer windows next summer because of disruption of the Club World Cup.

• Arsenal fans, you deserve nice things. Your U15s and U16s are STACKED.

• Chelsea: Protests against owners and what they mean for the future of football.

• It’s all kicking off in Mexico: From James Rodríguez to Sergio Ramos, Liga MX clubs are luring foreign stars to LIGA MX.

• I love the storytelling in this incredible Australian brand Front Office and their reinvention of 1990s football style. Thanks to GFOP Wayne S. for turning me on to this.

PrizePicks: Best PP Since Paul Pierce ✅

Charlie Kipp writes: The FA Cup is back in our loving (...?) arms, but the fifth round – or as we would call it over here, “The Sweet 16” – means less squad rotation and more, ya know, trying. Better yet, just because it’s not the Premier League doesn’t mean you can’t hop on PrizePicks and grab all your favorite selections this weekend, like my pick: Kaoru Mitoma MORE in the Shots category.

Brighton, a team who is not likely to qualify for the Champions League yet contains serious quality all across the pitch, travel a long way to Newcastle, a club transfixed on winning silverware in the League Cup next month. Read: one team will be far more up for this match than the other. When I look at Brighton, I can’t help but immediately notice Mitoma, the 27-year-old Japanese forward who, when he’s not racking up goal contributions (10 in the PL this season), is executing first-touches that are legitimately mind-bending in nature. I like Brighton to edge this one, and Mitoma to be heavily involved, so join me in taking Kaoru Mitoma MORE in the Shots category.

If you haven’t joined PrizePicks, CLICK HERE and use code ‘MiB’ for a first deposit match up to $100.

More Football, Sweet Global Football to Savor this Weekend 🌍

Wrexham vs. Bolton (Saturday, 7:30 a.m. ET, Paramount+) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Wrexham’s Wembley dreams ended Wednesday night as a late equalizer and penalties sent opponents Peterborough through to the EFL Trophy final. Three days on, Phil Parkinson welcomes his former club Bolton for a league rematch of the League Cup quarter final earlier this month. Bolton’s new manager bump has been in effect since boyhood Everton player Steven Schumacher was appointed at the end of January. Both sides enter the Stoke Cae Ras with three wins in their last four League One outings.

AC Milan vs. Lazio (Sunday, 2:45 p.m. ET, Paramount+) 🇮🇹

Christian Pulisic only featured for 30 minutes in Thursday’s 2-1 second-half capitulation at Bologna despite reports in Italy suggesting he is close to signing a contract renewal through 2029. Sunday's game at the San Siro marks Milan's fourth in less than two weeks, as they welcome a Lazio side fresh off a 2-0 loss to Milan rivals Inter in the Coppa Italia quarter final.

WSL Manchester Utd vs. Leicester City (Sunday, 7:30 a.m. ET, ESPN +/WSL Youtube) 🏆

Wins in their last six league matches have propelled United to within seven points of league leaders Chelsea (for whom Naomi Girma may finally make the squad). Chelsea are away to fifth-place Brighton, so Sunday’s match with struggling Leicester could be a great opportunity for Ella Toone and co. to close the gap as we enter the last third of the season. 

MiB Mad Libs 📝

First of all… apologies for forgetting to do this last week!

This week’s phrase is: “Now that the title is wrapped up, the most exciting thing about the rest of the Premier League season is __________” 

Email me your entries. Winner gets a coveted MiB Patch. 

Two weeks ago’s Winner: Andrew Sidebottom.

“The thing that will allow Pep Guardiola to get his groove back is a never before seen type of sweater.”

Savor the patch, Big Andrew. Pockets in unexpected places is the new inverted center back. 😉

Not Football, and All the Better for It 📖

• Would You Pay $34 for a Shrimp Cocktail? One man's shrimp threshold is another man's shrimp ceiling. 

• Why Gen-Z is abandoning capital letters. I'm assuming that e e cummings has just gotten huge on TikTok.

• 50 Years of Travel Tips, ranging from Lawful Neutral (take a street food tour of a new city) to the full-on chaotic (ask your cab driver to introduce you to their mom). 

• A fascinating read of what it's like to play in a high-pressure chess circuit. TIL that the French defense doesn't refer to Ibou Konate. 

• Wake up, honey. New pharaoh just dropped: Archaeologists Find a Pharaoh’s Tomb, the First Since King Tut’s, Egypt Says.

• This Song Helped Me Through The Week: Patterson Hood - “The Forks of Cypress“ featuring Waxahatchee. The beautiful agony you need in your day.

• I read this book: The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr. A lyrical novel about lives lived in a changing Ireland with a screenplay no doubt forthcoming that has Colin Farrell-Oscar written all over it. It transported me to a different time and place – which, in this world, I was so grateful for. More here.

Dear Rog... GFOPs Write ✍️

GFOP Tim Walker from Lake Villa, IL wrote this banger of an email entitled: “MIB Should Get a Commission from Terry's Chocolate Oranges.” 

Hi Rog and Rory,

I wanted to send both of you a big thank you for regular mention and recommendation of Terry's Chocolate Oranges on the pod. As an American I had never heard of them, but recently I was walking through one of those stores that have items from many other countries and saw a display of Terry's Chocolate Oranges. I bought a dark chocolate one and intended to share it with others or at least slowly eat it over a period of days. I failed at both attempts. I ate the entire thing in one evening and it was delicious. I haven't gotten to experience any of Rog and Rory's other food recommendations, but am thankful for the Terry's Chocolate Orange in my life and wanted you to know.

Rog writes: Tim, we too are waiting for “Big Chocolate Orange” to get behind the podcast. They are one of the most powerful lobby groups on The Hill, but honestly, it is an honor to promote them and spread the Chocolate Orange gospel. Sometimes, you just do the Lord’s work from the goodness of your heart. This is very much one of those times. 

Keep sending your stories and questions to [email protected].

To Better Days Ahead for All.

Let’s not take a moment watching football together for granted and make great memories.

Big Love,

Courage.

ROG 

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