Diamonade to Real Madrid, Rodri to Barcelona & more! | Transfer Update

**Ryan Bailey** (0:20)
Welcome to the Total Soccer Show and our latest edition of The Bulletin, and it's a transfer special. We're looking at what Yan Diomande can do for Real Madrid. We're seeing if Newcastle have any players left after Bruno Guimarães agreed to deal with Arsenal. We're seeing what's going on with Man City Central midfield with Rodri, likely on the way out and so much more. My name's Ryan Bailey. Joining me today, we've got a twosome going on. The other part of that twosome is Mr. Joe Lowry. Hello, Joe, how's you?

**Joseph Lowery** (0:49)
I am great. Not just a twosome, but a terrific twosome. We are missing the other half of our fantastic foursome, but we can still have a positive, a literative adjective that starts our little duo today, Ryan, I'm for it.

**Ryan Bailey** (1:00)
We can indeed. I think this is the first time in a minute where we have recorded, or one of us has recorded, from the great state of Texas. That's where you find yourself today, Joe. How's it feeling in Texas?

**Joseph Lowery** (1:10)
It feels great. It feels much better than the last time I recorded in Texas, which I'm pretty sure was post a US-Cope America game in 2024 I was kicked out of Jerry World. They wouldn't let me use any rooms in there. They wouldn't let me loiter around. They booted me, and I ended up recording from the car. But the air conditioning in the car made a clicking sound appear on the microphone, so I had to record with the AC off. I thought I was going to pass out.
That's the moment I thought, maybe I'll never record in this great state again. But here I am, I'm back, and there's AC. Really, what could be better?

**Ryan Bailey** (1:38)
Oh, wow. I hope you cracked a window back then, Joe.

**Joseph Lowery** (1:40)
Yeah. There was some dog measures being taken for sure. Although even then, you're not supposed to do that, right? Even if you crack a window, diabolical. Yeah.

**Ryan Bailey** (1:48)
That's actually illegal in the UK.

**Joseph Lowery** (1:50)
Nice.
Yeah. Yeah.

**Ryan Bailey** (1:52)
We would never do that to you in the UK either, of course.

**Joseph Lowery** (1:54)
What a relief. What a relief.

**Ryan Bailey** (1:56)
What a relief indeed. Plenty to get to. Lots of conversation about the comings and goings in European soccer at the moment. Before we get there, Joe, we should remind the good, good people about our Patreon.
patreon.com/totalsoccershows, where you get our bonus content. You got bonus episodes of this here podcast. You've got video content we're putting out there and access to our Discord server. Joe, how many, if you had to estimate, how many of the cool kids are in the Discord server, do you think?

**Joseph Lowery** (2:22)
I think we're approaching or even at all of the cool kids are in there, although I think it would be even cooler if the person listening or watching this was in there as well. I don't know if we can straddle that line, but that's really how I feel inside.

**Ryan Bailey** (2:32)
Yeah, that person does need to sign up. I agree very much indeed. patreon.com/totalsoccershow, we mean you. Thank you so much to everybody who supports us by that medium. We definitely appreciate your custom, excellent stuff. Joe, before we do get to the transfers, a bit of sad news that came in over the weekend. Jorge Messi, Leo Messi's father, passing away at the age of just 68
Of course, Jorge was his mentor and his agent. The two of them packed up and travelled to Barcelona when Messi was but a teenager, a 13-year-old to pursue his career. So obviously a big, big part of Messi's life. We remember during the World Cup that he was taken ill. That storyline that came along. So unfortunately, Joe, Messi Senior has passed.

**Joseph Lowery** (3:15)
Yeah, it is sad. I will say it was quite touching to see the response from not just Barcelona or into Miami, but really the soccer world kind of pour out their support. For Messi, another reminder of just how much his exploits have meant to so many people.
I think that is just an absolute joy. And getting to see some of the tributes that poured out, I think were quite meaningful and touching. I enjoyed Rodrigo De Paul, Messi's flawed but true friend, it seems like, scoring a goal for Miami after Miami had held a moment of silence before the game began against Monterey the other night. And De Paul scored and took off his jersey and underneath his jersey was a Messi into Miami jersey. The dude was wearing two jerseys on a muggy Florida Saturday night in the summer.