672: Looking For Heroes

[00:00:01] Hello, foodies, and welcome back to FUT IN REVIEW, episode 672. My name is Jon, and my voice has been through a lot this week, as has my body, because I've been in bed with a flu all week long, and I'm not the only one that dropped off for this week's show. So, our hosting crew is dropping off harder than the old team heroes of the Avengers, some would say.

[00:00:32] But then I saw an announcement yesterday that the Avengers are back with like 28 people. So who knows what's coming up this show? I am not joined alone. I'm not alone on this show, of course. I am joined by the man, the myth, the legend, but it's not Yngwie. No, no, no, no. If you're on the YouTube or the Spotify video version, you can see him sitting there in a brand new podcast stadium. With a, if I see correctly, a signed jersey from Pele behind him.

[00:00:59] It's no longer than the man. It's Chris McIntosh. Hey, Chris. Hi, Jon. Thanks for having me here. I've been off for a couple of weeks building this cabin. So hopefully it sounds okay to our listeners out there. And it's a little bit chilly. So if you see me shivering, now you know what it is. It's a little bit chilly. It does look awesome though. There are like, remember behind you?

[00:01:26] I don't even know how to pronounce it in English, but it's like, I see Muhammad Ali, Pele. It's a good thing we don't advertise where your studio is mine. No, please don't. No, it is well guarded. It's like a bunker. So now I'm looking forward to me. I'm looking forward to, from a pod from here, desperate for do that. And they were going to talk about new heroes coming up at the end of the show, aren't we? Yeah, somewhere in between, somewhere in between. Definitely, definitely.

[00:01:53] So yeah, I've been in bed all week. So there's a little bit of announcement. I haven't played the game. I dragged my butt to the studio. I installed everything. I hope my voice lasts for 45 minutes or so. And then, worst of all, we're also missing Yngwie who is going through some personal matters at the moment. So hope all is well and all the best, of course, to Yngwie. Hopefully he'll be back shortly. Nate is, well, on his way to becoming a second time dead.

[00:02:24] And Shaq was caught up with the flu as well. So yeah, that's been a heck of a week for us at the show. It's traveled from Australia to the Netherlands, John. That is some journey for that flu there. I'll tell you that. Maybe it came on that cyclone that he was fighting last week. Yeah, fighting cyclones, fighting the flu, the things we do for putting it out there, right? Definitely.

[00:02:46] Chris, before we start up, the Crete event has officially been closed off for new people coming in. So we'll be traveling to Crete in the second week of May. Newsflash, the program is also finished. So if you're on Discord, you can see what we are up to. But more importantly, we have intentions to do a lot of live shows when we die, right?

[00:03:14] Yeah, we're going to do some live shows. We're going to vlog. Is that what it's called, John? When you do videos, you're going to see me with a slightly redder face, probably with the sun beating down. And hopefully it involves cocktails, John. You did probably say that. So it will involve cocktails. And if I look at the schedule, our first live or our first podcast recording we'll be doing there is at the bar, at the outside bar.

[00:03:39] So not only is that technically a little bit difficult for us or challenging, let's put it like this, it's going to be technically challenging. But it also has to be recorded early because else I don't think that podcast will ever be released to the public. It'd be two very strong accents, a Dutch one and a Scotch one there as well, if we have more than a couple of cocktails. But we're looking forward to going there. Can't wait to meet our big brother there, Marios and his family. It's going to be awesome.

[00:04:05] I've seen the schedule. I think it's the best one I've ever put together, John. It's going to be absolutely awesome. And the people who are going, we have to stop John winning again. Come on, guys, let's get practicing. Yeah, although I'm still not sure I should participate this year. Sometimes it's better to say that. You can't help yourself, John. You will be there. We will beat you. One of us will beat you, that's for sure.

[00:04:29] Yeah, but I'm also thinking about maybe production value to make sure the people at home get the right experiences as well. So something's got to give. And if that means I can't get the title this year because I can't participate, it is what it is. John, I think you're running scared, mate. I think the listeners think you're running scared. You will have to take part now. Well, they have to check it out, don't we? We are hosting it to see if I am participating. Chris, talk about participating. Have you been playing FIFA this week?

[00:04:58] I have, John. I'll be honest with you. You can ask me my score and you'll be surprised what I'm going to tell you. Oh, should I just go straight into the topic then? Because what has been your... This week in Football Ultimate Team. Ultimate score. For me, it's a 10, John. Wait, what? For me, it's a 10. I thought about this when you said, do you want to come on the pod on Friday and I had a wee...

[00:05:21] The game does exactly what I want it to do. Yeah. I don't win all the time. It doesn't happen in real life anyway. There is loads of content out there to do. I keep myself busy by evolutioning at least half a dozen Rangers players. So it's got me really interested. I want to play with a full Rangers team. Disappointed like John, talking foot, that we don't have a goalkeeper evolution. So we're having to use goal, Jack, but one. But for me, it's exactly what I ask it to do.

[00:05:50] The buttons that I press, the game sometimes unresponsive or is it me? I don't know. But that is just football and it's actually... It does mirror real life. You know, we had a situation a couple of weeks ago where Rangers beat Celtic at Celtic Park, even though we are 15 points probably still behind the league. So these odd things happen. No, I really am enjoying the game, John. It's surprising because I really thought we'd dislike it. I was annoyed with the weekend league. One thing that has benefited me is actually not playing weekend league.

[00:06:20] And I think I enjoy the game more by not taking part in weekend league. And how do you think that is? Because it's taking all the pressure off me now, John. I don't, you know, I'll get my rivals. I mean, I'm, I think I'm in division four. I'm probably halfway in division four there. I'm quite happy just meddling about there. I get my evils done. You know, the Hulet SBC. I'm a bit salty about it. We talked about it, the Strikeforce Evo. I'm annoyed about that as someone who did the CR7 SBC, wasted two and a bit million coins,

[00:06:49] but actually I can pick up a player almost equivalent for not even half that, a quarter of that price. So yeah, I'm a little bit salty about that. But no, actually, gameplay wise for me, there's nothing wrong with the game. For me, it's a 10. I'm, yeah, I'm almost stunned here. No, but I also think it's, it's totally fair, right? I, this game this year offers something for everyone, I think.

[00:07:18] And like, I haven't played, so I can't really speak about this week. I'm still looking forward to actually go at with from Boston and the likes. But like you got the Evos that if, if you like the Evos that will do it for you. If you want to grind the game out and get the maximum performance out of it, you can go nuts at the Wicked League format. I think if you want to grind rewards, there's plenty to do as well. There are tournaments.

[00:07:48] I, there's something for everyone. I think rivals feel, except this week, of course, rivals feels really balanced. Like, I don't think there's people smurfing anymore, like dropping down or something. It feels like proper in place. If you win 60% of the games, I think that's sort of you're doing well. Right? It's, it's a decent, decent way. It seems very balanced.

[00:08:14] And the amount of mistakes EA are making aren't that high either. It's pretty stable. It's like we're in a good marriage and you're like, hmm, this is what we wanted. But there's not much to talk about anymore in the dinner table. The problem is, John, I just think they can't help but medal. I think it's going too well. They want to do something. The evil twin will come back. I think he's been back this week because the, the packweight has been shocking.

[00:08:43] That is the one thing that will be a little bit negative about it. But as you say, there's so much to do. You know, there's that, there's the Dream Chasers Cup, which I've hardly took part in because I've been so busy doing other things, you know, doing the rivals, doing the evos. You know, you can do loads of grinding if you really want. I know Shaq has said that, you know, from a, from his point of view, in terms of getting fodder, if you're doing the big SBC, if you're doing a hula, I can imagine it is frustrating for that point of view. Because the packweight is pretty poor.

[00:09:11] But I don't know why that, that hula just seems overpriced to me, John. You did talk me into it last Friday. We can see why you're such a good salesman saying that it's a card that you'll never, ever forget, you know, and then you've probably not done it yourself, to be honest with you. I've not done anything myself this week. I know you're not that. So, it's not hypocrisy. Hypocrisy? It's not hypocrisy. It's total laziness this week. I just wanted to roll over and bat and go to bat at 7pm. That's my week.

[00:09:39] I mean, I did the, I'm halfway doing the Dembele one. I always do Gushi. His left foot is magical. So, I look forward to doing that one. It's a player that I like to have in my team. But then I see the team that's out tonight and the, you know, a couple of SBCs out tonight and it looks to me that they've taken the power curve and they've absolutely smashed it this week. Yeah, I think Shaq and Nathan talked about that on the last Tuesday show this week, which was released on Thursday, of course, as well, because, well, the flu and stuff going around.

[00:10:09] But they said it as well. All boundaries are off now. You have 15k SBCs that are amazing or 15k players that are amazing. You have 2.5 million SBCs that are pretty sick as well. There's something for everyone, including insane evos.

[00:10:30] And the one thing which I want to say about this game currently is we complained a lot, Chris, about the fact that it's FOMO inducing this game. I think it's gone. FOMO doesn't really have to have a place in this game anymore at this stage, a couple of months ago even. Because who cares who's your fullback? Who cares who's your straight?

[00:10:59] If people have Ronaldo on top, that's oh, well done, right? But you can also have a Mütter on top today. Yeah. You can also just be enjoying your Marco van Basten. You can have your Beckenbauer, Center Defender, or your upgraded Team of the Year, Virgil van Dijk. Or someone you evoked and still enjoyed. And if you committed to an SBC, it's perfectly fine.

[00:11:26] You are able to enjoy that card and still enjoy that for a good while. And if you did a 90 Gullet, that's perfect. If you did a 94 Gullet afterwards or instead even better, but you're still able to participate. I don't think there's any reason. And this is the funny part for me to spend a ton on packs, for example. No. And there's not one meta team either. Right?

[00:11:55] There's good cards, but there's so many good cards and every week they release so many good cards that I don't think it... This is so much the best situation we've had with... Like if you pack anyone today, it could be an upgrade, but it's probably such marginal upgrade over what there's already available that it's just a nice to have. And not a if I skip a week this week, I'm done with this game. Which we've had before as well.

[00:12:25] So you don't need to be sprinting to keep up with everyone anymore, I think. And I think that's a good way of, like you said, taking off the weekend league off your plate, takes off your pressure, makes you able to enjoy this more. Not being required almost to every single SPC or every grind every single week out to stay on par with the curve is also very healthy.

[00:12:51] Not only for the game, but I think generally speaking for the player base. So I'm curious. We can't see of course, but I'm curious if this kills sort of hype for team of the year, a team of the season, or if this is actually pretty relaxed and keeps people going even beyond it. No, definitely John. I mean, I think if we get into the players, there's a team of the week player, I don't think the guys talked about on Tuesday Club.

[00:13:19] We need to talk about that player, but I think he will be hyped for team of the season. I think it will. I think team of the season is a long promo that it's well worth getting hyped for. I know we all get hyped for team of the year and I hate it. I feel like that period of time, it just disturbs the game too much. It's for birthday, let's be honest. That was a great promo. The pack weight was amazing. I mean, we did the show on the Friday. I think you and I had packed about five of those cars before we even started the show in an hour.

[00:13:48] So that makes the dream chasers one so strange that the pack weight has been so bad for everybody, for Shaq, yourself, myself. There's not been many people packed the big ones and I find that a bit surprising. Yeah. Yeah. I always find it hard to talk about pack weight because during team of the year, you can actually say it's low or high because everyone's grinding at this stage of the game.

[00:14:13] I have no idea what people are spending the time on. Could be just playing and EVOs. And that's something we've never had before. Most of the time people are grinding packs and that is, if I look at the EVOs I see running around, could be something people aren't doing that much this year, which makes pack weight automatically seem a little bit lower. But hey, this is wrong. I think he's not here. So do you want to talk content or do you want to leave it at this?

[00:14:43] I think we'll talk content, John, if that's okay with you. Our listeners have come. It's Friday. Let's be honest, there is a bit of content. I think we start though with the team of the week, if that's okay. I've kind of sprung that on you. Team of the week? Team of the week. Team of the week. Yeah. Vinnie Jr. 92 rated card. I'm currently watching one at the moment that is listed for about 469,000 coins and is not selling. So there you go. You probably get to pick up about 450, even less than that.

[00:15:11] So it's a 92 rated card who is... He's got a four star weak foot and a five star skill moves. Yeah. And that is your problem, my friend. It's what I said last week. Under after food birthday, five, five has become the standard. And I don't see any reason to replace any five star five stuff or anything below that.

[00:15:36] But if you're a skiller, if you're a skiller, John, surely this card is epic for you. If you're a skiller there's now at this stage, sure. This, this card will be good. He's got special animation, hasn't he? He's got his own animations, which he... When I come up against someone who knows how to use Vinnie Jr., even the gold card, it's a good card to come up against, especially when they're a skiller. You know, and maybe it's because of me not being such a great player, but... You know, I'm looking at that card going for those amount of coins.

[00:16:06] He's a bit of fun, isn't he? You're not going to lose too much. He is a bit of fun. But I think there's better players out now. And I think every five star five star is better to use now. And would you definitely put so much coins into a team of the week player at this stage of the game? For someone that you'll be needing to fill into packs later on.

[00:16:31] I mean, a 400 something K plus as a team of the week player is unique this game, this stage of the game. Let's not doubt that, right? Mm-hmm. But he's got the load driven, which is... People are saying it's pretty overpowered. And you're going to explain this, John. How do we do the load driven? Ha ha! I see that. We used to have a team for that, you know that? Yeah. I don't know if I actually have left these days.

[00:17:00] I don't even know where the button is, Chris. So I'm going to leave that. But... Oh, mate. I think I found a button. Let's see if it still works, shall we? Mm-hmm. Foot coaching's top tip. You press the circle, you tap it, that's it. It can't be as easy as that, John. It is. And it's been in the game for a long while with the new play style. It's been... It's gone pretty good, right? Um, but yeah, you just tap it as light as you can.

[00:17:29] As light as you possibly can. So, um... How do you get power then, John? Does the power just come automatically? No, it's just fast. It's just, uh... You use that, like, the load driven. This is... I think three years ago, the load driven has been changed to tap the circle, the shooting button. I have to say the shooting button, of course. Um, which could be shoot... It doesn't matter. Just tap the shooting button. Uh, the... It used to be really strong back in the days, FIFA 17, 18, double tap it to get a load driven off.

[00:17:59] Uh, later on, the most load driven is the hold L1, R1, and then shoot, right? Also very strong. And I sort of nerfed it into the ground until this play style got released. Now, uh, it was still viable, but goalkeepers always tended to have it. But now it's strong. Just... So if you, um, if you have happened to be at the byline and you can lay it back, I think just tapping the button is a very good way to almost guarantee your goal now.

[00:18:25] The thing is though, you don't necessarily need the fast wingers or you want to have a striker that just able to have high finishing. And then I'm look at Vinny and I'm like 85 composure on Vinny with 83 shot power. Yeah. He has to play style. But if I want to finish goals with the low driven shot, I prefer to have a proper striker.

[00:18:53] Okay. So that then leads us nicely onto an icon SBC, John. We talk about proper strikers. 94 rated. It's like we've done this before. I know it's like we're professional, John. Almost like we're professional. Gert Muller. He has your magical five star weak foot. He has three play style pluses, um, which I hope you're going to bring up because my poor eyes can't make them out. Um, so that's a finesse shot plus. Yes, sir.

[00:19:24] And also the low driven. So is there anything wrong with this striker? Uh, doesn't have a five star skill move. But, uh, besides that, it's a pretty amazing card, right? Uh, 90 composure, 89 finishing. This is more of the striker person I was talking about. Um, you know, what's even better? Mm-hmm. It's almost the same price as that silly team of the week guard you just mentioned. Oh, John, that's a poor Vinny Jr.

[00:19:54] He gets a hard time off everybody. Nobody likes him. Should have won the Ballon d'Or. Didn't get it. Went to Rodri. And now you're even slating on. I'm sorry, Vinny Jr.'s mom. We didn't mean that. If Vinny wants to come on the show and defend his cell, he's more than welcome. We'll find a spot for him. Um, and he also doesn't have a mustache this great. Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a, that's a tremendous card at this stage of the game, John, for, you know, five. No, I agree.

[00:20:23] And normally I, if you'd say Muller, you'd expect it actually, um, not to be this fast either. So he's also very fast. Yeah. But with 98 finishing, 98 attacking position, 97 shot power, the financial power shot and a low driven shot. Plus on goals. I think you would say 90 jumping. He's, he's tiny though. Not, he's not tiny. He's the one 76 or five foot nine.

[00:20:53] I think. Yeah. Um, oh, he's my size. Okay. He is the perfect size. Uh, he just has a better haircut. Um, no, but this, this, this card just, I think it's amazing and it's an SPC and he's 500 K if we compare it to the cards we had. I'm almost inclined to say it's a must to accept. There's so much choice. I can't really re I can't really say there's much, much, much must do's anymore.

[00:21:20] I think this is a, you could probably just do it and enjoy this card. Yeah. I mean, this is, this is the problem with the game. Actually, the game is just too good at the moment, John. This is the problem. This is what we're saying. We've had loads of shows. We've been complaining. There's nothing to do. It's dry. It's like a desert. Unfortunately at the moment, it's like we've landed in a five star resort and we don't know if we're going to go paddle boarding.

[00:21:50] We're going to go jet skiing. You know, we're going for a massage. We're going for cocktails. You know, we're going for a five star meal. We don't know that. I mean, I know when we called it a buffet, but this, this card for me is not a buffet card. This one is a five star resort. This is sandals. You know, a week in Jamaica. This is a surprise breakfast on bed. Yeah.

[00:22:18] You know, this, this, this is something special for me and we've talked about free cocktail at the bar. Well, let's hope we'll get them and we go to Crete then, John. Give us an end for a sponsor. But no, it's a great card, isn't it? I mean, there's nothing wrong with this card. You can do this card. Um, you know, maybe people are saying I haven't got 500,000 coins. I'm sure you're going to say, John, you've got 3000 coins or if you're lucky a few hundred if you're there, but even John, you could do that.

[00:22:44] You know, you play a weekend league, you play a rivals, you pick up the, the fodder to get this card. I got 20,615 coins. Well, to be fair, that's 20,000 more than you had last week. Uh, that is probably, yeah. And I didn't even do anything. So I don't know where that, what that happened. But, um, no, I have black. Perfect. Right. And this is what I meant. Like you got big, expensive SBCs. We've got SBCs like this. Um, but if you compare, I did for robot of a person.

[00:23:12] I'm really enjoying that card, especially after the strike force, which I haven't completed yet. I hope for, is that still active though? Right. Yeah, I think it is. I think it is. I can easily check. Would be a shame if I missed that one. No, I think it's still alive. Then, um, if I'm Paris, it was the same price among the goal. Right. Mm hmm. And nobody liked that court except me, I think. But, um, this is one. Yeah. It's yeah. I can't, I can't fault anything here.

[00:23:42] Chris, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I have to be so positive. Yeah. It's difficult for us, John. Not for you, but I'm just, normally I try to correct you, but that's not happening now. Not needed. And then we go on to the, we're going to stick with objective if that's okay at the moment, because you know, there's some cards and we're going to go into the other cards. There's some cards that are super, super expensive. The next one is the Gabriel one. Um, I don't think he's a live card because he is a dream chasers one.

[00:24:11] So I don't think he's a road to the final one. Uh, I think Arsenal play Real Madrid off the top of my head, uh, in a couple of weeks time. So that will be a hard game saying that we have a good, I don't think are in sparkling form at the moment. So, you know, an Arsenal has been said about Arsenal. That was same as being said. So that's a game that could go flip flop either way. So, uh, I was just trying to look at the cost of the Diaz card, which I did do. Unfortunately, uh, I think it was he was foot birthday. Um, let me see if I can find him.

[00:24:41] Well, that's right. The Ruben Diaz. Yeah. So very similar to Ruben Diaz card, who's now sitting at 144,000. Great for me. Cause I bought him at 600. So that's my own fault. But this card here, John is a defender as a foot coach. What do you think of this card? Uh, but this is the thing, Chris, there's no complaining about any of these cards anymore. Um, this is a great card. He's an SPC by the way. I thought you said objective. Yeah. SPC. Sorry, SPC.

[00:25:10] Uh, anticipate plus Jockey plus. He's got all the stats in all right places. There are, I'm always inclined to say there are no bad cards anymore. So there's not much use looking hard at these cards and come see if you can find something to complain about. He's 180,000 coins. 180,000 to do so. I run Saliba 95 still in my team. I think, um, that card is 3 million something.

[00:25:41] I'll check. I think the best if the biggest difference is maybe the speed, but not by much. A couple of points. I think John, can I just ask you then John as a, as a coach, you look at it and you look at his roles that he's got. So he's got, uh, double pluses on three roles, which is defender, stopper and ball playing midfield, a ball playing defender. Sorry. What would you choose for this card?

[00:26:06] If someone's thinking of doing them and he's got these two, these, sorry, these three double pluses, what would you probably put on them? I think regularly speaking, I'd say stopper or stopper would probably be good. Right. But it's, this is all, I think this is preference, Chris, if I'm honest on defenders. I like ball playing defender because I actually like to build up and take a touch with the defender, open up, play it back to the goalkeeper and let them build from this.

[00:26:34] If I look at Gabriel, he has 96 short passing and 94 long passing. And he's got the ball player defending plus plus. So for my, it would be pretty ideal, but if you play a high line, for example, that might not be the best thing to do because it break up the back line easy for you. Right. So I, it is preference. I don't think there's, I know it's people say you need to have anticipate, for example, uh, intercept and you have to have stopper.

[00:27:04] Those are the easiest to do. That's the most easiest way to get the defense right without paying too much attention on it. Or with cards like this, Chris, it's just talking into the margin margins, right? Mm-hmm. It won't, it won't matter that much. I think at the start of the game, it matters way more than it does now. And everyone has the plus plus on everything.

[00:27:28] Now you could say two play style plus three common play styles is even a let down at this stage of the game. Mm-hmm. Or you, you can't, this is a, this is a proper SVC as well. It's cheap to do. Everyone could, everyone can get now a team of the year rating sort of premier league player in their squad for 180,000 coins.

[00:27:56] If they don't have any folder. And folder is pretty high because of hood. Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. So if I think this is a got anyone could do by now. And that's a pretty sick stat that everyone can have a guard behind the team and most won't even include him because they already have so many options in the team themselves. Mm-hmm. And that's a, this is a hard one. In fact on the, on the tone. Yeah. It's a hard one for the, isn't it? It's a hard one for them.

[00:28:25] How do they produce promo cards, which is going to keep the player base excited? Now this is part of the problem because you're looking at it so we can go through the rest of the team. You know, you've got Salah at 12 million, 95 rated. So yeah. You know, amazing card that'll be, you know, Joshua Kimmich. He's in the four. Yeah. Here's the other thing. The new Salah is 12 million, you said? Yeah. Yeah. Five star, four star.

[00:28:54] And the old Salah team of the year version is 96 rated now 2 million. Yeah. Is he so much worse? Nah. And it's, you know, so if there's one thing I'd say, please don't spend coins on buying players from the market right now at all anymore. Hope to pack something, go use those coins.

[00:29:21] If you have coins, even if you want to put them into SBCs, I think that's probably a better value for coins these days. Yeah. I mean, I just look at it then you go to the player I was going to pick out John is one that should really excite us as a player base is Federico Valverde. He's under a million, 950,000, which is, he's always a good player in game as well. He is 94 rated. He has, okay, he's 4-4.

[00:29:49] So I know he fails your 5-5 as well. He's got power shot, ping pass. He's got a lot of good things about him. But again, it's a 94 rated card. And is the player base going to be excited with that card? Well, I think Valverde usually excites people, but the problem is we got a free Zidane. We got free cards that are on this level as well.

[00:30:12] I think people are not very hellbound on saying that Zidane is a very good card, but this Valverde card, Chris, he's got 90 on very, on a lot of important stats. 90 plus on most stands even, right? On speed, on shot power, long shots, attacking position as a midfielder. He can also play right winger by the way. And he's got the speed actually too. So he's got everything dribbling is 90 plus.

[00:30:42] I mean, dribbling itself is 89, but Pogatron 95, reaction 95. These are, these are in all honesty team of the season rated cards or team of the year rated cards. Not even on a million on the night they come out. I have no, how do you excite coming back on your question? How do you excite people for then just by volume?

[00:31:12] I think now just make sure most teams get players or there are players in teams from their proper teams in real life. So they get excited just to use their own players again. But yeah, I don't see people buying. I can't imagine people spending 12 million currently on the SALA card. Because there might be an evolution next week that will outshine this SALA card.

[00:31:39] Or there might be an SBC like a Mueller that came out that is 500k and could do the role as well. I mean, SALA has different position of course, but you know, there's too much risk doing anything from the market. Coming back, how do, how does EA sell packs currently? I for one Chris, don't think people buy packs currently to hope to get a player from it. They want, of course, if they get it, it's nice.

[00:32:07] But it feels like they buy packs to do SBCs easier. But I cannot imagine. I think there's not a big push towards the store currently. I mean, for us, it's company purchase if we would buy packs, right? I have zero intention to actually spend because I don't see the point in it. Is that weird? No.

[00:32:38] I'll be upfront honestly, John. The only thing I spend FC points is not packs anymore is on evolutions. And that's where... Maybe that's where the market is these days. That's potentially where the market is because I want to Evo my Rangers players. So I don't mind, you know, spending eight quid on FIFA points if I'm going to get a Rangers player that's, you know, Evo to the max, you know, that's not a problem for me.

[00:33:06] And, you know, we don't, from our point of view as a podcast, don't chastise people for spending FC points. It's your own preference, you know? No, we do criticize EA if they push you towards that as your only option to play in. To make that clear, right? Exactly. That's not the situation anymore, I think. No, no, that's true. And we've got to be fair on that though, that, you know, what are you going to get out of this promo that,

[00:33:35] you know, as I say, the pack weight has been pretty poor. You know, it has been not the best. So I like the evolutions and I think Shaq mentioned that, you know, are we going to see more of a store as the game goes forward? Yeah, I don't think I mind if we do, but we'll see. We'll see. Any interesting players you want to mention on the team itself? Of course, we have Green Chase's team too. You already mentioned Salah.

[00:34:04] We have Forverde. We've got another Kimmich card. We got a Cherki. Of course. Cool. But 60, five star, five star, 60,000 coin. Just putting it out there. We got a 1.8 million costing Lewandowski. Which I love that, those cards, mate. I absolutely love those cards. I know. And I can get behind it, but it's a four star, five star for 1.8 million. When five stars are there for grabs. Probably too expensive. Let's be honest.

[00:34:34] Yeah. And I think a Shaw, four star, four star, 400k. Also very cool cards. But we're now, we are properly in city phase. Because if you pack any of these cards, any of them are cool. Or all of them are cool. But none of them are needed. I think that's how you summarize this promotion. And I think this is all because of Food Burstead being so crazy good on all these things. Yeah.

[00:35:03] I could use a lot of, a bit more of Eredivision players though. Because, but I guess. Your league is not getting a lot of love, John. And I know I slag you about being a farmer's league. But I do hold my hand up and see if you've had a very good performance in Europe this season. All the teams. Two teams in top 16 in the Champions League, I mean. Yeah. They've done well, mate. I mean, I think, you know, we talked at the start about new heroes. We have some new heroes. But are heroes missing the mark, John?

[00:35:32] At the moment. You know, are they still relevant in the game? Oh. This is a tricky subject though. Let me tell you a little bit of a story. When we started food coaching and we could, when we started coaching professional eSporters, right? There was a rule that you could only have like one icon. They called, they were called Legends or something. They were something, called something else in game.

[00:36:01] It's so long ago, I'd even forget how they were called. They were only available on Xboxing. You could use one in professional tournaments. So everyone used Gullit, basically. That was what happened. But still. That made icons special. Now we got heroes and we don't have any team building, like limits or something. We had a year where icons, I think it was last year, weren't so good because of the chemistry they gave.

[00:36:30] These here, it's the other way around. They had so much chemistry that if you have two or three in your team, chemistry actually doesn't matter to them anymore. And I feel all the novelty, all the special feelings with icons and heroes is sort of gone. And there's also something else that I don't know if it bothers me or if it's something that's just old man yells at clouds territory.

[00:37:00] And I know I put that in your tagline today, so it's a little. But here it is. Like the thing about supporting a football club, like I was, I had a conversation this morning about the top 25 players from Feyenoord from the past for the first 25 years of this millennium or this age, right? So we're in 2025. What are the top 25 players? Well, those 25 years we've been in this century.

[00:37:30] And I was like, oh, that's actually pretty cool because that's the thing about football is support a club and not necessarily a player. So you see the club, the team and players evolve throughout the years, which is a cool story. Well, we don't have that in foot anymore because even if a player retires, we still have that player. If that's a good player, right? Because it sells back. Even if that player, it was Johan de Grauze.

[00:37:59] I don't know how you call it if he died a couple of years ago. His anniversary of his death. Yeah. Yeah. That was this week. And I made me think, I'm still playing him in foot, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Talked about Maradona. See, Don retired and he's a coach and we're not even coach currently, but we're still using him in our teams because he was free. Um, Ronaldo, I'm getting 40 next week, right? Big H. Yeah.

[00:38:29] Uh, Ronaldo's 40, but we'll still be using him probably when he's 60 in this game. I don't know if the specialty of these retired players were out or we just see too many versions of them or they're just too good not to go out of the game. But it also takes a bit of the special feeling away from all the new players that come through.

[00:38:55] The things you have for like your own club is there's a talent that suddenly plays well and like, oh, that's awesome. Uh, at Feyenoord we love Gertruyder, right? He went away this year. How can we ever replace him? We have, uh, Reid that came in from the youth squad and he gave three assists last week. And everyone's like, well, what? A fullback giving three assists? And, and the fact that he's now the new fullback of Feyenoord is what a fan wants.

[00:39:23] And I think we still see the same teams with Gullet, Fiera, Zidane, uh, Nelvenmar, Adorno with him, R9 on top. And I quite like that feeling, but I'm also like, if we want to make heroes and icons special again, maybe we should put a limit to how you can use them or how many there are. I mean, we used to have 100 icons. I don't know how many we have these days, but it's a lot.

[00:39:52] When they were on Xbox, we had to use one and they were only on Xbox and there were only a couple and they made it feel special. But I don't know. Um, what do you think about that? Is it just old men yelling at clouds? Well, our listeners could easily get in touch with us if it is two old men yelling at clouds, because I'm kind of with you, John. I mean, heroes, I'd ask about them first. Let's deal with them first.

[00:40:16] I think the fact is that, you know, when they come out and you've got those wonderful images, which I hated at first, but absolutely love now. Um, you know, the superheroes, but then the dynamic images afterwards are just their picture. So they've, they've lost, they lose that little bit of magic. There's nothing better than seeing, you know, the Gooty card with his wonderful image. You know, it's been evil as well. So from my point of view, I think there needs to be something like that. The heroes have to look different at the moment.

[00:40:46] They just look like any regular player, um, to me and should there be icons in promos? I mean, I'm sure listeners think it is two old guys yelling at clouds from that point of view, but I would like to see it sort of dampened down a little bit. You know, I looked at it. Patrick Vieira has got three special cards already. Um, and it's a wonderful card to use. I still use the 90 rated Thunderstruck one, you know, the 94 rated one that's just come out 5.8 million.

[00:41:14] And, you know, Vondasar has got three cards, and I love Vondasar. Don't get me wrong. Oh, we still don't have any, we don't even have an EVO goalkeeper. But we have three special icon-y goalkeepers and we have a casillos, and we have a, before we had a check. So, you know, uh, and you only need one. That's that sort of thing. Maybe we, maybe if, I don't know, we can just say you need one icon or one hero at one line.

[00:41:43] so maybe three, a team maximum or something the thing is the most hype this game got the last month was when Ibarbo came back so maybe it's just me maybe it is John I just feel that the heroes have lost their place a little bit when they were released it was very exciting the first year it came out what is this, the third year potentially that I've had them you know, you bought the ultimate edition you got a hero

[00:42:12] that was the excitement about it, yeah I got social I already had them, it was a disaster for me but these things happen what's the difference, let me ask you this what's the difference between a hero and an icon for you? I think the icons are special John that's the only difference for me the heroes are just a meh I think they've lost their place I understand why EA have done it but I think it's an experiment that has potentially not worked or needs revamped somehow

[00:42:42] could they potentially say if you pack the first version of the hero and then the second version that you can actually Evo it for coins people might be interested then from that point of view that's probably a way that EA could go and folk will go oh they look spending FC points but actually you're getting something for your something for your money then you know what you're buying as Nath said on Tuesday Club there he doesn't like the packs because when you invest your coins or your points you don't know what you're getting but at least with Evos or that

[00:43:11] you actually know what you're going to get at the end of it so yeah I just think heroes have lost their place John yeah and there's still a couple of heroes that don't get any good cards like Kout for example the best card is still Wild Winter Card thingy right? who's never getting used so yeah let us know what you think head us up in the comments of this show in YouTube of course youtube.com forward slash foot in review of course and on our oh you can now leave comments on Spotify

[00:43:41] I think you can also leave comments on Apple just leave us a comment somewhere wherever you find us or in footinreview.com and let us know what you think we'll be back on that topic next week I think because yeah could be just a little bit of tired of being nostalgic which you do get as you get older unfortunately that it will happen to us all it will happen to us all I happened to mention to my daughter about a band called Wet Wet Wet

[00:44:10] which is a massive Scottish band from my era and she didn't know who it was and I was absolutely devastated and yes I did feel that old I'll be honest with you if you know who Wet Wet Wet is please hit us up in the Discord or on Patreon and let us know yeah I'll tell you a story about my kids this morning they wanted to let me know they found a cartoon called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I was like I know that cartoon do you know that? yeah it's apparently there's a lot of new shows

[00:44:39] so I'm like that's not the show I've watched before it looks a little bit different but I know who they are can you show us the show you looked at? so I looked that up there's some videos on YouTube and they're like there's no even there's not even color in it like yeah thanks thanks guys it's okay so yeah it is that time of the year talk about that time of the year it is my version actually yeah and we are I am kidding we not we

[00:45:09] I'm so old we're talking in third person now I'm getting 40 years old next week I don't have any ties to connect that to the podcast unfortunately I've been thinking about it did we make 40 shows no pretty way more did I did 40 in those no I did about 700 I have no idea how to link it but we are going to do something though we're going to do several things but one thing I am going to do is

[00:45:37] I'm not going to give away 40 coaching sessions because I think that's a bit much but we are going to give away four so if you drop us a comment on one of our socials or leave us a five star review on Spotify or Apple podcast of course let us know say happy birthday John we'll drag you in and at the end of next week we'll do a little giveaway I'm going to give away four coaching sessions

[00:46:06] to everyone that wish me a happy birthday on my birthday and that is on Wednesday April 2nd so drop us a comment on April 2nd say happy birthday John and everyone that does we will take you in to winning one of the four coaching sessions we are giving away from foodcoaching.com of course but there's more Chris there's more yes and thinking about my voice just dropping out what is there left to say or to announce

[00:46:35] well when we started this well you started this show those many moons ago I think it was almost just before COVID or just after COVID wasn't it John I think it was way before COVID even it was way before COVID COVID was five years ago there's my memory starting to starting to wane what we did we're in season seven wow I cannot believe that John seven years but we've got a seven year itch going at the moment so what we've done is we've decided when we first started the show it was all about the voices

[00:47:04] you'd hear a different voice almost every week you joined the the Patreon and you had the opportunity to join the podcast so we have decided that we'd like to look for some new superheroes so if you're out there and you're love listening to the show you love the game but you think to yourself well I can do better than those two old guys or five old guys how many guys we've got on the show hit us up you know record a small intro from yourselves if you can if not come and join the discord

[00:47:33] and start chatting to John and I and we all the guys if you've got something interesting to say we'd love to hear from you and we are looking to trial some new voices for the show going forward we are going to assemble some new Avengers yes definitely so the fun thing is we made something available on foodinreview.com if you log on if you go on to foodinreview.com you don't have to log in you can do this on your mobile phone you can do it on your browser whatever

[00:48:02] go foodinreview.com on the right side there is something big a microphone saying send us a voice message and if you click that you can leave us a voice message let us know by that voice message one who you are of course where you're from preferably how old you are because if you're not 18 years old or legal age I should say I can't take you in the team unfortunately there's still something we are still in business so I gotta follow the rules

[00:48:31] and leave us a voice why would you be the next host of foodinreview and with next host of course we still have a rotating host and nobody is leaving the only one that is leaving currently and I did not mention him yet is of course Kyle I want to give a special shout out to Kyle Kyle and us we have decided to part ways not because there's something wrong not because we hate each other or

[00:49:01] I don't know it's just because but Kyle of course last year has become a father and that's taken up all of his time and well if you don't have time we can't really do a podcast so there's that so I want to well first of course wish Kyle and his family a very very happy times I had he's always able I've said he's always willing and able to come back if he's ever ready for it again

[00:49:30] but well that brings us with at least an open spot for a steady host but I'm not want to rule out the fact we'll just bring in several voices that we send in and maybe pick one that's part of the steady schedule or we'll start rotating everyone if there's so many people that say have a good voice sound fun or something else to bring to the table so go to foodandreview.com hit the send us

[00:50:00] a voice message button it is very bright it is very yellow on the right side of your screen and you can't hardly miss it you can do it on your phone you can use a podcast studio or whatever and if you want to send us a video message just tag us in one of the socials and even more bonus points for you I think yeah definitely and also if you're a female gamer out there this is quite a male dominated show we'd love to hear from you as well so we're open to everybody all we ask is you have opinions on the game yes

[00:50:30] and not necessarily the popular opinions exactly yes and also if you are below 40 you are bringing the podcast age team the general age down unfortunately I bring the age up John I'm afraid yeah we're also very much based in Scotland so if you're not based in Scotland no I'm just kidding what perks does it bring well of course you get access to events you get

[00:50:59] to make one of the longest going podcasts in food history at least one with almost the most episodes I think and it's just fun it's just fun and there's so much more but free coaching sessions and stuff there as well but I'm not going to hear I just want to know if there are people out there that I was like you know what this is something I was looking forward to this is something that I've been thinking about

[00:51:29] don't be shy just reach out for the review.com hit the yellow button and let us know Chris do you have something to add? No John a lot of fun tonight so thank you so much yes well thank you for being back I'm so loving that background of your news well we will sit and have a whiskey very soon John when we get you over to the Bonny Scotland and we'll sit here and we'll have a few

[00:51:59] games FC or FIFA as we call it yeah all I need is a couple of clients that say can you please fly over for a sponsorship deal so I've got a good reason to do so we'll have a few games of Firenord versus Rangers looking forward to that definitely and else I'll see you in a month in Creed mate that flies when you're having fun so and for everyone else thank you so much for tuning in again I know the last two weeks has been a little bit scruffy almost

[00:52:29] a lot of people falling off ill unfortunately that's not much to do we had a typhoon flying around in Australia which didn't make things easier either and then there's me this week well getting ill while everyone else was ill as well so we'll be better but part of being better is at least being honest about it so next week we'll be back of course we are going on our spring

[00:52:59] schedule which means one show a week but it will allow us to make a little bit more bonus content so if you are a patreon subscriber there could be something in your inboxes very soon so check out patreon.com forward slash foot in review and on that note Chris there's just one thing left for me to do and that is drop it drop it F U T F U T

[00:53:29] F F U T F U T T T in view F U T