The J-Talk Podcast

Episode 321 - J.League Ultimate XIs Draft

#Originally posted as a Patreon-exclusive podcast at the end of April#

Part history lesson, part thought experiment, all round fascinating listen.

Cesare Polenghi and Alan Gibson guest to draft their all-time J.League XIs, and you'll love being a fly on the wall for it.

The Patreon posts with Gibson FC and AC Polenghi laid out in formation and with career and honours information are now out from behind the paywall, so after you've listened please check them out, and a Twitter poll (pinned tweet @JTalkPod) will follow in which we want you to choose which team would win a one-off game between them, but for now, sit back, relax and enjoy.

For access to other exclusive podcasts and posts, please consider supporting the podcast for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/jtalkpod.

J-Talk: Extra Time - Show me the (J3) Money!!!

Who's ready for a financial facts & figures party? You are? Great, because Stuart Smith & Jon Steele deep dive into the finances of Japan's third tier and the discussions moves into some very interesting places.

 

- Where do clubs get their money from?

- How bad financially is the drop from J2 to J3?

- To what extent are private companies involved with clubs?

- What does it mean to actually be a supporter? Do you have to go to games? Is it a fan club membership? Is it wearing club colours?

- How important are the traditional supporter aspects - going to games, buying shirts etc - to the bottom line of the club finances?

 

As always, if you have any feedback, please send it this way. We really appreciate the support and with the J.League kicking back into full swing soon, we will be hitting our stride very soon indeed! 

 

But in the meantime, please enjoy this episode! And, as always, thank you for your support.

• Stuart - @sushi_football
• Jon - @J2KantoBites
• Patreon - https://patreon.com/jtalkpod

Episode 320 - Fixtures, Anyone?

The harsh realities of a full season squeezed in to six months were laid bare to all J1 clubs and supporters on Monday evening when the top flight fixtures were released, and Jonny Nicol, making a storming J-Talk debut, joined Sam and Ben to discuss our major takeaways from the biiiiiiig reveal.

Jonny's Gamba Osaka blog can be found here: Gamba Osaka blog in English, and its sister Twitter account is @BlogGamba.

As we seemingly do on every episode these days, Dan Orlowitz's terrific work is referenced several times here, you can find his extremely informative pieces on the J.League's Restart Protocols and the Fixture Reveal on his Japan Times archive.

J-Talk: Extra Time - News Dump

Governments prefer to do this on Friday afternoons when people are either in the pub or completely disconnected from important stuff. We, however, want our listeners to be informed as much as possible. That's why we've crammed a lot of recent events into this week's episode. Jon and I (Stuart) talk: 

- The latest Covid-19 update
- J2 opening fixtures released
- FC Tokyo U23 out of J3
- Kyoto Sanga fine for Nazi-themed flag
- No banners in empty stadia, but cardboard cut-outs ok? 

Programming note - the J3 finance special (that is 'special' used in the very loosest of terms....) is coming at you next week. We thought you needed a break from the financial stuff after last week.

But in the meantime, please enjoy this episode! And, as always, thank you for your support.

• Stuart - @sushi_football
• Jon - @J2KantoBites
• Patreon - https://patreon.com/jtalkpod

 

 

 

Episode 319 - Its A Marathon And A Sprint

After Sam and Ben begin the episode with a smidgen of K League chat, and housekeeping following announcements last week from both the J.League and AFC (to 15:08), they welcome back frequent guest Alex Bishop - one half of the FC Tokyo Kai-Guys from twitter - for a chat on FC Tokyo winding up their Under 23 team before the start of the new J3 season (to 42:10). The guys then move on to discuss how Tokyo (and other teams) might handle such a gruelling set of upcoming fixtures - with The Gasmen potentially playing between 45 and 50 games in less than six months - ahead of the release of the J.League fixture list next Monday.

Money, money, money.....

...must be funny? Not really if you are JEF United or FC Gifu. But luckily there are some teams that know the difference between value and cost. 

Welcome to the deep dive on the financial state of J2 and the clubs contained in it. Stuart took the time over the weekend to assess the J.League financial report for 2019, and has translated/crunched some numbers to try and answers questions including:

• Who squeezes out the best value for money?
• Who punches above their financial weight?
• Who is in trouble financially?
• Who disappoints?
• Where does the money come from?
• What is "other"? 

Jon & Stuart go over these questions, and try to provide some insight into the numbers. If after listening you have any questions - please feel free to me or Jon a tweet. 

As always, we really appreciate all the support & feedback we get from you listeners. We hope you enjoy this episode! But don't gorge on it - the J3 financial podcast is on the horizon, and that is one hell of a document!

• Stuart - @sushi_football
• Jon - @J2KantoBites
• Patreon - https://patreon.com/jtalkpod

Episode 318 - The Final Countdown (We Hope)

This is it... surely. After a few false starts, the J.League announced return to play dates for J1 and J2, and a commencement date for J3, last Friday, and Sean Carroll joined Sam and Ben to chat all about it.

Thanks to Jonny, one of our supporters on Patreon, for his questions - if you've been listening regularly you know the guys have been greatly indebted to our patrons for topics and talking points during the COVID-19-enforced hiatus.

If you'd like to support the podcast on Patreon, for as little as $1 a month, please visit patreon.com/jtalkpod

 

J-Talk: Extra Time - (Re)Born on the 4th of July

Ahead of an official announcement on Friday May 29th, Jon Steele & Stuart Smith discuss the proposals regarding the restart (or the start, if we're talking J3....) of the J.League, and the challenges it faces. 

The gents also talk crowd noise, go over FC Ryukyu's financial results, wax lyrical about Zweigen Kanazawa's proposed new stadium, have a bit of gossip on an up & coming player who might be heading to Europe....all in under 40 minutes!! 

** Apologies for the audio quality on Stuart's side. For some reason the usual recording software didn't work and so we had to use the embedded recorder in Skype which didn't work as well as the other one. I hope it doesn't affect your listening enjoyment **

We really appreciate all the support & feedback we get from you listeners. We hope you enjoy this episode!

• Stuart - @sushi_football
• Jon - @J2KantoBites
• Patreon - https://patreon.com/jtalkpod 

 

Episode 317 - Japan International Ami Otaki

What a career, what a life in football. From Waseda University to a European Champions League Final, then trying to break in to a World Cup-winning squad. From retiring to having a kick-about with Park Ji-Sung, and then returning to the pitch.

Sam and Ben were thrilled to be joined by Ami Otaki, who was a brilliant guest - open and honest about all of her experiences along the way, and passionate about Nadecare, the NPO she started with Saki Kumagai and Yukari Kinga in 2019.

Get following @nadecare on Twitter! 

J-Talk: Extra Time - "Empty" Stadia Problems

Jon Steele & Stuart Smith return for short. sharp round up of the latest news from Japanese football including:

• Is the J.League gearing up for a return?
• Squirting soap on the changing room floor
• How to fill an empty stadium? 
• Handsome Mitch Langerak
• Good & bad J.League content

We appreciate all the support & feedback we get from you listeners. We hope you enjoy this episode!

• Stuart - @sushi_football
• Jon - @J2KantoBites
• Patreon - https://patreon.com/jtalkpod