S15E11 - Shoots of growth

Really stubborn. Going all the way.

Again here. And Leonard's kicked him out. Oh, this is incredible. This is quite incredible. Truly a glory, glory day for Tottenham Hotzma.

Hi, guys.

I'm Andre Vilas Boas listening to Echoes of Glory. And don't forget, whatever happens, the future is bright.

Future's lily white.

Come on your Spurs.

Hello and welcome to Echoes of Glory. I'm Asd.

And I'm Jack.

It's been a month. It's been a month because you've been off. I've been working. One of us was ill. It's just, just. Life has gone a lot, isn't it? Been a lot. But we've missed a lot of games. We've missed Hagen Mickey van de Ben's run. A mad 22 against Man United. Almost disappointing that it was 2 2, but at least didn't lose the Arsenal game, which I'm sure we'll talk about now because, you know, people do the pod straight after and they're very emotional because I want to talk about that. Then the PSG game, which was later that week, which is also a mad loss. A Fulham loss, a draw against Newcastle in the week, and then a really good game against Brenford. Let me ask when you hear those Copenhagen 4N Champions League night in the lights, Van de goal of the season, you go into Man United 22, which is a bit disappointing. Arsenal. It wasn't great, was it? Yeah, it was bad psg.

People were like, it's a good loss. I, I didn't think it was great. Bad loss to Fulham. Good draw maybe against Newcastle. Then a really good game against Brentford yesterday. Where's your head? That where you at with Frank? Frank's had what, let's give him 15 league games.

Yeah.

15 league games. 20 games.

Yeah. Where am I? I, I, I probably.

This time last week I was having a little bit of a wobble, if I'm totally honest with you, about, about him. Where we're at, where we're going.

So I'm pleased that we've had a good last couple of games. I think it was so important to win at home against Brentford yesterday and like 4 points out of the last week, we've turned, we've, we've sort of stopped the rot a little bit, which was good.

It's been a bit of a hard watch, I'm gonna say. Even in the games where there's been a lot of goals, I, I don't think we're so far from playing our best football this season. I think we've not even seen 20% of what we can do with this team so far. I mean, ultimately we're just quite inconsistent still, aren't we, with, like, with the results. Some games were, you know, Brenford was good. Newcastle was good. In terms of the results, the performance at Newcastle, maybe we got a little bit lucky. But the ones before that, I. I've. I've been a bit worried with the amount of crazy mistakes that we've been making. You look at the Fulham game, but both of those goals, especially the second one with the keeper, where it's just like, you know, what are you doing? Some of the goals we shipped in at PSG and Arsenal.

Yeah.

Albeit against elite opposition teams. Teams. Teams are not really having to do a great deal to score against us.

No.

But I think that that is not just the spurs thing. That's sort of the bit of perspective is that I have watched quite a lot of football the last couple of weeks that hasn't been Spurs. And actually most games in the Premier League now that are won are actually lost, if you get what I mean.

Like, the team, the other team loses rather than with the other team.

Teams are just sort of chucking a couple of goals in and it's like, you know, or teams aren't having to do much to win. And I actually felt that whilst we played well against Brentford yesterday, we didn't have to do a great deal to win that game two nil. Like, not really. Not really.

We should have scored more. Like the second half was. Yeah. And we should have done better, I thought.

Yeah, yeah. But I. But I mean, to actually answer your question, I'd say that, like, verdict's still out. If I'm totally honest with you, I'm not like, I'm not against him. I'm not for him. I'm probably, like, he's probably doing.

The.

Job that I'd sort of. It's probably where we're at. I mean, you look at the league and I know you look at. And you go with 10th, like, have we got that? Much better. But like, league is so tight that you've got, you know, Villa in third on 30 points all the way down to, you know, Bournemouth, 13th on 20. 10 points between third and 13th, like, that feels a bit bonkers. And four or five weeks ago, Bre. Bournemouth, sorry, were like, comfortably in the top four, and now they're 13th. So it. It's. It's a really, really weird and tight league. It's like you win two out of three and you could be in the top five or you lose two or three in a row and you're in the bottom half of the table. So I'm trying to not look at league position and look at. Actually we are a win away from being in the European spots. Like Everton are six all of a sudden.

How's that happened? That's happened because they've won their last two games, if we're completely honest. So it's a tight league. Verdict's still out because I think we're better in certain ways, but then not as good in others. And it's. It feels a bit clunky. It. If we're honest, it's a team that's 15 games into a new manager like that and that has got also a lot of injuries at the moment, which. Because we've had so many injuries for such a long time, I think people just stop talking about them. But, like, we are missing our entire attack pretty much still. So I think that we're doing okay is where we're at. Like, I'd probably give us a C or. Or a, you know, five and a half out of ten at the moment. It's like, it's about. It's probably about where we are.

Yeah, I think that's fair.

But that's quite uninspiring to say. Do you know what I mean?

Like, it is uninspiring.

You've also got to be realistic about where can we be at the minute.

Yeah, I think if we were third, fourth or fifth and we were flying high, scoring loads of goals, we'd go like, what. What has gone on here? Like they're taking drugs or something. I think there's been like the. If I look at the squad that started yesterday, the differences are kudos, Simmons and Moani. I don't. I'm not writing Milwauni so far at all. I just. I just don't get it.

I think that. I think that he's. He's worked out probably in the last couple of weeks that you got three options as you sent the forward, Muani, Richarlison or tell at the moment. And none of them are good enough to play up front on their own. None of them. So actually, I think we've probably looked better when we've played a bit more of a 442 and you have two forwards up there because almost like if you've got Richarlison and Colin Moana, they're almost the equivalent of one good forward.

And.

And. But I. I get the sense of. He's a bit reluctant to do it because he has, he's a bit. You're a bit more open, aren't you, if you play with your two forwards. But. So I think he's still trying to figure that out. But yeah, I agree with that. The, the, the great thing for me the last few weeks has been just that Archie Gray's getting a run in the team.

Good.

I thought he played, he played center midfield yesterday. I thought he played really well. It was one of the best performances of the season from him. And like him, Xavi Simmons, who I'm not a massive fan of, but I'm just a little bit like, just play them. Do you know what I mean? Just get like, I think Javi Simmons definitely needs half a dozen games. Just play him and like, even if he has a poor game playing the next, because it's like we're never really going to know if he's going to be good enough if, if we don't give him minutes. And it's the same with Archie Graham. I think the minutes that he has got be that center midfield, at fullback, at center half. There's a good player in there and I think we've just, you just got to find a way at the minute of having Archie Gray in the team somehow so he can, you know, it can, it can develop and we can see the best from him.

Ericsson didn't land straight away. He scored what his first goal. Goal was a free kick against West Brom, wasn't it? And like we. Xavi isn't going to take a free.

Like that's a free shot.

And so he has to make it work for him. And we've been spoiled in recent years from our attack. Like, yeah, we can only dream of Ericsson's son, Deli and Kane like that. The desk formation was unbelievable of how it worked. I think the two things I was going to say were Frank is having to create an identity and to do that you have to create a base. And he. What I've noticed is we don't take many shots. Like we all saw that about how we didn't take any first half shots, but our conversion rate is the highest in the league. And so his thing is all about we're going to get in and create good shots and we're going to score them and suddenly as that starts to accelerate, then we'll score more goals. But we said this before with managers and it's, it's, it's quite. If you just put two blocks of four or five and a four in front of you. You can't get in the box and have those shots and suddenly that system breaks down and you need players who are really good at shooting. And that's not Richarlison's game. It might be more Solanke's game. The other thing is. And it. It worries me to say it because we were saying it last year is I don't like how the. The midfield has been asked to do a hell of a lot like they've been. We're not very good at taking it from defense to midfield to attack. There's a breakdown there. I don't think they're playing as separately as they were last year, but I feel like Ben Cray or Sar and Gray or Sar Bergval have been asked to do a huge amount by not only being defensive midfielders but being the box to box and attacking midfielders as well. And it just doesn't work. Like, it just doesn't work. I'd rather see a diamond in there with, you know, Sar at the base, Bal at the top and then Graham, Ben or Panino. And we've got too many midfielders as well for if we're playing a 4231, we've got too many because what is it? Gray, SA Bentecourt, Bergval, Palin. That's two and that's too many because who. Who is your main two? I don't know. He's a bit like situational. How'd you get any momentum if you're going to go right? Berg, are you going to start? Gray? You're not going to start this time.

Difficult. And I also think that the. There must be a bit of frustration on the manager side as well as well. We've had so many games. He must have such little time to work on anything as well because it's like they're not. They won't be training at the moment. You know, I mean they'll just be match recover, bit of tactical work straight into the next. It's like that until mid January, isn't it?

And the, the problem we've got is we've got players who are constantly coming back as well. So you can't have like that would be fine if you just had the same players out and maybe swap one or two. But we've got players coming back constantly and so you constantly have to change it up. So I get why that's difficult. Question I was going to ask. I was looking at the Arsenal game in particular. Like spurs fans went into meltdown. Yeah. Quite irritatingly like there's a bit of interest. What did you expect?

It was an embarrassing loss the way. The way it played out. We didn't offer anything but we've seen this before. We lost five, two at their place two years in a row like we've little fight and that was embarrassing from spurs fans like the thing that always gets me is like expectations versus reality but.

None of them are going out not to try hard. None of them are going out to try and lose. None of all of them want to go out for personal let alone professional credit to try and show that they're doing something. But if you're playing a team who's been spending four, five, six years trying to work out how to be the best defensive unit and they've got some of the best attacking players in the league, it's. You're going to look like it's not very good. My question to you is I'm going to do it with two teams the Arsenal team. So if I look at the Tottenham team that played Arsenal how many spurs players would get into that Arsenal team? I would argue. Let me read the two teams out to you. I don't think it's any.

I don't. I don't know if any getting AC to be tit you might maybe take.

One of the center backs. No. So you got Rya, Timber, Saliba, Hing, Cape Califior ets, Zubamendi, Rice, Saka, Mourinho, Mourinho Trossard and we had Vicario, Danso, Van de Van Romero, Udogi, Bentico, Pollinius, Spence, Ode Bear, Kudas, Richarlison. None of them are getting in that happened.

I don't think any of them are getting in the the only one you might maybe take the left a Spurs left back over color Fury if you were being really, really, really picky but.

That'S dark so the book but that's expected so let's go. Let's have a look at the Villa Villa in third. How many spurs teams will get into this team? She got Martinez at the back. I think you take the World cup winning captain maybe I think Lucario is still underrated. I think he made some amazing. I think he makes some great saves and he's a little bit underrated obviously. That mistake last week was horrific. I think Danso could have helped him out a bit more in there but we'll go back to that then. Matty Cash at right back over Poro.

I'm not sure. No, I'm also not. This is a family show but you can describe Matty Cash also.

Concert and pal Torres.

Van der Van's in one of their places.

Vanderbilt. I think I, it's so weird because it's like I would say like our center halves are better than theirs but like are they this is, this is the thing I'm starting to like. I'm like I think Romero is a good player. I do. But like we, we, we're still like not looking that great at the back. I, I, I don't, I, I don't know if I think that our defenders better than what they are. I think Van de Ven is so good but I'm like am I looking at it through? Do you know? I mean my spurs goggles and actually is he not as good as I think he is? Is that the same with Romero? Like cuz you can't have an unreal center back partnership and, and let and still not be rock solid. Like do you know what I mean?

Yeah. I feel like King and Dawson were a better defensive duo than the two we've got now. But the two we've got now are better players like FIFA. You'd be amazing with them because you'd set them up. There's just something weird going on there.

Matson at left back. I would take our left backs. I think our left backs are very good. I, either of them.

The mental thing there is we've just gone. We're having the spurs back four.

Yeah. And we are conceding crazy goals. And then you've got Kamara and Anana in the middle for them.

I, I think that Kamara is really underrated. I think he's a really underrated player. I, you know what? Kamara definitely. What, what, what Router in that game. Paolinian Bentacore.

Probably. I think maybe I'd have Kamara Palina.

Very strong defensive to their feet from you.

I mean if, if I've got the free pick of it like Bergwell is in, he's in any, any spurs side burglar has to be in it. Do you know what I mean? Like he, I, I think I said this on our group chat like I actually think Bergwell's our best player.

He's, he's good to me.

Teenager.

You can see him actually playing for Barcelona and they were in for him. He only came to us because he get game time and that's probably true. He's classy. They're then front three behind Ollie Watkins. We'll come back to Watkins was McGinn, Telemans and Rogers. I'm not a big fan of McGinn, but he works hard. You know what you're going to get for him.

But still he's in the irritating 11. John Wiggin, like a lot proper gets under my skin, but he's effective and he's. Yeah, I think that, that, that free is better than. It's better than ours, isn't it? Do you know what I mean? It's better than Kudas, Shavi, Siemens and Richarlison or whatever it was we played like. Yeah, we're now at the week, the week the weakest point of the spurs side is the attack now. Do you know what I mean?

But like, when we get Kudas back, Kasaski has to go in the middle, definitely. And then Solanke and then one of Tell or the Bear. It's not that bad. I just, I'm look to the. The 11 I'm looking at is the one against Arsenal and I just look at their players like, you've got Rice, Odegaard, Supermandy, Etsy, Saka and the Marino. That is unbelievable.

It's just. And it's also like they've been together for such a long time that like, like it's, it's. It's when we had Potch, wouldn't it like it almost. Like it almost didn't matter who played.

Yeah, sure. With the full back, the foot. The back four is. I've been listening to that sky podcast and it, it. I like it because I like Righty. I don't mind Gary Neville. I cannot stand Roy Keane, I can't stand Jamie Carragher. But when they were talking about right backs the other day, when they had Lashley Cole on, it was a really good episode they were talking about. In those days, you did not allow a crossing. Like they would get bollocking if they had one cross. And that's the thing. I don't. The spurs thing. I don't think our mentality as a club is good enough. Like, I don't think as a club we've got. The mentality was you do not. Like you've got your job today is you do not allow crosses in. You do not allow your man past you and you do. I don't care about anything else. I don't feel like. And if you do, it's a failure. I don't feel like that meant that hardcore mentality is in there. Maybe Romero has it, but it's definitely not in everybody else.

Is that. I guess my thing with that is. Is that just a Spurs thing though, or like If. If we were to sit on a podcast with supporters of. Of Brighton, Sunderland, Liverpool, Spurs, Newcastle, Man United, Bournemouth, Brentford, I reckon they're all. They've all got the same frustrations as us. We're not scoring enough. We're not good enough at the back. Like, we're doing consistent. You know that. That's. That's what it is this year, isn't it? It's such a. It's gonna be. There's gonna be managers that will lose their job either during the season or the end of the season based on the league positioning in a league which is going to be so tight. And it's like you could end up finishing 13th at the end of the season but be like nine points off champions League.

Yeah.

Like. And it will be. Will we finish Vertip? Like, it's. It's a really. You know what? It's. It's actually quite an exciting league this year.

Yeah.

Because it. There's. How are you meant to know what's going to happen in games? Like, every game chucks out some sort of, like, surprise, but that, you know, and that's like the title race all of a sudden is back on again.

City a couple of points behind Arsenal. How has that happened? It feels like Arsenal's lost one game and suddenly and.

But you know what it is? This. In this point of the season, end of November through to start a January, there are so many games that you only have to have. You only got to win. Sorry, You've only got to lose one and draw one consecutively. And it's like all of a sudden you've just dropped five points there.

We're three behind title contenders Chelsea, but they've only. Chelsea are in fifth. Palace are in fourth. They've only won seven games out of 15.

Yeah, it is. It is a really weird. And the start of the season, like Villa didn't win in their first five games. They were saying that Emory was going to get the chop. And they're. They're third now.

Course I say we're the joint third highest goal scorers in the league. City have got 35, Arsenal got 28. And then us and Chelsea got 25 goals and Brighton.

It doesn't feel like that at all, really.

Really.

It does not feel like that at.

All because our last, like, win, but then it's been draw, loss, loss, draw, loss, which is pretty bad. We got Slavia Prague, who haven't won a game in the Champions League. They're rising high in their league, but they have not won a game in the champions league.

Enter Dr. Spurs.

Enter do spur. I mean they've drawn three and lost two. They're still 31st out of 30. Ajax being bottom of the league is just embarrassing. Their goal difference is minus 15 because they've. They've conceded 16 goals in five games. This is Ajax.

This game for us is an absolute must win. Like yeah, we're doing all right in the Champions League so far. Like yeah, we got beat at psg.

We've only won two games but we.

Won both our home games. We won both our home games and we've drawn, we've drawn two trickier away games which as we speak about all the time drawing away in Europe's decent in any Europe a lot is tough. We need to win this one. Like if we win this one that gets us right back up in the mix because we want to try and we can get in that top eight to bypass the first qualification round. So this is, this is a big one for us. This.

It's a big one. We've got. Who are our remaining games. It's this. Then we've got Monaco I think Frankfurt.

And that's it, isn't it?

Yeah, Prague. Yeah. Prague at home. Dortmund at home in January, Frankfurt away.

Yeah, that's it for the moment.

Do you want.

Okay.

Again it's. It's about winning those home games. If we, if we beat Prague, if we beat Dortmund, we're in a really good, in a really, really good position there to yeah, you know, get through in the top eight.

And Forest, who knows with Forest but the one I'm looking forward to is Liverpool because what a show Liverpool are. I. Do you see the Salah coming out now and seeing he's. He's running his mouth off again. They need to sell him. He was like this last year, just moody but this year he's not delivering at all.

They look all, they look all over the place. Liverpool, they do you know what it is? They've. You remember when Ferguson left Man United and all of a sudden none of their players scared you. This is the same players really as. As last year give or take a couple. The fear factor's gone completely gone out of that team and all of a sudden you look here and go, you know, you know what, we can get a van djk or don't worry about Salah and Gakpo. Like we'll be able to shut them out. Like it just doesn't feel like the same side at all.

So that's going to be an interesting. It'd be Great. It feels like we haven't beat Liverpool for ages as well, didn't it? I don't even wanna. I don't even want to know when it was the last time because it'll be. It will probably be depressing.

Was it that at the bay or.

One or it'll be like. Or it'll be like the last victory was like in the Wembley days or something like that, wouldn't it like oh.

There'S that one where Delhi scored. Remember we went 3 nil up quite early. Do you remember that? Yeah yeah so they've beaten us. Oh we've beaten one nil in this. Oh there's a. In the semi finals World Cup 21 in 2324 at our place.

Early in September. I mean I. I cannot remember this game.

What was the score?

2:1, I suppose. Song King Min 36. Oh yeah. Do you remember GPO and then Matip scored no goal and the Liverpool fans were human.

22 red cards they had as well didn't they?

Liverpool Jones and Jota.

Yeah yeah.

I forget that game but yeah then before that you have to go back to the four 1 in 17, 18 and before that then you're back to 12 13. So three wins in 12 in the time we've been doing this podcast is pretty poor.

And what's worse like that or our record against Chelsea away at Chelsea.

The, the Chelsea away record. Like just leave that alone.

I don't understand it. Right. Because it defies all logic. These are completely different players. Every completely different. I don't understand how this keeps on happening. Like I just don't understand it.

That's. That's sport though right that like, like logic sometimes just doesn't go into or like the laws of averages when you're like surely.

But.

Yeah. So Liverpool Forest. It's a shame Big Ange isn't the Forest manager because you'll be seeing he's been coming out and been saying come on you spurs in a couple of different like people have been catching him. Yeah I'm starting to like him a little bit now. Yeah I think he's a good guy.

He was a good guy. He's a good guy. Just so out of his depth.

I didn't like how grumpy he was but he just seems a bit more like I'd be grumpy if I played if I was there as well.

And you'd be a lot happier if you just left a job and been paid seven million quid for six weeks work or whatever it was.

I would Love it so much, man. Can you imagine?

Just be gone, be gone to the world.

Do you know what I mean? One of. So a friend we were just talking about, we both went stay with in Cardiff. They knew someone who worked, who lived on the mountain that they live out in Bedwars and the guy used to be in the police and he got contacted to be the head of security to manage the security for the World cup in, in Qatar and he did six months work and so much money he never has to work again. He's done. He lived out there for a little bit afterwards just enjoying the life, but he just organized the security.

What do you think about this?

The players ignoring the fans and going through to the circle. It's weird, isn't it?

It is like I just feel like with, with stuff like this it feels a little bit brain dead. Like players should just know that like if, if the, if you lose the supporters, you don't come back from it, like you're gone. So it's like I, I've never under clap the supporters. The support will pay the money like, right? And like if you've had a bad game and they're booing you or giving you a bit of stick, it comes with a territory, just clap them. Take it on chin. John Walker is 30 seconds to clap four stands and walk down the tunnel. So like I don't understand when, when none of the players do it, no matter what's going on, it's just like again, from a fan's perspective, rightly or wrongly, that just, it makes you go, they don't care, they don't want the shirt, they want to do what I mean. So I just feel like it's an, it's, it's such an easy thing for them to do.

Like just do it also like as soon you know that thing, as soon as you lose the fans, you're done.

Yeah.

There's no way back.

No, no one can, no one can fool the, the supporters of a football club. Like the supporters of a club know that club better than anybody and there.

Is a guarantee in every club that those fans will be there longer than anybody involved in the club.

Exactly, exactly.

So it's odd.

It just feels like an unnecessary battle for players to be having.

What I'm hoping is they go in. Do you know what? We're not going to fight.

Our individual battles and have a look at how you're impacting us. Crowd. We are building this individual identity as a collective and we're going to be together and I'm Hoping very quickly. It seems all was fine yesterday. It'll be interesting what happens when we lose or when someone makes a mistake again, because there were even. There were players who were going to the crowd and individually geeing up the crowd, but it's not caught on camera as much like from people going to the ground. I've been last couple of games. But, yeah, it's a. It's an odd time to be a Spurs fan because it's. It's very similar to what has we've seen for last. Yeah. Ever since I've been going, you know what?

I just. I just feel like just a general statement and I don't know if this is because it's been a particular struggle for us, week in, week out for quite a few years is. I don't get. I don't think football's as entertaining anymore. Just generally like. They're all as entertaining generally as what it is. Like, I sit down and still watch a lot of football, but I find most games quite boring now, if I'm totally honest with you, there aren't many games that, like, especially as a neutral, I find myself. I'll put the game on. If ever intentions sit and watch it and. And then come an hour into the game, I've got it. I've got it on, but I'm not re. I'm not 100 watching it. I might be on my laptop, on my phone or what. I'm not like, engrossed and in the game. And I just think. I don't know. I think that's a personal thing of, like, stylistically. I, like, I just. I find it quite boring now. It's so, like, structured and like, it's so controlled. And that's an amazing strength that all of these coaches have got, that they're able to do that. But I just sometimes just miss seeing a winger, you know, go down the line, beat his man and put a great ball in. Or like seeing somebody just off the cuff do something that you've not seen before. Like, most of the goals that we see now, like, we've seen them. Like, is it the Van der Vengal that was against Copenhagen that made me go, oh, my God. Like, and it just feels like you go back sort of 10, 15 years, maybe not to the level of that Van der Vengal, but you'd see things. You'd see unique things most weeks in football and Premier League. And like, I've been watching a bit more of La Liga. That's. That's the same. If I'm not totally honest with you. The standard there I was at Majorca against Osasuna last week. Great game. It was two. All right. Brilliant to watch it. Mallorca, the home team 2 nil up, cruising like watching Spurs, Osasuna 2, 2 last minute. Brilliant. The standard of football was really poor as well because it was, it was almost like players going, we get into an area, what do we do?

Yeah, yeah.

Like that, that was what it looked like. So I don't know if we're just going through one of those phases in football for that. For me is maybe just like not, not my thing at the moment, but I, I, I just, I just miss. The only team that I can genuinely say as a neutral that I'm like, if they're on, I'll watch it. Is psg. Yeah, PSG are on in the Champions League. I will watch them.

Because they've got players where it's almost like you don't, you don't know what they're going to do.

Yeah, yeah. It's just heavily, heavily optimized now, isn't it? There's so much data. Yeah. And there's.

The money as well. Like, there's so much to lose. Like the levy is he would always rather get forth getting the Champions League than win the FA Cup. We do. He'd always do that. We as fans would much rather win the FA cup or even the Europa League. Like, he'd rather be in the Champions League than in the Europa League where we have the chance to win it. And that's, that's just football now. It's just heavily. Heavily. It feels very American in that way. Like American football, it becomes very attritional as well. Like the, the better, like rugby is very attritional, the better team will win.

And football, there was always a chance and you still get some of it. Like there's been some upsets in the FA cup this weekend, but it feels far more attritional now.

It's very low risk as isn't it? When you watch it now, like, teams won't. I think, I think that most teams now, and this is not a criticism of how they're setting up because it's working for sides. But most teams now will go, how do we not lose this game? But like, that's the first fault. And then it's like, okay, cool, then how can we go and win it? As opposed to, like, how can we, like, flex our muscles on the game?

This was, that was, to be fair to him, all the credit, Ange Was like we just want to go out and win and entertain like. And you could just see it just didn't work. Like. I think he would have been great 10, 12 years ago you put him in charge of the team. Harry had. I think it would have been great.

Yeah, yeah, I get that. I see that.

Yeah.

All right then. Right, how are we gonna do against Prague and how we're gonna do against Forest?

I think we are looking at a home win on Tuesday night against Prague and I think that will be in a similar vain as what the Villarreal game was earlier in the season in the Champions League. That I think it will be quite a close game but we'll probably just have a little bit more quality in both boxes. So I'm not, I'm not thinking of three or four now. I think maybe I'm gonna have one nil Spurs.

Oh, you reckon tonight?

Yeah.

What are you saying?

I think a good 2 nil, maybe a 3 one. I think there'll be two goals difference. I think will go in. I think there'll be a lot of happy momentum. I think we'll go in, we'll be bright, we'll be attacking like we know we'll be better than them and we just got to go and go and beat them and obviously son Hu Min's coming back as well.

Wait, I'm going, I'm going Tuesday night and I can't wait for that get. He'll get a proper send off when he.

I. I've got to, it's my last like I've got to do Cubs. It's the one I can't go to but I love it so much.

Oh, you'll be crying. Oh, I'd be so good.

And then Forest.

That'S like.

Tough game that. I know that they're not doing great in the league.

They've lost eight. No way, no way.

And you know what we thought. I know that. I know their plan in Europe as well midweek. But those, those games after a European midweek game, they're always like lower quality games and there's less intensity in them. So like in a way, like I don't know if that will suit us or Forest, but I could see that being a low scoring draw.

Oh man, we got to beat him. Like I know Everton are good and I'm really happy seeing Grealish happy. Like he just seems like a good man. We've got to be beating him. We've got to be.

But if we can, if we can get two wins this week off the back of a good win against Brentford and away draw at Newcastle, like, you know, that's. We. I feel like it could do with a bit of a run Frank here, do you know what I mean? Like just like half a dozen games and like, let's go undefeated. Let's get some wins. Let's, you know, let's take a bit of momentum.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then a bit of a break because you're going to Australia.

We've gone down under this week. Well, in six days to watch England get thumped in the cricket, but also to just see a part of the world that I've always wanted to go to. So I cannot wait for that. So I'm there. I'm in Australia in four different cities over the next month, which is just going to be like some trip. So I cannot, cannot wait for it. Even though I know England are going to get hammered. I can't wait to be at the cricket. It's like proper bucket list stuff.

Least you could enjoy it then, like if it was.

Yeah.

Even if their England were a bit better and there's a small chance they could. They could be a bit better and maybe get a win. At least you know what to expect.

I'll tell you what, being an England cricket supporter and a Tottenham football fan does wonders for your resilience.

Is it England and Wales cricket or is it the England team? England.

Wales. England. Wales. And we've had some Irish players as well play.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's the same with Welsh rugby. Did you see what happened against South Africa last week? We lost 73 nil against. It's our biggest ever home loss. I mean, this is like having. It was like having your under 16s play Arsenal's first 11. Like they. South Africa, what? Double world champions bigger than us. There is a horrific eye gouge where the guys really both has been. Yeah, it was like 78 minutes. They were. It's like losing 12 now. Like, it's that bad. We're 12 nil down and the guy just sticks his thumb into a guy. Another guy's eye and he's been banned for like eight games now. It just didn't. It was unnecessary. It's like going like knee high in the penalty.

I also feel like you've been saying for quite a while about Welsh rugby that, like, it's not in a good place.

So we lost our. The. The guy who heads up wiu. And then they brought in a woman who was very good, but she's had to leave because of illness. COVID Ruined it. There's no money in the game. And so we've gone from having leagues to having three regional teams. They might take it down to two. So you're asking.

People in Cardiff and Swansea to go and support one team. And so there's no players coming through. There's no elite players coming through. We've got some amazing. We've got. We had like two players go to with the Lions in the summer. But it. This is a 10 years before it gets better thing, like it genuinely is. It's like. It's like what happened to Leeds. Like, it took them 10 years. It's. It's really, really bad. So it's going to be a while before we get better. So it's. It's. It's like the 90s again.

Yeah, it's tough.

Yeah, man. But hey. But you know it. And so you go in and you go. It's interesting how it sort of kills your passion a little bit. You just go, you know, wheels are playing cool. I know what's going to happen.

You don't want to be too emotionally invested because you know what's going to happen is he, like. You're, like, protecting yourself a bit, aren't you? That I'm like, I'm not going to get myself all, like, built up for this because, like, the logical head in me is like, this is a loss. But then there's still that part of using there that goes. But we could, we could. It's sport. It could happen. You know, it's. It's such a. Sport's such a ridiculous thing that, like, if it wasn't sport and it was business or something else, you'd just be like, you'd know what's going to happen. So you prepare for it. But we can't. There's too much emotion in it.

Yeah. I mean, if you want to know about it. So we've won one game. So we beat Ireland.

With the last kick of the game. I would beat them twice. I'll be. Yeah, beating them twice. Beat them once in July and then beat them and then before that we didn't win for three years. Like, it's, It's.

Yeah.

Imagine going three years without watching spurs win.

That's a lot. That's a lot. Yeah. 20, 23, we started losing.

All right. Bit of a winter break, I think. You get. You get your tan on and. Yeah, hopefully we'll come back some spurs. Spurs up to 6th, 7th, 5th, something like that.

Oh, before we finish, actually, you'd set and you'd Had a. Because obviously we haven't potted for a month. There's been a few things in from Junior that you wanted to just address that before we finished.

Do you know what he's been doing? He's been in America. He was helping with the World cup draw and he was saying.

He was. He. It was his idea to give Trump the peace.

Award.

Mainly for bringing America together. For bringing America under the same value of American values. You know, awful one, one for all. But his question was to you, based on the World cup draw, who do you think is gonna. Which spurs play is gonna have the best World Cup?

Which surprises me because it's very un Junior like question that, isn't it? Like it's very, very related to what we talk about on here, which. So firstly, like Junior's okay is the first thing I would say from that because that's very unlike him. The spurs player that is going to have the best World cup is going to be just going through being like Mickey Van. Mickey Van de.

Nikki Van, his brother.

He's unknown at the moment. No professional appearances.

Mickey Van them.

But thanks Junior and good work.

That's the end of that question.

It be nice to see Simmons have a good World Cup. I think. Ben Davis captains one nil win. They're gonna do what Greece did. I mean words haven't qualified yet. We'll find that in March.

I'm gonna say. That's me punchy.

No.

Did you watch that Scotland game?

Would they be Denmark? Oh my God.

I saw. Yeah, go on.

Oh, well, Wales were winning five now and it's been rough for Wales. So Wales winning five now was. Was amazing. We were so good that game and then I switched over to the Scotland and they were. What was it? 2. 2 going into extra time and then they get that goal from outside the box and they score from the halfway line. But the crowd going mad it that that's what football is about. The greatest football match I've ever seen in my life was that Argentina, France. World cup final. Like I'm not sure football can ever beat that. Like in terms of stories, in terms of that sort of stuff. But that was a night. I think I always loved that Scottish crowd. You remember when Scotland played England and it was two, two, but what's his face Scored two free kicks.

Nice. Was it Naismith?

No.

Lee Griffiths. If you go and watch the highlights of that, the definition of limbs is what happens after that second goal. Like there's so much emotion in that crowd. It's a bit like if you go. Scottish football's amazing. Go and watch videos of Celtic fans singing Just can't get enough. Or of the Hibs fans.

The new the chant this year of Hips Away. Aha.

Aha.

I like it. If you've heard that is. Do you know what I love about Scottish chants? You can hear the Scottish accents. That's what I love. It's amazing. Brilliant, supporters.

Oh, absolutely brilliant. And in 2016, when HIPS beat Ranger in Rangers in the FA cup, when they sing Sunshine on Leith, it's so. I watch it more than once a week and it's. It's proper emotional.

Anyway, I think it's time to end the show, mate. Thanks for your time as always.

Likewise.

And don't forget, the future's bright. The future's lily white. Come on, you Spurs. I always thought there was very, very many people interested in football. And I always thought that football was a very important game. But I never realized until today just.

How important it is. Whether the wonder boys of Piet Hart Lane are or are not the team of the century can't possibly be more than a matter of opinion.

Well, they're the finest team in Great Britain. One of the best in the world.

We are about the glory of the game.

We are about playing with style.

We are Tottenham Hotspur.

The curve of the ball, the billow of the net, the beating of the trap and the picking of the lock. The switch, swiftness of thought, the lightness of touch. We are Gineler, Greaves, Klinsman.

We are the collective gasp, the intake of breath, the flick, the trick, the 30 yard free kick. We are Hoddle, Mabbit and King.

We are the lob, the chip, the dummy and the volley. We are the hat trick, the scissor kick. We are Bill Nick.

That is schoolboy's own stuff.

We are the outside of the boot, the inside of the net and those seconds that last forever.

Vanderva to level it up. Raphael Vandervaert. Two, two. It's quite a game, isn't it always?

We are Jennings, Defoe and Perriman. Glory past, glory future. What was, what is, what's next? We are Blanchflower, Ardelis and baal. We are about winning with a flourish. We are about winning with style. We are about the glory of the game. Daring to try, daring to risk, daring to dream, to dare.

Is to do.

He's all over top and we're putting the top.

He can really st going all the way.

Again here. And le has kicked him out. Oh, this is incredible. Incredible. This is quite incredible. Truly a glory, glory day for Tottenham Hotspur.