S15E12 - This Is My Pod, My One And Only Pod

Really stubborn. Going all the way again here and Leonard has kicked him out. Oh, this is incredible. This is quite incredible. Truly a glory, glory day for Tottenham Hotman.

Hi guys, I'm Andrey 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 a little Brucie bonus podcast. We don't do these often, but a little cheeky extra bonus podcast. I'm asd.

And I'm Jack.

The reason we're doing this is we're saying goodbye to a Spurs legend. An essential part of spurs culture. Song Heumin came back to White Hart Lane on Tuesday and got the goodbye that maybe he deserved. And we talked about doing this and it's hard to really overemphasize just what a brilliant servant he was of the club. And I think it's just worth celebrating him for a little bit. Talking about him and saying goodbye because what a player he was. Like, let's, let's, let's bring it back. He came in really early 15, 16, which is actually a really long time ago. The most expensive Asian player ever after, I think it was Nakata. About 22 million, which was a lot back in those days when our most expensive players were 35, 40 million. First season we were unsure, weren't we? Eight goals. But then the next season was when he started to pick up. What was your first memories of him?

I was actually at his debut when he scored. It was against palace, wasn't it?

And we won his debuts against Sunderland.

I must have been his first start then. Must have been his first start.

He made his. I think according to Wikipedia, which is where a lot of my research comes from, he made his debut away to Sunderland and he got replaced by Townsend. It doesn't matter.

That I remember that early on and being like, oh, like he. He looks like quite an exciting. Like he looks like a Spurs player. Both feet like can dribble like he looked like a Spurs player quite early on. And then he sort of went a little bit quiet, didn't he, after that? Well, it felt like it anyway. There was a lot of rumors, wasn't there, of him going after the first season.

It was. There was. People just couldn't work out what he was. He was. They were trying to work out where to play him. There was return. Rumors of return to Germany, but he really wanted to stay and fight, which was a bit of a sign of things to come where he, he always knew what you want and maybe that was a connection from his dad. His dad was a former player for. I think he played for the South Korean national team and he was a coach and he's coached his son from day dot. But he's. He's had a lot of different roles and styles of play, which I think is really important. His first goal was in the Europa League versus Quarryback. Were you there for that one? I. I don't think I was.

I would have been. I went. I was. I was going pretty much every week.

At that point, but so was I and I can't. It's not in my sheet, so I'm not. Not sure why. But yeah, his first goal was against quarterback. He was very happy. He's a very happy player, wasn't he?

Yeah.

Kor bag. But my. My earliest memories, my first goal I saw him score was against Salanton, where we lost 2:1 at home. So I'm scoring that game. Davis scored for them, but then the next game he scored. I. I saw him scoring was. We beat Swansea 5 nil at home. Kane. Kane, son. Ericsson. Ericsson. I'm. I'm getting really emotional looking back all these names. But then I got. I. Fast forward A and the Millwall. Oh, yeah, the hat trick at home where they were singing about making a DVD to him because he's Korean and he just shut him up. Yeah, just shut. My last FA cup came up Wild lane. The place was rocking. Yeah, like. Yeah, great little. Great little cheeky hat trick. But I think for me, how he was able to form in all the different systems is cubicle. We'll talk about his moments, but if you think about Pochettino, Pochettino's style was counter press and his job was to be that inside left, the wide of a three. But it was very much dele. Kane son, Eriksen and those three rotating, which was the best attack in football will maybe ever see at Spurs. That was insanely good. Everyone had their role, everyone knew what they did. Then you had Mourinho, which was all about that real fast transition. And that's where the Kane son thing, I think, came into play. That's where that solidified the greatest duo in Premier League history. Then you had Conte, but he was a bit injured then, wasn't he? Had a broken face where he had. Wearing the mask. He had a hernia. So he had a bit of a dip in form. That's where we started to talk about him needing to be more precise and more efficient. Then big Ange came with a high line. He Was clapped in and some was sort of between a left wing and a number nine. And he still performed. How many players still performed well in all of those different systems? Kane did that because he's the greatest player suppose I've ever had and son is the only. And Ben Davis the only players who survived those. Yeah, four. And that's incredible.

Phenomenal. Phenomenal to have played through really in all of that time. There's probably been two or three different almost eras of football in terms of the style in that time. And he's really changed his game. They say that the best, the real best players are able to change their game as they get older. And he went from quite a pacey, tricky, slightly erratic and we would winger when we first got him to then really as he finished being a. As clinical number nine as we've had. Do you know what I mean? Like. And we spoke, didn't we must four or five years ago, just around I remember I was really critical of him for, for about a season. Just saying like he doesn't finish well enough. Like he doesn't take those chances. Great player but like to really kick on, like. And he just went, didn't he, from maybe like 10 or 12 goals a season to like 25 and it was like bang, there we go.

No penalties. Yeah, with no penalties. One of the few. I mean we haven't mentioned the awards but the Golden Boot winner with no penalties. That's insane.

And that was if that was that it didn't did that season. He got it joined with Salah as well, didn't he? So it's like. And like this is. These are the players that he was performing as well as at that point, do you know what I mean? And Salah's regarded rightly as one of the best attackers we've ever seen in the Premier League, you know and he, he was the same level as him. You know, I always thought that son in his pomp would have really suited Klopp's Liverpool. Like.

Yeah.

Can you imagine like just him somehow in there with Firmino, with Salah, with Mane and imagine putting son in there. Like you could just see that, couldn't you? Just that like devastating attacking play. He was. No, I actually think he was one of the few players that spurs have had in, in our history. You know we talk about Salah, we talk about Omri and Rooney and it makes you like the fear that they would strike into you. I reckon. Yeah, I reckon sun is probably the spurs player that struck fear into teams in the last 10 years, I wouldn't say. And I don't miss bad way. I wouldn't say people feared Kane in that way. Do you know what I mean? Like, if you, if you remember City fan and you said, what player makes you go, oh, when you're playing against them, they would say, son, like without, without a doubt. Like, it was, yeah, phenomenal. But to change your game that much and be at the top playing in different ways is some achievement. And I always think, like, fair play to you. You did say a few years ago, this is the guy who's our best ever non British player, didn't you? Yeah, yeah, like. And actually, like I said, the Same was with Mr. L Senior at the Champions League game of the week when some was on the pitch and I said, where'd you stand on that as a statement now? And he even said, he was like, I'd actually probably agree with that now. Like, ahead of our dealers chart. I mean, ahead of Ricky Villa, you.

Know, in terms of goals, he, you've got Kane, Greaves, Bobby Smith and then young Min Son in terms of goals for Spurs. So according to goals, he is the greatest foreigner of all time. Then you've got Chivers, Cliff Jones, Jermaine Defoe, Gilzine, Teddy Sheringham. And then you're into Robbie Keane. Robbie Keane is 122 goals and 306 games. And Son is 173 goals and 454 golf. It just blitzes him. The next best foreign player would be Christian eriksen, who's got 69 goals for the club. Like, I know it's not all about goals, but what more do you want? If you were to go into chat GPT, become an expert prompter and describe the best attacking footballer that you want, you would describe human son. You want someone who's quick, got energy for days, positive captain material, clinically both footed, like, disgustingly both. We grew up watching Tom Huddleston and people go, we don't know what footage he was. He was right footed, but he could hit a ball with his left foot. Son was genuinely both footed, like, disgustingly so. What a player, what a man.

Phenomenal.

You know, he's in the, he's the 16th top highest premier League scorer of all, all time. That's not bad.

That's incredible. Like, I, I, I, I do think that he's underrated.

I think he's underrated as well.

I really do think he's underrated. Like the only 15 players in the history of the Premier League have scored more goals than him in the history.

Of the Premier League and we've had great strikers of all time and.

And we forget that he hasn't. He hasn't been an out and out number nine. Do you know what I mean? Center forward that time. There were times where he was asked to do other things for the team.

You know, majority of the time he was playing next to Harry Kane, who was scoring all the goals at the time. I think one thing we thought, we. Which we people don't really see as he overperformed in his expected goals. And what that means is. So expected goals is understanding the quality of the shot from where it was, where they were, where the person was, where people in front of them were, where the goalkeeper was like, what's the likelihood of that goal to go in? So he consistently overperformed. So what that means is he was really efficient in how he worked. He overperformed against his opportunities, which meant he was a very, very clinical striker. Well, it's very rare we're going to see anyone like him again.

Yeah, absolutely.

Imagine. Imagine. I said, I gave you a brief and I said to you, we want to replicate the quality of attacking of Kane's son, Ericsson and Delhi. Now you go, I don't know how. I don't know how. You'd have Madison, but then you'd have to find the number 9 and then 2 attacking players and you couldn't do it. You couldn't do it. These days. We were so lucky.

Those kind of players are not really about either, are they?

Anymore.

There's a very different. Different style. Yeah. It's his statistics there. Absolutely incredible. And the goals you mentioned as well, it. It was for me what I loved about watching son. He was a play got you out of your seat. All different types of goals.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean? As well, there were like the ones where, you know, he'd be through one on one with a keeper, call off, finish those. He could score a scrappy goal, which is a sign of a good attacker. And then he scored a few, didn't he? Like, absolutely incredible goals. The solo goal against Burnley where we just. Do you know what I mean? Ran the length of the pitch. That won the Puscass Award, didn't it?

It did. That was his pusscass. So my fate. I've watched all the goals. My favorite goal is the one against Chelsea, the one who runs and cuts in. Yeah, I think that is so much better than the Bernie one because the Bernie, when he runs in a straight line, it's been like that hat and Ben Arthur 1. Do you remember from a couple years ago, from a long time. And even Sonny says himself like it was a bit lucky because he just obviously got his touches right and all that sort of stuff. But the one against Chelsea, he held up Jorginho then accelerated, turned around him. David Louise came out of nowhere, disappeared. What I mean. And it was against Chelsea. It doesn't get much better than that. Than the Arsenal one during COVID that if any goal deserves. Let's be in front of anyone. Imagine how mental you go that would be up there with the greatest goals. I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it.

I also loved his brace away to City in the Champions League quarterfinal. You know Sterling the last minute. But he. He scored two didn't in two minutes in the first half. And there was one where it again he just whipped it, whipped it top that. I feel like that was the sun trademark for a period. Like he gets the ball on the left, cuts in on his right, whips it top corner. And that was just that whole night. But they were phenomenal. His record against City was insane.

Oh yeah, yeah, that. Yeah. Let's. Let's talk about this because he scored the first ever goal at the new stadium against Palace. He scored the first ever goal in the Champions League at the stadium. That was against City. But then imagine it's. It's the biggest game in City's history. They haven't won the Champions League. They're on the rise. Boom. Sterling School straight away. Oh, sake. Then we go and score two. Exactly same goals. So I'd make a three, two up. And when is that right, There we go.

Three, four, two up.

Then we got that scrappy goal from the corner which might have been handball to make it 4, 3. And then Aguero scored that goal and it went offside. And that was the most emotion I've ever seen in a football game like that is exhausting. And that is one of few games where a team, man City, they won the game, they drew the game and they lost the game all in one result. Absolutely brilliant. Sterling. No, Sterling is the. Is joint 20th highest Premier League scorers. I was looking at the table earlier like I always think he was a bit. He never really delivered. He still got 123 goals.

He had that period of two or three years under Pep City when he was absolutely clinical again. Sort of shifted his. Shifted his style. Just the sun goals as well. That. Do you remember the goal that he scored at Watford away in the last minute where he sort of like the ball Went behind him. I think it was a little bit off, so. And he flicked it, didn't he? And it went. And the celebrations in the away end, that was also phenomenal. And another one that I really liked that he got was in a 11 home draw with West Ham at Wembley, when I think it was. I think it was. Pedro Bianga scored an absolute worldy for West Ham in the. In the second half, like. Like, half fully from like 40 yards. And then he didn't. He put one in the top corner and probably giving it to West Ham fans as well. Yeah, that was. That was. That was brilliant. But like, he's.

He.

He'd have an amazing.

Wouldn't.

If you. If someone out there was to like, I'm just gonna do a video of his best 20 goals. They would all be just like, oh, wouldn't they?

Like, that's all I've been watching today is just the. In preparation for this. He's. He just. So many bangers. There was one against Swansea in that 5 nil where he gets. There's like a little scissor kick. I remember that. I think I was there with my dad with. For that one. That West Ham one was unbelievable. The Chelsea one was unbelievable. Burnley one. Unbelievable. Like, it's what you. What you watch football for. I think he scored. Do you remember he scored against Leicester in the end last season where he took it from the right, put it on his left.

Did he ever score a header?

This is what I was gonna. I. I can't remember.

I can't remember. 1. There will be one. There will be one where it's like, he's like on the line and he just taps it with his head. There'll be one of those. There won't be an Alan Shearer header. There'll be one where he's just sort of tapped it in.

Yeah, yeah. Do you remember the Garrett Bale when he scored against Southampton where he managed to curl it? Do you remember that? It was big. Just a long ball into the box bails on the.

Oh, the header. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was almost like edge of the box, wasn't it?

Yeah. Unbelievable.

Yeah.

Do you remember we won. We beat Southampton 52 and sun scored 4 and Kane assisted all of them. Yeah, that's right. That was decent as well. Just.

I think the other things as well, just with son is of the. Obviously, like the Europa League triumph. And like, how great was it that he was the one that lifted that trophy? Like, do you know what I mean? Like, it is such an amazing moment and like he will go down rightly as an iconic captain of spurs. And it's like, how great is that? You know, you get so many brilliant players, didn't you, that sort of pass through the club and they sort of get a little bit lost in history because there's so many great players. But like he is like now right up there with all of them because he left the team in that moment and that was just an amazing, amazing thing. And I, I didn't also realize that he's in, he's in our. He's In Tottenham's top 10 all time appearance makers as well.

Yeah.

So it's like this, this guy is a real. Is the word legend gets thrown around a lot. This guy's a real legend of Spurs.

There's. There's no measure you can put him down on and nobody is a bad word to say about him. You think about the managers we've had, the great managers, Pochettino, Conte, Mourinho, they've all loved him, they've all played him. There's nothing you can say about him. The only bad thing that happened was he broke. It was that thing where he thought he broke what's his face, his leg in Everton. Do you remember that?

Andre Gomez.

Yeah, yeah. He didn't do it.

He had that weird like two, three months where he got like two or three red cards, didn't it? Do you remember that? And it was like, like what, what's that all about? What are you doing?

It was that weird fight with Larisse about not tracking back, which is caught in the documentary. I'm sure that happens in all football. Yeah. And it just, it was just caught on camera when we're having a rough period. Yeah. Son human. It's good to see him back. It's a, it's amazing. Tell you what, it seemed it was really obvious as well was his influence on younger players because a lot of the younger players coming through, you know, if you go, Archie Gray's 19 now. He would have first seen son play for Tottenham when he was nine and just grown up maturing, watching this great player and then getting to play with him. And you can see the influence he has in him and what a representative for spurs like and for the Asian football community in general. Like the greatest Asian player of all time. The greatest Asian player in the Premier League. It just doesn't get better than him. I think he left at the right time for him, 100%.

100%. Well, I actually said when I was at the game Champions League game in the week, said to Mr. Elsinores, like, we could. We could do it, getting him back on loan just the next three months, because we're so short of someone that knows how to put the ball in the back of it and all that. And we're talking about that and saying, actually, how rare is it that a player leaves on a high? Like, most of the time footballers stay for a season too long.

Yeah.

Like, if they get towards the end of their career anyway, they sort of try and hang on. And the last year is a bit like, oh, like, or they'll just retire from out of nowhere mid season. But for him, like, that was the absolute pinnacle. Like, his decade at spurs was building to that, done it, achieved it. I'm out. Like, it's. It's. That's such a rare thing to do, to be able to go out like.

That.

Which is quite incredible. Like, I was trying to rack my brains to think of, like, what other players have gone out on. On such a high from clubs. And, like, I was struggling and I was thinking about, like, you know, even you think about, like. Like Frank Lampard, right? Absolute Premier League legend. He didn't go out on a high. He ended up on loan at Man City for three months. How weird was that? Like, how weird was that? As brilliant as that was, to see him score against Chelsea. Like a lot, a lot of players that you'd put up there in, like, the Premier League hall of Fame and all that, most of them had a rough end. Like Gary Neville, do you know what I mean? His last game, shambles. Like Paul Scholes, as well, like, as brilliant as he was, even right at the end.

But he united.

Yeah. Like, he, you know, he wouldn't look at. So it. It's brilliant that son had that and, you know, we'll all look back on his time and just go, what an amazing player. What a brilliant captain. Like, what a proper ambassador for Spurs. Like, he was someone that's like, I'm so proud he's associated with Spurs.

Yeah, it's one of them as well. And I mean, we always talk about. People always say, it's world class, it's world class. And that can mean many things in this pod. I feel like we've always said, could he walk into any team? I. I can't think of a team that wouldn't have wanted him. Like, there's no team. Because if you play attacking football, you want him. If you play hyper defensive football, you leave him up front. We leave him on the halfway line there's no team that wouldn't want him.

You know what? It always surprised me that when he was in his real pomp and I'm sure there were interest, but look like someone like Madrid, Barca didn't go, yeah, we'll have him going to go for it.

Milan, like one of the Milan, something like that.

Just like, you know, real powerhouse. You'd fault. I could. I could have seen that. You know what I mean? Like the. I could have seen him playing for Real Madrid and being absolutely fine with the Galacticos dealing with all of that, because he's an. He's like the most famous person in the world in his country. So it's like that would have been nothing for him, really, going to somewhere like Madrid.

And I mean, it's a shrewd commercial move as well, because, like, we got tours out over there. Like, it's no secret, like, if you walk down Tottenham High Road on a match day over the last few years, you would see loads of Korean fans, which was great. Which is great. Great for.

You know what, There was actually a few more in on Tuesday because obviously there hasn't been anywhere near as many this season, obviously. But of when they announced that he was going to be on the pitch, there were a lot more there again to see it, which was like, really great. Love that.

It's great. So, yeah, son. Human. Go on then. Give me your. If you got any favorite goals or moments we haven't mentioned at all.

Oh, outside of all of that.

The.

Other thing that I liked about him was it's not a goal. But, like, you could see. I think there's another reason why we loved him. You could see that the Derbys meant a lot to him, like win or lose, like, he was. He was basically as emotional as we were his supporters. And like when he scored in them when we wanted him, you could see how much it meant and you could see how much it drained him when we lost those matches as well. And I was just like, I know we always. We've always spoke about on this pod, haven't we, that the absolute top players are a bit more robotic and they take the emotion out of stuff. But, like, I love that he didn't and I love that he was so emotional with it. And remember the stuff playing, like playing for Korea, remember when they. When they got knocked out and he was in absolute tears and it was like, it just put everything in the. Into. Into what he was doing on the pitch. And that's just, I think, something for me that you don't see as much of that anymore. Like, it's definitely trained into players to try and take the emotion out. Just play. What, play the game, not the occasion. He used to play the occasion and I loved that. I loved that about him. You couldn't have a whole team of people doing that. But I loved that he was. He'd recognize this is a big moment. Like I need to put emotion into it. So phenomenal. And he's. He's. He's slightly bizarre, but really great to see. Friendship with Ben Davis. Two people from complete opposite parts of the world who they would if it wasn't for Tottenham and football. Like, how are they ever going to meet? Do you know what I mean? And like that. Just to strike up such a brilliant friendship and to hear Ben Davis in the week talking about how great it was that one of his best mates was back. Brilliant moment for Ben Davis as well, by the way, to get on on Tuesday. That must have meant a lot with the whole occasion of it. He got a brilliant reception when he came on. Absolutely brilliant reception. So, yeah. Enjoyed seeing that as well.

You say completely opposite ends of the world, but I think you'll find people often say that Swansea is the chuncheon of Western Europe. So you can keep your judgment. I'm gonna. Actually, I was looking up. Chunchen's got about 216, 000 people. It doesn't matter.

Wasn't he an honorary member of the Welsh mafia for a period?

I was gonna bring that up. I love the Welsh mafia, particularly when it was Bale, Rodan, Ben Davis. If you haven't seen the. The spurs official, like segments with Bail and Rod on where they're answering questions about aliens. It's amazing where Bale is basically a big brother to Rogan. They're just annoying each other. It's amazing. It's so good.

I feel like Roden as well was like proper rough as well, wouldn't it? Like, it was a lump. Like, just probably not the brightest.

Like he did one thing well. If he wasn't doing that, he'd be doing something very basic. And that's great. And I. I love him for it. He's a good. He'd be.

And he would have been as happy doing that right as he is playing. Playing football for Wales.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And he's battering it for Leeds and he's. He was going to be captain of Wales at some point. Yeah. But some being literally the Welsh mafia was pretty special. And it's. And we talked about this is the first season where we haven't had a world class player for a long time and it feels like it. It feels like we don't have that electrifying like kudos started the season off. He's gone a bit quiet recently but we don't have that quality which people are scared of or guaranteed to get you out a game. Who can provide that moment?

Yeah, I think just getting there like. And obviously we. We've done this whole pod today to talk about sun, but just to quickly touch on the Prague game on Tuesday. I, I saw some really encouraging things just from the team. They weren't, they weren't great opposition but I really liked the way that he set us up. I, I've said it at the start of the season I think we both did about a bit of a 4, 4, 2 with the way Frank likes to plan the personnel available and we've seen it two or three times the last, I don't know, four or five games. I feel like that's sort of where he's landing on whilst we've got the. These attacking players out. Archie Grad, another good performance. He got subbed after an hour but I thought he played really, really well. Again sent the midfield, him and Benton Corp, basically just getting behind the ball. Sorry him and Paulina just basically getting behind the ball, making that solid box. But he. One thing that Gray does do well wherever he plays is he does pass the ball through the lines and passes the ball forward well and he does it quite quickly. Even when he's playing at center back or at fullback, he's very much touch pass. He's probably not the most athletic midfielder similar to Paulinho really that like they're good passes of the ball. Can they do a Bergval or song, get the ball and run 30 or not really. So I saw some encouraging signs there. I think Javi Siemens, game by game seems to be slowly improving, which is good. Yeah, I feel like again Frank's just sort of gone. I've just got to play Javi Simmons now like the next six games I've just got to play him because he's never going to settle, is he? If he's in one week then he's out and then you ask him to do 15 like just lob him in and leave him. So I think we're moving in the right direction, which is cool. It was a good win. Our Champions League record so far this season I think is actually going under the radar and is quite impressive. We've won three out of three at home. We've lost one out of three away and that was to a PSG side. And it's that classic thing of if you want to do well in Europe, you've got to win your home games. And that's what we're doing.

Ticking those boxes. Yeah, we're up there and in our worst periods of recent years really when we've had the whole first team out. So just, just keep on doing what we're doing.

That's it.

And it's good to see that it is. We are performing like it's not that long ago. We were fairly poor in Europe really, especially in group stages. But we've had some painful nights in the Europa League. Like you know when you turn up to games and you just go, you watch them for five minutes, you know, you. I know exactly how this is going to turn out. Yeah. It's not like that anymore. We're finding ways to win as well. I thought, I thought we should have won by more than three or the three should. They didn't have to be penalties but I don't mind the penalty because you're forcing it like an own goal. Two penalties like we. We were making them hit themselves in the face. So not worried about that at all.

Tough game this week. We were away at Forest this weekend.

Yeah, it's tough. Like they're not great. Obviously they got beat on the weekend but we just, you know, we've won two on the bounce now. We've got to just keep this going and get momentum ahead.

Delivery. I feel like this Forest game is going to be a. Just what's the result? I don't think it's going to be a pretty game of football from either side and I could again, I could just see that being a really tight one goal game and like just get, just get on the right side of it. Just win and get out of there.

It's one of those guarantee you our goals are winning goals or goals are scored by midfielders or defenders where it's going to be a tight battle and it's not going to be won through the forward players. It's going to be won through a late run into the box or a corner or a set piece or something like that.

Morgan Gibbs White who should have been planned for spurs scoring and kissing the badge.

I'm still. I'm a bit disappointed began won't be there partially. He does deserve a thank you from the fans. He does. I know he got one at the trophy tour but he does deserve a.

Little bit and it would be three points guaranteed.

That's what I'm saying. Kudos. Would tear that team apart. We would tear that team apart. I think other than that man, I think it's time for me to say goodbye. It's my time. I'm ducking out. I've done my time. It's 15 years. We started this show. I remember moving to London as a young man, going to my first game which was Villa Villa at home. I remember seeing the pitch for the first time and I felt like I belonged somewhere maybe for the first time properly in my life. And we took over the we heard that the Tottenham Hotspur football fan cast podcast was shutting down. We sent in a tester to the football fan cast using sing style microphones from the PlayStation 2 which were awful, awful. But this was way before podcasts were cool so it was only for real dorks. Then we did it and I got a gut feeling that they were going to shut us down. So I changed us to the Echoes of Glory, which is a great name which other people have copied recently and they did but it meant we got to keep our name and our brand and we've been going for 15 years. I was 23 when we started. Yeah, I'm 38 now. Like any I'd ask anyone listening to go back 15 years, the person they were like, I'm just a different person now. So I think it's just time for me to move on. As much as I love it, I really love hanging out with you, with you and. It's just my time like spurs have changed so much. I've changed so much. It's just my time. So I just wanna say thank you for listening. Thank you to everybody who's been involved, whether it is Don, you, Dan Holiday, Dan Stato, Abbas, Jay, Gareth, Van Joe, Chris, Giles, Rob, know all the people that we've had. Also my favorite people and some of my favorite moments. I've been thinking about this pod has done. We've we interviewed the CEO of the Premier League once. That was through you. We've had spurs legends on here. Do you remember we had the kids who listened, came in with his dad that just.

That was a mental episode.

So for those who don't listen, we're.

Doing this Fraser, that was his name.

Unbelievable knowledge. We had a kid who came into London to our offices, just sat in a meeting room in our offices and did a podcast with us once and his dad was a Chelsea fan, stood on a. Sat on a chair and faced the wall most of the time. That was mad.

That was such. I remember that episode Because I was doing some fundraising at the time and I think about four podcasts before I'd plugged it. Mid podcast, he started asking me about how the fundraising was going.

I love that. I think it's the connection, man. Remember we did that pod about. We did a special on goalkeepers to help that woman in Canada whose dad was. Yeah. And we got it. We got it done just before he passed, which I'm really. And she was really, really grateful. I'm really proud of that. I remember being in the pub before a game once and seeing a ginger guy sort of ducking around the pub, look. And then he heard me talk and he went, asd, man, Asd. I'm here. I've flown over from the States, man. This is my mum. We came here, we come into the game and we wanted to find you. We know you came to this pub. That was mad that. It's just, you know, obviously we've. We. We were friends because of work, but I think we stayed friends a lot longer because of this and me meeting Chris through the podcast. He's a close friend of my family now. I'm just super grateful for.

Don't forget about those brilliant T shirts we had made as well.

I've still got them. We've still got them.

2.2.99 off of. Whatever the. Now they would probably be 29.99.

Do you know what I mean? It's probably the same shop where your dad got those T shirts from.

He's not listening, so it doesn't matter.

I would love. Oh, and the trips with Mr. Latchford. Oh, my God. The trips to West Brom. Oh, my God. With Mr. Latchford.

With the McDonald's or the burger King going all over the car and him just saying.

Just leaving in the middle lane. Going 60 miles per hour the whole way to Birmingham and back again. When we went from my place in Letchworth to Swansea in under three hours in my old Punto, where we still. I'm still angry we didn't get our coleslaw. All of this.

65 tops.

65. I just found an amazing shortcut.

Tops.

Yeah.

You fuming about your coat. The Christian Ericsson. Two free kicks.

I don't even like coleslaw.

Principle of it.

It's always about the principle. The games. I just found a Maldini or Rodon. I can't even remember the rules of Maldives.

The Champions League final and see us in Madrid and everyone just being like, we've made it.

Great times, man.

Some would say spurs wouldn't have had that Champions League run, had the Pod not a queen going.

I like to think we've contributed a little bit to the community and obviously the. To be clear, the Pod isn't over. It's obviously taking the break for the winter where you're flying to Australia tomorrow. It's just my time to sit back.

Can I just say as well, I've enjoyed the weird moments of the Pod probably more than the, like, let's actually sit and properly talk football. Like all of the stupid things that we've covered over the years have been amazing. And you remember how creative we tried to be during COVID when there was no football on. And like at one point we. We were even like rolling dice and being like, oh, this is what the scores are going to be of the games this week. It's going to. It's going to be 64 this week. That was what it drove us to. Just trying to think of stuff that wasn't real was. Was equally amazing. And the quizzes as well like that. They used to be fantastic that we would do as well. Maybe, maybe when we. When, when it comes back next year after a break would we could bring it back with a bang on some sort of quiz. That might be fun.

You know, I love a quiz. Everyone could play along with the quiz as well.

Good times, man. Fifteen years is an incredible stint.

Yeah, it's good, man. And like there's been some amazing games. When I think back to the games that meant the most to me, the ones that come to mind are going to the last ever game of Whitehall Lane. I was with you.

Oh, yeah.

That was incredible. Like, just amazing. I only cried once in White Hart Lane. I'm not sure if you remember it. There was a kid that came on at halftime who had meningitis and he didn't have any. He had the blades on. Something got me. I didn't cry. I was at the Wamba game. The Wamba game was. That was the maddest atmosphere. It just went quiet and gray and it just went silent. That was weird. You know when you wake up on a winter on a snowy morning and it's just like dead quiet because all the sound's been absorbed by the snow. It was like that apart from a few people crying. So that was mad.

The doctor that saved him came to. I mean, I was at school when that happened. Came to my school. He lived, lived locally. Came to the school and basically just to talk about it all.

That's good.

It was like for the summer party. I've got. I Still have a photo with him. I'm gonna see if I can dig it and at least just show it to you. Not that we're recording the visuals of this. And I had clearly had one or two.

Imagine this is a guy who, an elite footballer, spent his whole life training for something, died, came back, came to an inspo, an inspirational message and just has to hang out with a bunch of drunk knobbards. Not you media people.

I mean, I like, I. I would have been that day. I also remember it not getting announced and walking around and going, that's fabric. But then being like, I've had a few to drink. Like that also. Can't be Fabrice Miramba.

He's a great beach man. You're tall, but he's short.

I also think that at that point, that was sort of towards the end of it. I think he was ready to go at that point as well. Like, people had been, you know, getting in his face a bit, having a few drinks, telling him, like, what he could have done differently as a footballer. You know, all of that stuff, the classic, you know, I would have been playing alongside you if I hadn't had a bad knee. You know, all those conversations.

I mean, I'm ready to go as soon as I walk in that building in anyway, you know, can we call.

You a one pod man?

Yeah, I'm not. I mean, you know, I've. I've run. I did the running one. I've done some media ones, but this is. This is my people. Know me for this. Know me is a big deal.

Your one and only. There's your title.

There's your title. I was going to say goodbye to a legend, just so you know. But, yeah, this is my pod, my work. Fine, I'll do that.

This is my podmon one and only pods. That's great. What a great way to sign out.

Yeah.

And for everyone else, the good news is we'll be back ASD list at some point next year. So, you know, people will start. People start listening again.

You should do it. My dad.

I did. I did actually say to ASD before we started recording, we should look at creating AI agents and do an AI episode. Could you imagine if we did that and like it? It was. It was really popular and people listened to.

I was saying we were the top 24 podcast, it's sports podcast in the world at one point. Bigger than Stone Cold Steve Austin, bigger than Talksport. But this was before podcasts were cool. So. Yeah. Still good now, though, right? It is time to end the show. And mate, thank you. And for the final time, for me, the future's bright. The future's Illi White. Come on, you suppose.

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 Pythagoras are or are not the team of the century can't possibly be more than a.

Matter of a pitch. Well, they're the finest team in Great Britain and 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 track and the picking of the lock. The swiftness of thought, the lightness of touch. We are Gineleau, Greaves, Klinsman. We are the collective gasp, the intake of breath, the flick, the trick, the 30 yard free kick. We are Hodl, Mabbot 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. Rafael Vandervaart. Two, two. It's quite a game, isn't it always?

We are Jennings, Defoe and Perryman. Glory past, glory future. What was, what is, what's next? We are Blanch, Flower, Adelis 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.

It's all over D. We're one of the. Really stubborn. Going all the way. Oh, this is incredible. This is quite incredible. Truly a glory, glory day for Tottenham Hotspur.