8 Sept 2025 · 69 min
ASD, Rob, and Jack discuss Daniel Levy's tenure at Tottenham Hotspur, examining his management style, financial decisions, and legacy with the club. They weigh his impact on the team's history, recent changes, and what comes next for Spurs.
Hi, guys, I'm Andrey Vilas Boas, listening.
To Echoes of Glory. And don't forget, whatever happens, the future is bright, future is lily white. Come on, you Spurs.
Hello, and welcome to Echoes of Glory season 15. I'm ASD.
I'm Jack.
I'm Rob. Welcome back, Rob.
Where have you been?
I know. Thank you for having me back. It's good to see you both and especially looking so well and fit and healthy, unlike me. So, yeah, good to see you. Thanks for having me back.
Were you gonna say why you've said that? Rob? I'm in a nice black, like, I'm in a yoga T shirt. You're in a nice Vans T shirt?
Yeah.
What are you wearing?
I'm. I'm ready to fight or be your.
Jack's got Rock Muscle vest. Rock muscle vest.
That's it. I'm like, you know, this is going to be a serious podcast today. Do you know what I mean? It's gonna get heated so.
Well, you know, international breaks always. Should we do one? Should we do. Just talk about. It's always talk about Sandro or, you know what, what should we do? And then nobody expected Levy to go, right? We knew something might happen, but no one was like, boom, pub announcement. And here we are. And so now all the chat, all the protests, now we're here, what is going to happen? Do. Did we actually want this? And so we're going to talk about his legacy at spurs, we're going to talk about what the spurs fans actually want. I don't think we've all got exactly the same point of view on him. So we'll have a chat about that and just see. Was Levy a good thing for spurs or not? Rob, was Levy a good thing for spurs or not?
In my opinion, there's no question he was. He was a completely transformational figure for Spurs. If you look at the state of the club at the point that he came in as a CEO and you look at the way that we were operating as a football club at that time and the players that we had in our team and. And all that sort of stuff, and then you think about the club that we are now without, the global reach, the facilities, the stadium, the players, the trophies haven't been delivered and. And he's definitely, in my opinion, the way that he's run the club has played a bit of a part in that. I think there's a lot of things that are factored into the fact that we haven't won trophies. But if you think about Tottenham and its Standing in the football community, what it's done for the fan base and the community of the fans. If you think about the players that we've all enjoyed watching over the last few years, being in the Champions League, being in the Europa League, and the experience that we get to have now when we. When we go. I think Tottenham has always been a big club. I've seen a lot of stuff in the media recently that almost suggests that it's now this massive club. And, you know, before, you know, it wasn't. I think it's always been a really, really big club. But there's absolutely no doubt that under his stewardship, the. The club has completely transformed. And so for me, he's been a consequential figure in the club. And in the end, you know, a really impactful figure.
It's been. There were two articles in the Guardian, one written by Jonathan Wilson, who's obviously amazing, almost came on this pod. I've got his number. We just couldn't get him on when he released his last book. And then one by David Pleat. David Plate was singing his praises, as he should done. And Daniel, the first one from the. Jonathan Wilson, the first sentence is, if it hadn't been for the football, Daniel Levy would be regarded as one of the great club executives, which I thought was really interesting, because that seems to be the beef that everybody's got right, is the football and the. The strings about investment and ambition that came off the back. Jack, where are you, R. Levy?
Probably somewhere in the middle, if I'm honest. I think that I agree with most of what Rob has said there in terms. If you look at where we were, where we are, like, you can't say that that's not been a success because it's been left in a significantly better place than when winning to cover. Right. I think that that's. That's all my. That's pretty much a fact in, In. In my head. I think it's been. It's been hard because with. With anything, when you go through, like, massive periods of, like, change, which we have done, what, in the last 10 years with the stadium and just the squad and everything that's come with that, with COVID and all that, it's been really difficult and we've all just been frustrated because I think we've. On the pitch, it's been so close. It's probably been as close as you can get to having a team that can win the league, right? So that's why I was very frustrated for a period. And it. It's definitely been a case that the club recently has been run with the football not as its primary interests, in my opinion, but I think overall he's been good. I think it's one of them things that when the dust settles and we look, everyone looks back in a couple of years time, he will get a lot more sort of appreciation for the job that he did. But I'm definitely of the opinion that he took the club as far as he could. He's taken it to a point which is fantastic and it's left us in a great position. But probably the right time, you know, is probably right that he's gone having delivered that elusive trophy as well. And it's like he can pretty much say job done, new stadium, new training ground, broke the trophy curse, albeit the curse that was during his reign, but like done. Think he can sort of leave without any big boxes unticked. But I think it's definitely one of things where we look back on it and appreciate it more as time goes on. Most football clubs don't like their owners or don't like the person that's running it today. So there's that context as well. But I think, look, I think he did a good job for us. I'm pleased that it's now right we've got to move forward because I think the club's in a position where if we get things right in the next few years, we can put ourselves right back in the mix again.
Okay. It's weird, isn't it, that we can talk about investment and some of the decisions because there's a couple of specific low points which I think were mistakes, but he did, he did care about the football. He got us in the European Super League, for example. Somehow there were 12 clubs and somehow we got there. He really wanted spurs to be successful as a football club. Maybe not as a. He wasn't as ambitious as a team, but he was ambitious as a club to get. There's so many numbers flying around. It doesn't, you know, this, this wages to revenue ratio which people only talk about when it suits them. But how are. We've got the lowest wages to revenue ratio, which is always interesting because, you know, to dare is to do but not to invest. It is quite an interesting one. Investment's interesting one. So remember that season where we didn't buy anyone in the summer window? That was the biggest mistake that took years to get over. I think. I know we were building the stadium, but you've got to account for reinvesting into the club Selling deadwood. You've, You've. That's just the nature of all businesses. Right.
Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Sorry, Jack.
No, no, I was just gonna say the biggest thing with the spending has always been, and I do think this is slightly misunderstood. It's just always been the wages. In my eyes, anyway, it's never been like, oh, we won't go and slap 40, 50, 60 mil, done. But we have, we have done that. I think the biggest challenge has been, and this is not having a gun at this, having a go at this player. When we've gone and spent 50 million, we've signed a Brennan Johnson and at that level of player and we've paid that wage. When the other sides have gone and done 50, 55, 60 mil, they're paying players 250, 300 grand. You know, they're like, right, right at the top of their wage bill for those players they're bringing in, whereas we've matched the spend. But the caliber of player, because the wages is lower, hasn't been the same. So that's always been the thing for me, that's been the most frustrating. We've said this for many, many, many years, haven't we, on the pod, that more often than not, you'll finish where your wage bill is. And we've always punched slightly above our weight, haven't we, really? We've always sort of been about 6, 7 floating around there in terms of the wage bill. But we've had good managers and good players, so we've been able to punch above that and finish a little bit higher, apart from the last couple of seasons. So it's always been that, for me, it's never been that. We don't spend. We don't spend. We have spent. Like, we've just not. We've not particularly got our transfers right, have we, with those big money buys that we've gone and done. Just to name, you know, we all know who's at the top of that list. None of them have been massive successes. But it's the wages. The wages has always been the big thing that's sort of always, always stuck out. But there's a flip to it. And this is me playing Dave's Africa more than anything. Of, like, you look at Newcastle, you look at Villa, you look at the teams that are obviously trying to fight to get into that, you know, top end of the league, and they've all been investing as much as they can, that they're now in massive financial trouble. So it. There's two sides to it, isn't there like we, I would love us, do you know what I mean, to just be like we're breaking our wage bill, we're going to go and sign some absolutely incredible players and we're going to go for it. There's also the flip side of it as well, isn't there? That some of the clubs that have done that are now massively struggling. So it depends what side of the coin you land on, doesn't it?
Football is, especially in the Premier League, it's, it's never been more of a, a push and pull of emotions between the emotion of supporting your football team and the harsh reality of being in probably the most multi billion dollar businesses of all multi dealer businesses. And the numbers are sort of mind blowing on the one hand but on the other hand I think that they're incredibly relevant. And as I, and as I look back and think about his reign, if you like, there's a number of things that I think he clearly made some mistakes on. From a leadership perspective. I would love to argue with anyone that knows him much better than any of us do that he didn't put the right people around him. To your point about the, the transfers that we've made and the money that we've spent perhaps not necessarily being put in the right places and, and that, and that season where we ended up not signing anybody, you know, I, I think has ended up being incredibly damaging for a number of years. I also suspect this tied into my last point that the, probably the reason why we didn't sign anybody at that time is because we couldn't. And I think that what they have, what he singly under his leadership, I think the biggest failure that he has made is he has failed I think to connect with the fan base and communicate with the fan base of the, of the team in the way that he really should have done. Because when you actually look at what they've done, like you know, only four clubs in the last nine seasons have spent more on transfers than spurs have. United, Chelsea and Arsenal. And, and, and if you just look back at the last window, I think we invested, you know, we were one of the top three sides to invest in, in, in, in, in the last summer window. In, in the end the window was a debacle because of Gibbs, White and Eze and all this other stuff. But the truth, when you actually get into the numbers, spurs didn't have the money, they haven't got the money. And I think, and, and that's just, it's a fact. I mean they're sitting on sort of 80 million quid. When you get into the pub. The accounts that they've published, they're sitting on 80 million quiz worth of cash reserves but they've got over 300 million in owed transfer fees because of the deals that they've done in the last three years. They're about they didn't have the money. And I think and, and that's, and that's just a fact. And Liverpool had heart. Liverpool have gone out only ear 50 million quid more than the spurs last season in prize money. But they had more than half of the committed transfer funds that spurs had over 100 million quid this summer versus 350 million quid for, for spurs this summer. And yet spurs still went out and they bought Simons and they flipped tail and they've thought, you know, they, they, they did what they did and I just think that he has failed to transparently and honestly communicate with the fan base. And it goes back for me to when we came out of the stadium, the old stadium. I think that the spurs fans compliantly came away from White Hart Lane with the pro and suffered two years at Wembley under the guise of when the new stadium opened. And everybody then piles back in and we have this shiny world. The reality of that is more successful football seasons and better players, bigger, better superstar players that we're going to be able to attract to come to this club. And the reality I think of that is, is financially that just I, I don't think that was ever really going to be a material outcome and that gap in expectations for whatever reason, whether they just felt that it was negative or it portrayed them in the wrong light, they were never able to really communicate the reality and the truth of the situation which is that when you walk away with £600 million worth of debt and you're trying to manage all of that through your cash reserves and you are self sustaining business. Tavistock and Enoch have pulled no dividends out of spurs at all in the last 10 years nor have they really put any money in. It just runs itself. It was never going to happen. And actually what they've been able to do is exceptional and they just haven't communicated that well enough. And so consequently the, you know, people have, 20,000 people are still in the spurs stadium shouting leave you out. And I sort of understand why they're saying that because we finished 17th last year and the, you know, some of the transfer debacles have happened and all that stuff. But the truth of it is I, I, I would, I Struggle to see in those situations how anything could have ever been any different than what it was. And I don't think that they've communicated that well enough is my, is my view. That being said, of course I was nearly chucking my season ticket over the, over the third tier last season move for his 17th 20 home defeats and going what on earth is going on? But, but when you actually look into it and you get into it and you reflect on the fact that he's come out, I, I think Abe, the situation of what happened tells the story about what's to come. I think to, to my mind personally, I think it's pretty obvious about what's to come. And second and secondly, did he do an amazing job? Yes, he did do an amazing job. Did he connect well enough with the people that support the team? No, he did not. But in the end, like to your point Jack, I think he probably took it as far as anybody could possibly have ever done. And now the team needs to kick on and that requires significant change. And of course this is just the start of that.
Who else are the owners? Where else are owners who are or the chairman or the owners? Because he still owns what, 29.1% so he's still an owner who'd have that great open, transparent connection to the club and also driving improved success. If you go back the 25 years before he's 25, our average position league was 10th, we're up to 6th. He improved the club and we, we got into a bunch of semi finals, three finals I think in his time, four finals and we got into. And we won a, we won the trophy last season.
There weren't. How many characters like him were there? Perez, the guy at Madrid and the guy at Barcelona. I was trying to think about these sort of chairman owner type.
You know, you've got figures, right, which is completely different. Which is a. It's a media thing. That's where the money's coming from. The other owner you might say was the City owner, but that was just when they were. But it's easy to do it when you're buying the league, right? It's easy when you're just paying for the best players. It's easy when you've got lots of success. You don't see this from Liverpool, Liverpool's owners, despite all their success. The, the Leicester one. There was a lot of love for the Leicester fella and he rest in peace. But again that was based on success. But there's nobody who's been at the long term helm who's had both success, both made a club self fulfilling, who's also had a great relationship with the fans. And if we would choose two out of three of those things, we'd have him improving spurs and making the club sustainable. And we go, he probably, let's not forget this is a man, this is a family man who's had threats on his kids, he's had to have security built for his kids, who is a Spurs fan first and foremost and he loves the club. And he probably can't, will never be able to go to a game again because everyone, as soon as he goes, people will shout him. And so imagine that. Imagine building your boyhood love, building them into the greatest stadium, making sure that you diverse, you've got NFL, you've got music there to make it sure that it can run. It will be the last club standing on earth. You get them trophies, you get them consistently top six, top three and they still want you out. It's insane.
I think any, any owner of a football club that ends up going like fans are happy. I just, I think it's one of those impossible, impossible jobs. You know what I mean? It's like he could have won a Premier League, won a Champions League and it wouldn't have been enough. We should have won two. I just think it's one of those jobs that you never, fans in general are never ever going to be really appreciative of it. But I, I do think it's a good point for him to have gone though. Like, could you, could you imagine if we'd have like, imagine we'd have lost that Europa League final and that would have been his last season. So I mean like from a human perspective, I don't know the guy, I've never, never met him, never will. But I'm like when someone puts 25 years worth of work into anything you want them to, to be able to go on a high, didn't you? In some capacity. So for him to have got that trophy just feels like the most appropriate time for it.
Yeah.
You know what I mean? And I think that's good that everybody will probably look back with relatively no regrets with it.
And it really depends what happens next. I've got the stats now. 24 years, 16 semi finals, seven finals, twice third league once, second. And we won the Europa League and the, and the League cup in 2008 as well.
Whatever does happen next though, it's going to be. I put that message out, didn't I? Which was like in the next five years we'll win the Premier League or we'll be in League one and it's like wherever we're at, I'm here for it and I'm just, I'm just excited, do you know what I mean? Like, I like not really knowing what's going to happen. It's going to be different. It could go one way, it could go another, but there's going to be change either way.
But don't you think it will be maybe more of the same, but less skilled because they're building up for a sale? That's the way it feels like. And so they're just going to keep conservative. If they've got, from this article From Jonathan Wilson, 850 million in debt, they're not going to be spending loads of money they do want.
Or is it going to be one of them things actually where we don't even really feel that much of a difference in the short term?
It depends who we sell to. Like if we're the most profitable club in the world, someone is going to be attractive to someone and if they just want to take money out, we could end up like Man United and then we'll be begging for Levy to come back.
I sort of think that balance between sport and achievement, financial acumen and investment, when you sort of look at how spurs now, despite the fact that they've got the new stadium, despite the fact that they're, you know, pimping it out for anyone that cares to play a sport other than football or concerts or whatever else, I mean, it's extraordinary what they're doing now, plus the F1 stuff, plus, you know, you sort of feel like in terms of diversifying their revenue, that they're literally ringing the flannel. Like it's almost to the extent where the self sustaining model of running a football club at that size, I personally feel like they, it's all of the diverse, innovative, crazy ways of driving revenue to be able to still compete in the transfer market, still finish top six, still still sign really cool players every single year, still, you know, spend 200 million every single summer and do it, do anything that I sort of feel like they've run out of tricks and that and that that model, when you look at other clubs and the financial struggles that they're having that perhaps don't have the income opportunities that Tottenham have, but at the same time having, you know, you have to invest and embed in so much every single year just to stand still, that the model of how the club is run has sort of run its Course. And so it feels to me like the, that they, the people that own the club ultimately have they then in the end they've got, they got, they've got two options. Either A, they start to pump loads of money into it, which is not the reason, which is not the reason why they're in it. I mean it's a business or they need, or they need another trick. And so the governance change that they've effectively, which is what they've done by putting a Ned chairman in there, they've effectively now unlocked the door that enables them to. Whatever it might be, whether it's a sale or whether it's a Man United type, you know, sort of football investment or, you know, whatever it is, the, the structure of how they were running the club, that door was pretty shut, I think, and now it's unlocked. So now Tavistock have got the means to be able to go, okay, so you know, what, how do we, how do we kick on? I don't think it's because they've decided that we finished 17th last year. I don't think it's because we've only won two trophies. I don't think that it's because they now want to go and spend £500 million every single summer break. The wage structure, like, of course they're not going to do that because if they were ever going to be a ownership group that were going to do that, that would have happened an awful long time ago. They haven't put any money really into it for years. They're now not about to do this is just about unlocking the door so they can find the trick to keep it going sustainably. And that's, you know, of course that's going to mean either significant investment, allow United and Ineos on the football side or, or, or they'll get out. And the, the language that they're releasing in the media suggests that it's the former.
It's interesting you said about Ned being non executive director, about how it is changing structure now if an executive director is, is a employee who's there to run the club day to day now they've got someone who's just there on the board to provide strategic advice, which means they, the power goes right back to the CEO effectively. Now for non on the field matters.
Which is, it's, it's, it's a complete delineation of the, the investment board and the running of the, of the running of the business. And those, those two things were completely combined before meaning, and remember we're Talking about an investment in Tottenham is what, like $3 billion? I mean, it's not like, you know, someone's borrowing to cut a couple of hundred quid. And so I, I think that when, I mean, I'm obviously, you know, what do I know? But I, I, from what I can understand when you're talking about investments of that magnitude, independence in those negotiations is, you know, obviously, for understandable reasons, pretty important. And, and, and let's not forget that somebody that stands to earn extraordinary amount of money through, through investment into Tottenham, but through a sale or otherwise, is the person that has just sacrificed himself and left. And so it's, I think that's, there's definitely significant change coming at Spurs. I, I, I get the feeling that they care about it, but, but it's, but this isn't this spare investment, isn't it? Like, it seems to me.
Where are you at asd with it or what? I know you often ask the questions about this stuff like, but what's your overriding sort of feeling about it all.
Not dissimilar to what you've talked about? I just, I've never understood Levy out the, Levy out the hate that he gets. Because you have a look at. There's very few teams who can invest and make it and buy the league, right? You have a look at. Do you know which team was top of the league at Christmas or at New Year's, the turn of 1999-2000, when it turned into the millennium? I know that's not when the millennium really happened, if you've been mathematical, but when the millennium happened, when the clocks were going to blow up the computers. Leeds were top because they had invested so much cash in that team and the only way they were going to break even that year was by winning the Champions League. And they didn't. And it took them decades to get back. What Levy's done is he's made incremental benefits. Like he's gone incremental gains, incremental marginal gains to Spurs. He's just made us better everywhere. He hasn't taken much money out. He's just tried to improve spurs. And he could have gone any year, he could have gone it. I'm just going to chuck loads of money at it. But when he did go out, he bought Dembele, which he thought was going to sort us out, but it was in Dombele, but it was a mistake. He thought we got to the Champions League final. I can squeeze more out of this. I'm going to go and get Mourinho who was one of the best manager, he couldn't get pep. Who else do you get? You go and get Mourinho. He tried in an efficient economic way. He was daring and it didn't work. And we talked about last week, didn't we, about how, you know, for. If you want Delhi for every deli, you have to go through five NGs, 10 NGs. You buy 105 million pound players and you get one that's worth 50 million. But you buy one 50 million pound player, it probably doesn't work out. You have a look at all the club's top record signings. Very, very few. I mean they're all Lukaku and very few of them work out, right?
Yeah.
And so he's tried to roll the dice and make it land on four, five or six, as much as he can and I think he's got to be commended. And you go, we're idiots. Right? We are all idiots. Rob's a very highly regarded idiot, but we're all idiots. We've got no idea how it is to run a football club, how it is to run a shop, a megastore, to run a training ground, to run fan groups around the world, to run the emotions of millions of people around the world where chance plays so much of an impact on your success. But everything that he could control, he improved. Apart from speculation on the pitch. And he would have had to speculate against state run clubs who were breaking rules. The most successful club has got 150 cases against them right now. So what would you do? Go and do 151 cases. He hasn't got that money. So what do you do? You make it the most sustainable club with the greatest stadium in the world, with the greatest training ground in the world. You give us some great football. You try. He tried to give us the pragmatic, the defensive and then the offensive managers. He tried everything and he was lucky with Harry Kane, I think, and Gareth Bale and a few others. But I'm not sure what more he could have done really. It's very easy to go. I should have invested more. Where? How? In who? I don't know.
I agree. As a sustainable business. They built a new stadium, the best in Europe. They built a brand new training ground, the best in the world and still spent 750 million pounds net on their team in a. In a self sustaining model. Extraordinary. Did he nickel and dime over too many transfers and cost us players that we should have got that drive us all potty? Yes. Was that a good thing. No, because that 5 million that he saved on this and that and the other, in the grand scheme of things, didn't mean anything. And I suspect his ego and narcissism got in the way of us having a couple of players in front of us that, that we otherwise would have enjoyed. And that's definitely an issue. But, you know, in, in the end. Yeah, I think we've all said the same thing, is that he has found the best tricks of all the owners in terms of running it sustainably and they've just. It's just gone stale and they've run out of tricks, which, you know, fair enough.
So I find interesting. You're totally right. I think he's a man who conf. Who when it came to football players specifically, he confused cost and value. And because every football player is unique, you can't do that. And if there's a player you want, you have to get them. Hazard, for example, you had to get him, like, look what he did for Chelsea. He's one of the greatest players the Premier League ever, ever had. He flew over to come and sign for Tottenham. And I think, do you know what I find interesting, though? You go, you have a look at the women's game and you have a look at the Rugby World cup, the Women's Rugby World cup. That's happening right now. The score differential right now in the group stages is insane. And you have a look at the. The state of the women's game in the best possible way. Like, some of these teams are coming from amateur. I mean, spurs just played. No, Arsenal just played a brand new team, the London, what they called the London. Who did Arsenal play with me? And they just played the London City team, which is a brand new team that they are going through. If you think about the 80, 20 thing, about where the first 80 takes 20 of the effort, like they're going through massive changes. And that's when he took over was when football was still coming out of the amateur era. It obviously wasn't amateur, but football was changing significantly year over year because of the TV investment. And he's taken us into a place where it's very highly optimized, very highly commercial, where no one knew how to manage a team through those 25 years was, he's done it and kept us sustainable. No one's had an owner that kept them flowing through them. Apart from Real Madrid maybe, but Real Madrid is his own case. I, I think it's got to be lauded and I think he's got to be appreciated way More than years. I'd love to have him on just so we could feel a bit of love from spurs fans. Even if it's us from just from us. Idiots.
That would be a pod. Can you imagine?
That would be good, wouldn't it? Imagine that.
I'd love it. I'd love him. I'd like to get him drunk and go, go for it. Who's a prick?
Does he get drunk? I'm not sure.
Absolutely not. I'm a guessing if we build the drinks, he would.
I just want Levy and Abbas. Could you imagine that?
He's not the biggest fan, is he? He's been. And I, I've got nothing but respect for those points of view. Like, it's, it's great that everyone just.
Loves to see that.
What.
What a conversation. That would be amazing.
Just wish someone could say there are a lot of people who don't know what they're talking about and somebody did who wanted you out. But there's other people who did appreciate you. But it's hard to have a protest saying, levy, we appreciate you. So what do you want moving forward? I'm. I'm a tad worried, you know, that we're going to get sold to an investment group or an American billionaire or.
But we almost certainly will know. Like, it can't really be anybody else, can it, that's got the money and is going to do it.
Is there a situation which would make you question supporting Spurs, A person like, if Musk bought Spurs, I'd find that very difficult.
I don't know if it would. I'm never gonna not support Spurs. I mean, but there'll be a. How happy am I? How engaged am I? Well, it's more of what the question would be. But unfortunately, anybody that's got the money to invest, you can, you can, you can dig around for any billionaire, can't you? And there's. There's stuff that you're not gonna like. Do you know? I mean, there's no, there's no one. So I think it's really difficult. There's never going to be a time where I'm not gonna listen. They're not gonna be my team. But how happy? Yeah, maybe.
Can I ask you one word? I'm gonna ask you. Say good decision or bad decision. I've got the list of Levy managers.
Two words.
It's hyphenated. I'm going to hyphenate it or just say it quickly. So George Graham, good decision, bad decision.
Good decision on a trophy.
Glenn Hodle, that was his first decision, wasn't it? Really.
Bad decision.
It wasn't great, was it? David Plate, sort of caretaker. Okay. Jackson Teeny.
I guess. Bad decision.
I suppose he was.
He wasn't all. He was a good appointment, though. It was quite an exciting time. Personal stuff, didn't he going on.
He said, yeah, yeah, yeah. We were fourth unbeaten when he left.
If we hadn't have had Jack Santino, we wouldn't have got Martin, y'.
All.
So.
Oh, yeah.
Come over with his assistant, didn't he?
So Martin, y'. All. It's gotta be a great decision.
Yeah, that was that. That felt like the. Actually right, here we go. Was the Martin yo. Era for me was. You know, that this is it. We've got someone in charge that gets it. Brilliant connection with the supporters, the spurs way. All of that was a really, really good time.
Yeah.
I like Ramos. I think I was me and about three others.
He won the cup against Chelsea.
My issue with Ramos was how he. What he did to the team when he decided he was going to leave, I. E. You know, not turn up and send us second button. That's my issue with him. But yeah, sorry.
The Ramos one was bizarre, wasn't it? Because it was like he obviously took over from y', all, which the fans didn't want second half of the season when he was in. So he took us to the League Cup. It looked good. It looked like this guy might, you know, know what he's doing. And then the transfer window is absolutely double. We basically do all the. All the. The spurs players were basically just gutted, weren't they, from the side. Well, that was the window where we lost like defo.
I'm just getting right now. So that was, oh, seven to Robbie.
Keane go, didn't he? To Liverpool. Berbatov went and I think we didn't we replace like Defo Keem Berbatov with like Pavchenko and Fraser Campbell on loan. It was something like that. And it's like. I think. I think even Sir Alex would have found that a tough next season. But it just. It fell apart, didn't it, really quickly.
And here you go. Berbatov, Keane, Kabul, Malbron Robinson, Gardiner, Chimbonda, Tano, Lee Boateng out on loan. And we got in Modric Bentley, Pavlichenko, Chorluca, Gomez, Dawson like properly went for a completely new team. Cesar Sanchez. I don't know anything about him. Who.
Okay.
Must have been a goalkeeper. Yeah, it was a goalkeeper. He's one of Europe. He's won the Champions League. Someone. Well, Ramos Finished with two points in eight games.
Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
So Harry Redknapp took over. What a roller coaster that was. I've now come around to him. He wound me up at the time I think a little bit because it was too simple. Yeah. I've always had a bit of a problem. I post rationalized it a bit too much. But I was singing. Do you remember that Newcastle game after we bought Saha where we were 4 nil up after 20 minutes. Saha scored 2 after he hadn't scored in 20 games. I think that's what Cottage score as well. After a bail assist. And everyone was singing Harry Redknapp we want you to stay. Because he'd been cleared. Didn't he? And he was up for the England job.
I love the Redknapp era. And I think that at the time as well. The timing of him was perfect. Where it was like it would let. It was dreadful when at that start of the season with Ramos and we were all thinking that like this. This could get really bad. And he just brought everyone together really really quickly. Didn't he? Got us back playing front foot football. It was a really good time.
Sorry. I was gonna say. So did after two games. I think I was at this game. Didn't we beat. We beat Liverpool at home. Didn't win the league or something. There was a huge result. Wasn't there? That just. And the momentum. You suddenly. The momentum just changed.
I think we had.
Didn't we.
We.
I think his first game was Bolton at home. And we won 2 nil. And then we went and drew 4 all.
That's right.
Which was mad. And then. And then a couple of weeks later we had. Liverpool were flying. And we beat him 2. One in the last minute. We got peppered and beat him later on. It was just like. Oh yeah. We went on a really good run. Didn't we? I feel like the first 1011 games under him. I remember us losing at Fulham when Gomez chucked a couple in. But apart from that like the.
The.
It was just good wasn't it? It just feel good football again. It had its limitations. He could only take us so far. But that was. That was a good appointment.
Sure. I didn't see us beat Liverpool many times. And the one I missed. I think I missed two games this season. I can't remember if it was this season. These two games. But I missed two really important games. Remember we beat him four nil. Adeboye unplayable. And they had two men sent off.
I think early in the Season that, wasn't it?
Yeah, really early and I, I, I was at a wedding and so I gave my tickets to someone and I was pretty devastated. And the other one was the Man City game where we came back from 1 nil to beat him 31 I think again at a wedding was. Do you remember that one? Defoe scored. Bale scored.
Yeah.
Someone else called that one. I wish I was out. That's one with the bail. The Defoe goal is. You can see it on YouTube from the crowd. I'll send that to you afterwards, Robbie. So banger after Harry we had AVB only for a year and a half, but I loved AVB like I loved him because it was just, it was a swing, wasn't it Harry? Harry gave me the most painful moment of my spurs sporting career. When Chelsea won that Champions League that drog beheader then when they won on, when they won on penalties in Bayern's ground against Bayern and we didn't make the Champions League despite finishing fourth. And we'll be the last team that ever happens to right, because Chelsea finished outside the top the Champions League places but they want it to keep them in it and knocked us out now that rule we would still be in it if, if now nowadays we might be the last team in the Premier League to have that ever to happen to. Then we got AVB and we did really well with avb. I, it felt like he had a plan but he had one way of playing, didn't he?
Sure. I've read recently and it surprised me. I don't know why it did but that the, the players loved avb. They love playing for him. They were bought into him. I'm sure I've read that somewhere. Maybe from.
Yeah, no, no.
Or someone. I'm sure Aaron Lennon was a big, big one.
Yeah.
Big one about avb.
Yeah. And yeah, he was. I liked avp. I did what I, I, I'll always love AVB for the Upton park bail. You know, fall down, get up, lump it in.
Oh yeah.
Your birthday actually.
I was in a, I was watching that with all of my West Ham mates at the same time at one of their houses and I was the only spur. So that was, that's one of the all time great, great, great nights. So he's, he's, he's right up there for me for that alone.
I thought he was staying when he hugged him and then during the wet came out he named his kid Alberta Violet Bale and we were like oh my God, he's named his kid After AVB and then. But apparently he comes from money, doesn't he? He lives, he like he. He just races now. He does parry that car, doesn't he? He's just. He comes for money. And he lived in the same apartment block as Bobby Robson, I think. And that's just how he got into football then. Tim Sherwood, six months. I found that quite embarrassing at times. But there's times when he talked very straight and he made sense. But then there's other times bringing the fan down to the dugout. It just. It just killed me a little bit.
Yeah, it was a good laugh.
But you know, it's our best performing manager statistically, isn't he?
Is he?
I mean it's a load of nonsense though, isn't it?
He won 50 of his games. We got battered by some teams, didn't we? I think we got. Was that the one where we got beaten like 51 by Liverpool? Is that that. Was that him?
No. So we got, we got beat 5 nil by Liverpool in what was AVB's last game? That was AV's last game. Palino got a straight red and we just got destroyed. But we, we went, we went toe to toe at home with City and I think they beat us 5 4, 5 1. Jeko scored a couple like it was like Tor and David Silva sent a mid. And I think we had like Mason and Ben. It was like you have a shot, we have a shot.
And it's like okay, maybe not versus boys.
Yeah.
And then Pochettino, which is the greatest manager. Our greatest manager of modern era. Right?
Yeah.
But his best appointment by a country mile.
Yeah, yeah, maybe until the most recent one. But yeah.
Do you remember it's wasn't it him versus Frank DeBoer. They were the two options at the time. Do you remember that? We got Potch Champions League final. I still remember being with you, Jack, at the last game at the old stadium. Like it, it was what I just really remember those last two games. The Arsenal won the 2 nil beating Man United 2 1. It was just. It felt bigger than football.
That's exactly it. I'm chasing that. Having that feeling back with spurs again more than anything. And even winning the Europa League. And I'm talking to Mr. L Senior about this at the weekend and he thought I was mad for it. But I was like that Europa League didn't give me that feeling. Winning it. It was an amazing. It was an amazing thing to win it. Of course. It was like. It's incredible. It's such a high but like that feeling of that pot team and that. It was incredible. It was absolutely incredible. For me, it was. It was one of the best times. I just. I don't know if it was just Pochettino or if it was the football or the players or. It was just like the sense of community that we had. It just felt like we all in it. And like every spurs fan you spoke to, it was just like. It was. It was positive all the time. It was incredible, incredible time. And I just want that back again more than anything.
I. I remember distinctly when we won the semi final to make the Champions League final. One of. One of my emotions at that time. And I remember. I'll never forget, I remember ringing my dad, who I wasn't watching it with. And one of the things that we were saying was that I couldn't believe that spurs, my team, were in the Champions League final. It was like, how have we. That's for other teams. How have we done that? And I. Because I felt the same about the Europa League final and I've really thought about that since then and I, I just, I think the ex. I think the expect. And this is partly going back to our point about Levy and how he's changed the club. I think we think about the team differently now. I think there's an expectation now that we should be doing that stuff. Whereas then we were a challenger brand then, I think. Yeah, I. I was. I still think, because we hadn't long been out of Chim Bonder and Neil Sullivan and all, you know, we had long been out of that era and yes, we'd have pots for a few years, but, you know, it had been so up and down. I just think we think differently about it now because I think they are. They were bigger power now than they were then, I think. Yeah, but I can't believe we'll ever replace that feeling that we had then when we, you know, those FA cup semi finals and get into the Champions League final and the way that we did it and Pochettino and son and what, you know, what, what they all meant to us at that time. I think that will be unique.
I think it was, it was, yeah. That was emotional. Do you think, because he was sacked just after we went to the new stadium, right. So we, we went in April and he got sacked. And do you think he was a victim of the Lacker could remember in his last year he changed it from coach to. Or did he change it his title to coach from manager? Because he was like, there was no he. There's no investment. You need to. He did that quote, didn't he, about, you need to. If you buy a new house, you can't buy a new house, you need to change the furniture. And he. They didn't make the investment. And I think he just. He was a victim. He was a casualty of that more than anything. He did get proper moody. But you can see how much the fans love him. Still love him.
Yeah. Yeah. I think. I hope he never comes back to me. I'm sure, you know, I'm sure. I'm sure at some stage we're going to see him again, to be honest, but I hope. I hope he doesn't, because he can only ever. Yeah. The chances of him doing anything to improve his legacy at Tottenham is so remote and the chances of it are so slim that I hope that he just is to us what he's always, always been. But we'll see.
Then we got Jose and I had big expectations, but the. The dinosaur I just had this time, hadn't he?
Yeah. I was no fan.
With hindsight, bad appointment at the time, I genuinely thought, I really get it. This is a heavyweight appointment. Like, this is a massive.
Of.
Of all the managers to bring in. This is huge. We've got a good team. He might be it. That just squeezes that last bit and gets over the line. I remember thinking that and standing by that for the first nine, 10 months and just being like, if anyone can do it where Potch couldn't, this guy's proven that he can. But it just, you know, he didn't get the chance that final, did he? And I. And I've said this a couple of weeks ago, I'm pleased that it was someone like Ange that broke that trophy gap that we had, and not a Jose and not a Conte, because it would have been. I've done it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So in a way, I'm quite. I'm quite glad that we're the. Do you know what I mean? With a mark against him in his career. Do you know what I mean? It would. Because you know what it would have been if he'd have won it? Like, Tottenham were nothing. Jose comes now. We win because of all of that stuff. So. But at the time, I did remember being really excited about the prospect of Mourinho, but again, wasn't to be.
Wasn't. Didn't. Mourinho, was it? Mourinho took us out of the Europa Conference League. Was that Conte? Sorry?
That was Conte, yes.
Okay. So we Had Nuno. It was obviously a bad. Bad.
That was bad.
It was bad, bad, bad.
Don't forget. Don't forget Stellini in all of this as well.
Do you remember him?
Oh, yes.
Two games was delayed. When was that? Was that after Cont?
He was. He was Conte's man. So that was after Conto twice, wasn't it? Conte was. Had his gold issues, didn't he? Gallbladder issues. And then. And then obviously the death of. The tragic death of the. The coach that was there after he got. And then. And then obviously when Contis at his St. Mary's meltdown. After that.
Was it in between Nuno and Conte where it just took. No. Which one? Was it between Mourinho and getting Nuno. It just took too long to find the manager.
Yeah, no, no, it was. Yeah.
Because weren't we in for Gatuso at one point? And the fans went crazy.
They were trying to get Conte, weren't they? And they didn't try to get Nuno.
Yeah, well, the one. They have the kinsman at some point in that. Was that.
That one?
Yeah.
Klimsman.
At any point when the spurs job's available, he's always. His name's always in the midst.
Yeah, hundreds of one just put him on there. Conte, I always liked. He was very direct and he was very direct in saying it's basically statistic of Tottenham and they need more investment on the pitch to be the best.
I was a fan, but I think I was. I think, you know, I. I totally understand why a lot of most people aren't, but I was a fan.
The thing that I found the strangest about Kim is with Conte's proven his whole career, if you give him what he wants in terms of personnel, money, all of that, he will win. Like, he's proven it. Everywhere he's gone, he's been successful. He was never going to get that Spurs. And that was why I was just like. I'd never understood deployment. You've got a. A manager here. He has a certain style of football, which I think is pretty dire, to be honest. But yeah, he gets you the results and it's like. But only if you back him and it's like you're not gonna. It was just a real. It just felt like a really, really.
Weir appointment that he wasn't spurs, was he? Even when you had a bit of spurs in him, he just wasn't. He was the least spurs.
And we weren't Con. And we weren't Conte. Either. It was just like. It's like, you know, you see those couples and like, you're like, it's obvious that you two are not it, but you're just both gone. All right, let's just do this for now, then. Like, what is one of them really, really weird appointment?
And we've talked. We've talked a lot about Ange. He won us a trophy and he took us to 17th. I mean.
What do you think? What do you think about Ange? Where would you put him?
I deeply, deeply dislike Ange Postecoglou. I, I. And I know there's a lot of people who like him because they, they think he's honest. I just see a moody man who didn't know how to manage a team.
If you stack rank all those managers right, top to bottom, where would you put. Where would you put Ange? I'd put in bottom two.
Oh, God, yeah. I mean, if you go. I moved to London in 2008, so I saw Ramos watching them properly. Ramos on, y' all on. And he is bottoms. Even Tim Sherwood did more than him. Oh, you've got Nuno as well. I would rather have Nuno in charge than Postecocli.
Oh, God, no. No. Was at the bottom for me and then him as a manager, in terms of what I was watching.
I liked Ange for who he was as a bloke, but he came across as like a good man. I know it's not. That's not. I know it's not enough, but he. He came across to me like he was a good bloke. He did to me. He did to me. I thought he had quite a lot of it. I thought he had quite a lot of integrity. I thought he had his values, which he. Which he stuck by and refused to be any different, which is also the reason why he got sad. I just felt that he come across quite humble. Like, I always got that impression. Yeah.
Yeah.
I always got impression with him, like, he could be. He could be coming out now and trying to get another job and talking about how he broke the spurs cycle and all of that. Nothing like, I think he was really good at when things were going well, the players are brilliant. And when things were not going well, he took a lot of that on himself. And most managers don't do that.
I've never heard anybody in all the press conferences. And I do. I'm somebody. I'm such a loser. I actually like beanie man, sports 1am I'm in there now. I'm watching them and I'VE never heard anybody in all my days talk about their ability to deliver results on a football field with the least amount of credibility to be able to do so ever. Because he managed in Australia and Japan and you know, had a, had a good year at Celtic. I'm like, give me a break.
Do you reckon anyone will go near him? Do you reckon any other prem side would. Yeah, take it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
He's got Premier League credentials now.
Yeah, I think really, I'm really intrigued. Like I would love a, a prem side this season to take him and just for. To see what he would do. Whether or not he would just go in and just exactly the same or would there be some tweaks and changes to it. I think that would be a really interesting one to watch.
If he goes to Forest, I think it'll be really interesting to see about this, this humility and values thing when he comes up against that owner and how, how that works.
In fact, if basically Forest defending their own six yard box, he's going to move him up the pitch 80 yards and he like, imagine that. Milinkovic on the halfway line.
I cannot wait to play a postecoglou team with the team that we've got now. Put it that way.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, me neither, doctor.
Spurs would strike, you know, it would.
Come in messy level. Finish the season with messy level goals and assists in hg. And now we're on Thomas Frank, who I'm very, very, very happy with right now.
Doing great, proper manager. Yeah, smart.
Very Danish. Very, very Danish. That's it. That's it. I mean it's a lot to think about now with. I mean we haven't got any control and I'm not going to worry about it. But I'm interested to see what happens to my club now. I think we'll feel a little bit further away from ownership now, from connection to the club potentially. Because if we go. Levy was a fan and he protected it as a fan and he, he did try to engage with fans and now we've got non exec directors and now they're getting ready to sell to an investment to a faceless investment group. But before we think about that, on Saturday we've got West Ham at 5:30. That is a big game.
That's a big game.
That's a great opportunity for us to go there and just make a bit of a statement.
It is a brilliant run of games. West Ham, Villarreal at home, Brighton away, Doncaster at home in the FA in the EFL Cup Brilliant runner games. Interesting, right?
I just. I just really think we've got a opportunity whether or not it happens or not. But I. I feel like we haven't played well at West Ham for ages. Yeah, like just gone there and been like, asserted ourselves because, let's face it, I don't want to come across too cocky, but like, we're significantly better team than them. But every year it feels like the last three or four years we've gone there and we've just put in a bit of a kind of performance and we might have got out there with the odd draw and that, but it's just been ages since we've just gone there and been. Just squished them, you know, like we did last year at home and we batted them 4:1, didn't we, last year at home? And it was just like, I just love to go there and just bang, you know, it would absolutely knock stuffing out of them early in the season and it would just give us a bit of momentum and I think for a new manager, when you go in, there's a chance to win a derby early in the season. Like if there were. If there are sort of any frank question marks, many sports go to West Ham, get a good win and we'll be absolutely away.
It's a really, really good. It's obviously a good test for the team, but if you think about sort of what makes you a top six team, there's a number of different things for me and one of them is the ability to go into white hot atmospheres and get a result whether that's a draw or win, and just deal with that and the whole kudos. Sit. That atmosphere is gonna be absolutely amazing lit. It is gonna be amazing. So, I mean, a like, Opie scores a hat trick, does his celebration, sits down and I mean that can you imagine, just be unbelievable. And they should go there because, I mean, I know they just had a good result last their last game, but I mean they are absolute dog, aren't they? So they should, they should go there and absolutely thump. But it is gonna be white hot in there and can they deal with it? And if they can, then we actually might have a season on our hands if that. If they can deal with that. So it's gonna be, it's gonna be interesting. I'm really looking forward to it.
I also think it's, It's. I'm intrigued to see what Frank does. So obviously we had the PSG game and we, we sort of fell apart the last sort of 15 minutes. Of that, and he obviously learned a lot from that going into the Man City game. This is going to be similar to Bournemouth, where West Ham are going to sit off. They're going to press into something. They're going to make life difficult for us. Have we got the tactical now and the players to be able to open them up, score like. I think it's going to be a big game in terms of that first goal, this one, because I think you've got two teams there that, if they get in front, can make life quite difficult for you. So I'm really intrigued to see how he sets us up. Does Javi Simmons come straight in? You'd hope. You'd hope so and you'd expect so. I just. I'm really excited and looking forward to this game where normally West Ham away makes me go a little bit like, oh, like, here we go. This is just. It's not. Not, you know, we. We can't. We can't win because even when we win, we're like, we should. But I'm looking forward to this one.
What was interesting about the Bournemouth game, I mean, watching all the analysis, was all their attacks came down our left side down there. Right. And that's where Jared Bowen plays. Who's probably their best player. Yeah. With Paqueta. So that's good. It'll be interesting to see what Frank does with that. Rob, can I. We did the predictions, me and Jack at the beginning, to finish us off. Can I just ask you some quick questions about the season? Where do you think we're going to finish? Seventh, same as Jack. Champions League, where we're gonna get to?
I'm really sorry for sounding such a complete idiot now, but what's the round after the league stage?
We. I said knockout. Playoffs. We're just. Just.
Yeah.
First. First round of that.
Yeah. FA Cup.
Final.
I thought you were gonna say fourth.
Round, runner up, maybe. I think we'll make the final. That's my prediction. League cup quarterfinals.
Unexpected hero.
I'll tell you who I'm really excited about is the striker that they signed on deadline day. I think he's a player that. I like him. I think he's a player. I think he could, if they play him, get an absolute stack of goals for us. I think he's good player, so I'm excited about him.
I said Madison, so it's not going so well for me.
I think Madison was going to be sold. I had. I've got a sneaky feeling that Madison was going to be compromised this summer. I do I'm not sure he's a frank player and it's all gone a bit Pete Tom for him. I don't know. I had a funny feeling, but.
What.
I don't know why, but anyway, he's definitely not going to be the surprise starlet this season now, mate, I've never.
Warmed to him as the best after like Ericsson for me was. Was the best number 10 I've seen and I just don't think he's not there yet for me.
Madison in the same team was never going to happen. And so when they were trying to sign him, I just thought, I'm not sure what's going on there. Anyway, there you go.
He'll be standout player. So if the last one is unexpected here, this is standout player.
Polynya.
So Jack said, do you think we're making him permanent at the end of the year?
Yeah, yeah. 100. As long as he's fit. He is a top, top player.
That said, not permanent, which is interesting. What do you want to feel at the end of the season?
I. I would honestly take not feeling like I did it at the end of the league season last year. I don't mean after we won the Europa League.
Yeah.
Because that was extraordinary. But when we finished 17th last year, I was. Yeah, I. I can't remember being that low in terms of the combination of the commitment to watch it going into the games and I went home and away last year and it was. I was very, very low on the football front.
Yeah.
And so I just. I just hope that they have a really solid season. They take it seriously and we finish where we should finish, which is seventh European spots.
Definitely. So we should be around. We should be in that mix with the squad we've got.
Definitely should be. It just a disgrace. Last year they. They were taking the excuse on the. My language on. But they were taking the piss and that's. And we all pay way too much money to have the piss taken out of us every week. And they were taking the piss. So I hope that they. I hope that I don't feel like that.
You just forget like the trauma of going. They're going to score in the first five minutes with their first attack. That happened every game and it was mad final one. What's our goal difference going to be? We are on four right now. We finished our season on minus one.
Plus 17.
So what? It's big. Check the 10. I said eight. Cool. That's good. Any other business, gents?
How you getting on the fantasy league?
I just I'm so bad at it.
Yeah, I didn't do it this year. I completely forgot to do it.
Yeah, everyone's using AI now. All the people in the office are just using AI to do it. And I think that's quite boring.
That's boring. My, my. We've done it as a family this year. My 8 year old Leo, he's absolutely smashing it. Maybe he's using AI in the background. He. His trick is that he knows a little bit about the spurs players because he's lucky enough to go and he doesn't really know anything about the others. And so what he's doing and is he's just looking at the form D form table and he's just doing that. He's not. He doesn't know any of their players and so it's just all about what the data tells him. He's got future. He's got a future like boy.
Yeah. The year we did the family, my mum won because she just picked names that she liked and she picked loads of African players that just smashed it. But this was dropper era. I remember when I started doing fantasy league and I don't know if you remember this, Rob, but it was. Everybody picked Lampard and Ronaldo and then you had no money left but you had to choose those two because that's where all the goals were coming from. And then it was just who do you choose out of the. Literally the bottom prices of everyone else. And that was what won it. But you couldn't. It wasn't that you could be clever and balance money out. You had to choose Lampard and Ronaldo. You.
You asd have one of my favorite ever fantasy football moments. I don't know if you remember this, but we were in the office and you came around on Friday and you were like, I've gone for it. You went triple captain early in the season. First storage at Liverpool. Liverpool had started sitting there flying and it was like, oh, he's gone. Gone early for the Saturday lunchtime game. Comes in starriage on the bench. This is brilliant. And I think that you had your vice captain as Lampard at the time or someone. It was, it was a. A good player and that vice captain scored a couple. So it was like, oh, you'll get that. But Sturridge came on in the 89th minute to pick up one point for you. So you ended up triple captain. A guy that played 60 seconds. It was amazing. You would like. Have you. Have you seen that? There's that guy that plays reverse fantasy football. You have to spend your full budget. And it's the first amount of points, but you have to spend your full budget.
I like that.
Brilliant.
I like that.
Brilliant.
It's doing. It's doing an ange.
Exactly, exactly. Everybody else's fault.
All right, gents, it's been that has gone by quick, but always a pleasure, Rob. Always, always, always welcome.
Lovely to see you all.
Jack, it's great to see you. We'll speak to you next week. And don't forget, the future's bright if it's just nearly 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 Pieteart Lane are or are not the team of.
The century can't possibly be more than a man.
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, but billow of the net, the beating of the trap and the picking of the lock. The swiftness of thought, the lightness of touch. We are Ginola, Greaves, Klinsman. We are the collective gasp, the intake of breath, the flick, the trick, the 30 yard free kick. We are Hodl, Mappets and kings. 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.
Vandervaert to level it up. Raphael Van der Vaart. Two touch. It's quite a game, isn't it always?
We are Jennings, Defoe and Ferryman. Glory past, glory future. What was, what is, what's next. We are Blanch, Flower, Adelis and Bale. 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 something. We're putting the cup a really stubborn going all the way and Leonard's kicked him out. Wow. This is incredible. This is quite incredible. Truly a glory, glory day for Tottenham Hotspur.
