S15E9 - the Frank way

Really stubborn. Going all the way again here. And Leonard's kicked him out. Oh, this is incredible. This is quite incredible. Truly a glory, glory day for Tottenham Hotzma.

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

And I'm Jack.

I am. Don't know where to start. So I started journaling on 29 December last year. I've just filled my first journal and you know that phrase, I'm going proper ADHD at the moment, My brain's going off in all directions. You know that phrase that people underestimate what they can do in the long term, but they overestimate what they can do in the short term. These journals are actually a really good way of going. I'm going to have a long term goal for the length of this journal is about 10 months. The last one was about some mental health stuff and learning some stuff that personal stuff about neurodiversity. This one's about physical health. Because I've been teetering on the. I've been slowly losing weight, slowly getting fit, but this is about nailing it. So I've been on it, I've been zwifting, been getting fit, but my wife's away, I've had the kids, I'm very tired, the clocks have gone back. I've eaten a whole packet of biscuits because Emma's away. Because what I. The way I'm doing, the way I do it, is that it's the same biscuits. It's cookie, chocolate chip cookies. Put it around.

What brand? What brand are they?

The Maryland ones.

Oh, yes.

Yeah, right.

Correct answer.

But put them in the fridge so they're cold. I get a bottle of orange juice, cookie in the mouth, bite it so it's half broken. Like, I do this for every single one mouthful of orange juice. Let it mix, not for a long time, just let it go through it. So it's basically like cereal in my mouth. And then it's my favorite thing. The sharpness, the crunch, the liquid. I just, I genuinely love it. It makes me so happy.

You know what? I was, I was with you.

I know.

I saw your face when you said orange juice and get that in there as well. And I was like, you're an awful, awful human for that.

Have you, have you tried it yet, though?

No. Yeah, I haven't. No, I haven't, I haven't. But there's also a lot of stuff I haven't tried that I know it's not going to be good.

Like what? Point is, I've got a lot of Sugar in me right now. So I'm feeling pretty good. And Tottenham have won. You know, there's so much to talk about, man. We've got Monaco, we've. Everton game finished like 20 minutes ago. We got, We've got to talk. I mean, that Arsenal performance against Athletico Madrid is the best European performance since their performance against Real Madrid last year.

I just, I don't really want to talk about them because, like, it's becoming like. And they're gonna win the league. Inevitable. Like, it's, it's, it's a worry. It's a, you know, but, but we've just got to do our thing and like, come on, like, we're third in the league with one five drawn, two lost, two out of nine. We lost to Bournemouth, who are above us, and we lost to Villa, who have beaten City today. So I think those defeats all of a sudden don't look as disastrous as what everyone made them out to be. We've got the second best defense in the league this season. We've got the joint. Things are, things are looking really positive and I still feel like we haven't really fully even got going yet, which is fantastic, you know, like, and I just think, you know, I know that there's a lot of people out there that are not sure about Thomas, Frank and all of that, but I think we've just got to keep doing what we're doing and hanging on to the top of the league as long as we can. And we will get better, you know, I mean, we're just building and building and building. The defense is looking so much better as well now. And once he's got that nailed, he'll move to the midfield, then he'll move to the attack. So I'm just, I'm really pleased with what I saw. And the really encouraging thing from the winner, Everton today, was it this game today for me screamed like a one all or just. Do you know what I mean? It's like it's a Sunday, 4:30 game. We've had Europe. Like, are we going to be able to go there and win? Like, I was just a little bit like, oh, I'm not sure about this. And it was just, it was a real gritty, dogged performance. It obviously very reliant on the set pieces for the first couple of goals, but how much of a threat do we look all of a sudden from them, like, and we look solid defending them as well.

I, I swear that there's a symbiotic relationship with Arsenal going on. They're unbelievable at set pieces and we are. Something's going on. We're brilliant at defending set pieces as well, like just rock solid at the back.

I just think, I think that the game, that the style of football this season has just obviously shifted quite a lot, hasn't it? Because I actually think if you look at all of the teams in the Premier League, if you take both boxes out of the game and you're looking at everything between the boxes, I actually don't think there's much in the whole league. I really don't. I really, really. I think if you look at what can Wolves do in open play versus what can Bournemouth do in open play, I, I don't think that It's. That there's 16 points in nine games between those two teams. I really don't. I think you've got teams that can defend their box and teams that can dominate both boxes at different points in the game are the ones that are basically towards the top end of the league and the ones that are really struggling to do that are the ones towards the bottom. Because I just think now you've got a lot of sides that have got just good players everywhere. I don't think that there are that many real outstanding from an attacking point of view, outstanding attacking players, no, but I think there's a lot of teams that are set up really well, really well drilled. I think there's a lot of good coaches in the Premier League and it's just hard in open play to really get into dangerous areas.

Like we're seeing long balls come back, long throw ins are coming back now. It's just very different football now and.

I think if you look at like the side that we had out there today, I think that suits the profile of players. We've got like this style of football across the league at the moment. We've got what, five players over six foot that are all good in the air, you know, And I, I just think that that's where the league is at the moment, that there's not, there's not a lot in it. Like you see Sunderland, who I can have an amazing start soon, go to Chelsea and Nickelwood. There's a lot of tight games going on. Like you're not really seeing teams getting hammered even if score lines are by two or three goals. Like today it wasn't really a three nil game, I didn't think, but I felt like we were the better team for most of it. But it didn't feel like a 3 nil game. But I just Think that it. I think it's good thing for us that this is sort of the style at the moment. The bad thing is the team who are currently top of the league. It really, really, really suits them that this is how this season's shaping out.

But how are they going to. But there's. City is six points behind. Liverpool are seven points behind. How is it going to change though? Before today they'd have what, one shot on target in last three games? Like they. I don't know.

Three goals conceded in nine games is like. They're on track to break that record, aren't they?

That's not Mourinho levels like it, isn't it? All the little bits are coming together. I don't think your craze. I. I was. I think he's their version of Soldado. I think they'll love him and he'll try his best. I just. I'm not sure it'll ever work out in that way. I think he'll be sold to Spain in a couple of years. Valencia, that's, you know, that sort of. That sort of player.

The thing that intrigues me so much though this season at SD is every team in the league is reliant on set pieces from an attacking perspective. And then the best sides defending them are the ones that. Doing really well.

Right?

Someone's going to figure this out, right? Because it always happens. Always a style. And then there's a template of like, this is how you can maybe not stop it, but massively reduce it. And I'm just really intrigued to see, like, teams are gonna have to start doing different things on set pieces. Right? Because every, every team that's getting a set piece, it looks like they're gonna score. So I'd like. I'm just waiting for someone to go, oh, we're defending a corner. Let's leave five players on the halfway line. Just like crazy. Just crazy things like. Or let's. Let's move our goalkeeper onto the penalty spot. Like, the teams must be just exploring just like what feels like crazy solutions to try and deal with this. Because at the minute it's. Every team gets a set piece, hang it under the bar, just crowd the keeper, hang it under the bar. And it's like your center backs run and attack the ball and it's like, I don't. I don't know how you can stop that at the moment. So teams have got to come up with something creative, I guess. But I'm. I'm actually finding the whole thing quite entertaining. Like, do you know what I mean? It feels like proper throwback, early 90s football. Balls in the channel, balls in the box. Like, headache. Kick it, like. So, I mean, I'm quite enjoy. I'm not enjoying watching it.

It's competitive and it's. It's not thoroughly predictable.

That's the biggest. It's a leveler as well, isn't it? Like, Wolves can get a corner at City and they might score from this because all of a sudden everyone looks like, you know, they're monsters in the box. So it's. It's really interesting what's happening all over the league. But the. The bottom of the league looks like if I was Wolves, West Ham or Forest, I would. I think Forest with Dash, I've got. I've got a chance. I think they've got a chance because he knows what he's doing. Like, he knows what he's doing. But West Ham and Wolves, just, like. West Ham are like, seven points behind Leeds already.

They're gone.

Six behind Burnley. They're playing Burnley in two games.

I know.

So it's looking bleak for those sides down the bottom, isn't it? But, like, west ham have shipped 20 goals in nine games. Like, yeah, it's bonkers, isn't it? It's a nuts. It's a nuts season. The fact that I go, Thiago at Brentford is the second top scorer in the league and Brentford have won four games. Considering the amount of players and managers and everything that they lost also feels nuts to me.

Yeah. Yeah. It's just.

It's. It's an absolutely wild season.

We're four points ahead of where we were last season, which is. Which is good. Which is good. We lost this game to Everton. I think we lost it 4, 2 last season, which is so everything's.

Can I also say we're only 21 points away from equal in last season's points tally already.

Oh, almost halfway to, like, got 11 wins last season. Yeah, we're on five now.

Like, we're nearly halfway already.

I'm gonna get angry.

Like. But look, it's like when you say stuff like that, it makes you go, oh, my word. Doesn't it?

Like, no, because we spent every Sunday night of last season coming on here and going in it. And people go, no, no, no, Angeball. I don't even know what. You've got me started. I don't even know what angel is. People go, oh, you know, how could Ange take over from Forest and put angel into practice? What is Angeball? What. What was our defining characteristic.

I think. I think we saw it@forester ASD. I think we saw it. What it is.

Just disorganized chaos.

Yeah, absolutely. But some. Some say that I actually look at him and go, is this man a genius? Because he's just made four or five million quid for less than 40 days work.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm not saying he's a poor football manager, full stop because he did it at Celtic and he did it in lower quality leagues as well as Celtic. He hasn't done it in the Premier League.

Just before we. We really drill down into some spurs bits, what are your views on what's happening at Liverpool?

He didn't buy anyone last summer, did he? No. And so he had a T. Roberto Di Matteo did. When Roberto Di Mateo took Chelsea to the Champions League final after taking over, what in the semis and won the Champions League final, everything was set up, every. And it was balanced. It was really precise. You were coming to the end of a manager's cycle and he just took it one more year in a season that wasn't particularly great. And now he's made big changes and suddenly the bits at the edges are beginning to fall apart. It's. It's in the way that when we look back at the Pochettino spurs when there was a lot of balance and everyone had their place and everyone was in their place and it all worked. As soon as you like our team now, as soon as you start to put tell another bear and Richarlison and it just starts to fall apart, that's what he's doing and it's not working right now. Yes, Salah's getting old, but he's also hasn't got the space to do he used to do. And he's not. He's not a striker but he's not also cutting in. So he's not being used to his best effect. When he's got a shot on target, he'll score as he did today. Trent's gone. They use Trent to the best of his abilities. I don't think he's the best player in a team. Do you know what I mean? I don't know where he plays. I don't know what. He's not a great right winger, right midfielder, he's not a great fullback. So he's just a good footballer. Van Dijk is getting old. He made the mistake earlier today. You just, just. It's a team at the end of its life cycle. He's trying to do his thing. You got to Give him time, like. But they're not going to win the league this year.

No. And it's just four defeats on the bounce is just like, nuts, isn't it? It's like they've lost four games the whole of last season. Like, it's wild in it. It's absolutely what it's. It is a bonkers season. If it wasn't for the team at the top, I'd be going, this is an amazing season. Do you know what I mean? It's all over the place. Anyone can beat anyone. But it's just like. Oh, like, you know, they'll bottle it.

I think. I don't think they will. I. I do think they're going to win it. And that's sad, isn't it?

There's still a long way to go. But it's hard to see from here with how inconsistent everybody else is and how consistent they are and how hard to score against they are. It's hard to see that absolutely fall into pieces.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Monaco. Monaco is interesting. Have you seen. I saw a quote from Poirot saying how we didn't have the right mentality for it. We don't have that killer up for it mentality where. Because other. You can't. It's not a Premier League game. These are cup finals. Every game. Particularly now, we don't have this league, the league or the. The group format. And we just weren't on it. But Vicario was. He's. He was brilliant and he was brilliant again today. He's still. People still criticize him, but I don't know what they're looking for. You're not going to get Schmeichel.

Yeah, it's. It's. It's. So firstly on Monaco, I mean, we got battered nil. Nil, didn't we? Like, let's face it, we got battered nil. Nil. But another clean shade. I think that it's hard because I think we've all got a bit of Premier League arrogance about us, that we go into away games against maybe not elite opposition in the Champions League. And we go, we should win that. It's my code. We should win that. Which. Right. And you look at a team on paper and you go, you know what? They've not got a great side. But I think we all forget how difficult is to win away in the Champions League and in Europe in general. Like, there aren't many good teams across Europe that have got good away records. So actually, like, it might sound a bit negative, but if we Just if we draw all of our away games and win three quarters of our home games, we'll get through in the top eight. Like that's fine.

Yeah. And like our goal is to win it, but we're not going to win it. And you have to judge us against what we're meant to be doing with the winners of the Europa League. In a particularly poor Europa League. I think that's fair. Like our best opposition was Frankfurt on the way to the final. And then you go, well, what's our objective? Our objective is to win our home games and to get out of these games with a point. Their objective is to win their home games. They're in exactly the same position as us. So we came out net positive from that. Yeah, it wouldn't be nice to have three points. But we came out, we won that battle.

Yeah, I, I, I would say so. And I just always think that sometimes like how many episodes of this pod have we done over the years where we've, we've lost a game narrowly and, and then especially me, I come on and go, oh, if it's a game you can't win, just don't lose, you know, just get out of there with the draw or whatever. And it's like, you know what, we just did that and it very much dust ourselves off. Say thanks to Vicario, move on. I do think as well it's been great to see some back to back clean sheets. Kevin Dancer coming into the side as well. He's done a great job. He's not Romero, right? He's not. But you know what I really love? He's not trying to be. No, he's not. Come in and gone, let me get the ball for keeper, roll my studs over the top of it and ping it into center. He's got, you know what? Nah, I'm just going to give it to the fullback and I'm not gonna, I'm gonna head it and kick it, I'm gonna defend and yeah, really, I just think that that's either him approaching the game like that or it's the manager or it's a bit of both. But I just think that that's just, it's. Do you know what? This season is sensible. Everything is sensible. That is, that is a sensible appointment. We bought Paulina a bit of experience in. We're struggling up front. We've got some loan players in the style that we're playing sensible football and we're third in the league, which is sensible. Do you know what I mean? We're Not. We're not first and getting carried away and being in a. It's just. It's sensible. It's what it should be. That's exactly what is happening so far this season and I'm delighted with it.

In towards the end of Peep show, one of my favorite shows of all time. The. The three of them, Super Hands, one of the greatest characters in British comedy of all time. And the two of them, they go. It's like a. Is it Halloween or New Year's or something? They go to a party and they go to a mad party. You don't get to go and see. And they come out in super hands. Who's the one who's usually off his face goes. He just wants to go home and have a nice cup of tea and then go to bed early. That's what we've been. We've been. We've had. We've had the crazy party where you go, is it. Is it. Is it nice? Is. Do I like this? Now we're in the. I just want to control everything I can control. I'm going to establish a base and just slowly grow marginal gains. Incrementality. Incrementality. It might be a little bit boring, but we're in third and it's just sensible. Like, you could write a case study on this. You probably couldn't write about the last few years and get much quality out of it, but yeah, it's. It's exciting. The chance he's going well. And then today against Everton, like nobody's beaten them at that lovely new home ground. It's a really nice. Yeah, it reminds me a little bit of White Heart Lane, the way the, the steps go up into the. Into the. The entryways. I've always loved Everton as well, you know, gobshite neighbors who play in red, but lots of history, great fans. Like, I'm. I love Everton. Got no problem with Everton at all.

Battered them, though, you know, like, do you know what? I just. I didn't feel. I didn't feel in danger during the game at any point. I was just like, I just feel like we're gonna get goals, we're gonna win. I didn't think we were amazing, but I, I also. I didn't think we needed to be. I just feel like this type of game today is. Is what the Premier League is this season against sides in the bottom half and it's like you just need to go there and be solid and. And you'll get opportunities to score and we took the chances we could have had a few more as well. If we, I mean if you look at it, we've gotten some really good positions with Charleston. Had that amazing chance when he come on as well, so. But it was a good win and like we're the best away side in the league this season so far. Did you know? I mean we're like. It's fantastic, absolutely fantastic.

Do you know what? I was worried about our shots and target. Against Monica we had two. Against Everton we had four. That's not many. But Arsenal have won against palace like one. This is the team. Top of the league.

Yeah, that's it. And he's still obviously Frank figuring out what is his, what is his front line, who's best in what position, all of that. I actually felt that we looked at. I thought Colin Marnie done all right today up there. Like I think I thought he held the ball well and he. There were moments where I don't want to say we were pinned in because that's probably not right but ever and had a bit of possession and we were, we were defending in our half and we'd win it back and we were able to play up to him and he would hold it and he might win a throw him on the freak or he'd keep hold of it. Midfielders would get up, he'd link it. I just thought he gave us a bit more than what Richarlison or tell do. If I'm. If I'm totally honest with you, it felt a bit more. It felt a bit more like we had Solanki up there where you can go up to him and it's not just going to bounce back. And I think just that dimension just makes it yeah a little bit easier with how we play. Whereas when he went off, Richarlison comes in, his hold up plays just not it at all. He runs around well, he wins the ball back and he's a nuisance but his hold up play is not fantastic. So I was impressed with that in general.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why I was just looking to see how many French speakers are there that he could chat to. So tell Moani French, French and then. Or the Bear as well. So he's got a few people he can speak to, which is nice. Yeah.

Can I just say one other fantastic thing that came out of today's game was that I was watching it with Mr. L Senior. Kev.

Yeah.

And obviously Kev Danso's in the side at the moment. He's got to be your favorite player, you know like, surely, like Kev. And his initial response was, no, he's not my favorite player. And I was like, okay, fair enough. And then it got them. It then got me on to thinking, we can't have that many Kevin's that have played for Spurs. And then we had a sidetrack conversation because there is a Brazilian winger for Fulham who's just called Kevin, which was fantastic. But there's been two Kevins that have played for Spurs. Kevin. Kevin Dano.

Yeah. And the Kevin defender, I can see him. I could draw him Austrian.

Yep.

Yeah, Vima, that's it.

So we've had two Kevins and they're both Austrian and they've both been center backs. So it's like, statistically, if you play for spurs at center back and you call Kevin, you're going to be Austrian.

You're going to be Austrian.

And I'm like, that's. That's. That's just amazing.

Yeah. I just realized I sent you a picture of a record last week and you totally ignored me, called Kevin bloody Wilson heads back. The return of the yobo.

Did you. And I didn't respond to it. That's. No.

No at all.

That's unlike me.

It's got a picture of a guy pissing his initials against the wall. I was surprised.

That is unlike me. Do you know what? I was. I was not excuses it. I was a bit delicate yesterday. Sunday, Sunday last week, a little bit delicate. So that will have been why I just. Elvino did flow now. You should have seen it in the Boston team leader on drunken earlier. Yeah. So I apologies for. That's poor etiquette for me, but there you go. So if you're. If you're Austrian, you're center back, you call Kevin, you're going to play for Spurs.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow, that was worth recording, wasn't it? Put it on the Internet, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah. I've just looked. I'll tell you why in a minute. But I've just looked up the Tottenham squad value according to transfer Mark. Do you know who our most expensive player is or valued in terms of value?

Would it be Romero or Van der Ven?

I'm gonna go with Vanderbin. Is the most expensive, the one we own. And same value as Romero and kudos, both at 55 million euros, but according to this, at 70 million euros, which is a big jump. Is Shabby Simons.

Really?

Yeah.

I mean, he's only 22, so that. I think that's why, you know, because bird fells at 40 million for and he's 19.

Interesting. Where, where, where do you rank? I know it's a bit easy to be biased because he scored a couple today. Mickey van Deven. I'll put this in our group chat in the week. I think he is such a player and I think he's the best center half we've had since Ledley. I want to know what your thoughts are on that because that's obviously taken into account Romero for tomorrow.

They're the ones Outfield was always a better defender center back than the Tongan.

Right.

So that's what we're talking. Ledley, I mean Ledly was close to perfect but was fatally flawed. Mickey, you said in the, in the pre season kickoff that this will be the last season. This may be the last season that we see him at spurs because you can see him going anywhere.

I can see him at Barcelona.

Yeah.

Like I can just so see that like German stepping in the treading the footsteps of Kuman. Do you know what I mean? If you Dutch, that Barcelona connection is massive. They with their manager, they play on the halfway line. I just, I look at van der and the only criticism probably last season was could he dominate a bit more in the box. That was always the thing of like, you know what I mean? You're a big lad. I don't often see you going and just putting your head on there. And he scored four this season already but his defensive set piece duties would have been fantastic. Just look at him and just go, I don't know what he hasn't got. Yeah, exactly. I think he's amazing and in a way I think for him to have had the captaincy at the moment with Romero being out thrown upon him as well, that's only going to make him a better player as well. I just think we've got an absolute gem there at the center half and in a weird way like us actually defending a little bit deeper now, it feels like it suits him even more. Yeah, you know what I mean? I know like his biggest attribute is like the pat is pace but like it's almost like now where he can't rely on it as much. He's all of a sudden positionally got a lot better. He knows when to play, when to clear it. Like he's more aggressive. Like it just seems like maybe last year it was very much you're on the halfway line sprint like when actually like we're pinned in a little bit like can you defend? I'm not sure but I, I think it just looks phenomenal.

43 million was a bargain for that. Yeah, that was.

Yeah.

Because. Amazing find because you could see him.

At Valencia and then be. Say he's worth 80 million. You go and get him. You go. And it. The way he's performing now, you go, fair enough. Fair enough. That was a good price for him. Yeah. Like it's. I'm not saying Van Dyke levels, but it's. That's the sort of performances we're seeing. And this manager is perfect for him. Like we always said. Oh, you know, post company was great for him because they, because he can play on the break, but the center back shouldn't be doing what he did for that against Man United. For Johnson's goal. This allows him to save his hamstrings and he, he's world class. We've got some great players here. Like I, I get excited when I see Bergfell, when I say kudos, when I see Van der Vern, when I see Udogi, when I see Spence. And there's a lot of players that I like as well.

This is quite interesting because I feel like when we did the start of the season, actually it was. This is the first time our son's gone. We don't have any world class.

Yeah. The definition we've always used, or at least I've always used of world classes. Could they walk into any team in the world and play? And we always said, son, there's no team he couldn't improve or at least play for. I think we can say the same about Van De Ven. I'd even argue Kudos. Kudos could be in Man City's team.

I think he was great, didn't he? He looks. I, I know he would. He didn't get any goals or assists today, but you've got to look beyond that and like he was a threat the whole game and he's. His crossing today was a. Like, I knew he could put a ball in the box, but like he put seven or eight crosses in today and you were just like every one of them was on the money and you're like, okay, cool. You can also do that. You can be a. I'm going to be out on the touch line. Ball's going to come, I'm going to touch. I'm just going to put the ball in the box. Like, I can be an old school winger as well. And I was like, I didn't, I didn't know that he could do that. I thought he was very much. I'm going to get it and run with it. So that Was fantastic.

It's really exciting. Yeah. Tottenham.

Tottenham.

Tottenham. Tottenham. It's all going quite well. Like, it's all happening very, very well. So next up, we've got Newcastle on Wednesday and then we've got Chelsea on Saturday. Newcastle. That's an interesting round because it's the EFL Cup. It's not what they're going to be dead focused on, is it? But they're still going to want to win something. They're not going great guns in the Champions League. In the. In Europe. They're right down in 12. They've only won three games, but they're not an easy team to play against.

That's a big game and it's one of them that, like, sorry, they are doing well in Europe.

They should be Benfica 3 now. Sorry.

This is a tricky one to know what's going to happen because I think both teams will be desperate to win this. Both teams will also be desperate to make some changes to the start in 11.

That's it.

But both teams have got some injuries and maybe not the most amazing depth. So I feel like this is going to be one of those really tight games that could be one nil either way. And can you just find a way to get through it? Because it's hard because you look at it and go, vander then could probably do with a breather, because if he doesn't like, otherwise he's playing today, then Wednesday, then Saturday, then Tuesday, then Saturday, and you're like, that's a lot. Kudas could probably do a breather. There's a lot of them. Like, Palin plays, like, every minute you. There's four or five of them where you go. You could probably do with the night off, but, like, this is a big chance for us to get through in the Cup. Do you. I mean, like, realistically, like, again, you want silver every season. Like, I just think that this is such a big game. Like, if we could squeeze through this somehow, like, that would be amazing. And I look at it and go, I think you're likely to see maybe, like, Sabergval come in. Johnson will probably play again, but it will. It will then be the. Okay, cool. Benton Corpalinia, who he obviously really trusts, does he leave one of them out? Does he rotate anything at the back when there's not a lot of, like, disarchy Gray come in, maybe. So, like. And Eddie Howe will be asking the same questions at Newcastle. So I think this is a really, really tricky game for both teams.

Who would you play?

I. I also think you could see A world where both teams filled like the same starting 11. But I could see where actually they both make five or six. So it's like. I don't know how to call this one. I really. I could. Yeah. I'd probably say it's penalties and it's just. It's maybe a one all. And it goes the whole way.

The odds. Newcastle. Everyone's got Newcastle to win the odds. If I check bets checker like Newcastle are favorites to him.

I'd probably say that though purely just because it's. It's Newcastle Wednesday. Yeah. Exactly. It's. But then we're great away from home at the moment.

But they don't know where the European Champions.

It's a tough one. But we've got some. We've got a tough run of games coming up. That's why today was important. Like obviously Newcastle and then Chelsea next week. Copenhagen. The asd. Derby a few days after that. Then United. Then Arsenal. Then psg. So it's. It's tough tough run. Isn't it? The next six games are tough.

Can we. Let's just do what we did. Six games before the end of last year. So Newcastle. Let's hope we win that. Chelsea. So let's have a look. So Newcastle. Where are we? Newcastle. So between Chelsea, Copenhagen. Man United. Arsenal. Psg. I'm expecting to have at least three losses in there. Maybe even four. Like because I go psg. We should. We're not winning Arsenal away. We're not winning Man United at home. We should be winning. But who knows where they're at right now. Copenhagen. We should be beating them. Chelsea. We never beat Chelsea.

I. I would go Chelsea at home loss.

Yep.

Copenhagen at home win.

Gotta beat them.

Man United at home Draw.

Yep.

Arsenal away. Loss.

1 nil.

Loss.

PSG away loss. And that sounds really negative.

It's not negative though.

Like I look. I look at that and go in those games coming up. We're better than Copenhagen. We're better than Man United. And we're worse than psg. Arsenal and Chelsea. Yeah. So. And as I said a minute ago. We're sensible. And there aren't that many shocks with us this season. So yeah. You know there. Could we. Look we could get a result against Chelsea. We could. But on the flip side we could then also struggle into Copenhagen. Like all of these games that these are. This is a hard run of games.

Yeah. It's really difficult. And we're playing some the best teams in the world now with Arsenal. Psg. Chelsea are unpredictable. And we've got Bad, bad history with them. Man United. Who knows? Like, there's a lot of things outside of our control here.

That, that the. I feel like a little bit sick that we've got Chelsea and Arsenal in the League so close to it and that's three weeks apart, but that in the League they're so close to each other, it's just like. It's just not nice that at all. It's not nice.

One of those is on my wife's birthday as well. So I'm gonna have to be paying attention to multiple things at the same time, and it's just not going to be fun. But this is the. The fallacy of football fans, because you go, like, you know, we should be competing. We drew 2. 2 to Bird O glimpse in this season's Champions League. We lost to Villa recently. Like, let's just keep perspective here.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So we'll look, we'll see. I think that. I know it sounds negative, but if we can. If we can just. If we can not lose to Chelsea this week. Yeah, like, we gotta stop that. Like, that rot against them. If, like, they just beat us all the time. I hate, like so much. It's horrible, isn't it? It's horrible. Do you remember, and this is the last. I know this scam's at home, but last time we went to the bridge in it and done it. Do you remember how good it felt when we went there with Pochettino and Deli and Dyer and we beat them. Do you remember that kind of 3:1 when Delhi scored that he scored 2. But he got that amazing goal, didn't he? We brought the ball down and it was just like. That was just like such a. Like we just. That. That was an amazing feeling to win that game, you know, they hate it.

They. Yeah, they hate it. Yeah.

But. But for Thomas Frank, like, he's going into this.

Look it.

If he. If he ended up doing. Do you know what I mean? Beat Chelsea, beat Copenhagen, beat United Arsenal. But, like, imagine the euphoria that, you know, I mean, I don't think will. But imagine if we come through all those games undefeated, like, it would just be like, oh, my God. The big one is if he. If he. If he can do what it feels like, it's the impossible task and win at Arsenal. Like, do you know, it even feels like an impossible task to be like, just go and go and draw there.

I'd love to see. We're getting ahead of ourselves. I'd love to see us go. We're gonna go at it for 20 minutes. We're not gonna hold, hold it deep because what will end up happening is they'll get a corner or a free kick from Rice will whip in a ball and but he his dead ball delivery is unbelievable. We'll go one nil down and then they'll just sit on the edge of their box and defend really, really well. So if we go and get that first goal.

I hate this game. I hate. You know what? It's about a month away. So like let's not put ourselves through it yet. Let's not put ourselves through it yet.

You're talking about glimpsed. I am going so we might not pod next week. I am going taking myself to Oslo for the weekend because it's one of the cheaper places to go and I like the Nordics and I, I was just looking today and I thought okay, I'm gonna go watch some football. So I'm gonna go watch Valeranga who are 10th in the elite serien. They are playing Bodo. I got a ticket for like 19 quid. I almost bought a 60 pound ticket which it gave me a good western seat.

Corporate shock, right?

No, no, no, no. That's rude because I've only done corporate. I've never done corporate White Hart Lane, ever. I've always refused and I've only ever done corporate away when, when I can't get tickets. So shove it up your ass.

But you're not bitter. You're not bitter.

No, I'm not. Not. I'm not really offensive at all. Not bothered. Yeah. Off a duck's back.

What was that? What was the team's name?

So are you going to see Valeranga?

Those Valer fans that are listening should get in touch with you, shouldn't they? And show you around and if you're.

Called Kevin and you play at center back can go play at Tottenham as well. I, I, yeah, if anyone wants to meet up. But I would be very surprised that their stadium holds 15,000 people including me. Apparently they're one up for it. They have tifos and all of that. I'm very excited. The value of that. They've got two players worth over a million. I know a couple worth over a million euros. But like if we have a look at average prices of players our the players from our team that we get in would be Brandon Austin and Dane Scarlett. Like that's the level we're talking. Like even this Kota Takai, Ben Davis, like our next two cheapest players, they, they are three and a half times the value so like this is low down and it is. There's a horrendous storm coming in from the north over the Nordics. Like it's raining the whole day. It's going to be like 6, 5 or 6 degrees Celsius. It is going to be old. But I miss those cold days. It's going to be good. What's the coldest? Do you remember the coldest game you've been to?

Being at? I remember being absolutely freezing early January at Craven Cottage.

Yeah.

For an FA cup tire. Because you're right on the Thames. For those that have been away at Fulham, Fulham is an amazing away day. It's absolutely incredible. And it was an FA cup game and we won three nil. Harry Kane got a hat trick. Fulham, I think were in the championship at the time. This was the year when we lost 21 in the semi final to Man United. Jose's Man United.

Yeah, yeah.

Alexis Sanchez. Deli scored for us, Alexis and she's equalized, I think. And a. Herrera got the winner. It was that year. And I went to every FA cup game home in the way that year and I was genuinely thinking, we're going to win it. And I'm gonna have gone to every game that was very cold. But I remember the coldest game I've ever seen. I wasn't there. Was. Do you remember that mad game at Wembley? It was against a lower league side. Might have been someone like Roched out. We beat him six nil, I think it was. But it was like snow on the pitch.

Yeah.

I think sun had a. Got some. Got booked for doing a stackered run for a penalty. Do you remember the 28th of February?

I think I went to this and.

I just remember looking at that and going, that looks cold.

Laurente 12 minute hat trick on that one.

Yeah, yeah.

Cold. Peter. School for us.

I remember son getting booked for doing a staggered run for a penalty. And I'm like, I've never seen that before. I've never seen it be disallowed on the player booked. I. I've never seen that.

I do remember this.

I've never seen it since either.

Tottenham qpr both home and away. One of them was a game where Sandro got a really bad knee injury. Really bad.

Yeah, yeah.

I think that was Neil. Neil.

Yeah.

And then that was with Joe, formerly of this parish. And then I went away, I'm pretty sure with Don. Sending our love to Don with everything going on with him. We love you, mate. We went away to Loftus Road and that was cold. Man. It was Don because he. Because he. He went out, he went and bought hot chocolate. And I remember really clearly, but the coldest ground I've ever been to is Wickham's ground. Because there' is. I think I've said it before, it's in the valley and there's no. There's nothing on all four corners. Remember when. When they were taking White Heart Lane down, they took the corner down and it was cold when the wind was coming through. Imagine that. But just. Yeah, on all four corners. It was freezing cold, man.

I also don't think that I've ever gone to an away game in the north and it not be freezing. Like, it just. It just. I remember years and years and years ago going that way to Blackburn and that was like a wooden. It was a wooden stand. A wooden stand. And it was 1:1. Berbatov scored for us. And I think that Morton Gamps Pederson equals Blackburn from a David Bentley cross.

Wow.

And this will be going back. This. This is maybe 2000. It was the yo era, I think. 2003. 2004. No, maybe a bit later than that.

2008.

2008. 1 1.

It was a bit of a dead 7. We drew them 11 in 08 and 07 as well.

There was one of those games. It was towards the end of the season. It's probably like March, April. Berbatov scored after, I'm gonna say about 12 minutes. Yeah, that's the game.

My computer just crashed, which is annoying.

But that was. That was a. That was a cold, cold one. The other absolutely, like. Oh, it makes you chilled thinking about. It was Stoke. Went to Stoke. I'm gonna say it was like February time. Prime Pulis. This was. And this was Stoke 1 Tottenham 2. He was Neil Nil at half time. It's one of the worst 45 minutes I've ever seen. Idega Johnson scored about 30 seconds into the second. I think it was his only goal for Spurs. Yeah. 11 nil up started the second half, really. Eunice Cabal played center midfield this game because of the long throw and the set pieces.

Amazing.

And we were battering them. And then Dean Whitehead got a soft second yellow and Stoke went down to 10. So you're thinking, job done. 20 minutes later is 1 1. Matt everything had scored a penalty. Former spurs as well. And you're like, this is so Spurs. And then with about 10 minutes to go, Crankshaw Nico Crancho scored a lovely go. Pull back to me onto the box. He hit it first time. Bottom Corner. We were in about the seventh or the eighth row, so we were quite close to the front. And he like, like came out. Everyone's going, mate. It was a great, great, great day.

I loved Nico Crenshaw. I properly loved him. I. There's a guy who married my wife's auntie who I went to, went with him to the Birmingham game, the last game of the season, where we sent them down and he scored at least one banger from outside the box and sitting down. I lost my ticket on the way. And he said he would go to the ticket office and talk to him about it. And I said, okay, well, I'm going to walk back down the high road and find my. My card back when it becket, when it was a card. And he said, he went to him and they said they couldn't do anything about him and I couldn't find my card so I just had to go home. And then I phoned him up afterwards for see if I could do anything about it. And they said, oh, no, we would have printed you out. One, no problem. I know. I didn't forgive him. He's divorced now. So. 2. I just remembered Boyan playing for Stoke.

Yeah.

How mad was that? And they bought him from Barcelona, didn't they?

Had that weird time where they had Bojan Athalaya on Outovich. Like they just had like, the backline was like hoof shore, cross, higginbottom, like shot. And it was just like those ugly, like two halves. Yeah, yeah. British back four. And then.

When I worked at McDonald's, it was ugly people who worked in the kitchen, the pretty people who worked up front. That was just the way it worked. That was a Stoke. That was Stoke. Maybe they went. Maybe they just enjoyed the Trentham Monkey Forest or the Gladstone Pottery Museum. Maybe that was what was drawing in there.

But I also listen to a podcast in the week Bobby Zamora was on and he was talking about when he was playing for Fulham, playing against Shaktar Done Esque. And he basically said that that was like the team that just like he said he'd never seen a team pop the ball like that in his life because he said the front four were Brazilians and he was just like, they broke their team down to have a Brazilian attack and then an Eastern European defense. And he was like, they had like a 6 foot 5 left back and he was just like, you went near them and he was like, you just get kicked and like they'd hit your head and all that. And then he said, but as soon as they got the ball into the Fulham half, they said, brazilians. And they're all amazing. And he was just like. It was just like the perfectly built team. I love that. That's right. That's what we've got. Here we go. Yes. Same idea. 1 to 11.

Right. Nation's plan where I'm having a German goalkeeper.

This is proper shame for us. I love it.

I'm really enjoying it.

I love it, I love it. German goalkeeper. Yeah. But you're thinking like, you're thinking Oliver Khan is exactly fantastic.

Not Noah.

Do we need to go. Do we need to go position or do we need to sell that? We need a Brazilian winger.

I'm just going to countries, just.

Oh, you know what I mean? Can we jump to. Because in my head you go keeper, then you go right back and you go. But like, that's what I was thinking. Do we need to get rid of. Not get rid, but do we need to just be like, we. We have to keep basically South American players for the attacker plays up top.

And we're only allowed one. So German. We can't have any more Germans.

Yeah.

Yep.

Otherwise I'll just have 11 Spanish players. That's it.

Okay, well, let's. So we've got German at the back. Let's do the. Let's do country. So Brazilian.

I feel like we have. We need a Brazilian left or right winger. Either. I'm thinking Ronaldinho. Do you know what I mean?

Who's, you know where. What country? Doing number 10, though.

Oh, that's a good point. Could have a Spanish. Spanish number 10.

I just have a Spanish mid, maybe. Okay, okay. So we'll have a right winger who's Brazilian center mid, centimeter 10. Strike. I've got like a right back, center back, center back, left back, right wing, center bit, center striker.

We've got to have an Italian center back.

Yeah.

Again, Cellini.

Yeah, yeah. Or just all of them. And then I'm thinking like one of the, like Serbian center back or just something.

You want a vidich?

I want a vidich.

We're going for a hard back four here, aren't we?

Yeah, yeah. What? What? French. What are the French good at?

Separate question. What are the French are good at?

Sweet bet. Spanish center midfielder.

Yes. We're just going stereotypical now.

That's all I'm doing. English center midfielder.

Yeah. Do you want a hard English fullback?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you know what I mean? Do you want. Do you want a Stuart Pierce? Do you know what I mean?

Yeah. Left back is English. So we've got Serbian, Italian, English at the back. We need the right back. We've got Brazilian right winger. We've got Spanish central midfielder.

10 Argentinian win Argentinian player in there somewhere.

Yeah. 10 has to be Argentinian.

Yeah.

Striker. And we need a striker. You could have a French striker.

Yeah. I feel like we need. Do we need to be more stereotypical with a forward? What type of forward do we want? Do we want like a lump?

Go English again.

You could have an old school English number nine, couldn't you?

That's. That's what I was thinking.

I feel like. I feel like. Change that. Get rid of English left back.

Got English striker, Argentinian 10 centimeter fielder, French. We could have a Spanish. You could have a defensive. Defensive sentiment. A French defensive sentiment.

It's not a bad shout. We need someone from the Netherlands in there. That's quite a.

Well, yeah. And a port. Maybe a Portuguese.

Portuguese. Yeah. Could. Could we get. I'm just thinking, do we want a Portuguese defender? I just feel like I'll just go like Pepe and it's just house.

The baby was the center back and we got. So we could get rid of the serve. But the Portuguese in there, they'll put.

You or stick your server right back.

Oh, yeah.

I don't know who that would be. But we're just gonna have a hard nosed 6 foot 2 right back.

Tell you what. What? Oh, we'll have to put the Netherlands at right wing because it's the only position left because we've got German goalkeeper, Serbian right back, Portuguese center back, Italian center back, English left back. No, no, we didn't. We don't have any of this left back. We got Brazilian right winger, French central midfielder and Spanish central midfielder, Dutch right winger, Argentinian 10 English striker. We just need the left back.

The. The nation, it froze. What we've done into a bit of a spin though. I feel like. Could we not be saying we need like a Croatian midfielder?

I was thinking Croatian because. Yeah. So then we'll. We'll put French left back. Cool.

Which is fine. I'm happy with that.

I'm happy with that. So German goalkeeper, Serbian right back. Yeah. It's just representing. I know, I know.

I'm actually really enjoying this. What are we doing?

But I know that there's people shouting us going, you've forgotten how.

Have you not got all of Africa? Have you not got a Colombian defensive midfielder?

Why. Why isn't Chile in there? Why isn't there some. We've. We've Missed out huge portions of the world. Yeah.

The other. The other rogue shout is United States goalkeeper.

No, but.

But you know, we're, you know, we're making stereotypical affirmations to positions. I feel like if. If you had to have someone from the United States in your team, I'd be picking goalkeeper. I'm not saying we should swap it.

But I would too. I would. I think they can be coached. The goalkeeper coach can be.

Bob Bradley's going to lead this team.

That's it. That's it. Oh, man.

You don't you. I thought you about to. We need a whole back room star physio kit, man. Yeah, no, that, that. Who's doing the under 21s?

Who does your tampons?

Tune in next week because we'll do the 11 that this side's going to play against.

Yeah. We'll do early 2000s comedy references, bouldering on racist stuff. It's back to the pod from five years ago, frankly.

Anything from Junior? No. He would not be happy with this side.

He will. I will read his angry email out. I know. Because I'll be in the. On a flight home next week.

You might bump into him in Oslo.

That would be good. All right. I was going to ask you for next week. Have a think about the players that you saw play live against Tottenham that you would like to have seen play for Tottenham. Now we. We've both seen Ronaldo play. I didn't get to see Messi play against Tottenham. That's the obvious choice. Yeah. Who would fit into the Tottenham. So for example.

Okay, okay.

I get you, you know, like slightly flawed, maybe geniuses. So for example, in Europa League we played Monaco in 2015. El Shirawi played for them.

Who is a Spurs.

Because like I could. I would.

Is such a shout.

Right. He should.

As is Yuri Telemans.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got it. You've got it. I would say Azard is. Is there as well flawed genius. But I wouldn't say Alexis Sanchez is in there because I thought he was going to be the best player in the world at one point and he just doesn't. He's not Tottenham player. I don't think. Yeah, no. Is Juan Mata. He would never fit into a Tottenham team.

Yeah, yeah, I get that.

The.

The front line will be fun for this because you've got to think of some high potential forwards that didn't quite cut it. That.

That's exactly it. Do you know what? I might try and do an 11 of players that I saw play against Tottenham.

Should have Played for Spurs at some point in there.

That is a brilliant question. Yeah, yeah, Definitely going to forget about it. So I'm gonna have to remind her.

Yeah, yeah. There's a. There's. There's a lot. A lot. There's a lot here.

Because you know what? I've highlighted the Real Madrid team that we saw. Casillas, Hakimi, Nacho Ramos, Marcelo, Casimiro, Modric Cruz, Isco, Ronaldo, Benzema. I'm not going to include any of them.

Yeah.

Oh, Jesus Christ. Oh.

Do you know that one of. Sorry to spoil it for next week. Craig Bellamy. How did he never play for Tottenham?

One of the most underrated players, I think.

How did. He should have played for Tottenham at some point. Without a doubt. Absolutely without a doubt.

His interview on the sky podcast, whichever one was brilliant. I thought just about where he comes from. He's a bit of a hero of mine. I think. He's a bit of a hero. Solid player.

I also feel like. Like Gareth Barry.

Yeah.

As well could have been. Could have been a midfielder in the Martin Yard era. Do you know what I mean? Like an up and down bit, one pace. Good player.

It's a good, solid player.

We'll save it.

Yeah, I like that.

I like that. Who, who, who, who are the Spurs Ones that got away should have played.

You know what, Who I want to hear it from as well. Mr. Al Senior. Because he's seen some players.

Yeah, he might also. This is also the type of thing that ask him and he goes, no, I'm not. Too much full price. Too busy. Too much on.

What is it? Oh, you know. You know.

Yeah, bits and bobs.

Yeah, you do. What? I know, right.

I look forward to that. Maybe next week. Maybe the week after.

Yeah, well, I'll be. Maybe if we. Yeah, we'll record Monday or something, then we can definitely do it. Yeah.

Cool.

Oh, my God. What team's this? So I've got this. So I went away to watch. Oh, Chelsea in the final. The 2 nil. The 1 where we. Oh, no, what's this? Chelsea Capital One Cup. We beat them two nil.

That was the final. We lost.

Yeah. It's a fun. Oh, that's why it needs to be a loss in my spreadsheet. So they. I mean, their team was Check. Ivanovich, Cahill, Terry Aspinal, Quarter Ramirez, Zuma, Fabricas, William Costa, Azad. That's a decent team.

Zuma played in midfield, didn't they?

Yeah. Our team was Larisse Walker, Diabatong Rose Bentaleb, Mason, Townsend, Ericsson Chadley, Kane. Not the best team I've ever seen.

No, Done well to make a final.

Yeah, well to make a final. All right, mate, I will see you hopefully next week. And don't forget, the future's bright. If you just need to be 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, 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 matter of opinion. Well, they're the finest team in Great Britain. One of the best in the world.

We are about the glory of the game. We are about playing with style. We are Tottenham Hotspur. The curve of the ball, the billow of the net, the beating of the trap and the picking of the lock. The swiftness of thought, the lightness of touch. We are Gineler, Greaves, Klinsman. We are the collection. Collective gasp, the intake of breath. The flick, the trick. The 30 yard free kick. We are Hoddle, Mabbit and King. We are the lob, the chip, the dummy and the volley. We are the hat trick, the scissor kick. We are Bill Nick.

That is schoolboy's own stuff.

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

Vanderva to level it up. Raphael Van der Vaart. 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 Blanchflower, Ardelis and baal. We are about winning with a flourish. We are about winning with style. We are about the glory of the game. Daring to try, daring to risk. Daring to dream. To dare is to do.

Fantastic se. It's all over top and we're won the cup. He really stuck there. Going all the way again here and man has kicked him out. Oh, this is incredible. This is quite incredible. Truly a glory, glory day for Tottenham Hotspur.