S4 E19 - Festive Round-Up

With a mammoth round-up, @leebrown2 and Ritch Grove discuss: Everton home, Brighton away, Bournemouth home, Pape Sarr new deal, Ange bust-up and much more!

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
You know, there's no place Iknow if I wouldn't want to breath Ryan
here. You know, in thisminute of trying to bring success to one
of the biggest football clubs in theworld, the basic under the line principles
that yall want my team to playfootball that scares the life out of every
opposition. Mate, that's that's kindof the end game. Welcome to the

(00:34):
Varside Spurs, the first podcast oftwenty twenty four. My name is Rich
Grove and I am joined by Lee. How are you mate, Yeah,
good mate, Yeah, first totwenty twenty four. Wow, I think
I remember when I was at schoollooking back and going I'll be ancient in
twenty twenty four and the cars willbe flying, but they are flying at

(00:55):
the moment, but because of thefucking windy all the way down the road.
Yeah. So you know, Imean you were right on both accounts.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Soour second got recording this this storm
that's been that's been hammering us fora couple of days. It knocked our

(01:15):
power out down ere the other day, and listening to you while we were
trying to record was a little bitlike listening to a Daft punk record.
For a while, so we'll haveanother go and hopefully we'll do better tonight.
A mate, Yeah, yeah,well I'm not sure that we can
cut the daft bit out that thatmight stick around, but you know,
that's a couple of punks. We'llever got it. I mean that the
other day was absolute mess, wasn'tit. We're just stopped and starting so

(01:38):
normally we would have had one outbefore. But it's better late than ever
as they say. Yeah, sowe've got a lot to get through today.
Then with a with with an eyeon that we were. We haven't
spoken since Everton, which was beforeChristmas, and since then we've had Brighton
and Bournemouth, a farewell to Hugoand the New Year's Eve. So you

(02:00):
know, if it doesn't go welltonight, we might not This might not
even go out until after the FACup third round, which is only in
a couple of days. Now we'regoing to crack. Yeah, let's do
what we can make. Can youremember back in the midst of the time,
not as far back as when youwere at school thinking about flying cars,

(02:21):
but previous to Christmas, you know, several cartons of mince pies ago
we had a winner over Everton.Can you remember anything about it? Vaguely?
Yeah, I can. I justi'd sort of all I can kind
of remember. I did have aquick look at it earlier on like the
two minute highlight package, just tokind of go, oh, yeah,

(02:42):
I sort of remember that game.But my sort of like takeaway from it
was that it was like the lastfew games have been, really we started
strong and finished poorly. We wesort of looked like we were going to
blow them away in the first half, and but you know, we seemed
to. I think it's because,like we are, personnel wise, we

(03:06):
were struggling with numbers. So it'sit's no wonder that I suppose that we
look a bit leggy and a bitsloppy at times because we're trying to really
squeeze the pips out of who wegot left, don't we really, And
most of them are sort of playingplaying games if they're not suspending themselves.
So you know who we have leftis is you know, we are down

(03:28):
to the bare bones, so theyhave to keep playing. So I thought
we deserved to win, but justabout by the end, I would have
think if you were an Everton fan, you probably went away thinking we should
have at least got a draw,because they did come on strong towards the
end. And from what I rememberas well, I mean I was at
the game with my wife and youknow, as I say, in the

(03:53):
first half, we were thinking thisis going to be a lovely you know,
pre Christmas celebration. By the end, bite man Hols and just wishing
the game was over. Vicario keptus, you know, us in the
lead. There was a bit rightat the end. Wasn't there where the
ball came to him hit him?Was it a save? Did he know
much about it? I don't know, but the goal line technology says it

(04:15):
wasn't over the line, So yeah, kind of good result, but a
little bit lucky maybe. Yeah.Yeah, I mean I don't think I've
got anything to add to that really, And considering it's now ancient history,
I don't know whether or not itsort of bears much more dissection. I

(04:38):
mean, I think I think you'reright, always up. Really, I
mean, Sean Diyce seem seems tothink they should have got something out of
it. I remember he was abit aggrieved by it towards the end.
And yeah, Vicario again, President, really that we start off this roundup
of the Christmas period by talking abouthow good he's been, you know,
reaction saves and so on, youknow, especially with a mind to what's

(05:00):
coming next. But yeah, yeah, I mean, it just seems like
such a long time ago now.I don't think we need to talk about
that. But we've actually had tocram all those games into this month because
we've got the international not international,sorry, the window coming up where we

(05:21):
have a winter's break, isn't it. I think it is they call it,
and it's but to be able tohave that, they've rammed a load
of games in because I don't knowif you I saw this going around online
about where points wise were some clubslast season to this season, But when
you look at it, we've playedsixteen games by this point. We played

(05:42):
twenty now, so we've ram anotherfour games in there. So yeah,
again, there's no wonder that there'ssome ify results going around because people have
fucked Yeah. Yeah, just onthat. Is there is there anything you'd
like to report on how maybe someof the other two teams are doing at
this point in the season. I'mnot sure what you seem to be drawing

(06:05):
me onto here, but could itbe to do with a certain South London
impostas down down the road from us, who seemed to be making an absolute
holicks of it all at the moment? Is that who you mean? I
couldn't possibly comment, I couldn't possiblycomment, but yeah, but it did

(06:29):
make for us for a really goodNew Year's Eve, didn't it? Rich?
It did? It really did well. I means soon as we're Tottenham
fans, we don't deserve or certainlydon't enjoy, seem to enjoy having having
fun and things like happy New Years. Let's let's move from the winner Everton
to the Brighton game, shall we? Yeah, let's do that, because

(06:51):
that one will chimney right up.It's yeah, I mean, how can
you summarize that? Really? Giveme that game in two sentences? Dog's
dinner of a match one which felta game too far. Yeah again seems

(07:15):
to be a sort of recurring theme. We started strong, faded away again
in the first ten to fifteen minutes. I thought we were going to absolutely
truance them. They looked a bitnervy. Then they found their feet and
completely and you know, blew usaway. At one point I'm thinking this
could be a bloody cricket score.They got four goals before any reply from

(07:40):
us, and could have had more. In fact, I think Bonaoti had
one in the net and they wereunlucky to have made it, you know,
six or so, which is embarrassingin one way. And yet to
talk about that. The Cario hada brilliant game and you know, kept
us in it somehow by the endwe you know, the last sort of

(08:03):
ten to fifteen minutes we should haveyou know, we've got two back.
Maybe there was an outside chance wecould have equalized if Lewis Dunk had been
rightly sent off, you know,a tackle that if Romero had made that,
you know, he would have beensuspended for about four and a half
years. You know, it's justan absolute joke. Yeah, I mean,

(08:28):
the likes of Carragher and Neville wouldhave had kittens if Romero would have
gone in on on on anybody likeDunk did a It seemed to be while
I was watching it, they werevery, very keen to explain it away,
as you know, Oh, it'sa bit tired and it's just a
poor bit of timing. It's justhe didn't really mean to do that.
He's lost control of the ball andjust you know, reached out to try

(08:50):
and to to try and kick itaway. And you know, and again,
like you say, all of thosethings that that I don't think it
is too conspiratorial talking or thinking.And I don't think it's it's too too
much of a push to say thathad Quti Romero made that challenge, that
he would not have been, youknow, paraded through the streets of Liverpool

(09:13):
and Manchester at least possibly Birmingham,Leeds, Harrogate, Halifax as well,
you know, tied to a youngdrag behind some oxen so that the peasants
could pelt him with rotten tomatoes.Because I've seen I've seen players crucified for
for just those sort of challenges.I mean, we should also say about
that game. You know, theythey got the four, we got the

(09:35):
we got to we did have theball in the net, we had one
ruled off for off side. We'reat the bar post, you know,
any other day. Rich Arlison's positionalplay needed to be about six inches better,
didn't it. And that was thedifference between us having a couple of

(09:56):
goals. I think. So itwas a ludicrous game, you know,
And and and I think actually inmany respects that four two score line flatters
us in the way that we played, but it also doesn't. It doesn't
it doesn't sort of accurately portray howmuch of a threat we were when we
finally got the ball forwards, whichno, no, it was a really

(10:20):
nice summary of it that I thoughtactually summed it up quite well. Well.
I saw a nice summary of it. Is one of my mates said
this that that that actually, youknow, it was it was the true
reflection of how Parlas our defenses atthe moment, and and the fact that
it hasn't happened to us before hasbeen down to the fact that our attack

(10:41):
has had a much better game,whereas against Brighton, Son and Richarlison in
particular went missing for huge parts ofthe game. And what that did is
is that it put far more pressureon the central midfield and the back line
and just exposed the weaknesses that thathaven't been as exposed as effectively by by

(11:03):
the fact that we've been more ofa threat going forward up until that point.
And I thought that was a reallyinteresting way looking at it, and
as soon as as soon as hesaid it, I thought, yeah,
I'm in full agreement with that largelybecause it allows me to never think of
that game ever again. Yeah,and I've seen some ridiculous stuff about you
know, not not not taken awayfrom Desserbe as you know, a really

(11:26):
good prospect of a manager, butsome really ridiculous stuff about how he really
outmaneuvered and outthought and in this gamebecause he played this three one sixth formation
that Spurs had no answer for.And then when they were you know,
being attacked, they went to athree four three and and you know bullshit,

(11:48):
I mean, pure and simple.We looked knackered and and and after
when we sort of made some changes, which we made some whole cell changes
later on in the game came tolife and if anyone looked like they were
thought, it was them at thatpoint. They were looking nervous, they
were all over the place. Youwould not be in a surprise at all

(12:09):
if we had managed to make itfor four somehow, despite the fact that
also, you know, we hadto Now, is this the game where
we ended up having to play withone player less for a bit? I'm
getting confused. Now. One gamethat was the Bournemouth game. Yeah,
that's right, that's you know,too many games we've got to cramm in

(12:33):
this tiny brain of ours, youknow or mine anyways, for sure.
But yeah, I don't buy thatthat that it's his tactics that won that
at all. I just there's awhole host of circumstances. Yes, I
know they've got injuries as well,maybe not to as many key players as
us. But equally, it wasjust a mad game. You know.

(12:58):
Sometimes you just get those, don'tyou. It's an absolutely mad game.
M yeah, yeah it was.It was just one of the nights I
think. I mean, let's nottake any anything away from Brighton are a
bloody good side, you know.I mean if they if they're anywhere else
in the country and you know,that team that plays that football, I

(13:20):
think they don't get anywhere near youknow, people. They get the plaudits
and people say right, good footballinside like I just have there, you
know, but they don't get anyserious plaudis for it. They don't get
any there's no grabs afforded them.And I think if they if they played
a different strip and in a differentstadium and play that football, then people
are talking about how expansive they arein a much more effusive manner and that

(13:46):
two of their goals were penalties thatwe you know, really bad choices that
our players made. You know,the pull on the shirt, you know,
if you're going to do it atquick and do it, you know,
but to hold on to him likethat was really stupid choice to make.
For Kolosevski, you know, notlike him at all. I mean,
he's then then you get the cellsso clip someone forgotten the player's name.

(14:11):
Now he goes down and that's anotherpenalty. Again, silly, silly
choice. And I know, youknow a few people have talked about maybe
this is part of our discipline issue, and you you know, whichever way
you look at it, I meanwe had some sort of discussion on it
on our WhatsApp thread, whether itwas discipline or not. I'm inclined to

(14:31):
think it's not disciplined. I don'tthink and' sending them out there to be
like that. I think it's moreto do with this style we play.
It's kind of why we're getting alot of hamstring injuries as well. We
play on the edge. They're learningthat system. There's lots of risk involved
in trying to turn the ball over, but you can't legislate for pulling shirts

(14:52):
and clumsy you know, trips orsomething like that that a manager isn't trying
to train players to do that.And one other thing, I'd say,
what, you know, it's notunlike me to stick the booting on Heiberg.
And I know he's done a decentjob recently, but he slows the
game down. He started this gameand he's and I think that's one of

(15:16):
the reasons why we struggled. It'she is the lynch pin in that middle
there and slows the game right down. Doesn't doesn't mean this is not a
ship player by the way somewhere sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah, I
mean to be honest with you,you know, I mean, I'm I'm

(15:37):
very quick to sort of criticize himas well. You know, I think
you know, we've lost games thisseason and particularly last season, very very
critical matches that turned out really inthe end. And you know, when
we concede the goal, it isgenerally because he's lost the ball in the
middle of in midfield and and thennot you know, not tracked back to

(15:58):
try and recover or anything. Youoften stood with his fucking hands on his
hips when their goals going. Whateverit is, we're playing, so I'm
not his biggest fan, but Iwill say that he does still a reasonable
job. I think one of thethings that he does well is when he
comes on later in the game andmanages manages that tiredness is where he's been

(16:18):
most effective for us under edge,and that is because he slows it down.
And if you bring him on whatgame is slowing, then that's less
of an obvious problem, isn't it. And we're going out the traps,
Like you say, he's just asquare in a round hole at that point.
Yeah, I mean, you knowwith it. I mean, you
you can't play at that level andbe a donkey. Well maybe you can,

(16:44):
but but really, you know,you have reached the pinnacle of your
profession if you're playing the Premier League, so it would be sorry, especially
if you're playing for top must haveyeah, absolutely, but you you know,
to be fair on it him,I think he could go somewhere else
and be a really good player.And he was a really good player under
Mourinho, uh you know, andsometimes under Conte, but he fitted that

(17:10):
system a lot better if it fitsthis one. So you know, I
think he'll end up going and goodluck to him. I I you know,
got no ill feeling for him,but he just does not fit the
way that we want to play.He'll give everything. I respect him for
that, but it's just not maybenot enough. And yeah, anyway,

(17:33):
maybe we've maybe we've said enough aboutthe POxy game. Well you know,
I ain't saying that it's true,it's not. I'm saying it's traumatizing me.
But I've just had to pour aglass of whiskey talking about how much
again? Should we move on?Yeah, let's go, let's move on.

(17:56):
Sorry mate, Sorry mate, Chrishappened? Did you get any new
socks? I'm yeah. I didget some new socks from my wife's mum
got me some new socks. Ibought myself some new socks as well,
some nice fluffy ones just for thewinter months, to put her to fill

(18:17):
out the wellies. Lovely, lovely. Yeah. So that's Christmas. So
and then we move on to Bournemouth. Yeah so yeah. The first thing
we should say, really before weget into the matches, that it was
announced sort of strangely, I heardit announced on the radio in I can't

(18:40):
remember whose match it was I waslistening to on the radio before we kicked
off against Bournemouth. It might havebeen it might have been Liverpool or somebody
like that, one of them littleteams I was. And they announced during
the commentary to that match that Hugowas leaving the club and that he would
be brought to say goodbye to thefans during the you know, during the

(19:03):
day it's Spurs, which I thoughtwas a very strange thing, you know,
because you know that they sort ofinterrupted the commentary from somewhere else to
sort of announce that somebody that hasn'tstood between the sticks for us for nie
on twelve months is leaving the club. But it's just struck me as odd.
But but yeah, we ought tosay a word for four hundred and

(19:25):
forty eight games, four games forus, eleven years. Yeah, I
think he has been a great servantand I think we need to remember even
though the game's kind of moved onfrom where he's at at the moment and
he's you know, he's a fairold age for a football player, what
thirty seven or something I think heis. Now. He's going off to

(19:45):
la and I think he will havea really good time there. He always
struck me as a really really goodperson. He obviously wasn't captain for a
lot of that time for no reason. He's must have been a strong voice.
There was one point for a fewseasons where he's one of the best
keepers, if not in the world, but in the Premier League for sure.

(20:07):
He won the World Cup with Franceand I thought it was lovely the
way that they you know, whenhe left, what the words he said,
You know that basically you might havelost a player, but not the
man, because I'll always be aSpurs fan, you know, for the
rest of my life. He said, he's he enjoyed his time here.
When he came to the club,it was a very different animal, if

(20:29):
you like, than it is now. And he's feel certain that the club
he's going in the right direction.He's seen that progress over this, over
that timing and feels proud to havebeen part of that journey for where you
know, where we're headed in thefuture. No sense of you know,
regrets about not winning things with us, because he talks about getting close,
you know, the Champions League finaland a couple of times we were in

(20:52):
the title race but just you know, just just missed out. So you
know, he's been there or thereaboutswith the club as well. Uh yeah,
you know. I hope he andhis family go on and have a
lovely time in Los Angeles. I'msure they will. And all I could
say to him, if I eversaw him, would be to say,

(21:15):
thank you very much for a serviceyou've given our club, because I think
he did it with integrity and andand and and get like he said himself,
he always gave, gave everything.M yeah, yeah, I mean,
I think the biggest compliment I canpay him really is is by just
sort of reiterating the obvious. Isn'tit that if you say that, if

(21:38):
you've got Harry Kane at your footballclub, and yet Harry Kane is not
your captain, the person that isyour captain must be one ole of a
player and one personality in that Andand that was the truth. And and
let's not forget that we change managersa few times during you he's seen some
managers, he's seen some managers,and it is and it habitual that managers

(22:00):
come in and change captains. Youknow, you know, and yeah,
you know an amazing goalkeeper. Iyeah, I'd certainly have never seen the
like of him. And like yousay, for a while there you know,
do you remember the debate was whenDavid Deheya first went to man United

(22:23):
that he was, you know,shitting miracles and he was the greatest goalkeeper
that ever lived. Hugo Larisse performedthat well for that long that during even
David de Hay as sort of heyday, as being you know, certainly the
highest profile goalkeeper in the Premier League, that Larisse was spoken about as being

(22:45):
well, de hay is probably thebest goalkeeper in the world. But yeah,
but yeah, and then every time, every time it was spoken about
leaving Manchester United, Hugo Larisse wasalways in the conversation has being the obvious
replacement. And I know, youknow, it's sort of angers some people
to to sort of say that,but you know, when when when your

(23:07):
player at Spurs, who who atthe time was still we were at the
old ground or still at Wembley,you know, still going through this transformation
into into the club that we arenow. You know that that he's playing
that well, that that he's beingwidely touted as being the first choice target
for for some of the biggest clubsin the world. Says it says a

(23:29):
huge amount about him and he reallydoes all the well. I mean,
obviously I work for some people inLos Angeles, so next time I'm out
there, I'll keep my eyes open. I'll probably see him wondering about tell
tell them I said hello, Iwill. I'll tip my cap to him
and say. He says, butyeah, I drink, could drive.

(23:52):
Yeah, I mean, I'm notsure he recovered from that that dislocated arm.
And also the game over the lastcouple of years have significantly changed in
the way that keepers play, youknow, the sweeper keeper role, which
were you know, Vicario plays,the way he distributes the ball, the
way kicks. Lurie's kicking as agoalkeeper had never been brilliant, but he
shot stopping and you know, he'sreading of the game. We're always exemplary,

(24:18):
you know, as we said,you know, to put him up
there amongst some of the best keepersin the world at that time, we
were very lucky to get him.But the game has changed, and particularly
in the Premiership, the way thegame is played has changed. You know
a lot of this kind of passingout from the back stuff just doesn't suit
him, so, you know,and and so I think he'll have a

(24:40):
grand old time in La I thinkwith his family, so good luck to
him. Yeah, who's your favoritekeeper? They never played for Spurs?
Oh, definitely not body Mims.I would probably say, m hm,

(25:00):
oh, it's gotta be Jennings orClement's and it really maybe maybe maybe Jennings,
right, yeah, how about you? Yeah? Oh, I mean
my favorite was always Eric tors Fair. I fucking loved Derek. I thought

(25:21):
he was you know, I thinklargely because the first time where I ever
I ever went to white Art Lane, I was in the old Paxton Lower
Beyond and just you know, hecame out to warm up and he was
just a giant. And I wasabout ten years old at the time.
I don't think I'd ever seen anybodyas big as that in all my life,

(25:42):
you know, and so he was. He was always you know,
Eric the Viking. You know,he was a bit of a character as
well. But you know, inlater years I loved Robinson. I absolutely
had adored. It just made methink of it because you were saying about
about you know, he's he's justLaris's distribution not being his greatest strong point,

(26:03):
which was the one complaint we alwayshad for him, And of course
it just made me think of PaulRobinson, whose distribution was so good that
he scored scored, that's right,Yeah, I remember that. And do
you remember. I mean one ofthe other things I liked about Paul Robinson.
And we're going off on a tangenthere now, but it was the
way he used to interact with thecrowd and he would turn around to the
park lane and you know, andget them going and sing along with them

(26:26):
and that kind of stuff. Hewould. Yeah, definitely, definitely knew
how to work the crowd. Yeah, yeah, I do. I must
have made I don't know if youlistened to much football on the radio,
but he's now a regular co commentator. Yeah, five Live. Yeah,
it's really nice the radio. He'sa lovely you know, really a really

(26:47):
good voice. Talking about x Platsanyamasaid today, No, well, he
was asked who do you think willin the Premier League and he came out
straight away and said Totenham Hotspur.He's still still fully coysys taking them tablets

(27:07):
thick. Yeah, spaghetti must havemore than just a carbohydrate in it,
I think. Yeah. Anyway,before we say anything, libel us,
let's talk about the Bournemouth game.Yes, let's get on to it.
Well, you know, another oneof those games we started really well and
then Mate seemed to make a bitof a bit of a mountain of a

(27:32):
molehill with the whole thing, andthen seemed to come good again towards the
end. So yeah, very familiarpattern. Yeah, I mean it's for
when you were sort of saying aboutthe Everton game. You know, I
actually forgot you were talking about theEverton game for a moment and thought you
were talking about the Bourne because itis a bit formulated, isn't it.

(27:52):
We are the polar opposite of Conte'sTottenham in the respect that we didn't used
to start playing until the second halfunder Yeah. Yeah, yeah. In
fact, now we get to aboutsixty minutes and stuff. Yeah, that's
it. Yeah, I mean Ithink because of the way you play,
I think it's going to take abit of time. I think I remember
reading something about Andrew's early days atCeltic and how it took their players quite

(28:17):
a long time. You know,They've got injuries and they were running out
of gas a lot at the beginning, and then of course it just it
just takes it, probably like aseason of bedding in to understand that the
quick starts is, as you say, really like the polar opposite to content.
Also, Marino, we always usedto tear a hair out and like
why do we start so slow?We almost like go a goal behind before
we start playing. Now now it'sthe opposite way around. We go a

(28:41):
goal up and then and then it'sback to the wall for a bit.
But we seem to get you know, in this game as well, Like
you know, we went in waves. We had I think Skip came in
from a Hoiberg, so you know, I think that was maybe not expected,
but more of a positive. Ithought we we had, uh because

(29:07):
Kula Seski couldn't play, could he. He's a getting all these bloody games
in the one. So I thinkwe ended up with Richie and Son and
Johnson up front, didn't we?So? But I think you know overall,
Oh no, it wasn't so No, I've really messed up there.
It was Benton Kerr. Yes,it just came out of the bloody blue,

(29:33):
didn't it. You remember, likejust before the game, there was
a few rumors around then I senta little message saying he's only in the
squad, and people like what's goingon? What's what the hell's you know?
No, apparently he's in the squad. And then Spurs tweeted out this
little teaser picture of the four fourplayers walking alongside and him and his puffer
coat like striding around and everyone's sortof looking at him. And then the
next thing you know, he washe's named in the lineup and everyone's going

(29:56):
mental. And yeah, so hehad a sixty five minutes and and obviously
tied towards the end, but youcould see the old player there, you
know, the quick when he receivesthe ball, how quickly he could give
it away, and he could readthe game. It was, Yeah,
it was. It was great,really really good to see him back,
really real big boost must have beenfor the team, let alone the fans

(30:18):
to see his name, you know, a month early. Yeah, I
mean also I think, you know, prime my position for him as well.
Bournemouth, I will say, fortheir credit or a team that try
and play football, don't they youknow, I mean we've we've get they
had last seven games they won sixof them. Yeah, yeah, you

(30:38):
know, but but you know morethan that, you know, as well
as they're being sort of effective,you know, scoring a lot of goals,
playing some nice, some nice expansivefootball. They're not a dirty side.
We've we've played a few recently thathave just wanted to kick us off
the field, and I think bringhim to back, you know, possibly
ahead of schedule. We don't knowwhat the schedules are, you know,

(31:00):
whether it is a head of scheduleor not. But of course we're all
on ten talks because we're all wonderingwhether or not he's actually fully fit.
The worst thing in the world wasthat, you know, let's say,
let's say he comes on against anaston Villa or somebody like that and gets
kicked straight back into the medical room. Yeah. So then, and then,

(31:22):
and then our man of the daytoday, Pat Matterscar scores the opening
go after a terrible clearance he gets, he grabs it and then just says
I'll have some of this and andjust smashes one in from the edge of
the box. And as I'm allowedto sort of just jump out of that
game for a second. He signeda new contract to twenty thirty today.

(31:42):
That's yeah, that's pretty good news. Another long yeah, yeah, and
fantastic, fantastic, because what aplayer he has become ah. I mean,
you know when when we bought him, we were thinking pap Who and
people were saying, no, no, this this guy like Liverpool all sort
of the teams have been after him. We've stolen a march and getting him

(32:02):
at this age and now because thisguy is going to be a cracker and
he at nineteen he was talking aboutwhat he wants to win everything, and
the guy has got the world athis feet. He's reminiscent of some of
the silkiest, loveliest players that you'veseen, you know, in the grace
the Premiership, I think, andI'm not going to mention the name from

(32:24):
someone across the road from us,but one of their sort of pomp players.
But he's he just looks like he'she's he's going to be a you
know, a fantastic player for youknow, for football for that time.
He's only twenty. Yeah, Imean already you know, when he doesn't

(32:46):
play, you can tell you wereally miss him. So hopefully, you
know, with benzen Cook coming back, maybe maybe that will soften the blow
somewhat. But but he is someplayer, some player, yeah, a
wonderful business you know again, youknow, Tim tiny him into this long

(33:07):
contract, you know, recognizing theprogress that he's made since since coming back.
You know the same as Destiny.They're both on pretty long term contracts,
you know, committing to them asin recognition of the way that they've
stepped up and really really feel tomuch much needed spaces in the first eleven
because my god, we look poor. You know, will come onto this

(33:29):
in a moment, but but reelingback twelve months, you know, to
the first eleven before either of thosetwo players was and it was very,
very different and sadly lacking in bothof those departments. Yeah. So so
you know, last game of theseason then Bournemouth, like you say,
SA gets the first picks up aninjury. Yeah, he's been worry now

(33:54):
again you as you alluded to earlieron, I had another hamstring injury.
Apparently he's messaged to I think itmight have been today to say he's okay
and he's going off to the af Con. So he was more kind
of like he was worried that hewould be a bad one than it was
actually you know, so I thinkhe's he's all right. We still don't
know the valise who will come onto later on what that's like. Could

(34:17):
couldn't I mean a bit like theperformance, which was like, you know,
in three different kind of like phases. The weather was like that as
well, So we had you know, we had sun, rain, hailstones,
everything in that match, didn't weSo I don't know whether they're you
know, we had players slipping andsliding all over the place. But it's

(34:38):
but he h yeah, he lookedin a bad way, didn't He went
off crying, and when you lookat it, someone else mentioned this,
I don't know who, and Ithink that's right. You know, later
on Valise goes off and he's crying, you think, yeah, you know,
they're just kids, isn't they's they'reactually just kids and they're playing at
this level, you know. Imean, yeah, my son's older than

(35:02):
those two players, he's twenty one. What I was doing when I was
their age, I actually do youknow, do you know what I was
doing when I was their age?I was sweeping the bloody streets? Yeah.
Anyway, yeah, yeah, Imean yeah, that sort of meteoric

(35:24):
rise to the very very top ofthe top of their profession. And like
you say, the stakes are extremelyhigh. Some of these injuries can be
career changing, even if they're notcareer ending as well. You know,
we all know, we can allsort of think back the litany of players
that have picked up a knock intheir prime and have never ever been the

(35:46):
same again. So you know,you see why, you know, why
the emotions are high when they pickthese things up, you know, because
it could be you know, theobviously much bloodier and gloria accidents that we
see at work in industry are alot more apparent in their immediacy, but

(36:10):
the effects are the same, aren'tthey, you know, on people's ability
possibly to work, to work inthe future. So yeah, let's do
it. Yeah, I'm got Iam kind of glad to hear that perhaps
I was off off to have gonewith Senegal. I'm also a bit disappointed
that it wasn't just a tiny littlebit worse to keep him out exactly being

(36:32):
selfish, But you know, butwe had you know, I think the
difference between the two the two teams, you know, even though we you
know, we ended up winning thisone three one, was just just how
clinical we were, because you knowthat they had a few good efforts,
and I think the Carrio had somegreat says, but Richie should have made
it, you know, another goalsong. It was a bit wasteful,

(36:54):
but in the end, a sortof clinical finishing told because Son and and
Richie did pop up and score thoseother two goals, didn't they I thought,
you know, the game sort ofebbed and flowed at certain points.
I thought sort of Brighton started tolook stronger towards the sort of middle section
of that of that game. Butthen, like I said, you know,

(37:14):
we did score another couple, butbecause we were clinical, you know,
we had a couple of chances whereI think Richie was a bit sloppy.
We can talk about him in aminute, but I just wanted to
pay a special tribute to your favoriteman, Giovanni Lacelso, who I thought
actually had a really good game today. He grew into the game. Maybe

(37:36):
earlier on he wasn't you know,it wasn't so good, but towards the
end of the game he really steppedup. And that pass for Songs dipping
shot was sublime on the outside ofhis boot was absolutely terrific pass. And
then and then we just killed thegame basically. I know they got one
after that, but Johnson's no lookpassing too rich Arlison who actually just takes

(37:57):
it on the first time, solike Johnson receives the pass, doesn't even
take a touch, whips it in. And when this is a thing with
Richie, when he's on instinct aswell, and he just he doesn't take
a touch, he just hits it. It goes in. But he seems
to be overthinking things sometimes or notlike you were saying before, like not
getting himself in the right position,like being a few inches off side,
et cetera. So sometimes he's betteroff when he's just on instinct rather than

(38:22):
trying to sort of, you know, judge the game. Would you say,
well, yeah, I mean,strangely enough, that's something we all
used to say about Son, isn'tit that? You know, if you
give so many time he puts itin Rose And yeah, you know,
he seems to have sort of maturedpast that. I will. I will
hold my hands up here. I'mnot prepared to eat my hat yet.

(38:44):
I will at some point if thesituation requires it. But yes, gelso
is he is apparently is a footballer. Fucking who No, do you know
what better late than never? Yeah? Yeah, absolutely? But do you
know what, I also quite reallygrowing to like him over the stuff he

(39:05):
does off the pitch as well.So do you know what did you see
this stuff where Ange got really learyand he started having to go at one
of their officials after release his injurywas yeah, yeah, And while they
were so so, Bournemouth didn't stopplaying, did they? Release didn't go
down to start with. I mean, maybe we'll come to this in a
minute, or we were going tocome to it, we might as well

(39:25):
do it now. But but whenhe picked up that injury, he didn't
go down, did he? Andfor some reason he was clearly uncomfortable,
clearly in a lot of pain,and he stayed on his feet. And
then when he eventually did go down, Bournemouth didn't put the ball out.
They were in possession and they carriedon and Glos also I think picked up
a booking off the field. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He started to

(39:49):
get stuck in and I've seen thata few times in the previous game,
where he wanted to get some playersgoing off. We were just wasting time.
He went up to one he whisperedin his ear. It must have
been some expaniage. It was anotherit was like Joe Pedro or something like
that just whispered something he said andthen pushed him in the back of the
head to get him off quicker.He seems to want to get involved in
a lot of the ship housing,and from his recent comments, he's saying

(40:12):
he just feels so much better nowunder this new manager, the way we're
going, he feels like he belongshere now and he's getting a chance,
and he's really grateful for it.Maybe that's why we're seeing the better player,
the player that maybe we hoped we'dgot. But he's you know,
I mean, he's too early toyou know, to know for sure.
Maybe we you know, he endsup going somewhere. I don't know,
but I like what I'm seeing interms of the way he seems committed to

(40:35):
the team, like the picking upthat book, and he was fully with
and at that point, because youknow, relieves you know, he's still
a young man, he's only whattwenty as well, and he knew that
we've made our last substitution. Hewanted to try to carry on. But
and you're saying, look, you'regoing to really hurt yourself. Go down.
We'll deal with it, We'll seethe game out, We'll deal with
it. Because we were three nailup at that point, won't we And

(40:59):
then that's when their technical line wentbonkers, thinking that we're just trying to
waste time here, and then wentbonkers at them, and then and then
lose also decided to do a bitthe Argentinian argie bargie and get stuck in
as well and start saying things anddoing things which emplam things, and you
say, end up getting a yello. I was lovely. I liked it.
Yeah, yeah, I mean,you know, and as I've said,

(41:21):
all along with herself. So ifhe comes good in this way,
if he does prove to be theplayer that we thought we bought all along,
I will happily eat that hat andI will happily change my opinion of
him. And and the signs areencouraging because he is doing that. I
mean, it's no coincidence that,you know, Angie's Tottenham are not patched
Tino's Tottenham, but they're a lotcloser to Tino's Tottenham than Jose's, Nuno's

(41:46):
or Conte's top. Yeah, soperhaps we might be seeing the player doing
the job that he was originally boughtto do, which never got a chance
to do. Yeah, good ifhe does feel like he belongs. I
mean, you know, we needall the bodies that we can get at
the moment. Hopefully he'll he'll he'llbe able to do a job to the

(42:08):
end of the season. Maybe he'llbe able to carve himself a place in
and around that first team, andmore to the good if he does,
I will happily be wrong about aplayer, honestly than when I'm wrong about
Let's let's just go back quickly though, to to something that you were touching

(42:29):
on before we got sort of sidetrackedby that whole incident, Richarlison. You
know the question on my what I'vegot in my notes here, Lee is
has Richarlison and Andy Cole ever beenseen in the same room at the same
time. I think the answer tothat is patently no, because he needs

(42:53):
Yeah, I mean greatly improved.I love the way that people are sort
of talking like he's on fire atthe moment. I think it's sort of
seven and six or something. Nowhe gets to those in one game.
Yes, I mean, obviously we'reall really really happy that he's finally looking

(43:14):
sharp, looking fit, finding theback of the net. It appears to
be coming good. For him,Is this as good as it gets from
him? Do you think or doyou think there's more improvement to come?
Do you think he can be moreclinical? Or will he always need to
goes? Do you know what?I think that's a really really good question.
I obviously don't have the answer,but my instinct is that he will

(43:42):
get better because you know, he'sbeen carrying that injury, and you know,
and one of the things that heldhim back clearly was that because he
looks he looks a much livelier playernow. But will as for will he
ever learn that about his game?And will he will he be like Cole
that player that always needs twenty chancesto score one goal? Probably? But

(44:07):
is he worth keeping around because I'veseen some people saying that maybe if a
good offer comes and we sell him, definitely we should keep him. I
think he's you know, he's agood enough player to be in and around.
Is he if we get another strikergoing to be a first teamer?
I don't know. I don't knowif he you know, with her,

(44:29):
he'll be happy to sit on thebench either. But at the moment,
because of where we're at, he'sstarting, I don't know if that answers
your question, Rich But I justthink that he's the sort of player that
will always probably need a lot ofchances, but but will still pop up
like Andy Cole and scored plenty ofgoals because he made chances. It's a

(44:52):
funny. It's a funny thing,though, isn't it. You know,
I mean somebody said said recently aboutabout on one of the one of his
one of the goals that he took. That's the difference in between having a
center forward and a striker. Youknow that the ball was whipped in and
he wrote it was a headed goal. He rose and headed it in,
and you know, and I thinkthe point being made was Harry Kane used

(45:15):
to score an awful lot of goals, but he used to score them from
different positions and he would do morework, and they tended to be on
the ground and they weren't final ballsthat were playing. He often carried the
ball into the eighteen yard box toscore a goal rather than received it.
And it was an interesting point atthe time. You know, that sort
of switch from having this this sortof all singing or dancing royal the rover's

(45:38):
character lead in your line to havingan out and out striker where you have
to whip the ball into the sixyard box and you know, and he
will play the numbers game and beon the end of you know, x
amount of them of ten. It'sinteresting that you say, if we bring
another one in, whether or nothe would be happy to be a squad
player. I mean, I wouldwonder whether or not he would need to

(46:00):
be, because actually he can playacross that front three. K is playing
an awful lot of games sons.Obviously the captain, so he's expected to
start, but he doesn't always playin the middle. Sometimes he'll play on
the left, you know, andso there's a chance to to interchange in
between in between any of those thosethree, those front three positions. I

(46:22):
mean, I think we we've gotto bring somebody in if we can,
haven't we. Yeah, I thinkso. I think even whether you get
someone to be another striker or whetheryou get someone who can play across that
front three, probably I think itwill be the latter, somebody who can
kind of, you know, fillin for for a variety positions up front

(46:43):
there. But yeah, I thinkyou're you're probably right, mate, but
can but actually you mentioned Kine andI'm going to read you a tweet in
a second, but but it is, you know, it is worth mentioning
the fact that we have lost oneof the rates of our club and we
were you know, and in angepress conference afterwards, I saw him got

(47:05):
a little bit kind of mischievous anda bit I wouldn't say spiky, but
but a little bit kind of Youprobably need to give us a bit more
credit now, because a few ofthem were saying, you know, you're
you're you know, you're knocking onthe door of the top four. He
says, hang on a second,mate, we're three points off, as
it was at that point, thetop of the Premier League. And you

(47:25):
know, the look in his eyeit was like, you know, is
that all you think we should be, because that's not what we think.
And and and I liked that waythat he kind of went on the front
foot there. And and this thislittle this message, I can't remember who
put it out there, but itwas a part it's cut from a journalist

(47:46):
had written this, he said,and Posta Cooglo is aware that playing his
football without first teamers and without thosewho fit the needs of the system is
akin to surrender. We saw thatagainst Brighton, But then what else can
you do when you're missing iber Sumer, James Madison, Dan Golesewsky for one
suspension, even Perisitch, Christian Romero, Ryan Cessigon Manor Solomon and Mickey Van

(48:09):
der Venn. Supporters of other teamswill hate this, and I fully understand
why. But to be an informedteams with that many absentees and go three
points from the top of the PremierLeague having also lost Argue be the best
player in the club's history and overhauledthe team style is absolutely incredible and that

(48:30):
I think hits the now right onthe head. Yeah. You can't fault
it, can You can't fault it? Yeah? I mean, well,
when I bumped into my my exsister in law a couple of days ago,
who is a Liverpool supporter and hastherefore got some opinions, and she

(48:53):
said to me, he said,oh, I'm really sorry about your season
mate. You know, it's abit of a joke. And I went,
what you sorry? What? Idon't understand what you mean? And
she went, well, you knowit's all gone a bit off the rails,
doesn't it. It looked really promisingto start with. And I said,
we're we're you know, half adozen points off the top of the

(49:15):
league. What do you mean it'sgone wrong? You know? And I
think, you know, that's likeas a microcosm of how other people see
us. They don't actually pat anyattentions to what's going on. Lucky spurs,
plucky and lucky Spurs, you know, I mean, but okay,
let let us go under the windradar. There will be a point where
we won't anymore, and people willstart waking up to that they're sleeping.

(49:37):
I suppose it is what the sortof common vernacular is on this situation.
They don't realize just what we're doingbecause they don't they're not paying quite enough
attention to it. But slowly,but surely, you know, he is
making the whole lot more resilient.And I think he mentioned that. He
said, Look, he says,we may have lost all those players,

(50:00):
but basically what we're doing here is, you know, I'm not making excuses
and they wouldn't want me to.We're teaching them how to cope and how
to be resilient. And you canonly do that in adversity. And that
really speaks again volumes of his manmanagement, because other managers can you imagine,

(50:20):
Conte, how many of them willbe under the bus by now we've
we've got to go twelve months toanswer that question exactly. Yeah, the
year of twenty twenty three. Let'sjust a little bit then in that vein
the year of twenty twenty three.I think I think we've said all that
needs to be said about the Bournemouthgame and the players that played, and

(50:43):
about all of the talk around it. Let's just finish this off now.
I think you know, people arelistening to this their work, their tea
break, probably probably nearly over timeto get back to the lathe or the
whatever it is people are working at. Give us, Give us a couple
of things from twenty twenty three,then, Lee, give me your one

(51:05):
thing overall. Let's start you off. What's your one thing that sums up
the last calendar year as a Spurs, So it sums up twenty twenty three?
Oh my god, the only thingI can think of, how do
you sum that up? I'm goingto go for it. Can I go
for a metaphor? It's like,you know, like years ago, apparently

(51:27):
the way that they discovered the eatand mess was they carried out a cake
and dropped it on the floor.And it feels almost like that was twenty
twenty three for us, is likewe thought we were going to do great.
That Pate got dropped on the floorand smashed the smithereens with the way
that Conte sort of destructed us andsomehow and just come in picked all the

(51:50):
pieces up, put them back on, and we've got this delicious dessert of
a new club which is sort ofcoming out of all of that and something
you have been invented. Does thatsound about it? Right? Yeah?
Yeah, I like it. Ilike it. I was gonna I'm gonna
I'm gonna go with something very similar. Really, I mean, my initial
thoughts when I thought about posing thisquestion was, you know, it's as

(52:14):
twelve months ago. It's it's prettybang on for the Dictionary definition of a
roller coaster, isn't it. Imean, we came back, we had
the we had the mid Winter WorldCup last year. We all we all
came back from that mid Winter WorldCup, expect you if you remember this,
we used to do podcasts about this. Anybody that wants to go back
and listen to it can have areal good laugh about this, particularly me.

(52:35):
I know, I was. Iwas guilty of it more than anybody
else, perhaps saying that that thatholding people off for forty five minutes before
we started playing was all to dowith managing the squad's fitness because the World
Cup was and they knew that theyhave this really congested spirit. We all
thought that most people thought that mustbe the reason, because this man is
a genius exactly exactly. And thenwe comes back from it and instead of

(53:00):
kicking off, we tripped up andwe ended up you know where we did,
you know, so you know,you sort of think, oh my
god, you know, it's theroller coaster, the roller coaster, and
then you think of your standout momentsfor the year, and actually the defining
thing was how long and how convincedI was, and I wasn't the only

(53:20):
one that Pochatino was coming back toTottenham. And then it was a dundale
and all of that social We listenedto all those people that said, I
know what I'm talking about, He'scoming up, you know, and all
those people that are generally quite youknow, they've got good accuracy or good
hit rates for predicting or sales orwhatever, you know, and they all

(53:45):
got it wrong, and for whateverreason, it didn't happen, and we
ended up with this guy. Itwasn't even the guy that was meant to
be the other guy if Potch didn'tcome back. You know, we were
all getting excited about some fellow calledass as Ark Slots. Yeah, and
you know, and then we endedup with this other fellow. You know,

(54:08):
the king is dead. Long livethe King. That's my one thing
for twenty twenty because he's gone overinto the King's road, so fucking him.
And now we've got absolutely yeah,Well said Matt Well said, yeah,
we were all thought, you know, it was a nailed on,
wasn't It was a no brainer thathe would come back, and it didn't
happen. But you know, sometimesserendipity works a treat, and it has

(54:34):
this time because we've got it's almostlike peak Potch in that time. But
with I said this to my wifeactually a couple of games ago, when
she came with me and I said, do you know what I said For
the first time, I said,for a long time, I'm really looking
forward to seeing the games, likereally looking forward to seeing them because win,

(54:55):
lose, or draw, it feelsto me at the moment. We're
in a a sort of pattern ofit's not that we hope we might get
somewhere with this manager. We expectto be somewhere with this manager. There
just feels like something is happening.You can just sense it. The way

(55:16):
the players are interacting with each other, the way they talk on social media,
the clips you see coming out aboutthem talking about themselves as family,
a Spurs family, the way theyyou know, you saw the other day.
I don't know if you see thatclip going around that of James Madison
just before the Bournemouth game going downthe tunnel and hugging every single player wishing

(55:37):
them all the happy New Year.They just feels like it feels like a
really good place to be. AndI think one of the key parts of
that, of course, you know, is the manager, but his insistence
that he speaks to everyone he bringsin, because he's made it very clear

(55:57):
one bad person in amongst that canchange the whole dynamic. And clearly that's
what he's managed to in a veryshort space of time mold and shape,
and he's got people who just whojust seem very very happy to be then
fight for each other. So yeah, my highlight of the year would be
Conte going and Edge coming in,because I couldn't have imagined just quite how

(56:22):
much he has been able to doand transform in such a short space of
time. Yeah, I mean,it's that space of time thing, isn't
it. Yes, we were alltold to expect a Rocky, and we
were all told, you know,that it was going to take a couple
of years, and and you know, I know some of the frustration about
in the fan bases because actually we'reso much further ahead on that curve than

(56:46):
we have any right to expect tobe. I mean, my take the
whole thing is, is that myfavorite period. I mean, I've been
supporting Spurs since the mid eighties,since you know, the eighties really,
but I can really remember it fromthe mid eighties on y. Yeah,

(57:07):
and so I've you know, I'veseen a few come and go. My
favorite favorite time ever as as aSpurs fan, really in terms of enjoyment
was was the Martin yoll era.I had such fun because it come after
George Graham, and it come afterfucking you know, the nineties being terrible,

(57:27):
and you know, and obviously we'dhad Hoddle there and we all thought
Odden was going to ship miracles andhe didn't, and you know, and
then Jack Santon he turned up forwork once and then vanished, you know,
and then make Yell turned up andsuddenly everything was wonderful. And I
had no expectation of ever really winninganything with Martin Yoall. Although you know,

(57:47):
I still think the League Cup thatwe won in two thousand and eighties
Martin Yoll's trophy, even though he'dbeen sacked by that point. You know,
that was you know, but thatwas my most enjoyable couple of years
as a Spurs fan, because,like you said, you win, lose,
or draw, what, it doesn'treally matter. I went to Spurs
and I had fun and I andI really watched some really entertaining football and

(58:13):
all of that. Well, youknow, how do you keep four strikers
happy, Martin, Well, it'shaving four wives. You can't have them
all in the bed at the sametime. All of that, you know.
Yeah, Like you know, Iadored it, and that's what I
get from Ange. Yeah as well, you know is it don't It's so
it's almost the opposite of what youwere saying in some respects. It's like

(58:34):
I don't have any expectation because Idon't care. He's already achieved the one
thing that I wanted and he's boughtthe fun back to Spurs and that.
Oh it's amazing mate. And alsoit's just he just seems to and it
sounds a bit proper football match.It seems like a good bloke. You

(58:54):
know. It's just like you know, when he talked about that round attached
line we were talking about, hejust said, ah, he says,
there's nothing. We were just wishingeach other happy New Year. Yeah,
it's that just like he plays thatsort of stuff down. You know,
he's not he's not making you're nothe's not playing political games all the time.
You know. Some of them are, you know, trying to trying
to make sure that next time roundthey get the better decision and all this

(59:15):
kind of stuff because they're they're tryingto screw with the pg O mail or
whatever. You know, it justdoesn't play that crap. No, no,
no, it is a breath offresh air in it. For they
ought to thank us all for bringinghim to the Premier League because he's made
the entire thing. But yeah,and obviously you know he's just waiting for

(59:37):
the for the man city job.You know. Of course, as as
some of the players out like GaryNeville and people like that, will be
now suggesting if he starts to dowell, so that's our I like then,
you know, and obviously I'm goingwith your low light of the year
was anything to do with Antonio Conte, is it? Mate? In particular
that press conference in which he's,like we've mentioned before, it had to

(01:00:00):
hire extra buses to throw everyone under, which was the most incredible thing I've
ever seen in my whole life,and parts of it because I was so
pissed off with Spurs at that time, I thought this must be true.
You know, there were and Icould see it was a self preservation exercise,

(01:00:21):
but I could also think, yeah, I mean, he's telling it
like it is because this club justdoesn't seem to get things right and the
players don't seem to do. Inhindsight, you can now look back and
see, okay, yes we havechanged a few players, you know,
but in hindsight he was so wrongthat he says, you can change all

(01:00:44):
the managers you like, but thingswill never change at this club, believe
me. Until blah blah blah,you know, in other words like give
me to three hundred million, andyou know that has been proven to be
not accurate. I like the factthat we're also you know, I know
this that that's the low light.If I can try and find a little

(01:01:07):
sort of ray of sunshine within that. I think the club has responded.
I think the way the fact thatLevy has stepped aside and give them the
reins to Scott Munn and revamped allthat system and brought in the team that
he's brought in shows enormous determination toget it right and learn from that.

(01:01:28):
Well, one thing, I knowhe gets a lot of stick and there,
and then you know, there's beentimes throughout the last few years that
I myself have thought he needs togo. Is that he's taken as as
far as he can. But anactual fact, he seems to have sort
of reinvented things and and I thinkwhat he's done now and by given the
football business side a bit over toScott Munn, it is actually it seems

(01:01:52):
to be a bit of a masterstroke. He nobody talks ill of him
put it that way, like itbut like even just Hugo Laris the other
day particularly paid tribute to Daniel Levy. And and I know it's not gonna
be popular with some people to praisesomeone that is it is truly despised by
by a certain faction of our support. And you know, and I can

(01:02:15):
understand their frustrations because he has gotthings wrong. But I think credit where
credits due that probably that tumultuous endingto how Kante behaved has probably kickstarted the
club in a different direction. Buthe was wrong, Conte, he just

(01:02:37):
wasn't right for this. He justwasn't right for our club. But we
all knew it. We just hopedit wouldn't be the case because he,
you know, he was such awell sought after manager. But and is
right. He feels like the handin glove that we've needed for a long
time. And it's a velvet glove. Mate, lovely, mate, lovely.

(01:02:59):
I think I think we should weshould pretty much wrap it up early.
I'm going to ask you one morequestion before before I let you go,
and before I let the good peopleof the internet go back to work.
What are your what are your realistichopes for this year? Well,
another great question, mate, I'mgoing to say, if I can sort

(01:03:19):
of split it, into two.I'm going to say, no more injuries
please, And and I think topfour and a Cup I think is achievable.
Lovely, lovely. I mean I'llgo with that. I would I
would love us to lift the fA Cup this year. And you know,
with that in mind, we've gotBurnley on Friday night. Yep,
it's coming up first. So maybethe next time we talk we're talking about

(01:03:44):
concentrating on the league instead. ButI think we'll have a good crack at
it, mate, I think,I honestly do think we're gonna I think
he won't allow that to happen forthis one. I think we're going to
play our best players. You're gonnawe're going to do predict for that game?
Or should we should we leave thatfor another time? On four one?

(01:04:08):
Yeah, yeah, it's burned,isn't it? And I think we'll
be We will be bang up forit. We probably have drag us in
in by then as well. Who'sgoing to drag us into the title race?
And I think, yeah, Ithink I think nil. For those
listening, Richard just buried his head, his head inside a tea towel.

(01:04:30):
Cannot believe that I've just come outwith that god awful joke. That's it.
I'm done with this podcast. I'mnot putting up with any more puns
like that. Mate. I'm fromStratford. We've got standards when it comes
to yes, mister Shakespeare. Anyway, well, let's hop that one of

(01:04:51):
us is right for the predictions forthe weekend, and that's the next time
we talk. There won't be threegames and a load more injuries to wrap
up in a single podcast, SoI think at that note, we'll wrap
this one up and say Happy Newto a Happy New Year to everybody,
and come on you Spurs, HappyNew Year, and come on you Spurs.

(01:05:14):
You know there's no place on earthI would I wouldn't want to be
right here, you know, inthis minute of trying to bring success to
one of the biggest football clubs inthe world. The basic candlelight line principles
that you all want my team toplay football that scares the life out of
every opposition. Mart That's that's kindof the end game. H