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Football Ramble

6 Mar 2026 · 48m · 25 chapters

Episode artwork

Daniel Farke’s Park Run

In short

Main points

  • Hosts: Marcus Speller, Luke Moore, Vish
  • Focus: The current state of Tottenham Hotspur, the FA Cup fifth round previews, and humorous commentary on football-related topics.
  • Current Situation: Tottenham Hotspur has experienced five consecutive losses, placing them dangerously close to relegation.
  • Discussion on Management:
  • The hosts debate whether it's time to consider a managerial change, humorously referencing Harry Redknapp as a potential savior.
  • Marcus argues that pressing the "Harry Redknapp button" may be Tottenham's best option given their current predicament.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes.

Chapters

3:25

Spurs' Recent Struggles

Discussion on Spurs' difficulties and recent performance.

“I did Lou Baker and misquoted the George W.”
4:50

Review of the Spurs vs. Palace Match

Analysis of the key moments in the Spurs vs. Palace game.

“and it was so uniting across the country that I thought it was an alarm for an air raid or something.”
6:20

Spurs' Tactical Issues

Examine tactical decisions and management at Spurs.

“Never signed a contract professional club.”
8:20

Fans' Reactions and Broadcast Criticism

Discuss fans' reactions and criticisms of the broadcast.

“It's a low bar but Solanke's actually done okay.”
10:10

Implications of Spurs' Performance

Explore the implications of Spurs' performance on their season.

“It was gone, but I genuinely believe for 20 minutes after halftime, you look at the amount of corners and free kicks around the area they got, if one of those goes in, you don't know.”
14:00

Controversial Managerial Decisions

Discusses the impact of a manager's comments on team morale.

“to get them out of this situation, why are you talking about how shit your players...”
15:00

Analyzing Spurs' Fixtures and Relegation Threat

Examines the implications of upcoming fixtures for Spurs' relegation battle.

“Because of, I mean, look at what Tudor said after the Fulham game.”
16:00

The Potential of a Managerial Shakeup

Speculates on the possibility of a managerial change at Spurs.

“then you have to say it's got to a point now that tactically, you know, Spurs squad, look at the teams around them there.”
17:00

Key Players and Tactical Decisions

Analyzes the impact of player selection and tactics on Spurs' performance.

“I agree with what you're saying, though, because at this stage of the season, like, and the situation they're in, throwing shit at the wall is a legitimate strategy.”
18:00

Comparing Team Morale Across the League

Contrasts Spurs' morale with that of competing teams.

“and Glenn, big Glenn wants to come in and help out.”
Show all 25 chapters
19:00

The Consequences of Relegation

Discusses the implications of relegation for Spurs and their players.

“And that's why I think I don't want to labour the point because I understand how utterly farcical it sounds.”
20:00

Evaluating Spurs’ Tactical Failures

Critiques Spurs' tactical decisions and player performances.

“And their fans, again, they are singing away.”
21:00

Hope Amidst the Chaos

Explores the potential for improvement despite current struggles.

“Vicario's confidence is shot to bits, like totally shot to bits.”
22:00

Financial Realities of Championship Playoffs

Discusses the financial implications of the expanded Championship playoffs.

“and the formation he's playing them in and the fact that he didn't pick Gallagher, Simmons, you just think, I mean, it's very, very difficult to explain it.”
28:35

Mark White's Post-Match Reflections

Dorking manager Mark White expresses frustration with his team's performance.

“accounting firms trust Bill to simplify and secure BillPay.”
29:09

A Conversation About Managers and Players

Discussion about the harsh realities of player performance and manager quotes.

“Sometimes I get the management team to take the blame, part blame, some blame, whatever.”
30:20

Anticipating the Mansfield vs Arsenal Match

Analyzing the upcoming FA Cup match between Mansfield Town and Arsenal.

“Even my beautiful boys went a goal up against him.”
31:18

The Role of Tactics in Football

Exploration of tactical strategies that teams employ, especially in cup matches.

“Will Arsenal be deploying all sorts of time-wasting tactics against Mansfield?”
32:45

Nigel Clough and His Management Journey

Discussion about Nigel Clough's management career and his approach to the game.

“because I think the interviewer said to him in the newspaper, I think today, do you think you'll get 2 ,000 matches as a manager?”
34:45

FA Cup Replays and Their Importance

Debate on the significance of replay matches in the FA Cup format.

“I know he spoke about it at the time, but it seems comical, not least when they're clamping down on Premier League teams offering to give a bigger portion of the gate receipts to teams in lower divisions.”
35:56

Wrexham's Upcoming Matches and Prospects

Analyzing Wrexham's chances in their next match and their recent success.

“The only thing I would say in response to that is, it is a World Cup year.”
40:31

Reflections on Newcastle vs Man City

Discussion on the repeated matchups between Newcastle and Manchester City.

“We'll see how much magic is in the cup, depending on that.”
42:00

Football Discussions and Banter

A humorous exchange about football teams and players with a touch of sarcasm.

43:49

Cup Match Predictions and Analysis

Analysis and predictions regarding upcoming FA Cup matches and team performances.

“Most people are still overpaying for car insurance just because it's a pain to switch.”
48:22

Discussing Team Form and Upsets

Discussion on the unpredictability of cup competitions and potential upsets.

“Norwich City are on that long, illustrious list of clubs who quite simply have won at Fratton Park this season.”
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Transcript

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2:28Luke Moore: Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for$15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch.

2:47Vishaal Fultambe: Upfront payment of$45 for three month plan equivalent to$15 per month required.

2:52Luke Moore: Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. Default terms at mintmobile.com. Meet me on the mountaintop, everybody. Welcome to the Football Ramble Preview Show. Spurs are in big trouble and the FA Cup fifth round is upon us. It's Friday 6th of March. I'm Marcus Speller. I'm Luke Moore. And I'm the Dushan of Hunter-Raja.

3:25Luke Moore: Someone say it was Friday. Oh, there it is. Boom. There it is, Vish.

3:30Marcus Speller: Boom. It's boom where it is. Yeah, I did boom and then boom. Yeah. The words of George W. Bush, ladies and gentlemen, we made it. I did Lou Baker and misquoted the George W. Bush on purpose there

3:43Luke Moore: just to get us going. And I did a bit of the Wu-Tang crew.

3:49Marcus Speller: Who did Pete say that to? Ben. Doc Brown. Yeah. Oh, no. Yeah, over a beer. He's like, I'm into the old hip-hop. Oh, no. I'm into the hip-hop, and I like Wu-Tang Crew, yeah. No, you didn't.

4:01Vishaal Fultambe: He did, he did. What a sad way to start the weekend.

4:04Marcus Speller: And his favourite rapper was, old dirty bitch. He didn't, he didn't say that. He didn't say that.

4:12Luke Moore: And he loved Black Road. Black Street. Yeah. Sorry. Right, okay. Let's get into it, Vish. Come on, Friday. No diggity, Vish. Yeah. No doubt. No doubt. Spurs lost at home again. No doubt about that. They got beaten. 3-1 by Crystal Palace. A very, very happy Crystal Palace. Oliver Glasner, celebrating like that. Nice to see it back. Sorry, who gives a shit about Palace?

4:35Marcus Speller: No, exactly. Let's get straight to it. Also, of course Palace felt great about it because they've just been to Spurs for a lovely day out.

4:40Vishaal Fultambe: There was a point yesterday... It's like a Lego land. There was a point yesterday evening where everyone would have got an alert from their phone from someone else, basically saying, are you watching the Spurs game? and it was so uniting across the country that I thought it was an alarm for an air raid or something.

4:57Luke Moore: This went to a pub without a TV last night. Idiot.

5:01Marcus Speller: Doesn't take his job seriously, does he? Would he have done that if it was a cricket match, Marcus? Probably not. Just ask him on behalf of the listeners.

5:06Luke Moore: I'd already seen that. They'd lost that. It was a cricket simulation bar.

5:09Vishaal Fultambe: Definitely wasn't. But yeah, it was astonishing. I cannot believe... I mean, I can believe they're in this situation. We've talked about it a lot. but that's I mean just the series of events that lead to you being 3-1 down and a man down at half time

5:25Luke Moore: Yeah well the series of events of course was four losses in a row and now it's five they're a point a point above West Ham they're a point above relegation, they are in a relegation scrap there's no two ways about it but onto the game itself though Vish is what you were saying there I mean Palace Sarr scores and he's a was it a nose tip offside I think it's a new one

5:50Marcus Speller: amazing but that's the way it is I thought he was behind the ball but apparently parts of his face were in front of the ball when it was played it says how conditioned

5:57Vishaal Fultambe: we are to it the commentators said his face is offside like it was the most normal thing ever

6:03Marcus Speller: you can score with your face so no goal imagine if Jimmy Hill was still playing Gordon Cowens I said he never scored a guy it's a deep cut for some of the younger that's why I said

6:12Luke Moore: Jimmy Hill he was probably even

6:14Marcus Speller: older than Gordon Cowens

6:16Luke Moore: Yeah, but he was more high profile.

6:17Vishaal Fultambe: Well, what if Pinocchio was playing?

6:19Marcus Speller: Yeah, wasn't a professional footballer. Never signed a contract professional club. So, wasn't even, wasn't famously.

6:24Vishaal Fultambe: Well, because he didn't wish for it, did he?

6:25Marcus Speller: Wasn't even the real boy.

6:26Vishaal Fultambe: Yeah. No, he was in the end. Spoiler. Yeah, exactly.

6:30Luke Moore: Only homo sapiens can play football. Yeah, but he turned into one. No, I've, did he though? Is that that little boy from Rosario? No. They gave him a little injection, banged his real life. Yeah. Watch the Director's Cup. Now, so.

6:42Marcus Speller: I want to see if that's the earliest spoiler of all time. 1940 that came out. I think it might be the earliest one we've done.

6:49Luke Moore: Could be. Could be up there.

6:50Marcus Speller: Keystone Cops is our oldest reference, but we don't spoil the plot of Keystone Cops. Because we don't know it. No, it's 1910. No one's seen it. Yeah.

6:58Luke Moore: Anyway. You spoiled World War I once. I did, yeah. That would be an older reference. But anyway, back to the game. Palace, yes. They denied that goal. And then Dominic Solanke scores. He scored.

7:09Marcus Speller: From nice work from Archie Gray.

7:12Luke Moore: Lovely work. from Archie Gray.

7:13Marcus Speller: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man himself, Archie Gray, he's the only one who's carried himself of real credit. I probably would have argued on behalf of Mickey Van De Ven before last night's sending off, but generally speaking, Archie Gray, who, lest we forget, is 19, is still finding his way in football by signing for a basket case of a club for a gigantic amount of money, playing every position under the sun for 460 different managers and still is somehow their best player

7:43Luke Moore: is he going to be messaging Mikey Moore going look you're in a title race up there do they need can I get involved

7:49Marcus Speller: he's messaging saying don't come back it's like been on holiday during Covid don't fly back

7:55Luke Moore: change your Wikipedia page where it says loan just delete it and the incompetency of the Spurs board will go oh we must have signed him

8:01Marcus Speller: and by the way can you please put your gaffer on the phone because summer's coming I don't want to get out of here

8:08Luke Moore: well anyway so it was good work from Archie Gray it was good to see Solanke scoring because it is a World Cup year. Stop it.

8:15Marcus Speller: It was good forward play from Solanke and I would actually say when he's been fit, Solanke hasn't done an awful lot wrong either. It's a low bar but Solanke's actually done okay. I think Richarlison has done okay as well, which is a mad thing to be contemplating but nevertheless is the case. But the problem, if you're talking about the specific football itself, I mentioned this when it came to the Arsenal game as well. Everyone was big on how shit Spurs were which is fair enough I was at the game I didn't think they were quite as shit as everyone said they were because for about 20 minutes they did try right and I'll stop you there yeah okay for 20 minutes

8:55Luke Moore: out of 90 yeah at 70 left against their rival at home who might win the league yeah Vish I quote Luke Moore they did try

9:02Marcus Speller: but I said it at the time

9:03Vishaal Fultambe: yeah you did and I know what you mean

9:05Marcus Speller: yeah and they did it in this game so they scored a goal kind of I think Palace were disappointed to have a goal disallowed. Definitely. Spurs took advantage of that. Then of course they totally imploded as soon as Mickey van der Ven makes that terrible decision which is a decision that I understand in the heat of the moment is easier said than done but I am going to say it anyway. I'm from the Jose Mourinho school of thought when it comes to that kind of thing. Just take the goal. Just concede the goal. The worst case scenario is he scores. It's one all and you've got 11 men on the field and van der Ven is a super important player for them.

9:40Marcus Speller: Did they cycle through three captains last night? Van de Ven, Porro and Vicario?

9:45Luke Moore: Yeah, because Porro went off and he was furious.

9:46Marcus Speller: Yeah, so Van de Ven would have been the captain at the start. Porro handed it to Vicario, he just drops it. Tries to kick it, goes out of play. So I thought it was a really, really poor decision from Van de Ven. In the heat of the moment, I get it. Incredibly poor. And then they don't recover from that at all. But in the second half, Tudor had obviously put a rocket up them. And again, for about 20 minutes, in a totally unhelpful, unorganized, energy-wasting way, they tried really hard. But the game was gone. It was gone, but I genuinely believe for 20 minutes after halftime, you look at the amount of corners and free kicks around the area they got, if one of those goes in, you don't know.

10:24Luke Moore: Fine, I take that point, but I don't think it's one that is going to have any kind of... I mean, a teensy consolation at best in the grand scheme of things, i.e. this relegation battle because I reckon at half time Glasner would have said to his players it's fine no injuries lads yeah yeah it's fine and just don't let them have anything

10:44Marcus Speller: I get it that's how poor it was they were terrible they were terrible Marcus but I can't get 20 minutes out of just saying they're shit and they're fucked both of which I believe you're going to try for 20 minutes yeah yeah I just I just I just think you need to understand I felt you need to understand what they were trying to do the problem is I think I said this to you on WhatsApp last night the players are escaping far too much from the scrutiny that the club is under because the club has been run badly it's a basket case a lot of the focus has been on the ownership and the fans actually the fans are getting a lot of stick I thought the fans got an incredible amount of stick last night from the broadcast I thought that was pretty unfair actually

11:26Luke Moore: well yeah TNT the way it was focusing on oh yeah look at them they're leaving now before the end of the game and blah blah blah I suppose they're trying to paint a picture of how bad it is at Spurs, but I know what you mean to kind of have the fans somewhat maybe more indirectly in your crosshairs, I thought.

11:44Vishaal Fultambe: It's a kind of a rage-fuelled industry now, though, isn't it? True. People are being baited all the time with that kind of stuff.

11:52Marcus Speller: I think that what's happened is, and TNT will be the worst example of this, that serious official broadcasters have completely lost almost their identity about how they operate in this content slash banter slash rage bait media environment and they think we can behave like a lot of these people who do really popular clips online can behave at one point last night it was either matterface or heart i can't remember which one of them said it and i think joe heart's quite good um so it was it was a and i don't mind matterface but i said it's a bit of an oversight by them but but at one point one of them says there's um a fan in the crowd with his daughter yeah they've paid a lot of money to go to the game it's thursday night it's not convenient they've been battered their team might get relegated and one of them said something like oh what's what's she done to deserve in making her a Spurs fan it's like yeah I mean you're the official broadcaster yeah can we just and by the way the game's going on at the time can we watch the game because they cut to the crowd

12:50Luke Moore: at one point

12:51Marcus Speller: they cut to the crowd leaving the stadium while the game's going on yeah

12:55Vishaal Fultambe: so I think there's a lot going on there yeah people don't pay that much for TNT Sport anyway so it's fine

13:00Marcus Speller: it's a snip at 36 quid a month

13:02Vishaal Fultambe: but you know I think you highlighted the tweet from the Premier League account as well. Yeah, of Vicario. They deleted that. Yeah, I think, I mean, I cannot imagine what Spurs fans are going through. But just to go back on your... You had a little insight last season. You've had a little taste of the biscuit. This is so different because...

13:27Luke Moore: Because genuine relegation battle.

13:28Vishaal Fultambe: Yeah, and also like the outlay and being like gaslit. And even little things like, you know, I think the players do have to portion some of the blame. I think Palina, for example, yesterday, you have to clear that ball. I don't know, you know, for the third goal, when Saar pokes it past Vicario, it's a decent ball from Wharton, but he's leaving it to someone else. It's really strange. Tell shouldn't be playing that initial pass before that into pressure. That's just fucking boneheaded. And at the same time, the bloke they've got in with the express duties of firefight, to get them out of this situation, why are you talking about how shit your players...

14:05Vishaal Fultambe: Why are you contributing to... Just abusing them. Yeah, to that, you know, to what we've just talked about there about like, you know, piling onto Spurs fans. Why are you like, oh, this seems to go down really well, yeah. This should do numbers on social. You're the manager. Don't do that.

14:17Marcus Speller: It's a mad appointment. I said at the time, you know, I think there's a chance he might go, which is remarkable to think.

14:24Luke Moore: Well, I actually agree with you. I think that if you, you know, you look at the fixtures between the sides that are down there or the run-ins that they have. It's a bit of a mixed bag. I don't think anybody has it particularly badly or particularly easy. I mean, but in this season, it's a madhouse. You know, as Forrest proved the other night, they got a point at the Etihad.

14:45Luke Moore: I understand how ridiculous this is and I understand how farcical this would be. This should be good. I honestly, after last night... Isn't it going to win the league? Nope. Which league? I honestly think... Because of, I mean, look at what Tudor said after the Fulham game. And then he said, it sounds strange, but I believe more after this game than I did. I know what he's going to say. I need to choose the right guys. You're going to say Redknapp. I am.

15:09Marcus Speller: Yeah. And the reason why. He was on TalkSport this morning, swerved it. Well. Started talking about his horses at Cheltenham. Well, yeah, you've got to get Cheltenham out of the way. Yeah, of course. Again, big picture man.

15:18Luke Moore: Yeah. The trainer deals with that. The reason why I think that if Tudor loses, say, what have they got, nine games left, Spurs? the reason I think that it's possible that Tudor could get sacked is if they lose say their next three or four and things don't improve they cannot get relegated like that would be such a disaster for that football club them more than anybody the first time they'd have been relegated from the Premier League

15:49Marcus Speller: yes the first time they'd have been relegated since Keith Berkenshaw in the 70s

15:53Luke Moore: there you go right And so if Tudor was to lose the next three or four in this kind of manner, which is very believable that could happen, then you have to say it's got to a point now that tactically, you know, Spurs squad, look at the teams around them there. You'd have to go, I think, all the way up, probably to Newcastle in 12th to say who's got a better squad of players than Spurs. And even then, Sunderland, Fulham, Bournemouth, Everton, Brentford, have they got better squads than Spurs? So it's not a personnel, is it? tactically it is the injuries partly well okay but all I'm saying is right clearly if you have four or five games left and I know we've seen this before and it's not worked you know Alan Shearer at Newcastle will leap to mind but she is not a manager and never has been and looks like never will be if you get to a position where you have four or five games left you think it is so depressing and so down here if say Redknapp came in and it would be Redknapp again

16:49Marcus Speller: I totally understand how stupid it would be I think it would happen before that do you think before I think Tudor will I think there's a good chance Tudor will go way... But I... What are you thinking when you're... You guys, when you think he's going to get four more games?

17:02Vishaal Fultambe: Well... For what purpose? Fine, fine. I mean, I take that. I agree with what you're saying, though, because at this stage of the season, like, and the situation they're in, throwing shit at the wall is a legitimate strategy. Yes, exactly. That's the point I'm saying. And, you know, you mentioned Shearer. That's exactly what that was. Yeah. That was like, okay, we've got a statue of this bloke. Yes. Get him in this office now. Yeah, yeah. And again, you know get the big cockerel

17:25Luke Moore: go and get the golden cockerel there you are but you know to me it's come to it is very close to being that I think and that's how ludicrous the situation is

17:35Marcus Speller: it probably should be that now to be honest I think if you're if you're Robbie Keane you've got an incredible amount of leverage right because you can go in and the reason he's not come in before is because we're led to believe that he's not interested in the short term thing he thinks Pochettino's the guy or the rest of it if you're Robbie Keane you could put but I mean, bearing in mind the decision makers at Spurs are almost entirely brain dead. Yeah. Right? You could go in there with an incredible amount of leverage. You could say, okay, I'll do it.

18:01Luke Moore: Glenn Hodder wants to be my assistant.

18:02Marcus Speller: and Glenn, big Glenn wants to come in and help out. Bring Ozzy back. Robbie Keenan's agent could say, yeah, I'll do it but I want a fucking massive contract. Yeah. And if you want me to go in the summer, you can buy me out of it, thanks very much. Yeah. And I don't care how much you complain about the money, it's not going to cost you as much relegation, Will.

18:19Luke Moore: Well, if they go down Robbie Keane will become the manager that would be lovely

18:23Marcus Speller: yeah that would be lovely Pochettino will be like

18:25Luke Moore: oh no good enough reason to go down Pochettino will be going

18:28Marcus Speller: people are reporting that Pochettino wouldn't care if they go into the championship he wouldn't care

18:32Luke Moore: but look listen they're not relegated at the moment they've got a fighting chance they're not

18:37Marcus Speller: but the situation is I think legitimately they are the worst team in the Premier League I don't think you could despite them having their problems last season and here and there in the past you couldn't you couldn't seriously level that at Spurs.

18:50Luke Moore: Well, they are. On form, they're the worst team in the league. They're the only team

18:54Marcus Speller: before you couldn't say that.

18:55Vishaal Fultambe: They're the only team in the league who haven't won a game in their last four Premier League games.

19:00Luke Moore: But it's the mood. And that's why I think I don't want to labour the point because I understand how utterly farcical it sounds. And as the words are coming out of my mouth, I'm going, am I seriously saying that? But the reason why I say Redknapp is because it would give them some kind of a lift. It would. Because if you look at around, again, Leeds are above them, right? Leeds, obviously, three points from safety. Leeds, every time they play at home, particularly, they're loving it. They can't wait for those games. So there's a good feeling there. We're going to talk about them in the FA Cup in a bit.

19:30Vishaal Fultambe: Just a correction there. Forest also haven't won in the last four, but they're the only team in the last, I suppose they're the only team in the last five to not pick up a single point.

19:38Luke Moore: And Forest, you know, what a point that the Etihad that gets them all going. Again, they've been not great since Pereira's come in, but Pereira is used to that situation. We expected some sort of reaction, and I appreciate that it's only just really happened there because they've not been great, but there you go. And West Ham, I mean, my goodness, you know, what a win that was at Fulham. Fulham were very, very poor. West Ham took their chance and Nuno has improved them of late, of late. And their fans, again, they are singing away. They are, we're coming for you, Spurs. The mood of all those teams is totally different to Spurs.

20:10Luke Moore: It totally is.

20:11Marcus Speller: So Spurs have got no momentum. They're the worst team in the league currently. It's toxic from top to bottom. the resignation the fans feel was there against Arsenal it was there again last night and the manager they've brought in to firefight this is a problem it's a big problem and you don't even just need to look at the things you've said which have been odd and I do understand the rationale behind kind of you know look just get the nastiest bastard you can try and stick a rocket up them you know because that's what they need because they don't seem to be engaged they don't seem to care that much the amount of players that have been turned into basically poor players since they've been at Spurs Paulini is one of them.

20:47Marcus Speller: You have to mention one of them. He'd look much better than that elsewhere. And there's others as well. You know, Colin Mwani would be a great example. He's kind of shown in flashes a bit here and there, but ultimately he's a€95 million player. Looks not worth a damn, right? Vicario's confidence is shot to bits, like totally shot to bits. But the thing that I would really say is a damning indictment of Tudor is they go into this game against a team that haven't been great and who have had their own problems. A lot of Colin Minch has written about them. Their manager's leaving at the end of the season.

21:20Marcus Speller: They could be in a, by rights, they could have been in the death spiral. Again, you're at home. Yeah. You're fighting for your life. It's a chance. It's the biggest game of your season. And Tudor doesn't pick the biggest summer signing and the biggest January signing, both of whom are the highest owners at the club and they can't get a start.

21:35Luke Moore: Yeah.

21:36Marcus Speller: So what does that tell you?

21:37Luke Moore: Indeed, Luke.

21:38Marcus Speller: Yeah.

21:38Luke Moore: Indeed.

21:38Marcus Speller: I don't think Gallagher's won a game at Spurs yet, has he? The only two games they've won would be Dortmund and Frankfurt when he was cup tied for him.

21:45Luke Moore: He's going to sneak back on the plane with the Atleti players when they come to town.

21:48Marcus Speller: Yeah, yeah.

21:48Luke Moore: Still fit though, isn't he?

21:49Vishaal Fultambe: Still hasn't got injured. That's true.

21:52Marcus Speller: Do you know what I mean? When I saw the team, when I saw the team, the first 11 for the game last night and the way that he's playing these players and the formation he's playing them in and the fact that he didn't pick Gallagher, Simmons, you just think, I mean, it's very, very difficult to explain it.

22:10Luke Moore: How are you not picking, in that type of game, in the current Spurs climate where they are Harry not picking Gallagher. He is that type of player that you need to get yourself out of this. There we go. Good news though for Spurs if they are relegated. It has been announced that the Championship players will be expanded from four to six teams from next season.

22:30Vishaal Fultambe: So they've got a much better chance to come in. Imagine if they get relegated and they lose a playoff final.

22:36Marcus Speller: Yeah. What do you think about the playoff spin expanded? I think it's quite interesting.

22:40Luke Moore: It's quite a bold thing. It's not happened since So the playoffs have been around for donkeys years.

22:44Marcus Speller: So the playoffs were introduced because there was too many teams that had nothing to play for for the second half of the season, really, because it's a big league and all the rest of it. We should say, right? The playoffs has properly revolutionised the football league. It has, and it was a good idea.

22:57Luke Moore: It is ultimately an unfair system, but it is a good idea.

23:01Marcus Speller: Well, why? Because the sixth team, but the team who finishes third gets to play at home.

23:05Luke Moore: Yeah.

23:06Marcus Speller: In the first... The second leg, yeah, second leg.

23:09Luke Moore: Yeah, but if you finish third, you could finish, 15-20 points above the team that finishes sixth. Sure.

23:16Vishaal Fultambe: It's for entertainment, isn't it? That's the whole point of it. It's for entertainment. Oh, I see. But what would you do instead, though? No, I wouldn't do anything.

23:22Luke Moore: Right. But I'm saying that those teams who finish third and say, you know, seventh or eighth end up going up into the Premier League. You know, they will feel even sicker. But that's the way it is.

23:34Vishaal Fultambe: That will also change the teams that get promoted to the Premier League not being renegaded. I guarantee that eighth place will get relegated every time if they come up.

23:44Luke Moore: Yeah.

23:45Vishaal Fultambe: The drop-off is stark. Actually, points-wise, if you look at...

23:48Marcus Speller: The eighth best team in the Championship getting into the Premier League. I mean, that's...

23:51Vishaal Fultambe: But if you look through, because we, I think when this was first broached, we did a bit of research into it on a show, and actually, eighth place is never really that far away from sixth in terms of points. But often it's...

24:03Luke Moore: Currently six points, but obviously in the Championship. Yeah, but previously, the season's not finished yet, has it? Yeah, there's still 53 games left in the Championship.

24:11Vishaal Fultambe: But, yeah, the disparity like the size of the teams and like the squads it's going to it'll be bleak in a weird way

24:17Marcus Speller: it is actually addressing what Marcus is saying though because if you come 7th or 8th you've got to play an extra game right so if you're 3rd you actually you're waiting in the semi-final so it's not it's probably a little bit more beneficial

24:28Luke Moore: so it's a one-off tie between the team who finishes 5th against the team who finishes 8th and then 6th and 7th and obviously the higher you are you'll be at home for that sort of quarterfinal if you like yeah

24:39Marcus Speller: I quite like it I quite like it Well, we'll see how we get on. Do they need to be fixed? Maybe not. What needs to be fixed will never be fixed, which is the absolutely broken financial system that underpins the entire competition. That seems like a bit of a... It's a Friday. Can't get that done well anyway. Stay in your lane, mate. Do you want some more games? All right.

24:58Luke Moore: Yeah. Well, there we are. Well, anyway, it'll be interesting. But yes, a little mention of Palace, I think, before we go for a break. They did win the game, and they now find themselves 10 points above the relegation zone. you would think with that win even though this season's been a bit mad you would think now 10 points above the drop zone a striker in Jürgen Stran Larsson who's scoring as well I mean, Sarr, what a game he had you know, among the goals the mood, the confidence that will give them you would think that would surely be enough

25:27Marcus Speller: Yeah, they're going to focus on the Conference League now Yeah, I'd be very surprised

25:30Luke Moore: I mean, I would have been surprised anyway had Palace had been certainly fighting relegation but going downwards now I think that win such a huge win 10 points with 9 games to go it just gives you a little bit more breathing room and as you say can concentrate on winning the Conference League

25:44Marcus Speller: Glasner for all of his faults of which there have been many this season signing off with a Europa Conference League win would be a lovely little see you later wouldn't it yeah and they'd finally

25:54Luke Moore: get to play in the Europa League if they win the Conference League

25:57Marcus Speller: well listen let's wait and see if they fill the forms yeah true enough haven't they learned

26:00Luke Moore: their lesson only time will tell by the way if you are wanting to hear more about that Championship playoff expansion then do check out today's episode of Second Tier, Stax Excellent Championship Podcast. Right, everybody, coming up after this, it's FA Cup fifth round time.

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28:57Vishaal Fultambe: They deserve to be, fully deserve to be in the draw. And hopefully, I really hope they get something amazing that's life-changing. So my fucking shit players can learn a fucking lesson. because they were so poor. Sometimes I get the management team to take the blame, part blame, some blame, whatever. Today was wholeheartedly a bunch of players that were absolutely shit. You've got to do everyone. You've got to say that.

29:34Luke Moore: Welcome back to the Football Hour, everybody. That was Dorking manager Mark White after going out of the FA Cup.

29:39Marcus Speller: A character, Mark White. Not always a good one. Yeah. That was a great quote, though.

29:43Luke Moore: Very generous.

29:45Marcus Speller: it's a great quote we don't have time to get into my players are fucking shit you can't argue with that

29:50Luke Moore: it did remind me of the old leatherhead manager yeah what's his name forget his name you're shit you're shit you're even shitter did he say that about you no he said it to the players weren't you in the dressing room no a friend of mine was

30:02Marcus Speller: oh okay right you were playing for the resis then were you you were in the mushrooms weren't you you were in the mushrooms then what's the mushrooms the reserves the fucking

30:12Vishaal Fultambe: how does that work you just sit in the dark

30:14Marcus Speller: don't you sit in the dark

30:16Luke Moore: did score for Leatherhead under 18s against Dorkin under 18s what the spawn of time but anyway

30:19Marcus Speller: was Ian Volley probably remembers it

30:21Luke Moore: oh goodness no but anyway Mansfield Town that's what made him

30:24Marcus Speller: say that quote you can see the goal to him

30:27Vishaal Fultambe: that little hairy boy in a lab coat score got a bucket under his arm

30:32Marcus Speller: still beat you on the turn

30:35Luke Moore: oh dear Mansfield Town versus Arsenal on Saturday 12-15 top of the prem meets 16th in league one 58 places separate the two teams yeah that leads me to think Arsenal are favourites

30:48Marcus Speller: I've been to Field Mill to what's it called now the one call stadium I'm going to be a purist and call it Field Mill

30:53Luke Moore: and I've been to Highbury or the Emirates as it's called now well it's not called that it's a different place

30:58Marcus Speller: it's exactly the same stadium is it oh okay it's fake news you've been tricked shut up

31:02Luke Moore: but what about that new housing development that looks like the old Highbury stadium how hard does this conspiracy go

31:07Marcus Speller: that's what I want to know

31:08Luke Moore: very high it would appear

31:09Marcus Speller: I don't think Mansfield Town will beat Arsenal on Saturday lunchtime I love the idea of an upset here, but Arsenal have been depressingly efficient in the FA Cup season for this season. Even my beautiful boys went a goal up against him. It didn't make a scrap of difference.

31:21Luke Moore: They're to dream. They're to dream. Will Arsenal be deploying all sorts of time-wasting tactics against Mansfield?

31:28Vishaal Fultambe: That would be really funny. Yeah.

31:31Luke Moore: They wouldn't do it in an ironic way, but it would be funny from where we're sitting.

31:36Vishaal Fultambe: Because you'd say set pieces, for example. Jim would defend it. it would usually

31:40Luke Moore: we've got to win the game haven't you

31:43Marcus Speller: having a go at him when he's not here pathetic

31:45Luke Moore: that's what he does to me

31:46Marcus Speller: yeah well I do it to all of you see your face yeah that's true that's much more fun yeah what's the point of it when you can't see their reaction when you're doing it I agree with you that's true

31:54Vishaal Fultambe: at another time you'd feel like you know with the disparity between the teams like set pieces for example would be a bit of a leveller but Arsenal have gentrified that as well yeah they have and it's like right they can't even have the rubbish bits like you know they've repurposed offal oh great

32:09Marcus Speller: Yeah, it's like the sort of thing that Nigel Clough would be saying to his team would be like they don't like it up them to win the second one They love it up them These days they do love it up them The big teams love all that They've gone back to basics

32:19Luke Moore: Well, why don't Mansfield Town try to play free-flowing attacking beautiful football? They'll still want to do, will they? They will not know what to do I'm pleased Nigel Clough

32:28Marcus Speller: is getting his day in the sun though Yeah

32:29Luke Moore: Great servant to the game The match will be his 1 ,572nd game in management That's an extraordinary run Too much in it I saw it I mean, that's literally what you're saying, that his wife was saying. He said, what about another couple hundred more? It didn't go down very well.

32:44Marcus Speller: Yeah, he said, because I think the interviewer said to him in the newspaper, I think today, do you think you'll get 2 ,000 matches as a manager? And he said, no, I want to stay married. That's right. That's right.

32:54Luke Moore: He's going to bring his dog Bobby along. Apparently Bobby is a dog that's never present at the training ground, very popular with the players. And so an injured player sometimes take the dog for a little walk. It lifts the mood and the spirits there. So he's going to bring him to fight Arsenal's dog? No, Bobby's... He's going to take on Gunnosaurus.

33:12Marcus Speller: Oh, no, don't do that.

33:14Vishaal Fultambe: Yeah, Gunnosaurus has got the foam, so he might be one of those police trainers with dogs. Yeah. Where they bite the arse.

33:20Luke Moore: Shooting t-shirts at him. Yeah, yeah. Well, apparently Bobby will stay in Clough's office during the game. Clough did say... Doesn't even get to watch it. Yeah, Clough did say, Mikel, obviously Mikel Arteta, will definitely come and meet Bobby. Sounded like a threat. Yeah.

33:35Marcus Speller: Is it an XL bully? is this quite sinister it's a Vishla it's a really nice dog yeah the picture of the dog in the training ground he's got a little mat to sit on the training ground it's quite a gentrified dog

33:45Luke Moore: well he said that the dog will be he said Bobby will be sitting on the couch when Mikel and co come in yeah he did go on to say Clough in that interview that Pep Guardiola has already met the dog and had the pleasure but apparently according to Clough Pep's not a dog person he said he's never had a dog because he's always lived in apartments impossible impossible is how he put it why is everything something to do with football tactics dog just doesn't fit in the system stop going on about space it would be an amazingly trained dog

34:13Marcus Speller: wouldn't it oh my goodness but do you know the dog's also named after Bobby Zamora

34:17Luke Moore: that's the rumour yeah because Zamora scored for QPL beat Darby to knock Darby out of the playoffs

34:22Marcus Speller: who had sacked Clough that season

34:23Luke Moore: if that's the truth I love that I absolutely love that brilliant very very good indeed

34:29Vishaal Fultambe: Nigel any thoughts on the game no I was just talking about the dog brilliant

34:31Marcus Speller: I do think that I do think that Nigel Clough it's good that he's getting some credit and I just think he's an amazing servant to football and he's also had to do it under the shadow of his far more famous dad and even that article that we're referring to has all these articles do have a picture of him and his dad and it must be I guess it's probably a bit of a blessing in a way because of the name and because he probably gets opportunities but not these days it's also a big it's also a big curse as well because he can't get out from under the shadow of it

35:02Luke Moore: I think it was more of a curse to be honest with you Right Look He's not managed He's not been a Premier League manager And all that kind of stuff But to manage that amount of games You have to take your hat off to him

35:14Marcus Speller: But what I'm saying is Even now when he's drawn against Arsenal in the club People are still referencing that Indeed

35:18Luke Moore: Indeed Well he was being interviewed by Sean Dyche though Are they kind of in trouble with League 1?

35:24Vishaal Fultambe: I know they haven't won many games recently No they're alright Well 16th in League 1

35:28Marcus Speller: Yeah they'll be okay in the league this season I would love them to get something I think it would just be a great story

35:33Luke Moore: Well, but he was bemoaning the fact that they can't get a replay. And he said, I just find it maddening.

35:38Vishaal Fultambe: Yeah, I mean, that is a huge deal. I know he spoke about it at the time, but it seems comical, not least when they're clamping down on Premier League teams offering to give a bigger portion of the gate receipts to teams in lower divisions. Like, what thing to clamp down on?

35:53Luke Moore: The only thing I would say... Do you want more playoff games? The only thing I would say in response to that is, it is a World Cup year. Yeah, what does that mean? Yeah, less football for the English lads. in League One you don't want a replay come on rest Eclan Rice is all I'm saying rest the Eclan boys you become like a rogue agent

36:09Marcus Speller: yeah you've gone completely fucking off piste what's the matter I'll tell you what's the matter you're like Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now oh you haven't used that for a while I know I'm bringing it back because it applies to you

36:18Luke Moore: so why is that then because you're completely

36:19Marcus Speller: outside the chain of command we can't hold you back

36:22Luke Moore: I am the chain of command yeah and it's a world cup year and you don't forget that have we lost the Mossad button

36:27Vishaal Fultambe: yeah press the button press it

36:29Luke Moore: for obvious reasons now Alan Pardew said after Arsenal's win over Brighton that if the Gunners were to win the Premier League it should come with an asterisk because of their time wasting it's a ridiculous thing to say I'm a ridiculous man it's a professional functional display they're good they're strong they're powerful but there's nothing beautiful about them that's the truth

36:47Marcus Speller: that's not a reason to give them an asterisk they won the league in 2026 asterisk Alan Pardew didn't like it that much it's not asterisk worthy it isn't is it what the hell is he talking about

37:00Luke Moore: let's move on swiftly good luck to Wrexham they host Chelsea Saturday at 5.45

37:05Marcus Speller: yeah I need a bit of luck Wrexham they will

37:09Luke Moore: they deserve a bit of luck they deserve an enormous amount of luck and it's good that they're on TV because they need a bit of limelight as well they've already knocked out Forest of course

37:18Marcus Speller: dramatic fashion as well by the way

37:20Luke Moore: very dramatic they're sixth currently in the championship playoff spots just of course in the current in the current system. They've only lost once in the last nine games.

37:32Marcus Speller: Yeah, came pretty close. Portsmouth came pretty close to getting something out of it at the game, but they didn't. Wrexham beat them 2-1. Could this game

37:38Luke Moore: become a documentary in months to come?

37:41Vishaal Fultambe: Everything's content, isn't it? They even fucking filmed a very sincere and genuine reaction from Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, who's now involved, to the actual draw for this game, didn't they? Yeah, Big Hugh's involved. Yeah.

37:54Marcus Speller: I didn't know Hugh Jackman was involved now.

37:56Vishaal Fultambe: Oh, I don't know. I think it's just part of the Wolverine meets. Oh, Deadpool Wolverine. Okay, right, okay. What, were they in full gear? No, but I think, you know, the way that they sold that film. Do it properly. But the way they sold that film is like, oh, we don't really get on. Yeah, we do. And it was going on for like five years before they actually, before the film came out. And now they're just tethered together because they made so much money from it. Right. It's a hard-women story. What's wrong with it?

38:22Marcus Speller: Hang on. It's the magic of the cup. Hang on a minute here. It's like a drain swamp.

38:26Luke Moore: What's wrong with this? Bit of glitz and glamour and a bit of celeb.

38:28Marcus Speller: There's nothing wrong with a bit of that. I get my glitz and glamour from seeing Portsmouth versus Wrexham on a Tuesday night. That's enough glamour for me, Marcus.

38:35Luke Moore: I know, yeah. Fair enough.

38:36Marcus Speller: Is that on Disney Plus as well? Yeah.

38:38Luke Moore: It has been announced that Wrexham will play Liverpool in a friendly in America this summer. How do they get that? That's good. That is lucky, actually. I mean, the World Cup's going on. Yeah, I know. You know, lest we forget. Well, but maybe they were, maybe Wrexham will,

38:49Marcus Speller: listen, maybe Wrexham will replace her arm.

38:55Luke Moore: Shut up, Vish. Let him talk. That is genuinely something.

38:57Vishaal Fultambe: You're going to let me cook or what? No, but that is genuinely something that we might clip this out. And Trump, when he's sat on his toilet for two hours in the morning, as he usually does, he might come across and be like, that's a great idea.

39:07Marcus Speller: What, do you reckon we'll be dropping in Trump's timeline? I reckon so. All right, I think you're a cunt, Donald. There you go.

39:13Vishaal Fultambe: But do the Wrexham thing.

39:14Luke Moore: It's good idea.

39:14Marcus Speller: Click that out. Wrexham replacing Iran in the World Cup. We'd be there for that, wouldn't we? Yeah.

39:18Luke Moore: Yeah. That's Wales dependent, though.

39:21Marcus Speller: Wow. True. That's a very good point. People are going to have some split laws.

39:24Luke Moore: Yeah, yeah, because I have a bit of respect for Harry Wilson if Wales qualify.

39:26Marcus Speller: Yeah, okay. You don't want him to have to make a big decision like that on the eve of such a big tournament. Certainly not. Absolutely not. And I think some of the other international players might have to make a tough decision. So, look, I think it's a good working idea. Let's sit around and talk about it. We need a replacement for a run if reports are to be relieved.

39:44Luke Moore: Yeah, we think, yeah.

39:45Marcus Speller: Yeah, so let's see if we can get... They could do a U-turn. I'll tell you what, Wrexham, if you beat Chelsea on Saturday night, it's a World Cup qualifier. you're playing the club world cup champions there we go you've proven you were yes

39:57Vishaal Fultambe: bit of added spice there you're talking and they can go to the white house and get one of the medals from that off he didn't take the medals he just took the trophy but I think he's got one medal as well I can't remember which player but he has one medal as well he just walked up to like Cole Palmer I'll take that

40:12Marcus Speller: probably not off Cole Palmer he's one of the main ones exactly that's why he went for it so it's a big world cup qualifier for Wrexham big massive Chelsea are a good cup team so it won't be easy. Well, they're the Club World Cup champions. They are. And I think, you know, if we could get out of Saturday with Wrexham and Mansfield both winning, that would be sensational. It won't happen. It will never happen,

40:30Luke Moore: but you know, you never know. You know, that's the magic of the cup. We'll see how much magic is in the cup, depending on that. Of course, Wolves play Liverpool tonight to kick off the weekend's action. And again, that would be quite something if Wolves could find themselves in the next round. They're in great nick. Could they do a Wigan? They go down, but they win the cup.

40:48Marcus Speller: They're in good nick. That's all I'll say. you know they've been I mean I talked about it I think earlier in the week if they can apply themselves the way they did their last couple of league games they've got a chance of doing something really special this season I don't think they will I think it will come up just short I don't think they'll win the FA Cup either but you never know the real test for how much you actually love the FA Cup because a lot of people think oh I do love the FA Cup because of the upsets or because you know it gets really good towards the end whatever if you are genuinely be honest with yourself oh yeah come on if you are genuinely excited by Newcastle and Man City playing for the fifth time this season.

41:23Luke Moore: At 8pm on Saturday,

41:25Marcus Speller: televised. Yeah, then you do genuinely love the cup. Because I'll be honest with you, I'm not. No. I'm not excited by that.

41:30Vishaal Fultambe: Usually that's 8 o 'clock because it's on the BBC and they did that thing where it's like two Premier League teams playing.

41:36Luke Moore: Is it on the Beeb, is it? Probably.

41:37Vishaal Fultambe: I assume so,

41:38Luke Moore: yeah. Oh, I don't know what to say about assumption.

41:41Vishaal Fultambe: Yeah. Go on, what do they say about it?

41:42Luke Moore: They'll make a knob out of you and me. well this is the fifth time yeah that the two sides will have played each other this season because you know they've won once Manchester City have won it's on TNT Sports fish the jokes on you there didn't sound right to me

41:56Marcus Speller: so I just checked it on the LiveScore app who no longer sponsor us so fuck them but it's the quickest one I could get to fuck Trump and fuck LiveScore yeah

42:06Luke Moore: LiveScore is a bit harsh putting them in the same

42:08Marcus Speller: I still use LiveScore all the time that's what makes it so hard Marcus indeed

42:12Luke Moore: damn them they're so hard not to love live score that is just to clarify yeah Newcastle I mean Newcastle it's a tough one to call obviously well because

42:24Marcus Speller: it's a tough one for me to call because I really don't want to call it I was talking to Fish because I don't care oh you carry on

42:29Luke Moore: yeah

42:32Luke Moore: because Newcastle have shown that they are a good cup side

42:35Vishaal Fultambe: don't care

42:37Luke Moore: coming up after this don't care not my shift it's the Daniel Farger derby

43:10Vishaal Fultambe: We'll see you next time. can stay informed and in control of your home from virtually wherever you are. When every second counts, count on ADT. Visit ADT.com to learn more. When it comes to managing money, forget the hype and look at the results. Bill has a trillion dollars of secure payments powering our Bill Pay tools. Instead of just moving money, Bill is powering the financial operations of nearly half a million customers. So stop the guesswork and start scaling with the proven choice. Ready to talk with an expert?

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44:25Luke Moore: Welcome back, everybody. Leeds United versus Norwich. It's 4.30 on Sunday.

44:32Marcus Speller: It's Super Sunday, baby. Are we going to see a Daniel Farker running around the pitch with his top off? A bit of a John Pansill, maybe. No, we're not. because he's eh

44:39Luke Moore: why John Pansel because he used to run around the pitch after every Fulham game yeah did he play for one of these sides no

44:45Marcus Speller: Daniel Farker got busted for running

44:46Luke Moore: yeah but he's a different type of run

44:48Marcus Speller: I know and I'm saying if you take a leaf out of John Pansel's book you might get away with it next time

44:52Luke Moore: okay what Pansel never took his top off either when he was running yeah because he didn't

44:56Marcus Speller: have the physique of Farker I want Farker to take his top off

44:58Luke Moore: I would want that as well

44:59Marcus Speller: yeah and I think if Farker has an opportunity here to turn this into the most ludicrous disciplinary matter in the history of football if he just insists on continually running as much as he can around the pitch

45:11Luke Moore: yeah but he said he's not going to doing laps

45:13Marcus Speller: yeah just doing it well he's not allowed he's got

45:16Luke Moore: he's been charged with misconduct by the FA

45:21Marcus Speller: but you know that and likely serve

45:23Luke Moore: a one match touchline ban meaning he won't be in the dugout for this game

45:26Marcus Speller: because apparently he ran on the pitch on aesthetically pleasing well that's what

45:30Luke Moore: he interpreted it as the referee probably you make it sound like

45:34Marcus Speller: he was a child in a supermarket someone look after who's responsible for them do you remember there was that bug in that game like ultimate soccer or something where if you kept running you couldn't get booked FIFA 94 FIFA 94 you couldn't get booked you should just do that they can't red card you if you don't stop running that's true yeah

45:49Luke Moore: just commit to it Daniel imagine that bit if the referee spotted what he was doing alright so you're getting off the pitch no no I'm just going to stick around for another couple of hours see what he's got he's filibustering is what he's doing basically yeah it's the filibuster

46:02Marcus Speller: as long as you don't repeat yourself or go to the toilet you can do it as long as you want yeah Yeah, yeah. Philippast is what he did on the beach.

46:10Luke Moore: Different guy. Different guy. Well, Varka, yeah, sadly he'll be probably in the stands. But he's facing his old side, Norwich City. Again, he's faced them a number of times since he left back in 2021. And this time, without a shadow of a doubt, his team will be the big fat favourites for it, Vish. Leeds at home to Norwich City. It's a good draw for Leeds.

46:30Vishaal Fultambe: Yeah.

46:30Luke Moore: It is a good draw. And again, with a couple of big teams already out the cup and one of Newcastle and Man City won't be there in the next round as well. You know, sides like Leeds, dare I suggest even my beloved Fulham, Sunderland, we'll talk about them in a second. These are the sides you just got to start thinking, you know what, put these games to bed. It's just hard to dream.

46:50Vishaal Fultambe: Yeah, it's like we were saying before about, you know, well, you said it with Palace specifically about sorting out your league form, make sure that's all in order so you can focus on other cup competitions. And this is the thing that people, you know, like, much in the same way that Luke was saying if you really love the FA Cup are you excited by Newcastle or Man City there's almost you know whether it's a fan base or your you know your playing squad as well when you get to the next stage of this competition which would be the quarter final you're like shit that's one game from Wembley that that is why you play the game really you know you want to have those days whether you're a Newcastle fan or Palace fan who had it last year with the League Cup and FA Cup that's kind of the point of it.

47:34Vishaal Fultambe: That is the point of this sport.

47:35Luke Moore: The quarterfinal is exciting. I mean, I had that with Fulham last year. Yeah. Fortunately, Drew Pallis and it lasted about 25 minutes and then Jose and Co put that to bed. But it is, if you can find yourself in a quarterfinal, my goodness, you know, that is when the excitement really kicks in. So, these are the games now. You've got to keep your heads because, I mean, look, Norwich are 17th in the championship. I understand they have been a bit better since Philippe Clermont took over. Rangers legend,

47:58Marcus Speller: Philippe Clermont. Yeah. Exactly, exactly. Won the Scottish League don't come along very often. Every November. Yeah, exactly. Every November. That's when that's won. Date in your diary as the Knights draw in.

48:12Luke Moore: Clement has a chance to do something special with Norwich City. He does. Could he win another cup with them? I don't think... Not with them, but another cup for himself.

48:19Marcus Speller: I don't think that's very likely. Yeah. I wish them all the best. I think... The thing I like most about FA Cup is the imbalance between the teams playing each other, which is why Newcastle and Man City is boring and why Leeds United versus Norwich or Port Vale Sunderland, which we're going to come on to, isn't boring. Yes. That's the whole point of this. Norwich City are on that long, illustrious list of clubs who quite simply have won at Fratton Park this season. So if they can channel that at Ellen Road, they'll probably get beaten because Leeds United are much better. So they'll need to be even better than that.

48:52Marcus Speller: But I think they can do it. Why not?

48:54Luke Moore: I like when you always say it's boring if two evenly matched teams meet in the cup. Even though I think that's quite a big thing for you. It's ultimately you are always ready to give some kind of defence to that final we had when Portsmouth took on Cardiff City.

49:09Marcus Speller: Yeah. I mean, it was one for the ages. What I love doing most in the football season is on third round weekend, I know in that massive list of fixtures, there's at least going to be one upset in there. I like trying to find it. Right. And if it's the fifth round, there's obviously not as many games. And you look through and you go, what's the upset going to be at this point? Because no one wants to see. You guys talking about quarterfinals. Do we want to see eight Premier League teams in there? No, we don't. No, of course we don't. So where can we find the upset? We could find the upset in Norwich winning at Leeds.

49:40Marcus Speller: I think, unfortunately, the way the kind of chips have fallen with teams like Mansfield and Wrexham and Port Vale, I think it's unlikely we're going to see any, which is a bit of a shame.

49:50Luke Moore: What about Southampton at Fulham?

49:53Marcus Speller: Possibly. I think that's possible for two main reasons. One is because Southampton have been in annoyingly really good form. Seventh in the championship. Eckhart took over. They've been brilliant. It's been genuinely really annoying. It's been like, oh my God, they've got so much momentum, they might actually get promoted, which would be fucking terrible. And secondly, because Fulham overlook these teams.

50:14Luke Moore: Fulham were dreadful against West Ham.

50:15Marcus Speller: Yeah, because they overlook games that aren't fucking glamorous. It's a reflection of their manager. Their manager likes to turn everyone's head by showing everyone that he's still there. And the profile of teams that Fulham have lost against, particularly at home in the league over the last few years. It's been shocking. It's been shocking.

50:33Luke Moore: Shocking's too strong a word, but they could have done a bit better. Thank you.

50:37Vishaal Fultambe: Yeah, Jim's the defensive one.

50:38Marcus Speller: Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean. It happens all the time to them.

50:41Luke Moore: Yeah, not all the time. Some of the time, but that's, you know, the inconsistency of a mid-table side. Yeah, okay. What about Port Vale hosting Sunderland, though?

50:50Marcus Speller: Port Vale are absolutely terrible.

50:51Luke Moore: They're bottom of League One.

50:53Marcus Speller: Yeah.

50:53Luke Moore: They did beat Championship Bristol City an extra time in the last round, though, and Ben Wayne scored the goal that day, and when he got the news of the draw he said I'm a Newcastle fan so bring it on Ben you're going to get pumped mate hang about hang about they may be bottom of League 1 10 points from safety but Port Vale manager John Brady said his current squad is one of the best groups I've ever heard

51:12Marcus Speller: he's not managed much

51:13Luke Moore: he has

51:14Marcus Speller: he's over 500 games yeah he has

51:17Luke Moore: nothing compared to old Clough

51:18Marcus Speller: it was a joke based on the quote but he has been promoted with Northampton Town so it's quite some claim

51:24Luke Moore: I think he's trying to get them up for it

51:26Marcus Speller: yeah I think he probably is as well Port Vale have also beaten Bristol Rovers in the cup this season haven't they Tom? I think it's a double I think they've done the Bristol double Have they? Yeah I'm going to Tom because he's the football league expert he looks like he hasn't got a clue what I'm talking about

51:38Vishaal Fultambe: Do you actually like football down there or is it a bit? Is it like when medical students do a gap year like I know I really care about people You're a Magnolia United fan Yeah We're above it we're third mate It's got a weekend off I don't know if we're still third we're not losing anymore I'm pretty sure

51:56Marcus Speller: I'm pretty sure Porto Valle beating Bristol Rovers this season in the Cup as well. So you never know. But they've been marginally better since Brady took over but they're still very, very poor.

52:04Luke Moore: Yeah. I went for Sunderland though and see them reach the FA Cup quarterfinals for the first time since 2014. You know you said about...

52:09Marcus Speller: Which was also a World Cup, yeah. Right. Come on. He'd replace Marcus on his soundboard. It'd be a lot cheaper. He'd use it all the time. Yeah. He just did it then. We don't need it. What we could do is we could just get him... Instead of having him sitting there, we could have an empty chair. Right. We could just have a button that does the intro.

52:26Vishaal Fultambe: Yeah.

52:26Marcus Speller: And then we could just every so often have him we could just press a button and just say it's a World Cup year or it's not a World Cup year. Do you remember

52:34Vishaal Fultambe: how much we were looking forward to Marcus coming back after Pete's hosting yesterday?

52:38Marcus Speller: I didn't say that. I said that it's a shame in a way that he is back but at least you know where you are with it. And now you already want to get rid of him. Pete's like Ali McCoy than Peter Drury. You love him every so often in the game but you don't want him every game.

52:54Vishaal Fultambe: Right.

52:54Marcus Speller: Yeah? Do you understand what I mean?

52:56Vishaal Fultambe: Yeah. It's very unfair to those two commentators.

52:59Luke Moore: Yeah, true. Well, you're like Andy Gray. Oh, thanks, mate. Andy Gray and Richard Keyes.

53:06Marcus Speller: Who? Me, Marcus. Have you looked up Bristol Rovers yet, Ty? Yes, I did. Thank you very much. There we are.

53:13Luke Moore: There you go. Last FA Cup tie, of course, is two Premier League sides. It involves West Ham and Brentford.

53:22Marcus Speller: Hang on a minute. I'm just trying to work out if I can think of a more boring all Premier League tie in the FA Cup than that.

53:27Luke Moore: Yeah. It's happening on Monday night as well. I know. Should we talk about it on Monday then?

53:32Marcus Speller: Yeah, we could do. Just put it off. Just put it off. Yeah, don't have to do that now. Yeah, deadline for that. It's like taking the bin out. Okay. Yeah, I can squeeze a bit more in there and if need be, I can get a little plastic bag to the side, tie it off and do an extra bin to build myself up for when I can actually be bothered to put the bin out.

53:47Luke Moore: There you go.

53:48Marcus Speller: West Ham Brentford's putting the bin out.

53:49Luke Moore: And the bag's split and it's gone all over the London Stadium.

53:52Marcus Speller: And they put the rubbish out at Craven Cottage every night, didn't they?

53:54Luke Moore: No, didn't they? Right, everybody, this afternoon, Jack's Encyclopedia, it's the big one. It is the big one. This is the one that everybody's wanted for a while.

54:05Marcus Speller: I kind of feel like Vish is turning into the Tony Soprano of this now.

54:08Luke Moore: Yeah.

54:09Marcus Speller: He's the James Gandolfini.

54:10Luke Moore: Luke has come out of hiding and he's going to be playing Vish in Jack's Encyclopedia. The mighty Luke Moore takes on the king of Vishful thinking. It's Vish. Still holds the belt. Jack's Encyclopedia of course will be available for you to listen to later so make sure you subscribe to the Football Ramble in your podcast app so you do not miss it. This is going to be a battle for the ages. Until then, thank you very much for listening to the Football Ramble, part of the Acast Creator Network that will be back later with Jackson Encyclopedia and then of course on Monday to pour over all that sweet FA Cup action.

54:44Luke Moore: Thank you very much, Luke Moore. Thank you very much. Thank you, Vidushan Hantaraja. Thank you. And thank you, Wrexham.

54:59Vishaal Fultambe: The Football Ramble is a Stack Production and part of the Acast Creator Network.

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From the publisher

It's gone from 'they can't, can they?' to 'it's happening, isn't it?' Tottenham Hotspur are in a terrible state. Now, having lost five Premier League games on the bounce and sitting a point away from relegation, is it time to press the Harry Redknapp button?


Marcus tells Luke and Vish why that might be Tottenham's best option. Elsewhere, it's FA Cup fifth round weekend and there are some lovely ties, too. Should the winner of Wrexham vs Chelsea replace Iran at the World Cup? Will Daniel Farke run laps of Elland Road to protest his suspension? All will be answered in today's Preview Show.


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