Mailbag: Can Igor Tudor save Spurs?

0:00Hello everybody, welcome to the Football Ramble Mailbag. Igor Tudor Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Bobsleigh teams are the orders of the day it's Tuesday 17th February I'm Marcus Speller I'm Luke Moore and I'm the D.F. Hunter Raja

0:24And another dip in the bag that's right it's the mailbag everybody so the show is in your hands you can get in touch on xbluesky or Instagram at footballram comment on YouTube email us show at footballramble.com and of course friends of the Ramble you guys are our besties and get priority patreon.com forward slash football ramble or sign up on YouTube oh we've got some good questions today we have them every week on the mailbag and today is no exception I am going to launch in with this one from Michael Big Mike on YouTube has simply asked this can Igor Tudor save Tottenham Hotspur they've had a lot of questions about this haven't they a lot of interest because the way that it was announced kind of I wouldn't say it's in a shameful way but they kind of just sort of went yeah he's doing it now in between the news cycle when there's loads of FA Cup stuff happening he's still here we haven't talked about it some of you might I appreciate you might not know that much about him but yeah he's in anyway we're playing get behind him North London Derby's coming he won't be any worse yeah definitely not how could he be exactly so it's it's something that we haven't discussed but this is a good opportunity to do so I suppose people may Just to jump in, people may remember him from being a Juventus player.

1:34I remember him as a centre-back for Juventus. No nonsense, very uncompromising. From what I remember, didn't ever really nail down his kind of starting line, starting berth consistently, but he was there for a long old time. I feel like that made him a club hero because he was always willing to pitch in, wasn't he? Always sticking around. Yeah. Was he the Joe Gomez of Juventus? Is that what you're saying? I was trying to think of someone else. I kind of see what you're getting at. Thanks. But he, yeah, uncompromising and kind of, I suppose, spoke to a strength of Juventus. Yeah, I suppose not just like their play, but also just how ferocious and strong they were at the back.

2:15Yeah, and of course, 55 caps for the Croatian national team. But back to Luke Moore on something more relevant. Well, I tweeted last week when it was announced. It seemed to me to be a massive gamble to give him the job. And, you know, the reason for that, I think, I think there's two main reasons, one of which kind of informs the other. You have to take into account that the people making decisions at Spurs in recent times have been bad. They've been poor. Their judgment has been really, really poor, right? so that has to set the scene for what comes next which is that they've decided that Igor Tudor is the guy they're going to bring in to do the job for the rest of the season and keep them in the Premier League which is remarkable they're in that situation but that is the task ahead of him right I understand you're not going to have a series of credible candidates that's knocking your door down for this job because of the circumstances because of the fact that it's widely believed that they've already got Pochettino in their crosshairs for the permanent job come the new season.

3:22But nevertheless, the reason I kind of tweeted what I tweeted is because he's got no experience whatsoever as a player or a manager in the Premier League, which is absolutely a step up from Serie A. I mean, it just is. I mean, it's a much more competitive league and I think a much higher standard. There are some good players, some good teams in this course, but the Premier League is the top table. Well, Tottenham's place in the table and finishing where they were in the Champions League. We say that. I think he's living in the past when he was playing for Juventus. Ah, he should be walking apart, probably.

3:54But then people who know more about Tudor than me... Andy Brass was one of them. Oh, yeah, well, he knows more about everything than me. And much more about Serie A than me, who say, look, Tudor has been into situations, in firefighting situations before, and much tougher ones than this, and done well. Yeah, I'm talking about that point. He's the guy for this kind of thing. So on that level, it makes sense. But then what brings, before I just rant on forever, what that makes me think of is, yeah, but if you're the guys at Spurs who make shit decisions and you look at it at a surface level and go, oh, he's done loads of that stuff before, so we'll just get him in and he wants to do it and we can afford him and he's available, that's exactly the kind of decision that those people would make.

4:38And it doesn't mean it's necessarily going to work because the detail is that actually English football is quite different. now I'll hand over to you guys but then I suppose people will come to me and they did do on Twitter saying well who then and the answer is I don't know it might well be that the situation is so dire that whoever they get in now is a gamble and it's unfair to pigeonhole Tudor in that way but at the same time I do still think it's a massive gamble yeah I mean it's got to the point when you say that not many people would take the job you'll always get somebody of course a huge Premier League side but it does seem very much Tim Sherwood did a public interview interview for it.

5:14He would have done it. Well, he interviewed himself. Exactly, yeah. In public, on telly. Which is quite brilliant if you think about it. Cut the middleman out. Right, I've got the job. Well, he knows... The interviewer liked me. He knows what questions are coming. He can doctor them. He doesn't have to run past an editor. He's interviewing himself. He knows what questions are coming. Was it a good interview? Not really. Still wasn't that good. He didn't have to run it by an editor, but he could have done with the... Yeah, he should have done. He would have helped him. Came away shaking his head going, I think I failed that interview.

5:41I won't call me back yeah I mean he's got this bad with Spurs that even Harry Redknapp was going look I'll do it but you know he's quite close to Cheltenham so good so good but clearly this is a job for somebody to the end of the season I think that's plainly obvious, you've already said that if you look at Tudor's CV you look at the places he's been he's not hung around for long at all. You know, for whatever reason. But, you know, usually it's a firefighting reason. He's kind of, you know, he's a bit like the Croatian Sam Allardyce. I've said it. People, the article I read called him The Wolf from Pulp Fiction when it's actually not right.

6:27His name's Winston Wolf. He's not called The Wolf. He is referred to as The Wolf. But he's Winston Wolf, isn't he? Fine, but I think saying he's The Wolf from Pulp Fiction, I don't think you have to do too many mental gymnastics. That'd be like referring to me is the Hunter Rod jam. Which I will do from now on, forever. And people will know what you mean. I will not rest until we do live shows again and people are chucking jam at you. That's what I want. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Preferably in pots. It doesn't matter. Winster Wolf to Wolf, whatever. You can catch it. Like a Mike Ehrman trout from Breaking Bad.

6:56Right, he comes in and he fixes things. The trout man. And he fucks off again. But the question is, can he save Tottenham? The answer is obviously yes because they're not in like, it's not at their rock bottom with like eight points adrift. It's not dire strokes, but it's not far off. No, it's money for nothing. Good, I like that. What do you think, Vish? At the canteen, he'll get his chips for free. Come on, just go with it. Is that the lyrics? I didn't want to say chips. If you've managed in Italy, you are banning chips from the canteen. Yeah, or singing a sad song to make it better. What's going on?

7:28Hey, Judah. Judah? Oh, dear. Hey, Tudes. Yeah, we got it. Just tell us what you think We can move on Yeah seriously Fucking tell us what you think Don't know anything about him The same article you did I'll use a Winston-Move You've had a pop-up Immediately skew at my point He's actually not called the Wolf Do you not remember What Andy Brassel said In this very studio To camera for the socials I do I do He said he'd be alright The only other place I was going to go Was essentially looking at Spurs' squad And seeing the profile Of some of the players and trying to extrapolate to what he's worked with before.

8:08There are a lot of similarities here, not least because of, you know, players like Kuluzewski, Benton Kerr, Kolomowani and Dragosin, who briefly crossed over with him. Well, they did cross over with him at Juventus. At the same time, I don't know how many people in that squad are injured. Exactly. So I don't know how relevant it really is. Don't worry about that because they've got no players. Yeah, but as I say, you know, the fact that they weren't playing in the FA Cup this weekend, And although I think they've got five days off as well and only report back on Monday. So it's only really a week leading into Arsenal.

8:41And as you say, how much can you do? Because I feel like a lot of the issues with Spurs, to start with, you need to go around and physically shake all of them. Yes. And then go from there. Yeah, I think on that, without getting too graham soon as about it, and one must always channel a little modicum of graham soon as in one's punditry. I think so. But you can never go full soon as, so at the risk of going full soon as, I will just say this. What characters have they got at that club? Because they've got club captains who get sent off for stupid reasons. They've got players who can't stay fit.

9:14Now, it might not be their fault, but it's certainly not a coincidence. It's not going to help. We don't know where the blame lies, but it's certainly not a coincidence. And the final thing I would say is that, like, you know, Frank was not up to the job and was clearly, you know, he fell short in a number of different areas. But I don't think you can say the players helped him. I think the players probably, if they didn't see him off totally, they definitely contributed to seeing him off. And then you've got a situation where Tudor's never managed in England before. He's coming in against a team who are a well, for all their faults, they may drop short, they may be losing momentum, whatever.

9:49They are unquestionably one of the best teams in Europe. They are unquestionably very well coached. And they're unquestionably all buying into what's happening at Arsenal. a totally coherent unit who on their day are like the fucking Terminator right it is a it's the firest of baptisms you can think of and if that's how they start if they start off with a comprehensive defeat at home to their biggest rivals and then following that they go to Craven Cottage don't they you know it could it could it could get quite messy and it might be a case of they only stay in the league because the other teams around them or beneath them just can't consistently get it done.

10:31But look, Forrest have got a new manager. West Ham are showing a lot. We think it's going to be one team from probably four or possibly five down there. So the odds are in their favour, Spurs. But they've appointed a manager that is a big gamble. But as I said to you a second ago, I can't think of an appointment that wouldn't be a gamble. Tell me a manager they could have hired that would have been, oh, that makes sense, that'd be perfect. The amount of Spurs fans I've chatted to have said that they would genuinely quite like to see Redknapp back there. Again, shows you. Shows you where it is because of what you've just said.

11:05The ones I've spoken to, Marcus, have all said, we're getting relegated. We're going to be relegated. I don't have huge hopes for this. I think it is a case of get in, get your team organised and cling on. You know, I think that Spurs, they're not going to qualify for European competition in the Premier League. They're not in the FA Cup and they're still in the Champions League. The Champions League, it's a bit like, you know, under Moyes at Manchester United, just see how far you go, lads. Do you know what I mean? And you never know. You find yourself in a quarterfinal and you get beaten by a better side and you go, actually, all things considered, that wasn't a bad effort.

11:40That wasn't a bad run. Okay. But then it's infathomable to think that they'll be in European football next season or they'll have European football next season. So it is all about, let's just make sure that we don't find ourselves in a month or two's time in a genuine relegation scrap because that's how piss poor it is at Spurs at the moment. I haven't won in six in the Premier League. It would be unthinkable that they would get a victory against Arsenal. And so he's in there to do all that sort of stuff. And essentially what I'm sort of getting at is it's close to a write-off already this season.

12:12How many times have we said that previously with Spurs? We were saying it last season and they managed to pull the Europa League out the bag. Yes, of course, on paper, kind of made sense that they did it, but you've got to give them credit for doing it. there is no Europa League here they're not going to win the Champions League as I say they're already out the FA Cup their season's finished yeah it's finished and so that's why I think they've got a guy in who as we've mentioned time and time again he has experience of this it is simply a case of can you make sure that we've you know 15th or 16th maybe Spurs fans might take that now it's piss poor to me the short the short answer is yes he can save them because they might not actually need saving.

12:54Because they've got a way better squad than Leeds, Forest, West Ham. But they might just pick up five or six more points even. They'll probably pick up more than that, but if they pick up five or six more points, they'll probably be okay. But you've also got to bear in mind, as Vish touched on a second ago, if Tudor wants to play three at the back, which apparently he always does, they've got no players. They've got 12 players out. So this is the interesting thing. It's such a gamble, Luke, as you say. This could go really wrong for them. But even if it does go really wrong, they might not be among the three shittest teams in the league.

13:25No. And that's what, to me, that's kind of, you're almost banking on that. Lest we forget last year, the reason why there was no relegation battle is because the bottom three was so piss poor. Yeah. They were still the fourth shittest. Yeah. But they just were quite a lot less shit than the three shittest. This appointment, to me, if I was a Spurs fan, it wouldn't, it wouldn't allay my fears at all. But they needed to make a managerial change and they have. so that would be the only solace I would take from it I think the one final thing we could probably talk about is the idea that they could have just stuck with a coach that's already at the club who has been around it and could maintain a little bit maybe a little bit more stability I think the players you said it the players weren't playing for him and I think the players have to take their share of the blame I don't mean you stick with Frank I mean you stick with Johnny Heiting as coach sorry yes so well they obviously he thought he wasn't up for the task quite clearly mind you though that's what the board thought if they thought that does that mean was it a good thought or not we don't know and Spurs fans to their credit they're not being they're not being seduced by this they're not thinking oh they know this will be great because it's a win-win because if Tudor's brilliant maybe he can stay on but if he's shit we can get Pochettino anyway they're pretty consistent in what they're saying which is the board is shit the club is run terribly and they have to go there has to be a root and branch review and they'll be consistent in that I'm sure even before it got really bad with Frank they were protesting outside the stadium blah blah blah so you know look it's not been great there's another season written off totally the only difference is it's a lot more competitive down the bottom now by which I mean one team could heave their way out of it and obviously Wolves have gone it's more worrying than it should be yeah good luck Spurs coming up after this Premier League owners come under scrutiny

15:29Yeah, welcome back. This is from Jacob on email. How damaging are Sir Jim Ratcliffe's comments about immigration? And would you like to see the FA or the Premier League punish him in some way? Yeah, I appreciate obviously this was like last week's news, but because of the impact of the comments and the reaction that we've seen, it's still kind of relevant and obviously we've been asked that. In fact, a lot of people have asked that as well. I've been quite heartened by, you know, you see some of the billboards that have gone around in, well, it was right by Old Trafford, wasn't it? I think the FA have to investigate this.

16:05I mean, what do you investigate? You have to open an investigation to get a, I'm using, it's corporate speech and you know I hate that, Vish. But that's, I think they have to because of the language used. People can have their opinions on certain hot topics and whatnot. Personally, I don't see why someone's asking that dickhead about all that, but he's being asked it, he's being interviewed by Sky News, whatever. You can have opinions and you can do all that. And his opinion would be one I would disagree with. But the language used. He is a shareholder in Manchester United. his words have weight whatever you think, this idea that he's just given an opinion, he's in the public eye he's, what is he, 27 % or something, a share of Manchester United the guys in the league, the guys are representative of that football club, to use that kind of language there has to be some kind of response from the FA or the Premier League I mean what kind of response could they in acts?

17:14Make him live in the country and pay tax? Yeah. Can they make him do that? What would be a start? Is that a punishment? Yeah. Well, I mean, presumably he thinks it is. Well, look, it would be the kind of totalitarian tactics which presumably he'd be in favour of. I think, I mean, to answer Vich's question, I think there has to be some kind of, you'd presume some kind of code of conduct around divisive rhetoric and stuff like that. I don't know what that would be, but I mean, my feeling is that he, At best, he needs someone around him to say to him, it sounds like a joke, but I don't mean it as a joke.

17:53Stop doing interviews. Stop doing them. You're terrible at them. Every time you open your mouth, you're like fucking Prince Andrew. You get yourself in more shit because you've got no filter and clearly no one around you telling you what you're good at and what you're not good at. And we see this time and time again with all these billionaires because they're good at one thing. they seem to assume that means they're good at everything he's not a good public speaker he's not someone who can speak with nuance on complicated issues and the language he used in this particular case was incredibly damaging at a far higher level than when he just dug out all his own players at Man United which was essentially just quite funny and proper uncle at a wedding awkward this to use a word like colonialism or colonising or anything that roots from the idea of colonialism, which is essentially extending power and reach in political, social, economic ways to control a territory or a population, is clearly completely unacceptable.

18:55And if he doesn't understand that, he shouldn't be doing these interviews. I suspect he does understand it, and therefore there needs to be some kind of comeuppance for him. What that is, is down to, as the questioner kind of implies is down to the FA or the Premier League. Do we trust them to do the right thing? Probably not, but it remains to be seen. It beggars belief that he would speak in this way. Not because it's offensive, which of course it is, but because it's so out of touch with presumably the whole operation he's supposed to be the figurehead of, which is a multinational, diverse organization which relies on people from all sorts of different backgrounds, all sorts of different countries and ethnicities to work together to achieve something.

19:41So it's tone deaf, it's unacceptable, it's offensive, and yes, he should be punished in some way for it. And before I hand over to you guys, the other thing I would just add is that far too often in these kind of situations, the whole thing is tacked onto as some kind of you have to be for it or against it for some kind of cultural reason. You either agree with Jim because he's just saying what everyone's thinking and you're on that side of the culture war, or you don't agree with him because you're some kind of wet blanket liberal who loves open borders and wants everyone to come in whenever we want and there should be no system for it.

20:13Neither of those things are true nor have to be true and we are allowed, not just as broadcasters but as people who live in this country, which by the way, Ratcliffe doesn't, and pay tax in this country, which by the way, Ratcliffe doesn't, to have an opinion on it on its own merits. Yes. And the merit of this is it's incredibly damaging and incredibly offensive and he should at very least apologise properly for it, not the way he apologised at the end of the week. Which was a classic I'm sorry if you were offended it was always going to be the follow up because it means he can say more things like that in the future and kind of roll out that same template of an excuse I think the the other thing I find interesting to the reaction of this and it's part of how damaging it is when people talk about who does he mean who is he actually talking about people say to me for example that he's not talking about me because I was born in this country or people might say he's not talking about my parents who have contributed to society over their 40-odd years of living in this country, having come over from Sri Lanka.

21:18The damaging side of that is that you kind of have to prove your worth as an immigrant. You've got to be valuable to that society. There's almost like a threshold of acceptance there, of skills often, and affluence as well. Let's be real about it. um the other side of it and the most damaging thing about it is you see kind of the the comments that come in under this in support of uh what raflis said as luke alluded to there um and it's not necessarily about whether people you know want the right checks and balances in that i'm particularly concerned about is i've seen over the last few years how for example my mother has been treated in various kind of social situations or when she's been out and about uh both first and just like stuff she's told me and no one makes the differentiation between you know how long she's spent in this country whether or not she's worked for the nhs for the last 35 years or things like that they just see someone who's different and they they're fueled by stuff like this and end up reacting a certain way to her i saw you know we went um i mean i don't really need to get into it but we went somewhere and I you know me and my brother and my dad saw it first time because she's you know but you know she's old she's kind of to herself she doesn't she's not like a particularly flamboyant dresser and people judge her in certain ways because of how she looks and it gets worse from when people talk about things like this like the fact that um this then gets such coverage in a way that the the point he was making is posited as a as a genuine question that has to be answered it was on question it was on question time the afterwards yes yeah um and uh fiona bruce in her um you know in a role as someone controlling that particular conversation had to present the other side to it and it was like yeah fine like i see what you're doing and i see there's a level of responsibility there but like the damage yeah is you know well beyond football i'd like to think a lot of those players and the staff at the club look at him and think you're you're a fucking moron if you don't think this entire industry relies upon immigrants.

23:24Eric Cantona, my favourite player, one of the most talented manic footballers Man United has ever had, really, is the product of immigration from Spain, from Italy, on his way to France, coming over to England. It's all right there in front of you. But it also kind of shows as well that he got into the role to give him a platform to be like this. It's a way of him having that foothold in the UK without having to be in the UK. And you're always going to be a mouthpiece for these kind of things. It's no different to what we've said about the Saudi Arabian takeover of Newcastle, whatever's happening at PSG, whatever is happening at Man City.

24:03It's one of the same, really. It's just coming from a bloke who... He's one of our own. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I know what you mean. And I think that, you know, you've eloquently sort of talked about that. And this is going all the way back now to Jacob's question, would you like to see the FA or the Premier League punish him in some way? The FA and the Premier League are very keen to say, you know, very inclusive. We're all about this, that and the other. Da, da, da, da. Well, you've got to back it up now. Do you know what I mean? You have to also understand that this is a guy who clearly doesn't actually care about this stuff because he dresses it up as being, he's worried about the economy and all the rest of it.

24:42You're not worried about the economy because if you're worried about the economy, you'd be contributing. I was worried about trade deals. Yeah, exactly. This is always the kind of dog whistle stuff that it's framed within. And the difference now, unfortunately, is that he knows he's able to get some traction because there's an undercurrent of this, essentially, racism and xenophobia around immigration. But you dress it up as what they call legitimate concerns or genuine concerns or whatever. but in actual fact I wonder if some of the reality that underpins this might even just be even more depressing which is just that he doesn't have a single clue what he's talking about because for people of that power and of that money all this stuff is academic it's all theoretical the people at the very top of our economy and the very top of our political class are doing this as some kind of elevated parlor game it doesn't affect them Jim Radcliffe's never going to have to worry about any, quote, legitimate concerns he has because of the wealth he's got and because of the freedom of movement he's got, which comes with having the money he's got.

25:50Since he's moved out of the UK, he's taken, not millions, billions out of this economy. Billions, right? And cost several people their jobs along the way. So don't talk to me about the economy. Don't dress it up as being worried about the economy because you're not worried about anything because you don't need to be worried about anything other than your own bottom line. And when you're making other people's lives a misery or much harder, as Vicious said, when you say these kind of callous, unthoughtful things, whether it's calculated or not, you should be punished for that. Taxpayer would be happy to contribute to the new Man United circus tent stadium, There we go, exactly.

26:22Yeah, it looks class to be fair. He's also on the hook for a load of grant and loan stuff and relief stuff from the UK government. He benefits from the UK government all the time. Look, you don't have to have the same opinion as us if you're listening and watching this, but you do owe it to yourself to have some rigour and how you investigate these things and not be parroted, not be parroting every single thing you're told because it kind of, you know, slightly chimes with your quite narrow political agenda. Wake up and understand that the people of this power and of this money don't give a fuck about you and they never will.

26:57So don't do their job for them. I do. I mean, just to jump in there, obviously you've got his stats quite wrong as well on the population numbers. Get him over a post-match, a Man United. Well, we won the game 2-1. Actually, you lost it 3-2. I've got my own stats yeah what did the ONS say oh they said 3-1 they had 14 players on the pitch I think you'll find actually he wasn't there at the club but was he involved in the Anthony deal yeah exactly alright coming up after this Premier League managers take to the Winter Olympics

27:36welcome back everybody now I've got something here for us to enjoy and to potentially laugh at but I don't want to I don't want to put laughter in your mouth does the emailer know you're going to be laughing at him because I have no idea what's coming up Ryan has emailed us and Ryan said this myself and my friends Dan and Mike like to come up with footy songs brackets sometimes maybe good sometimes maybe shit close brackets often when we have had a beverage oh the lads bloody lads one of your lot fish I was going to say Bit of hot water and lemon To loosen the vocal cords Yeah Yeah, like it Which is your alias Ryan, Dan or Mike?

28:15Yeah Anyway Dan and Mike sent me a video Of them leaving the pub Singing their latest England song last night Brackets to a Their latest England song Yeah Hey Are these your mates? Well it does I've got to hold my hands Yeah, but to a Kylie song Either way They sound like the worst The worst Don't do that Hang on No, I'm going to judge Actually, Ryan Ryan has distanced himself From this He was like Dan and Mike they sent me this video I wasn't there they didn't invite me to the pub is this what you and Pete get up to in your Friday pub sessions it must be anyway so it's a song their latest England song to a Kylie song that's the tune it's too good not to share we'll be the judge of that we'd all like to be our own critics Dan is an avid listener of the Ramble and I love the idea of him listening to the show and unknowingly stumbling across his own drunken song I hope you find a way to enjoy this on the show how long is it Well, Ryan, with the magic of technology...

29:09How long is it? Here is the song. Cos England moved the ball from left to right With Bellingham and Foden and Declan Rice Football you were playing really blew my mind It was soccer on the right Cos Tuchel, when I saw you for the first time I were playing 4, 2, 3, 1 Look how much Marcus is trying to enjoy it. He's really trying. Love at first sight if I met those guys. That's what it would be. To be fair, that is one of, I think, Kylie's better songs. Yeah, that's a good song. That's a hell of a thing to say. Yeah, it's a good song. Kylie's got a lot of great tunes, obviously, but that is a good...

30:00Mark Fish, that's a good tune, that. It's good, yeah, but... So which Kylie songs are better? Locomotion. Great. Not her song though. Not her song. Not her song. Yeah. She did it better than the original. No, there wasn't the original. It was about five seconds ago. Why would I need to? But I've already heard that one. Okay. All right. Locomotion. Yeah, I've never gone on that. I think it's dated badly. Can't get you out of my head. He's aged badly. Can't get you out of my head? Yeah. Spinning around? Yeah. I prefer this to that. I remember it was the same album, wasn't it? I think we're getting sidetracked.

30:29No, I think. All right. The lads. the problem I find with this is that it's not that funny he's gone into Ratcliffe mode yeah you've got old ratters on us they're colonising our pop songs fuck the problem is it's too complicated and it's not funny and it says to me you've spent too much time planning it also technically you can't colonise something if it's come from Australia that's true Kylie did colonise our charts for a while but to be fair though to Dan and Mike got rid of that Jason Donovan didn't we to be fair to Dan and Mike he's not making a contribution oh Jason refuses to live in the country he might actually live in the country you know RSVP was one of his ones no it wasn't it was RSVP I thought he did Seal with a Kiss no you're thinking of that was a cover yeah it probably was it doesn't matter it really doesn't it doesn't fucking matter you've made us listen to this you've pressed the stream deck button you've pretended to like it so you justify it don't fucking sidetrack it he lives in West London there you go Jason Donovan one of your lot yeah I think that you're being a bit harsh on Dan and Mike here because lest we forget this is a stitch up job from little Ryan yeah because Dan and Mike they're just having a bit of a lull aren't they on the way from the pub they've had a little bit of a drunken Dan and Mike sent me a video of them leaving the pub singing their latest England song last night to a Kylie song they've sent it they're proud of it to a friend alright All right.

31:59The friends said it. That's all they've done. We're friends. We're friends of theirs as well. And we can't show some of the stuff that Pete gets up to. But your real friends will tell you when something's shit. Right. That's what I'm saying. And this is Ryan's way of doing it, but he's doing it in a very public sphere, I feel. Yeah, he is. I think Dan and Mike, they're having a bit of bloody banter. Yeah. All right. In the positive column, in the negative column, it's too complicated. It's not funny. In the positive column, it's not sweet Caroline. Fine. So we can get behind that. Well, okay. And they're keeping British pubs open.

32:28that's fair single handedly yeah this wasn't meant to be for you I don't think well good don't ask me about it so have an issue with Ryan getting in touch and the producers for putting it in the show yeah it's not for me why are you asking me about it then Dan and Mike if you're listening can you email in embarrassing things about Ryan yeah there we go for balance let's get something out of it yeah for balance we'll read those out next week's show at least it wasn't a kind of an anti-German one no well I think I would have preferred that to be honest in the World Cup year come on true enough I don't want to get too full Jim Radcliffe but in a World Cup year I will accept songs that are respectfully critical of Germany France or Argentina that's fine good yeah okay if you've got any songs like that send them in next question yeah alright this one comes from Andrew on the Discord with the Winter Olympics on who would be your current Premier League manager bobsleigh team yeah so just for a bit of clarity and this is taken from the bobsleigh UK website there are four things you need for a good bobslayer or a good bobslayer team leg power a good squat on them good sprinters and in a four man sled and this is why we might fall foul in a four man sled the average weight of an athlete will be 105 kilograms so no I actually have Steve Evans he's a full weight I know he has yeah to be fair to him ruin the joke sorry I think yeah you've got to keep a bit of that in mind 105 kilos is heavy by the way yeah but they're muscly because they're squatting it's all in the legs but you know that they you know bobsleigh organisations they tend to pick off the sprinters yes who've not quite made the grade at say Olympic level sprinters and use them instead I've seen the film so I think the lads on the Uber Eats advert will be good no what do you mean no those three and one extra one.

34:27It's going to be Red Knapp, that's to be fair. No. Red Knapp on ice. Yeah. What about Roy Hodgson? Roy Hodgson. Perched on the top. No, he'd be the little camera that follows them. Yeah. He'd spin his head around. Exactly. Is that a drone? No, it's Roy Hodgson. Do you want to watch Hodgson Eye? Press your red button. Do you get it? Hodgson Eye. Rosen Eye. Oh, it's Spring Watch. What have I got? I flicked on the Spring Watch. He's sweeping again. Let's creep up behind him. Ah, spiders! There's Roy in his little box. Yeah, we are. I think that. I think Rob Edwards would be handy. Yeah. Because he's always at the bottom.

35:04No. He's not in the Premier League anymore, but as soon as I found out about how integral squatting was. Rob Edwards is in the Premier League. He's talking about someone else. Bielsa. Oh, sorry. Bielsa. After squat. Yeah, okay. Vita Pereira. I think that he's felt that he looks like he's got power in his body and legs. Yeah. I think he would be quite handy. Scott Parker is in good nick. Parker would be another one, yeah. Yeah. I think he would be quite handy. Ooh. Although. I think these guys are all too small. You need powerful, 105 kilos of muscle. You need powerful people. You know who I think I'd be good?

35:40Do you know who I think would be good? Go on. Yeah? Mikel Arteta, because he'd be good on the corners. It's nice. Yeah? I thought you were going to do a pun. No. I feel a little bit let down. That's it, yeah. I would be, no, I don't think he would be good because on the bobsleigh he would leave the area and it would be disastrous for the whole thing. The American team did that. He didn't even get in the bobsleigh. Did you see that? Did he not? He didn't fancy it. Went off without him. Yeah. And they crashed it. Went off without him. Is everyone here? Yeah. I think so, yeah. I'll tell you what, watching some of the commentary of the snowboarding has made me much more grateful for the Premier League commentators.

36:18Okay. Broadcasting's very poor. Daniel Farker. Would he get his big head in there? He doesn't have to get You've got to get your head down Oh you've got to go down And you've got to find a helmet to fit the guy Oh that's true He's already got a helmet It's his skull Use his hair He's got good Alpine energy isn't he Oh Glasner And Klopp Klopp Glasner You're Alpine kind of guys You're Black Forest guys So okay So you're Diego Simeone then What? Because you need someone with a bit of power you're saying A bit of heft I don't think he's I don't think you're going to find He's not a Premier League manager You're not going to find many managers that have got the power that's needed and the muscle mass that's needed to do this job Hermann Burgos is assistant with him He's about 70 years old How's he going to fit in?

37:04He's not 70 He's not doing the 105 threshold is he? You just said Redknapp and Pulis and all them boys Hermann Burgos is Come on 56 Fair enough He looks dreadful So Jim Ratcliffe again? Oh he's 70 Numbers It happens to us all It happens All right, what about this to finish off then from Jar? Hang on, we haven't answered the question. We've done this to fucking death. We've done it to death. And it is twitching on the floor. I was going to say Guardiola, you know. You've named every fucking manager in the world. That's it. We've not finished. And Gelati and his three Brazilian women. Yeah, perfect.

37:39Right, now we're moving on. No, they do the skeleton where they lie on top of each other.

37:45You've got a cigar on going past the camera. Did you get that right? Like a locomotive engine. It's not even going quickly. Roy swooped down and grabbed a cigar out of his mouth. Don't make Al smoke. Right, Jarv. Jarv on Insta. Hello to you, Jarv. He says, FA Cup fever has got me thinking. What was more detrimental for Alan Pardew's reputation? The dance or the headbutt? Oh, who cares, mate? They're still thinking of Angelotti or the skeleton. I don't think that... I don't think that... Rattling bones Pardew's headbutt That wasn't detrimental To his reputation Was it? No I don't even think The dance was Because I think The reputation Had been established Before the dance The dance was The dance is the answer To the question It is Okay put it this way It is It was barely a headbutt The headbutt was Sort of like a Don't think you're hard Mate that's a bit silly The dance was Get a load of me I'm making the narrative Oh man you're not I'd have equalized 60 seconds later it was like I tell you something there'd have been a lot of neutrals watching that cup final who quite obviously would have been supporting Palace and after that goal going quite happy man United I know what you mean yeah maybe the regime ain't that bad yeah I put myself in that position if I'm in a situation with Alan Pardew I'd much rather he tried to stick the nut on me in that way than dance like that in front of me yeah there's an honesty to the headbutt even though it was more of a headbrush as I've said many times over the years you've met him no I've never met him we've met him a couple of times in the cottage haven't we I've never been in the cottage with you let alone him I've definitely been in the cottage with Pardew yes at Fulham specifically yes yeah and he's done neither of those things but you know there's a Japanese Newcastle fan that went viral because he said he started supporting the club when he saw Alan Pardew try and do the headbutt yeah so that's yeah so that's a net positive then a net positive they are nobody's supporting him after the dance nah because the dance he was trying to because he was obviously did that little dance when he scored for Palace against Liverpool and no was it against Liverpool?

39:51Yeah it was. Yeah it was against Liverpool in the semi-final it was kind of like recreating that so it was too pre-planned but also the dance itself was shit. Yeah it was true. The one he did against Liverpool you can see he does a little wiggle and you kind of go ah he's in the moment or whatever. It's absolutely embarrassing. Yeah. Yeah and I think that's the answer. The much more detrimental thing was the dance job I hope that answers your question. What do you think was more positive for Carlo Ancelotti's reputation and ultimate legacy, winning the Champions League or what he did at Carnival.

40:21Carnival's better, yeah. Thanks for listening to the Football Ramble, part of the ACAST Creator Network. Please do send us your responses, opinions and questions for next week's Mailbag and become a friend of the Ramble to join the conversation on our Discord. Thank you everybody for your questions. Thank you Luke and Vish. Thank you me. We'll see you tomorrow.

40:44The Football Ramble is a Stack Production and part of the Acast Creator Network.