A Day in the Life of a Spurs Fan | Chris Thatcher on Finding the Spurs Family, Leão Links & Trusting the Ownership

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2:02Jack:hello everybody welcome back to rule the roost podcast i hope you're all enjoying this heat this this glorious glorious heat that i am in no way continuing to go on and on and on about like the typical British person, ooh, isn't the weather hot? Ooh, isn't the weather interesting? Mr Chris Thatcher, welcome to the show. Can you make this more interesting than me just babbling on about the heat and the weather? About the heat? What can I say about the heat? I'm so delighted that it's hot because usually it's miserable in this country. So come on, let's enjoy it. Okay, all right. Positive, see? Positive.

2:38Jack:All right, okay, okay, I get it, I get it. Chris, welcome to the show. Thanks for coming on. Thank you very much. How are you doing, mate? How's it going? Well, I'm so happy to come on the pod. I've been listening to you since, I don't know when you started. Was it 2013, something like that? It might be around that time, yeah. I can't actually remember. It's a long time ago. And did you once do pods on your own as well? Did you record them on your own? After the games, yeah. That's when I do my nice little like howling into the abyss. I'm just going to say there was a time back then where I'm going to bring the tone down straight away.

3:15But around about in 2013, I was not having a good year and I used to go fishing on my own. And the rule the roost and your podcast, where some of them, if I remember rightly, were quite long. Like I think you do podcasts that are like an hour and 40 or something.

3:30Jack:We were known, I think we tipped a three-hour jobby before me and Raj back in the day. And I would sit and fish and just listen to it and it got me through some great times. So I'm so happy to be on the pod because, yeah, I owe you one. So thank you very much. Well, thank you, mate. And I'll throw it back to you. I think we all owe you one for your Day in the Life of series last year, which actually really helped a lot of people get through what was, I think we can say as two Spurs fans of a certain vintage now. Yeah, yeah. Probably the worst era of our lifetimes as Spurs fans. Yeah, what a time to start it, eh?

4:07Yeah. I mean, that's like, is that serendipity or is that, I don't know what to call it really. You know, no one wants to see Spurs go down the route that they did this past season.

4:18Jack:Other than Arsenal fans. Well, yeah. Maybe Chelsea. I'm going to try not to swear too much, but fuck them. But honestly, like I just started it at that exact time where I think it was almost to the day that we just got a bad result and then it dropped like a stone. And that was just by complete coincidence, really. It was a therapy thing for me because for years I was watching, as I was getting older, watching us get better and better and better and sign Gareth Bale. And then Harry Kane would come through and we'd had all these false dawns and then it got to the Champions League final and it all fell apart.

4:56And then after the Champions League final, I think we started the next game of the next season and we lost. And I was like, I can't do this anymore. And I was furious. and I've got some friends who I share a WhatsApp group with. We play Fantasy League and we're like uber competitive. One's an Arsenal fan, unfortunately. One's a Man United fan and one's a kind of Man United fan. And all I would do is just rant in this group to them and go off on one. And so one day after the Bournemouth result where Semenyo, who was supposed to go to Man City and was going to Man City, still played that game for Bournemouth and ripped us a new one.

5:32And I left this kind of video message to my mates. And one of my friends at the Arsenal fan is a guy called Luke Kempner. He's an impressionist and does lots of Arsenal content as well. And he said, oh, you've got to post this. I was like, no, it's not really my thing. But I posted it nonetheless. And in terms of like, you know, reaction, it kind of took off. And I realised that what was happening with people commenting on it and enjoying it, what opened up to me was the Tottenham community, which essentially is what it's all about, right? like I love to be able to go to the games of friends and see friends I haven't seen for a while and I just like to be able to kind of be part of the conversation I've always wanted to but never really had a way of doing it and so it was therapeutic for me to make the videos and it felt luckily for me that I was hinting or hitting the voice that people felt about Spurs I can't speak for anyone else but I thought I ended up getting on the right route so when we all felt as a group furious about something that I could voice it and a lot of people thought yeah that's how we feel as well obviously it's difficult to always do that because you always get people that might feel like you're they might not agree with you but um it generally kind of seemed to work that way well

6:38Jack:it's kind of because it's it's that sort of one step removed from offering kind of like opinion isn't it and it's it's a it's a nice vessel for say like venting thoughts and feelings with enough plausible deniability if I'm not showing how the sausage is made Chris but like with enough plausible deniability to say well you know it's just kind of a it's kind of a bit of a joke when you do if you do start getting the um actually no we should have sold this player or we shouldn't have sold that player as you know myself and many other podcasters will find that we get when you air any sort of an opinion right yeah it's amazing how many people like not take the bait but get triggered by it and write back a kind of really serious long answer to like one of your videos explaining how I'm wrong.

7:20And I'm just right back like, you know, it's just a bit of a laugh, right? Or some, this is the best ones, right? I'm really lucky that generally the videos have fallen in a place where even Arsenal fans are generally okay with it because they know it's tongue in cheek. So I haven't had too much abuse, right? I've had a bit of abuse, but the best one's like when someone just writes bellend or bellend. And I just write back, oh, a bit harsh, Paul. And then typically what happens is they go, yeah it was a bit oh sorry about that and then it's all fine it's kind of changed if i do get someone which is properly rude just block them so it's um but so that's made me happy because i wouldn't really want too many people like getting the ump um but even like you know some of the people that chat to me the most are actually arsenal fans and like the last video i did absolutely ripped them a new one like because there was you know it was a slow news day for spurs so i just meant made it about the world cup and about arsenal and generally people have been okay about it apart from someone who was upset about the fact i was ripping trump and so again they left me a kind of monologue of how I was wrong to and I was like what Trump really anyway

8:24Jack:it'll be it'll be interesting to see you know Spurs like let's not count our chickens and all that type of thing but it's a it's it's a positive start to the next season if you if we consider that Deserby's in we're seemingly spending all of the money um if Spurs are actually sort of doing well in the day in the life of a Spurs fan turns to a more positive note it'll be interesting to see how those Arsenal fans continue to react yeah yeah it's funny because you know the the challenge with the videos has always been for me about keeping it fresh they're trying to come up with something else that's new that's fun but typically Spurs always give you the content and even when things are going well it's okay I mean I've got friends saying to me oh Spurs got a result bad for your content I'm like well I'd rather Spurs do all right and you don't have any ideas and the shit show that happened at the end of last season but yeah it will be interesting to see if the Arsenal fans if we start doing well I mean we are getting ahead of ourselves to be fair nearly relegated it's fun isn't it that's part of the the joy of being a Spurs fan isn't it it's the perennial Del Boy this year this time next year we'll be Premier League winners yeah um I mean I did I do want to ask you about like the the sort of creative process on it um dive into that a little bit further because yeah it is it's you know you turn these around like so like impressively quickly the production the production value of them is very good like it's yeah it's intentionally lo-fi but it's good in the in the way in which you're doing it um so you obviously know what you're doing and i i appreciate this is sort of it blurs into your actual profession into your day job here so um but yeah i mean can you just take us through that creative process how you know is it just you're gathering ideas across the week do you have a notebook i don't know yeah yeah no i do i i it's funny about the turnaround thing you mentioned because you see people like ben bowman obviously and like something if there's a news that drops someone like him or other other kind of creators will literally just turn their mic on and their camera on and just talk and so let's say if we've got a here we go now about creepy or about liao within 10 minutes there'll be someone reacting to it but for me obviously it's there's there's kind of the comedy element and making it making it a kind of art form as it were rather than just a reactionary so yes I've just got notes on my phone and typically over the week if something comes up I'll write it in there but a lot of the time I'll walk the dog and I'll catch myself doing what I did before I made the videos which is ranting to myself about spurs or like one of my good friends used to like he caught me out once he was like we were talking about something about like service in Britain and uh and I and I said first class first class rubbish and I ended up having this kind of argument and he said you realize you're having a hypothetical argument with someone that doesn't exist and it's like what are you doing and so I realized that I do that on the walks I kind of like rant it out and so then I realized I'm doing it and then I write that down so and then in terms of creating it when I first started the um the videos are like again like a monologue it was like all done in one um and and that's what I tried to do for the first four or five and then I found myself walking through the field delivering this kind of like two minute monologue and getting to the last 10 seconds and falling over my words like I just did then right and be like oh shit and like it was raining one day I was soaked I was like what am I doing and then of course I realized over time the kind of there's a slight slight kind of art form with online stuff where it has to be quick otherwise people swipe on so if you look at some of the old videos compared to the new videos now you'll notice that a lot of them are really quick maybe almost too quick sometimes I'm still kind of figuring it out but so you can say a kind of one line and it can just click to the next bit and so it keeps people's attentions I think that's part and parcel of how I do it so now when I write the notes I write down the kind of different sections and I'm really happy just to cut them into different sections and do them from different angles so then I go out into the field and just know what those bits are have a little check and just rant it out but I also know I say I know but But it's important to me, like comedy is important to me.

12:23I'm a massive fan of Rick Mayall, for example. And that kind of comes through sometimes. I can feel that influence. But I know if I'm doing something, if it's not funny, because I'm not laughing at it myself, because I do it for my own style. So if it makes me laugh in a strange way, then I know I'm doing something. Well, that's what I believe in. It may not make someone else laugh, but I know that works for me. So I remember when Chelsea, what was it? They fined, Chelsea got fined. Instead of banned or a points deduction, they were fined. And my video at the time was, it's like fining the milkman a bottle of milk, right?

12:58And then I filmed myself being an employee going, we're fining you a bottle of milk. And then I filmed myself in a flat cap holding a bottle of milk saying, no, and then realizing that they're only fining me a bottle of milk and saying, yeah, but we've got loads out the back and then cutting it off. Anyway, the point is, I can't explain this joke. I just did a little look to camera afterwards, right? you know when i watched it back i was really really howling i was like this is great this is a good one so that's what i judge it on if it if the comedy kind of suits my style and just hope it but then again i started making the videos with um i started making it a little bit more elaborate um just because i was enjoying the kind of artistry of it as it was artistry i've got a bit poncy but so i did one where i dressed up like daniel levy in a kind of blue suit and a

13:42Jack:bald wig um and elsa elsa from yeah and so that was when it got to the point where like i was walking and i was thinking i don't know what it was the song was in my head because i've got a four-year-old and she loves frozen and all this kind of stuff and the song came into my head and then it the tottenham hotspurs going down to the tune of it worked i thought i've got to do it and then i thought oh my god i dress up as that and my daughter's got a witch's hat and so i ended up doing it and i had people like i said i've got a handyman who works across the road he comes in and does stuff on the house.

14:10He walked in and I've got green makeup on and a witch's hat. And he was like, morning mate. Yeah, morning. I was like, hiya. Honestly, he's just laughing. But funnily enough, when I did those videos, not that I judge success by its reach. Oh, if I get 30 ,000 views or I think I had nearly a million views for one of them, right? The ones when I dressed up as Elsa or Daniel Lee, we didn't get as much traction. I think that what I realized over time is the videos kind of tend to work with less elaborate kind of pissing about and more when it's in tune with how we really feel because when things are going shit for Spurs fans or any fans but for us in particular we're like a we like to laugh at ourselves and say well it's classic Tottenham right we have that self deprecating nature but also we want to be able to rant about it and so the videos where I did one very only about a week or so ago I did one about the Spurs shirts that have come out um uh and one about which i know you know this one because i think you posted it about the i'll tell you why we can spend money because people getting angry like gabby on bogler hall getting angry that we're spending the money and so having listened to other podcasts i realized how we can generate that money so i stuck it into the into the video and by doing that it tuned in with how people are feeling and they're the ones that do really kind of well get a bigger reach um so it's a challenge all the time but um yeah so maybe not maybe i won't dress up like a witch again or maybe I will.

15:30I mean, I did dress up like Infantino in the other one. That was just a bald wig and some really bushy eyebrows.

15:36Jack:It's interesting. It is a really careful balance. Like when I used to make my animations, my little Spurs animations, I would find that the episodes that would perform much better were the ones that, like you say, where it was like an exaggeration of a real life event. But then when I would be like, okay, well, what I want to do is I actually want to like, we have these archetypal characters that I've established now that you know robbie keen is like this now and lennon's like that so what i'm going to do now is just create a scenario i'm going to write a story and put those spurs characters within it and those ones would always bomb a bit and i'd be a bit bummed about that because i'd be like oh this is like you know it's something i've really invested a lot of my time and energy into and then i would bounce back with another one about transfer deadline day or something and show the sort of the sky narrative but then you know times 10 for for the purposes of making it funny and then that would do well again and you sort of as you say you're kind of like okay what people actually really want is that they want it to be centered in some form of realism but then a surrealist flip on that or an exaggerated flip on on what's actually happening right yeah i mean what i take pleasure from is when that kind of haze in my head of like being annoyed that we nearly got for example so that really really made me furious because i knew that arsenal wanted him and i know that he's an Arsenal fan, right?

16:57So I knew if we didn't hurry up, that was going to happen. Now, I wasn't making videos when this happened, right? But when it did happen, I was on holiday with the wife in Canberra Sands, right? And the news came through. I had smoke coming out my ears. My wife couldn't understand why. And I was like, yeah, because I knew it was going to happen because they should have just gone ahead of what the videos have done have given me the chance to kind of just clip everything that I feel. And I think what other, hopefully what other Spurs fans feel, I'm not saying I'm talking for them, but and then put it into really really kind of short segments and then whack it all out so it becomes this condensed bomb of how we all feel i hopefully i'm gonna say it's how i feel and i'm lucky that sometimes i meet someone in the pub and they'll be like you tell you say as it is that's how we feel i was gonna ask you yeah if you have you been spotted yeah yeah it's a really weird feeling because i'm an actor right and i've been in like i just be in musicals and i do a lot of adverts and a bit of puppetry and stuff but you never never get recognized i'm not fussed about being recognized But since doing them, yeah, like I went into a pub in Oxford Circus.

17:56I was doing an audition for some commercial and I came out of the casting and Oxford Circus was closed as usual for some reason. So I thought, you know what, I'm going to pop to a pub and have a pint of Guinness and wait for it to open again. So I went in and Oxford Circus, you couldn't move in this pub, but there was a reserve section. And in the reserve section, there was one table free. And it said reserve from 7.15 onwards. And I looked at the clock, it was 6.45. I thought, perfect. so I got a pint of Guinness went into this reserve section and as I walked in I got like the dirtiest looks from some of the there were some people in the reserve section I thought oh god they're gonna get them right up here and so I sat with my back to them and just sat and I thought they can fuck off right you know next thing I'll get a tap on the shoulder I'm like oh here we go yeah yeah excuse me mate and I was like yep and he went you're the guy from Day in the Life of a Spurs fan and I was like oh oh yeah uh yeah and my voice went a bit high and um yeah there were two Arsenal fans strangely the first people that they were two Arsenal fans they were just like really lovely and I think yeah I don't know it's a really lovely thing because it it touches on you can imagine what it must be like right I can't imagine what it must be like to be famous who'd want to not who would not want to be able to walk outside their door and go to the shops all that kind of stuff that'd be hideous but this is so lovely like every now and again someone would just go oh love your videos mate that's really that's really nice no one's called me a bell end in the street so far so i'll take that wait again wait until spurs start getting good and then uh you know yeah a long way i mean at the games at wild lane you know at the stadium that's that's really nice because you again i mentioned it before it's just it feels just like community it's really nice and if someone notices it and hopefully i can carry on where people are happy with them i think i did have one comment once where someone said some a spurs fan just said like you're a clown get behind the team i'm like i'm just like everyone else i'm really behind the team it's just a way of being able to get through it really like i really really am behind the team i went to the last game of the season against everton put myself through that but we did it we did we did if you're a small business owner you'll know just what it's like to be the chief everything officer hr payroll employee benefits well gusto can do all of that for you Gusto is online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses it's all-in-one remote friendly and incredibly easy to use it's quick and simple to switch to Gusto just transfer your existing data to get up and running fast try Gusto today at gusto.com forward slash locked on soccer and get three months free when you run your first payroll that's gusto.com forward slash locked on soccer the world's biggest soccer tournament has arrived and you can trade the entire tournament on Calci.

20:36On Calci, you can trade every match from the opening stage all the way to the final. On Calci, you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house. And as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position. For a limited time, download the Calci app and use code CUP26 to get$10 when you trade 10. K-A-L-S-H-I Calci. Trade the beautiful game. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, and see calcci.com slash regulatory.

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21:36Jack:You know, in some ways, in some ways, last season, because it felt like post-Pochettino, really, the fan base has been so divided constantly. Do you like Mourinho, don't you? Do you like Conte, don't you? Do you like Ange, don't you? You know, and various different shades in between those perspectives as well. And it feels like suddenly just the all-encompassing horror that everyone felt that we might be going to the championship and look, no club is too big to go down or anything like that, but we are too big to go down. We're Tottenham Hotspur. We're an ever-president in the Premier League. We cannot get relegated.

22:14Jack:We can't. We've got this great big, huge stadium to pay for and all that that came to such a head. But I think the club are really smart too, and I've got to say, I think they're really smart to this year cash in on that angle of family, like you were saying, a family of community. if you've noticed that's the way they're announcing all the new signings all the new transfers everything like that so that's obviously a feeling that is it's more it's maybe it's maybe it's the zeitgeist maybe that is the tottenham zeitgeist now that we just are suddenly happy to have spurs they've had this sort of as a crude analogy a type of near-death experience and now they're living every day to the fullest they're going to spend money actually they want to actually You try and compete in football matches.

22:58Jack:You boy, what day is it? It's start of the Premier League season, sir. Good. Get me the fattest Sandro Tonali from the butcher shop window. Perhaps it's that feeling, mate. This is great. This is like, it's a wonderful life. He's just woken up. I can't believe it. Yeah, I love that. It's like they had a death sentence and then they've got the all clear. But yeah, I do like the family thought. And yes, I suppose there will be, it's double barrel really. there's a whole host of us feeling brilliant because we didn't go down and we still exist and we're still here and also now it does seem like the pennies dropped and they're pulling their finger out and we're starting to act like you know the other clubs and that is as long as it works out that's you know that's delightful but we did realize after this last season that actually what we want is just wanted our club to be okay I mean I did say when we were worried about getting relegated that the stadium doesn't go anywhere we're still going to be there and I'm sure West fans are saying that right now but nothing would have changed in that respect um but I just think all we really want is to go to the lane and watch the team and watch and watch them attacking football which is that's what we've we did it once last season there was a point where Xavi passed it to someone we did like this three or four passes one touch passes crossed it in and we nearly scored I think it was against Palace before it all fell apart and um everyone was like whoa there we go that's kind of what what we want and there was a time in like i remember like two in 2001 where i don't really want to say this but i'd almost had a couple of years off football um i'd been to drama school right and no one at drama school is into football so i didn't follow spurs as much so around about 2001 2002 i started watching spurs at the pub again thinking why haven't i watched them for so much so long and i watched them and they were the time we had like Gus Poirier and Tirico and all that stuff and they were rubbish but they were some of the best yeah but they were some of the best memories that I had because I didn't watch that match going we've got to get into the Champions League or we've we've got to win a cup this season this has got I just watched it and we were rubbish we won a few games lost a few games and it was really kind of serene and maybe that's where we're at and but then like from that point though it was you know a couple of years later after that point we're suddenly chucking this 18 year old called Aaron Lennon from Leeds Academy into the first team who is the fastest man alive who just suddenly starts skinning players down the down the wing and you just enjoyed it for that you were like oh my god it's suddenly exciting this is suddenly brilliant you had Tom Huddleston in who's pinging balls everywhere you've got Michael Dawson alongside Ledley King who suddenly seemed like a settled centre-back partnership and just building on building on things from that point incrementally was just nice it was it's been nice to be on that journey and it's just I think the thing is you know I think because I did so much soul searching last year thinking about like Spurs and them going down and just how unfair it all felt and it just it it felt particularly kind of brutal because obviously because Arsenal have gone on to suddenly be really good again, which is really annoying.

26:03Jack:It's been fun laughing at them for 10 years or so, but they've suddenly gotten really good again. And you're kind of like, God, we threatened to be really good and didn't quite get there. And if now we have to just accept it, look, the Europa League, that's great. And most fans that support most football teams will never, ever see their team win anything of that magnitude. And I guess we have to sort of step back sometimes and realize that. but also I want to win the Premier League I want to win the Champions League I'm greedy for it and it was it was having to kind of accept that maybe our moment in the in the sun was that Pochettino our even our failures will have an echo of glory about them maybe it's too perfect for the Tottenham narrative or whatever but it still felt so hard to stomach that we would have to go back to being bad again right um and I think that's I don't know that's why I'm just I'm very excited about this season and I'm not even taking it from the way of we're definitely going to win the league it's just nice to feel positive about Spurs again I feel yeah I mean the echo of glory thing you know I was so behind that yeah I love that but after after losing like three cup finals in a row and like four semi-finals or something like that I was just like oh fucking echo of glory just win something once um and uh so yeah when we actually won the europa league oh it was just joyous and it is quite incredible that that parade happened and like season three is better than season two and and then he sacked and we bring in thomas the frank engine and he's just like it's so passive it is unbelievable it's unbelievable but so believable and classic spurs that that would be the narrative after that after finally getting somewhere um that i find that quite incredible really but now that daniel levy has gone it does seem like something has shifted and this is the best bit about football is the dreaming before it happens you know yeah who are we playing on first day of the season is it um newcastle at home or no we're away aren't we to brentford or something brentford i want to say yeah i feel like we get beat by brentford we're just gonna be like here we go it'd be reminiscent of that remember the other the other summer one of them when we did spend a bit of money and then we went away to sunderland first game of the season i think it was michael chopper scored like a 90 second minute winner i think i want to say it's probably 0-1-0-2 around that kind of time and just thinking oh right okay there we go it's funny there were signs i thought from enic when when daniel levy got sacked it was right at the end of the transfer window if I remember rightly and we lost out on Eze we lost out on Morgan Gibbs White and then we got Xavi and I thought hang on this looks this look I've and I felt underlying that they were making moves and it was a really good positive sign that was at the end of the summer then the transfer window of January came around we didn't sign anyone apart from Gallagher and I was like no no they're still shit um but I yeah not saying I was right but yeah my my instincts were correct and it does seem that and they've been saying you know it's actions speak louder than words and and here we go and they're making these moves for tonali and for fernandez and we obviously we needed we need the uh we need positions we need like an attacking left obviously and a striker um and i'm praying for liao i don't know why i mean look there's lots of names circling at the moment we've got you know um cruppy from bournemouth who i understand is going to be a superstar lots of people are very excited about him young french quick good finisher i think that's that's kind of the the full extent of my knowledge of him from the yeah people are very excited about it yeah we surround ourselves with football people listen to this podcast listen to other podcasts you know constantly chatting with people about it season ticket holder you know and then these names come out like fernandez i was like oh i feel like i'm not knowledgeable enough am i not knowledgeable enough like no he's a really good player and it turns out you know having looked into it a bit more he is but when Kruppi's name came up I was thinking because I play a lot of fantasy football as well 47 and sad um but um I was like well hang on he was benched most of the season he came on and scored a few goals why are we talking about 80 million what but I must be I must be wrong whereas you know I think I was getting excited about Liao because he seems more established but then people are saying he might have a bit of a bad attitude so this is it you know it's exciting though isn't it it's exciting to kind of yeah i think everybody it's great signing you know defenders and defensive midfielders yes i know that's all very practical and it's like you know it's like overpaying on the mortgage instead of going on holiday kind of thing right it's it's that but also give me the give me the flashy striker give me the guy that's gonna get standing standing up and shouting and you know all that type of stuff because look liao has been linked we've got servinho still linked from city cody gap poet liverpool antonio noosa the the norwegian sensation is the latest who's been um been linked around us it seems like as far as the noise is concerned spurs are not done yet despite having spent what probably close to 250 million pounds if you include Van Hecke I suppose there have been quite a few outgoings as well in this window but if we look at what Spurs have spent you know a quarter of a billion pounds almost don't care not my money don't care exactly exactly it wasn't my money when he didn't spend it like before it's not my money now when you are spending it spend the fucking money do it it's about time I want Noosa to sign so we can all go Noosa when he scores that's just a that's just occurred to me i do like he he he's one that like i've been during the world cup i've been watching thinking oh i wouldn't mind him at spurs actually so i'm quite quite happy to see him linked um it's just any of those players any of those players mentioned bring it on i'm like yeah they're all exciting yeah i mean it's just that every now and again we'll be linked with someone and we'll get them and the last person that happened for me for me uh you know for my opinion was james madison when james madison was being linked i was like really what really we're not good i really like james and when we got him over the line it was amazing and i would have felt like that about ese but um but anyway screw him so yeah i probably feel personally i feel the same about leal i think maybe it's maybe it's because i've just signed him on a video game and he's amazing that might be the stretch do you think he's uh i i yeah i've sort of i've adopted this mantra where i'm just going to choose to be just positive and optimistic i understand that people want to have discourse and want to have discussions about players and i'm not trying to shut that down i'm just saying i am choosing to just be like andy robertson yep he's old yep his legs have gone or whatever apparently but he's still andy robertson he's still one of the best players i've probably ever seen in the premier league it's kind of cool that's why i got a backlash not a backlash that's that's too much but when i did a video about andy robertson um i called him old man robo i don't know if you saw that one and i sang i sang old man robo to the tune of old man river because it just came into it's a bit of an old joke with some friends of mine um it started when my friend who supports arsenal used to sing old man sang sangnya sang how do you pronounce it sanya um and uh anyway so but of course i realized by doing this taking the mickey out of it oh he's really old people like no he's brilliant and some people like i don't get this video he's brilliant and i was like oh again i was only only joking but um but now watching him play for scotland you realize that that cross that you can still do get those in is better than what we've had so i just think it's going to be good with the that's it the best signing i think we've made so far is senesi i do the numbers he was putting up for bournemouth like i think he topped the charts and he's free like that's the one i i think but riddle me this who's going to play at centre-back for us because it ain't going to be Romero because he's going to be gone with his red card roulette apparently he wants to stay though who knows I think you'll go and I want him to stay I don't care if you're the captain like so sick of last season like we watch a match and I'll be like right a who's going to get injured and b when is Romero going to get sent off like it is it let us down so many times and there's just and even I feel that even when he hasn't done there's just a circus around him isn't there there's neville and there's all that where they're just kind of looking for him to to do anything now um all the time yeah getting cards when it because it's him but i think it's probably i mean it'd be interesting to see if he does play like with a three at the back but i would imagine it's probably going to be the dutch lads isn't it probably be and event and uh and van hecker he can't not play cinesi surely i can I can understand Romero's out of the picture.

34:50Dragosin's obviously gone, but I can't see a world where like one of those, and if he was to play three at the back, he would still therefore play Porro and Robertson. So we would have maybe one defensive midfielder. So that means Fernandes or Tonali would be possibly, oh, I don't know.

35:03Jack:It's a nice problem to have though. You know, that's the point. We're not having to sort of stick Archie Gray in there anymore or Radu Dragosin who, you know, actually, actually, actually left us a very nice letter when he left. so I thought yeah I know bless him I did feel a bit bad yeah not as bad as I felt when I watched him every week when he was playing for us but in terms of the defenders I'm saying oh who fits in where but the amount of injuries we've had it's kind of been crazy for us to think that that will happen again but also crazy to think we won't have injuries anyway I mean I'm gutted that Xavi's not even back till 2027 he was finding his feet so well you know to have the choice between Madison or Xavi starting and then the other person coming on We'll have that for the second half of the season, as long as Madison doesn't break his leg in several places again.

35:51Please don't. And Kuliseski, what did I say in the video? Kuliseski is on holiday in the Bermuda Triangle. Hopefully he'll come back. Are you trusting the Lewis family this time around, Chris? Yeah, that is such a difficult question, because how can you trust someone who's hurt you for so many years? But you've got to just look at what we're doing. I mean, as long as they don't do a Leeds and completely ruin us. But, you know, from looking at some of the info about the finances and how we can afford it and the 80 % revenue we can spend as opposed to the 70 % revenue we can spend if we were in Europe.

36:28Do you know about this? You heard about this?

36:30Jack:Yeah, it's because it's like UEFA's cap versus the Premier League's cap, isn't it? Yeah, so that helps. And knowing that, like, nowadays the way it works, I think we've just gone into a new financial period for Spurs. So kind of everything's refreshed. and that if we put down£100 million on Tonali, if that's over five years, then that's just£20 million of the cash that we've got as well because they've been... So that's kind of why. And I think that it's so hard. I don't ever want to say, yes, I trust them now. But I mean, if we go ahead and sign a striker and a left attacking refielder, as well as what we've got now, that'll be unreal.

37:05And you've got to say yes to that, haven't you? But with Tonali, how excited were you when you found out about him?

37:12Jack:I was pretty excited, but I've admired him from afar for quite some time. You know how there's just sometimes there are some players that you're like, I like them. I like the cut of their gym. Semenyo was one of those, unfortunately, until he went to Manchester City. Maybe it's a situation of the attacking players that I notice. I can see that certain players, like you said, Semenyo, oh my God. But I maybe don't appreciate as much as a fan the defence midfielders. Because when they said Tonali, the reaction was like, oh my god we're in for tonight i was like you know and i had to kind of watch the youtube videos but he does remind me a little bit of dembele who of course every spurs player who's ever lived says that he's the best player they've ever played with it's interesting isn't it so i always find that one interesting because i i love versus dembele and i thought he was really really good but i would by no means look back on that ear and say he was the best player of that era but these lads are ones that see them every day and play with them every day how have you been enjoying because obviously your latest videos are kind of around this or at least one of your latter videos is kind of around this team the whole it not being fair stuff you know Alan Shearer has come out lately and said how is it fair that Spurs can spend all this money after finishing 17th twice and Aston Villa, Gabby O 'Bongle seems to every single day have a different take on Tottenham Hotspur I mean it's just the willful ignorance stuff I can understand from maybe people like Villa or Newcastle who are close rivals to us who feel a bit threatened it's when the sort of the discourse starts to get a bit more like pearl clutchy when you start to have a few more I think Jonathan Liu's written a piece today that's a bit kind of like oh Tottenham spending all this money when you think well nobody's really kicked off that much when it's been Chelsea doing it for years or Man City I mean maybe that's not fair maybe people have been kicking off about that but it just feels like spurs should be for me anyway and i i mean this genuinely i kind of feel like we should be held up as an example to pretty much any other club as to how you can break through and there might be a level of naivety there we are a london club we probably have that going for us that makes things a bit easier but still um we have we've built this organically haven't we we've had years we've had years of being called penny pinchers and bobbins and pretenders and all that type of stuff because we've because we've just we've simply not done what we're actually doing this summer and now we are doing that thing everyone's like hang on hang on you're supposed to no you're not supposed to do this bit you know keen neville all that they've got this very nice little pat on the head vibe with tottenham don't know where they like they like to know spurs are there or thereabouts but never really actually getting that good.

39:54Jack:I mean, what do you think about all that, basically? I find it, well, you almost answered the question in respect to your... I'm good at doing that. I'm good at doing that. Yeah, yeah, your thoughts are the same as mine. I find it absolutely mental, but I'm not surprised. Imagine buying your kid a toy only to find the batteries aren't included, or buying furniture but missing the tools to build it. Frustrating, right? Now imagine the exact same feeling, but you're paying way more. That is what buying business software usually feels like. Fragmented, disconnected, and incredibly expensive. Odoo completely changes that.

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41:07Whatever it may be, we are those ones that are kind of pushing. And we are that club that people like to kick down. you know there's no other club that has a the nickname of like akin to Spursy which I hate even mentioning it yeah you know that and they love it they love it oh you'll always muck it up and they that element I mentioned earlier on about how as Spurs fans we do actually kind of feel like you know we'll probably muck it up in the end and actually that's what happens with Spurs but that narrative kind of seeps out to everyone else and I it's been so difficult to watch everyone like all the media like loving the fact that spurs could go down like getting a frenzy about it you can feel it and of course now we haven't gone down it all goes quiet and they go away and then now we're spending money and like you say they're all a bit like what hang on a minute that's not right and it's like you got other clubs get it as well but i honestly believe that spurs get it we certain clubs get certain things in certain ways if you look at arsenal they get they get a kind of rollicking because of their style of playing if you look at last season and rightfully so um but for us i just feel like it's like how dare spurs try and think that they can do something um and it's and it's great that we're actually spending some money no we haven't won anything yet i mean it's brilliant that we won the the um the europa league i mean that finally that is fantastic and then of course you get people going well it's just a second tier in europe isn't it we're like well it's a european cup like have some of that you can't really send against that so I find it crazy or I mean I find it really crazy that Gabby Obonahor is so triggered by it all like it's so clear just do your research you work on talk sport man do your research if you if you've got a problem with the money just you know just have a look into it and you'll realize that well yeah we've got the money because we've set ourselves up like you said Daniel Levy did it for years and actually I think there's a lot to be thankful for for Daniel Levy who you know I wanted out of the club for years i think he's got us to a really good place where we should be thankful but he was also at a place now i think he was still working in the same means and was holding us back so it's happened at the right time that he's gone thankfully and there was a point almost a year ago or maybe just over where we thought that will never happen he'll never go and we're always going to be in this situation and we're not now um and the other teams can

43:25Jack:deal with it and i love it i think that's probably and it's it's starting to catch up with me now but it's not just that Spurs stayed up I do and it sounds spiteful it sounds quite nasty but I am realizing I do have a massive sense of relief that Levy has gone I felt I did feel quite conflicted about it at the time to a certain degree because he was a safe pair of hands despite all of the the kind of the the negatives to it the fact you know he was look the way in which he reportedly reacted to the Van Hecker deal saying that we've had our pants pulled down as you say it was completely that mentality that has plagued a lot of his reign at least in terms of like Tottenham as a as a footballing on the pitch entity right um but just that the back and forth the you know this under Levy right now we wouldn't have signed anybody yet we might have gotten Andy Robertson over the line but we wouldn't have signed it because it would have been it's too difficult to do business during the World Cup blah blah blah blah blah and we would have strung newcastle along until the end of the transfer window and then probably by that point somebody like city will have thought actually it let's have tonali let's get in there before tottenham do it was just the same thing it kept on happening over and over and over again and it can't be a coincidence no and we just we'd hit such a point really at spurs like pretty much since the stadium opened because it was like the stadium open we're there sort of rubbing our hands together like yes this is it this is the time for spurs to go now this is it this is when we're actually going to be a serious outfit and we just saw i mean how many years ago did he open now seven years ago so in like the six years post that stadium opening the same cycle continued to repeat and repeat and repeat but the problem is you saw the team's performances further diminishing you know we saw the the stature of the club the caliber of players available to us continue to just go down and down and down and you just thought this is just this is this is not good anymore this is not it's not fun it's not just a case that like my team isn't winning everything boohoo it's like this is actually just abject it's not fun to watch at all it's not fun to like you say be the the constant source of ridicule for everybody in football all the time so that now look if it takes us look if tonali isn't perfect if fernandez isn't perfect whatever but right now we've just drop big money on two decent players, two very good players.

45:47Jack:And it gives us that chance to just puff our chests out a bit and be like, do you know what? Fuck all of you. I don't care what Aston Villa are saying. I don't care what Newcastle are saying. I don't even care what Arsenal are doing at the minute. Spurs are acting in the way we've wanted them to act for a long time. And that's exciting. That time with Daniel Levy, like us getting to the Champions League final, I think that his way of working, obviously for him, when he's getting to the Champions League final, he must've thought, I'm the don. Everything I'm doing is working. I'm negotiating hard.