All Roads Lead Back To ENIC with Paul O Keefe | Why Frank Is Failing, The Relegation Threat & January Prospects (Q&A)

26:10Jack:offering them out and stuff is stupid. You should be above that, mate. And again, I'm not advocating for it. I'm not saying it's the right thing to do. But I think you're being disingenuous if you neglect the fact that fans shouting stuff at the pitch is part of the game. It always has been. It's not a modern football fan thing. It's always been a part of the game. There's always been that kind of noise coming from the stands or anything. So this idea that this is something new that's come along, I think is nonsense. And for a player like Miki Van Der Ven, for a player like Pedro Porian, who was also doing it, the Polinia thing seemed a bit different.

26:49Jack:He seemed to be acting like more of a peacemaker. I don't know, but Poro and Van Der Ven particularly were quite aggressive in their confrontation with the away end. I just think, lads, you're millionaires, you're athletes, just rise above it. Rise above some knuckle drag if he's shouting stuff about your mum or whatever. I don't know, whatever they're shouting out from the stands at them. What are they doing getting involved in scenes like that? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I guess my point to you is, where has this come from, do you reckon, this us against them thing with the fans? It just seems so toxic at the moment.

27:28Yeah, and I think what you've got to remember as well is if you take away the Europa League run last season, this has been the levels for a long time now it's not a case of it's just happened under frank and he's the he's the fucking devil and all the rest of it yeah and obviously last season was successful in the europe league fantastic and the players seemingly got up for that every single game which was good of them um and they sort of then mickey came out and said pretty much that they'd gone to the to the manager and said this is how we need to approach it blah blah blah um which you know it's when you're in a I like that.

28:05That's pretty shocking, really, that the players have gone to the manager and said, we have to change the tactics in order to actually win games. I mean, the manager should be doing that anyway, but regardless of that, the manager's gone now. But the level of Spurs has been, and I said this on X and so, I've got a little two pelters about it, but the regression hasn't just happened this season. The regression started the minute Kane left the building. Now, obviously, obviously he's a world-class footballer, best striker on the planet so that's going to have a massive impact on anyone. People say, yeah, but we finished fifth when he left and we're there without him and all that sort of stuff.

28:44That's just isolating one part of a season. Because if you take out the first 10 games of Angie's run, it's pretty mediocre and we sort of fell out of the run. In fact, we messed up finishing fourth, to be fair. I think we had three wins in our last 10 or something. So we could have actually been top four that season but this isn't a new thing this is you know tottenham like i say have been sort of gradually chipping away at getting worse instead of better for a few years now

29:15Jack:and this is this is all part of the conversation about you know should frank stay should he go yeah i look if you ask me gun to my head should he go yes i think he should i don't think he's really right for the role I don't like the football that I'm watching and I don't even think it's really been that effective in what it is he's trying to achieve which is to make us a more solid outfit you know numbers on the board would say we're still only a few points behind the top four top five to me that's more just a reflection of how poor the league is but still he's picking up enough wins he's picking up enough points that there's enough distance between us and say West Ham down at the nasty end of the table that could change in the coming weeks I hope not but it could do but if we choose to be positive you can say well look ahead of us we're not that far off of Liverpool for example so it might be alright but still at the same time I'm not particularly that fond of Frank I haven't really found him inspiring whatsoever I'm not really enjoying this current kind of like truth saying role of his where he continues to tell us how poor we are yeah fine we all understand that mate but it's your job to inspire us and to inspire the club right it's yeah so this sort of habit he's fallen into just telling it like it is i don't but it's a lot of people will say well you know you should be able to take that he's just telling the truth it's like i get that but that's not what his job is his job is to change that it's not to bog us down in what's already beat it's it's to sell us that vision of what we're going to become as opposed to just constantly saying well it's difficult you have to understand it's difficult you have to understand what the club are right now yeah we're all i think everybody is acutely aware of what the club is right now um yeah yeah but then it's quite who comes in you know now like you say who comes in in january brian mason he's just been sat from west brom yeah it's a horrible time there you know that That would be utterly ridiculous, wouldn't it?

31:20I mean, yeah, I think the annoying thing is, I think the fans would have been more accepting of these performances away from home, for example. Because away is, you know, if you get a point away, any point away is a decent point, blah, blah, blah. I get that. And if we were a bit more, if we had a few more home wins, you know, three, four more home wins, and all of a sudden they're sitting up at the higher end of the table. But what fans won't accept quite rightly is that sort of drab football at home and not appearing to not have any sort of gumption and sort of just go for the throat at home.

31:55And if we get beat, we get beat. But Spurs fans want to be, you know, they want to have some form of entertainment, not this, you know, let's wait for a set piece, nick it 1-0 and the job's a good sort of thing. Because those tactics, I mean, Jose obviously was very way successful with that sort of tactic. but, you know, it started to sort of affect him in his career, his sort of ratio to trophies, when football sort of cottoned on a few, like, and come out of that mould, and the more attacking brand of football was being more successful, obviously started by Metris to see in Pep. And obviously, we're never going to play like Mancí, but the fans, they just don't want to see that sort of, you know, build a brick wall and hope to get something on the break football.

32:41I don't think you get away with it at home. You certainly shouldn't get away with it at home. Away from home, I'd be much more accepting, because obviously, like I said, it's a different battle away from home. But in front of our fans, 65, you've got no excuses not to be going for the throat of clubs. And I think that's a fault of his, I think, that he's too... I wonder, subconsciously, all we ever heard last season was Tottenham are to attack him. they can't defend and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I think, yeah, he's gone too far that way in the defensive mode to sort of avoid that comparison to Antipos to Coghoun.

33:24So I just think that people will be far more accepting if the brand of football was us trying to have a go.

33:34Jack:It's, well, it's usually a Thursday, but we're doing it on a Friday. It seems to be everything's pushed a week back. So Q &A today, basically. A lot of questions every time you're on the show. So I'll fire through a few of these. AP, other Anthony, says, okay, is everyone working in line or is it pandemonium behind the scenes? I don't think, let's be honest, I don't think you can be aligned when, like I said earlier, You've got the DOF or one of the DOFs. I mean, a football club with two DOFs, it's obviously not common practice. I just don't see how you can be completely aligned. Yeah, from what I understand, our teacher was very keen to put forward deserving to be the manager of Spurs, not Thomas, whereas the board.

34:34And Daniel and Vinay wanted to put Frank in charge, so obviously they sort of won that battle. And whether that's behind the reasoning, what Fabio is sort of tempted to leave or not, I'm not sure, but I just don't see how you can be totally aligned. I mean, no business in the area is totally aligned, but I think at Tottenham, there's certainly sort of... How does Johan feel as well? Because he was essentially the director of football, and then they brought somebody in above him, although they say that they're both on an equal footing they can't be Fabio's reputation is going to be over Johan's every day of the week so I don't see how that can be aligned I think Johan himself must think what the fuck's going on here and I'm surprised that his nose isn't out maybe privately it is but they sat down on the couch together and gave up that sickly interview the period um lovely conversation about wine and all that yeah come on i mean yeah to answer his question i don't think they can be aligned that's that's not that's not inside knowledge i just think that's that's that's an opinion that you know looking at the facts of the surroundings of the appointment of fabio back at the club um i don't see how yeah homes noses and that joint

35:58Jack:to be honest. He also says, what do you reckon to the red nap on a shirt term rescue job until the end of the season job or is he too old 78? He's been out of the game for a long time as well hasn't he? Harry's fantastic I mean can you imagine I mean you know you worry about what Frank says in a press conference then Harry certainly would be would be loose-lipped if you like no I just don't see that happening it would be quite comical in fairness so I just don't think that happened. Robbie King's another one where people have floated a bit, haven't they, because he's been managing. Could he be our Darren Fletcher?

36:35Jack:No. No, I just, no. If you've got to remove what is an established company manager, regardless of what our opinions are, in fact, he can establish himself in the company. I don't think you can then just go, oh, basically any old ex-player can manage the club will be fine that just isn't going to happen that's not the real world um robbie no doubt could potentially have a huge career in football in the management side of things but i don't think he's ready to walk into into that with that board because the manager's got to have experience of dealing with with like a premier league board as well like you know dealing with proper high end we're not talking about small club here it's about the the top end of the premier league in stature.

37:25So yeah, I can't see an ex-player personally getting that role.

37:31Jack:Got an interesting one here from Andy Poirier. He says, as a Brentford follower, is Paul surprised that Frank has failed to step up to the role at our club and has misstepped with the fans so much? Or are we just looking at Frank behaving exactly how he did at Brentford but it's been magnified? Yeah, exactly. And I think people didn't realise quite how sort of not ruthless but forthright frankly he's very confident in his own abilities very very good to communicate with players in less of certainty they won't be he won't have been shy in telling them behind the scenes what's going on very much into data analysis very much into sort of being quite forthright and quite sort of like I say he can be quite sort of sharp with people, sharp with the media.

38:28So that doesn't really, I mean, everything about Thomas Frank today is about organisation. It was at Brentford when I spoke to one of their guys there, a very good friend of mine, who worked for them previously and worked under Frank with him and I said, what can we expect from Thomas? He said, organisation, everything will be organised. you could argue that we don't look very organized at the moment but yeah he hasn't surprised me in that I think sometimes he needs to sort of stop talking to be honest because people don't want to hear it but then again I sort of in a weird way I sort of admire the fact that he has the balls to come out and say as he sees it instead of just pandering to the fans and saying oh well you know blah blah blah and just sort of giving us a little little slush that people just don't want to hear that either.

39:23So it's a difficult balance to get from hearing hard truths to sort of protecting the club and I think it's a little bit of a downfall for me in not protecting the club and the players in the sense of winding up the fan base is not protecting the football club.

39:41Jack:Yeah, it's a strange one. it's a strange role that's the thing i've been most surprised about with him is the you know the the the lack of willingness to want to just play to the script a bit you know i don't know he just sort of he just seems to want it his own way a bit too much and it is interesting it's interesting it's interesting what you say about him being a very forthright communicator behind the scenes how he will be with the players because there's there has been some speculation We've seen, you know, Mickey Van Der Ven walk past him before at the end of the game. There's the other example of him giving them the tactical instruction, the piece of paper, and Van Der Ven seemingly not really taking to it very well.

40:29Jack:There's a few rumours now coming out that Van Der Ven doesn't want to stay at the club past the summer. He's just done a Gary Neville interview. He feels like he's a player that realises his stock is quite high, that he might get that move to a Madrid or somebody like that if they're in the market for a player of his physicality. But he is quite a young player. He's a fairly inexperienced player. His career at the point of arriving at Spurs hadn't been that brilliant. I think he was seen as a pretty raw talent. And I did see a few raised eyebrows when Spurs spent the amount of money that they did on him.

41:06Jack:I think it's turned out to be a magnificent investment. I think he's a wonderful player, Mickey van der Verde. Yeah, yeah. But do you think he will be in for something of a rude awakening if he thinks he's going to leave Spurs and it's going to be any less structured or any less organised without Thomas Frank? If we talk about him going to a Madrid or somebody like that, I think he's going to be quite surprised, isn't he, if he's already feeling stifled by somebody like Thomas Frank now. terrible I mean I think Matt's article I haven't read it by the way but just what does it basically say that he's just upset with how things are going yeah direction of travel essentially I would hope he is to be honest I mean you know what we all are so I don't really buy into that sort you don't hear these stories when they're winning games it's all bollocks mate you know everyone's disgruntled and it's always a problem because basically people are the natural sort of reactions to sort of blame other people in any in any scenario they don't look close enough for themselves and actually you know what i should just shut up and fucking sort myself out and the players are the place always like that we have every manager jose's had player unrest and just had player unrest stories uh conti fair unrest story it's just boring lads you need to sort yourselves out in my opinion and then if you're doing it on the pitch and we can see that as fans that you're delivering that you're doing what you can maximize out of yourself then the rest will naturally look after so anyway, the manager's not performing he's going to get the bullet isn't he but you can't keep hiding the managers I don't know what's Mickey seen now, he must have seen three or four managers as well so come on lads just get your heads down fucking get out of this mess, start putting some points on the board, and then you can talk.

43:05Six months ago, you're parading a trophy around the high road, you know? So it's not been that bad for your careers. So for me, just shut up and start performing.

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44:34Jack:Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. Just on a sort of flip side to this, do you think it could be conceivable that there's an element of these players, to say like your van defense and such, that probably think, I've done all I'm going to do at Spurs. In terms of because of that cup, because of the trophy, that's as good as it's going to get here and I'm going to need to leave if I want to do bigger things. Are the club not sufficiently selling them a vision that we are here to compete with the best?

45:11Jack:I always use this example, but we take the piss out of Arsenal for Arteta displaying holes in the trophy cabinet saying this is where we're going to put the Champions League trophy. But at least they're selling players a vision. they're telling them what they want to do it doesn't feel like those noises come from Spurs much Yeah I mean how would they warrant that speak anyway, one trophy in the last 17 years and unfortunately it's a football food chain as well we have to accept that, we're not going to be able to prize away the top elite players and we need to go over the rung on the ladder beneath that and show that the club is ambitious and I think this all comes from like I say we've heard them in the summer putting out soundbites every two minutes that they're as ambitious as the fans are but ultimately if that's the case fine let's judge them after this window and the summer window because then you could say well they've had full control if you like and not Daniel Baby that they've been sort of allowed him to babysit for 20 odd years and not really interfere with him so now it's really you know is it too early for us to sort of judge in that sense they did attempt to spend money in the summer they obviously eventually spent a lot of money on Zabby Simmons and they saw to be fair in the summer I didn't really criticize them much because I felt the window was quite pointed in the end you know they went out and they got their they got their um creative player in Zabby and they addressed other issues apart from sort of the left back and the left wing which obviously the left wing wizard.

46:51They were trying to address that in fairness to them. So, you know, they're always two or three players short. That's what frustrates me the most about Tottenham.

46:58Jack:And it got overshadowed by the Eza thing and all that type of stuff, didn't it? But it wasn't an alright window overall, really. Well, yeah, looking back, it doesn't appear to have been in the sense of not, you know, those players haven't sort of clicked, if you like. But at the time, obviously, everyone was like, wow, this is a statement of intent. I mean, Spurs awarded, you know, when you take in their overall sums of money involved for Sammy Jarvis-Sinnon, it's their biggest deal that they've ever done for football in terms of salary and then obviously his fee, so it's spread over 20 years, and he's got like a six and a half a year contract so they're fully invested in that kind of player for years to come but you can't just do, unfortunately in modern things, you can't just do that for one player, they need any three or four of those sort of types of big, big moves.

47:51Well, that's it, isn't it? Lay down a marker and say, actually, do you know what? Look at what Spurs are doing. You know? Then, you know, then you can sort of say, hang on, the board have gone out and really tried to, you know, go for it. And if that fails, then ultimately, then you can start saying, well, that's got to be down to management. But the odds are, if you push your line to higher end quality football, then you're going to get better results. There's not too much rocket science involved in that.

48:20Jack:Well, this leads on to this question from Seth, who says, why is it that we're signing 19-year-olds of no top-level experience and not signing anyone I've known? Yeah. I think, to be fair, all these sort of things can run simultaneously. So although they are trying to get that deal for the record done, that's obviously a much easier deal to do when you've got a 19-year-old impressionable Brazilian footballer offering in Premier League football. So, you know, the opportunity to come to the Premier League for him, you know, the opportunity for Spurs is that they get cover in that left-back position for the next couple of years or three, four years under destiny.

49:03And then hopefully you have someone that can progress and take his spot eventually. So I get that. And obviously Jed's been able to play both sides and it makes sense that we do address that issue. Obviously, Ben will probably wrap up at the end of the season or certainly the end of next. So I get all of that. And the deal must, like I say, they have to be in talks with others more established at the same time. And the difficulty with them is the more established players. Semenya has only gone because his clause in his contract was expiring, I think, around the 10th of January or something. so it had to be done in the first 10 days of the window.

49:44And he had a release clause. So Tottenham tried him in the summer. They made an offer to him in the summer. On personal terms, his agent and him and Bournemouth had an idea that they would start the season together. He would get a pay rise and half of his pay rise would be a release available from January. So, yeah, Semenya's unlucky in the sense of it just got beaten by a bigger fish, which that happens, not problem with that. But, yeah, so now we need to sort of, you know, be linked with sort of bigger established names as where's the replacement? Because you went to this guy, you tried to talk to him in the summer.

50:26You did talk to him in the summer. So, you know, where's the sort of backup? Semenya, I think they're able to try and revisit that. there's also that get at Monaco as well they'll probably yeah they'll try to look at him again obviously there's Mamouche City as well which they've sort of run their eye over so they need to pull something out of the bag as we talk or whatever it is midday on Triddyville the 10th so we've got like 22 days of opportunity so let's just see what happens but they desperately need to address that left side of the pitch it's a gaping hole and you're relying on kids like over until 19 20 years of age it can work but ultimately you need established players in this window

51:26Jack:and it's not fair on them either it's not fair on their development to be expected to play in this sort of environment. I know people would say boo-hoo about them and stuff, but you can see Tell has talent. I know people differ in their opinion about how much talent he has, but I thought he looked like one of our best players the other evening. He was at least trying things. He at least had a sort of air of self-belief about him. Yeah, and I see people hammering arches as well, and I think to myself, the boy is 19. He's 19 years of age. he's been thrown in the right back, centre back he's played at number 10 the other week you know, and he gets pouters and I just think yeah, this is not good I mean, in later years when I look back on his career and do you know what, those two years that I was basically Mr.

52:17fucking Mr. sort of Jack in the box playing every single position the Spurs were good for my development but right now I'm not I'm not so sure what the fans are forgiving enough on Archie in particular.

52:34Jack:I think it's mad because I think you can see glimpses of him being a really top player. I'm not saying it would definitely happen, but equally I wouldn't be overly surprised if he ended up, you know, City coming for Wharton, Palace going for Gray, and Gray ends up being almost as good as somebody like a Wharton. You know, he's clearly got a lot of talent there. Yeah, and given a settled role, because at the moment he's just basically missed the utility, isn't he? There's a lot of pressure to put on a kid of 19 years or age. I think we forget that. He's played a lot of football as well, like third kid of his age.

53:15And that's great. If he'd been playing in a preferred position every single week, that's fantastic. It's not that he could come on the place. but it seems to me like oh we have an issue with a certain part of the part of the picture let's try archie there which you know i can say for a kid at 19 that's a lot of responsibility

53:36Jack:um so we've got trusty because it's quite a few that are all based you know all sort of along this similar theme why we're just going for kids and not for adults you know so i'm just to give people shout Linus Stemfeld Jack C John John of Youngblood well no actually no let's do this one John said any chance now that Benton Keren Bergvall's injuries mean that the focus can be on a deep line progressive passer maybe a sign where Frank has no choice but to utilise and play through the lines yeah absolutely I mean yeah I mean that's what happens in the January window you know and you know clubs start to sort of panic a bit.

54:17And to be honest, that can be to the benefit of the fans because, you know, they make moves that they might not necessarily have considered previously. So, yeah, there is a, obviously that's going to, they're going to paint everything. Yeah, apparently they've got a long-term now for Kulis, is it? Are they saying it's going to be a couple of months or something? So, they've got a long-term obviously with Kulu in that area, so all of a sudden we haven't got a right winger now. So we need to address that side as well as the left. I suppose you could play tell there and try that. That obviously leaves the squad short.

54:58I think Dom, well, fingers crossed he's back soon. So that will help. I think it'd be good to judge Frank Webber proper centre-forward, whatever your opinions are on Solanke himself. I think that you need to be able to judge a team on the actual players in the preferred positions and sort of not sort of making do. So it'd be good to see Solanke back and see that sort of form he can reach. But yeah, absolutely. I think that moves in January, you know, I think Frank alluded it to the other day when he said something about there'll be six names on the list for the positions and you might get to number six.

55:39and that might sort of what he's affected to say was that might tie Joe for 18 months and then you have to go again on that on that on that list so yeah I think plasters are in order and I do think that sometimes you get you can you can buy a plaster that turns out to be you know a top buy and so yeah I expect them to to sort of react to that in all honesty

56:03Jack:this is interesting because we haven't actually spoken about this yeah MJB Hotspur says would Paul have the attention to detail to notice an Arsenal badge on a coffee cup? What a comical PR nightmare yeah, yeah, stupid isn't it somebody's taken the piss out of him have they right that seems to be what's happened, a Bournemouth member of staff or something so for every away visiting team they brand the cups okay so I mean cup gates we're talking about, so someone's giving him a cup of coffee and he just fucking you know obliviously obliviously took it um yeah and that's that's not a deliberate actor you know that i mean come on he's not that daft um no one's you know do you get yourself riled up about it i mean you can i suppose there's an argument there say how could you not check for them someone hands you a cup of coffee oh thanks mate yeah you're not necessarily but yeah not a good look, embarrassing more than anything else the fact that he didn't spot it.

57:06Jack:Yeah, I'll be honest, my head was on Mars, mate. After that, I was so livid, I was just so annoyed about the day and I was just like, look, he's laughing in the picture, he knows he's taking the piss out of us, you know. Afterwards now you're a bit like, whatever, it's just some cheeky knob at Bournemouth has taken the piss a bit, giving it to him and thought, well, this would be funny, you know. and yeah yeah just it feels like in some ways and i know some of it's of his own making but it feels like the bloke can't catch a break at the moment doesn't it yeah he feels like mr bean character the moment yeah it feels like mr bean himself yeah exactly that's what it feels like yeah so uh you know he really does need to sort of get get results get out of this this i think this they need to get out of this mindset of sort of dumbing down everything because I think that creates a vibe around the club as well.

58:00It's okay being honest, but at the same time, your job is to sort of motivate and inspire with the fans and obviously the players themselves. So, yeah, I hope the way he's talking behind the scenes is not quite as sort of dumbing down, you know, and I've been dumbing down how good we are, but we're still an established Premier League club that shouldn't be sitting in sort of 14th place and not able to pick up a home win. I mean, you know, albeit we probably are much better, but we should be between sort of eighth and tenth as a bare minimum. And again, just, you know, playing a style of football that is certainly more attractive than the current one.

58:44Jack:I've got one here. I don't know if I'd want to do it as prescriptively as this, but JB has said, if you had to assign a percentage of blame for our current situation, how would you spread it out across? And he's given like a lot of different ideas. So like Levy, Enoch, Vinay, Lange and Perattici, Frank, the players. I mean, what I'm saying is, you know, you don't need to work it out to a hundred percent here, Paul, but where do you sort of balance out the blame, if you like, across all the different elements of the club? I think ultimately the buck stops with the board, ultimately. I mean, going back, like I say, don't want to harp on too much about Harry, but when you lose a player of that calibre, one of your own England's captain, the best striker known to man pretty much in the last decade in Stinnies, you've got to be able to go, well, bang, there you go.

59:40They haven't done that. The board have leapt from different project to project. One minute they want to be in Juventus, by buying two of their players and that style of football with Antonio Conte and then they leap to another manager who's a polar opposite out in range, they're bringing Scott Munn. It's just, it's like you know, a rudderless sort of ship leaping from one captain to another captain hoping that something sticks. So I think a large portion of blame has to go to the board. I don't think it's they've sort of clearly had a vision and stuck to it so now you could argue is the time to stick to this vision if they believe in it and if they believe in thomas frank just cut out all the noise and stick to it and see where you go with it um or they lead to yet another project you know tottenham have had six managers in the last six years frank will be the seventh should he get um sack and then you're going to what you're going to another project with another manager another way of doing things is it a data-led approach you know this data-led approach has led to basically employing frank so do you then abandon that um and i think also the board would look a bit silly this this supposedly new board that we have you know from six months ago giving it you know we're going to be ambitious thomas frank's oh man he's the man to lead us into in our test style of era, blah, blah, blah, whatever.

1:01:12Can they rip that up six months down the line without looking stupid? Probably not. So I suspect he might get the season unless it turns even more toxic. What's your take on Pochettino, Paul?

1:01:28Jack:He's been winking at us forever. He's got the World Cup, but then when that's out of the way, there's anything to be an element of spiritual healing to it. I know people are saying, no, it won't be as good as the last time. Yeah, invariably it probably won't be, but at least if he gets us back on track a bit, men's a bit of the, you know, the hurt, if you like, right now. Surely it wouldn't be the worst thing, would it? This is typical Spurs fans romanticism, isn't it? Me in particular, mate. We all, we've all been down that road, and maybe I'm just a miserable old man now, which is highly likely but I just don't think you go back there to be honest there's some really good calibre of manager that's going to be available in the summer I think Pochettino is not going to walk in he's not going to have a Harry Kane he's not going to have Hume Nsson he's not going to have a Dembele Toby I don't know I know there were members of the board that previously were against it and Daniel was certainly more sort of, he was more wavering towards speaking to me, you know, the other board members and obviously Daniel gone now.

1:02:47So I don't see that one happening, but it's football, so you can never say never, but you've got the likes of Julian Nagelsmann that will be available in the summer. Obviously Oliver Glasner, although as much as I rate Oliver, and I think he's probably top three, for in the world at the moment, coaching-wise. His style is not... It's not that different, is it? It's not possession-based football. So, yeah, that would be... We'd probably... Yeah, I think he's brilliant. I can't lie, but I just think, potentially, I'd be cursing after six months going, well, there's no difference between him and Frank.

1:03:28But there's going to be other managers available. I think that's why United are probably sort of looking at the interim stage for them because of the quality of managing that will be in the summer so I think the board would probably prefer to sort of block their way through to the summer and sort of reassess and have yet another reassessment

1:03:53Jack:I'm just sort of having a look through Paul but it's a lot of the questions and I thank everybody for asking them I feel like we've answered a lot of this and spoken about a lot of this naturally as the conversation has gone along. I guess just what I would finally put to you, Paul, is have you heard anything? Have you heard if anything interesting at all is going to happen this window? Yeah, it's very, very... Spurs are very protective of the matter anyway, so they're not sort of communicating very much at all anyway because obviously when a club's under pressure, they just sort of bury their heads a little bit.

1:04:31and Frank's under pressure, so they don't tend to lead with much, whereas when the club's flying, they want all the good press out there. Yeah, we're in for this fair, we're in for that player, blah, blah, blah. So, yeah, that's a bit quiet. Obviously, because it's also, it's a bit of, who's dealing with what now? What's Fabio up to? When's he going? Is he going to do this window and leave? What's the sort of situation there? I was always told that after the 4th of January, they were probably letting go. that's obviously come and gone, so that's a strange one. They're still talking about him in press conferences, saying, yeah, we're aligned with Xabiho, which is a little bit weird.

1:05:11So, yeah, all I can say is that I know that they're desperately trying to work on the left side of the attacking area. And, yeah, if they can, if they can get a creative player stroke 10, then that would also be ideal because they need that cover there. Obviously, you've got Zabby, but they need... Obviously, James is going to be out for the season, so they need that area addressed. And now, obviously, with the injury, then potentially they could try and get a right-sided player in as well. So it's mainly focused on the attacking areas. I think the defensive side of things, they're quite content to go with, particularly if they get cover at the left-back area.

1:05:56so yeah I think as the window warms up more panic will ensure Tottenham and the more names will get out and then we can sort of dig on those and see how far progress they are

1:06:06Jack:Nothing like that is it? Nothing like being reactive to a house burning down versus just you know maybe making sure the house doesn't burn down in the first place but you know This is a trait of Daniels Tottenham for 20 odd years this is how they've always behaved Daniels was a reactive chairman and Tottenham have been a reactive club they need they need for things that break before they replace it instead of being you know sort of um proactive in the sense of well you know not fixing the car before it breaks now they just want to run it into the ground and then they'll do something about it well hopefully they'll sell up one day mate and we can be free of this but i mean they've got the opportunity to change their narrative so it's on them ultimately because you know if they came out this spring now and all of a sudden, bang, is a bid for so-and-so.

1:06:54Even if you're not successful, it shows an intent. And you just never know. If you pull one or two off, then all of a sudden, the mood can change very quickly. If they win the next three, all of a sudden, you've got to cut the players in. Hang on a minute.

1:07:11Jack:Well, look at Newcastle, a prime example of that, right? They had a similar season to us, and then they've won, I think, the last three, four games, and they're right back up in the mix again. Yeah, and they went out and they replaced their star man. They're Harry Kane, if you like, in the sense of Alexander Isaac. He got out of the club, whereas we kept Kane for as long as we possibly could. But they went out and they spent a lot of money on a centre-forward, and that's work for them. He's done all right. It's no guarantee. You look up the road, they're number nine. You can't hit a butt. Cal's also a banjo.

1:07:46but obviously they're still flying high anyway so they've got goals all over the pitch. And that's what Spurs need. I mean, if you take out Richarlison's goals, I don't think we've... Yeah, Mishielders have probably got half a dozen between them with that. So, yeah, Spurs need desperately goals on their side, don't they? I don't think the attackers are anywhere near where we should be at the moment.

1:08:10Jack:Paul, it's been an absolute pleasure as always, mate. Is there anything you want to... Any plugs? at the end, talk? No, I think people by now know where to find me. So, yeah, let's hope for a positive January window, certainly the next 20 days worth anyway. Lovely job. Thanks very much, Paul. Well, no worries, man. Thank you.

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1:09:17Jack:I'd probably get a better pitch inside, but... Let's be having you. I love the fact that he's chosen that moment to go, do you know what, now I'm going to do it. The England pod. If he plays regular minutes this season of Manchester City, he will re-emerge as one of the best players that we've got. All on Europe's biggest sport podcast network. Find your next favourite sport podcast. Search Sport Social Podcast Network and listen wherever you get your podcasts. Sports Social Podcast Network. Verified comparison at content.sport-social.co.uk forward slash comparison.