Are Spurs Too Big To Go Down? | The Liverpool Defeat, Purity of Ethos vs Winning At All Costs & Paratici To Fiorentina

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24:58Phil:Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 21 plus only. Must be physically located in Illinois. T's and C's apply. In-app only. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, I mean, I think in a perfect world, what you want to be able to do is win games and win them well, right? You want to win it exciting. You want to see, you know, flair and all that sort of thing. But the important thing is you have to win games. I don't like this idea that I'd rather lose 4-3 and play well than win 1-0 and lose. No, mate. Certainly not at the moment. I don't know how much of this actually kind of is... I know it's often spoken about and it's often cut a stick to beat certain managers with.

25:36Phil:And I know that, again, like I just said, we all want to see good football. Every football team, every football fan wants to see their team playing well and exciting football. But that's a bit cart before the horse, it seems. I think football has changed a bit since the 40s, if I could say that. That's a huge shout. But, you know, just referencing your point about, you know, 50s push and run and all that sort of thing. This idea that a manager is going to get binned out of the club because he's winning, but he's not winning in the right way. Yeah, maybe. But again, that shows that we've got a foundation where we can work on.

26:14Phil:And I think that's what we need to do at the moment, right? I think Thomas Frank needs to start winning football games, however, because we are not getting points on the board. And, you know, this question or this kind of idea of relegation, as I said, shouldn't be in our kind of vocabulary. But it is just because of how, you know, the direction that we've been taking the last couple of seasons. So we need to win. So we need to kind of ignore that, I think, and just get some get some solidity in the team. because, you know, that's, I don't know, you know, forensically about these other kind of teams or these kind of great teams of the past, but you can even point to kind of Wenger's Arsenal, right?

26:51Phil:Again, I hate to use that as an example, but they were known to have like a great defensive unit as well, right? That the flair was then built on. So I think there's something there in terms of you can't just play or you just can't focus on flair and attack and all that sort of thing. You have to build from the back, right? That's the common cliche, right? And I think that's what we need to do. We need to focus on being hard to beat and winning by whatever cost. Because, you know, take the point of that Liverpool fan on your stream yesterday or the other day. Yesterday, wasn't it? That's how you win.

27:26Phil:You win by winning at all costs. Not just be like, oh, well, we can't do it the way we want to do. Or, you know, we've had our creative player sent off. He's out for the next three games. So, oh, well, what are we expected to do? we can't play the way we want to, we'll try, but it'll probably fail. No, mate, we've got to start winning games. Now, whether or not Thomas Frank can even do that is another question. I don't think necessarily he's chosen not to be pragmatic. I mean, I know he's not played Benton Coor and Palinia together for a little while since that sort of question came up. But I think that was more about the fact that even if we were playing those two players together, we started to not win games so it suddenly started not working regardless even if you're trying to kind of be pragmatic so I think it's more about him trying to find out the correct kind of um makeup of the team to get something that's anywhere close to being a successful team so yeah um in answer to this question no I don't think we need to focus on being attractive at the moment we need to focus on winning games any by any means necessary but I guess this is something that this is this is the

28:36Jack:conundrum isn't it this is the problem that we find that that just that that seemingly isn't going to fly in in the ground at all is it um and I do think this this is a I don't know this hints towards a somewhat existential struggle at at Tottenham as a football club um because we've tried Mourinho we've tried Conte we've tried those managers that grind matches out now I think were we to reflect on the tenure of those two managers whatever we think about them and I've had varying opinions on the pair of them but wherever we think about them one of the common unifying factors of the two of their tenures is that they weren't really properly supported by Daniel Levy when you know that was kind of the self-defeating thing about Daniel Levy and his approach to football bring in the managers that need loads of money to be successful and not give them money and then be surprised when it doesn't really work out and they get really angry and say nasty things about the club right yeah it was just so very Tottenham and so very Daniel Lee no it wasn't very Tottenham it was very Daniel Levy both of those the outcomes of both of those managerial um tenureships so I guess if we to compare Frank to Conte and Mourinho is is a ridiculous comparison in many respects i i appreciate that i do it merely because he is clearly trying to you know emulate a similar play style to to those two okay there might be a 2025 say update or whatever on on the fundamental way of playing football or something but what i'm talking about is the principles behind it as we say win at all costs minimize optimize opposition chances create create as many kind of spammy opportunities to score goals as we can without sacrificing too many players forwards hence why it's long throws and set pieces and stuff that we focus on predominantly but when we're not getting results that's not going to work is it and you know do we add do we add better players into the mix and then results pick up i don't know do people become pacified and all right with us grinding out games when we're winning i mean we were pretty happy about the europa league weren't we and we were grinding that out against angers you know principles and everything like that i don't know like we we adopted that win now mentality for that and we all sort of enjoyed that so i don't know i'm not i'm i'm not i'm not you know positing any kind of solutions to this whatsoever i'm simply just going over in my own head I'm thinking aloud if you like about the the problems that Spurs face as a club and you know I don't I don't really see how Enoch can solve that but what I think they can do in my opinion at least is give us a roadmap is give us something to aim for is give fans something to buy into because it feels like across the club in general you mentioned kalishevsky earlier mentioned solanke you know those two examples and that's you know solanke is now becoming victim to all these kind of salacious weird rumors and stuff which are which are quite obviously false um because the club simply do not communicate what is going on the club don't communicate anything you know past a few nebulous throwaway lines about you know often evoking the spirit of to dare is to do or saying something about bill nicholson or do you know what i mean like that that type of stuff they don't really give us anything tangible to to believe in to root for who is langer what does he stand for most of our learnings about langer are from the journalists are from the guys at the athletic or from you know tifo videos analyzing the sort of players he's signing or looking into his history and yeah he does these the odd interviews of like Hainsey and stuff like that on Spurs TV but we still don't really know what type of club he's trying to build do you know what I mean like we do other than sort of throwaway lines about like front-footed football and stuff because we never see that transpire on the football pitch you know we sign players like Jao Polina who I'm not completely I'm not completely throwing under the bus I am starting to hear a lot more of the concerns that we've heard about him from the the start of the season from some of the more sort of tactical based accounts and you know analysis in in the spurs sphere i still think he he serves a purpose to a degree if we were to use him you know in a in a better fashion but but my point is he's the type of player we signed in summer and if johan langer is worth his soul as a talent acquisition talent identification guy then surely he's going to see well this isn't a progressive footballer this isn't somebody that allows you to play on the on the front foot if you like um so it's it's just it's all it's all very mixed it's all very mixed messages and i think it's that it's that confusion and that sense of chaos around the club that breeds this toxicity that breeds this sense of unease and just discomfort amongst the fan base hence why there's booing at halftime hence why there's no real sort of unifying battle cry anymore there's nothing because because there's nothing to rally behind all right we've got the cockerel above the stadium right and that's obviously what brings us all together and that's the you know the fire underneath us if you like but past that what is it like what is it that we're that we're aiming to do we don't we don't have that spelled out to us do you want to win the league do you want to win the champions league one day tell us tell us what it is that you want and then we can get behind it but until we've got that i think we're going to continue to go around in circles like this um because you know do i want us to sack thomas frank i don't know like i genuinely don't know there's there's a big emotional part of me after every single one of these games and we lose where i'm thinking get him out the door this is never going to get any better you know you and i we have chats on whatsapp where we have those sort of side I chat to each other where you're like this just has that feel where it's not happening doesn't it but we're not really basing that on anything other than not liking seeing Spurs lose games not liking seeing Spurs play quite boring football and when you do see say some of the the agitating voices in the media a Chris Sutton or somebody like that saying Spurs fans are spoiled and entitled they need to get behind their manager I think it frustrates us because there's a part of us that thinks it's nonsense but there's also probably a begrudging part of a lot of us that thinks well maybe we do need to stick with a manager but why does it have to be this guy I don't know

35:33Phil:you know I'm just sort of trying to make sense of it almost yeah yeah um I think all roads manager playing staff direction and club it all leads back to the chairman not that we have a chairman anymore but whoever it is so it's that it's that level you can you can replace frank if you want it's not going to make a huge amount of difference I don't think because of you know and I've got very sort of dim view on our playing stuff I know I know some people think it's more coaching and stuff but I think it can be I think both things can be true I think that personally you know I've said to you that I think that we actually need to kind of gut this squad or certainly gut the kind of the the first 11 with some sort of with some painful decisions to make just because I just feel like there's this malaise or this rot that's sitting in from like last season where with losing has just become commonplace which I think I don't know how you kind of coach that out of people really I mean if it's once it's set in first of all it shouldn't have set in second of all they should be able to get themselves out of it third of all if you can't then just have to kind of get rid of it so yeah it all kind of points back to me that we just need a we as you say we need kind of direction we need an idea of what the hell we're doing because you know how can Chris Sutton you know I heard him speaking to you when you did the what was it five live but yeah he's talking about you're entitled and that's like well we are entitled to a team that isn't absolutely terrible mate you know so I'll agree with you there it's not like we're not asking you know that we should win the Champions League in the Premier League every season don't get me wrong it'd be nice but there's a huge gulf between that and getting upset compared to the absolute dross that we've been served up recently and over the last 18 months or so.

37:21So I think that's really sort of unfair.

37:24Phil:And as you say, it does get us rattled, as it's kind of getting me rattled now just thinking about it. But yeah, I mean, I will say that there does seem to be movement in certain areas in terms of kind of the culture of the club. Quick wins maybe, but stuff like Daniel Levy just would never bother to do. and he'd never bother to do it. I think that's the thing. You just didn't see the benefit in it. You know, there was talk about the club actually starting to move season ticket holders around so that we could create a singing section. You know, a quick win and an easy thing that any sort of, you know, ownership group should do for the atmosphere of the stadium.

38:07Phil:Again, no brainer, right? But just something that Daniel Levy just didn't want to do, mainly because I suppose he didn't want a group of lads singing for his head every week in the same spot. But still, you know, so those sorts of things. So there are kind of suggestions that we are starting to move into a bit more of a proper place in terms of what a football club should be doing. But again, it just comes back to the same point. We need to see some players coming in. We need to see some experience coming in. You know, we talk about Frank is playing this way and he's going down the wings and spamming crosses in and stuff.

38:41Phil:which of us could point out a you know a makeup of this squad into a first 11 that is that kind of football that we want I just don't think the players are there mate you know you point to Paulina and you know I find it a bit strange that there's this you know and I think it's become a bit trendy to knock him and say he's the big problem he might be kind of emblematic of as you say kind of buying players that don't really fit what we're supposed to do but that being said I still think there's room for him in the squad right a player like that because he's experienced he's really good at what he does he's not great at some of the things that he doesn't do well but you know but again it just points to the fact that the squad is in such a bizarre shape and we just don't have the kind of technical ability to play certain ways and that's you know and that's not letting Thomas Frank off the hook I still think he should be doing better regardless but it's all about it's just about the players and the kind of culture of the squad the team that needs needs changing it's almost like we're back to square one or we've only just started you know the whole culture of the club wasn't really there Pochettino came in batted against you know Daniel Levy a lot of the time but because we had Kane's son Ericsson Dele Dembele all these kind of players it kind of papered over the fact that we didn't have a direction the direction was commercial get the stadium that'll you know we were told that that'll get us onto a um a good place in in order to be able to compete.

40:07Phil:But that turns out it was a massive lie, to be honest, given what we've heard from Peter Charrington talking about how these, or not necessarily him talking about it, but there have been the comments about how these loans and stuff were structured to the point where it meant we had to keep our salary cap down. You know, that wasn't supposed to be what this stadium was, mate, by the way, right? That we were told the opposite. Game-changing, the literal words. It was game-changing. It turns out it's actually game-changing in the opposite direction because, again, just badly done. Done well, yeah, all right, well done.

40:40Phil:You got a great rate from the Bank of England or whomever to be able to build this stadium. Well done you. Champagne corks flying. But to not see that the knock-on effect would mean that you couldn't play the players what they wanted to. Again, I assume Daniel Levy expected the financial fair play stuff to come in and that wouldn't matter so much. But, you know, I think hindsight's a wonderful thing, but big surprise teams have found a way to circumvent all of that so suddenly he's out the door that all these things things need to change and again there's very sort of tedious stuff to have to worry about football again that's why darts is good because it's just lads chucking stuff into a cork board I'm sure there is other things going on in the background but we don't have to care about that you can just watch it enjoy it for what it was you don't have to watch a game like yesterday and think oh Xavi Simmons has been sent off now who have we got as our you know we can't play this way we've got to do this all these january's coming it's not how it should be well i will say about javi simmons getting sent off means that he didn't i mean because he was sent off means he couldn't give the ball away anymore so that's probably why we looked a bit better it was it was a bit of a disaster car sonnet from him it really was yeah yeah and i'm keeping my powder dry on him but no no one is safe from fraud watch put it that way to use someone else's trademark it was say uh where were you on it it

41:57Jack:It was a red card for me. I mean, I get the frustration that the law isn't always applied evenly, but I don't think you can look at that and say it wasn't a red card, can you?

42:07Phil:There wasn't any intent to it, I don't think. And I think it looks like Van Dyke suddenly changed direction and caught Xavi off guard, but he's recklessly gone and his foot scraped down the back of his Achilles. I mean, you know.

42:20Jack:Do you see what Van Dyke said? What? He's such a dislikable character for me. he said uh i mean i've only seen it in black and white i haven't seen it you know him say it so i don't know how it was delivered but the quote was something like you know whether he meant to do it or not he's ready to you know studs down my down the back of my leg he's ripped my socks he's hurt me but don't worry i had a word with him about it afterwards and what i said to him stays between me and oh no he said what i said to him you don't need to know which i just sort of i took as a bit of a like big man kind of you know i don't know maybe it wasn't that's i just don't like him

42:57Phil:rich coming from him given that as soon as that happened the clips of him doing it to solanke he's absolutely odious that bloke isn't he and he's so past his best it's unreal and he just he is washed isn't he like wash that guy yeah proper washed whiffy baller um it's uh

43:18Jack:it's probably a good time to bring up the fact that Fabio Peratici, I don't think it's communication officiado yet, but is on his way out of Tottenham Hotspur. He's going to, I think, bottom of the Serie A Fiorentina. Won one game or season to, I don't know, be there, you know, bloke that signs players man there.

43:45Phil:bit damning that that's seen as a step up from us isn't it

43:50Jack:I think I saw somebody say and I can't reference them because I can't remember who it was on Twitter to say it's going to be more of like a chairman type role he's going to have a lot more control than he would do at Spurs and you know make of that what you will but I thought it might be an idea to sort of go over some of the players that we've signed that we can probably attribute to him see if he was a net good or you know not even a net bad just all right for Spurs and if we're actually that upset to see him go I'll say up front my gut feeling is not particularly bothered that he's going how do you feel do you are you worried about him as an individual going are you worried about it perhaps being an indication of a larger systemic issue at Spurs that he's getting away from, nodding to all the things we've just been speaking about in the first half of the podcast.

44:46Jack:Where are you at?

44:47Phil:The concern for me is timing, because as I said, how important this January window is for us and losing someone who works on deals, regardless of the discussion we're about to go into. You know, I think that's problematic. But other than that, I'm not fussed at all, to be honest. In fact, I'm quite, I was never sort of sure about him. He always kind of struck me as another one of these blokes in a flash suit that has, you know, managed to kind of hoodwink Daniel Levy, which has happened quite a lot over the years, I think.

45:24Phil:Get someone else in who's a bit more kind of, you know, doesn't just rely on, I wouldn't say dodgy deals. I don't want to get you or me in trouble, but deals, as you say, kind of in like, you know, Serie A on his content, contacts. that feels a bit outdated is my point so if he wants to go and as long as it doesn't leave us in the shit for January then no no real problem again is what I want to see is someone who knows what Spurs is you know I don't mean necessarily that kind of you know flair push and run football stuff I just want someone who kind of gets the club and kind of gets the frustration and it gets where we are and knows how to kind of bring it forward so you know Paratici just seemed like he He was here for a bit and wasn't overly that kind of, you know, it was a job to him is my point.

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47:39Jack:Do you think it's an unfair thing to say that he seemed like a guy? Look, my sort of take on him was he was a guy that wasn't really great at maybe getting as proactive deals that were signed for a particular purpose. Hence why our squad is a bit all over the place. I don't blame him solely for that. But I think he, again, probably fanned the flames of that mentality at Spurs. He just seemed to be a bit of a well-connected chancer, as you say, that could bell up clubs like Juventus and say, you got anyone you want out the door? Oh, Kulisevski and Bentanka. All right, I'll see what the boss reckons, see if he wants them in.

48:18Jack:That just felt like his whole MO. Yeah. Hence why we probably brought Langer in, right?

48:24Phil:Yeah, this is the thing. that's you describing that that's exactly what Daniel Levy wanted right someone to do the deals that Daniel Levy liked to do in as in the opportunistic ones and kind of you know doing it that way rather than having any kind of semblance of a kind of a plan and spending more money and spending and getting more players in um so yeah I mean Langer as you say I don't really kind of understand what he does I mean I did have this kind of feeling about Langer that he was probably doing what he was asked to do by young players and that's what he was doing so I don't know if it's overly fair to kind of um criticize him that much for the lack of experience in his squad but you know I don't know it's just that that was kind of my initial thought when he was first getting some stick and I was like well we have signed loads of young players and that's kind of his thing but um yeah I suspect he'll be he'll be out the door as well to be honest I feel like they're actually just yeah i think i believe these last death throes kind of decision making

49:23Jack:do you feel any saltiness towards pratichi any sort of sense that we stuck by him through his legal troubles and the like and then he's binned us off first possible opportunity or is that

49:34Phil:just business for you a bit yeah but i'm not going to lose any sleep over it right that that was kind of my first thought i was like oh well that's nice of you mate you know as you say after we stuck with you but if I kind of explored that feeling that's just kind of been silly I don't really care if he wants to go

49:50Jack:go mate no and we probably only stuck with him because we felt he was a value to us didn't we really that's the truth of it we didn't do Levy wasn't sticking by him out of the goodness of his heart was he was sticking by him in the hope that he would be able to get us you know some other has been from Juventus or whatever that's not fair we got some really good players from Juventus I'm just being flippant with what I say but you know what I mean

50:11Phil:both of whom who may be finished now by the way if you're talking about Kulis Eskin

50:17Jack:well let's I mean I may have missed some out some of these may not be entirely attributable to Fabio Peratici but here's kind of you know I'm just sort of going through this in terms of our signings over particular windows and I think these are his so Christian Romero from Atalanta I think we can say brilliant piece of business right 15 16 mil whatever we got him for you know fantastic one of one of the whatever we think about him and we haven't even spoken about that today i don't even know if i can face it mate to be honest talking to you about his petulance and whatever it's it is what it is it's the conversation we've had a million times with christian romero isn't it you know he's going to frustrate us like that but equally at times he's going to look like one of the greatest defenders on the face of the planet and that's just our cross to bear with him just i think just

51:09Phil:Just to add, just roll this little grenade in, get rid of him,

51:12Jack:move on to the next one. Brian Hill. I mean, that is... Considering we gave them, what, 20-odd mil and Eric Lamella and then gave him back to Sevilla for free, did we? Yeah. I mean, that is, by any metric, if there are any comparable examples in any other line of work that is a catastrophic

51:43Phil:piece of business isn't it yeah yeah you can blame the player all you want but it's out of his hands in some regards isn't it the dealers and stuff so yeah woeful

51:56Jack:emerson royale fine like wasn't he wasn't a world beater we knew exactly what he was I think again an opportunistic deal we needed a player in that position at that time fine like he was kind of par wasn't he really Emerson par towards being quite poor

52:15Phil:I think so let's be kind and just say just above par just because of the character he was he scored a couple of goals as well didn't he mainly by accident I mean he also did a no look pass off the pitch but I think we'll be kind and just say yeah because I know Billy's probably listening so I don't want to upset him.

52:32Jack:Well we get some like cult figure points from us from Royale don't we, that's kind of how it works for him. Papsar I'm pretty happy with that talented talented young player, still is a talented young player, he's probably got a good future, bright future ahead of him even if it's not with Spurs for the rest of his career you can quite easily see Papsar being the sort of player that rocks up at Atletico Madrid Lyon somewhere like that and having a really good career playing in the Champions League most seasons and winning stuff right.

53:08Phil:Definitely gone off the ball this season something's happening with him I know he had some personal issues with his friend passing away I think it was but he's definitely not looked very happy and he definitely hasn't pushed on but yeah happy happy with his signing put it that way.

53:21Jack:I choose to sort of blame Thomas Frank for that as well much in the same way I think he's messing about with Mathis Tell as well you know he's I don't know he just seemed I find his his use of Papsar quite bizarre you know runs with him then just drops him seemingly out of nowhere and then just drops him into the team randomly expects him to play I don't know I find it quite bizarre I get it there's probably more that goes on behind the scenes that we're not privy to but still it's it does seem quite strange and so the last of summer 2021 is Pierluigi Gallini which catastrophe right surely a worse Italian keeper than Vicario yeah I mean he felt he felt like cult-like again in the sense that it was like one of those goalkeepers of yesteryear in the Premier League, right?

54:20Jack:At Taibbi or someone like that, where there's just some terrible, terrible, iconic moment attributed to them that I just felt every time I saw Gallini play, he seemed like quite a nice bloke and everything. But every time I saw him play, I was like, this guy genuinely looks like a pub goalkeeper. He looks like a fella from Sunday League that is trying to, like he's part of a reality TV show, you know can a pub goalkeeper play in goal for a Premier League side the answer is no

54:51Phil:I have very little memory of him actually playing which is probably a good thing

54:54Jack:I think a couple of games in Europe

54:56Phil:my sort of memory of him is oh you're a rapper as well are you mate that's good isn't it

55:03Jack:yeah I did forget about it shut up it's nonsense

55:13Jack:January 2022 was Bentancur and Kulisevsky. I've got my strong feelings on Bentancur, where he's at now, i.e. get him out the door. Kulisevsky obviously is horribly injured, may never return, who knows. But probably the finest deal, the finest window of Peretici's tenure, wasn't it? Yeah, both.

55:38Phil:I think Bentancur came in, and literally when he first came on in that game, I remember him having an immediate impact and was really good until he got injured. Kuliseski was a little more of a slow burner, but then kind of picked up and potentially is our best player, right? I think people forget about that. Or certainly potentially was our best player, certainly one of them.

55:59And both, yeah.

56:00Phil:So signings, great. Now we don't know what the future holds for them.

56:07Jack:So summer 22 is Richarlison? Well, he wasn't with summer 22. he was that winter transfer window wasn't he?

56:17Phil:I don't remember.

56:19Jack:Or was he summer?

56:21Phil:No I think it was summer but wasn't that because Everton wouldn't have sold in mid-season would it?

56:27Jack:No.

56:27Phil:Let me have a look.

56:28Jack:I don't know why I just got this idea that we signed him in a winter in a winter window. Let me look it up now. Hang on.

56:36Phil:I'll do it.

56:37Jack:You keep talking. So Richarlison you know a good player he's having you know as i said earlier he's having a very good season for spurs apparently by goal scoring metrics but to me he is one of the most prominent examples of spurs's transfer strategy of the past few years as you said everton needed to get rid of him he was like the he was the jewel in everton's crown they were facing whatever financial scrutiny at that point they had to shed some of their prize assets richarlison was there for us none of the teams above us would have touched him with a barge pole i you know liverpool wouldn't have gone near him manchester united maybe do you know what i mean it's you could sort of see them sign of him for them but what does that tell you you know like I nobody else goes in for him I'm not saying he's a fundamentally bad player

57:45Jack:but he is no you know yeah yeah like I don't feel like we signed him with a view to like integrating him into whatever system it was we were trying to play or anything it's like oh he's done all right he scored you know he was good at Watford wasn't he and he's doing well at Everton and he's you know he held up that flair didn't he when they were getting relegated that was quite cool wasn't it yeah go on if we can get him for 60 mil what he doesn't want no he doesn't want 200 grand a week fine great bring him in that that's all right for us that that's just that's just how we've operated for so long isn't it and for me like he just he made the thing about Richarlison is right what I would say is he's good enough that But it makes it hard to go really chest out with aplomb and be like, he is not good enough.

58:36Jack:Get rid of him. Because the data often shows you, well, he contributes to the side when he is available, when he is playing.

58:46Phil:Yeah, I mean, case in point yesterday, Saturday's game, right? Look, I mean, that's why he's useful. I wouldn't say good. That's why he's useful for those sorts of moments. And, you know, his goal scoring, you can't really argue with it, right? His goals per minute. He's not good enough or he's got an inability to lead the line. So we've seen that as well, even this season, too many times where he's just, you know, he's a non-entity up front. If they've got any semblance of a decent back centre back pair and they just bully him and, you know, he doesn't get a sniff at all. I did say, see, just before we came on to do this pod, that City are sniffing around him.

59:23Phil:I don't know what the source was for that. I don't know where that came from. I was just scrolling on Reddit and I saw it. He would score a hat load at City because he didn't have to do anything bar B in and around the six-yard box, right? It's probably a load of nonsense, that, but it was just...

59:39Jack:It's coming from Team Talk, is what I'd say, that one.

59:43Phil:Legitimate, then.

59:45Jack:TeamTalk.com. Tottenham Hotspur are considering a new contract for a Charleston after leaning away from a January exit for the attacker. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And yeah, apparently Manchester City are looking at him though. There you go. You know, Pep knows more than me about football, doesn't he? So maybe I'm talking complete and utter whiffle. Yves Bissouma, I don't know if that's a Pratici deal, is it? I don't know if Richarlison is.

1:00:19Phil:Richarlison sounds like a Daniel Levy job.

1:00:21Jack:It's a Levy special, isn't it, Richarlison, I think. I think Yves Bersouma is a bit of a Levy special as well, to be fair. But then, all right, I know this is a play you've got very strong feelings on. Even Perisic, free transfer for Inter Milan.

1:00:37Phil:What are you saying there? I'm still furious that he's popping up and scoring goals in the Champions League to this day after we let him go because his career was finished. And it was just like, oh, just go back to wherever it was. And, you know, I loved Perisic as a player. I mean, you know, going back to what his form was like, I mean, he was quite, he was useful. You know, he definitely had his, there was issues with kind of pace and how you use him. But I was really excited when he came in. So I think, and that's the sort of player that you want to be signing if they're available, right? A good player who's got good experience, who has done it at every level to supplement the rest of your squad, right?

1:01:19Phil:That's the point. If someone like that's available and you've got a space in the squad for him, you take him wherever he starts or not is a different thing. But yeah, so I was happy when we signed him, put it that way.

1:01:31Jack:He's one of those players that feels a bit like a Tottenham fever dream to me, just in the way of like Stephen Pienaar was, or Paul Koncheski, do you know what I mean? Or Danny Murphy. Danny Murphy, exactly that. You know, those kind of players where you're like, oh, they actually played for Spurs, but did they really play for Spurs? I don't know, you know? Yeah, I think my feeling on Perisic was always that he was clearly very talented. I mean, obviously, one of the finest Croatian players of his generation, one of the best European players probably of his generation as well, really, all things considered.

1:02:15Jack:But he just, I don't know, I did feel like certain matches it looked like. I mean, maybe we didn't manage him that well. Well, a lot of the time we're expecting him to play like 90 minutes and then be surprised that he would be, you know, absolutely clapped by the second half or, you know, couldn't really manage two games in a week and all that type of thing. Just again, another example of Spurs like, you know, mismanaging players, isn't it? And not having a squad that's deep enough with enough quality in it so that the manager doesn't have to rely upon a man in his mid to late 30s or whatever it is to dig us out of something.

1:02:46Jack:But yeah, you know, a decent, and like we say, that is like a Peretici special isn't it? Oh even Perisic is going on a free transfer from Inter Milan make the call you know let's do it Conte wanted him as well didn't he

1:02:58Phil:I think that was a little gift to Conte it's like here you go here's one of these old clap players that you love so much go on then

1:03:08Jack:Destiny a doggy can I say he's made a Quavers so that's a vetoed one he's brilliant I know he's brilliant that is a brilliant deal from Peretici but he's another just feels done you know I don't know I don't want to be pessimistic about it but it's like a doggy comes in for five six games and we're like yeah here we are he's back up to speed he's looking good oh and he's injured again and he's just disappeared you know sort of player

1:03:35Phil:if he got rid of him we would never have another injury problem in his life

1:03:39Jack:I don't in that same window Clement Longley as well we brought in on loan miserable miserable deal that was

1:03:49Phil:still man on the high level isn't he isn't he at the athleticist now i think so yeah

1:03:54Jack:uh then after that it was pedro porro and arnold dunjuma porro i think whatever we think about him decent enough deal uh but i don't really i don't really think peretici had an awful lot to do with that he was just porro was a really good sought after player that had just torn us a new one hadn't he, a few weeks prior to us trying to buy him. And that's such a Tottenham-Premier League thing to do, isn't it? Oh, look at that player that did really well against him. Buy him.

1:04:24Phil:Yeah, that is a Daniel Levy thing, isn't it? Why haven't we signed him?

1:04:28Jack:Yeah. We saw what he was like in all or nothing, didn't we? And he's like, do you see the match the other night? Really good, wasn't it?

1:04:35Phil:Wasn't the ball moving fast? It's like, leave it out, Daniel. You don't know what you're talking about. He kicked it really hard. Why was he wearing long socks and the other one would go, mate, shut up.

1:04:45Jack:Dan Juma, yeah, you know, whatever.

1:04:53Jack:Then obviously we've got Vicario in there. And this is kind of, I think this is like in a grey area because this is when he was just a consultant for the club at this point. Quote, unquote, consultant and wasn't actually, you know, employed by the club. but during that period we signed Vicario Van de Ven who is that a Paratici deal I don't know Manos Solomon Alejo Veliz

1:05:20Jack:there's a few decent players in there isn't there but for the most part like I say I would expect any kind of person that's paid a handsome sum to be a director of football or whatever the hell it was that he was to at least have a few gems in with a few years of working for a Premier League club, wouldn't you?

1:05:40Phil:Yeah, I mean, the one that stands out there, obviously, is Mickey. He was our second choice, though, that we didn't get. Tap Sobel was our first choice. So Mickey was the consolation prize that, you know, has turned out to suddenly be one of the jewels in our crown.

1:05:59Phil:So that's being a bit sniffy about him. That feels like more of a Langer signing, right? I feel like, again, I can't really remember the sort of discourse around it at the time, but it felt like Langer was the one who sort of identified that list of targets, couldn't get the first one, went for the second one. So I don't know if that can be attributed to Paratici. And Vicario, that feels like a, you know, the Serie A thing, but maybe that was also a bit more him and Langer sort of discussing it. So he's a dud, so regardless of who signed him.

1:06:34Jack:Well, Fabio Peratici, it's been emotional. See you later, I guess, mate. That's sort of how I feel about it, as I said, at the top. Now, Phil, just before I let you go, as it is the season, as Mariah Carey once sung, All I Want for Christmas is You, if you were singing that and pointing at a player that could be signing for Spurs by you know the click of your fingers Santa Claus will sneak down your chimney and empty his sack at the foot of your bed what would be the player that would be in your crosshairs that you feel would come in and instantly make Tottenham Hotspur better um maybe um recency bias but the first name that popped into my head so I'm gonna go with that Morgan Rogers oh hello I am yeah I think mine would be um Caicedo though I do like him I think he's quality so did you see uh did you see Pierce Brosnan what he got he got asked by the Times they there was yeah he got interviewed lately because he pops up in lots of stuff right now.

1:07:55Jack:And I believe one of the questions he got asked was, what do you think James Bond does at Christmas? And his response was, I'm not going to answer that. I actually don't want to answer that because I don't fucking care.

1:08:13Phil:Go on, Piers.

1:08:16Jack:Yeah, why the fuck would I know what James Bond does at Christmas? and then just brain rot stuff isn't it yeah yeah it's uh it's just so it's that media class twee bullshit isn't it that you can just see oh he said that it'll be funny to see him partying with rudolph and father christmas on the you know martinis or some bollocks you know

1:08:44Phil:just content for content sake isn't it

1:08:47Jack:just draw him holding hands with Paddington do you know what I mean just put him

1:08:53Phil:put him to George's crosses on lampposts or something

1:08:59Jack:have I missed anything out of Semenya doesn't want to come to us as well so whatever glad he told us now rather than right

1:09:05Phil:after we'd agreed a deal for him on 30th of January and then him deciding to go somewhere else put it up

1:09:11Jack:Gooner mug.

1:09:11Phil:Yeah, yeah. Gooner mug. Thank you. Yeah, that's what I mean. Less of these gooners. Anyone who's like a clear gooner, I know Kuliseski's kind of, you know, got some question marks over him, but it's too late. And just no more of this. Thomas Frank's a gooner. Cochran's a gooner. Just stop doing that, right?

1:09:29Jack:Get rid of them all. Stench. Stench. A plague upon their houses and all that. Phil, thank you very much, mate. I appreciate you as ever coming on and talking to me about Tottenham Hotspur Football Club on my podcast, Rule the Roost.

1:09:47Phil:Yes. I enjoy also speaking to you about the thing that we both love dearly. Darts.

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