In short
Q&A and debate on Tottenham’s early-season form, especially the draw vs Bodo/Glimt after being 2-0 down, and whether manager Thomas Frank is too negative/pragmatic. They also discuss squad limitations, player quality, midfield balance, and fan patience.
Guests
Jon Bass (co-host/guest). Background: Spurs-focused football commentator/podcaster; discusses tactics and player evaluation. No other guests named in the transcript.
Key claims
Frank’s rotation is criticized but necessary to avoid injuries and fatigue; his priority is tightening the “floor” defensively to gain marginal points before adding attacking style. Spurs’ main issue is not defense (Romero/van de Ven/Porro praised) but midfield creativity and technical quality in the final third. Several players are viewed as not high-ceiling enough (Brennan Johnson, Richarlison, Bentancur, Ben Davies mentioned).
Notable examples
Richarlison’s “telling touch” vs Bodo/Glimt; Spurs’ comeback after 2-0 down; comparisons to Liverpool dropping Divock Origi; Arsenal improving by moving on from “good but not title-winning” players like Granit Xhaka. Wolves home record since 2022; Brighton/Wolves results as “marginal improvement.”
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOConversations on Terminology and Attitudes
0:00 to 0:26
A light-hearted discussion about the use of the term 'weapon' in a modern context.
“As soccer takes center stage this summer, Comcast helps bring the experience home to America.”
Conversations on Terminology and Attitudes
1:00 to 1:27
A light-hearted discussion about the use of the term 'weapon' in a modern context.
Conversations on Terminology and Attitudes
1:55 to 4:28
A light-hearted discussion about the use of the term 'weapon' in a modern context.
“So the kids now, weapon is a good thing, you're saying?”
Analyzing Thomas Frank's Tactics
4:28 to 10:19
A critical examination of Thomas Frank's managerial decisions and their implications.
“and simultaneously saying, he should have been able to beat that lot with anybody that he put out on the pitch.”
Evaluating Player Performances
10:19 to 11:28
Hosts discuss the current performances and potential of players like Brennan Johnson and Richarlison.
“Brennan Johnson, I will be forever grateful to the lad for Bilbao.”
The Need for Squad Overhaul
11:28 to 14:01
A passionate plea for a thorough review and improvement of the squad's composition.
“He put together a fairly eloquent look at Brennan Johnson's strengths and weaknesses.”
Assessing Player Quality and Team Aspiration
14:01 to 17:10
Discussion on the quality of players in the Spurs squad and comparisons with Arsenal's strategy.
“I know he's like peak scum, all that type of thing.”
Midfield Dynamics and Squad Fit
17:11 to 21:30
Analysis of the midfield roles and the need for creative players in the squad.
“But you get the point I'm making, right?”
Sponsor: Pays Checkout
21:31 to 22:10
Promotional segment for Pays Checkout, highlighting its benefits.
“And I agree, I just want this Tavistock, Enoch, whatever they're calling themselves these days.”
Sponsor: Pays Checkout
22:11 to 23:10
Promotional segment for Pays Checkout, highlighting its benefits.
“It could be chronic migraine, 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting four hours or more.”
Show all 23 chapters
Reflections on Recent Matches and Future Outlook
23:17 to 28:04
Discussion on recent match performances, areas of improvement, and the manager's approach.
“And if you were told we were going to be drawing that in a pretty dour fashion, you'd probably be quite annoyed.”
Evaluating Frank's Management at Spurs
28:04 to 34:35
Discussion on Frank's management and the squad's potential improvement.
“Hence why we hold up remarkable individuals who break systems, who inspire teams, who lead teams, you know?”
Q&A Session Begins
34:36 to 35:08
Introduction to the Q&A segment with a humorous question about Thomas Frank.
“John it is Thursday and that means this is a Q &A podcast.”
Lighthearted Banter on Thomas Frank
35:09 to 38:15
A humorous conversation about Thomas Frank's potential clothing choices.
“So I'm not even convinced he wears pants, to be honest.”
Food Challenge Discussion and Player Insights
38:16 to 41:09
Discussion on food challenges and which Spurs player could handle large meals.
“absolutely denying you of your masculinity there.”
Food Challenge Discussion and Player Insights
42:30 to 42:54
Discussion on food challenges and which Spurs player could handle large meals.
“Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax, and let go of whatever you're carrying today.”
Eating Challenges and Personal Experiences
42:59 to 45:44
The hosts discuss eating challenges and personal anecdotes related to food.
“But no, Cal, I personally have never attempted an eating challenge because I actually, talking about that YouTube point, I find them disgusting.”
Debating Player Potential at Spurs
45:44 to 54:02
The conversation shifts to evaluating players like Telenoderbergh and Odeber at Spurs.
“I fat shame myself every day, looking in the mirror, eating cream buns.”
Club Legacy and Future Investments
54:02 to 56:00
Discussion on Tottenham's club legacy and the need for better player investments.
“Isn't that part of the reason why he sort of stands alone?”
Analyzing Player Choices in Tottenham's Squad
56:00 to 57:26
Discussion on the player selections and strategies of Tottenham's management.
“I mean, I was going to say he's not a world-beater, has literally won a World Cup.”
Debating the Best Spurs Player for a Full 11
57:26 to 59:06
A lively debate about who would be the best player to fill every position in a Spurs lineup.
“Because we already know he can play centre-back, right-back, and central midfield to Premier League standard.”
Richarlison's Performance Compared to Spurs Legends
59:06 to 1:00:26
A conversation comparing Richarlison's performance with past Spurs strikers.
“Daniel Shack says, is Richarlison the worst number nine we've had since Postiga?”
Introduction to 'Man's Not What' Podcast
1:00:26 to 1:01:28
John Bass discusses his podcast 'Man's Not What' and its light-hearted content.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Jack:As soccer takes center stage this summer, Comcast helps bring the experience home to America. As the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the U.S., Telemundo is set to present its most expansive coverage ever. 700 hours of programming, live on-site presence at all 104 matches, and with multi-view and real-time 4K, Xfinity will deliver the most innovative and immersive sports viewing experience for fans watching on Telemundo, Peacock, Fox, and FS1. Learn more at ComcastCorporation.com. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome?
0:36Jack:That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it.
0:47Jon Bass:Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. This episode is brought to you by Google Health. stop chasing someone else's definition of health what matters is what's healthy for you google
1:04Jack:health offers a new kind of coach built with gemini for effortless tracking sleep insights and holistic coaching tailored to you visit google store.com to learn more and start a new relationship with your health requires google account google health app internet and google
1:17Jon Bass:health premium subscription features subject to change availability and results vary not intended for medical purposes works independently of gemini apps check responses for accuracy
1:27Jack:Can they come up the big one here? It's grey, it's Richarlison, it's in!
1:32Jon Bass:And that's the mentality that they showed at the weekend. They forced their way back level in this game, they were 2-0 down. Richarlison's hardly had a kick, but he's got the telling touch in the match.
1:45Jack:Hello everyone, welcome back to Rule the Roach Podcast. I've just sort of dived into the middle of an off-air conversation I've been having with John Bass, who informs me. Hello John, by the way. How you doing? Hi, mate. All right. Yeah, good. So the kids now, weapon is a good thing, you're saying?
2:02Jon Bass:Yeah. So when I was at school, or just where I grew up, if you call someone a weapon, you're basically saying you're a penis. That's what you're saying. You're going, massive weapon. Now people use it as like a positive term of like, I don't know, say me and you are doing something, right, doing some sort of task, and you're absolutely knocking it out of the park. I'll be like, oh, Jack, so glad you're here. You're an absolute weapon, mate. like a weapon to use in this task is fucking mental and every time i hear it i'm like a bit harsh and this this conversation started because uh you very affectionately called me a specimen which these days you know we would maybe call palina a specimen right after he took his top off fantastic physique when i was at school it basically meant cum sample that's essentially what you're saying right you're some sort of sperm in a petri dish exactly at very best some sort of
2:49Jack:thing that's been pickled in a jar. Do you know what I mean? Like a little, an amoeba of some sort. So maybe, so you're saying like all those people on Twitter that call me a weapon, maybe they're actually being nice to me.
3:00Jon Bass:Yeah, well you should just take it that way anyway, right? Like just assume positive intent because as we know, people on Twitter are always assuming positive intent from people putting stuff out into the world. Well, speaking
3:12Jack:of weapons, and take this whatever way you want to after that conversation we've just had there, Thomas Frank, eh? How about that, Thomas Frank? Where are you at, mate? Do you think he was too negative against Voodoo Glimp the other night?
3:27Jon Bass:Look, I'm still of the mindset, and I know you were talking about this actually the other day on your post-game pod. It is really early still, right? I know we have to talk about it in this way because that's how football media works and that's how people talk about the game and you know, like 10 years ago, it's a completely different story. So we can only really react in how the world reacts now. But to me, I'm like, I just don't feel the need to panic about stuff. Last season, we were frustrated with Ange because he'd never rotated. And we were like, you've got to rotate. This is the modern way.
4:00Jon Bass:You've got to change things around. Every time any manager, but particularly with us, with Frank, seems to actually rotate, people lose their head. They're like, oh, this isn't our strongest side. It's like, no, but we have to rotate, right? Because otherwise, in six more games' time, when Polina can't run anymore and he looks completely done in and Kudis has got a hamstring tear, we'll be going, nah, should have rotated.
4:23Jack:There is a bit of an oxymoron here, isn't there, in the respect that people are digging him out for having rotated against Budi Glimt and simultaneously saying, he should have been able to beat that lot with anybody that he put out on the pitch. You know? So that's where I'm kind of struggling. I mean, I think one of the more sort of reasoned pieces of criticism that I've seen level towards Frank. And, you know, I do probably agree with. As I keep reiterating, I'm not like a Frank culture, a Frank sexual, I think people might say, right? I just, I want Spurs to do well and I feel like he's a decent manager, okay?
5:00Jack:I don't really have a massive emotional tie to the lad. I'll get to my point. You know what I'm like. I just I kind of do see what people are saying when they think he maybe needs to adjust his thinking slightly and I do get that the context behind this is we're a team that finished 17th last year we're a team that shipped goals for fun, we lost loads of games and so what he's trying to do is instill a higher floor to everything that we're doing however, perhaps just with his tinkering and perhaps with his approach to certain games, see Wolves primarily at the weekend. Do you need to sit in with a double pivot of Bentancur and Polina against Wolves at home, the clearly worst side in the Premier League, a side who weren't actually very good against us at all, even on the weekend?
5:57Jack:So do you get that as a criticism of him at least, that maybe he needs to just maybe just be a bit more optimistic in what he does.
6:06Jon Bass:Yeah, I think that's fair, right? Because I think we want to see attacking football. That's the Spurs DNA, is a phrase that people like to throw around these days. But that is what is in, you know, today is to do. That is what we like to see as fans. That's part of the reason why people were very interested and excited by Ange. And in his first 10 games, people were like, yes, this is it. This is what we want. We want this swashbuckling front foot football. What Frank is as a manager is someone who's maybe a bit more pragmatic in the true sense of the word. He will look at individual games and decide what needs to be done in order to get a result.
6:42Jon Bass:That means that sometimes you're not going to have that swashbuckling football. Again, part of the criticism of Ange, and not to make this just a comparison, but I guess we have to because it's the closest amount of data we've got. People's frustration with him is that we ended up losing a shitload of games. right and we were conceding loads of loads of goals now we've got a new manager who wants to come in now i've spoken about this quite a bit recently so sorry if this is boring people who've heard me talk about this subject before but if you're a new manager you could ever be boring
7:11Jack:john bass bless you you could read out you could read out the phone book and people would be intrigued wait so bless you you absolute weapon thanks jack
7:23Jon Bass:um so basically my premise is this right you you come into a club who has huge expectations which is what we have you have some decent players in that squad and you finish 17th and got that monkey off your back and winning a trophy so the first thing you have to do is improve the league form and league positioning right now we we actually like had a very good set of defenders and goal keeper i guess we can get into the specifics of that soon as well but on paper they were our best players last year in terms of like romero van der ven udoghi poro were excellent performers but we seemed to be really frail at the back and i think basically frank has looked at that and gone right if I could just make us really solid, we will just, by proxy, pick up a load more points, and that will give us a certain position in the league.
8:06Jon Bass:It's also a lot easier to start with a solid foundation than it is to create things, right? And Michael Owen, of all people, made a really eloquent point around this topic in terms of football, right? Which is, he said, if you said to me, I've got to knock this house down, if I had a sledgehammer in a long enough time, I'd eventually knock it all down. But if you asked me to build you a house, it would never get made right because destruction and breaking things up is much easier than it is to create things and in football i think that's very i think that's very like smashing stuff solid stuff i think that's very um i think that's very like true in terms of football right if you can organize a defense think about when a manager comes into a bottom half table like big sam classic what's the first thing he does organize the bat four like that is your fundamentals in football if this was six months in i'd be worried because i'd be like well maybe this is his plan right just be defensive and just try and scrape wins this feels to me like it's it is really early days he's gonna implement a plan that basically goes right we'll get more points from positions where we previously weren't getting those points and once i can get that into a settled like part i'll then look at how i can start to sprinkle some creative magic on top of that now the elephant in room to me is we've now had a series of different managers with basically the same players right we've now got some slightly better players here but the crux is still the same for me like we still have the same players who have never really excelled and again I know you've been talking about this recently there's always been the debate it's the manager it's the players it's the manager it's the players and sometimes it's been both right like we've had a bad combination but I do just feel there's some there's actually a lot of work to do with this squad still and I think that we were all just like cool we've won a trophy we've got a new manager we'll make a few signs and we'll be back in the top four I think maybe we're just not as far along with the squad building I'm not going to say rebuild but squad building as we'd like to be because if you really look at a lot of the players in our squad they want they are nowhere near the other teams in the top let's say five or six they just wouldn't take them and I think that is something that we're going to have to be patient with and so if we want to give frank time to see if he can change things into a more attacking approach when the situation suits then we are just going to have to be a little bit patient because i still don't feel that he's got an exceptional set of players that will just automatically get us into where we want to be going forward i mean can we can we be
10:34Jack:brutal here like that and let's be let's let's be let's be horrible about it let's be the knee jerk Like, awful, horrible fans that don't acknowledge the fact that players have feelings, that, you know, they're not just automatons, all that type of thing, right? Brennan Johnson, I will be forever grateful to the lad for Bilbao. I've been on the fence with him for a long time. I've kind of had this, no, I think he does a lot of things really well. I think we just need to find a system that better accommodates him, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I've sort of the past few games, honestly, just arrived at this point where I'm like, why am I doing this?
11:16Jack:I think he's championship. I actually think he's really bad, you know? And he finishes, and I think that masks a lot of everything. But this wasn't Harry Brooks' point, but at least Harry Brooks kind of changed my way of looking at it. He put together a fairly eloquent look at Brennan Johnson's strengths and weaknesses. And he was kind of like, you know, if he could do lots of stuff outside of the box, if he could make goals for himself, if he could make goals for other people, yeah, he'd be a fine player. But he actually can't do either of those things. And we've seen a huge sample size of his wares now by which to kind of make that decision.
12:02Jack:and I'm just kind of sat here like, why are we doing this? Like, see also Richarlison, you know, another player that we're like, oh, he's good. Oh, well, no, I mean, he will be better if these things happen or if these perfect circumstances align. Like, he started off this season amazingly and it feels like he's just gone back to Bozo. I saw lots of people saying after, like, Bodo glimped, he didn't really get any service. He did, man. He absolutely fluffed the chance he got And again, you know, how much service did Harry Kane get? And I know Harry Kane can't be the benchmark, but my point is he's not good enough.
12:41Jack:You know, I think there's lots of players like that that I just want to see gone now. Like Levy's gone, that conversation's gone. These type of like cultural players, the hangover of this, Ben Tanker, another one for me. Ben Tanker is close to a waste of space I think if I'm being harsh about it I think he's close to a waste of space I'm sort of at this point where I'm like clear these lot out start this new era come on Tavistock come on Viv come on Venai sort it out now January I know it's crap for buying players but get some more players in next summer spend big get more players in show us what you're about or step aside and let old tech bro in you know just let's do it let's be impatient let's be horrible nasty impatient entitled fans maybe you know
13:33Jon Bass:yeah mate I think this is this is where we're at and look I know comparison is the thief of joy but I'm going to make a load of comparisons now Liverpool after they beat us in the Champions League final who scored the second goal Divock Origi fucking bombed him immediately wasn't good enough right scored a goal in a Champions League final to basically clinch that game just bombed him we're like it's never going to be good enough he'd still be in our squad he'd still be on the bench 100 % and this is this is the thing right and like again I look at the scum and look at what they've done with Arteta right their team their squad when he first came there was full of the types of players that we've got now who aren't dog shit and on their day you can put in a good performance that makes you go oh they're alright actually and they were just ruthlessly over a few windows moved them out and got better players in like very efficiently even taking big losses you know Aubameyang Nicolas Pepe players like that they'd spent big money on and they just fucking wrote it off because they knew it was more valuable to them to take the hit financially to improve the footballing team the footballing side than it was to try and get their money back and go just keep playing them until this like mystic team comes in to buy these players for the money that we want to get and that's where I think we're at just to jump in
14:49Jack:sorry Ben a perfect example of this for me is Xhaka right I know we all hate him. I know he's like peak scum, all that type of thing. But for my money, Xhaka walks into our midfield right now. Maybe not week in, week out starter, but he walks into our squad. Let's say that. He walks into our matchday squad and we would probably play him an awful lot. I think you could probably make the argument that he would still be a big bench player for Arsenal right now if they were to bring him back. So I don't think that's like an own on Spurs or anything like that. But the point is, and the point I'm trying to drive at is, Xhaka is still a player of a certain quality, right?
15:31Jack:Went to Leverkusen, looked like one of their best players in a historic season for them. He's come back to the Premier League and you've already got Sunderland fans saying, he is literally the best player I've seen play for us since Kevin Phillips by a long way, right? Since Quinn, since Phillips, those type of players, Xhaka is in that esteem. He is one of their best players, right? he's a great player but as you say Arsenal looked at him and I think we would all look at him and say is Granit Xhaka the sort of player that is going to win you a Champions League is he the sort of player that is going to win you the Premier League no we're going to spend a hundred million pounds on Declan Rice we're going to take our team to the next level so when I'm when I'm saying this stuff about players like Bentancur when I'm saying this stuff about players like brennan johnson yes it may be harsh yes they are players who are of a certain quality but if our aspiration is to be one of the best teams in the country right if we want to be up there and yeah i know we can look at brighton and we can say look at the way they assemble teams cool that's great but they don't actually win stuff their best players end up going on to other teams if we want to be one of those teams that is buying brighton's best players who is rivaling liverpool and Arsenal to try and win the title, I'm afraid there are a lot of players within our team who would fall into, for my money, that Granit Xhaka bracket of being a really good player, a really good player who would improve most other Premier League teams.
16:59Jack:But quite simply, isn't going to mean you're a side that bothers teams like Liverpool and Arsenal. Probably Manchester City in that group as well. Maybe Chelsea, but still we don't really know what they're like. But you get the point I'm making, right?
17:14Jon Bass:100%. I think this is my issue, right? Bentonco is a pretty good example of what you're talking about here. He's clearly a talented footballer. He's a decent top-level footballer and he would do well in other leagues across Europe, the top leagues in Europe. He's a really decent footballer, but I'm just not sure that he's good enough. And when I look at the squad and I'm looking at the younger players that we've got and the potential seedings, Pat Mattsar, Bergvold, I would rather give them the minutes he is currently taking and put that position into a more creative like player a passing player in midfield that we're crying out for right because at the moment we basically have too many ball carrying eights in in the central midfield position which is why I think to go back to the sort of start of this pod it's one of many reasons why our creativity is lacking because you know as much as people have been talking about the Polina thing and there's this now culture war Polina is the best thing ever Polina is terrible and the people who think Polini's terrible is mainly around his passing and his ability to move things forward well for me it's like there's a handful of players who can do both things can be brilliantly defensively as that six and also be a great creative passer so most teams have one of each right a deep line sort of playmaker type who can pass the ball and a destructive player we don't have that deep line creative passer and Adam Wharton for example we don't have that that's why we were trying to sign Morgan Gibbs-White I don't think we were trying to sign him to play 10.
18:37Jon Bass:I think we were trying to sign him to play as a passing eight. So I think we have like a number of areas in that squad where you could look at players and go, they are in the squad, they're decent, but they don't actually fit what we have or what we need. And that causes us issues. Like we have basically too many players on the right hand side, on the right wing, like Brennan Johnson, Kulisewski and Kudus all play on that side. That's their best position. Realistically, Kulisiewski is sort of too good not to start so you maybe have to try and find him a new position in the middle or you just rotate him and Kulis which is pretty decent where would Johnson fit in on that side he doesn't so he's been playing on the left which he's not really good on the right now you're asking him to invert which takes a slightly different skill set and he just cannot do it effectively will he score goals yes he did that last year when we have space to run into and he gets a chance he's a pretty good finisher but to me he would be you know if you go back maybe it's longer than 10 years I always say 10 years like it's not that long ago but let's say 20 years ago he would be playing up front with a big man and they'd be flicking it on he'd be running in behind and scoring goals and he'd be decent for like a mid-table team and he'd get 10 to 15 Premier League goals that's not where we're at like we can't have a player like that and we do actually on the left and so we have a big issue right tell Odebeir Johnson none of them really performed to a high level on the left hand side we sold probably correctly the greatest like left midfield goal scoring player in human song that the club's ever seen so we haven't replaced it even with like like for like positioning right there's no one that's even at the same kind of uh an early son like odabe's nowhere near that tell i don't think we know really what his best position is so look i'm not saying that those younger players that that's as much of an issue but certainly for me there's a lot there's a lot you could do with i'll say vicario ben davis god bless him needs to go yeah johnson needs to go richarlison needs to go like these are players who i just don't think are of the sufficient quality you replace all of those players with like really high level quality that matches that and find us a starting like left winger suddenly frank's able to do so much more with the squad especially when madison and kulisewski come back because one of my biggest complaints has just been technical quality technique like literally just neat and tidy passing and i sit sometimes i'll sit and watch say like a liverpool or a man city game and i'm like this is like a different fucking game here they're bopping this around like it's nothing one and two touching it's it's flying around then i watch us and it's just like so even palace mate when i watch palace right now you know they knock the ball about beautifully the technical floor of our team is is worrying and so i do feel like we just need to get more techie ballers as the kids say into the team because otherwise, yeah, we're just not going to, we're just going to, it doesn't matter who the manager is.
21:31Jon Bass:There's a limit to what he can achieve. And I agree, I just want this Tavistock, Enoch, whatever they're calling themselves these days. If they're going to have a go, please just have a go, right? Because otherwise, what's the point? Otherwise, yeah, let someone else have a go. Pays Checkout is offered by your banks and credit unions.
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22:56Jack:Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, including ALS Lou Gehrig's disease, myasthenia gravis or Lambert-Eaton syndrome, and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. Why wait? Ask your doctor. Visit BotoxChronicMigraine.com or call 1-800-44-BOTOX to learn more. let's uh look because i don't want people to sort of be tuning out at this point thinking god why are they why are they adding to the negative noise because i don't the thing is in and amongst everything that we're saying here i'm actually feeling pretty positive about this start to the season and i mean let's look at let's look at the buddha glimp game right yes it's kind of frustrating It would be frustrating to look at that fixture ahead of it.
23:46Jack:And if you were told we were going to be drawing that in a pretty dour fashion, you'd probably be quite annoyed. But regardless of that, we've gone 2-0 down. A team that, as much as people say they are a load of fishermen and whatever,
24:09Jack:they have been doing well in Europe the past few years before we played them in the Europa League everybody was saying they were the dark horses for the tournament because of all these reasons their progressive play the way they've been managed this sort of group of young players that they have this artificial surface that they played on and you know I know I'm not I'm not just like I do I do think a Premier League team with the type of players that Spurs have regardless of what that starting 11 is should have the quality to beat Budu Glimt however we haven't done and I would wager I read out their sort of their fixtures they've got some big games I think they've got Juventus they've got Dortmund they've got a lot of other they've got a really like generational run for for them as a club for their fans for everything like that and I don't mean that in a patronising way we'd be enjoying it as Spurs fans I think they will turn up against other teams they will do well and I think we will be looking back on that game and being like you know what to be fair it's annoying that we got ourselves into the position that we were 2-0 down but we fought back and we didn't lose that game ultimately we didn't lose it I think if the game had gone on just a bit longer we would have probably won it we were all over them by the very end of it when frank brought on our best players and we can hold you know we can say the manager probably needs to be held accountable for not making those changes soon enough but again we don't know the condition of those players going into that match we've got a big game against leeds as you say on the weekend that is ahead of an international break i think we'd all be pretty livid if we limp out of that one and we were saying why did he start xavi simmons and palina against Budu Glimt and now look at them, they're knackered playing against Leeds.
26:02Jack:So it's all a careful balancing act, right? But I think one of the main things, and this is a point I've stolen, and I do apologise, but it's what somebody said to me on either one of my streams or they said it to me on Twitter. And I'm really sorry for forgetting who it was that said this to me, but they said something that really stuck with me, which was, look, this is kind of like, this is a way of looking at football that people aren't going to like, right? They are going to find this stuff annoying and they're going to say that this is still not good enough and everything like that. But if you look at, for example, you look at a game like Brighton, a game like Brighton, a way that we went behind in and came back and ended up not losing.
26:49Jack:A team who then the next week went on and beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, let's not forget. But it's a game that last season we lost. Thus, we've improved. Wolves, a team that, not even Ange, this isn't a comparison with Ange, Wolves is a team that we haven't beaten since 2022, right? Wolves is one of those games in our calendar that you look at and you look back on and you're like, we lost to Wolves at home. We lost to Wolves at home. And yes, it's frustrating and yes, it's annoying, but we got a point out of it this time. And we can argue, we can say that that's not acceptable and everything.
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27:21Jack:yes, my aspiration is that Spurs will be beating teams like Wolves at home, with all due respect to Wolves and all the Wolves fans listening to this. However, it's a marginal improvement. And Frank said at the very start of his tenure, that's what he is focusing on. First and foremost is closing those, is tightening up those minimal percentages that lead to improvement. now you cannot argue with the fact that he is thus far doing that we're sat fourth in the with sat fourth in the Premier League table I don't know where we are in the Champions League table now but after our match we were fourth I'm sure we've fallen down now because there's a whole other raft of matches have come after that on the Wednesday night but still we are doing all right I know I know the mo of the club is not to let the opposition die of boredom and all that type of thing but the point we've just been making is i do think a lot of that is tied up in personnel if we had personnel of a better quality in that final third the ball would just quite simply stick better the sort of moves the sort of invention that would happen individually not like not everything is systemic you know not all invention comes from system you know some invention is on is the responsibility of the individual.
28:43Jack:Hence why we hold up remarkable individuals who break systems, who inspire teams, who lead teams, you know? And when we get better players, I do think this will be better. Yes, I do concede that there are things that Frank could be doing. Let's not start Polini and Ben Sankara at home. For the love of God, please, let's not do that anymore. However, I do think we are sat in a positive position and I know I'm feeding the beast by doing this because I keep talking about it on podcasts but for the love of Christ we're not even quarter of a way into a season and I am unironically seeing people saying that Frank should be on borrowed time already and I think some of that is is is kind of the the flames are found by people who have a strong emotional connection to Andrew Postacoglu and to a degree that's fine I understand it we're emotional beings football's an emotional game he left an imprint on many people's hearts and people find it hard to move on from that fine do I think though even taking that on board that calling for the new manager to go after a handful of games he's going to be a healthy and good situation for Tottenham Hotspur no I don't you know and I think we just need to kind of get on with it and see the positives in in what it is that Spurs are doing
30:09Jon Bass:right now yeah that's kind of where I'm at right and again I also just want to clarify the previous conversation we were having about like the frustrations around the squad that that was meant to be a positive right which is that I think Frank's doing well and we have this huge like improvement that we could make to the squad so I think there's like a lot of room there in terms of like where we're at again like I think it's context right like it's easy to get caught up in performances but in terms of results we've had what six premier league games we've only lost one game we lost the super cup final which we took basically the best team in europe all the way to pens and we played great in that game i don't think anyone had an issue with the performance of that game so between sort of then and now it's basically that one defeat in the league we've won in the League Cup and we're undefeated in the Champions League that's I don't really know a sign from performances and I get it like you can't just ignore that right and you can say that's an indicator for performance and all the rest of it but to your earlier point around some of those games and the direct correlating results in those games we are improving like we are like he's turning around the form that we had from last year so I just I just think we have to just be a bit patient again like the Benton core and Polini midfield like do I want to see it no but he is the manager and it is only six Premier League games he's got to try it he's got to have a look at it and go I've got an established international in Benton core here like he should be able to do this I need to have a look at it I need to make sure this isn't going to work before I make a decision and again it's not like he's got prime Frank Lampard just sitting there and he can go I'll just drop him in.
31:48Jon Bass:That'll be fine. Like the options are two kids, basically. Now two very, very good kids, like exceptional kids, but they will give you one week an eight out of 10 and another week maybe a five, right? Whereas Bensacourt is just a six every week, right? And that's not good enough, right? So this is the issue that we've got. And that's why I think Frank has got a really difficult task. He has to analyze this squad. He has to figure out what's the best combination of those players. And if you look at it, right, the one area that he doesn't really change is the defence, albeit he will make a decision with where he plays Spence and how he figures that out.
32:24Jon Bass:But broadly speaking, that bit doesn't change. That's really solid because anyone can tell you it's van de Venner Romero at centre-back, and mostly Poro at right-back. So really it's a doggy or Spence. And you can pick and choose between those two depending on the opponent, in my opinion. They're both good options. But the midfield, there is no solution. There is no obvious solution. There is no way to go. if you just play these two that will work because he's we've literally seen every combination sometimes they work sometimes they don't and that is the issue that we have there is no solid answer to this even with um simmons as the 10 okay cool we could still play simmons in the 10 what happens if that and it's i don't know bergval is the eight right so it's polinia bergval and simmons if that doesn't work you'll go okay cool let's try gray in there let's try Papamata Sarr in there to me the balance isn't going to just work just because we want it to there's a little bit of time that's going to have to take to coach these players and personally I feel like one of Papamata Sarr, Bergvold can play next to Polina it will work but it does need a bit of time and coaching because they are young players and they need to be coached they need to be helped out with that way of playing so again all of this stuff is we don't have an opportunity to get better players in right now.
33:45Jon Bass:So we have what we have. Frank has the tools at his disposal and he can't change them. So if we all accept, and I don't think anybody's really defending the players that we're having a go at here. We're not having a go at, but questioning their ceiling. We have to accept that there are limitations to what he can do. There just are going to be limitations. And yes, I think there's room for him to improve the playing style. like absolutely we don't need to play Pelinha and Bentecourt two holding midfielders at home against bottom of the table side we don't need to do that and I'm sure he will adapt and change that but ultimately that's what we've got so there are going to be frustrations and I think if we really want to see this squad change and develop we do have to give a manager who can adapt enough time to actually implement this so I think he's doing really well given what we've got available
34:36Jack:John it is Thursday and that means this is a Q &A podcast. The adoring listeners, as ever, have obliged. And I thought I'd kick this off with one relevant to the point that we are making right now, talking about Thomas Frank. A chap called Ricky TFC has said, Thomas Frank clearly wears pants, but do you think he has a preferred colour or do you think he likes patterned pants?
35:06Jon Bass:I'm not even sure he does wear pants I feel like he's very much a commando sort of guy you know he's Nordic so he doesn't really feel the cold so for him it's like there's just too many layers I bet you that you've never seen Frank in a big coat, he doesn't own one doesn't need to, he's hardened he just wears a lovely shacket all year round, the snow the rain, the sleet, the hail for him pants are just restrictive He doesn't need that. So I'm not even convinced he wears pants, to be honest.
35:39Jack:Do you think he's one of those that when all the lads are getting changed post-game, he just gets his chopper out as well? Oh, 100%. He just stands there naked with his arms on his side, hands on his hips. Do you know what I mean? Boys, what do we think we did wrong there? Yeah, but the top half is still fully dressed. It's just the bottom half. We need a poo in it. Yeah.
36:00Jon Bass:Yeah, he has a pair of trousers for the game. and then like some joggers for the way home. So he just whips them off and just stands there, delivers his post-game chat and then pulls the joggers back on when he's done. That's the signal when they know he's finished is when he pulls his fresh joggers on.
36:14Jack:Do you ever get it, John? Because I'm sure you live in a toxic, cis-heteronormative household like I do. Big time, big time. When there's a noise downstairs in the middle of the night and it's your job to go and just have a look, secure the perimeter and everything like that, are you known to go down to confront a burglar like Winnie the Pooh? T-shirt on.
36:38Jon Bass:So I always sleep in big basketball shorts. So I'm more likely to look like Larry Bird coming down the fucking stairs than anything else. So I actually, my missus continues to rip me to this day about this. About three years ago. So we live basically on the first floor and then our bedroom's in the loft. So we have a spiral staircase up to the loft and it's just that one room. so it's pretty good defensive position right elevated position we're like you can't get in any other way so we're basically the zombies aren't getting up there are they like one by one
37:08Jack:you're banging them out of a spade or something
37:10Jon Bass:I have a baseball bat that I keep next to the bed because I'm like for sport I live in London I like to enjoy the leisure time so we heard this massive bang from downstairs it woke us both up and she's like someone's in the house and so now I'm like fuck so I get the baseball bat and I head to the top of the stairs and I'm thinking hang on a minute I don't need to fucking go down there. Come up here if you want to bring it on. Like, let's go. So I just instinctively, half asleep, went, there's somebody up here. The most intimidating war cry of all time. And Ree's like, somebody up here? Why have you said that?
37:45Jon Bass:And I was like, well, I'm not going down. They can come up if they want to kick off. And then eventually, no response. I'm like waiting there for a really quietly, like, is it going to be anything? And as I go downstairs, I've got a massive painting of MF Doom for the hip-hop fans out there on my wall. and it'd just fallen off the wall. So all of that for absolutely nothing. And then my adrenaline's pumping so I couldn't get back to sleep. So every so often, if the conversation about burglars or we hear a noise, Rhi would just turn over and whisper to me, there's somebody up here. And that would be it.
38:13Jack:She'd just mug me off. She'd mug you off completely, absolutely denying you of your masculinity there. It's quite spooky that it was an MF Doom painting that fell off the wall as well. Yeah, exactly. I mean, he was alive at the time. so less spooky.
38:29Jon Bass:Yeah, less spooky.
38:31Jack:There we go. That sounds a bit crass. I wasn't meaning it to be like that. It's a sad thing that's happened.
38:38Jon Bass:Imagine though he was a ghost and thought, oh, shall I haunt my family? No, I'll go to John Bass's house and see what the coward's saying up top of his spiral staircase.
38:49Jack:Let's see if he jumps out of bed with no pants on. Yeah. so Tom Foynes has he's shared it's an image of if anybody's not aware Marks and Spencers are renowned for any American or Australian or international listeners Marks and Spencers our premium supermarket in the UK is generally where most British people do their shopping for Christmas the sort of shopping that we will say mum's like because it's got good picky bits right so everything's a bit sort of artisan it's all of a higher quality but what comes with that is a higher price tag however this christmas they've released that they are going to be selling a turkey and stuffing pie and it seems to be adorned on the top with pigs in blankets as well tom foins has asked which it looks so i would say it looks dinner plate sized It looks like it's been made for eight people, right?
39:50Jack:Near enough. Say four fatties or eight normal people. And he says, which current Spurs player would you back to eat a whole one of these in one go?
40:04Jon Bass:So I think it's, well, so people that I know who are incredible eaters are generally quite skinny, right? because they've got the metabolism that really gets through it. So it kind of is surprising. Sometimes you think the bigger boys can get through it, and it's not always the case. So I think it may be someone like Pat Mattsar who could just absolutely put it away. No drama, just smash his way through it. Or Mickey, Mickey Van Der Ven. And he's just like, no, this is light work for me. I'll just smash it. When you're a kid, like my dad used to say, when you're putting food away, it's going down your legs because you've got so much space in your legs, like you're filling up your legs with food.
40:45Jon Bass:That would be Van Der Ven. His legs are so big, he's just sticking it all down there. I looked at that pie, sent it to my missus, and I went, I want this for Christmas. She went, oh, what, instead of Christmas dinner? And I went, no, no, for my Christmas present. I really want one. I just want one. I just want to open it on Christmas Day and be like, fucking yes, play with that on Boxing Day. Just looks so good.
41:08Jack:yeah um well he's uh so look tying in with this mate cal um has asked he says he's rather lovingly said you both come from a slob background have you ever attempted a food challenge how did you get on because because i agree with you i think i think the large i mean you're not really a large gentleman anymore john i've spoken look i've spoken to you off air about my bitterness and resentment and i think i've spoken to you about it on air of you running marathons and being trim and all that type of thing but look whatever you do you you got to do what's right for your family um but i agree with you in terms of i do think like larger gentlemen are often mischaracterized in these eating challenges look on youtube look at any eating challenge thing it's always the skinnies it's always the skinnies that are battering them the right window treatments change everything.
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42:37Jack:Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-CONTACTS. Oh my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-CONTACTS.com today to save on your first order. 1-800-CONTACTS. But no, Cal, I personally have never attempted an eating challenge because I actually, talking about that YouTube point, I find them disgusting. Like they turn my stomach when I see people eating those giant steaks or I watched one the other day.
43:17Jack:So there's this challenge in Nottingham. I can't remember what her name is, but there's this like American food challenge woman who she's a power lifter. um but she's like she's you know she's quite small and you see these challenges that she does are amazing and she's incredible at it but there was this there's this place in nottingham that i think what was the challenge i think you had to eat 10 so they had 10 of these like burgers big like artisan burgers a pub burger right 10 burgers in 10 minutes for a thousand pounds and I was just like there is there is absolutely not a chance I'm going to be able to do that absolutely not a chance but she yammed it down she absolutely smashed it um but it made me feel sick
44:00Jon Bass:makes me feel sick watching people do it it's when they by the end of it they are like gagging you know it's when they dip it in the water first to make it basically smoother when they swallow it whole and it just looks absolutely absolutely vile yeah in terms of um what i really like about carl's question is the phrase a slob background like it's sort of like an ethnic group um and where i live is is quite challenging really because i basically would seem so my my wife is um of dual heritage she's uh her mum is from jamaica and her dad's from scotland and she often says sometimes it's quite difficult because she doesn't you know quite fit into the black community and she also doesn't feel like she fits into the white community that's very much me with the larger gentleman community and the skinny community i don't really fit in with either now i'm sort of in the middle like you're not skinny enough to be with us skinny lads like and you're not quite fat enough to be on fat families so it's a shame um just trying to find my own way um being from a slob background but it does feel like interviews you know with work oh we're thinking about you know putting on like an eating contest like well that's someone from a slob background i think that's particularly insensitive sending an email afterwards to
45:15Jack:like the head of the meeting and now in that meeting i didn't want to shame you in front of everybody however um going forwards here's some of the languages you could use i'm putting i'm
45:25Jon Bass:changing dei to be diversity equity inclusion to diversity eating inclusion um she could could It worked quite well.
45:33Jack:DEF, diversity, eating and fatties. There you go. I'm allowed to say it. I'm an overweight, larger gentleman, all right? I'm allowed to say fatty, okay? I'm allowed to fat shame. I fat shame myself every day, looking in the mirror, eating cream buns. Why are you like this? Why are you like this?
45:54Jack:Billy T, he says, this is to you, John, I'm guessing, definitely not to me. which Spurs player would you least like to run a marathon alongside
46:07Jon Bass:I basically think who do we think in the squad looks the most overweight and out of shape because then you'd go oh yeah look I'll stand a chance and when they're still an elite athlete it's even more demoralizing do you know I mean like if it's a big if it's someone you expect to be a long distance runner and they absolutely smash out the park you just sort of wear it right but if it's someone that's just like like it would have been fraser forster right because you'd have gone oh he's a big unit he's a big frankenstein like monster it's going to be fine like if you know i'll probably be okay and then when he completely annihilates you it's even more demoralizing so i think it would have to be i think it would have to be in that scenario probably like big kev danso right because he's a big unit and you know i'll be in my mind i'll be lining up thinking oh this will be okay and then when you see him in real life he's absolutely ripped and in like a physical specimen you're like he's the fast we got and he's an adonis in comparison to me and then when we start running he could rip a phone book in half couldn't he easily mate absolutely easily so yeah i think that would be um i would have absolutely like zero zero chance of doing anything i'd get absolutely smashed to bits so yeah i think there's a there's a boring answer as well like i think
47:21Jack:archie gray runs a 5k in like 13 minutes or something like that he so heinsey did um if you've ever seen like the sort of the videos heinsey does with the club he had this one little series where he'd basically drive a player to training and do like an interview it's not carpool karaoke right it doesn't burst into song with him but he sits and has a chat with him and yeah and i think in his chat with arch it was actually a really good series i'm not saying it because he's my mate and everything but you should you should have a watch of it but um he's one with archie I think Gray said he runs a 5K in about 13 and a bit minutes.
47:54Jack:I'm pretty sure he smashed that fastest to 1K test as well. They had to run one kilometer in under three minutes or something, wasn't it, the players at the start of the season? That was Frank's horrible test where they run back and forwards 100 meters at a time and touch the ground and run back. It's something like that. I think it was three minutes, three minutes, whatever.
48:19Jon Bass:Archie Gray. You just reminded me. I actually once started a half marathon alongside Silvan Distant. Not because we're mates. I looked to my left and I was like, he looks like Silvan Distant. Then I was like, fuck, that is actually him. So he must be, I don't know, he must be 40-something now. He was in impeccable shape and he smelled amazing for someone who was just about to run a half marathon. We ran the first two miles basically together. and I was like, fuck, I'm keeping up with a former professional athlete. Then you get lost in the melee of different people. And I looked it up and he finished basically in half the time.
49:00Jon Bass:So he just absolutely just went, right, I'll ease myself into this and then I'll just pull away. And he's like, I don't know, he's in his 40s, I guess now. So like even a Kevin Danso who, I'm making it sound like Kevin Danso is some sort of slob, but you know what I mean? He's a big lump. he would absolutely annihilate me so that would be very demoralizing pick any of them they're professional athletes like they're gonna annihilate you but the thing is though what i will say is
49:24Jack:like jokes like you know i do i go for a run occasionally every now and again and but i remember like in my like in my 20s when i was running a lot more consistently i remember being buzzing when i got like my 5k time down to about i think i got down to about 27 minutes at my best and that's and I was I was way fitter at that point um and I was a bit more svel and everything but I still I see people like on my you know Instagram mates and stuff when they post their little Strava runs and stuff do 5ks in like 16 minutes and stuff I'm like how do you run that fast I don't get it like how do you do it yeah it's mental it's absolutely mental and then when
50:03Jon Bass:you see people like I saw Mo Farah doing the London Marathon the speed in which he's running a marathon is quicker than I can do the 100 metres. It's absolutely insane. It's a fucking joke. You're just like, oh, he's gone. The pace is ridiculous. It's mad. It's mad.
50:24Jack:FPL Sonny is a good one. FPL Sonny says, Why do people insist tell an odder bear R-will be good enough? Both have shown absolutely nothing in a Spurs shirt so far. can't believe we sold Kane for 45 million and tell I'll let you feel this one first makes up but I do have some thoughts on it um so let's just repeat that again because I missed some of that mate sorry he's basically saying why do people give Telenoderbergh the benefit of the doubt like they've shown absolutely nothing in a spur shirt get rid of it well he hasn't said get rid of him but you just said you think they're useless.
51:06Jon Bass:Yeah, well look, I think again it's an age thing, right? There's players there, we've seen what they can do at sort of an under 21 level for their national team and they look really good for their age group. The thing is, it's a huge jump, right? It's a huge leap. I mean, Odobert played for Burnley and I played a lot of games, a lot of minutes for them but it's a different ask. Like the level that you're playing at especially in the position that they're sort of playing in you're always going to be compared. If you think, let's say Tell is treated as a nine or as a striker and Odeber as a left winger, the last two real players that were successful there were Harry Kane and Jungmin Son.
51:43Jon Bass:So it's going to always feel like such a massive drop-off. And again, this goes back to the previous conversation of we've done them no favours as a football team, as a club, by going, right, well, we've lost Son. Let's just give Odeber a go. No. Like, we should have signed a first-team ready player like we've got Kudus on the other side. we should have had a level player like that to come in and then Odeberg gets 10-15 minutes here or there or in certain cup games coming off the bench same with Tell we kind of seen I mean the Tell one's slightly different in the sense that that's more of a Bayern Munich reputation thing right like we were all excited by him because he was at Bayern Munich and because you know he had this big reputation but fundamentally he hasn't really done much in the game right like we were not basing this on well he scored you know 30 goals for the last two seasons this is worth a go right like we just i think most people if they're really honest with themselves really never saw tell before he signed for us and so the expectation is really high and i don't think really like actually based in much provable reality they're both huge prospects and huge talents so yeah right now they're not good enough right they would fall into the bracket of players we were talking about before the difference with them is they might be right they could be in the future and so like i said we don't have alternatives it's not like we have other players that should be starting ahead of them so I think you've got to look at this and go how do we get the most out of them for now for this team without damaging them long term because it can obviously have a detrimental effect right if you're overplayed they're not performing well um I think both of them have talent I do feel both of them are playing particularly badly at the moment so it is really difficult to make the argument for them but I think we've we've got to give both of them again a bit more time to see actually what their ceiling could be.
53:29Jon Bass:And how many times have we said it before around, I mean, Harry Kane's a perfect example. He's not good enough, never going to make it, right? I reckon millions of people said that about Harry Kane. Granted, he's gone on to be one of the best players ever and there's loads of players who were shit and people said they were shit. So I get that. But why are we like sort of pre-judging what they could be today? Fundamentally, between now and January, that's what we got. So let's see. let's see if they've got something else or something extra that we could get out of them and if they do then we've got a couple of extra players who can add some quality to the squad
54:02Jack:I mean you've pretty much smashed it out of the park there mate the only thing I would add into that is it was a handful of weeks ago that there were large amounts of people all saying get rid of Archie Gray he's useless what a waste of money that was and now you look on Twitter and the majority of people are all saying he has to start against Leeds he will be one of our best midfielders look at how progressive his passing has been funny that isn't it when a teenager has a bit of time to settle in and you know I don't know man it frustrates me because again I'm not like it was with Frank at the start I'm not sat here saying that like Tel and Odeber are the second coming they're not Yamin Lemao but isn't the fact that he is the only player playing in that way from that age, isn't that part of the reason why he is so renowned?
54:59Jack:Isn't that part of the reason why he sort of stands alone? It's not a normal tangent for a young player to go on, I think. But this to me, again, look, the problem with this is, mate, is that this, again, for me, all comes back down to Levy's legacy. The reason why we are having these kind of discussions around players like Odder Bear, Tell, Archie Gray, which we shouldn't be having at all about teenagers who we've signed to be future prospects for us. But the reason why we are having these conversations is because we've thrown them in before they're ready and asking them to perform a really important role for us, which is win games in the Premier League because we have nobody else other than you to do that because we haven't been investing in players that have no sell-on value.
55:49Jack:We haven't been buying players like Trossard, like Arsenal have, and I keep using him as an example. I will think of other examples at some point, I promise you. But still, we're not... Liverpool with Alexis McAllister. You know, he's not a world... I mean, I was going to say he's not a world-beater, has literally won a World Cup. So, a poor choice of words. But still, you get my point. Yeah, they did it with Wijnaldum.
56:18Jon Bass:Wijnaldum from Newcastle just a solid player they were like we need a player like that let's just get him in and he just came in and delivered like there's Andy Robertson like they did it with decent players and they added to the squad that they had and they just made choices of players who were ready to go and they didn't have to wait for and I just feel like yeah we're in the same situation again where there's this big gap and even if you look at our best players we've mentioned a few here Bale probably signed in too early as well we're expecting him to be amazing went away nearly got fucking bombed out.
56:48Jon Bass:Like Danny Rose, Harry Kane, like these players that were like, just you've got to deliver now. As well.
56:54Jack:Cole Walker as well. Loads of people calling him brain dead and stupid and everything at the start of his Tottenham career. Loads of people. I remember it vividly. Yeah. Hunter Godson says, if you could only pick one Spurs player to make up a full 11,
57:10Jon Bass:who would it be and why? So they've got to play in every position, basically.
57:15Jack:Yeah, we all dream of a team of whoever. Sorry, I'm choking on something there. Existing players or any players. Yeah, let's say of this current crop.
57:28Jon Bass:Archie Gray. Because we already know he can play centre-back, right-back, and central midfield to Premier League standard. So you've covered quite a lot there. He's very fit. He's not lightning quick, but he would do basically left back, right back, centre back and both pivots would be fucking solid. So that would be pretty decent. And then I don't know how good he is going forward. That's obviously where you get the slight issues. But I think he's an all-rounder type of player. Him or Papa Matzai would be my choice.
58:05Jack:Two good choices. I think there's a part of me that would probably like to see Giappolini though. A team of Giappolini is not only because of that miraculous 12 pack that he showed off to everybody the other day. We get to see a bit more of that. Yes, I know that our passing maps would probably look like an old Pac-Man map. Do you know what I mean? They'd all be passing sideways just one square upwards along a pitch. Looking like one of the old Nokia snake kind of tails. Yes, that would be our passing map but he would smash we'd smash every team to smithereens maybe just in pieces he can score he can smash yeah he can pass sideways and forwards in quite small patterns but still he's massive and he's beautiful and he's hopefully ours so yeah you know um i've got a few more questions but i think we've sort of, you know, we've...
59:05Jack:All right, let me just do this one very quickly. Go on then. Daniel Shack says, is Richarlison the worst number nine we've had since Postiga? I'd take Canute, Mido, Pavlyuchenko, Crouch, Adebayor, and maybe even Soldado over him.
59:22Jon Bass:I'm going to throw in a name who I... So I often on Twitter will, for comedy effect, reiterate all the calls that I've made that were correct or have been proven to be correct. I do that often. People think I'm being serious. I'm obviously, I'll take credit for like Jed Spencer's England call up and stuff because I rooted for him when Conte called him a club signing. But I also, and I keep this quiet because I got this completely wrong. I also really rated Vincent Janssen and he turned out to be a complete pile of shite. So I would put Vincent Janssen as a worst number nine. Like he was fucking terrible, wasn't he?
59:57Jon Bass:Like he, he would be someone I wouldn't mind doing a half marathon race with. In fact, there isn't really many athletic endeavours, including maybe football, that he'd be much better at than me. He was terrible, and I really wanted him to be good. And every time he'd do something half decent, I was going, that's it, there's the player. That's what I'm seeing that no one else is seeing. Turns out everyone else was correct, and I was just riding for an absolute dogshit striker. So I think Richarlison's probably better than Vincent Janssen.
1:00:26Jack:John Bass, it's been an absolute pleasure, mate, as always. tell us just quickly before you go about man's not what and why people can listen to you on that
1:00:37Jon Bass:yeah it's basically when uh i join podcasts if i'm on with you jack or i'm on the fighting or wherever i do my podcast and we're not talking about football and we go off on these tangents about absolute nonsense and shit that's basically what man's not what is um my friend holly who's a actor and comedian she doesn't know anything like i'm not just talking about like stuff on the internet which is mainly what we talk about but she actually doesn't know a lot of anything which is quite fun learning about people that don't know anything so the pod is basically i will find two or three stories that week that are either the most the biggest news that she definitely won't have heard or i'll find something funny on the internet that i think is interesting and talk to her about it and just basically we riff off the back of those and talk about funny stuff and it's very light-hearted and stupid usually about 35 40 minutes nice easy listen once a week comes out on Sunday night.
1:01:28Jon Bass:So yeah, if you like listening to people waffle on about shit, which I'm assuming you do as you're here with me and Jack, probably check out Man's Not What. John, much love. Peace, brother.
From the publisher
Jack is joined by Jon Bass of the Man’s Not What podcast for the latest Thursday Q&A. We reflect on Spurs’ frustrating Europa League draw with Bodo/Glimt — where Thomas Frank needs to take the blame, but also where he’s actually doing a good job. Which players should be stepping up, and are the younger talents being asked to carry too much pressure too soon?
Then it’s over to your questions, from what kind of pants Thomas Frank might wear, (and what Jon wears when tackling a burglar in the night), to which Spurs player could finish a family-sized M&S turkey and stuffing pie, and the player you’d least want beside you during a marathon.
Theme is Ghost Cat by Gillen.
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