Brighton Draw Shows Spurs’ Stability | Squad Imbalance a Scar of Levy's Legacy and Xavi Simons Brilliance

29:09Jack:I think, like Bardi touched on this when I was speaking to him the other day. He raised a really interesting point that I guess got me thinking and his point was talking about like Xavi Simmons and the fact that Spurs as a squad right now as a club, as a team, as a squad we can't really afford to do what Manchester City will do you know, they can sign players like Mamouche they can sign players like Cherki and like put them in and out of the team as and when Pepsi's fit because whether or not they're up to speed if you like, be that with his tactics or be it just physically with the speed of the Premier League.

29:47Jack:We can't do that. And so we're sort of seeing in real time, aren't we? I would guess. In my head, I see it that Frank is probably thinking, well, I don't really have enough good options out on the left and I know Xavi Simmonds can play out there because he's really, really good. But I don't think it will be lost on somebody like Thomas Frank or any of our coaching stuff that we've just been waxing lyrical about, that Simmons is going to be more effective through the middle. And my point really that I'm sort of getting to is, again, it's another one of these things, isn't it, that after the dust has settled on it all a little bit, on Levy's going, this is part of his legacy.

30:35Jack:As much as the lovely stadium is, right? As much as the lovely stadium, the infrastructure, of the solidity that has been, you know, given to Tottenham Hotspur as a financial proposition, as a business, as much as, you know, he lifted Tottenham out from the mid-table doldrums and everything, is that when we did actually lift ourselves up to being a team of some, you know, reputation, a team of some certain quality, we just completely coasted on that in a footballing sense. and it's quite wild to me looking at Liverpool now because I look at Liverpool and if I'm you know fingers crossed and I say this with regards to Arsenal not so much our own ambitions but this season I don't think anyone's laying a glove on them I think they are I think they're ridiculous and I look I look at even players like Graven Birch who they've who they've signed a sort of I think you know 20-30 million they spent on him from Bayern Munich a promising young player who is now probably the best player.

31:36Jack:He's probably overtaken Rodri. He's the best player in the world in that kind of holding midfielder type position. But again, that's as a result of them being able to give some time to a young player to allow them to get up to speed before there's heaps of expectation placed upon them. And I'm not saying this in a kind of what could have been, what we could have won sense. I'm just saying it in terms of the ripple effect that we see now and probably have seen for the past years, that Ange Postokoglu, to give him his dues, definitely suffered from last season. It's just complete just neglect we've had towards squad building.

32:15Jack:The lack of legacy planning for some of our top players is just something that is quite mad to me. And we're obviously trying to get up to speed with it now. You know, we have been buying a lot more players like Bergvot, like Gray. But now this is the time, isn't it? This is the main thing that you want to give to like Viv Lewis and whoever it is that's like in charge of things now, Langer, Vinay. All of these kind of figures are within the top level of the club now is keep buying players. And I think this is what we need to, as a fan base, get into our heads. It's none of this. Why are we buying another?

32:57Jack:When we were linked with Morgan Gibbs-White, they said, why are we doing that? We've got Ben Zanker and we've got Bergvall that can do that and we've got Madison and we've got all these other players. Man, it doesn't work like that. Keep buying players. Stack the squad. Keep doing it. Keep buying players because that allows any new players, any new young players, any of the exciting players, a chance to breathe. It allows us to have some cover when players get injured because as much as I think our start to the season has been absolutely fantastic and I think it has been brilliant. And I'm not saying this like a doom monger and I don't mean to say it in this way, but I do just in the back of my head, I have these nagging concerns of like, what happens when Van Der Ven goes down?

33:42Jack:If he goes down, what happens if, what happens if Xavi Simmonds has to miss a month this season? We have no creative outlet if he goes again, none whatsoever. And it's just, I don't know. I don't really have a point to right now. It's just something that has been playing on my mind with the way in which we are. And we were always going to integrate Xavi Simmons quickly. That was always going to happen because he is a player that has a huge profile. He cost a significant amount of money. Obviously, Sonny has gone in the summer, so we needed that kind of franchise player that we've all spoken about.

34:26Jack:We needed a face of the new era of Tottenham Hotspur. So I think whatever the circumstance was, he was always going to play. But I think that does come with it an extraordinary amount of pressure that has been placed on his shoulders that honestly, I don't think even Alexander Isak is getting who has cost twice as much money for Liverpool this summer. But around him, obviously, they've signed Etiketike, who is a new player who looks exceptional as well and not like, you know, sort of frustratingly, but again, through the prism of them stopping Arsenal, not so bad. But, you know, they've stacked that on top of having Mo Salah still there who I think looks like time is starting to catch up on him a little bit, but he's still one of the best players in the Premier League.

35:16Jack:He walks into any side in the Premier League. So, you know, it's that sliding doors moment, isn't it, again, of Tottenham and Liverpool who you can say this sort of thing on Twitter and people will sit and laugh at you as a Spurs fan and say, you were never on par with Liverpool. You were never neck and neck with them. But we were. And anyone having a good faith conversation about it, Jurgen Klopp himself said it and used us as a benchmark and referenced Tottenham and our success and our growing reputation as something that he wanted to not only emulate, but get ahead of, you know, because he was like, they are the guys we have to stop because they are taking our place in the pecking order right now and just from that point on we've seen the clubs go on two completely different trajectories and I would say probably barring this summer now which has blown things out of the water we've probably spent a comparable amount of money overall it's just been done in different ways and yeah not with wages I mean I don't want to get those those conversations start to complicate thing.

36:24Jack:I don't know, mate. The proof's going to be in the pudding, right? This is delicious, delicious pudding. Delicious bacon pudding. Piggy pudding.

36:42One of the most interesting reactions to Levy going was I think everyone felt it to a degree. Obviously, some people felt a lot of relief. Some people felt, you know, complete joy at seeing him go, certainly in the manner that it's starting to appear that he did go. But there was also quite a lot of people like, not too sure how I feel about it, like a little bit uneasy of that. We've lost that better the devil, you know, thing. and the only way to squash that and to show that this isn't a symbolic gesture to move us on from the levy years is to actually follow through with it right you've got rid of a guy who for all of his faults i do genuinely believe he always wanted to do the best for tottenham it's just that what he felt was the best wasn't actually the best thing for us as a football club he used to want to do the best thing for us as a as a business right and that sometimes and often hurt the playing side he's he's no longer there that comes with it an expectation and not an unwarranted expectation if you felt that that was not the way forwards for spurs if that wasn't the way forward to build us as a football club and to make our team better.

38:09Show us what you've got that's going to show us that you do know how to make us better. That could be small things like not quibbling over a£5 million sell-on value for a player that we want to buy in one summer. You want£5 million more? Bang, done,£5 million more. May not be the best financial decision there and then, but it gets you over the line and who knows, that player could make the difference. Could have made the difference with Ezza. could have made the difference with Gibbs White. Probably not in the latter, just because he was being held hostage, but allegedly before Maranacos comes for me.

38:47You know, if it's small operational changes, then yeah, that's one thing. But yeah, if they're going to show us that we want to get to that same point of Liverpool and Arsenal, and I get it, we don't have 250 million sitting around to spend. we've got to work well we might do but then we're still going to be beaten on wages you know it's

39:11Jack:maybe all going to change right but that's what I'm saying it has to change because otherwise what's the point and I think now is that time to a lot of the noise and we haven't heard anything from them directly obviously we've had that that talking head from Vinay about thanking Levy and then saying we're ambitious and all of this but all the while like the club are leaking basically chucking levy under the bus entirely absolutely yeah yeah um but we've not really heard anything from from the lewis family directly apart from saying that the club's not for sale that's it what we it's so we can only go on actions right we've got no words to go on here we've got no promises it's just we're all making assumptions like if levy wasn't good enough and levy was the guy and he made them a ton of money and set them up to sell the club for a hundred times what it was worth when he first came in.

40:07But if he's not the guy anymore, then you've got to show us why he isn't and what was wrong. What was he not doing right for the club and for the team? So hopefully that goes hand in hand with more investment, higher wage ceilings, just something better for us as a team, a little bit more joined up thinking, and hopefully a little bit of stardust at the end of that as well. That would be nice, but we'll see. We'll see what happens. I don't think January will be the time to judge it because that is a difficult window. It's just a pain in the arse for most teams. But who knows? Show us why you've made this decision.

40:47Show us what you want to do with us as a club, especially if we're still floating around that top six. Imagine just going out and buying a striker. like Ekotike or whoever.

41:01Jack:This is the thing Ben Bowman's saying on Twitter. He's just sort of asked, how's everyone feeling about our striker situation at the moment? And I put back to him this morning. I was just simply saying Ekotike would be our best striker and is Liverpool's backup dash rotation option. So if we aspire to be at that level, competing for league titles or that type of thing, it's a useful context as to where we're at and yeah i don't think that needs to be used as like a big kind of like the sky is falling we're awful because we don't have you know we haven't spent 200 million pounds on strikers this summer which liverpool have done but bear in mind they've done this whilst they still have mo salah they've not done this as a reaction to selling mo salah they've done this as a reaction to selling luis diaz and darwin nunez you know who uh diaz is a good player Nunez I think we can say a disaster overall really for the amount of money they spent on him and what have you um we just can't afford those can we we can't afford a Nunez no if we get a Nunez if we get Darwin Nunez through the door and he has two seasons like he had at Liverpool but for Spurs I know he was laughed out the door for Liverpool but Liverpool had like as you say Eketike and Isak coming through the door to replace him no one's laughing anymore do you know what I mean like you've you've acted like a serious club you've got rid of the dud and you've got these two guys that are probably going to get you 15 to 20 league goals each and probably win the title again if spurs do that we look at andombele we held on to him for five years in the hope that a bloody loan deal would turn into something permanent let alone him actually becoming a good player or turning it on for us we can't afford well previously we have not been able to afford doing that sort of thing again that's the sort of thing where you just wonder don't try and extract the last possible value out of a player that we know is not good enough not going to make us enough money and is never going to come back like it's just not going to work with him cut ties get rid start again that would be a good show of intent of the owners and the new structure apparently new structure that we've got in place just as an example i mean because the thing is it's like I do I don't think we should be looking at Liverpool right now where we're at right now I don't think we should be looking at Liverpool and saying you know that's what we should be in the next season or two that's what I hope we will be if things go as you know the Lewis family and everybody say the way in which they want to run Tottenham right they want to make Tottenham a competitive successful side right we will be doing that in two three seasons down the line.

43:43Jack:I mean, maybe it doesn't have to say that long. That's an arbitrary number I've picked out. But I'm going... The point I'm trying to make is we have a real core now of exciting, young, talented players. And it feels like at least the will from this summer, because we were all saying, even before Levy went, what's happened to Spurs this summer? Why have we acted so? We got Kudus in, and then days later, we were apparently getting Morgan Gibbs-White in, and we all know what happened there. But then after that, we've gone out and got Xavi Simmonds. We were after Eza. We were in for Savinho. And I truly believe we will be back in for him in January.

44:21Jack:I thought he looked worryingly bang average against Arsenal yesterday, I've got to say. I didn't even notice he came on, I'll be honest. Yeah, but he's not played much. And maybe it'll be different under a new manager and all that type of thing. I do feel like the will is there for Spurs to kind of, you know, to push on. But to your point, what I do think we need to do, and I hope we get better at doing, and, you know, saying some of these names probably won't make a lot of people very happy, but I feel like players like Richarlison, Solanke, dare I say it, Vicario, are players that should be looking over their shoulder because I feel like clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal, where they're at now, Arsenal, for example, Ramsdale was a good keeper.

45:16Jack:Ramsdale was a good keeper. He had a blip in him, but he was a good keeper. They were ruthless. They got rid of him because they realised, you know, he is costing us probably this amount of points per season. We can make a marginal. I don't look at David Ryan and think he is like a comprehensive, Hence, like, head and shoulders. He is night and day better than Aaron Ramsdale was at Arsenal. But is he better? Yes, he is. So the point is, when I say, like, when I talk about, like, Vicario in post-match pods and people say, you know, you're being harsh, he's a good keeper. I know he's a good keeper, but he probably does cost us points.

45:55Jack:And then people say, well, he saves us points as well. He makes saves. That's his literal job. You know, and I get it. I know he does make some great reflex saves and things, But what's he there for if he's not doing that? That is his job. And so, of course, I'm going to hone in on the parts where he messes things up. Solanke, I think, again, I think he's a great player. I think he's really good. He's very good at holding the ball up. Equally, though, do I think Solanke gets into any of the teams? If we think about City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, he's nowhere near those squads. and again what I'm saying is if we aspire to get to that kind of level we need to be ruthless with some of these players, move them on, bring somebody else in, spend that big money but you know I agree, I agree this is quite a big existential conversation but you know but now's the time to have it because we've just moved aside our chairman of the last 25 years and a guy who by and large certainly from inside the club would be seen as a success but the the Lewis family would like he made them so he has made them a you know a fortune in the most literal sense of the word he has built Spurs up to be an entity that will make them billionaires or more more billionaires if you like they to move that aside that is a very you know that's an existential decision almost that's how big a decision it was it made national news that Levy was being moved aside there's no other club I think in the league that would have warranted that amount of attention for their their chief executive being moved on or leaving but Levy it was so it's a seismic shift for the club and for the business of Tottenham so these existential conversations have to happen down to that minute level of is our goalkeeper good enough because if he isn't well you've made the decision to move along this guy because you felt you maybe didn't didn't have the ambition didn't have the foresight to make us a bigger club is this part of your decision is it part of that that we're going to make the squad to such a point where if you're not good enough you will not be at spurs or is it more of a it just got stale let's do more of the same langer can keep doing what he's doing, aiming for the Bergwels and the Greys, but we're never really going to go and spend the same amount of money as we did on Xabi Simmonds.

48:26We're not going to do that again because Xabi Simmonds is the answer for the next five or six years, that sort of thing. I think you have to have those sort of conversations now because that's where Spurs are. We are in this in-between stage of what does the next five years look like for us? Was the Europa League the start of something, which we all hoped, or did they see it as a bit of an ending and the next cycle is just going to be something else we don't know

48:50Jack:what that is i don't know i think the the main thing and i've kind of i probably haven't like vocalized like my my chain of thought as coherently as i wouldn't and just listening to you there has helped me to sort of get it more in line is that i feel that football is always going through like periods of like evolution right we're always seeing like a reinvention of how things happen Chelsea obviously doing that in like the noughties and everybody else having to try their best to catch up with that and so on and so forth and I feel like in the past and it's probably post lockdown it's maybe even 2023 onwards Liverpool Arsenal and City have shown now and Chelsea as well to be fair again but they're always doing this but those clubs have shown at this top level that the game has changed again that it is it's even more ruthless than it was and you have you just have to spend money you can be smart you can because you know i'm not going to be a hypocrite about it i've just spoken about graven birch at the top end of this podcast a player who they bought in cheap quite smart they've taken a punt on from i think by munich they got him and now looks like one of the best players in world football.

50:09Jack:So there is still obviously great value to be had and hopefully somebody like a Bergvold will be that for us. He certainly looks absolutely phenomenal right now. But the point I do feel about Spurs is that it would just be nice to know and it'd be nice to know up front what the Lewis's want from us because we're Spurs fans at the end of the day, right? And I feel like we would be able to reconcile is if the noises early on from the Lewis's were, you know, we're here to kind of, hopefully, you know, we don't have the resources to compete with Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City. But what we're going to try and do is double down, win you an FA Cup here and there and still make sure that we're a competitive team in the Premier League.

50:57Jack:I think if we kind of, if we actually had that laid out for us, and obviously no club is going to do that because they don't want to miss out and sponsorship and revenue opportunities and things like that but i just kind of feel like if that's what we were sort of given a bit and if ticket pricing was reflective of that and everything you would be kind of more okay with it but as all of those things are never going to happen as that is not the reality of football you are going to have a lot of people are going to feel unhappy if we do anything other than try and do what the teams above us are doing because that is quite simply what it takes to be successful now in football is just spending loads and loads and loads of money that's that's just what you have to do and Liverpool obviously have been they've been quite pioneering in their sort of you know money ball approach to football in many respects I've spoken plenty of times on here about Ian Graham is it who the how to win the Premier League the book you know it's been written by their sort of Tottenham's former sort of data analyst and now Liverpool's and still like in as much as his great work was pivotal to what Liverpool have gone on to achieve he acknowledges himself and I think most people who are again having a good faith conversation will acknowledge is that also what knocked Liverpool up a notch, was spending loads of money on Van Dijk and Alisson.

52:30Jack:And since now, spending all this money on this litany of other players that they have that will probably see them win the next two or three Premier League titles. And that all came from a very big part of that was a couple of years ago, deciding to buy a whole new midfield. How many teams have ever gone and done that? They went and bought Sir Bozlay and McAllister, and I think Gravenberch was the other player in that three. to basically start again and just went, right, Henderson's not up to it anymore. Wijnaldum had gone. I think Fabinho had gone as well. Didn't seem to be thinking Harvey Elliott was going to be the next thing.

53:07So they just went, right, we need a whole new midfield and we're prepared to allow a whole season of bedding in, of it coming together and gelling and probably not winning anything. I think it was Gatpo they bought before, by the way.

53:20Jack:Was it Gatpo? Yeah, I think Gravenberch is quite... I think, did they get him this season or last season? I think he's got around for, yeah, he was around last season. I think he maybe wasn't getting a start, but certainly McAllister and Sabozlai were the same summer and, again, 120 million. And not just 120 million, but an acceptance that there was going to be a year of, this isn't going to be perfect and this isn't going to be the answer straight away. So it's money and time together is probably what sets Liverpool apart. And it's why it's so funny with Arsenal at the moment that they're spending this money and they are frantic.

53:57You can tell they are frantic and their fans are starting to get frazzled with it and all of them are starting to get frazzled with it. Look at how they celebrated a draw yesterday or the equaliser.

54:09Jack:Have you seen the videos of them all madly celebrating a double substitution at the Arsenal fan TV watch? They are frazzled because they don't know what they want although they do know what they want and they think that they've done everything that they should do. to get that. They spent£250 million, but they've lost their arse already. They are losing their arse already over this because they're impatient for it. I can identify with that. I was the same. Under Pochettino, again, mentioned Pochettino. You can feel it slipping through your fingers. You can. This is our moment. And it's going. Liverpool disappearing.

54:43You can feel it. We know that feeling. We were there before Guardiola took over City, and then City got taken over and it was a bit like, I'm not really sure he's going to work here and then they went and spent about 200 million one summer and got players that guardiola wanted that 17 18 season yeah and it what they got walker off us you know that's perfect example of us slipping through our fingers it was slipping through and directly into the hands of the people that or the team that were so obviously going to take us over daniel slipping into a hotel we're in with the sun yeah yeah you know it we we could see it happening and i think they're in exactly the same spot.

55:20They are, it's that ducks on the water, right? Liverpool are the ones with the frantic legs underneath, but they are very calm and composed on top. Arsenal are the drowning duck. There are legs and wings and beaks and feathers everywhere because they're losing grip and their fans are going to get impatient. If they fall 10 points behind by Christmas or something like that, 100 % they'll be coming for Arteta, 100%. Because they feel it slipping from them. Do you remember the old duck hunt game?

55:55Jack:You know, when you died, that dickhead dog would come out of the bottom and go, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, and laugh at you. Is that what we are? Well, that's what we are, yeah, laughing at Arsenal now with their ducks. I was just saying, get your duck analogy. We are the dog in duck hunt. Yeah. But that's it. We need to be composed at this point. can I just say but you know I do also love about it mate sorry to jump in but the other thing I love about it now is that they're actually rattled about us again now because you know like you're saying they're kind of getting that thing of like Liverpool are disappearing and now they're sort of thinking oh god they've gotten rid of Levy they're spending money are they going to start catching up on us again yeah because you can like the amount of like see like for the past two years, two, three years, they've not cared at all.

56:45Jack:If I've posted my anti-Arsenal stuff, they don't even respond like, you're a nice one, all that type of thing. We've been irrelevant to them for a few years. Now, anything I've put out there about Arsenal, I've got random essays in my thing from a Tottenham fan that thinks they can... You're clearly rattled, mate. Yes. Yeah, it is. He's getting to them. I love it. I live for it, mate. Maybe I'm speaking too soon, but it's why I can't see them doing the big stuff under Arteta. Because it is too... The whole silhouette of the Premier League on the wall as players walk in, because that's the missing piece.

57:24We show all our new signings. It's weird. Guardiola is weird, but at least he's weird entirely with football. He's so engrossed in football that that's the be-all and end-all. to the cost of everything else in his life football is his number one obsession Arteta hasn't got that I think he's trying to be that that leader and that guy that everyone looks at he's so Brent, I don't think he knows how David Brent he is Arsenal fans don't understand how David Brent he is Davide Brentos yeah he doesn't get it and that will always hold them back. And that's why it's lovely to have someone like Frank, who, in my opinion, and again, this may not bear out, and there's a long way to go, but tactically, I don't think there'd be an awful lot of difference between Thomas Frank and Mikel Arteta.

58:24They do the best, they play to their strengths, and they do what they need to, to win. And the difference is that Arteta has had probably close to£600 to£700 million to spend on that squad, maybe more to build that squad since he joined and frank has had three months and obviously barely any money in comparison but give him another two years i don't think there's any reason why we couldn't be on a par with where arsenal are under arteta because i don't think i don't rate him i don't rate him as a person don't rate him as a tactician i think he's just lucked himself into a team that he built up from what was eighth ninth place and made relevant again but just made into a bit of a bully team that was what seemingly what this modern Premier League is all about, it's about big massive guys who do set pieces well Big bloody bastards!

59:19It is a bit and it's not far off from what we've seen in the early days of Frank like the long throw stuff, the set pieces stuff it's the foundations that they're getting right but beyond that I don't think Alteta has got anything over Thomas Frank in particular so i think i yeah i agree i think they're starting to see the little brother is starting to grow up a little bit and maybe take a swing at him in a little while that's going to be that's this season for me we we've got we have to win at least one of the derbies because it's just been so miserable the north london derby for even before angela under conte just so miserable so depressing and just so meek and yeah i i would honestly consider this season a success if we if we managed to win a north london derby just to show that we can fucking can because should i clip that bit out yeah feel free should i do that feel free look at this lack of ambition

1:00:18Jack:who said this you know when people always do that as a question well it's quite clearly who said it It's the person you've just stolen the video from. Talking of big lumps, big bastards, that Harry Kane's doing all right in Germany at the moment. What are your thoughts on the maybe, we've got an option on him? Would you have him back? Yeah, obviously. It'd be stupid to say no. So I think it depends on where the squad is in general at that point, because we've seen for the last two or three seasons of Kane, obviously his brilliance elevated everybody, but he really was the only player in the team that was able to do anything.

1:01:07So he had Sonny, and that was a great partnership, but Kane was the one. He was the best technician. He was the leader. He was the one that got the numbers. He was everything. if we bring him back and put him into a squad that he's still wrestling on whether we put Matty's tail or Odderbear and you know not to be too disparaging of those but we can't bring him back into the exact same situation as he left so if the squad is there and it's ready for him like I was saying earlier like if we're talking about Richarlison if we're creating chances and we've still got Richarlison and Solanke fighting out between them to be the least injured striker we have and get themselves nine, ten league goals in a season, bring Harry Kane back by all means.

1:01:52But if we're just going to bring him back to have a very depressing last couple of years of his career playing with some, let's face it, bang average players, I think that would be a little bit sad to see.

1:02:03Jack:Why break the Tottenham habit of a lifetime? I don't know. But then, of course we'd want him. It's just stupid to sit here and say otherwise. is like, obviously we would want Harry Kane to come back and play for us. But I just wonder. I always thought they used to play a version of Seven, like a Technoia version of Seven Nation Army when they scored. Have you heard by Munich's goal music? Yeah, Badu. Yeah, Badu. And then the Can Can. Mate, if we draw them in the Champions League and we get done, imagine Kane scoring a couple. My head. Here in the...

1:02:51Jack:I'll be sitting there fucking spitting at my TV and stuff. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I do. What is that about? It's majestic. It is majestic in its shithousing. Yeah. And it's so beneath the club of the statue of Munich. I was just about to say, I think Crystal Palace play, or used to play, was it Wenger Boys? they did something and this wasn't that long ago and there was a bit there was something going around on socials that was like can you imagine being in the home end or sorry the away end you lose 1-0 in the last minute to a Mateta header and then they start playing the Vengaboys at you there was a clip of it going around somewhere it's so funny but without being too disparaging that's Crystal Palace like if you think goal music I think who would in the Premier League would have goal music probably Palace probably Arsenal to be honest that feels like a natural fit there probably a bit Brentford maybe just teams that you think a bit Tim Pot but Bayern Munich you're like statesman of the game

1:04:03Jack:what do the Flintstones and the Cancan have to do with Bavaria either, I don't get it It is simply like, it's almost like they've concocted, how can we annoy opposition fans and players as much as we can? Yeah. But I don't... Yeah, maybe. If it happened in England, I think that's what it would be about. Because English fan culture is as much about the other team being miserable as it is about your own team being good. 100%. Whereas in Germany, it's different, isn't it? Yeah. but isn't it it's Hartlepool that play the Captain Pugwash for him isn't it but they score I think for God's sake I think it is I'm pretty sure it's Hartlepool which is that's amazing I quite like Sandstorm you know what I bring Sandstorm back for the League Cup that was your that was rule the roost for a little while that was your post-match I'm sure it was was it maybe it was you know it better than I do rando bits of music and stuff down the years down the years mate I'm sure it used to be your post match intro and outro which was actually it was one of the Patreon pods that I did with did with Phil with Phil yeah that's right it's quite funny that during the points of the season like the end of Conte and probably the start of Posta Coglu maybe when it started to go south on Posta Coglu you'd have Sandstorm leading into you basically going well that was bad wasn't it after 5-1 to Newcastle

1:05:50right Skip had a bad game today didn't he what are we going to do

1:05:58Jack:about Ndombele is anyone going to buy him no great that's what the kids call the trenches I think we can talk about the problems that the squad still has and the things that we want to see, but it's a million miles away from 2021, 22, 23, that period where Hojbjerg and Oliver Skip, bless him, Lucas Moore are still stinking up the gaff. At least we've moved on a little bit. I don't want to keep you too much longer, mate, just very quickly. We are playing Doncaster on Wednesday, League Cup. you hoping to see a lot of people talking about like Luca Williams Barnett maybe, maybe getting a little nod, seeing like you say Kinski getting a go between the sticks, having to see us rotate I mean we should be dispatching Doncaster and I would like to think making a good fist of trying to win the League Cup, I've got that taste for silverware after last year and I want more Piggy want more I think it was rule the roots last year you had Windy on and I think it might have been just after the Coventry game in the League Cup that we won 2-1 I think we made 11 changes and we looked dreadful until we made a couple of subs and then obviously we got a couple of late late goals with Spence and Johnson and Windy made the point that you don't see Liverpool making 11 changes to their team they are smarter and more savvy with their rotation so that it happens in the league to a point that they give half an hour here and there to players when the game's won or when it's it's tactically viable to do so so it means that when the league cup does come around they can play a a mixed team fairly strong but with some players that deserve minutes and should get 90 minutes under their belt so i'm always conscious of like full wholesale changes um and i don't want to see 11 changes i don't think like i'd be very happy for one of van de ven or Romero to play, partly because I don't think we got another centre-back apart from Danso.

1:07:59Don't think Dragasin's fit. But you'd imagine... Was Porro rested against Brighton? No, Spence was, wasn't he? Sorry, I think Spence was rested. I don't think Porro does get him rested. But I would be playing one of Saar, Bergwahl, Benton Kaur. Probably keep Odderbeer on the left. I say, I don't I don't want wholesale changes. I think there's some players that could do with the match fitness and sharpness. So I don't want to see them come out just for the sake of giving, yeah, some academy products a start just for the sake of the clamour for him. He looks very, very good. That guy, what's his name?

1:08:44Williams Barnett?

1:08:46Jack:Yeah. Yeah. Have you seen that little compilation down there? He looks ridiculous. He's obviously too good for under-21s football, but we've just got to be careful. Doncaster at home, like you say, you'd hope that we would be in a position to be able to give him 20 minutes at the end just to see what's... Introduce him, integrate him. It would be a nice opportunity. But I don't want to see wholesale changes. I think that is the fastest way to get yourself a slip-up in a competition and then there's no coming back. If you fuck it up, you're gone. So, yeah. Do you think it's probably quite important we try to win something this year again?

1:09:27Jack:Keep that momentum, keep that trophy momentum going? It'd be nice to think that it's always important, you know, because that's definitely a legacy of Levy. That is definitely how it's felt for the majority of Levy's time, is that trophies aren't important, that it is a nice-to-have rather than a this-is-what-we're-building-towards. So I think it's important for us to at least show that, yeah, we're going to go hammer and tong for everything that we're in. League Cup is so achievable. It's so achievable for a club like us. I don't care our tin pot. It is always going to be the fourth biggest trophy, but it doesn't mean that we shouldn't be going for it any less.

1:10:06So I think it should always be important for us to go for trophies.

1:10:11Jack:Got on you Spurs. Tom, it's always a pleasure, mate. You got anything to push? Any pods or anything? i i know i'm not a host anymore like a quiz pod not long ago though i saw that you shared something no so there's a there's a podcast called career we go which is a trivia like niche trivia podcast um and they do they have people like write rounds for them you can write in and you can submit something for them and as you know and as anyone listens to this regularly knows that I do the quiz podcast on Royal Roost for Hometown Glory um used to do it on the Tottenham Way when uh when that was in its first form um yeah I really like it it's a good vocation for me so I submitted a couple of rounds and they yeah they hosted it or featured them on Career We Go it's a very good podcast if people fancy it's a nice easy listen that just kind of gets your brain engaged a bit but it is for complete and utter dweebs like don't get me wrong it is a total if you like stats and you like yeah but if you basically if you like your sporkle quizzes it's the podcast version of every sporkle quiz that you've ever done probably some it's been a pleasure mate back at you cheers mate

1:11:40Thank you.