REACTION: Frankfurt 0-2 Spurs - CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE?

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1:04You know what I've decided I miss, right? I miss just good old, straightforward, relatively uneventful Spurs wins. It feels like that's been a while, doesn't it? Doesn't it? We just sort of, we were the better team overall. We took two good chances. We actually could have scored more tonight, but still. Got two goals. They were awful. They didn't really bother us. And we won. We just got the job done. We had to win tonight to qualify. No playoff. Nobody wanted a playoff. We didn't want any of that, did we? We didn't want to give you that. We didn't want that. We just wanted to win the game against a horrible Frankfurt side.

2:03Qualify for the Champions League proper. Proper. And just go. Get on with it, right? And we did it. We did it. Are we going to start to have serious conversations about Spurs getting relegated the year they win the Champions League? You know? That would be decidedly Tottenham Hotspur. Not talking about the Premier League tonight. Do you know what? As I said after the Dortmund game, this is a bit of a sanctuary. I love European football. I love this club. being in European football. And now I wavered a little bit. I was like, oh, is it a bit of a distraction? We're not doing very well, but still, you know, when that big ball with the stars on it is out in the centre circle, you get all excited.

2:53I still do. I don't know about you, but I do. I like seeing Tottenham in the Champions League. Who knows when we're in it again, you know? Do you get it? Do you get entered into it the next year if you win it? I think you do, don't you? obviously I know that happened before with Chelsea to our detriment, but did they change the rule at that point? So it doesn't happen. I don't know.

3:24That was just solid. It was good. I will say the only slightly, and I don't think it's a negative caveat. Maybe you could interpret it as a negative one. I'll give you that. the only slight caveat I will say is this iteration of Frankfurt are genuinely one of the worst football teams I think I've ever watched but they were horrible really really bad they made us look really good how are they doing in the Bundesliga they can't be like I'm assuming that they've gone through some sort of reshuffle restructuring post right so they're eighth in the Bundesliga not doing very well though they're yeah what are they nine points nine points adrift of the Champions League places I don't know if they've lost a few players if they've had a reshuffle post Glasner all that type of stuff I don't know don't really care to be honest with you I thought we I thought we made them look very bad but they did a good job of making themselves look pretty terrible Spurs were good I don't think we were spectacular but I thought we were good um there were moments of promise I think there were glimmers there were glimmers of seeing what Xavi Siemens is capable of and also glimmers of him being slightly frustrating um there was that one opportunity was it the first half I think when he sort of did that mazy little kind of run into the box went around a couple of defenders but then just sort of dwelled in possession for that bit too long tried to be cute and like dink it past the keeper when he probably could have just slotted it home but overall a good performance from him tonight we desperately need him to stay fit he is the closest thing we have to a creative player I mean he is a creative he's not the closest thing to he is a creative player you get what I'm saying though so he has to stay fit i was surprised he he did last the full 94 minutes didn't he i was surprised that was the case um but fine you know if he if they think he needs more minutes in his legs or whatever crack on um it was a good performance from him generally good performance from everybody i've never said a bad word about randakala moani um good to see him on the score sheet with a cute finish and a really nice finish from Dom Solanke back to haunt Frankfurt once again um really nice really nice from him I'm I often feel even if I'm not externally critical I'm at least internally quite critical of Dominic Solanke's finishing um there's that little bit of me that feels that he maybe doesn't quite have that killer instinct to be a top top as harry redknapp or thomas frank would say striker but he is still really good and really important having him back is a bit of a blessing isn't it having him back shows you actually, you know, having a player that can go on the front foot, run at defenders, actually run into space effectively, in the box can be really good.

7:02Even if his finishing can be slightly remiss at times. But on that tonight, we've won 2-0. I mean, something about this football club, though, I've got to say, I know I said I wasn't going to talk about the Premier League, and I know this is a little sanctuary. I love European football, all that type of stuff, right? But still, something needs to be studied at this football club when you consider that we're as bad as we are in the Premier League and we've smashed the Champions League in this fashion. I saw this really like bitter post from this. It was like a clip from a podcast, the Italian football podcast, where the hosts were talking about how English football has ruined, because if you look at the group stage of the Champions League, they were putting forward that English football has ruined football.

8:00It's ruined European football. And so it took me a few seconds to just have a look at kind of the records because I was thinking like, I get that, but how many times have English teams actually won the Champions League? I know we always have this, you know, and especially like lots of Europeans have this conversation about English teams ruining the Champions League. But I don't see, I was sort of thinking to myself, if that was the case, City would be winning it every other year, every year like they do the Premier League. Liverpool, who are the most successful English side in Europe, have, and I say only in comparison to Real Madrid, won it six times a lot of this is overstated but anyway I looked at it so in the last decade English teams have won the Champions League three times out of 10 and in the last two decades English teams have won it five times out of 20.

9:03Now when I was growing up 90s noughties the Serie A was the top league. And lo and behold, in those two decades, the 90s and the noughties, Serie A sides won the Champions League five times and dominated the competition. And also, if you want to just put it back one year, 1989, the Serie A side won it then as well. So six times in 21 years-ish. The point is that I get it. It does seem kind of silly that Spurs are, you know, we finished fourth. I think we have anyway. I don't know how the table ended, but I don't think anybody was going to be able to knock us out of our position. So by the looks of it, Spurs have finished fourth in the Champions League group stages.

9:56We've lost one game, which is remarkable, to be honest. A goal difference of plus 10. and then you cut to the Premier League and we're doing awfully. And I know the conversations are, well, you know, everyone else is clapped and the Premier League holds it. And, you know, I'm not completely ignorant. You know, I'm making this sort of argument about Syria and the Premier League. I'm not completely ignorant to the fact that, you know, a team like Bournemouth or, you know, basically chuck any Premier League team in there Bournemouth or Leeds or whoever can probably outbid and give higher wages to a player more so than probably most Serie A teams can even the very top ones I get that there's a disproportionate level of money poured into the Premier League right now but as I say that's just kind of how it used to be with the Serie A this is just what happens in football and also the main point really for me is that Real Madrid win it all the time Real Madrid who are in the playoffs by the looks of things they fell out of the sporting sporting came into the sporting Lisbon I'm going to say that I'm going to be a rebel sporting Lisbon finishing the top 8 So we've got Arsenal at the top, Bayern, Liverpool, Tottenham, Barca, Chelsea, Sporting, Man City.

11:36I'm just delighted we're not in those playoffs, to be honest with you. I can't be arsed for more games. I think it's just good. It's mad that we've finished fourth, to be honest. But I throw back to, the thing that I throw back to is, we can sort of talk about the English league and how powerful it is and the disproportionate wealth and all that type of thing. Fine, you know, that's one part of the conversation. Another part of the conversation is that Spurs have always been, and I said this after Dortmund, but Spurs are a European side. Spurs have European heritage. More often than not, when we're in European competition, we do really well.

12:22We generally get quite far. We're one of the more successful sides in Europe. Yeah, all right. We're not one of the elite sides in Europe. We've never won the big one, let alone multiple times. But we've won the UEFA-Europa multiple times, which is more than most clubs can say. And what's more, we always have fun in Europe, pretty much. you know got to the final a few years back definitely punched above our weight in that even though we were a really good side you know we i still feel like we punched above our weight at that point um harry redknapp we punched above our weight had a really lovely run at that time you know spurs i don't know what it is um you know i i don't know if it's something about the you know we talk about club dna and i know i always say but we always talk about club dna in such a negative way but maybe there's something about European competition the sort of I don't know I don't really want to get into all this like wishy-washy stuff but the sort of the the magic of it all you know the the the sort of the grand occasion under the floodlights evening fixture maybe there's just something about that the fairy tale of it the dreamer's disease if you like that appeals to tottenham the mo of the club to dare is to do all that type of thing you know this it just and again look i i i realize like we're not we're not liverpool we're not real madrid we're not ac milan i get that we're not one of those like true heavyweights but as I say like even like just within ourselves I think there is something about us that like we're just comfortable in Europe and I feel like we always have been every time we've been in it in my lifetime in any European competition more often than not we're pretty comfortable it's not to say we always are like we lose games of course everybody loses games like we don't win the competition every single time we're in it but still I always feel like we generally speaking give a better account of ourselves in European football than we do domestically um and I I sort of always feel like that's the case whereas like you know there was a there was a graphic doing the rounds the other day that was about like how Arsenal have qualified from the group stage the most out of any English team um of all time and then I think all the people underneath were like saying yeah but then they're one of the highest rates of getting knocked out straight away in the round just after qualifying and they've never won any of the European competitions either so you know who really cares about these kind of rando stats that they use um it's just nice isn't it isn't this nice isn't it nice to just like to sit here tonight and just talk about this talk about Spurs actually doing something quite well um The world moves fast.

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17:01Jokes aside, like, I'm not, like, being real, I'm not sat here dreaming of Spurs. I mean, I'm dreaming of Spurs winning the Champions League. Of course I am always, but what I'm saying is, like, daydreaming, having even, like, the realistic visualisations of Spurs winning the Champions League. I just feel like it would be quite fun to go on a little run in this competition, play a couple of the big boys again, you know maybe go all the way that'd be lovely wouldn't it i mean obviously but it's nice you know your name being in the hat being in the draw who are we going to get what's the other what's the next away day do you fancy it do any of the you know do any of your mates fancy going i've never been to lisbon you know or whatever like let's let's go even if we can't get tickets to the game let's go it's nice it's nice to have this sort of excitement i never you know and you you know this you anybody who's watched this for years you know i'll always be battling against the comments i will take as being in the conference league i'll take as being in the europa league i just like spurs being in europe i i do i like spurs playing european football i think it's just exciting it's nice it's it's fun um and i'm just i'm delighted that we're in it i'm delighted that we've given a good account of ourselves in the Champions League because we are self-depreciating we do beat ourselves up it has been a largely pretty miserable season the funny thing is like it's actually been a really it has been a miserable season for Spurs because we have been hopeless domestically and Arsenal have just been so good and whatever you want to say oh it doesn't matter what they do of course it does of course it compounds it that that bit extra you You know, it's been miserable seeing Spurs just be as bad as they have been in the Premier League and actually having legitimate conversations about us going down and all this type of stuff.

18:58It's crap. So having this little respite from it, having a bit of European football, you know, I love that. I, for one, I, for one, like Spurs winning games. I put that to you. I put that to you. Are you brave enough to admit that you like Spurs winning games? Hmm. Hmm. You know, riddle me this. That's not riddle, is it? Do you know, I've seen that I have one bugbear, one bugbear that I've got at the moment, right? The people on Twitter, I've seen some of the people on Twitter saying they hope we go down to teach Enoch a lesson. you hope Spurs go down. Like, I get lashing out and being a bit emotional, but Spurs going down would be the worst thing.

19:58It would like be beyond abysmal. It would be utterly, utterly, utterly horrendous. Is that beyond abysmal? Utterly, utterly? Like the emphasis, the lots of utterlies, that probably makes it beyond abysmal, doesn't it? utterly, utterly, utterly abysmal. It'd be very bad. I wouldn't have an awful lot of confidence in us coming back up straight away. I don't want to talk about it. No, I don't want to talk about it. Let's stay in the happy place. Just don't wish I want to teach E. Nicolessen. Shut up, man. Well, just because they want to sign Andy Robertson. Boo-hoo. Doesn't mean we deserve to get relegated.

20:41Like, he's such a dickhead, you know?

20:48John Benfield 13 says, hit the like button for Champions of Europe. Yes. Yes, John, I like that. The creative way of getting people to hit the like button. Do it, please. Mr. Stephen Stotch says, Romero and a doggy were outstanding. Also, Chevy and Odeber were very good. Hopefully, we're active in the next few days of the transfer window and bring in some quality. Up the Spurs. Yes. John W912. Oh, this is going to ruffle some feathers. Fair play to Thomas Frank. First Champions League campaign, and he's got them through.

21:30I provide no comment on that, but I do present your comment, John. So there we go. um adnix 100 says spurs are through happy stream it's a happy stream isn't it i think it is dusty neighbor says i mean that was a pretty professional win if we were doing all right i'd have no problem with that but since we suck it doesn't look as good i yeah i i kind of know what you mean but in this competition we've we've been decent you know jack underhill says frank ball plus hodl on comms equals whiffy wednesday um but we're through good stuff yeah you know you have to love glenn hodl as any spurs fan does right but just lighten up a bit glenn the thing i will give him is like the mask slipped Ajax you know because he'd obviously a few weeks maybe a couple of months previously dropped dead in the BT TNT at the time BT studios and was brought back to life um then got to see the Ajax game and if you if you watch the I don't know if he said it on the live broadcast but they definitely showed it on the what's the thing they do it's like match they uncovered or something like that where they show the game unfold for more different i'm sure every single one of you has absorbed every single piece of iax media down the years but in that bt uncovered um when spurs you know when lucas morris scores scores the winner at iax and they've all celebrated and everything is glenn hoddle saying i'm so glad i'm still alive to see that i just thought oh mate like you know got me it really choked me up i just thought he's just he's he's just speaking as a spurs fan there that's because you know how much that means to him so i know he loves a bit of a moan on the comms and i do get annoyed with him but he's only moaning because he's one of us and he actually he properly is you know he properly is um so there we go i'm not trying to shame you or anything there jack i know i went quite heavy there because i complain about him all the time but i just sort of tell myself that um mecca kelner says now that we're straight into the round of 16 it's the perfect time to sack frank i mean it kind of is

24:11kill fem says hate that we have to wait until march to play in this farmer's league again is it march that's mad because i swear

24:25I'm just trying to think about when, I don't know, yeah. No, wait, because the next round is usually always in like February time, isn't it? It might be towards the end of Feb, but I don't know. Jesus Chris Tucker says, eighth place and knocked out in the round of 16. Okay, right, here we go. Eighth place and knocked out in the round of 16, or 17th place and a chance in the Champions League final. Definitely that, mate. Definitely that. Definitely. You've got to make it harder than that. You have to make it harder than that, Jesus. Right?

25:13Jack Underhill also says, Benfica's goalie just scored a last-minute header to send them through to the playoffs. Oh, nice. Yeah, I watched that. I watched the against Real Madrid. I watched the highlights that I love that type of thing. T-Pace Coy says, we did a thing. Coy's. It's one of them, isn't it? We did. We did. We did the thing. Well, Ricochet pig says completely outmuscled them. Great result. The playoff round would have been a nightmare. Yeah, we did. It was, it was just, it was good. Wasn't it? Hacker CPS. great day of footy great it is a great day of footy isn't it a great day of the footy ball Jack Underhill also informs me that Vicario currently leads the Golden Glove blimey Pirate Dread Roberts says would love to slag off Frank again but kudos very tidy professional performance tonight hats off and on to the final 16 yep you know

26:24control c uh echo sonic music says control c and control v for the weekend yes please i mean we do we do often tend to beat manchester city don't we um it's a weird one isn't it because i'm I've been on Blue Moon podcast I often do that David Moon he's a really good guy City fan he usually gets me on we have a chat before each game each time we play each other and he was just sort of asking me what's going on and I was like just terrible and I know we always beat Man City but you should you should be doing us this year however we do always beat Man City so it's kind of wild in the respect that like going to Burnley last weekend we sort of went into that one being like I wouldn't be surprised if we lost this and with just as much conviction I go into this game against Manchester City and say I wouldn't be surprised if we won this because I don't know we just do don't we it's just what we do

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29:15Mika Kelner says, Odder Bear showed his potential, Spence not so much. I mean, Odder Bear was great. He was really, really good. And he does seem to be improving every single game, which is what we need. And it's very helpful, isn't it? Obviously. Spence, I thought he was okay. um yeah he's he's played a lot hasn't he lately so you know he's played a lot we'll see i don't know you know um haxipius says xavi um gray and spence need to be better goal threats okay overall though i mean gray and spence yeah maybe i mean xavi definitely um just you know I wish, I mean, the goal that got denied in the first couple of minutes is just, you know, it's ridiculous.

30:12It's a ridiculous goal to get chalked off, and it's very, for me to go very Brexit, it's very English team in European competition with a European ref. Just, you know, it's just nonsense. It was a nonsense, nonsense decision to write that one off.

30:35it would have been nice if, if Xavi had gotten that, would have done his confidence well, the good, I feel, um, he should have scored all that opportunity he made for himself later on, but, you know, like I say, overall, he was positive. Yeah, I thought his performance was good. I thought he played well. So, you know, that's fine. Um,

30:58Peter Turner says, there's a clear difference in how European teams tend to set up against us versus Premier League teams. We get so much more time on the ball in these games, especially the last two. Probably something in that. John W. said there was a good article in The Guardian regarding the fatigue English teams now go through towards the end of the season as one of the reasons why it can look like this with English teams just now. Interesting. so i'm assuming the point is that there's heightened competition domestically more difficult games additional pressure and thus that translates to us then deprioritizing or just simply not having the capacity for europe yep when your buy-ins or whoever have usually walked their league already um interesting Fran Mulvaney says Frankfurt a dog poo um why can't this club just go out and buy Mamouche and Mateta now for the second half they don't want my Mateta man Mateta is I think Mateta is trash I think he's really bad it's such a panic buy that would be such a panicky like I know I would rather, I'd genuinely rather be playing Dane Scarlett.

32:30I don't want Spurs spending 40, 50 mil on Mateta. I think the guy is woeful. Nah, I don't feel that one at all. Mamouche I'd love, but I don't think City want to sell him. So, you know.

32:53Matt Gurr says get in yeah Capote says we put in the effort for 90 minutes that hasn't happened for a while yep THFC8 says Koi's

33:09T-Pace Koi says Deki back in March I mean let's wait and see

33:20and Kura my Ryan says champions of Europe that's us let's do it again

33:40let's have a look I'm just trying to see the comments keep refreshing it always does this really annoying um Peter Turner says can't agree about Arsenal being good I think they've been good and consistent but the football is the worst it's been for years and years yeah I you know I don't think they're a very unattractive watch but it's you know I don't I'm not sure when I called them good but oh yeah because I said it's been bad for Spurs and they've been well yeah but what I'm saying is by them being good is that top of every competition that they're in basically aren't they um hopefully, hopefully things will change on that front, but, you know, regardless of how they win it, if they win them, it's not going to be very nice, I don't really fancy seeing Arsenal win the double, treble, quadruple, I don't want him to win anything,

34:31um, Robert Glenworth said, don't understand the rules of the draw, when's the earliest we can knock the Gooners out now, imagine playing them, in Europe. I would fancy us against them in Europe. I would. I'd fancy us against them. I'm not going to lie.

35:01Naclerio says, Neslerio, I don't know, says, I find it bizarre that people want us to lose against City. I understood it with the Son Miss, but we're literally eight points off relegation with a horrendous schedule coming up yeah i i with this one it is different like i you know i didn't even i'll be honest i didn't want us to lose the game before the son one but i didn't care that we did that's that's kind of the way i put it i i would want us to win this one um look if maybe villa maybe villa will stay within touching distance of arsenal either way you know if City are going to win it they can get over a loss to Spurs they they do it often enough you know um because I agree with you like you say you know we are we're in a dangerous position so we we got to be serious haven't we um people saying like we couldn't could we you know who's that bad nasher yeah I mean you know we might I don't know Jack Kenny says a few minutes behind we'll be popping over to TNT Sports the Ajax highlights after this Dirty Sanchez says Budu Glimt versus Spurs final I don't want that I wouldn't want that one actually do you know what I mean that's the type of can you imagine that Spurs get into a Champions League final against Budu Glimt like I would I would be more confident going into a Champions League final against Real Madrid than I would Spurs that would be one of those I'll piss off like we're going to be like we're going to get Leicestered again you know

36:46Ronnie Saiso says Tottenham will play Galatasaray Club Bruges, Atletico Madrid or Juventus in the round of 16 how do we know that already I guess it's like coefficient coefficient efficient that's the word that's the word i found it eventually um evan newall says i'm a sicko but i would love to play arsenal in the champions league the gloating potential is off the charts yeah i mean basically in anything but the final the final would be yeah i mean the final would be horrific wouldn't it but um yeah i don't know let's see let's see where this adventure can take us um it's lovely isn't it it's nice it's nice it is nice spurs winning games i just get to sit here and say that's good spurs contested a match in the uefa champions league won it finished fourth we're through to the next round we can continue dreaming we can continue dreaming of another i mean imagine if we actually won this imagine if we actually won the champions league um i think that would be i think if we won the champions league i'd probably just stop all of this now i think i'd stop working in sport stop working in football want no more part to play in it retrain as like a gardener or like some sort of outdoorsman become like a park ranger somewhere become like a ranger at a national trust site just being outside hands in the soil the smell of cow dung on my nostrils every single morning you know blowing in from the blowing in off the breeze all that type of thing right that's the life isn't it birds in the trees the wind slowly rustling through the leaves and all you have is that distant memory that distant memory of glittering silverware the weeds of Tottenham Hotspur are no longer relevant to you you might hear you might hear in passing conversation you're a Spurs fan aren't you?

39:04did you see what happened the other night? no I didn't actually not too bothered I don't really pay attention to it anymore

39:13that's the world that you could have if Spurs won the Champions League could be there that could be it i don't know who am i kidding who am i kidding um