REACTION: Spurs 2-0 Brentford - Xavi Stakes His Claim | Better Times Ahead?

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1:45Jack:that's uh that's a bit more like it that's a bit more like it Tottenham Hotspur there we go there we go we can win games we can win games at home it can be done it can be done that was a bit nicer wasn't it a lovely afternoon Aston Villa setting the tone for us and Spurs going on and doing their end of the bargain. Lovely. I could get used to this. I could get used to this.

2:21Jack:This is quite, do you know what I mean? This is quite strange, you know, actually coming onto one of this feeling, feeling somewhat buoyant, you know. Good performance from Spurs, I think, you know. you know, Rome wasn't built in a day, let's put it that way, but that was a better performance in so much as we showed a decent amount of intent from the minute the game started. And that's what we want, isn't it? That's what we want. And let's just dive into it now. Let's just dive into it because it is sort of the elephant in the room over all this.

3:06Jack:he's good at frank one you know like it's against just in just on a really base level outside of the form that spurs are in the question marks around him as a gaffer all that type of thing you gotta beat your old team don't you yeah like you have he has to beat his old team he's he's he's left them he's gone onwards and upwards supposedly onto past his new he had to win that he had like he had to um had to be convincing and i do look i do think it i think it was ultimately i think we were good value for the win there were moments in that second half when i was thinking like we did we need this third one you know and i don't know if that's kind of the old the classic spurs fan type conundrum of how many goals do we need to score until we're comfortable but that was really good that was really like you know sorry I don't I don't really feel the need to have to have a deep dive into all the context around everything um will this be a springboard for whatever I just think right now I'm gonna mop it up I'm trying to I was talking about so I was talking about this a bit on the on the preview pod that I did for the Patreon and spoke about this with Kish a bit on Thursday talking about the sort of the the you know the the duality of watching any sort of football watching your team this and this is sort of off the back of the Newcastle game there's an emotional response and then obviously there's the more sort of I don't really want to say rational but for want of a better word that's where I'm going to go with the rational response to that which is we've won we well we've equalized last minute tough place to go St James's Park there is something to be said from that but at the same time we didn't play particularly well at St James's Park it didn't really feel like there was much of a plan of action there or anything like that.

5:19Jack:Right now, today, Spurs are one. Arsenal have lost Spurs are one and it's Saturday evening. I think it might as well just be happy about that. Xavi Siemens has obviously been instrumental in two of the goals today. Lovely work for the first in putting it on the plate for Richarlison yeah and obviously the second goal himself running into the sort of the very heart of the Brentford side scoring a goal pretty really nice really lovely work from him really lovely work from him and I think we you know you you would hope you would hope definite food for thought for the manager I mean Thomas Frank has maintained he's maintained all throughout this um that it's simply a case of xavi having to adapt he's always complimented his attitude the effort levels in training uh the intensity all that type of thing there's there's you know there's never been a question from him um about the quality of of xavi um about his ability so you know maybe we just need to take that stuff on face value i don't know look i would have I think we can all say we felt the need to play Xavi Simons more than we have seen thus far.

6:50Jack:But whatever, he's played him now and it's come good. And hopefully we'll see more of that. Hopefully we'll see more of that going forward. It is a hectic schedule right now. And this is the thing. This is why it's quite hard to have these sort of assumptions as to who it is Frank likes, who he likes to play. He did say in the week before this game that he doesn't know his best side yet. I'll be honest, I don't think I even know what Tottenham's best side is. I think when we're perhaps not disliking a certain manager or wanting to jump on things that they say, a lot of fans would also agree that having a sort of best 11 or a preferred starting 11 is a bit of an old school mentality.

7:49Jack:Or should we just say, you know, perhaps a mentality that isn't befitting of any side that is really successful. It's about squad, isn't it? It's about having a number of different players that are fit for purpose.

8:05Jack:So there are certain things there that I think are fair enough. One thing he did say, what I will say is, I'll say overall, when I saw this pre-match presser before this game, I did find it, I found it on a human level, I found it quite endearing in a way. I don't know if that's because we'd sort of maybe reached some sort of mini nadir under him where it felt like things weren't happening. It felt really hard to pull out any positives from what it was that we were seeing that he was doing. Perhaps at that point, it becomes a bit easier to pick out positives. I don't know. You know, I don't know.

8:51Jack:But I found his pre-match presser before this game quite endearing on a human level. I think he was quite genuine in a few of his reflections. There was a bit of talk, I don't think this was in the, well he did touch on this stuff in the pre-match presser. But he also had an interview with Ben Haynes as well before this game. The club put that out. And he was talking about like phases of play and all that type of thing. I wasn't really following that sort of stuff so much, if I'm honest with you. But more of the emotional beats of what it was that he was saying, the sense of needing to have patience, wanting to stick with him and things.

9:34Jack:I kind of it kind of resonated with me. You know, I see that it's it's irritated a few people. He had some quotes in particular, didn't he, which were like, it's not it's not the behavior of a big club. to sack a manager every time things aren't going entirely right um you got to stick with something you got to see it through that's the mark of a big club blah blah blah blah blah which obviously has led a lot of people to say like well you know he's just trying to sort of you know dig himself out of trouble and save his own job save his own skin but again i whether that is what he's doing or not I just quite like him being a bit punchier like that again like I say there was something there was something in that from him that resonated um and maybe you know I'm not saying that anyone has been wrong to feel the way that they have felt about him or about the football we've been playing to this point um I don't really buy fully this whole kind of entitled fan narrative I don't buy that you just have to be patient and kind of sit on your hands and enjoy it.

10:50Jack:You know, I think there's probably, and I say this sort of quietly, but I think there's probably something, something of an argument to be made that the toxicity that came out in the last home game maybe contributed to everyone giving their head a bit of a wobble. because it felt like, at least, you know, obviously from the armchair, but it felt... I just think the general sort of tone from, like, mates who are going to the game today and everything was that they just sort of wanted to enjoy it. They wanted to be a bit more positive. It felt like the players... Like I say, it sort of had reached a bit of a nadir, hadn't it, already.

11:35Jack:And maybe since we've passed that, everyone's sort of gotten things off their chest a bit. Poros had his little strop. all that type of thing that people can now just sort of pull together and hopefully start to see Spurs play a bit better because this is the thing, you know.

11:58Jack:You can look at sort of plenty of other teams right now. I was watching the Arsenal-Villa game before this and looking at Villa and the way they just sort of knock the ball about so nicely, so nicely drilled. So many of their players are so technically accomplished. And I was sort of sat there thinking like, God, this is so irritating. How are we so far off of being able to even just do really sort of fundamental things as easily as a team like Villa are? I mean, they've spent a lot of money. They've got a lot of really talented players and they've got a good manager. They do have a good manager.

12:37Jack:So this hasn't just happened overnight for them. I get that, right? But at the same time, you know, I also just sort of want to think about Spurs and I don't want to sort of go into each game thinking about the things that we don't have. God, this is sounding all a bit festive. This is all a bit Thanksgiving, isn't it? But I kind of just want to focus on what it is that we have and Spurs actually looking like a team that wants to try and win games. Because I'm not... If there's more afternoons like this where we play quite well and we get a result, you know, people aren't going to be booing the team off the pitch.

13:25Jack:This is the thing. And this is why the whole sort of entitled fan narrative thing is false, I think. People aren't booing Spurs because we were expecting them to win the league this year. Or, you know, compete in the Champions League. Compete on all fronts, basically. Not booing them because of that. They're booing them because there's been a distinct lack of desire. There's been seeping out of the club. There's been seeping out of its every pore, you know. It's obviously been exacerbated by the Chelsea game and the North London derby as well. two really big key fixtures for us where we just didn't show up, right?

14:08Jack:Of course, people are going to be annoyed about that because it speaks to bigger issues at the club. It's not just losing to Chelsea and Arsenal. It's the manner in which we lost to them, but the manner in which we played, the manner in which we went into those games, we approached those fixtures. That's what leads to people booing. That's what leads to fans getting annoyed. That's what leads to things kicking off. it's not we feel so entitled that Spurs should win every single football match and I see quite you know I often see Spurs fans themselves reflect that we've got one of the worst fan bases going god we're terrible we're I don't agree man I really I really don't agree with that um I do can I I've got to say as well I I'm gonna be honest I do think there's so much pearl clutching over booing i i really do i think it's such a minor issue like as long if it's not if we're not talking out and out abuse and stuff like that right i just think there's such like if that's kind of like some of the worst of it you get from the sporting culture in the uk it's all right man like i'm not sure i'm not even sure which team it is it's one one of the French teams, basically.

15:25Jack:Ligue 1, their ultras stormed the team bus and beat the team up. And I'm not saying like, well, you know, you got it lucky because we're not doing that because we're not acting in a criminal fashion. But what I am saying is that like, you know, when people are sort of like, like I say, getting all worried about Vicario and stuff, he comes from a sporting culture where like much harsher things happen than that. Like Italian ultras, Italian fans in general are like mad, are mad when their teams don't do what they want them to do. They're mad when they have like perceived, should we say like injustices from their club to themselves, right?

16:07Jack:If they feel that their club or their players aren't acting in a way that is befitting of that club's stature or pride or traditions or whatever, right? If we're booing a bit in a ground, come on, man. Like it's, you know, I don't know. I just, I feel that the way this stuff is discussed is so OTT. And I get it. I get the sort of the complaint that, you know, at the time, is that going to inspire somebody like Vicario to play better or anything? Games like today, I'm sort of like, maybe it does. I don't know. No, it's always going to be a contentious issue. It's always going to be divisive. um but whatever whatever has happened it feels like Newcastle you know for for as much as I sort of perhaps didn't see the the bigger picture on that one or didn't feel that there was one maybe maybe that display of spirit maybe that display of fight was the mark of things slowly starting to change slowly starting to change slowly but surely um because today was today was just dare I say it was just good it was just a comfortable nice like I'm sat here I'm not buzzing like I'm do you know what I mean we've beaten Brentford at home and I think that is par I think that's what Spurs should be doing I think that's what a club that has the resources the playing staff blah blah blah comparatively to Brentford we should we should be beating Brentford at home we should be beating them like 2-0 but that's it we've achieved that we've achieved par a good comfortable victory um where they've not really bothered us Xavi Simmonds has played well and that's just nice that's nice and that's that's kind of right now what I just want from Spurs I mean obviously obviously blue sky I want Spurs to be doing exactly what Villa or Arsenal or city are doing i want us to be back there again competing at the top of the table all right actually trying to win some of the big stuff but just right now at this point in time i will i will happily take a bit of solid i'm starting to sound like do you remember um what's his name the big geezer pointless writes the murder book ah writes the murder books he's fan and all right but he he did he did one of the most horrendous tweets of all time when it was like he said something like clowns to the left of me jokers to the right here i am just stuck in the middle waiting for a sensible centrist party to lead to lead this country forward um that's uh it's just it's just it's just the frame i'm not talking about the the political opinion of it i'm just talking about the framing of it all which is somewhat you know that twee unbearable whatever um spurs just be solid just be a4 paper be times new roman right do you know what i mean just be a comfortable pair of marks and spencer's underpants i'm i'm happy i'm happy with you doing that you know nice supportive everything is where it should be no thrills gets the job done wonderful and that's what tonight was it's all wow this afternoon tonight it's dark in it so let's just call it tonight that's what this afternoon was a nice comfortable pair of marks and spencers underpants more of that please more of that please um Um, Phil Mayo three says, Xavi and grey, this is the way.

20:00Jack:Hacker CPS says, oi, oi yourself. Jack Underhill says, that was better. Love a Xavi goal plus assist, plus the goon squad losing to the villains adds a tasty asterisk on top. Yes, it does. Yes, it does. Stop pretending, stop telling me, right? Everyone that tunes into it, stop telling me. don't talk about arsenal don't talk it exists it exists in our ecosystem right it exists it's relevant it's relevant don't don't tell me you weren't all cheering you weren't all cheering and you weren't all rubbing your piggy little trotters together with glee with glee that they lost i was screaming i woke the baby up shart was having a go at me i was like sorry it's just football in it it's just football it was wonderful it was wonderful seeing that seeing them all slumped to the turf do you know what i mean all slumped to the turf all miserable seeing that have seen that just that little that little reminder to them you're not invincible actually you can still lose games you're getting ahead of yourselves already aren't you all of you all talking about winning the quadruple and stuff like that you still lose games and then look what happens as well A bit later on, little old Tottenham Hotspur, just a nice, comfortable, nice, comfortable home victory against Brentford.

21:21Jack:While you're licking your wounds on a journey back from the Midlands. And on Nomad says, we've achieved our base objective. Don't embarrass ourselves. Par, par, right? Par, something to be said for par. Jack Underhill has also said that he thought the centre-backs were brilliant and Kudus was not losing the ball today. Yeah, really, really nice. Really lovely, lovely toil, lovely endeavour from Kudus. Feels like he is... There's just like a sort of tiny, unfounded, intrusive thought that I've had the past few weeks. I'm like, sort of feels like Kudus is not quite as interested as he was. Felt like Newcastle, again, was a bit of a turning point for him.

22:11Jack:He was particularly good against Newcastle. He was particularly good today. Shock horror. If we're going to win games, we're going to need our best players to be playing well.

22:23Jack:Roy Porteous says, how wonderful to have a midfield that wasn't all stodge. Hopefully it carries on from here. Yes. Yes, please. Yes, please. John W says, Xavi looking stronger and finished the match, which is exciting. Hopefully, Moani closing in on that stamina soon as well. he's i i will do a written apology of sorts for randall callum only at some point i think i did doubt him he's really really good he is really good do we have an option to buy him i'm going to check that now do tottenham have an option to when i just typed do tottenham have you know in google it gives you the thing said do tottenham have any trophies that was the top search thing do tottenham have an option to buy kala moane i think this was uh no no obligation or option to buy that's according to sky sports i do i do kind of feel like though if i cast my mind back i do kind of feel that Paul O 'Keefe did say there was an option.

23:37Jack:And I trust, I trust, I trust Paul O 'Keefe, to be honest. I'm not, I'm not saying, I'm not saying that for definite. That's just me going back in the memory banks. If your business runs on five different apps, 12 browser tabs, and one spreadsheet that everyone's afraid to touch, it's probably time for Odoo. Odoo is an all-in-one business management software that connects every part of your business into one powerful, easy-to-use platform. So instead of wasting time switching between disconnected systems, your entire business works together in real time. Your team moves faster, your data stays accurate, and you can actually focus on growing your business.

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25:40Jack:um jkr infinite says first game where gray had me raising my eyebrows and making me grin he needs to be the one to bench bentanker yes also didn't know shavi had that kind of pace the sprints after a loose ball more please man archie gray is he's a baller i'm gonna say it i am i am a 40 year old man but what i am gonna say is i'm gonna call it like it is and i'm gonna say Archie Gray is a baller. Great player. Like, I just, you know, he's young, he's young. He's not the finished article. But there are flashes there of absolute brilliance. I think there are. I think there's real touches of class to a lot of what he does on the football pitch.

26:29Jack:I do definitely want to see him play much much much much more I keep stealing this point but the point that it was John Bass I think that made on on fighting cock that you know a lot of people sort of raised eyebrows when Liverpool first spent a lot of money on Jordan Henderson from Sunderland back in the day and it looked you know it was a bit of a rough start and everything like that for him I don't I don't even think Archie Grace had a rough start at Tottenham I think he's been largely all right but still you know if we're gonna if we're gonna say that there's been some conversation around him anyway you can totally see him going on that sort of trajectory though i mean hopefully hopefully he captains us to winning literally everything like jordan henson to do with liverpool but i mean it more just in the sense that becoming one of our most influential and important players and i i can see that i can see that i can see that happening um I don't think it's that far-fetched an idea, to be honest.

27:32Jack:I don't know, Madis Orson said, I wonder how the schizophrenic conversation about what Gray's true position is will be now. Is he a midfielder? Is he a centre-back? Nobody knows. I think he's a midfielder, isn't he? I do think he's a midfielder.

27:51Jack:Ryan Terrell says, Great performance. Xavi brilliant. Gray really solid. Ooh, really don't rate Kalamuani though. Would much rather Cetel or Odeberg get time. He won't be staying beyond the summer. That's interesting. That is interesting. Fair enough. I personally think he's got a lot of class in everything that he does Kalamuani. I agree. Well, I don't know if I agree, but I sort of understand where you're coming from though, Ryan when you say that he won't be staying beyond the summer I don't know I don't know how likely it is that he will he will stay or not so it would be nicer to see Tell get some meaningful minutes as well see him continue to develop I think Tell's a good player I thought Tell was really decent when he came on against Newcastle the point that Kish made in the week when I spoke to him on the pod was Tell is three years younger than Dane Scarlett it's a bit of perspective you know that he is he's a kid still um hacker cps says the pre-game show with ben was fun when they got the news at arsenal lost oh i might might have to go back and check that out that's quite uh i love that type of thing just reminds me of um danny kelly on talk sport back in the day the 4-4 I love football, Stan.

29:16Jack:Goal! Goal at the Emirates, Stan.

29:22Jack:Football heritage, that. You can find that clip. I'm pretty sure that's clipped up on YouTube, the clip of Danny Kelly reacting to Tottenham's 4-4 at the Emirates. It was unbelievable at the time. Bingai says, Dr. Tottenham showed Frank how to deal with bad sides at home. Frank looked stunned. come on mate, some of us can see what's going on can he do it in the upcoming Liverpool game? Dr. Tottenham to be continued Brian Park, think our best team is the one with Xavi, Colo and Gray all starting I make you right Brian

30:02Jack:Roy Porteous also says the lesson Frank should take from today is that winning is good but playing with intent to entertain is also important yes if we took the sword to arsenal and still lost he'd have more in the bank i agree that was you know that was a big moment wasn't it it was quite a uh it was quite a moment for people sort of reflecting on what it is that they want from their team what they want from him as a as a gaffer do we want to win playing in a certain way or do we just want to not lose football games um i think it was felonious as well i keep referencing other people but you know whatever i don't mind giving people their dues and they make a good point felonious said on the fighting cock you know teams shouldn't be sent to the pitch with the thought or the threat of losing in mind they should be going to the pitch thinking how are we going to win this not how are we not going to lose this and if that's kind of the the messaging that has been sort of permeating throughout the Spurs team for the start of this season you wouldn't be overly surprised would you but still look looking ahead welcoming pieces says hello mate Xavi needed that yep hopefully given him the confidence to push on also thought Gray had a decent game today just needs to be there or thereabouts until we can buy a Parsi midfielder in January this is it you know the people continue to say people continue to say Xavi and Gray Xavi and Gray that's the comment after comment after comment you know it's um it's what we want isn't so um let's try to go through these

31:59Jack:guys benedict fox um hacker cps also says silky silky technical ballers at villa halcyon days for them if they don't win something bit spurs isn't it how would we feel how would we just you know talking about someone else for a bit how would we feel about Aston Villa winning winning the league just take take the Arsenal thing out of the equation I mean it is quite relevant context I mean I think we'd rather see Villa win than them not but I've seen some people say oh I wouldn't like that because they're sort of similar to us and it would be annoying if they went and did it and we didn't do it but i don't know i quite i sort of i i think they're a decent side i think they've got decent players i think emery's a decent manager it would be quite interesting to see another side win the win the league outside of you know one of the sort of established teams that always does um but please you know if it's not gonna if it's not villa then just make it manchester city um but they are silky uh yeah they probably do need to win something though don't they they've got to get a uh get an fa cup or something like that but it just it feels it feels like nobody else nobody else gets the same sort of like pressure as tottenham do we hear you know we hear when we sort of say oh we should be beating a team like villa you will hear the pundits straight away say what do you mean by that villa are a big team villa have won the champions league in the 80s and they've won the i think they won the league in the 80s as well They've won the league more times than Spurs.

33:34Jack:Who are you to say you're a bigger team than Villa? But the reason why we sort of feel we're a bigger team than teams like Villa is because whenever we're not doing brilliantly, there's always such a focus on what we do that doesn't seem to get sort of apportioned to teams like Villa, teams like Newcastle. Newcastle, who are going into that game against Emerson James' Park, were blowers in the league. I mean, they're on the same points. We're sort of, you know, in the same place in the league. But at the same time, the conversation was all about Thomas Frank. It was all about what a bad start to the season we'd had, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

34:11And there was very, very little about Eddie Howe and about Newcastle and their stuttering start to the season.

34:17Jack:So, you know, we are, I know it's all very like victim complex stuff, but we are, I do believe we are often like swimming against the tide. I think there's often like a groundswell of just opinion and sentiment that doesn't want to see Tottenham Hotspur football club succeed. And that's why we don't. Nothing to do with us. It's everyone else. Everyone else is out to get us. K9 McGurn says, correct role for Polinia today. Off the bench for 20 minutes protecting a lead. Yeah, people weren't even particularly happy with him coming on at that point, were they? Alan Leslie. Hello, mate. says, oh, hang on, it's just refreshed.

35:01Jack:Sorry, Alan, where have you disappeared to? There you go. He says, hi, everyone. Thought that was a good display today. Could have had four if Odeber and Sar took their chances. Yep, plenty room for more improvement. Up the spurs. That's it, Alan. That's it, mate.

35:18Jack:And everyone's saying Richard Osman. That's it, Richard Osman. um mark gibson says he's still rubbing his sticky little trotters together right now that's it that's it piggy just enjoy it enjoy it enjoy it i just i love it i love it look i love it i love it when they lose i do even when we were way better than them and we were don't let them tell you otherwise seeing them lose was just always a delight do do do shame about the Arsenal it's just it's such a joy it is it is like 90 % of a Tottenham win like a Spurs win is obviously the pinnacle but an Arsenal loss is you know it's just it's just a little bit behind it it's glorious I love it just it's brilliant