Villa Defeat Highlights Spurs’ Risk-Averse Football | What’s Wrong With Our Home Form?

0:00If you're a small business owner, you'll know just what it's like to be the chief everything officer. HR, payroll, employee benefits. Well, Gusto can do all of that for you. Gusto is online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all in one, remote friendly and incredibly easy to use. It's quick and simple to switch to Gusto. Just transfer your existing data to get up and running fast. Try Gusto today at gusto.com forward slash locked on soccer and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's gusto.com forward slash locked on soccer. The world's biggest soccer tournament has arrived and you can trade the entire tournament on Calci.

0:38On Calci, you can trade every match from the opening stage all the way to the final. On Calci, you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house. And as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position. For a limited time, download the CalShe app and use code CUP26 to get$10 when you trade 10. K-A-L-S-H-I CalShe. Trade the beautiful game. 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calshe.com slash regulatory.

1:08I recently got back from a holiday in Balec in Turkey. It was brilliant, but I did spend it looking longingly at the golf courses in the area. In reality, if I'd taken my clubs, I probably would have come back from that family holiday single. It's a brilliant place, stunning beaches, five-star hospitality in some of the best hotels on earth. But for me, just getting out on those courses would have been the icing on the cake. Search Turkey on TripAdvisor now to book your ultimate golf holiday in the Turkish Riviera.

1:48A beauty of a finish from Emi Buendia. He gives Aston Villa the lead. They've come from behind and victory at Tottenham now in sight. Hello everybody, welcome back to Rule The Reach podcast. Welcome back Gavin. Have you woken up yet from the excitement of Tottenham's match yesterday mate? Yeah, thanks. Pleasure to be back. After the match, I took myself on a punishment walk with the dog in the pissing rain. I was chunting about Spurs for them. Which was infinitely more fun than the game, I'd imagine. Yeah, yeah, loads better. The dog seemed disinterested at best, to be honest. He was just happy to be outside, I think, even if it was raining.

2:31Maybe that's a lesson for all of us. I don't know, Jack. But yeah, I actually felt that I didn't dwell on it for too long. um because I was pretty apoplectic really okay the second goal yeah um I just I really dislike Villa as well same 100 % I find them really grating um I lived in Birmingham for about eight years nine years as well and one of the pubs that I used to work in was ostensibly a Villa pub yeah um and so particularly on match day there were large groups of fans that used to come in always incredulous about the price of beer there and that didn't get old for about five or six years um and so I've just got almost a illogical hatred I think of that football club but they are they're one of the very long list of teams that just despise Tottenham as well right and I don't think this is like some footballing main character syndrome stuff we seem to attract a certain like I don't know, just a certain hatred from a lot of fans.

3:40I think a lot of that is, we've sort of spoken about this before, but a lot of this is about the fact that we're knocking on the door of being one of the bigger clubs. We have lofty ideas of what we are, and I get all that. But yeah, I've never liked Villariva. For a lot of the Premier League era kind of growing up, we were always quite neck and neck. If anything, they were a bit better than us for quite a while. So I never go into games against Aston Villa feeling overly confident, even when they have been a kind of a struggling Minnowish side. And I think yesterday, like the approach yesterday was almost like a strange dichotomy in some ways, because I look at that and like one of the main talking points, of course, is going to be like Thomas Frank's risk-averse strategy.

4:28we see the team sheet come out and we've got that starting midfield partnership of Bentenka-Xiaopoulinia it's kind of emblematic of a solid midfield mindset if you like rather than building an aggressive attack we're looking at like stability versus playing a sort of high tempo football where we create lots of chances we get the ball to Xavi Simmons quickly and so on one hand I'm like Frank is being risk averse he's paying he's giving too much respect to the opposition team and we're at home but then I also and this is the kind of this is the dichotomy factor is I I look at then starting Telenodaba and I know we're light up top and we maybe don't have a you know a massive range of options given our our injuries and everything like that but still I look at Telenodaba and I think is that is that kind of paying Villa enough respect shouldn't maybe Richarlison start a day or can we have needed Richarlison's dogged approach in there so I think and I sort of I take a second to sit back and I'll reflect on the fact that I do think Frank has a tough job and I don't want to take away from that we can't forget the sort of state we were in at the end of last season, at least domestically speaking.

5:46Shipping goals for fun. I understand that wanting to build a platform. Equally, I do want to see Tottenham, as I was saying in the post-match, create problems for the opposition. I don't want to see us firefighting constantly. I don't want to see us trying to combat whatever it is the opposition are going to do to us. I want to see us being proactive and going for them. And right now, I don't feel like that's what we're about. Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree. I thought as the game went on, in the end, it was quite an inexperienced Premier League side playing quite an experienced one. And that kind of shone through in the full 90 minutes.

6:33You make a really good point about Telenodabar starting. how many Premier League appearances they have between them. You know, very few. You look at some of the Villa players, as much as I despise him, Matty Cash, John McGinn, Oli Watkins, who obviously came off the bench, Buendia, who scored the winner. I think it was concert playing as well, Martinez. There was a lot of players with real solid Premier League experience. And you're right as well, because who else, I guess, was going to start up top? I understand that what Frank's trying to do is initially like you say build the foundations and I know you've made comparisons to Pochettino with him in the past and that's kind of what he did at first as well I remember there being loads and loads of games where we were drawing one all nil nil perhaps the attacking players didn't click into gear straight away and that was almost the priority but for me it really comes down to in the end I mean at the moment what does success really look like for Frank with this group of players that are available to him because yeah I mean maybe Richarlas should have started how fit was he having come back from international duty I think he had to go off to South America didn't he same as same as Benton Kerr as well it was interesting that in the build-up a couple of the pundits were saying about Benton Kerr and Paulinha oh these are great you know solid midfield partnership.

7:59I thought, nobody's watched these play together then for the whole of this season so far. Some of our attacking play seemed a little bit laboured at times. It seemed a lot of it is just heavily reliant on Kudus and also like wit crosses into the box, whether that be an open play or also in set pieces. So yeah, I thought overall it was a really disappointing afternoon but the caveat to all of this is as you say we finished last season abysmally we definitely look a better outfit but I think again we've kind of been hamstrung by squad depth a little bit if Kulisevsky if Solanke and Madison were all in this side frustratingly I think it's not a it's not a you know earth-shattering thing to say with better players we might be looking a slightly better team so that's kind of my my rambling take on it I guess in the end I just feel like we are still quite inexperienced at the moment with some of the players that we have available and that that really shows it's definitely it's it's it's sort of it's one of those things we said of of postocoglu a few times in in so much as he's frank is is being dealt a fairly poor hands in just in the respect that we do have a lot of injuries significant injuries as well and I don't think our squad is really in a proper place to challenge on a serious level right now.

9:28But equally, I don't know if he's playing the hand as well as he could be. But then it's, what are we expecting of him? Because the overriding feeling for me at least is that Frank's kind of MO right now is the hierarchy, the hierarchy of needs for him is don't lose. versus win and that that's never really going to chime well with the Spurs fan base it's probably never really going to chime well with many fan bases but especially you know we are we're hungry for success we we've just won the Europa League we know we do have some good players we want to kick on we want to breathe down the necks of Arsenal we don't like seeing them you know let's be real that is a factor as much as people will say oh we shouldn't care about them but the fact that they're doing so well inevitably is a factor and it creates a level of anxiety to for us for what we're doing it makes us want to rush our timeline to get closer to that conversation but I think the reality is as you say there that we just we maybe just don't quite have the players for it yet and and even when we when we consider that the new signings that we have made I mean Kudus was already playing in the Premier League for two seasons and and looks like he has been outside of being a magnificent footballer just by sheer merit of him being that as an individual has had time to settle in the Premier League get used to the tempo of it the intensity and everything like that Xavi Siemens on the other hand who I have overwhelmingly positive feelings towards I do think looks like he is a player still finding his feet we've seen some flashes of really promising things from him but yeah i mean i'll be interested to get your take on this because again it was another one of those things where i was split down the middle there was a part of me feeling like we weren't getting the ball quickly enough to him um benton co was i mean other than his goal was pretty much ineffective for me yesterday did did next to nothing wasn't progressing the ball at all and if you are sitting somebody beside Polinia you know that Polinia isn't going to be somebody that's going to be progressing the ball for you isn't going to be unlocking defenses with you I thought he was brilliant though by the way yeah yeah absolutely really good he's amazing like he's amazing what he does and that that to me is that's always the issue I always you know we complain about the partnership really the issue is Ben Tenker yeah yeah and I feel you know i i i want to be overwhelmingly positive about this season but i did feel kind of bummed when we gave him a new contract i i sort of was feeling like you know he's going to quietly sort of slip out the door he'll get that move to atletico madrid or whatever that had been kind of you know talked about before um but yeah when when you when you've got him on the pitch you know xavi siemens isn't going to get the ball quickly and you feel like he is the type of player that would operate really well in those transitions, in those spaces between play.

12:38When the opposition's move is broken down, we can nip the board to Siemens and he can do something with the space that's been created, create further chaos, bring more of our attacking players into play. And it doesn't seem like we're getting the board to him quickly enough. But then there is that part of me that just, when I was watching it, I just sort of feel like, almost intangibly, I just want to see a bit more from him. Yeah. Yeah, no, I get that. One thing on Paulinho, by the way, that I think is never picked up on in obviously the data, the stats, is the number of times he makes a blocked tackle or a sliding tackle.

13:11And it leads immediately to an offensive opportunity because he seems to sort of cut the ball out or take a player out who's running through and he's had five or six players ahead of him. And he immediately by doing so cuts those players out ahead of him and almost creates a counterattack opportunity. So although his progressive passing isn't there, it was interesting. But yeah, with Simons, yeah, I know exactly what you mean with him. There've been a couple of times where I felt when he first started a couple of games for us, he tried to like shift onto his right foot and it looked like he was going to try and take a shot on goal or he did take a shot on goal.

13:46I feel like he's almost stopped trying to do that as well.

13:52He still is getting stuck in, but I wonder whether the physicality is quite there yet. he's quite slight. I don't want to sound all proper football man about it, but I think that he does probably need to bulk up a little bit. And a lot of people have been saying recently, haven't they, about how difficult it is to adapt to the Premier League. And I think that's probably just being highlighted. He's had a couple of assists. I think he's just missing a couple of goals, isn't he? I think if he scores one or two in the next few games, we'll probably be saying he's had a really excellent start to his Tottenham career.

14:29But you say you want a little bit more from him. I kind of felt the same about loads of players yesterday, wanting a bit more from them. And you know, you say about Odebe and Tell again as well. I felt there were times where there were like loads of nearly moments. And that's how I feel it's been for a lot of our attacking players, where it would almost seem like, I mean, Odebe had a couple of times where he cut inside and shot a goal. and the keeper nearly spilled it on one occasion. And there are a couple of those where I thought, if one of those just goes into the top corner, there are a couple of other times where Tell might have been running through on the counter-attack and the ball kind of gets caught under his feet a little bit.

15:06And I guess my feeling is that eventually that won't happen with players like that. Eventually these will come off. But with Simons in particular, he's still obviously finding his feet within a team of totally new players. Our attacking structure looks completely different, really, to last season. And I think it's taking a little while for all of the players to also get used to one another, build up those partnerships. And I wonder whether, I don't want to keep referring to them, that's one of the reasons why Odeber and Tell were played together, is because they're one of the few players that seem to have a bit of success in international duty for France.

15:45And maybe there was an attempt to try to create some sort of synergy there. At the moment, it's just a little bit vapid, a little bit lacking kind of precision, I feel, on the pitch. You know, we are sitting back at times when we do go forward. I think sometimes it looks a little bit clunky and maybe that's just what we should expect from a new manager with new ideas who's only a handful of games into his tenure. I don't know. The thing is, I don't want to be like digging out, Frank. I'm generally positive still about where we're going, what we're trying to do and everything like that. But a red flag for me with managers has always been, and it's always been, I don't like it, when you see players with notes on bits of paper coming off the sidelines and handing around notes to other players and stuff.

16:34I just think you should have this stuff locked down pre-game. I know that this sounds a bit proper football, man, but I don't think it is. I feel like there should be certain coached scenarios that they're ready to go through that don't require players having to read A2 pieces of paper or whatever. You see this happened, by the way, in the Chelsea game in the early kickoff when Sporeska was in the sands and sent down a bit of paper. They couldn't work out who it was obviously meant to be going to. So like Rhys James had a go and then somebody else had it and they're all looking through it confused.

17:12and suddenly rolled it up and threw it on a bit of paint on the floor. Opposition player picked it up, started looking through it. James snatched it from him, put it down his sock. It was a really Sunday league scenario that I really enjoyed because nobody seemed to know exactly what their responsibilities were. I can't remember what... There's always a clip of that that does the rounds. I think it's from some EFL game where a player's got a piece of paper and an opposition player snatches it and starts reading it. And they start having handbags as a result of it. kind of thing you know the opposition players just kind of taking the mickey as well you know it's just a it's a bit of a laugh but the thing is for anybody right now that's kind of thinking i'm like starting a xavi siemens agenda what i would say is i still felt that twinge of disappointment frustration actually when he got taken off the pitch yeah because i was feeling like if you are if you're starting to introduce players like sarr if you're starting to introduce introduce players like Bergvall.

18:09I want to see how Simmons plays alongside them. I want to see more of that. I don't want the default setting to be, you get Simmons, but it also means you get the bedrock of Polina and Bentancur playing alongside one another. Like let's, let's see what he can do when, when he is playing alongside players who are perhaps a bit more tenacious in attack, if you like. I think it was, was it Bergvall who came on first? I think it was. But it's just, as you were saying about things being a bit kind of like mishmash right now things being a bit sort of i don't know disparate or whatever i don't really get an idea and i guess this is part of the learning game for frank right now but i don't really get an idea of what players it is that he actually fancies like who it is that he he likes because we've sort of seen archie gray used sparingly and a lot of people would say that he's a a natural rotation for bent anchor because we've seen him him play in that role before for spurs um and we want to see more from him because we've seen the promise from him here and there and then we look at somebody like pap sarr who seemed to be very much front and center of frank's thinking when he first came in who now is sort of relegated to substitute appearances.

19:28You know, he came on after 86 minutes yesterday. I find that weird. Yeah, I did find it weird. And the only way I could try to look at this was that we do have, look, we've got a packed schedule ahead now. It's pretty intense. I think it's like seven games in 22 days or something like that. Do you think we're just managing minutes at the moment? He got it wrong. He saw that Villa, if we look at yesterday, he's thinking Villa are a team that they can hurt us. They can be, you know, a difficult opposition, but they've not started the season that well. They've not kicked on. They've not added significantly to the squad in summer.

20:10A couple of the players, you know, Asensio Rashford have dropped out. They haven't managed to hold on to them. So we should have enough to deal with them. We'll give them the respect of making sure we've got that solid midfield in Bentenker and Polina. But as you say, we can use a buoyant Telenoderbergh. who have come off the back of a successful international break. And take this one as a home banker. We can get this and save some of our more established, bigger players for the tougher games ahead, for the Champions League, for the other Premier League fixtures that we have in this congested thing.

20:43That it's maybe not any deeper than he just quite simply got this one wrong. He maybe just, you know, he gambled on an outcome that didn't happen. And that's a frustration. The world's biggest soccer tournament has arrived and you can trade the entire tournament on Kalshi. On Kalshi, you can trade every match from the opening stage all the way to the final. On Kalshi, you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house. And as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position. For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code CUP26 to get$10 when you trade 10.

21:17K-A-L-S-H-I, CalShe. Trade the beautiful game. 18-plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calsheet.com slash regulatory. 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.

21:57Your team moves faster, your data stays accurate, and you can actually focus on growing your business. Let one unified system run your entire business. From the first opportunity to the final payment, everything works together in one place. Whether you're a small business or managing a large operation, Odoo gives you one flexible platform built to grow with you. Learn more at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com. Are all batteries the same? That's like asking if all soccer players are the same. Take Messi, the most decorated player ever. Is there any other player who has achieved that? No, just him.

22:42Now take Duracell. Is there any other battery with power boost ingredients inside? No, just Duracell. Remember, goats only trust goats because they're built different and Messi only trusts Duracell. Yeah, I think you might be right. It's obviously a squad game now with so many fixtures. With the five substitutes now as well, these managers probably feel they can have more of an impact in-game. But Sar and Bergvau look like they were doing really well within this system. So it's a bit frustrating. They seem to have fallen off the radar a little bit. I mean, Sar in particular started the season sensationally.

23:27You might be right. We've got three really tricky away fixtures coming up actually in a row. So maybe there is some thought of that. And he has got it right at times. But what I also find particularly frustrating is we were fantastic against PSG for most of that game in the Super Cup final. We were really excellent as well against Man City, where he got it absolutely spot on. and I actually feel since then there's been a little bit of a lack of intensity in some of these games which is always a little bit of a concern because I kind of felt okay if the players immediately responded to him was there still a little bit of the the old Ange ethos because I don't think these things are ever a clean break are they I mean some of the the old manager's ideas will inevitably slip into some of the early phases of the season or what I don't know I mean, I feel with Frank more generally, he's almost dragging us, kicking and screaming into footballing modernity.

24:31You know, he speaks a little bit like a management consultant at times. But he's sort of torn between that and being a bit of a proper football man sometimes, which is quite interesting. He's quite hard to work out in some ways, I find. Yeah, I think that's fair. and he obviously is a good guy and I think he can be obviously quite motivating he's got this established backroom staff he obviously does focus on the data when he needs to as well it's in such direct contrast to Anish Postacoglu who always resembled a much more like I always thought he kind of resembled like a bellicose 12th century knight who seemed to be you know really stubborn aggressive in his manner um whereas frank seems like a bit more kind of scheming and machiavellian um and i think that there's almost like a feeling for me anyway of like a sterile kind of feeling with this kind of current incarnation of spurs like i don't feel massively excited by them so far and I don't feel like we've got I mean maybe Kudas aside any kind of standout players at the moment pretty much throughout my lifetime we've always had one or two pretty world-class players in that squad and we actually had this conversation when Sun left I feel like we have lost a little bit of an aura as well because I don't think there's somebody there that's sort of willing to step up and take his place immediately having lost him and Kane in the last couple of seasons I think is a bit of a blow and I don't know whether you know at the moment we look a little bit a little bit maybe I think I said this on WhatsApp like a little bit like lacking in personality almost on the pitch and the thing that's really frustrating me is particularly at home the home form is so bad and it has been now for so long I just really want to see us play a little bit more proactively, particularly at home and dominate games.

26:37When Benson Kerr scored early on, I thought, right, here we go. We can really dominate here. And then Kudus had a goal ruled out for offside. And then weirdly, we didn't try that crossfield ball again for the whole game, even though it seems to potentially have, you know, it could have had some impact. So that's kind of where I stand with it at the moment. And again, you know, all the caveats over all of this. but I think I just don't feel a great deal of like emotional connection to this team at the moment and that's just you know what I want from football normally it's annoying I was I was absolutely buzzing when Kuh has got that second goal in like in such quick succession I was thinking yes this is the day this is the day when it starts to click because it was it was such a lovely touch and well taken goal as well um and I think that's that's a couple of times when he's timed his run If we are going to nitpick, if we're going to pick out one little thing, I think that is a couple of times now that Kudus has timed his run poorly in a game, which is what it is.

27:35At least he's been proactive. At least he's been front-footed. So I'm not going to dig him out too much of that. And he's also clearly our best player in an attacking sense anyway. By quite some way, it's, yeah, I don't know. Let's do Vicario. I spoke about Vicario a lot. I think I was a bit harsh on him for the second goal on retrospect because when Sky – in real time, I was like, come on, he's got to be getting to that. Why is he standing still? And then when Sky showed the sort of view from like in front of the goal, if you like bang on, I was like, oh no, that's a really nice goal from Buendia.

28:15Like that's a lovely shot. He should have been closed down, but it's still a lovely shot. I'm still in the camp where I think he could have done better with the first goal. to be honest. I do think he should have done. I don't think the ball, the ball pretty much went into the center of the goal. Yeah. And low down at the center of the goal as well. Yeah. There's dip on it and all that type of stuff. But then you have to question his positioning. You have to question how alert he is to the danger. And that to me is a consistent thing with him. I know it's his kicking and his sort of dilly-dallying in possession that's often highlighted.

28:49But one of the things I really pick up on with him is that he just, he never seems that alert it's it's like he's never really reading the game it's like he's very much in the moment and I guess that probably helps with his reflex saves and things like that but I never feel like he's thinking about what the next two steps could be or the the possibilities could be there was I can't remember which game it was but there was that there was that sort of mix up between him and a doggy which was primarily from him where the ball had been the opposition team had played the ball through and Adoghi was shielding.

29:24It was basically saying to him, come out, get it, get it. And he just stood on his line. He was waiting there. And the opposition player ended up kind of nipping around Adoghi and nothing came of it in the end, but it almost did. I can't remember which game that was. But it was this season. I just sort of I get it. I get that he's a decent keeper. He's a good goalkeeper. But if we are this team that wants to finish in the top five, if we are a team that wants to compete for the top honours, all that type of thing, I just quite simply, I don't think he's good enough. Where are you at on him? Yeah, I felt at times you've been a little bit harsh with him, but then he did that yesterday and I was like, God, Jack might be right actually.

30:12He, I thought, yeah, was definitely at fault for the first goal. He was just too far out of his goal. Just like he'd lost his bearings a bit as well, where he was. And I still maintain that he can be like a really decent shot stopper. And I thought he was a big part of winning the Europa League last season as well. He made a really good couple of saves in the final. But then he also made an enormous error that he was bailed out by a miraculous clearance from Van de Ven. So, you know, it swings and roundabouts with him. I think you're probably right you know any um of the top sort of eight nine teams in the league which I think we're probably part of is he would he get into their starting 11 any of the other clubs I'm not so sure he would really um you know even watching Newcastle the other day um like Pope I would say is probably a better goalkeeper even though his king is also really suspect um there's he's not he doesn't seem that reliable then I read the same thing as you about Kinski on on the BBC Sport app as well where they were saying that essentially he's he's regressed a little bit um because he was brilliant when he first came into the team um he looked so confident um particularly with his work on the ball he made a couple of decent saves as well I really I the way I feel about it at the moment is that it's a problem but it's not like tomorrow's problem.

31:37I feel like there are still other areas that we need to sort out first. Unless over the next few games, you know, it becomes catastrophic. Like it became with Fraser Forster where it was quite clear that this is done. In which case we need to take immediate action. Yeah, and I don't feel like that is really ever going to be the case with Vicario. And I, that's the point I am trying to make. I do understand that he is, he is a keeper of, of a certain quality. I don't think we're in kind of in danger when he's between the sticks, if you like, it's just more, if our aspirations are where they are, you know, where we hope that they are, you know, I don't, I don't think he's, he's quite on that level.

32:28I do just find him quite irritating as well. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I do. Yeah, that weird stuff with Bergvau before was annoying. The sort of strangling weird thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he kind of, I feel. I commented on that before and I got the, someone's never played football before, have they? I don't think that's part of just, you know, I get it. I get the camaraderie thing, but it was weird. It was a weird thing to do the way he did it. You know, it was quite bizarre. I feel like he feels the need to dip into this like mad keeper archetype a little bit. And, you know, I don't know how much of that is a bit performative, to be honest, about the wide-eyed nonsense.

33:11It's very 90s, isn't it? It's a very 90s throwback, Bruce Grobbelaar and all that type of stuff. Yeah, he's a very 90s keeper, actually. Yeah, he is a bit. Yeah. I think Ali, somebody who commented on the post-match yesterday, said he's Ian Walker with a skin fade, which I found quite amazing. A lot of talk about the atmosphere, a lot of talk about the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. We're obviously in stinking pig form in our home ground. What do you think the problem is, mate? Because it's never, since we've gone there, it's never been a fortress. Let's put it that way, right? On occasions, it's been good.

33:55And a lot of those occasions are generally when Spurs are good against Arsenal and stuff. So, you know, sometimes it's one of these things where it doesn't take a genius to work it out. But the old ground, I think it is, you know, there is a bit of like, you know, lily white tinted spectacles when people remember it. I remember plenty of awful games in the old ground for atmosphere and everything like that. However, it did feel, again, when we're talking about baselines, it did feel like there was a baseline of, say, quality, of atmosphere there that has just been missing from the new ground. I mean, there's plenty of factors here, aren't there?

34:36Ticket pricing, the size of the stadium, the lack of familiarity, the fact that we've been a chaotic team for the last five years. It could be a bit of all of those. I mean, what's your general take on it? yeah i think i think it's i think it's an interesting one um i guess yeah there probably are a number of different factors i i do think ticket prices have quite a bit to do with it um you know i i probably go to tottenham now i reckon about maybe once a month um i'd like to go a little bit more but realistically because when i go to tottenham i want to go and have a few beers with some mates you know I want to get some food I want to make a day of it sometimes the decision is do I go to Tottenham this month or do I like go for a night away with the missus because it's kind of a similar pricing um and I have noticed when I've been I don't you know I don't necessarily I don't mean this always in a pejorative sense but there are a lot more tourists at the new ground there was always going to be I I know that there are certain packages sold online that mean that people can come and um you know go and visit the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the day go to a match and I've had it lots of times where I've been sat next to people that like you know aren't aren't Spurs fans they're just fundamentally not Spurs fans I think it's a really difficult thing to quantify that because how many people of course you know in the stadium are willing to kind of make a noise.