S1574 - Delusion, Hope and Xavi Simons

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1:23Hank makes the pizza. Copilot handles the spreadsheets. Learn more at m365copilot.com slash work. It's the fighting. It's the fighting Cock It's the fighting It's the fighting Cock Come on, shut down Let me tell you something, Alex Tell me something We ain't going down We ain't going down No chance, no way in hell Tottenham Motspur are staying in the Premier League this season There isn't a single thing anyone can do about it. This massive energy, how great it would be to see Tottenham go down. I had a conversation with someone from the Financial Times and they said the only thing they're interested in is Tottenham going down, not from the perspective of sort of laughing at us because it's currency for them.

2:21The league want us out. Everybody wants us out. And I'll tell you what, we're fucking going nowhere. We are going nowhere. We are absolutely 100 % categorically staying in this league. Well, that's a relief because I've been pretty depressed. Don't be. Don't be. Everyone listen to me. We're staying in this league. And do you know why I was saying that, right? Because I was reminded by someone today on Instagram. I'm just trying to get this up. He sent me a message. Follow me on Instagram. Play by the score. Baby. Manetize the shit out of that when we go down. No, we're not going down. A guy called Drew Badenock.

3:06Hell yeah. Son of... Can be Badenock. Yeah. No, a different... Not son. Just share his surname. I remember during the Champions League run in 2019, Tottenham Hotspur needed nine points from three games. And what did we say on the pod? Nine fucking points. And what did we get? Eight. We only needed eight in the end. But no, seven, seven. We only needed seven in the end. But the principle was the same, right? Should have left that because people wouldn't remember. I'm not sure the principle is the same, I'll be honest with you, because we need more than seven points. We need all the points this time.

3:47We need nine points. We're fine. We're fine. We're fine. We should have won yesterday. We're going to smash walls. I'll tell you what. This is a new Tottenham. I'm convinced. Walls are getting done. Leeds are getting put in a pack. Everton are going to get bent over in the final game. We'll probably go and get something at Stamford Bridge as well. How about that, Alex? Well, that's a huge relief because the last couple of months have not been great. So to get that cleared out of the way and to get that cleared out of the way, it makes me feel a lot better. Because you were sort of concerned before.

4:28I think we all were. I've been concerned. Yeah. My dad said to me three days ago, we ain't going down. And I was like, Dad, we're going down. We're so going down. When a doggy just punted the ball up into the air against Sunderland. I think I don't know what to do. I need to get this ball as far away from me as possible. That's the good idea. That's what I need to do. Get the ball as far away from me as possible. This is what I don't understand. Why didn't Dan say do that yesterday? hey well okay we could start with dan so he has um apologized on on has he really yeah on insta and um he's apologized on instagram and uh the he's the comments are open so i don't think it's a good idea i don't think you know he should open himself up to open himself up to a conversation or some level of criticism for fighting but i have i posted on instagram and being black and having the comments open, you know that's only going to go one way.

5:30Because there's just so many scum. Anyway, the point here is he has apologized. Do you think he needs to apologize? I mean, just kick the fucking thing out. But you can see he was destroyed. If anyone is brought into ensuring the Spurs survive, it's him, isn't it? Yeah, I think... And he played really well. and I was apocalyptically angry with him to start with and then I was just I just felt as a lot of this run has made me feel just sad and I was just like it doesn't he doesn't deserve that but I just but then the other side of me was just like when you are tired like it's just I would have thought it'd be the other way around when you're tired and just like you just whack it like you just get it away from i don't want it so it's just it's obviously it's the second nature thing he hasn't i don't know he's brought about it too much it's coming in control to take pressure off to play out a little bit yeah there'll be lots of things that could have gone for easy i mean in that moment of course oh actually sorry um our fan base sort of sections of our fan base have actually outdone themselves um the club have already put out a statement that said uh oh wow in a no room for racism week kevin dancer has been has been and continues to be subject to significant and abhorrent racist abuse on social media.

6:52There is no place to race in Tottenham Hotspur. So what's the gap? How long is the time gap? What is going on? I was just getting someone to let the dog out of the living room so he can hear the clippity cloppity. The dog can stay in. It's fine. No, no, it's fine. You told me off for it last time because I'm a professional apparently. No, I didn't. I told you off because you're constantly looking at your phone and texting trying to order Harper a present. mid-podcast that was the time before um so the key is stop telling you off yeah well stop doing things to be told off i will stop saying like plan these things uh what um so he's posted that at x o 'clock and that they've posted that what it's what two hours later i don't know i don't know when he posted i just know that i'm got this i'm running off of t's timeline in the whatsapp group um but uh yeah it's not surprising like yeah we've got we've got fucking rank people who follow our football club they want to uh abuse something like that i mean call him a plonker for not kicking it out that's fine yeah don't have to go above and beyond that yeah i can't control your disappointment you turn into an absolute animal yeah i mean i you know i had some choice words but they were they were fair you know choice words they weren't about the color of his skin no they were more about just not wanting him to work ever again but um but that subsided pretty quickly after it's just yesterday was um i don't know about you but i haven't that was a big let out of emotion when javi's goal went in oh mate i just i felt like i felt like i was watching football for the first football for the first time and i felt like i'd especially me i felt like i'd had a health scare and then had some good test results and I was just screaming into the air and I was watching it with Anthony and like you could just sense the relief in the room it was just I was a bit emotional when it went I was just like fucking hell something's actually going to go away because one of the things I wanted to bring up when I was going to come on last week and couldn't these last few, not the performances where we have been utter dog shit but the ones where we've been kind of all right even all right ish i have never seen any i've not i've never seen a period of football like this where nothing is going our way like we deserve to lose games because we haven't been good but i during the sundland game i was like laughing almost at times like just something like something go our way like the penalty or the the fact that numerous amounts of fouls or just there was a few things just where the ball just dropped in different ways or deflections of stuff and obviously the goal and i was like this is mental like i know i kind of said in the group a couple weeks ago like look this is gonna happen because we all gave up we all sacrificed too much that night in may and we all said sold our souls we did all of us not to each other but in our heads we were all going i don't care just just give us this just that night yeah and i was like it must be true because nothing is for like these injuries the way that things are falling at the minute teams getting results in other places and then when that um yesterday when van der van kind of hit it against the post and it didn't go in and it kind of dribbled across the line our own line i was like fuck maybe something is going our way and then when javis called i was like this is it and this is why i'm i'm really struggling with football in general at the moment not just because it's hot them but it's because i don't know what i'm watching i don't know whether it's because I've suddenly got old or whatever.

10:30But there wasn't an answer to me in that last five minutes thinking they're going to score here. I was just like, I've seen, I feel football, and I know football too well to know that this time, actually, I think we're going to be all right. I think it was like the types of things that were coming in, it crosses, I felt we were dealing with it. And I just don't know what I'm watching anymore because I just didn't see that goal coming. And people might laugh at that because of the pressure we were under. But you know when you have a feel of a game, and I was like, that's not happening. We were under pressure, but it wasn't like a bombardment.

11:01It was contained, I thought, as well. But you can't make mistakes at this level. You'll get absolutely punished.

11:10Van Hecker, he had a relatively tough day against Solanke, but he's an excellent footballer. I think we should, not that we're in a position to take anybody's players right now, but I think I wouldn't mind looking at him in future. But he's done well to get round as a centre-back and then to find their player to score. Oh man, it's such a gut punch, wasn't it? But you're right. There wasn't no real blind panic anyway. It was just, it was kind of felt like we were dealing with it. Eight minutes though. What, where did that come from? No, I mean, I was expecting, I'll be honest, I was expecting that.

11:45Yeah, because they had... Second half. What happened? Did I miss something? We had a lot, there was a lot of subs. There was, there was a couple of injuries. uh people went off on the fit went off and put no well maybe i just i don't know maybe i i was shocked i thought five eight when eight went up i was like oh god here we go and then and then it happened um but yeah what you i mean i think just going back to what you were saying on that european night i i remember specifically saying in my head you know with three or four minutes to go please I don't want anything else I just want tonight and nothing else it's not just that night I've said it a few times now where we're like 12th and I've gone oh well it doesn't matter I've seen us win a trophy now a European trophy I've seen us win a domestic trophy and I've seen us win a European trophy I'm alright now I'm not I'm like I wish I shouldn't have said that oh yeah now yeah now we were 12th Well, I said this.

12:53Now you're like, you know everything we said about nothing else matters other than that? No, it's not true. It does. It matters a lot. It matters a lot. Like, would you take the Europa League if it meant, in May, if God came down to you and, right, I'm going to give you this tonight, but you are going to get relegated next season. Would you have taken that? Yeah, probably. So I think maybe we would have thinking that's never going to happen. Now the reality hits, he's like, I don't know I don't think I would have I don't I'm it's an interesting conversation because I know we've all had like little backs and forth and Rick's come at me for saying like oh well apparently I've said it would be a fun to be in a championship those words have never left my mouth the receipts are still not being given but apparently flabbing you said you'll have a great we'll have a great time everyone will love it I said we'd have a good night I said take you out in Bristol that was it anyway it'll be fun it'll be fun we'll win games again what you said someone always does again i said we might i said i said the best case scenario i've laid that out yeah but the issue with it is is like i'm trying to figure out like what's the worst part about it right and there's an embarrassment element of it because it's like well you know we've got a whole sit through a whole fucking so especially if them not with like win the league like i just winning anything they're not winning anything that we're not getting really good yeah yeah fine but i'm just saying if yeah yeah okay um it's like that's uh that's awful and i'm just so but i'm so tired of these weekends just being like it is sad that it ruins it for me but it does and i'm like i'm really tired of that now and the the the positive not positives but what i've said the highlights might be something to cling on to would be if it happens is i feel like us being out of the limelight a little bit would be a good thing i'd enjoy that more this is talking from my point of view in terms of how i consume football how i enjoy it right i feel like out of that might be like i feel like we have to take a breath or i'm not everything i watch online or every youtube channel or every thing i get wound up so much like i feel like that might not happen quite as much maybe and though var is a big thing for me i fucking detest that and it's a big thing i mean no am i lucky or just go there we'll announce var are in a championship next year yeah um but those are two things i've got the only things i'm clinging i'm clinging on to and as much as it would be it would obviously it's horrific but i don't buy the whole financial crash element of it i feel like if there is one club that we moan about everything to do with this club the fact that there's too much money put in other pots and not the football one you'd think that there is enough like financially like you don't we don't have to worry about that bit i'm not so we suddenly go out and outspend everything that has ever been done and and and come straight back up but i like that's not a worry bit for me well just just to cut in there very quickly um i have done a podcast on the lab which breaks down the financial implications of going down and yes we will be fine yeah i forgot about that sorry yeah that was a good one but then it's good chance for me to plug it so if anything so i'm just like i said i'm just in this weird place where i said i did i said that bright that this game was was was it and i said it from a couple even after the Sunderland game and after the Forest game I said I think we could still get away with losing those games if we beat Brighton and so I'm I'll be honest I don't I don't see how how this changes now incorrect fine well I hope so yeah um but there is you remember you remember Brighton were in for the most formed team in the league like they weren't mucking about this last six six to eight weeks have been they've been sensational and they were sort of dangerous we contained them i thought much larger oh look not but i said in the group i'm not i'm not i'm saying we didn't play well if this if that performance yesterday was there with 10 games to go i'd be i'd be so confident well if you feel it will if it gets better because that was much better than sundland is another week with deservey another week with deservey yeah i i think we could win i think we could win three of both games maybe even four we'll stay up if we win three but it's not in our hands anymore doesn't matter psychology yeah but i appreciate that and i understand it but the conversation around it is is that it's not it's not being negative to say that we played really well i liked deserve it i never had a you know other conversations i was actually really pleased when he came in um and like i said if this was eight games to go i'd be like i can yeah brilliant i we don't have the time like it's not we've got any time yeah okay but are we gonna have a conversation a conversation about or are we just no we're not west ham what i know just i'm just gonna disagree with what you're saying is all i'm saying we can conversate we can we can go around the circles i'm saying we have time but what you're telling me you're saying west ham we're gonna win every single game so what you're telling me is i'm not disagreeing with you in the fact that we could win four games we could win three and that'll do right but what i'm saying is is that you're telling me that the others that so you're saying that 30 we're saying 40 points is enough yeah uh 39 i don't think it is this episode is brought to by State Farm.

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19:12This episode is brought to you by Ferrero. Soccer's biggest stage is approaching, and Ferrero is making it easy to go all in. Pick any two Ferrero brands from Kinder Bueno to Ferrero Rocher, and you could win the$1 million grand prize, plus an exciting range of daily and weekly prizes. Don't miss your shot. Official rules apply. Learn more at goallinandwin.com. this year. That's fine. And that's my, that is my worry. And it's not the fact that I think that we might have even turned a corner yesterday and I think the wind would have done it. How many do you want? How many do you want, Alex? I think we need to win four.

19:50All right. There you go. All right, fine. We'll get 42 then. We'll get to 42. I'll tell you where they're coming from. We're on 31 now, aren't we? Hold on. 31, yeah. Sorry, yeah. Sorry, I was just still stuck in the fact that I thought we'd lost yesterday because, you know, it felt like a loss. No, yeah, we have 31. Mate, I thought we were still on 30. We are definitely staying up. 31? That's loads. I mean, 40. Is it 40? You want 40? You want 40? I'm going to give you 43, Alex. That's what I'm going to give you. If we get 43, fine, we'll stay up. No one's ever gone down with 43. No, but yeah. West Ham went down with 42.

20:28So what's the one we don't win? Chelsea away. I think we'll get drawn there. Easy. probably not actually um i well let's let's let's break it down let's break it down let's make this a little bit more because i think i think we we go to wolves and we get three points that's 34 that feels you feel a bit more comfortable than wouldn't you are yeah i would i would it's just it's the others i know i know we can deal with them in a second right but would i'm not just just asking you all right would you feel more comfortable if we went to the molyneux and got three points i mean i yeah i just i'd have a win i mean it's been 120 by the time it comes along it's going to be 100 and something like 27 days 127 days yeah but not under the zerby 120 of dross yeah okay so you know you can't blame the zerby for the the hundred and hundred and a hundred games that came before him.

21:27It's not on him. No, 100 games. 100 days that came before him. Oh, yeah. Basically, since... If you take away... This is how bad it's been for Spurs fans, right? If you take away... Let's take away five games. Let's take away Bilbao. Let's take away the two games against Frankfurt and the two games against Bode Glimt. And City. I'll even keep City in. Okay. Right? think about what we've witnessed as fans, as Spurs fans, in that 18-month period. If you just removed those five games, it is without question the worst period in our history. It's mental. And we've had... I've gone in. I was saying to my dad, I mentioned this a lot, and luckily Valerie wasn't on the wine yesterday.

22:20So we didn't have to... She didn't really speak much, which was... I wonder why. Yeah, when she said, the wine well she actually started having the wine towards the end of the end of the game and i was and then the questions come and um especially it was quite difficult because she was talking about bits and pieces that were nothing to do with football and there was we were getting you know put under the cosh a little bit by brighton so that was tough um but yeah if you if you i was saying to my dad beforehand, I just want one win. I just want to feel like, I want to feel like everyone gets to feel, apart from Spurs fans currently, and Burnley maybe, but they're used to it, and Wolves, they're used to it.

23:05So I think like no one has been subjected to more, never, no other football club is the expectation so high and the delivery so low than the Tottenham. Yeah, it's... It's been horrible. It's very horrible. Horrible. It's just mean as well as what it is. What the fuck have we done? Do you know what? All of us, every single one of us who's Tottenham, we have done something terrible. We think we're the goodies, right? We think we're the light in football. I don't think we are. I think we must be wankers. No, I don't think it is. Do you know what I think it is? You've done something in your past life.

23:43What have you done now? It's something we all have. no we've been we are the victims because we're the kid that's been locked in the basement by by the weird old man for 25 years yeah that's what's happened like and then one day we'll kind of come we kind of came out of bilba we they've kind of we got we escaped a little bit like we managed to climb out the little cellar uh window we got into the back garden and we went sunlight then we kind of had a little dance around for a little bit and then we just we counted our chickens too soon and then we got grabbed from behind and put back in the cellar bummed and it's worse this time and I said well if you're gonna escape this time this time I'm staying yeah yeah I'm nailing this out and I'm and you're not coming out so yeah I just it's I it's hard to fathom but I just think and and this is what is why I'm struggling with football overall because I think because I watch these other games like I was watching the Champions League the other day or I might watch you know uh Chelsea United and I'm like I feel like this I don't watch this this isn't what I watch this is this this is either football I don't understand anymore or maybe it's just I've been so long where i just haven't seen any anything that is like i can sit down and enjoy this game now yeah you'll remember when you came to my house when postagoglu was early doors postagoglu and we were really getting to having to get used to this sort of high defensive line total attack we kept get done on the break and i was having an emotional breakdown because i just couldn't yeah picking a role reversal at that time this is before i turned on him yeah you was going, you've got to get used to this.

25:11This is what he's doing. And I'm like, how can anyone get used to this? It's terrifying. Every minute of this football is terrifying. And as it turned out to be generally,

25:24I can't remove, I can't get agitated. I can't not get agitated. I can't ever sit back and relax. I don't think I've ever been there. Maybe there was periods under Redknapp and periods under Pochettino where I just thought, we're just not going to get beat. we are too good. Oh yeah, Pochettino. I remember like, that was when I first, like my first part of actual season ticket when I was actually living in London. And I remember Bardi and I would walk up to that stadium every week. Like, and genuinely we would be like, free today? How many? Yeah. How many? Yeah. I remember there was a period in Harry Kane's breakout season where we used to drink in a pub.

26:03We've watched a couple of games in there and I hope an anchor in Crouch End. Yeah. And there was a thing that we used to have just called the Harry Kane specials. How many goals would he score today? Harry Kane specials, that was like two goals for Harry Kane today. We'd put it on every game, every fucking game. And then I remember the jubilation. You're right, maybe I could relax and there's just been so damaged since then that now I can't. So I'm invested in every game and every game I find huge pressure having to watch and think about the fallout of it. and then having to obviously talk about it which i'm grateful for and i'm so grateful that this is how i can earn my money right but um but but also i would also love to be able to switch off for a week and think and pretend that it did none of none of this is happening and so and again i'm not saying woe is me i'm just saying it would be nice to not be completely terrified 24 hours a day.

27:04It's so weird that you say that in that memory because me talking about me and Bardi walking up and just feeling so confident and so relaxed. I remember the, and this matter, it always sticks in my mind. Bardi and I were walking up to the stadium. We were playing Watford at home. It was when the new stand, the new stadium was kind of three quarters built and you had to walk underneath like the kind of bridgey bit of the new stadium to get into the old stadium. And we, the tickets were all over the shop at that time. But Bardi and I actually ended up sitting in the North stand and it was when Dele Alli scored that lovely little curling goal from outside the box against Watford we won 4-0 and I just I just remember sitting there it was a beautiful sunny day and I was like this is this is the best this is the best like and no one tells you you're in the good old days until you're out of them and I'm just like looking and you know you know it doesn't last forever for any team right you know football is so cyclical there's nothing the only thing you can predict in football is that it comes in cycles right and that and the only thing I'll say is on that is and it can flip both ways so obviously we all think about relegation now and what can happen and it's awful and you know i think it's probably a lot worse if you you know obviously your situation we got to talk about every week like or permanently on online or linked into this stuff like it's but there will come a time and as the weeks have gone gone by like it is horrific and it is a disaster but as ever with anything in life like once is you get closer to it and the more realistic you spend more time thinking about it you rationalize it a bit more then when it happens it'll be horrific but like what i'm sticking to is that nothing will it lots of stuff will change but the cause of everything like what you're going to do you're not going to stop supporting tottenham tottenham aren't going out of business like it's like i focus on the things of why why i'm still tottenham now because if it wasn't for those things if all the things that that surround Tottenham, like Rick going every week with his dad, doing his little itinerary that he posted on Instagram.

28:57That stuff isn't going to change what division Tottenham are in. Us all doing this is not going to change. So all the stuff that keeps you Tottenham and has kept you Tottenham for however many years you have been alive does not change, right? Regardless of how this season finishes. So that's the bit I think that as we get closer to this, and I know that there are some people, and it affects me. I was in a horrible mood yesterday. It's WrestleMania weekend. It's my highlight of the year. You know, we had title belts for the kids. We've got balloons up everywhere and we're wrestling stuff on it.

29:30We were having a good time. I was fucking angry yesterday because that game finished at half seven at eight o 'clock. I wanted to put the kids to bed early because they had to get up in the middle of the night to watch WrestleMania. I was like, oh, night, daddy. I'm like, yeah, night. Night. Night. Night.

29:49Talk me through that. I was like you need to go to bed early because you're getting up for Wrestlemania she's like oh okay she's like did you win I was like no no we didn't win so she's like oh okay so I probably need to go to bed at night I'm like yeah you need to go to bed like night darling she goes came back down again I just wanted to say night I get it alright and I'm just like why am I I'm just so annoyed you're snippy you're snippy you're a nine year old right and and I'm just And like I said, I know it affects people and it affects people's mood and it's all very well saying, you know, I'll just get over, like family's more important.

30:29Of course it is, but it's just, I'm tired. It's a cop out though, isn't it? There's more important things in life. Yeah, maybe. Is there? Is there? All right, well, tell me what, famine. Right, okay, yeah, agreed. I think famine's probably a little bit more important than Tottenham for sure. But right now, I couldn't give a shit about famine. Right now, I'm going through it. Right, And this is the most important thing to me. Think about Coventry. They've just been promoted recently, Alex. Yep. Yep. And they went all the way down. They went all the way down to League Two. All the way. They went.

31:01Look how happy they are. Would you want to ride that roller coaster? Yeah. Well, not really. Not me. But what I'm saying is that if you catch yourself feeling like that, which we all have, and we've all had those moments, and I've been annoyed and all the rest of it, and you're like, why am I feeling like this? Because there is more bigger things than football. It's just remember that all of the core, all of the ties, all of the knots that keep you tied to being in Tottenham, that's not going to change next year. Yeah, I know. I know that, Alex. I just, I still don't want to. No, no, no. Let me tell you something.

31:39Go on then. This is good for you because you live in a house full of kids now, don't you? You've exchanged your sanctity for insanity. do you know what's worse as well as i had a brilliant lazy boy chair which i paid 600 quid for right that i had to keep in story because there's no room in this house for me to put it anywhere what did you do what did you do the kid 11 year old kid's got it now he's got it he's the only one with a room that's got big enough to go in there so i have to throw it away which i couldn't bear myself to do because it's cost me fucking fortune now he's up there he's up he's up there in his room he's got my lazy boy recliner sitting there playing on his xbox and i sat in there looking at it going what's going on here like what's why would anyone do this this is shit I have to say it quietly because she's in the other room but this is this is shit give me back my man cave anyway go on no that see we know now that that's not true Alex because you are beaming you're a little little round happy face I can see it see you're happy you did all your Wrestlemania stuff yesterday cupcakes and all that stuff you are I'm going to do the round bit it just annoys me what round what round face little round little round angry face that's what I think of you what were you going to tell me I'm going to tell you the fighting cock is sponsored by NordVPN brilliant yeah NordVPN force that's fighting cock why might that be useful to you Alex in that household where you've got no room and no privacy well whisper it cheap flights no not that you can get it with cheap flights you can watch Wrestlemania for free probably It's free already.

33:15It's on Netflix. But yeah, all sorts of stuff. You know, I don't do – I know what you're steering at, which I don't do anymore, regardless of how much protection I've got. It doesn't make any difference because there's no time or space or energy or inclination. You don't do it anymore. You love doing that. No. Another reason. Another reason why it's shit. Alex, that was your favorite. I know. I know. But you've got – Think of all the stories we've had with you. You've had the baby at the beach story. you can't tell that but i i could probably tell it but the yeah it's essentially we'll tell it another time but there is you know what's funny is i've just for anyone that knows that story is i obviously moving my stuff out of storage i found an old nest camera in our thing we've said we've said she's like oh we used that so we can see the dog when we're not here set up now it's in the hall so i'm just laughing back of it alex waddling around his front room like a baby at the beach um yeah and uh yeah i'm saying like you don't you need child locks on in the house but it does offer that yeah you don't want adult locks is my point so you sign up to north vpn the children are safe and if alex had any room he could uh he could freely do he's my favorite thing in the world to do yeah it's not the same doing it in a locked en suite it's not standing up leaning against the wall holding your phone in your left hand and it's shaking because you're coming to the end I can't do it standing up either like I have to kind of like sit on the toilet kind of straight like that like doing the luge but on the toilet no I thought you sort of lie on your side to do it I can try I can give it a go just it's a small en suite to be honest my head lying in the shower tray

35:12but none of that is nordvpn's fault um so to sign up right now you can get uh four extra months of a two-year plan there's no risk if you don't like or don't enjoy nord and don't feel there's any uh use for it once you've downloaded it you can get 30 day money back guarantee no problem no questions asked you can also put it in up to 10 devices one account 10 devices right um I don't think we've done the Xavi Simmons justice. Standout game, 100%. It's taken me a while to get going. I'm not saying he's everything now, but in terms of quality, vision, and ability to do... We need special moments.

35:51And he created two yesterday, didn't he? Yeah. I mean, I have been fairly vocal with my criticism of him. It's fine. Yesterday, I mean, the assist for part... That's part of what it makes me so happy. obviously his goal was fantastic, but, you know, there are players that are able to do that, but there are not a huge amount of players that can do the assist that he did for Porro. He took out the entire defence. And you're just watching that ball fly through the air as it's back spinning as well because he's put that back spin on it to hold it up, to hold the pace of it. It was just brilliant. You know, there are always going to be frustrations with him.

36:27Like, you know, he is... Just on that ball, I just wanted to make one point is the ball was so good that once, within like milliseconds of it leaving your foot you're like oh yeah do you know what you can just tell when you've been watching football as long as we have yeah you're like he's that's that feels right and normally you see the run first and then you see the ball and you're way and you're kind of your brain like you say if you've watched like your brain goes well that's the ball and whether someone's good enough or able or enough to be able to play it's the right ball but i saw the ball before i saw the run which tells you how good it was yeah and um yeah he was great he was he was really good like yeah he's drawing fouls as well for a couple of times getting us out of pressure running across his man that goes flip side because i feel like he sometimes does that a little bit at times where he doesn't need to do it and you know what refs i mean the standard i i was having an absolute meltdown at the referee yesterday like i just and he wasn't even as bad as as a sunday well don't even get me started on sunday was mental but um and just the standard of this is part of my reason why I just sometimes I'm a bit like have I just got old in the space of like five years I don't understand what I'm watching anymore I think the VAR has done a lot of damage and I think that isn't about old that's just about the game but the standard referee seems to be terrible I don't understand it but he drew lots of fouls probably tried to do that at times we probably shouldn't but overall I mean it's just frustrating he hasn't played 90 minutes for god knows how long so i can understand the cramp thing that didn't help us i've never seen anyone react to cramping i know cramp is painful really really painful yeah um but when he was on the floor yeah spinning around yeah i was like he's broken his leg he's done something mental like honestly like i said to my dad i think he's broken his leg or or i was expecting to see his ankle dislocated or something and it was like crap and then i was thinking actually i've had bad cramp and it is excruciatingly painful yeah he's he's also got one of those faces and expressions that like he's about to cry any minute anyway so um he looks a bit like valise his reaction um what but and then he was he could barely walk and i was like what has he done yeah and then they scored and then suddenly he was like oh i don't have company more like what is going on there anyway i feel like we're focusing on the wrong things he was he was really good a couple of other special mentions for me as well i thought bettencourt was fantastic seeing as he's just come back in and i know we gave bettencourt a lot of shit before he got injured but you know i i genuinely don't think we might i think we might not be in this position if bettencourt had been fit the whole time yeah it was good just come straight back in mate complete shocker at madison adison was on the bench yeah i don't know i didn't know whether to be excited or just scared about that because i was just like we've literally we literally a week ago pushed kudos it's too far and now he's got to have an operation and does that be said we don't know we're menacing because we don't want to push him because we pushed Kudus and look what happened maybe it's just a morale thing like just being in the squad like you saw him before the game it might have been actually quite a smart decision that is included maybe the plan was that he never was going to come on I don't think he even got out and warmed up once actually I don't think so I also don't think there was a moment where before the end of the game he left the bench and went down.

39:51So I don't know if there was stuff that he had to do. I think, yeah, he went down. Bergvot, when Simmons went down with Crump the first time, Bergvot turns around and gestures for him to come off. Like the sub, like the twirly fingers. And then you see Madden, it counts as Madden. Madden's just like going, no, like shrugging and going, no, I can't. What do you think that's what he was doing? Yeah, yeah. We've used all our subs. He wasn't saying, I can't do it. He was saying. No, no, no. Yeah, he was like, they were all going like, no, we can't. That's it now. There's no more subs. I'll get quite irritated when players do that.

40:26I was like, what do you know? Yeah, yeah. You've been on the earth 19 years. What do you know about what's going on inside of Man City? I mean, he gets another little special mention because he was absolutely fucking dog shit against Sunderland and came on and he's made the goal. We were struggling at the time when he came on and he won the goal. He won the ball back, didn't he? But that's what it should be and this is the whole point and this is how we've ended up in this situation. Obviously, there's loads and loads of conversation that goes behind it, but the way this club has been run, the way the squad has been built, we've had humongous luck with injuries and elder chickens have come home to bruise.

41:03But people like, for Grey and for Bourke, this is the situations that they should be coming in in at 20 minutes here, half an hour there, the odd start every two, three games. They shouldn't be the ones that we're like, well, what can we get from them every week? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what's got us here. So when they can come on in these situations and play well, Yeah, obviously. I think that was probably behind Deserby's thinking. It's start with experience. Spentancore, Basuma. All of us, I think we were a little bit, what, Basuma's dying again? I thought you did the right as well, actually.