S15E16 - West Ham's Cup Final Ends Early

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1:27It's the Fighting Cock Camel Churnum Hello and welcome back to The Fighting Cock podcast West Ham nil Chickens free Come on boys I don't know why don't we call ourselves chickens Those chickens are up to something See what boys We are up to something Something's going on Something's going on down my heart lane and I think it's a train and I think it's called Thomas and I think and the work that's going to build in this squad, not that it's one that's going to win titles in its current form but just the average age of it and how influential these young players are is something that we just haven't had in a long, long time and it's going to set us up for the future Anyway, boys, you're all there.

2:24All of you. We're all there. I was at the march, so I couldn't come. But I did. I listened to it on the radio. Apparently it was quite good. What was it like? The atmosphere sounded superb. Weird scenario. Weird sort of weigh-in, though, isn't it? Because you've got that big block of nothingness in the middle. It sort of separates the two set of hands. There's four of us on the call today. There's me, there's Ben, there's Felonius Filth, and there's Cal. Hello. Cal's just here to reaffirm everything he said about Mattis Tell last episode. when you're right, you're right. But we're not going to start with that.

2:59You're welcome. We're not going to start with that. It's going to be mental. People get a ton of time going, what, they're attacking Mattis Tell within four minutes of the podcast line. We're just beating West Ham 3-0 for fuck's sake. Sorry, sorry. Sorry. A couple of weeks, because on the last pod, you kind of went in like I was Mr. Negative. Like I was Mr. Negative and I'm always negative, right? And it made me think of a few weeks ago, after the City game, we did five statements on Patreon. And we were talking about Pap Sarr, and I was saying how great he is. He's this wonderful footballer. I said he's going to be a£100 million player in a couple of years.

3:37But I also said, sometimes he just lacks a little positional discipline. There'll be a counterattack and get in somebody's way. The guys in the Discord didn't say anything about the£100 million player. All they did was jump on that. they hammered me absolutely hammered me for the next couple of hours it was great if you're listening to this and get frustrated by cow on a regular basis become a patron and you can pay to abuse him yeah you're like romero cow you just can't shake off that rash and reckless tag that reputation it's going to live with you for life yeah literally i've never thought about this as a way of selling the patron it is you can go on discord and cow will read every message you send to him no matter how abusive and i've never banned a single person from discord in six years i'll search my name just so you lot get your money's worth patreon.com forward slash fighting cock everybody um so ben what was it like what was the atmosphere like what was the day like getting into any scraps uh yeah a few yeah a few few little scraps um no it was quite it was quality it was really good that was the first time i've been west ham away and been lower tier which was nice every time we seem to get further and further back um and it's shit i think one of you sent a picture you because you boys sat together didn't you ricky and t and uh cal it looked like you were watching another sport on the other side of the planet yeah i'm pretty sure that's where i was last year i don't know so i went so far back that then they almost just reset and then put me at the front i think i think i was in row four so far back it was up there they're dishing the tickets out they go we can't do this to him again can we yeah you're in the front you can see that you can see the pitch this though yeah um well actually weirdly i mean you can see the pitch worse because you're kind of just at like you're at the ground level but it's funny because it means you can just give them a lot load of stick and uh it was well funny um it was yeah it was really good good day good atmosphere it was a nice i saw someone make a point about this earlier like one thing i didn't really think about until today it was like it was the first time in a while we're kind of i I mean, obviously it helps when you're winning and you're good, but like an away end felt really actually properly kind of almost united.

5:48Like with the kind of Levy stuff and all that gone now, everyone just felt like everyone was in good mood, good spirits. Everyone was there just to support the team and kind of just get behind, which was really good. But yeah, it was quality. Like there's no better feeling than – because we hadn't won there in six years as well. I didn't realise that. Like just going there and just taking the piss out of them in the way that we did. Like, we're not going to bat you. well we could if we wanted but we're just going to keep it 3-0 and just pass it around just to ole and take the piss out of them which was lovely and their little muggy fans getting really wound up It is great when you win a game a game is won so convincing and easy that it's actually funny that you're having a laugh at the football So good You look in the West Ham the stadium on 3-0 was empty I genuinely think if you could have counted more than 100 West Ham fans in the stadium, you'd have done well.

6:42And obviously, part of that is getting pumped by your fiercest rivals in their cup final. I saw a couple of West Ham fans going, enjoy your cup final, lads. In what world is that? They do not like that cup final thing. I found that out yesterday. There were so many West Ham fans on Twitter and TikTok being like, why do Spurs fans keep calling this our cup final? It's like, because it fucking is. It's just like, because it is. Don't talk about the fact that you were just shit and got played off the park if you want to deflect and just talk about that then do it but it literally is your cup final it's your biggest fucking game of the season um is it their cup final too absolutely is absolutely fucking is it's always been i didn't realize it was six years that means i saw the last time we won there which is mourinho's first game um what's also funny about that is i thought we won three nil i mean kind of like two we actually won three two like what Willett and two goals?

7:34I presume you won 3-0. It was the most spursy away win on earth. You go 3-0 up. We've won there. So the few times we have won there, it's been like exactly like that where we've gone like 3-0 up and then just completely flapped it near the end and they've nearly got back in it. I think we won there 3-2 like twice. And then we won there 1-0 another time where we considered a goal and their bubbles went off and it was offside. But it's never that like, it's never easy like it was yesterday. though the amusing thing about the bubbles is that it's before the game at halftime but not at full time because you fucking smashed them up it's a bit like us having glory glory before the game at halftime and it's bizarre yeah it's funny because um imagine being the bubbles guy at west and and and you're like var's a big problem for him now isn't it a big big problem because he's like the goal scored four minutes have passed do i still do the bubbles or not tell me what to do the goal's given press the bubble machine um the what was convincing about that cal right was you said that last time we won their free two proper sort of spurs your way of going about business getting the free points be absolutely shitting yourself for the vast majority of it whereas this was complete control wasn't it something to do with the red card but moreover our complete command of the game, barring the first 15 minutes, which I'd say were probably West Ham's if I was being kind to them.

9:03After that, it was just one way and it was quality. From about half an hour onwards, we were all over them and the goal was coming from about half an hour onwards. We had loads of corners. We really pushed them into their half. Jed Spencer, another great game, put Bowen in the penitentiary. He was really quiet, Bowen, yesterday and he's a top player. He's a really good player, but Jed just added him on toast. And he didn't even have a great game, Jed, actually, first half. But, yeah, we got to, like, 35 minutes, got towards halftime, and thinking we're going to score him before halftime. We didn't, but once that second half started, we blitzed him.

9:36We did score. Oh, yeah, we did, yeah. Yeah, that fucking goal from the corner. Go on. What a fucking limousy. What's a limousy? I don't know what you thought in the game. I'm sure they don't replay these incidents because they don't want to get the whole ground to go mental. I'm watching it and I'm like, oh, I must have missed something. I must have missed something. And I broke the first replay and I'm like, I've still missed it. What's going on? Dad, what is it? I don't know. What is it? Are they saying Van Leven pushed Walker Peters? And Dad was like, I think they are, you know. It was the most diabolical, soft decision I've ever seen, I think.

10:17There's one when a player cheats, dives, simulation, gets away with it and you think that's a scandalous decision. This was just wrong. there was nothing there if if Van der Ven I'm not sure what else Van der Ven could have done they said it's a double arm push there's no push Walker Peters is tiny is a minuscule man and Van der Ven's six foot four and he's getting pushed off weight I just could not believe it I couldn't believe it I was celebrating I didn't think that there's nothing in that they can give it away have you seen it played back Ben? yeah yeah yeah I've seen it back they did show like one replay of it in the in the stadium after, but it was from such a shit angle where you couldn't really see what was going on.

10:59And it was only one replay and then just carried on with the game. And then they probably put some fucking advertisement for their training gear on after that again for like the 50th time. They are so tin pot, it's unbelievable. What was that? Digital squid. Yeah. They're like big jumbotrons. They've got like either end of the ground. They'll show the game and it's, bear in mind, you haven't got a great view. So you're kind of looking up and sort of watching it. it's like five seconds behind anyway and then after about a minute of the game being up then it just goes up like kids training gear like for like a minute and then it will go on to something else and then it's like so they went straight on to fucking that anyway instead of the instead of the game you can't see the game yeah they're just advertising shit like memberships and fucking their sponsors paul robinson solicitors or something like um because there isn't enough advertising hoard uh hoardings around the ground apparently but they um yeah they showed up one replay and then obviously everyone's on their phone because everyone's looking in group chat so obviously our group chat was like everyone's like what the fuck is going on so you're kind of just then glued to your phone a little bit so you see it back on twitter you look at it at half time it's just like it's such a joke and then i mean i haven't watched the full game back yet so some people were talking about a penalty on van de ven as well like which probably would have been soft but given the standards of the disallowed goal that kind of thing yeah um so like yeah my dad was apoplectic about that and i was like dad just leave it ain't a no what about that yeah yeah it was like the um from the way i like the way i see it was exactly like the calvin bassey won against Man United a few weeks ago, where, to be fair, Batty is like wrestling Mason Mount to the, I think it was Mount, Mason Mount to the ground.

12:48But they totally ignore what happens in the build-up to it. And they totally ignore the context of the fact that Luke Shaw has also just pushed someone over. And why isn't that a foul? But the one, because it's a pet, like, because he's fouled him in the penalty box, it's a penalty, but they're ignoring everything else that's going on. And that seemed to be exactly the case yesterday, where they're totally ignoring the fact that the goalie just pushes Van Der Ven into Walker-Peters and it looks like because Van Der Ven is trying to gain his balance he puts his hands on Walker-Peters Walker-Peters is much smaller than him he goes down and Romero is a free header it has really no impact on the goal whatsoever it's so soft and the thing is it's like naturally like everyone's like fuck VAR and all that kind of stuff and I was like that and it's not really VAR's fault necessarily in that isolated incident because they're just being told to check the foul that the referee has given for the goal and obviously in their eyes they can see these push walker peters i can live with that to an extent even though it's so soft but var has led to this like meticulous fucking forensic checking of every single thing that happens on a set piece that this is how we got there in the first place like so it wasn't necessarily the fault of var yesterday but this whole thing of var and the feeling like we're looking for reasons to disallow goals and and whatever it's just yeah it's just it's just bollocks and also the thing that hurts is that that goal would not be disallowed in three months time because it's a new like they're the rules are fresh they're making sure they're clamping down on holding and pushing in the penalty area that's why you saw the man united penalty get given against fulham that's why you'll see a few more really soft ones and then a few months time they'll forget about it and then people will be moaning about the inconsistency they're just doing it to kind of make the new rules i just cannot stop fucking up it feels like the pgmo mol um so obviously we scored just after half time brilliant goal from what was a great great head out.

14:36It reminded me a little bit of like Rude Hollett, you know, that iconic goal where he just fucking gets his head behind it in the middle of a... for Holland. And so perhaps Sarr scores that but obviously you've got to give credit to Xavi Simmonds for crossing the ball. What did you make of Xavi Simmonds' performance overall, T? I think he should be sold, man. Fucking... There's a bloke in front of me just like, face going, beat me saying, get him the fuck off the pitch. Really? Really? No, I'm really kidding. He was a good excuse, so neither was I, to be clear. It was a tidy performance. It was a tidy performance from him.

15:15I think we would have all had liked to have seen him in Bergwald's position, but the way Bergwald improved in the second half, maybe Frank was right. He got an hour of football in his legs in an intense derby. I think there's a lot more to come from him. Of course. I'd say he's probably on the fringes of the game, but I think in the context of the win, it was fine. It was absolutely fine. In terms of what we've heard from people like Cesko and Florian Wurz and Van Venn in his interview, I don't know if you saw that on the Spurs official, really nice puff piece for Van Venn, but if you didn't love him already, you'll fall in love with him again because he comes across as such a lovely lad.

15:59Anyway, all three of those players talked about the difference in playing in the Premier League. And a lot's been made this year because there's been a lot of high-profile transfers coming in. But I don't think we fully could ever understand how difficult it is and the step up there exists to play in the Premier League. And so, if we're kind of thinking about introducing Xavi Simmonds to the Premier League, maybe sticking him in Bereval's place where he's so important. Congested, the pressure, the pace. The unrelenting pace is what Bert said. He just don't get time to take a break. That may be just blooding him in off that left-hand side.

16:40And when he got the ball, I thought very tidy. I mentioned my dad because he had a few Perlers yesterday when we were watching the game. But he was like, don't he remind you a bit of Modric? And I was like, exactly, dad. Take that all day. He was on the left as well. I was about to make that comparison, yeah. when he said what you was about to say that I was about to say it makes me think of Modric of how when he came to Tottenham that we started him and he would play on the left and it was only when he'd been there a couple of years that we started playing him in the middle we gave him that time on the left and that space to kind of grow into the league and then eventually we moved him into the middle and it might be the same with Zimmers I was livid that he was on the left yesterday I was fucking livid because I just kind of felt like we have loads it feels like we have loads of left-wingers we've been playing Johnson there we've got Odder Bear there Tales Berlier footballer but you know he's there and I just saw like we've got loads of wingers why is he not playing in the middle but in hindsight you know he's the manager for a reason you spend a lot of time being livid at something like I had a great time yesterday it was wicked probably my favourite song yesterday was it popped up one of those silly advertisements and they were advertising West Ham against Brentford in the League Cup and like T said Yids for a quid the kids for a quid and uh someone just started shouting kids for a quid you're fucking shit

18:13there's nothing poetic about that all good it's so good it felt a lot like fucking shit is it that that was it kids for a quid you're fucking shit that's so good it felt a lot like 2016 yesterday where a lot of the chants were just like your fucking shit it was like remember we used to batter everyone at home and it was just like after we were freeing up after like 70 minutes and it just turned to like no no no no no your shit your fucking shit and all that it was like it was a lot of that going yesterday it was just like we it's first ever get really good we're gonna be unbearable aren't we like oh yeah people hate Tottenham they loathe us everywhere we go we're hated probably only I would say only Millwall hated more university and Leeds maybe are hated more university than Tottenham yeah imagine if we start winning how horrible we're going to be yeah we're going to get worse we're going to get worse it's going to be terrible I'm going to hate us I mean Carl talked about the people behind us they you know you get people who sit near you just make up songs off the cuff and there was that sort of game where they all just kind of they all worked because I mean I've tried to remember there's a song about Kenny Sampson and a fucking park lunch Tony Adams is drink driving and Paul Mercer's drug problems they get a few songs they get a few songs or let him hit off just go into this place so good I think I remember a song about Kenny Sampson I think I do I think Ernie Samson's on a bench something like that drinking whiskey drinking whiskey yeah it's just fucking so good but you mentioned that Cowell's always living is that before the game when the line-up was out Tottenham stop the numerical line-ups please stop that yes but as an aside no no no just quickly I want to go back to what you're saying T but where has this come from it's not just us other clubs are doing it as well it's horrendous it isn't just Tottenham why do I feel like it's like engagement bait I feel like they're doing it to wipe people up they're like because all the quote tweets are like please stop doing this but the thing is TC we're going to go back to you but what is the point of a line-up it's to give you information that's the entire point and you're making it less effective by the fucking the numbers mean nothing Van Leven picked his own number for a very good reason.

20:45It has no relation to where he's playing on the pitch. Please put it back to how he had it before because I'm looking at that line-up going, is it a 4-4-2? I was going to Dad, I was going, he played 4-4-2 a couple of times. I think it's 4-4-2. I think it's Tellenzer. It wasn't that all because of the fucking numbers. Everyone's confused. Anyway, it's... But yeah, it was a striker-less line-up and then there's a couple of people near me at the bar just like fucking raging. Why have we got no fucking striker? get some strike in West Ham. Why have we got no strikers? Just live it. What a game. One guy wanted Frank out.

21:19He was, get him out. Stop playing a striker against West Ham. Get him out. Gotta love an angry drunk Spurs fan. Yeah, so no one better. Telly's technically a striker. A third, number nine, I would say. You've got to also remember, this decision-making is, we've got a big game against Villarreal in the Champions League on Tuesday. We're not going to play our strongest team every game. There has to be a rotation. And, you know, you'd argue that perhaps Lo Beraval probably has the legs and the youth to play games into quick succession. He might not start. Xavi Simmonds might not start. But Kyla Mawani might do.

21:54You know, we're going to have to... This squad is so big. And it's this worn-out, tired cliche now. There's no such thing as a first XI. But you need to be able to do this. And Tell's performance... I mean, it was almost non-existent, I would say. And then he was injured for about 40 minutes. And then he ran it off. It was funny because I was like, Frank, you're going to take him off. He's actually punching the ground in pain. Are you going to do this? And then I was like, he's still hobbling. He's still hobbling. This is ridiculous. And it was almost like Frank knew that he wasn't injured. Like, Pastor Coglu would do it at times.

22:33Funny little thing, though. I mean, is it funny? I mean, it is funny. like Pastor Coglu had lost their best centre-back and their best full-back within 20 minutes of Nottingham Forrest's first game Marulo's out yeah just it's well funny really it's who we are mate it's who we are I mean that should not be down to his training methods that just cannot be that is bad luck yeah that is bad luck sorry I just want to say I thought that was actually really good man management from Thomas Frank because Tell can't play on Tuesday day. He's not in the Champions League, so he can't play. And he's obviously promised Tell this game.

23:10I've actually said, you know, I said what I've said about Tell, but I actually think that's really good man management from Frank to give him this game. And he was okay. It's about using the players we have. I don't think he's just gone, right, you're definitely planning as West Ham regardless. You get it though, but like, he's left him out of the Champions. Go on, Ben. Yeah, like an opportunity for him to show a reaction, basically, to that. I think, yeah, I agree. I think he was I think he was all right. I don't think he was that bad. I think it just wasn't the sort of, the amount of like, after like the first, like you said earlier, after like 20 minutes, half hour, when we had that this loud goal, we were all over him really and putting so many balls into the box and had so many set pieces.

23:50It's like, that's not what Tell is as a number nine. It's like, I don't think it was a game that was necessarily actually suited to him that much. Like I didn't really understand it. Even though I rated giving him the opportunity, it felt far more primed for Richie, like the way we were playing with the amount of balls that were going in. Like someone that can kind of find a bit of a yard in the box and get on the end of something. But yeah, he's not going to play on Tuesday. It is what it is. He was okay. It was okay. Well, it was, I mean, if you just didn't do, it didn't affect the game really.

24:23Like he's not, he isn't a number nine. I don't think. Not in England. You know, Plettenberg might say that he is a number nine, but you should shut your fucking mouth because he isn't. Yeah. I thought it was maybe going to be like when I saw it, I wouldn't have been surprised if it was like Jarry Simmons almost like as a striker, like as a sort of false nine, dropping a little bit deeper and having tell out wide, kind of making runs in off the left and whatever. But it wasn't. It was, yeah, Simmons was out on the left. Weirdly, as soon as he went out left, he suddenly looked much more comfortable at home.

24:54All of a sudden he did anything. It's significant, but he was definitely more comfortable. I think that number nine, it's such a, if you forget how difficult it is in the modern era to be a good number nine. You're on your own. You're responsible for essentially the press. And you have to have physicality in this era. And Matissell is just young and not developed to a point where I think it's too easy to bully. And Richarlison can get pushed around a little bit as well. The difference you have from someone like Tom Solanke, or I'm not in any way suggesting we should sign Chris Wood, but his efficacy is significant because his ability to make life difficult for defenders.

25:35So, yeah, on the left-hand side, but, you know, Slanky's injured. Obviously, Carlo Moani wasn't ready to start, and so it is what it is. You know, it's that Paulina, I don't know if he's dividing opinion or... 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.

26:18Your 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. Kish just hates him. Yeah. It's personal. friend of the show friend of the show Kish who runs Lily White Lab just I don't think he's having him and people are listening to you Kish right you're influencing people and you're making people unhappy with your fucking opinions so just say positive stuff about Tottenham while things are going well and we can all get along alright Kish he was fighting demons at 1.30 in the morning just replying to everyone that was giving him stick about Paulina I text him I was like mate go to bed just go to bed people having to go at him because he had an opinion yeah that's exactly what happens it's a modern society we live in mate it's a problem that's it you can't even fly a flag these days without being a racist there's a few of them at the fucking game wanted to burn them yeah there was yeah like creatures weren't there on the like we're getting on the Elizabeth flight on the way there there's people draped and I was like fuck's sake what's your problem with the flag boy the problem with the flag it's the reason can we just talk about football yeah that'd be great talk about Paulina yeah that's about Paulina that Portuguese prick yeah get him out

28:01talking of talking of racism being so far away from the pitch when the subs were coming on Danso came on Johnson came on and Odder Bear came on I was like who the fuck's that because you're so far away from the pitch I was like fuck I feel racist because I don't know who it is you guessed right so I was right I said to T I might be a bit racist here but I'm going to guess who this is and I was right so it was right live streaming that could have been ugly stop the stream if they've got it wrong I don't know if it's worth making this point but I think you're right if you can't tell exactly who someone is from 200 yards away yeah or am I wrong 7 yards fine yeah yeah it happens to commentators quite a lot they'll say the wrong name I think it's Udogi and Bissimi I think one commentator could not tell him apart every time he's like fucking oh man just take a pause just hit a left back yeah yeah Jed Spence locked up another of your favourite wingers didn't he Bowen didn't have a fucking sniff yeah I love I love that meme that he posted I thought he had a quieter game it's a man in a headlock innit it's a reverse headlock and a look at the guy's face so for people that don't know jed spence is very good on twitter uh on instagram as well and every time his team doesn't score he posts this picture of uh two men and one's got the other one in the reverse headlock in a bad way the other guy's in a bad way just it's just refreshing for a footballer to be that kind of funny and and obviously he runs his own account and there's just something there but it was just like i i it shocked me because it's like jed spence another day in the penitentiary was it of this Jed Spence penitentiary.

29:47And I'm scrolling this picture of Jed Spence playing, and then there's another one of him tackling someone, and then there's just these two blokes in the headlock. What is quality? The thing is, right, it's bound to go against him at some point, and it's bound to make him look silly. But the more he does it, the more confidence he gets. Genuinely, I think it's... You remember last season, you remember the meme about the Arnie Slott penitentiary that went viral on Twitter every time Liverpool won a game? It felt like this rolling thing that it felt like they just couldn't be stopped. and it was just like I feel like it's almost the same with Spence where the more he does it the more he's going to keep doing it if you know what I mean like he's just getting better and better he's going to be switched on because of it it's not just he's always holding himself accountable by posting those social media posts he's like no I can't let someone go past me because I'll look like an idiot I mean inevitably it will happen because it has to because you can't not be beaten forever unless no one will ever go past him in his entire life I think he got he got done a couple of times against Bournemouth as a or did he not?

30:48No, he was actually alright people tried to get him against Bournemouth because they got like the FopMob ratings and were like oh Semenyo was really good and Spence had like a bad rating FopMob ratings are terrible because exactly and they weren't even playing on the same fucking side people tried to like gotcha him and it was like yeah he destroyed Porre he didn't destroy Spence so it was like he's the wrong fucking player but no it's important that belief in himself is important like the you know And it goes back to the Rio Ferdinand interview, the podcast he did to him. And he's like, anyone worry you?

31:22And he's like, nah, not really. And he wasn't bullshitting. He believes that. The best bit when he goes, what about my boy Martinelli, the geezer said. And he went, actually, do you know why I was saying the geezer? I know the guy, Joel, right? I've shared a hotel room with him before. Funny story. He had nowhere to stay. So I said, you can stay in my hotel. No, you're funny business. Nothing like that. but he went to bed he didn't drink and I was drinking because we were out in Manchester he was doing some work up there and I I just give him the key and I went in there and there was just this lovely he was fast asleep and this lovely ambient music in the room which I was I was I had to check he was asleep because I didn't know what he was up to but anyway he asked about what about my boy Martinelli and Jets Benz just smiles he's like nah nah I played with he's played with Douay hasn't he at Rennes yeah he said he was special but no it's good but just back on Paulinho what do you boys think where are you with him like Cal tell me what did you think of his performance and where are you generally well there's a couple of things really the man the man had a leg breaking tackle set his leg back his own leg back and then got up and just played the rest of the game like that's a man right there as soon as he saw the shape of Suchek.

32:41It was red. I screamed red as soon as it happened. I think the goalkeeper, the referee had the red card out before the tackle had even connected. It was so... And Suchek, to be fair to him, just held his hands up and was like, I'm sorry. It wasn't malicious. It wasn't vicious. The state of his sock looked like he'd been attacked by a shot, but it wasn't about him trying to hurt. It just miscontrolled and needed to get the ball back, but red card all day. Yeah. In the summer, I really wanted, I was talking about, because we were linked with Johnny Cardoso, weren't we, in the summer. And I think for me, what was really noticeable last season was all of our midfielders by Madison were ball-carrying midfielders.

33:25They were guys that could pick the ball up and they carried it and they ran with it. None of them were technical. None of them could spray passes left foot, right foot, and none of them were smashers. And all I really wanted for this season was a bit of variety amongst our midfield. and that's what Paulinho offers. He doesn't have to play every game. I think he'll play most away games because you want to dominate that midfield area and he does the job. He doesn't waste the ball. He's quite sensible with it. He uses it fine. He doesn't do anything too flashy with it. He gives it to the other players and off he goes.

33:57I think he's good. And second half, I thought he was really good. I thought he was really good yesterday. Obviously, they were down to 10 men for a lot of it but I thought he was really good yesterday. do you like the duels won metric does that do anything for you boys it's pretty important I'd say yeah isn't it winning the ball back and winning your duels who do you reckon got the most duels won in the game it was Jab Halinha Jab Halinha yeah correct it's his job it's his job it's um it's his job isn't it I think people and I would definitely say that Kish in terms of understanding the game I keep bringing him up Kish understanding the game is much, you know, he just, he understands and likes football in the way that I don't, or I strive to, but just can't quite grasp.

34:41But I think people are looking at him because he's a little bit, I wouldn't say he's, it doesn't have the most, the finesse is something that might be missing from his game, but he doesn't necessarily need it. And there's times when he passes the ball forward and you think, you know, perhaps R or Barabelle might have done a better job but it's an option that's what Cal said I think like you know we we may not be able to we might not be as effective on the counter-attack when he's playing and then say if Bentancourt was playing but he gives us another thing and that's what something that Bentancourt and Basuma can't do you know I think he starts most games and certainly the ones like you know where the team wants to come out a little bit for us like when Man City and Arsenal against those box top sides that were going to have to take points off this season.

35:32We couldn't last year. Having that steal in midfield is excellent. I'm really happy with him. I think there's a focus on what players can't do. And when I hate a player, I look at everything that they can't do. Looking at you, Pedro Porro. And I feel like with Polina, people focus on... Well, you hate Pedro Porro. Yeah, I'm going to get to that. I'm going to get to that. But I think with Polina, there's there's things that he's not great at. And I don't think, I don't think Frank really thinks about it. I think we set up in a way that kind of lessens his weaknesses. You know, he, he wins a ball back, gives it back to the people who are better on the ball.

36:09That's essentially what he does. You know, he's not, he's not there to spray passes around the pitch. You know, he's just there to do it. And he's effective. And I think he did play in the Bournemouth game and he was awful in that game, but so was many other people. It's not because he's a bad player. Just Iriola set up Bournemouth really, really well and nullified everything we did. but I think Paulinho will be a net benefit for Tottenham. Yeah, 91 % pass completion and long balls attempted three, two were accurate. There you go. It's just fine, like fine. I do think T's right. Like I do think that, I don't really understand why Paulinho was even a talking point yesterday.

36:49That's what I didn't really get. I know, I did, I said that to him. I was like, if you want my opinion for what it's worth, I thought he played okay and I don't really understand why it's even a talking point. I don't know, I thought he was fine. Again, I do feel like sometimes it happens where maybe if it was a younger player and he was getting stick for some reason or for maybe something he couldn't do, people would always look to balance it with, okay, well, maybe given the benefit of the doubt, look at the things that he can do and look to uplift him and praise him in these kind of things because he's younger and you want him to have that confidence or whatever.