S15E51 - Warming To Andy

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1:17Get 12 months special financing on installed carpet projects right now at the Home Depot. Offer valid March 12th through March 29th, 2026. Exclusions and additional charges may apply. For licenses, see homedepot.com slash license numbers. it's the fighting it's the fighting it's the fighting it's the fighting

1:47I was getting everything set up for the podcast and for some reason just fell out of my mouth chocolate rain I don't know why that happens what goes on in my brain I might say chocolate rain three or four times a day. I always say, okay, let's go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When I'm in the car, the kids just want to go to school. The daughter, basically we moved to a new place and lived right near one of her mates, and she's got to get a bus into school. So I was like, just get in our car. It's not a problem. She's really sweet. She says, no, I don't want to take advantage. And you're like, it gets to the point where you're not taking advantage.

2:26it's more effort having this conversation than just getting in the car. But as a kid, you don't know that. You're just trying to be sweet and nice, which is fine. But when they're in the car, there's a collection of between 18 and 16-year-olds. The last thing they want to hear is a 44-year-old man go, okay, let's go.

2:49I'd love it. Ricky. Yeah. How? Yeah. Hello. We're a bunch of sad acts, aren't we? Yeah. Yeah. What else have we got to do on a fucking Friday evening other than talk about Tottenham? What happened? There was a time when I was mainlining heroin into my cock. That's not true. It might be true. I don't know. And now I'm like, yeah, let's buzz in to talk about Andy Robinson joining Tottenham. So Ricky and I recorded a preview podcast on the Patreon. If you want to become the patron of The Fighting Cock, you can do patreon.com forward slash The Fighting Cock. We do a preview for every single game. and we do five statements for every single game, which is an immediate reaction to the game.

3:30So if you want to become a patron and support the fighting cock and you want to hear more of this shit, then you can by doing that. But me and Rick did a preview for the Burnley game. Burnley. And it just was announced just before we started recording that Andy Robertson looks like he's joining Tottenham, which has really come out of nowhere. Apparently, it was supposed to happen in the summer on a free... on a free. and obviously they've escalated this because of the injury to Ben Davies. It would have made no sense if we bought him when Ben Davies was here, but as we know, he's broken his ankle, so they've escalated forward.

4:06And we just thought, this isn't, that's not a very exciting transfer at all, really. But as I've let it sort of ruminate over the last couple of hours, percolate, undulate, that's all the legs i got um the i i i i'm actually kind of warming to it now and i'm looking at the the reaction to the signing and i'm also going well there's a few spurs fans out there that quite like it and then i thought well what are liverpool fans feeling because that's the real barometer if they're going nah shit fucking like who gives a shit you you're buying a dud then that's something but some of you out there might know the legendary Chris Pajak of Redmen TV one of the most soundest human beings I've ever met and I sent him a message and I said is there any world where the Robertson deal is good for Spurs and he said I love him he's not the player of two or three years ago obviously but I don't think he's finished I reckon he'll be good for 30 to 35 games a season just not 50 plus he's also a fucking winner great in the dressing room You'll love him, mate.

5:15I'm genuinely gutted he's gone. People say his legs are gone. They're wrong. He's not lost a yard yet, but he's not the all-action Duracell bunny he was either, to be fair. What's your reaction to that, Cal?

5:34On the five statements the other day, patreon.com for a session of fighting cock. Actually, first things first, right? First things first, as you said about Friday evenings. What have you got? I'm going to do something. Yeah, you're going to do something that we haven't seen since season one, season two of The Fighting Cock. You would hear, there's a sound. There was a sound, ladies and gentlemen, that you associate with early seasons of The Fighting Cock. And this is the sound. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like Stone Cold Steve Austin. Yeah. You know what? When I bought this, I don't really drink at home.

6:13I bought this the night we won the Europa League. And then you just didn't drink it? I bought a load of them, right? After the social, I bought a load of cans because we were sat outside the pub and we couldn't get served. It was all on these benches. And me and Spooky have gone up to this little off-license, bought a load of cans. By the time we've got back to the pub where everybody was sitting outside, they've all gone, oh, we're going home now. So I've got a fucking bag full of beers that no one wanted because everybody was going home. And they've sat in my fridge ever since. And like I said, they don't really drink it.

6:41It's a nice cold lager, though. oh is that all right oh yeah i don't i don't want to trigger people that are doing dry jangle january but um sorry uh no mate that is that's people still to this day go i remember the sounds of the cans opening near the you i remember you ricky would actually hold your can up to the microphone sounds a bit performative in these days now but yeah give the people what they want to hear they want to hear the crack of the can yeah boy yeah man you asked about andy robertson didn't you sorry um i remember we did five statements the other day patreon.com for it's a fighting cock um and i said i was talking about kind of like comparing how we've played in europe and how we played in the premier league and and i said so i'm starting to think that we have some good players but they're not all not all um kind of suited to the premier league and we've bought conor gallagher who's obviously played in the league before for palace and chelsea and now we've bought or we're about to buy Andy Robertson who's obviously won the Premier League and won the Champions League and is a kind of proven Premier League footballer and new signings are always nice aren't they they're always nice and so I guess when you do sign a new player you kind of forget all the logic and long-term plan and all that it's just a shiny new thing and he's a good player right he's a good player I remember a few seasons ago him killing us on that left hand side with balls into the box.

8:08And do you know what? We've built this, you know, Thomas Frank is obsessed with crossing and Pedro Poro is really good at it, but we don't have anybody else that's really good at crossing. Andy Robertson is really good at crossing. And he's a good player as well. So I'm fine with it. I'm all good with it. It can't hurt, can it? I mean, no, it can't hurt. But when it was first, first of all, you know, you were a bit on the fence, weren't you, Flav, about that? about the Robertson, as soon as you got that WhatsApp from your mate, your old Scouser mate, you were like, I'm all in. I'm all in. Yeah, that's all it takes, mate.

8:44Yeah, if you've been listening to this podcast for the last 15 years and expecting nuanced understanding of the situation, you ain't going to get it. If you're shocked by what I've just said, then you're the problem. Yeah, I also thought about you crossing into the box. I thought that if they're backing Frank, which rightly or wrongly, it feels like they are, given him players that can deliver into the box from crossing situations, you would say his delivery is comparable to Porro's, Rick? Yes. What I will say, when I first... Both sides, fucking missiles going in. Bosh, Bosh, ref, right. Now they've got to think about both sides, Ricky.

9:26It's not just Pedro Porro doing all the work going forward. Andy Robinson. Fucking Romero won't be our centre-back anymore. He'll be our centre-forward, just nutting in. Nutting the holes in. five goals how many goals for America are nutted in this season I reckon another nine even Richarlison just nutting goal Tottenham won 7-0 so they did that yeah all headers fuck how many how many goals are nutted in all seven

9:55yes that's that's why we bought him just get the goals of nutted nut goals in yeah oh dearie me when I first heard about it I was like it came completely out of the blue the the i haven't heard any itk no one and it's like was it ornstein who come out with horny horny yeah that and i was like fuck man so that's got some fucking legs on it then um and then i was like haven't we just signed a left back we've just signed an actual left back brazilian left back right hang on yeah that's ages ago yeah

10:33and uh udogi gets injured all the time so what are we going to do we're going to bring in a 31 year old who gets injured all the time and i was like i don't get why we've done that but everyone's talking about leadership and he's won trophies knows what it takes to win the crosses and i was still a bit like yeah yeah all right i could i can see i can see why when i went into the whatsapp group i was expecting i was expecting hell if i'm honest why are we done that for he's old he's always injured like everyone to be and everyone's like taking a little lean back on their chair stroking their chin yeah do you know what i don't hate it it's all right yeah well you surprised i'm very surprised what yeah but i'm you know i'm um i think i was more uh surprised than anyone as with the transfer and was like does it does it make sense i don't know anymore i don't even know well this is the thing it's quite exciting but it does make sense and that's yeah and i i was thinking about this i was walking towards the office to record this podcast and I was thinking why am I weirdly excited about this and I don't know and I probably shouldn't be and that's about sort of lowering your expectations to the point where any kind of sign of improvement is met with jubilation and that's not correct either I just like new things even if they're old and sort of broken I always enjoy a Scott in the changing room the fucking hard bastards well this is what he said like about in terms of you know leadership um you know one of the things we were really thin on the ground was leaders and that's not to the thought of the players you got out there really because very few of them have experienced tell no experience odabert baraval um archie gray yeah yeah like uh moani up top isn't a leader solanke isn't really either so you've got free i'd imagine like if ben davies isn't playing you're free leaders you've got you give Porro I'm not having Vicario being a leader by the way I just just not I just think he's a knob so he's not he's not getting in this but Van der Ven alright maybe he's he's building towards something for sure Romero 100 % leader Paulina 100 % leader Porro he sticks his oar in and is influential so he can go in there but really genuinely I think people that could potentially captain a football club you've got Romero Van der Ven and you've got Paulina Yeah.

13:19Now we've got Conor Gallagher who definitely could and obviously Andy Robertson who's had all the experience he's had at Hull and then moreover Liverpool. I don't think at this stage it's a bad thing and we've been talking about what's the difference between Brentford and Tottenham and I'm not saying we've any way moved the needle at all but the plan you can see to some degree is to bring in leadership and game state management by people who players have been there before which perhaps will mean that Frank gets a better tune out of his players than he has done previously because the evidence suggests that you know previously for every game that's gone before Dortmund has been it's not been good enough so maybe that's their thinking and hopefully it works out but it seems these aren't players for the long term these are players for the short term I think they're doing everything they can to give Frank what he wants that's what it feels like anyway do you think yeah i mean what he wants is a world-class left left back not you know but within the restrictions we find ourselves yeah exactly and i think people have to have that you know they have to our expectations are is you know we're a huge club we're in the champions league we should be we've got all the money in the world all the riches go out and buy anyone who we want But realistically, who the fuck is going to want to come here at the moment?

14:48So you have to be clever with who you bring in. And he fits the criteria. I am a little bit apprehensive about his injury record, but the kind of leadership qualities and what you're saying about the managing game state as well, with the kind of naivety of our younger players that are playing week in, week out. it does make sense what about you Cal? sorry sorry I thought you were finished no no no it's alright no go on Cal sorry it wasn't asked the question I wasn't asked the question no I wasn't so I started speak say things just say things say things make a funny make a funny

15:38yeah it's still not been asked anything why are you thinking about something to say Cal and I'm going to come back to you and you better have something fucking good I'm giving you some room to breathe it thank you so since in terms of his injury record it's not as bad as you think it is Ricky that's not to say he hasn't been consistently injured he has so he has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 6, 7, 8, 9 10, 11, 12, 13 injuries since 2016. But dating back to Hull, he's had two significant injuries in that time. One of them was a knee injury that kept him out for seven games, 33 days. And then there was a big one, which was a shoulder injury, 23, 24, which was 24 games.

16:33Other than that, since that point in 2024, which was 22nd of January 2024, which was about a year ago today, he's missed three games through injury. And I was with you in terms of like, he has an injury issue and maybe he doesn't have the stamina because I think Klopp did a lot, probably took a lot out of his body given the way that he needed Trent and Robertson to play in that system. but three games he's missed through injury in a year so it's probably not even that bad and the last time he was injured was in May Wow Go on Cal now let's hear this magic Go on Cal I think what I was what I was thinking is we've obviously bought I don't know how we say names it's Souza that's how it's spelled and that's how I'm saying it we obviously bought him yesterday we've got a doggy we've got Spence and we've got Andy Robertson now hopefully as long as it gets done.

17:37If he does have an injury issue, which I don't, he's not, I don't think we're going to be asking of him what Klopp was asking of him at Liverpool. I don't think we're going to be asking that of him. He's going to be, he's going to be, I don't think he will do the Ben Davies role because Ben Davies has been kind of like the last chance. He's been like, oh, we need somebody to play and he'll play. I don't think he'll be at that level, but I think he's going to play enough games where obviously, you know, he wants to sign for the club. So, you know, he's going to be guaranteed a certain level of game.

18:04but I don't think we're going to be beasted him. I imagine a doggy is still going to be the first choice, but he's a sneeze away from a hamstring injury, a doggy. It doesn't take much for him to get injured. So Robertson is going to get plenty of games, but yeah, I don't see Robertson getting beasted and having to play 50 games a season. I think we've signed him for as much as kind of like a personality and experience as much as he is a good footballer. We all have that dream trip we've been wishing we could go on, But too often, life, or usually price, gets in the way. That's why Priceline is here to help you turn your dream trip into reality.

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19:33Wreck your team with every tap and earn up to 5 % cash back with Venmo Stash, a new rewards program from Venmo. No monthly fee, no minimum balance. Just school pride and spending power. Get in the game and sign up for the Venmo Debit Card at Venmo.com slash college card. The Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancorp Bank N.A. Select schools available. Venmo Stash terms and exclusions apply at Venmo.me slash stash terms. Max$100 cash back per month. Interestingly, just on a doggy, he's also had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 injuries in the last four years. Fuck me. Yeah. None of them supremely, you know, 12 games is a long time, isn't it?

20:21so he was out of a hamstring injury uh in 2023-24 which is under and i think 108 days missed 12 games and then shortly after he got done it again about three three three months later 12 games as well so he's probably more inconsistent than robertson so if you if you have an injury prone player as we do who is who adds real balance so we saw that against dortmund how much balance we had we talked about it on that preview finecott.com forward slash free but you know if you've got two injury prone players then they can kind of cancel each other out take game time away from each other but if you look at profile Robertson and Adoghi are similar in their their willingness to get forward although they do it in different ways so yeah it's not it's not too bad I don't think it's not Thursday, it's Friday we release the podcast on Wednesday so this is why we're doing the Q &A podcast on Friday and it means that you guys who send in questions the legends over our coys on Reddit who allow us to post this request for questions all the time they always throw up some great questions like this one who from the fighting cocker best qualified to run a football club a nightclub or a religious cult

21:47someone said Alex from Bristol should manage a football club to knock him down a peck or two nightclub Ricky loves a good night out Ricky you couldn't run a nightclub because I don't know about like half nine you'd be wasted yeah no yeah I know but that's good though great nightclub yeah yeah it'd be great nothing would be you'd be able to do whatever you want really very hedonistic nightclub. It'd be closed down within weeks because the police would get intel of what's going on. Not a dick. Oh yeah. Goes without saying. Publix Illuminati says, with us beating Frankfurt last season and Dortmund this season in Europe while in dire domestic form, what are your thoughts on the club fucking off the Premier League entirely and donning the Lederhelsen for a season or two?

22:42Tottenham Tottenham Tottenham Berger Hotspurzen I think we do alright over there I really do I don't think the standard of the German league is very high at all Frankfurt are I think third in the league and have no chance of qualifying for the the playoffs so yeah I think I think so I think it's time for Harry Kane to come back and play in a real league again with Tottenham yeah I'd take that I really would. I saw that. We'd be second, wouldn't we? We'd be second at least in Bundesliga. Sorry, Ray. Easily. I think, did I say Kane was, there was talk of him signing a contract extension with Bayern.

23:25Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. I mean, do you want to come back and get exposed? Probably not. I don't think he would either. But I mean, if there's a world where we can make that happen, we have to because we just have to experience it, right? Yeah. Yeah. I'd love him to come back. That'd be nice. Cal, for people that haven't heard the preview on thefightingcock.patreon, I fucking fucked it again. People haven't heard the preview on patreon.com forward slash fightingcock. How do you feel about the Burnley game? Because Tom and Frank, we feel like Tom and Frank needs it. He does. He does. I think there was, well, after West Ham, we all wanted him gone.

24:10everybody wanted him what was the what was the percentage it was like 2.8 % wanted him to stay 2.8 % after West Ham and 3.1 % approval rate after Dom I think if they lose if we lose to Burnley it's going to be 100 % like maybe maybe his mum is going to be the only one that keeps it on 99.9 % yeah if he wins it might go up to give him the season 8 % if you give him the season you've got to give him the summer

24:40Ricky if you give him a summer where do you have to give him October November yeah for sure you just got it didn't you we'd be fools yeah if we get to that he got an international break transfer window yeah yeah yeah so what we're saying is if you if you beat Frank Thomas if you're listening to this if you beat Burnley you've got October November they might extend his contract at that point as well. It's not a bad place to say, oh, we're not saying that, Cal. Sorry. You don't even room to breathe. I found the line. I found the line. October, November. Sorry, I'll cut you there, Cal. What was that?

25:16No, I can't. I can't remember. I think it's one of those, I think he does, you're right, he needs it because yes, the Champions League's gone really well. There is something really weird about just us in Europe over the last couple of seasons, how great we've been. Like we've been so good in Europe and for a lot of clubs it's a big step up whereas we seem to be doing the reverse where we're playing really well in Europe obviously won the Europa League last year and then now we're what fourth or fifth in the Champions League with the fifth best team in Europe as it stands so no can't argue with it it's facts facts just facts league table don't lie don't lie men lie women lie numbers don't fucking there you go but I think he's got a win and I think we will win I do think we will win that I think it's the suit-off game that we have won this season, isn't it?

26:08It's away from home, a team that they'll have to have more of the ball. And I think that will suit us. I think he does need it. I think if he doesn't win it, it puts the club in a really uncomfortable position going into the last week of the transfer window. Because there's this thing, I've been thinking maybe we need to keep them to the end of the window. So when we're buying players, we can at least appear to be a stable club. and then once we've tricked these players into signing for us, we can sack the coach and go into the crazy football club we all know and love. Do you know what I mean, Rick?

26:44Yeah, yeah, yeah. Interesting, actually. Yeah, I hadn't thought of that. I always wondered, like, you know the sexual position, the pile driver? Talk me through that one again. Who's doing that? Is that like a tombstone where she's facing you? Or he is facing you and you're about to tombstone. I think it's like she's on the sort of the back of her shoulders and head and then the gentleman is sort of towering over and just coming down onto the panani how fucking horny do you have to be to do that? Like no one's doing that general like general you know your Tuesday night yeah Tuesday night putting your wife in a pile driver position who's doing that?

27:33just as you're going up to bed you give her a little nudge on the shoulder you pole driver

27:41she's got a stomach full of honey's chicken and you're just like pole driver

27:48yeah I never understood that really

27:55next question

28:01that really tickled me stomach full of Hunter's chicken also made me feel a bit sick dear me is this this is from the softest geezer he says the worst of Spurs January transfer transfer window of all time question mark no I mean is it giving Saha and Nelson vibes? Few people have said that. Yeah, it is. It kind of is. Yeah, I get the comparison. I don't think we were doing the podcast back then, but I think even then I was trying to sort of juggle why this is a good thing that we've brought Lewis Saha and Ryan Nelson. And maybe we're doing this again. I don't know. Maybe we've moved on from the club moved on as a club from that point.

28:58I think if you remember the context of that was that Harry Odenknapp was involved in an investigation, the tax evasion investigation, was also sort of talking around the England job as well. Yeah. Daniel Levy at the time. And a lot of this sort of blame about Daniel Levy's ability to run Tottenham as a successful football club in a footballing sense, it goes back to the Saha Nelson transfer window. both players nowhere near good enough Saha you know it could be that you know Robertson is a similar sort of vein but Saha was really much at the very end of his of his career the Spurs were on the up at that time right it was about supporting and building something but I think Levy looked at it and go Harry Redknapp's definitely not going to be here after this season so why am I going to give him all the players that he wants and I don't think he did that's why he brought in these sort of makeshift players and Harry Redknapp was a bearer brunt of that and the fullness of time, it meant that Daniel Levy was the issue there.