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The Fighting Cock Podcast - S15E62: Lines In The Sand
Episode Overview In this episode, the panel discusses Tottenham Hotspur's recent poor performance and overall current state. The conversation touches on feelings of despair among fans, player accountability, and the potential consequences of the team's continued struggles, including relegation. The tone is a mix of dark humor, frustration, and a sense of hopelessness that resonates with the experience of being a Spurs supporter.
Key Themes and Discussions
- Current State of Spurs
- Despair and Frustration: The panel expresses collective frustration over the team's performance, highlighting feelings of sadness and anxiety.
- "Lines in the Sand" Metaphor: The phrase is used to describe crucial moments where the team must perform to avoid relegation. Each loss feels like another line crossed.
- Player Accountability
- Key Players Under Scrutiny:
- Van de Ven: Criticized for indecision and poor performance which have contributed to losses.
- Romero: Discussed as being reckless and not showing the expected leadership and accountability.
- General Performance: The team is described as lacking desire and commitment, with senior players failing to inspire others.
- Management and Tactics
- Igor Tudor's Coaching: Mixed feelings about his management style and decisions. There's a call for more freedom in play rather than a strict tactical approach.
- Suggestions for Change: There's a desire for a more relaxed management style that allows players to exhibit their natural abilities, drawing comparisons to past managerial styles.
- Relegation and Its Implications
- Fear of Relegation: The possibility of relegation hangs over the discussion, with some panelists expressing a desire for radical changes in the club's operations even if it means dropping to a lower division.
- Short-term vs Long-term: The panel debates whether experiencing relegation could lead to necessary changes in the club's hierarchy and approach.
- Fan Reactions and Emotional Responses
- Gallows Humor: The panel employs humor to cope with the bleakness of the situation, sharing personal anecdotes related to their experiences as fans.
- Emotional Toll: The podcast captures the emotional rollercoaster of being a Spurs supporter, with discussions about the psychological impact of supporting a struggling team.
Important Quotes
- "We've won the Europa League, and now it feels like the whole place is on fire."
- "It feels like we don't have a stick anymore to draw a line in the sand."
- "We need to go down swinging, not just accept that we're going to be relegated."
Audience Engagement
- Patreon Support: The panel encourages listeners to support the podcast via Patreon, especially during this challenging time for the club.
Conclusion This episode of The Fighting Cock podcast serves as a candid reflection of the current struggles facing Tottenham Hotspur. Through humor, frustration, and honest discourse, the panel encapsulates the collective angst of Spurs supporters, while also exploring potential pathways forward, whether that involves management changes or a reevaluation of player commitment and performance.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOFrustrations with Spurs' Performance
2:00 to 5:00
The hosts discuss their disappointment and emotional connection to Tottenham's recent games.
“literally I knew this was coming and I was just like, oh God.”
The Line in the Sand
5:00 to 9:00
A deep discussion about critical games as the hosts ponder the future of Spurs.
“When you've got no hands, you've just got blown to bits, sticks.”
Tactical Analysis of Recent Games
9:00 to 13:00
Hosts analyze the tactical decisions made in recent matches and their implications.
“and me and my dad were just silent because we're watching it.”
Youth Team Dynamics and Tactical Confusion
14:02 to 15:06
Discussion on the confusion in player positioning and tactical decisions affecting the team.
Frustration with Management and Performance
15:06 to 16:12
Analyzing the team's performance and management decisions leading to disappointment.
Fan Reactions and Emotional Responses
16:12 to 18:22
Exploring how fans cope with disappointing performances and reactions to their children's inquiries.
“fan narrative, you generate reports around games that canvass football opinion without asking direct questions.”
Critique of Player Leadership and Accountability
18:22 to 23:27
A critique on key players' leadership qualities and accountability during tough performances.
“I was supremely frustrated with him and that frustration, you know, stems from what Romero did against Manchester United.”
Long-term Issues at the Club and Player Accountability
23:27 to 28:00
Discussion on long-standing issues within the club and players' accountability for ongoing struggles.
“Like, when we needed you, when we needed Van Der Ven, when we needed these senior players to stand up and be counted, they have just gone begging, man.”
Reflecting on Team Performance
28:00 to 29:20
Discussing the mindset of players and the disconnect between their talent and performance.
“and ticket prices and like, could we be doing more for older supporters?”
Accountability of Players
29:20 to 31:20
Examining the responsibility of individual players and their commitment to the team.
“He is accountable for a lot of those goals.”
Show all 18 chapters
The Need for Change in Squad
31:20 to 32:40
Arguing for a shift in squad strategy and bringing in new talent to revitalize the team.
Desire for Management Accountability
32:40 to 34:35
Expressing frustrations towards club management and ownership regarding team performance.
“He was arguing with the ref, arguing with the linesman, like getting up in people's face.”
Consequences of Relegation
36:22 to 37:34
Debating the potential impacts and consequences of the team facing relegation.
“suggested that going down would be fun in the championship for a season maybe ar or to teach the, uh, the hierarchy a lesson or it will be cheaper ticket prices or anything like that.”
Season Outlook and Player Attitudes
37:34 to 42:01
Analyzing the remaining fixtures and the team’s mental state heading into the final games.
“Yeah, I mean, by the time the next general election comes around, we'll be in the championship when I'm voting reform, so...”
Reflections on the Upcoming Matches
42:01 to 44:38
Discussion on the team's performance and prospects for upcoming games.
“then we are going to run out of games to win.”
Sacking the Manager?
44:38 to 46:31
Debate on whether to sack the current manager and bring in Harry Redknapp.
“we want the fans to know that we tried everything we could to stay up.”
Creative Freedom in Football
46:31 to 52:18
Discussion about the need for more creative freedom in football tactics and management.
“trying to create a bit of movement, trying to do something.”
Existential Crisis for Spurs Fans
52:18 to 53:28
Reflections on the current state of the club and coping mechanisms for fans.
“on systems and structure just doesn't work for us.”
Transcript
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1:33it's a fighting cock a camel no we did a little bit of pre chat and Rick just turned up in a nudie which is his mood currently you can see it on his face this is the last thing on earth he wants to do are you recording now? yeah mate oh lovely yeah you can see it you can see it on his face last thing he wants look at his face oh no I've been dreading it all day literally I knew this was coming and I was just like, oh God. Do you know what? My daughter is going to a gig later this evening. Slip nut. And her mate is round at the moment. And her mate is a Tottenham fan. Her dad's a Tottenham fan.
2:17Yeah. First time I met her and she was just like, did you watch the game last night? No. Brilliant. Brilliant. Yeah, I did. Yeah. She's like, what if you turn it off in the second half? I was like, so did I. And then we were talking about Potch. And then she's like, yeah, I just can't bear it. I said, I've got to go and record this podcast for an hour with my mates talking about the game. She's like, enjoy. Enjoy. How old is she? 13, 14? 14. Yeah. Feel sorry for her. She's not experienced anything. I mean, she had Europa League last week. No one cares about that anymore, Ricky. No, I know. It's amazing, isn't it?
2:58We win a European trophy and literally within months, it's fucking ashes. It's so fucking spurs. You know, there was a microcosm in that moment last night where we go 1-0 up and literally five minutes later, we're 3-1 down. That's it. This has been the last year of spurs. We win the Europa League, major European trophy, and now it's like the whole place is on fire. And all you can see in the reflection of the European trophy is the flicker of flames. yeah it's um you're laughing it's like it's like i can't i can't even i can't even must do it honestly there was one point last night that i that i sat there and i just thought god i think i'm gonna cry like actually i was just like i feel like it's coming like i was welling up it was like it's like this is this is it this is over this is over and and the reason as well it's like lads we've got to play West Ham at home and this is a must win game line in the sand must win we lost it okay right right right right that West Ham one that was a joke Newcastle Newcastle line in the sand we have to win this otherwise we'll go down yeah no I was just joking about that one just this the palace is the real one palace is the real one Get the line out, put it in the sand again.
4:26We lost to get... There is no way out. Yeah, no, no. Hang on. Hang on. There was a moment around 10.30 when I was lying in bed having a panic attack and where I thought, actually, maybe forest is the line in the sand. Maybe Leeds is the line in the sand. There's still lines in the sand to be drawn. It just feels like we don't have a stick anymore and you could use your finger, but it's been blown to bits by a grenade. Yeah. And so you've got a stump. It's well painful and it doesn't really look like a line when you put your stump into it. It's just a big sort of mess in the sand. We've got sand in our eyes.
4:59We can't see where the line is. Have you ever had sand in a cut, Ricky? It's horrible. When you've got no hands, you've just got blown to bits, sticks. You don't want to stick it in the sand to draw a line anymore. You're just like, this is enough. It's almost like we're on the beaches at Dunkirk where we keep drawing these lines in the sand, but we're also just walking closer and closer to the sea where we're inevitably going to be swallowed up and drowned, which is the championship so we've got one way we've got invading forces and we're getting shot to bits and blown up and losing limbs by the minute the other way is just drowning in the sea yeah what's worse it's not that fun yeah what's worse either eventually there's sweet relief by death yeah what we need is we need the boats we need the little boats to come across the channel right yeah and pick us up and we just you know we see it which is three wins right and we just look at it and we see it and we just go it's home yeah yeah some sort of like fisherman from Peterborough took his sort of day vessel out to come and pick me up during the Normandy landings to come and save me and I'm like maybe that's it and I used to have anxiety around death not anymore I welcome it my grand my great granddad my great uncle Bill rather he was on the Normandy landings right and his leg got blown to bits by a shrapnel that came over he had to have his leg amputated he was taken off the beach taken back to britain he survived he went to work in insurance in the city everything was fine everything was fine i feel worse than he did the minute the shrapnel hit his leg right now r.i.p uncle bill who actually gave up watching spurs in the 90s because he didn't want the stress anymore genuinely never watched north london derby didn't watch one incredible that is that is the foresight we need had the gumption to go I'm not doing this anymore yeah imagine surviving like losing a limb and shrapnel and going I can't take any more of this it's spurs and not ending war it's spurs in the 90s that that was the line in the sand for him yeah yeah yeah so I couldn't bring myself to write a running order for this so I just went to our lovely patrons who I'm going to need desperately if we get a real job uh um this is not funny that is an actual that was what i was panicking about last night um no uh so so their questions are going to make up the running order uh if you want to come back at patreon now's the most important time to do it uh it's patreon.com forward slash the fighting car i used to be sort of cavalier about this rick i used to go i might mention the patron i might not yeah and you were like no you should mention it it's like you should encourage people to join the people want to they need to know about it and i was like really like if they find it they find it now i'm like find it here's a map you're like doing cold calling when people canvassing to vote for a certain party you're just knocking on people's doors in britain yeah are you spurs are you unhappy do you know what patreon is this could work for you this could make you a little bit happier see even ricky his face when he turned up now he's a little bit happier oh dearie me a little bit a little bit a little bit still dying inside yeah we're all we're all dying inside i had to leave my dad's house last night during the game oh i had to leave the house what mid game yeah mid game oh well just just i think as sars scored he's second and palatis third it was at that moment i broke well oh okay so it was the actual result and not Like you arguing with your dad or anything?
8:36No, I wasn't arguing with dad. I just had the... So my step-mom, God love her. And I've already told this story on Patreon. But God love her. She's... You know, I genuinely love the woman. But it was an important game full of emotion. Tensions were running high. And Palace scored their second goal. And she went, was that a goal? and me and my dad were just silent because we're watching it. We've seen the ball go in the net. You can see it was a goal. Is that a goal? Is that a goal? Was that a goal, was it? David, was that a goal? Yes, Valerie was a goal. Okay, thank you. And I'm like, oh my God.
9:25The third goal went in and I said to my old man, we're going down. Dad, we're going down. And he didn't say anything. And then Valerie said, you're not going down. you're not going down. I went, Valerie, we are, we're statistically the worst team in the league since Christmas. We're going down. Yeah. You're not going down. You're not going down. I went, with respect, Valerie, you don't know what you're talking about. We just watched the goal go in six times on a replay and you kept asking whether or not it was a goal. Yeah. You don't, you don't know the nuances to this, right? Form, injuries, Igor Trudor.
10:08You don't know these things. So don't tell me we're not going down when I'm saying to you, when I know all these things that we're going down. Yeah. So that was bad. I've had to message her and apologize. And the buyer, what's it called? You know, the little lilies. You know, the ones that everyone buys and they die. Peace lilies. No, it's just like a little, it's a stick in a nice little part. Oh, yeah, yeah. And then the lilies grow off the buds. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She is world-class at keeping those things alive. Nice. So hopefully she can keep that alive and that will be, I don't know, a nod to Spurs staying alive.
10:44There's Lilywhites you can try and keep alive as well. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Actually, if you think of, I was thinking, when you said that, Leeds, Lilywhites, they died. They went down. Oh, God. Not those Lilywhites, our Lilywhites. Yeah, but all the Lilywhites die in the end, don't they? That's what I'm saying. John, how did you interpret and process all of it? well I made the stupid mistake yeah I made the stupid mistake of going for the first time in ages imagine that going to watch a football team yeah it was one in one out Ricky didn't go so I thought alright I better go so yeah I haven't been for ages since I gave my season ticket up I've been to like a handful of games and then my brother who doesn't even follow any sort of football let alone Spurs I haven't seen him for ages he lives in Wales and he was like oh my company gets like corporate tickets do you want to go sometime this was ages ago and I forgot and so you forgot the Spurs were rubbish or you forgot that he offered?
11:34Well, I forgot that he offered. I mean, I'm very aware of how rubbish Spurs are, mate, as we all are. And he was like, oh, you're still on for Thursday? And I was like, uh-huh, yeah, really looking forward to it. So, yeah, I kind of went because, you know, I wanted to see my brother. And then obviously as the game gets closer and closer, I'm kind of thinking, right, this, you know, as we were speaking about, this is the game. This is where it's going to turn, right? Arsenal was too soon for him. Fulham maybe was just like we saw a few minutes of something but I was like something's got to change this would be the moment when somebody steps up or it clicks and he gets a formation and gets a line-up that works and there'll be a few surprises and stuff so when I saw Sosa starting and Tel was starting I thought ah yes perfect he's figured it out he's clicked this will be it right and then I was looking at the line-up I was thinking yeah little three at the back with Poro and Sosa as full-backs makes sense We don't have any natural wingers, but you can get your width from your fullback.
12:30This is making a lot of sense. You've got Tell in the side. Okay, yeah, yeah, sure. And you've got Mawani and Solanke. So you've got quite a bit of firepower on the pitch. All right, yeah. And you've got Sarri. We always seem to play better when he's in the team. This is starting to make sense, right? And then when the game kicks off, I'm like, what's Porra doing? Why is he there? I was like, get out. Get out there. Get up there. And I was like, oh no, hang on. He's playing on the right of a back three and Gray is playing right wing back. Now, I'm not going to slag off Gray because he was fantastic.
13:02He was brilliant, easily our best player. But I just can't understand why Poro's best position is right wing back, literally in a three as a wing back. That is his best position. And not playing him there, I just don't understand. I don't think he's ever played in a back three as the right-hand side of that position. the only thing I could think of was that what is he best at right his delivery is amazing and like you know they talk a lot you know the tacticals will talk a lot about he's one of our only players who can do progressive passing from deep and maybe Tudor was thinking well if I can get him in a more central position maybe he can get us up the pitch through the middle what Romero might do yeah Romero yeah exactly so I think maybe that's what he's thinking but again is that not just the classic case of like you're over complicating an idea here just play players in their most suited natural positions and if you haven't got you know space for like if if Mawani is a better player than some youth team player that can play in the 10 then you've got to play the youth team player and play him in the 10 because that's his best position rather than trying to like sandwich three number nines into a nine and a 10 which is what we keep doing right either Solanke's got to play in the 10 never played in his life or Mawani plays there or it's Richarlison Slanky who are both nines and one of them's got to play in the 10 like Luca Williams Barnett is a 10 so he might be a kid but he's a 10 Simmons is a 10 surely those two between them you've got enough minutes out of those two like a youth team player in Simmons who can play as your 10 it was just very confused and I really was worried about the sort of approach as well like there was no pressing it was very passive again and my sort of initial reaction was like there's if I came here and I didn't know that we'd appointed Tudor I would still think we've been managed by Thomas Frank and that is the biggest indictment of of big Tudor I can think of at the minute because I was expecting a reaction of some kind and I gave him a pass to Arsenal and I gave him a certain you know a little bit of a pass to Fulham but this one was the one I was hoping for so I felt pretty anxious going into this game and I bumped into spook on the way so we were sort of chewing the fat on the way in and we both basically were saying yeah we were both saying the same thing which is like it's got to be now and we're expecting this reaction and yeah I mean obviously we'll probably get into the detail people have questions about van van de ven but we were scraping our way through it and then that that moment we were already so low on confidence as soon as you basically concede and get the center back slash captain it's done at that point it just kills you okay yeah mate it was a pretty we are we are going to get into van de ven because that obviously is covered by some of the questions that have been sent in by our lovely patrons um And I just found the lengths that Spurs fans go to, and I guess football fans as a whole, to avoid difficult situations.
16:11So one, I guess a colleague, someone I'm working on something with, and I've mentioned it a few times, fan narrative, you generate reports around games that canvass football opinion without asking direct questions. So you get kind of a truthful feeling about how a fan base feels. Anyway, I was talking to him and he sent me it and I was like, I don't want to look at it. I know you've put a lot of work into this, but I don't want to read your fucking report right now. He responded to this. He said, last night, I cleared my son's iPad notifications and turned off Alexa. So he didn't even ask me about the game last night.
16:48And luckily he didn't remember. So he's gone to lengths of turning off notifications. So he's a child. He doesn't really understand football or Tottenham. Doesn't ask him questions in the morning. he's actually there were there was a five minute period last night where he's gone i can't deal with this conversation my my young son tomorrow i'm gonna fix things on his ipad so he doesn't ask me any questions about first you know how mental that is and completely understandable that poor kid fucking tottenham cunts he said the his the thing is that poor kid right his dad's like changed his settings to help him in the short term and then like he'll forget to change them back and the kid will be like trying to get an answer like at what time you know am i getting picked up from school or like being in emergency and his alexis just turned off and he's just like talking to his ipad and nothing's happening he's just there stuck waiting for him to get picked up from school doesn't know where he is i i do love the fact that he's he's going to these lengths to uh ensure that his son doesn't hear anything about spurs but he perhaps doesn't have nordvpn i understand by the way the last thing you want to hear right now is a read about nordvpn but we could be going down and i could be fucked so please just listen to this and sign up to nordvpn.com for such fighting cop you get four extra months free on a two-year plan there's no risk 30 day money back guarantee the link is in the description below there's no issue at all okay so i'm not going to do any more than that because there isn't appetite for it but just if you want to support the podcast if you enjoy this in any way then please consider signing up to nordvpn.com forward slash fighting cock and you can protect your children from every bad thing on the internet while accessing all of those bad things yourself it gets around parental locks okay um let's do uh the first question here from michelle brown he says my brother bought me for my birthday in december an artist drawing of mickey van der ven's goal line clearance from the europa league final i loved it three months ago i can't bear to look at it now it's not even on the shelf.
18:49Yeah. I was supremely frustrated with him and that frustration, you know, stems from what Romero did against Manchester United. As a combination, you can't criticise their quality. The actions of both could have relegated us this year. That's the reality. And I'm not saying sell them, get them out, blame them for everything. The reality is Romero's recklessness and van der Ven's indecision and decision making actually in being indecisive if that's even right um as that cost us the game we I felt like we could I mean at least we were in it we were one nil up don't do anything stupid oh my god only if there's a penalty but there's a red card as well you're like you're fucking we don't this is the last thing we need in the world and it's happened.
19:44How do you feel about the moment, Rick? Do you blame Van Der Ven? Are you angry with him? How do you feel? Right now, get up to 20 % off select online storage solutions. Put heavy-duty HDX totes to good use, protecting what's important to you. The solid, impact-resistant design prevents cracking, and the clear base and sides make items easy to find, even when the totes are stacked. Find select online shelving and tote storage up to 20 % off at the Home Depot. To organize every room in your home, from your garage to your attic, visit HomeDepot.com. How doers get more done. When you want your spring break to feel like...
20:27And your kid's pool day to feel like... And your hotel bed to feel like... Ooh, and room service to feel like... Because at Hilton, hospitality feels like... Your cabana's ready. Would you like fresh towels? It matters where you stay. Book now at Hilton.com. Hilton, for this day. This episode is brought to you by Nespresso. Introducing VirtuoUp, the latest in a long line of innovation from Nespresso. It's innovation you can touch, sense, and taste in every single cup. With a three-second start, easy open lever, and dedicated brew-over-ice button, it's even easier to enjoy your coffee your way.
21:15Sip for yourself. Shop Virtuo up exclusively at Nespresso.com. Well, I have to put a lid on it. You know, I have to be, you know, measured and reserved. No, you don't. No, no, no. No one's going to blame you, Ricky. We're all emotional. Say exactly how you feel. Do you know what? I'm really disappointed. I am so disappointed in how he's conducted himself this season. And for a guy that is supposed to be like kind of like one of our, not senior players, but he's supposed to be a player that look up to really. And yeah, he is showing that more senior leadership. And he is that kind of, he is now, you know, inadvertently been the leader because he has been the captain because Romero has been out.
22:00and when Romero gets subbed off or he's injured, he's deputising. And from obviously the beginning of the Frank era where him and Spence ignored Thomas Frank to clap the fans, where he's gone over to the away fans at Bournemouth, where obviously the red card yesterday, and I think against Fulham as well, he really had to be convinced to turn and look at the Spurs fans to kind of give us a half-hearted clap when he was going off. I think he hasn't shown anything. I think he's just shown a very frustrated and isolated figure, which I completely get because no one wants to be going through this, right?
22:53And you don't want to have the captain's armband looking to your fans to be like, yeah, we've lost again. And yeah, collectively, we've all put in a shit performance. It's fucking hard, but this is your job. This is your responsibility. You're the one that's supposed to be G-ing up the rest of the team. You're the one that's supposed to be getting in their faces, doing the old temple tap. Fucking focus. Come on, lock in, lads. Don't let this fucking ship sink. Come on. And I'm seeing nothing. I'm just seeing a shrug of the shoulders of just yeah we lost again there's like there's no kind of it's like they know they're not going to get any comeuppance from it they know that if we do go down that they'll just get sold to whoever bids like that he'll get his move to Liverpool Barcelona being you know if you believe the papers and it's not just him I feel the same about like Porro and Romero when we needed him He's supposed to be our captain, the World Cup winner, and everything he's achieved, and this fucking hard-ass walking around the club and training.
24:04He's just let us down, man. Like, when we needed you, when we needed Van Der Ven, when we needed these senior players to stand up and be counted, they have just gone begging, man. Like, where are they? I just can't – I cannot get my head around it. And it's like, I can understand if I feel like they've come off the pitch and they've given blood, sweat, tears, and they've really just given everything and they've come away and they're just not the better team or we've conceded a late goal or a deflection, whatever. I get that, man. But it's like we are putting in the same performance for 15 games in a row, whether it's Frank, Tudor even whether it's fucking Ange the back end of the season before and we're just losing we're finishing 17th it's like it feels like that is the rot that set in from when we were losing week after week with Ange yeah we got the trophy papered up those cracks but then it's just bled into this season under Thomas Frank and it's like they just it feels like a like a club issue that does doesn't it yeah They haven't addressed these problems, which is crucial, really.
25:25I look at, John, I look at Van der Ven coming on the pitch and he looks like he's borderline doesn't want to be there. That's not to say he's petulant. I just think he's furious at the situation he finds himself in. I think he listens to Romero. Romero has massive influence in that dressing room. and so he is um he's highlighting to the players some of the malfunctions in the hierarchy of the football club i did an episode of the lab recently where i asked a guy his name's anatole plan you'll be listening to this and i'm a big fan of his and i think he talks really clearly and concisely about how big organizations like tottenham watspa run and the impact of decision making at the top level by asking the questions like if you would promise something by a boss to keep you in a job and agree when your head could have been turned i.e romero could have not signed a new contract and then the goalposts have moved is there anything you can do in in a you know a legal sense maybe but a professional sense where you think actually you've not promised you've not delivered on what you've been promised what you promised me and your promises make me signed this contract is there anything you can do and he's like no there's nothing you can do this happens in big businesses all the time john you'll know this as well that happens um the and all you're left with is kind of regret and uh an anger at the fact that what you said you was going to do or the person who promised me that you were going to do something has left and i'm just here having committed another four years left to my of my professional career to a club that isn't delivering in what it said it would deliver six, seven months ago.
27:08I didn't have a question, John. Have you any thoughts on what I said? Yeah. I mean, look, I guess what I'm taking from that is like there were probably promises made over the summer, right? Which is why Romero signed a contract and they've clearly not delivered on those promises, right? Which is basically Romero is now experiencing what we've all experienced for the last 15, 20 years of Enoch, right? Which is like big talk, big promises. and then the reality comes and it's not what you expect. Because really, realistically, what does that mean? It means investment into the playing squad. Romero wants to play with a higher level of player to give him the best chance of winning more stuff with Tottenham.
27:43That's what he wants. That's what we want. That's what we all want. So I understand the disappointment. I'm disappointed too. But guess what? None of that matters now. None of that matters now. You can't change any of this. This idea that like, and we all do it. I do it. I'm as guilty as anyone. The infrastructure at the club and the way we treat the fans and ticket prices and like, could we be doing more for older supporters? And, you know, like how the club thinks about how much they talk about the NFL and how that's frustrating. None of that means anything when there's a ball in the middle of two blokes and who's going to get there first.
28:18None of that makes any difference. It's irrelevant. It's desire. It's professional pride. It's desire. It's sport at the end of the day. So I do think, and like I said, I've been as guilty as anyone have. We talk about the bigger problems at Spurs, and they are important. But when the team goes out on the pitch, Conor Gallagher is not thinking about, could Vinay have done a little bit more in the summer to strengthen the squad when there's a ball in front of him to smash someone? He's not, I promise you, he's not thinking about that. So what is it that's in their head that's making them not want to or perform to the level that they're performing at?
28:55and I think it is honestly it's a it's a level of they're feeling sorry for themselves because there's a belief amongst this squad that they are too good to be in this situation and there's a real sort of mental like gymnastics going and a real sort of cognitive dissonance that they are the ones who are putting themselves in a situation where they're in a relegation battle but still thinking that they're too good to be in a relegation battle I've got a good suggestion for lads the van der vends the poros if you don't want to play for a team that's in the relegation zone just play better be better just just be better your job like you i'm sorry but like you said before i can't remember which one of you mentioned it like you know you can't question the talent of a player like that yes you can yes you can he's not been good for months he's been poor and even at his very best i personally don't believe he's like an elite level defender i think Tottenham is his level like that when he's playing at his best that that's his level he can't head the ball his positioning is horrific horrific it always has been but guess what he's an absolute specimen of an athlete and so when things are going well he can get back and recover and make recovery tackles because he's really really quick and that will get you so far right and he can burst forward through the midfield and that looks amazing but look at the goals we concede like across the last two seasons.
30:20He is accountable for a lot of those goals. He's not an elite defender. He isn't. And he might go on to be one, maybe. But right now, this idea that he's like, I'm too good for this. You're not. You're not. I'm sorry, you're not. Same with Poro. He's a really, really decent fullback or wingback. None of the top six teams would have him. They wouldn't. He's at his level. And now he's playing below his level, which is why we're getting dragged into this mess. Romero, to be fair to him, could play at a higher level and that's probably one of the reasons that he's frustrated. He's another one. Stop getting sent off, mate.
30:53You've had a four-match ban. Seven games in total this season. Seven games. That's nearly a quarter of the season. You're accountable. You are accountable for that, right? Vicario, the list goes on. And then players get blamed for stuff, like a Pelina, right? Because people are like, oh, he can't pass, he can't do this. The geezer's doing the best he can. He is performing to the best he can. He's trying as much as he can. it's those other players that have a higher level that are underperforming and have the absolute goal to say oh where are the fans we need the fans if it's poro van der ven offering people out talking about moves to other clubs how dare you like you are responsible for the reason that we're in this mess forget the managers forget vinay forget langer all of that stuff once that's gone which it is right we should assign more players in january sure we should assign more players in the summer sure the squad building's been bad sure but these group of players if you said to them do you think you are championship level they'd be like absolutely not i'm an international fucking prove it then because you you lads don't need a manager you should be able to go out there and go let's make sure we don't lose the teams that we think we're better than and and it's that that is worrying me is that they're they just seem to think like i'm too good for this it doesn't really matter what happens you're not sorry like prove it then because currently that's the only way we're going to get out of this it doesn't really matter who's the manager here if you haven't got the attitude like if you just look at an archie gray and i'm sorry i appreciate this is like a 20 minute rant now but if you just look at someone like archie gray he's he's 19 years old that geezer that's the attitude mickey van der ven is an experienced international right he's played in different countries he's played for netherlands he is an experienced player take a leaf out of archie gray's but that's what you should be trying to do right is he was fighting for every ball at 3-1.
32:41Every single ball at 3-1. He was arguing with the ref, arguing with the linesman, like getting up in people's face. He's 19 years old. Created the goal. Brilliant bit of individual skill. Brilliant. Where's the rest of them? So I would, I mean, to be honest, he's going to be banned now anyway, but this is why I've been saying for a, for, you know, for the last few weeks, Janai Byfield, get him in, get him in. He's through our academy. He's a Tottenham boy. He's an Englishman. Get him in the side. He will give a shit more than players like Van Der Ven. It doesn't matter if good players are in the squad.
33:10if they're not playing well doesn't matter a really really firing van derven might be better than a really really firing byfield but i'd rather have byfield because van derven's been shit so get rid of him put him on the bench when he comes back and play byfield maybe you might get something because it's something different we need a shot in the arm and we can't carry on with players like van derven sulking just we've got to do something different um we've got a great question here from GWE, GEE. He said, I don't want to be relegated and staying in the Premier League is everything, but I want to be cleansed.
33:48I want to see the playing staff ripped apart and start again. I want Enoch to feel it financially. I want all the executive and corporate seating to sit empty in the stadium. I want the club to realise it's a football club again. Once all the glamour, the glitz and glamour of the Premier League and Europa League football has been ripped from them. There's no guarantee of this, but if you offered me the chance to reset the way this club is operated by being in the championship for a season, I would take it. But how likely would it be that they would fuck that up too? Full disclosure, I've done corporate loads of times, and it's lovely, and it's a fucking issue.
34:32Join Patreon, you freeloading wankers. Flav's got bills to pay. He won't be on the club next season. exactly exactly i won't i won't be on anything next season because no one wants us because we'll be irrelevant anyway um uh you know is there any part of you that there's there's a weird sort of
34:52gallows humor or sort of sort of feeling of i want you to feel this and understand it financially of how it impacts us that going down will serve them right or it's mental really isn't Can I answer? USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day, like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With USAA, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at usaa.com slash bundle. Restrictions apply. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points.
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36:18Visit slack.com forward slash meet Slack bot to learn more. um anyone that i've conversed with in whatsapp via twitter instagram dms or anything and you've suggested that going down would be fun in the championship for a season maybe ar or to teach the, uh, the hierarchy a lesson or it will be cheaper ticket prices or anything like that. You are an idiot. Honestly, what the fuck are you thinking for us to get relegated? We don't need to be relegated to fill those things and to get those things sorted. We need to survive. We need to survive and stay in the prem and after that after mathematically we can't go down then we start getting everyone marching everyone into the boardroom we go fucking ultra style and we sit them there and then we fucking go after them but no in no fucking world going down will ever benefit us or be all right or anything like that ever that's not i would say do you we deserve it yeah look at our fucking form look at the way we're performing look at the way that we have that it's supposed to be the line of the sand of we need to win this game stumps in the so many so many fucking games have just passed us by yesterday it was 20 minutes we're the home team right we're the home team and we have to win this game the first 20 minutes we had none of the possession it was all palace it's like what are you fucking hell yeah we do deserve it i'm sorry no do you deserve it personally rick um probably because i've been you know i'm paying into this i'm supporting it and i no no personally as a person yeah do you deserve this pain no no no i'm a bloody good person really good person you deserve you i mean you vote brexit so you probably We deserve a little bit of it.
38:26Well, yeah, I mean... That factual is all right, wasn't she? Yeah, I mean, by the time the next general election comes around, we'll be in the championship when I'm voting reform, so... Yeah, look, I think the original question, right, about will it teach them a lesson? Well, look, we finished 17th last year and they didn't learn shit. Like, we've been selling our best players and they didn't learn. We've been in bad places and they haven't learned. Getting in a worse position, I don't think makes them suddenly go, ah, okay, now we'll operate like a sensible business and we'll operate like a sensible football club.
39:02They're bad owners, whether you're, you know, second, pushing for the league, they weren't good then either, right? So, like, they are an issue. That's an issue. I think by going, well, let's go down, that will help it. Yeah, like an irrational mind, that makes sense, right? Like, some in Magic World, they're extracted and new people come in and go, right, this is how to reset it. But they're not. if they're going to still be here, we're going to have all the same problems. But now we're in the championship. Now it's, you know, rather than just like, oh, we always have loads of London derbies and everyone hates us.
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39:29It is literally open season. We are, we would be the biggest team to be in the championship for a long, long time. Make no mistake about that. Like people talk about Leeds going down. Man United got relegated in the 80s. Exactly. Like Leeds weren't good for years or Villa going down. They haven't won anything for years. Newcastle haven't won anything for years. We've just won the Europa League. We're playing in the Champions League knockout stages this season to then be relegated. We've been in the top six for a decade. This would be open season, everyone's cup final every single week. Plus, there's already this massive, Tottenham get batted everywhere, they go on the darts, banter club bullshit that's out there in the media.
40:11It would be a disaster to go down. Now, that being said, if we go down, I'll be looking at the positives because that's what I'll have to do to survive. But right now, I'm not thinking about that. We've got to do with these last nine games to stay up. Lads, where are you? Because on half-time, I was like, we're down. We're down. There's nothing that can save us. We are a bunch of players with half a fit squad that aren't playing for each other. Under a manager, they don't even know. There's no way we get out of this. is that how you feel now? Yeah. Do you think there's no way we get out of it, Rick, we're down?
40:55Because I kind of feel like we're down as well. Yeah, I can't, there has been nothing, absolutely nothing. And like, Tudor came out yesterday and said, you know, I saw something. There is something, it sounds weird, but I saw something. Mate, I didn't see fuck all. Well, fucking say what you found, you prick. Tell us. Tell us, we need to know right now. We're fucking waiting, Igor. We're waiting. We saw nothing. What did you see? And also the other thing about, oh yeah, no, behind the scenes, oh, now I see what the problem is. Fucking tell us. You're not some fucking soothsayer. It's like someone who receives ITK but won't let you know.
41:32Oh, no, I know something, but I can't tell you. Yeah. I can't tell you. Well, don't fucking tell me you know something. It's like those tweets where it's like some weird video like zoomed in on someone's foot and they're like, yeah, can you see what I mean? And you're like, no. You've just put a really cryptic-like caption over a really cryptic video. And then everyone in the comments go, like, at Grok, what's going on? Right? Like, that's what Tudor's doing. He's just throwing up this random stuff. Do you think we're down, John? I thought before this game, if we don't win it, then we are going to run out of games to win.
42:06I have subsequently looked at the fixture list. We all have here. Yeah. I know exactly where you're going with this. Yeah. And I thought, okay, there's two ways to look at it. I'm quite good at compartmentalizing my feelings with just what the reality is. And I was looking at it and going, I can't see us beating anyone. If we literally somehow went, all you've got to do is beat Western in Sundays and you can stay in the Premier League, I'd be like, fuck, it's a tough game. But I was looking at those games and going, okay, in a normal sphere of just these players and the talent they've got, could they be like you know the last game of the season ever might have nothing to play for like could could you see a world in which we get a a win at home maybe in that scenario like yeah maybe like Sunderland away like yeah okay they've had a pretty decent season but like really like I couldn't name you three players um like that the forest game which is the one that I think people looking at because that's like essentially a six-pointer again like we should be able to compete with them so I'm looking at going I can't see how we win any games that are left like we could lose them all but there is there is still just from a sort of footballing perspective like I think let's I'll just use his name Harry Redknapp will look at that and go yeah I can get three wins out of those games there's there's got to be three wins in there somewhere and that's really what we're talking about here like it's just got to be three wins and so there are still nine games left and you're not like you never know but if i had to put money on it now i would i think that we're going to go i do think that we're going to go because for the reasons that rick said like there just isn't anything to cling on to right it's not like one player's just been like going around players and smashing the post and putting them wide and you think one of those is going to fly in and it's just going to click and they're going to be the one that drags us out of it or you've got a Harry Kane scenario, like a youth team player who's just doing absolute madness, or you've changed the system and you found a way to score and it's like, it's not pretty, but it works.
44:10Or you stop conceding goals or nothing. We're just playing in the same way. So I just, unless something drastic happens, man, I can't see where we turn this around. Would you sack Trudeau now and bring in Harry Redknapp? I would, yeah. I would. I would sack him. I'd bring in Redknapp, Defoe and Mason. and my brief would be, let's go down swinging. We expect, basically, that we're going to get relegated. We would like to stay up, and if we're going to get relegated, we want the fans to know that we tried everything we could to stay up. If you lose 4-3, then that's more acceptable than these games where we're getting pumped 3-1 and getting 17 % position and getting one shot on target.
44:51The brief is, go out swinging, because we think that's a better chance of getting some results and we'd like to see it. So just go all that attack, let some players off, get some of the young players in the mix and just lift the mood because that would help just, I think, install some confidence, right? Even if you went a bit gung-ho and scored a load of goals and it wasn't quite working, I think you look at a game and go, one of these games we're going to score enough goals where we can't lose this. So I would do it, yeah. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Someone dropped in yesterday that, oh, I've heard Harry Redknapp might be hired or whatever.
45:32And I was sitting there thinking, he's like 79, 80 years old or something. He's 92, I think. What, Harry Redknapp? Yeah, yeah, 92 years old. Just checked. Born in 1923. And I was like, do you know what? I'll take him. I would take him. I would, anything. His arm random. Yeah, yeah. Anything to give him a bit of confidence, anything to make them a bit more attacking under Frank, under Tudor. It's just been exactly the same. We don't look anywhere near to scoring. There was a, there was a bit yesterday. I can't remember who the fuck you, who it was. It was on the right hand side and the ball came in and passed it down the wing.
46:23player ran onto it, crossed it, it hit a Palace player and went out for a corner. And I was like, that's the first bit of football that I remember us trying to create a bit of movement, trying to do something. And I was like, that felt nice. And it was like the most simplest fucking thing, rather than just passing side to side and no one doing anything. Or, you know, it was just like, if you do get someone like Redknapp, that will drive us forward a bit to get us to play with a bit more freedom whatever it is like John said I would much rather go down swinging than fucking die like this we've got a quite a sad message here from Ben which sort of put things into perspective really I don't usually do this on the Fighting Cop podcast obviously because we just you know we just try and have a laugh but he said my nan passed away last night and she was a massive Palace fan.
47:29Fuck you, Eileen.
47:37I'll double down on that. Fuck you, Eileen. Yeah. Yeah, fuck you. Eileen in the mud. Yeah, putting Eileen in a pack. Just quickly to go back before we all go to hell. you did an episode Flav of the lab with Harry Brooks when we were looking at interim managers and or sorry looking ahead to like who could be the next permanent manager and you guys were talking about the Middlesbrough manager who has this like approach to football which is like much more free form and about basically players having a bit more I think it's called relational play which is essentially like rather than being very rigid like when this player gets the ball you go here and then when this person goes there you go there it's just much more like you see a little gap you're on the left wing then there's a big gap in the middle just go in the middle because you can receive the ball in space and that will open up the game and then you know you you see a player get the ball and you go close to him to give him options and this kind of stuff right much more relationship based i feel like that's what football was my whole life that's what it was my whole life is basically you had a formation but players would like use their intelligence like sometimes they'd see there was a gap as a fullback and they'd overlap the winger but sometimes they wouldn't because they'd see actually you know the wingers doubling up so there isn't the space there and sometimes you'd see you know a centre midfielder sort of pop up in the box and be burying one you'd be like why has he done that because he saw a gap and there was a bit more movement there I feel like this idea that like Harry Redknapp can't be a manager because the game's different and the game's moved on when there's now managers who are like at the forefront of football basically bringing back what Johan Cruyff was doing with Barcelona right like just making it much more relational and much more about feeling the game and trusting players and giving players like creative freedom i watched the book the game yesterday and vicario gets the ball right the center backs have like split so there's a big gap that their forwards have gone with the two center backs xavi is standing behind our like center back and then there's a striker in front of him so he's like he can't get the ball from the center back and then behind him is a center midfielder in the middle of the pitch which is the best position for him to be in all he has to do is take three steps to the left and he can just receive the ball and turn into an acre of space and he just wasn't doing it and it happened a lot of times where there's a gap for players just to just to take five yards into space and just receive a ball into a space and they weren't doing it and i think it was like instruction because players have been coached so much about systems and like playing in a way that they'd rather just do what they're told than like use their own initiative to try and make things happen and i feel like a manager like rednapp and i'll just use him as like a blanket term for some of like you know the managers who are less fashionable that's what they're good at you know bail gareth bale was interviewed this week and he was talking about zidane as a coach and he was like i didn't do any coaching he basically just did like small sided games and then you know we just do some work with the players like boost players up talk to players give them advice did he say just like he just let us play or literally there were no tactics there were no like the deep dive sessions on shape and form and blah blah blah it's like we had a like a formation and we were given the freedom to play and we got used to training with each other and playing in a certain way and it was sometimes it'd be like just sit in for the next 20 lads or let's push on and have it a go that's what football was my whole life and like i feel like when you're like that good though yeah of course but i like there's levels to it right In the same way as you get teams at Sunday League who play out from the back.
51:11They might not do it as well as Premier League team, but they're still trying to play in that way. I can't understand why there isn't more of an effort to go, look, we've tried these system coaches that rely on specific automations and blah, blah, blah. Cool, but that's not worked, has it? So can we just try and give players a little bit of creative freedom? And I think players who've got an ego, like we've been discussing these guys think they're better than they are that might be quite nice to be like you don't want to play in these systems do you know how to do this don't you do would you like to just have some freedom without the risk of being bollocked and booed and shouted at for going i'll just step in five yards and receive the ball because you you know haven't got the shackles on shall we try that and see if we can just outscore them like let's go forward let's make that i think i don't think any player in the world would not want to hear that and want want to try that after, you know, three successive managers of very rigid system-based football.
52:07So that's why, like, if it's not Redknapp, someone who's just going to give them this freedom, it's worth a shot, isn't it? Because at this point in time, this, like, over-reliability on systems and structure just doesn't work for us. So, yeah. If none of that happens, though, at least Eileen got put in the split. Yeah, she got murked. Absolutely murked. do you know what I mean hey palito you love not anymore I hope it happened when it was 1-0 as well so she's gone there thinking that they've lost right this has been the Fight Club podcast thank you very much Ricky apologies to Eileen and her family I think I can't remember the guy's name that is your auntie her grandmother grandmother okay you brought this to our attention this is your fault but yeah we find ourselves where we are luckily we don't have a weekend of football we have an existential crisis to deal with for the next three or four weeks but maybe eight weeks maybe wherever it is but we don't have to think about football this weekend so I would encourage you to spend it with your loved ones spend it doing things that you love and enjoy and don't think about our god forsaken football club for a little bit until we return on Monday with the Q &A remember obviously my livelihood is on the line here so please consider becoming a Patreon because I can't go back to work can't have a boss again this is on you Spurs
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We try to make sense of another miserable night as Spurs slide deeper into the mess, and honestly, it gets pretty bleak. There’s talk of panic attacks, lines in the sand, Van de Ven frustration, player accountability, whether Tudor is seeing something none of us can, and if there is actually any way out of this at all. It’s dark, it’s angry, it’s weirdly funny in places, and it’s probably the most honest reflection yet of what supporting Spurs feels like right now.
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