S15E77 - Medical Rooms to Boardrooms

0:00This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. It's the fighting

0:09It's the fighting Cock It's the fighting It's the fighting Cock Hello, welcome back to the Fight Club Podcast It's the Friday Thursday, woo, Ricky Woo Go He's almost like we're not going to get relegated I've been looking at the running. And when you look at the pictures, it's more scary than what might be the reality. Bloody scary, yeah. It is bloody scary. I still feel like we're going to do it. I think West Ham will get four points. We will get six. And we'll stay up. How do you work that out? Let's get the running up. I don't know. I just let's see your workings but I haven't been prepared because I had us so I don't it's hard to kind of admit this but I just don't want people to feel that it's over if we lose to Villa this weekend if we lose to Villa if we lose to Villa but by my workings It isn't.

1:32No, it's not. It's definitely not. If we lose to Villa, right, and even if West Ham get a draw at Brentford, that takes them to 37, I think it is, and we're still on 34. But the weekend after that, they've got the Gooners at home and the Gooners will probably win there. And we've got Leeds at home and we'll probably win that. So that takes us to both 37 points. But we should be above them on goal difference. then it comes down to a final shootout last game of the season we're both at home we got Everton they got Leeds but that's on the assumption that they're going to lose at Newcastle well and I think we'll probably lose at Chelsea yeah but Newcastle won a game in like two months that's the worry last time game St James' Park you can't well it's a horrible place to go Newcastle that is a tough place to go I've seen a relegated Newcastle but it's 5-1 And even Leeds are playing well as well.

2:30Leeds are going to go there playing with a bit of freedom. The other thing is about Aston Villa. Hang on, are Leeds going to play not with freedom against us, but with freedom against West Ham? Against them, yeah. Because they won't, yeah. They'll still be playing for something against us, but we'll beat them anyway. We'll win in every game. I don't think Forrest are out of it. Really? Yeah. I didn't think they were out of it either. Because they've won the last, they've scored nine goals and conceded zero in the last two games I was on Twitter and I found this thread I don't know where I was and what I was doing but there was a Newcastle fan totally lost his arsehole he's like honestly even though we're on 42 I can see one of Tottenham West Ham winning the remaining and we're going down on the last day and I was just like everyone's shitting themselves it's not just us it's fucking beautiful everyone's running just panicking yeah scrambling around help us someone backs against the ropes flailing

3:32so this is what I'm looking at right I'm looking at the league table we've got 34 points West Ham got 36 Forrest are 5 ahead which sounds like a lot but if you look at you look at their running right Forrest also they're playing two legs against Villa in the Europa League, which qualifies them for the Champions League if they win that game because they've got to play Freiburg or Braga in the final. Yeah. Is it? Fuck. Yeah. So, and then in between, they have Chelsea away, which they could lose. And they've got to play Newcastle, rejuvenated Newcastle, who's going to be great, at home. They might get, if they get a point there.

4:21Then they've got to play Man United away. Yeah. And then they've got to play Bournemouth at home. They could easily just, they could get one point out of their remaining four games. And that would, if we win two of them, puts us level. See, this is what I'm saying. Like, even if things don't, you know, the chips don't fall against Villa, hard game away. Let's not all just shit ourselves immediately. And yeah, it's going to feel like a gut punch. But I... Villa are playing Forest. They've got to play Forest tonight. Then we play them on Sunday. And then we've got to play Forest again next Thursday.

5:01Villa have already qualified for the Champions League. They are eight points clear. This is the best time to play Villa. This is the best time to play Villa away. It's in between the two legs of Europa League. This is the perfect, you know, and we've got, yes, we've had injuries, but we've had a week off. They're playing Europa League. They've got to play a second leg after playing us. that are not even really going to be up for our game. They're going to be thinking about the second leg of the Forest game because, in essence, that's the final. This is a great time to play Villa. We're winning every game.

5:31Oh, God, if we beat Villa away, I will pinch my dick so hard. There'll be nothing left. If we win against Villa, we are going to stay up. Well, if they lose to Brentford away, which is very possible, they lose to Brentford away, and we beat Villa, we'd be out of the zone. and I think West Ham could fall apart after that. But we've been giving them, it's been quite, not easy, but it has been easier for West Ham and Forest because we've been so bad that we've applied no pressure to those teams at all until now. Until we've now won a game of football. They've got to go to Brentford and get something.

6:15Yeah, we're doing the chasing. I love it if we beat them. We're doing the chasing. We're putting the pressure on them. That's it. If they lose to Brentford and then we beat Villa on Sunday night, we're out the zone. And it's very possible because that's a tough game Brentford away. But Villa, Villa is a tough game in normal circumstances. But in between two Europa League semifinals, it's less tough, I would say. I'll tell you what, boys. I think it's fucking on. It's on. We're winning every game. It's on. We get anything at Villa Park. I mean I'd be a lot more comfortable if Xavi wasn't injured for the season and Solanke hadn't lost his neck I'm less bothered about Solanke to be honest I think he's been put recently but Simmons is a difference maker certainly at home but it's done there's nothing more to say I'll tell you what though I would like to ask a question if anyone at Spurs can just if they listen to this it doesn't matter I know someone people at the club do listen to the fighting court probably listen to all the podcasts not on a spying mission but i just know that they they do because i was once told that it went around the club um well ricky's escapades in travel lodges was heard at the club are you fucking kidding me i really hope you're kidding why why what what do you think we're doing here well i mean i don't No, it's just, it's weird that if it, you know, when it breaks the fourth wall and it goes to real people.

7:52What's weird about the story? Well, that I'm like making love to Daniel Levy so that he'll give us what we want, transfers, really. And you're completely naked. Yeah, and he's fully clothed. Just his penis poking through his plight. Yeah, I remember that. and ricky ricky's little hoisted he's hoisted me up and my legs are wrought around his waist what do you whisper what do you i'm not saying that bit that turns my stomach that bit

8:32with a sweaty brow just leans in and goes i'm gonna make you come

8:42yeah that story Ricky is heard by the people at the bubble club oh good good yeah uh I had a point no yeah no no so so if you are listening if you heard about Ricky's escapades with Daniel Levy maybe that's why he got his sex we've heard of what you're doing to this podcaster yeah this more old podcaster you can't do that sexual misconduct that is sexual misconduct it's not misconduct if uh I'm compliant so

9:11yeah so if you're listening to this please let us know what's going on in the medical department i need to know i need to know exactly what changes are made i need to know why a psychological psychologist was appointed and deserve he didn't even know i need to know that did you see his interviews i know i had no idea that's like what do you mean you have no idea was there no conversation with you? Did no one in the club go, Roberto, we're thinking about getting a sports psychologist in to help the players. Do you think that's a good idea? That makes sense, right? That would make sense. Yeah. And he was like, that was the first I've heard of it.

9:46I didn't even see that. I was on LinkedIn the other day looking for potential jobs for next season and I saw it there. Oh my God. Yeah. What, I mean, we need to know. Like, there's so much speculation going around. It's the pitch, it's the fucking, you know the medical team they're pushing them back to too soon reports are that or reports rumors are that kudos doesn't trust them to to for this surgery and if you have surgery you won't get a move in the summer and he wants to move or if we go down just a mess man absolute mess no wonder in this fucking situation i wonder if the i mean i'm sure they're aware of it but the people who are making the decisions at Tottenham Hotspur right now could have resided over a period of time where Tottenham Hotspur get relegated from the Premier League, a giant in football.

10:41Whose fault is it? Who's to blame it? Is it Lange? Is it Venkateshin? Is it Daniel Levy before him? Is it the people that sat Daniel Levy with no contingency? Is it Peppa Pig? The collaboration with Peppa Pig? Yeah, maybe. What the fuck, man? Like, no one at the football game, lads, I know we have signed up with Peppa Pig and Peppa Pig is a big deal. Right. Yeah. Then the marketing team's going, yeah, yeah, yeah. We signed with Peppa Pig. Yeah. Lots of money there. Lots of money for Peppa Pig Spurs. Loads of kids are going to love that. They're going to love that. Spurs hats with Peppa Pig on it.

11:17They're going to love it. Yeah, no, I get that they'll love it. I really do. But we are, we're 18th in the league and we could be relegated from the Premier League. Would, I don't know, would this, call me crazy, is this the right time to announce the Peppa Pig collaboration? No one has gone, no. It's not the right thing. It's gone, no, no, go on, do it. They'll love this. They'll love, they'll do it. They'll forget all about, they'll be so enamored with this. they'll be ecstatic with Peppa Pig baseball caps we've got a warehouse full of them we need to get get it out now sell it get it out quick quick there's money to be made literally no one's buying a fucking Peppa the thing is that people will they'll go straight in they'll buy the Peppa Pig ads and every misgiving I have about it will be just swept under the carpet doesn't matter kids are going to love the Peppa Pig fucking Peppa Pig this is worse than the fucking what were they called the scroobies the squabbies what do you remember that little sort of game do you remember that Cal yeah there was like a game an app that they built and it was like the little turfies turfies well done it's about as bad as the turfies everyone hated the turfies then we weren't getting relegated now we're fucking Peppa Pig we were probably like eighth or something like it wasn't even now you'd bite your hand off at eighth Cal do you know what would inspire these people would inspire kids to support Spurs being good they were why did we all follow Spurs?

12:48or why did our dads follow Spurs? because there was a moment where like yeah this club's alright it's going in the right direction Flownie's filth I very own Flownie's filth watched Glenn Nuddle play magician fell in love with it I fell in love with Spurs over the announcement of being with a blockchain cryptocurrency or something sleeve sponsor or some shit like that fucking hell if there are any cryptocurrency sponsors out there the one they get involved on the phone no but you're right Ricky it's like it's like the commercialisation of the game is as important as as anything that happens on the pitch but these people I don't know who his fault is with the players the managerial staff is it Thomas Frank is it is it Tudor is it is it Ben Katesham Langer Vivian Lewis Dan Boucher Nick Boucher Nick Boucher any of them someone has to take responsibility like in any other company someone would be fired for what's going to happen what might happen the thing is at the moment there's been quite a few um cases where there has been uh tottenham employees on linkedin where they have been celebrating their successes in their role whether it's an app or whether it's a certain way that they're doing running commercial or whatever it might be uh so they're quite quick to come out and celebrate you know the wins on what they're doing at tottenham will anyone ever come out and be like we've got this bit wrong as much as you know we're winning in this bit probably not but it would be nice to kind of have a end of season to say right we have done a full investigation and we're gonna make right the wrongs and this is where things fell down and this is what we're going to improve and this is how we're going to do it i think that the the main thing is that everybody is just they can't quite get their head around is and i'm not going to say it's the medical team but there is an issue with our players for the past two seasons being injured more injured than most and with our players having what was it three or four acl injuries i mean since since uh benzen core in 2003 we've had five and that so it and it it might be um the retractable pitch it might be players being rushed into it might be four or five things whatever it fucking is we need to find out what it is and we need to make it right because it's just been a horrendous two seasons with players it does feel like it's not luck it's something wrong yeah which is worrying I think it it really leapt out last season when Romero was injured for such a long time and he went to see the Argentinian medical staff like when you're when one of your star players is going to see his national team for treatment because he just doesn't trust the people at Tottenham.

15:55And there's been periods where we've all given Romero some stick and a lot of it's been warranted. But when one of your senior players is going, I don't trust you lot. I don't trust you lot with my body. I don't trust you lot with my career. I'm going to go and see the people I know. I think that says a lot. And that's where the alarm bells really started to ring, really, with the medical staff. There's something really wrong with the medical staff that they don't have the trust of the players. And if I was to put the injuries down to one thing, for me, it would be that. The pitch could be an issue, but I just think the medical staff are just inept and I don't think they're prepared properly.

16:34I don't think the recovery's right. I just think they're inept and that's why we're getting all these injuries. It's the only thing that happens to me. I mean, Kudus, by all accounts, went back to Ajax to treat his muscle injury. Do you know what I mean? So, and now if you believe it, that he's not, he doesn't trust them because of the surgery that, you know, it's just, it is worrying. There's definitely issues there. Anyway, here's the Q &A podcast. And so we've turned to the glorious people of Reddit, r4 slash koys. So join the community over there. It's buzzing. And they always let us post questions, which is great because they always come up with the best questions.

17:15And we've got one for Big Dog, Brown Dog. and he says, who do you think gets injured versus Villa? Ultimate Warrior said, Deserby. Al Pugh says, Kinski. And someone said, Langer. Kinski has impressed me the last few games and appreciate it. It's only been a couple of games. Vicario is, by all accounts, is signing for Inter Milan to the tune of 20 million euros. And are you in any way bothered by that, boys? No. Good riddance. I wouldn't quite say good riddance. Awful goalkeeper. Even worse character. Good riddance. Fucking goodbye. Jesus Christ. Wow, really? He's not a bad character. It's not like he's got Elhaz Jufinko.

18:08I'd rather have him. I'd rather have him around the place, livening the place up a bit. It means well. Nah, man. He just strikes me as someone that's always trying to deflect blame. Like a goal goes in and he's pointing and shouting and everything else. When he's just a poor goalkeeper, he'll make the occasional blinding save, but then is not a presence at all in his penalty box. He's bullied consistently in his penalty box. Everything that's passed, any shot that's more than 15 yards goes in the back of the net. He's got Paul Robinson vibes about him. And I know there's probably a few players doing it, but the fact that he's negotiating a transfer away while we're fighting for our lives, I think says a lot about his character and a lot about his personality and a lot about his character.

18:50But is that not about the club saying he's available for transfer and doing business, a la sort of Brennan Johnson? Like you can't, I don't think you can blame Vicario here where he's clearly hated. Because by your own comment that he's, what did you say he was? A bad character and a worse old keeper. I'm sure he's picked up on that sort of stuff. so he probably wants out and Inter Milan have just won the league in Serie A and he's just like, yeah, I can go back to the motherland and go and play football for the best team in the country. He was linked with a move away in January, I think, as well.

19:25So I think there's probably, I don't know, there's probably been talked from then, carried on. It's probably been signed, sealed, and, you know, almost delivered, but they obviously can't come out and say anything. And now we're in a relegation scrap. It does look horrendous, but it's probably agreed ages ago. Yeah. I'm not bothered by it. I didn't want him to come back in when Kinski is fit anyway. So I have no issue with that at all. Active Republic 3108. Actually, WJ14 says, out of all the pod regulars, who is most likely to force a move away if we go down? that's so good I love that question who popped into your head?

20:15Alex from Bristol first one yeah it is isn't it it's funny how the answer to all these questions is usually Alex or Bardi obviously Bardi he's already done it yeah

20:33but yeah it's probably Alex isn't it why? I don't know. Would you ever, Rick? No. No, no, no. What, View From The Lane came on and went, Ricky, we'd love you to be a regular on View From The Lane. What, like the host or something? You fucking would. You would. I'd tell them to fucking swivel on this, and I'm grabbing my dick, by the way. Yeah. Yeah, no, no. Stay in here. Do you know what? The answer actually is Ricky, isn't it? Because he's been on every fucking Spurs podcast, haven't he? You can't stop him. You can't stop the boy. You can't stop him. I always come back here though, don't I? I like to spread the love.

21:15That's your problem. You've got to keep your arsehole for yourself for a little bit. I've got a lot of love to give. I'm a horny bastard. Yeah. You are. You're that horrible deadbeat husband that goes out to shagging everything and then goes back home because you know old Sharon's going to make you some crispy pancakes and shit for you. She needs it. She needs it. It's horrible, isn't it? Pay the mortgage. Crispy pancakes. It's horrible, isn't it? I'm a rotter what's a rotter Ricky's actually let's full disclosure he's a patron of the of the fucking Screen Rock podcast hosted by Gooner Ricky mmm yeah it's funny him and Ben Bowman right in the group talking to each other did you see that bit about the Somerset Gimp have you seen that bit you're the one that says about the Somerset Gimp you dick was well funny and I'm like Ricky's a Gooner deep down he's a gooner but I was in a really awkward spot earlier on the overlap this week I was like I made the point about the fact that I've known what Arsenal fans are like for 40 years because I've lived that long because there's this argument that Arsenal fans are only hated since social media was invented and I'm like nah you weren't you were always like this and the reality is inside.

22:38There's always been scumbags, but they've never been as bad as they are right now. But anyway, I'm not going to say that. But then Gary Neville went, no, tell us exactly what they're like. And I'm like, there's nothing, I can't, exactly what I want to say, I cannot say. Yeah. I can't say they're weird little wormy vermin. Yeah. I can't say that on the overlap. So I have this position where I'm sort of skirt around these very direct questions that says, tell us what Arsenal fans are like. So, what, because you're going to clip this up and put it out on social media and my life is going to be fucking mayhem for a week.

23:10Yeah, I'm going to do that straight away. Yeah, that was... I thought you were going to say you just had to make something up. Like, I saw them beat up disabled kids. Something like that. That's why they're bad. You saw that in the 90s, Flav. Yeah, all the time. Couldn't move for it on Olloway Road. Proper disabled as well. Not half disabled. Fucking hell. Bastards. Rotting fucking bastards. Hang around outside Barnardo's just to jump kids on the way out. Arse, I was... All the things I should have said. Natim Wehody says, Ricky is a fantastic human being. That's an answer. You tell me the question.

23:48Oh. Despite what happened in the Holiday Inn in Watford, which ultimately led to Daniel Levy being removed to the club without any kind of plan put in place to transition between his tenure of Tottenham Hotspur to whatever we were going to become. And even if, because of all that, we get relegated, Ricky is a fantastic human being. Thank you. Thank you. I did it all for you guys and a little bit horny. So, you know. Yeah. Daniel, Daniel, Daniel. Daniel, Daniel, Daniel. that is absolutely foul

24:43can't even get the word out can't even get the word can't even get Daniel out if anyone could see this it'd be fucking

24:57oh fucking hell oh mate sorry Active Republic, another question here. 3014 says, not a question, just wanted to show some love for Flav and the team. Bless you. I know relegation would hit the podcast hard from a business standpoint. I think I've made more of a thing about this than it needed to be. It will be fine from a business standpoint. We're all good. And while I can't do much about that, you can. I'm sure you have money that you can give to us, but it's up to you. I can say this. I've been a listener every week since the Ange era. well I mean I came for a good 10 years before that mate but alright thank you and Tuesday and Friday walks have genuinely become part of my routine in the best way with the Fighting Cock podcast in my ears well you're welcome mate thank you whatever division Spurs are in next season I'm still tuning in and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in that championship or not we're not going anywhere come on you Spurs come on you fucking Fighting Cock yeah and as Ian says Flav's mum saved 200 quid for him so he'll be okay.

26:03I've saved up 200 quid. It's well past that mum. Well past that. What's your 200 quid going to do for me mum? Bless your tears in her eyes. Christ's sake. How are you this out of touch woman? Fuck is 200 quid going to lose me and I put her up against the gun and I didn't. Okay. No, thank you Active Republic. You're a legend and mum if you listen I do love you very much do you think she is listening no I don't think she's listened to an episode of this in about 14 years does your mother-in-law still listen I don't think she does no is it when at what point because she used to listen every week she may tune in on a specific good result when it is going to be a bit giddy on here but i don't think i haven't spoke to you about in a while i was um i took my so it was a family birthday on sunday we went to a local country park i took my fishing gear and i took all the kids fishing it was a nightmare but you know i had to do that the kind of uncle thing but i was with my mother-in-law and my little nephew said um nana what football team do you support and she said well i don't support a team but i i kind of you know i want everyone's team to do well but if i was you know if i had to say one it would probably be tottenham and i could just see at the corner of my eye in my periphery like the little smile and i was like gotcha gotcha good yes it's in your heart forever now and you're gonna be miserable for Ed Carmel yeah I've had impure thoughts about Carmel if you are listening not too late Carmel if you're not listening probably is too late

28:06big seer Cal what do you think of this when are you going to crack and admit that the refs are actually the ones who fucked us up this season 69 points higher for sure with competent referees who protect our players. Oh, I've been there for months. I'd love a tin hat, mate. It fucking... Is it tin hat though? Or am I sort of like gaslighting you into saying... Not that you're being manipulated. No, yeah, yeah. You are gaslighting us. Saying the referees are fine. Yeah, yeah. I don't think they're fine. I just think they're fucked for everybody. No, it's not true. No, no. Have you seen that? Is it Richard Scudamore?

28:45That clip where he was saying about that they have like a plan or a strategy so that someone different wins the Premier League every five years or something like that. No. As if you haven't fucking seen it. Is that real? Yeah. Not AI? No. The quote isn't as, it doesn't come across as kind of calculated as that. But I think he said that's the dream. Yeah. There's always a different winner every two or three years. Absolutely. But it ain't up the referees to decide who that is. And then, so this is, Once you plant that fucking seed, what else can we do? They like the narrative. Wouldn't it be funny if a massive club like Tottenham got relegated?

29:27Even if they're not speaking it. Let's keep pushing them. Let's keep pushing them. Telling all the refs. And I'm sure there hasn't been a lot of fucking all-hands call on a Saturday morning with all the refs. And, right, by the way, Simon, you're fucking reffing Tottenham's game. Remember what we discussed? Wink, wink. I'm sure that's not happening. but it does feel a little bit bias. Yeah. It does feel like, I don't know if the overlap are speaking about, Oh, can big Tottenham go down and someone else is speaking about, Oh, big Tottenham going down. It's kind of like, let's, it's all just kind of push together and watch it happen.

30:05Like when Leicester won the league, wouldn't it be funny if some fucking poxy shitty team won the premier league against Tottenham, that would be the fairy tale. That would be funny. It's kind of like this narrative of pushing, doing everything they can so that Leicester are in a better position to win it. And with us. Well, we have been shit though. We've been fucking shit and we've managed this situation terribly. But I still maintain that there is a bit of, let's help them. Let's help them go down.

30:45the thing is you can't argue with statistics typically and i saw i saw a graph that someone drew drawn up earlier today and we've had 500 and something 549 touches in the box without a penalty you know the nearest one nearest the next nearest one that the club was i don't know what the club was it might be walls but it's 349 something like that we've had 200 more touches than the next we see such a massive outlier that may be about sort of the quality of position we find ourselves in or we don't have the players who draw the fouls but it doesn't feel like that with tell odabar and javi simmons and any of them really so maybe maybe you're right maybe this is the time where we crack maybe the problem we're getting relegated is the fucking referee Someone on Reddit actually made a 10-minute long compilation of bad refereeing decisions that have gone against Spurs this season.

31:43Yeah, I saw it on Twitter. Wow. Yeah. I mean, you know. Well, I think earlier in the season, you know, a few pods ago, the Athletic did that graph where we were getting a yellow card every four fouls and Man United were getting a yellow card every seven fouls. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I tried to look up an up-to-date one a couple of weeks ago, and I just couldn't find it. But I ended up finding this graph that showed that we, on average, get more yellow cards than every other team in the league. I don't think we're a dirty team. Maybe I'm biased, though. Maybe I'm just really biased, and we are this dirty team.

32:16I've been Romero going in hard. I don't think we are. No. No, I think the Romero effect is definitely – that's definitely a factor. I think he has this reputation, and he doesn't help himself. He really doesn't help himself. But I do think he doesn't help us in terms of how we are refereed. But I think it's one of them dirty conversations that you're just not allowed to have. And I think we kind of have that in this country. There's just certain things you just don't talk about. You can't say, well, let's get rid of the monarchy because people just look at you like you're weird. Or let's legalise all drugs or something like that.

32:47And the other thing is the referees are against us. People don't say it. You're not allowed to talk about it in a football space because, oh, you're just, it's just because you're playing shit. And it's like, no, the numbers are there in terms of how we're refereed. We are refereed incredibly harshly and we have been held to a higher standard all season. And the tackle last week on Basuma, Wolves play on Basuma, if that's Romero, he gets sent off. If that's Basuma, he gets sent off. If it's the other way around, we do get refereed like that. And it's because we're not a plucky underdog and we're not one of the established elites.