S15E79 - Are We A Sleeping Giant Again?

0:00This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. it's the fighting it's the fighting cock it's the fighting it's the fighting cock a camel do you know the best thing that's happened this week to me is because I don't want to drop this in straight away but I ended up on the sofa at the overlap which looked impressive but and I don't want to downplay it because it was you know I mean it was quite a significant moment for me but it kind of it only happened because Gary Neville overran and he had to go somewhere so it's not like they went alright this is the plan I think it was just right place right time but off the back of that I've received a lot of nice messages obviously which is really lovely um because people are really nice generally uh despite what you may think about the world um um but mount kimby which is a band i really like uh they followed me and i was like oh they're coys they're proper coys and it's like weird but this is you know a group that i like listening music to you just think they're never gonna there's no there's never there's only this is only a parasocial relationship where i appreciate there are but now it's too well i mean it ain't too way they've not responded to me or comment or anything like that and so god yeah who would be who would be the the person that if they started following you that you genuinely would just like lose your mind would it be like tom york or yeah i was gonna say tom york yeah yeah like in terms of music and the impact it's had on me and how emotionally invested i am in that music since i don't know when i i think my i used to listen to my dad's radiohead album when i was about 15 ben's he had pablo honey as well and that it just shaped me uh and i think everybody has that relationship with some band or craig david if you exactly uh i yeah so yeah if he if there was a way where we were going to have a conversation that would be the one that would blow my mind like if you say if you could have anyone over for dinner anyone in history tom york might not be the answer but he would definitely in in the uh in the ballpark yeah be invited to the party oh 100 yeah i'd be a bit nervous talking to him that would be yeah that'd be the way i mean there's no one i'd want to have a conversation with adolf hitler more um than tom york yeah so when i'm done with adolf hitler But, you know, they can have a chat in the corner.

2:53Yeah. It turns out there was no good side. It was just a really bad idea. There's no saving him. And then, Tom, anything to add? See you later. I just could grab a drink. Just let him teach you. See you later. I did that at my wedding. I feel really bad. But there was a moment, you know, in weddings, and I went to one this weekend, so I had many of these moments where you had to make talk sport, small talk with people because it's polite, and that's what you have to do. but when at my wedding i noticed that james alcott was talking to charlie you know our charlie wife and i knew they would have nothing to talk about they don't even know each other existed and i went over to him and i went this must be really awkward and then walked away because what can they what can they do then then it was really cruel but i couldn't stop myself up and do it god this is all good isn't it you two not know each other and that and then just walked off see you later yeah didn't didn't add anything didn't go oh so and then you know bridge bridge the gap just smash the bridge and then in and out nice um how are you job i'm good mate i'm all right well we're back to back wins there's not really much to complain about us just onwards and upwards mate we're still alive we're still fighting aren't we it's good because the zirby was linked heavily before tudor not heavily but it was a conversation where would we be genuinely do you think if he'd have taken over now would we be like i know it's mental but talking about perhaps qualifying for the conference league in 10th yeah i think we'd be going i think we'd be mid-table yeah and to be honest i don't i don't think it would be even that i think it would be more sort of conversations kind of of oh my god you can see what this could be if we'd have got him instead of frank where would we have been and we just got to get through this season let's basically hurry up so that we it'd be a bit like uh when you're a kid like christmas eve christmas eve is not a good day when you're a kid it's the worst day because it's not christmas day and you you want to go to bed early because you want it to hurry up and be christmas but you can't sleep because you can't sleep because it's too excited that's what it would have been if we'd have i couldn't sleep because uncle jimmy wouldn't let you i'm gonna rummage in your stocking early boy so yeah you're getting more than a lump of coal um so yeah that's what it would have been like it would have been basically like excited for what it could be and we'd have all just wanted the season to hurry up and end as it is now obviously like i still have that that thought process of like wow this would have been so much easier had we got him in earlier and that's why it's even more sort of frustrating the timing because i can already start to see what we could be if we survive like he really could the transformation could be quite spectacular and so that that's the sort of bit I'm trying to hold off thinking about too much actually because I still feel like there's a lot of work to be done before the end of the season to make sure we're safe and I'm I'm just I've been very positive about our chances of staying up I've sort of never admitted that we're down because we have mathematically we've been always in with a chance but I'm also doing the other way around.

6:00I'm not getting carried away. Until it's safe, I'm just enjoying the wins and looking forward to the next game and that's it. I'm trying not to think too far ahead. Yeah. I mean, but on that, we have to beat Leeds. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. And Leeds, weirdly, could get brought into this because if West Ham somehow beat Arsenal and we beat Leeds, then if Leeds don't win their next game, they play West Dam at the end of the season. Providing we also win, they could be relegated on the first, 43 points, which has never, ever happened. 42 is the maximum, which is West Dam, which is interesting. Do you know, again, I mentioned him for the second time, but James, James Alcott, we were talking last week and he was like, don't you feel alive?

6:51I know no one wants to be in a relegated dogfight, but don't you feel alive? And I was like, no, I don't want to be alive. I want to be 10th and feel nothing. That's what I want. But when we won, when we beat Villa, it was because of the jeopardy. I felt alive. I felt electric. I still rather be 10th, but I did feel electric. It's funny you say that because I often think back to, it was sort of midway through the season and someone asked the question again that they'd asked the previous season, which was like, would you rather feel nothing and be 10th or be in a relegation battle because it would make you feel alive?

7:32And the first time we got asked the question, I think you said, oh, yeah, yeah, being in a relegation scrap because I can't bear this because this is just awful being in this. It's purgatory. Feeling nothing, yeah. And then obviously this season you got asked it again. You're like, fuck that. This is horrible. I just want to feel nothing again. The timing of that question really resonated with me because actually, I can't say I've enjoyed it, this feeling, but I am way more invested. I'm more invested in this than I was for a lot of the end of Conte's era, for a lot of, obviously, who knows, era was just diabolical.

8:07A lot of Mourinho's time, and obviously, like most of Frank's, I just felt this like, I don't care. I'm just finding it hard to just engage with this. I don't like the players. I don't like the club. I don't like the manager. I don't like the football. What am I doing this for? Whereas this has sort of reinvigorated my sense of lending my support, essentially, to the team and being invested. I'm looking at other teams' results. I haven't done that since I was a kid. I don't care who's doing what in the league. Don't care. Unless we're in it, I don't care the top four race. I don't care the relegation battle.

8:43I'm not bothered about who's going to qualify for the Europa. I literally just watch our games. That's it. I don't watch pre-match. I don't listen to anything outside of just us. But this season, the second half of this season, I'm looking at West Ham games or Forest games and permutations of what Leeds need to do in the next five games. I'm watching press conferences. I'm really involved because it feels really real. And so in a sick, perverted way, it has brought my love of football back a little bit because I'm a lot more engaged in it now. When there's jeopardy involved, then you need information.

9:19That's just a human thing. Like when, you know, when there was a fuel crisis a little while ago, he was on the knees. Where can I get fuel? I need to know. Because if you don't know, you're dead. And that's part of it. Like you do. But my problem with it is that every single game of football is preloaded with context for me. I can't just sit back in this stage of the season and just really enjoy a game of football where I typically could. That's why I'm looking forward to the playoffs because I've got no dog in the fight unless we are in banging trouble and you're thinking, I need to look at that because the standard of championship what we'll be doing next year.

9:55But generally, it's been like watching last night Bayern Munich and PSG just going, I hope PSG win because I think that'd be tough for Arsenal. You can't watch a game of football without having some sort of impact on you. Manchester City, West Ham games, Forest games, Forest versus Villa. I mean, it would have, if we hadn't beaten Villa, would have been massive for us because you wanted Forrest to go through so they have the next game to play. Yeah, really strange end to the season. And like I say, as much as it is enthralling and like you say, when there's jeopardy involved, it is more interesting and results mean more.

10:36I'm just not built for it. I'm not used to it. Yeah, that's the thing, isn't it? It's like the... How many games this season have we gone? If we don't win this, it's over. we must have said it 10 times and it hasn't been over it's been miles from over but we're so not used to this like relegation drag that we don't understand that it's like it is only a couple of wins that's because that's all you're going to get because everyone in this mix is only going to win a couple more games it's just trying to make sure you get them against certain teams that will benefit you like the six pointers and you know building momentum at the right time and so yeah we're definitely not built for it but I will say like the the Gallagher goal aside from being a fantastic goal.

11:15Again, I haven't like let loose like that for such a long time. Like again, I think probably the Conte season. Yeah, I went mental. I went absolutely mental. One, because I knew it wasn't going to be VAR'd because the way that it's shot from distance. there was nothing. Nothing going on. No one, it wasn't deflection. No one was in the way of the keeper. It was one of those and you had to sort of, did he, was he in? Exactly. I mean, I still went mental just because it was the second goal. I was so excited about a baby on my chest. Yeah, didn't want to launch it uh just you've had a people it's weird every time i've mentioned that story someone said did you think about launching the baby no if i didn't it was a small tiny human being would have been broken i'd have been in jail from fucking manslaughter probably yeah i guess it's because it's the furthest thing that you would normally want to do and you're so excited it's the extreme most extreme thing you could think of but the actual practical like can you actually imagine right you're sitting there watching the game your whole family's there and the baby just get launched.

12:11Yeah. And they're like, oh my God. And they're like, no, no, we scored. Hold on. Well, hang on. Did you not see that volley? Yeah. The first touch alone. Let's concentrate on that first. Yeah. So, yeah. So just enjoying goals again, because every goal matters. It's not just like results. Like again, and probably since like the Conte season where we were going for Champions League against Arsenal, right? The goals, every goal meant something then. even more than like the Europa League run because a lot of those games it was like except for the final obviously a lot of those games it was obviously over legs so individual goals sort of you feel like you've got a second leg tie that kind of stuff whereas these games it's like every goal is massive like it just feels massive and um yeah again it just brings that enjoyment factor back to football a little bit where you really feel like god I'm so invested in this I'm going on Monday to the Leeds game so I'll get to hopefully get involved like live and direct and look last time I went was the Palace game which was a shocker so I'm hoping for a slightly better I was at West Ham which was also a shocker just talking about games and being invested in them especially if they don't involve Spurs where are you at with West Ham and Arsenal because Cal said something quite controversial on Patreon, which was he wants Arsenal to beat West Ham.

13:41I'm light of the position. And I don't know if I'm saying this because I know really my words have no bearing. But I'm like, I want West Ham to do Arsenal. And we'll just do our job. But based on nothing, because literally he, before Brighton, I was like, I don't know where a point is coming from. let alone the seven that we've got from nine. But right now I'm like, fuck it, West Ham, go boys, go. I mean, I don't think they have the in them to beat Arsenal in any case, so it's kind of like a moot point. But if you had to be honest and choose your ideal outcome from that, what would it be? My ideal outcome is a draw.

14:26Because that... I'm not even going to say that. Yeah, because it basically... Because I understand why people are like, no, don't care, Arsenal, like they're going to win the league anyway we just need it's all about us we just take that take that i get that and i can plus a completely fair position and like part of me does think well yeah if that happens that's also fine like if arsenal do end up beating west ham i'm not going to be upset i'll be like oh good okay fine that's that's you can't win and you can't lose yeah kind of it's like it's there's nothingness to it whereas i feel like a draw basically harms both west and Arsenal, harms them both, and still gives us enough to get what we need to get done.

15:05And it might just be enough to stop them doing it and keeping us up, which is the perfect scenario. So that's why I've been sort of feeling like a draw is the perfect outcome. But in any scenario, I'm happy. If Arsenal lose to West Ham, I'll be like, oh shit, we have to beat Leeds. The pressure's on even more. But I'll be like, yes, good. that means it's one step like closer to City having a chance to win it my only issue with that is like if you actually look at the fixtures I feel like Arsenal's running now if they don't win it from it I don't know what they're doing if they can't win it from this point well I mean like if West Ham don't beat them they can't lose because Palace have got a conference league final should they win tonight three days after the Arsenal game so they're going to play half a team so yeah and Burnley are absolutely garbage so yeah I can't see it but you know like stranger things have happened so either way it's good for us.

15:57It's on West Ham to win. If they don't then Arsenal have to solve. Anyway, did you see today's comments from De Zerbi? I didn't. If we're given the opportunity to sign Paulinho should we sign him and De Zerbi said 100%. Correct. Yeah. What did he say? I've got the quote here. Roberto De Zerbi, at least from Alistair Gold, whether he wants Spurs to sign Jao Paulinho permanently 100 % we have to start from this type of people more than players we need reliable people players and Paulinho is one of the best as a player for sure but as a guy I want to see players have the same personality attitude and spirit we're lucky to have him manifested in the game when he was sort of down slid committed but still won the ball back from I think it was Ross Barkley might have been and then carried it, took it past two players and then withdrew a foul and pumped the air like he scored a goal.

17:02You don't wash your jersey during a win streak. You don't switch seats when your team's up big. And you definitely don't shave during the playoffs. When things are working, you don't change them. That's why when you drink Jägermeister, you drink it ice cold. Anything else? Well, that'd just be bad luck. Drink it cold or don't drink it at all. Jägermeister. Damn, that's cold. drink responsibly Jagermeister liqueur 35 % alcohol by volume imported by Mass Jagermeister US White Plains New York

17:32I love him and I've said this all season that I really don't I mean I understand why people feel like we need a passing deep lion playmaker I understand why they want one but what I don't understand is the like hatred directed towards Polina and I don't understand why they can't comprehend that having both is the optimum outcome, right? And if you could have a player who could do both, then you'd have one of the best players in the world because there's only about four or five players who are actually good at both of those things in that sixth position. So I've never understood the hatred for him and I also don't understand why people don't see that it's more than just his football inability.

18:14That's why he's a good asset. I always forget he's on loan because of the way he carries himself and how much he cares. and how much he looks like a leader on the pitch. There's a level of calmness and leadership that just emanates from him, that he just seems like he's a senior, which he is a senior professional, an experienced professional. That is exactly the type of person that you need in a squad. Now, I'm not advocating for him starting every week and being our star player, but there's definitely a place in a good side, a side that's got ambitions to do things, to have a player who can do what he can do.

18:47There's no doubt about it in my mind. and even in the short term like you can see if you set up a team in a certain way that you can utilise him to be really effective I said on my pod this week I wouldn't want him playing at home against a team that sit in for example right you'd want a more creative passer in those deeper positions but there's going to be a ton of games where like we saw against Villa if we were to play them next season he should play right because he did a great job and he can play in that type of in that type of game so I just wish people give him a bit of slack I really don't understand the hatred for Polina.

19:21And I know it's become a culture war and now people don't want to back down. But he's just an excellent footballer and he's got an excellent attitude and he can be really decent for us as a player to contribute to the squad. And that show is the Big John Bass show. Today I was asked, yesterday I was doing a shoot and I was asked to build my perfect footballer in order to keep Tottenham Hotspur up. And it was like heading, attitude, strength, you know, shooting, dribbling. And obviously I was saying Kane, Mbappe, Ronaldo. It was all like, it was almost like, this is too obvious, make it more difficult.

19:59And then they said tackling and I said Paulinho. And there was a smattering of laughter in the room. And I'm like, mate, you don't like, there were many things you can criticise Paulinho for, but he is elite at winning the ball back. And the best in the league by some distance. Now, in order to back that up, I looked at some statistics. And Jao Palinu is currently second with 100 tackles in 27 Premier League games. The most is James Garner with 112 in 34. So he's had seven games less. And if he's injured and he's been out of the team and stuff, the geezer's a monster at winning the ball back. I can't remember a player, certainly at Spurs, but maybe as far back as Makaleli.

20:51Kaiseido in previous seasons, maybe. But these are like, you know, they're iconic Premier League players. And in that attribute alone, he's up there. Yeah, and that's the thing. It's like, this is the problem with these kind of conversations is even though you can define the question really narrow and go, right, who is just this one thing that they're amazing at? As soon as you say a player that isn't considered to be world-class for everything else. It's like they can't comprehend it. I'm like, no, it's just that one skill. He is probably the best in the world. He is the best in the world at just winning the ball.

21:23He's amazing. I've been really frustrated recently about people. There is an idea about the best players in the world and people just bumble along agreeing to everything because they think if I don't say this, then I'm going to be ridiculed for it without actually seeing a player. Like someone, I think it's, I can't remember, I might have been on another podcast or something, and they were asking like, who is the best left back? Is it Ashley Cole or is it Maldini at AC Milan? Maldini played centre back, played left back. I've seen Maldini play probably about 100 minutes in real life when I was a kid and a few clips here and there.

22:04I don't know. People tell me, people build up the idea and they become legends. And I'm not saying Maldini, Beresi weren't great centre back. Of course they were. I'm just saying, I'd seen Ashley Cole play a hundred times. So what do you want me to do? Are we going to talk about what I know or talk about what other people have told me? And that's, it's just, it's boring. It's hard to compare two different eras as well because weirdly I was going to say that the only player I could think of who was a better, just winning the ball off people was Maldini. Like just winning the ball. But again, like different eras, right?

22:40Like Ashley Cole versus Maldini is not the question, really, because they didn't really cross over that much. They weren't really contemporaries. There's a much more interesting question about, say, Marcelo versus Ashley Cole. One's an offensive foreback, one's a defensive foreback. Which one's better? Roberto Carlos. Roberto Carlos. But even Carlos predates both of them, really. And also, the answer is Ashley Cole. Ashley Cole was the best left back I've seen in my lifetime, in terms of seeing his whole career. He was ridiculous. Because he isn't Brazilian, because he didn't have those moments of incredible...

23:15Roberto Carlos had a few seasons where he was incredible. Actually, Cold Paper, 12. Anyway, I just think people blow smoke up a lot of these players' asses without actually knowing what they're talking about. Yeah, agreed. Yeah. Yeah, so 100 tackles up for Paulinho. All right, it is Q &A Thursday, so let's go to the questions, shall we, John? Go on. saving private Ryan he says if we stay up can you get your dad back on the pod alternatively post a link to your mum's only fans

23:52IQ Jump says I need this OF link you know she's like 74 years old I don't know what people think my mum looks like but she looks like she's 74 years old unless they're into that in which case that would make sense you know what I mean like they're willing to admit via Reddit that they're into older ladies yeah much older ladies yeah but I don't want to kink shame them if that's what they're into that's what they're into there's no upper limit right you know that's fine do you know what this is bullshit as well what have we moved into this era where you can't kink shame people of course you can kink shame people I like fucking goats don't kink shame me well I am I am going to because you're fucking a goat I like putting my cock in the exhaust of a guitar, a car.

24:41Don't kink shame me. Well, maybe you need reining in a little bit. Get your cock out of my exhaust. So you're saying that there's like a hierarchy of kinks. And if, you know. But you know, you're not allowed to kink shame because it's like, oh, you know, this is someone's personality. Fuck all that. Yeah. Bring back bullying is what you're saying. And as you know, I've been out of everybody. Just people that want to fuck goats. See, I'm all right with them being bullied. It's like, I don't want to set you off here, John. In fact, you don't even have to talk about this, John, right? I know this will set you off.

25:13I almost don't want to mention it. I promise you, I won't get set up. The cop is kicking the geezer on the ground who'd previously stabbed two human beings. Like, where's the commotion in that? Stamp on his head until he can't move anymore. He's just stabbed two people who are innocent. Anyway, John, I know. I promised I'm not getting involved. I just hard agree. Hard agree is fine, yeah. I double agree, which is more agreeing than what I'm saying. Perfect Raisin says, sell, keep, loan, grey, Berval, or Sarr. And shag, marry, and kill while you're at it. Why? Why had that?

25:56I think this is kind, not easy. Yeah, I think it's easy. I would, at this point, sell Sarr. Yeah, in that one, yeah. I would loan Berval. and I would keep Gray. I'm with you, 100%. Because basically I feel like I really like Saar, but basically I think we've given him quite a lot of time to improve and to grow and develop as a player. And I don't think he really has moved on in two years or three years that he's really been in the squad. And so I think that he's basically blocking those other two. And so I feel like it's a good time to move him on. And he's probably got some value and all the rest.

26:38Then with Bergvold and Gray, I feel like Bergvold is a rough diamond who has a lot of talent, but needs to hone that. And I don't think he'll get enough minutes, especially next season if we do stay up, because we're not going to be in Europe. Do you think it's interesting that as soon as he upped the opportunity to, Gray and Beraval were on the bench, and Paulini, Gallagher and Benzincourt were our starting three. or does it just make complete sense because of the situation? Yeah. Do you know what? I've heard a lot of people talk about this, like, ah, see, like, great. Like, now we can see that there's a problem manager there.

27:14He doesn't like, he doesn't fancy great or sort of like, yeah, the sort of like tone is like, ha, see, he is rubbish. And it's just like, what world are we living on? Like, Archie Gray has basically been holding down the fort while all the adults have been out. And he's done a pretty good job. Right. And he's not done a great job. He's not the second coming of Busquets, but he's done a pretty good job right and now we've got more experienced players who can do that same job better than him currently everyone's going oh see he's rubbish it's like what i must have missed the like 10 games when he was basically our best player despite the fact we were complete garbage there is definitely a top top tier player in archie gray but he's not ready for that yet he's just he's too young he's just he needs more time to settle in he's played way more football than he should have done because of injuries.

28:01He's played right back, centre back, number eight, number six, right wing. Like he's, it's been ridiculous. Like it's actually been quite, um, bordering on quite bad treatment of him actually, like for his development. Like it's actually been quite like bad. And I feel a bit sorry for him because now we are sort of like holding up to this weird expectation that he needs to just be this like miracle player. So I think it will be good to take him out of the limelight a little bit. and one thing that dawned on me like today i was listening to i can't remember which pod but they were talking about basically how that midfield three where you basically have like bentonker and palina as the sit-in and then gallagher is like a just a number 10 but a number 10 that just leads the press and they were like i just don't you know if we carry on with this even just in the short term i don't know where gray fits in and i was kind of thinking to myself like to me i think it would make sense for him to to come on for gallagher for the last 10 minutes because Gallagher's running himself ragged and he's like he's like I know he's incredible his stamina is incredible but to me that feels like the low risk position you can place gray there's less expectation on him to like create things and more just keep the press going so I think there's plenty of scope for him to play minutes yeah I mean we we don't have any choice but to make the 10 a kind of pressing yeah you know you know the guy who backs up Richarlison or Solanke and does you know he's used to playing that type of game and understands the triggers um and that is what a 10 is going to be now right which is fine because against Villa it really works because you force mistakes and create opportunity against if you had Xavi Simmons you might not play that way because you have his creative output when he's on the ball if you don't have him then you force mistakes create opportunities which would be a Villa very easily um what you I mean the most in an ideal world you'd have a 10 that could do both but it isn't typical.

29:54So yeah, Gray and Lucas could do both those things, for sure. And the question doesn't have to be in the short term, where does Gray fit in? It doesn't stay up. It doesn't matter who fits in where. Just fucking get, just stay up. And then in the long term, you can look at it and go, right, well, next year, we're going to have to add players to the squad and there might not be room for Sar, Baraval and Gray. Which is fine. If you're improving your team, that's fine because there's no European football. But to Zerbi, next season, should we stay up one game a week with a squad that's added to in quality and players coming back at some point with ACLs and muscle injuries, I'm allowing myself to be excited, John.

30:45Yeah, same. And this is the thing, this is what I was saying before. when you look at what he's done already and that is basically like a week in between games, which is what it would be basically next season. How much that impact that's having already in a short space of time with extreme circumstances, with tons of injuries, et cetera, et cetera. I've been so impressed with him, mate. Like I've been really impressed with more on the soft skills than the football. I mean, the football has impressed me a lot, like how quickly we've like that Villa game was a massive leap forward in terms of like style of play and the Brighton was I thought Brighton was a leap forward it wasn't perfect by any way but compared to what it was a couple of weeks before yeah and look Wolves was a bit of a like dour game but we got the result but again that's to be expected right like if like we were saying before if we'd have brought him in earlier in the season there would have been plenty of results that weren't quite you know performances that weren't quite right because that's part of the learning process but if we do look ahead to next year and assume we stay up we really do have a manager who's able to like motivate these players and I was talking again about it on my pod about you and Harry Brooks did a pod on the lab a while back about environment versus tactics and I think that's the perfect example of it is what we're seeing with Dezerbi because you know one of the big things that came out of this game was about how many duels that we'd won in this game and do you remember there was that footage that came out of Thomas Frank going one big thing for me guys is duels we've got to win our duels right so basically the premise is the same right which is win a shitload of jewels that's like what's being said but the environment that thomas frank was saying was very much like safety first being scared let's just go long don't keep the ball too close to our goal just get it away from us and then win the jewels whereas in this like format the way deserby wants to play it's like keep the ball like cherish the ball let's play with the ball and if we lose it win the jewels because we want to get it back so we can have the ball because we like having the ball.

32:46And so the environment is much more freeing for players and much more about them having the ball and being creative. And I think it's that subtle shift of bravery and excitement of football and him just really putting an arm around the shoulder like the Harry Redknapp style that a lot of us have been calling for. It's that combination of things and obviously what he's doing with them on the training pitch. He's making big leaps forward. And yeah, I'm excited by it. I was, I've said this a couple of times, but I haven't spoken to you about it, but I was surprised by the, how calm he has been coming in.

33:20I think he knew that he was walking into, and then he alluded to this in the press conference before Villa, that just a bit of negativity, worrying about the pitch. and the fact that he picked up on the pitch, like this is a conversation we have on the podcast and it's happening and you wouldn't imagine that the pitch is something that a conversation would happen within the football club, but Zerbi had heard that. So I was expecting him to come in and boost him up with a lot of fire, but he's actually been super calm. And like we've all said, that arm around the shoulder, like we hoped that Redknapp would be because that's what we wanted Redknapp in for.

33:58I'll just remind him how good they are. He's doing that and there's also in printing in a very basic form the type of football he wants to play yeah so um yes interesting times it's been pretty much like from his perspective and from like my perspective seeing what he's done he's been like note perfect so far like i literally can't fault him like the way he's like talked about like individual players like kola moani the difference in performance from that wolves game when he was like i'm gonna spend breakfast lunch and dinner with him like he's an amazing player like he's a brilliant player but he needs to feel good so I'm going to make him feel good he was excellent against Villa I was like who the hell is this guy where's this guy been he was excellent so you can see like even just on a one-to-one getting the most out of players level they just like they just look so much more engaged with the type of like person and the leadership that he's got so long may it continue mate yeah I want to get your thoughts on whether or not you believe the reports coming out from Ben Jacobs about Van der Ven and signing a new contract now to deserve is here before that um i asked uh i asked chat gbt um what what were some of the most latest features from nord vpn and then i asked them whether or not it was stuff like you know browsing private encrypted especially on public wi-fi threat protection blocks malware dodgy websites trackers and annoying ads you've heard of live jasmine haven't you john of course I'm a man in my 40s.

35:27Of course, mate. And we all are. And we're appreciative of LiveJasmine. But if you have a VPN installed, no one would ever know. You're not going to get anything on your computer, on a shared computer, if that even exists in the modern age, with no VPN. But anyway, I went, can you do that, but with a Spurs twist? And this is what it came up with. Look, supporting Spurs is stressful enough without hackers nicking your data as well. NordVPN keeps you browsing private and secure. Whether you're watching a game on a dodgy airport Wi-Fi or rage-tweeting after conceding in stoppage time, it's got threat protection to block malware and annoying ads, blazing fast speeds on your stream doesn't freeze right as tell slots one in top bins.