S15E81 - One Point From Safety

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1:19Drink responsibly. Jägermeister liqueur, 35 % alcohol by volume. Imported by Masked Jägermeister, U.S. White Plains, New York. It's a fight.

1:32It's the fighting Cock It's the fighting

1:40It's the fighting Cock Hello and welcome back to the Fighting Cock Podcast. Today I'm joined by John Bass and we've got Sean Cray. How you doing, mate? Is this like, Flav, does it feel a bit like you've gone from Steve Nash to Sean Cray and John Bass? Yes. it's quite a downgrade isn't it no hell no hell no it's like flying business and then going back to economy you're like fuck I mean there is that you'll still get where you're going like you'll still get there but it's nowhere near as good is it yeah have you ever turned left and your missus turned right when you get on a plane yeah once actually we went to New York and I was like do you want to upgrade she's like it's not worth the money and I was like well I'm not paying for you but you can pay for yourself to upgrade and she didn't do it so I just was like well I've given you the option and you haven't taken it so I'm see you later I need to lie down.

2:30I'm six foot three. I could like, if I've got the option, I'm going to take it. How did she take it? She was all right, to be fair, to be fair to her. She literally is like, it's a waste of money on me because she's quite small and she can just fall asleep anywhere. So I think I've said it before. We were like, when we went to Cuba a few years back and I managed to like get myself an extra leg room seat. And I was like, okay, this isn't going to be too bad. It's like, I don't know what the flight time is, but it's long. It's like 10 hours or something like that, maybe longer. and so like we sit down and i'm like you know what it's going to be all right i've got an extra legroom seat and i've downloaded a few bits and pieces you know and they're doing all the sort of like pre-flight checks and everything and i was and i was sort of like just looking through the options of food and i was going the thing is it's good because we can just have a chat and then i looked over to my left she's already asleep oh really she's gone and she slept the whole flight i was so bored and then she woke up like literally like 20 minutes before they say oh we're about to land like please get ready she went oh that flight was all right actually wouldn't it i was like fucking yeah for you it was so i don't i i think you're a psychopath if you can sleep on a flight i really do i don't understand that someone can sit there and go we're absolutely safe i'm just gonna drift off to sleep like i'm sitting there this is what i do i'm sitting i'm thinking this is every single flight i've ever taken yeah we're in a tube 38 000 feet in the air and i get it physics and all that I don't understand the physics if I don't understand the physics can I believe in it of course not all I can believe in is what's going on inside my head which is pure fear that another plane is going to crash into the side of mine and I'll be locked into my seat flying down that's an into the ocean to be eaten by oceanic white tip which is quite quite similar to how I'm feeling about this game at Stamford Bridge are you yeah it's like I've done it a million times before right every time it's the same outcome but I'm still terrified so you're terrified of what you will inevitably come is that what you're saying yeah it's like what's that film I've not actually seen it but it's like Edge of Tomorrow whatever it is with Tom Cruise he just keeps reliving it he just keeps reliving the same moment that's what Tottenham away at Stamford Bridge feels like which is that I know it's going to end in like disaster but eventually the cycle's got to be broken hasn't it and this would be a pretty good time to break that cycle.

4:54Any kind of result is what we need. Anything. Well, it would have been Potts' team that last went to Stamford Bridge and won, I think. Let me set the scene because yesterday's result was mighty, mighty welcome. I wasn't sure about watching it, honestly. I've been working with this journalist at ESPN and he's writing a piece, basically. And he's been speaking to me and I think I have a couple of fans through the last three weeks. And every time we win, the message being, how do you feel? And then I tell him how I feel. It's a bit like a counselling session. And then the next day we've lost or we've drawn a game.

5:36He's like, how do you feel now? And so it's one of them. And he said to me, how do you plan, what are you planning to do for the West Ham game? And I'm like, I'm not watching it. I'm not watching it. I will not allow West Ham and Newcastle. I know we've got ourselves into this situation. I know it's our fault, but I will not allow Newcastle and West Ham to dictate how I feel, nor should they in any world dictate whether or not Tottenham Hotspur went down or go down. At one minute to kick off, I put it on. About 20 minutes in, I was doing backflips. They were like prime Barcelona, Newcastle. I was just popping it around.

6:17West Ham didn't have a fucking clue. So, Sean, this is where we are, right? So, West Ham, 3-1, defeat to Newcastle. It means Spurs sitting 17th with 38 points. Two ahead of... Is that right? 38? Yeah, yeah, that is right. It sounded like, to me, it was like, that's too many. We haven't got that many. How can we get 38? Yeah, how can we get 38? You should stay up on 38. Two ahead of West Ham and with Chelsea away and Everton at home still to play. Strictly speaking, we need two points to survive. but given the goal difference, it's one. I mean, they need something like a 13, 14 goal swing, which I don't put it past Spurs to Tom.

6:58It'd be the biggest swing in the history of football for a team to stay up, but it could well happen. But at one point is effectively enough because the goal difference gap, unless something deeply cursed happens to Tottenham Hotspur, as I say, it could happen. The goal difference is huge, but how do you how comfortable are you right now i'm comfortable and do you know why i'm comfortable is because leads look like a hell of an outfit at a minute and i don't see west ham beating leads um i don't i don't think they will yeah i think i think that um yeah and leads just seem to have a bit of a like you know a bit between their teeth at the minute.

7:44They're wanting to sort of, you know, the pressure's off of them. And so I'm looking at that and I'm thinking West Ham look nervy. They look scared. I think that Leeds, I think Leeds probably beat them, to be honest. But as far as we're concerned, let's say we just need one point. If we lose to Chelsea and go into that last game, I'll start being like, oh no, like there's every chance we lose. but I actually think we get something at Chelsea. I can see it being one where we're way more up for it than them. I think they would be all over us like a rash if we were currently sitting behind West Ham or if they had the chance of putting us down.

8:28They're coming off and losing that final on the weekend. We need one point. Stay up with two games. West Ham also need to win, which they don't look like doing. you know, to us, we're all going to tiptoe around it and go, oh, you know, you never know. But to everyone else, it's like Tottenham aren't going down anymore. So Chelsea would be in that sort of mindset, I think. And I just don't think they'll be all over us in that same sort of way. I think we'll come out, suits us under Deserby, playing away from home, I think. Anything away from that stadium sort of benefits us. and I just think I can see it being that we go there and just take the lead and then maybe they get a goal back at the end ends up a draw I just I fancy us to take a point and that'll be that go into that last game of the season and just relax Is that based on Chelsea's recent form or the fact that Spurs are going to be up for it?

9:29Yeah it's both it's not just that it's like you know we looked better against Wolves we looked very good against Villa I just think that you know I just think that we're we're good for a point there this time of the season you're seeing a lot of teams are switching off they've got Chubby Alonso starting 1st of July I think it is it's just they're going to have their feet up I think it would be a different story if they had a chance of relegating us but the way it is I think if we go in there really going for it it's every chance we get a little cheeky win at Stadford Bridge I don't think if the chips were fully down and Chelsea were fully on it I'd be saying that I'm just thinking sometimes this stage of season you can nick a little result like that I think we will I was just trying to look before you finished speaking I was just trying to find out how much each Premier League place is worth I think the answer is around 3.5 million per place if Leeds beat West Ham that result in itself could be worth about 15 million quid because they could finish above Chelsea, Newcastle and Everton.

10:43It probably won't happen, but that's the incentive. Whereas West Ham, I mean, to be fair, if they needed an incentive, their win could be worth about 100 million pounds. Yeah, I feel like what Sean said there's spot on, right? It's like this end of the season, every little deciding factor is like a sliding doors moment. like if the Newcastle game had gone the other way but Chelsea still lose the final there's an incentive of like oh we could we could really put Spurs down here this is perfect for us if you know if the Newcastle game goes the other way and they win the final right they get to parade that FA Cup with a chance to like put us down like it just adds up but it couldn't really have gone better for me in the sense that you know like it's something that they can't automatically really relegate us yeah they can put a little dent in us trying to stay up but ultimately it's it's the incentive isn't quite as strong i think that defeat to city is pretty deflating like it is kind of like well the season's kind of done and the sort of manner that it happened as well i think was pretty gutting for them if you've listened to like any of the sort of people like the press media talking about chelsea season it isn't necessarily like the sort of quality of players and I was kind of when I threw on the FA Cup I was kind of surprised by like their squad isn't as bad as I thought it was bearing in mind how much everyone's banging on about how poor they've been so there's clearly like an apathy sort of set in similar to what we've seen with our squad in terms of like the way that the players can play better but they're there they need motivating in a different way well nothing has really changed going into this game and by all accounts like their home the atmosphere at home has been an issue is in a lot of ways it's very similar to what we've been experiencing just in a different way and obviously to less of an effect so i sort of think the stars have aligned for us for it to not that we'll like guarantee us any kind of result obviously but just in terms of if you had to pick the circumstances for us to go into this game to give us the best chance that what's happened at the weekend is that so we've given ourselves well we haven't done anything but we've got the chance now to try and get something there and so i sort of agree with what sean's saying like we'll see how we get on but i would give us a lot more of a chance to know what off before we went into the weekend what would you do if you deserved it though would you would you approach the game to get a point or do you sort of set up to contain do you risk madison i know there was there was news that he he missed the first part of training this week with a minor insignificant issue but has trained the last couple of days as i understand it um what what do you do do you go to win do you want to press them higher what what is it i'd go as as similar to villa as we can so i wouldn't even be looking at madison to be honest just go there and look to just press which is kind of you're doing it in an organized way so you're not going to be giving up loads and loads of chances hopefully but you can you create your chances by nicking the ball off of their defenders and realistically you're going to be going in there looking to win the game it's um it's there'll be little landmarks within the game where you kind of be like okay you get to the 60th 70th minute don't do anything silly you're not going to really chase it but you definitely go in there looking to win the game because it's there it is there for the taking i mean i'm i'm not someone who's like superstitious or believes in curses and all this kind of stuff like i think that spursy we are Spursy because of like there I can break that down there are reasons why and we've done that on other shows but it's like so us losing at Stamford Bridge there's no reason why we can't go there in this circumstance where we've got a little bit of a leg up in the way that we're way more motivated than them they're in dreadful form like we can go there and win something in this scenario, especially when you only need the point.

14:41You find yourself in a situation where you go 2-0 up, Chelsea will almost give up and their fans will all be hating it. And yeah, it's just, I don't know, I've completely transformed the way that I think about it now, to be honest. It's like that Villa one, to be in that away at Villa, honestly, I didn't think that I'd experience anything like that anymore. I thought that that kind of atmosphere and that kind of feeling of like coming out of the ground and your throat's raw from like singing and whatever. And it's just like everyone hugging each other on the goals. I've done all that like hundreds of times in the past, but I haven't done it for a long, long time.

15:23So I just feel like ever since that moment of coming out of that ground, I felt like I felt like we're good. but saying that when we drew when we drew i had the most sleepless night you say you talk about sleepless nights genuinely sleepless night of all i was doing was just playing out every kind of scenario in my head and i had to just and then i woke up and i looked at the whatsapp and then what and then my mates are all in there going didn't sleep last night everyone's doing the same thing and I had to like the next day make the decision of like just forget about it don't what will be will be and you come to like the Sunday and it ended up just being what were we all worried about I I've been taking a drug called amortriptyline which is helps with like nerve pain and I've got like sort of nerve pain in my feet so I'm taking this drug honestly I I've had it for about I've done that 24 days of it now i am having the best sleep of my entire life the problem is you have to take this pill a few hours before bed otherwise you're absolutely fucked in the morning you can't wake up so i i this last three or four weeks it's been glorious because it's that 4 a.m moment where there's no stimuli right you've got your brain the darkness and god willing a good woman or man sit lying next to you they really don't want to be woken up going asking the question about whether or not they think spurs are staying elite so at 4 a.m you're waking up and going oh my lord like what what what is like what is gonna happen who are we if we go down what the fuck if we go down what how much of this is about the decision making of of people who really don't give a about how we feel.

17:10Like, I'm stewing over the decision-making of Nick Boucher or Vivian Lewis, whoever it might be. And I'm 4M and no one will ever know. And I'm in a fortunate position to have a podcast so I can tell people that's what's happened to me. But Spurs fans around the world are just sitting there stewing, just going, please, please, what if this happens? What if this is a fucking horrible situation? God willing, I never want to be, it's the most obvious thing in the world, I never want to be in this situation ever again. We don't, it doesn't make sense that we are. It makes sense that West Ham are because they are what they are.

17:45But Spurs, we've never been relegated from the Premier League. We were last relegated in the late 70s. This cannot happen again if we get out. And I'm sure, John, what's your, how confident are you that we are getting out? Give me a percentage point. I'm probably, I mean, I would love to have seen a chart plotted over the last four months because it would have gone from like, oh, 90, zero, 25, zero, 100, zero. I'm probably at like 75 % that we're going to stay up now because I basically, like you said, it's one point we need effectively from two games. We are better away from home than we are at home, granted.

18:33And the away game that we've got is Chelsea. So I'm slightly more than 50-50. I'm not going to do it like 63%. So I'll just say 75%. And I agree with Sean. I feel like the reason for that is that, like I said before, the stars have aligned for us in a good way because I feel like there's a lot of those circumstances where the pressure would have been part of the reason why we wouldn't have got a result. Now it's like we don't have to get a result there, which actually is good for us because I don't think we particularly handle, this team anyway, doesn't handle pressure very well. So this is just like a bonus game.

19:08And so if I was Deserby, I would, you know, like Sean said, I'd just be going to try and win. Because if you go there and try and win and end up with a draw, we're good. If you just go there with the intention of we're going to get a draw, I personally feel that's the wrong message to send to the players. We need to try and get this job done as quickly as possible. And then to your point, if we can get out of this game with a win or a draw, it does mean that we're able as a fan base to really, without damaging the football team to let the club know that this has been unacceptable. Because I've seen a lot of discourse online and like on different pods about people going, would you celebrate if you stay up?

19:47It's not a binary question. Like, yes, I'll celebrate, I'll stay up because we stayed up. That doesn't mean, yeah, I'm not celebrating the fact that we were in it in the first place, right? And so I would love to be able to not go into that final game going, I really hope we stay up so I can celebrate and then have a go at the board. I'd like to just be able to go there, see all my mates and have a go at the board and let them know what we feel about them and share the relief, basically, of being able to stay up. So that's why I'm like, if I'm deserving, I'm going, let's end this tonight. Let's just go there and get this done.

20:22Let's get what we need from this game. And then we can move into next year moving forward. Plus, I think for all of us, the quicker this is sort of wrapped up, it does allow you to start letting those, the positive side back into your mind. What could we do over the summer? What players could we bring in? How's De Zerbi going to change things? You can start to look forward. At the minute, we are stuck in stasis. I'm desperate to look forward as well. Exactly. Because I'm quite excited about De Zerbi. What he's done since coming in hasn't been insignificant. You know, before De Zerbi, we were averaging 0.96 points per game.

21:00we had 40 goals scored and 50 against of a minus 10 goal difference um and under the zerbi in five games we have eight points that's 1.6 so that's 0.6 effectively goals uh sorry points per game improved since he's come in six goals for five against in our attacking we haven't actually improved in fact we've regressed slightly but where we've massively improved is our defensive to stability and it's like he's come in and gone right what's the problem here well there's two problems he's he's come up with that might impact those statistics one he walked into a team that was shipping goals so he's managed to through various methods i.e high press and defending from the front and um you know talking to the players and then buying into him shored up the defense to some degree it's about a goal a game and it before uh i think it was like 0.79 before the uh game against as it leads so i'm not sure yeah not so he he had a actually falling from 1.5 before he turned up to 0.79 per game under uh deserving that's that's that's chances created against him so he shored these things up he's also had to contend with a front line that's lost he's lost players he's now his only options are a tell Richarlison and Mwani and I think we all while on paper all have their merits and and definitely all have certainly in this season justifiable criticisms of their performance but he is restricted to what he has and so that's probably why he's not been able to get more goals out of his team but there's been a massive up uptick in what we've been doing on the pitch.

22:52In 31 games, we won seven. In five, we won two under him. So, yeah, I think should we stay up, then we can start to think where we should be thinking. What comes next? The board, what are you going to do? This was unacceptable. You know you fucked up in January. You know you've got Langer as sporting director. What are you going to do to make sure that Spurs are in the best possible situation going into their first home game? first league game rather in August in a few months time. If should we stay up? Because if we do, it just feels like De Zerbi is the guy. He's a good manager. I don't know if you've seen what's been happening at Marseille this week, Sean.

23:41They've put their entire squad up for sale. Everyone is up for sale. that isn't a that isn't a stable football club and I think Deserby's taken a lot of blame for Marseille's misperformance this year but when the board have gone everyone is up for sale and that's not me making things up they are you can buy any one of their players they are also saying if you buy more than one you'll get a discount on the second so that that probably isn't on Deserby it probably you know your situation at Brighton you can understand why he wants more control so I just think looking forward should we stay up and and you know god willing we will the future could be quite exciting and and our our level sorry i'll keep talking but our expectation has taken a healthy hit i'm not sure if healthy is the right word but we've readjusted what we hope for a season and if that means next year that our expectations are low then we could have a really healthy enjoyable season if your expectations are we going to finish second we might not do you make sense of all that shit i've just said experience a membership that backs what you're building with american express business platinum get two times membership rewards points per dollar on eligible purchases and key business categories as well as on each eligible purchase of five thousand dollars or more on up to two million dollars in eligible purchases per calendar year.

25:11American Express Business Platinum. There's nothing like it. Terms apply. Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash business dash platinum. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. You know those friends who support your preference for podcasts over music on road trips? That's the energy State Farm brings to insurance. With over 19 ,000 local agents, they help you find the coverage that fits your needs. so you can spend less time worrying about insurance and more time enjoying the ride. Download the State Farm app or go online at statefarm.com. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. You thought this was your run club era.

25:50Turns out, it was more of a thinking about run club era. The good news? Someone's marathon training is about to start. Sell your workout gear on Depop. Just snap a few photos and we'll take care of the rest. they get their race day fit and you get a payout for trying someone on depop wants what you've got start selling now depop where taste recognizes taste you look at like man's united gone from last year finishing did they finish up 15th in the end maybe 16th but like 16th yeah they've displayed how quickly you can ascend in this league like the to go from where we are to third isn't isn't as such a monumental change as it once was if you couldn't get your you know get your stuff in order over the summer and actually you have a manager you've got a style of play you can jump up there doesn't mean we're going to jump up there but you could fall somewhere in between and 100 % think that they should be giving um Deserby the all the power that he wants because those idiots above him don't know what they're doing that is the best thing they could do I see like Chubby Alonso has been taken on as a manager and it's I just wouldn't be surprised if it is you know everything's cyclical and it's and it starts to come back around to that um obviously like the having the director of football model and the model that's worked at places like brighton it all it all makes sense financially and continuity within the team but it's not for everybody like you there is a skill to identifying these players getting the the deals done and we're not in a position where we can really commit to doing that you know we've we've had people come and go and I just think that it'd be a wise decision to sort of try and get the deserve these players in that he wants not to sort of do what we normally do where he'll identify them they'll go for a list of similar players I just don't think we can afford to do that I think we we need to and i think they will i think that this has to be the rockets up them like when people were sort of saying if you go down would it be where they sell the club would it be where they make big changes the ideal one is that you go so close to the fire that you like feel it but you stay up by the skin of your teeth because they genuinely could sell like they they could they could be scared into being like we got away with that so like luckily or like they might say well no we applied employed the right guy at the end and he got out that's a great question they could look at it and go this is the time now because we could go and we saw how we it could happen this summer john that that is a great conversation do you think do you think um do you think there's any world where the lewis family look again we probably don't know i mean this is the opportunity for them to go oh we don't actually know how to run a football club because we nearly got relegated we've entrusted running the football club in the v9 vancatecham after we sacked daniel levy all the massive part of this is their own their own making is there a world where they just go we stayed up because if they go down they can't sell i mean the value of the club is significantly reduced because there's no guarantee that it'll come back up.

29:44If we stay up, then they might go, right, we're open to offers now. I mean, you've worked in sort of this sort of field and business and acquisitions and all that shit. This would be a really interesting time to buy Spurs because the valuation's probably gone down a little bit, right? Because we won't have Champions League football, we won't of any European football next season, the sort of feeling around the club has been tainted by the fact that we've been in this relegation battle. So the prize will have come down, but not significantly enough where the Lewis family might feel like, what's the point?

30:17Because we've, you know, we're just... They might fear in their inability to keep us up. Yeah, that it could get worse, right? Whereas if you're looking at to buy it, you're suddenly like, right, well, we could just spend a bit of money, you know, to Sean's point, maybe just three players. Makes all the difference and suddenly, bang, we're back in the Champions League You can win title contention in two or three seasons and the valuation goes even higher than it was before. So I think there is a world where that definitely happens or sorry, where that potentially could happen and that buyers out there are looking at it going, now it's great.

30:48I feel like previously in a weird way, we've outpriced the market. It's sort of pointless to buy us because it's so much money and there's no way to, we've already built a stadium. We've already got this permission for the hotel. That's already been factored in. So it feels like that's kind of difficult for them to see value. But now you've got room, basically headroom, to kind of grow it and build it again. My hope is, because it's that classic thing of like, better the devil you know to a certain extent, is my hope is that actually, and Sean make this point as well, they just look at it and go, right, we've stumbled in here to a situation out of the fire, potentially come a bit of a phoenix here.

31:31We've got a really good manager who clearly knows what he's doing. we just need to give him the support and the resources and let a football man run the football club and go back to the manager model. Because I've been banging this drum for a while that I think this idea of like, there's one way to run a football club and it's got to be data-led and it's got to be a director of football. That's great. But until like a Brighton win the league, it's just a model that works for a club to get them to a certain point, right? City, just go and buy the best players in Europe. That's their model, right?

32:03They have a director of football. he does the deal that's what he did in January didn't he yeah and that's what Arsenal have done when they were like oh we need a striker to get us over the line who scored the most goals in Europe Gokker it's right sign him they didn't go oh let's do I'd fucking love us to operate like that by the way that's what I mean but like that's what at the top end it's different isn't it yeah because when you're operating in a different market you need to behave differently what we've tried to do is go how do we like perform and operate like Brighton on Bournemouth but be in the Champions League well the answer is you can't you can't do that and as of yet it's never been proved to really work in the Premier League it's the team that basically buys the best players over like prolonged period of time end up winning it as we've seen with with the scum they've just kept buying really good players every summer until they've won the league so I feel like actually having a old school model of the manager looks at it and season on season goes right I know what I need I need this type of player you can still have a team to action that stuff right you can still have a director of football if you want whatever you want to call them who goes out and goes okay here's my brief that i need to find these players and do these deals but the footballing agenda is set by deservey and i know the argument of what happens if he's really successful and then in four years time when we've won the league and the champions someone approach him don't care do i yeah because we've won the league and if he's successful then you go right who's the closest manager like deservey let's go and find another one and then make the changes that he wants for another three or four years it's the same as what we're doing now, right?

33:28We're still chopping through managers and turning over our squad. So why not try a model that we, you know, we might get some success out of rather than this model that we haven't seen any. I generally think that there's been a sort of infatuation with this sort of modern way of running a football club. So that if a manager, no, a head coach gets sacked, that's not a biggest problem because we can find a new manager to just, or a new coach to sort of fit in with the same ideas the same principles, similar principles, and just apply it. That's if you're like a really well-won football club like Brighton or Bournemouth or Brentford.

34:06That's a brilliant model because they know how to do it. They are experts at it. They're really intelligent people. When you're Chelsea or when they have owners who don't really know what they're doing in terms of football that have applied previous models that have worked in other sports to football and gone, why isn't this working why isn't this working they don't they're not clever enough or understanding of the sport enough or have outside skills that they can apply to football in order to generate the returns that brighton and bournemouth and brentford have had spurs equally are not in a situation where we can bring in a head coach and go can you fit into our model because we don't have a fucking model it's a bin fire behind the scenes it feels like and there might be people listening to the football club sorry listen to this podcast who work at the football club and going it isn't quite what you think in fact i had a chat with someone who works um do you know i'm not gonna say that um but it isn't great behind the scenes um so so not everybody's in a situation where bright brighton are which are sort of eight years into this plan so you can just bring in a head coach managers are still important and and they so they should be when you hear the word manager you think of Alex Ferguson Jock Steen you think of Arsene Wenger Dean Smith like these old geezers in sheep you know cheap skin jackets and all that sort of stuff they're still important because clubs aren't run proficiently and De Zerbi's come in and he is the manager and Xavi Alonso is now signed as the Chelsea manager which is a big shock because I thought he was going to go to Liverpool as the manager of Chelsea whether that plays out what they've said to him and what they've promised him and whether it he's given it isn't 100 % guaranteed but at Spurs we didn't have any choice and like you say Johnny five years time he wins a trophy or we feel like we're moving in the right direction another club comes in who he deems to be more uh you know of a step up like Real Madrid we're talking about Real Madrid Man United Man City the biggest clubs in the world as it stands at the moment that's not our problem right now that our problem is fixing a lack of culture at Tottenham and Deserby Pochettino would have done it I'm sure Javi Alonso would do it at Chelsea that it's the right people at the right time to fix problems and I don't know where this started but that's uh that's what I've got to say about that Our yoga instructor challenged us to find inner peace.

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37:33They're hunting us. It's time we started hunting them. I can work with them. This should be tons of fun. Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again, streaming only on Disney Plus. I feel like Chelsea, like they had to kind of do this because I was talking to a Chelsea fan a couple of weeks ago. He was mugging me off about Tottenham or whatever. And I was like, you want to watch out because you could be next. And he just, it was just the whites in the eyes in that moment of like, we actually could be next. And I was like, you could well be next. But now they've got Chubby Alonso and they are afforded.

38:13And the reason why I was thinking they were next is because they were just another basket case football club who just seemed to be coming with crazy ideas and they could have plummeted. If they have promised Xabi Alonso a load of money and a load of say in who he signs and everything, I think they'll probably be fine. But they were in that and they would have looked at us and been like, well, that could be us next. so yeah I 100 % think that it's the way to get out of there it's got to be the most foolproof way of getting out of this situation because otherwise they're just even if you replace Langer like who are you going to replace him with then are they going to be capable are you going to give him the money to do it and yeah as I say we're saying about Alonso though I think he probably did look talk to Liverpool but Liverpool spent so much money last summer there's nothing left it's it's not going to be any left so they'd be like right you come in here you've got this team to work with and you've got to work your magic on it and we've got expectations that are high i think that it was just more attractive to go to the chelsea one because you don't get jobs like that too often where you've where you've got a lot of uh power yeah um i've got to take this moment to uh answer ask that well there's a question here uh and also i want to ask you a question sean isn't related to this um but um brdcrn who follows me on instagram flab on the school of paper um is the nordvpn discount really exclusive when every football podcast is offering the best discount around how about go fuck yourself mate why are you listening to other podcasts first off how many football podcasts are you listening to and if you are listening to all these podcasts why am i even bothering answering your question the answer is yes it's the same offer across the board for every podcast.

40:06So I'm not going to do a NordVPN read today. I'm actually going to do a Saley read. Everyone's going to be well happy with this. Come on. Get in. You going on a little bit? Hey, you going on a little bit? I'm going on a little bit. I'm going to America in a few weeks. Mate, you need Saley. Do you want to enjoy a discount on data when you travel? Of course I do, yeah, because I only listen to this podcast, so I wouldn't even know about other discounts even if I wanted to. Absolutely. Sean Cray, are you going anywhere outside the UK today? I'm not, by the way. Are you? 100%. Yeah, Portugal, yeah.

40:34what are you doing down there where the missus is from is she fancy yeah yeah from yeah yeah Algarve Algarve my missus is from Zurich my missus is from Coventry

40:55if you are travelling soon as Sean is heading to the Algarve to go back you meet in the family you're going to they've got villas out there and stuff, are they? Yeah, yeah, a bit of this, a bit of that. Yeah, yeah. So you're going to go over there. You don't want to get caught out of outdated, do you? So Sally is the eSIM app from the creators of NordVPN, giving you instant, affordable mobile internet in over 190 countries. No waiting at airport, kiosks, no sketchy SIM sellers. Just download once, choose a plan, and you're connected to the moment you land. Whether you're sissy hopping in Europe, if you're going to Portugal, if you're going to be anywhere near Sean, you might need a SIM card.