A besieged manager, an impossible task
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A club in conflict, a stumbling team, a knackered captain, a besieged manager, an impossible task. And then, my friends, that. That last night. And that is what I call Spurs. Spurs.

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to The View from the Lane, the multi-award winning Tottenham Hotspur podcast from The Athletic. Joining me, Danny Kelly, with the hat on the side of the head, almost at such an angle that it may slip off at any moment, are from The Athletic, Jay Harris, live from Frankfurt, I should say, and James Moore. James, you're the resident Spurs fan. I've had my say with my little soliloquy there. Just give us a...

Blast out your initial feelings about the last 10, 12 hours. I would say it was a night so enjoyable that I feel hungover this morning despite having not drunk for like five days, I think.

Wow. Yeah, amazing. I feel completely and utterly drained by it. But I would say the Spurs performance was so controlled that, and this is the rarest of things, with Spurs leading 1-0 away from home in a massive game, I thought the second half went really quickly, which is not a thing you often experience. That feeling of the big game of a narrow lead kind of flying by at an allegedly comfortable pace.

And Jay, what an evening for you. You get to watch a football match as part of your work in that incredible stadium and that incredible atmosphere. And you see Spursy as well. Tell us about your experiences last night in the wider. We'll narrow down to what happened as well. Really good experience. You know, got to the stadium and I'll be honest, there was definitely a feeling of apprehension about what was going to happen last night. There's definitely a feeling of

of nerves I wasn't too sure this team were going to be able to keep a clean sheet against Eintracht Frankfurt and the stadium's not as loud as Galatasaray was but it's certainly extremely noisy the anthem that they sung before the game it was so atmospheric the noise the ultras were making it is I don't quite know if it was an intimidating atmosphere but it's

certainly loud, noisy, and it would be very easy for some of the players to feel uncomfortable in that situation. But they dealt with it incredibly well. Massive credit to Dominic Solanke because the noise they made when he was stepping up to take that penalty, I couldn't even hear myself think. And he hadn't scored in, I think that was his first goal in 12 games that I wrote about the other day. So that was a massive moment for him in his Spurs career. It's definitely the biggest moment of his Spurs career so far.

And at the end of the game, all of the emotion just came pouring out. You know, the coaching staff all jumped on Postacoglu straight away. Then Vaccaria ran over and jumped on them. There's a video on my Twitter account if anybody wants to look at that. Richarlison runs onto the pitch. He doesn't even know where to run. He's just so happy. No change there then. Postacoglu...

hugging Solanki but I wouldn't even call it a hug it was more of like an embrace it was a bit of five ten seconds long and then I thought to me that the sort of nicest moment was when Postacoglu and Madison were walking down the tunnel together and Ange wrapped his arm around Madison who obviously was the injured hero so that that pouring out of emotion was was really nice to see

Now they've got a really good opportunity to reach Bilbao with a trip to Bodo at Glimpton a couple of weeks' time. It was a fantastic evening, as James mentioned. A controlled, mature, streetwise performance. Defensively solid, which is a phrase I don't think any of us have used to describe Spurs this season, so credit to everybody. On the 10th of April, just before the game in London...

I tweeted, my dream, Spurs players roared on by 60,000. Remember who they are. Puff their chests out in those lily white shirts. Defend doggedly as a unit. Attack with speed and flair and pulverize a good on-track team into a heap of smoldering wreckage. It was seven days late in coming. Where did that come from? The...

I mean, I don't care if the manager decides to do it or the players rebel decides to do it, but they defended their goal properly. There were moments and they played well in attack too, but they held the ball. James, there were moments in the first 25 minutes, Poro, Van de Ven and Udogi at different times put the ball out of play deliberately, just booted it into the stand to allow the team to regain its shape.

to remorph into whatever you need to defend. The goalkeeper took occasionally long goal kicks and increasingly as the game went on,

They just didn't do all the usual, please now with the AI thing that's measuring this, all the usual bollocks that's got them into so much trouble. With except for exceptional one pass by Benton Kerr out of his own penalty area, they just cut all that nonsense out. Incredible. Yeah, I mean, the other week we mentioned the need for what I think we called sexy pragmatism.

Which isn't necessarily playing five at the back of it. Obviously, there is sometimes a time for that, as we saw last night. But yeah, as you say, being a bit streetwise, as Jay Pittett, knowing when to put a foot on the ball, knowing when to slow the game down, knowing when to pass the ball backwards...

all of those things seem quite simple that with the approach that Spurs have adopted for the most part in the last two years, just haven't really been big parts of the game. But at exactly the right moment, all of that stuff came into play. And, you know, what I would say is there were a few question marks over that selection, I think, again. And I know there's been a lot of chat about Spence not being in a team. And I was surprised, again, that Spence wasn't in a team. And...

I think most people who wanted Spence in the team would have wanted him to have played at left back and sure enough Udogi put in I mean certainly his best performance of the season maybe his best performance in like sort of 15-16 months maybe even slightly longer I know we're going to come on to sort of man of the match and whatever later he would definitely be up there for me

But the Bannerton midfield felt right, bar a spell after Kulisic came on early in the second half, it didn't feel like they could keep the ball quiet as well, but they did seem to resolve that with the later changes.

They attacked with purpose. It felt like they had loads and loads of chances, but when they got the ball, they looked to get forward. The players had their heads up and they looked dangerous. Frankfurt certainly looked uncomfortable when Spurs had the ball. And as I'm sure we'll discuss at great length, the defensive performance was incredibly resolute. And I just think more or less everything...

All of the decisions Amanda had to make, I think he got right there. Jay, I don't want to put... I'm not allowing any criticism of Spurs players who played last night today. It's all going to be positive. And that forces me to be positive about Brennan Johnson and stuff like that. But there's one little thing I think we should talk about, and it happens to be your turn to speak. But I'm going to be honest. When the news broke that Son hadn't travelled...

There was a part of me, it was a big part of me, that was glad. I thought, for various reasons, they won't be relying on him and his experience and all that stuff, nor will they be carrying him, as I think they've been doing for several months now with the occasional outburst of old Son. It kind of became the younger players' responsibility to win the game. I hate to say about a man I love, and who was a legend in the club forever, but I was relieved when he didn't go to play in the game.

actually scandalous you said that danny should be ashamed of yourself yeah it is bad it is bad you should have wanted him to be there on the bench that's fine for don't want him in the starting 11 but you should want him that's still the temptation would have been to play him then i've had this conversation with a few um the other journalists while we're out here because obviously son is the captain but he wouldn't necessarily say that he displays characteristic leadership qualities it's something we have discussed on this podcast before um

So him not being on the pitch from a leadership aspect probably doesn't impact the team's performance that much. It's not like he's a great organiser and he's putting people in positions, etc. Quality-wise, on his day, he's still a fantastic finisher. The problem is he doesn't seem to be taking on his man, getting into the box enough. Obviously, Tell's still raw. I think there were some things... I think at times he tries to do too much, but I do agree that

playing tell last night a doggy just seemed to be better a doggy was just seemed to overlap a lot more and get into better positions a lot more i don't know if that's because son wasn't occupying the places that he'd like to get into um until i was unafraid to sort of cut inside and shoot one thing you can't accuse tell of doing as i just mentioned is trying to do something it's too complicated at times but he is being brave and bold and i think sonny's or son has lost that a little bit um

And it just means that other people have to stand up and lead the team. And there are a couple of occasions where I thought Van de Ven did really well to sort of tell people what to do and where to go, etc. There was actually a moment where I think Postacoglu shouted at Beccario for a pass in the first half. And I saw Romero telling Postacoglu to calm down, which I didn't think I'd ever see. So when song goes, other people stepped up. So credit to them.

Yeah, well done to Romero, who was a calming influence until he wasn't a bit later in the game. Yeah, that tackle at the end was, you know, that's just the most typical him thing. He gets hurt in a challenge or whatever, and so he just has to get that person back immediately. But luckily...

it didn't prove too costly. So they defend resolutely. I mean, you're absolutely right. Doggie, both of you I know, thought he was outstanding, but both the full-backs were. Pedro didn't do quite as much going forward as he normally does, but then he was marking a pretty good player and he defended well. They all did. And I suppose...

you know, the commentators were pointing out that it's months since that back four started and almost half a year since that back five started, if you include the goalkeeper. Um,

But it wasn't just that, was it? Defending is always a team effort. And from that point of view, Jay, I want to pay tribute to both Bergvall and Benton Kerr. I've had my issues with Benton Kerr when he disappears out of football matches. I thought he was effortlessly brilliant at times yesterday, knowing the right thing to do, getting his foot in.

And Bergvall, we just may, we shouldn't put pressure on him, we may have a superstar on our hands because what a performance of getting around the pitch and doing good things all over the pitch. Yeah, before I forget, I should say that this was the first time that Frank have not scored at home since March 2020-2024. And what I didn't realise was that the first leg

was the lowest XG they've recorded all season. So obviously Spurs only won this 2-1 on aggregate. But when you actually think Eke Tike's goal was pretty outstanding outside the box, quite a hard chance to score, then you can say that Spurs were pretty

tight and rigidly really compact we've obviously praised verbals so many times one thing i will say is that the amount of crosses he seemed to cut out yesterday um he always seemed to be there to head the ball away as well benton core was really good at dropping deep to receive the ball and he did the dirty stuff as well he sometimes he can be guilty of sort of jumping into tackles i didn't think he really did that so like he said the midfield blend was perfect um solanki he

You know, we've said it a million times, his work rate for this team is simply phenomenal. He was astonishing last night. He was, and, you know, I'm really glad. Obviously, I wrote the piece that he hadn't scored since, I think it was the 4th of January, and I was chatting to James about it before I wrote it, but he obviously scored two goals in the 4-1 victory over Aston Villa in November, but I don't know, I felt like he still needed a moment on a grander stage than that. I felt like he still hadn't really...

produce something truly stunning since he joined Spurs and he can take that off the list. I'm not saying he shut me up because I still think he's a fantastic player, but I'm so glad he got that moment under that pressure. So yeah, fantastic performance from everyone.

Do you know what we should also say? Fair play to Matisse Tell because he played that situation perfectly well because I thought, whoa, you know, this is after the penalty incident a couple of weeks ago. I thought fair play if Tell is going to be the one to take this penalty. It's a hell of a statement. Ange wasn't sure, was he?

Did you see, you were watching on TV, and Postacoglu was screaming at Dominic to take it. Oh, was he? He was going, Dom, Dom, as if there's everything. But I think Tell knew all along that he was just taking the pressure off of his contract. The manager wasn't sure. Okay, well, yeah, and that's what I mean. He did that incredibly well. And from up in the stands, I thought the exact same. I thought, oh, my word, Tell is going to take this, and this is going to be...

you know, season-defining moment that's coming down on the shoulders of someone who, at this moment in time, is only a loan player and a very young 19-year-old loan player. But he did it incredibly well. And just as Frankfurt's players finally stopped moaning to the referees, he gave it to Solanke. So very, very well done. He should get like a tiny little assist for that. It's almost too facile to say it, too easy to say it.

But the referee not giving the penalty in real time, they have just given up now and just rely on VAR to sort things out. Because it was, unless I'd lost my mind, at least where I'm watching it on the screen, it was an obvious, obvious, the most obvious penalty you're going to see

I mean, obviously, you and I have an agenda, Danny. And in the moment, it's all very emotional, particularly when you see a player kind of laying almost motionless on the floor afterwards. But I was surprised I wasn't a record.

He's absolutely covered him. He's completely wiped him out. I spoke with our producer before we came on to do this. My only guess is that the referee deemed it wasn't deliberate. He didn't deliberately, absolutely level him

But I'm not sure within the way the laws are currently framed that that's much of an excuse. I've got to be honest. Hang on, hang on. I mean, let's not make this talk spot despite your wishes. Yeah. When the Millwall keeper kicked Mateta's head off the other week, he didn't actually mean to do that. He was trying to clear the ball and it was reckless. What's the difference in reality? Like, I know it's not a high boot, but he's still absolutely clubbered a bloke and potentially would have kind of had to wait and see how it all...

shakes out whether it was a concussion or not double two double three double four give us a ring tell us what you think oh god fuck off um but i mean i genuinely think it could have been a red card

You know me. I like to moan about the referees when Spurs have won because it feels like it's a free hit and it feels just as good. I'm going to give you, Jay, I'll get your view on the penalty in just a second, but here's your free hit, James. I said on Monday on the podcast, atmosphere...

chatmosphere, did I say? That, you know, an atmosphere never cleared the ball. A crowd never scored a goal. But of course, the thing they do do is to intimidate the referee. And I thought the referee was absolutely led by the crowd during the game yesterday, except for, you know, the BAR forced him to give the penalty. I thought the referee...

It wasn't terrible, but everything that he could find a way to agree with the crowd, he did. There were a few weird moments where he played advantage and waited ages for it to play out. That's what happened with the Romero foul right at the end. He played for ages and then brought it all the way back. Once Frankfurt had played the ball backwards, played the ball forwards, tried to cross the ball and lost it, then he brought it back for the free kick. It's all a bit odd.

Yeah, it was a strange performance. What happened? It doesn't matter? No, of course it doesn't matter. Spurs won and they're through. What did you make of the penalty, Jay, and the way it was given and all the rest of it? Obviously, brilliantly taken. Although, right down the middle, Dominic, having not scored for so long, was making sure that at least he wouldn't miss the goal. That was definitely not on the agenda. Definitely a penalty. I think the keeper in the second half also took out

Solanke in a slightly similar way but didn't cause as much damage and I thought he was a little bit fortunate then as well. I should say that after the game I asked Bosticoglu about Maddison and he said he's super courageous to put his body on the line like that. He's sore but he's probably feeling numb to the pain

because of the excitement of going through. So it's good to hear that Maddison wasn't too badly shaken up by the incident. But it will be interesting to see if he's allowed to play this weekend. I was quite surprised he continued, even if it was only for a minute after that, because it looked like one hell of a hit. But I'm glad it seems like he's all right. ♪

Okay, everybody, welcome back to The View from the Lane. The second half, you know, Eintracht were bound to have a go. They've got some very good players. You know, we're going to, obviously, TK's fantastic. We're going to hear a lot more of Nathaniel Brown and Jean-Mathieu Behoia before their careers are over. They're young, too. Jay, just in the ground, some of me thought that the removal of James Madison helped Eintracht because I thought he was...

holding the ball in particular ways or allowing Spurs to reshape around him until he got hurt? I think when Kulosevsky came on, for me, it was quite obvious that this is a player who's not played in six, seven, eight weeks apart from a brief 15-minute cameo against Wolves. He just looked half a second ahead

off the pace and he did commit a couple of fouls and you should say that's only natural when you've not played in a really long time and you're thrown into a game like that. So I think it took

Kulosevsky a while to get his rhythm and then when Postakoglu made his substitutions and again I should give him credit for this because you know there could have been a temptation to try and get get the second goal but instead he shored it up by bringing on Sarr and Kevin Danso and you know having three centre-backs on the pitch I think

Saab coming on, Kulishevsky moving out wide. Kulishevsky was far more effective at that point. Saab didn't really do much with the ball, but his job was there to make interceptions. But no, I do agree that Maddison's removal briefly changed the dynamics. And I think it took them 10, 15 minutes or so to work it out. But they did in the end. And James, a chance for you to repeat how incredibly relaxed you were throughout the second half.

Yeah, I mean, let's not overstate that too much. I mean, as you were saying that before the break, I was thinking, well, they did have all those chances in that little spell in the middle where... But luckily they fell to... Nilsson and Wright, yeah, they all fell to a bluff on loan from... Rasmus Christensen, yeah. Where's he on loan from? Is he on loan from Leeds? He was on loan from Leeds and I think they literally made it permanent this week. Oh, wow, okay. I mean, yeah, that's probably the good fortune that Spurs had there that they fell to him, not Oketika or whoever else. Sure.

broadly speaking I think Spurs had I mean certainly in comparison to most games this season and last they had what I deemed a comfortable amount of control all right then let's let's let's do man of the match shall we um who was it for you Jay and very hard to pick from a whole bunch it was a team performance it was a can you have a perfect team performance it was a near perfect team performance um but we we'll pick out individuals here because because it's so much fun who's your man of the match Jay

Made it clear on social media that it was a doggy for me by easily a big distance. I think it's important that I contextualise this a little bit. Yes, of course. Obviously, this is my first full season covering Spurs. And I was really excited to see a doggy week in, week out. Lots of people had said he was fantastic the first few months of Apostle Cugley's reign. I feel like I've not seen...

doggy at his best yet, if I'm brutally honest. He obviously had that surgery at the end of last season, had a limited involvement in pre-season and then sort of was thrown straight into this campaign. And I think you could see that he was still playing catch up. Then he missed two months with a hamstring injury. And during that time, Spence was the best player on the team. So I thought, okay, well, there's a serious conversation to be had here about whether Spence should be the first choice left back.

I thought Adogu was good last week. Yesterday evening, I thought he was just sensational. The way he attacked, the way he defended. You know, it's also important, sometimes we forget about this, but

A doggy's played with Son for two seasons. He understands Son's game. He understands what Son wants to do. When he's playing with 19-year-old Matisse Tell, they're still building chemistry together. So he's sort of got to compensate for his mistakes. And there were a couple of occasions where Tell lost the ball trying to dribble past Christensen and a doggy just backed him up straight away. And there's only, I think, three years difference between them in age. I thought a doggy looked like

I guess maybe like an older brother there. He was saying, right, I'm going to show you the ropes. If you make a mistake, I've got your back. And I really liked that. To me, that's a display of leadership. And in the final minute of the game, I think it was actually the final moment of the game, a doggy was somehow on the right wing running at the ball, running forward. And part of me was a little bit worried he was going to try and play it inside. Sarr was screaming at him for the ball, wasn't he? He was fresh on the pitch. He'd run ahead of him, yeah. And I just thought...

Don't fall for that trap because you'll get caught out high up the pitch. Well, you're now 120 yards from your actual position. Exactly. Do not lose the ball. And I was really pleased that Doggie had the calmness in that moment to ignore Sarr and just keep going. And eventually the referee blew the whistle. I thought that summed up Doggie perfectly. He was an old head on young shoulders just there. He truly was brilliant. He was absolutely. One of my abiding memories of the game will be

the number of times that he was running out of defence with the ball, often having intercepted it himself, not just from passes from teammates, just to see him do it again and again and again. And he didn't do as much underlapping as he normally does, but that, I thought, made it easier for Tell for some of the things he was trying to do. Really, really interesting and brilliant performance. I'm going to pick another name myself, but it's not in any way a knock on Destiny Adogge, who was...

There was also a moment, you've probably seen the book, James, called Earning Their Spurs, came out 20 years ago, in which people, somebody, I can't remember who wrote it now, wrote about the game in which, you know, X, Y, or Z player became a proper Spurs player. And,

Udagi had some great games last season, but just fantastic last night. And, you know, I could see him, you know, I can now see him in my mind's eye as a proper Spurs player in that white shirt, even though he's wearing green last night. Who was your man of the match, James, and why? I mean, I agree with Dave. I thought Udagi was really good. And, you know, we mentioned Romero. I thought he was brilliant as well. But Bergvall for me, again, I...

For a player of that age, even younger than Ndogi, or Ndogi, you should say, as Glenn Hoddle seemed to christen him last night. I'm just looking at the numbers. Ten clearances from Romero, ten clearances from Van de Ven, the centre-halves, nine clearances from Bergvall, who I know... Many with his head. He's very, very good defensively, his name with his head. He did briefly drop into defence, I think, for that little spell where Romero was off the pitch for a couple of minutes. He did? Yeah.

such a mature performance from him again and I mean it's not really anything new now we've become incredibly used to it over the last couple of months but yeah to go to a high pressure game away from home in an intimidating atmosphere and play in central midfield and do the defensive work but also kind of stitch things together up you know as a team progress the ball up the pitch as well incredibly incredibly good and again as I said last week he is going to be

who I suspect by the end of next season deemed one of the best players in the Premier League. Alon Doar nominee. Yeah.

Listen, it's my fault, but we don't usually pick men at the end of the match. But I wanted to do it in this case because there were just so many outstanding performances. And it's not, as I say, any slight shade or side eye on the other players because it was a team performance par excellence. I'm picking James Madison for two reasons. One, the...

The hold that Spurs got in the first half of the game, I think, was... Benzinko was brilliant. So was Bergfeld. But it was James Madison's technical ability to get the ball and hold it for one second. That's all it takes for the team to reform around the person with the ball. Tell really benefited from the fact that he was able to make his positions, improve them while James cut back and got himself sorted out. And I thought he was the...

whatever the technical piece of equipment is that allows a machine to run at a certain speed. He was the gear that allowed Spurs to play the way they wanted to and in a way they haven't played very much over the last year and in a way that Eintracht didn't want the game to go. They would have

They would have wanted to have more of the ball to be playing at a higher tempo. And it was Madison's technical ability that stopped them doing that. Plus, of course, the goal penalty, because it's been said before, this is not an original thought, but that doesn't usually stop me, does it?

He knew he was going to get clattered there. And you can question lots of things about lots of Spurs players. And James Madison has had his fair share of, you know, what's wandering about and all the rest of it. People saying things about him, but the courage that a physical human courage to say, right, I'm going to do this. And I've,

He must have known he was going to get hurt, not quite as badly as he did. And he would have scored too if the goalkeeper hadn't committed himself to the reckless tackle as the penalty. He would never have been that close to him for the ball to hit him on top of the head. So,

it's nuts to say a player who didn't play the entire first half is the man of the match, but I wanted Madison to get some extra layer of praise because I thought he was great. And I thought the, the brilliant, the bravery, um, you know, all professional football will say, Oh, I'd have gone for that as well. Would they? Um, so just another, another fantastic performance among many, many, many. Um, we'll talk about Bode Glimt, um,

in a few seconds time. And I don't want to get into anything that leads to talking about the future in a negative way. But Jay, just looking at, I've said it's extended the season and given Spurs a real chance of winning something. But overall, that performance, is it season changing or is it just one great performance that we should just enjoy and bathe in it while we can?

It's a really good question. It's hard to know. I think if Tottenham had lost last night, it felt like that was going to be the end of the road for Posto Coglu. So now, all of a sudden, and obviously Bodo Glimt has done really well to progress this far in the competition, but you feel like it's a very winnable fixture. Certainly looks on paper easier than some of the other teams that Spurs have played in this competition this season. So it feels like

24 hours ago, it was potentially doom and gloom. And now you're thinking, well, hang on a second. This team has a great chance of, has a genuinely good chance of winning silverware this season. We probably should just touch on what this means for Posto Coglu a little bit more and his reaction to it. I don't think I've seen him smile

in a while, to be honest. And at full time, as I said earlier, when he was walking down the tunnel, he had a massive smile written all over his face. And I think a lot of the tension that he's felt in recent weeks probably flowed out of him at full time. He's certainly been a little bit more cranky with the media. You know, he's been quite open and honest about the fact that he reads media reports. Whether he should have done that is another question. So he's aware that people have been speculating about his future. And he said that

in the post-match press conference that, and we've also heard him say this multiple times, but he says he doesn't really care what people think. All he cared about was the dressing room, the coaching staff. And he said that they were always with him. There was no sign of any splintering, that they've been united. And I think the post-match celebrations proved that. And Mickey Van de Ven did also say before the game that he had full trust in the manager.

Obviously, it being Postacoglu, he couldn't resist firing a little bit of a shot at the journalists in the room. The last line in the press conference was, unfortunately, for a lot of you, you're going to have to put up with me for a little bit longer. So let's see how that goes. But I don't blame Postacoglu for making that comment. If I was in his situation, I probably would have done the same. He knew that people have

have been doubting him and last night he proved us all wrong. Look, they're still ahead of a way to go. There's still genuine concerns about the direction of this team and the football that he wants to play. Just beating Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 doesn't solve all those issues. You know, if he gets to the European League final then it's been a fantastic season and maybe we should give him a little bit more leeway for the fact that he has been without

his first choice back five for the majority of the season. The second they are back, they produce the best performance of the season. So yeah, very interesting.

That will all shake out, of course, in the fullness of time. James, last word from you on the game last night, what it means, or do we not look for meaning in it and just enjoy today? For the first time in weeks, I think, as Spurs fans, because winning against Southampton, nothing. First time in weeks, we can actually enjoy being a Spurs fan, having enjoyed Spurs.

Yeah, I mean, it means they're in a semi-final. I think that's probably the word. Look at it. I don't think... Look, we've said before, one, you don't want to have a referendum on the manager after every single match. And two, you don't want to judge a manager on one game. And I think Postacoglu said this himself, for good and for bad. So I don't think it really changes that much. What...

The thought that did hit me last night was, you know, we talked before about this kind of possibility of whether Koglu would leave the club if Spurs won the Europa League, or if that would be enough. Because there is this kind of suggestion that's been reported elsewhere that even winning the Europa League might not be enough for him to keep his job. And my thinking was...

Yeah, I kind of see the sense there. Do you want to end up with that Ten Hag thing of sticking with the Man Utd because they won a trophy at the end of the season and then having to sack them after two months into the next season? But that is an easy thing to think when it's kind of a massive hypothetical. But the closer you get to the reality of it or the possibility of it, the harder it is to say, yeah, yeah, that's what you should do. MUSIC

And so perhaps unlikely as it seemed, it's Bode Glimt and the Arctic Circle in the semi-final of the Europa League. Jay, I guess because we weren't sure Spurs were going to get to the semi-final and we couldn't be sure that Bode were either, you probably haven't boned up yet. You're not an expert yet on Bode Glimt. No, I can't say I am. And if I'm being brutally honest, when I was in the stands last night and I saw Lazio had gone 3-0 up,

I was rubbing my hands at the prospect of potentially going to Rome and enjoying some spaghetti and lasagna and garlic bread and all that stuff, which says a lot about me. No, I don't know a lot about Bodo Glimpse. Obviously,

Fair play to them for coming back and getting that result last night. Interestingly, from what I've seen, quite a few of their players picked up suspensions last night, including, I think, their striker. I think he got sent off during the game. But I believe that they have three or four players suspended for the first leg. I know they've got a pretty formidable record at home.

So if Spurs can take advantage of the fact that without so many key players for the first leg, then you'd expect them to be in a pretty comfortable position by the time they travel to the Arctic Circle. As we love referring to. What do you know about Bode Glimt James? Just looking forward to seeing Spurs play. It's been the furthest north Spurs have ever played.

is that right it's further north in the middlesbrough newcastle world but burnley is the one i think on this podcast the furthest northern team ever to qualify for europe is that right and as i said the other day i'm pretty sure i'm right um that if you take oslo the capital of norway also is nearer to rome than it is to boda glimt i've got to tell you it's tromso not further north

I'm not sure. I think Bolo Glimt is the furthest north. Do you remember Chelsea played Toronto? Maybe that's like a globe map thing where it looks higher. It could be a Mercator projection issue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'd be lying if I said any loads about them, clearly. No.

they're a decent side. I think, yeah, as Jay said, I was looking at this. One of the things I did last night when I couldn't sleep was working out who was suspended for them. Like it was going to help me know. Yeah, I've got it now. But I think it is three players. The guy who got sent off and another two who got third yellow cards of the competition. I tell you who does know about Bode Glimt and it's Andrew Postacoglu because in 2022,

Celtic got beaten home and away by Boda. We have this information, um, from somebody on, on X called Martin Moran. Um,

This made me smile very much because for five years I sat next to Martin Moore in school. He is these days the wine correspondent of the Sunday Times in Ireland. But for years and years and years, he sat next to me at St. Aloysius. And he's a mad Spurs fan, so he'll have made that connection very, very quickly. Thank you, Martin.

And since you live in Dublin, and we've been talking about it since I moved to Ireland nearly seven years ago, we must have a proper drink. I'm afraid to have a drink with Martin because he's such a wine expert that you might order the wrong thing for him. It should be... Look, I'm telling you now, and we'll get a Norwegian expert on, Bode Glimt are... Whatever about the suspensions, they're an incredibly well-organized team. And...

They were 3-0 down in Rome and they still found a way to negotiate that. So Spurs will be favourites with the bookmakers. Of course they will. But I wouldn't expect a game any easier against Bode-Klimp than we did against Eintracht Frankfurt. Different kind of threat, but they're a team who've... And the manager, for some reason, has in the last two seasons...

continually turn down offers from

Germany and Holland in particular to manage big clubs for whatever reason. Maybe he thinks that he's on a good thing up there in the far north. But he is a really, really good coach. And Spurs will not win because they're disorganized or badly coached. I promise you that at least. It is something fantastic to look forward to. Can I just make a point, by the way? Because I know Bader Glimt's play on a 3G pitch

Very good point to make. Which Spurs have had experience of this season in the FA Cup at Tamworth. They did great. And I put to you that that chastening experience may actually be the making of Spurs in this semi-final.

Could it be that having played that game in those circumstances in January is what helps get Spurs over their line in the semi-final of the Europa League in May? I mean, look, the 3G pitches are not as bad as artificial pitches used to be. But it doesn't take much for players to find an excuse. So you're right. At least having had some, for some of them, because we're quite a mix-and-match team out in Tamworth, for some of them to already...

It's important they probably train on a 3G pitch before this all happens because it is a different experience. I'm pretty sure I watched a game in Ireland last weekend. I was at a game with Bray Wanderers and they've got a brand new 3G pitch. It does bounce pretty normally but the run of the ball, for instance...

is quicker across the ground than you get even on the... The modern pitchers are half grass, half plastic, aren't they? But I noticed that the run of the ball for a straightforward pass is a bit quicker. It is something you're going to have to take into account. Thank you, James, for reminding us that there is a fourth dimension to this game against Bode Glimpse. We shan't even talk about Spurs at the weekend on this one because, you know, whatever happens, happens because we've got...

Norwegian. We've got bigger fish to fry further down the line now. Looking forward to it hugely. Again, thank you to Jay, who was live there in Frankfurt. You don't get that on other podcasts. And thank you to James for the last hour, which I've just enjoyed because it is brutal to have to keep talking about Spurs in a negative way. And it's such a joy and a release experience.

and a relief to be able to speak about them in the positive. So many of you said that last night to me, looking forward to the podcast today, including our friend now from the House of Commons who follows me and talks about Spurs all the time, which is just great. And if we need any influence higher up the British establishment, I now know where to come in, Mr Richards, don't I?

Thank you all very much for listening to us as well. You can get in touch at all the usual places. I should tell you, on X and Twitter, it's at VFTL podcast. Same on Blue Sky. And you can get in touch by email, vftl at theathletic.com. Thanks for listening. And from the very bottom of my hugely beating old heart today, come on you Spurs. The Athletic.