Has Ange run out of road?
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Yeah, hello everybody and welcome back to The View from the Lane, the top multiple podcasting athletic that always wins an award in its second year. I think that's actually factually true. Joining me, just Jack Pitbrook today, although we will hear a long and impassioned voice note from Jay Harris, who was at the game for the athletic, the game at Aston Villa in the FA Cup.

We'll get onto that game because it does feel to me, Jack, that we should start with the bigger picture before we analyze the specifics of the actual match. Um,

I guess the manner of the performances in the last four days is the most worrying thing, as well as what appears to be an institutionalized stasis by everybody from the players upwards in the club. Not the fans, I'll just make that point. I thought whether the TV had mic'd them up specifically to hear anti-Levy chants, but I thought the Spurs fans, and of course there are more than there are normally in a away game in the Premier League, they were

They were magnificent yesterday at Villa Park. You could hear them. I was watching on TV. You could hear them loud and proud for most of the game. Partially, of course, because the opposition don't need to sing because they know they're going to win the game. But what about the, to say that they played better, and we'll get onto the game in specific, Jack, played better than they did at Anfield is not saying anything because they couldn't, literally couldn't play any worse, could they?

Yeah, I mean, I agree with that. They were better than they were at Anfield. That's probably the big positive to take. I thought that, you know, they pulled the game back to 2-1. They had, you know, before the second Villa goal, they had quite a few good movements and positions and chances. So, you know, there were some OK moments, but it was still an incredibly...

dispiriting day. You know, this is a huge game. This is Tottenham's last, you know, it's an FA Cup game against a good team and if they'd won it then they'd be through to the fifth round but a really open fifth round as well. And they didn't really, I mean, they didn't really make much of an impression on the game. They were better than they were at Anfield but

without really ever getting much of a foothold. Yeah. And it's just, I think if you put the two things together, Danny, Thursday night and Sunday evening, then all the kind of, not all, but most of the residual hope that was left in the kind of back of everyone's minds, or maybe it'll all be okay in the end. Almost all of that has now been stamped out. And I think the path...

The path from here till the end of the season, for this to be a good season, is incredibly narrow. It's the Europa League and that's it. Is the whole project, if that's what I hate that word, is the whole project of Postacoglu, Angebal, Tottenham having him as their manager, has it just run out of road, out of time, out of energy, out of possibility? Could the returning players be injected back into the team and we'd see...

something similar just with slightly better players i don't think it's run completely out of road although the road it's got left is now incredibly narrow i think it's now they have to you know they have to win the next europa league last 16 get through to the quarterfinals uh that's in a month's time they need to just get through to that point um

They need to have the players back. I think a lot of people... The fact is, a lot of people this season have been thinking, it'll all be okay because we've got the Cups. And now it turns out that, in fact, that's not the case. They went out of the League Cup very painfully. They went out of the FA Cup yesterday. And the other argument that people would always make this season is, it'll all be okay when the players come back. I'm not especially confident that the Spurs will be good when the players come back, simply because...

You know, players don't always come back from an injury and then return to the level that they were playing at before. We saw this last season when they missed Van de Ven and Romero for a big chunk of the middle of the season. They came back, I suppose, weren't really the same the back end of last season, even with those guys back. The other point is that the few lucky players who have not been injured have now been running to the ground to the point that they can't really produce

the sort of football that they're capable of either. Like, Kulosevsky's been a shadow of himself for the last month or two. Poro, I think, as well, you know, again, played almost every possible minute. The midfielders who they're kind of rotating between every season, every game at the moment, I mean, Benton Kerr's got nothing left. Bissouma,

It's nowhere. Even Berg, Val and Gray are giving so much that you wonder if they're going to struggle down the line. So I just don't think that there'll be a point in March, let's say in March, where the players come back and everything will click and Tottenham will be, and it will be, you know, August, September 2023 again. Look, there's going to be endless discussion about the manager now that because people always said, you know, you're right, say we're in the Cups and they're gone now.

And you're right to say that the only hope of salvation for the season, and it is a big upside, is if you win the Europa League, Jack, you get into the Champions League. With the current team, I know, I know. But that's the truth of it. Would Spurs have a better chance to win the Europa League if somebody else was at the controls? It's very difficult for me to say just because I think, and look, it's...

I'm going to set myself up here and take a risk, which might make me look very stupid. I just don't think it's in Tottenham's... It's just not how Tottenham operate to get in a high-profile, big-name...

caretaker you know that's not you know if you look at other clubs over the years they have had some success with the high profile you know season's going badly you get in a caretaker and he actually does really well I guess Chelsea are masters of it aren't they yeah I was just going to say the best example of course is Goose Hiddick winning the FA Cup as a as Chelsea caretaker

in 2009, I think it was, after he replaced Scolari. I hope I've got that right off the top of my head. But that's not really how Tottenham have generally approached things. So if you're asking me, is there a manager out there in the world who could come in and maybe have a good chance of winning the Europa League? Perhaps. Do I think Tottenham will replace Postacoglu?

between now and the last 16 first leg with such a manager no i don't think they will um so no i'm i'm not uh i appreciate this is going to get bookmarked and uh and thrown back in my face if it does happen but my expectation is that tottenham would will not find a different manager for that european league phase um because the question behind all that jack was if you and i then um

seasoned, in your case, inexpert in mind, observers of Spurs, you have a team that we both admit is, and I hate to say it because I like some of the players very much, one of the worst Spurs teams for a long, long time. And the caveat, of course, I did the maths, Jack. In terms of transfer fees paid, the players out injured at the weekend against Aston Villa cost more than the players

team and the substitutes bench that we had available to us. So I understand that that is a huge problem. I'm not a fool. But if nothing's going, what is going to change then? Because when you have a crisis, nobody thinks it's enough to stand there staring at the house on fire and saying, ah, that was a shame, isn't it? The house on fire. Whether you start

buying bricks to build a replacement house, whether you call the fire brigade, whether you dial up international rescue, you can't just sit there staring and, you know, and Daniel Levy is entitled to watch the game any way he wants, but he's inscrutable squint across the pitch. I just, I'm powerless. I am just a fan, albeit with, you know, a voice in the media. I'm privileged enough to have that.

The people chanting so loudly, so passionately at Villa Park, they're powerless. That is the nature of modern football. The people who pay for it

have no power in it. You know, it's a strange situation. But the people at the club, so nothing, they're not going to change anything. Just wait for the players to come back and hope for the best. Is that the plan, to hope for the best? It's difficult, yeah. I mean, it's difficult to think what the club strategy is at the moment, other than hoping for the best and muddling through. You know, they've got to hope that...

the players, they've got to hope that the players will come back from injury and they'll be sufficiently fit and good to go that they, you know, Spurs managed to put together a really good run in the Europa League and hopefully, you know, turn the Premier League form around and climb up the table. I think that is...

Yeah, that's, as far as I can see, as far as I can tell, that is the extent of the strategy, really, is to hope that things turn around and get better. It feels like, yeah, it certainly is. I mean, it feels like this season's been drifting almost from the start, you know, drifting. The team has drifted in the Premier League, certainly down and down and down the table, obviously.

And I think people, you know, I think people just got to hope that the circumstances might be slightly different next season. They can go again. I know that doesn't sound like much of a, that doesn't sound like I'm kind of selling much of a club strategy, but I don't, I don't feel at the moment like there is much of a club strategy. Yes. I have the luck. I don't put it another way. I don't spend a thousand pounds on a season ticket these days because of geographical reasons.

non-proximity to the stadium. I'm not sure that if I was, I would be overly delighted with the idea that we're going to muddle through at £100 per game for the rest of the season. It doesn't bother me that Spurs are currently the go-to banter club

and that other fans just sit there laughing. And every week that goes by, we provide them with more because that's the nature of the thing. Next year, it'll be another club and another group of supporters.

You may be unlucky enough to work in an environment full of people choyoking you day and night. But, okay, I don't disagree with you, Jack. And so we will... I'd love to say that I think there's a really good strategy to get out of this. But I just don't know what that is. I mean, I feel like, you know, the...

Yeah, they do have a lot of good young players and that will be a benefit to Tottenham down the line. But in terms of the next, you know, right now, I just feel like the only, you know, they're just kind of hoping to muddle through. Yeah. I can't detect anything, any clearer strategy than that. Operation muddle through is in full effect and it's having an effect now.

on the pitch as well. Jay Harris was at the match at Aston Villa for the Athletic and Jay, of course, is a relatively new to the drama at Spurs and therefore I think hopeful of very positive experience in his working life and is enjoying football life.

and B, has been very, very level-headed about the whole thing when people like myself and James have been going off the deep end on this podcast, though not to the extent, as I say, some of the other places where you can get your spurs, news and views, those which trade in anger as the currency. Jay has been very, very measured in his approach. I think the dam may be breaking. He sent us a voice note saying,

about what was going on at Villa Park. Normally, these voice notes that our match attending colleagues, sometimes Jack, sometimes Jay, send are about two minutes long. I warn you that that would not have been enough to contain the things that Jay had to say. Listen to this. It's about five minutes long. This is Jay's view of what he thought was an unfolding debacle at Villa Park. We'll be back on the other side of this to discuss the actual game itself.

So Spurs have lost two cup games in a space of four days. That would be disappointing in any circumstances. But this could have been a week where they, you know, regain control of the narrative of their season. The Cups have been such a welcome distraction from what's been happening in the league. And now that they've been knocked out of the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup,

everybody's focus for the next month until the Europa League round of 16 comes up in March is going to be on what's happening in the Premier League and they've lost two of their last 12 fixtures in that competition. I think the most concerning thing about the last four or five days is the manner in which Spurs lost on Thursday against Liverpool. They lost 4-0. They looked devoid of confidence. They struggled to hold on to the ball and we saw a lot of similar issues against Aston Villa.

It seems to be a thing now where Archie Gray and Kevin Danso don't have any options to pass it through the midfield in central areas. So they get turned around awkwardly. They pass back to Kinski. Kinski hits it long. I remember when Spurs beat Man City at the Etihad in November. One of the things that really stood out for me in that game was what Madison did on the ball in his own half. There were so many times where most footballers would have just panicked and smashed the ball up the pitch and

There was one moment in particular where Maddison was basically by his own corner flag, but he had the confidence to hold on to the ball, wait for the right minute to pass it, and then there'd be nice little sequences of passes. And before you know it, Spurs have completely bypassed Man City's midfield. I don't see that anymore. Of course, the loss of Maddison and others is a key factor in that. But they just look a little bit scared in possession. They're lacking a little bit of energy going forward,

They just seem to have run out of ideas. And of course, it's hard to expect a team to be functioning when, as already mentioned, they're missing so many key players. You know, Matisse Tell is making his first start in English football. You know, he's expected to be a saviour and a fair play to him because he got the goal. But I think his performance in other areas showed that there's still a lot of work to be done. But one thing we probably have to talk about, and I'm sure the guys will do it as well a bit more in depth,

is the post-match press conference. Postacoglu was sort of asked, well, this team doesn't replay like a Postacoglu team in a moment. And yeah, he didn't take to that particularly well, buried his head in his hands. And then he is probably the angriest I've seen him after a game and just launched into this staunch defence of his players saying, you know, other teams like Liverpool can rotate 11 players. They keep their players fresh. You know, we can't press them.

with the same intensity, with that aggressiveness that we need to get the results done. And of course, I sympathize with that to a degree. I've seen these players, possibly mentioned, it's basically the same group of 15, 16 players who have played Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, since the middle of November. And I do agree with that. But I also think,

tiredness is not an acceptable excuse for the goal they conceded in the opening minute. Because I wouldn't say that comes from a lack of tiredness. That comes from having a poor execution of the game plan. Too many players rushing into Aston Villa's half, trying to win the ball, hype the pitch, and they just leave a massive space in behind. And Morgan Rodgers starts, you know, breezing through

unopposed really and that wasn't the only time in the game that those sort of situations happened Tielemans won the ball I think in the middle of his own half and then dribbles 60 yards and then shoots from the edge of the box and it just goes wide

It's very similar to what happened when Bilal El-Khanou scored for Leicester City a couple of weeks ago, although it was a slightly shorter distance he travelled with the ball. He was still allowed to basically drive at the defence, push Gray and Dragosin or Danso, whoever it was, backwards and get the shot off. So that defence had no protection. And I don't think you can put that down to tiredness, like I said.

Also, what I felt crept into this game was a little bit of a lack of discipline and a bit of frustration.

There were a few very, very silly challenges in this game. Bergwale in particular made a few and there was one slight tackle from behind on Rodgers which missed, which I think if he'd caught him, he would have been in a lot of trouble. Then Bergwale clattered Rodgers off the ball and Rodgers reacted quite angrily and there was nearly a confrontation. No surprise Bergwale eventually got booked but for a different incident. Rashford nutmegs Poirot.

Poro falls on the floor, jumps back up, kicks Rashford right on the edge of the box and was probably lucky to escape punishment. And then you have the Benton Coors booking where Rodgers has gone past him. So he doesn't even attempt to try and win the ball. He basically gets annoyed and pulls Rodgers back. Look,

Of course, those players are going to be frustrated. You could argue that it's good to see some display of emotion and that, you know, they're irritated. But I also think in those situations, it's the responsibility of the captain and the senior players, so Son and Kulishevsky, to calm the rest of the team down. And I didn't really see that. So apologies for rambling on everybody. But it feels like there's a lot of issues afflicting this team at the moment.

two massive defeats in couple competitions for Posto Coglu and I do wonder depending on what happens if we look back on this week at the end of the season as that season defining week and it was the moment where everything truly sort of span out of control for Posto Coglu and the squad.

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Look, the first goal is really, really interesting to me. Kinski obviously drops a massive bollock. And therefore I can't, you know, he was supposed to be his best player on the day, but you can't say that because he's thrown the game in the first 58 seconds, was it? What I want to ask Jack is who Pedro Porro, who I really think is a good footballer, is in an advanced and infield position

in the first 30 seconds of the game. In a game where any sensible person would say the first thing we've got to do here is make sure we don't go a goal down after 58 seconds. That's obvious. After what happened to Liverpool, in the way we're going, and in the fact that because of our physical limitations caused by the amount of games we've played, we're unlikely to be able to chase the game successfully. What you don't do is concede in the first minute. Pedro Porro is an experienced player. Good enough,

to be an occasional star in a Spanish team that's the best in Europe. Okay, so we're not talking about an amateur player here or a child. He's in the middle of his career. Why does he end up in that position, Jack?

Did Kulosevsky tell him to get such an opposition so we leave absolutely exposed to two players coming at us on that left-hand side yet again? Did Beyoncé tell him in advance of turning up in the summer to play? Did the Rolling Stones tell him? Did Unai Emery tell him? Is he a secret agent for the opposition? No. Ange-Poster Coglou encourages him in the first minute of that game to get into that position.

I was flabbergasted by the way Spurs were exposed in the first minute of a game when tiredness couldn't be, as Jay said, the number one excuse to do that against a team with the forward power of Aston Villa. It's incredible to me. And the fact, of course, that Kinsley makes a mistake compounds it. But what's he going to do? There were two Aston Villa players who might have scored unopposed by Spurs. It's insane. Look, I'm not going to...

justify why players took up different positions during the course of the game. You know what I thought when I watched that goal? Tottenham should have signed Jacob Ramsey. Tottenham tried to sign Jacob Ramsey back in June of last year. He would have been expensive. I think he probably would have been about 50 million quid. And this was at that moment where Aston Villa looked like they needed to sell for PSR before they sold Diaby, I think, to Saudi Arabia and Douglas Luiz to Juventus.

But there was definitely a moment in June where Tottenham were working on trying to sign Jacob Ramsey. Maybe they were going to throw Lo Celso into the deal. And I think the idea would have been that he would have played in midfield. He would have been one of the midfield three. There were negotiations. I don't think it got very, very close, but they definitely worked hard on the possibility of doing it. And the more I watch this season, the more I think maybe some of those established players who Spurs looked at last summer...

maybe Tottenham should have signed some of them. You know, whether it was Pedronetto or Ebrecchiesi or Conor Gallagher. That kind of, that tier of more expensive player. Because I just think that, you know, I think that

they've clearly come in really underfunded, sorry, or undermanned in terms of squad. So, look, I don't, obviously, it was a miss, you know, the positioning for Poro wasn't great, the handling from Kinski was bad. You can blame, I don't really think there's much blame in blaming Poro. Like, it's been, he's had a bizarre, a bizarrely difficult season, which he's worked incredibly hard through. Kinski has, you know, I think it was his seventh game for Tottenham.

it's probably been a bit of a baptism of fire for him as well. But yeah. He'd been better off if he hadn't played quite so brilliantly in his first game. Exactly, yeah. We all got a bit overexcited, I think, in hindsight because he was so good in that first game. But I just thought, yeah, my thoughts on watching that was ultimately maybe if Spurs would have signed Jacob Ramsey, they wouldn't have been in, you know, maybe he'd be scoring down the other end instead of against Tottenham. After the last podcast where I pointed out

because it was against Liverpool that since the Champions League final Liverpool have spent better than Spurs. Somebody picked me up on social media to say hang on Spurs have actually spent more net than Liverpool in the intervening five years. What I meant my friend and I think it's worth pointing out that Anfield for instance the

The entire Spurs midfield three costs less than any one of the midfield four that Liverpool played in the course of, including McAllister coming on. Spurs have... They have spent money. Richarlison, Solanke, etc. But they tend not... They tend to think that they're going to find £25 million gems, where, as you may be hinting there, they sometimes...

The Premier League requires now that you buy players from a level that... You're going to have to pay £50 and £60 million for players that aren't going to be superstars. They're just going to be the component parts of your team. You know, Ramsey, Rodgers, Bailey, they've all been linked at different times with big clubs. Bailey as well with Spurs at one stage in the not-too-distant past. These players are going to be expensive. That is the nature of it. And, of course, as well as that, as more and more people keep pointing out, if...

I said it again. I can't remember who said it at the weekend on television, a former player. Spurs can't sign the players they want because another club will just offer them more money wages-wise. There's no excuse for Spurs not paying the same wages as the top clubs. They've got the money. That is the club policy is to keep that gap between revenue and wages vast. Presumably, and I'm being generous here because it makes them more attractive to any incoming buyer.

I do think people have to keep in mind the fact that Spurs, based on the Deloitte recent figures, Spurs' wage bill is now seventh in the Premier League.

It used to be very closely level with Arsenal only a year or two ago, around fifth. And now, Arsenal spend £100 million a year more on player wages than Tottenham do. Aston Villa pay more on player wages than Tottenham do. This is before this season. It's certainly before they get Rashford in the middle of the season. Marco Asensio does not come cheaply, I'm sure.

And I would not be surprised at all if next season Newcastle United are ahead of Tottenham as well. They already would be if they could, if they were allowed to. Right, right. And so we'll be looking at, I wouldn't be, you know, based on how things are heading at the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if Spurs are eighth in the wage bill table next season. And while I certainly don't think that Tottenham should be where they are in the league, I

And I certainly would not, you know, I think of course Tottenham should aim high and try and, you know, be a frequent team in Europe in the Champions League and compete for trophies and all the rest of it. Like you can't analyse what's going on in the pitch independent of the resources available to the teams from the players, sorry, the wages they pay to players. And

you know, we all get it. The current trend is to spend your big money on potential. Um, though Solanke wasn't an attempt to fill a hole with an experienced player. And I think that, that overall, that will work out as my guess. He's a, he seems like a very, very good footballer. Um,

Another piece of potential that they may have to pay north of £50 million or euros, whichever it comes in, is Matisse Tell. How do you think the new boy did on his full debut? Good. I think I like watching him play. He's lively. He takes people on. He wants the ball, which you can't really say of every Tottenham attacking player at the moment, frankly. And I was pleased for him that he scored that goal. Obviously, the goal doesn't really mean anything, but

But it means at least he's kind of had the experience scoring goals for Tottenham now. And there won't be a kind of, oh, when's he going to get his first goal type narrative. So, yeah, you know, Spurs are so, so desperate for new energy and spark in that front line at the moment because everyone is, you know, almost everyone's injured and the ones who are not injured, I mean, like...

Son is just in a real, real, real dip at the moment. And Kuliseski looks totally exhausted. Like he's like running on, you know, worse than empty. Empty than empty. So yeah, frankly, like fresh legs and exuberance and enthusiasm is exactly what they need. So that was good to see. After the game, Ange came out and he defended the players passionately. Yeah.

So I guess the question there is, if he's right and the players are giving absolutely everything or are doing more than can be expected of them and the results are so bad, where does that leave us? If it's not the manager's fault because of injuries, it's not the player's fault because they're trying their best, how do we account for these endless terrible performances and results? Well, I mean...

I don't know if it always helps to think about it through the prism of whose fault it is. I mean, at the end of the day, there's a lot of fault to go around. You can spread it out even, spread it out liberally between players, manager, board, all the rest of it. In terms of why are Spurs so bad, well, it's because they don't really have, they have a very thin squad. Most of their good players are injured and of the remaining players, the best ones are exhausted. I think it's,

I mean, there's other things there as well. I mean, but I think that's really what that is largely what it boils down to. I mean, they just don't really have the they don't have the available resources in terms of players. I mean, yeah, we could have a we spent a lot of time this season or and last season arguing about Angeball. And is it too attacking? Is it too extreme? Yeah.

and but they're not even playing Angeball at the moment they haven't played Angeball in months like they're just I think I mean people might correct me on this I think they're just playing a generic generic you know supermarket own brand 4-2-3-1 Premier League football at the moment um

So I don't think their success or failure in the last few months really is based on the ability of the players they've got on the pitch. And sometimes I think there was that run in like December, January where before Solanke's knee injury, where I thought that Solanke and Kuliseski were actually sufficiently good to drag Tottenham through a lot of games. But now Solanke's injured and Kuliseski's exhausted.

I think that really explains why they are where they are. You know, it's not that that's my take on it at the moment, although frankly, my opinion changes week by week right now. Sure. And if the identifying marks of Ange Ball in its performance

ludicrously successful opening spell which is now disappearing into the rear view mirror let's be honest about that um were high energy and the inverted fullbacks what i've noticed that you know suppose you're right they haven't played like that for a little while um but everybody does the inverted fullbacks thing we just hadn't noticed enough um virtually everyone does it

I think Spurs were doing it with two was what... Yeah. So my view on this is that what made Ange Ball distinctive is the fact that... And they haven't... I mean, they have not played like this for so long. Yes. But on a good day, the way that they do it, like...

Poro and a Doggy, they didn't just come inside to sit there and defend against a counterattack or to help you build up. They came inside to attack the kind of half spaces and make attacking forward runs as an extra, like...

as an extra way to confuse and rattle the opposition defence. Yes. And they would do it simultaneously, right? That really was the breakthrough, yeah. They wouldn't just wait. And I think if you watch the sort of like classic example of full-back inverting, which, you know, I mean...

I don't know, 10 years old, 12 years old now. It's generally you have like a, you know, something like a Philip Lahm just kind of comes into the middle of the pitch to help with the build-up. He's an extra body, yeah. Yeah, like defending against the counter. Whereas actually a Doggie and Poro attacking the way they do makes you, doesn't really help the build-up that much and makes you more vulnerable, not less vulnerable to the counter-attack. But it's kind of slightly academic now because Spurs have not,

Spurs just haven't done that for a long time and maybe they won't do it again. But that's the thinking, I guess. Okay. Let's move on to what else he said after the game. Am I being ungenerous to pull him up about the kind of language he started to use? Phrases like pylon, agenda. There were one or two others I picked out that are the language of victims of violence.

social media bullying. I find it very hard to find him as a victim, I must be honest, but am I being too sensitive about this? No, I don't know. I think it's just reflective of how

I think it's just reflective of how much pressure he's under. And I think, you know, lots of... Like, every manager, and this is not just unique to him, but every manager loves to talk about how, you know, I don't care what's in the media. I don't care about the outside noise. I don't care about other people's opinions. And yet, it's clear that, in fact, they do care. Like, it's clear that Possecoglu cares what people say about him. Just, like, it's clear that, you know...

I mean, Guardiola, Klopp, Wenger, like Mourinho, Conte, like so many of these managers who like to say that they're kind of above it all, in fact, are not. And in fact, you know, they've got, most of these managers have got pretty big egos and they do care what is written and said about them. MUSIC

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Welcome back from the view from the lane. Let's open the windows, let some air in to what is a pretty sealed and hermetic kind of grief fest after each of these games. It's not very enjoyable to watch and it's certainly not very enjoyable to analyse. I hope that we're at least bringing you some insight, if not any fun, about what's happening at Spurs just now. A beautiful thing happened though at the weekend when Jamie Donnelly, who is...

a pretty good player, in my opinion, who's out alone at the moment, along with Josh Keeley at Lake Norient and against the mighty Manchester City, scored a goal last

for the ages actually from the halfway line saw Ortega off his line lobbed him from well just about the halfway line that ludicrous rule that if the ball bounces off the crossbar off the back of the goalkeeper that it has to be given as an own goal I'm sure Ortega doesn't want that on his CV and I'm sure Jamie would prefer that it would be you know

to him did you see it Jack have you seen it yet oh yeah it's a great goal it's it could have been one of the all-time great FA Cup moments yeah all-time great FA Cup FA Cup goals

Yeah, and look, I saw one or two people across social media, and people are desperate. And I totally understand. Well, why is he on loan? You know, we have to let these lads develop somewhere. It's better, like, one, at the start of the season, people wouldn't have known how this injury crisis that Spurs have had. And if he'd been sat just playing on 21s football...

that, like, it would clearly have been... People would have said, oh, shouldn't he have gone out on loan? Shouldn't he have gone out on loan to play real football with men? And in fact, you know, Donnelly, by virtue of being at Leighton Orient this season, he's...

He's played 17 league starts plus a few more sub appearances. He's played in the Cups. He's played almost like 25 games at League One standard. That's a really good education for him.

And also it kind of continues this idea that even, you know, the kind of Tottenham Hotspur hex, whenever Manchester City come to that particular bit of North East London, even that hex, even if I've stolen this off somebody I saw on Twitter, that even as Tottenham Hotspur low knee can exercise that same power over Manchester City. That is very good, actually. Well done, whoever you stole that from. That's copyright Jack in my mind. So...

Here we are, Jack, in the, as you pointed out, the almost unprecedented in recent times luxury, if that's the right word, of a free week for Spurs. They've got a whole clutch of players who are back on the grass, as I believe the scientists call it, and a week off.

What would you be doing? You're a brainy cove. What would you be doing and what should they be doing over the next seven days before Manchester United? Well, what should they be doing? I don't know. I don't know an awful lot about strength and conditioning. So I'm not going to tell them what exercises they... It is possible to argue, nor do they, given the current situation. I...

what would I do well I actually took a I took a rare midweek day off last week went to go and see a complete unknown at the cinema had to stop myself from singing along in my seats I was enjoying it so much did you go on your own I did go on my own house cinema is best enjoyed yeah so they could do that I mean I assume that the players will have a little bit of time off this week but

And then they've got to they Yeah, I guess hopefully they can have a little bit of a physical and mental reset.

and then find a way to focus on the Manchester United game. This should not be an intimidating game, Manchester United. Manchester United are a complete mess, and I think Spurs can certainly win that game, but I just hope that... This really is a hold-my-pint fixture, isn't it? You think you're a mess, hold-my-pint. If they can bring a bit of extra energy to that game, and maybe some players back, I'm not sure. In the past...

I was at Postacoglu's press conference on Friday morning, and he suggested there were a few players who he hoped would be back, either for Man Utd or Ipswich. That's a kind of like Madison...

Brennan Johnson, maybe odd bear. Uh, yeah, if they can get Madison or Brennan Johnson back, that'd be great. Thank you for listening to us. We really do appreciate it. And we know that tens of thousands of you do. Um, you can also get in touch with us via social media. We are at VFTL podcast on X stroke, Twitter and blue sky. We're also available by email through, uh, VFTL at the athletic.com. And,

And as I always say, and I feel sometimes it feels a bit eggy, a bit cheesy, for the very best coverage of Spurs, and I mean in depth as well as with all the bits and pieces of gossip and stuff that you want, The Athletic is your one-stop shop. People like Jack and Jay and others, particularly some of the people who make the graphics about data and all the rest of it, it really is an unparalleled coverage of –

all the clubs in the Premier League really but Spurs is particularly well served by the people who cover it so get yourself a subscription to The Athletic I know I do thanks for listening and even in these darkest hours we have no power as I say us fans so all we have is hope come on you Spurs The Athletic

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