Ipswich, Europa League and Tottenham
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Hello everybody and welcome once again to The View from the Lane, the multi-award winning Tottenham podcast from The Athletic. Joining me, Danny Kelly, are James Moore and Jack Pittbrook. Three wins on the bounce in the league for Spurs. We will be asking, are we back?

But first, though, Jack, you were reporting on the game. It's an odd game. You know, say a game of two... It was a game of two 18ths, wasn't it? The first 18th of the game, which might have been three up. After that, Spurs were largely in control. Yeah, I thought it was...

I thought it was not that different from the last two games, the last two league games, the win at Brentford, the win against Manchester United, in the sense that I don't think Spurs were at their absolute best, but I think they were better than they were for a lot of December and January. I thought that, yeah, they conceded a few chances at times and had to ride their luck, but they also created enough chances to win the game themselves.

um and so yeah not a perfect performance but a step in the right direction and even though they did clearly had to you know had to get through a few difficult moments not least the first five minutes yeah the first five minutes were it was chaotic and i didn't at the time i didn't like um gray right and danso left that settled down once gray realized that um

that Liam de Lappe could ragdoll him physically and he had to play a different kind of game slightly off of the Ipswich centre forward James what's your mood like now after three successive wins in the Premier League first time since Jack will know September 23 I can't remember December 2023 I think yeah quite a long time ago the three games before Christmas I think the year before last yeah which yeah

Yeah, pretty good now actually. I mean, I think we kind of suggested after Brentford that suddenly we had confidence they'd beat Manchester United because Manchester United are pretty terrible. And then if they won those two games, we thought they'd win at Ipswich. And then I think we also said if they win those three games, they'll probably beat Man City. So, you know, I mean, I don't know how confident we are about that one just yet, but clearly... We'll know in about half an hour, 45 minutes. Clearly, the vibes rollercoaster is very much on the up again. I was talking to someone about this last night and I...

In a funny way, I think I'd rather be in the position that Spurs are in now than being sick. And let me tell you why. So many times over the last 15, 20 years of Spurs being a competitive team, playing European football, and feasibly being potential companies, they've been spinning multiple plates. They've had so much to do. They've been flitting focus between various competitions. And there have been seasons where they've played...

almost 60 matches and ended up winning nothing despite playing brilliantly well in a lot of matches in a lot of different competitions. In this instance now, we're in a situation where they can focus entirely on Europa League. There's just no need to play...

75% fit players in weekend Premier League games in between European matches. There's just no need now. They're not going to get relegated now. I'm 100% confident of that. I think they could lose every game in the Premier League between now and the end of the season and they wouldn't get relegated. Which tells you something about the three teams at the bottom of the Premier League. It really does. But for the first time that I can remember, certainly in the last 20 years, Spurs can focus entirely on

what is now one cup, but on cup competitions. And I think if you look at that draw that we saw last week, and we're going to come on to that a bit later. Yeah. I think it's incredibly favourable despite the away leg issue that I know we'll talk about. Yeah. So I think I'd rather have this, being able to focus on one thing, obviously with players coming back, than have this kind of incredible season of possibility of multiple options for success. Because we've seen that so many times and it's never worked. So in this instance now,

One thing to focus on, and I prefer it. You're going for the eggs basket argument here. Absolutely. It's a good argument. Well, we discussed this perhaps two or three podcasts ago, whether we should announce that we're a...

declaring in the Premier League and concentrate on Europe. It's easier to do it now that they've got the extra nine points, isn't it? Let's be truthful. Because as you say, the last shadow of the threat of relegation has receded into the rear view. Once Spurs got into the game, they played, Jack, I thought some very decent football. And

A bit of flow to it. I thought the fullbacks, you know, the first time we've seen Udogi back for a while at left back and obviously Jed Spence, new king of White Hart Lane or whatever the Tottenham Stadium is going to be called, playing at right back. They actually played pretty well. Aiden had bettered, I think, by the way, it's set up. This is not to downgrade Spurs.

John Kelly, when he was on here on the last podcast, promises that he thought Iterich would go for it, and they certainly did. That was the most attacking line-up they've picked all season. And if you consider that Leif Davis, their left back is essentially a left winger, and very good at it, he is too, but not so good at defending, perhaps, at times. Spurs really played some very decent football throughout the game, I thought. Yeah, I just think the problem for me, which is point of view, is that they had this amazing first five minutes, but you really got to...

you've got to be able to exploit that because you're not going to be able to sustain it like there's no way that it's which could play at that tempo for more than more than five or ten minutes and you know if they'd got one of those if de la you know de la there's two chances where he did gray down the left hand side and then he had that the header from i think it was hutchinson's free kick that hit the post uh or maybe no sorry calvin phillips's free kick they hit the post um

And, you know, it would have been a completely different game if they'd gone ahead because they could have then sat back and, you know, the onus would have been on Tottenham. But having not scored, you just knew that they were going to run out of steam a bit. And I think... And when Spurs got... When Spurs sort of settled down and got into the game, you did see elements of...

elements of things that we haven't seen from Tottenham for a while. So, Adogge, obviously, this is Adogge's first start for two months since his hamstring injury. And he was back making those kind of attacking inside runs that we haven't seen a lot of

I mean, obviously Spence can do that, but having Spence and a doggy both starting, I think gave Spurs a bit more in possession. I thought that Bergwijn had another good game in the middle of the pitch. And so they could just... Yeah, they could... They seized control of the tempo, and also they knew...

the Ipswich would leave them big spaces to attack. And that's exactly what, you know, the first two Tottenham goals were ridiculously easy because they both started with a brilliant pass in one instance from Gray and the other instance from Benton Kerr, both to Son. And in both cases, Son had, I forgot his name, Godfrey on absolute toast and was able to create chances for Johnson to score.

Yeah, absolutely. And of the returning players, I mean, we can talk about Johnson and Udogi. We've already mentioned Udogi. But I do think that first five minutes, once again, the star of the show was Vicario.

Look, I sent to the Butan Lane WhatsApp group that film that the club put out. Normally, they're so uninteresting. I had to get it stage-managed, and so was this, but a 20-minute film about Vicario's recovery from injury in his first game back.

for Spurs. It was actually fascinating. Um, he seems like a very interesting guy. I mean, the way, the way he talks about football is as though he doesn't know anything about anything else. And the fact that he lives with his mum and dad, clearly somewhere in the leafier parts of the environs of London was also really, really interesting. We bumped into his mum, his mum and dad are big. Uh, if you go to any Spurs fan Spurs game, you will often just see them like that. People often do clips of them online. And, uh,

I was there, Dan Kilpatrick, who I travelled to the game with, pointed them out before the game. They were on their way into the stadium as well. So they're kind of sort of little, they're sort of recognisable faces amongst the away travelling support. And Mr Vicario has a scarf with his son's face on it, which he very proudly sports. Very, very good indeed.

But yeah, Vicario's sort of double save, double scramble, call it what you want. It was important. I'm not saying that Kinski wouldn't have made those saves. They were not like they were wildly unpredictable. You know that he's going to save those, and it was great. I think for a game like that, you just really...

you really need like having the extra experience that Vicario has is so important like he's so it's the saves and it's also the not like the organising and he talks the whole team through the game and just radiates calm he's a big personality and I think it's actually not a squad with loads of those really

And I mean, this isn't to kind of denigrate Kinski, who after one match we were basically saying was going to be number one for the next 15 years. I think having seen like a few more games of Kinski and then a few games of Vacario since he's come back or two, you really do notice a difference. As Jack says, not just the kind of vocal communication, but just in the way he kind of cajoles players and just has a kind of air about him that I think gives them confidence, despite some of our moaning about what happened at set pieces last season.

Yes, you know, and that was okay. We were right to moan about that. There were things that there somewhere between the club and the officials that needed to be sorted out. But in goalkeeping terms, he's just very, very good. And of course, there's that business aspect.

that he played on with a broken ankle for an hour at Manchester City. And again, that goes a long way with me. It either proves just how devoted you are to Spurs or that you're a bit of a nutcase. And both those things are okay with me. And he was very, very good. Brennan Johnson, I'm sorry, he...

He's phenomenal, isn't he? I can't see what he's doing, but that's probably because the defenders can't see what he's doing either. Two more goals. And I remember at the start of the season, James, when I was voicing similar mystery about what Brendan is trying to do, you said to me, but if he gets 10 goals and five assists, you'll think he's had a good season. Well, he's absolutely outstripping that despite an injury.

Yeah, I'm actually not sure how he's doing. I'm allowing you to say you were right there, James. Well, I'm always very happy to do that. He's not got that many assists this season, actually, has he? No, he's got very few assists. He's got lots of goals, though. Two or three, but yeah, the goals, clearly, he's kind of really ramped up. Nine in the league, 14 in all competitions for goals. 14 is a lot. Pretty good going, isn't it? Yeah, exactly, given he's missed a few games as well. I don't think his reputation as a tapping merchant is necessarily...

But I would say, if you look at that first goal, his work there didn't start the second Son crosses the ball. It starts the second, I guess, probably Gray plays the ball to Son. Yeah. He makes that run, it has to be perfectly timed. Otherwise, he's either offside or the ball's getting cleared by the defender. Yeah.

So, you know, I'm not suggesting it's the best goal that's ever been scored, but it isn't as simple as just like sticking his tie out and prodding it into an empty net. He talked after the game about how Ryan Mason has talked to him again and again and again about the timing of this run. Though I don't know how much you can coach that. It looks to me like a lot. It's pretty instinctual, isn't it? I would say so. And the second goal was a really good finish, like first time. I mean, maybe a little bit fortunate that the keepers possibly...

maybe a little bit closer to his near post when the cross comes in. But, I mean, yeah, really good finish. Here's something for either of you two, but probably for the listeners, really, because I'm far too lazy to do it. 14 goals. How many touches has he had to get those 14 goals? I mean, from the moment the assist leaves the other player's foot. He's probably not up to 20, is he? Because so many of them are one touch to get the ball across the line, which is great, you know. And look, I've saved his name till last because...

we have been starting, if not to dig his grave career wise, um, at least pick them and send, you know, at the corner of their mouth, do you know where the shovel is? Um, son, son, I suppose, captain, um,

His mother must have told him there'd be days like these because, as you say, if he'd put Ben Godfrey into a toaster, it couldn't have been more dominant performance against one player against another. And, Jack, I've got to be honest, I was thrilled for him because, look, he may be coming off the very enormous –

that he's occupied for a decade at Spurs. I don't know. Maybe it is tiredness. I don't know the answer to that. I can't know that, can I? But to see him play like he can play was a joy. Yeah, totally. I think it's just... I mean, I think a big part of it is the fact he's had two weeks... Not two whole weeks off, but he's had two weeks in which the Spurs players have had time off. They've not been playing twice a week every week. Because, you know, someone plays every game. He always plays. And he...

And he said they've had two clear weeks where the players have had a bit of time off. They've been able to train properly instead of just doing, coming straight into a match situation. And he just looks like he has a bit more in his legs, I thought, yesterday than in recent games. And, you know, if he can... One thing I think we've seen with Son this season is that he's kind of lost a bit of that edge 1v1. Like, he's sort of...

He slows things down. He comes back inside. He either doesn't trust himself to beat the defender or maybe he doesn't have that confidence. And those things were true. Yeah, totally. To a lesser or greater extent, they're true. I mean, the evidence was in front of our eyes. We weren't making it up. He was not playing well. But yesterday, sorry, on Saturday, I thought he was fantastic. His willingness to... I mean, firstly, Tottenham got him into good positions, but also his willingness to run at Godfrey

to get into those places where he could create chances, two of which Johnson scored, was fantastic. Like, it was just... He was such a kind of dangerous weapon again. It was great to see. You made me laugh there, because the way you said Godfrey, I was thinking, he might as well have been playing against private Godfrey from Dad's Army, mightn't he? The way that game was going. Sorry, James. The two things I'd say on that are, one, I mean, I agree with Jack. I think it probably... What it tells you is...

Son can still be a very good and effective player for Spurs, but he has to be a squad player in as much as he's one of a squad, not like a first-name-on-the-team-cheap player every single game. He has to be rotated in and out. He can't play. I don't think he can play twice a week every week. What that looks like next season, I guess, we'll have to wait and see because that will be determined by whether or not they're in Europe and that may almost kind of solve the problem for them. And secondly, I guess, you do have to also acknowledge, even if you're not getting into...

the level of Ben Godfrey and the level of Ipswich Town you do have to say it was an open game as you mentioned Danny Ipswich came out to play they didn't sit back really they had to win the game they need to win every game now don't they and that obviously was something that Sommers was able to exploit on both of those two goals that he assisted so whether it's a different game if he's up against a kind of deep

better organised back four or five I think that's probably a fair question because he's probably never really had the kind of level of trickery to beat players in that situation I think that's been something that's sort of fairly well established I'd accept all of that all you would say just on the evidence of that whatever number of minutes he played there against Etruscan is at least the speed of his movement

I mean, his movement with the ball when he got it, that was restored. Absolutely. Yeah, and so sometimes it isn't about trickery. Yeah, well, what I'm saying is, like, they have to pick and choose the games they're using in next season, and that should be a factor in which he does and doesn't play, I think. Yeah, well, it was brilliant yesterday to see him, sorry, Saturday, just to see him in full flood again. It was very enjoyable. A couple of players I want to talk about as well then. I'll ask you this about this one, James, because...

Another new position, if you like, for Archie Gray. I see people now, some people, talking about maybe he is a centre-back. I can't wait to see him playing in midfield. I just wondered whether you share that. He's not wasted, but he has played a whole season out of position now, you could argue. Yeah, it's kind of getting to the point now where we're kind of saying we want to see him play in midfield now.

On the basis of no evidence, really. No, not at all. Except that pass to Son. Sure, but he's made that pass to Son from centre-back. He mostly played a full-back for Leeds last season. He's played one or two games. I think he played a cup game against Chelsea in midfield. But I think mostly he's played a full-back for Leeds. So I understand why people think he's a midfielder. And I think Jay wrote a piece saying...

that another club that wanted to sign him, who will remain nameless, but Jay knew what was going on, wanted him to play midfield and thought he could be one of the best midfielders in the Premier League. And that was like part of their sales pitch. I mean, it's hard to say because we've just not seen it. I mean, like I'm aware of the reputation and I can kind of see elements of his game that would kind of translate to playing in that kind of role.

But at the same time, he has done really well at centre-back. And distribution from centre-back is clearly a big part of the game now, probably more than it was 20 years ago. Being able to play out from the back... The defensive side of his game, the physical side of his game is all really good. So it's not like you're putting... It's not like when Man United ended up at Michael Carrick at centre-half, for example, where physically you're probably not quite big and strong enough to compete with centre-forwards, not quick enough either. But his distribution was really good.

This is a guy who, you know, is strong, pretty quick, distribution is incredible. His reading of the game is really, really good. So he does actually have all of the attributes to be like a modern centre-half. That is the thing. I mean, I can't really answer the question because I've just not seen him play in midfield. But what I would say is to flip it, I guess, I think they need to find someone to play number six.

So whether it's him or someone else, they need to do that. Yeah, because I've always thought of him as being more... Based on what we've seen, which is obviously what we've seen of Gray, is him playing a centre-back, right? So when I watch him, I wonder if he kind of reminds me of a young... I think definitely on this pod I talked about young Stones, young Riaford, he's not as physical as those...

He's not as physical as those two were, but I wonder if he could... I mean, he's so young, we don't really know. He's got so much development left to do. But I do wonder if that Carrick comparison might turn into the player that he is. I just don't know. Last individual performance I want to talk about, Jack, is Matthias Tell.

Now, bear in mind that the first few games Kulisescu played, we all said, oh, he's useless, can't do anything. Bear in mind that Dominic Solanke, oh, my God, what have they paid all that money for? Um...

Dom Intel had a difficult time, I thought. And again, the opposite to Archie Gray, if you like, or a similar issue, it was you're not in Kansas now, lad. The Ipswich Town centre backs who've come through the championship, they just knocked him about. He could not get control of the ball because they never let him physically readjust his position once the ball was anywhere near him.

I'm not suggesting for one minute that I've seen some again on social media saying, oh, he's got to be dropped because you've got to give these people a chance. And his effort couldn't be questioned, but he had a difficult afternoon against grown-up centre-backs prepared to give him a bit of clog. Yeah, so I defended Tell against Manchester United. I thought he was

pretty good and got into lots of shooting positions and on another day would have scored whereas I thought yesterday sorry Saturday he was not great I just think he found it as you said he found it really tough to play as a centre forward I just don't

I just... It didn't look like that's his natural position, or at least not in a game like that, because he wasn't really making those runs in behind. That was mainly Johnson and Son. And so he was trying to come short to get the ball, but every time he came short, he wasn't... He couldn't really keep control of the ball in tight space, because as soon as he got it, Jacob Greaves would just run into the back of him and knock him over. So, yeah, it's... I didn't... I kind of felt watching that like... I mean...

Maybe his best role would be playing alongside a Slanky or a Charleston as a more conventional nine, because I'm not sure playing with his back to goal is necessary. It didn't look like his best thing on Saturday. Totally. Sorry, I'm just going through a list of Spurs players here, and I don't mind that, because when you win 4-1 in the...

17, 18ths of the game which you dominated, you can go through them. Everyone deserves praise. There's nothing wrong with just praising every player individually. Absolutely. And tell...

will have been further disheartened by Dane Scarlett's one important touch in the game where he wins a header having played in the championship and knows that somebody is coming through you whether you like it or not so he gets himself ready for the physical contact and indeed accidentally hurts the player he's against but gets that flick on with his head for the assist for Kulishevsky um

if nothing else, Matias could look at that and say, okay, so you've got to stand your ground here because you're not going to get a chance to flick it about. Well done for Scarlett, by the way. That was brilliant. That was good. Old school, old school. It's good to see. It looked like on TV, he kind of did give it to the Ipswich fans a little bit. Jack, is that a fair representation of what happened after that, after Kulosevsky scored? He kind of wheeled away in the other direction.

Like away from the Spurs fans. I didn't see that especially, but I think he did get a bit of a stick when he came on. He didn't celebrate with the Spurs. Of course, he'd been involved in the physical clash to get the ball on. So he wasn't with the cluster of Spurs players celebrating with Kulosevsky. Yeah, he was on his own. Whether or not he was giving grief to the Dittrich fans, I don't know. What I do know, I know two things now, is that James Madison was, after the game, when he revealed, among his myriad tattoos, his Norwich City tattoo.

That picture on Instagram, I guess it was, pointing to his Norwich City tattoo. I mean, James, you've got enough people in the world who want to get

hate on you without giving people like Eastridge Town fans the opportunity so to do. He's also got a platform nine and three quarters tattoo. That's to do with Harry Potter I suppose is it? Yeah, yeah. Danny, come on. That's the platform at King's Cross from which you get the train to Hogwarts at the start of every term. Don't forget I worked on the southern region, Jack. Things like King's Cross are no interest to me whatsoever. Lesser regions, lesser termini. You know that. You can't get to Hogwarts from Waterloo though, can you?

And no, you can't, no. I was at Victoria. Waterloo's another loser station as well. James Madison, well, apart from his brilliant array of tattoos, those four touches in setting up the goal for Jed Spence, look, whatever else, and, you know, was he rested because he had a knock or whatever? There's nobody else at the club who can do that. It was absolutely hilariously brilliant. That was kind of akin to...

A lot of what we saw from Madison at the start of last season when we were getting very excited by this player who was kind of running games. When he was winning the Kinski Ballon d'Or. Right. And his footwork was the thing that we really commented on because we were surprised by how good it was. I mean, I'd say there aren't that many players in the Premier League that could do that. Let alone in this Spurs squad. It was incredible, really. Probably actually slightly overlooked.

Yeah, well, that's why I wanted to just make sure that people remembered it. And finally on this, I love a trademark goal, right? I like players who've got a trademark. So both of Johnson's goals, the first one was particularly trademarked, wasn't it? But Kulosevsky's goal, if you had to try and describe to a Martian what is it that Dejan Kulosevsky does, that was just joyous for me because, A, because we were comfortable in the game and I was enjoying watching Spurs play.

but that cut inside, and then you know he's going to attempt to swerve the ball outside the post, giving the goalkeeper no chance. And we've seen it go wide dozens of times, but when it goes in, it's so fantastically unstoppable. And even the fact that he hit the post, you need that. It needs to hit the post and go across the goal. And he's another one, Jack, who I thought looked like

the extra three or four days rest um he wasn't at his absolute best i didn't think but he looked like he was at least back in the game physically in a way that he was starting to fade a little bit yeah i agree it's kind of hard to i mean it's hard to quantify really but my my impression was that he had a little bit more a little bit more physical energy um

You know, he played another long 90 minutes, started in midfield, moved out to the wing, but he kept going and going and going. And I'm sure that that kind of, you know, that break, it wasn't really a proper break, but just having those two midweeks, I think he went off to Rome on holiday during some of the time off they had. And yeah, he looked sharp. He looked kind of hungry. And I thought, very understandably, he had been looking tired over the last month or so. But yeah, I thought he was better.

And I think like a lot of players, I think there's, you know, Postacoglu can now think about management, like how to manage these players. It's not a case of who are the 11 fit players they've got to play anymore. He can actually manage the squad towards hopefully getting, you know, the sort of fittest, strongest team out for the Outmar game.

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Welcome back to The View from the Lane, everybody. We'll talk about the name of the club very, very soon. But first, we should talk about the draw for the last 16 of the Europa League. And because of the way the draw is done, we can talk about the possible progress for Spurs. First of all, let me point out, if it hasn't already been pointed out, that my...

nightmare of the final Bilbao being against Jose Mourinho and Fenerbahce will involve something else amazing happening. If Fener gets through to round of 16, it is possible, if everybody plays ball, that Jose Mourinho, to win the trophy, will have to beat...

All of his most recent clubs. It is possible he will beat Manchester United, Roma and Spurs, I think in that order, in order to win the Europa League. At least, hopefully, if that happens, at least we've made the final. Can I offer you another prediction? Yes. Jose Mourinho's Fenerbahce will lose to Rangers. Managerless Rangers. Your dream will never come true. Russell Martin's plucky Rangers. Ah!

Is that who it's going to be? Russell Martin? I believe that's the rumour. Wow. Wow, okay. I mean, this is not relevant to our listeners, but I just love Mourinho going to Ibrox. It's such a unique collision of energies. Yeah.

It'd be almost worth going to the game, wouldn't it? You won't be able to get a ticket for it. I guess it's fair to say that having beaten them already once in the league stage, and although they're doing well in the Eredivisie, James, I suppose, couldn't have probably hoped for... Of the options, that was the best draw, Elkmar. Yeah, I mean, I guess... Troy Parrott at all. Midgetland, maybe you would also back, I suppose. But yeah, I...

My memory of that game, obviously we're going back a few months now and a lot has happened in between, but Spurs were fairly comfortable. I know it was only 1-0, but that was quite a heavily rotated team, I think. Pre-injury crisis. So, yeah, you would make Spurs favourites, if not big favourites, for that tie over two legs. And obviously, playing at home in a second leg is a pretty big advantage. I think it may be a bigger advantage than it was even before in the away goals era. So...

Yeah, I mean, I would say like a little bit of a, or probably quite a big disaster actually in the context of Spurs season if they don't get through that. It would be really bad if they didn't get through, I think. Yeah, that would definitely, the vibes rollercoaster would be through the floor in that instance, I would say. Well, it would crash, wouldn't it? There would be a commission of inquiry into what had happened to the rollercoaster, let's be honest.

Jack, I saw you looking at the screen there while James was talking. Were you checking what's... I mean, you don't want to count your chickens and all that. Has anyone looked at what the likely road for Tottenham past Alkmaar would be? Yeah, it's all been drawn out. So if Tottenham get Alkmaar, then in the quarterfinals, they will have the winner of the tie between Ajax and Eintracht Frankfurt.

Marmouchless Frankfurt. Marmouchless Frankfurt. So these are obviously both teams that Tottenham have played in the last few years. I don't think anybody will need to know, need to be reminded of when Spurs last played Ajax. You might need to be reminded of when they last played Frankfurt, which was in the Champions League in 2022-23. So...

That away game was terrible, wasn't it? A 0-0. Yeah, I went to an away game in Frankfurt, which is an interesting place. The stadium is fantastic, but the game was really, really bad. I don't think there was a single chance in the whole game

The most interesting thing that happened was the night before, that was the famous Antonio Conte. I think he was asked about, people said, well, why don't you play Spence or Doherty at right back? And he said, well, I'm not stupid. I watched them in training. Well, so words to that effect. And that was the most interesting thing that happened. But the football itself was very boring. All right. Then let's, you know, either of those would present some kind of challenge, obviously.

let's say they go through those so the semi-final so that would be either the winner of Bodo Glimpt against Olympiacos or the winner of Victoria Pilsen against Lazio

So, I mean, I think... I mean, look, according to Opta, Lazio are the big favourites for the whole thing. Like, Lazio are top of the league phase. They're currently fourth in Serie A. They've got, you know, they've got a few players who will be familiar to Premier League fans. So, they've got two ex-Arsenal players, Tavares and Guendouzi, and an ex-Chelsea player, Pedro. So...

So yeah, assuming they beat Victoria Pilsen and then I guess them against Olympiacos or Brodo Glimp would be a good game. But you would probably expect the semi-final to be, you know, maybe Tottenham or maybe Ajax or maybe Frankfurt against Lazio. And that semi-final would be in early May over two legs.

Look, the bookmakers still have Spurs and Manchester United as favourites for this tournament, in this country at least. And as my colleague on Trans Europe Express last night, Kevin Hatchard, said, this is because we never learn in England, do we? This is a wide-open tournament now. You've mentioned Lazio. They can win it. Sociedad could win it. The English clubs might do very well. And nobody seems to be talking about Athletic Bilbao.

They are playing really well in Spain just now. They had another big win at the weekend, and the final is in their stadium. What do we know about Bilbao? They're immensely proud of their locality, their region, and they will be straining every nerve to get to the final in a home stadium. The funny thing is that even if, I mean, I don't want to predict that Spurs are going to be in the semifinal. That would annoy people. But let's just say if one of the semifinals is...

or Tottenham or Ajax or Frankfurt against Lazio. The other semi-final, could I, it's actually looking like a North Spain derby between Athletic and Real Sociedad. Which would be mad and brilliant. Haha.

Playing Real Sociedad in the final would be good, right? Because presumably the locals, I know it's not that far, but the locals would be... It's actually further apart than I thought these two places. It's 100 kilometres apart. I was trying to work out how you would get... I mean, look, we're talking about getting ahead of ourselves, so I was trying to work out if I went to the final, where I would stay and how I would get to Bilbao and then

I'm pretty sure we've already talked about booking our ferry to Bilbao so we have already got long ahead of ourselves on this one I'll be coming from Ross Lair but you know I think if you want to get a train from San Sebastian to Bilbao you have to go like more or less to Madrid or like Valladolid or something you have to go miles inland I guess to the mountains or whatever

So, yeah. And like I said, we're not getting ahead of ourselves. Right, Jack. I'm preparing myself here to get down off my high horse because I am really on my altitudinous equine friend about this thing with Spurs sending out an email, which you, undercover secret agent, secret squirrel, Jack Pitbrook, discovered. Why have they asked media companies – and because that is one step away from asking us, the fans –

When people have asked me over the past 60 years, six decades, who do you support, Danny? I say with great pride, and I mean great pride, Tottenham. I never say Tottenham Hotspur. Why would I say that? Spurs maybe? Yeah, of course. They're the Spurs. Of course they are. I support Tottenham. What is going on here, Jack? So Tottenham's, the club's view on this is that Tottenham is not the name of the club. The name of the club is Tottenham Hotspur.

and Spurs is the nickname. So in this email that went out to broadcasters on the 10th of February, this was sent out by the Premier League, but obviously, you know, at the behest of the club, it says, Tottenham Hotspur have provided clarification regarding the club's name. They have requested that the club are primarily known as Tottenham Hotspur, with Spurs being the preferred short version. The club have requested that they are not referred to as Tottenham.

And if you look at the 129-page brand playbook, which was issued in October, there is a line as part of this kind of big club rebrand that they did a few months ago. There is a line in there which says, When referring to the team or the brand, please use Tottenham Hotspur, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club or THFC. Never refer to our club as Tottenham, Tottenham Hotspur FC or THFC.

So clearly, I mean, look, this is not new. This has been club policy for a while. The club would never describe themselves as Tottenham in a piece, you know, in any piece of content they put out. So I think it's better to think of this as like a reiteration of that policy rather than a new policy.

And I guess what I would say is, like, the way I look at it is this. There are some clubs out there for whom you would never just use the regional descriptor. You would never say Aston for Aston Villa. You wouldn't say Wolverhampton for Wolves. You wouldn't say Nottingham for Nottingham Forest.

And there are other clubs for whom you can use the name. You can just say... Like, you would say Newcastle. You would say Leeds. You would say West Ham. And my opinion is that Tottenham Hotspur FC, to use their full name, Tottenham Hotspur think that they're like...

Aston Villa or Wolves or Nottingham Forest where you can't say the first name. I think that is wrong. I think they are in fact like Leeds or Newcastle or West Ham where you can just use the regional first part of the name and that is commonplace to speak to any Tottenham fan. Why don't we call them Hotspur then? Villa is a name. Everyone knows what Villa means but no one calls them Hotspur.

These are all different traditions that have grown through time. And just because, to mention time, I think I sent you in the WhatsApp group the actual papers from the court case.

It is a long time ago, but in 1999, the club had the exact opposite view when they tried to protect the word Tottenham. They took some street traders to court saying that they kind of owned the word Tottenham because, of course, if you put a jacket out with Tottenham written on the back of it,

you know, they couldn't copyright that. The judge said, I remember it distinctly, this case, the judge sent them spinning away from the courtroom saying that they couldn't have the word Tottenham because it had first appeared in the Doomsday Book. Now, I don't know the exact date of the Doomsday Book, but I know it was a long, long, long, long, long time ago. And here we are now, full circle. All right, we can't get away with that. Let's try something else.

I get it. It's marketing hogwash. I would use another animal-related word if I was feeling in a worse mood about it. The thing is, James, God bless them. If they've got time for that, then everything else at the club must be going swimmingly. I've seen a few people say that, and I guess if I was to defend...

the people involved, I'd say. I suspect Daniel Levy and Johan Langer and Scott Munn probably were not massively over this. Particularly as Jack said, it's not been a long-standing thing. I could be wrong, but I don't imagine that this was like time spent doing this was time that otherwise could have been spent signing players in January or whatever. Sure. But the whole thing, I think it's just...

complete nonsense I also disagree with this notion that it's just marketing and it's not for fans like you know if you're telling the Premier League that on their social media it should be Spurs or Tottenham Hotspur you are kind of steering the messaging that is being sent out to the public that this team should be referred to as Tottenham Hotspur or Spurs both of which are obviously completely fine things to call the club

But to steer people away from the Tottenham bit, and I think we know, and if you look at the Premier League social media, by the way, which is where I first noticed this a few weeks ago, and was slightly annoyed that we didn't twig that this was a thing, they're always referred to as Spurs now, because you're either telling them to go with a really long name or a very short name. And obviously, in social media design, graphic circles are always going to go with a short name. I think it's just going to look better. ♪

Yeah, welcome back to The View from the Lane. Manchester City upcoming midweek. I think we've almost agreed. Did we agree that we can chuck these league games down, concentrate on the Europa League, Jack? Was that your view or was that James' view? I can't remember. That was my view. I don't want to say chuck. I'd say more like gently... Let's not get into this. A game against Manchester City at home. Let's not get into this again. I'll leave you to put that to the manager in the press conference, Jack. What could possibly go wrong? I wouldn't say chuck. I would say...

gently remove some of the eggs from that basket and just hold them back for the AZ Outmar basket. James, you think the same thing? Yeah, I kind of do. I mean, I suppose the benefit is not having a weekend game this weekend. So having another full week, despite it being midweek, there still being a full week between this game and the next one.

so maybe this is going to be what's happened to this weekend's fixtures by the way it's FA Cup it's the FA Cup weekend thank you that's what happened dim and distant memory for us so maybe this is more of an argument for that Bournemouth game in between the two legs of Alkmaar in terms of how much emphasis I put on that game for this one I think

you know bar any kind of knocks and strains and fatigue they've got from Saturday I think they can probably afford to go relatively strong I mean I you sort of loathe to leave out a player like Kulizevski in a game like this because one he's got a very good record against Manchester City and two you need your best players to win a game like that but you know if you're going to leave anybody out it's going to be players who have played loads of football and I guess maybe that is Poro again I suppose or

Son, possibly? Although, again, you'd probably say similar thing to Kolozowski in terms of his record against City. But Poirot had a rest on Saturday. Yeah, he didn't though, did he? He played the last half hour. I was a bit sort of surprised when Bosticoglu said, I gave him a rest and he still played like one third of the game. I mean, I guess all I would say about this, I don't know what he's going to do, but we are in a luxurious position for the first time in three months, except at centre-back. And God knows what that mystery still contains. Where...

For this spell now, if you've got any doubts about a player's fatigue or a slight injury, we can probably leave them out. Because we've all agreed that having a limited number of players means that you multiply the chances of them getting injured or further fatigued because you have to keep playing them. Well, that's not the case anymore. And...

remind me when I say this, when I'm moaning, if he makes a few changes and Spurs get battered, remind me on the next podcast when I'm really losing my mind about the fact that we played a weaker team. Because of course, once the game starts, everything clicks in that I really want Spurs to win every game. But I do think this is an opportunity to just make sure that everybody is well away from that infamous red zone.

I like to pretend that Spurs are Manchester City's bogey team and certainly results indicate that but I don't think James we can rely on that in football matches can you? It's hard to know of City isn't it? Clearly they're still a good side and they've had some good results and performances in the last few weeks and they beat Newcastle was it 4-0 or 4-1 last weekend but then they're pretty meek in going out of the Champions League

Despite some of the excitement on Sky yesterday, I didn't think they were especially good, even in the second half against Liverpool. They just had a lot on the ball without really looking particularly threatening. Liverpool had to be at arm's length, I thought. I mean, it's more of a test in these last three games that they've won, but not like... Maybe this is a daft thing to say. Do you feel like you would have learned a lot more about this Spurs team if they beat Manchester City at home than you would do when they won at Brentford away? No.

No, I don't think so. I think, you know, there was a brilliant piece. You two can tell me in The Athletic about the changing face of football and why Manchester City are no longer the deluxe model because teams are now playing...

fast break football. Virtually every team in the league are doing it, and Spurs to some extent try to do it as well. But City, the quality of players they've got, they've also got a lot of injuries at the moment. And the manager's not a genius for no reason. He will be working this out very quickly. But the purchase of Marmouch is to make the ball move forward quicker in the team.

whether he plays up front or behind Haaland, who, of course, you're not going to get rid of anytime soon. But interestingly, I thought the goals that Johnson got were the kind of goals we normally get against Manchester City, where you play the ball long into the channel for Son and he terrorised them. So maybe they were practising in advance for the Manchester City game.

It's difficult. The result doesn't matter, but the formist does again. It's all that. I just think City are so poor physically at the moment. That's the really striking thing about them this season is that they've got really old. They've...

not refresh the squad properly. They became too dependent on Rodri, who's obviously missed so much football. And you can just run straight through them. This is what teams realise, I think, in about November or October, is that you can just run straight through City. And that's really what teams have been doing all season. And City don't have a response to it. They don't have Gundogan, Kovacic, De Bruyne at all. You

you know, the wrong end of their careers, really. And they don't have any sort of physical... That's kind of why they had to buy that Niko Gonzalez from Porto, who I don't think is, you know, a top-level player. Because they didn't have any... You know, they weren't able to stop teams attacking them that way. And so I kind of feel like if Spurs...

If Spurs were at their top physical level, if they were like they were, for example, the game in November, when they had just Madison running straight through them, then I think Spurs would be in a really good position. I just wonder whether Spurs will be able to come into this at that sort of level of peak physicality, whether that's Madison, Kulishevsky, Berg, Vowell in the middle of the pitch, maybe a doggy. If Spurs can hit that top physical level, I think Spurs will win. Yeah, I think Spurs will win because City literally will not be able to cope with it.

I'm glad you mentioned Bergvall. I forgot in the big praise up. He's lost in the shadow of Archie Gray, teenage sensation, isn't he? Another fantastic... He's so good. You know, not world-class. Let's not go mad, but a really, really good Premier League performance by Bergvall. His energy is sensational. Remember the way against Manchester United, Bergvall was just running past Castamira like he wasn't there? He could do that to Gundogan and Kovacic and De Bruyne on...

on Wednesday night. So I do think, yeah, I think the games, if Spurs can bring their top level, I think they certainly can win. I just wonder what the right combinations and selections will be. Thank you, Jack. Thank you, James. We'll be back after the Manchester City game to talk about that and look forward to the Europa League and much else besides. And I will be telling you about how I have found

found what is the perhaps football and punk rock equivalent of tootin carmen's tune lost for six and a half years since i moved from london found it this weekend that's coming up in the next edition of the view from the lane but thank you for listening very much to this one remember all your best coverage about spurs is in the athletic i say that without fear of contradiction you can get in touch with us you can email us at vftl at theathletic.com we're also on the

social media, Twitter and Blue Sky as at VFTL podcast. Thanks for listening and come on you, Chex Notes Spurs.