Why have Spurs appealed Bentancur's ban?
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The Athletic FC Podcast Network. Hello, everybody. Welcome once again to The View from the Lane, the multi-award winning Tottenham Hotspur podcast for The Athletic. I'm Danny Kelly, as you probably know. And with me today are The Athletic's Jay Harris and James Moore. I suppose I should start by saying, despite us on this podcast,

absolutely telling them not to. Spurs have decided to appeal against Rodrigo Bensinger's ban, as we said on the podcast on Monday. I guess, and I'm sure, Jay, you've been probing this once again with a pointed stick. The best they could hope for with an appeal would be to reduce it from seven games to six. What's actually happening here, Jay? Yeah, so me and Jack have written about this. The piece went out last night. So let's get the facts out of the way first.

The minimum standard ban in this situation is six games. The spectrum is six to 12 games. So Benton Coole's got seven games. In other situations with Edinson, Kovani and Bernardo Silva, they've had lesser bans. But a key distinction here is that they're

comments were made on social media, they were online, whereas Benton Coors said it publicly in an interview. So that's the clear distinction here. But Spurs, I think in their statement said they felt that it was quite a severe sanction compared to previous cases. Now they've not named any other cases, but we're sort of using our intuition here. Now if you ask me for my opinion on the situation, I just think it's an awful look. If the best case scenario is that he misses one game,

I just think the potential reputational damage you do in appealing it is not really worth it. He's still suspended while the appeal is going on. So I guess the potential best case scenario is that he might be available for Liverpool, which would have been the final game of his ban, which I think is Sunday the 22nd of December. You've got Yves Bissouma who's rotated that holding midfield role with him anyways. You've got £40m Archie Gray, who's meant to be this really exceptional holding midfielder who can fill in there anyways.

So, in another situation, if Spurs were in the middle of an injury crisis and they didn't have any midfielders, I could sort of understand it a little bit more. But I think with this situation, it's dragged on for so long. This happened all the way back in June when he made those comments. We're now in November. Just accept it, move on.

Because Davies spoke about it after Wales' game in the Nations League and he said, we've drawn a line under it. Well, no, you haven't because now your club's decided to appeal it. Everybody's talking about it again. I'm in agreement with you. This is just dragging out situations that have become agonising, really. Underneath your piece, you could see that there was a huge range of opinion.

about both the appeal itself and the ban. I mean, I rarely go to comments on these pieces, but because I was researching for the podcast, I mean, literally, there was a spectrum now. The point I was making was that social media is not real life either, but there was an absolute spectrum between he should have got banned for a year to what are we even talking about here? I mean, seriously, people were saying that now. Look, look, look, look, right. When...

Bernardo Silva and Edinson Cavani were banned for the offences they were banned for. I suspect there were probably loads of Spurs fans saying, thinking, claiming that those two players should have been banned for longer at the time. When Luis Suarez and John Terry were banned for racism or racism-adjacent offences back in the day, I suspect a lot of Spurs fans were saying those two players should have been banned for longer. If it had been a non-Spurs player who had made that comment about Son in June...

I suspect pretty much all of these Spurs fans would be up in arms that it had taken so long and that it was quote-unquote only a seven-game ban. So that's the first point. Secondly, for all the clubs, we believe the club's position is that they're not denying there has been an offence. They're not denying that Benton Co. should be banned. They're merely quibbling the length of the ban.

And as Jay says, the scope is only really for that to be reduced by one game to six games. Regardless of that, it still completely undermines the whole thing. And it still sends out a message that we only care about racism this much. We don't care about racism this much. We don't care about racism for seven games. You only care about it for six games. Whatever that percentage is from seven down to six. That's how much they care about racism.

Like, I think they're leaving the door open for these kind of comments, the kind of comments that are under that piece. And I'm not suggesting all of those people have only been swayed by that. But they are kind of enabling people. They are kind of planting the seed that it's only this bad, it's not quite this bad. Like, and then that just completely undermines the whole thing. Like, you know, this is a massive football club, a massive corporation that operates...

Obviously in North London, but also it is all over the world, including, as we know, in Southeast Asia, East Asia. That is the reach they're aiming for, oddly. You're absolutely right. Right. And they've been on tour there so many times. We know they have big sponsorship deals with companies from that part of the world, if not necessarily South Korea. Clearly they see that as a big part of their business model. And I know a lot of people kind of have taken exception to that.

But if that is the case, and if you're putting your most cynical, business-minded hat on, why would you disregard it to that extent? James, thank you for that. And you're actually pressing on the bruise. You both are, you know...

If it is entirely as it seems on the surface, and forgive me, I'm going into that place now, then what is the point of that? It's bad publicity at the very best. At worst, as you say, it is setting up a chain of thoughts that appears to think that you might be disregarding something as important as the issues we're talking about here. But also quickly, if the report which came out detailing the written reasons for the ban...

If they said Benton Kerr was a star witness, for want of a better phrase, was very cooperative, showed a lot of remorse, etc., maybe you could understand it a little bit more. But sort of the actual opposite happened, where they said he sort of tried to change his argument. So you're also trying to get someone off when he's been misleading to...

the independent regulatory commission who sorted out this process so I don't like that element of it as well let's see what they come out with because I suppose they could get the ban reduced by what is it 13 percent or something it's very strange at the same time as we were hearing about the uh the possible appeal and the suspension itself we were missing the story that was breaking while we were recording the podcast about the so-called rebrand at Spurs

Now, as somebody who in my days as a print editor went through several rebrands, I was interested to see people's responses. Again, from a huge spectrum, James, from this doesn't matter, an iota, what about on the pitch, et cetera, out through to this is the club wasting money on something that doesn't mean anything. I think I know where I stand on this. What did you make of the – have you enjoyed the rebrand? I have to correct you quickly. Hang on. It's not a rebrand.

It's remastering the brand identity. You know, that word salad of gobbledygook about the character of the club being reflected in a few crayon drawings. James, how have you reacted? I guess the two main things are the rebanding of the badge on the shirt, the taking away of the words Tottenham Hotspur, and that strange typeface. And what does it say? Yeah.

Go on now, you Spurs. Something like this. It was nonsense. The thing with removing the Tottenham Hotspur from the badge, it hasn't been like that on the shirt the whole time.

I think I've been back and looked through and I think there was one shirt where the words Tottenham Hotspur were underneath the badge since they've redone it, the badge. I was going to say since they've rebadged it. I guess that is kind of what they've done to the shirt, I guess. That's exactly what they've done, yeah. Yeah, so I mean, look, I know that's on merch and whatever else, but I mean, they could have just done that and no one would have noticed. I don't think they needed to pay whatever they paid for this. The font I'm kind of confused by because I can't work out

whether it's a sans serif font or not. And look, Dan, you and I could get very excited about that, having both worked in magazines. But I think the old font was better.

But that is a game of opinions, isn't it, really? We have to be honest. These redesigns sometimes are a bit like the names of bands. Everyone hates them until they're successful. And suddenly, I mean, the Beatles is the worst name ever for a band, isn't it? But nobody says that because they like them. But one thing about the Tottenham Hotspur, I believe, the logo... What is a good name for a band then? Well, well...

Shall we go through this? We've got a hard finish. We need to be finished by 10 and you've asked him that question. I know, I know. Of all bands that are currently operating, I'd go for King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. It's a great name for a band. No, come on. That sounds like a nursery rhyme that someone came up with.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Yeah, well, cool. I like their records. I'm answering my own question. That sounds like Dr. Seuss has had a couple of too many and he's... Okay. All right, then. So-called Jay. What's your idea of a good name for a band? Well, obviously, I'm a big hip-hop fan, so I like a tribe called Quest. I think that's a cool name. Yeah.

Well, I can't argue with that. Well, there you go. Moving on. So we've covered the A's in good names for bands. Next week, B's. Oh, we already know. We think B was a stupid name for a band. Very quickly, the removal of the words Tottenham Hotspur under the badge –

People are going mad about this. You're right to point out it's not been used very well. But the reason is obvious. Let's at least try and give the club the easy wins. Anybody who looks at a phone for their social media, and that is everybody...

You're not going to read those. They're so small, you're not going to read them anyway. The point about simplifying logos in the current climate of the world, hello, IAC's doing the opposite thing, and taking as much detail out of them as you can is because they have to be seen. My own avatar on Blue Sky is minute.

You need something that's instantly recognizable when being reproduced in less than a third of an inch. Somebody can convert that into metric for me. So that's obvious. Let's get over that. I do think the main thing is my suspicion is

after the Fiori dies down and everybody will still be allowed to have a favourite Spurs badge, obviously, this will all disappear. I still might, James, with our old trade on, I might sniff as I go through the stadium and look at that italicised typeface and think, that's not pretty, that's not very good. All right, look, thank you very much indeed for that.

But again, we're veering recklessly from issues perhaps slightly trivial to issues of great seriousness. We asked you for your questions. A lot of them came. I want to thank you for those in advance. Not everybody's questions are going to get answered. But again, it's like, you know, don't ask, don't get.

Philip Kavanagh asked, and here comes it. It's like, Philip, we've got a lovely mill pond of a podcast coming here. Now, like in a Merry Melodies cartoon, you're about to drop an anvil into our peaceful world. Philip asked, how many consecutive wins would it take for belief to come back? Philip is saying three before he starts believing Ange Ball is real again.

Is Philip just there, Jay? Is he just reflecting people? I think both things. I think he's reflecting a slight undermining of faith in Ange Ball while at the same time desperate for it to come back. Yeah, I think it's fair. Obviously, we've spoken about this before, but this season it's three times in a row Spurs have lost the game before the international break. So you've got a long two weeks to just mull over stuff and...

Feel a little bit down in the dumps, etc. But yeah, I think, because obviously it's questions about how many wins would it take for the belief to come back. And I think three is probably the right answer. But also, just because the Ipswich game was bad doesn't mean we should forget about Man City in the Carabao Cup, Manchester United at Old Trafford, Villa at home. And as you've just rightly pointed out,

the wins have been amazing and the losses have been pretty tight so you'd like to think that eventually maybe the rubber green is going to go in spurs's favor a little bit more learn from some of those situations which poster koglu's sort of spoken about some of the challenges against crystal palace maybe even brighton and definitely galatasaray by exposing the younger players to those situations you'd like to think that later on in the season later on in their careers with spurs

they'll adapt to those difficult situations a little bit better. So there's still a lot of things to be optimistic about. Well, listen, Philip, I think we really have probed this issue quite a lot. And no doubt we'll all have renewed evidence one way or another after the Manchester City game. Although I think it's much more interesting this run of games between now and Christmas, most of which, for instance, Benton Curr will miss, as we've been saying. MUSIC

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Yeah, welcome back to The View from the Lane. Everybody, i.e. me, used to obsess about that statue of Harry Kane that had been commissioned by Walton Forest Council, built at some expense, less expensive, for instance, than a decent new car. I was surprised by that.

The statue itself, in my opinion, it's not the worst football statue, but that's not setting the bar very high. But it is pretty reasonable because it does look like it's been made out of chocolate. They found a place to put it, Waltham Council. I tried to buy it, but they weren't having that. And Harry Kane, bless him, has been along to give his approval. We've now seen the great man, James, actually adjacent to the statue. Have we forgiven it a bit more for the way it is? No.

What, forgiving the statue? Yeah. Yeah, I will always forgive a statue. I've got something that might make you guys feel a little bit better. So, obviously, a few people have said statues of athletes, etc., are never that great, but this only costs £7,200. Amazing. And there was one recently in the US that...

of NBA All-Star Dwayne Wade. Yeah, I've seen his whole... Which I think, neck down, is probably better than the Harry Kane one.

but neck up is probably worse in terms of likeness. And that cost $250,000 via private donations. So if you're going to spend that much money, you've got to nail it, and they haven't. Is he called Dwayne Wade? I can't quite remember his name. Dwayne Wade. Yeah, because if you get a chance, go on social media and look at the film The Unveiling. He faces up to the completely ludicrous,

nature of the facial representation of himself pretty bravely because he's clearly never seen it before and he kind of little gasp when he sits down though the whole thing I'm right in thinking I'm not a great lip reader but his I think it's his son turns to himself I told you it'd be shit

I didn't know that. I haven't seen that bit. You can see quite easily. I told you it was shit. And indeed, I suspect that it is. There is a great football statue and it's in Britain. Any of you who have been to the National Football Museum in Preston, up there in Preston, around Deepdale, the statue of Tom Finney, which represents a man

a move he made in real life. There was a photograph of Tom playing for England down the touchline on what was clearly a sodden pitch. And he threw up a curtain of spray,

And they have replicated that with the bronze statue and a fountain that replicates the curtain of spray. It's actually a real, real work of art. So we're not just generally down on athletic statues, though, of course, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, our friend in Miami, they've all had to do that look that you have to do when you see the statue for the first time.

Let's get back to the football. I'm going to run through this very, very quickly. Spurs have got, you know, everyone has got a lot of matches coming up between now and Christmas. If you're still in two cup competitions, and let's celebrate that fact, then this is the fixtures. I won't say which competitions they're in. 11 games in 37 days, away to Manchester City, at home to Roma, home to Fulham, away to Bournemouth, home to Chelsea. Beep.

Away to Rangers, away to Southampton, home to Manchester United, home to Liverpool, away to Forest and at home to Wolves. I suspect, James, that, you know, that all looks, you know, as difficult as you can imagine on paper. But I can't. The league spurs are in. There is no way you can shuffle the fixtures usually and say, got a nice easy run there.

It's the usual mixture of terribly difficult looking fixtures and stuff. You think, if we play well, we'll get points there. Yeah, I mean, by the very nature of having a big six in the Premier League and also having Aston Villas and Newcastles and whatever, then yeah, you're always going to play someone decent every two or three games. I mean, I don't think they'll win all of those games. I do suspect they will get...

They'll get a win against one of the big hitters in the Premier League, I think. City, Chelsea or Liverpool, they'll win one of those three games. Because it just feels like that's the way it goes, isn't it? But I suspect they'll also lose to Southampton or Fulham at home or whatever. But clearly we need this mad variance in performances and results to kind of regress more. Maybe not regress to the mean, but to kind of sway more permanently towards the positive.

just looking at that run and also the intensity and the fact in the midst of that there's four weeks in a row where they play Thursday Sunday which infamously is a thing that players clubs struggle to deal with for whatever reason or for various reasons so I don't imagine this is a time of the season where we're going to suddenly see incredible consistency or I mean certainly not the good kind of consistency but

But, you know, I think given the injuries that I know we'll talk about in a minute and other missing players that we now have, I don't see a way that they're going to get, like,

than kind of seven wins out of those 11 games. But I think, to be honest, I think that would be good going if they did get that many. All right. I'm not throwing you under a bus here, Jay. And as I say, we're very forgiving of wrong predictions on this podcast. Let's say, for the sake of argument, Spurs are still very much in the qualifying at the end of this run. They virtually qualified for the Europa League round of 16 and are in the semifinals of the League Cup.

How do they have to do in these league games for everyone to head into Christmas with the elf hat on the side of the head? Good question. We're halfway through. I like to throw in one good question per podcast. Yeah. I would say in this next spell of games, avoid any... Every defeat is unnecessary, obviously.

But I'm looking at a fixture like Southampton away, where they've obviously given Crystal Palace and Ipswich their first wins of the season. Still don't... Have Southampton won a game? I don't think they have now. Yeah. But you're looking at that thinking, OK, can we... Can Spurs show the level they've showed in games against Man City in the Cup and Man United, etc., and Aston Villa? Can they please maintain that against Fulham at home, Bournemouth away, Southampton away?

take care of that and then I think they'll come through with a very good points tally because you don't need any extra motivation when you go to the Etihad you don't need any extra motivation when you play against Chelsea and Liverpool the games that have sort of caught Spurs out are the games against teams maybe slightly lower down in the table where they've not been fully at it for whatever reason so I think if they can get points in those games which they've not done so far the draw with Leicester as well Yeah I think if what you're saying happens and they get to the semi-finals of the

and they're through in the Europa League or as good as through in the Europa League. Yeah. I think they can afford to kind of be like... I don't think it would be great to still be 10th but I think if they were 8th and within sort of spitting distance of 5th and 6th that feels like it would be okay to me. I mean, I think we said quite a lot earlier in the season that it felt like a season where maybe it was more about cups in the league and...

for various reasons now, including the cadence of these games. I think that's definitely the case. Let's combine a few things here. Obviously, Benton Kerr

Unless something bizarre that we don't know about has happened, and we'll be out for the vast majority of those games. Odebert is long-term injured. Richarlison, now here, is long-term injured. Mark Cram, I guess, asking the question, how will Spurs negotiate this, not fixture pile-up, because every team's got this, this logjam of fixtures. He asks, why Archie Gray hasn't had any minutes in central midfield this season? Are we going to see Gray, Jay, perhaps,

playing in his preferred position? Well, it's funny that Mark's asked this question because it might be something I write about in the near future. I think, firstly, why he's not played in central midfield this season is...

there is a lot of competition in that central midfield area. You've got Bissouma and Bentancur rotating as the six. Kulissevsky's basically nailed that number eight spot. And so you've got Bergvall, Maddison, Zarr, I'm sure I've forgotten someone else as well, sort of competing for the other spot. So firstly, yeah, it's difficult to get in there. And

I know he doesn't... It's not that he doesn't like playing at right-back. It's just that centre midfield is his preferred position. But I think he played 44 games in the Championship last season for Leeds and the majority of them were at right-back. So that's where he's got his most... Played for the England under-21s at right-back this very week. Exactly. So that's where he's got his most experience at senior level. And...

you'd rather him get minutes at right back than no minutes at all and CDM is a position that's got a lot of responsibility so if he can sort of be eased into senior football and then when the time is right pick up minutes at CDM I think that's okay but I would like by this stage I would have liked to have seen him be given a run out at CDM in the final 20 minutes of a game on a couple of occasions and that's not happened yet so

I'd like to think that while Benton curves out, if Pessouma's starting all these league games, if Tottenham are 2-0, 3-0 up in a game, Gray can come on for the final 10, 20 minutes or so and get some experience. But a lot of the time, Spurs have been chasing games, so you're not really going to bring on an offensive-minded midfielder in that scenario, are you? Well, no, although they're quite stretched to see what they do to change things up front in most of these games.

One of the players we talked about there is Dejan Kulishevsky. We've been asked by one of our listeners, Bjorn Sandberg, who, unless I'm misreading that name, has got some skin in this game. He's looking to a world beyond Son and asking if Kulishevsky will be the next captain of Spurs. I will make the point that Kulishevsky's performance

for Sweden this week, albeit against Azerbaijan, has caused the Swedish press to go insane with excitement. Although Viktor Goikarez got four goals, Kuliseski was man of the match with most of the Swedish newspapers, scored a couple himself, made one of Goikarez's goals, and people were comparing him to Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

He played both games. He played really, really well for Sweden. And now Spurs fans saying, you know, carry it. But that's the form he's in. I'll ask you that, James. Let's suppose Son was not there. Of the current gang, is he a possible candidate for captaincy? Yeah, you'd say so. I mean, the two vice captains of last season, Romero and Maddison,

one of them is at best in and out of the team and the other at best is in and out of form. So, yeah, I can see Vermeer. In and out of his mind, yeah. Not just on the basis of performances, which has obviously been very good and the fact that he is captain of Sweden as well. But he does kind of carry himself in that way,

that a lot of kind of elite sports people do. He's just kind of got like a bit of an aura about him that I didn't... I don't know if it's just a thing I hadn't noticed before, I hadn't kind of felt before. I think it's developed. But it definitely feels like he's got a bit more... And it's not even like... Swagger about him. Yeah, it's kind of a bit... I kind of see this as a bit of like... I'd be interested to hear what our American listeners think of this because to me it kind of feels like almost like the kind of aura that an American sports person has. Do you know what I mean? It's just like... It's just that kind of sense of being like a big...

that you don't necessarily always associate with Swedish footballers, for example. So yeah, I can actually see that, yes. ♪

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One or two more of your questions before we preview Manchester City. Ebbs has asked, if you pulled Daniel Levy's name out of the secret Santa draw, what would you buy him? I take it you've all prepared your witty answers to this. I

I'm curious to know what your answer is but I'm also worried what your answer is well the truth is I haven't got an answer because I was hoping to hear yours spin off that in some kind of fantastically entertaining way I'm not sure I'd necessarily be tempted to get him anything you'd get him something from the club shop with the new monogram on it right?

That's exactly what my answer was going to be. Oh, no, he looks like the sort of person who might have a silk dressing gown wandering about in the mornings, Daniel. You know, I'd find it a bit tasteless, but also I might struggle to find a silk dressing gown that fit me. This is a very difficult question, isn't it, Ebbs? If I may be so cheeky, maybe I'll buy him a watch with Carabao Cup finalist engraved on the back.

Hugo Lloris is chairman 2012 to 2023 or whatever the fuck it was. And my actual answer was, you know, he's obviously a very, very wealthy man. It's very hard to buy people things like that in the secret Santa because they have everything except the things that are unique.

So, Jay, you're not going to like this. I was going to give him the VFTL hat that Pam got made for you, your grandma. And just so he could, A, have something that no one else has got, and B, be reminded of where many of the things he ought to think are first expressed here on The View From The Lane.

So that was going to be my answer. I'm not giving it up. No, I think you should defend that to the last drop of your DNA. Absolutely right. Before we get on to City, somebody else asked, and I put this into the running order because I'm full of ego. With City at the weekend, it says City tactics. So City fan, what's your favourite Main Road memory? Main Road was, of course, the ground they had before they moved to the Eastlands.

It was an amazing ground. First, let me say that. It was an absolutely fantastic ground, Main Road. It had one of the biggest stands in England down the side of the pitch, so it wasn't a cop behind the goal, but the Kipax, which I'm going to talk about in a second, was a quite extraordinary stand. But I have memory of that cup quarterfinal back in the day where Spurs got four, and I can't remember how city got two, one or two. I just remember that towards the end, the

The violence on the pitch, City scored their goal, the second goal, I think it was in making it 4-2 in a defeat for City. There were hundreds of people on the pitch, but the referee was just letting it go because the place was a madhouse. But, Jay, before you were born, I went up to Manchester for a game when City and Spurs were both struggling in the old first division. And I made the mistake of going way ahead of the main Spurs contingent because...

because I was living in Leicester at the time where I was studying. Yeah, there you go. And so I get up there, me and two mates, and we walk up to a policeman and we said, excuse me, can you tell us where the away supporters go? And this was a response to the Manchester policeman. Away fans. And then he burst out laughing because such was the atmosphere on football grounds in those days. You know, if you weren't with a lot of other people, you'd be in danger. I'm not glamorizing that. I really am not glamorizing it.

So we decide anyway, we're 19 years of age. It's no problem. We'll go. This won't be a problem. In we go. Of course, we said, we're not wearing scarves. So we'll be inconspicuous. Stand in the kippax, which is starting to fall up to 30,000 people, whatever it is from that stand. We look around.

and nobody else, everyone else was wearing a blue and white scarf, a sky blue and white scarf. Gradually, the people with evil intent and only one tooth in the front of their head started to gather around us. Clearly, we were going to be victimized. The back of the Kipak stand was a huge earthen bank,

which supported the stand itself. We decided to make ourselves scarce. And I remember sliding down the earthen bank towards the exit and

We left the ground 15 minutes after we first got into it, waiting for the main Spurs contingent to come. And that is the first and only time that I have paid twice to see the same football match. There is more to this. My recollection is that City needed QPR to lose in order to be in real danger of going down. It's right at the end of the season.

and the result was going their way in London for a long time, and so our presence in the stand again was kind of tolerated, and then the scoreboard, and it wasn't a modern electronic thing, started to show less pleasing results, and the whole business of being trapped in with the more malevolent forces started again, but I did not leave and pay a third time, so that's the first and only time that I've paid twice to get into the same football match.

which is all a way of delaying the tricky question of what's going to happen. Is this the worst possible time to play City? They're on a losing run. They're going to be presenting Rodri with the

you know, the ball ball of saying he's the best player in the world and all the rest of it. Also, you know, Guardiola's signing a new contract extension. I didn't want to keep rolling out those reads. You're absolutely right to say that, Jay. Or James, is this an opportunity for a tremendous backs-to-the-wall victory? Well, I kind of think if...

If Spurs had been four games and were on an amazing winning run and those things happened, like someone was going to be presented with a... I know you had to spend a disbelief a little bit. But someone was going to be presented with a Ballon d'Or and a new manager signed a new contract. I kind of wonder whether you'd almost fear it may all be a bit of a distraction. So I don't necessarily know. I mean, I appreciate they're not in a good run. So I don't necessarily know whether we should worry about those two things. Do they kind of counteract each other? Is it a double negative that means...

I think we should be worrying more about the kind of players they have. Yeah, well, I think the key thing is going to be the players they have back from injury. And obviously, Rodri will not be one of them. But I think De Bruyne came off the bench in the last league game before the break. And I was bright and wasn't I? I don't think he looked particularly good. But if he's... He's got a whole raft of defenders coming back. Stones, Akanji, Ake, all should be fit. Two weeks on the training ground as well, De Bruyne, presumably, because I don't think he went away with Belgium. So...

yeah that obviously could make a difference despite all that I do kind of just have a feeling they might they might get something I've had Jack Pitbrook telling me that City's midfield is powder puff and that if the Spurs have the running power in there of Saar and Kulizevski that they could cause City real problems and they may be able to just basically cut straight through them at will so I don't know I

I kind of feel like if Spurs lose this game it'll be like 3-2 that's I'm going to touch wood here that's the worst case scenario I can see Spurs losing 3-2

Oh my word, why did you say that? You've opened up a whole can of worms now. What's your instinct about it, Jay? We won't know about it. It's pointless talking about Van de Ven until we know. What's your instinct? I think, let's say Van de Ven is not fit and he can't play. And so it's Romero and Dragos in. And I think Romero missed Argentina's game this week because his wife's just given birth to a baby girl. And so you've got Romero and Dragos in. Yeah.

I think we've sort of come to the conclusion that Dragosin's pretty good at backs-to-the-wall type defending, which I think it's safe to say Tottenham will probably do more of than they usually do at the Etihad. So I'm not too worried about that. Solanke didn't score in the Carabao Cup game, but had a fantastic game. So I can see there being a few goals. I can see it maybe being 2-2 or something like that. But I don't think... The way City play...

suits Tottenham more than the way Crystal Palace play, for example. So you know there will be opportunities for them to score in this game. It's just whether they take them or not and whether Haaland is up for it or not. Yeah, I can't see Pep saying we're going to play nine across the back and play for the set pieces. And slow the ball down. Oh, and slow the game down to an absolute crawl, precisely. We don't have much argument here. Let's assume that Van der Veen is not quite fit enough. It'll be...

the back four is, you know, established. They haven't got a huge amount of options. It'll, I guess it will be Sarr and Bissouma and Kudasevski in midfield and the usual suspects up front. One of the, one of the few positives of having, um,

injuries and suspensions is that it becomes easier to pick the team, doesn't it? Yeah, but also Son should be much more sharper than he was before the international break. So I think he did go away with career, didn't he? And has played a couple of times. So just having a few... But he didn't complete those games. He was kind of rested after an hour, certainly in the last game. I know that. But even still having an extra hour under his belt because I didn't think he looked particularly good against Ipswich.

So the fact that he's got two more games under his belt and hopefully is coming into this closer to full match sharpness, I think could make quite a big difference.

Okay. I'm not sure. Look, why would I say this? But I'm not sure I share your optimism. But since we've gone for a narrow Spurs win, a possibly high-scoring draw, all things, I suppose, are possible. If City play at their very best, then we know it will be a struggle on the day. Listen, thank you for everything in the last 45 minutes or so. And thank you all for your questions. We've got some of them on. We always try and get as many on as we can. And thank you for sending them in the first place.

There's a slight hesitation in my voice because these big games already start making me nervous, even though we're, what, 72 hours away from the people actually kick it, or 24, 48, yeah, 50-odd hours from people actually kicking the football. Just to remind you, the show has its own official home on Twitter and Blue Sky at VFTL Podcast, or email us at vftl at theathletic.com.

For the best Spurs coverage anywhere, make sure you sign up to The Athletic. Simply go to theathletic.com forward slash SpursPod to subscribe. Till then, let's hope that whatever 11 Ange puts out in Manchester can get a result that will make us all happy. And we'll be back on Monday to discuss exactly that. God bless you all. Come on, you Spurs. The Athletic FC Podcast Network.