The Game Is About Glory (Spurs Podcast)
The Future's Bright
Steff, Milo, and Ricky look at our brilliant young signings and academy players. We get hyped about what could be the most exciting era in our modern times and have a go at predicting our team in 5 years time. Get ready to feel excited about the seasons ahead...
Website: https://thegameisaboutglory.co.uk/
Bluesky: @gameisglorypod.bsky.social
Twitter: @GameIsGloryPod
Mastodon: https://mastodon.green/@GameIsGloryPod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegameisaboutglory/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Duration:
- 1h 21m
- Broadcast on:
- 07 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
[Music] Hello and welcome to The Game is About Glory. I'm your host Steph and joining me our Ricky M Milo, hello chap Saya. Good evening mate. Steph, I'm good thanks mate. Excellent, very good and so am I. Yeah and you're good. Sorry, you're really good. Sorry, you're all good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The players are good as well. The players are Tottenham Hotspur football club that aren't on various international duty because they have returned to Hotspur way. They did so on Saturday, that means that officially a new season is upon us and The Game is About Glory is into season five. Where's that time gone? I mean, I know. Lives have been lived. I have to say, right? How did we get here? Well, that could be a whole pod series in itself, but yeah, it has gone by remarkably quickly hasn't it chaps really when you think about it? Well, the first two years of it, we were under house arrest pretty much weren't we? And we still committed to seeing each other every week, which I, by the way, I have to think it's phenomenal on behalf of everyone that we all make it work every week and obviously got to give a special shout out to Milo, who makes makes sense of this. Although I love the fact that as we got through the first couple of years, because you have very fastidious on the first couple of years making sure that every little mistake was corrected, but you finally realized that with the likes of me at the mic, that that was a fruitless task and so you started to let the go. It's great. The flow has been great. I nearly corrected the mistake last week, Steph. Oh, good. Which one? When we did the kind of the structure, so with Johann Langer and the others, you asked me a question about your convoluted question about who has coffee with whom, and I got a bit distracted by a little coffee and biscuits question, and you'd asked me about the academy and who from there would be meeting with whom, and when I'd done it early on, I said it right when I did later on, I said it right, but after all the coffee questions, I think I'd said that they'd meet with Munn and they wouldn't. Langer's got oversight for the whole of everything, including the academy. So, all coffees are had with Langer. Very good. Speaking of coffee, I'd like to announce to everyone that we've paid up each other. Sorry, Ricky. We've got to get through. This is very important. The coffee chat is important. It is. Well, we place these bets of other I-goed people into bedding and then lose 2-1 over the course of the season, which I did, and I received my coffee from Milo, and he received coffee from me. I got a Coleco Mama Burundi from Juniors Roasted Coffee out here in the US, and I would have to say it certainly to me was a Lucas Mora type, because it was certainly right for certain occasions. There are some occasions I wouldn't necessarily go for it, but there are certainly occasions where it's got the perfect bit of difference and spice and a slight sweetness to it actually that makes it right. It's late at night in Amsterdam, and you need to pick it up. Is that what you're saying? An unexpected flavour in the moment, for sure. Yes, absolutely, but that was so I just want people to know that as we're getting to season 5, there will be more of this sort of tomfoolery going on. I would stay away from this, Ricky, because what I say is that the exchange rate is not in our favour, because the exchange rate is not in our favour. I think that one pack of coffee, because the same as two in the game. The good thing is that you've got two pounds to my one. I know you can't put a price on feeling smug, can you, Steph? You went a bit funny that you can't put a price on good things in your mug. You're absolutely right, mate. I said you're a wonderful pound of coffee, and I'm sure you'll speak about it another time. Anyway, enough of this tomfoolery, there's plenty more to come. This week, we are going to be talking about all of the fantastic young players that we have been signing, and also that have been coming through the academy. It's sort of hit us, didn't it recently, that we are setting ourselves up to be pretty fucking great in the next few years, and so we're going to enjoy getting into that little later in the pod, for sure. Shall we start with the, who's starting? This is me. Okay, thank you. Okay, we are starting with the euros round up. Sorry, I was so busy thinking of Lucas Moore of Coffee. England played Switzerland on Saturday afternoon. It's a simple question chaps, let's all weigh in. What did you think of the result, which saw England with five perfect penalties to go through, to play the Netherlands on Wednesday night? No, it came as with a result. What's that? You said, what did you think of the result? No arguments for the result is so much for good. Do you want some about the performance as well? No, we can talk about it all. Yeah, what did you think? I mean, I can be quite objective about these things, because I think I might have uttered on here once before that my emotional involvement in England is probably not really there anymore. I think many moons, well, precisely, I think it was when Steve McLaren got appointed, I checked out of England. So I can be quite objective about it. I think it really has felt like in the early games, like it was end of day stuff, really. It felt like doing when your manager's at your club is about to be leaving, and it just felt like we had so many kind of everything was pretty negative about the performances, energy-wise, annual tactics and that kind of thing. And I don't think, and I don't particularly agree with people saying, I think they think the players are overrated. I think that's a bit of a red heron as well, really. I think sometimes club is just the haziveness and the togetherness that doesn't come with it, that they get with their clubs. And I think when they're in a different environment, it's tricky. I mean, that said, I think the other night, I mean, he changed system fair play. And I think with with Foden, Kane and Bellingham, just rotating a lot more in that area, rather than being stuck out wide in Foden's case. I think that works a lot better. I think, I like Maynard. I think he's a really good player. I like him as a sentiment fielder. I don't think, I don't think Rice has played that well. But I think the Miles, I think the effort he's putting for Arsenal's show in now, I think he looks really tired in some games, because he is that kind of player. He will give everything. So performance-wise, it was better. But I think the kind of the overall narrative afterwards was a bit swayed by the result, because at the end of the day, I mean, they were saying, oh yeah, we were on the front foot and it was excellent and that. And I think it was better. But I still don't think, and they were saying, oh, the group looks so together and so strong. And I think, I've seen other teams in this tournament, they're more strong as a group and togetherness. I mean, the Georgians, the Austrians, all that kind of thing. That's more how I would see a team that was all together and all far and in the same direction. But we, and I think that narrative could have changed just for the sake of penalties. I mean, ironically, they used to say penalties was a lot a lottery, but fair play to us. It looks like we've sorted the penalty situation out after 40 years at last. You know, we looked massively confident in those penalties. They all looked like they'd erased the kind of, just hit it and hope kind of technique. They've gone through massive detail with the penalties, mentally, psychology of it all. And just technically, they were superb and that was nice to see from us. And, you know, we keep chugging away. We keep getting one game to another and we're in the semifinals. And do I criticize Southgate? I don't know. I mean, in future years to come, Southgate would look back and think, well, you know, I made two semifinals in the final, you know, in the time I was with the English manager and that's way above any other manager, really, apart from Ralph Ramsey, probably. So, yeah, so that's my take. Yeah, don't screw that too much. I mean, I think, I think, you know, you talk about kind of the result and then kind of people's reaction or how they reflect on that afterwards. And I think that's also a thing with kind of past tournaments as well. I was, during the game, I was thinking back to, you know, I've been watching England for, well, just shy of 40 years now, I suppose. And I can't think of a tournament where we've played well all the way through in that time. In fact, most of them, we've kind of stunk it out. And when you talk about a good tournament, you're talking about one or two games or, you know, or even kind of one or two moments in one or two games. So, you know, I don't think this is that different from that. And if we get to the final, I suspect that people will forget a lot of the criticism that they were making during the group stage because, you know, and we'll reflect on the results. And, you know, and, you know, if you look at this tournament, apart from Spain, have any of the big names look good? I mean, they've all been pretty dull, haven't they? I mean, most of the, you know, if you look at the, you know, this last week's games jumping ahead to one of the questions that have you enjoyed them, or they've all been a bit of a grind, haven't they? And, you know, the most fitting to end this tournament is probably England, France, playing out a Neil Neil draw over 120 minutes and going to penalties. That would typify the tournament really, wouldn't it? Again, I think you're speaking completely logically. I mean, you know, you go back to tournaments, you know, the most celebrated tournament, I think really up until maybe one of Southgate's, you know, surges was Italian 90. And you'd be hard pressed to pick a game where we played brilliantly before the semi-final. I mean, we stumbled past Cameroon. Let's not forget that. And that was not a great performance. And I remember those performances, well, David Platt, bailing us out against Belgium, I believe. I mean, so you're, you're absolutely right. And the expectations that we have as a nation are astro... Yeah, they're astronomically out of range with reality. I mean, we haven't won anything since before I was born. I went into this last week. So logically speaking, Southgate, you know, has this horrible job of balancing expectations with the fact that, you know, he is actually doing, you know, a job that's probably outside, you know, what we should logically expect. And I mean, with regards to this game, he did catch... Just interrupt you there once and then say, please. I can never forget that Cameroon game. Because I watched it on a cross-channel ferry, which was being kept outside of going into Dover, because the seas were too rough to go into the harbour there. And so I watched it, watched it in a bar on the ferry. And everyone was kind of charging out the bar to be sick over the side of the boat, every now and again, because it was really getting rocked around. And so, yeah. I remember it. I remember it because I was watching it. This back when football wasn't very common in, you know, in California. I was watching it in my local bar. There was me in the bartender who looked like the main character from Alex Cox's repo man, complete with an iPad. And every time Cameron scored, he screamed Cameroon. And then as England came back, he whizzed me a whiskey down the bar, a double, I may say. On the house, so I remember it clearly. And it was, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But back to this game, look, he made the changes. The changes were very, very significant. They worked, but we've still got the same drumbeat behind of people going on about Southgate. Doesn't know what he's doing. It's quite clear he sorted something out. We did play better. And we are at that point of the tournament. And maybe this whole tournament is at this point of football. These players have all played so much football before they got to Germany. That you can't expect swashbuckling football. Nobody wants to go out. Everybody wants to try and play the margins. And the margins are safety are to set out defensively. And that's really what we're seeing. I think it's an attrition of global football. We're seeing more than anything. France have scored a goal from open play. I was thinking the same thing actually during the game. Back to the, is there too much football? We did at the beginning of the summer. And we're kind of reflecting on that. I think in terms of the changing the system, it's quite interesting because I think that was a change that he's made for this game. Because the Swiss play three, four, three. And he was trying to match them up, man on man. I think in terms of formations, a lot of people had to talk about it. It was three at the back, but it was a lot more flexible than that. Because quite often it was four, four, two. It was moving around depending on how the Swiss were lining up. Because they're quite fluid, particularly in the wide areas. And that was quite well coached at work. And the players, when your sack is moving into a wing position, and we've gone into a back four, the players knew where they should be at that point. And I think that's just the benefits of getting later into the tournament. And during the group stage, you were talking about not having the time to training and the difference between club football and international football. And generally speaking, international football is a poor equality product than club football just because you don't have that time on the training grounds. And I think we're beginning to see the benefits of being together for a number of weeks and being able to work on those things now. It felt for the first time as though every substitute coming in knew exactly what their job was going to be. I haven't felt confident in that in the past, because I felt he's been trying to tinker and find the best fits and so on. But it really felt that we were very solid in our work and what we were doing. You could sense it from the moment we kicked off. And I have to say, I do wish, though, sorry. Do you want to come in on that point before I make it? No, no, no, I was just going to go back to that point. I was saying about the changing formation being for this game. The Dutch line up 4-2-3-1, I would expect us probably to go back to the same formation and match them up again for that next game. I'll be interested to see what he did with Voden, because I thought Voden looked a lot better playing centrally. And then off the right. And I think one of the reasons why I soccer played so well in this game was that he had the support of foes there. And quite often, we were outnumbering the Swiss when we were getting into those positions. So it would be interesting to see what they were. I also thought Bellingham looked so much better coming from slightly deeper positions, which is something that I've been looking for. He had a lot more license, I felt, to Rome, and he's that much better. And I just got to point this out. And I don't know if this is just me and my never let a legend go, bias. But some of the stick that Harry Kane's been getting has, to me, been disproportionate and actually somewhat stupid. I mean, I've been reading people saying he's not moving. He's not doing anything. I mean, is it just me? I mean, to me, he's dropping into pockets of space, bringing people with him and leaving room for the likes of Voden and Bellingham to get in behind and into those pockets and operate. Has he been particularly dynamic? No. Is he playing a team role? Absolutely. I mean, he doesn't look fit to me. I don't think he's carrying an entry, as I said, a couple of weeks ago. And I thought in this game, it looked like he had hurt. This is before he tripped over the wall bottles. That's it. I think before that, he looked like he had a problem with his ankle, because he was limping for a bit and stuff. But then he tripped over the wall bottles and they decided to bring Tony on. But he could be right. But let me ask you both this. I mean, is it just me? I mean, maybe I'm bias. And look, I'm open to the accusation. To me, his movement, he was still moving for the team. He's looking to make space for others. He's looking to work in areas that perhaps things are not used to seeing him. I mean, Kane is getting older, but I think he's just playing his game. That's Harry Kane's game. And I think he should almost let Harry Kane do what he wants to do. When he used to do the various things for us, the reason it would work is because he himself knows what needs to be done. And whether that's dropping in and releasing someone or going for it. I mean, he can't necessarily run beyond people anymore. But I can understand why people are saying they don't want him to drop deep. Because if a chance comes, who do you want the chance to fall to? It's him, isn't it? Because he's like three times. Three times he was in the box by himself and the ball didn't reach him. And people are saying he should be moving to it. And people for the game he scored. People talk about Bellingham's over here kicking quite rightly so in the previous round. But the reason we played the game yesterday was because Harry Kane scored the winner. So it's not like he's not doing anything. And I sort of bristle a little bit of that. But is that my club bias? Yeah, I think you're being a bit over-defensive of him. I think, you know, I don't think he's had a good tournament. And I think... But the team hasn't, does it? No, it hasn't. No, but he's the captain of the team. He's the senior player. You know, if he's fully fit, then, you know, he's clearly one of the best two players in this team. And I don't think he's playing at that level at the moment. You know, he missed the end of the season. We're buying with a back injury. I think he's still struggling with that. And I think he's done what, you know, we've seen him do for Spurs. Numerous times before, which has come back early for a big game. And I don't think there's any way that he was going to miss this tournament. But he doesn't look very mobile to me. And there were moments there where I think, you know, I think he was slow to react to the game around him. And I think we were... I think we took him off to... I think he should have come off earlier in this game. Would you start him on Wednesday? It depends whether he's fit or not, doesn't it? Yeah, by your metric, he's not. So, would you start? Yeah, I would start. I mean, he's captain. I mean, I think you kind of... You tied your hands, haven't you, really? By making it... By him being captain and him being there. But I think... I think you need to look at, you know, how he's doing around... Well, it depends on how the game goes as well, doesn't it? Well, you know, but, you know, I don't think we're in a situation where you need to keep him on for penalties. Because, you know, the striker is probably going to come on and take his place. Is every bit as good at taking penalties as Kane is. I'm pretending he's penalty is unbelievable. And so, I think you probably got to see how he's doing around the 70-80-minute mark and then, you know, make a decision... 60-70-80-minute mark and make a decision then. But I don't think it'd be the worst thing in the world if he missed this game, if someone else came in. Because, you know, someone else coming in, you know, will bring other things. You know, a bit of pace and a bit of mobility. You know, it would help us, I think. Interesting. Does anyone want to make a call on Wednesday's game against Netherlands? It's a great chance in a result, you mean? In a result, you mean? I don't know, I mean, they've been playing quite well. I mean, they've started to play quite well in the Netherlands. But then, once again, up front for them, I don't think they're that great, particularly. They can't kind of make up who's going to play on the right. Because Bergwin's played a little bit, but then gets swapped out for the... For Simon, is it? I think it's another kid, yeah. And then, and to pay is all right, he's kind of all right. But, you know, he's got some skills, but not really... I don't know, it's a funny old tournament. I think it's just... I think there were some great group games. And I think since it's got to the knockouts, they've just gone into that more, you know, more to lose kind of... Well, obviously, there's more to lose in a knockout game. She's got a bit more nervous about that. So, I don't know. But four big Euro teams have got to the semis. It meant, you know, take Germany and Italy out. And I mean, I think there were some great looking teams in the early rounds, but none of them have got there. So, I don't know what that says, you know? - Tournament football is what it says. - Yeah. And, you know, we bludgeoned our way through one way or another. Yeah. Oh, he says, yeah. I mean, run a Coleman up against Gareth Southgate. It's got a real championship manager vibe, isn't it? He says. I think to your point, and just to close it off, and look, if anyone wants the last word, please come in after me. But for me, my last word on it will be that I think what you've said, Milo, probably makes a lot of sense in terms of substitutions. I think if there's one criticism remaining I have of Southgate, and look, he's corrected a lot of my criticisms as the tournament's going on for me personally, I do think a little more proactivity as opposed to reactivity when it comes to substitutions would be a little more, well, I'd like to say angeness, but ang is not always the most attractive, but I think a little more proactivity would be really important in the game. And we have got... It's going to be very, but the margins are so fine. And I think you're absolutely right. Harry, if I put my bias aside, and I'm willing to admit to bias, I do think Harry should have probably come off, as we were, extra time is there, taking off. We've answered the penalty questions to Milo's point. So I think we're proactive with substitutes, and we're going to need them, and I think it's going to be extra time. Well, we've got some really good players on that bench. That's the thing, I think we should use, though. Good, it's a fantastic bench. And to the point of our pod last week, it's the first time you could maybe look at an England squad and say, by and large, even concerts proved defensively, this might be the case. We have a squad, not a first 11, and people who could maybe come in and do a job. We actually have a revolvable squad, which plays to the point of last week's pod as well, so important. So I'm actually quite confident. I thought concert a good game. It was great, wasn't it good? Really, defensively, we have been good this time, I think that's the thing everyone was worried about, is defensively, but I think that's just been all right, really. And I would miss the Palace lad, really. He's been great as well. It'd be great, all the Palace, yeah, he's been great. I would resist Luke Shaw myself. I thought that was a gamble that he took, that I just didn't, I was a little bit anxious about that. But anyway, I'm confident, let's see. I suppose by the time we record our next pod, we'll know exactly how it all went. So... Right, shall I move on to the week that was? I think we should. And we'll kick off with the great news that we saw Duchy Gray from Leeds. We spoke about him on last week's pod up in the rumours, we're just starting. We made short work of wrapping up the deal, and he joined on Tuesday. There's some competing stories about how much the deal is worth, but David Ornstein says, Leeds say that the deal, the two deals are separate, this is Joe Roaden going the other way, was Spurs set to pay 40 million for Gray and Roaden, heading the other way for 10 million, whereas the Spurs view is that we've paid 25 million, 25 to 30 million for Gray with Roaden, part of the agreement. You'd assume that the differences between these two positions are just spin. So, one more snippet from the athletic article where David Ornstein and Jay Harris say that Johann Langer has been working on the... and been in contact with Gray's camp for weeks, trying to convince him to join us, and that Daniel Levy put in the hours towards the end to get the deal over the line. And it's interesting, again, we were talking about Johann Langer and how he operates a few weeks ago, and there was not a squeak that he's been talking to Gray's camp for weeks. We hadn't heard anything about that really until quite late, and we hijacked the Brentford's deal. So, another clue there, I think, into how he operates. What do you think, guys? Happy with this one? Oh, really happy. I think he looks super talent. And a good thing, he's got a real good full season under his belt with Leeds last year, so it's not like he's coming in to Raw. YouTubey stuff I've watched, I think he's probably going to fill out even more in because he's quite tall already, but he's got great feet, both feet. That's the good thing I like about him. He's got that left and right foot in tight areas when he's under pressure. It's almost completely balanced on both feet there, and his awareness is great. But yeah, I think this is a good thing. Oh, another thing I did notice is another... I think this is probably a last four signings that have all come from a sporting family, I think. Talked about this before, haven't we? Yeah, it's definitely a theme. Burgvall. Van de Ven. Van de Ven. Tragusa. Johnson. Johnson. His dad was a pro footballer. He smets me one. I mean, obviously, go back further. Suddenly, obviously, his dad was and his brother, both pro footballers. But some of their family have all played really high-level sport, and it just makes me wonder whether that's something we're putting into the kind of scouting search thing, because when you grow up in that environment and you live in that world, and like whether it's your mum or dad or mum and dad, I think, in some cases, you just know what the kind of commitments and sacrifices are, and also your parents then know what it's all about as well, kind of thing. It just makes you wonder whether it's not the beer or an end all, but it makes me wonder whether that's something they're kind of looking at when it comes to a mentality in a player, really, or when they're kind of young. But I don't know. I mean, I think you've made an unequivocally astute observation. I mean, how could it not be? I mean, we've seen what happens with great players, great talents that maybe don't have that background in their family. We've seen what happens. I mean, no point naming them. Because you can't understand what your mum or your dad or both of them went through, and of course, the great thing is that's them reflected back when you're coming up through the race, because they know what's required, and also the way the sporty world works, that kind of thing. I think that's absolutely valuable. I think that's a great observation. I think since Parateeche's been in, I think we have put quite a lot of weight on people's background and the mentality and the support around them. So maybe this is not something we're actually looking for, but it's a side effect of that in that people from those kind of backgrounds have got that supportive environment that helps young players come through. Well, I mean, it's all about marginal gains, and that's a pretty massive marginal gain. And it does show actually, as per something else we've discussed earlier in this close season, maybe we are learning from some of the signings we've made in the past, with respect to how deeply you go into the profile of a potential signing. And I mean, just to add, nothing for me has changed in the last few weeks, Milo. I just think this is a brilliant signing, and I'm very excited that we got it done, and actually that we got it done quickly, really important. Yeah, I don't think this is the one we could hang around on, because I think quite a lot of clubs were snipping around. And the kind of positions he plays are just perfect for us at the moment, and you need to weigh into the team and that kind of thing. It's just massive help. I think this is another one where there was an edge conversation. It was an edge that took over the line, so sold what he wanted, so yeah. Apparently so, that's what they've said, right? It's a big Celtic fan, isn't it? He is, yeah, he is. Yeah, I think that swung it. Right, so the televised fixture is a Skype announce the televised games in August and September, and that means that the games against Newcastle, Arsenal and Manchester, United are all moving to a Sunday, so they can be shown on the box. And Sky cut it right to the last minute to make the announcements again, as they always do. Nathan Gardner, so Chris Davis, who left the club earlier in the summer to take the reins at Birmingham City, has been back to Spurs to coach Nathan Gardner to join his coaching team. I'm not sure if you remember Nathan Gardner, Steph. We talked about him a few years ago, so he was the head of sports science at the club, but he was also a qualified coach, and when he was appointed, we spent quite a lot of time talking about his various qualifications. So I think you were a bit blown away by the breadth of his experience. So yeah, he's also qualified, he's got his UA for aid badges and everything. So he's joining Brum to be first team assistant coach behind Chris Davis there. So he's moving into the coaching side rather than the fitness side, speciality there. So presumably that's another vacancy we need to fill. Hopefully, we're a step ahead of it, and I've already been addressing the potential concern. You'd like to think that we're a couple of steps ahead having known. I think he was only back with us, what was it last March or anything? Yeah, it wasn't that long that he's been back, yeah. So that hopefully doesn't leave. And you'd also assume that he's heading up a team there, so there'd be people at the very least who could deputise for him. And you'd also hope that Davis, when we agreed to release Davis, that he was upfront about who he might come back for and what his intentions were because he'd be pretty off if he didn't do that. You don't want to burn to him, he'd be producing football, do you? No, at the very least, you'd expect him to pick up the phone to manage and say, I'm thinking of approaching Nathan, is that all right? This is one where we just have to trust that the system is working and that we have a good system in place to take care of these situations. I mean, everything else seems to be going so well in terms of recruitment and so on and so forth. You'd like to think that we're a step or two ahead of these situations as well. So I don't know. I'm a bit disappointed that you're so level-headed about this stuff. I was ready to make some placards and get up the training ground to do a protest. Oh dear, there we go. I'd like to keep them guessing Ricky. So the club announced that the new first year scholars this week, that's the under 18s to you and me. As we said on last week's pod, new sign in George Feeney was announced as part of this. So the squad for the coming season are in attack. We've got strike as George Feeney and Reese Elliot Paris. We're joined by wingers Miracol. Let's definitely. Miracol Adawali. And say Leon Murt Tyh and Tynan Thompson. In Mayfield, we've got Harry Byrne, Ty Hall, Ronnie Munker and Jamelle Beggs. Hang on, Ronnie Munker. Is he related to John Munker and doing with it? He is? Yeah, he is. Oh, very good. Defenders Samuel Bengura, Malachi Hardy and Elijah Upson and goalkeeper Dylan Thompson, who joined our academy earlier this year from Norwich City. So that completes the intake for this year. And so five of these players have already made appearances for us in the under 18s, Premier League has parted their schoolboy journeys up to this point. It's good. We're going to cover the academy a little bit more this coming season. So I'm sure we'll be talking about some of these players in the coming months. I love the name Harry Byrne. It's just such a Roy of the Rover's football name, isn't it? And Harry Byrne comes through. Oh, it's in the back of the night. Some good news. Christian Romero has been omitted from Argentina's squad for the Olympic Games. If he had been going, he would have missed the beginning of the season. Despite Radu Dragosan's lobbying at the club, a last-minute decision was made not to pay any attention. That's probably - there were rumours earlier in the year that they did want to take him, they want to include him. Did he represent them four years ago, did he? Oh, I can't remember. Because it's quite a thing. I mean, Olympic football isn't like the biggest of things, but just saying that you've been an Olympian is quite a nice thing, isn't it? You know, if you've been. So I'm not sure whether he did it four years ago, but I'll have to have a look. I'm quite surprised that it's gone smoothly. Well, I suppose we don't really know. I mean, I have to say that as an athlete competing in the Olympics is a pretty big deal. But I suppose when you're a World Cup winner, you probably take these things with a little more of a grain of salt. I don't know. I like the way you say that. As an athlete, I have to say that. So makes it sound like you are an athlete. Christ, if we were to name the Olympics that I've been nominated for, it probably won't be a particularly flattering list of activities now, would it? Jan Vittongen has retired from the International Football, following Belgium's exit from the European Championships. Vittongen played 90 minutes as Belgium were knocked out to the Euros by France on Monday. And sadly, he deflected France's only goal into the net, or the only goal in the game into the net. Vittongen made his Belgium debut in 2007, has played 157 times for his country score in 10 goals, and is their record appearance holder. As well as part of one of my favourite ever Tottenham Hotspur terrorist songs, I may point out. So, yes, the reason he deflected that goal is because even still at his advancing years, he was the only defender who was close enough to preventing France from scoring. So a valiant effort by Ian. What footballer? My word. I didn't even fully appreciate him for the first year he was with us. I freely hold my hands up. I liked him, but the subtleties of his performance really came to pass after that first year, and you're just like, "Christ, we have got a Rolls-Royce here. How on earth did we achieve this?" Wonderful. Yeah, great, great player. Some nice news here. So, Jeff at Tankanga has joined Millwall on a two-year contract with the option of a further year, and Tankai and Dombella has joined Nice on a two-year contract after formally leaving Spurs. So, both of them just left last Sunday. So, they're weak out of their contracts, and they've both signed deals. So, Nice are in the Europa League, so maybe we'll be seeing Tankai again soon. Good luck to both of them. Yeah, good luck to both of them for various reasons. Jeff at it, because I just think he... I mean, actually, we talked about this before, but he really... He took one for the team at one point in one of these last two seasons, where he basically was told he had to stick around for numbers. Am I not correct in saying that? I think, really, you can go back over what the last four years, because under Mourinho, do you remember where he played? He got man of the match first game of the season. Was that Newcastle? You know, full back, a right back, and then didn't feature again. I think he played first and last game of the season, barely featured in between, but great performances in. And I think pretty much all the way since then, he's been, yeah, around to make up the numbers. And, you know, obviously, he was very unlucky with his first loan last season, you know, did very well at Millwall when he joined them in January. And I think, you know, when we released him a few weeks ago, we were speculating then as to whether this was a deal that would allow Millwall to pick him up. And, yeah, it appears to be, you know, maybe we just acknowledge that actually we probably haven't done the best for his career, and he needs to help here. It's so sad, isn't it? Because he is of all those players that have been fringe for so on and so forth. He's the one player I remember when he broke through. I'm just like, he is going to be special. I really, really thought he was going to be top, top class. And for whatever reason, it shows you the margins in football. You know, we don't know what the margins have been in his particular situation, in his particular case, but the very best of luck to him. And I think the best of luck to, you know, to Indombele as well. But that's simply because I would hate to see talent like that, just fritter away, you know. I think the years have been ticking by for Tengen now. Yeah, he's not that young anymore, is he? So he needs to make a career of it. And I don't know. On was an upwards at Millwall for him. He might easily be back to being a premiership player, I think. Yeah, I hope so, wouldn't you? He's 25, Jeff it. How was he? I thought he was a tiny bit older for some reason, but yeah. 25 still, you know, it's a bit like Karl Walker Peters, really. Just got to, like, move on, haven't you? I agree with that. And it's a really good comparison, actually, because you could see Tengen, you could see Jeff it ending up, you know, maybe getting a transfer to a Wolves or someone like that. He was just Soul Kilman, maybe in a year or so, if he's playing well, he gets back in, you know, and gets that sort of position. It's a great comparison with Karl Walker Peters, I love that. Yeah, yeah, great. If he ends up with that sort of career, wonderful. Yeah, I mean, I think he's good enough for the Premier League. It's just that, you know, the most important thing at the moment is that he gets games because, you know, he hasn't played much over the last, what, five years, really. So yeah, he needs games and I think going to the championship for, you know, season or two, I have a long, that is to get some games into his belt and find his rhythm again is exactly what he needs. Absolutely. Right, should we move on to the rumours? So Spanish paper AS say that West Ham and Juventus are interested in Sergio Riccion, any thoughts on that? I mean, obviously we need to send him. I hope they're right and I hope he moves up, bless him. I hope they're right. So I think we need to back a little video of arrivals the upper day, when they keep coming through the door. Oh my God, it's him, I was looking at the arrivals thinking, but the guy's staying, going, staying, going, yeah, exactly the same, yeah. Almost forgetting that some of them were still at us. I was like, yeah, yeah. So Lopatecu managed him at Real Madrid and Sevilla. He had him in the squad there. So maybe West Ham makes sense from that point of view. He's a player, he knows. I mean, it's a bit sad for him that you'd have to take the step down to West Ham after being at Brentford last season. A couple of steps down even there. But there you go. We reported last week that Oxford United and Birmingham City are interested in taking Jamie Donnelly on loan next season. Ali Gold says that Luton Town Bristol City and Bristol Rovers are now also interested. I think the Luton Town rumours are quite loud at the moment, aren't they? I don't think that'd be a bad place to go. It'd be great. I think Robert would just be a perfect manager for him. Really good. Hope it happens. Hope it happens for you, Sev. Listen, yeah. Why make Kev? Another one we hope happens says. Sky Sports Germany say that Busher Dortmund are about to make a move for Pierre Emile Heupier. If they fail in their attempts to sign Pascal Gross from Brighton. Let's hope they fail. I think Pierre would be excellent there. I think you'd do a really good job. And Milanese journalist Matteo Moreto says that AC Milan are close to completing a deal for Emerson Real worth £17m and that is expected to be completed this week. Royal is said to have already agreed a five-year deal with Milan. I told you it'd squeeze it in every week at the summer. Well, if it finally does happen, we can get into the cult hero that he has been for us at that point. But I think it has to happen really for everyone. It has to happen for him. He's too good a player to be sort of in and out of our squadron of team in a position that he doesn't necessarily naturally fit. And we need to free him up. We need the money. So, yes. And say, one we covered last week, but there's a lot more noise about it. So, Desiree, do loads and loads of noise this week. And it looks like there's genuine interest there. So, we're talking about the kids this week. He's a teenager as well. So, if we'd recorded this a few weeks later and it comes off then, it could have been another one added to this role call that you're about to run through, Steph. Yeah, indeed. And with that seamless relay transition of the baton, I will steam forth towards the finishing line, which is all about the kids. Like the athlete you are. That the athlete that I am. By the way, I want you to know, being the athlete that I am, that I have purchased the nipple-friendly away shirt. And it's currently making its way across to me right now. And so, exciting news for nobody other than me. I know you're worth it. You're worth it. I'm worth it. Ooh, young charmer. Anyway, yes, kids. The kids that are outstripped athletes like me who are in their twilight years. Mikey Moore, Leon Black, Tyrese Hall, Lucas Bergwald, Archie Gray, Luca Gunter, Will Langshire, Alfie Devine, Jamie Donnelly, Ashley Phillips, Elay Hoveles, Destine Udogi, Josh Kealy, Papamadisar, Radu Dragasan, Brennan Johnson, and Mickey van de Ven to name some. Think about these names. Remember them, because they are going to be a massive part of our Tottenham Hotspur supporting future. These are all players that are 23 or under and have either been signed in the last few years or have come through the academy. Now, chaps, I hope that I read that list with the requisite gravitas that it deserves. Because I was pretty fucking excited when I saw them all together grouped like that. I mean, how excited are you about these young players that we currently have? It's kind of sneaked up on us, isn't it? I mean, we've been picking up these players and it obviously really helps that our under 21s had such a fantastic season with the under 80s before that. You know, they've had a couple of really good seasons on the trot, haven't they, these players who are coming through the club. And then you start picking up players like Mickey van de Ven and Doggy and others. And you start looking at that core, then you're thinking, well, actually, this is really exciting. You know, this is really, really exciting. And I don't think we've had such an exciting group just in the first team for a long time. You know, we're going back in nearly a decade, aren't we? Really, since we had something like this. And then you start thinking about what's coming through just behind them. Yeah, it's really exciting. I'm very excited. Yeah, I think things are coming together. And whether I'm, I mean, probably you probably talked about last week, I think that's all part of the planning, really. And I love the way they've all kind of slotted along all the age groups from 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. There's a real kind of conveyor belt there. And some of them we signed ready for first team. Some of them are going to be more kind of square players to start with. And then we hope the academy or people we plot from the championship are going to provide for us in the future. I think the way you flip that round from having sort of a terrible kind of under 21 kind of situation going on. And as Milo said, with the under-18s and then loads of the under-18s planning the 21s, it's just, it's just forwarding that momentum like quicker than it normally would. Because I mean, going back to what we were saying a minute ago against, with some of the other players that still hang around for too long, I think the good thing when you're playing 18s under 21s is you're going to know quicker whether they're then going to be first team ready. And it means we can pass those players on if we have to without getting, you know, without, because the other thing you want to do with a great squad of players, the great list of players we got there is not really hindering any of them either. And they must, they probably look at the list as well, because there's probably a lot of players in a lot of similar positions where they're thinking, you know, competition breeds success as well, you know, you elevate your level. So that is a good thing in one way. But yeah, I mean, it's exciting. It really is. It's just so, let's jump a question forward here, because you sort of walk naturally into it. I mean, you are someone on this pod who has talked often about how important it is to have the link and connection between, you know, the fans, players, manager and club, the congruence, if you will, that flows throughout a football club from street to dressing room and to training pitch. Do you think Ricky, it is easier to have that link when you have a core of players that have come through at a club, or, you know, or when they were very, you know, very, very young? I mean, do you think that that's? I think quite often that link, for me, that link is more about the club, the manager and me, not necessarily the player so much. I think it's more of a kind of, in that situation for me, it's more about, it's more about the direction of travel and doing the club and the manager and everything, doing things in the right way, with ethics, morals and, you know, the behaviour of those kind of things. I think the players is more a kind of resonates in a romantic way with me. And it's just great to see emerging talent and seeing them blossom and just excel for our club and seeing that kind of pathway. And it does help, really helps if they're youngsters, because you just, you know, when you see a young player and they're kind of performing, they're performing better and better each week and you see that kind of, I mean, we've had, you know, we've had some big hitters in that area when you think of a lot of moderate, bail, cane and deli. I mean, we've been blessed with having that experience of just being blown away by a player, rather than a big name that just comes in and gets not polled with other players and, you know, that kind of thing. I do think that kind of, with a young player coming in there, they're not shop spoiled, are they? If you've, if you've signed a player who's later in their career and they've played in the Premier League for longer, they come in maybe with a little bit, I mean, I think we saw this with Werner, didn't we, with people who were kind of against him because he'd been at Chelsea and you get that, you know, maybe, you're rich, maybe people took a little while to shine because they, they'd formed opinions on him based, you know, from his time at Everton. And if you think about, you know, you mentioned some there where they're either coming in as young players or they're coming in, you know, as young players from another league, you're, you're less aware of them and your attachment grows, only seeing them in, in a spur shirt. And, you know, I think if you look at the ones that we've really taken to over the last, you know, 10, 15 years, you mentioned Bay or, you know, Delly, Harry, you know, these players, I think all of them, you know, they grew with us, you know, although, although, you know, a couple of those started other clubs, they feel like ours, don't they? Yeah, I think it could be more special when they grow with a team, can't they? You know, when it's like a kind of, you know, like when Poch built everything and then they're all been an amazing part of that team and it's just the master of congruence, really, for a couple of seasons, my, like, this discussion off list, I mean, I think, you know, regardless of where it ended up, what he managed to do in terms of synergizing from the T lady to the training ground was unbelievable. I mean, and it was an end to the youth as well. Let me throw in a question, if I can, that's not here, but I think he's pertinent. As you have, when you have a core like this and a large core of young players and you're bringing them through, when you're sort of embossing upon them the identity of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, for each of you, how important do you think it is to get into the deeper history of the club versus maybe take it as an opportunity to break from some of that history and be yourselves. Yeah, I mean, I'd gloss over our cup record over the last 30 or so years. But you know what I mean, there is a tendency, I mean, we have such tradition and we have such style and we were the first to do this and the first to do that, but how much of that is important versus, as we say, maybe just the characteristics that we are known for. And we've had this discussion before, what is the identity of the football club? Is this almost a clean slate where you can cherry pick it down to maybe three or four ingredients and say, this is your time. You build this club in the next generation and don't worry about the hurdles and the gazars. Or do we remind people that you're representing the shirt in that sense? Well, most of those kids, they're not going to mean anything. Glenn Hodles, the guy who sometimes commentates on football, they're not going to know of him as a player. They're even going to know of him as a manager. Most of these kids, we're talking about here, are born after Glenn Hodle, stop managing, let alone stop playing. So they're not going to know that. I'm sure that Andrew will use parts of the history of the club in order to try and motivate and try and get that kind of buy in and get that connection. But I don't think you want to burden players down with history, particularly when you're looking at a club that actually hasn't had a lot of success for a long time or certainly not in terms of winning things. I think you take elements of that. I think you say, this is a great club. You say that some of our record, particularly our style of play and what the fans expect. But I would expect Ange to be saying, actually, we're building our own legend here. We're building our own journey and you can be part of that and talk about the future rather than talking about the past so much. I think as fans, we're really guilty of doing this. I think it's self-defeating. I think you've got to look forward and you've got to look at what you want to build in the future rather than what someone else did in the past. I mean, obviously, in the training ground around the stadium, there's plenty of images adorned in the walls of various players and the castes and success and that kind of thing. And they might take a passing kind of interest in that. But the people that really take a passing interest in that is us fans. I mean, like when we were kids, we would be all over the history of Tottenham, even if it happened like decades before you were born or whatever, because you just became in love with the club. And they might have been the other players like that. I mean, the winks and the skips might be Tottenham fans through and through and they might well have done that exact same process when they were eight, nine, 10, 11 years old or something. So they will know that kind of stuff. And you never know. I mean, I think like Milo suggests you don't want that to be an actual burden to them because you almost got that impression of your winks that you just do absolutely anything for the team or the club. And even up to playing out opposition and not playing the role that he should be playing or something. So yeah, I think but most players are just, I mean, a lot of players are just coming in from other continents, other leagues and things like that. So a sheer weight of numbers here suggests this is a genuine chance to cherry pick to the slightest and most important ingredients. And as I think we're all agreeing, not overburden people with minutiae history, if you will. Yeah, no. Okay, let's get back to that list for a second. And let's let's have a bit of fun. Go on. Give us a couple of the names that you've been the most excited when you look at that list. I think, well, I think, you know, honorable mentions, I think Wu Lancia has really developed himself as a forward, I think that's really promising, especially when he thought he probably had Skyler and maybe Parrot and those kind of people as well ahead of him, but he looks in his turn into really round, well-rounded thing. But I think his partner in crime is someone I really like Jamie Donnelly. I think it's just really looks the part he looks like one of those players that's older than the players he's playing against in the maturity kind of way, the way he walks around the pitch and the way he gets involved. He knows where the spaces are and he can pick a pass and he can score goals himself as well. I mean, out of the current first team crop, I can easily say, I think Pat Matosai's my favourite Tom and player, to be honest, quite easily admit. I just love him. I don't know. I mean, some of this will be down to the kind of emotional stuff I just think he just seems like such a nice kid. He's just, I mean, I think there's been some videos of him when he's been away, isn't it? I think when he's been back in his homeland, it was just such great stuff. And I just, I don't know, he's just so makes you proud to wear your replica shirt, doesn't he? Or in my case, yeah. I think he's got so many more levels to go to because I think at the moment, sometimes he plays almost as though he's just loving the game too much, where he sounds ridiculous. But football's quite clinical these days, isn't it? And sometimes you have to just be a bit more, be a bit more re-reuking about it and just think you have to do what you're told and like, you know, do whatever. But I mean, I'd never want to like rain him in that sense. But yeah, I think he's, he's, he's my favourite first team, I think, at the moment, someone that's already kind of broken through. From the academy, Tyree Salz, my favourite, I think he's, he's a fantastic player. And you know, you think he's only just stepped up to the under 21s from the under 18s. He's, rumours are that he's going to be included in the first team squad for this season. So we might see a bit of him. Hopefully, you know, we've got, you know, preseason games start the week after a week Wednesday is our first preseason game. So not long to wait now. And I think with, you know, two international tournaments on this summer, a lot of these kids are going to get involved in those games over the next, you know, few weeks, at least until I think we get to Korea is probably when we'll see the seniors join up with them. So we're going to see a lot of them. You know, it was really good to see Mikey Moore in the training pictures today. So he's, he's involved in the, you know, the first team squad preseason training from the first day. But that must be a real boost for him. So, yeah, Tyree Salz, I really like, obviously, Mikey Moore's very exciting. I'll tell you, I actually go through here today, Leon Black as well. It's probably one that people are less familiar with. But, you know, you're kind of your archetypal and inverted fallback starts off as midfielders been playing as a fallback. And, you know, he's another one. He looks really good. So, yeah, probably not the names that most people are picking off the top, but, well, apart from Moore. But, yeah, there's depth in this group as well. Yeah, I mean, look, when I first sort of saw Tyree's Hall, I was, it didn't really make sense to me how a player that young could look so utterly comfortable and utterly capable of controlling the pace of a game at that age. I was really, that really took me by surprise. And I have to say, I was blown away by it, by him and in subsequent like, peakings of him, I will say, he has done nothing to dissuade my initial reaction. I agree with you, Ricky. Will Langshoe's development is very exciting to me, because he seems to me to be a prototype of all the classic old-school center forward. But, he's got much more to him than that as well. He looks like he's really going to develop into one hell of a striker. I mean, there's so many of the current first team craft. I mean, you've mentioned Matisasa, I'll leave him be. I mean, Destiny, you know, it's been great. I think Brendan Johnson is really going to prove the few critics that still remain wrong next season. I see him really developing. I saw him develop last season. Van de Ven, I mean, what can we say? I mean, he might be the, he might be the player that prevents England from getting to the Euro fine. Although, it's tough to break this list down. I mean, even looking at, even looking at Dragusan, you know, there's been rumors floating around around Madrid wanting to come in and take Romero, and maybe they will in a year or two. But, you know, you'd look and say, well, it might not be the tragedy that it once would have been, because we've got him to step in. I mean, so much to get excited about, so much. There's a couple that I see. So, and we'll actually, there's some stories this week about, you know, quite a lot of clubs are interested in taking on loan, but there's not quite sure on the situation as to whether we need to keep him back for another year. So, he qualifies as homegrown in the same way that we did with Alfie Devine. And just briefly back to Tyree's Hall. And with Archie Gray signing, a lot of people are talking about him as, you know, potential cover as at six, as well as at right back. And he might, he might well end up there, you know, playing there later in his career. But I think at the moment, he's more likely to play as an 8 or a 10 in, in Angie's system. You know, the player, he looks, you know, most like to me, you know, people are going to be familiar with his, his due to Bellingham. And I think we'll see him further forwards to start with. Yeah, you might end up deeper on, but he's deeper, but he doesn't look like a managed six to me at the moment. Tyree's Hall, I think does. And, you know, he's been playing that position, you know, amongst others for the under 21s. If he's in the first team squad, I think there's every chance that he could be that third choice player there, but behind, you know, behind the players who were playing their last season. So, yeah, I think he might be, I think Tyree's Hall is another one. I mean, this is kind of in combination of what I said earlier about Archie Gray. And Lucas Bergfeld's like this as well, whenever it's just their feet control is just absolutely unbelievable. It's just like, it's almost, I mean, I know some people have said this about Archie Gray, which is of course, a difference in charisma. It's almost got that two-footed sedanis where you literally can move your ball just away from the person that's trying to like, just take it off your time. And it's just, and when people do that really well, it's one of the most lovely parts of the game when someone does that well. It's got a really nice slight to one side. Yeah. Tap to the other foot and then go. Yeah, it's just, it's just great to know. Maybe that's what it is. Technical players is high on the list, the technical side of them. And, I mean, let's face it, these names didn't get into the list. I read probably because everyone was aware that I was reading with a lot of gravitas and probably didn't want me to try and go for my Oscar. But we've got Voskovich to come in. It's a tremendous talent. We've obviously got Troy Parrot. Major questions to be answered there as to what we do, but he's got incredibly talented. We've got Alfie Dorengton. We've also got Dane Scarlett. I mean, these are all other players up for consideration. If anyone wants to pass any comment, I mean, Dorengton, I will kick off by saying I think Dorengton has tremendous promise. But, you know, all of these players do. There's so many. Dorengton has been a little, he had surgery towards the end of the season. He was injured towards the end of the season. And I think he's due to miss most of preseason, which is really unfortunate for him because, you know, I think he probably would have travelled with the first team squad on tour. And, you know, that's a missed opportunity. It also probably means there's not much chance of him getting alone, certainly for the first half of the season because he won't have recovered fully. So, you know, I think that's a real shame because I agree with you. I think he's a really good player. I think he's probably a little light for first team football at the moment. And I think alone would have done him good in order just to get him used to two minutes before. But I think one of the things that's interesting here, you know, is quite a few players. You know, we talked about earlier on about Jamie Donley also being a target for alone. Ash Phillips, there's a lot of talk about him going back out on loan this season. Felice will definitely go back out on loan. You know, I'm not sure about Alfie Divine, maybe, maybe not. But, you know, Josh Keeling was out on loan last season. I don't know whether that means he hangs around and gun to goes out on loan next time around. But, you know, I think quite a few of these will be loaned out. But, you know, I suspect that we'll see them. That won't be until very late in the summer. They'll go on the tour. We'll see them over the summer and then, you know, they'll get loans, you know, just before the season starts, I suspect. I suppose we'll make it to see, you know, once we know as well, wherever we're in fits in, when we've got all the signings and that kind of thing. I mean, it's good for this group because we are in the Europa League. So, you know, the games, I'm not saying they're easy, but it's less risky or less. Although, I don't know, maybe Ann just won't care even if he was in the Champions League just to like play whoever he thinks is going to play. You know what I mean? It hits like they're good enough or if the reason to play them's there, then maybe he would as well. I don't know. Well, you segued us into the next point perfectly. I mean, you know, I think since the content in Mourinho years, has there been a change in transfer policy? You know, we can discuss that. I think that there's certainly been a change, but in terms of managers being ready to accept preferred first team ready players over youth, you know, let's get into that where we're at. It suggests to me that Ang is rather more open than those predecessors. I mean, I think we still assign these players. It's just that the manager wouldn't use them, you know, that they would be team signings to, you know, to quote, "contain" and... "unbelievable." That wasn't it. I mean, it was just the biggest damn nation of poor old Jed Spence. You just like, mate, you haven't got a chance. I mean, it was horrible. I stumbled across this during the week. So this is a list of the championships player of the season for the last 10 years. So 2015, it was Delhi Ali. 2016, it was Lewis Cook, who we didn't assign, but we definitely scouted. I'd say, I know that because I was told by the person who scouted him, we scouted him. 2017, Ali Watkins. 2018, Ryan Cessignon. 2019, Max Aaron's, we didn't sign, but we were very heavily linked with. We were quite close to 2020, Jude Bellingham. 21 was Michael Alesse. 22 was Brendan Johnson. 23, Alex Scott, another one that we were very, very heavily linked with last summer and 2024, Archie Gray. So after the last 10 years, we've signed four and linked with three or four other of the championship player of the season. I think it's quite interesting when you look at kind of our policy, our transfer policy, and then seeing that like that is quite, yeah. So I think I'm not sure that we've changed policy, but what we have done is we've gone back to having a manager who maybe is in tune with the club's policy. Yeah, I think we've aligned, we've got the manager that might align with our kind of policy, and also we've put those layers in place to support that. And because I think what's happened, I mean, more of the club's done expertly is just, you know, is searching around and increased revenue streams from everywhere. And I think this now relates to the stuff we're talking about here is our recruitment streams, where are we going to get them from? And it's the best of the European players, the championship players, hope sorting out the academy so that can produce them. And hopefully you'd like, I don't know, just to be, if you've got one academy player that came good every two years, that's probably not too bad. Let's say someone in the realms that would be a 30, 40 million pound player that's going to save you that kind of thing. And hopefully we can be better than that. And I think that's what we're aiming for, I think. And the club has to operate like that, because we're still all over increasing the revenue streams. We're still behind some other teams that can spend a lot more than us. So we just have to think smart. This is all about just being smart, basically. Look, the congruence ingredient of this particular conversation cannot be overestimated. It's so important. And in fairness, you know, Levi's been trying to do this sort of thing. And we've discussed this before since the days of Kamalians and so on and so forth. He's been trying to do this. I think, you know, the financial element is so, so big, so important. You know, all of a sudden you've got this huge financial undertaking and you think, well, we've maybe got the players, maybe we go for instant success now. I mean, that I think in time to come, that is the outlier. Those few years of merino and content in our overall, you know, take a 20 year history. That's the outlier. It's not the typical. And so in that sense, whenever we, you know, we scream and moan, well, not all of us. And not most of us here, actually, has to be said. But when people scream and moan about not getting the big money signing, really, the signings we've had the most success with over the last 20 years have been with this youth-minded policy. So I do think you're right. I think it is timing and I think it is congruence. It's so important. And to your point, Milo, having someone like your own Langer, like their operating, the way he does, it feels like the final piece of a puzzle that Levi's essentially been trying to put together for a long, long time. Well, Ricky was saying about Ange then. I think we put the question about the connection between the fans, the manager, and we put it in the wrong place. We should have put it here and ask that question at this point. Yeah, it does feel that, I mean, this was the criticism we had, you know, a year ago that the club wasn't all pointing in the same direction. And suddenly, we all are. And the elements that were kind of aligned, we've brought in people who suit that. And yeah, I mean, let's say, Steph, the next question here about is the club going back into his comfort zone. Maybe that's kind of the wrong way of putting it. But everyone is marching to the same tune. Everyone's pulling in the same direction. I think it's a fascinating question. I was actually just mulling it over as we were talking last few minutes because it is sort of back to the reality zone as well as a comfort zone, as well as where we actually operate best. It's a triumvirate because, you know, the reality is we're not a club that can probably afford to compete with the Manchester City's on the terms of wages. I mean, you know, let's go to Nico Williams as a target. Yeah, he's available 50 million vehicles with the guys wages are astronomical. So it's never just about the price of the players, the wages, right? We're not going to pay, we're not going to do that. We've never been a team that's going to do that. So realistically, you know, our quote unquote comfort zone is to build and develop more than just to go and make these massive signings. I mean, that's generally always been the way, hasn't it? So I think it is being able to do that in an efficient way. And with, as we've just spent the last 10 minutes saying, all directions or sorry, everyone heading in the same direction. Well, I think as long as we then persist with some kind of overall master plan, because I think I think Milo, you said before that occasionally someone's going to come along and be a good player, but we might have to sell one of them every now and then. But as long as that's covered with who you've got filling in behind and that kind of thing, in the same way city can sell Cancello and all those players, but then quite happily, they're not really that bothered by that because they've got someone come filling in the back. And we might have to do that because it just gives us an extra leg up if we sell someone to like someone to real Madrid for like 70, 80 million to then keep financing what we do actually need and still be competitive. And we are, we're not far off competitive anyway. We're not, you know, we're not miles behind it. And as I say, I think you could just be smarter and that can count for a lot. And actually, that's proven the other way around. Some teams have just miles away from being smart and are absolutely pissing it up, you know, pissing money out the wall and their chances with it. You know what I mean? And without wanting to piss on the rest of the pod, we've got down here. Yeah, the reality is that those players who aren't already in the first team, the vast majority won't ever become first team regulars. Yeah, they'll come through. I'm sure that most of them will be involved in the squad, but there's a lot there that will probably be around the squad for a season or two and will be sold. And you know, there'll be a core group there who do come through and establish themselves in the first two. But that is fine. It's fine having players there who are squad members and a really useful members of the squad for a year or two because, you know, we've seen the price of players this summer. Each one of those who comes through and takes a squad position is saving us what 30 million pounds at the current rate, whatever it is. That's, that's great. That's fine. And then also, you know, you get the income from that later on, which we can reinvest. That's good. I've always been a direction of travel person. I want congruence. I want to believe in what we're doing. I want to believe that we're a United Club going forward in whatever direction we're choosing. And, you know, I speak to someone who, you know, as the season is coming to an end and the close season started, I was incredibly excited about the potential of signing as a. I was in, I was firmly in a camp of we need to make this signing. This is a statement signing. We need to make this statement, you know, where does he fit? We were debating all this and I, of course, was like, well, he can play a cup of dinner, yada, yada, yada, whatever. But it's interesting. My attitude has changed. When I looked at this collection, when I took stock of the collection of players we're building and the direction we're moving, I actually think that's precisely the sort of signing we should probably stay away from. And we should fully get behind what we're doing with this current direction of traffic. And I'm really in favor of it. And I'm really in favor of supporting these players. And, you know, yes, the reality is that some of them will not, you know, be in the 2029 30 type of hospital line up, which we're about to dream about. But equally, as you said, I don't mind, as long as the direction is consistent and as long as we know what we're doing, the identity we're building is that, you know, you come to us, we're going to give you every opportunity. And if that means you end up at Real Madrid in a few years, that's fine. You know, it is what it is. And let's not be too big for our boots. We really think that we can compete with Real Madrid toe to toe right now. We're dreaming. I mean, I think as this, as this team or whether it's the players we've got here or some others, we've already got there in the first team as it matures. And I think we've got the financial foundations as we have a bit more of a maturity to buy a 60, 70 million pound player without it absolutely distressing or killing us. I mean, some teams like, you know, the evidence and the villas are just, you know, you make one or two mistakes like that. And it really does set you back. But I think we can, we can take that and we, you know, maybe the biggest difference is that we can develop the players who are 60, 70, 80 million players. And now we can keep them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe that's where the financial muscle comes. Maybe that's where we didn't sign them for that. But maybe now they're suddenly worth that. Maybe now we can chuck an extra 50, 60, 70 grand a week at them. And they will stick around. And maybe that's how you get to the, and that's where I think the financial muscle maybe benefits us to use it. I think the other thing it might help with having this approach where you have someone who, you bought someone at a lesser price is because what we don't know is going to happen is we've, every club's got to fit their model into like financial fair play and PSR. And we're not quite sure what that's going to look like. And of course, using this model, we, we, you know, as spend is just smaller than if you're just doing a Chelsea, which basically means you then have to do something kind of, you do not need to define doing a Chelsea at this point. There's some kind of account seat gymnastics for the next five years or something. And I just don't think you want to pray in that way, really. It's just, you know, and I don't think we would. I mean, obviously we know, we know how levy operates and we know how, you know, how, you know, prudent is or how calculated he is and that kind of thing. So he's not going to risk that with us. And it's frustrating that we do, well, it's frustrating that we are that team that seems to be like, you know, the model team to how to run a football club and then all these other teams still, you know, I hope the way this sunshine on the horizon, you'll see. Oh, I'm stuck. I'm stuck. It's not a saying. No, we're seeing it. Yeah. Yeah. Let's hope so. Fingers crossed. Is it possible, chaps, that we might have a team in two or three years time that's predominantly made up of this group of youngsters? Maybe two or three years times a bit early, but. You wrote that question. I did. I just read your question. I know. I was wrong. I mean, I didn't make a statement. It's a question, isn't it? But the answer I think is no. I think that I think they will be coming through. I think they'll be more involved. Maybe not predominantly from that batch. I think it's so hard to tell what direction players go in because it's just, I don't know. It wasn't that long ago. I probably thought that decky was just like a real nailed on. Absolutely going to be a worldie for us. And it might be the way the team is that it's not really suited him that much. But, um, and then all of a sudden, it's just the things like this waxing and weighing, you know, players falling in and out of favor or the team change or the manager changes or something. But, yeah, it's just it's so it's so football is so unpredictable, injuries happen at the wrong time, that kind of thing. And just, I don't know, it's just it's so hard to tell how many of these how many of these will still be around. I mean, you've got to start off with something like this anyway. There's no point, you know, there's no point not trying. So, you know, the hope, as you say, the Sun Shrine is there somewhere there. We just need it to like keep. Yeah, I will put my head on the block here and say that I think a good five or six of these players are going to be first team regulars. Yeah, I think that that's a very safe number to predict. And you know, you'd say there's at least two more outliers there that could definitely sneak in. But, um, but I think, well, I mean, I think maybe in the spirit of the question more than the actual technical terms of it, I think there's never been a time that I felt more optimistic that the players in our youth set up or the, you know, the players that we're amassing the of that age group have the potential to break through en masse like this. I don't think I felt that ever before. And I suspect that there'll be a couple more players in that kind of age bracket who will bring in this summer and, you know, in addition to these. Um, so, you know, I think if we did this part in, you know, a month, six weeks time, then they will probably be an even more impressive list. And then when we do sign as a for 60 million as well, I'll be jumping up and down. Yeah, it could well be, um, I'm not the only salesman for the club, it could well be work your Spurs play subscription this year to see a few of these play week in week out. It's on addition to the watching, you know, the great first thing. No, I mean, I know you're not a salesperson. By the way, I think Spurs play has been very good. It's been excellent. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Right. Do you, should we move to the crystal ball? Let's do the crystal ball. Let's do your crystal ball, Steph. We are going to come up with our Spurs 11 for the 2029 30 season, um, made up of those that are with us right now. As Milo said, at this moment, because in six weeks time, there might be a whole new team coming on a new range of options, but two questions on this and two things for us to agree before we crack into this. Um, I'm assuming that we can pick senior players who outside this age bracket as well, who would be still of playing age in five years time. Yeah. And are we assuming that and just still manager? I think we have to, don't we, for this? I think, I think I'm, I think, assuming that, well, let's take a vote on the first one. All those in favor of Milo's suggestion, say, I, I'm out voted. Let's, I would have been keeping it to the kids. Um, but let's now vote on the, on the end, all those in favor of Milo's suggestion, say, I, I, I think we've got to, because I've lined it up in an edge formation down here for listing out the players. I think, I think we have to do it like that. We're nothing if not democratic on this pod though, so I like that. If you want, we could do it with marinio as manager and then just, I don't know, it's a four string goal. And, uh, Scroll down to there. Yeah. Anyway. All right. So goalkeeper. Vic. Yeah. If it's gonna still be here, what's the 27 now? Yep. It's five years on. Yep. It'd be in his prime prime. Sorry, Josh. Vic's got the vote. Well, this is going to get a little interesting. I mean, left back, I mean, it's destiny, isn't it? Yep. No, I'd be playing for Real Madrid, but I then, I think, sadly, no, it will be, I think I use that type of player. I think I can see them loving a player like him. Interesting. Well, I don't, I don't know any other left backs. So Ben Davis. No, interesting. It's like Ben still in there. No, I don't know. I'm not sure who, uh, I, I don't think we're assuming, we're not assuming any incoming's are out going. So we, so I think we're, we're taking from this list. So I have to pick your doggy then if you still. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's got to be destiny there. I mean, send the backs. This is going to be interesting. Um, I'm going to go early and go on. We've got Mickey there, haven't we? And, um, I was a Maro 26, is he? Yeah. Well, let's face it that what we're actually debating silently right now is whether Christian Romero, well, we're taking it that they're all still here. We're not assuming that we're going to sell Christian Romero for a hundred billion next summer, right? Yep. Yeah. Okay. So five years time, I think Vanderven definitely, and Romero will be 31. So again, probably in peak, isn't he? See, okay. I'm going to, I'm going to put my head on the block here and say, no, I'll say the drag ascent is in instead. Even that quite, even our experienced players aren't very old, are they? You know, you think of Ben to go and Romero was so exciting times. Um, I think, um, Vanderven, for Skavich. And yep, that's all I'm going. Let's go. The man mountain. Yes. Let's, let's go for it. I, I, we've got to be a little more progressive here. I think I will go for that for sure. Um, Oh, and that's Vanderven's a little bit slower in five years. Maybe he might. Um, no, his hammies have held up. His beautiful hamstrings are still intact. They've both been stapled back into place. Yeah. He's had the, right. So right back, I'm going to go with Leon Blang. He comes through. Leon Black comes through into the first team. I'm going to support that on the basis of youth. Yes. I like it. I am, um, I'm just going to sit with our man now. Pedro will still be bombing up and down that wing. Just fall backward and forward. Okay. No, you never run. No, Black. Okay. Well, this is going to be, this is interesting. And number six. Terry's Hall. Ricky. Archie Gray. Tough, isn't it? It's really tough. I, I think it's going to be Archie Gray. But Archie Gray, isn't that player now? He's not an and six. No, no. Tyreys Hall is that player now. And is that fit? Well, let's go with it. Let's go with Hall. Let's go with Hall. That's a great thing that you've got that, that AI software or whatever, you've got the gaps, right? Because what people don't know is that we're sitting here sort of scratching our chins and pondering because this is not as easy as it seemed when we conceived it as an idea. It really isn't. You're not going to be trouble with this one, are you? Number eight. You're going to go, perhaps, are, aren't you? Yep. Perhaps it's still going to be. Yeah. We're smiling away. Yep. Yep. Turned into full Patrick Vieira by then. Hopefully. Eight, ten. So I think we need to think about eight, ten and left wing together because I think effectively you've got Mikey Moore, Jamie Donnelly and Gray effectively. There's a Gray, all of those could play eight, ten. Two of them can play on the left wing if you want to squeeze them in. So one of them is sitting out, basically, of where we are now. So I would go Gray and Moore for those from Moore on the left wing and Gray at eight, ten. Yep. Yep. I'd go with that. Yes. Given that breakdown, I would. Very tough on Donnelly. Tough on Donnelly. Tough on Donnelly. It might be tough on Bergvale as well, at some point. Let's get him in the midfield there. We have left him out, haven't we? Yeah. Completely. And I mean, he's the, you know, completely. But of course, this goes back to last week's pod, which is that it's going to be a squad game and that, you know, you're going to need two first teams anyway. True. Yeah. I mean, I think, but in this set up, Bergvale is rotating with Saar. I think he's, although I also think he's a player who could develop into a six as he ages. I think he can drop back as he gets older. Well, right wing. It's tough, isn't it? It is. Oh, sorry. I've completely blocked you off because you haven't made your decision. Yeah, have you? No, I'll go with what you say, I think. Yeah. You know what's wonderful about this? It is that it's so tough, but it's such a good thing that it's tough, right? I mean, this goes to underscore what we've been going on about doing this whole pod, which is that the future is screaming the bright. And as we get to the right wing, I think that brightness continues, doesn't it? I mean, look, I believe that Brendan Johnson will continue to develop as a player and continue to make that position his own. I really do. I don't. I think he's an impact sub. I think he's a rotation player. We can fit Jamie Donalie in here if we want. He can play right the way across the front line. Yeah. I think I'm Johnson. What's that now? I think that was Johnson. I'm not quite sure. I mean, I really like him, and I think he's going to develop. I just wonder in five years' time, whether that would have either gone one way or the other. I'm not quite sure. It's just five years, a long time. So, but yeah, I mean, I love Donalie, Donalie. So you're the casting vote here. Are you going, Donalie or Johnson? I wouldn't want him, but I kind of want him involved. He gives me like a photo for England playing out wide thinking, but you just don't need to be out there. You need to be a lot more involved. And I want Donalie to be that player as well, really. I want him sort of in and around doing stuff. So you're going, Brendan, for that reason, the loan fit. I think so. I mean, if Angie still manages to just want someone that's a bit of a raider down the right, then maybe Donalie's not that player. So, yeah. I'll send a forward show. I think this is pretty straightforward. I think we're all going to say, Will Langshaw. Are we not? Son of a kung min. Son of a stooch. I love it. Yeah. I think we're thinking that. Well, we love it. Unless you want to play Donalie up there, when he started there, but he's dropped deeper as he's gone on. Yeah, I think it's quite accurate. It is, Will Langshaw. And what this tells you, everyone, is that the bench, as again, for the fifth time in this pod, I'm going to promote last week's pod, the bench, which isn't a bench anymore, it's a rotational squad. I mean, you think of all the players that we've been eulogizing in the last hour plus that we haven't found room for in this current setup. Crikey. They're all going to be like replacements, but we are not going to have a drop-off in quality. And I think that that is exceptionally exciting and should excite everyone, because that's something we've complained about in the last few years, is that we don't have requisite quality to come off the bench or to rotate in or whatever. And now it looks like we're amassing it, right? Yeah. So where's that same video on the leg on this? Son, are we for the conclusion? I mean, yeah. Did you keep a tab as we were sort of deliberating with our chin stroking and head scratching? Did you figure out who we've actually? I think we'll definitely be bookmarking this and we'll be back in 2029 to sell. Well, first of all, I hope we are back deliberating this in 2029, because number one, it will mean we've all been mates for a hell of a long time and number two, it'll mean this pod is going, and number three, it'll mean that we're all still here. This might be what's going on in the world, if not to cast a weird spin on things. Crikey. I wonder if that ends up on the cutting room floor. Anyway, did you write it? Sorry. I didn't. No, I didn't. But we've got in goal, we've got Vic. Left back, we've got Destiny. Centerbacks was a Scavitch and Mickey. Right back was Black. Six was Terry's Hall. Eight was Sartre, eight, ten. So the Madison role, we had Gray in, and left wing was Mikey Moore. Right wing was Brennan Johnson. Up front was Langshre. Yeah, well, Langshre. And then we've got a really, really strong, we've got a really strong bench with Bergval, Gunter, or Donnelly, Doug Devine, Ash Phillips, Alaya Viddleys, Josh Keedy, we've done the typical, put two goalkeepers on the track at Sand on the bench, Dorengton, Parrot, and Scarlett if they're still around. So yeah, yeah, not bad. Not bad. And as you said, you know, there's still more activity taking place. We haven't even reached the end of this transfer window. But um, wow, that was fun. That was really good. That's, that has just made me feel so much better about my nipple-friendly shirt purchase and contributing to the future of Tottenham, Hotspur Football Club. It really has. But yeah, nice one, champs. Thanks very much. It's really good. Just have to try that. Yeah, we did. And we'll be back next week for more Spurs chatter news and, you know, most likely more activity in the transfer window. But as we have just finished telling you, the future is indeed bright. It is Lily White. So thanks for joining us and we'll see you next week. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]