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- [00:00]
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- [02:05]
Advertiser 3
The Athletic FC Podcast Network.
- [02:14]
Iyo Akamwalere
It'S been a year since the departure of Tottenham's all time top scorer supreme, but with 65 million pound record signing Dominic Solanke, it is another.
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Advertiser 1
Beautiful header from Dominic Solanke.
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Advertiser 4
A hat.
- [02:36]
Iyo Akamwalere
Are Tottenham finally replacing Harry Kane? I'm Ayoa Kimwaleere. Welcome to the Athletic FC Podcast. Yeah Jack, let's start with you on this. Dominic Solanke has been bought for A club record fee of 60, £55 million. Does it feel like the club have got their succession plan right here?
- [03:09]
Advertiser 4
I think that you can't fully replace Harry Kane, but you do need a peak age ready to go center forward, ideally one who's proven in the Premier League. And last summer Tottenham did not sign such a player. They basically tried to muddle through with Richarlison or son Heung Min up front. The season was okay, I think pretty good in parts, but they never really had the kind of reliable goal scorer through the middle which they needed. And now they have that. I think this is not a part of the pitch where you can take a punt on a talented teenager. You need somebody who's good to go. And I think that's exactly what they've got in Solanke. I think he's a perfect signing.
- [03:47]
Iyo Akamwalere
Did you think it was slightly underwhelming signing is that perhaps they could have gone for someone a bit more high profile or last season was quite enough to show spurs that, you know what, this could be our guy.
- [03:55]
Advertiser 4
Well, it's really hard to sign strikers. Everybody needs a very good striker. And the way that particularly European football works at the moment is we don't really produce that many strikers. So there's a real premium on them. And I'm sure, you know, I'm sure that maybe at spurs they might have liked, I don't know, Alexander Isak, for example. The players got a lot of attention over this summer. Isak would have cost 100 plus million pounds. I think that Solanke was the best of all the gettable strikers. And this guy has proven the Premier league. He got 19 Premier League goals for Bournemouth last season. And if he can replicate or even improve on that for Tottenham this season, I think he will have already started to repay a lot of his fee. So I know he's not a hugely established name, you know, not a lot in terms of international or Champions League credentials, but he's proven in the league. He ticks all the boxes for Tottenham. I think he's a good signing.
- [04:43]
Iyo Akamwalere
All right, Seb, we'll talk about Solanke a bit more in just a sec. But Harry Kane returned back to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium on Saturday. Tottenham vs Bayern Munich in a friendly. At that moment, Dominic Solanke was being rubber stamped. Really. I was listening to Jack on View from the Lane Pod and I think the word Jack used was closure. Do you think that added to the closure Harry Kane needed? And Eric Dyer, actually, let's not forget because of the way he sort of left Tottenham to go to Bayern Munich.
- [05:10]
Seb
I don't know. I mean, I still think the relationship is awkward, probably not quite the right word, but there probably isn't quite the amount of warmth you'd expect in it just yet. But it was a nice moment. It was really nice to see him get such a good reception from the club, especially given because of the way that transfer was completed. It sort of necessitated a bit of haste. There weren't the kind of the formal goodbyes that you'd expect from a player who'd been at the club for so long. And so, yeah, a nice moment. A strange one, though, because Kane is still really recovering from injury and obviously wasn't fit, has played almost no part at all in Bayern's pre season. And so you kind of. It reminded me a little bit of when. Do you remember when Alan Shearer retired and he had a kind of a testimonial game and he kind of limped on with his. With his sort of knee in a brace to score a penalty? It wasn't quite that bad, but it was nice. I think it's also. It does help that Kane comes back. There's a 65 million pounds forward waiting on the sidelines, ready to make their debut, right in the middle of their twenties with their prime ahead of them. So, yeah, I think it. It'll take a long time, I think, for the dynamics of that to lose some of their heat just because it was. It's a very difficult moment for the club. Very difficult moment for Daniel Levy, for Harry Kane, a lot of the fans. But, yeah, step in the right direction.
- [06:23]
Iyo Akamwalere
Iu, what do you think of the. The trip. Well, or the lack of trophy lifting, I should say, because that definitely made the headlines. You know, I mean, you can understand how that could be a sore point for spurs fans. Respect to the spurs fans as well.
- [06:36]
Seb
I think it's just media savvy, isn't it? It's just you can see the cheap headlines before they're written. So well done for staying out of the way of that, I think.
- [06:44]
Advertiser 4
Yeah, I think Kane had an awareness of how if there had been a photo of him lifting a trophy at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, he must have known it would have got. It would have been memed around the world within seconds. So I think it was, yeah, as Seb says, pretty, pretty clever of him to avoid that.
- [07:00]
Iyo Akamwalere
Okay, well, let's dig a bit deeper into what Solanke brings to the table for spurs in terms of the data. Here's Duncan Alexander and Tom Harris Talking about the 26 year old on the Athletic FC Tactics podcast last week.
- [07:14]
Advertiser 2
I think he's really, really was one of the standout strikers in the division last season. He's approaching 27, so he's still got, you know, a couple of years left in him at the top level and you know, he's had really high praise from Andoni Raiola all of last season really. He said after the Nottingham Forest game where he scored a hat tr he's very good for the way that we play, but I also think he's very good for any system because he can play in a low block, because he's very good at attacking space on the counter attack and you do see that quite a lot with him where he's surprisingly quick at springing into those open spaces. But Iriola continues, if we have more possession like today, he's very good inside the box and a good finisher and he finishes off by saying I think he's quite complete number nine. So really high praise from one of the Premier League standout managers last season. And looking at the numbers, there's nice variety to his finishing. He's as we said, adept at dropping deep and linking up and he's actually underperformed his XG in each of the last six seasons. So that suggests that he's not been massively clinical. But he was more or less bang on last season. His shot distance decreased, his XG per shot went up. So these are all good signs that he's getting into good positions and obviously at a team like Tottenham who are going to create more for him then I don't think it's a bad shot at all to be honest.
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Seb
I think if he'd had last season's campaign at Bournemouth at Spurs, he'd have.
- [08:33]
Iyo Akamwalere
Been in England squad for the Euros.
- [08:34]
Seb
Without a shadow of a doubt.
- [08:35]
Iyo Akamwalere
Yeah, if you want more tactical insight, you know where to go. Check out the Athletic FC Tactics podcast wherever you get your podcast from. Some really interesting points on Solanke there, especially around varied finishing and his link up play which we saw develop a lot last season. Seb, I'm just thinking about the Sonyu Min experiment at number nine and didn't go too well. I don't think last season he can score but it's not his natural position. How much have spurs been screaming for someone who just focused emphasis on being a striker since Harry Kane's departure?
- [09:06]
Seb
Yeah, this was something that came up in pre season because throughout all of the friendly games they played out there, spurs used day and Kulasevski as a kind of a false nine. And Kulasevsky is more than adequate in the role because he's a pretty good finisher. He does. He has a lot of sense forward traits like he moves across defenders pretty well. Invariably though a lot of his play comes from deep. So it involves him moving like 30, 40 yards to become involved. And I remember watching some of those games and yes, all the usual caveats about it being pre season season aside. I remember thinking how little presence spurs had and maybe that isn't spurs natural game but the gaps in the middle of the pitch in the final third were really interesting to watch. And I think that's the thing I like about this, that you have someone like Solanki who can play fluidly in a way that suits Potecogli's style of play, but also is a center point for an attack. And it means also of course that you can start putting players back into their, their favorite position. Then clearly Sonja Min is a kind of a left sided forward rather than a center forward. Not sure what happens to Kulasevsky in the new season because there's clearly he's spoken pretty publicly about. He doesn't really enjoy playing from the right, feels a bit lost, likes to play in the center because he enjoys having many touches. He wants to be more involved and that's a number tens role. And what does that mean with James Madison? So there are a few questions to answer there but I think Solanke creates a set of good problems if that makes sense rather than bad ones.
- [10:30]
Advertiser 4
Yeah, I think Solanke gives them exactly what they want, which is someone who can lead the line play with their back to goal, hold up the ball, link with teammates, which is something which we've seen son try and kind of struggle with quite a lot I think in the last year or so. Solanke also offers an attacking threat which is very much within the penalty area. We know how Tottenham like to create chances with those pullbacks towards the penalty spot. That's an area where Solanke flourishes. And he's also a fantastic presser. Like he's so good without the ball. He's so good and he's proven this at Bournemouth, particularly under Iriola. Plus I think hopefully with more kind of physical reliability than Richarlison, less likely to miss games. So in that sense I think he's a big step up.
- [11:12]
Iyo Akamwalere
I know you covered the Euros for us. What do you make at that point? That if Solanke had the season he had at spurs he would have been in that England squad.
- [11:21]
Advertiser 4
It sounds right to me. I imagine that Gareth Southgate would probably say that he judges every player equally, but I'm sure that players. I'm sure that it's easier for players who play for the bigger clubs to, to make their case. You know, the fact is that England took Ivan Tony to the Euros and he, you know, Ivan Tony did really well at the Euros. You know, he's. He set up Kane's goal against Slovakia, he scored that penalty against Switzerland. But he was, he'd obviously had a very difficult season of his own, whereas Solanke had a fantastic season, then found himself behind Tony in the pecking order. So I, I do think that is fair enough and I would not be surprised at all if Solanke's move to Tottenham sees Lee Carsley or whoever, the long term replacement for Lee Carsley is really integrating Solanke into those England squads.
- [12:08]
Iyo Akamwalere
Yeah, for sure. Right, quick one on, on Solanke, Seb. You know, a player who's I guess classes a late bloomer. I didn't realize until we started doing this body. He actually started at Chelsea that far ago. There's a picture of him and Mourinho. Mourinho putting him on the pitch, which is kind of strange for me anyway. High school scorer, under €17 in, in 2014. You know, tip for huge things. Obviously he didn't work out at Liver or Chelsea, but seems to have flourished at Bournemouth under Iriola. Is it just a matter of marrying a really solid manager with a player and their personality is fit, that means you can get the best out of them.
- [12:46]
Seb
Yeah, I think it's partly that. I also think it's remembering that development and growth, it's not linear. And football players are human beings. They, in the same way that we all do mature and develop and reach our peaks in life at different stages. Donis Lanky's kind of been a star for a really long time. Time in a lot of ways. I mean we all knew of him when he was a youth international. The Mourinho thing is interesting. I'm glad you brought it up because there's that very famous Mourinho quote. Mourinho was at Chelsea for the second time they'd been on tour in the us. Solanke had had a few minutes, played really well and Mourinho came out and said, I think it was Lewis Baker and Izzy Brown and said like if these three players alongside Solanke do not play for England, then I failed and that kind of created a little bit of a halo around all of them. Baker kind of had a. He's had an okay career in the Football League. Izzy Brown suffered terribly with injuries and Solanke's had to take a few backward steps. But I think the story with him is really the maturity of the person because in a way he's been humbled. Chelsea didn't work out, had to leave. Had a very difficult last year there where he was kind of ostracized because his contract was expiring. Went to Liverpool where if you hear him talk about it, he said he learned an awful lot from the three players. Firmino, Salah, Mane were in their prime when he was there. Pretty difficult to get some minutes amongst those three. He talked about how he doesn't regret it, how he learned a lot from those guys, was then willing to take a step into. Step down to Bournemouth. I don't think it's unfair to call that a step down and then people forget this. I think he went about a year without scoring a goal for Bournemouth during. During their relegation season and suffered a lot of flak, had been signed for a lot of money and has come back from that and has re established himself really at top of the game. I mean, like Jack said, I completely agree with what he said about England and his suitability for that squad. So this is kind of a. This is a rejuvenation story. This is a kind of about a young guy who's been able to rebalance himself, refocus, because conversely, how many players do take that step back, step down and then never come back again? And he's just become the most expensive transfer in Tottenham's history. It's an accolade in itself and it's a kind of measure of what he's been able to do even at this point in his career.
- [14:55]
Iyo Akamwalere
Based on. We'll talk about this a little later on. I know you've interviewed Anjepostecoglou, Seb. Do you see those personalities matching? Well, Postecoglou, known to be a motivator of people, I guess. Do you see Solanke flourishing under a manager like that?
- [15:10]
Seb
What I will say is that everybody you speak to about Don Slankey talks about what good personality is, what good character he is. And one of the things that Postecoglou brings up time and again and invariably comes up whenever you talk to him about players that he signs is like, I want to get the feeling of. I'm paraphrasing someone's enthusiasm to play full spurs if they're talking about spurs as being one of several different options that they have. And he admits that's just the modern game, right? It's money everywhere. There's options for good players. It's just that's the way of it. Then he gets a sense almost immediately this is somebody I can work for from Solanke's perspective. When I was writing out the interview, I spoke to someone who had played for Postecoglou previously who said the big thing with him is the amount of self belief he gives you. He has a habit also of making people feel very privileged to play professional football, to remember that it's a game that occurs within kind of the context of real life where like obviously Postochli spent time as a bank teller back in Australia. So he kind of brings that up a lot. Jack knows that. Of course, you'd imagine that Solanke, having experienced some of the things he has at Chelsea, at Liverpool, back down in the football League, I think there would be that appreciation for this opportunity and that's probably something that Posakovi would respond really positively to himself.
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Iyo Akamwalere
Yeah. Jack, do you see a tactical connection between the way he played at Bournemouth and the way Tottenham are looking to play moving forward?
- [16:32]
Advertiser 4
Yeah, I mean, I think that the way that he's played at Bournemouth is probably very well suited to what Tottenham want from him. So I think like the only. If you look at particularly how he did last year at Bournemouth, the only thing missing from his game really was goals from outside the box. But then Postecoglou doesn't really want his centre forwards to try and score goals from outside the box. He wants them kind of attacking that sort of penalty spot area, waiting for those cutbacks. That's something which I was never fully convinced by Richarlison's ability to do that. I know he had that one good goal scoring run where we got 9, 11 in December and January last season. But in the main he didn't seem to be quite as sharp as he might be in those areas. But I think Solanke offers them that as well as other things where he's better than Richarlison. So I'm pretty confident about that fit.
- [17:14]
Iyo Akamwalere
How do you solve a problem like Richarlison? You know, Berkval's in the door, Solanke's in the door. Record signing. I mean, is he staying at Spurs? Is there room for him at Spurs?
- [17:24]
Advertiser 4
Well, let's wait and see at the moment, you know, there's been a lot of interest in Saudi Arabia for richarlison all summer. I think that. I mean, look, spurs signing Solanke is not good news for Richarlison because richarlison was generally first choice center forward last season. Now Solanke will be first choice center forward. And to be honest, Tottenham wouldn't have signed Solanke if they were delighted with Richarlison's output in the two years since they signed him from Everton. So look, I think the ball. I get the. My feeling is that the ball is in richarlison's court. He has said on social media recently that he suggested that he's not going to Saudi Arabia. But you know, there's still a bit of time left in the window, but let's wait and see.
- [18:06]
Seb
You're listening to the Athletic FC podcast with IO akamwalere.
- [18:12]
Advertiser 1
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- [20:38]
Jack
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- [21:36]
Advertiser 4
Foreign.
- [21:41]
Iyo Akamwalere
You are listening to the Athletic FC podcast today discussing spurs ahead of Ange Postecoglou's second season in charge. Don't forget to get in touch with the show. The email address is tafcpod theathletic.com and if you have something you think we should be talking about, let us know. And if you want more from spurs, well check out View from the Lane wherever you get your podcasts from. Right, let's get back to talking Tottenham. And as we said, Seb Postecoglou is preparing for his second season at Spurs. You were on tour with spurs in South Korea and also in Japan. What were your biggest takeaways from your time with that squad?
- [22:18]
Seb
From a positive perspective, I think it was probably the young players. Bergwaal and Gray are known commodities. I think the penny will drop probably in the Europa League in terms of just how good those two are. They both surprised me in terms of how they held themselves socially within the squad. They are slightly different characters. Gray comes from footballing family of course and sort of seems very comfortable there integr really easily. Lukas Bergweil has developed this sort of little brother, big brother dynamic with Dejan Kulusevski and that's helped him. But I think if you watch the way that they played, particularly Bergwal, a real lack of. In the positive sense, a real lack of respect for reputations. I think the second half against Bayern Munich in Saul you saw happy to barge people off the ball. I want possession, I want to change the game. These are really good traits. But then I remember thinking also I hadn't seen a lot of Mikey Moore, I hadn't seen a lot of Will Langshore year I was. I thought Alfie Devine played really well across. Across the tour. I think he did himself a lot of favors. Jamie Donnelly had a tricky old time having to play left back, but I thought that in moments, in kind of. In terms of what he was able to give the team, I thought he had a really good tour as well. And the. The balance of personalities within this squad seems a lot healthier than it has done for a long time. And asked a few people about it, whether it was kind of a by design initiative, whether it was, you know, that's something that Postecoglou is very wary of, making sure that the right people are in the squad. And that certainly feels like it's not done. I don't think. I don't think it's a complete body of work just yet. But when you talk to these players, I mean on tour you tend to have little events like they're, you know, with local school children and local fans and you get to chat to the players and more importantly, you get to see how the players handle themselves in what can be quite difficult situations and quite overwhelming situations. Situations because of being famous and being pretty high profile and people naturally being delighted to see them. And I was so impressed. I was so impressed. And I know that's not everything, but it's a really good starting point. So beyond that and Guinness, how hot it was, I think that's probably what I'll take away from it. And about a stone's worth of weight loss. That's the main thing.
- [24:27]
Iyo Akamwalere
Yeah, exactly that. Exactly that. Jack Sebs has spoke about Archie Gray, we've spoken about Solanke. There's also been, I guess, a lack of money from outgoing so far. Spurs are up there with the highest net spenders so far this summer. Can we expect any major incomings or outgoings? You know, we've still got a fair bit of the window left to go.
- [24:45]
Advertiser 4
Probably depends a little bit on the other outgoings. So they've had. I mean, I think they've done really well with outgoing so far. They've moved on. Lots of players who've been on the fringes the last few years, you know, Tanganga, Sessignon and Dombele, Hoiberg, Emerson Royale. Now there's still a question mark over Lo Celso's future. Question mark over Reguillon's future. Future. A bit of a question mark over Richarlison's future. I think that all said Tottenham have wanted a midfielder. You know, back at the start of the window they were pushing to try and sign Jacob Ramsey, Masson Villa. He would have been expensive. They were interested in Conor Gallagher but no official bid. So look, I think a lot depends on which midfielders they think are on the market, if they. If there might be a midfielder in particular that they want to go for. But I don't feel like they're completely done yet.
- [25:29]
Iyo Akamwalere
Yeah, but you think they need to strengthen because we saw the back end of next season, how flat things felt, you, lack of personnel, injuries, all that kind of stuff. Fair to say they have strengthened but where else? Where else? Because they've got European football again this season. So it could be really fascinating.
- [25:45]
Advertiser 4
I'd say one more central midfielder. I am excited about Berg B Gray, but I think they need somebody with a bit more experience, somebody in that Jacob Ramsey, Conor Gallagher profile to give them more energy, to make them harder to play against better pressure against the opposition. That's what I'd look for.
- [25:59]
Iyo Akamwalere
Seb, you actually had the opportunity to sit down with Postecoglou during the tour. He spoke a lot about players having to buy in at I guess he's demanding style of football. So as we approach the start of his second season in charge, do you sense a full buy in from the squad? Because also there's only so far that energy can take you if players aren't seeing the results coming through or perhaps, dare I say, trophies entering the cabinet.
- [26:25]
Seb
Yeah, well, that was something that Post Koglobi brought up himself, actually. He said one of the big things for him is when you're working players, particularly in a preseason environment, are they doing it because I'm telling them to or are they doing it because they really believe in what we're striving towards? And the other thing he said is it's, you know, beyond a certain point. These are professional footballers and they have short careers and if they're buying in, it has to be because they believe in they're getting something back in return, be it recognition or international caps or trophies or whatever. I think reading between the lines, I think Postecogli still feels there's a bit of work to be done. He talks about, he talks about how now a lot of work has been done. Jack mentioned how well they've done with sales. I completely agree that I think they've done really well to get some of those players off the books. He still said he didn't expect it all to be completed by the end of this window. Read out of context, it sounds like he's not going to get all the targets he wanted for next season. That's not really what he meant. It was just kind of balance of squad, mix of personalities, range of positions, things like that. So I still think he feels like, yes, huge progress and he placed great emphasis on how much work there was to do when he arrived because he said not necessarily because there are a lot of bad characters, but he said there are a lot of players coming towards the end of their contracts, a lot of holdovers from previous eras and actually it is eras plural. There are a lot of kind of mixed directions over the, you know, since probably even before Pochettino left and there was a long way to go, probably perhaps in his eyes further than supporters appreciated at the time. But I think he's pleased. I just don't think it's kind of quite there yet and I don't think that's controversial. I think you just look at the squad and you think, yeah, there's, you know, there are things still to be done. Jack's talked about that and yeah, I think he would probably agree with that.
- [28:10]
Advertiser 4
Yeah, I think they are, I think they're kind of on track. I think that last season, last season overall it was good but because it started so well, that ended kind of poorly. It makes people, you know, that obviously warps how you, how you look back on it a bit. I think that they do have good buy in from the players so far. I think they have, have spent pretty well. I think they've really. It's kind of gone a little bit under the radar. But I think they've really changed the age profile of the squad. You know, spurs have not had a lot of teenage players over the years. The last teenage I can really remember in the spurs first team was Dele Alli. But now this year they've got 18 year old Bergval, 18 year old Gray, 17 year old, more knocking on the door. So it is going to be A different age profile. If I've got one. If I've got one worry, it's that I think there's a lack of. They basically lost a lot of experience in the last year. Hojbjerg, Dier, Kane, especially Luis. And I just want to know that there are characters like senior, experienced characters at spurs who can make sure that standards are kept high amongst the players throughout the whole course of the season. I do think we saw a bit of a drop in standards from the players the back end of last season and I just hope that there are the right voices in the dressing room to make sure that doesn't happen this season.
- [29:24]
Iyo Akamwalere
Is this yet again another conversation for son Yoo Min, who's been there for goodness knows how.
- [29:28]
Advertiser 4
He can't do it all himself, can he needs it can't just be the one senior player. He needs to have quite a few senior players around him to enforce those standards.
- [29:36]
Iyo Akamwalere
Okay, fair enough. Something that came out of the interview as well was when we talk about standards, I guess also foundations that and just trying to set at spurs and we've spoken about the outgoings as well. And I mean Solanke, Bergfall, Dragusan, let's not forget. I mean they've made some solid signings.
- [29:52]
Advertiser 4
Well, spurs spent a lot of money last year as well. Basically half of a new first team with some big outgoings on Vicario, Van de Fer and Madison in particular. They also had to turn the Poros deal permanent, the Kulasevsky deal permanent. Yeah, I know they sold Harry Kane and that means money comes in. But they have committed a lot of money then this summer. Obviously Gray wasn't cheap and then Solanke is a club record signing and so far they have not been able to offset the Solanke fee against selling Richarlis in Saudi Arabia. So they are continuing to spend money. I think that the way that modern football is Levy will always be accused by some fans perhaps of not backing the manager. But I think in this case, given that the players have gone out as well as coming in, I think so far feels to me as if Ange has been backed.
- [30:46]
Jack
This podcast is brought to you by aura. By the time you hear about a data breach, your information has already been exposed for months. On average, companies take 277 days to report a breach. That's nine months where hackers have access to your personal data data. That's why we're thrilled to partner with Aura. Aura is an all in one digital safety solution that monitors the dark web for your phone number. Email and Social Security number, sending real time alerts if your info is found. It also includes a vpn, password manager and data broker removal to help keep you safe. For a limited time, Aura is offering a 14 day free trial plus a dark web scan to check if your personal information has been leaked. All for free at aura.comsafety that's aura.comsafety to sign up and protect your loved one ones. That's a.comsafety terms apply. Check the site for details.
- [31:43]
Seb
This is the Athletic FC podcast with.
- [31:46]
Advertiser 4
IO Aon Son on the move alongside it's son Johnson wraps it up. Brennan Johnson 6th minute, 2nd half stoppage time and spurs, the team who concede so often and perhaps too often in stoppage time finally get some reward at the right end for them.
- [32:19]
Iyo Akamwalere
Finally for the two of you. I guess it's the style of football we're going to be entering into again this this season with an as we like to call it. And we've sat here several times, especially the top end of last season, and we've watched some phenomenal football, let's face it. But the big debate was that balance between defense, attack, whether or not there's going to be an emphasis on set pieces, all that kind of conversation. What kind of football are we going to see, Seb, coming into this season? Any learnings that Chelsea match in particular that maybe spurs could sort of take?
- [32:51]
Seb
Yeah, it's a great question. So I actually asked Botacoglo about this. I said looking back on last season, did anything happen that sort of changed your your way of thinking? He said no. He said no. He like the only kind of takeaway he had or the only takeaway he was willing to discuss was the kind of the squad strength. And he did say that the kind of the, the physical burden on the players impacted the quality of the football towards the end of the season. I certainly think that's true. He also said that looking at the squad when they headed into autumn, that he knew that injuries in certain places were going to have a devastating effect. Check in that box because obviously you mentioned the Chelsea game and some of the things that happened there. So yeah, I suppose that's a sort of a different answer to the question. I think what's interesting to me is the reconfiguration of the coaching team because he didn't go into too much detail. But he talked about how like with a squad to keep them interested, to keep them invested, you always have to make sure that they're seeing different things in training and being presented with different challenges. So I'm really intrigued to see what effect that has because there are different ideas here. I have some concerns about what I've seen around set pieces this summer. I don't want to go too far down that road just because preseason the intensity is not there. Also, spurs have played without a first choice centre back partnership for all but 45 minutes of the preseason. So it's not really fair. But yeah, I don't think we'll see many changes. I think there'll be kind of, there'll be some tweaks. I mean, I spent some time with Acaro and he talked about how talked about that period where he was very much under microscope for defensive set pieces and when that strange period where opposition coaches were just sending players charging into him without even looking at the ball and there was kind of that conversation about do we need to clarify the rules or not. Vicario was very forthright and it was one of those times when you ask a question and you kind of wish you hadn't because he's a lovely person, he's very intense person. And when you ask about how he's going to handle set pieces and you kind of, you ask a question which essentially examines his abilities and his weakness, he kind of, he burns through you with his eyes a little bit. But he was, he was very forthright about his ability to, to deal with that better this season and to adapt learnings, his own personal learnings from his first season in English football. So I think we'll see little things like that, adjustments. I don't think there's any revolution. I think if you look back at Postecogli's career, in a lot of ways he's a fundamentalist. He is not going to change his belief system based on a fatigued second half of the season. So I think we'll see with some refinement, some hardening of conviction and belief where they'll approach with a deeper squad, which is going to be beneficial. And yeah, so I don't imagine seeing anything vastly different.
- [35:38]
Iyo Akamwalere
I was going to say what does and ball 2.0 look like? But let's say Ange ball 1.5 with refinements. Jack, what do you reckon coming into this season?
- [35:46]
Advertiser 4
Well, I think that I'm not somebody who thinks that he needs to dilute the style of play for it to work. I think that's a very English way of thinking about a manager set of ideas. I just think it needs to be executed better. And I, and I think based on what we saw from the first 12 games of last season. It can work. It absolutely can work in the Premier League, but it requires basically everybody to be fit and play well all the time.
- [36:09]
Iyo Akamwalere
Story of any manager really.
- [36:10]
Seb
Right.
- [36:10]
Advertiser 4
It's like a house because it's such a high risk way of playing. It's a bit of a house of cards. You know, you take one card out and the whole thing collapses. We saw that like as soon as Tottenham don't have their press right, it collapses. As soon as they don't have all their best, you know, their best fit center backs on form, if they don't have poro and a doggy, it collapses. So I think Tottenham have set themselves a very high standard this season. They've very high bar. If they're going to make this work every single week and in Europe, in the Europa League as well, I think they can do. They certainly need to tighten up on set pieces which I think is just being bad on defensive set pieces is a self inflicted wound. They can make this better, I think if they put the work in. But overall I'm pretty bullish. I think that Angebaul can work. I just think that if they've got the full squad fit, motivated, performing to a high standard every single week, then there's no reason they can't have another very good season.
- [37:01]
Iyo Akamwalere
Okay, let's end it there. Seb, thanks for joining us from Germany. Jack, good to have you in the studio. And also if you're enjoying the podcast, don't forget to leave us a review or send us a an email with your thoughts on the topics we discuss or maybe stuff you'd like us to cover as well. Get in touch at tafc pod theathletic.com we'll be back tomorrow for another deep dive into the biggest footballing story of the day. Appreciate you listening.
- [37:25]
Advertiser 3
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Jack
Ready for.
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Advertiser 1
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Seb
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- [37:48]
Jack
This podcast is brought to you by Aura. By the time you hear about a data breach, your information has already been exposed for months. On average, companies take 277 days to report a breach. That's nine months where hackers have access to your personal data. That's why we're thrilled to partner with Aura. Aura is an all in one digital safety solution that monitors the dark web for your phone number, email and Social Security number. Sending real time alerts if your info is found. It also includes a vpn, password manager and data broker removal to help keep you safe for a limited time. Aura is offering a 14 day free trial plus a dark web scan to check if your personal information has been leaked, all for free at aura.comsafety that's aura.comsafety to sign up and protect your loved ones. That's a U R a.comsafety terms apply. Check the site for detail details.
- [38:43]
Seb
ACAST powers the world's best podcasts Here's a show that we recommend.
- [38:51]
Advertiser 4
Remember blowing into a video game cartridge.
- [38:53]
Seb
Or taping songs off the radio?
- [38:56]
Advertiser 4
How about Saturday morning cartoons?
- [38:58]
Seb
Hey, AOL chat rooms.
- [39:00]
Advertiser 4
Did we just age ourselves?
- [39:01]
Iyo Akamwalere
Yep.
- [39:02]
Advertiser 4
We're Mike Fanoia and Charles McBee, two.
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Advertiser 1
Comedians getting the nostalgic and asking that nagging question, Are we old?
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Advertiser 4
Relive the laughs, the cringes and the nostalgia.
- [39:13]
Advertiser 3
Are we old?
- [39:14]
Seb
Podcast right here on acast. ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com.