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It's been a year since the departure of Tottenham's all time top scorer.

Goal scorer supreme.

But with 65 million pound record signing Dominic Solanke, it is another beautiful header from Dominic Solanke.

A hat trick from Bournemouth.

Are Tottenham finally replacing Harry Kane? I'm ayo. Akimo lere. 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 65 million pounds. Does it feel like the club have got their succession plan right here?

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 Rosarlassen or Son hyung minn up front. This season was okay, I think pretty good in parts, but the. 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.

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. Do you know what? This could be our guy.

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 that maybe at spurs they might have liked, I don't know, Alexander Isak, for example, place 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 in 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, not a lot in terms, 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.

All right, seb, we'll talk about Solanki. A bit more in just a sec, but Harry Kane returned back to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday. Tottenham versus Bayern Munich in a friendly. At that moment, Dominic Solanki 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.

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 preseason. And so it reminded me a little bit of when. Do you remember when Alan Shearer retired and he had a testimonial game and he kind of limped on 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 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'll take a long time, I think, for the dynamics of that to lose some of their heat just because it was 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.

IO, what do you think of the lack of trophy lifting, I should say, because that definitely made the headlines. You can understand how that could be a sore point for spurs fans, but also respect to the spurs fans as well.

I think it's just media savvy, isn't it? You can see the cheap headlines before they're written. So well done for staying out of the way of that.

I think, 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 been memed around the world within seconds. So I think it was, yeah, Seb says pretty clever of him to avoid that.

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.

I think he really, really was one of the standout strikers in the division last season. He's approaching 27, so he's still got a couple of years left in him at the top level and he's had really high praise from Andoni Gura all of last season.

Really?

He said after the Nottingham Forest game where he scored a hat trick. Hes very good for the way that we play, but I also think hes very good for any system because he can play in a low block because hes very good at attacking space on the counterattack and you do see that quite a lot with him, where hes surprisingly quick at springing into those open spaces. But Rayala continues, if you have more possession like today, hes very good inside the box and a good finisher and he finishes off by saying I think hes 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 our 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.

I think if he'd had last season's campaign at Bournemouth Aspers, he would have been in England squad for the euros without a shadow of a doubt.

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 in his link up play, which we saw develop a lot last season. Seb, I'm just thinking about the Sun Yu 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 on being a striker since Harry Kane's departure.

Yeah, this was something that came up in preseason because throughout all of the friendly games they played out there, spurs used Dan Kuliszewski as a kind of a false nine. And Kuliszewski is more than adequate in the role because he's a pretty good finisher. He has a lot of sort of center 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 seasoned. 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 Portugal's style of play, but also is a center point of an attack. And it means also, of course, that you can start putting players back into their, their favorite position. Then clearly Sonia min is kind of a left sided forward rather than a center forward.

Not sure what happens to Kuliszewski 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 ten's role. And what does that mean with James Madison? So there are a few questions to answer there, but I think Solanki creates a set of good problems, if that makes sense, rather than bad ones.

Yeah, I think Solanki 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 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 Iraiola. Plus I think hopefully with more physical reliability than Rosalis and less likely to miss games. So in that sense, I think he's a big step up.

I know you covered the euros for us. What do you make of that point? That if Solanke had the season he had at spurs, he would have been in that England squad?

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 make their case. The fact is that England took Ivan Toney to the Euros. Ivan Tony did really well at the Euros. He set up Kane's goal against Slovakia, he scored that penalty against Switzerland, but he obviously had a very difficult season of his own, whereas Solanki had a fantastic season, then found himself behind Tony in the pecking order. So I do think that is fair enough and I would not be surprised at all if Solanki's moved to Tottenham, sees Lee Carsley or whoever the long term replacement for Lee Carsley is really integrating Solanki into those England squads?

Yeah, for sure. Right, quick one on Solanke, Seb. A player who I guess classes a late bloomer. I didn't realize until we started doing this body. He actually started in Chelsea that far ago. And there's a picture of him and Mourinho. Mourinho putting him on the pitch, which is kind of strange for me, anyway. Highest goal scorer under €17 in 2014, tipped for huge things. Obviously he didn't work out at Liverpool 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?

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. Don I. Slanky's kind of been a star for a really long 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 said, 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. He's had an okay career in the football league. Izzy Brown suffered terribly with injuries and Solanke has 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 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 step down and then people forget this. I think he went about a year without scoring a goal for Bournemouth during their relegation season and suffered a lot of. Flack had been signed for a lot of money and has come back from that and has reestablished himself really at the 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 you 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.

Based on. We'll talk about this a little later on. I know you've interviewed and Pastor Koglu, Seb, do you see those personalities matching well, Pastor Coglu known to be a motivator of people, I guess. Do you see Solanke flourishing under a manager like that?

What I will say is that everybody you speak to about Don Slanky talks about what good personality is, what good character he is. And one of the things that post Coco brings up time and again and invariably comes up whenever you talk to him about players that he signs is 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 Postacoglu 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 the context of real life, where obviously PAs Cockley 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 Pozkovi would respond really positively to himself.

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?

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 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 Pastor Cogli doesn't really want his center 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 Rosarlison's ability to do that. I know he had that one good goal scoring run where he got nine and eleven 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 Solanki offers them that as well as other things where he's better than Rich Alisson. So I'm pretty confident about that fit.

How do you solve a problem like Richarlison? You know, Berkwell's in the door, Solanke is in the door. Record signing. I mean, is he staying at spurs? Is there room for him at spurs?

Well, let's wait and see. At the moment, you know, there's been a lot of interest in Saudi Arabia for Rasarlis and all summer. I think that. I mean, look, spurs signing Solanki is not good news for Richarlussen. Because Rocharllassin was generally first choice center forward last season. Now Solanki will be first choice center forward and to be honest, Tottenham wouldn't have signed Solanki if they were delighted with Richarlison's output in the two years since they signed in from Everton. So look, I think the ball, I get my feeling is that the ball is in Vishal Asson'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.

You're listening to the Athletic FC podcast with IO akamu lere.

You are listening to the Athletic FC podcast today discussing spurs ahead of Angosta Coglio, second season in charge. Don't forget to get in touch with the show. The email address is tafcpodeathletic.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, Pasakoglu 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?

From a positive perspective? I think it was probably the young players. Bergwell 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 seems very comfortable there. Integrated really easily. Lucas Bergwell has developed this little brother big brother dynamic with Deja and Kuliszewski and that's helped him. But I think if you watch the way that they played, particularly Bergwell, 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 Lancashire. I thought Alfie Devine played really well across the tour. I think he did himself a lot of favorite is Jamie Donnelly. Had a tricky old time having to play left back, but I thought that in moments in terms of what he was able to give the team I thought he had a really good tour as well.

And the balance of personalities within this squad seems a lot healthier than it has done for a long time. And ask a few people about it, whether it was kind of a by design initiative, whether it was. That's something that poster Coglio was very wary of, making sure that the right people are in the squad and that certainly feels like it. 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 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 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.

Exactly that. Exactly that. Jack Sebza 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? Still got a fair bit of the window left to go.

Probably depends a little bit on the other outgoings. So they've had. I mean, I think they've done really well without going so far. They've moved on lots of players who've been on the fringes the last few years, you know, Tanganga Cesignon and Dombele Hobyerg, Emerson Royale. Now there's still a question mark over Lascellso's future. Question mark over region's 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.

Yeah, but do you think they need to strengthen because we saw at the back end of last season how flat things felt, you know, 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 this season. So it could be really fascinating.

I'd say one more central midfielder. I am excited about Berg Ballingray, 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.

Seb, you actually had the opportunity to sit down with poster Cogli doing the tour. He spoke a lot about players having to buy in at, I guess, his 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.

Yeah, well that was something that post 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 beyond a certain point, these are professional footballers, 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 poster Cogli still feels there's a bit of work to be done. He talks about how 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 book. He still said he didn't expect it all to be completed by the end of this window. Right 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. 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 his eras plural. There are a lot of mixed directions over the. Probably even before Pochino 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 quite there yet. I don't think that's controversial. I think you just look at the squad and you think, yeah, there are things still to be done. Jack's talked about that and yeah, I think he would probably agree with that.

Yeah, I think they're kind of on track. I think that last season overall it was good, but because it started so well, that ended kind of poorly. It makes people. That obviously warps 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 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 teenager I can really remember in the spurs first team was Dele Alli, but now this year they've got 18 year old Bergwell, 18 year old Gray, 17 year old Moore 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, Hobjerg, Dyer, Kane, especially Laryse. And I just. I just want to know that there are characters that's 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 is yet again another conversation for Son Yu min, who's been there for goodness knows.

Yeah, he can't do it all himself, can he? It can't just be the one senior player. He needs to have quite a few senior players around him to enforce those standards.

Ok, fair enough. Something that came out of the interview as well was when we talk about standards, I guess, also foundations that Andre just trying to set at spurs and we've spoken about the outgoings as well. And I mean, Solanke, Bergfel, Dragoossan, let's not forget, I mean, they've made some solid signings.

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 der Fern, Madison in particular. They also had to turn the porridge deal permanent. The Kuliszewski 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 Solanki's a club record signing and so far they have not been able to offset the Solanke fee against selling Rocharlos 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 it feels to me as if Ange has been backed.

This is the Athletic FC podcast with IO Akamalera.

Risharlison son on the move alongside it's son, Johnson, Brennan Johnson, six minute of second 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.

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 Ange. Ange bull, as we like to call it. And we've sat here several times, especially the top end of last season, and we 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?

Yeah, it's a great question. So I actually asked boss Coglio about this and Seb looking back on last season and did anything happen that sort of changed your way of thinking? He said no. He said no. The only kind of takeaway he had or the only takeaway he was willing to discuss was the squad strength. And he did say that 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.

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 pre season the intensity is not there. Also, spurs have played without a first choice center 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 will be kind of. There'll be some tweaks. I spent some time with Ikaro and he talked about that period where he was very much under the 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 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. Because he's a lovely person. He's a very intense person. And when you ask about how he's going to handle set pieces and you ask a question which essentially examines his abilities and his weakness, he burns through you with his eyes a little bit, but he was very forthright about his ability 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 post Coglis 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, I don't imagine seeing anything vastly different. Are you?

I was going to say what does Annie Ball 2.0 look like? But let's say ange ball 1.5 with refinements. Jack, what do you reckon coming into this season?

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 think based on what we saw from the first twelve 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.

Story of any manager, really, right?

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 their best, you know, their best fit center backs on form. If they don't have Poirot 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 it. 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 am pretty bullish. I think that ange ball 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.

Ok, 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 an email email with your thoughts on the topics we discuss or maybe stuff you'd like us to cover as well. Get in touch at tafcpod@theathletic.com we'll be back tomorrow for another deep dive into the biggest footballing story of the day. Appreciate you listening.

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