James Trembath reviews 2023 from a Tottenham Hotspur perspective.
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00:00 James, we're going to have a review of Tottenham Hotspur's calendar year of achievements or perhaps lack of achievements,
00:06 especially if we start, look back at the start of the year, at least. If we go first for the best goal of 2023,
00:13 take me through some of the nominations and what you think is indeed the best goal.
00:19 Well, I mean, there was a few candidates, to be fair, and a few standouts, but there's only one that I've come down on,
00:24 and that's got to be the moment when Harry Kane broke Jimmy Greaves' all-time Tottenham goalscoring record.
00:30 The day he got the 2-6-7 against Manchester City, I've gone for that as best goal. It's quite ironic, actually, because he shanked it.
00:37 It wasn't the cleanest finish he's ever produced for Tottenham, but the moment, the elation, the emotion,
00:43 and the sort of outpouring from the fans, it was just a moment of history, history in the making,
00:49 and that has to go down as the best goal of the season. We also beat Man City 1-0 as well during that game,
00:55 another game when they came to Whitehall Lane and couldn't find the back of the net.
00:58 So, it was a brilliant occasion, fantastic moment for Harry Kane, and, you know,
01:03 sort of growing up with Harry Kane throughout my Tottenham fan tenure and watching him rise to the ranks
01:09 from that first goal against Sunderland, I think it was, you know, onto the free kick at Aston Villa that saved Pochettino's job,
01:16 to everything else in between. I mean, he was just a complete legend for Tottenham,
01:20 and, you know, a player we miss and we remember fondly every single day, and every time he scores for Bayern Munich,
01:27 it makes me reminisce about those brilliant moments in the Spurs shirt, and, you know, we wish we still had him.
01:32 So, that would go down as my best goal, I think, of 2023. I have to give an honourable mention to Son Heung-min, though, as well.
01:38 He scored a few crackers. He didn't have his best campaign, 2022/2023, but at the turn of the year,
01:45 he came back into a bit of form, started firing again, and that screamer against Brighton from the edge of the box,
01:50 classic song, cutting in from the left-hand side, bending one right into the top corner.
01:55 That was in April when we beat Brighton. We actually outplayed that game, but we managed to win,
02:00 and that would be my runner-up for Goal of the Year.
02:05 If we move to best moment of the year, you've gone along the lines of Lucas Moura.
02:12 For a couple of reasons. I mean, I was actually there at Ellen Road.
02:16 We beat Leeds 4-1 final game of the season. Harry Kane scoring his last ever competitive goal as well.
02:22 That was certainly worth a mention, but Lucas Moura picked up the ball from the halfway line,
02:27 dribbled past three, four, five players, and finished it with pretty much his last ever touch for the club.
02:32 And, you know, what a clubman Lucas Moura was for Tottenham, and obviously, you know, the miracle of Amsterdam.
02:38 He'll always be a legend in most Spurs fans' eyes, scoring that brilliant hat-trick to get us to the Champions League final.
02:44 Desperately unlucky not to start the final as well. Obviously, there was Harry Kane who came back.
02:49 He wasn't fully fit that game. Lucas Moura probably should have played in hindsight,
02:53 and he should have been given the chance to deliver the trophy, having, you know, single-handedly dragged us through to the final in Amsterdam that night.
03:01 Moura was an enigma for Spurs. He had such talent, such explosive pace, skill,
03:06 scored some really, really big goals. I mean, I think back to a couple at Old Trafford where we demolished Man Utd 3-0.
03:12 He scored two brilliant goals that night, and he scored some very, very important goals in the Champions League.
03:17 Won against Barcelona when we were all waiting to see whether we'd qualified come the final whistle from the group stages.
03:24 I think we drew 1-1 that night. That was a really big goal. He never quite did it consistently.
03:30 He never really got a run of games, and then the last sort of ending of his career was blighted by injury.
03:36 But to be there in the crowd to witness his last ever game, again, the outpouring of emotion from the fans, the players, you know,
03:42 they were lifting him aloft. It was just a brilliant moment, an absolute wonderful goal,
03:46 and what a way to sort of finish his career and sign off in the Tottenham shirt. It was a wonderful experience, that one.
03:52 Now, looking at worst moments, we've got a few more listed down.
03:56 Tottenham, of course, at the start of the calendar year, were not the side they are currently now under Armstrong-Coghlan.
04:02 So, going through some of the worst moments, as I mentioned, there's quite a few to get through. Which ones have you picked?
04:09 Well, we'll start at the top. Let's stay away from the match action for now.
04:13 Obviously, the moment Harry Kane left Spurs to sign for Bayern Munich, that's got to go down as one of the worst moments ever as a Spurs fan.
04:21 Probably just sort of rivaled by the day Gareth Bale left as well for Real Madrid.
04:26 But I always remember where I was there. I'd actually been out celebrating my wedding anniversary,
04:31 and I got the call from my six-year-old son telling me that Kane had departed. He was crying his eyes out.
04:36 My daughter was writing him letters, asking him to stay. It sounds a bit melodramatic, really,
04:40 but it was a terrible moment for Spurs. I mean, waking up to that news that he'd finally left the club after such a long tenure.
04:48 167 goals for the club, outstanding clubman, brilliant finisher, so underrated as well.
04:53 I don't think he'd really truly be fully appreciated by English fans until he's retired,
04:57 because he gets a lot of flack from England fans in particular, and obviously rival supporters.
05:03 But look at what he's doing for Bayern Munich now. He's absolutely putting up trees there, isn't he?
05:07 And he's gone on, arguably, to take the career on to the next level.
05:11 Hopefully, he ends up with the trophy cabinet full at the end of the season.
05:15 That was a horrible moment. It was a gut punch right on the eve of the season.
05:20 To lose, arguably, one of the best players ever to be seen in the Tottenham shirt, if not the best, was absolutely devastating.
05:27 That goes down as one of the worst moments. In terms of the match action, I've picked out a couple, actually.
05:34 The moment Benton Kerr got his injury at Leicester, we've only seen him for 30 minutes or so.
05:40 Since then, that was nine months ago, Rolls-Royce of a midfielder. He was having a brilliant season.
05:45 He was winning matches for Tottenham, scoring goals. He nicked us a 3-2 at Bournemouth.
05:50 He got the winner against Leeds at Whitehall Lane when we were just flip-flopping behind, and we ended up winning 4-3 in that one.
05:57 He really was driving Spurs on as a leader. You saw in that 30 minutes when he came back against Aston Villa before his latest injury,
06:04 he was absolutely bossing the game. He's got so much talent. I can't wait in 2024 to see that midfielder of Benton Kerr, Bissouma and Maddison.
06:12 I really do think that's up there with the best in the league. To see him get injured and be out for such a long time,
06:18 and then obviously to have his moment when he came back into the team and got that really bad tackle from Matty Cash.
06:23 He's out for another few months now. It was pretty devastating. That's another one of the worst moments.
06:28 I've picked out two matches. You'll have fond memories of this one, Dan, but the drubbing...
06:34 I certainly do.
06:36 When we went up there, I was in the crowd that day, 6-1. We were 2-0 down after 19 minutes. It was 5-0.
06:45 5-0 down after 20 minutes.
06:47 5-0. Just thought I'd take a couple of goals off there. That was just horrendous. Absolutely horrendous.
06:54 Hugo Lloris' last match in a Spurs shirt, he was hooked at half-time. We went from a back five to a back four,
07:00 and it absolutely backfired, literally. It was just raining goals. It was so bad, it was almost funny to be honest with you.
07:09 In the stands at half-time and down in the concourse, it was almost like ironic laughter. It was just so, so bad.
07:17 We had a decent day out, but it was a horrendous result. We've had a couple of bad ones at St James' Park,
07:23 but that was certainly another one.
07:25 Then we went out of the Champions League with a whimper against Milan. I think that's another low of this year just gone.
07:32 But the FA Cup game has to stand out as well. We went there, Sheffield United, Stellini was in charge.
07:39 We changed the team. I think we changed nine of ten players. We left Kane on the bench.
07:42 A huge opportunity to at least get to a semi-final. I think we'd have played Blackburn, had results gone our way.
07:50 Brilliant opportunity to at least get to Wembley for a semi-final or a final. We just completely blew it.
07:55 The attitude was horrendous. The performance was even worse. It was just so, so bad.
08:01 Really, I think that's one of the most angriest moments of certainly the year for me as a Spurs fan.
08:07 It just added to that feeling of disconnectivity. We had some real, real dark times under Antonio Conte towards the end.
08:15 Obviously, Stellini, he didn't last very long either. It was a real bad, bad period to be a Spurs fan.
08:20 That really does stand out as one of the worst games of the season. Of the year, sorry, this year.
08:25 Things have picked up though since the turn of the season. Obviously, you had the summer and you made, well, not just signings on the field but off it as well.
08:35 So, if we look at best signings of 2023, I think it's probably fair to start with Antropos de Kogu before we look at some of the other players as well.
08:43 Yes, he goes down as the signing of the century, frankly. It's just like night and day at Tottenham.
08:51 As I say, up until the turn of the season, I'd never felt as disconnected. We had no expectation.
08:57 Everybody was low. People were targeting the board, the chairman. It was pretty toxic inside and outside the ground.
09:04 And overnight, Posta Koglu has come in and he's just been an absolute breath of fresh air.
09:09 He literally has revitalised the club from top to bottom. He's getting the best out of players who were really, really poor last season and really out of form.
09:18 We've brought in some terrific signings under his watch as well. And he's just transformed as we're playing some of the best football in the league.
09:24 Some people say it's naive. We've had a lot of injuries in the last few weeks and we have had a bit of a rocky road.
09:30 I've said that all along this season that there are going to be bumps on the road and it's hard to break out of those habits of being tepid, passing backwards.
09:38 The days of five at the back and really, really being passive. But he's just been absolutely outstanding.
09:44 And I'm sure we're going to have a really, really good 24 and beyond with Posta Koglu at the wheel because he's absolutely brilliant.
09:51 And it's almost like a bit of a crazy train, but I for one, I'm absolutely loving it.
09:55 And I know the majority of Spurs fans are as well because he really has transformed the club.
09:59 So, he'd be the signing in terms of the manager, but in terms of the players, you could make a case for every player we brought in the summer, to be honest with you.
10:06 Vicario for £17 million, absolute snip. He's got to go down as one of the best goalkeepers in the league this season.
10:12 He's been absolutely terrific.
10:14 Destin Udoge coming back from his loan spell and into the team, he's been a revelation.
10:20 As has Pedro Porro. Myself included, I had a lot of doubts about Porro when he first came in.
10:25 I wasn't sure about his defending, whether he could play the right-back role.
10:29 But the pair of him as inverted full-backs have been absolutely brilliant.
10:33 I mean, you could argue Porro's been our best player this season so far in terms of consistency.
10:38 Micky van der Veen as well. You've got to give a shout out.
10:41 Really, really strong partnership. He's forming there with Romero until he got injured, sadly.
10:45 But you know who I'm going to pick, Dan? It's going to be James Madison as the player of the season so far.
10:51 Terrific, terrific signing. £40 million, absolute bargain.
10:55 I believe he might well have turned the boys down the road up at Newcastle in favour of a move to Spurs.
11:01 So, you know, absolutely delighted to have him.
11:04 I think he's only played 11 games, but it's five assists, three goals, a real leader.
11:08 He's taken that number 10 shirt from Harry Kane and he just looks like he's worn it all his life.
11:13 He's a proper Tottenham player, if you like, and he's been absolutely brilliant for Spurs.
11:18 Really, really tricky period. Now that he's injured, we just need him back absolutely as soon as possible
11:23 because he's a star and he's going to be a big, big player for Spurs going forward into 2024.
11:29 And so on that note, and ending on a high, things to get excited for in the new calendar year.
11:35 You've mentioned there a lot of the positives that have come in the new season.
11:39 So what more can Spurs expect the rest of this season and beyond?
11:43 I just think when we get all the players back, you know, I've mentioned Benton Kerr, Van der Ven,
11:49 we've got a lot of others on the treatment table, but a fully fit XI, I think Spurs are going to have a real good end to the season.
11:56 I think we're going to come on really, really strong. I mean, look, we're hanging in there.
11:59 We've had a rocky road of four defeats. It's been a real tricky period, but we've started to bounce back now,
12:04 two wins in a row, got some winnable games over Christmas, you'd like to think, before a tricky January upcoming.
12:12 But I just think, you know, we're only ever going to get stronger and hopefully Daniel Levy gets his checkbook out in January.
12:18 There's a lot of talk that we might well have a couple of deals already being lined up, particularly at centre-half,
12:23 which is really, really important because I think there's an opportunity.
12:26 You know, there's the likes of Man City not firing. Nobody's really grasping that sort of top spot and running away with the league this year.
12:32 So, I think there's a huge opportunity, not so there was to win it, but, you know, who knows where it could take Spurs in the new year.
12:40 And I think what's really exciting is there is no expectation.
12:43 You know, we're just on the train and we're just enjoying the ride.
12:46 And I think, firstly, we're only going to get stronger with the right recruitment.
12:51 I can't remember the last time Spurs signed a bad player.
12:54 You know, we've really started to turn the dial in terms of recruitment for the right price.
12:58 We're bringing in the right profiles. There's a real togetherness.
13:02 You know, we're a young side as well. I think, you know, we're in for a real exciting 2024.
13:08 And whether that's enough to achieve anything this season, who knows?
13:11 But certainly going into next season, I think we're going to be really, really well prepared.
13:15 And we're going to have a good, tilted seat under Ansh Postakoglu.