1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000 You're listening to the Footglish podcast. Love football, learn English. 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:12,000 What on earth is happening with Spurs this season? 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:18,000 Who is more critical of the Spurs keeper Antonín Kinski? English fans or Czech fans? 4 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:30,000 Are most Tottenham fans post-Eco glue out now? And what does banter mean? 5 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:47,840 Hello everybody, welcome back to the Footglish podcast. My name is Denik Lukas and I'm 6 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:54,880 the host of this show. This is a podcast for English learners who fancy improving and developing 7 00:00:54,880 --> 00:01:01,360 their English listening skills and learning some vocabulary in the process. And it's all about 8 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:08,480 football as well. And there's always almost always a guest and today is a very special guest because 9 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:17,920 it's none other than my friend Ondra and his cat. Hey, this is Asali. He decided to join me on podcast. 10 00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:25,520 That wasn't part of a plan in the first time. Wow, what a beautiful cat that is. Yes, 11 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:37,680 Siberian one. Siberian cat. Wonderful, very white and kind of fluffy, furry and fluffy. 12 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:48,480 Yeah, I apologize to all listeners. I'm not English native, so I'll do a lot of mistakes. 13 00:01:48,480 --> 00:01:55,680 I'm just apologizing in advance. No need to apologize. We are not so, you know, 14 00:01:55,680 --> 00:02:01,120 we don't take it that seriously. I'm a teacher, but it's not my job. I just want to have a guest 15 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:07,280 who is knowledgeable about football. And I know you are because we used to play football together 16 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:13,120 for one team as well. Do you remember that? Oh, yeah, we used to play for pretty long time. 17 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:20,320 Could have been like seven years, six years, something like that. Something like six, seven years. 18 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:27,520 Yeah. Yeah. It was at the end of my career when my skills got much worse and I wasn't as good as 19 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:33,840 I used to be, unfortunately. But I think we had some good times together as well. We did. Yeah. 20 00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:41,200 Yes. It was a village, village team. Right. We played for Vrboval Hota. Yes, we did. You are the one 21 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:47,040 who brought me there. I wasn't playing for any other club back then. I was just playing football 22 00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:55,040 for fun. And you are also playing football for time. Yeah. Not just for the club, but also for fun. 23 00:02:55,040 --> 00:03:02,800 So you asked me, hey, Andrzej, you like football? You're not that terrible. So let's go to Vrboval Hota. 24 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:09,600 Then we played together. At that time, I already knew you were a Tottenham fan, 25 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:15,920 which, to be honest, makes things a little bit more complicated as I'm an Arsenal fan myself. So 26 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:23,360 there was a bit of, let's say, back and forth between us, right? A little bit of taking the 27 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:28,960 piss out of each other because it's banter. It's part of football fan culture, right? 28 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:35,920 Most of the time it was a friendly banter. Yes. Not always. Most of the time. Most of the time, 29 00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:42,800 definitely. But when we were on the same team, when we played together, then we usually were 30 00:03:42,800 --> 00:03:48,080 nice to each other. We tried to pass the ball and, you know, praised each other for good effort and 31 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:54,000 so on. Right. Exactly. And that was important. But when it comes to supporting the English Premier League 32 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:59,760 club, you are a Spurs fan. I can see that you're wearing a shirt, a Spurs shirt. Which one is this? 33 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:06,800 Which year is this from? I think it's 2009-2010. Awake it back when Manchin was a sponsor. 34 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:14,720 And yeah, it was like a one year after we won League Cup, which was our last trophy. 35 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:25,760 And yeah, this is also, I'm going to show you, this is Aaron Lennon's dress, which is one of the 36 00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:32,080 two of the footballers that brought me supporting Tottenham. The other one was Dimitar Barbatos, 37 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:40,480 who happened to be, who turned out to be Manchester United legend later. Yeah. These guys were amazing. 38 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:54,400 So I, back then also there was like a TV, I think it was commercial TV, was playing Premier League 39 00:04:54,400 --> 00:05:00,640 matches. Can you imagine like playing Premier League, broadcasting Premier League matches for 40 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:11,040 free? Like just on cable TV, crazy times. And yeah, they were like showing one match week, 41 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:16,160 one match weekly. And quite a lot, it was Tottenham because they were scoring a lot of goals, also 42 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:22,080 receiving a lot of goals. Conceded. It was their favourite teams because they received a lot of 43 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:28,480 goals. Conceded. But Ondra, to be honest, I really, I have to say at the beginning of this season, 44 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:33,520 or let's say the first half of the season, this is something I would never thought I would say, 45 00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:39,600 but I actually kind of did enjoy the way you played. And I thought it was highly enjoyable 46 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:46,320 to watch you score a lot of goals, but also concede a lot of goals as a supporter of a rival club. 47 00:05:46,320 --> 00:05:55,040 But in a way, I had respect for your manager, but I think it all kind of went the other way, right? 48 00:05:55,040 --> 00:06:04,800 It's going south, yeah. And we'll see if it's gonna get better. But so far, not great. We play 49 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:13,200 offensive football. We have a coach who's respected and who's like praised for saying the things how 50 00:06:13,200 --> 00:06:22,240 they are. He was appointed after disappointment of two previous coaches who were considered to be 51 00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:32,320 too defensive, too boring. So we played somebody, we hired somebody who was the opposite. And the 52 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:39,040 results are much worse than his predecessors. Does it mean that you as Tottenham fans now, 53 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:47,040 you miss the good old Jose Mourinho or Antonio Conte? Not really. If I miss anybody from that 54 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:54,000 era, I miss Pocateino, who also played offensive football and the football was successful. 55 00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:58,080 You got into the Champions League final. I remember that. 56 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:05,440 Yeah, that was actually like a swan song of our team. I think the peak of our football was like 57 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:13,360 two seasons before. To be honest, I believe that we like fluked our way into the Champions League 58 00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:19,280 final, but it wasn't the era where we played our best football. We were bad at Premier League at 59 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:26,000 that time. And like two or three seasons back, we were constantly fighting for the titles. 60 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:35,600 And we played great football. It was the great era. So for me, the Champions League wasn't the 61 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:42,960 top Tottenham. But you were close to that title that you have been alluding for so long, especially 62 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:48,480 players like Harry Kane, of course, he's a legend, but everybody keeps saying there's no trophies in 63 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:57,760 his trophy cabinet. So it's a bit like you are considered one of the better clubs, let's say top 64 00:07:57,760 --> 00:08:03,920 six, even though I don't think that exists anymore. But like for the last one or two decades, 65 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:09,840 you've been one of the top six clubs, but still you haven't managed to win much. So that must be 66 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:16,400 a bit frustrating for your fans. But let's talk about this season. So we are talking right after 67 00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:28,400 you also exited the FA Cup and League Cup as well. So it's like in one week, you got knocked out of 68 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:34,720 two cups basically. So the last defeat was, I believe, was yesterday or two days ago? 69 00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:45,040 I think it was two days ago, I don't know. It's a short period of time. Yeah, it was again, 70 00:08:45,040 --> 00:08:55,760 it was against Aston Villa. Basically, as you as you probably know, in Czech Republic, Spurs are 71 00:08:55,760 --> 00:09:02,960 being watched a lot currently because Spurs signed on the recently like a month ago, they signed 72 00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:08,480 a football goalkeeper Antonin Kinski from Slovakia. That's one of the questions I wanted to really 73 00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:14,560 talk to you about here on the Footgris podcast. Because it's, as you know, I am Czech, just like 74 00:09:14,560 --> 00:09:21,760 you, we didn't say that. And so I do talk about Czech players more than some people might like, 75 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:28,160 but it is what it is. So what do you make of his performances so far? Has he hit the ground running? 76 00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:36,720 Well, Antonin Kinski, he got like a dream debut on the first leg against Liverpool. 77 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:45,360 He was great. He played with his feet a lot. He was full of confidence. He was spreading the 78 00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:52,160 confidence around to other guys. And it seemed like a perfect honeymoon. It didn't last long, 79 00:09:52,160 --> 00:10:00,400 it lasted like a week. And yeah, he had some blunders. Like when I was speaking, especially 80 00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:07,360 at work with my colleagues who watch football a lot, they've been more criticizing him than 81 00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:15,280 what I read in England, like Spurs fans and in general pundits were saying like, hey, he's still 82 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:20,560 pretty good. Like when our first goalkeeper who's got injured before, Vicario, when he's gonna get 83 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:28,000 back, he's gonna have a tough time putting on the badge this young prospect from Czech Republic. 84 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:37,120 And he got, he did, some people probably won't know, he played a league game against Aston Villa 85 00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:48,400 and he didn't save pretty easy shot. From an angle. It was from an angle. Like it was a 86 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:58,480 strong shot, but close to him in the first minute of the game. So that for me decided that he'll 87 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:04,320 have to keep fighting for his spot in the team. I think still Czechs will follow the team. I think 88 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:12,000 he'll have some regular time in the team, but he has still a lot to learn. 89 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:19,280 Yeah, absolutely. I think you're right in saying that Czech fans are probably more critical of him. 90 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:25,040 I think the reason is because we remember him from Slavia and how good he was at Slavia, 91 00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:29,600 the kind of confidence he had. And maybe there are a lot of Sparta fans who are like now 92 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:33,920 poking the bear a little bit as well, right? They're trying to... 93 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:40,800 Well, that's a part of it. I mean, in general, when people are like rating him after every match, 94 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:48,240 when he played, everybody was like, hey, how do you rate this? How do you do? Did you see that 95 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:56,800 moment? I think people being fair, at least those I talked with. But I think it's like a habit in 96 00:11:56,800 --> 00:12:05,200 England to be a little less critical towards younger players. You are right. But also, I think 97 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:09,920 now he has made a few mistakes. And I know what you're talking about. In this last game 98 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:16,880 against Aston Villa, you lost 1-2-1 in the end and unfortunately conceding a goal in the first minute 99 00:12:17,840 --> 00:12:26,640 away from home, it doesn't help the team. But it's just, he still isn't the main reason. 100 00:12:26,640 --> 00:12:30,640 You are so bad. I'm sorry, but you had no chances in that game, right? 101 00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:42,000 Definitely in the team. And yes, we're having for record, like, there are like 10 injured 18 players. 102 00:12:43,280 --> 00:12:53,680 Maybe a little more. It's a terrible season. And even with the players we currently have, 103 00:12:53,680 --> 00:13:01,440 the coach should do probably better. You're down to the bare bones, as they say in England. 104 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:08,000 You're down to the bare bones. And I know Posterco glue uses it as an excuse a lot. 105 00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:15,360 And you can only use it so long, in my opinion, because at some point something has to change, 106 00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:19,280 right? Something will have to change and you will have to start doing better because you're still 107 00:13:19,280 --> 00:13:24,240 a Spurs. You're not supposed to keep losing like that. There was a chance, you had a chance in League 108 00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:29,680 Cup because the first game at home you managed to win one nil. So there was a second leg 109 00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:34,240 at Anfield and that you lost as well. So you're out of both Cups. 110 00:13:34,880 --> 00:13:40,640 And now it's not only in the Europa League and Premier League, obviously. That never ends. 111 00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:44,720 And you're still in Europa League, right? You're still in Europa League. 112 00:13:44,720 --> 00:13:52,160 Yeah. Now would be, I guess, like a question is why he hasn't been sucked yet. Because, 113 00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:59,520 as mentioned earlier in this podcast, his predecessors had little better results. 114 00:14:00,560 --> 00:14:09,760 Mourinho and Antonio Conte. And there might be, there are some reasons people say. We don't know, 115 00:14:09,760 --> 00:14:14,800 obviously. We can only speculate. But there have been, like I heard, like we're playing attacking 116 00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:20,880 football. It's more like a fun for, it's more enjoyable for the fans, even though the results 117 00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:29,280 are terrible. Then there's like, we maybe sucked the previous coaches prematurely, especially like 118 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:39,040 Jose Mourinho. There was a situation when Jose Mourinho was bad in Premier League and he got into 119 00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:46,640 the League Cup final. And he was sucked before the final, so he didn't have a chance to actually 120 00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:52,320 bring us a trophy. So I think that might be, that's also like a strong argument. Maybe the 121 00:14:53,040 --> 00:14:59,440 owner of the team, maybe, sorry, owner of the Tottenham Hotspur, the man in charge, Daniel Levy, 122 00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:05,840 he's like, hey, let's give him his chance. If he wins the Cup, then he can continue. 123 00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:12,240 And there's a third reason I heard. And it's very interesting that maybe the club is for sale. 124 00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:18,880 And in general, you don't want to sell your manager, bring another guy, because the new 125 00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:25,200 owner will probably want to bring his own stuff, his own guy. So you cannot suck two managers in a 126 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:31,440 short time. So that might be the thing. There might be ongoing negotiations about the club takeover. 127 00:15:31,440 --> 00:15:38,240 That's speculation, but one of them must be true. Okay, then what would you want? This is the last 128 00:15:38,240 --> 00:15:50,160 question. What would you want to happen then? I don't know if a new owner will always be better. 129 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:57,600 So I'm neutral in that sense. I just want us to keep playing nice, quality football. I don't want 130 00:15:57,600 --> 00:16:05,280 to get bored. Like even though if we play some zero, zero game, we get a point, which is more 131 00:16:05,280 --> 00:16:13,440 than zero. But I want us to keep continue playing the way you are. So would you keep so would you 132 00:16:13,440 --> 00:16:19,920 be okay with keeping Postekoglu and giving him more time? Probably not. If I were in charge, 133 00:16:19,920 --> 00:16:29,040 I would have been sucking him months ago. But then I don't know all the available information. 134 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:37,840 I'm not the owner. I'm just the owner. My job is to support the club no matter what. 135 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:45,040 My job is you paid for this. Would you like to be the owner then? If someone offered you to buy the 136 00:16:45,040 --> 00:16:50,000 club if you had the money, I don't know, maybe you do. I don't know you that well. I know you're my 137 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:56,240 friend, but maybe you're hiding things from me. The question here is if you could buy the club, 138 00:16:56,240 --> 00:17:03,120 would you buy Tottenham? If you would be asking of every other club, even if you name Real Madrid, 139 00:17:03,120 --> 00:17:09,840 I would say definitely no. It's such a stressful work and everybody would hate you and you couldn't 140 00:17:09,840 --> 00:17:19,200 go shopping. You couldn't go outside of your house to not be scorned by the fans. About Tottenham, 141 00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:26,640 I would think it's true a little longer. You would think about it twice. All right, well, 142 00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:34,160 that's fair. At this point, Ondra, I want to thank you for being part of the Footgris podcast. 143 00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:43,280 Normally, I would tell my guests good luck. I'm sure you will understand that in this case, 144 00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:51,120 I cannot do it. I will thank you. You're a Tottenham fan. I will thank you though, 145 00:17:51,120 --> 00:17:57,200 because I do appreciate that you found time to record this podcast with me. I hope it's not the 146 00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:06,320 last time. Thank you, man. I will wish you and your team good luck, because it's a polite thing to do. 147 00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:15,120 It was sarcastic. All the best, Ondra. Take care. All the best to you, Zdeněk. Thank you for having 148 00:18:15,120 --> 00:18:23,120 me. It was amazing. I can't wait to see you. If you want to have me next time, sometime, I'll be 149 00:18:23,120 --> 00:18:30,400 happy to join you. We can do a follow-up when Tottenham win a game finally. Well, maybe next 150 00:18:30,400 --> 00:18:37,520 year then. All right, sure. I don't mind. If I'm still around, sure. If we win a game next year, 151 00:18:37,520 --> 00:18:44,400 then we can. Yeah. Okay. Okay, man. Take care. Bye-bye. Thank you. Bye-bye, Asali. Say bye to Zdeněk. 152 00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:46,400 Bye, Kat. 153 00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:52,400 Hello, welcome back to the language corner. As always in this part of the show, I will be explaining 154 00:18:52,400 --> 00:19:01,040 the English language. Specifically, I'm going to look at some vocabulary related to making fun of 155 00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:08,320 someone. Now, before I do that, I do have to apologize to you for the quality of the sound in 156 00:19:08,320 --> 00:19:14,960 this episode. It's mainly my fault. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. 157 00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:22,560 It's mainly my fault because unfortunately, I wasn't careful enough to check my microphone and 158 00:19:23,360 --> 00:19:29,840 it wasn't even plugged in. And my laptop default microphone was unfortunately 159 00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:39,120 recording the podcast, which is not very good. And this only happens about once every two months, 160 00:19:39,120 --> 00:19:46,720 way too often. But I hope you do forgive me. Now, as I promised, here's the vocabulary. 161 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:52,000 So at some point, I was talking about how I played with Ondřej for one team we played for 162 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:58,800 Verbová Lhota. And the fact that Ondra is a Tottenham fan while I'm an Arsenal fan. Tottenham 163 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:06,640 and Arsenal, as you guys probably know, are huge North London rivals. Their fans, the fans of these 164 00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:12,880 two teams absolutely hate each other. So obviously sometimes there is a bit of teasing, a little bit 165 00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:22,880 of joking around when you have two friends who support these two teams. So I said there was a 166 00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:29,600 bit of back and forth between us, better bit of taking piss out of each other. So I use three 167 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:38,320 expressions which refer to making fun out of someone or to joking around. First of all, 168 00:20:38,320 --> 00:20:46,080 if you say back and forth, this means basically an exchange of comments, a lively exchange of 169 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:53,200 comments or opinions or jokes between two or more people. And in this case, I spoke specifically 170 00:20:53,200 --> 00:21:00,880 about banter. Banter is lighthearted teasing or playful conversation between people who are 171 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:07,440 comfortable with each other. So lighthearted, it wasn't like we were really very serious about 172 00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:14,720 trying to hurt the other person. Not really, it's most very playful. It was lighthearted, as I said, 173 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:22,400 it was just banter. And also I use the expression to take the piss out of someone, which means to 174 00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:29,040 make fun out of someone. And yeah, it's just to tease someone in a humorous way. There are other 175 00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:35,360 expressions, for example, you can poke fun at someone, you can take the mickey out of someone, 176 00:21:35,360 --> 00:21:40,400 or you can even pull someone's leg. And all of these things more or less mean to make fun 177 00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:46,880 out of someone or make fun of someone. Okay, guys, so once again, apologies for the quality 178 00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:54,720 of the recording in this episode. And I hope you liked Ondřej as a guest. If you did, make sure you 179 00:21:54,720 --> 00:22:01,120 like this as a video on the TeachersDenik YouTube channel. Alternatively, you can, of course, 180 00:22:01,120 --> 00:22:07,920 give a review to this podcast. If you do listen to it as an audio, make sure you give it a five star 181 00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:16,080 rating on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all those applications that are used by all people that like 182 00:22:16,080 --> 00:22:21,520 to listen to podcasts. Alright, I've been Zdenek, and thank you very much for listening to this 183 00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:49,520 episode. I'll speak to you soon.