Ben and Rob are back! Two months after we secured fourth and a return to the UEFA Champions League, N17 Live presenter Ben Haines and Club commentator Rob Daly return to talk all things Spurs.
The popular pair will be back to preview our matches throughout 2022/23 so, ahead of next week’s big kick-off in the Premier League against Southampton at home (Saturday 6 August, 3pm) - and the return of our popular matchday show N17 Live - here are their thoughts on our pre-season campaign.
Our final match of the summer takes us to Israel to face AS Roma in the I-Tech Cup in Haifa on Saturday (7.15pm UK) - available exclusively on SPURSPLAY.
Rob Daly
“First of all, I think we can all agree that the pre-season matches so far have been really useful. You could see the players getting up to speed against Team K League (6-3), that was ideal for Korea, Sevilla (1-1) was then a feisty encounter against a team Spurs could face in the Champions League. Antonio Conte said afterwards that there was real value in playing a match of that intensity. That could be echoed by the Rangers game as well. Clearly, Rangers really wanted to win and had a good spell in the first half when they took the lead, but Spurs soon re-established control, Harry Kane’s goals winning the game (2-1) at the start of the second half. It was good to see five of the six new signings make debuts at Ibrox. We’ll see all these players integrated quickly, especially when you look at the fixture list - by late August, there is a game every three or four days, including a midweek Premier League fixture at West Ham, then the Champions League. I thought Ivan Perisic, one of the debutants, showed that he’ll add value to the team very quickly. I must say, I think the stand-out player of pre-season so far has been Harry Kane. We’ve all seen how hard he’s working in training, and he already has five goals in three pre-season matches… you wonder how many goals he could get in 2022/23. He could be absolutely devastating. He looks so sharp, like a mid-season Harry Kane. I expect him to get off to a flyer. Finally, to Roma in Israel on Saturday. This should be a really interesting match. Roma won the first-ever Europa Conference League last season under Jose Mourinho, of course, and finished sixth in Serie A. That was their first major trophy in 14 years and there is real excitement after signing Paulo Dybala from Juventus this week, thousands turned out to welcome him. They’ve also signed Nemanja Matic from United and, don’t forget, Tammy Abraham scored 27 goals for them last season. There have been departures as well, like Henrik Mkhitaryan. There is expectation in Italy, despite finishing sixth last season, 23 points off champions Milan, that Roma could be much closer next season. Mourinho has galvanised the team and the fanbase, they play 3-4-3, predominantly, so let’s see what shape they are in come kick-off in Haifa.”
Ben Haines
“First up, we’ve done such good business in the transfer window, and everyone looks like they’ve hit the ground running. We saw a lot of hard work out in Korea, Antonio Conte and the players making sure that this is going to be a squad ready to challenge on all four fronts from the very beginning. It’s so special that Antonio has been able to have a full pre-season with the players. That could make a huge impact when you think about how important results are at the start of the season. Watching Spurs now, you recognise patterns of play, and you can see that thread has been consistent in pre-season. Roma will be another good test now on Saturday. One of the things that has stood out to me is just how physical pre-season has been, particularly the match against Sevilla in Suwon. I think that was a test we needed, followed by Rangers last weekend. They begin their SPL season on Saturday, so they were looking for 60 minutes of real intense match time to get them up to speed for the start of the season. The fact we turned it around in the second half tells me we’re in a good spot, Harry Kane is looking sharp, another couple of assists for Sonny and the fact Antonio has given everyone game time and rotated is really strong. I wonder is there is one last opportunity for players who have just come in against Roma this weekend to show Antonio that they deserve a starting spot. It promises to be a really exciting game, hopefully we come through unscathed, and we’ll have a fully fit squad for the start of the season against Southampton next weekend. Then, let’s see where the season goes - hopefully it will be one to remember.”