TottenhamBlog Talks To Mike Leigh From The Spurs Show

Last week I was lucky enough to be able to interview Mike Leigh of The Spurs Show podcasts and Betfair Front Room fame.

If you haven’t heard the show, it’s presented by Mike and the comedian Phil Cornwell, who welcome Spurs’ supporting guests into the studio each week for a spot of Tottenham-based chat.

It’s proved to be a been a phenomenal success, reaching the top of the iTunes podcast chart and spawning a Spurs Show iPhone app, that rocketed to the number one spot in the App Store sports section.

You can download the app and listen to this week’s edition of the podcast . Enjoy the following interview with Mike, who tells us about the success of the show and whether he wanted Robbie Keane to leave White Hart Lane.

Mike, welcome to TottenhamBlog. Recently on The Spurs Show I heard you say that you attended your first Tottenham game aged five years old. At the risk of everyone being able to work out how old you are, when was the game and who was it against?

It was 1973 at home to the Woolwich Wanderers and we won 2-0.

Who in your opinion is the best player that you have seen wearing the white shirt?

Week in week out it has to be Glenn Hoddle for me. Oh for him now, eh? His long and short range passing was amazing and he used to end up as our top scorer too, despite being a midfielder.

The Spurs Show podcasts go from strength to strength. What do you think sets you apart and allows you to compete with the top football podcasts produced by the media giants?

Well, not only do we compete, we regularly beat the big media houses, who have radio, tv and newspapers at their disposal to plug their podcasts.

Our little Lillywhites podcast thrives on the loyalty of our listeners, the quality of output and it’s authenticity. It is made by true fans who have suffered the highs and deep deep deep lows of being a Spurs fan. We are not armchair or new fans, so we can fondly remember the good old bad old days too.

Also Phil is a phenomenal talent and his flights of fancy are some of the funniest things I have witnessed. His ‘press conference’ bit at the start of each show has had some hilarious moments- I love his new Aaron Lennon character that he has been doing recently.

You’ve had some great guests on the show. Who has been your favourite?

Too many to choose from to be honest and i have to be diplomatic. I don’t think we have had that many bad guests – a few, but not too many and this is our third season of shows and we’ve had Paul Whitehouse to Martin Chivers, all entertaining in their own way and all carry THFC close to their hearts.

If you could have one guest on the show that has never appeared before, who would it be?

If he were alive- Peter Cook. We are trying to get Jude Law and Salman Rushdie- now those should be interesting shows!

Congratulations are in order, as the Spurs show iPhone application was the Christmas number one in the Sports app charts. For those who haven’t downloaded it yet, what features can they expect?

Thanks, it was good to keep the official Chelsea app of the top, for a start!

Currently, listeners have access to all the archives and live Tottenham related news. Next up is more interaction; we’ll be integrating the Facebook group, our Twitter tweets, more news sources and probably some exclusive shows and extras, just for the app users, to say thanks. We thought of a White Hart Lane car parking guide, but when we tested it the closest available spaces were in Lewisham. So we know it works, but it just isn’t that useful!

Alan Davies’s Arsenal app is ahead of us in the chart this week, so if your readers want to get the app back on top, grab it and leave a nice review!

Now the podcast is so big and we see you during every ad break on Sky Sports in the Betfair Front Room, are you starting to get recognised by an adoring general public?

Ha ha! Thankfully not. The ads are so short that a blink in the eye and you are missed- thank god! My voice has been recognised at away games though which i find strange. I suppose my moaning at Huddlestone is louder than I thought!

Tottenham have a great chance of qualifying for the Champions League. Do you think we’ll make it, or will we ‘Spurs’ it up again?

What do you think?! I so hope we do it but we have been there before havent we? I never thought we would still be fourth and the acquisition of Gudjohnsen is a good one, so if we keep injury free we have a good chance. Man City will be our main rivals though

Which players at Tottenham have most impressed you this season?

Much the same as the latter half of last season- Lennon, BAE and Palacios have gone from strength to strength, and Dawson and Bassong must get a mention too.

Do you think we need to spend before the transfer window ends? Who might you like to see brought in?

Well Gudjohnsen will give us some much needed strength up front during tight games, as we have discussed on the podcast many times- perhaps they do listen to us! We need goalkeeper cover, another centre half, and another battling midfielder i think.

Final question. Robbie Keane is a big talking point at Tottenham at the moment. Is it time to cut our losses, or can he come good again?

I so hope he does. I think the Liverpool episode shattered his confidence and people forget for how many seasons he has played at the top level. i think he can still do a job for us but whether that means starting a match week in week out, I’m not too sure.

Thanks to Mike and remember that you can download the app and listen to this week’s edition of the podcast .