Morning.
What an uninspired load of old tosh. For those of you with any Champions League related memorabilia such as Investec shirts or match programmes etc I suggest you put them somewhere safe as you may have inadvertently stumbled upon a collector’s item.
You tell me.
We are linked with every striker in Europe with two feet and pulse. Our noble leader Redschnapps actually went as far as telling us that he had a chairman who was pushing him to splash out.
What we got was the equivalent of a man throwing himself on his own sword and then as the blade sinks through him – he decides to take – an Asprin. Charlie Adam? For the love of God, who’s brainwave was this?
This top of the range, executive class donkey was bought from Rangers for half a million quid. Yes he’s had a cracking season. At Blackpool. Blackpool. Rusted fairground rides, white dog muck, unfunny ‘adult’ novelty gifts, racist comics, people living on chips, donkey rides, varicose veins, dripping ice creams, Blackpool. Blackpool.
Levy & Co are culpable here. As the Van der Vaart deal demonstrated, you let Arry do the tapping up when it comes to garbage like Scott Parker, but when you want to land a big fish you need an adult to help you reel it in.
This window was exciting for a number of clubs and a variety of reasons. It reflected the lack of confidence that’s currently doing the rounds. Only Manchester United and Arsenal feel that they can hold a steady course with their current crew. Cheatski and Liverpool had to trade. They had to.
And I fully believe that Tottenham were in the very same position.
Are we waiting for Defoe to ‘bed in’? For Crouch to find his groove? The Russian is the closest thing we have to a top notch striker and Arry won’t play him because he doesn’t really rate him.
He doesn’t rate him because he can’t relate to him. When he talks to him, the boy just looks back at him. Occasionally smiling. I can picture it. Arry turning to Bondy and muttering, ‘I can’t get frew to ‘im.’
Do we need a Director of Football? Do we need someone who can scout decent players in Europe without literally having his trousers pulled down and his watch and credit cards stolen? Someone who speaks a version of English that humans born outside the sound of Bow Bells can actually understand?
If the rest of this season was a movie it would be called, Day Of The Triffics.
Get ready for a lot of hoofing and a slip down the table. Irrespective of Bale, it just isn’t possible for Spurs to sustain the positives they’ve had with the current squad. This isn’t a delayed rant and rave after the Fulham debacle, this a wimper from a guy who’s depressed that we were so close, but in the final analysis lacked the gumption to see the job through.
Ah, the postmortem. There are remarkably few of these on line this morning, considering. Actually it makes sense. Who has the energy after last night? The only thing more depressing than watching Sky Sports News late at night on a non-game day is doing it on transfer deadline night, with thirty seconds left, when your team has done f.a.
That said, I am trying to remind myself that we do have the best Spurs squad in decades. That last year around this time we were sitting 7th, having just lain a big turd at home against Wolves. How we’re three points out of fourth, and still play two of teams we’re chasing at home (having already beaten one of them on the road, a 3-2 game you may still remember). How we have three internationals at striker already, and despite two of them struggling badly and one missing almost the entire season with injury, they have 14 goals in 14 Champions League games and can’t possibly stay this ice-cold in the league forever. How we had arguably more injuries last year, and still managed to close out fourth with David Bentley starting a run of games and Younes Kaboul playing right-back. How Harry – though he’s lost the plot a few times over tactics, always causing a deafening and shrill tsunami of panic on the internet – has a record of switching things up and not waiting ten games to do it like, for example, Martin Jol. How if we manage to pull off a second straight miracle spring (and make no mistake – it was a miracle finish last year, especially the near-Papal-certification event at Eastlands) that we will be laughing off the loss at Fulham, saying thank God we didn’t have to play those Cup games as we battled down the stretch. How if you really want to do a post-mortem, you have to look at the limits of the wage structure, and how that in turn is directly related to the stadium issue…which was the elephant in the room in this futile January, without a doubt.
The fact is, lads, that it’s time to start thinking about the rest of the season and winning some games with the team we’ve got, which despite a rough stretch, has been mostly very good and sometimes, spectacular. If this is in fact our last CL season for a long time, my sanity might be dependent on finding a way to enjoy it. The football, I mean. We’ll see how it goes.
Good points made here. But worryingly this season we are scoring less and conceding more than we did last year. Our goal difference at the moment suggests we will finish around 5/6.
agreed
last season wasnt a fluke but we did punch above our weight,a side effect of being so poor previously?we are now leveling out and are at our true standing.the teams above have either money or football pedigree that pre-dates the spending boom of the last few seasons,the teams below havent our resources or our pedigree so dont be too disapointed if we stay where we are.its where we belong(i mean in league standing,not getting involved in the other business)
Very difficult to fathom what was going on in the minds of those who run our club. We had four whole weeks to find that marquee striker and then do the do. Four weeks. And we wait til the final moments buy yet more midfield players. Why? Honestly I ask you it’s not like we’ve not paid over the odds for a player before and you’re not always going to pick up a gem like VDV for cheap as chips when it happens it’s lovely but take it for what it is and move on, I once bought an Omega watch from a guy who thought it was fake for sixty quid turns out it was the real deal and it was worth hundreds what a touch but you move on. We went into the jewellers shop had a look around and choked at the prices then went looking for Del boy and Rodney down the market. We have just surrendered I feel any chance of making champions league this year because we really needed to freshen up the squad with that marquee striker because now we’re down to three. Beggars belief that this has been allowed to happen even if we bought a man who is cup tied for champs league then at least we have his goals for the current prem campaign.
A friend of mine and I were talking about the recent Fulham match and he said that didn’t care about the cup hence the unbalanced side he put out, Lennon again on the left when he’s right footed everyone knows this so defenders feed him the left side so he can’t get on his right foot. Jenas, I believe he’s fit and yet Sandro got the nod Modric also was played out of position and for me the most glaring mistake was not playing Corluka from the start ok he’s not the quickest but at least he knows how to sheperd a player away from danger and how to defend immediately he came on you could see the difference. So did Harry not really care too much about this cup? The teamsheet for the game would suggest that he did care but the unbalanced feel and tactics say something else. Remember we played 78 minutes with ten men and didn’t concede again for the last sixty or so minutes but the game was over after the second pen.
We really do have it all to do now, no marquee striker to speak of defenders out with injury or suspensions and we still have to play Liverpool Chelsea and our mates down the road at the emptycrates plus all the pack fighting for their lives down the bottom and we’re sitting in fifth spot with a team that look like they need a rest. Lillywhitetilidie
Excellent contributions people. Thank you.
The more I think about it, perhaps it does make more business sense to just tick over rather than contend, considering the current prices being paid for players?
Levy is firstly a businessman, and not someone who is willing to pay over the odds to make his club successful.
I did think about that, or tried to, but the git ruined that as an option when he placed a bid for Adam.
I would have been less hostile to us signing Robbie Savage.
Agreed. You have to wonder if we actually really really want it. The suggestion from the last 2 transfer windows is that we don`t. The performance on Sunday would also suggest that we absolutely don`t. Perhaps as some pundits have said… Spurs will always let you down eventually. We shall see but no excuses from now on as this squad is what Harry and DL have left us with and they need to start performing. Still very worried that Bale, Modders, VdV will eventually get fed up with the mediocrity they keep setting up with golden scoring chances and they will slope off in the summer.
I agree, sir.
Many might dismiss your worries as clucking, but this is a cut throat business. People are slowly waking up to the fact. Berbatov – bailed. Carrick – bailed. Torres – Bailed. Forget the club, forget the names, people bail.
We need a greater statement of intent than a ‘Not For Sale’ sign around Bale’s neck.
Absolutely. If the very best players do not think that we can deliver medals and the CL they will go. The best players want to win things and play at the top level. We are currently punching above our weight and without a bigger stadium or massive investment we will not remain at the top table .. ie for the CL we just do not have the financial clout to compete with our current financial structure. My guess is that we wil keep Bale, Modders and Vdv next season if we can either get or get close to CL football again. Plus we MUST get some stadium plans agreed somewhere. Without those positives, why would they turn down other options? I mean I love Spurs and have done for 43 yrs BUT if I were Bale, in my early 20s, 36000 WHL and Your Ropey League versus Barca , the Camp Nou, most exciting team on the planet and CL , regardless of the wages, what are you going to do?
All sad but the coffee has woken up DL and the board because our intent in the last 2 transfer windows has been absolutely clear…. Champions League we`re having a laugh… ie its a one off bonus, take the profit and the plaudits but with no new stadium do not re-invest in the squad.We are already over achieving and will not over stretch the club financially.
We shall see BUT the new stadium is the key to everything. We need progress asap or it is more Your Ropey League and a few spirited Cup runs I am afraid. I hope that I am wrong.
http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/226271/Tottenham-s-Rafael-van-der-Vaart-class-fading-fast/
Thought this was an interesting article.
Thought the transfer window was poor. Think the Manager is poor. Think we’re fucked.
Still, I thought much the same last season. Onwards and erm, downwards. :-(
At least we got lucky last year.
I think the person who wrote that has bed wetting issues.
I recognise the symptoms, you see :ninja:
The article or the post? :blush:
The article!
Despite the comment below, I think that’s an astute article. VdV hasn’t been with it the last few games, and you have to wonder why.
People rave about Harry’s man management, but there’s a lot of players playing below their ability at the moment. Shoot me down, but Bale hasn’t been at the races either the last few games he’s been about. It’s been a while since I saw an electric performance from him. With Gomes worrying off form, Palacios sunk out of sight and the barren strikers I think we can debunk the myth that Harry gets the most out of players.
Don’t forget that Vdv is not used to playing 90 minutes and this is tough tough league.
Harry’s man management I wholly agree is shaky ground. If you’re his pal, your IN. If you ain’t his pal, you’re OUT.
My guess/hunch is that we are lucky that Modders is a natural. I honestly believe Modric’s success in the Spurs squad/Prem has nothing to do with Redschnapps. Zip. Nada.