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Harrumph

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Good morning.

Boy this week has dragged on – like of those interminable B movies, one of those westerns that still occasionally turn up in the schedules starring nobody you’ve ever heard of bar Ronald Reagan when he was fourteen. 

Lots of dialogue gets exchanged. Lots. The plot line is pretty straightforward. Everything starts of calmly. Then there’s an incident. This is triggers a shake up and the cast harrumph backwards and forwards, mostly on horse back (this is usually accompanied by very urgent music) until they confront evil and vanquish it a bit.

I think I’ve actually reached a state of transcendental inertia. I’m not even harrumphed out. There’s been nothing to insanely purse in days. Barring something seismic occurring the world and his wife are now saying that Villas Boas is a done deal, Sigurdsson not far behind him and Vertonghen plugging away in third place.

However, seismic may just be the word.

Maybe it’s just been a sinister ITK time killing device but the talk of the club being sold has resurfaced with gusto. Perhaps all my ranting and raving about how much money failing to reach the Champions League was accurate after all. 

Those whining on and on about patience last season don’t live in the real world. Time isn’t your friend in a results driven business and it would make perfect sense for the owners to take matters into their own hands and do something dramatic.

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181 comments

  • WhutdaYId says:

    First…..

    I agree with all the above… I’m just impatiently waiting now…

  • AFelching says:

    Levy for PM

    • W.T says:

      At last, someone with nouse, someone with his finger on the pulse of……..uhmm, before I go on and make a comple spectacle of myself, you did mean Post Mortem, did you?
      ‘snaps glove’

  • Devonshirespur says:

    why do you keep banging on about how much money we have lost by not making the CL?

    We’ve been there once…not even “15 years on the trot” Arsenal in their whole stadium financial planning assumed CL in their forecasts.

    It’s like me moaning that I’ve lost another £2m because I didn’t win the lottery last night!

    Levy is canny enough to have plan A-Z…each of them with successful outcomes.

    • essexian76 says:

      “We are aiming to get into the CL,in 3 out of the next five seasons” To paraphrase DL.
      Does that sound like someone whose incorporated CL money into his budget?

      • LosLorentzen says:

        “Aiming”. “Planning”. Two separate definitions.

        • essexian76 says:

          The point is Los, whether it’s aiming or planning, it’s got nothing to do with finance. Levy has never spent more than we have,and isn’t stupid either.
          I’d consider he knows our limitations and standing and would never assume an automatic CL place so therefore wouldn’t budget for it.

        • LosLorentzen says:

          Well then we agree.

    • elfranklins says:

      Levy didn’t seem to have a plan when harry was shown the back door. AVB talk aside it wouldn’t surprise me if we end up with Mr Sherwood as interim manager for the first half of the season – cue hardly mentioned european manager in a panic!

      • Bobbles says:

        My suspicion is that we didn’t spend any money in January because this was EXACTLY Levy’s plan all along.

        The only question who he had originally earmarked for the job, because when AVB got sacked in March he probably had a minor change of plan.

        Or am I crediting him too much here?

    • Harry Hotspur says:

      Devonshire, don’t you ever get the tiniest sense that you’re painting yourself into a corner defending a spiv that was unceremoniously binned?

      I keep banging on about it because it was well within our grasp. You do yourself a disservice by asking such daft questions as people who haven’t read your previous comments might think you were a bit slow which clearly you’re not.

      That imbecile has cost us somewhere in the region of £40m+ and Modric.

      • hk_yod says:

        Devonshire shouldn’t get that sense at all. It is only the severely optimistic that think we are in a better situation now than we were a few months ago. And he’s right, every one knows how tight-arsed Levy is and he wouldn’t (just as we shouldn’t) have simply expected us to get CL. There are one or maybe two teams that have the right to expect CL. You’re not seriously still blaming Redknapp for everything are you?

        • LosLorentzen says:

          Not everything. Circumstance played a big part (eg. that cyclist/referee bloke). As did a few of the players (Modders wasn’t really himself towards the end, now was he?).

          But ‘Arry checked out before the business end of the season was done, this has been substantiated by numerous fairly reliable reports. And even if the England debacle WASN’T the root cause of this, the gaffer always bears the final responsibility for the results, fair or not.

      • W.T says:

        I can exclusively report that a new manager is, in fact, about to be appointed. I live in close proximity to WHL. Levy’s cavalcade arrived at 10.01, and at precisely 10.10 it happened. They switched on the Meat Reclaimer, which can now be plainly heard humming it’s expectant hum over and under the hallowed streets of TOTTENHAM. Good luck Andre, just make sure you wear little or no lose clothing, keep the beard trimmed, and whatever you do, don’t look into Levy’s eyes, the middle of the forehead will do.

        TTID

      • stujam says:

        Modric was going anyway if he could possibly force Levy to let him.
        As for the money yes he was partly responsibe, but at times last season some of the players looked like they couldn’t give a monkey’s as to where we finished.

      • AVBtacticalgenius says:

        Total exaggeration yet again from you H. Devonshire is right. Even if we won the group in the CL it would be worth around £15-20 mill for us, a QF finish would have at a stretch generated a total sum of £30 mill. But that’s revenues, as per our last accounts there are and will be some serious costs against that. So net loss to us (based in our profitability) is probably less than £1.5 million. An amount Levy can get back or blow in his next transfer deal.

        As for Modric, if you really are getting sucked into the CL excuse he’s running this time, then your petty coat is showing.

        • Bobbles says:

          Are you seriously suggesting that getting to the CL QF incurs expenses of £28.5m?

          Maybe we need to think about cheaper hotels.

        • Devonshirespur says:

          As a result of the CL money, Spurs results went from a small loss of about -£0.5m to a profit of about £8m. SO our “profit” from the CL was only about £8m

          CL means extra games which means extra costs and needs a bigger squad, more wages etc. Since then Levy has looked to trim the squad and wages dramatically.

          The Europa can be approached with a more youth based squad and given the much lower revenues, it is the most sustainable way to do it and not burn out your players.

          The difficulty comes when you make the CL one season but not the next because you cannot swell your squad with expensive quality to compete on all levels, which then may not qualify the next season and suddenly you cannot afford them.

          With this in mind the emphasis must always be the league because that is the gateway to the CL money

      • Devonshirespur says:

        I’m not defending Harry, I am just being balanced. According to you every thing that went wrong is Harry’s fault, everything that went well was in spite of Harry.

        Your 100% hatred of Harry clouds your opinion HH.

        HR has to take his share of responsibilities but so does Levy. he’s the one who pulled the purse strings shut in the last 18 months….Pienaar & Parker on the cheap and some loan signings. Fair play if DL did not see HR as the future but if you stand still you go backwards in this league…we went forwards.

        Those who see beyond “Its ALL Harry’s Fault” also see that players lost form. Modric (like Silva at City) had a bad run. Spurs (like City) had a bad run and blew their advantage. Ade stopped scoring, Lennon got injured, the back 4 was different every week (injuries).

        Every team has its slumps. We did. It was compounded by many circumstance, including Harry “taking his eye off the ball” all that england media talk etc, but if you think it is solely down to that/him then you are lacking brain power.

        When Fergie announced he’d retire, seasoned title winners went off the boil and totally underperformed. DO you think Fergie would just let that happen, end his career with a whimper…NEVER! It is a simple reflection of the nature of footballers, give them ANY excuse to slack off, lose focus, become distracted and they will grab it with both hands. If training was optional, none would ever turn up.

        To simply blame Harry for the slump is pathetic. The players, the Chairman, Harry, unfortunate circumstances and the general ebb and flow of players form and fitness all contributed to an extended slump of form that cost us 3rd place by 1 point and a couple goals.

        Lets face it, if it wasn’t for Chris Fucking Foy we’d all be happy in 3rd place laughing at Arsenal , we’d all be sporting “Mind the Gap” tattoos, the shadow would have evaporated and and Harry would go down in Spurs history.

        (note I do not dispute HR is a total gobshite and I am not against his sacking. I agree with DL that HR has served his purpose…I am however disappointed and amazed that DL did not have a replacement waiting in the wings and, much like the fucking around with completing deals for players, this may cost us.

        • mynameisluka says:

          Holy underwear! Sheriff murdered! Innocent women and children blown to bits! We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs here, gentlemen! We must do something about this immediately! Immediately! Immediately! Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph!

        • Deschamps + DOF is still my bet says:

          City won the league so how can you compare our dismal drop in form to theirs??

        • SpursGator says:

          Totally agree Devonshire, all of it and your last paragraph too. The funny thing is, as soon as Woy got hired they started winning again. They should have either sacked Harry in February or just kept him on.

          We’ll see what happens, it’s over, and it was fun and frustrating in equal measures. But to say ‘that imbecile cost us 3rd place’ is a bit absurd. The imbecile got us there, first of all, and although his drama certainly hurt us last year, it was a perfect storm in a lot of ways. There is blame to go around.

          If Levy had managed to actually buy a striker in January 2011 we would have been in the CL this year already. And what about the CPS and the FA? They fucked with everything too.

          We should just move on.

        • Devonshirespur says:

          Well exactly gator……HH and his blinkered disciples see our early season form as the result of the quality of the squad, giving HR no credit for it…..The late season form was all harry’s fault.

          Deschamps…as for City winning the league, they had an 8 point gap, they blew it to a point where they were 5 behind United only for Utd to blow it. They won the league with the last kick of the season, on goal difference. It could have easily ended differently. They did just enough to recover….just!

          Also on the final day the WBA keeper literally handed Arsenal 3 points with THE WORST keeping performance I have ever seen.

          The difference between 1st and 2nd and 3rd and 4th were tiny tiny margins…all teams involved had highs and lows. City with all their wealth blew their advantage, handing it to Utd and they with all their experience blew it…who would believe they’d lose at home to Wigan or let 4-2 slip in the last minutes of a game. City were lucky that Utd blew a position they never normally mess up.

          Spurs had dreadful form which I believe was not all HRs fault, and we were unlucky that just missed out on 3rd thanks to the WBA keeper.

    • johnson says:

      Yeah but you never had the winning lottery ticket in your hand only to foolishly throw it away .

      • Devonshirespur says:

        The EPL Lottery draw concludes in May, just because we had the first 3 numbers out in January does not mean we will hit the jackpot in May

        Those of you getting overly excited in January can be excused, it’s not a place Spurs usually find themselves in, but hopefully you’ll learn from the experience.

    • Will says:

      Because it IS about timing FFS!!
      We have the nucleus of a good squad and good enough for the CL , that is without hoodoos.
      However the failure of Redkanpp to show any interest for ten matches(and yes I am blaming him) has cost us Modric for certain and only Bale’s sense of homour has kept him here.

      The glass ceiling in the PL which separates the CL clubs from all else is more opaque and thicker than ever and unless you dho a MU(yes they use MONEY to get there)/MC/Cheski(WhoTF were they before the millions?) you are in a hurry as it could turn from a celing into na CLOSED door at anytime the G12-14.16.18…of clubs wont wait forever and risk their little nestegg being lost like LPool have. So TIME is IMportant.

      Personally I think it time that Lewis got offa his fat a**e and put some money in although expecting this from someone who is a currency trader is like expecting feebies from a pimp.

      BTW RM broke every rule in the book to win teh CL for seven years in a row and still cuck money aroun f like it is confetti and when you add this to their taxation advantages(fro players) wehn will UEFA stomp on them? Never!!! as Platini fellates the espana duo the same way he does to the italian holy trinity. They all want a closed shop and it isn’t far off.

      • Devonshirespur says:

        commenting on the Spurs missing out on CL despite ending 4th, Platini said “thems the rules”

        When asked what if it were Juve in that position (a club he played for) he said, “may be I would think differently”

        The FFP rules were designed to stop the Citys & Chavs of this world gaining unfair advantage….however, it transpirtes that the Reals & Barcas of this world also fall short of the requirements so there is no way that Platini will enforce them strictly if it means Barca/Real are penalised.

        In the subject…Chelsea have lost £80m a season since RA bought them. They have already spent £40m this summer probably with more to come….they do not seem to be aiming toward self sufficiency which worries me that if UEFA try to enforce these rules the big guns will simply exploit loopholes or will have the rules shot down by the best lawyers money can buy!

  • Heraldo says:

    Don’t Cha wish your manager was AVB,
    Don’t Cha,
    Don’t Cha…

    • jim says:

      erm, no actually, i think it would be a disaster and makes us the laughing stock of the entire league. He was/is a woefeul mana manager who spouted absolute nonsense. The bloke is a clown who cant motivate players and who has no tactical awareness. So well done everybody, you have who you wanted, now lets sit back and watch our club go backwards 5 years.
      4th and 5th will seem like a distant paradise compared to where we are heading.

      • AlphaT says:

        Won’t you look really silly if (more likely when) he comes in and gets the best out of the entire squad rather than a select 11 and acheives grate things will you come back here and eat your hat publicly?!

        • jmd says:

          On what do you base your opinion that its more likely he’ll do well?

        • AlphaT says:

          A duadruple kind of speaks volumes (yeah 3 were domestic titles) and the 4th was Europa League, but go back through the sentence and read it again to yourself aloud, he WON A QUADRUPLE! in 1 year! not just 1 or 2 cups or a league and a cup, 3 domestic and the EL which would have contained CL fallout teams. PLus he has player pulling power. We have the best training facility in the whole of Europe, some of the hottest talent to graduate through any academy in the PL and a stadium build on it’s way. With these resources he can do a lot of great things. :shocked2:

        • `rich g says:

          LIVING IN A DREAM WORLD…GIMP

        • Bobbles says:

          Won a quadruple with the best part of £80m worth of striking talentin 2 players who managed to score 74 goals between them

          Just sayin’

      • W.T says:

        I concur. :(

        We are about lose attitude, please fasten your belts, and brace your knees.

      • cyril says:

        why do we keep doing this to ourselves
        redknapp left levy no choice; if you try to clumsily blackmail your boss on tv there is only one outcome and there can only be one outcome. so levy did not exercise any judgment, he had no choice. 12 months ago i was suggesting on this site that levy exercise a choice and fire harry coz he was either england or inside. the third possibility escaped me, and it follwoed from terry misbehaving so sorry, i shd have seen it coming. namely acquiteed but no england job and ten weeks lost to the club. (i am happy to set out tghe many othere reasons he should have gone a year ago, wasted money on crap transfers and absolutely no tactical sense)
        avb might be great, he might be average. BUT no one can reach a sensible conclusion on the basis of chelsea where thety hired him to be the hit man who refreshed the team and then completely and totally failed to stand behind him when he dropped lampard etc, in an entirely weak and predictable chelsea way.

      • Minionas says:

        That’s the long and short of it Cyril, HR got himself the sack in the end. Even I saw after his “you don’t let managers go into the last year of their contract” DL had no choice. I don’t believe in an instant that his sacking was imminent from the board before his publicity stunts. But this is what we are left with. If it is AVB which is everywhere, then i hope the bloke is fabulous. I only know him from Chelski but my feeling is he might be a bit of a Ramos ( who I thought was going to be fabulous).

        • Minionas says:

          Something we must do is give the manager time to get the team playing his way.

        • essexian76 says:

          Jim,some aren’t giving him (whoever) a hope as of now, so heaven help us when he (whoever), does join us.

        • Minionas says:

          I’ve noticed that. We’d both want Moyes for various reasons. But I have as much proof he’d be a success as AVB. If Spurs progress that’s all that matters mate. I forgot how quiet Spurs were without Harry.

  • Jameson says:

    Get KPB back in, Mod out

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