Good morning.
Music to my ears. The boss wants to play in the Europa. By play, I mean he wants to field a proper team and restore some pride in those taking the field in our shirt for these matches.
The last gentleman in charge opted for what I would call a divisive approach. On one side of the dressing room sat the first teamers who were played every league game until they dropped. On the other side sat the ones he wasn’t talking to and the kids. The latter category played in the Europa and they – through little fault of their own – in the main served up some rather unmemorable football.
What we need to brace ourselves for here is squad rotation. Which is an intrinsically good thing. Look I understand; if something’s not broke you don’t fix it, but you can’t treat modern players like the boys from the 60’s and 70’s and run them into the mud. They are different horses these days. Once warhorses, now (on a good day) Group 1 racehorses.
“This competition is very important. It’s a tough competition, you have to play 15 games before you reach the final, so it’s hard and strenuous and the best teams out of the Champions League are playing.
“It gives access to the European Super Cup and, for me, I always thought it was a prestigious competition and it should be promoted like that because after the Cup Winners’ Cup disappeared, it is not only about the Champions League.
“If we can win a trophy, that represents a lot for Tottenham Hotspur’s history as well and would be something really special.”
It’s great to see us taking every competition seriously.
We have a decent squad. We also have youngsters who will see Lazio as a massive club and this game as huge.
I hope AVB impresses on the entire squad the importance of beating such a big club.
Defoe is a competent striker. He’s been getting goals for us for a long time, and although there’s been a lot of wasted chances, it is good seeing him link up with play and getting on the end of crosses.
He’s also been creating chances for himself.
He’s not and never will be the iconic prolific striker fans want, but he does bring the goals.
Looks like we have no choice other than to play him tomorrow-shame, as he’s on fire right now and I’m concerned about injuries and fatigue to the little fella-PS..couldn’t care less about the Europa league, and I firmly believe HR was correct in not making it a priority as it gave our first team a break during the week instead of a constant merry-go-round of travel-matches, week in week out
But the biggest clubs have to juggle the CL and PL.
I agree that the Prem is top priority. But chucking all the players you deem un-worthy into a tournament you don’t care about achieves nothing.
Plus, the sponsor isn’t going to appreciate you not bothering to compete.
Perhaps that’s why our sponsor renewed last week?
But to clarify-I never made it a 2nd rate comp-UEFA mangaged that all on their own- By having losers join the latter stages and the financial rewards just not worth the effort-plus the amount of games, you’d play to be successful all add up to a drain on resources-the potential for injury and the endless travelling. We either want to qualify for the CL or win meaningless trophies, like the EL or League Cup? Like it or not finances dictate modern football and the cups mentioned do not have either the kudos or financial incentives to warrant putting a potential Cl or PL tilt at risk-nevertheless, I’ll be a 100% rooting as per usual tonight.
Tottenham Hotspur v Lazio is surely one of the most attractive European ties of the week, regardless of what trophy is at stake. I don`t care if my boys are playing for the holy grail or a piss stained gozunder – I will be totally absorbed and behind them.
All said and done, it is only the approach of the participating clubs that can enhance the kudos of the EL.
It would give me immense pride if in a couple of years we are playing CL having been reaponsible for leaving a more credible EL in our wake.
I still think it’s an insult to the competition when the ‘Champions League Dropouts’ get lumped into this competition almost like a half-hearted apology from UEFA for being knocked out of the Champions League…