The chain of posts about injuries for the Newcastle game posted at 1pm probably finished a few of the whiners off...
You do wonder what the team will be Saturday. If none of the English or Belgians returnees play, Wanyama, Lamela, Winks are injured, maybe it'll look like the team playing in America recently.
And when Amos and Skipp take their places in the Champions League squad, every good British youngster is going to think, fek chavski, fek citeh, fek manure, fek the salties, fek the arse, Spurs is where one needs to be.
I think that most of the standard first XI will start. They hardly need a pre-season when they had such a short break.
I am not on the side of total doom and gloom and certainly not thinking Levy out or anything ridiculous like that. However I am very disappointed that just when it looks like we can push on and make a real statement we seem content to sit back and hope for the best. Getting the stadium finished and the World Cup players back and up to fitness quickly will hopefully brighten my mood. I worry that a loss on Saturday and the atmosphere could become a bit toxic for the Fulham match the following week. Especially if Seri has a good game and they get something.
But at the end of the day it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just getting players up to fitness. If we (and Arsenal) win this and actually make a point of it, other fans will just take the piss out of us even more claiming this as a trophy!
Sorry, but for the likes of Skipp, Georgio and Amos to get a chance to play against players considered to be leagues above them and to come out on top surely does their confidence the world of good. Football, like life, is about self belief and confidence.
I’m pretty doom and gloom but in a way where the goalposts have moved and we still have a great chance of getting top 4. I’m less optimistic of that than I was at the beginning of summer and that nowadays, to me, is required. Preferably with a trophy
Janssen's likely to be shifted one way or another, with another link to Fenerbahce being rumoured (for what feels like the last month...)
I’m not saying that the tournament doesn’t have its worth, and it is great to see some of our youngsters coming through, but it’s not something we should be claiming as anything significant. I think you have kind of proved my point by stating the players you have who were playing. I doubt many of the teams actually played their full first team.
Only really the Italians who weren't involved in the World Cup played really strong sides and we had two of them in our group. The other side we had to contend with was the waste of space known as Barcelona second string. What I am saying is that you shouldn't under estimate our young kids performances and do not under estimate the preparation done by our coaches. I have a feeling this season we are going to hit the ground running.
The thing with pre-season tournaments is the press treat them as significant if certain teams win them, but a joke if others do. Either they're all significant or they're all a joke. Make your bloody minds up!