No need to apologise, TCM. There's clear frustration in the air and many are on the same wavelength as to why they're feeling frustration. Increased ST prices for a stadium I've yet to go too, failure to strengthen, poor performances and poor decision making. I agree with literally 95% of what you said, the only part I disagree on was the notion of selling Eriksen (and maybe Son). Eriksen for me is our best player and he's one of the best in Europe, he's also - like Dele and occasionally Kane - one of the only players who turns up in big games (see assists in both semi finals, goals vs Juve, Real, Chelsea, Utd, City etc). Looking around Europe, I truly believe there is no one better than Eriksen that we could attract, the only level up from him is already at Europe's elite with a likely £100m+ price tag. As for Son, this has been a poor start to the season for him, although I don't massively blame him for poor form like I would some of the others, he had a World Cup like som but then played about eight games in two weeks in the Asian games with South Korea in which no don't the travelling and climate must have taken a lot out of him, he's already played about half a season's worth of matches and yet we're only about a third of the way in. Chances are we may not even see the best of Son this season but I think he's an excellent player when on form. As for the rest you mentioned - Hugo, Dembele, Rose, Toby plus a few others, I wouldn't be overly bothered about losing. Hugo's really lost it over the past 14 or so months, Toby doesn't want to be here anyway, Dembele is crocked and Rose, despite picking up form pre-injury, is still nowhere near the level he was a couple seasons back. As I've said a few times now, this January is the biggest one in our recent history, I said similar about the summer just gone but with the situation we're in, it really is make or break this winter.
You're lacking ambition for the club if you always say things like 'are we facing relegation'...i hope the players don't step on the pitch with that kind of attitude. If we were mid table ****e facing a few uncertain months in a relegation battle every season then I might have the attitude 'are we facing relegation?' but we are not and in football better managers than Poch and better players than a few of ours have been replaced in order to keep the machine ticking over and producing. Keep Poch, keep Kane....Levy can finish the stadium off and start looking for investors who are interested in the team.
I lack ambition! By your expectations Spurlock most of the human race would lack ambition but if you want to achieve things and realise ambition you have to be realistic. If you cannot appreciate what Spurs have achieved in the last few years then there is little chance you will ever be satisfied or enjoy your football. If I was like you I'd pack up supporting Spurs in and follow a team like City, cos there really ambitious.
Totally agree with this. Kane has no competition whatsoever. Not even a hungry kid who's desperate for a chance to wear the shirt. Our central midfield has been totally uninspiring, and prone to mistakes, but the replacement options don't last long in the team either, because they don't offer enough to cement a place. IMO it hardly sets a good example that in the one position where someone came in to replace 2 others who were absent for different reasons, wasn't rewarded for good form. That player being Gazzaniga. I'm sure you'll get told you're being negative, but you're not at all IMO, just a realistic observation when all things are considered based on what we've witnessed so far. After 9 games last season, we had 1 point less than we do now, but we'd scored 3 more and conceded 1 less. So credit where it's due, the team have been grinding out some great results thus far. It also doesn't help that our rivals are all doing as well as we are (if not better), and we're seeing many of them play much better than us. My issue this season is the way our quality of football is at the other end of the spectrum compared to what we've been used to. We have just lost so much attacking impotence and threat, regardless of the sloppy mistakes or referees who are supposedly only targeting tottenham hotspur....() In those first 9 games last season, we'd already put 4 goals past Huddersfield and Liverpool, and 3 past Everton. In terms of our "big" goal scoring wins this season, there's been 2. United and Fulham. Against united we were first half, but had an excellent second. However, that win doesn't feel worth much now as we've discovered how bang average they are. The Fulham result also flattered us. We've just been really flat in nearly every performance so far, and it's been 3 months like you say. You have to ask how and when is it going to change? Our performances so far are already displaying copious amounts of "squeaky bum time", and we wonder whether we'll hobble over the finish line or not. I have to agree with @Spurlock in that competition for places (as well as just having more depth) is what's costing us, for the reason he explains. we're like a broken record at the moment and we've been "found out" by many of our opponents. As for the stadium, i do wonder whether Levy knew it wouldn't be ready for the start of this season, but chose to keep that quiet. Over many months, loads of people involved in the media and experts in the construction industry were quick to say couldn't believe the time frame it'd supposedly be completed in, compared to other stadiums. I have my suspicions that even though levy may have been told 12+ months ago that it wouldn't be finished, he kept that quiet in order to keep the players at the club.
Completely agree. I just hope with our integration period being as long as it has in the past, that January isn't too late either.
I have been watching Spurs for over 50 years and this is one the best period in terms of football quality that I have seen. Spurs have achieved a huge stride forward the last few years and yet clearly as you can see from the comments above it has no impact on the delusions of fans. They still have expectations that live somewhere in the stratosphere. You really think you can pop out and pick up players as good as Kane and Eriksen to push them along. You really think Kane needs pushing? How do you think he got to where he is?
So because none of us are pro's in the footballing world, or the club aren't facing relegation, and things aren't as bad as Spurf says, it's wrong for the fans to discuss the ways in which the team can improve? or maybe talk about mistakes we've made in the past? or the things that might be going on inside the club? There I was thinking this was a forum! Silly me. People are quick on here to call people negative, but it is not plausible that the views are, in fact, potentially realistic observations which lead to discussion? It's not like it's a 1 off WUM who's spouting nonsense. A large number of our fan base is asking these sorts of questions and have these concerns. Seriously spurf, if you think this is negative, don't go anywhere near Twitter.
Yeah true, although I think the bedding-in process is mainly down to how fit a player is upon joining. Lucas as we know was horribly unfit, played something like 50 minutes of football for PSG before we picked him up, so it was inevitable his bedding-in would take longer than most. If the Barrios deal is close to being done as rumours suggest, I don't think he'll need much time. It'll just be a case of adjusting to the style of play and settling into England. If we go for some more domestic-based signings (Grealish? Watkins? Others) then they should be able to slot in within a matter of weeks, if that - at least I'd hope so.
Yeah, spot on. Again, like you say, early January is becoming a must. Those few weeks you speak of make it closer to march otherwise!
I don't go near twitter Roo not on the football side anyway. Have I suggested you should shut up? I am reacting to your negativity with my opinion, as you say it is a forum. Maybe you think your comments are constructive critisism, I am sure that's how you mean them because I don't doubt your loyalty to Spurs. I think you are unrealistic in your expectations and I disagree with your interpretation of the game last night as we have already discussed. I really don't think you appreciate where Spurs are and how well overall we are doing and how bright the future is. All done in the right way, unlike teams like City or Chelsea.
You're comparing our team to what you was watching in the past...that won't help us in the present and future. 50 years and now you are seeing the best team you have ever seen in your life. Maybe that's why you think it's ok to keep on making the same mistakes? Because even if they are mistakes, they are not as bad as you have seen in the past? I'm looking at this team and this league today and where we sit finacially and in the table and where we have been going the last few years and how in the realms of football..transfers play a massive part in determining how the team improves. This is football, you talk of it like its some legacy that's been building for over 50 years. In football, moments pass...no one has said lets spend 200 million and replace Kane but signing someone who is hungry enough to make Kane think a bit can only be a positive for this team. Maybe we tried that with Jansenn? But it didn't work out so 3 seasons on..he is still roaming around somewhere on loan and we haven't fixed the problem. Teams interested in winning don't faff around like that..they crack on with doing what needs to be done. Like I said...I want Poch and the players to stay but Levy needs to make his money and consider moving on...he's not a footballing man..a great businessman and he did fine for us when it was needed but he has hit his ceiling of ambition it seems once the stadium goes up. We are not a shabby club anymore..we are worth over a billion quid...we need to stop having a chairman who is shabby when it comes to the team.
I think a lot of our fans are paranoid and still harp on about things like 'look what happened to Leeds' Football has moved on..the game is drowning in money..even the clubs at the bottom of the PL now have better squads than they have ever had...yet we still bang on about net spend and talk about pound for pound achievement of Poch. Like I said..there will come a day when Levy can't hide behind the stadium anymore...then it will be some other excuse on behalf of the clubs ambitions on the pitch.
I think every fan appreciates how far we've come in recent seasons but the worry for some is that while we're so close to greatness, we're also so close to completely collapsing and the latter is what many fear. You speak of how bright the future is and there's no doubt from a commercial standpoint with the new stadium that the club will be in a very healthy position but what about from a footballing perspective? This season is potentially a make or break for Spurs, for the past three seasons we've been the nearly men, it's fair to say we've been the bridesmaids but never the bride. In some respects that's great when considering some of the horrors of the past but the problem for us is that players are ambitious, they reach a stage where they no longer want to be a bridesmaid (see Bale, Modric, Walker) and they want to be the bride. If come the end of the season, we're yet again the bridesmaids, IE top four/ top six and no trophies, it could be a very horrible summer for the club if we fail to bring in the neccessary requirements in January to help turn ourselves into brides. If we do lose a few key players (my money's on Toby and Eriksen at least), that sets us back about three seasons and then it'll have the feel of other years where we need go through a transitional period again and then this bright future we were all hoping for becomes more of a pipe dream than a realistic possibility.
I promise you, most of my comments are meant as constructive criticism, and to open discussion. Other than the obvious RCL banter, of course. Then that's negativity all the way. Happy clapping just doesn't work. And as for all these songs he keeps singing.... Personally I don't think what I post is unrealistic. For example I've stated how i don't think we'll manage to correct transfer mistakes in January based on factors that prevented us in the summer. That's not being negative either, it's making a prediction based on whats been witnessed recently. As for the game last night, I chose not to put too much blame on the ref, because it's all we seem to do every week. It's getting to the point of being as embarassing as the refereeing performances themselves. We just aren't playing as well or scoring the goals that prevent these narrow margins being on a knife egde too often, IMO. I think it's unfair to say that someone doesn't appreciate the club because they don't come across as "positive", when actually picking a few holes and caring about improvement and progression suggests otherwise.
We compete against Arsenal, United, Chelsea, City and Liverpool for players. They can currently afford higher transfer fees and wages. Arsenal are paying Ozil around £300,000 per week. City have Spent close on £600m in just 2 yrs on transfers. United have spent over £400m In 2 yrs. Liverpool have spent over £300m. Chelsea have a wage structure that we simply do not have. When people say we should have bought Grealish for £30m they forget that we have done these types of signings and they flopped. He is a high risk signing. looked good in the championship last year, not all that this year. We gambled on Sissoko (had impressed at the Euros), Janssen, Soldado, Paulinio , Chiriches, Wimmer, Njie, Nkoudou, Llorente, Aurier, Foyth, Yedlin and Stamboulie in the past 5 years (there are others that I haven't bothered to look up). None of these are considered a success and (Sissoko aside) people thought they might be good signings at the time. No one was surprised when they were sold and tbh if we had sold Sissoko, Foyth, Llorente and Aurier in the summer no one would have batted an eye. Buying that calibre of player would have boosted our numbers but would not have improved the quality of the squad or provided competition. It would have simply led to people moaning about us signing more ****e. Barkley was injured last year, we wanted him. Chelsea came in and offered higher wages and met Every one price for an injured player with 6 months left on his contract. Imagine the **** storm if we'd bought him last year. He was a gamble and would have thrown out our wage structure. We must work within our current budget or we risk the financial stability of the club. Arsenal are richer than us and have been for decades...they paid a huge amount out in transfers recently, gave Ozil a truck load to stay but now risk losing Ramsey on a free. Pochettino and the players will leave...it is the way of modern football. Clubs screwing up is also a part of modern football...just ask Charlton, Villa, Wigan, Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United, Ipswich, Wimbledon, Coventry, Notts County, Portsmouth, Blackburn, Bolton, Hull and Sunderland fans. I have left out Southampton, Leicester and Palace who have all been in receivership in the past 10 -15 years. There was also Chelsea and City who were rescued by billionaires when at the point of collapse. And look at the state of Middlesbrough and Newcastle. Many of those teams were better than or equal to us pre Martin Jol. It shows that there are no quick fixes and that we are well run. Unfortunately impatience and over reaction is another part of modern football. Years of Levy have given us just one trophy but it also gave us some great memories, 12 years of European football concluding 4 seasons of CL football, some great and very good players such as Bale, Berbatov, Lennon, Lloris, Walker and Rose (in his prime), Carrick, Kane, Keane, Defoe, Robinson, VDV, Eriksen, Toby, Jan, Ekotto, Dawson, Dembele, Dele etc. We have lost 2 league matches and 2 CL matches and have been without Lloris, Vorm, Son, Eriksen, Dele, Dembele, Winks, Rose, Jan, Lamela, Sissoko... all but Son were injuries. Dele, Lloris, Eriksen, Rose, Jan, Lamela and Sissoko were all at least 3 weeks out. These injuries and the changes they force are a big reason for us not playing fluently as we usually do. We have been unlucky with injuries and naive in the CL...but there is a positive ... we are above where we were last season game by game. Newcastle ... equal Fulham (swap with stoke) ... equal United ... plus 3 Watford ... minus 1 Liverpool ... minus 3 Brighton ... plus 2 Huddersfield ... equal Cardiff (Swansea) ... plus 2 West Ham ... equal That leaves us plus 3 points game by game on last season. Our next set of league matches are: City (h)... lost Wolves (a) swap with WBA ... lost Palace (a) ... won Chelsea (h)... lost Arsenal (a) ... lost we could lose them all and still be equal points wise on a game by game basis. None of this proves a thing. But it does show that it aintasback and white as it seems to be
This year I have not been posting as much as previously and also not reading all the threads like I used to. Maybe I am making a mistake now. I get very depressed after losing (or drawing like yesterday ) and felt I needed to take a step back from how serious I take it all. Having read all the posts on here , I realise I am doing the right thing. The negativity is amazing. Maybe the 'doomsayers' should start a separate thread. Yes maybe it is about opinions- but people here are not discussing the game on this 'match day thread', rather just giving their opinion as to how the team are failing and falling apart. Buying players is not necessarily the solution to everything ( ''throw money at your problem and it will go away'' ). PSG spent how much on Neymar. How are Fulham doing with our ''must buy CM'' Seri? Everton? WH? Even Man Utd? ( with their competition for places and being able to drop players because they have back up ). Unfortunately we cannot/won't compete with the likes of City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Utd financially. We need to recognise where we are in the football world and hope that when luck plays it's part , it is on our side ( and not by getting a lucky penalty in the 90th minute when we are already 3-0 down). Keep up the good work @Spurf
You are right about Eriksen, I was just annoyed that he gave the ball away last night and that led Hugos rush of blood etc etc. He is a great player and I agree he is not a player we realistically want to lose. And I do have some sympathy with everything Spurf has said, and we must remember how far we have come in a relatively short time, the days of Gross and Ardiles managing mid table at best sides are in the fairly recent past, my frustration is that we have got so far which is fabulous, but something seems to be stopping us actually winning something, this team deserves to be winners but at the moment we seem further away than we did a year ago for whatever reason.
Excellent post - I think the level of discussion here is excellent, we can't always all agree but we are all supporters of this great club and the honesty and passion of many of the posts here show how much it means to us all, Lots of great posts today lots of opinions Come on you Spurs
IMO the new stadium will take us to the next level as is it's intention. Just a little patience and try to enjoy what we are seeing atm. Yes I know we all know we can play better and this is very frustrating, but that's football. Even the likes of Messi and Ronaldo have their off days. We are still up there and challenging in a period that Arsene Wenger warned us would be difficult (new stadium) . As Blue & White says chucking money at it is not the solution we haven't' reached this level by doing that and we can't do it anyway. Far too much store is placed on transfers you perhaps need to remember that it's the least effective way to improve a team. The best way is to do what we are doing, a good manager who has an eye on every detail to get the the maximum from the squad that is possible. Football is a team game and being a team is what it is all about. With all the factors that have hit us this season, no home, too many games for our stars, and injuries to top players, with all that and I have to remind you once again we are just 2 points from the top of the PL.
