City were not better, even though they had Silva, Aguero, Kompany, Stirling, De Bruyne etc...and had spent just under £200m that season. They ended that season 3rd ... having never been anywhere near challenging after we battered them in September that season. They became better because even with those players and that level of spending plus having the bestest manager ever they then went and spent a further £290m. That's how they became better than us. Every seem to ignore that their genius manager took over a team stuffed full of world class players and spent a further half a billion ... instead they maintain he is simply a genius. This ain't a dig at you but you do seem to have ignored the fact that city became better simply because of their spending...walker left a team to join a team who had finished below us...and played worse football than us. He was tapped up pure and simple...just as city bought the league. It is not and was not an even playing field...so it is a pointless comparison.
Yes . If he is tired take him off. But that wasn’t what you initially said. You said if plan A isn’t working. That is what makes me despair. It is not possible to determine that based on what happened in the previousn 60 minutes. Even at our level less than one in 50 possessions lead to a goal. That means we will sometimes go whole matches without scoring while playing exactly well as when we score three times.
But we were hardly battling a host of other clubs for their signatures. Sometimes a club needs/wants a player that no other clubs want/need/can afford. Just because nobody purchased him it doesn't mean he wouldn't have been a good buy for us
As does the fact that instead of disagreeing with Pochettino's account he says he's disappointed that private conversations were made public...but he had no such issues when his version of events were being regurgitated before Pochettino's book was published .
Why didn’t any club sign Dier or Alli or Vertonghen or Lloris... not everyone goes after the same players. Plus, we were so heavily favourited to sign Jack no one probably bothered. Watch the interview with Bruce pre-takeover or Grealish after the deadline and then tell me it’s bollocks.
There are games where the other team has effectively found a way to nullify one or more of our players. And sometimes the introduction of a wildcard, be that an inferior or different type of player, change of formation or something else will baffle the other team and lead to something positive. I remember Chelsea starting an FAC semi final with Costa and Hazard on the bench which completely bamboozled us. An appropriate analogy would be when the bowling team in cricket can't get breakthrough with their designated bowlers so they bring on a part time bowler for a few overs.
They may have improved the fortunes of other clubs if they had signed these players (the benefit of hindsight) . What matters is that in an OPEN market, Spurs identified these players, acquired them at reasonable cost, and they collectively have improved the fortunes of the club significantly.
Agreed. But is he actually any good eg is he better than Onomah? I doubt it. All clubs have masses of data these days on player performance. We’ve got a great record on using it. We will make a lot of mistakes but i can’t see why Grealish is one of them. If someone goes and signs him for 30m soon I will concede I was wrong.
IIRC Saltypool were looking at Alli, but their transfer committee thought it was better to bring in proven talents like Rickie Lambert and Mario Balotelli (although it's worth pointing out we'd been scouting Alli for at least a eighteen months before we signed him)
Col, mate, you seem to be forgetting that City are a much bigger draw than us. Ask any neutral player in world football who they’d rather join and 95% would pick them. Even if we were better than them that season, they’re still a more attractive proposition to join, as Walker himself proved. Walker’s decision to leave was justified form his standpoint. He left us after 8 seasons where he won nothing and in his first season with City he won the double. He’s a ****, prick, snake and whatever else we wanna call him but ultimately he left because he felt City were a better option for success (and money), whether we like to admit that or not is one thing but we have to accept it.
I don’t agree. I think you are reading too much into random events. The bowling analogy is interesting but I’m not sure proves much because bowlers can be very different. Most footballers do quite similar things in quite similar ways. But some are different. Nkoudou would be a good wild card substitute for Eriksen based on your logic. Fast and direct but unable to keep his head or pick a pass. One time in twenty you would bring him on for the last 20 mins and he’d get or create a goal. One time in ten leaving Eriksen on would have the same outcome. The other 17 times in twenty it would make no difference or we would concede a goal due to having an inferior player on the pitch.
I like Josh, decent young player who should’ve been given more chances but the fact he was struggling to make Villa’s XI on many occasions and is having similar issues now at Wednesday, while Grealish was the first name on the team sheet for Villa last season and is regarded by many as of one of the best players outside of the top flight, then yeah, I’d say he’s better than Onomah.
So basically, you'd never take him off unless he was tired? Well, at least we can all be grateful you're not our manager.
Money made them the better draw and made them double winners...we simply can not currently compete with that. I remember us nearly going out of existence in 1991...what we do and have done for the past 16 or so years is improve by spending what we can afford. The improvement on the pitch and with our new ground has not threatened our future and because of that, and because I have seen some of the best football played by a spurs team in my life time I am firmly in trust Levy camp.
Every club buys players that are inferior to their best players. Citeh bought Gabriel Jesus, who is no Aguero. He might become one and he'll be there to play when Aguero's not fit, even if he doesn't train on. It's a squad game. The secret's not to buy too many, like Chelsea have in the last few seasons. I was happy for us to buy Vinnie because he looked a prospect, not because he was in any way equal to HK. I'd take Jack Grealish in a heartbeat at £25 although personally, I'd rather go all in for Ndombele.
No arguments here, they'd have been relegated otherwise, I remember being at the Lane when we beat them 2-0 or 2-1 and everyone thought they were gone then but managed to survive in the end. But unfortunately, as you and I both know, money is king in this day and age and City have got a lot of it. I'm also pro-Levy/ ENIC, I've already said that to Spurly BUT the club needs to act on getting us to that "next level" because that window won't remain open for too much longer and all this great football, you, I and others have enjoyed could all be for nothing if we begin losing more of our key players. This is the best squad we've had in the Premier League but Spurs fans would be naive if they think everyone will stay for another three or four years if we don't push on. This season is huge for us, Poch is currently working wonders but he needs help from above to give him better options in his squad to utilise.
