Seriously? We are secure in the top 4. You yourself posted last Saturday (before We beat Fulham) that you were just 4 points behind us! Nothing is secure until it's done and dusted.
Professional sport is first, second and third about money and increasingly so. Fans are well down the list. Our game against Tranmere was scheduled for a time that meant that it wasn't possible to get a train back. Clubs agree because of the money. Monday night football? **** off. Do you think that clubs are run for fans?
Yes, but you did beat Fulham and dropping to 5th involves two of the chasing team overtaking you. I can't believe that some unlikely risk of dropping out of the top 4 in May would decide team selection in January. Nobody can predict how the next 4 months will pan out and which players will/won't be available. Was resting a few players who might have made a difference to today's game likely to have a great bearing on what the outcome would be in May?
No, they are now big business. My point is, if you give the fans nothing then you are pointless as a club. Theoretical situation..........Ten years from now Spurs are a bottom half club trying to get back up to the top (I use Spurs for no other reason than you support them), would you be happy with the club throwing cup games because higher league positions were worth more money or would you want them to go for everything they entered? I know you are old enough to have been a mid/lower table supporter, what were your views then and if different from now why?
Yes of course it does. But the only way to increase the chance of winning trophies is to have a better team and the only way to have a better team us to have more money to spend so earning more money has to be the long-term solution. So that means cement the club in the top four and the trophies will come. Unless anyone thinks players can perform at top level in more than 50 games a season that is inevitably going to mean resting the strongest players in some cup games against poor opposition. Our best players would have beaten Palace today, as would a weaker selection from a full squad. Even the almost entirely reserve team that Poch picked dominated the game. Anyway there's no foolproof way to win a cup. You basically have to win 5 or 6 matches in a row against increasingly more difficult opponents.
We are just 7 points above you and 3 or 4 above Chelsea. We have no Kane, No Dele, No Davies an exhausted Son plus Dier, Sissoko, Moura and Wanyama all returning so are no where near match fit. Vertongen and Toby have both had two injuries this season so need to be nursed a bit and Eriksen missed a set of matches pre December through injury but has not had a break since the 1st week in December. Like I said top 4 is not secured and if the club had an injury to Eriksen and or Toby today we'd be ****ed midweek
First off, the club means a great deal to me and my family. I'm a 4th generation fan, we've been going to Spurs for 98 years that I can trace. I was born and raised to support this club and will do so, no matter who owns it, manages it or plays for it. My daughter is now carrying on this tradition with her cousins, as I did with mine and my brothers. I've been going for 50 years and she will be doing so in 50 years time. Unlike some fans, I'm prepared to see beyond today, tomorrow, next week, next month or next year and won't lose my **** following a defeat or two. I see the direction of the club as creating excellence in the training ground, stadium and on the pitch. If that takes time, so be it. I will donate my support, as I have always done and hope that it's sooner rather than later but I'd take today over 1995 - 2004. If paying for the stadium delays us a bit, I see it as a price worth paying. I appreciate that's not the modern way but it'll do for most of us old 'uns.
I have supported my club for over 55 years mate Like I said, I watch them to see them perform in every match and to try their best to win (belief is a wonderful thing), they haven't always won but when we went down into the second division I was proud that we were promoted at the first attempt as champions because we won. When your team play a cup game on Wednesday night do you say "**** it, it's only the cup I will watch east enders instead", I doubt it very much, why, because you want to watch them play and go through to the next round. Making excuses for not giving supporters the best they can just makes it easier for the board to give you less. Teams also make money from TV revenue in cup games too you know
It's nothing in comparison to PL and CL money, though. Also tickets are dirt cheap. I went Club Wembley in the first leg CC semi-final v Chelsea for £25 for me and Mrs B and £10 for my daughter. For a cup semi, with a London rival, in the premium seats with an attendance limited to 51,000. FA Cup prices are similar, because people aren't interested in domestic cups like they used to be, In 1980 I got to the stadium at 04.00 to get standing quarter final tickets v Liverpool. It's just not what it was......more's the pity.
Don't take it for granted that our place in next season's CL is secure. After two cup defeats in a couple of days could really leave a dent in the players attitude,if it isn't already there. I believe if we had won them,the players may have been ready to take on the world.Instead,we didn't and they won't! Luck can mean a lot. Man U 's new manager had the good fortune to have a run of several poor teams (and one that wasn't!) who folded and now United have a bee in their bonnet and feel suddenly unbeatable! It comes down to...….do you want it or not? Will we look back at this season and say....if only we hadn't had those injuries. Well, we missed out to the likes of Chelsea,City and Leicester the last few seasons....why? We weren't good enough or consistent in the PL and couldn't blame injuries...….and couldn't care less about cups. That is the difference between the fans of old and today's.We'd like to see an open top bus carrying a cup or two with our boys riding it! We sure as hell won't be winning the PL if big money is involved (with respect to Leicester City!)
Arsenal followed the course you want Spurs to follow. Frugal spending while the stadium was paid for. Wenger managed to achieve top four (without troubling 1st or 2nd) for a number of seasons and won the odd cup. But ultimately the policy of spending less than rivals in the transfer market, playing weakened teams in cups and not being an attractive destination for top players expecting top wages hasn't improved their lot. When Arsenal started spending on the team again, the quality of the squad overall had been diminished so much that the team wasn't able to make the step up required. The best players had been sold leaving a mixture of not quite good enough cheaper alternatives. If the new stadium was going to propel Arsenal to the top level of European football, it hasn't worked because the team was allowed to fall behind. Is Spurs policy of hanging on in there with 3rd or 4th placed finishes going to produce any different outcome? Arsenal are now behind Spurs despite being a decade ahead in terms of paying for a new stadium. There is risk involved in being more ambitious, but spending no money in the transfer market and being prepared to write off potential trophy wins as unimportant seem far too cautious.
Spurs don't WANT to follow it...we owe banks £637m......the largest debt in world football. We've no choice but to try and operate in the margins whilst the stadium is unfinished and bringing in zero income. Once we're in and functioning, ENIC will have decided whether to sell, take a partner or re-capitalise the business. If they don't get it right, it may cost the sale of certain players but the debt must be serviced or we're really screwed. Take it that Joe Lewis knows more about business deals than you or me and Daniel Levy is the same in respect of running a football club. This season has been a desperate disappointment and put us in further hock but they'll be working on how to deal with it and avoid repeating the Arsenal experience. Great deals rarely happen over night. I wouldn't take it that Joe Lewis learned nothing from Arsenal's build and finances. That would be highly naive. The fact that nobody knows what's going on, doesn't indicate that there's nothing happening. I expect significant changes in our ownership and financing to deal with the NFL franchise and the stadium debt. The Arsenal answer was to sell to Silent Stan, I expect ours to be a bit more progressive. Be patient and all will be revealed
Is this 637 m the cost of the stadium......and why is the stadium nearly a season behind? Did the workers run out of tea?
Neither Chelsea nor Leicester had European football to play in and could rest players from week to week and had a whole week to prepare fro their next game where we had midweek games to concentrate on.
your board sacked an FA Cup winning manager the night he won an FA Cup final because he failed to get top 4. Maureens tedious, turgid football was tolerated after losing an fa cup final because he got top 4. He was sacked because top 4 looked unlikely back in December. United can spend way more on players and wages precisely because they were almost ever present in the CL for over 20 years. This meant they could have a seriously strong squad and win the top trophies while keeping players. Spurs do not have that type of money and do not have the money that Liverpool, Arsenal, City or Chelsea have so we have built a new ground and need CL football to bring in money. The last 3 years has seen us be able to sustainably raise our wages so now we offer our top players over £150,000 per week yet even this is not enough to keep them...look at Eriksen and Toby for example ... both refusing to sign a contract cos they want more. Spurs are not going down the route of spending what we do not have...I for one am glad of that. I have seen us nearly go under in 1991 and never want that experience again. We clearly can not put out our strongest team available last Thursday Today, Wednesday and Saturday...especially with all those returning from long injuries not being properly match fit. Most of us are realistic and want to get behind our team...the fans were magnificent today. Had it been Chelsea, Arsenal etc they'd have been booing instead of sing in the second half. That's not a sign of not wanting z trophy to me ... that's a sign of being a fan who stays loyal through thick and thin...and to be honest bring in the last 16 of the CL and 3rd in the league don't seem that thin to me.
I prefer to be in our situation than be celebrating a win like Palace who are unlikely to win the cup but do have a relegation battle to fight.
Our schedule since before Xmas has been crazy and that has cost us injuries galore. We didn't put out a team to lose today- we saw in the second half how much those players wanted to win. I can't understand how we sensibly could have done more today. On Thursday we picked up two more injuries trying to get to a final. We played with what we had. We lost. We are not happy but understand the situation.
Your managers words "Again we're going to have the debate whether a trophy will take the club to the next level. I don't agree with it. It only builds your ego" You are buying into the Levy rhetoric and he loves it. Leicester just won the league and gave it a decent go in the cups too.
