If Lloris is still number one in two or three years time then I doubt Pochettino will still be manager. Any top manager would’ve dropped him by now after the amount of mistakes he’s made. Pep dropped Bravo after just one season, Jose dropped Cech in 2014, Zidane’s already dropped Courtois, Emery dropped Cech midway through this season, Klopp finally lost patience with Mignolet and Karius in the summer. Why we’re persisting with Hugo after nearly two seasons of inconsistent form along with numerous ****-ups when we’ve got what seems a perfectly good keeper in Gazzaniga left on the bench I’ll never know. @BobbyD see what you mean by the me and Jenas twin reference, lol.
Don’t think any of our current players are worthy of the armband. Ultimately I doubt another player wearing the armband would honestly make any difference. Some great players but zero leadership. We need to ask Real to see if they really did mean our “special relationship” and then ask them to give us Sergio Ramos. Now that’s a leader.
Sad but true. This current Arsenal side are dogshit, if they do finish above us it shows how badly we’ve regressed.
Yeah he cuts a frustrated figure but he plays with some real fire and confidence...he thinks like a winner...maybe too confident at times hence the risky nutmegs in our own area but he's got the bit between his teeth and talent to go with it. His injuries and return to full recovery have hampered him.
Yeah but someone has to be captain...I'd give it to Rose because he plays his role well consistently enough and I'm not too bothered about our players being loved...I like how he says what he thinks
I think you meant to say he had the funds to make an immediate upgrade, which changes the context just a little bit...
All we need to do is swap our number 1 with our number 2. Gazza has done nothing to suggest he has alot more to learn than what Lloris is offering us. I believe Gazza is more than capable of pulling off the odd Worldie aswell and he does ooze the confidence Lloris does not.
Yeah but I don’t think saying what he thinks makes him a leader, he’s shown at times to be quite petulant as well with comments. Even though I don’t think any of our players are real leaders, of the current crop, I’d say a wildcard would be Alli. Young yet has an elite mentality. Doesn’t shy away in big games, scored in two of our three semi finals, has scored goals against Arsenal, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Utd, City over the years... He generally “gets it” in the games that really matter. At times I’ve seen him bark at team mates although he could still be more vocal. Conducts himself well in interviews too, his one after the semi final loss to Utd last season was what I wanted to hear, didn’t talk about being unlucky like a typical loser would say and look for excuses, said along the lines of that “we need to snap out of this, we can’t keep losing in these games, got to be better”... he has a winners mentality, if the rest of our squad matched his mentality, we probably would’ve had a trophy by now of some sort.
Ruthlessness being mentioned here is a good point. When Poch came to us by all accounts the attitude within the club was very complacent - too many senior players merely doing the bare minimum for example, and being satisfied with the results that came from that, when in reality this was rank underperformance. Poch was famously ruthless when he arrived and we saw for a few years that the players really responded, on the pitch and off. We were awful to play against and by all accounts worked like dogs in training. It really showed. I wonder if Poch has let things slip now, it’s harder to see these issues after all when you’re inside the machine than looking in from the outside after all. I feel like since the explosive game at Stanford Bridge a few years ago we’ve lost that intensity that showed through in that game. I remember being both hugely frustrated after that match but also very proud of our players for fronting up and being absolute bastards. Poch and the players need to take long hard looks at themselves and really ask themselves if they are maintaining their standards. I don’t honestly think they could say they are. The creeping nature of this malaise is all the more dangerous because you don’t realise you’re in the **** until you really are. Poch needs to push the reset button in the summer, it’s time for a lot of those who have gotten too comfortable to wake up and smell the coffee. If the players aren’t on edge in training and expecting to keep learning and improving every day, then that leads us to where we are today. The same goes for the staff and this tone needs to be set from the top. This is likely to be the first season under Poch where things don’t really get better for us, regardless of finishing in the top 4. Hopefully this is a wake up call for Poch that especially with other teams improving all around us, complacency cannot be accepted at all.
On a serious note, Tottenham are good team, being good is not enough sometime you need luck. Tottenham have not been lucky many times.
Klopp has been manager at Liverpool for almost the same time that Poch has been the manager at Spurs. Over that period Liverpool have spent 100m more on transfers, 100m more on wages and got fewer points and no trophies.
Good shout about Dele. He wore the armband against MK Dons iirc and was impressively vocal and involved without the ball at his feet. Can't be Rose...for all we know there could be numerous players who revile him for the ****e he's come out with over the years but keep it quiet and get on with it. Hugo at least appears to be a very popular member of the squad who everyone respects as a person.
In my opinion, very few players in that team are captain material... yet. We should go out and find that man this summer. Not holding my breath.
This is an important point. The great team of the 60's went and found Dave Mackay and he made that team. Those kind of players are rare. Dembele was strong for us in midfield but was not a leader. Dele has matured an awful lot in his time at Spurs and could well make a captain but we still need that strong figure in the middle, all the really successful teams have had such a player We are all over reacting as RCL has said, the disappointment yesterday was huge but let's move on and see what happens. There were lots of positives in yesterdays that were all overshadowed by a couple of mistakes. Just think yourself lucky you are not a Cardiff supporter there problems and ill luck put ours in perspective.
Hugo's always made mistakes and this season they've been high profile. I don't watch enough of other clubs to say whether he's any better or worse in that respect than Leno, Kepa, Allison, etc. What I do know is that soft goals totally down to him apart, Hugo's completely ill-suited to playing out from the back. He gives me heart failure and reduces me to a frothing, ranting lunatic every time he does it. When, under zero pressure, he boots the ball into touch (it's a ridiculously regular event), my language is truly terrible. He isn't going to get any better at it, either. If we're going to play that way, he's not the 'keeper for us. I believe it is affecting his confidence generally, not to mention my sanity. On this front alone we should be looking at alternatives, without even addressing the issue that........we're a ****ing shambles at corners and free kicks played into the box and whilst it's not all his fault, his failure to command the troops and penchant for flapping doesn't help anyone's confidence or my heart rate. I love the guy and he's a fabulous shot stopper but the game has changed in the last few years and he's not got the skills that a modern world class 'keeper needs.
