Or a manager has a physio crew who set the test standards for whether a player is starting XI match fit for such a game. And if they say no, the manager also says no, regardless of the player pleadings. This is one thing I suspect the likes of Fergie were very brutal on.
I think the selection was a good enough indication of how we were gonna approach the game. Dropped the MOTM from the Saints game. Set up a midfield base of Winks and Hojbjerg. Then brought on Sissoko as one of his first subs, whilst taking off our best performing attacker. We went into that game with very little intention to really go for it in attack. I think the hope was to contain and try taking a rare chance when it came but those chances barely came due to how defensively set up we were.
Now cast you eye in equal detail on the other 19 PL clubs and then you will have some perspective. Most of football is emperors new clothes Spurs were not alone in coveting Ndembele for example and the media is still singing his praises and wondering why we didn't play him. Most of them lock into what ever the fashionable thought is there is very little original and skeptical thought in football. Naturally you will look at the club you support in greater depth and will expect more. We all watched the cup final yesterday hopeing we would see a Spurs win. That's what fans do, but the reality is that we had no more chance than a mid table championship side would have against us. The wealth factor has always been there it has just been exaggerated by the invention of the PL another sad day for football.
Ive already highlighted Leicester’s signings in recent years. West Ham’s additions of Soucek and Coufal have massively helped elevate them. Diop’s been a good addition since joining a couple years back, as has Fabianski. Everton’s signings under Ancelotti have largely been great over the last 12 months and they have a game in hand to go above us at present. We haven’t had a genuinely great window since the signings of Toby, Trippier and Son, whilst Wimmer also wasn’t a bad backup option and made us a nice profit when sold. That window was in the 15/16 season. Our signings since then has largely seen us sign a bunch of downgrades or average squad fillers.
I was uproariously drunk for the match. Believe me, it didn't make it any better. The only good thing was that we didn't have that **** Mourinho there. Good luck to the next manager....he's going to need it.
Now examine the relative records of Everton Leicester \West Ham and Spurs over the last 10 years/ All your doing is picking out there success and our failures we can reverse that and in fact out of those team Spurs are the most successful and don't forget Everton in many ways have a bigger history than Spurs as have Villa.
What does being good 10 years ago do for us now? We’ve been dreadful in the market since the 15/16 season. What we done back in 2011 or 2012 etc is irrelevant as the success from those times are long gone or retired by now. The reason why it’s easy to pick successes for those clubs in recent years is because they’re exactly that - successes.
I think the point is whilst we've lost sight of what we used to do so well - buy young, relatively cheap talent and improve it. In the meantime, Leicester are doing just that....whilst we piss away loads of money on whoever the manager deems the flavour of the month, plus players Levy/Hitchen thinks are bargains and the manager won't use. The footballing side of the club is a mess.
Transfer success is more or less random. How can we possibly build a sustainable edge in the transfer market when there are dozens of clubs in Europe trying to do the same thing, eight of whom have more money. It's like saying Williams should be able to hire better drivers than Ferrari or Mercedes. We had a period of amazing success a few years back and now have had a period of relative failure. That's life. I think we could do a bit better with a proper DoF though.
You can argue that right now but you can't say that is the case over the last 10 years. You always get this mess when you change managers because they usually work against each other that's why we sacked them in the first place as we are doing now. We don't any longer want Jose and his philosophy we want to change ie throw his work away.That means discarding some players or changing their mindset. Winks is in no he's out, Ndembele is in no he's out. Toby's out now he's back in. That's the mess. Look at the successful clubs and most include longer serving managers Wenger, Fergusson, Shankley, This rule is broken by Abramovich but he just chucks more money at the problem Right now we should have got Harry Redknapp back IMO because he is one of the few who really can make a quick turnaround and understands how a team works. BUT he would bring in quick fixes that the next manager would probably throw out so on it goes.
Many managers now seem to have a philosophy that their teams have to conform to. Old school like Harry adapt the team to the players they have.
Exactly. Plus whilst there is a case that Leicesters signings have been better than ours, that does not seem to have translated into end of season placings. After they won the title we finished above them every year until last season when we were 3 points behind. This season we are 6 points behind, and while that is concerning I don't think it is enough to make such great pronouncements about. I could just as easily argue that if we had the same amount of penalties as Leicester and they had the same number as us, the positions might be reversed. Dodgy refereeing can easily explain 6 points as easily as bad transfer policy. As power also said, transfers are to a great extent random. It's only when you have unlimited funds that you get to be revered as brilliant in the market because people conveniently forget the very expensive failures, and herald as successful transfers of players that many others can't afford, or wouldn't have gone to any other club.
As we were when we spent or wasted the Bale money, as PowerSpurs says it's always hit and miss but overall Spurs have punched above their weight. It's not so long ago we were praising the last transfer window as brilliant then came the football and our minds were changed.
That there is another reason why we're declining, we haven't been discarding players, we've kept so many beyond their use by date. So what we've done, is see a team's players decline, add in a bunch of dross too it and we're left with a large group in which roughly 80% aren't good enough for where we want to be. Some will try and pin sole blame on Mourinho for that, whilst seemingly forgetting a large core of these players ended up failing Pochettino too. Two brilliant managers with completely different philosophies and styles of management have failed to get anything out of a number of these players for about 2 years now and if we're to believe one or two reports, Levy supposedly feared that up to 10 players would ask to leave in the summer if Jose was still manager, most Spurs fans would've seen that as a blessing, not something to fear.
I find it strange that they would struggle to play ‘their’ game once ‘Jose’s shackles’ had been removed, if indeed, there were such shackles. Now they need time to get over the Jose trauma? Maybe the players are just dogshit in general and we need to admit it. Another thing for me, might be controversial but Harry Kane becomes one of the bunch too in these games...players coming through our club in the last decade seem to lack true hunger...I’m convinced it’s because that’s what filters through from the top. last 4 finals we have scored zero goals This club stinks...it’s DNA is pathetic. Poch and Jose are two different beasts...these clowns responded to neither philosophies in the big games. Yesterday was the same and as well as Mason has done in this week, I think it was a massive sign of weakness that he picked his mates(Winks) so I hope people who were getting wet about Mason as a long term possibility realise he isn’t the man either.
The only reason I'd give Kane a reprieve is that in 2 of his 3 finals for Spurs he's obviously been rushed back and not been fit. The CL final he couldn't have been anything more than 50% fit and yesterday no more than 80%. We can probably criticise him for telling the manager(s) that he's fit to play but like I said to Colin, our medical department and manager need to be the ones to blame if an unfit player is starting major matches, players will selfishly always want to play in those games regardless of their physical state. As for Mason I don't think anyone thinks he'll be here beyond the summer to be fair. He probably would've needed to have won yesterday and all the remaining league games for fans and club to think he should be taken on more permanently. I think he was a little morale boost for fans after the Jose sacking but everyone acknowledges he'll likely be back to working with the youth once the Leicester game is done and dusted.
As has been said, his payout was dependant on various factors Finish top 4: £30m to get rid of him Finish top 6: £15-20m to get rid of him Qualify for Europe: £10-15m to get rid of him Sitting in seventh without European football: <£10m to get rid of him In the end it was a game of contract clause chicken
i love the transfers are random brigade. They weren't random before when you were picking up gems and developing world class players. Now in the downturn it's just random if you pick up a good player or not. Levy might as well sack the scouts as there's no use in them. It's funny how Leicester have spent far less money (net) and seem to be having a fairly long success in scouting and buying players. Must be all the lucky buddhas they have in their club
So you are suggesting they are not random? They are all carefully selected and all are a success? How does it all work then?
