He made mistakes last night, no doubt about it. He should have played 3 in the middle and just the 2 up top, from the off. We don't have 2 midfielders with the right balance to play 5-2-3 against anyone decent and I hope that he packs it in. You pays your money and takes your choice over whether playing 5 at the back and 3 up top makes him a defensive manager. He's a systems manager, trying to implement a system...without the tools to do it, but presumably to work out who has the ability to do it next season and get them used to it, which is where I am. I want him (and us) to be ready to go from the first game next season and to try to finish as high in the league this one...and make EL, at least. I cannot see us making 4th with the players we currently have. He's renowned for not prioritising domestic cups and winning the Carabao Cup probably isn't that high on his agenda. some will accept that, some not so much...but it isn't a surprise. I'm afraid to say that too many of our squad just aren't up to it. That's been the truth for some time and at each window, we've simply gone ahead and added more to the list and given others second, third or fourth chances that they haven't deserved. Conte's not picking on individual players, he's saying that he needs to work hard in improving some but that the general standard just isn't good enough and that the club needs to fund upgrades. That's all absolutely correct and he hasn't called out those who he clearly sees no future for. So, I've no problem with that, either. Unlike Mourinho and latter day Poch before him, at least he has a chance of having the club back that judgment and addressing the screaming issue. We've not been good enough for a while and have been getting worse. As I've said previously, I preferred us to employ Potter...but have hope that Conte will do what Nuno couldn't and get the backing that Mourinho didn't. Last night was poor, piss poor...but for the first time since we appointed Poch, I believe that we've got a coach who will get it right on a regular basis. The Bloke in the Coat and Ramos won the League Cup and it improved nothing, so last night's disappointing display (from all concerned) is just one step backwards...hopefully in amongst some large leaps forward.
Depends what you mean by up to standard I suppose. The current squad is perfectly capable of finishing 4th to 7th and getting to cup finals and semifinals, which is about right on our current financial standing and above average on historical league position. For the first time since the 60s we have both an elite coach and the infrastructure and income to improve the squad. My cup is definitely more than half full. The odd thing about Conte so far is that the one time he has gone 352 with more creative players in the team, ie against Liverpool, it worked really well and I'm surprised he didn't try the same against Chelsea.
No way this current squad without additions will get 4th over the season, there’s too many mistakes in individuals and not enough creativity regardless of what system or formation the manager uses.
Yeah agree with King, we're not good enough for 4th with this current squad. 2-3 solid first team additions under Conte could give us a decent chance but if we don't get January right then I think 6th or 7th is where we'll finish, similar to last season and the one before. It's pretty frustrating seeing Everton already nabbing two players, one that's essentially replacing Digne after it recently became clear his Everton career is done, Newcastle bringing in Tripps and Coutinho joining Villa, yet we're seemingly twiddling our thumbs "monitoring" players or being linked with Adama "no goals or assists" Traore...
you dont get bargains at the beginning of the window, you get the bargains at the end. Trust in levy, he may pull of his 1 every 10 years rafa van der vaart also it costs more in january
I think it’s a dilemma for us, too. Signing prospects where you can offer exposure in a bigger league and at a bigger club is an easy sell and Everton seem to have basically written off the season anyway. They’ll not go down and will likely finish mid-table regardless and look for a new manager sooner rather than later. We need first-team ready players in 3-4 positions and those signings are much harder to make, especially in January. Signing the likes of Gil and Sarr is exciting and makes sense but that profile of player isn’t what we need right now.
As things sit today, I don't think that we'll get 4th because the squad is inadequate and lacking balance. Our best XI might get us there, if we don't pick up any injuries, but once we do or tiredness sets in, results are going to drop off sufficiently to leave us in 5th, 6th or 7th, in a season where Arsenal, Utd. and West Ham have all got issues and we have that opportunity. It's the reward for another penny wise, pound foolish summer and the late appointment of Paratici, Nuno and eventually, Conte. Constantly swapping coaches in the last 2 years has allowed too many poor players to gat away with it...and saved the club facing the losses that will result from admitting that they haven't been and aren't nearly good enough. Finally, we've got a manager that the club can't afford to sack, so it's time to face the music. Currently, we're overplaying Kane and Son because, along with Lucas, they're our only significant goal threat and we've got nobody who Conte rates enough to pick as alternatives...or they're semi-permanently injured, like Bergwijn. We'll be extremely lucky to be able to play that 3 all season and if we do, come the spring, they'll be exhausted. We went into another season without anything much beyond those 3 and it's already cost us the ECL. We really need to buy a striker, but the price in January will be ridiculous, as we found out 2 years ago, when Mourinho was faced with injuries to Kane and Son. I'm doubting that it'll happen and that will cost us heavily. The midfield's a similar story. Dele and Ndombele aren't wanted by Conte (as they weren't by Mourinho or Nuno) and Lo Celso's status is in serious doubt. Last week, before the win at Watford, our win ratio with Skippy starting was 63%, without him it's down to 25%. If Skippy picks up an injury, we're in trouble. I'm not reading too much into the performance against Liverpool's barrel scraping midfield of Milner, Morton and Keita. They won't pick that again, with good reason. We've cover in the back 3, even if some of the players are prone to wildly fluctuating performances. However, an injury to Hugo would be a really significant problem. I've seen nothing in Gollini to show why we signed him and the word is that Conte's none too impressed either. I'm not expecting his loan to be any different to Gedson Fernandes and Carlos Vinicius. He'll have gone elsewhere by the time it ends. I'll await our transfer business this window before judging our prospects in the remainder of this season, but I'd not be putting any of my money on us getting 4th right now.
I don't think it is a dilemma, the club just makes it feel like one because our approach in transfer windows for many years has seemingly been very lackadaisical. First team signings are harder to make than prospects, no denying that but they're not impossible either. If we're to believe the reliable journalists out there, Conte wants Kessie, Vlahovic, one of Romagnoli or de Vrij and Adama Traore (sigh), why is it one week into the window not a single one of them are a Tottenham player yet? It can't be a wage issue because we massively reduced our wage bill from last season. So then even if we admit that Vlahovic's fee is probably too pricey at the moment, there isn't really an issue with the others, with de Vrij likely being the most expensive at around £40m-ish. We seem to be waiting for something but I don't exactly know what.
Given the minor detail that Fiorentina have said Vlahovic won't be leaving this month, that goes a long way to explaining why he hasn't moved (and also why I've been saying for at least a month that, if we are considering him, we really need to pitch a buy-and-loan-back)
I only meant it’s a dilemma in terms of comparing our business to Everton’s, which we shouldn’t. I think we’re waiting for outgoings, for what it’s worth.
Welcome to supporting Tottenham, where the main order of business is handwringing over what everybody else is doing
] One out...one in is probably tattooed over Levy's heart in suitably small script (it's that or an image of Mr Micawber and "annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.") It kept Victor Wanyama in the squad for 2 seasons, when the bloke couldn't run anymore. It doesn't matter who we have as DoF or the size of our transfer budget if we're waiting on someone making an acceptable offer on some of our squad players. Even if we get an offer, the wage issue will probably kill any potential move...because the players we're trying to shift have always been able to stick around on great money and get another chance a little further down the road, whilst we're significantly overpaying them. There's been no motivation for the player, nor realistic encouragement for the potential purchaser. We're told that things have changed. I'll believe it when we buy first and then sell off the players we want to move on.
There’s nothing wrong with comparing other teams’ business though. Teams are always looking to improve. Club stature, calibre of signings and money available are the comparable differences but Everton spending £20m on their new LB is the equivalent to us say spending £30m on a target of our own, they’ve acted quick, we haven’t, despite clear pressing needs, Everton also signed Mykolenko before Digne departed. Sort our outgoings as and when an offer arrives, waiting around isn’t helping Conte or our chances to improve. We seem to procrastinate far too much as well, as if they expect a van der Vaart every window as if it’s the norm rather than a one-off.
Yeah don’t get me wrong I don’t agree with the approach. In an ideal world we’d sign the new players and then the incumbents can’t call Levy’s bluff and stay if they actually want to play any football. I understand why it takes longer to pull established first teamers out of big clubs. I don’t understand why we seem to persist in the same old practices that don’t result in moving players on, especially now we have stadium revenue back post-Covid and manageable debt. The story of Spurs over the last 3/4 years has been one of stagnation in every way and unless we get ruthless with some of the squad who need to move on, it’ll never change.
The club's likely going to need to agree to subsidise one or two outgoing player's wages should we receive an offer, Levy won't like that but suck it up, buttercup. We done it with Adebayor just as Arsenal did with Ozil, and I'm sure there's other examples too. I'm hoping things change and they need to change too, now more than ever, simple as that. We've got a manager who's given us a fighting chance of top four again as well as renewing the optimism around the place, if we piss about like usual this window that optimism will soon get sapped if results begin turning once key players being run into the ground are no longer able to produce.
I couldn't agree more. We need to seize this opportunity to change. There has been a significant upturn in optimism, but that won't survive old habits being practiced. If the club can bring in 2 quality additions, the increase in belief and optimism could make all the difference, on the pitch and off. Fans want to believe but they don't trust words anymore. That ship sailed this summer and it's not coming back until there's tangible change.
That's all pretty logical but our starting position is that four clubs have much better squads than us by dint of historical wealth, Arsenal's is about the same and Leicester, West Ham and Everton are only a bit below us. So 4th is a very acceptable outcome, 5th or 6th is par and 7th isn't a disaster. We are still catching up with the bigger clubs on income but it will be some time before we can compete on an equal footing. In the meantime we need the team to outperform the sum of its parts and Conte to get something good out of at least one of Dele, Ndombele and Lo Celso.
Everton are the club with the best recent record of squandering transfer money though. I can't think of anyone they have signed in the last five seasons who has really delivered what was expected
If it's money alone nobody comes close to Chelsea, but we've also had far more successes than the average club.
