The good news is that Bentancur is back after his ban The bad news is he's going to see both Son and Yang in training, and then he'll be banned until April ...oh, and FIFA did jack **** about Enzo Fernandez, in case you were wondering
I read this and thought it missed the mark a bit to be honest. There’s a laziness of analysis about what actually happens on the pitch at Spurs and when you zoom out it always comes back to media faces pushing the same narratives. There’s an element of truth in the narrative but when it comes down to it we lost a game against better rested, better managed, and just better, players. Articles like this are part of the problem. But the narrative stuff does annoy me because it distorts and hides the truth. The suggestion that we could have got Slot but chose Ange for the vibes ignores that the former turned us down, not the other way round. The idea that we ‘could’ have got Diaz ignores the fact that we tried to hijack Pool’s deal and ended up getting Kulu instead - now our most effective player and one of the few who probably would have a shot of getting into the team that just put 6 past us at home. And that’s annoying because there is plenty to criticise at Spurs if you want us to be perceived as unserious. The inadequate summer window that further highlights years of squad mismanagement. Promoting a TV series with characters in the stands during one of the biggest home games of the season just before Christmas. A seeming inability, based on what I’ve seen on socials, to keep away fans out of home stands (and I believe that over the weekend wasn’t an isolated incident this season). One could go on. In so many ways the club encapsulates what is worst about the modern game, and manages to do it while being all bark and no bite. If there was a better focus on the actual issues at the club rather than just distorting the truth to make the club look bad - something that really we do just fine on our own plenty of the time - then maybe prominent media voices could add to the increasingly visible fan discontent towards the management of the club and be additive to a movement for positive change. But Spurs are the easy target, and the butt of every joke, so it’s easier to be lazy. And that’s even without talking about Ange and what’s going on during the matches, which is its own post.
The Grauniad's football reporting missing the mark, you say? This is the same paper who's season preview will, without fail, specifically mock any reference to "Playing the Tottenham way" because centrists punch down just as hard as Farage supporters but you're not allowed to call them out on it because that makes you an "extremist" or something
Brilliant post. All I can say in response is that I think journos and pundits resort to lazy, sweeping criticism partly because it has become so, so difficult to actually glimpse the path forward at Spurs. What is the plan? We've tried progressive managers, didn't work. We tried big CV managers, didn't work. We tried selling key players to fund purchases, didn't work. We tried hanging on to key players long after their value had fallen, didn't work. We tried signing youngsters, didn't work. We tried spending big money, didn't work. What is the way forward? All evidence I've seen since Ange's appointment and I know DH now agreed with this is that the club's genius master plan was to stumble across another Poch who can get us punching well above the weight of our squad. In the year or so since, the growing realisation has been that Ange is nothing at all like Poch, which imo is fuelling the current nerves and frustration. Because we've been here before, so many times over the past 24 years. The fans are rightly sick of it. ENIC's legacy will always be the new training ground and stadium, which they deserve endless praise for delivering. But everything I have seen since the move suggests that there was never a coherent plan for the 'day after'. Chapter two thus far has been to make it up as we go along and hope something sticks. So in light of the lack of a coherent vision and seldom little communication from upstairs as to what that vision might be, people resort to the lazy and generalist criticisms we're seeing.
Football in football. Sometimes you just don't win and there will be cycles of good and bad. I don't think you necessarily need to particular go one way or another as long as you stick with it and improve. Hell you may get a down season and you most like just need to persevere through it before the good comes again. I don't think you should have ever gotten away from poch. He had you guys punching way above your weight. Was his final season terrible of course but one bad season and absolutely no loyalty (to be fair maybe he needed a break himself). Fergie had his down years, arteta too (although he hasn't won anything yet). We will see what happens with pep Everyone else gets rid of their manager (us included) when i actually thought we should have given our underperforming managers more time. Since you have gotten rid of poch, you have gone through managers just as quick as us, players through the mill who dont fit and it has set you back so much that you resemble the 2000s spurs. I dont think ange is the right man because he wants his full backs to be wingers but you need to get someone who you stick with and back them rather than going around this merry go round. Also don't be so entitled to expect trophies
Oh I think they know all right, a 6 or 7% increase on my season ticket for starters I suspect. Becoming more of a money machine than a football club I fear...
I think the issue with Poch more so than results or performances was that it became too emotional. Football is an emotional game but as with any profession, there needs to be a healthy line between being invested and seeing it as nothing more than your job. I think the rollercoaster of leaving WHL (unbeaten at home) with a phenomenal team that pushed you all the way, to playing in soulless Wembley for two seasons, then the miracle run to the CL final all with zero proper investment along the way simply took its toll on Poch and by the end of it, I think the CL final broke something in him that tbh he only looked like getting back towards the end of his time with you. His reaction after beating Ajax was telling imo. Totally understandable and forgiveable especially given the close bond between him and the fans, but the bond was too emotional and not rational and I think this caused him to be blind to obvious good decisions. He deserved to see that last season out imo and certainly didn't deserve to be replaced by someone who was never going to succeed at a club like Spurs. Truth be told we've made very few good decisions since Nov 2020.
Yeah but you get to see marketing for Squid Games though, that’s worth the season ticket price alone… All seriousness if they raise it considerably in the near future I’ll probably be giving mine up. Paying for filet steaks and getting served a frozen burger. Somewhat glad I can’t get back for many these days, just feel sorry for my mate’s dad who keeps buying my seats
Spurs financially should be finishing around 5th-6th. A bottom half finish (league form over the last 13 months) is massively underachieving. I agree you should stick with managers and back them but only if they’re the right man, so far I’ve seen very little from Ange that he can take the club to the promised land. I don’t think you can accuse any Spurs fan of being entitled, we just would love to see a trophy won as it’s been far too long.
Football Clubs are machines for extracting money from fans and owners and giving it to players and coaches.
It’s actually disappointing because Jonathan Liew is a Spurs fan (I think) and is actually a very good writer. He has written and spoken eloquently on some complex issues, in particular on some of the struggles he has faced as an Asian journalist covering football and the lack of British Asian footballers at the elite end of the sport. I usually enjoy his writing. That’s why I find it frustrating that he resorts in this piece to pub banter-level takes which are hardly unique.
"Are you not entertained?" I think we are fast becoming the Harlem Globetrotters of football - entertaining, but just not serious... In fact I'm surprised that ITV don't have our games on every Saturday afternoon! (Those of a certain age should understand...)
PL top 4 is effectively over this season (I suspect more so after the next two games) . I have very low trust in his squad mgmt (to be able to reach the EL final while having a respectable 2nd half PL campaign) .
There is no getting away from the fact that playing huge chunks of the season with multiple key players missing is impossible, especially juggling four competitions. We'd hoped last year's autumn-winter epidemic was a one-off, but events since then suggest that it is an inevitable by-product of a manager stuck with a system that makes injury more likely, coupled with a medical staff that apparently has a fetish for rushing players back from injury. It's unlikely we'll be anywhere near full strength until second week of Jan, by which time it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if we lose to Forest and Newcastle in the league and Liverpool in the cup. At that point I think I'd prefer us to sack off the league and go all-in for the FA Cup and Europa tbh.
We’re 5 points off the teams in 5th and 6th and there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge. 8 points off 4th. You’d think that Forest, Fulham and Bournemouth might hit difficulties at some point, though they’ll likely have less fixtures than us and others. Getting players back will help us, if nothing else because so many of the ones we have fit right now look cooked from playing so much recently. While I think it’ll help us maybe put a bit of a run together, if Ange can’t sort out the midfield balance and tweak how the FBs are being used, then I still think we might struggle. Some of this might get addressed in Jan, but we need to Find a rotation option for Sarr, as Maddison and Kulu together should be a situational option, not a default Buy or develop a starting 6 (nobody has that locked down right now and even if consistently available, Bentancur isn’t perfect there. Could be Gray, Bergvall or an early move for someone like Jonny Cardoso) Get more depth at LB Tweak the tactics in how we use the FBs to prevent such stark vulnerability on the counter But the first order of business has to be getting players fit again because we’re never going to find any consistency if the players are running on fumes the whole time.
That FA cup tie on the 12th is a massive banana skin if ever I've seen one, especially if the next two league games don't go well. Then there is the small matter of the NLD 3 days later....
