He's saying all the right things but you'd expect that when we're trying to sell tickets for £40-50. I'll still be very interested to see the starting line up on Thursday.
With all this talk of us taking it serious, what about Lazio, are they going to field their strongest team?
Villas-Boas, whose side are on their USA tour, said: âThere are people who represent Tottenhamâs past tradition and high values and that person without a doubt is Dawson."....shortly before accepting QPR's bid for him. Did you miss that?
I reckon they'll come here with their best team. Lazio will want to do well in the competition like us so I'd expect the likes of Hernanes, Klose & Co to be on the pitch Thursday. In regards to AVB and the captaincy issue, he did say Daws was a contender for it, think SSN reported it some weeks back. That's why it came as a major shock to me when Daws was cast aside and was allowed to speak to QPR. He's one of very few leaders in our team along with the fact a very good CB.
He said that and then went on to say, "But it's almost more up to the group to decide than the manager. It's a difficult and sensible decision to make and I'll be consulting Ledley and Michael on it. "There's different types of characters in the dressing room. But it will affect everybody in the dressing room who have empathy with the man going to lead them on the pitch." So he clearly didn't select him as captain.
The finer points of this aren't really important, I merely suggested to Perryman that just because AVB says something, it doesn't mean thats what will happen. He's come out with a few 'diplomatic' answers already, he's hardly going to say " Parker will be back soon, but no matter he's not in my plans anyway unless we're short." He has spoke with fork tongue already is all I'm saying, and that was only explaining a speculative idea re SP going by how a few stalwarts of last years team have been treated.
I know what you're saying but with all the late goals we're conceding I can't see Parker not being in AVB's plans.
I agree, plus Sandro will be knackered from the lympics. I reckon Parker should come on for Sandro as a sort of "closer". Don't they have something similar with baseball pitchers?
Do they ever hit the freakin' ball in baseball? Whenever I've watched a MLB game, it's either a no ball or a strike - which, given the money some of the players are on, is bloody ridiculous...
Nope, i don't think i've ever seen them hit it but they still have extra pitchers just to make especially sure they don't hit it. Why that pitcher doesn't play the whole game i dunno. Its rounders, but worse.
LAdPCeV-B has set the task of us winning the Europa League this season. Looking at the draw, I think Atletico Madrid, Bilbao or Inter are more likely to win the competition (Napoli, Lyon and Leverkusen could certainly win it as well) and that's before considering the likes of Dynamo Kiev, Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, Ajax, Dortmund, Man City, Zenit, Porto and PSG are among the teams that could very easily trickle down into the tournament. It's possible we could reach the last 16, but winning it is going to be another thing altogether - unless we have a successful January, bringing in (for the sake of argument) Moutinho and Leandro.
Yeah, it's impossible to make any assessments until we see who "drops down" into the competition as a reward for failing.... talk about undermining the credibility of your own competition!
I think it's wrong that the team's that fail in the C/L come into the europa league,makes a mockery of the competition,as you say Vimhawk.
That ruling is ridiculous. Rewarding failure is just nuts. Like vimhawk said, undermines the credibility of the competition. That said, I still think we're in with a great chance of winning regardless of who drops down. If any of the "top" teams come 3rd and fall into the Europa, there's a good chance they won't take it seriously anyway. I'd say Atletico are the favourites from the outset, reigning champs and the form of Falcao (king of the Europa) will be key, Inter are beatable as are Bilbao.
They've made the link between the EL and CL work in only one (the worst) direction, as we've said undermining its credibility. Since the link is established what of course should happen is quite the opposite, that the winners of the EL get a place in the CL. This would (1) give the competition more credibility (2) make the teams in it try harder rather than ignoring it if they have the chance of CL qualification through the league (3) perhaps make teams really try harder for that EL qualification place in the league and even perhaps (4) make teams try harder for the League Cup if it has a EL place. Instead they have done the opposite, they've made it a second chance competition for failed CL teams that don't probably care, and (here's a new one) instead made the CL a competition for those wanting a CL place that maybe can't qualify for it in the league - remember it doesn't matter where you finish in the league if you win it you get in anyway, resulting in games like Chelski's defeat to the Mousers at the end of last season because frankly they didn't care about the league any more. Add that to the PL becoming nothing more than a feeder competition for the CL (getting 4th is all that is important these days) so all in all I think these two competitions are undermining each other and their respective leagues.
It really isn't 'nuts'. Many sports have a system of repechages to get the best teams through to the final stages and this is a similar concept. If the EL is a sort of second divison of the CL it actually makes sense to reward the teams who qualified for the first division and then didn't quite make it by dropping them into the second divison. It isn't rewarding failure, it's more a delayed reward for being too successful. But it would make more sense if for example the two teams with the best record in the EL swapped places with the two worst second placed teams in the CL after the group stages - that would really add spice...
What would make more sense, as I have said before, was that the CL was just that Champions only. Then the Europa league would be for the rest and be more valid. Both competitions would benefit.
It is nuts. If you're in an elite competition you shouldn't be then given the chance to challenge for another trophy that's there for clubs that perhaps can't quite compete with the best and therefore have the chance to play against the other "best of the rest" teams in Europe. If Madrid/ City/ Utd/ Barca and co come 3rd and enter Europa, it's unfair on the teams that have had to play through qualifying and then the groups only to then face a far superior team instead of another that's worked extremely hard to try and win a competition against equally balanced opposition. Failiure in the Champions League should not be softened by the chance to challenge for the Europa.
