** Notso and Spurs or Sex? Top 4 a must from me. Lower is a disappointment. F*ck it, I expect to win the league now just to be difficult!
One thing that would certainly qualify as success this season: * Dispelling the ghost of Henry James Redknapp Right now, just about everything that Villas-Boas does will always have a journalist, pundit or fan say the same thing: "Harry would have done it differently." Yes, it goes without saying that Harry would have done a lot of things differently that we are right now, but the phrase is being stated is to knock Villas-Boas instead of as an unbiased comparison of the two. Similar things were said last season, saying Mourinho would have managed Chelsea differently to Villas-Boas (yes, there would have been far more men on the six yar line, more cheating, more gamesmanship, more pressuring the referee, and more pre-determined clattering the opponent's key players...) You don't see managers of other clubs getting this. For example, Wenger wasn't subject to articles saying "George Graham would have done differently" when he took over at Arsenal, whilst Hodgson and Rodgers were given the benefit of the doubt when replacing Benitez and Dalglish at Liverpool (albeit briefly in Hodgson's case...), even though the same statement is valid in every case, because their outlook and style of play they want to impliment is different to those who came before them.
Wanting the CL is because of the easy piggy trough money it brings to the club. A Europa win with say PL 5th would be indication that the manager/squad have dealt with a long season of games.
So, apart from Spurf, do we all agree 6th is defeatist, unacceptable, downright ****e, and something no other club would tolerate! ? ...apart from Liverpool!
I really can't see you lot making the top 4, and the main reason being your record against the top 4, if you want to break into it this year you're going to have to beat the top 4 on a regular basis. You beat us at WHL last year but can't recall you winning against man u, City and Chelsea (correct me if I'm wrong). It was your record against the other teams that had you so far up the league last season, both ourselves and Chelsea were terrible at certain times last year, we started badly and they were poor in the middle of the season. The fact both arsenal and Chelsea have started better this season makes me think that you will have to win probably 3 of the 8 games (at least) you will play against the top 4, and that's provided you dispatch the other teams like you did in the first half of last season. I just can't see you winning 3 of the games against the top 4 as you have a pretty poor record against them, with the exception of that purple patch you had when you beat 3 of us in a row a few years back.
We don't have to dispatch the teams like we did first half of last season. We can match or better last season but simply winning a couple of games from feb onwards.
Our record against such sides was rubbish last season agreed, we gave two results away in the first two games! We know this, and the start of this season see's no-one setting the place on fire yet imo, despite your view on L'Arse and Chavski, ( I'd look at their matches so far a little more closely) but still its far too early to tell with all the changes everyone has made.
Last 8 PL games against: Chelsea: Spurs record Won 2 Lost 2 Drawn 4 Man City: Won 4 Lost 3 Drawn 1 Arsenal: Won 3 Lost 2 Drawn 3 Man U.: Lost 6 Drawn 2 So apart from Man U where our record is poor the others are not bad, so your argument does not stand up, it's BOGUS
If I remember correctly, our results against the two Mancs, Chelsea and ARSEnal were.. Utd 0 pts City 0 pts Chelsea 1pt ARSE 3 pts That's 4 points out of a possible 16. Not very encouraging!...
Focusing on your poor form in periods last season is a bit silly, as poor as you were at times that season we were as bad from Ferbuary to April. Ultimately, like us, you had purple patches too and you finished on 70 points which was more than you got in the previous season so this wasn't some one off nightmare season where you were dragged down by a poor spell. Infact, our points total of 69 would have been enough for us to finish in the top 4 in 8 of the last 10 seasons, including finishing 3rd twice. There was no fortune that we finished where we did. There's little to read into the first 4 games. 3 points is no mountain to climb and you've had the advantage of having a fully settled squad in all 4 games. As I said in my earlier posts, I think we're good enough to challenge for top 4 this season fine margins could affect whether we make it or not.
We took 2 off Chelsea. It was only out opening two games and Arsenal away where the performance really lacked though. It's a new season with new players and a new manager so we'll have to wait so I don't think the past counts for a lot.
I hope not, but our record against top teams, particularly Utd, is poor. If we are to view ourselves as more or less having parity with these sides, we must at least take equal points from them. If we can do that, and learn to put away the "lesser" opposition, especially at home, then we can be serious challengers.
I wonder how many of those games did we actually start with our regular system? We also appear to have played 8 and had 9 results.
i think we are more solid this year than last and things like the 2nd half against Goons will not be allowed to happen. the first 2 games we blamed on Modric..and two of our most pivotal players in Parker and Ade were not playing. Will Parker have a regular starting spot this year? i like the Sandro/Dembele combination......they are both footballers aswell as hard basterds. i think we are good for a trophy this year...AVB just needs to feel the love.
I think that in changing from the nature of a Harry Redknapp to AVB is quite massive and still believe that if I had to accept aq step back to move forward then it is worth it. I honestly don't bellieve Harry would have got us to even 5th again - he would also have lost Modric and VDV - but how successful would he have been at briniging in new blood. If we deem 5th and lower as "failure" then we are setting AVB up for criticism. If we accept that we may do less well this season but will have prepared the ground for a proper leap forward then in my book that is success
I certainly see the argument for fifth but heading in the right direction being a success. But to me, it's fourth, the Europa Cup, or just maybe the FA Cup. A "good" fifth plus the Mickey Mouse Cup would also be fine. Put another way, the biggest obstacle to getting fourth is a better year than usual from Arsenal (or, just maybe, Everton or Newcastle) combined with the three rich teams all playing well. New system,new manager, new players--I'm not sure it's that big a negative. If we'd just avoided late goals in the first three games, we'd currently be tied for first with Chelsea. We've got a good team and a good manager, we've got to get the points we need, it's that simple. Maybe Arsenal has a slightly better chance at fourth, but not by very much.
