Regarding the CBs, we have no idea how good Kaboul will be on return, possibly great, possibly a half year to return to form, we just have no clue. And as for verts, I do rate him massively but christ is he poor from set pieces. For a CB the number of players that get to the ball in front of him is shocking. Otherwise he's excellent. Dawson; body on the line and a great pro. A tad slow haha. We've got the ball player (vert), the dominant commander (kabs) and the seasoned loyal rock (daws). With a makeshift cb in Capoue we really are looking for the youngster with a high ceiling and we really have an ideal combo. Shame about all the injuries!
If this were written in the mail it would be given no credence. It's an interesting read and could I suppose have some truth but really it's all make believe and just allows us to be hopeful for another week.
Centre half is not a position for part-timers. If Capoue can play there, fine, but if he is a makeshift then Spurs are a bit short of cover in that area. The only two seasons Utd have not won the title in the last 7 are directly attributable to games lost where centre backs were missing and Carrick (and once Evra ) had to play there. Not a position to take chances with. Never.
Fair enough SG. I think they will be on Sunday though, but may be wrong. Hope I am, if they play us at football we'll win. To me, whever a promoted club are at home to superior opposition on the opening day, packed house, pumped up, chances are it will be lively. The weather may help us, if it's boiling hot, the game may be played at a slow pace which should suit our superior technique. We'll see, nothing's going to make me feel calm about this game, that's for sure, unless we're three up by half-time .... and even then ....
Fans on all forums are getting carried away by our spending and not looking at the situation logically and assuming there has been this meeting between Lewis, Levy, AVB and Baldini, watching action movies together, drinking beer and all together shouting "lets go to war, lets win the title"!. Its a nice thought to think we have all of a sudden decided to try and win the title, but a little realism please, we can't just go from a team scrambling for 4th, to winning the title, not in today's premier league (unless you're man city and can spend over a 100 million), if the club are truly intent on challenging for the title its going to take 2 years at least of this current spending and keeping players like Bale. Our main target is champions league football, the club know they have to get back into the champions league at the least, once we're an established champions league club then we can talk of challenging for the title. This season no one yet knows what our strongest first team is, if our players will settle or what our best defence is, yet you would think we have assembled some super squad ready to win the title.
IIRC Blackpool were plenty 'feisty' when they beat us up there a few years back. Maybe I don't remember correctly, it's possible. We created plenty of chances that's for sure, but couldn't score. Didn't the ref rob us as well, or was that about three thousand and one other games?
Let's win the title HAS to be the target Bossman, whether we do or not is another matter. Aim High! it's on YOUR banner.
I can't remember who pointed it out but our spending is utterly logical so far. £27m brought in through sales, £35m brought in as part of the tv deal. £62m spent Even if we spent another £30m i wouldn't be convinced it was a "go for the title" war chest or us spending Bale money
haha! yes it be our target one day Big Boss Man Just I have to be realistic as otherwise we set ourselves up for failure and disappointment. If the players and manager are aiming high then that's great for team mentality and belief, yet as fans we can't share that belief until the players prove they can not just believe that high, but actually perform to the level to reach that status.
Nice to see some support for Dawson and I thank OS for his kind words. I also want to say this forum is a lot fairer to Daws than some/most of the other forums, where the comments on our captain are disgraceful/outrageous/absurd far too often I too get baffled about the hype over JV and Kab, and I say that objectively Daws is a better defender than both of them, in the Prem, anyway. Probably abroad, they'd be better than him. There was much nonsense about Daws and the high line (probably some coming from AVB himself, till he realised the error of his ways). IIRC it was Jan who was caught out more times than Daws, and in general he has shown defensive weaknesses more than once as has been pointed out. It's also true we don't know how good Kab will be, but that hasn't stopped more or less everyone in Spursdom ditching Daws and sticking 'Kab' in their 'first XI'. Re how good Daws is, I've posted this before but I'll post it again. He didn't start in the first 12 games and we averaged a bit over 1.5 pts per game. When Daws returned the difference was staggering, we averaged OVER TWO POINTS PER GAME in the games he started. I worked out that that over the season the points differential between our start and what we achieved when Daws started was OVER 20 points. That's not just enough to get 3rd and CL, our ppg with Daws starting, was title challenging territory. My figures may be wrong of course, but if others have different figures I'd like to read them. Now of course, there were other factors in this upsurge of form, but the way some people talk of Daws you'd think he was a liability, when far from it, he's a massive asset. AVB has now realised this, and that's why I expect a fit Daws to get plenty of game time. Incidentally, I too think Daws is too 'ordinary' for many people. So many love BAE, for example, with his 'cool ways and Cruyff turns'. Fair enough, good luck to them. I know who I think is the better defender, and it ain't BAE.
Failure & Disappointment like missing out on CL by 1 point! I'm used to that, we are overdue a bit of optimism so my bubble will continue to float for a while yet. So put that bloody pin away Boss, that constitutes carrying a dangerous weapon
I am gonna stay optimistic until: 1 - we lost to palace or swansea 2 - bale leaves 3 - the morning of the NLD
AVB says it again, no negotiation over Bale. He stays a Spurs player. http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2892...ham-wont-negotiate-over-bale-exit-villas-boas
Add to that our frugal spending of previous summers and miserly approach to previous January transfer windows.
