AVB has launched a scathing attack on the piss poor support of Spurs fans, claiming that they made the players feel like they were the away team and that they had to fight on their own, because their fans were so crap. Spurs fans have tried to label Arsenal supporters as lacking support at home, and there have been times when I've been ashamed to hear our own fans booing players, but is what Spurs suffered yesterday a result of raised expectations at AVB spending over a hundred million in the summer and still serving up dross ? Was he right to pull them up for shirking their responsibilities or should he have admitted that his dull brand of football would lead to frustrations from his own fans ?
AVB is becoming more like a humourless 'Arry. Only last week he was blathering on about Arsenal, hoping we'd drop points in an 'Arryesque 'We're better than Arsenal' rant instead of concentrating on his own team. Now like Arry, he's criticising his own fans and saying they are offer **** support. At least under Arry they played some attractive football, but despite pissing over a hundred million up the wall, spurs seem to only be able to offer boring football, scraping by midtable teams with lucky penalties. It's no wonder their fans are pissed off. 'Arry Villas Boas is looking like a poor imitation of the original.
Another 1-0 victory with a dodgy penalty decision. As much as I hate the spuds I used to have to admit they were at least a good team to watch, but now? Dull dull dull.
3 points off the top whilst we are plodding along to put it generously. I'll take that for now...we are not exactly playing out of our skins. Infact we are playing with our track suits on.
A not unfair summary of why the fans are getting pissed off though. If the team is going to pass the ball around slowly every game, and play in a low risk way then what can the fans do to change that. Singing is for high tempo exciting football, or getting behind the team. When your team is on top, and playing against a team you should be beating (comfortably given there injuries) but insisting on playing safe, dull, slow and tedius football....that is not going to get the crowd going. It will make them fall asleep. Having a pop at them though is likely to piss them off, and mean they have even less patience with the boring football.
I'm more with their fans than I am AVB. A lot of it is to do with his mundane style of football. I think he'll continue to get found out against the better teams but to be fair losing flair players in Modric and Bale hasn't helped, nor has losing players with ingenuity like Van Der Vaart. Totsfan made a good point on the Spurs board that to be fair to AVB he has only been tasked with winning. They need the CL football and after that they'll have a platform to make the style of football a bit more aesthetically pleasing. I always found Spurs entertaining to watch under previous management but I'd rather watch Stoke under Hughes to be honest, I can understand the exasperation from their fans especially given the £100m spent.
I agree there is a grain of truth, but it is dressed far too negatively. Obviously he never said that or that A real Piskie hobby horse (that has been flogged to death, to mix my metaphors). This has some truth about it - not by the spending, but just that we have closed on the top 4 and now our supporters are anxious to see us step up another level. We're not quite there yet sadly.
It amuses me to hear a lot of Chelsea and Arsenal fans say this. Curious that few said it when we were playing great football under Redknapp and Jol, but now the football is dull you all suddenly remember how great we used to be to watch. We are work in progress, judgement is too early.
I've always been of the opinion that Spurs were actually making a genuine attempt at winning the League! The money spent would certainly suggest that. I think AVB is a good young Coach, With the right ideas if not the execution. If given the time & with a little less self defeating impatience AVB will have Spurs finishing iI the top 4 on a regular basis.
My judgement isn't based on just now, it's based on what I've seen of AVB at Porto, Chelsea and a season and a quarter at Spurs. You could argue all Premier League teams are work in progress. It's not really about who I support just an honest observation. I agree with totsfan in that he was clearly briefed to bring CL football back to WHL not to entertain and lose like Redknapp/Jol. For all his faults, away from home Spurs are as good as they've ever been. When was the last time you guys ended a season without losing at Stamford Bridge or Old Trafford? In that respect it's remarkable what he's achieved.
Was he negative at Porto. I haven't seen much of him from that time, so I am not arguing, but a lot of people say the team with Hulk etc were very entertaining to watch? We can debate his time at Chelsea for hours, but he never really got the team he wanted, so hard to judge him on that. With us, his first season was just get it to Bale, otherwise I agree it was pretty tedious to watch and is again now without Bale to get us out of trouble. I live in hope he is building from the back and when that is secure, will be more expansive. I'm still reserving judgement on how entertaining he will be. In Townsend, Eriksen, Lamela, Lennon we potentially have some exciting players and when they are given license will be thrilling to watch.
That's the hope for you guys anyway, I've long said the best time to judge his career at Spurs is around this time next year. I personally don't think you'll get top four this year but even if I'm right I'd like to think (for his sake) he'll be given a bit more time to sort it out.
I don't like what Spurs are serving up right now, but most good managers will tell you that you need to build a team from the back. Even Wenger in this Arsenal team's latest iteration started last spring, were a bit dull grinding out results. Mourinho has done the same at Real Madrid before now, and so have many others. At present AVB should be given the benefit of the doubt by Spurs fans. However, I'm really not sure about the wisdom of a manager criticising his team's fans. Not sure that is going to end well for him if he continues.
