Our board took a calculated risk with Wenger, it was David Dein who knew his capabilities and convinced the board to sign him when at the time, foreign managers were in the minority. It was a master stroke rather than luck. Whereas with Bale, I remember a lot of people at Spurs were asking for him to be sold because they were convinced he wasn't going to make it. Fair play to your chairman that he kept him, but I still think there was an air of good fortune that he turned out to be as good as he is and commanded such a high transfer fee. If only he had then re-invested it properly ... As for finishing right behind us, that was the case for a couple of seasons when we were going through what was probably our toughest patch for years, selling our best players to balance the books and pay off the stadium, but last season showed that we're pulling away from you again and with the improvements we've made to our squad this time around I'd expect that gap to widen back to it's normal proportions. Everton can claim that like Spurs they have been steadily improving over the last few seasons. Now though they have overtaken Spurs and done it on half of the budget. As mentioned, if it wasn't for Utd having such a terrible season and Southampton imploding, Spurs would have been fighting a mid-table battle as they would have been the season before had Bale not rescued you so many times. I think most Spurs fans were quietly relived to finish 6th last time around as you looked pretty dire for the best part of the season. In summary, whilst Levy has done well to keep the club on an even footing financially, he hasn't really helped you push on in the last few years. He's made some bizarre hiring and firing decisions and the money that he has secured from player sales has been largely misspent in my opinion. Last summer he tried to buy his way into the top four and with a combination of poor purchases, bizarre man management of his managers it resulted in a pretty shambolic season.
Spurs got lucky with bale, he was bought as a left back and was a complete liability as he could not defend. They were even about to sell him but had an injury crisis and bale got a few games at left midfield, and performed quite well, that convinced harry to keep him and play him at left midfield.
e So most of the fans on your board are wrong then. I seem to remember some of then saying that there was even a deal in place with Birmingham (or someone like that) to sell bale, and thats information i read on your board a year or so ago.
Actually most of that is true. Even Clive Allen admitted that he was nearly sold. It was only because of Bale himself who decided to stay and fight for a place that you were eventually able to sell him for so much. Like everybody has said, you got lucky with Bale. Levy and co were ready to offload him to either Birmingham or Forest. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23947384
Sorry but you can't sweep this under the carpet because you don't like it. Even Alex McLeish who was Birmingham manager at the time said that he came close to signing Gareth Bale and it was only because of injuries in your squad that 'Arry wouldn't let him go.
Everton did extremely well last season and they have proved over the years to be a very well run club, but it has to be considered that both of the Merseyside teams benefited from not being in Europe last season (as Man Utd will this season). It will be interesting to see if Everton (and Liverpool) can cope this season with the additional fixtures and maintain the push for top 4. There is also a certain irony in Arsenal fans going on about Spurs fans writing off Bale, when this time last year on these very pages they were doing the same to Ramsey
I couldn't care less. Just remember it differently. He was brought back into the team cause Assou-Ekotto was going to African Cup, then when he dropped out of the squad Bale was pushed forward to accomodate both. He was always going to be played further forward cause of his explosive running. Even if it was all luck, so what? Just not how I remember it.
This is how I remember it http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...USIVE-I-turned-Gareth-Bale-86m-superstar.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23947384 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ngham-boss-Alex-McLeish-eyes-3m-defender.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...am-target-Tottenham-defender-Gareth-Bale.html this is how everyone else remembers it, harry blowing his own trumpet, what a shock
I was one of the few that were defending Ramsey through his tough patch, so I have no truck with those who slate players, call for them to be sold and then want to laud them as brilliant players once they make it. It will be interesting to see how Everton fair this season, personally I think they are a really strong outfit and play some very confident football. They pushed Arsenal towards the end of the season for a top four spot and that tells you how good they are. Out of that tier of clubs, Spurs, Everton, Villa, Newcastle - Everton have really taken a big step forward whilst the others have regressed recently.
What on earth has liking got to do with it? I couldn't care less whether we tried to sell him or not, just don't think we did. The fact is we got £85m, and that is what I like - as well as getting to see him in a Spurs shirt. Whether lucky or planned.
Isnt this a bit like making fun of a guy who just won £10m on the lottery by saying "Ha Ha, you almost didnt buy a ticket ya mug!" That "mug" has still just won the lottery!
To keep the lottery analogy going, I think the point was making fun of them for pissing the prize money away, the additional point was that they were almost too stupid to win as well, because they almost threw the ticket away!
I remember me arguing with a **** load of gooners on this board that they should lay off ramsey as he would come good after he mentally recovered from his injury. Bale had an injury 4 months after joining spurs that kept him out from early december 2007 until sept 2008. so by your analogy you lot were almost too stupid to win the cup last season and to get 4th... just saying
It's a bit different in that as a club we have never considered selling Ramsey and the manager always kept faith in him. Also worth noting that there where those of us who didn't agree with the Ramsey bashing!
