From Sky: "TV footage appears to show Blues defender Cahill kicking Kane in the back while the Spurs star was..." Appears to?! Is there a chance that it was CGI?! Absolutely awful officiating to not see it in the first place (how could the linesman miss it?), pathetic as usual from Mourinho to overlook the giant slices of luck from the ref that they got yesterday (Probably confused as to why Chelsea didn't get their usual phantom goal and dodgy penalty) and absolutely ridiculous that anyone other than a Chelsea "fan" could look at the video and not conclude that Cahill was being a nasty **** whose obvious shortcomings as a footballer were being exposed time and again. God I hate Chelsea. Everything about them. Scum team. ****ing LOVE beating them.
Yes - that got a big cheer from me too. He's stronger than I used to think, he's quicker than I used to think and his ability to use his assets is truly impressive. There are bigger, faster players out there who would not hold onto a ball as well as he does. The guy just drips with good attitude and a solid footballing brain. Seriously starting to think that we haven't just got a Premiership player on our hands but actually one of the best strikers in the league. Not many I'd swap him for at this point in time!
On Chadli: Well I thought he looked really crap from early on last season but he has been better this season and yesterday he was very good indeed. I still see the ball bounce off his foot as he tries to control it too often and I think he's just lacking a bit in the general "class" stakes. But if he can keep making good runs, keep scoring goals, keep playing that wing well (as PNP said - go outside a bit, come inside a bit - it ain't complicated!) then he could prove to be a valuable asset. I'd disagree with those ratings of Baldini's purchases that gives Chadli an equal rating to Eriksen. For me it's clear that Eriksen is a far more natural and classy footballer.
Yeah, I was incensed that Chelsea didn't give the ball back. Ah, the whole thing. Red for denying a goal scoring opportunity only applies to some teams. How many times did we get that call? Three? Four? Was there the slightest chance Dowd even considered correctly sending off Cahill for, in fact, denying a clear goal scoring opportunity? Arsenal gets points from the ref two weeks in a row. Liverpool gets a ridiculous gift, we have three 100% pens in the last two weeks,and are only granted the one we that doesn't get us any points. Paulinho gets a yellow for lifting his foot towards the ball and in fact making contact with it and nothing else, and Cahill gets nothing for slamming Rose's head to the turf with a tackle so dangerous it risks severe injury, and that misses the ball by miles, and kicking Kane in the back repeatedly, then stomping on his ankle (not to mention that little "denying a clear goal scoring opportunity" deal. The whole thing, Why not just decide who will finish where before the season starts and be done with it, if there's going to be no pretence at fair officiating? I've tended to think the great majority underrate the players bought with the Bale money.If they were the dross most said, how did they get Sherwood the best winning percentage of any Spurs coach or manager in history? And why is it that a player who couldn't break into the starting lineup became one of the ten best players in the PL the moment he went to a well organized team with an established system? The simpler explanation is that they are very talented, and didn't look good only because they found themselves in systems that either didn't work or that they didn't know, but were able to win when someone played a simple system that let them function, and are winning again once another coach has got the team well organized. In any case, however good Eriksen and Chadli have become (and Chiriches at RB, I'd say) anyone with any connection to the Academy setup deserves an extra glass of champagne. Somebody was doing something right when it came to selecting and training Kane, Bentaleb, Mason, Rose and Townsend. We'll have to see how they do in the future, but it looked a lot like those two groups plus Lloris, Vertonghen, Fazio and Walker were a match for one of the two or three most expensive and best teams in the world, while being three or four years younger, on average. We'll have to see how it goes, because the jury's still out. But I think and have thought for some time that we've gathered a very good, very young squad with enormous potential with a negative net spend, and that Baldini and the whole Spurs organization have done a very good job on balance--with the crucial exception of picking the coach. Now that we just maybe have gotten that crucial part right...well, we might just be pleasantly surprised. The crucial question to me is not how good they are on average, but how good the best 1-3 are. If we get one Bale and six duds, we broke even. Even if we get a bunch of capable players, not getting a single huge star would make it subpar as a group of buys, IMO. Eriksen had more goals than any other midfielder in 2014 excluding penalties. He created the second most chances. The other point about judging those buys is, compared to what? They had to be selected in a hurry, when everyone knew we had money to burn. Liverpool may be the only fair comparison, and I don't see who their Eriksen or Chadli will be.
By getting the best out of Adebayor and putting a hell of a lot of trust in the previously-untested Nabil Bentaleb and the peripheral Harry Kane for a start. It was very specifically nothing to do with the players brought in the previous summer. Lamela was injured the whole time, Capoue, Chiriches, Paulinho and Soldado weren't fancied and were barely played(if ever in some cases?). Was Chadli played much? Eriksen was. So yeah - nothing much to do with the Bale-Sale signings really. And on the comment about Siggy - he was bought the summer before - before Baldini came in, Bale was sold etc. Agree, though, on your point that for the Bale money to have been spent well we just need the best 2 or 3 players from that group to really become key players. Well Eriksen is one. Chadli might be getting there...It's possible that we might look back in a few years time and think we did well with those signings.
I'm calling Chadli "Cuddly" from now on. Looking at the way we beat Chelsea it amazes me how they've done so well this season. That match just might be as pivotal to Chelsea as I think it was to us.
"Agree, though, on your point that for the Bale money to have been spent well we just need the best 2 or 3 players from that group to really become key players. Well Eriksen is one. Chadli might be getting there...It's possible that we might look back in a few years time and think we did well with those signings." The problem is that the ones who cost the "big money" are turning out to be the biggest disappointments. Eriksen & Chadli at around £8mil each look bargains.
It is slowly becoming apparent that all of the 'we wasted £100M' rhetoric and the 'new players are not good enough' talk by pundits and naysayers was premature to say the least. People forget that even Paulinho, who was very good when he came on in this match, was a shining light in his early days of playing alongside Dembele, when he first arrived. I believe even he can come good again if he happens to stay. Pochettino is beginning to work his magic. The the thing I absolutely love about him is that we have no drama. No complaining about referees. No rifts with players within the squad. No whining about things that distract from the job of winning games. No egotistical posturing for the media. Slowly we are becoming a force. Such a strong squad. Putting 5 past the best Chelsea side is a serious sign of positive change at Tottenham. Kane is becoming the match winner that we have needed. We may even get into the top four. In some ways, it doesn't matter though. We will get stronger from now onwards.
Well I certainly seem to have forgotten that. I remember him looking good for a half or so against Man Utd last year in a more advanced role and him looking excellent against Stoke before he got Adamed. Paulinho was a shining light in his early days?! You mean that backheel he scored? I'm struggling to understand...
….yep. Around that time. If you look at the MOTD footage, he received many compliments from the pundits from is early Spurs games. Before he became run down and had a poor World Cup.
You don't just become completely **** overnight. The players are getting used to Pochetino's ways. Even Rose has improved.
Players are human beings too. If, for any reason, a player feels unsettled, or not at home, it's bound to affect his performances. Unfortunately, as supporters, we can only judge on what we see on the pitch. On that basis, none of Paulinho, Soldado, or Lamela look worth what we paid for them.
Rose had something interesting to say about Pochettino in the post-match interviews, too: "We are getting there slowly but surely under the new manager. We are understanding his philosophies. "Let’s just say if you don’t work hard under the manager, you’re not playing! You better make sure you give 100 per cent each day in training, which is very hard and intense. "But I really enjoy it. As the long as the manager sees you are willing to work hard and want to fight hard for your team-mates then you will go far with him." Sounds like the way it should be, to me. Show the effort and desire to get into the team or you won't be selected.
Had a look at the MOTD highlights on the iPlayer and apart from Jonathan Pierce being a complete idiot, it was interesting to note the absence of both the Cahill kick/stamp incident and any real questioning of Mourinho's bullshit. They're letting the pillock write the narrative and editing things to suit him, which is appalling. That's two games on the trot now where we've had big calls go against us and seen them disappear from the BBC footage. Young's foul on Townsend also mysteriously failed to make the cut, for some reason. Maybe we need the manager to start acting like a lunatic to get stuff like that included? Benitez acted a bit silly and was ridiculed by the press. Wenger's been called all sorts and laughed at about everything from his silly spats to his jacket problems. Ferguson seemed to be untouchable though, as does his Portuguese protege, despite both acting like utter tits at times.
That always seems to be the way with Spurs' big money signings: Rebrov and Postiga are nailed to those "worst Premier League signings" lists, while the likes of Dean Richards, Barren Dent and David Bentley all failing to justify their price tags. It looks like Modric will remain the exception to the rule for some time yet.
Id agree with the first bit. It wasnt just the pundits but the fans as well. But it was all emporer's new clothes stuff. He was ok in those first few games, when he at least worked really hard, but in reality was never better than that, and that proved to be as good as he gets. He's got the vision of a blind man, and the touch of a donkey with sore hooves. Imo.
More classy stuff from Terry. No sense of humour, these Chavs.... http://metro.co.uk/2015/01/03/john-...elseas-5-3-loss-to-tottenham-hotspur-5008247/
Pretending to throw a ball is nowhere as bad as the Eric Cantona horror show, does anybody remember it?
