I was enjoying the banter on another thread, where one cheeky Spanner was saying that WHUFC had closed the gap on Spurs to such an extent that there had been a shift of power in London from Spurs to them. This was made as a counter to the suggestion (made by a gooner last season) that there had been a shift in power between Arsenal and Spurs. Now, we all know that this cheeky Spanner was merely having a laugh, but it got me wondering whether or not the Spanners can maintain the obvious luck they have enjoyed this season, and take it into successive seasons; or whether they will simply slump back into the cycle of relegation battles that they had been fighting every season before this one? What is the general consensus among fans on this? In my view, I think the pornographer owners of that club will blow their respective stacks with Big Sam and, in trying to get better, they will **** everything up, probably costing the club its Prem League status. Financial ruin and Administration are likely (eventually), as the club fails to fill even a fraction of the "lottery windfall" stadium they were gifted by the Government. So, to answer this question, no, I don't believe they can sustain top-half Prem League football. I'm interested in the unbiased views of non-Spanners; and, as always, no wumming, please.
I will bite HIAG. Simply because it's impossible to argue with any of my points below and you won't have any meaningful comeback. Spuds have only beaten us once in 5 attempts and have been fortunate not to lose to us twice this season (Noble missed pen on opening day / questionable last minute pen at the weekend). They are just 5 points above us with just a dozen games left. A big chunk of this season they have been below us. They have a £400M stadium to fund which will hinder their transfer business for the next ten years. Look how Arsenal have struggled to strengthen their squad over the last decade. The difference is, they moved into their new stadium as arguably the best team in England and their squad was good enough to keep them in the top 4 whilst they paid for it, whereas spuds have a starting point as the 6th or 7th best team in England. They could easily drop into the bottom half of the table quite soon. We move into a 54K seater stadium with the best transport links in Europe in 18 months time. The stadium is costing us peanuts. Our revenue will be increased and we will be able to spend more money on keeping our squad together and buying new players. The power shift is well underway. In fact, I'm quietly confident that we can finish higher than the daft twonks next season, if not this one. Bye.
Those points are all easy to address, unfortunately. I'll start with the easiest, which is the supposedly debatable penalty. Leaving aside the fact that it was a pen, you've overlooked Noble's obvious second yellow and the offside for your second goal. Poor. The league standing is easily understandable when you look at it in context of the number of games played and the change in Allardyce's style. We've played 13 more games than West Ham, have installed a new manager and needed time to get the best out of our players. West Ham had time to prepare for games and used it to their advantage. It's been demonstrated that the Europa League damages league form. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31470797 As for the new stadium hurting our finances, it seems unlikely that we'll spend less money than we have in recent years. Our net spend has been the lowest in the division over the last five seasons, whereas West Ham's has been 6th, despite being relegated. How will the next West Ham manager do when Allardyce leaves for sunnier climes at the end of this season? Who knows?
Personally, I think that Gold and Sullivan will resort to handing out free copies of Razzle with every season ticket, when things turn bad for the Spanners.
And the majority of your points are simple to refute. Yes, we were somewhat fortunate to get our point, but we had just played a tough Europa league game less than 3 days before. The penalty was just that - end of. Nothing questionable about it. Noble should not have been on the pitch, if Moss had done his job and not dropped his bottle instead. You may have noticed that we have quietly been promoting top class talent from our youth system - this whole game will become increasingly less about transfers. Only the Citys and Chelseas of our world will be able to lay out the increasingly ridiculous amounts being asked. Therefore, I don't expect the new stadium to impact our squad quality that much. It's one of the reasons that we invested in creating one of the best training facilities in Europe We may have been below you, we're not anymore. You will undoubtedly lose many of your key players in the summertime. You may not think so, but it will happen. You may have a stadium with a capacity of 54,000. But, good luck trying to fill it - unless you plan on giving tickets away? I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for your power shift!...
Arsenal won't be moving anywhere, not for a very long time. What did Mourhino say - specialists in failure, I think it was. Spurs, on the other hand, are moving forward to over-take you. At least, that is the view of some people (not just Spurs fans), and is not necessarily what I believe, yet.
Can you name them? And the irony of a ****ing Spurs fan calling Wenger a specialist in failure, if Wenger's a specialist in failure, then what does that make your club? Wenger has won more trophies in the last 26 years of his career than Spurs have, 17 trophies he has picked up, compared to Spurs' 4, so have some little respect you stupid **** head before you want to call Wenger a specialist in failure. Heck Wenger alone has won more English League titles than Spurs' entire bloody ****ing history, one of those titles btw he won at your **** ground, that's literally the closest Spurs have come to tasting league success, was when he won it on your ground.
As for Spurs moving forward, actually you aren't, you've gone backwards, you ended one season in the top 4 and then what? Not again, that's not called moving forwards you thick headed ****. Spurs have supposedly been moving forward since the 2006 season when you challenged for the top 4, lol 9 years moving forward and nothing to show for it, still can't finish above Arsenal, and one glorious carling cup to your trophy cabinet.
2 seasons in top 4 actually and the other recent seasons were 5th/6th, so not exactly in free fall are we. 9 years ago is very arbitary? Go to 10, 11, 12 and we were way down. Go 7, 6 we were well down. Overall we have moved up a notch in the last 10 years. Not been out of top 6 in a few years now, which is improvement for us, would be dreamland for West Ham.
Well, HIAG got shot down in the thread concerning their much more successful neighbours so has to resort to trying to wind up West Ham fans. Well.. run along, i'm not biting either but I am confident we will over-take your lot in the next 5 years.