Thanks for clarifying RDBD. Although as you say, those numbers are based on progressing as far as the QF; something PL sides have found increasingly difficult to do since our one outing in the tournament. Indeed, failing to get out of the group is fast becoming the norm and that surly can't be worth more than £20m? I would also add that our QF achievement was built on a very good team graced by 4 world class players. Don't get me wrong we've got a strong squad, but nothing like Bale, King, VDV and Modric.
I don't think that it's a problem with quality, just with sharpness, match-fitness and confidence. If we had everyone fit, then we could drop our entire starting XI from the Palace game and pick this side: Vorm; Trippier, Fazio, Wimmer, Rose; Mason, Bentaleb; Dembele, Eriksen, Townsend; N'Jie. Players like Carroll, Pritchard and Onomah don't even make it. That should be enough to get through most group stages in the Europa and early rounds of the League Cup. We've had fairly tough draws in both though, unfortunately. As others have said, it's about balancing the selections and rotating enough to keep everyone up to speed without compromising results. With the way that the Premier League's started this season, that's going to be bloody hard. Every game seems like a struggle for virtually everyone, for some reason. Clubs have spent money and seem to be set up in ways that are very hard to break down. Counter-attacking sides are getting unlikely results and there's been a lot of away wins.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Champions_League#Prize_money https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Europa_League#Prize_money Group or KO stages, prior to the new PL licencing deal, there ain't too many easier ways for a club to pick up easy money.
Sky Sports report Pritchard won't feature, as the ankle injury he picked up playing for the England U21s hasn't healed as quickly as we'd hoped - so thanks a bleedin' bunch, Sweden. Seriously, why do we let them be a country? All they seem to do is cause pain and misery to the rest of the world, be it Abba, Ikea, or PewDiePie.
firstly I wouldn't trade an FA cup win to be flirting relegation every season or in Wigan's case playing in league 1 Champions league isn't Wednesday/Saturday every week, it can be Wednesday/Sunday or Tuesday/Saturday or even Tuesday/Sunday unlike the Europa league which is always Thursday/Sunday or maybe once a season Thursday/Monday if arsenal are the laughing stock of the champions league what the hell does that make us, they've finished above us in the league for the last 20 years, got to the final of the champions league as well as winning the premier league a few times and a couple of FA cups The champions league gives you money which allows you to buy better players on bigger wages which helps your team improve so you're consistently challenging for trophies not just winning one very blue moon
Not the point that they got relegated or flirted with it. Point is they can get to finals but we can't? Because we think we are too good to take these cups seriously. Well whatever combination of days you want to attach to the champions league. It all means the same thing. We moan when we have to play Thursday/Sunday......yet we aspire to play in the CL. Arsenal are the laughing stock....they are just happy to qualify with no real chance of winning it. I was talking about the champions league and how some folk are obsessed with finishing top 4. Give me a trophy anyday..I'm a football fan not a ****ing accountant. We have only qualified for the damn thing once yet we still have a new stadium on the horizon. Arsenal won their FA cup after 8 Barren years or so. I would call that barren and they always qualify for the CL...and they needed CL money to get that stadium. Yes, extra revenue is always welcome...looks like money has got the average football fan, especially the modern fan, over a barrel. Our squad is good enough to win a trophy....it's about what the club takes seriously whilst trying to feed the CL hyperbole at the same time. I hope this country loses its 4th CL spot. Then clubs like ours who always go for the last spot may have to re think their strategy and take the Europa seriously for a start.
It's not about thinking we're too good for these cups it's about prioritising. Arsenal are in the running for all cups as well as the premier league due to the base the18 CL seasons give them, we're a millions miles away from challenging for a premier league title an always will be until we get the money the top 4 gives you. Surely the ultimate goal of any spurs fan is to win the league. As I said before, 11/12 was our chance to move onto the next level an we blew it, I want spurs to be the best in england not winning a cup that half the teams play second string or a second rate European competition.
There are. Finishing in the top 4 - as we've demonstrated repeatedly over the past half decade - is incredibly hard. I reckon Son is worth an extra £2m a year to the club just from Korean interest. Look, even if we were picking up CL money every year, we'd still barely be making a dent in the wage bill discrepancy:
Strongest team to be played in my opinion, we all know that losing to Arsenal in any competition really pisses us off so I don't see why anyone would want to risk playing a rotated side that is likely to be weaker on paper. If it were any other team I'd be all for rotation as some players could really do with minutes but we have to put ourselves in with the best possible chance of winning on Wednesday night. Chadli's poor form over the past couple games would be the only player I'd consider dropping as his exclusion could be of better benefit (purely based on form though, I rate Chadli very highly and expect him to raise his levels soon). Lloris, Walker, Toby, Jan, Davies Dier, Alli Lamela, Eriksen, Son Kane Vorm, Wimmer, Trippier, Rose, Chadli, Carroll, N'Jie
"Look, even if we were picking up CL money every year, we'd still barely be making a dent in the wage bill discrepancy" We are trying to have MORE MONEY TO SPEND on transfer/wage costs. Spurs have come very close to usurping the Goons from the CL several times this decade. And that is on our CURRENT/RECENT transfer/wage bills. So go figure if we had an extra 10-20 million quid per season to spend on players.
Also it wouldn't simply be 30m a year more for us - it would also be 30m a year less for Arsenal, say. Put that way it almost closes the wage gap. Difficult to say who to play tomorrow. I think in a way we have mitigating circumstances to play a couple of our big players - Eriksen needs game time and Kane needs to play his way into some form. Also the lack of Bentaleb and Mason means that Alli and Dier sort of pick themselves. Added to that the fact that playing Fazio against Walcott is not something any of us would want to see and Wimmer is so new to it all means we sort of have to play Verts and Toby again. I think this may be a perfect opportunity to start N'Jie. He's had a couple of decent run-outs now and Chadli's looking a bit pointless so let's see how he does. And it's hard not to pick Son. Sod it, I'll go with Lloris Walker Toby Verts Davies Dier Alli Son Eriksen N'Jie Kane Oh well I guess I just talked myself into thinking it should be basically full strength... (Possibly an argument for starting with Lamela over Eriksen - I think we need to see him play in this seemingly more fluid front three and who knows if having a bit of pace and skill around him might help him up his game. I know, I know. But also if there's one player I don't want to get injured it's Eriksen. He should get some more minutes in the 2nd half at the very least anyway).
I would like us to play our strongest possible sides against Arsenal and Man City, and drastically cut practices this week. The team looked sharp, cutting practices could be seen as an earned reward, in addition to being practical this week for the starters. I understand other teams have had success doing it. Back to rotation next week. I would have rested Dier against Qarabag. What do we have reserves for if we don't rotate? And how would we discover if some of them deserve to start, now or in February?
The one issue with resting Dier is we have no clear cover for him, as the most logical options are... Bentaleb - injured Dembele - injured Alderweireld - can play in central midfield, but is that worth mucking about with the first choice central defensive pairing? Carroll - more of a deep lying playmaker than a defensive midfielder Winks - same as Carroll Veljkovic - ...seriously, did he fall down the back of the sofa or something?
It’s funny our best cover for the two players we don’t really have cover for is the other player we don’t really have cover for. I still think playing Winks was the lesser of two evils. It was unlikely to cost us the Qarabag game, and would have resulted in Dier getting a needed break before a critical stretch. I would have favored playing Fazio in Alderweireld’s place as well, except the chances of that costing us the game were too high.
Can't believe that no one's posted this yet - a reminder of another time we met Arsenal in the League Cup: Strangely for a video like this the music is absolutely top drawer. That Aaron Lennon looks a decent player, doesn't he? Beautiful pass for our third. For a team with a midfield pairing of Jenas and Tainio we weren't that bad back then. I really hope Alli turns into the player that I was always a bit annoyed Jenas never quite became. Though Jenas's goal is pretty damn good in this game - had about 5 Arsenal players around him when he let fly - he really could score some decent goals. And in finding this I came across the highlights of the previous year where they did us 3-1 in the semi and was reminded of the bottomless chasm of **** that was Ricardo Roche. You'll see the point at 5:55 where he decides to make a clearing header from his own area, with Arsenal players in and around the box, on a ball which is not even a foot off the floor. Jesus we have had some bad defenders at this club over the years.
Paul Mersons spurs / arsenal combined XI. Is the guy for real , I bet we have someone in our under 16 women's team better than Monreal, he's useless. please log in to view this image
Is this a joke? Monreal was one of our better players last season. This season, granted, he's not been as good, but it is still early days. I'm surprised Ozil and Ramsey are in there, if I'm being honest. As good as Ramsey was in the 2013-14 season, he hasn't hit those heights since. And well, the Arsenal board know my views on Ozil, so I don't think I need to go into that.
If that is the mindset at Arsenal re the relative merit of the two teams then good! We might have a little surprise for them.
Someone really needs to tell Gerry to sort out that hairdo. He looks like a creepy uncle on the prowl at a wedding reception.
