Indeed. In fairness those moments have been few in number (apart from the general chasing of the gap and playing after Leicester for nigh on a month) . But today the PL was over and the chance to put the Chelsky game aside was there (which is what makes today far more disappointing for me) .
Bollocks. You have had a great season. Much better position to be in than Manure, City , Arse or Chelsea. Get real!
How quickly the mood changes, eh? It's almost like people are waiting for things to go wrong, and IMHO they didn't go that wrong. Saints scored with their only two shots on target, and I think that's unlucky. I don't believe much in stats but over a lot of games I think the team that has a lot of shots on target and concedes few shots on target is going to do well. Yeah I know it's more complex than that, but it isn't half as bad as people are saying and even if the unthinkable happens and we finish third, IT'S STILL BEEN A GREAT SEASON.
We gave Leicester the championship with that late goal at the Lane.....and then some really soppy results later. But,then,if we had gone out as Leicester do determined to keep 'em out while praying for a winning goal,it would n't have gone down well with the Spurs fans.But on reflection.........
I don't think that anyone would have minded if we had played out the last 3 or 4 games as strongly as Leicester... We have shown a mental and physical frailty that will need seriously addressing over the next 3 months in order for this side to develop as it promises to. For all the great stuff we have played - and it has been amazing at times - we have done it on a threadbare, young squad with little cover. we knew all along that we needed serious cover for Kane and we haven't rotated the players much in the last 6-8 weeks. It has been a great season but there are some worrying signs which need some attention.
So we now know our fate. They have to win and if they do we need a draw (unless they win by a rather large margin).
Couldn't care less about the Goons personally. Today gives us an automatic entry into the CL group stages. That'll do me.
Totally agree. That drags us down with Wenger. I don't want Mauricio Pochettino mentioning them in any press conferences where we're not playing them. Even then, "Of course, we want to win all 3 points" is enough. We've got CL qualification which is a lot more than any of us expected. Let's go and do for the Geordies and get our pennies ready for the summer. Joe, Daniel remember - Mauricio wants to spend big!! Okay?
We were in the title race a couple of weeks ago. Now hanging on for 2nd. Arsenal are guaranteed 3 points next week so we must get something at Newcastle. Never thought I'd be sayin that after the stoke game. SPURS
I very rarely disagree with you Brian, but this time I must make an exception. The line 'more than we expected' cannot be used as some sort of shield against criticism from roughly March onwards when it is abundantly clear who is capable of doing what. Harry used it regularly during our end of season collapse that saw us go from title contenders to 4th and it rubbed me up the wrong way to such an extent that I wanted him gone by the end of the season. It just smacks of the Arsenal way of thinking...'well, no one expects us to win the damn thing, what with the spending power of City, Chelsea and United, so we'll settle for 4th and if we get 3rd that's a massive bonus'. The notion of a team 'punching above its weight' is simply farcical at a level as high as the PL, with all the money, experience and facilities almost every team commands. Yes, there is no question that Leicester achieved something that was completely unexpected at the beginning of the season, but by February, when it became clear that Ranieri had created just the right formula with the right blend of players...why is it 'unexpected' anymore? From then on, for them to have finished out of the top 4 would've been a relative failure as far as I'm concerned. Once it was clear that United, City, Chelsea and...well pretty much everyone wasn't up to scratch this year...surely Leicester's success starts to become expected? To say that they are punching above their weight now is a insult to a team who may well end up strolling the league by a dozen points. We are no different. By Feb/March time it became clear that what we 'expected' at the beginning of the season was simply irrelevant in the face of the reality that had developed in front of us. None of us expected Dier to be moved to DM and excel there. None of us expected Kane to surpass his tally last season. None of us expected Lamela, Dembele, Rose or Walker to be as good as they have been. None of us expected Alli or Wimmer to settle as quickly as they did. The list is pretty much endless; and when you add to it the crux of the matter...no-one expected the Big 3 to be quite as ****e as theu have been, you end up with a pattern emerging as early as Jan/Feb time that must cause a re-assessment of targets. That hasn't happened at Arsenal, hence the meltdown amongst their fans. Wenger has blithely continued as if the teams above his are United and Chelsea instead of little old us and Leicester...thus the fans are quite rightly demanding to know why they didn't walk away with the title this year. I don't mean this as a rant at you Brian; most of this is me venting sheer frustration at the way this season has petered out into such bitter disappointment. Yes, the football has been drastically improved, yes the players seem to truly play for the badge on their shirt and the manager in the dugout. But look at our team on paper, compare it to the rest of the country, and explain how on earth we only have 70 points to our name? I've a terrible feeling we won't break our points record this season, which means that a team inferior in every department with the exception of Bale managed a higher points tally in a much tougher league with the big guns all firing on all cylinders...and I sit quite numbly wondering; why? There is no question that these young players will have learned a heck of a lot from this season. There is no question that they will be back bigger and better next year. But there is also no question that we have underperformed this year. We limped out of both domestic cups with barely a whimper, we threw the towel in on the EL in order to sacrifice it for a title campaign that in all honesty we never actually had under control. I hate to set a new standard of negativity here but sometimes I worry - where would we be if the usual behemoths hadn't underperformed? 70 points really isn't a haul that traditionally gets you 2nd - it's a points haul that sees you scrapping for 5th or 4th. Is our 'success' merely a by-product of the usual suspects being so unexpectedly crap all year? Is this all an illusion? Welcome to my world of Spurs paranoia
"But look at our team on paper, compare it to the rest of the country, and explain how on earth we only have 70 points to our name? I've a terrible feeling we won't break our points record this season, which means that a team inferior in every department with the exception of Bale managed a higher points tally in a much tougher league with the big guns all firing on all cylinders...and I sit quite numbly wondering; why?" That will be a sad indictment indeed. There are still tangible markers that can be set by the boys now that CL qualification is done and dusted : - 73 pts - GF in the 70s - GD in the 40s - Kane as PL top scorer Plenty there to motivate a team that is neither on holiday now or feeling sorry for itself.
I understand. I am 53 and have been going to Spurs for 47 years. My first game was Stevie P's debut. I re-read Jimmy Greaves' autobiography a few months ago and there's a bit by Peter Cook about that match and how bloody awful it was. Not for me, I was smitten. To steal a bit of Dickens, this season has been the best of times and the worst of times. When we won at Citeh, I genuinely believed and did so up to the West Brom draw. I had hopes in 2011/,up until Citeh away. There've been three other times I've thought we might - in 1982, '85 and '87. I can't remember what I felt in those years but I know that in advance of 2011/12, I envisaged a really good season with the team that we had assembled. When we lost at Citeh, I had no particular hopes for the following season. Modric was obviously leaving. Ledley's fight was run. Scott Parker was always a short-term solution. Bale's departure was a matter of time. When that opportunity went by, I thought that I might not see another one. Certainly, I didn't envisage this year would be a better opportunity than all of the others. Gutted? You couldn't be more disappointed than me, it's not possible. However, unlike before, this team is just starting to learn what top level professional football is about. Kane, Alli, Dier, Wimmer, Onomah, Son, Clinton are all going to get better and better. Mauricio Pochettino has worked his spell on Mousa, Christian, Lamela, Walker, Rose. They know what's required and I'm hopeful that next sesason they'll be at it from the beginning of the season. Nobody's over the hill and nobody wants to leave. For once, we get more than a single go at it. I put my faith in Mauricio Pochettino to get more out of himself, the squad, the management and us, the fans. Sick as a parrot? Yes, but we go again with a better chance and increased hope next time round. COYS!
Get a grip everyone! The reason we don't win every game is that we are not good enough to do that and no team is. We are good enough to win enough and draw enough to come 2nd or 3rd in the PL. This isn't because every other team has got worse, its because we have got better. We will get better still next year but I doubt we will run away with the title: other teams get better too. You do too much analysis about the details of every match: there is too much randomness in football to make that worth doing. As Vimhawk said, they scored from their only two shots on target, and one of those was a goalkeeping error. Play the match again and we'd likely win 2-0.
You lads need a captain to play alongside either Dier or Dembele. I think that that has been the difference.
Yes, you are setting new standards of negativity! The extension to your argument is that by February next year, should the Sky favourites be back to their horrible best and perhaps other teams have emerged that are in form for that season, if we are not then we should realise that we can't get anywhere and settle for that season's "correct order". You make a lot of reasoned arguments but I can't accept that we have "underperformed" particularly with the way some of the results have gone against us. Leicester are good, but did they deserve their 0-1 win at our place? And that's just one result of many that could easily have gone our way. I think the only time we've really been outplayed in the league all season is away at West Ham, and that's major progress.
