Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino , speaking to BT Sport:"We are out and we have time to assess and analyse. It is true we feel disappointed but today we missed opportunities. "I think we made too many mistakes at home at Wembley. We don't deserve to go through to the next round because we didn't show enough quality. "We will take many things from this defeat, you learn and improve every day. Now we are trying to reduce the gap on the teams above us in the Premier League." Towel was clearly thrown IMHO. He has clearly stated his priorities this season.
Right that settles it then. Everyone round to @Spurlock 's for the official Tottenham Hotspur Champions League funeral service and wake.
Tonight is the 9 year anniversary of 'The Wally with the Brolly' at Wembley. It is also 9 years since I smoked a joint. I was soooo off my tits that night. Me and my mate, who is an undertaker and a heavy marijuana smoker [known as 'The Grim Reefer' by his mates] watched the game at his place. We were laughing so much his wife called out: "Sounds like things are going well, what's the score?" She wasn't expecting England to be losing 2-0. The worse we played, the funnier it got. There was one moment of clarity after we pissed ourselves laughing at going behind 3-2. He said to me: "That's ****ing hilarious. We won't be laughing this summer though, will we?" I nearly choked from laughing so hard. Happy days. Skin up someone.
I love that feeling! You know that you're making a complete tit out of yourself, but that's funny too!..
I fell off a chair and partially dislocated my shoulder laughing at an answer to a stupid game [Brainbenders] we used to play when stoned. I'd spent about 30 minutes trying to work out the answer to: "What can you sit on, sleep in and brush your teeth with?" I swear I nearly died when he told me the answer and rolled off the chair from laughing so hard.
Was this game a throwback? I'm sure it reminded me of a EL game starring our reserves with the same success.
Serioulsy?? Poch's moment was when he had THAT rendezvous with Alex last year, dreaming about OT job. Poch can still come good and take you to top 6; just manage your expectations like we have done. Multi title winning Manager + Title winning squad = we expect top 4. Nothing winning Manager + Nothing winning squad = you shouldn't expect top 4.
"It is good for us to learn from this for the future if we are going to be in the Champions League next season and try to compete in that and the Premier League, maybe we need to make changes. "It was a good challenge for us to show the real level. It's true after two-and-a-half years we closed the gap between the top clubs. But to be competitive in the Champions League and Premier League we need to show more - and maybe to add real quality. "I think it's better to be in the Europa League, it would be good for the club. We are in a process and a period where we need to improve. "To play Saturday then Tuesday-Wednesday is like you play the Premier League continuously. We struggled to be ready to compete in every game. "Maybe we feel bad now, disappointed, but tomorrow is another day. We need to be optimistic in the club. We need to compete. Saturday will be a very big game, and go to Chelsea and try to win the game." I'm a fan of our manager. We've come a long way in two and a bit years and I haven't seen enough problems to start to doubt that he is the best thing to happen to us in some time. However, there are a couple of comments in that which are an issue for me. "I think it's better to be in the Europa League" - Now, that just isn't so. We've been in it for years and there's no sign of it improving anything. Our away performances in Europe remain a recurring car crash best watched from behind the sofa. We'll use resources to no good purpose and will ditch the competition as soon as we come up against a congestion of fixtures in March. "to be competitive in the Champions League and Premier League we need to show more - and maybe to add real quality." - I agree that we need to show more. We've been very flat this season. The high press is a distant memory apart from the City game and apart from that game there have been significant periods in most games where we have looked distinctly second best; where only Hugo, some decent defending and a fair slice of luck has kept us from conceding more goals. The issue of adding to what we have is a recurring theme for our boss. Is there tension about who we brought in during the summer? Janssen's struggling but he does get on the pitch. MP doesn't use N'Koudou at all, despite Eriksen and others being very disappointing this season. Sissoko has been anonymous at the very best and last night should have been made for him. As against West Ham, MP chose Harry Winks. The only purchase that has 'stacked up' is Wanyama but we spent a decent amount of money given our commitments elsewhere. I can't imagine that we will spend as much again this summer without selling the outsiders of the group, at which point our situation will hardly have improved in terms of resilience.
Been reading through comments and while I'm as pissed off as the next fan at crashing out in poor fashion, those even contemplating the idea of replacing Poch or looking past him is an absolute joke. We go through the first rough patch of his managerial career with us and suddenly he's not good enough for your standards? Do me a favour. We wouldn't have even made the CL if it wasn't for him and we'd probably still be stuck with planks of wood like Paulinho, Soldado and Holtby. Poch has built arguably the best Spurs side we've seen in the Prem era and many of those players are still years away from their footballing best, a Spurs side that for the most part has given everything for this club and fans. The sheer fact we've crashed out of Europe's elite competition - a competition we've reached for only the second time - is something that some feel is worthy enough to contemplate his position is just beyond madness. The game itself, just like the whole CL campaign was poor, yet again let down by a number of players and the clinical factor again arose, had Son finished his early chance the game could've panned out a lot differently, while there were other chances that could've been hit better. Wimmer and Dier were horrendous at the back, no communication and far too much space between the two, with Chelsea just days away they really need to work on their understanding with one another. Rose and Tripps didn't help things either, both had poor games. Winks and Dembele didn't impact the game. Alli made a great pass for Son and did in fairness win the penalty but he gave away too many flicked/ fancy passes when keeping it simple would've been more productive. The subs made no impact, though with a shocking Eriksen, a poor Sissoko and a striker who's forgot where the goal is, there's not much we could've hoped for. I hope to see GKN given chances soon because far too many aren't deserving of the game time they're getting. The one bright spark was Hugo, yet again reaffirming his status as one of the very best keepers in world football, up there with Neuer and Buffon. A real ****ter of a return back to Europe's elite, the mass of injuries never helped but we still had strong enough squads to get something out of this group. Players really let us down. I just hope that Poch plays a B team against CSKA, give Harrison, CCV, KWP, Walkes, Onomah, Edwards (if fit) and others a chance, most of the first team hasn't earned the right to feature in the tournament for the final game and the youngsters would relish the chance to play at Wembley while gaining valuable minutes. Need to move on now and focus on Chelsea.
The Grim Reefer!!! That's superb. I wouldn't give myself a nickname to insist I'm a massive joint smoker like your mate Grim but I am partial to a few joints every month or so. When me and a few lads got the coach to Southampton a few years back, we smoked a bud labelled Amnesia, I've had it before but this stuff must have been laced with double the concentration. Managed to get into St Mary's then my knees started wobbling, felt like Bambi on ice and couldn't stop laughing. Was standing with my Cousin, told him I was going to the toilet and then we'd make our way to our seats, he said "OK, see you in a bit", came back, stood in front of him for a few minutes and finished my beer, told him we should go and the response I got was "Oh cuz, didn't realise you were back from the toilet" - Amnesia was a perfect name for it! Amazingly managed to recover just as the game started, happy I did because it was a good win, Bale (with a great header) and Dempsey scoring in a 2-1 win. Also had one in Dam, said it was meant to be a mild one on the info section (only arrived that morning) so thought I'd just sort of mellow myself out a bit in the evening before heading to a few bars, it was labelled White Widow (should've been put off by the name!), after about 5 minutes it smacked me, I ended up walking around Dam thinking I was Caspar the ****ing ghost, kept on saying to my mates "lads look I'm floating" while asking strangers if they could see me... Bad times... But fun times lol.
To clarify my comments as I know I've managed to piss off a fair few of my fellow posters (makes a change ): I'm absolutely not saying we should be looking past Poch right now just because we crashed out of Europe. He should be given until at least the end of the season to show what he can do in the league. He stated last night in no uncertain terms that his priority is the PL. Right then, go ahead and prove it. But if we fail to finish in the top 4, would people be comfortable in entrusting our long term future in a new stadium to the man? Maybe I am being too harsh but I get so worried by the 1 step forward 2 steps back pattern we've seen since more or less BMJ's era. We just can't seem to find a manager who can oversee a sustained period of growth. Maybe finances make that unrealistic, maybe Levy is too much like me, maybe Poch WILL turn out to be that man. I know I attracted a lot of flack last season for my 'Have we underperformed' thread, but there were two massive and recurring problems last year: 1) Poor squad management (illogical rotation or lack thereof, bizarre selections, gambling line-ups in important games, throwing the towel in on cup competitions) 2) Poor mentality (first four games of the season,Chelsea and the last two games of the season) Both of these problems show no signs of getting better. If anything, they've got noticeably worse this season. I said at the time and you can hate me with pleasure for saying it again, but there was so little we could concretely learn from last season. Chelsea and United collapsed, Liverpool were in transition, and City stupidly decided to announce in January that they were getting a new manager. This year, **** has very much got real again. This year is when we truly learn the quality of our manager and his squad. And so far, the signs are worrying. I'm reserving judgement until the last game of the season but if we fail to make top 4 having crashed out of 2 competitions then yes, I will be looking beyond Poch.
