Here is my call on the Good, bad and ugly. Interesting to hear your take. Lloris, Looks very good for the future . Bin him or keep him = keep 8/10 Walker Poor season. 4/10 Keep him Verts A very good season 8/10 Keep him Dawson 7/10 pretty solid over the season. Keep him Benny 5/10 Poor to average, by his standards ? Naughton 4/10 nothing to right home about, nothing to offer going forward ? Dempsey 3/10 Cheap Levy bullsup buy bin him Thudd 5/10 a big lump and amazingly our only creative midfielder. A poor man's version but one good pass against City to open them up . bin him Lennon 6/10 Hit and miss as always. The Way forward ? ? Parker 5/10 Huff and Puff bin him Ade 1/10 Pants for 95 % of the season bin him Dembele 4 or 5/10 Never dominated games, and went missing, shows talent occasionally, but no Modric. Keep him Siggy 4/10 not a top 4 player bin him Defoe 5/10 average technic and occasional brilliance. Time to move on. Bin him. Holtby 4/10 Levy,s wonder buy to push on for top 4. Showed little but may come good. Keep him. Sandro 7/10 Good start Keep him Bale 10/10 Worth more than the whole first 11 to put together, say's everything. Please keep him. AVB 8/10 Great results playing some drab football. Did well since his hands were tied by the board. keep him Levy 2/10 Played the same old game, didn't deliver as last year. bin him
For 8 million and the importance of some of his goals the 3 out of 10 for Dempsey is harsh I'd say, Sidney. I think he has done quite well I'd have him down as a 6
Dempsey - cost £5m I think and has chipped in with some very important goals - good squad player imo Siggy - got better as the season wore on and again chipped in with good goals and performances Lennon - has been very good - I have no idea how he could be considered 6 out of 10 and to be possibly got rid of Defoe - good squad player if he is prepared to be on the bench only sell if he wants to be first choice week in week out --- up until Dec it was defoe and lennon who'd been our best players going forwards in my opinion Levy - 2 get rid of? ...let me guess we should of gone and spent £20-30m on a top player...and **** whether we can afford it! I know it's disappointing to miss out on CL but the truth is that we have just finished a season with 72 points... our highest in the premier league era...any other season we'd have been 4th at least. Levy bought in AVB and next to none of us thought that was a good idea. Levy and the board have turned us from a lower mid table mess of a club to a top 5 club... 2 out of 10 is a serious knee jerk reaction mate don't mean any of this hostilely mate just disagree on these points
Agreed. The catalog of Levy's poor decisions over the past ten years just gets bigger and bigger. I do wonder if it's time for new leadership at the helm of the club. Levy has ran out of excuses with the hiring and firing of managers. Suddenly I feel this season's missed opportunity (yet again) falls firmly on his shoulders. And about time too!
Lloris - 8.5 One of the worlds best keepers and has shown it at times, speed of his line is brilliant. Needs to improve his kicking though. Definitely keep. Friedel - 6.5 Keep but would like to rotate him in cups with Archer as I truly believe Archer can become back up to Hugo in the near future. Walker - 3 Keep but MUST improve otherwise ship him out in Jan. Naughton - 6 Played out of position for 90% of the season so would find it harsh to give him a poor grade, hasn't been awful but hasn't been great. Sell, for his best interests as he'll never be first choice here and we have Smith and Rose returning to add competition on either side of full back. Ekotto - 5 Well below normal standards but is still a very good left back. Keep, providing he regains previous season's form (which I think he will) Dawson - 7 Great that he stayed, had a few iffy gams but was solid. Keep. Caulker - 7 Showed the promise and potential that we all know he has, lacks a bit of concentration at times but that'll come with experience. Definitely keep. Vertonghen - 9 It's amazing to think this was his debut season in English football, looks like a seasoned vet. Class act, definitely keep. Gallas - 5.5 Had amazing and woeful games, never consistent. Been a great signing overall though, take my hat off to him for having the balls to join us. Release or give him a coaching role (if he retired from playing). Kaboul - N/A Definitely keep, still our best CB in my opinion. Sandro - 8 until injury Most interceptions throughout Europe prior to injury, struck a great partnership with Mousa. Definitely keep. Parker - 5 Really seemed to have lost his legs, got stronger nearer the tail end of season but overall not good enough, especially considering how good he was last season. Just about keep. Livermore - 5 Hasn't had many chances but hasn't looked great when given the chance. Really could've done with a loan in Jan. Loan out to a Prem team next season. Hudd - 4 Showed glimpses when he got back into the side of what he can do but majority of the time been nowhere the player of 2 seasons ago. Sell, we have Carroll coming through who has similar attributes but a little more pace and agility. Dembele - 7 Started the season off making me believe Modric wouldn't be such a big loss. Fizzed out a bit and made me realise replacing Modric is nigh on impossible but has still had a strong season, a shame Sandro got injured as I feel Mousa worked really well with him and got the best out of one another. Definitely keep. Holtby - 4.5 Shows great desire, determination and passion but.... Has offered **** all. Would sell if a suitable offer came in. Sigurdsson - 6 Came to life in the second half of season but still nowhere near the player we saw at Swansea. Keep as he's still young. Dempsey - 7 While I think performance wise he's been ****, he's still managed to get some important goals and assists which has been NEARLY worth the money spent. Happy to keep as he's a great player to have from the bench but if he a suitable offer comes in I wouldn't be too fussed if he was sold, the money can be used on a better player. Lennon - 7.5 Had a great first half to the season where he was having to play as a winger and fullback due to Walker being dire, niggling injuries hampered his form but still a decent season. Keep. Bale - 100 Wow. ****ing wow. Does he know how to score an ordinary goal? Has become the 3rd best player in the world and arguably the best performing player in the world of 2013. An absolute joy to watch, won us about 20+ points this season on his own. Unsellable. Give him as much money as he wants Levy and then double it! Defoe - 7 Pretty much carried us in the first half of the season but then his goals dried up. Keep but hope he's not first choice next season. Adebayor - 1.5 When we signed him for £5m I thought bargain of the season. **** was I wrong. Awful season, showed no passion, was a non-entity for most of his performances. Was going to give him a rating of 1 but his Chelsea performance alone was worthy of a .5 and he did manage the winner vs Stoke, albeit a tap in. Sell providing someone can afford his wages. Loanee returns: Townsend - 9 QPR's best player once he joined. Deserves a place in our squad and possibly even first team. A trio of Townsend, Bale and Lennon would be interesting. Definitely keep. Rose - 8 Very good season in a poor Sunderland side. Overall I don't think he's better than Ekotto and he's has made it clear he wants first team football and prefers it up north. Sell IF Sunderland or another club offer around £7m. Smith - 7 Solid season with Millwall, would like to see him challenge Walker now. Keep. Archer - 7 Didn't see any of his games but read a lot on Twitter from Wycombe fans and they said how he was too good to be in that league and has a great future. Keep and let him challenge Brad for no 2 spot. Likes of Kane, Pritchard, Coulibaly etc need a loan to either top Championship or Prem teams.
Oh forgot AVB and Levy. AVB - 7.5 Never wanted him but has slowly managed to persuade me he could be a decent manager. Still makes bad decisions (including today by leaving Huddlestone on!) but has managed to get us to a record 72 points which is far more than expected him to do when he joined. Definitely keep. Levy - 7 Yes he didn't get a striker but we did still spend over £60m this season, I see so many tweets (and comments) of "Levy never backed AVB" which I think is crazy. Still think he's the best chairman in the league. Definitely keep.
Lloris: 8 - assured in goal, some great saves, and kept the back line orginised Friedel: 6 - good shot stopper but the rest of his game lacking, shown up by Lloris Walker: 5 - taken a couple of steps back after last year, often caught out defensively Dawson: 6.5 - showed leadership and battling qualities that helped us more often than not, but his hoofing doesn't fit in with the team Vertonghen: 9 - assured at the back, comfortable taking the ball forward, an eye for goal - the new Ledders? Assou-Ekotto: 6 - at times criminally underrated, others his judgment and timing were calamitous - not as consistent as the last few seasons Caulker: 7 - showed a lot of promise and showed battling qualities we often needed Kaboul: 6 - only played against Newcastle, but the fact is we missed him all season Gallas: 3 - played one season too many and it was sad to watch at times - not the experienced centre back we needed in the early season, merely an old one Naughton: 4 - showed poor judgment in several games and, like Walker, only glimpses of the player from the previous season (at Norwich) Bale: 10 - as the rest of the team's legs started to tire he knocked it up a gear, pulling the team towards the finish line Lennon: 8.5 - very good for the early part of the season where he was a constant threat going forward, but went off the boil after his injury Sandro: 9 - tireless in breaking up attacks to get us back on the attack, a great partnership with Dembele, his injury cost us Dembele: 8 - dynamic going forward for much of the season, but fitness issues and a less dynamic partnership with Parker saw him lose his way Dempsey: 6.5 - no denying he scored some important goals, but frequently anonymous otherwise Parker: 5 - not the player he was last season, battled for everything but couldn't do much with it (unlike Sandro, who could) Sigurdsson: 6.5 - a slow start but scored some crucial goals late in the season Holtby: 6.5 - often deployed wherever we needed someone to play, but showed battling qualities and a good passing ability - Parker replacement? Huddlestone: 4 - seriously poor form after returning from injury, his passing is still superb but seems even less mobile than before Livermore: 4 - best known for coming onto the pitch before we scored than for anything he did on it Van Der Vaart: 5 - did little in our first two games before he was sold, but should've been replaced Carroll: 6.5 - showed a lot of promise when he played, but didn't play enough Townsend: 7.5 - seemed to get brief cameos for us, hit form for QPR just as Lennon got injured Falque: 5 - brief cameos for us in the early season, then loaned to Almeira Mason: 4 - brief cameos for us in the early season, before his idiotic loan to Lorient Defoe: 6.5 - blistering form in the early season, but tailed off after Christmas Adebayor: 4 - first half of the season injured, unfit or on ACoN duty, apatehtic and ineffectual until the last few weeks Villas-Boas: 8 - the team have learned to grind out results and are behind him, some memorable wins - although team selection is occasionally suspect Levy: 6 - on the one hand he held his ground on Modric, brought in Vertonghen and saw he needed to be quick to snatch Dembele from Man Utd's grasping hands, on the other he bungled Moutinho and should've provided funds for another striker in January when it was clear Adebayor wasn't delivering the goods
That's handy I now don't need to write anything here myself - I'd agree with pretty much all of that. Maybe bit harsh on Hudd but to be fair ever since I started praising him on here he's been a bit crap. And Holtby - feel a bit like we're not sure what to do with him yet and he's not yet found his place. Bear in mind that Sandro's not due back til October. Might Holtby find himself a place in the CM? I think he's leapfrogged Livermore (mostly due to Livermore's performances, TBH) and Parker's fading. On the Ade thing: I did not notice this at the time but watch what he does at 1:23 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHhs7BIB85M ...or rather doesn't do. Players acting like that can piss off.
Lloris - amazing first season. Does frighten me with the ball at his feet though. 9/10 - Keep Walker - poor season, but we know what he's capable of 5/10 - Keep Verts - A very good season 9/10 - Keep Dawson - a great leader and a good season. although i do wonder if he's got the ability to be a first 11 player as we look to push on. might ave to become more of a squad player, IMO. - 7.5/10 Benny - same as walker - 5/10 - Keep Naughton - been out of position, so it's unfair to be to harsh. However, lacks the ability of a top 4 chasing club. - 5/10 Dempsey - absolutely dreadful for most of the season. "scoring some important goals" is not enough. there's only 11 men on a pitch for 90 mins and you need everyone chipping in and adding value to the game. Dempsey was dreadful for most games until about 5-6 weeks ago. 5/10 - Keep (strictly squad player only as an impact sub) Thudd - hardly seen anything of him all season. Been ok when he has played 6/10 bin Lennon - tough one. Aaron lennon has probably had one of his best seasons for us and has bailed walker out on several occasions. However, I'm wondering if we need someone else who is more suited to AVB's style. I think lennon's position needs more goals and assists now, which he's never offered us. still, a good season - 7/10 keep Parker - age taking its toll. not been bad, but terrible compared to last season - 6/10 bin Ade - waste of money 3/10 - bin Dembele carried us in terms of a central creative spark this season. done a 2 man job after we saw modric and VDV left. good job considering. 7/10 keep Siggy - terrible as dempsey until 2 months or so ago, but didn't get as much game time. Proved that with a chance he could do a job. I applaud his determination. 6/10 keep - squad player Defoe - does exactly what he does every season. scores a reasonable amount, scores some beauties but goes missing for spells. same old JD. 5.5/10 Holtby - haven't seen enough yet 6/10 Keep Sandro - quality, and was badly missed. - 8/10 keep Bale - 4 awards speak for themselves. we have to keep him, or it's the end of our top 4 assault of the last few years. 10/10 AVB - brilliant first season when it could have gone so badly. Record number of points, we didn't bottle it like usual and he's installed a winning mentality. - All with his hands tied by the chairman. Substitutions and tactics a little wrong at times. But he's only got what he's got at his disposal. - and that was messy because of how levy left him. 9/10 KEEP Levy 5/10 for all the good Levy has done in terms of the training facilities and the new ground, it's amazing how he gets so much wrong. I've moaned in the past about some fairly obvious ****, but the striker situation and the flogging of 2 of our world class players last summer that weren't replaced, was a joke. Totally inexcusable. His antics in the window/s are the reason we continue to miss out. Our transfers get no preseason with their new team mates and as we're not ready when the season starts, we drop so many valuable points. He wants a top 4 finish but spends no money, yet others around us spend tonnes. It's too hard to get top 4 on a shoestring Daniel! when are you going to learn that selling your best players is something you can't do if you want to be a top 4 club!
Playing devils advocate for a minute has AVB done well or has he been incredibly lucky to have Gareth Bale playing out of his skin? The number of points he has won on his own has meant we are battling for fourth not mid table. That's not me being negative its a fact. I suppose he did give him the free role so credit where it's due.
With the exception of Ade all those ratings are a bit harsh. We had our best season in the Premier League this season in terms of points total and our players contributed to that.
Pretty accurate by most so far, my bits to add are... Lloris, beaten too often at his near post. Friedel, time to go, our cup performances look edgy at the back. Fullbacks - quite frankly a mess, to play for as long as we did with a wrong footed one is ridiculous, not one goal from any of them. CB's - Again, mainly a mess for me, too many combo's due to YK's injury. The keepers have done well to keep up with them all! Midfield - Biggest problem for me, no Sandro, Parker is no good to us whatsoever now. Any addidtions in this area MUST be a goalscorer, we have far too many that don't. Forwards - Poor. Defoe as far as I can recall, is yet to go through a season without some sort of injury that he never returns properly from. Scores goals, his return on paper is good, but it could be so much better. He won't want to be on any bench next season imo, the World Cup is at the end of it, and for him in particular, it'll be his last. This area that has been ignored has cost us, just as i said it would at the beginning of the season, even if we'd bought a **** striker who only managed 5 goals (...oh wait, we did!) one of those goals would have changed one result over this season...and thats all that was needed! I'm still not convinced by management either, so although this season has mitigating circumstances some have argued, there'll be no more acceptance of 'hands tied' excuses from hereon. The ins and outs this summer will be ALL his doing, so I shall be watching that closely.
We've won despite playing badly - a trait that Man Utd regularly get praised for - but that's it, we've played badly, and too often in recent weeks. Some of that can be placed on missing Sandro, some of it on players being anonymous in matches, and some on players having poor seasons, but whilst the winning mentality is something we haven't seen in a long, long time we've had to rely on it too much in the latter part of the season, rather than having to draw on it maybe once a month whilst playing the rest of our opponents off the pitch.
My own opinion, and it ain't good: Lloris: 7 - good keeper, still finding his feet, should be immense next season Friedel: 3 - his ineptitude and inability to keep clean sheets before Lloris took over cost us greatly this season Walker: 5 - needs to sharpen up defensively, can no longer use his speed to get himself out of trouble all the time as attackers have cottoned on to this, still a good option going forward Dawson: 7 - heart on the sleeve leadership, but not congruent with our high line play and may be a casualty in the summer Vertonghen: 9 - top class Assou-Ekotto: 5 - infuriating and exhilarating in equal measure, but another that looks outward-bound Caulker: 6 - still a young un, and looks to have the abilities needed, but will he stick around for a season on the bench? Kaboul: 2 - One game, we lost, if he's the player of 2011-12 when he comes back he's a regular starter and possible captain, if his standards aren't there with injury afflictions may be time to ship him out Gallas: 2 - Au revoir Naughton: 5 - has been used mostly out of position, will benefit from cup games next season in his preferred role Bale: 9 - superlatives cannot describe the second half of the season he had, but still issues over 'diving' and pass/shot selection. Lennon: 7 - crossing/dribbling improved, awareness improved, and remains a threat because of his speed but more finesse and more goals from him are needed Sandro: 5 - up to his injury, phenomenal... will he return as the beast he is? Dembele: 6 - needs to get to grips with the role he is required to do and get himself fitter Dempsey: 4 - the goals he scored in important matches papered over the cracks in his all round game, he just isn't what was needed, is needed or ever will be needed in a Spurs shirt Parker: 5 - age has caught up with him, needs to step down a level to be in his element now Sigurdsson: 5 - lack of game time, but coming into his own off the bench - may not be enough to retain him though Holtby: 5 - hustle, bustle, ability, but sometimes headless chicken, may be an integral part of squad next season but when he starts we're in trouble Huddlestone: 5 - one good game in five nowadays, another like Parker who could do with stepping down a level to better fit Livermore: 3 - for all his passion and commitment to Spurs, just can't see him ever playing for us again Van Der Vaart: 3 - Rafa how we missed thee Carroll: 5 - has more likelihood of coming good, may benefit from half a season with another PL club Townsend: 5 - for Spurs, sold but not spectacular, if he can reproduce some of the QPR form for us next season he'll be a key squad player Falque: 1 - cannot remember him in any games, which does not augur well Mason: 1 - cannot remember him in any games, which does not augur well Defoe: 6 - ups n downs, peaks n troughs, cracking form then barren, but JD is still a good option off the bench Adebayor: 4 - see Assou-Ekotto, but as goals are his stock in trade, his return this season reduces him by a point Villas-Boas: 7.5 - for a first season, a very unexpected surprise. Levy: 4 - doesn't appear to give a toss about the team, as long as his wages get paid annnnnd that is all
We would've welcomed Dempsey with open arms as recently as the Hoddle/Pleat era, now we see him as an impact sub at best - doubtless PISKIE will call this "deluded", but realistically it shows we've made a lot of forward progression in recent years.
Spot on. Levy has held you back. If he had half backed AVB, you'd have probably finished 3rd irrespective of Chelsea and Arsenal's bank balance.
we'll see, won't we? - That is, if Levy actually lets him have who he wants (within reason). If we end up with what look like budget-y levy signings again... it's no good at all. I'm watching closely for that too.
I don't buy the Levy purse strings excuse Roo, its the same for ANY manager at Spurs, he will have had that outlined in his interview for the job and still took it, so no hiding behind that for me. Its the same for any club outside the top4, a manager goes in knowing top players fee's n wages are out of reach, anyone would think our financial constraints are something new.
