2020-21 season thread

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The Changing Man said:
With the new countries seemingly being added daily to the list of places that you have to be quarantined after visiting, and with UEFA ruling that you forfeit the match if you can’t travel due government restrictions do we need a contingency plan to stop this from happening?

I have a plan which is loosely based on our ill-fated inter-toto cup campaign where we recruited a number of loans who had never played together and tried to make them into a team.

We take a squad of 18 players into Europe and leave them there for September playing in whatever country they need to play and being based somewhere where restrictions are minimal .

The 18 would be 9 youth, and a mixture of players we won’t use in Prem/carabao cup Rose, Foyth, and then a couple of the many free agents currently without a club who could be offered a months contract and a couple of fairly recently retired legends also offered a 1 month contract – Crouch and Van Der Vaart come immediately to mind.

Sounds like a plan to me! (but halfway through my 2nd night shift I may not be completely with it!) I have just realised that if we get 3 home draws we will giving 18 people (more with ancilliary staff) a months paid holiday in central Europe and we will need a coach (wonder if Harry would be up for it!).

Hopefully the more astute of you will have realised by now that I am just bored and that I know that this wouldn't work, but I do think that Rafa and Crouchie would be up for it
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So...your plan for those we can't sell is to...exile them ?

<laugh>
 
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As much as our need to win a trophy

i dont want it to be the league cup or also to an extent I don’t want it to be the FA Cup but I wouldn’t sniff at it..defo not the League cup

I want one of the big ones.

Feel as though it’s almost a tad embarrassing to break our trophy drought with what I would regard as the weakest tournament we enter
 
Spurlock said:
As much as our need to win a trophy

i dont want it to be the league cup or also to an extent I don’t want it to be the FA Cup but I wouldn’t sniff at it..defo not the League cup

I want one of the big ones.

Feel as though it’s almost a tad embarrassing to break our trophy drought with what I would regard as the weakest tournament we enter
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But Jose loves the league cup - His first trophy both times at Chelsea and at Man U too.
 
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I’ll take any trophy. Not picky.

In an ideal world winning one trophy with this team could spur them on to start winning them on a regular/ semi regular basis once they get the know how of what it takes to get over the line.

12 years ago at Wembley when we won that League Cup the feeling was crazy to be there. Wanna experience that again.
 
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SpursDisciple said:
League Cup might be good to win as the players may gain confidence getting over the line.
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Except it doesn't, as winning it usually sees teams mentally switch off for the remainder of the season as they've already qualified for Europe, leading to a dramatic slump in form. For example...
Spurs (1999, 2008)
Birmingham (2011, which saw them relegated)
Liverpool (2012)
Swansea (2013)
Man Utd (2017)
The Sheikh Mansour Team (2016, 2020)

It also has to be asked why Premier League teams play in two cup competitions a season while La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A, the Eredivisie and (from next season) Ligue 1 are happy enough playing just the one

Same goes for our lower divisions, which take part in three cups every season, which is absurd
 
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humanbeingincroydon said:
Except it doesn't, as winning it usually sees teams mentally switch off for the remainder of the season as they've already qualified for Europe, leading to a dramatic slump in form. For example...
Spurs (1999, 2008)
Birmingham (2011, which saw them relegated)
Liverpool (2012)
Swansea (2013)
Man Utd (2017)
The Sheikh Mansour Team (2016, 2020)

It also has to be asked why Premier League teams play in two cup competitions a season while La Liga, the Bundesliga, Serie A, the Eredivisie and (from next season) Ligue 1 are happy enough playing just the one

Same goes for our lower divisions, which take part in three cups every season, which is absurd
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Agree with that, and if it got cancelled, no issues from me. However I am talking about this current squad. We've been knocking on the door for so long, it might be a mental block for them. Hopefully Jose can improve the mentality but a small cup may do that too. Not suggesting that League Cup should be a top priority every season just as a means to an end.
 
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SpursDisciple said:
Agree with that, and if it got cancelled, no issues from me. However I am talking about this current squad. We've been knocking on the door for so long, it might be a mental block for them. Hopefully Jose can improve the mentality but a small cup may do that too. Not suggesting that League Cup should be a top priority every season just as a means to an end.
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The biggest problem of all is that, if we did win the Season Killer Cup, what phrase would we endlessly hear on Twitter and phone-ins? "Mickey Mouse trophy", because it's seen as inferior, which wouldn't be the case for the FA Cup

Ultimately it's the domestic equivalent of the Intertoto Cup: a backdoor into Europe, which is exactly what it was for us in 2008 because Ramos was more interested in banning ketchup from the canteen than these inconvenient things called "tactics"
 
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humanbeingincroydon said:
The biggest problem of all is that, if we did win the Season Killer Cup, what phrase would we endlessly hear on Twitter and phone-ins? "Mickey Mouse trophy", because it's seen as inferior, which wouldn't be the case for the FA Cup

Ultimately it's the domestic equivalent of the Intertoto Cup: a backdoor into Europe, which is exactly what it was for us in 2008 because Ramos was more interested in banning ketchup from the canteen than these inconvenient things called "tactics"
Click to expand...
While I agree with that, I think our players are now suffering from the no silverware syndrome. Winning anything could work wonders.
 
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im not sure, I think winning the League cup as your first trophy in 12 years from our last trophy which was also the League Cup is a tad embarrassing for a club our size tbh.

Its the simplest most basic one out their...it’s embarrassing.

Yeah big clubs win it as the records show but it’s usually accompanying some other trophy...for us it’ll be the grandest party in a decade

I want something more prestigious than the league cup...levels are a bit higher than what a League cup can provide

I’d rather someone guarantee a few away day victories at other top 6 grounds than to win that. I’ll welcome the trophy but I’m not fooled into thinking it is more than what it is

The ****tiest tournament our team enters every year
 
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There's another good reason to focus on the FA Cup over the Season Killer: our FA Cup campaign starts in January, so if our league form is clicking into gear in the second half of the season that would also bleed into our FA Cup run, and that builds momentum for the business end of the season so (in theory...) we'd not only be pushing through the rounds but also pushing ourselves up the table

That's the biggest problem with the Season Killer: the first few rounds reward early season form, then you get a bunch of extra matches added to the busiest period of the season, and then the final takes place with a third of the season left that often saps momentum for the business end of the season as players adopt the mentality of having already won something and/or secured European football
 
Being the first cup to be played for in a season, I feel one cannot immediately choose which one to concentrate on.
So for me, it is an important one to attempt to win and it is down to the manager to make sure that performances down go down hill after.

On another subject- nearly the end of August and Harry has still not scored. That hoodoo again.
 
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