The general trend has reversed, before, we lost points in the last phase of games, lately we salvage more points. The early part of the season was the former but that was quickly addressed, since, I think only Everton have stole a game from us when we were in a winning position.
This maybe true PS., but the point I am making is that given the lack of depth in the squad, surely this season should have been a matter of prioritising. And to put it another way., 'without the required depth in the squad (to win El and get top 4), AVB should've remaind focused on the main prize. I 'ave a feeling that Mr Levy would've liked Champions League next season.
Losing also breeds losing. So purposely losing in the group stages (for example) of the EL may well have been detrimental to our league form. Who are we trying to emulate? The Utds and Chelseas of this world thats who. When was the last time you saw either put out a team in another comp that didn't stand a fantastic chance of winning? They just don't do it
Bajan, I was saying that earlier on, and it's hard to argue that it's cost us. But I changed my tune because the competition got intriguing, and even when I hadn't, I had to admit the way we fielded a team of second tier players in the EL the year before just didn't sit right with me. What I really hope is that Spurs take a serious look at how Chelsea held up so much better playing more games than we did. I know they have a deeper squad, and rotated more, but I get the feeling the key was that they made up for playing more by practicing less, and we didn't.
Spot on, that's the first thing I said to my Spurs housemate at the final whistle. Arsenal won't lose either of those games IMO but they could draw one and that opens up the door.
Exactly Notso. Points easier to come by due to the league being weaker. 5 teams likely to finish on 70+ points this season clearly shows they are a cut above the competition.
The relegation limit looks to be pretty high this season too though, DL. I suspect that there's been less draws in this campaign, but I can't be arsed too look it up! QPR and Reading are well adrift, but then there's a pack of similar sides that make up half the division. With regards to Villas-Boas concentrating on the league, we may have actually been better off giving our youngsters a shot in the Europa this season and keeping a load of them at WHL. A number of our loans haven't worked out this time or might've done an important job for us, but that's easy to say with hindsight. Had we kept Rose, Kane and Townsend, for example, then they may have ended up playing in the league a lot more than anticipated. Rose definitely would have.
Agree but I think a lot of that is to do with the poor quality of the sides. Swansea would probably be on 50-55 points now had they not been in the Carling Cup. It's become far easier for the better sides to get points because the standard of the rest has dropped. We're struggling in Europe because of it
Is that why Spanish teams have done **** all this year? You could easily argue that the tough nature of the league has made it harder to compete on two or more fronts. There have been a lot of managerial changes, so there's been a lack of real consistency from most sides. Some teams have dramatically underperformed, too. Defences seem to be largely ****e, for some reason.
Barcelona aren't good enough to win the CL and haven't been since they last won it, which only left Real - a club ravaged by ongoing conflicts within the squad and has been the case since the Euro's (at least). Everybody is trying to copy Barca's blueprint i.e high line, pressure high up the pitch but without the players that have the ability/discipline to fulfill those roles, so teams are getting caught out on the counter a lot more, which would explain why we are seeing a lot more away wins in the Premier League and even Championship sides with a continental playing style i.e Watford & Brighton appear to get a lot more joy on the road (although Brighton are impressive at the Amex). Gary Neville was once again spot on with identifying the problem. We have very few players in this league that can fulfill both roles and be "all rounders". We don't have a Gundogan, Schweinsteiger, Bender etc so have to compensate for it in other areas. We need more of the Dembele, Fellaini, Ramires, Oscar, Wilshere types that can fulfill both roles effectively. These are few and far between in the Premier League.
Spurs are not trying to emulate the Utds and Chelseas of this world., that would be inconsiderate. Utd has a much larger income/budget., Chelseas got unlimited funds at their disposal. Emulating those clubs could see Spurs ultimately end up bankrupt. Listen to something my Grand Mother said to me the other day., she said; "If you havn't got a horse, you ride the **** out your donkey" roughly translated, in this case Spurm, that means:- A donkey may try to emulate a horse but, it is still a donkey. So lets not pretent that our donkey is a horse. And in anycase, 'are you really satisfied to end the race as an 'also ran', year after year ?'. We will see larger budgets from Levy, to improve the squad and to keep our stars in place only when Spurs generates larger incomes. It has to be that way because Spurs have no rich suger Daddies who are willing to spend. To start the ball rolling in the direction of the Utd., and Chelsea of this world., Spurs need to be completing in Champions League, regularly. Thats the only way we will get any where near the clubs above us. We can not rely on the any of the current top 4 clubs slipping up, in the long term.
Somewhat unfair on Investec - they're nothing like the american banks the press berates. In terms of the sponsorship, 2 reasons why it came about from what I've heard. The kantors (main shareholders in investec) wanted to move into football as it was the only real african sport they didn't cover in the UK - and the CIO and CEO of the company based in london are massive spurs fans so pushed for the expansion into spurs to include their other large sports sponsorships. For what it's worth, if anyone is at all interested, Ian Kantor has a fascinating history. He was an excellent sportsman in his day and having come from apartheid south africa, his belief in sport's positive effect is a major reason for their sport sponsorship involvement; football was the next logical step given they've got horse racing, rugby, cricket and tennis covered. He also was one of the major supporters of the racial equality campaigns running through SA - the Zebra (50-50 black and white) is their logo for a reason! He loves sport and loves the equality that it has the power to develop. An inspiring man I must say. And back to the football, they will have no role to play in a club's push for europe; one year rolling sponsors and I'd assume won't be continuing any further. I don't think Aurasma has long left either does it? LG is being mooted but that's just idle gossip... Does anyone know about sponsors for the next few years? Somewhat off topic I know and I apologise but it seems there have been some big deals announced over the last few months and spurs aren't among them. That underarmour kit deal I thought was excellent taking over from Puma (50m over 5 years) until I saw that Puma have given arsenal 170m... UUMMMMMMM what???? Not to mention the new emirates deals, the standard chartered deals and warrior etc for liverpool, etihad for man city, roman for chelski and chevrolet and nike and a million others for united; we're falling behind massively.
Of course we are trying to emulate them, they win trophies ffs. We could try to emulate arsenal if you want. Chelsea were a donkey once, so were utd. That analogy is dumb because a real donkey can never become a real horse. It's also not inconsiderate to want to emulate them, not in the slightest
We are Spurs !., I for one feel a certain amount of pride in saying that. To suggest we are trying to win games and trophies to emulate another club is tantamount to suggesting that we are substitutes, lacking or inferior to others. This is a great football club Spurm.... This is Tottenham Hotspurs... and as far as I'm concerned, To dare is to win. I will never except your thinking., which appears to be :- 'to win is to try to emulate Utd., or Chelsea or any other motherfucking football club'. Champions Leaque is the horse I'm talking about in my above post., Europa Cup is the donkey, that will not get Spurs very far. We need Champions League football for the chance to outdo the teams that you appear to be so preoccupied with.
Get a grip. Today Chelsea and Utd win trophies. We want to win trophies. 'to win is to try to emulate Utd., or Chelsea or any other motherfucking football club'. - Where did i say this? We WANT to win, do we not? I'm not saying become Chelsea/Utd, why would i want that, i could just support them if i wanted. All i'm saying is we need to breed a winning mentality by not going half arsed at games. Its not about copying Utd or Chelsea but it is what they do. Should we automatically not do things Utd and Chelsea do even if they are good ideas just because Bajan dislikes them and we want to invent special Spurs-ways for absolutely everything? What you seem to be saying is "to dare is to win, except when its not the main goal where perhaps we should not really give a ****" "This is a great football club Spurm" - i don't need to be told this thanks, but well done on the patronising
I'm a bit late to all this but I absolutely agree with PowerSpurs and the decision of AVB to take the Europa League seriously. As has been mentioned to build a winning mentality you have to take all games seriously. For too long under Redknapp it became acceptable for Spurs to lose football matches. Redknapp would often talk up Spurs vs Chelsea/Arsenal/United/City matches as if it were a David v Goliath match and when Spurs lost the fans almost started to believe it and accepted it. Redknapp was happy for second best and anything else was just a bonus. AVB wants the best. Whether you like the guy or not it's hard to argue with that. Just because some Spurs fans may have accepted mediocrity in the past it doesn't mean they have to now. Expectation is different and the talk coming from AVB is that he wants Spurs to win a trophy so he has something to build on. For those that underestimate that think back to Mourinho at Chelsea and how seriously he took the Carling Cup despite the vast amounts we spent that summer, he knew how significant it was to establish the belief and take the club forward. Fergie very much similar with the FA Cup in 1990.
