Lads, he had the chance to strengthen us when we made it into the CL, but didn't. People say that it was down to him not trusting redknapp and not seeing him as the future of the club. But he can't hide behind that anymore. - He's got that man in place. Regardless of AVB being new at the start of last season, whoever the manager was.... we needed another striker. End of. And it was even more evident in Jan. We only have ourselves to blame. Injuries, bad decisions etc happen in football to anyone. Yes, we've had some rotten luck, but we've not taken advantage of what we can control. Hopefully déjà vu yet again, will cause levy to change approach. More late signings, selling our best players, and dropping points because we aren't ready of match day 1.... And it'll be exactly the same this time next season.
+1. Arsenal deserved it; their form since the 2-1 has been unreal. The fact it came down to the final day shows how far Spurs have come, especially considering: *New Manager, *Spine of last years team sold/retired (Modric/VDV/Ledley), injuries to KEY players (Kaboul and Sandro especially, but keep in mind Parkers absence which contributed to Sandros, Lennon, Dembele's international) and a misfiring Ade. The Spurs of last year would have taken nothing out of the game today, nor would they have set a new points tally. AVB is the man to drive forward and with 2/3 additions, this team will go far. Anyone sticking in about losing Bale in the summer - I'd love to keep Bale as much as the next person, but then the £70 million Levy will demand is nothing to shy away from. Higuain and 35 would do it.
You could possibly, possibly argue that, with AVB's record at Chelsea, he didn't trust AVB either. That would be an extremely generous argument for Levy there so I don't put much in it.
Cheers DPIIAM. I am with you on what you are saying as well. Although Bale has dug us out of a hole on many times this season the spirit and bottle we have shown has been completely different from the Spurs of old. Man City at home, Chelsea away, stoke away and now this. We would have lost or drawn all of those matches in the past and been battling it out in mid table with Liverpool. For us to get this points haul is a brilliant effort. Of course it's tough to take that we got so close. If we can keep Bale and make a couple of good signings we will be there or thereabouts next season.
Congratulations. You've qualified for a competition you have no ambitions of winning. Must feel really good.
Not something that Villas-Boas can be accused of. Rodgers doesn't even want to be in it, on the other hand, as he seems to be afraid of it.
On the Arsenal board, they've jammed their hands down their trousers over beating us by a point - it's quite amusing seeing all the fans who've spent 95% of the season saying how terrible their team is crawl back out from the woodwork.
That's what I as getting at though mate, we needed a top striker regardless. In jan when AVB had showed he was doing a good job... Why didn't we take car of business at the second attempt. There are no excuses.
Not great but being honest I never really expected it. On the plus side Ivan's bonus will have sky-rocketed.
Why what progress have we made. How can you defend his tightness to what is so obvious to others. We are desperate for a striker and if we now lose Bale to, then what he has done is unforgivable and he should walk.
Nobody would have predicted Spurs to come 4th at the beginning of the season. Given their financial strength compared to Chelsea and to a lesser extent Arsenal they've done well but it was Levy that cost them top 4. For a club like Arsenal to be 4th isn't good enough. There are positives you can draw. You've finally addressed the weaknesses you've had in previous season and with added quality in certain areas can definitely challenge for the title
Probably like not winning anything for 8 years. Was talking about Wenger. Nothing to do with AVB. Credit to him for trying to win the Europa League even though it hampered your league season a little.
I'm not defending him but from where we are now to where we were when he came in he has moved is on. I am as frustrated as you that we didn't sign anyone in January. See my posts at the time. I was just making the point that a new Director won't necessarily mean we get into the top 4.
