Going back to the claim of the OP - Yes I do think we have the most exciting squad for a few years. Admittedly that is judging against a fairly low standard. I think we went backwards a long, long way the year we sacked Redknapp and lost Modric, VDV and King. We've been a shadow of the 11/12 squad/team ever since. This was obvious even during the excitement of the Malignant Seven and loads of nonsense about how the squad was now title-winning quality (!). Now I feel we certainly have the best squad since that summer of 2012, the best team spirit and possibly the most potential in young players coming through and already in the first 11 since...well - ever as far as I recall. Take midfield. A 19 year-old and a 21 year-old who I would barely swap for any other players in the Prem. That's without the very capable (I said undroppable a few weeks ago but now it's gonna be hard to get him back in the team) Bentaleb who is 20 and Mason who is all of 24 but has the hunger and points to prove of a teenager since he's only just got his break a year ago. All four of them will bust a gut and are packed with ability. That's bloody good. The defence looks as good as it has since the days of Ledley. A decent, solid, settled CB pairing is something we've been missing for years. Plus Wimmer has looked very capable. We need a better option than Fazio though, obviously. Wouldn't swap Lloris for anyone. Ditto Kane. Okay we need a bit more "magic". I go on about it all the time but in Son we look to have added some of that. N'Jie at least offers the pace to make things happen and Eriksen is far and away the best signing of that Bale-Sale money. The difference between how I feel now and how I felt last season and the one before that is that a) we have less obvious flaws and b) the obvious flaws we do have are being addressed in a sensible, sustainable manner. The defence was a mess - we signed Alderweireld. We lacked quality going forward - we signed Son and N'Jie. Our transfers looked to be improving dramatically. No more "sign 7 and hope a couple turn out OK". Even players I don't rate that much like Chadli and Lamela - I think the management and style of play is getting something out of them. Also both young and willing. We still lack something. We still look a bit pedestrian going forward but Son's return will change that and hopefully in January we will return to the issue of adding to our attacking options as we seemed to be trying to do when missing out on Berahino. And on Poch - I felt he had a lot of crappy players last year and yet got us a good position. For that I gave him credit. Now he has a clearly improved squad which looks to be very much more in his style. I am genuinely more optimistic now than I have been for 3 years. I think we have a really good chance of top 4 this season and then after that, as Poch beds down even more, as the Mitchell-era signings slowly accrue and the players grow together... I'm genuinely excited and will now go as far as to say that I am convinced by Poch. He doesn't have the quality of players like Modric, Bale and VDV and yet he gets, game after game, performances good enough to dominate and win games (just). I bitched about how we threw away players like Lennon and Adebayor but seeing the togetherness of the squad, the fact that teamwork and team spirit is so central to this squad's success I have to admit that the management of the overall personality and character of the squad has been first rate.
Whisper it quietly, especially around Boss, but we may well be on the verge of something very special here. A top 'keeper, good defence, young players coming off the conveyor belt at an incredible rate and playing as well as any player in the PL. The ingredients are there.
I'm just on another thread praising Dier's signing and it made me realise that we really have signed some decent players in the last 18 months or so. Jury's still out on N'Jie and Trippier but Son, Alli, Alderweireld, Dier, all look like not just useful players but top players for the first 11. In fact in the last couple of years only the signing of Fazio sticks out as an out-and-out failure. I really feel that we've turned a corner transfer-wise.
Top keeper, agree. Good defensive record but lets not forget we still give away many easy chances. Stoke should have beaten us, as should have Sunderland, while Villa nearly got a draw. The academy youth players to have made an impact are the ones from the Sherwood era, but can't say we're going to keep rolling out top talent. Just to put things into perspective here as yes all the ingredients are there, plus we have the new staidum being developed. Its a positive time for the club, but I'm afraid unless we finish top four or have real success, such as trophies, then we're not the only club progressing. Liverpool for all their troubles are 3 points behind us, as are saints, while if we go through a bad run of form, how will fans react? The goons up next and I'm hoping we go there and put on a great performance as most match threads fans are moaning about the standard of play, lucky goals etc, lets not pretend we're some great team playing brilliant football. But of course, the potential is there, but for now thats all it is.
I'm sure many teams have their share of luck. Liverpool might only be 3 points behind us, however we do consistently finish above them. I don't expect credit for Spurs for that though. Pochettino deserves credit for putting the youth into the first team and giving them proper game time. Big risk, but one he has been justified in taking. We do give away a few easy chances. It's definitely an improvement however and one that is obvious to see. Nobody said we are a great team...and nobody thinks we are playing great football. However most of us are able to see the improvements and where they are being made and are not afraid to give Poch credit. I think he is a manager that fits us perfectly. He's about right for us...since we are not a great team..we don't have a great manager. We are a young team with some real promise, just like Poch as a manager, young and talented.
I've no issue with giving Pochettino credit for playing youth, none at all Spurlock, He definitely deserves praise but he arrived at a time when youth was ready for the first team and any manager would have been foolish not to introduce such players. I'm just waiting for that run of form, great football, matches which can make a huge impact on the season as we seem to be great stats wise, great for young players coming through, praise from pundits etc, but I can honestly say matches aren't enjoyable to watch and that would be the case regardless of who was manager, if the performances where the same. However, there is time for performances to improve and the positive results give the manager/squad that time and hopefully we can repeat the performances from last seasons london derbies (chavs/goons) and push on from there.
I understand what you mean about going on that great run, backed with good football. I suppose we are in the foundation part of that, what with our young team maturing in a few seasons. If the squad stays together then it may happen then. Now, I suppose we are going to have to do the groundwork to have any chance of that happening in the future. As far as I can see, we are doing a fair bit in achieving that. Let's hope we are all patient from the clubs hierarchy to us fans. God I have witnessed some cack years at Spurs as have most of us. Compared to that we are definitely on the rise. Ultimately we want trophies. In this money, therefore greed infested game, we are doing well to keep in touch With sugar daddy clubs and rip off clubs like Arsenal.
One thing I do get, especially for the young supporters that attend games, is that it must be a great time for them to be going week in, week out. I would enjoy attending matches in the 90's when we where ****e, aside from part of the Gerry Francis era and even if the football wasn't always great, just being part of the matchday support etc, means you're not as harsh on the team, well apart from the guy that sits there moaning at everything (which wasn't me lol) But agreed, compared to some of the ****e we have seen, this current squad is reason to be positive about the future, even if YV won't let me forget it, if Pochettino turns out to be a great manager!
Is/ was it really all down to Sherwood though? I'm sure Spurcat would be able to give a defining insight but I was under the impression that most of the praise has to be going towards John McDermott and his team who took over and carried on the work done by Alex Inglethorpe before Pool poached him. Sherwood was just taking the lads that McDermott brought through into his U-21 squad and thus using them as any U-21 manager would, that's not to say he didn't play a part in their development because he (along with Ramsay and co) clearly did but I think their jobs were made easier thanks to the work done by others. The current crop of Kane, Townsend, Mason and Bentaleb have been a breath of fresh air at times during their career with us, all earning senior international caps where as Pritchard and Carroll were/ are regulars at U-21 level, I'm sure most if not all of these progressed via McDermott (and/ or Inglethorpe) before joining Sherwood's U-21 set up. We've now got a new crop in Onomah, Winks, Oduwa, McGee, Carter-Vickers and Walker-Peters who have all shown signs of first team material which I presume Sherwood would've had nothing to do with, Onomah and Winks have managed to get competitive first team minutes under Poch while McGee, Oduwa & Walker-Peters have all featured in first team friendlies. Then there's even another batch which consists of Marcus Edwards - who's touted as an absolute wonderkid - Kaziah Sterling, Keanan Bennetts (who looked really good when we faced Norwich the other week and has 3 countries chasing his international allegiance already) and I'm sure others that Spurcat will know of that could also have bright futures. Not entirely discrediting Sherwood but I do feel McDermott and his team should be getting a lot of praise.
"Is/ was it really all down to Sherwood though?" Clive Allen nailed this last season when commentating on a Spurs match and the main commentator was going on about the kids. He said they were due to : McDermott. Inglethorpe. Sherwood. Ramsey. Credit where credit is truly due.
Leaving aside my disgreement with that statement, you're looking at things one eyed. If we deserved to lose/draw those games then you can say we deserved to beat Liverpool, Everton, Swansea and at least a draw against United. Maybe we will continue to unearth top, young talents or maybe we won't. It's hard to say but the upturn in quality we're producing fits nicely in with the investment in the new training centre so I'm going to stay positive. Of course we need top 4 or trophies. Without that we're not progressing, which is the whole premise of people's optimism about this current squad. How will the fans react if we go through a bad run of form? Well we started the season with no wins in 4 games... Fans aren't optimistic because we're playing brilliant football every week, we're optimistic because we're seeing signs of improvement and we see the potential for more improvement.
Are we going to walk into the Champions League? Of course not. However, I'm not seeing anything in the Premier League to suggest we're in a lower category than any of Leicester (yes, they're in 3rd and a point clear of 4th place) Man Utd (struggling and divided again), West Ham, Southampton, Liverpool, Everton and Palace, etc. Chelsea could turn their season around but it's a long way back given something's very wrong at that place and Mourinho is having a complete nervous meltdown and yhe Russian isgiving him room to make it worse. We're out of the Capital One Cup. We may still qualify for the Europa knock-out. An FA cup run is possible. However, unlike last year we don't have just a good first 11. On top of that we now have some back up - Vorm, Rose or Davies, Trippier (hmmm? has been taken apart in Europe but is more familiar in domestic football), Wimmer (a little unknown but has to be streets ahead of Fazio and where Kaboul was when he left), Bentaleb, Mason, Chadli, N'Jie, Dembele. That's 19 excluding Townsend who appears to be on the outside of things domestically and in poor form and mood. The cover is reasonably spread apart from a centre forward. If we have real ambition then Levy has to deliver someone to take the strain off Harry Kane. Someone good who scores goals. It's time to commit Daniel - you know what happens if we don't. If we do...well, it's just like 2009-10 in my mind. This is up for grabs fellow Spurs and we can do this.
A bad run of form as the seasons develops, at a stage when the team threatens to make a real impact. Start of the season form isn't much of a concern, unless its truly horrific. We aren't going to remain unbeaten, which no one expects, but once results aren't positive and teams move ahead/close the gap, then we can see if the team can finish top four. Also remember, we have been here before, "AVB and the title challenge" or the season before when AVB and Bale defeated the goons and had top four within his grasp. And don't forget Gerry Francis lost only 10 games of his first 50 games, better then Bill Nich/Arthur Rowe. If Pochettino broke that record, i'm sure he would already have legend status! Short term its easy to be optimistic and talk of great things happening, its what fans want to hear, be positive, while any sign of Lamela showing skill and our fans are desperate to talk of him being a special talent. But, lets see if we achieve something, not just talk of it, threaten to achieve, actually achieve success.
http://static.bbci.co.uk/frameworks/barlesque/2.91.2/desktop/3.5/img/blq-search_grey_alpha.png This linking an article on Townsend from the BBC website. Visit BBC to see it Link is not working sorry.
Spurf, have you had an afternoon dram as this is the second post with either phantom posts or dead links?
LOL No that was last night. Yep not sure why links that have worked in the past do not work now. Firefox is becoming a nuisance for me.
May not be the browser as it does that weird ****e on the Chrome andriod version at random points (since the new layout on here), have seen a few posters on here get caught out, they probably kept quiet and hoped it wasn't noticed! lol
"We aren't going to remain unbeaten, which no one expects" Actually 'don't expect to' is not the same as "aren't going to" . > Also remember, we have been here before, "AVB and the title challenge" or the season before when AVB and Bale > defeated the goons and had top four within his grasp. And the season before that ?? Anything of note there ?? > And don't forget Gerry Francis lost only 10 games of his first 50 games, better then Bill Nich/Arthur Rowe. What are the W/D/L stats for the first 50 games of each of those managers ??
