Article: Article: Tottenham Hotspur Season Review 2011-2012 page 2

I’ve purposely written this article before our last game, because I feel I should write about our season based on how it’s actually gone, not based purely on the final outcome, which will be decided next week .If we get 4th good, if we get 3rd great, if we get 5th or 6th, I’ll be gutted, but come August it will all be forgotten and we’ll just try twice as hard next year. Obivously as you can see, it's quite long (doesn't even fit in one post (10,000 character limit)) but I hope you enjoy it if you do chose to read it!

Another year, another roller coaster at White Hart Lane. You didn’t expect it any other way did you? In January, many in the football world had written off the top three as Man Utd, Man City and Spurs, with the bunch behind chasing only 4th place at best. We all knew better than that. Third was never sewn up, not even 4th. 10 points clear of Arsenal, 13 clear of 5th place Chelsea, “even Spurs can’t mess this up now” they said, “Arsenal won’t catch them” they said. We wish. In the space of 11 games we went from this position, to being behind Arsenal, and right in the mix with Newcastle and Chelsea. Suddenly, 4th place seemed the best we could hope for. With 1 game to go, it still hasn’t been sorted.

It was a quiet summer transfer window. After the high of getting Rafael van der Vaart on deadline day 2010, we couldn’t help but feel that Parker, Friedel as well as Adebayor on loan was a slightly underwhelming summer 2011. We all agreed we needed a striker, but was Adebayor the quality and type of player we wanted? And we seemed fairly unanimously against Parker because we had Sandro and the ever improving Livermore in the squad already. I am a fan of Livermore and an even bigger fan of Sandro, but Parker has been different class this year, and for £5m I think we can claim for the second year in a row to have got one of the best bargains of the season (Ba is without doubt the number one).

In the league, it all started against Evert....OK no it didn’t. The police shot someone because he looked suspicious (probably wearing a hoodie..) and all his homies ran riot because of it. We had been waiting weeks for this day, and suddenly we had to wait another 2 weeks before our first proper league game (away at Man Utd doesn’t count as a proper game anymore). With hindsight, this game being called off probably benefitted us. In August we would have played it without Parker and Adebayor, and with the squad seemingly distracted by the Modric talk. We may well have lost, but as it was, when it was replayed in January we won comfortably, and that night gave me one of the highlights of our season, a Benoit Assou-Ekotto goal. And what a goal! What is it with our fullbacks and scoring great goals? Benny vs Everton, as well as Liverpool a couple of years ago, Walker x2 this season, Erik Edman, Steven Carr, Bale when he was LB vs Arsenal, even Danny Rose is now a fullback it seems, and we all remember that one.

I feel that at this point I should briefly mention the Europa League. It will only be brief, because to be brutally honest, I’ve tried my hardest to wipe it from memory. I went to two of the home games, and they were 2 of the least inspiring games I’ve ever been to - Hearts (0-0) and PAOK (1-2). We won a game, got a couple of draws, scored a couple of decent goals over in Ireland, but ultimately didn’t even make it out of the group. Pretty embarrassing really. I bet we’re all looking forward to that again next year if we lose on Sunday.

We also played in the Carling Cup for a couple of hours too. Lost on penalties. Massimo Luongo, who I’d never heard of, missed the crucial penalty, so he’s clearly cut out to make it in a Spurs shirt.

Anyway, back to the Premier League. We’d played two lost two by the end of August, conceded 8, scored 1. Typical Spurs. But then we had the turning point in our season (the first of many). The transfer deadline passed, and although tabloid writers up and down the country refused to believe it, Luka Modric was still a Spurs player. The beginning of September marked one of the most incredible runs of results in my time supporting Spurs. WWWWDWWWWW, including wins against Arsenal and Liverpool. That draw was away at Newcastle, a late equaliser. With every passing week, that result began to look better and better. Nobody took them seriously as top 4 challengers, not after 10 games, not after 20 games, barely even after 30 games. But they showed through the course of a whole season how good a team they are. If they can keep hold of their big 5 (Cisse, Ba, Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Collocini), and continue spending as wisely as they have been, I think they will once again challenge for the top 4 spots next year.

That fantastic unbeaten run ended away at the hands of Chris Foy...sorry Stoke City. “We was robbed” I believe is the phrase. Never been so annoyed/frustrated/pissed off at a referee. Maybe Mark Clattenburg at Old Trafford (does that one really need any more explaining??), but this was a seriously damaging result, more because of the nature of the loss and the confidence it would bring. In fact, when you look back over the season, we barely lost a game in a way which wasn’t massively damaging – smashed at home to Man City, this loss to Stoke, 2-0 up at our biggest rivals, lose 5-2, last minute penalty against Man City, at home to a promoted side. The only two I can think of are the two losses to Man Utd, which were obviously expected...

January brought us the FA Cup. Five games, five awful performances, but somehow we were in the semi-finals and we were off to our second home once again. Unfortunately a sixth atrocious performance was one too many and we were knocked out in the FA Cup Semi final once again. The less said about this whole cup run the better I think. Worst good cup run ever? I think so.

A new year brought new optimism. We were third in the table, and this transfer window gave us the perfect chance to attract a couple of top signings that could have given us a real title chance. At one point in January, we were 2nd, level on points with Man Utd, just 3 points behind Man City. What top starts did we attract? Nelsen and Saha. The bargain signings of Parker and Friedel was one thing, these two is another completely. I really do believe that we shot ourselves in the foot in January. Had we utilised our position then, we could have made some top signings. Now, we may not even finish in the top four and could be back to attracting the likes of Maynor Figeroa and Junior Hoilett, if we’re lucky.

So January came and went, and we entered a run of tough fixtures. Man City away was in my opinion our most damaging loss all year. 2-0 down and we had all written it off as a loss. Not really any embarrassment in losing away at the title favourites, and had it finished 2-0 we could have just moved on and worried about the next game. But goals from Defoe and a fantastic strike by Bale got us back level, and this would have been a huge confidence boost going into the other hard fixtures. With 30 seconds left, Bale stormed down the left, put in the (nearly) perfect cross for Defoe, and he was quite literally millimetres away from giving us a famous win. Suddenly, with that miss, 2-2 felt like a loss, but it got a whole lot worse. Ledley King, probably the only player of this generation who could be considered close to a Spurs legend, made a rare mistake, bringing down Balotelli, who pulled himself up and won Man City the game from the penalty spot. It was absolutely sickening. I’d rather have just lost 2-0. The 5-2 away at Arsenal would have been awful for confidence too, but this was the next level. If Defoe had scored that chance, I have no doubt whatsoever we would be more than 3 points better off than we are now.

Amongst all this drama, we saw of Wigan fairly comfortably at the Lane, got a great point away at a rejuvenated Chelsea, a decent point away at Liverpool, a not so good point away at Sunderland, and a decidedly average point at home to Stoke. We also destroyed Newcastle 5-0, which provided me with another one of the best moments of the season – another Assou-Ekotto goal.

continued...

 

But what did all this mean? Well Arsenal had found their form, and they had pulled ahead. Chelsea had actually dropped off a little bit, and Newcastle were still defying football fans all over the country and they were still up in the battle for fourth. With 6 games to go in the season, and nothing in it between those 4 teams, we had two very winnable games at home to Norwich and away at QPR. We got no points. Suddenly, 4th looked gone and sixth seemed to be our position and St Totteringham’s Day was surely only a couple of weeks away. At the same time, Arsenal kept on winning, and were now 6 points ahead of us, Newcastle were 3 points ahead, and Chelsea had closed the gap behind us to 1. Our next two games, at home to Blackburn and away at Bolton were about as must-win as they get. Believe it or not, we actually did win them both, and quite convincingly too. The big result though was Arsenal 1-2 Wigan. That kept our season, and our fight for 3rd alive. The next week, Wigan again did us a massive favour, tearing Newcastle a new one, winning 4-0. As became the norm this year, the whole situation had changed again in 2 weeks. We were once again in the box seat for 4th, although Arsenal still had 3rd in their hands. Not for long though. Norwich City, who had almost ended our season a couple of weeks previously, restarted it again with their 3-3 draw at the Emirates. I watched that game and it was a good a Premier League game as I’ve ever seen. Two teams going all out for the win (full credit to Norwich for that, given they had nothing to play for in theory) and it was an entirely fair result that neither side lost. That draw put it back into our own hands, not just for 4th, but for 3rd. Two wins in our last 2 games would get us 3rd. So we drew our next game. Back in Arsenal’s hands once again. And that’s where we are now..

Anything could happen next week. With one game left in the season, there’s still 4 positions we could finish in. One of those would make a fantastic season, one a very good season, and two of them an unacceptable season. So much rides on 1 game. Will Bale and Modric leave if we are in the Europa League next year? If Barca come calling, anyone would struggle to say no. Who could we attract in the summer? Hazard, Vertonghen, Llorente, Lloris?? We can forget about any of those if we lose next week. It’s the most important game I’ll have ever been at live. No game in my time supporting Spurs has come close in terms of overall importance. I’m just thankful it’s a home game so we can get behind the boys and be the 12th man. Seven days to go and I’m already as nervous as I’ve ever been. God knows what it will be like when I’m in my seat watching those teams come out. Please, please can we just score the first goal. Maybe actually make it easy for ourselves for once?? Or is that just too much to ask from this famous football club? I suspect it is. Enjoy the ride, and we’ll start it all over again in August.

Awards – these are off the top of my head, I’m sure I will forget some obvious things.

Player of the season:

1st Modric/Kaboul.
3rd Walker

Goal of the season:

Shortlist:

Assou-Ekotto vs Everton
Modric vs Bolton
Walker vs Arsenal
Walker vs Blackburn
Modric vs Liverpool
Bale vs Man City

And my winner is Modric vs Bolton – an amazing strike from the guy who can’t shoot.

Game of the season:

There’s a real lack of great/famous wins, or just really entertaining games this season. From a personal point of view, Spurs 2-1 Arsenal was amazing because it was my first live derby win. But I think the winner has to be Spurs 4-0 Liverpool, just because we had taken apart one of the top teams so convincingly (even when they had 11 men). This is when the country first stood up and took notice of Spurs.

 

Great read. I didn't want to reply until I'd actually sat down and properly read it.

As you say, there's going to be an overreaction eitherway on the last day which would distort how the season has actually gone. I wanted us to challenge for 4th at the start of the season, as long as we did that we'd have had a good season regardless of the elation/disappointment that could come down to just a point or even goal difference. I also wanted us to have a better cup run this season which we've had and you're right to say it wasn't done in much style, although I thought we had a good game against Cheltenham( ). Of course given some of the heights we achieved in the season, some will be very disappointed that we don't have a CL position wrapped up by now or even a trophy after getting so far but whilst it is a shame I really think it gives us a lot of positives for next year.

For Player of the Year I'd go for Kaboul, he's been superb. Younes closely followed by Ade for me, his contribution has been invaluable all season and has worked tirelessly and selflessly all season. Young Player of the Year simply has to be Walker, he's gone from strength to strength, seemlessly cementing a first team place and thriving under the pressure and responsibility that comes with it. So many others deserve honourable mentions that I won't bother

 

SpursLegend great read,

 

Congratulations SpursLegend this thread has been promoted to an Article.

 

Twice it seems

 

It's in 2 parts for some reason, but not repeated, oh observant one

 

It's too BIG for one.

 

Good article Legend.

I was fairly happy with the summer transfers, we needed a Parker-esque player as we did a goalkeeper and we got them both. I was happy at Adebayor's arrival though I have to admit, that despite his impressive stats (goals and assists), his finishing just isn't at the standard we need for a man to lead the line. Compare him to RVP, Rooney, Drogba, Tevez & Aguero and he's no match to be fair, a massive improvement on what we had don't get me wrong but we're still that world class striker away from being a real force. (Llorente! Please! Please Daniel! Break the f*cking bank for this guy!!!)

January I was depressed, Saha and Nelsen are "safe" signings and neither have disappointed in their performances but allowing Charlie to go on loan, leaving Walker as our only RB was a mistake, baring in mind we have 4 RB's on the books (Naughton and Smith the other two). I would have liked us to go for a striker to partner/ challenge Adebayor rather than someone to fill in Pav's bench role.

Overall performances, team wise, have been very good in my opinion, even in the poor run, it was only Arsenal (a), Norwich (h) and Chelsea (Semi Final) in which we actually deserved to lose. The others (Utd (h) especially) were so unjust in terms of results. I'm very proud of the way we play, it's exciting and value for money, I'd truly hate being a Stoke/ Wolves/ Blackburn fan.

POTY for me is Kaboul. Super consistent, played about 90% of games and has become our number 1 centre back after some beastly displays. Parker was a close second.
YPOTY is Walker, no constest.
GOTY - Walker vs Blackburn, WE SCORED FROM A FREEKICK!!!
Game of the year - 4-0 vs Pool. Great performance accompanied by a great result and also saw that f*cker Adam (dirty piece of sh*t!) get his marching orders.

Overall assessment - promising season, a shame we let our lead over our rivals for 3rd slip but none-the-less there's signs that we're certainly becomming a very, very good team, hopefully we don't let any top players go and we can bring in some top competition, rather than squad players and we should be in for a good year next season I reckon.

 

I meant because the title says "Article: Article" which I now realise is because it's too big. I'll go back to my corner now

 

Sorry SL, but you've missed out that rotating with **** players would have saved half of all that nonsense this season!

All in all its been one hell of an exciting season, just what everyones been crying out for, for years. Now its here, the same people don't like that now, or only if Spurs have there season wrapped up in advance...hang on?...that defeats the first bit!

For me the whole league has got stronger, particularly in the last couple of seasons, with ALL the top clubs suffering not just one odd result, but quite a few....long may it continue!

 

Glad those who have read it have enjoyed it!

But can someone actually explain to me what being promoted to an article actually means! My Redknapp thread was also promoted to an article, but I still don't really know what that actually means

 

I think it means it is on the very front page?

 

It means your article will be published on other sites by I think News Now. PNP knows more about it.

 

Good read, agreed, thanks. To me, there are three things that stand out about this season. First, how well Spurs often played, and how much of a pleasure it was to watch.

Second, the key failing. I ought to say there's no point making excuses. Sports is about overcoming adversities, whether they're injuries, bad calls or miscellaneous crap. In the last category, it turned out, was Capello's resignation. The fact is that Spurs were easily the third best team in the prem (probably could have challenged the top two, can't be bothered to do the analysis) when there was't speculation about Redknapp for England. They were relegation fodder when he was. So really, there were two seasons in one.

Third: how desperate do Spurs seem to be to make their fans suffer this year? Third was signed, sealed and delivered. Then they threw it away. Then, just when we were entering the "acceptance" stage of grief, they get back into the driver's seat, against all odds. Then they throw it away again. Meanwhile, Arsenal seems just as determined to torture their fans, with their late collapse every bit as spectacular as Spurs, maybe more so. How many thousand deaths are fans likely to die on Sunday? A wise man would put a large bet on Newcastle for third.

Very hard for me to pick between Kaboul, Bale and Ade for player of the year. I think if I had to I'd pick Ade for his ability to knit the attack together with his ability and unselfishness.

I realize I may have missed the main development, due to my focus on the trauma of this season: Spurs have continued a significant move to becoming a better team. Sure, a lot seems to depend on the last day, but it probably won't turn out to be nearly as critical as it seems now. There's no doubt there's excitement and buzz about Spurs that wasn't there a few years ago. Long may the trend continue.

 

Fantastic article ... really agree with it being our worst cup run! One small disagreement...and I accept I'll be in a minority...I don't think Modric has played well since January apart from once or twice and he should be scoring more.

Kaboul has been our player of the season.
Kyle walker for goal of the season (v Blackburn)
Match of the season ... Man city away (until the last 15 seconds)
worst performance of the season ... arsenal away and Norwich home and chelsea wembley ... couldn't get a *** paper between them but I think it has to be Harry's 'I've never thought about the ingerland job' interviews

 

Great article!!

Would like to add a 'most improved player' award for Jake Livermore who would miss out on the YPOTY award to Walker.

 

I would probably give Most Improved Player to Kaboul, with Jake in second.

 

SL - Kaboom has been pretty awesome for us for a couple of years!!

 

Oh for sure, but he's been seriously impressive this year. No way he'd have been considered for Spurs POTY the last couple of years, but this year he's been right up there.