If I had 2 cents for every time I'd made a thread like this, I'd have 8 cents. Anyway.... ---------------------- Firstly, congratulations to Chelsea for winning the CL - it's no easy feat and, much like the PL, if you win it, it's because you deserve it. I don't give a **** about luck or anti-football or whatever. You can only beat the teams set out in front of you. If Barcelona or Bayern had played better then this thread would serve no purpose. Fact is they were both terrible in front of goal and Chelsea took their chance when it came. Fair play to them for that - plus beating a German side on penalties is impressive in itself! I think the rule that we've been pushed down to the Europa League is ridiculous, unfair and incredibly harsh. Chelsea deserve a spot as they rightly deserve to be able to defend their trophy but IIRC, 1 group in the CL last year had 1 team less than the others (I might be thinking of the Euros here - not sure). In any case, I don't know why 1 group can't just have 1 more team (Chelsea) - I'm sure the additional matches can be fitted in if they really wanted to. Regardless, the facts are these: Chelsea won the CL, we're now facing another season in the Europa League: Our transfer 'plan' for this Summer has surely moved to Plan B, which is 'clear out if we can but now we need to keep a hold of what we have as a priority.' I can't see us spending big and bringing in 'marquee' signings now. I'm convinced we've seen the last of Modric in a Spurs shirt and tbh, if Bale stays I'll be hugely surprised. I think, with the loss of the CL money, along with the possibility of partial squad disintegration, Chelsea alone have set us back a number of years in terms of progress and status in the league. Where do we go from here? As I said, we need to keep a hold of as many good players as possible. If we can we need to clear out some dross, and, again if we can (bigger if), augment the squad with some decent players (like Newcastle have done so well). To be honest, the Euro 2012 competition and the Olympics could be ideal at deflecting media attention off our key players and onto others. We need a goalscorer or 2 (clear out Saha - absolute guff), a new keeper and defensive improvements (particularly at CB to replace King & Gallas). We need improvements tactically - we need to respect the Europa League as a competition that we can absolutely win. I want to see a blend of youth and experience (in contrast to our reserves/academy XI all the time). We need to improve our on-the-field tactics - corners, freekicks. Set pieces are a gift - at the moment, they're pointless. I'm rambling now - but here's the TL;DR version: Fair play to Chelsea - we're now in for a tough Summer.
A decent thread until I read the above quote which I cannot agree with at all. Levy's inability to strike first and fast on signings when we need them has cost us. Harry and his England antics, court antics and inability to rotate the squad have cost us. The press and media constantly talking of "Harry for England" has cost us. Our team capitulating at the Emirates from 2-0 up to lose 5-2 has cost us. Losing a 13 point gap to Arsenal to be pushed back in 4th place is what cost us. If anything, if we dealt with the above factors head on when they needed to be dealt with, the Arsenal fans would be spending this morning talking about this. And we would be sitting pretty having a relaxing pint, looking forward to the CL again next season. Instead, it's the same old Spurs way. Snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
