Fair comments Boss, if he joined under the premises you set out, then as you that's his risk. Good luck to him if we don't beat WBA, because it could get nasty from then on. Apparently various Spurs fans were having a go at him after the Toon defeat, which I think is wrong.
He doesn't deserve any stick after the Newcastle game as no manager is going to get things 100% right on his first game in charge and while I don't agree with certain decisions, the difference between a loss, defeat or draw was the woodwork or a moment of magic, there really wasn't much in the game.
Alright lads, take it that result was a bit disappointing after your first half performance? Thought we shaded the 2nd and our 2 goals came from 2 great players doing 1 thing well. From a Ton perspective we were poor yesterday, Cabaye was almost non-existent and Tiote was sloppy in possession, our front 2 looked tired and a bit off the pace but for now we can just put that down to Ramadan (and hope they keep scoring goals like Ba did). For me the difference was Ben Arfa. He beat your midfield lads a good few times yesterday, opening up space that we would usually find with Cabaye's passing. Definitely my MOTM. I think you, like Sunderland, badly need a good striker, but if can find one, you'll be a force this season. Pace on the wings and ability in midfield, plus Vertogen is class (very jealous you got him). Anyway, good luck for 36 of the next games!
fair comments JWAG. wasn't cabaye just back from injury? thought he did ok, considering. Ben Arfa is a class player. he's been a great buy, as have your last 6 or 7 signings. (next one you find, please inform us, you've got your fair share now!) on the subject of Ben Arfa, do you think you'll hold on to him? do you think someone might come in for him in the next 10 days? we've all seen the big surprises on deadline day! yep, we certainly need a striker or 2; I think it's going to be a busy week for us. god knows who it'll/they'll be though.
I was, and still am, very sceptical about his appointment. But yes, you're right, getting on the guys back after one game is not right. We desperately need at least one top striker, or call him what you want - so long as scores 15-20 goals a season.
I think no matter what we feel about AVB, he is the spurs manager and its in his best interests to do a great job, so if we're going to attack AVB, am only going to do so based on the decisions he makes while at our club. All managers deserve time to install their methods, the interesting part will be when things go wrong for AVB (as they will go wrong) and how he deals with it.
A few of the players (Cabaye, Tiote, Ben Arfa, Ba and Cisse) were listed as doubts, but both CM lads trained throughout the week. We're taking a fairly young squad to Greece for the Europa League qualifier (quite a few of the boys who beat your U21 6:4 yesterday) and at least that'll mean Cabaye will have more recovery time. I'd expect him to be firing again for Chelsea. As for Ben Arfa, I have know idea and never do with Newcastle, Andy Carroll said in an interview that he never wanted to play for anyone else the day before he moved to Liverpool. The one thing we do know with regards to transfers, is we'd only sell if we got a silly money offer...The rumours are that we paid as little as £2m for him, and as such, it wouldn't take a wild offer to leave Mike Ashley with a tidy profit, but I'd hope he would use a little more foresight than that...As he showed yesterday, and indeed throughout last season, he is the type of player who can get points from games we don't necessarily deserve and can create chances out of nothing. I'd prefer to keep the 10-15 points I think he'll contribute than a £10-£15m addition to the transfer kitty! Also, he seems to like it at Newcastle, he's famously fallen out with all previous managers, but Pardew has handled him incredibly well and he has said many times he has a genuine love for our fans.
All I'd say is if someone wants him they are going to have to pay 15 million plus and offer champions league football and we could get 3 players for that, however I hope we keep all our players.
A lot more than 15mill I'd say, bubble. Especially in today's market. He's a proven prem creative midfielder. Thats worth it's weight in gold at the mo.
I'd say that as a minimum but he has has his fib and tib broken and that might factor in, however personally I think we will aim to keep him and then if he lights up the league all season Ashley will be thinking 30 million plus and Ashley ain't daft. I think we will be selling Tiote or Cabaye for 20 million ish so that will keep Mike happy I'm sure for now.
As a fan of a team that is pretty much on the same level as Newcastle, are you confident Bale wont be whipped away before deadline day?
He's just signed a new contract about 4 weeks ago Lazarus. If we don't make the CL this season, it could well be his last.
Just when I was thinking what generous, thoughtful, football loving fans, the Newcastle guys were, along comes this cretin....
Every support has a few clowns, us decent ones can only try and offer reasonable debate to make up for their poor showing. I actually thought the game was pretty poor with a draw being the fairest result. Could be an important win for us as I don't think the two teams will be much more than 4-6 points apart. Although that said, if you sign a decent striker your front 4 of bale, lennon, vdv/sig and a new striker (depending on who) would be up there with the best in the league. Was impressed with you guys first half, very compact/organised and pressed high up the pitch. As always with bale and lennon you also looked very dangerous on the counter. Good showing from your fans too, easily one of the loudest set of away fans in the league. Good luck for the rest of the season!
Thought it was an average game to watch, nothing special but it wasn't awful either. Both teams can play far better, did seem as though everyone was nervous to make breaks incase of the other team countering, may have been down to nerves being the 1st game of the season an all. Thought a draw would have been fair but a moment of brilliance and slack defending cost us dear. Thought AVB's tactics were good, just wasn't too pleased with the team/ squad selection, Gallas over Verts? No Dawson or Huddlestone in the squad when neither seemed injured with Jenas in the squad?! Bit worrying if he rates Jenas over Hudd and Gallas over Daws & Verts, Gallas has been great in fairness but his age counts against him, we need a partnership who'll (hopefully) flourish for years to come and I don't see the point in shelling out £9m for Verts just to warm the bench. Overall I certainly don't begrudge the Toon for getting 3 points, very strong at home, we've had a sh*t record there anyway so it's not surprising we've left with jack all even if it was a little harsh on us. All the best for the season, hopefully we'll get another 5 against you in the return fixture
Cheers mate. Same to you guys. You've always had a tradition of playing good football, which I think most Spurs fans can appreciate.
This is our main problem, avb wants us to play high up the pitch yet our best play comes from counter attacks so he has to figure out how to get us opening up teams when we have them pressed back, plus it doesn't help with having a lack of options up front. As for the toon, you was poor first half, looked lacking in energy and lucky we never scored when we hit the woodwork twice, but thats our problem, we never took advantage and because you have players like ba, cisse and afra then they was always going to produce a bit of magic and that was the difference on the day. So overall, yes a draw would have been fair but unless we sort out the attacking options then this type of result will be fairly common away from home for us.
Yeah Pardew got it wrong first half, he matched up with you second half 4-2-3-1 and put Demba on the left. It's frustrating that he started two up top when we play our best stuff in the above formation. It free's HBA to be have less defensive responsibility as we've got the two DM's to cover him. A long term problem for us is that Ba doesn't want to play on the left, and when we set up 4-4-2 we go too direct and it also restricts HBA. All in all is was a typical first game of the season, both teams took limited risks in order to get an early point on the board, luckily for us we snatched an undeserved winner. Barring any major transfer news or a huge injury crisis at either club I still think us, you and Arsenal will be very closely matched this season in terms of league placing although we're probably the least fancied of the three to grab 4th.
