everyone knows his tactic now, he's famous for it. - FFS, even sky have made "deadline day at spurs lodge starring Gary cotterill" a regular feature, as they expected us to be busy. - Other clubs have cottoned on to this now and don't fall for the Levy show. Its time to try something new. We've been caught out now and have had to pay the price.
We changed the script with Sigurdsson and Dembele, whilst Vertonghen was reasonably straightforward...albeit we initially tried to sign him in the January transfer window.
however, we knew Modric was on his bike and lost VDV close to the end, yet only signed one creative man (who's not actually that creative). Oh, and started with 2 strikers, having let Kane go too.
Lloris. 8-10 like the way he controls his area and the fact he's not afraid to come off his line. A very good start and hopefully he'll be our No 1 for years to come. Walker. 6-10 His form suffered with constant swapping of players on the right. Has improved over the last couple of months and will come back stronger next season. Dawson. 6-10 Testament to the bloke that he stayed and fought for his place. 100% player every game but he has had a few ropey games this season. Pulled all over the place too often and at times his long passing is poor. Verts 8-10 Quality signing and has weighed in with some goals. Always looked composed and assured on the ball. Tired in some games and made the odd mistakes but still our best signing this season. Caulker 6-10 When used he rarely let us down. Needs more game time and has the potential to be a massive player for us. Gallas 2-10 Only had 2/3 decent games and quite a few shockers as well. I really hope that we never see him in a Spurs shirt again. BAE 5-10 Had a poor season when he returned. Too often caught out of position and lost the ball. I'll be surprised if he stays next season although I'll be sorry to see him go. Naughton 5-10 Played out of position but I can't see him outing Walker. I don't think he's a top 6 player. Lennon 7-10 When fit and interested, he's awesome , but always seems to be carrying a knock. Crossing has improved but doesn't score enough. Bale 10-10 Pure class. Had some very quiet games recently but still comes up with a stunning goal. Siggy 6-10 Showed enough in the 2nd half of the season to make me think that he will prove to be a quality signing. Dempsey 6-10 Gave him 6 purely for his goals. Not done much else and was anonymous in a lot of games. Holtby 6-10 Undoubted classy player but AVB needs to find his best position in the side. Early days but I hope he's given a proper chance. Thud 5-10 For a big lad he's too weak on the ball. Passing is normally good. Lack of pace isn't good alongside Parker. Parker 5-10 Sadly I think he had a poor season Still a 100% committed player but was off the pace in too many games. Sandro 8-10 Had a storming season till his injury. Big miss in the 2nd half of the season. Dembele 7-10 Good start to the season then faded after his injury. Needs to score more goals and link up play better but still had a good 1st season. Defoe 6-10 Started off on fire then faded badly. He needs to play regularly otherwise his confidence goes. Ade 3-10 At times he has looked like the ade of last season. Most of the time he's struggled and hasn't been anywhere near the player we all know he is. Carroll 7-10 I was hoping that he'd get used more as the season went on. When he was used, never let the team down. AVB 8-10 Good start as our manager. Has the team playing with more grit than I've seen for a long time. At times his tactics and subs have been strange! Pleasing that he played strong teams in Europe. As a fan traveling away to see a very weak team on the pitch is an insult to us but AVB played strong teams every game. Time to judge him will be next season if levy let's him bring in his own players. All in all a good season. 5th with our highest points total and with a couple of quality additions then we can push again for 4th next season. C.O.Y.S.
<Yikes> I thought that transfer was dealt with horrendously and was surprised when it didn't fall through. Could have been pulled off about a month before it actually was, but hit the rocks a number of times due to Levy's/Ajax's penny-pinching.
O yeah! I forgot about that one! That was ridiculous. And then we did something similar with holtby in jan!
I see, I'll leave you with two things, if AVB's full potential is to be held back because of 'finance' as a get out, then every previous manager should be given equivalent slack, so maybe Ramos and Santini weren't as bad as all that! Thats that one dealt with! Secondly, its not as much about purchasing choice and spending power, its about best use of what you have, and on that I'm way off still. One result short in two seasons where I felt the top4 was actually possible, due to the wobbles of the usual suspects, never has there been a better time to take advantage and I can't get rid of a nagging doubt that we may have missed the boat. We'll see.
I agree with those sentiments too, and posted that elsewhere tonight. Every team has bad results, we certainly had a few this year, but that is to be expected. But there's ways we can prevent some of these. 1 way is to be ready for match day 1, and not drop unecessary points, which have ultimately cost us in the past couple of seasons. It's too tight at the top to be ****ing about like this. Our rivals do their business much earlier and are ready come the start of the season.
Bang on, as time goes on the spending of the teams above us will eventually blow us away permanently from our outside chance of top 4. ENIC's caution and not seizing the moment has hurt the club. We have the Neville Chamberlain of owners/chairman with a touch of Rigsby.
Further to Relayer's list on page 2 In my opinion, these are the players we must keep: Bale, Verts, Kaboul, Sandro, Lloris, Dembele, Lennon, Walker, Siggy, Holtby, Townsend, Caulker, Friedel, JD, Rose, Dempsey, Adebayor, Kane AS we really aren't going to be able to afford/get ANYONE better than them in. We can scratch around getting rid of possibly 3 or 4 players (Benny, Hudd, Livermore, Naughton) to add to the funds we need in order to pick up 3 more players, but BIG changes aren't realistic or achievable. A striker without a doubt will have been targeted, another midfielder possibly in the Sandro mould or more likely the Moutinho mould (but NOT Moutinho) and possibly another left back/versatile defender. Should we get any more than 3 proper, fully fledged first team players in before end of play on the final transfer window day, I will be VERY VERY surprised...
I'm not optimistic either. The fact is we've got three big money clubs ahead of us, and another, Arsenal, which should be spending like them, but hasn't been. If, as many predict, they start to spend next year, our chances of top four are fairly bleak. But only fairly: if we can get a first rate playmaker and keep Bale, we've got a decent shot at top four next year. Even if we don't get the playmaker our chances aren't so bad (for one thing because Carroll could be the playmaker we need.)
