Pre-Season Thread

It’s actually got to the stage where they’re showboating against us now.

 

Funny how the BBC is highlighting our difficult evening, when our good performances in the US barely made a mention.

 

La Liga are planning their matches only 2 or 3 weeks in advance? WTF? That's ridiculous.

 

4-1 FT. Awful performance, despite the distinct lack of anything resembling a team.
Our academy is still producing one or two gems, but I worry about the overall quality and the vision behind it.
Our U23s seemed like a waste of time last season and there's too big a gap between them and the first team.

Just to highlight the missing players, here's a list:
Lloris, Trippier, Alderweireld, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Carter-Vickers, Foyth, Rose.
Dier, Wanyama, Sissoko, Dembele, Onomah, Winks, Alli, Eriksen, Lamela.
Kane, Janssen.

 

A lot of our first team players haven’t played a single minute of pre season. Should I be worried?

 

Probably. Our pre-seasons are always a shambles, but the World Cup and short transfer window seem to have made this one worse.
I'm expecting a typically slow start, as we get back up to speed while everyone else is already there.

 

Why did they agree to start the PL so early. I think starting a few weeks later would have made a huge difference and more sense.

 

I don't know, but I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest money. It usually is.

 

It does seem a bit of a shambles to start the season with our first team having had so little preparation together. I suppose commercially we have to take part in these overseas games. Spurs have more supporters groups in the USA than any other PL team. That would not have happened without some input from the club.
Perhaps also Levy is tied up with the stadium build it's hardly a normal season for us is it, so we have to be a little patient.

 

Money is dominating the PL teams they get it in in sack loads and can't wait to offload it then get more. How long before we put a monetary value on every goal and a bill for every goal conceded.

 

The commentator mentioned La Liga's scheduling decision, that I wasn't aware of prior to that.
They've planned the first few weeks and will then tell people when their games are at a later date.
Their fixtures for the weekend of the 15/16th of September are known, but not what day or time they're on, for example.

Want to go and watch Bilbao v Real in a little over a month?
Well it might on the 14th, 15th, 16th or 17th of September in any one of about 10 different time slots.
**** you, away fans. You're an utter irrelevance.

 

It's a long time now that top pro football has taken their fans for granted. They are herded like sheep and milked like cows . The whole success of football has been built on the support of fans who come to home games and now spend a lot of money following their team to away games however far away they are and yet, thanks mainly to SKY, it is now the fans who sit at home watching TV who are the priority. The only way to reverse that is for the fans who see the live games to organise and boycot games. That would stir things up quite rapidly but it's not going to happen and football knows that.

 

It's telling that the two biggest sporting draws on Sky, the Premier League and WWE, have both adopted the same stance that people who buy tickets are by far the least important facet of their entire business model, with TV deals and sponsorships being all they're interested in - and of the fans who do turn up, they're far more interested in the casuals who might turn up once in a while but will more likely buy a couple of armfuls of merch afterwards instead of those who turn up regularly and are content with buying one kit per season (and maybe a scarf if it gets chilly)

Of course, there's no obvious comparisons between how WWE is run by a senile malcontent who wastes the numerous talents at their disposal due to their stance that their product can only be made one way with no deviation from what worked many years ago in spite it being less effective now...

 

Hugo, what the bloody hell have you done to your hair???

 

OS will approve

 

He shaved his head with Giroud, IIRC. They said that they'd do it if they won the World Cup and they followed through on both.

 

It’s good to see people honouring their bets.

 

Based on his displays at the World Cup, it wouldn't surprise me if Giroud had a full head of hair...

 

Happy bunch of returnees!! Even Toby looks content..... and not booking a flight to Manchester!

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=i...F-8#sie=lg;/g/11hcnjgfmy;2;/m/0_s0sq4;st;fp;1

We might actually win the ICC cup/friendly tournament that our second string played in the US.
One game left on Aug 11th between Atletico and Inter. Inter need to win by 4 clear goals to overtake us.