2010/11 spuds were ahead of us and we swung 15 points in two months to overtake them too.... Despite playIng with ten men after we signed Nando
http://www.theshedend.com/topic/22444-chelsea-vs-qpr-pl-020113-ko-1945-gmt/ Great thread, well worth a read. The sheer arrogance
EC, I don't know how old you are so you might only have been supporting the Blues post Abramovich takeover. If so you might not realise how hard it is for Clubs to compete with Clubs like yourselves, United, City etc. On sheer numbers alone Spurs shouldn't be anywhere near you, never mind 15 points ahead. The Chelsea of the nineties found it very difficult to compete with the top Clubs for the very same reason. It all boils down to the mighty Dollar / Pound. Its just my own opinion of course but I think Spurs have done very well to simply break into the top four never mind anything else.
We came four points off the title 98/9 against United's treble winning side and a VG arsenal side (double winners 97/8). It can be done
You were 15 points behind Arsenal in '98 but yes you finished in the top 4 2 years in a row. What kind of money were you spending then? Were you amongst the top 4 in that regard? If not then you are correct, it was a very good achievement. And IF you weren't among the top spenders, it proves that it can be done. However, you're kind of proving my point in that if it was a good achievement for Chelsea, it was also a good achievement for the Spuds.
We spent big money then but not Abramo style and we got within four points of the title 98/9. Spurs barely got within 20 points of the title: that's the difference. Different eras I know but Harry had a good side and should have got into CL more than once choking in the run-in 10/11 and 11/12
Who's the better Manager, EC. Harry or AVB? Obviously they're at opposite ends of the age spectrum but there doesn't seem to be an awful lot between their Spurs sides......so far. I actually thought AVB should have been given more time with you boys but I was proved wrong when Di Matteo came in and won all before him.
Defoe got like 3 goals that season too. 15 points? You finished 9 points above us, at what point in March were we 6 above you? Anyway, no one will ever beat missing out on 4 trophies and being effectively out of the league by January. Only T̶h̶e̶ ̶C̶h̶a̶m̶p̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶E̶u̶r̶o̶p̶e̶ could manage that
Sorry it was 17 point swing between beginning of Feb (two points behind) and beginning of April (15 ahead). Chelsea generally do the business at the business end if the season. We'll leave the January trophies to Spurs. When's the DVD out?
Love the nonsense, if you are going to argue then do so don't use dubious facts, Ramos put them there in danger, they were chasing 4th the season before under Jol you complete tool Arry continued the good work Jol had done. he took them up 1 place for 2 seasons
Well that is the most impressive spinning of the facts I've ever come across. You don't work for Fianna Fail by any chance do you?
If it's so easy to take a team that's been midtable for 2 seasons into the top 4, why have Dalglish and Rodgers struggled so much despite having bigger budgets? It's because next to 'Arry they're ****e, isn't it?
you're not remembering it correctly and Harry had a squad costing a lot more than any Liverpool side Benitez ever managed.
I wouldn't be that surprised if you're counting the whole squad. There were plenty of players like Bentley and Bent who Redknapp that were crap and nothing to do with him. You also have to take into account the Comolli effect that biases it, like if you were to take the value of Liverpool's squad last summer, you have Henderson, Downing, Carroll and other wastes of space that add up to about £100mill. It also ignores the fact that whilst Gerrard and Carragher would count as free, they were on big wages which is why they kept them for so long. We weren't in a position to do that so lost players that we got cheap who did well and spent the profit made on replacing them. The easiest way of showing what I mean is the Keane example, we bought him for £7mill but he'd count as £13mill in any list as Liverpool bought him for £20mill and sold him back to us for a loss. If Liverpool had to sell and buy back Gerrard and the likes their figures would be a lot different. If you compared wages and net transfer spend 'Arry's figures wouldn't even come close.
Well they are both pretty good managers anyway. In parochial terms, Harry may be the more respected manager. But outside the world of little Englanders rafa is more respected. He has reached 3 CL finals and won two league titles
It's true and yes (how dare I) I included the whole squad Benitez inherited a worthless squad that needed a complete rebuild. Ged left us in a state from the reserves all the way through. We had a handful of good players most of which were eventually let go on frees or a pittance due to age.
Yid, that's some mouthful. And I haven't a clue what you're banging on about! Suffice to say, I believe Benitez spent a load of money including transfers and wages and no tracksuit-wearing, afro scouse C*NT is going to convince me otherwise.
