The Spurs Thread

[Stoppy2000]

7 minutes ago, Jammy said:

Son looks a stone heavier and two yards slower this season as well. Don’t know what’s going on with him at all. Some people think it’s down to a poor link up with Perisic, but he’s been awful with Sessegnon and Royal too.

I think he just has been ground down by this style of football. No joy in it at all. Can't say I blame him. I expect him to immediately find form when the new boss is in place. 

[Shimmyhill]

Perisic has been awful every game I’ve seen him play in, I can’t think of a single moment that’s positive - we know he’s not a bad player and while hardly young I had high expectations when he signed - he either is missing the entire game, making defensive mistakes or running into corridors. Baffling and has seemingly taken Son down with him, I’ve never seen Son so static in the wing but you get the impression that he is just doing as he is told - it feels like we are watching the demise of Dele again 😞

 

Im surprised it’s 1100 and he hasn’t gone - the longer this goes on and we fall out of top 4, Kane gives up and is sold, the value of the club goes down - Even Levy will be able to see from a financial point of view now is the time to act let alone a football one!

[Stoppy2000]

17 minutes ago, Shimmyhill said:

Perisic has been awful every game I’ve seen him play in, I can’t think of a single moment that’s positive - we know he’s not a bad player and while hardly young I had high expectations when he signed - he either is missing the entire game, making defensive mistakes or running into corridors. Baffling and has seemingly taken Son down with him, I’ve never seen Son so static in the wing but you get the impression that he is just doing as he is told - it feels like we are watching the demise of Dele again 😞

 

Im surprised it’s 1100 and he hasn’t gone - the longer this goes on and we fall out of top 4, Kane gives up and is sold, the value of the club goes down - Even Levy will be able to see from a financial point of view now is the time to act let alone a football one!

But we've got Beyonce and a karting track! The success of the football club is the least important part. As long as we don't fall below 6th then it's job done for Levy. 

I'd fully accept a 6th place finish if the football was good to watch. The whole reason I started supporting spurs was because of the style of play.

I don't necessarily watch spurs to see us win trophies (good job really). I watch to be entertained. Conte has killed that. Even Jose had games where it was fun to watch. This is a shit show.

 

Totally agree on Perisic - he's been awful since the world cup. He's a Conte signing though so no chance he'll be taking any blame.

[Shimmyhill]

47 minutes ago, Stoppy2000 said:

But we've got Beyonce and a karting track! The success of the football club is the least important part. As long as we don't fall below 6th then it's job done for Levy. 

I'd fully accept a 6th place finish if the football was good to watch. The whole reason I started supporting spurs was because of the style of play.

I don't necessarily watch spurs to see us win trophies (good job really). I watch to be entertained. Conte has killed that. Even Jose had games where it was fun to watch. This is a shit show.

 

Totally agree on Perisic - he's been awful since the world cup. He's a Conte signing though so no chance he'll be taking any blame.

Football is still the cash cow but that’s based on a plan of consistent top four and sustaining that requires investment in players - as soon as you cut down revenue from footballing ‘business’ the. It all becomes more difficult and expensive hence the ‘value’ of the club is lowered - love him or hate him that’s the bottom line for Levy and while we were in the top 4, in Europe and pushing for a cup I doubt he cares about the quality of football but now that’s all gone he will care.

 

Conte is leagues better than the Jose era, back end of last season it looked like we would push on but this season has been awful from day one but even now we haven’t hit the lows of Jose.

[Stoppy2000]

I just haven't felt joy watching spurs for so long. I've had happiness when we've won but it's not been 'fun' really. As an entertainment product we are shocking.

The last good game I can remember is when we beat arsenal last season when they had a full on meltdown. 

[redbloodcell]

49 minutes ago, Shimmyhill said:

Conte is leagues better than the Jose era, back end of last season it looked like we would push on but this season has been awful from day one but even now we haven’t hit the lows of Jose.

 

This is what gets me about it, last season it looked like everything had started to click. Romero/Royal, Davies/Sessegnon and Bentancur/Hojbjerg looked like pairings that understood eachother and Son/Kane/Deki were absolutely devastating. In comparison everything this season just looks slow, disconnected, hesitant and lazy. Are Spurs players really that addicted to ketchup that any head coach who takes it away sees the team's form nosedive after about 6 months?! 

[davidcotton]

2 games until the international break (  ). Guessing that’s when it’ll happen regardless of results.  

[Stoppy2000]

24 minutes ago, davidcotton said:

2 games until the international break (  ). Guessing that’s when it’ll happen regardless of results.  

Let's hope so. Get him gone. 

[meatbin]

I'm already sick of all the replacement manager rumours.

 

Just get Poch in now and let's move on.

[Shimmyhill]

19 minutes ago, meatbin said:

I'm already sick of all the replacement manager rumours.

 

Just get Poch in now and let's move on.

This, I don’t want Tuchel and we know Poch wants to come back - it’s almost too simple….

[Stoppy2000]

2 hours ago, Shimmyhill said:

This, I don’t want Tuchel and we know Poch wants to come back - it’s almost too simple….

It's Tottenham so we'll probably appoint the new manager on the day before the new season starts. 

[Plissken]

Isn't the problem with Son the same as with Kane?  They look absolutely knackered. They haven't stopped playing for what, three calendar years?

 

Add in the mental exhaustion you get from working with someone like Conte and they've got to be completely fried. (I have no time for the "they're multi-millionaires playing a game", BTW, given the pressures on and off the pitch that come with being the figureheads of your national team.)

[meatbin]

1 hour ago, Plissken said:

Isn't the problem with Son the same as with Kane?  They look absolutely knackered. They haven't stopped playing for what, three calendar years?

 

Add in the mental exhaustion you get from working with someone like Conte and they've got to be completely fried. (I have no time for the "they're multi-millionaires playing a game", BTW, given the pressures on and off the pitch that come with being the figureheads of your national team.)

 

Great point.

 

There's also evidence to suggest that Son's downturn has come from the system, he's always got his back to goal at the moment and that's not where he thrives.   Perisic does not suit playing with Son at all, on the rare times we've seen Davies as LWB or sometimes Sess, Son has done well.

[Jammy]

On 09/03/2023 at 18:46, Shimmyhill said:

This, I don’t want Tuchel and we know Poch wants to come back - it’s almost too simple….

Tuchel had some very dodgy off-field habits allegedly.

[Jammy]

Well, we should probably be pleased for the win and performance, although that means Conte will labour on.

[Stoppy2000]

1 hour ago, Jammy said:

Well, we should probably be pleased for the win and performance, although that means Conte will labour on.

Yeah. Porro with an assist as well. One of the many awful things about the Milan performance was the appalling quality of our crossing. He looks way more likely to create something.

[Smoothy]

Am I the only one who thinks that Pochettino coming back isn't exactly the "panacea" that is believed?  I mean what has exactly changed since he left?  What is stopping Levy from low-balling him on his wages, giving him even less motification?  What's stopping Levy from continuing to pretend to invest in the team while actually trying to push players that the manager isn't completely convinced by?  Just remember, just because he gets signed doesn't necessarily mean that the team will suddenly get good, there are players still there who played awful and got us 5th in that Champions League final season, and then subsequently stunk up the beginning of the following season.

[meatbin]

Well, we actually finished 4th that season.

 

What's changed for Poch? Well one thing is that we're not building a stadium anymore or playing at Wembley.  It feels like the board are happy to spend bigger since the stadium has completed, and securing a larger revenue through both match days and events.

 

I think if Poch comes in, Kane stays.

[Shimmyhill]

21 minutes ago, Smoothy said:

Am I the only one who thinks that Pochettino coming back isn't exactly the "panacea" that is believed?  I mean what has exactly changed since he left?  What is stopping Levy from low-balling him on his wages, giving him even less motification?  What's stopping Levy from continuing to pretend to invest in the team while actually trying to push players that the manager isn't completely convinced by?  Just remember, just because he gets signed doesn't necessarily mean that the team will suddenly get good, there are players still there who played awful and got us 5th in that Champions League final season, and then subsequently stunk up the beginning of the following season.

 

I think the hope is that Levy can’t fail to see that Poch has been our most successful manger in recent history, has outperformed two ‘proven winners’ and maybe was right to let him build a team and invest in that plan - with Poch the plan was almost happening too fast, we never built up a squad over a period of time but had a first team that was able to compete with the best (similar to the situation we have now to be fair) but just lacked depth and that final push of investment.

 

Thats the hope, I dont want Tuchel or some other manager who relies on huge investment to buy success - remember how good it was to be a Spurs fan under Poch, he built more than just a team and while it did end on a low that was down to Levy.

[Jammy]

On balance I think Poch coming back would be good, as long as he’s learned a few things in the intervening years. A Plan B, not playing players out of position (Son at LWB in an FA Cup semi-final) and not playing players when they clearly aren’t fit, just because they want to play.

 

Non-plussed by Fonseca - he’s doing pretty averagely in Ligue Un, as he did in Serie A. Tuchel allegedly likes certain off-field things a little too much. Marco Silva has been bad as much as he’s been good.

 

I do like how De Zerbi has got Brighton playing, but think it might be a couple of years too early for him.

 

Luis Enrique ?

[SaintAnselm]

I think we should give the job to Ryan Mason, blow up the team and do a full rebuild NFL/NBA style.

 

While I am not being entirely serious with this suggestion, I also don’t think bringing Poch back and still relying on Kane and Son every week, will bring us any success either.

[Jammy]

2 hours ago, SaintAnselm said:

I think we should give the job to Ryan Mason, blow up the team and do a full rebuild NFL/NBA style.

 

While I am not being entirely serious with this suggestion, I also don’t think bringing Poch back and still relying on Kane and Son every week, will bring us any success either.

Agreed. If we could get £150m for Kane and Son this summer, and it was all going back into the team along with an existing decent transfer kitty, would you take it ?

[SaintAnselm]

4 hours ago, Jammy said:

Agreed. If we could get £150m for Kane and Son this summer, and it was all going back into the team along with an existing decent transfer kitty, would you take it ?

Yes, as to be brutally honest, as good as they both are, I find it hard to recall when either Kane or Son played well in the really big games.

 

Since Poch became manager in 2014, we have been in at least 3 cup finals, a handful of other semi-finals and of course we came pretty close in a couple of title challenges. But apart from Son scoring a few against City in the Champions League quarter-final, I struggle to remember when either of them scored in these games.

 

Face it, it’s doubtful we are going to ever win anything with them here, so we may as well sell them now before they get too old and worth nothing.

[Jammy]

I have to agree - I think the Poch-era players should probably go and whoever comes in should get the funds they need to completely rebuild.

[Shimmyhill]

I think it would be mad to see either, unless you have double the money we get for them we can’t replace them - look at how much Chelsea and Man U have spent trying to sign a striker that scores as many as Son has each season let alone Kane.

 

Son was joint top scorer in the league last season, unless we buy Salah or Haaland to replace him we are downgrading or taking a massive gamble, thats Son - Kane is even harder to replace.

 

Assuming we get a new manager we build around Kane and Son, we have so many positions needing an upgrade or even an actual player that can play that position that rolling the sell Bale dice again is the exact opposite of whats needed.

[redbloodcell]

Conte giving everyone both barrels, think there's no way he isn't gone over the international break:

 

 

 

 

[meatbin]

Here's the video of said rant:

 

https://twitter.com/Lilywhite_Rose/status/1637171887288512516?t=CE15ZiNswjXlruyQSGUZlg&s=19

 

He's toast, he'll be gone Monday morning 

[Stoppy2000]

He's not necessarily wrong. However his god awful tactics aren't helping. He never wanted to be there. We all knew it. 

[Smoothy]

I'm just surprised it wasn't Mourinho, he's used to doing this sort of thing just before he exits.  Spurs needed this though, we can make excuses many times but the fact is that we should be beating bottom-of-the-league Southampton every single fucking time by 5 or more.  We've been here time and time and time and time and time again, shitty club draws or beats Spurs.  

 

BlahblahConte'spartlyatfaultexcusesexcusesexcuses - who gives a shit?  We've had 20 years of managers who are supposedly "partly at fault".  Or maybe once a fucking gain the real rot is at the top - the ones who pick these fucking managers then proceeds to squeeze them time and time and time and time again?

 

It's a miracle we're fucking 4th, to be honest.  Utter miracle.  Cos the team are piss poor.

 

[Shimmyhill]

He does raise a fair point and while he has to carry some blame for not getting a tune out of the squad the lack of investment or ambition from the board has caught up with us again. Conte was never a manger to nurture youth or bring on players in the same way Jose wasn’t, both reply on the players they want in the positions they want to work to their plan - the board seemingly didnt learn and repeated the same mistake.

 

I still maintain our best 11 under Conte can take on anyone, we just can’t play the same 11 players every game as they get worn into the ground and repeatedly pick up injuries - having 1.5 quality centre backs in the squad is suicidal….

 

While im done with Conte I hold no ill will against him, he has proven with the right players playing his system we can be bloody good - flashes this year but the back end of last season is proof of that and guess what…. We didnt invest properly, sure we picked up a couple of very good midfielders but they have proven to be injury prone and we have far too many holding midfielders and no defence….

 

It really shows how poor the league is this season, we have been awful and yet we can still get fourth - mental.