The Spurs Thread

[esar]

Shit, I didn't know he was unwell. He was one of my heroes as a kid.

Steve Perryman, Glen Hoddle, Steve Archibald...those were the days *sniff*

[Frosty]

Well top 4 club again - but unlikely to help much. I can't see Bayern beating Chelsea despite being the superior team and Chelsea missing half their squad.

A shame but it should have been put to bed last week, golden opportunity when Arsenal dropped points but couldn't put away the worst Villa team I have ever seen.

Hard to call anything until after the Chelsea game - and even then we have the qualifiers in the way. I think it is fair to say Modric is going if Chelsea win though.

[Windowlicker]

Well top 4 club again - but unlikely to help much. I can't see Bayern beating Chelsea despite being the superior team and Chelsea missing half their squad.

A shame but it should have been put to bed last week, golden opportunity when Arsenal dropped points but couldn't put away the worst Villa team I have ever seen.

Hard to call anything until after the Chelsea game - and even then we have the qualifiers in the way. I think it is fair to say Modric is going if Chelsea win though.

I do like your temporary club badge, hope it works out for you.

[Frosty]

That is bloody marvellous. I was thinking I'd like to go to Germany sometime in the next year or so, and naturally I want to see a football game while I'm there as everyone swears by the Bundesliga atmosphere. It was just a case of picking a team to follow - Bayern seem a bit obvious and I did always like Dortmund when I was a kid in the 90s (they were good for a bit then and there kit was YELLOW!) but seems fate has conspired to make me a Bayern fan.

Chas and Dave to record a cover of Stern des Sudens?

[meatbin]

Shame we didn't make third, we really choked a few times this latter half of the season.

Next Saturday is going to be horrible, not knowing if we're in the Champs League makes for a vile week ahead.

What's more worrying is that if we don't make CL, I reckon Bale and Modric could be

[Frosty]

Who wants to start mindlessly speculating about signings for next season?! I do!

I think no matter what happens with the CL we should go in for Victor Moses of Wigan and Junior Hoilett of Blackburn because they are both young and aces. According to Opta Moses has the most dribbles in the league this season - which is probably a good thing! They'll give Bale and Lennon a bit of cover (Hoilett could probably start over Lennon) and fix one of our biggest problems this season - going tits up when there is no width.

I would also like an attempt to be made to sign Miralem Pjanic if Modric goes. Everything seems to have gone a bit wrong at Roma this season so I think it is not outside the rearms of possibility. I signed him for Spurs in Football Manager and he was bloody amazing so must be good in real life too.

Also as a Smiths fan his name has great potential for chants, especially at home but also for away games against Villa, Chelsea, Arsenal, QPR, Fulham and West Ham. And if we face them in the Cup: Birmingham, Hull, Leeds and Carlisle.

[redbloodcell]

If you feed him, he will score...

[Frosty]

[meatbin]

Who wants to start mindlessly speculating about signings for next season?! I do!

I think no matter what happens with the CL we should go in for Victor Moses of Wigan and Junior Hoilett of Blackburn because they are both young and aces. According to Opta Moses has the most dribbles in the league this season - which is probably a good thing! They'll give Bale and Lennon a bit of cover (Hoilett could probably start over Lennon) and fix one of our biggest problems this season - going tits up when there is no width.

I would also like an attempt to be made to sign Miralem Pjanic if Modric goes. Everything seems to have gone a bit wrong at Roma this season so I think it is not outside the rearms of possibility. I signed him for Spurs in Football Manager and he was bloody amazing so must be good in real life too.

Also as a Smiths fan his name has great potential for chants, especially at home but also for away games against Villa, Chelsea, Arsenal, QPR, Fulham and West Ham. And if we face them in the Cup: Birmingham, Hull, Leeds and Carlisle.

Nice.

I'd be happy for us to approach for Ben Foster as competition for Friedle, surely that legend only has one more season left in him. I think it we should also recall Pienaar and find a position for him, would add great depth to the squad.

If we can afford to keep Ade then that would be great, I reckon Defoe is off though despite his 17 goals this season.

[redbloodcell]

I cannot think of a signing that has "Harry Redknapp" written over it more. At least he scores goals...

[Frosty]

Yea, but then he did play under Harry before at Pompey and was sold off fairly quickly... for a boatload of cash admittedly.

I suppose Ryan Nelsen would appreciate having someone else born in the 70s around

[humdrum]

Shame we didn't make third, we really choked a few times this latter half of the season.

Next Saturday is going to be horrible, not knowing if we're in the Champs League makes for a vile week ahead.

What's more worrying is that if we don't make CL, I reckon Bale and Modric could be

The problem is its not all over next Saturday for you, 4th only gets you into the CL qualifier so you won't know for sure until right at the end of the transfer window. it would almost have been better to finish 5th and know what was happening then go into the limbo that is 4th.

I think your biggest problem will be signing Adebayor up full time (affording his wages unless City help out and maybe an approach from Juve) and trying to keep Bale & modric(as above even if bayern win, a place in the group stages isn't a for gone conclusion.). as I said above the 4th spot is kind of a poisoned chalice what with the not knowing until the season has already started (and teams being reluctant to sell their best players late in the day as it where.), and with the way the qualifiers work now its likely to be a fairly decent team you will have to play if bayern do you a favour.

I know coming from an Arsenal fan this is going to seem like trolling, but its really not meant that way.

[Shimmyhill]

Its a fair point and if Chelsea win Arsenal drop into qualifying so even finishing third isn't a guarantee of group stages next season!

I think we need to sign Ade, he has been great for us and its not just his goals (although it is nice having someone who can score a pen!) as his hold up play and ability to go past people is often overlooked - great player IMO.

[meatbin]

That is a good point humdrum, it's going to be a long summer of transfer rumours.

Shimmy I completely agree, Ade has been great for the team and comes with a lot of winning experience, would love to see him stay but I'm not sure it's possible.

[redbloodcell]

He does seem to really like it at the club so hopefully some kind of deal can be done. He needs a good like for like backup/competition as well though, as do Lennon and Bale.

I wouldn't mind if we kept Defoe personally, he showed why he's an excellent option to have yesterday and being able to shift style like that is useful. However if he wants to move on then fair enough, we've got Saha for another year I think and also the lad Coulibaly who would probably relish a few sub apps.

[Charliemouse]

Until we got the new stadium, 4th or maybe 3rd place is really the best we are likely to achieve for now so in a lot of ways, this season has been pretty good really.

In terms of new players coming in, well we definitely need a centre back to partner Kaboul, we need at least one player who can cover the wings and depending if we sign Ade or not one or two strikers who can both play up front on their own.

The future does look bright though, we have some great players coming through the youth ranks, Caulker could well end up being Kaboul's partner next season as he was pretty awesome for Swansea and at 20 is very young for a centre back and looks a better player than either Jones or Smalling in my opinion. Livermore will take Jenas's spot in the squad now and I am hoping we keep Naughton next season as cover for both full back positions as he has proved himself he can cut it at this level while at Norwich

Players to leave? Well Defoe should go , he has had a decent season but he hardly ever scores against anyone good, can not play up front on his own and I don't think I will ever forgive him for that miss at Man City which could have changed our whole season if it had gone in. Jenas and Krancjer can both go , Gio too and we surely have to find some poor sucker to take Bentley off our hands.

It is going to be a very interesting summer I think and I just hope what ever happens about the Champions League, we get back to buying young players again as Redknapp has bought in far too many old players for me recently and they have not really worked out with the exceptions of Friedal and Parker

[redbloodcell]

Looks like our new kit may have leaked from an Under Armour presentation:

[Charliemouse]

Does not look too bad, apart from the Newcastle a like 3rd kit.

[cantonarv]

It is going to be a very interesting summer I think and I just hope what ever happens about the Champions League, we get back to buying young players again as Redknapp has bought in far too many old players for me recently and they have not really worked out with the exceptions of Friedal and Parker

Saha scored 4 in 11 not too shabby, Friedal and Parker both excellent. So just Neilson really is the only one that is not good, and he cost hardly anything so good business anyway.

[Charliemouse]

Apart from the Newcastle game Saha was pretty shit really.

Last like last season the January transfer window was a wasted opportunity as with better signings third would have been ours quite comfortably.

[Frosty]

What we could really use is a Thomas Muller type player - big, strong, quick and good on the ball, can play anywhere in midfield and up front.

That couldn't be too hard to find.

[Frosty]

I had a horrible dream last night, it started with Chelsea winning the Champions League.

After they had, and our fate in the europa league was confirmed, Modric left. And then the truly horrifying thing happened, 'Arry signed Joe Cole from Liverpool - citing his invigoration (no he didn't use that word) in the French league.

I woke up in a cold sweat.

Triffic.

[Shimmyhill]

Dream, thats a nightmare mate

Im thinking that Modric will go, I'm hoping that Bale will stay - we need to add quality and not lose it.

[mercenarri]

Redknapp said in an interview how he won't sell in the summer because it'll be going backwards as a club. Let's see if he holds true to his words, lol.

Honestly, I think Modric is a fine all round player, but he is easily replaceable. I'm more worried about losing Bale than anyone else. The way we seem to rip teams apart (from Bolton to Inter Milan) is down both our flanks.

I like Krancjer, he can always come on and change the way we play if we've ran out of ideas, so I hope he stays. I'd welcome Defoe to stay too, but only as a backup striker. We need someone else up there with Ade, our chances:converstion ratio hasn't been great, so hopefully Harry will go out in the summer to find someone.

It's frustrating because we're so close to having the depth to become a title/top 3 challenging team, you'd hope Levy/Redknapp make some smart decisions in the next couple of months.

[meatbin]

It's such a weird feeling to have had such a great season but come away with nothing.

We could have played better in the FA Cup semi-final, and we should have beat Aston Villa on the penultimate game of the season, which could have sealed us third place.

Let's just hope Arsenal don't make it through the qualifying stage of the Champions League

[Charliemouse]

As someone said Modric is replaceable, for example if Real Madrid are looking at him then I would happily take £20-25 million of them if they chuck in Sahin as well.

He would be an almost perfect replacement for Modric and we would have the money to get the striker and the Wide player we need to replace/back up Lennon.

We can not sell Bale though and Levy better let Redknapp buy the players he wants and not make him sign over the hill 34 year olds on the last day of the transfer window again.

[Shimmyhill]

I was at a wedding for the CL final with a Spurs supporting mate, we had no 3g so couldn't sky go it so had the old sky sports app updating slowly on gprs! Come the shoot out and 4 of us disappeared to listen to it in a car, was truly horrible going from elation of Chelsea missing to Drogba winning it but perhaps fitting for him..

However, once the sadness had faded you have to say that at the start of the season 4th would have been a good return for the season but having played so well for so long it is a failure and now we may well lose players due to the CL its a potential problem for the club.

You have to blame Harry for it really, so many times we played formations that didn't suit the players we have and we didn't buy any depth in January - its very sad that we have a better team and squad than the third place team and its worse still that its Arsenal that lumbered into that spot due to out failures and not their team being brilliant.

I hope Levy releases some decent funds and we invest in some younger players - Ince from Blackpool looked good and seemed to play our style of wing work and there are many other young players coming through - i hope we take a bit of a leaf from Newcastles books and sign several up and coming payers rather than blow any money on the odd 'star'

[Charliemouse]

You are right Shimmy, we must go back to buying up and coming players that has served as so well these last last few years, I am sure with good scouting we can find another Modric or take a chance on a player from the lower leagues like we did with Lennon, Bale and Walker. Finding a top striker will be the hardest one to find but there are always some cheap gems out there , you just have to look that little bit harder.

We also must get the new stadium built as quickly as possible as currently we are punching way above our weight with the capacity WHL has now.

[redbloodcell]

Well Adebayor still wants to stay, that's some good news.

[Charliemouse]

Can we afford to keep him though ? and is he really worth the money he wants. Yeah he was good for most of the season but for me he still misses far too many chances to demand the silly money he gets paid.

But and its a pretty huge but, I don't think we can either afford or attract any one better so if he is willing to take less than 100k a week we may as well keep him and try to find a young understudy for less than £10 million.