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Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Sheffield United

Discussion in 'Tottenham Hotspur' started by PleaseNotPoll, Nov 8, 2019.

  1. Citizen Kane.

    Citizen Kane. Well-Known Member

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    Roma reportedly offered no higher than £12m.

    By all accounts, we did everything we could to clear players out. Selling Trippier for a surprisingly low fee (most fans felt that £25-30m would be the minimum he'd go for) and finally finding permanent solutions for GKN and Janssen support this theory. As does the fact that we left Rose and Aurier at home and picked up the phone to Roma despite knowing that their opening bid was under £10m. And no-one aside for Spurlock was saying that not a single big club would move for Eriksen.

    Bottom line is, what's done is done. Ultimately the host of players we wanted rid of in July will be even harder to get rid of in January. And even if we accept a low-ball bid, which of them would be willing to accept a wage cut at this stage? Our greatest hope is that some buffoon from China or the States wakes up one morning thinking Wanyama is able to run.

    So all of this adds up to an increasingly large net spend across the next 2 windows. I can't see us bringing in more than £50-60m combined for the 5 players we're desperate to move on.
     
    #141
  2. Dier Hard

    Dier Hard G'day mate!

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    Honeymoon periods tend to be for managers with little expectations of them from the wider community as they tend to manage sides who also have relatively small expectations. We're in need of a manager to come in and manage a team full of quality individuals. We don't essentially need a honeymoon period, we just need a manager to get this team playing to it's capability.

    It probably is lost. Hence why I'd rather someone new at the helm to start implementing their style, getting results, getting players in Jan and the summer to then get us fighting for a top four spot again next season.

    I massively disagree with it being an inevitable consequence. Most of us, yourself included, predicted a top three finish and a trophy, I don't think one person on Spurly's season expectations thread anticipated this sort of season panning out. And of course we should be doing better, our squad is still of higher quality than anyone in the league bar Pool and City. I could live with slightly underperforming by being outperformed by Chelsea and maybe even Leicester as they've recruited well, but outperformed by Burnley, Bournemouth, Sheff Utd, Wolves, Brighton, Palace and Newcastle so far? Sorry that's a big no-no and I don't care if that makes me sound arrogant, I know the quality of this squad and it's not befitting of a team sitting in 14th.

    I'd say right now he doesn't have a plan of any sort. He doesn't know his best XI, he doesn't know his best formation, he doesn't have an identity in terms of the "Poch Press" any more and his demeanour and attitude stinks. It's no wonder our style of play is turgid.

    ENIC will know that sacking Poch means they'll have to get a manager of the right pedigree. If we sack Poch and go for a nobody journeyman I'll join anyone in calling for them to **** off. ENIC will have to hire an elite manager, everyone knows my preferred choice, he's certainly not a yes man either.
     
    #142
  3. The RDBD

    The RDBD Well-Known Member

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    So your position is that this season, as of now :

    1. PL top 4 is not happening

    2. Put all the eggs in the CL basket, as Chelsky did in 2012

    3. FA Cup win is the only domestic target (as it may placate some supporters
    if 1/2 do not come to pass) .
     
    #143
  4. Roo

    Roo Well-Known Member

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    1. No. We’re already too far behind. Others may disagree.

    2. I’d be tempted to throw the CL and go for the Europa, but it looks like not even we can “spursy” that now. It’ll need a miracle for us to not qualify.

    3. Any trophy would be amazing, yes.
     
    #144
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  5. Spurf

    Spurf Thread Mover
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    2008 2 points from 8 games finished 8th.
    2019 14 points from 12 games finish? 4th? is still possible.

    Let's see what happens

    Funny thing if we had won the next 4 games after 2 points from 8 we would end up with 14 points from 12 games. Did we do that?
     
    #145
  6. Spurf

    Spurf Thread Mover
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    In fact we beat Bolton drew with Arsenal, beat Liverpool and lost to Man City. so we actually ended up with
    9 points from 12 games so we are ahead of the game
     
    #146
  7. Dier Hard

    Dier Hard G'day mate!

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    Proof that we need to change manager then ;)
     
    #147
  8. Spurf

    Spurf Thread Mover
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    Proof of nothing really :emoticon-0100-smile
    I did suggest we should call Harry in as a consultant. some time back.
     
    #148
  9. Dier Hard

    Dier Hard G'day mate!

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    I’d say it proved Harry was better suited to managing that particular team than Ramos was.

    Ramos isn’t/ wasn’t a bad manager, he just couldn’t get the best out of the team there.

    Similar to the current scenario. Poch isn’t a bad manager, far from it, he’s just struggling to get this team to play well.
     
    #149
  10. Spurf

    Spurf Thread Mover
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    OK but Ramos did not have the track record with Spurs that Pochettino has and that's the important difference. He has already taken us to greater heights than any other manager in the PL era has and therefore has earned a little patience from us to see if he can turn this around. United did such a thing with Fergusson and ended up with their best ever manager. Pochettino has been too good for Spurs to chuck him at the first sign of difficulties especially when it's not apparent that it is ALL his fault. Taking us to the final of the CL has earned him a little leeway IMO.
     
    #150
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  11. Dier Hard

    Dier Hard G'day mate!

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    If there had been signs of a turnaround I’d be more willing to have patience but since February we’ve been shocking in the Premier League. He’s actually been lucky the form has been split over two seasons because had our run of 25 points from 24 games been in one season, we’d be in serious danger of relegation with that sort of form.

    As for the champions league, the very player that got us there was subsequently dropped for the final whilst two players who had been injured for many weeks went straight into the XI. Getting to the CL final was great but Poch has to shoulder a lot of the blame for our limp performance and poor team selection.
     
    #151
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  12. Spurf

    Spurf Thread Mover
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    BUT he got us there
     
    #152
  13. Dier Hard

    Dier Hard G'day mate!

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    And the player mostly responsible was dropped. We then failed in that very final miserably.

    Not the first time we’ve been limp in a big game under him either. Now we’re just limp in every game.
     
    #153
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  14. Spurf

    Spurf Thread Mover
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    It was a decision made by the guy whose decisions had enabled us to reach the final. So he gets us to the final and suddenly his decision making is crap. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm not sure.

    Al;though of course like most Spurs fans I would have picked Lucas to play. I just don't think I could have got us to the CL final so I bow to the judgement of MP.
     
    #154
  15. Dier Hard

    Dier Hard G'day mate!

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    And the judgements and decisions of Poch is currently leading us towards a relegation scrap - and we've been in relegation form since February. He's managing to do this with a squad of quality players, too.
     
    #155
  16. Spurf

    Spurf Thread Mover
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    There is no doubt he is struggling DH and is facing a situation he has not had to deal with before. Just as Fergusson did at United in fact lots of successful people have gone through periods of apparent failure the good ones learn from it and as a result become much better leaders and that's why with Pochettino's track record with us over 5 years I think we would be better just giving him some more time. The alternative is unknown and having seen 50 odd years of Spurs managers most of them are poor we need to be very careful in this situation. Caution could lead us to greater things changing our manager now could lead to years and years of mediocrity and that's what we have had mostly at Spurs in recent years.
     
    #156
  17. Dier Hard

    Dier Hard G'day mate!

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    His track record, as it was with Espanyol and Southampton, was successful due to having little expectations. Hence why I believe he works better when not much is expected of him.

    His training methods is seemingly suited to young and hungry players. They buy into his work hard philosophy and that's why we saw at Saints and us especially, the emergence of many breakout stars. Yet now he's got an experienced squad, he's struggling to manage it. We're getting loads of injuries, likely due to players now struggling with his intense regime having done it for multiple years and tactically we're not playing well enough for a side of our stature and experience.

    We've seen in big games Poch's struggles. He was outsmarted by the man in my avatar a couple seasons back. He made a cock-up against Chelsea in the FA Semi a few years back by playing Son LWB. He made a cock-up with the selection in the CL final by dropping Lucas. He tends to have a mental block in these big games. The problem we're now facing is he's seemingly having mental blocks in the smaller games, with his team being out played by the likes of Sheff Utd and Brighton whilst being out smarted by Steve Bruce...

    This is no longer just a bad patch, since February we've been diabolical. He's had a summer to refocus, adjust and have a rest period for the squad, yet we're no better now than we were when Burnley out played us at Turf Moor.

    For me, there's now more of a risk to the club by keeping him than there is trying to go for a top level manager.
     
    #157
  18. Citizen Kane.

    Citizen Kane. Well-Known Member

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    I'd say the biggest difference when you compare the squad inherited by Harry to what it is now, is that whilst both were/are definitely underperforming, Harry inherited a group of players with plenty of untapped potential. In Bale, Benny, Kaboul, Charlie, Lennon, Niko, Rose and Luka he had a core of very young, very hungry players who only really started to hit their stride in the years after his arrival. And the older more experienced players in that group (Ledley, Daws, JJ, Defoe, Crouch, Carlo) were consummate professionals leading by example. True, he deserves enormous credit for inspiring them to reach the heights that they did playing gorgeous football, but the contrast is stark: our current squad is in almost terminal decline and anyone under the age of 23 is either a new signing or not good enough, while anyone with experience is either past it or disinterested.
     
    #158
  19. Dier Hard

    Dier Hard G'day mate!

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    He didn't inherit all of those though, he signed Kaboul, Kranjcar, Defoe and Crouch having worked with them all at Pompey.

    Our squad is nowhere near as bad as some are making out. You yourself said this just a few months back on Spurly's season expectations thread:
    Now suddenly we're on a decline and players aren't good enough? Just don't buy it I'm afraid. Yes we have some who should've been sold and shouldn't be playing but we still have a squad of players that should be in the top four, at the very least top six right now. Not struggling against newly promoted sides or getting spanked at Brighton.

    I agree that it looks disinterested but that's when questions need to be asked. Why are they? What is being done to change that? Why is it that regardless of who plays in the league they're underperforming?
     
    #159
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  20. remembercolinlee

    remembercolinlee Well-Known Member

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    Harry actually bought Kaboul, Defoe, Keane and Chimbonda back in Jan 09 after they'd all been sold (Rsmos only wanted Keane to stay).
    He also bought Niko Kranjar and iirc he bought Corluka too (but not too sure on him). He also bought Crouch and Cudicini.

    What he inherited was s very unbalanced squad.
     
    #160

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