Sold and bought but still struggling.

[Don]

Howdy all,
I see us in a transitional period, but saying that we should have spent the money (from Bale) more wisely. We should have complimented the team and bought where and when and not spend it all in one go. I have heard the saying that we sold Elvis and bought the Beatles. With hindsight, we bought the Singing Nun (if anybody remembers them and their one hit wonder?). They were flash in the pans and never had a follow up hit. Since then we have had three managers in quick succession. Now we’ve got a compatriot of Villa and Ardiles. Will he or won’t he? Don’t know? As that old dog of a sayings go, only time will tell. But time can throw up many curved balls. I am still keeping my fingers crossed.
When I look to the present I am always reminded of our glory days. Bill Nicholson was a great manager, will anybody truly fit into his shoes?
This is just my opinion but I am interested in your thoughts?

[Spursx]

Howdy all,
I see us in a transitional period, but saying that we should have spent the money (from Bale) more wisely. We should have complimented the team and bought where and when and not spend it all in one go. I have heard the saying that we sold Elvis and bought the Beatles. With hindsight, we bought the Singing Nun (if anybody remembers them and their one hit wonder?). They were flash in the pans and never had a follow up hit. Since then we have had three managers in quick succession. Now we’ve got a compatriot of Villa and Ardiles. Will he or won’t he? Don’t know? As that old dog of a sayings go, only time will tell. But time can throw up many curved balls. I am still keeping my fingers crossed.
When I look to the present I am always reminded of our glory days. Bill Nicholson was a great manager, will anybody truly fit into his shoes?
This is just my opinion but I am interested in your thoughts?

Levy needs to do something quickly otherwise we will end up being a laughing stock of the Premier league. One of those things he needs to do is give his manager a chance. He also needs to bring his own players in.

[Glenn R]

Howdy all,
I see us in a transitional period, but saying that we should have spent the money (from Bale) more wisely. We should have complimented the team and bought where and when and not spend it all in one go. I have heard the saying that we sold Elvis and bought the Beatles. With hindsight, we bought the Singing Nun (if anybody remembers them and their one hit wonder?). They were flash in the pans and never had a follow up hit. Since then we have had three managers in quick succession. Now we’ve got a compatriot of Villa and Ardiles. Will he or won’t he? Don’t know? As that old dog of a sayings go, only time will tell. But time can throw up many curved balls. I am still keeping my fingers crossed.
When I look to the present I am always reminded of our glory days. Bill Nicholson was a great manager, will anybody truly fit into his shoes?
This is just my opinion but I am interested in your thoughts?

Levy needs to do something quickly otherwise we will end up being a laughing stock of the Premier league. One of those things he needs to do is give his manager a chance. He also needs to bring his own players in.

I agree that he needs to give the manager a chance, however, how long is that chance is another good question.

[Blackjack]

The problem is our new style of play v the type of squad players we have!, we have been so used to playing the english style 4-4-2, getting the ball down the flanks and whipping quick crosses into the box!, quick couter attacking football with plenty of experience and quality in the team!.
Harry Rednapp got the right balance and we improved immensly but the court case and the England fiasco bludgened a very good managerial time for Tottenham football club!, we never won a trophy but qualifying for the champions league was as good as!, we had real quality players especialy forward players, Modric, Bale, RVT, Defoe, Keane, players that could change games with there creativity!, we had a young Lennon busting a gut down the wing and our lightning counters at times was breathtaking, this for me was the best era our club had seen for a long time!, when Levy sacked Harry and tired the young manager aproach I was very optomistic but it became quickly apparant that there was a real fatal flaw in AVB tactics!, he want us to play the continental style with one up front and flood the midfield, have the lions share of possession and win games by closing the oppossition down in there own half!, this sounds great but what he failed to realise and now MP if he is not careful is this only works with a team of players who are used to playing the system all the time and I dont mean give them a season to work on it and it will be fine! I mean players who have grown up playing like it!, the Sivas, Fabregas, Messi, Aguero! players comfortable with possession in close quaters, have the quality to move the ball and find space! these players bring other players into games and help bring the best out of others aswell as giving valuable leassons to the yourth players by inspiring them to play like that!, we know that Italy, Spain, Argentina, Brazil teach technical skills from a very young age, ball controll paramount, this is why there are so many great foreign players now especially in the EPL!, unfortunatly they cost the earth to bring in so the only way forward and best way in my opinion is to go back to what we do best and play the english way with two upfront, a big striker and one with pace!, wingers they stay on the wing and get plenty of quality in the box!, im not saying go back to long ball far from it! Im saying if your going to play continental then buy only the best from the right countries!, no taking chances great players or not any! and if we cant bring in the great continental players then go back to the english way and bring in home grown players who have learnt to play that way!!!, the current squad and system is just not good enough, fit enough and have the desire to win, technicaly we have only a couple of players like Ericksen and Lamela who can move a ball well enough!, our strikers lack any real pace so no defence in the world is frightened of them!, they play on there own which is not there best style! ( Soldado played as the second striker in Italy ) was prolific!!! yet we only seem to play him on his own!!! this is not helped by us buying Chadli who I like but lacks any real pace, he wants to come inside!, Lamela is also more effective in a central midfield role and he too lacks the real speed to play as a winger!, we have Townsend who seems to think he has to be the next Bale so he cuts inside! are you getting the picture!, we bought a world class striker but do not posses the flank players to give him regular quality in the box to thrive on! added to not having a strike partner we see the outcome evident right now...he is miss fireing and inactive most of the time!.
Our midfield is overflowing with CMs or DEFENSIVE MIDFIELD players who are young which is ok but they do not add a goal threat and when playing in the 5 midfield system get so congested they become clueless,!!! lets see who we bought Capouue, Bentaleb, Paulihno! only one is a goal threat but is never near the box hardly as he is marked in the middle of midfield as he is surrounded by his own players only feet away and has no outlet to feed the ball to, to make a run! the other two are average at best and lose possession to easily!.
Now our defence!!! well Chiriches is nothing short of a liability, has no clue on how to defend! the only good thing he is good at is carrying the ball into the midfield, losing it and then leaving a 40 yard empty whole behind!, Danny Rose I like but he is trying to play the wing back role! unfortunatly its just to much! he either plays as left back or they try him as a winger!, Vertonghan I thought was a great signing at first but you can now see as things have declined he looks like he will jump ship at the first call this mentality has now ruined his game!, he is playing far to relaxed and is making just as many mistakes as any back four we have!, this coupled with our LB and RB bombing forward to try and give us some width means we are left so exposed when they lose the ball that any team with a pace will destroy us on the break!, you can not play a high line with this way of playing!, overall we are in free fall unless we make the right tranfer decission for the right style of football and not have such a miss match that we have now.

[dimexi]

Great Post Blackjack! I agree with everything you said. Until we decide upon the philosophy we want to adhere to and then back that up with action from the top to the bottom of our club, we will continue to look clueless.

[Metalanimal]

Blackjack, you hit the nail on the head mate.  Not much to add really as said it all on another post.

All I would add is that we are currently in rapid decline and in serious trouble, I hope MP can turn it around and gets some support from Levy in January however I fear this will not happen.

[Jane]

The problem is our new style of play v the type of squad players we have!, we have been so used to playing the english style 4-4-2, getting the ball down the flanks and whipping quick crosses into the box!, quick couter attacking football with plenty of experience and quality in the team!.
Harry Rednapp got the right balance and we improved immensly but the court case and the England fiasco bludgened a very good managerial time for Tottenham football club!, we never won a trophy but qualifying for the champions league was as good as!, we had real quality players especialy forward players, Modric, Bale, RVT, Defoe, Keane, players that could change games with there creativity!, we had a young Lennon busting a gut down the wing and our lightning counters at times was breathtaking, this for me was the best era our club had seen for a long time!, when Levy sacked Harry and tired the young manager aproach I was very optomistic but it became quickly apparant that there was a real fatal flaw in AVB tactics!, he want us to play the continental style with one up front and flood the midfield, have the lions share of possession and win games by closing the oppossition down in there own half!, this sounds great but what he failed to realise and now MP if he is not careful is this only works with a team of players who are used to playing the system all the time and I dont mean give them a season to work on it and it will be fine! I mean players who have grown up playing like it!, the Sivas, Fabregas, Messi, Aguero! players comfortable with possession in close quaters, have the quality to move the ball and find space! these players bring other players into games and help bring the best out of others aswell as giving valuable leassons to the yourth players by inspiring them to play like that!, we know that Italy, Spain, Argentina, Brazil teach technical skills from a very young age, ball controll paramount, this is why there are so many great foreign players now especially in the EPL!, unfortunatly they cost the earth to bring in so the only way forward and best way in my opinion is to go back to what we do best and play the english way with two upfront, a big striker and one with pace!, wingers they stay on the wing and get plenty of quality in the box!, im not saying go back to long ball far from it! Im saying if your going to play continental then buy only the best from the right countries!, no taking chances great players or not any! and if we cant bring in the great continental players then go back to the english way and bring in home grown players who have learnt to play that way!!!, the current squad and system is just not good enough, fit enough and have the desire to win, technicaly we have only a couple of players like Ericksen and Lamela who can move a ball well enough!, our strikers lack any real pace so no defence in the world is frightened of them!, they play on there own which is not there best style! ( Soldado played as the second striker in Italy ) was prolific!!! yet we only seem to play him on his own!!! this is not helped by us buying Chadli who I like but lacks any real pace, he wants to come inside!, Lamela is also more effective in a central midfield role and he too lacks the real speed to play as a winger!, we have Townsend who seems to think he has to be the next Bale so he cuts inside! are you getting the picture!, we bought a world class striker but do not posses the flank players to give him regular quality in the box to thrive on! added to not having a strike partner we see the outcome evident right now...he is miss fireing and inactive most of the time!.
Our midfield is overflowing with CMs or DEFENSIVE MIDFIELD players who are young which is ok but they do not add a goal threat and when playing in the 5 midfield system get so congested they become clueless,!!! lets see who we bought Capouue, Bentaleb, Paulihno! only one is a goal threat but is never near the box hardly as he is marked in the middle of midfield as he is surrounded by his own players only feet away and has no outlet to feed the ball to, to make a run! the other two are average at best and lose possession to easily!.
Now our defence!!! well Chiriches is nothing short of a liability, has no clue on how to defend! the only good thing he is good at is carrying the ball into the midfield, losing it and then leaving a 40 yard empty whole behind!, Danny Rose I like but he is trying to play the wing back role! unfortunatly its just to much! he either plays as left back or they try him as a winger!, Vertonghan I thought was a great signing at first but you can now see as things have declined he looks like he will jump ship at the first call this mentality has now ruined his game!, he is playing far to relaxed and is making just as many mistakes as any back four we have!, this coupled with our LB and RB bombing forward to try and give us some width means we are left so exposed when they lose the ball that any team with a pace will destroy us on the break!, you can not play a high line with this way of playing!, overall we are in free fall unless we make the right tranfer decission for the right style of football and not have such a miss match that we have now.

Good post and yes we are in free fall.

Jane x

[RiffHard]

I think the fans should actually look in the mirror as well. Have you noticed how many players who we have dubbed "not good enough" have moved on and flourished? And even when not flourished, at least played good football? Of course, some of the players have left us because they were getting too old etc. Nevertheless, which of the new players (signed in 2013 or 2014) are better than Caulker, Dempsey, Huddlestone, Parker, Defoe, van der Vaart, dos Santos, Sigurðsson, Dawson and Sandro? Yes, they all had their flaws, but compared to the present lot?! Honestly?! We want the constant reshuffling and here we are now.
(I didn't include Modrić and Bale on purpose)

[Glenn R]

I think the fans should actually look in the mirror as well. Have you noticed how many players whe have been dubbed "not good enough" have moved on and flourished? And even when not flourished, at least played good football? Of course, some of the players have left us because they were getting too old etc. Nevertheless, which of the new players (signed in 2013 or 2014) are better than Caulker, Dempsey, Huddlestone, Parker, Defoe, van der Vaart, dos Santos, Sigurðsson, Dawson and Sandro? Yes, they all had their flaws, but compared to the present lot?! Honestly?! We want the constant reshuffling and here we are now.
(I didn't include Modrić and Bale on purpose)

And that is why I say that Pochettino needs to bring his own players in.

[dimexi]

I think the fans should actually look in the mirror as well. Have you noticed how many players whe have been dubbed "not good enough" have moved on and flourished? And even when not flourished, at least played good football? Of course, some of the players have left us because they were getting too old etc. Nevertheless, which of the new players (signed in 2013 or 2014) are better than Caulker, Dempsey, Huddlestone, Parker, Defoe, van der Vaart, dos Santos, Sigurðsson, Dawson and Sandro? Yes, they all had their flaws, but compared to the present lot?! Honestly?! We want the constant reshuffling and here we are now.
(I didn't include Modrić and Bale on purpose)

I agree that the fans are a fickle bunch and often don't appreciate what we have and are quick to criticise the quality of the players we have. This week I have seen comments asking why did we sell Dawson, but before he left everyone was saying he is past it and it was time for him to go.

However of the players you mentioned other than Huddlestone and Dos Santos I believe that each of those players are better or equal to what we currently have. So what does this tell us? The fans wanted players who would improve our side, so there was nothing wrong with wanting to make changes to the previous squad. However, if we are only changing like for like, then the least we should expect is to carry on at the same level we were playing at, this has not happened. The reason for this is either that the players are of less quality, or the wrong style of player, than those they replaced or that the manager is not of the quality required to get the best from these players, or a combination of the two.

I am not trying to take this into a Harry debate, but put all of what happened aside, as well as whatever feelings you have for how it ended. We are now not far from where we were when he took the job. If this was squad he inherited (the Harry of then not today), I wonder what he would do with it. I have heard blackjack talk about going to 442 again and playing with actual wingers etc. but would this be what Harry would have done with this squad? We always here about how a manager brings a philosophy and creates a squad to play their system. But what happened to the manager who looks at their players and creates a system and tactics which suit the players?

Personally, I think that the players we have suggest a 3-5-2. For example play JVT, Kaboul, Dier / Rose, Stambouli, Eriksen, Lamela, Townsend / Kane, Soldao (or Ade). Unfortunately, we don't have pace in the side, so I think that the focus needs to be on intelligent play, movement off the ball, positioning and passing into the places where the players are moving to, rather than where they are.

Obviously, I would rather we played with pace, used the width of the pitch and to be devastating on the counter attack, dominating the opposition and putting the fear into them the moment we win the ball back. But we simply don't have the players to do that with.

[RSS61]

I think the fans should actually look in the mirror as well. Have you noticed how many players whe have been dubbed "not good enough" have moved on and flourished? And even when not flourished, at least played good football? Of course, some of the players have left us because they were getting too old etc. Nevertheless, which of the new players (signed in 2013 or 2014) are better than Caulker, Dempsey, Huddlestone, Parker, Defoe, van der Vaart, dos Santos, Sigurðsson, Dawson and Sandro? Yes, they all had their flaws, but compared to the present lot?! Honestly?! We want the constant reshuffling and here we are now.
(I didn't include Modrić and Bale on purpose)

I agree that the fans are a fickle bunch and often don't appreciate what we have and are quick to criticise the quality of the players we have. This week I have seen comments asking why did we sell Dawson, but before he left everyone was saying he is past it and it was time for him to go.

However of the players you mentioned other than Huddlestone and Dos Santos I believe that each of those players are better or equal to what we currently have. So what does this tell us? The fans wanted players who would improve our side, so there was nothing wrong with wanting to make changes to the previous squad. However, if we are only changing like for like, then the least we should expect is to carry on at the same level we were playing at, this has not happened. The reason for this is either that the players are of less quality, or the wrong style of player, than those they replaced or that the manager is not of the quality required to get the best from these players, or a combination of the two.

I am not trying to take this into a Harry debate, but put all of what happened aside, as well as whatever feelings you have for how it ended. We are now not far from where we were when he took the job. If this was squad he inherited (the Harry of then not today), I wonder what he would do with it. I have heard blackjack talk about going to 442 again and playing with actual wingers etc. but would this be what Harry would have done with this squad? We always here about how a manager brings a philosophy and creates a squad to play their system. But what happened to the manager who looks at their players and creates a system and tactics which suit the players?

Personally, I think that the players we have suggest a 3-5-2. For example play JVT, Kaboul, Dier / Rose, Stambouli, Eriksen, Lamela, Townsend / Kane, Soldao (or Ade). Unfortunately, we don't have pace in the side, so I think that the focus needs to be on intelligent play, movement off the ball, positioning and passing into the places where the players are moving to, rather than where they are.

Obviously, I would rather we played with pace, used the width of the pitch and to be devastating on the counter attack, dominating the opposition and putting the fear into them the moment we win the ball back. But we simply don't have the players to do that with.

I think that since Harry's day, the defence is pretty much as bad as it was then, apart from Lloris. The main difference is that Harry had a much better attack. A far better Lennon, as well as Bale, Modric, VDV and the much criticised Pavluchenko, Keane and Defoe, all of whom were far better than our current midfield/strikers. In those days we used to score mostly more than we conceded, so the defence got away with a lot of bad performances, but make no mistake, we have not improved anywhere on the pitch apart from in goal.

[Paul Finch]

I think the fans should actually look in the mirror as well. Have you noticed how many players whe have been dubbed "not good enough" have moved on and flourished? And even when not flourished, at least played good football? Of course, some of the players have left us because they were getting too old etc. Nevertheless, which of the new players (signed in 2013 or 2014) are better than Caulker, Dempsey, Huddlestone, Parker, Defoe, van der Vaart, dos Santos, Sigurðsson, Dawson and Sandro? Yes, they all had their flaws, but compared to the present lot?! Honestly?! We want the constant reshuffling and here we are now.
(I didn't include Modrić and Bale on purpose)

I agree that the fans are a fickle bunch and often don't appreciate what we have and are quick to criticise the quality of the players we have. This week I have seen comments asking why did we sell Dawson, but before he left everyone was saying he is past it and it was time for him to go.

However of the players you mentioned other than Huddlestone and Dos Santos I believe that each of those players are better or equal to what we currently have. So what does this tell us? The fans wanted players who would improve our side, so there was nothing wrong with wanting to make changes to the previous squad. However, if we are only changing like for like, then the least we should expect is to carry on at the same level we were playing at, this has not happened. The reason for this is either that the players are of less quality, or the wrong style of player, than those they replaced or that the manager is not of the quality required to get the best from these players, or a combination of the two.

I am not trying to take this into a Harry debate, but put all of what happened aside, as well as whatever feelings you have for how it ended. We are now not far from where we were when he took the job. If this was squad he inherited (the Harry of then not today), I wonder what he would do with it. I have heard blackjack talk about going to 442 again and playing with actual wingers etc. but would this be what Harry would have done with this squad? We always here about how a manager brings a philosophy and creates a squad to play their system. But what happened to the manager who looks at their players and creates a system and tactics which suit the players?

Personally, I think that the players we have suggest a 3-5-2. For example play JVT, Kaboul, Dier / Rose, Stambouli, Eriksen, Lamela, Townsend / Kane, Soldao (or Ade). Unfortunately, we don't have pace in the side, so I think that the focus needs to be on intelligent play, movement off the ball, positioning and passing into the places where the players are moving to, rather than where they are.

Obviously, I would rather we played with pace, used the width of the pitch and to be devastating on the counter attack, dominating the opposition and putting the fear into them the moment we win the ball back. But we simply don't have the players to do that with.

       How many times in the games against Newcastle/Aston Villa and Stoke, did you see a Spurs Player with the ball gesticulating to others to give him some-one to pass to, far too many times, there is NO MOVEMENT off the ball. When you watch QUALITY sides, and I have said this many many times, they create triangles around the player with the ball, this gives the player 2,3 maybe 4 different passing options, we don't, our players run away from the player with the ball, which means he has to try and play the almost impossible ball, it is basic, so simple, there is an old expression, KISS (KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID).