The chance to hire Martinez came and went 2 years ago. And to be fair to Levy, nobody was sure how Martinez would fare at the next level. Wigan played attractive football but were terrible defensively at times. What we now see is given better footballers, the goals Wigan leaked as a result of their back line playing themselves into trouble have been largely eradicated by his Everton team. And I am happy to see him succeed. Since reading an article on him a few years ago where he instilled in his Wigan players the history / significance of playing for Wigan, I've liked him.
Yeah have to say I'm surprised, was expecting them to start wobbling defensively. It will still be interesting to see how they cope next season with Jagielka and Distin in their 30's, Lukaka probably moving on, plus those extra European games. Just goes to show what the right managerial appointment can do though, got better results than Moyes and playing better football in his first season, and Moyes was considered very highly for what he did there.
would love to see Howard in the Champion's League though anyone know if he would be the first american in europe?
johnny harkes would've played in europe for sheffield Wednesday as early as '92. without giving it too much thought, i'd guess there are quite a few more. edit: dempsey's goal vs juventus comes to mind. hell, dempsey played in europe for us.
Didn't donovan play a champions league game for leverkusen ... or maybe it was bayern? Against liverpool, I think. He was shyte.
there were some posters in here that wanted Martinez badly when Harry was sacked. and a few that thought Rogers should have been appointed manager as well. one thing about Martinez, his teams seem to fare better injury-wise than others - squad rotation and fitness seem to be important parts of his management style - something spurs could really improve upon
john O'Brien played in a CL quarterfinal for ajax against ac Milan in 2003. then there's timmy howard's infamous parry against porto for man u in the round of 16 in '04. that moment went no small way to making jose mourinho the insufferable twunt that he is today. and apparently freddy adu played in a champions league qualifier with benfica vs Copenhagen. but that's all I've come up with in about six hours of thought whilst at work. if there are more, I can't think of 'em. oh, and Donovan's appearance v liverpool was, in fact, with Leverkusen in the round of 16 in 2005.
ah ok, thanks for the research id prefer everton top 4 than arsenal tho, and im sure you all do too. hopefully we can take 5th from them too
Well some reports (if you accept Van Gaal is agreed) that he has already told the club to go for Veltman of Ajax and Clasie of Feyenoord.
I need to look these players up. Hopefully at least one is a top defender and one can create / play at a high tempo (both things sorely lacking on the current team).
Veltman is a defender. Not a super physical presence, but has good timing and intelligence. He didn't become a starter until this year after they sold Alderwiereld, but he convinced a lot of people pretty quickly including van Gaal. I haven't been able to watch much Ajax in the second half of the season though, and I hear he hasn't been playing as great as he was at the beginning of the season. He's also still quite young for a defender and relatively inexperienced. IMO it would be bad for his development to go to a top league like the EPL already. He wont solve Spurs' defensive problems, and it wont take too many mistakes for people to write him off (and he still makes a few mistakes in games). Clasie is a player I've wanted Spurs to get since AVB came. High handling speed defensive midfielder. Problem is his stamina and he struggles with dynamic #10s apparently. He'd be a good deep lying play maker with a partner like Sandro who can take care of the bulk of the defensive work.
Jordy Clasie - Dutch Xavi They also say Chadli style of play is like CR. http://www.dutchfootball-league.com/nacer-chadli-talent-scout/
Read an article on Sky saying Tom is possibly going to consider his options. That would suck. The kid is amazing and I really hope that would not happen. He is really good and I have been watching some of his games while he is in the Championship and he has been amazing. He is so confident on the ball and makes stuff happen. He is kind of our home grown modric, but has a some way to go to hit those heights. Still he needs a big chance in the squad. Maybe one more year out on loan would be good, but I doubt he will want to do that as he will want somewhere to call home.
I hope at the very least we don't lose money when we sell Lamela this summer. I'm just not buying the "injury" story.