Five reasons Spurs should be positive about next season (footymatters.com)

To me it was pretty obvious all freaking season from the beginning. You simply can't expect to replace your best player with 5 brand new players, half being very young, and all not in the premier league, and expect instant results. This year was always rebuilding to me and Top 4 was an impossibility.

Next season to me all rests on getting a new manager that is tactically competent. Having Lamela turn up, and signing a CB and couple of quality fullbacks. Lloris and Vertonghen might leave but I think we should keep them and take the loss on a bossman with the risk that we make top 4 and resign them at the end of the season.

If we are going to keep relatively the same squad then top 4 next season relies on this first xi being in top form:

-------------Soldado------------
-Townsend-Eriksen----Lamela
---------Paulinho-Sandro-------
LB---Vert----Kaboul----Walker
-------------Lloris----------------

Id even say Danny Rose is good enough but we really need depth there. Townsend is a question mark to me and Dembele is good enough to break in but to me this is our POTENTIAL best xi if they are all playing to the expected potential they have.

 

Only thing that concerns me is our top choice of managers are involved in the world cup, so they may be joining us quite late on and without a break. Does mean next season may be yet another transition even if player transfers are kept to a minimum.

 

It doesn't matter. We will finish in 4th, but the winner of the Europa Cup or Champion's League will be the team that finishes below us to take the 4th position from BPL.

 

we had depth, that's the problem. we sent him on loan

 

Well there isn't really anyone else to put at LB realistically, so that's the only reason he starts most weeks. Rose is good enough for cover, but no way should he be starting week in week out for Spurs. Ekotto is a far better LB and why Villas Boas let him go out on loan I don't know, but it was certainly a costly mistake.

I think Spurs biggest mistake this season has been our buys in the transfer market, Tottenham haven't prioritised in making certain signings we've needed out of the money we received from the Bale transfer. Rose simply isn't good enough, so a LB was an obvious area of where an investment should have been made.

I feel there isn't any real cover on the left wing, Spurs do play Chadli and Sigs there, but Chadli isn't consistent enough but has had his moments, but he does hasve the potential there to be a good player, but where is the cover there? because Sigs isn't the answer, Sigurdsson is a central attacking midfielder, but spurs for some time now have tried to use him as an inside forward from the left wing, but it doesn't work. So a Left Winger spurs are missing...and why Spurs didn't take a punt on Tom Ince I don't know, but that was a player well worth going in for.

And why was Lamela even signed? a £30m signing (also a club record signing) and yet Spurs haven't used him hardly at all, it's been a joke. Instead Tottenham have decided to use Townsend (who is hugely overrated, and greedy) and Lennon every now and then... that's more embarrassing than spending £26m on Soldado who's been absolute garbage (but at least we've actually used him).

And then we let a youth product in Steven Caulker leave the club for £10m who has so much potential, he's the sort of player that comes through your youth system once every ten years and yet Villas Boas thought ''I'll cash in on him''....jeez, what was he thinking?

Also...I cannot wait to see the back of Tim Sherwood, he's a nice enough guy, and I still feel he has something to offer Spurs still, but certainly not as our manager.

 

http://www1.skysports.com/football/...ire-to-move-to-premier-league-after-world-cup

Les Ferdinand has pretty much said Levy has met Van Gaal too...

So it very much looks like Van Gaal is on his way to Spurs anyway, although I'm not sure what to think of him. But from the moment we appointed Tim Sherwood many people were surprised by the appointment, the guy has no management experience at all...you really think it's acceptable for someone with no experience to be taking over at Spurs? I'd personally like to see Tim stay on at Spurs, maybe as an Assistant if that's possible, but certainly not as head coach...

Tim also had a transfer window to sort problems we have, but again, nothing was done...and he even came out and said ''I'm happy with the squad'' when asked about his transfer activity, as if there wasn't problems, when it's fairly obvious there was/is. All of that only leaves me to believe that Sherwood was only even meant as a temp appointment anyway, there's no way was Levy thinking of keeping Sherwood as a long term appoinment.

His tactics are poor, his team selection at times are awful...again, against Liverpool yesterday he played with no combative midfield player, and played Sigurdsson as a CM, what the hell is that all about? Sigurdsson never plays there. Against any big teams we've played we've totally crumbled, the F.A Cup game against Arsenal again was just a complete embarrassment, and again his tactics and team selection were so obviously wrong.

I also would've much preferred Villas Boas to have stayed tbh, as much as I thought he was complete garbage (and thought so before he was appointed).

What Spurs need to do is to do away with the director of football rubbish, as it doesn't work, and never has for Spurs. And simply need to find a tactically sound, experienced manager who plays a nice brand of attacking, fluid football, it's as simple as that.

Laudrup or Pochettino would both make perfect sense, that's of course if Van Gaal doesn't come.

 

But have the team really responded to Sherwood? how? results have been even worse than what they were whilst under Villas Boas. The players seem to be happier playing under Sherwood, but then doesn't that tell you something if the results have been worse than Villas boas's record?

And the gap in quality between Spurs and the teams above us isn't that great to be honest, well at least in my opinion. If you put Chelsea and Manchester City to one side...you only have to look how Spurs have developed as a club over the last 5 years... we have broke the top 4 and are always up there challenging for the top 4, the club has huge potential at this moment in time. The club is financially sound, sponsors are great, the results have also been fantastic against the bigger teams in recent years too, and it's only really this season Spurs have looked so poorly against the bigger sides, due to having 2 clueless tactically inept managers this season.

We also have a good group of players at the club currently I believe (look where we are in the table), it's the performances that have been bad, as they are just being poorly managed, and we haven't been wise enough in the transfer window, as the Soldado, and the Lamela (£30m on a player we didn't need) have proven so. Sherwood has had his opportunity to change that by signing players we need, but failed to pick up on that, unless Levy hasn't allowed him to sign players (as he'd probably want to leave that to a new manager).

And I'm totally with you that we need that stability, a young manager that we can give time, but Spurs need to appoint someone who at least has shown they have potential to be good, Sherwood has nothing. And as posted above...that's why I think Pochettino or Laudrup would make good appointments, they're both young, they've both shown potential to be good at their current clubs, they both use a formation that suits our players (4-2-3-1) and are both attack minded managers.

Who else is to blame then? Spurs need to sign players to put things right, it's a managers job to make sure he has a squad of players he needs...it's not a case of blaming Sherwood, I'm just pointing out that he hasn't done enough to have shown he deserves to keep the job.

 

I disagree almost completely

Tim was right, we have the players to compete, we just don't have the manager Perhaps we need a fullback and another CB.

Tims tactics are at least consistent, if you change something and it works during a match start the same person again! Ala Siggy, etc. The idiot doesn't realize different tactics work for different situations. He is a tactical moron.

AVB should've stayed. it's pretty clear cut now, I doubt we would have been any worse and who knows he might have finally clicked by now.

Disagree with director of football. Baldini made our transfers happen SO much faster this past summer window. I think the problem here is Levy forcing players down AVBs throat that he never wanted. It's pretty clear that Hulk was a major component of what AVB wanted to build here but Levy didn't want to splash the cash. On top of that, and THE most important thing that has happened to Spurs in the past decade, AVB made it crystal clear he had no intention to sell Bale and wanted to build his entire plan around him. Levy went against that and destroyed everything AVB worked towards. Levy has been the consistent problem here.

I'd imagine Spurs would look something like this IF AVB got his players:

--------------------Soldado----------------------
--------Eriksen------Bale-------Hulk-----------
-------------Sandro-----Paulinho--------------
Coentrao---Vertonghen---Kaboul----Walker

THAT'S a title contender

 

What part of my post do you disagree with? I'm confused mate...

I totally agree with the part of your post that AVB should've been given at least until the end of the season, it just seemed so wasteful considering a group of talented players were brought into the team to suit a style he was going to play...I think what AVB was trying to do was build a high defensive line 4-3-3, using a centre forward and inside forwards with the front three (a system he used at Porto and Chelsea), that's why we was being linked to Hulk, and bought Lamela and Chadli in (players that like to cut inside and score)...

But, the formation never worked and he quickly reverted to using a 4-2-3-1 similar to the system that Real Madrid uses, as with the 4-3-3 he was having trouble linking the midfield to the front three, and obviously goals weren't being scored...AVB never found a system he was comfortable with and I think Levy lost faith in him because of that.

The truth is... Levy knew a lot of mistakes were made in the transfer window, and as far as he was concerned he laid down over £100m for players, but yet he didn't complete his squad with those funds, and was probably wondering how much more he'd have to spend to put that right which comes with a huge risk...you had AVB coming out and saying he needed other players which was why we started being heavily linked with Moutinho too...so to an extent, you can understand why Levy was so pissed off lol

And don't get me started me on the Director of Football rubbish, I may be old fashioned but it seems to be one of the worse things a club can have in place, I believe a manager should make his own signings, and if they can't find a player themselves then they don't even deserve to be a manager in my opinion. Managers have scouts that can recommend players, but the manager should always have the final say, and say ''yep, that's the one I want'' as then the player was signed at the managers own risk. To me, having a DOF just gives a manager an escape route for things aren't working out, which is what happened under Ramos/Jol and Commolli.

I do disagree with you though regarding the Bale transfer, as Bale quite clearly wanted to go, so I don't think it was a case of Levy going against Villas Boas, it was a case of letting player go who would eventually become unhappy (Bale was actually a huge admirer of Real Madrid growing up as a kid). Also with the money that was being offered, it seemed the right decision was to let him go, and to be honest...the fans in general have accepted that, that hasn't really been an issue. However, If Bale wanted to stay...i'd agree with you, and tbh I don't think Levy would've been interested in selling him either.

Anyway...I just can't wait until the World Cup starts now, and just want to look forward to next season...although I'm still unsure of Van Gaal taking over, he obviously has a huge reputation, but I'm unsure as to how he'll have Spurs playing and if it's the right kind of club for him. But fingers crossed I guess

 

Fans only accepted Bale leaving after AVB stopped saying he was staying no matter what. Clearly Levy told AVB that Bale would go for the right price and AVB knew that he relied on Bale to build his team.

Suarez wanted to go badly and look what happened? Rooney wanted to go badly as well. I can list more players than this that wanted to go badly, hell Suarez was a Madrid fan as a kid too! The difference here was Levy buckled under the pressure of the cash and thought short term rather than long term. Modric wanted to go badly too but we kept him at least another season and it minimized the impact of his departure a lot!

 

the big problem with selling your stars is, you know what you have in them, but you dont know for sure what you are getting in the replacements

 

You're making perfectly valid points, but, the comparisons of clubs are different. Manchester United and Liverpool are the two most successful sides in English football, they have much more pulling power than Spurs, let's be realistic here.

And you have to remember if Bale wanted to stay we would've had to have increased his wages by a lot, we'd have been looking at £200k a week at a minimum which would take a huge chunk of our wage budget away, and we do have a wage cap. Clubs like United and even Liverpool can afford the luxury of paying stars that kind of money, Spurs can't tbh. You have to look at thing from all angles.

You know, I'm not saying if it was a right, or, wrong thing to do...but to me, I really don't see it being an issue, especially that Levy, in fairness did lay down the money from the transfer for the manager to spend it how he wants. Levy actually spent more this season than what he sold Bale for, and with all the wages he'd spent on new signings, that added up to a lot more than what Bale was being paid. So there's no way Levy sold Bale for Financial reasons, that doesn't make sense, we just added more depth to the club, and increased our wage budget.

Also £85m plus add ons for a player is fantastic business.

 

Agree with me now that signing Poch was the right thing to do? keeping Sherwood would've been a disaster

EDIT: I was wrong on Danny Rose though, christ what a turn around he has had under Poch, Premier Leagues best LB currently.

COYS

 

lol kaboul....

 

Kaboul was actually quite decent for us I thought, it was his injury problems that let him down...

Nowadays I actually struggle to pick out any weakness in our team, there's so much depth to it...it's the best Spurs team I've ever seen