Before Martin Jol became the first Spurs manager to take the club within touching distance of the Champions League, we could only look forward to mid table finishes and the occasional distraction of a relegation battle. The big, jovial Dutchman was much loved by the White Hart Lane crowd but an inability to take points on a consistent basis from the top four sides eventually lost him his job.
Jol became one of Levy’s casualties – another man who had taken Spurs ‘as far as he could’ and while Champions League football has remained almost as elusive, our record against the big teams improved under Redknapp and Villas-Boas.
Take 2012-13 as an example when AVB, in his first year in charge, took eleven points out of a possible 24 in eight games against Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City. None of those did the double over us as we finished the campaign with our record Premier League points tally.
Sadly it wasn’t enough to finish in those Champions League slots but it was sufficient for the club to avoid becoming the laughing stock that we are today – just as we thought the days of mid table finishes and revolving door managers had gone.
Now contrast that record with seven games played against the teams likely to finish in this season’s top four. 21 points have been on offer and we have claimed just one but the stats get worse in terms of goals for and against.
Heavy defeats against Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City contribute to a total of 23 goals conceded. In reply we have managed two – both from midfield. It’s maybe no surprise to see two rescinded red cards in two of those matches but even so, that makes for poor reading.
Naturally there are other games that have got in the way of our top four quest including Norwich away and West Brom at home. However, this does underline a real gulf under both coaches and we can only hope it isn’t the start of a once familiar trend.
You can’t get into the top 4 without beating the teams already in it and we need a chairman who understands the complexity’s of selecting and supporting a manager to achieve this objective.We need a manager who has the experience to find, pick & coach the right sort of players to achieve this and most importantly we need the chairman and manager to have a workable relationship under a time frame of 3-5 years at which a review of it’s progression and direction can be conducted by the board.That’s my dream scenario for spurs…….and sadly that’s all it will ever be.
100 million and you can’t do shit.
can we get a registration and moderation on this site please?
Eat our shit you dick head!!!
I have always said, we have one of the deepest squads in the league. Full of decent quality. But our first 11 is weaker than Everton, United, and much less promising than even Southampton.
We have a decent squad, just too many central midfielders? Throw out capoue, siggy, and bring in the new… were bettrr than everton and southampton..
End of the day we are currently fith in the league ahead of everton and man u!! Thats not bad for a squad with injuries to key players and new players that havent gel’d yet is it. With a new left back and a winger who can cross next season and tim nice but tactically dim gone. I predict we will have a very good season…. coys
Forever in our shadow.
Coming back against Dnipro cost them a chance at the top 4. Consider in the following in the 11 PL matches following Thursday Europa fixtures:
> Spurs dropped 20 out of 33 pts after Europa league, compared to 17 out of 57 in their other PL fixtures.
> Spurs scored no goals in 6 of 11 matches following Europa. Scored no goals in 3 of 19 fixtures that didn’t follow Europa, with two of those at Man City and at Chelsea, and the other a draw at Everton.
> The Spurs 4 victories after Europa league were all 1-0 and only scored from open play in 2 of the matches, both against Cardiff. The others were penalties against Swansea and Hull.
While I hope I’m wrong, don’t be surprised if Spurs lose 0-1 to Southampton next Sunday. If Spurs want to make top four next year, they either need to not qualify for the Europa League or play mostly juniors in the group stage games so they don’t advance to the knock out stage.
Spurs don’t score goals but concede far too easily.
We have too many players not Premier League material,
namely, Naughton / Rose / Lennon / Siggy / Soldado / Paulinho / Chadli / Fryers / Dembele . Sell these guys and replace them with proven players to compliment Lloris / Walker / Kaboul / Verts / Sandro / Erikssen / Ade / Townsend. The manager is out of his depth and should be
replaced with someone with a sound record of the modern game. Its become embarrassing for the fans weekly to watch our team concede goals so easily , then miss golden opportunities , which are put away by much weaker teams.
The team selection over the past few months makes sad reading. THFC deserves better results than we are experiencing at present, totally dismal. No more excuses PLEASE. DO SOMETHING POSITIVE, and make some quick decisions before we become the laughing stock of the PL.
I would say Soldado has been misused. I have seen him play for Valencia, classic poacher, but there is nothing to poach here when we can’t get into the box. Also, we bought him for extremely high, so I don’t see how we can do anything but keep him until he comes out positive. There is a good team there, especially, your second list, but I’m not quite sure it’s top 4 material. IMHO, add Marco Reus up top, Luke Shaw in LB, move Jan back in the middle. If you really want to get ambitious, add Madzukic up top. Already looking better.
You already got 100 million from Bale’s purchase, where did it go?
Wholesale changes is exactly what got us here in the 1st place. I agree mostly with the players you got as inferior quality, except Soldado, Paulinho, Dembele. IMHO, these guys are not being used correctly. The coach still has no idea who his best starting line up is. I hope we can make 1 or 2 quality additions, plus a decent manager, we will be ok. It’s scary how far behind we have fallen to the top 4. A position we felt was ours ( for some strange reason)