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Re: cup wins, to be fair I've been pretty consistent on this in the past, in relation to ourselves. It would've been vile if we'd spawned our way to a league cup win under Bruce by having teams of reserves literally roll over for us to reduce their own fixture schedules. I think basically the value that comes in winning a competition comes from the difficulty of the struggle and the desire of fellow competitors. I'm sure the European teams you faced were mostly giving it their best, which is what made it sad. Thinking about it, this music video does a pithier job of summing up my thoughts on the situation: It's not Tottenham's fault (well, actually maybe it is in terms of playing a part in trying to lock up global football's finances within a small clutch of mostly English clubs), but the old Uefa Cup and much of European football has become, in relative terms, a bedraggled thing. I think that's a tragedy, but it was a pretty inevitable consequence of things like moves towards Super Leagues. The Premier League itself has been pretty appalling this season, given the apparent sense that many teams just aren't turning up to try if it's not in their interests, especially in end season matches. It's really poisonous for the competition and, in my eyes, it's prestige.

To me this whole affair proves that 17th and a trophy doesn't necessarily amount to much. I don't respect this win, the win hasn't elevated Spurs, it's dragged the title down, as Yorkie says. That said, I don't buy this stuff about being upset over them getting a Champions' League spot when they're rubbish. They're the champions of something, whereas Arsenal, Manchester City, Forest and Aston Villa are not. Don't like it, don't call it the Champions' League.

That might be the worst fight I've seen in my whole life.

The state of Rice and Mac Allister's poses. Tonali's gonna have his work cut out covering for them mincing around.

Massive game.

Yep to both. It was a shame possibly our two best open play chances fell to him. With his shot, he actually struck it a lot better than I expected, but that says more about my expectations of him as a striker given it was straight at Raya. It's a real weakness in his game as it stands, and it would add a lot if he can improve there.

I get the impression we've got no real intention of going for spreadsheet players. And I don't think we have to sell anyone this summer - far from it, but in a weird way I think that makes us a bit more likely to sell. Trading is definitely going to stay a part of our lives for the foreseeable future, and selling from a position of strength means we can extract maximum value rather than going to clubs with our begging bowl out. So we'll see. I'm certainly not expecting any big sales, but I won't be too surprised by some kind of surprise - it feels like we've got some significant moves in mind.

I'm not one wanting to sell him, but I agree with roca - we can be quite sure any money received would be for a good purpose. So we don't need to think in terms of steps back.

It's easy to lose sight of the fact that whatever you think his future is going to be, he's still very young. There are a lot of different factors that will go in to determining how his career turns out.

Our passing out of defence in the first half was brilliant today.

Jesus

Sounds like a keeper.

No, I'm not saying he wouldn't have been willing to join us, I'm saying I don't think Eddie would've fancied the dynamic of signing a player who already has one eye on his next move. I think both perspectives are respectable, but our squad clearly operates on 100% buy in.

Like loans, I don't think we'll ever see Eddie really buy in to getting players in for a quick flip. It'll happen on special occasions like Targett and Kelly, but he only wants players who fundamentally see their future with him and the club. I think it's pretty clear that was not going to be the case with Huijsen.

Aye, happened in the summer, as I recall.

I don't understand why supporters talk about good servants like bits of shit when they hit a serious problem. Hopefully he works out fine, but if he doesn't, it's a tragedy, he's not a wastrel.

I would be tempted to say we should keep VAR only for off ball violent conduct and diving. But it's perfectly apparent they would fuck that up as well e.g. Schar's red card against Southampton or influencing referees to just whistle for everything in the mistaken belief that VAR will correct any errors.

I'm a contender for the biggest VAR hater on this forum but I don't see this injury as being a solid argument against it. It could've happened at any point in the match ultimately, just like Given's did.

Agreed. I don't think Eddie will ever let himself really throw away a game/competition, but I hope we have a squad next season that lets us properly put everything into qualifying for CL (and more...) again. It would be my only true target, although scoring another league cup on the way would also be massive for the club.

I think what you're getting at is it looks suitable for representing Wycombe Wanderers or a council leisure centre or something.

I feel bad for Willock that his part in that campaign is getting written out of history.

In 22/23 this was true enough, in 23/24 this was extremely false.

I think he was a lot better than he was at Everton, but has gotten worse again this season. Has been going for cheaper options while he was out of form.

Re: decision making, if Howe can get Murphy consistently making the right decisions, it's surely just a question of time until Barnes is. Entirely up to Howe on whether he's open to moving him on or not as far as I'm concerned. The traditional reasons for selling are obvious, but he's made a valuable contribution this season and we've got a lot of games to play next year. So I'll just wait and see.

I don't want literal seahorses, and it looks a bit like the New York Yankees, but I'm impressed.