Parky

It's not about where you manage before it's about your inate qualities...Mourinho has it Benitez doesn't.

You should work for The Sun. Take that back now! You bastard. Nigerian Sun FYI. Totally true.

Ha... Taylor not that good after all shocker.

don't think he's any better than jol LOL Aye for all his Uefa cups, Spanish cups and title challenges he's never finished 5th in the Premiership after spending more money. I don't know about sorting out Spurs' defence mind, Sevilla seem more attacking than Spurs with the fullbacks playing as wingers most of the time. I'm pretty sure you're underestimating the achievement of getting spurs to where they are. spurs were a mid table team at best when he took over but he transformed them into easily the 5th best team in the premiership (before the start of this season). not exactly a mean feat considering the premier league has much more stregnth in depth than la liga. La liga have 2 great teams, and one good team valencia. villereal and osasuna have finished 4th or better in recent years. would they have made it into the top 6 of the PL in those seasons? i think not. Jol has done brilliantly at spurs who before him always flattered to decieve. i'm not saying that ramos hasn't achieved much, because he has, but with a bit of luck jol could have finished 4th last year. I think Jol is a good manager who has been undermined by his board ever since the summer. The players must have suspected his days were numbered ever since the opening day defeat to Sunderland, that's bound to have affected his control over the dressing room. Finishing 5th with Spurs two seasons in a row is a good achievement, but that's been done with a lot of money and there have been no trophies at the end of it. I don't think it compares to what Ramos has done at Sevilla, where he has made history. I think you're being a bit harsh on La Liga, in recent years teams like Villarreal have indeed broken into the top 4 over there, but don't forget that they went on to knock out Everton (who finished 4th in our league) and it took a last-minute penalty save from Lehmann for Arsenal to get the better of them. Last season Sevilla dumped Spurs out of the UEFA Cup before going on to win it. To think that a Spurs reject like Kanoute would be the thorn in their side shows just what Ramos has accomplished there. I think the Premier League only just shades the Spanish league in terms of depth. La Liga doesn't have the same kind of money floating around as the Premier League, but the advantage clubs have in Spain is that they can tap up the latest talent from South America, hence players like Dani Alves and Riquelme building up their reputations at smaller clubs. This gives the smaller clubs an advantage which smaller Premiership clubs don't have, Sevilla for example signed Dani Alves and Baptista for pittance, yet clubs like Newcastle and Spurs fork out huge amounts for some pretty average players. Just because there is much more money in the Premier League, it does not mean there is much more quality. Imo the PL is the hardest league in the world for a manager. Ramos althogh talented will have to adapt and will find it hard, however he is a slightly better manager than Jol. My gut feeling is that it will take time and he might even fail ie not a top 8 finish which is Spurs bottom line basically.

Mind games.

This is his mantra. Means nothing in the context of the game, he's been saying it for weeks now.

There are major problems in MF for sure, but they're no the only ones. I hear that if Lennon spent as much time on the training ground as he does going clubbing, he could be a world class talent. The questions about King is not when he comes back, but if he comes back, and if he does come back, how long will he be back for? Crying shame because he is talented and a really nice bloke too, but he won't be the first to have his career cut short. JJ was at his best with a truly able defensive player alongside him. Carrick was up to that and JJ flourished. Take Carrick away and JJ's shortcomings are there for all to see. It's not that he can't play well for Spurs, he needs the right person alongside him and Zokora isn't that person and Huddlestone isn't (yet??). Maybe JJ would play better if we got renamed Tottenham Patriots? Is King crocked, then? Would be a shame. Arthritis. Rumoured to be announcing his retirement if this latest operation isn't a success. Sounds like his knee is just flaking away. I'd prefer to see him retire now than to wind up in a wheelchair sometime in his later life. MJ i take that jol will almost certainly get the old tin tak if you fail to beat Blackburn this weekend? Do most Spurs fans want him gone anyway now? Whats our chances of getting the unhappy Berbatov? what is wrong with Berbatov anyway, big fall out somewhere i take it? We know all about Jenas he does as mentioned flatter to decieve, can play well but is very inconsistant, you always feel he is just about to turn the corner in terms of consistantcy but he just never does, very annoying as the ability is there not too different from Dyer in that respect. I'm also not sure about his best position but think overall he's better as a DM. Very happy with the £7m!! Fans support for MJ is holding up remarkably well and I doubt that he'll be gone this weekend, with or without a defeat. There were strong rumours this morning that Ramos might become available if asked again and all the betting sites have suspended betting this afternoon. Maybe smoke without fire, maybe not. There are more strong rumours from highly credible sources that the players aren't solidly behind MJ as they are trying to paint in the media, so it may be sooner rather than later. I don't think he will get the old heave ho though unless there is the chosen replacement readily available. The truth is that even allowing for injuries, the squad/team has not looked balanced all season long but, irrespective of that, there are some players there who think they have done the hard work getting to 5th in the past 2 years and have gone into cruise control this season. If we still had Pedro Mendes for example, there is no way the MF would be looking as soft as it is now. But one player doesn't make a squad. There are a lot of good players in the squad but there are obvious weaknesses in some areas for the first choice starter, let alone 2nd or 3rd. I also think there will probably (rather than possibly) be an announcement on ownership of the club before the end of the year. See what happens then. I thought it was commonly held that Mendes wasn't good enough for your midfield.

All winnable games if they get their act together, two of those games are at home. I think they'll do it. Let's not forget we qualified with 0 points from the first three games, and we had Juventus in our group. Mind, I think we're still the only side ever to have done that! With a point, it's still in Liverpool's hands. That may well. But they are seriously underperforming and but for a dodgy ref would have only got a point at Everton who aren't playing at all well atm.

Who was it who said he would get 25+ goals this season Half this board probably.

There will be time to use every poss combination of smiley in here hopefully.

The world's against them apparently. mackems.gif Time to build a memorial, the death of the 2007-08 season can be mourned already. Chicken foetus's at the ready. mackems.gif Laughing aside they still remain unbeaten in the league and are playing totally shite. Sign of a good team. The rotation is the problem, that and Sammi 'i should of left the prem two years ago' Hyypia. My finger continues to point at the manager. Clueless.

The world's against them apparently. mackems.gif Time to build a memorial, the death of the 2007-08 season can be mourned already. Chicken foetus's at the ready. mackems.gif

The world's against them apparently. mackems.gif

mackems.gif Oh dear.

We're not worried about Reading mate.

Worryingly Pompey have already played some serious sides.

JJ is a good player it's just that he's not the one to take charge if the whole side is struggling. He's more decorative and needs a "boss" beside him if he is going to deliver. As I've said before Spurs have a good squad but I'm not sure where it's hiding.

Is about right. We haven't really played a serious side yet. Word of caution. Aye, it's been as easy a start as we could have hoped for, the next 5 games will tell us more about where we are than the last 11 have this season. It has worked in our favour in another way in that the serious sides are getting tied up and focussed with their Euro campaigns as we get to playing them. They will hopefully be a bit more mentally tired than us if not physically. The FA must really love SA.

The other thing about Spurs is that they all run around too much.

Is about right. We haven't really played a serious side yet. Word of caution.

Central midfield is Spurs problem. No-one with any authority in there. When King is back they will get better as Lennon gets upto speed as well. Kaboul looks good and him or King need to play as the DM. JJ for all his natural ability isn't really good enough for a very good Spurs squad.

....people like Butt need replacing before Owen. I agree (even though I didn't mention replacing Owen) I think his replacement may already be at the club. Who do you think is Butt's replacement? I think with Rozehnal, Faye and Geremi we wont be in a desperate rush to replace Butt. none of those are top drawer, tho neither is Butt i suppose. i don't think Faye has enough ability with the ball at his feet to play there week-in, week-out, while him and Geremi are a similar age to Butt so not sure they'd replace him when he's too old! i'm intrigued by the idea of Rozza playing in midfield, he looks comfortable on the ball and very mobile, and the psg fans thought he was better there than at centre-half. Baggy I'm guessing is thinking of Roze. Frankly I don't think any of them have enough to be a top drawer DM. They all have glaring shortcomings.

How can you tell, he's barely played? Or is that your argument? If he doesn't have 15(bare minimum)-20 goals by the end of the season, I'll agree. How many games do you want to give him? I've seen enough of him since he's been back from injury to know he's not the player he once was, that doesn't mean he's shite by any stretch of the imagination but he's not a World class striker anymore, he's a top class finisher with good movement but he's not going to create much for himself anymore. The old Michael Owen would have raced though and put the ball in the back of the net with that chance against Spurs, the Michael Owen of now is a player who struggles to pull away from the likes of Michael Dawson, which means he has to shoot from distance which is something he's never been that good at. Anelka's a better player than him and he's someone I'd like to see here if Owen leaves, he's not a World class player either. Welcome aboard the Anelka train Baggy. I've only been banging on about getting him for a year and a half on here. I've been a big fan of his for a while now, in fact I was one of the few on here who wanted him instead of Owen the first time around, mainly because of the options a versitile striker like that can give us. As far back as I can find. http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=27749.msg520955#msg520955 Parky Online Re: Stats for the new batch of strikers « Reply #44 on: February 19, 2007, 06:03:29 PM » Quote Modify Remove I would have preferred Anelka to Martins.

Hopefully in Jan we'll be able to try the Owen/Smith. I have a good feeling about this combo too. Owen is still the best finisher in the PL.