leffe186

In the last hundred years they've won the first division the same number of times as us two put together. I think it would be mint if they come up. Edit: Huddersfield, obviously.

Not exactly the most daring opinion .

Simon Davies was a bit of a stretch . Think most of them were justifiable. I don't think Pat Jennings has aged in the last 25 years. Cliff Jones running onto the pitch was mint. Steve Archibald looked terrifying. Managed to get quite a bit of dust in my eye.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - how the fuck is that only 1-0?

So, with the proviso that nobody really gives a fuck, which two teams would you guys like to get into the CL out of: Man C Liverpool Arsenal Man U

I would have thought that the CL places would still be up for grabs.

Read the first line *click*.

I suspect that it's not only the Top 6 that are the problem here. In fact, I'm going to wager that Levy is savvy enough not to come up with bullshit like that. I'm looking at West Ham here, and in particular, their attitude to Leyton Orient.

So Noble's tackle and Walker's tackle both get a yellow card. Well at least we know where we stand ref - cheers for that.

Messi gets off that ban due to insufficient evidence. Eh?

Do you really expect to spend 70M net on players? Not taking the piss, it's a genuine question. Only six clubs had a net spend of more than 26M last summer, and we only spent 34M net because somebody presumably hacked our fax machine to buy Sissoko.

They're the really big ones. Carrick was at the time. For years and years Levy has kept getting solid money for the youth products and mediocre players like Chadli & Paulinho too. Just had a quick look at the net transfer spends last summer. Most teams seemed to end up around 20M (just on fees). With the extra money available, you guys should be able to spend 40-50 with a couple of sales, shouldn't you?

You're conflating two different questions though, I think. Our team has been built over several years, including players from our youth team. It's possible to build a squad to compete that doesn't cost a huge amount of money if you do so over an extended period of time. That's not the problem you face. You have one or two transfer windows to build a squad that is competitive in the league - and by competitive, I presume you mean capable of mid-table next year. Some of you seem to feel you need seven or eight players to get to that stage. I doubt that's the case, but let's say you need five players. 50M sounds like a reasonable amount to lay out. A couple of players for 15M, one for 10M, a couple for 5M. You should have the income to cover pretty decent wages.

Spurs are the epitome of being a squad more than a team, like. More than any other team in the league imo, they have two great or very good quality players for every position, except for Sissoko who obviously cost them £30m I dunno about that, to be honest. The fullback positions certainly, and Dier can cover a lot of places, but actually they lack depth at striker, CB and out wide. I'd argue that they're more of a fantastic functioning team than having great strength in depth. Think our depth at CB is pretty good tbh - Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Dier, then Wimmer and Cameron Carter-Vickers, with Davies and Wanyama capable of stepping in in an emergency. You can't really quibble too much with that. Striker is an obvious issue, although I still have hopes that Janssen will develop into the role. Other than that, it's only really Son. Wide - well it depends upon what you mean. Our true wide players are the full-backs, and we've arguably got the best group in the league. If you mean wingers, then it's N'Koudou, Lamela, and Son - but we don't use wingers. Main problem is that Lamela has missed the entire season.

Presumably it includes Alli, Trippier, Davies, Aldeweireld, Wanyama, Dier. All bought over the last couple of years for very reasonable amounts. Eriksen, Vertonghen and Lloris were bought a couple of years earlier for reasonable amounts, and Kane is home-grown. That just leaves Son who fits your profile. Not that I disagree with your basic point, it's bloody hard to get these players for reasonable amounts. Not impossible though.

"Bye Nerd" . You know he said it, too.

As a football fan, I'm well annoyed. Just as annoyed as I was when the same thing happened with Leicester. Football is completely f***ed, the game is completely rigged aside from the odd miracle. Exactly. That's the reason I posted the story in the first place, it's f***ing awful. I'd agree normally, but Spurs should be able to compete in terms of wages now. Their financial status is one of the best in the country. ...but our revenue, as repeated ad nauseam, is far short of the others. Once the new stadium is up, and if we can maintain the spine of the side => success => increased commercial income then maybe. Until then, sadly, no.

Yeah, I certainly hope so. That's why we need to retain the core of the current squad...and that's why we're now seeing so many stories unsettling them. Honestly i'm surprised it's taken the media this long I hate that part of it mind, bunch of hypocrites who claim they someone new at the top but when it comes down to it they just want to keep the same status quo. I don't think it's necessarily hypocrisy. There is a group of journalists who are happy to pass on whatever certain agents, managers or teams feed them, the majority who couldn't give a fuck what they wrote as long as it generated money, and a few who have souls. It just depends upon what you read, and when you read it.

He's been out for two significant periods of time. The first coincides (IIRC) with that period in October when we drew a lot. The second was fine, as people like Son and Alli stood up. I do agree that we could have done with a more ready replacement for Kane, but I actually think that Janssen will work out fine given a year or two to settle in. yeah, totally pointless theoretical hindsight really but had you spent more of that £40m+ on a stronger 2nd striker you might be closer this season, alas I agree. We keep trying these weird guys like N'Jie and N'Koudou to absolutely no effect, and Sissoko was just bizarre. Yet we also got Wanyama, who was perfect. I think one problem is that we have to go looking for these guys from the second tier and abroad, and hope that they will come off. Kante and Mahrez happened to do so for Leicester, but that's something of a rarity. Even Eriksen took a while to settle in. Pochettino seems reluctant to look for short-term fixes, and that's OK, but if you get a little bit of bad luck then it can derail you.

There is definitely that perception. We drew away to Everton first game, then beat Palace, then drew at home to Liverpool. Not entirely unexpected results. Then we won four in a row. Played seven games, won five, drawn two. That's not a slow start. The problem was October and November. After beating Man City at home Oct 2nd we drew four league games in a row, blagged a win against West Ham then were a bit unlucky to lose away to Chelsea. What else was happening around that time? Europe and injuries. That's the key. Fair enough, i think partly it's because Kane seems to start slow ( maybe i'm wrong about that too ) and performances don't seem as good as they second half of the season that it creates that perception. I know i fell for it. A fair few Spurs fans still think that too, tbh. It's the convenient narrative. Like "Bottler" Spurs, which is clearly bollocks. Things fell apart last year because after that Chelsea game we knew the title was gone, so they fucked it off. Somewhat refreshing actually - rather than being happy with second they had their sights set higher.

Yeah, I certainly hope so. That's why we need to retain the core of the current squad...and that's why we're now seeing so many stories unsettling them.

He's been out for two significant periods of time. The first coincides (IIRC) with that period in October when we drew a lot. The second was fine, as people like Son and Alli stood up. I do agree that we could have done with a more ready replacement for Kane, but I actually think that Janssen will work out fine given a year or two to settle in.

There is definitely that perception. We drew away to Everton first game, then beat Palace, then drew at home to Liverpool. Not entirely unexpected results. Then we won four in a row. Played seven games, won five, drawn two. That's not a slow start. The problem was October and November. After beating Man City at home Oct 2nd we drew four league games in a row, blagged a win against West Ham then were a bit unlucky to lose away to Chelsea. What else was happening around that time? Europe and injuries. That's the key.

A bit of extra luck, mainly. It's abundantly clear that you have a better chance if you don't have to worry about Europe, like Leicester and then Chelsea. Then you factor in injuries (which may be connected to the lack of Europe) - Leicester and then Chelsea again. There's the perennial argument that we might be missing that one truly world-class attacker or midfielder - Sanchez, Hazard, Aguero (?). Bottom line, we're really bloody good all round. If we win out, we end up with just one point less than the "Invincibles" managed (with more goals scored and a far better goal difference). And we probably still finish second. Frankly, that's just bad luck. as i said last weekend i think i do wonder what your season might have looked like if you'd spent £30m on a footballer (or 2) instead of sissoko Probably roughly the same tbf. Doubt they'd get a player that would be guaranteed to significantly improve them for £30m probably yeah, but still you'd think for £30m you'd be getting a player who would win you a few points over the course of a season even if playing poorly on that note where's lamela, injured? Yep. Some question over whether he will come back. Sissoko is just the weirdest transfer all round.

A bit of extra luck, mainly. It's abundantly clear that you have a better chance if you don't have to worry about Europe, like Leicester and then Chelsea. Then you factor in injuries (which may be connected to the lack of Europe) - Leicester and then Chelsea again. There's the perennial argument that we might be missing that one truly world-class attacker or midfielder - Sanchez, Hazard, Aguero (?). Bottom line, we're really bloody good all round. If we win out, we end up with just one point less than the "Invincibles" managed (with more goals scored and a far better goal difference). And we probably still finish second. Frankly, that's just bad luck.