A Trophy will not Change Us

"Did anybody ever tell him NOT to try and turn inside so close to his own box" - my post yesterday lads, at 19.53 on the "Farewell Arsene Wenger" thread re Dembele. Basic error that you impress on kids, yet a highly paid, experienced International disregards and slovenly gives away possession, fails to use his strength in a tussle for the ball and thirdly, couldn't be arsed trying to retrieve the situation. Hang your head lad - you failed big style yesterday. However he wasn't alone in failing, it was symptomatic of the whole show and whenever your Manager implies that the FA Cup isn't important how can you seriously be surprised if the day goes t*ts-up. Hurts like Hell and so easily avoidable. As I also noted on the other thread - we'd comfortably beaten the other 3 Semi Finalists since Christmas, so there was no reason why we should be so limp yesterday and yet we were like novices. What next ? Miss out on Top 4 ? That can easily happen too. But so what - a huge, shiny new stadium filled to the roof next season and others thereafter will keep the cash rolling in and the Bosses happy. Good luck with that one, Levy.

 

Top 4 is crucial Gordie.. as you know.. not the end of the world if not.. but considering the context.. 10 ahead with 6 to play.. might as well be.. even Pooch won't be able to clean up that psychological mess.

Don't be too hard on Dembo.. class player who should have been benched yesterday.. hit the wall against City.. these guys aren't robots.

 

Hey Jam - 5 clear with 4 to play. Watford, who appear to be out of the Bottom-Three-Scrap up next and Chavs are away to Swansea, who are on the edge. We need the points - fail again and heads may drop (again) and that could be fatal; Poch has the original Big Job to attend to. Do it Man - to paraphrase Kitchener " Your Club Needs You".

 

Did anyone see Poch's post match interview? If you listened carefully between his broken english, there was just a moment when he casually said that either he or someone else would continue the work/project...... . Hmmmm I wonder what is going on behind the scenes? We all know what Levy is like don't we?!

 

Yo Gordie.. twas 10 from 6 two games ago.. which is considerably more favourable than the current 5 from 4..

I'm not expecting us to fold.. nor am I predicting it.. but its still a possibility if Chelsea win out

Should that happen? catastrophic.. and beyond anything that transpired yesterday

 

Interesting.. I will look it up

 

Another Manager hitting a Glass Ceiling at Willy Wonga's Corporate Factory ?

The 'Project' is Flawed !!!!

Now I've had some time to calm , yes I will quite openly critique Poch for his Own shortcomings regarding flexibility in his game approach and sheer lack of in Game management but it HAS to be acknowledged he's done a good job thus far with the Parasitic Owners that strangle the Club constantly short changing everyone Manager/Players/Fans alike.

I think Poch going now would be just another unfortunate casualty of the Enic cycle

 

That's a very good point, if this manager and squad implodes, it would set us back years again. I know Alan Sugar was a business man when he initially took over at the helm in the early nineties but I somehow got the impression he became more involved in the football/team towards the end of his tenure and still talks passionately about them. I wonder how he would have supported Poch in this so called project? I have never been convinced of Levys motives/intentions and to be honest, would welcome a change and investment in the club.

 

"Is Poch his stooge then ? Maybe he is and if so it'll end in tears. Shortly" - quote from my post regarding team selection etc April 15 on the "Have We Made Progress". I'm getting a bad feeling here.

 

I knew all week we would not win.

The no trophy thing has literally overtaken all rationale and reasoning...if the general consensus is we "have to" win something or the world will implode and life will not be worth living - you know it`s never going to happen!!

Now I`ve had a day to calm down and reflect IMO the one turning point in the whole game was our first substitution. Moura on for Davis, it changed the whole balance & shape of the team, Dier who was playing very well changed position, Eriksen went too deep, we didn`t put in one decent cross after that & everything just turned to **** in what was probably our worst 20 minutes of the season.

 

Where do we go from here tho..
Despite being one of the top 20 richest clubs in the world and our current squad incapable of winning a trophy and in need of serious investment we can't or won't pay top transfers or wages.
Toby has gone Rose probably also. Who next. Eriksen? Kane?
How can Liverpool afford to pay 7m on a centre half and 180k wages with naby keita soon to follow for almost 60m and we cannot.
We have first option on bale but realistically will the club activate that. If not then why was that inserted into his contract in the first place. Would he want to come?
We are at a real crossroads here now and the new stadium said to be a game changer. Levy and Co need to put up or shut up now. If they are serious about being a major club then money needs to be made available if not sell our club to those that can.

 

Fran - short answers to your really valid points:

1) Eriksen & Kane ? One more season at the very most for both - unless there's a serious shift in policy.
2) Van Dijk: We probably can afford the salary but then everyone else would (naturally) want parity and Levy/ Lewis won't allow the pay structure to be dismantled.
3) First option on Bale: No they won't activate that - he's earning WAY too much; see point (2)
The clause was in (my reading) to keep the fans happy at the time of the sale - 'cos we'd love to have first refusal & see a genuine star come back wouldn't we ?
No, he won't want to come. Why not ? well we haven't exactly won everything on offer since he left and aren't likely to in the short haul. As I said - my reading and in no way the work of an insider or needle sharp visionary.

 

I am quite surprised that many of you are disappointed with the result.
When the general says I am going to this battle but I don’t care if I win or loss so there is no need to be Albert Einsten to predict the outcome.
My son and I sold our tickets in the Saturday morning and didn’t bother to go to the game and now am really worried about 4th place.
Pochettino talk about wining premier and championship. Dreams on. Not in my life time.
COYS

 

Stop Press: BBC Football Gossip (Daily Mail) reports that Poch says he'll consider fielding the Club's youngsters in next year's FA Cup. Bit too left-field to believe but.......

 

It was always inevitable this squad would break up unless the wage structure was changed .. We've got lads on the team who could be earning 3 times what they're earning if they were elsewhere .. There's always the odd exception but they're few and far between .. I don't even think a trophy winning team would change that in the long run .. It's just not sustainable in the real world I.m.o .. We all hoped it might change at some stage over the last few years but it hasn't so far and it's looking like the bite in the arse is getting closer ..

Liverpool pay bigger wages then us but in fairness their yank owners buying policy isnt much different to ours so far .. I'd imagine both of our net spends over the last few years are pretty similar ... The money they got for Coutinho more or less paid for Van Dyke & Keita .. The majority of their fans are no lovers of their owners as far as I know ..

As for the match . The evidence from the 4 or 5 games leading into it suggested we were vulnerable and so it turned out .. You know your in trouble when guys are calling for Sissoko and Aurier to save us .....

 

And Sonny came away from the left as well......a fecking mess.

 

We are indeed at a turning point. If we don't secure CL then keeping the current core together will be very difficult, if not impossible. Rose and Toby going leaves two big gaps to fill, for me. We need a decent striker, robust enough to hit the ground running, regardless of being second string. Caribao and FA Cup can sustain. We need a left back, creative midfield as well. Sell Lamela, Sisocko, Janssen, NKD, Nje if we still own him, Danny, Toby. That should raise £150m, plus £50m from DL. 5 times £40m should be possible. Where was Sanchez before he came to Europe - why can't we scout players like that. Instead we get Foyth for 3 to 5 years ahead.

 

Oh, please. Youre way too harsh. Is it Poch fault that there were no trophies won in 10 or 11 years? He is here since 4 years ago. He got sheit of the team from Sherwood. Spurs were the joke of EPL. They were joke before. You aren't old enough to see us relegated, my friend. Yes there were good seasons, but there has never been consistency of top 6 club. We are top 6, could be top 3 or 4 soon. You could have blamed whoever at Spurs should they spent on players and came empty-handed, like scum. No, they have not! We are respected club, get that! The loss to manure haven't changed that. PROJECT HAS NOT FAILED!!! So Poch has a project to run, unlike Mou, who is there to keep someone like you at MU happy. He will be gone in few seasons and nothing like Ferguson will be done there. Poch is our Sir Alex, believe you or not. You have to wait for trophies to come. Like many before you.
Of course, if Levy let this team to be sold in pieces, I would agree with you and will eat all the crows in sight.
Besides, that game was not as out of reach as City tie was. Should Dier shot gone in just a little, we will be talking , perhaps different result. Absence of lack it was, not absence of class.

 

Hang on a sec Spurporter, Spurs have been a consistent top 6 side since Arry took over and bar 1 off season from Ramos and when Jol first took helm we were finishing top 6.
And may I say Vs a much stronger/more established top 4 elite.
I may not have seen us Relegated but having supported Spurs since 89/90 believe me I've witnessed some sh;te in my time, I've also been fortunate enough to witness us win the FACup our last proper Major.
But in that time I've seen many a false dawn and on the rare occasions we've looked the part there's always the Glass Ceiling or inevitable Spursy Wobble.
Poch had basically given up on this before it had even started and it showed in the players overall 90 minute display, they started decently but soon when the going got Tough and Winners step up we went into our shell and the case of the shrinking violets turned up.
Synonymous with Spurs!
Saturday was the 1st time in this 4year project where we looked beaten before we started and that is down to Drive/Belief , there are only soo many times failure to achieve something before everyone starts questioning it.
As I've said before NEARLY isn't good enough and the Project is Flawed without serious investment, and a Drive thirst to win win win.
All of the big sides have it, all of the big sides do it , and people may pick 1 or 2 of the other big 5 who r having a blip but overall they are all serial winners compared to plucky Spurs who swan about like they did something bragging about how clever they've been.

 

I get sick of people denigrating Tottenham's recent and not so recent history to make the the current ENIC regime seem more successful (or less unsuccessful) than it objectively is. Historically we're far from a small club, much the best-supported in London until recently, and certainly the most successful in the postwar period until the advent of the PL (which unfortunately coincided with the post-Scholar shambles and meant we missed the 1993 gravy train). We're currently re-establishing ourselves where we should be, not 'punching above our weight'.
As Felon points out, we've been consistently top six since 2006, and we SHOULD have qualified for the CL in 2006 ('Lasagnegate'), 2012 (Fulop's disgraceful performance for WBA against Arsenal) and 2013 (when we were pipped by Arsenal despite Bale's heroics) - even Sherwood's supposedly terrible managerial performance in 2014 produced a higher points total than Pochettino managed in 2015, and only a couple less than in 2016 - we REALLY weren't that bad before Pochettino, and it shows how far we've still to go that our past has to be rubbished to make our present seem better.