*** OMT Tottenham Hotspur vs Saudi Sportswashing ***

[Baleforce]

I always suspected that he had been tipped off about another job when he rejected us.

he must be gutted that fell through and he ended up where he is now

I wonder what the bigger job than us was?

 

[Finney Is Back]

Not from what I’ve been told
We would t pay the fee and he agreed new terms with a low release fee

He wasn't particularly interested in joining us was the word on the agents grapevine. His release fee could've been negotiated down if he had expressed a desire in wanting to join us.

 

[Finney Is Back]

It's way, way too early to judge Slot but I've been very grudgingly impressed with him so far. Had expected he'd crash and burn with The Dippers but everything about him has been impressive so far.

I'll pray to all my gods that it doesn't continue though.

He was a great appointment to succeed Klopp as there are lots of similarities to the way he gets his teams playing. I think one of the reasons why he hasn't made many signings there so far is that the Liverpool team he inherited were basically the perfect players for his Feyenoord tactics. It wouldn't have been nearly as easy at Spurs where the squad was a hotch-potch put together for 4 managers all with different philosophies.

That is one of the reasons why we need to make sure we don't lurch to a manager with a completely different style of football whenever it is that Ange does leave the club.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Having a strategy of pushing the boat out a bit, for *one* higher level player per window, requires a bit of bravery... We have been just too safe in this window (and most of the previous windows) specially considering our current financial position. Are we saying we couldn't have afforded, say another £70m ish for that one player by the time the window had closed?

Sorry to boil your post down to just the last line but 'probably not'.

 

[Finney Is Back]

We have significantly changed the leadership now too, to back up a more patient approach

I still worry that our chairman tends to be trigger happy mate.

 

[Finney Is Back]

I doubt it
If it was 2 who do and 2 who didn’t, I’d guess he may…

Romero brought himself into line with two of the other three. It was only Dragusin chasing back that meant Romero didn't bring himself into line with the whole back four.

 

[Finney Is Back]

I always suspected that he had been tipped off about another job when he rejected us.

Liverpool's first choice to replace Klopp was Alonso so it wasn't the Liverpool job he was waiting for specifically.

 

[Finney Is Back]

he must be gutted that fell through and he ended up where he is now

I wonder what the bigger job than us was?

Feyenoord.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I still worry that our chairman tends to be trigger happy mate.

We shall see
I’m told that levy is very distanced now from the footballing side, by design

 

[Bedfordspurs]

He wasn't particularly interested in joining us was the word on the agents grapevine. His release fee could've been negotiated down if he had expressed a desire in wanting to join us.

My contacts in NL told me about us and him a bit before it was public, last year. I posted it on here.
My mate knew a lot about the ongoing there at the time but I haven’t spoken to him now in over a year.
He said he was joining us and everything was aligned so it was down to the clubs
Either way. It didn’t happen
And I’m sure he will show what a good coach he is now at Pool
Feyenoord and pool are very aligned culturally and also fan wise

 

[parklane1]

In many ways we already had 'The One" in place previously. Despite having loads of credit in the bank he was given 12 PL games of the new season before getting the sack.

Despite having far less credit in the bank, I suspect Ange will be given the courtesy of that amount of time before the chairman pulls the trigger.

Personally I think we need to just stick now, irrespective of where we end up this season (assuming we can't be as bad as being in a relegation battle). We've done far too much chopping and changing of the manager over the past few years and stability would be better for us now at least in the short term I think

Could not agree more, everytime we get rid of a manager we have to start from zero again and we have to stop wanting managers out before they have had a chance to finish a re-build. IMO we have/should stick with Ange and see what progress we make by the end of the season.

 

[totalspurs]

Sorry to boil your post down to just the last line but 'probably not'.

Whilst I'm not trying to down play that spending an extra £70m is not small change. I think we could have spent it if meant going the extra mile for the right player.
It would mean we probably wouldn't spend anything in Jan window.
But the difference it would make in being more competitive and accelerating the development may have been significant.
At the moment I see us battling ManU and Villa for 4-6 place. And I don't see much difference between any of the 3 teams. With Chelsea and Brighton just below, but easily able to step up and competing with any of us.

That's where a game changing players makes the difference and unfortunately we don't have one of them right now in our squad.

 

[DeanoAustin]

I’m still not sure that I agree with this.

We’re comparing it in our minds to what came immediately before, and it’s certainly better than most of that.

But defending is a vital part of the game, and I don’t enjoy watching us do that because we don’t do it well. I also find us a frustrating watch for the most part; all that possession and so little done with it. If I’m honest, our performances in the second half of last season didn’t often excite me.

Fair enough and some of the performances last season were a little pedestrian at times. But most were entertaining in my opinion and the two games I’ve seen this season have been a very good watch. You always get goals in our games.

I get the point on how we defend. There are times when I want to put my foot through the tv in frustration (i.e. when we almost let Vardy in for a second and when we left the winner in yesterday). But, overall, I enjoy watching this team.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Whilst I'm not trying to down play that spending an extra £70m is not small change. I think we could have spent it if meant going the extra mile for the right player.
It would mean we probably wouldn't spend anything in Jan window.
But the difference it would make in being more competitive and accelerating the development may have been significant.
At the moment I see us battling ManU and Villa for 4-6 place. And I don't see much difference between any of the 3 teams. With Chelsea and Brighton just below, but easily able to step up and competing with any of us.

That's where a game changing players makes the difference and unfortunately we don't have one of them right now in our squad.

Not sure how anyone can judge anyone this early TBH
I mean we were flying last season after 10 games and look what happened

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Fair enough and some of the performances last season were a little pedestrian at times. But most were entertaining in my opinion and the two games I’ve seen this season have been a very good watch. You always get goals in our games.

I get the point on how we defend. There are times when I want to put my foot through the tv in frustration (i.e. when we almost let Vardy in for a second and when we left the winner in yesterday). But, overall, I enjoy watching this team.

We didn’t panic yesterday after conceding
That’s a key change ti a trend we saw last year and also against Lestah
We played the game and got control

 

[Bishop]

I always felt that Emirates Marketing Project tended to rely on very intricate patterns around the box, using lots of passing triangles, going in and then back out and then in again and eventually pulling the ball back to somebody free, as opposed to Ange's tactic of putting an early cross in.

I can't really remember Emirates Marketing Project having 'dribbly wingers'? They had direct wingers wingers with pace like Mahrez, Sane or Sterling or players who would get involved in passing triangles such as Silva or Grealish or even Foden who would often play from wide areas.

Of course Guardiola did eventually bring in a dribbler in Doku, though I've never really been convinced he has been particularly successful for them.

WE don't play like Emirates Marketing Project though and that isn't the way that Ange wants us to play. Seems that you don't think Ange will be successful (and perhaps you're right) but I think what you are looking for isn't what Ange is looking for so, while he is at the club, I don't think you'll be getting what you are calling for.

Mahrez and Silva are what I consider dribbly wingers. Players who can beat a man at pace or slowly with supreme technique and control of the ball. Sterling in his prime was also a dribbler but more so at pace but again he was someone who could go either side.

I would love to be wrong because I want Ange to succeed but if this is his end game I just can't see it working. It's too one dimensional and it's counter intuitive. By playing such a heavy possession style we are actively negating the space for our non dribbly wide players.

But I'm not so sure I agree that he doesn't want what I'm suggesting because he did sign Odobert and he has started him for both games and even dropped Johnson. Which suggests to me he's not so convinced that the hopeful low cross is actual his primary tactic. Why sign the dribbly wingers if all he wants are crosses into the box? It would make more sense to sign someone who actually has crossing statistics are their primary attribute.

 

[Muttley]

Could not agree more, everytime we get rid of a manager we have to start from zero again and we have to stop wanting managers out before they have had a chance to finish a re-build. IMO we have/should stick with Ange and see what progress we make by the end of the season.

I agree on the last bit for now. The only way I wouldn't is if we saw him lose the changing room and we went into free-fall. When that happens, you normally know what happens next.

Saying that, one of my minor frustrations with Ange has been when he talks as if it is not yet HIS squad. How long do we allow that to happen? Our expensively constructed squad really started transitioning when Paratici came in 3-4 years ago. Ange had the benefit of all that hard work (and budget) by the club, and even last year's progressive, front-foot signings like VDV were on our scouting radar way before the Aussie joined us. Obviously, Lange is the new Fabio and hopefully will continue the good work.

We can pretend this is a new project and we're only at the start of year 2, but that's not the case at all. For me, it's a deeper and better squad than Poch's best year in 2017 but the current 1st eleven isn't quite as good. That team got 86 points, scored 86 goals and conceded 26 goals.

Even if Ange fails, we just better not start a new project. We don't need to.

 

[thfcsteff]

Just looked and we had 1.24 to Leicester’s 1.02 Xg and Saudi Sportswashing Machine had 1.57 to our 1.26 Xg.

I’m not a big lover of the stat but I think it does tell a story in our case. We aren’t missing big chances by any means and, for all our dominance in games, we cough up much better chances than we create. I don’t need Xg to tell me that, I see it with my own eyes.

I think what we are missing is the step before; the moment to create the big chance. Wrong decisions pass-wise, hesitancy when a potential moment is alive, poor deliveries, not playing a pass quite quickly enough.

I'll risk boring folks (more than I already do!) and say we have chosen the project route with great youth, and I am excited. It is also true (IMO anyway) to say that if we had bought, say, an Eze, and lets just say for bricks and giggles an Oshiman, we'd be laughing and seriously challenging. But for those two you'd need to park the better part of 200 million. That is simply not going to happen.

 

[thfcsteff]

It was never going to be Eze and a striker. It would have been one or the other. Striker was a bigger need and getting Eze was never going to be... easy. 65m release clause with most of the payment up front would have even the richest teams balk, as was evident by the fact no other team went in for him. Now had we sold Richie to Saudi, maybe, but even then I think it would have been unlikely. You have a star-in-the-making in Bergvall and if you buy Eze you're just blocking his path.

I think Eze is an immediate upgrade on a couple of positions (being ruthless). I don't think he'd have blocked Bergvall, what we might've seen happening is one of Madders/Deki being sold next summer. The truth is you are absolutely right, we were never buying both because we don't do that. As I understand it, City's situation with the rules is why they did little business in the window; otherwise I think Eze would've been there now...

I am happy enough with Solanke because Ange appears to be. So good there. I think we overpaid by about 15 mill personally, but he will be on a relatively reasonable wage for a 60 mill striker, so makes it a safer buy.

 

[thfcsteff]

For me Slot was the one. Expansive football, but more pragmatic. I was so gutted when Liverpool named him their next manager, as I was hoping he would succeed Ange in 2-3 years' time. Looks like that ship has sailed, though. I still think Ange was a very good appointment and immediately turned around the atmosphere after the toxicity of the Conte reign. I think he will set up a really good foundation for us in the next 1-2 years, but it may be the manager that follows him that gets us over the hump.

Yup.
Really makes you wonder what Slot's real reason was.
I love Ange, am very grateful for what he has done for us, and hope he is given every chance and tool possible to succeed.