See you guys in August

[Kandi1977]

I was at work during the game yesterday, but was looking forward to getting home and watching the game in replay. I watched for 15 minutes, and honestly I was fudging shocked!!! I have never ever seen a more lacklustre display, and I knew right away that this was not worth watching anymore, so I turned it off after 18 minutes. Made some food and though I'd just check the result and confirm the inevetable 1-0 loss. I open the web-page and see 5-1!! I could hardly believe my own eyes! The players have shown a total disrespect for everyone associated with the club, and with one disgraceful game they have thrown away everything good they've done this season, and put us right back as the biggest losers and laughing stock of the premier league. I'm still fuming, and it will take a long time for me to get over this. In fact, I may never! It's so fudging humiliating!

 

[milo]

I doubt I did. He said position is more important than finishing over l'arse.

I've found two sets of quotes from the last week where he has been talking about this. Is there much to disagree with here? Does he say anywhere that finishing above Arsenal is not important?

"The supporters and their feelings are very important but we are professional," Pochettino said.

"To move on, we need to sometimes put out the emotions, to be clever, we need to fight first to improve ourselves and be strong in our ideas.

"I can understand it, for our supporters it's special to be above Arsenal, but I want to be second not because we will be above our enemy, our opponent, but because we are ambitious.

"Maybe one day Arsenal finish eighth, we finish seventh, yes we are above but it's not a success for us."



“I don’t care about Arsenal,” said Pochettino. “I want to win the league and be on the top. Arsenal? I don’t care what happens. We have to try to improve and be bigger and bigger and bigger. We need to look at ourselves and not care what happens with our neighbours. We need to create and build our own philosophy and ideas and then the consequence is to be above all opponents, not just Arsenal.”

“I understand [the fans],” he said. “It’s normal. It is important for them and for us, the same. But we are professional, we need to analyse things differently and focus on our way. I don’t know what happened in the past because I was not here. There is too much worrying about Arsenal. We need to spend our energy on winning games. I don’t care about opponents. Arsenal and Chelsea are the same as other teams. We want to win. Not only this season, but next season too.”

 

[glasgowspur]

Arsenal are using finishing above us to deflect from the fact that they finished way behind Leicester. Let's not kid ourselves here, this has been a better than decent season from us, and a bad one from Arsenal.

 

[AuroRaman]

How much is the parachute payment for being relegated this season?

 

[Klinsmania]

Arsenal are using finishing above us to deflect from the fact that they finished way behind Leicester. Let's not kid ourselves here, this has been a better than decent season from us, and a bad one from Arsenal.

Are you saying this is a positive? They have had a bad season, we have had a good one yet they still finish above us? I'm sorry, but I disagree. The performances in the last few games have undone all the good work we had done over the first 30 odd games, and shows that we are still a soft touch and have too many players who are not good enough.

 

[glasgowspur]

Are you saying this is a positive? They have had a bad season, we have had a good one yet they still finish above us? I'm sorry, but I disagree. The performances in the last few games have undone all the good work we had done over the first 30 odd games, and shows that we are still a soft touch and have too many players who are not good enough.

No I'm not, because it isn't. What I'm saying is Arsenal are a using predictable and unsurprising finish above us to deflect from the fact they have finished WAY behind Leicester. That should be seen by any sensible Arsenal fan as failure, our position should be irrelevant.

 

[Heda SPURSCZ]

I doubt I did. He said position is more important than finishing over l'arse.

Our own glory is more important than finishing above them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still angry, disappointed and it will take a long time to forgive players, but we should really focus only on ourselves (and it doesn't matter how painful it is now). If we will finish 10th next season and above l'arse then there will be nothing to celebrate, because there isn't trophy for 10th place or finishing above them.

 

[afsoc4life]

^I disagree - there isnt a trophy for 2nd or 3rd place either. There is however a joy that will arise from finishing above them. Ask yourself why majority of Spurs fans are gloomy despite finishing in top 3. It is because we have finished below l'arse AGAIN!! and AGAIN!!

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

- Youngest team in the PL were giving it big boll*cks, talking about how mentally strong they were and how *very* different this team was to the ones that came before them (Kane, Walker, Hugo, Toby...all of them, the same stuff, over and over). Got showed up, and royally so.
- I wonder how many goals that wage bill scored to see us drop ten points in our final four games to lose an eight-point lead over the scum, three of those games being against teams with *lower* wage bills than our own.
- Undoubtedly true.
- *Widely acclaimed* isn't an achievement. Bobby Martinez was *widely acclaimed* after finishing above us in 2013-2014.
- True, although they've proven insufficient depth in most cases.
- Be thankful it wasn't even worse? Great way to end the season, that.

It isn't even that this team is bad, they're clearly not, they're very good. But it does utterly bewilder me that people rush to hail this team as *mentally strong*, the *best in 50 years*, blah blah blah.

They have proved *nothing* this season. They've even finished below Arsenal *again*. What gives us the right to write off Harry Redknapp's 2009-2010 team, who achieved the same number of points while getting to Wembley to boot? What gives us the right to write off AVB's 2012-2013 season, which saw us finish with a higher points total than Poch has managed this season?

Just repeating *this is the best team in 50 years* endlessly doesn't make it true. Wenger has beaten Poch to the punch again, this team has bottled again. It is not a *bad* side, it is a very good one - but, on this evidence, it is no better than at least two other teams from just the last ten years, never mind the last fifty, with only the vagaries of poor opposition teams and an unpredictable league guaranteeing them a 3rd place finish.

We haven't proved anything, and deluding ourselves that we have won't get us anywhere. This *resting on our laurels* nonsense has to end, please. You want mentally strong? Look at Leicester. You want a team that fights to the end, that understands what a rivalry means? Look at Arsenal. You want us to improve? Then face up to our collapse, because it doesn't help to say meaningless things like 'best team in fifty years', and is disrespectful to some of the teams we did have that quite clearly have done at least as well as this one without the rewards to show for it.

Wow...You didn't mention Levy once.

 

[milo]

Are you saying this is a positive? They have had a bad season, we have had a good one yet they still finish above us? I'm sorry, but I disagree. The performances in the last few games have undone all the good work we had done over the first 30 odd games, and shows that we are still a soft touch and have too many players who are not good enough.

Utter nonsense.

We have had a good season but it has finished disappointingly. The disappointing finish should not be allowed to overshadow what has been a fantastic performance by our team this year.

Hopefully, the disappointment will be learnt from and can help this team improves further. This is a very young side and anyone who does not expect them to make the occasional mistake is deluded.

What is critical in whether this is another false dawn or whether we are genuinely building a great team, is how we respond to it and I think that the response of the fans is as critical as the response of the players.

 

[Millsy_Yiddo]

^I disagree - there isnt a trophy for 2nd or 3rd place either. There is however a joy that will arise from finishing above them. Ask yourself why majority of Spurs fans are gloomy despite finishing in top 3. It is because we have finished below l'arse AGAIN!! and AGAIN!!

I think the disappointment comes more from the manner in which it happened. If we'd been beaten 2-1 by Saudi Sportswashing Machine after a strong performance and were just unlucky I don't think the disappointment would be anywhere near the same level.

It's the fact that even though throughout the entire season, everyone, fans, media, pundits talked about how we aren't S.p.ur.sy anymore and how we're really making strides and moving forward, we still managed to absolutely monumentally Spurs it up at the final hurdle.

 

[alekaras]

Hold on a second. Why are we S.pursy, eh? Did we blow our chance at CL? No (we actually qualified with two games to spare, ffs!). Were we top of the table and let the title slip from our hands? No.

I could understand people's frustration if we had missed out on something big, but the only thing we missed out on was finishing above the Scum. Big fudging deal. Yeah, I know the Scum are our biggest rival, but it's really small time to define our season by where we finish relative to them. Let them do that. Our focus should be on big things, not little Arse.

But if you really want to be upset about something, then maybe you should turn your concern to the team chemistry. It might be just me, but I didn't see it that evident in the last couple of matches. I don't know if it's frustration and disappointment with falling out of contention for the title (I hope that's it), or something else, but what I want to see is the same chemistry in good performances as well as bad ones. There didn't seem to be the same togertheness we saw in 95% of the season and I sure as hell worry about that much more than anything. Because that is what is going to get us titles and silverware, not finishing above the Scum.

 

[the dza]

Do our senior players have the mental strength for games where something big is on the line?

I'm thinking specifically of Lloris, Walker and Vertonghen. They've all been here a few seasons, older than most of our other players. They are all capable of excellent performances, they are all pretty consistent and have contributed to an excellent overall defensive record. They are good players.

But...when I think back to some big games over the past couple of seasons, they do throw in some underwhelming performances right when we need them to be at their best. I hope Toby isn't in the same mould, but he looks that way too, given how his form has dropped off when it's come to the crunch. Good player, good season and when we needed him to be at his very best, he went off the boil.

People talk about s.pursy, but it feels a bit like Arsenal-lite imo -- we have players who can turn it on when there is no real expectation placed on them, but when there's a chance to do something big we lack the character to follow through. We're a young side, so it's the senior players who need to be taking the lead -- based on the last few weeks, I'm not sure they are up to it, however good they are in 90% of games. It's those crucial times, the 10% of games, that decide when trophies are won or lost that we need our senior defenders to be able to step up and see us through.

This is not an easy problem for Poch to solve.

 

[Dr Rosenrosen]

But if you really want to be upset about something, then maybe you should turn your concern to the team chemistry. It might be just me, but I didn't see it that evident in the last couple of matches. I don't know if it's frustration and disappointment with falling out of contention for the title (I hope that's it), or something else, but what I want to see is the same chemistry in good performances as well as bad ones. There didn't seem to be the same togertheness we saw in 95% of the season and I sure as hell worry about that much more than anything. Because that is what is going to get us titles and silverware, not finishing above the Scum.

It's hard for us to know what goes on behind the scenes. And of course it's easier for everyone to be mates when they're winning and looking like world beaters. The Chelsea throwdown certainly seemed to suggest that the players had each other's backs.

But the one on-the-pitch incident that really struck me was Eriksen and Lamela fighting over which would take a free kick. I believe it was Dier who essentially talked Lamela away from it, but he then kicked it while Eriksen was backing up. I don't know what the f that was, if that was some elaborate ploy to confuse the defense, or a window into some squad divisiveness and indiscipline, or just two fierce competitors each wanting a shot at glory, or what. But it looked like an embarrassing breakdown.

 

[Glenda's Legs]

But if you really want to be upset about something, then maybe you should turn your concern to the team chemistry. It might be just me, but I didn't see it that evident in the last couple of matches. I don't know if it's frustration and disappointment with falling out of contention for the title (I hope that's it), or something else, but what I want to see is the same chemistry in good performances as well as bad ones. There didn't seem to be the same togertheness we saw in 95% of the season and I sure as hell worry about that much more than anything. Because that is what is going to get us titles and silverware, not finishing above the Scum.

It's hard for us to know what goes on behind the scenes. And of course it's easier for everyone to be mates when they're winning and looking like world beaters. The Chelsea throwdown certainly seemed to suggest that the players had each other's backs.

I did wonder if there has been some behind the scenes discontent after the Chelsea game. Yes the players had each others backs during the game, but once the dust had settled, were there recriminations about the outcome, loss of heads etc.? And although Poch did not make a big fuss of it all publicly, we have no idea (quite rightly) of what disciplinary measures may have been imposed. Poch, as others have said, has not seemed the same himself for the last couple of games either.
All utter speculation of course. Hopefully nothing more sinister than a drop off in mental concentration/focus.

 

[glasgowspur]

Hold on a second. Why are we S.pursy, eh? Did we blow our chance at CL? No (we actually qualified with two games to spare, ffs!). Were we top of the table and let the title slip from our hands? No.

I could understand people's frustration if we had missed out on something big, but the only thing we missed out on was finishing above the Scum. Big fudgeing deal. Yeah, I know the Scum are our biggest rival, but it's really small time to define our season by where we finish relative to them. Let them do that. Our focus should be on big things, not little Arse.

But if you really want to be upset about something, then maybe you should turn your concern to the team chemistry. It might be just me, but I didn't see it that evident in the last couple of matches. I don't know if it's frustration and disappointment with falling out of contention for the title (I hope that's it), or something else, but what I want to see is the same chemistry in good performances as well as bad ones. There didn't seem to be the same togertheness we saw in 95% of the season and I sure as hell worry about that much more than anything. Because that is what is going to get us titles and silverware, not finishing above the Scum.

First part, a-fudging-men brother. Let Arsenal celebrate finish above us, its papering over chasms.

It's Eriksen, as the dr also mentions above. Him and Harry to a lesser extent will not pass to Lamella. He was the same with Ade, which I kind of understand.
One thing on the team dynamic that has me worried is that it seems to be a lot of duos, obvious one Dier and alli, not a real close group but lots of little groups.

 

[StephenH]

^I disagree - there isnt a trophy for 2nd or 3rd place either. There is however a joy that will arise from finishing above them. Ask yourself why majority of Spurs fans are gloomy despite finishing in top 3. It is because we have finished below l'arse AGAIN!! and AGAIN!!

This group rage got little or nothing to do with Arsenal and everything to do with losing 5-1 to bloody Saudi Sportswashing Machine who are bloody relegated and with ten 10 men.
I dont give a tinker's what Arsenal or any other team do. I just want Spurs to win!!!!!!
Arsenal finishing above us is just adding to our misery but out front and centre is our abject capitulation 5-1 to relegated Saudi Sportswashing Machine.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Arsenal are using finishing above us to deflect from the fact that they finished way behind Leicester. Let's not kid ourselves here, this has been a better than decent season from us, and a bad one from Arsenal.

Arsenal have not had a bad season at all..... They have finished 1 or 2 places higher than they usually do. We have done the same. It has actually been a good season for both Spurs and Arsenal.

The only reason there has been a gnashing of teeth from the Arsenal fans this season is because:
a) Leicester were top (and finished there)
b) We were above them for much of the second half of the season.

This was simply because both Spurs and (especially) Leicester over performed. Arsenal have actually had a marginally better season than any of their others in the last decade.

 

[lurker of old]

Let last season go guys, great season with a slow start and a disappointing end. Next season is all that matters now. CL football again and maybe just maybe a team who can challenge for the title again. Put it this way, if we end next season in the top 3 - wow!

 

[SpurMeUp]

Super excited about CL again, especially if we can add two or three genuine quality players to the team. Collectively this team will be a year older, settled and hopefully ready to right some of the frustrations of this season.