You'll win nothing with kids...

[thfcsteff]

Crouch isn't great at hold up play granted but he would have been an an option and more of a physical presence than Chadli

We also wouldn't be banging it in the air to him

chaldi leads the line with less physical prowess than a dwarf

sometimes, i swear, he reminds of a Pathetic Shark from VIZ!!!!! if ONLY he could find the extra 10-15% he'd be an absolute worldbeater par excellence (and i think he has it IF he can be a little more aggressive at times?)

 

[Bullet]

He posted his sad story online... Name is Francis

That's pretty sick, pretending to be departed. I suppose he isn't the first.

 

[parklane1]

I would say that's close to the truth for some.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Which random direction the ball would bounce off his 50p head in?

Or which 5'9" player would beat him in the air?

I'm always a bit puzzled by those that don't think Crouch is good in the air? I can remember years ago when we spanked Southampton at WHL (I think it was 5-1 but could be wrong) Crouch gave Ledley a torrid time in the air. I also remember VDV scoring a number of goals from balls played up to Crouch.

I'm not advocating us actually buying Crouch (and anyone like him) but surely you agree that it is an extremely poor show that when we need to give our centre forward a rest with 20 odd minutes to go we don't have a single other player who can come on up top and give the opposition's defence something to think about - be it an ability to hold the ball up and bring our midfield into the game, or some out and out pace to exploit gaps in behind?

 

[billyiddo]

I wonder if Dembele would have been the better option to go up top - could have brought Alli on for Kane, pushed Dembele up, and he could have held the ball up awaiting support from Chadli/Alli/Lamela - rather than the early ball out wide to Lamela who constantly lost possession.

Hindsight, obviously but possibly would have worked better

 

[Vega]

I wonder if Dembele would have been the better option to go up top - could have brought Alli on for Kane, pushed Dembele up, and he could have held the ball up awaiting support from Chadli/Alli/Lamela - rather than the early ball out wide to Lamela who constantly lost possession.

Hindsight, obviously but possibly would have worked better

I have a wheelie bin on my drive that would have held the ball up better than Lamela, offered more pace when pushed (on 2 wheels) and if the ball was whipped into the box and hit it i would fancy it to finish in the back of the net better than our Argentinian friend.

 

[scaramanga]

I'm always a bit puzzled by those that don't think Crouch is good in the air? I can remember years ago when we spanked Southampton at WHL (I think it was 5-1 but could be wrong) Crouch gave Ledley a torrid time in the air. I also remember VDV scoring a number of goals from balls played up to Crouch.

He had his moments but mostly I remember his lack of strength and inability to read the flight of a ball meaning that even much shorter defenders beating him in the air most of the time. When he did get his head to the ball there was no way of knowing where his Kryten head would send it.

I'm not advocating us actually buying Crouch (and anyone like him) but surely you agree that it is an extremely poor show that when we need to give our centre forward a rest with 20 odd minutes to go we don't have a single other player who can come on up top and give the opposition's defence something to think about - be it an ability to hold the ball up and bring our midfield into the game, or some out and out pace to exploit gaps in behind?

I think pace and the ability to play the ball on the floor was required for Saturday. The problem is that we need a player with a lot more than that - it's not that often that teams will pile forward against us as Stoke did (and even less if we have a pacey forward) so their main attribute would be negated much of the time. We can't buy a player who can only work in the specific set of circumstances.

 

[billyiddo]

I agree, he 'won' a lot of headers by virtue of his height but if he wasn't clambering all over the defender giving away free kicks he'd mostly be heading the ball back to the opposition

 

[Finney Is Back]

He had his moments but mostly I remember his lack of strength and inability to read the flight of a ball meaning that even much shorter defenders beating him in the air most of the time. When he did get his head to the ball there was no way of knowing where his Kryten head would send it.


I think pace and the ability to play the ball on the floor was required for Saturday. The problem is that we need a player with a lot more than that - it's not that often that teams will pile forward against us as Stoke did (and even less if we have a pacey forward) so their main attribute would be negated much of the time. We can't buy a player who can only work in the specific set of circumstances.

I think that teams will pile forward against us as Stoke did very often if we have nothing up top for them to think about. Perhaps N'jie will ask the right questions of the opposition's defence in this aspect, as let's face it the likes of Chadli and Lamela just aren't going to do anything to push Stoke back and ensure we can get ourselves higher up the pitch as a unit.

 

[parklane1]

I agree, he 'won' a lot of headers by virtue of his height but if he wasn't clambering all over the defender giving away free kicks he'd mostly be heading the ball back to the opposition

And what got me is that he is 6ft 7 ins but usually did not reach much higher when he jumped.

 

[Baleforce]

I have a wheelie bin on my drive that would have held the ball up better than Lamela, offered more pace when pushed (on 2 wheels) and if the ball was whipped into the box and hit it i would fancy it to finish in the back of the net better than our Argentinian friend.

if only we still had Bentley

 

[SUIYHA]

Redknapp's transfer policy was widely criticised by a lot of people on here, but you forget he already had plenty of talented young players in Modric, Bale, Lennon etc. What we were lacking was leaders. The experienced heads our players could look up to. Think I remember him saying something along the lines of our squad being the quietist bunch of players he'd ever worked with. So in came Gudjohnsen, Gallas, Friedel and Parker, and our underperforming young squad suddenly embarked upon the most consistent period of league form since the 1960s.

He also brought in the likes of Keane, Van Der Vaart, Adebayor and Defoe, who obviously weren't AS experienced but were still big personalities within the squad. Looking at our current bunch now, who are the real characters? Who are leaders? One thing I have been impressed with under Poch is a filtering out of those who don't pull their weight, but regardless of work ethic, I am not seeing those who stand out amongst their peers as captain material.

Remember when Harry brought on Gudjohnsen away to Stoke in our successful 2009-10 run-in and he helped see out an important away win? I would have loved for an experienced head to come on and help in that way on Saturday. well, that and some fast paced attacking players who could have hit them on the counter as they pushed for an equaliser - but I've been regularly ranting about not having those in the squad for well over a year now so there's no point going over old ground.

 

[Yoof]

Redknapp's transfer policy was widely criticised by a lot of people on here, but you forget he already had plenty of talented young players in Modric, Bale, Lennon etc. What we were lacking was leaders. The experienced heads our players could look up to. Think I remember him saying something along the lines of our squad being the quietist bunch of players he'd ever worked with. So in came Gudjohnsen, Gallas, Friedel and Parker, and our underperforming young squad suddenly embarked upon the most consistent period of league form since the 1960s.

He also brought in the likes of Keane, Van Der Vaart, Adebayor and Defoe, who obviously weren't AS experienced but were still big personalities within the squad. Looking at our current bunch now, who are the real characters? Who are leaders? One thing I have been impressed with under Poch is a filtering out of those who don't pull their weight, but regardless of work ethic, I am not seeing those who stand out amongst their peers as captain material.

Remember when Harry brought on Gudjohnsen away to Stoke in our successful 2009-10 run-in and he helped see out an important away win? I would have loved for an experienced head to come on and help in that way on Saturday. well, that and some fast paced attacking players who could have hit them on the counter as they pushed for an equaliser - but I've been regularly ranting about not having those in the squad for well over a year now so there's no point going over old ground.

It's a shame none of those leaders stepped up to the plate and prevented us from bottling a 13 point lead over Arsenal.

There's also a bit of revisionism in that first paragraph. That underperforming young squad finished 4th before any of Gallas, Friedel and Parker turned up. We also finished 5th along with a run to the CL quarters without the latter two.

 

[Andyandy]

Always going to be a lot of anti Redknapp around but nobody can ignore the fact that it was our most successful period in the PL era. It would be interesting to hear which manager did a better job for us than Redknapp.

 

[billyiddo]

There's a Redknapp thread somewhere in the depths of General Football if you're that interested in the subject Andy

 

[milo]

Did someone mention the R word?

 

[Rorschach]

I wonder if Dembele would have been the better option to go up top - could have brought Alli on for Kane, pushed Dembele up, and he could have held the ball up awaiting support from Chadli/Alli/Lamela - rather than the early ball out wide to Lamela who constantly lost possession.

Hindsight, obviously but possibly would have worked better

I think dropping Dembele into a 3 man midfield would have stemmed the tide. We needed an extra body in there as the CM pair were overloaded with Stoke runners. We could have pushed the three girls (Erika, Pamela and Nancey) into the front three positions.

 

[spurs' magna carter]

Well if that's the case then lets cash in on lloris now for 25m and sell kane for 40m.

What's the point in having 61,000 stadium when we wont have a team with watching. Either show ambition (a 20m net spend this summer for example would do wonders to our squad and wouldn't bankrupt us) or sell our assets and try and make do with top 10 finishes. Don't keep on making the fans believe we can do something - we will always be 2-3 players away and that is what frustrates the most

In terms of winning trophies I'd agree with that statement but in terms of finishing top four every year I just can't see it.

The Premier League is now so competitive it's like being an aspirational technology firm wanting to return to the glory days or be the new kid on the block who makes it big only to realise you're up against Microsoft, Sony, Samsung and Apple.

Football clubs are quite literally like corporations these days, monopolies that stamp on their grandmother's toes to get more profit. Without trying to sound like a socialist the point I am trying to make is that they are too competitive, they'll try anything, covert (buy a player just so we or other clubs can't have him) or overt (buying incredibly expensive world class players), to prevent us from succeeding. Infact in some cases they won't have to do anything at all simply because they are too big for us to do anything, it'd be like Britain trying to invade the US.

Personally I want, regardless of financial position, the core of the squad to be mainly made up of players from the academy, I feel that over the coming years this is more likely to produce the brand of football we demand and also the loyalty that we so badly need. The latter of which takes me onto something we tend to forget which is continuity in the core of the squad helps sustain success, just look at Chelsea (Cech, Terry, Lampard, Cole, Drogba) and Barcelona (Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Pique, Messi).
Even if there is changes to the core it shouldn't matter just as long as it isn't too drastic. Liverpool back in the day achieved what they did over two decades (70s and 80s) because they usually sold two and bought two. Unlike Spurs and present day Liverpool's La La Land transfer strategy of sell your best player and then buy up to 10. The master of it of course was SAF, replace them one at a time, Stam > Ferdinand, Keane > Carrick, Beckham > Ronaldo.

Either way if people want the Spurs of days gone by (50s - 80s), challenging in the League and for trophies by challenging in the transfer market then the suffer now, prosper later plan aka baked beans on toast is the only way I can see us achieving any kind of success, especially with FFP starting to get into it's stride, well if it does that is (loop holes etc), in which case we can get a Sugar, Daddy which might not work as it may end up in Sugar Daddy over kill or Roman sending a Hitman.

 

[alekaras]

Well if that's the case then lets cash in on lloris now for 25m and sell kane for 40m.

What's the point in having 61,000 stadium when we wont have a team with watching. Either show ambition (a 20m net spend this summer for example would do wonders to our squad and wouldn't bankrupt us) or sell our assets and try and make do with top 10 finishes. Don't keep on making the fans believe we can do something - we will always be 2-3 players away and that is what frustrates the most

I haven't heard the club leadership say anything about expectations in a while, so I don't think they're promising stuff and not delivering. If anything, they've been pretty mum about it. And maybe that's where the frustration should be pointed. I could live with the club saying "look here fellas, we have a stadium to fund and we'll do our best on the football side, but results may take a while." But nothing, not a word, other than that we're going after sub £15m sub-25 year olds, which in itself could be construed in so many different ways (are we building a team, or are we looking to make a profit on resale? to name a couple). And the result of that is that we're all in a tizzy theorizing about what "the plan" is when the bottom line is we haven't the foggiest.

Personally, I will sit back and try to enjoy the ride and hope that it leads us to where everyone wants the team to be. To do otherwise will just cause me grief and ulcers.

 

[mudshark]

I don't eat baked beans, least of all on toast.