We dont have the depth of squad in midfield - means our CMs, Lennon and to an extent Bale need to play all league and EL games
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Europa League 2012-13 - QF: Basel (SUI)
- Thread starter Totting Them Up
- Start date
We dont have the depth of squad in midfield - means our CMs, Lennon and to an extent Bale need to play all league and EL games
There are people in Holland and continental Europe who aren't Ajax fans, you know. They are hardly representative of the people as a whole.
You tried to claim that it was all about the Champions League and that everyone treated the Europa League with the same disdain as some English clubs. And that simply isn't true.
The Moonlit Knight
Banned
I think we can do both, and we should be trying for both. The draw has been kind to us. We have to show them respect, but I think we can afford to rest a couple of players and have them on the bench for if they are required.
Spursalot
Jimmy McCormick
The Moonlit Knight
Banned
Or PSV or Feyenoord fans? But if you know more about Dutch football than me, and you speak to Dutch fans from as varied supporter base than me then OK, maybe I respect your opinion over mine on this. Do you?
Tell me of this person afan, was he a man of great foresight and wisdom? If so, let me indeed be the new afan!
I want Spurs to progress, to become a team that qualifies regularly for the CL. That allows you to improve your squad over time, that, in turn, makes winning competitions like the FA Cup far more likely - who generally wins the FA Cup these days? Answer: CL teams. And I want Spurs to become a team that challenges for the league title. Or were you so institutionalized to mediocrity by the Sugar-Francis era that you believe we can never do that, never be more than a team that pops up now and again and wins a cup?
The culture is considerably different in Holland, as it is on the rest of the continent that is why kudos for winning a Dutch Cup is less than winning the League cup here in the UK. British football has long had a culture that celebrates Cup Winners and Cups are not as something for a team that can't win the league. Look at City's money and reach - They are desperate to win the FA Cup this season as are Chelsea. City also were desperate to win it in 2011 despite all their new found wealth.
I think you just come from a different football culture than the one we experience here in the UK. The majority of football fans, regardless of who they support will always have a special mention for the first sunday in December when we have the draw for the FA Cup 3rd round and all the big boys come piling in. Everybody loves it and forums up and down the country are talking about who they want and if they can win it. I would say the majority have a special feel for the first weekend in January too when those fixtures finally take place after a month of anticipation.
markysimmo
Johnny nice-tits
No he was an utter bell-end
I don't know how you quantify that statement. How do you know it didn't set us back 3 or 4 seasons? Alternatively, how do you know the cup win had a negative impact on setting us back anywhere? Having a manager clearly struggling with the squad in the way it was constructed after losing Keane/Berbatov in the fashion they left might have been responsible for our start to 08-09 I would suggest as opposed to us winning a cup causing this setting back 2 seasons nonsense.
The Moonlit Knight
Banned
I do understand the English mentality towards cups. We loved the FA Cup over here more than KNVB. I've lived in England twice. Once in the 80's, when I fell in love with Spurs, and then again in the 00's. It seems to me that things have changed a lot inbetween with how cups are viewed. In the 80's it was a major deal even before English clubs were banned from Europe. As for the European trophies it all changed in the 90's over here. More and more focus on the Champion's League and by the end of the 90's no one cared about the UEFA Cup.
The Moonlit Knight
Banned
The League Cup win was big news, first trophy for years. It made certain players hungry for more and two of the players left because they wanted more. One got his wish, the other one should have stayed where he was!
And they're perfectly capable of doing that. If we get to the EL final, we will have played 57 games by the end of the season - which averages out at about one game every five days. And no player will have played in every game.
Plenty of teams have played plenty of games more than that and been successful. Some with even smaller squads.
These are young men we're talking about. Fit as fudge. They can handle it. I sometimes think that we've gone soft on players.
No, I don't.
But I speak to more English fans than you do - which, since this is a comparative exercise - makes me equally qualified to comment.
I don't disagree that here things have changed slightly but we will always be a cup loving country. We have an underdog mentality that loves seeing potential david v goliath ties as well as hum-dingers such as todays Quarter final tie.
It won't change, fans want to win trophies and they also want to qualify for the top competitions. Yes we all want to qualify for the Champions League but it shouldn't be mutually exclusive to the detriment of attempting to win the Europa League. And if the worst were to happen in terms of winning the Europa League but not getting Champions League I bet it would have little affect on our players, us as a fan base and as a club. Players would still want to come apart from the absolute elite who we won't attract anyway.
Winning the Europa League could easily convince potential signings that they fancy a bit of that and playing under a manager who has won the competition twice. I would think it would hold more sway to a potential signing if we finished 5th but won the Europa League compared to finishing 4th and winning nothing but still having to play a qualifier in August before knowing what competition we end up in.
As for current players and their aspirations, I think winning the Europa League would have an equal affect for them as qualifying for the Champions League and in some respects, it would have a bigger positive effect as it is a physical, tangible piece of silverware on their CV.
thejazzman
Jason Cundy
...Rewind. What?
ricky2tricky4city
Steffen Freund
Yes.....but being in the CL does not mean your best players stay (see arsenal) and if you hold up our signings against theirs, we are hardly lagging behind. AND remember the other 3 teams (esp chelsea and Emirates Marketing Project) have infinite resources and that in itself is a bigger barrier to your aspirations for us.
No, that is completely wrong lol! Berbatov didn't feel like going to Man Utd because he tasted small success with us and thought he wanted more of it. He already had that mindset - The summer of 2007 we had to virtually convince him not to down tools and he said he was "prepared" to stay. He was already hungry to go to Man U and he would have done regardless of what we did that season, even if we had finished 4th and got Champions League qualification on top of winning the cup.
Keane went because Liverpool were consistently challenging for trophies, had won trophies very recently and was offered a big pay rise too. In hindsight he would agree it was a bad move but neither of those moves were instigated as a result of tasting one piece of success with us and deciding that they could never experience anymore with us and needed to move. I maintain that both would have moved to their respective clubs regardless of us qualifying for the Champions League that season in addition to winning the League cup.
Straw man argument.
Every Spurs fan wants Spurs to be consistently challenging for top honours. Silly to suggest otherwise.
People are disagreeing with you only because you insist that we cannot achieve those aims if we take the Europa League seriously this season.
Spursalot
Jimmy McCormick
Which is an oxymoron.
We can't achieve top honours if we challenge for top honours. :-k
You're suggesting that Berbatov and Keane were on Man Utd's and Liverpool's radar BECAUSE we won the 2008 League Cup? Perleeeeeeeease!!!!!
They were on the top four clubs' radar because they were consistently excellent for Spurs over a two year period. Predominantly in the Premier League. The notion that they were on no one's radar before winning the League Cup is just too funny!!
If your theory was correct, we'd have expected half of Birmngham's cup winning team from a couple of seasons back to have been snapped up by the top four.
Well..........................................???