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Match Thread – A Palace Of A Distraction But Spurs Have To Look To 2020/21

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It’s been a strange old season and it’s been a strange calendar year for Tottenham Hotspur. The highs of the Champions League Final and then the lows of seeing our form and usual performance levels fall through the floor – but Crystal Palace this Sunday is a final chance for some joy before we tick quickly into the 2020/21 season.

What kind of performance we see from Jose Mourinho’s charges is absolutely anyone’s guess, but the first half showing against Leicester City certainly gave some cheer and fans would welcome more of that, but there is also the Europa League question to answer and it will go down to the final day’s results with us currently sat in seventh place in the table and a point behind Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Whatever Sunday may bring, the curtain on 2019/20 comes down and we all know we need to strengthen further in the summer, we need a decent pre-season and we need to hit next year running, otherwise fears that the wheels have truly fallen off the Spurs bus will grow.

We can’t allow all that progress and a nice and bright shiny new stadium to fall away as our Champions League hopes did this season. The only question is, will we?

Until then, Palace and all three points, please!

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  • PompeyYid says:

    Oh the halcyon days of John Pratt, I used to love him and rate him, then as to day I still want to know why he got so much stick, as HT said Tottenham through and through, a legend.

    jod you are probably right about Spurs fans picking on someone to blame, you have to wonder why. COYS

  • Hot Tottingham says:

    Sorry Geof, which comment are you referring to?

  • Hot Tottingham says:

    I see that Dele is available again and of course Dier too.

    I’m not sure that Jose will want to change his winning line-up with just this one game to go. But I would like to see Dele get some minutes.

    I think there is a chance that he will reinstate Eric with him being a first choice CB before his suspension.
    But I can’t see it as a problem vs Palace. Except that they do have a bit of speed up top and maybe he is more suited than Toby… ?

    Whoever Jose picks, I think we’ll thrash them. But we will probably need to score all 6 of my predicted goals before half-time. Before Jose shuts up shop in the second half and the bus is properly parked….. Boom, Boom!

  • Hot Tottingham says:

    Way off topic!

    I have to go to my building society tomorrow. And it’s just occurred to me that as from today, they won’t let me in without a mask.

    The last time I wore a mask in such a place, I got 25 years hard labour for it! …………………

    Now, what if you haven’t got a mask and they won’t let you into the shop to buy one, without wearing one?

    I think I’ll need to stick-up a mask shop, before I can rob the bank!. Anyone got a sawn-off spare?

  • Niall D says:

    Re the Aurier debate. Just like EJ I’m not a fan of his football. I think it is because he always has a mistake in him. Be it being out of position, lack of awareness of where the opposing player is, or lunging into tackles. He has given away at least 3 pens this year. As well as the recent goals mentioned.
    One thing about him As a human being though through this period which I have found humbling, honourable and admirable is his dedication and professionalism toward the team over this time during his and his family’s extreme distress. Another thing about him is his level of fitness which is excellent.
    WW back to your comments, this is what we all want a bargain basement player who comes good. However players we have who are as good as any top 5 for me are:
    Llois
    Toby
    LoCeslo
    Moura (particularly of late)
    HK 10
    Sonny.
    Bergjwin.
    These are all as good as many top 5 players in their positions.

    • wentworth says:

      ND..Ooops. Not Lo Celso…one footed, can’t pass, can’t shoot, never scores, falls over a lot. A million years behind Eriksen, Modric, Hoddle. Needs to practice using his right foot.Toby maybe. Certainly was brilliant.Great centre back with Verts. Moura.. not really. Tries hard. Bergjwin hmmm. maybe but only a sub..Still a lot to prove. Lloris, HK10 and Sonny are our only top international players who would get on the team sheet. Take a look at the squads of the top 4/5. Some of their reserves/bench players would walk into our teams. We have a long way to catch up again. But we live in hope. The present squad are mid table at best and that is being realistic. The biggest concern is the lack of exciting young players despite our wonderful facilities and are mediocre scouting at picking up the stars of the future. Dele was a great signing and was a superb prospect but as so often happens at Spurs ,players go off the boil. Sessegnon another example. Brilliant at Fulham. Where is Jack Clarke? A winger who was a terrific prospect at Leeds. Marcus Edwards.. the new Messi. What is he doing now? We need players to go out and take the opposition on, beat players, play superb forward passes with both feet, score goals from free kicks or a distance. We are very short of these, n’est-pas. We have Skipp, Parrott, Tanganga possibly to become regular bench players but not terribly exciting. Let’s go all out for a Gascoigne, Ginola, Ardiles, Modric and stop getting second best (loanee) like Lo Celso in the hope they will suddenly be brilliant players. Ok I know we haven’t any money because of the wonderful stadium. Great house, tatty furniture. One day, we will be able to call our team Super Spurs again.

  • Niall D says:

    WW unfortunately a Gazza or Modric or Ginloa would be 50 to 70 mil nowadays. I refer back to my recent post we havnt got that kind of money for 6+ 70 mil players. Even a diamond in the rough costs English teams more. What is wrong with an attacking midfield which knock 3 past a top four team.
    If you are referring in your top 4 teams to Man U. Take away their dodgy 15 penalties this year, and they sit in 14th position.
    Granted there are a few from Liverpool I would take and Man City. But the other teams havnt much better than us man for man, and, we’ve proven even this season we can hold our own with them.
    Bar a dodgy Pen we would’ve Man U last time
    We beat City last time out
    Liverpool another pen saw us walk away with a defeat
    Leicester beat em at home, dodgy offside got them the win away.
    No we aren’t playing well at the minute. We are in a period of transition.
    The 4 changes many of us have mentioned should see us progress.
    I will remind you that statistically only Liverpool and Man C have acquired higher points than us since re start.
    I’m sure just like me you want the old cavalier spurs way. But for 10+ years we’ve been the nearly boys losing to less entertaining teams.
    I want our share of silverware. I want it sooner rather than later. If that means scoring 3 goals against a top 4 team then barring the gate I’ll take it.
    BTW both EJ and I have come up with names we want to see at our club at the right price.
    Aaron’s, Hojberg, Costigne, Eduard,
    Who have you come up with. I’d like to see your list of 6 players to improve us for under 100 mil.

  • wentworth says:

    ND I have to admit I am not a scout. I will leave that to the professionals. However, I am aware of star players at many clubs who are not likely to be up for sale. I was thrilled when we bought Dele and also Sessegnon but we seem to have squashed them. I still disagree with you strongly that we have a squad that compares with the top teams. We did have when Eriksen, Dembele, Walker, Rose, Toby, Verts, were at their peak. That is why we kept finishing top 3/4. I cannot help being disappointed that we now try to sex up our journeymen and pretend that our football is watchable. I am not optimistic about next season or the future. I am certainly not looking forward to the boring defensive play since restart.Jose will never be the man for Spurs. Perhaps winning a tin pot will satisfy some fans. I have my doubts that it will happen in the foreseeable future.Boring football is a high price to pay.

  • Geofspurs says:

    HT …. 9:49 am.

  • Geofspurs says:

    HT …. And 5:15pm raises an interesting problem, lol. I might have to live in my motorbike helmet.

  • Niall D says:

    We”ll have to agree to disagree then WW.
    My points are:
    1. Under Poch we were lovely to watch (poet & I don’t no it) but won fek all.
    2. Who remembers the year Leicester won the league we were top for everything. No all other supporters remember is Leicester won. They got 16 pens that year.
    3.JM’s Teams were better to watch than we currently are. So improvement is likely
    4. Unique set of circumstances newground, new management/philosophy,new team members, Covid, want away players.
    5. Give the new guy a chance. See what he brings in a full season. If it is as you say a “tin pot” it’ll be our first in a decade and more than Poch got us.
    If youre satisfied with second fiddle good luck. Me, I want success, tin pots bring money, this will lure better players.
    BTW the names you mentioned Gazza, Ginola, Moderic. How many Prem titles did they win. That would be none.
    I think Mourinho has won more titles and trophy than all those players together.
    All I’m saying is give the guy a chance.

  • Geofspurs says:

    ND …. I’m responding to some of your points to WW:

    What’s wrong with lovely to watch.

    I, and thousands of other supporters, certainly remember the brilliant football we played the year Leicester won the league. That’s a memory we an all revisit and cherish.

    I want success too, but playing beautiful football to entertain your supporters is success …. they come to watch the game, not the trophy cabinet. Trophies are good for boasting but it’s not really about ‘my dad can beat your dad’ school playground stuff. It’s nice to boast to Arsenal fans at the moment but it remains meaningless as far as 90 minutes of entertainment goes.

    Trophies are a statistic …. performances are memories.

    I agree with you that we need to give JM time to establish himself …. the jury will be out for a while.

    • PompeyYid says:

      Geofspurs….good morning mate, your comment “Trophies are a statistic….performances are memories” to a degree I agree, but here’s the catch..the memories only belong to the Spurs fans who will still say in the back of their mind “if only”, now all other teams fans will say “yes you played great entertaining football but what did you win? oh yes nothing”.

      Yes winning Trophies is good for bragging rights and boasting, no matter how you play, it will also add a number of new fans.

      Our fans today are moaning that we aint won nout in how many ENIC years, so a “tin pot trophy” or 3 would have satisfied.

      It is a difficult situation, “play beautiful football to entertain your supporters is success” but is it without a Trophy? every Tom, Dick n Abdul will look at the bare Trophy cabinet, and we will still get the label of “nearly men”, so for me it is about winning a Trophy no matter how.

      Just my opinion as your post was yours, so not having a go, hope your keeping well. COYS

  • 123spurs says:

    You enter a competition to win, that’s the goal, that’s the target, not to play the sexiest football and gets you no glory. Imagine arsenal lifting FA cup, just let that sink in. You play to win, Geoff says we are not interested in winning a trophy, we wantto remember the great performance we had in FA cup 5th round, well done lads.

  • Geofspurs says:

    123 …. Where did I say we are not interested in winning a trophy? We are all interested in that. Use your own words, don’t put your spin on my words! Did you not understand ‘I want success too’?

    I’m simply saying (as usual) that football is about entertainment. If all people want is trophies, go and buy some and watch them as much as you want.

    When you went to your first football match you were not thinking ‘I want to win trophies’. I find it sad that for some supporters trophies seem become MORE important than the game.

  • El Jefe says:

    ND – agreed as is usual between us lol – Aurier respect for playing through this tough time recently and also excellent fitness levels granted for sure! That said at 27 going on 28 so reaching his peak year’s and with his experience (3 year’s at PSG, 62 caps for Ivory Coast, 3 year’s now with us in the Prem, etc) when are the regular costly errors/mistakes going to finally stop?! I mean Davies gets criticism now being our other 1st team full-back on the left for supposedly being average, not top 4 quality, etc (I have for example been 1 calling him into question in this regard) but nobody really calls him up for regular direct errors/mistakes costing us dearly do they?!

    I might add that with these 2 as our main full-backs this has been our worst season in goals conceded in the Prem going back to the 2014/15 season with 46 when we finished 5th (assuming we keep a clean sheet tomorrow of course), not to mention our first dropping out of the top 4 in that time also! Even last season with 13 losses in total in the Prem (11 this season so far, don’t think tomorrow will be another) we only conceded 39 goals and were below the 40 threshold again as I’ve recently been going on about on here! As I’ve stated elsewhere for now I’m willing to stick with Davies and even if Sessegnon suddenly stepped up I’d still be happy with Ben as cover, but in Aurier’s case I don’t want him either as 1st team or even cover anymore – want him gone end of lol!

    Jod – agreed players at times get undeserved stick and we are no different in that respect but then given our massive fan base and lack of trophies based on this especially going on for 3 dedades now – maybe in part there’s good reason for the criticism?!

    HT – sounds like even in your word’s Trippier wanted to stay lol – “do you need me boss” sounds to me like wanting re-assurance about his 1st team RB position after what he himself admitted had been a poor/his poorest season for us and plagued by the injury he got at the WC 2018 – with as stated earlier several un-characteristic mistakes/errors being made! Players need re-assurance sometimes about their standing and that’s what I think Trippier was looking for especially with competition from Aurier, KWP and even Foyth was emerging for Argentina as a RB (and played a blinder for us there near the end of the 2018/19 season v Man City away if memory serves), etc! Don’t get me wrong as I stated on here at the time I didn’t think Trippier was the long term answer at RB (eg like Walker was) so I was OK with him going but I did not agree with the price and we certainly should have replaced him immediately with better!

    Finally as regards Aurier again lol, I might add the statement JM made after the Sheff Utd game about player’s mentality and weaknesses in such as regards not getting decision’s from refs, etc – then I would also question mentalities and even morale based on having to put up with Aurier’s regular mistakes/errors leading to dangerous free-kicks and even penalties being given, goals conceded directly, etc and how much more the squad just like us can take of such before saying enough is enough (as I am now doing)?!

  • El Jefe says:

    On another note great to hear JM yesterday stating that there will be new arrivals to balance the squad further (what for example ND and myself, etc have regularly been screaming out for on here for some time now lol) and that no major players will be leaving to do just that especially given our current financial predicaments at the hands of the new stadium, CV/Covid 19 pandemic and even Brexit (and potential No Deal), etc!

    I might add further good news as regards King and Keane possibly joining the training team – hope so and looking forward to it if it does indeed happen!

  • block 108 spurs says:

    123 Has rightly said, our pretty football has not won anything in many years. While I have witnessed some great football by various spurs teams, it has been a bit depressing, with no trophies, many nearly there attempts and gooners multiple cup wins, and an unbeaten PL year. As their fans have great delight in reminding us….

    So as I have said recently…. Jose has won 25 trophies and can win a few more with spurs. So he needs to be given time to build his team and get the players into a trophy winning outfit. COYS

  • Geofspurs says:

    B108 …. I hope you are right, mate. The trouble is that Jose was virtually given every trophy he won on a silver plate. His clubs could afford to buy trophies. Now we’ll find out how he performs when that option no longer exists. Given an unlimited budget I think every VS member could win a few trophies with Spurs …. or with any other club.

  • Geofspurs says:

    Having said that you have to respect the man for taking up the challenge!

  • PompeyYid says:

    Basically this debate comes down to…”to win a Trophy or not”, how we do it is to some relevant to others its irrelevant, all of you are right in your own ways/views, but lets be honest if we did win one next season, will all be saying yes we won it “but!” somehow I don’t think so, that’s my 2 penneth worth anyway. COYS

  • Niall D says:

    Geoff,
    you may be missing my point. I want and wanted us to win playing Lovely attractive football.
    There is nothing wrong with attractive football and to win that way I would love it.
    My Bro supports ManU. When they dominated for around 5 years we still looked better playing. Who, other than us remembers that.
    What do I want I want good attractive football. I don’t want us to be as others call us “Spursy”
    I want a trophy or two now no matter how. If for a while during a rebuild we are a bit boring I can take that. (for a short while)
    Most of all I want to walk into my bro”s house with us as prem champions.

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