Well, it’s turned into a semi-interesting week for fans of Tottenham Hotspur – but not in a way many of us would’ve liked it to be.
Following Sunday’s late breaking European Super League nonsense, on Monday morning Spurs took an unexpected step and decided to sack manager Jose Mourinho. Now maybe I’m too cynical for my own good, but this smacks of changing the narrative and trying to drive headlines as nobody can be in any doubt about how badly the ESL has been received, not just at club level, but across the wider footballing world.
European Super League
Love It
Disgraceful Move
There is absolutely only one driver to this – greed and money – and having previously misjudged the mood when it came to Covid and furlough, Daniel Levy, the board and our owner have again monumentally misjudged fans in their chase for what I can only see as a criminal and cartel like ‘closed shop’ competition that gives all those involved a clear unfair advantage over fellow domestic sides – which in turn, ruins the credibility of that leagues competitive nature.
Not a merit based advantage that we currently have, but an advantage wholly gained by a handout for involvement and nothing more.
Fans are hoping to return to a more normal life after Covid, and Spurs pull this stunt now and to me, simply sack Mourinho as a public relations move to deflect attention. It’s contemptible and disgusting behaviour in no way demonstrating what our club should stand for.
We play Southampton this Wednesday evening, I’m not so sure how much I care now.
Oyveh … Thanks for putting that link up. His example of how a team like Leicester could win the league, giving hope to the fans of every other club was something every fan can relate to. It’s certainly my main concern about the whole proposal. Every team in every league, bar none, should be there on merit.
Just announced that Ryan Mason will be in charge until the end of the season. The choice does surprise me a little due to his lack of management experience however, he does have Chris Powell as his assistant who does. I’m sure it will be a popular temporary appointment with the players.
That makes me happy for Ryan…… Now let’s see how we do for the handful of matches left to play…
And if… IF, Ryan can help us to a cup win on Sunday? That will be a beautiful thing to see……. And for me, it will make up for a lot of the bad that we’ve so far seen this season …..
Me, myself and I, like most on here only really know what has been written in the papers or broadcast all over Sky Sports etc, basically we know nothing really, so we start calling the 12, greedy pigs etc.
Reading between the lines I believe, I could well be wrong here, nevertheless I believe it is the 12’s response to UEFA and FIFA, because lets be honest these two organisation’s are untouchable, big brother if you like, making big bucks any which way they can without sharing the profits, so the 12 believe, as they take all the risks, buying/selling/paying the players, should then get a larger potion from these profits, which has been refused, thus this Super Lge thing is their way of putting the iron into the fire to hopefully highlight UEFA n FIFA for the greedy pigs that they are.
Me I do not know where I stand with it, maybe it is what will happen as football gets even bigger. COYS
Forgot Come On You Ryan! do your very best mate, we are all behind you.
First hammer the Scum of the South tomorrow….4-0, mind any score win will do.
Then on Sunday upset the odds and be a rookie manager to get Spurs their 1st Trophy in years…so Rookie v Pep, everything to gain Ryan absolutely nothing to lose. COYS
You can see the attraction for these clubs, it is reported that the proposed JP Morgan investment will provide each of the 12 clubs with a 200-300m euros welcome payment which will clearly help them address the mountains of debt that they accummulated between them.
BS …. I disagree about the timing of JM’s sacking. I think we have a much greater opportunity to win the League Cup now.
With Jose we would have had very little chance. If he sets us up to defend against the poorer PL teams, what do you think he would have done against City.
Teams often step up a level after a manager is sacked. Every Spurs player will know the spotlight is directed on them.
Win or lose, obviously we will never know what would have happened with JM in charge, but I’m glad he’s not, and I believe the game is now more winnable …. slightly!
For me, anything that serves to shake the foundations of the power hungry and corrupt and controlling organisations that are UEFA and FIFA can only be a good thing. And it has certainly done that, given their responses. They are shaking in their suit n boots. And, they have had it coming, imo.
And the OTT, knee jerk responses from so many supporters, players and pundits alike, are just reinforcing this status quo of the pro game as it is. Which to me, does actually need to be rebuilt and rethought, in so many ways.
The nitty gritty of how the ESL will work is still pretty much up in the air and an unknown quantity. And for that reason, I honestly can’t say if it will be a good or bad thing for Spurs and football as a whole…….. If it ever happens.
HT…well said there, I am in complete agreement with you. COYS
Yes TQ2Spurs, I agree. And I think Geof alluded to it as well. Anytime there is change, there is resistance to change. But sometimes, goothings come from that change. As I wrote in another thread, I really see this as posturing from the big clubs, and a way to put pressure on UEFA.
I am fairly sure that if UEFA come back with another proposal of a reformed CL which makes it more attractive for the big boys, this ESL plan will be scrapped.
I understand the basic premise that if those clubs are bringing most of the money to the table, they would like to a) see some return on that, and b) have a say in how that money is managed.
Lately, UEFA have done a lot to try to get smaller clubs involved (I mentioned the Europa Conference League previously). But this does nothing for the big boys. Yet another competition with limited appeal, which nobody is likely to watch unless your team is in it, and which will cost money to organise.
I understand the conundrum UEFA faces, in trying to keep everyone happy. But they have obviously turned the dial too far in one direction, alienating the clubs that feed the system.
100%,Geof
Agree I feel that with Mason at the helm so to speak we will at least see the players, we want to see and the football we want to see there.
This isn’t to take away from JM, however we sort of knew what we were getting when we signed him a pragmatic style of play, however this pragmatic style turned boring and we weren’t winning, we weren’t progressing and it looks from the outside that players were being ostracised, criticised, blamed
for poor performances.
As some have said win, lose or draw I think that Ryan Mason will bring a bit of our old flair back.
And I do see Dele, Bale etc returning to their best.
Would love to see a couple of good wins on Wednesday and espically on Sunday, but I suppose you know who will still take credit if we do win.
Geof – There is no question JM would have set us up to defend against City.
This being said, if you’re afraid about what City can do to teams who set up defensively, watch what they do to teams that attack them and leave themselves exposed…
There haven’t been very many highlights under JM this season, but the result against City at the Etihad is one of them. JM’s gameplan worked to perfection that day.
Setting up defensively may have just been the best way to give us a result this weekend, against that specific opponent.
There is no good case to be made to defend negative tactics against the likes of Brighton (no disrespect to them intended). But there could be a case against City.
As for the timing, some good may come from players stepping up their game as a result of JM’s sacking. However, to me, that is more likely to be outweighed by the lack of fluency coming from a new person trying to introduce new ideas and new concepts with very little time on the training pitch to work out the problems.
I wasn’t feeling very confident about the game with JM at the helm, but I felt we had “a puncher’s chance” if everything went right for us. Now, I’m really not expecting much from the game.
I feel that given the circumstances, nobody could really hold a negative result against Ryan Mason. I feel like he’ll try to keep thngs honourable and go through the motions. I am obviousy hoping for better, but not expecting it…
BS …. At no stage did I suggest we go on an all-out-attack. I was just pointing out that we have zero chance of winning if we defend. The amount of games when we’ve gone on defence from a winning position is testimony to this. It’s all about a balanced team performance. But, sadly, I’m not anticipating a win whatever happens. A good competitive performance will satisfy me at this stage. Who knows! : – )
Just out of curiosity: how do you explain our result at the Etihad, then? Lightning striking once?
Mourinho had worst Prem win percentage since One Day Ramos and walks away with 15 million quid. So glad not to see that miserable face on the sideline scribbling on scraps of paper.He has dragged Spurs down and that is unforgivable imho. Onwards and upwards but we have some pruning to do. At least 7 or 8 of the players need to go.
Lot of talk here about the club and supporters coming first in the context of the Super League business. It would have been nice if certain of our players had had the same attitude instead of showing their resentment on and off the field about the way they had been treated by Mourinho, thereby dragging the team and its supporters down with them. These guys are exceptionally well rewarded for playing for the club and its supporters, not for the manager. There is therefore absolutely no excuse for them “going on strike“ as TK has put it because their precious feelings have been hurt or because they think they know better about tactics. It is noticeable that the only players who have gone public in their support of Mourinho at this time are our two best players who have given their all for the club.
You do make me smile Stan, did you honestly think the players might come out immediately and slag off Jose after his sacking? Of course they’re not, it has taken Pogba over two years before offering to comment on his experience with Jose at Manu.
Read my comment again TQ2. The last sentence was about those players who had come out in support of Mourinho ( Kane and Sonny) not those who had come out against him. As you say the latter will have kept quiet for now leaving it to leaks from the dressing room picked up by the press (see today’s Times).
Any thought on the rest of my comment btw?
That’s the point Stan, neither Kane or Son or any other players are going to come out immediately and slag Jose off, they are being diplomatic and avoiding controversy. Look back in history and you will always find examples of players coming out and praising managers after they have been sacked.
To be honest Stan…..I’m bored with your defence of Jose, wake up and smell the coffee, his football was boring us to death and his poor man management was alienating a large part of the squad. He is a has been, don’t expect to see him in the PL again any time soon, being sacked 3 times now for losing the dressing room within a couple of years should be warning enough to anyone else considering employing him.
Not as bored as I am with the constant anti-Mourhino tirade here TQ2 , constantly ignoring any mitigating points in his favour, like the exciting football we served up at times. Remember the 5-4 defeat at Everton?
I’m with Geof about the match vs Citeh. mourinho’s misery would have made it just about impossible to win, but an emotional bounce and desire to show up Mourinho just might provide a stimulus for a surprisingly strong showing that we actually could pull off. I’m not predicting that we will win the Thai Energy Drink Cup, but its far less unlikely than it seemed a couple of days ago. The players can play for their sense of pride rather than wallowing in a sense of resentment and despair.
If we beat Citeh under Mourinho I would have had very mixed feelings–joy for the win but worry that it might force DL to keep the Miserable One. Now should the lads pull it off, I can experience unadulterated joy.
Thanks to the heavens.
As a note for the parallel thread withing a thread we are on today:
The problem for me with the Super League concerns all the ways that this proposed league is imitating American professional sports. I wrote an earlier post on this thread mentioning the ridiculous frequency with which “franchises” up and move to another city, and my list was extremely undercounting, i provided just a few examples to make a point. The Super League hand huge power over to super rich owners to leverage communities in which the teams play. Team after team has leveraged threats to force local communities to build huge luxury stadiums for the teams to play basically for free–build a luxury stadium for us or we’ll move to some other city that will. And then they often move anyway, leaving an empty stadium and communities now without teams to continue paying off bonds that were raised for taxpayers to pay to build for teams that left anyway. No relegation? It’s the franchise owners who benefit the most. Cheap owners who put in only the minimal money each year to hire the cheapest players with no fear of relegation, and continued flow of television money. Crass promotions of wiggly bodies dancing as though they should be on stripper poles.
I do not want to see this worldwide in football, and certainly not in football in England or Scotland. Rangers or Celtic playing in a grand new stadium in Leeds? Spurs moving to their new stadium in Woolwich and Arsenal moving into WHL? The NFL has the now Los Vegas Raiders after playing in Oakland then Los Angeles and then Oakland again and now in Nevada–the city built in the dessert by the mob.
Spurs should not be just another franchise free from relegation and free to move about as their millionaire owners desire. The Super League brings more potential disasters than meet the mind’s eye.
Sorry mates, writing before fully waking up today. Blurry eyed writing.
What is football if separated from its historical roots? Just another capitalist venture that strips a country of its work base and ships manufacturing to Sri Lanka from the UK and stuffs adverts into every manufactured interval. Mark my words, things like VAR will provide opportunities to insert commercial breaks into televised matches. Watch any NFL or NBA matches? The last five minutes take 20 minutes to unfold. Football is about flow, and that’s already been bolloxed enough. For DL and ENIC, the Super League means pushing the sale value of THFC up to astronomical values.
TK – I am not a strong supporter of the ESL model, or the American sports model in general, and I of course recognise a lot of truth in the potential for the pitfalls you listed.
The only remark I would make, in the interest of keeping the debate balanced, is that not all US franchises are as bad as you make them out to be.
For all of the downsides you listed, those franchises also do tend to generate a lot of revenue for local communities while they are there, be it by creating local jobs, driving lots of tourism to places which would otherwise be devoid of it, and providing local businesses with lots of media exposure.
And several of those franchises have financed stadiums themselves – the latest such project to date is SoFi stadium, the most expensive stadium project ever, funded by the Rams and its owner, Stan Kroenke, also the owner of a small London club playing in red…
You obviously highlighted the Raiders to suit your point, but at the other end of the spectrum, you have NFL franchises like the Green Bay Packers, who have been in operation in the same place since 1921 and they are very much a part of the local fabric.
The franchises that do move are the ones that struggle to establish themselves in a local market, something that would not be applicable in the context of the ESL, as all of the clubs already have a strong local following and are not being created out of thin air like NFL expansion franchises.
Also, just because a franchise has the possibility to move doesn’t mean it necessarily will. Putting all of that back in the context of the ESL, I don’t think any of the involved clubs would have any incentive to move unless they had no choice.
And in any case, regardless of this ESL nonsense and the leverage that a francchise-based model would entail, may I remind you that Daniel Levy was willing to move to East London, had the City of London let him turn the Olympic Stadium into a football stadium only.
ESL or no ESL, people like Daniel Levy will always do what they think is in the best financial interests of the clubs they own, regardless of what fans think.
4real BS….you make alot more sense when you not defending Jose
You may yet miss him, depending on who’s next 😉
Hi folks
Re the snooper league.
I distinctly remember it being mooted that, during the Wimbledon /MK Don’s issue.
One of those teams was considering moving to Belfast as a base in an effort to establish a fan base.
Initially I was sort of happy over this as I might have gotten a chance to see Tottenham, without a 3 day Camel ride.
Then I thought it through and realised that our local teams would be totally decimated after about 2 seasons, similarly there was talk of Celtic and Rangers moving into the Premier league, which would’ve done the same for Scottish football.
So hopefully this is a bargaining chip against Europe and nothing else.
Agree with WW whom ever comes in, there should be several players out the door, and a few new signings in I’d say 6 or 7 out 3 to 5 in, there are many positions need refreshed and a few players (perhaps) need a change of scenery to take them out of their comfort zone and actually improve them as a player. Sometimes it’s the shot in the arm a player needs, look at Ings and Lingaard.
It may be best for some players career’s to move on.
There are some very interesting questions being raised over the ESL debate. I understand there are proposals to refer it to the Competition and Markets regulator, could this not be regarded as anti competitive in itself if they deny the ESL the opportunity to compete with UEFA’s competitions while also providing a form of protectionism to this corrupt organisation?