New Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has an unbeaten record as we go into the November international break, but with a troublesome performance in our victory against Vitesse added to what is now four odd hours without a Premier League goal given the scoreless draw with Everton, he’s got his work cut out for him as we now move towards the Leeds United clash.
With Everton being yet another game without a single shot on target, Conte certainly won’t be helped with our international attackers off for duty – not least misfiring Harry Kane – so his chances of a quick fix over the break will be patchy at best. Everton was, however, a clean sheet, which is a start after more recent leaky performances, but any fan would be hard pushed to say it was a performance you’d have expected to see following the appointment of a ‘name’ like Conte.
For many, that will be a troublesome development of its own as we look to these players and continue wondering why they are now consistently underperforming based on how we know they can play.
It’s an important fortnight, and all we can do is cross our fingers.
123…..everyone except the most Spurs biased pundits would have had money on a comfortable Gooners win today, the fact we held them out for 92 minutes was down to hard graft and a little luck.
TQ …. Have to say that was an epic performance. Brilliant, desperate defending throughout, bodies on the line stuff and superb Keeping. Bit sad about the late equaliser but fantastic result. Definitely the most exciting game I’ve seen them play. What’s that going to do for their confidence? Chelsea and City tomorrow …. haven’t missed the PL at all this weekend!!
123 …. Have to agree …. my money would have been on Arsenal!
True, but again fell shirt.
Geof….nice birthday present for Rehanne Skinner, almost the perfect one!
You have to say she has transformed this team into a solid tough to break down unit, I pray the powers that be have the foresight to back her with a few quality signings.
Fell short of what 123?
Spurs have only recently achieved WSL status whereas the gooners have been one of the top 2 or 3 sides for many years. We didn’t fall short at all, we demonstrated how much we have improved in a very short period.
TQ
Good point, that’s all I was alluding to, it’s not actually a lack of goals (for Spurs) it is the body language and energy, and whilst the service “issue” may be a problem, funnily enough the same two guys were playing along side him last season, and he scored a bag full.
I just saw it as a turn of a switch, and Kane was back (for England).
BTW I don’t begrudge England their win, well done to them.
Just wanted Kane to do similar for us..
TQ …. As you say, it’s quite remakable progress in the short time Spurs have been in the competition. If we could manage top 4 this season and improve the squad where needed in the TW it could get really interesting.
My favourite young player Conor Gallagher has been called into the England senior squad to replace Mount who is injured. I would love to see him get some time on the pitch in the 10 role in the San Marino game, I think he is just the kind of all action creative midfielder that would bring out the best in Kane.
Another solid performance for Rondon.
The Kane saga, for me its simple, he wants to play for England and the Shirt, but he does not want to play for Spurs or our Shirt.
He plays the way he plays for us as a direct demonstration against DL, thus bollox to his adoring fans, he has not just lost form! easy excuse by the pro Kane’s and the media, hasn’t got the service! oh! same players around him as last season, his whole body language and attitude is shouting and screaming at the top of his voice, like the game show “get me out of ere!”
With his whole “Billy Big Bollox” attitude, his body language stands out in every game for us, but why couldn’t he be a Professional and play for the Shirt/Club that made him and mostly for the Fans who adored him, its them he really has let down.
He signed a 6 year contract, no gun to head, done willingly, then goes public in an interview with GN, Sky Sports, aired, that he wants a move from Spurs to win Trophies! fair enough, but it probably shocked DL with its publicity, so I ask why didn’t HK have a private chat with DL beforehand?
He also said in public that there was a gentleman’s handshake agreement between him n DL, red flag to a bull, now ask yourselves…would DL do this when there are big Bucks involved? I don’t bloody think so!
Then add his prick agent, big bruv, to the equation….boom big trouble, a rookie taking on a multi millionaire and huge club.
HK wants to leave…fair enough, but it has been handled all wrong by him and his management group, simple really.
Thank you PY,
I thought I was seeing things, I do hope Kane turns it around after this week, and with the introduction of our new manager with great credentials, hopefully he, will start to play.
With that said, I do now want him gone, nothing will convince me that he didn’t “down tools” or spit his dummy out after the failed Man C transfer debacle.
As you said, when things were going well, he, was quite happy to sign a contract extension.
I do think that, HK now thinks he is bigger than the club, and I feel he thought (as, I did) that Nuno wasn’t a progressive step, and basically wasn’t good enough to mange him. (just my thoughts)
There is an old Ulster Scots saying over here, I’ll sort of write it the way its said then translate.
Dinny forget the bowel ye were baked in.
Don’t forget the bowl you were baked in, in other words don’t forget where you came from.
HK came from Spurs “one of our own” but they way he has (apparently) handled this is piss poor.
If he does go (I hope its for big dosh), I now wish him all the luck, of
Robbie Keane at Liverpool
Fernando Torres at Chelsea
And Soldado at Spurs. 😉
It’s pretty simple regards HK, if he ain’t putting effort in for spurs, then drop him not to the bench but from the squad train alone, if his attitude is affecting the team he should be nowhere near it.
Regarding Kane, I think that from the get-go, people like Geof and myself never denied there was an issue with his Spurs performances.
We just said that the problem was Spurs-related and there could be no doubt about Kane’s quality (which if we’re honest, some posters questioned – I won’t name names but they know who they are). I think Kane’s last game for England further drives that point home.
Once that is acknowledged, we then can look at the rift between Spurs and Kane itself. On the one hand, we can all accept that no player is bigger than the club . On the other, we can also accept that for a dedicated professional such as HK, Levy’s comments last year about “losing track of priorities” must have been a blow. If HK was going to hold himself to high standards, and the club wasn’t doing the same, I can certainly understand the frustration.
Has the club always done its utmost to ensure that we were as successful as we could be? I’m not sure. However, it’s difficult to argue that Kane hasn’t been doing his bit to the fullest of his abilities.
PY – for the record you just don’t know if HK has had private talks with DL before going public with his demands. For all you know those private discussions had been going on for months and only went public as a last resort.
What it comes down to, for me, is that depending on how you feel about ENIC, you’re likely to feel very differently about the Kane saga. I don’t think Kane doesn’t love the club or its fans, but I think he is disillusioned with the way it’s run by DL. I can’t say I don’t understand the sentiment.
BS…….I don’t recall anyone questioning Kane’s quality, that is indeed indisputable, I can only recall posters questioning his attitude and commitment following all of the summer transfer speculation and what he now admits was disappointment over England’s failure in the Euro final.
With regards to his England performance against Albania, I believe we saw him perform at a level in this game that we haven’t seen for a good while, at club or country level, with a much missed level of energy and desire.
I, for one, still think we are a far better team wit him in it than not. I’d rather bank on the fact that we can fix the relationship with a proven asset, rather than trust the club’s ability to replace “prime” Kane’s production.
There are plenty of factors involved in his poor form for Spurs but the fact that we were dead last in a number of statistical categories under Nuno certainly blurs the picture. In that context, it’s fair to question whether Nuno would have even gotten the best out of an in form HK.
Whether his last game with England is due to merely being in the England set-up, a reaction to the Conte appointment already, or something else – time will tell. Either way, I trust Conte to get the best out of Kane far more than I did Nuno, and all that has happened recently should only improve the way HK sees life at Spurs. Let’s hope that translates into goals sooner rather than later.
It has been reported that United dropped their interest in Conte over his demands for a £250m transfer budget. Does this indicate that pre Nuno’s appointment our negotiations with him failed for the same reason? If so I wonder what has changed now, has ENIC finally seen the light?
Hi BS,
A lot of interesting points there, I could have been one of those questioning Kane, I always thought he looked off the boil at the end of each season, however I did temper this with the suggestion that he, was over used by Tottenham and never rested, there are those who certainly questioned his (perhaps) selfishness in getting “fit” for both the CL and Carabo Cup when he clearly wasn’t.
For me HK didn’t know his own limitations and “sometimes” to the detriment of the team he stepped up to play, when clearly he wasn’t fit to and, I among others noticed that he was very injury prone due to this over playing around March time in the last lot of seasons.
This is not to criticise, his ability or indeed his commitment at the time, in fact the opposite, and there are times he shouldn’t have stepped up to the plate.
And indeed along with others on this site I did want him away, mainly because I thought that he had done about as much for us, as he could, he was at the top of his game and we could’ve gotten top dollar for him, which could’ve given us a transfer chest to re build with several new player brought in to freshen the squad. Unfortunately we needed to sell Kane to raise founds to decently freshen the team, that was mine and I’m sure others arguments.
Kane himself could’ve left the club with his head high, and indeed hero status among the fans.
However Kane and his entourage has handled this transfer issue in completely the wrong way, in virtually going public saying he wanted away then not showing up for training, piss poor performances for Spurs on the pitch for Spurs averaging a score of around 5 then turning out 8 or 9 out of 10 performances for his country.
Is he disillusioned? Perhaps.
But his current job for Spurs is to score goals, which he isn’t doing, I feel he is, devaluing himself as a player and a person by this, stance.
We don’t know private discussions and agreements between player and management, all I know is that Kane has failed to show much for us this, season and for me it’s, soured his legacy.
Niall – a few quick points in reaction to that last post, for conversation’s sake:
1) I feel that It’s difficult to criticise Kane for wanting to play in most games, when there was no real, credible alternative to playing Kane at the club.
It’d be one thing if we had proper competition at striker, but I feel that Kane has sometimes played in more games than he otherwise might have, if the club had a greater ability to rotate without losing so much quality when doing so.
That is a structural failure on the club, not HK’s fault. I’ll even go further: is it selfishness from Kane, or the ultimate proof of selflessness? Making yourself available to paper over the club’s shortcomings in building a squad with proper depth?
2) We all agree that prime Kane is worth a ton of money, and it’s fair to wonder if it’s smart for the club to have so much value tied up in one single asset instead of several. There is a strong argument to be made that our 11 might be better off with 3 or 4 very good players in it instead of one world class one.
But say we sold Kane for a large fee. You are assuming that a) all of the proceeds would be reinvested in the squad; b) the money would be spent on quality players (instead of a myriad of “players with potential”); and c) that the players brought in would actually be successes in the PL (something the club doesn’t have a great track record with).
For me, it isn’t so much that I don’t see the point of selling Kane when he is at the top of his market – I do. It’s more that I have very little faith in the club’s ability to reinvest all of the proceeds wisely.
Historically, we have handled those situations poorly.
3) It’s a very small sample size to be concluding that Kane isn’t doing his job. He’s had a rough couple months but he may yet score 20+ league goals this year – who would put that past him? I feel it is turning on a club legend incredibly fast, and I find it thankless for the many outstanding years of service Kane has provided so far.
4) Is there ever really an elegant way for a star player to announce that he wants to move on to bigger, better things?
Jack Grealish has, by all accounts, said and done all the right things when he moved to City. Yet plenty of Villa fans still slate him for leaving the boyhood club to chase trophies with moneybags City. That is still the overwhelming perception from their fans.
If the end result is the same, is it really valid to complain about the form? It’s an open question and I’m sure all opinions will be out there.
BS…it’s a fair point that we have never had a decent number 9 to rotate with Kane, I would argue that Llorente was probably the closest we came. While I take your point about our historical transfer business I do feel that, if we were to sell Kane for a decent fee now, Conte would want Paratici to bring in players that would hopefully have an immediate effect on the squads ability to compete at the top level.
We live in hope, TQ!
if Levy isn’t going to trust the likes of Paratici and Conte with club resources, who would he trust? It’s hard to find men with better resumes than those 2.
BS …. I don’t disagree with any of that.
The problem with selling Kane is that we would need to bring in a proven striker to replace him. Given our track record in bringing in back-up strikers over many years I’m not too optimistic about our chances. How many strikers have we seen come and go over the last 14 years or so …. and how many have actually scored consistently. Defoe is the only one I can think of out of a multitude.
There is no guarantee that bringing in a striker to replace Kane – beit from abroad or another PL club – would be successful (given our recent history). So many variables can determine the success, or otherwise, for new signings. What we do know is that if Spurs play ‘the Spurs way’ Kane will score goals. Can Konte get Spurs performing at the level required for the PL. If he can, there will be no need for further Kane discussion.