I think probably the less said about Tottenham Hotspur’s trip to the Library to face Arsenal in the North London Derby at the weekend is probably for the better, so let’s quickly turn our attentions towards NS Mura in Thursday’s Group G Europa Conference League clash.
We will undoubtedly see plenty of rotation again under head coach Nuno Espirito Santo, as despite growing calls for a change, I don’t see the club pulling the rug just yet, but pressure is undoubtedly growing and of more concern than the results of late, the performances are chalk and cheese to what we know this squad is capable of…even if we all accept we need significant improvement.
I know absolutely nothing about our next opponents other than what I’ve read on Wikipedia but with no disrespect meant, a Slovenian side with a Stadium capacity of circa 5500 leaves me thinking of a backwater club that will be physical and competitively ugly. Everything says it should be an easy victory but these are exactly the kind of European games that catch sides out and leave players not enjoying the trip.
This is another behind the settee game in my book, but we surely can’t lose again…can we?
Lots of rumours that Nuno is facing the sack and has lost the changing room. Seems unlikely because there is no one to replace him. Ryan Mason would not want to be the man to get us relegated
Hi Danny thanks for the thread yet again, re Thursday, we should be able to send a few of our squad players out and obtain a result, if I were the manager I wouldn’t even go, I’d be at the traing ground with the 1st 11 working on tactics, and fitness.
WW I wouldn’t agree that we’re relegation material just yet, believe it or not there are those who have yet to win a game in the premiership.
But my goodness we are pretty poor at present and have been for sometime.
I honestly thought we were making advances defensively, but it seems not.
Why is there a reluctance to play our new signings, limiting them to bit part status so far.
I’m not calling for a sacking just yet, but for the life of me I don’t know why…. 🙄
Not too long ago we were playing some of the sweetest football on the planet under the direction of MP. Despite this, many fans complained bitterly about the lack of silverware this period produced. At the time I said many times that we should enjoy the football because that might be as good as it gets. And, boy, did I enjoy the football! I’m not one to say ‘I told you so’ but as it turns out …. I told you so (apologies).
It’s interesting to note that there is no more screaming for silverware on VS; instead, there is a noisy clamour for sweet football in the traditional Spurs way, in the way we played under MP. Maybe, at last, some are realising that first of all the game is more about entertainment than collecting silverware. It’s about enjoying the moment.
The MP period was an era in its own right in the history of THFC. That era, sadly, is over. Sweet football will return but it will now take a while as the club moves on. It’s the roller-coaster way of football.
In the meantime if anyone is interested in good, honest, competitive football, it can be found in the WSL. Just my opinion. Gotta love football!
Oh, and by the way …. Spurs 3 – 0 NS Mura
I’ve had my own Spursy moments in the past with doubts but at least for me there has always been a hope.
I mean no disrespect to him, but Kane looks like he’s playing good enough to justify England but send a very strong message to Levy.
I like Nuno as a man, but he overachieved at Wolves because of Mendes and the players available and I’m not rating the signings – but that’s not just on him.
Ala Geof, where has the spunk and freedom gone? We punched above our weight with the ownership and squads should’ve achieved more but we are a shadow of ourselves and even looking around Vital oppo fans can’t believe how bad we’ve become so quickly. They never liked us, but they appreciated the play.
What’s the best tactic now…give an oppo player a pint that fills from the bottom?
“I mean no disrespect to him, but Kane looks like he’s playing good enough to justify England but send a very strong message to Levy.”
Well put, Danny.
the problem is that acting this way leaves a permanent stain. HK will not leave this epoch the way he entered. He is diminishing himself in the process. Sending a message to Levy is to spite one’s own face.
Why on earth would anyone be surprised that Kane plays well in a fully functioning squad of players, and poorly in a totally shambolic team. Why on earth would that not be the same result for any player. There is not one player anywhere who could come in and lift Spurs to the heights we all aspire to. It’s a team game and, at the moment, we don’t have one. England, on the other hand ……..
By the way, Danny, this thread is looking like a continuation of the last one. I suspect that as long as this lethargic display is what’s on the pitch, the discussions will focus there.
I appreciate your attempt to “move along, there’s nothing to see here.” But it’s hard to herd cats–or supporters whose spurs are not so hot.
Free Harry! Help Harry escape his funk. Harry is imprisoned inside himself. Let him loose. Unchain those shackles of disappointment. Come home and let us love you again. Play football while you’re on the pitch.
Unfortunately I will use myself as an example. I scored eleven goals playing for a very poor team. In my last season I scored 34 goals in seventeen games playing for a very good team. I’m sure I looked much more hungry playing for the latter but I still won a state trophy playing for the former. Kane won the GB playing for a poor team, too. Maybe he’ll do it again as it’s not October yet. It needs realistic perspective, not emotional reaction looking for blame.
Agree fully with you on Kane Geof, but you already knew that!
Regarding how it was under MP, I think that take perhaps lacks discernment, as far as I’m concerned. Things were better under MP, no question. But just because something was better than what we have now, doesn’t mean it was perfect.
(As an aside, to drive this point on a work-related matter, a colleague once told me: “If your wife is cheating on you with 3 other men every week, and all of a sudden, she ends her involvement with 2 of them, things are objectively better. But are are they great?” Food for thought 😉 ).
I think you are romantically forgetting how bad things were towards the end of MP’s reign. And while we can all agree that things were better then, you may be forgetting the bitterness of losing semi-finals, finals and “never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity” under MP.
As much as we can all agree that at this stage, having those problems would be a sign of progress, I still wouldn’t consider that time a period of great success, with hindsight. We should be looking to get back to 1960s-level of success, when players like Jimmy Greaves were happily leaving Chelsea to join the best team in England (I’m too young to have seen it but I’ve read the quotes 😉 ).
Regarding Nuno, as far as I’m concerned, he’s on borrowed time.
As I said on the NLD thread, for me the real question is not whether Nuno is to blame for the mess we’re in (he’s not) – it’s whether we believe he is the man to get us out of it.
I don’t think he is, and if he fails to beat Slovenian farmers (no disrespect to Mura), I think the writing will be on the wall.
Hi Geof. Sorry but you seem to be missing some crucial points that many have been making in all the criticism of Harry Kane at the moment. I’ve certainly been making this point, and I’ve been making it since last season. (In spite of his GB).
Myself and others have been talking of his attitude, body language and our perceived lack of energy, effort and commitment in his play. No one has been complaining just about his lack of goals. I myself have barely mentioned his lack of goals.
But if we are talking just about goals, then surely our observations point to a fair reasoning as to why he perhaps isn’t scoring regularly for Spurs at the moment.
I have seen many times this season, crosses and through balls etc., played into attacking areas/the box, and Harry has been nowhere to be seen. He hasn’t made space for himself or, ran into space. He has not been there! Watching him versus the Arsenal, I saw long balls played up to Harry, and he showed no real effort at all to win them. When he did have the ball, he often gave it away, lost control or feigned being fouled.
This is not about the team just being poor. It’s very much about him also being poor.
These are simply my genuine observations on Kane, without being emotional and without looking for someone to blame.
This is part of the problem I feel, for both Spurs and England. It seems that Kane is undroppable and can’t be criticised in some peoples eyes. And I feel that it’s often a purely an emotional response that is somewhat sentimental and full of blind faith in Harry,regardless. Oblivious to what many of us are seeing as an obvious thing. This to me is showing a pro-Kane bias that is mostly based on reputation, as opposed to his form and seemingly lacklustre attitude. In which I feel that he has not been that great for England as well as for Spurs.
I see a lack of energy and commitment for both teams he plays for…And it’s not as though I am alone in this. Pundits all over the media are saying the same. Ex-Spurs players and Harry ‘fans’ alike.
I would like to see him dropped for now. And I wouldn’t be at all surprised that if, without Kane in the side, the team game for Spurs, going forward, improved.
But, he won’t get dropped, will he?!
Agreed , been saying it..
Since harry came back into the side we have been slower….less energetic, and have not won a game… coincidence????…..coys
BS …. I was obviously targeting the ‘good times’ under MP, not towards the end of his time. I did not suggest it was perfect but it was a total success in its entertainment value. As I’ve said before, the only perfection in the universe is the voice of Eva Cassidy. I was simply highlighting the entertainment side of the game. I think very few of us would feel entertained at the moment. But I know what you mean.
I agree with you in wondering if Nuno will be able to -progress us. We’ll soon know.
By the way, Jimmy Greaves left Chelsea to join Milan, not another English club. He then came to ‘the best team in England’ from Milan.
Thanks for the correction. I hope I get to see a period where Spurs are the best team in England in my lifetime.
You gotta feel for nuno, if he lost the dressing room shame on these players yet again. Spoilt brats. I suggest let these players play without a manager, so they can’t blame anyone but themselves.
Did you feel the same way for the previous manager too ?
Fair question
HT … We seem to have a rare disagreement. I understand your argument but I just don’t see it that way. If Kane was playing poorly in a team that was playing well, I could agree. I don’t think that’s the case at the moment. But I imagine that everything will be clearer by Christmas, one way or another. I do expect Kane to leave at the end of the season, if not before.
Something seriously wrong with so many players having bad performances in the same games. Toxic mood around the camp. Surely crisis meeting is needed to ask why the players are not performing,
Geoff, I’ve always wanted silverware, yes we played nice footie under poch but I also said we won’t win anything under poch, but failed in the big cup games and spurs were heavy favourites. Also said spurs will be jose 1st club not to win a trophy.
HK is playing poorly for us and England for some time now, there is certainly a toxicity in the camp, is he the cause? he is an experienced player and a Spurs man, he should be leading by example, with his work rate, body language, but all say differently, standing out clearly.
If he doesn’t want to play for Spurs then fine, so declare yourself unfit so not picked/selected, but will not do that because it will affect him getting into the England WC squad or it should, and let the rest of the squad get on with it.
Also if you are here until say next summer, then play your bollox off, with heart, leadership, desire etc thus getting picked for the England WC squad.
For me all the above is true and bloody simple. COYS
The situation is dire. It’s hit the rocks passing through the straights. The ship be sinking because the crew slept through the passage. Toss them some life savers and let them jump the ship. Let the new lads play. The ones on the pitch without playing–sit them and let them sulk in the reserves. Let them fight in training to regain some respect for themselves and for the rest of the team. I’d rather give a chance to someone 17 years old than to someone sulking on the pitch while the opposition pummels us. Let the new arrivals play before they sit and watch more of this. A fresh fruit sitting in the barrel watching others rot, soon begins to rot as well.
What the hell is our captain doing to keep the band he wears on his sleeve? Nothing, it would seem. I’d rather Alfie Whiteman was our captain for the sake of the gods. I’d just as soon a 17 year old in Kane’s position. Sit him and let him reflect on whom he wants to be.
Ship be sinking.
I agree with the sentiments in your post, PY. I’d sit a few other with him. Let them decide what sort of men they want to be. Where is the sense of pride in one’s play–no matter whether you want to be here or not, you’re playing wearing our jersey. Play like you have some self respect. Or sit.
Sit and donate your massive wages to some good cause. Help some refugees who are fleeing wars and despair. Let some good come of the contract you signed. Why are you cashing your pay cheque when you’re not putting in effort. Do something for the world, if you refuse to do something to maintain your own dignity,
Free advice never should be taken all that seriously. So, here’s some free advise for our manager: Act decisively. Send a message that you are the manager and you don’t accept half hearted performances. Sit the biggest offenders and replace them with someone who will play their heart out. Put in the most hungry to establish themselves and show that you’re willing to stick with someone who puts in full effort.
If you show indecision and acceptance of lethargic play, you will be doomed. Those who are unhappy will destroy your reputation. Better to play those motivated by hunger to improve and to prove themselves rather than those who come on the pitch to belch their discontent into the vapors.
Take charge and impose yourself as someone who is fair but firm. Reward effort. Bench indifference.