Vital Spurs Debate Section

Match Thread – Spurs Looking For 3 From 3 To End On A High With Villa Up Next

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With plenty of positives to take from our victory, and the performance, over Wolverhampton Wanderers at the weekend, it’s another quick turnaround for Tottenham Hotspur as we welcome Aston Villa to White Hart Lane on Wednesday for our penultimate Premier League clash of the 2020/21 campaign.

A campaign that started brightly, and faded rapidly as 2021 hit, however, a potential top five finish is on the cards but for that to happen, we have to absolutely take three points from Dean Smith’s side and form is on our side, even though both clubs have wobbled in the second half of the season.

Another big plus is Villa should be without Jack Grealish (cheers Levy), as since returning from injury he’s yet to even play 45 minutes, so hopefully at worst, he’ll only get introduced at the break.

With some confidence returning based on our last performance, you’d like to think we’d be comfortable long before their talisman hits the pitch, and with no fresh injury concerns, only Serge Aurier and Ben Davies should be missing again.

Can Ryan Mason really restore some momentum and get us three wins from three going into the summer?

Villa

Win

Draw

Lose


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German striker Jurgen Klinsmann spent two years at White Hart Lane in separate spells, but how many league goals did he contribute?

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  • Spurfect One says:

    Looks like sky sports will do anything for Kane to leave Spurs.

    • PompeyYid says:

      SO, s[pot on there.
      After all they make it quite clear of their dislike for us. COYS

  • Pauric Carolan says:

    If and when Harry Kane leaves this sinking ship I will applaud him, he deserves to playing for a club that wins titles, cups, or champions league’s. What a mess Levy made.

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    Says a lot about your loyalty as a true Spurs supporter Pauric.

  • Spurfect One says:

    If Kane does go, the faith i have in this board to find a striker with even half of Kane’s finishing ability is 0. Lets face it, Enic got lucky with Kane, after being pillaged from loan to loan he only got in to the team due to ironically a dud big money striker we bought from Spain. The inept on field decisions of this board in the last 2 years have been nothing short of a disgrace.

  • 123spurs says:

    If Kane wants to leave, please hand in a transfer request.

    Do not sell to another PL team unless it’s 200+ mil.

    We survived without him many a time. We will do it again.

  • BelgianSpur says:

    To be honest TQ2Spurs, I feel that comment to Pauric is very harsh. I support Spurs but I have got little sympathy for the club in this case.

    I agree with Pauric, I think Kane has been a fantastic servant to the club. He has performed, he has been patient, and if anything, I lay all of the blame at Levy’s feet for failing to build a decent squad around a generational talent.

    I think you shouldn’t mix being a Spurs fan and an ENIC fan. Pauric may love the club, the institution, but dislike the current owner and chairman. And I think that’s fair.

    Having said that, no Spurs fan wants to see the club struggle, but I think it’s inevitable for a while, as Levy continues to test Einstein’s definition of insanity.

    I personally don’t see where this club is headed on the pitch. Sure, we’ve got a shiny new stadium, and we’ve done very well to grow the reputation of the club worldwide, but that hasn’t helped us win things.

    We all see where the club is headed commercially, and it’s promising. But there is no direction coming from ENIC as far as setting a path to winning things. And that is a formidable statement to take in, for a football club.

    As I have alluded to, I think it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Firing JM was no magic fix. In fact, as I predicted, it has only made the job less appealing, as we have now been turned down by several managers already. In saying so, I am not questioning the decision, but rather the timing.

    We now have to embark on the “painful rebuild” MP alluded to more than 2 years ago. It’ll likely be without Kane, sadly, but at this stage we are better off gutting the team, raising funds, and starting new. The only problem is that like Spurfect, I have 0 confidence in Levy’s ability to oversee a successful rebuild.

    • TQ2Spurs says:

      BS….my comment to Pauric wasn’t based on this particular comment alone, I have never seen him post anything positive about our club, I wouldn’t be the only poster here that has questioned whether he is a Spurs supporter at all.

  • Ossie says:

    It’s when Kane leaves…not if

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    Spurfect….to be fair it would be pretty difficult for any club, other than an odd few, to replace someone of Kane’s scoring ability. Money aside, there aren’t that many (maybe 2 or 3) as good or better in world football to be had!

    • BelgianSpur says:

      Yes, it’s impossible to find a like for like replacement, and I don’t think the club should even try. Instead of trying to find one player who is a guarantee for 25 league goals every season, we should look to replace the production (ie the goals and assists) with 2 or 3 players who can match Kane’s production collectively.

      Kane has scored 22 and assisted 13 this yar. Imagine we sold him and bought Jack Grealish, Patrick Bamford or Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and James Ward-Prowse. That would be a combined 20+ assists and 20+ goals between those 3 players. That’s the sort of outcome we should be shooting for, in my opinion.

      If not those exact players, that approach.

      • TQ2Spurs says:

        I agree BS, we have been too reliant on Kane and Sonny to score and make goals, we need a better spread across the squad.

    • Spurfect One says:

      Of course. But if you read what i said , i don’t trust this board to sign anyone who has at least HALF of his finishing ability.

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    Todays back pages getting a bit carried away with the story, talk of a £150m transfer frenzy. I can’t see any PL club being willing to pay that much in the current climate other than Chelsea, whose FFP compliance would have to be questioned if they did, and United whose owners might be desperate to appease their fans over the ESL fiasco. I still think the most likely destination will be City as a replacement for Aguero.

  • PompeyYid says:

    To be perfectly honest, I am not happy that he wants to leave, if true of course, but I would be even more unhappy if he went to a Prem club, would be happier say, if he went to join Poch at PSG.

  • BelgianSpur says:

    PY – he wants to break Shearer’s record, all the while having a shot at trophies. No Spurs fan is going to enjoy seeing him play for a rival, but I have gotten to the stage where I feel Kane has earned the right to go where he wants.

    • PompeyYid says:

      Ok BS fair play, but beating Jimmy Greaves Spurs record would equal “Legendary Status” for me.

      I am also believing this could be a good time to sell as I really believe with his constant injury probs HK hasn’t very many good seasons left.

      Regards the transfer/sale DL is going to say this is what I/we want take it or leave it, it could get very messy! COYS

      • BelgianSpur says:

        PY – looking at at from a Spurs fan’s point of view, beating Greaves’ record would make Kane legendary (although one might argue that Kane already is a club legend as it is).

        But beating Shearer’s PL record would make KAne a legend for all fans, not just Spurs fans. That’s the appeal of it.

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    It’s easy to lay all of the blame at Levy’s door, there is no doubt he is human like everyone else and prone to make mistakes but he has also been the victim of circumstances that not even the best crystal ball gazer could have foreseen.

    I’m neither a lover or hater of the board, I’m just an ordinary guy who loves his boyhood football club, but I do believe that the development of the stadium and training ground was done with the intention of making Spurs one of the top clubs in world football and was beginning to bear fruit when the pandemic hit. You can’t blame Levy for failing to see this coming.

  • BelgianSpur says:

    Levy is the chairman of the club. Even if some things are outside of his control, ultimately the buck stops with him.

    It’s the downside of those big jobs. Ultimately, he bears final responsibility. Nobody is putting a gun to his head to do the job, and let’s also remember he is paid handsomely to do it.

    Sure, part of his job is thankless, but you have to take the downsides with the advantages. When the CEO of a Fortune 500 company loses his job because the stock market has crashed, it’s also fair to wonder whether all of it was his fault. Yet, it just comes with the territory.

    The question for me is: if you’re not going to blame Levy, whose fault is it? Somebody has to assume responsibility.

    Nobody could have seen Covid coming, but there is something to be said about putting all your eggs in one basket, or as the article says, prioritising the stadium above all else. Stadiums generate revenues, sure, but so do TV rights and sponsors when you’re systematically in the CL and reaching the latter stages of it.

    Unlike you, I don’t think the stadium was ever really about making THFC a top club on the pitch. I think it was mostly a showpiece to make the club more famous, and in turn, richer (which ultimately means: richer owners), and to a much smaller extent, partly a personal vanity project.

    Some might question how making THFC richer is a bad thing, and it isn’t, per se. But if the end of the road is just being a wealthy club, but not using that newfound wealth to make the team better, I question the point of it all, as a fan.

    In a way, we can’t know for sure, because Covid has provided a timely, and reasonably understandable reason not to spend on the squad. But the doubters can argue that this is merely a convenient excuse.

    There is no way of knowing for sure if Levy would have spent if Covid hadn’t happened, but unfortunately his track record precedes him and invites questions. And again, the only person responsible for creating that reputation, and inviting those questions, is Levy. He is reaping what he has sowed.

  • Pauric Carolan says:

    BelgianSpur, you summed it up perfectly. Thank you

  • Niall D says:

    Afternoon folks, Danny cheers again for the thread, nearly at the finish post m8 😉
    OK so the Kane saga goes on again, is it as PY says the usual “merry go round” but for definate people are jumping on the band wagon, I knew the Beeb didn’t like us, mind you just noticing Sky is up there too.
    Re Kane I’m much of the same opinion as BS on this one, Kane has been a good servant to us, he stayed for the “Mourinho re build” it didn’t come off, he did his bit of the job by scoring goals and supplying assists, the standard of play by others or the tactics let him down.
    Much as I want him to stay, if he goes I wish him well.
    With that said (and if said this before) he needs to be careful of the “Torres” effect, just because you’re a goal scorer and a legend at one club it doesn’t follow that you will do well at another, Torres, Robbie Keane, Berbatov, Sanchez, it can actually ruin your career.
    Again with this said, I seem to remember, 2 seasons ago with one of Kanes injuries( around March 2017 or 18) , that we scored as many without him as withhim on the pitch.
    I like the players listed by BS and could certainly see where the(Kane) money could go if properly spent.
    However what will probably happen will be that Mr Levey will tough it out for all of the TW, then sell Kane on the last day for 2 million more and we’ll end up with a big bank balance and Vinnie and Parrot up front (they sound like a music hall act).
    Re Villa, I hope to see Deles progression and Bale giving it a real go. Would prefer to see Rodon rather than Dier, but I suspect that our interim manager is not only picking his mates but trying to get them into the England squad as well.

  • block 108 spurs says:

    I would be disappointed if HK10 left but understandably he wants winners medals not losers medals. That is the reality of spurs over last 6 yrs. ENIC and levy has done well in building world class training ground and stadium as a property / land management company. Sadly they did not think about the high cost of building and delays (archway steel) which did adversely affect funding for the team to be wining trophies first, and maintaining the momentum Harry Redknapp / AVB / poch had started / done.

    Now we are back to where we were before poch.. need to rebuild the squad and see half depart (13 out by poch) and massive funds spent, (from prev. sale of bale now HK10) and a very good manager that can do it. But the main problem is.. Levy being the control freak he has shown he is and he really does need to get the management of DOF . head coach & support coaches right this time. Then allow them to do their their job

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    There are clearly differing opinions on how you measure success, some clearly think that winning silverware is the only gauge even though at least 75% of PL teams are unlikely to win anything every season.

    • BelgianSpur says:

      The quality of a stadium certainly shouldn’t be the primary measuring stick, no matter how you look at it.

      Looking at the last 10 or so seasons of PL football, we’ve seen teams like Leicester, Wigan, Birmingham City or Swansea win trophies. Claiming that only 5 teams win things is just untrue. Upsets are not the norm but they do happen often enough to dispel the notion that only 5 teams have a shot a winning things each year.

  • TK says:

    DL preferred to spend lots of money on concrete and steel than on the performance on the pitch. That was a choice he made, and now we must pay the price.

    An DL allowed himself to be victimized by a con job that said he should sack Pock–who never received financial backing an miraculously pushed is to a CL final without sufficient backing–and hire the ignominious José Mourinho. Unforgivable.

    We have what is possibly the best stadium in the world and the best training grounds and a team that is disintegrating because DL failed to pay attention to its on-the-pitch health. And now we face HK10–quite possibly the sole combination of world class player and world class person–wanting out. Who can blame him?

    Sell some yachts in the Caribbean and spend the cash on decent players. Don’t treat constracts like real estate deals.

    Buy yourself a wig and false beard, DL, or be scorned wherever you go. You have put your ego into an Ozmandias stadium over the supporters who care not one whit about the value of a stadium or training ground when they came at the expense of what we do care about–the play on the pitch.

    Do the decent thing, DL. Follow the deepest traditions of the samurai and leave this moral coil.

    Okay, rant for the day. I couldn’t sleep well last night. Thanks for the therapy session, lads.

  • TQ2Spurs says:

    TK…..but tell that to the 20k + supporters who couldn’t get in to watch their team play at the old worn out stadium.

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