With Tottenham Hotspur registering back to back losses once again in the Premier League with the frustrating 3-0 defeat to Manchester United at the weekend, news on Monday of Nuno Espirito Santo’s departure from the club probably didn’t come as a great surprise to anyone.
Wherever you sit on the Nuno debate, there were obvious flaws with his handling of the group and with the players just not stepping up for him, there was a sense of unavoidable inevitability about it.
This of course means we now head into preparations for our Group G clash with Vitesse managerless as the merry-go-round has once again begun, and after October’s slip up against them, we simply couldn’t stomach another defeat if we hope to try and top the table.
With speculation returning about talks being held with Antonio Conte, whether he (or a new face) will be in place by Thursday is open to debate but whoever it is has got a massive job on their hands.
What will be will be, as the ditty goes, we just have to hope our next gamble pays off because the decision makers aren’t going to sack themselves are they.
LT seems like you have seeing you believe in genies.
Well a win is a win, and indeed we were “Spursy” to the hilt tonite.
Showed what we can do at our best and indeed worst.
We almost made a Conte out of Anto. 😉
Will take a while to to turn this ship around, funnily enough I thought HK was OK tonight, I’ve certainly seen him play worse.
Ref sort of spoiled the game with soft yellows.
Serious, if HK couldn’t put in a real effort today in front of a new manager with a serious reputation, is there a serious reason other than his attitude? is he seriously ill? There are lots of illnesses that could cause someone to lose energy and concentration. First thing for Conte to do is to bring in a medical diagnostics team. If HK has an illness, let’s find out and start the treatments. Of course, long-haul COVID hasn’t yet any real treatments.
Well tonight showed that, it actually is the players.
Now they need to shape up or ship out, there are many in our team who simply aren’t good enough.
We have players at our club who are at best 10 to 15 mil players, and we need 40 mil plus players in our team.
With that said hopefully Anto can turn a few of them round, after all he did OK with Moses at Chelsea.
So it’s his first game, I would guess that he barely knows all the players names never mind who is best players/squad are.
Silk purse from Sows ear time.
Well, Niall, perhaps this shows it’s the players who are the only problem, but perhaps not, or at least in entirety. New formation, same players, so one cannot expect them to adjust instantly. Same players, new manager, so one cannot expect them to adjust in one day.
Too early to give up totally on the whole lot of them. If in three or four months they haven’t figured out how to play in the new formation(s) and within the framework of the new manager, then we either ship out lots of players or the new manager. At that point, it’s probably players that need to go, having failed under several managers. Conte seems okay given his record, lol, and not so outdated and angry as the little Moor (a literal translation of the name).
But for now I think it premature to make firm judgements about the players and what Conte might get out of them with a bit of time. Conte is supposed to be a decent teacher–the kind who gets mad if the homework wasn’t done.
Of course, he’ll want to bring in his own choices and he will if DL doesn’t go all DL and squeeze the pounds= sterling into powdered sterling in his tight fists.
We might yet be surprised by some of the players if they fit into the new style and if they fear being sold into some second tier team in Serbia.
Let’s hope so. It’s tough to bring in 20 players all at once. Old Joe Lewis on the boat in the warm seas would have a stroke. He hasn’t been the same since the fight with Rocky Marciano. God knows who would inherit the club then. Maybe Marvin Hagler, who trained in the same gyms as Rocky Marciano. Too bad the new N17 stadium wasn’t build for those guys to fight.
Joe Lewis. Not a Pullman Porter in the northern hemisphere didn’t love that man. But that was before ENIC.
Anyway, some of our lads might come good after all if the dark clouds are lifted, I wouldn’t give up on all of them for a while. Let’s see how they look in the warmth of the spring (such as it might be in London).
So far Conte has shown nothing. If Nuno had played our first eleven in every European game we’d have won more. But the idea is to win them with our squad players saving the first team for the premier league, that way they will last the season. When Conte starts winning these game while leaving the first team at home I’ll start to believe.
I suppose my problem is I have no idea why Conte took the job. We aren’t his sort of club. Even Abramovich didn’t spend enough to keep him happy and we don’t have Chelsea’s kind of money. The Newcastle job with unlimited funds would have made more sense. Still hopefully he’ll prove me wrong. At any rate given his track record I assume the club are already looking at his potential replacements.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
One of my favourite films… And my rather vague summary of the match last night.
Good? We scored 3 goals… We won!
Bad? Going to sleep after an impressive start, conceding two poorly defended goals, and after being up 3-0.
Ugly? Conceding two poorly defended goals! A hat-trick of sending-offs? Spurs players still giving the ball away far too often. And HK still looking like he’s forgotten how to play. (Well, maybe not so much as ugly though. But bad!
Anyway. As BC has already said, it wasn’t boring. It was like a real cup-tie atmosphere and a hard-fought game.. With both teams fighting for the win. And both teams having periods of domination. And, the feeling at the ground was electric. As it should be. There was a buzz about the place. I hope this can continue throughout the season.
For now, I will definitely take the win. And hope that we can go on to win the next two games in this comp. Finish top of the group, And then go on to win the trophy! Preferably, against Jose’s Roma… That would be sweet.
The irony being that if we do win this competition, there will be supporters that will not be impressed. And, no doubt, especially many of those supporters that continually go on about our recent lack of trophies!
Football doesn’t have to be beautiful to be exciting. And so called ugly football isn’t always boring. But either way, winning football is always preferable to losing. And worst still, losing without a fight.
Conte has the spirit of a fighter. A winner!
So, come on Spurs. Let’s fight the good fight. And let’s start winning!
We will still probably see Spurs continue to be good, bad and ugly this season… And everything in between. But please! Let’s at least show some spirit. Some fight. Some pride. And more wins than losses… Please!
Up the Spurs!
Well there were no long balls to the opposition and up to the 3rd goal we were playing some good footie .
That is certainly I think the best 30 minutes of football I have seen from the players .
Conte is no magician and has to contend with Levy and ENIC not investing in the team .
He has seen what needs doing to improve us but will Levy play ball ?
I have no doubt that he will get us playing better using this group of players but it is going to be a bumpy ride .
We are reading reports that we will do very little business in the next transfer window so what can we look forward to ?
Another good piece from Mc Nulty writing for the BBC
Basically the players are not really good enough but let’s see what Conte can do . We may be surprised .
There were some very good players out there on the pitch for Spurs last night. And on the bench.
Conte’s job is to get these players, (no matter how good or bad us supporters may perceive them to be), playing as a cohesive unit. A team! A good team. And good players can make very good teams.
This won’t be about just spending loadsa dosh. No matter how much we do or do not spend, come January.
Harry Kane was supposedly worth £150m or more to Spurs, just 4 months ago. And yet he has been playing poorly and lost his magic touch in front of goal. He’s also not passing the ball as well as we all know he can.
But, he is one of a whole team of players that have been mostly underperforming. Money has nothing to do with this. Nothing at all!
People are saying that Conte needs to spend big for Spurs to succeed. And this is because that is what has happened with him at his previous clubs. But of course this is what happened.
Apart from his first handful of managerial jobs (which were not at big-spending clubs) He went on to win stuff at clubs that did have the money to fork out, big time. No matter who the manager was… Juve, Chelsea, Inter.
But, Conte is well known for vastly improving players that were not really considered great, stand-out players. And/or players that were badly underperforming under previous coaches. Not all big names. Not big transfer money guys. Guys like Victor Moses at Chelsea. Alonso and many more players at those top clubs have been seen to improve a hell of a lot. Lukaku, of course. Now back from the dead! And help such players to be crucial to all his winning teams. Not all big star names. Not all big-money buys.
All managers and coaches at all clubs want new guys in. And want to spend as much as they can on them. But that depends on the club and its funds as to how much can actually be spent. And how much that club can actually afford for things not to work out.
Spurs have top talent already. And it’ll be as much to do with what Conte can achieve with the not so big-money guys at the club, as it will be with top earners, Mr Kane And Mr. Son.
For example. Dele was a just £5m player. Can Conte help improve his play? Can Conte turn him around?
Last night we experienced the full spursy game seen many times over the years… Indeed the good part in 30 mins… bad 30 mins to 45… The ugly red card romero, 2 red to vitesse (numerous fouls as well). However it was a cup tie of excitement and i was exhausted watching it 🙂
Conte will sort out the defending shape for corners / free kicks and bring in new players, and i think we are very lucky to have a top class manager who wins trophies / titles. COYS
ps.. will we get in trouble fans fighting, one ran on the pitch from west stand ?
I have just seen the stats for the team . Dier was apalling and the worst person giving the ball away . Reggie was next worse with Davies 3rd worst .
If players especially defensive players are this bad in possession what chance does any manager have of building a team with a solid defence ?
I think that Davies and Reggie ought to go with Dier not close behind .
Some on here advocate that we do not need to spend money well if these statistics and the way we played after being 3 up are anything to go by I would argue that we do need to spend .
Well the game was as entertaining as I expected …. but in a different way to what I expected. Gotta love football, dontcha?! Should be good at Goodison.
HT
Good Post there around 11 am, we do indeed have some very good players, and I alluded to Moses myself earlier, so indeed Anto can and does improve incumbent players, my issue is that we do need a few better ones in certain positions.
But all in all I enjoyed the game last nite and as was said earlier it was the best first 30 mins we’ve played in 2 seasons, its really only day one, it will take time and patience by us all.
BTW I had a chum on to me last nite, Liverpool fan, first words were WTF is the Conference League.
Whirlwind of a game last night. I enjoyed it but it was a bit “spursy” in the second half.
Not sure we have very good players and a good bench.
We have one or two very good players e.g.Son. Some good players. And a large group of ordinary players who probably cannot be improved…Winks, Davies, Lo Celso, Doherty, Bergwijn etc.
Hopefully, Dele and N’Dombele can be worked on. Emerson and Romero seem to have the talent. Hojbjerg and Skipp have a reasonable partnership. But we are lacking a strong midfielder with all round talent, a reliable replacement striker and reserve/bench players at central defence and left wing back.
I am just comparing us with teams from a while ago and the current top 4. Our bench has no game changers. We have no up and coming youngsters. Conte has a huge task.
Allan, who on here has been advocating that we do not need to spend money? No one is.
Of course we need to spend money. (On players I presume you to mean). They don’t come free! LOL!
I’m saying quite clearly that it won’t be just about spending loads of money. It’s how wisely the money will be spent, within budget and however much that is. And of course, what Conte can do to coach and build on his team.
He only has a short term contract. He can’t be doing a full blown rebuild. Most of his work will be to improve on what we have. Which would always be the case for any coach. ………
Whatever the stats were on those 3 players that you mentioned Allan. I actually thought that Reguillon and Davies (in tandem) played quite well last night. Reg being one of our best…
I will also mention Winks. Another player that gets a bad rap from many of our supporters. I thought he was great as a sub. With Skipp not being as good as he has been for us.
Sorry folks that was good post 9:10 am
As you know I’m no Winks fan, but I too thought he played very well last nite, and thought Skippy was a bit off the mark, again I thought both Regs and Davies (not in his chosen position) did well Davies forged up the pitch a couple of times in a very positive way, also Dave when he came on did well.
Bearing in mind their 2nd goal came from fannying around on the right side of the pitch no where near Davies or Regs.
Look who knows, many of these players do have it in them to become very good to exceptional and if we can stretch the performancec we saw in the first half for longer periods, who knows where we’ll end up.
It’s only one game and yes changes need to be done, it’s a clean sheet for many, so let’s see how they step up, as every penny don’t fit the slot.
Cheers Niall! …………………..
What I like about Conte is his obvious passion for the game. And we saw it last night on the touchline. Which I think helped to enthuse the crowd. More so than some of our football…
He doesn’t stop coaching them. He is constantly directing the shape of the team and the football itself. He knows just what he wants. Much like Pep n Klopp…
Of course, with such passion can easily come quite a fiery temperament as well. And we have all seen Antonio lose it on occasion. In the PL and for Italy. But I like it. Hopefully it can enthuse the players as well as the crowd. As passion can be contagious.