With Santa’s home invasion just around the corner, it’s been a strange old week and a bit for Tottenham Hotspur fans – but as things stand, the EFL Cup clash with West Ham United on Wednesday evening is set to go ahead.
Having first seen Rennes postponed, Brighton and Hove Albion and Leicester City quickly followed, but we got back to action on Sunday as we took a very good point from Liverpool at White Hart Lane.
There was, however, some bad news (if you can call it that) on Monday as UEFA confirmed we had been dumped out of the laughable Europa Conference League competition as it was deemed we had forfeited the game against Rennes despite having 13 positive Covid cases in the camp (and clearly with two further postponements other players were effected, but just not showing as positive at that point).
I suppose we should’ve just played the game and spread it to their players and then UEFA would’ve been perfectly happy as presumably they wouldn’t have missed out on some cash (which is the only thing that matters to them in reality isn’t it).
With us out of the fabricated ECL, we can now focus domestically and West Ham are in reasonable form themselves, but again, if we turn up and perform we know we can take the win and progress through to the next round of the competition, so let’s hope we do just that.
Starting XI: Lloris (c), Doherty, Sanchez, Dier, Davies, Reguilon, Skipp, Hojbjerg, Lucas, Bergwijn, Kane.
Substitutes: Gollini, Royal, Rodon, Tanganga, Winks, Lo Celso, Ndombele, Dele, Son.
Not sure about the hapless Doherty and Bergweijn…2 awful buys. But you never know. Sometimes they have to justify their wages.
They heard me.
WW Doherty was a good wing back for wolves hence why we bought and it hasn’t worked out. Butb u slate him but u won’t slate dele, wake up. All the players u mention u want out, dele ain’t on the list yet he is the same under performing players you want out an blame jose for buying him but not others you mention
Bullying him*
Up the Spurs!
Good game. Great result.
Lucas scores the winning goal. Nice! And at the end of the match, I see and hear him singing along to our “Glory, Glory Song”… Love it!
Hot Tottingham – You really don’t seem to understand the reality of competition. Go back a few years and if you finished lower in the league you ended playing fewer matches, which could be an advantage in the following season. What seems to be happening now is you have new nothing competitions being invented to ensure anyone who could disturb the status quo have to play as many games as the top clubs for no reward. Either you are focused and concentrate on those matches which will take you up to the next level or you accept your place in the lower levels of the football pyramid and compete for tinfoil trophies. Rubbish sound bytes like “if you are in it you must try to win it” are so far into fantasy football land its untrue.
123 Yep. I like Dele. Top footballer destroyed by Moanino. Now trying to return to his best form. Cost 5 million scored some great goals and has great skills. I think he is worth keeping under Conte. Conte is not a big-headed bully like the ghastly Moaner. He gets the best out of all players. So Doherty and Bergwijn have a new chance. They played OK tonight.
wentworth – So what you are saying is you want a squad like City’s even though we don’t have the oil money to pay for it, fantasy football or what ? Your assessment of players is obviously unique, what a performance from Bergwjin against West Ham.
Jod, I understand the reality of competition very well, thank you.
And my point to TK was not about what you have been saying anyway. It was more to do with him saying that we belong in the CL. My point being that we get what we deserve, given whatever our finishing position in the PL is.
It’s you that I don’t quite understand. You seem to suggest that top professional players in squads the size that they are in these days, should not want to or even try to win.
Spurs have a large enough squad to compete well in all the competitions we are in. But if we fail in any of them. Which we have been doing for years now. Then yes, we are better put to concentrate solely on the PL. But unless we win the PL, next best is to finish high enough, to then either qualify for the CL, or EL, or now the ECL. It is what it is. And I like to think that our managers and players have the dignity, self respect and professionalism to do their best to win in every match they play in and in whichever competition. What’s so fantastical about that? It’s what their job is. I just support them in it!
But, it is certainly a form of fantasy football to say we belong in the CL, when after a poor season, we finish 7th in the PL.
I don’t talk of Spurs winning all competitions that we play in, do I? That would be absurd. I just expect them to at least have a good go. Which I feel is quite a reasonable expectation…
Anyway, whatever my opinion is, right or wrong. I am very happy to be in the semi-final of the Carabao (Tin-Foil) Cup. And I think Conte and the players are too.
I hope we can win it. And yet I would probably be happier to finish in the top 4, if I had the choice between the two.
Sorry if that is confusing to anyone… 😉
I think we are more than capable of doing both. And maybe throw in an FA Cup win too. Just for the heck of it!
And to win the Carabao Cup, we will have to first beat Chelsea, then it’s Arsenal or Pool to beat in the final.
Now that would definately be something to celebrate and be proud of. Regardless of how the rest of the PL season then pans out..
Good result tonight, hard faught game, again some of our “fringe” players surprised us, Doh had a decent game as did Bergs.
Through to the semis and some other big names in the hat, do I want us to win it, you bet, and Like HT I want top 4 as well.
I think television has changed the nature of fan support and expectation. Firstly the money attracted the foreign investors which elevated some clubs commercially beyond their traditional base. Secondly the access to live televised games hugely expanded their global fanbase. No need now to support your local team good or bad so just pin your colours to the clubs with most money. We are a rich club so we should expect the degree of success that that status defines. Sadly so far we have fallen just short but hope endures.
Hot Tottingham – “Spurs have a large enough squad to compete well in all the competitions we are in”. Fantasy football land right there. Self evidently we don’t have a squad that can compete twice a week every week. Its not just about how many players you have but about how good your second and even third choices are. Its also not about competing in everything and winning nothing.
“But unless we win the PL, next best is to finish high enough, to then either qualify for the CL, or EL, or now the ECL. It is what it is.”. More fantasy football. If you can’t get a top four spot the reality is you are better off out of Europe altogether (as I suspect Arsenal are finding out this season).
I thought you didn’t want a decent squad, Jod. You criticised me for my suggestion that our squad needs an overhaul. I think you argue for the sake of it.
But jod, you are talking about what you would prefer to see. Which is not the reality. It’s just your opinion. How can my stated facts of the 3 Eouropean competions PL qualifying places be a fantasy? I haven’t made it up. LOL!
We do of course have a large enough squad to compete twice a week. Because it’s what we do and have been doing for many years now. Making the point that we haven’t won anything doing this, doesn’t make it untrue. LOL!
This is all a matter of opinion from you jod. Not a matter of fact from you.
I beleive that the club in general, the players and most coaches, are competetive enough to want to do their best in all competitions. Which is the very essence of a competetive sports club and it’s staffs and owners ambitions. This doesn’t mean that they beleive they can win every time they play. But it does mean that they will at least attempt to.
Supporters don’t like their team losing. But many of us can and obviously do accept the clubs limitations as well as it’s priorities. For instance, Nuno in the ECL played a complete second string team in a match, which then played badly and looked to be not good enough. He then tried to remedy this by subbing on better players, in an attempt to get a better result. Conte has done similar. As did Poch in the past. I’m not making this up. This would suggest to me that their intentions are to win these matches, whatever the comp. But this doesn’t mean that the PL to them is not a priority. And, obviously so, when we do see a second 11 start the match… Fair enough. It’s a compromise we have to make. As do most clubs.
If you see this competition as a joke, all well and good for you. That’s your opinion. But the reality is we were in it and I am pretty sure that the club wanted to progress in it. Personally, I didn’t care enough to be concerned about no longer being in it. But whilst we were in it, I wanted us to win in it. Why is this so strange a concept to you?
I do find it odd that you would seem to prefer Spurs to finish lower in the PL to avoid these competitions if it means finishing lower than top 4. How exactly is this POV more realistic than my POV. And how should the team go about this exactly? Throw a few games when it looks like the top 4 is out of reach? Give up the ghost and deliberately try to finish below the top 7?
By the same token, you keep insiting to all on here that we can’t possibly expect to compete with the likes of Man City because our way inferior finances can’t match theirs. So, what’s the answer?
We could as a club refuse to compete in these l’esser’ competitions. We could just opt out of them. That might help…
What’s your solution? Do you have one? One that is realistic, so to say…
Morning folks
Hi Jod I’m not answering for HT, he’s quite capable of doing that himself.
However with AC at the helm, maybe we do have a good enough squad to compete (not win) all the competitions we are in, after all how many teams actually win it all, CL, League, FA Cup,Carabo Cup,?
I did say that “on paper” we actually have a decent squad and if we had, had, AC from the start of the season we may have progressed in the” tin pot” Euro Trophy which I will remind you that we weren’t put out by way of competition, but through UEFA “red tape” so who knows where we would’ve gone had we won the winnable game against Rennes.
With that said there are improvements needed at the club player wise, who we actually need now its hard to nail down currently, as those I thought I wanted away have had a turn around in form under AC and have become the players I expected, for example both Dele and Winks against Liverpool (excellent), last night Doherty had another very decent game Bergs had a very good performance look at Davies, who saw that some named him as MOM last night, Sess has vastly improved, now these are all players who up until about a month ago I would’ve Been OK to leave the club.
Now I’m not sure if they are putting themselves in the shop window or they are just being coached in the right way and starting just starting to get a winning mentality.
If we look at our recent results, we ain’t doing too bad, for a change I actually wish the TW was a bit further away.
Confused dot com here🤔🙁😉😀