Well, it’s been a strange old summer for supporters of all clubs, let alone Tottenham Hotspur fans but it’s finally time for the first match thread of 2020/21.
I trust this finds the good citizens of Vital Spurs and their wider bubbles, in good health and spirits, as this coming season is bound to be a rollercoaster, both on and off the pitch!
2019/20 was interesting, to say the least, with our problems and the changes we saw (nobody mention poor performances), so this year after a semi-busy transfer window of captures, we also have Europa League qualification to look forward to – which simply only complicates things further given the additional games we face for barely a Plovdiv of financial benefit compared to the Champions League itself.
But it’s Everton up first as we go into a new strange season where fans still won’t be in attendance and nobody knows if we’ll actually perform like the Spurs we expect either, but the likelihood is more of the same pragmatic type of football Jose Mourinho is famed for – we just have to hope the results follow.
Everton...
Win
Draw
Lose
It’s a busy start to the season with five games to pack in ahead of us slipping into October, so can we lay down a marker against the Toffees and show that we’ve learnt from last season’s mishaps?
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Unfortunately, Spurs have the wrong manager, if we are looking to re-build the team for the future… Levy would need someone like Solskjaer or Lampard or indeed Pochettino to do that…
If anything, Mourinho tends to do the opposite. He stunts their growth.
Jose stunts a clubs growth…
You make him sound like a pack of Benson & Hedges HT. 🙂
That made me laugh, TQ2..
Yes, the government should stamp a Spurs supporter health warning across his forehead…
Mourlnho
Reduces
Fertiliy
UK DUTY PAID
Fertility spelled wrong!
Must be a bootleg pack!
You’re not wrong there HT….he isn’t doing much to promote my mental health wellbeing.
Looking pragmatically at our situation……I think we are going to have to put up with a period of stagnation at best for a couple of seasons. I honestly believe the clubs ambition was to increase income via the new stadium and and associated commercial activity that would enable us to compete in the transfer market and with wage demands. We had hit a glass ceiling in this respect in the old stadium and the development of a modern one with hugely increased capacity was vital to break through that ceiling.
I think it’s fair to say that the outbreak of covid19, which nobody could have foreseen, has come at the worst possible time for us and has set us back by what is likely to be a considerable period, as I say probably about 2 seasons at best, hopefully this might be less if a successful vaccine becomes available within the next few months.
All this said, I still don’t think Jose was the right appointment, we are already seeing what his previous clubs experienced, that is divisions within the dressing room encouraged by apparent favouritism shown to some of the players. Some are quick to condemn the players for not showing passion and desire on the pitch but to be fair to them – it must be hard to motivate yourself when so much negativity is being generated within the squad – and I only see one person (renowned for being moody) being responsible for that.
I can see us having to stick with it (however broken things are) because we will not be able to recruit a new manager, who is currently employed, so early in the season. That only really leaves Poch and Allegri as feasible options as far as I can see unless I have forgotten any other top managers who are currently taking a break.
MRF indeed HT. Lol.
I think many (if not all) of us agree that JM is not the right man for Tottenham.
As Geoff said earlier and many of us have said in other posts, we are on a rebuild.
And is JM the right man to take us there?
I’m not sure.
The point is that there are those of us who can tolerate him (short term) and those who just want him out.
If results come we’ll probably suffer it for a while particularly if we get a cup run.
If the results don’t come get Bielsa in and get beaten 4-3 by L/pool.
I have to agree with all of that, TQ.
I always think that when I say that I much prefer to see entertaining football above just dull but winning football. What others that disagree with this don’t seem to put in to the equation, is the players themselves want to enjoy their football too. Not just us, the spectators.
Yes, players will be happy with some winners medals to show off but soon grow tired of not being seen to shine and entertain the supporters… Which sadly, they don’t even have in the grounds to cheer them on right now……
ND …. I’m willing to suffer in the short term. But if we are not improving dramatically by the end of the season my ‘short time’ will expire!
A huge problem will be (as HT suggested) if JM is not the one to put us back on track we will need to bring in someone else and the whole lengthy process starts again.
I’ve just agreed with your post TQ. But I must have got my name or email address wrong because it is “awaiting moderation”…
I also agree with you Niall… I will back him for now…..
HT….email filtering can be a pain, the company I worked for prior to retirement had mail servers with anti-virus and anti-spam filtering which can be moderated to different levels, sometimes genuine stuff gets caught unintentionally. One I always remember as being a real pain to the client was an organisation based in a place called Penistone which had the place name in it’s email address, the first part of the name was regularly marked by the filtering system as dodgy! lol
Some great doses of realism in recent postings. I suggest the best coping mechanism for Spurs supporters over the next year or so is to have expectations which do not exceed the limits of what is possible over this period and being pleasantly suprised when those limits are exceeded once in a while.
Grealish has signed a new 5 year deal at Villa…..no surprise to me, have always said his affection for his home club would keep him there.
Almost to prove my point. That his love for the game and at his boyhood club, outshines a need for him to just go for the bigger money and medals elsewhere…
If only more players would see it that way…
Inded HT…..refreshing to see someone who puts love for their club over greed.
*Indeed…….must be dodgy keyboard day today! lol
When I said prove my point, it refers to my response to you TQ, that has now appeared. About players wanting to enjoy their football as much as us supporters do… Whether that be Grealish at his home club or a player that likes and is liked at his current club….
Just seen your earlier post HT……would be good to see Bale back and enjoying his football…..wherever that may be.
Grealish – loyalty – perhaps or maybe nobody is prepared to the pay the reported £80m or so they want for him – indeed a couple of years back he was happy to come to us but Levy did not stump up the necessary amount (although again they were demanding an inflated price at the time compared to say a Maddison, etc), the club found new backing and thus eventually he again at that time signed a new contract, etc…………!
Might also add he scored 8 goals in 36 games last season in the Prem and got rave reviews, Dele pretty quietly went about his business and despite injury and poor form, etc and not being able to build the proper momentum that Grealish especially had all season still scored the same 8 goals but in only 25 games……………! Pulisic again got rave reviews also – he only scored 1 more than Dele with 9 in the same 25 games but he plays as a winger/forward and is expected to score often given such position!
I’ll grant Dele (and Pulisic) play with much better players at Spur’s/Chelsea than Grealish does with at Villa, but for example I’ve yet to see Dele and Lo Celso play together in the same team if memory serves and even these 2 with possibly N’Dombele chucked in also (certainly not yet ever happened) could be very interesting indeed and even very tasty in fact – how do you accommodate such – well I’ll give it a try but first of all, all of them need to be fully fit and firing but you could go with the following:
Hoj N’Dombele
Lo Celso Dele Sonny
HK10
Seeing as Doherty will be bombing up the right wing constantly and pretty much playing as a RW a lot of the time, Lo Celso can easily cut inside and take up the no.10 role with Dele pushing forwards into the box with his famed late runs to help/support HK10, etc – thus not beyond the realms of possibility to be able to see N’Dom, Gio and Dele all in the same side and quite possibly flourishing – but firstly fitness needed – then take it from there based on co-hesion, understanding, connection, form, etc!
I and we I guess – live in hope………..!
Do Dele and J King share an agent? If so EJ, is it you?