After a couple of weeks off, Tottenham Hotspur are back in action this coming Saturday and everyone will be hoping we can put the poor result and performance against Chelsea firmly behind us as we welcome Brighton and Hove Albion to White Hart Lane for our FA Cup fourth round clash.
It was a mixed transfer window for the club, with us seemingly missing out on our speculated higher profile targets, but manager Antonio Conte presumably got most of what he wanted with numerous departures, and a few arrivals to freshen the group up and potentially more directly fit Conte’s preferred tactics and style of play.
What this means for performances moving forward remains to be seen, much as it does for Conte’s more long term future with us but given plenty of disappointments this season, it can’t be forgotten we are well placed in the Premier League table to finish on a high and a possible Wembley trip remains on the horizon – it just all comes down to how much more Conte can get out of this group before getting a proper window to improve in.
PY… You made me smile. In a good way! 🙂
Not so long ago on here, I said that I beleived Spurs to be good enough to reach the CL final. And maybe even win it. (less than 3 years ago that was). And that was after 3 poor results in the group stage. We had lost 2 and drawn 1 of our first 3 matches.
I was told on here, in no uncertain terms, that I was being unrealistic to even suggest that we would make it into the knock out stage. Let alone the final. I was deluded!
We reached the final! We didn’t win it of course. But not once before in my lifetime did I ever suggest that we could. But that year, I believed in us. And what was deemed unrealistic by many, became reality.
So, I’ll join you. We will finish in the top 4! LOL
But if we don’t, so what?! It’s not crucial to my life being good or bad, if I get it wrong. It won’t make me a deluded fool. Just wrong!
It is all about differing opinions PY. Otherwise, where’s the debate?
But is actually a fact at this time, that Spurs can indeed finish in the top 4. And this will remain so until it is not possible.
This isn’t simply just about opinion. And it has nothing to do with being realistic or not. It’s just quite simply a reasonable possibility…. Until it’s not!
Totally agree with you there HT, that’s why said about others carrying on debating!
Also said, I can’t be bothered lol! all the rest carry on it is enjoyable, some make you smile, some where the fcuk did that come from, some agreed, some not, bur nevertheless enjoyable.
Again we will finish 4th, as you, if we don’t! so what! COYS
And that’s where we disagree HT. Just because something is a possibility doesn’t mean it ‘s reasonable to expect it will happen.
Winning the lottery is a possibility. You don’t know until the numbers have been drawn. Should you reasonably expect to win it, though?
That is a most silly and completely illogical analogy!
Tell me the odds on winning the Lotto… Tell me the odds on catching a team just two points ahead of Spurs (Man U), and having two games in hand on them…
Why is that silly? Because it doesn’t suit your point?
The odds will depend on a variety of factors, which are all speculation. i’m not a bookie.
If I’m honest I have to say that I belive we will finish in the top four this season. I don’t know why I think that. Maybe it was a vision while I was sleeping or maybe I read it somewhere. But …. there it is!
Looking ahead to next season …. I think we’re odds on for the title. In fact I can only think of 19 reasons why it wouldn’t happen. Gotta love football.
I’ve always like the word ‘belive’!
BS …. When I said ‘we know that’ …. it’s true. Don’t you realise that everyone on VS understands the complexities of PL football, and THFC in particular. They consider these complexities and then they venture an opinion. You often seem to go into great detail; I sometimes don’t know why, except maybe you like great detail, as if VS have not considered the opinions they post. But what do I know. It’s so complicated.
In the event that you consider I am being over critical I will add that I completely agree with your reply before you post it.
Haha Geof a fine answer/post there. COYS
Not overly critical, just very set in your ways, But I knew that too.
Calling something unlikely is just purely based on statistics, probablilities and odds. That isn’t a matter of opinion.
Calling something unrealistic is, agreed. But there is more than enough context to hold that point of view… in my opinion!
HT, you said that you don’t expect Spurs to be getting maximum points for a long extended run this season but you also don’t see this as being necessary.It all depends on other clubs results.
Well, the reality is that Cheslea are currently 11 points ahead of us in the table, as things stand. Mathematically, if we want to go above them, we’ll need to get max points from all of our games in hand, so we’ll need to go on long runs just to make up the deficit. That’s not an opinion, that’s fact.
If we were on equal points and we were just speculating on the remaining 14 games of the season, I could see your point. It’s all speculation and opinion. They’ll drop points, we might too/etc/whatever.
But this 11 point gap exists, and it’s going to have to be bridged if we want to finish 3rd. It is absolutely going to be necessary to go on long winning runs to bridge that gap.
However, top 4 is far more “up in the air”, I agree.
Not to single out Allan specifically, as we often agree on many things, but his last post sums it up:
“hopefully we will be able to maintain mostly a full squad with the 2 new guys creating a little rotation , Son and Romeo returning…”.
From the get go, any statement that starts with “hopefully” already speaks volumes. We are relying on hope.
so, for something to happen, we need to rely on
1. the good health of players, some of which we have no cover for (Kane, and his injury record),
2. the recovery of players who have missed half the games so far and are still adapting to a new league (Romero),
and 3. the rapid integration of 2 new players who have never played in England, and who are expected to seamlessly fit into a new team with no adaptation period needed (despite the fact that very few transfers hit the ground running immediately, as the last 15 years have shown).
It seems unlikely to me that all of those things are going to happen at once.
Unlikely doesn’t mean impossible (cfr Leicester 2016), agreed. But I don’t think Leicester fans are realistically expecting to win the league again anytime soon…
“Reasonable” is again a very subjective notion. Personally, I don’t find it reasonablre to expect something unlikely to happen, but to each their own.
We are just 2 points behind Man U that are currently in the 4th spot, We have 2 games in hand on them. This is not exactly a mountain that we have to climb. And it’ seems to me to be perfactly reasonable to think that we can take their place. LOL!
I did say top 4 was more up in the air. I still believe that Man U hold the stronger position because a) they have a deeper squad and b) they already have the points, whereas we are counting on getting points from games in hand – ie we don’t have them yet. But time will tell.
For what it’s worth, I think the top 3 is set. We are in a battle with West Ham, Arsenal and Man U for 4th, *in my opinion*.
What it comes down to, for me, is coaching and depth. While I would rate Conte above any of those teams’ managers, I feel we are going to be let down by our lack of cover at some point. With those games in hand, we’ve still got a lot of games left to play and we’re going to have to rotate for some of them.
I think Man U probably have that little bit more strength in depth, and I think they are probably the favourites to finish 4th as things stand. I hope I’m wrong.
Obviously not for discussion and not part of this thread and just when I was feeling good about our chances of finishing 4th I read an article which said ENIC would sell for X billion ( excellent news ) but Levy wished to stay on as chairman !! ( bad news )
Slump back into chair time !!!!
Allan you are correct, It appears we are up for sale at £2.3b + £700m debt for ground, thus £3b.
Ask yourself who is going to pay that, answer on a post card mate lol!
One thing that might be interesting is the invisible man, Romero, is apparently finally fit. I would have thought Conte’s first choice back three would have been Davies on the left, Dier in the middle and Romero on the right. It will be interesting to see whether this will tighten up what has been a wobbly defence. Given how many teams are chasing that fourth spot and the fact none of them seem to be the complete package keeping games tight might be the difference between success and failure.
Apparently Conte is very unhappy over the expensive players that Levy bought that are now on loan in Europe.
We must be one of the few clubs in history that bough pricey players who failed dismally and were then sent packing but not sold. So they could return!
Even if miracles happen and we finish top 4, we shall need some strengthening in summer ( without any of Levy’s interfering).
I’m pushing for Lamptey and Bissouma who might be playing at WHL tomorrow.
And there is always that elusive striker.
We are all over the place in so many ways, defense, wing backs, CM, hit n miss in attack, and look where we are in the league, with so many players underperforming imagine if we actually clicked.
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Your last post sort of echoes my thoughts.
Who would’ve thought we would even be in the discussion for top four this season.
I thought with the re build and some players attitudes we were destined for 8th to 6th.
As I said is it likely to be top 3?, no, mathematically it is possible, so not unrealistic.
It’s just good to enjoy where we currently are.
For me there are tangible and measurable improvements in our team and I’ll take them.
Some of those around us have to look at trips to Europe starting again whilst we have no such worries.
There still are some improvements needed, but I still think we have a decent shout for 4th or 5th.
As HT says its not exactly a mountain to climb and the 2 in hand to reach Man U I have more confidence in getting there than last season.
In reality just enjoying the ride, as some have said if we don’t make top 4 so what!
It ain’t the end of the world, that could happen in Ukraine.
Todays line-up?
Lloris
Romero Dier Davies
Emerson Winks Hojbjerg Reguillon
Lucas Son
Kane
wentworth – Not being able to sell players because you are paying them too much happens more often than you seem to think. One obvious one was Adebeyor where we had him on loan with City still paying the lions share of his wages. Unfortunately he did so well we gave him a contract, at which point his form disappeared. Which I suppose shows the problems with assessing players. The mantra about signing a centre forward has been repeated for so long by so many people that it has just got boring. We’ve been trying to do it since Kane first came into the team and regardless of who was manager, who was doing the scouting, we failed. Usually the comments are either about a player who doesn’t want to come and be Kane’s back up or, more often, a man with no name.
My point Jod was Conte’s frustration at our awful scouting and Levy’s interference.
We had dismal Lo Celso on loan and still signed him when he was obviously very limited with one leg.
Maybe we were unlucky with N’Dombele by not recognising his head problems.
We do have a reputation for getting the worst out of players e.g. Sanchez, Emerson, Gil, Bergweijn etc., and allowing players to deteriorate such as our England internationals, Dier, Winks and sadly Dele who we have given away.
Regards a back up striker, we have made some ghastly decisions, Vinicius being a prime example.
wentworth – Interesting, so you have evidence Levy interferes with the football decisions. Please share it, or are you just blowing smoke ?
Jod….are you serious? Or just arguing, as you usually do, for the sake of it. Levy controls everything.
A well deserved win and on the whole a really good watch .
Plenty of positives especially with our passing and even when they applied the press in the 2nd half we played fewer panic clearences than in previous matches .
One game doesn’t make a season but Emerson ( have been a strong critic ) had a really good and encouraging match . Surprised at his speed .
There were many other positives but I have great respect for Conte in the manner in which he has improved our team . Having got rid of much of the dross everyone appears to want the ball and play . Winks has been good considering most thought that he had no future . He’s obviously listened and worked hard .
Carry on like this and top 4 may not be that impossible to reach ?