After a deeply disappointing North London derby against Arsenal on Sunday afternoon, Tottenham Hotspur have another quick turnaround in the fixture list as we face Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday evening in the second leg of our Europa League Round of 16 clash.
Thanks to a brace of goals from Harry Kane in the White Hart Lane leg of the affair, to put it bluntly, we will have to be at our pragmatic and defensive best under manager Jose Mourinho to not increase the margin of victory and comfortably put ourselves through to the net round.
Jose...
In
Decide End Of Season
Out
The problem there being of course, just as we thought maybe the tide had turned and we would get our Premier League form back on a proper track, we continue to prove that we can be so inconsistent that I can’t be alone in fearing that home soil Dinamo will make up for their very unimpressive showing in the first clash.
Mourinho will again rotate for this one, but our pool of players shrinks as Eric Lamela serves the first of his two game ban, Giovani Lo Celso is still rated as doubtful for this one and even if Son Heung-Min does recover quite quickly from his muscle injury, you can’t see him even playing a part on the bench in midweek.
We’ll have to see if Mourinho has some unexpected good news when he gives his press conference later in the week.
Nothing more to add to that crap we witnessed of last night and the NLD, probably 2 of the worst days in my time as a 61 years fan/supporter/idiot lol!
The word Spursy is abound again, found this on another Spurs website…..
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/submission/20798/Spursy.
Have a look and what’s the reaction. Still COYS
What I did notice that in the 1st half, it was virtually a Poch team on the pitch, we only had one attempt on goal, it brought it to me actually how little the team has changed since JM arrived.
I’m talking “silk purses and sows ears” here.
Regardless of the incompetent Mourinhostactics , surely, surely we can pass it to a guy in the same colour of shirt. These guys were sluggish, pedestrian and useless for the end of Pochs’ time looks like things Havnt changed much.
At that time there should’ve been a complete revamp of the team.
Re Lloris’S comments, regardless of how much I liked or disliked my manager, I still did my days work.
TQ (wtf) the link you sent what was that all about the guys wife and the sky installer.??
🙂
Niall….I don’t understand, the link I posted takes you to a Football 365 article about last night’s game, I’ve just checked it again and it’s ok, don’t know what you have done to get something different! :- )
TQ no m8
It was the supporters comments below, I just read on to see how some other supporters feel on the night, and there was this guy goin on about his wife and the sky box fitter.
It was just a bit of a laugh m8, take another look at the comments, we on this site are a rather sane lot by comparison. 🙂
TQ2Spurs – If you read all of Hugo’s interview, he also said this:
“I hope everyone in the changing room feels responsible. The taste of the defeat is more than painful and we are all responsible.
“Lack of basics, lack of fundamentals. Mentally we should be stronger, more competitive.
“At this level, when you are not ready, you pay – and if you don’t respect the opponent, it’s punished.
“One thing is to come in front of the camera and say ‘I’m ambitious’. The other is to show it every day.”
What a hugely disheartening interview.
As I have been saying for a while now: at first I wasn’t sure that JM was part of the problem or not – it’s becoming clear to me that he is. At the very least, he’s just not getting his players to play for him. He’s not getting through to them.
But regardless of anything JM might do or not do, it seems the problems run far deeper than the manager. Some players just are not acting professionally, which is inexcusable regardless of what they think of the manager.
If JM is part of the problem, he’s not the only problem.
I just find it a simplistic conclusion to just pin it on “it’s just Mourinho’s MO”. The reality is that the mentality hasn’t been right for a couple of years now, going back to the 2019 season. Yes we were in a CL final that year but the league results started to go downhill from January 2019 onwards. The “Spursy” tag predates Mourinho, and there is just no excuse for not doing the basics and fundamentals Hugo talks about.
Where do we go from here? Hard to say. Even if JM is sacked in the summer, that will only address part of the problem if it isn’t associated with a massive clear out in the squad. It’s time to hit the reset button and start something new with a new group of players who won’t have all this emotional baggage behind them.
But this implies a complete overhaul of the squad, Levy sanctioning some big name departures, and a sizeable transfer budget to rebuild the team – whoever the manager is.
I just don’t see Levy sanctioning that and/or having that kind of ambition. It’s drastic, it’s expensive, and it’s just everything Levy stands against.
BS…..I did read the text of the whole interview but felt the particular excerpt I highlighted told us a lot about the underlying issues which are always being denied in public but are affecting our performances.
As regards the MO, we are seeing the exact same thing happening at our club to what we saw in Jose’s second stint at Chelsea and also what happened at United, I don’t think it’s a coincidence and has become par for the course with Jose’s man management style and therefore his MO.
Another reason for this terrible performance could be that somehow the players have been looking up this so called supporters website and it has convinced them that they and their manager are just a load of rubbish and they have played accordingly.
But hey there’s nothing like homing in on scapegoats when things go wrong.
Stan……this ‘so called supporters website’ as you put it is frequented by many who have been passionate supporters of THFC for many many years, in some cases since the 1950’s, you have no right to question that support just because we express very serious concerns about the running of the club and the commitment and performance of the coaches and players. It’s not a question of scapegoats, it’s question of identifying who is responsible for the unexceptable performances and results we are having to endure lately.
I doubt anyone at the club is influenced by anything written on here, which is a shame actually, otherwise Jose would already be clearing his desk.
In my humble opinion a proper supporter is someone who supports the team with constructive criticism taking account of many factors that affect performances instead of just putting the boot in when things go wrong and calling for unrealistic changes that cannot possibly take place in the remaining part of the season.
Seems to me that is what this site is for and what the majority do, it’s clear you think Mourinho is like some God and musn’t be criticised, IMHO he is the cause of the current issues and must go if we are to see any turn around in form.
BelgianSpur – great post – you have summed it up really well. Everyone has to be responsible. Hugo’s interview was one of the best and most honest I have heard from a player for some time.
The situation we have now is the result of poor recruitment over the years, as an example Aurier and Moura were sold by PSG to comply with FFP regulations (they decided they were surplus to requirements, why would we sign unwanted players), Sisokko was signed because we were not prepared to pay Mane’s salary, we missed out on Grealish because Levy thought he could get him for less than £20m, we signed Doherty and Vinicius who both happen to be clients of Mendes as does Jose!!!. They are both way below the standard expected. The list goes on and on.
Joe Lewis is perfectly entitled not to invest personally into the team (the fact that the club were prepared to furlough staff and take a loan from the Bank of England shows that THFC is purely a business venture) but as long as he/ENIC are running the club then we will never be able to compete with the best teams. The additional income that the stadium will eventually produce will be more than offset by the lack of income from European football. It is inevitable therefore that we will have to sell some of our best players this summer (many will look to leave anyway).
Unfortunately, in the current climate no one will want to stump up £2billion to buy the club so this situation will continue for some time. We have been spoilt by the job Poch did in getting us into the Champions League for four successive years – unfortunately Levy’s obsession with employing Jose will set us back for several years. What a sorry mess.
Last night’s performance was shocking in every aspect. I still blame Moanino for most of the problems. He seems to have bullied the players into adopting a negative approach lacking in flair and commitment. As professionals, one would think the players would have more pride. But they are playing with fear. One man is responsible for our demise. He seems unable to motivate and encourage. He is good at belittling which is very unhelpful. We have a few top players that are not performing. We have a few who are mediocre at best…. several were in the original lineup last night ..( grim lineup, I called it). Nothing will change until Moanino has gone. We should cut our losses now. Time to bring some sunshine into our club after this dreadful period of ghastly football and shocking results.
Maybe its me, I don’t know, but I believe our players are torn between a Rock and a Hard Place….
Do not want JM and his tactics, coaching style of play etc, so display it by playing poorly, trying to get rid of him, but also letting down the fans.
Be Professional, play like JM wants, ups n downs with results, but showing they are trying, some fans are happy, thus JM is kept on even though they the players do not want him.
Result…cannot win either way.
When Spurs win its all JM and how good he is
When Spurs lose its the players fault.
For me, it is said same players Poch time and JM time, agreed, but other than not getting back up/new players for Poch, he overworked em, esp as having no plan B.
With JM there is absolutely no respect for the prick, with his constant throwing the players under the bus, so he has to go, simple as that, right now! if possible, because we could do no worse with a part time coach. COYS
I don’t think that we should let JM go right now. If we, do he gets his “Get out of jail” card and a tidy sum along with it. Let him earn his corn and put his reputation on the line by qualifying for the CL old fashion way. With the lack of games, let him play his favoured players and ignore the team. Hopefully we win the CC and qualify for the CL under him and JM leaves for another club.
Arky–the rot appears to be so deep that any thought that JM could salvage anything from the wreck is pure self delusion. There is no hope until this man is dead and buried with a stake through his heartless breast.
Arky, sorry mate he has had his chance to earn his corn, and has well n truly messed it up.
Going with you say, we win the Tin Pot Cup, by some miracle achieves CL status and he leaves, his head would be high, job done, won Spurs a Trophy, sorry not for me, so JM get the eff out of my club.
And let the supporters suffer
Whatever Spurs were performing like before Jose. It doesn’t mean that what Jose has been doing since, is okay. Especially as I thought that the man responsible back then was supposed to be Pochettino anyway! Haha!
Well, when Jose was last fired from Chelsea and then MU. Were those 2 clubs and their players also being Spursy?! Because Jose had the same effect on those two PL clubs players’ performances too. And also their supporters. He also alienated players in his time at Real.
It’s why he was sacked by all 3 clubs (Chelsea twice), even though he had won trophies with them.
It’s why in the past on here I have asked the blatantly obvious question several times. Before and since Jose… Why does he get fired just 1 season after winning titles and cups n stuff? And why do his players stop playing for him? Surely this is not down to Levy as well?!
I’ve answered this myself many times, but apparently Jose is ok because he wins stuff! And yet time and again it seems that for all clubs concerned Jose is not ok after wining stuff.
And if we actually do somehow beat City in the cup final would that really be enough to give him his due? Honestly? Surely not!
Get rid now. There are no excuses. After all, if we are to be realistic guys. We will not be selling the entire team, even if they really are the major problem…
Even after going 3-0 down last night. If we had scored just 1 goal we would now be in the last 8 of the EL. And we came close to it many times. But would that have made our overall performance over 120 minutes, any better? Would just 1 winning goal have had us all now praising the team? Would Hugo have still been fuming and said what he said?
No! But it would have just delayed the inevitable as far as I am concerned… That 1 goal would not have made my year. It would not have made the players better on the night. It would not have made Jose a better man or less disliked. Winks Dier, Davies Sanchez and Sissoko et al would all still be getting slagged and Levy would still be the club chairman!
HT…all so true there.
Though last night at 3-0 I did not want us to get that 1 goal, am I a traitor? we got what, in the end we deserved. COYS
Woke up this morning and was shocked to discover that Mourinho hasn’t yet been given the sack. Perhaps DL has been too busy calling the suicide hot line.
What a combination: Mourinho and Lloris both giving shockers of interviews after the match. The ship is at the bottom of Davey Jones locker. Unclear whether anything could be salvaged from the sunken wreck.
Not to dare ends in disarray–a fractured clubhouse. Fingers pointing. Rats swimming desperately to find a garbage heap to feed on rotten corpses. It might takes a decade to undo the harm brought to our club by the special egomaniac.
Perhaps–hopefully–THFC will have sacrificed our honor to help football eliminate this egomaniac from any future employment in football. Perhaps JM can move to the Azores to find employment parking buses in some depot near the public garbage dump. Not so special now, are you? Slink off, please, in utter dishonor. The stink will follow you wherever you go. Your reputation is in tatters. The vagabonds in rags are far more regal now. You got no place to fall.
Can you imagine being Mrs. Mourinho? When José goes all floppy and can’t put it in the goal, surely she’s to blame. He’s too, too special to take any responsibility. If she’d only listened to his instructions all would have ended in bliss. And he could have had a post-encounter press conference where he brags about how he can seduce the world if only the world would listen to his enchantments.
DH, probably (a Carlsberg) post there m8, one of the best I’ve seen in a long time, along with The post from BS,. I’ve been banging on about our recruitment for ages, and bargain bin buys.
The reason for my constant “complaining” about our new ground and facility, was that at that time we were just on the cusp of becoming a force in the premiership and Europe, if at that time we had refreshed the team as Liverpool did, we would be in a much better position,.
I know hindsight is a great thing, but I actually thought it at the time when we moved to Wembley, that it was just at the time when we were getting somewhere and could’ve moved further.
I remember mentioning Arsenal’s demise after moving to the Emirates, which (for me) they still haven’t gotten over properly.
I just feel that all our money and focus at that time was on facilities and may have actually been some kind of “Ego Project” for Mr Levey.
I feel some of our “marquis” signings Havnt lived up to expectations and few of our bargain buy investments have failed.
It’s not just JM, though I agree he has to go.
In answer to Stan, sorry m8 but there were many of us prepared to give JM a fair chance, defending the lack lustre football, stating that the team hadn’t had a chance to blend.
Well he’s been given a fair crack at the whip and come up wanting.
I still say there is a malaise at our club since about 2018, I don’t know what it is, I’m not sure if there’s a comfortable little clique there, who as Lloris says, in other words just want to do the sexy stuff but not the hard miles or become a complainant when not selected.
Who knows, what I do think is that, massive and I mean massive changes need to be made in personnel.
Management, players and recruitment, how we scout and buy players.
It’s going to be a long few years in the doldrums.
Niall you seem to have forgetTen that Jose came round to our way of thinking in recent games , picking much more attacking line-up resulting in much more fluent play and some wonderful goals. It went pear shaped in the Arsenal game for the reasons I mentioned and in this latest game again where other factors affecting performance were at work. It should be noted that in this game Jose stuck with a mainly attacking lineup, urged the players to go for an early goal, alerted them to the dangers of the hat trick hero and warned them about being complacent before the game and at half time.. so I don’t think Jose is nw receiving a fair crack of the whip although he may have deserved the whip before this period.
Spurs will need a complete overhaul and I’m sure Kane and Son will leave. We should be able generate massive funds on those transfers and with proper scouting could bring in young hungry talent. The problem is Levy doesn’t seem to have the pieces in place for top scouting. He also fails to get rid of the players who keep the club down, ie Aurier, Sissoko, Winks etc. because he looks to make a profit rather than improve the team. It all does look rather bleak at this point.
Thinking about the coming match in Birmingham isn’t in the cards today. Too shaken by the utter collapse. Utter collapse. I do not like such words and the associated feelings being associated with our club. To have hired, and then to have kept, this miserable excuse for a man speaks so poorly of DL. enthusiasm crushed for supporters and apparently for the players as well.
Your task is not to crush hope, DL. Look in a mirror and then change the direction we are going. Do it quickly. Do not hesitate. If you cannot think of a temporary manager, let one of the players chosen by lot be a player/manager for a few weeks. I don’t care which player. Let it be Alfie Whiteman. Anyone but Mourinho. Make it the lady who prepares the tea in the tea room. She knows the club’s traditions better than does Mourinho, the ego who thinks only of himself and who is so insecure that he has to build up his ego by humiliating players. An egoist with the most fragile ego.
Stan,
If you read all of my posts, it isn’t just aimed at JM, for some reason in high profile games or against stronger teams, we seem to bottle it, I’m not sure what tactics are being used, if we are to believe the team captain, the tactic was to get an early goal, however the team set up (for me) in the first hour was for the old “Crab like” play with two defensive midfielders.
I think it was DH who said, re our performances, that we only played “offensively” against the likes of Leeds, Sheffield, etc when it came to a top sixer, we bottled it, now whether it’s the team or the manager I don’t know but something has got to give. I also Havnt forgotten the abysmal Christmas and New year performances into February which saw us only gain 15 points.
We dropped from 1st in the league in mid December to what now 7th.
I just feel its too little too late.
TQ2.. Our players are paid a fortune a week and should be doing a professional job each match.. regardless of their personal opinions of jose, / team selections / tactical formations.
If anyone cares to be saying they are human and not robots, last / this season they have gone well past that excuse Also by playing disgracefully, they have shown they have no respect for the fans who help pay their wages through ticket sales and expensive merchandising… and THFC. Therefore as professionals they are expected to do their jobs. In most / any other business they would be sacked for gross negligence, for repeated offences. Which will happen to some of them in summer tw window.