Our pre-season preparations for next week’s curtain raiser against Saints come to an end with a trip to Haifa, Israel to face Jose Mourinho’s Roma (7.15pm BST), a game being touted by mainly outlets as Conte vs Mourinho, or by the more starry-eyed as an opportunity to secure a deal for Nicolo Zaniolo, with rumours of interest in the Italian heating up more and more. Personally, I’m not a fan of such narratives – one recalls the same label being applied to our final pre-season friendly of 2011 against Athletic Bilbao at WHL, which was touted by many as our chance to end a protracted pursuit of Fernando Llorente, who would ironically sign for us 6 years later! Hopefully then, the Zaniolo narrative is reduced, but I doubt that’ll be the case.
Right, enough of that, onto the preview. Injury-wise, it’s very promising stuff – Ben Davies has rejoined the squad following his ankle injury, yet Oliver Skipp remains out injured following a foot injury. Whilst it’s a shame, I doubt he would have started against Saints, so it’s a good opportunity for Conte to see which two of Hojberg, Bentancur and Bissouma start next week. I’d assume we’ll stick with the former two, as Bissouma’s only just recovered from COVID.
Our opponents, fresh from signing Dybala, don’t start their season until the week after ours, so I anticipate that we’ll be fitter. Either way, a tough match awaits a side that finished 6th in Serie A and won the Conference League last season.
Am looking forward to this game tonight, as I was all the other’s of course, but we are getting near the start of the Prem, v SOTS next week, so in this game we might just start to see who will be counted by Conte.
Interesting game tonight. Conte v Mourinho.
Conte has put 9 players up for sale which means they should all go. It seems as though no one wants to buy any of them…Lo Celso, N’Dombele, Gil etc …poor buys whose price has dropped dramatically. Hopefully they will all be gone before next Sat so we can buy a couple more decent players. Onwards and upwards.
Update. That could be 11 by adding Alfie Devine and Harvey White to go out on loan to get first team action. Two excellent prospects like Sarr and Djed Spence might also have to wait their turn.
We must offload Winks, Lo Celso etc to get some money in and Dave on wages.
What happens if they are still hanging around after transfer window closes? Big trouble is that Levy always expects top dollar for anyone leaving even when their value has dropped and dropped.
Conte has been backed. Shocking pre season so far. Doesn’t know his best 11 and to many options available. Seems to be the same ol spurs. Hopefully they will be ready for the season. Big step up needed from the players.
Sorry 123, but I’m not sure what is shocking about the pre season so far. Maybe we don’t have a “best” 11, but sufficiently many decent players that some of one week’s best 11 aren’t the best for the next week. Isn’t that what we want? Depth?
As to being the “same old Spurs,” that seems quite premature to me. I take it you were referring to something often called “spursy”? We’ll wait and see. I’m not sure the pre-season matches are the place one has to win. Sometimes training is about preparation, not competition is the sense that the matches are meaningful in terms of points or advancement.
We shall see, but my waiting is still occurring with a strong bit of optimism. Like to have seen goals today, but it’s next week that the matches start to matter in terms of wins, draws, and losses.
COYS. Let’s see a decent season that leaves us proud of the lads and their kits. For me, that’s the 123 of the matter.
By the way, do the regs allow for a player to have three digits on the back of the jersey? I’d like to see a player assigned 123.
zero shots of goal doesn’t do much for the enthusiasm, but it’s just for make believe until the season starts. I’ll wait before I find things “shocking.” At this point I’m quite happy to have Conte rather than the miserable Mourinho.
Still have sess, Doh, Sachez, royal Embarrassing result agaisnt our former manager. No shots on goal is a shocking stat at home. Conte has his work cut out. We really should be hitting the ground running. Could bissouma and richarlson handle the step up.
Five hour waits at Dover, now that’s a shocking situation. When the British economy collapses in self imposed isolation, now that will be a shock to PL, and that includes us.
No clean sheets
struggling to score
New signings no impact
Generally, a poor game with awful refereeing and lots of niggles. Disappointing performance although I like the look of Perisic, Bissouma and Lenglat. What is the point of using Doherty and Emerson Royal when we have the far superior Spence on the bench.
Also Sessegnon is a passenger and will never be good enough despite crossing well for Kane to head over.
Romero class as usual.
Theirs was a poor goal from a corner. We must cut out poor defensive marking at set pieces.
So glad we no longer have Mourinho..he really ruined us and its a slow road back to the Pochettino era when we bossed games. Perhaps we still need a midfielder who can control the midfield rather than workhorses like Hojberg.
Hoping we can shift the bad signings very soon and offload at least 8 players who are not good enough. Still work to do.
It’s not even August yet. lol.
If we don’t have any shots of goal when the matches start to count, now that will be shocking.
The one thing that bothers me today is that we allowed Mourinho to smile. Now that’s not acceptable.
I know there’s an argument to be made that Conte’s style of play doesn’t need a creative midfielder, but in my dotage and with long memories of the way football used to be played, I’d really like to see a couple of creative types on the squad in the midfield. That’s my reason for disappointment to date, although it doesn’t rise to the level of being shocking.
Isn’t there a month left in the window?
wentworth and I are in the creative midfield club, it seems. Having one would brighten my days. Relying on attacking from the wings would work better were the opposition more worried about the possibility of attacking through the interior.
Put Gil into serious weight training with a bit of martial arts training and convert him into the midfield? Is his vision sufficient? I don’t know whether he can see the pitch 10 seconds ahead of where it is at any given moment. the best creative types have an uncanny ability to see a wee bit into the future. to anticipate rather than react to what is happening at the moment. The dullards on the pitch see only a fraction of a moment after something already has passed them by.
when I was a wee lad playing footie, I was among those who saw the action a step behind the play. lol. I had to find something else to do in life. Luckily I found a place where I saw the play unfold before it happened, but it wasn’t in athletics. the gods knew that. I found I could anticipate the arguments other people were about to make and thus to be ready for them in a fiercely fought seminar. thanks to the gods for the intellectual life, which saved a wretch like me from embarrassment that I faced on a pitch of grass.
I never did see that pass coming until it was past me. Pitiful. But I could hand out a decent dialectical thrashing.
I want a crafty, shifty midfielder with a wee bit o’ pace to do all the things I could never do and never anticipate on a pitch. But I can spring a real run up the pitch when the topic turns to the interactive roles of ontology and epistemology in the social sciences vs. the natural sciences. That’s a crafty game to play. I was a pretty good midfielder on that pitch, and that’s why I see something missing in footie when that’s lacking.