Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

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https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2022/january/hugo-lloris-signs-new-contract/

Fantastic news! He's going to be extremely hard to replace when he finally goes, so the longer we can tie him down the better. This contract means he'll spend at least 12 seasons at Spurs, and a majority of them as captain. Definitely qualifies him for legend status with me.

Fingers crossed we can finally see him lift some sort of trophy for us, before he leaves or retires!

[fallenangle]

Yes that is good news, one of our world class players without a doubt. I actually can't think of any Premiership club goalkeeper of his standard, let alone achievements (at international level).

Couldn't post yesterday as I was spring cleaning and upgrading my PC but that finish to the game at Leicester was extraordinary. I'd kept an eye on the score during evening and when it got to 90 mins and was still 2 - 1 I thought: damn, a real chance to move up the table lost.

But when I switched over to R5Live just to confirm it and found that they were still playing. Thirty seconds later Spurs equalised and I was pleased that at least we'd get a point. I was just about to switch off and that last Spurs attack started so I kept listening and when they scored again OMG! Great result.

Lets just hope we make the same effort with all our other games in hand over the teams immediately above us in the table. We could end up clear in third spot but please Spurs just do it a little easier and less last gasp.


Sunday EDIT

80+ mins so unless we have another last gasp draw or win (hah!) - a not unexpected loss today but still disappointing.

[EJG1980]

Sunday EDIT

80+ mins so unless we have another last gasp draw or win (hah!) - a not unexpected loss today but still disappointing.

Yup, Chelsea were the better team throughout the match and clearly deserved the win, but it was a real shame Kane's goal was stupidly disallowed right at the end of the first half. As the Sky commentators said, if Kane's hand brushing Silva is enough to constitute a foul, there should be constant penalties in every match as defenders barge and push forwards with far more force at every single set piece.

I don't know if that goal being given would have made a difference, like I said Chelsea were clearly and easily the better side over the 90 mins, but I'd like to have found out!

So, disappointing to lose there AGAIN, but could have been worse as of the teams around us in the battle for the top four, only Man Utd gained a full three points on us. I was very surprised that an injury ravaged, bottom of the table Burnley, got a draw away at Arsenal.

Even after today's loss, we'd go above Chelsea into third place if we won all our games in hand, but of course, having them in hand to win and actually winning them are very different things

In the league we've had 6 wins, 3 draws, 1 defeat in the 10 games since Conte has come in, we're in a great position to fight for a top four finish and that's with a squad that we know isn't the greatest (especially outside of the main players Conte trusts). No football now until after the transfer window closes, so I hope we can go out and bolster the squad for Conte for the second half of the season.

[fallenangle]

Serious talk that Wolves player Adama Traore may be Spurs bound before the end of the transfer window.

Could be a good addition but its the defensive squad that is in need of extra quality as well - Tanganga again looked out of his depth again in the MotD highlights and, from a number of newspaper/web rumours AC Milan are (or maybe now were) interested in him.

All these problems with Spurs right side defenders since they got rid of Trippier could have been avoided - said this here before that was a seriously bad mistake.

Trippier had good reviews in his Newcastle debut and to have gone there showed that even with their serious chance of relegation this season he was that desperate to get back into the Premiership. I wouldn't have been sorry if Spurs had resigned him even if, in the long term, Conte is intent in rebuilding the squad and wants younger players.

As a reliable performer in that wing back role he'd have been well worth whatever the money he wanted as a stop gap and my guess is that he would have been more than just that. But it is not to going to be, unless of course Newcastle get relegated and he becomes available again.

[EJG1980]

Serious talk that Wolves player Adama Traore may be Spurs bound before the end of the transfer window.

Yup, it seems like this is the incoming with by far the most steam behind it. His pace and power are amazing but it's always been his end product, either shooting or crossing, that's been his Achilles heel. If Conte's coaching can sort that out he could end up being a superb signing. Apparently Conte was also interested in signing him when he was at Chelsea, so he obviously thinks he can mould him into a real top player.

Could be a good addition but its the defensive squad that is in need of extra quality as well - Tanganga again looked out of his depth again in the MotD highlights and, from a number of newspaper/web rumours AC Milan are (or maybe now were) interested in him.

It's a shame as I really like Tanganga (in a couple of long interviews he's done in the past he came across as a humble, level headed, and just generally nice and likeable kid) but he has been the weak link in the back three in recent weeks.

All the other defenders (Dier and Davies especially, but also Sanchez) have looked like they've improved since Conte arrived, while Tanganga has stood out as the one who is still struggling. Even the (extremely rare for Conte) switch to a back four against Chelsea yesterday, so he could play as a conventional right back, didn't help him.

Now that Romero is back from injury I think our first choice back three will be Davies, Romero, Dier. If Tanganga goes the only backup will be Sanchez so we definitely need at least one more centre-back brought in otherwise we'll be very light in that area. And even if Tanganga stays, I'd still like another experienced centre-back brought in to have someone ahead of Tanganga in the pecking order.

Trippier had good reviews in his Newcastle debut and to have gone there showed that even with their serious chance of relegation this season he was that desperate to get back into the Premiership. I wouldn't have been sorry if Spurs had resigned him even if, in the long term, Conte is intent in rebuilding the squad and wants younger players.

As a reliable performer in that wing back role he'd have been well worth whatever the money he wanted as a stop gap and my guess is that he would have been more than just that. But it is not to going to be, unless of course Newcastle get relegated and he becomes available again.

Yeah, none of the players who have taken his place in the squad since he left have performed as well as Trippier did. I give the club a little bit of leeway as Trippier himself has confirmed that he asked up to let him go to Atletico Madrid, so they weren't actively trying to get rid of him, but in hindsight it would definitely have been better if they'd been more ruthless, rejected the bid and told Trippier he had to stay.

[EJG1980]

Absolutely brilliant to see him back playing again, after what happened at the Euros

It's a shame we've already played Brentford at home this season. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that both Spurs and Brentford can go through in the FA Cup and get drawn to play each other at WHL in the 5th round. The reception Eriksen would get would be incredible!

[EJG1980]

One out, two in so far, on deadline day:

Ndombele has gone to Lyon on loan, they have an option to make it permanent in the summer for €65 million (although I think that's there to protect us in case he's phenomenal for the next few months, rather than because Lyon are very likely to pay that much).

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2022/january/lyon-loan-for-ndombele/

On the incomings, we've signed Dejan Kulusevski (right sided forward / number ten) and Rodrigo Bentancur (central midfielder) from Juventus. Not officially confirmed by us yet but Juventus have tweeted and posted articles on their web site wishing them good luck at Spurs, so, they're done deals.

Edit: now officially announced by Spurs too.

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2022/january/kulusevski-joins-from-juventus/

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2022/january/bentancur-completes-move/

Lots of reports that Dele is on the verge of joining Everton on a permanent deal, and that Lo Celso will go on loan to Villarreal and Bryan Gil on loan to Valencia, but none of those have been officially confirmed yet.

Edit: Bryan Gil to Valencia on loan now confirmed. No option for them to buy him so it simply looks like a loan to give a young player a better chance of minutes on the pitch.

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2022/january/bryan-loaned-to-valencia/

Edit: and Lo Celso to Villarreal on loan has now been confirmed too. I can't see any info anywhere on whether they have an option to buy him at the end of the loan or not.

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2022/january/villarreal-loan-for-lo-celso/

Edit: and, final edit, Dele did indeed join Everton very late last night.

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2022/january/dele-departs-for-everton/

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In the end I think it was a fairly decent transfer window, especially considering it was January where much less business gets done usually than during the summer window. Conte said that it would take more than one transfer window to "fix" Tottenham but I think we've made a decent start to that long term overhaul.

I think the big thing was getting a lot of big wage earners that Conte doesn't trust out of the club. Dele, Lo Celso and Ndombele barely got any minutes under Conte (and multiple previous managers) and by the end of January they had all been dropped from the match day squad completely. We often hang on to players too long and then struggle to get rid of them so it's good to see us trying to be more pragmatic, willing to take a hit, and cutting our losses.

Of course, Ndombele and Lo Celso could play poorly for their loan clubs and be back in the summer, but even in that worst case scenario we've saved 5 months of wages at least; better than them staying here and being paid for not playing. Hopefully they will do well enough for their new clubs to buy them, or to get offers from elsewhere.

It's a bloody shame to see Dele going, he was amazing in his first three seasons for us and one of my favourite players to watch, but in truth he probably should have gone a year earlier. For whatever reason he just can't seem to recapture his form for us. I thought he was going to do it when Jose first arrived, he had a purple patch of about a month where he looked like his old self, but it didn't last and he was eventually out of the team again. I hope he does well at Everton as I'd like to see him playing well again, even if it isn't for us.

I like both the new players we've signed. Bentancur is quietly a very good midfielder, excellent at breaking up play and winning the ball from the opposition, but then having the passing ability to instantly start a dangerous attack. When Juve last won the title in 2019/20, Sarri said he was the most important player in his team.

Kulusevski has got really great potential. Not a speed merchant of a winger (but not slow either) but very good technically, skilful, good shot on him, very good at spotting a through balls for the striker. He was amazing when he was at Parma a couple of years ago, was Serie A young player of the season. He hasn't recaptured that form consistently at Juve, but I think he's been a victim of joining them at just the wrong time, at the start of a couple of years of turmoil (by Juve's standards!) which can't be easy for a very young player.

Despite having slightly less numbers in the squad now, I think we're in a better place than at the start of January. Players who were never going to play have gone out the door and been replaced by two Conte signings that he'll trust and pick. So in terms of players who will actually play, we're up by two!

I think we're in a decent place for the second half of the season, let's hope we can push on and grab one of those top four spots. And I wouldn't be opposed to an FA Cup win on top too, if you don't mind Antonio. No pressure

[fallenangle]

FA Cup living up to its reputation: MU losing to Middlesborough yesterday in a very watchable game and now WH 1 - 0 down to Kidderminister and Chelsea going behind (now equalised) against Plymouth.

I don't want to jinx it but for some reason I had a dream about the result of the Spurs game later today - lets just say: it went our way.

[EJG1980]

How close was that to your premonition?

Good performance and good result, though not perfect. Very good first half, wonderful goal from Kane and a bit of luck for Royal, but deserved the two goal lead. Dropped off a bit at the start of the second half, and Brighton played better and while they didn’t create that much their goal wasn’t undeserved. A great response from us though, to go up the pitch and get the third goal to restore our two goal lead.

A bit of luck when Maupay got through one on one and missed (though it was a lucky random slip that let him in in the first place) but no scares apart from that. Should have had another goal ourselves with the chances that Son earlier on, and then Bergwijn late on, both missed.

Didn’t get to see them for a huge amount of time but both the new signings looked good. Some nice stuff up front from Kulusevski, unlucky not to get an assist from the Bergwijn miss. Bentancur was making nice interceptions and blocks as soon as he came on, and moved the ball on quickly and accurately.

Romero looked good on his comeback too, love the way he comes out from the back and takes charge of situations, read the game really well and snuffed out a lot of stuff before it had the chance to become dangerous. Hopefully that was just cramp he went off with! (Edit: just seen Conte post match, talked about Romero and no mention on injury so he must be okay).

Overall a good display, into the next round, a decent evening.

[fallenangle]

You'll never believe this but no BS it was 3 - 1 to Spurs. Spooky.

Considering the chances we had (Bergwijn - how did he miss?) that and our other chances and the couple of really good chances Brighton had I was surprised it was not 4 - 3 but 3 - 1 was obviously written in the stars.

Second half Brighton were at least playing as well as Spurs and I particularly hated that our defence was always trying to pass themselves out of trouble rather than safely hoof it up the pitch. I despaired at the number of times in our last third players were trying cute little passing triangles in dangerous situations. Too many times they had the ball and turned away from the attackers to give themselves more space and had their pockets picked by more nimble, faster Brighton players. It could have been punished more than it was.

But it was still a deserved win overall and it'll be interesting to find out who we're going to meet in the next round. I'll see if I can dream about Middlesborough (at Spurs) - that would be a good draw to get and really spooky if it did happen.

[EJG1980]

I'll see if I can dream about Middlesborough (at Spurs) - that would be a good draw to get and really spooky if it did happen.

Ohh, so close! I was going to say that I hope Conte can get us through without needing a replay, like Mourinho did a couple of years ago, but as replays have been scrapped we won’t be having one no matter what

[fallenangle]

I could not believe it when none of the earlier balls being drawn were Spurs or Middlesbrough and the chances of that prediction coming true increased. But the footballing heavens give you what you need not exactly what you want - an away fixture at Middlesbrough, I'll take that as half spooky.

I'll think it a good test for Spurs; not a hard draw on paper but, particularly with a partisan crowd, more than tough enough to require us to be on top form to get a result. Indeed just what we need.

[EJG1980]

1-1 at half time against Southampton and we're very lucky to be level, Southampton could easily have had four goals in the half. Probably the worst half I've seen from us since Conte has been here. Crazy that we can put in such a poor performance mere days after a very good display against Brighton.

If we play the same in the second half there's only going to be one winner. Have to hope that Conte gives them an absolute bollocking at half time and we come out and make Southampton regret all those first half misses.

Edit: bloody hell

Played better in the second half, finally get the goal to go ahead with twenty minutes left, and then... completely switch off again and let Southampton score twice. Horrible goals to concede as well, two completely and utterly unmarked headers (both Emerson Royal too, he had a really poor game, though he wasn't the only one).

So, so annoying after we'd turned our performance around; Conte will have to have another hair transplant after that.

I thought Bergwijn was going to do his late Leicester party piece again, but unfortunately he was just offside for what would have been the late equaliser. Southampton deserved their win though, they were miles better than us in the first half, we were better for about 15-20 minutes in the second half but by nowhere near the margin Southampton had been better than us, and then they were on top again after we went 2-1 up.

Very disappointing after the really good win against Brighton. Gotta bounce back with a win straight away at the weekend against Wolves and make sure tonight ends up just being a blip. We're in a good position still but it doesn't take many bad results for that to very quickly change.

[fallenangle]

Just the sort of game against a team we should be get three points from but don't because of an inexplicably poor performance particularly in defence. Very disappointing viewing on MotD.

But we still have games in hand over many of those above us, in some cases as many as four, so, hopefully, this hiccup is just that and we can get back into a position where a top four finish is possible.

[EJG1980]

Just the sort of game against a team we should be get three points from but don't because of an inexplicably poor performance particularly in defence. Very disappointing viewing on MotD.

But we still have games in hand over many of those above us, in some cases as many as four, so, hopefully, this hiccup is just that and we can get back into a position where a top four finish is possible.

Yup, a bad night for the defence (only Romero and Reguilon managed to get through without any poor moments that lead to a goal or chance) but I thought they really weren't helped by the midfield last night.

Winks and Hojbjerg had poor nights and couldn't keep the ball at all, and struggled to win it back when we didn't have it. Would have been less pressure on the defence if they could have kept possession better, and broken up the Southampton play better.

Dier and Skipp should both hopefully be back for the match against Wolves, which should make a difference, I think they'll both be straight back into the starting eleven (especially Dier). Need everyone fit for the remainder of the season so Conte has options on the bench that he can trust and isn't hampered as much if he wants to rotate to keep players fresh.