Tottenham Hotspur - Official thread

[VR46]

Spurs will never change will they, least they got there in the end I suppose.

Pleased it was Adebayor who got the winner. He needs some good press.

[Kit]

Nice one, Spurs!

Should have been a straightforward 'park the bus' type scenario but the game turned into a bit of a thriller.

Hope they can go all the way now.

[fallenangle]

That bloody game aged me about 10 years.

I said after the first leg that a single away goal would give it to Spurs for sure but I wasn't in my wildest imaginings thinking it would actually be vital.

Damned exciting stuff, which is why we love Spurs, but it shouldn't have played out in quite the way it did.

[EJG1980]

We could become the best team in the world but there would still be one match a season where the manager and players just get it shambolically wrong

Tonight reminded me of the second leg of the league cup semi against Burnley a few years back.

Hopefully having such a nightmare and getting away with it will be a good kick up the arse for the team, get them to redouble their efforts and concentration levels for the run-in. As long as we learn from it, it could end up being a useful experience.

[EJG1980]

Nearly time for the draw. With three English teams in the last eight I wouldn't be surprised to see an all English affair in the quarters.

Random prediction: I think Spurs will get Benfica.

Well I was wrong on every count! Basel won't be a pushover but that's a very nice draw for Spurs:

Chelsea vs Rubin Kazan
Spurs vs Basel
Fenerbache vs Lazio
Benfica vs Newcastle

[fallenangle]

A Spurs versus Benefica final could be a real classic. Glad the English teams have avoided each other so far too.

[bwi]

o oh its end of the season twitchy bum time

[EJG1980]

They should warn you when you become a Spurs fan, you will need a large supply of brown trousers! Bloody hell.

We got what we deserved today, it really was the worst I've seen us play in the league this year. I think it took until about 51 minutes until we tested their keeper! Just poor performances all over today, not much more to say than that.

Hopefully the international break will do us good as we can get back on track after it. Harry and the players couldn't stop the blip becoming a slide last season, let's see if AVB can do better. COYS!

[VR46]

Just hope you don't fall to the level of the "6pts from the last ten games" scenario of last year. So want you to finish above Arsenal this year but you do like making things difficult for yourselves. You give Liverpool fans a run for their money in the up and down stakes.

[fallenangle]

Spurs aren't that bad. It's this time of the season I start looking at the goal difference between Spurs and our main >5th place rivals. Currently those stats put us behind both Chelsea and Arsenal, who also have a game in hand. It'll definitely be the brown trousers unless we get a couple of wins soon.

[EJG1980]

Yes! Back to winning ways and back up to third (although Chelsea have a game in hand). Thanks Southampton!

I was keeping up-to-date with a live scores app while running. It was murder at the end, every single match flicking to "Full Time" while Swansea vs Spurs kept going, the last bloody one to finish

Looking forward to the highlights, apparently both our goals were pretty special (assuming the Spurs twitter feed isn't over hyping them) the first Bale setting up Vertonghen and the second Vertonghen setting up Bale.

Hopefully we can now get a comfortable and convincing win against Basel so we don't have to worry too much about the second leg... like against Inter

[nakamura]

Yeah pretty much sums it up. I think Tottenham deserve it this year more than ever before. Still a little way to go but they have kept going and been more consistent. Even doing well in the EL. Chelsea dropping out wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

Getting close....

[EJG1980]

Chelsea getting to the FA Cup semi-final means our match against them at Stamford Bridge will be rearranged. If it ends up taking place near the end of the season, with both teams potentially needing points for CL qualification, that could be a HUGE match.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Summer transfer window could be vital for Spurs.

I'm inclined to believe that they are a few signings away from mounting a proper title challenge next season.

[EJG1980]

It will be tough to make the next step up from where we are at the moment, especially with the financial differences between us and the teams we're trying to compete with. Of the current top seven in the Premier League only Everton have a lower wage bill than we do.

We haven't been splashing the cash on transfers as much in the past few years either, unless we've made a big sale first to balance it out. Even after we qualified for the CL in 2010, we only spent ?14 million that summer (Rafa VdV ?8 million, Sandro ?6 million, Gallas on a free).

It can be done though if we can get the right signings in. We've got to go for the clever signings like Vertonghen, superb player, young, a sensible transfer fee and wages we can afford. If we can keep improving the squad with that style of signing, we've got a chance of pushing on.

Hopefully we can get some youngsters coming through too (we're top of the elite group of the U21 Premier League by ten points) so maybe we'll see a few of them get into the first team over the coming years. The last really good youngster we had who came all the way through our ranks was Ledley King, which really isn't good enough.