Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

Hurrah, victory against the mighty Lion City Sailors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt3QS_7dYDU

They're only friendlies but it's interesting that in both matches so far, the front three of Solomon - Richarlison - Perisic has looked more dynamic, well oiled, and on the same wavelength than the Son - Kane - Kulusevski front three. Not just the fact that former front three have scored more goals, but the way they ping the ball around with quick one touch moves looks more natural and spontaneous, thus far.

Of course the "backup" front three have also had Lo Celso just behind them as the furthest forward of the three midfielders, and he has been playing very nicely, conducting the play, setting the temp, and knitting everything together. A rare case of me getting a prediction right, but it does look like he's a player that had been written off at Spurs that is going to get a chance to revive himself with Ange:





Would be very useful for the squad if he does stay and continues to do well, as then we've got both him and Maddison vying for the attacking midfielder spot. And against bus parking teams you could probably play both of them in the midfield three with one defensive minded midfielder behind them. Anyway, it'd be nice to have options

Also, although the first half was a bit lacklustre thanks to the sloppy goal concession and the front three not quite clicking, I thought the midfield three of Bissouma - Sarr - Maddison did well, some really nice touches, passes and tackles from all three that didn't make it into the highlights video.

[fallenangle]

Good to see Richarlison scoring - I'd almost forgotten what that looked like and then he gets a hat-trick.

Off to watch the women's World Cup match USA v. Netherlands now. Few have been worth staying up so far but they're two of the best teams so it could have some halfway decent football.

Unfortunately even the 'lesser' women's international teams have learned to defend reasonably effectively so the double figure scorelines there use to be are likely now a thing of the past.

[EJG1980]

Interesting stuff:

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/harry-kane-tottenham-bayern-transfer-news-b1097964.html

"Harry Kane expects to remain at Tottenham this summer if the club has not reached an agreement with Bayern Munich before the opening game of the season in less than two weeks' time.

Kane has made it clear that he plans to stay at Spurs if he lines up at Brentford in their Premier League opener on August 13, believing it would be unfair on the club and new head coach Ange Postecoglou to leave after the start of the campaign.

If he does stay put this summer, Kane is prepared to negotiate a contract extension with the club during the early months of the upcoming season if they show significant progress on the pitch under Postecoglou."

I think Spurs should change their stance though and also set a deadline, as the longer this drags on the more it will disrupt our start to the season and make the job of our own manager harder.

We need to do what Dortmund did a couple of seasons ago with Jadon Sancho, where they announced that if they didn't get an acceptable bid for him by such and such date, they'd no longer pick up the phone and he'd be staying. I'd set a deadline of this Friday or Saturday, before we play Shakhtar Donetsk on Sunday. No acceptable bid by then, he stays.

Uncertainty over Kane puts our other potential trasfer business in limbo. We STILL need those central defensive upgrades (and the manager himself has said we need to buy players in that area) and if Kane goes maybe we're targeting player X and Y, but if he stays we'd get player A and B instead.

Each day that passes makes it harder for Ange: less time for new signings to get up to speed before the start of the season; doesn't know if he's planning for a season with Kane up front, Richarlison up front, or a new signing up front; etc..

Everyone involved would be better off with certainty asap, to give us the best chance to start the season well (which is likely to have ups and downs even under the best of conditions, with the squad having to get used to a completely new playing style compared to the past few seasons).

If Kane stays and it's correct that he might be open to extending his contract if we do well under the new manager, then I think it might be prudent not to needlessly hamper that manager's chances of success!

[EJG1980]

Never heard of him, but apparently a very highly rated 18 year old. Considering he only has 14 professional appearances to his name looks like he'll be being signed as a prospect for the future (though interesting that he's expected to fly out to join up with the squad for the rest of our tour).

This finally got done today:



Apparently the hold up was due to the Blackburn owners. The player had a £2 million release clause that kicked in midnight yesterday, but last month we offered £3 million + a possible £2 million in addons to get the deal done straight away.

Then, AFTER he'd completed his medical, Blackburn reneged on the deal and demanded another £5 million on top of what we'd already offered, apparently thinking we'd pay the extra because we wouldn't want to risk other clubs coming in for him once the release clause became active.

Unfortunately for them we just decided to wait, the release clause became active, and we put in a new £2 million bid that they had to accept, and wrapped up the deal straight away. So that's potentially £3 million Blackburn's owners have chucked away by getting greedy. Oops.

[EJG1980]

Enjoyable friendly today against Shakhtar Donetsk. No matter what's going on at the club, it's always nice to get back to the stadium for the first time at the start of a new season. As all the proceeds from the match were going to help people in Ukraine, it was nice to see a big 56K crowd.

I ended up being sat in celebrity central as probable new signing Micky van de Ven was sitting about ten feet behind me. Actual new signing Ashley Phillips was sitting a few feet in front of me; I was a bit slow on the uptake though as even though he was in my view for the whole match, I didn't twig that it was him until near the end of the match when he started to leave and was accosted on the steps by a massive throng of kids trying to get photos and autographs, and the (very low wattage) lightbulb lit up in my head!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktR1bg6eINg

The theme of our other friendlies continued today: very attacking, good football that's fun to watch, still needs work for the attacking movements to become fully fluid and second nature, but obviously we can't expect that to happen overnight. Encouraging display today though, especially in the second half, and I'm looking forward to seeing if the team can build on it and get better over the course of the season.

The defence is still a bit of an achilles heel at the moment. We're definitely going to get caught at the back this season, especially early on I expect, as the players learn the system. With our defenders now holding the line much further up the pitch, we'll need some new signings with good pace as we're a bit too vulnerable to balls in behind at the mo.

Hopefully the aforementioned Micky van de Ven will help with that as he is rapid (as demonstrated in this much shared clip). I think the fans will need to show a bit of patience with the defence while they get up to speed.

Feeling pretty positive about the upcoming season though, not expecting miracles but there's potential in the team. If nothing else I expect us to be exciting to watch

[fallenangle]

Thanks for those clips, especially the game today some lovely goals and I particularly liked the fact that a lot of the play seemed to be going through Maddison too. Looking like he is becoming the creative midfielder we hoped he'd be.

Defensively I think you're spot on - still need some extra quality there.

[EJG1980]

He was very good, man of the match in terms of general play (although it's hard to overlook someone who scored four goals for that honour).We also have Lo Celso who has come back and impressed the manager, so we're looking pretty strong in that position of the pitch.

The best thing about pre-season has been the number of players who look like they could thrive under the new manager: Udogie has looked good in the left back slot, Bissouma and Sarr have both impressed in midfield, Lo Celso and Maddison we've already mentioned, and Manor Solomon looks a very lively and tricky player who could be good competition for Son on the left or Kulusevski on the right.

Of course, competitive Premier League matches will be a different kettle of fish, but plenty of reasons to be optimistic imho.

Edit: new signing klaxon. A central defender! Would have liked them to have done this a few weeks ago so he could have had a full pre-season with his new team mates, but better late than never

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Edit 2: they're wearing that klaxon out.

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19 year old striker, looks like another Ashley Phillips style signing, one for the future rather than someone you'd expect to see in the first team straight away.

[EJG1980]

Really enjoyable friendly with Barcelona last night, played some superb football and were the better team for a large portion of the match. Even more impressive was that we changed the entire starting eleven from the match against Shakhtar Donetsk, no Kane, Son, Kulu, Maddison, Romero, etc., so it was our second choice eleven vs a pretty much full strength Barcelona side.

It was an awful start, 1-0 down after a couple of minutes, and they should have gone 2-0 up a couple of minutes after that, but after that we composed ourselves and I'd say from about the 10th minute to the 60th minute we were well on top and dominating the game. Put together some beautiful passing moves and when Barca had the ball the pressing was great, constantly harrying them and forcing them into mistakes to give up possession.

We just ran out of steam after about 65-70 minutes (this was the first full 90 minutes in pre-season for everyone on the pitch) which eventually allowed Barca to nick the win with some late goals. Had we bit more clinical and managed to nab a third goal, or we'd had a full squad and were able to bring on first choice players as subs when the starters began to tire, I think we'd have won.

Ange has been reserved in his post match praise so far (he described the 5-1 win against Donetsk as "okay") but even he was more effusive in his praise last night. Excellent performances from Lo Celso, Perisic, Bissouma and Skipp, and good performances (if not clinical ones) from Richy and Solomon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpDSNSD0hL0

A shame the highlights are so limited as you see very little of the really good stuff, aside from the goals.

[fallenangle]

Disappointing result ^. Although Spurs goals were great and they may have been playing very well for periods during the game they lost.

That first Barca goal was classic sleepy time Spurs defending. How many goals do Spurs give away at the start of games or the start of the second half? It has been an issue for a long time. Spurs could have been two down within the first five minutes. Obviously the defence still needs sorting.

That last goal as well; nobody tracking back with the guy who scored, leaving him completely free in the eighteen yard box. Not sure who it was but there was a Spurs' midfielder trotting back, makes a half hearted run, by then too late, then points at the space the eventual scorer was running into for somebody else to pick him up. That's just not on.

That's what was wrong with Aurier and most of the other right wing/backs since Trippier, who would have bust a gut to get back into position in similar circumstances.

But it was only a friendly so we can't read that much into it - the proof of the pudding will be against Brentford on Sunday and I hope a successful result there will set the tone for the season to come.

QUICK EDIT

Sounds like a serious news story just breaking that Spurs have now done some sort of deal With Bayern Munich to sell HK.

[EJG1980]

Sounds like a serious news story just breaking that Spurs have now done some sort of deal With Bayern Munich to sell HK.

Just as I was about to write that I was going to hold off on saying anything about this because who knows what twists and turns are still to come:



Lots of talk going around that Spurs reluctantly agreed a fee with Bayern (as they finally crossed the "it's too big an offer to turn down when we could lose him for nothing next summer" threshold) but that Kane himself is having second thoughts / thinking that it's too close to the start of the season for him to leave.

Give it another couple of hours and maybe he'll definitely be going again!

I'd just like this to be sorted out asap, today (I think that's probably the 427th time I've said that this summer!), a statement from Kane, the club, preferably both, saying that he's definitely going or definitely staying. Stop all this arsing about 3 days before we kick off the new season.

Edit: Aaaaaaaand we're back to him going again

[fallenangle]

What I'd like, if Spurs can not afford not to sell HK for the money being offered, is for an agreement to sell him at the end of the season to BM, obviously before his contract expires, but Spurs keep him until then. Or perhaps sell now instead but include a loan back period to Spurs for the Premiership season.

It would take an agreement by all three parties involved but it might be possible if BM really want him that badly.

[EJG1980]

Probably not a realistic option, as nice as it would be to keep him for another year! I know that kind of thing is done with young players, where you buy them but instantly loan them back to the team you bought them from (we did it ourselves last year with Destiny Udogie) so they can get another year of experience before they join you, but I can't think of any examples of it being done with an older experienced player.

Even if it was something Kane agreed to, I think Bayern would say why would we pay a big fee and let you keep him for a year, when we could just wait that year anyway and sign him for free when his contract runs out? We want a striker now to come straight into our team and improve it.

I don't think Kane would have agreed to it either, going by the comments made by Ange in his press conference yesterday (which was a good listen, I always enjoy listening to him). He said that Kane was honest with him from day one and made it clear that if a club made an acceptable offer to Spurs, he wanted to leave this summer, and if not he would wait until next summer and leave for free, those were the two scenarios he'd entertain and his mind was made up.

All moot now though as as I was typing this, Kane has posted a goodbye message on instagram and the club have officially announced his move to Bayern

A horrible thought that we'll (unless he comes back Sheringham style in a few years) never get to see him in a Spurs shirt again, although at least he's gone to a foreign club instead of a Premier League rival, and we avoided the truly horrible scenario of him going to another PL club for free. I suppose you could say that it's the "best bad outcome" that we could have realistically got: a big fee and he goes abroad.

With Kane going it does feel like the end of an era at the club. It's gonna suck for a while, but I think having a very positive new manager in charge who will play the kind of exciting football that the fans can get behind will help the transition. One era ends, but hopefully a good new one is beginning. Good luck Harry, it was a privilege seeing you go from an unknown youngster to the best forward in the world, Spurs' top scorer and England's top scorer, what a story. One of the best Spurs players of all time.

[EJG1980]

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There’s a nice retrospective of Kane’s Spurs career on the official web site - Harry Kane: The One Season Wonder

[EJG1980]

Enjoyable match and a decent start to the season. Multiple players making their PL debuts, a manager who’s new to the league, a system that’s very different to how we’ve been set-up for the past few years, and an opponent who only lost twice at home last season; a point today was a good result, especially when you can see promising signs for the future.

I thought Bissouma, Udogie and Maddison put in the best performances. Considering he’s had about two training sessions, was making his debut in a new country, and his partner went off after fifteen minutes, I thought Micky van de Ven was also very good. Unlucky with the second Brentford goal, can't really blame a player for a deflection like that.

Thought we needed to see more from the front three. Son and Kulusevski needed to try beating their man more often and putting a cross in, too often they turned and passed it back. TBF, Kulusevski got better in the second half and had more influence on the game, though Son stayed a bit muted. I would have taken Son off for Perisic ten or fifteen minutes earlier, as as soon as he came on he was attempting to beat the Brentford fullback and was able to get in some dangerous crosses.

Oh, and Sanchez did well when he had to come unexpectedly early, put in some good tackles and blocks. Great strike from Royal for our equaliser too.

Edit: agree with Ange's post match comments, good, but a bit too conservative in attack sometimes.

Speaking to SPURSPLAY from the Gtech, Ange told us: “I thought overall, pleased with the effort of the players, they gave everything, a good starting point for us. There was a fair bit going on in the first half and it would have been easy for the lads to lose their composure, drop their heads, but I thought they handled themselves really well.

“We controlled the game well in the second half, but we just lacked a bit of a threat in the final third, a little bit of creativity, but considering everything that happened, overall, I thought it was a good performance.

“I just felt we played a little conservatively in the final third. It’s understandable when there are four guys making their debuts for the club, we’ve changed the way we play, the players are taking in a lot of information at the moment, it’s only natural that they’re not as free in that front third as we need them to be, but that will come.

“It’s the first game of the season, whatever we did today we know we’ll improve - we’ll have to improve from here - but it’s a good starting point.

“It’s a difficult place to come, particularly after conceding a penalty and an own goal, it would have been easy for us to feel sorry for ourselves, but I never sensed that from the players, they got to grips with the game again and in the end we had to settle for a draw, but I thought we looked like the team who were trying to win it.”

[TonyDA]

Watching Harry Kane last night was a bit emotional, just seeing him in another team's shirt conjured up a strange mix of anger, disappointment and general unhappiness. Yes, he really has gone, after a few years where it felt it was going to happen. None of the anger was at Kane - goodness me, he outgrew not our club, but our lacklustre owners a few years ago. If we've all been frustrated at Enic and Daniel Levy over the past few years, talking up themselves as one of the big clubs, but spending poorly and always looking for a bargain, what on earth must to have been like for a genuine World Class (a term used too easily these days) player?

All I want him to do (apart from come back to Tottenham) is to succeed in Munich. Win a Bundesliga or two, a German Cup, grab a golden boot while he's at it and - if possible - a Champions League medal as well. Maybe this year, scoring the winner in the group stages against Arsenal to knock them out as well.

I'm also glad he's gone now - not for the money (do we trust Levy to spend it wisely, or at all?) but to let the team move on. If he'd stayed, with no intention of signing a new deal, the rest of the season would be a mix of 'where's he going?' and 'he needs to play for a bigger team and must have trophies for his career to mean anything' from the MOTD trio of Lineker, Shearer and Wright. And then Keane, Redknapp and Richards on Sky. All disrupting to the new plan to move forward.

Today's game wasn't bad. I thought Udogie, Maddison and Van de Ven all looked good, like they'll be excellent additions to the squad. The new keeper, Vicario, looked decent but also a bit suspect with the ball at his feet. Obviously, he'll need time to settle and is still inexperienced, but I couldn't shake the feeling there's a cock-up coming at some point, where he tries to be clever and fails miserably. Mind you, Lloris was capable of that at times, yet became something of a legend.

Bissouna was amazing. The best comparison I could pay to him and Maddison is the thought that it's the most progressive looking pair in midfield we've had since Dembele and Eriksen.

More work to do in the transfer market though. Feel like we need another couple of forward players, and if Ange wants them to be players who can play across the front three as opposed to an out an out striker, so be it. But that front-free today all looked as weak as they did last season, which was a bit worrying.

I thought this article in The Guardian was lovely. At first, I thought it was yet another 'Spurs too small for Harry' type article, but it turns out John Crace is a Spurs fan, like us. Poor fellow!

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/aug/12/farewell-then-harry-kane-our-one-season-wonder-who-just-didnt-stop-scoring