Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

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Spurs are apparently flying all the way to Australia to play a friendly with.............................................. ..Newcastle on Wednesday.

Not Newcastle NSW, also known for its coal industry and the extra attraction of some good looking beaches, but our UK Newcastle renowned for its citizens wearing T-shirts even in sub-zero conditions, beer and Gazza.

Alan Shearer has said it is madness to go all that way for a friendly a few days after the Premiership season has ended. I tend to agree

[EJG1980]

I'm not a big fan of the overseas stuff, but to play devils advocate I would say that a friendly like this tacked on to the very end of the season is probably the least disruptive way of doing an overseas trip like that. The players are still in the playing / training / travelling routine, so it's like a very small extension to the season with them carrying on the same routine for a few days extra. I also wouldn't be surprised if some of the players stayed on in Australia and took some of their summer holiday time off over there after the match is out of the way.

So while I don't think it's really that beneficial a thing to do, I think calling it "madness" is a bit ott. A similar trip just before the start of the season, that I think would be much worse and a lot more disruptive.

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In other news, Poch has left Chelsea by "mutual consent". While I wouldn't have been surprised had it happened earlier in the season when things were going really badly, I'm really puzzled that Chelsea have got rid of him now.

Chelsea had a pretty decent second half of the season and it looked like Poch was starting to get to grips with their crazily over-bloated squad and starting to get a tune out of the team (I think they had something like the 4th best points total since the turn of the year and only lost 3 of their last 20 matches).

I thought that with a decent summer they'd have likely been a very dangerous team next season, but now another new manager with his own ideas, might push them back to where they were when Poch came in, not that I’d be upset by that! Seen quite a few comments from Chelsea fans online who are perplexed by the decision.

Of course, who knows, the higher ups at Chelsea don't seem like the easiest people to work with, so maybe Poch was happy to get out no matter how things were going on the pitch.

[fallenangle]

I was wondering much the same thing about the Poch news.

I think he was expecting to stay; I could have seen him wanting to go for the Liverpool manager role if he thought he was going to be 'let go' by Chelsea at or before the end of the season. There are other mangerial jobs he might have been interested in too - West Ham could have been a good fit.

So it is indeed a bit of a mystery what went on at Chelsea to dump him so soon after a pretty successful second half of the season and a decent run in the FA Cup too.

Thursday Edit

Found the highlights for the Newcastle game. By the look of it Newcastle were second best most of the time but Spurs, as usual, didn't convert all their chances. Well taken goal by Maddison but a Spurs defensive lapse meant it ended up 1 : 1 at 90mins and went on to extra time then penalties which Spurs lost 4 : 5.

Hope the 78,000+ crowd enjoyed it.

[EJG1980]

I always enjoy the end of season goal compilations. Some lovely goals in there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=531Y85-wu5Y

Thursday Edit

Found the highlights for the Newcastle game. By the look of it Newcastle were second best most of the time but Spurs, as usual, didn't convert all their chances. Well taken goal by Maddison but a Spurs defensive lapse meant it ended up 1 : 1 at 90mins and went on to extra time then penalties which Spurs lost 4 : 5.

Hope the 78,000+ crowd enjoyed it.

Yup, 63% possession and 18 shots to 4 in Spurs' favour, but we only managed to get 3 of them on target. Quite a few youngsters got a decent 45 or 30 minute run out in the second half, which I'm sure was good experience for them even if it wasn't an important match.

[EJG1980]

More good stuff from the youngsters today as Tottenham won the Under 21's Premier League.

They have a strange system that was introduced this season, with a 26 team league where the top 16(!!) qualify for an end of season playoffs to decide the champion. A bit nuts that you can finish 16th in the normal league season but then win 4 playoff matches and be crowned champions.

The Spurs youngsters left no doubt as to who the best team was this season though, as they topped the table by 4 points in the normal league season and then won the playoffs too, beating Sunderland 3-1 in the final today.

Another youngster, Mikey Moore, the 16 year old who became our youngster ever Premier League player when he came on as a sub in the last couple of matches of the season, has been the standout player for England in the Under 17's Euros. He scored twice in the opening 4-0 win against France and scored again in the second match against Portugal, although England lost 4-1. The final group game against Spain is on the iPlayer / red button tomorrow at 18:30.

Hopefully some of the players currently in our various youth teams can step up and become big players for the first team over the coming years.

[fallenangle]

I've watched some of those under 17 games when they've been on the red button. I saw one of the Wales games, last Friday which I think was a repeat, but I've missed all of the England ones if any were being broadcast so thanks for the info.

Saw Southampton winning the Championship play off final highlights on ITV4 against Leeds (Sunday). Neither impressed me much and I wouldn't be surprised if Southampton are relegated again at the end of next season.

[EJG1980]

After this season with all three promoted sides going straight back down and all getting less than 30 points, it'll be interesting to see how the new boys do next season. I think most people will be expecting Ipswich to struggle, but Southampton and Leicester are both teams that have shown themselves capable of staying up for multiple seasons in the recent past. If they were to both go straight back down as well the gap between the Premier League and Championship would be looking worryingly big.

There's also a good chance that Leicester's task will be made harder as they're facing a possible points deduction for breaching financial rules the last time they were up, AND Chelsea are supposed to have their manager as one of their top targets to replace Poch.

Watching the England match and I thought I'd jinxed Mikey Moore by mentioning what a good tournament he'd been having, as today was his worst performance of the tournament so far, and aside from the opening few minutes Spain had been dominating the match... and then he goes and smashes a superb goal from twenty yards out into the top corner

Even on his off days he's still the difference maker. A very important goal too as France are beating Portugal, so a draw would have seen England eliminated. Good that we added a third to make sure we wouldn't be hit by any sucker punches. Final whistle just went, England through to the quarters which I believe will be against Italy.

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That goal of his was superb; it reminded me of Bale coming in from that left wing and whipping a curved ball across the keeper with such power that it was in the back of the net way out of reach of the keeper's futile dive.

Good watch in general although the poor decision making, various players selfishness in the box and/or lack of quick thinking were very evident for both sides. The final ball for England's third goal was delivered later than it should have been because the player with it was clearly hoping for 'glory' himself and held onto the ball until he ran into a dead end.

England got the win by converting a far higher percentage of their chances than the Spanish. There was one of their chances where the ball was sent right across the goal and how the incoming Spanish striker didn't get something on it is a mystery. If it had gone in it might have changed the game significantly.

In the end they got caught on the counter and ended up well beaten. They lost discipline too and had a guy sent off for a pointless, aggressive body check off the ball. I don't know whether he had been booked earlier but that looked more like a yellow card to me rather than a straight red, if that is what it was. There were also some other surprisingly heavy tackling where the referee either did not give anything or seemed to give it to the wrong side too.

[EJG1980]

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2024/may/timo-werner-rejoins-on-loan-for-202425/

Timo Werner will be back at the club next season, although another loan rather than a permanent deal. I can see why they've done it that way, as we get to keep Werner and can put the money saved towards other transfer targets. He should be a very useful player to have around, especially with the extra European matches we'll have next season (and hopefully lots of domestic cup matches too).

They lost discipline too and had a guy sent off for a pointless, aggressive body check off the ball. I don't know whether he had been booked earlier but that looked more like a yellow card to me rather than a straight red, if that is what it was.

I wasn't sure at the time either as the camera didn't switch to the incident until just after the moment the ref brandished the red card, but I checked and that player had already been booked in the 63rd minute and the barge was indeed a second yellow rather than straight red.

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Good to read that about TW; there's a question mark over his finishing ability but he's a quality mid-field/attacking player of the type the Spurs squad needs.

Thanks also for the explanation about that sending off; makes sense now.

[EJG1980]

Good to read that about TW; there's a question mark over his finishing ability but he's a quality mid-field/attacking player of the type the Spurs squad needs.

The finishing is his only downside really, aside from that he's fitted in really well and looked pretty good in most matches, even with him and his teammates still learning each other's games. His goals & assists to minutes played ratio was decent and I think with a full pre-season and an increased understanding with his teammates he can be a really valuable squad member.

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Watching the England vs Italy under-17s match, a very good watch so far and England 1-0 up, great driving run by Mikey Moore into the box before the layoff to Nwaneri who scored with a lovely finish.

1-1 at half time, nice goal from the Liberali who danced past several England defenders before slotting home. Italy could have gone 2-1 up with a chance that hit the post, but both sides have had good spells. Hopefully the second half is just as entertaining.

The match goes to a penalty shootout. Another good half, England were unlucky not to win it in the 90 minutes, hit the woodwork a couple of times and had some really good pressure in the final 10 minutes but couldn't quite get the ball over the line.

Darn, Italy win it on penalties 5-4. A lot of high quality penalties there but it just took one that wasn't quite in the corner enough to see England eliminated. Very entertaining though, despite the result.

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Yeah, I watched it myself. Good game indeed but the moment it went to penalties you always expect England, any England team, to mess up at least one and they did.

Such a pity as they played some really good football throughout and always looked the side most likely to score in normal time, particularly the second half. I don't think it is incorrect to say that the Italian goalkeeper won them the game.

Saturday Edit

Watched the England v. France Womens' 2025 Euro Qualifier at St.James' Park last night, hidden away on ITV4. Not worth the time to be honest. Mostly it was both sides cancelling each other out in midfield and neither manager thought it worthwhile changing the formation until too late. By that time England, after having taken the lead, gave away two goals from set pieces and couldn't score at least an the equalizer.

I thought we might see Spurs' striker Jess Naz come on as Lauren James is still injured but that didn't happen and it ended up a pretty ordinary 1 - 2 win for France.

Only things of note were Mary Earps the England goalkeeper injuring herself early on and having to be substituted, the replacement, Hannah Hampton, made one very good save and the first French goal was pretty good.



The away game in France is on ITV4 on Tuesday at 19.15 but it will have to be a hell of a lot better than Friday's game to keep me watching.