Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[VR46]

Think Van Gaal will be in for you at the end of the season whatever happens between now and May to be honest. Especially as Hiddink will be replacing him as the National team boss.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/26798631

[EJG1980]

Aye, Van Gaal said months ago that he would resign as the Dutch coach after the world cup and wanted a job in the Premier League to round off his career, and if none were available he would retire.

At the moment it looks like Spurs will be the best job available in the summer. Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool surely won't change managers. The potential dark clouds on the horizon are Moyes getting the sack or Wenger deciding to call it a day, I don't think we'd stand much chance if the Man Utd and Arsenal jobs were available and either of them wanted LVG.

I think our squad (especially the new signings from the summer) have a lot of potential that we simply haven't seen this season, and an astute and experienced winner like LVG in charge next season could get the best out of them. I really hope we get him to sign on the dotted line, the sooner the better.

[fallenangle]

If anyone can get some goals or at least consistent effectiveness out of Soldado I'd be pleased. I may have missed it through my moaning and shouting at the TV whilst MotD was on but I can't recall him being mentioned at all in the commentary. Admittedly it was just highlights.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

He didn't really do anything, but we were such a cluster**** behind him that its difficult to place too much blame on his shoulders. Lennon barely touched the ball, Chadli drifted around to little great effect and Eriksen, when he received the ball, had little movement around or ahead of him to work with. I'm still baffled as to how Sherwood though a midfield two of Bentaleb and Sigurdsson was ever going to work.

You can say what you want about AVB, but at least the players had clearly defined roles. Townsend, for instance, while wasteful with his end product, at least had a clear purpose under AVB: to pick the ball up and carry it into the final third. When played by Sherwood he has just drifted around aimlessly and no longer looks much of a threat. The lack of organisation throughout the team is shocking.

We really, really need to get our next appointment spot on. We have some good players and we just need a coach with a coherent game plan capable of getting the best out of them. It can be an experienced winner (Van Gaal), a young coach with clear ideas (Pochettino), or someone with a little of both qualities (De Boer, Spalletti), but we must be certain that we getting the right man.

[EJG1980]

I'm still baffled as to how Sherwood though a midfield two of Bentaleb and Sigurdsson was ever going to work.

It does make one wonder if his thinking was "Well it worked in the second half against Southampton, I'll start them against Liverpool," without giving any thought to the difference between those two match situations.

I'm not that upset with Sherwood directly though. He's clearly not ready for such a big job but it's Levy's fault for appointing him. As I said at the time, if we're sacking AVB to appoint Sherwood, he should have put any personal differences to one side and stuck it out with AVB until the end of the season. Overall Levy has done an excellent job getting the club to where it is today, but that decision was a poor one.

LVG would be my first choice for next season. I like Pochettino, Southampton play very good football, it would be interesting to see what he could do with the bigger budget at Spurs. Spalletti's Roma of the mid 2000's were one of my favourite sides to watch in recent years so I think he'd be a good choice.

I haven't really seen enough of Ajax to have an opinion on De Boer, but as an Ajax man through and though, I think it's safe to say he'd play a brand of football the Spurs fans would get along with.

[EJG1980]

Some actual news about the new stadium today, and positive news as that

Tottenham Hotspur Financial Results - Shareholder and Stadium Update

Highlights of the statement:

Revenue for the year ended 30 June 2013 was ?147.4m

Profit for the year after interest and tax was ?1.5m

Season ticket waiting list up to 47k.

Record new 5 year shirt sponsorship with AIA starting in the summer.

Re the new stadium, the club anticipate going out to tender for construction late this year which will make a stadium opening date of Summer 2017 feasible.

ENIC has supported the Club by way of an interest free, unsecured loan of ?40m (which will be converted to share capital) to make sure that none of the ongoing stadium project costs affected the football side of the business.

The club has wiped out the debt that had built up over the past decade from acquiring land and property for the stadium project and has the financing in place from the next phase of the project. The club also has negligible net debt.

----------

More stadium related stuff:

Spurs apparently made an offer to West Ham to buy Upton Park so we could use it as a temporary home for a season after West Ham move out (after which I assume we would have then sold it to property developers). I heard rumours of this a few times before it was reported in the press today, so I'm inclined to believe it's probably true. Daily Mail (sorry!) story here.

Sky Sports are now reporting that after West Ham rejected our offer, we're trying to see if we can use Wembley as a temporary home instead. I have my doubts if this could actually happen as I think Wembley can only have a set number of events per year, and 19 Spurs matches would be way too much. However, the FA need the money, so if they could make it happen I think they'd be delighted to have Spurs play there for a season.

The original (and current) plan for the new stadium would see us moving in when it's two thirds completed and playing there for a season while the final third is being built. Athletic Bilbao have done the exact same thing with their new stadium and it's working out very well for them.

However if we had a temporary home for a year we could knock down the old WHL sooner and build the new stadium in one go, thus moving into it and start generating that extra match day income a year sooner, so I'm not surprised the club is exploring to see if that option is possible.

[fallenangle]

Yay, proper win today and boy did Spurs need it. If they'd drawn or lost Everton would have likely been away and gone and we'd be fighting with Man.Utd for sixth place. This keeps us right in there,

Eriksen, yet again, proving he's been our best buy from the Bale windfall.

[EJG1980]

I was thinking exactly the same thing about Eriksen last night. The fans are noticing his rising importance to the team, when the team was read out last night his name got by far the biggest cheer. I think that next season, with a more settled team and the rest of our signings hopefully stepping up as well, he will really be able to shine and be the guy we build the team around.

I'm sure he'll end up in the centre we he can influence the game the most, but, I do see why Sherwood has been playing him on the left when the quality of the ball he puts into the box is so far ahead of the likes of Rose, Lennon, Townsend, etc..

Apart from our seemingly mandatory concession of a comedy goal, a very enjoyable match. It was great to see Harry Kane get his first Premier League goal for the club and I thought he gave a good overall performance (aside from a lack of composure in the box sometimes). I'm not sure if he'll be able to become a first team regular at Spurs but it's always great to see a home grown talent doing well and scoring a goal.

As you said the win keeps us in hunt for fourth. I think we're the outside bet of the teams challenging but we definitely have a shot. If Arsenal continue their poor form, Everton slip up in a couple of their tougher fixtures, and we take advantage of our reasonably kind end of season fixtures... you never know

[EJG1980]

Well considering we were 3-0 down and had missed a penalty after half an hour, have to be pleased that we managed to draw the game in the end. Still, 3-0 down after half an hour against West Brom!

Could do with four, straight forward, heart attack free wins to finish off the season... I know, no chance

[VR46]

Could be worse you could be an Arsenal fan, they needed extra time and penalties to win

[EJG1980]

Thankfully we've managed to avoid the ignominy of a higher league position and reaching a cup final!

[VR46]

Yes but think of your pleasure when they lose in the final and finish fifth behind Everton in the table.

Knowing your luck you'll end up with Wenger as Manager next season

[fallenangle]

Just finished watching it on MotD - don't know whether to laugh or cry. Lousy defending, yet again, but more than enough good chances to win the thing even from 3-0 down.

[BaronSqwelch]

Could be worse you could be an Arsenal fan, they needed extra time and penalties to win

Yeah what a nightmare it must be for them after that poor game...being in an FA Cup final and all.

I have been sat with spurs fans all night...they all seem to think 4th is still on...are you all this deluded? Its Evertons to lose...to Arsenal...with Man Utd 5th as far as us neutrals see it.

(I'm a Villa fan BTW in case you suspect an axe to grind )

[EJG1980]

I thought we had an outside chance after we beat Sunderland but yesterday's draw killed my faint hopes.

Even if we won all of our remaining games we'd need Everton to only take 5 points from their final 15 available AND Arsenal to only take 7 points from 15. No slip ups from us and two teams both dropping tons of points...

...how much had those Spurs fans you were with had to drink?

Right now I'd be very happy if we managed to do enough to stay ahead of Man Utd and get a top six finish.