Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

No question for me, gotta be a Man City win. If our ambition is to try and win the title then the best thing for us is a smaller gap to first place, regardless of whether we happen to be second or third one particular week. Having to catch up six points is definitely better than having to catch up nine (and a nine point gap to a Liverpool who'd have even more momentum and confidence than they do right now).

January looks to be the pivotal month that we need to survive: we've got to keep pace with Liverpool and City in the league, and do it while we cope with a bloody tough couple of matches against Chelsea, and while losing one of our most in-form players Son to an international tournament. If we can come through January and still be in realistic touch in the title race, it'd be an excellent achievement.

[TonyDA]

Was I the only one screaming ‘WTF are they bringing Kane on for,’ at the TV tonight?

[fallenangle]

Can't answer that as I'm waiting for the highlights on MotD or whenever the BBC deign to show them tomorrow.

I don't think a good win was unexpected but 0-7 against any opposition is something notable, to say the least.

Ironic that some of the newspapers today were speculating that Spurs are going to offload Llorente this January along with the other forward who has failed to shine: Janssen. I'd actually forgotten that Spurs still had him.

[Anpanman]

Apologies if you are already aware but the Oakland Raiders have been in discussion with Spurs over playing their 'home' games next season, plenty of info if you Google but a couple of interesting snippets from the Yahoo News story;

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/report-raiders-talks-tottenham-share-london-stadium-2019-212912462.html

"Tottenham Stadium seats 62,000 and has an NFL regulation turf field under the grass soccer surface; the grass surface can retract, revealing the artificial turf.

The renovation also included construction of NFL-sized locker rooms, a first for a stadium in London (soccer teams are much smaller than NFL teams, and don’t require nearly as much equipment)."

Personally I don't think it will happen.

[EJG1980]

I don't think a good win was unexpected but 0-7 against any opposition is something notable, to say the least.

Yup, our new record away win in all competitions, slightly bettering our 1-7 win against Hull from a couple of seasons ago.

Was I the only one screaming ‘WTF are they bringing Kane on for,’ at the TV tonight?

Poch said he did it out of respect for the Tranmere fans; when you're fans of a team where seeing the likes of Kane play live is a very very rare thing, he felt that having Kane on the pitch for at least some of the match was the right thing to do. He's a gent, our Poch

Apologies if you are already aware but the Oakland Raiders have been in discussion with Spurs over playing their 'home' games next season

Personally I don't think it will happen.

I'd probably err on the side of it not happening too. The main obstacle would be the scheduling of the matches with the rest of the NFL teams, tricky logistically to make sure they're not constantly back and forth over the Atlantic.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if they did go for it either; an NFL franchise permanently in London is a potential money spinner, and this would be the perfect way for them to do a test run, see what works and what doesn't, without having to commit to anything long term.

[fallenangle]

I saw the goals today on BBC Football Focus and it did look like a bit of a walkover in the second half when Spurs stepped it up a notch and Tranmere were simply not able to handle it.

Poch did the right thing putting on HK so late. The match was won and when you've given a team such a thrashing the Tranmere fans deserved something to remember from the game other than the score line. It was very good PR by Poch.

HK (MBE) comes on, and scores, they get to see a player who might one day lead a team that may win the CL and, internationally, the European or World Cup. Saying you saw him play and score at Tranmere in the FA Cup will be a great footballing memory to have whatever happens in the future.

It was long after the '66 World Cup, in fact it was probably after the '70 WC when I was still young but remember the excitement of seeing the likes of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters, the Charltons, Nobby Stiles, Gordon Banks etc etc playing live for the first time.

[fallenangle]

That FA Cup 4th Round draw was scary if you watched it live. All the, at least potentially, easier teams had been chosen and at one point you were left with MC, MU, Arsenal and Spurs not having been picked. Luckily(?) we finally got Crystal Palace but that is not likely to be a cake walk either but better than any of those other PL teams left in the draw at that stage.

Now we just have to deal with Chelsea in the EFL Cup today and MU on Sunday.............easy.


EDIT
Good enough start against Chelsea. 1-0 with, I'm assuming away goals counting in event of a draw, puts Spurs very much in the driving seat with their failure to score tonight.

That's why I prefer away second legs, we only have to score once at SB and they then have to score three to win. Not counting our chickens yet of course.

[EJG1980]

Ground that one out tonight as we were nowhere near our best going forward. Once we got our noses in front though the defence did an excellent job and although we were under a lot of pressure, Chelsea created very little in the way of clear cut chances. Aside from his excellent save to tip that deflected cross onto the woodwork just before half time, Gazzaniga only had to make routine comfortable saves from long range pot shots. The one big chance Chelsea created was when Christansen missed his free header at the back post, the one time my heart sank and I thought they were bound to score.

Thought Lamela was unlucky at the end when clean through, I think he was just stronger than the Chelsea defender and was unlucky to have a foul called against him. Would have been nice to have an extra goal to take to the Bridge but any advantage is a welcome one.

[EJG1980]

That's why I prefer away second legs, we only have to score once at SB and they then have to score three to win. Not counting our chickens yet of course.

I was saying the same thing on the tube home but according to my brother they've done away with away goals and extra time in the League Cup semis this season. So if Chelsea beat us 2-1, for example, we wouldn't go through on away goals, it'd go straight to a penalty shoot out.

(Just googled it, they have indeed done away with away goals this season).

Also, Kane's goal tonight moves him one clear of Cliff Jones into outright 4th place in our all time top scorers list. The three big ones are now all that remain ahead of him:

1 - Jimmy Greaves - 1961-70 - 266 goals in 379 appearances
2 - Bobby Smith - 1955-64 - 208 in 317
3 - Martin Chivers - 1968-76 - 174 in 367
4 - Harry Kane - 2011-?? - 160 in 243

I think he's got a very good shot of getting past Chivers by the end of the season to move into the top three.

[fallenangle]

Damn! That away goals not counting double in event of a draw is very annoying but I suspected as much which is why I used the word "assuming" in my earlier post. I wish they'd leave the rules alone.

Looks like one of my favourite Spurs' strikers Martin Chivers' goal record could well be broken by HK before the end of the season too. Hope so.

[TonyDA]

Stadium predictably delayed again - mid March at the earliest. Maybe Daniel has a few players in for January lined up to cheer us all up?

[TonyDA]

And here's an article about 'why would Poch leave to rebuild Man Utd'

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jan/10/mauricio-pochettino-should-reject-manchester-united-history-spurs

Agree with every aspect of this. He should stay, he may well stay, but - somehow - the board have to back him in the transfer market, otherwise he's probably taken them as far as he can.

[fallenangle]

I think this is just internal politics, Poch is obfuscating on the possibility of leaving for MU as a tool to get the Spurs board to spend on some of players he thinks, probably rightly, that they'll need to get any degree of consistent success in the future. If it does not work and the job offers are forthcoming from MU or other more financially rich clubs he may be tempted in the summer. Hope not.

I don't think MU are going to want him anyway. OG Solskaer is still in the honeymoon phase of his supposed temporary role as 'head coach'/manager but I think is just the type of guy they need. An ex-player who was pretty much the epitome of the type of footballer MU fans want to see at the club. If his management skill are up to the job and he continues to get good performances/results from the players for the rest of the season I can see his job being made permanent despite his relative inexperience managing a big club.

Spurs might well give him a bit of a reality slap in the upcoming game but in the long term I think he should be and will be given a real chance. MU have paid for the supposed 'best' available managers since Ferguson stepped down but they've all proved a bad fit so why not try something radically different and see is OGS can grow into the type of manager they want rather than poach Poch?

[EJG1980]

Poch has clarified that he didn't simply mean "we need to start spending more money," when he was talking about the need to compete in a different way in the future:

"You said this week about the club needing to operate in a different way, have you had any response from Daniel Levy or Joe Lewis?"

"When we talk about operating in a different way, it's to create something different to try to help the club achieve everything he wants. It doesn't mean when operate it's only asking for more money. It's quick that all the people say when we need to operate in a different way it's to operate with money. We need to create a way, because in the last four seasons and a half, we were adapting us to the project, to the club. For different reasons, because after nearly five years, always you need to refresh the project, to find a different way. Like in football you need to find a different way to play, a different way to surprise your opponents and motivate your players too and to propose different challenges.

In that case when I say we need, WE need to find a different way to operate, between all, sharing ideas and trying to find different ways to adapt, the new sporting project. Of course we're going to be in a different club, because it's not the same to play in Wembley for the last two years nearly. To play now in our new stadium, of course always you need to adapt and find different ways to operate. That doesn't mean how we operate today is not right, but of course with time you need to innovate and find new ideas and always be open to try to improve. That is the challenge or the way that we do things."

Personally I don't think Poch is put off by budget restrictions, per se. When our turnover is around £300 million and a team like Man Utd's is just under £600 million, he knows that it's literally impossible for us to match their kind of spending (and he's said as much himself in past interviews).

I think the big thing with Poch is sticking to your word; even before our interest in him there were stories of him being unhappy with Southampton because he felt like they'd gone back on promises they'd made about how the club would be run and what its aims were.

So even though there are restrictions in place at Spurs (such as selling to buy while the stadium is being funded) I don't think those alone will make him want to leave, as long as he knows what the situation is up front, and he's never indicated that Spurs have ever gone back on their word with him.

[EJG1980]

Gah, most annoying defeat of the season by far today. I can’t remember the last time we had as many clear cut chances as we did in that second half and not get even a single goal out of it. De Gea did make some good saves but nine times out of ten, with some of the chances we had, we wouldn’t even have given him the chance to make the save. Really really good half, just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net.

Sissoko off injured too, at the same time we’re losing Son for a month. Hopefully it isn’t too serious for the Moose but the way he pulled up didn’t look good at all. I’ll be gutted if he’s out for a while, it’d be such a shame to see him injured when he’s worked so hard to turn around his Spurs career. Dier should be available again very soon so at least we should have some cover should Sissoko be out for a while.

Oh well, one of those days today, just gotta take it on the chin, swear a bit, and move on!

Edit: I may have been worried about the wrong player; just saw Poch saying that Moussa’s injury is “a small thing” and that’s he’s more worried about the knock Kane took right at the end of the match. Gah.