Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

It looks like we're signing Steven Bergwijn from PSV. Everywhere reporting late last night that we'd agreed the fee with PSV and now reports are coming out that terms with the player have been agreed too, and that he should be taking his medical today. Eriksen had his Inter medical yesterday, so maybe we could get a double announcement later today, one out one in.

Seems like a very Spurs signing; exciting 22 year old youngster, growing reputation, started getting called up to the national team in the past year, and still plenty of room for growth and improvement. I've not seen him play myself, but I saw Rafa van der Vaart said on Twitter that he thought he had the potential to be a very good signing for Spurs. Of our current players, from what I've read, his style of play is most similar to Lucas Moura.

He's a winger, so you could argue that it's not a priority position, but it gives competition / rotation for the likes of Son, Lamela, Lucas, etc., helps keep everyone fresh instead of being run into the ground because of a lack of cover. Apparently we're still trying hard to do a deal for Piatek, so hopefully we can get that across the line before the end of the transfer window.

Edit: Well we've sort of had a one out one in announcement, but it's more like one out half in Inter have announced the signing of Eriksen and at the same time Spurs announced that we've exercised the option to make Lo Celso's loan a permanent move. He's signed a contract to 2025.

Gonna be weird not having Eriksen in the team anymore. It's a shame his form fell off in the final year so he didn't go out in style, but for six seasons he was an absolutely vital and integral part of the team, probably him and Kane being the two most important cogs.

Hard to pick a favourite moment from him but the winner away against Man City, the goal away against Chelsea, and the goal that put us 3-0 up against Real Madrid spring to mind. Good luck to him in Italy, I hope he can recapture his best form and help Inter to the title. Spurs posted a nice video of him after the move to Inter was announced:

[fallenangle]

Yes, nice compilation; Eriksen was one of my favourite Spurs players when he was at his best, the goals and just as importantly his almost countless assists have been vital to Spurs for years.

Shame about the manner of his going but it was clear he wanted to move on long ago and that, very obviously, affected his performance but he still showed occasional flashes of his old self. It'll be interesting to see if he can do a Luka Modric like re-boot after leaving Spurs - if he does the roughly £17m price tag is going to be seen as a stupidly good value deal for Inter.

[EJG1980]

That's Steven Bergwijn officially signed up now too. If we can get in a striker as cover for Kane then it'll have been a very decent transfer window.

Lots of reports saying that while Piatek is still our number one target we've also made enquiries about Oliver Giroud from Chelsea. I think he'd be a good "safe bet" signing to see us through to the end of the season; no settling in to a new country / league, masses of experience, could slot straight into the team and do a good job, etc.. I'm not sure Chelsea would sell him to us though, why solve a problem for a rival that's trying to catch you up and take your top four spot?

[fallenangle]

They've been talking about Gareth Bale returning to Spurs again. Probably just wild speculation but having him, DA, Lo Celso and Lucas M in midfield would make for a very interesting and potentially exceptional formation.

Oliver Giroud I've always thought was under appreciated and if Spurs could get him (unlikely) I wouldn't be unhappy.

[EJG1980]

It's the same every window in recent times, there's always a load of "Bale back to Spurs???" click-bait. I'd be hugely shocked if he came back here, not least because his basic wage at Madrid is double what we pay Kane. As romantic as it would be to see him come back, I just cannot see it happening, and I doubt it's something we're even looking at trying to do.

Speaking of things not happening (smooth link!) it appears that Piatek won't be coming to Spurs. Spurs only wanted to loan him with an option to buy and Milan wanted to sell him outright straight away. Hertha Berlin came in with an offer to buy him right now, so, Milan accepted their offer.

It would have been a gamble, but I think it could have worked out for him here and we might have ended up with a decent bargain (though I won't lose too much sleep over missing out on him either). I hope we have some other striker targets lined up and ready to go! Paco Alcacer from Dortmund is the latest name to be linked with us.

One more outgoing, KWP on his way to Southampton on loan for the rest of the season. No purchase clause, so if he gets a good run of starts and does really well, there's still a chance for him to make the breakthrough with us.

[EJG1980]

Wasn’t expecting three points today so that’s a very nice bonus! Had to ride our luck with some of Man City’s misses but once they went down to ten men we took full advantage with a couple of great goals. Lovely goal from Bergwijn to mark his debut in style, superb performances in midfield from Winks and Lo Celso, and the whole team worked their socks off for the whole 90 mins. Lovely

[fallenangle]

Yep, I'd resigned myself to thinking the best we could expect was a point and after the first half, which I was following off and on via the BBC5L live commentary and Google, I was expecting MC to get at least one goal.

They had double the possession and multiple chances to score. When I went back to it in the second half I crossed my fingers that we hadn't let in a goal and was amazed and delighted when I realised Spurs had just scored and ten minutes later did it again. Yay!

What I'm interested in is whether the way the game played out was a deliberate Mourinho plan or was he just lucky?

He knew MC were better so set Spurs up to defend strongly and hit on the counter attack. Sensible idea; make MC work and frustrate them so that in the final quarter of the game they run out of steam and become ripe for more counter attacks. The saved penalty and sending off were unforeseeable additional elements that worked in favour of that plan, if that is what it was.

The Bergwijn goal was indeed a peach.

Enjoyed seeing the on pitch argy-bargy on MotD, particularly after the penalty save too. Nothing nasty but it was clear evidence MC were getting frustrated even then.

Hope we carry over that positiveness and crush Soton in the FA Cup replay on Wednesday.

[EJG1980]

What I'm interested in is whether the way the game played out was a deliberate Mourinho plan or was he just lucky?

He knew MC were better so set Spurs up to defend strongly and hit on the counter attack. Sensible idea; make MC work and frustrate them so that in the final quarter of the game they run out of steam and become ripe for more counter attacks. The saved penalty and sending off were unforeseeable additional elements that worked in favour of that plan, if that is what it was.

I think it was a bit of both, a deliberate plan where he knew we'd also have to get a bit lucky for it to come off. I think in six months time or so, when he's had a lot of time (including a pre-season) to work with the players, they'd be able to pull off a game plan like this one while giving away less chances and creating more of their own.

But at the moment the players haven't had enough time with Mourinho for what he wants to be drilled in enough for it to become second nature, so there are going to be lapses and moments where we need a bit of luck to come through unscathed. Thankfully, a little bit of luck was on our side yesterday!

Enjoyed seeing the on pitch argy-bargy on MotD, particularly after the penalty save too. Nothing nasty but it was clear evidence MC were getting frustrated even then.

All that stuff really got the crowd going, made for a great atmosphere. My favourite moment though was one I didn't see at the time, I saw it on telly later, was when Mourhino was happy and smiling at the second penalty being turned down and his assistant says to him "If that wasn't a penalty, Sterling should be booked for diving and sent off,"...

...and the instant transformation of Mourinho into a cauldron of rage, jumping up and ranting at the fourth official! Hilarious, and I now imagine his assistant enjoying saying little things on purpose to send Mourinho into a rage for his own amusement

[fallenangle]

COYS!

Recommend watching the highlights on the BBC Red Button of yesterday's FA Cup games - some hugely entertaining ties. Hard fought British cup football at its best with some really good play from teams way down the League ladder.

Just hope the Spurs/Soton match is as worthy but TBH I'll be happy however we win it.

EDIT

Not quite how I hoped Spurs would play but we got the win - eventually. Yay!

Spurs game highlights:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51377830

Other 4th Round Goals (no longer on the Red Button)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0824v5s/the-fa-cup-201920-fourthround-replay-goals

[EJG1980]

Yup, as Mourinho admitted, the best team on the pitch didn’t win the match. Even when not playing well though, you can’t fault the determination and fight of our players who hung in there and got a result from a not great performance.

I thought Dele and Gedson were very good when they came on, made a real difference that helped us turn the match around; the final fifteen minutes we finally started playing well and looked like the better side. Alli especially with his involvement in the two goals, the pass into Son just before he was taken down for the penalty was beautiful.

So not pretty, but into the next round with a home match to come. Hopefully the ten day break until the next match will let our players freshen up a bit and help get over any little niggles they have. Lo Celso and Lamela who missed last night’s match are expected to be fine for the Villa match, and Ben Davies should be back too.

[EJG1980]

Big news, Man City have been banned from Europe for two seasons for breaking FFP rules. I wonder if this means (I assume it does, but you never know) that should Man City finish in the top four, the final CL spot will move down to the team who finish fifth. Hopefully we can get into the top four and make it a moot point, but it could give a big unexpected bonus to the team finishing 5th. My ideal world would see us finish 4th with Sheffield Utd 5th

[fallenangle]

There are elaborate rules in place for CL qualification and the Premiership apparently is only allowed a maximum of five teams in whatever circumstances. So if Premiership teams win both the CL and EFL, which automatically qualifies them for the CL group stages the next season, it could mean only the top three positions in the Premiership will be eligible.

The rules state that if they both finish in the top six the next highest placed team will qualify. In the right circumstances that could mean fifth place qualifies too.

How the thing works when a team, likely to finish in the top four, is banned who knows? We'll have to wait and see.

The criteria for qualification page I found states this:-

"Please note UEFA reserves the right to change the conditions of the access list so these criteria can be subject to change"

[EJG1980]

Yeah, some possible but unlikely ways for the lowest qualifying spot in the league to miss out. Unlikely we'll ever see it happen, but if we do, I'd bet a lot of money on Spurs being the ones who missed out Stuff like that seems to have a habit of seeking us out.

I have seen it confirmed now though that the UEFA rules say that if a team is banned from Europe, and finishes in a European qualifying position, their spot goes to the next highest placed team in the league. So in normal circumstances, assuming Man City finish in the top four and don't have the ban overturned, 5th place will get you into the CL this season.

Regardless of all that, let's hope we can go on a good run and get as high up the league as possible. No jaw dropping performances, but we've won 4 and drawn 2 of our last 6 in all competitions, so we're starting to get results again, hopefully we can keep the momentum going with a win against Villa.

Edit: Get in!!! Thought that was going to be a big two points dropped today with the sheer number of really good chances we passed up at 2-2, but thankfully we got a bit of luck right at the end and finally put the ball in the back of the net instead of straight at the keeper. Phew

[fallenangle]

Talk about doing it the hard way.

Can't wait to see this on MotD: two goals for TA (a rare event getting even one) unfortunately the first an OG. Then it goes to the 90+4 mins before we get the winner from Son.

Stats for the match suggest it was pretty well balanced but it's interesting we had significantly more shots on goal. That's good and bad but however profligate that suggests I'll take any win as it comes.

One point behind Chelsea and they have MU to deal with then Spurs. I think two games from now we could be two points ahead in fourth place, which would be nice.

[EJG1980]

Toby's goal (the one at the right end!) was actually a really really good finish. A top striker would have been proud of it, let along a centre-back.

It was a bit of a strange match, as we never looked properly secure at the back and Villa caused us some worry (especially from set pieces) but at the same time we created so many chances that if we'd had our shooting boots on we would have won by a decent margin.

Even if we were having an off day with the finishing, it was a positive to see us create so many chances, and some of the attacking football we played was really lovely. Many times in the past year we've played against lesser teams and struggled to create decent chances, so it's a bit of movement in the right direction.

What do we want in the Chelsea vs Man Utd match? A draw would probably be the best of both worlds; we could still overtake Chelsea by beating them and we keep a nice gap to Man Utd behind us. A Man Utd win would be alright too, so I'll take any result that isn't Chelsea winning!