Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[fallenangle]

I'm confident Burnley will give Liverpool a spanking today. My pet flying pig has predicted that so it is going to happen. He refused to be drawn on predicting the AV versus Spurs game. He knows he's bacon if he gets it wrong.

[EJG1980]

Great start to the match, but as we've done so often this season, we stopped playing after going 1-0 up. It's been pretty much all Villa since Bergwijn's goal. Had one shot since then, Villa had about nine or ten.

I have a bit of sympathy with Reguilon for their equaliser as it may well have been a 1 in 100 freak miss-kick, but the second goal was awful, two chances to clear it and he gives it away to a Villa player both times. We've had some other poor giveaways from Winks and Dier too, that luckily weren't punished, and a couple of chances for Villa where they were completely unmarked and should have done better.

With a tough match against Leicester coming up we really need to turn this around, otherwise we could be slipping to as low as ninth on the final day if things don't go our way. Massive second half coming up...



A bit better, five minutes here and there where we looked like we might build up a head of steam, but actual goalscoring chances... not really. No moments where we had a golden chance that we didn't take. Villa the deserved winners.

Really disappointing, and we now need to beat a Leicester team who are going to be going hell for leather to get into the CL to stop it getting even more disappointing on the final day. Could very easily end up with no European football at all next season.

[fallenangle]

Just finished watching MotD.............................depressing result to say the least.

Great Bergwijn goal to start off with, strong and a really clinical finish - more of that please. But no, all downhill. Amazing from the position he was in Reguilon sliced it so badly because any less cut on the ball and Lloris might have saved it.

So sloppy and slow playing out from the back we were lucky not to be punished more.

Looks like HK is definitely going and I suspect that means others will go too and we'll have at least two seasons of mid-table mediocrity as the club rebuilds to look forward too.

[EJG1980]

On Kane I'm not 100% convinced he will be sold this summer, for various reasons (still three years on contract, the fee Levy would demand, clubs feeling the pinch due to the pandemic, etc), and I wouldn't be surprised if we manage to get one more season from him.

Similar to the Modric situation in summer 2011 when it was reported that he was nailed on to leave, he even said he wanted to go publicly, and we held firm and kept him for another year.

Also the BBC report that contrary to rumours, Kane himself has not actually gone to the club and said that he wants to leave (yet), though I have no doubt though that he's unhappy and disillusioned at the way the past couple of years have gone, and will have been very seriously considering his future.

Certainly wouldn't surprise me if he did leave this summer, but I don't think him staying is a wild fantasy either. Him staying at Spurs is still the current favourite with the bookmakers, for what it's worth.

As for the club in general, we're definitely at our lowest ebb for a good long while. I have a bit of confidence that we might not necessarily be too long in the doldrums before we turn it around again, as we have had a bit of a pattern with the ups and downs of our recent history.

Up: 5th and 5th under Martin Jol. First top six finish for sixteen years. Optimism returns after so long in the doldrums.

Down: 11th place with Jol sacked and Juande Ramos in (though a surprise cup win). Keane and Berbatov sold, 2 points 8 games start to the season, Ramos sacked and Harry Redknapp in, eventually finish 8th.

Up: 4th, 5th, 4th, 5th under Redknapp and then AVB. CL qualification and a run to the quarter-finals. First top four finish for twenty years. Record Premier League points total set by AVB.

Down: The sale of Gareth Bale. AVB being replaced by Tim Sherwood, doing enough to finish sixth but reports of mass player unhappiness and the feel that a reboot is needed to recapture the form of the previous four seasons.

Up: Mauricio Pochettino becomes manager. 5th, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Our first top three finish for twenty-six years. Our first top two finish for fifty-four years. Four consecutive CL qualifications, and our first ever appearance in the final in 2019.

Down: Where we are now. Poch being replaced by Jose Mourinho but it not being the magic bullet to turn us into the trophy winners that the club hoped it would be, and possibly the next big superstar sale with the rumours about Harry Kane.

So what's next? More down or the start of another new up period? There's no guarantee that history repeats itself of course, but the pattern over the last fifteen or so years has been that we come out of the "down" periods with a stronger "up" period than our previous ups.

Stating the obvious I suppose but the next manager appointment is a fairly big one! If we get the right man then all the resources are there for a club that can compete at the top end of the league. Just gotta cross our fingers and hope for the best. It certainly won't be a dull summer, that's for sure!

[fallenangle]

I was thinking that with the distinct possibility of not even a Europa League place the type of potential managers Spurs might want to attract are not going to be interested. Either that or they're going to have to pay a lot to persuade one of suitable caliber and experience to take on the job.

If we can beat Leicester and Southampton beat WH that might change everything but my flying pig is suspiciously silent on the chances of either game going our way, let alone both.

[EJG1980]

I think the club has been built up to a point where one season out of Europe wouldn't make a huge difference to an incoming manager. They'll be looking at the whole picture of amazing stadium, world class training facilities, 9th highest income in world football, 11 years in a row of European qualification, etc., etc.. I don't think a one off non-qualification for Europe puts a huge dent in all the other things that make it a very attractive job.

I think it'd be more likely to affect a team like... random example, Crystal Palace. If they were in our position this season, then qualifying for Europe or not might make a difference to the level of manager who they can attract for next season, as it's not the norm for them and could be seen as a nice bonus for an incoming manager.

Speaking of managers, it's just been announced that Nuno Espirito Santo is leaving Wolves at the end of the season. I wouldn't rule him out completely from getting the Spurs job, but there are two things that make me think it's unlikely to be him:

1. Levy made a specific point in his end of season letter that we'd be looking to appoint a manager with a reputation for free-flowing, exciting, attacking football. NES has done an excellent job at Wolves, but I certainly wouldn't describe them as free-flowing and exciting. Certainly not the "opposite of Mourinho" candidate that Levy has implied we want.

2. Wolves have also released him from his contract for free; I doubt they'd have done that if he wanted to leave to go to Spurs, they'd surely want compensation and would demand Spurs buy out his contract. Unless they're randomly feeling very generous

[fallenangle]

I was thinking that possible but unlikely too and it set my mind to another with an outside chance too: Frank Lampard. He's apparently ruled himself out of the Crystal Palace job when old Woy leaves at the end of the season and that made me wonder why. His eye on the Spurs job perhaps?

Chelsea are said to have been considering offering Tammy Abraham and their Spanish goalkeeper in a player/cash deal for HK. Probably wild newspaper speculation but still a, potentially, interesting idea although I doubt HK would be that happy about playing for Chelsea.

If he's going to go MU or MC are surely the more likely destinations if he doesn't fancy playing abroad.

Sunday Edit

As expected Southampton did us no favours and for a long time it sounded as Spurs were going to end the season on another disappointing note. But the game turned and actually quite looking forward to seeing that on MotD.

So frustrating though, just a couple of other games with this sort of result and we would have been in a top four place.

Rather sorry for Leicester, falling at the last hurdle, because as Spurs fans we all understand that too well. But at least Leicester get Europa League football next season whereas we get the scrapings.

[EJG1980]

As expected Southampton did us no favours and for a long time it sounded as Spurs were going to end the season on another disappointing note. But the game turned and actually quite looking forward to seeing that on MotD.

So frustrating though, just a couple of other games with that sort of result and we would have been in a top four place.

Yup, not a perfect final day (and I can't begrudge West Ham finishing above us for once, they've had a great season and deserve the reward of Europa League football) but a pretty decent one.

Got a win in an entertaining match, Harry Kane got the goal he needed to win the golden boot, and we did enough to get at least some form of European football next season with the new fangled Europa Conference League. Not the most prestigious of pots, but I won't say no to any trophy, so I hope we win it! We were the first British club to win a European trophy, first British club to win the Cup Winners Cup, first British club to win the UEFA Cup, so maybe we can keep the tradition going and be the first to win the ECL too.

Rather sorry for Leicester, falling at the last hurdle, because as Spurs fans we all understand that too well. But at least Leicester get Europa League football next season whereas we get the scrapings.

Yup, definitely feel sorry for Leicester, and it's not even falling at the last hurdle this year, it's two seasons in a row where they've been in top four the whole season long and lost it at the last Not as bad this time though, at least this time they've got a brilliant FA Cup win to celebrate.

[Mayhem]

Yeah if you’d offered me a trophy or CL qualification at the start of the season, it would have been the former all day long. But as you say, frustratingly annoying to **** it all up again in the last few matches...

[EJG1980]

So frustrating though, just a couple of other games with this sort of result and we would have been in a top four place.

I meant to reply to this part in my last post but somehow forgot to type it. Agreed, really frustrating, knowing that CL was there for the taking with just one loss converted to a win and one draw converted to a win. Plenty of candidates all season long for those two matches, especially the draws that should have been wins.

I'm choosing to take a positive spin on it though. I've seen a lot of fans saying that we're miles behind and a rebuild/refresh will take a good few seasons for a new manager to implement. But is the idea of someone coming in and improving this squad by five to ten points or so completely unimaginable? In 2009 we finished twenty-one points outside the top four, and then in 2010 finished fourth. If we can bridge a twenty-one point gap in one season, we can certainly bridge a five point gap in one season.

There's no guarantees for anything, so a new manager could come in and we could keep getting worse. But there's no reason to think that is any more likely than a new manager coming in and being an instant hit who propels us back up the table.

[fallenangle]

Reports yesterday which sound hugely unlikely is that Poch was seriously considering a come back to Spurs but there's plenty of gossip on the web today which suggests the claim might have some credibilty.

[EJG1980]

Reports yesterday which sound hugely unlikely is that Poch was seriously considering a come back to Spurs but there's plenty of gossip on the web today which suggests the claim might have some credibilty.

I'd love to have him back here. If we can get a shift on and appoint him before the end of the day it would be very apt, as the first time we appointed him in was on 27th May 2014

I saw various rumours on forums a couple of days ago about Poch and Antonio Conte emerging as serious contenders for the Spurs job (and promptly put a bet on both before the odds dropped!), more rumours late last night and today the Poch stuff has exploded. Once the BBC start reporting something, which they have, I take it seriously as they don't usually put anything on their news pages that are only at the "rumours" stage.

Before our performances dropped in the last 8-9 months of his first stint, he was talking about how the club needed a 'painful rebuild' to keep things, that we had to start doing things differently if we wanted to keep progressing. One of his quotes was something along the lines of "You can build a fantastic house, but you still need to fill it with the best furniture".

If he is coming back then I think it's tantamount to Levy saying "You were right, I was wrong, should have backed you for a rebuild and not hired Mourinho." I don't think Poch would come back without assurances that things he wanted changed last time would be implemented this time around. It'll be interesting to see if we have a clearout of players this summer like we did when he first arrived in 2014. IF he does come back!

Edit: for what it's worth, if Conte and Poch are both serious contenders for the job I would be very happy with either. The choice of my head would be Conte as he's one of the best around right now, has just won yet another league title, knows the Premier League and has won it recently. Heart says Poch because, well, it's Poch, the romance of him coming back "home" can't be denied, the first match with him back in the stadium would be amazing (and he is an excellent coach too).

Plus as long as it's one of them, I'll be just over £100 up on my various manager bets! After all the talk today it'll probably end up being neither of them

[fallenangle]

Really bad to watch it almost as it happened: Christian Eriksen collapsing during the Denmark v. Finland game only a few minutes ago.

I turned on the TV to see if there were any goals and whether it was worth watching and then that happens. Terrible for his family, friends and colleagues amongst whom must be a large number of people at Spurs. Not least HK and all the Spurs players still at the club and ex-Spurs players who played alongside him for many seasons and probably count him as a friend.

Just want the outcome to be positive but when you see someone being given that sort of medical treatment in situ you fear the worst even when you're hoping for the best.

[EJG1980]

I feared the worst, flashbacks to the Fabrice Muamba incident at White Hart Lane 7 or 8 years ago.

There has been some positive sounding news coming out though: UEFA tweeted that his condition had been stabilised, and the Danish FA tweeted that he was awake in hospital and awaiting further tests. Didn't expect it after what happened on the pitch but HOPEFULLY the positive news will keep on coming.

[fallenangle]

Good to see he's improving now but I suspect it will be a long road to full recovery.

Watched the Wales versus Turkey match yesterday; particularly with three Spurs players on the pitch I'll happily cheer them on unless they're playing England.

Damned entertaining game with everything you want from a British team: stalwart defending, everyone putting in a shift with skillful, lightning fast counter attacks, flashes of genius, not just from GB and plenty of incidents like his missed penalty and even a bit of argy-bargy to spice things up. Good stuff.