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  1. DubaiSpur

    *** OMT Tottenham Hotspur FC v Aston Villa ***

    Sure, but the question is if Villa are a top team or not. I think they're not, but they're within the category of 'comparable teams that pose a threat on the break'. So, it didn't surprise me that Frank went with a Palhinha-Benta pivot again. It would start to become a concern if Frank stayed...
  2. DubaiSpur

    *** OMT Tottenham Hotspur FC v Aston Villa ***

    Well, to be fair, the ticket prices also don't guarantee that the fans will sing. It's a two-way street, and the changing attitude of the fans in England parallels wider socioeconomic trends. The prohibitive cost of Premier League football has made it an upper middle-class, middle-aged hobby...
  3. DubaiSpur

    *** OMT Tottenham Hotspur FC v Aston Villa ***

    Well, we had a pretty good spell with Rose and Davies when Danny was at his peak, so I wouldn't say 15 years. More like 5 - since Rose left, we've had at most one fit left back at a time, since Udogie is now a sick note and Davies had a late-career transition into left centre-back. Agreed...
  4. DubaiSpur

    *** OMT Tottenham Hotspur FC v Aston Villa ***

    It's alright. Game of fine margins, and we lost to a couple of wonder strikes, though we're looking pretty blunt in front of goal ourselves. The movement and solidity is there - just lacking penetration. Ultimately, it's a squad problem. Udogie being injured (and unfortunately, now entering...
  5. DubaiSpur

    *** OMT Tottenham Hotspur FC v Aston Villa ***

    Surprised Bentancur stayed on, to be honest. It's a straight swap, which means we'll still have that Palhinha - Bentancur double pivot. Will make it harder to progress through the middle.
  6. DubaiSpur

    *** OMT Tottenham Hotspur FC v Aston Villa ***

    It's a good performance so far considering the circumstances. Restricted Villa well, they haven't been able to get going, and we've generally had the better chances and controlled play well. The circumstances referred to are the injury blows - with Udogie out, Spence on the left negates a good...
  7. DubaiSpur

    Fabio Paratici - Also Sporting Director

    Haha! Well, it's not so much that - he's about as dodgy as any of their other sporting directors, all of whom are a class unto themselves in terms of treating rules like suggestions. :p It's more that he's seen as having played a central role in dismantling the all-conquering Juve team of the...
  8. DubaiSpur

    Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - Licence To Stand

    On the Goons, believe that's their idea - to do a partial expansion to 70,000, much like the Anfield expansion. On the roof, makes sense - if I recall correctly, those compression rings required incredibly delicate and precise work to get into place and tension properly, and the roof as a whole...
  9. DubaiSpur

    Fabio Paratici - Also Sporting Director

    One small thing I'll note - Paratici repeatedly name-checked the love he got from the fans in his interview, as one of the reasons for him rejoining. It almost certainly is good PR to frame it that way, so I'm not surprised he did - those interviews are mostly PR anyway. But I think there's...
  10. DubaiSpur

    Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - Licence To Stand

    I think their plan is to up the capacity to 70,000, so 10k increase. We don't know much beyond that - reporting on it is very recent.
  11. DubaiSpur

    Other leagues around the world

    There's also the reality that a match featuring Barcelona or Real Madrid, anywhere in the world, will functionally be a home match because 90% of the crowd will show up just to cheer them on. It's fundamentally an unfair advantage to other teams in a title race. The reason the rest accept it...
  12. DubaiSpur

    Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - Licence To Stand

    One thing that strikes me about the Premier League arms race - new stadiums, and plans for new stadiums, are rapidly accelerating. Whether it's Everton's new gaff, the 100,000-capacity circus tent they're planning at United, or the Emirates rebuild. It's a prompt for us to think about the...
  13. DubaiSpur

    *** The official 2025/26 Premier League thread ***

    To be fair, Arse made them look like brick. So far the Goons seem to be the only team in the league that are firing on all cylinders. For most teams that would mean lots of goals and flowing football - for the Goons it's scraping a lead off a set-piece and then just locking down the game...
  14. DubaiSpur

    Johan Lange - Sporting Director

    Sure, him too, though by then data-driven scouting had become more of the norm. His 'black box' methodology worked brilliantly at Southampton, but by the time he came to us, others had started up competing models (most notably Edwards, who had by then left us for Liverpool). Still, it was a...
  15. DubaiSpur

    Johan Lange - Sporting Director

    Agreed. The other thing about this is, at least it's trying something new and innovative when it comes to the backroom staff part of the operation. Under Levy, there was a period when we were the most forward-thinking club in the Premier League when it came to appointing backroom staff, even in...
  16. DubaiSpur

    Johan Lange - Sporting Director

    It's sort of much of a muchness - in England, what today is called a 'technical director' (which Lange functionally still is, promotion aside), would generally have been called a Chief Scout in the old days. What's changed has (as I've heard it) a general decrease in clubs having teams of...
  17. DubaiSpur

    Johan Lange - Sporting Director

    Right, sure, but it took 18 years for that to happen in Paratici's case - I don't think any of us would care if Lange usurped Paratici 18 years from now. Especially if in the interval, we achieve the things Paratici + Marotta did at Sampdoria and Juventus, which were absolutely stunning...
  18. DubaiSpur

    Johan Lange - Sporting Director

    Well. it very well could end up an ego-driven disaster, but I wouldn't be that sure about it. The thing is, this is not uncommon in the environment Paratici knows best, i.e, Italy. He himself played the 'Lange role', for lack of a better term, at Sampdoria and Juventus - working on the scouting...
  19. DubaiSpur

    **** OMT Tottenham Hotspur FC v Bodo Glimt ****

    Agreed, and I would like that experiment to end once Maddison and Kulu are back as options. But that's what I mean - our lack of options for players outside the starting 11, through injury or transfer missteps, are forcing these sorts of choices. Problem is, he's also the only vaguely defensive...
  20. DubaiSpur

    **** OMT Tottenham Hotspur FC v Bodo Glimt ****

    It was pretty much as expected - Bodo are a damn good side, and played us off the park for the first 60 minutes. The key problem was ball retention - we absolutely could not retain the ball under pressure, because: A) neither Danso nor Van de Ven offer passing capabilities to beat the press, B)...
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