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A look ahead to next season...

Interesting i see a lot more positivity around the squad than i personally feel, but as Chief Grumpypants... Also very surprised to see some folks thinking Ange should stick around. Absolute head loss there. He's way out of his depth.

1. I think we need considerable upgrades certainly in midfield. There is almost no set up that works well with our current midfielders - minimum would be two stellar Midfield signings as 1 simply isn't enough

2. I think we are over estimating our players wildly here. Son has been poor this year and is 33 next year. Tel, not sure he'll stick around, hardly done a great sales pitch to him have we? I am surprised to see how highly some value the squad. Look at players at Forest, Elanga, Gibbs-White, VIlla with Rodgers, Saudi Sportswashing Machine with their midfield 3 and wingers, we are very far off all those teams. In fact I rarely see a player in the Spurs line up you would take over several of those? Which of our wingers ahead of Gordon or Elanga? Which of our CMs over Guimares or Palmer?

3. The squad is not only a poor patchwork, it's got no stellar stand out players. Nearly every team above us has a top level player in it. Whether it's Salah, Saka, Palmer, Isak, who do we have? No one. Are we going to splash the cash for one? No chance.
 
Things can change very quickly in football. Sometimes, you get the right player, right manager and everything clicks. There's so many factors to take into account that it's almost impossible to get a clear picture from the outside. Conversely, take a toxic personality away from the dressing room and it's night and day.

Look at the difference someone like Berbatov made. A good player in Germany, but nowhere near as good as what he was for us. Sometimes, you luck out and you find yourself in the right place and at the right time. That's why I always go into every season with optimism.
 
Interesting i see a lot more positivity around the squad than i personally feel, but as Chief Grumpypants... Also very surprised to see some folks thinking Ange should stick around. Absolute head loss there. He's way out of his depth.

1. I think we need considerable upgrades certainly in midfield. There is almost no set up that works well with our current midfielders - minimum would be two stellar Midfield signings as 1 simply isn't enough

2. I think we are over estimating our players wildly here. Son has been poor this year and is 33 next year. Tel, not sure he'll stick around, hardly done a great sales pitch to him have we? I am surprised to see how highly some value the squad. Look at players at Forest, Elanga, Gibbs-White, VIlla with Rodgers, Saudi Sportswashing Machine with their midfield 3 and wingers, we are very far off all those teams. In fact I rarely see a player in the Spurs line up you would take over several of those? Which of our wingers ahead of Gordon or Elanga? Which of our CMs over Guimares or Palmer?

3. The squad is not only a poor patchwork, it's got no stellar stand out players. Nearly every team above us has a top level player in it. Whether it's Salah, Saka, Palmer, Isak, who do we have? No one. Are we going to splash the cash for one? No chance.
They players you name aren't better than what we have. If any, it's very marginal. But they play in a setup that works, and with positive results, comes better confidence, which in turn gives better individual performance and so on. There are a very few absolutely top class players, and then there is a bracket of thousands of players, that individually are very much on the same level. It's about fitting them in the right system and environment. If we switches players with those you mentioned, I don't think it would make any difference for us or them.
 
Our squad is up there with Villa's and Saudi Sportswashing Machine's IMO. It just needs a rudder.

Remember City could well be starting the season on minus 80 points. And they are an ageing squad - their current fall-off isn't a fluke.
Minus 80?

What would be the point?

Why not just relegate them?

fudges the league up
 
Interesting i see a lot more positivity around the squad than i personally feel, but as Chief Grumpypants... Also very surprised to see some folks thinking Ange should stick around. Absolute head loss there. He's way out of his depth.

1. I think we need considerable upgrades certainly in midfield. There is almost no set up that works well with our current midfielders - minimum would be two stellar Midfield signings as 1 simply isn't enough

2. I think we are over estimating our players wildly here. Son has been poor this year and is 33 next year. Tel, not sure he'll stick around, hardly done a great sales pitch to him have we? I am surprised to see how highly some value the squad. Look at players at Forest, Elanga, Gibbs-White, VIlla with Rodgers, Saudi Sportswashing Machine with their midfield 3 and wingers, we are very far off all those teams. In fact I rarely see a player in the Spurs line up you would take over several of those? Which of our wingers ahead of Gordon or Elanga? Which of our CMs over Guimares or Palmer?

3. The squad is not only a poor patchwork, it's got no stellar stand out players. Nearly every team above us has a top level player in it. Whether it's Salah, Saka, Palmer, Isak, who do we have? No one. Are we going to splash the cash for one? No chance.

Let me give you a slightly more optimistic view, and the why's

As I mentioned in another thread, this side minus Solanke, Wilson, Danso, Spence, Kinsky, Gray, Bergvall came 5th last season, and if the manager had adapted even slightly, would have been top 4. And we will add players.

From a squad perspective

GKs - Vic, Kinsky, Austin with Keely out on loan (has 41 appearances at Leyton Orient this seaon, and set a club record for clean sheets)
CB's - Romero, VDV, Danso, Dragusin, Davies, Phillips (has 38 appearances at Stoke), and Vuskovich (25 appearances, weirdly 7 goals)
FBs - Porro, Spence, Udogie
CM - Bentancur, Sarr, Bissouma, Bervall, Gray, Deki, Maddison
AM/WF - Son, Johnson, Wilson, Moore, Tel with Yang (14 appearances in half a season at QPR)
CF - Richi, Solanke with Donley (47 appearances at Leyton)

That's 29 proven players with zero duds/deadwood types, and only 2 over 30, with 3-5 "free" youth players to evaluate over pre-season. The main part of the painful refresh is done.

Lets get to your comments

- Are we going to splash out cash? Richi, Maddison, Johnson, Solanke all say hi. Note most of the players you named btw, Elanga, Gibbs-White, Rodgers, Salah, Saka, Isak were not expensive purchases at the time.
- poor patchwork? this squad is actually super adaptable, current team could play 3-5-2, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, pressing/possession

Deki is our best player and would walk into a few squads, our next star player will very likely be Bergvall, possibly Udogie (City sniffing should tell you something), and I wouldn't trade Bervall now for Elanga (Johnson FWIW has more goals this season than Elanga has in his career at top level, same age), Rodgers or MGB.

I get this season has been absolute brick, I get we need to make a few upgrades/swaps (I expect Bissouma, Richi, Romero will need to be replaced, and we are clearly in the end phase of Son & Davies), but the squad isn't the issue, the manager is.

I would be very positive about next season is we did two things, 1/finish the job and win the cup, will lift the team/club, 2/As soon as season ends, "mutually part ways" and immediately appoint a new manager
 
Let me give you a slightly more optimistic view, and the why's

As I mentioned in another thread, this side minus Solanke, Wilson, Danso, Spence, Kinsky, Gray, Bergvall came 5th last season, and if the manager had adapted even slightly, would have been top 4. And we will add players.

From a squad perspective

GKs - Vic, Kinsky, Austin with Keely out on loan (has 41 appearances at Leyton Orient this seaon, and set a club record for clean sheets)
CB's - Romero, VDV, Danso, Dragusin, Davies, Phillips (has 38 appearances at Stoke), and Vuskovich (25 appearances, weirdly 7 goals)
FBs - Porro, Spence, Udogie
CM - Bentancur, Sarr, Bissouma, Bervall, Gray, Deki, Maddison
AM/WF - Son, Johnson, Wilson, Moore, Tel with Yang (14 appearances in half a season at QPR)
CF - Richi, Solanke with Donley (47 appearances at Leyton)

That's 29 proven players with zero duds/deadwood types, and only 2 over 30, with 3-5 "free" youth players to evaluate over pre-season. The main part of the painful refresh is done.

Lets get to your comments

- Are we going to splash out cash? Richi, Maddison, Johnson, Solanke all say hi. Note most of the players you named btw, Elanga, Gibbs-White, Rodgers, Salah, Saka, Isak were not expensive purchases at the time.
- poor patchwork? this squad is actually super adaptable, current team could play 3-5-2, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, pressing/possession

Deki is our best player and would walk into a few squads, our next star player will very likely be Bergvall, possibly Udogie (City sniffing should tell you something), and I wouldn't trade Bervall now for Elanga (Johnson FWIW has more goals this season than Elanga has in his career at top level, same age), Rodgers or MGB.

I get this season has been absolute brick, I get we need to make a few upgrades/swaps (I expect Bissouma, Richi, Romero will need to be replaced, and we are clearly in the end phase of Son & Davies), but the squad isn't the issue, the manager is.

I would be very positive about next season is we did two things, 1/finish the job and win the cup, will lift the team/club, 2/As soon as season ends, "mutually part ways" and immediately appoint a new manager
This!
 
Modern football is all about players in systems. We don't have one. The few games where Ange has played with a bit of structure like yesterday we immediately look a better unit.

New manager that drills all sides of the game and you'd see the players perform differently, some better maybe some worse. Just need that base to hang their performances off first before complete judgement can be made.

This is highlighted by players coming in and seemingly getting worse once our coaching staff has had a go at them. I'd love someone to ask Ange what sort of team we are one day, what are style is, what do Tottenham aim to do during a game...
 
This feels as pivotal a summer as it was in 2011/12 with the sliding doors moment. I’m sure it was said that had we finished that season and qualified for the Champions League that we would have signed Eden Hazard. As it was we finished 4th, but Chelsea took our CL place and signed Eden Hazard after being the luckiest team in history to win the CL.

Hope that life is kind to us this time and that we do go and win the Europa league. That will give us a lot more potential for the summer ahead and going into next season.
 
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