Vinai Venkatesham - CEO

[Bishop]

People keep saying the squad, and of course we need some upgrades, but the biggest factor will be how we get on with injuries. There is no chance had we a 'normal' injury season we would have been anywhere near where we were positionally. And that outside of City and the Goons any team would struggle missing the number of players we had and key ones at that for long periods.

You only have to look at when we played Aston Villa who put out many of their backups, against us with just as many first teamers out and we were by far the better team and Villa are meant to be one of the better teams in this league. Hardly any team in world football is going to look good having to play the majority of their backups most of the season.
I agree that we need upgrades in key positions to get where we want to be, but if we are going to say our squad is rubbish and then so is 90 plus per cent of the squads in the league....

Surprise, surprise but I'm also one of those people who think the quality level has dropped relative to the previous 15 or so years in football in general.

 

[harr1984]

Surprise, surprise but I'm also one of those people who think the quality level has dropped relative to the previous 15 or so years in football in general.

Oh there's no argument from me there, it absolutely has. The drop in quality has coincided with the systematic nature of teams setup I think...

 

[MartyFunkhouser]

i think George Graham’s Arsenal side were amongst the top scorers in the league

You would hope so given they won the league

 

[MartyFunkhouser]

.And that outside of City and the Goons any team would struggle missing the number of players we had and key ones at that for long periods.

Which in fairness is something I said weekly early in the season. Its 100% a mix of the two

We have to be realistic also that some like Deki are not coming back the same player which means further need for better

Given Madders record we need to be realistic there too.

But even with a full fit squad, our front three isnt fit for top level football IMO

 

[Gazza Dazzla]

People keep saying the squad, and of course we need some upgrades, but the biggest factor will be how we get on with injuries. There is no chance had we a 'normal' injury season we would have been anywhere near where we were positionally. And that outside of City and the Goons any team would struggle missing the number of players we had and key ones at that for long periods.

You only have to look at when we played Aston Villa who put out many of their backups, against us with just as many first teamers out and we were by far the better team and Villa are meant to be one of the better teams in this league. Hardly any team in world football is going to look good having to play the majority of their backups most of the season.
I agree that we need upgrades in key positions to get where we want to be, but if we are going to say our squad is rubbish and then so is 90 plus per cent of the squads in the league....

100% this, but it’s not a fashionable opinion..

 

[harr1984]

Which in fairness is something I said weekly early in the season. Its 100% a mix of the two

We have to be realistic also that some like Deki are not coming back the same player which means further need for better

Yeah I remember and agreed with you at the time.

It will be interesting to see what we do regarding our AMs, Madders has just come back and isn't young himself really and Simons is out for a while and no one knows with Deki. Would probably be a good idea to get someone else in, but would be fair to argue we have bigger priorities and with no Europe a lack of games and revenue it's probably wise to revisit in a years time....

 

[K.D.D.D.D.Soc]

Oh there's no argument from me there, it absolutely has. The drop in quality has coincided with the systematic nature of teams setup I think...

With most teams playing cautious systems it leads to turgid (is this latest buzz word) games. We all want our teams to play faultless football, but without mistakes and misses the games loses the ups and downs which takes away the excitement.

 

[SissokoWasGood (BoL)]

what makes you think playing progressive attacking football was ever their concern? You realise they hired Jose, Conte and Nuno in the previous 4 years right? When was any of their profiles progressive attacking football?

You're trying to lambast them for something they weren't even trying to achieve. You might want progressive football Levy neither ever cared about that or understood what was needed to achieve it.

You may be right, but in the statements they put out they talk about plating a certain way, and Frank talks about taking risks being one of his key things.

 

[SissokoWasGood (BoL)]

Its exactly that, some of the rubbish written about him around stuff that doesn't pertain to his time at Spurs is just utter trash. "ohhh he never got it because he played the Media" not to mention the other stuff that speaks to a personal nature about him.



Yeh they are, my point isn't about Spurs or related to Spurs so your last part is irrelevant. In isolation his Brentford team played good football and scored loads of goals because of the personnel he had.



I never said it was, I said it was when related to the other crap being spouted about him. He failed at Spurs, everyone agrees, the other stuff is just rubbish. You yourself have said you are uncomfortable because people are not laying it on as thick as they should be.

As for being shown up, time will tell, I like RDZ and I think he will do well, but their starts here are identical with this group of players, players who looked to, in part let RDZ down at Chelsea and Leeds with mistakes like they had with Frank.

So I maintain, in no defence of anyone, that this squad is utterly rubbish and unbalanced and needs to improve for RDZ as it did for Frank, anyone that thinks different has their head stuck up their arse.

Anyway, this is the VV thread, not the "why doesn't everyone hate Frank like they should" club

Brentford did not play good football in isolation, again that’s the entire point I’m trying to make. A team has to deal with the situation their opponents give them the majority of the time. More teams would give Brentford more space because a Brentford game would be one marked on the calendar as a higher possibility of a win. Teams do not give Spurs the same amount of space. I would have expected our decision makers to understand that whatever he did at Brentford wouldn’t automatically translate. He would have to show he could adapt, which he just didn’t.

I’m not saying I want people to hate Frank. I just want the reality of his terrible performance to be more acknowledged, rather than excused. As I find it odd that he is let off, and by extension the people that employed him also get left off from the deserved scrutiny around it. Of course RDZ is going to succeed more with better players available. But it still took him two games to display a team with intent and initiative. He did this with a worse squad than available for most of Frank’s time, and he did it with a central midfield pairing that many people said was the reason the football was so bad. It wasn’t - it was Frank being unable to allow the team the patterns to build up from the back, play out and get up the pitch.

 

[MartyFunkhouser]

Brentford did not play good football in isolation, again that’s the entire point I’m trying to make. A team has to deal with the situation their opponents give them the majority of the time. More teams would give Brentford more space because a Brentford game would be one marked on the calendar as a higher possibility of a win. Teams do not give Spurs the same amount of space. I would have expected our decision makers to understand that whatever he did at Brentford wouldn’t automatically translate. He would have to show he could adapt, which he just didn’t.

But Spurs has nothing to do with Brentford and how they played and the good football they played, the last paragraph of conflation I don't get TBH.

I’m not saying I want people to hate Frank. I just want the reality of his terrible performance to be more acknowledged, rather than excused. As I find it odd that he is let off, and by extension the people that employed him also get left off from the deserved scrutiny around it. Of course RDZ is going to succeed more with better players available. But it still took him two games to display a team with intent and initiative. He did this with a worse squad than available for most of Frank’s time, and he did it with a central midfield pairing that many people said was the reason the football was so bad. It wasn’t - it was Frank being unable to allow the team the patterns to build up from the back, play out and get up the pitch.

It seems to be abit of an unhealthy obsession mate.