*Official* English Football Season 2013-14

[sledger]

Seems to be re-using his Chelsea MO (i.e. blaming everyone else for the team's failings)

I don't think sacking him would be an especially good move to be honest, but at the end of the day he's spent upwards of £110m and Spurs have regressed rather than gone forward, so it doesn't look good for him.

 

[Uppercut]

Seems to be re-using his Chelsea MO (i.e. blaming everyone else for the team's failings)

I don't think sacking him would be an especially good move to be honest, but at the end of the day he's spend upwards of £110m and Spurs have regressed rather than gone forward, so it doesn't look good for him.

Surely you haven't forgotten about that Welsh guy they sold? Was all over the papers all summer.

Honestly I think he's spent quite well, Soldado aside. Lots of good, young players that you'd expect to improve. It's really standard for football fans to overestimate how much you can achieve with new signings short-term, so the expectations were a bit out of whack. But they're not in the worst shape anyway, only two points off fourth.

It would be stupid to sack him unless they have someone really good lined up.

 

[sledger]

Not forgotten Bale at all. Wasn't really making reference to Spurs' net spend etc...

 

[Uppercut]

But then that doesn't make sense, because they were obviously going to 'regress rather than go forward' after selling their best player and spending all the money on potential.

 

[sledger]

Well, perhaps some regression was to be expected. If I had phrased it more carefully, I perhaps would have said that the standard of their performances has been considerably lower than which was expected of them.

 

[Uppercut]

I don't really know what to make of their performances. They completely dominate almost every game, but yet don't defend or attack well at all.

They'll surely get better though, with more time playing together and the manager understanding his options better. Sacking him just seems insane, but maybe the players don't like him or something.

 

[marc71178]

But then that doesn't make sense, because they were obviously going to 'regress rather than go forward' after selling their best player and spending all the money on potential.

If it was so obvious then why were so many people tipping them for CL football at the least, if not a title challenge?

 

[sledger]

I don't really know what to make of their performances. They completely dominate almost every game, but yet don't defend or attack well at all.

They'll surely get better though, with more time playing together and the manager understanding his options better. Sacking him just seems insane, but maybe the players don't like him or something.

Dominating matches but not doing either of these things particularly well generally equates to lots of sideways passing in the middle of the park, I find. The consensus seems to be that this is precisely what Spurs have been doing for much of the season.

I imagine they will get better, there's no reason that a team with as many decent players as they do shouldn't. But you do wonder if AVB's methods and general way of doing this just isn't all that good. From all accounts he fell out pretty quickly with all the players at Chelsea, and from the sounds of things he's doing a good job of alienating plenty of the players at Spurs now as well. You do begin to wonder if he's just not much good, especially since Spurs were hardly remarkable last season either, but were fortunate enough to have one of the best players in the world baleing (sic) them out every week.

 

[Uppercut]

If it was so obvious then why were so many people tipping them for CL football at the least, if not a title challenge?

Well first of all, they still might. They're two points off fourth with 12 games gone, it's not exactly game over.

But that ties into my previous point about how unrealistic fans are when it comes to new players settling in. And there was a weird reluctance to admit how good Bale was last season. We're just kind of like that in the UK, I think.

 

[Uppercut]

Dominating matches but not doing either of these things particularly well generally equates to lots of sideways passing in the middle of the park, I find. The consensus seems to be that this is precisely what Spurs have been doing for much of the season.

I imagine they will get better, there's no reason that a team with as many decent players as they do shouldn't. But you do wonder if AVB's methods and general way of doing this just isn't all that good. From all accounts he fell out pretty quickly with all the players at Chelsea, and from the sounds of things he's doing a good job of alienating plenty of the players at Spurs now as well. You do begin to wonder if he's just not much good, especially since Spurs were hardly remarkable last season either, but were fortunate enough to have one of the best players in the world baleing (sic) them out every week.

Yeah I'm not confident in his system either. I find it interesting more than anything else. But hey, we've been wrong before. Better to give it a chance and see if it works than to throw him out after 12 games because he lost away to Man City. The media is really overblowing how bad their position is too. They're only two or three points off where they would like to be.

It's just being silly to discount his results last season because Bale was so good. It's his job to get the best out of players, and Bale himself has given the manager a lot of credit for his own improvement. You can't put failures down to him and successes down to his players, that's just looking for an excuse to bag him.

 

[Furball]

If it was so obvious then why were so many people tipping them for CL football at the least, if not a title challenge?

Because people refused to learn that Spurs are massively over-rated.

A lot of pundits shot their loads at ALL THE MONIES that Spurs were throwing around, forgetting that signing a whole load of players at once generally isn't a sound recipe for short term success.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Because people refused to learn that Spurs are massively over-rated.

A lot of pundits shot their loads at ALL THE MONIES that Spurs were throwing around, forgetting that signing a whole load of players at once generally isn't a sound recipe for short term success.

Well, pundits don't keep their job by saying 'it'll probably be exactly the same as last year'.

In sharp contrast to bookmakers.

 

[sledger]

Yeah I'm not confident in his system either. I find it interesting more than anything else. But hey, we've been wrong before. Better to give it a chance and see if it works than to throw him out after 12 games because he lost away to Man City. The media is really overblowing how bad their position is too. They're only two or three points off where they would like to be.

It's just being silly to discount his results last season because Bale was so good. It's his job to get the best out of players, and Bale himself has given the manager a lot of credit for his own improvement. You can't put failures down to him and successes down to his players, that's just looking for an excuse to bag him.

I'm not really doing that though. I'm not discounting the results last season, I'm merely suggesting that having Bale in the side helped paper over the cracks of a system that was already not very effective. Now that he's gone it's arguably just become more apparent that it's not much chop.

 

[Uppercut]

It's not so much that Bale papered over the cracks, it's that he WAS the system- the system worked well, but only because it got the best out of him. It's a lot like when Barca imploded after Messi got injured at the end of last season. The possession players don't know who they're meant to be working the ball towards anymore.

 

[sledger]

It's not so much that Bale papered over the cracks, it's that he WAS the system- the system worked well, but only because it got the best out of him. It's a lot like when Barca imploded after Messi got injured at the end of last season. The possession players don't know who they're meant to be working the ball towards anymore.

In the immediate context I don't think this reflects especially well on AVB though. Whilst you're right in saying it'd be churlish to discount the results from last season, it would hardly take a great footballing brain to work out that Bale was the only player in that Spurs side that was worth two hoots. Devising a system that played to his strengths should not be thought of as a slight on AVB, but neither should he be credited especially heavily for it in my opinion.

The fact that Spurs are still attempting to use a similar system and self-evidently struggling to adapt to life after Bale suggests AVB's a bit short on ideas, for mine. It's a bit of a make or break moment for him I think, because at the moment I can see a good case being made out for him being one of these manager's who's managed to achieve the majority their success by inheriting sides which happened to include 1-2 world class players.

 

[Pothas]

I am surprised by this mainly because he seemed to get a lot of plaudits inside the club last year, seems slightly strange test these rumours have only appeared after a heavy defeat which is a fairly stupid way to operate. The jury is definetly still out on AVB for sure, I have always wanted him to do well since Chelsea sacked him but if he fails to make this a good side by the end of the year he had definetly failed. I really can't think of an obvious candidate for the job right now though, I mean they would surey have someone in mind?

 

[GIMH]

“@_CarltonCole9: What Spurs did is they sold an iPhone 5 and bought a Camera, an MP3 player, a Stereo, a photo album and a Nokia”

 

[BoyBrumby]

Surely you haven't forgotten about that Welsh guy they sold? Was all over the papers all summer.

Honestly I think he's spent quite well, Soldado aside. Lots of good, young players that you'd expect to improve. It's really standard for football fans to overestimate how much you can achieve with new signings short-term, so the expectations were a bit out of whack. But they're not in the worst shape anyway, only two points off fourth.

It would be stupid to sack him unless they have someone really good lined up.

Lamela? Young, yes, but did cost £26m and has started one Prem game, which T*ttenham lost 6-0.

Looking lost and a wee bit uninterested, IMHO.

 

[grecian]

You've got to hand it to Citeh, they've made a bloody good match out of this.

 

[Pothas]

City are like managing on Champ man 01/02 side, score a stupid amount of goals but inexplicably lose away games and can't really defend.