The Football (Soccer) Thread

[Scottfutile]

38 minutes ago, kenlow said:

 

BTW, did anybody else hear about the Glazers wanting to sell Manchester United for $7.25bn?

I've offered them five pounds. And even then I think it's overpriced.

[popart]

Spurs finally bringing in our #1 target, though it took the whole window. Had to release a player outright because the board didn't understand we were at loan limit. So frustrating

[Mentor]

On 2/2/2023 at 5:53 PM, popart said:

Spurs finally bringing in our #1 target, though it took the whole window. Had to release a player outright because the board didn't understand we were at loan limit. So frustrating

Who did we release?

Either way, we just released Conte, another great coach who failed to achieve anything in Spurs. I think we need to come to terms with the fact that maybe it is not the coach because how can all these great coaches all do well elsewhere and suck so bad when they join Spurs? Clearly it is down to the structure, finance and current personnel. Then again, we do add new players when each manager comes, it is not as if we are not investing, just when you are a club like Spurs, you cannot afford to invest money and have those players barely making the team. Richarlison is a good example, we spent around 60m and he basically was a bench player for us. 

I think that Spurs could have to blow everything up, if they miss out on CL football next year. 

[popart]

4 hours ago, Mentor said:

Who did we release?

Either way, we just released Conte, another great coach who failed to achieve anything in Spurs. I think we need to come to terms with the fact that maybe it is not the coach because how can all these great coaches all do well elsewhere and suck so bad when they join Spurs? Clearly it is down to the structure, finance and current personnel. Then again, we do add new players when each manager comes, it is not as if we are not investing, just when you are a club like Spurs, you cannot afford to invest money and have those players barely making the team. Richarlison is a good example, we spent around 60m and he basically was a bench player for us. 

I think that Spurs could have to blow everything up, if they miss out on CL football next year. 

We released Matt Doherty after already agreeing to a loan. 
 

Spurs are in a perpetual state of spending money and yet still not matching the manager’s vision. Conte wanted older, established players, and yet we brought in guys like Djed Spence, Bissouma & others who are quality players but were never going to get a ton of time under Conte. You can blame it on Conte but at the end of the day no manager since Poch has had their visions backed, and this awful board tried their best to not back Poch his last 2 years as well.

[Mentor]

16 hours ago, popart said:

We released Matt Doherty after already agreeing to a loan. 

Well that was a catastrophe, bought Matt 3 years ago for over 13m and then released him on a free. I guess at his age of 31y, we most likely was not going to get any value for him anyway, i think he deal expired in the summer? 

[popart]

On 3/27/2023 at 11:35 PM, Mentor said:

Well that was a catastrophe, bought Matt 3 years ago for over 13m and then released him on a free. I guess at his age of 31y, we most likely was not going to get any value for him anyway, i think he deal expired in the summer? 

Seems like we have a much harder time offloading players than the other big 6 clubs do.

 

I'm a big believer in Ange Postecoglou. It was of course devastating to lose Harry, but the draw away at Brentford was good football. We will likely finish around 8th this year, but give big Ange some time to develop the younger players and I think there's some real potential here. 

[kenlow73]

Honestly, after getting into it for a couple of years after starting to play this game, I haven't really followed it in a while. It might be how and where I was raised, where American Football has a priority over Proper Football.

[Mentor]

On 8/17/2023 at 8:30 AM, popart said:

Seems like we have a much harder time offloading players than the other big 6 clubs do.

 

I'm a big believer in Ange Postecoglou. It was of course devastating to lose Harry, but the draw away at Brentford was good football. We will likely finish around 8th this year, but give big Ange some time to develop the younger players and I think there's some real potential here. 

Yeah, we have a big issue with offloading players, with just a few days until the end of the window. Losing Kane was a big loss of course but we needed a change, the bad news is that we did not really spend anything since we sold him, i think it is because we did not sell anyone yet. 

[Mentor]

Nice win by Spurs, 5-2 against Burnley. Ange made some good adjustments, he put Son center and played Solomon on the left wing. Son ended up with a hatrick and Solomon had 2 assists, so yeah, the changes worked. Richarlison has failed so far to become the "new Harry Kane", not that anyone expected him to do that, but with the Son adjustment paying off and us also signing a new winger for 50m, it seems Richy will be benched this year again. 

[Mentor]

Spurs have done great, but the next 2 games will show where we really are. Arsenal this week and Liverpool next week.

[Columbo]

34 minutes ago, Mentor said:

Spurs have done great, but the next 2 games will show where we really are. Arsenal this week and Liverpool next week.

I think we'll do well, and wins or good draws will set confidence sky-high for the rest of the season.

Just as important, if we do lose, it won't be for lack of attacking. At least we can watch the highlights now without hiding our faces in despair!

[Mentor]

7 minutes ago, Columbo said:

I think we'll do well, and wins or good draws will set confidence sky-high for the rest of the season.

Just as important, if we do lose, it won't be for lack of attacking. At least we can watch the highlights now without hiding our faces in despair!

That seems to be the general concensus, that now we are playing proper old school "Spurs football", in other words, attacking, attractive football, win or lose, we will entertain. 

[Mentor]

Was a good game against Arsenal, 2-2 away for Spurs. We came from behind 2 times, their goals were from a penalty and an own goal, we deserved the point. Liverpool this week. 

[popart]

9 hours ago, Mentor said:

Was a good game against Arsenal, 2-2 away for Spurs. We came from behind 2 times, their goals were from a penalty and an own goal, we deserved the point. Liverpool this week. 

Penalty was pretty harsh imo but i'll take it. In Big Ange we trust!

 

My somewhat 'second' club, Legia Warszawa, beat Aston Villa in the Conference League 3-2, absolutely huge win for them. 

 

BTW Mentor- When did you start supporting Spurs? I started watching them as a kid, and my favorite player at that time was longtime Russian international, Roman Pavyluchenko. Super Pav was just electric. 

[Columbo]

9 hours ago, Mentor said:

Was a good game against Arsenal, 2-2 away for Spurs. We came from behind 2 times, their goals were from a penalty and an own goal, we deserved the point. Liverpool this week. 

I'm happy. That's exactly what I meant by a "good draw".

[Mentor]

3 hours ago, Columbo said:

I'm happy. That's exactly what I meant by a "good draw".

Yeah, it was a good draw in the end, i think both set of fans should be happy with the game. It was pretty high quality and both played to win. 

[Mentor]

3 hours ago, popart said:

Penalty was pretty harsh imo but i'll take it. In Big Ange we trust!

 

My somewhat 'second' club, Legia Warszawa, beat Aston Villa in the Conference League 3-2, absolutely huge win for them. 

 

BTW Mentor- When did you start supporting Spurs? I started watching them as a kid, and my favorite player at that time was longtime Russian international, Roman Pavyluchenko. Super Pav was just electric. 

I was born in South London (which is why my second team is Crystal Palace, my home was walking distance from the stadium Selhurst Park), but started supporting Spurs back in the early 80s, mainly because my dad was a Spurs fan. Most Greek Cypriots in London support either Spurs or Arsenal. Obviously i was young in the 80s and barely remember much.

I do remember the 1991 cup final very well though, with Paul Gascoigne scoring this in the semi against Arsenal: 

 

[Mentor]

So yeah, i have went through a really big dry period with Spurs. As i often say, if you support Spurs, it means you are a real fan, because you are not spporting this team due to the success they give us on the pitch. 32 god damn years of not winning absolutely nothing besides a couple of League cups (which are not exactly trophies). 

My dad has suppoted Spurs since the early 70s and although they were better then (they won a couple of UEFFA cups and were more consistent in the FA Cup), my dad has never seen them win the league either and he is in his 70s now.

I always hear from some of our fans that the bigger clubs have a much bigger budget, yes it is bigger but the difference is not that huge. At the same time we have seen much lesser teams win acheive much bigger feats in football and that includes the EPL.

Anyway, that is me rambling, we are playing good football now and i like our new manager (which also has Greek roots by the way, he was born in Greece!). I think he made some stupid mistakes during the past game, taking off Son AND Maddison did not make any sense to me, Son had 2 goals, Maddison had 2 assists and is probably our best player now, unless that injury he got was serious, you do not take him off. He also played with fire regarding Udogie, Sarr and Romero, they were all on yellow cards from the first half. We basically was holding on after he took those 2 off. 

 

 

[Columbo]

My Dad & Grandad took me to Spurs when I was a kid. I think the first game I went to was Alan Gilzean's testimonial (it's the earliest programme I have at least) in 1973.

As it happens, my grandad was the Spurs coach driver, and I used to go along in the coach to training sometimes when I was just a kid. I remember sitting with the injured players who weren't training.  Two players in particular were very nice people who used to talk to me - Ralph Coates and Gerry Armstrong. Glenn Hoddle was my hero, but he was a bit of a miserable git TBH.

In the Hoddle era I went to every home game for two seasons, but then in the following seasons I went less and less. Still saw plenty of games with Waddle, Ardiles, Lineker, Ginola, Gascoinge (including THAT semi final vs Arsenal), etc, etc. Believe it or not, I even saw Jimmy Greaves and George Best play at some testimonial game! The last season I went several times was when we had Klinnsman.

I saw some greats from other teams.. Keegan, Shearer, Dalglish, Pearce, Cantona, Brady, Beckham, Scholes, etc, etc.

If I go by what I saw with my own eyes - players that were just fantasic to see in real life - Klinnsmann, and Michael Owen stand out. They are the players that blew my mind to see live. I mean there was something extra about them you just don't get from TV.

The last time I went was when George Graham was manager, we lost, and I didn't enjoy it all (mainly just because of crowds and travel). I think that was about 2000? I've never been since, but I still watch on TV of course.

 

[Mentor]

Damn, you are older than me! Interesting you mentioned Greaves, I would had loved to watch Greaves play, i think he is probably the most underrated British striker in history that almost nobody knows. He is the only striker to be named top scorer 6 times AND he is the all time top flight top scorer, but nobody knows that, everyone thinks Shearer is the all time scorer, but that is just EPL goals. Everyone knows that Haaland scorered 36 goals last year, which is an EPL record..................well Greaves got 41 in a season back when it was Division 1, in fact he got 20 or more 11 times, that is rediculous!

Note: They used to have 42 games per season back then, now it is 38, but still. 

Greaves is also the 5th highest English scorer while playing just 57 games (he scorered 44 goals). He missed out on the WC final due to injury and did not get his gold medal until 2009, even though during the qualifiers he was the top scorer for the team. 

 

[Mentor]

Regarding the other players you mentioned. Klinsmann during his first run was remarkable, during his second run he basically saved us from going down. Ginola was fantastic for a couple of years after he joined us from Newcastle, Graham totally ruined him. I do remember Hoddle barely as well.

I think Bale is probably the best player i have ever seen in a Spurs shirt though, those 2-3 years he had, it was almost like he was a Cyborg or something, he would just get the ball from beyond the half line and just pass everyone and fire a rocket, but it all started with this game against Inter: 

 

[Mentor]

It was not pretty, Spurs beat Liverpool at home 2-1 in the 96th minute via an own goal. Liverpool were playing with 10 players from the 25th minute and with 9 players from the 70th minute, lots of yellow cards in this game, 11 in total. But end of the day, it is a win and we move into 2nd place, being the only team with Arsenal to not lose this year.

[Columbo]

@Mentor

Greaves was a legend, and by all accounts a lovely guy. He only had to look at a ball to put it in the net. Spurs supporters of my Dad's generation thought him the GOAT British striker. I saw him in some testimonial (Pat Jennings maybe?) . He was retired and mid/late 30's, and the game was a freindly, with a capital F, but he still scored a hat-trick - if I remember right. It was a long time ago lol.

I feel like googling Greavsie now, because I don't know (or remember) why he wasn't playing in the 1966 World Cup.

I didn't see Bale, that must have been awesome. I mentioned Michael Owen being astonishing in real life - that was mainly because of his WTF pace - and I bet Bale was even more amazing in the "taxi for" games!

Latest result was pretty enough for me. So good to see attacking football. We shouldn't feel guilty because we got a break - It makes a change!

[Mentor]

8 hours ago, Columbo said:

Latest result was pretty enough for me. So good to see attacking football. We shouldn't feel guilty because we got a break - It makes a change!

I watched the game with my brother and he said a wise thing "to win the league you need to be a bit lucky". It is 1st of October and we have a win over Liverpool, United and a draw away to Arsenal, plus the team is just formed. Most of these players were either not playing or not here 1 or 2 years ago. With exception of Son, i do not think we have anyone over 27y in the starting 11. The coach does not seem like a total nuthead and plays football the fans want to see, so the future seems bright.

I do not think we will win the league, mainly because City is just way better than everyone else (then again they lost away to Wolves this week and their depth is not that great this year), but i think that at least it will be fun to watch. 

[Mentor]

Going into the 10th game, Spurs is still first, above Arsenal in 2nd place. City play United today, but even if City wins, they cannot catch Spurs up. I am still waiting for Spurs to start slipping, but at the moment we seem to be getting better. With Bentacur coming back this weekened and Johnson back from his injury, i see us being stronger next week (at least on paper).