TOTTENHAM ARE STILL A BIG CLUB!

i'm finding it hard to make sense of that season, tbh.

Finishing fourth would have been a perfectly good achievement in August, but not particularly outstanding given the squad.

Chelsea took themselves out of the running, I'd had them pencilled in an easy third spot.

Arsenal didn't really have a great season.

So, fourth will do, but in context and given what our expected rivals for fourth did with their season, I think it's fair to say it was the minimum requirement by the time January rolled round.

Take how far ahead we were in third at that stage, and the relatively comfortable fixtures we had in the run-in, fourth's a bit of a damp squib.

Taking into account the misuse of squad resources (imo only City have a better squad), Redknapp should account himself lucky that he'll be sitting down to talk next season's targets with Levy rather than his 'mutual agreement'.

It can be taken for granted that he won't see it that way.

I'd be happy enough for him to stay, 4th, 5th, 4th is not to be sniffed at. But there are manager out there that would look at our squad and the resources we can spend this year and would think title challenge.

Also- signing Adebayor on 60k pw with a fee of 15m or so would be fine. Anything more and we should be exercising our alternatives.

Cover at left back, right wing, big striker, big defender, we'll win it next year.

agree that redknapp's record is good enough for him to keep the job, hope that if (if!) spurs are playing CL football he plans for it by using a lot more players.

biggest problem now is adebayor. still can't see him taking a paycut to stay and hard to see what available striker would come to spurs and equal or better his output this year.
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i think there are many strikers could come to spurs within those terms and get on the end of more crosses and aerial balls than adebayor- i think they could also be convinced to stay front and centre and leave the wings to the wingers. They might also score the vital goals a little more frequently than adebayor, who has tended, imo, to pad his record with the third and fourth goals in routs.

I don't dislike adebayor- he runs all day, holds it up and interplays well, has pace and a trick or two- but i'm not gonna beg him to stay for 200 grand a week, and i mistrust his record once he gets settled at a club.

I'd be happy enough for him to stay, 4th, 5th, 4th is not to be sniffed at. But there are manager out there that would look at our squad and the resources we can spend this year and would think title challenge.

― pet tommy & the barkhaters (darraghmac), Monday, May 14, 2012 3:07 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also- signing Adebayor on 60k pw with a fee of 15m or so would be fine. Anything more and we should be exercising our alternatives.

Cover at left back, right wing, big striker, big defender, we'll win it next year.

― pet tommy & the barkhaters (darraghmac), Monday, May 14, 2012 3:10 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah you can't afford adebayor or anyone at his level

big defender....kaboul, dawson, nelsen, king (maybe)

big striker....idk about this

the best epl forwards like rvp, aguero, twp aren't really like this any more, and you don't play like chelsea anyway

I'll sort out Spurs for you:

1x right-winger, although the prospect of still playing Jenas there next season is rearing its terrifying head once more
1x central defender with pace and a clear head, let two out of King, Gallas and Nelsen go
1x central defensive beast
And yeah the striker conundrum is worrying, Saha probably won't do much, Defoe is great but too short, we need two strikers who can lead the line really.

crosses and aerial balls are for wastemen like carroll, no proper side plays like that any more, even the antediluvian 442 at utd requires the wingers to play edge of the area cutbacks or scudding bale style daisycutters rather than lofted 25 yard crosses

sort of strikers u might get are like gomis or maybe remy or doumbia

There's a lot of speculation around Remy right now btw. I haven't seen enough of him to know if that's a good thing.

I would take Berbatov back in a heartbeat btw. I wonder if he'd consider it if we were back in the CL.

rw at spurs requires a lightning touchline winger in the lennon mould rather than a 4-2-3-1 inside forward, you aren't going to get anyone better than like jarvis to play 15 games a season as lennon's substitute so you're better retaining corluka or another decent defender who can play rb and shift walker to rw

nobody in this league has wide players like us nakh- walker, lennon, bae, bale start every game and as a four man unit the skin fullbacks on the outside like noboy i can think of- maybe utd when yon brazilian lad plays rb, maybe.

And rooney, wellbeck and chicarito all get on the end of a cross more reliably than anyone we've had since.......i dunno who...

berbatov isn't ideally suited to a lone forward, he can play a sort of false #9 dropping deep but then with vdv you don't have any velocity in the centre of attack to keep up with bale & lennon

remy is a good player, very quick and big enough without being a big, he's kind of like a 22 year old torres without showing any indications he will grow into a finisher like torres

wonder if Corluka will come back. Naughton should deputy right back next year, imo. Supposedly Vertonghen was at WHL yesterday, he could provide cover for left back and play in the center.

Giroud could do well, put is still a risk especially for the price, and someone else will offer him more money.

yeah deems but as i said they aren't lofted crosses to a big centre forward, twp and hernandez are both like 5'9

also 1x central defensive beast should be Caulker who has played very well for Swansea this season

Lewandowski's agent is trying to talk up interest from other clubs cos the current contract extension offer from Spurs is "not sufficient". He's got 2 years left on his current deal tho.

central aerial/big linchpin needn't have the pace of bale/lennon to lay it off and get into the box, and a lot of our wingspace comes from overlapping fullbacks anyway- not like vdv and modric don't provide the 'edge of the box' littoral trickery/threat you describe as the utd winger method anyway...

Contract offer from Dortmund that should read
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i don't think tottenham are going to significantly outpay dortmund for wages, and ceteris paribus he is better off there

'lay it off and get into the box' is crude shit, tottenham in early season form were faster than that cuz they could use bale as an outlet ball without having to triangulate it via a lump #9

agree about walker/naughton/corluka providing the rb/rw cover adequately, absolutely

Caulker has been good, agreed. With he, dawson, kaboul, we'd still want a top-classer- king i spose could be valuable around the place with these guys.

Vertonghen sounds a v likely solution to lb/cb, yeah

Nakh- ok, a striker to get on the end of crosses needn't be a 'big', i'd like a player who could do the holdup job too. Pavlyuchenko, maybe?

I'd forgotten about Caulker, yeah he should definitely be in the mix for next year as he's had a really good first season in the Prem with Swansea. Are there any younger players who might come through, Walker-style?

Bostock joined Swindon Town on loan on 22 March 2012 for the remainder of the 2011-12 season. He joined Swindon after Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp said it would be good if he played under Paolo Di Canio.[20] Initially he struggled to make an impact at the League Two side, remaining on the bench for the first four league games of his loan-spell. However, he did make an appearance from the bench in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final at Wembley where Swindon were beaten 2-0 by Chesterfield.

'lay it off and get into the box' is great, as an option!

If drogba could be tempted, and trusted to stay fit, i'd love to see him leading an attack pointed by lennon/bale with vdv, modric given real free rein to exploit gaps

drogba is a total anomaly, there isn't another player like that and he is going to be 35 next season

he hasn't tended to play predominantly off crosses either, in his prime he played in a narrow 433 with anelka and malouda

Are there any younger players who might come through, Walker-style?

― Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Monday, May 14, 2012 10:37 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

naughton and caulker the only ones likely to get anywhere with redknapp since they have pl experience. townsend didn't do much at birmingham, kane did well at milwall but is still a couple of years away probably. wonder if falque or ceballos will get more chances than dos santos, both are potential options on the wings.

although credit to harry for bringing in livermore this season, he has looked good every time he's played.

how old's coulibaly? 17? Is he too young/raw to loan out next season do you think?

tbh were i minded to allow 'arry 'is positives, livermore, bale, lennon, walker, ekotto- if we can add caulker and naughton to that list next year, there's clear evidence that he knows how to develop potential into consistent performance. BAE and Lennon were utter heartbreakers up until Redknapp arrived, and imo the others wouldn't have made it into anything other than jenas-type wastes under other managers we've had.

still dream of llorente

17 i think, i don't know if he'll go out on loan. there was news about a youth/reserve league that i don't remember.
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Redknapp didn't play Bale at all until he absolutely had to, ie when BAE got injured two years ago. I think he was taken completely be surprise when he suddenly turned into one of the best players in the world in his position. I don't think it was planned at all.

Bringing Livermore through has been progress, certainly. Weird to be supporting a Spurs team with three decent options at DM.

no, he didn't, and tbf i didn't really hold up bale as a prime example of what i was saying- but to leave him out of the list considering where he was when redknapp came and where he is now would surely be the height of churlishness.

i think that's harsh re bale. bale was dropped because he wasn't playing well, but harry for example brought him on as a sub in at the end of a game spurs were winning because bale had never played in premier leage match that spurs won in almost 2 years. he had one chance and didn't perform well so he had to wait for his next one. him taking that next chance might not be down to anything harry did, but i don't think he was frozen out or anything.

I don't think he was frozen out, but equally I really don't think he was central to Redknapp's 2-4 year plan either, assuming he had one. Obviously he came good but I don't think he was consciously cultivated in the way a Ferguson or Wenger or Moyes would bring up a young player.

he wasn't bought by redknapp, so it's not quite the same thing as comparing him to the MO of those guys imo? He inherited bale as a problematic but talented left back, remember.

interestingly enough, harry's first game in charge, he started bale in midfield

i think he'd been tried there on and off, tbf. But he'd not had a run there, nor had he particularly impressed (tho matt & i both were stanning for him prior to the notts forest loan talk iirc)

how good are the tottenham cbs and friedel at this point

which cbs. we've agreed that dawson, kaboul and caulker can stay, bassong's fat lady has bassung, gallas was p shit the last six months and king's prob finally ready to be a non-consideration. So at least one first-choice cb, if he can play lb as vertonghen is supposed to then perfect.

I'd have no prob with friedel another year tbh.

the tottenham cbs deems

kaboul
dawson
khumalo

i always thought dawson was a bit limited

kaboul tho, idk

Dawson will fling himself in the line of everything but needs a CB with a cool head next to him, dunno if Kaboul-Dawson will ever work as a pairing, although Kaboul is probably better by this point.

Ideally Harry would go for Vorm or Krul in the summer but another year of Brad could be fine, he barely fucked up this season. Of course when it goes it could all go very quickly but he's hardly likely to turn down the opportunity to play in the Champions League, if it materialises.

dawson is maximising within his limitations, with a classier player to cover behind his charges he's got a certain s/thing that almost passes for inspirational leadership.

Kaboul I like v much. Plays across the back to p good effect, but idk do the two of them as a pairing exhibit mutual positional excellence.

Khumalo is a professional footballer currently registered to tottenham as a centre half, yes.

krul would cost so much tho

i think matt and i are in basic agreement here

Corluka's strictly ok as cb cover, if he returns, but not to be discounted as important if arry ever realises e's got a squad btwn cb, rb, walker covering rw, etc

agree, caulker vertonghen should sort it and i'd hold on to naughton as well if charlie's off

attacking rb adam smith looked quite promising against qpr on loan to mk dons in the cup fwiw

also you appear to have an academy rb by the name of alexander mcqueen...?

he got ten mins against fulham... it may have been at cb tho.

naughton is p much a cert to make next year's squad, whether walker is to be used as rw cover or not in arry's 'ed will decide whether corluka stays or goes i think.

I don't really think Harry out.

I think that fourth, even in a hardly vintage race for fourth, is no mean achievement.

I think that Harry should have to answer some pretty tough questions as to why third wasn't secured, even though very good players were sent out on loan or just not utilised.

To finish fourth, fifth, fourth with a young team and playing good football is enough, though.

This summer is going to be tougher for the lack of CL at the end of it, but as Matt said in the other thread, a good pair of bids for Bale or Modric now would almost be welcome- if Redknapp can be trusted to spend the income wisely.

For large tranches of the season neither has performed to the level of player the worth of which they will be sold for. Carrick them off, by all means.

I'd be more worried at the prospect of losing Sandro or VDV tbph.

Interesting times.