Basel Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

mquinn73 said:

So AVB committed to playing his best available starting XI for the majority of the Europa League. Where has that got us? A tired squad, our best player injured, and no silverware.... goes to prove that Harry was right!!

Should have stuck to playing a second string team in the Europa League and kept our key players fresh for the Premier League campaign instead.

We'll finish 5th in the league this year behind Arsenal in 3rd and Chelsea in 4th.

Bale will be gone in the summer.

Levy will mess around in the transfer market as usual but fail to deliver as usual. Blue & Yellow, yeah right....

I've been a season ticket holder for the last 8 seasons and I'm fed up with the same old excuses year in, year out. Levy engineered the departure of the best manager we had in the last 25 years because he never trusted Harry and he never believed that Harry fitted his description of a modern day football manager. Now he has AVB who was found out at Chelsea - and who'llbe found out at Spurs within the next 6-9 months. We have a reducing squad which has too many players which are simply not good enough to play regularly for a 'top 3' team - Gallas, Assou-Ekotto, Adebayor, Dempsey, Lennon (yes, completely overrated & overhyped by Spurs fans), Huddlestone, Defoe, Livermore, Friedel... not good enough.

What I'd give for a Berbatov or Modric in their prime... that was before Levy sold them and replaced them with players of a much lesser quality, but that's our beloved chairman's definition of a 'good deal'.

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Virtually everything you type is off the scale wrong, but on this point.... that's worked so well in the past hasn't it? Remember when we used to rest players and still be knackered at the end of the season!?

As an england/spurs fan I've come to assume that a penalty shootout means a loss. I worked it out and the last TEN penalty shoot outs I've watched with any real vested interest in a team (england/spurs/bayern) they've proceeded to shit everything up the wall. Frankly, it's all getting a bit ridiculous at this point.

mquinn73 said:

So AVB committed to playing his best available starting XI for the majority of the Europa League. Where has that got us? A tired squad, our best player injured, and no silverware.... goes to prove that Harry was right!!

Should have stuck to playing a second string team in the Europa League and kept our key players fresh for the Premier League campaign instead.

We'll finish 5th in the league this year behind Arsenal in 3rd and Chelsea in 4th.

Bale will be gone in the summer.

Levy will mess around in the transfer market as usual but fail to deliver as usual. Blue & Yellow, yeah right....

I've been a season ticket holder for the last 8 seasons and I'm fed up with the same old excuses year in, year out. Levy engineered the departure of the best manager we had in the last 25 years because he never trusted Harry and he never believed that Harry fitted his description of a modern day football manager. Now he has AVB who was found out at Chelsea - and who'llbe found out at Spurs within the next 6-9 months. We have a reducing squad which has too many players which are simply not good enough to play regularly for a 'top 3' team - Gallas, Assou-Ekotto, Adebayor, Dempsey, Lennon (yes, completely overrated & overhyped by Spurs fans), Huddlestone, Defoe, Livermore, Friedel... not good enough.

What I'd give for a Berbatov or Modric in their prime... that was before Levy sold them and replaced them with players of a much lesser quality, but that's our beloved chairman's definition of a 'good deal'.

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God - Where to start with this one?
- We didn't ever play our best team in the Europa League - not once.
I can't be arsed responding the the rest.

Berbatonghen said:

Adebayor aint no messi mate.

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Well pointed out that a large emphasis of my post was that anyone can miss a penalty, so slagging someone off for doing so is stupid and futile.

101 Great Goals.com

✘✘✘✘ Adebayor cracks a cheeky grin after missing penalty v Basel (Spurs fans won’t Like this picture) ✘✘✘✘

Emmanuel Adebayor’s terrible penalty miss: GIF and the best tweets - http://bit.ly/16QhLUM​

talkshowhost86 said:

It's the long game though.

Winning the Europa League gets us nothing in terms of long term development.

Regular appearances in the Champions League gets us more exposure, money and pull for better players meaning we can actually move towards challenging at a higher level.

I should add that I hate that UEFA have made the Europa League so pointless, but it's basically the Capital One cup of Europe.

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Considering we're competing with Arsenal, Man U, Man C, Liverpool, Everton for 4 spots it's going to be very difficult for us to be regulars in the CL. Man C, Man U, Chelsea will be regulars by default over the next few years and we're gonna be fighting for one spot.

We saw when we made the odd one off CL appearance before it didn't trigger any big spending so I'm not sure if that will change especially as we look to build a new stadium.

nightgoat said:

So you're going to give it up then, Mr Optimism? I'd love a season ticket.

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No, 2bearis2do, I would actually love a season ticket.

DEFchenkOE said:

Europa League is our level then? We should get used to it imo as we won't get 4th, yes I'm a pessimist right now!

Just gutted and frustrated right now, made even worse by the fact that Chelsea are in the semis. Just no karma in football when it comes to Tottenham.

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Basel have been in Europe every season since 1999, and in the Champions League 4 seasons

Not really about Europa being our level. Chelsea won CL last year but are now in Europa, it's fairly fluid and changeable

Over the two ties, we didn't deserve to win tho, so while I'm gutted, it's not unfair. So much unfairness in our history that when it's a straightforward result it's vaguely reassuring

2bearis2do said:

God - Where to start with this one?
- We didn't ever play our best team in the Europa League - not once.

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Really?!?! So the starting team tonight wasn't the best eleven available? Even though AVB said it was? Clever...

nightgoat said:

Well pointed out that a large emphasis of my post was that anyone can miss a penalty, so slagging someone off for doing so is stupid and futile.

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To be honest i just think missing the penalty was the icing on the cake for a few/or most of the fans to have a go at ade.

Because through out the game he was quite lethargic to say the least.

I totally respect a few guys here backing ade up and for us to back the players.

But im sorry with me i have had enough of emmanuel adebayor and would like him to leave.

Again, not massively impressed with tonight's performance. If we are serious about finishing top 4 we need to get this result out of our systems as quickly as possible and get switched on for City at home in just over a week's time. Dembele has yet again proved me right (simply not good enough). What the fuck was he doing for their first goal?! Friedel looked like someone had to come on and help him up from the floor after he *attempted* to make a save.

However, Walker, Daws & Holtby impressed me. Walker has had a bit of an up and down season this year but he was back to his best tonight, probably the best i've seen him play for a while. Dawson was also impressive, he just needs to cut out those stupid 'tip tappy' passes because he gets caught out far too often doing them. Other than that he was spot on. And as for Holtby the lad never stopped running. I'm a common believer of the tactic of 'defend from the front', that's the worst possible strategy for us because we have a donkey upfront who is not interested unless the ball is put on a plate for him.

Pretty pissed off about the result overall because Basle were definitely beatable and it frustrates me that we lose AGAIN on penalties. Huddlestone was unlucky, just have to say good save - and for those who are going to be slagging him off, his ball in to Dempsey got us into extra time in the first place and he also made Sig's goal at the weekend against Everton. But WHAT THE FUCKING HELL WAS ADEBAYOR DOING!? What is with these ridiculous run ups?! He is on a ridiculous wage and i'm not someone to judge a player on a shoot-out but that was abysmal, and then to have a little smerk about it after he had done it disgusts me. He needs to be sold this summer, our centre back has scored more goals this season than him!

I do think there are positives to take out of the last couple of games. No Lennon, Defoe, Bale, Sandro, Kaboul or Lloris in the XI tonight and we gave Basle a good fight! - They did beat Bayern this year at home so it proves how strong they are at home. As much as it is nice to get a trophy, top 4 is our objective without top 4 you don't attract the bigger and better players which we need to replace the 'crap' in our team. Gonna be hard but I will be behind the lads through thick and thin, keep the faith!

COYS!!!!

Timberwolf said:

As an england/spurs fan I've come to assume that a penalty shootout means a loss. I worked it out and the last TEN penalty shoot outs I've watched with any real vested interest in a team (england/spurs/bayern) they've proceeded to shit everything up the wall. Frankly, it's all getting a bit ridiculous at this point.

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Great point. Even when we supported ze Zgermans last year we lost. Fucking joke

If Naughton wasn't half way up the pitch out of the defensive line, I doubt they would have scored the first goal. Vertonghen's Red card should not have been.

Again, not massively impressed with tonight's performance. If we are serious about finishing top 4 we need to get this result out of our systems as quickly as possible and get switched on for City at home in just over a week's time. Dembele has yet again proved me right (simply not good enough). What the fuck was he doing for their first goal?! Friedel looked like someone had to come on and help him up from the floor after he *attempted* to make a save.

However, Walker, Daws & Holtby impressed me. Walker has had a bit of an up and down season this year but he was back to his best tonight, probably the best i've seen him play for a while. Dawson was also impressive, he just needs to cut out those stupid 'tip tappy' passes because he gets caught out far too often doing them. Other than that he was spot on. And as for Holtby the lad never stopped running. I'm a common believer of the tactic of 'defend from the front', that's the worst possible strategy for us because we have a donkey upfront who is not interested unless the ball is put on a plate for him.

Pretty pissed off about the result overall because Basle were definitely beatable and it frustrates me that we lose AGAIN on penalties. Huddlestone was unlucky, just have to say good save - and for those who are going to be slagging him off, his ball in to Dempsey got us into extra time in the first place and he also made Sig's goal at the weekend against Everton. But WHAT THE FUCKING HELL WAS ADEBAYOR DOING!? What is with these ridiculous run ups?! He is on a ridiculous wage and i'm not someone to judge a player on a shoot-out but that was abysmal, and then to have a little smerk about it after he had done it disgusts me. He needs to be sold this summer, our centre back has scored more goals this season than him!

I do think there are positives to take out of the last couple of games. No Lennon, Defoe, Bale, Sandro, Kaboul or Lloris in the XI tonight and we gave Basle a good fight! - They did beat Bayern this year at home so it proves how strong they are at home. As much as it is nice to get a trophy, top 4 is our objective without top 4 you don't attract the bigger and better players which we need to replace the 'crap' in our team. Gonna be hard but I will be behind the lads through thick and thin, keep the faith!

COYS!!!!

Well played boys. You did us proud.
We can concentrate on the league now with our heads held high.
Carroll showed he can play with the big boys.
Dempsey stuck two fingers up to the boo boys.
Adebayor, Holtby. Siggy grafted the whole game.
Welcome back Big Tom, Kyle Walker where have you been?

How can anybody support anyone other than Spurs.
The team that test their fans to breaking point and back again.
Looking forward to next season however this one finishes up.
!0 days to recover; me not the team.
Love it.

Caco said:

A lot of loan players being mentioned, but I honestly think that if we had Townsend to bring on he would have made a huge impact. We tried hard tonight but never really showed any class. Don't want to be too negative but we were playing Basel, they are going to get well and truly turned over in the semi's. Too much reliance on bale to produce a bit of magic has cost us. The players that played tonight are well able to play football and break teams down but we seem to be unwilling to try anything without bale. At least Gilfi tried to get around his man every chance he got, I felt he was often left isolated because the rest of our players didn't support him high enough up the field.

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I wouldn't be so sure of that. They've beaten us and Zenit, and dumped United out of the CL in 2011.

To be honest, the way we've played this tournament, one game against Inter and one against Lyon excepted, we've been pretty fortunate to get this far. 'We're in it to win it', apparently (or were in it to win it), but in the group stage looked altogether less convincing than last season, despite fielding a much stronger team. People on here were trying to draw positives from the fact that we'd somehow escaped a total mullering from Lazio—we probably made them look a good deal better than they actually are. As for the lame showings against Panathinaikos and Maribor, the less said the better.

All in all, the EL has been the one question mark I've had against AVB.

nightgoat said:

So you're going to give it up then, Mr Optimism? I'd love a season ticket.

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Yeah, probably will give it up at the end of this season to be honest. Very disillusioned at the way this club is being run. That's my personal opinion. I paid a bloody large amount of money over the past 8 years on my season tickets and I've had enough. And I can tell you that I'm not the only one. Of course, there'll be no shortage of suckers to take my place... but maybe if you'd paid the money I have to follow a club that I used to love, you'd be pretty pissed off too....

playboypaul said:

If Naughton wasn't half way up the pitch out of the defensive line, I doubt they would have scored the first goal. Vertonghen's Red card should not have been.

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Can't blame the first goal on Naughton. We're an attacking team. When we have the ball our full backs push up, thats how we play and its a risk we take. Dembele fucked up, not Naughton.

Berbatonghen said:

To be honest i just think missing the penalty was the icing on the cake for a few/or most of the fans to have a go at ade.

Because through out the game he was quite lethargic to say the least.

I totally respect a few guys here backing ade up and for us to back the players.

But im sorry with me i have had enough of emmanuel adebayor and would like him to leave.

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I'm not his biggest fan and I wasn't especially enamoured by signing him in the first place, but it's still idiotic to unload a torrent of hatred on him because of it.

To be fair, he never really looks incredibly energetic even when he's on form. I thought he had a decent game tonight, a lot of the time he didn't really have great support and had to come short or into the channels which left us no one in the box. Extra time was futile really, up against two defenders with barely any support. You could see he was trying to relieve pressure on the team by trying to win corners and throws up the pitch.

I'd like us to replace him with someone better and more consistent too, but I'm not going to slag him off while he's still playing for us. Certainly not for missing a penalty, which as I said, even the best players in the world do.

mquinn73 said:

So AVB committed to playing his best available starting XI for the majority of the Europa League. Where has that got us? A tired squad, our best player injured, and no silverware.... goes to prove that Harry was right!!

Should have stuck to playing a second string team in the Europa League and kept our key players fresh for the Premier League campaign instead.

We'll finish 5th in the league this year behind Arsenal in 3rd and Chelsea in 4th.

Bale will be gone in the summer.

Levy will mess around in the transfer market as usual but fail to deliver as usual. Blue & Yellow, yeah right....

I've been a season ticket holder for the last 8 seasons and I'm fed up with the same old excuses year in, year out. Levy engineered the departure of the best manager we had in the last 25 years because he never trusted Harry and he never believed that Harry fitted his description of a modern day football manager. Now he has AVB who was found out at Chelsea - and who'llbe found out at Spurs within the next 6-9 months. We have a reducing squad which has too many players which are simply not good enough to play regularly for a 'top 3' team - Gallas, Assou-Ekotto, Adebayor, Dempsey, Lennon (yes, completely overrated & overhyped by Spurs fans), Huddlestone, Defoe, Livermore, Friedel... not good enough.

What I'd give for a Berbatov or Modric in their prime... that was before Levy sold them and replaced them with players of a much lesser quality, but that's our beloved chairman's definition of a 'good deal'.

Click to expand...