Best Football since Bill Nic ?

Bus-Conductor · Jun 30, 2015

@guate posted this in the ITK Discussion thread. It was a good post and I liked just about all of it except the bit in bold:

guate said:
Everlasting seconds…….I feel Josua Maine's quote "Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful" sums up pretty much what I would call success. Spurs, with all their deficiencies, are closer now to being a consistently successful team than, IMHO, we have been over the last 40 years. I'm old enough to remember the Blanchflower teams when we were very special, the best of the best, but through bad management of our assets we became very mediocre over that time frame, apart from an odd cup win. During ENIC's tenure-ship we've gone from being a mid table team to one which consistently ends up in the top 6. With the academy, new training facilities and hopefully new stadium on its way, I believe we've become more stable than ever and as slow as it may seem for many younger supporters our success is becoming more sustainable than ever as our foundations are now solid. Hopefully with the new stadium and particularly should it also become the home of the first NFL franchise outside of the USA we will be in a position to compete with the big European teams for any player that's the flavour of the day, month or year.
Untd., Chelski and Citeh have gone about buying the league of late and it's worked, however, even though I'm not a particular fan of Enic or our bean counter, as I believe he should have loosened the purse strings during the Redknapp years when we were playing the best and most entertaining football that I've seen since the Billy Nic period, he's gone about it the right way as our relative success is more sustainable now than at any time during the previous 40 years, and can only improve.

I know there's this fallacy that every game under Redknapp was a swash buckling fiesta of of dynamic football and we have mysteriously wiped the 80% of ho hum stuff we played that was gilded by a piece of individual brilliance from Modric, VDV, Bale or Adebayor etc from our collective memories, as well as the the failure to win 9 home games in his last but one season, losing to teams like Wigan, West Ham, West Brom etc. and our abysmal record and performances against top teams.

But does anyone who remembers the early-mid eighties really think we played better football most of the time under Redknapp than we did during that phase under Burkinshaw or even Pleat ? The Perryman, Roberts, Hoddle, Ardiles, Villa, Galvin, Archibald and Crooks years pissed it for me. We were like Arsenal have been under Wenger, the team that played football more stylishly than anyone in the league for a few seasons, we were beautiful to watch and not just on the odd occasion, but most weeks. And we won things (two FA Cups and a Euro trophy, and another final). Even that Pleat team played a better brand of football more consistently and it wasn't just about superstars it was about a tactical brand of football, high tempo, different structure to many etc and the closest I've felt we were to winning a title since Bill Nic.

Ironskullll · Jun 30, 2015

Bus-Conductor said:
@guate posted this in the ITK Discussion thread. It was a good post and I liked just about all of it except the bit in bold:

I know there's this fallacy that every game under Redknapp was a swash buckling fiesta of of dynamic football and we have mysteriously wiped the 80% of ho hum stuff we played that was gilded by a piece of individual brilliance from Modric, VDV, Bale or Adebayor etc from our collective memories, as well as the the failure to win 9 home games in his last but one season, losing to teams like Wigan, West Ham, West Brom etc. and our abysmal record and performances against top teams.

But does anyone who remembers the early-mid eighties really think we played better football most of the time under Redknapp than we did during that phase under Burkinshaw or even Pleat ? The Perryman, Roberts, Hoddle, Ardiles, Villa, Galvin, Archibald and Crooks years pissed it for me. We were like Arsenal have been under Wenger, the team that played football more stylishly than anyone in the league for a few seasons, we were beautiful to watch and not just on the odd occasion, but most weeks. And we won things (two FA Cups and a Euro trophy, and another final). Even that Pleat team played a better brand of football more consistently and it wasn't just about superstars it was about a tactical brand of football, high tempo, different structure to many etc and the closest I've felt we were to winning a title since Bill Nic.

I'm flabbergasted... gobsmacked that anyone could ever suggest that Redknapp's football was that good. It was good, yes but not on the same plane as the Burkinshaw and Pleat years. Shreeves and Venables' teams played better football too.

beats1 · Jun 30, 2015

IIRC Harry Redknapp said this is as good as it gets, so far he is right as he has got worse

mpickard2087 · Jun 30, 2015

When it clicked on its day we played some good stuff, and had 3-4 class players that helped make it that way, but it was only in patches. Rarely was it shown on a consistent basis and that's the problem with open, all-out football with players elft to do their own thing. Also there was a fair amount of rubbish at times, stuff like the half a season where Plan A, B + C was 'hoof it up to Crouchy, Rafa will get the knockdown' is very much swept under the carpet and forgotten about.

I can only go back 20 years as a fan, so he's top of the list when it comes to managers I have seen... But its a less than stellar list.

CornerPinDreamer · Jun 30, 2015

beats1 said:
IIRC Harry Redknapp said this is as good as it gets, so far he is right as he has got worse

he was talking about his career?

@Bobby__Lucky · Jun 30, 2015

Bus-Conductor said:
@guate posted this in the ITK Discussion thread. It was a good post and I liked just about all of it except the bit in bold:

I know there's this fallacy that every game under Redknapp was a swash buckling fiesta of of dynamic football and we have mysteriously wiped the 80% of ho hum stuff we played that was gilded by a piece of individual brilliance from Modric, VDV, Bale or Adebayor etc from our collective memories, as well as the the failure to win 9 home games in his last but one season, losing to teams like Wigan, West Ham, West Brom etc. and our abysmal record and performances against top teams.

But does anyone who remembers the early-mid eighties really think we played better football most of the time under Redknapp than we did during that phase under Burkinshaw or even Pleat ? The Perryman, Roberts, Hoddle, Ardiles, Villa, Galvin, Archibald and Crooks years pissed it for me. We were like Arsenal have been under Wenger, the team that played football more stylishly than anyone in the league for a few seasons, we were beautiful to watch and not just on the odd occasion, but most weeks. And we won things (two FA Cups and a Euro trophy, and another final). Even that Pleat team played a better brand of football more consistently and it wasn't just about superstars it was about a tactical brand of football, high tempo, different structure to many etc and the closest I've felt we were to winning a title since Bill Nic.

80's Spurs are my favourite, the Hoddle era was awesome, 84 eufa cup run, 81/82 finals.. Bloody shame in 87 final, Clive allens 49 goal season was an awesome season with seriously good football, that 5 man midfield is my favourite tottenham team.

TasSpur · Jun 30, 2015

Sadly I think that it is modern football that has changed. When Hoddle, Ardiles & co were playing I just don't remember teams coming to WHL and just parking the bus, trying not to lose. At least not ever bloody game. Maybe I have rose tinted spectacles on for that period but games seemed more open. These days I prefer watching the lads playing away as there is just the chance that teams may be more open against us and give us a chance to play. Would Bill Nic's methods work in todays game against 11 men back in their own box and just outside?

Bus-Conductor · Jul 1, 2015

TasSpur said:
Sadly I think that it is modern football that has changed. When Hoddle, Ardiles & co were playing I just don't remember teams coming to WHL and just parking the bus, trying not to lose. At least not ever bloody game. Maybe I have rose tinted spectacles on for that period but games seemed more open. These days I prefer watching the lads playing away as there is just the chance that teams may be more open against us and give us a chance to play. Would Bill Nic's methods work in todays game against 11 men back in their own box and just outside?

Teams definitely parked the bus back in the eighties, but it was just like Arsenal in recent years, we always had the tools to unlock them and once we had they had to change tac and come out, and when they did we had the tools to punish them more.

sunnydelight786 · Jul 1, 2015

I'm old enough to remember our teams from the 80's and like you have said, both of them pissed allover Redknapp's. For me our 86-87 team is still the best I have seen in my life time, just a shame they were unable to have anything to show for it come the end of the season

How can a team with Hoddle, Waddle, Ardiles, Hodge, etc not have been good to watch....

Spurger King · Jul 1, 2015

Didn't follow football in the 80s so can't comment on that.

Some of the performances under Redknapp were better than anything I'd seen before or since. Liverpool at the Lane being a case in point. It certainly wasn't typical though.

TasSpur · Jul 1, 2015

Bus-Conductor said:
Teams definitely parked the bus back in the eighties, but it was just like Arsenal in recent years, we always had the tools to unlock them and once we had they had to change tac and come out, and when they did we had the tools to punish them more.

Yes thats true but I think teams now are so much more organised and disciplined that it makes the defensive tactics so much harder to defeat. Thats why there is so much lateral possession these days, trying to draw the opposition out.

Real_madyidd · Jul 1, 2015

I must enjoyed it under Ardiles. Yeah we lost, but 4-3 was great.

HotspurFC1950 · Jul 1, 2015

Taxi for Maicon.

stevenqoz · Jul 1, 2015

Something I say to new Spurs supporters is "Welcome to a life of nearlyness punctuated by the occasional actuality". Thinking back to our best footballing sides, invariably there were 'working' players in the background also able to give us a semblance of resiliance. Thus, while our history and tradition evidently produces the Hoddle's, Gazza's, Waddle's, Ginola's etc.....it is when the occasional Stevie Perryman, Tony Galvin, Graham Roberts, Steve Hodge's or Gary Mabbutt's provide the muscle or workrate ....that we can excel on that Wednesday night at Stoke or Bolton. My favourite side was the 82' one where for a large part of the year we were seemingly up for everything then had to settle for the FA Cup win over QPR as we ran out of steam with fixture pile ups.

Lilbaz · Jul 1, 2015

Can't remember much of burkinshaws team. But 87 was great and so was the 91 team. The first half of redknapps last season was up there with them though. We played some beautiful stuff. That xmas was chatting to mates who were in their early 30's and they all thought this was the best spurs team we had seen play. The last few months of the season took the shine off it a bit.

But don't let your dislike of redknapp cloud your judgement that that was a very good team who could play some fantastic exciting football.

0-Tibsy-0 · Jul 1, 2015

There were a few occasions/matchdays under Redknapp that we could have matched most club teams in Europe. But that was because we had a few world class players and when they clicked we played some fantastically entertaining football.

But it was only a few occasions. We certainly werent great consistently and given the quality in that squad we were actually very frustrating and toothless far too often.

Being at that Inter game at WHL though.

.

Bus-Conductor · Jul 1, 2015

Lilbaz said:
Can't remember much of burkinshaws team. But 87 was great and so was the 91 team. The first half of redknapps last season was up there with them though. We played some beautiful stuff. That xmas was chatting to mates who were in their early 30's and they all thought this was the best spurs team we had seen play. The last few months of the season took the shine off it a bit.

But don't let your dislike of redknapp cloud your judgement that that was a very good team who could play some fantastic exciting football.

And don't let the fact that you didn't even see us under Burkinshaw cloud yours.

Lilbaz · Jul 1, 2015

Bus-Conductor said:
And don't let the fact that you didn't even see us under Burkinshaw cloud yours.

That is why i compared them with the 87/91 teams, if you read my post correctly. Nowhere did i say they were better than burkinshaws team.

Yes i did see burkinshaws teams play but i was young and didn't fully appreciate them.

ryantegan · Jul 1, 2015

Harrys Spurs was a joy to watch. I miss the days when we were skillful, quick and scored goals galore

Arsenal fans were genuinely scared of us then

danielneeds · Jul 1, 2015

There was a period in the season where we should have finished 3rd where we played some fantastic stuff. Parker and Modric were running the midfield and Adebayor, Bale and Rafa were on fire.

80s teams were superior though, the real shame was they were never strong enough away from home to win a title.

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