2023/24 - The Race For..................

[mattstev2000]

Hoping we'll be in the 6-8 fight with Villa and Newcastle. Good basis for Ange to build from.

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

I think a big question mark for me is how good some of our players are. At the moment there are question marks around most of our players and they could go either way. How good is Richy? Brazil number 9 but could'nt score last season. Can Son recapture his form? Is Kulu as good as his start suggested? Can Bentancur return? Can Bissouma reach his potential. Can Romero mature? Will VDV settle? Will Vicario work out? Porro, not sold on him personally. Kane was the one player we could rely on.

If it all goes right, we could be a couple of signings away from having a very solid team....but that is a lot that needs to go right.

In the same way that everything would need to go right for us to finish 4th, everything would need to go wrong for us to finish 8th.

Is Ange is worth his salt, we should be finishing 6th.

 

[homer hotspur]

In the same way that everything would need to go right for us to finish 4th, everything would need to go wrong for us to finish 8th.

Is Ange is worth his salt, we should be finishing 6th.

Not sure about ' ' should'. I think 6th is probably the best we can expect this first season.

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

Not sure about ' ' should'. I think 6th is probably the best we can expect this first season.

I feel like I've seen much worse jol and poch sides finish top 5.

And that's what you want really.

A manager that makes a team greater than the sum of its parts

 

[Hotspur_Hero]

I feel like I've seen much worse jol and poch sides finish top 5.

And that's what you want really.

A manager that makes a team greater than the sum of its parts

Sure we’ve had worse sides finish top 5, but, at first blush, the PL looks SO much stronger on paper than it did a decade ago. When you see the kind of money coming into and out of all the teams in the top half, the league is just far more competitive than it used to be. I think about 8 sides in the PL this year could get out of a CL group stage.

 

[Cambridge Spur]

Speaking to another Spurs fan earlier today and he said he’d be happy with 7th or 8th. Fuck that, we finished 8th last season with an absolute shit show. 3 different managers, in house fighting, dreadful football, coach died, Conte hospitalised. Top 4 should be the target, nothing aside from last seasons top two frightens me. Even without Kane we’ve got some great and exciting players. Fuck it, let’s win the whole thing! COYS!

 

[FinnYid]

I like the title

Me too, about a time

 

[soflapaul]

voted race for 6 without a top CB. Suspect 4th or 5th with a top CB brought in. Add a top CB + a good poacher (or Richy comes good) and 3rd is possible due to free kicks and numbers of opportunities that Ange's style of play/ball brings. but it's the far post runs that scares the hell out of me

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

Sure we’ve had worse sides finish top 5, but, at first blush, the PL looks SO much stronger on paper than it did a decade ago. When you see the kind of money coming into and out of all the teams in the top half, the league is just far more competitive than it used to be. I think about 8 sides in the PL this year could get out of a CL group stage.

We parted ways with a manager that had us in 4th.

Having his replacement finish 8th (a feat that Ryan Mason managed) is not good enough for me.

 

[homer hotspur]

Speaking to another Spurs fan earlier today and he said he’d be happy with 7th or 8th. Fuck that, we finished 8th last season with an absolute shit show. 3 different managers, in house fighting, dreadful football, coach died, Conte hospitalised. Top 4 should be the target, nothing aside from last seasons top two frightens me. Even without Kane we’ve got some great and exciting players. Fuck it, let’s win the whole thing! COYS!

shit show propped up by HK 30 goals plus his creativity, now gone.

 

[Guntz]

6th and a cup run would be a good season for us.

Back in the Europa league.

 

[Hotspur_Hero]

We parted ways with a manager that had us in 4th.

Having his replacement finish 8th (a feat that Ryan Mason managed) is not good enough for me.

Fair enough. I certainly think we should aim high. I wouldn’t be thrilled with 6-8th either. I want to see improvement in our play and hopefully the results don’t take too long to follow. We had a lot go wrong last year with crazy coaching turmoil that we are unlikely to see again.

But we also just lost one of the best players in premier league history. Others may feel differently, but in my view we are a worse team than we were last year with H gone. He won games on his own. Hopefully we bring in a few more, and our returning loan players make a difference, but right now I think we’re weaker than we were at the start of last season. We have a manager that is new to the league, and is trying to instill completely different tactics than we had last year. And the backdrop to all of this is that teams outside the Big 6 are now spending massive sums of money. Newcastle, Villa, and Brighton are all good teams with good managers and good players. There are 9 really strong sides in the league.

 

[jimbo]

I’ve gone for top 6 as ‘fuck all’ wasn’t an option even though it has a solid ring to it.

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

Fair enough. I certainly think we should aim high. I wouldn’t be thrilled with 6-8th either. I want to see improvement in our play and hopefully the results don’t take too long to follow. We had a lot go wrong last year with crazy coaching turmoil that we are unlikely to see again.

But we also just lost one of the best players in premier league history. Others may feel differently, but in my view we are a worse team than we were last year with H gone. He won games on his own. Hopefully we bring in a few more, and our returning loan players make a difference, but right now I think we’re weaker than we were at the start of last season. We have a manager that is new to the league, and is trying to instill completely different tactics than we had last year. And the backdrop to all of this is that teams outside the Big 6 are now spending massive sums of money. Newcastle, Villa, and Brighton are all good teams with good managers and good players. There are 9 really strong sides in the league.

Don't get me wrong, if we're playing good football and look like we are improving game by game, then 7th isn't the end of the world to me.

However, 8th is mid table mediocrity.

We have a squad good enough to do better than that if it's in the right hands.

If we finish 8th or lower, then I have to question if they really are the "right hands".

 

[Cambridge Spur]

shit show propped up by HK 30 goals plus his creativity, now gone.

We’re not going to score 30 fewer goals because HK is gone. Yes he will be a big miss but we’ve got some great attacking players. No other team in the PL has got HK and as I say aside from the top two we shouldn’t fear anyone.

 

[Hotspur_Hero]

Don't get me wrong, if we're playing good football and look like we are improving game by game, then 7th isn't the end of the world to me.

However, 8th is mid table mediocrity.

We have a squad good enough to do better than that if it's in the right hands.

If we finish 8th or lower, then I have to question if they really are the "right hands".

Do we have a squad that is good enough to do better than that? For me it is an open question.

I think our squad has gotten worse over the years and been propped up by the excellent goal scoring abilities of H and Son. When we were a consistent top 4 side under Poch, we had a top goalkeeeper, 4 great defenders, quality attackers, and dembele.

I’d probably say we have the 6-8 best squad in the league right now. Again I hope I’m wrong and I hope that Ange can get them playing better than the sum of their individual parts.

 

[Tucker]

6th and a cup run would be a good season for us.

Back in the Europa league.

Honestly think the two lower European cups are our best chance of silverware. Far less likely to be gobbled up by cheating oil clubs.

 

[jimbo]

Don't get me wrong, if we're playing good football and look like we are improving game by game, then 7th isn't the end of the world to me.

However, 8th is mid table mediocrity.

We have a squad good enough to do better than that if it's in the right hands.

If we finish 8th or lower, then I have to question if they really are the "right hands".

To me, on paper (and football isn’t played on paper etc), Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea are all much stronger than we are currently whilst Newcastle, Brighton and Aston Villa are roughly level but with less disruption and all on an upward trend. So while we bed in new signings and learn the approach of a new manager that is very (and refreshingly) different to what we’ve been used to for the past few seasons we’re likely to finish somewhere between 6th and 9th.

I’d say a bottom half finish would probably make it fair to question if Ange is the right man in his first season, but 8th would be about par considering the large scale readjustment that we’re undertaking.

 

[homer hotspur]

Fair enough. I certainly think we should aim high. I wouldn’t be thrilled with 6-8th either. I want to see improvement in our play and hopefully the results don’t take too long to follow. We had a lot go wrong last year with crazy coaching turmoil that we are unlikely to see again.

But we also just lost one of the best players in premier league history. Others may feel differently, but in my view we are a worse team than we were last year with H gone. He won games on his own. Hopefully we bring in a few more, and our returning loan players make a difference, but right now I think we’re weaker than we were at the start of last season. We have a manager that is new to the league, and is trying to instill completely different tactics than we had last year. And the backdrop to all of this is that teams outside the Big 6 are now spending massive sums of money. Newcastle, Villa, and Brighton are all good teams with good managers and good players. There are 9 really strong sides in the league.

I expect West Ham to strengthen significantly before the deadline too. Its sometimes overlooked that they had the second highest average attendance last season and have a scandalously low annual rental on their stadium apparently equivalent to 2 home games' ticket income, plus the Rice and Scamacca money to spend. Their main problem is always attracting players ( despite europa football) and they have to wait until everyone else have declared no interest. This is probably why JWP hasn't signed yet.
Our main advantage this season is the absence of europe but I don't see us finishing higher than 6th purely because I can definitely see at least 5 ( 6 really) above us.

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

To me, on paper (and football isn’t played on paper etc), Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea are all much stronger than we are currently whilst Newcastle, Brighton and Aston Villa are roughly level but with less disruption and all on an upward trend. So while we bed in new signings and learn the approach of a new manager that is very (and refreshingly) different to what we’ve been used to for the past few seasons we’re likely to finish somewhere between 6th and 9th.

I’d say a bottom half finish would probably make it fair to question if Ange is the right man in his first season, but 8th would be about par considering the large scale readjustment that we’re undertaking.

Pretty much all of those teams have their own issues.

Liverpool's defence is about as good as ours is. Chelsea's is bigger than ours and they had a worse season than we did. Man Utd don't look great. Newcastle, Brighton, and Villa have European football to contend with. Us, Liverpool, and Chelsea don't.

There's actually a lot of problems the teams that finished above us last season have to contend with.