AVB on Levy and the direction of the club

[tiger666]

Bets on this reaching 100 pages.

 

[mattstev2000]

Obviously, we massively fucked up in 11/12 when we should have been 3rd and out of sight. 4th with a quartet of strikers in Pav/Crouch/Defoe/Keane is the nearest we've come to 'achievement' in recent years.

Trying to pick a pair to play up front out of that quartet was like trying to decide whether you'd prefer a punch in the crotch or a kick in the crotch.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Trying to pick a pair to play up front out of that quartet was like trying to decide whether you'd prefer a punch in the crotch or a kick in the crotch.

...and even then you weren't sure if you actually wanted to shave your head with a cheesegrater just in case it hurt less.

 

[Mr Pink]

Astonishing that this debate over points tally/league position is still running.

Talk about trying to complicate something that doesn't need to be complicated.

 

[mattstev2000]

Astonishing that this debate over points tally/league position is still running.

Talk about trying to complicate something that doesn't need to be complicated.

I think debate might be a rather grand term for what's going on. I look on it as the online equivalent of chatting about football down the pub.

It's why I'm always drunk when I post.

 

[Spurger King]

I don't think either of them are achievements to be honest.

That really should end any debate about which was the better season. Both Harry and AVB were expected to get CL football, and both fell short.

Mind you, at least Harry had us looking like a genuine top 3 side for as few months.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

I agree. It was a brilliant achievement last season...






















...by Gareth Bale.

Yeah, fuck knows why Levy bothered employing AVB. The team would have reached 72points without a manager in charge. We had Gareth Bale, fuck giving the manager any credit at all. In fact, did we even need the other 10 players on the pitch? We had Gareth Bale. He was the sole reason we got 72 points last season

 

[mattstev2000]

Yeah, fuck knows why Levy bothered employing AVB. The team would have reached 72points without a manager in charge. We had Gareth Bale, fuck giving the manager any credit at all. In fact, did we even need the other 10 players on the pitch? We had Gareth Bale. He was the sole reason we got 72 points last season

It took a crap load of effort for me to leave that one alone... I typed and deleted about 3 different sarcastic responses before I decided to attempt the rarely trodden high road

 

[Spurger King]

Yeah, fuck knows why Levy bothered employing AVB. The team would have reached 72points without a manager in charge. We had Gareth Bale, fuck giving the manager any credit at all. In fact, did we even need the other 10 players on the pitch? We had Gareth Bale. He was the sole reason we got 72 points last season

I'm glad you've finally recognised this

I said last season that AVB wasn't having the impact I'd hoped for. Not terrible, but pretty middle of the road. Bloody tedious 99% of the time as well. I thought the lack of movement and imagination would simply be a necessary evil as he adjusted the team to his own vision. Then this season it became apparent that it was his vision.

Bale had an exceptional season, and was the difference between us having an average season, and having a good (but not good enough) season. It's amazing how desperate people are to blindly refuse to concede that a great season from a special player was more deserving of praise for our success than a manager who looked out of his depth.

I guess Maradona was only a bit-part player in Argentina winning the world cup in '86. After all, Carlos Bilardo was the one who made the brave decision to play him. Tactical genius

 

[TottenhamMattSpur]

Yeah, fuck knows why Levy bothered employing AVB. The team would have reached 72points without a manager in charge. We had Gareth Bale, fuck giving the manager any credit at all. In fact, did we even need the other 10 players on the pitch? We had Gareth Bale. He was the sole reason we got 72 points last season

If we had no AVB Bale would have hit 30 league goals and we'd have won the league.

 

[Spurger King]

If we had no AVB Bale would have hit 30 league goals and we'd have won the league.

We could have had Zippy from Rainbow in charge and Bale would have still had a great season. He well and truly papered over the cracks of what a mundane manager AVB was. Did anyone notice how hardly any of Bale's goals were team efforts? Can anyone name more than two games where we actually looked good for more than 45 minutes?

 

[Spurs_Bear]

We could have had Zippy from Rainbow in charge and Bale would have still had a great season. He well and truly papered over the cracks of what a mundane manager AVB was. Did anyone notice how hardly any of Bale's goals were team efforts? Can anyone name more than two games where we actually looked good for more than 45 minutes?

I'm not one for giving AVB undue credit of immense dimensions, but yes I can name more than 2 games.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Yeah, fuck knows why Levy bothered employing AVB. The team would have reached 72points without a manager in charge. We had Gareth Bale, fuck giving the manager any credit at all. In fact, did we even need the other 10 players on the pitch? We had Gareth Bale. He was the sole reason we got 72 points last season

I agree.

 

[mattstev2000]

I'm glad you've finally recognised this

I said last season that AVB wasn't having the impact I'd hoped for. Not terrible, but pretty middle of the road. Bloody tedious 99% of the time as well. I thought the lack of movement and imagination would simply be a necessary evil as he adjusted the team to his own vision. Then this season it became apparent that it was his vision.

Bale had an exceptional season, and was the difference between us having an average season, and having a good (but not good enough) season. It's amazing how desperate people are to blindly refuse to concede that a great season from a special player was more deserving of praise for our success than a manager who looked out of his depth.

I guess Maradona was only a bit-part player in Argentina winning the world cup in '86. After all, Carlos Bilardo was the one who made the brave decision to play him. Tactical genius

Did he? I seem to remember him being little more than good for the first half of the season. Certainly not better than other players in the team. About the same level as he was the previous season.

Exceptional second half of the season but if we truly did have a mundane fraud as a manager that wouldn't have mattered a jot because we would have been long cut adrift.

And there were plenty more than two games were we looked good last season.

 

[TottenhamMattSpur]

We could have had Zippy from Rainbow in charge and Bale would have still had a great season. He well and truly papered over the cracks of what a mundane manager AVB was. Did anyone notice how hardly any of Bale's goals were team efforts? Can anyone name more than two games where we actually looked good for more than 45 minutes?

We were all in denial last season at how much of a one man team we were. However it's not that the players around him were poor players. They just weren't enough to break free from the AVB chains.
Had another player been as bold as Bale they'd probably have been dropped knowing that egomaniac.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Astonishing that this debate over points tally/league position is still running.

Talk about trying to complicate something that doesn't need to be complicated.

Is it really that astonishing when you see who is debating it...?

 

[parklane1]

Yeah, fuck knows why Levy bothered employing AVB. The team would have reached 72points without a manager in charge. We had Gareth Bale, fuck giving the manager any credit at all. In fact, did we even need the other 10 players on the pitch? We had Gareth Bale. He was the sole reason we got 72 points last season

Indeed, just think of the wages we could have saved seeing as we only needed Bale on the field.

 

[Spurger King]

Did he? I seem to remember him being little more than good for the first half of the season. Certainly not better than other players in the team. About the same level as he was the previous season.

Exceptional second half of the season but if we truly did have a mundane fraud as a manager that wouldn't have mattered a jot because we would have been long cut adrift.

And there were plenty more than two games were we looked good last season.

AVB seemed to follow Moyes' Everton model...first make your team hard to beat, then try to snatch a goal. Bale was the exception in an otherwise negative and mundane set-up. If you stuck Bale in Everton's team last season, they would have finished above us.

 

[TaoistMonkey]

If we had no AVB Bale would have hit 30 league goals and we'd have won the league.

You've just taken this thread to another level.

Well done!

 

[Mullers]

How is sacking a poor manager bottling it? All I can say is thank fucking Christ almighty he did sack him

Thank Christ eh? Always the ones you least expect. Anyway he isn't a poor manager, I haven't seen any real evidence that he is but if he is Levy is the man who hired him. If he felt he was poor he should have got rid of him in the summer.