What the pundits & media are saying about us

[E17yid]

Even as a transitional season an 8th-9th place mid table finish would be piss poor and I'd be seriously looking at the manager if that's where we finished.

Hard disagree. Losing a club legend, new manager, completely different style of football to inbed, different personnel with no prem experience and finishing where we did last season would be piss poor? Not for me. Wouldn’t be great but not terrible either. For what it’s worth I think we’ll finish between 5th-8th but wouldn’t be shocked if we finished outside that even.

 

[E17yid]

Par for the course is 4th - 6th. That's what it should be, based on all of the factors.

We have a much better team/squad than newcastle/villa and Brighton.

But they have more settled squads/managers which negates it somewhat imo.

 

[Yiddo1982]

Brighton will drop off this season.

 

[aliyid]

The way I see it is that positive football is key to success in the Prem (look at Ars, New, Bri, etc last season)

The last few seasons we’ve focussed on the old school approach of limiting mistakes and aiming to be defensively secure. This ultimately invited pressure and allowed teams to build confidence against us.

Everything we’ve seen so far indicates that we’ll be looking to take the game to the opposition. While this may see us lose a few games we stack up well against probably 15 of the 20 teams. We only play City twice a season so why focus on not being as good as them when you can focus on having better players than the vast majority of teams in the league.

One game a week is huge for us meaning we can get the tactical work done and bed in the new approach.

Take care of games against the likes of Luton, Fulham, Palace, Brentford, etc… and we’ll be up there challenging towards the top quarter.

 

[piedpiper]

Par for the course is 4th - 6th. That's what it should be, based on all of the factors.

We have a much better team/squad than newcastle/villa and Brighton.

We do have a better squad, for me it's a new manager who is an unknown quantity I'm the PL and the kane situation and the new defence. So yes 4th to 6th is par...but I'm seeing a lower finish.

 

[piedpiper]

Unsure why you mention Chelsea being properly managed without Europe as a positive and not use that for us? While the three teams in bold are going to be in Europe having never been there before or for many, many years and we don't know how they will manage it or if it will negatively affect their league form. West Ham won the conference league but were in a relegation battle for much of the season.

I think we'll be in the European places at the very least with or without Kane.

The Poch factor on Chelsea vs Ange.... I rate Poch highly based on his experience in the league and the quality of player at his disposal. I also said somewhere the points between 6th and 8th will be small so we could fall anywhere between there.

 

[offside_ruel_fox]

I can see why pundits are saying we will finish mid table but as some have mentioned there is a lot of lazy journalism here. More to come after Kane hit 4 yesterday with the “where would they be without him?” rhetoric being trotted out.

Teams like Newcastle, Brighton and Villa haven’t played European football in years. They will be putting everything into it and it will stretch their squads. Look how Newcastle’s form dropped off when they had the Carabo Cup final lurking. Or how West Ham’s league form suffered due to their European campaign.

Spurs playing once a week will give us a lot of recovery and preparation time.

 

[chas vs dave]

We do have a better squad, for me it's a new manager who is an unknown quantity I'm the PL and the kane situation and the new defence. So yes 4th to 6th is par...but I'm seeing a lower finish.

We finished 8th - 4th with 2 dinosaur managers, who gave up all attacking impetus at the drop of a hat.

We finished in these positions in spite of them, not because of them.

If ange can't improve on that, then why have we employed him?

 

[Timberwolf]

Hard disagree. Losing a club legend, new manager, completely different style of football to inbed, different personnel with no prem experience and finishing where we did last season would be piss poor? Not for me. Wouldn’t be great but not terrible either. For what it’s worth I think we’ll finish between 5th-8th but wouldn’t be shocked if we finished outside that even.

I think context would be key as well. 8th or below with Kane would obviously be disappointing, but without him it would be more acceptable given how important he's been to the team and how hard it is to replace a world class striker and talisman.

Also, if we're playing great football and clearly improving across the season but drop silly points due to teething problems and adjusting to the system, or injuries to key players, then I can accept that.

In Japan Ange's side had an average first season then won the league in his second season. I'd rather give him the benefit of the doubt than go through yet another summer of transition and manager hunting.

 

[Thenewcat]

Couldn't say it any better.... its why I'm saying 8th or 9th and happy to see the foundations of something excellent being put together... amazing how people don't see the wood from the trees.

If we finish higher than 8th I'm a very happy supporter as well. Great reply.

What wood can I not see? We finished 8th last year when we were a complete mess. I’d be disappointed to finish there again

 

[piedpiper]

What wood can I not see? We finished 8th last year when we were a complete mess. I’d be disappointed to finish there again

1.New manager to the league, unproven & needs a settling in period.
2. The Kane situation, The Kane situation, The Kane situation and his goals contribution.
3. A new Defence of sorts and a defence formation change from a back 3.

That's the wood that you not seeing.

 

[Thenewcat]

1.New manager to the league, unproven & needs a settling in period.
2. The Kane situation, The Kane situation, The Kane situation and his goals contribution.
3. A new Defence of sorts and a defence formation change from a back 3.

That's the wood that you not seeing.

1). The manager last year was disinterested, and eventually blew up and left us without a manager
2). He hasn’t gone anywhere yet and we don’t know what will happen if he leaves
3). I love trying to sell a new defence on last year’s disaster as a negative

the wood you aren’t seeing if we came 8th last year despite having a terrible defence and no discernible style of play. The squad was a terrible penalty decision away from being 3rd in March, and it’s been improved. I’m not saying I expect CL (although it’s certainly possible) but 8th is an a floor, not a target

 

[McFlash]

I think we're going to surprise a lot of people this season, including some on here by all accounts.

Admittedly, I do tend to get over-excited before every season but this one feels different.
I think we're going to do much better than many people expect and not only that, we're going to have a lot of fun along the way.

 

[E17yid]

I think context would be key as well. 8th or below with Kane would obviously be disappointing, but without him it would be more acceptable given how important he's been to the team and how hard it is to replace a world class striker and talisman.

Also, if we're playing great football and clearly improving across the season but drop silly points due to teething problems and adjusting to the system, or injuries to key players, then I can accept that.

In Japan Ange's side had an average first season then won the league in his second season. I'd rather give him the benefit of the doubt than go through yet another summer of transition and manager hunting.

Agreed. You’d also be disappointed if we got off to a flying start as was in the top 4 between Nov-March only to drop a silly amount of points in our last 10 games or so and finish 8th.

I imagine, or hope would be better, that our trajectory will be the reverse of that. Inconsistent start but in the New Year find some consistency and climb up the table.

 

[spursfan77]

So you agree with Michael Owen's latest assessment then that we will finish in 9th? One place worse than this year?

I understand that this will be a transitional season but I'm truly fed up with this very tired narrative that we are guaranteed to fall apart further next season "because Kane is leaving"

Ignoring all the other factors, the good business we have done so far, a committed more attacking manager in place, Maddison coming in, a fired up Bissouma and Richarlison, Son not carrying an injury.....and central defensive reinforcements incoming? With no European distractions either?

Its lazy journalism and an opportunity to repeatedly stick the knife into Spurs, which the media as a whole , full of pundits from direct rivals, takes every opportunity to do gleefully.

I fucking love it when they dont predict us to finish in the Champions League places because when they do, it is ultimately when we dont actually finish there.

Always best to be under estimated, especially with us because it means the pressure is off.

 

[barry]

I think we're going to surprise a lot of people this season, including some on here by all accounts.

Admittedly, I do tend to get over-excited before every season but this one feels different.
I think we're going to do much better than many people expect and not only that, we're going to have a lot of fun along the way.

Totally agree buddy. I can't remember a preseason where we've looked so good. We've probably had better preseasons results wise, and some could argue we've played dross, but I can't remember us ever being so dominant.
Last year we looked like shit from the get go, every match was a grind, but the Conte-mania got me, and I really thought it was all part of some brilliant masterplan.
This year I believe in Ange, but more importantly the football we'll play
Come what may, it'll be fun.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Most pundits are clueless, especially Michael Owen!

End of.

 

[dirtyh]

love being written off. think we're going to surprise a lot of people this season.

 

[Cochise]

Villa, Newcastle and Brighton are making a big step up this year. We saw last season with West Ham that managing a weak squad through months of football twice a week is hard. I expect Villa to deal with it better than the other two because of how Emery sets them up and his experience at Sevilla and Villareal. The other two might fall away a little bit.

Chelsea I think will end up top 3 with City and Arsenal. Poch will be finding his feet over there, but they have so many options he's bound to build something decent. United will blow hot and cold imo. They are going to have games where they smash teams and then the next match look soft. Liverpool I think will be the same, they put some good performances in towards the end of last season and I think Szoboszlai will light up the league.

As for us, I think we will end up 5th or 6th. I expect the start of our season to show up a lot of teething problems and us to concede goals from being counter attacked behind our high line and counter pressed in our own third. We will eventually start to gain some form of control after Christmas and go on a run of wins.

 

[barrie]

We'll be first or second this season, depending on luck. Bookmark this.

I'm with barry