Where do we go from here..?

[Shadydan]

Knee jerk from the OP

 

[yankspurs]

Where do we go from here? Wembley Stadium where we will achieve CL football for the 3rd year in a row and hopefully winning a trophy. Then we will win the league title in the first year at the new stadium. That is where we will go.

 

[Ironskullll]

I just read the first line and thought to myself,pile of shyte.

Lol, well said, that's exactly what I thought too.

 

[glospur]

Jesus. That first paragraph.

'Anyone who think we are close... to the rest of the big spenders needs a reality check.'

So finishing ahead of City, United and Liverpool 2 seasons in a row and Arsenal and Chelsea once each in the last two seasons means we're not close to them? You can't be serious.

We're consistently punching above our weight and this season has been no exception in this regard.

Fucking proud of the way the lads have gone about this season. Sure, we've come up short but progress has been made yet again. We're still the youngest squad in the PL so we just needs to keep progressing and improving.

Next season will be tough at Wembley and I expect us to regress slightly because of that reason alone, not because we don't have the quality.

 

[TommyGee]

Oh FFS

 

[jonnyrotten]

Im going home

 

[Cravenspurs]

Give it time. Why is everyone in a rush?

I have been drunk on the "we are building something" koolaid for awhile now and think we have a method or identity that has the making of something special.

Is there room for improvement? Yep. Will there be competition along the way? Of course and for me all the better.

I guess my point is this. Enjoy it! We are competing in what most perceive as the most competitive league in the world with an "underpriced and less qualified" squad than the so called elite clubs.

It's known that our second string needs quality depth. We don't have a Cesc or Willian coming off our bench right now, but Winks for me was huge this year and losing him was massive.

But, and this is a huge but, out first string is close to being complete in my head and one of, if not the best in the league. We are so close to having a complete first team and if the likes of an Isco came in, we would be scary.

TL;DR: We'll be alright.

 

[ohtottenham!]

I think it's easier to accept if you look at the reality. Great club with a history of success and trophies to show for it...except that that success, in terms of trophies, happened decades ago. It's the truth! We hate it; our rivals love it. Horrible mismanagement over decades again! We're talking footballing eons in the wilderness!

Finally, we have a f...ing plan; a chairman most of us have now come to appreciate; a coach that really pissed me off today, but still is the best out there, and who's forged a team no-one wants to face in the PL. The shiny lights of our new stadium on the horizon, which will level the playing field. All the other good stuff re our actual team and players in comparison with our rivals, who all have huge, willie-wagging wallets which we don't. And we're in a great place! Yeah, we're f...ing second, and our future's looking as good as anyone. Having said that, we do need to win a trophy soon!

 

[Database]

As long as Kane & Alli are in the team I believe we're going to win PL.

 

[Gassin's finest]

 

[Metalhead]

Clearly, for 2 seasons in a row now we have come up short. And by short I mean noticeably short. Anyone who thinks we are close to CFC and the rest of the big spenders needs a reality check.
Their squads are far more superior than ours. They have the money to spend on quality players to sit on the bench for most of the season and they can call upon them when the team are tiring to inject the fresh blood needed to push them over the line. And its not even scraping over, their quality squad players are very good players who get them easy 4-2, 3-0 wins...Whereas our squad players make absolutely no difference to the outcome of a game.

The question is where do we go from here as a club if we want to win 'big things' as Poch remarks..?

In my opinion we have a conundrum. If we had made top 4 last year and this year rather than push till the last few games for the title NONE of us fans would be screaming.. But the fact of the matter is (as with most fans) now we've tasted a couple of title-challenging seasons we aren't happy with top 4 now. We want to win it!

So how can we win it with our setup?

I think we have to wipe the board for a minute and think about it, can we ever achieve the title with our team and squad? The answer has to objectively - No.
We've had a large amount of player injuries that couldn't be replaced with like quality, therefore that's the 1st problem. Upgrade is needed for a few players. Davis is clearly no Rose and Trips is no Walker when Walker is playing great.
When Toby or Jan are out we will have problems. We need a quality CB to cover 1 or the other. Its impossible to have 2 quality CBs sitting on the bench. Wimmer clearly isn't Poch's fav.
Sissoko is no replacement for Lamela. And Jansen is no striker that fills any of us with confidence when Kane is out.
My concern is we clearly wont be replacing all those players this summer in 1 hit. So we will have to accept that for 1 reason or another our wing backs will be an issue next season - just like it has been evidenced at this late stage this season. The only issue is with Walker quite possibly leaving I cant see who can replace him for like as a starter..

Then theres the issue with poch. Last season he ran the players into the ground, this season he hasn't rotated enough to keep them fresh.When our defense was so solid high profile players could and should have been subbed in earlier games I feel to keep them fresh later into the season. Kane, Deli, Eriksen and even Son all looked very slow tonight against West Ham. Could those players have been rested more in games we were winning comfortably? I think so. And I feel for all Poch's greatness he is still not a world class manager to see it.
Conte rested big game players like Willian, Pedro, Fabregas and even Eden and Costa for seemingly big games, only to bring them back into games just at the right time to make a difference.
Poch has got zero acumen in this area. Why? Is it because our squad is so thin that he has no choice?

Then comes the bit about Poch that is all about inexperience. I really think he (all too regularly) picks players based on what he thinks their ability is vs what our opposition are likely to play. And this results in the wrong players being picked with the wrong skillset for the opposition. This results in a 2 prong resulting mistake;
1. The player(s) picked wont get any joy against certain opposition
2. It knackers the player(s) out cos they try too hard with no success and thus makes them more fatigued in the longer run.

If he played the right players for a certain game we would have more of a chance of winning and it will also give the other starter that got dropped a chance to rest and recover.

With the last 2 years' worth of unexpected CL revenue and TV money in the coffers are we to expect good quality incoming players? Or will Levy take the piss and use the money too frugally again or worse - waste it on useless players?
These last 2 seasons we have over-achieved, but sharp management in my opinion, would use those unexpected bonus seasons as a springboard to propel us to the next level. I think we actually need to spend big this summer and throw caution to the wind, regardless of the fact we are building a new stadium - and buy quite a few top quality players. That risk is worth it as we could realistically get top 4 again next season which would offset any outgoing money spent on players. The risk of not spending big is more dangerous imo as we could just as easily end up as a Europa League qualifying team again next season if our competitors spend big and get top 4 at our expense.

I think the only thing we can and should do is give Poch the money he needs to overhaul the squad. I repeat squad - not team. If we sold some players we should be able to recoup 50-80M and then add on another 60-70M and I think with the 150M spending money we could get the extra quality needed to keep us in the hunt.
I think next season could be a make or break season for us and we really must use sense and carefully look at what we have to lose rather than win. We'll be playing at Wembley, we'll be under more pressure to win, so we cannot allow any weakness the drag us down next year. Having to play in CL again, at Wembley all season - to me it strikes as a red flag straight away, and the only way we can give ourselves any chance is to spend big to get the players in we need to keep us near the top and with a real chance of winning trophies.

We've done bloody well this season. Forget Levy 'throwing caution to the wind' as that's never going to happen. The money has been made available but the Sissoko transfer fee could have been better spent as in hindsight, so could the money on young Vincent.

 

[archiewasking]

Sissoko maybe. Vincent no. Looked quicker and sharper again tonight than before.

 

[Metalhead]

Im going home

I'm at home but I'm going to go out so that I can go home.

 

[Metalhead]

Sissoko maybe. Vincent no. Looked quicker and sharper again tonight than before.

Do you think that Poch has seen enough to hold onto him? Vincent clearly wants to stay so I guess there's every chance that he'll stay on for next season. Needs to score goals though. Looking sharp and providing assists is not going to do it.

 

[dricha1]

Fine tuning is all that's required;

We've smashed many of our PL records this season;

Our highest points total.
Most wins in a season.
Least Defeats.
Highest goals scored.
Lowest goals conceded.
Longest winning streaks.

And all this while other clubs have supposedly hired Uber managers and out spent us massively.

We are a small margin away from glory and incredibly unlucky to have come up against two title winning teams who weren't in Europe at the time.

There is not much change required to our first XI it's options off the bench we need and preferably some explosive pace, by that I mean we already have quick players, it's players that are quick over the first 4-5yds we lack.

I think Janssen will be better next season just like Son was this, so it's about finding the right player who can change the game from the bench.

 

[Kiedis]

We've been excellent. Chelsea a bit more excellent, whereas City, United, Arsenal and Liverpool are playing catch up.

Baffling that this thread can pop up at a time like this.

 

[stevenurse]

In my opinion we should go all out to try and win the league cup next season. Any pot will do and it's the easiest to win. Get that first out the way and others will follow. That monkey off our back and the "they have to win something or our best players will leave" tag would be lost and it will show the players they are capable of winnings things here. United have had a dogs arse of a season but if they finish 4th with the league cup (and very possibly the EL) it's arguable they've had a much better season

 

[Blackrat1299]

To be an elite club one must win a title. Not sure what your understanding of elite is but to me elite is not a domestic cup winning team. Its a team that wins league titles.

We need to be winning cups yes, and by Cups I mean FA and at worse League cup, but our goal has to be winning the league. Forgive my ignorance but you cant be classed as an 'elite club' by winning the FA or League cups.. That should be something that we should be winning like Arse does - even when they're having shit seasons.

Does that make Leicester an Elite club? They won a title!

 

[chelmyid]

Maybe we can replace fans like the OP?

They are half the problem

 

[Spursmatty87]

Davies has played in every game in our 9 in a row but isn't good enough? What do we expect from our back ups? In my opinion we need to good attacking player that can make a difference off the bench. Our starting 11 is as good or if not better than anyone else's. Dembele worries me he seems to struggle with fitness. Wimmer isn't really in the picture but overall 2/3players to add to the squad would push us on to another good season.