where will spurs finish next season?

[Mike_The_Spur]

I would like us to win the title but that's being a tad too optimistic. I would gladly settle for 3rd as well. I say this every year but I really believe that we are going to be something special this coming season......by the way, I think winning the title may not be too far off if we play to our potential.

wow easy there fella! we are no where near Man Utd or Chelsea, or even Liverpool or Arsenal.

We can beat anyone on our day but in terms of consistency over a season i can't see us breaking that top 4 for a few more years.

 

[chinaman]

Top 3.

 

[pagevee]

I'm going to put a bet on us finishing 3rd. Optimistic I know but not impossible with our manager and squad.

What type of hillbilly bourbon are you sipping on?

and where can I find it?

 

[joey55]

I'd say the current squad is easily the 5th best in the Prem, so I'll say 5th (though injuries and who we and our rivals sign/sell will dramatically effect that). Players like Woodgate, King, Bale, Modric and Berbatov are in a different league to most players in the teams outside the top 4. But the real issue is how close we get to 4th. 5th should be achievable, but what we really need to measure our progress on, is how close we get to the 4th placed team. If we finish 5th and are 20pts behind the 4th places team, then we are actually miles away from our main goal, but if we finish 5th and are just a point or 2 behind the 4th placed team, then it will have been a great season and shown real progress.

 

[paulspursman]

5 - 7 i would just about be happy with

being in the top half near enough the whole season would make a change

we never seem to start seasons well

 

[Houdini]

What type of hillbilly bourbon are you sipping on?

and where can I find it?

:rofl: Repped!

 

[DC_Boy]

Couldn't have put it better myself. :clap: ..... At the moment, there are still a fair few clubs with far better balance in their teams than we do (even if we have a few 'gems' that are better than them in certain positions) and if the season began today with no further transfers, I wouldn't expect us to be any higher than 7th at very best.

Top half, at this moment in time.

5th, if we make signings of the Modric/GdS calibre in our weak areas.

cheers for nice comments Scat as you say our team/squad is unbalanced ATM and like me you're obviously not relying on too much from Leds

He would make all the difference to my assessment if we could get 30+ full games in the Prem from him - but I just don't see it

 

[David St Hubbins]

Once you set a minimum requirement in anything other than winning the title then you find yourself in trouble.
Our minds (whether we admit it or not) switch off when the minimum is reached (i always do in my job anyway) and it's difficult to motivate yourself once you're in the safety zone.
We aim for 4th as if that's OUR title...OUR holy grail and that's the very best that we deserve.
I've got a few gooner friends and they all say the same thing to me every season "Your biggest ambition is to beat us every season...it's all you care about", and to a degree it's spot on.
We need to look beyond them as well as the other 3, we've waited too long in line for our day in the sun...it's time to claim what's ours...and fuck the bloody lot of them!.

:wink:

 

[Totsfan]

wow easy there fella! we are no where near Man Utd or Chelsea, or even Liverpool or Arsenal.

We can beat anyone on our day but in terms of consistency over a season i can't see us breaking that top 4 for a few more years.

I'm from Cape Town in South Africa and maybe I tend to be a bit more optimistic than pessimistic. I look at last season and tally up the amount of points we threw away from winning situations and we should have been 3rd easily. I don't think it's that hard and Ramos should instill a winning mentality into the team like the big 4 has.

 

[sloth]

I agree with Totsfan and in fact i'm going to go a little bit further.

I can't remember who said it (I think it was Joey??), but I'm going to plump for a points total. I think we should be looking to get in the 70s. If we start well then i want us to hang onto the coat-tails of the leaders for as long as possible and to be in the mix come Jan and Feb, thereafter anything can happen, we can challenge for the title or get in the top three, maybe finish fourth or even fifth.

I don't think points in the high to mid sixties is failure, nor points in the low sixties success, but below 60 and I'm not happy.

 

[Mullers]

I agree with Totsfan and in fact i'm going to go a little bit further.

I can't remember who said it (I think it was Joey??), but I'm going to plump for a points total. I think we should be looking to get in the 70s. If we start well then i want us to hang onto the coat-tails of the leaders for as long as possible and to be in the mix come Jan and Feb, thereafter anything can happen, we can challenge for the title or get in the top three, maybe finish fourth or even fifth.

I don't think points in the high to mid sixties is failure, nor points in the low sixties success, but below 60 and I'm not happy.

I admire your optimism but I don't think its very realistic with the squad we have at the moment.The transfer window hasn't ended yet but I hope by the end of it we'll have a squad at least capable of challenging for fifth place.

 

[SpurSince57]

I agree with our man from Spinal Tap that the aim must be for the title, even if we have very little chance of getting it. Also with Sloth (and it was joey who said this first) that we should look to 70 points. If we can equal our best-ever top-flight GA column (33 in 1971) that will be a huge step in the right direction.

Also, we can't rely on Arsenal and Liverpool having their wheels fall off. That's very unlikely to happen. We have to do this ourselves.

 

[sloth]

I agree with our man from Spinal Tap that the aim must be for the title, even if we have very little chance of getting it. Also with Sloth (and it was joey who said this first) that we should look to 70 points. If we can equal our best-ever top-flight GA column (33 in 1971) that will be a huge step in the right direction.

Also, we can't rely on Arsenal and Liverpool having their wheels fall off. That's very unlikely to happen. We have to do this ourselves.

A good point about the GA column, Everton conceded 33 last season, if we can get close to that or even below 40 then we're in with a shout.

 

[Mullers]

At the moment I don't get the feeling that the side will dramatically improve defensively even if Ledley is playing, he isn't the magical solution to our defensive problems. Not even getting a fantastic DM is the answer. Its about the whole team defending properly thats what Ramos and Poyet have got to sort out, its a tough job.

 

[kungfugrip]

Would like to say 4th, but realistically we might be looking 5th at best and maybe 6th or 7th. We had our chance two or three years ago with Lasagne-Gate etc. That was the time to push on and sign a couple of top quality players to maintain our rise up the table. Instead we signed good, but not great players. We stagnated, and now other clubs are poised to mount determined challenges for the 4th, 5th, 6th positions.

In a way we are now playing catch up and face the problem of getting new players who aren't used to the Prem League, as well as the time it will take for the new team to gel. How long will that take? Who knows, hopefully not long. I'm delighted we have Ramos but expect it to be a testing season. .........6th I reckon (but hope it's higher!)

 

[joey55]

At the moment I don't get the feeling that the side will dramatically improve defensively even if Ledley is playing, he isn't the magical solution to our defensive problems. Not even getting a fantastic DM is the answer. Its about the whole team defending properly thats what Ramos and Poyet have got to sort out, its a tough job.

I think if you look hard enough you can spot defensive errors in all team units. However, as with anything in football, we have to be comparitve. After the first couple of months of the season we had conceded nearly the most amount of goals in the Prem, but interestingly we'd actually only conceded the 5th lowest amount of chances. So as a team unit, we must have been defending comparitively well. The trouble was we kept conceding from the same kind of situations and these were largelly a result of individual errors. If you take away the individual mistakes at set pieces, deffensive line (nearly all Kaboul) and not closing down on the edge of the box, then we actually, as a team unit, defended well - hence the few chances we gave away. Hutton and Woodgate look at have taken care of the set piece issue. This will also be improved with a new GK. Getting caught out in terms of whether to push up or not (ie Villa and Newcastle) has also been corrected by the removal of Kaboul and addition of Woodgate. Another CB will also help there. In terms of closing down long shots and saving them, a new DM and GK should take care of that. Basically there was never a problem with how we defended as a team, but that individual errors cost us time and time again. However, if you are conceding goals, it is easy for fans to spot over all team deffensive problems, that thye wouldn't otherwise. We were actually giving away less chances than Everton, who are seen as a good deffensive unit. Any problems our fans spotted as to how we defend as a team were almost certainly true, but in comparision with other Prem teams, we were actually pretty good.

 

[Mullers]

I think if you look hard enough you can spot defensive errors in all team units. However, as with anything in football, we have to be comparitve. After the first couple of months of the season we had conceded nearly the most amount of goals in the Prem, but interestingly we'd actually only conceded the 5th lowest amount of chances. So as a team unit, we must have been defending comparitively well. The trouble was we kept conceding from the same kind of situations and these were largelly a result of individual errors. If you take away the individual mistakes at set pieces, deffensive line (nearly all Kaboul) and not closing down on the edge of the box, then we actually, as a team unit, defended well - hence the few chances we gave away. Hutton and Woodgate look at have taken care of the set piece issue. This will also be improved with a new GK. Getting caught out in terms of whether to push up or not (ie Villa and Newcastle) has also been corrected by the removal of Kaboul and addition of Woodgate. Another CB will also help there. In terms of closing down long shots and saving them, a new DM and GK should take care of that. Basically there was never a problem with how we defended as a team, but that individual errors cost us time and time again. However, if you are conceding goals, it is easy for fans to spot over all team deffensive problems, that thye wouldn't otherwise. We were actually giving away less chances than Everton, who are seen as a good deffensive unit. Any problems our fans spotted as to how we defend as a team were almost certainly true, but in comparision with other Prem teams, we were actually pretty good.

Kaboul has certainly made a lot of mistakes but I am wary of blaming him to much for our defensive problems. Woodgate and Hutton have made a big difference but they were both playing when we got battered 4-1 against newcastle. We've also used O'hara at left back he had some very good games in that position but its obvious that he isn't a left back. Bale may be back for the start of the season I'm not sure how good he is defensively though. Gilberto is a stop gap I think and I'm not sure whether BAE on his way or not. A new DM and GK would certainly help but if that DM is injured another one needs to come in and do the job and I don't think we have that depth to our squad at the moment.

 

[joey55]

Kaboul has certainly made a lot of mistakes but I am wary of blaming him to much for our defensive problems. Woodgate and Hutton have made a big difference but they were both playing when we got battered 4-1 against newcastle. We've also used O'hara at left back he had some very good games in that position but its obvious that he isn't a left back. Bale may be back for the start of the season I'm not sure how good he is defensively though. Gilberto is a stop gap I think and I'm not sure whether BAE on his way or not. A new DM and GK would certainly help but if that DM is injured another one needs to come in and do the job and I don't think we have that depth to our squad at the moment.

I definitely agree with you and think we do need to bring in better players, but in terms of how the team performs as a unit, rather than the individuals, I think we are actually pretty good. If we stick the the same deffensive principles as last season, but replace certain individuals, then i think we'll be fine. Not as good as the top 4, but certainly as good or better than the rest. I remember after the first couple of months Ramos was in charge, I went through all the goals we conceded and virtually none of them were to do with how we set up as a team, but because of stupid errors by certain players. Teams like Everton have alot of seasoned pro's in their team and whilst they lack our talent or ability, the likes of Yobo, Jagielka, Lescott, Carsely, Neville and Howard, tend not to make these stupid mistakes and it shows in their goals against tally. If we are able to buy a couple of more reliable players and then apply the same principles and team ethic that saw us concede comparitively so few chances, then we should be pretty good deffensively.

 

[AlexBenjamin]

Lets wait to see who we have come August and our preseason form before we finish.

I agree about waiting to see what the squad is come August, but our pre-season form usually has nothing to do with what happens as soon as the league starts.

Aren't we unbeaten in a ridiculous number of friendlies??

 

[Adam456]

You said 5-6th was most likely to I went for that :wink: