Realistic expectations for 2020-21?

[Indacupfortottenham]

Would truly love us to win some silverware, and get back in the CL but my biggest hope is that we can get back together in our stunner of a stadium and have a few bevies and a sing song this coming season, would take that instead if it was on offer.

 

[Chirpystheman]

Yep at first i was really worried about our fixture pile up but there is no reason why a team of Gazza foyth dier Tanganga cirkin sissoko ndombele lamela alli bergwijn wilson (or any other back up striker) couldn't beat all of those teams in the qualifiers. Assuming our first team is lloris aurier/new RB toby davinson davies hojbjerg winks lo celso moura son Kane. That still means players like Skipp gedson clarke sess would be getting no minutes. Now there is still time in the transfer window for us to add some players. But i see no reason to fear the fixtures. The league cup early rounds could see all teams go super weak due to fixture congestion. So we could surely rotate some in. Also with all games being behind closed doors maybe we could work something out and have an early kickoff in league cup to help with travel plans for Europe however we saw with liverpool the league are not very accommodating.

Lets relax until we see the draws. We might get favourable home draws in europa and league cup. And then we will be alright. Also i can see a lot of our players pulling out of the international break At start of oct. Thats if they even go ahead as some countries might be no go zones

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Quoted this here so as not to further fuck up the itk thread:

Dragons been good fun down the years, but... I’ll leave it there

Big fees and or wages this window and next forget it

see training starts on Monday, almost at that point where the BSoDL starting rolling off the repertoire... its a difficult market because...?

Transfer news: Winter transfer window 2024 | Premier League ins and outs

Keep up to date with all the latest news across the whole of the transfer window with the Transfer Centre blog on Sky Sports website and app, and on Sky Sports News

www.skysports.com

Wow, look at all the business other clubs, particularly our direct rivals, have done compared to us ?

 

[wirE]

In the worst case scenario, we actually have as little as 42 hours between our League Cup game finishing (in Carlisle, naturally) and our Europa League game starting. Forget training - there's some draws where it might be a challenge to physically get there in time for kick-off.

Just throw in the kids to do the League Cup and focus on the Europa League.

 

[joey55]

Am I reading this correctly? 10 games in three weeks between Sept. 12 and Oct. 3?!? That is complete and utter madness.

I totally agree it's madness and I know we are supposed to be annoyed by that as it puts so much strain on the squad and gives our opponents an advantage. But I can't help it, I love the idea of us playing 10 games in such a short space of time. I just love watching Spurs. And we'll get to see younger players and the likes of NDombele will have a chance to force his way into our best XI.

I wish the entire season was like it. I never get bored of football. I even found during the post covid period, when there was a lot of games in a short space of time, that I wanted more then. Even a 3 day wait for a game got on my nerves!

 

[Saoirse]

I totally agree it's madness and I know we are supposed to be annoyed by that as it puts so much strain on the squad and gives our opponents an advantage. But I can't help it, I love the idea of us playing 10 games in such a short space of time. I just love watching Spurs. And we'll get to see younger players and the likes of NDombele will have a chance to force his way into our best XI.

I wish the entire season was like it. I never get bored of football. I even found during the post covid period, when there was a lot of games in a short space of time, that I wanted more then. Even a 3 day wait for a game got on my nerves!

I'm with you on that. It's partly why I've never understood those who didn't want us to reach the Europa. An extra ~11-18 Spurs games? Sounds good to me!

 

[yido_number1]

Quoted this here so as not to further fuck up the itk thread:

Transfer news: Winter transfer window 2024 | Premier League ins and outs

Keep up to date with all the latest news across the whole of the transfer window with the Transfer Centre blog on Sky Sports website and app, and on Sky Sports News

www.skysports.com

Wow, look at all the business other clubs, particularly our direct rivals, have done compared to us ?

Well to be fair Chelsea have greatly improved their squad with two very good signings. City have signed and Liverpool have signed. Doesn't really make your point.

Regardless let's wait till the end of the window to make the same point about how we are behind our competition again who will probably all have dealt better than us in the market.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Well to be fair Chelsea have greatly improved their squad with two very good signings. City have signed and Liverpool have signed. Doesn't really make your point.

Regardless let's wait till the end of the window to make the same point about how we are behind our competition again who will probably all have dealt better than us in the market.

Will Ziyech do any more next season than Willian did last season? I’d wager not as much. And it’s not as if he’s a kid who will massively improve. He might be great, but don’t underestimate the difficulty he’ll have performing in a far more competitive league week in week out at the age of 27. I personally think he’s a curious signing if it’s for instant impact.

Werner is an obvious upgrade on their forwards, I cannot argue with that.

It does make my point. Liverpool have signed a back up left back, City have paid £41m for a centre back that would not start for us, never mind them, and a good winger who may or may not succeed. They’ve certainly not strengthened as much as we have at this stage, having addressed the single biggest issue in our team with a player proven in this league. Arsenal have made a couple of loan signings permanent. Leicester and Man Utd have done squat.

My point, which I can only assume you didn’t understand, is that we have some absolutely fine so far and comments deriding our business to this point as ignorant at best.

 

[yido_number1]

Will Ziyech do any more next season than Willian did last season? I’d wager not as much. And it’s not as if he’s a kid who will massively improve. He might be great, but don’t underestimate the difficulty he’ll have performing in a far more competitive league week in week out at the age of 27. I personally think he’s a curious signing if it’s for instant impact.

Werner is an obvious upgrade on their forwards, I cannot argue with that.

It does make my point. Liverpool have signed a back up left back, City have paid £41m for a centre back that would not start for us, never mind them, and a good winger who may or may not succeed. They’ve certainly not strengthened as much as we have at this stage, having addressed the single biggest issue in our team with a player proven in this league. Arsenal have made a couple of loan signings permanent. Leicester and Man Utd have done squat.

My point, which I can only assume you didn’t understand, is that we have some absolutely fine so far and comments deriding our business to this point as ignorant at best.

If you think Ziyech doesn't greatly improve Chelsea then there is no point arguing with you about football that would be pointless
Leicester, UTD, City and Liverpool all did miles better than us last year and all have better squads. We are starting way behind and have a lot more to do. It's not like we have this amazing history of success in the transfer market to fall back on and be mega confident.

 

[archiewasking]

Busy schedule = big squad required. Think a lot of the fringe players will be getting more game time this year. Bit weird we sent out Parrott on loan and looking to loan out Skipp, would've thought those 2 would have got a good run out in the Europe League and League Cup early on.

Hopefully we can bring in another couple more players as well as keeping most of the current squad together because one thing we never seem to learn every summer is squad depth, I think Mourinho will know it will be key particularly with the schedule that faces us.

I'm hopeful for a top 6 with a cup. Obviously Europa League is the one we all want as it provides us with a route back to the Champions League but at this stage, any cup would do me, need to get that weight lifted off of our shoulders and stop rival fans constantly bringing it up about how long it is since we won a trophy. If we win a cup but fail to get CL, it wouldn't be a failure, we would have to look at it as a step in the right direction and then hopefully the following season be ready to get back to the top. It's going to be a weird season for everyone though, how clubs can handle squad management with such a packed schedule will be key.

Look at Liverpool this season, tried to play the same XI week in, week out, yes they won the league but they went out much earlier in every other competition and in the end just stumbled around without breaking all the records they were expected to.

I'd take that, tbh.

 

[yido_number1]

I'm with you on that. It's partly why I've never understood those who didn't want us to reach the Europa. An extra ~11-18 Spurs games? Sounds good to me!

I'll revisit this post when 3/4 of our squad are injured and we're playing 15 year olds as strikers.

 

[HedgieSpur]

You miss the important fact that football has moved on in recent years. Trophies are mainly won by the financially doped clubs now or those with a long tradition of winning with massive fanbases. It is increasingly difficult to compete with Man City or the likes with unlimited resources. We need the infrastructure in place to compete long term. We have it now thanks to levy. We need to be patient and put faith that in the next 5 to 10 years we will be a force. What's the alternative? Spend money above what we can't really afford in the hope of winning something (Leeds!). Sustainable improvement over boom and bust.

Another 5 year plan before the next 5 year plan yeah?

 

[yido_number1]

Another 5 year plan before the next 5 year plan yeah?

Not like we've had 20 years of this already. There will always be another excuse as to why we've only won one trophy under Levy. Imagine if Joe Lewis actually wanted us to win things rather than be a great investment.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

If you think Ziyech doesn't greatly improve Chelsea then there is no point arguing with you about football that would be pointless
Leicester, UTD, City and Liverpool all did miles better than us last year and all have better squads. We are starting way behind and have a lot more to do. It's not like we have this amazing history of success in the transfer market to fall back on and be mega confident.

You’re right, there’s no point in arguing with me when I realise that a 27 year old never before tried in a top league is no guarantee of improvement on a player who last season was one of the best attacking midfielders in the division, and you seem to think he is a guaranteed improvement.

As for miles better last year, Liverpool did miles better than everyone, if you’re expecting us to fish in the same sea as City and Utd for transfers you need serious help, and the difference ultimately between us and Leicester was an incorrect decision in their favour that stopped us going 2-0 up at their place. City and Liverpool have better squads, everybody in the four places below those two is actually very close to eachother as is demonstrated by 7 points separating those 4 places.

But none of that ties in any way in with my original post that you took umbrage with, which merely set out to correct the notion that we are somehow underperforming so far in this transfer window. We are not. This may change and we may have a shocker, as it stands we’ve plugged the main hole in our side and now need to improve on certain positions, both in terms of first choice and depth.

 

[HedgieSpur]

Will Ziyech do any more next season than Willian did last season? I’d wager not as much. And it’s not as if he’s a kid who will massively improve. He might be great, but don’t underestimate the difficulty he’ll have performing in a far more competitive league week in week out at the age of 27. I personally think he’s a curious signing if it’s for instant impact.

Werner is an obvious upgrade on their forwards, I cannot argue with that.

It does make my point. Liverpool have signed a back up left back, City have paid £41m for a centre back that would not start for us, never mind them, and a good winger who may or may not succeed. They’ve certainly not strengthened as much as we have at this stage, having addressed the single biggest issue in our team with a player proven in this league. Arsenal have made a couple of loan signings permanent. Leicester and Man Utd have done squat.

My point, which I can only assume you didn’t understand, is that we have some absolutely fine so far and comments deriding our business to this point as ignorant at best.

Ake wouldn't start for us???

 

[Saoirse]

Not like we've had 20 years of this already. There will always be another excuse as to why we've only won one trophy under Levy. Imagine if Joe Lewis actually wanted us to win things rather than be a great investment.

If we had an owner who wanted to win things and didn't care about money, they wouldn't be Joe Lewis. You don't become a billionaire by having lots of goodwill and sentimental value. So there'd have to be an ulterior motive e.g. building a profile so they can't be disappeared by Putin after making billions from oil exploitation, or sportswashing for a fascist regime which thinks Yids should be gassed.

 

[DiVaio]

If you think Ziyech doesn't greatly improve Chelsea then there is no point arguing with you about football that would be pointless
Leicester, UTD, City and Liverpool all did miles better than us last year and all have better squads. We are starting way behind and have a lot more to do. It's not like we have this amazing history of success in the transfer market to fall back on and be mega confident.

Leicester have better squad? Absolutely not. Chelsea and United? Not really. And we have way, way better manager than they have. That miles better than us means that in our worst season with change of manager in middle of the season it was still quite small points difference and since Mourinho came we made more points than Chelsea and Leicester.

About Ziyech - does he really? I would say that shots map would be really hard to translate into Premier League

 

[stov]

Another 5 year plan before the next 5 year plan yeah?

Build a stadium capable of providing enough income to compete and qualify regularly for champions league was the last plan. The new plan is get back to position we would have been pre covid in terms of revenue and then compete.

I swear the entitlement of some fans is infuriating. This isn't football manager where you buy whoever you want with no financial consequences, the club have financial commitments in form of loans and bonds.

 

[DiVaio]

Ake wouldn't start for us???

No, he wouldn't. And City bought him more for his passing abilities, left-foot and HG status than his defensive ability. Which for us would be more important.

Not like we've had 20 years of this already. There will always be another excuse as to why we've only won one trophy under Levy. Imagine if Joe Lewis actually wanted us to win things rather than be a great investment.

Can use this answer again

This thread is bumped again because Arsenal won the FA Cup. As an underdog they beat City in semi who are 25pts above them and Chelsea 10 pts above them.

Since ENIC we have been in 5 finals and another 6 semifinals. Managers should really have done better or they didn't have any chance in any of them because Levy didn't buy Moutinho/Grealish etc? Better team in 15/16 than Leicester too.

 

[rossdapep]

If you think Ziyech doesn't greatly improve Chelsea then there is no point arguing with you about football that would be pointless
Leicester, UTD, City and Liverpool all did miles better than us last year and all have better squads. We are starting way behind and have a lot more to do. It's not like we have this amazing history of success in the transfer market to fall back on and be mega confident.

I really don't know how you can say that to someone. Your basically saying "If you don't agree with me you don't know football"

Regarding Ziyech, Willian has been a very consistent performer for Chelsea, he's chipped in with plenty of assists and goals, also winning them games. So thats what Ziyech has to improve on to 'greatly improve' Chelsea. Therefore LeGin is more than fair in his assessment.