So what about that for a season! Good or Bad?

[BringBack_leGin]

C-

We must do better and have the potential to, but as the sixth most reputable and sixth most financially mighty, finishing sixth is par. That gets a C.

However, the football has been disjointed, lacking in cohesion and generally difficult to watch barring a few exceptions. At least it’s gradually gotten more committed since the managerial change, with more method even if poorly executed more often than not. Combine this with poor showings across all the cup competitions and I bring the score down to a minus.

 

[E17yid]

From where we were heading and after a CL final to lose Poch and see us scrape EL it was a bad season that nearly was a terrible one. However, I’ve seen many worse seasons so it’s all relative I guess ?

Has a Champions League finalist ever failed to qualify for the Champions League the following season? Quite a special achievement if not.

 

[daveduvet]

Probably the least enjoyable season since the Sherwood one. In retrospect, the writing was clearly on the wall for Pochettino when he inexplicably stated on the eve of the CL final that he might go elsewhere. Clearly not the language of a settled, positive mind and a devastating message to send out to the team just before the biggest game of their careers.

Mourinho prompts mixed feelings in me. On the one hand, he’s vastly experienced, successful, intelligent and well connected. On the other, he’s working on a limited budget with a group of players who’ve looked mostly disinterested this year. Some of the football has been dull and pedestrian, but he’s evidently used the enforced break to really work on improving our porous defence, which bodes well for the future. Ndombele has been massively disappointing; the constant fitness issues and Mourinho’s frustration with him aren’t great indicators for next season and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was sold this window. I’d love to see him nail a place in the starting XI but I’m not optimistic. I’m also not convinced that Alli has much more to offer us given we’re clearly moving towards a more counterattacking style of play whose success relies on direct and efficient attacking moments. I see Alli as
a beneficiary of the Pochettino’s era of possession based football where chances where frequent and mistakes typically hovered up by the hard press that frequently won back any squandered possession. I think in a Mourinho squad he is more a luxury than a dangerous forward but I hope I’m wrong

I agree pretty much with all you’ve written; it was one of the ITK that intimated earlier in the year that Jose was going to introduce a ‘new’ style of play, and I think some of our latter games saw that: absorb the opposition and play on the counter. Whilst this can be rather dull at times, with the addition of a couple of new personnel I’m hopeful that this ‘new’ style will work well and be exciting. Last summer was very exciting given the players we were seeking to get - there was alternating itk coming thick and fast. As a season, it was pretty sure obvious from the start that ‘something wasn’t right’... and this played out until poch was replaced. I’ve not been a fan of Jose since his Man U days but I’m hopeful. C+ hovering near a B-

 

[NEVILLEB]

Reasons to be cheerful, absolutely. We were a mess in October, leaking goals left, right and centre.

It was just a downward spiral in the last year with Poch. Brilliant manager but he wasnt prepared to adapt a bit more to fit with the constraints that Levy was demanding obviously. Mourinho clearly is and is well under way with ripping up old foundations and laying new ones.

You win fuck all without a water tight defense. He's sorting this and with a couple of shrewd signings, hopefully, we'll see a better balance next season.

Honestly think we'll win something next season and finish top 4.

But guaranteed the same ones moaning now will still be moaning because they've made their mind up no matter what.

So no one is allowed to call it a terrible season because you say so. Pathetic.

 

[double0]

From the CL final, Poch demanded a rebuild. He laid it out clear and simple stated it'll be painful he knew certain players hearts weren't in it any longer ie Eriksen Vertonghen Toby Dier Rose he personally deserved the opportunity to rebuild after all he'd seen us through a stadium rebuild consistently achieving CL qualifications and spent very little up to that point bare in mind Liverpool Klopp was getting backed and pulling away.
Good old Levy our favourite last minute dot com magician did a penny shy red herring trick with the ones that got away Bruno Fernandes and Dybala a record signing two prospects one immediately loaned and a loan. 12 games in and the rest is history...we get Jose covid-19 and Thursday night football next season

Verdict wow.

 

[Japhet]

Horrible. For years Poch had us punching above our (middle)weight and slugging it out with the heavyweights. When he asked for refreshments the head cornerman ignored him and expected him to keep going, but he was on the ropes and getting battered. The luck ran out and the towel got thrown in.

Transfer business was pretty abject. Lo Celso and Bergwijn have done pretty well but Ndombele, Sessegnon and Clarke have been a waste of time and money so far. Hopefully we can get something out of them next season.

Mourinho has steadied the ship and miraculously got us into the EL which is a Cup we should be able to win. The downside is that most of the football he's served up has been hideous to watch. I hope to God he can bring back some of the refreshing breeze to sweep away the stifling humidity of our new 'style'. The Circus has come to town but it's all a bit 'old hat' now.

Levy let Poch down badly and Poch shot hmself in the foot by being intransigent in his demands. What could have been and where we've ended up are polar opposites. Now we rebuild on a strict budget to keep the stakeholders happy while FFP gets binned for the forseeable and the cheque-writing contest starts off again.

 

[Shadydan]

Shit season but there's light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[muppetman]

Glad it's over tbh - quite looking forward to seeing if Jose can do better in the Europa than Poch managed.

 

[Mr Pink]

So no one is allowed to call it a terrible season because you say so. Pathetic.

Eh? I meant the ones complaining about Mourinho even though he's salvaged a disappointing season.

I'm saying they'll still be complaining regardless of what we achieve next season.

Overall it was a disappointing season but Mourinho has done well enough when you consider the context.

 

[Deleted member 29446]

Thank fuck it's over. What a shit show of a season.

Whatever the people who thinks we're gonna win something next season smokes - I want some of that please..

 

[Japhet]

Thank fuck it's over. What a shit show of a season.

Whatever the people who thinks we're gonna win something next season smokes - I want some of that please..

Mourinho's already told the players that getting into the EL is the same as winning it. They might as well hand over the trophy now.

 

[spursfan77]

Bad.

This looks utterly ridiculous now, but I thought with all our players rested with a proper preseason and with the three players in the manager wanted that we’d challenge properly for the league. That with the CL final defeat to push both the players and the manager on that we’d be immensely hungry to avenge that, using it to drive us on, and propel us forward. If you think about it at the time it wasn’t that crazy, but now, it’s quite amusing in a disappointing way. Why did I ever think the club would give us something to celebrate!

 

[CowInAComa]

Has a Champions League finalist ever failed to qualify for the Champions League the following season? Quite a special achievement if not.

we did qualify for the following season.

 

[Lo Amo Speroni]

The thing I am pleased about is that in just over 6 weeks time, we get to start a new one.

 

[Cavehillspur]

Season salvaged and delighted to get 6th. Can see major signs of improvement notibly in the defence, we mightnt be easy on the eye but we are becoming hard to beat. Now to get Hojberg in and a couple of other additions to balance the squad. Excited for next season.

 

[Wsussexspur]

Glad its over. Been a very difficult season for so many reasons. Which I've struggled to enjoy at all.

However finishing 6th is reasonable finish considering where I thought we might end up especially after the Sheffield Utd game.

 

[Havre]

C-

We must do better and have the potential to, but as the sixth most reputable and sixth most financially mighty, finishing sixth is par. That gets a C.

However, the football has been disjointed, lacking in cohesion and generally difficult to watch barring a few exceptions. At least it’s gradually gotten more committed since the managerial change, with more method even if poorly executed more often than not. Combine this with poor showings across all the cup competitions and I bring the score down to a minus.

I would tend to agree with this.

Calling it "horrible" and saying that we have "regressed" as a club based on one season is just exaggerations for me. Look at what teams like ManUtd, Arsenal, Chelsea etc. have gone through the last 5 years. Anyone expected us for whatever reason to be a given top 4 club challenging for titles every year? For me that starting-point is just not very realistic. We will have far worse seasons in the future than this one.

Doesn't mean you can't be disappointed of course. I'm disappointed. I don't know why it happened. I don't know who to "blame". When Pochettino started to sulk clearly that becomes a self fulling prophecy kind of thing. What would happen to Liverpool if Klopp now said this is the end of something and unless we change things up we will all just go belly up next season? Can't see that helping them if he did. At the same time I couldn't say that Pochettino didn't have a point. How would I know?

It could have gone a lot worse. Pochettino had to go the way things played out (his fault or not). We got what seems to be a motivated Mourinho. We could have done a lot worse than that. His post-match interview after CP was perfect in my opinion. He acknowledges how poor we were, but he didn't sulk and he genuinely seemed comfortable with the direction we are heading in. Not saying that couldn't change during the coming window, but again - easy to forget we could have done a lot worse.

And I hope the people that are the most critical are correct. If 6th is "horrible" then even having an average season next year should be great fun

 

['O Zio]

Not really anything good we can say about it. We came I to the season having got to the CL final and having splashed the cash on a couple of highly rated signings and yet we didn't deliver on the pitch. We let go of our best manager in decades and half our squad got injured.

Since the restart we've largely managed to pick up the points but still slipped up against teams we should be beating comfortably. We've managed to get just enough points to save some face but even in the games we won our performances have not been good to say the least.

All in all its been an absolutely awful season. I hope that a sensible summer window and more time for Mourinho to get his ideas across in preseason will allow us to put this year behind us and hit the ground running next year. I'm not overly confident though

 

[yido_number1]

I'd say this season was what we deserved for the year of no investment. Too much change at once and at the same time not enough. No coincidence that we suffered from the moment we lost Dembele and probably the moment Eriksen decided he was off. Really disappointing to lose Poch but I can see some of the green shoots of Mourinho.

 

[E17yid]

we did qualify for the following season.

I’m being a dumbass again.