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Some thoughts on this season.....and beyond

spud

Well-Known Member
Sep 2, 2003
5,850
8,794
I’m an old git. I first went to the Lane with my Dad and Granddad in 1968. We stood in the enclosure (2/- to get into the ground and another tanner for the enclosure) and watched a 1-0 win, although I can’t remember who we played. I’m telling you this to give you some perspective, because I’m more excited now about our team – and our club as a whole – than I have ever been. More than when I watched (Sir) Bill Nick’s good team of the early 70s, more than when I watched Keith Burkinshaw’s very good team of the early 80s.


There are a number of reasons for this. First, and most obvious, the team. We all knew last year that we were a better team than the one that got two points from eight games. We all knew that we should be in the top half, and we all knew (or thought we did) that we wouldn’t get relegated. We just didn’t know how good we were. We’re just starting to find out.


This year I have been extremely impressed with our progress. When you watch us play, you can almost see us developing during the games. Last year, after Gomes settled down and recovered from injury, we had a rock solid defence – almost for the first time in living memory – with King and Woodgate at its heart. This year we’ve had King for fewer games and Woodgate for only three, yet we’re still bloody hard to score against. Why? Because we’ve got very good, well-coached players who play as a unit and are supported by a midfield (thank you Mr Palacios) that can defend as well as attack. When was the last time you could say that?

We’ve had some bad performances and results this season (who hasn’t?) but they’re getting to be fewer and farther between. We struggled early in the season against sides with no ambition, who would ‘park the bus’ and play for a 0-0 draw. We’re learning how to deal with that. When teams fancy their chances at beating us at football, they are usually swept aside (yes, you, Manchester City). So we have learned how to play against – and beat – different types of teams setting up in a variety of ways. And with this comes belief; ‘mental strength’ if you like. The type of belief that means that when you are 1-0 down at home in a cup quarter-final against a very solid and pretty talented team, you can raise your game and brush them aside. (With a huge tip of the hat to some inspired substitutions.) The type of belief that means that you can win five games in a row with half of the first team missing. The type of belief that means that you can aim for the stars and know that the moon is the least that you’ll reach.


But that isn’t even the best part. The best part is that this isn’t a one-season wonder, and that we will get better. Consider the ages of those who you would probably call ‘core’ players. Bale is 20, Lennon 22, Bassong and Huddlestone 23, Corluka and Modric 24, Palacios and Krankjar 25. (Our strikers are older, with Defoe the youngest at 27: still short of his peak.) That is at least half of the team aged 25 or under. All very good players who would walk into most teams in the Premier League, and all of them still developing. If we can keep this core together (I realise it might be a big ‘if’) and continue to reinforce it with astute signings such as Sandro and the occasional home-grown player, then the future is brighter than I can remember.


Add into the mix the fact that ours is a very well run club. A club that in around three years will significantly increase its match-day and sponsorship revenue with a new stadium. A stadium which has no doubt been budgeted on the assumptions that we will get knocked out early in the domestic cups and will not get into Europe, thus not putting us in financial peril. This is important not only for the obvious reasons, but also because from 2015 participation in European competition will be dependent upon adhering to new UEFA ‘debt rules’; rules which could prevent clubs with huge debt (currently, for example, including Man Utd and Liverpool) from competing.


Stability is the key. We finally seem to have hired a competent manager who not only knows what he is doing, and is liked and respected by the players, but is not being undermined while he’s trying to do it. I was lukewarm to the idea of Harry Redknapp being our manager, and I don’t like some of the things that he says to the press, but you certainly can’t fault most of what he’s done; he’s been outstanding. I wasn’t sure of the value of recruiting what seems like several dozen former players as (inexperienced) part-time coaches, but it seems to be working. So let’s stick with it. Let’s follow the Levy and Redknapp plans. Let’s develop our core players and add to them with others who can improve the squad and the team. Let’s continue to improve until we get to where we think our great club should be. And let’s push on from there.


The title of this article refers to this season and beyond, so I’ll conclude by what I think will happen in the next few years. There’s no guarantee that it will, and it obviously depends on the club holding its shit together, but this
is the first time that I’ve even dared to dream it.

I believe that we will finish fourth this year and qualify for the Champions League.


I believe that we will continue to qualify for the Champions League in spite of competition from the usual suspects, plus Citeh, Everton, and Villa.


I believe that we will win (yes, win) the Premier League in the next three years, and I believe that we will win it more than once.


I believe that we will be capable of winning the European Cup.

I believe that we will do all of this in the style that befits our heritage.


I believe, for the first time, that the future belongs to us. Glory glory hallelujah.......


Audere est facere.
 

Jaispurs

Well-Known Member
May 11, 2005
733
351
Lets not get above ourselves just yet.

Lets keep improving. Keep going to places like Blackburn, Stoke, Portsmouth, West Ham, Hull and winning.

Lets see where we are at the end of the season and then we can take stock as to what a great season this has been (whatever the outcome).
I was talking to my mates at the ground at half time yesterday and we all said that we believed that Harry would get into them and we would really go for it 2nd half...He did and we did.

I am one of those Spurs fans who is always waiting for the next stumble, The Wolves games. I expect it much more often than it happens these days and am enjoying it.

Am looking forward to going to Wembley again this year and hopefully beating both Ar5ena1 and Chavski in April too.

In April we are 4 games away from a wonderful season or a good season.
Lets pick this conversation up after the Chavski game

COYS
 

C0YS

Just another member
Jul 9, 2007
12,780
13,817
lets enjoy the moment shall we. The future is hard to predict. But this is certainly the best spurs side I have ever seen play
 

Black

Well-Known Member
May 21, 2007
4,807
4,872
Im with him just think if we beat stoke, wolves and everton we would be up there
 

davidmatzdorf

Front Page Gadfly
Jun 7, 2004
18,106
45,030
It's a very good post, although you got carried away a bit there at the end ;-).

The keys to our improvement have been (1) that we have become hard to play against, thanks to a properly organised defence and a capable defensive midfielder and (2) that we have learned how to turn good performances into wins. Not draws: wins. We have won 56% of our matches this season in all competitions.

When you have players like Modric, Huddlestone, Defoe and Bale in the lineup, the flair will take care of itself. The challenge is to organise a platform for these players to do what they do. We've started to do that. That's the route to success.

And perhaps even a league title. It's not beyond the ability of our squad and I am please, not alarmed, to hear our players starting to speak in those terms, because I want them to be ambitious.
 

BusterYid

New Member
Dec 15, 2006
14
1
Good post and great to see fans being optimistic, it does feel that the club is heading in the right direction off the pitch as well as on the pitch, stability is the key so lets hope we hang on to our key players and Harry does not get thrown in jail fir didgy dealings!!!

Tottenhan Till I Die!!!
 

Matthew Wyatt

Call me Boris
Aug 3, 2007
2,224
1,988
Excellent post, spud! For the reasons you give I too feel more optimistic than ever, having been a fan since the days of the wonderful Burkinshaw team you mention. Within the next 3-5 years we will win the league, and cups and CL qualification will be merely incidental. That said, I can see us winning the CL too before the decade is out. Happy days.
 

fatspur

Member
Mar 11, 2005
578
2
Im with him just think if we beat stoke, wolves and everton we would be up there
there are points that we've dropped that we shouldn't have, but you can say that for all our rivals. we have also picked up points that we shouldn't have, eg Birmingham & Sunderland at home. At the end of the season we will be where we deserve to be after 38 games: if we can hold on to fourth I truly believe it can be the start of something great because it will give us he belief, the chance to attract players to compete with the emerging Man City and eventually resurgent Liverpool and well as the 3 above. But not too many: we have a unit that will only improve, so no major disruptions this summer, please
 

Gilzeanking

Well-Known Member
May 7, 2005
6,093
5,019
An absolute key to our resurgence is that the players are now superfit and inculcated with a workrate that is unique in my 40 years as a fan . Full marks to the management .

Further we have , through injuries and absences to our 'first team' ,suddenly found ourselves with some great 'new ' players . Think back to Xmas, any determined club could have come in and taken Pav ,Bentley and Bale off our hands ....Their value has since skyrocketed . Media commentors ,I note question whether not playing them when we had our slumps this season was Harry being stupid or intelligently working their psyches ,we'll never know . I think anyway that now he's learned to trust his squad and we are way more unpredictable now . To add to the 3 'new' players now comes Gudjohnsen of course .

I think we'll know much more about our top table credentials after our April matches , but atm I think the poster is a tad ahead of himself at the end of his post . The rest of it I agree with, exciting times .
 

18Klinsmann

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2005
1,254
494
Nice post, and I can see where you are coming from.
After the Stoke game there was (again) a discussion on here about whether it was a "top four" performance on our side. I didn't think so, but the Fulham game was exactly what I would characterize as a top performance in every respect. Subsequently I have found myself contemplating the potential strength of our squad, and I agree that the current squad with minor adjustments and stability could actually challenge the top three.
Another false dawn? The biggest question to me, is whether we will still sell our best players to United. Players like Modric, Lennon, Palacios and Bale will be wanted and tempted from elsewhere if they keep progressing. Will we be able to keep them? If yes, then we have a real chance of challenging the top teams. Winning the league is not impossible and neither is winning any European competition. One should bear in mind, however, that winning the CL takes not just quality, skill and grit, but luck as well. And then there is the little detail of qualifying for the CL...
Unfortunately keeping your best players usually demands success, so I guess that we're faced with the grim prospects of having to clinch fourth to really move forward. Can we? Yes we can! Will we? I doubt it, but if we can perform like we did on Wednesday in every game left we just might.
The end of the season could hardly be more exciting.
 

JimmyG2

SC Supporter
Dec 7, 2006
15,014
20,779
Like it. I'm an even older git than you and first went to Spurs for reserve matches in 1950. Its so long ago that I can't remember the details now, one of the dubious benefits of extreme age, you forget the good but also the bad.

I remember the Glory Glory years but don't go on about it as it can be quite upsetting to younger generations whoi want their own Glory Glory years to celebrate. And quite right too. We might just be standing on the edge of a golden decade.

I've been optimistic all season even before our winning opening streak of games. But aren't we always expecting the best and fearing the worst? I've almost lost that nervous tension when we are two goals up with 15 minutes to go, but not quite.

I shared your misgivings about Harry but credit to the man he has given us confidence and belief. I've always preferred this to ' mental weakness' as an explaination of our failure to fulfil our expectations and our tendency to flatter to deceive.

I'm not keen on predicting the future but prefer to enjoy the here and now. There is a danger that if we don't make 4th and/or win the Cup we will regard this season as a failure, which it certainly is not whatever happens now.

I'm enjoying the football we are playing and the spirit in the club.

Stability of squad and manager is key to me now.
 

laurence

SC Supporter
Aug 1, 2006
57
8
I love your optimism. It is in the true spirit of audere est facere, and I share it.

Moreover I am an older git than you,kid. I first had a season ticket in 1954.
 

Chedozie

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2005
2,625
2,646
I like the hiring of players (ex or otherwise) to work with players.

Goalkeepers have a goalkeeping coach, always an ex professional goalkeeper, i think its good that the midfielders get a midfield player to work with them, the same with the strikers.

Both Sherwood and Ferdinand are of good standard, have played in the premiership and can relate to the modern game.
 

Jaispurs

Well-Known Member
May 11, 2005
733
351
I've almost lost that nervous tension when we are two goals up with 15 minutes to go, but not quite.

I haven't. Was still biting my nails at 89 mins.....

Thats what being a Spurs fan is all about. Taking the great with the terrible....the 5 - 1 against Ar5ena1 and the 3-4 and 3-5 against the Manchester teams.

I know we are much stronger these days but on our day we have always been able to beat any team (at home) but now we are having more of those days and playing much better away from home.

I hope all the Harry doubters are on board now as he is the man that has done this.
 

kernowspur

Member
Nov 1, 2004
896
278
Like Jimmy G2 I am also an even older git, also first saw Spurs in early 1950s. I am optimistic about the current squad and hope they may, just may, get to be as good as Bill Nic's team of the early 1960s. Time will tell, but it is the best time to be a Spurs supporter for many, many years.
 
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