A few weeks back I posted a mea culpa about Poch, openly admitting that I was very, very wrong about the guy. It felt good- really fucking good. So with that in mind, let's collectively discuss aspects of our club about which we were mistaken, things we were dead on about and things we're still unsure of. No agendas, no revisionist history- just pure, unadulterated honesty. Try it- you'll like it. I'll go first lol:
Wrong
-Poch. Nothing more to say than I've already said. Thought the guy was a mediocre, unproven "yes-man"-type coach, a guy brought in by Levy in order to be controlled by Levy. Boy oh boy was I wrong on that one. Only thing I'll say in my defense is that I said a number of times in various posts that I hoped I'd be wrong about the guy- that I hoped to have egg on my face and would be happy to admit being wrong. Which I was. Ecstatic in fact.
-Danny Rose. Fucking hated this player after his crap return from Sunderland. I was wrong- his crap return was a dip in form-- the real Danny Rose plays for us and- though he is prone to the odd bonehead play-- is one mean mofo, a great player to have on your side, a super athletic fullback and one who truly "dares to do." He's fantastic- I love how he tortures the opposition, gets in their face, harasses them and just generally wreaks havoc. My God was I off base about this guy.
-Harry Kane. Lordy Lordy Lordy this might be my worst call yet (though I wasn't as vocal about it since he didn't offend me the way the above two did). If you would've told beginning-of-2014-me that Harry Kane would be our lead-dog striker (and one of the best forwards in England- if not the world) I'd have smiled and said "oh- o.k.- and I guess Benoit Assou-Ekotto has been made club ambassador!" and laughed along with you since obviously you would've been joking. Except that you wouldn't have been- and the joke would've been on me. Again: thank God for that.
-Emmanuel Adebayor. I wanted this player so badly I would've carried him to the Lane. I loved him, loved his stylish play and loved him being on our team that first season. I clucked and crowed like a rooster, proud as hell of both myself and Daniel Levy for outsmarting everyone else and getting a world-class striker on the cheap. Welp, ya get whatcha pay for...I mean wow was this guy a cancer. Don't worry people- at least I can say that at the end I, too, hated the guy. Yes, I should've realized that what appears to be too good to be true always is.
-Etienne Capoue. I loved the guy. He had everything you could ask for in a DCM- like a more elegant Sandro. He was going to eventually be our Xabi Alonso. Except he was awful. Still can't figure out where it all went wrong with him-- but go wrong it did...
Right
I have to say that though I've been wrong about a fair few things in my almost decade-and-a-half of loving Spurs (first season following the club: 2002), I've been right many more times than I've been wrong. So instead of listing all of the "rights," I'm going to list the highlights of correctness. Take this with a grain of salt (it'll seem as if I'm bragging), but I'm not lying and/or exaggerating about any of it. I've fully admitted my errors- now for some spot-ons:
-Roberto Soldado. Out've everything I've ever accurately called/predicted, this one stands out. The day he was acquired I wrote to a friend "great, we've just shelled out upwards of 20 million Quid on a poor-man's Jermaine Defoe. What a colossally stupid buy this is. We will rue the day we made this worthless elf our own." Holy moly was I dead on. How did I know he'd be so bad for us? I just did. He was a small, slow poacher, a guy incapable of leading the line/playing up front on his own, a talented footballer but just disastrously wrong for Spurs. On them %$#&s up the road, sure- but not us. I couldn't believe it when we signed this guy- but even cynical old me was shocked at just how bad he was. Holy SHIT was this a bad acquisition- and wow(!) did I know that from the start.
-AVB. I was so opposed to him becoming our manager-- I mean so utterly against it-- that it's a wonder I'm still here, that, indeed, I didn't keel over from a mixture of grief, frustration and rage over this person taking over our club. I know, I know-- "c'mon, he's not that bad" you say- "he's done pretty well at Zenit, and as far as his time with us he was put in an impossible situation because of Levy and ..." to which I would say "please, please be quiet." Because you see, no matter how revisionist anyone gets, no one on earth will ever convince me that this guy's tenure with us wasn't torture. "But he led us to the most points we've ever had in the league since we..." you'd sputter-- but again I'd put my fingers to my lips and motion for you to cease talking. Maybe it was because I loved Harry so much, maybe it was because I hated Daniel (for firing Harry) so much, but I was sure with every fibre of my being that this guy wouldn't just be "wrong" for Spurs (in the way that appointing, say, Alan Curbishley would be), but that, indeed, his very presence would damage us. In the same way I was wrong about Adebayor, I was right about this guy: Levy thought he'd pulled a fast one on a mega-rich club, obtaining a cast-off relatively easily, one that would turn to gold for us. You could just sense Levy's desire to get one over on Abramovich, to demonstrate how he/we could succeed where the Russian failed. Turns out there was a reason the ginger genius was available: because he was a putrid manager who had no business being in- and would never succeed in- the Prem. Honestly, the football under AVB was so bad that I began to rethink my love of the sport. Maybe some of my disdain for the guy was/is irrational, but I can honestly say I might've quit watching us had he stayed long term. Gareth Bale masked it that first season, but that second one was pure torture. The guy made me love the appointment of Tim Sherwood FFS.
-Vlad Chiriches. This was a weird one in that, though I didn't "know" upon hearing we'd gotten him that he'd be a failure (a la Soldado), I promise you that once I saw him play one time I was positive that he was a colossal bust- and I said so on here immediately. I got a lot of hate for that- dudes saying I didn't know shit about football, that I had no idea about "underlying talent" and that I was rushing to judge a player who- in time- would prove me utterly wrong ("he'll go on to be a Spurs legend" was something actually said by someone on here). Well, in the real world Vlad Chiriches turned out to be absolute fucking toilet- and what's worse- he seemed not to give a fuck. At least Soldado cared.
-Post-Liverpool Robbie Keane. I was dead- and I mean DEAD-set against re-acquiring him. In fact I was so angry about it I seethed every time he touched the ball. I fucking hated him for leaving us but that's not why I didn't want him back; I didn't want him back because I knew he was shot, and utterly effing worthless (which he was). I still wish we'd have left him with Rafa; I still cannot believe we gave him/them a lifeline. We offed him at the perfect time and then proceeded to shoot ourselves in the foot! Aaaarrrrgghhhh!!!!!
Still unsure about
-Levy: I can't for the life of me decide if this guy is a cheap, penny-pinching leader who only helps Spurs because it adds to ENIC's bottom line or if he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. After all the upheaval, all the coaching changes and all of the turmoil (amid a bit of relative success), I honestly can't even figure out how I feel about him! Sometimes I hate him, most of the time I love him...Can someone please tell me if he's awful or the best chairman we could possibly hope for? I'm starting to adore him- is that right?
Ok, so that's a few of my Spurs wrongs, rights and IDK's-- what say you? Who/what have you been utterly mistaken about, and who/what were you dead-on correct regarding? C'mon- get it off your chest!
Wrong
-Poch. Nothing more to say than I've already said. Thought the guy was a mediocre, unproven "yes-man"-type coach, a guy brought in by Levy in order to be controlled by Levy. Boy oh boy was I wrong on that one. Only thing I'll say in my defense is that I said a number of times in various posts that I hoped I'd be wrong about the guy- that I hoped to have egg on my face and would be happy to admit being wrong. Which I was. Ecstatic in fact.
-Danny Rose. Fucking hated this player after his crap return from Sunderland. I was wrong- his crap return was a dip in form-- the real Danny Rose plays for us and- though he is prone to the odd bonehead play-- is one mean mofo, a great player to have on your side, a super athletic fullback and one who truly "dares to do." He's fantastic- I love how he tortures the opposition, gets in their face, harasses them and just generally wreaks havoc. My God was I off base about this guy.
-Harry Kane. Lordy Lordy Lordy this might be my worst call yet (though I wasn't as vocal about it since he didn't offend me the way the above two did). If you would've told beginning-of-2014-me that Harry Kane would be our lead-dog striker (and one of the best forwards in England- if not the world) I'd have smiled and said "oh- o.k.- and I guess Benoit Assou-Ekotto has been made club ambassador!" and laughed along with you since obviously you would've been joking. Except that you wouldn't have been- and the joke would've been on me. Again: thank God for that.
-Emmanuel Adebayor. I wanted this player so badly I would've carried him to the Lane. I loved him, loved his stylish play and loved him being on our team that first season. I clucked and crowed like a rooster, proud as hell of both myself and Daniel Levy for outsmarting everyone else and getting a world-class striker on the cheap. Welp, ya get whatcha pay for...I mean wow was this guy a cancer. Don't worry people- at least I can say that at the end I, too, hated the guy. Yes, I should've realized that what appears to be too good to be true always is.
-Etienne Capoue. I loved the guy. He had everything you could ask for in a DCM- like a more elegant Sandro. He was going to eventually be our Xabi Alonso. Except he was awful. Still can't figure out where it all went wrong with him-- but go wrong it did...
Right
I have to say that though I've been wrong about a fair few things in my almost decade-and-a-half of loving Spurs (first season following the club: 2002), I've been right many more times than I've been wrong. So instead of listing all of the "rights," I'm going to list the highlights of correctness. Take this with a grain of salt (it'll seem as if I'm bragging), but I'm not lying and/or exaggerating about any of it. I've fully admitted my errors- now for some spot-ons:
-Roberto Soldado. Out've everything I've ever accurately called/predicted, this one stands out. The day he was acquired I wrote to a friend "great, we've just shelled out upwards of 20 million Quid on a poor-man's Jermaine Defoe. What a colossally stupid buy this is. We will rue the day we made this worthless elf our own." Holy moly was I dead on. How did I know he'd be so bad for us? I just did. He was a small, slow poacher, a guy incapable of leading the line/playing up front on his own, a talented footballer but just disastrously wrong for Spurs. On them %$#&s up the road, sure- but not us. I couldn't believe it when we signed this guy- but even cynical old me was shocked at just how bad he was. Holy SHIT was this a bad acquisition- and wow(!) did I know that from the start.
-AVB. I was so opposed to him becoming our manager-- I mean so utterly against it-- that it's a wonder I'm still here, that, indeed, I didn't keel over from a mixture of grief, frustration and rage over this person taking over our club. I know, I know-- "c'mon, he's not that bad" you say- "he's done pretty well at Zenit, and as far as his time with us he was put in an impossible situation because of Levy and ..." to which I would say "please, please be quiet." Because you see, no matter how revisionist anyone gets, no one on earth will ever convince me that this guy's tenure with us wasn't torture. "But he led us to the most points we've ever had in the league since we..." you'd sputter-- but again I'd put my fingers to my lips and motion for you to cease talking. Maybe it was because I loved Harry so much, maybe it was because I hated Daniel (for firing Harry) so much, but I was sure with every fibre of my being that this guy wouldn't just be "wrong" for Spurs (in the way that appointing, say, Alan Curbishley would be), but that, indeed, his very presence would damage us. In the same way I was wrong about Adebayor, I was right about this guy: Levy thought he'd pulled a fast one on a mega-rich club, obtaining a cast-off relatively easily, one that would turn to gold for us. You could just sense Levy's desire to get one over on Abramovich, to demonstrate how he/we could succeed where the Russian failed. Turns out there was a reason the ginger genius was available: because he was a putrid manager who had no business being in- and would never succeed in- the Prem. Honestly, the football under AVB was so bad that I began to rethink my love of the sport. Maybe some of my disdain for the guy was/is irrational, but I can honestly say I might've quit watching us had he stayed long term. Gareth Bale masked it that first season, but that second one was pure torture. The guy made me love the appointment of Tim Sherwood FFS.
-Vlad Chiriches. This was a weird one in that, though I didn't "know" upon hearing we'd gotten him that he'd be a failure (a la Soldado), I promise you that once I saw him play one time I was positive that he was a colossal bust- and I said so on here immediately. I got a lot of hate for that- dudes saying I didn't know shit about football, that I had no idea about "underlying talent" and that I was rushing to judge a player who- in time- would prove me utterly wrong ("he'll go on to be a Spurs legend" was something actually said by someone on here). Well, in the real world Vlad Chiriches turned out to be absolute fucking toilet- and what's worse- he seemed not to give a fuck. At least Soldado cared.
-Post-Liverpool Robbie Keane. I was dead- and I mean DEAD-set against re-acquiring him. In fact I was so angry about it I seethed every time he touched the ball. I fucking hated him for leaving us but that's not why I didn't want him back; I didn't want him back because I knew he was shot, and utterly effing worthless (which he was). I still wish we'd have left him with Rafa; I still cannot believe we gave him/them a lifeline. We offed him at the perfect time and then proceeded to shoot ourselves in the foot! Aaaarrrrgghhhh!!!!!
Still unsure about
-Levy: I can't for the life of me decide if this guy is a cheap, penny-pinching leader who only helps Spurs because it adds to ENIC's bottom line or if he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. After all the upheaval, all the coaching changes and all of the turmoil (amid a bit of relative success), I honestly can't even figure out how I feel about him! Sometimes I hate him, most of the time I love him...Can someone please tell me if he's awful or the best chairman we could possibly hope for? I'm starting to adore him- is that right?
Ok, so that's a few of my Spurs wrongs, rights and IDK's-- what say you? Who/what have you been utterly mistaken about, and who/what were you dead-on correct regarding? C'mon- get it off your chest!
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