Still under ENIC so not a huge amount will change. We're still going to have to overachieve to mix it with the bigger clubs but I am excited for Ange's reign nonetheless. The football club feels similar to where it was at at the end of that AVB/Sherwood season. Let's hope we can start replicating the years that followed that. At the very least I hope we get back to playing good football.
I feel a little underwhelmed that we've got from the likes of Mourinho/Conte to pilfering managers from scotland. then again who knows... we have to be open minded. Man utds greatest manager came from aberdeen so that doesnt neccesarily mean much. Ange might step up to the plate with better players and better resources at his disposal. in wonder if he'll try and raid celtic for players. youre right tho things are gonna be tough now. Newcastle have blugeoned there way into the upper echoleons of the premier league. brighton look pretty awesome. chelsea can't possibly be as bad as they were last season. definitely a lot of fierce competition about next season
4 points from first two games- not bad. how good has bissouma been so far. honestly he's like a new signing
You’ll get a huge following from the Australians as they love him down there. He’s rated very highly and they don’t follow fools. Apart from David Warner but that’s another story..
We're generally well supported all over including down under but won't hurt to have a few more Aussies following along. Hasn't taken long to see why he's loved everywhere he goes. Feel more justified in wanting Conte gone last year when you see the transformation in the performances and players this year. Genuinely don't think Conte improved a single player in his time here. Kane is the only one that really excelled and was world class long before then anyway.
I think he has a defined skill set to lends itself to playing at the base of a midfield 3. His profile doesn't fit a midfield 2.
Champions League or not, this has been a successful first season under Ange. Nobody predicted us in a top four race, especially after Kane left. My biggest gripe is that Ange needs to improve the defense, especially in games we are winning at the end. Other than that, his weekly comments, team selection, tactics for most games are exactly what I wanted after the years of the dinosaurs managing us.
I'm happy with where we are, considering where we were. If we are to challenge consistently though, Ange needs to be able to adapt his tactics to the situation. If teams have got a read on us and our style of play clearly isn't going to get us the result on the day, we need to be able to try something different.
I think Ange is trying to really put in a mindset of attack attack attack. I do not think the system and style we play now is his final style. Give him another summer to form the squad to how he wants to play..
This season is ending with a bit of a damp squib Can't see us finishing above villa now. what a shame the english clubs did so poorly in europe. was hoping the co-efficient would bail us out and 5th would be good enough for CL football. we were electric early on this season but feel we've faded quite badly as this season has gone on
Absolutely. I think there needs to be some realism in how difficult a first season at a club is, how hard it is losing the best striker on the planet and how a lot of these players have had to adapt too. The spine of our team are largely playing their first proper season at Spurs and a lot of them their first in the Premier League too. This is the first proper season where Porro has been outright number one RB, he rotated a lot with Royal last season but has made that position his own. Throw in Vicario, Van De Ven and Udogie all playing their first season in England and I don't think it's a surprise that the defence has been a little suspect at times. I'm giving Ange a lot of the benefit of the doubt in that I think some of the concerns will improve with time but I think he's earned a bit of credit in the bank by bringing a feel-good factor back to the club. The negativity was overwhelming last year. It has been a much better season this time around, my one disappointment was how early we exited the cups. It's arguably the cup exits that turned the majority against Mourinho and Conte so Ange will need a better effort in that respect going forward. Overall I think there's plenty of cause to be optimistic though. I don't expect much to change in that respect. I think Ange is going to be in the same mindset of Bielsa and his disciples (Guardiola, Poch, Simeone) in that there is one approach and if plan A doesn't work, do plan A better. He has a way he wants us to play, if he strengthens the squad with more of the type of player that can help us achieve that I think we'll hopefully reap the benefits of that. Poch wasn't all that adaptable either but you saw in that 16/17 season in particular that once you've nailed it that that we didn't really need to adapt. Teams would try and make it difficult for us and we'd go and smash them anyway. Maybe it's a naive way to be but I don't really think the likes of Guardiola are that much more adaptable either. I think Ange will ultimately try and do the same, albeit without the same success Manchester City have had. It'll probably be more aligned with what Poch did in that home or away, Morecambe or Real Madrid, we'll go and play our way and not worry (adapt) too much about the opposition. I feel like this is a real misconception about us this year and I don't really know what the expectation of us was. We were never going to win the league so an early start that saw us top was a bit misleading. We've been 4th/5th since November though. We've had some up-and-down form along the way but we've been fairly consistent for the last 4-5 months. It's not a done deal yet but we've almost wrapped up a top 6 finish with 6 games to spare, I don't really know what more was expected of us this season. If we finish 4th great, if we finish 5th or 6th it's not the end of the world. There's a few tricky games between now and the end of the season but wherever we end up I think there have been more positives than negatives this season. I also think we'll come back stronger next season.
I think fans are forgetting nobody expected us to fight for top 4 or even finish close to 5 when Kane left. People expected us to be like Chelsea are now. I even remember a few (probably tongue in cheek) talking about a relegation battle. We have done better than anyone expected and have made huge progress since last year.
I think a lot of people, Spurs fans included, wrote us off as soon as it was clear that Kane was going. I was probably more optimistic than most just because I didn't think we could be any worse than last year but this thread makes for good reading on what was expected of us this season: 23/24 Premier League Predictions Incidentally this is what I said about us just before the season started. Given top 6 looks likely with a few games to spare I'd say we're probably a bit ahead of what I expected this season and that's ignoring the fact I was fairly optimstic and also underestimating Villa a little bit.
If it's funny reading that thread and only a few people had us top 6. I saw one post saying 9th without Kane and I think that is what a good number of our fans thought too. I was like you. I had no idea how we would be under Ange but I don't think people realize how miserable Conte was and the terrible football he had us playing. He gave to so early, there was no way we could improve.
