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Manager Ange Postecoglou

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It actually also shows that we had a much kinder fixture list in the first half of the season.

The second half of the season we had all the following fixtures

United A
West Ham A
Chelsea A
Newcastle A
Liverpool A
Villa A
A red hot Woolwich at home

If that run of games (Newcastle, Woolwich, Liverpool, chels) had been spread out over the season and the results had been isolated rather than in one cluster, I don’t think there would have been the meltdown we saw. Even if we were 5th.

There were still some good performances second half of the season - I don’t think we played badly against Woolwich at home, city at home, Villa away for example.

The fixtures are hard.. but you need to be doing better in them. A lot better. Individually I don’t expect to win most of these games but I definitely don’t expect to lose nearly all of them. I’ve also not been impressed by performances in between games against competent opposition. The 3-0 loss to Fulham as well.. Fulham and Newcastle away should not be a combined 7-0 loss. Sorry.

I’ve not seen too much melting. I think it’s right to be worried about how we coped with the second half of the season but also fair to say it’s Ange’s first season and he needs time and backing.
 
Normally though that kind of form over an extensive period means that managers have lost the players and they've given up, this team haven't given up (apart from the Chelsea match) tactically you can say that he set the team up to open and we were getting picked off and we had trouble defending set pieces which is all on the manager, happy to admit that.

But the City match told me there's still life in us and that he's able to stop the weakness and can do something about it anyway.

I agree he hasn’t lost the team. The guy deserves another season.

I do think we need to get a lot better at adjustments against better teams, we’ve had some good ‘performances’ in these matches but ultimately failed. It’s happened too often to be bad luck.
 
You really missed the point of my post didn't you. Capology is not a reliable source and anything post the 22/23 accounts is guesswork. The latest figures have our wage at 5th, ahead of Woolwich. It's true that we're dwarfed by Liverpool that's hardly shocking given their success on the pitch. Chelsea are about to be hit with the mother of all financial sanctions so I'm not sure theirs is a model we want to follow.
No. But Deloitte definitely is a reliable source. Who's figures I posted just a few pages back, mate.

This gives good insight. I like this one (Swiss Ramble)

FnZmXp8XwAcYFEg.jpg:large


A year or so out of date, but I think we're still on about the same mark. Possibly even down to low 40's so I believe.
 
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I agree he hasn’t lost the team. The guy deserves another season.

I do think we need to get a lot better at adjustments against better teams, we’ve had some good ‘performances’ in these matches but ultimately failed. It’s happened too often to be bad luck.
There's not much choice but to keep him. You can't go around firing the manager every season. But he and his staff have to do a better job. One way to improve the culture would be to shift the focus back to the players and football. This season started off being about Postecoglou. The middle part was about Postecoglou. The end part was about Postecoglou. I don't care about "the journey", I don't care about "if you look at what I've done every where I've been", "culture", "our game", or any sentence he says that includes the words "I, me, my". I just want to see wins and points. I so very much miss the coaches we had who didn't speak much English.
 
I was speaking to my Celtic mate last night in the pub. and asked if hypothetically he'd want his team to lose if it meant Rangers wouldn't win the league.

He said yes and was surprised at Ange getting angry shouting at the supporter during the City match.
Someone mentioned it yesterday, but apparently the ‘fan’ was angry we had conceded which suggests he might have been a very vocal scum supporter.

Which does make it different. Managers can tell the difference in tone.
 
Fair enough mate, I simply ask this of you and anyone else, how many convincing performances have we seen this season from start to finish?
Just an amateur Spurs supporter here, but I was pretty damn convinced leading into the Chelsea game! And frankly, I still attribute that loss to the reds and injuries or I think we win that game in a walk as well.

And, funny thing about sports. One match like that changes everything. The ramifications from that catastrophe (not in terms of how the boys played!), changed the entire dynamic of the season.
 
Puddledrinkers down the road have had a good old laugh at us appointing Ange and doesn’t take him/us as a threat yet a comment on cunt.mania thinks Man Utd should make an approach as Ten-Hag is gone why?
 
It actually also shows that we had a much kinder fixture list in the first half of the season.

The second half of the season we had all the following fixtures

United A
West Ham A
Chelsea A
Newcastle A
Liverpool A
Villa A
A red hot Woolwich at home

If that run of games (Newcastle, Woolwich, Liverpool, chels) had been spread out over the season and the results had been isolated rather than in one cluster, I don’t think there would have been the meltdown we saw. Even if we were 5th.

There were still some good performances second half of the season - I don’t think we played badly against Woolwich at home, city at home, Villa away for example.
I know you have to play everyone (and we all know that), but to me that was a bullshit run in. Whoever set that schedule up knew exactly what they were doing, and it’s complete garbage from a competition point of view.
 
The 20 we won you know, none of those wins were against the run of play, undeserved or skanked.
The 2-1 win against Everton was actually quite undeserved, they played better than us and they deserved at least a point. Albeit not a win, the 1-1 at West Ham was also shaky, we played well for 20 mins then we dropped the tempo and West Ham took control of the game.

I can think of a couple more although I wouldn’t go as far as saying undeserved, Brentford at home, Forest at home, we got a bit lucky that they couldn’t finish their chances in the first half.
 
The 2-1 win against Everton was actually quite undeserved, they played lots better than us that day and they deserved at least a point. Albeit not a win, the 1-1 at West Ham was also shaky, we played well for 20 mins then we dropped the tempo and West Ham took control of the game.

I can think of a couple more although I wouldn’t label them undeserved, Brentford at home, Forest at home, we got a bit lucky that they couldn’t finish their chances in the first half.
I won't disagree with you here. On the balance of the game v Everton, you're probably right.

I think where our 8 draws are concerned, you could probably call them 50/50, with 4 of them where we didn't have control of the match, but the other 4 we did. Context comes into play there as well, where you have to consider who we played and where, i.e. 2 of them were away to City and the filth.

The last 10 games have taken the shine off the first season gloss, you'd have to be mental to think otherwise, but there's context there as well, for some of them. Regardless, as Deuterz has already said, there's obvious cause for concern simply because it HAS happened, whatever the context may be.

But if you're evaluating our performance across the season, there's also cause for optimism, if you're prepared to view it in a balanced way. Have we got all the moving parts required? No we don't, we're quite a bit away from that. Have we embedded the style and ethos into what we currently have? No. AP has said this himself as well. Should we expect better next season? Absofuckinglutely, else what is the point?

As with everything else, there should be balance when evaluating everything we've experienced over the course of this season, and there's far too much context to take into consideration to make arbitrary claims on whether this season has shown us if he's the right man for the job or not.
 
The fixtures are hard.. but you need to be doing better in them. A lot better. Individually I don’t expect to win most of these games but I definitely don’t expect to lose nearly all of them. I’ve also not been impressed by performances in between games against competent opposition. The 3-0 loss to Fulham as well.. Fulham and Newcastle away should not be a combined 7-0 loss. Sorry.

I’ve not seen too much melting. I think it’s right to be worried about how we coped with the second half of the season but also fair to say it’s Ange’s first season and he needs time and backing.
Spot on. I really like Ange and I am desperate for him to succeed but there's losing and then there's losing. Fulham was utter humiliation and should have seen the angst we saw post city. If he was worried about a hiding causing questions about his integrity, he should have considered the questions regarding his competency Newcastle and Fulham caused. His contrition in todays presser is welcome, but he caused the issue in how he handel the whole thing. Its not great when David Moyes shows you how handel a potentially tricky fixture...but that's what happened a silly pun about teams struggling to beat their U14 team the expected homily about professionals; job done move on.
 
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The 2-1 win against Everton was actually quite undeserved, they played better than us and they deserved at least a point. Albeit not a win, the 1-1 at West Ham was also shaky, we played well for 20 mins then we dropped the tempo and West Ham took control of the game.

I can think of a couple more although I wouldn’t go as far as saying undeserved, Brentford at home, Forest at home, we got a bit lucky that they couldn’t finish their chances in the first half.
Plenty you can add to this list if we're being honest.

Brighton at home. Rubbish first half, better start to the second until Ange made a bunch of subs on minute 60 which completely wrecked our flow (a consistent theme). After that we were outplayed until we scored with that last minute breakaway goal which saved our blushes.

Everton at home we were very lucky to get the three points. Last minute Vicario save off the line, they were well worth the point.

Bournemouth at home, comprehensively outplayed the entire first half. Really dire stuff.

Burnley in the cup we were shite, saved by that Porro long ranger.

Even witht he players back we've been unconvincing. Forest at home, Luton at home. The recent Burnley game was a basketball match until he moved VDV to left back for the last 15. We consistently give up chances for fun against the worst sides in the league.
 
Plenty you can add to this list if we're being honest.

Brighton at home. Rubbish first half, better start to the second until Ange made a bunch of subs on minute 60 which completely wrecked our flow (a consistent theme). After that we were outplayed until we scored with that last minute breakaway goal which saved our blushes.

Everton at home we were very lucky to get the three points. Last minute Vicario save off the line, they were well worth the point.

Bournemouth at home, comprehensively outplayed the entire first half. Really dire stuff.

Burnley in the cup we were shite, saved by that Porro long ranger.

Even witht he players back we've been unconvincing. Forest at home, Luton at home. The recent Burnley game was a basketball match until he moved VDV to left back for the last 15. We consistently give up chances for fun against the worst sides in the league.
Speaking pure facts but unfortunately there's no place for honesty when it's blind dogma.

We consistently give up chances for fun against the worst sides in the league.
An absolute fact yet apparently it's supposed to be expected because he's the first manager in history to start at a new club and bring a new style of play, a team that has players that should comfortably finish top 4 when the likes of Newcastle, United and Chelsea have had all of their injury struggles and comfortably dispatch of the worst sides in the league.
 
I won't disagree with you here. On the balance of the game v Everton, you're probably right.

I think where our 8 draws are concerned, you could probably call them 50/50, with 4 of them where we didn't have control of the match, but the other 4 we did. Context comes into play there as well, where you have to consider who we played and where, i.e. 2 of them were away to City and the filth.

The last 10 games have taken the shine off the first season gloss, you'd have to be mental to think otherwise, but there's context there as well, for some of them. Regardless, as Deuterz has already said, there's obvious cause for concern simply because it HAS happened, whatever the context may be.

But if you're evaluating our performance across the season, there's also cause for optimism, if you're prepared to view it in a balanced way. Have we got all the moving parts required? No we don't, we're quite a bit away from that. Have we embedded the style and ethos into what we currently have? No. AP has said this himself as well. Should we expect better next season? Absofuckinglutely, else what is the point?

As with everything else, there should be balance when evaluating everything we've experienced over the course of this season, and there's far too much context to take into consideration to make arbitrary claims on whether this season has shown us if he's the right man for the job or not.
So not quite the deserved 20 wins then
 
The 2-1 win against Everton was actually quite undeserved, they played better than us and they deserved at least a point. Albeit not a win, the 1-1 at West Ham was also shaky, we played well for 20 mins then we dropped the tempo and West Ham took control of the game.

I can think of a couple more although I wouldn’t go as far as saying undeserved, Brentford at home, Forest at home, we got a bit lucky that they couldn’t finish their chances in the first half.
We deserved to win Villa and West Ham at home if you look at things that are or aren’t deserved…

Personally don’t buy into that. You win or lose you get what you deserved.
 
The fixtures are hard.. but you need to be doing better in them. A lot better. Individually I don’t expect to win most of these games but I definitely don’t expect to lose nearly all of them. I’ve also not been impressed by performances in between games against competent opposition. The 3-0 loss to Fulham as well.. Fulham and Newcastle away should not be a combined 7-0 loss. Sorry.

I’ve not seen too much melting. I think it’s right to be worried about how we coped with the second half of the season but also fair to say it’s Ange’s first season and he needs time and backing.
Overall I agree. Definitely had a spell where we weren’t at it for whatever reason.

Stepping right back and looking at the season overall, 5th is a decent finish. And obviously there are glaring problems in the squad to fix
 
I still think it is fair to give Ange a full season to get things right. That said, I will criticise him for changing the goalposts a lot and it's no different to what a lot of previous managers tried and failed at. One minute they say we can win the league, the next we are 5th with a lot of work to do and reality sinks in. I'd rather a manager just said 4th is short-term progress and achieved it.

As for fans wanting us to stop Woolwich winning the title last night, I've read a lot of things like they are losers or an embarrassment or need counselling or are incels. It's bollocks. They are regular fans. If you can't have some end of season banter and a different opinion as a fan then maybe you are the bellend. Heaven forbid the fans make up their own fun when the team is shit for 5 out of 6 games.
It was mainly a bit of gallows humour. I think ange, other fans & media have looked far too deeply in to it. The media’s job is to over blow things.
 
So not quite the deserved 20 wins then
LMAO, latched onto that morsel rather quickly, but OK, 19 out of 20 were deserved wins. So 5% of our wins were undeserved. Break out the high fives.

Bournemouth, Forest, Luton, Brighton, the list goes on. Look at the facts, that you seem so fixated on, about the games over the full 90 minutes. By every metric, we were the superior side. Created more, had the greater possession, more shots, more shots on target, greater goal expectancy. Those are facts that determine we deserved every single win.

In a word, dominance.

To even suggest that we were lucky to win any of those games is borderline stupidity. So those teams had decent spells in those games, what of it? To expect any team to dominate every game, from first minute to last, is abject lunacy. Not even City can do that, and they're the best team on the planet.

Not only did you start the excavator up, you went and hit a gas main with it!

Soak your head for a bit, give it a wobble, then have a lie down mate, you need it.
 
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