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Manager Thomas Frank
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No, I'm not. I've literally addressed this 4 times already, and am waiting for someone to actually respond. Here it is again:
That's why we were in it. We came 4th the year before, behind Watford (2nd), but ahead of Forest (5th) and Villa (6th), all of whom were in the competition with us. The same is true for every league which participated, from Austria to Belgium.
Of course, the modern CL now takes the top 4 of every (big) league, so many of those clubs would now be in the higher competition, but most leagues still only get 1 or 2 teams qualified, and we all know that they're little more than fodder now for the big teams of the Big 5 leagues to gobble up at will. European football used to be more competitive in general before the modern period, and now it's ruled by a handful of clubs from an even smaller handful of leagues.
The best clubs not from the Big 5 leagues? They're all aiming for the Europa League now. That's who we beat, instead of the also-rans of the 80s. Not a whole lot of difference in quality, really.
Exactly. The English Top 4, Spanish Top 3 and Bayern/PSG are basically the only ones expected to win. All the rest who are worth a damn have been trying for the EL
The clubs who were in the UEFA were the 5th and 6th best teams of England and Germany, and Croatia etc.
Which isn't saying that much. Belgian football has never been particularly significant on the continent. The only time it became close to it was after all the Belgian players started playing in bigger leagues and thus learning how to play better football.
I'm simply pointing out how similar the quality levels were. I'm not even denigrating it. It's just that some are denigrating 2025, and don't like hearing how it's basically the same achievement.
The real difference is that nowadays, the PL is so much better than practically every other league that two teams who came 15th and 17th in England are able to beat off most of the rest of Europe.
Still can't answer why the format change actually didn't affect the quality level because of the supremacy of 3 leagues over everyone else, can you?
I think the Cup Winners Cup was often regarded as the easier competition to win for the English clubs because the other European leagues did not take the domestic cups that seriously.
The U.E.F.A. Cup was regarded as being harder to win because the 2nd 3rd 4th placed teams, from all of Europe's top leagues, were often all taking part in the U.E.F.A. Cup and as I have pointed out several times; it was a knock out competition all the way to the final.
That doesn't matter. The quality of teams in the UEFA that we faced is pretty much the same. We can do a fair comparison of the leagues/teams we played against, quite easily.
In the 2025 knockouts we played:
AZ Alkmar: 4th in Netherlands (6th best league)
Eintracht Frankfurt: 4th in Germany (3rd best league)
Bodo/Glint: 1st in Norway (12th best league)
Manchester United: 15th in England (1st best league)
In 1984 we played:
Drogheda United: 2nd in Ireland (24th best league(!!))
Feyenoord: 1st in Netherlands (12th best league)
Bayern Munich: 4th in Germany, (1st best league)
Hadjuk Split: 2nd in Croatia (8th best league)
Anderlecht: 2nd in Belgium (6th best league)
There's really not much difference at all. I think the reason why it upsets Kosher Kid and Ginola's Foot is because it fucks with their cherished yet unreliable childhood memories, and takes away their reason to denigrate what Levy achieved (which was to equal our best trophy since the early 60s).
I really have tried to explain but you just don't get it.Still can't answer why the format change actually didn't affect the quality level because of the supremacy of 3 leagues over everyone else, can you?
A knock out competition, against stronger opposition, is harder to win than a group format competition where stronger opposition, from bigger domestic leagues, are seeded with the likes of Carabag, Ferencvaros and Bodo Glimpt.
The pressure of having to beat every team, over two legs, home and away is not the same as qualifying from a group that is set up for the strongest teams to win.
The historic U.E.F.A. Cup was widely regarded as being harder to win than the Champions Cup becaue of the volume of quality sides from Europes top leagues.
Those of us who are old enough to remember those days have an insight which you are lacking and sadly; making a fool of yourself over.
I do hope that someone can explain it to you in a way that you can understand.
Please do carry on insisting you are right though.
In terms of how they were rated by UEFA, yes, it's actually identicial.
Both were teams who came 1st in the 12th best league in Europe at the time. Name-dropping a future star and a retired one doesn't change this.
I feel such a twat now.
You should.
You should.
I don't though.
I was lying.
I've been to Feyenoord's stadium in Rotterdam to watch Spurs.
It's better than Bodo's plastic pitch; with or without Gullit and Cruyff.
That's because all you're offering me is the 'perspective' of a child from 40 years ago.
I'm giving you facts, instead.
None of that sentence is true. League format is notoriously harder to do, which is why Tottenham have only ever won 2 league titles but picked up 8 FA Cups.
It's also a fact that the knockout teams we faced in 1984 were not stronger than the teams we faced in 2025.
What, like the 2nd best team in Ireland?
No, you don't. You have poor fucking memories, instead, my boy. Don't try and pull an age card on me or I'll remind you of dementia. Your ancient, unreliable and obviously biased perspective is a load of absolute bollocks compared to my youthful, newfangled fact-based one.
I'm happy to keep making it obvious that you're a fool.
No, it's just that your memory is fucking unreliable because you were a child over 40 years ago.
That's why you're wrong, and you can't answer a single thing I say, including the fact that Feyenoord were 1st in the 12th best league, just like Bodo/Glimt.
It started because the Levy/Ange hate cult keep trying to pretend that our 2025 achievement isn't as good as 1984, just because they don't want it to be. I've just been explaining why that narrative is not true, but it's difficult to wrap up the exchange when they won't answer any facts and keep on devolving into childish nonsense.
Sorry for the derailment...
Yeah, I’ve no idea either. Anyway, back to being Spurs - when are we sacking the manager?
I'm 55.That's because all you're offering me is the 'perspective' of a child from 40 years ago.
I'm giving you facts, instead.
None of that sentence is true. League format is notoriously harder to do, which is why Tottenham have only ever won 2 league titles but picked up 8 FA Cups.
It's also a fact that the knockout teams we faced in 1984 were not stronger than the teams we faced in 2025.
What, like the 2nd best team in Ireland?
No, you don't. You have poor fucking memories, instead, my boy. Don't try and pull an age card on me or I'll remind you of dementia. Your ancient, unreliable and obviously biased perspective is a load of absolute bollocks compared to my youthful, newfangled fact-based one.
I'm happy to keep making it obvious that you're a fool.
My memory is fine.
I've been supporting Spurs since 1977.
I've watched us play in all the European formats since the 81 / 82 Cup Winners Cup campaign.
I realise that watching Spurs win last seasons Europa League is the biggest achievement many younger Spurs supporters have to get hold of.
My 27 year old son was so happy about it.
I realised then that there is a huge difference between older and younger Spurs supporters in terms of expectation and what both groups have experienced in terms of success.
I admire your attempt to try and persuade me that the U.E.F.A. Cup wins of 1972 and 1984 were only as valid as last season's Europa win but;
I'm not having it.
It was great to win the Europa League in 2025 but having seen Spurs win both formats I have certainty about which one means more.
We will have to agree to disagree.
No! It isn't! You just proved it!
You've been wrong about how good the competition was, and you've been wrong about which games you attended! Your memory is unreliable and if you are basing your 'perspective' on it then you're making a fool of yourself.
What you don't realise is that it's the same size achievement as the biggest one that YOU have ever gotten hold of.
Yes, there is: you can't fucking remember the past clearly. You only misremember it because of how good it made you feel when you were a child. You were your son, and in 40 years time he'll be telling his sons about how great it was and how the younger fans just can't understand blah blah blah.
They were. You've just convinced yourself otherwise because like most bitter, miserable Levy-hating fans of today who were young in the 80s, you are telling yourself a lie about how good we were in the 80s because of how good it felt at the time, and so you can use it as a stick to beat the ownership with because they haven't made you feel that same way yet.
Rinse/repeat for the FA Cup.
Sure, but you can go fuck yourself if you are going to tell me that I'm not right just because I haven't been breathing as long as you were and was only 4 at the time you won the greatest thing you've ever seen. Take that shit and shove it up your jacksie. I'm right because all the data, stats, metrics and objective reality of the world of football backs me up.
You're still going off how you felt when you were 14 years old, and frankly, I'm not having that as an excuse to denigrate what we achieved last year.
Other than that, have a lovely day.
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I mean, what does it matter?
The history books will show we won our third in 2025. Who gives a fuck who we beat lol
I agree.
But then, I'm not the one with axes to grind against the ex-coach and ex-chairman.
And what do you think Murphy? Was 2025 better, worse or an equal achievement to 1984
I mean, you do you. We won a trophy, one that we haven't won for 41 years. Why people want to argue the toss about something that is a fantastic achievement, regardless of opposition, manager, owner, players, etc. Revel in the glory. It's what the game is about. Or something.
Of equal importance. I couldn't give a flying fuck about the rest. When you win the EL/Uefa cup, you win the cup. The rest is of fuck all importance, since you asked me.