Did reaching the Champion league final paper over some cracks?

  • The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...

    Get involved!

Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports

Did we look like a team that could get out of the CL group stages last season? We were on the ropes for most of the group stage . Inter let us through by f-ing up rather than us doing something spectacular.

Fair point, but we also came back against PSV, then played near perfect games against Inter at Wembley and Barca at Camp Nou. We earned our spot out of the group, even if we needed a little help on the last day.
 
It was a very up and down season and the CL was just like a more streamlined representation of that. Amazing we got to the final, but all it really did was put us more on the radar, and if anything it probably showed the cracks, or lack of depth anyway.
 
Not sure the terminology is correct

"papered over the cracks"

That infers that nobody knows what's wrong with our squad, now you won't find a more positive biased fan than me, but even I am fully aware of the issues

Lack of squad depth: we visibly were found lacking as injuries took their toll. Lack of a pre-season: sure we were not alone but we did take the biggest hit. The Wembley factor: place was and is a feckin' dump, became a negative for us whilst still a positive for the visiting side. Tactical errors: we lost far to many games we should have won, the reasons varied but poor tactics certainly played a part.

So there were many 'cracks' but not convinced these were papered over, with the addition(s) this summer we certainly look to be addressing the personnel problem, proper pre-season, no more Wembley ... so now it's all down to tactics ... Poch over to you.
 
If Llorente's goal against Mancity gets taken off for handball, the cracks look bigger. We finished below a very shit chelsea. :S
A month ago you were moaning about people not 'moving on' from the Danny Rose handball incident in the CL final, but now, 4 weeks later, you're using the Llorente one to justify your own miserable, negative take on things.
To quote you then: "Why are we still going on about the [Danny Rose Sissoko] penalty incident anyway. We were not going to win that match anyway. They were always going to score and we were never going to with the quality of attacking play we put up. Move on."

Justify that volte-face, if you can. Seems to me you're just a bit of a moaning minnie, so I won't waste my time responding to your criticism of me.
 
Last edited:
A month ago you were moaning about people not 'moving on' from the Danny Rose handball incident in the CL final, but now, 4 weeks later, you're using the Llorente one to justify your own miserable, negative take on things.
To quote you then: "Why are we still going on about the [Danny Rose] penalty incident anyway. We were not going to win that match anyway. They were always going to score and we were never going to with the quality of attacking play we put up. Move on."

Justify that volte-face, if you can. Seems to me you're just a bit of a moaning minnie, so I won't waste my time responding to your criticism of me.
I know I have tried to block the match out of my memory but it was Sissoko and not Rose.
 
I felt the football was disjointed, lacked a balanced creative midfield, wingbacks low vibe , only a handful of upbeat games in the league brother's.
We got top 4 but it was lonesome.
The CL was a fairy tale . 2 mega unbelievable games and a douchbag drag final .
Poch has his work cut out but he's a main dude and with help can pull it together .
 
17 18 was a significant drop off from the year before that and 18 19 continued this downwards trend , we looked unrecognisable from the side that pushed Chelsea all the way just a couple of years previous

That is what happens when you allow stagnation to set in though and I am not convinced we have really done enough to address this still , so I'd expect at best that we standstill this year and get 4th if not stagnate further
 
Not sure the terminology is correct

"papered over the cracks"

That infers that nobody knows what's wrong with our squad, now you won't find a more positive biased fan than me, but even I am fully aware of the issues

Lack of squad depth: we visibly were found lacking as injuries took their toll. Lack of a pre-season: sure we were not alone but we did take the biggest hit. The Wembley factor: place was and is a feckin' dump, became a negative for us whilst still a positive for the visiting side. Tactical errors: we lost far to many games we should have won, the reasons varied but poor tactics certainly played a part.

So there were many 'cracks' but not convinced these were papered over, with the addition(s) this summer we certainly look to be addressing the personnel problem, proper pre-season, no more Wembley ... so now it's all down to tactics ... Poch over to you.

For someone who says we need to support the current side you sure do like to put the pressure on our manager don't you?.

We have addressed one issue in the squad so far, replacing Dembele, we haven't done anything else whatsoever to support our manager and unless we sign more players before the end of the window the blame will lay at the feet of our chairman and owners if it all goes tits up, would you not agree with that?

I don't see what our manager can do to improve our position in the league on such a limited budget and when his options from the bench at times last season were incredibly poor.
 
For someone who says we need to support the current side you sure do like to put the pressure on our manager don't you?.

We have addressed one issue in the squad so far, replacing Dembele, we haven't done anything else whatsoever to support our manager and unless we sign more players before the end of the window the blame will lay at the feet of our chairman and owners if it all goes tits up, would you not agree with that?

I don't see what our manager can do to improve our position in the league on such a limited budget and when his options from the bench at times last season were incredibly poor.

Shows just how shallow your thinking is, or that perhaps you have zero business experience. or indeed maybe both those failings ...

So Spurs giving 17 players new contracts with much higher salaries is doing nothing ... paying more in bonuses than even the EPL champions paid, that's doing nothing ... providing the players with the best facilities in the EPL that's doing nothing? Frankly replying to use is like educating a ten year old ... I'm getting bored of pointing out the blindingly fuckin' obvious over and over again. Clearly you are either unwilling or unable to understand ... shame

Yes Poch could have done with 500m more to spend on players ... but then so could every other manager in the EPL as well .... 65m this window with hopefully more to come ... enjoy it
 
Shows just how shallow your thinking is, or that perhaps you have zero business experience. or indeed maybe both those failings ...

So Spurs giving 17 players new contracts with much higher salaries is doing nothing ... paying more in bonuses than even the EPL champions paid, that's doing nothing ... providing the players with the best facilities in the EPL that's doing nothing? Frankly replying to use is like educating a ten year old ... I'm getting bored of pointing out the blindingly fuckin' obvious over and over again. Clearly you are either unwilling or unable to understand ... shame

Yes Poch could have done with 500m more to spend on players ... but then so could every other manager in the EPL as well .... 65m this window with hopefully more to come ... enjoy it

Again with the childish insults, incredibly boring, I was talking in regards to transfers this window and you know that.

Your assumption is that the stadium and facilities are about backing our manager, these projects were already being created long before Poch joined us, they have nothing whatsoever to do with backing our manager, that's to do with the development of the club overall and more importantly, making us a profitable entity, why can't you see that? These projects were going to happen, regardless of who was in charge.

Yes, these projects will have a positive effect on the footballing side of things, I am not denying that whatsoever and it could have a direct relation to our improvement along with the signing of new contracts and retaining of players.

However, what you seem to miss amongst all your posturing is that in order to continue to improve you have to continue investing in the squad and give the current staff what they want as THEY are the ones getting the direct results on the pitch, you cannot rely on all the things you have mentioned there to make us competitive, all that does is refine what we already have and whilst that's still a great thing, it doesn't mean it's the sole answer to improving.

You call me a ten year old but you seem to care more about wanting to dig your heels in about transfers not being an important factor of backing the manager than you do about what our manager is actually saying, which is, he wants players in so we can challenge for trophies.

He is around the players everyday so I trust his ability to know what we need to keep improving.
 
Again with the childish insults, incredibly boring, I was talking in regards to transfers this window and you know that.

No you weren't and to pretend you were just shows you up as a fraud ... you spin the same nonsense book after book

If you think spending a billion pounds is not supporting our manager - that's up to you

If you believe spending the most on transfers is all that matters - that's up to you

I don't agree so let's just leave it there .....
 
Papering over the crack implies that we fell below our expected minimum for the season but covered up for it with a CL final.

Bearing in mind that aside from our Champions League exploits we achieved 4th in the league, and a League cup semi-final, I'd say we are on par.

Sure it would be nice to do better, to maybe have won the semi, or to have consolidated our position in the league more comfortably, but I don't believe that what we achieved last season was particularly poor.

We're not yet at the stage where we can fight full tilt on all fronts, so maybe the better question would be, reaching the Champions League final cause the cracks in our league form?
 
No you weren't and to pretend you were just shows you up as a fraud ... you spin the same nonsense book after book

If you think spending a billion pounds is not supporting our manager - that's up to you

If you believe spending the most on transfers is all that matters - that's up to you

I don't agree so let's just leave it there .....

Yes I was so stop bullshitting , you can literally see it in the sentence that you quoted

"We have addressed one issue in the squad so far, replacing Dembele, we haven't done anything else whatsoever to support our manager and unless we sign more players before the end of the window the blame will lay at the feet of our chairman and owners"

That's pretty fucking clear I am talking about transfers and this window, how do you take it as anything else when I am directly referencing us only replacing Dembele?

It's not like we have never made transfers before for Poch is it? So why would I be talking in general? It's either you lack reading comprehension or you just want to argue like a petulant child and try to misrepresent what I am saying (a common tactic with the same 5-6 posters here that share your precise views, funny that.)

Spending a billion pounds? So you think Daniel Levy and ENIC built the stadium for Pochettino? If you seriously believe that then it really is a pointless discussion to be having.
 
100% papered over some cracks, however we showed a lot of balls throughout the CL run and it was exciting to say the least, we became the lovable underdog and won many friends along the way.
But there ain’t no hiding the fact that if Woolwich & Utd were even a “little” bit better than they were we would be having a serious rethink this summer, faced with Europa league football again😩 and of course constant media bull linking our top players to every CL club going.....

Levy dodged several .50 bullets last season with his gamble last summer, and of course stadium delays, the bullets missed, just.

I honestly thought there would be a deep breath at the end of the season with a cheeky grin and a collective “we proved the doubters wrong” and we would then really knuckle down with really good solid, well thought through transfers in Pre-season. Those transfers started well, Ndombele a very welcome addition and young Clarke certainly one for the future, and then we just hit the pause button, I say pause and not stop 🛑 because there is obviously still time, and Maguires move to Utd this weekend (a transfer which has been on the cards all summer) just proves every club has to be patient in their pursuit of their No1 targets......

So, this window will, and should be, only judged when it shuts, and in my opinion it will make or break not only our coming season but the next 3 seasons if we don’t get it right.
 
A month ago you were moaning about people not 'moving on' from the Danny Rose handball incident in the CL final, but now, 4 weeks later, you're using the Llorente one to justify your own miserable, negative take on things.
To quote you then: "Why are we still going on about the [Danny Rose] penalty incident anyway. We were not going to win that match anyway. They were always going to score and we were never going to with the quality of attacking play we put up. Move on."

Justify that volte-face, if you can. Seems to me you're just a bit of a moaning minnie, so I won't waste my time responding to your criticism of me.
Which Danny Rose penalty ? Are you high?

How is talking about moving on from some Danny Rose penalty that I havent even brought up mean I cant say we were very very lucky to go past Mancity in a thread about CL papering over the crack . Two completely different things you dimwit.
 
Back
Top Bottom