This season

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Has turned out better than we all expected, but all I'm seeing is negative bullshit. We all accepted this would be a rebuilding year. We all accepted a 6-7th place finish. We didn't expect the rise of Kane, Mason and the continued development of Bentaleb. We didn't expect Rose to play like an international. We didn't expect Pritchard to kill it on loan, nor did we expect Spurs to buy one of the brightest midfield prospects in England. No one saw us destroying Chelsea 5-3. Spurs have the youngest squad in the prem, and, despite his shortcomings, a bright young manager that will only continue to grow with the squad.

All I ask is that you consider these things and get the hell over yourselves. We expected Spurs to be where they were in the table, but (a few games aside) nobody expected it to look this good going forward.
 
This season has been pretty much what was expected.
Anyone expecting top 4 with this newish set up needs a reality check.
We've made great strides with the youngsters and we can see some sort of bright future for the first time in a long time.
The manager has done what he can with a team that isn't really his.. Lets judge him once he ships out a few and brings in a few.
I've enjoyed this season much much more than last season with AVB where we were losing 6-0 5-1 to Man City, 5 & 4 nil to Liverpool and 3 times to West Ham.. That was probably the worst season I can remember as a Spurs fan for me.
Every game we went in we looked like we were going to get thrashed and embarrassed, that hasn't happened this season so that is a massive positive going forward.
There is more to football than getting CL i'm afraid, it is great and something to aim for but it is not the be all and end all, once you accept that then the more you will enjoy.
Last season I dreaded going to games which is the first time ever ( including the Gross years ) this season I have looked forward to each game and got my hunger back for watching us, which was the most important thing as far as I was concerned.
I love a lot of things that are happening with our club at the moment.
 
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Not going to say the whole argument over again but for me, it hasnt been a very good season.
Its been 50-50 with decent and diabolical, with some one or two excellent performances thrown in too..I had a clearer vision of what Poch wanted earlier in the season. Now Im just confused.

In a nutshell, for me the positives are:
Fitness
Kane
Rose
Beating arse and Chelsea with actual brilliant football
Being able to go the distance in games
Academy being used
Lloris

Negatives:
Rotation and isolation of a major chunk of the squad..
..which caused our cup capitulation within two days
(we all said that was the most important month of our season. Well we failed)
Chadli´s form nosediving
Eriksen´s form nosediving
Lamela
Townsend
Soldado
Vertonghen
Paulinho
Central Midfield losing the plot and not being addressed
The back line bar Rose and Lloris
Oddball subs
The sudden abandonment of our pressing game
The lack of a leader
Naming three captains and dropping two of them from the entire squad
Dropping Dembele
Dropping Stambouli
Dropping Capoue
And playing Paulinho ahead of them
Lack of tactical flexibility
Playing a system with players that cannot play it well
Lack of heart
Lack of effort
On course to finish worse off than what AVB and Tim got last year

Forgive me for not jumping through hoops about this season
 
I think that people are massively overreacting (so surprising as this is Spurs) to how our season is playing out. Almost everyone said we had no chance at top four and now we look set to finish 5th or 6th. Makes sense. We also are probably going to have the Player of the Season plus it looks like we actually have a few players that look like top four quality or will develop to that level over the next couple of seasons.

However, if we once again bottle it this summer I think we need to start accepting the fact that ENIC are the problem. IMO, in sport, it is nearly impossible to win while having poor owners. We have one trophy in 13 years under ENIC and Levy's stewardship. While they have undeniably moved the club forward on the financial side, it reaches a point where if the financial success doesn't really help the footballing side then what is the fucking point? Football tickets have increased 700% in price since 2000 so it certainly isn't helping myself as a fan either.

If we have a problem it is in the boardroom. ENIC has had control of the club for 13 years now and we've had 9 managers all achieving very similar results. Yet, many continue to complain about Pochettino like he is the problem. What kind of club with "goals of top four" signs a new manager and then proceeds to spend 24m in his first summer? The only other club to have a negative net spend this summer was Southampton and they spent almost triple what we did.

Now we're supposed to supposedly wait for the stadium and that's why we aren't spending. We're set to move into the stadium in 2018 and then assuredly the excuse for not spending will be that we are still paying off loans. So are we looking at 2022 before we are financially in a place to compete. 20 years after ENIC took over? Doesn't seem like that would have been a particularly effective process.

Ultimately, I'm mostly pleased at what has happened on the football field this season. There has been a lot of progression from our young players and it looks like we've learned who can easily weeded out. But we'll always be dealing with the specter of ENIC when it comes to the progression of the footballing side. It is not hard to see this summer going massively left (or any transfer window). We have a long track record of selling our best players, this summer we were massively outspent not only by our rivals but also by QPR, Hull, Newcastle, West Ham and Swansea, and we have a negative net spend over five seasons.

It is not complicated, if this is the club's blueprint for running the football side of things then it will take massive amounts of luck to compete at the top four level that the boardroom have continually stated as the goal.

Still, I remain proud of the football that has been played and the joy of watching young players like Kane, Bentaleb, Rose, Mason, Eriksen, and Dier start to come into their own. We have a decent core but if we stand pat players will leave, we will fail again, and we'll be left to press the reset button once again as we always seem to be doing. If we want an improvement in the football it won't come from the touchline or pitch but from the boardroom and executive boxes.
 
This transfer season is last chance salon for ENIC, as far as I'm concerned.

Almost 15 years of wasting millions on managers achieving similar results while demanding Top 4 football with a negative net spend. Do me a fucking favour - promoted teams spend more than us. You cannot continuously blame the managers if you are unwilling to provide the tools necessary for the job. Enough with this balance sheet football. Either deliver on the Boardroom ambition in terms of signings or sell up and jog the fuck on. The stadium hoax and pretty photos of a new training ground can only wash so many times.

Even the biggest ENIC apologists would admit we have now plateaued for a solid few years. Take out the Kane miracle this season and we're bottom-half dross. Wake the fuck up and realise the true problem here lies far beyond the training ground. We can sign even Mourinho but he can't be a miracle worker with 10 million to spend on 'quality'. Laughable and truly embarassing from the 'balance sheet football' guru
 
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Who made the decision to loan out Lennon? And play Soldado for so long over Ade? Then completely drop both? And play Paulinho ahead of Dembele, Capoue and Stambbouli?

How can people bemoan things like that but not hold Poch somewhat responsible?

Um none of those things have really happened though. Adebayor has three more league starts than Soldado. As for completely dropping both, I'm all for it as they are awful and Kane is the leading scorer in the league. Also, there has never been any indication in recent memory that our "head coach" has any power in regards to transfers. It seems unlikely based on history that he was the driving force behind the Lennon loan. At most he suggested it and the club agreed which could lead to a conclusion that something more was happening with Lennon than meets the eye as it seems unlikely the club would be desperate to loan Lennon.

Paulinho has two league starts. Capoue has 11, Dembele has 9, and Stambouli has 4. Pochettino was wrong to play Paulinho but as of now it was a one game mistake. He tried something out and it didn't work, unless he decides to stick with it I can't blame him massively for that. It was just one game and we drew while maintaining a clean sheet. I guess I just don't see the Burnley result as catastrophic. It's what happens when you lost relegation threatened sides in the last ten games of the season.

Ultimately my point was there is a lot of things going against Pochettino that he can't reasonably be accepted to salvage. Our signings from 2013 are damaged goods. Soldado, Paulinho, and Capoue are damaged goods and Lamela is trending in that direction. Pochettino smartly tried to get big and difficult personalties on his side by making Kaboul and Adebayor captain and Vice captain. Once he saw he made a mistake and they didn't repay his trust, he rectified his mistake. It's hard to blame Pochettino for the club choosing to spend £24m this summer too.

Pochettino has made mistakes this season has as any first year manager does. Our situation was a particularly difficult one to come into and he has rectified a fair few problems which finding others unsolvable. Many of the complaints I've seen were problems we had under AVB and Tim. Ultimately after this summer's cull we'll be in a much better position to judge Pochettino as there are just too many worthless or difficult players players at the club. We've seen what our future looks under Pochettino in the Chelsea and Woolwich games we just don't yet have the tools to fully realize that level of quality over a full season. Schneiderlin also said it took Southampton a full 12 months to fully understand and implement the system.
 
Another positive, fans starting to realise we aren't top four quality and dropping their ridiculously high standards. Past few years have been abysmal at The Lane, simply because fans and their high standards after getting to the quarter finals of the Champions League years ago. The squad is completely different and we've had three managers leave since then.

The feel good factor has come back this year, no doubt because of a likeable manager for once and the fact our team has a load of youngsters in there. Not to mention the fact we obliterated Chelsea, dominated Woolwich and got to a cup final.

Do I think this seasons been good? I think it's been far from terrible. I think we're performing where we are supposed to in the league. All the teams above us are better than us. Liverpool slightly edge it because they have a manager who has implemented his style on his team for 3 years now. It'll be interesting to see where we are in 3 years when Poch is HOPEFULLY given his own players.
 
I think this season has going just as anyone sane might have expected, with a couple of nice surprises thrown in such as taking 4 points off Woolwich, smashing Chelsea at home, cup final and emergence of a 20+ Goal a season striker from out youth ranks.

Sure there have been annoying errors. But you can't expect someone to be totally perfect in any season, let alon their first with a squad of players brought in by several different regimes.

The best part seems to be that a lot of enjoyment has come back into supporting the club, thanks largely to the inclusion of players who appear to give a fuck. That novelty will wear off next season though if we don't continue to improve.

As many others have said, this upcoming transfer window will be the most interesting since bale left. A lot of players we want to get rid of. Some who we probably want to stay but are keen to leave. It's a big rebuild. Plus we have green light on the stadium now so not sure we can expect a huge splurge unless someone like lloris goes for 50m.

Unfortunately this could mean that the story next season will be about the new squad needing time to gel (sound familiar?)
Hopefully though poch and Mitchell know which players they need who can come in and easily slot into our playing style and club philosophy.

Still a few weeks to go but at the moment id give us an overall B-
 
We should finish 5th, 6th or 7th. We will, so all on track.

However, I don't think we've played well in any more than a few games. Last minute winners, mundane draws and a serious lack of alternatives to Harry Kane have prevailed.
 
Spurs fans expecting too much and moaning about every decision made at the club because they're qualified to make the decisions? really, record breaking headlines that. Football's getting harder and harder to enjoy as all anyone ever does is moan, no matter what cunts will find a way to bring everyone having fun down, like the twats that go to the lane sometimes that look at you like you killed a child when you try and get a song going, our fans wont be happy unless we're winning every game 7-8 nil and winning 3 cups a season, expect so much for a club that is doing pretty well for it's stature, can we not just enjoy being spurs, not every game is going to be played to perfection, that's every fucking team, no football team is perfect, some of the greatest teams in the world have off days and play poorly, That's fucking football, too many fucking statistic and Computer screen managers telling everyone about how a manager should set up
 
All my expectations are there in the post you just quoted

I'm sure Chelsea, Man City, Man Utd and Woolwich fans have a similar list of expectations and yet i'm pretty sure most of them have had some of those expectations dashed.
I'm not sure if you go to games or not but for me supporting THFC is more than results, the Table and CL, it's about the day out, it's about the experience, it's a way of life and a massive part of my life.
I am over the moon when we win and I was beyond excited when we gained CL football and I am still as miserable as sin when we lose but that's football to a tee.
I have enjoyed this season so so much more than last season and that to me is massive progress.
Of course there are issues that need addressing and mistakes have been made but this is the Managers first season.
I can see so many positive signs with this team/squad and the ethics of this manager, the team spirit is as good as i've seen for a long time.
All i wanted was a season opposite to last season and that is exactly what I got so I am content on that score.
It will be interesting to see what business we do in the summer.
 
So if we don't win trophies it's a wasted season? Sometimes i wonder why you just don't support Chelsea or something..
Why do people always come out with this fucking pathetic childish suggestion. I`m sorry,but It really fucks me off. No true fan can start supporting another, more succesful team when they get frustrated with their own club. You choose your club and its with you for life. And you fucking know it. Just because some of us dislike the way our Spurs are being run doesn`t mean we love them any less than you. In fact if anything it shows were more passionate.
 
If we don't win every game 4-0 we are shit and all our players are shit and the future looks bleak.
No more sensible posts please mate.

I hope the doom and gloom merchants on the Burnley thread have had their shoelaces, belts and ties hidden from them.
 
Its funny how apologists always say this when they finally realise thats the case.

When other people pointed that out months ago, they were told to "believe" and "stop being negative"
This has been the case since 2012 though (not being good enough). It's just now we have some reason to actually be positive. Youngsters coming through and a likeable manager. The fact he's managed to get this squad of players to even fight for fourth and manage to get them joint fifth at the moment is nothing short of miraculous. That's a positive in itself.

What's the fun in being negative at every little detail. We're fans, not critics.
 
Youngest side in the league and should finish 5th or 6th. Have 3 experienced guys rightly banished so the depth is ridiculously thin. This season has been a perfect building block for Poch to create something.

That's something a lot of fans (Levy too) have never let anyone try and do. Build. Things take time. Gradual improvements will come once the shit is off the books and specific needs are addressed. As long as Levy backs Poch and his scout to deliver over the next couple windows we should see a proper Pochettino Tottenham for the 16/17 season.
 
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