Chelsea v Tottenham. 2nd leg

[Airfixx]

Consistent team in not winning a trophy?! Or
Do you mean consistent team in top 4 CL place is more important than a trophy?!

I would prefer trophy, I want a trophy.

For me; to play more consistently over the course of a season... To see more of our A-game.

Finding our best in a few more games would have made all the difference to our trophy cabinet in recent reasons... Even when we went unbeaten in the EPL all year at The Lane we still stank up Europe and the domestic cups. Beat Leicester & West Ham in 15/16 and we're champs... Cup knock outs may have gone differently (Never mind Juve at Wembley... Away, as heroic as it was, we annihilated them and still only got the draw)... United, Chavs in domestic cups.

How do we achieve this within our current available means?

In short, I'll be fucked if I know.

We've gradually amassed world cup winners, experience, chemistry, camaraderie and all the other things we've rued not having over the years; the things alleged to be what we needed to get over a line (even if that's 'just' a league cup)... Here we are, this last 2 years, no home, money-mania is in full swing all around us, yet again against the odds, we're showing formidable form, but somehow still struggling in key moments.

I concede there's very little in terms of perceivable options for us to take the fabled 'final step'... Does a £250m war-chest (lets call it Plan B*) solve this in the short-term? No guarantees, but it might... I won't argue otherwise.

However, project to a state of affairs where Plan B hasn't worked and we've in turn 'wasted' our one big roll of the dice (that the stadium is apparently geared to provide)... We'd be looking at plan C at this point. What would Plan C constitute? If we could work that out; in accepting that we don't have that kind of dosh for Plan B in the immediate term, maybe we could/should be employing some 'Plan C' strategy in the interim.

Elephant in the room being that I think if we manage to take this squad in to NHWL; Poch spends bigger, yet still no pots; I think he'll feel his time is up regardless of the chairman/board's viewpoint.

(*I cite this amount as it will take this or thereabouts to buy & pay 3 players of significant quality; capable of immediately bringing our squad options up to the quality of genuine starters... Josh King, Wilf Zaha, Isco, VVD, Alison, Kovacic, Jorgino, Keita, N'Dombele, Malcom... Even kids like DeLigt & De Jong... Some rumoured, some coveted; all will/would have cost upwards of £60m... Sessengon & Grielish - even at £40m each - were never gonna lead to trophies in the here and now.... Nor convince Eriksen that Barca ain't shit.)

 

[Park Lane Mark Twain]

Yeah but a couple of years ago Arse had to beat Man City in the semi and Chelsea in the final to win the Fa Cup both teams far superior to Arse. But they did it

Before we became a top 4 regular the excuse was that only top 4 teams won the cups. Now we are a top 4 regular it's only the teams with more money that win the cups. No matter that we have players that on their day can compete with all our rivals. We are above Chelsea in the league, above Man Utd, above Woolwich, we have outperformed them and Liverpool over the last few years. We are a top side that should have at least a cup of two to show for all the hard work put in by everyone.

Agreed but it should also be noted that it was Guardiolas first season in charge and the Man City team that finished that game was as follows:

Bravo
Navas
Kompany
Otamendi
Clichy
Reges
Toure
De Bruyne
Iheanacho
Sane
Delph

Nowhere near as strong as they are now. They also had a fair bit of luck against City that day with this little favour from the officials:



The point I'm making is when you look at every one of our losses over the past 10 years, bar the Portsmouth game where even if we had won we'd have faced Chelsea in the final, we've had an uphill task. Yes nothings dropped but we've never been favourites so we can never really be seen to have choked. Random wins can happen they just haven't happened for us yet

 

[ElTel]

Agreed but it should also be noted that it was Guardiolas first season in charge and the Man City team that finished that game was as follows:

Bravo
Navas
Kompany
Otamendi
Clichy
Reges
Toure
De Bruyne
Iheanacho
Sane
Delph

Nowhere near as strong as they are now. They also had a fair bit of luck against City that day with this little favour from the officials:



The point I'm making is when you look at every one of our losses over the past 10 years, bar the Portsmouth game where even if we had won we'd have faced Chelsea in the final, we've had an uphill task. Yes nothings dropped but we've never been favourites so we can never really be seen to have choked. Random wins can happen they just haven't happened for us yet

Man City's starting line up was strong enough to swat away that Arse side. Guardiola had enough to outwit Wenger. It was a shock result as was the final victory over Conte's PL winning Chelsea

An uphill task is a bit strong to say because we are not inferior to the majority of rivals. I could understand it if we were a top 8 team pushing for Europa League football but we are no longer that team. Look at our players, our results, our performances over the last 3 or 4 years

If we keep coming up with excuses then I don't believe anything will change. We are better than hoping for "random wins"

Its very frustrating, even more so for the management and players I guess

 

[Don Giovanni]

So if Newcastle had won an FA Cup in 1995 they would now be challenging every year ?

No, they had a decent team but failed to capitalize on that.

 

[Park Lane Mark Twain]

Man City's starting line up was strong enough to swat away that Arse side. Guardiola had enough to outwit Wenger. It was a shock result as was the final victory over Conte's PL winning Chelsea

An uphill task is a bit strong to say because we are not inferior to the majority of rivals. I could understand it if we were a top 8 team pushing for Europa League football but we are no longer that team. Look at our players, our results, our performances over the last 3 or 4 years

If we keep coming up with excuses then I don't believe anything will change. We are better than hoping for "random wins"

Its very frustrating, even more so for the management and players I guess

OK so of all the semi final & final losses we've had since winning the cup with Berbatov, Keane & co when have we been favourites to win? I literally make it the Portsmouth game & that's it.

Yes Woolwich beat Chelsea in that final, it happens from time to time but when you look at their other wins you can't say they haven't had a bigger touch than us with the luck of the draw for the best 10 years surely. It ain't gone our way, we have a very talented squad, many tied down to long term deals and we are about to go into a stadium so big only Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United & Bayern Munich can boast is bigger across the teams seen as richer than us at present. That sets us up wonderfully well for the future.

Yesterday we lost to a team who currently have striking options ranging from Giroud, Morata, Higuan, Hazard, Batshuayi, Abraham, Willian, Pedro & Hudson-Odoi available to them if they wanted or needed them. I really do think our fans need a little perspective sometimes

 

[SpiderSpurs]

FUCK OFF YOU NAZI CUNTS!

NAZIS BEAT THE JEWS EH?
YOU MUST BE SO FUCKING PLEASED...

GOID TO SEE SKY PICKED THAT MIDGET NAZI CUNT DENNIS WISE TO CALL THE SHOOT OUT....

seriously..... it's beyond a fucking joke now.
The Nazis have WON. HAPPY NOW?

Good for them... in a world where Brexit and Trump rule... we are seriously fucked.

But hey, Media hate figure 'Jew boy' Danny didn't spend any of his media suggested Jew money... and the anti Semitic Media have proved their point. Good for you!

We should have got an Arab in charge to BUY us some silverware... that's what the accepted method is...

You BET I'm fucking livid...

The media will push for Poch to go to Man U.. but unless we win the league, and the Champions League... (without the three best players they insisted we run into the ground) we've failed.
Convenient that, innit?

Well Fuck this cunting anti Spurs reacharound... they SO WANT us to fail, and can't fucking WAIT to jump on the bandwagon of MONEY WANKFESTING that the Premier League has spawned....

The rich win... the rest fail... that's all that matters these days apparently.

I for one won't forget the GAS CHAMBER HISSING that Chelsea fans have subjected us to for 40 years... but apparently that doesn't matter when you have money...
Well done Chelsea... and WELL done for coming up with "Spurs are on their way to Auschwitz... Hitler's gonna gas them again..." chant... you NAZI SCUM CUNTS... enjoy your fucking BOUGHT cup Final you Nazi Cunts!!! But Sky will turn a blind eye I'm sure... cos TIGHT FISTED SPURS LOST... cos they didn't spend their Jew money!

You BET I'm fucking mad.

Evil wins again... get used to the truth of how this broken Scum Cunt fucked racist World works!

FUUUUUUUUUUCK!

Calm down for fucks sake.

 

[Wellsey]

The other advantage they had was being a regular Thursday night team!!

 

[Duckling]

Welcome to football...

I sadly think it was the Trophy to keep the team together after the summer transfer.
Sure theres a chance of winning the Premier and a chance of winning the Champions League, I just don't see it happening this year.
Which is why I hoped I had forgotten about a competetion to possibly gain a trophy.

 

[Park Lane Mark Twain]

Did replays actually confirm if Lamela was onside or offside when the lineman flagged yesterday? See,ed like there was far less made of that particular moment than we saw at Wembley and left me fairly baffled why they wouldn't play on and just review it.

Sarri got into the refs head perhaps?

 

[Airfixx]

I sadly think it was the Trophy to keep the team together after the summer transfer.
Sure theres a chance of winning the Premier and a chance of winning the Champions League, I just don't see it happening this year.
Which is why I hoped I had forgotten about a competetion to possibly gain a trophy.

...And apparently you have.

Any idea who we play at the weekend or why? ...Or are you more bothered about transfer-related doom?

 

[Jurgen's Binnman]

I sadly think it was the Trophy to keep the team together after the summer transfer.
Sure theres a chance of winning the Premier and a chance of winning the Champions League, I just don't see it happening this year.
Which is why I hoped I had forgotten about a competetion to possibly gain a trophy.

If any players are wanting to leave, I don’t believe the league cup would have changed their mind.

 

[stevee]

This is an interesting way to go about this issue, but how often is the center ref in a position to judge an offsides call?

Agree with the refs position but that is exactly the way it worked in the the first leg for Harry's penalty.

After the 1 st leg the "experts" were saying that is how the refs had been advised. (I think).

 

[Airfixx]

If any players are wanting to leave, I don’t believe the league cup would have changed their mind.

Exactly. Much like Signing Zaha & Grielish isn't gonna make Eriksen think "Phwooooar! Big time... I'm staying!".

 

[Eli]

For me; to play more consistently over the course of a season... To see more of our A-game.

Finding our best in a few more games would have made all the difference to our trophy cabinet in recent reasons... Even when we went unbeaten in the EPL all year at The Lane we still stank up Europe and the domestic cups. Beat Leicester & West Ham in 15/16 and we're champs... Cup knock outs may have gone differently (Never mind Juve at Wembley... Away, as heroic as it was, we annihilated them and still only got the draw)... United, Chavs in domestic cups.

How do we achieve this within our current available means?

In short, I'll be fucked if I know.

We've gradually amassed world cup winners, experience, chemistry, camaraderie and all the other things we've rued not having over the years; the things alleged to be what we needed to get over a line (even if that's 'just' a league cup)... Here we are, this last 2 years, no home, money-mania is in full swing all around us, yet again against the odds, we're showing formidable form, but somehow still struggling in key moments.

I concede there's very little in terms of perceivable options for us to take the fabled 'final step'... Does a £250m war-chest (lets call it Plan B*) solve this in the short-term? No guarantees, but it might... I won't argue otherwise.

However, project to a state of affairs where Plan B hasn't worked and we've in turn 'wasted' our one big roll of the dice (that the stadium is apparently geared to provide)... We'd be looking at plan C at this point. What would Plan C constitute? If we could work that out; in accepting that we don't have that kind of dosh for Plan B in the immediate term, maybe we could/should be employing some 'Plan C' strategy in the interim.

Elephant in the room being that I think if we manage to take this squad in to NHWL; Poch spends bigger, yet still no pots; I think he'll feel his time is up regardless of the chairman/board's viewpoint.

(*I cite this amount as it will take this or thereabouts to buy & pay 3 players of significant quality; capable of immediately bringing our squad options up to the quality of genuine starters... Josh King, Wilf Zaha, Isco, VVD, Alison, Kovacic, Jorgino, Keita, N'Dombele, Malcom... Even kids like DeLigt & De Jong... Some rumoured, some coveted; all will/would have cost upwards of £60m... Sessengon & Grielish - even at £40m each - were never gonna lead to trophies in the here and now.... Nor convince Eriksen that Barca ain't shit.)

Can any of those mentioned kick a football from 12yards and aim roughly away from a goalkeeper yet keep the ball within the confines of the goal......

 

[Harrykane9]

First time post, really enjoy reading the forum, thought I would join in, disappointing last night but we aren't far away. What other team would do aswell not playing at home for two seasons. Squad needs shaking up and id upgrade on lloris, dier, trippier, Davies, llorente, aurier and lamela. WP deserves a run, dier is slow and negative in his passing, Davies not good enough on the ball, aurier is a loose cannon and llorente don't suit our play. Add chillwell, gueye, wan bissaka, and timo Werner with what we have and we could really challenge. Poch has trusted too many for too long. The foundation is there, now he needs to build his second team like Fergus use to do every 4-5 years. I'll judge poch and the squad when we are back at WHL. Not playing there has cost us in the very biggest of games. We would of steam rolled juventus for example last season at WHL. My prediction is with the right recruitment we will win the league in three seasons at WHL. Keep the faith, I grew up on Ramon Vega and Gary Doherty

 

[Airfixx]

Can any of those mentioned kick a football from 12yards and aim roughly away from a goalkeeper yet keep the ball within the confines of the goal......

In Lilywhite? No chance......

 

[ElTel]

OK so of all the semi final & final losses we've had since winning the cup with Berbatov, Keane & co when have we been favourites to win? I literally make it the Portsmouth game & that's it.

Yes Woolwich beat Chelsea in that final, it happens from time to time but when you look at their other wins you can't say they haven't had a bigger touch than us with the luck of the draw for the best 10 years surely. It ain't gone our way, we have a very talented squad, many tied down to long term deals and we are about to go into a stadium so big only Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United & Bayern Munich can boast is bigger across the teams seen as richer than us at present. That sets us up wonderfully well for the future.

Yesterday we lost to a team who currently have striking options ranging from Giroud, Morata, Higuan, Hazard, Batshuayi, Abraham, Willian, Pedro & Hudson-Odoi available to them if they wanted or needed them. I really do think our fans need a little perspective sometimes

Funny you mention that game. Remember that season, how average we were, Jol sacked, Ramos hired, and who we had to play in the semis and final. Complete underdogs but we won

 

[Fray Bentos]

Chelsea has been winning trophies in spite of circumstances for a number of years now, Spurs has not when well placed. There might be something in that, or maybe not.

 

[Park Lane Mark Twain]

Chelsea has been winning trophies in spite of circumstances for a number of years now, Spurs has not when well placed. There might be something in that, or maybe not.

Chelsea also spend +£30m on backup fullbacks like Emerson & Zappacosta. Throw enough shit and something will stick we simply don't have the resources for such a model

 

[stevee]

Chelsea has been winning trophies in spite of circumstances for a number of years now, Spurs has not when well placed. There might be something in that, or maybe not.

Chelsea also spend +£30m on backup fullbacks like Emerson & Zappacosta. Throw enough shit and something will stick we simply don't have the resources for such a model

And don't forget that for years they were/are paying silly money on wages.

Hopefully they will be in the shit soon.
(Abromovich situation)