profspur

Oh they are definitely worse.

All that ‘he has to adapt,’ ‘do more with less,’ ‘he’s causing the injuries,’ ‘it’s a culture of complacency in the league matches,’ etc. bullshit people talked last year…you won’t say it again will you.

It was a normal challenge he had every right to. He got it wrong, it’s a coincidence.

Yep

Absolutely

You think we’ve been in an injury crisis, but I regret to inform you that the situation we’re in now—relying on 17 yr old debutantes, Gray out of position, Dragusin against the high press—is what we had for 36 / 60, or 60% of all games we played last season. This is where shit gets real.

I just think there's a compromise to every player--there's no perfect player in any position--and whether players thrive has a lot to do with what system they're working in and what role they have in that system.

100%

You have to question the leadership of Sergio Ramos. Rash, reckless, can't control his emotions. He could never captain a Real Madrid side that has any hopes of success. Not only would it be foolish to name him captain, I want him out of the club. Madrid are better without him.

Rough edges is part of the appeal. Real Madrid wouldn't have swapped Sergio Ramos for anyone.

Xenophobia is always a double-edged sword.

Haven’t gotten that far yet.

Yeah, we’re ok, thank you for asking. I can’t imagine running a shelter right now.

Spurs avg league finish: 4.7
Newcastle: 11.4

Spurs qualified for Europe: 9 of 10
Newcastle: 1 of 10

A Spurs manager should never be looking at Newcastle and thinking 'yeah keeping them up was a real success, and they're lucky not to be in Europe like we are, with so many games to manage.'

I think he's likable and evidently a very good journalist, he's just a bad analyst of football who clearly took personally Ange's refusal to play the press game and therefore can't cover Spurs objectively.

For more context that shows how ridiculous it is for Frank to compare (implicitly) his situation at Spurs with Howe's at Newcastle, here's a table of average league finish and European qualification over the past 10 years, including Spurs vs Newcastle. It's not even the same ballpark:

Absolutely. Frankly I care more about having a manager with that mindset than pretty much anything else the manager does.

We sacked the last manager for doing more with less than what Frank has, and Frank seems not to understand this. He thinks he walked into a team that's been finishing 17th for 10 years and is thrilled to be in 15th, 6 points out of the relegation zone.

The answer is no one. To win back the fans the club need to reestablish the attitude and actions of an ambitious, top-4 football club that plays in Europe every season and expects to win things. No single tap-dancing monkey can distract the fanbase from this brute fact.

When I say we're trying to become Brentford (and that's bad), this is the kind of evidence I'm observing: praising a manager for 'transforming a club' by keeping the up in the Premier League, then talking as if competing in Europe and doing well in the league is just a bridge too far.

It's difficult for me living here (in the UK) this year and watching the same shit unfold, the anti-immigration shit, the 'anti-woke' shit, the anti-higher-ed shit, etc. I just want to shake people and be like don't sleep on this, it's happening.

I listen to a bunch of pods for a bunch of reasons. One of which is that I walk a lot.

Point me to where the media questioned Fernandinho or Lewis Dunk’s leadership credentials for getting red cards.

First 10 mins of VFTL so far on Romero really testing my patience

Wow

Bingo

*Will* they win the title or *Will they get relegated are different questions and obviously speculative. But 'are they in the mix' is descriptive and protean.

The 'are they in a relegation battle' discourse can be resolved the same way the 'are they in the title race' discourse is resolved: Not by vibes or essentialisms, but by whether at a given point in time the team in question are within a couple games' swing of 1st place or 18th place.

also, when you have no buildup and you kick long, the defensive structure can never set.

it’s just chase the ball forward and then retreat. it’s then very easy to be pulled apart, with gaps get created, and you have to rush to close down attackers.

Ambitious to become Brentford.