Premier League Fixtures 31 Aug/1st September 2013

Yes Danny Rose is a left back, fresh off a successful loan. He'll do fine.

Chichires is highly rated by those in the know. I like Caulker and was upset that he left but what is done is done. This reminds me of when people got all flustered that Lescott was being replaced by Natastsic. Add in the returning Kaboul...

In the short term we are weaker as we build a new identity, but long-term we have far more depth and quality.

Huddlestone (Livermore) & Parker vs Paulinho & Capoue (and a returning Sandro) ?

Going forward Dempsey vs Eriksen?

Lamela, Townsend, Chadli & Lennon, Vs Bale, Lennon & David Bentley?

What smugness btw? We are simply happy that we've prepared for the loss of our matchwinner as best as we could and have avoided a 2PF8G scenario.

Bale aside everywhere else has been upgraded. Forgive us for our optimism, normally July and August are supposed to be Liverpool's "time" so I understand if us are upset at us raining on your parade.

There it is again! What the c**t does Liverpool have to do with it? I also like pizza, are you going to throw that in my face next? 

Nastasic is 10 years younger than Lescott, it's not a great comparison. Especially since Lescott wasn't sold.

My point remains

Man Utd have added Fellaini to their title winning squad
Arsenal have improved their squad
Liverpool have improved their squad
Chelsea have improved their squad
Man City have improved their squad
Tottenham have replaced their squad

Who was the last side to completely overhaul their squad with sexy new signings and succeed? 

Queens Park Rangers did pretty much what Spurs have done, and were relegated.

All I'm saying is: the same thing is definitely going to happen to Tottenham.

I'l entertain this silliness for now

QPR signed 11 players last summer Spurs have signed 7 this.

Of those 11, 6 were 28 and over & 5 were already into their 30's.

The oldest player Spurs have only signed is 28.

Spurs Broke even this window, QPR clearly did not last summer.

After 3 games QPR had 1 pt and conceded 9, Spurs have 6 points and conceded 1.

Lastly and most importantly, Mark Hughes is not the one being tasked with gelling this side together.

it is a lot of change but it's not like Spurs have lost much of their first team. Bale, sure. but otherwise Dempsey, Parker, Assou-Ekotto were not always starters, THudd, Livermore, Caulker, Bentley, Gallas were backup.

fullback could be their weak area though. Naughton seems to be only backup for both Rose & Walker, and neither of them are wholly convincing defensively. I would've hung onto Assou-Ekotto for sure.

Zeki Fryers (The one that riled Ferguson). The club are really high on him.

oh I thought he was CB. still I think those look the weakest areas..

7 this summer

plus the returning Danny Rose, who'd barely set foot on the pitch for Spurs as a left back before

7 last year

I don't know what breaking even has to do with this, I'm talking about the integration of players into a side vs throwing 11 strangers out on the pitch. 

It would be different if you were adding these players to a settled squad and releasing the superfluous fringe players, but you've gutted the nucleus of the squad, even sending BAE out on loan - which presumably means Vertongen will be cover at left back forcing defensive uncertainty.

Why am I the only one questioning these things? Does AVB have a track record of building a new team from scratch and integrating new players, or is his reputation based on winning with an already settled side? Are Sunderland/Palace/Hull going to be bad enough to keep you out of the relegation zone long enough for us to find out if he's up to the task?

Spurs have lost that element of surprise and attacking space under AVB. He tightened up the spine since coming in giving the team a better defensive style.
It is less entertaining to watch with Bale you could pull it off as he used his pace to stretch the formations of the opposition.

Now it is going to come down to service to the front men. Will Townsend, Chadli and Lennon do a effective job. Townsend looked good he gave it a go.

If you do not have a fast minded midfielder that sets up good attacking space with his passes then you can hit teams using my no wing back Patented 3-5-2 technology or for reasonable asking price of $15.99 the revamped popular 3-4-3 defence gut busting lazy bastard forward line option.   

Glenn has a point. The spurs defence seems settled, except for rose maybe, but the rest of the team against arsenal was pretty new except for dembele (who's been there for 1 season):
Paulinho
Capoue
Townsend
Chadli
Soldado

then you brought on lamela, defoe and some bloke with a ginger beard. Other options included naughton (new), hotlby (who's been there 6 months).

If there was a question on how many players have been part of the first team squad for more than 2 years, would you be able to count them on the fingers of 1 hand?

$15.99 thats all no wing backs.

will.i.glenn wrote:7 this summer

plus the returning Danny Rose, who'd barely set foot on the pitch for Spurs as a left back before

7 last year

I don't know what breaking even has to do with this, I'm talking about the integration of players into a side vs throwing 11 strangers out on the pitch. 

It would be different if you were adding these players to a settled squad and releasing the superfluous fringe players, but you've gutted the nucleus of the squad, even sending BAE out on loan - which presumably means Vertongen will be cover at left back forcing defensive uncertainty.

Why am I the only one questioning these things? Does AVB have a track record of building a new team from scratch and integrating new players, or is his reputation based on winning with an already settled side? Are Sunderland/Palace/Hull going to be bad enough to keep you out of the relegation zone long enough for us to find out if he's up to the task?

I don't understand the point you're trying to hammer home this time.

If it's that 7 players is a lot of players to buy in one window and expect them to hit the ground running, then you won't find ALL SPURS FANS disagreeing. Pretty sure we've all reiterated this as a caveat at every turn.

If your argument is that we're just REPLACING as opposed to improving our squad, see TS's post. Not sure why you'd try and claim that Paulinho/Capoue aren't an upgrade on Huddlestone/Parker, Soldado an improvement on Adebayor, Eriksen an improvement on Livermore. Chiriches and Chadli: only time will tell if they're upgrades on Caulker and Dempsey, but it's clear AVB has a style of play he wants to adopt, and those guys didn't fit it (Caulker struggled with the defensive high line).

And as for direct replacement for Bale, Lamela isn't a bad player to take a gamble on given we're not even in the CL. It also wasn't all that long ago your were criticizing Levy for stockpiling players, odd that you now claim we're replacing the squad when we're trimming it down.

Equally, criticizing Spurs fans for being rather chuffed we actually signed some players in the transfer window as opposed to the last hour of it this time around is strange. That's why the Baldini/Levy 's are being chucked around - they moved quickly and for good targets, no last minute panic buying.

And by the way, we've also won 4 of 5 games this season. I appreciate that you clearly don't rate 1-0 wins courtesy of a penalty, but the Premier League doesn't care and has awarded us 6 points for it. QPR took over 4 months to registers 2 wins in the Premier League, so it's lucky you're not making a daft comparison