Men's Soccer (Football) Thread [ARCHIVED] Soccer • Page 176

Fairly underwhelming if true

 

Little I've watched of Everton, I think this makes sense (not sure how reliable the source is). Assuming we keep Eriksen (think we have a much better shot of keeping Eriksen than Toby), we won't have to see him drop deep. Seems Gomes plays a similar role to Neves and Gomes would replace Dier/Wanyama in that role and I think be a massive upgrade.

 

I’d just like to see the club be a little more ambitious. Gomes isn’t a bad player but I wouldn’t start him over Winks or Sissoko. I’d rather bring in an upgraded starter and push one of those two to the backup role.

 

Winks and his injuries just make him unreliable and Sissoko is never going to have the passing ability Gomes already has. I think Spurs need at least 3 players minimum of Gomes quality or higher. Strikers cost money, getting an RB is going to be a crazy window since I think there are only a few RBs available (in our price range/wages) that have the quality that we need.

While the spending that Levy has done on transfers always gets talked about, the main change needs to be our wage structure. Look at the questions with Eriksen and Toby. If we had agreed to pay Toby what he wanted and what he honestly deserved, we wouldn't be worried about him leaving. And same with Eriksen. We need to pay our players competitive wages compared to the other CL teams from England.

 

Oh yeah, I agree with you on all of that. We’ll see what happens with Toby and Eriksen. I could see both leaving, both staying, or one goes while one stays. No clue how it’ll play out tbh haha

RB will be interesting. Trippier has been a huge liability and has to go. I like Aurier as the second RB and think he’ll be fine to stay around. He makes bonehead plays every now and then but he’s better than Trippier overall imo. We definitely need a new starter there though. Part of me thinks Foyth could be the guy but I don’t know if they’ll risk going into the season with that as the plan (I think he’d be great there).

 

'I want to be honest with my club, players & fans' - Poch opens up on his future

A lot of interesting quotes from Poch here. I think what he's ultimately trying to say is, he has spent the last five years getting Tottenham to a higher level and has been working on instilling the belief that Tottenham is a big club. He noted that when we initially arrived the club feared the derbies against West Ham and other clubs like QPR. He implied that the mentality was not that of a "big club". Over the last 5 years he has made the club a regular in the CL and now taken them to a CL final. In his eyes he has made Tottenham a "big club". But in order to sustain that, or even go to the next level, he expects everyone else at the club (especially Levy) to act as such. I think he's saying that if the club continues to operate as they have the past 5+ years and still expects him to consistently deliver the same results, or to continue improving, that the job is cannot be done. It's clear he wants to build something special at Tottenham, and he wants to leave a legacy behind, but he knows it's impossible without the proper backing from the club. It's a clear message to Levy and the board. Match his ambition and he will do everything he can to make the club elite. If not, he's likely out.

 

Poch is such a gem, man

 

I don't know how Levy can listen to that presser and not just do whatever Poch says.

 

Seriously. Do everything Poch wants otherwise get ready to take a nose dive.

 

I think he’s right to speak in this manner. He began to at the end of the last season but I think they will have said, “look, let’s get the stadium and then talk.” He’s done a phenomenal job and if they want him to stay he needs the resource to continue to build. He speaks with great maturity and wisdom. It’s not hype or unreasonable demands. I’m impressed here.

 

in my fantasy title game this week, opinions on these 2 options? my big worry about the Hazard side is he won't start

 

You talk about wages and then talk about how Spurs were not favorites against Ajax. Maybe compare the wages of Tottenham and Ajax and then you might realize why Spurs were clear favorites...

 

Why are the PL games played tomorrow? Isn't Saturday 15:00 the general kickoff time?

 

Final game of the season is always on Sunday

 

I was mainly talking about going into the 2nd leg. I think it is harder to compare wages across leagues because of the amount of revenue differences each league creates. No doubt that Ajax had an amazing run given their resources and age. But they clearly have players that will earn much more than any player on Spurs earns in the next couple of years. That makes it even more impressive that Ajax was able to develop this team in a time table that allowed them to get the best of their players (so many that are sure to have great futures in Europe) at this age and together as a team.

But Ajax was there on merit and had beaten incredible teams. It was no accident they were in the Semi going home to the 2nd leg with a 1-0 away goal lead. Spurs had just played a match where Son got sent off, finished with 9 men, and gave up a late goal to lose. Spurs 1st 11 was missing some massive players (also Sissoko/Vertonghen/Alli all recently injured/currently injured). Spurs were no doubt favorites before the 1st leg was played. But massive/clear favorites? I'm not sure if Spurs had lost the tie 3-0 over 2 legs, I would've been disappointed but not at all surprised because of our play for the last 1-2 months. Lucas was on the bench for PSG consistently, most of our players had never played in this important of a CL match. Of course I want to make a better narrative for Spurs, I'm biased but outside of English punditry, I don't think Spurs were more of a 60% favorite.

 

What they might earn in the future is totally irrelevant. And your point might not even be true at all (if we expect Eriksen to go to Real). The victim complex in the PL is apparently real.

 

Has it always been this way? It seems kinda weird. The main kickoff time for games seems to be 15:00 on Saturday so why not use that one?
In the Bundesliga all the games on the last 2 days are played on Saturday at 15:30 which is historically the standard kickoff time for all games.

 

It's because games at 3pm on Saturday can't be broadcast (silly law brought in in the 60's) so they move all the Premier League games to Sunday as they all have to kick off at the same time. Same with the Football League matches too. Been this way for as long as I can remember.

 

I go to Camp Nou tomorrow :D

 

I mean if we compare wages across leagues, Huddersfield (19th in PL) would have the 4th highest payroll in La Liga and in the top 10 in Serie A. And I would imagine Huddersfield beating Sevilla over 2 legs or Huddersfield beating Atalanta over 2 legs would be a massive, massive upset. (Also shows how bloated wages are in England due to the tv revenue. So many mediocre players earning 5x what good players earn in other leagues) If an Ajax win would have surprised you against Spurs then we obviously have different opinions of their quality.

Within the PL the top 6 pay the following:
United: $192 mil
City: $187 mil
Arsenal: $165 mil
Chelsea: $162 mil
Liverpool: $158 mil
Spurs: $111 mil

Spurs pay significantly less than the others (even taking squad size into account). Spurs have a clear uphill battle in the league along with injuries and a match between the 2 legs. While Ajax are still competing in the league but pay at least 50% more in wages than PSV or any other team in the Netherlands. Were Spurs favorites, undoubtedly but after the 1st leg, I would imagine odds were with Ajax and it wouldn't have been a surprise or disappointment imo for Spurs to lose in the 2nd leg as well.

Think it goes more to show how much United is under performing considering Wages are one of the best indicators for where a team should finish in the league.

 

An Ajax win would not have surprised me, I was rooting for Ajax anyway. But to say Spurs were underdogs is completely ridiculous.

 

Well I would have given Spurs 60% before the tie, and I think they were clear underdogs going back to Amsterdam. Believe 538's prediction for CL had Ajax as a favorite before the 1st leg. Ajax just beat Real and Juve. Better teams in Europe than City or Dortmund have been in the last couple of years.

 

So Spurs were not underdogs going into the tie. Obviously after the first leg Ajax had a slight advantage but to say Tottenham were underdogs is still ridiculous.

 

So how is everyone feeling tomorrow about the EPL ending tomorrow?

City winning the title?

 

I’d be shocked if they didn’t win the title