Can we avoid doing a Tottenham?

They tried to re-build a team, we are adding to a squad and replace 1 top drawer player suarez. Big difference.

Also we scored 101 goals in the elague, suarez got 31 of them, that means 70 goals came from elsewhere in the team.

Now consider tightnening up at the back, and maybe only scoreing 80 goals this season, we could very well challenge for the title again.

I would actually like us to improve on those 84 points that we achieved next season. This is a massive summer so far. We have in some respects done a Tottenham - selling a key player and replacing that key player with 4-5 signings. We are still set to sign other players however, including Remy, Origi and Lovren. Possibly Moreno too. That'd take our spending to over £110m.

You cannot replace quality with quantity.

What did you expect us to do CR?

Sell Luis for £75M and but another player for similar?

Never going to happen as FSG don't work like that and I also don't think we would attract 'that' player anyway and pay his wages. I also don't think Brendan sees that as his way of working either.

While I still think we need another quality forward I like what the manager seems to be doing as he has identified that you simply cannot replace Luis Suarez but you can make a better team.

The difference between us buying 5/6 players and Spurs is that I feel our manager has a clear plan for what he wants and needs whereas Spurs just bought players and told the coach to make the most of them.

T

What did you expect us to do CR?

Sell Luis for £75M and but another player for similar?

Never going to happen as FSG don't work like that and I also don't think we would attract 'that' player anyway and pay his wages. I also don't think Brendan sees that as his way of working either.


While I still think we need another quality forward I like what the manager seems to be doing as he has identified that you simply cannot replace Luis Suarez but you can make a better team.

The difference between us buying 5/6 players and Spurs is that I feel our manager has a clear plan for what he wants and needs whereas Spurs just bought players and told the coach to make the most of them.

I agree Si  for me its not only the continuity of the managers and a plan but I also think its the players themselves.

Soldado, Lamela & Paulinho may all be gifted footballers but seldom do players just walk into the premiership and take over ala Luis. It takes time to get used to the speed and physicality of the league, add that into learning a new system and then changing managers and you may end up struggling a bit.

I look at Lambert, Lovren, Remy, Lallana these guys may not be the "name" of the Spurs players but they know the Premiership, they know the opponents and they know tactics as they have been there and done it already.

Markovic, Origi, Can can work themselves in to the squad and be given time to acclimate as the above players are already battle hardened, thus lowering the pressure a bit on the newcomers to the league.

I think so far Brendan has been brilliant in bringing in guys that will slot right in and contribute and those that may become the spine of the team going into the next decade.

I think Spuds set the template for how not to do it, though I'm becoming increasingly more worried that we are following suit.

Some people are never going to get it. Players like Suarez don't grow on trees! We were never going to replace him, so the next best thing is to improve the depth and quality of the squad which is exactly what we are doing.
Last season in the run in we had no one on the bench when we needed something different or a fresh pair of legs. That in my opinion is what lost us the title.

Some people are never going to get it. Players like Suarez don't grow on trees! We were never going to replace him, so the next best thing is to improve the depth and quality of the squad which is exactly what we are doing.
Last season in the run in we had no one on the bench when we needed something different or a fresh pair of legs. That in my opinion is what lost us the title.

We were always going to improve on squad depth regardless of Luis' departure. We need to ensure we still do that, but if you remember correctly, BR wanted Luis to stay. By that, it's clear he wants a top player at the club. I don't think he was happy about Luis leaving, so I hope he intends to replace him with quality.

We were always going to improve on squad depth regardless of Luis' departure. We need to ensure we still do that, but if you remember correctly, BR wanted Luis to stay. By that, it's clear he wants a top player at the club. I don't think he was happy about Luis leaving, so I hope he intends to replace him with quality.

You can't replace Luis' quality.

We need to stop acting like there is a like for like replacement or even a couple of players that would equal his output. Some of the things that Luis brought to the team aren't able to be replaced even if you sign one of the higher profile strikers in the world. What I think needs to happen is that BR needs to be supported (he appears to be getting that from the owners) in HIS vision for how he wants to build this team. He knows how he wants to play and I'm sure he knows who he wants to bring in to play that way. Big name players are mostly just something that supporters like to see so we can stroke ourselves about how awesome it is that we spent money on big name players. If Brendan can bring us success with young up and comers and "mid table" signings I'll be just as happy as I was with last year's success.

You can't replace Luis' quality.

We need to stop acting like there is a like for like replacement or even a couple of players that would equal his output. Some of the things that Luis brought to the team aren't able to be replaced even if you sign one of the higher profile strikers in the world. What I think needs to happen is that BR needs to be supported (he appears to be getting that from the owners) in HIS vision for how he wants to build this team. He knows how he wants to play and I'm sure he knows who he wants to bring in to play that way. Big name players are mostly just something that supporters like to see so we can stroke ourselves about how awesome it is that we spent money on big name players. If Brendan can bring us success with young up and comers and "mid table" signings I'll be just as happy as I was with last year's success.

That's a narrow view of things. Can you replace 31 goals a season? Perhaps, perhaps not; it's certainly difficult at best. Can you replace his Assists? His passing accuracy? His movement off the ball? Can you give defenders something to worry about other than just Sturridge and throw in 20+ goals a season? Yes you can. The question is, are those players available? I'd be happy if we where at least being linked with them rather than continuous "up and comers" and "mid table" signings. You don't need big name players to sign experience and quality and any club with ambitions of elitehood needs a good mix of young, up and coming talent and experienced, established players in its side and we are simply signing player after player without experience at the top of the game and it has me worried for the coming season.

That's a narrow view of things. Can you replace 31 goals a season? Perhaps, perhaps not; it's certainly difficult at best. Can you replace his Assists? His passing accuracy? His movement off the ball? Can you give defenders something to worry about other than just Sturridge and throw in 20+ goals a season? Yes you can. The question is, are those players available? I'd be happy if we where at least being linked with them rather than continuous "up and comers" and "mid table" signings. You don't need big name players to sign experience and quality and any club with ambitions of elitehood needs a good mix of young, up and coming talent and experienced, established players in its side and we are simply signing player after player without experience at the top of the game and it has me worried for the coming season.

For the Record: 

Spurs                           09/10---70 points
                                     10/11---62 points
                                     11/12---69 points
                                     12/13---72 points
                                     13/14---69 points


The 2013-2014 season was far from a fall from grace to begin with.

What is your definition of experience?...CL Champions? National experience? Premier League experience? Champions League experience?

From what I understand from your post we don't need big names but we need players with experience.

I am a little at a loss to figure out where we are going to pull players with experience from the top of the game from non-mid table teams, that are not big names?

Players from Bayern's, RM, PSG's and Barca's bench?...will they cut it in the Premiership?  I don't know.


Two big problems for Spurs fall of 3 points from the previous year

1. New players on a new team in a new league. (No Experience)

2. Players having a manager for part of the year and then switching managers and going to a new system. (No continuity)


We are not going to change managers and a lot of the players we have picked up know the premiership inside and out and have proven themselves.

We will avoid it because we have BR who has put us where we are now, and he knows what he wants unlike Spurs. We also have players with experience in a title run and in the EPL.

We should try to sign one of Lamela and Eriksen, to strenghen us and by the way weaken them. These 2 have had already a first experience of the EPL and they will improve for sure.

We will avoid it because we have BR who has put us where we are now, and he knows what he wants unlike Spurs. We also have players with experience in a title run and in the EPL.

We should try to sign one of Lamela and Eriksen, to strenghen us and by the way weaken them. These 2 have had already a first experience of the EPL and they will improve for sure.

Signing Lamela will not weaken Spurs, it'll weaken us. Do you really think Spurs will let us have Eriksen? 

Signing Lamela will not weaken Spurs, it'll weaken us. Do you really think Spurs will let us have Eriksen? 

Lamela is really that bad?

We are in the CL, have a better squad, a better coach/manager and we'll compete for the EPL next season. Why not?

What is your definition of experience?...CL Champions? National experience? Premier League experience? Champions League experience?

From what I understand from your post we don't need big names but we need players with experience.

I am a little at a loss to figure out where we are going to pull players with experience from the top of the game from non-mid table teams, that are not big names?

Players from Bayern's, RM, PSG's and Barca's bench?...will they cut it in the Premiership?  I don't know.

Champions league and domestic title races which invariably mean the same thing outside of England anyway; and when I say Champions League, I don't mean token appearences, I mean regular latter stage experience. Would players from Bayern, RM, PSG and Barca's bench cut it in the Premiership? They have in the past. It's not like we're limiting ourselves to signing only English players so these foreigners had to have settled to become established EPL players. Why should the same be untrue for the more experienced players around Europe?

When I say "It's not about the name", what I mean is it's not about avoiding the name or pursuing the name, in that the name is irrelevant, it's about the experience and talent levels. If that person is a big name player then good for them but that's not why you sign them. We should neither be afraid nor enamoured with their stardom or lack thereof; we should only be concerned with what they bring to the team and what they'd bring to the team would be in excess of what someone from a mid-table club with not CL or title race experience brings to our team. In short, some fans on here want a Marquee signing for the sake of it. I don't want a marquee signing for the sake of it, I just want players who are more talented and more experienced than what we have, not less which is what this Summer has been about so far.

So the point I was making above was saying just because you can't replace someone who scored 31 goals in 33 appearences doesn't mean you settle for a 15 goals a season striker, you look beyond the goals. You look for the person who scored the most goals, who has the best off ball movement, who can set up their own chances, who can lay off the best chances for other members of the team to score, who has experience playing in big games, who has experience playing against the world's best players - in other words, there's more to replacing Luis than simply looking at his amount of goals and deciding he's irreplaceable and just because those players are few and far between should not mean you at least try to sign them.

We're in the Champions League. We have a better manager, whose play-style can adapt to fit almost anybody. Despite that, he's buying players for how we play now. Spurs were just buying players for the sake of buying players and pleasing the fans.

This all day. Their manager wasn't as good as Brendan (not just his style of play but his man management skills were not up to scratch) and the players they bought seemed to be a bunch of players with different styles thrown together.

I think there is a slight danger we will be shelling out over the odds for players just because of the Luis sale, but so far, money paid for Can, Llalana and Lambert have been maket prices. I think we overpaid for Markovic, but that's bound to happen.

Having said all this, the pararllels shouldn't be completely ignored and I'm sure Brendan has looked at Spurs situation closely.

I think we should be prepared for one or two of the signings not to live up to their price tag. Borini was a disappointment for me, where as Coutinho with similar price tag has been fantastic. But, if Brendan gets over 60% of the signings spot on, I'm prepared for a minoroty to fai (or at least be decent back ups for matches against lower teams or cups).

I think the reason why we won't "do a Tottenham" is because our team and our squad as a whole is a lot more stable than theirs. We have a manager who is settled and is in his third season at the club. We've kept all of our major personalities in the team (with the exception of Luis) and we seem to have added to it with players like Lambert and Lallana who were both leaders at Southampton and Emre Can who seems to be a lad with a bit of swagger about him.

Their whole situation was a complete mess. They signed 7 lads from 6 different countries who had to acclimate to living in London and learn English. They signed players the manager didn't want, they sold 2 big personalities in their locker room in terms of Parker and Huddlestone and then their manager was sacked and replaced with a guy who tore up everything they'd done for almost 5 months and told them to start over. The fact that they only finished 3 points worse off than the previous season should be testament to how they have a good bunch of players down there who just need someone to get them on the same page.

We won't have their problems because Lallana, Lambert, possibly Lovren and Remy have all played in the Premier League, Can is a lad with bucketloads of personality and I'm sure Markovic, possibly Moreno and any other player we sign will be given time to settle into the team without being thrown into the deep end immediately.

tl;dr: I don't think we have anything to worry about.

tl;dr:

What does this mean, I have seen it a few times but no idea what it signifies?

also as posted before... spuds only got 3 points less...

would you take 81 points?

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet as I haven't been following this thread at all, but one article brought up the only point that I need to know for me to be confident that we won't pull a Tottenham.

Last season if you take away all the goals Suarez scored, we still scored 70 goals. Tottenham have never even hit that number in all of their years in the premier league era - with or without Bale.

We are a much more complete and stable team that is better overall. And we were not anywhere near as reliant on Suarez as Tottenham were on Bale. Also, we're not trying to put together a completely new front six of players that have never even played in this league or together. And we've got an identified, stable system in place under a much better coach that's been here and will be here for a while.

I'm excited about this next season, not frightened by it.

What does this mean, I have seen it a few times but no idea what it signifies?

Too long; didn't read.

What does this mean, I have seen it a few times but no idea what it signifies?

Oh mate tl;dr it's shorthand for "too long didn't read" people normally use it to sarcastically say that someone's post or article was too wrong so they didn't read it. I like to use it to summarise my post when I think that I've typed a bit too much and I don't think that many people would be interested in reading all of it or if they just skimmed to the end of my post.

Oh mate tl;dr it's shorthand for "too long didn't read" people normally use it to sarcastically say that someone's post or article was too wrong so they didn't read it. I like to use it to summarise my post when I think that I've typed a bit too much and I don't think that many people would be interested in reading all of it or if they just skimmed to the end of my post.

That's very considerate of you thinking of the oldies on the forum 

Oh mate tl;dr it's shorthand for "too long didn't read" people normally use it to sarcastically say that someone's post or article was too wrong so they didn't read it. I like to use it to summarise my post when I think that I've typed a bit too much and I don't think that many people would be interested in reading all of it or if they just skimmed to the end of my post.

What horseshit is this?

It's INRAT!!  (I'm not reading all that)

Too long; didn't read.

Oh mate tl;dr it's shorthand for "too long didn't read" people normally use it to sarcastically say that someone's post or article was too wrong so they didn't read it. I like to use it to summarise my post when I think that I've typed a bit too much and I don't think that many people would be interested in reading all of it or if they just skimmed to the end of my post.

Thanks for the explanation .... sadly I am not always up on new "computer speak."