SimplySpurfect

And can I just point out that he doesn't actually mention winning the league this season. Just that with the right players, Spurs should be aiming for the title eventually. It is, afterall, a natural progression. Spurs won't win the league this season, won't actually come close to it for three or four seasons, at least. The entire forward line needs improving on, really. Because each of the four first team strikers there at the moment, they're all very limited players. You wouldn't build your team around Defoe or Crouch. A big name striker is needed, but two would be amazing. I have naughty thoughts about Dzeko and Forlan up front. It's never going to happen, but they're the kind of strikers that are needed. Top class players you can build your entire team around, who can score goals, lead the line and bring other players into the game. Other than that though, I'd say the squad is sufficiently strong enough to make another push for fourth place, regardless of the money that City spend. As long as an injury crisis is avoided and Redknapp plays the fringe and younger players compete in the domestic cups. Spurs aren't good enough to realistically fight on four fronts and, while I would love a cup win (either of them) the priority this year has got to be making sure last season wasn't just a flash in the pan. It would've all been for nothing if Spurs finish 6-7th this year.

Modric? Palacios? Dawson? All good enough. Just put maybe one top class striker (Fabiano), a defender that is better than Bassong and less injury prone than King and hope Huddlestone develops quickly and viola. Palacios not good enough, nor is Dawson. They have many good players, but not that quality or experience to win the league. They had their best Premiership season and still finished 16 points off the title?! with the same squad + maybe an addition or two, they are not suddenly going to challenge for the title. They were closer to 13th than they were 1st...... It'll be the same squad, but most of the younger players will be that little bit better and more experienced. Plus, Spurs suffered a dreadful season with injuries last year. Losing Lennon for over half of the season, when he was in his best form of his career before November. Modric lost four months, Defoe was out for a couple of months, Woodgate missed the entire season, King was King, Bale was injured for the first three months. And in March/April there were as many as 9 squad players, many in the same positions, injured at the same time. So with less injuries this year, there will already be a stronger squad than last year.

Shite, really? The guy was immense last season. Took two player of the year awards from Spurs players and fans, in Spurs' best season in forever. He was integral part in one of the best defences in the league. He wins absolutely everything in the air. He's quick enough to not get beaten for pace by all but the most rapid of players, but positionally he's now good enough to not be in a position to have to chase strikers anymore. And he's as brave as they come. I really don't get how some people can say he's shit. Maybe saying he's not top, top class, but calling him shit is ridiculous. It's like you haven't actually seen him play since 2007.

This is pretty much the opinion of everyone on here. That's almost exactly what I was gonna say. Just without the "on here" part.

That's not what a "sugar daddy" (God, I hate that term) means though, is it? Yeah, Spurs are owned by a billionaire, but Joe Lewis doesn't just pump money in to the club and say to Levy "There you go, go and buy £150m worth of players. And here's another £250m to cover their contracts." The money Spurs spend is predominantly earned by Levy. At least, that's what I understood a "sugar daddy" (ugh..) to mean. Like, super rich old guy constantly ploughing his hot, young girlfriend with money to spend on whatever she wants without her having to do, err, anything to "earn" it.

Bluemoon is possibly the worst fan forum I've ever browsed around. A large amount of the members on there are awful. The amount of poor grammar on there is astounding as well. It doesn't paint a particularly nice picture of City fans in general. But I've only browsed around there since they became a rich club, so I assume a lot of those idiots are people who have recently decided to became City fans, and they're drowning out the real, intelligent fans. Because we all know that the dumbest voices shout loudest on internet forums. City fans I've met in person though have always been good fun.

What are you referring to there? Under Levy, Spurs have always operated on a "buy cheap, sell for profit" initiative. A lot of Spurs' profits were made during the brief Frank Arnesen era, where we saw a massive amount of players joining the club for a fairly small fee (£1-3m etc) and then sold on shortly after at varying profits. It's only been the last two or three years or so that Spurs have been able to buy relatively big (£15m+ for Modric, Bentley, Bent etc) but that was only after many years of building profits from player sales and sound business in a lot of other aspects of the club. And before ENIC and Levy took over, we had Alan Sugar. The guy who refused to sign the likes of Petit, Robinho, Zola and Bergkamp because he didn't believe they'd be value for money. So I'm struggling to see how you can link Spurs to the term "sugar daddy" and City's current policies. And for the umpteenth time, Redknapp is a manager. He's not the chairman, accountant, etc. It's his job to build the best team he can with the resources he's given. A job he's proven to be very successful at with most of his clubs. It's the chairman's fault for not controlling the finances better. Which is the reason Spurs aren't going to go bankrupt, because Levy's not an incompetent moron.

There's big talk on the Spurs boards about Richards making his way to Tottenham in this window. According to one of the most respected ITK members, negotiations are already underway and it's just a matter of haggling over price and wages. You heard anything similar? Besides that, I can't see Michael Johnson sticking around this season. I think he'll move on to a Birmingham or Sunderland type team. But that'll be an important home grown player gone, maybe two if Richards is on his way to Spurs. I'd also find it quite surprising, with all the money being thrown away by your owners, if Santa Cruz is still in the City squad at the end of August. Also, I think City are going to find it quite difficult to sell off all the surplus players at the club. Robinho, for instance, I can't imagine anybody bidding more than £15m for him with City wanting a lot more than that. Could be that you'll have to send a load of players out on loan again this year.

I know you're only joking but seriously, Milner had a virus before that game and was out of position (he hasn't been left wing since his Newcastle days). King is IIRC a centre back. So yes Milner was shite but with 2 pretty good reasons. Why Capello picked him I'll never know. And King pulled his groin in the 4th minute, hardly surprising that he wasn't able to jump really. And people claim King shouldn't have been picked because of his injuries etc. His problem was his knee, he picked up the injury in his groin, completely unrelated issue. It was just a very unfortunate, if somewhat typical, thing to happen, especially with the press making such a big issue of his knee problems. He shouldn't of been picked because of his knee. He just happened to injure his groin first. No, he had to be picked, despite his knee. Without King, England would've been left with Terry and either Carragher or Upson in defence, with Dawson probably still being an unused sub. And a central defence pairing of two of those three players is scary, in a bad way. Quite possibly the slowest pairing I've seen in England.

I like that.

I know you're only joking but seriously, Milner had a virus before that game and was out of position (he hasn't been left wing since his Newcastle days). King is IIRC a centre back. So yes Milner was shite but with 2 pretty good reasons. Why Capello picked him I'll never know. And King pulled his groin in the 4th minute, hardly surprising that he wasn't able to jump really. And people claim King shouldn't have been picked because of his injuries etc. His problem was his knee, he picked up the injury in his groin, completely unrelated issue. It was just a very unfortunate, if somewhat typical, thing to happen, especially with the press making such a big issue of his knee problems.

It'll be interesting to see what their 25 man squad looks like this season, and whether they sell the seven or eight first team players they no longer want or just leave them unregistered for the whole season. There's also new financial constraints coming in soon, from what I recall, so I don't see how they're going to be able to support all these players and their extraordinary wages. And what happens if those players struggle to adapt to England? It's not entirely unfeasible, especially with Silva. Plenty of extremely talented attacking players have come to England and found it too difficult to play here, only to then seek a move back to Italy/Spain/etc. With the wages City are paying, they're gonna be stuck with those players because no other team will come close to matching the wages they're currently earning.

We just got raped for pace and positioning instead. Weird how you seem to blame King for not single handedly clearing the set pieces when there are five or six other players also defending them.

Hey guys. I just wanna say on behalf of most Spurs fans that I appeciate the kind words and enthusiasm shown by most of you tonight. I know we've been rivals all season and many of you dislike Spurs for differing reasons, but it's always pleasing when oppossing fans are offering such congratulatory messages on such a big day for this club. Another reason why I'm glad I joined this forum and not Bluemoon or RAWK.

No it wouldn't. Spurs will struggle in the qualifiers if they get someone like Lyon, not sure if they'll be seeded? It depends on who else are in the draw. I don't know the exact co-efficients or what not, but from what I remember, there is a possibility of Spurs being seeded due to a couple of decent UEFA Cup runs in the last five years, but it'll be swayed heavily on who qualifies from Spain, Italy and France. I don't see anything in your recent European history to suggest you will be seeded SS, from what I recall Everton had a similar record and look what happened to them. According to this website, Spurs are #30 in the overall coefficient ranking, which is I think why it'll be possible for Spurs to be seeded. As I said, it depends on other teams (like Sevilla for instance) not qualifying. I think Spurs will either be one of the lowest seeded teams or highest not seeded team. Although this is just from what I've read on other boards, I actually know very little about the Champion's League qualifying scenarios. I've never needed to. Still might not need to either. Still a very, very large chance of Spurs not finishing 4th anyway.

No it wouldn't. Spurs will struggle in the qualifiers if they get someone like Lyon, not sure if they'll be seeded? It depends on who else are in the draw. I don't know the exact co-efficients or what not, but from what I remember, there is a possibility of Spurs being seeded due to a couple of decent UEFA Cup runs in the last five years, but it'll be swayed heavily on who qualifies from Spain, Italy and France.

As opposed to Spurs who haven't spent anything. Spurs have spent an awful lot themselves and I can't want a team managed by that guy to have any success at all. Furthermore, I feel it's better for us if City get 4th. They will spend tonnes regardless and Spurs could attrac some nice players if they get CL football too. Except Spurs have spent money that Spurs have earned through income generated from within the club. They didn't have some stupidly rich man come in and throw £200m in transfer fees plus however many more millions those players earn in wages. And the way I see it is if City don't get 4th this season, they may not get 4th next season. And if they don't get 4th next season, they might not get 4th the season after. And I don't think any billionaire business man is going to keep throwing away money on a team that doesn't earn any money and doesn't even win things. Abramovich stuck around so long because Chelsea immediately became a huge force. City haven't had the same immediate impact, and the longer that it's postponed, the more likely the owners will get fed up and leave. Heh, they could even sell City and buy United instead.

Fairplay on upholding your end of the bet, dude.

Really are stuck in the past, aren't you?

I think Park is a great player. I'd take him at Spurs in a heartbeat.

He's only played on the right this season, as far as I can remember. He's been okay. When he first came into the team at the turn of the year he put in a few really good performances, but his form has dipped since then. He's been solid, if unspectacular, in my opinion. I think he suffers from the same problem Darren Bent had. He doesn't really fit into Spurs' style of play. He has very little pace, so with Lennon out injured, he wasn't able to offer that speed as an attacking threat. He also looks worse because his best attribute, his crossing, is pretty much void at Spurs. We have nobody that's good in the air, that can score headers on a regular basis. But even despite that, he's still managed to pitch in a few goals and assists this season. Also, like Bent, I actually thought he would've been an excellent player for Villa. Much more suited to your style of play, I think. And on a side note, he's a very funny guy. I really enjoy watching his interviews. And that kind of humour and attitude must be good in the dressing room.

Complete paper talk. Could've predicted that story a year ago. Man Utd don't need Modric though. For all his qualities, Modric just doesn't score enough goals, which is what they're going to need from the midfielder that replaces Scholes. Which is why you may find that Milner is more of an option for them. That, plus the fact that Levy just might punch Ferguson in the face if he tries to unsettle another star player.

Lennon also had the same problem. There are a couple of things that work in Bale's favour though. His height and strength are a massive asset. People talk about his pace but he's 6ft and pure muscle, and a tall, fast, strong player is very difficult to play against. Also, Bale's a left back. Which means he attacks from deep, so opposition full back is already going to be busy keeping track of Modric/Kranjcar as well as having to watch Bale. The right midfielder will have to assume a lot of defensive duties to keep that left side of Spurs quiet. On a side note, I am stupidly excited about the prospect of seeing Bale and Lennon in the same team.

I wouldn't have Bale in my local Division 7 side. Which is a bit of a moot point I suppose since there isn't enough hair gel in all of Sweden to last him even one half of football, and we all know he won't work under such circumstances... Wow.

source Little Spurs. Sorry to burst your little bubble