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Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 58


Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 58

It's Saturday, It's three o'clock..."What do you mean you are watching Spurs, they don't play on a Saturday at three, haven't done for years. Are you seeing another woman?"

"It's opening day love, all teams play at three on the opening day of the season, you're the only woman in my life."

"Ah, OK, I'll give you that, but I'm watching you Mr, I'm watching you."

OK, best not tell her I love Spurs more than her and if it came to a choice, besides, I have to go bloody shoe shopping and clothes shopping don't I, worth a bloody medal that is.

Don't you just love being sexist once in a while, rebel.

Yes, it is true folks, Saturday, 3pm and the love of our lives, Tottenham Hotspur, are playing football.

A proper weekend has been restored.

"We'll go and see Mum tomorrow."

"No, not the mother-in-law, do we have to to, can't I stay here...please. Oh don't give me that look. OK, OK, we'll go to your mother's."

Tottenham better bloody win, that 's I can say.

Good morning and welcome to another glorious day and another glorious piece from the #1 Spurs blog Tottenham Hotspur Blog News (THBN) on this the opening day of the ne Premier League season, Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 58.

Spurs vs Southampton

Tottenham conquered Manchester City in the opening round of the 2021/22 Premier League (EPL) season with a Heung-min Son goal.

We made a promising that then went pear shaped and ended up with us changing head coaches in November.

Antonio Conte arrived and brought with him his conditioning coach Giampiero Ventrone, who won titles at both Juventus and Guangzhou Evergrande.

He has been putting the squad through it's paces and we have all seen pictures of the players at the end of a 5K run.

If they stopped, collapsed, they were simply told to get up and carry on.

Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 58


Harry Kane was just one of the players vomiting during the gruelling exercises. 

Spurs won six of their last seven Premier League fixtures (L1) of last season scoring 20 goals in the process.

Southampton were one of only four clubs to take points off Tottenham home and away last season, but there were few other achievements for Saints in a fourth consecutive bottom-half finish under Ralph Hasenhüttl.

Southampton beat us 3-2 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last season after losing the previous six in all competitions. 

Saints were nearly relegated and dropped more points (29) from winning positions than any other side in the EPL last season.

Heung-min Son is a player to note in these fixtures, the South Korean  has scored more goals (12) against Southampton than any other club.

Our Golden Boot winner scored in five of his last six starts against the Saints. 

When Ché Adams has scored this year, Southampton have taken points (W3, D1) which unfortunately included the match-winner against Spurs.

Last season, Southampton were the only Premier League club where at least four total goals were scored in the majority of their away fixtures (58%).

Everyone should have been behind the team all week but no, some haven't got a shiny new toy to play with so whinge.

We are back to the time of the year when true supporters emerge and the 90 minute supporter shows themselves, it blocking season again.

Nicolò Zaniolo

What is the situation with Nicolò Zaniolo?

Well, at the start of the window Zaniolo and José Mourinho were hardly talking, but they have had many meetings since, apparently often heated, to clear the air.

Mourinho has stated that he wants the Top 4 this season, that he wants UEFA Champions League football for Roma and he would like to keep Zaniolo.

His bosses are happy to cash in on him if they get the €50m they are asking (£41.75m).

With ne arrivals, Zaniolo has been concerned he wouldn't be a first choice and Mourinho picked him against Spurs to demonstrate to him that he has a place at the club and in the team.

He intends to play him again against Shakhtar Donetsk in a friendly on Sunday to further enforce the point.

The two will have further meetings.

Tottenham have not yet discussed figures with Roma, we have talked about rough guidelines to get a ball park idea of the whole deal but don't want to discuss financials until e know more about where we are.

Paratici needs to get a few players out the door and off the wage bill. Then we will know our financial situation and what offers we can go in with.

We can't really negotiate by saying if we get XYZ for this player and this player then we'll offer you XYZ for Zaniolo and if we don't we'll offer you this.

It puts us in a weak negotiating position.

Zaniolo is not certain about leaving Italy either so he has to be convinced of that too.

Destiny Udogie

Sources from Italy say a deal is nearly done and that Udinese want to sell to Spurs because we are willing to loan him back to them for the season.

Other clubs, including Brighton, want to take him now, hence Udinese wanting to sell to Tottenham and Paratici knowing the Italian market doesn't do us any harm either.

He wasn't in the Udinese squad with a deal with us expected to be finalised next eek.

Where will Spurs Finish?

Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 58

The first comment I read about this as a refreshing one, e don't have to win the transfer window and happy nobody is talking us up.

I would have thought they would be myself.

But one of them has to throw in Spursy don't they. It's a different set of players with a manager training them to have a different mindset and we weren't Spursy securing 4th place from Arsenal last season were we, we did what we needed to do, without fuss.

There are always going to be difficult games when they seem easy on paper, but maintaining a level head when all about you are losing theirs is a key factor.

Arsenal got their pants pulled down.

I would say they have improved and I think Jesus will score plenty of goals for them, but only three sides have qualified for the UEFA Champions League through the league when playing on a Thursday night.

Tottenham Hotspur in 2015/16 finishing 3rd in the Premier League and being knocked out in the last 16 of the UEFA Europa League by Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City once and Manchester United once.

Having got the Top 4 right last season and in the right order, not one professional pundit managed that, I find this season a little more difficult.

Manchester City
Liverpool
Tottenham Hotspur
Chelsea

That's my prediction for what it's worth, with us pushing on to challenge for the title next season.

I think it will be tight, ourselves and Chelsea with Arsenal hounding, Manchester United finishing 6th being bullied by too may teams.

Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 58

My wish for this season is that everyone understands it's a marathon not a print, the title isn't won and lost each week, as some seem to feel.

If a result goes against us, we don't need doom and gloom, it helps nobody, it doesn't make anybody's life better or happier.

Why go on social media and tell people your misery because a) they are not interested and b) if someone tries to cheer you up and put the setback into perspective for you, all you'll want to do is retain your misery at all costs and try and try to drag others down to your misery level.

Why do that, why not keep your misery to yourself, which would actually be helpful to the team. You do want to help Tottenham don't you, you're not a 90 minute supporter after all, are you.

I haven't kept up with any changes to VAR or the interpretation of VAR, I'll pick it up as the season goes, but it shouldn't matter if your left nipple is offside.

Offside decisions should be based solely on the position of the feet, the rest shouldn't matter.

At the moment VAR favours the defender, it shouldn't it should favour the attacker because everyone wants to see goals, so, change it so it doesn't matter if you are leaning forward, if your feet and behind the defenders feet you are onside.

Or it could be like cricket.

In cricket, the umpire (referee) make a decision, the batsman is either in or out. Now, take the example of a leg before wicket decision.

That means that if the ball hits the batsman's pads ( pads are protection for the legs, like large shin pads), the umpire decides if the ball would have gone on to hit the stumps if that leg had not got in the way.

It is even more complicated than that but I'm trying to keep it simple.

Now this is the point.

Either side can challenge the umpires (referee) decision 3 times in a game. If they do then technology determines the flight of the ball and shows where it would have gone.

If the ball would have hit the stumps, pay attention this is the vital bit, and the umpires initial decision was NOT OUT (that it would have missed the stumps), then at least HALF OF THE BALL has to be hitting the stumps to be allowed to overturn (change) the umpires decision..

If only a quarter of the ball would have hit the stumps then the umpires original decision stands.

Could that work in football?

A referee or linesman (assistant referee) decides whether a player is offside or not.

VAR reviews the decision.

If half of the player is offside then it is deemed offside but if MORE than half of his body is ONSIDE, then he is deemed to be onside.

That may make things a bit complicated, but it would be fun for the crowd and this is an entertainment sport, VAR should be a part of that entertainment.

Feet might be an easier way and give the attacker leaning forward ready to make a run the advantage.

I have 10 season long football bets placed, 341/1, 130/1, 80/1, 50/1, 25/1, 12/1, 11/1, 10/1, 6/1 and 4/1.

It's a bit of fun, but you still want to win.


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11 comments

  1. Hi Clive.

    Just a point of detail - I believe only Chelsea, United & Southampton took maximum points off us last season (3 not 4).

    I just watched the game. Last season I felt their result up here was fair - but at the New Dell the ref shafted us good & hard. Again here I felt the ref was fair - possibly even leaning towards helpful in some cases - but mostly balanced overall. We got far too many bookings today. One was probably a mistake - but Romero was very lucky not to pick one up for his scissor challenge - so the total number (3) was representative IMV. Far too many for a game that wasn't even contentious for much of the time.

    My other half's from Southampton so I know they can sometimes be a little naughty. We saw very little of that today though. If either side stretched the laws then it was us.

    All that said, we got going after a slow start. Slow starts have hurt us a great deal in recent seasons so I'd like to see changes there this season. Today was n…
    • That one was me too. Not sure why it came through as anonymous :-(

      COYS!!
  2. I just watched the start of the game again - up to their goal - and I have to retract my comments about starting slowly. We actually didn't. We had let them get some time on the ball for a couple of minutes prior to the goal, but before that it was all Spurs and largely in control with some real threats too.

    Their goal was a good one and hard to defend. Maybe we could have done better - a coach may see things I don't - but it was good play from them and an unstoppable (if possibly somewhat fortunate) shot from JWP to beat Hugo.

    After that we went on to dominate - with a team that was fundamentally what we finished last season with. I see great reason for hope.

    COYS!!
  3. I like this comment from Conte, relating to Sessengon's performance: "It is very important we sign a player like Ivan Perisic because he can see the way to try to learn something from Ivan". It really shows that the emphasis is on building and developing a team. It also highlights the incalculable value of experience. To some fans it's only about statistics.

    I also share your frustration with offside rulings in general. I think that the offside rule should reward attacking endeavour above defensive prowess and a player should never be deemed offside because he (not sexist) did not trim his beard.
    • I'd add a dissenting voice to all the various calls to change the offside rule(s). I've never been one to complain that an off-side is too close. It seems to me that wherever you position the bar there will always - without any theoretical level of doubt - be situations which are very close and thus difficult to call. There will thus always be those who complain that close calls should go the other way. To me that concept holds no water. Where you draw the line thus seems (to me) ultimately of very little importance.

      What is critical is that the line be drawn and that it doesn't move from one season to the next simply because so many people have a difficulty dealing with one thing - one pretty arbitrary thing - being treated as absolute. The thing is that this arbitrary line MUST be treated that way if it's to work for football and all of us that love it - whether we be a player trying to keep within its confines, or a spectator who is currently pro the attacker o…
  4. Thanks Adrian, I agree, a line has to be drawn somewhere. My view is that the offside rule should focus on placement of the feet, not overhanging parts of the body. Also, where the ref & VAR are in some doubt, benefit of doubt should fall with the attacking player. It's simply that I believe football rules should encourage creative and attacking play, rather than the extreme "we don't want the ball" (effective) strategy of Mourinho as Inter Milan coach vs Barcelona.

    On the other hand, I'm less inclined to reward attacking endeavour where players rely on creative swan diving at the slightest touch. I would lean toward a no penalty ruling if in any doubt, to discourage reliance on speedy forwards running at defenders with no intention to stay upright.
    • Hi again BWM.

      Let not my abbreviations for easier correspondence (BWM) rob us of the full name in all its glory. Blind Willie McTavish is too exotic to be lost.

      I hear your points about the feet. Personally if it made it easier or clearer to adjudicate I could be in favour of that, but wouldn't push for it myself as the theory is almost irrelevant. We just need something we can all be happy with and go forward from there. The logic of "any part of the body that can legally play the ball" works fine for me. As I say though, if we based it on the feet on the basis that it's easier to adjudicate then I think that would be worth the weaker logic in my view.

      Also, while I appreciate the desire to make the attacking side of the game more prevalent, I would warn against any temptation to include this in weighting decisions. The results we've already seen from this approach is that people now argue as to what is the point this weighting should be brought in. My appro…
    • Annoyed with myself :-(

      The defensive side requires hard work too - as well as technique.

      Defenders are less well remunerated - not renumerated :-(

      Otherwise all good :-)

      COYS!!
  5. BWM is laziness enacted :) encouraged by tiny "keys" on an android phone.

    I believe you've given this a lot more thought than I have. My motivation being more about discouraging what some have called "anti-football", the most pungent example I can think of being where Inter defeated Barcelona under JoseM as, mentioned previously.

    But I think you are right about expecting the referee to be allowed to make the call. What I was suggesting could become institutionalised tampering just to appease a remote audience and that is as they say, a skippery slope.
    • Hello again buddy :-)

      Laziness is all good as far as I'm concerned. It's the driving force behind much of the work I do - saving myself the effort of doing things the long way round. I'd write it once and just keep copying & pasting - but then I do almost everything on a PC still. Phones are just too small for me to work with comfortably :-(

      As always - watch your footing on those skippery slopes ;-) I know that's unfair - I have to do it anyway. Avoiding far more typos is actually good work on a phone :-)

      COYS!!
  6. Haha.. yes, slippery slopes. I turned off auto-correct as it seemed to be a choice between a few rouge letters or absurdism.