26 Comments

I was half way through saying “don’t’ shoot from there!” As it rippled the net.

Great goal fair play.

Not sure he’s the best ball striker mind.

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If KDB or Trent or any other 'superstar' had done that we'd never hear the end of it. Sarr is a special talent and he's only going to get better. A beautiful strike and lovely technique.

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It was a much better strike than I realised at the time

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An absolute banger.

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Sarr is class needs to play more.

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His play is limited because his positional press play still needs some work. He does not yet understand it instinctively and often leaves the opposition with a simple passing option out of pressure.

This is improving, but he is not yet where he needs to be. Sarr runs like a gazelle, but he too often thinks like one as well.

High, high ceiling on that one.

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It’s no coincidence he scored when Porro was out as Ange’s “system” of inverted FBs often leaves Sarr looking for an area on the pitch where he can do what he do best.

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It was mentioned earlier that Ange hasn't improved any of our players. What about Sarr? Is he just playing better than when Conte was here because he's older? What about Kulu? Porro? Biss under Conte wasn't very effective. Granted, he's not a worldy (far from it) but he is better under Ange than Conte.

The loss stats between Ange and Conte are now being compared, but I don't think the manager of Spurs makes that much of a difference, which is why, unless the statistics actually proved Ange was as bad as Ramos (a winner of 2 UEFA, 1 Super, 1 Copa del Rey, an Espana cup and a League cup) I can't go head hunting the manager like some. Bar Ramos, Poch, AVB, Jose, Conte and Ange have similar stats whilst Redknapp wasn't far behind. I know each managed a different number of games but % have to be considered now that Ange has over 50 games under his belt.

What i am trying to state is, for the last 20 years the Spurs manager has won between 50-54% of games. Can that actually change if Levy continues to ignore the buying of world class players? Of which, we don't have any at the moment. What chance does Ange have or the next 3 managers that will come our way?

Losing games is obviously important, but I would argue that Jose and Conte should have lost far fewer games due to their defensive approaches and the expertise they had or was it a case that the opposition were superior and the players they had weren't that good?.

When it comes to scoring goals let's not forget Ange hasn't had Kane or a fully functioning Son, unlike Jose or Conte. That has to count for something. So, how bad was Ange in comparison? I don't think there is much between any of them when it comes to managing Spurs. This has nothing to do with Chelsea, Inter, Napoli, Man Utd or Roma because none of those are chaired by anyone quite like Levy. Levy has basically set up every manager with the same resources and all have achieved basically the same.

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Re the, a bit over the top - "Ange hasn't improved any of our players" - I suspect the degree of kicking Angie gets from some of our lot is cranked up a notch or two by our frustration at what THPLC continues to inflict on THFC.

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Agreed. For some, Ange is a dead man walking. Nothing he does gets any credit but any inadequacies we have are all his fault. As manager he has to take some responsibility, but Levy and his Chief Execs should shoulder most of the blame.

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Remember why "the grass is always greener..."

It's because the other guy uses shit for fertilizer.

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No. of world class players sold under ENIC: 4 or 5- Kane Bale Modric Walker maybe Carrick.

No. of wc players bought: 0.

All you need to know.

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Walker was quoted - in 2024 - that he left because Poch told him he was going with Trippier over him. It didn't hurt he was going to City which is near where he grew up.

It completely flipped my view of selling Walker

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Maybe Carrick?

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I'd add Berbs.

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Yup

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I would agree about Sarr, Kulusevski, and Porro. Uncertain about Bissouma. Get him to work and provide options the entire match, and he will be vastly improved. I'd say that Dragusin and Brennan Johnson are improving also, and that Solanke is learning his role quickly.

I too found myself in firm disagreement with that particular statement about zero improvements, but honestly someone putting up such an absolute number as 'zero' is easy to pick on. It did not take away from other points made.

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Biss frustrates the life out of me. He overplays most of the time which slows down play.

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I appreciate your comments CS,but I think the main difference between these managers is that Postecoglou doesn’t command the respect that serial winners Conte or Mourinho did and he certainly doesn’t inspire any reaction with his passive demeanour on the touchline.

I know it went pear shaped for both by the end but they were both hamstrung and shortchanged by Levy and their disgust couldn’t be hidden any longer.I have no doubt the same will happen with Ange in the end.

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That's my point. All managers have been hamstrung. Even Ramos. Look what happened after we won the League cup. He lost Berbatov and got Frasier Campbell.

How both Jose and Conte left the club had all to do about them looking out for themselves and nothing to do with the fans.

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There is too much in here to unpack during the middle of the US Esat Coast workday.

Since Paratici was hired the size of the Spurs player acquisitions (except Gil and maybe 1-2 others) became players between 6' - 6' 4-1/2' tall and much of the physical "Spursiness" issue disappeared.

For all the complaints the dark cloud over the stands from Conte's last couple of months was significant, and Ange managed to dissipate that with an outrageous start - before the injuries in the Chelsea match sent the team sideways - lack of depth (Hello darkness - under Levy - my old friend...).

If you're willing to give a manager time (2-3 seasons), having a large group of Supporters nit picking everything (as if the squad Ange inherited was as ready-made to win as the squad Arne Slot inherited at Liverpool and he was given the Scousers Scouting department and budget) is neither helpful nor useful.

It is, however, what makes the comments section entertaining AF for me.

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Giving managers 2-3 seasons of players with the same quality as Brennan Johnson is not going to lead to success though. Levy buys players by not looking at what they can do, but what they might do. That has been been proved to be folly when it comes to supporting managers. Lots of money spent on too many average players. Whilst Kane was at Spurs, not one world class player came to Spurs. As Tony Harrison said "It's an outrage".

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Certainly, the Levy mold in terms of development, was buy players in a lower price range with an eye towards selling on at a profit (remember when not every Fernandes was equal...).

The low spend was exacerbated by high priced failures like N'Dombele and Sanchez.

But since Paratici arrived, the average spend by Spurs has nearly doubled.

Johnson and Gray are "twice the price" of the old failures so Levy's style has been upgraded on the downside. And did these players come "cheap"?

Romero, Van de Ven, Kulusevski, Porro, Richy (sadly), Gray and even Johnson have significantly raised Spurs "average spend" too far in excess (in relative terms) than was spent before the Stadium was finished.

This season Ange finally convinced Levy to jettison the dross and even eat the last year of N'Dombeles' contract.

And Johan Lange arrived with analytics.

The talent pool at Spurs is getting deeper but there's still a fair way to go before we can call this a team that could contend or a team with more than barely any depth.

It's also far from the mess we had after Conte was sacked.

My enduring memory of Kane's time here includes "no world class players" but I also remember how hard it was to get a competent backup striker. Other than an older Llorente no striker would come to Spurs to sit 90%-95% of the time because Kane demanded to play every minute (even when physically unfit in the 2019 CL final).

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The high priced failures tended to be one season wonders. That way, Levy thought he was getting bargains that would increase in value, but they blew up in his face time and time again.

Is the old £20m player now the £40m player! Seems like it. However, Johnson cost so much because it was deadline day and we certainly overpaid for him. Forest agreed a fee of £30m with Brentford for Johnson in the August of 2023 but the deal fell threw. I look at Gray and see that Chelsea bought Palmer for the same fee, granted one year apart, but we were buying Johnson for £10m more at that time! West Ham nearly got Palmer, we weren't even in for him as far as I am aware. That is nonsense in terms of recruitment . I'm sure City would have accepted our £50m.

Did Ange convince Levy to get rid of the rubbish? I don't think any manager has had that much input. Poch even downgraded himself from 'manager' to 'first team coach'. I suppose it would be easier to say to Levy "I don't want....." as opposed to "I want....."

Spurs do look to have improved the squad since the worst signing in THFC's history (Steve Hitchin) left. Just a shame we didn't have better recruitment under Jose or Conte, but we still haven't signed a top quality player, so the business model hasn't changed.

With regard to the back up for Kane, was it difficult because Levy didn't want to pay the money? If he had paid the money, we would have signed someone of note. It is naïve to suggest someone wouldn't come because we had Kane. Not paying the money was certainly the reason why we didn't get any top quality defenders, midfielders or wingers, nevermind a striker.

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An absolute worldy … Pick the bones out of that, as they say.

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Strike impressed everyone at Spurs and Pep and most of the City players that saw it from the bench.

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