Tottenham has been ejected from the European Conference League due to the UEFA’s disciplinary body deciding to rule that Spurs’ game against Rennes as a 3-0 victory to the French. This artificial outcome left Daniel Levy’s mob in the third, which meant an automatic removal.
I remember my mother telling me some tall tale of when she was a girl, being evicted from some milliners in London, and her and her friend shrieking ‘we’ve been thrown out of better hat shops than this!’ as the door clunked behind them. Judging by a good many responses online this morning, our fanbase is on a par with teenage girls trying to put a brave face on matters.
One can berate Europe’s third tier of football as loudly as one likes, but the truth is, right now, Spurs aren’t any better than any other competition. Sure, go into your kitchen, stand on a chair, and shout out, ‘let’s mount a charge on the Champions League!’ The truth is, you are only kidding yourself. Only embarrassing yourself. Hopefully, your neighbours don’t hear you.
Spurs’ played some horrible football in the Conference League – and that was the fault of the tournament, eh?
Get a grip and acknowledge the scale of our problems – alternatively, be a giggling teenage girl forever.
And?
Not playing in two weeks hardly gave us an advantage the outbreak meant we hadn’t trained either. Whilst Liverpool were affected by COVID it was clear by our team selection that we were too.
Absolutely agree our squad isn’t big enough to compete for four trophies as has been demonstrated by the results we delivered in Europe. You can see by the league table the benefits that Arsenal have reaped by having no European football. While much of our competitors are playing in Europe in the spring , travelling lost distances in the process we will be enjoying fixture free weeks enabling us to play our best x1 at the weekend. We will also not have to play Sundays unless selected for television which I suspect the attending fan base will be delighted about.
Dele and Winks played well and tried bloody hard. I will take that even if the latter looked terrified in front of goal. NBelly should do one but I love the progress Conte is making. He will make all of the players better and with the right investment, likely bring in the trophy we all desire. Up to the bald tool bag to deliver now.
Agreed 100%
More than happy. Why ? Because even with our crap squad we can qualify for the Europa league through our PL campaign. We may even nick a top 4 slot now we’re playing less games.
We also have opportunities in the domestic cups which carry more more credence than the European conference league IMO.
Imagine having a domestic cup competition that no clubs from the Premier League entered, and then half way through a bunch of clubs that had been eliminated from the Carling Cup joined in. I feel about as enthused by “the conference” as I would about winning my hypothetical cup!
I would love us to win the league cup, and/or the FA cup – but yes, there is no silverware for 4th, but as mentioned below, Champions League qualification will likely have a much more positive impact on our direction of travel come May than winning a trophy in a competition that is, like it or not, widely ridiculed by the fan base.
Quite frankly, they would be better off dumping it and just extending pre-qualification for the Europa if they want to squeeze a few more games in.
I think on the balance of things your assertion that Levy tells Conte who to pick is more ludicrous than the possibility that some of our midfield were the recently diagnosed covid players and so he played the hand he was dealt.
100% i feel the same way
Spot on HH I agree this post 100% cheers.
So are you telling us the likes of Dele, Winks etc that Conte saw himself when they humiliated the club and Conte Vs Mura all of a sudden he is selecting these punch by his own will, even kids can’t entertain that narrative cheers
Agreed.
Then he had a free header that he did put away..as did Jota..those 2 incidents were cause for concern . Dealt with the difficult stuff well organisation at the back cost us. Should have battered them on chances created but didn’t ..that needs ironing out or it will cost us.
Would have been good for the kids to have a run out..but given the performance v Mura not sure how keen the club was anyhow.
How is Mr Hotspur anyone know..?
Missing the Daily Briefing ..
Gary Neville has been praising Spurs and thinks they can compete for top 4. I’m a bit surprised he’s coming to that conclusion after just one good performance.
There’s always a trade-off between games of varying importance and expected intensity, you can’t play your strongest 11 in every game and you’re going to get injuries playing an extra 15 games a season in the Conference League (not to mention the extra travel etc). So yes managers say try and win every game, they also continuously moan about too many fixtures and player fatigue…unless they have 2 or 3 sets of world class starting 11’s like City do
Some are are inconsistent and lazy. I’m thinking Alli should still be flogged as well as Ndombele. Both talented but lazy with a poor attitude. I’d give Winks a chance, there might still be a player in there.
Nowhere near as easy as our 4 chances. Ours were diabolical misses as you can see if you look back. Sonny just had to go around the keeper, Dele had the left side of the goal gaping, Sonny had an open goal but couldn’t connect properly, Kane had a header from what a yard out? Kane had a goal-bound shot blocked when goal was gaping etc. It looked like we were going to score on every break!
Robertson’s was not a clear cut chance by any stretch of the imagination, he was out to one side and a fair distance away. Besides that was it.
Their front 3 of Mane, Jota (aside from his header) and Salah were completely nullified, those players have destroyed teams this season on their own. They hardly had a look in because they were dominated.
So, we are knocked out of one of the four competitions and the one we were most likely to win. People saying the League Cup is more important – are they mad.Coming 4th is not a WIN anywhere. Only gold, silver and bronze awarded in any meaningful competition I ever entered. Pep says he tries to win every game and Conte says likewise. In football you cant choose the games you win..!
Without rewinding the match, within the first couple of minutes, Robertson (iirc) had a free header on goal that he should have put away.
We were better even though we had a midfield of Winks, Alli and Ndombele! Definitely a lot of positives to take from this game, including the ongoing improvement of Dier. Less games will for sure give us a better chance of mounting a challenge for top four, this is a fact. Whether we take that chance or not is a different matter. But certainly more to be cheerful about than there has been for a very long time
“Conte will probably get ordered by the little Napoleon to play weak teams in those cups & concentrate on top 4 so enic can enhance their parasitic control.”
Er, really??
There is NO chance Senor Conte will be ‘ordered’ to do anything with regards the team HE selects for ANY match!
I agree. We looked better and some fringe players looked better but I still dont think that we should keep them or be claiming top 4 finish is truly realistic. We have a long way to go and a lot of underperforming players to churn out of the squad.
I think our chances of winning a trophy and/or finishing 4th are improved without Europe. Plus the additional training time seems critical as we all saw how much improved the squad looked with more Conte training against Liverpool.
This is a bit like back in the day when I had to take Business studies combined with CDT for GCSE and ended up with an E. I literally could not care less. I absolutely would prefer to be out of the competition and avoid the fixture pile up and be able to have a decent tilt at 4th.
Laugh all you like but 4th spot is wide open and we are no worse than any of the other teams that are going for it.
4th spot might not be a pot but it brings money and attracts players that are better than the ones that we already have. And we need both of those things to win a pot in the future!
The next stop on this exchange is ‘you had to be there’…
For me – I think Conte was relieved and Klopp was furious.
We were better, but without sounding like a grown-up, so what? We hadn’t played in a fortnight!
I don’t see that UEFA had any option but to eject Spurs from the competition in the same way that Orient were in the League cup last season. We won’t be the last team to fail to fulfill a cup fixture domestic or European this season and because of the time frame between games will likely to lead to elimination for the club involved.
The fact is that the squad at present is not deep enough to compete in four competitions so something has to give. Are you seriously saying we should have prioritised this tournament at the expense of others?
I don’t know if we can finish top four but yesterday showed that a top class coach can get performances out of supposedly useless players that the two previous managers patently failed to do which is why they are no longer in post.
Yesterday was the first time in seven attempts we got some sort of result against albeit a depleted Liverpool side who still fielded a strong side and are amongst the three or four best sides in Europe. More by luck than judgement it would appear Levy has for the first time employed a world class manager in Conte. How far he takes the side will depend on whether Levy backs him.
Watch the match again H and your glass will be half full!
We dominated them in clear cut chances, by a country mile. They had no clear cut chances beyond their goals, we had 4. We tore them apart on the break every single time.
Klopp filed a missing persons report after the match for Mo Salah, the alleged best player in the world.
Correct, we didn’t.
I’m struggling to understand how anyone might twist that draw into evidence we’re suddenly reborn. Didn’t see it, didn’t feel it.
Apologies H, you didn’t actually say it was impossible. However, you did say anyone who believes we can mount a top four challenge is kidding themselves, embarrassing themselves even. I disagree. With Conte in the dugout (or more accurately, prowling the touch line) we have a chance. COYS!
I must’ve watched a different game, because I didn’t see us dominate Liverpool.
If we’d stayed in the win-no-glory-pot we’d of had a massive fixture pile-up that would have cost us dear in other comps. In addition with our weak second 11 we’d of been knocked out once the ropey teams joined the comp. If I can remind you that after many years of trying a quarter final is the best we ever achieved in the ropey playing 2nd string 11’s. So best out now I say, with our pride intact.
We actually dominated Pool yesterday and should have buried them. Perhaps it was a fair result though based on Kane should have been sent off and they should have had a pen. But the gilt edged chances we missed!
However the performance was vastly improved and we should play that team and way in the two domestic cups and try and win one. Unfortunately all that Levy cares about is top 4 money though so Conte will probably get ordered by the little Napoleon to play weak teams in those cups and concentrate on top 4 so enic can enhance their parasitic control.
Or Levy could for once in his pathetic CEO role show some guts and buy the players Conte needs to succeed in league and cups. Alternatively he could be left waving Conte goodbye from Hotspur Way, whilst looking forward to choruses of “Levy Out” echoing around his palace.
I think that competition was a millstone and our performances bore that out.
Yesterday’s performance was very encouraging and given more time with Conte this could be our new norm.It reminded me of the best of Poch period where we were very focused and pressed high.It’s no coincidence that both managers train the players really hard.
I am confident of pushing past the spammers this week and beating Palace in the league on Boxing day.Things are looking up dare i say it.Win our games in hand and we are in a very good position.It helped that the inconsistency of those teams around us meant they were unable to take advantage of us not playing.
Dear me, we don’t lose to Liverpool, and your IQ halves overnight.
By the by, statements such as So you believe 4th is impossible?
when aimed at someone who never said such a thing, could make you look incredibly stupid.
Perhaps take a moment to review if you’re up to using the comments section on here.
If they don’t play with the same effort and intensity every week Conte will kill ‘em!!
I agree, yesterday was very encouraging. However, don’t get too excited. I think the biggest problem with our squad is a mentality issue. So many games they don’t seem to put the effort in or turn up. Yesterday was very different but will they play with that effort and intensity most games? I will remain cautious until I see they play like that for a few games running.
FA/League cup or a top 4 finish, that was the classic debate for Spurs in recent years. You only need to win a handful of games to lift either of those (well respected?) trophies, but top 4 gets you money, fame and fortune (and apparently few hundred days with not a single player brought in…)
This Conference League would have ended up being 15 games. 15 games to win a tinpot trophy that we’d still be bantered for lifting. No thanks, I’d take top 4 over that any day.
So you believe 4th is impossible? At the risk of embarrassing myself, I’d say it’s a distinct possibility under this manager. Why so pessimistic Harry?? Signs of massive improvement recently. We played well yesterday and deserved 3 points.