Message board blues

Aftermath comments from GG.net:

Spurs are in big trouble this season

From what I have seen this season they look like they would have trouble scoring in a brothel

Its a competitive league this year. Man C and Villa have improved and Hull and Stoke are not rolling over for anyone

We are currently dire. Seriously. Absolutely shocking.

Where's all this flowing, attacking football. Yet again we resort to long-ball tactics that Jol was getting murdered for implementing.

This is Wigan for gods sake.

We are in the shit, let's not kid ourselves. Ramos can go on about 'team gelling' until he is blue in the face, but the fact of the matter is that we are, at the moment, where we deserve to be in the table. And unless Ramos et al can sort things out over the next 2-3 weeks we are in big trouble.

But we're not even seeing the bloody basics.

Simple passing, moving into space, awareness of each other, watching opposition runners. We're simply not doing it.

It was shocking to watch, it really was.

We sold too many good players this summer. I'm not even talking about Berbatov and Keane, they wanted out. I'm talking about Malbranque, Tainio, Lee, Chimbonda. We sign enough shit players I'm fed up of selling decent ones when we find them. Malbranque especially was never going to set the world alight but i always liked him at Fulham and was really glad when we signed him. Last season he was probably our most consistent midfielder by a long way, really hard working and good (if not world class) quality. Could also play ANY position in midfield if need be. Tainio was injury prone, but a decent squad player with decent quality again and versatility. Lee was probably the best option for retaining cover in the full back positions, really decent player and Chimbonda ok he was a bit of a twat, but again was a good player who would have done a good job in the squad.

Why dismantle a team that finished 5th two seasons in a row? Such a team doesn't need dismantelling it just needs fine tuning. Yeah Bentley, Modric, Dos Santos seem decent players with some potential, but they weren't needed at all.

It pisses me off as it seems so simple: this summer i'd have had a look at our team and thought , well its not that bad, but could do with probably a midfield enforcer, a proper left winger, a new goalkeeper and cover in defence (given King and Woodgate cant be relied upon to stay fit). I would also have identified a replacement for Berbatov straight away as it was OBVIOUS to everyone except seemingly Levy and the Spurs management that he wanted out.

I'd have gone all out to get a Berbatov replacement straight away and sold him very early on in the window. Then u get it over and done with, u have a replacement, no negative media drama running all summer unsettling the players and fans and we move on. Then I'd have got a defensive midfielder, didn't even have to be a world class giant of a player, just someone who can steady the ship ffs with stamina, pace and positional sense who can play a simple ball, the premiership's actually full of those kind of players and it pisses me off that we dont have one and its a fundamental reason why we struggle to dominate teams....what use are loads of fancy flair players if you cant get hold of the ball and give it to them?

The ONLY position I'd say we were stronger in than last season is goalkeeper.All we've done in some positions is swap skill for hardwork (modric for malbranque, bentley for tainio) and the weaknesses that we had last season are still there. I've not witnesses a more shambolic summer since the sugar/gross type days.

We're overloaded with skilfull attacking midfielders but have no bite and our defence and organisation is all over the place. It reminds me of when West Ham got relegated with Cole, Carrick, Defoe, Kanoute and all those guys in the team. Teams with brittle spines and lack of organisation just can't hack it in the Premiership and if people think we are too good to go down, then you better start waking up and smelling the coffee.

Ouch.