Monday’s big question: What’s the point of Spurs?

It’s a cracking FA Cup mailbox. Mail us at theeditor@football365.com

 

Football IS about winning
I’m sure you will get many emails on this today, but here’s my take. This opinion which seems to have grown over the last 2-3 years that football is not about winning trophies is absolutely ridiculous.

Football is a sport, sport is about winning. Whatever level you play at. If it’s not about winning why do Spurs fans go absolutely crazy about a last minute goal? Why are Liverpool fans desperate to win the league? (they won’t).

For years Arsenal Wenger told everyone top four was a trophy and he was derided for it. Mainly by Spurs and Liverpool fans. Now here we are, and it seems he was right? “Trophies only help egos.” What an astonishing statement from the manager of a big club. Wenger also had to put up with seasons of horrific injury problems, yet we were told “your squad isn’t big enough”, yet during the game yesterday Spurs injuries must have been mentioned over ten times.

If it’s not about winning trophies, what is the point of Spurs? Why are they spending a billion pounds on a new stadium? This view appears to being perpetuated by the media (including this website).

In the period where Wenger was most vocal about the importance of the top four, he never once gave up the FA Cup. In fact he won it three times in four years. What an achievement. With every passing season that Spurs and/or Liverpool think they are too big to win the FAC, Wengers achievement just grows in magnitude.

We talk about Pochettino and Klopp’s success. Sorry? What success? Harry Kane has YET to win a trophy. He’s what, 26? He arguably has 5-6 years left at the top. Are we really supposed to believe that he doesn’t consider winning a trophy as important? I find the whole thing laughable.

And here’s the killer. Pochettino dumped the FAC to concentrate on top four. I don’t think Spurs will be top four, in fact I’m certain of it. What then? Failure? Or will they claim the “we played well for three months” trophy.

Enjoy your Mondays.
Brad Smith

 

Poch makes some funky decisions
I really don’t get what Poch has got against the FA Cup. He’s Argentinian – surely they watched Ricky Villa’s goal in assembly every day in school and sang about Ozzie’s knees going trembly all at the same time!

We accept the need to rotate, and many of the changes made yesterday are fair e.g Skipp for Winks, Foythe for Vertonghen. A lesser player is being bought in but the outgoing player needs a break.

It’s the funky changes that are hard to accept – the ones he doesn’t seem to learn from. Playing Son at left wing back a couple of years ago in the semi against Chelsea when he gave a penalty away, playing a heavy footed Vorm against Utd last year (granted it’s a like for like change but he’s a bit rubbish) and then playing Kyle WP at left wing back yesterday. This is a young guy starting out as a right back, not a James Milner type utility player.

When you consider that Eriksen wasn’t even in the squad there wasn’t a single one of our first choice midfield or attack out there. Danny Rose has started less than half Spurs premier league games – he really couldn’t have played yesterday? This was a much bigger game than Dortmund next month because it was a realistic chance of winning something. We will not beat Dortmund.

I hate to say this about a guy who has given us so much but maybe it’s because the cups do nothing to boost his profile outside the UK.
Andrew, Woodford Green
Ps Losing the 4pm Sunday game really is a rubbish way to end the weekend.

 

It’s all a bit fishy
That was almost like Spurs wanted to be knocked out.

No one can take a penalty that badly without it being part of a greater plan.
Paulo (4th place trophy here we come )

 

Make the FA Cup an Under-23 tournament?
Raphael Honingstein tweeted:

If you don’t win the thing, the worst is to have a long cup run, especially with a barebones squad like Tottenham currently being held together with snot and bandages. I was rooting harder for players to avoid injuries than for a team of near-strangers to pull back a goal.

We all know the luster of the cups has long been lost. Why not follow the lead of the Olympics and make the domestic cups both U23 tournaments and allow a few overage players on the roster? That’s close to what the bigger clubs do already and might make the whole thing a bit more watchable.
Trent Hergenrader, New York, USA

 

A question. And an answer
Watched the Chelsea vs Wednesday match last night with interest, as the wife is a passionate Wednesday fan. The excitement of the near pen soon gave way to disappointment and confusion, and I’m struggling as a result. There is no doubt that VAR called the Weds pen correctly – Ampadu clearly got the ball, no question, really good decision. However, what I can’t understand is why the result was a drop ball, one that wasn’t contested, Chelsea were given the ball freely, from which they then scored themselves – another correct call. If Ampadu clearly won the ball, and the ball clearly then went out of play, why didn’t Wednesday get a corner? This may (unlikely) have changed the course of the game. Can someone please enlighten me (or more importantly, give me an answer to calm the wife down!?

Thanks
Big Kev (I look like the naked Wednesday fan, but man, in that temperature? Braver than me!), Chertsey

 

Just sell CHO already
I’m already tired of this Hudson-Odoi saga. I understand that players need to look after themselves and do what they feel is right for their careers. I don’t feel players owe clubs anything, if he didn’t come up through the Chelsea ranks he’d have come up through another team’s system (if you’re good enough and determined enough you’ll get spotted).

What annoys me about the situation is I don’t think he’s making the right call and the way he’s gone about it is wrong. He’s only 18 and has been offered a ridiculous package by Chelsea, he’s playing pretty regularly, he’s behind Willian and Pedro (who are getting older and might not be first choice next season) and Hazard who will probably be at Real Madrid. So there is a chance that next season’s first choice wingers will be Odoi and Pulisic. So at the age of 19 he might well be first choice for his boyhood club and one of the best clubs in Europe. The fans will adore him like they adore Loftus-Cheek and the club will do their utmost to keep him happy.

So I really don’t understand why he’d want to go and play in the Bundesliga (or am I just a biased Chelsea fan?).

I prefer the approach of Eden Hazard who has openly discussed his dream of playing for Real Madrid (can you blame him?). He has always tried his best and never tried to force the clubs hand in making the transfer happen. If he does leave I will be disappointed but I would welcome him back to Stamford Bridge even wearing white. Courtois will get booed at every opportunity (to be honest I never really liked him – some of the comments he made in the past to other keepers has been arrogant and completely lacking class), but Hazard will be applauded.

So I say we should just sell him and get the money. No, wait, I’m actually annoyed enough to say we should keep him until his contract expires and send him down to the youth team to play with them.
Ed

 

Have Chelsea cocked this up though?
I hope I’m not the only one who is sitting back and looking at this Callum Hodson-Odoi transfer situation and laughing. Ok yes, Chelsea are potentially going to make £40m on a player that can’t even make the starting XI every week, and it will no doubt have their fans spouting “our youth team generates millions, it’s works perfectly” or similar. But this one is different. Chelsea are in a situation where they don’t need to, or want to sell.

The money offered is ridiculous but they know that his value will double in a season if he unleashes half of his potential in Germany. If that happens, they’ve effectively lost money because replacing that talent will cost even more in another year.

The big change with this one is that the player wants to leave. It’s not to say he isn’t happy, he just wants to play. I’m sure that just being in the youth set up for a few years at Chelsea has made him a millionaire or near to it, and now he wants to play.

This to me is the fabled Chelsea youth policy coming back to bite them in the arse. You’ve made these players rich beyond belief as kids, and now as Europe scouts each other’s youth teams all the way down to under-14’s looking to steal the next gem, English players have become appealing. Others like Sancho have shown that you can leave one of the richest clubs in the world because you’ll get the opportunity to showcase your talents.

He doesn’t want to wait and fair play to him. I’ve never actually seen much of him apart from in an England shirt and that’s probably more blame on Chelsea than me, but to have a club like Bayern willing to go all, in shows that there’s a lot more we haven’t seen from him yet. I’m sure he just doesn’t want to end up on one of those `Where are they now?’ Chelsea youth team pieces on Planet Football in 10 years time!

It does have me wondering though, if this move goes through how does Gareth Southgate leave out a £35-40m player from his squad, regardless of game time???
Chris Hardy

 

RLC to Man United please
Wouldn’t Loftus-Cheek be an ideal addition to the United squad?

Competition for Herrera and Pogba. Replacement for Mata. Can even play further forward and clearly not wanted by Sarri at Chelsea.

Cheeky summer bid please. May the good times roll. Ole!
Hakim, Sri Lanka

 

So annoyed about Everton
I’ve just watched Everton lose to Millwall and I’m so frustrated. I can’t understand why a team with Sigurdsson, Richardson, Calvert-Lewis etc can’t attack. Why they can’t run at the defenders and scare them. Why they can’t fire off a few shots at a nervous keeper in horrendous weather conditions. Why they can only pass sideways and throw another cross into the box to be dealt with comfortably. Why our midfield can only pass sideways, backwards or to the other team. Why our defence can’t defend set pieces. Like at all. We were on the BBC – so anyone watching us who maybe hasn’t this season and is thinking this is a one off. Rest assured… it is not. I was at Goodison when we very nearly threw away the lead to Lincoln after they started banging balls into the box. We can’t deal with it. It’s maddening.

There has to be an issue with the coaching. They players are all very disciplined and fall into shape when they lose the ball so fair play. But there’s absolutely no creativity going forward. And the zonal marking just isn’t working. I don’t mind zonal marking in theory… but maybe for these players it’s just not the right way.

I don’t want Silva sacked. I think he has the opportunity to show the fans that he can adapt and change between now and the end of the season. Whether that’s the formation or the system, something has to change. We now have nothing to play for and no real chance of relegation so hopefully he can take a few chances and come up with something. Just like Allardyce failed to do.

I wouldn’t be sad if he went though. There’s been a lot of talk about how well Eddie Howe and Sean Dyche have done. Let’s see if we can send a few illegal messages to unsettle them. Ed can have the attack and Sean can have the defence. Not a bad idea actually
James EFC

 

Why are those middling clubs throwing away the cups?
Many will cite the performances of Shrewsbury, Millwall and Wimbledon on Saturday alongside Newport’s third round victory as evidence that ‘The Magic of the Cup’ is still alive. While I wouldn’t for a second want to detract from the importance of days like these for fans of lower league clubs, for an underdog victory to truly register, it has to mean something to both sides. These latest ‘cup miracles’ are degraded in my eyes by the collective lack of application of the respective Premier League sides. The meek cup performances of Leicester, West Ham, and Everton in particular epitomize the maddening problem at the heart of the FA Cup’s slow creep towards irrelevance.

Fans of the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’, as well as those of the seven or so clubs currently steeling themselves for a relegation battle, will generally accept the prioritisation of league form over the fixture congestion caused by a cup run. On the other hand, fans of Watford, Wolves, Leicester, West Ham, Everton and Bournemouth will all feel that the Premier League holds little else in store for them in the bigger picture of this season. Watford in 7th are 11 points shy of Man United; Bournemouth in 12th are 8 points clear of Crystal Palace and the relegation mini-league below. With the greatest of respect to the Europa League qualifying rounds, what further incentive could the Premier League hold compared to the FA Cup run that four of these six sides have already let pass them by?

In my frustration as a neutral I attempted to answer this question. The answer is not remotely satisfactory but sure look. Using the 2017-18 figures as a reference, each Premier League club received the same share of TV revenue of just over £80 million last season. Each club received an additional £1.93 million per place in the table. In comparison, to earn £1.93 million from the FA Cup this season, a Premier League club would have to at least reach the semi-finals. When you consider that only three points currently separates those six sides from 7th-12th, you can briefly appreciate why clubs might shrug their shoulders at a cup run. But the stupid money in the Premier League is a double-edged sword, as English clubs are generally accepted as having to pay over the odds in transfer fees, largely because their wealth puts them at a disadvantage in negotiations. So instead of Wembley cup run this season, these clubs can now afford to buy 0.11 of a Caglar Soyuncu, 0.51 of a Lucas Perez, 0.27 of a Kurt Zouma (on loan), or 0.11 of a Dominic Solanke. Hell, if each of these clubs can leapfrog Watford while they continue their FA Cup run perhaps they can pool their prize money to afford exactly one new player.

Or maybe they’ll look at Watford with envy. With the title and top four races hotting up, and the big boys therefore distracted, there’s a real opportunity to go all the way in football’s most historic competition. There’s a chance of actual silverware, memories that every generation of Watford fan will cherish, and a permanent place in the club’s 115-year history. That, or they might have just cost themselves 0.43 of an Adam Masina.
Jeff, Some Place Far Away (Yes, That’ll Do)

 

It’s all relative…
Notts County fan here…I get that it’s all relative when it comes to moaning about our respective club’s fortunes, I really do. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure and all that.

A little perspective though, if I may, for those of you squabbling about net spend, multi-million pound flops, making the top four and all that good stuff – Our gobshite, social media addicted, Tommy Robinson post sharing, egomaniac embarrassment of an owner somehow contrived today to accidentally post a picture of his todger on Twitter.

‘Big Alan’s’ completely grown up, unrelated and not in any way impulsive response to this self-inflicted embarrassment was to put the club up for sale hours later.

Eight points adrift of League Two safety, having recently suffered home defeats to three of of relegation rivals, most of us have long since accepted our fate. The impending loss of the thing we hold most dear – our proud status as the world’s oldest football league club – was bad enough, now we are left wondering if we will have a club to support at all next season, league or otherwise, all because of one man’s inexplicable compulsion to take dick selfies in the bath. As you were.
Jim