Spurs can be fixed pretty easily and that opens a massive Mailbox that also includes thoughts on Arne Slot, set-pieces and more.
Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com
FrankenSpurs?
Whatever about Spurs precarious league position, surely their lack of brain is more worrisome?
Sixyardbox, Stockholm
How to fix Spurs
After another dismal result at Fulham, I got to thinking; It’s all very well ranting about ENIC and recruitment. What do we need to do? If this was Championship Manager and I ran the show, what would I do?
So, firstly, assuming we stay up which, bearing in mind that West Ham and Forest are as bad if not worse, I still think we will, what do we do this summer? Each is headed by a song title that seemed appropriate!
We all know who the fans want. Will Poch come? If he won’t, I’d consider Tim Sherwood. He knows and likes the club, he’s perceptive on Sky. And he’s realistic as a target. Guardiola or Ancelotti ain’t coming. Marco Silva could work.
The players we should try to persuade to stay, assuming they are restored to full fitness.
Porro & Richarlison
Van de Ven & Romero
Kudus & Kulusevski
Gray & Bergvall
Maddison & Simons
Tel & Odobert (but send them out on loan. They’ve got potential but they’re not ready.)
Udogie.
I’d add Palhinha if he was ours to keep.
AKA, ‘Don’t let the door hit you where the good Lord split you’.
Undecided: Solanke. Clearly a good player. But it isn’t working for him at Spurs.
Gallagher. Too early to say, especially when he’s being played out of position.
Muani. Not ours to keep. I’d take him for a lowball fee but not big bucks.
Part two of “Sam Fixes Spurs” will be a list of players we should target this summer, but that’s for another day.
Kind regards,
Sam
Why supporting Spurs really ain’t that bad
In these difficult days to be a Spurs fan I thought I would write in with something positive.
One of the various mocking memes etc, was looking at a rebrand of our “to dare is to do” motto and came up with “It’s just who we are”. I know it was being negative but I quite liked it.
A friend of mine’s son, who was born in Tottenham, lamented as a very young child, with a limited idea of geography, “why couldn’t I have been born in Man U?”. I have never wished that I supported someone else.
It is 59 years since my first visit to White Hart Lane and I don’t regret for a moment that fate and family took me that way. I am a Spurs fan, it is just who I am. It would have been nice to have won more cups but I do not envy other clubs’ success.
Supporting Tottenham for me is about the shared community that I belong to, not least with my family who are all Spurs fans.
What a dreadful season on and off the pitch Sheffield Wednesday are having, but I bet for many of their supporters, whilst not exactly enjoying it, they have really relished the shared camaraderie of their fellow fans of togetherness in the face of such adversity.
For all the long periods of turgid football and mediocrity at Spurs through the ages there have been some wonderful moments. Seeing Hoddle at his majestic best and being able to enjoy Greaves, Gilzean, Waddle, Gascoigne, Dele, Harry and Son. And the other ones not really appreciated outside your club, like the ungainly Darren Anderton, who looked as if he was playing with a coat hanger still in his shirt. Just great.
So on Thursday night I will be there at the stadium with my son and daughter, brother and brother in law to cheer them on. And if the worst happens and we go down, I and they will be back. Because it’s Spurs “it’s just who we are”.
Sean, East Finchley
PS, I know that the letters page would indicate that your audience has only ever known the premier league and Glen Hoddle as a very dull pundit, but look him up. He really was special.
Apocalypse now?
For those of you who are not religious and not expecting fire, flood or pestilence as your signs, I would contend that a couple of sure indicators of the coming end of the World are MUFC in 3rd with 9 games to go, or St. Tottingham Day in February!
Adidasmufc
(Of course, bombing Iran might be another one!)
To the ‘F365 are sh*t’ moaners
To those moaning about the lack of decent content and actual tactical analysis (aka Arsenal & Liverpool fans when they get write ups they don’t agree with/emails they take exception to), I expect you’ll all be flocking to discuss the recent article about Pep’s adaptation/rebuild cycle in a genteel and respectful fashion. Quality stuff IMO.
At the time of writing this mail, it has 4 comments – 2 each from a couple of the more cerebral BTLers. Compare and contrast with any mailbox ever/99% of the more, erm, tongue in cheek articles (or outrageous slurs if you’re a gooner/kopite), where the same folk trade the same insults and ridiculous paranoia, and we all have to scroll past Harold and Davos slow dancing with each other for several yards of text. Again.
Hopefully I’ll be proved wrong, but I doubt it.
RHT/TS x
(Slot is simultaneously dead right and utterly ridiculous, considering his position, with his comments about the ugliness of current PL football)
…Thought I’d give you some positive feedback after seeing multiple messages in the mailbox recently moaning about the standard of the articles on your site. Whilst I agree some aren’t to my taste, and others are obviously click bait, it’s a free website we can choose to visit or not. I mainly concentrate on the Mailbox as a break from my working day and, as a Spurs fan, have relished the fact that neutral fans have now realized how insufferable Arsenal fans can be (are). Something us fans of the European Champions have known for a long time.
Mostly though, it’s Mediawatch I look forward to. Always makes me chuckle, and I love the thought of your guys trawling through articles/posts hoping to come across some drivel worth taking the p*ss out of, jumping with glee when they find some. Though to be fair, these days it doesn’t seem too hard to find. Anyways, keep up the good work.
Sam, Guernsey (Not even contemplating us going down, properly in denial)
Stop picking on Arne Slot, though
So Will Ford wrote a whole article, and a section of Big Midweek about Arne Slot’s comments that ‘ most of the games I see in the Premier League are not for me a joy to watch’.
I think that many would agree with Slot that there are currently a lot of games which aren’t great to watch, perhaps an over reliance on set pieces and penalty box grappling to gain an (unfair) advantage.
But he omits to mention that at no point did Slot state that Liverpool were any better or more attractive than the status quo, which is a telling omission, along with snide comments like ‘to hear Slot talk of the “joy” being sucked from football one would think he was one the great footballing philosophers.
It is clear Will Ford hates Arne Slot, but I have no idea why. He’s only said what many people think, and has not said his side is any better than the norm, so why the childish overreaction?
A, LFC, Montreal
…Will Ford seems to have found out Arne Slot, following his response to a question at a press conference. All the funny stuff with the heavy metal and the country and western! Must’ve been ages coming up with all that…
I’d love to make some alternative points. Slot was answering a direct question as honestly as he could. Last season, pundits were lining up to commend his refreshing honesty- a few months on and Will smells a bit of a chance to vent his anger and BOOM! He sticks the boot in. Nice one. Does Will remember who won the league last year? Does he feel they should win it every year? I am a football fan and I am interested to know what a premier league winning manager thinks because I think he might offer some insight.
What has Will done? Has he won the premier league recently? Because he certainly thinks very little of Arne Slot. He must think last year was very easy for Slot. After all, hadn’t Liverpool been winning it for fun lately? Well… no they hadn’t actually. They had won it once in about 4 decades so, unlike Will, I would think that Slot is allowed to have an opinion and after all, he was simply answering a direct question.
Does Will think Arne should celebrate this new physical direction that British football is taking and say “I love it, even though we are losing way more and are not good at set-pieces, I just love it- I love that we’re losing actually, it’s a great feeling.” Maybe he should jump on the table and celebrate like Tom Cruise on Oprah? Would that be better. Have some respect man.
Michael, Ireland
No sympathy for Villa
I’ve always like Villa. Always been good. Often been better than good. Had some very likeable players and managers. But I have zero sympathy for them right now.
From Big Midweek: ‘Strip any team of their starting midfield three and they would struggle in a similar manner.’
They have a talented midfielder that’s not even in their last 5 squads.
Yeah they can’t afford him…but they signed the loan deal. And now they leave a young player to rot even in the midst of an injury crisis!!
No sympathy. That sort of bad business mistake and bad faith to players you signed deserves bad outcomes.
This is the first time I can ever remember being happy with villa dropping points.
Elliott may not even be good enough to get them into the Champions League… but the treatment of him is enough to warrant a Villa fail.
Joe LFC
A note on penalties and Arsenal
My Good Lord there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth in this morning’s mailbox with regards to F365’s articles about Arsenal’s skulduggery at corners etc.
Look corners are always going to be a tussle. Put ten men in a small area chasing a ball with a lot on the line and there will be pushing and shoving. It’s inevitable for some competition and physicality to occur between players. But I think we’re definitely crossing a line between professionals competing and the sort of rough housing I would have expected to face in my old university league where everyone was shit, hungover and the refs were just representatives from other teams.
The level of shit housery we saw in the Chelsea Arsenal game was just ridiculous, embarrassing and nobody with three brain cells could try and defend the level of holding and outright fouls from both sides in that game. Any attempts do so can easily identified as biased tribalist nonsense
And the real problem here, in my humble opinion, is that refereeing is just wholly inconsistent. The outrage that Arsenal and Chelsea fans have while Spurs fans have seen the same decisions go against them with absolutely no consistency (I’m looking at you Gabriel going down like he took an RPG while similar goals get given against Fulham and Liverpool) is completely out of touch.
And we can talk about “interpreting the rules” until the cows come home but even in interpretation there has to be some consistency and we really are reaching the level of farce. Chelsea should have had two penalties as a result of those corners and I’ll even say arsenal should have had one. If refs won’t call these out then the bullshittery will continue and the quality of the league will keep falling
Finally one for my tinfoil hat enjoyers. I just saw today that Arsenal have conceded zero penalties this season. ZERO. NIL. The last time that happened over a full season was Liverpool 21/22 (obviously I’m aware there are still games to go but the point stands) and the reason I do find this egregious is because going back to the VERY first game of the season Arsenal had a stonewall penalty against Cunha in the 6 yard box not given. And after this last game against Chelsea where Arsenal players were defending in ways that would put you and me in the dock for sexual assault and there was STILL no penalty
So my tinfoil hat friends might think that there is general plan to help Arsenal win the league but let’s Ockham’s Razor here. I think if Arsenal had been conceding penalties at a more realistic rate in line with their “defending” were looking at a very different league table. Would love if someone had seen all their games and could shed some light on these penalty stats for and against because I don’t get to see much football. But I think the simpler reason is that poor refereeing standards have allowed Arsenal players to practice the dark arts (read: cheat) and they’ve been able to continue in that vein throughout the season to max points and find themselves top of the table.
Let me say that again. ZERO penalties against. NIL. F*** all. And after this weekends shenanigans I would love to hear my fellow mailboxers opinions about that.
Disgruntled, RSA
How do we combat the Arse?
Harold Eggfried Hooler asked the question what do we do about the win at all costs mentality versus entertainment, and that what possible rule changes could be brought in.
Arsene Wenger’s new offside rule looks like it will be brought in soon which is great (being trialled shortly in the Canadian league – but that’s a whole other story – plenty to come on that in time) – so that’s one. What I do believe however is that it is down to the managers – particularly the ones of the big clubs – you know – the ones with trillions to spend every year – but still insist on making corners their most potent and commonly used weapon rather than scoring from open play.
I’ve always disagreed with the notion that ultimately football/sport is all about winning. Not to me it isn’t. It’s an entertainment first and foremost – especially football. So if you have the resources to buy any footballer on planet earth every season then you really do have a responsibility to make your style of football ‘entertaining’.
We all have different tastes – but apart from Arsenal fans who just want to win at any cost (and always did – re: George Graham/offside trap/1 nil to the Arsenal – they got fed up and hounded Wenger out of the club because of his (sound) principles) – most fans do not wish to see 3 goals all scored from corners – and any likelihood of more goals coming from that source too. Its not that they are scoring from corners – its just that thats all they are doing. Say what you like about Ferguson, Pep, Klopp, Wenger, even Ange, (add in Luis Enrique and a few others in Europe the last few years) – they did not settle for just winning. They knew they had an obligation to their fans, football fans in general – and also to themselves – to make their brand of football progressive but above all great to watch.
I’m a Liverpool fan but I inwardly loved Utds style of play throughout the 90’s and 2000’s – always going for the win – always being positive and playing good looking direct football. In fact it used to embarrass me a bit when under Benitez we often didn’t do that and achieved a few triumphs with less than entertaining football. Not always – but often.
If you are mid-low position teams then maybe it is understandable – at least till you cement your place in the division. But if you are earning the bucks that the likes of Arsenal are then come on – you do owe it to the public to not be Big Sams Bolton. In fact they were way better to watch.
Shunt
…Harry, the answer to the corner scrums is mostly fairly simple: apply the existing laws properly and consistently.
Impeding a player by dragging or purposefully blocking them is a foul (easily identified at corners by players not looking at the ball but the player they’re seeking to stop). It doesn’t matter if both sides are doing it, punish them both, punish them all consistently and this nonsense will stop. If it takes a VAR pause of 10 minutes the first time to deal with all the stuff going on, take it, deal with it all and people won’t think they can get away with it just because there’s 5 other incidents going on.
As far as the time wasting, I don’t think 5 seconds would be reasonable although the chaos would be pretty hilarious as possession was passed back and forth before anyone could know they had it with ensuing yellow cards for kicking the ball away. But a firm limit on 20 seconds max would cut out a lot of that too. Does that give enough time for the big lad at the back to get forwards? It should, players in egg ball don’t get a breather when moving from ruck to maul.
A player moves too far from the spot for the throw-in or does a foul throw-in, warning then card.
Player dives for a free kick / penalty? VAR can see if there’s legit contact and if not, then it’s a yellow for simulation. If there happen to be 3 other incidents going on in the back ground of the same video review, deal with them as well.
Just apply the damned rules, and the same rules for each team.
Set pieces are a good aspect of the game, where organisation and training ground routines can be brought out. No issue with that at all. Free kicks take good skill to pull off. United won in 99 thanks in part to excellent corners and free kicks.
But the tolerance for routine piss-taking needs to stop. Go zero-tolerance scorched-earth. Treat players (and managers) like the unruly spoiled children they are, and they’ll learn soon enough. As long as they think they might get away with it, they will try and they’ll never stop pushing you.
Badwolf
Arsenal getting picked on part 427
There’s a lot of whining going on about corners and long throws. Lots of it directed, unfairly, at Arsenal.
For years Arsenal have been criticised for walking the ball in the net, having no grit etc etc, and have had to play against teams who park the bus (sorry, “low block”). Solution – work on a weakness and turn it into a strength, which is met with… Criticism. And just so people can get a sense of clarity, go and look at a typical Arsenal set piece. It isn’t all mayhem, grappling, chaos – it’s well practised routine. Now go and look at the set piece attacking/defending of teams who don’t play in red and white, and consider is it more of less physical than Arsenal’s approach. Also, you’d think Arsenal have a monopoly on this, but they’re what, one or two goals ahead of the next club on the list?
Now, there also seems to be a lot of noise about rules, punishments and VAR stepping in to ‘clean up corners’. Bullshit. Let them at it. Arms down, that’s it. Football is getting so pathetic. We’ve already allowed diving and simulation in the door. Remember when it was a keepers prerogative to wipe out anyone in their path. Stick with that! In all seriousness, can you imagine the inconsistencies in refereeing decisions – it will be piss boiling for supporters on a weekly basis.
Finally, unrelated, I’m glad there has been some recognition of the anti-Arsenal bias lately. Will Ford aka Stewie is no doubt a click-driver, but his bias is getting embarrassing for a mainstream website. He’s down in the pits with Chris Sutton at the moment, with Johnny-Nic on his way to joining them. Cliff R put it better than I could.
Diaby
The law is an ass
It is unfathomable how, in the same sport, someone can be rugby tackled or body-checked with impunity, while someone else can have a light hand on someone’s back or three fingers on their shoulder and it’s a foul and even a sending-off offence.
This isn’t a complaint about set pieces because I know how difficult it is to get a goal from a corner. But it’s beyond ridiculous that in the same penalty area, such vastly different standards are being applied.
Also, what happened to obstruction? Is it still against the rules? No one ever gets a free kick for it any more. We’ve all seen the defender leaning back against the attacker, with his arms back, as he “shepherds the ball out of play”. Some of the blocking at corners surely qualifies as obstruction.
We need clarification so that football retains its physicality and players are not rewarded for going over easily, but wrestling is confined to a different sport.
Paul in Brussels
Strictly come football
I see the predictable wailing and gnashing of teeth after Sundays CornerFest took football back to the bad old days (which were also the good old days when real men could take a tackle without rolling on the floor as if they were shot – it’s hard to keep up).
Goals scored from corners aren’t real goals obviously so should only be worth half a goal. Own goals aren’t real goals either are they? Half a goal for them too. What about goals bouncing in off yer arse after a goalmouth scramble? Scuffed toe pokes? Mishit crosses that end up in the net? Bit ridiculous that they’re worth as much as a 40 yard thunderbastard.
The only way to save football is to go full Strictly and have a panel of judges award marks out of ten for each score. Winners of the game will only be announced once the panel have concluded their deliberations. In a really tight title race the champions night only be crowned once Mays Goal of the Month has been decided.