Obviously, like all Spurs fans, whilst not at all surprised, was disappointed with the defeat, and in particular yet another set piece downfall.
That said:
1. Lots on here expressing very strong ( and a bit inappropriate ) comments about another Spurs loss and how bad we are etc etc. Yeah I agree our record in finals is poor, but did anyone seriously think we could compete with City on a big pitch, for 90 Minutes. The fact is, due entirely to money, City are not only streets ahead of Spurs ( 5 years has been mentioned, which is about right ) but also well ahead of everyone else.
They have a multi billion pound squad of about 30 quality players which have regular re investment to keep it progressing. We have an aging first team that needed moving on a couple of years ago, with very little investment in the overall squad to achieve natural progression.
To illustrate this, look at where Spurs were at the end of season 2016/17. They just finished second to Chelsea with 86 points, and were probably ahead of City at that time. Move on 4 years and compare the investment at both clubs. That tells you everything about yesterday's game.
2.There has been a fair amount of negative comments about Ryan Mason. Personally, although he did show lack of experience in his team selection ( Winks over Ndombele was strange ) but to be fair, he is a young guy, thrown into an impossible situatiion. I though he spoke well in the post match interview, and clearly has a passion for his club. Just put in a no win situation.
3. Our defense . Much criticised ( quite right at times ) were solid. Thought Toby and Hugo were both excellent. When you look at it, for all their possession, City were held to just 4 attempts on goal, with 3 of those being easy saves for Hugo. The media get so hung up on City these days, all the blocks and generally well organised back 4 was constantly ignored.
4. Laporte. Yeah I know the best team won, but the fact is he should have gone in the first half, which could have changed the whole game. And how typical he was the one who got the goal. We all know refereeing standards in this country are awful, but yesterday's man in the middle was really poor all match long. He clearly dodged the first yellow card offence, and as we know ( CL final 2018 ) referee decisions DO change games.
5. Harry Kane. My view is, yet again, he played in a final when not fit. That said, we do have a problem with this guy. My feeling is we have to either get better players around him, or cash in before it's too late and rebuild. Otherwise we just have a single talent that is being swallowed up in the mediocrity around him.
6. The never ending "they haven't won a cup for ages" debate continues to dominate our club. I really think this is now a monkey on our back that has got too big. That said, it is a debate that continues to mystify me. Clearly this is a theme being generated by the media, but has now transferred to every other fan, as a means to dig at Spurs. But factually, there are plenty of clubs who like to be known as "top" clubs, who do spend serious money, that have waited a hell of a lot longer for a cup. Eg Everton ( 1996 ) West Ham ( 1986 ) and the likes of Wolves, Newcastle, Villa etc.
But none of these get any media exposure in this regards. There are only 3 cups on offer each year and, with the exception of Chelsea and Utd, the other 17 clubs simply cannot compete financial As I say, it is a mystery to me why Spurs, and Spurs along get continually singled out by the media, who must know the 17 clubs don't have a chance.
7. In terms of the bigger picture. I am frankly seriously worried as to how football in this country is going. Whilst the media are all over City at the moment, none of them seem to have cottoned on to the fact that they are now dominating our game, in an identical way to Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Denmark, and any other European league that is won by the same team every year. The fact is City have a tried and tested model, that involves spending money to ensure they are continually ahead of everyone else. PSG, RM and Barca are all identical models.
Let me ask you guys, is there anyone on here that would not be surprised if we come back on here in 6 years time, discussion City's 10th League Cup win in a row ?
Personally, that is not the football that I want to follow each week. It just has that inevitability about it that German, French, Italian and Spanish fans must have been feeling for years.
Reflections on yesterday
posted on 26/4/21
Steve, good article but one thing I will disagree with is that defeatist Spursy attitude of “well other clubs spends so much more than us so we can’t expect to win trophies “ eerrrrr Bolloks, we play some of the highest ticket prices in world football and other clubs that have been dog s** for the best part of 10 years like Arsenal have trophies to their name in recent years. Leicester who potentially could win the Fa cup and have won the bloody premier league spend nowhere city’s money, yet proudly have trophies to their name. Our inept ability to get over the line when it truly matters is bordering on lunacy. How do we keep doing it ? A record semi final losses in a row. 4 final losses with 0 goals scored. They freeze as a group of players and freeze as a club. We are known for being the biggest bottle jobs on the planet for a reason. Stop feeling sorry for ourselves and just bloody admit it. Until we win trophies, we will forever be ridiculed and too right.
posted on 26/4/21
******************************************************
Harry Kane. My view is, yet again, he played in a final when not fit. That said, we do have a problem with this guy. My feeling is we have to either get better players around him, or cash in before it's too late and rebuild. Otherwise we just have a single talent that is being swallowed up in the mediocrity around him.
*****************************************************
If Harry Kane played yesterday when "not fit", then the manager is to blame. He is the one in charge of the line-up, is he not?
As far as Harry Kane's market value, it continues to plummet. Yes, he does score a lot of goals, but he is also hurt a lot. I don't believe that his latest injury was due to a rough tackle? He does seem to be injury prone, and clubs may not be willing to pony up a lot of cash for someone like this.
posted on 26/4/21
Simple fact of it is City’s team cost £883.57 million. Also with the arguably the world’s most progressive manager, whom has been at the helm now for 5 years.
Another important fact, without Lloris yesterday the score would’ve been 3 or 4 nil. Hence the XG.
posted on 26/4/21
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 26/4/21
Injury prone nearly 300 apps at 27.
posted on 26/4/21
comment by sandy, Ryan Mason, super league boss for 24 ho... (U20567)
posted 5 hours, 35 minutes ago
comment by fridgeboy (U1053)
posted 6 minutes ago
Why is that Laporte thing even a debate? Do you really think if he was on a yellow for the first he would have committed the foul that led to the second? Moura was on the halfway line. If Laporte had let him go on account of him being on a yellow it's extremely doubtful anything would have come of it anyway. It's naive to suggest that the tackle would have remained the same. City absolutely tore us apart and were it not for woeful finishing, brilliant goalkeeping and heroic defending, it would have been a cricket score. We have no grounds to moan about decisions.
On your point about City's dominance - yes they spend big but no bigger than United and Chelsea, who in recent years (apart from this one with United) we've competed closely with in the league. There's one reason and one reason only (no, I'm not Ted Hastings) why City are as dominant as they are - Pep Guardiola. He won't be there forever. Prior to his arrival, sure they won things, but they certainly weren't dominant. That will change eventually. We should be using it as an inspiration rather than poking it with a stick. I think the most they've spent on one player is for Dias at around £60m. That's the same as Ndombele roughly. It's about getting every area right. Owners, recruitment, manager, style of play. Sure money helps but whilst it can buy you trophies, it can't buy domination.
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Pep Guardiola has spent £883.57 million in his five years at the club, including buying two players for over £60 million, five players for over £50 million, four players for over £40 million. He may not have purchased any mega money player, but he has blown all opposition out of the water with the spending power he has on tap.
You are making out that Pep is so good he is doing it on a shoestring. How good would he be without the money?
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What is your point? Once again your team, and super star Harry, failed to get the job done. Getting rid off Jose really produced results!
posted on 26/4/21
comment by TobyJanKaneobi (U15068)
posted 1 hour, 27 minutes ago
Simple fact of it is City’s team cost £883.57 million. Also with the arguably the world’s most progressive manager, whom has been at the helm now for 5 years.
Another important fact, without Lloris yesterday the score would’ve been 3 or 4 nil. Hence the XG.
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This is such bollox, it should be the cost of the team they field, not the cost of transfers over 5 years.
posted on 26/4/21
comment by SteveF (U22027)
posted 5 hours, 51 minutes ago
comment by Sut mine klunker - Admin 5 (U1250)
posted 1 hour, 21 minutes ago
comment by Devonshirespur (U6316)
posted 1 hour, 9 minutes ago
comment by fridgeboy (U1053)
posted 4 minutes ago
Why is that Laporte thing even a debate? Do you really think if he was on a yellow for the first he would have committed the foul that led to the second? Moura was on the halfway line. If Laporte had let him go on account of him being on a yellow it's extremely doubtful anything would have come of it anyway. It's naive to suggest that the tackle would have remained the same. City absolutely tore us apart and were it not for woeful finishing, brilliant goalkeeping and heroic defending, it would have been a cricket score. We have no grounds to moan about decisions.
On your point about City's dominance - yes they spend big but no bigger than United and Chelsea, who in recent years (apart from this one with United) we've competed closely with in the league. There's one reason and one reason only (no, I'm not Ted Hastings) why City are as dominant as they are - Pep Guardiola. He won't be there forever. Prior to his arrival, sure they won things, but they certainly weren't dominant. That will change eventually. We should be using it as an inspiration rather than poking it with a stick. I think the most they've spent on one player is for Dias at around £60m. That's the same as Ndombele roughly. It's about getting every area right. Owners, recruitment, manager, style of play. Sure money helps but whilst it can buy you trophies, it can't buy domination.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
City did not tear us apart! They dominated the ball but they didnt create a huge amount of chances and they didnt miss any sitters and won from a set piece. "woeful finishing" is a complete exaggeration but even still, finishing is a skill like any other part of the game so if they were guilty of woeful finishing that is a criticism of them not us being lucky. Don't get me wrong, we were barely in the game, but we actually defended pretty well.
As for the Laporte thing, Lucas may have been on the half way line but beyond Laporte he was effectively clean through & no way Laporte was catching him so who knows what may have come from that situation. It should not be dismissed so easily that City always foul to break up the counter attacks and player like Fernandino have denied belief in the past with the amount of fouls he gives away without being booked. Just more weak reffing and this whole "dont book a player early in the game" BS is inexcusable.
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City did not tear us apart! They dominated the ball but they didnt create a huge amount of chances
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Yeah, they only mustered 21 shots
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Look, I fully support that everyone on here is entitled to an opinion, but to say Laporte would not have made the second tackle if he had ( quite rightly ) received a card for the first tackle. That is absolute rubbish, and not even close to wishful thinking.
He made two yellow card tackles. Should have gone. End of.
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Had Reguilon correctly been carded for his 'tackle' on Foden in the first few minutes then Laporte would also have been carded, the ref clearly explained that to the Spurs players. Would Reguilon have then hacked down KDB (for which he was carded) and sent off? Probably not, any more than Laporte would have made the tackle that got him carded had he been on a yellow. It is a ridiculous argument.
posted on 27/4/21
comment by fridgeboy (U1053)
posted 20 hours, 32 minutes ago
Regarding us not winning anything, I kind of agree with you there. I think it's wildly overplayed. The bottom line is that these days the very biggest clubs get to the finals so when we come to face them, we're never favourites to win anyway. To lose those finals were to be expected. It was par. I think we're in a difficult position. We're supposedly a member of the Premier League elite but in truth there is the top four teams in City, United, Chelsea and Liverpool and then there is a bit of a drop to Spurs and Arsenal, in terms of the traditional top six. We're Andy Murray in an era of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. We get to finals but someone much bigger comes along and snatches it from us. Sure, Arsenal won the FA Cup last year but with a bit of luck, we would have won some of the finals we've lost too. It's a combination of better teams and bad luck. Not some mystical hoodoo we can't shed.
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Liverpool had an off day in the cl final. And city were having an off day in front of goal. No danger of spurs capitalising though. We didn’t turn up in the cl final and the less said about the city game the better.
The chances have been there to win cups. We just haven’t taken them. Europa league this season we were the favourites for the competition after the Zagreb first leg...... then we lost the second leg 3-0 face if we just don’t have it in us to get across the line.
posted on 27/4/21
comment by bomdia (U13941)
posted 12 hours, 32 minutes ago
comment by SteveF (U22027)
posted 5 hours, 51 minutes ago
comment by Sut mine klunker - Admin 5 (U1250)
posted 1 hour, 21 minutes ago
comment by Devonshirespur (U6316)
posted 1 hour, 9 minutes ago
comment by fridgeboy (U1053)
posted 4 minutes ago
Why is that Laporte thing even a debate? Do you really think if he was on a yellow for the first he would have committed the foul that led to the second? Moura was on the halfway line. If Laporte had let him go on account of him being on a yellow it's extremely doubtful anything would have come of it anyway. It's naive to suggest that the tackle would have remained the same. City absolutely tore us apart and were it not for woeful finishing, brilliant goalkeeping and heroic defending, it would have been a cricket score. We have no grounds to moan about decisions.
On your point about City's dominance - yes they spend big but no bigger than United and Chelsea, who in recent years (apart from this one with United) we've competed closely with in the league. There's one reason and one reason only (no, I'm not Ted Hastings) why City are as dominant as they are - Pep Guardiola. He won't be there forever. Prior to his arrival, sure they won things, but they certainly weren't dominant. That will change eventually. We should be using it as an inspiration rather than poking it with a stick. I think the most they've spent on one player is for Dias at around £60m. That's the same as Ndombele roughly. It's about getting every area right. Owners, recruitment, manager, style of play. Sure money helps but whilst it can buy you trophies, it can't buy domination.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
City did not tear us apart! They dominated the ball but they didnt create a huge amount of chances and they didnt miss any sitters and won from a set piece. "woeful finishing" is a complete exaggeration but even still, finishing is a skill like any other part of the game so if they were guilty of woeful finishing that is a criticism of them not us being lucky. Don't get me wrong, we were barely in the game, but we actually defended pretty well.
As for the Laporte thing, Lucas may have been on the half way line but beyond Laporte he was effectively clean through & no way Laporte was catching him so who knows what may have come from that situation. It should not be dismissed so easily that City always foul to break up the counter attacks and player like Fernandino have denied belief in the past with the amount of fouls he gives away without being booked. Just more weak reffing and this whole "dont book a player early in the game" BS is inexcusable.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
City did not tear us apart! They dominated the ball but they didnt create a huge amount of chances
------------------
Yeah, they only mustered 21 shots
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Look, I fully support that everyone on here is entitled to an opinion, but to say Laporte would not have made the second tackle if he had ( quite rightly ) received a card for the first tackle. That is absolute rubbish, and not even close to wishful thinking.
He made two yellow card tackles. Should have gone. End of.
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Had Reguilon correctly been carded for his 'tackle' on Foden in the first few minutes then Laporte would also have been carded, the ref clearly explained that to the Spurs players. Would Reguilon have then hacked down KDB (for which he was carded) and sent off? Probably not, any more than Laporte would have made the tackle that got him carded had he been on a yellow. It is a ridiculous argument.
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What`s ridiculous about players getting two yellow cards for fouls, and then getting sent off. Back to bed for you fella.