It is evident after the result we ended up with against Hull this weekend that the chances of us reaching Champions League football next season are fading ever further away from our grasp. It wasn’t necessarily a bad performance by the players, however the result was disappointing. With Vertonghen and Paulinho, two key players, returning from injury it seemed inevitable that three points were in the bag. However, once again, a mistake from Danny Rose led to an early goal conceded.
Danny Rose is a strong talking point as of recent fixtures. His terrible mistake against Arsenal in the League Cup led to Arsenal hitting the final nail in the coffin with Thomas Rosicky hitting home their second of the evening. It has been in strong consideration from the fans that Levy should bring fan favourite Benoit Assou-Ekotto back from his loan spell at Queens Park Rangers. This season we have managed to narrowly cope with Danny Rose, Kyle Naughton and occasionally Jan Vertonghen playing the left-back role and now it is certainly understood that we must seek the aid of a new one.
Another focal point in fans minds recently is uprising youngster Nabil Bentaleb. At only 19 years of age, it is debatable whether or not he is ready to compete in big and important matches. As Sherwood has made apparent, the coach definitely thinks highly of Bentaleb as he has been a key asset in recent games. Despite shining through against smaller clubs, he failed to provide the service needed to control the midfield against Manchester City. Recent times have seen Paulinho return to action however supporters are biting their nails in anticipation of the return of Sandro whilst Capoue is fit however he is another player low down in the pecking order and almost moved to pastures new in the summer when he came close to a £15million switch to Napoli.
In many fan’s opinion, less than half of the players who arrived during our summer spending spree have managed to prove what they are made of. Vlad Chriches, Paulinho and Christian Eriksen have proven that the price tag meets their names. However, Soldado and Chadli are two men who have great potential at Spurs and get enough game time to prove so but fail to provide what their roles show, whether that be Chadli who supposedly adds pace and flair on the wings or Soldado with goals. Lamela on the other hand has been left out in the cold. After scoring just one mediocre goal that came in our unbeaten run in the Europa League last calendar year, Lamela has far from lived up to his £30million price tag. A supposed versatile winger who can play either side or up front has failed to impress fans and coaching staff in each position he has played.
Overall, after a dire transfer window which saw nobody arrive at The Lane however saw us wave goodbye to a few youngsters on loan, including Villas-Boas’ out of favour attacking midfielder Lewis Holtby to Fulham, right-back Ryan Fredericks to Millwall and striker Coulthirst to Leyton Orient. Many are in agreement that at least one or two new faces could have been required during the window with us heavily linked with the likes of Nani and Chicharito from Manchester United and the shock return of former Spurs hero Dimitar Berbatov for a debatable bargain on £1million. Recent games have shown where the holes in the squad are following the departure of long term Lane legend Jermain Defoe to Toronto and still not enough choice of strikers and defenders despite the seemingly unstoppable sudden form of Emmanuel Adebayor. Yet we still seem to possess more midfielders than we need.
But at the end of the day if we are deadly serious about reaching Champions League football next season which hangs in the balance, however seems to be swinging our rivals for 4th place Liverpool’s way, we need to buck up our ideas, pull off some results and see where we go from there. As always upwards and onwards for the Spurs!
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