Gabby Agbonlahor has admitted that he got his predictions about Tottenham completely wrong in pre-season and that Ange Postecoglou’s men have made him eat his own words.
Pundits can be forgiven for largely writing off Spurs at the start of the season since the club limped to an eighth-place finish last year and there appeared to be plenty of turmoil behind the scenes.
In addition, the Lilywhites had lost their talisman Harry Kane and hired a manager in Postecoglou who was seen as a gamble, given his lack of experience at the highest level.
Tottenham are proving their doubters wrong this year
However, there is no doubt that some pundits went overboard with their negative assessment of Spurs’ prospects, with Agbonlahor being one of those.
The former Aston Villa man insisted in the summer that Tottenham would struggle to even finish in the top half of the table (Football Insider) and he was certainly not alone in that assessment, with Paul Merson stating something quite similar (Sky Sports).
Agbonlahor has now admitted that he was completely wrong, naming Spurs as the ‘winners’ of the season so far.
The pundit told talkSPORT: “I was saying on a talkSPORT show, last season we were laughing saying the best thing about Spurs was the Beyonce concerts at the stadium.
“That was me having banter with my co-host Jamie O’Hara, who loves Tottenham. That’s how bad it was at Spurs! Now there’s none of that banter, it’s just ‘Spurs are doing well’. 4-3-3, no more five at the back, James Maddison getting in on the turn, you’ve got [Heung-min] Son back to his best.
“Defensively, [Micky] van de Ven, [Destiny] Udogie, you see a goalkeeper not making mistakes like [Hugo] Lloris, it’s just a better vibe around Spurs now. So, for me, Spurs are definitely the winners so far this season.”
When asked about how Spurs are coping with losing Kane to Bayern Munich, the 37-year-old said: “I’ve got to eat my own words.
“I said Spurs could finish like eighth or ninth because they lost 30 Premier League goals last season. This season they’ve won by tight margins and spread the goals around the team.”
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It is fair to say that even the optimistic Tottenham fans did not expect the club to start the season so well. Agbonlahor and other pundits can be forgiven for predicting that we would struggle this season, given the amount of unrest at the club during the summer.
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