Happy St Totteringham's day

[Ken Gargett]

earliest ever. woohoo. 

congrats to the guys, but it won't mean much without a few trophies (and a spurs relegation?). 

[ha_banos]

Saw this and thought of you 😚 @Ken Gargett

Was out with a couple of suffering Spurs fans on Thursday. And a condescending Chelsea supporter. Never a dull moment. 

 

 

[Ken Gargett]

14 hours ago, ha_banos said:

Saw this and thought of you 😚 @Ken Gargett

Was out with a couple of suffering Spurs fans on Thursday. And a condescending Chelsea supporter. Never a dull moment. 

 

 

both chelsea and spurs fans should hang their heads. hopeless.

but this morning, losing on penalties. the worst thing was i had to endure nearly three hours of soccer just to see a couple of useless, vastly overpaid muppets fail to hit a net from five yarfds. how hard can it be? still, overall you'd take the season. 

[Li Bai]

11 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

but this morning, losing on penalties. the worst thing was i had to endure nearly three hours of soccer just to see a couple of useless, vastly overpaid muppets fail to hit a net from five yarfds. how hard can it be? still, overall you'd take the season. 

Can't say it was a captivating game, to say the least...I can still recall the Istanbul final in 2005, now THAT was a game for the record! 🤯

[Çnote]

I love the math of this.

[JohnS]

7 hours ago, Li Bai said:

Can't say it was a captivating game, to say the least...I can still recall the Istanbul final in 2005, now THAT was a game for the record! 🤯

(My wife) Eleni watched a news report on the game tonight and then told me that there were riots in France after the game because Paris St-Germain lost. "No", I told her, "they actually won on penalties. I'd hate to imagine what would have actually happened if they lost!" 😧

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/01/sport/france-psg-int-champions-league-spt-intl

[dhart93]

Spurs fan here, there’s nothing sweeter than watching Eze and Gabriel miss penalties to lose after they parked the bus for over 100+ minutes. I really hope Arteta tries to play attacking football next year cause they played some of the most boring games in the league this year

[Li Bai]

57 minutes ago, JohnS said:

(My wife) Eleni watched a news report on the game tonight and then told me that there were riots in France after the game because Paris St-Germain lost. "No", I told her, "they actually won on penalties. I'd hate to imagine what would have actually happened if they lost!" 😧

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/01/sport/france-psg-int-champions-league-spt-intl

Hate to say it but the outcome never really mattered, had they won or lost, riots would have been on the menu anyway, it has been like that for years 😅😅😅

[JohnS]

Got it, thank you @Li Bai!

[Ken Gargett]

18 hours ago, dhart93 said:

Spurs fan here, there’s nothing sweeter than watching Eze and Gabriel miss penalties to lose after they parked the bus for over 100+ minutes. I really hope Arteta tries to play attacking football next year cause they played some of the most boring games in the league this year

bored us all the way to the title. and if there is a spurs fan on the planet who says that they would not have taken that, they are telling porkies. 

[Capn_Jackson]

I learned about this “holiday” today, and I’m so entertained by it. 🤣 

[Ken Gargett]

5 minutes ago, Capn_Jackson said:

I learned about this “holiday” today, and I’m so entertained by it 🤣 

it is the gift that keeps giving. 

[Capn_Jackson]

8 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

it is the gift that keeps giving. 

Holidays based on sports rivalries are always the best.

[dhart93]

9 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

bored us all the way to the title. and if there is a spurs fan on the planet who says that they would not have taken that, they are telling porkies. 

I mean with all that money they spent you’d hope they’d be able to do more than that. Arteta is just Mourinho with no personality and no counter attack.

There’s nothing boring about Spurs, it’s always chaos.

[dhart93]

8 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

it is the gift that keeps giving. 

Tip of the cap for that but Champions of Europe, you’ll never sing that.

[Ken Gargett]

6 hours ago, dhart93 said:

Tip of the cap for that but Champions of Europe, you’ll never sing that.

not something i suspect a lot of people would put money on. had the ref given the penalty in the 2nd half, they'd be singing it now, but those are always a lottery. and swings and roundabouts. 

comparing arteta and jose is so far off the mark. arteta is all about arsenal. club first. did jose ever take a job where it wasn't about jose?

arteta would never take a bottom end job like spurs. jose did. and he even failed at that. and arsenal would never offer jose a job.

what is so impressive about arteta is that, especially in these days of instant gratification, he put a long term plan in place, convinced the owners to back him, and stuck to it and succeeded. got rid of the stars he didn't want - ozil, auba, etc. a lot of the money was spent on realtively cheap, underrated players that he has playing way above what anyone thought they could. troussard a great example. some serious money came later in the plan, but first he had to get the team to a position where he could attract those players. rice the perfect example. listening to the players, they would walk through fire for him. not sure i've ever heard that with jose. he has changed so much, so many little things, not just on the pitch. remember our discipline? awful. this season, not a single penalty against us in any game till that one near the very end of the final game. not a single red card in any game. previously, we'd get them like confetti at a wedding. he has listened to the players - if they tell him they are training too hard, he gives them space. little changes at the ground and things he has brought in. changes in music, in positioning flags, bringing the fans much more into the community.

more than enough personality for gunners fans. tell me there is a spurs fan out there who wouldn't love a manager like mikael. both of them would fall over themselves to get someone like him. 

he didn't get all the players he wanted - having won the thing, that might change - but he used what he had as best he could. if we had a harlaand we would play differently. we don't. he got the absolute best out of what he had. remember that while we have wealthy owners, it is a family, not an oil-rich state. big difference. and we have not had a single dodgy finances charge thrown at us, certainly not 115. 

for rank underdogs, the gunners came incredibly close. as for no counter attack, we were up against what was supposedly the best attacking side in the world. our goal was counter attack. they could not score other than by a penalty. when it came to the penalties, our goalie, who has to be as good as any in the world, stopped one. their goalie stopped none. it was just that two idiot muppets could not hit the net from a few yards out. "never", could have hardly been closer.

would anyone think that they are no chance of doing the double next year? 

anyway, next year should be interesting. i think spurs have a reasonable chance of at least not being relegated. now forgive me, i have prevaricated long enough. work awaits, sadly. 

[Ken Gargett]

okay, more prevarication.

on expenditure. all that money we spent? 

thre 25/26 figures according to the recorded stats. below.

we brought in 16 players, equal lowest among those teams. spurs brought in 20, second only to liverpool who brought in 31. 

so, all the money they spent? should have done more than that?

where does that leave liverpool, chelsea and man C? given we spent less than 30 mill more than you guys, either you guys are buying utter rubbish or perhaps our manager might just be a touched talented. hard to believe that small discrepancy resulted in us winning the EPL and going to the Champions final and your blokes missing relegation by a wafer thin. there might be a person or two on the planet at the moment wasting money even more prolifigately than spurs but not many. 

1		Liverpool FC	€481.35m
2		Chelsea FC	€339.15m
3		Manchester City	€301.80m
4		Arsenal FC	€294.60m
5		Newcastle United	€278.85m
6		Tottenham Hotspur	€265.60m

[dhart93]

That was never a penalty. The ref made the right call. Madueke grabs the defender's arm and falls down. Arteta, in typically fashion, complains about the decision during and after the game. They had a historic low of 23% possession during the game and went into a shell for the rest of it. The non-penalty wasn’t the reason for their loss, lack of attacking prowess was.

Arteta had Arsenal playing some beautiful fluid attacking football. He saw Pep with a four CB backline and said, "let me do that but let’s make it really boring". Hence, the Jose comparison. I want to see them play actual football instead of time wasting and being corner merchants. I give props to Arsenal for sticking with Arteta. That’s decent management but 7 years to rebuild a team and culture is not that impressive. Let’s not forget that Thomas Partey situation. As for the discipline issue that plagued them so heavily in past years, there’s quite a long list of decision that went in their favor this year. VAR is in shambles and makes referees too afraid to do their jobs. Also, Spurs with no European football next years, I’m guessing they finish 5th. They’ll probably make it to a cup semi final. RDZ is the only reason we stayed up this year. The ownership, Vinai and Lange are useless. The worst management in the PL by far.

Manchester City and Chelsea are wholly corrupt and am amazed they haven’t been fined. The fact the PL has taken so long with these charges is insane to me. Makes me believe that they’ll try to sweep it under the rug and settle it privately. Chelsea are just treating the team like the stock market and player trading. Liverpool isn’t really in the same conversation as these two.

Arteta and Arsenal together have spent £920m pounds to win the league doesn't really seem that great to me.

[Ken Gargett]

15 hours ago, dhart93 said:

That was never a penalty. The ref made the right call. Madueke grabs the defender's arm and falls down. Arteta, in typically fashion, complains about the decision during and after the game. They had a historic low of 23% possession during the game and went into a shell for the rest of it. The non-penalty wasn’t the reason for their loss, lack of attacking prowess was.

Arteta had Arsenal playing some beautiful fluid attacking football. He saw Pep with a four CB backline and said, "let me do that but let’s make it really boring". Hence, the Jose comparison. I want to see them play actual football instead of time wasting and being corner merchants. I give props to Arsenal for sticking with Arteta. That’s decent management but 7 years to rebuild a team and culture is not that impressive. Let’s not forget that Thomas Partey situation. As for the discipline issue that plagued them so heavily in past years, there’s quite a long list of decision that went in their favor this year. VAR is in shambles and makes referees too afraid to do their jobs. Also, Spurs with no European football next years, I’m guessing they finish 5th. They’ll probably make it to a cup semi final. RDZ is the only reason we stayed up this year. The ownership, Vinai and Lange are useless. The worst management in the PL by far.

Manchester City and Chelsea are wholly corrupt and am amazed they haven’t been fined. The fact the PL has taken so long with these charges is insane to me. Makes me believe that they’ll try to sweep it under the rug and settle it privately. Chelsea are just treating the team like the stock market and player trading. Liverpool isn’t really in the same conversation as these two.

Arteta and Arsenal together have spent £920m pounds to win the league doesn't really seem that great to me.

apols for the delay in coming back to you - deadlines.

now, please don't take this the wrong way but why on earth would anyone in their right mind take a spurs fan's view on an arsenal penalty? and please reverse the situation and a gunners fan's view on a spurs penalty would be just as useless. as mentioned, these things are often a toss of the coin. i have heard morre opinions supporting it as a penalty than not (and i am not talking arsenal fans). but it was a toss up.  and it is gone now. as for decissions for and against, there is quite a very long list of decisions which went against us this year. they did an assessment around 2/3rds of the season looking at decisions which were later seen to be incorrect, for all teams. we would have been 8-10 points ahead of where we were at that stage.  but it is what it is. can't change it. same as can't change that penalty decision. 

you keep attacking the gunners attack. in the EPL, only one side scored more goals than arsenal over the entire season and that was man C with harlaand getting well over a third of them. if we had a harlaand, things would be different but every side could say that. the attack can't be that bad. some attack arsenal for scoring from set pieces. that is moronic. just as much of the game as any other aspect and we were only a couple of goals ahead of man U, Chelsea, Newcastle and others. in other words, arteta used what was our strength to best advantage. and only one side scored a goal from play in the field in the final and it wasn't the team which is supposed to be the great attacking team of Europe. 

940 million pounds. what you don't say is that this amount is over six years. over the same period, spurs spent precisely two million less. so effectively the same spending. i think most would agree we have a hell of a lot more to show for it than spurs and a long term plan culminated in a win - plus three 2nds over the last three years. spurs have two 17th places to show for the same amount. all this seems pretty good to me. you can dismiss it but that simply makes no sense. 

the idea of deliberately playing boring football is such nonsense. you think any gunners fan cares? and if other fans are not happy, who gives a rats? arteta is paid to win for arsenal. 

as for the future, i would say that arteta has done so much for the gunners community and the team and put so much in place that he has been a brilliant success. arsenal are poised to enjoy success for some time now - may not happen but i'd say it is way more likely than not.

spurs? 5th? you do know you weren't relegated? because 5th in the lower comp might have been a consideration but 5th in the EPL? i asked a few others the chances. they are still laughing. i would be so incredibly impressed if you managed that. i will give you all the credit in the world if you manage it. but seriously, more chance of me playing centre forward for the gunners. i do agree the ownership/management of spurs is dire but i really don't think spurs fans understand how important it is to get it right if you want to start winning. we are the perfect example.  

i am already looking forward to next season. but 5th????

 

[dhart93]

10 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

apols for the delay in coming back to you - deadlines.

now, please don't take this the wrong way but why on earth would anyone in their right mind take a spurs fan's view on an arsenal penalty? and please reverse the situation and a gunners fan's view on a spurs penalty would be just as useless. as mentioned, these things are often a toss of the coin. i have heard morre opinions supporting it as a penalty than not (and i am not talking arsenal fans). but it was a toss up.  and it is gone now. as for decissions for and against, there is quite a very long list of decisions which went against us this year. they did an assessment around 2/3rds of the season looking at decisions which were later seen to be incorrect, for all teams. we would have been 8-10 points ahead of where we were at that stage.  but it is what it is. can't change it. same as can't change that penalty decision. 

you keep attacking the gunners attack. in the EPL, only one side scored more goals than arsenal over the entire season and that was man C with harlaand getting well over a third of them. if we had a harlaand, things would be different but every side could say that. the attack can't be that bad. some attack arsenal for scoring from set pieces. that is moronic. just as much of the game as any other aspect and we were only a couple of goals ahead of man U, Chelsea, Newcastle and others. in other words, arteta used what was our strength to best advantage. and only one side scored a goal from play in the field in the final and it wasn't the team which is supposed to be the great attacking team of Europe. 

940 million pounds. what you don't say is that this amount is over six years. over the same period, spurs spent precisely two million less. so effectively the same spending. i think most would agree we have a hell of a lot more to show for it than spurs and a long term plan culminated in a win - plus three 2nds over the last three years. spurs have two 17th places to show for the same amount. all this seems pretty good to me. you can dismiss it but that simply makes no sense. 

the idea of deliberately playing boring football is such nonsense. you think any gunners fan cares? and if other fans are not happy, who gives a rats? arteta is paid to win for arsenal. 

as for the future, i would say that arteta has done so much for the gunners community and the team and put so much in place that he has been a brilliant success. arsenal are poised to enjoy success for some time now - may not happen but i'd say it is way more likely than not.

spurs? 5th? you do know you weren't relegated? because 5th in the lower comp might have been a consideration but 5th in the EPL? i asked a few others the chances. they are still laughing. i would be so incredibly impressed if you managed that. i will give you all the credit in the world if you manage it. but seriously, more chance of me playing centre forward for the gunners. i do agree the ownership/management of spurs is dire but i really don't think spurs fans understand how important it is to get it right if you want to start winning. we are the perfect example.  

i am already looking forward to next season. but 5th????

 

Happy to have you back, Ken!

Well spurs haven’t had a penalty in over a year in league so nothing is a penalty these days. Who are these experts you speak of cause I’m pretty sure Thierry Henry even said it wasn’t a pen? I’d love to see this table with the adjusted points from VAR mistakes. 8–10 points more  2/3 into the season? So basically every time they lost or drew it was a refs mistake, that’s laughable.

My points on Arsenal's attack is that in the biggest game against top opponents they sit back and play for the draw, that’s scared football. I’m pretty sure Emery did the same thing while he was there and got sacked when he was in 5th place and still in the Europa league. They might be with every top six team having a new manager. Something tells me they won’t have as much luck with injuries and red cards next year. The World Cup is going to be draining with their players playing so many games. What you’re missing is that we’ve had 8 more managers than you in that time and still have a trophy, lol! 

I do know that we weren’t relegated. If you look at the years we’ve missed Europe, we’ve finished right around there. Our injury record has been abysmal the last two year, if that corrects itself, we’ve got a chance.  

[Ken Gargett]

4 hours ago, dhart93 said:

Happy to have you back, Ken!

Well spurs haven’t had a penalty in over a year in league so nothing is a penalty these days. Who are these experts you speak of cause I’m pretty sure Thierry Henry even said it wasn’t a pen? I’d love to see this table with the adjusted points from VAR mistakes. 8–10 points more  2/3 into the season? So basically every time they lost or drew it was a refs mistake, that’s laughable.

My points on Arsenal's attack is that in the biggest game against top opponents they sit back and play for the draw, that’s scared football. I’m pretty sure Emery did the same thing while he was there and got sacked when he was in 5th place and still in the Europa league. They might be with every top six team having a new manager. Something tells me they won’t have as much luck with injuries and red cards next year. The World Cup is going to be draining with their players playing so many games. What you’re missing is that we’ve had 8 more managers than you in that time and still have a trophy, lol! 

I do know that we weren’t relegated. If you look at the years we’ve missed Europe, we’ve finished right around there. Our injury record has been abysmal the last two year, if that corrects itself, we’ve got a chance.  

okay, first Thierry Henri said it wasn't a penalty? are we talking about the same game? you could try the vid below about his reaction. plenty of others supporting his very strong views that it was a penalty. but they are a toss of a coin and nothing we can do. 

not sure if you watched the game but to suggest arsenal played for a draw has absolutely no relevance to the actual game. we got an early goal. how the hell is that playing for a draw? who plays for a draw when they are leading? had we not got that goal then presumably we would have played differently. that is why teams have managers. to make those decisions. remember also that arsenal, thanks to the schedule the english administrators impose, had played a massive amount of football more than PSG. they were so much fresher than us. again, the manager has to take that into account in the way they play. if spurs managers did, perhaps you would not have goone through so many. but one could point at arteta and level this as a ctiricism. psg rested top players all year. they could afford to. we could not. had we done so, we would not have won the EPL, which was the highest priority for the club. 

arsenal play scared football? that is such an absurd comment. look at the games among top teams. the stats i could find among the top teams - the big 6 i believe they call them - had us four wins, 3 draws and 3 losses. one loss v liverpool in the 2nd game of the season. the other two to the manchester sides, but none by more than a single goal. the man city loss came away, all losses did, during a slump - 38 games and every side will have a slump. man city, with that win, had five wins. one more than us. do they play scared? 

injuries, end of the season you guys did have quite a few (have to wonder how many were real and how many were losers' limp to avoid playing, especially given your captain was so committed that he buggered off to watch old mates rather than attend the game which was to decide relegation). but half way through the season, it was a different story. at that stage, man C were worst hit, Leeds a touch below and Arsenal in equal third on number of injuries. you guys were down in sixth. so please don't blame injuries. we had had a massive amount of injuries over the last half dozen years. all sides get them. but saying we might not have as much luck with injuries. wow. every arsenal fan is hoping we actually have some luck with them for a change.

as for red cards, to go from the worst record in the competition over the last five/six years, by a considerable way, to zero cards is not luck, as much as spurs fans might wish to define it as such. again, put it down to arteta. odds are we'll get at least some next season, but the bad old days of worst in the league are surely gone. 

emery was sacked because he had a poor record. and he was responsible for way too many really poor transfer decisions. even those who finally worked out did so under arteta and did not contribute under emery. no idea if we were still in anything when he went but they had not won a single game for a couple of months. his one finished season saw our defence concede 10 more goals than the next worst club. even spurs would have sacked him. 

and next year? sure, you guys have a chance. stranger things and all. but long live your current owner and management and don't hold your breath. it won't easy for you guys to attract top players and you'll have to pay way over the odds. i would not be putting much money on it. 

now apols, but deadlines. it is always fun. 

 

 and pl