PREMIER LEAGUE JUST RAMPED UP THE COMPETITION

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Spurs, the ultimate banter club are ruffling a few feathers this morning because they’re firing Nuno… which is amusing, if not a little sad… and likely hiring Antonio Conte, which is hard to pin down to a true opinion or set of expectations.

On the sad hand, you have one of the biggest winners in the game rolling up to our biggest rivals. He oozes eliteness. Even his wig is the best wig I’ve ever seen. He usually picks up trophies wherever he goes. He has a very simple approach that usually ends up delivering something. He picked up a Jose mess and turned it into a league win in year one with record points.

On the ‘maybe this isn’t quite it’ hand, you have some very difficult issues that rock star-ness would struggle with. Firstly, he’s a cheque-book manager. There’s a certain profile of squad he needs to do bits with. When he went to Chelsea, he had a great squad that had won things within distant memory. The culture at Chelsea was set. He just revved it up, gave it more rigour, and rolled with a formation no one could handle. It did go to shit though. His first season was unblemished, his second season saw him gain access to transfers, which he botched, he then went on to finish 5th… then he was sacked for falling out with everyone. He’s also a rock star. Rock stars bring the entourage. It cost Chelsea an extra £26m to bin all his staff.

Just on some of his transfers when he’s unleashed.

  • Morata
  • Bakayoko
  • Drinkwater
  • Batshuayi

$200m

Usually, you map a manager to a profile of squad. Chelsea play a certain way, always have done (back then), so he fit the bill. What do Spurs have that works for him? Harry Kane, who wants out. A hodgepodge of middling players. I mean, it’s going to be really hard for him. Daniel Levy doesn’t like to spend money, that will cause friction, unless the plan is to sell Kane in January.

It’ll be interesting. I’m not sure how to think about it. This all feels a bit like PSG’s or United’s transfer window. Great on paper, but with a more mature eye on it, you are asking for a lot to go right with a character that is very, very volatile. Force of personality only goes so far in a league with a lot of money and a lot of elite managers and coaches.

With the best will in the world: Conte is a short term strategy. He doesn’t hang around. I honestly thing I’d have been more concerned about the direction of Spurs if they’d gone with someone like Ten Haag or Graham Potter and invested in a longer-term vision. Remember, this is the second time in 3 years we’ve all been worried about a manager that plays tough football with a winning vision can do at Spurs.

So we’ll see.

Newcastle are also chasing down Unai Emery for their vacancy. Quite a nice role for him. Moving a team from 19th to anywhere higher is going to be a win there. I suspect he’ll get a better Sporting Director to work with and he’ll be funded to buy the players he wants. His job would be to make Newcastle hard to play against. If he can implement what he does in Spain, he’ll be in good shape, so we’ll see there.

However you look at it, the Premier League is getting better outside the top 4 clubs.

So what about Arsenal?

Well, we have a different approach to getting back to the top. We’re rolling with Project Premium Youth. So far, it’s looking like that reengineering of our vision this summer could be a sharp move. It should have happened a year prior, but there you go.

We’re 3 points off top 4 in November. If you’d told anyone that at the start of the season, before the 3 losses, they’d have bitten your arm off for that sort of progress.

It’s important, when we’re on a bit of a run, to temper expectations.

This squad is still very young. It is threadbare to a certain extent, one or two injuries and we’re in trouble. This sort of form will not last.

When I read people say ‘NOW ARTETA HAS TO DO THIS EVERY WEEK’ it kind of makes me laugh, like the only way people can tolerate this operation is if we win every week.

This is the time to accept that things are going to dip again. This is the time to understand that young players have to learn to deal with adversity. This is the time to remember that the support we give to the players in the downtimes is more important than the support we give when we’re doing well.

Elite level sport is about confidence. When you are winning, everyone wants to be your mate. When things go to shit, you need people to dig you out of it. That’s why the fans in the stadium have been so good this season.  Their support, it would seem, has been unconditional. Which is a testament to the performances and the scouting… and also the maturity of the people watching. They feel something special is brewing because we’ve been here before with young players with big personalities.

We have to deal with Watford this week, which will be tough for many reasons… but mostly the concern of complacency that can come with a run.

Post-break, we’re going to be in a fight. Liverpool right after the International break is going to be beastly. They are an awesome outfit. What we have learned this season is if you show them no respect, you can rattle them. Brighton could have won at the weekend. How do you deal with Liverpool? Play through their press, make them ask questions of themselves, play with confidence. Reads well on paper, but let’s be real, we have shown far too much respect to City and Liverpool the last two seasons. It’s time to have a crack at them.

If we go there with our best team, we’ll hopefully put up more of a fight than we did against City and Chelsea earlier in the season. Everyone will have to be on their game in that run out.

Right, short post today, jump on the video or the podcast and have a damn fine hour or so listening to a joyful chat between Gooners.

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Nigel Tufnel

I only want to say, worry about spuds and Conte only when we’re playing them.
We’re on our own path and I’m liking it. Let’s take care of our business first.
They’re just another team fighting for top 6 among plenty of others.

I like our chances as things are, and I like where we’re heading, long term.

raptora

What makes people be sceptical is not Conte per se, but Levy and Spuds.
Jose has been a rotten manager for many years. Conte has been winning things non stop and against the odds.
It could be an impossible job which would suck for him but he’ll have only himself to blame.
If he makes it work though, he’ll prove himself yet again, like he has in his whole career. Jose has failed in many jobs lately, Conte hasn’t.

Tee

“Congratulations, you win the week’s most idiotic comment. Think about what you are posting next time around unless you want to reaffirm your status in here.”

Epitome of lacking self cautiousness.

Pedro took you to the cleaner by postng some of your idiotic takes on Arteta and our summer signings when our performances weren’t good due to different reasons but here you are dishing your medal/plaque out to another poster.

Tee

“I only want to say, worry about spuds and Conte only when we’re playing them.
We’re on our own path and I’m liking it. Let’s take care of our business first.
They’re just another team fighting for top 6 among plenty of others.”

I concur.

We take care of our business and every other parts will fall into place.

Ray+in+LA

Nigel

I like that philosophy…just make us the best Arsenal we can be and not worry too much about the things we can’t control 🙂

englandsbest

A major problem fo Emery at Arsenal was communication. If he hasn’t learned speak, or at least understand English he’ll have the same problem at NUFC

Matt B

Raptors: Emery was responsible for consistently shite Arsenal performances, the likes of which I haven’t seen in 40+ years of watching us.

In my opinion, he was the worst manager we’ve ever had. Respect to him for his triumphs in the EL, but that doesn’t mean he can cut in England.

englandsbest

AFC Forever

I still find it nigh impossible to believe that the Qatar WC will actually take place. Something surely will happen that will allow a switch to a summer world cup in Europe or Latin America. The whole idea is like something out of Alice in Wonderland. I imagine most players are dreading the prospect. If England fail to qualify, we’ll know why.

Leedsgunner

“A major problem fo Emery at Arsenal was communication. If he hasn’t learned speak, or at least understand English he’ll have the same problem at NUFC…”

Maybe it played a factor but it wasn’t everything.

Look at Bielsa, even after four years in England he still reverts to a translator for meetings and interviews.

Still manages to get his footballing knowledge across though…

Leedsgunner

Emery had no vision of where he wanted Arsenal to go when the job became too difficult.

No vision… no ideas… no job.

Mr Serge

Don’t give a shit about Conte and spurs they can fuck off he will have a fit and leave within a year no way levy supports him with big money
His buys were ok at Chelsea at best
He must have wasted 300m there easy

Emery’s probably learnt to speak the language by now, where he’s fucked is they speak Geordie up their, completely different language

Then again anyone would struggle to make out the language Harry Kane speaks

I’ve heard rumours that Kane uses a translator too.

Leedsgunner

“I’ve heard rumours that Kane uses a translator too…”

Now THAT was funny. Well done sir. 😂😂😂👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Mr Serge

kev are you a bed wetter lol
Ffs get s grip we are finally playing well with Artetas team and you are pissing all over it

How is it a disaster has he taken a team of world beaters on ?

Kane will still want out that midfield is proper wank too

Mr Serge

Conte the world class manager that has beaten arsenal once in 8 games when he was Chelsea manager and lost to us in the FA cup final

Tony

“Newcastle are also chasing down Unai Emery for their vacancy. Quite a nice role for him. Moving a team from 19th to anywhere higher is going to be a win there. I suspect he’ll get a better Sporting Director to work with and he’ll be funded to buy the players he wants. His job would be to make Newcastle hard to play against. If he can implement what he does in Spain, he’ll be in good shape, so we’ll see there”. Doing my customary scan of your posts where I was assuaged by this paragraph., Pedro. I was expecting vim,… Read more »

Dark Hei

You know guys when it comes to Emery, it is just an opinion whether you back him or not for the Newcastle job.

No need to flame one another for an ex-Manager that did some good but ultimately tanked and threw his captain under the bus (who also happened to be his most faithful player).

He also wasn’t backed in the transfer market since Raul had other ideas and maybe lost his way as a result.

All in all, it wasn’t just all on him. The entire setup that didn’t work.

Habesha Gooner

Conte at spurs is an improvement for them. There are raw players in the spurs team tha conte will definitely like. Christian Romero and Davidson Sanchez are his kind of players. Dier is shit but I have seen worse players improve under him. The wing backs are also okay players. Reguilon and Emerson Royal who has looked horrible so far are going to work for him. He improved victor moses so these players aren’t the worst. In midfield there is Hoijberg, Locelso, and Oliver skipp. These three are okay. Winks , Ndombele, Alli are all going to be cut because… Read more »

Samesong

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are one of the most exciting teams in world football, and they’re due to explode. In the below mega-thread I discuss why Arteta’s tactics are conducive to enabling the team to do just that once they mature and blossom from kids into men.

THREAD. https://t.co/uD7f8sK0Bm

Very interesting.

The Bard

Levy the renowned business guru has made an utter bollocks of matters at Spurs. He won’t sell Kane unless City pay an extra 10p. He now sacks Nuno and his staff paying up whatever. He signs Conte on massive salary plus commitment to spend big. How does that stack up ? Not worried about Conte at Spurs. They are a shitshow, it will need more than Conte to turn them around.

Pierre

Samesong My post a couple of days ago highlighted the same problem that is alluded to in your link.. I said it was more physcological than lack of energy, they think it is a lack of experience , which could be the case. Part of .my post If you look at our league results and performances from the Tottenham game onwards, the worrying trend is our 2nd half performances. First halfs Goals for 8 Goals against 02nd halfs Goals for 2 Goals against 4 . Arsenal go into defending what we have mode in the 2nd half and we allow… Read more »

Pierre

The Bard
” They are a shitshow, it will need more than Conte to turn them around.”

I’m not so sure, kane & Son are still a formidable duo up front and if he can get a tune out of Deli Alli, Moura and Ndombele it won’t take much to get them winning football matches..

DivineSherlock

I can see why United said pass to Conte , they give Ole another year . He is still in CL , with a massive game against City coming up . Mean while if it all goes to shit then they bring Zidane or Poch ( if Zidane goes to PSG) . Its a win win for United . As for Spurs , I dont think even Conte could do anything for them . Their best player doesnt wanna play for them , Moura Bergwijn are terribly inconsistent . Wholly dependent on Son to bail them out everytime. And a… Read more »

gnarleygeorge9

“We are Top of the League,
Said we are Top of the League”

I’m enjoying the Junior Gunners.

Emiratesstroller

Arsenal need to focus on their own performances and not worry about what is going on elsewhere. Spurs may recruit Conte, but so what. Will that change Kane who wants to leave club or for that matter the performance level of Alli? Will Spurs with huge debts have the transfer budget he will demand? Will Emery move to Newcastle and if so will they become a better team? Emery is a performer in his own backyard, but has never performed well when he moved abroad. Newcastle will need to invest bucket loads of cash before they will be remotely competitive… Read more »

Samesong

Pierre

Did you read of all of the sections on that link? I don’t believe we go into defensive mode on purpose. We just can’t sustain possession. Players like ESR can.

kjelli

I think I discovered the problem Balogun is having in getting game time in the senior team.
There is an air of entitlement about him .. He should be sold , there are more where he came
from willing to do the hard work an be humble about it

The Bard

Pierre you might be right about the Spuds under Conte but they will have to sell Kane to finance Conte’s tenure., because he won’t sign unless he has cast iron guarantees about transfers. Also Conte is a 2 season manager, I’m sticking with my view

Graham62

I sense the damage done by Levy in respect to Kane is irreversible.
Kane has definitely switched off and although Conte is coming in I feel that Kane will still want out.

Won’t be for £150m though.

Jamie

Well, shit.

Looks like Conte to Spurs is done.

Graham62

Jamie

Don’t worry, it’s Spurs!🤣

Pierre

Samesong “Did you read of all of the sections on that link? I don’t believe we go into defensive mode on purpose. We just can’t sustain possession. Players like ESR can.” I think it is psychological and a lack of belief . There is no reason why we can’t continue to play our football in the 2nd half of games. The old maxim of letting the ball do the work still stands as far as I’m concerned. If our possession stats are regularly lower than the opposition, particularly in the 2nd half , then it stands to reason that we… Read more »

englandsbest

Samesong

Explode we will, given time.

That is what some o us – and most of all Pedro – have been saying.

englandsbest

Pierre

You are on the right line in many ways but every time you sing praise of Wenger or extol virtue of Ozil, you lose credibility. Forget the past, live in the present, anticipate the future.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

How much will they get for Kane realistically now ? 75/90

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Kjelli

Bit random that comment

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Stroller

Hear hear…

Stay focused in our own lane…

The rest will take care of its self.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Also someone said poch going back to spurs in 18months when his contract at psg ends…

Ain’t gonna happen.

He will go United or Spain next.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Serge

Yeah his buys a bit erratic

However Chelsea have bought n sold well in the past decade to cover it…
Some of their sales ….wow

Major_Jeneral

Pierre

Until we have a more technical player like Santi Carzola in Central MF. It will be difficult for the current players to take the sting out of the game and manage possession when we are 1 or 2 goals up.

We need someone in Cmf who can do this.

On a different note. I saw Jimenez lastnight against Everton. He held up play really well. What are your thoughts on getting Jimenez to replace Lacazette. I dont know how old he is though. But his technical skill sets fit how Arteta want to play.

Samesong

On a different note. I saw Jimenez lastnight against Everton. He held up play really well. What are your thoughts on getting Jimenez to replace Lacazette. I dont know how old he is though. But his technical skill sets fit how Arteta want to play.

You do know Toney a younger version is very good at hold up play. Jimenez must be hitting 30 by now.

Samesong

Antonio also.

Major_Jeneral

Samesong.

You are on point regarding Jimenez. I just checked he is going to be 31 next May.

AFC Forever

Why is everyone shitting their pants over Conte? It’s almost as if people want him to do well. Remember, this exact same thing happened with Mourinho. We were told he ‘Guaranteed Trophies’, anyone remember how that turned out? Don’t forget Ancelotti going to Everton was going to fuck us because he was such a genius. I’ve never seen so much obsession on managers in my lifetime. The very best clubs can hire and fire managers because they have the best players, play in the CL, can buy whoever they want, within reason. managers going to those clubs have a higher… Read more »

andy1886

Physically Kane’s done. Even at £50m I wouldn’t be interested. Actually even if they had sold him to City for £120m in the summer does anyone think that Nuno and Levy would have invested wisely? Unlikely.

AFC Forever

Andy1886

I think your comment is pretty accurate. Kane at 28 isn’t worth £120m. He has been poor in an England shirt in the last 12 months, it isn’t just a Spuds thing. If he’s physically impaired & he’s losing confidence, that may explain why he’s dropping deeper. He’s never had much pace but he definitely looks a yard slower. It would be a risk for any buyer. Levy certainly made a mistake reneging on his ‘gentleman’s agreement’.

Graham62

AFC

Kane is not worth half of what MC were prepared to offer.

So what’s that, £65m?( if that).

Wouldn’t it be great for someone at Spuds to have the balls to tell Daniel he’s just chucked £65m down the drain.

Maybe Nuno told him.

AFC Forever

Graham62

Yep, Levy is paying the price for his arrogance.

LoveSausage

Whoever buys Kane will be aware that the player has zero resale value. That limits the number of potential buyers. I can see why City wanted him. Pep lives his false 9s and Kane has no problems dropping into MF positions. But he’s regressed physically this season so not sure Pep would be as eager. Just look at what happened to Aguero as soon as he started picking up injuries and slowing down.

China1

On the podcast I admire Johnny’s enthusiasm in turning so positive but I feel I’ve just been stung so many times it’s hard to feel genuinely hopeful I think since the first 3 games we’ve basically done everything right. Happy with the the overall tactics, signings, results are good, performances too. But I’m very wary of false dawns. Full credit to arteta for the turnaround but I can’t say I’m 100% convinced it will last. But there’s currently nothing we’re doing wrong or that I would seriously want to change. Just hoping it continues properly and it’s a false dawn… Read more »

China1

Isn’t a false dawn*

Habesha Gooner

Kane isn’t done physically. He just doesn’t want to be at spurs anymore. It was just last season that he topped both the goalscoring and assists chart. He has lost motivation. Levy should have sold. They made a mistake just as we made on Sanchez. Levy was stupid in not taking that money. They could have done damage with that instead of an uninterested Kane. On kane though, I don’t think you can switch your form on and off. He has switched off mentally and it will be difficult for him to get his form back. But I don’t think… Read more »

Leftside

Conte has the basic foundations to succeed at Spurs, it’s a real statement of intent for a club like Spurs to bring him in. I am concerned.

Major_Jeneral

I am not concerned about Conte. If he recruits well in the summer, they will do well. But it will eventually end in tears. 18 to 36 months or less just as AFC Forever said.

China1

How much money will Spurs have for Conte?

Their squad is not that good. If Kane goes I think Son will too within a season. They’re the only two I’ve ever worried about in that team anyway. Even if you got 140m for the pair of them you’d have to reinvest all of that really well to both replace those two and improve the rest of the team which is already pretty average

LoveSausage

Son recently signed a new contract. Even if he wanted to go, he’ll get the same treatment as Kane, and Eriksen and Modric before him.

The Bard

Conte is a modern day Mourinho. He’s a winner but he is seriously disruptive. He may well take the Spuds to a better place in the short run but he will fall out with Levy sooner rather than later and then leave with a pay off and club full of players on big wages.

Sly

Conte to spurs is a short term fix for a long term problem He will deliver some results but I don’t think they’ll make top 4 It does show spurs limited vision. They want to be competitive but have opted for the ‘heavy spending’ route and don’t have the resources to do it This move also speaks to desperation on conte’s part It also puts into context the “ no big coach will come to arsenal” argument I always maintained that was a false narrative I retain significant reservations about Arteta as a coach and what he can offer us… Read more »

China1

Apparently it’s only an 18 month deal. So unless he gets a new deal in the summer he should have enough to see out the contract

andy1886

I’d imagine that Conte’s brief will be the same as Arteta’s – get the club back into Europe this season and move on from there (by Europe I mean the two major competitions). Organisation and motivation should be enough to put them around the top 7 but don’t be surprised if Levy spends in January either. It wouldn’t make any sense to get a big name coach and then not invest.

Terraloon

There is no doubt that Conte is a wham ban delver, create havoc, have a strop and leave after 2 years at most. His tenure at Chelsea was without doubt highly successful but he basically inherited a squad that just 12 months prior had been crowned champions under JM. That Chelsea squad was full of quality and not just the starting 11 they were players like Luiz like Willian ( then in their prime,) Pedro, Hazard, Costa Fabregras and Kante Players like Cahill, like Alonso, like Batshyi, like Fabregras , like Costa all scored 5 or more goals add to… Read more »

Habesha Gooner

I really think people are under estimating spurs’s squad. There are a lot of inconsistent players but some of them are good players. Kane, Son, Moura, Gil, Hoijberg, Romero, Lloris, Reguilon, Locelso, Emerson and Sanchez all are good players. They have a decent group of players to make a starting line up. That is why I am worried. Some of spurs’s players have shit attitude. So he will discard them. But players that are willing to do the hard yards always improve under Conte. His inter side had a lot of average hard working players. He used those players and… Read more »

Habesha Gooner

People comparing Mourinho of now to Conte of now are clueless. Mourinho is done at the top level. Conte still has that fire. Conte made David Luiz, a player that has fucked up so many times with us, the center piece to his title win at Chelsea. Anyone can see how he made Lukaku a top striker. Lautaro Martinez, Nico Barella, Brozovic all were good players but they were class under him. He is that good with players that work hard. What he doesn’t tolerate is slackers.

Paolo

For me no Xhaka & Pepe has been key to our up turn in form. They slow everything down.

Hope they both go in January.

Terraloon

Habesha

Think your vastly underestimating the players that made the likes of Luiz a better player. Alongside him he had Cahill and Azpilueta both excellent defenders who had the world class Kante offering cover in front

There is no doubt Spurs have some decent players but Conte has a mountain to climb to get their current group to challenge top 4 and even if he gets say £150 million to buy players that sort of sum will bring in two maybe three top class players but even then I just can’t see them up there

Gonsterous

newcastle making the right choice with emery. Great coach and manager, but like his time at arsenal, he may have a language problem.

If you are a club wanting to get the EL blueprint, cant go more wrong than emery

He was an auba penalty miss away from top 4 in his first season and took us a step further than wenger did when he got us into the EL final

Sly

I think Emery would keep Newcastle up if he’s hired
He’s at his best coaching their caliber of players

AFC Forever

Sly “Conte to spurs is a short-term fix for a long-term problem He will deliver some results but I don’t think they’ll make top 4. It does show spurs limited vision.” This. Spurs are crippled with the idea that hiring and firing is a good business model for success. It isn’t. Of course, where you have a squad filled with top-quality players with unlimited funds available for tweaks, hiring and firing has a more realistic chance of sowing rewards. But not if you have a long-term rebuilding job on a limited budget. There is no club more deluded about what… Read more »

Sly

🤣🤣 brilliant post AFC
Long May Levy continue as chairman

AFC Forever

Sly

“brilliant post AFC”

Cheers. Levy probably thinks Delusion is a Brazilian International; he’s that clueless.

Habesha Gooner

Teraloon I think Coaching is fundamental in any team. Luiz, Cahill and Azpilcueta are part of the team that finished 10th prior to that. A great coach can make even average players hit a consistent reliable run of form. That is what Conte is all about. I am not saying they will finish Top 4. But they are contenders for a Europa league position now that they have him for this season. I don’t know what is going to happen after that. If he has funds, Conte is a dangerous Coach. People think he spent his way to the Serie… Read more »

Leedsgunner

Before we start losing our heads over the Conte appointment down the road from us… consider this. They had a young dynamic manager in Pochettino who took them to the CL Final whom they binned in favour of Mourinho. Then they binned him for Nuno. They had a chance to cash in on Harry Kane for £100m plus but Levy for reasons known only to himself bottled it. Plus even when they do sell one of their players for a premium they have spent the money badly. They sold Bale for £80m plus to Real Madrid – what did that… Read more »

Emiratesstroller

It is interesting that Conte is signing such a short term contract [18 months]. Spurs may feel that Conte is high risk and they can no longer afford to compensate yet another manager after three expensive payouts to Pochettino, Mourinho and Nuno. Conte may have decided that there are few decent jobs available at the present time and he has decided to take the best option at the moment. In eighteen months down the line there may be a lot more jobs available than now eg Real Madrid, Barcelona , PSG, Man City, Chelsea and perhaps Newcastle if they have… Read more »

AFC Forever

Leeds

“Spurs might make a lot of noise but at heart, they are a little minded outfit pretending that they are more important than they really are.”

I think you nailed it. Perfect description of the losers. Be good to stop talking about them now, it’s almost getting into stalking territory…..!!!

Graham62

I genuinely think Spuds are up shit creek no matter what Conte brings to the table.

Also, why would Emery want to leave Villarreal for Newcastle?

Oh that’s right…………..MONEY!!

Silly me.

AFC Forever

Emirates

The 18 month contract says everything. This is desperation from Levy and it is clearly on Conte’s terms. He will bail out first proper offer that comes his way, probably Man Utd. 18 months is no time to rebuild.

AFC Forever

Graham62 “Oh that’s right…………..MONEY!! Silly me”. Footballs turning into a joke. By the way, that HALF BILLION QUID in bribes FIFA generated was quite something. The way they operated the buying and selling of the World Cup was organised crime. Just think how much good that money could have done to grassroots football around the world. Platini lost his reputation when he lost his bottle. When the President of France gets on the blower and tells you Qatar have offered to spend multiple billions of euros on Rafale fighters and Airbus planes, in exchange for switching votes from the USA… Read more »

Tom

Got to admire AFC forever superfan for almost singlehanded keeping the Conte to Spurs convo going for two days straight, then perhaps realizing this was borderline stalking behavior territory, but nonetheless making another Conte to Spurs comment.

Jamie

Tom’s got AFC’s number.

AFC Forever

Tom

“Got to admire AFC forever superfan”

Thank you.

It’s always nice to be admired Tom/Jamie or whatever name you’re using today.

Jamie

“It’s always nice to be admired Tom/Jamie or whatever name you’re using today.”

Classic Bamford deflection.

IAT-Robbie

Antonio Conte at Inter Milan (23.9 months): Transfer expenditure – £270 million Players purchased with fees – 19 Fee per player – £14.2 million. Mikel Arteta at Arsenal (22.4 months): Transfer expenditure – £232.8 million Players purchased with fees – 11 Fee per player – £21.1 million Yet Conte is the “cheque-book” manager. Some of the narratives some in our fanbase peddle have proven to be far off the mark in recent seasons. That is exactly why I think Conte will most likely turn things around at Sp*rs and finish above (an Arteta-led) Arsenal come the end of the season…As… Read more »

Graham62

AFC

We I worked in Qatar for seven years and was once offered a Rolex watch by one of the local dignitaries to become a member of our hotel’s sports and leisure facilities.I turned it down.

I was also offered a new car.
I also turned that down.

My conscience is clear.

I now live in a caravan and drive a clapped out Ford Fiesta!👍

Dissenter

“The figures bandied about on the “ pants shitters “ favourite Conte.Hardly reflect on the absolute mess Arteta was left with.But that’s going over old ground that has been done to death.But just thought I’d put that straight for the record. I’ve recently tried to avoid getting stuck in the interminable nonsense that gets thrown around here but what in the world does “absolute mess Arteta was left with” mean? What “absolute mess” is this? He inherited a squad that missed out of 3rd/4th place narrowly and got the the EL league final? Can we dispense with the BS and… Read more »

Ernest Reed

“Spurs are a classic case where a Chairman/owner behaves like a fantasy football fan. Doesn’t have a clue but thinks he does. Amatuer hour.” Totally agree AFC, look at what Levy did with the massive return from the Bale to Madrid transfer? Nothing memorable whatsoever. There is zero guarantee that selling Kane or others will produce a windfall return of investment either. Levy has better success at developing talent through their system than going out and spending good money on poor performers. In truth, he’s horrible in this particular area. Bringing in Conte is a saving face opportunity for Levy… Read more »

IAT-Robbie

Conte (quite unfairly) has been given this “cheque-book” tag only because of his stint at Chelsea. He has managed under tighter budgets at Bari,Siena and Juventus before. Also weird to see him being typecasted as a poor squad-builder just because of the Chelsea flops. But as we’ve seen with Pepe + Emery, VdB + OGS, signings can be forced through against a coach’s wishes (I suspect Grealish is a similar type of signing). It shows on the pitch when said players don’t get any gametime. Batshuayi (16/17) – 20 League matches played, 1 start. 254 league minutes total Drinkwater (17/18)… Read more »

AFC Forever

Graham62

Nice one!! Good luck towing the caravan with the Fiesta,

Ernest Reed

“I now live in a caravan and drive a clapped out Ford Fiesta!👍”

The Lord loves your common man approach to life Graham, you know he does. 😁

Tom

AFC ,
same name and moniker as always because I’m a grownup, but just to be clear, if I’m getting the message you’ve been trying to get across in your 20 or so Conte to Spurs comments……….
Spurs are a talentless bunch of losers and Conte is a modern day Mourinho who’s gonna blow up their wage structure while failing to move the needle, and will skip town having soiled his winning reputation forever……….is that about right?

AFC Forever

Ernest

Yes, pretty much agree mate.

Graham62

Just to make it perfectly clear, I do not live in a caravan.

No disrespect to those of you that do.

Graham62

Why is that Daniel Levy reminds me of Ivan Gazidis?

Graham62

Why the interest in Conte?

I’m telling you now, Spuds are in deep shite.

Mary Poppins could have turned up and it wouldn’t have made a difference.

Zacharse

Imagine being a fan of a club that has had mourinho nuno and then conte consecutively.

Personally id quit being a fan

AFC Forever

Graham62 “I don’t really live in a caravan” I love the way you felt the need to clarify that! When the kids were young I remember staying in this caravan on a holiday camp (now that’s a laugh) and realising there really was a place called hell on earth. When the rain fell, it was like being inside a tin can and someone spraying you with ballbearings. The bedroom had holes in the floor, apparently for airflow, and it was so cold we had ice on the inside of the windows. No amount of cloths on the bed could warm… Read more »

Dissenter

Conte is a checkbook manager, he’s never been afraid to define himselkf on those terms All the jobs he’s walked away from, it because they refused to fund transfers at the pace he wanted. When he resigned from Juventus in 2014, it’s because they were in the process of a savings budget. At the time he made that famou statement that lives on till today; ““You can’t go to a restaurant for 100 euros if you only have 10 euros in your pocket, can you?” He stormed away from Chelsea because they didn’t want to commit to the spending he… Read more »

Dissenter

*Abramovich was caught up in the spat between his country and the UK at the time.

AFC Forever

Tom, interesting you have taken offence to my very anti-Spurs comments but not surprising.. The fact you were promoting Dyche for Arsenal tells everyone what you aren’t.