misfortunate, now that's a new one

Spurs are growing from strength to strength, while we are declining. Wenger cannot be held fully responsible for this changing state of North London, but at least fully responsible for the the latter part.

If anyone of their fans start doing the '99 Man Utd at Juve comparisons I'll vomit. Arsenal move into a new stadium and drop, sperz are in a new stadium while waiting for theirs and get better. Their 5th table showing has to be placed in its proper context. Man City is in its own league. The league title was won before it got started. Sperz are only 4 points from 2nd place Man Utd. 2nd to 5th is pretty tight and a couple matches here or there changes and the table can change weekly from here on out for the CL places.

I have to assume they also don't have money to spend. So that can't be used as an excuse. The big, glaring difference between us and them when we were moving was belief. We went from no worse than 2nd to top 4, they went from no CL to top 4 and those opposite trends is where belief (lack or increased) comes in.

Things may change for them if their manager of Kane goes. I think the most important person they have is the manager. They can lose Kane and I think still be formidable. They'll get a pretty penny for him and I think they won't make the same mistake with the money that they did when Bale was sold.

They could decline noticeably with no Kane. That is the logical view but their manager is good enough to counter that. Klopp seems to getting along fairly well without Coutinho. We may even end up with a better attack sans Sanchez.

His book will be bigger than the bible and just as fanciful.

Kane may not want a move. I have not seen an stories linking him to RM other than stories out of Real. No agent wining and dining at Real. Maybe he has no interest in such a move at the moment.

Thanks for clearing that one up. I'd go further and say they could either win, lose or draw their remaining fixtures this season and either make or not make the top 4.

Errr - I'll agree with the we are declining bit, but Spurs going from strength to strength? Hmm, not until they actually win something. 56 years......... that's 56 years (only 30 years less than kiwi's age, and he's ancient).
Ipswich
Leeds
Derby
Nottm Forest
Aston Villa
Blackburn
Leicester

All 'lesser' clubs that have won the top division since Sp*rs last did.

Let's not over egg their pudding. Anchors.

PS I think I'm right in saying it was 2008 that they last won anything, and that was the League Cup.

And they're showing the following on their website as part of their 'honours':

OTHER HONOURS
Southern League Champions: 1899/1900
Western League Champions: 1903/1904
London League Premier Division Champions: 1902/1903
Football League South 'C' Division Champions: 1939/1940
Football League South Champions: 1943/1944, 1944/1945
Southern District Charity Cup Winners: 1901/1902, 1904/1905 (joint), 1906/1907
Dewar Shield Winners: 1901/1902, 1933/1934
London Challenge Cup Winners: 1910/1911, 1928/1929
Anglo-Italian League Cup-Winners Cup Winners: 1971/1972
Norwich Charity Cup Winners: 1919/1920
Norwich Hospital Charity Cup Winners: 1946/1947, 1949/1950 (joint)
Ipswich Hospital Charity Cup Winners: 1951/1952 (joint)
Costa Del Sol Tournament Winners: 1965, 1966
Nolia Cup (Sweden) Winners: 1977
Japan Cup Winners: 1979
Sun International Challenge Trophy (Swaziland) Winners: 1983
Peace Cup (Korea) Winners: 2005
Vodacom Challenge (South Africa) Winners: 2007
Feyenoord Jubileum Tournament (Holland) Winners: 2008
Barclays Asia Trophy (China) Winners: 2009

EMBARRASING MUCH??

Oh he does, may be sooner than you think.

Warrior, recently when login on I've been getting a "This connection may not be secure" message displayed. Firefox on a Mac.

No apologies for wanting Ostersunds to thrash us because:

1) Wenger Out.

2) Their players are contractually obliged to read Dostoevsky.

I'm as anti-Wenger as anyone but I don't hold him "fully responsible" for Arsenal's decline. I see it as a joint effort between Wenger and Kroenke. Stan lacks ambition for the club's trophy haul, but critically is the reason Wenger still holds the job he does.

One may hold Wenger as mainly to blame, or Kroenke as mainly to blame, or about equally to blame. But whatever the views of people on that debate regarding the balance of the blame, I think it should be seen as a joint effort between them.

Yeah - Not a lot I can do about it though.

Why this happens is some members are using remotely linked avatars - or people are posting images from other sites which are not secure (SSL).

Our site is secure (as it uses SSL) but if there is content on the site from a remote server that isn't secure, most modern web browsers will bitch about it and display that warning.

The main thing is that our logins are encrypted and safe and also Google will rank it higher due to the SSL Certificate.

I could get rid of that error message one of two ways.

There is a plugin I could install which would force remote images to be from SSL sites only.

~Or~

I could make it so remote content isn't allowed at all - but that would be no fun.

You'll notice if you attempt to post a message, the site will be secure, as all that content on that page is from the SGAF server.

Look at the confidence the team has. Look at the way they move about the park. Then, compare to us. If they keep going at this rate, they will eventually win something big. The EPL is not beyond them within the next 3 years. They just need to add strength and not lose key players like Kane and Eriksen. And this is something the club is more prepared to do, than Arsenal. I would not want them to win anything major. But based on what they are doing now, it is very possible. I'm looking at now, and projecting a possible future outcome. The past is a past. City didn't used to be feared as well. But, they are now more feared than MU. Their number of major trophies is definitely not anywhere close to MU. Liverpool used to be the best of England, and they have not won the EPL at all. I'm looking forward, not back. But I guess you know that.

The way I see it is that Wengers responsible for about 80% of the causes of arsenals decline. I respect other opinion but strongly believe this.

The board are culpable in as much as they treated Arsenal like a business too much rather than a sports team. They are also responsible for not making a very easy decision in letting Arsene go, bar that everything else is on Wenger.

If you credit him with changing football for ever, building the Emirates single handedly, revolutionising the club top to bottom blah blah blah then the vast majority of the blame needs to be attributed to him as well when it goes tits up. (...and it so has) When footballers are playing againest a better side the strategy ultimately is to keep it tight defensively, try and win every ball and wait for an opportunity. Since we sold Sol Campbell (first time) I never considered at any point we had enough defensive solidity to mount a serious challenge for anything since that date. It's been that long. This simple thing is about coaching, management and organisation. We have none of that.

When Wenger leaves we should all nosh a Pizza Hut all you can eat Buffett together or something to celebrate the ordeal being over. It seems inconceivable that another person could be Arsenal manager now and we could look to the future.

Kind of in the Daz boat as I couldn't care less if we won the Haribo cup or europa league.

What's the point of winning the europa league to gain entry to a competition that Wenger has no chance whatsoever of winning.

If losing in both those competitions meant that end of Wenger I'd take it. We are just going nowhere

I think there's a strong shout to suggest Pochettino is the best manager
In the league right now.

Oh and for all those who continue to think Granit Xhaka is "a bloody good player" I suggest you watch a video of Dembele for Spurs last night. Takes it off his back 4, distributes it well, drives forward always composed on the ball and rarely forgets to track back when an opposing player is running towards his penalty area.

Wrong about Poch, what has he won, what has he done AW hasn't done?

Spot on about Dembele I believ Xhaka has become a liability and needs replacing................

If you had bothered to read "right now" you would not have committed the genetic fallacy.

You're welcome.

Well ifyou think he's referring to this very minute you could be right but he hasn't done anything AW has done in the past so I don't see what point your making unless you think the end of one game in solitude decides who is or isn't the best?

You know what you can do with your genetic fallacy!

I think it's relatively easy. Currently, if you had to choose the best manager in the PL it would be Pochettino.

I agree with this (I also prefer him to Pep but that's largely a personal preference for more physical and robust teams).

I also think that Real Madrid would probably agree too when it comes to choosing between:

a) Wenger

b) Pochettino

I'd go further and say I cannot imagine ANY big club who would go for option A at the end of the season, past glories notwithstanding.

Reluctantly I am abandoning my wishful thinking that he's a swan, he's a swan, he's a swan, and coming to the conclusion that he is a one-legged hideous duckling given his inability to defend or attack which are generally liabilities in a midfielder of any type. This is a shame because I so long for a brilliant left-footed midfielder - still miss Stefan Schwarz.

Anyway, I found a website where you name a player and they will draw him for you on a t-shirt. My Tottenham supporting mate has Darren Anderton, it's really quite good.

I was wondering who I would have and think it's a toss up between the legendary Stevie Williams and Emanuel Adebayor which I would wear in deeply ironic tribute to the fact that he was one of the most enjoyably dislikable mercenary figures we ever had and the PL ever entertained.

Come on Ostersunds, do it for the Dostoevsky fans!!!!

It would be especially good if Ostersunds won because they could then use the headline THE IDIOT over a picture of Wenger.

Happy Valentine's Day, Bernard.

While I hope we beat City in the league cup final, I'm not holding my breath. They are on pace to win all 3 domestic trophies. That feat wouldn't surprise anyone with the form they are in England but what about the CL?
Do they have a chance? And if so, could they be the first English side to win all 4 trophies in the same season? Pep knows the CL very well and knows what it takes to win it. Talentwise, there is no issue. Yes, Barcelona should be considered favorites but the way City are playing, I wouldn't count them out in the least.

Obviously a ploy by the leek eating Junior Sheep shagger to ensure a response ...so I'll oblige .
Correct about the age but hopelessly astray with the rest .

Common practice for the less educated to gloss over our own shortcomings by switching the focus .......... Man United lost at Newcastle tee he he ........ Spurs haven't won anything but they did win the Crufts Jubilee Cup blah blah much forced laughter

Tottenham might not have won anything for a while but at the present moment they are delivering value for money ..... to me that's all that matters .
Fast action , usually a few goals , structured game plan , very promising squad working cohesively ; all things to admire

....... meanwhile across town [ paying the highest admission fee in the land ] we get to watch our heroes get a ball from Čech then exchange 25 million passes before they cross the halfway line .

What you also have to realise John ....... most of those 'embarrassing trophies' Spurs collected were won in a pre TV era when most everyone were out playing sport and didn't have their fat arses glued to the couch watching Jerry Springer , or the Welsh Sheepdog trials .

Okey Dokey ...that's sorted that little poofter .

How long has he been at Spurs? What has he won? What makes you think he's going to win anything this season? Do you seriously think if he lost his best forward and best midfielder he would still win something?

Anyone but Wenger but not just anyone. We must appoint as guaranteed winner.

Many thanks. He would be the focus of my t-shirt.

We have to appoint a manger that he himself is a pull for players. We won’t (are unlikely) to be in the champions league so any new manager is going to have to be the sort players want to come and play for

Been taking lessons from the Yank ..?

Osterand away has all the current hallmarks of a 0-0 with us having 70% of the ball but having under 4 shots on target. I wouldn’t put a 1-0 defeat past us.

and it's not grass and most likely freezing cold......................

Whoever got the job, wouldn't guarantee trophies.

But going on the evidence of his past performance, Pochettino gets his teams to play football I enjoy watching and is arguably a better fit for Arsenal as in my view he has shown he can build teams from a lower base than Guardiola. While I think practically any manager would get better performances and results from the same players in Arsenal's current squad, an element of rebuilding on what may be a tight budget (at least compared to the Manchester clubs and Chelsea) will be required from Wenger's successor. I'd have as much confidence in Pochettino doing that as I would in anyone else.

Unfortunately it's a pipe dream as I doubt we have any realistic hope of getting him.

Double post

Exactly, the new manager when he eventually does take over will probably be told here is your budget - £40/50M + the proceeds of player sales, Kroenke has been using Wenger as his shield for years, taking advantage of Wenger's stubborness and ego in thinking he can still "take us to the next level", meanwhile most of the fan base spend their time ranting and raving about Wenger, so it obviously worked then!. Silent Stan is not stupid.

The only possible speck of hope is that once Stan's shield is removed it may expose him a little more to the hostility of the fans and at that point he might decide to cash in and find a buyer, I doubt it though, he is known for not giving a toss what people think about him, one has to have hope though.

Hard to watch these champions league knock out games and see how far we are away in virtually every aspect of on pitch quality

Poch himself has said he could never manage arsenal or Barcelona. I’d say quite a few top teams would be after him if he became available, and I could see him putting his espanyol connections aside to manage Barcelona long, long before he would manage us

It is difficult to look past English rams dominating the later stages of the champions league. Liverpool 4-0 away to Porto, that’s them in to the QF, City are basically there already. Chelsea may struggle v Barca. I make spurs favourites to go through v Juve. Man U still to come.
It could be PSG, Barca, Bayern and 4 English clubs.

and the 4 English clubs will possibly have to play each other twice which added to the games they have between themselves till the end of the season will help us achieve 4th spot or 5th at worst.