No need to panic down at the Lane

I have to admit, the lack of transfer action in or out has been making me as twitchy as our manager before a court trial relating to tax offences (ooops!), but over the last day or so, I have calmed down and reflected and come to the conclusion that it isn't all that bad.

I'm a listener of talksport, and the station is on constantly when I'm in my car, and I have gotten a bit put out by the apparent disregard of Spurs' chances next season.  Yes, we did not qualify for the Champions League and yes our best active player wants to go to Chelsea but it is not that bad down at White Hart Lane.

There is almost an unspoken feeling that Spurs are not good enough.  There's talk about the top clubs' chances in the league next season? Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, City and Liverpool are discussed.  There's talk about the transfer speculation? Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, City and Liverpool are discussed.  Any time Spurs are mentioned, their chances get shot down immediately.

Apparently we are no longer contenders. 
Utd have money and are the top club in the country
Chelsea have the money and are the second top club in the country
City have the money
Arsenal are just there...

Us? We are the team which, despite a debut season in the Champions League, were the joint 2nd most hard-to-beat team in the Premier League, losing eight matches. Joint with Arsenal, and one less than Chelsea and Manchester City.  Finishing 6 points behind Arsenal and 9 points behind City and Chelsea sounds worse than it was.  We can look to damaging results in Feburary, March and April against teams, which arrogantly, I will say that we should have beat:-
22nd February - lost to Blackpool away 3-1
6th March - drew with Wolves away 3-3
19th March - drew with West Ham home 0-0
2nd April - drew with Wigan away 0-0
23rd April - drew with West Brom home 2-2
7th May - drew with Blackpool home 1-1


When you look at these matches, let's not pretend that if the matches were played on paper, then, again not being arrogant, we should have been 13 points better off.  I'll accept that the beauty of football is that it does not always follow expectation, trend or form, but really, Tottenham should have done better.  Standard.

And to those who have bemoaned Tottenham's strikeforce, then yes this aspect was found wanting - 55 goals all season is not good enough (although City 'only' scored 60 and finished 3rd), but the disappointing aspect for me was the number of goals we let in.  Look at the matches I listed above - all but two we scored in, but all but two we kept a clean sheet in.  Although we need some tweaks up front (and I would keep Defoe and Pav, but let Crouchy and Keano go), we really need to look at whether the Gallas/Dawson partnership is 'the one' because even though both may play ok, we still let goals in, which is disappointing.

Other than a new defender, a couple of strikers and a happy Luka Modric, I feel Spurs are in decent shape for the new seasons, particularly looking at what is going on at our rivals at the moment:
Chelsea: new manager, new mindset and ageing squad
Arsenal: two influential midfielders want to leave, other players being told they can go, major rebuilding going on
Liverpool: have splashed the cash, but suspect whether any of their additions this year (Suarez excepted) are 'big team' players

Only Utd seem to have strengthened appropriately, so with a couple of the right signings, I think Spurs could be in good stead for the coming season....