5%Villa-Relegation...for Spurs

[Brend'Watkins]

Well, they have only won one of the last 12/13, which has seemingly gone by without too many noticing. I don't think they've beaten any of the bottom four all season either.

Only 'Arry could get away with that without beng ripped apart in the papers.

The only mention I've seen of this ...what is in reality something of a collapse was a reference to it in the Fiver the other day.  There must be a rule in Journo land where only positive things can be said about Spurs regardless of how ordinary they have become.

[JJ-AV]

Now that the 4th CL place has become competitive with Liverpool, Spurs and Man City taking it in the last 3 season, is it time to consider a play-off for the last CL spot (or even 2). Maybe include the teams in the Europa league places and the FA Cup finalists?

I think it'll take a few more years of 'competition' before we can say that. It's a good idea and one I'd consider depending on how the next few years pan out.

The seeming 'one in, one out' of the top 4 could work one of two ways: 4 teams split off and it goes like it was before, it generally becomes more competitive and changes every year, or more likely: 2/3 teams get even further ahead of the team in fourth.

[Concrete John]

There's nothing at all to suggest Spurs will suffer the fate of Leeds.

I will say, though, that I reckon there's going to be an "after the Lord Mayor's show" feel to their season next year. No particular reasoning behind this, I just have a feeling they're going to have a much tougher season.

I agree, although I thought that this year after last season!

League wise I think they have, despite their good showing in the CL.

[Villa'Zawg]

There's nothing at all to suggest Spurs will suffer the fate of Leeds.

I will say, though, that I reckon there's going to be an "after the Lord Mayor's show" feel to their season next year. No particular reasoning behind this, I just have a feeling they're going to have a much tougher season.

I agree, although I thought that this year after last season!

League wise I think they have, despite their good showing in the CL.

It makes me want to cry when i look at that end of the table. We were on 58, 59, 64 points at this stage of the last 3 seasons.

[Concrete John]

It makes me want to cry when i look at that end of the table. We were on 58, 59, 64 points at this stage of the last 3 seasons.

The thing is though that this season the league has been much tighter, with the bottem clubs having more points and the top ones having less.  So even if we were playing to the level we were in those seasons, I doubt we'd have as many points.

[olaftab]

Spurs were the weakest of the teams that ended  up in top 4 last season and from now on ManShitty will be in there permanently whats left for rest of PL teams other than avoiding relegation to  the championship?

[itbrvilla]

The key will be in the summer when other teams will be hovering around there players will they be able to hold on to them knowing that they wont be able to offer them Champions League football next season.

They seam a lot better at us at selling for a profit instead of acting like a charity.

[hartman_1982]

The key will be in the summer when other teams will be hovering around there players will they be able to hold on to them knowing that they wont be able to offer them Champions League football next season.

They seam a lot better at us at selling for a profit instead of acting like a charity.

The thing that Spurs did very well was sell when a players stock was high. Now in the case of Barry we set our price at £18million and nobody came in for him. If we had then gone onto CL qualification it would have looked inspired, however we ended up selling for £12million. With Milner, I am pretty sure everybody thought at the time that we had bled Man City dry and it was an offer too good to turn down. With Young it will probably be something between £12-15million. If we had sold him when his stock was at its highest, I believe we would have comfortably achieved the £25million mark for him. However, we had no need to. I don't really see how you can say we act like a charity though.

[Dante Lavelli]

The key will be in the summer when other teams will be hovering around there players will they be able to hold on to them knowing that they wont be able to offer them Champions League football next season.

They seam a lot better at us at selling for a profit instead of acting like a charity.

As noted above they sell players when they are at their peak and also with more than 1 year left of their contract, just like we did with Milner (and not Barry ...Young).  It'll be a bitter pill to swallow but Villa need to start doing this as we're continually selling players when they are in the stronger bargaining position.  Of course, this assumes that the money will be reinvested in players.

[Toronto Villa]

The reason Spurs won't go the way of Leeds is a major reason why they did qualify for the CL next season. Given that Man City would be that much stronger this year, Spurs did very well out of their run, but knew that they'd be foolish to blow a lot of money on staying in the top 4 especially if it didn't come off. They're not as consistent as Man U, Chelsea or Arsenal yet, and their squad isn't as deep. They couldn't compete financially with Man City so blowing 50m would have been a huge risk, and massive weight around their neck now had they done so.

[hawkeye]

Spurs are miles ahead of us in terms of squad, direction and achievement.
They had a lot of injuries and Crouch,Defoe and Pavluchennko failed to deliver enough goals. The money they get for Bale will allow them to strengthen the squad. They will be chalenging for a top 4 place next season.

[Dante Lavelli]

I wonder what spurs fans are saying, do you think they're being as rational as us - to paraphrase a fair few here we seem to be saying that it is good that they did not over stretch themselves - whereas most villa fans hate the thought of us selling a player at a profit or not buying x, y, z when we know our income is not sufficient to support such purchases.

I suppose it's easier when the emotion is removed.