Match Report: Southampton 3 Spurs 3 & Conte dilemma… what next?
In my match Preview, I said this could be a possible banana skin… and low and behold… even though we didn’t lose, we got the next best thing to that banana skin… drawing with a team struggling at the bottom of the League.
To the embarrassment…
I stupidly predicted that we would win 4-1, with Richarlson, Kane and Son getting the goals… instead Kane got one… Richarlson was injured at the beginning of the match and off… and from 3-1 up to an embarrassing draw.
A late James Ward-Prowse penalty earned Southampton a deserved point as they came from behind against us at St Mary’s.
A scrappy first half never really got going as both sides were forced into two substitutions apiece, with Richarlison and Ben Davies coming off injured. At the same time, the Saints’ Armel Bella-Kotchap and Jan Bednarek also got replaced.
Pedro Porro broke the deadlock, hammering a shot into the roof of the net just before halftime. Looking good so far…
Second half…
Che Adams levelled 47 seconds into the second half, but… the Saints were staring at defeat with 15 minutes to go. Harry Kane’s header before a fine Ivan Perisic effort made it 3-1. Game, set and match… or so we thought…
Janette texted me at halftime to say my prediction was coming true… We were going into the International break above United and into second place. Just a little matter of 45 minutes more to play.
But my predictions started to look shaky when Theo Walcott inspired Southampton’s comeback with a positioned finish from Sekou Mara’s header. Ward-Prowse completed it from the spot to secure a vital point. Oh, Shit! Spursy comes to fruition, and Conte goes berserk… but who was the orchestrator of Spurs’ formation and game plan? Players obey the master, or they should.
Thoughts…
A point does nothing to improve the Saints’ position in the table as they remain rooted to the bottom. They have managed two wins so far against Chelski and Leicester Titty – but this spirited second-half performance against a poor Spurs side showed promising signs as they face a tough battle to stay in the League.
Our fans sang #You are going down with the West Ham#, but the last laugh was on us.
The Saints had to substitute their central defenders inside 33 minutes, with Mohammed Salisu replacing Bella-Kotchap and Ainsley Maitland-Niles returning to the fold after two weeks on the sidelines after Bednarek was taken to hospital with a suspected rib injury. But the home side were rejuvenated in the second half, with Adams’ early goal putting us on the back foot.
Even though our opponents trailed by two goals, it was Southampton who had the chances as Walcott gave the St Mary’s crowd hope before Mara went close to an equaliser but was denied by Fraser Forster.
Whether it was a penalty or not, the Saints were eventually rewarded for their obstinacy when Pape Sarr made contact with Maitland-Niles in the box, and Ward-Prowse drove a penalty into the back of the net.
As I said, with Manchester United in FA Cup action on Sunday, victory would have seen us move one point above Erik ten Hag’s side in the battle for Champions League football. Instead, it was one step forward, two back. The way we play, inconsistently, there is hope for Chelski, the Geordies, the Scousers… and maybe even Brighton, Brentford, and Fulham… to jump above us.
We ended a four-match losing streak away from home but threw away a two-goal cushion to bottom-of-the-league opposition, which was disgraceful…
Clear-cut possibilities were rare as neither side managed a shot on target in the opening period until Porro broke the deadlock with his first goal since joining us in January.
We were retreating for much of the second half; Kane’s goal came against the run of play, and Perisic’s shot from range bounced to catch keeper Gavin Bazunu off guard.
As has often been the case this season, we led despite an unconvincing performance and relied on moments of quality from Kane, who has now registered 21 goals. We seemed to run out of ideas against a team who have failed to score more than once in a home match since August and allowed them to exploit us.
Who is to blame; Conte or Levy?
As for Conte… he was right about what he said… but wrong to say it in public. Should he go? I think the time has come to part ways… I was a supporter of his at first… but this season’s performances at times were very poor, inconsistent and troubling. However, is Conte wholly to blame, or should we look upstairs to the puppet masters?
Under Daniel Levy’s control, there have been 20 managers (including relief managers). Only one of them won a trophy, and he was quickly fired. Mourinho and Conte rely on vast amounts of money to build a top-challenging team… so why weren’t they given the resources to challenge the likes of City, United, Liverpool, Chelski and Arsenic? If they were expected to compete in the same way as the other previous 18 managers, then why employ them in the first place (they weren’t that sort of managers)? Are Lewis and Levy playing some kind of game to just piss off the loyal contingency that follow Tottenham week in and week out? Or are they just incompetent?
Antonio Conte 02 Nov 2021 Present
Nuno Espirito Santo 30 Jun, 2021 01 Nov, 2021
Ryan Mason 19 Apr, 2021 29 Jun, 2021
Jose Mourinho 20 Nov, 2019 19 Apr, 2021
Mauricio Pochettino 27 May, 2014 19 Nov, 2019
Tim Sherwood 16 Dec 2013 13 May 2014
Andre Villas-Boas 03 Jul 2012 16 Dec 2013
Harry Redknapp 25 Oct, 2008 15 Jun, 2012
Juande Ramos 29 Oct, 2007 25 Oct, 2008
Clive Allen 26 Oct 2007 29 Oct 2007
Martin Jol 05 Nov 2004 26 Oct 2007
Jacques Santini 03 Jun, 2004 05 Nov, 2004
David Pleat 21 Sep 2003 03 Jun 2004
Glenn Hoddle 02 Apr 2001 21 Sep 2003
David Pleat 16 Mar 2001 02 Apr 2001
George Graham 01 Oct 1998 16 Mar 2001
Chris Hughton 07 Sep 1998 01 Oct 1998
David Pleat 07 Sep 1998 01 Oct 1998
Christian Gross 19 Nov 1997 05 Sep 1998
Gerry Francis 15 Nov 1994 19 Nov 1997
Granted, what Levy has achieved with the new Stadium is mind-blowing (enriching himself and the club)… but what he has achieved for the football side is fuck all… the word “Spursy” came into fruition under his watch? Are the Nerk Twins to blame for our catastrophe, or have they just been unlucky with incompetent managers? And if it is because of incompetent managers, then who picked them in the first place?
Levy is a money man… an accountant… not a football manager or a football guru… but a wannabee overseer of a once successful football club. Or I should say… a once trophy-winning club.
Who should be the next manager?
If Conte is going to be replaced… and according to the rumours… he will be… who will be the chosen one to be constantly kicked in the bollocks?
I’ve heard rumours that it could be Mason until the end of the season… fuck me… a child manager… the same temporary manager who was just as useless the first time around when he took over temporarily from Mourinho(Manchester City Cup final etc.). I am no great fan of Pochettino (I don’t think we should visit the past), but even he would be better than Mason. And a host of other names has been thrown into the ring…
The headlines scream…
“Tottenham chief Daniel Levy has nine-man shortlist with Antonio Conte ‘set for sack”.
Just to name six of that so-called nine on that shortlist…
Thomas Tuchel
Marco Silva
Roberto De Zerbi
Luis Enrique
Mauricio Pochettino
… but whoever is picked, will anything change while Levy and his partner in crime, Joe Lewis, remain in charge? Twenty times wrong… would the 21st appointment be the one? After all, it ends in a 1? Surely he has to be right at least once?
Didn’t Shakespeare write something about it… a farce … granted… it was about 600 years earlier… but true today; A comedy of errors… he probably had this wet dream about a club in the future that would be taken over by some clowns… Talking about clowns makes me think of the song #Send in the clowns#.
#Don’t you love farce?
My fault, I fear
I thought that you’d want what I want
Sorry, my dear!
But where are the clowns
Send in the clowns
Don’t bother, they’re here#
Whatever… the laughter and mocking will continue until something happens…
COYS, Glenn
This post first appeared on SpursNetwork | Tottenham Hotspur Forum & Fansite, please read the originial post: here
