· April 2014 figures
· Last Year's figures
May 2013
A word abut May
Average.
Distinctly average, in fact. Okay, it's not too fair to assess a month in which only two matches were played, but it would have taken a Herculean performance against Aston Villa to redeem the disgraceful team performance at Upton Park.
Whilst we comfortably beat Villa (which we have done in our last five meetings, as it happens), the last day show wasn't enough to enthuse the spectators, most of whom had left the stadium by the time the traditional end of season awards and lap of appreciation took place.
I have to mention the result of yesterday's FA Cup Final, only because the defeat of Hull City does mean that Spurs will enter the Europa League in the final play-off round, as we did last season. Whilst I did get excited about the "Tigers" going two up in the early stages, in the back of my mind, I was thinking it would have to be the Spurs kids playing a third qualifying round of the "dreaded" Europa League.
Maybe next season we will see less commitment to the second tier European competition, although success in the final would grant us passage to the 2015-16 Champions League.
How we approach Europe next season will be the decision of another manager/head coach, as Tim Sherwood's departure was confirmed the day after a magnificent Testimonial night for Ledley King, which featured decent performances from former team-mates Berbatov, Anderton and Sheringham, to name but three.
Sherwood had been nominated for the Premier League manager of the month award for April (won by Tony Pulis), but his brief Tottenham managerial career is over. Tim has spoken honourably since his departure, having been given the chance twice already by ITV in their TV coverage of the Europa League final and that game yesterday which was lost by Hull.
You can compare the final figures for both Andre Villas-Boas, and Tim Sherwood in their coaching abilities over the course of the season, as assessed by Spurs Odyssey voters. Both were in charge for a similar number of games. AVB had 26 games, and Tim had 28 games. Both lost heavily to Manchester City and Liverpool. Both lost 1-0 to Arsenal. Tim threw in a 2-0 Cup defeat for good measure. Both lost to West Ham. Tim managed that twice too!
AVB was in charge for 14 clean sheets. Tim managed just 7. In fairness, he did not have the benefit of the early season moderate Europa League opposition. AVB didn't manage a Premier League game in which we scored three or more goals. Tim did this 8 times (plus one against Dnipro). In the end, Tim's football was just too open and sometimes just plain naive for the liking of most Spurs fans, and he has scored well below AVB in all areas.
Hugo Lloris was our player of the month, thanks to his distinctly above average performance at Upton Park, unlike that of any of his team-mates. He is also the Spurs Odyssey player of the season.
I'll be submitting the usual end of season review in the next day or two. It's going to be called "Looking for a highlight".
Don't forget to check out the players' current figures re. appearances, cards, goals scored and accumulated ratings to date below.
...if you want to read reports of the matches played during this season, then links are on the Spurs Odyssey Fixtures/Reports page here. By working your way back through the previous month's figures, you can review the performances over 14 years!
