Paul Merson isn’t shy to voice his opinion and rile a few people up, as Tottenham Hotspur fans will know too well.
When you are a club like Tottenham, whose form can bounce up and down, then it’s hard to predict where they are going to go next.
Only last season, with Harry Kane in the building and a trophy-winning coach in Antonio Conte, they ended up finishing out of Europe altogether.
It was a disaster for the club and it was another key reason why Kane left for Bayern Munich.
Yes, it hasn’t gone as well as he would have liked because, for the first time since 2012, Bayern have gone trophyless.
When there was talk of Kane possibly leaving Tottenham, Merson made it clear that he would fear for the London club.
His start-of-the-season-prediction was for Ange Postecoglou’s side to ‘finish in the bottom-half’ if their main goalscorer left – he departed days before the season started.
With the 2023/24 Premier League season now drawing to a close, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher were discussing the ‘worst pre-season predictions’.
It included Merson saying Spurs would finish in bottom-half without Kane, Carragher and Neville both backing Manchester United for the top-four and Neville thinking that Bournemouth would go down.
But when debating which one was the worst. Neville was pretty clear in handing that unwanted award to his Sky colleague because it was ‘never’ going to happen, as he told Sky Sports.
Paul Merson’s prediction about Tottenham
“It’s probably mine or Merse’s looking at that,” said Neville. “Bournemouth I think are 11th at the moment, aren’t they? If they went down, then they would be 18th. That’s seven places out. Merse is seven places out really, isn’t he?!
“A lot of people wouldn’t have thought Bournemouth would go down. A lot of people wouldn’t have thought Tottenham would finish in the bottom-half. They are out-there-predictions. I think Man United finishing in the top four. I think 99% of people would have said that would happen. It shocked everybody. For me, that (Man United finishing in the top four) isn’t the worst prediction.
“For me, the worst prediction is when you go out there, say something you believe and think you are a bit of an outlier, then it doesn’t happen – I’m going to go for (Merson’s prediction as the worst). Tottenham were never going to finish in the bottom-half, were they?! Sorry, Merse.”
Tottenham without Harry Kane
There might be a bit of gloom at Hotspur Way, at the moment, but they are returning to Europe next season.
If every team in the Premier League, from Declan Rice at Arsenal to Ollie Watkins at Aston Villa, lost their key man without really replacing him, then they would struggle badly.
READ MORE: Peter Drury suggests Tottenham Hotspur star ‘unimpressed’ with Ange Postecoglou
But Postecoglou has done tremendously well to progress the team, bring an adventurous style of play to the building and increase the goals they are scoring even though Kane is gone.
Yes, Champions League football wasn’t achieved after the defeat to Manchester City and the manner in which they are ending the season has brought the mood down.
But the club is in a much better position than they were last season and that’s all that matters going into the new campaign.
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