Welcome to the Horror Show

I remember fondly the sensation I used to get on attending the first home game of the season, the trudge through the bowels of White Hart Lane and a long walk up a dark stairwell, only to step out into the pristine chapel of Tottenham Hotspurs,the August sunlight reflecting the brilliance of the perfection of the green playing surface. It was almost religious…

Now that I am 11,000+ miles away in self-imposed exile, the ritual is somewhat diminished…. I record the games off the Sky satellite overnight and wake pre-dawn on a Sunday morning to a darkened living room, the chill of a winter’s night not quite passed, with only a mug of tea and a TV for company. No cathartic transition from darkness to sunlight, no chance to absorb the smell of a new coat of paint or the freshly mown grass, no atmosphere, no buzz, just the bright glow of a TV in the dimness of a cold New Zealand morning….

And on this day, not even the comfort of a good result to take the edge off...

After switching on and listening to the team selection, my hopes were buoyed by the inclusion of Modric in the starting line-up, and perplexed by Crouchys call up. I know Crouch has some form against Man City, but even though we had lost the previous weekend, I would have rekoned that Defoe looked to be a better choice than just a single lanky bean-pole up front.

The game kicked off and Spurs took the initiative right from the very start with 2 very good attacks in the first few minutes. VdV looked sharp, and was unlucky that Joe Hart was in good form to push away a couple of good chances. For a few minutes I began to believe that we actually had a chance in this game that is until the Man City front line started to move up a gear. Friedel was once again called into action early on to tip away a shot from Silva, but with Nasri and Aguero orchestrating some flowing moves from midfield it was not going to be too long before they unpicked the lock on our defence. After a good break on the wing, Nasri crossed perfectly for Dzeko to poke home in front of a hapless Kaboul.

Even at 0-1 down we had a couple of quality chances, and I thought that we could get back in this game. Firstly Bale was found at the back post but somehow ended up blasting over the bar, and a few minutes later, this time Bale was the supplier and his superb cross was met by Crouch’s header, only for the ball to sail fractionally past the right-hand post. But then almost immediately a well worked header from Dzeko, where he headed the ball backwards against the direction of the keeper, and we were 0-2 down. Once again, for the second week in a row, our heads dropped and Spurs slipped out of the game.

Despite a Second half revival, and Kaboul scoring Tottenham’s first league goal of the season, Dzeko ended up netting 2 more goals with Aguero getting on the score sheet to make it a 1-5 drubbing. Worse still, Modric didn’t look engaged, Lenno went off with a groin strain, and VdV walked off with a hamstring. 

When it rains it pours…

It was a poor performance all round, even taking into consideration the excellent movement of  Man City’s midfield, and the newly found quality of Dzeko’s attack. Even if we expect both Man United & Man City to be in the top 3 at the end of the season, and dropping points against them was to be expected, the manner of the 2 defeats don’t bode well for the upcoming away game against Wolves, (never an easy trip).

The only solace I can take from the day is seeing Arsenal go down 8-2 to a rampant Manchester United. Even we only let in 3 goals....

My Player ratings: -

• Friedel – 7.0 – Played well even if he did have to pick 5 goals out of the back of the net
• Bale – 5.5 – Uninspiring game, 1 big miss and very few crosses
• Kaboul - 6.5 – Apart from the gaol, not one of his best games
• Dawson – 5.5 – Missing in action for most of the game
• Corluka – 6.0 – Average performance, but Nasri had him in his pocket
• Assou-Ekotto – 6.0 - Average performance
• Lennon  - 5.5 – Some good movement early on, but then went AWOL
• Van der Vaart – 6.5 – Best of a poor bunch until he pulled a hammy
• Modric  - 5.0 – For God’s sake get a grip man...!
• Kranjcar  - 6.0 – Average start to the game, tailed off in the 2^nd half
• Crouch -5.5 – Should have done better, but really unsupported
• Huddlestone – 6.0 – Not much he could do, some good passes but all too late
• Defoe – 6.5  - Should have been on from the start
• Livermore – 6.5 – Looked lively when he came on, better than Modric on the day

No heart for Hearts....

As I didn't get to see the second leg of the UEFA qualifying game this week, (as I had to leave for work....), I'm not really in a position to make any statement about how we played. Having said that, it was the biggest dead rubber of a game that we will probably play this year, but even if it was just a training game for the youngsters, I am sure we got something out of it....

What I do now for sure is that we made it through the qualifying match and are now in Group A of the Europa Cup group stage, in a group with Rubin Kazan, PAOK Salonika, and Shamrock Rovers. COYS

And the inevitable happens….

After flattering to deceive with a comfortable 5-0 run out against Hearts at the back end of last week, the start of our Premiership campaign commenced on a somewhat predictable note…., a loss at Old Trafford.

It’s been over 20 odd years since we won at the ‘Theatre of Dreams’, so I half expected that we would be lucky to get anything out of this tough first game. Ultimately, the game was still a bit disappointing, not so much the loss itself, but the way we folded after the first goal went in on the 60 minute mark.

During the first half, I think we were well in the game and looked good value for at least a draw. Although Friedel had pulled off some smart saves, I did not think Man United looked any better than us, and in fact I think they actually had less shots on target at half time. I was glad to see Harry bring Corluka on for the second, as Ashley Young had been starting to look more and more threatening down that wing, and had Walker in his back pocket. Whilst Charlie is not the fastest, he is very solid, and put in a few telling blocks to keep Young quiet for the bulk of the second half.

Up until they scored, I thought that we were playing well within ourselves, even if there were no nailed-on goal scoring opportunities, and Friedel continued his great work in goal, keeping us in the game. At that point I thought we might hold on for a draw, or even grab a cheeky late goal on the break, but once Welbeck scored the whole team seemed to lose the plot.

For 10 minutes after their first goal I don’t think we even saw the ball, let alone put our foot on it to try and control it, and therefore it wasn’t long until a good bit of skill by Welbeck set up a sitter for Anderson to poke home. Kaboul & BAE gave Giggs far too much time to pick out a cross that found Rooney between the centrebacks, to direct a solid header across Friedel. Honestly, I was just glad we didn’t ship more than three goals, it could have been worse. As usual Pavlyuchenko came on and ran around a lot, but I thought Huddlestone showed well, and at least gave us some control back in the midfield.

Overall a disappointing game as a Spurs fan, not so much the result as the capitulation in the last 30 mins. I thought we played well in parts, considering we were playing the current Premier League Champions at their home ground, and we had chances before that which we just didn’t take. Bale did not get one cross in all game, and even Lennon seemed to struggle at time.

My Spurs player of the game had to be Friedel, who had a solid game and was not at fault for any of the goals. But I think our travelling fans deserve the highest praise, as they were the only fans that could be heard for most of the match, and never gave up singing even at the end… Proud to be a Spurs Fan

So now back to the Lane to lick our wounds and prepare for Manchester City next weekend.

My Player ratings: -

• Friedel - 8.0 - Heroic goalkeeping, kept us in the game
• Bale - 5.5 - Poor display, not enough crosses
• Kaboul - 6.5 - Reasonably solid display
• Dawson - 6.0 - Not a great game
• Walker - 5.0 - Could not handle Young's speed and trickery
• Assou-Ekotto - 6.5 - Very solid , at fault for the first goal..?
• Lennon - 6.0 - Seemed a little lost, not enough penetration
• Van der Vaart - 6.5 - Good for 60 mins, just like the rst of the team
• Kranjcar - 6.5 - Reasonable performance, but no Modric
• Livermore - 6.0 - Not enough endevor
• Defoe - 6.5 - Limited impact on the game, one good chance
• Corluka - 7.0 - Solid, dealt with Young when he came on
• Pavlyuchenko - 6.0 - Very little impact
• Huddlestone – 7.0 - Brought some control back to the middle when he came on

So what are my predictions for the upcoming season….?

With the postponement of the opening fixture, it has given me time to sort out my predictions for Spurs and the 2011/12 season.

Like everyone else I have waited all summer to see if there was any movement in the transfer market, and keep my fingers crossed that we may bag a new striker or central defender before the window shuts. I have also been keen to see if we could shift some of our driftwood off to other clubs to make space & money for a new arrival, but apart from Woodgate to Stoke & now Robbie Keane to the MLS, (Beckham the other way..?), we appear to be no further forward. We must be the only one of the top clubs not to have been seen to strengthen the team during the summer….!

So this means that we start the season with the best of the players we finished last season with…. Looking back, last season we finished 5^th in the Premier League & got much further in the Champions League than any of our rivals thought we would. I think we would all agree that there were a few key moments in last season where we were unable to step up when it was required, and Modric’s leg break early on, and the inconsistency of our strikers, were key reasons for this. If we had just beaten a few of those lower placed teams, turned a few draws into wins, we surely would have re-gained 4^th, if not 3^rd place, and be laughing all the way down Tottenham High Road…

Will a new striker or a central defender be the key to Tottenham success this season…?. No… I don’t think so…. We have some great strikers on our current roster, players that had been regularly banging in goals left, right, and centre in seasons past, strikers with a rich tradition of goal scoring for both club & country.  If you subscribe to the notion that a player can go through a bad patch, surely you must also subscribe to the reverse being true…? We need a few key players to step up and face the challenge head on, and we could once again be glory bound.

So here are my predictions for Spurs this season:

·         Top 4 finish

·         Modric to stay run the team

·         Average of 3 goals a game

·         Defoe to regain his top striker status, in partnership with Crouchy

·         Good FA Cup run, (quarterfinals at least)

·         Early exit to the Europa Cup

I guess we will have to wait & see….

Bugger... Postponing the Inevitable

From the Tottenham Hotspurs Web site:

Following ongoing discussions with the necessary authorities regarding this weekend's Premier League home match against Everton, it has now been confirmed that this fixture will be postponed due to safety concerns relating to infrastructure of the High Road and access to the stadium caused by last Saturday's riots.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused to supporters due to matters outside of the control of the Club. We shall update fans on when this fixture will be rearranged in due course.

I have been looking forward to the start of the season since the very last minute of the previous one, and now we have been postponed... Bugger...!!

This means that we will now commence the season in our qualification game against Hearts in the Europa League.... Have we postponed the inevitable..?

“Riots in the Streets of Tottenham”

I would love to think that maybe the Tottenham High Road riots were a reaction to the Spurs beating Athletic Bilbao 2-1 on Saturday. So jubilant were the fans that Modric played, Bale was electric, and even Defoe scored, that they left WHL is a state of wild euphoria, but sadly, there were more mundane reasons for it kicking off in the streets.

2-1 against reasonable Spanish opposition is a good pre-season result, and we should be happy. Sitting here in chilly old New Zealand, I was unable to watch the match, so I can’t really describe how we played, only regurgitate the “poor 1^st half, good changes at half time, and better play after the break” mantra of the many reviews and blogs I have read since the game. It is encouraging to see that Crouch seems to have hit a rare vein of form, with a handful of goals in the pre-season matches, and a goal by Defoe have become collectors’ items over the past 12 months.

Even more encouraging is the reception that Luka got from the fans when he came on for Pienaar in the 1^st half, as I think some of us were a bit concerned that the “boo-boys” might have had a go. No need to worry, because as ever, Spurs fans are more cultured than that, we can look past the indiscretions of the closed-season and make sure we get right behind our midfield magician, and appreciate the raw talent & skill that he brings to the team when he puts on the shirt.  Now let’s get on with the League & Europa Cup preparations, (Hearts, We can do them… Can’t we..?) , and we can start the new season with a clean slate.

In other news, Steed Malbranque has left Sunderland and heading back to Europe with French side St Etienne. Good on him…, but this left me with a hole in my Ex-Spurs Fantasy Football Team. So I guess I am gonna have to roll out Matthew Etherington, who spent a couple of season with Spurs in the early 2000’s, scoring a grand total of 1 goal in that time (in a 2-2 draw against Everton). Hopefully he will go on to score a few more than that for Stoke City this season.

I have also become aware that I could use Luke Young of Aston Villa, (who spent 5 seasons at Spurs starting in 1997), in my back line to replace either BAE or Charlie Corluka, but have elected to keep them both as they are now part of the team name. I reserve the right to change my mind at any point in the season….

So what’s been happening over the summer at Spurs..? The Bad side – Part 3

What can I say, this whole “Luka Modric to Chelsea” saga has really left a bad taste in every Spurs fans mouth I would imagine. If you are anything like me, you would have grown to love & respect our little Croatian magician who can more than match any midfielder in the world on his day. To find out that he has actually said in interviews that he want to go to a ‘Bigger’ club, especially those ‘Johnny-come-lately’ pretenders, ‘Chelski’, is like a knife in the guts….

How could he possibly think that Tottenham does offer him one of the best possible stages to showcase his skills, we are a team on the up, only just falling short of getting back into the Champions League but still finishing a creditable 5^th in the League. We are not a rich billionaires plaything like ‘Chelski’ or a Man City, of a ‘Global Brand’ team like ‘The Scum’ or Man United, but we punch well above our weight, and with Modric’s help, we will be eating the top 4’s lunch over the next few years.

Okay, I know…. I am being a bit naïve, players today do not play for the love of the ‘Club’, they are only loyal to following the highest possible wage packet…. It’s a sad reflection on both the ’beautiful game’ that I love and life in general. But to find out that one of our most beloved current Spurs players has little or no loyalty to the club is just another example of the erosion of one of the things I hold sacred. I am obviously from another age, what can I say…?

Trying to pick the bones out of this situation,  I am hoping that this story has been subject to more than its fair share of ‘Media Hype’, and that Modric’s comments have been taken out-of-context, or God forbid, ‘made-up’ by the press. Was a transfer request handed in, or was it all just some hacks over active imagination, who knows, but I for one hope that Modric falls back in love with the Club and dedicates himself to being part of the solution to playing Champions League football, not part of the problem of not playing it….

I see more bad news coming if we don’t sign a least one ‘quality’ striker before the season starts, or at least by the time the transfer window closes. Are we holding out to surprise everyone with another Van Der Vaart style signing, or are we gonna be left empty handed after trying to buy every potentially available player like we were in the January transfer window…? We have been linked with possibly of gaining the services of the likes of Vucinic, Mata, Rossi, Llorente, etc, etc,  all of which have come to nothing, and now even Adebayor & Barton’s names are being touted, God what next…?

Why didn’t we make more of a play for Sergio Agüero instead of letting him go to Man City…?  Have we tried to tempt Diego Forlan or Wesley Sneijder into the Premiership, both seasoned and proven goal scorers currently in teams past their best. What about Nilmar of Brazil, who looks lively and super talented…?

I guess we are gonna have to wait & see if Mr Levy can pull another miracle out of his behind again this season….

Time will tell…

So what’s been happening over the summer at Spurs..? The average side – Part 2

Looking back over our pre-season games to date, the best spin I can come up with is that we have neither been very good or very poor. Our pre-season tour of South Africa was its usual ‘artificial’ affair, with more focus on establishing the Tottenham Hotspurs ‘Brand’ in Africa and reaffirming connection with Supersport United, than with quality preparation in the Footballing department.

We played 2 games as part of the ‘VodaCom Challenge’, which were no better than training games, with Harry trying to find his best squad by swapping in & out at least 8 players per match. Even then we managed to lose 1-0 to the Kaiser Chiefs, and scrape 1-1 draw with the Orlando Pirates, which somehow was enough to see us through to the Final of the ‘competition’. We ran out comfortable 3-0 winners over the Orlando Pirates on the night, in a final in which was no better than an average training game with 6 changes made to the starting line-up. I just hope that all that phaffing around was enough for Harry to come up with good idea of the best formation.

On our return to jolly old England, we ran out 5-3 winners against the MK Dons of League One. Even though it was effectively a Spurs XI line-up, we were lucky to come away with the result, according to my ex-wife, (an MK Dons Fan, who knew..?). Not sure if Harry learnt anything from that encounter, even though Kranjcar & Pav made a good cases for more 1^st team action. This match was followed by another Spurs XI (read: 2^nd string) playing against Orient, that turned in a convincing 4-1 win, with a couple of cracking goals from Crouchy. 

The following day the 1^st team went down to the South coast to help the Seagulls celebrate the opening of their new stadium, the crassly named ‘American Express Community Stadium’. Let’s hope that WHL never gets a crap name like that… The game against Brighton & Hove Albion was probably the most useful pre-season game so far, with an almost proper 1^st team line-up, (Friedel (Gomes, 46), Charlie, Daws, Kaboul, BAE; Azza, Jenas, Livermore, Bale; VdV (Defoe, 32), & Pav), coming back from an early goal to win 3-2. Still a little concerning that we managed to let in 2 goals, but it was good to see the boys seal the deal against the Championship Team, and Bale playing so well.

So we have a final pre-season game at the Lane later this week, taking on Athletic Club Bilbao, which looks like it might present us with a real challenge. As a Spurs fan I hope we put out our strongest team and come away with a decent & convincing win to set us up for Everton next weekend. Regardless of the result, I am still left with a sense of ‘Meh..!” about our run up to the new season, but I guess it’s not really any worse than other years….

COYS..!!

So what’s been happening over the summer at Spurs..? The positive side – Part 1

I can sum up what’s been happening over the summer at Spurs very easily in two words: Very Little….

 

We have been keeping our money in our wallet so far this transfer season, having only picked up a couple of lower profile signings.

I think the most notable signing is 16 year old Soulemaney Coulibaly, brought from Italian club Siena. He did his reputation the world of good playing for the Ivory Coast in the recent U-17 World Cup in Mexico, where he scored 9 goals in 4 games, including hat-tricks against Brazil & Denmark. He is being touted as “The New Drogba”, but whether we see him out on the park as part of the 1^st team this season seems unlikely.

The move of Brad Friedel from Aston Villa to the Lane is an intriguing one, but with our perceived recent goalkeeping difficulties with Gomez & Cudicini, could this be a way to introduce a bit more competition for the number one jersey. I have always like the big American but I suspect his best years are now behind him, but as a reserve keeper we could do a lot worse.

We have also signed up another young Spanish player called Cristian Ceballos from Barcelona, via some iffy training trial at Chelski. I would imagine that he will be sent out on loan to the lower leagues for a season or so, just to blood him into the English game, so don’t expect to see him too soon.

We have parted company with a couple of players since last season, including Jonathan “Woody” Woodgate on a free to Stoke, and 2nd team player M’Poku to Standard Liege. I always liked Woody, especially after his goal in the Carling Cup Final in 2008, but he was injury-prone when we signed him and he never really overcame that tag. I wish him luck with the Potters.

Harry has continued his policy of sending out some of the younger players out on loan around the country, including Steven Caulker to newly promoted Swansea, & Kyle Naughton to Norwich. Lower down the league, Ryan Mason is on loan at Doncaster, Nathan Byrne at Bournemouth, and Bongani Khumalo will pay at Reading, all on a season-long loan.