Don’t stop now!

Years of waiting, dreaming of a 100% start and now we must put everything on hold for the international break.

Like many fans who are passionate about their team, for this blog club comes before country. I’ll watch the qualifiers and I’m pleased Capello has exerted his authority over our overpaid underperforming national stars, but success for Tottenham Hotspur means more than qualification for the World Cup. It’s not something that I really think about. Rather, my physical and emotional response to watching Spurs compared with England tells me all I need to know. With Spurs, the troughs are infinitely deeper and the peaks stratospheric.

A little like the Birmingham game, in fact. This was further evidence that our attacking prowess is enough to overwhelm most teams, and all that was lacking was some steadiness in front of goal in the first half and a bit of luck in the second as Crouch singlehandedly (singleheadly?) took on their defence with efforts scraped off the line and hitting the bar. We continue to be on course for a successful season and the progress is exceptional.

Alternatively, this was further evidence not just of defensive fragility but more significantly a lack of resilience. We cannot finish off inferior opponents and remain vulnerable. Always able to let teams back into the match, someone sometime is going to make a mistake in our box. We were lucky in facing a weakened team with no decent strikers, who missed chances better teams will put away in future. Therefore we are back to square one. The old faults remain hidden just below the surface veneer of a few reasonable performances.

Same match, two totally different analyses. In reality, both are probably true, at least to some extent. It is foolish to ignore our increased confidence and team cohesion, that in turn leads to excellent flowing attacking football. However, much more work is required to create and sustain a hard edge that marks out a team of winners and a winning team. Resilience will be a key concept as this blog continues through the season.

Then the lovely Luka has to go and have his leg broken. It’s my fault. I wasn’t there to watch over him. I had thought he had grown up just that little bit and didn’t need my patrician watchfulness (Luka, It Must be Love).

I’m reeling from the blow. We really have something going on with him, and now this. Good sources suggest that the description of his injury as a broken leg is a bit over the top, rather like Lee Bowyer… Let’s hope he’ll be back in 6 to 8 weeks or so.

Meanwhile, cue a plunge into the transfer market? Harry knows we have something too and he is certain to want to maintain some momentum, not necessarily with a direct Modric replacement but certainly someone, maybe a centre midfielder, to drive us on. He may well activate one of the many offers and enquiries that have been around this summer. Krancar? He will do for me and will fit right in. Frankly I’ll be relieved when the window is closed and the frenzy of speculation ends.