Spurs Are Good. Or Bad. Or Both.

August 30, 2009August 30, 2009 / Alan / 5 Comments

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.

Spurs v Birmingham. And Beyond

August 28, 2009 / Alan / 5 Comments

Spurs v Birmingham. And the Transfer Window

No change. That will do. Steady as she goes. Nothing to see here. More of the same. God this blogging lark is easy.

It is nothing short of remarkable that these things can be written about Tottenham Hotspur. We are only four matches into the season, yet a number of potential obstacles have popped up, like a 1980s Sonic computer game, but we have nonchalantly brushed them aside. Title contenders, tricky away games against local rivals, the trap set by lower league opposition in the Cup, all safely negotiated. Full bonus points, extra lives, on to the next level.

Although the prospect of a home match against Birmingham hardly sets the pulse racing, it remains a true test of our progress. The last time we played Birmingham at home, we lost 3-2 in a match that we dominated. I left the ground full of the indignant rage so familiar to Spurs fans over the years, fuelled partly by the utter injustice of this travesty, partly by anger towards our team who once again failed to convert our superiority into goals and who watched as Jerome Cameron strolled through the defence to score the late winner. Neither he nor Larsson, who volleyed a stray ball home from 30 yards, would ever again score such spectacular goals, yet they had to go and do it against us. I railed at the bluenoses ringing 606 to say their season had turned around. Fools. I was right, they were relegated, but of course once more it’s Spurs who lose to the teams at the bottom.

However, I do not believe we will falter tomorrow. This blog is more miserablist than blindly optimistic, but it’s realism that suggests we will be able to outmanoeuvre Birmingham’s well-organised midfield pressing game and that our forwards will be too strong for their defence, in whatever combination we choose to offer. King will return and Corluka move to full back, but otherwise it will be an unchanged team from last weekend. Corluka, a player I admire greatly, has not had a great start to the season, nothing serious but he may be under some pressure from Hutton, especially as the latter gives extra width. That width is not so crucial with Lennon in fine fettle, so perhaps a quiet word with Palacios to ensure the defence is properly protected is all that is required.

The other major issue is of course the transfer window, which closes in a few days time. Throughout the summer I have looked for improvement and consolidation in our squad, rather than wholesale rebuilding. Discounting men like Boeteng, who have appeared so infrequently that they don’t feel like Tottenham players anyway, there is not a single squad member who I would wish to be sold. Upon that foundation we need to bring in a few extra players to develop our quality, provide strength in depth and offer tactical options, either from the bench or to counter specific dangers in the way opponents are set up.

Crouch and Bassong fit the bill perfectly. A left sided midfielder just for the sake of it is not a priority, but another strong centre midfielder who can tackle and pass would be perfect. Trouble is, everyone is looking for the same thing.

Players will not be sold for the sake of it. I have insisted all along that despite Redknapp’s quotes at the beginning of the window, we do not need to sell in order to buy. However, some players are vulnerable if we can upgrade. One in, one out will be the order of the day. Selling Bentley or Jenas is a possibility, Pavlyuchenko a probability (I would keep all of them regardless of who joins), but without replacements the squad suddenly looks thin. Therefore, our current success should not lead to reckless selling and a squandering of our assets.

Pav wants to leave and in all probability Harry does not rate him, but he cannot be allowed to depart unless we have a replacement in the wings, and again good strikers are in short supply. Redknapp has placed a number of serious enquiries and maybe offers, and will continue to juggle the balls for as long as he can, until something shifts and everything starts to fall into place. Levy will not prevaricate on the fine print of the contracts – he would not dare to look Harry in the eye.

So farewell then Pascal Chimbonda – again. A decent price for a decent player, who contrary to most opinions I believe was an excellent buy in January. Remember the context of his arrival. The new manager bounce had well and truly vanished and our threadbare squad was performing poorly at the bottom of the league. Chimbonda could fit straight into the team, providing much needed defensive cover, and possessed the priceless asset of being available. At the time King had been written off, by Ramos at least, Woodgate was injury prone, Dawson right off form and Assou Ekotto not up to the job. We were therefore hugely vulnerable. As it transpired, of course, we did not suffer injuries, except later on to Dawson, King was magnificent, Benny the most improved player in the Premier League and Dawson found his form. Chimbonda was surplus to requirements, then as now, but a good buy at the time.

Finally, as I have written before, the absolute priority in the window is to keep our top players. Do anything to prevent Luka from being unsettled, let alone sold.

Defoe’s Search for the Ultimate

August 26, 2009 / Alan / Leave a comment

Never mind the money, the glory, top of the table or the adulation of several thousand fans rammed into the Centenary Stand. Maybe the women. No, not the women even. That feeling Defoe has when he pulls back his foot and strikes so hard and true. The net billowing on impact, that anti-climatic kiss as the ball runs to the ground, a tiny, gentle noise totally out of keeping with the thrill of the ultimate instant, this cannot match that instant of sublime satisfaction as the meat of the foot connects with ball, just so.

I wonder if such sensuality touches the consciousness of any professional footballer. I doubt it, but I’d like to believe that buried deep in the soul, the quest for a fleeting instant of utter perfection drives them on. As elusive and brief as atomic particles meeting in the Hadron collider, the joy lingers and the search for the next moment is all the motivation that is required.

One such fraction of a second would be sufficient for a mere mortal like me. To get it right, just once. I can vividly recall a school playground breaktime , when I scored a hat-trick and was upset when I missed the fourth. A tennis ball and shed wall, that was as good as it was ever going to get. No one cared about the score, of course, but what happened was magic for an 11 year old and a now a greying adult, because the ball went where I wanted it to go, mind and body in unison, just once.

After that, nothing quite matched it. Years of toiling in hope over muddy fields, everything was too fast somehow. The brain was on fire but the legs didn’t go quite as quickly as they should have. Look up and pick the pass but all of a sudden the ball has been whipped away. The sweet spot on the instep propels it forward, glance up and the ball spins a crazy parabola into touch. I stopped in my early 20s. No point.

Maybe that’s why JD wangs it, when others would opt for a more considered clinical approach. Far be it for me to offer striking advice and right now everything is going just fine and dandy so don’t change a thing, but in the long run those whacks are going to shoosh over the bar or round a post.

Oh fun we had and let’s enjoy being top of the table. In the old days, dear reader, the tables were first produced after three games so at least to me this is a proper league, largely meaningless though it may be in the long run. These days Sky seem to have leagues ready at half time on the opening day of the season. Wolves Crisis! Alphabetical Order Means McCarthy Sacked!!!

It won’t stay this way. We can’t rely on stunning through-balls from the opposition centre forward, or defenders like Jonathan Spector continuing to believe they are good enough to play in the Premier League. Mind you, with a surname like that, I want him to succeed. Perhaps he, Cole and Upson sing Be My Baby in the shower after matches. Or not.

So although I won’t become too comfortable with Spurs at the head of the league, it clearly means we are bang on track to achieve my goals for the season, and those that I suspect Harry has set too. We will challenge for Europe and be a force in the cups. Above all, we will be competitive, and teams will start to fear us. And that is a great feeling, more than enough for me.

Tottenham Hotspur v West Ham

August 23, 2009 / Alan / 2 Comments

It has been a hell of a lot of fun being a Tottenham supporter this week, and that’s not something that can be said too frequently these days, certainly not at the beginning of a season.

We go into this afternoon’s away game at West Ham in full expectation of a win. Not only is our form excellent, we have a good record against them over the past few years.

Here’s another test for Defoe’s new found psychological strength. His talent and basic assets such as pace have never been in question. Rather, his lack of mental fortitude has held him back. With that problem overcome, evidenced by his superb physical condition born of realising the necessity of hard gym work, plus newly found positional sense, stardom beckons. I know we fans seek honours and glory, and so does JD, but you know as well as I do that deep down our Jermaine wants to be a big cock of the south bling peacock of a STAR.

Trouble is, Defoe is easily wound up. The Chicken Run will be merciless in ways that only they can, and expect plenty of sly off the ball stuff from a few chosen defenders. Zola may be a bright young manager but Steve Clarke is the power there and he will ruthlessly encourage the exploitation of that weakness.

The other potential problem area will be in front of the back of the back four, where West Ham rely on players coming from deeper positions to feed off Cole, so Huddlestone’s mobility, or lack of it, will be tested. No reason to be unduly concerned, however. Bassong looks strong and quick, my kind of centre half, and Ledley is hopefully back. Corluka will probably move to full back, although Hutton’s attacking qualities could be utilised. West Ham work well down their left with the excellent Illunga coming forward, so Hutton and Lennon could push him back.

In other areas we have better players but West Ham will be far better organised than Hull. I intended to comment on who might partner JD up front, but actually the significant point is not who plays but the fact that I can write about it at all. We have viable options, good players who each have something different to offer. Long time since we have been able to write that as well.