Gareth Bale: Goodbye, Good Luck

August 31, 2013October 17, 2014 / Alan / 91 Comments

Gareth Bale, the ad man’s dream. Looking butch in the Spurs kit ads, hastily withdrawn now I daresay, or glowering over Times Square. Or the Lucozade posters – hipster haircut, jutting jawline, lower lip ever-so-slightly tucked in. It makes me chuckle. Good luck to you, son, but you can’t fool me. I remember when you used to wear a hairclip.

I’m fortunate to sit on the lower Shelf, near the middle almost opposite the press box. I feel an attachment with all our players but develop a special bond with wingers and full-backs. They are right there, in front of me. Gareth, I’ve not just watched you for most of your career, I’ve seen you grow up.

I’ve seen the fear in your eyes when wingers used to get in behind you and you knew you had screwed up.

Gareth Bale. Not how I remember him

I’ve counted the beads of sweat on your forehead as late in the game you summon up the energy for one last effort. I’ve felt the pain as the defender’s boot crunched into your shin pad only because you were too good, too quick, too damn bloody brilliant.It’s been a privilege.

Whatever happens in Bale’s career, and I believe he will be a success in Spain, only Spurs fans have been with him as he grew from boy to man. When he began, it looked as if he had the talent but not the temperament. All the airbrushed ads and heroic exploits on the field cannot banish his boyish air.

I (ahem) described him when he was still a teenager as a young man who could become world-class. Suffice to say not everyone agreed with me. I recall a radio commentary from those early years for a cup game at the Lane that I missed. The commentator described how, after he came on a substitute, he was hanging back even though Redknapp and Bond were literally screaming at him to get forward. That image must have lingered because as far as I can gather, the reports that HR fixed up a £3m transfer to Birmingham are true. Then Assou-Ekotto was injured. The young Welshman got rid of the clip and decided to grow up.

I’ve been fortunate to see the modern greats at Spurs. Gareth Bale has earned the right to be mentioned in the same breath as these legends although he’s at the angels’ right hand rather than up there in the pantheon. He has dazzled in an era where players are fitter, cover more ground and therefore there is less space available for talents to shine.

Bale is unique. I have never seen, not just at Spurs but anywhere, a player that big, with that pace, with that skill on the ball and with that ability to make and score goals. Ever. A rampaging bull with Tinkerbelle’s touch.

In full flight he is utterly magnificent, hurtling down the line at full tilt, drawing in defenders and then he is gone, just when they thought they had done him. Then the sizzling cross fizzing into the box, often when the ball seems to have escaped him by the byline, or cutting inside to shoot. In his final season with us, time and again into the top corner or the calm dagger thrust to finish.

So many memories. Destroying Inter, the European champions, twice, Europe jerked wide awake as it dozed on the sofa in front of the TV. Poor Norwich, not the first to be sliced open as from deep he ran and ran. Many were away from home where he had a fraction more room to work up a head of steam. City away, dipping under the bar from 25 yards then a cross that skimmed Defoe’s toecap and was gone, and with it hopes of a title challenge. West Ham, a miraculous late winner and into the arms of Villas-Boas as in the background the chicken run emptied in disgusted tribute. Swansea away, he gets the ball in midfield and the whole stadium goes silent, waiting.

He hasn’t changed

For me, two winners versus Southampton and then Sunderland, identical and trademarked. Late on when he was our only hope, cut in from the right, keep the ball away from the defender so he has no need to beat him but can’t be tackled, left foot from twenty yards, one top corner, one bottom. Special because I was behind the trajectory of the ball, close my eyes and there’s Bale, body shape contorted over the ball to establish the perfect contact, shot swinging away, keeper forever trapped in mid-air, stretching desperately for a ball he will never reach.

He will prosper in Spain, especially as he may have a little more precious space in deeper areas to get going, but the feeling lingers that we have seen him at his peak. Not that he plays by instinct alone but he was not quite at his best in the latter half of last season when he moved inside and began to realise just what he was capable of. Because he could do almost anything, he took a fraction of extra time to make up his mind. Not everything came off.

If he becomes a little more arrogant, I won’t mind. A long way from south Wales, he will need to toughen up. He’s not like Ronaldo for example, who you suspect has been insufferably cocky since he emerged from womb, treating the midwife with disdain and contempt. Not having a go – you don’t get anywhere in top-level sport without that self-confidence and he’s undoubtedly got the ability to back it up. The football world will never again allow Bale to be as good as he was for Spurs. The weight of expectation in a climate where criticism is the vogue will mean there will always be harsh words for everything less than the unattainable.

And that’s what Spurs fans will always have, the shock of the new, the astonishment and wonder that this shy boy could do that with a football. He was good but no one knew he could be that good. Bale didn’t, and there’s his enduring charm, that we weren’t presented with his talent but joined him on a journey of discovery. The shimmering thrill of the unexpected, of the impossible. Of why we were enthralled by football in the first place. Never again will it be new and fresh. We Spurs fans, we’ll always have that.

To the many who have infested social media this week with the Bale backlash, with bile and hate because he hadn’t turned up to train with a club everyone knew he was leaving, you can stick to your tawdry world of tabloid gossip and the SSN tickertape. That’s football, is it? A photo of a bloke in a London street? When you have a few beers with your pals and talk about the good times, you compare SSN news reports or reminisce over twitter banter, do you?

Tell me, what do you do with your memories? Where do they go? For younger fans, it’s possible he could be the finest player you ever see, you realise that, don’t you? That might be as good as it gets. It’s twenty or more years since Gazza left. I don’t like the way he has behaved in the past week (or appeared to behave, we may find out more later) but on the scales that is insignificant compared with his committment on the field, contribution to the team and at times scintillating football.

Those are my memories. When Bale sets off, my heart doesn’t skip a beat. It pounds and pulsates in expectation.

When Bale shoots, it’s not merely breathtaking. It sucks the breath from my lungs and that of 30,000 other people, rips the sound from my throat as I gasp, wordless, transfixed and rooted, it stops the hands of time as the ball arcs gracefully through the sky.

When Bale does his thing, my heart doesn’t sing. It’s a five-piece brass section strutting sharp and pumping over a sly funky backbeat and swirling Hammond, with soulful guitar, the Sweet Inspirations and Sam and Dave on back-up vocals as Aretha wails while Otis mops his brow with a white starched handkerchief from his top pocket.

I’d liked to have seen you, just one last time, not to change your mind but just to say I missed you, man. Good luck, goodbye, Gareth Bale.

Spurs Start Season Well Shock Horror

August 19, 2013 / Alan / 13 Comments

This game had what football calls the makings of a potential banana skin. Strictly speaking, the ‘potential’ is redundant because the banana skin either exists or it doesn’t, unless it is Schrödinger’s Banana Skin. The metaphor is sound even if the alleged properties of said skin exist only in a world governed by the laws of physics in a Tex Avery cartoon, but then again over the years those laws have often applied to our defence.

I prefer the term cock-up and this had all the ingredients. Spurs spending a fortune with classy new players up against Plucky Palace, underdogs who will rip into the fancy-dan slow-starting north London rich-kids from first to last, with a former Arsenal centre-forward popping up to score the inevitable late winner. You can’t tell me it didn’t cross your mind.

Spurs had no intention of conforming to type. In a composed, balanced and solid performance, we were the superior side

A Penalty??!!?

and should have won by a margin greater than a penalty that on another day may not have been given. Despite all the new men and the lack of pre-season togetherness, players found each other relatively easily and movement all round the field was good for the first game of the season. They looked sharp and motivated, our centre forward is off the mark and Kaboul returned to first team action. No rash predictions but that will do for me.

In my pre-season preview I wondered if it would take time for the new players to settle. In fact, Villas-Boas gave all of them a role they were comfortable with. Paulinho and Capoue know everything about the art of defensive midfield play. Of course they do – it’s what they have always done. It’s a fit as snug as a hand-stitched bespoke suit.

In Britain there’s still the lingering feeling that defensive midfielders are given that job because they can’t pass or move as well as the more creative footballers. Paulinho showed DMs can play. He has fine positional sense and works hard without wasting any energy. His rangy sniping in the middle picked off Palace attacks before they could going and he and Capoue, who came on early in the second half, were usually first to a loose ball. Both turned defence into attack with ease and we kept possession in an unhurried manner in spite of Palace’s energetic pressing game. Highly impressive.

Soldado took up good positions but did not get especially good service. Anyway, there was barely room to breathe in the box. Holloway used similar defensive tactics as he did when he was last in the Premier League, packing the centre and so forcing us out wide, then five in a line across the six yard box to greet a cross with two others to block the cross at source. It worked for Blackpool – we couldn’t find a way round it when we played them.

Certainly the game began where we left off last season, with plenty of possession but no chances. Walker was excellent going forward and combined well with Lennon, passes inside the full-back slicing through the flank. However, Palace were quick to get back and Lennon took a while to realise that he had no time for a second touch. The closest we came was a Dembele shot that went just over.

In the last fifteen minutes of the half, we picked up the tempo and the chances did come. Sigurdsson missed the best one, Chadli and Soldado so nearly created something and the Belgian should have committed more fully to a far post header just before the break.

The breakthrough came with a penalty – finally. An omen? None for an entire season then one in the very first game of 2013-14. You know the story – Palace will feel hard done by, we think it was justified. This season I am minimising exposure to endless TV punditry for the sake of my sanity so I have no idea what the MOTD and Sky inquests decided but on two views, I’d say it was but could have been influenced by the appeal Clattenburg turned down moments earlier. I suspect that was playing on his mind. Soldado took it calmly.

Look out, Palace sneaking up…

Spurs sat back a little too much but by and large defended well. We were caught by the long ball a few times and there’s the lingering anxiety regarding the ease with which Palace strikers got into the spaces between our back four. However, Lloris was quick and alert after a sedentary first half and swept up behind the defence. Danny Rose made one superb last man tackle and Lloris’s double save late on saw us through. However well Palace harried and chased in midfield, they posed comparatively little threat up front.

We should have wrapped it up in the final quarter. Chadli had a couple of efforts, Siggy missed again but overall did well, covering a huge amount of ground in the central advanced midfield role that suits him best. Defoe failed too when well placed, that flaw in his technique when he’s not quite on it, falling away as he shoots and dragging it wide. Throughout it was noticeable how many men we had in the box when we attacked, a difference from last season.

It’s the little things that count. Chadli nonchalantly controlling a firm raking pass stone dead. Lennon covering when Walker went up in the second half. Soldado chasing back.

Good to see Kaboul back. Rose did well enough without being seriously tested (looks like he’s bulked up a bit without losing his pace) but he can be indecisive when moving up. He and Chadli need to work on their partnership. Shame Dembele went off – his inability to finish a game is worrying as he can be a key player.

Good start, no complaints.

Spurs Preview 2: the Team. A Whiff Of Cautious Optimism In The Air

August 17, 2013 / Alan / 4 Comments

This, Tottenham On My Mind’s fifth season, begins as did all the others, with Daniel Levy as the defining character in the drama to come. The seasons ended that way too. But this one is different, whatever the ultimate outcome. Levy has responded to his manager like never before. Over to you, Andre.

First signing – Franco Baldini. A highly respected and knowledgeable figure in European football, the significance of this move could easily be forgotten because he has opted, rightly, for a low profile. That a man of his experience should come to Spurs in the first place shows that he believes in the club’s potential. It also gives Villas-Boas his clearest indication yet that he has proved himself in the eyes of the board.

To prosper, Spurs have to buy footballers with potential, not quite at the top of their game but bursting with talent and ambition. If nothing else we can’t compete at the very highest level for salaries and transfer fees but that’s not a bad place to be. These men have something to prove, they want to succeed rather than play the odd game and be more involved with their bank manager than the first team coach. Find a way of harnessing Villas-Boas’ ambition to the national grid and Britain’s energy problems are solved. Even Soldado, our marquee signing, has had to fight his up from rejection at Real Madrid.

So we depend on knowing who’s out there. They used to be called scouts, who knows these days, but it’s no coincidence that Baldini has been followed by a succession of classy players in the Spurs mould, all part of Villas-Boas’ vision. This may be the difficult second season but for the first time this is Andre’s team. He’s hardly starting from scratch but these are his men, the new guys because he wants them, the familiar figures secure in the knowledge that Villas-Boas wants to keep them rather than being here by default.

The vision is sound: our fortunes this season will be dictated by how well the players conform to it. It’s less about 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 or some such, more about these key characteristics. Possession, so we need men comfortable on the ball and who know when to be patient and when to move it along. Movement, to support the man on the ball or to regroup when the opponents have possession. Flexibility: the front six in particular will interchange on the field, be able to both attack and defend. Emotional intelligence, which in football is an awareness of their role and duties in respect of the position of other players, a dynamic that shifts a thousand or more times a match, plus a team ethic rather than a selfish approach.

Pace: around the pitch and with the ball. Mobility: ditto. Poor Tom Hud was yesterday bemoaning the lack of opportunities for him and others but the Spurs game has passed him by, bless him. Hud, Dempsey, Caulker, Bentley, Parker perhaps, they’ve been upgraded because they don’t fulfill these last two criteria.

Athleticism: the power, stamina and strength to survive in the Premier League. Last but not least, resilience, a bloody-minded determination to give everything but never give ground, to keep the other lot out at all costs. It’s something we’ve not always had but there were positive signs last season.

In the modern game it’s that movement and flexibility that characterises the best teams. Whatever the formation, we depend on the midfield protecting the back four and getting forward, in and around their box. That said, 4-2-3-1 with Sandro and Paulinho a mouthwatering proposition as the DMs looks a good place to begin. Both can drive forward as well as being comfortable in defence. That’s important in the transition from defence to attack. I’ve not seen Capoue but that is his position by all accounts. Holtby can play there too but I don’t see that as Dembele’s best role. He’s better given freedom to get forward.

Chadli by all accounts is versatile but best out wide. Siggy is better in the middle and found form in the box but I can’t see him starting to begin with. Lennon has dramatically improved his all-round game but is best going forward and may have to begin as an impact sub. Note that I’ve left space for Bale, let’s leave it at that.

Soldado of course leading the line, determined, aggressive and sharp in the box. I would keep Defoe and Adebayor, although both might get moody if they don’t play in a side that seems heavy on midfield options, unless Baldini has some upgrades on the way.

Lloris is a fine keeper, unobtrusively active in his box and sweeping up behind the back four. The full-backs have defensive weaknesses. We don’t need a new right-back, we need Walker to respond to his coach and put that learning into place this season. Assou-Ekotto seems out of favour while Rose had a decent time at Sunderland, so I’ll wait to see if he has improved. Naughton is useful cover but not a regular starter. Whatever, there isn’t a full-back in the league who can handle a two on one and we have to protect them. Last season some teams worked hard to get a 2 v 1 on our full-backs, especially on the left.

That leaves centre-backs and once again Spurs can’t get it right. Last year it was the strikers, or lack of them, this we have three centre-backs, only one of whom, Dawson, is fully fit. Capoue can play there and there are rumours of new arrivals but it is a dangerous place to be at the start of a season where we are playing two games a week from the off, especially as we don’t know how Kaboul will be after his long lay off. He may recover strength but what about speed?

Anyway, never mind all this tactical mumbo-jumbo. If we can’t defend set pieces we stand no chance. And I mean no chance. Inexcusable if it carries on.

This is a fine squad that has the potential to realise the manager’s vision. No inflated ambitions – it will be hard work to settle these newcomers into a team and despite the imperative to do away with our usual slow start we may have to wait awhile before they hit their stride. I would use the Europa League matches to bed the team in rather than play reserves, especially as our pre-season has been so bitty.

I detect a note of optimism. Steady on, this is Spurs, so no more. One thing is for sure, I am looking forward to this season enormously, more so than for a while now. Come on you Spurs.

One more preview piece, have to be next week now, on the relationship between the club and fans.

With Or Without Him, Spurs On The Right Track

August 14, 2013 / Alan / 16 Comments

While the media fixate on Gareth Bale’s transfer like a toddler staring at a lollypop in a sweetshop, Daniel Levy is getting on with business. As Spurs approach the new season, it’s remarkable that an £85m transfer is not the most significant development at the club.

Levy’s vision for Tottenham Hotspur has provoked bile-infused debate since he became chairman in 2001. His prudent approach to housekeeping has left us financially secure but perennially short of being true contenders. This summer, things have changed. Roberto Soldado is the scorer, the pivot, the leader, the talisman that we have craved for so long. Like the Holy Grail, the quest seemed never-ending but now the myth has become flesh and blood. It’s unheard of for Spurs to spend £26m on a 28-year-old: Levy has finally got the message.

Levy’s hard to work out. Goodness knows he gives nothing away. I can’t recall more than a single big interview with him in the last ten years. Certainly he’s far more complex than the two-dimensional miser he’s made out to be by his detractors. He’s a fan and like all us becomes conflicted when it comes to major decisions about the club we love. When decisions don’t come easy, he reverts to an instinctive response, and his instinct is business.

Like any businessman he seeks to manoeuvre a situation where he maximises opportunity and minimises risk. Win-win is the ideal, albeit seldom realistically achievable. If not, protect yourself with a fall-back position that ensures a reasonably soft landing. Last summer Harry Redknapp presented a demand for a new contract. Levy saw better value elsewhere and probably felt ‘arry’s ‘art wasn’t in it, still pining for that England job. All in all, not good for Spurs, so HR was sent packing with a flea in his ear.

Andre Villas-Boas was very different. Levy has a mixed record when it comes to picking managers. The last time he took a risk with a guy for whom Spurs was a step up, Juande Ramos, it was a total disaster. Again, he had sacked a manager who had been reasonably successful, at least compared with what had gone before. So this time, he hedged his bets. Cruelly he limited Villas-Boas’ funds in the market, in particular denying him Moutinho, AVB’s man, who would be his leader and lynchpin in midfield. That Villas-Boas took that plus the absence of a proper strikeforce in his stride is a measure of his committment to the club.

This wasn’t Levy being a skinflint. Rather, he wasn’t prepared to take the double risk of a new manager and large expenditure. A poor decision in my view – he should have backed his manager – but to Levy it’s the cold hard realities of business. Now however, Our Andre has proved himself. To DL the investment is worth it. Not only Soldado – Levy has made other funds available for players who provide value. In recent years, Spurs have spent good money on men for whom the club is a step up, who will mature on the field and contribute to the team while at the same time increasing their price in the market should they be sold on. Modric and Berbatov are the two best examples, Dembele and Lloris last season. Not cheap, not youngsters but with their best years ahead of them. Value on the pitch and off it. Win win.

This approach has brought in Paulinho and Chadli plus, it seems highly likely, Caboue. I can only comment from my own observations on the Brazilian, who judging from the Confederations Cup looks a fine prospect, with skill, drive and the physique to prosper in Premier League midfields. Chadli sounds like he will fit right in, a ball-player with pace and versatility, the latter being a significant attribute in any VIllas-Boas team where movement and mobility are key and tactics change not only from match to match but during the game too.

The outgoings and salaries (I strongly suspect the top end of our self-imposed restrictive salary structure has been moved too) will to some extent be offset by the sale of those surplus to requirements, Parker, Huddlestone and Dempsey, all good men and true in their way but note the lack of pace they have in common. Despite this, Levy’s spending is running at unprecedented levels. I admire his unwillingness to get caught up in the crazy upward spiral of Premier League transfer business that threatens the long-term security of clubs who get it wrong. However, his reluctance to fully commit long ago became indefensible. It’s a decisive change that is long overdue and will be heartily welcomed by supporters.

I’d like to think it’s the fan in him that has made him change tack. The passion, the romance, the danger that makes any fulfilling relationship so scary and exciting at the same time, but I doubt Levy has abandoned his principles. To him, there are real returns to be had. At other clubs it’s spending off the scale like a drunken lottery winner. Levy however maintains his dead-eyed stare on the prize. Maximise opportunity – trophies, the Champions League, TV cash – and minimise risk – there’s plenty of value and profit in the squad, plus judging by last season a fair to middling chance of being genuine contenders, if not for the league itself then the top four and silverware. Same equation. It may not be win-win but it’s close enough for Daniel to take the risk. He believes this team can really do something and so do I.

There remains the question of where the money’s coming from. Not bad, a Spurs blog 800 words in and only one mention of the B word so far. Now if you are looking for a prime example of win-win, let’s pop inside Levy’s head for a second. Record transfer fee or one of the best players in Europe stays with us for at least one more season and retains a high transfer value. He’s in clover and from such a position of security will screw Real Madrid for every last euro.

Levy’s handled this very well. As I said on the When Saturday Comes site the other day, amid the media frenzy (have you ever read so much about so little, bearing in mind Levy has said absolutely nothing and there have been no statements from the club?) he has been icy inscrutability, taking his time and resisting the pressure of jumping at riches beyond our wildest dreams. This is how he always is. 85k or 85m, all the same to him. He’s so bloody minded, he could just turn down flat that £85m and allow Gareth to play on.

I wonder if he’s actually decided. Time is key to any negotiation and he must think that’s on his side too. Maybe if they respond with something nearer £100m, he would be foolish to ignore it, especially as it’s unlikely that fee would still be on the table this time next year. Bale may play supremely well for the rest of his career but it’s unlikely that he will ever again match the impact he’s had on the world of football this past season. The shock of the new.

Given Spurs’ sound financial position and the money from the TV deal, I suspect this spending is budgeted separately from any Bale deal. Then again, it is substantial and anyway Real’s euros may be earmarked already, either for the new stadium or to prepare the club for a sale. The I in ENIC stands for investment and they have to get a return at some point.

Call me crazy, call me mad as long as you don’t call me Shirley but I would keep him, although I reckon he will be sold. But then again, for me it’s all about the passion, the romance, the pain and the pleasure that cannot be separated if the heart is to beat that little bit faster. With or without him, Levy and Spurs are headed in the right direction.

Part two of the season’s preview on Friday. Maybe Saturday. Friday probably. The Manager, The Players, the Fans.