With due respect to our opponents, Bolton at home is not a fixture to set the pulse pounding but the denouement of Saturday’s encounter ran through the entire emotional spectrum in two minutes flat.

 

First, high farce, just to soften us up. However well we are performing, wherever we are in the table, or indeed this season wherever in Europe, the farcical is never far away. Already we had ignored our opponents on two set pieces, one of which, as we gazed vacantly into space while they took a quick one, led to Elmander hitting our crossbar. Crouch, who is never more than a pass away from the eccentric, unerringly waited for the defender when clean through, twice again. He has the expressions to match the comedy skills of a Mr Bean or Lee Evans – how did that happen? Same way it always does, Pete, same as always. Nobody calls him Pete, do they? Wonder why? Oh yes, three penalties, one goal. How did that happen?

 

Anyway, to top that, comedy gold as Daws gives the ball away and Gomes goes down late. Playing well, on top, must mean it’s time to go bonkers. However, this was nothing compared with the reaction of the fans when Newcastle made it 4-4. A deafening roar, twice as loud as anything that afternoon. This parochial attitude that focuses more on our rival’s misfortune that our own success is totally infuriating. The ‘stand up if you hate L’arse’ chants is one thing but this was another dimension. We are fifth in the league, pressing for a CL place in the pressure cooker of the Premier League. This may be Bolton but every single game is vital from now until the end of the season, yet this truth appears not to have registered with the crowd. As the chants crescendoed we had crossed the ball into the box. I expected the centre half to clear: in fact it drifted over his head to Pav, who fluffed the fleeting opportunity with a misdirected, weak header to no one, but a chance is a chance. It’s small-minded and shows that never mind about the team, the fans have not yet registered what is important in the makings of a top four team.

 

From the ridiculous to the sublime in the blink of an eye. If Spurs are capable of farce then we are also able to produce the most scintillating moments of sheer brilliance. Kranjcar has looked distant, unfit and under-motivated when he has appeared recently so although I am an admirer, I expected little when he strolled on as a late sub. Fair play to Harry – we needed a win so he created a formation that could not have been more attacking. He seems happy at such moments, because having been around the block a time or two, he still loves a devil-may-care freedom of expression for his players.

 

We have the players to make something happen. As the game reached its conclusion, time and again they touched it into place to pull the trigger, Lennon, JJ, JD, Nico, Pav, but nothing came of it except an extra touch that gave the determined Bolton defenders that moment they craved to tackle or block. Then Kranjcar moved on to the ball, fiercely struck it kept going, curling away into the top corner. Despite the keeper’s touch it was always going in.

 

A fine goal that received the adulation it deserved. We knew what it really meant, this was reality, it clicked then. Three more points, six in a week, lessons learned from the Fulham débâcle and despite our faults, no lack of effort or application.

 

Another element of the emotional spectrum. A hard week or two for me, yet a goal like this and it all pours out, a roar from deep down, crazy jumping, hugs all round, backs sore from slapping. All better now, the release of pent-up feelings that are so profound, you don’t know they are there until they flood out uncontrollably.

 

It all started so well. How about an easy afternoon, just once. A penalty early on, in the scramble I couldn’t see but MOTD showed the ref was correct. The second looked sound at the time but coming so soon after the first, most refs would have thought twice but you can’t criticise Clattenburg this time. Well, not for all of 90 seconds anyway. Disallowing the second penalty for encroachment was harsh, because everybody does it and we all know that. Apparently. In the end, another example of how our players could have thought a bit harder.

 

I admired VDV for putting three in the same place, well almost the same place. It demonstrates a mental toughness that we need, so I thought, but on reflection he lost his focus after the disallowed goal. My imagination, or did he put the ball down and walk back just a little too fast, showing his impatience.

 

Before the game, Clattenburg engaged in an animated and lengthy conversation with a fan as the ref warmed up in front of the Shelf. He could have opted out but instead chose not to trot along the touchline with the linesmen but to carry on. I couldn’t quite hear what was said but it was clearly about his previous dodgy decisions, with Old Trafford coming up, no doubt. He said that he expected Gomes to ‘launch it’, presumably a reference to that free kick that never was, but I admire him for having the decency to converse with a fan.

 

Ironic that we looked like dropping two points on a day when we produced some of our best football for a while. Without the drive of Bale or prompting of Modric, we kept a decent tempo and kept the ball moving. There was always someone out wide to find and switch the focus. BAE stayed back in the first half, although this changed in the second period, no doubt at Harry’s behest, but Corluka’s value was on display. Little pace but he times his runs in support of the attack well, strolling up when forwards (and therefore defenders) have committed themselves, so he can use the gaps for a run or a pass. Not everything worked but enough did to offer several good chances. He deserves a run as Hutton has had a few poor matches.

 

Jenas was my man of the match. He worked hard from first to last, concentrating fiercely and providing those driving runs forward that can be so valuable, if only he could offer them on a consistent basis. A cracking free kick too. He and Wilson worked well together. They seemed clear on who should go forward and who should remain behind, WP usually. JJ too deserves a run, hopefully to capitalise on the absence of others, but far too early to signal the Jenas Renaissance (part 89).

 

Lennon had a second good game in a week. Both Bolton and Blackburn left enough room in midfield for his runs. He seems to be quicker than ever. I thought he should stay on the left in the second half, up against Elmander rather than Taylor and the full back.

 

Defoe was also utterly determined. He moved well and was strong in the way he held the ball up. He needs a goal and it was a shame that the header, from a beautiful move, was disallowed for offside. A shame too that those chances fell to Crouch not JD. Otherwise, Crouch did Ok until he went off, injured presumably as afterwards Harry said that once he left the field Spurs lost their focal point. It’s an interesting comment, confirming Redknapp’s preference for a big centre forward around which the team can play rather then utilising the running and movement of Pav. Still, he’s changed things around since Fulham and 4-4-2 with VDV coming off the right and Lennon on the left has produced 6 points.

 

Second half, we should have been coasting with a couple of penalties under our belt and excellent football to boot, but once again we did not take our chances and Bolton came back into the game. A word of praise for them: they have the makings of a fine little team there. Attacking against us works well. Sturridge was lively throughout, he has real promise, and with Elmander on the right they did not hesitate to get forward. Holden has been playing well for a year and Mark Davies is another impressive youngster. If anything, their expansive game let them down because it gave us plenty of space. And if the Cahill penalty had gone their way…

 

All in all, a good week and we needed the home points as we have several away games coming up. Now to the sublime: Milan tickets on sale. £59.25 plus £1.75 booking fee. My son is going to the away leg – £15 for a seat in the San Siro. Like I said, never more than moments away from high farce.

Not so much an article on the aftermath of the transfer window for Tottenham Hotspur, more a series of slightly disjointed thoughts.

 

Or maybe, ‘disjointed’ is a suitable summary of our transfer policy this time around. There was one constant, however: the word ‘no’, uttered in Geordie, Spanish, west country and Scottish accents, plus a few others no doubt. Levy and Harry aren’t used to this.

 

This blog has been highlighting the problems with our strikers for some time and to be fair to them Redknapp and Levy responded by making huge bids for high quality players. And Andy Carroll. We can’t fault them in this respect at least. Remember that whatever figure is quoted in the media is only the opening bid. If the players wanted to come, we could have upped the cash but we hit a brick wall in the shape of the cold hard realities of modern football.

 

It’s January and everyone is after the same scarce players, never mind clubs anxious to keep their precious assets, thereby suddenly finding the money to increase salaries and extend contracts. Thanks to Levy’s prudence we have money but there are often (but not always) others who are rich enough and desperate enough to spend beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.

 

Step forward Roman Abramovich. He’s been quiet of late, seeing if his team can cope without him. They can’t: they need to rebuild. Faced with buying a new model or a repair job, in the end Roman cannot bear to leave his precious toy to decay so he finds a spare £50m down the back of the sofa. On the day that his club announces operating losses of around £70m, we can’t compete in this parallel reality, and neither should we.

 

In our world, we went big, big and risky. £25m for Carroll and clearly some sustained bargaining over the last few weeks. Again to be fair to Levy, I suspect that rate than leave things to the last minute as it appears, he and Harry have a method in their apparent madness. They work away over an extended period, making sure clubs and players know we are interested, then we come with a late run on the inside, rather than coming out of the blue. I doubt the offers as are much of a surprise to the selling club as they claim.

 

It’s been effective in the past but on this occasion Liverpool suddenly fulfil the criteria. Answer yes or no to the following questions: Rich – Yes. Desperate –yes. Oh god yes. Reckless – yes. Prepared to pay a bonkers sum for a largely untried but admittedly talented prospect – yesyesyes.

 

We can’t tick all the boxes and again, good decision re Carroll in my view, not worth the £35m risk. The Spanish players don’t fancy north London, the salary, the lack of tax breaks or the fact that they don’t really know who Spurs are. The World Famous Home of the Spurs and a CL place if you are cup tied cuts little ice if you’re fifth, I’m sad to say. Face it – they have to have a blinding reason to come and Harry’s banter isn’t it.

 

So we were left with nothing. That’s how it felt last night but that’s manifestly unfair. What we are left with are the players who got us into the CL last year, plus Pienaar, a useful addition in my view, and Rafa of course. There’s plenty to work with and Harry and the coaches have to work damn hard to turn around the fast fading form.

 

I would have liked to see the arrival of a defensive midfielder who could properly shield the defence and allow Luka and others the freedom to get forward. The Adam bid was absurd, a sign of desperation for a decent but overpriced player who does not fulfil those requirements and anyway Hud can pass better than he can.

 

Crouch. From my viewpoint, he’s been awful in the league this season, but I’m not going over that again. Harry’s not stupid – he put a lot of faith in Crouch who has not repaid him. The centre forward has limitations but he has been woefully off-form even by his relatively average standards. Harry must be as disappointed as I am. He didn’t expect us to be in this situation, crying out for a striker. Pav he doesn’t rate and JD lacks sharpness and the nouse to play on his own up front.

 

All our rivals have strengthened in this window. Sunderland have invested part of the Bent money in a couple more midfielders. Like us they don’t score that many but unlike us, they have a plan B – work like Trojans, defend hard in midfield and see what they can nick. It’s not an insult – far from it, it works in the Prem but we can’t do it. They are set for the battle.

 

Perhaps the most vulnerable are L’arse – scintillating midfield (although is Nasri injured?) but weak if you can get at them. But then I think that every season and look what happens…

 

The key people at the club right now are the coaching staff. They have to reorganise and reinvigorate our flagging form and spirits. Waiting for the CL to start again is not an option. I maintain what I said yesterday – you can’t turn form on and off. The team’s potential would be greatly increased by the addition of a top striker but what we have remains underdeveloped. There’s so much more we can do – let’s get back to basics, work like stink with this talented squad and get some results. If the strikers aren’t scoring, work on the midfield coming through into the box. Try two up front and sacrifice an attacking midfielder – even Lennon if the balance requires it. Rest Hutton and bring back Charlie again. Something different with what we have.

 

A final thought. Damien Commolli’s period as Director of Football created backroom tensions that harmed the club’s development. However, he brought a wealth of talent to the club, talent that needed to be developed and nurtured but was worth the wait. That supply has largely dried up since he left, assuming that Rafa’s arrival was as sudden and unexpected as the accounts make out.

 

Commolli may or may not have spotted those players himself and some of the deals were in the pipeline before he arrived. However, he had a wealth of knowledge about European football, the contacts to know not just about ability but also temperament, whether they wanted to settle in England, what price it would take to get them. That’s what modern scouts have to do, and it seems to me that we have to find someone who can do something similar. Given our experiences in the window, even with money that wasn’t enough. We have to get hold of players on the up, like Modric, and make them into stars.

 

Harry was always able to pull out a plum, However, you don’t hear so much now that he has Levy to keep a close eye on all the, um, payments. No inflated salaries either. Also, Harry’s contacts bring him players who will shine (usually) but not those of the highest quality. It’s a different world now, remember.

 

The problems with the DoF role were partly down to Commolli liking the power but mainly down to Levy’s weak grasp on the key management question in any business – who is in charge and what is the line of accountability for decision-taking? I don’t advocate a return to those days but call him a chief scout, call him a co-ordinator, call him Shirley, but we need someone who can find those players on their way up.

 

 

 

 

 

As the row over the new stadium cranks up a notch or three, the kick-off at St James’s Park was a blessed relief, never mind a pleasure. Football was the main attraction, rather than Daniel Levy and Karren Brady’s personalised version of Punch and Judy. Judging by yesterday’s sparring, this is a modern re-telling, with Brady landing all the blows onto Levy as a hapless Judy. Brady’s next opponent: Richard Keys.

 

Ah yes, football. Redknapp’s team selection was characteristically bold. BAE’s injury would have provoked caution in most managers but Harry saw it as an opportunity to slot in Pienaar in front of Gareth Bale, with Defoe as the only genuine striker. It shows a desire to go for a win away from home right from the start and Newcastle no longer have Routledge on that wing, as they did at the Lane a few short weeks ago.

 

However, our cunning plan was soon undone as Bale’s frantic season took its toll and he went off with a back injury. Although his replacement Bassong did well in a largely unfamiliar role, the Welshman’s absence upset our attacking options. It’s not just those now familiar unstoppable surges from deep. With one man up front, we depended on players coming late into the box to convert chances, something that we singularly failed to do for most of the game and which nearly led to us dropping three points instead of merely two.

 

The story of this match for Spurs was one of possession and passing with no end product. Our passing and movement was uniformly excellent. Modric once more led the way, less obtrusive than in recent games but effective none the less. He kept the ball moving, looking to touch it forward or spread it wide. Lennon provided width with Bassong available too. Jenas, invariably coming into the movement later as the more defensive of the two central midfielders, provided able support and the wide men were an outlet for his long passing.

 

The game showed why Harry was so keen on Pienaar. He settled in straight away. No disrespect to his former club but did I detect a sense of relief as he found a natural home in the welcoming prompting of Luka and the movement of VDV and Lennon around him? He certainly felt the frustration of the many opportunities that never became chances at goal, falling to the penalty box turf late on and banging his fists into the grass. He moved well across the line and that ability to cut in is handy. He’s very comfortable in possession and made a major contribution to the ease with which we kept the ball. What a difference compared with even a few months ago. Once, he just remained still on the left, waited until his colleagues had readjusted their positions then upped the pace again.

 

When this worked, it all looked good, especially in the first half when we pushed back our opponents. Lennon injected welcome bursts of pace in case we let the tempo drop and he was active for the full 90 minutes, or more accurately 94 as the final 4 minutes was a bonkers end to end melee when both sides totally forget years of training and went at it like schoolboys in the playground just before the bell sounds. The back four, one at a time, pushed up into the space as Newcastle retreated.

 

With all this support, the chances should have flowed freely. One sublime move cut the defence apart only for Defoe to find Harper’s feet. The keeper did well but you hope JD can put those away. Later, Modric hit the bar and Harper was active but in truth it was a case of so many possibilities, so little end product. Defoe worked hard – Rafa praised his movement earlier this week – but he’s not at his sharpest. The biggest problem, however, was the lack of a consistent presence from midfield, making purposeful runs into the box and getting ahead of Defoe. Newcastle dealt with Rafa effectively, stifling him by crowding the space around him. Moran kept close, which of course meant he was less of an attacking force, and knocked him about a bit, all part of the game and VDV can take it. He did little on a day when we really needed him.

 

Otherwise, we were too content with hanging around the edge of the box. It’s fine one or two waiting for a cutback as Lennon rips forward but others must hit the 6 yards box. More commitment is needed – they have to go for it but instead stayed in the comfort zone 18 yards out. Watch Barca or remember Inter Milan in Italy: their front men push up, then one comes deeper, the other moves across, keep the ball, keep prompting, have the ability to up the pace suddenly and the chances will come. We loitered without intent and for the most part did not speed things up.

 

At the other end, Newcastle intermittently looked dangerous in the first half but a high ball could on several occasions have brought some reward and they hit the bar after a fine far-post cross. Dawson was uncharacteristically uncertain, missing a couple of high balls and once, in the second half, left standing. We’re so used to his commanding presence, it was noticeable when he missed even one or two high ones.

 

The biggest problem was Hutton, who had a poor match throughout and whose ineffectual presence made a centre half look like Ronaldo for what could so easily have been Newcastle’s matchwinner. Time and again our opponents made hay down his wing. For the move when Best hit the bar, he stood and watched as the cross was carefully prepared. To be fair to him, Newcastle planned for this, exploiting Lennon’s absence on winger’s duties by doubling up down our right but he had an afternoon to forget.

 

On the other flank, Bassong did well enough. His central defender’s instincts meant that he tucked in, closer to the centrebacks, rather than being isolated, which is where Benny sometimes has trouble. A more defensive minded full back with all our attacking players could be useful.

 

Who needs all this fancy dan football? Crouch on, long ball down the middle, Lennon cuts in and a fine finish. At last. Harper berated his full back for not sending him wide but in the home game a few weeks ago, Lenny did go wide and still scored. It shows how his game has developed. Almost makes me forget a couple of crosses that sailed over Crouch’s head when he was unmarked on the far post. Still, can’t have everything and in the end we were grateful for a point in a match where we should have gained more, if we are to keep up the pressure on the top four.