The answer of course is that it’s a pretty dumb question.
Wigan’s away section is sold out, so the humdrum of the Premier League has not been entirely dismissed. Equally there has been a bristle of activity on forums from fans wanting advice on manner of European Tour related issues. Where to purchase their Drachma, ‘is it safe to drink the water?’ and requests for a few handy phrases in foreign to get them by.
We have been subjected to the old ‘bare bones’ speech from Arry of course. Dawson and Bassong are our only two fit centre backs. Hang on – who’s on the incredibly long list of unfit ones? I’ll take Gallas, but Woodgate and Ledders have long since been converted into Prit Sticks, tubes of UHU and rolls of Sellotape, haven’t they?
The Boy Bale did his hamstring in enroute to Cardiff. Presumably whilst trying to simultaneously plug his laptop charger in to a near impossible to reach under table socket and prevent his tea being swept of said table by the passing coats and carrier bags of fellow passengers stampeding past him. Well it’s how I did mine.
For those of you still battling the whole ascent of man process, those of us to the far right of the chart have worked out that if we don’t actually win the Champions League then we must finish fourth domestically in order to qualify for it next time round. It’s true. Scientists did a study on it.
So Wigan cannot afford to be a warm up act, not treated as poor cousin or as a limbering up exercise. Our lot need to go there and show some minerals. To do less would equate to spending your rent money on hookers and fast cars but telling yourself there was nothing worry about as you’d left a tenner to spend on scratch cards and therefore everything would be cushty.
My shirt losing betting suggestion is Pav Anytime Scorer in a 0-2 win at a Vodkatastic 18/1.
My Indian spirit guide Dave tells me to expect Defoe to start.
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It’s been a very long honeymoon, but it’s finally coming to an end, unless of course we win the CL or beat the scum at home, the chavs, the dippers away and beat City by 9 clear goals. Easy.
Apart from a miracle or three in the run in our PL season is over and between manager and players they have thrown it away. Blackpool, Wolves, West Ham, Everton, Wigan etc. etc.
I question how good the relationship is between Redknapp and some of our players, especially Pav, so I therefore question his man management skills.
We lack the bottle and mental determination to grind out results as do the Manures and Cheatski – City are getting there. Until we can do this i.e. win when playing badly, we will never win the PL.
Sadly I couldn’t answer the above points because of the ‘3 replies rule’, so sorry if I’m dragging everything backward.
Mysterious & Disco. I think you’re misunderstanding me. I’m not standing there banging the drum of support Harry Redknapp. I get frustrated by some of his decisions like everyone and think he only gets a right a percentage of the time… No more than say Mancini, Ancelotti, Maureen and a whole host of others – But certainly not less.
What I’m arguing for is consistency. To just let one manager… ANY manager (within reason… err not Holloway for instance!?!!) have a good decent crack at this job. To have time to really get to know it the way managers used to, over 4 or 5 years.
My argument is why change unless you have something really worth changing or you’re repairing something utterly broken. Personally, I still think Jol could have turned it around, and possibly Ramos given the time but we’ll never know. And THAT is my point. Unless we nail our colours to the mast for once we’ll NEVER know, we’ll just keep on going through groundhog day over & over again with a squad of players out and a new squad in, and all the false dawns that’ll go with it.
Just for once. Can we please show a little faith in someone rather than just saying ‘Well, you won this week but you might have lost so you’re out’.
BTW Mysterious, I can’t believe you’re trying to talk down our CL campaign (the first in 50 years) just to substantiate a point against Redknapp????? What you didn’t look at in your table was comparable performance in the league by other first time qualifiers in the CL – I think you’ll find that few of them have fared as well as we have this season.
I don’t like this “the first in 50 years” rhetoric of yours. Back in 1961 you had to win the League to compete in the European Cup. The tournament as it is today, the CL is not a 50 year tournament. So I’ll dismiss your point here, because it is flawed and does not apply to modern football as we know it.
I am not trying to belittle the CL as a competition, either – nor our (ultimate) efforts in it. It’s interesting that we can get “up for the Cup” in this context – arguably the biggest tournament in the World – yet cannot get up for it in countless league games. Our bread and butter.
I’ve even skimmed over our pathetic FA Cup outing against Fulham.
Redknapp gives me plenty of substantial points to hold against him, as the team he manages gives lower tier Premier League teams substantial points.
As for your “let one manager have his chance” argument – Harry is so going to jump at the England job if the FA come calling – he’s been whoring himself out for it for plenty long enough. But the fact he’ll jump as soon as makes no difference to you? You want us to be loyal to him|?!!!
You are certifiably nuts. :freu
You can either
Hmmm. I guess ignore that last unfinished line. Or…
You can either wake up and smell the coffee, or stay asleep. Just for completion. :sideways:
My last rant. I actually like the way we play sometimes under Redknapp. Yes, it can be naive but as you all point out he’s not managed at this level before. This is all the more reason to give him time to learn – That is, if the matter doesn’t get taken out of our hands by the FA or Plod.
Anyway, don’t take my word for it. This is a quote from Terry Dyson which I saw today.
Fifty years on, Dyson is full of praise and admiration for Redknapp, and likens aspects of the current side with his former team-mates and manager.
“I think Spurs have been absolutely fantastic over the last few seasons and, frankly, Harry Redknapp deserves a medal for what he has achieved with the side,” he said.
“Bill Nicholson would have loved to have seen what this manager is doing and the way he is trying to achieve things. Redknapp’s mentality is to go out and have a go at teams and that’s exactly how we were in the sixties under Bill.
I don’t think Harry needs to be sacked, but his coaching staff needs to be improved. He’s got Spurs defending as a team, but we don’t attack as a team. The group of coaches that he’s assembled are not getting anywhere near the goal production out of what is our most talented team in ages. There are no set pieces, no system of attack, no interchangeability among our bench players and no ability to dust off bottom of the table teams. Regardless of how well our strikers are playing, we should have good enough movement among our players to pass the ball into the net against poor teams. We shouldn’t have to rely on occasional moments of individual brilliance to win games.
It’s frustrating not consistently beating bottom of the league sides but there is nothing in the rules that says they have to step aside for us. This weekend has shown that those pesky blighters aren’t going to roll over for anyone – Especially at this time of the year.
Let’s not forget that Wolves are one of the few teams to beat ManUre this term, while the Wanderers have only taken 1 point in 2 games against the Baggies, 2 points against Sunderland and also drew at the JJB… Without even mentioning their Wembley ‘whoopsie’ against Brum.
The coaching staff are the same ones that got us playing the sweeping football that destroyed Inter at the Lane, so someone, somewhere is doing something right.
I think everyone is really underestimating the impact the CL is having on our season. It’s like being in ‘pre-FA Cup Final’ mode every weekend & while the likes of Fergie are well used to it, our boys are struggling at times. Fair play. It took Arsenal & ManUre about three seasons to work all this out.
Nothing is better than watching us play on every inch of a giant pitch with our wingers opening up famous European clubs, but we need to add some trickery and interplay among our attacking players. Barca and the scum down the road don’t need sweeping play to dissect stubborn, park the bus defenses. Not sure if Crouch and Defoe have the skilled touch to make it happen, but our wingers, VdV and Niko certainly do.
Interview with Lammy last week on H & J on Talksport regarding the stadium issue in case anyone missed it.
By the way, just love the picture of him. He’s either got incredibly large hands or a very small head (suspect the latter as it would therefore relate to the size of his brain.
Maybe a caption competition in it too.
Put some white gloves on him and he could be singing “how I love you, how I love you, my dear old Lammy”.
http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/hawksbee-and-jacobs/blog/2011-03-31/lammy-tottenham-not-being-made-enterprise-zone-was-last-straw-daniel-levy
I’d missed this one. Strangely, I think Lammy’s hit the nail on the head for once. Was a decent inteview and very interesting the points about Northumberland Park tube and the Enterprise Zone. I do agree with him that I think Newham getting the EZ on top of the Olympic grants and West Ham getting the OS was just one wind-up too far. Hopefully in the next round of reviews, the EZ will be extended to Harringey and Boris will give TFL a kick up the pants.