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ROMANES EUNT DOMUS

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Good morning.

Poor old comrade Pavlyuchenski. A number of things have conspired against him. Before we dip into these, it’s important to remember that every player is ultimately the master of his own ship. This isn’t a race horse that wasn’t trained right, wasn’t fed right and nobody knew because the horse couldn’t speak.

In true Dragon’s Den speak, here’s where the old mad Russian is at right now.

“I have to do something in the transfer period. We’re ahead of the European Championship. If I don’t change my club then Euro 2012 will be played without me. I was fighting and fighting but it was useless. Does Redknapp believe in me? Now I don’t think so.

I do the training as good as the others. I do everything with 100 per cent effort. I don’t cry and I don’t say that everybody is bad but I’m a good footballer.If I score in each game then I can play but it’s not a reality to score in each game. That’s all.

“Will I ask the club to sell me in December? Yes, it’s 100 per cent.”

So about these conspiring factors then. Getting on the pitch was an occasional issue. There was a rumour flying about that the manager preferred Tall Circus Man and a Midget Gem to him. Was this a justified preference? Well, the most common way to assess this type of situation is usually to tally up the goals scored. And 3MP & Defoe were routinely bloody useless.Pav’s ‘not much better’ stats are artificially bumped by a number of Europa games in which he played with a rag tag collective of kids and other second stringers.

That said, when Pav did get a run out all we got were occasional flashes of what might have been. Did he get a fair go and fail to cut the old mustard? Or was he playing against a loaded deck? On balance it was a bit of both. I was a fan and a part of me always will be. This game is as much about the visceral as it is about anything.

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90 comments

  • Benson says:

    Lack of faith from’Arry certainly hasn’t helped his game but with that said PAv not being exactly the busiest of forwards hasn’t made him playable in our regular 4-5-1.

    For me he’s a typical Spurs player of the last 15 years. Most of the time you see him play you spend it groaning as he smashes one into the stands,straight at the keeper or misses the ball completely. Then you get those odd flashes of brilliance like the FK against Rubin or his thunderbolt against Young Boys and it glosses over the 98% of cringeworthy playing time. His apparent love for the fans and willingness, over the last few seasons, to tough it out and try to get into the starting 11 are admirable. So for those reasons I hope he does well wherever he goes…..just hopefully not anywhere else in this country.

  • Hartley says:

    Pav has never been given that run of games every striker needs yet still had a better goalscoring record than Defoe and 3MP…..He has looked poor this season when given a game and he is obviously Arry’s fourth choice now so I guess if he wants to leave in January and we can find someone better, then let him go….

    • LosLorenzo says:

      “If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don’t, they never were.” – Kahlil Gibran

      Loan move? :unsure:

  • Scandal says:

    He’s had his chance – let him go in January and see if we can get Leandro

  • TonyRich says:

    As Hartley suggested, your statement of Pav having “not much better” stats is incorrect. Last season, Pav had a higher strike rate than Darren Bent (goals per minute). But Bent plays nearly every minute, and Pav doesn’t even play every game, and doesn’t play every minute of those few games he does play in. Pav is just a polar opposite to Ade – who pressurises the defense and works. So it does not matter that Ade has stopped scoring, he is still doing a better job than a scoring Pav.

  • Quinny says:

    I’ve never known a player moan and sulk so much – he was complaining when he arrived and has continued to do so. He’s just not up to scratch – his work rate is poor, his first touch is Iversen-esque, he’s as fast as Corluka and can’t seem to hold the ball up. His goal against Rubin K summed him up perfectly – a good striker of the ball when he has time and space to do so…but in the Premiership, arguanly the quickest league in the World he can’t cut it.

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