Good morning ladies.
After that load of old cockerels I could do with some good news. You know, like hearing Levy & Co. have agreed a compensation figure with the FA and the cheque is in the post.
I wonder if old Arry actually knows what managing Engerland would actually be like?
“They’ve got to be more patient. They get carried away with the crowd at times and started playing from back to front to quick.
We’re a footballing team that plays and people have got to be patient. They can’t worry about the crowd being inpatient because we had lots of passes.”
England fans are unlike club supporters. The flag waving and endless honks of The Italian Job theme tune belie a ruthless need for the constant beating of Johnny Foreigner. Their support is Faustian. A Liverpool supporter will cheer Wayne Rooney but only if England are winning. That’s the deal right there and that’s why the the last half dozen or so incumbents of the Engerland hot seat are still in receipt of psychiatric care.
But Arry lives in dream world. In his head it’s the swinging sixties; Bobby Moore is still on the telly ordering a cheeky half Watney’s Red Barrel and Sandra’s doing liver and onions after she’s run an iron over his Fifty Shilling Tailor suit. ‘Come on England! Come On England!’ The man’s a fool.
Look at Sunderland. A veritable, ‘Underachievers R Us’ under poor and old but lovable Steve Bruce. A gang of second string players and journeymen. Yet under the auspices of Martin O’Neil they moved up the table like a ferret up a particularly enticing trouser leg.
Have Spurs achieved all that they have under Arry despite him? I wish it were that simple. There’s your headline, ‘Harry’s A Conman!’ and goodnight Gracie. But he’s not. He is as I have maintained since he arrived, an excellent crisis manager. Cynics and wannabe stand up comedians might argue that this is true as he normally manages to leave clubs in a state of crisis, boom boom.
He started off brilliantly. No two ways about it. But you’ve got to be less open minded than your average extreme Muslim cleric if you haven’t noticed we’ve gone right off the boil. Arsenal are having one of their worst seasons in years and they’ve just overtaken us in the league. Not because they are on fire, but because we’re falling apart at the seams.
I’d be happy for him to stay (which is incredibly gracious of me) but only if he’s prepared to demonstrate an interest in managing the team. Since his, ‘Not Guilty’ his only contribution to THFC has been to irritate everyone by failing to remotely coach the side, make an endless stream of ‘fascinating’ comments about the England job and snatch at any opportunity to deflect blame from himself.
6.828 Hornby have announced this morning that the prototype of the track trialed on Brad will not be released for general sale as simply going up and down one line won’t be popular.
7.010 Had some quality moments. I wish Bale took over more once he hits the halfway line and I wish defensively he gave players less time and space.
7. 111 A nice game. Love him going forward and I hear the attempted manslaughter charges have been dropped by the Stoke bloke he hit with the ball.
0.003 He survived an assassination attempt earlier in the week. Apparently the bullet went though his head narrowly missing his brain by 3 feet.
4.321 At this rate he couldn’t win the Egg & Spoon race in the under 9’s category. I’d love him to be rested for a few weeks and treated with some respect.
6.578 Someone was going to get the bullet to accommodate the it Midget Gem and it was Krankie. I thought he did alright, but the right wing is no place for him.
7.122 Some insightful passing and some Championship stuff mixed in for good measure. I bet he was being coached right a guy like him could learn to take corners.
7.121 He’s being run into the ground every game and by the time the second half arrives he’s done in. Another one that needs managing to give him focus.
7.008 What goes on in that boy’s head? That cross to vdV was breathtaking. He made one or two others from the left that were borderline breathtaking. His play everywhere else was, ‘okay’.
6.007 A prime example of what happens to players who fall out with Arry. I wonder how good Gomes is these days, or Bentley is worth playing? Sorry I forgot, we must not question the master.
7.009 Coaching again. His corners were improved a little , but it’s unacceptable that a player at this level skying most of his dead balls into row K.
4.000 Looked bright for the first 15 minutes. Our glorious leader then waited how long before taking him off?
3.000 When he scores in a moment of individual brilliance I sing his name like I’m offering up a prayer. If he doesn’t score in a moment of individual brilliance I want to kill him.
I knew we would concede and it 70secs between their goal and Bale hitting the bar. The stats are unbelievable ( shots on target etc ) but we have been here before. We dominate without scoring. Stoke and Puils had plan. Defend , Defend and then hope to get a lucky break. And boy did they get it. !!!! The Jan window was joke and it is showing now. Cover for Lennon or Bale was must. Quality striker a must. Cover for Ledley a must. Cover for the fullbacks. None of these points were addressed and now we are holding to 4th with dear life. The fact that sc#m have overtaken us is killing me. But now its time for damage control. Beat Chelski and we have ended their CL for next season. Sc#m still have ot play Shitty so 3rd is not dead yet. If we get Lennon and Ade back ( plus no new injuries ) we will clinch CL football. Arry is no master tactician. 4-4-2 with flying wingers with Mod and Parker in the middle. If anyone of these gets injured we have no plan B. Chelsea will be a very idfferent game. They need to attack ( unlike Stoke ) so it will suit us more. If we do beat Chelsea that 4 points from 2 games which we have taken before the Stoke game. Ps really pissed that Everton had perfect goal dissallowed !!!!!
‘if we beat chelsea thats 4points from 2 games’ ha ha ha ha ha ha, do me a lemon, how the hell are we going to beat chelsea ?? A bit of relaism is badly needed here.
Jim we are Tottenham. We dont do the bleedin obvious. Draw when we should win and win when should lose. If (huge IF ) Ade and Lennon are fit we will have chance.
We’re certainly due some luck after Cole’s handball at The Lane and the linesman last year. Best we can hope for is a draw though IMO. I’d be delighted with that.
I think the one armed bandit up top is a liar
missing from the above was the ref… what planet was he on?
One foul on Walker in the 2nd half looked terrible, studs up and high. Don’t think the ref even gave a foul, certainly didn’t book their player or even stop play to check if Walker still had an ankle attached to his body. Wasn’t even shown onMOTD.
The City game last night could give us an idea or two for the summer. If you can’t break down a side, try options up front until you can.
Balotelli is a strong and technical striker with a lot of flair who links up play well.
Aguero is a 4 foot wizard with bags of skill and balance in a tight space.
Dzeko is your classic target man, able to score goals and to bully defenders and divert attention.
Tevez is a supremely intelligent forward who puts a lot of pressure on the opposition high up the pitch, scores a lot of goals, and has excellent movement.
Bringing on the latter 2 won them the game.
Look at United for another example.
Berbatov is rarely used now, but we all know what he offers. As well as superb linkup play, and the ability to control almost any ball he’s given from anywhere on the pitch, he also offers a presence up front and good goal poaching instincts.
Rooney poaches goals for fun, but he also scores literally every other type too. A real aggressive weapon, playing with a high tempo at all times, able to assist as well as to score.
Hernandez is the kind of guy you bring on to get you a goal. Yet another true goalscorer (and I’m not even going to mention Michael Owen who is as good a 5th choice as is possible in the game) and someone who excels in substitute appearances, keeping his eye on the game from the bench instead of playing on his phone, able to work tired defenders with intelligent movement when he comes on.
Welbeck is still raw, but is strong and pretty quick, possibly not a natural goalscorer but a good user of possession, able to hold the fort at the front and be a real focal point for the free roles all around him.
And then you look at us.
Adebayor isn’t our player, and he is more of a confidence striker than any of the others bar Dzeko, but he tends to always offer something if not goals, and works well in a 4-5-1.
Defoe is a great option to have, he just runs the channels and takes his chances. When he does so he’s brilliant. A classic 4-4-2 player.
Van der Vaart I only mention since we so often use him as our second main attacker, and a good goalscorer, though would benefit from playing with more creative support in the middle, i.e. not playing with 2 natural wingers. However, what suits him doesn’t necessarily suit us.
And now Saha, who is a slower Defoe, and possibly not even stronger.
See, although Saha is a good player – what does he offer us as a different option? Who else has a striker who is JUST backup and not an alternative. But we seem now to be playing him as an alternative when he just isn’t. There is nothing wrong with Adebayor and Defoe. When Adebayor goes then we have Saha and Defoe, two similar strikers. We need an Ibrahimovic, a Berbatov, or possibly a Drogba. We also need a Tevez or maybe a Cristiano Ronaldo.
Point is, say we replace Adebayor with a fantastic number 9? Great, but that isn’t solving a lot of our problems. I’d rather get 3 players of a lesser standard, so long as they’re all different options. If our strike force this season had been, say, Odemwingie, Walcott, Raul and Bellamy (weird as that would have been), we’d be doing better, not because they’re of a higher class than our current crop, but because we’d be giving our opposition different sorts of problems from the bench. We have one move, which is bring on Defoe for VdV (in effect what we did yesterday). That’s good, but it doesn’t work if we start with Defoe, and in any case, where do we go from there?
I was with you until the Odemwingie bit
Break the word up mate, it’s easier to say then.
You could argue that we had that set up last year with Crouch (good at being tall), Pav (good at being inconsistant), Defoe (good at being offside) and Van der Vaart (just good).
also…
stoke shoved 3-4 player into the box when they got down the wings… we didn’t
they were effective… we weren’t
I’m more hopeful of getting something at Chelsea than I am of getting wins against the lower teams. (if you can get lower than the chav’s)
Our inability to break down 2 rows of 4 is pathetic,no team is going to be as charitable as Newcastle were and actually come to the Lane to play a game.
Its the same story as last season and we still ain’t learned,Its the definition of madness to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.
My poor breaking heart can’t take this,So many happy gooners,Fuck me its hard to take.
“…no team is going to be as charitable as Newcastle were and actually come to the Lane to play a game.”
Swansea will.
Fair enough,you win this one but I’ll be watching :unsure:
I think Swansea will come to the Lane and beat us well….
I get the impression that some on here would be happy for us to fuck up as it will fuck Arry up and it would be better for Spurs in the long run,am I right or wrong?
No way… but I do honestly believe that if an average Stoke side can nearly come away from the Lane with a win, then a very good Swansea side will come away with a good win (for them)…
You’re spot on Frontwheel, that’s exactly what ‘some’ on here want.
“I get the impression that some on here would be happy for us to fuck up as it will fuck Arry up and it would be better for Spurs in the long run,am I right or wrong?”
Can only speak for myself, but you’re wrong from my viewpoint.
I want Harry out, to take his coveted England job. Cos then we can get a better guy in, because he isn’t that good. Unfortunately our last few results aren’t showing “Harry’s skillset” in the best light, and this fannying around/hard bargaining/uncertainty might eventually see him out of the running for the England job, and remaining in place at Spurs.
In other words, it’s all going tits up, and I’m not happy.