Good morning.
So, Rafa off to Hamburg SV they say.
Well, they rehash. Looking at the source article in De Telegraaf it seems more a case of Frank Arnesen tapping up/ making a public plea to his employer to rustle up the required readies.
Is the deal as close as The Daily Mail suggest? Mmmn. I’d say to claim this is at best ambitious. De Telegraaf says that Rafa ‘will almost certainly return to his former club HSV’. But then follows this up by adding, ‘only an agreement between Tottenham Hotspur and HSV is standing in Hamburg’s way.’ This is like me declaring I’m going to be the world’s best saxophone player. And all I need to do is buy a saxophone. And then learn to play it.
Arnesen is quoted as saying he wouldn’t rule out the move. It might be a last minute deal. Well maybe we’re beginning to touch on the truth here. De Telegraaf seem to believe that a gap in the two parties evalution of the player is the root of the problem. Spurs want £11M and the Germans only want to pay £9.5M.
There are other factors at play that neither the De Telegraaf of The Daily Mail consider. HSV are not in a happy place. They narrowly avoided relegation last season. Does Rafa really want to undertake an uphill challenge at this stage of his career? And the other element in the equation is what does Mrs van Der Vaart want to him do?
Hey, just think. if we were to flog him, we could use the cash to put in a cheeky hi-jiack bid for Wolve’s Matt Jarvis.
Hotspurs Half Hour – Show 2 by hotspurshalfhour
All Other Clubs outside North London including QPR buy players and then figure out the books
In North London and including the Woolwich Nomoolahs
its about balancing the books and then buying players
The problem is for every Portsmouth and Leeds there are many glorious clubs
Now thats been said,and certainly with respect to Levy,we talk about Rafa.
Rafa is a game changer for 5 minutes but often does in 5 minutes what stamina laden players cant do for 95 minutes and that is win a game.
With saying that there are two problems with Rafa.
(plus the issue of dosh)
1. It will be difficult to keep up with AVB’s brand of footie
2. AVB will not stand for any player who throws a tantrum
AVB may or maybe not a genius but retro rennaisance men will not have a chance under AVB.
He is of the new world where men (and women) dont use computers.Computers use them.Its all about the corporation and how you fit in to the system.Not about individual brilliance.
If AVB’s system is bigger than an individual player then the system will win out.
You add to that the fact that teh financial side of the corporation has to balance and you get a man we paid 8 mil for making something of a profit which would go towards a new striker and a new midfielder after you add in the other monies that are coming in.
It was inevitable.
Rafa is good for 5 minutes.
If he could handle being what he is,a star for 5 minutes Im sure a place can be founbd because he can change a game quickly.But he cant do that.
Gone.
Ronnie – you’re right about the system analogy. It’s the way football has gone with the adoration (and success) of Spain and Barca. It’s also a leveller, where assembling the right team can be done by grooming talent (Barca) rather than just being stupid rich and buying it in (Real).
Specifically on VdV though, I would add his injury/fitness problems into the equation. If Rafa had been injury free during his Real time, they would never have sold him. We are experiencing the same quandry – keep a talent who cannot be relied on due to injuries, or sell him now and re-invest while he still has value.
I’d like him to stay. And I personally think we need him. Even IF we bring in the desired players that we dream about.
He’s one of those players with a touch of class and a lot of experience to boot.
Agree with your sentiments but he will not be happy to sit on the bench, we have seen his antics when is subbed. I agree with LLL’s comments above, but only sell him if we have a replacement who is better.
I understand what you mean. He is outspoken and easily insulted when subbed/dropped.
But this is where some form of man-management comes into play.
If we want big players we need to be able to manage them off the pitch as well as on.
Maybe I am in danger of being idealistic, but I’m sure the likes of citeh and manure cope with benching some great talent for the good of the team. We need to find a way of doing this without paying silly wages.
He couldn’t handle the bench at Madrid, and recently kicked up a public stink at the Euro’s when he was benched. In other words, he surely feels he is way above sitting on the bench at Spurs.
Harry managed him by giving him his way all the time and letting him get away with shenanigans few others would have. I think that was pretty poor man management really, a teachers pet scenario. But I also thinks it probably shows he isn’t one to be man-managed very easily.
For instance, I think he would probably welcome going to Hamburg, which is really a step down, if it means he will be top dog in the area again. Same as he welcomed coming to Spurs from Madrid and being the queso-grande here.
Briz – the phenomenon you have described is called being Dutch. It’s why they frequently implode at any major tournament. They might be liberal with their wacky backy and rippers, but don’t go challenging their egos.
Sorry to generalise too, no offence to those from the Netherlands. With Dutch family on my Mums side I’ve grown up experiencing how great they are but not without some easy-to-stereotype personality quirks!
A lesson in Apples
Ex pats and nomadic non
speakers of the lingo will
understand how the lack
of conversation enables one
to observe far more than they ought to,
certainly far more than you’ve been
taught to.. You learn a thing or two about
a thing or two for there’s plenty to
accrue once you turn off the white noise,
eliminate the babble and tune out that which
floats above and beyond the lingual palate.. And not
back there either, not in the West,
not in your Amsterdams, your Rotterdams
with melting pots and microdots, too many
eyes glazing the fifty euro money shot
and psychoanylysing the greenery, it’s made
them the whole in the big city scenery..
Instead of being out casts they’re now
part of the machinery, fucking hard in the red lit
engine room and puffing out the residue, nothing
shady, nothing seedy at least not like it used
to be and all part of the same old same and lacking
in shame so the natives are left with just someone
to blame… Even though in the grand scheme of
the great pipe dream they fueled it,
ruled it and slipped every one of the
thirty one pieces of silver on offer straight into the
pulsating slot of the great money pot whose identity
entity sanctuary stealing machinery turned
something so beautiful into just a bainality
and scratched away the one thing that takes this
race beyond the norm, the Dutch individuality..
You’ve got to come out here where the smog
doesn’t bite to witness it in actuality… It took a two hour
lecture on how to peel my fruit
and a silent breakfast in Apeldoorn watching two
old masters match their crafts, twinned Pai Mei’s with
a fetish for fruit, one catching the eye of
the young un’s aspiring with blade slipping
round and the residue spiralling,
the others pocket knife all scapelesque and into it’s
well practiced groove, clean precise cuts segmentising
the whole and yielding perfect equilaterals of
sumptious apple for all who cared to watch for me to
see what I could never see while stitched to the machinery..
For there was an intensity within that portacabin
that belied the surrounding shrubbery and fauna, like
the heat at the top of an old roman sauna, all eyes were
tuned and all thoughts were locked and it mattered
to those privileged to watch who won
or lost, nobody spoke and so I shared
the moment as it was instead of being
on the outside looking in and for all accounts I
made it a draw but as the Pai Mei on the left
slipped back into his guise as the old
guy from the boiler room and and placed all
eight pieces of skin precisely and exactly
on top of one and other I watched him smile and
knew a winner when I saw one.. Paths had been chosen
and lines had been drawn, the ritual had run it’s course
and there was a victor to the hidden ceremony and
I suppose the smile was only tempered by the fact that
every pair of novice watching eyes including mine taking in
the view was scheming, dreaming and perfecting
his art, evolving new ways to amaze and display and
make it their way not his way, my way not your way, everything
evolves as the circle revolves and I bit my apple slowly
entranced by the moment and nobody noticed… It’s good
to be different, stands me in good stead out here where I don’t
speak the language, a city boy all born and bred with revolution
in his head, helps me see what always dipped beneath
my radar, yeah there are others, all just as equally intent as we or
you and me perfecting that which is their calling seeking
equanimity, opportunity may knock loudest where humanity
crowds closest but don’t let that fool you or rule you, it seems
too much mainstream entering the bloodstream’s only ever gonna
tether the individuality so that instead of evolving it’s DNA
molding, decoding eroding our passage of rites, turning eyes
from attention with leeching intention that’s blocking retention of
every day sights.. And that can’t be right… I had my Isaac
moment in the space of two apples and mellowed in it’s gravity, I
felt the equanimity and drunk it’s pure equality and blessed the
hand that brought me to this revery, epithany.. It added to my
symphony as everything became just that lttle bit clearer, each
individual gush more louder than the last so that
now I can pierce through fog like a pick axe through
butter no longer absorbed by the clutter in gutters.. My shutters
were opened when irrelevant individuality suddenly became
relevant and enriched my soul on it’s path of development and I’ll
always be thankful for that..
It opened up all avenues and roads and
changed the view for
this ex pat..
From Rhino to cat
or something
like that.. ;)
©Skinned/COYS!!
Bravo sir! Always appreciate a good stream of consciousness trip.
eh?
A couple of spelling mistakes, but it flows well. A- ;-) :freu
Saxophonist… was the word you were looking for.
That’s quite alright. Gladly.
A word about AVB and Harry Redknapp.
A lot has been said about Harry and his good club positions over the past 2 or 3 years and no we have AVB who is changing a lot around.
When you have a new system,and one as thoughtful as the one AVB is developing for us,the players have to think.
Its much better if they went out and did instinctively what they can do. But in a new system that is more rigid to get to the instinctual phase they would have to internalize
the system.That takes time. Right now they will be thinking what they have to do.It will be at the cost of their natural instincts.
With Harry,the natural instincts seemed to be everything. Thats what made us great at times but at others lost in how toprocessd.That is why sometimnes we were great (we had the talent) and sometimes hopelessly inept(no structure to fall back on)
So dont be surprised if we go through a tough period with AVB.
Levy is committed.We should be committed.(Harry R definately should be committed :devil: )
The problem is that we are dying for success and at the very least to go ahead of our rivals across the road.
This will be important in the first season I think.
But we should give AVB time. (To be honest I have a problem with that,instinctively I want us to win NOW!) but thinking wise I know what the situation is. Be patient.It will come.
Ronnie – our guys showed a really well disciplined understanding of the system against Newcastle though. You could see clear lines of marking, lots of communication and gesturing and we were only undone by a great finish and a stupid piece of defending. I still say we would have been 2 goals up before their goal if we had Adey up front.
Anyhow, we showed a greater understanding of the proposed system in our first game than Chelski managed in their whole time under AVB.
If it’s working then we have to hope we obtain AVBs transfer targets, otherwise we are missing parts of the puzzle.
Last!
Rafa should stay. there. settled.