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
He not only has a rare level of class he can put the medium ball; the 20-30 yarder in a space an intelligent striker will intuitively go to. After Modric we dont have that ability. And he is a big game player. When we started with him in North London Derbies we excelled and he shrugged off the pressure to perform.
Letting him go and getting a replacement is like trading a BMW 7 series for a Mercedes E class. Sure you can do it and some might tell you why its good. But I mean come on, do you honestly really need to?
In a sense you a correct. He is intelligent and a big game player but in our current state of rebuilding and given his age he is a luxury. He has never been quick or fit and at 29 he will not cure either of those ills, quite the opposite in fact. He will likely only be available for 2/3 of the matches in which you need him and in those matches he will likely have to be substituted 2/3 of the way through.
If we can get back anywhere close to what we paid for him I would take it.
2010-2011 in EPL he had 13 goals and 9 assists and was our top scorer. In 2011-2012 he scored in 5 consecutive Premier League games making him only one of three Spurs players to do that. He had 11 goals last season with a schizophrenic manager. If someone can replace him like for like for the price he goes out for then brilliant. But they better top these stats and be able to split the final third with a pass.
Yes his individual stats are impressive. But his overall effect on our play is not so impressive imo. Paradoxically, he will score goals and get assists, but he will also slow our play down and force us into repeated substitutions when he runs out of puff.
Plus, he does not really fit into the fluid 3 man attack doins that AVB wants to implement.
the merc is a far better motor than the bm.
I drove a new BMW and it kept cutting out at the lights…then the engine would come on when you put in the clutch- brutal bleedin’ cars-
Apparently Cliff Richard had a Jensen Interceptor (made in West Brom, I think), a car I dreamed about when I was a teen, but it cut out at a roundabout. Unfortunately it didn’t traumatize him enough to affect his singing.
Have to disagree completely about him being a ‘big game’ player-especially last season as we played more than enough big games-and by large he was crap to anonymous in all of them-the last game he played and really took a hold of it by the gonads was the 3-3 draw with the Goons. I know he scored a beauty in the home game last season, but his performance caused us more questions than answers. If he goes I for one wouldn’t give a toss as he offers nothing to the current system of play by negating the pace by holding onto the ball. I doubt his commitment to Spurs, as everything appears to be a about him and him alone. Perhaps AVB’s approach may give him a rocket up the arse, but my feelings are they’re more likely to bring on a major sulk.
hmm daily fail, a rehash of an old story,on the bench for 1 whole game, 2 plus 2 = 10 me feels, however if we do sign replacements I can see it happening late on for uber money, that would have to be a moutinhoesque gail replacement plus a cover for a wing/hole botherer i.e wilian (out of the names that are being bandied around). Personally i’d like to see him stay and start next game and play siggy next to sandro in place of livermore at home. coys!
Whether or not there is substance in the new rumour, AVB needs to try to get a grip on the current media circus.
Numerous popular players are being heavily linked with moves away (Dawson, Modric, Hudd, VDV, Defoe). Whether or not they are actually good enough for a 1st XI hoping to challenge for Top 3/4 is irrelevant.
AVB lost the fans, press and dressing room at Chelski because he failed to recognise the importance of popular players.
There are signs it is happening again.
A failure to make some truly impressive signings and some dodgy results in the WBA/Norwich games and he’ll be up against with fans and press again.
Send in the clones.
Willian I hope this guy dont give me a headache I dont wanna see useless step over shit.I wanna see a drop the of the shoulder , the Beardsley stuffle is just fine.Oh yeah and delivery please Isco looks better.
In fairness have seen him in the CL, the boy has end product – can shoot and cross as well as the boy Bale.
I miss Waddle’s step overs, I am all for them, they do fool the opposition.
who you calling opposition – fool yes, opposition, no