Good evening.
What becomes of the broken hearted? It would seem they end up supporting Tottenham Hoyspur.
The game took two turns for the worse before the kick off as the news broke that both the boy himself Gareth Bale and Mr Demblele were going to both out of action. On the Bale end of things I have to express a dismay. I know people who’ve had to miss funerals due to work commitments.
In my limited yet hugely valid experience of childbirth the father being there tends to use the, ‘I was there, wasn’t I?’ as some sort of a statement to reaffirm that he still cares and still adore a woman who they have long since begun to loathe and frankly see as un-adorable. Bale’s absence to me was just yet another example of modern football being far too interested in what footballers feel or care.
Am I blaming the defeat on Bale? Of course not. Am I using him as a whipping boy? Of course not. Just sayng it’s symptomatic of things. Things that aren’t good.
Huddlestone’s gifted but lethargic calling card is expired. Dempsey looks woefully shy of the mark. Walker wants melting down and turning into glue. The boss needs to have more faith in his plan and less in the players. Make substitutions sooner.
I’m off for a cold chicken sandwich and some crinkle cut chips. It’s the way I roll…
Because on his only Prem outing he shat himself.
Can’t believe people are slagging bale off…. No amount of money or passion in my job would ever stop me from being present at my daughters birth….. I love Tottenham to the core but my love for my daughter pisses over my love for anything else…….
Bet you may have reconsidered once the tearing noises started….. :daumen:
C section!!!!
Agree or disagree with HH about being present at the birth you have to admire the expectation of committment from our author! Maybe if Siggy would have had half that committment to hit the target then things would have been very diferent.
Looking back to the birth of my two and had I had a choice whether I would have chosen to play Chelsea or watch my favourate pub burn down (second time just after a full refurb)….. Well lets just say I realised at that beautiful moment i could never be an arsonist!
I don’t think there were any superise at all.
With Dembele out and of course no PNB and no Benny, Verts had to move to LB which meant Gallas had to be the central defender; Caulker was man marking to nuetralise Torres.
Given that line up and job allocation, Sandro and A.N.Other were supposed to shield the defence. given who we have available it was Thud or Livermore; AVB opted for Thud which worked in the main and replaced him with Livermore’s fresh legs as the weight and match prectice started to tell on big Tom.
Nothing suprising.
Up front, Defoe is scoring goals; when a player is doing that you let him continue. Also we are playing the ball on the ground a whole lot more this season which helps. Ade is not match fit because he and/or his greedy agent sacrificed his pre-season for a few miullion quid, a far less noble excuse that being with the wife for the birth of your kid.
Bale was of course missed, Verts did a great job coming forward but Bale’s pace and power would have made a difference for sure, not least in dragging a marker out of position leaving space creating options in the middle
Siggy is a conundrum, but the overall intent is to be playing a certain way and he seems to be a part of the pattern, but its not clicked yet. Will that change if we get Ade on the pitch with him? Possibly.
We got beat by a side that played good football, were more cohesive and had the smarts in the right spots to exploit the areas where we were weak. They controlled the middle of the park in the absense of Dembele and the players and the style that killed us off were ironically those brought together by AVB.
Lessons? Walker is a victim of too much too soon, I’m waiting for the picture of him laughing and joking after an embarrassing display with a cigar in his mouth. He has speed and talent but his attitude needs some serious adjustment. Billy can still do games at Villa and such but not top tier. Lloris needs a run of games with a full strength defence in front of him to acclimatise.
But we know this they are not suprises, they are what we had to deal with on the day. The Chavs are a strong side who won the CL whilst underperforming domestically, largely due to Terry, Cole and Lampard. Cole’s on the out, Lampard’s on the Bench and the dog is in his kennel licking his wounds; look how the team has reacted!
With the choices AVB had there were no suprises he played the cards as well as he could, with Bale and Dembele and Benny who knows………..
Good post, and a nice bit of perspective. We were missing 4 potentially 5 starters in Bale, Dembele, Kaboul, Benny, and Parker. And have “issues” surrounding starting with Ade and Lloris. Re-play the match with those 7 fit and settled and it’s a completely different game. We’re still 5th, lets just crack on.
The Bale thing, honestly, here lies the difference between players and fans. Was Bale a mad Spurs fan growing up? No. Would I, in Bale’s shoes, have pulled out of a game against Chelsea? Absolutely not. Would I were I playing for any other team than Spurs? Probably.
nice little 110 grand in the bin for non appearance, spose it would be nice to have a few weeks off to paint the spare room pink,would look nice with some laura ashley borders. :freu
You say with humour what I say with undisguised bitterness! I sometimes feel that this is a ‘New Man’s’ support group rather than a site for grown up Spurs supporters – I watched ‘Meet the Fockers’ again the other night, and reckon most of the AVB/Levy lovers whose spiritual home this is would be in the Hoffman rather than the De Niro brigade – ‘Emote, emote, emote, I feel your pain, AVB!’
‘Arry
Love you postings, but to suggest or implie that bale was only going to see his baby born is pathetic. My family have had a season ticket in the south stand for over 45years. Bale is by far the best player we have had in years. He could walk in to any team. Don’t be a prick and say that bale should have played.
You quite clearly don’t know what child birth is about.
Sorry mate but you dropped a fucking clanger