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False Promises or Fulfilled Dreams?

August 31st, 2010 Posted in Articles
Aug, 31 2010
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Transfer deadline day. As I write this we’re 8.30 hours away from the end of the rumour mills and the various “In The Know’s” located all over the internet will have to jump back into their boxes until at least mid December.

It seems it could be a busy day, as it always is just before the window shuts, but will it be for Spurs? We’ve been linked to more players than Manchester City this summer and not one of them has materialised. The only player that the management have even admitted they were after is Joe Cole, who chose money over substance, which for the record I have no problem with as I do the same thing in my career.

Craig Bellamy was being constantly linked but is now plying his trade for Cardiff City in the Championship. Who else was there?

Micah Richards, Luis Fabiano, Ashley Young, Sulley Muntari, Lassana Diarra, Guiseppe Rossi, Ola Toivonen, Emmanual Adebayor, Alexander Hleb, Yannick Djalo, Scott Parker, Wayne Bridge, Raul, Serdar Tasci, Simon Kjaer, Edison Cavani, Baptista, Arda Turan, Dzeko, Forlan and many others.

Some have been more often linked than others. Take Micah Richards for example. He was one who at one stage the ITK’s were claiming was basically a done deal. Now I’m sticking my head out a little bit here as anything can happen today but as he’s played in all of City’s league games so far and they have stated they won’t be selling players to their rivals it appears this one won’t come to fruition. I await plenty of “we tried to sign them but there were stumbling blocks” responses to the signings that don’t come off. ;)

I should probably wait until tomorrow to write this so I can be either very pleased or get into a I told you so mood when nothing happens. With just hours to go there doesn’t appear to any solid transfers in or out of white hart lane with the possible exception of Muntari who it’s reported is just a matter of dotting i’s and crossing t’s. We’ll see.

So what happens if we don’t sign the players we feel we need? While on our pre-season tour of north America, Redknapp said he was looking to sign 2-3 players and felt that’s all we really needed. That I agree with as long as those players are the right players in the right positions. However, at this stage we haven’t signed anyone and if that remains I can only presume he’ll think, like many of us, that we don’t have the team/squad to deal with the season ahead.

I’m sure the players heard his comments about new signings too so if they don’t happen how will that effect them? Will they presume they won’t be able to compete this season because that’s what the manager thinks? It could galvanise them onto bigger and better performances, although judging on performances so far it looks like we’ve still got a little bit of inconsistency that we need to get rid of before we can start to think we’ll be right up there.

No-one seems to want to take Keane who must now know he’s got no future at the club. I would expect to see him at the very least loaned out before 6pm although that would mean us needing to get in a replacement and it’s looking less likely that Fabiano will be wearing lilywhite and even more unlikely City would be prepared to loan us Adebayor so who’s left? If we don’t get someone in will we let Keane leave, and if he doesn’t will Redknapp really save him for our Carling Cup games? Seems like a waste to me.

There’s so many ifs and buts during the window but this time tomorrow we’ll have a much better idea of how our season could unravel and more importantly we’ll know which of the ITK’s is reliable or the far more likely, if any are.

All we can do now is watch and wait. Seems strange that our first foray in the champions league could end in no new signings (not including the much anticipated Sandro). Roll on 6pm.

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Wheeler Dealer? You can f*** off!!

August 30th, 2010 Posted in Articles
Aug, 30 2010
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A little light hearted update on our transfer policy this summer from Mr Redknapp after the saturday defeat to wigan.

He’s spent most of his career doing his best impression of del boy trotter, buying players on the cheap and selling them on for huge mark ups. He’s gained a reputation as a ‘wheeler dealer’ but that’s a reputation he obviously doesn’t consider justified.

It’s not often you see a manager show his true feelings on camera and I’m sure there will be many people out there that won’t like to see this and might feel it brings a bad light on the club, but to me it just brought a smile to my face after a pretty miserable Saturday. Obviously not everything in the redknapp household is always triffic.

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A Bale Eye View

August 29th, 2010 Posted in Match Reports
Aug, 29 2010
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It’s hard to write something about yesterday that anyone might want to read. I hate it when my natural prematch pessimism comes true but should we really be surprised? This is the same team that had very similar slip-ups last season at home to stoke and wolves and couldn’t break hull down. Whether it’s a champions league hangover or over confidence we’ll never actually know but it’s time we as fans stopped going into games assuming the team will win by four or five goals. If we can do that and the players can’t we can then get on our high horse and demand better professionalism from them. Until then, we can’t. However, let’s look at it this way, if we won all the time where would be the fun in that? Have a read of this and try to take your mind off the final result, by one of our forum members and all round nice guy spurssimon.

Was going to do a bigger article, but not feeling articulate enough this morning..

Anyway, in the pub before the game I explained to the people there what I planned on doing, which is basically watching one player for the whole game, and I mean literally missing goals, incidents everything unless it is that player that is involved. I have done this a few times before, and believe me that is one of the reasons I am not a big Crouch fan – and if you ever get the chance to watch Jenas for 90 minutes, take my word for it, don’t.

This was something I was told to do years ago, and every now and then I will do it to get a better opinion of a player as a whole – this is something that obviously you can only do at a game and I do recommend trying it at least once as you do get a very different view of players and their work rate rather than a TV view, or highlights package.

So I picked Bale.

Not because I think he is a bad player at all, in fact I do think he is one of our better players, and is maturing a lot now, and I think will be a major part of what we achieve or not this season.

I haven’t actually watched the game on TV yet, but judging by the reactions of the people around me and the booing at the end, I am guessing it wasn’t a great game all round, so may have been a harsh game to player watch, but thems the breaks.

First half, Bale looked confident going forwards, making a nice few breaks and having quite a lot of space. He then seemed incredibly confused to literally bump into Lennon a couple of times, and didn’t seem to understand what he was supposed to do when Lennon came over. For at least 5 minutes in the half I would say that Bale didn’t seem to have a player within 30 yards of him, and was just stood still just our side of the half way line. Whether this means our players were not using him for whatever reasons or had been told to use Lennon more I don’t know, but he started to get a little bit point and shouty at some stages. Didn’t really do anything fundamentally wrong, but didn’t seem as involved as he often looks.

Second half and he is moved to Left Back – which I was glad about as it would show if he is a LB as some think, or if he is more natural as what I would call a winger..
Well, the question was answered.
He is not a left back.

Not in a time line, but he was caught so far out of position 3 times in as many minutes which to my view lead to their goal, as they just suddenly started hitting that side, and Bale was always chasing back. The entire left side wide open. What I did notice, which I think is what lead to this, is that he was still taking corners from the right, so pretty much the exact opposite part of the pitch where he needs to be if they make a break – which I think they noticed. We seemed to get a few corners at the start of the second half, and at least twice Bale hadn’t made it back to the left side before he was trotting over to take a corner again.

Overall, he just didn’t look great, show that tape to Fergie and he won’t be putting any £30 million bids for Bale any time soon.

It may have been a bad game to pick on any particular player, but if that is the sort of performance and result we get after a CL qualifier against Young Boys at home, we are going to have some very poor performances this year.

Now to go and watch the recording of the match to see how they portray it, but from what I saw, Bale needs to cover back far better, and show a bit more enthusiasm off the ball. For the fans, stop putting all our expectations on him – from block 32 where I was, his was the only players name that got chanted (except when “Super Pav” came on…)

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Back to the Bread and Butter

August 27th, 2010 Posted in Match Previews
Aug, 27 2010
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What a week it’s been in N17. A good league win at the Britannia followed by a very comfortable 4-0 European win to guarantee our spot in the Champions League group stages. Then we had the drawn out excitement of last night’s draw followed swiftly by lots of hotel and flight searches for our first game away to Werder Bremen. Thankfully, that side of the trip has now been completed, albeit having to put up with Ryanair’s obvious increase in prices as soon as they realised the demand might be slightly higher than normal.

So with all the European excitement over for the next 2 and a half weeks we’re back to paying the bills. Whatever happens in the Champions League there’s one thing more important and that’s getting back into that top4 and another crack at it next season.

Tomorrow brings lowly Wigan to the lane. I wonder how many people are going to this game thinking there’s a chance of another 9-1 like last season? Will Defoe, who bagged himself 5 goals in the same fixture even play? We were led to believe he’d be having a groin operation next week but he seemed ok on Wednesday night and even said he’s not sure if it’s needed now. Who cares though, we’ve got Peter Crouch ;) In all fairness to the vertically blessed one he had his best game in lilywhite in midweek so more of the same would go down nicely.

Don’t write off Wigan though. So far they’ve shipped 4 at home to Blackburn and 6 away to Arsenal but they try to play attractive football and on their day can cause anyone problems. We only need to look at their win against Chelsea last season to see that.

This is where we need to be professional. It’s all well and good enjoying the European nights but we’ve got to clear any possible hangover and get those 3 points whether that’s 9-1 or 1-0. As much as the away trips to Bremen, Inter and Twente will show what sort of team we’ve got, it’s the games following them in the league that will really let us know. United have found it hard in past years often succumbing to a surprise defeat, especially away from home, after a little European sightseeing.

Gomes and Modric are both out which will mean Cudicini comes in and I presume Palacios will keep his place. Neither should really mean us being any less effective, although it does impact my fantasy league team somewhat.

Tomorrow will all be about getting the ball out to our wide men, Lennon and Bale. Just look at what little Theo did last week and imagine what Aaron and the Simeon Boy could do. Whether it’s cutting inside and shooting or getting to the byline and cutting it back for the onrushing strikers we need to focus on width.

If we play as we all know we can we should be sitting pretty on 7 points from 3 games and happily back into our day to day job. If the players take Wigan lightly or have one eye on Bremen we’ll be left with lots of groans, moans, ifs, buts and maybes.

I predict it’ll be a lot closer than people think but we’ll just about edge it after ‘Arry’s had to “deal” with the boys at half time.

COYS

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Now the fun begins….

August 26th, 2010 Posted in Articles
Aug, 26 2010
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I won’t focus too much on last night’s result or performance because I’m sure everyone watched it and have had the entire day to read the other various sources, although a special mention has to go to two players who I thought were exceptional on the night, Peter Crouch and Tommy Huddlestone.

Crouch gets a lot of stick from large sections of the spurs following and at times it’s justified. However, last night was arguably his best performance in a Spurs shirt, up there with City away last season. If he played like that every week we wouldn’t have all the transfer rumours of another striker. He led the line as well as Drogba, linked with the midfield as well as Rooney and finished (except one miss when we were already 4-0 up) as well as Torres. The human preying mantis looks awkward even when he’s playing well and while the defending at times from Young Boys was disastrous he did what he’s paid to do. More of that please Crouchy.

The player who stood out in both legs was Tommy “the tank” Huddlestone. He changed the game for the best when he came on after 30 minutes in Bern and last night he spent most of his time sitting deep and spraying balls left, right and centre. One pass he produced with the outside of his left foot was very Hoddle like and he could well be the key to how we perform in the Champions League this season. When sitting that deep it’s hard for the opposition to pick him up. Does the striker do it meaning they’re not leading the line or does a midfielder have to come out leaving space behind them for the likes of Modric to take advantage? It’ll be a dilemma the likes of Benitez, Mourinho or Pep Guardiola will have to deal with.

Last night for me was a foregone conclusion and that’s no disrespect to Young Boys. Last Tuesday they had a very good night and we had one of our worst. Thankfully last night, on grass, we made our way into today’s draw for the group stages. Maybe the reason I wasn’t nervous in either leg of the qualifier was because whatever happened it was just a prelude to bigger and better things, just as last season’s City game was a prelude to the qualifier. This is what it’s all about.

So here it is, 8 groups of 4. The top 2 to go through to the first knockout stage, 3rd to drop down into the ludicrous Europa League and 4th to go back to the drawing board and hopefully another stab at it next season. We all know about the money available but it’s the glory nights I’m looking forward to. Sky Sports News is on and the music has just started. I wonder how long I’ll have to sit here listening to the UEFA pomposity before they start picking those balls?

It seems this could be quite time consuming. Oh wait, hang on. The pretty lady on the TV has just said they’re going to start the draw. They better not be teasing.

Unfortunately they are. Finally, someone I can relate to, Gary Lineker walks onto the stage. Yiddo, yiddo, yiddo. Anyone seen his wife? Legend ;)   I’ll spare you all the monotonous drawing of balls and skip right to it. So who have we drawn? Here we go, our name is drawn and there’s only one group left and it’s group A with Inter Milan and Werder Bremen. With one remaining team to join the group it’s probably not the most glamorous of draws for us but a trip to the San Siro isn’t bad and maybe we should be now looking at getting through to the next stage as well as enjoying the groups? The final club to join group A is FC Twente. So trips to Italy, Germany and Holland for the travelling yid army.

I’m left with a confused feeling. I’m happy with regards to our potential to get through the group and into the knockout stages, while it won’t be easy it’s definitely possible. However, we could’ve been sitting in Group G which was AC Milan, Real Madrid, and Auxerre. Now that’s the type of games I was looking for. It’s not long to wait until the first games either, with game one being in mid September. So, book your holidays from work now and prepare for a European tour. COYS

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And if you know your history

August 25th, 2010 Posted in Match Previews
Aug, 25 2010
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As a learned friend of mine said this morning, “This is not the biggest game in our history, unless you do not understand what history means.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself. Tonight’s second leg against Young Boys is a big, no, massive game but don’t let yourself be drawn into Sky’s interpretation of how big it is. It doesn’t come close to being even one of the biggest games in our history. Recent history may be different if you consider it bigger than Stoke which it probably is, but it’s only as big as last Tuesday which was also the biggest game in our history apparently.

If by recent you mean the last 5 years, is it as big as our 2008 Carling Cup win? I’d have to say no. That after all is a cup. A trophy sitting proudly (albeit a replica) in our trophy cabinet. Go to the honours section of the official site or wikipedia and it’s there. Tonight’s game, whatever happens, won’t be. I’m a firm believer that our biggest game is our next one but not that that game is THE biggest EVER.

How about the game that won us our first top division league title in 1951? Or the FA Cup Final against Leicester in 1961 that won us the famed double which we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of this season? If we win tonight will we be wheeling out Gomes in 50 years to discuss his thoughts on that famous night? How about our 1901 Cup win when we became the only non-league club to achieve that feat? For the younger of us don’t you consider the 1984 UEFA Cup win more important? Even younger? How about the 1-0 league cup win in 1999?

All of these games have implanted unforgettable memories and images into our collective minds. Nothing that happens tonight will do that. Win or lose.

How about what I consider to be one of, if not the biggest game of our history. The 1991 FA Cup Final against Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest. The Gazza injury, the injury time winner, the fact that win went a very long way to helping the clubs financial stability after almost going out of business. This was when the FA Cup final was still the biggest game of the season. For those too young to remember, imagine what happened to Portsmouth last season but change the final result to them winning it.

Money’s important in today’s game for obvious reasons which makes the financial side of tonight’s game important. Of course it’s important. Every game we play is important. However, financially we’re not in a bad position to need the money so badly that if we were to go out we’d be in trouble. Yes, we’d have to take some major stick from various corners but we’d still be playing against Wigan on Saturday. The reason it’s important is because of what it brings. No disrespect to some of the teams who have come to the Lane (and won on occasion) but the potential of some of Europes best to once again grace the good part of north London is why it’s important. The likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and AC Milan could be here for the first time in decades.

Tonight will be a proper European night but not because of the potential £20-30m on offer to the winner. Whether you’re standing in the park lane, shelf, paxton, the pub or at home, will you be singing and biting your nails because of the money on offer? If you are then you’re in the wrong sport (or maybe should consider being a player). It’s about the glory, the right to pit yourself against the best, the opportunity to travel to the biggest stadiums, it’s about lifting the roof off White Hart Lane when the players emerge from the tunnel.

So yes it’s an important game. One we want to win extremely badly and one if we play well we will win but it is not by any stretch of the imagination, whether you’re 80 or 8 our biggest game ever.

COYS

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Press Prejudices

August 24th, 2010 Posted in Articles
Aug, 24 2010
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While watching the Man City v Liverpool game last night and then listening to the aftermath this morning I got to thinking about how the press and in particular Sky don’t know anything about football or at the very least only concentrate on certain teams. We all know this to be the case but today it’s really wound me up. I just want to focus on 4 items that have come out of last nights game.

Let’s start with Javier Mascherano. Everyone knows he wants to leave Liverpool. He’s made it very clear in press conferences back home in Argentina and in England. Barcelona and Inter Milan want him but won’t pay Liverpool’s valuation so that should be that right? Wrong. Not in today’s footballing world. After a good performance against Arsenal on the opening day, Mascherano decided last night that he didn’t want to play leaving Roy Hodgson less than pleased and without one of his better players. Whether it would’ve made any difference to the final result we’ll never know but I presume all football fans believe what he did was wrong.

Sky Sports News and the radio were full of people claiming he’s in breach of his contract and it’s a disgusting way to treat the club, your team-mates, the fans etc, and that if Liverpool don’t want to sell him that’s their prerogative. However, this isn’t a new phenomenon. Dimitar Berbatov, regarded by some as one of the best strikers Spurs have ever had (albeit only for a short time) and far more influential to the team than the little Argentinian captain will ever be to Liverpool did exactly the same thing when he wanted to go to Manchester United. However, the difference then was the widely accepted opinion in the press that he had the right to play for whoever he wanted and it was up to Spurs to come to an agreement with United. None of the player bashing that’s happening today happened. He had his time at Spurs and had gone as far as he could and now he wanted to win trophies, after all, you only get one career.

Spurs fans felt the same as Liverpool fans but we didn’t get the support of the written or spoken press at the time. I’m sure some felt he wasn’t going about it in the right way but it was seen as one of those things. Liverpool aren’t going to challenge for anything this season so why is it any different?

The second point is again Liverpool related. Their apparent downturn in fortunes has a lot to do with their owners and financial problems apparently. The squad needs strengthening and until there’s a takeover they won’t be able to buy new players in the transfer window. I don’t remember these issues being a problem when they finished 2nd 18 months ago. We haven’t bought anyone in this transfer window either and our squad needs strengthening as do many others. I don’t see the press crediting teams with a decent enough league start with no new signings. Apart from City, there’s been very little spending in this window and the fact they don’t have a very good squad isn’t down to that. They bought poorly and over-performed to finish 2nd, it’s as simple as that. They’ll get better without doubt but football moves in cycles and this just happens to be the transitional period for Liverpool like the last 20 years has been for Spurs.

Last night was a decent enough performance from City, but I’d give anything to be playing Liverpool at home right now. They went into the game playing Tevez as a lone striker and really only managed their 3-0 win due to Liverpool’s poor display. There were some good performances from City, in particular Johnson and Milner but it wasn’t anything breathtaking. This is a team that without the heroics of their keeper on the opening day at White Hart Lane would’ve lost 3-0 to us quite easily. So how are they suddenly title contenders? I’m not saying they won’t be or they won’t get better with time but from the 3 games I’ve seen them play this season there’s no way they’ll be contending with United and Chelsea come May.

Finally, my pet peeve from this summer. The top 4. Did we finish in the top 4 last season? I’m sure we did. Didn’t we also spend the vast majority of last season in the top 4? So, how exactly is a top 4 of Chelsea, Arsenal, United and City familiar as I’ve heard Sky Sports say a thousand times already? I presume that means Bolton who are currently sitting in 5th will stay there? We’re talking goal difference here after only 2 games.

It’s not only Sky mind you. I’ve been on sites that were looking at the top 4′s opening fixtures to see how they would get on. I’ve scrolled down to see what they say about us only to see we’ve been replaced by City!!

I don’t like Spurs being in the press. I’d much prefer us to only be on the back pages in small print after a good win but credit should be given where it’s due and the past must always be considered when speaking about the present. Liverpool are no different to Spurs, just as we’re no different to Bolton or any other team with regards to the way the press should relate to footballing issues. I know this is basically a pointless rant but I thought I’d get it out of the way before the joyous Champions League update on Thursday morning. Probably ;-)

COYS

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Cockerel Character: Stoke 1 – 2 Spurs

August 23rd, 2010 Posted in Match Reports
Aug, 23 2010
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Three strikers, talismanic midfielder and a developing Mexican all injured for our trip to one of the toughest away grounds to visit and somehow we managed to get all three points.

Something we wouldn’t have done not only in the last few years but arguably in the last few decades. We played a strange formation at times and large periods of the second half our only fit striker, Peter Crouch, spent most of his time in central midfield but we dug deep and did the job that had to be done. To quote a footballing cliche, good teams win when they play badly.

Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t play badly per say, but we weren’t at our fluent best, and who can blame us? Following on from an almost disastrous Tuesday night in the Champions League, with all those injuries and to make matters worse it was raining. Gel/Wax in the eyes can be a serious problem for the modern footballer. A problem that many fans don’t give consideration too. When playing a team like Stoke who’s combined hair doesn’t exceed Benny’s it could’ve been the deciding factor.

Thankfully we had Gareth Bale and Younes Kaboul.

Bale has gone from a young player with lots of potential to a world class youngster still learning his trade in 8 months. I’ve had a jar of marmalade in the fridge longer than that. I hate to say it but if he improves much more and we don’t move up to the next level then he’ll simply become too good for us. Even from the other end of the stadium we all knew just how good his second goal was. Within a second I went from thinking “no don’t shoot from there” to almost falling over the seat behind as various people jumped on me in celebration. Goal of the season contender already?

Let’s also not forget his first goal. We’ve all scored a magical volley in the park at some point in our lives. I remember mine like it was yesterday. Better than Bales too although possibly not quite as important. The first goal though was something few of us have done. It might’ve looked fortunate but look again. He’s made the run into the box, received the ball and yes there was a little bit of pinball including Crouch heading it goal-wards before it eventually smashed into the simian like features of Mr Bale, but the fact remains he was in that position which enhances in my opinion that fact he’s a left sided midfielder and not a left back as so many believe. Neither goal would’ve been scored if he’d been at left back.

There were other players on the pitch too, some doing slightly better than other. Gomes had one of those days but fortunately it didn’t cost us. The saying “with genius comes madness” is perfect for our Brazilian stopper. Lennon once again looked a little out of sorts but he was involved in both goals, producing a cross for Bales second that the boy Walcott could only dream about. Jenas was in the team again. It’s hard to know exactly when he’s playing but I tend to count the amount of groans from the crowd and go from there.

The stand out player for me for the second season on the trot at Stoke was Kaboul though. Bale got the glory and Kaboul did the dirty work excellently. When the team was announced in the pub pre-match there were slight derisions about him starting and where he’d play. However, if there’s one thing he can do it’s head the ball. Stand there and head it away. You will not pass type football. Which is exactly the type of football you need to play at times in the Britannia, especially in the second half when for some strange reason we seemed to go out to defend our 2-1 half time lead. Thankfully it somehow worked even with a goal that was probably over the line not given, although there was a clear foul on Gomes in the build up which the referee also didn’t see from his position 4 yards away.

After the match we headed off back to the pub and then off into nearby Stone for some more refreshments and some food. Having already eaten the worse meat and potato pie I’ve ever had at the ground I wasn’t really in the mood but needs must. Another great Stoke away day, it does always help when you win.

For the record if you like your beds to be as hard as concrete, lots of noise from the road outside and walls thinner than a Wigan defence I’d highly recommend the Ramada hotel in Newcastle-under-Lyme. ;-)

Onwards to Wednesday. COYS

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Sir William of Gallas

August 20th, 2010 Posted in Articles
Aug, 20 2010
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30 minutes into the Liverpool game last night I could barely believe the silence coming from Anfield. So much so, when I first turned the TV on I genuinely believed my TV was on mute. The first thing I thought to do was text my Liverpool mate and mock him for constantly claiming there was always a great atmosphere there. The next thing to do was to pop onto Twitter and have a few digs at the bin dippers on there. Little did I know my night would take a turn for the worse from that moment on.

As soon as I opened my twitter client I saw a lot of tweets that were all basically saying this, although some with slightly more colourful language: “Gallas? WTF!!”

Surely not? This must be just another rumour surfacing or maybe the same one from a few weeks ago. Investigation time. Sky Sports saying he’s having a medical on Friday morning. BBC confirming that. Now this isn’t just the normal spurs are interested in signing Gallas rumour, this has gone to the next level, with specific dates included and getting as far as a medical.

Deep breath Tom. William Gallas, a man who’s mental state has been in question for some time now. A man who’s rescued Chelsea, Arsenal and France in both defence and attack. A man who believes his own hype.

Just for one second lets forget he used to be the Wanderers captain or the fact he spent 5 very successful years at Chelsea too. Just put a pin in that for the moment as they say.

Let’s look at the facts. Gallas is 33 years old. Hardly a spring chicken. Yes he’s on a free so that needs to be taken into consideration but I doubt he’s accepted a reasonable wage (not that any are) and he probably won’t play every week. So what do we think? £40k per week minimum? That’s over £2,000,000 a year on his wages alone. There’s no doubting he was, and maybe still is, a good player. On a personal level I sit on the was a good player side of the fence.

So what’s he going to bring to the club? Yes, he’ll give extra cover to a central defensive area that most fans will agree needs it, but those fans were probably thinking more along the lines of a mid-20′s defender with something to prove, not a near retirement player who’s contract was left to expire by Arsene Wenger who believed the 2 year deal Gallas wanted wasn’t warranted. What does Gallas have left to prove? Will he see this as one final contract before he settles into a mansion in Cannes? Does he still have the drive and ambition? Judging on last season’s performances before he got injured I would say no.

He will be seen by Redknapp as cover for our injury prone club captain and potentially for Woodgate if he ever plays again but Gallas spent the second half of last season injured himself, his last game being in mid February I believe. He averaged 25 league games a season when he was with The Young Boys of the Emirates. Ledley King in contrast only managed 17 games per season in the same period. However, that included a terrible season in 07/08 when he only appeared 4 times. So I ask you. How is this a good signing on the injury side of things? He’s not exactly Fat Lampard.

How about for team moral? Redknapp seems to have an idea in his head that players like Gallas and Bellamy will be good for the dressing room. Hell, why not throw Joey Barton in there too?

Gallas was striped on his captaincy when he publicly criticised his own team mates 2 years ago. Then of course there’s the sit down protest he made after his team drew with Birmingham in 2008. Exactly what he was protesting against only he seems to know but we don’t need that sort of thing at White Hart Lane. Some will say it showed how much he cared about not winning that game, but there are right ways to go about things and then there’s the Gallas way.

He does have an eye for goal though which would be nice for some of our centre backs to get 5+ goals a season. That’s my positive on the probable signing.

The radio and news this morning have concentrated on the fact some quarters in N17 don’t want him because he’s ex this and ex that and say it’s spurs fans being small minded. Well, lets get one thing straight. It DOES matter who a player once played for but that’s not the main reason. If we were signing Fabregas this issue wouldn’t arise. It’s the fact he’s one of their rejects. Free or not, it’s simple. They don’t want him. Their fans think it’s funny we’re going to sign him. They’re the one’s who know him best. I even heard someone say this morning that Arsenal fans didn’t react this way when they signed Spurs captain Campbell. No really? Of course they didn’t, they were signing an International player coming into the prime of his career. They saw longevity.

When I said the type of players Redknapp can attract aren’t the type of players that will get us to that next level this and the potential Bellamy signing was exactly what I was talking about. Look at the clubs that were also interested in Bellamy: Everton, Fulham, Sunderland and finally Cardiff.

If Gallas passes his medical and pulls on a Spurs shirt I will support him for the time he’s on the pitch. I will hope he improves our team and doesn’t cause unrest in the dressing room. I will hope the one thing he feels he’s got left to prove is to take Spurs above Arsenal in the final league positions. I will hope this doesn’t turn out to be a shocking signing and waste of money. I will hope all those ‘Arry haters weren’t right. I will hope…….

COYS

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The Potteries Point of View

August 19th, 2010 Posted in Articles, Match Previews
Aug, 19 2010
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Following on from last weeks discussion with a Manchester City fan I thought why not do the same with our next league opposition, Stoke City. Having suffered defeat to Wolves 2-1 on the opening day of the season and lost their new signing Kenwyne Jones to injury, things weren’t looking too bright for the oldest club in the premier league when I spoke to them over on Delilahs Forum.

Having been in the top flight for the previous 2 seasons and finishing in the very respectable positions of 11th and 12th Stoke have been a relative success story for promoted teams to base themselves on. Having never had to worry about a relegation battle and not suffering from the 2nd season syndrome that so many teams have before them could stoke now be looking to push on to bigger and better things? Maybe even a Europa League spot?

No, and I wouldn’t be too disappointed by that. It’s far too early in our hopefully lengthy Premier League stay to start thinking of Europe, especially with the squad we have. It’d be far too much of a distraction and probably see our league position suffer.

With that in mind, where do you think you’ll finish this season?

I predicted 13th at the start of the season. I’m depressed at the Wolves result, you shouldn’t be losing there I don’t think, so it could be lower than that. A lot depends on the start we make, with some tough games coming up, plus any further signings Pulis makes. I’ll stay positive and keep with 13th then!

Looking on the bright side, Wolves did the double over us last season and it didn’t do us too much harm. However as far as Saturday’s game goes we probably could’ve done with them beating Wolves. With Chelsea away being Stoke’s game after our’s you can suddenly see how it’s almost a “must win” for the Potters. With this being the case and it being their first home game of the season, the Stoke fans will certainly be doing their best to be a 12th man. I was lucky enough to be at the Britannia Stadium for their first home league game back in England’s top division against Aston Villa. Normally the highlight of the day would’ve been having dinner with Bruno Brookes before the game (I won’t go into how I ended up with corporate tickets) but I can honestly say it was one of the best atmosphere’s I’d ever experienced as a neutral supporter. Voted one of the loudest stadiums in the premier league (along with WHL I should add) it’s always a good place to go as an away fan. One of the things I find as an away fan when travelling to many grounds is how easy it is for a group of 2500-3000 fans to out-sing the opposition. Stoke is one ground I’ve come away being impressed with but what about them? Any favourite stadiums?

Not many to be honest. And I’m annoyed you’ve nicked “Oh when the reds” and changed it to “Oh when the Spurs”, you’re even singing it slowly like we do.  It does sound good and you do make some noise. I had to chuckle reading some twonk in the Daily Terror (Mail) the other day who said he liked going to Liverpool ‘for the atmosphere’ – not been for a while then fella?

The one problem Stoke have on the pitch is the perception they give of a boring team with negative tactics, long throws and nasty challenges. I’ve never had a problem with the long throw-in or what some would call their bully boy tactics. Teams have to play to their strengths. I’ll be standing in the away end on Saturday screaming at the ref at some point for what I feel is an over-the-top challenge like everyone else does but it’s part of the game and has to be dealt with. I’m not talking leg breaking challenges here, but tough, hard, in your face stuff is fine by me and it’s up to the Spurs players to give some back. Most of that would never be tolerated at Spurs though, with a tradition of at least attempting to try and play attractive, attacking football but sometimes needs must and if that’s their best way of staying in the league is that a problem?

I have no problem with our style of play if that means we don’t get relegated. Would I prefer to play a more attractive style of football? Yes, of course.

However, much of what people think is based on what the media have portrayed us to be. The media are an exceptionally lazy bunch and won’t bother looking beyond a convenient stereotype if that means some work needs to be done or it causes one journo to stand out from the crowd. You must have experienced this too.

One of Stoke’s best players last season was ex-spur Matty Etherington. While he was young when he played for us he always showed promise in my opinion and I was one of the few who felt he could’ve stayed, even though he had many games where he just didn’t cut it.

What I saw of him at Spurs, I’d agree that he wasn’t good enough at that time in that side. Some players are like that, Riccy Fuller’s been pretty good for us but I don’t think you’d get many fans of Southampton or Portsmouth agreeing. Ethers has been good for Stoke so maybe he likes being in a side where he can stand out.

In the last couple of seasons Tony Pulis has spent most of his transfer kitty on defenders but having only scored 34 goals last season, a striker or two has been his priority this summer. Having signed Kenwyne Jones for £8m from Sunderland they have also now added Jon Walters from Ipswich. Jones was courted last year, if you believe the press, by Spurs but Sunderland wouldn’t sell him at the time. It looks from the outside that he might be a perfect signing for Stoke’s style of play but what will he bring?

Not Mama Sidibe’s finishing hopefully! I imagine he’ll play the same role as Mama, Pulis seems to love a big centre forward, but Jones will hopefully keep interested and put the ball in the net a dozen or so times this year, which Sidibe (gawd bless his effort!) just can’t do.

Getting onto last season and their 12th place finish what were the highlights and low points?

Highlights – the season long comfort of being midtable. One game highlight – probably Spurs (sorry!) even if we did nick the points the result was fantastic. Beating the Arse in the Cup was good too, even if Wenger tried to make out it didn’t matter. If you tried a bit harder, garlic breath, your trophy cabinet wouldn’t be so bare now would it! Low point – drawing Arse, Man C and Chelsea in the Cup, then watching a debt-ridden Pompey get to the Final. How?

I’m not sure if he’s just pandering to my hatred of all things Arsenal now but I’m starting to like this guy. ;-) Which is conflicting with my personal experiences and tales I’ve heard of Stoke fans. The Naughty Forty are Stoke’s hooligan firm and are still very much alive today. Not as bad as it was 10 years ago but when I think of hooligans I think of Cardiff, Millwall and Stoke, closely followed by Leeds. Now, obviously not all fans are like that, especially nowadays but it does still go on and we’re not saints either. Last season, while celebrating our 2nd goal at the Britannia some neanderthal in the front row was clearly making “I’ll cut your throat” gestures at me. Nice I thought as I stood next to my wife. So, are their any teams they don’t mind?

Do we have that reputation? We do have a lot of knuckle-heads that’s true but that’s Stoke-on-Trent in general I’d say! Spurs are OK and the older fans of Liverpool and Everton have been pretty balanced since we’ve been back in the top flight. The usual glory-hunting suspects of Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal wind me up, most often simply because they haven’t a real clue of what they’re talking about! Personally I don’t mind the Baggies either.

So to wrap things up how about predictions for where we’ll finish this season and Saturday’s game?

If you get through against Young Boys (and how jealous is Arsene about that!!) the CL may be a distraction, but I’ll go for 4th or 5th. I think Liverpool may do better this year and Man C must be there or thereabouts.

I’m pretty pessimistic at the moment after Wolves and without Jones, so I’ll go for 1-2 defeat and take anything better.

I wonder whether the fact Defoe and Moddle look like they could miss this game has changed his opinion on that in the last 2 days?

Either way, it’s always a good trip to Stoke. Any Spurs fans attending should think about meeting at the Staff Uni SU Bar which is specifically for travelling away fans and includes a bus (last season was police escorted so we didn’t miss the start) to the ground and back to the train station after. All for about £3 each. Can’t go wrong. See you there.

COYS

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