Thoughts on today's Premier League action

I can't think up a better title than that... it's late, cut me some slack.

Anyways:

Burnley 1 - 0 Manchester United

Who the hell saw this coming? But then, it's early days and United haven't quite gelled yet. Seeing Burnley win their first home top-flight match in 33 years was wonderful... but to see them win it against last year's league champions? Fairy tail stuff!
At any rate, positives for United: Michael Owen was decent, he got himself into dangerous positions and was moving the ball around well, but needs to find his scoring touch. Also, the possession tells the story, United were dominant with 63% of the ball, but they just couldn't score (not to say they didn't have their chances, putting 9 shots on goal and missing another 9). Unfortunately, in losing Christiano Ronaldo, they seem to have lost that cutting-edge against teams they should be beating... no one really stepped up today and they really missed that lacquered up pansy.
For Burnley, they have easily the most courageous keeper I've ever seen in their great Dane, Brian Jensen, picking up the man of the match award. Their centre-backs were equally deserving of praise, throwing themselves in front of everything United could give them, and doing their best to get in the way. An inspiring effort from all 11 on the pitch.

Hull 1 - 5 Tottenham Hotspur

6 points from two games. It took Spurs 10 games to reach 6 points last year. Oh... and we're top of the table. I'm not taking a win over a decidedly crap Liverpool and Hull as a sign we'll win the championship, but it's rare you hear the Match Of The Day pundits declare (without laughing) "Tottenham for the title". I choked up a little when they said it, I'm not lying... in 21 years I've never heard that said seriously. Spurs were magnificent today, the passing, the movement, the Jermaine Defoe hat-trick... I'm really excited this year. It seems to be clicking.

Birmingham City 1 - 0 Portsmouth

David James will forever argue the penalty... but he shouldn't have been challenging for the ball in the first place, it was nowhere near the goal. I think the most significant question one can ask from this game is: why has he decided to make himself the most utterly ridiculous-looking footballer in the league (Cissé's in Greece now)? He really looks like some ridiculous 70s pornstar, getting into the habit of grabbing all kinds of stray balls (I'm sorry, this is a family-friendly blog... I couldn't resist though).

Liverpool 4 - 0 Stoke

This result should never have been in question... but last year both matches with Stoke ended with goalless draws... so I suppose Liverpool had reason to be wary (especially after their horrible start to the season at White Hart Lane). Glen Johnson, Liverpool's new right-back fresh from Pompey, might be the most inspired non-Spanish acquisition ever made by Rafa Benitez. In the attacking third of the pitch, he gives Liverpool so many new options, he was hands down their best player today (as he was against Spurs on Sunday).

Oh God why?

Why did we spend a reported £9M on Peter Crouch? Seriously? He has a list of clubs played for about as long as his gangly 6'7" self, and unspectacular numbers at all of them.

That he broke into the England team is still something of a mystery, but then you recognize that he came into the team when Sven was picking players like Theo Walcott to play at a World Cup finals when he'd never played a Premier League match and it starts to make more sense.

Now, the idea of a 6'7" striker (the tallest outfield player in the Premier League, I might add) coming to Spurs would normally make me salivate... but Peter Crouch is effectively useless. He's tall, but he has trouble heading the ball efficiently. And as far as skills-by-foot go, well. See for yourself:

Yeah, that's Crouch. Missing completely (45 second mark). He was in acres of space against Trinidad and Tobago. He was alone, maybe 12 yards from goal. Centered perfectly. Lovely cross from Beckham. Crouch made contact with the ball. It went across the net to go out of play where the 18-yard box starts. Wow.

Now, don't get me wrong - his size does make him useful. He has the ability and length to get to poorly delivered crosses (you saw an example in the video above, about 2 highlights before his epic miss). But, unfortunately, he doesn't have the skill to finish those chances.

Crouch's greatest ability is holding the ball. He is spectacular at holding the ball and allowing others to get into scoring positions. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the skill to distribute the ball well enough to allow those scoring positions to be utilized effectively.

Maybe I'd be happier if this wasn't just our third (and most impressive) signing of the summer. I might also be happier if he didn't cost £9M. Absurd.

I agree, Peter.

Things I learnt while watching Spurs v Barcelona

Last night Spurs played Barcelona as part of the inaugural Wembley Cup. The Barcelona team that played was very much a B-squad, there was no Messi, no Henry, no Puyol -- though Gudjonssen and Touré played.

Anyhow, Spurs drew 1-1. Yay? Mmmm, not as such. I was really disappointed by what I saw on the field, and learned a few things about my team and what they need to do to go forward. Most of them stem from really poor managerial decisions by Harry Redknapp (yes, the same guy I was in love with about 6 months ago).

1. The team needs to be built around Tom Huddlestone, not Wilson Palacios*.
Tom Huddlestone was fantastic last night. He started off in center back (we have three injured CBs... why has Harry not thought about getting another one?) before moving into his more comfortable position of centre midfield in the second half. He was distributing the ball effortlessly, almost every ball he distributed was perfectly weighted, and fell right into the run of whoever he was hitting it to anywhere on the field. It was incredible. Wilson Palacios was the height of useless. Barcelona's goal** was largely his fault (he is number 12, watch him start running the wrong direction giving Touré a path to goal. Who's the only one whose challenge actually landed? My boy Huddlestone).
Turns out, he's not creative at all. He's a battering ram. But not a skillful battering ram -- his positioning is very poor, he's extremely gullible, and he spent most of last night getting in the way than he did doing useful things.

2. Why sell the Welsh international fullbacks and buy Championship ones to replace them?
Chris Gunter - 20 (born '89)
Gareth Bale - 20 (born '89)
Both are full internationals for Wales, Gunter plays right back, Bale plays left back. Both are incredible on the ball. Both are wonderful crossers, and excellent defenders. Bale is one of the best left-footed free kick takers I have ever seen. Both are incredible talents for the future. So Redknapp sells Gunter to Nottingham Forest and wants to sell Bale, citing lack of experience as their main problems. His idea for replacing them? Kyle Naughton and Kyle Walker, from Sheffield United.
Kyle Naughton - 20 (born '88)
Kyle Walker - 19 (born '90)
Walker has two matches with the England U19s under his belt, Naughton has played twice with the England U21s. They are not nearly as talented as the two Welsh internationals (Walker only just broke into the Sheffield first team last year)... but apparently they're what Spurs need to fill the lack of experience brought by Bale and Gunter. I had the distinct displeasure of watching Naughton last night - he's disturbingly gullible and made the right flank so unsafe that Corluka (who was playing centreback) wound up leaving the middle open most of the time to cover for Naughton.

3. Jermaine Defoe cannot operate as a lone striker
He just can't do it. The service he was getting was terrible (Huddlestone was playing centreback, remember?), Modric was not playing as an attacking midfielder, but a left winger, and no one was going forward, leaving Defoe with no options. It's not so much the fault of Defoe that he can't do it, it's the inability of the midfielders.

4. Our kids want it more than our seniors
The beauty of friendlies is that there are seven subs, and the halftime switches don't count toward that total. So last night we got to see a lot of Spurs' reserves playing the second half... and they were fantastic. While our seniors were largely standing around while they were playing, waiting for something to develop around them, the kids were on their toes and moving.
making things happen. It's how we wound up scoring (oh yeah, it was a reserve [Livermore, below] who scored our goal).


5. Harry needs to get his head out
Like I said, a lot of the problems right now boil down to Redknapp. Why does he want to buy Viera? Why did he/does he want to get rid of our Welsh internationals? Why have our only purchases this summer been completely unncessary? We have problems at the striker positions, sure. But before Redknapp came in, we were leaking goals but we were also scoring at will. Bring in Redknapp and Les Ferdinand as a striker coach? We stop scoring goals. I don't think it's a problem with the strikers, but their coach. We obviously have holes at centreback, why haven't we bought anyone? We have Huddlestone, but Redknapp wants to sell him. Palacios is useless, but Harry's building the team around him. Oh... and he wants to bring in the greatest has-been of the past decade. What's he doing!?!?!

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* See the bottom
** I don't know how to mount videos

Return of the King

I'm not thrilled about it, in the analytical sense... but as a football supporter I couldn't be more pleased.

Robbie Keane is back, we spent £15m for him. We sold him, of course, for £20.3M. So, good profit and he's back.

Let's break down the Tottenham players who came back after 12 months or less.

Jermaine Defoe
Pacy striker, incredibly useful under the instruction of Harry Redknapp. Pavlyuchenko's greatest skill is providing perfect through balls, he should continue to flourish at Spurs with good service from the midfield.
Good Buy

Robbie Keane
As I said yesterday, I'm fearful of what might happen. I hope he doesn't feel dejected by Liverpool selling him at cut-price, he unfortunately couldn't perform under the instruction of Rafa. What Keane needs is a free role, to move as he pleases around the 18 yard box and be provided service from the midfield, and he'll get that from our current midfield and Redknapp. Like I said above, we still make a little over £5M from the deal, so it all works out.
Good Buy

Pascal Chimbonda
One of the true cancers to the Spurs dressing room last season. He walked out of the Carling Cup final after being substituted. He refused to play center back when asked, even though we had no one else who could play the position. He was the true definition of ass. I'm still not sure why we brought him back, we have two of the most promising right-backs in the Premier League in Vedran Corluka and Chris Gunter... we need help on the left. THE LEFT, 'Arry! I don't understand the point of buying back Chimbo, I hope he isn't as cancerous as he was last season.
Bad Buy

With Wilson Palacios in Tottenham's midfield now (having recently arrived from Wigan), we have a stronger, more creative holding midfielder, finally replacing Michael Carrick.

At any rate, recent developments would suggest we certainly aren't headed for relegation, but I doubt we'll get a Europe spot now.

COYS!

EDIT - Robbie Keane was in fact bought for £12M, making it a nearly £10M profit.

If you can't beat 'em, for the love of God don't let 'em beat you!

I can't believe Tottenham. Honestly, we're horrible. I don't know if any other team has allowed more goals i the last five minutes of a game than Spurs. I also don't know how to find that stat, so we'll just assume I'm right.

At any rate, Spurs went down 2-0 at the Reebok - but then they fought back to 2-2 thanks to some good effort from the team and *sigh* Darren Bent. Who would've thunk it?

But then, four minutes to time, we lost. 3-2. Off a corner. Story's in the books.

Now, the question comes back to "what to do?". I'll tell you what not to do: bring back every former player and their grandmother. Unbelievable. I love Jermaine Defoe and Robbie Keane, I was extremely happy with their play at White Hart Lane and I was horribly sad to see them go. When Chimbonda left - I was excited.

And yet - we've spent far more money than we made trying to bring these guys back. Defoe's been off his game, but he's getting there. That said, it's a slightly different situation - he never wanted to leave and he's coming back to play under his favourite manager. Chimbonda was shite at the Lane, bad for morale, bad for the team. Now - Robbie Keane. His boyhood club was Liverpool. If I were a professional footballer and Spurs offered me the chance to play in North London, I'd be there in a second. Then, if Spurs decided they didn't really want me anymore, and sent me back to the team I came from for half the price they bought me for... well I'd be crushed. And I certainly wouldn't be excited to play. That's what's going to happen if we bring back Robbie Keane, and it's a scary prospect.

Anyways, this is a team that needs to do a few things;
1) Have the mental strength to pull through the last minutes of a match
2) Be smarter than a monkey with a wheel when it comes to transfers
3) FUCKING WIN

Now, in university 'news':
1) Men's basketball played a hell of a game against the Varsity Blues. With a minute and a half left they tied it up. With 17 seconds left they went down by 4 points and the game was lost.
2) Men's hockey had one hell of a weekend - they beat Ryerson and U of T with minimal fuss, though they almost blew it against the Varsity Blues.
3) I've been throwing around ideas for how our football team is going to do next year, and I'm starting to get increasingly excited by our prospects. Maybe we're not going to fall apart next season?

As always, Andrew, Phil and I will be doing Premier League Punditry today at 1:15 p.m. at Sporting Madness, be tharr or be squarr...

Waving adieu to the legend that wasn't

Portsmouth: 1990-1992
Tottenham Hotspur: 1992-2004
Birmingham City: 2004-2005
Wolerhampton: 2005-2006
Bournemouth: 2006-2008

Darren Anderton will, to me, always be remembered as a legend of the Lane. For 12 years, he donned the Lilywhite, and wore the captain's armband for many of his latter years there.

When healthy he was one of the best right wingers to play the game, called up numerous times to the England squad and holding his own on the legendary Spurs side that contained Klinssman, Gasgoine and Sheringham. At Spurs, he played in 364 matches and notched 51 goals. His career was, unfortunately, marred by injury, and a series of (poorly timed) injuries left him with the nickname Sicknote Anderton. Injuries forced him out of various seasons and at least 2 England campaigns that I can remember off the top of my head.

That said, he was fiercely loyal to Spurs, turning down a move to Manchester United in 1995 and even promised a new contract at the end of 2004, a promise that was reneged at the authority of incoming 2-month disaster manager Jacques Santini.

Unfortunately, Anderton will finally end his career in Bournemouth this coming Saturday at the age of 36. A career that, according to Harry Redknapp could be extended were he "surrounded by the right players."

Lord knows I'd love to see Anderton come back to the Lane, maybe not as a player (given the speed Spurs now plays at), but as a coach or public liason or somesuch. If nothing else, I know the Yid Army would love to see him back.

His name may not carry the same weight as some of the footballers who donned the Lilywhite before him, but as far as a loyal footballer goes - it would be tough to find a comparison. And, again, who knows where he'd be if he managed to stay healthy? C'est la vie. I just know that I still have the Darren Anderton action figure in my room from my childhood days, and he'll always be one of the first names that comes to mind whenever someone asks me my memories of Spurs in my youth.

There is no original name for this sports blogpost

Oh man I'm funny*. Truth be told, there's lots in the past week that I've wanted to write about:
1) The Sens finally seemingly passing their slump by beating the Rangers and the Leafs... before falling to the Isles
2) Spurs falling into their slump by losing to Everton. My God that was annoying, Spurs had the more chances and everything *grumble grumble*
3) New Zealanders getting pissed off at Wales because they the Taffies stood up to the Haka by... staring at the All Blacks. No matter though, all Tri nation teams dominated the Six Nations and the weight of international rugby talent in the southern hemisphere was more than confirmed. Only the Aussies lost... and that was only one game. Unbelievable.

All that having been said the reason for this post is this. Up until Phil's post on the Gooners last Tuesday, this blog never had a physical picture in a post. Well, the times they are a-changin', and I'm bloody tired of seeing Cesc Fabrigas' mug everytime I open this page. As such, it's time for a shot back.



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* Re: title of this post

Michael Carrick: the crucial piece of the jigsaw

Sir Alex Ferguson has been known to spend large amounts of money on midfielders of, according to short-sighted media and fans, questionable utility. Owen Hargreaves and Juan Sebastian Veron alone come to mind. Yet both of these players are the embodiment of the unlikely mix of skill, strength and tactical intelligence. As is Michael Carrick, another midfielder supposedly struggling to justify his price tag.

Regardless of price, one thing Fergie does not do is misjudge talent or the needs of his team. Hargreaves' and Veron's impacts at United were limited, but Carrick's is massive. The shocking fact is that his impact remains unseen - such is the nature of his role. His former club, Tottenham Hotspur, owe their recent instability entirely to the continued vacancy of his position in their midfield. As they failed to see the importance of his position, Spurs have spent £13million out of the £18million they received for Carrick's sale on paying compensation and severance packages for three different managers and their former clubs.

Carrick's importance can be situated in a broader movement - history has favoured him to an extent. The tactical evolution of modern football has meant more and more lone strikers and goals from midfield. The 4-3-3 of old is dead, replaced by a 4-5-1 with fluidity in attack, goalscoring wingers and a strong base in midfield. Often teams play with no strikers at all. Manchester United owe their recent success to the mastery of this evolution. The fluidity in attack, the goals from a certain Portuguese winger, and the solid midfield base Michael Carrick provides tick all the boxes of modern football.

Carrick assures solidity without overreliance on tackling or physicality. His deep position does not imply a defensive mindset but an astute tactical awareness. His passes are the expressions of his close reading of the game, his feet dictating the tempo and his passes moving the game forward or back as required.

In light of England's 2-1 win in Berlin last night, Carrick's importance has never been greater. England played a neat and tidy game, yet fans calling in to football chat shows could not quite describe this new feeling, using the word "solidity" in most cases as the best approximation. The fact that England fans could only feel, rather than see, the source of this newfound solidity perhaps explains why Carrick will remain the invisible man.

The revolving door spins

Bye Juande, buy 'Arry!!! (see here).

So, I suppose it's expected that I provide a little analysis on Redknapp coming to the Lane, and Ramos, Poyet, the other Spanish bloke and Commoli (I don't care if his name's spelt right) leaving it. Wait, it isn't? Well, fuck off I will anyways.

Here's my thinking on the thing. Harry wanted to manage here for a while, and we've had him tapped up for a while. He's obviously very happy with the system of player-breeding that Spurs have, or else he wouldn't have 9 of our former boys sitting over at Fratton Fortress. Before Pompey and Spurs kicked off earlier this season, he was full of praise for Spurs, too. And not coach-talk, genuine praise for the system and management in place at WHL. 'Arry trained at Spurs as a boy, and his son played and captained our first team (and married a drop-dead gorgeous WAG). It wouldn't be a stretch to say that the old piece of fried chicken has wanted to be at WHL for a while.

As for the firings: Yes to Ramos, yes to Comolli. I don't know who the other Spanish one was (beyond a first-team coach), so I'm not right to talk about it, no to Poyet.

Comolli has been a useless Director of Football for years. He kept most of his old contact cards he took from Arsenal, and his scouting methods and locations are outdated and unsuccessful. He doesn't believe in negotiating fair contracts for players, which is why we wind up spending ridiculous amounts of money on players who are rumoured to be good without thinking about how they'd fit into the team mold. His firing is long overdue, and I'm happy to see him go.

Ramos yes because he can't operate unless the conditions suit him perfectly. He played single-striker at Sevilla and it worked, but it doesn't work at Spurs because, frankly, we no longer have a single striker. We have Darren Bent. He would not change his tactics to suit the situation he found himself in, and for that can't be considered the amazing manager he was rumoured to be. Besides, Sevilla's Director of Football more-or-less ran the bloody team, he chose the players for a formation which he wanted to see, Ramos served as a go-between and decided on starters, along with other basic coaching and management responsibilities.

Poyet no, because I have a lot of respect for him and think he's been the one shining light in this dismal show of management. He's a Spurs alumni, a fan favourite, and a player favourite too. They respect Gus, and Gus respects them. If anything he'd be a wonderful ambassador for the club and I think they should've kept him on.

Now, how do I feel about Harry Redknapp? I fucking love him. To be honest, I was gunning for him to be England manager when that job was up in the air, and now that he's at Spurs I couldn't be happier. He's my kind of manager, direct, to the point, good now'f London cockney (innit?), inspirational and very, very angry. Behold: YouTube examples - 1 and 2*.

Also, I think he's a purveyor of good, English football. Smart passing, ignoring the fancy business, get the job done sort of football. He's the king of getting the most out of his players (please note Portsmouth's starting XI in the past 5 years, and the success they've had), and turning results. I'm really excited to see him take the helm at White Hart Lane and hopefully this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

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* The very start of the interview is funny, the interview itself is boring, the apology at the end of the clip by the anchor is hilarious.

Sorry!

On the subject of Sorry!, does anyone actually remember how to play it? I'd love to get my nostalgia on.

Anyways, this apology is for the lack of articles recently.

Both Milway and I have been getting our collective ass handed to us by midterms and essays and whatnot - interrupted only by copious drinking.

This is, of course, why we haven't put up anything new since 7 days ago - typically something of a sin in my eyes for a sports blog. Especially when there's been so much going on in our little world.

Summary:
Queen's football - perfect 8-0 season
Queen's rugby - undefeated 5-0-1 season
Soo Greyhounds - had their asses handed to them by the Fronts :(
Sens - mixed results
Spurs - got beaten by Stoke in probably the worst match I've seen in my entire life
England - beat Belarus, have turned the tide, quickly starting to play up to their potential

Anyways, sorry for the lack of posting lately, we'll try to get back into the swing of things immediately following this busy period. Please refer to any or all of the blogs posted on the right-hand side of the page for further time-wasting!

What the hell is wrong with Spurs?

£100M spent since Juande Ramos took over, and spent well. The money went to getting Jonathan Woodgate, Chris Gunter, Gareth Bale, Alan Hutton, Gilberto, Cesar Chavez, Heurelho Gomes, David Bentley, Luca Modric, Giovani dos Santos, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Vedran Corluka. This is a team which, on paper, should strike fear into the hearts of all who play them.

And yet, that tends to be the story of Spurs, ever since the Premier League came into its current form, Spurs have been a team which, on paper, should be cracking the top four with relative ease. We look at the likes of players who've passed through White Hart Lane... and done piss all: Paul Gascoigne, Gary Linekar, Darren Anderton, Jurgen Klinsmann, Teddy Sheringham, Sol Campbell, David Ginola, Stephen Carr, Robbie Keane, Dimitar Berbatov.

What is wrong with Spurs?

This year I really thought we'd got it right. We have creative and dangerous midfielders with dos Santos, Bentley, Jenas, Lennon, Modric, Zokora, O'Hara and Huddlestone. We have an impressive, two-way defense in King, Woodgate, Bale, Hutton, Gunter and Dawson. Our keeper, Gomes, has been touted as one of the best keepers in the world. During the summer, as this was all coming together, with Keano and Berbatov up front, I thought we couldn't lose. Then they left... and therein lies the problem.

Pavlyuchenko's greatest asset is that he can play as a dropped-back striker, who can create space for himself and play a beautiful through-ball to whoever's up front. Darren Bent's greatest asset is that he can hack away at the ball during messes in the 18yd box, and somehow score a goal. Even his goal vs Villa today was off a Jenas rebound.

So... here we are. Four games into the season... 3 losses against Boro, Sunderland and Villa to our name, with a draw against Chelsea (what!?!?!??!). I've always been one to say "wait and see, it's early in the season", but even I'm feeling the pessimism bite lately. This is clearly a team which can make all kinds of opportunities, but there's no striker who can make magic happen with one flick, no finisher who can single-handedly lift a team as we lost in Keane.

This is a team who is learning to play with one another. The list of ins and outs in 07/08 and 08/09 over the past season is staggering.

Here's hoping they get it together. I'll forever bleed Lilywhite, but it's been hard to keep the faith after 17 years of mediocrity.

The season has begun... I'll get excited in week 5

Spurs continued their historic trend of being absolutely shit on the first day of the season by, well, being absolutely shit on the first day of the season. Enter the victors: Middlesborough, by a score of 2-1. The worst part is that the scorer had to be fucking Mido, didn't it? Bah!!

Spurs only goal came courtesy of one Rob Huth. Lillywhite faithful might not recognize the name, mostly because it was an own goal. So, in 90 minutes of play, on a team with Giovani dos Santos, David Bentley, Jermaine Jenas and the incredible (during the pre-season) Darren Bent, we couldn't muster a goal. Against Boro.

But I'm not worried. No sir, not even a little bit. For you see, Spurs are always shit at the start of the season. Really, I wish they put our Man United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal fixtures at the start of each season, because we'd get the tough'uns and probable losses out of the way in the period of time when we've unceremoniously lost to Sunderland and Bolton.

What I don't understand, though, is why Ramos was being a cunt. This is the time of year when we need to show Berbatov that he not only has a place in the team, but the team needs him. The side sure needed him yesterday, Bent had no control on any of the balls delivered in to him, did nothing with anything he did manage to cleanly receive, and essentially played the role of the useless bastard for 90 minutes. In the kind of attacking 4-5-1 formation Juande Ramos has us in right now, Berbatov would be absolutely perfect up front. He's the missing piece to make the formation work against non-preseason teams!

Now stuff like this worries me quite a bit, seeing as we don't really have anyone to step into his place. This time last year we had Robbie Keane, Dimitar Berbatov, Jermaine Defoe and Darren Bent as our strikers. There were too many of them for fuck's sake!!! As things are now, it's entirely possible that, by the end of the week, we'll only have Darren Bent left. In the slightly edited words of Stanley Adams, "What a difference, a year made."

We'll see what happens, and I'm not counting my chickens just yet... but there's trouble a-brewin', I tells ya! Let's add on to the ominous-ness with the fact that Ottawa has just recieved a tornado warning*. A FUCKING TORNADO WARNING! IN OTTAWA!!. I recognize that this won't mean a bloody thing to a lot of my readers (apparently I have more than 3!!!), but yeah, ominous-ness.
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* I couldn't find a more updated story than that... but yeah, tornado warnings.

Thank God

We've ended our pursuit of Arshavin. Thank God.

Finding Pavlyuchenko

So, here we are. A few months after EURO, and I'm being forced to eat my words. Which words, you may ask? Let me jog your memory.

From the article, published June 27, titled "Olé!!!"
Maybe after his performance today the Arshavin circus will quiet down. He seems to play really well in situations where his team are impressive around him, but he does not lift the rest of the team to play at a higher-level during the shitty times. In fact, he was quite the let-down yesterday, wasting a lot of potential chances with bad passes.

You see, now I look like an ass - because my club is chasing him (although apparently we haven't approached Zenit St. Petersburg yet...). Not only that, but they're chasing his buddy Pavlyuchenko too (try saying Pavlyuchenko 10x fast).

Here's my problem with trying to sign both of these guys. I don't know anything about them. And the smart money says, no one at Spurs, in the Premier League, in England, or in most of Europe outside Russia knew these names before EURO. Neither of them were blow-your-mind spectacular during the qualifiers (hell, Arshavin managed to get himself suspended for 3 matches during the qualifiers). But they were decent, not good, but decent during EURO, and everyone else's interest has calmed but ours. It's sad.

The thing is, as seen in my quote from above, Arshavin only plays well when his team plays well around him. Where Keane could singlehandedly turn a game, and put in a stunner when his team are miserable (Spurs 4-4 Chelsea), Arshavin goes with the flow. Or, at least, that's what he did in EURO. Because, like I said, I haven't got a clue how he plays for his club.

Personally, I think we'd be better upping our efforts to sign David Villa and Diego Milito, two strikers who have proved themselves time and again in league play, in Spain no less. Not two hope-dragging bozos who may or may not play well in the Russian league and had one decent tournament.

Hell, they'll cost the same anyways.

Time to Levy a beating on the big four

We're back to the terrible puns, don't hate me, at least I try.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has done exactly what I was hoping he would. After putting up with all kinds of bollocks from Liverpool's public and invited pursuit of Keano* and Man United's public and uninvited pursit of Berbatov**, Levy filed a complaint with the Premier League.

I don't know what else I can say on this subject, other than it looks like I chose a good time to pick lack of respect for athletic contracts as my pet peeve. Especially from teams that are whining themselves about other teams pursuing their players.

Notable quotables from Levy:

"It is unbelievably hypocritical given [Sir Alex Ferguson's] comments in respect of Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid"

"The behaviour of both clubs has been disgraceful. We told both clubs very early on that we had no interest in selling Robbie or Dimitar, respectively, and that they should refrain from pursuing the player."

"Today's public comments by Manchester United's manager, announcing that he has made an offer for Dimitar and is confident that the deal will go through with time working in their favour, is a blatant example of sheer arrogance and interference with one of our players."

The full article is linked above, I implore you to take a look. Believe it or not, I don't think there's anything else I can say on the topic, other than it's irritating beyond the point of belief. It's putting the entire team off its confidence in a season where Spurs will finally have a fully healthy and strengthened squad. This year has real potential to be an improvement on Jol's achievments at the helm.

Absolutely classless behavior from some of the top sides in the Premiership. Classless and shameful.
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* My earlier comment on Liverpool's pursuit of Robbie Keane is here (see the very bottom)
** My earlier post on Manchester United's pursuit of Dimitar Berbatov is here

Fuck off Fergie

I hate the singer too, but that's not what this post is about.

You'd think with the shit-storm surrounding the Christiano Ronaldo saga, Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United's manager) would have an idea of how damaging and annoying it is for a club to openly pursue another team's under-contract (here we go again) player.

And yet, I come to work on Friday morning, flip open the Beeb, and this is the rubbish I'm confronted with.

United've been running this bollocks since the end of last season, and that's what's annoying me so much about the whole issue. But what amazes me the most, like I said, is that they're flipping shit at Real Madrid for openly pursuing Christiano Ronaldo (to the point of reporting the Spanish giant for illegally pursuing the Portuguese princess), but it's perfectly alright for Manchester United to let the world know that they're after Berbatov, or that they were after Carrick (once upon a time).

The most ridiculous part about the whole thing is that Tottenham have continuously told Manchester United to piss off. Berbatov's been classy in the press, telling them that he's committed to Spurs while his agent goes on about bigger and better things. Tottenham set a huge transfer price that few-to-no clubs are going to meet as a way of telling them to piss off, and yet Manchester United is still flinging their shit.

As an aside - shame on Berba's agent as well. Before coming to Spurs, Berbatov was a no-name striker at Bayer Leverkusen, pretty decent around the area but not making much of himself. Spurs built him into a top-class striker, and he's just come off a 46 (all-competion) goal tally! 46!!!! After two straight 23 all-competition goal tallies for Spurs. There's absolutely no loyalty or respect coming from Berbatov's agent, seeing as Spurs are the club which will make the agent rich(er).

Now, I'm not saying Manchester United is entirely without class... their on-field performances are supberb, and great to watch. That said, the way they handle off-the-pitch affairs is becoming ridiculous and aggravating. Part of me wants Christiano Ronaldo to buy out his contract and go to Real, just to piss off Fergie.

As an aside, can someone tell singer Fergie to piss off? She's rubbish.

As an aside x 2 - check out Robbo's blog today, entitled From Eastlands to La-la Land - stuff like this is the reason I love Robbo (link in the sidebar).