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TOPSPURS |
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The thoughts and views on THFC
updated daily from Jim Duggan - Shelfside season ticket holder, White Hart
Lane resident & supporter since the early 1970s |
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31st July 2001 – No News - but new quiz A old fashioned pre-season day today where there was no news! If you are bored – have a look at the worst Doppelganger ever http://www.spurs.co.uk/article.asp?article=53916 or have a go at the new TOPSPURS quiz http://pub.alxnet.com/quiz?id=2057894 |
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30th
July 2001 – Expensive Seats & seeing the Wood from the trees Spurs fans will have to shell out one of the highest match-day prices in the Premiership to watch the team in action next season. A new survey ahead of the new season has revealed that Spurs are now charging the highest price in London to watch a game - alongside West Ham United. The most expensive ticket at White Hart Lane will cost £46 following a £4 increase from last season. Chelsea, who are famed for their high prices, are charging £40 for their best seat at Stamford Bridge while Premier League champions Manchester United's highest priced ticket is only £26 - £20 less than Spurs' top seat. So lets do the equations: · · · Net spend in the transfer market £1m ish · · · £15m TV money · · · extra money relating to the season tickets con where the prices effectively gone up two games · · · New kit launch, and another away kit which should maintain our turnover in the worldwide top 15 football clubs This does not all add up to nothing to spend – money was promised and needs to be spent to add to the wise and excellent purchases we have got so far this pre-season. Time is running out, & while I’m not advocating a panic buy to waste the money - some action needs to be taken, and preferably sooner rather than later. An important distinction needs to be drawn between – the best young English manager and the new owners of Tottenham. Hoddle has had an exemplary start to his Spurs managerial career, while the owners have not built upon the words of their promising start. Don’t get me wrong, things are much better now than at any time in the last 5 years, and they have not been in the job long, but they cannot afford no more back handed stunts like the season ticket scam before the honeymoon period is over. |
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29th
July 2001 – Do I not know that? TV debut Just got back from in filming two episodes of the TV show to be shown on the new ITV sports channel called “Do I not know that” hosted by Simon OBrien as part of a Spurs team led by Bernie Kingsley which included Danny Keene, Joe Thornton and Lee Dumont – all top lads. In the first match against the Gooners and Sheffield Wednesday, we were neck and neck with the Gooners before they got some easy questions and had buzzer preference in the final round to take them to a jammy and underserved narrow victory. The moral victory was ours, as the Gooner team consisted of the most abnormal bunch of misfits and nerds you could imagine (who were the official arsenal quiz team). We finished second with Wednesday a distant third. In the second match, we held the lead against Huddersfield and Lincoln City (who were good lads) – despite yours truly getting the following question wrong “Which Spurs striker was our record signing at £2.2m in 1991?” Bleedin Durie was the answer!! The sort of player you forgot played for Spurs!. The Spurs team in the studio - Bernie Kingsley, Lee Dumont. Danny Keene & Joe Thornton
The Spurs team - (from top left) Nayim Fromthehalfwayline, Bernie Kingsley, Joe Thornton (bottom row, l2r) Lee Dumont, Danny Keene |
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28th
July 2001 – Representing Spurs As seen on TV? The site will be quiet over the weekend as I will be joining Bernie Kingsley and Danny Keene on a trip to Manchester to represent Spurs on a quiz show for ITV (Do I not know that). Lets hope its more successful than my last visit to the grimy hole. Full report on Sunday night. No real Spurs news
today apart from the Express and football365 wasting time saying that Perry
is about to be offloaded, along with Leo and Deadwood. Spurs defender Chris Perry has been offered to Wolves
and two Premiership clubs for #2m as the clear out continues at White Hart
Lane, say The Express. They say Perry is not part of Hoddle's plans and could
be out of the door along with Oyvind Leonhardsen (linked with Just to end with an excellent little Rsol ditty which was posted on the message board by John (SuperSpurs) Muncaster – top stuff mate Sing
a song of R-Sol. |
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27th
July 2001 – More thoughts on Young, Effenburg & a dead parrot The selling of Young
has caused quite a stir amongst us Spurs fans. The sequence of events went
like this: Charlton made an offer, Buchler passed it to Hoddle who informed
Lukey. Young jumped at the chance much to Hoddle’s disappointment. Young said: "I have been in the
doldrums for a while now and I needed to get away. " I got frustrated
and realised that I probably had to move if I was going to progress.
"The manager did not really give me a chance to play where I wanted to
play and with someone as good as Stephen Carr in that position that was
probably not going to change. Glenn Hoddle was not too happy about me leaving
and the supporters have been great, but I did not really want to be there any
more. This still leaves the issue of where and when will the money be spent – even Gooner George had £10m to spend (albeit on Dean Richards – perish the thought). The signings have been good and things are going the right way, but we need one, probably two top quality “do it all” midfielders in the style of Keane, another defender and possibly another and another forward to add strength to the attack. Record season ticket sales reflect a new wave of optimism - we cannot let indecision and a faint heart hinder our progress this time. Effenburg: So we are just a “strange fascination –
but his heart is now for Borussia Moenchengladbach! He sounds like a right
drama queen, but we could still do with him in the centre of our midfield,
and there has been dialogue with him apparently. Steffen
Effenberg insists he will quit the club at the end of next season. The 33
year-old says he has "still a good two or three years left" and
would welcome a move to England "where the game is always
exciting". Effenberg was linked with
Tottenham at the end of last season, though he admitted he'd like to return
to former club, Borussia Monechengladbach. "If I am to make a change
within the Bundesliga, then I go only to Gladbach. "My heart beats for
Gladbach. I am glad and proud that I play in Munich. But my heart has
remained in Gladbach." Nike & RSol: click here
for a reworking of their shit ad Dead Parrot sketch: Spurs embarked on a tour of South America (Argentina & Uraguay) in 1909, during which we were awarded a parrot as a mascot. On the day of the shenaniggins that resulted in Spurs being voted out of, and Arsenal voted into the first division, the parrot died. It has been suggested in some quarters that this was the origin of the phrase "as sick as a parrot"! Add Parrot murderers to their list of crimes |
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26th
July 2001 – No Chamot &
Young Sold!! The last 24 hours have not been good ones for Spurs – first of all Chamot and the club have called off the free transfer and then it has been revealed that Luke Young has been sold for £3m plus more on appearances. All that effort over Chamot was for nothing as he as has returned to Italy with little chance of the deal re-surfacing. This is a shame as he is a top quality player and even at £30,000 a week it was only a maximum outlay of just over £3m over the two years of his deal. In saying that, we already have a decent back line with King, Gardner, Doherty, Perry and Bunje & Hod knows best and the 5 or 6 other players we are watching could even trump Chamot. YOUNG: I must admit to being a little shocked at the club selling Young, a player that was good cover anywhere along the back line and while he had n’t yet found his niche at Tottenham, was always useful to have around the squad. I think the move was more of Young’s own making with several recent comments regarding wanting first team football in his favoured position, and I think the £3m rising to £4m was a fair price – its just a shame that we don’t seem to be building up the squad sufficiently (yet) It also begs the question – where is all the money – we have spent very wisely this summer on some good players – Bunje £1.4, Poyet, £1.4 and Ziege £4m along with Sheringham on a free – but we have also got rid of Walker and young for a total of £5.5m. We wait and we trust – lets hope the money they have stolen from our season tickets and discount removals is actually spent on the team. While things are generally going well, we could have done without losing Young and not gaining Chamot. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish Youngy all the best – I can still remember his impressive debut at Upton Park in Dec 1998 – where he hit the bar in the last minutes with a great shot. He also hit the woodwork in the cup game there this season – but never managed a goal for us. Under Curbishley he should have a good mentor and a good chance to establish himself as a top premiership rightback Portsmouth
2-5 Spurs Spurs made it five out of five – and banged in 5 goals for good measure with Ziege making his debut. 9mins: After a spell of possession down the right Freund crossed low and Sheringham guided the ball into the bottom corner from 13 yards. 1-0. 18mins: Superb threaded ball from Bunjevcevic picked up by Iversen who beat two defenders before sliding ball into corner. 2-1. 50mins: Taricco played ball from left flank inside to Clemence who rifled shot into bottom corner. 3-1 55mins: Sullivan's long kick, Ferdinand's flick and Rebrov's clinical finish into the bottom corner. 4-1. 70mins: A classic. Chris Perry won the ball, Clemence and Leonhardsen combined to release Poyet and his cross was met by Rebrov's diving header. 5-1. Old boy Peter Crouch scored their second and Ricky came on as Sub for the last 20 minutes, but was unable to give away a penalty. Spurs: 1st half: Sullivan, Carr, Ziege, Doherty, King, Bunjevcevic, Anderton, Freund, Davies, Iversen, Sheringham. 2nd half: Sullivan, Leonhardsen, Doherty (Bunjevcevic, 81), King, Perry, Taricco, Poyet, Sherwood, Clemence, Rebrov, Ferdinand. Freund Has again mentioned leaving the club if he is not a regular first teamer – this will be a great shame as he is a special favourite at topspurs Footballers wives I
was forwarded this - Magnus Hedman's missus and her sister |
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25th
July 2001 –Chamot signs! – or has he? All the delight of signing a top class international defender on a free seems to have been a bit premature – why did they announce it on the club website? Anyway, lets hope he signs as soon as, but these are Hoddle’s comments today: Glenn Hoddle has denied Spurs are
on the verge of signing Jose Antonio Chamot as a mystery grows over the
former AC Milan star's appearance at White Hart Lane.News of Chamot's arrival
for a medical examination appeared on the club's official website, along with
information that he had agreed personal terms for a two-year contract after
been granted a free transfer by Milan. But boss Hoddle, training with the
Spurs squad at health farm in Hampshire, rejected the suggestion that the
move for 32-year-old Chamot is a done deal.
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25th
July 2001 – How to pronouce Bunjecevic, from those that know on Green Lanes G -pronunce (
sound like G-raham ) Or Bun...as in
BUNdesliga Or Bunny,
as in Rabbit Oi Oi |
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24th
July 2001 –Chamot signs! Chamot has agreed
terms, and subject to a medical he should be joining us in the near future.
For more info on him try www.topspurs.com/jachamot.htm
Stuff on Chamot. I hope he goes to Graham Roberts
for rage counselling before the Arsenal match! What a pre-season this is turning out to be – quality player after quality player, and all on the cheap – so in theory there is plenty left to spend should a top quality player come available later in the season, or for Guardiola or Effenburg’s wages – the real reason why they have n’t chosen a captain. Just noticed that Arsenal have signed Pigsy from the cult TV show Monkey – with Keown playing the lead and Wenger as Trippitaka (and Adams as the Donkey he rode) – all we need now is Sandy before they can all jump on Monkey’s cloud and piss off back to South London. The future’s bright the
future’s TOTTENHAM – come on you Spurs |
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23rd
July 2001 – Plans for the week Glennda is taking the squad to the
South Coast on Monday for a change of scenery ahead of the friendly against
Portsmouth on Wednesday evening. “We're playing Portsmouth
anyway, and there is a terrific place called Forest Muir, which is a health
farm with great training facilities and it will be a change of environment
from the training ground. Then we're going to give them a
little bit of a mini-break to rest them and to mentally get them away from
each other, because it's a long period of time pre-season. So, mentally as
well as physically we let them get away from each other and then we'll
re-group and start off again against Reading, Millwall, Luton and Fiorentina |
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22nd
July 2001 – Serious about Chamot? It just gets better and
better – we have signed the player of the year, a one goal in three
midfielder, a top german international and potentially a Serbian Beckenbauer
and now we could be in for Jose Chamot, a top quality experienced
international – as official sources from AC Milan have revealed he is in
talks with us and will fly to London to discuss the deal & have a medical
on Monday. And even better, he would be free. Lets hope its true! |
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21st
July 2001 – Wycombe Wanderers 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur (Sheringham &
Iversen) Spurs took the lead on 54 minutes. Ferdinand burst down the right hand channel & fed the ball to Sheringham who swept home to get a goal on his second debut for Spurs. Wycombe equalised, Ziege made his debut and Poyet continued his impressive form by having an effort hit the bar before we scored the winner with 15 minutes to play. Carr burst down the right and floated over a superb hanging cross for Steffen Iversen to nod in at the far post. Sullivan, Carr, Taricco (Ziege 66), King, Bunjevcevic, Perry, Anderton (Sherwood 74), Poyet, Ferdinand (Iversen 66), Sheringham (Rebrov 74), Clemence. Subs: Burch, Rebrov, Sherwood, Young, Ziege, Iversen, Davies Not even Freund could save the stiffs, who lost 3-1 after a
Piercy goal had given them the lead against Barnet at Underhill |
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21st
July 2001 – Truth and Rumours A quiet word with my snout has revealed the
following: Guardiola: The
word from the inside is that we have been talking with him for a while and
that talks are unresolved as of Thursday - I get the impression that we have
made an offer and West Ham were being used as a threat if they don't take our
offer (and assume the Arsenal link would be his agent trying to put pressure
on us). Whatever happens this should be resolved soon The only good thing for us is that Carr is contracted for another 4 years and at least we will get a decent fee or he will stay and be part of the Hoddle revolution as Spurs dominate world football in the Noughties. Whatever his relationship with Tottenham, as long as he still plays as well as he has he will always be a favourite of mine, although the hero status that he has enjoyed with me has been eroded to some extent by the comments he has made and now he is just another footballer. Thatcher: Fatcha
has still not recovered from his March breakdown, and although I never wanted
him at Tottenham, I’m sure everyone will join me in wishing Ben a quick and
full recovery
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20th
July 2001 – Ziege has signed 100% officially! After a long and drawn out process Ziege has officially
signed for Tottenham – another top quality addition to go with new hero
Poyet, Sheringham, and Bunny. Hoddle said of the new man: 'Three years ago he was probably the best wing back in the
world and he has a lot to prove to the public, and probably to himself. The
English people have probably not seen the best of Christian yet. But I know
the quality he's got and he has a major incentive with the World Cup coming
up in that he's got to get back into the German team. I'm sure we'll get the
best out of him'. |
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20th
July 2001 – Fancy being a ball person at the lane? And aged between 10
&13? Fancy being a ball boy or girl
at the Lane on matchdays? If you are aged between 10 -13 years of age here is
your chance. |
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19th
July 2001 – Orient 0-2 Spurs (Davies, Rebrov) Pre-season matches are never much good and this
was no exception – Spurs did ok for bits and they played better than the cup
game here but there was not much to get excited about. Jackson was again impressive, Bunny showed a
willingness to run with the ball from the back, Rebrov took his goal well and
Poyet looked lively when coming on as sub (and Carr was unlucky with a couple
of late efforts). Roll on 18 Aug when it really starts. |
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18th
July 2001 – Daily Round up 18/07/01 21:46:05 PM Quiet
day Not much news
about today, apart from the Kelly deal getting a bit messy, but still a
possibility. Ordered my Fiorentina tickets – some sod has my
usual seats in block 27, so I’m sitting a few rows back. Order yours on
08700-112222 (expect to wait over 2 hours for you finally get served!) – its
for a good cause (Bill Nick) and they are a decent team, if not the team they
were this time 15months ago. I’m off to Orient tomm, so I’ll have a match
report of sorts and my first view of Bunny, Poyet and hopefully Ziege in a
Spurs shirt. Also looking forward to having another look at Johnny Jackson,
who looked a very good prospect in a couple of reserve matches at the end of last
season. |
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17th
July 2001 – Daily Round up Shut it
– all of you First
it was Carr talking up a move to Barcelona, and now its Rebrov with insulting
remarks about Tottenham and more importantly the less well off people of
Chigwell. Bedazzling at the Boleyn
Ground, Magic at Maine Road, but a pain in the arse when it comes to moaning
about his lot at Tottenham, no matter how much his agent walks behind him
with a shovel. Next season is a big season for us, and we need him and Carr
(and any others come to that) to be looking to get to the new football
nirvana of the Champions League with Tottenham, rather than going thro the
motions and waiting for a move. We are not far away & this is the most
optimistic I have been in a pre-season since 1994/5. Come on lads – keep it
buttoned and present a united front. In Hod I trust. Ziege
has signed Ziege
will officially join on 1st August for £4m, rising to £5.5m
dependant upon appearances – a good deal. This was Ziege’s message to us: thank you for the amazing welcome! I got so many e-mails with best
wishes for the future. Many of you asked for autogrammcards. I ain't got them
yet. Please, have al little patience. I appreciate playing for the spurs and
hope I will be able to reward the great expectations. There were several interesting offers for me from different clubs in
Europe, but Tottenham was my favourite right from the beginning. I would like
to play in the midfield and that's what Glenn Hoddle wants me to do. So let's
have a great season together. I promise to do everything to play myself into
your hearts. (does that mean we still have Fatcha at leftback?) Check out the great man’s website at http://www.christianziege.de/index.php3
and send him a good luck message. Swindon 1-3 Spurs Pre season continues to go well with another win
and a few goals. 47mins: Leonhardsen threaded ball through to Iversen who
dinked a one-on-one chance over McKinney. 1-1. 81mins: Iversen passed
to Kamanan down left flank, the young striker outpaced Cobian before
slotting under McKinney. 2-1. 89mins: Piercy dribble from back halted but
Iversen picked up the loose ball, released the full-back and Piercy went
around McKinney before sliding the ball into an empty net. 3-1 Spurs: 1st half: Sullivan, Carr, Jackson, Bunjevcevic, Thelwell,
Young, Anderton, Sherwood, Davies, Ferdinand, Ferguson. 2nd half:
Sullivan, Piercy, Taricco, Hillier, Perry, Leonhardsen, Poyet, Freund,
Clemence, Iversen, Kamanan. |
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16th
July 2001 – Daily Round up New
signings - Ziege The
long tedious Ziege transfer looks to be over soon with the man himself
resigning himself to signing for us. While this may have been a messy process
and we may have not been his first choice, we are getting a decent player in
one of our weakest position, and with the world cup coming up and after
taking a year of knock, Ziege should be motivated for the challenge. He is due for a medical today and
said "After the usual medical examination I will sign the
contract. For me to move to London was decisive. With Spurs I can play in my
position on the left of the centre of midfield. Hoddle wants to structure a
young squad around Teddy Sheringham and me as experienced players. That is
delightful, naturally it also makes me happy to meet up with Steffen Freund,
an old acquaintance from Germany. Any mate of nutter’s is a mate of mine. New signings - Kelly Despite all the nonsense in yesterday’s press –
he should sign soon and give us the required cover in the goalkeeping
department after Walker’s departure. "I liked what I heard from
Tottenham. I've spoken to Glenn Hoddle very briefly, he's obviously got a
good reputation in the game and he was a quality player himself. It would be
nice to work with someone like that. But it's still subject to a couple of
issues at the Blackburn end which need to be resolved so I don't want to say
any more until then." Bit
confusing with both reserve keepers being called Kelly though New
signings - Seedorf
Depending on who you believe – we have either spoken to the player last week
or we are not interested (Hoddle), or possibly both. £10m is a bit steep for
someone who has been around success without actually contributing much to it.
In many ways mirroring Karembeu. He is probably better than what we have, but
£10m seems a bit steep for him. One for
the knackers yard - Sherwood Been linked with Blackburn, Wolves and now with a £2m move to
Southampton. He’s just what Rupert the Bore deserves, and he can take his
perculiar brand of pointing and bad passing along with his Arsenal tattoos
with him. Rsol. –
you have the final word - apparently if you go to the Arsenal
site, you can email the less than great man. It may be worth politely telling
him what you think of him – any outright abuse will not be as effective as a
well thought out attack on his conscience (again this website does not
advocate violence or any criminal activity against the lying judas bastard) New
Site features as you
have probably noticed, a few things have appeared on the site over the
weekend. Firstly, I have put together a shop. I asked the club initially
relating to this and got a very rude reply telling me they were not
interested (typical), but the shop offers Spurs kits and a few other bits and
pieces. The magic Spurs moments are video clips of great Spurs moments. These
take a while to load up but are well worth it. If anyone has any others, please mail them to me or tell
me where they are at Nayim@topspurs.com |
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15th
July 2001 – Freund, Rsol in hiding, Kelly and still no press conference Nutter: Steffen Freund has said: "I'm not a player to
make trouble and as long as I am at Spurs I will give everything for the
club. But I will not be happy playing in the reserves or just being on the
bench." This is fair enough and I
should imagine that he will be in Hoddle’s squad plans for the coming season
at least (and my choice for Club captain) and he might be that bit happier if
he was warming the bench of a team going places. Picture him saying this in Hoddle's office - mad glare on and Space Invader arms going like the clappers. I should imagine he will be the first name on the team sheet! RSOL in hiding in Italy: Arsenal whisked Sol Campbell to an Italian "safe house" to escape the threats and fury that followed his move from Spurs. The Ex-England defender has been hit with Judas jibes after quitting White Hart Lane on a free transfer to join fierce rivals Arsenal. But amid growing security fears for his safety, Arsenal took him to Italy - along with a 'minder' - to allow him to come to terms with the transfer in a safe environment. The Gunners paid for him to hide out on the island of Sardinia. Looks like the verbal (non violent and non breaking the law)
assault Campbell has received is working. Keep it up lads! (Again non violent and non
breaking the law way) or is this just a weeks Holiday to count his
pieces of silver in private with his boyfriend. Kelly: Apparently its looks like Kelly will not be coming to Tottenham,
although I cannot see how anyone can derive this from his quotes to the
People "This is my escape. There's no doubt I lost my first team
jersey with Ireland because of the Blackburn situation. Spurs are an
excellent club and this is a good challenge for me back in the Premiership.
I'm under the impression that if I do well I can get in the team. This move
will raise my profile. I'm 33 next month, so Spurs will take me to 36." More worryingly – Pavel Srnicek is being threatened as an
alternative! And still no news of a press conference for Ziege, Kelly, Effenburg,
Guardiola etc |
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14th
July 2001 – Rebrov, Fatcha, Walker and Balsawood Rebrov was
quoted on a Ukrainian site as saying the following regarding the possible
Shevchenko transfer: The president of the club was really
ready to pay about £30m for Andriy Shevchenko. But Berlusconi and Galliani asked
Shevchenko's opinion first of all. And he said that wants to stay with Milan
and extend his contract. It is not difficult to understand him -- he is
playing in the one of the best Italian clubs and will not change it for an
English club, which couldn't even sneak into the UEFA Cup. But if Tottenham
will reach the Champions League in a year, there will be grounds to return to
this issue. Especially, that Andriy wouldn't mind to play alongside of me. This is interesting as at least they are trying to get the Shevchenko’s of this world, and even if we are a couple of signings light at the moment, at least we know they are going after the right players Bent Fatcha Fatcha will be out until the middle of September at least. There are two takes on this. The official version states that he has a hip injury – which has kept him out of the game since November 2000 [the queen mother has never been sidelined with this type of injury] or, as has been suggested on the grapevine, and I hasten to add these are just rumours, he has suffered some sort of breakdown, possibly related to Alcohol. After all he played most of last season like a whino over the park. Either way, lets hope he makes a speedy recovery and makes me eat all of the nasty words I’ve written about him ever since we were linked with him. Walker earned himself a hearty reception when he returns to the lane with the following comment regarding Rsol’s move to Scumbury "In the same situation I could have never have gone to Arsenal, especially after being at Tottenham so long.” While the interview was meant to be a bellyache at the Club/Sugar, it came across that Walker was a real Tottenham lad and never really wanted a move, and I hope he does well at Leicester. Colin Calderwood has been appointed to take over as manager of the reserve team. I have n’t really forgiven Balsawood for his gestures to the Spurs following during a 4-0 defeat at Coventry in 1997, but having played with Glennda at Swindon he must have the great man’s trust, so that’s good enough for me |
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13th
July 2001 – Stevenage 1-8 Spurs – what a start to the pre-season Great start to the pre-season, with a hatrick for Poyet on his debut and a
couple for young strikers Ferguson and Kamanan (both of whom impressed me in
the reserves last season), but the moment of the match must have been
Freund’s goal! This is how the official site desribed it “78mins: Iversen
released Freund who delightfully dinked the ball over the line.
Two-and-a-half years after his debut, he finally breaks his goalscoring duck!
6-1. “ Glad to see some of the youngsters like Toner, Hillier, Jackson [topspurs tip for the top] & Consorti as well as the forward pair getting an outing in front of Hoddle, as well as Treacle making his comeback and nice to win one of these matches with a few goals, rather than having to listen to the manager explain how well organised the non league team was. Spurs: 1st half: Sullivan, Piercy, Etherington, Toner, Thelwell, Bunjevcevic, Davies, Poyet, Ferdinand, Clemence, Ferguson. Spurs 2nd half: Kelly, Taricco, Jackson, Perry, Hillier, Consorti (Barnard, 85, Freund, Sherwood, Anderton, Iversen, Kamanan. |
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12th
July 2001 – Effenburg, Young, TOPSPURS Message Board & Free Bet Effenburg: While it still seems a fanciful dream that Effenburg
will give up defending the Champions League to come and play for us (no
matter how much the club “fascinates” him, Bayern Munich
admitted Luke Young’s
new deal?: At last the club
seem to be acting on rumours that Young wants a move by giving him a deserved
new and better contract. TOPSPURS
Message Board: As some of
you have already seen I have re-started the message board and it has had
quite a few messages today, so please use it and give your views on the club
we all love. FREE £10 BET!!: In association with Blue Square, you can get a
free bet of £10 on any event you like or you can do as I do every year and
waste some money on Tottenham!(Tottenham at 80/1 for the Championship, or more
realistically 9/1 Worthington Cup and 14/1 FA Cup [its lucky for Spurs with
an even decade year ending in 2 – 1962 & 1982!]
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11th
July 2001 – Tickets on sale, Fiorentina friendly? And still no press conference!
Fiorentina Friendly? Spursweb has announced that one of our two
friendlies that has yet to be arranged is against Fiorentina at WHL on Weds 8th
Aug 2001. Despite selling many of their best players, the Viola are still top
half of Siere A and did us 2-0 in 1997 in David Howells testomonial. Lets
hope the game is part of a deal that sees Enrico Chiesa on his way to
Tottenham from Fiorentina. Signings? Still no news on either Alan Kelly or Christian Ziege’s, and time is
ticking away. |
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10th
July 2001 – Alan Kelly and Christian Ziege to sign by the end of the week! While I think he will be ok as
cover, Irish legend 9lives Lacey has gone even further stating that soon to
be 32 year old Kelly who has been capped 33 times for the Republic of Ireland
despite being from Preston, is a top keeper who has been underestimated
during his career. Lets hope he is never needed to cover for Sully, but that
if he is, he is as good as 9lives reckons he is. And anyway, Hoddle should
have sorted out the team so that the goalkeeper is not called upon to be
outstanding week in week out. On paper, Ziege will be
an excellent signing for around £5m, albeit a year too late and £5m wasted on
Fatcha. |
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10th
July 2001 – 14th Largest club by turnover & Money spent Spending over the summer has
been -£1.4m Poyet -£1.4m Bunny +£2.5m Walker +£0.7m two extra
season ticket matches (14000 season tickets at £25 a head) Net profit so far to the club
of £400,000 – not what we were led to believe when ENIC took over. Even Gooner
Graham moaned that he only had £10m. Maybe the club are storing it
up to make a raid on clubs who suffer an early exit from Europe or have some
late summer coups organised. All I hope is that they don't panic buy when the
pressure grows for big signings If the club do want a cheap
way out, what about looking to some International African or Eastern European
players which could boost the squad number as well as maybe unearthing a gem The for the 14th largest club
by turnover (and I am aware that turnover=/=profit) following list hardly
puts us up there where we imagine our club should be (or that the money
the club earns) amongst the Euro elite
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2000/01 |
Sergei Rebrov |
Dynamo Kiev |
May-00 |
£11,000,000 |
|
1997/98 |
Les Ferdinand |
Newcastle United |
Aug-97 |
£6,000,000 |
|
2000/01 |
Ben Thatcher |
Wimbledon |
Jul-00 |
£5,000,000 |
|
1995/96 |
Chris Armstrong |
Crystal Palace |
Jun-95 |
£4,500,000 |
|
1995/96 |
Ruel Fox |
Newcastle United |
Oct-95 |
£4,200,000 |
|
1999/00 |
Chris Perry |
Wimbledon |
Jul-99 |
£4,000,000 |
|
1998/99 |
Tim Sherwood |
Blackburn Rovers |
Feb-99 |
£4,000,000 |
|
1996/97 |
Ramon Vega |
Cagliari |
Jan-97 |
£3,750,000 |
|
1999/00 |
Oyvind Leonhardsen |
Liverpool |
Aug-99 |
£3,000,000 |
|
1994/95 |
Gheorge Popescu |
PSV Eindhoven |
Sep-94 |
£2,900,000 |
|
1996/97 |
Steffen Iversen |
Rosenborg |
Dec-96 |
£2,700,000 |
|
1994/95 |
Ilie Dumitrescu |
Steaua Bucharest |
Aug-94 |
£2,600,000 |
Biggest Fees received
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1995/96 |
Nicky Barmby |
Middlesbrough |
May-95 |
£5,750,000 |
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1992/93 |
Paul Gasgoigne |
Lazio |
May-92 |
£5,500,000 |
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1989/90 |
Chris Waddle |
Marseilles |
May-89 |
£4,250,000 |
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1997/98 |
Teddy Sheringham |
Manchester United |
Jun-97 |
£3,500,000 |
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2000/01 |
Aston Villa |
Jul-00 |
£3,000,000 |
9th July
2001 – Weekend Round up Walker to Leicester & Carr
One
of my favourite Walker moments would have to be that double save in the Spurs
2-1 Arsenal match in Nov 1999, the second of which, a one handed tip away
from Suker was fantastic.
Spurs seem to be
lining up 32-year-old former Eire International Alan Kelly, currently third
choice at Blackburn. Leaving aside the fact that we would have two reserve
goalkeepers called Kelly, we need to have a keeper who is content to be cover
for Sully, but good enough to step in if he is suspended or god forbid. While
I’m sure Kelly would be ok as Sully’s number 2, would he be good enough if
required for a long stint in the first team? Who else is around? I’d prefer Kelly
to Andy Goram! And how far away from being Sully’s number 2 is Gavin Kelly
after his successful loan spells last season.
Carr one moan to much I’m sorry to say that I (and by the
sound of it, quite a few others) have had enough of one of our favourite
players using his personal website for stirring up un-rest at Tottenham.
While I thought it was amusing when he was saying he would like to play under
Glenn Hoddle under the hated regime of Graham, his comments over the summer
have been of a player who is starting to believe his own hype.
Everyone supported him in his fight to get a fair wage for his ability and influence in October 2000 and was delighted when the club saw sense and signed him on for another 4 seasons from this one. That was justice for a player that was developing into a new Gary Mabbutt – hard working, talented and honourable, but recent outburst have led me to believe that he is just another modern greedy footballer
"I'm envious of watching players like Roy Keane and Ian Harte playing in Europe week in, week out. I've been at Tottenham for nine years and in that time we have only won the Worthington Cup, which is a long time to wait for a single trophy."
Amongst other things he states
that he has been here 9 years. Even my poor maths can work out that Ossie
signed him as a professional in summer 1993 to Summer 2001 is only 8 years,
and this ignores the fact that Carr had his second league start during the
1996/7 season which means that he has played 5 full seasons in the Spurs first
team. In that time he complains that he has only won the League Cup. In that
time other than Man U, only Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Leicester have
won trophies.
"Spurs have been
relatively quiet in the transfer market so far and I don't think three new
players is going to be enough. Gus and Teddy are both proven performers who
know what it takes to win silverware, but I still feel we need more new
players if we are to genuinely strengthen the squad enough to be able to cope
with the kind of injury list, which we had last season. The top teams have huge
squads these days and Spurs have to look to buy more if we are to have any
hope of competing. These days you need to spend £10 million to £15 million on
individual players just to keep pace with the Premiership's top sides and
Spurs haven't done that yet. I know the new season hasn't started, but I'm
sure the fans would like to see one or two big names come in to complement
the signings of Gus and Teddy. We've got to show we have the ambition to move
forward and these days the only way to do that is investing big on new
signings."
This comment is fair enough –
I echo his sentiments (although I suppose that ENIC and Glennda are doing
their best), Ziege, another good midfielder and forward (along with a capable
replacement for Walker), should be enough to give us a chance next season,
but we could do with them sooner rather than later.
5th
July 2001 - Daily thoughts & Roberts (a true Tottenham
hero) on Rsol
Spurs are doing ok at the moment - coming back from the shambles Graham (1.29pts per game & bad signings) and Sugar (10 years of poor understanding of how to run a modern football club). We have a top quality manager, a few top players - Sullivan, Carr, King, Poyet, Sheringham, Rebrov and a few good young ones coming thro.
The game in pre-season is a lot of words - the perceived differences in
players ability are magnified and the actual business of winning matches with
teamwork and tactics is lost amongst a flurry of hype and boredom.
We need more top players - of that there is no doubt - two top top
midfielders, a good left sided player and another top striker, but we should
not lose sight of the fact that Glennda to Jason Dodd and his ragbag of
journeymen to the top 7 last season.
A humble Ziege on a reasonable wage, fired up to keep his national place in the German WC squad would be a good addition, and along with a fit Treacle should give us a few options on the left, but where the midfields are going to come from is anyone’s guess. Spursweb still seem to think Guardiola will arrive at the Lane, this would be fantastic, but until it happens, I cannot see him giving up the Champions (runners up, third place and fourth place if your a wealthy country) League.
Hoddle mentioned Anderton in the central midfield, along with Poyet and another, flanked by Carr and Ziege, with Ant & Doc either side of Ledders at the back, Sully in goal and perm two from Ted, Rebrov and Iversen we have the makings of a decent side (who should be entertaining). The problem lies with the depth of the squad, and the fact that the midfield lacks an engine room, do it all player in the Keane style.
If things go well, the holy grail of the last few seasons - a top 6 place should be within our grasp and Hoddle should target the Worthington cup to get some silverware on the board and us back in Europe. The has been the most positive pre season for a while and we should be looking forward to better things.
What am I trying to say? "We are the Tottenham and we are the best, We are the Tottenham so fuck all the rest"
Other bits of news today include the fact that we have got Bunny for £1.4m - a more reasonable amount for a 29 year old who only has a few caps and that Walker looks like he is on his way to Leicester for £2m. I have never rated Walker as good enough to be our regular number 1, but with him as a reserve to Sully we had a strong hand and I hope this deal falls thro and Walker stays (although I understand his reasons for wanting to go, and would wish our longest serving player well)
Carr - his mouth not his actions While Steve Carr - my choice for next captain and our best and most consistent player over the last few season - is getting to say a little to much a little to often. His latest revelation "I have always said that my ambition in the game is to win medals and I would be an idiot if I turned around and said no, out of hand, if a club like Barcelona came in with a firm offer for me. I think any player would have to consider it and I am no different." Is obvious, so obvious that it does n't really need saying, like much of the other stuff on Graham's dismissal and the Campbell saga
RSOL -