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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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29th November 2001 – Fulham 1-2 Spurs & Ricky Villa Ricky Villa: What an experience – taking my seat only for Daniel Wynne to beckon me over to see the great Ricardo J Villa sitting six seats away to my left – and I’ve even found out he got the tube to the match. What a hero – sitting amongst us and getting the tube! Spurs were not brilliant, and despite hanging on a bit midway through the second half did enough to deserve to win. The draw has been ok to us as well and if we can overcome Bolton at home and get the winners of the Watford/Sheff Wed match – we should be booking transport to Cardiff. Another great away trip
with Hoddle’s Tottenham and that’s 6 wins and a draw in the last 8 matches. |
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28th November 2001 – Fulham Thoughts Fulham preview: After 6 league games with the same team – the injuries have suddenly re-emerged. Poyet and Treacle are definitely out – along with Richards who is cup tied, while there are also doubts over Ferdinand and Ledley. While this is not good news to have such good players missing - the ones coming in will be up for it to stake a claim for more first team opportunities – and top of this list will be Rebrov. The injuries could also mean a tactical switch to a 4-4-2, but I expect Hod to stick with 3-5-2 and play the following team – Sully – Perry, Bunje, (King/Gardner) – Ziege, Anderton, Freund, (Leonhardsen/Rebrov), Davies – (Ferdinand/Rebrov), Sheringham Fulham play good open football and the game should be a good one for the TV audience, as well as Spurs as the open game will suit the Spurs style. I think Sheringham will be the key man – if he is influential in his deep role and we put away our chances we should be ok, although I expect the game to be close and decided by the odd goal and it may even go to extra time or even penalties. Come On You Spurs!!!!! Half year season
ticket: The club have announced the price of a season ticket for the
second half of the season. From the Everton home match on 19 Jan, you can
watch the rest of the Spurs home matches from prices starting at £214. Click
on this for full details http://www.spurs.co.uk/tickets/seasontickets.asp
(please note this I
don’t get anything for promoting this – just thoughts it was worth spreading
the word) |
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27th November 2001 – Daily Round up More Mullet: In the style of a Gerry Francis post match interview – it has been revealed that we have hit the woodwork more than any other club this season – with 10, with our nearest challengers on 7. No other news!:
A bored media tried to report that we were after: Ivan De La Pena, Jamie
Redknapp & Bobby
Zamora on the basis that he will come ENIC price, despite the lack of
quotes for the players, agents or Tottenham. Bring on the football as this
stuff can drive you up the wall |
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26th November 2001 – Daily Round up Poyet: Following his clash of heads in the match against West Ham, crowd favourite Poyet is making good progress and although he will definitely miss the Fulham Cup match and possibly the Bolton game (although I expect the extra couple of days will be enough for him to make it back) there does not seem to be any lasting damage which is good news for everyone. Fulham news: With Poyet definitely out, Richards cup tied and Treacle still suffering with an ankle injury – Spurs will be forced into some changes for the cup game. Bunje will be a straight swap for Richards and we will be none the worse for the change & while everyone is mentioning Davies and Leo playing for Poyet and Treacle – I’ve a feeling that if Taricco is our Hod might keep Davies at Right Half and introduce Rebrov in the advanced midfield role. Whoever the great man picks it looks sure to be a good team in what will be a difficult but winnable match. Nutter Banned: The little spat with Joe “Little Boy” Cole has got Freund his 5th booking and a one match ban which will mean he misses the Charlton away match. This is bad news as he is playing well but not a disaster as Bunje can easily slip into his midfield role, or Hod could play Anderton, Davies and Poyet – which is the beauty of the improved squad we have this season. Michael Malcolm: Many of you who read the crap on here know that we have two very special young stars on our books Owen Price and Michael Malcolm, both of whom are breaking through into the U17 team this season. A potential dark cloud on the horizon is that his agent is Sky Andrew and we hope that he does not have the same sort of divisive influence as he did on RSol – but by the time Michael and Owen are ready for the first team in a couple of years time – we will be defending the champions league and going anywhere else will be downwards. Profiles on these two can be found at Owen Price - http://www.topspurs.com/oprice.htm Michael Malcolm - http://www.topspurs.com/mmalcolm.htm |
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25th November 2001 – Hammers Hammered 1-0 West Ham 0-1 Spurs:
Match Report to follow – but this was just about as easy as it gets to win an
away match 1-0. Spurs were always in control and the Hammers only managed to
seriously test Sully once, while we hit the woodwork on three separate
occasions and now move up to 6th in the league, 3 points off the
top & with some lesser team of the league coming up, we have a good
chance of further advancement up the league. |
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24th November 2001 – Pre-Match News £3m Bid: It has been confirmed that Spurs have put in a £3m bid for a player and despite the possibility of this player being Jamie Redknapp – I’m pretty sure its for Brighton’s goal machine Bobby Zamora. This would be an interesting purchase as Zamora has scored plenty of goals in the last 18 months and is still only 21. Who knows if he will prove good enough for the Premiership – but at £3m its worth the chance. His problem will be actually getting in the side as if Glennda won’t removed Ferdinand for Rebrov, will he give Sir Les the elbow for a 21 year old from the lower leagues? 6 of the best – starting atWest Ham: It seems the players have been thinking along the same lines as the fans! Sir Les has been reported as saying: "West Ham is the start of what I believe could be a make-or-break period for us. Five of our next six games are against teams currently in the bottom half of the table. If we have any realistic hopes of pushing for a place in Europe we must do well. It doesn't take a genius to work out we need to beat the teams below us. There are encouraging signs but it is time for tangible rewards. The league table only seems to take shape and show a proper reflection of the league at Christmas and we have an important run of games from now until the end of December." 6 wins out of 6 (West Ham, Bolton, Charlton, Fulham Ispwich and Southampton)which is certainly possible will lead us to talk of the championship rather than just Europe – Come on you Spurs! The Scum story:
The Scum have again linked Ledley King with a derisory £10m move to Leeds –
again without any quotes or anything. This will not happen as Spurs signed
Ledley on an extended 4 year deal earlier this year and have no reason to
sell him. They won’t sell him to Leeds or anyone – end of story. |
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23rd November 2001 – Team News & Thoughts on the West Ham match West Ham: Get out the old gold chains and sovereigns – its down to E13 and West Ham for the weekend. I have to confess that West Ham are one of the other teams I dislike least – they are just a poor man’s Tottenham who for the most part try and do things the right way at a lower level that the mighty Spurs. Full details on a trip to the Boleyn Ground can be found at http://www.topspurs.com/thfc-awayday-whufc.htm Like the Sunderland and Newcastle away trips - I fancy us to win quite strongly at West Ham, despite our poor recent record there: 31-Jan-01 FA Prem 26,048 0 - 0 07-Aug-99 FA Prem 26,010 0 - 1 28-Nov-98 FA Prem 26,044 1 - 2 Armstrong 13-Aug-97 FA Prem 25,354 1 - 2 Ferdinand 24-Feb-97 FA Prem 23,998 3 - 4 Sheringham, Anderton, Howells 30-Aug-95 FA Prem 23,516 1 - 1 Rosenthal 14-Jan-95 FA Prem 24,578 2 - 1 Klinsmann, Sheringham 28-Dec-93 FA Prem 20,787 3 - 1 Dozzell, Hazard, Anderton League Matches only - Played 53 Won 14 Drawn 15 Lost 24 For 71 Against 83 In similar circumstances to the Newcastle away match – Spurs had not won there for years since a Sheringham winner and the same applies to West Ham in the league. With the dark clouds of our recent doldrums receding in the past we should have enough ability within the current team to win the match. As with many West Ham sides over the years they have many skilful players – Di Canio, Cole, Sinclair in the current team – but they have failed to convince as a defensive unit and (even Les has a good chance of nabbing an away goal for the first time since Aug 1999) and this I feel will be the crucial difference between the side and I can see Spurs going on to score a comfortable victory. Spurs have only an injury worry over Treacle (Tano my arse!) who is said to be 50-50 (but has played for most of the month being less than 100% fit) - otherwise it’s the same line up for the 7th consecutive match. Rebrov will start from the bench but has been rejuvenated in the last week and is raring to go according to my snout and along with Davies – gives us plenty of options. I am mad/optimistic
enough to think oneday we will convert all of our chances and think it could
be something like 3-1 20/1 or 4-2 50/1. Looking at the odds for first
goalscorer – while Poyet must top most people’s lists in his current form –
Richards is a stand out price at 33/1. |
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22nd November 2001 – PFA Strike VOTE Freund: The Spurs web have come up with a great idea to get Freundy nominated for Sports Personality of the Year – click on this link and vote for Nutter http://tottenhamhotspur.rivals.net/default.asp?sid=897&p=2&stid=8206985 – before using the back button to come back to topspurs of course! PFA strike: I’d largely ignored the obscene fight for money up until now – but it seems that it will impact upon the Spurs - Bolton match. Firstly I feel most sorry for the Non London based Spurs and of course the Bolton fans – first of all having to schlep down to London on a Monday night and then not knowing whether its going to be on or not. While the millionaires fight over the millions – AGAIN – it’s the normal fans who pay the money who are made to suffer. I’m not interested in the case for either side – get it sorted in plenty of time for the fans Carr will not defect to the GOONS!: For the next three season at least Steve Carr is contracted to play for Spurs. There is no chance that he will end up at Arsenal as the Club will NOT sell him to Arsenal – simple. RSol went to Arsenal as he was the one making the choice, of which Tottenham could do nothing about it – but it will not happen to Carr while he is under contract. The rest of the Carr story may not be that straightforward – all sorts of rumours flying around – but my snout seems to think he’s happy enough to be at Spurs and that’s good enough for me. The best thing he could do would be to get fit again and get back to being a hero on the park – as very few footballers go up in the estimation of the fans when they only talk and do not play. and anyway, why would he want to go to crap like the goons after another Euro humiliation such as tonight……….. and if they start slipping in the league – would n’t it be great if we replaced them in the Champions League – imagine the songs for RSol! Latest on the FA action: Despite no one apart from the FA (who have
it in for Spurs) wanting to take this any further, the stuffed shirts at the
FA continue to string out the bottle throwing from last weekend. An FA spokesman
said: "We've asked Spurs for their report on the day, covering
everything pre-match, during the match and post-match, from a security point
of view. Spurs will first be doing a de-brief with the police and then once
we hear back from them, we will look at their report and then decide what
action, if any, to take. Buchler who is fighting our corner re-stated that anything after the match
was "very
much a police matter outside the ground." |
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21st November 2001 – Video Lounge - Possible FA action – Where now with Rsol Video Lounge: As
many of you know – the official site has launched a video lounge where highlights
of the matches will be shown a few days after. This is an excellent
innovation and the club should be roundly applauded for doing this. The video
lounge is available at: http://www.spurs.co.uk/ FA action: As I warned yesterday - the FA want to get us and despite nothing in the Ref’s report, no complaint from Arsenal – they want to do us. While I do not for one minute condone the bottle throwing – the FA are behaving like Bastards. Where do we go with Rsol: There is no minimum sentence time for RSol, and certainly no parole – its life! - going to Arsenal was a crime that carry's a lifetime penalty of antagonism from Spurs fans – and like Ince can expect similar if not the same level of intensity for each of his visits assuming Arsenal avoid the drop this and the following seasons. As I said before the
match – the best thing to sing to RSol next time we meet is “where are you in
the league” and “RSol what’s the score” as in the 137 days between now and
the visit to Scumbury Hoddle’s Tottenham will be soaring high above the
miserable goons! |
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19th November 2001 – Bottles and possible FA action Possible FA action - continued: It may look all over with both Winter, Wenger and RSol not wanting to take the matter any further – but those twats at the FA who tried to relegate us in 1994/5 still have it in for us, possibly even more after Sugarlump humiliated them – so watch out – its not over yet! Buchler defends the fans – good lad: David Buchler need applauding
for going out and defending the honest fans in an extremely partisan manner. Buchler told
Radio 5 Live:"We did hear of some bottles coming from a local pub while
the coach was leaving the ground and the police took immediate action and did
an outstanding job. There were three or four hooligans who were quickly dealt
with by police but the majority, I would say 99.9%, who were in the ground
behaved impeccably. We saw nothing in relation to any incident inside the
ground. This (the bottle throwing incident) is very much a police matter
outside the ground. I'm not aware of any incidents inside the ground in
relation to that at all." "Anybody
that behaved inappropriately in relation to any incident around the ground
knows that they will lose their membership and they lose the right of access
into the ground. If there were a few incidents they were outside the ground
and dealt with impeccably by the police. There are no grounds on which
anybody can take action against Tottenham." Iversen returns
& Rebrov scores two as the Stiffs win: In what must have been a
pleasing result for Colin Calderwood, the reserves came from a goal down to
win 2-1 thanks to late Rebrov goals. You might have thought that he’d have
earned a rest after playing twice for his country and 20 mins on Saturday in
the last week, but no doubt Sergei was up to show Glennda and the management
what he can do playing in the hole behind two main strikers. It was also good
to see Iversen return and Bunje get another game under his belt as well Team: Beasant, Thelwell, Thatcher, Gardner, Bunjevcevic, Piercy, Leonhardsen, Davies, Rebrov, Iversen (Kamanan 60), Ferguson (Snee 83). Subs: Consorti, Vedeux, Kelly Freund & Poyet on the match: Always interesting to hear what the likes of Freund and Poyet make of it all, and as you would expect interesting stuff and its great that the players are saying stuff that is true rather than trying to defend the indefensible which they were doing this time last season under the goonersaurus. Poyet "I
knew when I passed the ball to Simon (Davies) and ran into the box that this
was the last chance,I had to get in there even though I had no energy left
because there might be a chance to score. We were losing, the game was
practically finished, it was the last chance and it was like we got something
from nowhere. "You
could see from the celebrations how much it meant when everyone went crazy,
jumping around, going in every direction and it was nice for me to score the
equaliser. Maybe one or two hours after the game I was in my car and still
celebrating the goal!" "I have never played a game like that,"
"One guy
came to me after the game and said 'you've made my week' because he was
thinking about going into work on Monday and all the Arsenal fans waiting for
him. Now he could walk into work without any problems. It was nice to give
something like that to the supporters From comments like this you know he understands and is one of us at heart – and is even more of a favourite after these words Nutter: Nutter is getting the recognition from the rest of the fans and the media that he has always enjoyed at topspurs and his comment are always worth a mention "I had a
German group here today and my friend sent me a text message in the
middle of the game, I found it on my phone after the game, just saying
'what's going on?'. They couldn't believe the atmosphere. It was a friend of
mine who I used to play in the youth team with back in Germany. There was a
group of 23 in from Germany and they couldn't believe what was going
on!" "It
couldn't believe it when they scored, We never deserved to go 1-0 down or
lose the game. Sometimes you think 'what is happening' but we came back and
what a special goal against Arsenal in the last minute. I loved that! We
showed that we wanted to score. We didn't let our heads go down. Perhaps two
or three years ago in the same situation we might have lost. That is a huge
compliment to the team, lots of character. If you saw Arsenal, they didn't
deserve to win that game. I have to say that. Before they scored we
controlled the game, we tried to score more, they came out with one striker,
Bergkamp dropping deep and didn't go forward. That is a compliment for us. "It was
a point for the crowd as well. They didn't deserve to lose that game
either." Lessons from History – the Gooners First Game: A little titbit in the Daily Advert in London revealed that the Goons played their first match with a sewer running through the middle of the pitch – the stench has remained with them ever since Spellchecker truths: Not a lot of people know this, but Beasant comes up as Peasant on the spellchecker – never a truer word! (& yes despite all the typo’s and spelling mistakes I do actually use one) International TOPSPURS: I’ve finally got a decent hits counter and it give me a load of stats inc where all the topspurs visitors come from and I was genuinely fascinated to see so many different country’s represented – a big thanks to you all Commercial
(.com) 34.58% Unknown 29.06% United Kingdom
(.uk) 19.20% Network (.net) 07.34% Australia (.au) 01.89% Norway (.no) 01.82% Sweden (.se) 00.89% Denmark (.dk) 00.67% New Zealand
(.nz) 00.59% Ireland (.ie) 00.44% Finland (.fi) 00.41% Singapore (.sg) 00.30% Canada (.ca) 00.30% United Arab Emirates
(.ae) 00.30% Hong Kong (.hk) 00.22% Educational
(.edu) 00.22% Belgium (.be) 00.22% United States
(.us) 00.19% Switzerland
(.ch) 00.19% Netherlands
(.nl) 00.15% Malaysia (.my) 00.15% Germany (.de) 00.15% South Africa
(.za) 00.11% Iceland (.is) 00.11% Organizations
(.org) 00.07% Military (.mil) 00.07% Greece (.gr) 00.07% Spain (.es) 00.07% Japan (.jp) 00.04% Isreal (.il) 00.04% Guatemala (.gt) 00.04% Gibraltar (.gi) 00.04% Cyprus (.cy) 00.04% Bulgaria (.bg) 00.04% |
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18th November 2001 – Bottles and possible FA action Possible FA action: With the press firmly behind St RSol, attention turned to a couple of bottles that were thrown on the pitch and a few bottles that were aimed at the Goon coach when it left the ground. With amount of police at the game, surely one of the plod, with their expensive surveillance equipment, could have identified the people responsible for these incidents so that the rest of the Spurs fans do not get punished. With a bit of luck, referee Winter will continue with his common sense approach and forget about these incidents or at the very least give the club a suspended sentence pending future behaviour. "We will await the reports from the referee, other match
officials and the police before deciding whether any action is
appropriate," said FA spokesman Paul Newman. We will be looking at
events in and around the ground." The FA probe is believed to focus on an incident after the
match when the Arsenal team bus was leaving the ground. The coach was
showered with dozens of glasses and bottles, thrown from the beer garden of a
pub next to the White Hart Lane car park. |
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18th November 2001 – Spurs 1-1 Arsenal Cheated by the Goons (again): In the last two North London Derby matches at the Lane, a last minute equaliser has rescued a point for the team that has (possibly-last season & definitely-this season) deserved to win. Last season Vieira fouled his way to the equaliser, while this season it was a fantastic volley from Poyet that got Spurs one of the three points we deserved. Still a point is something and the game was a cracking blood and thunder match, and if we could generate that atmosphere every week – what a daunting place White Hart Lane would be for visiting teams. Possibly the best part of the day was meeting Bill Nicholson as he drove into the school behind the Shelfside. A real honour and a true hero
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18th November 2001 – More Effenburg nonsense! Effenburg: In
the same way that RSol was off to Man U as he had purchased a house in
Cheshire, there is a rumour doing the rounds that Effenburg has put his
eldest daughter at a North London boarding school for the next academic year.
I always thought rich people did this to get away from their kids…… and does
it prove anything – probably not, although it would be cool to see him line
up in the middle for Spurs as long as he still has the appetite to win the
league. |
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17th November 2001 – The day is here! Early morning thoughts and team news: Still hopeful rather than confident…. lets hope the spirit of the Hotspur is strong and Spurs go on to record a famous win Team news: We still have Carr, Keller & Iversen out, with Bunje nearly there, of the players that would normally expect to be in the first team – but thankfully no new injury worries. Beasant looks likely to get the nod ahead of Kelly on the bench as cover from Sully. As you would expect, there was not much news coming from the training ground, but my snout noticed a spring in Rebrov’s step for the first time in weeks and he’s either signed for someone or might expect to play a bigger part than normal, continuing his good record against them. Of the Goons, Donkey Adams, Semen, Jeffers, Dixon, Luzhny and most importantly Henry are all definitely out, with Ljungberg having a late test on a dodgy haircut. Probable line ups: Spurs: Sully, King, Richards, Perry, Taricco, Freund, Anderton, Poyet, Ziege, Sheringham, Ferdinand/Rebrov - subs Beasant, Davies, Bunjevcevic, Ferdinand/Rebrov and one other Arsenal: Wright, Lauren, Cole, RSol, Monkeyhead, Charlie Dimmock, Van Carthorse, He comes from Sengeal he going to win f**k all, Pires, Beavis, Wilturd – Subs – Taylor, Emu, Gnu, Grimandi The Ref – Jeff Winter: I would n’t normally comment on the ref, but as it’s a man who the last time he was at White Hart Lane saluted an opposition goal – its worth keeping your eye on the bastard this time. For those of you who like me missed it at the time, Jeff Winter was seen openly to be saluting Cole’s first goal for ManUre (which is why he was surrounded by Sheringham and Ferdinand for ages after the goal). Later in the match, he also reached for his top pocket to book Beckham after his goal celebrations, but put his hand back when he realised that he already had a yellow card. lets hope he’s just pro ManU and not against Spurs. For those of you that cannot make it: An excellent innovation & well done to the club Supporters unable to attend Saturday’s north-London
derby against Arsenal will be able to watch recorded highlights on
the Official Spurs Website www.spurs.co.uk
next week. It will be the first match to be streamed and posted onto the
club's website and is the prelude to a comprehensive online ‘video
lounge’ - to be introduced at a later stage - that will include: Match action – Edited
footage of the latest Spurs Premiership matches Archive – Fully
searchable video database dating back to 1992 Features – The latest
news and views from The Lane Preview – Previews of
every match that Spurs play in the Premiership The best moments from the Saturday’s match will be available Monday midnight, allowing supporters to witness the drama of this hugely anticipated game from their PCs and laptops. The service is being powered by Sky Sports, which is editing and streaming the highlights for Tottenham, as well as providing the other elements to the video lounge. Vice-chairman David Buchler said: “This is a fantastic addition to our website and there’s no bigger match at White Hart Lane to start this service with than the visit of our north-London rivals, Arsenal. I’m sure that the ability to watch streamed highlights of our current Premiership campaign will be hugely popular with all our supporters, particularly those overseas who are unable to get to White Hart Lane often.” |
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16th November 2001 – Countdown to Saturday – 1 day to go The big day approaches: The day that has been etched in Spurs supporters minds since RSol defected rapidly approaches. Apart from that wanker from the Daily mail upsetting many of us, this week has gone well for us - no new injuries, while it looks likely that the goons will definitely be without Donkey Adams and Semen. I’m still sceptical that Henry will be out but W*n*er is quoted as saying "Thierry will be out for the game on Saturday and there is a slight chance for Wednesday," But as a goon, he is not above a porky pie! Much has been said and written about RSol, but while his presence on the other side will certainly be noteworthy – the most important thing about this game is to win, or at the very least not to lose. We are on an up at the moment and they are wobbling a little, scraping thro in the champions league, losing at home to Charlton and having key players injured or out of form. The North London Derby is never as simple as that, as the Premiership facts show. In the previous 18 Premiership encounters, we have both won 5, with the other 8 being drawn – and all this during a time when Spurs were generally down. We have won 4 of the 9 matches at the Lane, the last of which was 2 years ago when Iversen and Sherwood goals were enough to see off Arsenal 2-1, with two goons sent off. Overall – Arsenal are ahead 50-44 in the League, time we started to redress the balance. Spurs have won 27 of the 63 league matches at home and the first Spurs goal will be out 100th League goal against them at the Lane. I’d have to say I’m optimistic, not confident that Spurs can put up a good show and at least get a draw and if we play well and have some commensurate good fortune, actually go on and win. At least we approach this game knowing we have a better squad of players than in recent years and are playing the best football for years. I have one eye on our reasonably straightforward run after this match when I say (albeit quietly) a win against the Goons could be the springboard to a challenge for a podium position in the Premiership. as some pre-match build up…… www.topspurs.com/thfc-arsenal.htm - all the results against them over the years www.topspurs.com/thfc-arsepaste.htm - an alternative history of the plumstead nomads www.topspurs.com/thfc-countdowntothearse.htm - some of the greats to play against them as the clock ticks down to the big event Thoughts on Rsol: As I mentioned above, I have not really caught up with the Anti RSol stuff – mainly because at last Spurs have genuinely turned the corner and are on the way back to the top, while RSol is part of the past. RSol did some awful things at the end of last season – none more so that accepting the fans applause on the lap of honour before pissing off to Arsenal. I think no one would have begrudged him a move anywhere else as he had played with distinction for a number of years for us in mostly crap sides – but moving to Arsenal of his own free will (not being sold by the club) was a scandalous act of betrayal. Fortunately, he has not recovered his form for Arsenal (and Saturday is not a good time to start) and many of the Arsenal fans have yet to be convinced about him – would anyone have looked good playing alongside Ramon Vega? For me the best Anti Sol protest would be give him a newspaper on Sunday morning with Spurs above Arsenal in the league - and for that, it is up to the players and Glennda to turn in a good one. And on the players – None should be seen to be fraternising or shaking hands with him on the pitch (do what you like in the millionaires club off the pitch) but to be seen to be friendly to him on the pitch would be a further betrayal to the fans. I will be very disappointed if they insult us by doing this. Come on you Spurs! Come on
you Spurs! Come on you Spurs! |
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New issue of CADD on sale: Don’t forget that a new issue of CADD is on sale at the match as well |
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16th November 2001 – Graham Roberts on the Rsol – a real topspur! Robbo’s words: ''There will be
hatred towards Sol Campbell and towards Arsenal. I just hope no-one does
anything silly like running on the pitch. But I think the atmosphere will
affect Arsenal and I think Spurs can win. Robbo – we salute you! |
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Spurs sign
ex-Motherwell boss as a part time scout: Former Motherwell boss Billy Davies is working as a
scout for Tottenham on a part-time basis after being sacked as Muthawell
boss. Gorman said: "Billy
has helped us out by filling in for a game. He is likely to get more work for us as long as he is not
in full-time employment. It is always good to have people that you know
working for you."
Not a lot of people know that. |
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15th
November 2001 – Countdown to Saturday – 2 days to go (other news) Hoddle message in
programme notes: Naturally enough both Hod and Buchler have been out
trying to play down the tensions rising from the match on Saturday (much of
which was whipped up by the press). Hoddle writes: 'It is important no Spurs fans let this club down by
overreacting. We must ensure we rise above such negativity. The fans must act
in a responsible manner Something topspurs
whole-heartedly agree with – the most important thing – as it always is – is
beating Arsenal. That will put us above them and get to Rsol. Henry out – my arse!: It has been reported that Henry (a ringer for Chris Armstrong) will be out with a poorly something or other (along with a ragbag of other goons inc Adams and Semen). I don’t for one minute believe this and expect to see him on Satuday – but it would be great if true! |
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14th
November 2001 – Countdown to Saturday – 3 days to go (other news) Spurs Sign Beasant: 42 year old Dave Beasant has been drafted in to as cover for Sully as Kasey Keller has a serious injury and will be out for a couple of months. Edgware based Beasant has had the distinction of saving a penalty in a cup final as well as being in the England squad for World cup 90, but will probably best be remembered for his cock ups and calamities. While Hod knows best, surely Kelly or Jalal, or even Segers will would have been a better option, but we wish Dave good luck in his brief stay. TOPSURS UPDATE - UPDATED TOPSPURS QUIZ and after a dismal day with the Daily Mail article – a bit of light relief
with a picture of a young Steffen Freund, complete with Mullett
Freund in his own words: Many of you might have seen me with
my 1989 haircut in the Mirror newspaper on Monday. For me, it was a special
haircut. I remember the Wall fell down and that was the time to change my
hairdresser! |
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14th
November 2001 – Read
the Tottenham Supporters Trust Response to the Daily Mail Article |
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14th
November 2001 – Daily Mail Article In March this year,
Spurs fans observed a perfect minute’s silence for David Rocastle at
Highbury, Spurs have had a number of black and foreign players through the
years (in fact had the first black player to play in the English League
Walter Tull in 1910) and have never had racist fans. This is an outrageous
slur on all of us and must not go unpunished. This bastard should lose his
job over comments like this. The Wanker’s words ”This is the Mr Campbell who exercised
his right to leave spurs on a free transfer and join Arsenal. Naturally to
those who knew the meaning of the word, this amounted to defection. A crude
effigy of Mr Campbell with a Judas placard round his neck was strung up,
ku-klux klan style, and burned. Apart from being a wealthy and successful
footballer, Mr Campbell is also black. “ ”Spurs draws much of their patronage from some of the most well-heeled surburbs of the capital. They also attract the hate-filled, bored, indolent, ignorant, moronic, low life dregs of our society whose brains are so coagulated that they regard 'patriotism' as the right to torment a man who left 'their' club to join a rival.“ |
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13th November 2001 – Countdown to Saturday – 4 days to go Sherwood 24 hours on and he’s still here. While Wupert may not be the most pleasant chap to talk to, it would be good if Levy could get it over with and Deadwood could be on his way No other news really apart from some goons trying to stir it. Come on you Spurs – may the gods be with you |
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12th November 2001 – Countdown to Saturday – 5 days to go Sherwood The last remaining Gooner looks to finally be on his way and the White Hart Lane Gooner cull complete with Eric Hall his agent all but admitting that Spurs just want rid of him and to make his departure even more joyous – it looks like we’ll be getting back some of the Richards money from Wupert as Southampton and certain relegation seem to be the best he can do for himself. Shovel him up and send him on his way - Good riddance. Gooner Shirt Sales in America Lets hope the press in the USA have picked up on the fact that Bin Laden is a Gooner and that lots of American fans and potential fans decide to avoid the Goons. Just as Chas and Dave could only be Tottenham, so Bin Laden could only have been a goon. |
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11th November 2001 – Two victories for Spurs! Spurs DINKT The Spurs DINKT team recorded two victories from two matches over the weekend to virtually assure us of qualification for the next phase of the competition. Even under Hoddle, the quiz team is playing better ! – the line up for both matches was Bernie Kingsley (capt), Daniel Wynne, Danny Keene and Lee Dumont & yours truly. Effenburg – part 1895 Over the weekend Effenberg has stated that he definitely will leave Bayern Munich at the end of his contract and his Mrs and agent said "It would be great for him to play for another year in England. And Tottenham would be his first choice." - Make of that what you will |
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10th November 2001 – Its official – Bin Laden is a Gooner!! Bin Laden is a gooner and he wears a RSol Shirt! Great story broke over the weekend about how the worlds most wanted man is a Gooner. You just knew it deep down |
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9th November 2001 – The Weekend DINKT Along with Bernie Kingsley, Daniel Wynne, Danny Keene and Lee Dumont, I will be heading to Manchester over the weekend to record a couple more shows of the ITV Digital Football quiz as part of the Spurs team. I have the daunting task of 90 seconds on my own answering questions on the 1977/78 season and hope I don’t let my team mates, the supporters or the club down. We are also going to take in the England game so lets hope both Anderton and Sheringham play and that neither of them gets the slightest injury. The Doc The Doc
issued an update on his injury and the comments about putting Spurs first will endear himself
even more to Spurs fans. While its worth not reading too much into these
words – it does show a mindset that is a little bit removed from someone like
Anderton, who as soon as he has a good game, thoughts turn to England rather
than Tottenham. Don't get me wrong, I like Anderton, but there is still that
doubt in the back of my mind that if the year was post world cup he'd be
nursing his injury rather than playing thro the pain. Doc’s words:"It's the first serious injury I've had and I suppose you say I was fortunate to do it now at Spurs rather than earlier in my career. Touch wood, I've been lucky. The World Cup is not my priority though. To get back into the Spurs team is my priority. The lads are flying at the moment and it will be really hard to get back in”. |
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8th November 2001 – Daily Round up Hod on the progress
so far: "The missing ingredient at the moment is a little belief,
not in performance, but belief that we can beat the top five teams. We've
played four of them, we've got Arsenal coming up in our next game and it's
about time we beat one of them because we deserve to. |
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7th November 2001 – Daily Round up Manager of the Month Congratulations to Hod on getting the manager of the month award for October, which yielded three league wins for the first time in over two years along with an away cup win. Lets hope the curse of the award does not strike when it is presented at the Goon game – and that Spurs continue to follow the two week break trend. Before each of the two week breaks so far this season, Spurs have lost to Blackburn and ManUre - but bounced back with wins over Southampton and Derby – lets hope after the defeat at Leeds we can repeat the dose against the Goons – COME ON YOU SPURS Half the age of the pensioner strikers Spurs have taken young American striker Devin Barclay on a month’s trail. The 18 year old has been getting rave reviews for Tampa Bay Mutiny and has represented his country at U18 & U20 level. Lets hope he’s as good as he sounds Not that our own young lads are doing too bad – one lad, who is half Ferdinand’s age who seems to score in every match he plays in is Jamie Slabber who scored on his U19 debut at the weekend. Along with John Sutton and more established reserve players Steve Ferguson and Yannick Kamanan we have a number of promising young players coming through – lets hope at least one of them is a big success in the first team in the near future. |
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6th November 2001 – Daily Round up No News Lots of crap about England and no real Spurs stories to comment on, with the debate over who should start up front with Ted and why Hoddle does n’t make more use of subs dominating Tottenham talk during the day |
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6th November 2001 – Daily Round up Sir Les or Rebrov? After sticking up for Sir Les for most of the season so far – mainly on the basis that his style of play is best suited to the main striker, off which Ted can play (and for the fact he has 3 in his last 5 Prem matches) – I have had enough and think that he lack of a partnership with Sheringham, along with his lack of goals (esp. away, where he has not scored since Aug 1999) – mean that it would be worth giving Rebrov a go (or even Iversen if Hoddle does not fancy Rebrov at all). Something needs to be done, as much of our good play is not being converted into goals from the front men. This could mean buying proven quality like Phillips, but I think that Rebrov deserves a chance to show whether he has a future at the Lane. Hoddle and the Subs: Just about the only gripe Spurs fans have at the moment is the lack of use of Substitutes – Mainly Rebrov, but also Davies. I can see why Hoddle would not want to change things in matches which have been close, but think the introduction of these two in matches with 20/25 minutes to go would benefit the team in terms of fresh legs and also keep the players involved happy. I have complete trust in Hod and even though I think this would be a good idea and would be welcomed by the majority of the fans – Hod knows best and in him we trust.
And Finally - Anderton! Shaggy has got his England call – while this is great news for him, it is also good news for us, as he will retain the motivation that has seen him turn in some excellent displays recently. RSol was not in the squad, getting his Nov 17th excuse ready early no doubt. |
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5th November 2001 – Leeds 2-1 Spurs - Individual errors cost Spurs at least a point Top 5 away day blues!: Another away match against a top 4 side and Chelsea – and another defeat. Unlike many of the others Spurs played pretty well and we unlucky not to come away with a point – match report to follow tomorrow |
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4th November 2001 – Something for the weekend Rich List: The Times yesterday published the richest Sportsman list. Topped by some Canadian Boxer, Beckham was the tops footballer in second with £6.5m. Ziege is the top Spurs representative in equal 30th place at £2.1m, and Sheringham is our other representative in the top 50 at 39 with £1.96m. Ginola, who is Spurs in all but name, is further down in 43rd place with £1.81m. RSol thirty pieces of silver have equated to 14th place and £3.45m – virtually all of which will have come from the Scum coffers as he was on a relatively low wage from his 1997 contract at the Lane. Lets hope it helps to bankrupt them. Weekend Round up: Former Spurs in the goals inc Gazza who scored his first goal for a couple of years. McVeigh and Crouch (2) we on target for Norwich and Portsmouth respectively and Jeff Minton scored a consolation for Orient. After playing Spurs teams seem to go on and do well – Boro have come out and done Derby 5-1, Derby themselves did well against Chelsea while Newcastle have won 3-1 away and 3-0 against the League leaders. Lets hope this gives the lads some self-belief for tomm’s match. Come on you Spurs |
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2nd
November 2001 – Football 365/Leeds/The MofC/CADD Featured on Football
365: Much to my amazement – A Topspurs editorial comment over the weekend
featured as the basis of Danny Kelly’s column (and will possibly appear in
CADD later in the month) The piece focuses on our record at the top 4 clubs and Chelsea and is reprinted here Leeds & our record at top 5 away ground L No-one expects us to get anything at Leeds, but if they
underestimate us and we play well – we might be able to get something at a
top 5 away ground for the first time since……………well here goes ManU – 6 straight defeats, two goals scored. Last point Mar 1995, 0-0.
Last win Dec 1989, 1-0 Arsenal – 2 straight defeats, – Last point Nov 1998, 0-0. Last win May
1993, 3-1 Liverpool – 5 straight defeats, (although two cup wins). Last point
Mar 1996, 0-0. Last win Aug 1993, 2-1 Leeds – 4 straight defeats.
Last point Dec 1996, 0-0. Last win May 1996, 3-1 Chelsea – 5 straight defeats, one goal scored. Last point Nov 1995,
0-0. Last win Mar 1990, 2-1 We wish Hoddle every success to stop the rot! I am personally delighted that Danny Kelly visits topspurs as Danny is, alongside fellow block 27 resident Neil Pearson, one of the best celebrity Spurs fans. I remember virtually a year to the day, under the dark clouds of Sugar and Graham, Danny wrote an excellent piece of a kind of “state we’re in” article, which featured at topspurs and can still be read at http://www.topspurs.com/thfc-article04.htm More thoughts on Leeds: Despite our much better performances and points return under Hoddle, Leeds were by a long way the best team to visit Spurs last season and the match will be a tough one. I’d like to see Spurs play well and impose themselves on the game and make a fight of it – which will be a yardstick of our continued progress, and if we can nick a goal we are in with a chance of at least a point – Come on you Spurs – Bowyer’s going down, he’s going down, he going, Bowyer’s going down. The Minute of Contempt: With much debate at the moment, I thought I’d clarify the topspurs position on the MofC I think this should be a free vote - what ever you decide to do, there should be no recriminations either way - we have had the divide and rule from Gooners and crypto-Gooners (Sugarlump) for long enough. In saying that, I can see no reason not to do the MofC, as what Rsol did was unforgivable, but we should not lose sight of the fact that we are in the best state of health since the day before Sugar sacked Venables in 1993 – and as well as showing him our digust at what he did we should remember that it is Spurs that are on the up and the Goons floundering. Would n’t it be great if Wenger pisses off to Man U at the end of the season after not signing a new contract, RSol style!
CADD: Just a little plug for the number 1 Spurs fanzine CADD, which is in production at the moment and will be on sale at the Goon match – there might be one or two things you recognise from Topspurs in there ‘-) – to subscribe - CADD And finally: Chelsea – Ha! Ha! Ha! – time for that Bank Loan to be called in. |
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1st
November 2001 – Daily Round up Hoddle on Ledders: Despite Odreary trying to wind Ledley up over the weekend with some transfer talk, Hod realises what a star we have and issued these comments on the great man – I was especially impressed with ‘you only have to tell him once’ – Hoddle:."The good thing about Ledley is he is a level headed lad who wants to learn." "He is one of those lads who gets on nice and quietly, probably too quietly. I want him to come out and be a bit more demonstrative and work on his communication skills, which will happen as he gets more experience.He is a lad that if you tell him something you only have to tell him once because you see it on that Saturday afternoon. What you've tried to explain to him he then goes out and implements it. I think that's interesting because then you've really got a chance of improving as a player. We've got to get him more comfortable talking. He can be as quiet as he wants in the restaurant and travelling - he's usually got his earphones on anyway. It's trying to make him change his personality a little bit when he's out on that pitch. Trying to make him more communicative and boss people about. He's doing okay at the moment, I don't want to go too far too quickly with him, I just want to nurse him along." Rebrov (again): His agent has said nothing new – so one wonders why he bothered other than to remind other clubs that he is still available for sale. "Sergei has a five-year contract with Tottenham and he respects that. He has scored 22 goals in the Champion's League so for him not to be playing is not good, but that's what happens when you have a big squad and Tottenham are going well with Teddy Sheringham and Les Ferdinand scoring goals. From their point of view, why should he play?" "It is a difficult situation but we hope it is OK in the future. At the moment, he's not happy with the club, but that doesn't mean that he'll leave". |
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1st November 2001 – Daily Round up Savio – Another day with no real news – Spurs have been linked with a £12m Brazilian winger Savio, but it seems unlikely both in terms of the fee – which is certainly not “ENIC price” or his positon – winger – as our great leader prefers more allround wide players rather than out and out wingers. Nutter’s 100 – While many topspurs regulars are aware that Freund made his 100th appearance against Boro on Saturday, the official site has just got round to recognising his milestone and this is what the mad space invader had to say for himself “I've been here over two and a half years and I am very proud that I came back from my bad injury in 1996 to play 100 games in English football. I'm also proud to play for Tottenham. I can remember my debut at Hillsborough. I came in from Germany late in that week and just about went straight into the team on the Saturday! I've enjoyed my time in the Premier League. It is a style of football I like to play and I love the passion of games and the crowd. This is my football. We are improving and this way is the right way. We stick together at |
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