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There has never been any doubt that Levy was a ruthless bastard.
A bottom-line man rather than a football man. Having a man like that in
charge is unlikely to be good for football as a whole but in the current
environment where FIFA is dodgy, the news media have agendas beyond truth and
the government are too busy sitting in a financial midden, dreaming a way
out, to care about national past-times there is no doubt having a Levy-esque
character at the helm is useful. I would prefer a good man that I could respect in charge (lucky
Wigan fans), but second best is a bastard with the same aims as the fans.
Sugar raped the club and left it on the side of the road. ENIC have sat it
up, given it some steroids and furnished it with spiky weapons. Not good
therapy considering what happened but better than repeating the behavior.
ENIC want to build and sell so they can sit on a mountain of money cackling
evilly. The key for us is "ENIC want to build". The way Martin Jol was undermined and sacked, against the wishes
of the fans, was disgusting and should never be forgotten, but the last few
weeks we have seen some of those spikes used on Jol throwing up a little
protection for fans who would like to see Tottenham succeed again. By the end
of the transfer window we will find out just how long and sharp those spikes
are. A Cockrel ready for a fight... or a chicken served up for dinner. It is not just the Modric saga where Levy is playing chicken
with a much larger animal, but the stadium saga. I have no problems with West
Ham as a club and I wasn't one of the people cheering when they got
relegated, but something always stank in the West Ham bid for the Olympic
Stadium. There was no doubt the Spurs offer was a better and more secure one
and I was surprised when it was rejected. Even with the trumped up scandal involving an OPLC member being
on retainer at West Ham I am sure the affair will be swept under the carpet
and the matter will move on. I think Spurs realise that but they also realise
that the bids for the 2017 World Athletics have to be in by September 1st and
if they're still in court, with the future of the Olympic Stadium insecure, London
will not be able to bid. Tottenham were given no offers of help for the White Hart Lane
redevelopment scheme. No government money offered to upgrade the surrounding
areas as other clubs have been given. No upgrade to transport. No concessions,
even, on government fees. All these concessions were made just down the road
for the Emirates stadium. So Levy is playing chicken, I believe. Stump up some help or we
break the knees of your World Athletics bid. I say good luck to him. But I don't live in London... Jester ( www.spursfans.co.za – join in with other South African Spurs
fans and enjoy the Spurs tour) |
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TOPSPURS COLUMNISTS
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21st June 2011 - Lose Your Illusion (1) I hear quite a few fans talking like they’re right next door to
hell. They think Modric will leave, Bale will follow, we’ll sign no-one of note
and be left with dust ‘n bones, a George Graham team to put us all into a
viewing coma. Personally I don’t see the Manchesters, City or United, let
alone the dead horse Chelsea, committing any perfect crime here. I’m not going to paint Tottenham Hotspur as any Garden of Eden.
After all, mugs you ain’t. The first thing we all do during the transfer
period is look at our chairman’s grubby little paws and wonder whether his
bad obsession with the new stadium will drive him to spend or whether his
belief in the future greatness of the club is just double-talkin’ jive. Personally I would love to take the title of London’s top club
back off bitches at the Chelsea and the Arsenal and, never being a Levy fan,
I would be perfectly happy to live and let die if he got us there, even for
only one season. Personally I don’t see any bad apples in our squad, pressurising
for a move or leaving us in the lurch. No Berbatovs and no Campbells in
sight. This squad has belief in itself and I think they will stick with Harry
for another year and give the board time to show it’s intentions. But there is something to remember, and don’t damn me for saying
it. First-team ready, Premier League strikers cost 35mil plus and won’t fit
into our wage structure. I would bet an arm and a leg (not mine, someone
else’s) we will not see a prime-age Premier League striker join our ranks
unless the club releasing them agrees to pay some of his wages. The good news is we actually have 2 quality strikers already. If
Defoe can stay fit or Harry gives SuperPav a run of games either can bag 20
goals and, come November, rain pouring down, they’re used to the cold and
misery of the English weather and can power through it. A bevvy of new
strikers or some primadonna and I could see the axel come off. So if we don’t make that 35mil land-mark signing, don’t cry.
Capturing a strong talent like Damaio combined with a little luck on the
injury side and a much shorter playlist I think we will see Spurs come out
all guns ablaze. It’s never a bed of roses for a Spurs supporter but I think it
would be no fun if it was. Jester Anyone who would like to join up with spurs fans in south Africa
for the pre-season tour can do so by going to spursfans.co.za In remembrance of a really quite good band and because I was in
that sort of mood all the song names from Gun’s and Roses Use Your Illusion
(1) were worked, sometimes inelegantly, into this article: Right next door to
hell, Dust ‘n Bones, You ain’t the first, Bad Obsession, Back off bitch,
Double Talkin Jive, Garden of Eden, Don’t Damn Me, Bad Apples, Perfect Crime,
Live and let Die, Don’t Cry, November rain, Dead Horse, Coma 24th May 2011 - Building the Grindhouse, a season
review and commentary by midnightjester +Overview With an unprecedented injury list throughout the squad, quite
something to say at Tottenham, Harry somehow guided Spurs to 5th. Spurs
managed to have as many as 11 of the squad injured at one time. An unsettled back 4 caused by those injuries led to us conceding
more than we needed, simple angled balls across the box from Wolves causing
havoc in our defence is just one example and led to a 3-3 away draw against
the lowest-scoring team in the Premier League (they scored 10% of their
league goals against us in one game). Injuries to strikers and a lack of confidence left us relying on
midfielders for goals. Our highest scoring striker, Pavlyuchenko, squeezed
into double figures with a brace on the final day. We still somehow managed
to be the fifth highest scoring team in the league, 6 goals shy of Manchester
City and 36 shy of Chelsea. A lot is said about van der Vaart and Bale but
the rest of the team, minus strikers, contributed 29 goals. Problems at both ends still only lost Spurs 8 games for the entire
season. It was the draws, 14 of them, that stopped Tottenham finishing above
Arsenal and left our boys, instead, 6 points adrift. +Where we lost points At Chelsea. Away. Where there were three goals. Only one of them
legitimate. And it was scored by Spurs. Robbed not by Chelsea and not by
officials but by Sepp Blatter and his aversion to technology. The man is an
arse and must be destroyed. Three points stolen by a corrupt arsehole in a
corrupt organisation with no oversight. I am not at all emotional about this.
Really. A quick look at our season reveals that Tottenham play good
football but cannot win against the bottom teams away from home. NerdyJester
analysis says our Points Per Game (ppg) against the bottom 4 away from home
is 0.5. This is worse than against the top 4 away from home at 0.75 ppg. We
had the most fun against the teams finishing 6th to 9th in the Premier
League, who presumably tried to play football against us rather than attack
us savagely with improvised weapons. We fleeced them for 2.25 ppg away from
home and 2.5 ppg at home. +According to Opta Stats: Gomes finished 4th best Keeper in the league according to Opta
Stats. Only Foster at Birmingham has a higher saves to stops ratio. A notable
5th was "Englands number one" from the good old days, Paul
Robinson, clawing back his respectability. Go Paul. Second best passer in the league was a certain Luka Modric with
86% accuracy. Ahead of him was Michael Essien at 87% pass completion.
Considering Modric plays much further up the field than him of them, and
under a lot more pressure, I say well done. No one in the Tottenham squad made it into the top 5 tacklers
this season. The last Spurs player who did was Steed Malbranque in his final
season. Sold, and not replaced, by some idiot Spaniard who couldn't then work
out why we couldn't beat anyone... Top goals to shots ratio, at 30% was, former Spurs Star Mr.
Berbatov way ahead of 2nd place man Carlos Tevez at 24%. unsurprisingly no
current Spurs strikers made the top 5... +Under-rated Benoit Assou-Ekotto, the man who, when asked by the TV
commentators looking for a short nickname what they could call him, famously
said, "You can call me Benoit Assou-Ekotto, it is my name." I paraphrase
since I am too lazy to hunt down the exact quote but you get the idea. He called out all the sycophants who kiss the badge too easily.
He is arrogant and imperious at left back. He makes me panic when he does
little fancy moves under severe pressure with no cover but he almost always
pulls them off. He scored a beautiful screamer, his only goal, from yards
inside the halfway line. He costs us a goal, maybe 2, a season when he goes
to sleep with a crossfield pass that was never on but he's great to watch. Honorable mention must go to Michael Dawson who has been working
very hard on developing the rest of his game while still remaining a really
top class (if slow) defender. A lot of people forget just how hard it is to
be considered a top central defender without pace. +Over-rated Blackpools Gary-Taylor Fletcher set up double the number of
goals Gareth Bale did. Bale scored a respectable 7 himself, though. Gareth
Bale will be world class but it is worth remembering that he isn't
world-class yet. Do not misunderstand me- not since the days of David Ginola
have I enjoyed watching a Tottenham footballer as much. He is quick and his
skill is sublime but the plaudits he has received have more to do with media
hype than ultimate performance on the pitch. Tottenham fans got it right when
they made Modric, and not Bale, their footballer of the year. Now to sit back and wait for the hate-mail... +Emergent talent of the Season If you forget that Gareth Bale was an also-ran player last
season raised to godlike status with his Champions League performances then
the competition is between Danny Rose and Sandro. Kyle Walker would also be
in there if not for the fact that he was on loan at Villa. In the end I think we have to hand it to Sandro above Danny
Rose, despite the kid's incredible crossing ability and Harry playing him out
of position. Danny, I am reliably informed, is a winger not a left back- yet
a better left back than Gareth Bale who, oddly enough, is meant to be a left
back not a winger but is a fine winger. Sandro looked out of place and off the pace when he first took
to the field and the old "here we go again" feeling settled into
the pit of my stomach. In the second-half of this season, however, the boy who
was told in Brazil that he was actually born to be an English footballer
because of his delight in the tackle, has shone. Pace, agility, aggression
and skill make him a future Makelele or Essien. +Best signing of the Season Rafael van der Vaart. +Flop signing of the Season Steven Pienaar. Since his arrival he has offered nothing more
than Jenas, Palacios, or O'Hara could have. However, I expect him to settle
in and come good next season. He does have the ability to score, showed some
great passing using both feet at Everton and bites constantly at the ankles
of the opposition. Steed Malbranque without the age and Frenchiness. +Why is this article called "Building the Grindhouse"? Because that is what I, as a couch-manager, think Spurs need to
do. Of the top 5 teams only two cannot grind out results against determined,
lower-league opposition and they sit 4th and 5th. Kenny Dalglish now has
Liverpool doing it in 6th and you can bet they're going to be mixing it up in
the top4 next year. Key to grinding out results are hard workers and hard
tacklers with a strong, skilled striker to hold up the ball and muscle out
defenders. Creative players then come on between 70 and 80 minutes against
tired opposition if the result isn't yet safe. Chelsea under Jose Mourinho and Bolton under Sam Allardyce were
ultimate Grindhouses. If we had had Kevin Davies from Bolton instead of Peter
Crouch from Mars (a lower gravity planet) I firmly believe we could be
further up the log. Grinding does not mean there is nothing to watch and no skill on
display and with the exception of a striker we already have the players to
grind out results. Replace Crouch, our only and gangly target man or
Pavlyuchenko, who hasn't the strength to hold off opponents, with a Drogba, van
Persie, van Nistlerooy or Berbatov. Suddenly and we can turn the results
against the bottom 4 into into the same results we got playing positions 6-9
on the log. We find ourselves with 19 points instead of 10. +Okay smartarse, who is your "Grindhouse" team? Gomes Hutton
- King - Gallas - Ekotto (Hutton ahead of Corluka for width in attack) Kaboul
- Jenas - Sandro (Jenas can swop out with Palacios or Pienaar depending on
form) Modric
- van der Vaart Striker
who is unknown. After 70 minutes a tired opposition could face any combination
of Bale, Lennon, Defoe and Pavlyuchenko who all thrive on space so much they
could be astronauts. This is basically what Chelsea have been doing since
Jose Mourinho formed the team way back in the 17th century and the reason why
Manchester United can win the league with, mostly, a very ordinary squad. +Final Words It may well be Harry's final season with us. England beckons and
we can only hope that the Football Association continues to make derisory
appointments and passes Harry up. Let's enjoy it. A quick reminder to anyone coming out to South Africa for the
pre-season tour to sign up with us at www.spursfans.co.za
to find out about where we will be getting together before the games. Jester
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Disclaimer: Please note the words on this page are the opinion
of the topspurs columnist and are just that, opinions, not facts and are nothing
to do with Tottenham Hotspur Football club PLC. Just a supporter having his
say nothing more nothing less. Any commentary on betting is meant for
discussion purposes only and does not constitute any form of advice or
recommendation. |