Tottenham V Wigan - A tale of two Tottenham's

It was always going to be difficult to match the atmosphere and euphoria of Wednesday night. But Wigan had just been defated by a total of ten goals in two games. I am always trepadatious when facing a team that has just been heavily defeated, particularly where their last visit to White Hart Lane resulted in a thumping. So I was naturally catious and in fact I would have been hapy to win 1-0.

My apprehensions were much the same as a large proportion of the crowd. That obvioulsy had filtered to the players. I must say it was the quietest I had heard a Tottenham crowd. No doubt the experience of Stoke and Wolves from last year was playing on everyone's minds.

There is always two Tottenhams. The one that plays with energy and vigour and great creativity and a Tottenham that goes through the motions and is starved of any idea how to make a break through. Unfortunatly against Wigan it was the latter.

The match started out in a lethargic fashion for Tottenham, failing to control the match. Wigan crowded Tottenham out for long periods of the game. But it was some very sloppy passing by Palacios and Huddlestone that gave Wigan their opportunites. I felt our tactics were again wrong in this game. We desperately need someone to play in the hole behind the front two. When Crouch is playing, the ball keeps getting pumped up to him. The point is we more often than not lose the ball because the rebound goes into the area between the midfield and our forwards. If we played another player in that position it means we can at least compete for the ball, and will also help support an attack.

Another point is I don't see the point in playing both Huddlestone and Palacios against a team like Wigan. I find Huddlestone to be quite frustrating. Huddlestone had opportunites to get forward in the build up play but didn't. He had a chance of a one-two with Lennon but stayed back. I hope this isn't an instruction as we lack goals from midfield.

I may be wrong, but most teams either play 4-5-1 or 4-3-3, but we still play 4-4-2, or more to the point 4-2-2-2. There must be a reason why we strugglw to break down teams that set out to defend. If Tottenham are going to continue with 4-4-2 I would suggest we play at a far higher temp  than we did against. The performance was simply not good enough for our aspirations.

Tottenham v Young Boys - A slow start but a great finish.

So there I was headed out for my first ever Champions League game. I live about 60 miles from White Hart Lane and I usually leave about three hours before kick off with the hope of getting to my parking spot about an hour before the game, enough time to get my son some food and have a good read through the programme. Unfortunately heavy rain and a painfully slow M25 meant I missed kick off for the first time ever.

I hate people who turn up late and here I was making a whole row of fans stand up, including a man on crutches, to get to my seat, I really hate to inconvenience people. I am far too polite at times. Very Kindly, Spurs had provided everybody with flags, although mine was upside down, it was much appreciated. Even at my age I don't mind waving the odd flag.

No sooner had I taken my seat Tottenham took the lead. The atmosphere in the ground really took off. Even in the Paxton end  there was singing aplenty. The Young Boys fans sang "You only sing when you're winning", I thought this strange as we were winning from the 4th minute. Of course the Spurs fans were singing, "we're all going on a European tour", again a little strange as we would have been regardless of the result!

I was very impressed with the Young Boys support, they didn't stop singing all night. Less impressed I was with the football their team played. Much of their play consisted of spoiling, blocking and late lunges. They were not the same team that played Spurs the week before.

It is strange to say, but I didn't think Spurs played all that well. A better side would have scored a few against Spurs. Dawson, Corluka and Palacios were sloppy all night. Bale and Lennon were well marked for most of the game, although Bale played a part in the goals, he wasn't given much space all night.

I don't think we have our tactics right, especially when we play two deep/defensive midfielders and two strikers who like to sit on the shoulders of the last line of defence, there is a massive whole in midfield which means we concede easy possession. Maybe we would have set up differently had Modric or Dos Santos been fully fit.

However I digress, it was a good result for Spurs and the crowd enjoyed it. So we now have Inter Milan, Werder Breman and FC Twente to look forward to. More nights of crawling down the High Road through Edmonton and waiting a good 40 minutes to get back out of the car park and crawling back up the High Road to the North Circular.

These are the glory days back again, where we should always be. I only hope my son appreciates the moment like I do.

Parker to Spurs for Keane plus £5million

There is a report going around today that West Ham would be interested in selling Scott Parker to Tottenham for Robbie Keane plus £5million. By my reckoning that would make Parker worth about £13 million. I wouldn't for one moment think this is going to happen but if it did, I would say what the hell! When we can get Diarra for £8.5 million, why waste it on Parker, who is injury prone and not getting any younger. Of course I could be made to eat my words, it remains to be seen.

Now don't get me wrong, I think Keane has nowhere to go at Spurs and any pending new forward would put him even further down the pecking order, but there are better options for us to follow. I think most Spurs fans appreciate we are still not quite there when it comes to our goal scoring options. We have five very good forwards but what we need is a forward who can dominate and conjure something from nothing. Where is our Torres, Rooney or Drogba. A player I always liked and is still only 28 is Saviola. I always thought he was a class act. Of course a decade ago we could have signed E'to who was at Real Mallorca, I think he was on loan from Real Madrid. Glenn Hoddle wanted to sign him but David Pleat blocked the move. We could have had him for £11 million which would have been a major deal for us then on the back of the money we spent on Rebrov, it doesn't seem that much now.

We have been linked with Huntelaar for the last year but we have always struggled to bring in these sorts of players. At the moment we are a second tier European club. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Manchester United and Chelsea are going to be the preferred destinations of players like Huntelaar, we cant offer the wages and the prestige. It makes it harder for Tottenham, we see our club as the part of the elite, but we will not be there until we regularly compete in the Champions league and get through to the semi finals. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try though but we really do need to keep our feet on the ground.

We currently have Huddlestone, Palacios, Sandro and Jenas in central midfield and can also call on Modric to play there as well as Livermore who was on the bench yesterday. Jenas at the moment appears to be the weak link and I ma sure if the right offer came in he would go. I personally favour bringing back Carrick if he were available but I would not be too disappointed if it was Diarra to come in.

I think that with Giovani's rise in from and hopefully improvement in his attitude, it is only a metter of time that Keane will be sold and the money used to more than likely bolster our central midfield with possibly Jenas being sold as well. I can't see Daniel Levy sanctioning this move, it doesn't represent good business. Lets wait and see.

William Gallas moves to Tottenham - a new trend?

With what seems the almost certain signing of William Gallas this weekend, i was trying to remember the last time an Arsenal player crossed the divide to the Lillywhites. The most recent was in 2002 in the diminutive figure of Rohan Ricketts, although he had at the time only played once for arsenal and in fact only managed thirty six appearances for Spurs, the most notable occasion scoring a cracking goal in a 2-1 win over Leeds.

The next most recent player to move from Arsenal was David Jenkins who was part of a swap deal for Jimmy Robertson in 1968. David Jenkins was not a regular though and only featured in 17 games for Spurs.

Before Jenkins was Laurie Brown who came to Tottenham in 1964. His first match was against Arsenal in which Spurs won 3-1.

The only other notable player was Jimmy Brain who moved to Spurs in 1931 and made 47 appearances scoring ten goals.

There have also been a number going the other way. The first was George Hunt in 1937 who played 21 times for Arsenal scoring 3 goals.

Freddie Cox moved from Spurs in 1949 playing 94 times and scoring 16 times for Arsenal.

As mentioned before Jimmy Robertson moved to Arsenal in 1968 playing 46 times and scoring 7 goals.

Relegation cost Spurs 3 players in 1977. Steve Walford who who featured in 98 games for Arsenal, Willie Young who played 237 games and the most notable and most lamentable loss was Pat Jennings our legendary goalkeeper who went on to play another 327 times for the Arsenal.

I have left the worse to last and frankly cannot mention his name. The man who captained Spurs to a league cup triumph in 1999 and who said he would not sign for Arsenal, went on to move to the Gooners in 2001 playing a total of 207 games.

Of course in our current squad we have David Bentley, Jamie O'Hara and Anton Blackwood who have at least trained and in David Bentley's case played for Arsenal. Not to mention former managers George Graham and Terry Neill who have been in charge of both clubs.

So along with William Gallas we are also being linked with Alexander Hleb and last season we attempted to sign Patrick Viera and a few years ago we were allegedly trying to sign Silvain Wiltord. This begs the question, do our clubs take a more pragmatic view of transfers these days, and there are no longer any no go's? Only time will tell.

Waiting for the merry go round to begin

With the impending deal of James Milner going to Manchester City, maybe we shall at least see some transfer activity. Keane, Jenas and Bentley have all been linked with moves to Aston Villa, so it may only be a metter of time before at least one of them leaves. I would of said that bentley is the obvious choice as he is the closest player to match Milner, but as he is injured at the moment and Villa have Young and Downing, this may not happen.

Keane on the other hand needs to move on. He is clearly not happy and the Tottenham faithful, I know the irony, have not taken him back to their hearts after his move to Liverpool. Would we miss him? I don't think so. Currently our quartet of Defoe, Crouch, Pavyluchencko and Dos Santos looks capable of leading the line.

So lets assume we get about £8 million for Keane. One other player who could go is Jamie O'hara. Right up until he left on loan to go to Portsmouth, I thought he was a useful squad player with alot of heart to boot. But frankly his comments around the cup semi lead me to believe he is not a club man but a very selfish individual. Again O'Hara is injured which may inhibit our ability to move him on but I feel this move is inevitable. A move to Villa, Everton or Newcastle looks most likely. I think it would be likely to get around £5 million for O'hara.

Another player who is surplus to requirements is Hutton. We have a large number of players capable of playing right back including: Corluka, Kaboul, Walker, Naughton. The question is where would he go. It was expected he would return to Sunderland, however that seems to have gone cold. Maybe Newcastle, Brimingham or Stoke could be possible destinations. I would expect Hutton to go for between £3-5 million.

So who would we bring in as replacements. In my opinion the positions that need strengthening are left back, I see Bale as playing in a more advanced position and while I think Assou-Ekotto is a good left back, he was a weak link at times last season. My personal choice would be Benefica's Coentrao, who has been linked with Chelsea this week. I was very impressed with his performance on Lennon last week and would be a fine addition to our squad.

The next position I have concerns over is centre back. When all players are fit we are very strong but with King missing more than he plays and Woodgates likely absence for an extended period leaves us with Dawson and Bassong. Corluka has played there but I am not convinced about him, Walker is also an alternative but is still inexperienced. We should be looking at someone still relatively young but with some experience, my choice would be Ryan Shawcross of Stoke.

Central midfield is still not quite there. We have signed Sandro but I believe it will take him a good year before we start to see him up to premier League pace. With only Huddlestone, Jenas and Palacios there i am concerned we don't have someone capable of stringing passes together. I would go for an old boy in Micheal Carrick. he has struggled at Manchester United but would be a good additon to our squad and give us more depth.

Ideally we could use a quality goalscorer but i don't think we have the money at the present time, if a loan opportunity came for someone like Huntelaar we should grab it but this seems unlikely. This should be an intersting three weeks.

In defence of the 25 man squad

At the end of August all Premier League squads will have to be trimmed to 25 players born before January 1st 1989. Arsene Wenger made some comments last week along the lines of it wasn't helpful. Personally I don't know what his beef is and Arsenal shouldn't have a problem filling the quota as most of their players seem to be brought up through the ranks anyway.

I am not concerned about that lot from south of the Thames though. But in the context of the Premier League and English football in general I think this should be a great benefit. Of course you can't limit the number of EU players in your squad due to labour laws, but the prinipal will surely be to bring on more English talent.

Now clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and hopefully Spurs will be even further encourage to scout the world and bring in 15-17 year olds into their academies and thus qualify them as home grown players by the time they are 21 so I don't think it will really be too much of a burden.

These rules will make it hard for the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City to stockpile players, because they wont be able to have 30 man squads if they are all over 21. It will give the younger players a shot at getting the odd game. When you consider that 18 players are named in a squad each match it only takes a few injuries and/or suspensions then you will need to name some youngsters. So for Spurs the likes of Walker, Rose, Bostock, Parrett, Townsend and Livermore may get a look in.

Looking at Tottenham's squad we have by lucky chance exactly 25 players who are classifed as over 21, 12 of whom are home grown. ( I am not sure about Keane because of his time with Inter Milan.) When you consider that Bale, Walker, Rose, Dos Santos and Sandro are amongst the group under 21, we have quite a healthy squad.

The upshot of these rule changes will probably mean every loan contract will include a right to recall clause, thus enabling the parent club to enhance their squad when they are short of players while giving their youngsters some game time at lower division clubs.

Any transfer dealing will need to be made with the squad make up in mind. But for Spurs this is not a real problem as we could still sell four home grown players to still have the right mix in our squad. Let us just hope the national side will reap the benefit in a few years time.