London_Calling
Pleasant and unpatronising
The future:
Well, we did it; now for the hard part of playing in, at the same time as qualifying for, the Champions League. Those who recall the fun of the UEFA Cup years will have twigged how tricky even that is – it’s a huge step change at every level from groundsmen to ticketing, to physio’s to first team squad. The Champions League is another country again. And then you have to win football matches as well, on average every 4 and a bit days for eight months, half the time against better and better opposition: An utterly relentless escalator.
The good news is the Chairman now has the experience to understand these issues and the manager to help him spend the money . . . . < insert comments here>
We will need 4 strikers of course; Crouch was, for me, player of the season, Defoe wasn’t and never will be, the situation with Robbie Keane and Eidur Gudjohnsen is unclear though it seems, as best we can tell, Pavlyuchenko is happy at the Lane and ‘arry is happy with him. We will need a kind of been-there-done-it/talisman type and Gudjohnsen absolutely fits that bill - and a lovely, intelligent player to bring on when you want to protect a 1-0 with 20 minutes to go. Having Crouch means you don’t need too many out and out strikers, your emphasis switches to second strikers and also combinations of players clever enough to work space free.
Midfield looks so exciting; Bale and Lennon haring down the chalk lines, Modric finding space to play in that dense central midfield area and . . . who knows the other . . . Sandro, the new Brazilian U21 captain and defensive midfielder, THudd arcing out 70 yarders to the hares and to the lamppost up front, or the dependable destroyer Palacious? In the not too distant past most of us would be happy with the leftovers from that (Bentley, Kranjcar, Jenas and O’Hara), so not too shabby across the middle.
Defence is a worry. If the first choice central pairing was fit – as it was two seasons ago – you’d put your bollocks on them, but they haven’t been and the future is unclear. For back ups – in a CL/Top 4 context - Dawson and Bassong are fine, but as back ups. We don’t have fullbacks who are clearly CL/Top 4 quality either, though the ‘keeper is. Kaboul just about held his own as a back up but I still don’t know why we spent £10 million on the two lads from Sheffield. It’s shaky at the back and the depth falls away very quickly
Out the door? Hutton, Dos Santos and Robbie Keane? Maybe Jenas, maybe O’Hara?
Coming in? Apart from Sandro . . . no idea, the squad is fine for the Premier League so the only improvement I can see is at the very top end – a little more absolute quality, if Levy pays the prices and the wages. The Joe Coles types, though it doesn’t have to be Joe Cole because I’m not sure where we’d play him . . .
Off the pitch, the new planning application for the 57,000 stadium, hotel, housing and retail development looks excellent and the new 67 acre, £30 million training facility at Bulls Cross is half finished.
On the pitch, the most exciting times since at least the early 80s and the best football I can ever recall seeing Tottenham play. Off the pitch, it’s a one in a hundred years moment.
Predictions: I’d like to qualify for the Europa Cup, make the Group stage of the CL, beat the goons at the Death Star, Man Utd anywhere (it’s been too long) and just continue to play like we did at the end against the goons and Chelsea at the Lane and Citeh at Eastlands.
COYS!
The biggest worry we have is the name of the stadium sponsor . . . .
Well, we did it; now for the hard part of playing in, at the same time as qualifying for, the Champions League. Those who recall the fun of the UEFA Cup years will have twigged how tricky even that is – it’s a huge step change at every level from groundsmen to ticketing, to physio’s to first team squad. The Champions League is another country again. And then you have to win football matches as well, on average every 4 and a bit days for eight months, half the time against better and better opposition: An utterly relentless escalator.
The good news is the Chairman now has the experience to understand these issues and the manager to help him spend the money . . . . < insert comments here>
We will need 4 strikers of course; Crouch was, for me, player of the season, Defoe wasn’t and never will be, the situation with Robbie Keane and Eidur Gudjohnsen is unclear though it seems, as best we can tell, Pavlyuchenko is happy at the Lane and ‘arry is happy with him. We will need a kind of been-there-done-it/talisman type and Gudjohnsen absolutely fits that bill - and a lovely, intelligent player to bring on when you want to protect a 1-0 with 20 minutes to go. Having Crouch means you don’t need too many out and out strikers, your emphasis switches to second strikers and also combinations of players clever enough to work space free.
Midfield looks so exciting; Bale and Lennon haring down the chalk lines, Modric finding space to play in that dense central midfield area and . . . who knows the other . . . Sandro, the new Brazilian U21 captain and defensive midfielder, THudd arcing out 70 yarders to the hares and to the lamppost up front, or the dependable destroyer Palacious? In the not too distant past most of us would be happy with the leftovers from that (Bentley, Kranjcar, Jenas and O’Hara), so not too shabby across the middle.
Defence is a worry. If the first choice central pairing was fit – as it was two seasons ago – you’d put your bollocks on them, but they haven’t been and the future is unclear. For back ups – in a CL/Top 4 context - Dawson and Bassong are fine, but as back ups. We don’t have fullbacks who are clearly CL/Top 4 quality either, though the ‘keeper is. Kaboul just about held his own as a back up but I still don’t know why we spent £10 million on the two lads from Sheffield. It’s shaky at the back and the depth falls away very quickly
Out the door? Hutton, Dos Santos and Robbie Keane? Maybe Jenas, maybe O’Hara?
Coming in? Apart from Sandro . . . no idea, the squad is fine for the Premier League so the only improvement I can see is at the very top end – a little more absolute quality, if Levy pays the prices and the wages. The Joe Coles types, though it doesn’t have to be Joe Cole because I’m not sure where we’d play him . . .
Off the pitch, the new planning application for the 57,000 stadium, hotel, housing and retail development looks excellent and the new 67 acre, £30 million training facility at Bulls Cross is half finished.
On the pitch, the most exciting times since at least the early 80s and the best football I can ever recall seeing Tottenham play. Off the pitch, it’s a one in a hundred years moment.
Predictions: I’d like to qualify for the Europa Cup, make the Group stage of the CL, beat the goons at the Death Star, Man Utd anywhere (it’s been too long) and just continue to play like we did at the end against the goons and Chelsea at the Lane and Citeh at Eastlands.
COYS!
The biggest worry we have is the name of the stadium sponsor . . . .
not me.
