Ridicule is nothing to be scared off

After we lost at Stoke I was asked to give my opinions about Spurs to a fans website, Vital Sunderland, ahead of their club’s visit to White Hart Lane a few days later. I said, as can be read here, that I fully expected Spurs to compete for a top three finish before the season started, and that, and more, was also well within our grasp midway through the last two seasons, although we didn’t capitalise on our opportunity.

Harry Redknapp was ridiculed in some quarters when he said we could win the League last January, but he was right. The League was there for the taking, and Sir Alex Ferguson knew that Spurs were a threat when he came to White Hart Lane happy to get away with a 0-0, as they hung on to their lead at the top of the league, while we ended the game with two wingers, two central strikers and Modric and Van Der Vaart in central midfield.

The top of the league is much more competitive this year, mainly due to the way Manchester City have undergone a transformation in the summer, suddenly playing an expansive and attacking game, lifted not just by the signing of Sergio Augero, but primarily by winning their first major trophy for 25 years.

It is worth remembering that until the Carling Cup the season before last under Mark Hughes, City hadn’t reached a major cup semi-final since we beat them at Wembley in 1981. In that same period since the ’81 Cup Final, we have seriously challenged for the title (most notably in 1982 and 1985), reached a further 17 semi-finals, playing in nine more cup finals and winning another five trophies.

We are much more used to success, although you wouldn’t think it judging by the sniggers (until very recently at least) by TV presenters, journalists and pundits whenever the topic of Spurs as title contenders has been forced upon them due to our form and position in the table. Sadly the same is true for some Spurs fans, including those who trolled my answers to the Sunderland site, who suggested we would be “lucky” to finish in the top four.

Of course, it is not the history of the last thirty years that is going to be the most significant factor (although confidence, pressure and mentality are factors, and which I will come onto later), but performances and results. Anyone who thinks we are lucky to be in the top four, clearly either hasn’t watched much football in the last twelve months (by either ourselves, Chelsea or Liverpool), unless they have a very different interpretation of the game to me.

Chelsea started last season off phenomenally, but soon got in a rut, and for over 12 months now have failed to look convincing to the extent that they struggle to break teams down at home in the League, and are can be put under the cosh for periods, both home and away.

Liverpool put a few teams away in the second half of last season, but were found out when they played us at Anfield in May. We outclassed them, dominating the midfield (just as we had at Chelsea a few weeks earlier), and beat them comfortably. They strengthened the squad in the summer, but in truth only Jose Enriquie could challenge for a place in our best XI; when not suspended, Luis Suarez’s goalscoring record is poor in comparison to the sometimes wasteful Adebayor, which puts their star player’s worth into perspective against our much better team.

I said many weeks ago I thought we had the best XI in the league. City though, have the best squad. They also have the points on the board, a far superior goal difference, and have won their two six-pointers away at White Hart Lane and Old Trafford.

So, the League at the top is much more competitive than it has been for the last two seasons at the turn of the year. However, as is surely evident to all, we have also now also improved. We added a real quality player in Rafa Van Der Vaart last August, and since then have at times blown good teams away, as best exemplified by our great European experience last season. This term, we finally got Scott Parker, the leader in midfielder we needed, as well as in Adebayor, the presence we lacked right up top in the last campaign.

I wrote last May that we had shown a winning mentality last season, on four occasions winning a game after we had missed a penalty, and transparent in comments from the players and the manager. Only at the end of last season, after our slump in form and when Redknapp seemed to find his v-neck jumper, duffle coat and previously thick skin was failing him, did he show any signs of doubt, with his silly “this is as good as it gets” comments.

No doubt he has got his ambition back in order this time round, after the signings of Parker and Adebayor at least  - if we finish two points behind City he may regret his white-flag selection of Kranjcar in the middle of a 4-4-2 at home to City for years to come; but his end-of-season wobble can now be seen as an aberration, and almost forgivable.

And even though we were heavily beaten by City in the end, we were on top to start with and created chances. Had we got the first goal City may have struggled to get back in the game (even with our emptied midfield), as they did when they went behind in Europe. It looked until recently only European teams had sussed out how to play City, but Roy Hodgsen frustrated them and troubled them in equal measure on Boxing Day, and as even Chelsea showed against them, any team can let in two goals in a short space of time when put under a spell of pressure.

And the key to catching City could be pressure. Just a few weeks ago they were openly talking about winning the Champions League. The ten day spell in January when they play two legs of a semi-final against a desperate Liverpool, and the 3^rd Round of the FA Cup against a motivated Manchester United, could be crucial. If they go out of those competitions, suddenly they only have an awkward distraction of the Europa League, with all their eggs firmly in the basket of a Championship race they are expected to win.

Which is why, from Tottenham’s perspective, it is not a bad thing Man Utd have stayed close to them in the League. United have accumulated much more points than their form has suggested, and many more points than at this stage of the season the last two times they one their title. They have also shown in their last two games, how to cash-in against teams they are dominating, which may be crucial if the League is decided on goal difference. But their defeats by Basel, Crystal Palace and City, show they are far from an all concurring team.

Spurs look as good as any side in the League, and have done for a while now. As well as playing excellent passing and moving football, we also have a cutting edge to win matches, and can play in different formations. In the pub after the Chelsea last week, where we played 4-3-3 to great effect in the first half, I said I thought Bale was good enough to play up-front if needed, so good was his current form, coupled with his all round attributes, summarized well by Redknapp, post-Norwich, and surely obvious to all.

Against Norwich, we employed 4-3-3 again, with all of the front three fluid in their movement, both full-backs pushed up, and a central midfield three that dominated the game. Against Villa, Liverpool and QPR, some of our football was stunning at times. Bale also moved inside well in that second half against QPR, with Lennon adding width on the left, and Walker on the right. We played three at the back with wing backs in a good second half against Stoke, and in the second half against Sunderland, effectively played a diamond, with Van Der Vaart in the hole behind two strikers, and both full-backs high up the pitch again. (That shape allowed Van Der Vaart to play two stunning balls out to the pushed on Ekotto, the second on the half-volley, which Glenn Hoddle would have been proud of. No higher praise in my book).

And as well as playing excellent football, and changing our shape at will, we are making a habit of winning games.

We could do with strengthening the squad in January though, regardless of what the club say publicly – a top quality signing could well take us to another level, but just as important is having two sets of eleven players who can comfortably play in the biggest games of the season, as City have. We have a strong squad, but there are a couple of positions that look vulnerable if we are hit by injury or suspension.

But being a few points of the pace is not a bad place to be, with the burden of expectation on City. Anything can happen, and we may drop some points in a busy January, where all games continue to be winnable, including the six-pointer at City where, last season apart, we have an excellent record. The hardest test may come if we were to go top before February is out. But the aim has got to be to win each game. And have the resilience to bounce back when we don’t.

The Spurs fans who trolled the piece I wrote for Vital Sunderland were most scathing in the response to my hope that we would finish 1^st this season. But being lucky enough to be a kid in the eighties, I didn’t just have the benefit of seeing the best years of Grange Hill, and hearing Adam Ant, I also saw a Spurs team that played brilliant football, winning trophies and challenging for the title. This Spurs side looks as good, it just needs to win things to fulfill its potential.

MG

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup for the first time in 49 seasons in now available to buy on Amazon and Smashwords.

 

The Ghost of White Hart Lane

In June 2011 I met Julie Welch ('Those Glory, Glory Days') and Rob White (son of Spurs Double winner and multiple cup-winner John White). In a discussion hosted by broadcaster and Spurs fan Danny Kelly, they spoke about their book, 'The Ghost of White Hart Lane', and that great Spurs team of the early sixties.

I wrote about the book, in light of that event (where I also met Double winner Peter Baker), while also noting the parallels with the developing current side, here.

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup for the first time in 49 seasons is available to download on Amazon and Smashwords.

There Goes The Fear

Reputations sometimes grow about players...they don’t track back/they never give the ball away/they go down easily/they are a brilliant every game and usually Man-of-the Match. (For the last one I refer you to either Bryan Robson or Steven Gerrard as viewed by a string of co-commentators). Sometimes the reputations are positive, sometimes negative. And in most cases they are usually exaggerations, or simply myths.

Gerrard and Robson have had quiet games. Paul Scholes did occasionally misplace a pass. Re-watch the 1981 Cup Final Replay and see how much hard toil Glenn Hoddle did actually put in, largely ignored by his critics. And there was even apparently a game during his spell in Holland when Luis Suarez did not roll-over six times when there was a passing breeze, although admittedly that rumour is unsubstantiated.

The same is true of Managers. Anyone who has played close attention to his time at Spurs knows that the Harry Redknapp is not the perfect man-manager casual readers of the back pages might believe. However, on the flip side of that, he is also is more open minded to tactical changes than the picture his harshest critics paint.

At Portsmouth he went with his gut instinct, and against some of his more cautious players’ wishes, to change to a system he felt was more suitable to the players he had. From the outside, he looked right. He had three centre-backs reasonably comfortable on the ball, wide players who may be more effective in advanced position than at full-back, and a player who could do with a bit of freedom of the middle of the park (Niko Kranjcar, incidentally). So, he changed the system to 3-4-1-2, against popular convention, and after a week practising it in training.

He has been more reluctant to change systems at Tottenham, but he has occasionally done so. Towards the end of his first season, in similar circumstances to Portsmouth, he played three centre-backs away at Everton; he utilised two attacking full-backs (Alan Hutton and Gareth Bale) as wing backs, with three centre-backs comfortable on the ball (Corluka, King and Woodgate), a central midfield three which gave more license for the talented Modric to roam (alongside Jenas and Huddlestone), behind a front two (Keane and Defoe).

The three in central midfield is key, because it is very unusual for any side of the highest calibre to play without three in the middle now, either through a player being able to play between the lines by dropping off from the hole in a 4-4-1-1, or by playing a 4-2-3-1. 

Rarer is the 4-3-3, but seemingly forgotten by most, Redknapp used this positively, and promisingly, with Spurs a couple of times last season.

In the second league game of last season we had an excellent win at Stoke with Lennon and Bale playing either side of Crouch in front of a midfield three of Palacios, Huddlestone and Jenas. Also away, in the second half of the league game at Wolves, Lennon and Bale came on, this time to play in a front three with Defoe in the middle, and looked like creating a goal-scoring opportunity every time they got the ball. Lennon played on the left, and Bale on the right, and while they hugged the touchline when they received the ball, the three midfielders allowed them to be more advanced and yet still have space to run onto, inside, on their favoured foot.

This is exactly how Angel Di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo play at Real Madrid, how Messi and Ronaldinhio both started at Barcelona, and how great wide players from Chris Waddle to Johan Cryuff have prospered. Football at the highest level is all about Movement.

Great forward players also need to be able to rotate within those forward positions. At International Level for Wales Bale has no problem playing on the right because he has three central midfielders behind him, and plenty of space to come infield. And as early as 2006, Martin Jol wrote in The Times during the World Cup to say that Aaron Lennon could play in the hole, and he thought he could do that for England. He rarely played Lennon in the hole himself, with Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov at his disposal the following season, but when he did (at the front of a diamond in the 3-3 draw at Stamford Bridge in the FA Cup), he was fantastic.

As well as Bale and Lennon, Spurs have Rafa Van Der Vaart; so three match-winners who can play between the lines and win games. Not all are going to be fit or on form all the time, so the challenge is to use them, and the rest of the squad, to the greatest effect.

Yesterday at Newcastle, Spurs started well for the first quarter of an hour but started getting sloppy in possession and the game got scrappy. Newcastle never really threatened, but Spurs failed to capitalise on being, on paper anyway, the superior team player-for-player.

To begin with, Modric tucked into midfield from the left, Bale was advanced on the right, Van Der Vaart was playing behind Adebayor, with Ekotto effectively starting as a wing-back, clearly under tactical instruction. The shape looked promising. The movement in the final third created an early opportunity for Van Der Vaart after a lovely dummy by Adebayor, and twice nearly created further chances, with final flicks just failing to put Van Der Vaart in.

But, Spurs still lacked a cutting-edge. Bale looked ineffective from the right, but was even less effective when he moved to the left midway through the first-half. There is a reluctance from many fans for Bale to play on the right, perhaps naturally, because when you look back at many of his great moments they have been on the left. Both his outstanding performances against Inter were on the left, as was his wonderful performance at home against Chelsea in April 2010, and countless other games. But in many of those games, including the three I mentioned, he was running from deep and running into space, against teams who were pushing up on the attack.

He gets less space to do the most damage when pushed high-up up on the left of a 4-4-2 against a team that is defending deep and in numbers, which is why Redknapp has often said he could be most dangerous at a left back, where he first showed how good he was when Redknapp finally gave him a run. His left-foot and technical ability is so good however, he is still the best option on the left of a 4-4-2 not just at the club, but arguably in the world. But, then, who plays 4-4-2 now?

Bale has also excelled when given more freedom, such as away at Arsenal last season, at home against the same opposition in April 2010, as well as his successes playing on the right already mentioned. His poor performance yesterday, which including giving the ball away cheaply when doing pieces of skill he usually nails against the best opposition in the world, was due to form rather more than positioning.

With over half-an-hour remaining and the score at 1-1 the introduction of Jermain Defoe, who was fresh from two weeks without a game, looked to be what was needed. And indeed, Defoe came on and made a difference, scoring the second goal and twice being in positions that could have won Tottenham the match (the first time he didn’t receive the ball from Adebayor, and the second time he failed to square the ball to Jake Livermore who had an empty net).

However, Redknapp could have been braver with his substitution. He could have brought Defoe on, but rather than taking off Van Der Vaart, he could have brought off Bale, and played either a diamond, a 4-3-1-2 with Van Der Vaart in a free role behind the strikers or even the Christmas Tree. 

Redknapp said he took Van Der Vaart off because he had played two International games; that’s true, but so had Bale, and Van Der Vaart utilises his energy in dangerous positions (as Joe Cole noted at the weekend conserving energy is favoured more outside the Premier League), as opposed to the all action Bale, who clearly looked tired.

There are times when there are more reasons for Van Der Vaart to come off, such as when he is on a booking, but having spoken to the press about a historic hamstring injury in the week (leading to speculative team news Van Der Vaart was doubtful, when he wasn't), it seemed Redknapp was expediently jumping into the bed he had already made. Did Van Der Vaart really look “leggy”? Or more tired than Bale? Or was it a kop out to not change the shape?

A Christmas Tree, a 4-3-2-1 with Van Der Vaart and Defoe advanced of a three-man midfield, could have been the best system with the players, had Redknapp been brave enough to take Bale off. It would have allowed Modric to have freedom in the middle, the attacking full-backs space to push into on both sides with Livermore and Parker protecting the centre-backs, while also giving Van Der Vaart more license to roam as well.

Instead, Bale struggled on the left, and we were without our most regular match-winner for the final third of the game. There are times when it is ideal two have two recognised strikers on the pitch, but it would be foolish to think that 4-4-2 is the only way to do that, particularly with the players we have got.

Just a look at the current league table is a reminder that when Man City or Man Utd play two strikers, one of them drops in the hole, or when they play with a front three, two of them come in from advanced positions out-wide. Just as Chelsea also do, with three central midfielders behind them. Just as Barcelona do. And Real Madrid. And on the International stage Spain, Holland and Germany.  

At the highest level shape and movement are key. Redknapp knows that, and he knows he has the players. He just needs to be brave enough to put that into practice. To Dare is to Do.

MG

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup for the first time in 49 seasons is now available to download on Amazon and Smashwords.

 

Across the Lines

Rafa Van Der Vaart and Spurs

Later today, as every other day in an international week, Sky Sports News will cover live press conferences of England players, who will rarely deliver anything more than platitudes and clichés. Press journalists will also be given time with players, and in some of the broadsheets, from some of the better journalists, there may be more insightful interviews to come in the week.

According to The Guardian’s ‘Secret Footballer’, footballers in general are more intelligent than they are given credit for. This is sometimes hard to believe when they constantly talk about practical jokes which regularly involving “cutting-up” each others clothes, but in their defence, when they are interviewed straight after a game on television, or at a press conference, they are usually spoon-fed words, so they can state the obvious.

With Dutch players, things are different. Anyone who has taken only a passing interest in Dutch football knows that their players have a reputation for being bright, articulate and often constructively critical. Their willingness to be analytical about football is particularly refreshing when the game in England is still covered so complacently in so many formats. We are as likely to have as much time on clips of someone falling down to comedy music on Match of the Day 2, as we are to actually looking at formations, and even Sky’s Super Sunday would still rather shift its agenda to talk about so-called controversial incidents at the drop of a hat on a live-game than talk about tactics.

This dumbing-down in football coverage is in sharp contrast to Sky Sports excellent coverage of cricket, hearing John McEnroe cover tennis on the BBC or listening to Michael Johnson talk about Athletics. Instead, in football, on Sunday night we had the bizarre situation of Dion Dublin trying to question Rafa Van Der Vaart’s great close control, on the back of a contrived moment of controversy.

Football on TV is still too much like a News Bulletin that gives over half it’s coverage to ‘And Finally...’ stories; even worse, its coverage in the tabloid press is like a sensationalised version of the 60 second news bulletin, where the presenter has to spell the headline out, and talk really slowly, assuming the viewer is really stupid, without ever covering any detail. (Yeah, that one).

Perhaps it is because of this shit that we are regularly served up that when an intelligent player states the bleeding obvious, as Rafa Van Der Vaart has done, it is taken out of all context.

I was very confident ahead of the North London on Sunday. I believed Spurs should have finished ahead of Arsenal in the League last season, and was confident even after our poor start to the season that we should be challenging for a top three finish this time around. Adding Scott Parker and Emannual Adebayor in the transfer window and the return of Ledley King now make us a very, very strong team. If King and Parker play the majority of games this season, we will be very hard to beat. And with Adebayor, we now look like we have a cutting edge to add to match-winners at our disposal who include Van Der Vaart, Garteh Bale and Aaron Lennon. Sandro and Modric aren’t bad either.

However, drinking in the sun in the pub garden in N17 before the match, I was disappointed when the team came through on Twitter. I would have played Rafa Van Der Vaart, no question, but I would played him in the hole behind Adebayor, certainly not on the right of a 4-4-2. If we had played a 4-2-3-1, Van Der Vaart could play anywhere in the three, although he is clearly our best player in an advanced central midfield position, as his goals, assists and ability to constantly threaten (such as at Milan away) have proved.

Van Der Vaart is the player who when he arrived took Spurs to another level last season. He has a genuine winning mentality, world class technical ability, and most importantly is the player who can win matches from the crucial position between the lines. A great signing by Daniel Levy.

At away games at Stamford Bridge and Anfield last season he linked up in a central triangle with Sandro and Modric, which allowed us to dictate games, so it is not surprising when he says, as he was quoted today, that central midfield is his best position.

The idea of a best XI is a bit of a red herring; fitness, form, tactics and opposition are all factors before picking a side. For now though, prior to the transfer window, it would be hard to imagine a big game, when the squad is not being rotated, where King and Parker would not be the first two names on the Spurs team sheet when available; Van Der Vaart should then surely be next, crucial in the central role behind the main striker in either a 4-4-1-1 or a 4-2-3-1.

Modric has been most effective from deep centrally, dictating the pace from the back as much as any player has since the departure of Michael Carrick. But it will be hard to displace Sandro from there now, particularly with two away league games next. Things may be different in home games when teams come and defend, and two wingers are required from the start, and Modric will be more valuable as a creative force from a deeper lying central position than Sandro. But barring any injuries in the next two weeks, Modric is likely to start from the right against Newcastle.

Van Der Vaart made it clear he would play anywhere for Spurs in the interview that he was quoted from today. But that doesn’t mean he should play in a position which takes away his best qualities, which are so valuable to the team. For him to say that publicly is not some act of mutiny; it is just an intelligent bloke articulating what I, and many others, have long thought.

When asked about his injury, he said, not unreasonably, it may have been better if Harry Redknapp hadn’t fed the press a line about him wanting to come off previously because of hamstring injuries. And that line naturally led to Van Der Vaart now being asked to questions about his substitution on Sunday. Having already scored four goals in less than three full North Derbies, and already having played three killer balls that afternoon when he roamed inside, it was not surprising he didn’t want to come off with the game in the balance.

Of course most of us would have made a change, as we were getting outnumbered in the middle of the park, and the introduction of Sandro paid off. But Van Der Vaart is entitled to feel disappointed it was him that was withdrawn, when he could have gone in the middle behind one of the strikers.

It wasn’t long a go Redknapp was belittling Van Der Vaart on Sky Sports News because of an overblown press reaction to his surprise, while he was away, that he was left out of the Europa League Squad without being told. Unlike Redknapp’s comments, Van Der Vaart didn’t seek to score points or appear to be clever at anyone’s expense in these latest quotes, he just gave an honest and reasonable assessment of something most of us already knew.

When I first went to the Amsterdam Arena to see Ajax play in a league game nearly ten years ago, kids who could have been no more than six years old came on at half-time and showed fantastic skill, technique and intelligence in a fluid, passing game of five-a-side. It is no wonder the Dutch players have intelligence both on and off the pitch.

We should embrace that at Tottenham, a club where Danny Blanchflower and Ossie Ardiles, two of many articulate Greats, had their best days. As Johan Cruyff once said, “Football is a game you play with your brain”.

MG

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup for the first time in 49 seasons is available to buy from Amazon and Smashwords.

 

2+2=5

I am currently watching the BBC4 reruns of the Danish crime thriller ‘The Killing’. Episode nine was aired as this summer’s transfer window came to a climax last night; so as I turned my phone off, switched channels from Sky Sports News and closed down twitter, rather than hearing another 60 minutes of bluster, I was watching the lead-detective discuss the idea that a certain aspect of her murder case needed to be examined in more detail in order to solve the larger problem.

When looking to assess what are the key ingredients to successfully competing at the highest level in football, there are clues littered all over the place, left behind from the success achieved by those we seek to emulate: a long-term manager trusted by the board; a successful youth academy that develops children from their primary school years; a consistent stream of revenue from both merchandise and a big ground that not only brings in healthy matchday revenue, but can also generate other income streams; the ability to make the occasional top quality purchase in the transfer market; and of course, a great coach that now only plays good football, but has tactical nous.

If we focussed in on one area of Tottenham’s activity from the recent transfer window for an indicator as to our future plans and prospects, I think it would be interesting to start by looking at the players that we have offloaded.

Every departure was at the behest of the Club rather than a player leaving against the Club’s wishes; releasing them of course achieved the aim of not paying players that would struggle to make the final 25 man squad, but the ultimate reason that led to that situation was, of course, because they were surplus to requirements.

In all cases, players that were once bought as big assets are now no longer fancied by the Manager.

A far cry from the previous policy of making a profit on transfer fees, no money was made of the six players that left; in some cases this is not really relevant, as the player has served their purpose, like an insurance policy that has now run out without a claim being made. With others though, it is hard to view their initial outlay as anything other than largely dead money, where the Club has now had to cut its losses to get them of the wage bill.

In this window, as a Club, we tried to off load eight first-team squad players, six of whom went. And when looking at them briefly as to whether the initial transfer was worthwhile, it is worth remembering it was Spurs who agreed to pay what they did to buy the player, rather than the player himself, who was just the party that agreed to the move.

Defenders

Sebastian Bassong

Bought: c £8m

Didn’t leave

Bassong was a Redknapp signing, as he begged for another centre-back at the start of his first full-season, citing injuries to Ledley King and Jonathan Woodgate, and being down to the bare bones. Bassong had a good debut partnering Michael Dawson, scoring the winner at home to Liverpool, and looked to be a good squad player in his first season, playing his fair share of games when King was injured. But his defensive frailties became more costly in his second season, and Redknapp soon fell out with him. If a deal could have been done, it would made sense to get Gary Cahill in, a better player, with better prospects, and let Bassong leave; when he does go it will be for a financial loss, although for a seemingly panic buy, his contribution in the first season may have made the initial transfer fee worthwhile.

Alan Hutton

Bought: c £9m

Sold: c £4m

No problems in getting takers for Hutton, an attacking right-back highly thought off by Glasgow Rangers and Scotland fans, and originally purchased ahead of predicted interest from Manchester United and despite reluctance from the player. He suffered primarily due to a change of Manager. Though hit by injuries, and publicly derided by Redknapp, pragmatism on the Manager’s part enabled Hutton to get back into the first-team last year, initially after positively affecting a game as a substitute. He then had a run of 23 games in 25, which included both games against Internazionale in the Champions League. Redknapp loves a scapegoat though, and Hutton was the chosen one after his last performance against Fulham in the cup, and with the emergence of Kyle Walker it was inevitable one of the other right-backs would leave; ultimately, Redknapp never fancied Hutton, and he leaves for less than half the price he was bought for, without delivering value for the money that Spurs spent on him.

Midfielders

David Bentley

Bought: c £15m plus add-ons

Sold: One-year loan to West Ham United

It is not just hindsight that leads me to say, pound-coin-for-pound-coin, Bentley is one of the worst signings in the club’s history. The fee was ridiculous, and was reportedly going to involve Aaron Lennon being a make-weight in the deal; had that happened it is very probable Spurs would never have qualified for the Champions League the following year, and it sums up the disastrous transfer policy that summer. Bought by Damien Camolli, Juande Ramos quickly realised that Lennon was much more effective, although he tried to use Bentley’s right foot as a weapon where possible; but he was undermined by Bentley’s poor attitude. That attitude was also not tolerated by Redknapp, although Redknapp used him well as part of the squad in the run-in for Champions League qualification and an FA Cup run in 2010. Despite that contribution, and his wonderful goal against Arsenal on an unforgettable night at The Emirates, his purchase will be judged as millions of pounds down pan.

Jermaine Jenas

Bought: c £8m

Sell: One Year Loan

Bought ahead of what was then to be Tottenham’s most successful league campaign of 16 seasons, Jenas was a favourite of both Martin Jol and Juande Ramos. A constant, like a man who knew the bodies were buried, he paid his dues over five seasons, and was arguably his most consistent on the pitch last-term when he was just a squad member, rather an automatic first-team starter. He often produced in big games, particularly against the Arsenal, but never fulfilled his potential, and if he was to be sold to Villa for a reported £6m at the end of his loan spell, it would be good business.

Wilson Palacios

Bought: c £12m

Sold: c £6M

A Redknapp signing, Palacios definitely served his purpose, adding a real bite and energy in midfield to a struggling side that was still in a relegation battle when he joined in January 2009. No doubt affected by the loss of his brother at the end of the season, he never recaptured his form, and his technical limitations meant a move made sense for all parties. In the circumstances, his original outlay was justified.

Forwards

Peter Crouch

Bought: c £10m

Sold: c £10m

Another Redknapp signing, it was good business to recoup the money for Crouch now. His goal ratio of less than one in three sums up the problem of the squad last season, although he was a good foil at times for first Defoe, and then Van Der Vaart. His late winners at Eastlands and the San Siro contributed to two of the greatest nights in recent Tottenham Hotspur History, and a move now is best for all parties.

Robbie Keane

Bought: c £12m plus add-ons

Sold: c £3.5m

The sharp and dramatic loss in transfer fees mirrors the Keane’s loss in form in the space of two and a half seasons, but the outlay should be viewed in context of his original transfer fee received from Liverpool, and at the time it was an understandable buy by the club. I have looked back at Keane’s time at Spurs in both spells in more depth here.

Giovanni Dos Santos

Bought: c £5m plus add-ons

Didn’t leave

Not given a squad number, Dos Santos is still with us at the end of the window. A real talent and a product of Barcelona academy since the age of 11, just last summer Dos Santos was named in the official FIFA top three young players at the World Cup Finals, but only started two games for Spurs last season – once out of position on the right-wing of a 4-4-2 away at Young Boys, and then given 45 minutes as a forward in a midfield that provided no service, at home to Arsenal in the Carling Cup. In three seasons at Spurs he has been loaned out three times. Like Hutton, simply, he was bought by a previous regime, and Redknapp doesn’t fancy him.

Summary

At the end of last season, one-third of the players in the first-team squad were out-of-favour. The reasons, as outlined above, are not always the same, but show issues with previous buying policies, and also the problem of a Manager wanting to bring in his own players.

Few people expect Harry Redknapp to be the Manager come the start of next season. The ideal scenario is Spurs have a very good season, he gets the England job, we get compensated by the FA; meanwhile, Daniel Levy appoints a Manager he has faith in, and will be with us for the long-term. And he will need to be backed in the transfer market. Continually changing managers doesn’t work.

With that in mind, it is perhaps understandable that a Board that has previous spent heavily is now slightly reluctant to spend with a change of Manager in-sight. Some of the players out-of-favour show the issues of an ill-thought through spending policy. ENIC clearly have the funds, but there is nothing wrong with coupling ambition with a sound structure, a structure that should be more effective under the new Fair Play Rules. And now we have a bit of money from player sales ready to spend.

The current squad isn’t bad, although it is one quality striker short.

Adebayor can lead the line, but we are now reliant on him to not be out for any length of time until January, particularly while Defoe and Pavlyuchenko are yet to find form. There is cover in most other areas, although Jose Enrique, Gary Cahill and Charlie Adam would have all been welcome, and seemed to be attainable, yet went amiss in this window.

As I have written and said many times previously, Scott Parker will be a great addition. If his name ended in “o” or “i”, or maybe if he was a controversial figure, or maybe if we had paid over the odds for him, perhaps he may have sparked more imagination, but he is good signing; exactly what we needed last season and certainly in the two games we have lost in this campaign.

The most important business in this transfer window by the Club was not losing any of our best players; despite the willingness of lazy journalists and pundits, we were not bullied by players, agents or other clubs, and have set the stall out for future moves on our biggest assets.

We all got a bit excited last night with Sky Sports News’s claim that Spurs could make a dramatic big-name signing. And while a number of Redknapp’s comments can be taken with a pinch of salt, his suggestion that we were “overloaded” in the forwards department suggested we may bring another striker in. When he drove away from Chigwell last night, Redknapp deflected the question about a big name player to talk about Gary Cahill instead. Perhaps we missed out once again.

But nevertheless, as Redknapp may say one his more positive soundbites, “we are not a million miles away”.

Player-for-player, our better players could get into nearly every team in the country. It is now down to the Manager to get the best out of decent squad.

MG

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup is now available to buy from Amazon and Smashwords.

 

False Start

Two games, two heavy defeats.

After a taking a hammering on our own ground in a fixture that should have been a six-pointer, where many of the flaws in our first-team squad were exposed, against a back-drop of a ground emptying as quickly as The Emirates in front of a live global audience, it may a good time to look for a bit of perspective.

The boarded up shops and demolished infrastructure on Tottenham High Road instantly provide a bit of perspective. In the early hours of Sunday 7^th August, when Tottenham as a district was a headline across the world, some of instinctively thought that the club would immediately be a less attractive proposition in a key transfer window, while considering the possibility of national funding for a new stadium. Going back to N17 twice in four days for the first time since the rioting, is a reminder of the bigger picture.

On a more micro level, there is a sense of perspective that we still have the same players that battered the then reigning European Champions in the Champions League last season, and won away at Milan with one of the club’s all-time great European away performances, just 20 competitive games ago. As our manager is never slow in reminding us, things have been much worse. And, hopefully, we should have a stronger squad by close of play Wednesday when the transfer window shuts.

And, on the lowest level of them all, there was an undeniable silver lining yesterday. In the days after Labour lost the 1992 General Election after being well ahead in the polls throughout, the satirical comedy ‘Spitting Image’ had the crying Neil Kinnock puppet consoled by his wife Glenys with the thought of Chris Pattern losing his seat – the sketch showed Kinnock, in the midst of his darkest hour, smiling at the misery of his rival; it is far from the end of the world for Spurs, and seeing the great pretenders, one of the teams both the bookies and the media still expect to finish above us this season, get a proper going over at Old Trafford didn’t just bring a smile, but laughter. (Their third red card in three league games even felt like being spoilt by a Ferrero Rocher at the Ambassador’s Party.)

In contrast, we held our own at Old Trafford for the best part of an hour on Monday night, and were on top early on the second half, but failed to create a clear cut chance, with the usual problem of not having someone in the six-yard box when the ball was out wide; we were also being too reliant on a ‘shoot on sight’ policy for a suspect goalkeeper. Had Defoe either played in Van Der Vaart for a one-on-one rather than shooting or made a run across the goal himself when Lennon once again beat Evra and was in position to find him, we could have been one-nil up, and the start of our league season may have been entirely different.

But just before United took the lead the signs of us getting sloppy were there; Corluka gave the ball away carelessly from a throw, and Assou-Ekotto also gave the ball away cheaply as United went on to score the first, before we fell away badly. It was no surprise we were over-run in the end, not just because we were a League game behind United in match-sharpness as a team, but because we started with Jake Livermore and Niko Kranjcar as a central midfield two.

Livermore is a local lad from Enfield, and has done well in pre-season, but in truth at this moment in time he wouldn’t get anywhere near either Man United or Man City’s squad; regardless of our Europa League games, a loan at a Championship Club chasing for the play-offs may suit his development more.

Most of us, including the Chairman (and hopefully the Manager) would expect come the end of the transfer window we would have a squad from which a fit first-choice XI would compete to win at Old Trafford; but an XI on it’s own is not good enough, and we need to have a squad with at least two quality players per position. We won at the San Siro without our full complement, but our squad is far from complete and it doesn’t always necessarily need an oil-rich backer to improve it.

Liverpool, while clearly paying over the odds with a number of their transfers since January, have also made a couple of very astute signings in the summer, that can be considered good value in the current market: Jose Enrique is one of the best full-backs in the league, and was snapped up for £6m, while Charlie Adam, a player with a streak of competitiveness our midfield is sorely lacking who proved last season he can dictate the pace of any game, both score and make goals, was reportedly signed for £7m. Both of those players would have enhanced our squad, and were comfortably in our pay range, but for whatever reason, we missed out.

Once again yesterday, depressingly, Kranjcar started in central-midfield two. Kranjcar didn’t have his best game at Old Trafford, but played well in both games against Hearts, and has shown in both the Premier League and at International Level he is a quality player, but playing in a two against a Manchester City team that would have two defensive midfielders, plus three players playing between the lines ahead of a central striker was always asking for trouble.      

We started off well though on the ball, and could have twice taken the lead after fluent forward moves, showing signs of the passing and moving demonstrated at Tynecastle ten days earlier. There was no clinical finishing though, and Bale’s spurned opportunity yesterday was particularly disappointing, considering his undoubted ability and confidence. And we were made to pay.

The central midfield highlighted many of the deficiencies in our squad. There was no bite, no tackling, no enforcer, no leadership, and no protection of the defence. And conversely, as Van Der Vaart, the one player of ours who moves between the lines, dropped deep, no midfielder moved into the space he vacated. This lack-lustre midfield performance continued into the second-half when both Huddlestone and Livermore were on, both on their heels when there were opportunities to break into the box.

Both full-backs started off well, Ekotto continuing his improvement as a player, looking comfortable of the ball, and progressing play, and Corluka covering well. But once again as the game wore on Ekotto’s poor defending directly led to the third and fifth goals. By then, of course, the game was already up. Within the space of 100 minutes of football, starting with the first goal at Old Trafford on Monday, the team’s confidence had been shot to pieces.

Bizarrely, while 2-0 down, we had Bale, one of our better players at attacking a ball in the air, staying back on the half-way line to mark Nasri, their only man forward, while we took a corner, with Corluka (admittedly not the quickest) and Ekotto (admittedly on a booking) as two spare men. Perhaps understandable if we winning, but a sign of the fear of being caught on the break again, and a shift in emphasis to avoid a heavy defeat, rather than trying to fight-back.

City have improved dramatically since last season, now with the confidence of a first major trophy in 35 years won and Champions League qualification, in addition to signings that have allowed them to suddenly play with an attacking intent. All of their players are comfortable on the ball, and in Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure and Gareth Barry, they had plenty of leaders on the pitch yesterday. And they have De Jong still to come back.

Our confidence will be lifted with the right signings, and as highlighted, they don’t all have to be big-money transfers. Adebayor is a striker that can lead the line on his own, and will complement Van Der Vaart well, although Van Der Vaart’s injury may change the shape of the team in the short-term, unless we play Modric in the hole, or sign someone else who can play that position.

Scott Parker is a leader who started off as a both-footed ball player at Charlton, and adjusted his game early on to become to protect the back-four. Last year’s Player of the Season, we could have done with him last summer, when he initially wanted to come; West Ham wouldn’t sell him to us then, but may be forced to now, and it is a shame that transfer window doesn’t end before the English season starts, or we may not have had the bad start we so far have had.

Another striker would also be welcome; Crouch again looked poor yesterday, Defoe needs to be making runs into the box, and at both Edinburgh and White Hart Lane, Pavlyuchenko has shown he is not at the races at the moment.

Players will have to leave as well, and using Sebastian Bassong in a part-exchange to bring in Gary Cahill would be good business, as Bolton are clearly willing to sell. And there may even be a couple of players brought in that haven’t been widely speculated about, as was the case with Van Der Vaart last August.

Amidst all his verbal diarrhoea and his tactical indifference, Redknapp does seem to recognise what the squad lacks. For him to suddenly start talking up the teams prospects again this season in mid-week suggests he may get some of the players he wants. Characters with a winning mentality are important, as is quality. If we can get that in before the window shuts, while the Chairman continues to show we won’t be bullied by agents, players or other clubs, we will be in a much stronger position when we start against Wolves than our place in the table suggests.

MG

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the Champions League is now available on Amazon and Smashwords.

 

Shadow Player

On a particularly rocky ferry ride back from our UEFA Cup exit at the hands of Kaiserslautern in November 1999, I said to a couple of my fellow travelling friends that I believed Spurs had made a mistake missing out on the signing of Robbie Keane; Coventry City had recently bought him from Wolves for £6m and Spurs were reportedly interested in him. There was a strong rumour that the then Spurs Manager George Graham felt the price was too high. As I said at the time, I thought he was exactly what we needed, a young, bright goalscorer who could be as potent to us as Michael Owen was to Liverpool at the time.

I kept an eye on Keane and still thought we may be able to get him from Coventry. He scored 12 goals in 31 appearances for Coventry that season, good for him (and my fantasy football team), with the highlight for me being the televised winner he scored against Arsenal on Boxing day which I saw a few hours (and a few beers) after Spurs had won at home earlier that day.

Within a year his price had more than doubled, and Internazionale bought him for £13 million, but a quick change in management meant although he was popular with Inter fans, he was quickly back in England, snapped up by Leeds United, initially on loan. Even in a big first team squad he continued to get his share of goals (and points for my fantasy team), and I thought it was a good bit of business when we finally signed him in August 2002.

And his record in those six seasons of his first spell at Spurs, the longest spell he had at any one club, will stand the test of time. He scored goals with both feet, linked play well and became a leader in a side that has been notoriously lacking leaders in the last two decades. In those six seasons he scored 108 goals in 254 games, a healthy ratio for a player who also offered a lot more to the side.

Some players have a had good goalscoring records in the Premier League in the past, are adored by the media and end up going to Barcelona, but their stats are exaggerated because they were effectively flat-track bullies; the same can’t be said of Keane. Of those goals he scored for Spurs in his first spell, many of them were valuable and in tight games. He put Spurs in the lead at Old Trafford, Anfield and Highbury, scored last minute equalizers at home against both Arsenal and Chelsea – one a great example of bottle, the other a piece of inspirational skill – as well countless decisive goals in both league and cup.

Some of his finest goals for Spurs include the aforementioned equalizer at Chelsea, as well a wonderful first time finish in his early days at White Hart Lane against Leeds, a couple of great individual finishes home and away against Aston Villa, and a clever goal in an important win against Blackburn as Spurs achieved their highest league finish for 16 seasons. In fact he produced many great moments in those six seasons not even reflected in that goalscoring record, including his work from the left side of midfield that produced our first win against Chelsea for 15 years, and a cracking volley in a friendly against Torino.  

And if there was one performance that showed his genuine quality in those years, despite all his contributions for the club, it was one at international level, when he ran the game for the Republic of Ireland against a full-strength Dutch team at the Amsterdam Arena in 2004, scoring the only goal, in an individual performance of high class. He is now on 51 goals and counting at International level, an impressive record in itself, that includes goals against Spain and Germany at the World Cup Finals, as well as a goal in a European Championship Play-off against France.

But for all his qualities, Keane won’t be held in completely high regard at Spurs because in 2008 he made a very bad footballing decision; although finally settled at a club where he had just won his first trophy, enjoying his life living in Barnet, and being the main man in the Tottenham dressing-room, his head was turned.

At the time it seemed a bizarre decision for him, joining a Liverpool side already being managed erratically by Rafael Benetiz. Perhaps in the knowledge that Berbatov was determined to go, he also thought it was the time to move; he had said in a past Spurs programme Liverpool were his boyhood club, but by now he should have been a Spurs fan as a man; and either sentiment, or a green eye of greater riches, led him to make a decision from which his club career has never recovered.

Had he used a simple bit of cold-eyed analysis of where he thought he might fit into that Liverpool team, which had Steven Gerrard playing in the hole the previous season, it’s possible he may not have moved. But it obviously wasn’t a question he considered, as watching him at his opening press conference for Liverpool was like passing by the window of the barber’s shop when Samson was having his hair cut. As he was unveiled as the club’s new Number 7, following in the club’s great tradition of Michael Robinson, Harry Kewell and Vladimir Smicer, Benetiz said he could see Keane playing on the right or the left, as well as in the middle, which was obviously news to his new signing.

Keane clearly became unhappy very quickly with how Benetiz used him and relations soon broke down. While Keane made the poor decision to go to Anfield in the first place he was treated badly; after scoring a cracking goal away at Arsenal in a 1-1 draw he was then dropped from the squad in the next game, and his starts became rarer. It was said that Benetiz didn’t really want him, although all his comments on the Liverpool website and in the press about Keane when he was still a Tottenham player, clear attempts to unsettle him, suggested otherwise.

Had Keane stayed, Spurs would in all probability not have had the bad start they did to 2008-09 season, as eight new players at the club were struggling to come to terms with the pressure at White Hart Lane, leading to two points in eight games.

In the following January, Harry Redknapp, now the new Spurs manager, bought Keane back to the club on the last day of the transfer window, after another of the clubs re-signings, Jermain Defoe, got injured. (The reasons for Redknapp’s other re-signing that month, Pascal Chimbonda, will probably remain a mystery never to be solved).

The re-signing of Keane was understandable; though a different player than Defoe, both Harry Redknapp and Jamie Redknapp were critical of Benetiz’s handling of him, and the actual transfer fees meant Spurs had made a tidy little profit, almost an example of short-selling on players.

Keane though, was not the same player that left. He showed glimpses of his ability, notably in an assured performance in a midweek game at home to Stoke shortly after he returned, but failed to fully recapture his form. Redknapp started the following season with Defoe and Keane as his first choice pairing, a partnership that was never given enough time under Martin Jol, when both players were at their best. They combined well at times in that first spell, Defoe crossing well from the right, while Keane’s movement in the box could lead to a first time finish. But in their second spell, though it flourished in an excellent team performance at Hull, Keane’s best days were behind him.

New summer signing Peter Crouch emerged with a wonderfully effective performance from the substitutes bench at home to Birmingham on the fourth game of the season as Spurs were top of the league, and the was general astonishment when Keane retained his place against Burnley at the expense of Crouch in the next home game. As it turned out, Keane got four goals, to add to much better hat-tricks he scored at home to Wolves and Everton in his first spell. But it was a one-off.

His confidence had largely been shot. Even more than before he was holding on to the ball longer than he should when he could release players; he hesitated when he had shooting opportunities, and gradually became largely ineffective. Also, and perhaps crucially, he had lost the goodwill of those of us that pay to go and see Spurs week-in, week-out. Had he been playing well and scoring goals, he would have overcome any negativity regarding his desertion, as well as Redknapp’s dissatisfaction about an unauthorised beano in Dublin. But he failed to consistently perform on the pitch.

But recent memories shouldn’t cloud his overall contribution to our history. He may have become a shadow of himself as a player, and we will never know what would have happened if he had showed a bit of loyalty, and turned Liverpool down. (He is now another of a number of players who have left Tottenham in recent years to find that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.)

Interspersed with loan spells at West Ham and Celtic, he scored a further fifteen goals for Spurs in his second spell, and he is likely to remain as one of the top ten goalscorers in the club’s history for sometime to come. If, as reported, he joins the MLS, no doubt he will enjoy his time in LA; I’m sure I remember reading Galaxy was his favourite chocolate bar as a boy. Wherever he sees his last days out as a player though, he will always be a Spur as a man.

MG

My e-book on Tottenham Hotspur's return to the European Cup for the first time in 49 seasons is now available on Amazon and Smashwords.