Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Tottenham On Tour: Pirates Scuppered!


A game with plenty of everything. A Walt Disney sponsored penalty and Scotch Mist.

All in all, a decent performance from Tottenham. Admittedly against Animaniacs in Newcastle training shirts, but these are the friendlies...

Cerny was superb. Needless to say the penalty was a nonsense and he expertly dealt with 'go number one' and 'go number two'. The initial foul by Chimbonda was appalling and he needs to get that kind of rubbish out his system before the season starts.

Jenas. Dannyboy is clearly delighted and largely, so are we all. He made a couple of duff passes, but the rest of his distribution great his touch sublime.

He is absolutely at his best deep midfield spraying the ball wide or slotting through breathtaking midfield bypassing balls. The latter are wonderfully effective, when snapped up by the forward line they cause the opposing defense real headaches. Suddenly the attack is on.
Short passing is a waste of his talent.

My only concern on Jenas as captain is his leadership. We collectively 'went missing' for some of the second half and I don't yet know that he is the man to take the Lillywhites by the scruff of the neck and liven them up.

Elsewhere Bent's goal was classy, intelligent fare. Defoe was crying for a ball he could untangle.

Huddlestone needs time and space or can look cumbersome, their lot offered him neither, clambering about him like some sportswear clad remake of Gulliver's Travels.

The friendly status of this tie gives Kaboul some diplomatic immunity in relation to his small schoolboy errors, but his last third contributions were terrific. His free kick was exceptional. He will scare the monkey out of the Premiership if he can deliver this class of set piece play.

Taarabt appears to be in from a mold similar to that of Ronaldo. I genuinely don't have issue with that. At one stage he actually beat three players and then shielded the ball from four! His willingness to run at 'em and shoot is gripping stuff to watch. The only concern... here it comes.... is that he knows when to go for glory and when to share the wealth.

Pleased to see Stalteri increasingly looking the part, but Chimbonda and Gardner must both lose the 'professional foul' cobblers form their repertoires at once. It's great to see some backbone in the squad, but we're not Chavs, so let's fight fair.

Plenty of positives... Bring on the next lot then, says I.

*Here's some highlights c/o ryethfc*














13 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are missing a class midfielder ... period.

Anonymous said...

So Harry, does the book 'Me and My Jovial Spurs Anecdotes' come out in time for the Christmas market?
I'm gonna ask Santa for it !!! (Can you get JJ to sign it ?)

coys

Anonymous said...

nice article harry.......all in all i cant help get excited. its going to be an interesting season. must say our little french wonderkid is going and looks very similar to ronaldo when he started off.......cant believe he is 17!! and i like bent alot....and im afraid to say i think he may be better than defoe. hopefully we can keep them both happy but my brain says defoe will leave sooner or later unless he starts to make more of an impact on games. he needs confidence and some games but with competition so fierce now he may not get as much time as he needs to get his form back. one question are we going to sign prince and petrov? i hear lots of talk but nothing official. and what about ben arfa?? he is looked good against bolton for lyon......are we still looking at him?

Harry Hotspur said...

Christmas, yes, but I won't reveal what year..

More of a pamphlet really... you won't miss it, there's a picture of me 'getting my coat' on the front cover..

Anonymous said...

i like the french wonderkid alot and bent.....feel sorry for defoe but if loves us that much he willl fight. we need a solid midielder i reckon. prince would be good. somone to compete with jenas. whats happening with boateng and petrov?

do u know harry?

Anonymous said...

Absolutely spot on!!!! I've seen peeps on here slag you orf H? why? you are spot on - the main point i wanna make is that on vital spurs some were saying that Routledge had a good game OMG.... he is no good - if he needs time then hopefully he does it pre-season or otherwise back to Fulham. Please taarabt mature quick- we signed Rose from Leeds the future is ROSEY COYS..... YIDDONICK signing here soon

Anonymous said...

Nice article, bit harsh on the Hud which when space is afforded to him can be Hoddlesque in his distribution.
Generally agree We need solidity in midfield and Prince may be too young to handle this. Will his presence bring the best out of JJ. Every season we say the same thing, he's gonna come good this year.

Harry Hotspur said...

8.41 - Petrov is rumoured to talking to Man Citeh.

IN Manchester....

:(

Anonymous said...

No way will this happen.... Berbs + uefa football, he's c'min here. H I think he is the missing link, think of the experience (28 yrs) on the left flank for BALE COYS YIDDONICK

Anonymous said...

Normally agree with you,

Not so much this time,

Why so self righteous about Chimbo's clumsy tackle - get over it (it really wasn't as cynical as you make out, just mis-timed)...

JJ was poor once again...

Cerny could give Robbo a run for his money,

Defoe's too selfish, Bent will be class...

Great ball from Hudds for the first!

COYS!!!

Anonymous said...

10.02 anonymous. Were we watchin the same game mate? Chimp on duh was playing rugby on the peno and Jenas actually looked class for once.. on the whole it was good game., but it was only the Pugwashers, lol.

Anonymous said...

Lyon sold Malouda to Chelsea. Dont think they wanne offload another left-winger.. And yeah. We should all start to support JD. He has decided to stay and fight for his place. And we should all give him credit and our backing. The guy is class....

EL said...

Thanks Harry, great article & clip.

If Jenas can keep the sort of form you describe against premier sides and almost every game then I'll happily start shouting his name from the rooftops but until then I still suspect he'll be a bench player or out by the start of the 08/09 season. It's not that he's bad, just that I think we need a more all round imposing player in that position.

Agree with your Chimbo comment and would like to see him remove the raggaddiest elements of his one on one play.

I'm fairly twitching with excitement while waiting to see how & where Taarabt is played this season.

Papers reckon petrov is going to man city. Did Spurs ever actually show an interest in him? I remember reading 'come and get me' pleas allegedly from him but nothing from Tottenham. Looks like birmingham are going to have to agree not to drop Mido & Ghaly's wages if they get relegated at the end of this season if they want the moves to happen. Hope they sort it. The 9 mil would come in handy.

Agree with the Cerny plaudits. Every time I see him he looks Robinson's equal. The bloke deserves a start or two.

I reckon this will be a make or break year for Hud. Either get mobile, or drop down a level. Harsh but that's life at the top. Hope he makes it.

Don't really understand the Defoe negativity. He scored nearly as many goals as Berbs & Keane with far fewer starts didn't he? Around 60 goals between the 3 of them. What's to complain about?

Two weeks two days and counting.

Go on the Spurs!