Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Spurs Have Bought The 21st Century Cruyff



There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.”

I know, You Tube showreels can even make your nan look worth every bit of 16.5 mill. But in the words of Jon Ronson, 'For the love of...'

Our purchasing so far this window to quote Christopher Biggins, has been
Safari So Goody! Anyone remember that show? Come on you lot, this is THE Hub. I seamlessly (pfffffffft) give you Shakespeare, Ronson and Lukewarm in one hit....

COYS

108 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who's Cruff then you silly c*nt?

Anonymous said...

You might be right. You hit whore.

Anonymous said...

Taarabt could learn a thing or two from this fella.

Anonymous said...

Where will he play and who will he replace.

Messi + Benayoun + Hleb = Modric

ldntimes10.wordpress.com

yep.

Anonymous said...

I see Jenas is pictured on the new kit advert and is also quoted in the press as saying he's thrilled with the Modric signing, however, I can't see the two playing together in the same midfield. Clearly Modric can do all the things Jenas is supposed to be able to do, but too often proves incapable of doing. If this is true, will JJ be back-up. And so what is the best midfield pairing for Modric - Zokora?

Anonymous said...

looks like keano will be pissed off. The new lad looks like hes got a far better flip celebration. Question is has he got a better flip and a bang bang

Anonymous said...

Is there any news on the Bostock transfer Harry?

Anonymous said...

Trouble with buying quality players is that you need quality players around them to get their best. If Modric has to play alongsde Jenas, Zokora and/or Malbranque, he'll struggle as his brain will be working that much quicker than any of theirs. We desperately need more quality signings.

Anonymous said...

Did someone seriously suggest Zokora? Nice joke there!
Why not a new defensive midfielder with Jenas. And Modric, Keane and a wide man supporting a lone striker. If JJ had a ball winner then he can play, but for 2 seasons our midfield has been wide open and I can see Ramos going for the more continental 4-2-3-1. Just my thought on it.

Harry Hotspur said...

Bostock? I'm out of that particular loop....

Spurs Dude said...

Who's the knob who doesn't know who Cruyff (or Cruff) as they put it is? Look in the mirror to see the silly C*** pal. Loving the site HH

Wrighty7 said...

Without doubt Modric looks a decent buy.

Dont put too much pressure on him straight away, it will take 6 months for him to acclimatise to the Premiership.

Harry, I have you as a link now.

Harry Hotspur said...

Top man Wrighty. On the case son.

Anonymous said...

I reckon he'll play on the left with Jenas and a new defensive midfielder and whoever else on the right. That's my opinion anyway. To all the Jenas haters - get another whipping boy. Time and again I've said it - take Zokora out, put a class defensive midfielder in and watch JJ flourish. Look at him when he played with Carrick, who we have never replaced; the boy was / is class. And Modric looks pretty good too and he's ambidextrous with his feet !!!

coys

Anonymous said...

WOW, I've just watched that video and of course it means he will do exactly that for us no doubt.

Well done Harry, you are the best.

It reminds me of Iversen, the new Klinsmann and Rebrov....well, Rebrov.....what quality.

Harry, without Newsnow, what would you do for virtual friends?

Anonymous said...

Sriously - who will play along side Modric? Jenas (won't work IMO), Zokora (too shite IMO), Hud (possibly, but he's not the finished product quite yet), Tainio (probably off), Steed (two AM's?), Prince...?

Tom Osborne said...

He looks like a good player BUT I could make Jenas look this good by playing his highlights. No joke. I know he's a lot better than Jenas but I honestly think he won't have a week-in-week-out impact during his first season in the PL. There's no chance he will have as much time and space on the ball as he has enjoyed in the past. But over the seasons, he could be one of our best signings ever.

Unknown said...

Finishes like Vinny Samways from 10 yards but his approach play is amazing. In my fantasy world (where I look like George Clooney), we'd have Gattuso alongside him.

Sadly this is the real world (where I'm more like George Formby), so it looks like Jenas.

Hmmm, Jenas... Sadly our poster boy seems to have made it onto the kit shoot & 2008/9 by default as he was the only one not clearing his locker out at the time.

Unknown said...

p.s. Any word on whether this Dunn story is a load of guff or could the man who hammers in nails with his bare hands be headed lane-wards?

Collectively, they'd have the average speed of Fred Dibnah on his steamroller but you'd fancy Hutton, Woodgate & Dunn in a punch-up.

(I don't include Bale as he'd be at the bar, getting in the drinks for the 'big lads').

Sorry, but all this fancy toes in the middle is going to need a serious hard-arsed back 4 behind it.

Unknown said...

p.p.s. Errr.. Sorry, that's Dunne with an 'e'.

Over & out.

Anonymous said...

Dunne would be a quality signing in my opinion. He's been an outstanding player for citeh this season and with Keane already here, could be a goer. I like the sound of Dunne, Woody, Hutton & Bale. Hard assed with a bit of flair! Also news doing the rounds from more than 1 tabloid source (ahem) is Robinson swap for Hart - any thoughts / comments / views?

Harry Hotspur said...

23.01

Q.Good
A.Bsck to the inflatables?



Doug

Spelling? On HH? Pah! Relax. Blame it on Blogger, I do...

Anonymous said...

What exactly would be on Jenas' show reel? Managing to clear the first man at a set piece? Being one-on-one with the keeper only to bottle it for the upteenth time? True, playing alongside Zokora can't help (it's like watching the Chuckle Brothers at times: "to me, to you, oh, bugger...") but let's face it, Modric is a far superior player to JJ in every respect especially in his approach to the game. He seems to possess zeal, drive and aggression to compliment his technical abilities. I mean, it's not as if JJ was in an England team that beat Croatia twice, is it?
I only hope we can hang to him for more than one season.

Harry Hotspur said...

Dannyboy ~ Hart? Mnn. No bleedin well thank you is my take mate.

Anonymous said...

uh, "hang ON to him"... oops.

Harry Hotspur said...

23.52 is that you again? Chuckle Bros ;)

Anonymous said...

Harry your a git

Harry Hotspur said...

0007

a) what a moniker!
b) are you new?
c) in the words of pete n' dud, come again!

Anonymous said...

Great post(s) Doug. Harry, great Blog!

It will be interesting to see JR's new midfield (new starting 11 for that matter). Who makes way for Modric, JJ/Hud/Zok? Will the Bale/Gilberto combo solve Spurs' chronic left-side-problems? Where will Steed line up? Will Lennon and Daws snap out of their funk? Who will play keeper(s)? And of course, will Berb and Keane remain together up front? Not to mention who stays and who goes...

Oh, the unfailing hope we Spurs fans share in common when it cometh to "next season"... I suppose COYS is indeed an appropriate slogan for this never-a-dull-moment club we love! It's also what makes being a Spurs fan so much fun I guess.

Harry Hotspur said...

Gus Poet Welcome of course...

I've just popped on THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY.

See you in a bit.

;)

Anonymous said...

According to Imdb..

Tagline: Who lit the fuse that tore Harold's world apart?

Plot: Harold, a prosperous English gangster, is about to close a lucrative new deal when bombs start showing up in very inconvenient places.

Question: Will Harry Hotspur be alright? Is anyone safe?

onedavemackay said...

Harry. Fabulous picture of Greavsie. Well done you.

In our annual Pre last game beer and pizza session on Sunday, a group of us each wrote down our predicted line up for the first league match of 2008/9. Anyone here want to try ?

Also H don't you think this blog should have it's own player of the season ?

EL said...

I'm looking at Thud behind Modric. Lennon right and Bale left unless we get a proper left winger. Could really do with a top level defensive midfielder and get rid of Zok & Tainio.

Bostock is a done deal according to some rags inspite of interest from arse, chelsk, manure and barca allegedly. Comolli has been working overtime to persuade him so the story goes. His family want him to stay in London. I suspect we offered him the greatest chance of first team action, mind you we told Taraabt that and look where he is.

He became crystal palace's youngest first teamer after coming on as sub aged 15 and 287 days. Creative midfielder. England under 17 captain. Good addition to the squad if any of this is true. He's supposed to be mustard.

el

Harry Hotspur said...

00.56 Loving your work.

EL said...

Yes Harry, I'm with onedavemackay, the new photo is super, well done ickle you ;)

my player of the season:

Keane.

Harry Hotspur said...

el fire!

;)

Anonymous said...

my player of the season..

was going to be Steed until he faded a bit..

Woody's performances were excellent but he's only been here for half a seaosn... so ya i guess Keane should collect the award..

Dannyboy, JJ won't flourish... leave it alone.. let's not get into this again..

EL said...

Dannyboy, if even half the Spurs team had the same degree of application towards winning that you have in support of JJ, we'd have finished 5th again.

Could you pick a different player to relentlessly champion for next season?

Say...... Zokora?

Or Kaboul?

Anonymous said...

bimitar - no.
el - no.

next!

coys

TMWNN said...

"It will be interesting to see JR's new midfield (new starting 11 for that matter). Who makes way for Modric, JJ/Hud/Zok?"

I'm hoping that none of our present midfield are considered first team players next season. Unlikely, but you can always dream. Keep Jenas, with the amount of bullshit that comes out of his mouth, seemingly on a daily basis, surely there's room in the press office for him. He's got a great engine you know, and I'm sure his copier to fax runs would be a welcome addition.

onedavemackay said...

Funny thing is Dannyboy that though I'm with everyone else regarding JJ (he'll soon be history and he was appalling against Liverpool) I've started to appreciate Zokora. I thought he was pretty good Sunday.

My player of the year. Berba ? Keano ? Berba ? Keano ? Berba ? Keano ?

Has to be the Berb if he goes you just might see me cry.

TMWNN said...

Cant believe no one at the club has put a noose around his neck, sorry, I mean an arm around his shoulder (Freudian slip) and told him to do his talking on the pitch.

The photo of Greavesie is tops. Hope Bill Nicholson wasn't around when he was smoking that fag.

Anonymous said...

to be honest onedavemackey i would give it to Berb too... i just didn't want to be controversial!!

by far in a way our best player this year (alleged sulking aside)..

i'll definitely shed a tear when / if he goes..

(i'm still in denial that he will)

Anonymous said...

bimitar - if you shed a tear or 2 WHEN he goes, not if, stand in a bucket and drown in your tears, as no doubt you won't stop blubbing ;-)

to all the Jenas haters, a quick question - what was the verdict on him when he played alongside Carrick?

coys

Anonymous said...

Lol, I just thought..If we did buy Dunne and he replaced King (oONLY if injured for example), it would be Hutton, Woodgate, Dunne, Bale.
Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales.

EL said...

Dannyboy, exaggeration weakens rather than strengthens an argument.

I don't hate JJ; far from it; he works hard and I've no doubt does his best at all times.

He's just not good enough.

Anonymous said...

if only Modric's freekicks were as good as Jenas's

Anonymous said...

you're right Dannyboy i probably won't.. and that coupled with the fact that i've to suffer another year of Jenas (and Bent for that matter) means that i'll be crying for manys the month to come..

it's amazing how great you say Jenas is yet none of the top teams seem to want to buy him..not even the less-than top teams..

anyway like i said...lets not get into this...

GRAZZA said...

I seem to remember him being much the same as he is now, inconsistent and stemming the tide of any real disgruntlement towards him by getting goals here and there.

I think at that stage people were probably more lenient towards him as he bedded in and expectations were slightly lower then than they are now.

Thats what i remember, i certainly dont remember him shining - mind you Carrick cast such a huge shadow over the rest of our midfield performance wise its not surprising.

He certainly played like a man who had a £16 million signing hanging over him like the sword of damocles on saturday.

If Jermain Jenas maintained his upper percentile performances then he would be the first name on the team sheet. As it is he doesnt and unfortunately he doesnt even achieve a ratio of 1 in 2 good games, its more like 1 in 5. Which ultimately isnt good enough.

The only real run of form he showed this year was when Ramos took over - that faded so where do you go with the bloke?

Id give him one more season, let him start 08/09 in a hungrier, fresher spurs team.

GRAZZA said...

Bimi - everyones allowed a favourite, for example when i was a real nipper my first real proper favourite was wait for it........Guy Butters. To this day i have not been able to work out why.

Work that one out!! please also take into consideration that he had the likes of Gascoigne, Waddle etc for company.

I'll get me coat...

Anonymous said...

noted, grazza..

Anonymous said...

grazza -

I can top that. I used to like John Pratt.

To pile on the self-delusion, I preferred him to Perryman. I was young, but that's no excuse.

I'll get my coat, too. And order a taxi.

9.37 Anon

Anonymous said...

"to all the Jenas haters, a quick question - what was the verdict on him when he played alongside Carrick?"

My verdict - if we had someone half decent in there instead of that useless ponce we would have finished higher than fifth.

And he's got worse, so much for having potential.

GRAZZA said...

In your defence 9:37, at least JP is a lane "cult" hero, i mean i imagine the words "Butters" & "Guy" have not been uttered by a Yid since they were making themselves toast on fireworks night.

Anonymous said...

Well, I don't think he'll be filling the problem position on the left. In all those clips I didn't notice him using his left foot once (although the right looked pretty useful)!

Anonymous said...

Modric would be wasted on the left. To sign a creative goal scoring midfielder (finally!) and stick him out wide would be sheer folly. Here's hoping we get someone who's quicker than Steed and can cross better than li'l Lennon.

onedavemackay said...

If Modric is a top class central midfielder why would we play him wide and leave Jenus in the middle ? That's just bollocks . I've said before that Jenus would be gone in 2 years....make that 1.

By the way, Gus Poet that's a great name. Though it may be difficult to live up to.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. Showreels. Don't get me wrong, I eagerly await seeing this guy on the pitch wearing the Spurs shirt. However, only last year I eagerly awaited my first glimpse of a certain KPB in the lilywhite shirt based on his YouTube showreel. Unfortunately it seems around the time he signed for us, he'd already decided to swap the mouthwatering skills that had been highlighted on said clip I'd viewed, for some dumbells and a few lessons in greco-roman wrestling techniques.

Berba? Player of the season? Is that based on his three goals in the Prem and three in the UEFA Cup Group stages (one was a penalty too) before Christmas? Or based on a willingness to dismiss his virtual disappearing act and impressive scoring tally (one goal?) under Jol in the first two and a half months of the season? If Woody can't get it cos he wasn't ours before January and therefore "only contributed half a season" I suggest you review the above statement. Keane all the way.

9.37 Anon. John Pratt! Superb. My Dad was certainly not an admirer of his play, and was quite critical as I recall, until he moved on to Paul Miller!

I used to think Micky Hazard was great. For 65 minutes. But then I realised you need your players to be able to play week in week out, and all game.

shanemac said...

I'll tell you what, it would really make my day if Juande announced that Teemu is in his long term plans to play with Modric in the middle.

I could also happily deal with Pedersen for 4-7 mil to play on the left and Bentley for 15 mil to play on the right. That combination would make Bent look mint.

If I may weigh in on this Jenas debate, not to flog a dead horse or anything, I think of him as being in the same vein as Huddlestone, Chimbonda, and Lennon. They've got a lot of talent admittedly, but they just don't want to grow up. You always see pictures of them out partying. I've nothing against going out and drinking, but I can't recall seeing or hearing of Berbs, Keane, Malbranque, Dawson, or Tainio (cough) out partying. It's always the same 4 that you hear about. It belies a certain degree of immaturity. At some point you've got to grow up and accept the responsibility that's been bestowed upon you by the club. I just can't see them doing that. For me Jenas will never fully accept that he needs to take control of matches. Everyone looks around wondering where the inspiration is going to come from in the midfield. Carrick's been gone for two years, ffs. Zokora's clueless, Huddlestone is immobile and clumsy, however good his passing may be. Jenas is supposed to be the fulcrum of our attack. How long are we supposed to wait for him to realise he has to do it EVERY match, not just when he feels like it. I was so hopeful that he was going to break out of his shell after his string of performances around the 5-1, but he's turned back into the invisible man that we've come to know and hate. Nobody's saying that he's the worst player in the squad. But I think he's become the poster boy for the epidemic of inconsistency we've got going on.

shanemac said...

I also found an online shrine to John Pratt.

http://www.topspurs.com/thfc-jpshrine.htm

Anonymous said...

Bostock seems to be a very mature, religous young man if the article in the mirror is to be believed.

Anonymous said...

mysterious stranger - Once saw the sleight-footed Micky Hazard dance round an opponent on the touchline right in front of me. The crowd collectively drew breath. Loved the way he an Ossie played together.

Paul Miller? He was everybody's favourite when he headed that goal against Anderlecht in the first leg of the UEFA Cup Final.

Perhaps the Jenas / Lennon / Malbranque et al issue can be understood if we think of the squad undergoing transition in two phases. Assuming that sufficient numbers of new players are recruited, Phase One (season one) is to move on the lowest quality players that don't even make the bench. Higher (though not highest) quality players will be retained, but not necessarily for first-team choice. (For example, I could see Jenas coming on as a fresh pair of legs; or Lennon and Malbranque being introduced as impact players.) Phase Two (season two) is to recruit yet further playing-staff, ousting from the bench those who were relegated to it in Phase One.

Dawson, for instance, is likely to find himself down the pecking-order of centre-backs, if additions to that role are confirmed.

Thus, the retention of our personal bêtes noires is a playing contingency and essential back-up for this transitional process.

May be bo11ocks, but just a thought.

9.37 Anon

GRAZZA said...

Shanemac - Paragraph 1 spot on, the guy has had years in the CL with Auxerre, was the main man in the Finland side that achieved more qualification points than England and he doesnt seem to get a look (apart from Left wing) It seems crazy, maybe if he spent all his days telling the world how great he was or went to the JJ school of self-promotion then he might get a leg-up. As it is i think he's a humble finnish lad that we've chosen to neglect.

Look at his performances this year against arsenal and man u away? Fabregas and Hleb both got bullied by him, his passing is also understated, simple & purposeful.

Sad to see him behind the other sub-standard players you mentioned.

Do we get any Finns on here? i noticed some in Harrys Fantasy League. What do they think?

Anonymous said...

Thanks onedavemackay (15:21). After a plethora of anon's I felt it was time to find a proper moniker, but please don't hold me to any literary standard. Although I don't include myself among the Hollow Men, I most certainly am no T. S. Eliot.

EL said...

I used to really like john lacey.

Just kidding. My dad and I used to regularly laugh at his nervy ineptitude.

Alfie Conn was an early favourite. Can't even remember why. Hair?

Anonymous said...

sky sports says we have had a bid for a bolivian striker 'moreno' turned down? sgnifys ramos's intentions? berbagone?

coys

Anonymous said...

he's the white rohan ricketts,,can't wait to see him in a lillywhite shirt.

being serious for a second, his left foot looks to be his weaker, and we don't need another SteeeeD in that position. But i would say, fuck the wingers,play with 2 wingbacks(Bale & Hutton) and 3 across the middle (R to L) Thud,Modric,an other quality signing).it will be a waste of time pairing him with that excitable,usless,flapping,spinning,diving waste of space zokora.


congratulations to BMJ on the new job, I love Martin Jol, Martin Jol used to love me :-) hope you stuff the wankers up the road in pre season (would be great if a shed load of lillywhites turned up for that match)

over and out

SAM-SPAM-SPURS-MAN

Anonymous said...

Harry your clocks an hour out...sort it!!!!

GRAZZA said...

N7Teeniniho has been on the
cheap whizz tonight ;)

Anonymous said...

it was powdered rhino cock actually...;-()

Harry Hotspur said...

"Even a stopped clock gives the correct time twice a day"








Glad to see HH readers getting their kicks from the old chinese 'gp's' ...

Anonymous said...

my acupunctured nut sack is testimony to that GP Harry

Anonymous said...

did this turn into a sex chat forum while I wasn't looking?????

Anonymous said...

marcelo moreno check him out. awesome skill and touch of class http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ye-_Mz2-WI
Floppy TiTs......

Anonymous said...

Talking of hair, Joe Kinnear was a favourite of mine. I remember a home match against Leeds. 1970, it was. We drew 1-1.

Kinnear, to my young eyes at least, had a great game. Memory plays tricks but, down the years, I've had a image of him policing his line, galloping backwards like a pony.

Re the Teemu comments - I look at Teemu in the Lillywhite shirt and I see a proud boy realising his dream. Whether he is or isn't a good enough player for Ramos I don't know. But I'll always remember his mocking cheek to Joe Cole in pointing to the clock in the dying minutes of the Carling Cup Final. Nice one, Teemu.

9.37 Anon

shanemac said...

Te quiero, Teemu Tainio.

re Marcelo Moreno: I thought we were done signing young projects in favor of finished product players. more Klinsmann (is David Villa too much of a stretch?) and less Kevin-Prince Boateng por favor.

Anonymous said...

Moreno has mesmeric skill - on Youtube, at least. And his machine-gun goal celebration makes Robbie's bow-and-arrow ritual look a mite one-dimensional. Robbie needs to up his game and start miming a shoulder-launched rocket missile.

Moreno is quite tall for a Bolivian - 6ft, 1.5ins. £6 million for his services would be a cheap eexchange for selling Berba, and potentially good business to boot. But that, we're told, is not enough mullah to buy him.

Another but: he's apparently part-owned by a foreign businessman, with his club being entitled to only 40% of any fee. Shades of Tevez and Mascherano? Hope we know what we're getting into (as the student proctologists said).

9.37 Anon

Anonymous said...

after watching the UEFA cup final tonight, Levy must go and get Arshavin. What an awesome player. Break the bank for him.

coys

shanemac said...

As my dad said, "for the good of football, Rangers must not win".

Arshavin on the left Modric and Tainio in the middle, Malbranque on the right. Great! All we need now is another striker and a bionic reconstruction of Ledley King. All in all, should cost about 14 billion.

Anonymous said...

I feel sorry for Alan Hutton tonight. I feel sorry for him on two counts.

One, Rangers lost, and he must be very disappointed.

And two, he looks like Gary McAllister's love-child.

9.37 Anon

EL said...

Best ever Spurs player haircut:

Ralph Coates?

Any chance of a picture of his amazing bonce Harald?

His barnet during games was like a haystack in a force 10.(I would have put a link myself but I'm cyberstupid)

Some might say drop the cyber.

Anyone know a better ex-Spur thatch?

EL said...

P.S.

Would have been a travesty had rangers won.

Go on the zen.

Anonymous said...

Haircuts? Kazayuki Toda.

9.37 Anon

Anonymous said...

haircuts - prince-boateng?

TMWNN said...

"Nobody's saying that he's the worst player in the squad". I am.

Anonymous said...

Gary McAllister's love-child, 9.37 Anon?

I suspect Mr. Hutton is in fact the musical spawn of Mr. Joe Jackson -- b. 1954, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire.

This effervescent JJ was at his best in the 1980's, when he happen to have coined a lyric our Spursmen would do well to take to heart ...

"You can't get what you want, 'till you know what you want."

onedavemackay said...

Wow Great blog.
John Pratt, Ralph Coates' hair and at last the Tanio fan club become vocal.

Anonymous said...

El
Re: Reasons to like Alfie Conn.
(Apart from the hat-trick against the barcodes; and sitting on the ball against League champions Leeds) Yeah, there was the hair - I kinda think that if ever Russell Brand and Amy Winehouse got it together, they'd spawn something like our Alfie.

Grazza
Guy Butters, eh? Despite having a name better suited to a gay porn star, it was more a case of played-like-a-donkey, rather than hung-like one. But, boy, was he whole-hearted. When I moved from North London to Pompey for work, coincidentally Guy did too. They loved him at Fratton Park.
I always had a soft spot for Vincent Samways - partly to wind up my Uncle Pat, who seemed to spend most of the early 90s shelfside muttering "Vinny-bloody-Sideways - pass it forward, yer Bethnal Green bollox."
Vinny eventually transferred to La Liga and, astonishly, became a notoriously tough-tackling holding midfielder. On hearing Vinny described as a "genuine hardman" on Sky's Spanish footie programme, Pat laughed so violently he actually tore a rib muscle.

EL said...

Pompeyyid.


Quality.

Anonymous said...

whats happening with ghaly? is he written off? if we could forgive and forget i think he wuld be a good backup/squad player...

Anonymous said...

Modric will be immense I hope we sign Arshavin too and Amelia for goalkeeper. I can't wait until next season COYS

Thiagesh said...

This line-up is based on the transfer speculation that's going around...

Gks: Kameini/ Hart

Def: Bale/Gilberto(LB) Woodgate, King, Dunne, Dawson (CB) Hutton/ Gunter(RB)

Mid: Capel/Malbranque(LM) Modric, Jenas, O'Hara, Thudd, Diarra(CM), Bentley, Lennon(RM)

and hold ya breaths

Fwd: Eto'o, Keane, BERBATOV

Anonymous said...

I love this transfer speculation malarkey. Funniest piece of late is Alexander Hleb's excuse for wanting out of Ar*e: he can't stand the noise.

You'd think that, playing at the Emptycrates every fortnight, he'd get ample peace and quiet. If silence is what he wants he's in the ideal place.

9.37 Anon

Anonymous said...

was not a fan of zok in the middle untill i was forced to watch the africans cup of nations as i was living in france and only had eurosport!i couldnt believe the difference, he looked class in midfield and in defence!was by far the best player in the ic team, yaya toure looked average in comparison!is it possible to give him one more season?by the way speaking to a die hard city fan, who says dunne is alot quicker than people think, he even said he was 1 of the quickest in there squad!coys

Anonymous said...

"eto'o, Keane and Berbatov"

drool..

Anonymous said...

11:20

The freedom of not having Jenas stink the place up next to him.

EL said...

I was just looking at that new photo Harry put up and wondering why it so appeals.

Not just the cigarette, the tea, those shirts and the satisfactorily slumped demeanor of the players; it's that beautiful natural left to right lighting, the saturated reds of the technicolouresque 1960s emulsion, the complete lack of sponsorial logos or celebrity, and those creases, that lovely horizontal crease that speaks of someones love of that picture and what it represents to them, folded carefully and tucked away in a wallet or inside pocket, to be brought out and smiled at during quieter moments.

It's about time we had an up-to-date version of this photo. We could do with taking the next step. We could do with a magnificent no excuses season.


Maybe it's my oft rejected romanticism that has made me cynical?

For fcuksake Spurs.

Come on!

Anonymous said...

At Spurs it seems that the passion has left the pitch and landed in the stands. At least from whats written on here between the "we should sign..." and "**** is crap"
Anon 9.37 and 14.23 are clearly old school Spurs fans like myself, and appreciate that football isnt about getting 4th and qualifying for a tournament that you wont win just to bag a few more quid, but its to win tournaments, and play with style and passion.
As Harry quotes on the homepage, football is about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.
COYS.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you, el. You've thrown focus, like a camera's lens, on why the photo exerts such a delightful force.

For me the beauty is as you say; but it's also in the detail, and even more in the incongruity.

Detail and incongruity. Such as the hand that holds the cup of tea. And the other hand hovering over it. Is that a biscuit behind it, about to be dunked? Maybe. Football, tea and biscuits. A towel lies crumpled on the floor to keep soles clean. Against the wall, trousers hang with turn-ups. A time before trousers with turn-ups went out of fashion. Before, years later, they came into fashion again. Before they went out again.

Detail and incongruity. Such as Greavsie, cigarette in hand, lost in conversation. Is he discussing football or his plans for the holidays? One of his legs is casually resting on the other. Are these the legs that ghosted past
opponents, bemusing them with their skill and agility? Yet here they are, anonymous. Then there's the bank of unclad, anonymous legs behind him. Legs which, along with Greavsie's, kept the football world amazed.

It holds me in its thrall, this incongruity: that, out of this essential ordinariness, extraordinary things emerged, and history and legends were made.

9.37 Anon

Anonymous said...

El and 9.37 Anon

very poetic today lads.. but i like it.. keep up the good work..

onedavemackay said...

Agree with Bimmi. Well expressed El and 9.37 I really could not have said it half as well as you.

I think that we have one player in particular who would have suited those times and seems to have Tottenham in his heart and that's Keano. Here's to finding a few more like him.

EL said...

Re: 9.37anon

"out of this essential ordinariness, extraordinary things emerged".


Well I suppose our current lot are halfway there then.

Anonymous said...

Gomes

Hutton, Dunne, Woodgate, Bale

Modric, Jenas, Gattuso, Malbranque

Keane, Eto'o

-no arguments...

Harry Hotspur said...

Your post there El strikes a chord, mate. One of the first things to go through my mind when I sat staring at the picture for the first time, aside from all you wonderfully describe...was some Nick Cave.

'All the things for which my heart yearns
Gives joy in diminishing returns.'

Easy Money.

Summerspur said...

would love to see


hart

hutton zokora woodgate bale

king

bentley gattuso modric

ashavin


will probably be

carson

hutton dawson woody bale

steed jenas modric pederson

keane bent

eto

Summerspur said...

blasted silly machine left eto out as my first team striker

Harry Hotspur said...

Summerspur:

Is Hart any good? (Not a loaded question by the way)...

If so, what the right price in your opinion?

Summerspur said...

HARRY
i think he has huge potential, come a long way this last year and certainly does not lack confidence which is a must for a keeper.
think he is being touted for 5 mill, and as ghaly cost in excess of 3.5 mill he must be worth a gamble. who knows he may be worth 15 mill in few years.....not ghaly.