3-1 Wigan win. Not vintage, but then again, we haven’t been outstanding at any point this season. Side was balanced if not perfect (by not perfect I'm referring to most of our players having an abundance of space with regards to climbing the personal improvement chart). One or two (or more) still need to get on top of their game. Patience? I’m sure they will buck up their ideas once the transfer window signings arrive at the Lodge.
Wigan, toothless, so home win was never in doubt. Bale on a winning side, so crack open that bottle of Bucks Fizz and get on with snorting those lines off that hookers cleavage. Might not happen again, our Gareth, celebrating a win. Man Utd next. Away. Have to adore those warm balls in the Cup draw.
Ghaly. If you search the labels (bottom of the blog) for Ghaly posts, you’ll see I’ve been critical of the lad in the past. What’s done is done. He fucked up. Sure that night against Blackburn, he was all over the place. More Ollie Reed than Christopher Columbus. But you couldn’t fault his effort. His reaction was an emotional knee-jerk. Other players out on the field were just as bad as Ghaly performance wise, but not as forward as him with the ball, so obviously if you’re going to fail you’re going to look twice as bad if you are attempting something twice as bold.
His Birmingham transfer collapse and the consequent complaints about training sessions again didn’t help the Ghaly PR machine.
Now he’s back, and it’s obvious Harry wants to try him out in the first team. Would have played on Friday but the crowd’s reaction – the idiotic minority – were at it again. Difficult to pin-point what type of fan this is. The one who prefers the negative to the positive. There’s plenty of them in the South Stand, and in every other stand. Not a majority, but enough to make an impact strong enough to make Harry change his mind on the substitution. The club have since had to release a statement on the official site to help mitigate the situation.
Boo the team – as a whole, at half-time – if you’re getting stuffed 3-0 and the performance has been shambolic. It gets a reaction, at least it should. But pin-pointing individuals, and then harassing them? Well, we know all fans love a bit of this. And we are no exception. And much like all sets of fans, when things aren’t that great, we tend to find it easier to have a go, with zero tolerance.
When things are great, loudest noise in the world, White Hart Lane shakes the foundations of the planet. Space time continuum gets ripped a new one. But groans and moans, we do that just as good.
I might not rate Zokora. Or Jenas. I’ve never boo’ed them. Never. Why should I? And why would I think that boo’ing them would actually gauge a positive reaction from them? A monstrous call to get it together would be about a million times better for the individual who’s struggling.
We are meant to be the 12th player. So giving it in the way of support is the logical thing, no? Well no. It seems some of our fans have found it far easier to give up on a player and make sure they get the message.
Nothing new in this. And Bentley/Ghaly aside, Jenas tends to get it along with a few other players who have lost form or struggling since return from injury.
Eboue, who was having a mare for the Arse, got applause on his return. Ok, sure. He didn’t take his shirt off and throw it aside. And much like Ghaly, he’s an average player. And you might argue that he shouldn’t be anywhere near our first team. But if you or I were the manager we’d have Sergio Agüero upfront with Kaka playing just behind him. So let Harry pick the team. Let Ghaly - whether you rate him or not – play. And then we can pass final judgement.
Modric doing 'the worm' old skool styleElsewhere this weekend. Defoe has been receiving death threats to his home phone. Looks like his Pompey days are over and out. Whether Spurs is his destination, we’ll have to wait and see. Again, why he was sold in the first place considering the Berbatov situation at the time. But hey, old ground. Been there, done that about 1000 times already. Ironically, £20M for a player we sold for £9M? That’s some accountancy if we make the deal happen.
Downing has – or will be – handing in a transfer request. Uncertain about this one because I haven’t really taken much notice his weekly performances. Would mean having a left-winger for the first time in an age, so if you have another bottle of Bucks Fizz, keep it chilled.
Harry has also told us that we have ‘fantastic options’ in the transfer window, whether the Defoe deal happens or not. Fantastic is obviously debatable as a description if he means Bellamy. It’s not just his age (29) that bothers me, but personally, never liked his complaining/bitching attitude and his injury problems. He’s like a more gobby Robbie Keane, but far less likeable. Can he do a job for us? I’ll have to support Harry and the side he selects if Craig finds himself in it. If avoiding relegation means spending £8M on a West Ham player, then you know we’re in trouble. So let it happen if he can score the goals to lift us out of the bottom bit of the table.
At least Pav is finding his way a little more now. Learning the lingo and settling into English Prem life isn’t an over-night occurrence. As many seem to forget.
Utd in the 4th round. Again, yet another hiding to nothing up at OT. Makes you want to cry that.
Burnley at home on Tuesday night. Need a good tidy professional performance there. 4-0 will do me.
And no 'Stand up if you hate Arsenal' chants. Even if you want to annoy the stewards who ask you to sit down. There's eleven Spurs players out on the pitch. I know it's a bit drastic, but how about pushing aside all references to them lot, Judas and Defoe and concentrate on a bit of pro-Spurs support? I'm stuck up in the South upper stand on Tuesday as I forgot to reserve and purchase my seat in the lower tier. Bless me. No standing up all game for me then.