Spurs set to sign Abbey Clancy
Sunday, July 26, 2009 at 3:58PM I’m back from the melting pot of Southern Turkey where I enjoyed temperatures in the mid-forties, plenty of alcoholic beverages and God forsaken no internet access. Bliss. I’m tanned, refreshed and completely relaxed, even though the stormy weather over Gatwick meant my flight back was delayed for several hours. However, returning to England meant I was about to drown in an abundance of missed Spurs news relating to players signed and sold.
I should have stayed away for another seven days.
Naughton and Walker signed from Sheffield United. Which is nice. Two new kids to destroy. Gareth Bale, you are no longer alone son.
Adel Taarabt has joined QPR on loan for the season. I don’t mind saying that I’m quite happy with this, in that the alternative was him leaving the club altogether. Jury still out on the showboating midfield starlet having a career at the Lane, so all eyes on how he manages to handle a full term in the Championship where hopefully his composure and decision making will progress in the right direction. You have to wonder if it will. If he was that full of potential would we not want to look after him closer to home? Or at least loan him out to a Prem club? I guess if you ignore Adel’s constant whinging and self-hype, there is little (at the moment) to suggest he is half as good as he thinks he is. Feet do the talking time.
No news on Negredo. Last bit of info I had from my Madrid ‘contact’ was an echo of what most of their fans seem to be in agreement about:
He is in his final hours as a Real Madrid player and will be leaving the club's base in Ireland very soon. This deal will probably be announced officially in the next week. I suppose Spurs went after him once they realised they couldn't get Huntelaar.
After making a perfect start to his presidency, Florentino has now made his first big mistake. I really hope it’s his last. Even with the buyback option, i don't think the club should have released such a promising young talent so easily, especially when there are other crappy players in the squad that need to be sold.
That was from the 17th July. Nothing since. As for Huntelaar, I’m expecting him to turn up in red and white while we end up with Peter Crouch. Who, as a replacement for Bent, isn’t too shabby an option. But that’s a little bit like deciding that to get to where you want to be in a hurry you decide to skip instead of walk.
Crouch (bless his robotic bones) is not exactly a massive upgrade on what we have at the moment. What we have at the moment is a mish-mash of forwards who appear to have arrived at White Hart Lane like elephants walking towards the great graveyard. Apart from Defoe – Bent, Pav and Keane are now stuck firmly in the much-maligned category as we all struggle to understand what Harry is aiming for with regards to his forward line-up.
So what will Crouchie offer us other than a wonderfully gorgeous girlfriend sitting up in the stands? He’s shit in the air and he isn’t exactly prolific. But at least he does offer more than say Darren Bent, especially as a foil to Defoe. Yet still, what of Bent and Pav and Keano?
Even though Pompey have accepted our offer, Harry (interviewed on Sky Sports today) claims Levy is deep in talks and there is no deal currently or no fee agreed. So are Pompey playing silly buggers with their claims or after more money from another interested club?
Elsewhere, Hutton is apparently off to Everton although he appears to be playing for us against Celtic at Wembley today. More tabloid pish? Maybe, maybe not. Hutton isn’t the greatest defender but he attacks well. Just ask his dad. Moyes might get more out of him and we do have a ridiculous amount of full-backs, so if his off the field antics and his injury prone record are reasons to cash in and move on, then so be it.
And that’s it. No major mouth-watering signings in my absence. Patrick Vieira is still ‘making up his mind’ with regards to a move to Spurs. The ITK’s reckon he won’t be a constant first-team starter and Harry has been publicly speaking about him, almost like he is allowing us time to mentally prepare when he’s paraded wearing a Lilywhite shirt and holding up a Spurs scarf. As for the Harry comment relating to Sol Campbell (‘It will even it out...’) erm...no it won’t mate. Hush now. Let’s hope he doesn’t bring an awful amount of falling over shadows because unlike them lot over there, we don’t like fantastic cheats. Not that Vieira is anywhere near fantastic.
Reader Comments (40)
Yeah, Fabregas would "even out", can we have him please?
Welcome home Spooks, glad you're back. Things went to rat-shit while you were away, with every bell-end in the western world posting abuse and garbage. Can't wait for the season to start, and if our squad includes Crouch, Negredo or Huntelaar then all the better. The current crop don't include a plan B and I'm sick of Bent scoring off his shins or missing sitters. If it's true that asunder-land have bid £15 mil then we should be biting their arms off.
There's no comparison between Viera and Campbel - Campbel was at the top of his game, while Viera is a has been - and it doesn't matter whose has been he is.
Personally I am disgusted at our policy of only buying wanabees, has beens - oh yes, and Pompey players. If Redknapp thinks this will get us into the top four well it explains why he's never been there.
Harry really has a barely disguised disdain for the fans or us having any opinion beyond paying a pound of flesh and applauding. He should really just spit it out that he thinks we're morons and idiots because *sometimes* we're not particularly partial to his Gerry Francis level of player purchase.
Vieira is fine by me. Great. Note however that Redknapp making comments about how it 'levels out' the Sol Campbell issue is pathetic on his part, since it therefore means he validates any issue the fans might have with Sol. Therefore any comments he's made previously about fans being stupid for feeling aggrieved are no longer valid.
Sorry, but he does have a thinly veiled disdain for fans being allowed to have *any* kind of opinion.
Crouch - no. Just... no.
Why do we have scouts if our scouting network is anyone Harry's liked at a previous club.
Maybe we can straight swap Gomes for Shaka Hislop or David James.
For me, it's all going a bit Gerry Francis. All a bit QPR.
Everyone seems to be writing Keano off. He hasn't suddenly become shit. Granted, he didn't cover himself in glory by scuttling off to Liverpool the way he did and then slinking back to us. But he has always risen to a challenge for us when there has been one and he has seen Defoe off for a starting place before, even when JD was the man in possession under Martin Jol. I wouldn't bet against a Crouch-Keane partnership being even better than a Crouch-Defoe one. Also, I don't really know whether our (comparative) lack of activity in the transfer market is a bad thing. There are players such as Gio dos Santo and the wonderfully talented Gareth Bale who didn't make any impact for us last season but could prove to be like new signings this coming season. And a couple of youngsters that Harry is trying out pre-season could be anything! Add to this the fact that the likes of Modric, Corluka and Pavlyuchenko will be much more settled now and even better in the new season and we might be a bit of a surprise package. I don't KNOW this to be the case, of course. But let's have a little faith in Harry, even if he does want to sign Patrick Vieira. He deserves that much after last season. Remember, we only had two points ...
This match is embarrassing. Utter pap.
Shannon, you are right about one thing, Keane didn't suddenly become s**t overnight, he has been that way for several years. His main attributes are the ability to point and shout a lot while not making any constructive contribution to the game, inability to trap a bag of cement for his 1st touch, the ability to miss open goals and finally to spectacularly throw his dummy out of the pram when not selected or substituted.
I thought all our Christmases had come at once when we sold him to Liverpool but no, Harry had not only to bring him back, but really screw things up by making him captain. There may be trouble ahead....but if Harry really wants Huntelaar, why not sell Keane to Wolves (his boyhood team...well one of them anyway), and with the money recouped from selling Bent to Sunderland we could have a fast, mobile, goal-scoring centre-forward.
yeah!!!! remebre the 2points!!! and who made all player purchases last pree-seson? harry will turn us into p,mouth. all players we want is old west ham or p,mouth. where is the signings that show some ambition??????? to all the "have faith in arry" people. wait until the seson starts, i will guarantie that you all will have arrys head on a stake!! we are now moving backwards, and we will not get a top 4 pos, neither a top 7. ok, a top 7 could go, with luck. and when the things are all shit, he will leave and leave us in ruins. why cant we get a world-class manager??? arry is mediocre, at best. and p,mouth-peter is NOT the way to go, but hey arry has had him in another club, so we are going for something safe, and not that good. we have attackers that has his level, and higher. so wait and see, arry out by christmas, and the same mess aigain. norway.
I think we have to have a reality check at the club as some players drift away in their performance levels which is normal....for me seeing Barcelona move the ball around .........showed that we could be sending the youngsters out to la liga clubs on loan to gain all the tecnical requirements to make our football very attractive and raise the quality in the coming years.....for example why tarrabt is going to QPR?.....when he could be at seville......de santos is nowhere to be seen....what are we doing with his talent? ......surely to build high quality attractive football in the youngsters is moving the club forward......Harry still has his time to sort any weaknesses but we may have to be patient if the lack of silly money wont get us the quality immediately
iCROUCH ? er CROUCH? er CROUCH ? & VIERA ? i am gobsmacked , worse than pav, worse than bent ,which then makes him worse than SANDRA , unbelievable , i used to like the hype of "yeah this our year 5th & possible 4th with a champions league spot " ok we kept failing but at least the hope was there ( for a while anyway) but now we don`t even have that i`d rather keep the strikers we have ,(mind you KEANE can go waste of space ) & spend 10 million on a decent centre back we`re desperate , 5 right backs ,no centre backs ,no left midfield ,but we have 4 strikers who 3 are easily better than CROUCH (yeah minus KEANE) does REDPANTS know what he is doing , please no CROUCH i`d rather have REBROV back, REDPANTS was a good stop gap , but long term i don`t think so , if anyone ever wondered why ENGLISH managers keep failing it`s because they don`t know how to spend big money wisely , give em nothing brilliant managers ,open cheque book nightmare , remember francis ,hoddle curbishley (west ham ) alladyce(newcastle) bruce rioch (scum) all good managers until given money REDPANTS following same path , he nearly bankrupt portsmouth & only won the fa cup why do you think they have to keep selling ?old REDPANTS is making me nervous ,come on CROUCH 10 MILLION 70 GRAND A WEEK HE`S GONNA SCREW US BIG TIME
THE ONE THING THAT ANNOYS ME ABOUT `ARRY THE MOST IS HE JUST CAN`T STOP TALKING ABOUT OTHER TEAMS & OTHER PLAYERS HE JUST DOESN`T SHUT UP THE FOOTBALL WORLD DOESN`T REVOLVE AROUND REDNAPP & WASN`T IT US LAST YEAR WHO COMPLAINED ABOUT MANURE & LIVERPOOOOOOOOOOL SPURS ARE REALLY POT & KETTLE TO THE MAX TELL `ARRY TO SHUT UP & BRING SOME DECENT PLAYERS IN BECAUSE A TALKATIVE MAN IS A LIAR & A CHEAT I`VE GONE RIGHT OFF `ARRY FIRST BRINGING KEANE BACK & THEN A PASSED IT VIERA & TO TOP IT IT ALL OFF AN AVERAGE NO SCORING LONG STRING OF PISS CALLED CROUCH WE NEED A CENTRE BACK & A LEFT MIDFIELDER BUT NO LETS SPEND 10 MILLION ON CROUCH , COMPLETE JOKE PLEASE FAIL YOUR MEDICAL GO TO DESERT ISLAND & TAKE KEANE WITH YA ,STICK WITH SPURS THROUGH THICK & THIN CAN IT GET ANY THINNER HARRY OUT BEFORE IT`S TOO LATE WE COULD BE THE NEXT LEEDS OR NEWCASTLE
Welcome back Spooks.
Thoughts on todays defeat?
YES!!!!! FINALLY THE DELUSION OF THE SPUDS IS WEARING THIN,GOOD OLD ARRY IS DOING JUST AS PREDICTED MAKING YOU EVEN MORE CRAP!! SPENDING LARGE AMOUNTS OF DOSH ON SHITTY PLAYERS!!!!YES YOU ARE BECOMING THE NEW LEEDS UTD AND ITS GREAT AINT IT :D
lets put into perspective a few things.....we have pre season football with all its usual form problems with changes etc.........to win all the time is not the point .its the development of various aspects within the team to get ready for when points matter.......the same players are still at the club who performed excellent home record in (top five stats last year)
so technically is the same........where players are not top of their sharpness or fit etc these are the reasons for preseason.games
last year we beat everyone preseason and we all know what happenned next so......too early too judge
i hope that when all the forwards have their form they bag the goals.....bent had his period last year and so did pav etc....... the media feeds discontent
Maybe signing the tallest player in the Prem is the only way to get the best out of Lennon's 'erratic' crossing. Having said that Crouchy heads the ball as though it is smeared with dog crap.
Rather worrying comments from Paul Hart suggesting that Pompey's current financial woes are down to massive overspending in the last three years. Signing players on big wages who are at the stage of their career where they are either not going to improve despite obvious flaws (Crouch, 28) or would be better off being sold to the Copydex factory (Viera, 57) suggests that a pattern is emerging.
What a miserable lot on here. After reading all of this moaning i'm almost driven to self harming! At least have the decency to wait until the season starts and we've played a few games before you decide to start chanting "sack the manager" or "sack the board" and burning effigies of Harry at the gates!
I'm quite optimistic that we will have a more balanced team with different options all over the pitch and some promising youngsters that look like they will be capable in stepping up if we need them for the first team.
I'll back Harry until he proves to be a failure. I hope that will never happen!
COYS!
Spot on Yidfield General. The author should
have stayed in Turkey.Absolutley the biggest load of crap Ive read on a Spurs sight for a long time
and most of the posts seem to come from a bunch of defeatist plebs.
I would like to agree with Billiospurs' comment about pre-season victories and losses - they mean nothing. nada. ziltch. squat.
Until today, we hadn't lost a pre season game in years and always started the season poorly. I want the players to lose a bit in pre season if the taste of defeat means they are more determined to not let it happen again when the season starts.
I know scousers at home is a tough first game but it's not impossible. Regarding Harry, Iam thiankful for what he did last season and am willing to give him a afull season to prove what he's made of. As should all Spurs fans.
Given our pre-season form of last year (and the previous year), I am shocked by the way some of the posters here are so focused on the results. We were beating Roma 5-0 last year and what did that get us in the first 8 games? I like our team. I don't know if its much improved from last year with what's gone on so far this offseason but I think if HR wants Crouch instead of Bent, he should be given the benefit of a doubt, espeically if we pick up money on the switch.
The only thing I'm stressed about is Woodgate, King and Dawson. I don't rate Corluka at CD. It would be interesting to see Huddlestone get a run there though.
Think the article was good, but people are talking rubbish. Harry did such a good job last year.
Crouchy would be a fantastic signing, he IS better than Darren Bent. He is not world class, but he is a better option than Mr Shins.
Viera, he is old and he is an ex gunner. But I think he will do a job, a job that at the moment only Palacios is doing. He would be a leader in the middle of park. He would also be a leader off the pitch and install that winning mentality we so often lack against the small teams.
Harry has always said we don't need to sign a whole new team, just 3 or 4 players that are better than what we have already. And hopefully, he is going to do that. If we carry on our form from last year we can challenge the top four, I doubt we will make it though.
I do think we need a CB and we'll prob get Bassong. Dont think we need a LW as Modric was good there last year and Rose will be good cover if he stays. Need another CM to cover wilson, and I guess we'll get Viera.
And another thing. People comparing us to Leeds can naff off, along with the people wondering why Harry never got to top 4 with Pompey.
Harry turned Portsmouth from a team fighting relagation every year, to a team that got into Europe and won the FA Cup. He did that with players like David James, Crouch, Distin...etc.....
He knows what he is doing.
good to have you back spooky!
Spot on Yidfield General. The author should
have stayed in Turkey.Absolutley the biggest load of crap Ive read on a Spurs sight for a long time
and most of the posts seem to come from a bunch of defeatist plebs.
Jul 26, 2009 at 10:11 PM | Lightning Smith
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The article was a summary of news items. You need to untwist your knickers mate.
Portsmouth were punching over their weight in recent years - Paul Hart has confirmed this in the press. But at least they weren't facing relegation like before.
Spurs will never have their problem of spending too much on wages whilst Levy is running the club so we don't have to take heed of all this pesemistic 'Leeds' nonsense. Newcastle maybe but not us.
Everyone, including Harry himself is porbably right to think he's not the man to take us into new territory (don't like to mention the F word - comes after 3rd) but he is an improvement on the deluded Ramos and will stabilise us. I hope we ge the 5th to 7th we deserve this season and push on from there.
We all knew the purse strings would tighten after recent questionable signings (in terms of value) and with the new stadium in sight in the next couple of years. We need to build a foundation to sustain ourselves.
to reiterate what i saw on at least one other post...dos santos needs to play...i know it was only the gold cup but he was phenomenal in mexico's 5-0 win...granted it was the US's b-team and mexico was actually trying, he was running all around them...he needs to be given a chance...he's that la liga like player...i'm obviously not saying he should start at this point but at least needs some PT.
am amazed at the lack of disgust at the thought of Vieira wearing a Spurs shirt. Has everyone forgotten who he is? And what sort of a player he was? He's possibly the dirtiest cheating Scummer they've had, and is the most gooneriest gooner since Adams.
They get him in his prime, we get him with his legs gone at the end of his career. What does that say about us? He'll do a job? I don't care - there are loads of other has-beens we could be looking at if we need experience, why do we have to go for the most successful captain the scum have ever had? It's horrible.
And Redknapp clearly thinks we're lowlife.
if ar5ena1 sign Huntelaar and we sign Crouch that will be a shame ! as it sort of underlines the gap .
but in honesty a boddypopping freak (with farr more talent than anyone ever gives him credit for) will be a usefull addition ...... i've allwasy quite liked the unassuming chap (head in clouds maybe....but at least not up his own arse like so many others !)
my Pro evo and FM09 teams a left winger of any ilk is an immediate necessity ....and i can't fathom why we have struggled so long to get anyone to play there .
lets stop signing right backs and forwards when we can all see that we nee a CB and a LW . !!
either that or give GDS and Rose a decent oppertunity to impress in that role .
The one thing you have to admire about Crouchie is his honesty. The matt cordon sketch aside it was his interview response to 'what would you have been if you weren't a premiership footballer?', Peter's almost frightneingly honest response 'a virgin'.
Money can't buy honesty like that. No wait it can, and the price is 10 mil. Still, if he is one dimensional, that's better than Bent IMO who has no dimensions at all.
As for Viera, could he do a job? if that job was to tech Hudd and Wilson how to become a tighter defensive midfield unit then the answer is 'maybe', could he play 20 games a season, 'maybe' also. He's more of a Edgar Davids type purchase, but without the shirt sales (although given the new strip, I'm hoping they weren't counting on that particular revenue stream for this season anyway).
You know what, I'm not even going to give an opinion on Viera unless I see him holding a Spurs shirt (it may yet not happen). If he does hold our shirt I will probably be violently sick but then I will pull myself together and see what happens. He could 'do a job.' But will the job he does be worth the sheer amount of stick we're going to get from the scum?
No Harry, it doesn't make up for Sol. It's even more embarrassing. I have an inherent hatred of any player that spits at another so that puts Viera down there with Diouf in my opnion. But I don't particularly like David Bentley either and still hope he comes good.
To condlude: I am a very confused Tottenham fan at the moment...
Or conclude even :D
It's even started to affect my spelling!
I preferred condlude, it seems to add more to the inherrent confusion!
I think a fair few of us (fans) with a modicum of general fottballing comprehension and understanding of the restrictions we currently have (funding a stadium, balancing the books, wage caps, etc) are confused, as we are getting mixed messages all the time from alleged 'sources'.
But I think that we shouldn't forget that Harry to be dispassionate as he only cares about one thing, the extra bunce he gets by gettting us up the league table and potentially winning competitions, Ergo, he probably has 'the immediate interest' at heart even if it is indirectly.
My concern there is the word 'immediate', until we have a long term manager who the club can invest in and stand besides and can cope with a few more years of medicroty with it's full support, and without falling in to the 'one game' mentality, then we will just sit in limbo until Harry retires and the decision is forced upon us.
We need our Moyes equivalent, something the game does not seem to allow in the current climate. That would be a far greater asset than any player signing, an understudy to Harry is key if we really are to move forwards.
I must agree with Vic and Tricky , the fact that he is a gooner and maybe thé gooner of te last decade makes it hard to accept him ... but the fact that he is not good enough to play in the slow Italy league makes it even worse., i ve seen him play last year and would be really astounded if he were to be able to adapt to the high pace PL again. We should in fact be looking for players like Huntelaar in stead of old gooner has beens ... Spooky talked about West Ham not wanting to sell players to spurs out of respect for their fans some time ago well i would find it an utter lack of respect to welcome the likes of Viera or campbell for that matter.
Would make an exception for Fabregas , Walcott or Van Persie though :-)
Crouch ... ? Never been a fan but want to give him the chance to prove his worth as long as we are paying for him we could give him some time to settle in before writing him off.
I do have one advatage on the 'Crouch issue'. As a southerner with 'friends' who are season ticket holders at fratton park (some of whom understand such things as grammar and numerousy - I know, it came as a shock to me too). I got to see defoe and crouch play together and saw a few things:
They link up well together as they seemed to be on 'the right wavelength'.
Defoe was less greedy with posession, he was more likely to pass to crouch or send it out wide, knowing he would benefit from either the return pass or the inevitable crouch 'nod on'. Thereby making better use of his pace and movement.
Whatever you say about tall one dimensional players (and you can include some like ibrahimovic) they are often under-rated despite their obvious usefulness, as when that one dimension is upwards it tends to tie up two of the oppo's defenders trying to stop the ball coming through. Creating space for your luxury / creative players to move into like say, Modric or even a Gio type player.
Crouch is also, despite anything that his wag might say, still an ugly ba*d, but if he comes to us he will at least be 'our ugly ba*d'.
are we still allowed to shout "FREAK" at Crouch if he comes?
just don't yell anything about abbey or he'll pull a beckham on you
Tricky - good point with regards to an undersudy to harry. Why not Clive Allen? Club legend, has done some good work with the reserves - maybe a home-grown, long term replacement? Oh wait, porbably not glamourous enough is he?
If we want a Viera type player we should have gone to Ar5ena1 for Diaby - he is from the same mould. If we want Viera's head in terms of experience then why not wait a few years and get him in as another coach? But to brnig him in as first team, we must be sure he can still hack it. Jenas has his faults but I imagine he can run rings around Viera for pace and stamina. Glad he's staying by the way.
Crouch and Defoe will create more then Bent and...anyone :D
Hopefully Defoe will score more too, proving Darren's shins weren't as necessary as the ststa boys will have you think.
ststa means stats :S
Really have to start spell checking this nonsense before I flop it out for you all to see.
How embarrassing.
@ Maddy ... just use the Preview Post button next time :p
BTW couldn't agree more with the Viera / Diaby point ..., happy that Jenas is still there and hope that he will finally be able to bring us back to back solid performances.
belgian spur: I admire your optimism, but when has Jj ever produced 'back to back' performances , unless you include 'like a directionless, unguided, oversized subbuteo player'. one good game in ten is not enough.
Having re-watched the highlights from the two games this weekend. Palacious and Hud have the ability between them take the central mid berth, BUT only when we have a proper back line, you could tell we were on the back foot, as Wilson kept dropping deeper and consequently he was too far from Hud, and his natural short passing game was not available to him. To be fair he probably felt he had to to cover our back line.
But still Hudd saw and made passes JJ wouldn't have the vision or the ability to make with the level of speed and accuracy that is required to set up quick attacks.
I don't think we need viera, in as much as i don't think we need JJ. O'hara is solid (even if unremarkable) and can play left mid releasing Modric to centre to cover injury etc, livermore looked like he belonged there, Bostocks cameo showed what he can do as the attacking midfielder, and Rose showed some potential as understudy to Mod on the left as well.
We have fewer competitions, and so a smaller squad would make perfect sense. I am also a believer that playing a settled team with fewer rotations (the opposite to the 'rafa benitez game' as was spawned a few seasons ago) builds the consistancy that a lot of us crave.
The one thing we desperately need is a decent centre back (IMO for the record), the confidence that it breeds to the midfield to allow them to move and think in more advanced terms is so important. You just need to look at how the midfield plays in any team with a solid back line, they don't play whilst having to fear for losing possession which makes them more dangerous.
I vote we change the record on Jenas. I've never been his greatest fan and, like you all, have been equally enlivened by goals such as all of his against Ar5ena1 and frustrated by the games he goes missing in. But I honestly think he looks better with Wilson than he ever did partnering Zokora.
Maybe Hudd or someone else is the future but, as Darren Bent will testify, it can't make it easier with the fans on your back game after game.
We're so quick to criticise players and coaches and **cough** chairmen (as is our right) but we have responsibilities too. Namely to get behind the WHOLE team. It's time for a song to inspire Jenas and drown out the usual groans every time he passes sideways or backwards. Let's make him want to play for us!!!