Fix up
Friday, March 16, 2012 at 7:08PM I've been deeply philosophical in recent weeks and equally cautious. With each passing game when considering a battle cry for the next one (knowing the risk of repetition and the sorry fact that what follows is a post-match post-mortem allowing for both the knee-jerkers and the blind faithful to knock heads together) we stand waiting for something unexpected to happen. Like a win.
It's the FA Cup this time. That's not unexpected. We've had one of these puncture our league games before. The win in the previous round against Stevenage was hardly inspiring but taking into account the away team performed admirably in what was their 'cup final' it was never going to be a walk in the park. Spurs were professional enough in the end to get through and into the quarters with a semi-final the new prize to those that dare to achieve. Being that this is now a quarter, as a collective, we have to up our game to match the desire required for this stage of the competition.
As for repetition, I was going to cite the catalyst nature of this fixture . In isolation, it's potentially 90 minutes from a game at Wembley. A push for silverware (remember when this ilk of adventure meant something important?). In terms of our season, it's a chance to re-birth lost confidence. Blah blah blah. Re-read any of my prior match previews. It's the same colourful emotive nonsense that has failed me each time.
To compound matters further, Harry Redknapp appears to have taken responsibility to inspire the troops and fans in the post-match build up.
“Finishing top four is not a must to keep those players. If Arsenal don’t get in the top four, are their best players going to leave? If Chelsea don’t, will their best players walk away?"
“It doesn’t work like that. We don’t have a divine right to be in the top four. If we finish in the top four — and I think we will — we’ve punched above our weight"
“If we don’t make it, it’s just one of those things. We’ll have given it our best shot. We’re third in the league and we would have taken that at the start of the year"
“We’d be way over expectations if we finished in the top four. We haven’t finished above Arsenal or Chelsea for a long time and it looked like it would be tough to finish above Liverpool at the start of the season. We’ve finished in the top four once, not every year. If we do it this year, it will be fantastic, and I think we will.”
My blood is pumping and I'm dizzy from the head rush.
Underplaying much there Harry? Protecting the brand name? Comfortable? I'm hoping his team talks are a little more zesty in delivery when standing in front of the players with the aim to muster up some passion.
Pundits, managers, fans, the lot of us basically change our perceptions on a game to game basis to suit our emotions and analysis and protect ourselves from suffering if what is expected and first predicted doesn't happen. We've gone from just outside top four, to top four, to third, to title challengers, to third, to possibly 3rd, to probably 4th and now 'it will be expected if we finished 5th'.
Fix up Spurs. Regardless of the contradictions and media sound-bites, finishing outside of the top four now would be a failure compared with the form we've displayed across the season as a whole. A failure of ours rather than the result of others.
I'd like to see far more emotion (from the players its a given) but also from the gaffer, but then this is hardly a revelation (his comments to the press). It's textbook. Still, words are just words. Actions on the other hand...
We have a chance to stick those white and blue ribbons back on a piece of silver we've not had our hands on for far too long. A cup once synonymous with this club. It's all about glory, right? Nothing in the small print saying that glory can't be packaged up in two parts.
Get it done Spurs. Cup on Saturday. Then Stoke under the lights. Wake up. A good performance is imperative (rather than 'just win any which way') as we have the tools to play well and with flair. We need to apply them to inject that belief back into the side. Momentum. Remember that?
As for a traditional DML battle cry, it would be rude not to, so I'll end on this:
COYS
Reader Comments (27)
Here's hoping Harry utters something similar inside the dressing room (about heads on spikes and all). Here's hoping Harry lines up the side smartly (ya know Mod central, Bale on the left, for the love of God). And here's hoping for a complete demolition because I sense anything less will be unacceptable.
I love it when you get us up for a fight Spooky shame Arty or the players don't feel the same
It's quite worrying tbh. Harry has gone from, "We can win the league, why not?" to "Europa League, not so bad after all". Balance the formation, inspire the troops and the performances will pick up and the results will follow. It doesn't matter that we played a blinder against ManUre and Everton. We still lost!! Top 3, FA Cup. It's attainable if we believe
Typo Arry
If his reCent TV interview is anything to go by, we are looking at another defeat!! Ive never heard of so much confused crap come out of so meones mouth in such a short time. It was laughable and sad!!What on earth is the man on??
I think he has lost it, he is under pressure and he is feeling it and now does not really know what to say or do.
Do I reduce expectations for a 5th place finish, do a build up the FA cup, shall i show i dont care for the England job, shall i say the England job is a headache, shall i say the England job is for an old age pensioner (like me), shall I say i have no idea what is going on with Hazard (after we announce to the world he is target), shall i say transfers are up to Levy, not me, shall i say Mdds and co will not leave if we finish 5th, shall i say we dont deserve to be in the top 4 but will finish top 4, help, pls help, what the fuck should i be saying.
Well, Harry, let me give you a bit of advice,
FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE - SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET YOUR TEAM TO DO THE TALKING - ON THE FUCKING PITCH!!!!!!
You are driving us all mad man!! Grow up, buck up and get real and get back to basics man!!
PS, i dont give a flying monkey and the FA cup - here we are losing the plot again. There should be no other objective this season other to to finish to 4.
Lets no lose where we want to be - not FA cup winners - in the Champions Cup - where the top teams are the big ££££ is. We need it.
The stuff that's coming out of his mouth lately, allied with the recent dip in form and results, is starting to give me a horrible sense of deja vu.
I hate tosay it but this is where others produce - Wenger, Fergy and so on. Bis players - Big teams - Big managers - for the BIG GAMES.
This is it - can we or cant we do it on the run in - every game must be played as if our life depends on it - do they have the mental strength - can Arry motivate them ?
The run in has started well!! His most recent interview was a brilliant cry to arms!!! - Ye Harry, lets go for! lets tell the world including the players we are not good enough for top 4 - ye, lets resally go for it!
Ah-ha - could it be reverse pschology! Is it a game he is playing - is he really smarter than all of us!
Well said Hotspurs... I couldn't have put it better myself, you know sometimes he really pisses me off like now when he comes out with complete and utter garbage, he really does not know when to shut it... Mr media man... well in IMO you are a complete embarrassment, dont get me wrong i have the utmost respect for what he has done for our team but there is a time when you need to stay schtum and let the team do the talking... we need a big performance tomorrow and another big one on Wednesday to set us up for what will be huge game next week at the second hand fridge, we can't let was has been an unbelievable season so far go to waste, and that is exactly what will happen if we listen to more of his verbal crap. COYS !!! Oh yea and for fuck's sake Bale on the left and Modders in the middle..... and lets hope some practice has been taken in corners and dead ball situations we have to be the worst in the Prem when it comes to that
STAY CALM and RELAX!!
firstly as much as what he says is very annoying, and absolute rubbish, lets just see what happens at the end of the season to start critising and complaining!!
secondly, i am pretty sure if we were told at this part of the season we would be third, we would have all taken it!
if the teams we had just lost to were Wigan, Wolves and QPR, i would be extremely worried... but they were top teams, 2 away from home. So lets all not panic and 'calm down dear'!!
Harry - Alienating your own fans & disrespecting the club we love is a bad idea .Harry is a FIGJAM & the sooner he goes to England the better .Got to a point i don`t even like praising him when he does well ,no longer stand the bloke .We`re idiots & Harrys right ,he told us so ,Harry quote "People who moan about Bale being on the right don`t know anything about football " ,He moaned about Gerrard on the left for England & said it was crazy to put your most influential player there ,but then does the same to Modric .I`m not too sure why Harry insists on looking down at us like we`re inferior to him ,like the club is now beneath him .Martin Jols is twice the man & manager he`ll ever be .
This just shows you Harry is not ready for England and his latest statement shows you why, Just a few weeks ago before we lost three games he said its a pleasure watching Spurs and it would be hard leaving. Three bloody games later he is saying now we are punching above our weight, Harry is making a laughing stock with his stupid statements can you imagine Wenger saying Arsoles are punching above there weight no he is always telling us they should be in the top four. I will spell it out one more time what has happened Fried egg is now after a long campaign is not punching above his age he is 41 again Ledley King is playing above his recommended 20 games for a contract and his knee has collapsed Kabouls has been tapped by PSG Bale by Barcelona Modric by Chelsea or UTD Defoe is thinking of Liverpool and he is mad at Harry. Ady was flying Harry spoilt it by saying he will have to take a big pay cut we cant afford his wages. So add all these thing together throw in Arsenals sudden surge in temp followed by Chelsea both have players that come from a team i no got reported for scoring late late goals and there nick name was the comeback kings . Also one of the Arsoles playes who starred in there comeback on the wing he is very thin the drug was ( Ephedrine) the team at the time finished second and there players bragged just like Arsoles and Chelski. We are not punching above our weight but other teams players are losing weight with all the extra running have you not noticed the gaunt looking players who punch above there weight. When we have them i no we will be punching with less weight like Kolo Toure did. So don't worry about Arsenal and Chelsea because illness will soon strike or my name is not Davspurs. One last foot note Bolton also have one of these players who i no got reported so have Barcelona Madrid and that is the truth Harry.
Chaps you do know that you're criticising Redknapp for not being Ferguson or Jose or X. You do get the fact that he isn't any of those managers? He came in, he fixed a long standing problem this club has had for a decade, he got us performing to the standard that is expected from the players we have. Sure, he is all about himself and his own agenda and yes he hasn't quite got that extra bit of edge. You can't expect him to be anything else I'm afraid. He is who he is. If we can see he hasn't quite got it, then Levy can.
Stay calm, support and don't be surprised if he somehow manages to surprise everyone...AGAIN.
I don't know if any of you followed the court case, but I did get the impression that he doesn't feel it's a problem to lie to the press to give them what they want and to protect his players.
The cup and top four finish is a must. But instead of the manager I would like the president or director of the board to make an official statement about the targets of the club this season. It's the owners and those who run a club that set the targets and not the employees.
A few weeks ago he was saying how he'd be dissapointed to finish 4th and finishing outside the top four from our position would be a disaster. Now it's acceptable because he's up for the England job and the players motivation has dropped? Bullcrap, you don't get to a few points of the title and the go 'hold on boys' we're not supposed to finish this high let's ease off as we don't doing here. Is that what chelski did when they broke into the top two? Is that what city are saying? Self preservation is definitely the agenda. Prepare to another half a***** display and a sherking of any responsibility for our results. Hea basically saying because of our years if malaise we dont deserve to be back at the top. Same as was being spouted in the summer. Diabolical.
The man is an idiot. He needs a suprglue sandwich.
the only thing that needs punching is harry, right in that chasm that he calls a mouth..he is bewildering in his desperation to have a head-line and wouldn't know poise, class or subtlety if it leapt out of his wallet. He would throw his own mum under the bus to save himself.... what a embarrassment to a winning mentality and all that have stood for it before him.
( NOt condoning the hitting of any other elderly man or woman on the planet ) Maybe George BUsh
us fans will always love honour and obey the vows of our etherial beloved marital arrangement to the badge
coys
A win today and the glory days I dream of are back on, anything else, the embarrassment will be too much and I will descend to a darken room until the red flush has gone.
Uh, at times I get so irritated by some posts from Spurs fans that definitely fall under the "knee-jerk" heading.
You are better off reading Harry Hotspur and his anti-Redknapp posts about how bad he is, how tactically inept he is, etc. And you are the same bunch that were laughing at Arse fans for being 'fickle' and wanting Wenger out, who then jump with the tide of "SPURS ARE BOTTLING IT!" and proclaim Arsene as their god and never really wanted him to leave.
Harry has been incredible. Is he as tactically suave as Jose? No, but not many are. For that reason he is Special. Can he motivate and get the best out of his team, even when they're not playing well, in the ilk of Fergie? No, but again, not many are. And who are all these detractors wanting? Jose? Pep? AVB? Rafa freakin' Benitez!? NONE of them will ever come to Spurs. Get that into your heads. The only realistic options are those in the Prem who, like Harry, have achieved practically all they can at a club with limited resources (Moyes, Rodgers and to a lesser extent Lambert).
I'm not a blind lover of Harry, but he has brought back that belief which was lost after Jol left. He has brought back my unconditional pride of watching Spurs, whatever the result, playing football the 'Spurs' way. He has brought back our players being put into the "elite" bracket of European football's wishlists. He gave us hope (albeit not for long) of maybe even a title. And really, guys, if you're getting upset at finishing 3rd/4th and winning the FA Cup, doesn't that show our progress under Harry?
He's a bit naive at times with his tactics, for sure. Saha scoring twice on his debut was probably the worst thing to happen for Spurs. We lost our flexable shape with 4-5-1/4-4-1-1 and decided we needed to play 4-4-2. Hopefully, after we have lost 3 games playing the same formation, we'll revert back to our usual line-up soon enough (although I have my doubts with two home games coming up) or at least for the Chelski game.
We'll still get 3rd. And we have a real, real chance of the FA Cup. PERSPECTIVE PLEASE!
I have been saying this man is a usless piece of self-serving mutton for two seasons now. The facts are that when he comes up against SAF, AW or the likes of Tony Pulis he buckles. He's such mess. Why, oh why, can Daniel Levy not see through this illiterate cowboy.
@spurspanyol
We are just as receptive and grateful to Harry for ' assisting ' in getting our players - team- reputation, back in to a some-what of a more esteemed and revered trajectory.
It would be completely inaccurate to say we harbour some sort of personal vendetta against the man, limply and aimlessly at the command of some two-bob blogger named ' Harry hotspur ' or any other for that matter. We who make observations do not doubt that. We who go to and have gone to games for thirty years, spending hard earned rationed coin and countless emotional currency on freezing cold nights, in the name of commitment or more simply will not accept being thrown under a bus every time this twit fancies turning the other red cheek.. he is entirely unaccountable , entirely reckless and shamelessly irresponsible for what ever comes flying out of his own mouth and as a manager, if he is unable to place any follow-thru or indeed good will at the very least in the non-development of what he wilfully publicly announces or decries , then what exactly should we tie our falgs too?! THFC is the mast .. and he has denounced our fan base on so may occasions , that he deserves what he gets. Even neutral media is now picking up on his uniquely ' bad taste ' good or bad mate, that is the role all other members of society have to deal with, he is no exception. He's a tv pundit in the making and he has managed to throw the england team under the same bus without even being the manager...what a CU**!!! He will get his in the end , they all do...we all do!
and as u named managers Like : Benitez- mourinho- SAf , the one thing u failed to pick up on, was the fact that those managers ( who all won major honours unlike red crap) all devoutly and staunchly stood by there players and club thru thick n thin, achieheved major mile-stones and still,never aired their cheap tarty laundry in public..His career is supported by media and manipulation of sun readers ( what has we won at spurs )it, if u care, is embarrassing and a sign of what he isn't more than anything else..( please remove rose-tints )
COYFS
I see things as they are, not what I want them to be. I don't like to moan because we are famed for being pessimistic.
Maybe he makes the occasional foot-in-mouth comments about certain sections of the Tottenham fans because, like now, after a mere blip, people are jumping all over him for whatever he says or does. I'd be irritated too, if, after dragging a team that had the ability but wasn't showcasing it to a big force in not only the domestic campaign as well as in our only venture into the top competition in Europe.
He breaks out the "we're punching above our weight" comments to lower the media expectation and disection of every goal conceded or point(s) dropped. He knows we are that slice of luck away from being a top 2 team. We were unlucky against Stoke, City away as well as not getting anything from both the United or Everton game. Okay, against Arsenal, even at 2-0, we didn't play well. Maybe the egos landed somewhat in our "star" players and these comments, today, are to inspire these said stars to buck up and pull us back into the slipstream of the big two and not into the mix for 3rd/4th/5th place.
He's a talker. At times it's irritating. The Modric situation for me was made much worse by him trying to be a "good guy" instead of being the Spurs guy, telling him to chin up and get on making Spurs a bigger club and not jumping ship. I don't always agree with a lot of managers, I think they all spout out shit when they feel like it. Managers are judged on results first and foremost and the reality is, you can't criticise him for ours. Seriously.
I wasn't comparing the achievements. I was merely pointing out that none of those three would ever come to Spurs. It is those detractors, with their "rose-tinted glasses" who believe a high-end, top calibre manager will take over. No, no. They (well, Rafa and Jose as SAF won't being going anywhere) want a team with a big stadium, an owner with a big budget and a hefty wage each year. Levy is a businessman and he isn't going to bow down to that kind of "money power" - as proved by our smart and respected wage cap + bonus system.
But out of interest, how long (and how much money) did Rafa have at Liverpool before they become a serious title contender? More than two years I'd like to guess. And even then they couldn't see it through. And he had, at that moment, the best striker in the Premier League and arguably the best midfielder too. SAF has had a lot of ups and downs, but United fans aren't as fickle as some of ours, because they put their trust in him. Spurs aren't doing that to Redknapp. (Nor is Levy by not offering a contract after last year.) And how much did Jose have to spend at Chelsea to transform their team?
Redknapp, for his time at Spurs, can't be faulted for results. He has made mistakes, as every great or good manager does. Sometimes you are out-fought, sometimes you are out-lucked. That's football. I'd take Redknapp over ANY of our previous managers in the last twenty years and I fucking love Big Mart. He needs backing and time. I find it amazing that I know if we finish 3rd and win the FA Cup there will still be a select group of people complaining saying we could of won the title and Redknapp is out of his depth, get Jose in.
That select group disrupts the harmony at Spurs. No, he isn't nor will he ever be bigger than the club. If anything, Spurs made Redknapp an England manager contender. But he has helped Spurs move forward and with conviction and for that I wouldn't change him for anyone (realistically). If we all actually, you know, got behind Tottenham Hotspur and Harry we're probably just touching the tip of the iceberg as to what this group of players can achieve.
To dare is to do.
Fuck it..... the FA cup means nothing to us now this season....... A player's life is WAY more important.
Praying for the lad.
Puts things in perspective. Hope the lad pulls through.
Stable condition is the word at the moment.
Really does put things into perspective. I felt sick watching it, completely disinterested in the game - so imagine the distress of the players on the pitch.