The fizzy pop has gone flat
Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 12:20PM Spurs 1 Stoke 1: One point from twelve
I think we can start to panic. Not the screaming down the road pulling out your hair foaming incoherently panic. Just the quieter biting of the nails version. Perhaps some of you prefer the former rather than the somewhat hopeful latter. Plenty around me in block 34 opted for a third choice, which involved mostly of screaming obscenities at our best players informing them they are in fact nothing more than excrement. Oh how the fickle love to dance in the moonlight, howling with sadness. Excrement? I’d argue that’s a tad (no, I’m not going to do the obvious pun) unfair although it’s the perfect description to label our inherently poor set pieces which once more personified a night of frustration with perfect grimness.
I’m not sure where to start so I’ll just start moaning and whatever I type will have to do, so please don’t expect anything linear or in a traditional matchy reporty chronological order delivered with flair. I'm fragile at the moment.
Might as well start with the set pieces as they are fresh in mind. Expect the most obvious conclusion and you will witness it over and over and over again.
Ball fails to beat the first man.
Ball pings past everyone.
Short corner is not played because that would involve creativity.
No intelligence with free kicks, other than to have a go, might hit the target but probably won't.
Concede a goal from a free kick because that’s the expected result from a dead ball against a side that score a fair few from there.
Just after conceding I noted one or two players holding out their hands in a philosophical manner, pondering what had happened. Half expected them to reveal t-shirts proclaiming ‘Why always us?’. There is a fundamental brain fart that continues to linger in and around the heads of the players we posses regardless of how technically gifted they are. No one is capable of resolving this perplexing nightmare we never seem to wake up from. I'm still talking about the set-pieces here but also, the lack of want, the lack of stepping up and finding that relentless tempo from earlier in the season. When we dug deep on occasions, made our own luck, forced things to happen.
The Stoke goal, it did came against the run of play. And yet to be fair to them, at least they got something on target and by virtue of doing so scored and therefore deserved it. First half Luka had a couple of efforts. Bale's loop not dipping under the crossbar. There were one or two other sort of half promising moments either in the box or in the build up when attacking towards the box, but let’s be honest here. It was all ominous, that mocking apologetic football akin to knocking on a door you just need to get through hoping someone will answer when it would be far more apt to kick it down.
Sure, we had Bale on the left and Modric in the middle and one up front. I would, under normal circumstances, talk about how we are a side that is reliant on having our best players in their best positions and thus struggle if there is even one player missing. But this is a weak excuse. It’s still true in many ways as illustrated when the manager has tinkered to resolve problems with width. But in this instance it transcends selection. Adebayor has hardly been setting the world on fire recently and although his hold up play remains important this should not hold us back. And yet it did. If Adebayor isn’t setting the world on fire, Saha is attempting to do so by using a wet match.
Oh Saha, when you have the ball at feet, look up, look up. Pass it to a team mate. Alas no, the ball was persistently played to nobody or into space where an opposition player could thank and collect. There was one moment where he gave this look, with a swing of an arm, which was reminiscent of someone that couldn’t even be bothered to portray genuine care. Just wanted to look like he did. Oh golly gosh, the ball has been wasted. Darn it.
Is that harsh? Probably, but there was not enough about him. Defoe (on for Niko) gave us some direction when he was subbed on but it was hardly a tactical master-stroke. Gio came on for Saha. If that doesn’t tell you how desperate we are for something, anything to happen...
That's not to say simply having Saha up front ruined any chance of winning the game. The problem remains a collective one. No edge to our play at all. No fluency (thanks Harry for the confirmation).
King limped off. The logic here was probably, ‘Let’s play him in the must win home game because we’ll probably not win away to Chelsea’. Oops.
Scott Parker is now looking like the player I thought he was before we signed him. He’s completely out of form. Was always going to happen, him burning out like this. Hindsight will point out we should have roated more.
Much like the Everton game, we statistically battered them. In physical form the story was altogether a different one. A tale of woes and woefulness. We didn’t really carve out that many opportunities. We didn’t test their keeper enough. The football was flaccid, limp and lethargic. Now I know that a good solid side that has basked in consistency for the most part of the season and has also crowed loudly in acceptance to the plaudits given for the football played doesn’t turn rubbish over a game or four. But we might as well be because the results we’re producing are not inspiring or aspiring.
‘It’s all about the performance’, some would say, well yes okay, I get that. But the result matters more when you’re in a slump. Sure it’s not the good olde Spurs slump of old. We have not completely unequivocally surrendered. The effort is there, the execution isn’t. But we’re in danger of allowing this loss of confidence to destroy all that has been built. There’s a game, a moment that is meant to galvanise our team and allow us to once more attain momentum. But it’s not forthcoming. It’s all just a little too laborious in effort. There is no hunger, no ruthless 'win at any cost' desire. That mojo is not lost behind the sofa. It's fallen through the floorboards into the flat downstairs. And that door, we're still just knocking on it instead of knocking it the **** down.
I don’t know if it’s the England job. The court case. Redknapp or the lack of leadership on the pitch. What I do know is that nothing we’re doing at this moment in time is deserving of us retaining 3rd spot. Which is why we’ve lost it. If we want to reclaim it we’ll have stop feeling sorry for ourselves and grow that pair that appear to have gone from grapefruits to grapes to pomegranate seeds. Post-Chelsea, the fixture list is one we should seek to lap up. Should.
Around the 90th minute mark I bid my farewells to the two staunch Spurs fans to my right (one of which made the quote of the night stating how the best ever Spurs side of recent years was still miles behind the worst Man Utd side of recent years...ooh snap) telling them I needed to visit the bog and that I would watch the final minutes of injury time on the tv screens below before departing. I’ve done this once before and we scored (Keane, 4-4 v Chelsea) so off I went. I found a cubicle with the least amount of puddle to swim through and watched my fluid elegant flow hit the basin. Best move I had witnessed all night. I then walked out of the bogs looked up at the screen and within seconds saw Bale cross for Rafa for the 1-1. How nice of us to finally make a breakthrough.
I shrugged and left for the Seven Sisters.
I shrugged because had we done that 10 minutes earlier we might have found the belief for a second and thus securing that galvanised ‘performance’ to aid with reconstructing our depleted confidence.
Instead, we now go to Chelsea off the back of 3 defeats and 1 draw. At least we can recycle ‘mind the gap’ for their attention although best use up your quota of gags before the weekend before the five point buffer gets cut down. Oh come on, we never win there, do we? Although if there was a game that could galvanise our season this would...ah, never mind. Let's just wait and see.
Oh the joys of football. It’s never easy. It’s always cruel. It always makes us feel alive. Because we are. Alive. There's no shallow grave dug yet. I can see the shovel but no digging. And yet in amongst all this depressive rhetoric I still fancy us. Is that delusion? I’ve looked in the mirror and I’m not foaming so I’m pretty sure there must be some logic in my belief. We took a point in a game where we never looked like taking one. If that is our fight back its hardly one of epicness. But it's a start. It's a point. It's not a defeat.
There is now no disputing what needs to be done to get the job done. Either stand up and be counted or sit back down, put your feet up and whistle the day away whilst you throw it all away.
We are still super Tottenham, just without the super bit. Just plain old Tottenham. Do what it takes. Sellotape the flipping super onto the Tottenham if you need to. Just get the job done.
x
Reader Comments (38)
It's tough on the psyche but we are hardly on our arse. So many things have conspired against us to unsettle our team, questions about tactics, a loss of form?, but after all of this we are still in fourth and only a point behind the gooners. There is still a way to go and we should not write of our ability to recover our form, especially with our run in, any more than we should assume that Arsenal will win every game in front of them. As for Chelsea, well, perhaps now is the moment we can look to our team to wear the shirt and get a point or dream about 3. I am not giving up until I can't draw breath.
totally ruined my evening, first of all the scum score after 8 minutes, and then I have to endure Matt le Tiss babbling on about how bad we are at set pieces, I had a feeling stoke would score and they did, I poured my beer down the sink and sunk into bed, my mind messed up knowing that we have given away 3rd spot to them, we have sat on that nest for 3 months only for the egg to crack and a gooner to appear, it's that old cuckoo trick, we have been mugged.
Galvanised
"I shrugged and left for the Seven Sisters."..... Exactly spooky.
I walked out of the bar where I'd watched it and shrugged too.... Frightening ain't it!?
Are we heading into the normal end of season, Harry has got to get a grip, the players have got to get a grip too. The sad thing is that Harry could end up not getting the England job and end up not keeping the Tottenham job, I can not see Daniel Levy waiting to see what Harry decides till the end of season.
Just as winning titles is in Man United's DNA, so is loafing about in the final ten games in ours. He may be a bacon faced old bore, but Ferguson is a master of rotation. Perhaps if Sandro had stayed fit he could have shared Parker's workload. who'd bet against them in the run in? The gooners were truly awful at times this season, but once they got a full side out they were always going to be right up there (chokes out words).
We must get a champions league slot or its goodbye Bale and Modric.
Its weird really, the transformation since Newcastle. It reminds me very much of when Supeman traded his powers so he could be with Lois in Superman 2. Arsenal are Zod, Chelsea are Non and Stoke City are Ursa. Lois must be the FA. Of course, at the end, in the fortress of solitude, represented here by the last 9 games, the roles are cunningly reversed by Superman using the Red Krypton on the Kryptonian supervillains, just when they thought they'd destroyed him. Yes. There is reason to be hopeful. We must stay positive.
Jack, well said. The problem is that you don't play on the field but the players who seem to have no self confidence and they don't seem to me so eager and ambitious to finish third or even fourth.
Also the team doesn't get help from the bench and the technical staff on how to overcome some difficult situations during a game.
All teams work out in training different tactics and players positioning in order to address some special situations during the game.
I doubt if Spurs do the same.
the team are gonna need time in there new (correct) playing positions to gell dont forget!
oh and also a manager who commits his future to the players and doesnt keep leaking his desire to be the next england boss every 5 minutes might help too?!
this could only happen to spurs
COYS
I think the word you are searching for is constipated. There is certainly no lack of effort, just no end product. With Lennon out and Bale roaming, Spurs attack resembled an unbalanced mess. Yes, Bale did start from the left, but I had to agree with our Fox Soccer commentator when he astutely noted his astonishment at the positions Bale was taking up. To be fair to Gareth, he did appear the only one of a serious mind to score. Unfortunately when he does not score he invites the inevitable and justified criticism of his walkabout ways. Credit to Stoke for some solid defending and executing a set piece - a concept which incredulously still eludes the boys in white. Perhaps Bale should take all corners and free kicks - at least he hits the crossbar on occasion.
The players need to show more fighting spirit!!!!
More like you Harry have to show more tactical knowledge! Best Spurs side in years should be challenging, this side was mostly not assembled by Harry, the guy is absolutely useless and has always taken our proud beautiful club and us loyal fans for mugs with his "they've never had it so good" crap. Harry has never had it so good, he can go back to managing relegation fodder if he doesn't like it.
Would anyone object to Harry being sacked if we finish 5th because that is whats looking likely!
"...we have sat on that nest for 3 months only for the egg to crack and a gooner to appear, it's that old cuckoo trick, we have been mugged..."
did someone call me? :)
Spooks and spuds, how are you feeling this morning? I'm feeling top of the world and even had a barbecue in my back garden last night to celebrate our win(no spud roast this time round, as it was well after 5 past 2 in the evening).
And then we couldn't help but sing "let's all laugh at tottenham, let's all laugh at tottenham, ha, ha, ha ha, ha ha, ha ha" So i've logged in today to really thank you for never dispappointing us, the only difference is that this time round it tastes sooooooooooo good you wont believe it. the best spurs side in 60 odd years against the worst arsenal side ever and guess what, we still come on top. Oh to be a spud. at times like these i really feel sorry for ya...i mean what more can levy do to turn the totts miserable fortunes around? he is the only guy at tottehnam i have respcet for as he tries...god only knows he tries but i think someone should tell him it aint never gonna happen sunshine. You will need at least a decade of winning titles to even come close to us in terms of trophies, but i seriously thought this season you have turned a corner and actually will SERIOULSY threaten our century-long dominance (owning) of London...sorry, Norf london to be more precise. But after this year...LOL...i will never take you guys seriously even if you are 20 points ahead with 10 games to go. It's written in the stars that we (gooners) will be considrably more successful than yahou (ala harry enfield, i believe he's one your lot no?). it's either that of God is an arsenal fan who hates the scum, do what does he do? he raises your hopes so high and just when you can see the finish line he pulls the rug from under your feet. Cruel god, but he is our god, a true red and a gooner.
And you think your suffering is over? wait until you drop below Chelsea and liverpool, lose modric and the rest and then normal service will be well and truly resumed next season, us winning titles and you lot fighting with west ham fans who is the 'biggest club" out of the two. LOL.:) Hilarious.
FOREVER IN OUR SHADOWS.
PS: I'll come round again monday:) HAPPY DAYS. ARSENAL, best team in london, period and forever.
modirc and bale know that if we don't qualify for cl then they will have the excuse they need to jump ship.
and, if we finish 5th, then i will fully expect them to leave. who would blame them.
so for them, its a win win situation. why bother.
I think above all Harry's lost it a bit. We started a bit slowly but by the end of the half I thought we were dominating and looking pretty solid - nothing too clear cut in terms of chances but we were looking ok. At half time Defoe comes on for Krancjar - now many will say that Defoe should have started and this may be true but Harry picked a team but didn't have the confidence to play it for more than 45 minutes. So VDV starts up front, then gets sent back to RM - Saha then goes off for Gio, VDV goes back up front and scores.
Parker was awful - it was almost like they kept on letting him have the possession knowing he's incapable of playing a creative pass and falls over every time he enters the penalty - don't get me wrong he's been fantastic at times this season but last night was his worst game for us - he wasn't even really needed as all they did was hoof it over him when attacking.
sid, as much as i want to beat you up, you are unfortunately 100% correct and i will allow you to gloat.
however, the season is not over mate, not by a long shot and as unlikely as it is for us to overtake you now, think back to how unlikely it was that we would throw away a 10pt lead.
your lead is 1pt.
we are coming for you and when we do catch you and overtake you, this time we will not be as gracious.
hell, f*ck the depression. BRING IT ON!!!
Well the messages came flooding in yesterday.. Gooners laughing at me and inquiring about the gap of which they were to mind. Just what I was afraid of. I'm not throwing in the towel yet, mind. I still have faith that we can do the job. We must, for Wilshere needs to lose a bet and Sczezny needs to shut his fockin mouth while he chews his words.
Why isn't anyone finishing up front, it's as if we have some sort of goal scoring curse. For the life of me it's not over yet.
Sid, really looking forward to seeing you back on here at the end of the season...should be good.
Leaving that aside and concentrating on a proper football team, I guess the truth of our current demise is a combination of poor management and players not being as good at their jobs as many think.
A good manager can take a bunch of average players such as those at Arsenal and coach them into a winning unit. It's not just Arsenal of course, Swansea, Liverpool and even Stoke exhibit the same characteristics. When that level of management is missing ie: the coaching and development side, then it is down to the players to work-out their own strategies.
I think we are in the latter category and in order to start winning we need more players capable of creating and scoring goals. It's fine for Modric to run all over the place, to keep the team ticking, to be the heartbeat of the team, but the plain fact is he doesn't score goals and rarely splits a defense with his passing (not to mention beating the first man from corners). Parker is Ray Wilkins re-born and even when his shirt is on back-to-front and he finds himself near goal he doesn't score. Nor can he judge the pace of a forward pass.
This leaves the creation and scoring of goals to a combination of (usually) Bale, Ade, VDV and Lennon/anyone else who knows roughly where the right wing is but has no pace. Bale tries and occasionally succeeds but often makes bad judgement calls. He does provide a number of killer crosses during most games but none of the others ever get on the end of them, VDV proving the exception too late last night. Ade often creates an opportunity for himself but then telegraphs where his powder-puff sidefoot is headed allowing the keeper to save. Lennon often creates good opportunities for himself but seems reluctant to shoot, passes instead and the moment is gone. VDV is deadly from 8 yards but rarely gets there.
My conclusion is that we see the limitations of these players demonstrated in the domination of the game up until the opposition 18-yard line and then nothing.
In defence, Kaboul seems unable to recognise his fellow team-mates when heading or passing the ball, Ledley is looking increasingly vulnerable, Walker has improved but is still allowing too many crosses to be put into the box and still looks clue-less when charging forward. Benny is Benny, and like us supporters he blows hot and cold.
So what will it take to get back on track? In my opinion, a new manager and coaching staff, maybe new medical staff as well (great on heart-attacks but no good on ham-strings and groins), 2 new strikers, a goal-scoring midfielder to play alongside Sandro, 2 CB's (one of whom could be Caulker) and a goal-keeper who can come and take crosses.
Chances of any of this happening? Well this season obviously zero. If we miss top4 Harry may be history even if he doesn't go to the England job. As for the new players, no chance of any of a higher calibre due to the constraints of the new stadium finance, assuming of course that that project is actually going to happen.
Prognosis? Too painful to contemplate. Many more seasons of gooner abuse. Of course if Levy continues with his current transfer activity model, in 10 years time we may have saved-up enough money to pay cash for our new stadium and perhaps, if my executors ask him nicely, he will let my ashes be scattered in its car-park.
Of course, a win at Chelsea on Saturday and.......
Calm down lads
I say this after kicking the bucket last night, literally you understand. When we conceded to Cameron Jerome my makeshift bin was smashed into small pieces across the room. We didnt play well and probably got what we deserved but I cant help but think at some point we have to get lucky. I've still got a chip on my shoulder about dissallowed Ade goals and hand balls and red cards that could and should have changed games for us this season, not to mention linesmen at Goodison last night.
But despite all that were 4th, 5pts ahead of Chelsea and one behind Arsenal and have a home game to get into the cup semi. Would we take this at the start of the season, I certainly would. Even though we all deluded ourselves that it might not happen a blip was always going to come. I choose to take heart from the Arsenal celebrations, one point ahead and its champagne time. Doesnt sound like a winning mentality to me, even if they do finish ahead of us (and id take 4th and the cup in a shot btw) the tide is turning.
COYS
Nun:
I don't see 8 points out of 24 as a blip, it is relegation form! Too many Spurs fans have had the loser/except mediocre mentality ingrained into them over the years
Even if we finish 3rd (and I'm doubting it more and more every game) I'd like to point out that we severly weakened our chances of a strong finish to the season during the January transfer window. Let me explain.
The obvious problems on the pitch come from a lack of leadership but also a clear lack of positional discipline. We play people out wide and they don't seem to have the discipline to stay there. If this is following managerial input (or in some cases agent input) then this is wrong and at the heart of our problems. No width, no movement, no creativity.
So Lennon is injured and what are our options? Play Modric there? Doesn't work. Kranjaer? Nope. VDV? No. Bale? He plays on the left.
So now let's look back at January. Players out? Corluka to Leverkusen. Not replaced. Position presumably covered by Kaboul and Gallas. That hasn't worked out. I've got the funny feeling that Walker would have been a fine stand-in for Azza with Charlie playing behind him. Pienaar waits all season for an opportunity and then low and behold we ship him out to Everton only to see Lennon get injured again soon after. How about Falque? Promising Spanish U21 signed from Juventus. Signed in the January transfer window and immediately shipped out on loan to Southampton for the rest of the season.
And strikers? One top class international sold and replaced with a injury prone 33 year old.
Anyone who didn't realise that Redknapp was a tactical bafoon after the first season was clearly short sighted. He is all about the players. However, our season blew up in our faces in January by the decisions we made during the transfer window. Was it about giving players the chance to play or more about saving the cost of their wages by loaning them out? Either way, I am clear that January has sealed our fate and now we're going to be looking to cling on to 4th instead of keeping pace with the leaders. Oh what a wonderful thing hindsight is!!!
I would say that our recent performances have been inadequate, Mr Redknapp needs to look at the current state of affairs and make some adjustments to what is fast becoming a laughing stock. Has to sort things kinda sharpish imo.
If we lose the next two games (Chelsea and Bolton) then that would be funny in a self deprecating kind of fashion. We love that don't we? We know it well. It's our comfort zone and the players are merely obliging.
I'm a douchebag.
The issue is we the supporters have a lot of fight left in us......but does the team, no on last nights showing!
My concern is that Arry thinks it will come good, the problem is, he only thinks this, he does nothing on the training pitch to change anything. He thinks it and so believes it!! Take the corner and free kick issues, how can the world see this and he can't, how can this be the case? What does he and the rest of them see when corner after corner is intercepted at the front post or when we try and score from 35 yards or have no clever movesn on the free kicks, what are they thinking, what are they doing all day!!
I went to the pre season training sessions and he stood in the middle of the pitch, hands crossed and watched. Now I know this is early training, but I'm starting to think that this is what he does all the time.
Think about it, the back room coaching have no master tactician, Harry, no chance, jo Jordan no way, Bond, I don't think so, so can we really expect to be clever at free kicks and corners, not really!! May be we need Hoddle back!!!
I'm not knee jerking, but we have been found out and Harry does not have a response and for me, that means he is not good enough and Levy is not stupid!!!
levy has to go for it now, big manager, 3 big signings, he can't afford to walk along the fence now. We either invest in a big way or we accept this is going to be the way it is going forward.
lololo at Sid. Doesn't rate Spurs but can't wait to write several paragraphs just to let us know he exists.
Quality self-pwnage there.
Find me the Arsenal forums and blogs I've run off to and posted in this season or any other season. What's that? I haven't? Really?
Hmm...
I heard that man u wants to trade berba for luca, don't do it luca is worth 40million, berba 10, it's just man u up to their tricks. For what it's worth I'm an Arsenal fan but I'd rather see Tottenham in the top 4 than the arrogant ****'s at Chelsea, Tottenham deserve it
A very balanced, well thought out and insightful post...
NOW MIND THE FUCKING GAP!!!!
Fight for the shirt fight for 3rd fight for the fans. COYMFS!!!!!!!!
What is it with Arsenal fans? When we were miles ahead and when they were having a bad time of it, not once did I rub Gooner noses in it. Now, I'm inundated with snidey text messages and talk about this thing called a Gap. It's almost as if finishing ahead of us is the only thing they've got left to play for... Oh, I forgot, it is.
thoroughly amused that finishing above us is all that matters at woolwich.
back some time ago we was 9 or 10 points in front of arsenal and chelsea?we looked like we was going to easily keep 3rd place and leave the other two tems to fight it out for 4th.since then arsenal have gone on a great run and have got 3rd(psychological momentum) and got everything to play for.chelsea have gone on a great run(psychological momentum)and have everything to play for and are in with a big chance to pip us for fourth.we however have lost a huge points gap when we was 3rd(psychologically lost momentum).we have a small points gap over the 5th placed team which is very handy but unfortunately that team is chelsea and we play them this weekend and if they beat us(i think they will) then we will have a 2 point lead over them.we didnt get a win over arsenal.we didnt get a win over man u.so where is the logic in thinking we are going to beat chelsea at chelsea?so if we continue our current form we are then relying on arsenal and chelsea to fall apart.but why would those 2 teams fall apart at this time of the season?9 games to go?im afraid that both those teams are peaking.so its down to our manager and his staff to get spurs back into the race for 3rd place...i think they have run out of ideas....
i know the season is not over yet but it didn't stop you lots gloating just after half a season of decent performance. You waited 15 years in Arsenal shadow to finally... fiiiiiiiinally have a less shity team and yet you couldn't muster little more patience to last you few more games before you come up with that idiotic phrase......."MIND THE Gap". Talk about being gracious!
Finishing above you is not big deal for us, we've seen it all(15 years and counting) but if i go by what i have seen so far, the thought of you finishing 3rd and what will follow it make me cringe.
however, you guys still have big chance of overtaking us with easier run-in than us. come on Spuds..... :)
From good Old Arry saying ''Yeeeaah were in the title race'' to fininshing 5th being a ''very good season'' despite having the so called ''greatest spurs side'' of all time, whilst faling below the ''weakeast'' Arsenal side of all time
Oh well i guess pat nevin footy nights on a thursday afternoon beckons... Could be worse though, Johnny barnes could have still been the host!
I would say mind the gap, but its too late, spurs have fell into the abyss
Late next Tuesday evening we will be 3rd and in the semi final of the cup. I know.
all i can say is Harry out. He has no idea whatsoever how to turn our poor results around and our set pieces are the worst i have ever seen on any team our corners dont even get past the first person defending the near post!!!
Slightly panicky out here in the sticks....but I still think we are poised to romp.
The thing that is galling me is we're on a horrific run n yet the media r so reluctant to criticise their mate harry! All im hearing is "their playing well but just aint getting the results or been unlucky with the fixtures,pathetic excuses! The buffon himself latest pearl of wisdom was we had 3 tough fixtures n only expected to get 3 points but ended up with none,how about trying to get da maximum 9 points redkrapp??? This is my point he inspires zero confidence in games against the big boys is it any wonder we've FAILED every test we've been set this season? We shall take another hammering today at the bridge n it will b more nonsensical excuses,i for one have written off this season another false dawn in our history of false dawns n i'll be patiently waiting for a new manager to b installed one with a tactical brain n who can instill mental toughness in the players!! enter mourhinho..well i can dream!!!
Shame on those people who leave early.