Mind the gap

How things stand:

50 Goons
49
48 M Utd
47
46
45
44 Russians
43
42
41
40
39 City
38 Scousers
37
36 Toffees / Villa
35
34 Pompey
33 Rovers
32
31
30
29 Spammers
28
27
26 Barcodes
25
24 Spurs
23
22 Royals
21
20 Trotters / Boro
19 Brum
18
17 Latics / Black Cats
16
15 Cottagers
14
13
12
11
10
9
8

7 Rams

15 points adrift of respectability. It's one thing hoping that our form will balance out resulting in less goals conceded and more points collected, but another thing altogether waiting for the clubs above us to hit 'bad patches'. Its all a bit desperate. West Ham and Newcastle are catchable, especially the Toon who are free-falling. Rovers and Pompey will probably drop a few points. So 8th will be good enough without actually being good enough. 5th, 5th, 8th doesn't look sexy but considering how shit we are I'll take that and a Cup final. Don't ask for much, do I?

Looking at the teams below us, they are probably thinking the same thing. That 15 points adrift of respectability probably has more to do with being safe than it does chasing a UEFA Cup spot.

Berbatov Update

Oh, we do like these, don't we? We get them every day. If it isn't Ramos or Levy or a football agent or another player, its Berbs himself this time. Interviewed on the radio.

According to Blighty (who lives in Bulgaria) who post's at the COYS forum, Berbatov was interviewed by Nova TV via telephone. Summary:

- Berbs was angry stating that all the 'quotes' attributed to him in the press about wanting to leave or wanting to play for Manchester United are not his own.
- Other people, including Danchev - his agent - are speaking for themselves and not the player.
- He was asked about leaving and he said he had everything he wanted at Spurs including the money he wanted.
- He didn't directly say he wasn't leaving but gave the impression he wasn't personally pushing for a move in the Jan window.

Again, the fact that he doesn't directly state 'I am not leaving, I want to stay' means that it's pinch of salt time. With rumours of Chelsea tapping up the player, this interview makes him appear to be innocent of any transfer goings-on, which will then make Spurs appear to be the ones selling him on their own accord when it happens. But that then contradicts everything Levy is saying about the matter. See how easy it is to read anything into a string of words?

We've known for an age something isn't quite right. Nothing has changed. I'm counting the days till February.

UPDATE:

British press now reporting on the interview.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_3028551,00.html

Spurs 2 Reading 2 (FA Cup 3rd Round)

I’m now officially bored of Paul Robinson and the managements persistence in starting him, waiting for him to somehow iron out all his goalkeeping quirks (which are working out to about 3.9 mistakes per game). He’s shit. He knows he’s shit and yet everyone inside the club appear to ignore the simple fact of the matter that he has no self-belief and he’s shit. One or two show stopping television saves doesn’t redeem him from his weekly David James impersonations. Calamitous is too gentle a description.

Take Reading’s first goal. Softest ever? Robinson got his positioning all wrong. It was hilarious. The second Reading goal was also partly his responsibility with another lame effort of a save, pushing the ball out to Hunt for the equaliser. Not that Robinson can be blamed for the draw. Keane and Berbatov both missed guilt-ridden opps in front of goal. On another day, we would have notched up 3 or 4 more goals. But it’s a bit frustrating when we’ve rested 3 players and they’ve changed 8, and we don’t win. But what you gonna do?

One thing we can do, other than work miracles in the transfer window is to resolve the goalkeeping problem once and for all. Playing him week in and week out waiting for him to change form to positive from shambolic is a fruitless exercise.

Drop Paul Robinson.

Fools Gold

From the Daily Mail:

Ramos warns: If we sell Berbatov, this will prove Tottenham is not a big or a great club

Juande Ramos has delivered a stark warning - great clubs do not sell their best players.

With speculation rife that Tottenham are ready to offload Dimitar Berbatov for as much as £31m, Spurs boss Ramos has told the White Hart Lane board: You'd be fools to let him go.

The Spaniard insisted: "It's a logical deduction that if Tottenham sell Berbatov they are not a big club.

"I don't want to sell him. This is my message. There are very few strikers a Berba's quality. Those who do exist play for great teams in the Champions League.

"Great teams do not sell their best players and he's the only great player not in the Champions League this season."

Ramos at it again, this time (it would appear) delivering an indirect threat towards the chairman. Of course, its more likely that the Mail have taken comments from a Ramos interview and simply focused their attention on the above words and nothing else, making it a little out of context. He hasn't actually called the board 'fools' or issued a threat to the club. He's just stating the obvious outcome of selling our prized asset.

Or course, even more likely is the fact that Ramos IS indirectly telling the Spurs board to be careful. I wouldn't worry. £31M can buy us a couple of Darren Bents.

FA Cup odds

4/1 Chelsea
9/2 Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool
12/1 Spurs
20/1 Blackburn, Everton, Newcastle, Portsmouth
28/1 Man C, Villa
33/1 West Ham
50/1 Bolton, Middlesbro, Reading, Sunderland
66/1 Birmingham, Fulham
100/1 Wigan

I think William Hill have taken the 6-4 win over Reading in the Prem as the template for Tottenham's 'we will score one more than you' tactical assault on this years FA Cup. I think they are being overly generous. I actually have a bad gut feeling about tomorrow. Another goalfest is highly unlikely, and Reading won't want to see a repeat performance (four goals away from home and nothing to show for it). Kitson will fancy his chances again, so it's probably down to Spurs and how they defend corners. Not sure how much improvement can be achieved in training since the Villa defeat, considering the general lack of improvement we've shown in defending set-pieces in the past two years.

Got any spare change, guv?

The Opus. This titanic half metre of memorabilia ranges between £4000, £6000 and £10000, depending on whether you purchase the club, captains or legends edition (price relates to the varying degrees of signatures from current and retired players and edition number) – making up 1000 limited editions of Tottenham’s 125 year history. This isn’t your bog-standard coffee table book. Probably because if your table isn’t made of reinforced steel, it will collapse under the weight. Not exactly an item the average Spurs fan can afford either. So why Spurs continue to ram the hype down our throats at every given opportunity is anyone’s guess. Not shifting many Daniel?

The Opus. For the rich.

We had a couple of ex-players looking at the book at half-time in a recent game. Blatant publicity stunt, as the bloke with the mic salivated his way through a sales pitch informing the crowd countless times how magical and amazing and brilliant the book was. The ex-players were kitted out in special gloves to not dirty up the glossy pages as they commentated on the pics and churned out antidotes about Bill Nick. The fact I can’t remember which of our beloved legends were involved in this PR stunt tells you how little attention I was wasting on the scripted dramatics. £600 or so on a season ticket is my limit, with the special added-value extra of being able to burn it any given time without remorse.

£10,000 is a deposit on a flat or house. £6,000 is a very decent car and £4000 is a couple of nights with an escort girl and a few grams. Spending any of those totals on a book is sheer vanity. Where’s the re-sell value? How many times can you stare at black and white pictures of men in shorts and various arty shots of White Hart Lane and its Cockerel?

If you’re the type of fan who must have everything, because you can’t deal with living without, Spurs have a couple of payment plans available just for you. A ‘buy now and pay later’ option along with personal loan instalments. A sly way for you to get into debt with the club. Default on the payments and Levy will have you selling bagels for the next 10 years.

Glory only comes in black and white

Yes, there are some unique photographs and newspaper articles and pre-historic match-day programmes that you probably won’t find anywhere else in any other publication. And with all proceeds from sales going to the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, the club probably forked out a lot of money for the privilege (and apparent honour) to have this book commissioned and produced.

The irony that the only people who can afford this without denting their wallet are the players themselves is lost on the club. Get rid of the boring half-time QVC segment and drop leaflets over the West Stand upper if you want to clear stock quickly.

This is almost as bad the Chirpy revamp.

Levy mythology?

Original post by Solaar from GG.net:

Levy and the myth of the signing youth for resale-value

I see that a lot of people have agreed upon Levy being a man who likes to buy young because of resale-value. I don't understand this and would like to say that it is probably just a myth, please prove me wrong. Show me a direct quote of him saying this, or else I just refuse to believe it.

If not, show me evidence of the case being him buying a youth player and then selling them for a lot more than what we bought them for. Oh, and please have in mind these conditions:

1. The player must not have expressed an obvious desire to leave.
2. The player must have been an integral part of our first-team (i.e played more than 15-20 games a season), otherwise you can't exactly say that selling the player is a big problem for us.

I actually believe that Levy does not do this. We have made progress on all levels since he came into the club. We have also had set-backs, but are they in the end his faults? The biggest set-backs imo have been Arnesen and Carrick leaving, together with signing Bent for £16 M. Bent probably is a good buy, but that amount was bad business - but whose fault is that? Levy or Comolli? The rest has brought us forward (maybe with the exception of signing Comolli, that is yet to be proved).

I believe Levy prefers buying youth because he wants to build a team for the future, not because he wants to increase our financial earnings. It is just a myth because making us a consistent top-6 team would bring a hell of a lot more money into the club than buying and reselling youth players, at least when we're talking about 18-21 year old players.

Spooky, I await your response.

Thread has (at the time of writing) hit 4 pages. I'm going to keep it simple as I think you and the other GG'ers have covered just about every angle imaginable on this subject.

Regardless of whether the policy exists or not, Spurs/Levy do not spend money on 'ready made super-stars'. The closest we have come to doing so is signing Berbatov, who was far from being world-famous when he signed for us. Its more than obvious he aims for players that potentially can turn into great players, therefore giving us a win-win situation. We keep them, the team improves. We sell them, we're in the money. The crux is, we don't sell players unless they want to leave (or at least that's the illusion). So far, it rings true. Carrick wanted out, we sold him. Berbs will probably follow because of the same reasons.

The thing is, this system isn't working as effectively as Levy would have himself believe it is. Sometimes, you have to bite the bullet. You have to invest in a ready-made finished article player, even if it means paying a little more into his wage packet. Surely if you are willing to spend £16.5M on a striker, you can allow for the wage structure to cater for world-class signings. Petrov, apparently, was too much of a risk. Not risky enough for City to gamble on. And on current form, I would have loved to see him in a Spurs shirt. How is he any less of a risk than someone like Bent or Zokora? Or even Jenas?

The young players we do bring in, who could potentially be sold for more money doesn't actually improve the team in the present, does it? You can't have a team of potentially good players and no backbone of experience. Seems the mixture isn't quite right. Yes, it takes time to mould and once more we are at the start of a new regime. But if you look back over the last few years, you can't say any one of our young players has turned into a potential superstar. Some of them have flirted with the possibility, but delusions turned back into reality from where I stand in the Park Lane.

We've bought the likes of Kaboul and KPB - and their current lack of quality is telling. Lennon has turned to shit. Huddlestone still has plenty of work to do in order to improve his game....and so on. Could we get £8M for Jenas? Actually, we probably could considering the way money is thrown about nowadays. But when you turn around and pay £8M for Zokora, or possibly £8M for Hutton - the whole ethos of buying players that adhere to a certain set of criteria loses its reasoning.

Its typical Tottenham. Over complicating matters, trying to be far too clever.

It's simple. Buy the players that will improve the team and create stability and balance and help progress us forwards, fixing the issues that currently blight us. Maybe that's what Levy is aiming to do, and this 'myth' is simple creating arguments over what his masterplan is all about.

If Hutton is the answer to the RB position, then fair enough. £8M or £9M, probably isn't relevant to whether we could sell him for more 3 years from now. The more pressing matter would be to hold onto him long enough for the team to achieve success - because at this rate we appear to be buying players that Man Utd will pluck from us in the coming seasons.

So Levy does have sell-on value in mind - but not as the priority. And he is picky with the 'older' more expensive and experienced players. We obviously have money, so if they rate a player and believe the player will become 'great' then whether they steal him for 500K or buy him for £8M probably isn't too relevant in their eyes. Obviously, in 5 years time, if we haven't moved forward then Levy and his DoF system isn't working because the players they are purchasing are simply not fulfilling the potential they were initially bought for. And like I said, if the mixture isn't right, then he isn't bringing in the right players at the right time.

I don't think the masterplan is to simply buy for the sake of being able to sell the players on for profit. But he has shown weaknesses for improving the squad when it was necessary to do so (i.e. the season we sat in 4th for 4 months comes to mind.....where were the Jan Window transfers to consolidate 4th place beyond any doubt?) We could have done with some real world-beaters at that point in time.

As noted in the Solaar post, "...making us a consistent top-6 team would bring a hell of a lot more money into the club than buying and reselling youth players".

And yet we buy Gunter and (looking like) Hutton. An 18 year old and 23 year old. Sure, both are meant to be top drawer. But if he doesn't follow up with an experienced 'class' centre-back, then you have to start questioning the logic.

I'm beginning to repeat myself now.

In the past, Spurs have gone out and bought what they believed to be top players, for key positions. And they turned out to be miserable signings. I think trusting Ramos will help us in abundance.

It just seems that all we buy are 'kids' and sometimes we strike lucky (Berbatov). It's not enough.

EDIT:

Hutton has apparently rejected a move to Spurs. So, was this Tottenham's 'number one target' for the right-back position (considering we have already bought Gunter)? Who will they now move for? Another younger, less promising target? Rather than a quality experienced 26 year old?

And if we go on to sign a few players in this window, and not bring in another RB, way make out we needed one in the first place?

It just doesn't seem to make sense.

Alan Hutton

Massive rumours going around that we've paid somewhere in the region of £8M-£9M for Rangers attacking (right) full back, Alan Hutton.

You just can't make stuff like this up, can you?

Singing from the same hymn sheet...

...isn't something we do at Spurs.

Dec 30th 2007

"Once again for the record, we are not a selling club, rather we are building for the future. When we have players on long contracts we have no need to entertain offers" - Daniel Levy

Jan 3rd 2008

"He is here now and unless somebody comes along with an offer that is too good to refuse, he will stay here and we are happy to have him" - Juande Ramos

'Bored with the Berbatov' t-shirts, anyone?

Big bloated blog entry

2008 is upon us. Another twelve months of having to taste my own vomit watching Spurs kamikaze their way through countless matches and another self-induced transitional period. Did we really finish fifth two years running? Whether it was over achievement or circumstance, we had a swagger and self-belief along with a pretty decent home record, which all appears to have disintegrated into nothingness over the summer. We’ve been here before, and I’m not about to revisit the same tiresome theories and excuses. What’s happened has happened, more than anything because it always happens to Spurs. Due to the fact that we have this uncanny ability to create problems internally that hinder the team.

We choke. On and off the pitch.

Along with the over-excitement and therefore exaggerated hope the fans are guilty of, it’s all elevated to a misleading level of expectation. Simply put, we were never as good as we thought we were. We got lucky once or twice. We rode the crest of a rather good wave.

Without ever having that ‘midfield general’ or ‘leadership’ or the ability to finish off one of the ‘Big Four’ clubs in crunch matches, we continued onwards without looking to resolve these issues. Along with other popular and well documented frustrations (i.e. Poor set-pieces, defending set-pieces).

Whatever genuinely happened over the summer that resulted with Jol going and Ramos joining, is down to the chairman. He’s accountable for everything that happens at the club. That includes the rumour concerning Berbatov almost signing for Utd, but deciding to stay and then regretting his decision. And from whispers to reality, he is also accountable for spending £16.5M on a striker when defenders and midfielder's were needed. Though, it’s obvious Bent was bought as a direct replacement for the outgoing Bulgarian. But having a decent consistent experienced Premiership player (that cost more) as future cover for a world-class player is still ludicrous business. But that’s Spurs isn’t it. We’ll get to that later.

At the moment, it’s difficult to assess fairly Ramos and Poyet’s influence and impact, though several positives are evident. There appears to be problems with ridding the club of the rot, though now the Transfer Window is open, we may see the necessary changes that are required. The current issues with the team are not new.

We cannot defend set-pieces.

Actually, we can’t defend full stop. No organisation. Complete lack of responsibility and accountability. No one takes the game by the scruff of the neck.

How many times are we going to watch Robinson fail to command and organise his area? And then clumsily punch the ball to an opposing players feet, to then watch it hit the back of the net followed by Robinson berating the defenders and everyone else within a ten-mile radius? Only to have idiots singing ‘England’s Number One’ at the next game.

Robinson isn’t always guilty. Look towards the likes of Huddlestone and Chimbonda for consistently losing their man. Wouldn’t complain if it happened in forward positions, but tragically it’s a common occurrence in our own penalty area. If Robinson doesn’t fuck up, then be sure that someone else will wonder off leaving opposition players to score directly from a corner. Happened twice at Villa Park, where Dawson decided to mark zonal rather than player, let everyone know about it by pointing his finger, and we all know what happened next.

On top of the individual walkabouts, we also have professional players who haven’t got a sodding clue about being professional. Surely one of our donkeys can see the mis-match of having O’Hara man-mark Laursen? You’d think it right? If I can see it, then someone on £30K per week should be able to clock on that it’s only going to end in tears. 6 minutes to go, that’s surely ripe for yet another conceded goal. Yep. Sure was.

What’s the stat now? 20 or so lost points from fuck-ups late on? It’s obviously not as simple as ‘change the defence and we’ll be ok’ but having a decent defence and a confident keeper is the difference between us sitting in 12th and aspiring to another 5th spot finish.

Most telling moment for me, was actually Dawson’s yellow card at Villa Park. He made a clumsy stupid tackle when it wasn’t necessary, right on the touchline. You could see Ramos going mental over at the technical area.

Poyet’s Sky Sports Interview post-match was fantastic. Something Jol would never have done.

“We have to change”, he said (rather obviously, but at least you believed he was angry about it). Along with a comment that may suggest one or two players are set to either go out on loan or be sold. But what was certain was the fact that we have individuals that appear to be incapable of following instructions and reacting to circumstance and situations in-game.

Was Dawson ever any good? Is this one of those other Tottenham mirages? Average players, high on confidence and playing alongside true class (King), allowing their determination to shine through as ‘quality’. Dawson appears to have had a lobotomy, on what was a rather small brain in the first place. He's Keystone cop dressed up as Bambi, with accompanying ice.

Poyet’s comments are about 1000 times more effective than past excuses dished out by previous likeable (Jol) and legendary (Hoddle) chiefs. Having a defence that is incapable of defending doesn’t help out the rest of the team. Even the sulky Berbatov. You can understand his frustration if all his work (nearly) goes to waste because of goal-leakage (i.e. Spurs 6 Reading 4).

'Essential purchases' apparently is all we will get from the chairman. So that’s about 4 new players. Gunter is on his way. Another kid. Another ‘Gareth Bale’. That’s fine, but we need finished article players. So I don’t count this as one of Levy’s essential signings. King is back, but we need someone of equal pegging to partner him. Or even replace him, as another long term injury will surely be the end to his career.

Please no more Kabouls. I might be wrong on this, but I’m certain I read a quote stating that Kaboul was one for the future and was not going to partake in first team duties this season. Injury problems meant he was thrown knee deep in the shit from the start. And his complete lack of inexperience and confidence has more or less shattered the illusion of him having any kind of potential. I feel sorry for him. It’s not his fault that we have skipped development and given him a responsibility that’s far too big for him to handle. The failure here is with Comolli.

Whilst others spend about £500,000 on ‘young players’, who all look fantastic when they do play, us spunking around £8M on Kaboul is laughable. Much like spending the same amount on Zokora is. You spend £8M on a player that is either already experienced or superb not on someone who is far from it and might be good 'in the future'. What’s scary is if Comolli actually believed he was decent enough for first team football from the off.

Kaboul’s heart is in the right place. He wants to do well. I can’t help but cringe when he runs over to the crowd and throws his shirt into the stand (copying that dancing idiot Zokora). It’s all a little bit mis-placed and more or less sums up Spurs. Celebrating bog-standard victories with shirt-throwing masks the fact that he should concentrate more on his inability to clear the ball. Or at times pass it. Then again, we haven’t had that much to get happy about this year, so having these open-bus parade moments helps us sleep better at night.

Zokora was decent at the heart of the defence, but that’s not a position he will remain in and he’s not very good in the position he normally twats about in. Chimbonda is a liability. Classic example of a player who is pretty decent, but thinks he’s world class, so doesn’t bother playing, and thus just looks plain shit. His dribbling runs in front of our own penalty area are testament to this man’s idiocy.

Jamie O’Hara on the other hand, is looking quite neat and tidy. Hopefully won’t go the way of Marney and Jackson. Bit too earlier to compare him to the likes of Paul Scholes, but it would be nice for Spurs to have a player come from the youth team that can save us £10M - £15M in the transfer market and be as effective as Scholes was at United. Oh hold up, O'Hara is a former Arsenal youth reject. Damn it. Rohan Ricketts all over again. To be fair, I think he’ll be better than the failures that have come before him, but his progression may be hindered by future signings. Because when have Spurs not splashed out £10M - £15M? O'Hara has to be part of the first team squad and has to play games, otherwise, how do we know he'll ever be good enough? If the likes of Jenas get prolonged runs in the team, then this kid should do to.

Back to King. What a pleasure to see him return. In an age where rumours and bullshit take precedence over the truth, they (the press) would have you believe he was on the verge of quitting the game. Spurs, for once, are doing the right thing and look to be easing him back into the team. Resting him for the Villa game (though it proved to be the difference between points and nothing) was proof that Spurs have King’s fitness as the number one priority. But having him back in the team won’t be enough. He needs quality playing alongside him.

Something tells me that quality will still be missing come February, with regards to the goalkeeping position. Yes, Robbo has shed a load of weight. One of the positives of the Ramos/Poyet partnership is the fitness and diet regime appears to be working. Take Huddlestone. He looks leaner, and has improved his form. And Robinson has pulled off some world-class saves.

The thing is, Huddlestone still lacks mobility, so he isn’t the answer to our midfield problems. Robinsons ‘world class saves’ were his normal weekend peformances 2 seasons ago. At the present time, he still fails to command his area and the defenders around him. He still can’t punch and still looks clumsy. Waiting for him to reclaim his past form is a huge risk and it won’t happen when he has the current shambolic unit defending his goal. If the right players are brought in, and Robinson still doesn’t improve, then his dream will be over at the Lane.

Talking of which. Defoe and Bent.

Bent has been missing for a couple of games, apparently injured. West Ham are linked to him, in a cut-price deal. Levy claims we are not a selling club, and that there will be no major changes this January and that we will not be off-loading players on long-term contracts.

Bent was bought as Berbatov’s replacement. I see no other logical reason to splash out so much money on a striker when we have three already. If this is true, then that means anything Levy says can be ignored. And the case to sack the incompetent Comolli strengthens further.

If you believe the press speculation - Defoe, Bent and Berbatov are all off. That’s obviously not going to happen. Levy’s clue about long-term contracts would suggest that Defoe’s days are potentially numbered. He is currently changing agents (goodbye Sky Andrews) and is using this as an excuse for not speaking to the club about extending his contract. Thing is, should we even entertain keeping him? He obviously won’t develop further as a player due to his lack of Sheringhameque brain skills. Which means, a life on the Spurs bench awaits. Take the Man City away game as an example. He was sacrificed when we had Zokora sent off. Could he have done the quite brilliant job Berbatov produced, holding the ball up and generally playing his guts out supporting the midfield? Of course not. There’s not much more than instinctive finishing to his game, but he blows hot and cold so much that maybe we should bite Pompey’s hands off (I’m ignoring the silly rumours of Utd being interested in him).

Bent won’t be sold. If he is, then I want Comolli to resign.

As for Berbatov. Who knows? His agent is saying he may leave. Ramos said he may leave. Then the chairman says nobody is leaving. Poyet slags off Berbatov’s agent, suggesting he is bullshitting and looking out for his own wallet, while the papers inform us that a £26M deal is on the cards that will make him a Chelsea player.

Sell Berbatov, and we will be ordinary. On par with the teams below us, and chances of us being pulled back into the relegation dogfight go up. Obviously, if he is sold for over £20M, then I’d expect a similar ‘world class’ player to replace him. Though said player will probably wake up a year from now, and demand to be sold onto a bigger club. And the cycle continues.

It’s a tricky one to work out. Ian Wrights ‘feeder club’ comments seem to be a tad sensationalised. Carrick WANTED to leave. In fact, Spurs don’t sell players for the sake of it. It’s more a case of players wanting to leave when they realise nobody can break the current Top 4 stronghold so why bother staying?

Someone remarked to me that Berbatov can not play Champions League football this season because he has played in the UEFA Cup. If he plays in Saturdays Cup game, then he’ll be cup-tied too. So, considering the loyalty/faith the club have shown in him, he may as well wait until the summer.

From an unbias point of view, a modern day player simply wants success. So if you are world class playing for an average team, why carry them on your shoulder when you could be playing at the top level? Berbatov is always cited as not being this type of player. We will know for certain come the 1st February.

One player not leaving will be Zokora, who apparently wants to stay at Spurs forever. The only way I’ll be able to get through this one is if I start cutting my arms Richey James stylie.

No matter what happens this January, it’s what happens over the next 5 months and the summer – because once more we have to look towards next season as being the fresh start that’s required to kick-start our ambitions. Ramos and Poyet have done fine thus far. Difficult to really impose anything drastic over the current set of players, especially as Ramos has to assess what he has and what needs replacing. The new fitness regime and extra training sessions was obvious and simple to implement, and shame on Jol really. The diet too. Most ‘top clubs’ have all this in place as standard. In fact, most clubs do as default. Shame on Spurs.

Our defeats under Ramos have not been disastrous. They’ve just helped highlight the consistent issues that can only be fixed with (more) new players. If we want to climb the table as quickly as possible. The guilty can be developed properly and can redeem themselves at a later date.

The 3-2 home defeat against Birmingham was a quintessential collapse we have come to know too well. 2-1 up, player sent off and then at 2-2 we see another long-range effort beat Robinson. In the last seconds. We can’t defend a lead and we appear to be easy pickings for anyone who wants to have a go in the dying moments of a game. It happens so often that teams know they are in with a chance. Still, this was our first defeat under the new management.

Anderlecht away was boring. Remembered more for the lead pipe thrown onto the pitch and the pathetic fine for the Belgium club and their misbehaving fans. Gatafe won the group, which means we play Slavia Prague (who dropped out of the Champs League) in our next UEFA Cup game. Not that bad of a draw. PSV await (probably) if we get through.

2-1 at home to City. They are very ordinary away from home, but it was good to see us re-take the lead after City equalised and take all three points.

Pompey away was surprising. Yes, they’ve endured five 0-0 draws on the trot since the 7-4 Reading game, but for us to keep a clean sheet and take all three points was bloody great. Especially bossing the second half. Signs of something far better than Jol’s final days.

This was followed by another routine win at Man City, this time in the League Cup. First team to win there this season. And with just 10 men for about 70 minutes. Berbatov was excellent after Defoe was subbed to bring on another midfielder, following Zokora’s sending off. Was never a red. Steeds tackle was, so thanks to the ref and his inconsistency we were allowed to play our way through to the semi-final. Robinson made one of his ‘world class’ saves in this game. Pretty much well deserved again. Two clean sheets on the trot, away from home.

Then the NLD followed. Nice to see Sky Sports continue their ridiculous pro-top 4 commentary bias with Tyler's over-excited commentary for everything Arsenal related. See, Arsenal were not very good on the day because the magician Cesc was having a good day. Nothing to do with Spurs pushing up and pressuring their players and generally making it all a bit difficult for the bestest team ever to settle into any kind of rhythm. Fabregas and his hug for O’Hara at the end of the game summed it up.

Spurs did everything right, except when it mattered. No one expected us to win, so when gifted with a penalty to make it 2-1, Robbie Keane misses (it was actually a good save). This was then followed by another gift (not missed) when Bendtner eased away from Huddlestone to score with his first touch. From a set-piece. It’s that old choke thing rearing its ugly head. Again. Spurs beat themselves in this one.

Another semi-final with them lot is on its way. Even if they play a weakened side (their reserves/kids tend to be almost as difficult to play against then their first team proper) I still don’t see a passage through to the final. At least not without blood, thunder and following up on opportunities with merciless cutthroat decisiveness. In other words, if we are 2-0 up this time, we make it 3-0. And don’t let them back into it. Choking again isn’t really acceptable. But then, with the current set of players, I don’t think we can compete if they play to their very best. Cup final would be nice though. I’m sure they think the same, considering Wenger’s uber-team haven’t won much in the past three seasons, by their very high standards.

The 5-1 drubbing of Fulham at home wasn’t unexpected. Comfortable without ever dominating or bossing the game. Helps the woeful goal difference.

The next game was one of those rather silly moments in football when you can’t make up your mind whether you should laugh out loud or scream abuse. Berbatov scored 4 and was sublime. Our defence gave Reading 4, mostly from set-pieces and Robinson's lack of keeping ability. Every time we went behind we equalised. It was a classic football match, without having classic examples of how to play the game. We scored some great goals, but let in some terrible ones. Never thought we would lose though because we always got ourselves back into it. The six goals made us the Prem’s top goal scorers. Sure, a big chunk of them have come against Reading, Fulham, Wigan and Derby. But it helps to prove the point that if the defence was decent and we had a strong creative midfielder....well, you know. 5th spot.

Nice to be first in Match of the Day’s running order for once. Talking of which, Hansen still thinks we are the only team with the right amount of whatever it is that’s needed to break into the Top 4. City, Everton and Villa are doing well, but if there’s one thing that remains constant it’s the fact that the top 4 never change but the chasing pack always do.

Villa away wasn’t very good in the first half. Second half, we deserved the point, but again, as spoken about already, individual errors cost us dearly.

And here we are. January. Reading at home in the FA Cup on Saturday (cue 1-0). And Arsenal away in the Carling Cup next week. Got to be in it, to win it.

Happy New Year. Enjoy it.