Down to the wire

Three points away to Stoke. With Kaboul in midfield. And Pav off injured.

Sheeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiit.

Now that’s what I call digging deep. Was not a perfect performance by any stretch of the imagination. And even though we lived dangerously at times, we deserved it in the end. Crawl, walk and then run.

Massive selection gamble but one that Harry was forced into thanks to Wilson Palacios and his collection of yellow cards. Younes Kaboul slotting into central midfield. And it worked. Wouldn’t want to see it that often but with no other obvious options, YK did a job and did it just better than okay without it being exceptional. Less said about his shooting boots the better.

With each game, we seem to lose a player and yet we continue to overcome.

Losing Pav early on (having lost Defoe to injury in the week) has me thinking that somewhere in the upper regions of the stands hides a sniper, with a rifle armed with bullets forged with disdain for our beloved club. Fired by a crack marksman from a clandestine organisation. His mission objective? To shot down Tottenham players to aid the retention of the Sky Sports Four. So enter the Iceman, Eidur Gudjohnsen. Bullet-proof. And once more, we overcome.

First half was a little non-descript. Delap throwing the ball in from distance. Gomes dealing with most of them by scrambling them away (cue missed heart-beats) which made the game a tad more exciting - although quite clearly the wrong type of excitement. Bale had a decent run at goal, defended well by Stoke (Faye getting the tackle in). I can’t say I remember any other worthy goal mouth incident for us. It was crying out for some sort of breakthrough to kick-start the game. It was physical, as expected. Just needed to see us do more than what we were doing. Which at half-time was simply dealing with the home side. Stoke were textbook, set pieces their main weapon.

Second half, different story. 20 seconds in and Eidur thumps the ball in having received it from a Crouch assist (yes, Peter Crouch, don't playa hate) showing strength to make it 1-0. Fantastic effort. That was the breakthrough moment.

Inspired we changed gear and tormented Stoke, piling on the pressure. Whitehead goes off for a second yellow and we continue to dominate play. This is more like it. Playing the game to OUR tempo. Eidur in the hole, looking the part. Modric showing similar guile and influence in the middle that we are usually accustomed to seeing from the left. It was now quality V effort and we were destroying them.

Then a commercial break interrupted proceedings.

Corluka has words with BAE, something about leaving his defensive duties behind whilst going forward. There’s a few expletives exchanged, and Benny pushes Charlie in the stomach. Obviously not accepting the criticism/advice from the Croatian. A man must have a code. Assou-Ekotto’s is ‘don’t mess with me’.

Thankfully it ended there. Well actually no. Seems it was still playing out in Bennys head. Having failed to take down Corluka,  BAE decides to go one better soon after, giving away a clumsy penalty by climbing all over Kitson. Obviously our left-back was in need for more touchy-feely action. The ref points to the spot. It's a balls-up, Spurs style.

Up steps Etherington (the git), and it’s 1-1. Having absolutely battered them since going one up we're pegged back. ‘We’re gonna throw this away’, the collective thought of thousands of Spurs fans no doubt. I had such fuckin’ hopes for us.

                                                        'It's all in the game'

Here is where there is still room for improvement. Call it a crisis of leadership. We – the fans – can see the quality of the players we possess in the side, injuries or no injuries. Add to it the fact that even at 1-1 we were the better team, so composure was required. Take the ball back and control the game. I just think we're still missing a player of the ilk of a true captain. Someone to just shake the players up a bit and get them to react instantly, rather than perhaps live on the edge for a bit before finally (sometimes) rediscovering the stamp of authority to win through.

Better than Stoke and yet it could have been 2-1 to them had Ricardo Fuller scored. Don’t care how he managed to spoon the ball over from six yards out, but well done that man. The 10 men started to look the ones more likely to edge ahead. So much for that extra bit of quality in our side, another obvious collective thought shared amongst plenty.

And then, as if by magic. 2-1 Spurs. And the game changes again. BAE released by Bale, crossing it in and the superb Gudjonsen, full of Viking strength and smarts, steps over the ball allowing Niko Kranjcar to smash it into the goal. Happy now, bitch? No idea if Benny shared a smile with his team-mates, but I wasn’t alone in punching the air and grinning from ear to ear. Don’t matter how many times you get burnt, you just keep doin’ the same. Faith, patience. It pays off in the end. Right?

So into the final 10 minutes we go. Tuncay on for the home side. And I’m begging Spurs to play intelligent keep-the-ball football. Instead we give free-kicks away in and around the box. Defended well – how great was Crouch in stopping the bombardment through-out the game? – but we still managed to almost fuck it up again. Sidibe failing to get to the ball before Gomes, Dawson and Bassong the culprits who seemed to forget the art of defending in what could have been a soul-destroying few seconds. The Gods will not save you. But at least on Saturday they smiled in our direction.

2-1, full time. Three points. GTFI.

There was character and heart and some tasty football – as a unit of players and from individuals. And we rode our luck, as you need to on occasions. That’s now four wins on the trot with around five or so guaranteed first team players out. Credit where it’s due. Well done to Harry and the players. I’m proud and you should be too. If I hear music, I’m gonna dance.

I did enjoy seeing the players celebrate at the end. They knew how important it was and how tricky the Stoke away fixture is. The big plus was Gudjohnsen. We finally got to see why he was signed. And just how effective he can be, dropping back and allowing the midfield to push forward. The clever interchanging of passes between Eidur and the midfield adds an important dimension to our play. He's like a refined version of Robbie Keane without the countless boyhood clubs and pointy shouty antics.

Going by Harry’s points-required-total, we now need 13 from the remaining 8 games. Four wins and a draw. Let’s just round that off to five wins then.

It’s a thin line between heaven and here. Liverpool lost, Villa stuttered. Tottenham, still 4^th. Two points ahead of 5^th spot City (winners today at Fulham) who have a game in hand and are probably considered the favourites to claim fourth. No doubt, with each passing week - it will keep on changing. Pressure on them. Pressure on us. Pressure on us all.

Dope on the damn table.

To dare is to buck the trend

Another season is upon us. And it doesn't bode well. At least not if you take Twitter-gate as an omen. But I wouldn't fret. We usually attract publicity, whether it's sacking and hiring managers or prolonged transfer sagas. You just know with Spurs there's a story waiting to happen just around the corner, and usually it involves plenty of egg on face. Last season was an absolute melting pot of circus activity. We had a manager who could hardly speak a word of English and put as much effort into learning the lingo as he did with team selection (zero) and then blessed us further when he started appearing in post-match interviews to apologise for yet another woeful display. West Ham fans danced in the street showering themselves with mash and eels as they moved 15 points ahead and e-mails and Facebook groups taunted us with jokes about certain relegation. 50 page threads on Spurs message boards cursed us with grim mathematical evidence that proved we couldn't possibly survive. Knee-jerking had turned us all into nervous blithering wrecks. Suddenly every game would be a cup final. A must win. A do or die.

How did we fall to such lowly depths when in the not so distant past we were meant to be on the up? Or have we aimed too high when we should just accept that we've spent the majority of our Prem years mid-table.

The irony was not lost on any of us. Two 5th spot finishes under Martin Jol were meant to signal THE revoultion of hope and progression. The one we've longed for. But Carrick was never properly replaced and then we suddenly found ourselves slumping. Which was no surprise when we later found out the trouble the disruptive squirrel loving Berbatov was causing behind the scenes and that our esteemed Director of Football, Mr Comolli had decided that our big bear of a Dutchman didn't have the skills in his locker to take us to the next level. The devolution had began and one dizzying offer later Jol found out he was about to get sacked mid-match during a UEFA Cup tie. Yet more drama, the Spurs way. And then in came the new messiah who deflected the obvious problems with our league form with a rather wonderful League Cup run and win against Chelsea in the final, masking the decline towards the bottom three.

Blips and transitions is what we are famous for. Chopping and changing on and off the pitch in desperation, hoping to force success. Because, with hearts on sleeves, it's what we crave - to be successful. But impatience strikes us down each time. We're happy to watch our team play entertaining swashbuckling football, pushing the ball around the pitch with shirts tucked out swaggering like kings of yesteryear. We are traditionalists with romantic notions of how football should be played, refusing to see the ball spend more time up in the air than on the ground or bully and stomp are way through the opposition. But alas it's been our downfall too many times. It's a failure that we haven't been able to take elements of steel and blend it in with the flair. We are happy to watch our team play entertaining swashbuckling football, but we are not truly content to always see us nearly be good enough for more. Especially with the money spent. We speculate but rarely accumulate.

We continue to win silverware with every passing decade, flirting now and again with the top end of the table, but never building and progressing. We've lacked the mental strength in recent years along with metal strength in the backbone of our sides. The balance is never right and the weakness always obvious but never worked on. But still we are entertained and still we do our utmost to play great football.

So how did we get to the present in such good nick when we looked so doomed? You couldn’t blame most for our depressive outlook back at the start of last season, because we were so bad it was almost believable we'd perish. Too good to go down? We were so bad we deserved to go down.

When the Ramos chapter concluded with two points from eight games it was time for yet another appointment. It was bleak, considering that the Spaniard was meant to be the man to move us forward. A 'world class' manager who simply didn't settle with the English game.

If we were a TV show, we'd be a dark comedy on HBO. Gratuitous scenes and loads of swearing. A hit with some for the wrong reasons, and a miserable mess for it's targeted audience. With cancellation looking imminent, the producers had to take drastic action. In a surprising scene, the main character (Daniel) got out of bed and walked towards the bathroom, he was surprised and confused to find that it wasn't his Spanish lover in the shower but instead a saggy faced East Londoner, who turned and smiled seductively at him and gently spoke one word:

"Triffic"

The ratings went through the roof.

Harry Redknapp turned it around.

• Logical selection based on effectiveness, form and tactics. Play our best players in their best positions.
• The re-discovery of pride in the shirt. Too often we accomadte players who casually stroll around in a comfort zone. No more.
• Belief. Even when you're dead and buried, it's not quite done and dusted. Ask Arsenal.
• Grit and determination. Working for each other and working for the team.

It wasn't always pretty and sometimes there was a massive degree of luck but we went from a hapless embarrassing mess to something that suspiciously looked like a football team. And from bottom we climbed out of the mire and back up to claim a little respectability.

In addtion, when the window opened, there was no longer any room for superfluous signings. In came Wilson Palacios - the type of player we have been crying out for several years. Defoe returned home. Less said about Pascal the better and Keane did have a postive influence when he returned (even though he has struggled since). But it all came together and the stat geeks salivated over the points accumulated under Harry. Our home record had returned to something good enough to crow about. And away, we began to dig deep when it mattered most. We almost nicked a European spot. All this after looking down into the depths of decimation.

And the summer months have brought us a distinct lack of the usual over-exuberant spending where we usually find ourselves throwing money at anything tagged with 'Player of the Moment'. We've plugged the holes that needed plugging. In came a couple of young lads from Sheffield United, for future-proofing. In came a striker for the one that tweeted his way up North to Sunderland. In came a centre-back to help support the walking wounded. Out went the reserves and academy teams inclusion in their respective leagues. Loan deals for the young ones who aren't quite ready for first team action. Others have gained a second chance to impress. Pre-season has been without the usual over-hyped delusional cries of intent (Roma were not available for a friendly kick-about). It's been understated. Twitter-gate aside. Sure, we've had a couple of 'we are good enough for Top 4' comments, but unlike the past the media have settled for us to challenge for 6th which is a far more realistic goal. The players have no reason to believe they are deserving of anything more and after last season they should all understand that you can't turn up and accept to win just because you all look good on paper.

Plenty of ITK rumours and players linked throughout, and as we approach the big kick off, there's still time to find the final piece to the jigsaw. Someone to add to the Kings, Modrics, Wilsons and Lennons. While others hog the headlines, we are quietly sitting in the shade allowing them to bask in the sunshine while we keep to the cool shadows. And when it's time to swagger, we won't be the ones sunburnt to a crisp. Patience. We'll have our moment in the sun.

We must not fear. We have to be as one, a unit, home and away. Working for each other. No excuses. Relentless, ruthless. With confidence. And with belief. As much as Harry loves a sound-bite, we need to do our talking ON the pitch. It's regarded as nigh impossible to break up the monopoly on a more permenant basis and nobody expects us or anyone else for that matter, to do so. But it's more probable than it was 3-5 years ago. A certain team in red and white the apparent weak link. Everton have proved it can be done. Us and Villa were not far of it.

But there's no point in worrying about others and their ambitions - we just need to concentrate on a continuation of improvement. No European games, so the league is an automatic priority. Compete and aim to defeat the Top 4 sides. Our record against them last season wasn't too shabby. And brush aside the promoted teams. No disrespect to them, but we have always been a soft touch when playing them away from home. Turn WHL into a fortress and look to play offensive football on our travels, taking the game to the home side.

Too often in the past we've failed to do any of the fundamentals (would be nice for us to finally look good with set-pieces). We've tried various structures off the pitch and had far too many managerial appointments. Harry himself admitted he isn’t a long term answer to our ambitions. He's come in to steady the ship and before he moves on his aim is to leave us in a strong position and not another transition.

Someone once said that it's better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we have set our sights very high, as a club with both the board and the fans. But claiming an echo of glory even in failure has become the bane of our lives. Aim high, don't ever change that, but get there through hard work deserving of a reward.

Stand up, stand tall and play like your life depends on it. Leave the soap opera and comedy for the other pretenders. I'm not naïve enough to dismiss how the modern game works. If we fail, and failure would be to finish anywhere below a European spot or perhaps to not taste a cup final, we wil stand nervously this time next year possibly without Luka and Aaron and perhaps even Wilson. There are one or two amongst us who would cite that we have to push for 4th. Otherwise Utd will once more pluck our very best, feeding off us with assured confidence we'll always be supplying them with delicious snacks leaving us once more starving with hunger. The perputal rebuilding exercise that haunts the chasing pack.

Pragmatically, if we play to our best and do so consistently throughout this season - we will take the position in the league that we deserve. Might be 6th. Might be 4th. The aim should be neither, but simply to excel as much as possible.

It's all in the attitude of the players and manager. We simply want the best they can give.

To dare is to believe.
To dare is to buck the trend.

To dare is to do.

Doomed if we do, doomed if we don't

So, I'm sitting here tucking into a tuna salad (I'm on a health kick at the minute) discussing the state of football at work. The Man Utd fan is overwhelmingly disillusioned with the game (damn you Fergie and your relentless quest for silverware).

He's not renewing his season ticket (he's a proper manc by the way - not a Surrey dweller - who lives and works in London but travels up for most games). He's a little sick of all the greedy money obsessed players. The Ronaldo saga is obviously a sticking point, but more so Carlos Tevez who will be (probably) joining Man City, not for the money, but because of the football as United have failed to make him feel part of the furniture at Old Trafford. I'm guessing Carlos will be part of City's five man strike-force including Bellamy, Robinho, Santa Cruz and Elano. No bench warming for the Argentine then.

In all likelihood Elano won't be part of the set-up next season. I can only pray and sacrifice a Chirpy effigy to the footballing Gods that Harry doesn't look towards Eastland's with a cheeky £15M bid for mad man Craig.

Even with the high tax rate taking a bite out of their wage packet (some of the poor blighters are only bringing home £40,000 a week after tax) they can rest assured that there is still legal room to wriggle around in. Much like City are doing at the moment with the Eto'o personal terms negotiations.

Little clubs like us will struggle to compete. Logistically, there ought to be no difference between us and City with regards to what we can offer players in the way of ambition. But as seen with Gareth Barry (who decided against Champs League with Liverpool or possibly Arsenal) money talks. Eto'o has no reason to sign for us. Not because we are not in Europe like City but because we can't offer £250,000 a week or sign other players of similar ilk for similar wages.

I guess the issue at the heart of the no-limit ethos is around the argument as to whether players are ambitious and prefer to join a team that can challenge from the off (or near enough) rather than a club that will not be able to attract world class players. So if you want to challenge, you need to remove the hurdles in front of you and only attempt to jump the one at the end. It's a short-cut, that may or may not work. What's ironic, and suggested to me by the manc, is that Spurs are a prime club for a billionaire.

Rather than spend £15M on several decent players which don't always pan out too well, why not make massive ridiculous bids for 'superstars' and just go for the Top 4 jugular with a razor sharp short-cut?

But alas, we are safe from such dramas. And it all feels a little too superficial. Too easy. Not that it is, but it's easier. But how would we react if it happened? Fans always scoff at the prospect for reasons I've already given. But would it be ok because we have a far more richer history than the likes of City? Or would that be an excuse to appease ourselves from the hypocrisy?

You will probably find that the hunger for success will out weigh everything else in the end.

Such is life.

We cursed Chelsea for doing something similar when Roman pumped his millions into the club. But they were already a Champs League side, and the attraction there for players was mainly down to the fact that they appointed the Special One. Who only signed on because he knew he'd have plenty of money to play with and that players would join because of his reputation. Chelsea without the money is not the same proposition. If you look at the pre-Roman days, they did more than well and signed plenty of big name players - but they were still way off the pace of title winners.

We might be in a better position with our wage budget, in comparison to our prior generosity. So say the rumours and having terminated the reserve side, there is more money in the kitty than usual to spend on first team affairs. More money, but nothing stratospheric. Meaning we are not in the same league to compete with City purely on the side of contract offers (imagine City with money AND Champions League).

But all this shouldn't cause mass depression. The Utd fan is just pissed off because modern day players are more detached than ever. But we all know this already. It's nothing new. But rather than clubs striving to match their fans expectations through the traditional ways, the option for whoring themselves out to billionaires who want a plaything seems to be the only viable desperate solution to play catch-up and catch-up fast.

As for me?

I'm undecided about City and whether I want them to do well.

Usually, outside the Top 4, we attract the most hype in off-season with transfers. In fact, we probably get more coverage than they do as we are firm favs of footballing agents and lazy journalism. We've been linked to around 80 players so far this season (if not more). At a guess, only 10 (maybe less) of them are possible genuine targets. Regardless of the stats, the pre-season dark horse tag is usually shared between us and Everton. Mainly because we splash out millions. But things have changed. City are now the team to watch as they go in search of cracking the monopoly.

So the pressure is off for a start. Hughes will have to produce the goods and man-manage with confident skill to keep all his superstars in check. It won't be easy. But they are buying up decent players, not just offensive by also defensive.

If they break up the top 4 then one of the current elite will re-join the peasants. Which would be more than humorous as that would place (the de-throned club) on our level, and they will suffer more so because of the dip in money and attraction stakes. But the consequence of this is that City will cement their place by spending even more money and being able to attract even bigger stars because of their newly gained position.

I'm undecided because from the perspective of ambition, how can we ever expect to break into the Top 4 if someone else gets there first?

And what's worse? City, buying their way into the Top 4 or Everton, spending little and getting there on a tiny budget? The latter would qualify as football justice IMO, but would have us asking questions about our obvious mis-management with our endless £15M purchases.

So do I want City to succeed? Or do I want Hughes sacked before Christmas with City bottom half?

I've decided. I simply want us to finish above them. At least that way Noel and Liam will be even more miserable than usual.

It's football Jim, but not as we know it

So there I was. Popcorn. Cold beer. Hooker on speed dial for half-time. Remote control sat beside me on the sofa so that I could avoid the half-time tactical punditry from the ITV team. In hindsight, I wish I had avoided the forty five minutes either side of the interval. Monumental let-down, but then again, I was naïve to think that Chelsea would allow Barca to run rampantly all over them. Would be suicidal to go there and attempt to out play the Catalans. Hiddink was wise to have his team play defensively deep and man mark players. I only noticed Lampard when he found himself sitting on the bench. Chelsea’s tactic was too soak up the pressure, nullify Messi, Henry and Eto’o and possibly, cheekily grab an away goal from a counter. It almost worked.

In the end, neither side found a way through. I was not only bored and despondent that I had not seen a masterclass of epic Champions League football, I also found myself screaming obscenities at the tv everytime the ball went near Drogba as I preferred to be in full vocal colourful flow when treated to the inevitable dive. Alves was no better. As for ITV, just how giddy are they when they host these live games? They drown in the hype of their own mediocre coverage. How ironic that their big night would end with no fireworks. The only person who scored was me and for that, I’d like to thank Louise from the agency for her prompt services and ample abilities.

As for my Barca fix, roll on El Classico.

Elsewhere, Harry has apologised for slating Darren Bent earlier this season when he told the world that his wife could have scored the chance Bent squandered. How we laughed. And cried. Bent has now scored 17 goals, which isn’t too shabby for a player that nobody rates. Unless you rate him? Bent has been the subject of discussion half a dozen times this season, and subjected to various ‘What does he do?’ articles on this here blog and practically every Spurs message board out there.

He isn’t a dynamic fox-in-the-box (Defoe) forward or a classical goal-poacher (Lineker) and arguably, he only plays well when Spurs are forced to play a certain type of style (usually, away from home, on the counter, long ball over the top for him to run onto). He struggles with movement and all-round play. But, he scores. He finds himself in the right place at the right time. But there’s no doubt that if Defoe was up there instead of him, Defoe would also score – but would also contribute a lot more than Bent. It’s all very subjective, and one Spurs fan would find himself disagreeing with the next one. For the time being, Bent deserves both our support and the managers. Cometh the summer, he will probably be someone else’s conundrum.

And finally, Howard Webb. Remember him? He’s been demoted, relegated and dismissed from the Premier League. For this weekend at least. The FA have punished him for his penalty cock-up by giving him to the Championship to officiate the crucial top of the table Reading v Birmingham game. That ought to teach him!

Hands up if you want Villa to win the league

It's unlikely with Utd currently clean-sheeting their way through opponents and finally knocking 'em in for fun. And Liverpool and Chelsea will do their utmost to get ahead of them. Especially Liverpool who believe this is their year. Potentially, Arsenal might drop out of the Top 4 and lose Champions League football and a shed load of cash with it. I say might because there is plenty of time for more swapping of places allowing for the Gunners to climb back into contention. And there's always the possibility Villa might choke.

Personally, Martin O'Neill and his men HAVE to crack the Top 4 because, well.....because it's time for the Cartel to have its monopoly broken-up. Sick of Grand Slam Sundays and Richard Keys dismissiveness of anything that isn't Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool or Arse? Bored of massive massive analysis from Jamie Redknapp? How great would it be if there were 5 or 6 clubs fighting toe-to-toe for those 4 positions? Fantasy football, right?

Cracking it is one thing. Villa would then need to maintain their position with Europe's elite for longer than a season. No point having a one-night stand and finishing 6th the following year. That's the tricky part and any of the current Top 4 that (might) lose out this season would be gunning to finish back up there the season after. The distraction of being in the Champs League might have a negative effect on league form. Still a nice scenario for Villa to be in. Their transfer policy would have to change to compete on both fronts.

As for the impact failure to reach the premier European (world) Champions of Champions competition........it could simply be disastrous. Imagine if Arsenal didn't make it. Financially, it wouldn't be too great for them (I doubt they would be that strapped for cash) and their ego might be a little dented, but their pedigree won't be hurt too bad. It's the itchy feet syndrome that may well break out across their squad that will be the main concern. I'd much rather see Chelsea not make it. If anything, for the potential of a Roman holiday.....one that he doesn't return from.

If the qualification for the Champs League does change to the Top 3 rather than 4, then things will get interesting in England. Finally.

Still, the Cartel are very much there on merit at the minute, and Aston Villa have to keep believing and plugging away and hope for a bit of luck that the teams around them self-destruct once or twice.

This has almost happened before, hasn't it? My advice to Villa would be.......avoid the hotel lasagna.