Boys from Brazil to Tottenham High Road

The Prince is dead, long live the Prince. He's not actually dead, he's been transferred to Pompey for £4M, which is arguably a fate worse. Goodbye Kevin-Prince Boateng and the fallacy of German young player of the year. I sort of expected him to play a bit-part this season as he's impressed in training and has shown the odd glimpse or two of that creative spark that he does possess. His attitude in the past was awful, but he appears to have grown up. So either he doesn't stand a chance of ever breaking into our first team based on who we have at the moment (Palacios, Jenas, Huddlestone, O'Hara) or we are hopeful of bringing in one of our central midfield targets (Anin, Sandro, Sissoko). With Adel Taarabt out on loan at QPR, I thought the Prince would be our Carling Cup wildcard for the season. Might be that honour has been bestowed on the almost forgotten Gio do Santos, who did well in midweek.

However, there's more. Rumours are suggesting that Jamie O'Hara will also go to Pompey - on loan. Although this is a slight knee-jerk at the time of writing, as it's Pompey asking for Jamie. And what if it happened? Would mean our midfield loses a little depth in cover. Doubt very much Harry would let him go regardless, but to let him go without a certain replacement lined-up? So back to our midfield targets. Anin (the big French bloke ex-boxer) is on trial. No word yet on how well he's done. Sissoko has gone very (very) quiet. No suggestion that a middle ground can be agreed on re: transfer fee.

As for Sandro (he's the Brazilian at Internacional), it's taken a sudden unexpected twist. It would appear the real reason Levy was out in South America was to seal a strategic partnership. The purpose of the deal is to develop players for both club and other European leagues. We loan them ours they loan us there's. So we get the next Pato and we give them the new Johnnie Jackson.

No actual idea how this is meant to work for them other than their loaned players make a name for themselves at Spurs and then they sell them to a Spanish or French club for loads of dosh. For us, from the sounds of it, we take their kids and climatise them to English/European football. Whether we get first refusal is possibly something Levy has (attempted) pencilled in.

Bad news is (possibly) is the Sandro story may well be just a deflection - mis-information to distract everyone away from the real reason Levy was out there. We'll have to wait and see.

If the emphasis is truly on helping the development of the boys from Brazil, then perhaps the Sandro deal will happen. But not as a full transfer.

Gio to Internacional on loan, Sandro to N17?

Bent can't Bale us out

Spurs 1 Pompey 1

It’s going to the wire.

We now sit in 16th, on 21 points – along with five other clubs. Zany. Three points from 12th and six points from 9th. Welcome to the Premier League where the bottom 12 clubs are basically rubbish. The 5 teams above the 12 are only there because of a decent run of form. The way this season is going, don’t be surprised if the table from 8th down to 20th looks completely different a month from now.

Part of me is happy that we created more chances today in 90 minutes than we have in the previous 270. Granted, half of them were Lennon scoffed shots, but there was some positivity in our play. It’s still all rather ominous though. We don’t look like a team with any belief or urgency from the offset. We sort of fall into a position of confidence after we snatch an equaliser. How about starting the game with the pretence we are already a goal down? Arguably, we are with Bale in the side.

Ok, cheap shot. I apologise. But how gutted and depressed must he feel to see us score moments after being subbed? Regardless of the voodoo, I think it’s unfair to be too harsh on the team today. They gave it a go. 15 shots on target, 11 off. James saved wonderfully from Defoe and Lennon (on one occasion when he actually put some direction and power behind the ball). Bent's miss will haunt me all the up to the next Prem game. Serves me right for laughing at Zaki’s embarrassment yesterday when he also missed an open goal when it was seemingly impossible to do so.

The fact we created so much but didn’t punish a Pompey side who weren’t too shy of goal either, highlights the desperate need for Redknapp to sign a player who will partner Defoe to (near enough) perfection.

Pav, as much as I want him to do well, isn’t the right player for the current predicament. He still looks a little lost, and although I prefer not to believe that his interpreter runs up and down the sidelines during training, translating phrases like ‘flick it on’ and ‘run into space’, I think he will benefit a team that’s balanced and winning. I suddenly see the appeal of Jones (Sunderland), although the asking price is ridiculous. Is he as accomplished a top flight goal scorer as let’s say, Darren Bent was, before we signed him? No. And look at how average that particular £15M turned out to be. The goals scored by Bent at Charlton, a team who worked hard on the counter, was never really suited for Spurs. You don't buy a particular style of player before you need him. We bought him when we already had 3 top class players. He was bought on the back of the goals scored and the hype surrounding him. No margin of error this time round. When I said near enough to perfection, I meant it. Defoe needs the perfect foil (or vice-versa).

If Villa bid £8M for bent, then we should add a bit of salt and pepper, a dollop of ketchup, and then bite their appetising hand off. Our Russian lad should play from the bench and spend the rest of the season working hard to settle in England and learn the language. As much as we cry out for a quality DM, we are just as desperate for a quality striker.

Add to that a centre-back. King went off injured. His replacement, Dawson, was very good in his place. But we need to start looking hard at bringing someone to partner Woodgate on a more permanent basis. King, we love him, but the team as a whole is more important than one individual player. The defence has to be strong and his cameos are not enough for us to be able to drive through some consistency at the back.

Back to Bale. Remember why we signed him? He’s a talent. Fantastic going forward, not brilliant defensively, but a wonderful young player. He has not lost those abilities. He is simply a wonderful player that is in rotten rotten form. When you miss Ekotto at left-back, then you know things are bad. Gareth's confidence is shot to pieces, and our much publicised lack of depth is apparent here when we have to select a player that is struggling. I hope Spurs keep the faith in the long run with Bale. We have a habit of buying young players with tons of potential for massive fees (we basically pay what the player would be worth if he turned out to be good four years from now) and then sell them if they don’t have a great start. Kaboul anyone? £8M for that gem.

So back to the game. We need to be winning these home matches. I know we missed out on the giddy heights of 12th spot, but it’s not relevant thanks to everyone practically being equal down at the bottom. The Prem won’t begin to shape up down there for another 5 or games. Might even take more. Not worth the risk in waiting and re-evaluating week to week. We need to start collating the points with that much needed urgency.

Winning today would also mean nothing if we don’t beat Stoke in our next match. It seems we are forced into re-evaluating the mathematics from week to week. That luxury will soon be gone as we move closer to game 38. Don't know about you, but going to Liverpool needing to win to stay-up on the final day of the season isn't something that I want to experience. Even if they had a dodgy lasagne, I still wouldn't fancy our chances.

By the end of Jan, we’ll hopefully have several new recruits. You would hope we'd be a far more stronger outfit come Feb, and we'd need to be to beat the top table sides (as we can't appear to beat anyone below mid-table). Points have to start rolling in.

Imagine having Berba and Keane upfront today. How many do you reckon we would have scored based on chances created? Add to it the creativity and space created by a winning partnership as our two departed players shared, and we’d be laughing. Throw in a DM and if you want to be cheeky, a left-winger and the doom and gloom will be non-existent.

What we got instead was a little bit of the old anti-luck (that Bent miss and an early Defoe chance which should have been on target). Good luck is something you get when you will yourself forwards, it smiles on you not when you are down in the dumps but when you strive to get to a higher place. Far too many of our players are feeling sorry for themselves.

Lennon played well, and is arguably our best player this season. He’s even learnt to plant a cross on a forwards head. O’Hara was busy, but is always prone to one error, which can usually lead to disaster. He got away with it today. Modric, oh Modric. I really do hope Appiah is signed by us (as I doubt Palacios is going to bother with City throwing money his way) because Luka needs a strong centre-pairing to allow him the freedom to create. He played well second half, but his back-turning moment to a tackle which saw David Nugent almost (should have) scored is not the type of thing you want to see in a dogfight. Zokora was Zokora. His first touch is Sutcliffesque, and his another player who struggles with the simple things.

Bentley wasn’t too shabby when he came on. Apart from one or two set-pieces. He created that chance for Bent. Would have been a perfect assist that. He definitely has the look of a player feeling sorry for himself. But his performance was encouraging.

Defoe took his goal very well (glad to have him back), through the legs of Sol Campbell. Nice touch. And how refreshing was it not to spend the whole game singing silly songs about this ex-player? Although when the Park Lane hummed the controversial re-worked Lord of the Dance song, I even saw a copper smile.

Altogether now.....

Sol Sol
La la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la

Overall, decent game, decent performance – and on another day, we could have won it (but on the flip side, Pompey could have scored one or two more themselves....and Nugent scored, so that sums that up). David James played his part, as he usually does when he faces us.

Stoke at home MUST BE, HAS TO BE three points for us. Much like today was, but the Prem, as I said, allows for this re-evaluation. For now.

Redknapp did well today considering the players who got injured (Pav shouldn’t be out for too long, but King is ‘long term'). And Gomes, Corluka and Lennon all played on with slight knocks. Harry could only make the one tactical substitution today.

Bit more application required, urgency too and whoever we bring in should see to it. I hope. It’s a broken record, but formations and tactics will work better if the right players are in the right positions.

It’s crazy that around 9 months ago, White Hart Lane was the goal-scoring capital of the world. Blink, and you’d miss one. 4-4’s all the range, yet today, although defensively we have one of the best records at home, offensively it’s the worst in all of the leagues.

Obviously, we need to be running around a lot more and sticking it in the net.

Allegedly

I'm sure we'll know in time, but there are rumours suggesting that the 11 Tottenham fans charged for you-know-what against Sol Campbell have been pretty much stitched up. Not to go over old ground (for the millionth time) I have no gripes about people being prosecuted for racist chanting or homophobic chanting (although this one is a bugbear for many people who frequent football games - as discussed in earlier posts).

Apparently, of the 11 fans arrested, only 2 have been charged with singing the 'Lunacy' song which has been deemed offensive by the Police and media via Campbell (bite me yeah). The remaining 9 fans (three of which are juveniles ) have been charged with singing one of the following songs:

You can stick Sol Campbell up your arse, Singing we've got Ledley at the back

or

Gay Boy, Gay Boy

Again, I have to stress, this post is simply about this rumour and I'm not suggesting it's fact and will be interested to see what the charges amount to once the guilty appear in court. The 'gay boy' chant is crude but is hardly worth prosecuting people for. Seriously, its ridiculous. Songs about gassing the Jews (can we retrospectively bring charges against thousands of Chelsea and West Ham fans dating back to the 1970's?) and Harold Shipman, Munich, Ronaldo dying in the tunnel and a ton more with homophobic connotations relating to several Prem players sang by most clubs that never appear to fathom complaints from the targeted footballers are completely ignored because as wrong as they are, they are right in the footballing stadia arena (although that appears to be changing. No more common mans muck for us).

Apparently the following is from an e-mail sent by Spurs to a fan. Again, pinch of salt, as it's just an extract, but if you remember the Trust meeting from a few weeks back, Spurs did make it clear that they did not think the charges against the Spurs fans were fair.

We do not believe our fans to be guilty of racism and believe that the media organisations that originally carried the story under that misapprehension have now amended their copy. We have actively promoted our stance that the song is not racist within the media.

If anyone has e-mailed the club, feel free to share the response.

Christ only knows how volatile and intense the atmosphere will be on Sunday. Personally, 3 points and a good performance is all I care about. We need to rise above it, but you get the feeling the police and stewards will be very active and fans (both sets) will exchange colourful words - but nothing more than the usual for a game that includes former players/managers up against the club they left.

Campbell, will no doubt have unbelievable abuse (I'm talking about the level of noise) aimed at him. I can guess already the four letter word on everyone's lips (it's neither racist or homophobic, well, not until Campbell complains and the Daily Mail run the story).