Andre Villas-Intheknowas

Amazing how much you can do with one quote, slightly out of context with emphasis on the answer itself rather than the question posed and no further commentary other than to craft out an inciting headline.

Andre Villas-Boas, according to various news sources, has 'rejected Spurs lies'. All very dramatic. There is nothing, it is all lies, he stated in a Portuguese interview. Apparently the question was directly referring to whether he had put pen to paper and had accepted the offer to manager Spurs. But I can't confirm that for certain as I have not seen the original interview and tradition deems that football journalism is the leading innovator in subjective reporting where ambiguity reigns supreme. Sensationalist soundbites generate click-throughs, so why bother investigating deeper.

The Telegraph have reported another quote (this taken from their article here):

Yesterday Villas-Boas denied he had been offered the Spurs job and he is anxious not to be seen to be pushing the club. He said: “There have been contacts with various clubs but it’s important for me to meet people, know their ideas, share mine and see if a common idea can be agreed.”

Slightly more encouraging, but there's no stand-out head turner in there. It's far less chaotic and doesn't fit into the more comfortably category of calamity that allows people to vent their anger and confusion. Good news isn't great news, bad news is better news. Which is why we've not seen this shared anywhere (at the time of writing).

In addition to all this, something I've yet to see reported on (so I can't substantiate it in any way, which possibly places me on par with the hacks) is that AVB is purposely distancing himself due a contractual obligation he has (had) with Chelsea. It's already been shared on Twitter publicly that the 1st of July is the date that any official agreement can be shared by club and prospective new Spurs boss if such a deal is in the making.

The reality is, there's nothing we can influence. We have no idea of the work going on behind the scenes. We don't know whether Levy is working through a short-list or not. None of that information will be known at any point, until the club make their statement and announce a press conference. All fairly simple and obvious. Yet complicated to **** because we're all so desperate to know something before it's about to happen. Hence the guess work and rumours and people taking every single thing as a literal transparent describition of what is transpiring.

Although most want this sorted as soon as possible and many believed Levy would only have sacked Redknapp if he had a full proof contingency outlined in preparation, that doesn't mean the decision should be rushed. It has to work both ways. We might need to attract someone or perhaps we need to choose from a selection of managers that want to take the hot seat. Levy might have made his mind up and then found himself curious to listen to another candidate that has express interest.

Have I covered off a fair few scenarios there?

Do they pose further shrugs and question marks? If I worked for a newspaper I could quote 'an inside source' and run with an exclusive about how our chairman is dithering and uncertain. Or perhaps not and instead talk about how he waited for the right time to make sure Redknapp wasn't in the running to take over at another 'top' Premier League club when let go by Spurs. Shrewd and calculated and in control.

I could go on.

My point? I know about us much as you do and about us much as anyone in the press knows. Nothing. What will be will be, which means if you remained awake between now and when we appoint someone or slept all the way up the announcement, it won't make a blind bit of difference either way.

Which newspapers are ITK?

Found this over on Glory Glory. If anyone knows the source of this information, please share so I can credit (and also confirm audit time frame).

Pretty certain other 'transfer' websites that fall outside the category of tabloids/broadsheets have equally low accuracy percentages. Not that we'd expect anyone to have high prediction rates. It's not a case of pointing out how wrong they are most of the time rather the quantity of articles and transfer stories produced for the sake of hype. If the media only published fact on potential transfers they'd never print anything. You have to accept a hit consisting of insider scoured gossip, agent talk and destabilising conjecture.

The below simply illustrates just how far certain publications will go and how little even our friends in the media know. Proving that in most cases, you only know of a transfer as it progresses through the stage of contract talks and medicals...because the club/agent/player has allowed said info to be released into the wild.

Average number of articles posted per day:

The top 10 most rumoured clubs for transfers (what a shocker):

1. Tottenham
2. Arsenal
3. Birmingham
4. Man Utd
5. West Ham
6. Udinese
7. Man City
8. Barcelona
9. Lille
10. Villa

Top of the league.

Update on Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 2:57PM by spooky

Found the source: FootballTransferLeague co.uk.

Interesting footnote:

Figures are based on all rumours we have that have been resolved (player has transfered or signed a new contract). FTL rumour data goes back to the start of summer 2006 transfer window.

GUDJOHNSEN IN CHELSEA CELEBRATION SHOCKER

By A. Gooner. The Daily Stank - 4th May 2010
 
Tottenham Hotspur fans around the country were today left 'reeling' after astonishing pictures emerged of Icelandic loan striker Eidur Gudjohnsen celebrating Chelsea's win against Liverpool with Frank Lampard and other Blues stars.

The images, absolutely certain to anger boss Harry Redknapp, show the former Chelsea player taking part in a number of damning activities including:
 

• Talking to Chelsea players in the bar
• Smiling as they recounted old title winning times together
• Guzzling a glass of Diet Coke with lemon
• Scoffing expensive bar snacks

 
One on-looker said, "I was just sitting in the bar innocently calling Frank Lampard a fat **** when I saw Eidur join the party. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him with former friends congratulating them on their victory. These Premier League footballers really have no sense of shame. I took a picture on my phone to show my wife after she came out of the toilets with John Terry."
 
At one stage the party got rowdy as the players started playing their favourite drinking game: "Guess the former Chelsea player" where each person takes it in turn to do an impression of one of their old team mates. Eidur's skit of notorious coke fiend Mark Bosnich (pictured) was particularly popular.
 
Rabbi David Schmutter, chairman of the Tottenham Hotspur Popular Front said, "Oi vay! Why is he spending time with Chelsea players when he could be hanging out with fun-loving Spurs players like Benoit Assou-Ekotto."
 
The story is nailed-on-I-kid-thee-not bound to disrupt Spurs' preparations ahead of their massive game on Wednesday night against Manchester Arab Emirates.

(At least we hope it will)

by guest-blogger Fox Mulder.

Keane's Sixteen - "Are You In Or Out?"

So according to The Sun (via 606 and rehashed on various blogs before the lazy red top hacks decided to latch onto anything anti-Spurs post-City thrashing) sixteen first team players have 'heaped shame on the club' by having a secret party in Dublin behind the back of Harry.

Tabloid gold,  jumping all over this because Harry 'cancelled' Xmas stating there would be no festive party for the players as football and football only would take priority. The Dublin trip happened prior to that statement. A golfing trip (that Redknapp was aware of) that was actually spent in a bar and nightclub thanks to party organiser Robbie Keane who took £2000 a piece to fix things up. Maybe that's why he stood by the tunnel shaking the hands of the players as they run out for the second half. A sort of guard of honour moment for Keane's Keyser Söze bluff with the usual suspects guilty of leaving Spurs shamed, so shamed, so very very shamed.

< tumble-weed >

Visit The Sun's website to see the photos. Yes, there are photos on The Suns website. That's the photos of the bar and club. Taken at some random point in time during the day. There's also a photo of a private jet flying through the sky. Not the actual private jet used by some of the players but a good likeness for it. It's damning evidence.

If the players trained brilliantly the day later, then if the 16 did go out on the lash (if anyone in Dublin has mobile pics of the players or perhaps the Dublin newspapers covered the story and the paparazzi took snaps of drunken dentist chair action - then feel free to link/share) they didn't appear to show it the next day in training. And losing 1-0 to Wolves had more to do with football than hangovers.

If you want to be all Mulder about it and claim that players did get smashed out their heads and the matter was dealt with behind closed doors (hence Harry's 'no Xmas party' statement 48 hours after Dublin) then that's fine. It's all been confirmed by a Spurs insider, so its practically fact. And if the club punished players, then we'd have heard something about it no doubt.

So in conclusion, it sounds like they went to Ireland, played some golf (or didn't) and then went to a bar and a club before travelling back in time for training the next morning and showing no sign of drink fatigue.

It was apparently a 'audacious plot planned with military precision'. What was? Travelling to Dublin for a couple of drinks and then travelling back home again? Ooh. That must have taken some serious blue-printing to get it organised. Keane's 16. It's a little bit like Oceans but with no casino. No females either. Gio and Bale didn't travel, apparently preferring to stay home and wash their hair.

Additional footnote; the story remained on ice until after Spurs beat City.

GTFI.

Next...

I wonder how much press coverage this will get?

You'll have seen this already on one or two message boards and a few blogs. It deserves all the coverage it can get. Remember the Spurs fans who had their faces plastered all over the press and Crimestoppers for allegedly singing indecent chants at the Pompey v Spurs game?

The likes of the Daily Mail and other tabloids had no qualms about going to town in true sensationalist tabloid hack fashion (with obvious support from the police). The assumption being they must surely all be guilty so plaster their faces all over the front page and villianise them before they have a chance of proving otherwise.

Well done to Ian Trow for standing his ground:

9 months to the day, the CCTV images of 16 Spurs supporters were distributed by the police to all national media, and these images were placed in all papers, and on front page of Crimestoppers next to the likes of murderers and drug dealers.

For the first time in the 9 months since I woke up in a hotel in Germany and saw my face and that of my 13 year old son on the TV screen we can now hold our heads up high, having been proved innocent of all charges.

I cannot go into full detail, as we will be bringing civil action (certainly on behalf of Lewis, as I can get all costs covered under Legal Aid) against the police / CPS for the damages their total negligence and lack of due care caused.

In summary though

In December 11 of the 16 people identified themselves to the police (including a 13 and 2 15 year old boys), and were all charged with engaging in racist or indecent chanting.

In February 4 of these people pleaded guilty the other 7 not guilty. The difference is the 4 were singing the Sol Sol song which certainly is indecent. The other 7 were singing songs such as "We've got Ledley at the back".

These 7 people were then banned by Tottenham under the premise that we had been arrested and that contravened the terms of our season ticket (the fact that we had not been found guilty was irrelevant).

Early May all 7 people were offered cautions, as they had not been singing indecent songs, 5 took what I would call the easy route out and accepted the caution, I decided to uphold my principles and decided I have done nothing wrong so why should me and my son admit any form of guilt (which in effect is what a caution does). The police then offered to drop all charges against me if I would get my son to accept a reprimand (they were obviously scared of future repercussions by my son) I rejected this out of principal as well.

Middle of May, the 2 of us went to trial at Portsmouth Magistrates Court and despite there being no evidence to support the charge brought against us we were found guilty basically by association of singing indecent songs, i.e. we can prove bad songs were sung, we can prove you were at the ground, therefore we assume you were singing these songs.
My legal counsel advised me afterwards that this was always going to be the case, it was purely a show trial, in front of national media (invited by the Police). We were given a 3 year Football Banning Order.

Yesterday we had a full re-trial at Portsmouth Crown Court in front of the most senior judge in Hampshire, but I was quite surprised no media was present. The prosecution showed their evidence, to which the judge said "Is that it". We asked for immediate dismissal of the case (before we even had the chance to put our defence case) and after 2 minutes of deliberation the judge that came back and said, "Not guilty, no case to answer and that is totally unanimous of us all and you can tell by the time it it took it was not a hard decision". The judge then ripped into the CPS that this had been brought into his courtroom, and even been tried in the first case.

All costs have been awarded to me, football banning orders lifted etc.

I have been in touch with the club and expect to hear early next week that the season tickets will be returned.

I would like to thank my family, friends, fellow supporters who have supported me in this, and also the Tottenham Trust who gave some invaluable advise and have been in contact with Spurs during the whole scenario.

I am writing this with a sore head (as you can imagine I celebrated hard last night) and with a big :) on my face. I will be going into Tottenham for a few (or maybe more than a few) drinks today, as I am now allowed back into the borough of Haringey on match-days, although I do not have ticket for match.

Thanks for the support
Ian Trow

COYS

Hopefully the club will have a few words of support on this matter too. The whole sorry affair proves how superficial the media are (we all know how they work and what sells papers so it's no real shock), how easily influenced the police are and how the complaintent's quest for what he perceived as undeniable justice can be steam-rolled into a witch-hunt just to appease his ego.

The truth is never out there (David Bentley)

Thought I'd share this because it serves a purpose in never quite believing what you read, even when they print quotes from the player in question. In this case, David Bentley. The interview in question is the one The Sun published yesterday where David allegedly told the journalist that he was in talks with Aston Villa.

Complete fabrication. At least according to a good friend of DB who has no reason to fib. Unlike the tabloids who do nothing but.

I accept we'll be seeing one of those two sentence apologies hidden away in the corner of the page soon.

Still, would be ironic if Villa do end up bidding for him and he does go.

Truth will out in time.