Tottenham thread

I'm getting sick of anti-football teams. Hopefully you guys will make a difference for us and an interesting game!

f**k me, when THFC have 37% of possession against Manure that normally indicates a solid defeat...who'd have thought that we could put on a fine defensive performance for the second half and still come away with a point? 'Arry is still God.

what a great performance and what a match! 37% possession maybe but we had the better chances throughout the game. thoroughly enjoyed it. after all the discussion about zokora, i thought he was superb yesterday, shut down cristiano all game. dawson also had a fine match. how good does rafael look at rb for manure though? he has class written all over him

Great result for us, 6 points off the big four so far, which is amazing considering our poor start.

how about Gomez, for all the grief he's copped the last few months he had a flipping awesome game i thought, that Gigg's free kick at the end he saved  plus a ton of others, great game 

In fairness, Gomez has never lacked being a shot stopper.

It is his Vampire attribute (hates crosses) that has been the problem.

Certainly 'Arry is less than impressed with members of the squad. A scathing appraisal that the Board were not expecting it seems...


Harry Redknapp has offered scant encouragement for Spurs fans and executives over the state of the squad he is working with. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP


Harry Redknapp last night offered Tottenham Hotspur's shareholders and the club's chairman, Daniel Levy, a damning assessment of the squad he inherited from Juande Ramos and warned that a complete player overhaul will be required if Spurs are to challenge for a top-five finish.

Tottenham's directors unveiled details of the club's proposed 60,000-capacity stadium at their annual general meeting yesterday and, while those plans were warmly received by those present, Redknapp made it clear that the club's short-term aims may be unobtainable given the weakness of the current squad. Spurs were bottom when the 61-year-old succeeded Ramos in October and, although they have since climbed to 15th, further upheaval is needed if they are to challenge for Champions League qualification.

Redknapp appeared to surprise the board members on the top table when asked by the non-executive director Mervyn Davies to assess the squad in a brief question and answer session conducted in front of 200 shareholders. "It depends where you want to go and finish," said the manager. "If you're talking about finishing fifth or in the top four, it's well short of that. I'm not going to stand up here and lie to you.

"So far we've got the best out of what we have here but the squad is still well short of the top four and not as good as Aston Villa's and other teams challenging to be up there. There's a lot of work to do if we are going to get where we want to be. I bet you wish you hadn't asked me that question now, don't you, Mervyn?"

Levy had earlier stressed that he anticipated "no major transactions" for the club in the winter transfer window, saying the challenge was "to realise the full potential of our squad". Redknapp appears to accept that he may have to operate with loan deals at best next month given that potential targets such as Lassana Diarra, Matthew Upson, Jermain Defoe and Carlo Cudicini are unlikely to be available mid-season. However, it appears the Spurs hierarchy must brace themselves for a further significant outlay in the summer having spent some �78m last summer� albeit with �73.7m recouped in sales.

"We want to build a team here that every�body's proud of," said Redknapp. "We need proper players and a proper team that can take us to where we want to go. Then I can bow out in a few years' time and leave you all with a team in the top four. As for this season, I think there will be 14 teams stuck in a possible relegation battle. Anybody could slip into it. You wonder where we'd be now if we hadn't had such a fantastic run. It doesn't bear thinking about. Everybody's scrapping for their lives and looking over their shoulders. I couldn't stand here and honestly say we're looking to get into Europe."

Redknapp is considering handing the 16-year-old John Bostock his first senior start in Thursday's Uefa Cup group match against Spartak Moscow with another teenager, Dean Parrett, expected to feature on the bench.

Check out the new stadium

http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,16368,1784_4650695,00.html

class, they have been at pains to point out the crowd will be extremely close to the action, apparantly nothing like the Emirates where the Woolwich Wanderers play...which has been described by better judges than me as 'a large corporate box'

"This means designing a stadium which has supporters as close as possible to the field of play and not simply looking to chase headline capacity." - Daniel Levy.

Errr wouldn't putting fans close to the field of play allow you to increase headline capacity?
Arsenal2008-12-16 20:48:02

1. So it's a safety feature to have seats further back?
2. Income would also depend on how many more seats you can cram in behind the front row that otherwise wouldn't be able to be there if the front row was further back.

I'm far more interested in 'Arry's proposed design of our team in the near future than a new stadium tbh.

The new proposed design looks a lot like arsenal's stadium?

Well, in the sense that it is tall and eliptical. But as the discussion earlier suggests, major differences on the inside.

this was printed in the telegraph recently. Kinda funny:

Onwards in Europe...I've got very mixed feelings about the UEFA this season: if we have a decent Xmas I might feel different.

We have a Brazilian fullback for sale if anyone is interested!

I kinda feel the same, we're operating on 4 fronts at the moment, with an injury plagued squad and still a niggling concern about our place in the League.

Semi's of the Carling Cup (2 legs v Burnley)
3rd Round at home to Wigan of the FA Cup
Last 32 of the UEFA Cup.

Perhaps getting knocked out of say the FA Cup might be a good thing...

Only so long we can keep playing the squad, although in saying all of that i believe you can re-register the UEFA Cup squad before the next round, which would mean we could register Stalteri, Boateng, Rocha, and Taarabet etc (all of which the idiot Ramos deemed surplus to requirements) , and then assuming we pick up a couple of players in the transfer window would obviously strengthen the squad.

Xmas Horriblus thus far. A quick exit from FA and Europe now seem quite ok in the bigger scheme.

Not sure i would have included stalteri on that list, Dougie! Now a moot point anyway as i think he's been sent packing.

Clearly Tarabat (sp?) has been impressing 'Arry in training as he has been labelled a 'genius'. Get him on the fecking pitch then! HarryHotspur2009-01-02 11:22:02

I was disappointed that you didn't sort wba out Harry

Spurs for another cup run?? 3-1 over Wigan.

Given the draw, no!

Happy for us to put out a B team at Old Trafford and lose

We can then concentrate on the Carling Cup, and progress to Europe via that route (although a fairly useful Man Yoo team stand in the way).

This will also allow us to focus on the league where we've had a couple of recent hiccups and are still 1 point off the relegation zone..

Defoe is ours. Unsettled, perhaps?!

Crivens. 1 down.

Yeehaa, 2-1 up (teach me to miss first 7mins of second half!)

Pav for 3!

4! o.g. Landslide on the cards? HarryHotspur2009-01-07 10:28:38

Fair dos.

Yup I think the paintvarnish approach might have included the words Bentley and Bollocks in rather quick succession.

Despite the millions spent it was the homegrown talent of O'Hara that completely changed the complexion of this game. He seems to be a genuine 'give your guts' sort of guy which, despite his limitations, is the sort of player 'Arry is going to respond well to in times like these.

Woe. Goals at the death are a real bind!

Harry old son, what are you doing?

It is reported Harry was in Italy last night to check out Brazillian and major party animal Adriano, and the 34yr old Frenchmen Oliver Dacourt...

Are these really the kind of players we need in a relegation fight???

Very Odd.
Bale seems near top of the list to depart...20 league starts without a win! And Jenas above that...shame, I really like Jenas...a couple of goals against the Arse over the last few seasons mean he should carry a 'don't sell' sign in my bias opinion. HarryHotspur2009-01-14 20:05:09

Bale has been miserable the last few times I've seen him play. He'd be my first to be shown the door.

omg you guys are pants, Burnley are all over you and pavylachenko (excuse the spelling) missed an almost identical open goal as Darren Bent did on the weekend although he was under a little more pressure it was a tap in 

I can't wait to see this either:

"1951: That was nearly the greatest own goal of all time. The ball falls to Benoit Assou-Ekotto 40 yards from the Spurs goal and the left-back tries to pass it back to Ben Alnwick, but it ends up being a curler towards the top corner that the keeper tips behind for a corner."
Arsenal2009-01-22 10:48:33

 Lucky, lucky. Now don't let them Mancs get the trophy!

And Mr Houdini pulls off another great escape, lets just hope we can stay in the prem now, hopefully the Mancs are still struggling with injuries come the weekend and then we can send them out of the FA cup.

You lucky, lucky bastards.  Your name must be on the trophy.  Oh, it is already I forgot!!