Beef Bagel

By the time you’re reading this The Bagel will be airborne somewhere over Europe with a £3.50 Ryan Air mini beer in his hands. Destination: Murcia, the nearest cheapest airport to the match and just the right distance to make for an amusing road trip. By the sounds of the warnings ahead of Semana Santa (that’s Holy not Father Christmas week) we’ll have to ditch out transport in Portugal to get a chance of parking but when we do make it to the city centre I’m not sure how much time we’re going to want to spend in the designated “Tottenham Hotspur Fan Zone”. Will the Seville authorities get it right? They’ll need hamburgers, they’ll need strippers but most of all, they’ll need beer, lots of beer and they’d better hope it doesn’t run out.

And what of the game itself? Well, we’re in no doubt that this’ll be our toughest test yet but far from the arrogance I’d have expected of the second placed Spanish side and UEFA Cup holders, there’s been nothing but respect from Sevilla coach, Ramon Rodriguez, for well, pretty much our whole team. Check this:

“They have a lot of quality, Robbie Keane, Berbatov, Defoe - with a lot of class and goals. In fact, even the full-backs, Lee (Young-Pyo) and (Pascal) Chimbonda, are attack-minded.”

“King and Dawson usually start, but the former is injured and I don’t know if he’ll be back. Both are tall, with good aerial ability.

“Paul Robinson has been one of the best goalkeepers in English football for a long time, he is comfortable with high balls and has a very powerful kick - he even scores goals.”

“Spurs are not bad defensively; it is just that in attack they are very good.”

So, he’s trying to say it’s the kit-man and tea lady who are the weakness in our team. Interesting. Perhaps that’s where they plan to hit us, by wearing better boots and out snacking us? And if you think it’s the players on whom Rodriguez has done his homework, guess again:

“Tottenham are not a typical English side. They always try to pass the ball around - even coming out of defence - without hitting long balls. They are also devilishly quick in midfield and attack.”

“They use a 4-4-2 system, although sometimes play with just one holding midfielder, however, normally they play with two strong players in the middle.”

“They will be difficult to beat and we will have to make sure they don’t take us by surprise.”

Errrr….yeah. Well, I doubt we’re going to because…well…that’s pretty much us. This really is going to be a good game. But still, no matter how much respect I should have for this Seville side, I just don’t. Why? Because we have won every game so far in the cup and I just don’t think we know how to lose in Europe. Looking forward to this one. Really looking forward to it.

The Bagel & Co. maybe on their way out in the morning but one Spur who wont be making the trip is the Man Mountain, Tom Huddlestone. Big Bad Tom took a nasty knock to his knee in the latter stages of the game on Sunday and after my comments to Omar of “That’s it, he’s done his knee ligaments,” I was frankly amazed when Big Bad Tom took the field again. But it appears that 20-year-old leviathan was just being mummy’s brave soldier and has been ruled out for the next two or three weeks.

On the plus side, Ledley’s nearly back.

Yes, that deserves a paragraph unto itself. Teemu Tainio is back in training, Hossam Ghaly is over his illness and Baby Face Gardner is progressing quicker than expected. Oh, and Mido’s fit. Don’t all shout at once.

If Manchester United have anything to do with it though, Mido will be the man we’ll have to look to next season, if, that is, they manage to prise away another of valued assets. There’s a mooted £19m for Dimitar the Great and although I’m convinced that our hero will not leave this time around, I also know this is a story we’re going to have to put up with until September. Bit of a cheek, though, if you ask me. He’s £25m if he’s a pound but I should think that the Chewing Gum Machine is just starting low, rather than using the well known Russian technique:

“£35m?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, ok, £50m?”

But fear not chums. We’ve two positive deals to consider and both simply bursting with potential.

Tottenham scouts have been spotted at Dutch team Vitesse and apparently they’ve had their eyes on 25-year-old central midfielder, Theo Janssen. As it happens, if they had turned up any time in the last 9 years they would have found him there aside a very brief loan spell at Belgium’s RC Genk (great name; “Who do you support? Oh, I’m a big Genk fan.” It makes you sound like you never wash.)

Janseen recently made the Dutch national side and has caught our attention in what I presume is a holding roll due to his high number of career appearances, 199 and fairly low number of “doelpunten”, which I assume are goals, 20. His height and weight add some credence to this theory at nearly six feet and over 12.5 stone. Let’s see what he looks like. Here’s his head…

…yes, I think we can safely say that’s a meat head.

So, what’s Theo had to say about it all:

“I have always said that I would like to play somewhere else at some stage, if a nice club comes.
Tottenham Hotspur are a nice club.”

Need we question more?

Yes we need. Who is this other punter on our Tottenham cards? Well, here’s his head…

…the one in the “bwin” shirt
Well, he’s 6′ tall, weighs around 12 stone. He’s from the good Dr Congo. Any ideas yet? I’ll put you out of your misery…

…looks like a nice young chap and that’s certainly what France think as they’ve made the lad captain of their U18 side. But the 17-year-old himself has still to make up his mind and he’s said he’ll turn to the land of his birth if they offer him a senior cap first.

Zola (great name) appears to be a midfielder in the making or “post: middle of the ground” as a Google translator will tell you. But is he any good? No idea but he’s full of potential and The Bagel loves potential. Video clips and stats whenever they appear.

For those staying at home, The Bagel shall be your foreign correspondent, internet access provided, and for those making the trip, I’ll see you out there.

Your bagels are here, here and here. Please take a moment to locate your nearest bagel.

The Bagel.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 7:38 am and is filed under Bagel News, Transfer News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.