Beef Bagel

Well, isn’t someone making the right noises,

“It is true there was contact with Lyon, but maybe Tottenham showed more desire to sign me.

Considering the clubs which were following me, Chelsea and Juventus, people are surprised by my decision, and they tell me I chose a smaller club but I believe it is a wise choice,”

so says Younes Kaboul. That’s a near perfect response that could only be improved by adding,

“And then I punched them in the face for disrespecting the Spurs.”

Clearly the guy can see the brink of greatness upon which we sit and he wants to play football. His only disappointment will come if we end up signing Curtis Davies as well. Without the West Brom captain in our squad, Kaboul will be looking at around 20 starts with Davies, it could be as few as five.

But as all managers say, that’s the kind of selection problem you want to have. Then they’ll say something stupid like ‘if you’d have told me we would only lose by a goal at the beginning of the game, I’d have taken it’ and then gone on about the lads doing good.

Whatever happens, I’m looking forward to seeing Kaboul in action and hearing exactly how is name is supposed to be pronounced. Here’s a clue. Listen for the fourth goal…

…I’m hoping that wasn’t him beaten by at the back post for the second goal. By the way did you notice the number on the back of his shirt?

We’ll have to wait a little longer to get a measure of the man as he will not be featuring in the first of the pre-seasons, at this afternoon’s traditional match up at Stevenage. Keano and Bent will be starting up front with Steed, Taarabt in the middle and making possibly his only outing of the campaign will be Danny Murphy. Whether we sell him or not, Satan will be ice-skating to work when Murphy gets a league start at Tottenham.

No Gareth Bale in the line up and otherwise it’s the reserve regulars including the oh so close Jamie O’Hara. If he doesn’t come through this season it could well be curtains for him. Of course, these will be incredibly slow, drawn-out curtains involving a two-year collection of loan spells throughout League 1 and the Championship but curtains nonetheless it shall be.

Jamie’s 21 this year. He’s 5′11″, 12.5st. Here’s his head…

…cheery lad.

Could he be the holding player we’ve been looking for? Doesn’t look like it but you never know, cometh the hour and all that.

One man who says he will not be comething at all is Johan Elmander, who says that they love him at Toulouse and that’s where he wants to be.

“They’ve got confidence in me and want to build the side around me. Some time in the future I would like to try playing in Spain or England.”

Sounds definitive, with ‘future’ being the operative word.

Another man who we all thought was not comething at all has come back into the frame though, although I’m sure why. Elmander’s a good player but he never really got The Bagel’s pulse racing. Ludovic Giuly on the other hand would be an excellent addition to an already lethal attack, if only for a season or two.

According to the Mirror we’re stepping up our efforts and £3m is all it would take to grab him from Barca. Bit of a bargain if you ask me. The sticking point though are his Ludicrous Giuly wages of that are more in the Newcastle United realm, i.e.: north of what we offer.

Even if we could persuade him to take a wage cut, there are clubs after the little guy’s signature; two are them are from his home country and one is Monaco, where he was loved. Not saying this one wont happen but it’ll be a real coup if it does. Right footed he may be but where else are we going to find someone good enough to stick on the left?

I was a better man to her as a bagel than I was to any bagel as a man.

The Bagel.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 7th, 2007 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Bagel 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.