The Big Fourcast
With just a few days to go the question that’s been on our lips is now as clear as day on those at the club and the rest of English football fans. Can Tottenham break the Big Four?
“I think with the squad we have got it is a chance this season. It’s our first real chance to do that. That is what our aim and focus is on achieving this season,” says Ledley as he confirms our targets are theirs but what are the real chances?
Ask any Tottenham fan and we feel good. We’ve never been stronger and that gap smaller so why not; an optimistic outlook. You speak to any gooner and you get a confident bravado tinged with a shaky fear and secret prayers. So, where is the truth?
In an attempt to discover just that there’s an interesting article in the Guardian on the matter that makes for the kind of reading to get any football fan thinking that this is the most important battle of the season and who knows maybe it is? After all, with all the talk of the way football is going in the modern age in terms of money, foreign players, oligarch owners and the Champions League monopoly, what better time for a English-owned club, based on home-grown talent, to show that the league is still competitive?
The problem with the Guardian article is that in asking the opinions of Keith Burkinshaw and Terry Neill, all they have actually done is speak to a Yiddo and a gooner, all be they perhaps more informed than the average football fan. Neither seem insulting of the other club on the surface and in fact Neill makes some good points about the other clubs of the Big Four - particularly Red Faced Fergie and his face full of gum - but in regard to his comment about us and getting a side to gel, well, actually, we’ve only bought one player so far to go straight into our first XI, one and half if you count Younes Kaboul. The real crux of the piece though was from him. Neill said:
“Their (Big Four) belief marks them out from those who would want to replace them. They expect a minimum top-four finish, the other clubs are only hoping to do so.”
And this for The Bagel is what it is all about. I truly believe that we have the players, the manager, the coaches and, by no means least of all, the support. What we need is the belief. I don’t mean hope, I mean belief; an absolute, unbending certainty that the Champions League is where we belong. It’s no good aiming to come fourth at the expense of arsenal, Liverpool or even Chelsea. Our consistency may not allow us to challenge for the title but we have to believe that when we play them, we are as strong as any of these Big Four clubs. Don’t go for fourth and don’t go for the title, just play to win and know that we can do it.
It’s been etched on our hearts since the fixtures came out that it all starts against new boys Sunderland, the other team the nation will have their eyes on, come Saturday. Confidence is high with our 100% record in pre-season but we all know how quickly that was dashed this time last year, not least of all MJ:
“We head up to Sunderland on Saturday for the opening fixture of the new season and we need a very good start. Our newly promoted opponents will want to show everybody that they can survive in the Premiership and they will play with a lot of pride, but we don’t want a similar outcome to that at Bolton last year and we will fight for every square metre of territory as well.”
Good to hear that that sting is as strong in his mind as it is in ours. Think of Sheffield United and their unlucky draw for their opening fixture against Liverpool and the Gerrard dive. The words that come to mind are ‘tooth and nail’ and that’s exactly how Sunderland will fight and how hard we’ll have to, to prove that we’re a team to watch out for.
As for the moves and shakes of the day, Milan Manderic and Mad Dog Allen are lining up the sort of bid for Danny Murphy that the papers typically describe as ‘audacious’. Whatever kind of bid it is, may it be a successful one. May Leicester get their man, may we lighten our wage bill and may it be part of the deal that Mrs. Murphy is left behind and what a behind it is.
I was amused this morning to read the headline on a Villa blog - AVFC Blog to give a fellow blogger a plug - which read:
“Are Spurs about to hijack our Davies bid?”
Your Davies bid? Your Davies bid? We’ve been tracking the player since before he was in the womb. We optioned his father’s semen. Every time the man wanked he had to pay us £50. ‘Your Davies bid’ I ask you.
From the sublime to the ridiculous, Fiorentina have apparently go their sites on our own Little Aaron Lennon.Reports say that they tabled an offer of £11m, which funnily enough, we rejected. £30m wouldn’t make me want to part with our pace gnome and I don’t know where club president, Pantaleo Corvino and his chronies get off when all they have to offer him is better ice cream?
Little Aaron himself has been talking about his preparations for the coming season and how he watches other players and particularly Ronaldo (of the Christiano variety). He said:
“I don’t try to copy any of his play but I look at his movement and the way he’s improved his game,” which was a good caveat in case we thought he was about to become an obnoxious, cheating, little wanker.
On a final but unfortunately undocumented note, a Spurs XI, which included Prince Kevin, Big Bad Tom, Adel Taarabt and the long lost Wayne Routledge, beat old boy, Justin Edinburgh’s Greys Athletic 3-2 last night. Goals from Leigh Mills, Taarabt and yes, a first if just a tap in for Prince Kevin. Good start. Sorry to see the defence is just as soft as the first XI with two goals conceded to the Conference team, oh sorry, Blue Square Premiership as it is now known. Ridiculous.
“Christie, don’t just stare at it, bagel it.”
The Bagel.
August 8th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
“based on home-grown talent”
You must mean both Phil Ifil and Ledley “Balsa Wood” King.
August 8th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Nice on Cyril!
Never a truer word spoken dear Bagel !!!
What the mind can believe the body can achieve. If there is any player who steps onto the turf without this philosophy then he is better on the subs bench!!
Also your observation about our impending visit to the stadium of light is spot on, mad dog Keano will have fed his troops on razor blades for the game. If we want to win this one it will require maximum committment from every player in a white shirt.
One last request have a word in MJ’s left ear to grab young Davis cos I fear that despite his obviuos talent LK has taken over from DA and will prove to be our new “sick note” and as we WILL be CL contenders this season we need a reliable foundation to build on.
Come on You Spurs
August 8th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
i realy can’t wait for saterday, it would be very pleasing to start of with a win…
August 8th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Well Hahaha, I completely acccept that home grown talent is a foreign concept to you.
“Home grown” usually refers to British players so I’m surprised that you could only name two of the many British players at our club.
I suppose that as you play at the Emirates Stadium, you most likely don’t know what country you are in half the time.
August 9th, 2007 at 8:45 am
The sooner the FA moves in at white hart shame and kicks you out the better.
Hornchurch Yids showing their racists colours, not the first time someone has shown their colours on here is it ?
Home Grown usually refers to players nutured by the club, brought up through the youth system and have forced their way into the first team.
And you have 2.
We pick the prime youth players from around the world, at 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 and create great footballers out of them.
Most of our squad realised their potential that way, can you say the same ?
August 9th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Oi Oi or Hahaha or hoi hoi
Please enlighten me. What do I say in my earlier post that is racist?
August 9th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Let’s get something hoi, hoi, saveloy.
Home-grown refers to anything grown at home. That’s why it’s called home-grown. Now, what that means depends upon where you are referring to as home.
What I’m talking about in the post is in referrence to the current press about the England teams lack of success and how that is blamed upon young - and here it comes - home-grown, British talent not getting a chance to play in the Premiership while teams such as yours and Man City buy in foreign talent.
Regardless of what age you buy your players, your club will still be guilty of stopping young British talent come through.
And as for coming down here, pointing your finger and accusing people of being racist, that’s the most cowardly thing I’ve seen you do.
I like a heated debate and I’m happy to have an rival’s opinion but behave or I’ll chuck you out of here.
The Bagel.
August 9th, 2007 at 10:35 am
oi ha oi.
You really should stop accusing people of racism.
For a start, what you would be accusing hornchurch yid of if you had the vocabulary is xenophobia, not racism.
There is NO link between enjoying the encouragement of British talent and being a racist. Or a xenophobe. Personally, I quite like the mix we have at Tottenham - a decent mix of British and foreign players.
By all means spout your ill thought out bullshit about football (see below for an example of the bullshit which you spout), but lay off the moronic accusations that you have absolutely no basis to make.
I’ve never met Hornchurch Yid (or maybe I have, but if so I don’t know him as Hornchurch Yid!!). He could be a racist, but nothing I’ve read (or that you’ve read) by him suggests even remotely that he is.
And as for the Bagel, who was also accused of racism by gooner posters, this is a load of shit (bagel - feel free to correct me if you are in fact a racist, and I shall avoid you from now on!)
Go on - be man enough (apologies for sexism, and assumption of your sex) to offer the apology that any decent human being can see you owe.
Finally - and just to make this slightly about football rather than a criticism of your smear campaign - you claim that the Arsenal squad consists mostly of the “prime youth players from around the world at [14-17]” who have become “great footballers” and have “realised their potential”.
Because the whole point about this Arsenal team is that it is full of players who HAVEN’T fulfilled their potential yet, and neither you, I nor any other Arsenal or Spurs fan know if they are going to achieve the potential we are told they have.
I’ll give you Fabregas. Does anyone else who meets your own criteria, let alone half your squad? Oh - by the way, Toure (as an example of the sort of player I think you might mean) was an international player in his 20s when you signed him.
August 9th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Bagel…looking forward to the start of the season…
See you on Tuesday
August 9th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Worrying Ledley news today:
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2144579,00.html
With the volume of matches to play, surely extra cover is a priority now?
Praise the lord that, as from saturday, life gets a lot more fun again!
COYS!!!!!
August 10th, 2007 at 9:40 am
I state racism, and stand by my guns.
When I mention your team, usually disparagingly, I mention the players, and their faults, the team and it’s faults, the fans and their faults.
At no point do I resort to describing the players by ethnic orientation.
However, you clearly see the difference as greater than one footballer against another, one player being faster / more skillfull / fitter / less prone to injury etc etc, you also see the players as being french / non english / not home-grown etc. Surely that has nothing to do with game of football ?
I fully support the FA’s ‘kick rascism out’ campaign, because a stand must be made and a line drawn, rascism does not start and end with colour.
Each and every time someone mentions a player and slates them for their colour or country of origin I will call them a racist. If that means I should be banned from the blog, then so be it.
August 10th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Now for an end to the home-grown argument.
Uefa says the definition of a homegrown player is a player who has spent three years training with the club / trained in the country between the ages of 15 and 21, irrespective of nationality.
We have 6 at the moment:
First category, trained with the club:
Cesc (2004-2007)
Clichy (2003-2007)
Senderos (2003-2007)
Hoyte (2001-2007)
Djourou (2003-2007)
Second category: trained in the country:
Walcott (2003-2007 - with Soton and then Arsenal)
Over the next year, Bendtner, Song, Traore will all become eligible as well.
August 10th, 2007 at 10:23 am
So - only one player meets your own criteria, when you earlier claimed it was more than half the squad.
And even by uefa’s criteria, you are still talking shit. Unless you have a squad of 11.
And if that is your definition of homegrown (the one in your 9:51 post), why are you claiming that we only have King and Ifil? When in fact we have several more than the six you say Arsenal have?
You basically adopt a position. When its pointed out to you that your position is wrong, you shift your position. And you are STILL wrong. Totally, factually, incontrovertibily wrong!
You also act idiotically in using racism like a stick to beat people with when you really don’t know what you are talking about. If you go about calling non-racist people racist in the real world, one of them is going to punch you repeatedly very hard in the face one day soon. Absolutely NOT behaviour I would condone, but behaviour I would certainly understand!
Or do you only wrongly allege racism when you are having anonymous internet conversations about football?
August 10th, 2007 at 10:44 am
“When in fact we have several more than the six you say Arsenal have”
Not very commital is it ?
Name them then.
August 10th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Oh by the way, Senderos doesn’t meet Uefa’s criteria as you state them to be. He didn’t spend three years training with Arsenal whilst under the age of 21. Wrong again, oi oi.
August 10th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Huddlestone. King, Ifil. Lennon. Defoe. Dawson. Robinson. Keane. There’s some to begin with.
All players who spent three years training in the country between the age of 15 - 21.
Are you denying they meet the UEFA definition as stated in your 9:51 post?
August 10th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Morning Oi Oi
I will ask you again. What in my original post is racist?
In your 9:40 post you refer to players being described by “ethnic orientation”. Nothing in my posts refers to ethnicity.
You also say “every time someone mentions a player and slates them for their colour or country of origin” you will call them a racist. Where in all of this has anyone referred to players by their colour or country of origin?
Thank you for informing us of your impeccable anti racist credentials. Why you feel the need to tell us all is another matter. Talk about stating the bleeding obvious.
I’m still waiting for you to explain what it is that I or anyone else has said that is racist?.
August 10th, 2007 at 11:52 am
oog - he does meet the criteria, you have to remember the grey areas of age when it comes to football.
he was 21 until this year and has been at the club since 2003
and …
in your world ’several more than the six’ is actully seven?
Not that it matters to your lot anyway, it’s a stipulation for the champions league, and you ain’t in it or even close.
August 10th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
You want more (than the EIGHT I listed previously)? Jenas. Murphy. Bent. Alnwick.
Oh - and I was going on the criteria as you stated them to be.
Please don’t lecture me about grey areas. I will not take lessons on subtlety from a moron who doesn’t understand the difference between an innocent football blog and a BNP meeting.
Now - have I been committal enough for you to acknowledge that you made a fool of yourself when you said “not very commital is it”?
Or that you keep changing your argument rather than engaging in one you are losing?
Or that you can’t count properly.
August 10th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
How can you describe Bent as a spuds home grown player ?
Perhaps we should direct the topic to a level a meathead like you would understand. How about you name all the teletubbies ?
August 10th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
I don’t know the names of the teletubbies. As a racist, I see it as an attempt to indoctrinate children into accepting that people of different colours can live together in harmony. Disgusting.
Now, I will say this slowly … read… your… own… criteria… for… what.. makes… a… homegrown… player!
Now explain to me how you can describe Bent as anything other than a homegrown player!
I repeat. Your own criteria.
I’m not a meathead. I can count to eight. I have grasped the need for consistency in reasoned argument. I hate to blow my own trumpet, but my cv displays a list of academic and professional achievement that I promise you is simply inconsistent with being a meathead. I can blow my own trumpet, for example.
August 10th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
My own criteria doesn’t count - I passed on the information from the Uefa’s site concerning what qualifies as a home grown player.
I thought the quote, though abridged, was pretty self explanatory. Little did I realise I would have to explain to the village idiot that it was not in fact a legally binding statement, and that there would be slightly more meat (no offence to your head) to the wording of the official document, that the rules of this multi billion pound industry couldn’t be bypassed quite so simply.
Perhaps I should explain that I don’t work for Uefa or the FA, and perhaps I should also explain that I don’t live inside your computer, and further to that I should explain that you are not actually having a text converstion with your screen.
No doubt you will be tempted to type some more pedantic drivel to justify to yourself that, with all those qualifications, you’re not actually a fucking idiot. We all know better.
August 10th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
And so oi oi resorts to insulting a person for sticking up for their own (and quite right) opinion against his own.
Oog wins again.
August 10th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
I’m not a completely impartial blog viewer (COYS!), but i am a fairly intellegent and reasonable human being and can clearly see that oog has got this one pretty much wrapped up.
However, I would like to make one further point. If you go back to the original post from Bagel, what he actually said was:
“After all, with all the talk of the way football is going in the modern age in terms of money, foreign players, oligarch owners and the Champions League monopoly, what better time for a English-owned club, based on home-grown talent, to show that the league is still competitive?”
Anyone with even half a brain can clearly see there is not the slightest hint of racism in this post. I can’t actually believe it’s even caused such discussion. What Oi Oi and Hahaha need to realise is that being proud of one’s country, and being concerned at the state of the national game is NOT the same thing as racism. Is it racist to support England in the World Cup? NO! Maybe, as oog states, it might be considered xenophobic, but even that’s a long shot. Xenophobia is the fear of foreigners. That is not the same thing as support of one’s own country. Is it xenophobic to support England in the World Cup? I think that’s also an emphatic NO!
However, it is offensive, crude and downright stupid to make claims of racism where non-exist, and I for one would condone, in this particular circumstance, the smashing in of faces if those accusations were laid at my door.
August 10th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Incidentally, even if you look at the complete UEFA regulations rather than the abridged version, Bent STILL qualifies under the second category.
And its not pedantic to answer the question you posed to me, oi oi. You asked how I could describe Bent as a homegrown player, and I gave you the answer! It must be a fucking clever village if the village idiot can understand the UEFA regulations.
And, although I know G wasn’t saying this, I’ll just point out (to hornchurch yid in particular) that I was absolutely not accusing him of xenophobia either! And that oi oi still owes him an apology.
And thats it from me, on this topic! Hope to see some of you on Tuesday… COYS!
August 10th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Without using chalk, I don’t see how I can make it much simpler.
Bent cannot be a spuds homegrown player because he didn’t train with you before he was 21.
As far as I can see, oog is saying that a player is homegrown as soon as they sign for the club, either he is plain dumb, or just pedantic.
August 11th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
oi oi
Give it up son, you’ve obviously got too much time on your hands & don’t know (a) when you’re talking pure shite (which seems to be most of the time) & (b) when you’re beaten
Get a life & good luck
August 14th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Haha - Spurs are about to lose to Everton!!! No points after two games and you still talk shit saying you are going to pip Arsenal for 4th. Give me a fucking break you wankerS!!!
August 14th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
Ohhhhhhhhh,
The sun has got his hat on,
Hip hip hip hoo-rayyy
the sun has got his hat on coz the spurs have lost ay-gain EY!