The gain in our loss
I found it very difficult to be upset yesterday and even as I awoke this morning with the knowledge of the football results in my head before I know my own name. It could be the absolute comfort of the surroundings of my parents house; the soft beds and softer carpets, the big screen TV, the first days of real summer and the endless flow of food form the annual Bagel family barbecue and its days upon days of fillet steak left overs. The pain of a Tottenham defeat can be lost through this mountain of cushions.
More likely an explanation though, as wonderful as this luxuriant Hotel California is, is that stat that rolled along the bottom of the screen on yesterday’s Sky Sports coverage…
“….Tottenham Hotspur haven’t won away in the league at Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool for over 14 years….”
Doesn’t exactly inspire one with confidence after 20 minutes of the game and one can only hope they didn’t flash it across the advertising boards at Old Trafford for all the players to see, although that could make for some interesting psyche out tactics.
Imagine using it against other teams at WHL with such messages for other teams like:
…Rooney has got a monkey’s head…..you’re shit and you know you are…..Tevez, you little rat faced chav…
In fact it was a pleasure hearing the real songs from the Spurs faithful loud and clear over the airwaves and through our screens at home with their support for MJ, the players and the odd slagging with the likes of “You’re just a shot Maradona,” for Tevez and I’m sure I made out a taunt for the United fans of “1-0 and you still wont sing.”
It felt decidedly uncomfortable watching us contain Man U instead of trying to pressure them but I was impressed with what we managed, particularly given that our three best centre halves were not even on the pitch. Gareth Bale gave everything we could hope for in his first full game in Tottenham colours. The two left back routine seems to work well and there was the odd spark of understanding between Lee and Bale that looks like it’ll catch into a full on house on fire. The younger of the two’s delivery was what we’d all been hoping for with set pieces looking like a real weapon for us as Rocha and Gardner went agonisingly close.
JJ and Big Bad Tom look a more convincing middle pair than the former with Didier Zee. Keano dropping deep away from home seems to work against tougher opposition and Dimitar the Great has opened his box of tricks for the first time this season and with a little polish you’ll not have to ask him twice to put away rare chances as the lone-ish striker on tricky away days. One may question MJ’s nouse but tactically, I was impressed.
Better still was young Taarabt’s performance, proving that he’s a tricky customer to deal whatever team you are and it made me smile to watch him draw the foul as he skipped between the toes of three United defenders. Perhaps indeed we do have the squad it takes to make a serious challenge of our hopes and dreams this season.
The only player out of step was Steed, who had all the right moves but just a fraction off the pace of the game. It looked rather like he got stoned the night before and was reacting half a second slower than the converging United players. A little too much possession lost from the Belgian born Frenchman yesterday but he’ll be back to it by next weekend and if he isn’t maybe Little Aaron will be.
So rather hard to feel upset when the Spurs machine looks to be building up some speed with its new parts sliding into gear and giving the engine a whole new whirr.
As for the press today, well the boardroom drama seems to be quietening down again; not forgotten but not back page headlines either. MJ’s press conference the other day was a treat. He put on a brave face and did the best he could and likewise Berbatov has done the same and come out reiterating his fair but haunting statement he made at the end of last season:
“I chose to join Tottenham last season, now I’m staying at the club through my own free will. At least for now.”
So all that remains now that the ship has been steadied is to make sure that there’s wind in our sails and we become the scourge of the Premiership seas. There’s booty out there, I tell thee Jim lad, Arrrrrhhhhhh!
“So that’s why they call you One-Eyes Bagel, One-Eyed Bagel.”
The Bagel.
August 27th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
totally agree with you bagel, we played very well and i realy like the look of bale, maybe we do have a left winger at last.
As for nani’s goal, well it was unstopable even if tevez did get a little nick on it, and the fans were amazing, they all stayed on at the end and outsung united….
p.s. where has danny the drummer gone lately? he hasn’t
been at the last two home games.
COYS!
August 28th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Business as usual over the weekend, as we could all predict and expect, still MJ hasn’t lost his job yet. His time will come.
Obviously over the last week the focus has been on Mj and his failings, and levy’s need for a replacement, and obviously a larger back stabbin knife!
But now the dust is starting to settle, it does make you wonder whats the agenda behind all this.
Are enic justified in forcing this position on the manager, are they expressing the fans view accurately ? I expect many fans agree that MJ has done what he is capable of and should go, it seems more fans want him to stay though.
So is it, as an article in the observer suggests, because enic want to sell the club next year as a champions league club, with planning permission for a new stadium.
Perhaps to an american sugar daddy ? Maybe you’ll get Stan Kranky ?
August 28th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Actually, there’s reports in today of a bid from an American consortium headed by Jurgen Klinnsmen. Don’t think many Spurs would have too much of a problem with that.
The Bagel.
August 28th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Ah, Klinnsman! A sweet name to hear at a time like this!
Annoying thing happened at the weekend game - David Moyes was apparently watching the game and sitting right in front of Levy, and that made for a good five minutes of smart ass remarks from the commentators about Levy eyeing Moyes for The Job. Haha.
August 28th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Players returning to the fold has never been a happy experience for the spuds.
Glenn Hoddle and Ossie Ardiles ring any bells ?
Either way, it really does look like your club is just a rich man’s plaything, and you will be pimped to the highest bidder. Again and again, people have been trying that with spuds for years.
Be interesting whether that concerns fans, it certainly would bother me, I expect the team to be run in the way the fans demand, not in the best financial interest of the board members.
Levy is not a football man, he’s just filling gaps waitng for something better to come along.
August 28th, 2007 at 11:14 am
I don’t have time to debate this but…dream on.
Oh and by the way, our most successful manager was a former player.
The Bagel.
August 29th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Would this be some distant single title winning manager from before anyone in the world was born ?
A simple blip in an otherwise downward spiral of returning players embraced as managers.
If Klinsmann were to return, would he be the saviour the club needs? were fans given the choice of who they would rather have, Klinsmann on one side and MJ on the other, which would they choose ?
My personal opinion is that you would all forget about MJ, beat him out of town, then sit back praising yourselves while jurgen heads tentatively toward the self destruct button like so many of his predecessors.
August 29th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Again, dream on.
The Bagel.
August 30th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
so Oi Oi, David Dein has sold his shares to a consortium headed by a Russian billionaire.
Looks like your fears will be realised on your own doorstep about clubs becoming a rich mans plaything.
You spend a lot of time attempting to point out the faults at Spurs. You should wake up and see what is happening at your place. If you really think that your lot are running the club for the fans and not the share holders then as Bagel says, dream on. Once this consortium gets hold of your club then it will be the shareholders and their financial interests which will come first.
You really are deluded.
Oh dear, how sad, never mind!
August 31st, 2007 at 10:26 am
Again, this is another coup attempt by the orange man to take over the club and increase his own personal fortune.
But I can’t see how it really affects us, if the russian and the american joins forces they still don’t own 30% of the club, if they were to increase holdings above 30% they would be forced to make an offer, which may well be rejected.
We have money to spend, but Arsene chooses not to spend it, we are in profit to the tune of 15odd million from transfers this year alone, and have the £5 million annual transfer budget to add to that, with cash reserves from making the group stages of the CL, and the fact that Ashburton Grove is the most profitable club in the world, we’re kinda loaded.
I can’t see how we need more cash reserves when we don’t spend the money we have, and even though some sections of the fans might implore Arsene to spend on a quick winger or two, we aren’t spending.
Arsene sees that the squad is good enough to win the league, and I happen to agree.
August 31st, 2007 at 11:47 am
You really are deluded if you believe that your club is immune to a takeover.
What on earth do you think Dein and this Russian backer is doing then?
When the price is right your present shareholders will sell.
In your earlier post you said, “I expect the team to be run in the way the fans demand, not in the best financial interests of the shareholders”.
That’s admirable but, as I said earlier, deluded. I suggest you wake up and stop talking such high minded bollocks!
August 31st, 2007 at 11:56 am
Oi oi - you can make points about why this doesn’t affect Arsenal, but we all know that if exactly the same thing was happening to Spurs, you would be talking about the “shareholders and their financial interests coming first”
If you really think that your lot (whether it stays the current lot, or whether the orange man as you call him gets his way) are running the club for the fans and not the shareholders then, as Bagel says, dream on.
You really are deluded. That said…..
As it happens, I have never for a moment thought that any premier league club is being run for the fans. And I have no particular view about whats going on about Arsenal. It might be a disaster, it might be a success, in footballing terms. Whatever it is, its all about “the man” doing it for himself, and its the same at every club. Personally, I choose to love my football team regardless, and essentially I hate all the rich oligarchs and obsecene finances that make me feel like a hypocrite for following a sport I love. But I acknowledge it, and don’t make anti Arse or anti Spurs comments based on whether essentially the same vulgar capitalist pissing contest is being played out by rich bastards at Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelski or wherever.
And unlike your chairman, I don’t care if we’re British owned or foreign owned…..
August 31st, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Sorry for the plagiarism, hornchurch yid!
August 31st, 2007 at 2:22 pm
I’m not convinced I’m deluded.
If spuds were being taken over my some russian oil magnate, I would be the first to condemn your lot for selling out to the highest bidder and back stabbing the fans, in return I would expect you all to disagree.
Like all people, this is about my place in the world. My place in my house, among other things, is to trap spiders and release them outside, wifeys place is to pack when we go on holiday.
My place here is to find fault and condemn our bitter neighbours, while trying my best to appear squeaky clean.
So my points regarding some pathetic oil-rich ex-prisoner Putin drinking companion are completely valid, and the chances of him getting his claws into the club are zip.
What I would hate most would be some Kenyon / Ridsdale type fella showing the world how to run a club, especially if it were mine.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:12 pm
ok. You’re not deluded. You’re completely one eyed and you admit it.
On some level, I respect that, I suppose! And I’m always happy to laugh at Leeds.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Well, lets read what Usmanov himself has to say.
“I have been an Arsenal fan for eight years and I think the club
has the best manager in the Premier League,” Usmanov told the London
Evening Standard.
“But this purchase of mine is not a strategic or a political
one. It’s a portfolio investment. Arsenal as a business was
undervalued.
It’s all there in black a white. He doesn’t see you as a football club but as a business. Looks like your club is about to be sold down the swanny.
Right on Comrade!
August 31st, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Actually, he doesn’t sound too bad.
He has been a fan for eight years after all.
Hilarious!
August 31st, 2007 at 3:37 pm
How we ALL laughed at leeds, except maybe cardiff:
http://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,2149693,00.html
Yep - he’s done it again.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Hornchurch - he’s been a fan longer than most you get at the bridge !