Beef Bagel

The North London feud may have quietened down for most of us, fans and managers alike, but there’s still one player out there to strike a blow for his allegiances. He doesn’t play for arsenal and he doesn’t play for Tottenham either - any more that is.

“I want to make Spurs fans happy and give them something to shout about by scoring against Arsenal,” said the man in the bright orange shirt but with his heart still in the white place.

Yes, Mali and Sevilla’s finest, Freddi Kanoute, is coming to town for his Champions League debut fittingly enough in London after all his years of playing here and what the hell, I’ll be wearing my Sevilla scarf this evening too. I knew I bought that thing for more than just padding against Spanish police batons.

The other sentence that hit a note out of the ex-Spurs pre-match musings was this one:

“I know what playing against Arsenal is all about but there is no fear at this club,” and I’m not sure we can say the same. I think there is fear at our club. I’m not so much talking about gutlessness or cowardice and I don’t think Freddi is either. What both he and The Bagel are referring to is belief. When we take on a club like arsenal or Chelsea we feel like we’re going to need some luck to get us through, as if we’re only going to win by some twist of fortune against the balance of justice. Every player in the squad talks about how we’re good enough to be at the top of the league but we don’t have the right. We must work hard. Hang on, don’t just listen to me. Here’s Keano:

“We have the players to compete at the very top, but there is no divine right to be there - we have to prove ourselves.”

But that’s bullshit. It’s pure bad attitude. Yes, of course every team has to work hard to fulfil their ambitions but these are not the words of a champion. Do you think that’s what Mourinho tells his men? ‘You’re going to have to work hard to be the best because there are better teams out there.’ Does he fuck. He turns his men into prize fighters weighing in before the heavyweight clash. Winners do have a divine right to be there and if they don’t win they see damn fucking well to it they do the next time, and the next and the next until that loss is just smothered in endless victory.

Now, we know there is something rotten in the set up at Spurs and I’m pretty damn sure it’s not the board nor the ability if the squad. What I’m talking about here is coaching and yes, that includes management. Player for player we looked good at the weekend but the difference was in both attitude and organisation. The arsenal players always knew they were going to win. Whether they actually were going to or not was irrelevant. They always believed that they would. Now much of that belief actually comes from doing so week in week out but it’s a habit that has to start somewhere.

More importantly, no matter how good the players and their psychological approach, they have to know what they are doing and where they’re going for every single move of the game. You can see it in the way we play. The Big Four are always so well drilled that every time they take possession they know exactly where to go. The playmaker barely looks up to make the pass. He’ll know exactly where is options will be. They’ve been through it a thousand times before. How often did you see an arsenal move slow down at the weekend and how many times did are midfielders have to circle like plane in a holding pattern waiting for an idea or a run to be made.

These days they call this ‘gelling’ and perhaps such fluency is a lot to ask just now. After all this is only MJ’s third full season in charge and his second after the player he’d been looking to build his team around has left (that’s Michael Carrick if you hadn’t guessed). But there is one area for which we have absolutely no excuse - set pieces. It’s a common gripe on every fan and pundits’ lips but it’s a symptom of a bigger picture. This is not something that should take over a season and a summer to fix. There is a coaching problem. We don’t know who is supposed to organise these things like we do not know who should be keeping the players’ minds and bodies fit and seeing that they know the plays inside and out but we do know who is responsible and that buck must stop with the manager.

We love MJ. We love him. He’s great guy. Hell, he could come home marry my sister - if both parties involved were not already hitched but whatever I’d support their eloping all the same, but it does take more than being a well-liked, well-respected mensch of a Yiddo to be a great manager. Right now we’ve got a gutsy, all action cult hero. We have the Stephan Freund of managers and it’s up to MJ to prove us otherwise. He’s got to get down to the training ground and crack some skulls. He’s got to make sure his underlings are doing their jobs or cannot and is not doing his. Losing to arsenal or Man U away does not make him a bad manager but defeats against Sunderland and a draw against a very bad team like Fulham do.

Tottenham are not going to sack him this season. The board know the top four is not possible no matter who we get in right now and MJ will get us a UEFA Cup spot and back to where we were. So he’s got the rest of this campaign to get his house in order. If we stop conceding stupid goals, if we play like winners, if the players and the fans believe, then perhaps the board will too. If a week’s a long time in football, then eight months is an age. If he’s more than tough midfielder, with a heart so big it can split his body, then he’ll have his time to show it - should he still want the job. But if he can’t get us playing like that well oiled machine he’s been promising for so long, or at least one that’s not leaking goal after goal, then it is going to be time to find a Ramos of this world.

I hated seeing Stephan Freund go. He shone a great light in some very dark times with his pride and his passion but would we take him now? He was good enough to help us so much, to make sure our heads stayed above water but that’s all he can do and at the same time it may be that the same is true for Martin Cornelius Jol.

‘The bagel is extremely fucking nigh.’

The Bagel.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 11:22 am 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.